LEAVING BABYLON PG.72
I have found that when it comes to the cleansing of my mind from the ways of Babylon, it is my human goodness and human wisdom that gets in the way of the Holy Spirit more than anything else. I justify my right way of resolving issues over the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, over and over again. I’m like a person clinging to the rocks in path of the River. Once again, I become stagnant because I will not move on with the Spirit of God. The rock I cling to may be fear or pride. I cling to it at the expense of my River journey out of Babylon. But I can choose to release my grip by faith and allow the Spirit to carry me where He wills. I must choose to consult Him about every situation so that I remain on the course of His mighty River. “The old life is gone. A new life has begun!” (2 Cor. 5:17, nlt).
Beloved, God may allow your dreams to be broken, your heart to be broken, and your things to be broken—all to bring you to Him; and in doing this He is being good to you. God is the One and only place of true security and love, and He is passionate about you and will not let anything or anyone stand in the way of bringing you to Himself. Sessions in Pain pg.181
AUTHOR’S COMMENT: So many things can get in the way of our drawing near to Christ. We don’t ask for these things, it just happens in this troubled and complicated world. But Christ is faithful and determined to run through a troop and leap over walls to get to you – this is Love.
“He is faithful who promised” Hebrew 10:23b
Where we were born
Leaving Babylon pg.72 As we are coming to understand the massive change that is taking place in this new life we have in Jesus Christ, we must come to grips with who we were before. We were born in a swamp. We must realize the existence of the former influences that we operated under. If we ignore the truth of what we came out of, we will not recognize it when it tries to creep back into our minds. If we believe we were essentially good people before Jesus came into our lives, we will miss the importance of the mind renewal that we need. We must embrace the Guardian of our hearts and minds and understand our need for His protection. Only He can warn us when the enemy approaches. When you smell the subtle stench of the swamp
What we become in Christ
creeping toward you, allow the River to carry you far away from it.
He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12 NLT).
Beloved, perhaps there is no place in our human experience to suffer without shame but there is a place above and beyond the shame. Jesus made that place possible for us—possible for us even when it was our fault, even when we did commit the sin, even when we deliberately and willfully did what was wrong.
Sessions in Pain pg. 86
AUTHOR’S COMMENTS: The songwriter wrote, “Amazing Grace” will always be my song of praise, for it was grace that bought my liberty. I’ll never know just how He came to love me so. He looked beyond my faults and saw my needs.” Andre Crouch.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8 NKJV).
We have read and heard about many who have died for the faith. The mindset at this level of faith is that of a great warrior for God. The warrior has answered the question, “Am I willing to die for what God has called me to do?” Few reach this level. When we read about the martyrs for Christ, we can only imagine the faith in their hearts; but to experience this faith is something all together different. Sessions in Pain pg. 138
AUTHOR’S COMMENTS: The great apostle wrote, “I die daily” (1 Cor.15:31). To experience the great and awesome faith of a martyr you must begin with the “daily dying”. The dying of your tongue, your attitude, and your behavior must proceed the full laying down of your life for Christ. The faith of a martyr is attainable even as you continue living, but it must begin with the “daily dying”.
LEAVING BABYLON pgs. 67-68
Touching God in the 21st Century? – Modification of Michelangelos “Creation-of Adam” by pravoslavie.ru
Babylon is the master of distractions. Often she will not come to believers with overt sins but with the subtle tease of distractions, anything and everything to interrupt your focus on your destiny in God and your relationship with Christ. She does not want you to pray or study God’s Word—anything but that! She seeks to keep you preoccupied every minute to hold you up from refilling on God’s power brought through prayer and His Word. Babylon will keep you grabbing for the minor things as she robs you of the major thing—your relationship with God.
David prayed:
“With my whole heart have I sought You, inquiring for and of You and yearning for You; Oh, let me not wander or step aside [either in ignorance or willfully] from Your commandments. Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” (Psalms 119:10–11, amp)
Businessman Praying — Image by © Hans Neleman/Corbis
Your only resolve is to make the decision to no longer be Babylon’s comfortable captive, but unplug your ears and hear what the Spirit is saying to the church—to you. You must set your mind to lay down whatever the Spirit directs you to lay down. Do not fear, for your Father is rich and will restore to you, in abundance, what you have sacrificed to Him in obedience. Trust in His freedom. Follow Him to the gates and leave Babylon!
Credit: film “One Night with the King”
Leaving Babylon pgs. 65 Moses chose to leave Egypt and rejected the riches of Pharaoh’s palace. In doing so, he found his destiny in God and led a nation to freedom! Moses could no longer live with the reality of his people’s slavery and not answer the call of God. God is calling you also. There are needs all around you, unmet, unattended to. Are you one who will lead, who will organize, who will build for God? What is your choice? Will you leave Babylon? Queen Esther chose to risk her position as queen to save her people from mass murder. She was faced with the challenge of truth and then made a decision for God to lay down all of the trappings of Babylon and face the king. Her words of courage to obey God reverberate through history, “If I perish, I perish!” (Esther 4:16b, nkjv).
AUTHOR’S COMMENTS: There comes a time when all bets are off and all that matters is building for God. There comes a time when you set your face like flint and say like Queen Esther, If a perish, I perish, I’m going to see the king!
credit: UDAKU Special Blog
credit: KasiLam
Pain that is not addressed can produce a shocking rage in even the gentlest soul. But the good news is that God can handle our rage. Sessions in Pain Pg. 78
Author’s Comments: God can handle our Pain, our Rage, and anything else that inflicts us. He compels us to bring it ALL to Him.
credit: Alvin Daily
He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. He will bring justice to all who have been wronged ( Isaiah 42:3 NLT
Leaving Babylon (pgs. 66-67)
Although drug addiction is an obvious captivity, there are many other trappings of Babylon that are not as apparent— trappings draped in the promise of money and power, trappings with the dangling price tag of compromise of the ways of God and relationship with God. That serpent continues to have the same slithering tongue that he had in the garden of Eden, asking humanity the same question he asked Eve, “Did God really say…?” (Gen. 3:1). .
For this reason, the Scriptures in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 command us to “pray without ceasing.” The comment is often made, “The devil is in the wind.” And he is. The hordes of hell are ever watching and waiting for an opportunity to deceive you and me. Remember what God told Cain: “Sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it” (Gen. 4:7b). God gave you the free will to rule over it.
To him who overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God], I will grant [the privilege] to eat [the fruit] from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God’ (Rev. 2:7 AMP)
The blood of Christ was the ultimate and complete sacrifice for our sins. The veil or barrier between us and God was ripped in two when Christ died, and now we can walk into His presence; but how we walk must still be addressed. He remains Holy even with the torn veil.
Sessions in Pain pg. 105
AUTHOR’S COMMENTS: As we remember and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord let us not forget the privilege it is to walk into His presence. He tore the veil for us to enter in, but He always remains a Holy King. His holiness will never change, so we must change by submitting to Him as we walk into His Presence.
“But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your conduct [be set apart from the world by your godly character and moral courage]; 16 because it is written, “You shall be holy (set apart), for I am holy.” (1Peter 1:15-16 AMP).
