It’s critically important that I provide much scripture here for you to look up and read for yourself in these daily postings of mine. To not read them is only short-changing yourself because it is God’s word that brings cleansing and transformation into our lives; not my words (Eph. 5:26; 1 Thess. 2:13).

But there are times that I do bring up personal experiences and testimonies that compliment or go along with confirming what God’s word has declared. There is nothing wrong with sharing one’s personal testimony as we see where Paul oftentimes began his preaching of the gospel by first sharing what had happened to him on that road to Damascus. But personal experiences are just that- personal. Nothing can take the place of God’s word. And I only bring that up because much of what I shared yesterday is so very real to me as I can remember quite clearly how my walk with Jesus began early on. I’ve shared snippets of that in the past and will touch on just a couple of things here today.

As a 19 year old kid who was just trying to find his way in this crazy dark world, and not helping myself in any way by my daily intake of doses of ‘cannabis’ ...I had a genuine ‘come to Jesus’ conversion-experience in March of 1980. And let me assure you that without any immediate ‘church influence’ in those early days, God’s Spirit was very active in beginning to ‘lead me out of the darkness of my captivity’ (Acts 26:18; Luke 1:79; 1 Pet. 2:9).

There were three very significant and foundational truths that He made very clear to me early on via ‘experiences’: #1- we live in a world where there are many ‘spiritual forces of darkness’ at work and I would be wise to recognize this and pay close attention ( 1 Pet. 5:8; Eph. 4:27). #2- When God begins to point out sin in my life, I would do well to take heed and deal with it (by turning from it much sooner than later) ...IF...I wanted this relationship with Him to progress. And #3- When He does bring us to a place of ‘calling our hand’ and ‘testing our heart’ to see if we are willing to ‘forsake all’ for Him, He has a rather grand way of ‘rewarding’ our willingness to obey Him in all things.

This work He begins to do (Phil. 1:6) is the work of ‘sanctification’, the cleansing and removing of all those things that reside in our heart/flesh nature that are counter-opposed to God’s nature and likeness (Mark 7:21-23; Gal.5:19-21). He begins to lead us to put to death all the ‘deeds of the flesh nature’ as we are conformed to His image and likeness; and the result is we become a ‘new creation’ as ‘we decrease, and He increases’ (John 3:30; 2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 8:13-14,29; 2 Pet. 1:3-5).

And please don’t get tripped up wanting to make a case that you are ‘still saved’ through all that process. As long as you are abiding in Jesus...you could not be in a better place. Please...let this be your area of concern and make that the important question- are you abiding in Him, because if you are...then of course you are ‘saved’ and will ‘continue to be saved’...IF...you continue on with Him (Col. 1:21-23; Matt. 24:13). Don’t be like those folks in John 6:66.

Let me assure you back in those early days of my coming to Him...God was not making known to me some plan to ‘make me a preacher’ or singer or author or photographer, etc. What has become a tragedy in the making in so many churches today...is where new ‘converts’ are put on some fast-track to be ‘soldiers for Christ’ and ‘world changers’ while skipping out on ‘boot camp’, a.k.a. ‘Basic Training. Jesus was not given a pass on this...so who are we to think we don’t have to be ‘tested’ before being empowered to serve? (Luke 4:1-14; Heb. 5:8)

I mentioned this last week... but we make way too much about how God ‘uses imperfect people’....when the real emphasis should be placed on how God’s eyes ‘roam to and fro throughout the earth looking for hearts that are perfect towards Him so he can show Himself strong...’ (2 Chron. 16:9)

In the same way God began to remove those Canaanite nations ‘little by little’, so does God lead us to deal with our ‘ungodly nations’ on the ‘land of our hearts’, things like pride, greed, rebellion, lust, anger, etc. And when we repent of those sins, that means we don’t do them anymore as we put them to death. Will there be some ‘suffering’ involved as we do this? Of course; and this is the ‘suffering’ we’ve been called to endure; but it’s not like we are ‘shedding blood’ as He did for us (Heb. 12:4). And after we have ‘suffered a little while’, what can we be confident God will do in turn? (1 Pet. 5:10) Now go read 1 Pet. 4:1-2... and meet me back here tomorrow. :- )