• The greatest freedom in this kingdom is from the tyranny of your own desires, agendas and plans.
• The second greatest freedom is from the tyranny of other people’s opinions about you.
• Another great freedom is from the tyranny of unforgiveness.
Someone said unforgiveness is like “drinking rat poison waiting for the rat to die.”
• As long as your personal well-being depends on someone else’s actions, you will manipulate them.
• Human effort, on its best day, will not produce the fruit of the kingdom. I don't think most Christians that I know really believe this. They might give it lip service though. I really do think that most Christian I know feel like they have to work harder and harder to please God and usher in his kingdom.
4 comments:
To be ruled by your own desires, agendas and plans can undermine the work of the Lord. We may feel that we are operating under the direction of the Holy Spirit, yet carnal self enters quietly in when our guard is down and determines to have it's way. It can cause ministries to go astray and wreak havok in the church. All that we can do is to pray constantly for His agenda to be ours and for ourselves to be under the submission of it. That definitely includes short-term agendas for we all know His long-term agenda :)
To be ruled by your own desires, agendas and plans can undermine the work of the Lord. We may feel that we are operating under the direction of the Holy Spirit, yet carnal self enters quietly in when our guard is down and determines to have it's way. It can cause ministries to go astray and wreak havok in the church. All that we can do is to pray constantly for His agenda to be ours and for ourselves to be under the submission of it. That definitely includes short-term agendas for we all know His long-term agenda :)
Unforgiveness is such unmerciful bondage to the bearer. Why chain and injure yourself? It is caused by hatred, bitterness and anger, sins which must be brought, through repentance, to our greatest Teacher of forgiveness, Jesus Christ and laid before His cross. If He can die on a cross for our sins, we can surely admit and relinquish our hatred, bitterness and anger in true repentance. If we can submit our hearts to that, then forgiveness will most certainly be forthcoming, both for us from our Father, and for others from us. Not that our ability to forgive can ever equal His...the greatest forgiver of all time. Yet He is our prime example of forgiveness.
Instant forgiveness brings instant healing.
In response to Kim's post on our own desires, agendas, and plans (d/a/p)... What I am coming to understand and increasingly experiencing is sort of a progression: the more I realize the Father's infinite love for me, the easier and more natural it is for me to trust him. I think that is the purest form of trust. In that sense, it is not so much a choice as it is an outcome. As I trust him more, I am less interested in clinging to my agenda and more hungry for his. This is so very freeing. When I am free of my own d/a/p, other freedoms kick in. I worry much less about what people think about me. I can also let go of anger and other negative feelings (Kim also mentioned these) toward other people.
I am amazed at what God is getting to in my life, changing the things that need changed out of his love and his power, not mine. It seems like it is 98% him and 2% my effort.
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