What does it really matter if we know who we are in Christ, and that we are in the middle of His will?

If we never miss a day to love God, then what else do we lack?

It’s easy to say these words when I am in the light, but during dark nights of the soul when tormenting doubts attack my mind, it can become easy to forget everything God told me.

“Never doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light”

If we have inherited all spiritual blessings in Christ (Ephesians 1:3), then we don’t have any reason to worry about anything on earth. We are kings! (Revelation 5:10) That means we can have whatever we need. We should no longer worry about falling behind. We shouldn’t need to envy and compete with others if we know how much more we already have in Christ.

God can give you the best job ever if you think you are stuck in your career. He can give you the money you need to accomplish any dream he puts in you. He can arrange for the best person to come along if you ever need to marry. He can fulfill ever dream that he puts in our heart. I often forget these truth and get tempted to feel depressed at my circumstance.

It is easier to say than to believe them all the time myself. Just this early morning many negative thoughts had been bombarding my mind. I prayed for about an hour, but after that the negative thoughts and memories still came at me, and after a few hours of the ordeal I was emotionally spent.

When I am emotionally spent, I get tired and want to get numb. By that time, I often couldn’t help but to find something to numb my mind. Godly things don’t numb our mind, so I would get worldly entertainment that is not good to help numb the pains.

I didn’t realize these reasons for my “addictions”, or lack of discipline, for many years until recently. I thought I had addictions of world entertainment such as comics, TV, gaming, browsing the Internet, other unproductive distractions, or even porn, but the truth is that I was often too traumatized by my own (or Satan’s) thoughts that I needed something to medicate my pains.

All my unfulfilled desires are hurting me. For many years, I felt stuck financially, relationally, and even spiritually. I feel very bad when I look back everytime, and feel that I have wasted so much times.

Today I had another alone time with God and this time the encouragement from God finally came. He helped me to remember who I am in Christ, and that because of who I am in Christ I cannot be in the wrong age, wrong place, and wrong position if I had truly followed him all these years. Later, I happened to see Joel Osteen’s TV program on the schedule, and switched to that channel at the said time. I had my precise questions answered. This man of God encouraged me.

I believe this was a divine arrangement for me to find out when his show was playing. God was working behind the scene to remind me of his truth.

¹⁷ I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit^[a] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength

Today, many Christians would feel that this “me and God” vs “the enemies” attitude is uncalled for. They might think it’s only relevant for Christians from the third world countries or the middle East.

But it’s not. I myself can testify from experience that you can get persecuted anywhere if you strive to live according to God’s commandments and seek to manifest the full gospel and its power. (2 Timothy 3:12)

You will get a lot of persecutions from, first of all, the Christianity religion. Religion is never the true victim, but it’s often the persecutor to those who are the true followers of the true, biblical God.

If you are just being religious, going to church every week, being churchy and nice to people, and never do something that rock the boat, then not only will you not get persecuted, you might enjoyed the best of both worlds.

But you will not be relevant to the kingdom of God, nor to the world and the enemy.

Let Says You Are A Biblical Christian

Then you are a real threat to Satan, the world, and religious institutions, including some of our own Christian Churches and denominations.

Many church leaders will say harsh things about you and to you if you actually live obediently to God. Be prepared.

Satan, of course, will send his army from hell to harass you, to steal from you, and to destroy you if he can. And humans are one of the main type of instruments that he uses to attack us.

God’s Main Way Of Dealing With the Enemies Is To “Preparest a Table Before You In The Presence Of Your Enemies…”

Don’t expect the enemies to simply disappear and everything to go easy on you.

Rather, God has a wonderful plan. He is powerful enough to set you a table of feast in the middle of your enemies and make them watch you to eat, drink, and merry. They will say all kind of harsh things to you. They will growl, threaten, and insult you. They will do all kind of things to try to take away your peace. But who gets to enjoy the feast?

YOU.

But are you up for it?

Only those who understand the way of God, have strong faith, and are hardened by battles can participate in this. They understand that as long as they place their full faith in God, they will receive no real harm. (Unless their times are up and God let them choose to be a martyr, which only happens once in a lifetime)

Religious leaders might use slanderous talk to attack you, but God will make you a “fisher of men”. (Mark 1:17; Acts 2:46-47)

The world will attack your faith. They will call you stupid. And the modern pharisees will try to conform you into their denominational doctrines, but God will grant you the power of the full gospel and co-labor with you. (Acts 4:16-17; Mark 16:15-20)

Satan will try to keep you sick and poor. Religious people will try to brainwash you into believing that being sick and poor are spiritual. But God wants you to prosper in all things (3 John 1:2) See my post on Biblical Definition Of Prosperity.

God Won’t Remove The Enemies

God wants to demonstrate His power and glory to the enemies through us. If God makes our enemies disappear, then who are going see His power and glory? It is because of His mercy that He does this to the enemies, so that the enemies might repent and give glory to God when they see what God can do through us and for us.

Deuteronomy 28: 10

¹⁰And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee.

The world will hate us, but some can choose to follow our examples.

John 15: 18-20

¹⁸If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

¹⁹If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

²⁰Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

Jesus Christ is infinitely bigger than the world and the enemies.

John 16:33

³³These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

So what Should We do?

Knowing that God wants to prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies, we should focus on our part— to merry along, have faith, and allow God to demonstrate His tremendous blessings through us by sitting happily right there at the table. If we succumb to fears and complains, we will fall right into our Satan’s scheme and he will overcome us.

It’s like being in a storm’s eye. On the exterior everything might look chaotic, but if you stand in the middle of God’s will, and place your will, mind, and emotion right there, you will enjoy great peace through it all. Don’t be mad about what people say against you, but let them see your supernatural prosperity and let it be your best vindication. If you take matter into your own hand you will lose it.

Remember, if you have enemies, that’s because they have a reason to be jealous of you. This is why you will get persecuted. Because if God is with you, favors will always go your way, and people who are not so close to God would feel bad about themselves so they will try to bring you down to their own level.

I have seen happy and successful people got bogged down by negative people. I myself was a victim of people who accused me wrongly when I had God’s favors on my side. I allowed myself to become negative because of some of the vicious things they said, and I complained (A lot), and at the end I was burn out and lost the favors.

Looking back, I wonder why I didn’t just sit at my table, relax, and let them see how much God had blessed me. A blessed life is a lonely path, but it’s better than the broad path of mediocrity and compromise.

If I hadn’t been negative and complaining at those times of favor, my life would have been continue to be a display of divine blessing. I might already have married, have kids, a successful career, and stuff. (I am serious, read my journals if you want to know more about my life. I mentioned a bit of my previous time of favor in this post.)

Once the enemy scare you away from your God-given table, you will lose your relevance and divine blessing. This is what the enemy is trying to do. So stop caring about what the world think, what carnal Christians think, and what your enemies think. Just enjoy your feast of blessing and prosperity! They will eventually reflect on themselves when they can’t stand your happiness and divine success, and some might turn to God because of that.

They may quote a lot of Bible passages, and sound genuine, but they are false teachers. They may sincerely believe in what they teach, but one day they and their blind followers will be judged severely by God.

If, after you read this post, you realize that you have been under the influences of their teaching or is a member of such institutional church or organization, please get out ASAP. It is impossible to stay with them and not get harmed. (Proverbs 13:20)

It’s hard to detect because they have a form of godliness, so you think you are going to a good church

2 Timothy 3:1-5 ¹This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. ²For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ³Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, ⁴Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; ⁵Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

The emperor has no clothes.

They may talk a lot of talk, but ultimately what they try to do is to deny prophecies, miracles, tongues, and other manifestation of God’s power in today’s churches.

The harms they have been doing to today’s churches are vast and multilevelled. I myself had been blind to a lot of these harms in the past ten years as a member of an institutional church due to familiarity blindness. Only after I prayed to God recently and asked Him to reveal the problems of the church to me did He reveal to me the problems of my local church and the entire denomination, and I was shocked by these revelations.

At the end, God asked me to leave the unbiblical church and go out to build a church according to the model of the early church in Acts, which I did.

Examples of harms that these “Having a…godliness…power” people do to our churches

• A lot of Christians no longer seek the gift of tongue, which the Bible says can edify oneself
• Many Christians now think that prophecies and miracles ceased after the Bible was completed
• Because of the lack of spiritual power, many Christians turn to self-help, personal growth, and new age teaching for help
  
• They persecute churches that follow the model of the early church
• They persecute modern apostles, prophets, evangelist, and faith healers, but only allow pastors and teachers to remain in the churches, which are the two “weakest” offices in God’s appointed leadership.
• While these blind teachers preach against miracles and power of God, many Christians suffer addictions, sickness, and attacks from Satan
• Words have power. Because of their repeated teaching and preaching of human invented doctrines and human traditions in their church buildings, the spiritual atmosphere of these churches are now being filled with the power of these false beliefs— beliefs that deny the power and manifestation of the truth. So there is now very little manifestation and prosperity in these churches and in the life of their church members
• Only one man do all the talk in the church, once every week, while the rest of the church congregation sit on pews and let their spiritual gifts go stale or stay buried.
• The church congregation become so weak spiritually that they don’t even want to meet with each other often, but only twice per week the maximum
• Christians have listened to too many human doctrines that these doctrines confused the truth of God’s word and they become too powerless and confused to read the Bible themselves

The lack of spiritual power and miracles is a sign of false doctrines

1 Corinthians 4:18-21

¹⁸Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. ¹⁹But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. ²⁰For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.

Those men spend tons of hours to discredit other people’s ministries, reinterpret God’s word with complicated but flawed analysis, discourage people from seeking any form of miracles, emphasize human reasoning and human doctrine, undermine God’s provision, and promote human’s self-sufficiency (For example, “God isn’t your matchmaker”, “God helps those who help themselves”, “God gives us wisdom to decide on our own”…)

God proves them wrong by not giving them any power. They will have all sort of educations, but they will not be able to perform any miracle or manifest any spiritual gift at all. They can only do the talk but fail to chop the chop. All they can do is to argue with complicated and twisted reasoning, but they can’t perform miracles or experience the supernatural like the people they criticize.

This was what happened in Jesus’ days. The pharisees had witnessed Jesus’ miracles, but they refused to believe and wanted other to follow them. (Matthew 13:23) I believe there are many modern pharisees who have hijacked Christians churches and seminaries, but most Christians under their authorities are genuine Christians. However, as long as these Christians remain with these modern pharisees, it will remain very hard for them to experience the power of the full gospel that is mentioned in Mark 16:17-18, which says:

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

If we can experience the power of the full gospel, which goes far beyond than just telling people how to get into heaven, then we don’t need to rely on schemes and gimmicks to attract people into the churches. We will be like the Christians of the early church in Acts, who simply went out, and performed miracles with the power of the full gospel, and followed the commands of Jesus Christ, and then God himself “add to their number who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47)

It’s easier to see the manifestation of God’s word than people think!

2 Corinthians 4: 1-2

¹Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; ²But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

We can believe in God’s mercy. Because of His mercy, He gives each of us a part of His ministry.

Manifestation of the truth is a crucial part of God’s ministry. If you don’t see the manifestation of the truth and God’s power in your local church or in the ministry you are part of, then get out, find a biblical church, and seek this power first, because if there is no manifestation there must be something wrong.

Yes, I know there is very few churches out there that follow the example of the early church in Acts, but that makes it even easier for you to eliminate other choices. No more hopping around from church to church!

If a church claims that they have spiritual power such as miracle healing, prophecy, or vision from God, but fail to heal you or give you words from the Lord accurately, then maybe they are still working on it, or they are fake. But the lack of manifestation is certainly a sign of a weak church.

People can appear godly. They can have an impressive degree in theology. They can have a nice church building and church statistic. They teach good things in the Bible every week, preaching sermons that will never bring up any controversy nor impact to daily practical living.

But at the end of the day, everyone can see that the emperor has no clothes. Just compare your church with the church of Acts!

It’s easy to manifest God’s word. Just believe in everything the Bible says, and proclaim your conviction boldly. Don’t water it down. Don’t mix it with complicated, human-invented doctrines.

See how men and women of faith experience the manifestation of God’s word through faith.

Because we have no power…

Many sincere and devoted Christians are beat to a pulp. Even though they remain faithful to God, as long as they are part of a “having a… godliness… but… power” church, they will remain powerless. (1 Corinthians 12:26)

You might think that you can remain strong and independent, but if your church tolerates false teachings and resist God’s power, then these false teachings and teachers will be like a little yeast in a batch of dough— the whole batch will get fermented. (1 Cor 5:6-7) You will not be exempted.

Other Christians have started looking into the self-help, secular psychiatry, New Age, occult, and witchcraft for help. (Matthew 24:24) The lack of spiritual power create a vacuum that has to be filled by something else, so it is very tempting for them to get spiritual power from somewhere else if they can’t experience God’s power.

Church going Christians slowly get turned into minimalists. They keep their attendance in the church to the minimal. Unlike the early church, which meet almost everyday around the clock. They trim their attendance down to the bare essential.

When they finally trimmed it down to only the bare essential: a fellowship gathering and a Sunday service per week, they proceed to turn them into social gatherings.

Of course they would become minimalists, because there is only a handful of people in the church who can exercise one or two spiritual gifts on each Sunday service, which is preaching or encouraging, but most people don’t get to exercise their spiritual gifts.

Years after years most Christians are only allowed to serve as pew warmers. (Don’t tell me your church is different just because your church congregation dance and stand a lot during the worship. It’s the same thing)

Being pew warmers for too long causes their spiritual muscles to shrink. (And mine)

False doctrines (Such as Calvinism, Once Saved Always Saved, Everyone gets Raptured...) and other human philosophies are being mixed with the truth, and are being served to Christians as spiritual food, and thus destroy most of its spiritual nutrition, and the Christians eat it. They have their stomach full of sermons and teachings, but always wonder why something is still missing.

They become too weak and lukewarm to read the Bible themselves, and the “full time ministers” condemn them for not reading the Bible, which they love doing because it serves their self-importance, otherwise, who needs a “full time minister” if they all know their Bible?

And many Christians fail to enjoy the prosperity that God promised us in the Bible. Some churches preach that Christians should be poor, and some other churches preach a false version of the prosperity gospel, which won’t work. So today only a small number of Christians actually enjoy the prosperity of God.

Last but not least, is complacency. When people think they have a good church, they no longer compare it with the real church and find out what they have missed.

In the next post, I am going to talk about the biblical church model of the New Testament, and offer it as the solution to most of our spiritual struggles and needs. The pilgrimage to heaven shouldn’t be a lonely path.

Important:

Now, there are many churches that are in the situations I describe above, so the issue is very urgent here, and this is what you can do:

If you agree with this post, then CLICK HERE to help me fight this war to share the FULL Gospel to those who are deceived by men who have the form of godliness but deny its power

1. You will be bad habits resistant and temptation resistant
2. You will be productive and prosperous in anything you do
3. You will be freed from all guilt and insecurities
4. You will walk a straight path, bypassing all wrong turns and complexities in life
5. You will save tons of times and resources that others need to spend to achieve the results they cannot even imagine they can achieve

A Narrow Path

This post is going to challenge and turn upside down the way of men. What is the way of man? Human wisdom, certitude, the board path… You got the idea.

Most people do what most people are doing. The Bible said the same of the board road and wide gate (Matt 7:13).  More people choose that path, but that leads to destruction.

You can hear the same from some of the smartest men in the world – that if you go after the low hanging fruits and do what most people do, you are less likely to succeed. In fact, the majority is usually irrational and wrong. If you follow the stampede, you will hurt yourself. For example, the stock market! History repeats and people still buy high and sell low. They just follow the stampede and the same financial actors.

Only the few who actually know what they are doing and stick to it will receive the rewards at the end (Such as Warren Buffet).

You know what it takes: Courage, patience, faith, wisdom, knowledge…

It takes that same for the spiritual elites to live differently than the majority of people on earth.

And more.

Fortunately, God already wrote down what we need to do in the Bible. It is quite a list, but as I meditate on the verses that explain how to live a spirit filled life, I became so excited because I realized it wasn’t as difficult and complicated as I thought.

They are all familiar Bible verses. I just hadn’t put them together to pay a closer look before. I began to feel that my previous experiences resonate with the verses.

If you happen to have read most of the Bible, this post should be an easy scan for you. I wish I am doing a great service to you by putting the familiar verses in a focused manner that makes it easy to understand our central theme: how to live a spirit filled life. It was all hidden under my nose before!

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The Natural Man, The Flesh, And The Spiritual Man

14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he that is spiritual judgethc all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Cor 2:14-16

9 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.  Gal 4:29

16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.   Gal 5:16-18

As Christians, we have both the spiritual part and natural part within us. The “natural man” is capable for logic, senses, emotions, words/languages, imagination, and general capacities of human beings, while the “spiritual man” is born after the Holy Spirit when we accepted Christ as our personal savor and Lord (John 3:1-16), and one of the functions of the spiritual man is to  serve as a spiritual organ that communicates with the Holy Spirit.

The natural man is pretty good at doing what it does, but it can’t receive truth and revelation from the Spirit 24/7 like we Christians can, because, on top of the natural man we also have the spiritual man in each of us.

Writing a post like this one requires the exercising of both the natural man and the spiritual man. The spiritual man receives divine knowledge from the Spirit, while the natural man deciphers the messages into human languages and understandable thoughts, so we can remember and communicate with others the lessons and messages we have received from the Spirit.

In order words, I have to allow the Spirit to lead and use my natural capacities in order to write this post. It doesn’t mean I become a robot and the Spirit take over the control of my body, but I follow His promptings to do what He directs me to do, and trust that He will empower me to do it.

As Christians, we should dedicate our body members to God (Rom 6:12-13), which include our natural capabilities; therefore, they are to be driven by the Holy Spirit, not the flesh. (Rom 8:4)

The flesh is the sinful tendency that we still retain even after our conversion into the family of God. The flesh will be gone only at the day we get into heaven or at the moment of the Rapture when we experience a transformation of our bodies into the new ones like that of Christ. (1 Cor 15:51-53)

But at the meantime, we have a war to fight. Our spiritual man and the Holy Spirit repels the flesh, and vice versa.

Here is where the natural man comes in. The flesh wants us to rely on our natural strength and capacities, rather than relying on God. The natural man is well-intentioned but it can only put on the form of righteousness. It isn’t able to empower us to live a genuine righteous life.

The natural man and the flesh don’t know what God’s perfect will is, and it will try its best to please God with its limited strength and wisdom.

Humans have a stubborn tendency to rely on the natural man to perform good works. Whenever we sin we like to figure out what went wrong with our own wisdom and logic, and then we double, triple, or quadruple our willpower to avoid sinning again. To our dismay, no matter how hard we try, the power of sin only becomes stronger over us. (Romans 7:21-23)

As Christians, it is very common for us to experience struggles between relying on our natural abilities/flesh and the Spirit.

Most of the times we are philosophically confused about it because very few Christian pastors or teachers teach about walking in the Spirit in a systematical, practical way.

As a result, many Christians are serving God out of the flesh, instead of relying and obeying the Holy Spirit.

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To Rely On The Flesh Is Disobedient, Self-Centered, And Counter-Productive

On the surface, it looks like everything is fine as long as we have the heart to serve God and live a good Christian life, but it isn’t.

Matthew 12:30

He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.

Matthew 7:21-24

²¹Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.²²Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? ²³And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.²⁴Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

1 Samuel 15:23

For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.

Romans 8:7-8

7 Because the carnalc mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

The flesh can put on the show of good works, but the power source of these good works is the flesh, not the Spirit, and it is the same flesh that is the source of all vices that we find ourselves struggling with in our Christian life.

As long as we continue to rely on the flesh, we will never experience true victory over sins, and we will never truly please God.

The flesh and the natural man can only do what they think is good. They act on what they know in their limited wisdom and knowledge, and thus create a lot of unintended consequences that will ultimately lead to bad results, but this reality will not be immediately obvious to those who are walking in the flesh.

We are in fact resisting God if we rely on our flesh to carry out good works.

The flesh likes to boast of its power. It wants others to see what it can do. It is “self”. To live in the flesh is to live a “self” life without God being our actual Lord.

The Bible never said that the flesh is dead when we accepted Christ as our savior and Lord, but it actually teaches us that the flesh will continue to present, so we have to be watchful, lest it regains its control over us.

The moment we fail to live in the Spirit, the flesh will dominate. (Gal 5:16-18)

When the flesh dominates, sins will abound.

Don’t be surprised if you find your flesh to be active from time to time. It happens if we quench the Holy Spirit (1 Thess 5:19), or by a dozen of other reasons, so be vigilant and always learn from the Spirit so we can always walk in Him and avoid falling into the flesh again.

It is a lifelong practice with a very steep learning curve, so don’t feel disappointed if the flesh beats your best intention at times. Just go back to God and ask for grace to resume the practice again (Proverbs 24:16).

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How Do I Walk In The Spirit?

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Gal 5:16

Quench not the Spirit. 1 Thess 5:19

And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Rev.2:7

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, Jude 20:20

We walk in Him by knowing who He is, by obeying everything that He tells us, and by approaching Him as much as we can. How do we know Him? The Bible teaches us who He is.

He is with us Christians 24/7, and He loves to fellowship with us anytime. (Phil 2:1-4)

The Holy Spirit speaks to us very frequently with a still small voice (1 Kings 19:12). We can easily ignore Him and pretend we don’t know what He is trying to say, or assume that what He says is undo-able.

Why Does Christian Struggle With Sin? Why Doesn’t God Hear Our Prayers And Deliver Us From Sins and Bad Habits Right Away?

By repeatedly ignoring or resisting the Spirit, we can quench his power in us (1 Thess 5:19). If we allow that to happen, we will fall prey to the world, the flesh, and the Devil. Sins will regain dominion over us as the grace and power of the Spirit recede because of our little disobedience here and there.

Many Christians are struggling with sins. Me included. Until recently I re-discovered why – I fail to obey and listen to the Holy Spirit all the time.

When there is the flesh at work, no amount of prayers will stop it from bearing bad fruits, unless I repent at once and walk in the Spirit again.

I said “re-discover” because I learned this before, and this lesson brought me to a major revival a few years ago. I tried my best to stick to the right path while this lesson was still fresh, but later, the subtle deceptions of the flesh had slowly crept back in, and I relied more and more on the flesh again.

I was like a frog in a slowly heated water.

Watch Out Even For The Innocence

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14:12)

There is no sin that is too little. If the Spirit tells you not to do something that you think is innocent, then run away from it and never look back! I often do it or look back anyway, and it would bring me to a less innocent act, and then another that is even lesser, until I find myself drowned in sins.

In fact, anytime we disobey the voice of the Spirit His power in us will start to diminish, and we will find it harder to obey as we sink further downward.

There Are People You Can’t Handle. If The Spirit Warns You Of Them… Run And Hide!

Similarly, if the Spirit tell you to avoid certain individuals or situations, avoid them right away. There are many people or situations that will lead you astray. They can be innocent, well-meaning folks or events: pastors, Christians, harmless looking people, Christians gathering, or Church functions.

The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7

There was a Christian whom I admired and wanted to connect with for quite a few years, and finally I had a chance to serve with him in a ministry. Soon, I found out that he had a lot of issues to deal with, and one of them was bitterness. This bitterness had spread out to those whom he had come across with, especially and including me. Gossips, divisions, and outburst of angers (from this person) were frequent when he was present. I regretted that I invited him on board and that I didn’t cut off all ties with him quickly.

God will deal with the people in your life if you lift them into His hand. Don’t intervene. Don’t offer any assistance or counsel to anyone if it wasn’t from the Spirit.

I made this major mistake with the guy I mentioned above, and with some other individuals.

As a result, my walk with God had been contaminated by the negative influences from fellowship with these people. It took me quite some time to recover spiritually. Their negative influence was one of the reasons why I fell prey to the flesh again a few years back – by allowing bad examples before my eyes for too long I was led astray.

He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm Proverbs 13:20

Examples of harmful effects these individuals can bring you include: they can hurt you deeply or tempt you to sin by gossiping, judgmental attitudes, and slanders. They can give you such a hard time that makes it difficult for you to be joyful, thankful, forgiving, and attentive to God’s voice. Their influences can rob you of peace.

In some extreme cases you can actually receive strong warnings from Holy Spirit when you come across extremely dangerous situations and people, see one of the stories here.

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How To Be Successful All Your Life?

Jesus has spent only 3 years on earth, but look how much He has achieved.

It was miraculous.

You and I can replicate His effectiveness too, if we simply do what He would do. We could replicate the results of a successful person by replicate his actions!

But how can we know what He would do in every situation? By the Spirit!

The functions of the Holy Spirit are to teach us all truth, tell us what God’s will is, and remind us of what Jesus taught us. (John 16:13-14; John 14:26)

Without the Spirit, we can only read the letter of the Bible, but we will not be able to truly understand and apply the deeper meanings of them. In other words, God’s words aren’t God’s words if the Holy Spirit doesn’t actively bring the words alive for us. (2 Cor 3:6)

Many times, too many times, I had wanted to read the Bible more, but ended up doing worldly things. The problem was, I wanted to control when I would read the Bible, how often I shall read, and how deep I wanted to understand the words. I was trying to achieve spiritual goals with the power of my flesh.

I had failed almost every time when I tried to be more spiritual with methods, formulas, and plans. But at the time I didn’t know what went wrong.

There is no success formula which you can use apart from the active leadership of the Holy Spirit. Formula will fail, schedule will fail, method will fail, and knowledge will fail if you don’t walk under the active leadership of the Spirit.

To apply this principle on a broader scale: we should do everything out of the Spirit from the beginning to the end. Not just with the spiritual things, but with everything as well, including career choice, spouse choice, school choice, and everything big or small, even when to sleep.

At this point you may worry, “What if I hear Him wrong?” At times you may get deceived or confused as to which voice is the Spirit’s, but if you don’t listen at all, you will always get it “wrong” anyway. So in fact you are left with only one choice – just listen:

John 7:17

If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.

John 10:4

And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

You Will Achieve A lot When You Walk In The Spirit Fully

Joshua 1:8

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

John 16:13

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

To meditate on God’s words day and night is to live a Spirit filled life. They work together. They are almost synonymous. Anytime you treat the words of God with complacency and neglect, you grieve the Spirit and quench His power in you, and anytime you rely on yourselves rather than the Spirit, the power and deep knowledge of God’s words will be withheld from you.

For 5 years, I have attempted to meditate God’s words day in and night out, just like what the Bible commands us to do, but I had failed at every attempt.

However, whenever I sincerely converse with the Spirit, He often shows me relevant verses and explanations with simple real life applications. And when I apply the words according to His leading, it always become obvious of what I should do. It’s like a ray of light shining through thick clouds.

You can’t replicate the work of the Spirit by formula, methods, and plans. There are dozens of dozen of Bible study plans and methods out there, but unless the Spirit initiates the plan and guides you through every thought and step, your effort is futile:

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Psalm 127:1

Once you meditate on God’s words day and night in the Spirit, God will make you prosperous and successful because He promised it. (Psalm 1; Joshua 1:8)

You will also have the mind of Christ fully at work in you (1 Cor 2: 16) . We are what we think (Prov 23:7). If the mind of Christ in us works actively, we will surely replicate Christ’s results.

Meditation of God’s words in the Spirit is just the “inner game” of our walk. Now let’s move on to the “outer game”!

The Outer Game Of Our Walk In The Spirit

If we get the “inner game” right, the “outer game” will take care of itself. Let me show you what the “outer game” is about:

Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21

Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. Proverbs 21:5

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand. Psalm 37:23-24

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. Luke 5:4-7

The Spirit often instructs me to do something “out of the blue” in random places. There were several times when He used me this way and “we” had brought several strangers to Christ. All I did was just obeying His prompting.

Prior to my walk in the Spirit, i.e., while I was still walking in the flesh as a Christian, I had never brought one single soul to Christ.

Looking back, I can see logical, biblical, and even scientific reasons behind His “random, out of the blue” instructions. The limitation of human understanding often prevents us from seeing the big picture at the time, and thus the prompting of the Spirit often seems random and uncomfortable to us.

But we will eventually get to the big picture and increase our understanding as we simply obey every promptings of the Spirit.

One problem: Humans don’t like unpredictability and unknown; We like schedule, plan, and habits.

You don’t need to force yourself to build godly habits; The Spirit will build something magnificent out of His daily walk with you as you go along. This includes everything in life: career, school, relationship, finance, and health.

You will learn as you do, and whatever you do in obedience to the Spirit you will reap multiple results in this life and the next.

Like in the example of Simon and the fishes (Luke 5:4-7), God loves to instruct us where to “let down our nets”, such as where to drop our resume, which person to marry, which school to attend, and which business venture or ministry to undertake.

He loves to speak His mind to us, if we would let Him.

If we listen and act upon His instruction, we will get multiple good results in our endeavors – just like how Simon caught many fishes in one move.

Simon was an experienced fisher – just like how most of us are experts in our own field – but he and his pals failed to catch any fish for an entire night.

Like Simon and his pals, we will deal with uncertainties in our endeavors no matter how good we are at what we do. As natural human beings, our skills and experiences can only give us the approximation, not the exactitude.

There is a huge difference between approximation and exactitude.

We will never have complete information at any point in life. If we act like the non-Christians, we are playing the number game. “Number game” aptly describes what every human endeavor on earth is like: full of trials , errors, and guesstimates – this is the only way non-Christians can achieve anything.

If we rely on the flesh, we are playing the number game; It’s like throwing spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks; We will have to make multiple shots and hope that one gets in.

We will have to climb all the way up through mountains, and sooner or later we might find ourselves on the wrong mountain, and we have to climb down and try the next one, because we have no map.

We will have to compete with thousands of other people who are relying on the flesh too: job searching, public exams, tournaments and contests, business ventures, and even ministry… Since you are not following an unique calling from God, you will have to do what most others are doing or create something new of your own (and hope it works), and hope that you beat the competitions and reach the top from above the thousands.

Eventually, you may achieve some success on your own term, but the result will not last for eternity since this success isn’t part of God’s plan – it is a discord in His grand scheme of things! You will also have wasted a lot of time during the trials and errors stage. Your time will be much more productive if you give your time to God instead.

With the one clean shot you make under the Spirit’s guidance, you will live your life to the full as you make one clean shot after the next, and the next and the next and the next and the next… for the rest of your life.

If we want to master the “outer game” of our walk in the Spirit, we have to walk every single step under His guidance. (Psalm 37:23-24; Proverbs 3:5-6)

Forget All Your Earthly Glory

God is I AM, not I WAS or I WILL. Forget about your accomplishments, titles, CV, wealth, and circumstance. Surrender your past and future to Him and just focus on Him in the present.

When we truly surrender everything to Him, He can use us freely in the now and then. If our mind get entangled by the past (baggage or accomplishments) or the future (goals and ambitions), the Lord can’t use us freely.

Our employers, business partners, customers, fans, friends, and others all look at our past and evaluate us base on that, but the Lord cares about the NOW. He can use you to accomplish anything if you just walk with Him and obey Him in the present, not the past or future.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matthew 13:45-46

I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ. Hebrews 5:11

Throughout the Bible, God has used so many different characters, most of them were ignoble: they were shepherds, servant girls, slaves, losers, fishermen, and other weak folks. He has also used someone who had an impressive resume, such as priests, kings, and the riches.

It doesn’t matter to God – as long as you are willing to obey and be faithful, He can use you anytime.

You might have been a loser up to this point, or you might have been successful, but God can do something new and better in your life today if you simply follow His instruction and do what He wants you to do.

In the world, employers look at your education, credentials, references, and all that. You can be unemployed and broke right now, but the Lord can give you a prestigious job, a profitable business, or other amazing accomplishments within a very short time no matter how incompetent you were.

He knows your true gifts and talents. He has an unique calling that is custom-made for you. Only you can do the best job in that calling. No one can substitute your role in His unique plan. If you disobey and miss that calling, the blessings God could have given you and others through you will be forever lost.

His calling may seem insignificant at the first glance, maybe it isn’t a prestigious job, rather, it could be a job no one has ever heard of which is in the middle of nowhere, or it could be a business venture that goes against all odds. Persist and keep going! You will find the hidden gold mine if you just keep digging.

A friend of mine was called to be an academic. His field is data mining (*boring!*). For years he had spent so much time with text books, solving many mathematical and computational problems. He could spend an entire week in a room just to solve one math question that he finds interesting.

As a result, he can now look at any question his colleagues bring him, and within minutes he can formulate a strategy that his colleagues can use. His colleagues are PhD, masters, and some of the sharpest minds in Google. To this day, He has brought hundreds of millions of profits to Google. He manages hundred of researchers, four secretaries, and the whole nine yards (For example, a queen size bed in his office that Google gave him).

On the side he has started a few successful companies that monetize his other research findings, all of which makes multimillion dollars in profits.  (He manages quite a lot of people! )

You too can be very successful in your unique calling if you surrender all of your past and future to God, and regardless of what others think of your resume and credentials, just be courageous and do what He wants you to do.

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More On The Inner Game Of Our Walk In The Spirit

Now that we have the overall view of the big picture, we can go back to the “inner game” again to add some more crucial information, because without the light of the big picture, it’s hard to fully appreciate the information I am going to share here.

By now we know how narrow the narrow path is. It’s very easy to fall prey to the flesh again without even being conscious of it. The flesh is subtle and deceitful.

We must remember where our fleshes belong – the cross. We must put our flesh on the cross on a daily, hourly, and as-frequent-as-it-takes basis.

²⁴ And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:24-25

The walk in the Spirit requires our active cooperation. We must exercise our willpower constantly to focus and obey the Spirit. And we must not forget the truth — that we have crucified our flesh.

To be watchful of the flesh all the time can be stressful. To be on call for the Spirit all the time can seem stressful too. Also, in the presence of the Lord His light and justice will progressively reveal all of our sins and erroneous thinking. For the faint of hearts it can seem too much to handle.

Satan will siege every opportunity he can find to attack you as you try to maintain this delicate balance on the narrow path. If you start shifting your focus and attention from the Lord to yourself, then Satan, the flesh, and the world will easily deceive you into walking in the flesh again.

One of his tactics is condemnation. Since you have become alert and aware of your own every darkness in the presence of the Lord, he will use that as an opportunity and condemn you with every sin that you see in yourself until you can’t stand before the Lord anymore.

If you fall for that trap, you will see your inadequacy more than you see God’s adequacy, and you will sink in doubts and sins very quickly.

Bouts of depressions and regrets will follow if you let Satan does that to you, and soon your strength, peace, and joy will leave you as you believe in Satan’s accusations and deceptions. (See Spiritual Battle.)

Before you realize what has been going on, you may have long departed from the walk in the Spirit already. It’s a narrow path, so narrow that it’s easy to fall into the ditches on both side.

In my own walk in the Spirit, I learned some important lessons about how to maintain the walk. For example, in Getting Over Regret I shared how I walked through the trap of regrets, and learned to forgive myself as I grew. It’s important to forgive yourself after you have been forgiven by God. Otherwise, the narrow path can become unbearable because of perfectionism.

It’s A Marathon, Not A Sprint

If what I just shared in the last section sound excruciating, it probably is, but in time it will get better as you become more “skillful” at abiding in Christ and walking in the Spirit.

One of the skills you need is to be thankful.

Give thanks often for every little progress and blessing that God grants you. You will find a lot of strength as you give thanks. The walk in the Spirit is full of challenges. It’s important to celebrate every progress you are blessed with before the next wave of challenges come.

The next skill is to forgive, because you will be very sensitive to sin in the presence of the Lord.

If anyone sins, don’t worry too much as you should lift him or her to God, believing that the Lord can take care of every consequence of that sin. If you sin, just repent. True repentance leave no regrets.

The third skill is wait.

You should accept your current condition before the Lord. Don’t strike. Just wait before God and wait for the Spirit to guide you along.

If we try to rush it before God’s timing, we are relying on the strength of self. I have done that many time and it always turns out to be a waste of time. I have forfeited or delayed many blessings and breakthroughs that could have been mine, or could have been mine earlier, by worrying too much and working too hard for them (all those schemes, visions, and plans!), instead of just waiting prayerfully and peacefully before God.

The blessings that I had deprived myself of by striving and scheming include biblical insights, purity, calling, financial wealth, career success, relationship, and more. That sounds a lot, but in fact everyone on earth experiences the same – falling short of God’s perfect plans. I believe very few people throughout history have attained all the blessings that God had planned for them.

If there is such person, he or she is perfect indeed.

Don’t worry too much about failures in your walk! The more you worry, the more likely you will fail. Simply trust God can empower you to accomplish everything He wants you to accomplish.

For me, the first time I embarked on the walk in the Spirit it was exhilarating! It had lasted for 2 to 3 years, and then I fell into the ditches because of many of the traps I have just mentioned in this post.

After that I was able to resume my walk slowly. The big fall into the ditch confused me somewhat, so the recovery took a while.

This time the future is bright, and I was just freed from a major sinful habit because I started walking in the Spirit fully again.

I hope by sharing my personal victories and failures with you I might be able to strengthen your walk in the Spirit. God bless!

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If God didn’t arrange the coincidence in the library, I would not have read it and the changes that came afterward would have gone missed.

I fell in love with the book once I opened it. Later, me and my friend purchased many copies and gave them out for free.

It revolutionized my Christian life. It was like a major revamp. To this day, the presence of God is still going strong and the level of intimacy has never receded.

Biblical foundation of the Practice Of The Presence Of God

Although the author of TPOTPOG, Brother Lawrence, didn’t mention many biblical references in the book, almost every aspect of TPOTPOG stem from God’s basic commands that we as Christian were familiar with.  The way he devotes himself to live out the commands and share the insights through human words make it very enjoying and inspiring.

I thought, it was so easy! Lawrence made it clear and concise what we must do and what attitude we must have to walk with God.

Prior to the reading, I had always wondered why it felt like something was missing in my relationship with God. There was a void to be filled, but I didn’t know how to fill it. I had been going to church and fellowship with other Christians regularly, and I had quiet time with the Lord everyday, but there was a silent yearning beneath my soul.

What Will I Experience Through Practicing The Presence Of God?

Through practicing, you will be able to see the Lord and focus on Him in everything you do. You will find the power and desire to do His will amid all the usual obstacles, distraction, and chaos in life. You will be able to see and testify what God’s perfect will is in things big or small. You don’t have to do big things and take big leaps every time, even in the small things you will be able to handle them in a way that pleases the Lord.

You will gradually become a fireball for God. At first, you may not sense it, but when you can feel the intensity, it already happened. All the lukewarmness and complacency will be consumed by an intense desire to seek God.

Think You Will Feel Holy And Satisfied? Maybe Quite The Opposite!

Instead of feeling holy, the presence of God may make you feel quite the opposite! You will see every hidden sinful attitude and transgressions against God and others. You will see blind spots that you have previously missed. You will mourn for the complacency and lukewarmness of the past (In the presence of the Lord you will see your previous lifestyle as complacent and lukewarm, even if by human standard you were not) and feel intense pain for allowing yourself to have lived that way.

The fire gives you intense desire and focus for the Lord, but it can also pain you.

Rather than satisfaction or “as a deer panteth for the water”, you will feel very thirsty and hungry for more spiritual insights and growth. You will be afraid to miss out any chance to grow and serve the Lord. Anymore missing out with God’s perfect plan will pain you to no end because you can now see the eternal chain consequences of everything you do in obedience to God’s will, the blessings are too great, and therefore too painful to miss.

Random, Spontaneous, and Being On-call All The Time

You will discover that God like you to take the leap of faith when things are uncertain. Human likes to know what is going on, and what will happen, but the Lord’s servants are likely to engage one unexpected adventure after another.

You won’t know whom you are going to meet at any time, whom you are going to share the gospel with tonight, and out of a sudden God might prompt you to do something challenging such as to preach to a crowd on a very short notice.

The first year I practiced the presence of God I was a University student. Back then I would often take a walk in the Campus and run into friends. There were quite a few times when I met an acquaintance, a new friend whom I’d met for only a couple of hours, or an old friend whom I hadn’t met in a while, and God would ask me to share the gospel with them. Every time I obeyed God’s prompting the person I talked to accepted Christ!

God will work wonders around you if you obey His orders. See my article Self Doubt And The Leap Of Faith Part 3: Power And Desire to learn more about seeking God’s will and do the seemingly undoable by God’s grace.

Stretching You To Your Furthest Limit

You will become a threat to Satan’s kingdom, so expect him to wage a major campaign against you for as long as you live. If you are unalert and/or uninformed of his schemes, you will suffer continuous casualties. If you want to know why even a godly man can suffer unjust and undeserved attacks that can make your life tough, see my article on Spiritual Battle…And The Cost Of Not Engaging In It.

God will give you exciting projects to do, but the more success you enjoy, the more it can reveal your character flaws.

It’s like stress testing – you might be cool when things are normal, but God will test you by allowing things overload. You might be able to forgive one person at a time, but how about two? Three? Or many within a short time?

God will give you many challenging tasks to do, but His grace is sufficient, and He will also allow the enemies to launch waves of attacks on you – to see how long you can hold out, to test your faith and character under trying circumstances.

When people see success in you, they will be attracted by you. Many will come to you and ask for one thing or another. But be careful whom you fellowship with. Some are wolves under sheep clothing. And even Christians can be used by Satan to hurt you.

Many will come to you because they see that you have influences, so they want to use you for their own purposes, for examples, to rebuke their spouses and vindicate them in relational conflicts; to give you a bad report of someone they held grudges against so you will stand on their sides and that they can quote you in gossips or arguments; and to complain about something so you will fix the problems for them, etc.

Pray for wisdom and discernment! Don’t fall into these traps! Otherwise you spirit and soul will be contaminated!

The are many traps on your path to higher ground! Satan, the world, and those who live according to the flesh will try to pull you back as you practice the presences of God. On the other hand, the Lord will give you important assignments which test your faith and character. You will grow as you learn to defend yourself against the former and embrace the latter.

With Friends Like That, Who Needs Enemies?

There are roughly two kinds of Christians, carnal Christian and spiritual Christian. Carnal Christians seldom pray and fellowship with the Lord when alone, but they might still go to church regularly and can be very active in the Church socially, which is the problem.

These carnal Christians can also be active in a ministry, and that can create a lot of stumbling blocks for those around.

By definition, a carnal Christian is a Christian who runs his or her own show, with Christ as their savor, but not their Lord. A man who relies on self cannot help but creates many consequences that are eternally bad.

Even apostle Paul was grieved by such Christians:

²⁰[Paul:]For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you [The Corinthians Church] as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. 2 Corinthians 12:20

These are fruits of carnal living. And those who live according to flesh (Carnal Christian) naturally persecute the spiritual Christian:

²⁹But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Galatians 4:29

Until they see their errors and repent, they will create problems for each other and for those who purpose to live by the Spirit. They despise what they don’t understand, and because a carnal Christian don’t understand a spiritual Christian, the carnal will persecute the spiritual out of ignorance and narrow-mindedness.

Carnal and Spiritual are opposite polar, but it’s not like you are either one or another – it’s like a spectrum where most people fall in between. Unfortunately, most people lean on the carnal side, and many are heavily carnal (But you may not find them to be frequent church goers anyway)! Be prepared for unpleasant experience when fellowship with carnal Christians.

I wrote an article about the harmful effect of bad friends, click here to see how you may avoid them.

Surrender All

God will come to you from time to time to ask for more of you. Can you surrender your relationship life to Him? Can you give up dating and reserve yourself for someone special? Can you surrender a prestigious career and follow your true calling? Can you surrender worldly entertainment and trust God as the sole provider of joy and peace?

Every time God come to ask you for something, there will be a lot of soul searching, discerning, some confusions, and ultimately, the best way out is to surrender, or you can stay where you are, but that’s not going to be the best place to be. You either choose the world from the start and embrace a self driven life, or you choose God and live a spirit driven life. Anything in between is not going to please anyone, and you will be left in limbo (figuratively, I don’t mean literally)!

Even after you decide to surrender, the temptations to take things back to your own hands will remain strong. The gal or guy you are smitten with is going to be around that you don’t know where else to look at, people will ask why you don’t apply for this or that job with your degree, and there will be many advice on how to take control of your life and etc.

More On Practicing The Presence Of God

To practice the presence of God in this age is challenging. It requires many spiritual knowledge, awareness, and training. The rewards of this discipline are exceedingly great that it worth to have an entire training program devoted to it.

The book itself is written in old English, but I somehow managed to understand what the author was saying. I am going to release a series of commentary on the original words of the book. Like this idea? Drop a comment to let me know!

More is coming.

In the Bible, God had risen heroes to deliver his chosen people, the Israelites (Now we call the Jews), from their enemies and the sinful way of living that caused the enemies to arise at the first place. Many times, the chosen ones were surprised by the calling from God, and would consider themselves unworthy of the call.

Most of them were afraid, why me? Of all people in Israel, why me?

One of such heroes was Gideon.

¹⁴And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?

¹⁵And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.

¹⁶And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. Judges 6: 14-16

The Midian was nomadic people. They were numerous. And they, along with their alliances, the Amalekites and people from the east, were bullying Israel. Every time the Israel had sown, they came to destroy the produces and farm animals, leaving them with nothing.

Basically, the Midian and the foreigners roamed the land of Israel freely and camped anywhere they wanted for however long they wanted. The Israelites had to hide in the mountains.

When God spoke to Gideon and invited him to be the next deliverer for Israel, he was hiding from the Midian.

Gideon questioned the Lord about the call at first, reasoning to the Lord that he was the least in his poor family so he probably couldn’t handle the mission.

But the Lord thought differently, he called Gideon “mighty man of valour” (Judges 6:12)

Many times, how we see ourselves deviate greatly from how God see us. He is our creator so He know what we are fit to do, and He know the best timing for everything.

Arguing with the Lord about what He think of us isn’t humble. It’s an insult to the Lord’s wisdom, thinking we know better than the Lord. Have you ever argued with God when you sensed that He was calling you to do something?

Gideon didn’t argue with the Lord after He promised Gideon that He will be with him in his mission; He only asked for signs from God to prove that it was really God who was speaking to him. Then the Lord showed him that by miraculously consuming a meal prepared for Him by Gideon. (Judges 6:17-22)

Getting Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

After this, the Lord asked Gideon to do one thing – to demolish the altar of Baal, an idol that the Israel worshiped at the time, and then build a new altar for God, and offer a burnt sacrifice there using the demolished idol as fuel – it was a dangerous mission because the Israelites will kill him for doing that, but he went straight to do it, albeit at night, for fear of the Israelites.

Perhaps God intervened behind the scene, Gideon’s dad said one sentence to the angry folks who demanded his son the next morning, and the mob disbanded. (Judges 6:32)

It doesn’t sound like a comfortable thing for Gideon to do, does it? When God ask you to do something, it’s always doable. He will give you the grace to do it, and take care of the consequences, but often times His instructions are uncomfortable to carry out.

This is a feel good generation. We like to do things that pleases ourselves and avoid things that make us feel uncomfortable. For Gideon and many other heroes of faith, they eventually mastered the skill of getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. We will do well if we obey God just like them, and learn to master this skill as well.

My dad is a Tao priest who offers funeral ceremonial services. He is still doing that today. 10 years ago he forced me to shadow him in one of his services, and it tested my faithfulness to God as I felt I had to refuse it. But I was afraid of man more than I afraid of God, and I compromised. To learn more about my story and how I suffered a sense of shame because of my compromise, click here.

Several months ago, my grandmother died. She passed away without Christ, which was unfortunate, but I knew it was a second chance from God for me to show my faithfulness to Him. This time I stood my ground and refused to participate in any idol related ceremony.

As a result, God has blessed me with a good reputation among my relatives because they saw me stood my ground during the funeral, and my dad was willing to make accommodation for my faith during whole process. Throughout the funeral, people kept saying loud, “He is a Christian so he doesn’t do that”, and because of that everyone knew I was Christian.

Is It God’s Will?

Gideon was a very careful man, after destroying the altar of Baal, he asked for confirmations from the Lord whether it was God’s will to use him to fight the enemies and deliver Israel.

Make senses, because the Lord hadn’t asked him to take any specific action against the enemies yet, so Gideon was right that he chose to ask God specifically about whether it was His specific will that they should attack the enemies at the time, and whether it was him who should do it.

³⁶And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said,

³⁷Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.

³⁸And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

³⁹And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.

⁴⁰And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

So Gideon led the men he gathered and went to the battle field.

Have you regularly sought God’s specific will for your life? Sure you can hear His voice. If we surrender all our excuses to God, we will find that we can indeed hear His voice pretty clearly, the Bible says,

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them,  and they follow Me” (John 10:27);

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”(Isaiah 30:21);

If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. (John 7:17)

God has unique plans for everyone. The plans may sound impossible at first, and that we are weak and fragile, but if we obey His prompting, and take the leap of faith every time the next step is shroud with uncertainties, we can expect great things to unfold at the right split of second.

God will engineer our circumstances in such a way that when we obey, people, heaven, and earth will cooperate with our actions, whether they are willing or do it out of evil intentions, or by accident or coincident, and the outcomes of our obedience will in turn trigger a chain of events that lead to multiple ripples that bless many.

A servant of God should do nothing on his own, but to trust and obey God. Many people either refuse to listen to God’s call because of self doubts, or they take matters into their own hands and fight without seeking God’s will. For the former, the result is God’s judgment and punishment (Matthew 25:14-30), and the latter is vain conceit and missing out on God’s perfect plan.

Win Till You (Almost) Drop

Win till you drop, sounds nice isn’t it? As you grow in faith and the skill of obedience, you will win, win, and win. Based on my own experience, the Lord grant me more and more responsibilities, honor, and success as long as I keep obeying Him, until I can’t handle the it anymore, emotionally, and physically.

It might come to a point where you will feel exhausted. The Lord will stretch your faith and obedience to the max. Stretching you makes you grow.

⁴ Gideon and his three hundred men, exhausted yet keeping up the pursuit, came to the Jordan and crossed it…

[Skipping a few lines of how Gideon went through the whole nine yards in his pursue]…

¹⁰ Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with a force of about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of the armies of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen. ¹¹ Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah and Jogbehah and fell upon the unsuspecting army. ¹² Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he pursued them and captured them, routing their entire army.

Long story short, Gideon and his 300 men (Yes, they started with 300 only, and ended with 300 in its entirety, but the enemies lost 120,000+ men in this battle) had been beating up their enemies all the way through and they were exhausted by all the one way killings and pursing.

For your information, Gideon wasn’t the only one who won till he almost dropped. There were Moses, who became sick and tired of performing miracles for the losers for 40 years; Joshua, who had fought more than a hundred battles in his lifetime, having only lost once due to someone’s stupidity, and when I read his biography I got bored by the long winded record of places he had conquered; Sampson, the strongest man on earth in his time, almost thirsted to death after killing 1000 men by himself with a donkey’s jawbone. And there were more than I can tell you in one article.

If you want to be a champion who in this life, who is counted by God for eternity, and if you want your success to last, then you should practice obedience and faith all your life.

What Is Grace?

Grace is the desire and the power that God gives us to do His will. Bill Gothard

⁹But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

When God ask you to do something, He will give you the grace to do it. His grace is always fresh, which also means that you have to rely on His grace daily.

You can count on His grace for today, but tomorrow is a new day and you will have to ask for it again. God do this because he want you to rely on Him. He can’t afford to give you too much that you can wander on your own for too long. We humans are too forgetful and too easy to take pride in ourselves.

Because of His grace, we can bypass our weaknesses and still accomplish what He want us to accomplish, no matter how against all odds it seems.

In my final year of University, God prompted me to run for the vice president position of the student union. I was inexperienced with student activities in the Campus. I didn’t know the big fishes in student politics. I didn’t know what left and right meant politically. And I spoke broken English since I was an immigrant from Hong Kong for only 7 years at the time.

I faced candidates who were in the know, who were influential, who saw me as a nobody, and the media in campus was eager to cast a negative light on me because of my Chinese origin and lack of experience. I was against all odds.

But I prayed hard and followed God, I’d ran from class to class on my own, delivering self-introduction and pitch without script. There were many times when I mis-pronounced my website, allforstudents.org as allforstudents.orgies, the girls looked at me with a weird look. When I someone finally corrected me for that, I was very embarrassed.

My opponents ran for the election in a ticket. They were resourceful and they followed a script. Miraculously, every time my fellow Christians prayed for me, the audiences would applaud, whistle, and screamed, it had happened quite a few times, but I don’t recall any other candidates who had that kind of receptions.

At the end, I won the election. And later it would lead to God using me to deliver some students Christian organizations out of mild troubles.

God’s Grace Is Sufficient

¹⁶Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16

As humans, we will frequently feel the weights of our weaknesses. If we are honest to ourselves, we know we are clumsy and many things aren’t under our control. This is okay, however, because God God will lead us step by step. And whatever He ask us to do, He enable us to carry it out.

We are to cry out to God, approach His throne of grace, and receive from Him mercy and grace, frequently.

It goes against our human nature, which loves to be self-reliant and tends to place trust on humans and things rather than God, so don’t be surprised if you find it difficult to asking God for grace daily. We have to train continuously to put our nature under the control of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:17; Zechariah 4:6)

Focus, focus, and focus! This is very simple, yet very difficult. All you need to do is obey, seeking God’s will, and do it.

And make sure you stick it out!

Other relevant articles:

What Is Grace?

More Biblical Inspiration

There were times when I was confused, perplexed, agitated, and stuck. I had prayed very hard at those times, but the answers were always postponed, blurred, or blocked. Sometimes even the usual channels which I had used to reach God or other Christians were jammed.

This happened before in the Old Testament time, when a servant of God, Daniel, prayed to God about something important, but the response from God was delayed for 21 days. The messenger of the Lord explained to Daniel what had happened to him during the 21 days:

Daniel 10: 12-13

¹² Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. ¹³ But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.

God allowed His angel to be delayed by some major demons (Prince/kings of Persia) while being sent to carry an important message to His servant.

Today, Satan and His forces still operate fiercely to try to make you think that God doesn’t care about or listen to your prayers. Often times, if you don’t write down your prayers and questions for God on a journal, you will forget. Satan wants you to simply forget these crucial information and win the cases by your absence.

To use an analogy, it’s like when you try to surf the Web for information, or answers to some questions, but the Internet is cut, or a website you find helpful suddenly goes down and you don’t know what happened to it! How would you feel if your Internet get cut off suddenly? If it was me, I would be worried and wondered if the service provider is fixing it!

In fact, a website I recently recommended in my article, Spiritual Cleansing, suddenly went down after I posted the article. The author of the site later informed me that his site was targeted by IRC bots, and his router and modem got fired by a lighting! All happened in about the same time. Speaking of enemy’s attack!

Spiritual Battle Make Things Unusually and Unreasonably Hard

Are you familiar with the story of Job?

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⁸ Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”
⁹ So Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰ Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹ But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”
¹² And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.”
So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.  Job 1: 8-9

Like Job, we can encounter similar attacks from Satan. We too won’t know what is going on behind the scene.

After, Satan got permission from the Lord, he went out and wreck havoc on Job’s procession and family. Sometime Satan and his force will target us and ask permission from the Lord to do some damages to us. If we are unaware of the spiritual weapons we have, and that spiritual force is working invisibly against us, the attacks can go on and on.

Does any of the following seems familiar to you?

1. There might be days when you get targeted by bullies at work or school. And the bullying occurs very frequently and seems to have no end to it. You keep asking yourself and God but couldn’t find out why you have been targeted.
2. Schoolwork, landing or keeping a job, or other important tasks in life become unnaturally difficult and depressive. You encounter heavy distractions that make you doubt if you’re just lazy or dumb. You have been on your wit’s end. You ask and pray, but the situations get worst or stuck for no apparent reasons (or reasons just keep coming).
3. Relationships become very tough to maintain. Casual conversation or networking is frequently destroyed by misunderstanding, or unfounded prejudice.
4. Verbal abuses, physical abuses, and rebelling attitudes of family member(s) make your life a hell.
5. A simple addiction such as playing the World Of Warcraft, watching Youtube, or more sinister ones such as viewing pornography, holds you in bondage for years even you sincerely prayed for deliverance and repented every time you committed it.
6. One person after another comes to inform you of bad news or bad reports about one thing or another, which causes you to feel worry, upset, and even depressed. These random people just keep coming and dimming your outlook on life.
7. Coincidences overlap each other to bring you to a tempting situation.

If any of the above seems familiar to you, it’s very likely that this is not natural, but is engineered by our spiritual enemies.

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Demonic Attack Doesn’t Have To Be Dramatic

There are cases of heavy demonic attacks such as hearing voices, demon procession, limbs or neck twisting at impossible angles, but for us average Christians, we most likely encounter attacks that are disguised and invisible. The enemies would prefer to have us think that the evil thoughts in our minds are our own ideas, that distraction is our own lack of discipline, that the bully who is picking on us is because we lacked social grace, and etc.

The enemies like to hide and pretend they are not there, because once we realize and identify the enemies and their work, it only takes a very short time and a few steps to totally bind and defeat them and their schemes.

On the other hand, if we fail to realize what’s going on, the battles will not simply go away just because we go to church every week, and have a quiet time with God every day to read the Bible and pray.

For real case studies on spiritual attacks, click here. Like me, you may actually find some or part of the case studies that resonate with what you have personally experienced.

The Enemies Can Rob You Of Joy, Peace, Productivity, Rest, Time, Freedom, and Possibly More

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10

And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. Malachi 3:11 (Interpretation: That means if the Lord doesn’t rebuke the devourer, it can destroy the fruits of your labors)

Blessings are abundant to Christians. They flow to us by default, but Satan can rob us of blessings if we are unaware and get manipulated by him. For example, during my years in University, I used to have depressive thoughts, and they kept increasing by the year. Many time I’d tried to study but was totally disabled by the depressive thoughts. I would look for things to regret and feel bad about, and that makes me feel guilty, worry, and hopeless. There was no use to debate with my thoughts because debates only add fuel to them.

One time, God did a spiritual surgery on me and I realized how I could stop being depressive – by hearing His voice, instead of the enemies’, or mine. Since I applied what I learned, I have become freed from depressive thinking. See:

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4:7

In my depressive years, I had somehow sensed that those thoughts were originated from the enemies, but I found the thoughts so convincing that I allowed myself to analyze each word. It was how I got trapped.

I had lost some blessings that could have been mine due to depression (Does it sounds like the DEVOURER that the Bible talks about?): peace, joy, academic excellence, energies, health, and many opportunities that I’d failed to notice because of my grim outlook on life, and the lack of energy to pursue them due to depression.

In fact, sorrow, guilt, and worries are recipe for addictions, because they create a void that has to be filled by something, if not God. They also create so much pains that makes it tempting to use some addictions to medicate the pains.

Satan and His Force Love To Hide Behind The Stronghold Of Sins And Bad Habits

It makes recovery from bad habits or addictions so much harder. Behind every addiction is a lie(s), and Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44).

Satan works relentlessly to deceive us into sinning, and when we sin, we become it’s slave. (John 8:34) Once we are in the bondage of sin, Satan will tease us, accuse us, deceive us, and cast excessive sorrows and guilt on us to keep us from spiritual freedom.

One essential step you can’t miss if you want to be free is to receive heavy dose of truth daily.

³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32

Addiction to sin is demon’s castle. If you allow the enemies to build a base within your soul, then there is little use to fight them back, because they will come back from the stronghold very soon next time! As long as we allow certain sins in our life, they will remain strongholds for demons.

To understand more about Satan and sin, go here.

Another article I found useful is this: Deal With Sin

On the other hand, if you bind the enemies before you seek to demolish a sinful habit, it will make the healing and recovering process so much faster. In fact, the battles with addictions can drag on for years if you fail to realize that the enemies were actively working behind scenes and bind them accordingly.

Evil spirits can sometime present and resist you for no apparent reasons. They will delay answers to your prayers, blur your mind when you try to read the Bible, cause heavy distraction to you when you need to focus, and make you uncomfortable with spiritual disciplines in general. You must never be weary of praying battle prayers and verses against the enemies, especially if you are a dedicated Christian. Satan loves to target Christian who is dedicated, for example, a Christian who is involved in a ministry or obey a clear calling from God.

Usual Causes Of Defeat: Forgetfulness and Boredom

Satan and his demonic force aren’t tough to deal with, if you know what they are doing to you and follow the biblical steps to battle them. But the problem is we forget them easily.

Binding Satan everyday can be boring. When things get normal, it’s very hard to stay alert. (Looking back, things had rarely been normal for me, the enemies came back every now and then, but often times I was ignorant of it)

It’s also pretty boring to speak the truth out loud often as instructed by many Christian leaders and teachers. But really, the power of words is indeed amazing! I wish there is CG effect every time we declare God’s words, and that it will shows demons withering, heaven and earth shaking, a beam of light shining from a crack in the sky, and the whole nine yards, but this isn’t how it works.

God’s word can indeed make a huge difference: from death to life, poverty to prosperity, illness to health, sorrow to joy, addiction to freedom, failure to triumph and etc. However, most of the time we don’t feel a thing when we speak God’s words. Many times, the reality can be quite the opposite of what God promised in the Bible.

Nevertheless, God’s words will deliver. It will change the reality in time. Maybe God is just testing your faith and see if you really believe in His word.

I don’t think I can put it better than Paul Cook, the author of porn-free.org, a website that I recommend to Christian who is under bondage of any sin and bad habit.

Believe that you CAN be completely free! Breaking addiction is a healing process and believing that you can be free is an important part.  Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes”  ( Mark 9:23 NKJV). We exercise our faith when we believe in God’s word and confess it with our mouth (Romans 10:10).  It could be as simple as saying to ourselves each day when we get out of bed, “I believe that in Christ I can be and will be free of my struggle.”  Often our natural circumstances may not appear to be lining up with God’s word.  The challenge is to not allow our circumstances (or past failures) to steal our hope.  Faith believes in what is yet unseen (Hebrews 11:1-3).  It releases God’s power in us to perform the impossible and bring the unseen into reality!  Paul Cook

The above quote from Paul Cook doesn’t just apply to breaking addiction, but to everything that God has promised in the Bible.

The Rewards Of Making Spiritual Battle A Habit

¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms …¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Ephesians 6:11,12,18

²⁹“Or again, how can anyone (i.e. you) enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man (i.e. the enemy)? Then he can rob his house. Matthew 12:29

The rewards of constant spiritual victories are freedom, success, peace, more success, and joy. These blessings are ours by default, but for many reasons Satan can come to destroy them. We must stay alert and never get tired or bored with waging frequent spiritual battles on his theftdom.

I can’t emphasis enough how important is to capture every sinful thought at the first second it arises.( 2 Corinthians 10:5) If it takes more than 2-3 second for you to reject the thought before God – and then replace it with godly ones (Philippians 4:8) – you will be much more likely to fall flat into temptation and commit the act.

If it takes you 50 times a day to bind Satan and capture sinful thoughts, then do it 50 times a day! My experience is that the enemies and sinful thoughts can seem overwhelming when you engage in spiritual battles with them, but if you stay focus and do what must be done, the temptations will lose the grips on you, every time! The more you win, the stronger your spiritual muscle will become, and Satan will eventually flee.

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Relevant Articles

• Spiritual Cleansing
• Battle Verses Of The Bible
• Control Thought
• Demons Fill The Sky

See Also

• Spiritual Discipline

Shame has been one nagging problem for me since 1998 when my dad forced me to participate in a ceremony that had to do with idols in Hong Kong.

I remembered how one time he stormed my room and counted with his fingers what he had done for me with his money, such as education, food, shelter, clothing… yet I chose to obey God. Since then, I became obsessed with getting a real job that can support my own living expense so I would no longer have to put up with this stress, and the shame that came from the fact that I, a Christian son, had been relying on my dad’s income from working as a priest of idols.

I was 16-17 years old then.

Long story short, now I am 27 years old, turning 28 in the coming September, yet I have been unemployed for a couple of years now, although I had attained a bachelor degree from a University and had worked a few jobs in the last 10 years. Right now I am jobless and still rely on my dad’s support.

Every day is a rehearsal of the same, but unemployment isn’t a problem that can be fixed overnight. Over the past 10 years I had became more timid after some rejections from jobs interviews, lack of interviews, and falling behind my peers in term of career.

But the last two years I had received a lot of consolations from God. It has been sabbath years for me.

Shame is still a nagging problem, even though I have been trying to avoid thinking about it most of the time. I just want to earn my own bread like the Bible instructs. (2Th 3:8)

Even my Christian brothers and sisters were judgemental about my financial situation. As I was dealing with the defeats and the shames in my memory, their hurtful words came up.

Shame.

My dad no longer pressured me like he did 10 years ago. But everyday I see him worrying about my future, going out to work in a job I know is not pleasing to God, and getting old. It pains me to no end.

No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, … Psalms 25:3

In the past 6 months my dad has almost died in a couple of could-be-fatal accidents. The first one I was there. He barely maneuvered his van to dodge an incoming truck that drove by carelessly in a small road. The second one, his van lost control and turned 420 and crushed to the road barrier on the side of a highway. Had there been a vehicle that were coming near from behind, it could have collided with my dad’s van and killed him.

My fear is that my dad might somehow die before he sees me financially independent and accept Christ as his personal savor.

My worst fears usually turned out to become real. For example, being unemployed and rely on my dad was one major fear, now it totally realized. Another fear was that if I met a dream girl she would find me inadequate. I did meet a girl whom I thought was exactly the dream girl that I imagined, but she despised me. She is a Chinese Canadian, and is fluent in English. I was like a joke to her, and my broken English at the time must have aggravated that.

I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Psalms 34:4

Suicidal thoughts

I know it’s wrong for a Christian to commit suicide. But I have been tempted to think about suicide for many years, to the point where I had been afraid of carrying it out. Not that I was afraid of dying, but I was afraid of being too fearless and impulsive one day I might actually kill myself).

For those of you who had suicidal thoughts, don’t be surprised. You are not alone. The thoughts came from the enemies – Satan and his dark force. See further below where I will explain more about our enemies and the spiritual battles.

So far by God grace I have never compromised. In the past I had brought a life insurance that would paid my family even if the insured (me) committed suicide (effective after 2 years of the 1st premium), but I’d canceled the insurance policy recently. I trust that God will keep me from falling into the suicidal trap.

Was it a generational curse?

As I go through the Freedom Journey Course , it instructs me to confess and pray about the sins that my ancestors have committed. Was it the generational curse that was part of the root causes of the problems that I have been struggling with? Such as financial struggle (Unable to land and hold a decent job), relationship (A few dream girls but never worked out), and mediocracy in general?

Nevertheless, I confessed all the known sins of my ancestors very completely, had to deal with some negative emotions that arose in the process, and probably suffered some demonic resistance during the whole thing.

After confessing my ancestors’ sins, and doing other steps in the Freedom Journey Course, I experienced greater spiritual freedom. The problem with a major addiction seemed to have shrunk so much. The Lord had mercy on me.

Go to Spiritual Cleansing if you want to know more about the warfare I had launched against this addiction, and I will update you on my journal if the freedom last over 30 days.

See? Spiritual battles are brutal. The enemies will attack you, curse you, and try to keep you in bondage. They will tell you to die. They can even use careless bro or sis and attack you through them. Just like what I had been through in the last 10 years.

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering. 1 Peter 5:8-9

Did God lie?

So I have quoted two verses that promised I will not be put to shame, and that he would deliver me from my fears, but according to my real experience, it seemed to tell the opposite. Did God lie to me?

No, I don’t think so.

Let me explain the fear part. My dad hasn’t died yet. And he wasn’t the same oppressive dad that he was 10 years ago. Since I came home he had been taking care of me. I was surprised by the peace at home. God had been blessing my family and gave us more peace, comparing with 10 years ago.

And the girl who despised me wasn’t really my dream girl anyway! How could a true godly girl acted so immaturely and brought so much hurts and tears? (No we didn’t date, we were just bro and sis in a fellowship, but she went very far to let me know that she wasn’t interested. Rejection is fine, but she overdid it too many times) My real fear might actualize if I do marry her, a girl with an issue with pride!  God is reserving the best for me.

As for shame, although I am unemployed, I am called to work on this blogging ministry for God. In the future, it might just turn out to me a glorious job that I will forever be thankful for. Right now it’s still small, but who knows where God will lead this to?

No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him 1 Corinthians 2:9-10

What is spiritual cleansing? To every Christian a spiritual cleansing should be as normal as taking a shower. It’s not mystical. It’s not for the super godly only.

Spiritual cleansing is a combined result of the following non-exclusive list:

• Reading God’s words according to the leading of the Holy Spirit
• Taking time to digest the words one verse at a time, or quickly skim through a whole chapter (whatever work better for you at the time, as long as you can handle it and understand why you do it the way you do. Be patient and wait for the Lord to speak to you through the words)
• Mixing your faith with the words such that you believe it will change you, and that the promises of God will gradually actualize in your life, even though you may not feel anything at the time, or that the scripture is saying the opposite of what you are actually experiencing
• When you see something in the words that convict you, take the time to confess them to God fully and ask Him to heal you completely
• Asking God to heal your memory of sins and past wounds
• Binding Satan and his dark force that are working against you in the spiritual cleansing process with the authority you have in Christ

To give you an example of spiritual cleansing, today I went through one of the chapters in an Online Christian course, Freedom Journey (I will show you the link at the bottom, just listen to me first ). It is a course that help Christian who is struggling with porn and masturbation. I find that the whole course is also useful for all kind of spiritual problems, not just sexual addictions.

For example, if you have a stubbornly prolonged struggle in any area such as finance, relationship, health, unpleasant memory, fear, or other stubborn problems, you can use some serious spiritual cleansing to deal with it. A spiritual cleansing will open door to a long delayed freedom.

I recommend that you go through the Freedom Journey Courses. Since you are reading this article, I would say you probably need a spiritual cleansing!

In life, spiritual wounds and bondage are both common and complex, they are like wounds with infection; you can’t expect the wounds to recover before you disinfect them properly and bandage it up. In fact, if you just let it stays the way it is, it will get worst.

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It takes time

Every time I go through similar spiritual exercises such as the ones in the Freedom Journey courses, I would find the process exhausting. Sometime, after an hour or two of spiritual cleansing I would fall into a heavy nap for hours.

And you shouldn’t expect it to be a quick fix, so don’t try to rush through it. It takes time to listen to God and internalize His messages.

Through active listening and interactive conversation with God (Although sample prayers can help, there is no secret password or spell that will guarantee God’s answer, so just be real and sincere), healing and cleansing will take place.

It is a time consuming process, be prepared to set aside a large chunk of time on your schedule for each session. It is also not a one time fix, although it’s possible to experience complete freedom the first time. You should be ready to invest time on multiple sessions to get complete recovery.

Expect negative emotion, stress, and Chaos

The cleansing process will reveal, and even stir up, hurtful memory, memory of sins, anger, bitterness, and/or a plethora of other negative emotions. You may also have a hard time understanding and receiving God’s words or pray due to physical, psychological discomfort, or heavy distraction. When one of these symptoms occur, take heart and don’t be afraid. Ask God to protect you and reassure you with His Holy Spirit and His words.

Walk in your own pace

Don’t try to rush things through, even the parts that stir up negative emotions in you. For example, it’s painful to confront a hurtful memory and forgive those who were involved. But if that piece of memory became a stronghold where Satan could use it to attack you and tempt you, you should let God speak to you and heal you until you reach a closure – when the memory will no longer generate bitter or angry feeling.

Some steps will take more time to go through than the other. For example, let say you want to go through Bible verses about healing and try to memorize them so you can quote them and pray through them 24/7, you may find it difficult to focus and keep up with the exercise. Don’t rush. Do it one verse at a time. It’s better than trying to do them all within a short period, because that way you will probably drop the ball.

Warning. Don’t back down or walk away too early!

Although you can take your time and walk in your own pace, and that trying to rush it will only be counter-productive, don’t go too easy on yourself. The spiritual cleansing process is easy to get distracted and it’s easy to forget to go after it if you put it aside for a while.

There’s always urgency and busy trivia in life that fight for your attention. The Bible says:

“And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them”—Matthew 13:7.
“He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful—Matthew 13:22.

Yes, I understand how it feels to set aside a big chunk of time to do this soul searching, healing, and cleansing thing while putting up with challenges in life. But you need to have faith. You need to believe that this is worth it, and that you will bear so much fruits if you persist till the end.

If you don’t really believe it, you will procrastinate; and you will be easily distracted by other things and soon you will give up before seeing results.

Be Relentless!!!!!

In the Old Testament time, Israel had a great prophet, Elisha. He was getting old and became terminally ill. At the time the Israel was being oppressed by the Arameans “severely” (2 King 13:4)

The king of Israel visited the sick bed of Elisha, and cried before the prophet like a baby (2 King 13:14), for there seemed to be no hope left for Israel if even the great prophet Elisha passed away.

The old prophet instructed the king:

¹⁵ Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. ¹⁶ “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.

¹⁷ “Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The LORD’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”

¹⁸ Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. ¹⁹ The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”

²⁰ Elisha died and was buried.

Like the king of Israel, victories are ours if we follow through God’s instruction.

I actually learned of the Freedom Journey Course in 2006, but I didn’t go very far with it because I was intimidated by the negative thoughts and feelings that had occurred during the process. I figured I would do better if I just shifted my focus away from the battles and not to think about my problem with sins at all.

This time that I am trying to work through it again, I sense that I am able to experience a new level of freedom that I haven’t been able to attain in the last 3 years. Although the negativity are still there, this time thank God I am much more courageous and decide to see what happen if I stick it out.

When Do You Expect to See Results

God’ words is true no matter what our circumstances show us. At first, your experience might seem unchanged, or even frustrating. Don’t get whiny. Continue to speak God’s words and trust in His promises!

This is an excellent quote I copied from the author of the Freedom Journey, Paul Cook, in Chapter 1:

We exercise our faith when we believe in God’s word and confess it with our mouth (Romans 10:10).  It could be as simple as saying to ourselves each day when we get out of bed, “I believe that in Christ I can be and will be free of my struggle.”  Often our natural circumstances may not appear to be lining up with God’s word.  The challenge is to not allow our circumstances (or past failures) to steal our hope.  Faith believes in what is yet unseen (Hebrews 11:1-3).  It releases God’s power in us to perform the impossible and bring the unseen into reality!

Most of the time, my walk with God is one that is about the spirit, rather than the senses. I have never seen, heard, or touched God. I haven’t sensed any warmy fuzzies feeling in my walk with God for a long time, and it rarely happens.

Somehow it is above the physical or psychological senses, but the Spirit has gently strengthen me and encouraged me through the years. I have become more and more like a fire ball for God inside.

Similarly, it is how things typically go during a spiritual cleansing process, or any other spiritual disciplines. You don’t have to feel disappointed if you can’t sense a change or anything special at the time.

A change is usually realized after a while. It is when you have distanced yourself from the cleansing experience that you will be able to have a clear view of what happened.

Although I am not a fan for special feelings during a spiritual encounter with God, I do believe we encounter God much more frequently than we can realize and He is speaking to us most of the time.

But I Have Daily Quiet Time With God!

Do our daily quiet times bring spiritual cleansing as well? Certainly!

I have seldom skipped my daily quiet time with God and my Bible in the past 3 years. Those were sweet hours with God. And God has spoken to me often everyday. All I have to do to listen is to listen.

But why do I need to set aside large chunks of time for other spiritual disciplines such as going through the Freedom Journey Course, working through other Christian devotional or books, taking time for retreats, doing fast, and participating in fellowship with other Christians?

Suppose we compare God to an endless stream of river, and we are containers. The river always flow, but we as the containers need maintenance, cleaning, or major repairs from time to time in order to maintain our capacities to draw water from the river.

It’s difficult to spend time alone with God all the time. The first hour might be sweet, but the remaining day can become long and tiring if you continue to do it alone.

In the past 3 years I have been home a lot, at the beginning I was very much eager to study the Bible, memorize it all, and meditate on it day and night. But soon worldliness and heavy distraction crept in. Doing quiet time with God for about an hour per day has become my limit, averagely speaking. (Anyone can be totally excited for a while. I myself had done a 40 days fast together with a friend before. You can pray for 7 hours a day for a few days, but soon that will wane)

You need other Christians’ help. For example, read their devotional online, watch TV church, join a support group or Bible study group, or even read a Christian bestseller book. (Of course you should be a regular member of a godly Church too. )

Finally, Rejoice!

You should always end the spiritual cleansing sessions with joy and thanksgiving. I will tell you why:

The Israel and Judah in the Old Testament time had sinned too much and the Lord punished them by delivering them to their enemies. The Israel and Judah were conquered and enslaved by invaders respectively.

When the Jews came under the rule of the Persian Empire, a Jew named Nehemiah was an attendant before the Persian Emperor. The king showed him favor and allowed him to rebuilt the Jerusalem. Long story short, the city was rebuilt and they had some sort of a ceremony accompanied by having the ministers to read the law of Moses to the people in the city.

The Jews, upon hearing the law, wept. For they now knew why their nation was destroyed – their ancestors had sinned and ran away from the Lord.

The spiritual leaders there comforted the people, and admonished them to stop grieving:

This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.¹⁰Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our LORD: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Nehemiah 8: 9-10

Joy from the Lord is our strength. Without joy it is very easy to fall into sin and all sort of addictions again.

Grieve is normal during genuine confession and confrontation of sins before the Lord. But the Bible say, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Godly sorrow will quickly turn into joy and celebration (See the Bible story of the Prodigal Son in luke 15), but beware that you don’t get stuck with regrets. Satan will try to use excessive guilt, sorrow, and regrets to keep you under his yoke.

And finally, this is the link to the Freedom Journey Course that I recommend to you, click here. You can also visit the entire site at www.porn-free.org

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A depressing day is a day goes wasted. Just one depressive thought can sap you of strength and motivation for an entire day.

Most of the time, regret is a product of creative thinking and excessive guilt, rather than a godly remorse. As long as we live, we will have setbacks and missed opportunities; and we will make tons of mistakes along the way. If the way you see things are pessimistic- meaning, you only see a glass half-empty instead of half-full- there will be no shortage of reasons for you to regret.

Regrets for the past

¹³… But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, Philippians 3:13

If you look back in life and regret choosing a certain path, or mourn for missed opportunities, just stop thinking that way the moment you catch yourself doing that!

It’s not fair to judge your past self based on the hindsight that you now have.

When you see missed opportunities, it means that you have become more mature, that you have made significant progress in term of insights and competence, and that you are able to achieve much more if you encounter similar situations again.

So the next time you see missed opportunities that you’d failed to see in the past, you should celebrate because it indicates that you have been growing. The more frequent and the sooner you spot missed opportunities that have passed you by, the more it indicates that you are rapidly improving and growing.

A lot of people can’t spot a missed opportunity! This is called unconscious incompetence.

Given abundance time, or the ability to travel back in time, anyone can make things perfect. But in reality, time is limited; it is always in the passing mode; you will lose it whether you use it or not.

The optimal way to live is to balance speed and quality; accept imperfection and just go along and improvise. You will make mistakes, but reality is not going to wait for you to correct every single mistake before you deliver- reality has deadlines!

And don’t spend time mourning for the past, because while you are doing that, opportunities in the present will elude you too, fast!

In my college years, I developed a habit of regrets. I would often mourn for opportunities I missed, and soon developed stress and worries about the future ones as well. Now that I am more wise, I look back and see that while I had intensive worries and stresses, I often failed to see opportunities that were abundance.

For example, I wasn’t good at finding a job in the co-op program (A program that students find a full-time four month job after every four months of study), and I had to quit it. Although I quitted co-op, I still had plenty of time in school that I can start a part-time business- i.e. create my own job- such as blogging! I didn’t need to feel bad about my situation.

Remember, there are always opportunities lying around, you just have to train your eyes to see them.

Regrets for sins

¹⁰Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 2 Corinthians 7:10

If you’re struggling with certain sins in your life, but are otherwise a solid Christian, then you don’t need to regret.

How do you define solid? As long as you sincerely repent every time you sin, rely on God and walk with Him every day and hour, and is seeking knowledge of Him and doing what you know is the right thing to do (Deu 29:29), you’re solid.

If you keep up this way, in time you will grow out of the sins that you are struggling with, so don’t make things worst by regretting.

Regret is rehearsal. By regretting sin, you’re rehearsing it in your mind, reinforcing the memory. What you think will become what you are; You will get stuck with the sin you regret.

The Bible makes it clear that no one is exempt from sin, but if you confess your sin, you will receive forgiveness (1 John 1:8-9). True repentance leaves no regret! This is God’s promise.

Repent! Regret isn’t repentance. Regret only brings negative emotions and thoughts, but don’t confuse it with genuine repentance and humility.

What about sins that have major consequences?

Forgiveness doesn’t guarantee pardon. Pardon is a remission of the legal consequences of an offense. You can’t expect people to forget and treat you the same as before. You will have to live with consequences of sin, in some cases consequences could last for life.

Sins also produce natural consequences, such as damaged health, financial loss, broken relationship, and dishonor.

All sins have consequences, we have to accept them as reminder of our weakness and to humble ourselves before the Lord.

And, who knows? God might just heal you and remove the consequences of sin.

Conclusions: How do you get over regrets?

Here is the list:

1. Be successful now: No need for regret or mid-life crisis. You can have success now if you start meditating on God’s word and obey, because God had promised that we will prosper if we obey His commands and think about His words day and night. (Psalm 1:2-3, Deuteronomy 28:13, John 15:4-7)
2. Let God speaks to you: God is the giver of consolations. If you practice spiritual disciplines such as prayer and solitude, in time you will learn how to pay attention to God’s voice, and every time He speaks, He gently reminds and comforts. Although the Lord does rebuke us, He will never do so carelessly like humans do. I tend to have excessive guilt and regrets easily, but instead of forcing myself to be positive, I let God speaks to my heart. Every time I do that, my self-doubts and imaginary guilt will be gone.
   
3. Speed over stall: Most obstacles are psychological rather than real. Regrets breed stalls. You have to realize that it doesn’t take really long to really make real progress in anything, be it skills, academics, careers, relationships, or any other achievements. If the matter you worry about is mainly an issue of competence, please understand that competence can be improved very quickly if you just stop stalling and start taking action.
   
4. Forgive yourselves: If you keep beating yourselves up over past sins and the consequences of sins, you haven’t forgiven yourselves yet. The Lord make it clear that if you don’t others, He will not forgive you (Matthew 18: 21-35). This includes forgiving yourself! If you don’t forgive yourself, the Lord won’t forgive you!
   
5. Repent and Godly Sorrow: Don’t beat yourself up and create worldly sorrow. A Christian is to walk with the Spirit, so he or she should feel guilty only if the Spirit of God rebukes him or her, and bring his or her sins to light. It’s easy to become legalistic and perfectionistic.
6. Write Journals: You don’t know what your thoughts are until you write them down. Memory is unreliable; it is a subjective interpretation of what really happened. And the longer time passed, the more easy it is to twist your memory. To prevent imaginative regret, make journal entry regularly so when you doubt yourself in the future, you can always refer to the journal and check what exactly were going on in the past. This help you sympathize with your past.
7. Acceptance: Almost 90%+ of the outcomes in life have occurred because of your choices and character. In the future you are likely to repeat the way you have done things in the past anyway, so don’t spend your energy to regret the past, but focus on character growth and learning to make wiser choices now. No matter how imperfect you were, this was you. You have to accept yourself, knowing that you have been trying the best, with the resources and experiences that you had at the times.

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