After listening to some recent messages at my church, I began to reflect, and pray about why I believe the way I do and why I respond the way I do. Just another moment in my journey with Jesus.
If you are a Christian then you understand that at salvation you are a new creation, in fact in 2Corinthians 2:17 it says: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. The question I am asking you and one the Lord revealed to me is "What did you think salvation was going to be like?" I never gave it a lot of thought until I began to pray "Lord reveal to me any preconceived ideas that would keep me from moving forward?" He began to show me that when I was saved in 1974 I had this preconceived idea that life was going to be wonderful, my husband would be saved and everything would be heavenly. Never for one minute did I see that thought coming, never understood that I even would think that way. But it does explain why when it didn't look like what I expected; how quickly Satan was able to tempt me into giving up. I gave up on my marriage, I gave up on myself, and I gave up on God. So what is it you may have thought salvation was going to look like? I recently wrote this phrase," I changed but life around me didn't. " Without seeing change in those around me I quickly became discouraged, depressed and divorced. I had to come to the place that I had to surrender my thinking on salvation and how it would look over to God and allow Him to show me how to walk by faith. Twenty four years would pass before I would do this. And even now I ask Him is this preconceived idea affecting me today? I laid that idea (one I wasn't even aware of) down on the altar and allowed His consuming fire to consume it.
Next question; "What preconceived idea do you have about the dream or ministry God has placed you in?" Early in my new beginning of being a Christian, I had this dream of sharing Jesus with multitudes of people all over the world. Yet, as I got older and older I truly didn't see how this would ever come to pass, who was I to have such a wonderful ministry? So I just buried the dream, then every now and then it would come back up and I would think "Lord could this really be?" Then I would bury it believing there was no way I would ever be traveling the world sharing Jesus. Then over the last year God began to move in certain areas of ministry that I became involved in, but it never looked like what my idea of how it would look would be. Here is how it looked, The Lord prompted me to first of all begin a blog, next some time later He prompted me to begin an on-line bible study, a short time after this He prompted me to begin a facebook page called "We Support Jesus Christ". Never thought much about any connection to my dream, until one day I realized I was reaching people around the world and all over the USA. Then I realized the dream that I did not understand how could happen, had become a reality. When I surrendered my idea of how it should be done and allowed God to have it His way, then I had let go and let God.
I recently went back and read Ezekiel 37 in this chapter the Lord had taken Ezekiel to a valley of dry bones, now I know and realize that the Lord is speaking of Israel, but we can also see how it speaks to us individually. The Lord asked Ezekiel can these bones live and then He told Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones and speak breath into them. I love verse 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together bone to bone. Go ahead and read verse 8-10. All of us have dreams we thought were dead, relationships that we thought were beyond repair, some may think that their relationship with God cannot be fixed, bad finances, bad doctor reports. But the word says to speak life in those areas, we are told in Proverbs 18:21 that death and life are in the power of the tongue. Begin to seek God and begin to speak His word which is life over yourself, over your finances, over your family, your business, your dream, and your ministries. Lay all these things down before the throne of God and surrender your idea, your control, your way, your will and say as our Lord Jesus said in the Garden "Not my will but your will be done". Now watch the breathe of God breath life into everything you thought was over, allow Him to resurrect it His way, and watch the dead come to life.
Next question "What preconceived idea do you have about church?" Why isn't church going in on Sunday, listening to some singing, taking up an offering, prayer, a message, an invitation oops it's noon got to go, don't need to stay for an invitation been saved, I'm ok. Then gone again until next Sunday. You have to admit a lot, I mean a lot of people think this way. Yet this is not church!! Church is never about the walls in a building, it is about being the people that God wants His people to be. Corporate worship is gathering together, and is such a necessary element in a Christian's life. The church is the body of Christ, we should be the church whether we are at Walmart, in our home, at work the same as in the building. Everything about us should speak to people, not just our words, but our behavior, it should say I follow Jesus, and He is in me, leading and directing me. But most who say they are Christians look, sound and act like the world. In Luke 9:23 we see that Jesus tells His followers that in order to follow Him they must deny themselves and pick up their cross and follow Him. This denying self is merely this, laying down in surrender my desires, my pleasures, my will, my way, my agendas, my plans, and on and on, and say 'Lord not my way not my will, but Your way and Your will.' This must be done daily. Once we let go of us we will now be letting God.
Surrendered life will allow people to see more of Jesus and less of me. It involves digging a little deeper. None of this is new for me, yet, all of it is being learned on a deeper level. Just another part of my journey,
The on-line bible study is www.lindagroberts.com we are studying the Book of Ruth right now
