My Opus – Chapter Five
Identity
If an illness or sickness is a daily part of your life you can still live by faith. Chronic pain, cancer, diabetes, mental illness, does that form your identity or do you still believe the truth of the Bible despite your circumstances? I was medially retired early in life I’m not writing about this from a purely intellectual viewpoint. I’ve spent years of my life in bed that could have been spent being active if it wasn’t for being hit by a car. Along that journey of recovery I heard about HCSKL briefly during a church service and listening to that helped change my perspective before I was physically healed. My physical condition was the same for some time while listening but as I heard the truth throughout the day my relationship with my creator changed and grew.
As a result of my identity changing my perspective of my situation changed even if the situation remained the same. I’m very grateful in time my situation changed. Again I’m not sharing my story to say do what I did and get what I got. I’m sharing my story to encourage you that God is faithful and the more intimate you are with him the more you can see yourself as he does.
I didn’t learn a new coping mechanism, I didn’t learn how to be more positive. Listening to the truth around the clock on repeat got past my head knowledge and brought life to my heart like a rain after a drought.
The truth is simple, don’t complicate it.
You have been deceived to believe the truth of the gospel isn’t simple. You can believe the truth that you have been delivered, redeemed and restored or you can believe your feelings that you are guilty, ashamed and condemned. When Jesus said on the cross “It is finished.” there wasn’t any “but” or “except” after that. The truth that it is finished remains the truth regardless of if you believe it or receive it. If you do believe it and receive it you can live in it.
Submit your feelings to the one who set you free and see if your friends and family notice a difference in your life before you do. Thank God out loud for your freedom, thank him for your liberty, thank him for his love and mercy and grace, and discover what you have been missing out on. Switch your head off and let your heart communicate with it’s creator. If you have made him Lord of your life you have been saved, healed, delivered.
Follow Me
Jesus showed us during his time on earth what we were created for. He gave us the power to do anything he did. Feed your belief with the truth and watch it grow till you start to see things happen in your life that have never happened before. I was chatting with someone yesterday who was telling me about their bad knees. Previously I would have thought to invite them to church to get healed or waited until church had a special healing service on to invite them. But yesterday after listening to HCSKL for years and writing these love letters for the past few days I asked them while I was with them if they would like me to pray for their knees.
We are promised both healing, persecution and suffering. Living by faith doesn’t free you from persecution and suffering it is part of life on earth, but God has also promised us healing.
Peace
Do you react quickly when things happen in your life, or does it take a lot to get you to react? If your peace is surface level deep, you’ll find yourself easily affected by things that happen during your day. When you have an intimate relationship with Jesus, peace can be a more integral part of you, and things can happen and people can say things, and you can meet these moments with understanding more than emotion. I’ve had so much peace over the past two years despite all that was happening in the world that it wasn’t explainable by natural means. Live through God rather than for God and live with peace.
Your Past
Nothing in your life is bigger than God. Don’t elevate your experience over his word.
Rejoice
Rejoice in his love. Being loved by God to me is like Christmas morning every day. Waking up and discovering all those presents under a tree is a poor comparison to all God offers every day. There aren’t any but’s, if’s or maybe’s when it comes to Gods love. If you choose to not receive it, he still loves you. If you walk away from him, he still loves you. Your actions and choices can dictate whether you receive his love but they will never stop him from loving you.
If you don’t feel like rejoicing due to your current circumstances, revisit the truth of his promises in the Bible and thank him for them. You are special and precious and he loves you.
Problem v Promise
Which voice will you allow to be the loudest in your life? The problems you face or the promises of God? Will you listen to the thoughts in your head or the love of God in your heart? If you don’t know all his promises start reading the Bible and discover how much he really loves you. When you read them, don’t just read them as head knowledge, thank him out loud for them and grow more intimate with him by having a conversation with him about them.
Learning about God isn’t like studying at school so you can pass an exam. Learning about God is like learning how to drive so in time you can drive without even thinking about it. You can enjoy the journey because you know how your car accelerates, brakes and steers. If you don’t drive for a while you may have to think more next time you drive as it won’t feel as natural. Be intimate with God throughout everyday and get to know him better than anything else in your life.
Life is War
If a country waited to train for war until they were already at war what would the outcome be? Don’t wait till you are in trouble to try then to establish intimacy with God. Start preparing today to be better equipped to face the rest of your life. Every day spent growing closer to God trains you to be able to share his love with others. If you only know his love as head knowledge how will others see it’s true power? If others can see it oozing out of you, you won’t need to tell them about it, they’ll ask about it.
I would never want to go through again what I went through during the years after the car hit me but I am grateful that the result of the accident striped away my identity to the extent that I had to rebuild it from the foundations. I gave a short talk about identity and my journey years ago to a group who had regular talks from a variety of people and afterwards I was told it was the best talk they ever had. My story is no more special than yours. He loves you just as much as he loves me. I’m grateful I’ve discovered how much more he does. More than I ever knew. Even writing this for you I’m discovering even more how much more he loves me, and you.
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