by Patsy Grubb
I walked the beach this morning for the first time in several weeks, and as I did the changes that I noticed really blew me away.
Due to the weather which has been extreme this winter, there was an incredible amount of erosion. Whole banks of vegetation had collapsed and the sand had been blown and swept away to reveal foundations of steps and pathways which have not been evident for years.
I felt the Holy Spirit begin to convict me that this is indeed an illustration of what has happened to some degree in my life, and is at risk of happening to individual lives within the body of Christ.
I sense that the next wave of God to hit the church will expose everything both good and ungodly. It is not this exposure though that I find unnerving. The exposure is necessary and is the grace of God to us because we have an opportunity to set our lives in order before we are exposed, and even afterwards, if we do not let our pride, shame, etc overcome us but rather humble ourselves and submit to the dealings of God, we shall survive and be made to be further along in the process of being conformed to His image.
This same wave will breakdown and wash away any foundations that are not of God, therefore as people of God we need to be 100% sure that, that which we build our beliefs on (the foundations on which we have built our faith, etc), that which grounds us is rock solid and cannot be shaken. Because if our footing is not secure we will be swept away and we will not survive this wave. It is imperative that you have your own personal faith, your own personal foundation, you cannot ride this wave on the back of others. Your leader’s faith will not get you through…. your leaders relationship with God will not be enough to get you over the line!!!!
What do you personally believe? Why do you believe? What do you found those beliefs on? Why is God showing me this now? I believe that God is showing us this in His kindness and His mercy because the things that come to break down our faith and to wash away the foundations and our beliefs and practices are so very subtle. With the beach it is the winds and the tides that come in and out daily, it’s a definite… it will come and it will go and things will be shifted with it. In our lives the things that shift our focus and shift our faith and wear down our beliefs are those things that go unnoticed, and yet on a daily basis slowly erode our relationship with God. Whether it is T.V, internet, family, or work is not important. What is important is that we remain aware and vigilant. These shifts are subtle and may not be noticed by us day by day, but over time will result in a huge erosion of our spiritual lives. As I said, it is some time since I have been to the beach and the sand which has been swept away here will realistically not be dumped back here for probably two years or more, which is a natural phenomenon….. in our lives we don’t have that luxury. Complacency, tiredness, jobs, relationships, and just life in general are the things that will wear down what we think we have stored up in God, and while much of what we do daily is necessary, it is not always of benefit to us.
We need deposits from God daily to ensure that things are not stolen away, the only way we can be built up in God is to pursue His presence, to actively lay hold of God, to spend time in His presence daily, in His Word, in prayer and fasting. We need to be active and diligent in building up those things that have eternal value in His kingdom. Ensure that daily we gird ourselves, we prepare ourselves for battle, we assume the position in order to receive, we give God every opportunity to have access to us to build those things into our lives that He wants to build into us. We need to to take responsibility for ensuring that we spend time in prayer, worship, the Word, and that we actively spend time with the Holy Spirit. We have to actively seek the habitation of God for ourselves as a body as well as individuals because when it comes down to it, in times to come, His presence is the only thing that will hold back the onslaught of the enemy, that will hold back the natural erosion of time.
I used to hear people from the persecuted church say that they felt so sorry for those of us in the western churches, that they pray for us diligently and earnestly because our walk is so difficult and I never really understood that until now. God has shown me that it is often because of a lack of persecution that we get lost in the subtle deceptions that we face. We allow the enemy to steal our time by engaging in time wasting pursuits that are presented to us as good harmless fun. Many traps of the enemy are not blatant, they are very very subtle and it is the subtlety that makes it so very dangerous.
We have been given a window of time and opportunity to partner with God, to repair the breaches in the walls of our lives. We need to do this while we still have God’s grace and mercy upon us to do so. At the moment we have His anointing and enabling and blessing, and we need to use that very wisely. We need to position ourselves, to assume the position to receive, however that looks for us individually…. we need to ensure that we are really plugged into God and that we are in His presence more often than not!!! How else are we going to hear the heartbeat of God and know His will, to hear His warnings if we are not close to Him????? Don’t let your daily life be your undoing, make it work for you. It’s like a diet…. you are what you eat. Well spiritually you are what you ingest as well. What you behold you become. You cannot give out of what you do not have and you can’t live, you cannot be sustained, on anything that is not God given. Only that which is God given has eternal value. It is time for us to repair those breaches in the walls of our lives, and to do this effectively and safely we need to have trusted peers along side us in this process. Just as Nehemiah had those who stood with him as he rebuilt the wall, we also need those who will keep watch as we work. Those who will warn us of the plans of the enemy, those who will watch our backs, those who will bear arms with us.
Place yourself alongside trusted peers who have your best at heart, who will speak the truth to you in love, those who won’t tell you what you want to hear or give you false reports on your progress out of fear of rejection, etc, but will acknowledge our blind spots and lovingly correct us. Ensure you have trusted mature people who you remain accountable to in a very serious manner throughout this process. Remain in right relationship and remain vigilant.
Bless you…
