“2022” - SQUEEZED, STRAIGHTENED AND A NARROWING PATHWAY - Insights and Words From The Holy Spirit

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YOU WILL BE SO GLAD YOU DID!

By Mary Lindow through the Holy Spirit

 

WE THINK THAT WE ARE SO KNOWLEDGEABLE about our own needs and ourselves! But, more often than not, we are just opinionated and headstrong people! We refuse instructions from anyone who could tell us about the deeper things of the spirit, because “We know”, or… “Don’t want to know!” 

(How DARE you address this Mrs. Lindow)!!!

Hmmmm!  I think I will continue!! **smile**

 

We stumble along without anyone's help, and all the while we are overlooking that gnawing, “unsettled sense” inside of us, though if we paid attention to this we would see our true inner condition. It is in this way that we acclimate our souls to straggle along in a dark spiritual wilderness, and how we do ourselves so much harm.

 

MANY, MANY OTHER CHRISTIAN SOULS ARE JUST LIKE THIS.

They don't know how to do anything other than let their human senses guide them, and then one day, God intervenes. He arranges things so that one day when you are all alone, there will heave from within your heart a sudden surprising awareness of absolute emptiness. He may also cause you to have a feeling of complete emptiness, but an overwhelming sense of isolation from others, and a lot of loss.

“All of a person's ways seem right in his own opinion, 

But the LORD evaluates the motives.” -Proverbs 21:2

 

You see, there is nothing but a bottomless crater to look down into the deadness of our own souls if we are not fully committed to God. If you ever come to this place you will know how quickly your soul wants to run away and to rush to find something, anything at all, to "fill" itself up again with noise and activity.

Art! Food! Beautiful Clothing! The doing of generous deeds! Perfectionistic exercising and self-improvement to show your “Self” discipline! 

After all... PEOPLE are watching!

The reality of this is, So Is God.

 

VERY FEW SEE THIS BLEAK MOMENT FOR WHAT IT REALLY IS.     

It's a chance to see their need for something that is beyond themselves.

But my friend, this can be a moment where the soul can cross over from its own empty silence into an expected quiet that is alive with His presence.

It silences the anguish, the anxious restlessness into a calm and still place of peace. It's as if the soul finds that in this dark place, there is secret well of sweet water, and it springs up and overflows with light and life. 

Learning to pass into this place of the Spirit and allowing God to keep your soul in refreshing silent tranquility is a true act of the maturing believer.

 

ALL OF YOUR FLESHY SOUL WILL WANT TO RADICALLY FIGHT THIS, 

and it will do so by trying to analyze what's happening!

All of this kind of behavior will just weigh you down, and it'll pull you back from walking in the spirit, to walking simply in your own understanding. 

The choice we all must make is encapsulated in this statement made by John the Baptist.

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”  -John 3:30

 

Another translation of this verse says it even more plainly. 

“He must become more important 

while I become less important."

WHEW!

 

HEAVEN CAN BE ENTERED ONLY THROUGH THE NARROW GATE! 

The pathway to hell is broad, 

and its gate is wide enough for all the multitudes that choose its easy way.  

But the Gateway to Life is small, 

and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it. –Matthew 7:13-14

 

THE WORD “WAY” TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK WORD HODÓS LITERALLY MEANS “A NATURAL ROAD OR TRAVELED WAY”.  

It refers to a way of life or a way of thinking.

The word is used six times in the book of Acts as a substitute for Christianity itself.   We can quickly understand that the Christian faith is more than a one-time decision to accept Christ. It is a faith, which alters the very course of a life.

 

THE WORD “NARROW” COMES FROM THE GREEK VERB THLÍBO, WHICH MEANS TO PRESS OR CRUSH 

AS A WORKER IN A VINEYARD MIGHT CRUSH GRAPES OR A CROWD OF PEOPLE MIGHT PRESS AGAINST ONE ANOTHER. 

This word also means to experience trouble, difficulty, or affliction.

 

COMBINED WITH THE GREEK WORD HODÓS, IT INSINUATES A SQUEEZED, STRAITENED, OR NARROWING PATHWAY.

The cramped condition of the path seems to imply two valuable truths about the nature of the Christian life.

It is a way marked out by the will of God, and it is a way marked by difficulty and struggle.

Remember, when your soul discovers how to let the Holy Spirit bring it into this place of inner peace of learning to rest in this stillness, it’s only because God is carrying you in his arms and that you sense no toil or drive on your part.

Friends, this accomplishes much more than all of your own actions or works of performance, since God Himself, is at work inside of you.

 

“I am confident that the Creator, who has begun such a great work in you, will not stop in mid-design but will keep perfecting you until the day Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King, returns to redeem the world.” -Philippians 1:6 (The Voice)

 

IF WE FACE “THE NARROWING”, THE CHALLENGE OF ALLOWING OUR SOUL,  OUR FLESH, TO BE FULLY HANDED OVER TO GOD’S PATHWAY, 

HE WILL TEACH OUR SOUL HOW TO OVERCOME   

THREE OF THE MOST TOXIC OF SINS.

 

These sins are -  

Anger, Envy, and, an unwillingness to obey the Lord. 

 

These run wild through our stony and hardened hearts 

and they eventually can crumble and ruin us.

 

YOU SEE, OUR SOULS DESIRE TO FIND COMPLETE HAPPINESS, BLISS, CONSOLATION AND SECURITY IN THIS WORLD, AND THIS CAN NEVER REALLY HAPPEN!

So, God has to show us our great darkness when our soul tries to find spiritual strength there, because there is no sweet and vibrant life when our soul is attached to the things of this world!  It’s a wide and gregarious path in the world, and the crowds on the pathway adore gratification and pleasure of every sort.

Our souls have a natural demand for wanting our own pleasure and achievement, and frustration causes these sins to grow, and they bring the very ugly fruit that is produced from them right into the light! OUCH!

 

THE LORD ALLOWS HIS TOOL OF DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES TO CRUSH AND TO CRACK OUR HARD SOULS.

He plants His word of light deep into our darkness. And He pours the living water of His spirit on our dryness and then we soften, as he uproots our old sluggish ways and our complaining about obeying God. Meaning, having to pass up our soothing comforts and pleasures.

 

NOW, I URGE YOU TO QUIET THE COMPLAINING OF YOUR SOUL, WITH ITS REBELLIONS. 

We will naturally want to turn back to its pleasure and demands!  

But as the world goes further and further into broad deviations of every kind, you as a believer will face a fork in the road.

One of the most cunning temptations of the times that we live in right now for believers is the mindset that says,

“I’m not going to get into any trouble! I can handle things as a Christian just fine! 

I wont actually “touch the fire” I’ll just play around it!” 

 

WHAT IS THAT FIRE? 

It’s justifying and adapting God’s often narrow and absolute instructions about relationships, marriage, sex, self-indulgence, arrogance, “harmless" Occult involvement and lording over those whom you feel are less astute or affluent as you.

 

GOD WILL AND HE MUST BRING THIS DRYNESS OUT OF OUR SOULS AND KILL THESE DEADLY ROOTS!

Quiet the pathetic demands of your soul for soothing comforts and a right to be angry and judgmental!

When your path seems empty and silent and desert dry, put your soul’s concentration on God alone. You can hardly imagine the harvest of a lasting joy that comes to you, when you learn to be free of your soul’s whining. It's there that God can speak quiet words! 

They will be so sweet and tender, and he will speak of his great love to us.

 

KNOW THIS. DRYNESS WILL TRY TO COME AGAIN AND AGAIN.      

It wants to lead you to self-justification and an easy escape from the hammer and chisel of God shaping your being, turning it into a reservoir for His purposes. 

It will try to come back with greater strength each time you resist. So stand your ground and stand firm in the quietness of your brokenness.  

 

Focus upon His presence guiding you down the narrowing path. 

He will come to you and His fresh guidance will be more amazing than anything your natural mind can imagine.

 

A PROPHETIC WORD FROM THE SPIRIT OF GOD

FOR THOSE FACING “THE NARROWING PATH”

 

“Darker and broader and louder come the shouts of world to draw you into its intricate webs.

These webs of deceit are spun with silken tongues and with the softness of the promise of an easier life.

 

There is a reckoning coming to those that sell lies and imprison those who buy their wares.  

But for those who are determined to not walk on a fence, trying to balance between their own thinking and me, there will be a “Divine Might” that will empower them to continue down the narrowing way.

Where does this narrowing journey lead? 

What is the payoff at the end?

 

As you become more determined and lay aside the things that have hindered you over and over again from fully entering into the deeper places with me, a lightness and freedom will propel you toward a place of Living Light. 

That Light is Me, and you will soon know Me in a different way than you have in past years and seasons.

 

My one warning to many is that they cannot argue that the path is “too narrow”. 

What mankind might call “rigid” I call “Straight and Direct”. 

If you choose to alter the plans that I have set down for your protection and safety, you will grieve my Spirit and allow a searing of your conscience to override the truths that you know deep in your heart.

 

“The path of those who do right is straight and smooth. 

I, who am upright, make the way of the righteous level.” -Isaiah 26:7

 

“The Narrowing” has begun to increase, and the love for it has decreased among those who choose to remain passive to conviction and pure living. 

Allow my Holy Spirit to move freely again. 

I know what I must do, to break the constraints of man.

 Let me move! 

Are you afraid that I might be ridiculed? 

Or, are you more concerned for your image and patterns before men? 

 

“Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. Do not scoff at prophecies,

But test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good.”

-I Thessalonians 5:19-21

 

Choose the “Narrowing Way”.  For I, Am there. 

Choose the pathway of “rightness” with me, even when others scoff at your “narrow mindedness”.

When the days become darker and the world tilts and twists in further unrestrained darkness, 

You will be the carrier of My Light, which can lead the lukewarm and lost down the narrow, but safe, and integral way, to Me.

 

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“TRENDS AND PRESUMPTIONS - ENMESHED INTO DECEPTION”

By Mary Lindow

As I sit here in the outdoors this evening enjoying an unusually cool and brilliantly moonlit sky, I am stirred to speak openly and transparently about the things that God is not only dealing with in my personal journey with him, but also some of the trends and presumptions that occur in the world of “Christendom” when it appears and feels as if the Father God is far off and seemingly unresponsive to the cries of those who are desperate for relief and merciful compassion.

Through his own personal agony, David came to a new understanding of what it really was that God required from man.

ENMESHED INTO DECEPTION

God is not interested in our outward sacrifices or "offerings."

This does not necessarily mean that God never requires outward forms of worship or expression or observances. Many lines of Scripture prove that at times he does. But it does mean that these are not the things that he requires first. If our religious practices contain nothing more than outward actions and performance, then God takes no pleasure in them.

God always looks underneath what goes on outwardly, and looks to the motives and the attitude of the heart.  What does He look for there?

David tells us in Psalm 51:16 -17

“For you delight not in sacrifice, or else would I give it; you find no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifice [the sacrifice acceptable] to God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart [broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise.”

BROKEN AND CONTRITE

These are not common words to our ears these days!

Just what does it mean when God asks that we have a broken spirit?

Does he want us to be beaten down and humiliated?

I am sure that this is not his plan.

What is a broken spirit?

 It is an “inner self” that has come totally to the end of itself. It makes no claims, and offers no arguments. All independence, all self-will, self-promotion, all self-righteousness have been pruned away.

Such a spirit simply turns and trusts completely upon God, not trusting in his own skill, merit, popularity, or ability to influence. This one who has willingly allowed the disciplining of his soul knows that he or she must only trust in God and his unrelenting mercy.

If we will ALLOW Him to guide us, HE knows how to produce this brokenness of spirit in each of us. Just remember, he treats us as individuals. And he would never abuse our individuality. He uses just the right amount of intensity needed to accomplish his desires, that we would relinquish our mistrust in his plan and fully step into total abandonment, willingly accepting his plan.

“For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.” Lamentations 3:33

AFFLICTION ALSO KNOWN AS - “DISCIPLINE”

If there was ever a man who had to face affliction also known as “discipline” - it was David. I am amazed that he never became bitter. He even admitted that it did him good! God allows us to come under afflictions/discipline, not because he is mad at us, nor because he has rejected us. It is actually a demonstration of his faithfulness.

When he sees us taking a wrong turn that will lead to our own harm and damage, he allows difficulty and affliction/discipline to turn us back to the way that leads to peace and blessing.

When I say affliction, I am not accusing God of bringing about harsh and devastating blows in order to knock us down and break our arms in the process. No! No! No!

In Psalm 119:67, 71, 75 it says:

"I used to wander off until you disciplined me; 

But now I closely follow your word.

My suffering was good for me, 

For it taught me to pay attention to your decrees.  

I know, O Lord, that your regulations are fair. 


You disciplined me because I needed it.

WHEN WE ARE "THROWN A CURVEBALL"

How do we respond when we are "thrown a curveball" and everything we carefully planned out and prepared for suddenly takes a turn we did not expect?

David did not view afflictions/disciplines as disaster. He saw it as a form of correction - something to adjust his life. He was saying, “Before I was afflicted/disciplined I went astray and I suffered for it. Now I've learned my lesson! It pays to obey your word!”

ARE YOU IN THE MIDDLE OF DIFFICULTY, LOSS, OR AN ADJUSTMENT?

May I caution you? Don't fight back! And whatever you do, do not argue with God!

Admit that God is dealing with you and allowing an affliction/a disciplining,   

a difficulty or disappointment, to address major issues of stubbornness, lazy spirituality, dependence upon others for water from the word, and more than often - a sour and willful independence that does not like accountability in every area.

ASK HIM, "WHAT IS IT THAT YOU ARE DOING?"

“Am I off the pathway that you have planned and have willfully gone my own way?”

The Lord is seeking, looking, longing for you to turn away from things that are harmful and to bring you back to things that are in his purpose and plan.

If we are willing to learn from these afflictions/disciplines, there will come a time when we will indeed look back with gratitude for the things we have learned and matured in.

My dear friends, we were not created to serve ourselves or to meet our own needs. 

Whatever we need, the Lord will see to it that we get it, as we move along the pathway that he has chosen. You may be asking the question, “Why is it so hard for me to hear from the Lord at first when it comes to difficult issues and decisions?”

We must understand we cannot instantly “unlearn” what we have lived our entire life. We must as the Scripture says be "transformed" from who we are to what we want to be.

We need to understand with our whole heart that we were intended to be godly in every way. In our relationships with others, and above all, in our relationship with God the father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. If one is out of order then both will be.

But! As a dear brother in the Lord by the name of Larry Reese says, “We are not to fear the passing of time or fear that we are wasting time by spending time with the Lord, searching out his word, and being still in his presence. You will never lose anything by doing these things!”

TRENDS, BLOGS, AND COMMENTS

 It's no secret that social media has become quite a form of communication! One of the problems that can occur when “listening” to trends, blogs, and commentary from others is that sources quoted and information gathered might well be skewed to interject thoughts and opinions into the minds of those who never think for themselves. Believers in Christ are not to be uninformed, but they are to be wise about what they “ingest and digest” when it comes to the lifestyle of a Christian.

Do not rely upon the wisdom of men to help you to ultimately reach the destiny that God himself paid the price for. He is not an ego- driven maniac looking for his entourage of followers to validate his importance!

He "paid it forward" so that we would have the opportunity to walk upon a pathway, although narrow, that leads to purposeful living and a fruitful reaping of productivity that will only advance us into further opportunities to speak of hope and a purpose for others.

BEWARE OF FALSE HUMILITY AND UNDERTONES OF DISDAIN

If there were one thing that sickens the heart of God it would be underhanded and slippery craftiness oozing from those who resist the full aspect of allowing God to create in them a clean and contrite heart.

It always amazes me how individuals that need notoriety and a place of “mystical” influence seem to be able to cunningly discredit good and godly saints around them who have perhaps lovingly warned them about deceptive practices or micro-management control issues, knowing that they risk the loss of relationship when doing so. It is as if these individuals secretly feel entitled to sidestep the issue of preferring your brother or sister, and humbly listening to their insights and observances.

Equally amazing, are those who listen to only one side of a conflict or disagreement, and then spiritualize-away the facts, that harm or discord has happened.

And so, the Lord allows the difficulties and afflictions to come and expose the areas of favoritism, embracing the “new and exciting”…

…Rather than the narrow and at times - dry pathway to mature godliness.

 There will always be among us, those claiming to have “THE” word of the hour, the “message of the forefathers”, and on and on the platitudes and justifications are listed to justify the mocking and putting down of the simple and unique message of self-abandonment.

LISTEN FOR THE SOUND OF MERCY

Listen to the “tone” in the voice of those addressing the crowd, the congregation, or perhaps a small study group. False humility has a highly "honeyed" pitch of barely restrained condescension, laced with heavy doses of unsolicited advice and counsel.

Rarely will individuals who have an exaggerated view of their own importance allow others to warmly and intimately engage in transparent communication and dialogue regarding the unique and yet equal calling and gifting of each child of God.

NOW IS THE TIME -- THE TIME IS NOW!

These words have been spoken out from the Lord over the lives of many who seemingly can hardly lift their heads due to delays, betrayals, losses, and a deep, deep internal anguish. It seems as if God sees greater fruitfulness when we are at the bottom of the proverbial "barrel"!

Those who are forever wishfully proclaiming that the “bad times are over and good times are ahead” are sadly attempting to override the ache of the soul when it longs to return to the comfort zone of self indulgence.

“But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless!”

 Jeremiah 7:8

Know this. To avoid the chastening and bruising of our souls is a guarantee that not only will you cause devastating and brutal pain to others, but also most importantly, you shall grieve the Holy Spirit.

I encourage those of you reading and listening, to test the fruit

of those who claim to have a special and mystical "in" with the Lord.

The Lord is not one who neither “excludes” nor leaves the broken out in the cold, nor does he invite into his inner courts of wisdom and revelation, those who would use it to their own personal advantage or fame.

IT IS TIME. NOW IS THE TIME! THE TIME IS NOW!

It is time to face the chastening of the Lord in the light of the purpose he has behind it. Growing up and maturing finally in the things he has been dutifully prodding you to do for a long time now.

Procrastination "fellowships" with slothful and sloppy approaches to relationship 

with God and with mankind.

For once and for all make the decision to not blame-shift or deflect onto others what God is dealing with in the wickedness of your own soul.

Now is the time to be willing to lose your life, to be afflicted -- yes even to the point of having the Lord remove and expose those who have become disobedient, self-promoting, and abusive in the circles you walk within.

“SEE TO IT that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” Colossians 2:8

OPEN YOUR EARS

The Lord is speaking! Listen!

He has wisdom to impart to you that may well save and instruct others who might fall into foolish behavior. It is not about your comfort, your "wants" nor even your dignity! It’s about a willingness to be the servant of the Savior, and to emulate His example.

He Is Speaking.

But are we listening?

“The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue,

To know the word that sustains the weary.

He wakens me morning by morning,

Wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.”

Isaiah 50:4

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