And I’m Back…
It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything on here. Today has been quite a life changing day, and I felt as though I needed to document it. What better place than Tumblr?!
For some reason I woke up this morning and felt the need to just seek out wisdom, and that there was something I absolutely needed to hear from a leader in my life. Of course I then spent an hour watching Sports Center… After eating some breakfast I decided to check on my fantasy hockey teams to find out where I was in the standings. I have “Fantasy Hockey” saved as a bookmark in Safari, and right next to it is the link for True North’s website. I decided to check it out, maybe see if there was anything exciting going on, upcoming events, etc. I found myself on the media page, and clicked to begin watching the video that was posted. It was a message that Jesse spoke two Sundays ago on “Matters of Response.” First of all, I needed to hear this, and that was pretty obvious when I realized that the video was from two Sundays ago. Typically, every message that is recorded is posted that Sunday night, and viewable the next day, and is the ONLY message viewable from True North’s website. Call it a coincidence if you want, but I believe God wanted me to hear and see that message.
The first few times I clicked it it wouldn’t load, but I remained persistent because for some reason I couldn’t not be persistent. The video finally starting playing, and I watched for 40 minutes as Jesse preached out of Luke 5, in which Jesus is teaching on prayer. After watching the video I obviously felt great, and knew there were some issues at hand I needed to work on, mostly heart issues. Probably the greatest thing I received from the message was the sometimes, God doesn’t change our circumstance AROUND us because He wants to change something IN us. Namely, our heart.
After the video I decided to get into the Word a little bit, and before getting my Bible and opening it up I prayed, and asked God to just reveal things to me and set on my heart what to change through reading. So I went, got my Bible, and opened it up to Ephesians. I don’t know why I opened it up to Ephesians, but I did. Probably because the Pauline Epistles are my favorites right next to James, and if I need encouragement that’s where I typically go. I started reading and it just didn’t feel right, so I started studying where Jesse was reading in his message. It’s found in Luke 5, and I just kept reading it, and referencing the same story in the other Gospels, and it was great. I then read on in Luke, starting at verse 14.
In this story Jesus is driving a demon out of a man. The demon is mute, therefore making the man mute, and in Matthew the man is also said to be blind. Upon driving out the demon the man gains both his sight and hearing back. With this people were amazed, but some had thoughts otherwise. They began to think he was possessed by Beelzebub and that was why he was driving out demons. Jesus then gives a powerful teaching on a kingdom divided against itself and how it cannot stand; makes sense, good teaching. It was the next half of Jesus’ teaching that really impacted me. Verse 21 says “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils.” Verse 23 then goes on to say “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.” Verse 24 “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. THen it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in a live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” A woman then responds to Jesus’ teaching and praises Jesus’ mother, to which Jesus responds in verse 28 “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
Now, on the surface there is good stuff here, but being a Bible College student I knew I needed to dig a little bit deeper to find out what God wanted to tell me in this story. I couldn’t get off of it, and knew there was something there, a breakthrough waiting to happen.
So first I started reading the story over and over again, getting in my head exactly what was going on. Being able to read a verse with prior knowledge of what is going to follow that verse is a great tool. It was verses 21-23 that were troubling me, and I just couldn’t find out what exactly the point of it was. I began reading in the Message Bible to try and see it more clearly, and bam, it hit me. The Message translation says “When a strong man, armed to the teeth, stands guard in his front yard, his property is safe and sound. But what if a stronger man comes along with superior weapons? Then he’s beaten at his own game, the arsenal that gave him such confidence hauled off, and his precious possessions plundered. This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy, if you’re not helping, you’re making things worse.”
Upon reading this I knew what was going on so much more clearly. It relates to being overtaken by a greater power, and what you’re guarding your heart with. I realized this because of the verses the follow, which talk about an evil spirit leaving, coming back by itself to find that you’re now clean, leaving again, and coming back seven-fold to overtake you again. I realized that there are things in life God will heal us of, deliver us from, but if we only then clean ourselves up, and protect ourselves with earthly things, we can still be overtaken. Jesus’ response to the woman at the end can be taken for simply what it is, but I know it applies to the entire story. Jesus is basically saying “You will be blessed if you apply the word of God to your life.” When I look at this, I see the word of God as the most powerful thing on this earth. There is no evil spirit, or anything that can overtake you if you are guarding your heart with the word of God. Things will attack me, but it’s my armor that determines whether or not it can overtake me. And when I let God refine me of the impurities in my heart, when the fire of the Holy Spirit overtakes me and purifies me, those things that left will come back, and they will come back seven-fold, sometimes more.
Jesus says, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” To me this entire teaching is basically telling us to be on Jesus’ side, because if we’re not we’re only making things worse, and that we need to obey the word of God so that when things, which are powerful, try to overtake us we are guarded without worry.
