Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close.                —Psalms 27:10 (nlt)

Leaving Babylon pg. 125                                                                                                 
Engaged to the spirit of competition is her undercover sister, insecurity. Let us park here for a moment and expose this one. This offspring of Babylon hides very well. She thrives behind the walls of denial that we erect every day as we interact with each other. She is usually the foundation of strife in many human relationships. She opens the door to stifling and paralyzing fear, keeping us from reaching for our destinies and causing us to thwart anyone else who would dare reach for theirs. When all is said and done, these watchmen of Babylon keep us in a state where it is almost impossible to have good and healthy relationships with anyone.

Every day we see the headlines reporting the horrible crimes and terroristic acts we commit against each other. We hate and destroy each other, often for causes that rarely make sense to the ones who have been injured or hurt. Men and women are continuously afraid of things that have been whispered into their imaginations. We act on the dictates of ghosts. Afraid to trust, afraid to love, we hide from each other, displaying a facade of who we wish we were.

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The interesting thing about experiencing shame is that it somehow liberates you to a new place; you no longer feel the need to ‘put on airs’ after you have been exposed. There is no longer a need to pretend or ‘keep up with the Jones’ because everyone knows your truth.

Sessions in Pain Pg. 85

As difficult as it may seem, being exposed is a great relief. Keeping secrets and hiding sin is hard work. Jesus taught us the awesome Word that the “truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Be free, beloved…

Be free!

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Leaving Babylon: pgs. 45-47.

We grew up in Babylon, and her teachings pervaded every aspect of our existence. She taught us how to relate to our parents, husbands, sisters, brothers, children, friends, and coworkers. She redefined our families. Her rules reigned in the workplace. Babylon always taught us the easiest way to have relationships — the paths of least resistance, which was the most pleasurable to our flesh. She instructed us in selfishness and greed. She coached us in deceit. We saw how easily it came to our children. They learned to lie as early as they learned to speak. Many of us can recall asking a child as young as three years old if they took some candy or other desirable item that was pleasurable to them, only to have them respond with, “no,” as we see the sticky residue of the candy on their face and hands. As early as possible, our lying mother prompted us into the darkness, for she hates the light of truth.

This lying mother instructed us how to prosper and to love money and power over people. She taught us that worldly success is the most important thing, and anything and anyone are expendable in obtaining it. She taught us that God will not help us. Therefore, we must help ourselves. Lies are the foundation of her curriculum.

The sweet milk from the breast of Babylon is more addictive than any drug or habit that we could ever indulge in on earth. In fact, these things are only by-products of her milk. The greatest power of her breasts is twofold for humanity.

First, is the power of her camouflage. Her breasts appear beautiful, and her milk tastes sweet. She must hide her true self from us, because as long as we live on the earth, we have free will to choose her or God. She knows this. Therefore, she must keep us deceived until we die, and then her master can claim us for eternity.

The second is the power brought to her because of mankind’s vulnerability when we were separated from God. Without God, we are totally exposed and helpless before her evil. We were born into sin and helpless to fight it. We are like babies born on crack cocaine—craving the poison that kills us. The only tools we have to work with came because of God’s mercy. It is our free will and the measure of faith, He has given to all human beings, to believe the truth and be saved.

The choice is yours. It will take that measure of faith to release the breasts of Babylon and reach for the one true and living God who sacrificed His Son to save humanity. It is only through the light of God’s Word that we can discover her lies before it is too late.

Will you trust Him? He awaits your decision.

Picture: Mother Gothel goes evil – Disney’s Tangled.

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Pain is spiritually therapeutic in that it quiets and humbles our flesh. Sometimes, true humility comes when we have no arguments left to defend ourselves against the “Eliphazes”—when only God alone can redeem us. Humility before God is a good thing, but self pity and listening to the voice of despair is not.

Sessions in Pain pg. 129  Humility Therapy

Author’s Comments:

Eliphaz was the “friend” of Job who repeatedly accused him of sin as the reason for his suffering. I believe that God deliberately brings us to the place of emotional exhaustion through the Eliphazes or situations in life – it is a place where we surrender our human fight and take up the Sword in our spiritual fight. We finally bow our heads to the Rescuer of our souls…

And rise up in power!

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Leaving Babylon pgs. 36-39

That day in Eden, our hope changed. Hope is our feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Hope is our grounds for believing that something good may happen. Hope is our feeling of trust. This comforting and reassuring ingredient of the human heart was forever altered that day in Eden. It was the day we were introduced to doubt, unbelief, and despair.

Hope is what we owned in Eden. It was created within our essence as children of God. With that hope came a perfect peace in our souls and spirits as we were united with our Father God. The hope that we had in God left no room for worry, for we totally trusted that He would be there for us.

Before sin we were blessed by God and given a fruitful and abundant plan for our lives. In addition, we had God’s complete approval. We had the protection, support, assurance, and love of the Creator of the universe. We lived in complete peace and joy and had great hopes for the days ahead. We had no fears about tomorrow, for God was with us. He was our hope, He blessed us and saw us as good, according to Genesis 1:28 and 31.

After our sin, our hope and peace was arrested and replaced with all types of fears and stresses about the days ahead. We began to live each day with overwhelming insecurity—afraid of everything and everyone under the sun. We became consumed with the thought of losing what we had gained the day before. This led to arguments and fighting with our fellow man about the essentials we needed for life. Before our sin, there was always enough, for God saw to it. But after our sin, the fear of starvation, homelessness, and mistreatment were ever with us. Our hope was based on our own strength instead of God’s (Gen. 3:17–19, 23–24).

Through thousands of years of struggles, we have learned that living is about more than having comforts to our flesh for the day or having the “knowledge of good and evil.” It is about hope for tomorrow—a secure hope that cannot be stolen, destroyed, or lost to despair. We have learned the value of living in peace—the peace that we lost in the garden when we gave away our hope.

We had relinquished our hope to an evil taskmaster— someone who hated us as much as he hated our Creator. This is the definition of true hopelessness, to exist in the hands of evil with no way to rescue yourself or for anyone to rescue you. There was no one in the entire human race who could stand up to the evil we chose in the garden. We were utterly hopeless until God sent Jesus Christ! Jesus restored our grounds for believing! Jesus restored our Hope!

Because of Jesus, we can now hope in the glory of God. Our fears and insecurities can be arrested as we turn our lives over to Him. Jesus replaced our hopelessness with His glory! He makes our lives symbols of praise, worship, and thanksgiving to God. In His glory, we can enjoy magnificence and great beauty, as He restores to each of us the distinctiveness for which we were created. Hope lives in God.

We do not have to exist and die unfulfilled and blending in with the common sorrows of human living. He calls us out of Babylon to our hope and destiny. He takes the broken pieces of our lives and makes them into icons of His glory on the earth.

Our lives are like a beautiful vase originally designed to hold the glory of God. But then we were smashed to pieces by the hands of cruelty—our glory and hope lost to us. Then came the Potter, the Creator of the vase, offering to restore that which was broken and filling us again with His glory.

Some dear friends of mine capture the essence of the lost and restored hope and glory of humanity in the artwork and poem below. The drawing is the work of the artist Kay Singleton, and the poem is by her mother-in-law, Gaylee Singleton.

The Blue Vase

A beautiful Blue Vase, treasured and loved made to adorn the Master’s house.  A beautiful Blue Vase, stolen and cast to the ground by a stranger’s cruel hands       Broken, shattered in so many pieces. The beauty of the Vase as it was before. No hand of man could ever restore        

A beautiful Life treasured and loved. Made to adorn the Father’s house. A beautiful Life stolen, bruised and abused by this life’s cruel hands. No hand of man can heal this wounded heart, Can mend the broken life and make the vessel whole again.

 But God is not a man. He alone can do what no other power can! He alone can bind up wounds, can heal, restore a broken vessel, shattered life or wounded heart.

He can find each piece, gently bind it in place, and make it more beautiful than ever before. Till once again a vessel pure, treasured and adored.

A multifaceted work of art, sparkling all around. A vessel filled with light and love will now adorn the Father’s house. A vessel f it to show the World

The handiwork of God!

(Gaylee Singleton, “The Beautiful Blue Vase”)

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From this point, we must believe that Christ has carried our grief and borne our sorrows. When a new painful situation arises, release it to Him. Listen for His voice; let Him bear your burden. Believe in His words: “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Your faith will grow as you walk with God, moment by moment, day by day.

Sessions in Pain, pg. 33

It is so important that we understand that we do not know the full purposes of God. He asks that we trust Him when we do not understand what is happening or why. We are called according to His purpose – to  “hold the line” in the battles of this life. This means you do not abandon your post in the heat of the battle; but press in harder toward the victory in prayer and in your actions.

Having done all to stand. Stand…

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Leaving Babylon pgs. 94-96

Our identity shows when we are abiding in Christ. In John 15, Jesus laid out for us the reasons why we are to abide in Him. We have already mentioned that we abide for God’s protection, but there are even deeper reasons for us to abide in Him.

In John 15, Jesus taught these deeper reasons for abiding, this continuing, this remaining, and this enduring in Christ. Abiding brings prosperity in your spirit, soul, and in every realm of your life. Abiding brings progress in the great purposes of God for your life. Abiding makes you a part of the great commission of God to save the world. Abiding brings the love of God into your life in such a way that you experience Him in every aspect of your being! His presence is clear and overwhelms you, and the truth of Christ’s words resounds through your spirit that “without Him you can do nothing.” You can do nothing of value, nothing worthwhile, nothing lasting. Only in abiding can you be truly His and reach your destiny to leave Babylon. In abiding in Christ your life, finally, has meaning!

The enemy of your soul will throw everything at you to keep you from abiding in Christ. Satan knows that your power lies in your abiding. He will taunt you to retaliate against others or respond to others who have harmed you in Babylon, but you must continually choose to abide in Christ. Outside of your abiding in Him, you will wither and be impotent. You will go through the motions but never produce anything lasting and relevant. You will spin your wheels in Babylon as your life waste away.

In defining the word abiding, there are key components to this crucial state of being in Christ.

Abiding means “to accept or act in accordance with (a rule, decision, or recommendation), comply with, obey, observe, follow, keep to, hold to, conform to, adhere to, stick to, stand by, act in accordance with, uphold, heed, accept, go along with, acknowledge, respect, defer to” (Apple Dictionary, 2009).

This defines your identity in Christ.

As you abide, you become like an adhesive to your Lord. You stay with Him when you are shaken, bumped, and rained on in this life. He is the one leading the way out of Babylon, and if you decide to go your own way, you will never find your way out. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” ( John 14:6, nkjv). Even after you accept Christ, there is still a continued coming to the Father, closer and closer to Him as you abide in Christ.

In the current political climate of our world, where biblical principles are being ignored and new legislation is becoming the law of the land, we must abide in Christ more than ever. We must be careful not to respond in our emotions but respond in the Holy Spirit. If we are to abide in Him in this day, we must concede to prayer and the principles of His Word. This conceding will take a surrender of your time and effort.

The Scriptures teach us, “When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him” (Isa. 59:19b, nkjv). We must understand that the Spirit of the Lord lives within His people. “My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth.” (Isa. 59:21b, nkjv).

However, the question is, how can the standard of the Spirit of God be lifted up in our nation if we will not abide in His Spirit? If we revert back to our own way and devices of fighting, if we revert back to what we learned in Babylon every time we are challenged with sin, how can we abide in His Spirit? Instead of lifting up the standard of God through His Spirit, we repress His Spirit and operate in our emotions. We reject the true weapons of our warfare. We cast off the armor of God. We fail to pray and attempt to save the world through human means. We have good intentions, but we are powerless against the spiritual forces of wickedness.

Continue reading in“Leaving Babylon, Unmasking the Great Prostitute”. Available at www.faithfights.com, tatepublishing.com/bookstore, Amazon.com

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Vengeance can manifest itself in many ways: through acts, words, or attitudes of un-forgiveness. Vengeance will keep a wound open and infected. Be careful, because the enemy of your soul will try and have you use your wounds to control the one who has hurt you, to keep you and them from healing.

Sessions in Pain, pg. 222 Vengeance Mine!

Author’s comments:                                                                                                        We  tend to embrace vengeance with a ravenous appetite; as though we are due this meal of anger wrapped in hatred, wrapped in judgement. But this meal will eventually sour in your stomach and cause you great pain. It is a  lie that vengeance will heal your hurting heart. Rather, it is forgiveness within the love of God that will bring your heart to its healing.

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