Avoid the Temptation to Sabotage
Dear Ones,
Do not think yourself so far “under” struggle or affliction that 1) things will never and improve and 2) you will not know life with God’s promise fulfilled to you. This is not to make guarantees, but to remind us all that we remain persuaded in the divine and sovereign ability of our kind, loving and just KING.
What I want to offer as a warning is for us to not root our lives to far in the affliction that we forget deliverance training. Psalm 34:19 says that the righteous have many afflictions, but the Lord delivers the righteous one out of every one. The truth is that if we allow environments to dictate our journeys to us, then we can succumb to the lower conditioning that being a believer = enduring affliction alone. But that is not all that we are here to do, suffer and die. No!
Jesus encouraged us to be of good cheer because He overcame the world. Our faith has the ability to overcome the world. Our faith can go beyond environment, conditioning, and even public opinion if we feed it God’s word. As a new year turns over, cycles are sure to repeat themselves if we take no pause to properly attend to weak perspectives and sick faith. Enter the sabotage possibility…
sabotage
1. the act of destroying or damaging something deliberately so that it does not work correctly
This is our attempt to stop our life or our life’s usefulness so that we can blame our dysfunction or past or the affliction.
2. destruction of an employer’s property (as tools or materials) or the hindering of manufacturing by discontented workers
This is our attempt to interrupt the progress, healing, and forward movement of others through sowing discord to add company to our perceived misery.
3. destructive or obstructive action carried on by a civilian or enemy agent to hinder a nation’s war effort
This is our subtle attempt to take down a larger effort (e.g., company, organization, local church, or family unit) to keep the entire unit from moving ahead. We become an enemy agent, turning on the unity of the body to destroy what we once helped build.
4. an act or process tending to hamper or hurt; deliberate subversion
This is us being a danger to ourselves and resistant to Kingdom coming for us… that is, living in God’s way.
This is a powerful word. Take care to address any outstanding indicators of sabotage.
- Unforgiveness. We’ve all done dumb stuff. Forgive yourself and keep it moving.
- Anger with God. He has a wonderful plan for all our lives, and faith demands we remember this when our journeys take a change of direction or people.
- Envy and jealousy. James 3 says where these two exist together, there is confusion and every evil work. I’ll include coveting here — thou (we) shalt not!
- Bitter root judgments. Let’s bury those hatchets and let those old offenses go. We can hold so firm to the position that we are right, others are wrong, and our version is the truth that we look up and find our hearts hardened toward the people originally involved. And, anything that we feel threatened by in a similar way, we count it as the “same spirit” miss out on personal growth.
- Old tapes. These are the past events — good or bad — that keep us stuck in a frame of mind that we have either “arrived”, or that we cannot ever move on from “here.”
Take courage. Believe God. Believe in His Kingdom coming for you — His righteousness, His peace, and His joy. Renew your mind to the expiration dates on affliction. Set your mind on the deliverance that is imminent. We can pass through the ADVENT cavalierly… the Son of Man has come! The born child and given son who is called Wonderful , Counselor, Might God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace is HERE.
There is reason to rejoice. Choose joy and receive strength. Do not choose the way of death by sabotage. We can know life on the other side of affliction. We can know the joy and wisdom and increase of God’s deliverance from them ALL… if we stick with the journey, stay on the path, and as the old saints used to say, SEE WHAT THE END WILL BE!
Please selah this one…. love you!
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