there is only one department!
There is only one department I am in control of.... just one... that department is me... I have a free will... I can do whatever I choose to do... that's my department... so when I said this yesterday... about actually believing we have an enemy...
"Even when we finally believe that we actually have an enemy….there is so much more to learn … before we can ever get to the place… where we can see we can’t do anything about it… where we see … we are not in charge of … anything."
When I said this... I did not mean that I need to learn how to fight the enemy... learning how to do that is needed... that is a good thing to learn ... but it is not the way that religion taught me to fight the battle...it really isn't..
....nor is it that I need to learn the doctrine of Jesus' great victory on the cross... that too is a great thing to learn ... but again... not the way that religion teaches that victory... it is not any intellectual understanding or agreement with truth... ever...
The battle that is needed.... is fought in the same place Jesus fought it... in the garden (of our own lives) telling father what we would really like to see Him do... or change ....then we need to stop all the fighting and say "nevertheless not what I want but what you want".... then we proceed to follow Him to the cross and die there ... just like He did... right along with all the great things we want... our great ministry that is coming undone... our health which is already undone... our latest financial crises ... my friend whose sister was just shot and killed... just explain that one to him with some religious platitudes... let me personalize this....
I've said this 24 different ways over the past couple years with a zillion illustrations of all our disasters... and it took each and every disaster for me to finally discover... that what needed to change was not my circumstances.... it was me... I needed to change... I needed to go to the cross and die... just like Jesus did.... one of the ways I do that is... when I give up the right to my free will... when I say...
"Father.. I really don't want this to happen... but your plan and purpose is so much more than mine... your ways really aren't my ways... so I want what you want ... no longer what I want... there is nothing besides you that I desire... not the things you do for me... not the things I think are blessings... just you, Lord... I just want your will to be done in my life... I'm not going to tell you what to do any more... no longer tell you the best way to work out my situation... I give up control of everything... I no longer want to control any of the departments... not even the one you have given me to control... my own free will... I give you that one too...." I did it. I can't tell you how different life has been since then.
I am no longer in charge of any department.
:)
"Even when we finally believe that we actually have an enemy….there is so much more to learn … before we can ever get to the place… where we can see we can’t do anything about it… where we see … we are not in charge of … anything."
When I said this... I did not mean that I need to learn how to fight the enemy... learning how to do that is needed... that is a good thing to learn ... but it is not the way that religion taught me to fight the battle...it really isn't..
....nor is it that I need to learn the doctrine of Jesus' great victory on the cross... that too is a great thing to learn ... but again... not the way that religion teaches that victory... it is not any intellectual understanding or agreement with truth... ever...
The battle that is needed.... is fought in the same place Jesus fought it... in the garden (of our own lives) telling father what we would really like to see Him do... or change ....then we need to stop all the fighting and say "nevertheless not what I want but what you want".... then we proceed to follow Him to the cross and die there ... just like He did... right along with all the great things we want... our great ministry that is coming undone... our health which is already undone... our latest financial crises ... my friend whose sister was just shot and killed... just explain that one to him with some religious platitudes... let me personalize this....
I've said this 24 different ways over the past couple years with a zillion illustrations of all our disasters... and it took each and every disaster for me to finally discover... that what needed to change was not my circumstances.... it was me... I needed to change... I needed to go to the cross and die... just like Jesus did.... one of the ways I do that is... when I give up the right to my free will... when I say...
"Father.. I really don't want this to happen... but your plan and purpose is so much more than mine... your ways really aren't my ways... so I want what you want ... no longer what I want... there is nothing besides you that I desire... not the things you do for me... not the things I think are blessings... just you, Lord... I just want your will to be done in my life... I'm not going to tell you what to do any more... no longer tell you the best way to work out my situation... I give up control of everything... I no longer want to control any of the departments... not even the one you have given me to control... my own free will... I give you that one too...." I did it. I can't tell you how different life has been since then.
I am no longer in charge of any department.
:)
