| JoyUs Musing Edition #5 |
Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a
future and a hope. (LB)
Other translations of the above verse state God has plans to prosper us and not harm us, or plans for peace not disaster for
us (NJB).
So many people are dealing with calamity, disaster, loss, and troubles. They are experiencing loss and horrible pressures.
There is a constant barrage of bad news being served up in the news about loss in people’s lives. It is everywhere – as is the
belief that it is God’s fault, that He has allowed this to happen to people (read the following Ramble to understand causative
and permissive verbs in the Bible: Does God Cause Sickness?).
God is a good God and He has a good plan for us to live a good life. He does not plan for us to have disaster or calamity in
our lives. In order to walk in that plan, it is vital that we be led by the Spirit of God in every area of our life. Being led by the
Spirit of God, or Spirit-led, is simply being led by the inward witness of the Holy Spirit.
Let me explain what I mean by the "inward witness." If you pray about going in a certain direction in your life and you “feel”
uneasy on the inside of you, there is something inside telling you ”no” or “stop”. You just don’t feel good about going in that
direction. No matter how good the circumstances look, if you don’t have that peace inside, don’t do it.
A go-ahead signal will be peaceful and every step you take in that direction will feel smooth and sweat-less. You won’t be ill-
at-ease on the inside of you. Things around you will be peaceful.
Within this past year, my husband and I had three accountants cost us thousands of dollars through mistakes and lack of
follow-through. Our former tax attorney lied to us and cost us money. That same tax attorney set up corporations that were
mistake-riddled! We hooked up with people who lied to us and did not deliver on promises made, costing us – what else?
Money. All in all, we lost quite a lot of money because of other people.
So you might say, “Wow, you must be very angry at those people. They sure did you dirt. God sure didn’t help you, did
He!?” And – you would be right and wrong. Sure, the people did us dirt. And sure, there was a time we were both so angry
at all the lies and dishonorable work ethic that we couldn’t talk about the situation without becoming VERY angry. But God
had nothing to do with any of this mess we made.
Why can I say that? We are Christians who are Spirit-Led. We either believe we are led by the Spirit of God or we don’t. If
we are led by the Spirit of God, then we have to know that God will never lead us into mistakes and loss. God doesn’t have
any plans that create loss and mistakes. So if there is loss, tension and mistakes, what you are into is not of God.
The Bible states in Proverbs 26 that “the curse causeless shall not come.” In other words, a curse (or calamity, disaster,
loss) can’t come into your life without a reason. It can’t just fall on you without a reason. If there is disaster or loss in your
life, there is a reason behind it somewhere.
My husband and I had to face that we missed something somewhere. We learned early on in our marriage that if something
is going wrong in our life, it is NEVER God. We cannot for one minute believe that God is at fault or that He has let us down,
making us have a mistake that cost us loss. Why? Because He is a good God. Therefore, there is no lack, want, loss,
mistakes, trouble, bad, inability, and fault in Him. No shadow of turning. No shadow.
He cannot lead us astray. So if that is true, then the fault must lie somewhere else. And as much as we would love, love,
love to blame the tax attorney, the accountants and many others who did us dirt, the sad but simple truth is this: if we are
Spirit-Led and God will never lead us wrong, then somewhere, somehow, we missed that quiet inward witness that said, “No,
you are going the wrong way.”
How do we know we missed it? We serve a God Who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or
think, according to the power working in us (Eph. 3:20). What we receive from God should be more than we asked for. A
simple example is when I bought my house: I was very specific what I wanted – laundry room, close to parents, carport.
When I found the house, it had features I didn’t even know I wanted – acreage and fireplace – things I loved.
So by the simple fact that there was disaster and calamity in our life, we should have pulled up and said, “Whoa! We must
have missed it somewhere. Let’s back up and see where.” But no, we kept pushing forward. There was more LOSS. Since
God is NEVER into loss, we missed it. We were going the wrong way. We were not on that right pathway God wanted us on.
And since we were going the wrong way, then we let people into our lives who should never have been there. If we had been
going the right way, we’d never have met these people who caused us loss. They would never have been able to affect our
lives for the simple fact they would never have met us. And, if they were not supposed to have been in our lives, WE CAN’T
BLAME THEM FOR CAUSING US LOSS.
The Bible speaks of a time when God won't forgive. In Mark 11:24, after Jesus described the prayer of faith, He also said:
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you
your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. (Mark 11:25-26)
So it is pretty clear - when you won't forgive other people, God won’t forgive you. This is a dangerous place to be. In order
to stop any continued loss in our life, we were required to forgive every one of those people we wanted to blame. And one
little note - God is our source, not the people or programs who caused us loss. Forgiving puts us back into the place where
God can restore what was lost.
UNFORGIVENESS IS A VERY SERIOUS MATTER. It will interfere with the flow of healing and prosperity into your life. When
you harbor anger toward someone who did you dirt – even if you are “justified” in your anger – i.e., they really did do you dirt
– you cut off ALL blessing of God in your life. No matter what anyone does to you or against you, God requires you to
forgive them.
Period.
So my husband and I had to take accountability. We had to face it – if we believe we are Spirit-led then we cannot blame
God or others when things go wrong in our life. We had to face that we missed God somewhere because it is NEVER GOD’S
FAULT when things go wrong in our life. We had to forgive everyone who did us dirt and put the “blame” squarely where it
belonged. Was it easy? Heck no. Each new thing that came up showing someone "did us dirt" riled me up all over again. I
then had to go back and start over with, "I chose to forgive them and release them from this debt they caused. I don't feel
like it but I make a choice to obey God."
Trust me, I would rather have hired someone to break their kneecaps.
Oh but once we did repent, forgive the people and accept the accountability, God began restoring and fixing the messes we
made. We once again began to hear His voice clearly. We began to learn the points where we got off His pathway for our
life. We began to fix the mistakes we made and we began to prosper. That is the right pathway!
Inspiration Copyright © 2007 Nan C Loyd
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
| BEING SPIRIT LED |
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