By Mary Lindow
How can we explain this wave of the loss of spiritual discernment and power?
How does the seductive darkness steal the very heart out of the Christian experience?
One thing is for certain: it doesn't happen suddenly or overnight.
People lose their love for the truth by degrees.
Little by little they lower their standards and compromise their faith, until nothing remains except a dead, empty, angry and bitter form.
Some, like Lot's wife, will be so married to the world so enmeshed in its delicious intellectual and sociological "oneupmanship" that they cannot let go in time. They will suffer with terrible and shocking consequences over the things which they loved more than they loved God.
Others, like Lot, will awaken just in time to choose very quickly and decisively. Without taking a backward glance, they will move out in complete obedience to the will of God. My friends, This is the choice everyone faces.
Lot's wife suffered terrible consequences when she played with the word of a holy God.
She was dragging her feet and resented having to leave the life she had grown to adore in every way. The offense of looking back upon the luxury, sensual and "modernized" lifestyle that she had grown to love, exposed her divided will. It also revealed the fact that her heart was still bound up with the affairs of a corrupt, and condemned social order.
Two voices were competing for her faithfulness and steadfastness in the face of temptation.
The voice of heaven–the voice of God calling her to liberty, purity, and salvation. The other voice, the voice of the darkness–the voice of popularity and pleasure, the voice of Sodom. Slowly the voice from beneath gained a foothold in a badly bent conscience, and Lot's wife stands as a tragic example of a divided heart.
Jesus said, "Remember Lot's wife,"
and He said it to those who were going live through the final traumatic moments of earth's history. He is saying it to the believer ( you and I ) right now–"Remember Lot's wife." We need to hear it again and again. The message that says "Obedience is better than anything else, in revealing our love." Jesus said so. "If you love me, then keep my commandments."
Disobedience is worse than anything because it is an act of disloyalty in its very nature.
It says, "I can handle this. I'm clever and informed!" But that's not what being obedient requires. It's willingly and honestly walking away from anything that keeps you from allowing your heart to be "re-created" and cleaned. Don't risk the "look back" - upon the pleasures of being in the "vibe" of the humming world machine. The result will be the loss of the "homing device" of God's directional Voice, and the absence of the Holy Presence of the fullness of God's Spirit.
Whisper this prayer and verse with me, into the ear of God.
"Create, form in me a new, clean heart, O God,
filled with clean thoughts and right desires.
Don’t toss me aside, banished forever from your presence.
Please! Don’t remove your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.
AMEN
~Psalm 51:10-12
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Thank You Copyright © 2017 " THE MESSENGER " ~Mary Lindow
