Greeting, All,

Sorry I’ve been so silent! It’s been a busy time, and I’ve got LOADS to share with you and catch up on! I will DO this…soon, I promise. (Now I must, because I’ve promised! Clover, DO it, Girl! ) But I was just moments ago hanging up the laundry in the sweet ylang ylang scented breeze, and had the following thoughts:

I think that we. as born again believers can have a tendency to think that because we have the Spirit of the risen Lord within us, that He automatically has us making the right decisions….that He will bless whatever we decide to do in our knowledge that He is not only with us but within us. Either that, or we go to the other extreme and are paranoid to make any decisions at all without being sure we’ve heard from Him on the matter, and then we often forfeit the opportunity altogether, by making no decision at all because we don’t want to make the wrong one! So we just let life do it for us without exercising our power to choose. I’ve seen this in my own self over the years, as I’ve been learning and growing. I know lots of folks who do one or the other… or both, depending on the circumstances!

I’d like to address the first one first: Do we generally make the right decisions because we have the Holy Spirit abiding within us?

Well, we certainly do have the opportunity to make the right decisions because we have the Holy Spirit abiding within us. But then there are two other key pieces:

1. Do we invite Him into our decision making process, realizing that He always knows best,sees the end from the beginning, and is actually interested in being a part of all we do…momently? Do we subject ourselves to His perfect wisdom in the matter?

2. Then, once having received His Mind on the matter, do we actually heed it by acting in agreement upon it. Awhile ago, He suggested that I view what is commonly known as obedience as agreement with Him. He said I would be happier that way. (He is so painstakingly kind, patient, and merciful!) Once agreed with, however, then action is required to appropriate the agreement, like signing a document.

Now, while it is true that He does “cause all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes…” (we do and we are…) it is also true that the rest of that verse goes on to say: “…who walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.” The walking is the action taken in agreement with His Spirit. It implies the superimposition of His will over our soulish tendencies, regardless of how noble they may appear. (One too many “o”s…”good but not God, as they say.”) Yes, He will always work with what He’s got, and go to Plan A,B,C or D in His mercy to lead us in His ways. And if we are quick to acknowledge our errors, when we make them, He is instant to forgive. Better than instant…We have already been forgiven on the cross, but our humbling ourselves, before His Love, when we see our misjudgement is always key to shortening the lesson!

To the second point – the letting life decide for us technique: More often than not, this method of decision making amounts to just following the path of least resistance. But we need to be mindful that resistance has three possible sources:

1. Is it our own resistance…the stubborn, yet-to-become-unfallen parts of our soul?

2. Or are the lesser powers-that-be- (both spirit and human ones) resisting?

3. Or is God, by His Spirit, checking us with warnings and promptings not to proceed in a certain direction?

So often we ask, “Is this seeming to be so impossible because it is just not “meant to be?” Or is the resistance/hindrance/opposition I feel or experience happening because I am actually doing something right, and so my invisible adversary is putting up roadblocks to hinder me from moving in the right, God-led direction? The One, who knows us infinitely better than we know ourselves, also knows the answer to this question, and He never plays “hard-to-get.” He invites us to ask! He says He answers even before we ask! But we must ask. His answers will always be confirmed in more than one manner, including in His scriptural Word, received in His wisdom and by His Spirit. If it seems as if His “arm is short or His ear is hard of hearing,” He has assured us in His Word that this is NOT the case, but that there is iniquity interfering….standing in the way. So…we go looking for it, first within ourselves. “Iniquity, are you in here?” If God does not reveal it to us there in our hearts, then the chances are very good that there is a spiritual iniquity that is purposefully hindering the way forward, in which case, we stand against it, by the Life and in the name of Jesus (I like to use His Hebrew name, Jeshuah,) and command it to depart to the foot of the Cross.

That’s all I’ve got for now…

In love,

Clover