Faith Fights

David had to repent for his adultery with Bathsheba and for the murder of her husband in order to begin the healing of his soul and spirit. Certain things must be dug out and acknowledged, forgiven and released before we can go forward into healthy relationships with others and with God.

Session in Pain, pg. 217 Exposed Heart

The enemy of your soul will try to keep you trapped in shame, hiding your sins as it eats away at you. I encourage you to trust Christ with your soiled heart. He invested His life so that your heart could be healed. David trusted God enough to exposed his heart to God and repent knowing that whatever came God would be there with him.

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Leaving Babylon, pgs. 130 -131, Lost Beauty

Before sin, Eve knew perfect love that originated not from Adam but from God. God loved Eve perfectly, both directly and through Adam. Eve could love completely and unrestrained. Her heart was safe from the torment of the fear of rejection and betrayal. Eve lived and loved in God’s peace and joy.

God made Eve beautiful both inside and out. She displayed her beauty in all that she touched. Her very presence was beauty until the serpent, the thief and liar, stole away her  gifts.

Until this day, Eve tries to regain her beauty. She adorns herself with fabrics, jewelry, and makeup to try to recover her preserved essence, which is left by the mercy of God to tell her she is His handiwork of beauty. You can walk into any home, office, garden, or any other environment and tell if Eve has been there. You can look at a child and tell if the beautiful love of Eve has nurtured him or her. Many times in a crowd, we stop and pause at the beauty of Eve seen in a painting, a decorated room, or in a mother and child. The beauty of Eve comforts us and gives us hope that the world is worth saving.Until this day, the serpent plagues Eve with the lie that she is ugly and will never be good enough or pretty enough. The evil one pushes her into constant competitions of beauty with her sisters to keep her from loving them. Eve’s relationships with her sisters are often tumultuous. Eve fights with Eve. She knows her sisters, for they have the same heart. The serpent revels in Eve’s insecurity and continuous hatred of herself.

We have learned to be civil to each other through human maturity. Praise God, many of us have found true relief in Jesus Christ. We are learning to see and expose the serpent that plagues us with lies. He lies to Eve to push her into jealousy and shame. The source of jealousy and shame is the same. They are fear and insecurity brought through lies.

The jealous Eve lashes out with berating comments and wicked acts toward her sisters and others. She doesn’t see goodness in anything. She is in constant criticism mode as the serpent has told her that this is the way to be the best—the most beautiful. She lives like the evil queen in the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, constantly seeking to destroy that which she sees as more beautiful than herself. The serpent has convinced her that by destroying “Snow White,” she will be the fairest in the land!

The shameful Eve hides herself and is ever afraid of displaying her gifts, talents, and beauty to the world. She lives fearful of showing her face, for the serpent has told her that she is ugly and unacceptable. I have often seen teenaged girls and young women who refuse to take care of themselves and adorn themselves. They fix their hair so that it is always in their faces so no one can see them. They wear drab and baggy clothing, slump when they walk, and sometimes overeat to hide their beautiful curves from the world. They live to send a message to everyone that says, “I know that I am ugly.”

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You do not want to face God one day holding only the one talent that you buried under your wound. God is always available to give us strength to overcome our wounds.

Sessions in Pain, pg. 122 Buried Alive

How many of us have buried our living, breathing, and vibrant talents under a wound? They were alive in us, but we took them and buried them under our pain, disappointments, and self-pity. Through all circumstances God will give us all that we need to rise up through anything and display our talents…

and live!

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 Leaving Babylon pgs. 126-127

We live in a perpetual state of shame. We hide, fearing blame. We lie, fearing blame. We strive to be perfect before each other. Many of us live in a perpetual state of insecurity. We are afraid that the truth of ourselves will be revealed to others, the truth that we are flawed, that we are ugly, and that we are weak.

Rene Magritte was a surrealist artist, who lived in Belgium from 1898 to 1967. Rene’s mother committed suicide when he was only thirteen years old. The story goes that she had attempted suicide many times before to the point where her husband had to lock her in her bedroom. One day she got out and drowned herself in the River Sambre. It is reported that when her body was found, her dress covered her face. Later in his life, Rene painted several paintings, depicting the covered faces (The Lovers, 1928, by Rene Magritte). One must wonder about the powerful message he was trying to communicate in his paintings about hiding. Many contemporary artists have recreated the theme of his Lovers paintings with its honest message. The photo above is a contemporary recreation of The Lovers, although physically intimate, who are hiding from each other, perhaps, on emotional and/or spiritual levels. Is this what this artist saw in his mother? A woman hiding and full of pain but unable to take off her mask and expose herself and release her sorrows.

Rene Magritte clearly depicts what most of our relationships in Babylon have been reduced to. We live in the shadow of the pretense of intimacy, constantly, fearful of exposing our true selves because of humanity’s history of betrayal.

Although we often use the term lovers, true love can only spawn in the pool of total exposure. True intimacy requires that we reveal the deepest levels of who we really are. I see who and what you are, and I love you. You see who and what I am, and you love me.

This is why the love of God is so profound to us. The concept of His love eludes us because we cannot understand it or explain it in the shadow of Babylon. Why would a perfect omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Being love us? He sees all that we are, all that we have failed to be, all we have done, and yet He loves us. We began hiding in the garden after we sinned and have never stopped. Adam and Eve began as naked and unashamed before God; then sin opened their eyes, and they began to hide. Then entered into their lives the companion to hiding: blame. They began to blame each other. Blame led to more hiding and distrust. As with many couples, their love became suspicious and conditional.

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Our Lord Jesus Christ was our ultimate example of such humility and love. He was despised, rejected and tortured, partly due to the jealousy that lived in the hearts of the religious leaders. He had the greatest power in the universe at His command, but yet, He humbled Himself unto death by crucifixion. He was true to the only agenda that mattered—the agenda of God.

Sessions in Pain pg. 114    True Agenda

 In the end, all that will matter is how did you participate in carrying out the…

Agenda of God.

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Leaving Babylon pgs. 117-118

But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus.

—Acts 20:24 (nkjv)

 The games are on, and the competition is fierce! My opponents? Sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, coworkers, and any other person who would get in the way of my reaching my goal. When they make progress in their lives, they are scoring points. I feel in someway that their gain is my loss. I automatically feel hurt within me when I see or hear of their success. Then I slip, insidiously, into competitive mode as I seek to strike back and score points for myself.

I dribble the ball down the court, dodging my opponents with hurting comments and covert planning. I move closer to my goal with a jab here and there, always moving closer to that score of retaliation. To bring them down a notch, as it were. Yes, I score! I get the promotion, accolades, and attention. But wait, my brother sees it and seeks to score his points of retaliation in return, and the games of Babylon   continue.

The sad truth is that you and I are not players at all. We are only pawns (playing pieces) in this game. Babylon is the one in control.

It is important that a chapter of this book be committed to one of the strongest motivators of our lives in Babylon: the concept of competition, that treacherous spirit that has brought tremendous strife and heartache into the relationships of human beings. It has destroyed more marriages, friendships, coworker relationships, businesses, and organizations than can be counted. Divorce, alienation, and murder are the answers for some to end this game.

Once again, we see competition as something we’ve learned from our rearing in Babylon. To compete with each other was never the plan for us by our heavenly Father. As I write this, I can hear in my mind all of the moans and groans of the sports fans, trophy collectors, and corporate-ladder climbers. But if you will just hear me out on this point, I believe you will find the concept of living without competing with others refreshing, and even a relief.

I am not proclaiming that God does not call on each of us to grow, develop, and use the gifts that He has given us to the best of our abilities, because He does. We have reviewed in previous chapters that it is Babylon who seeks to keep us small, underdeveloped, and immature. I simply submit to you that God’s heart is to see all of us enjoy the gifts He has given to us and to others so that we can be in communion with each other, not in competition with each other. His desire is that we share our gifts with each other to benefit humanity and to build each other up and not to tear down.

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Sessions in Pain. pg. 141. Tuning Into God

Pain humbles us into listening at His feet for instruction. Whether you agree with this or not, I have seen enough humans in pain to know that we become quiet when we hurt. When the body is in agony, often the spirit is most attuned to God.

 The old saying goes, “The lowliest hearts are closest to God” is a true saying. When we hurt we tend to talk to God More. From the harden sinner to the preacher; when our hearts ache there is an inborn beacon that rises within us to tune into our Creator. We need to make sense of the moment…And God is there.

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Leaving Babylon (pgs. 105-107) Work Ethics

Wherever your treasure is,

there your heart and thoughts will also be.

—Matthew 6:21 (nlt)

 “The dog-eat-dog world,”“the daily grind,”“the rat race” are some of the term we have coined to describe our daily work in Babylon. These phrases have been borne out of the human heart oppressed by stressors, fears, greed, and betrayal—the daily watchmen of our workplace. In this chapter, we take a closer look at working and living under the “rules and regs” of Babylon and how she manages the goods and services of the earth and its effects on humanity.

Let us park here for a moment and review what we have learned from Babylon about working and making a living for ourselves. As we take an honest assessment, we see that we have learned to be selfish people who would do almost anything for money, that thing that buys the goods and services of the earth. We have been taught to love it, worship it, and that we can never have enough of it. Giving to the needs of humanity is secondary to our efforts to obtain more and more money for ourselves. The commands of God are silenced in the hubbub of the daily race for more. For most of us, there is no time for the needs of others, for we are too busy building our personal portfolios and empires in Babylon.

Children starve to death every day in Babylon, while her storehouses are full of food. People die of curable diseases, while she has medicines and services. Families lose their homes every day in Babylon due to her greed and extreme usury. The poor and struggling are punished for their poverty and debt with higher interest rates, while the rich are rewarded with more and with lower interest rates, and we work and work. Sunrise, sunset, we work unfulfilled with no sense of purpose except basic survival and the drive for more. This is the way of Babylon. She is a relentless slave master, ever driving humanity for that which will never satisfy.

To add to this poor state of affairs, Babylon’s work ethics blind us to God’s method of true and lasting prosperity. Jesus taught us, “You cannot serve both God and money” (Matt. 6:24b, nlt). He went on to say that we will eventually choose to despise one or the other, either God or money. Those who love money will hate the ways of God.

Jesus also taught us that we prosper by giving. This method goes against the very grain of the fabric of Babylon’s method of greed and hoarding. God calls us to have faith for the provisions of tomorrow. He calls us to give as He commands to the needs of humanity. Babylon calls us to sell our souls (our time, our minds, our will, and our emotions) to the highest bidder. God calls us to love Him and trust Him with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and to serve only Him. Therefore, you must make a choice. Whether you vocalize your choice or not, you have made one as to whom you are serving.

If you are uncertain about what choice you have made, then consider how much you live by faith. You cannot follow God and choose not to walk in faith. These two paths are incompatible. God’s work ethics begin with faith. It begins with the decision to give to Him and to sacrifice the offers from Babylon to His will.

Many of us do not obtain God’s prosperity, because we are too afraid to give what we have to Him—to give in faith and out of our need. We have been taught to take care of ourselves first. Therefore, our faith in God’s provision is often lost within our fear of not having enough. Our faith is lost within the desire of our pride to be recognized or to obtain positions of status and power.

We choose to believe Babylon over God. Therefore, we never see the blessings He has always had for us.

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