Friends....it is hard to believe this ...but it was four years ago this month, that I had my personal ‘awakening’ where I know God called me out of my darkness and began doing a new work in my life. I can assure you it has only gotten better and I will never be the same again. I like to refer to it as my ‘Lazarus Moment’; and when you have been brought back from the ‘dead’, it’s hard to keep something like that to yourself.

I have shared with others that it feels like I ended up back at ‘Square One’, sort of like where you might end up in that old board-game called ‘Chutes and Ladders’. You think you are really getting somewhere high up and then you hit that big slide and end up back at the start, or ‘square 1’. But this time, I’m on this journey learning day by day and He is right there at my side teaching me. And it’s all about abiding in Jesus. Like I mentioned yesterday, it’s easy to say we ‘believe in Jesus’, but that does not equate to abiding in Him; that...I can assure you.

Yet, what I have learned and continue to learn...has been so good and so life changing for me that I just want everyone who has ever struggled in their walk of faith, or maybe others who have been turned off by what they ‘saw as the Christian faith’, to know that there is so much more than what we have been conditioned to believe. Which is why I continue to be awakened in the early hours of the morning, daily, without any alarm clock and I open up the word and the Spirit begins to just flow and I write and I share and I try to convey where so many of us may have ‘missed’ some really important truths early on. Hence...over two years of blogging daily here on FB and on my blogpost where I share the link in the first comment box below.

About a year in to this new walk or journey I’ve been on, I went to shoot a local basketball game one evening to take pictures. I had become keenly aware of this abiding presence of the Lord in my life that just was ongoing. I’m not talking about shouting and jumping pews or overly demonstrative emotions; but it was just a knowing, a peace, an inner joy and confidence that He was right there with me. It was as if I had discovered this ‘pathway of peace’ that He came to lead us on. (Luke 1:79) And I was not about to ever stray from it, it has been that good!

So at this game I was shooting, there was an extended ‘time out’, and so I started talking with another guy I knew who was standing off to the side watching the game himself. One thing led to another and I told him what I thought was a funny story about the masks everyone was wearing at the time because of the pandemic. It was a story I would have not shared in mixed company, (females) but it was not obscene or sinful, in my opinion. I think I had shared it with one other male friend earlier. So I told the story, he laughed, and then the game resumed and I began shooting again. But I was instantly aware that ‘something’ had changed. It was almost as if I felt ‘naked’ as I became aware that I had ‘lost that abiding peace’. It was that pronounced.

I set my camera down and immediately began to pray...quietly asking...”Lord...what just happened? I don’t sense your presence...I feel like something just left me...did I do something?”

And there was an immediate response and I knew it to be His voice. (John 10:27; Isa.30:21)

“Don’t tell that story anymore to anyone. There is nothing edifying about it and it and that kind of talk ‘should not even be named among saints!” The passage from Eph. 5:3-5 came to mind.

I was experiencing the loving rebuke and chastisement of the Lord in that very moment. (Heb. 12:5-11) And being fully aware of what He was talking about, my first response was to thank Him for calling me out on that, and for loving me enough to correct and teach me. I then repented, telling Him I was sorry and promised to never share that story again. And I haven’t.

And would you believe the very next thing to happen was my heart was immediately aware of His surrounding presence of peace, joy, and love again that overflowed me. I kid you not, it was that quick. It was such a defining moment and lesson for me. So what happened in that moment and what was the lesson I learned, you ask?

It all has to do with abiding in Him, being mindful and aware of His presence as I walk with Him throughout my day. I liken it to driving down a road where I ‘set my mind on things above’ so as to ‘stay in my lane’; or should I say His lane? :- ) (Col. 3:2; Isa. 26:3). And we all know what happens when we ‘drift’ or begin to cross the lines, we hit those bumps or ridges that quickly get our attention to straighten the wheel. Your car might have those sensors that beep when you cross a lane. It’s not a threat or punishment, rather a reminder to just straighten the wheel out. It’s when you ignore that warning and cross over those lines and even drive off road that things can get rough quickly, if you know what I’m talking about. You can even get yourself killed if driving carelessly.

This is what it is to abide in Him. You are just aware of His presence, even when you are having to tend to other responsibilities, like work and such. The reason that I mentioned that my sharing that story was not a ‘sin’, was because abiding in Jesus is not about trying to keep a bunch of laws and rules while you avoid ‘sinning’. You are simply walking in His peace which is what we are called to do. (Rom. 3:17) Your only desire is to please the One who died for you and loves you and invites us to walk with Him and even ...obey Him. I mean, did Jesus not say that “IF...we loved Him, we’d do what He says?” (John 14:15)

So here’s the main gist of today’s message: IF we remain carnal minded, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, (Eph. 2:3) we make ourselves an enemy of God, remaining not only ‘hostile’ towards Him, but we cannot please God nor will we subject ourselves to His law, a law I should remind you, that was never done away with. (Rom. 8:7-8; Matt. 5:17). So if we are not fulfilling God’s law, as we walk like Jesus did, (1 John 26; Rom. 8:4) because of our existing flesh/carnal nature, then we are sinning; because sinning is breaking the commandments of God. (1 John 3:4). This is why the first thing that the Holy Spirit begins to do is to lead us...(meaning we have to follow) so that He can teach us to put to death all the deeds of the flesh nature. (Rom. 8:13). And IF...we are following and obeying, then we are not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, nor are we any longer ‘under the law’, and our obedience to Him proves that we are indeed...’children of God’. (Rom. 8:14, Gal. 5:16,18)

Now we can ‘debate’ whether my telling of that silly story was ‘sinful’, but it was without a doubt, ‘carnal’. And the Lord did not want me sharing it anymore; and so I have not. But how easy is it for us in those moments to ignore that corrective voice of the Holy Spirit? To tell ourselves that ‘nothing was bad about that’, or maybe in an attempt to justify ourselves, we ask “What was wrong with this?”

When God points something out in your life that needs to go or cease, don't ignore it. Do whatever He tells you to do. (John 2:5). If you are serious about following Him, and being transformed into His nature, then do what He tells you to do. And there will be no mistaking His voice IF...you are one of His sheep. (John 10:27). Friends...this is not ‘rocket science’.

We can be so quick to say how much we would love to ‘hear God speak to us’, but in all reality, most of us have heard Him speak...plenty of times. We just failed to follow through and do what He asked. The danger in this...is over time, our hearts begin to harden and our ears grow deaf to His voice. Please take a moment to look up and read Hebrews 3:7-14 now.

After a while, God picks up on your cues of dismissing or ignornign, and even refusing to heed His words...so why bother speaking anymore if you are not going to do what He asks of you? And let’s not forget the enemy who is right there to snatch that word (from God) from your heart (Luke 8:12). Do you know how he does this? He’ll whisper a similar line to you that he told Eve...”God did not really mean that...there’s nothing wrong with doing...or saying...or watching such things...you surely will not die.” (Gen. 2:17; 3:1-5)

It's only a matter of time then...that you have lost that peace by drifting out of His lane and now you are ‘off road’ and in the enemy’s territory. And if you think that just ‘going through the motions of having a form of godliness’ is going to be fruitful, you are gravely mistaken. (John 15:4-5) Because friends...this is where the majority of church people find themselves in today. That may sound judgmental, but you can’t deny the fruit coming out of us (or the lack thereof) if we are not abiding in Him. If we are abiding in Him, we are not sinning. (1 John 3:6,9) And most everyone readily admits they continue to sin....so...as Jesus said in one place, ‘by our words we are justified and by our own words we are condemned’.(Matt. 12:37)

Which leads me to the topic of what it means to walk in a ‘false peace’. Yep, that really is a ‘thing’ and God has some serious warning about that. We’ll address that tomorrow, Lord willing.