Good Sunday Morning to you all

Hey bloggers,
It's Sunday morning again, and this week has been one where I've listened to the still, small voice of God...and I don't know about you guys, but when I hear the voice of God, sometimes it includes a wake-up call :)

That was the case for me, and I'm truly believing that THIS WEEK God will work with me to create a week that is completly focused and just following in HIS ways with no stupid other gods attached...the other gods are what God has refered to as "idols" which i've realized i've had a few of this week...

If you wonder what an "idol" is, according to God, it's anything in our lives that we exalt over the MOST HIGH GOD---(ie the creator of the universe, the ONE TRUE GOD)...and as much as I would hate to admit it, i've been guilty on certain levels of having false gods in my life...

One such idol has been these stupid braces...would you know that excitement about something can be an idol? WEll it can be when that's all you talk about, and the Bible says that "out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks" Well this week, instead of being full of GOD----my heart was full of the excitement of getting braces...and so my mouth spoke; a lot...about BRACES!!!

I kind of got a wakeup call on that one sometime during the week when i realized that Scripture...and I began to think about things...

Among these things, one of the things the Holy Spirit was teaching me this week (because the Holy Spirit is our teacher)...was about putting the MEANING back into things spiritually. Please allow me to explain.

I'm pretty sure that i'm not lying when i say that we've all had times when we're completely totally ON FIRE for God, right? One such time may very well have been the first time that you got saved...am I right? And i truly hope that there have been other times in between there when you've also been on fire for God.

Now- on the contrary, i'm fairly certain that you guys are among me in the same crowd when i say that there have been other times when we're not so much on fire for God anymore...it may have been times where we've been under temptation; we may have been running away from God because we're trying to hide something from Him and are embarassed (although we can NEVER hide from God...remember Adam and Eve?)...but for whatever reasons, we may have been on the cold side of things as far as our walk for God is concerned...

And believe it or not, BOTH of those places can be a good thing...because the Bible says that God knows what to do with us when we're hot or cold...He knows where we stand and which direction to guide us.

BUT...what happens in that middle ground? There's hot, there's cold...i've experienced both...but the Bible says there's one area that God doesn't want us to be, and THAT area is called "lukewarm" Lukewarm is where you're neither hot nor cold, and i'm beginning to wonder if that is the area i've begun to call "routine"

I say this becuase it's where I feel the Holy Spirit is leading me...what happens when our spiritual walks become "routine?"

I wonder...

It's a sensitive subject, i'm sure, because seriously, how many of us would want to look at our lives and say that we're "lukewarm?" But I encourage you to take a spiritual thermometer and really look at your life for a minute...are you hot, are you cold, or are you, like so many of us can be so easily...lukewarm?

Hot and cold are easy places to remember. The hot times are places where we want to live always. I can remember so easily when I first came to PowerHouse Christian Center and wow...the answers came all of the time, and I LOVED every moment of it...i had questions, they showed me in the Bible where these answers were...

And let me tell you, realizing that the Holy Spirit was a source of POWER, and I could pray the. Scriptures and BELIEVE that they'd be answered (as God's answers to His promises are ALWAYS "yes and AMEN!")...well it was exciting and encouraging, and I fell in love with God all over again...

Falling in love with God---it's just a wonderful thing---even better than love on this planet...and so you can only imagine what a wonderful time of being "hot" for God that was...

And then there's the opposite side of the spectrum...where you're cold. I've unfortunately experienced THOSE times as well...and one such time would be when i was living under the oppression of jezebel. I PRAISE GOD for my deliverance from her spirit!!!

But how and when do we fall into the lukewarm? What is the lukewarm anyway?

Revelation 3:15-17 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society


15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

That's what the Scripture has to say about being lukewarm...yikes!

Did you notice in verse 17 the sense of pride that sneaks in? "You say, 'i am rick; i have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.'" How arrogant that sounds to me this morning as I read it!!! And as I was reading it, i thought "watch out" because the Bible warns us about pride...

Proverbs 16:18 says: "Pride goes before destruction; a haughty spirit before a fall"

So when i'm like the person in Revelation saying "look at me....i'm rich, i'm blessed...i don't need anything..." and so forth; i better be careful...because a fall is coming if I continue to be prideful.

Anyway, as I'm reading this, i daresay that this can fit into where the Holy Spirit has been guiding me considering lukewarm. ANd i mentioned earlier that it could translate into "routine" or that if Christianity has become "routine" for you, then more than likely you are, or are in danger of, being "lukewarm"

Will you explore this with me this morning? Becuase, as much as I hate to admit it, I have been guilty over the last few weeks of being "lukewarm." It's a very frustrating place to be!

Routine: doing the same things over and over and over because it's what you're used to doing...things kind of lose their meaning when you've fallen into the monotonous routine. When this happens spiritually, it sucks!!

Holy Spirit I pray now that you give me words to speak what You have ministered to my heart. In Jesus name I pray, and I thank you for your teaching!

Sometimes it's hard to realize when your walk has become a routine...but there's more than likely a hole, and, for me at least, there was a hole in my life, and i couldn't figure out what it was.

I still had much pleasure in going to church, and I loved the fellowship, but I wasn't feeling the same "fire" for God that I remembered from earlier...and if you're like me---when you have to look BACKWARD to see the times where you were just completely totally on fire, in love with God...then there's a problem!!!

And so I started to talk to God about this this week becuase USUALLY, when I get to the point where i have been recently where it's starting to become a routine...(you know the routine...go to church on SUndays and Wednesdays, open up the Bible to read something...becuase you HAVE to spend time with God to grow, clean house becuase you're supposed to...and on and on and on of things that USED to be a joy to do for the LORD have suddenly become a CHORE that has to be done...)

I was just reflecting about this because I felt stuck, and so this week, it's been a battle in my mind. i had about a million scriptures going through my mind, and it seemed like this big tug of war that i was stuck in the middle of...

IF you don't know what i mean by tug of war---mine was kind of a battle between works and grace. The things that I was doing seemed like WORKS---and I was doing them because I was supposed to...and instead of it being something I did because i was on fire and in love with God...it turned into doing them because i was supposed to---which made things lean toward the "works" side of things---and then my mind would say "but you're saved by GRACE and NOT by works..." which meant, easily translated, that i wasn't supposed to do things because of WORKS...which frustrated me...

It truly frustrated me...

Furthermore, i was frustrated because I couldn't seem to find a way to just be happy and enjoy things and be happy with my walk with God...it was a STRUGGLE...and it almost (no it did, i'll be totally honest)....seem like a chore!!! And to add fuel to my fire...my wonderful husband was GROWING in the Lord---and he was in a place where I WANTED to be...but couldn't seem to get back there...and that hurt me...

So i continued to ask God, and I continued to avoid people becuase in my mind's eye, i was being watched...and when you're kind of working to sort things out spiritually---you don't really want to be noticed by your pastors or anyone else who could actually help you...know why??? Because you're living your life on WORKS instead of FAITH....and you fall short every time...

But i found myself like Adam and Eve, hiding out from everyone who could really help me...and it was because i knew i was falling short, and i was embarassed...want to really laugh? I had to laugh at this one---i knew that i couldn't be seem because i was a (are you ready?) I was a STUDENT MINISTER!!!! And because of that, i felt in my mind that i couldn't fall or struggle because I had to stay strong and learn and grow....

AND I WAS WRONG!!!! I'm human too, and just because i'm a student minister DOES NOT mean that satan is goign to back off....he came full force, and unfortunately at the time, i left my defenses (armor of God) off, and was weakened...

Anyway, as i continued through my week, i became more and more frustrated because my awareness of the problem seemed to be growing, but i didn't know how to fix it (and i like knowing how to fix things)...but my answer did not come until later. So I continued to voice my thoughts to God----mainly about why on earth am i suddenly annoying everyone I come into? That was totally backwards, and I didn't know what was missing...

My week went on some more and I found myself rehearsing music for a performance I'll be doing next week at my parent's church. God has blessed me with a voice to sing praises to Him, and I'm excited about that. But my frustration now came in the fact that i couldn't seem to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit concerning what I should sing...and NOTHING seemed right...it was all wrong...

One night, as I went to bed, I was singing in my head the song by Nicole Nordeman "My Redeemer Lives" And i heard, once again, the precious sweet, still small voice of the Lord saying "do you REALLY KNOW that you KNOW that you KNOW...that I live?"

Ouch.

And i realized at that moment, that unfortunately, i had fallen into a spiritual "routine" that i had been all too guilty of back in my denominational days...and unfortunately, to my shame, i realized that the awesomeness of someone paying the price for my sin---someone loving me way before I'd even KNOWN who He was...much less love Him---well, that had become a stupid routine to me...

And i had reduced one of the most awesome songs that I could ever sing as a witness to people---i had reduced it to words on a page---not even considering the awesomeness of God....

and it dawned on me NO WONDER THINGS AREN'T WORKING!!!!

I had fallen into a spiritual ROUTINE and lost the POWER...well i hadn't lost the power, but I think i was more than quenching the Spirit...

But was it just in the songs that I sang, or was there more??

As i let the Holy Spirit minister to my life- i realized that there was more...

this sickness of "spiritual routine" had spread---and it spread fast...

you see, not only were the songs I was singing becoming "just words"...uhoh, it had spread into my worship too...

Going to church and listening to sermons (i'm seriously embarrassed to admit this!) but i had become VERY prideful thinking "this is nice...but it doesn't apply to me" and i WONDERED why my week would suck at work...

I think last night, i finally surrendered when i said "duh!" Your Word, Lord Jesus is for me...and when you speak things into my life, if i'd just LISTEN and DO them, things would be so much better!

And i realized that when i go to church today, God has a unique message FOR ME...something that He wants for me to apply to my life TODAY and TOMORROW and FOREVER...and then the words that I speak will mean something...and my days will be better because i will be walking in the SPIRIT instead of just walking in the routines of Kristi...

Routines are stupid anyway...and routinues, when left long enough can lead to pride---at least they did with me...and pride, as we know from Proverbs...pride comes before a fall!!!

I had my fall---fortunately, it didn't come publically---but i wonder how much time I lost serving my God because I fell into a trap of pride and routine and didn't go to the Father quickly enough...

-----

Do you want to be HOT for God?? All it takes is a prayer in your heart that you mean...tell God that you screwed up, and ask Him to forgive you...and you know what? You'll hear the Spirit of God, and He'll lead you back to being HOT for Him all over again----you'll fall in love with Him all over again, and He'll give you another chance :)


Just like the prodigal son, you can return home to Daddy!!! And you're WELCOME!!!

I'm returning home today- and i'm ready to hear the voice of God...and even more importantly than HEARING the voice of God, i'm ready to LISTEN and OBEY!!!

May God bless you today, and may you be HOT for God in your Spiritual walks :)

Love and hugs,
Kristi