Christian Living
Being addicted to the presence of God
This word addicted would be better understood if we said a person was addicted to drugs, sexual perversion and the other spiritual entities trying to influence us into coming under their bidding. Since our battle in life deals with us being pulled into the devil’s camp verses living in God’s camp; we must become aware that living in between these two camps and being double minded brings no closure to the fear and worry that we have to daily deal with. God tells us that he has given us free will to make a choice between following the Lord or the devil. However; we must truly understand and identify what our choices are or we will stay ignorant of the devil’s devices and be living out side of God’s favor.
With the amount of people who continually read my web sight; I must assume that they are searching for wisdom higher then their own and trying to find their purpose because they have an insatiable hunger to understand God’s plan for their life. If a person is not experiencing an insatiable hunger for the presence and person of the Holy Ghost who is our Comforter and Wisdom Professor of life; Jesus is not the first love and priority of their life.
The most precious gift God gave mankind was a life when He created a being which was an extension of Him self and made them a living soul and He gave them the awareness that; there is a creator who wants to share His glory and the total sufficiency of His own person so; He could have fellowship with them now and for eternity. Do you have a hunger in you to really understand what kind of love God has for you as His creation and are you experiencing His holding power and total acceptance?
With all the opportunities that God has given me in my life time to stand in the gap for hurting people and words of wisdom because they were weary; I have had to come to the conclusion that; unless they have a passionate hunger to hear and see God in their life; they are people forever learning and never coming to the truth of what life was meant to be with Christ and; their life ends up with a lack of importance causing them to have no spiritual sensibility and all their endeavors become insignificant. Life is a precious and fragile gift and should not be wasted on trivial pursuits.
Only Jesus saves us from an eternity in hell because; He is the way, the truth and the life and there is no other name given to mankind to make heaven their home other than through Him. Now this is the basic evangelistic message. This is our beginning of spiritual life and this is being preached in all born again churches. However; we need to go on to maturity and preach and teach Matt. 6:33 which states. “Them that hunger and thirst after the kingdom God and His righteousness will live in peace and security.” When a person hungers and thirsts after something; they have a great need or strong desire to fill a emptiness in their being that can only be satisfied by Christ Himself. All people on the planet must be permanently connected to the origin of life who is God the Father our maker and spiritual parent which only happens through Christ Jesus.
This connection is a living God who took up residence in each one of His children and every where His children go; He is there. If they live on the wild side; He is there. If they live in the shadow of reality; he is there. If they try to hide in there pain; He is there. This happens because; the Holy Ghost is relentless in trying to make sure that none of God’s children get caught up in the thickets and crevices of life. Does the body of Christ His children truly understand that; Christ stepped out of Heaven and took on to Him self a fleshly body in Jesus and suffered the same afflictions and experienced the insatiable hunger to walk in His Father’s courts with liberty and acceptance. I pray as you are reading this; you can sense the Holy Ghost tugging at your heart.
In Matt. 23:37 Jesus was trying to teach the people to guard their heart where the issues of life are formed and acted on. He was directing His words of wisdom to the people in Jerusalem however; I believe that He today through the Holy Ghost is giving us the same word of wisdom and grace trying to warn us that; unless we recognize our need for Him; we may be lukewarm in our commitment to Him.
He said. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, murdering the prophets and stoning those who I have sent to you. How often have I wanted to gather your children together as a mother hen gathers her brood under her wings and you refused? Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate-abandoned and lacking all money, resources, and possessions necessary for subsistence. For I declare to you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” I asked God who corrects His children because he dearly loves us if; these verses are love words of correction or condemning words. I personally want to willingly submit to God’s correction and I eat every word and take instruction from Him on what I write. Let’s try and meditate and reason out what God was saying here.
In the Old Testament God talked to the people through the Prophets. Today He talks to us through His Son Jesus and His finished work at the cross by the Holy Ghost who lives in us. Let’s be constantly reminded that the Holy Ghost is a very real spiritual guide that you can have a running dialogue with at all times of the day or night and He comes as a friend and supporter that you can get to intimately know.
In the Old Testament they literally killed the prophets God sent to them because He wanted to protect them from the onslaught of the devil. I personally have a hard time believing that a born again Christian would literally kill a person God sends into their life to encourage them to help them to find their destiny in Him. However; in their ignorance they do. They may not physically kill them but in the spiritual world; they cause a disturbance and with draw from their covering of the blood of Christ that was infused in their being the day they entered into God’s kingdom and became His child. The bible describes this as them living like a rogue (a naughty Child).
The Holy Ghost who stands in the gap for Christ Jesus is the prophet that God sent to mature and protect His children. When He is ignored and taken for granted; because He is a gentlemen and not a pushing person; He will stand back and unless invited with open arms; He will grieve over God’s children who are opposing themselves because of past hurts and they have never been grounded as to their righteous position in God’s family. I know that Paul said the poor we will always have with us. However; the spiritual poverty that I see in some of my own family not even talking about my daily encounters with people in all walks of life is a staggering thing to behold and it grieves me. I also hear a familiar theme coming out of people that I talk to in my travels; they are mad at God and they mistrust Him. They have been brain washed to believe that He is like a man who lies. A person who is mad and untrusting of the love God has for them; will never become addicted to His loving present person that he is and they get delivered from this mistaken idea that they live in.
Paul in the New Testament had to stand before King Agrippa as to the crimes he was being accused of in starting insurrection in the city places of the towns as he preached the good news gospel. After an hour long marathon of Paul talking to him to accept Christ with persuasive words through the Holy Ghost the Kings answer was “Paul you would almost persuade me to become a Christian.” The point I am trying to make is; I hope that we are not almost persuaded but that we get so persuaded and hungry that; we jump in hook, line and sinker.
Let me be very logical for a moment. Did you ever think that; there are certain emotions and feelings of necessity that try to drive us to perform like puppets and when we get in touch with our self; we feel violated and it makes us angry because we feel manipulated and betrayed by people and we become insecure because; we have feelings we can not identify with. The world has come up with the twelve step program for drug and alcohol addiction. This is what I consider to be a temporary fix to keep a person controlled through their own efforts and they never know how to rest and be at peace knowing God’s true love. This is man trying to make God into their own image. There is a condition that is required to become addicted to the spirit of God which is stated in many places in the bible and I will use what Isaiah the prophet said because the Holy Ghost is saying the same thing to God’s children to day.
“Wait and listen, every one who is thirsty! Come to the waters: and he who has no money, come, and buy and eat! Yes, come, buy priceless (spiritual) wine and milk with out money simply for surrendering and accepting my blessing. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your earnings for things that do not satisfy? Diligently hear me, and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness with spiritual joy. Incline you ear to me and submit to my divine will and let me revive your soul and I will make a everlasting covenant with you by you experiencing my mercy, good will and compassion that I have for you.”
I ask my self the question; “do I qualify for this promise.” This scripture says we must hunger and thirst; that is the only qualification needed. If we have been born again; we should have tasted and felt how good the Lord is. This taste of our beginning freedom was what Jesus did and nothing we could or can conjure up in our own efforts. This unction by Christ who now lives in us should have been the spring board to allow him to enrich our hunger for Him and become addicted to His presence. This being true; why are there so many in God’s family living as rogues and as poverty stricken people in all areas, spirit, soul and body? This is indeed an answer we must discover; so we can protect our self against the onslaught of the enemy.
I have been totally persuaded from studying the scriptures and by mixing my thoughts with the Holy Ghost’s s thoughts these last forty five years that; man kind is their worst enemy. How well can you define the Holy Ghost in your thinking process? Paul tells us from scripture that; the good news gospel is a mystery that must be hungered after and unless we hunger; we will be like sheep being led to the slaughter. Unless there is an insatiable hunger that we can relate to; we will never know that; we have the privilege of walking in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.
In the first born again church that I attended; it was never explained to me that the day I had the miracle of becoming born again; I received all of God my Father’s character and stepped into heaven right then and there and that; no matter what life dealt me and how many times I may stumble and get weary of life trials; God takes no account and holds it against me because; His mercy and grace never varies or becomes uncaring.
Mankind in his endeavor to be good and be Godly has no power to live at peace with him self or his neighbor. Addicted people cry for help from a inner anointing that causes them to mourn and groan for freedom to throw off life’s cares and fly like an eagle high above the storm clouds of life. Mourning people feel and show sadness because something has been lost or no longer exists and they feel that they are insecure because they have lost their independence.
Unless we understand how God’s spirit wants to set His children free; we think that God puts demands on us and when we believe this; it burdens us down and we feel that; we are not being totally accepted by Him and we labor because of guilt and unresolved issues for years. Having this type of oppressive thinking affects our soul and physical body. This whole concept that Jesus died for was for God’s creation to rest from their labors and welcome God their Father to take care of His children just like we as children were raised by our parents to clothe, feed and hug us when in our endeavor to find purpose in our life; we fall down and get bruised.
The thing that concerns me over the years; I run into far more people who have a family back ground that their relationship with their parents was unloving and dysfunctional. This tells me that the devil has attacked the very core value of the heart of God who wants to be Our Father parent and the devil is relentless in trying to destroy God’s family from its basic roots. If you know anything from history; all nations who have failed to survive were destroyed because they imploded from with in because the family unit over the generations of time was crippled and laid to waste.
When writing at times; I sense urgency in my spirit to proclaim something. It is not my intent to be melodramatic and I am not a doom and gloom teacher however; we are living in perilous times that God predicted through out scripture that would come to pass. These pressures and fears and revolt going on in this country; He is using to shake this generation to awake from a drug induced deception that His kids have been living under for years because our true righteousness position is not being preached with clarity and the good news gospel of Christ Jesus has been watered down to Jesus saves and we now have to work hard at staying saved.
That is because; God’s kids who are searching for their identity have tried to find it in places of worship where; the leaders who have said follow me as I follow Christ are leaders who are blind as to understanding that Christ Jesus must be getting the glory and not them laboring hard to build their towers of Babel year after year. Babel building is nothing but carnal flesh confused noise, especially the noise of loud unintelligible voices all talking at once. The Holy Ghost can not move with freedom in these assemblies because; this spirit in these people is striving by outward performance perfecting causing them to ingest unspiritual interpretations of God’s word and becoming a (god) unto them self. This flogging of God’s sheep must come to an end.
In Eph 4:30 Paul says, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you were sealed unto the day of redemption.” This grieving causes a heavy sorrow in the Holy Ghost because of the abuse that God’s children are suffering. This idea of being sealed by the Holy Ghost means that; when we became born again; we were stamped by a signet of God’s approval that can not be washed off, burnt off or removed in any way. This is the permanency of us forever being God’s child. The Greek interpretation says; we were joined at the midriff where the feelings and sensitive nature of God and our feelings are connected where we get the spiritual cognizant awareness of the heart of God. A person who is addicted to the presence of the Lord will feel the grieving of the Holy Ghost when he sees God’s children being abused. Addictive people have an awareness that they are encircled with the love of God and feel safe and secure when the storms of life come crashing down at times.
The day we became born again; we were (redeemed) bought back by Jesus atoning death and He paid for the sins of humanity with His death on the Cross. Addicted people are deep rooted in this basic and only foundation principle that must be securely in place in their heart and mind. It is them knowing and having this security that keeps them addicted to the presence and person of the Lord.
It is Jesus holding power of love that was engrafted into our being because of us being infused with God the Father’s DNA and by experiencing that holding power of love; it addicts us to Him as we cast our care on Christ Jesus sacrificial act of dying and not by us trying to conjure up in our own efforts any works on our own to stay saved. We as God’s children must guard our heart so that we don’t end up as scattered sheep wandering in our wilderness walk in this dispensation of time and even though we are God’s sheep and children; we can become disconnected from the Shepherd of our life in our own mind and misconceptions.
Psalms 23 tells us (I will paraphrase.) “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leads me beside still waters. This causes me to have my mind, will and emotions restored because; I know what my righteous position in Christ means in my life.”
Saying you love the Lord verses being in love with the Lord are two different things. Addicted people are hungry people who meditate morning, noon and night. They become totally sensitive to what is taking place in the spiritual world. They wait and listen for the Holy Ghost to give them some new revelation of his thoughts and they sense the hand of God on their life to give them a word of wisdom to the people God sends into their life so they can become the catalyst of God’s healing hands in using us to heal people in spirit, soul and body.
This is a living relationship with the God of the universe who wants to be a loving Father to his children and He wants to be personable and involved in all aspects of our life. A person who becomes addicted in experiencing the love of the Lord; can rest from their unresolved issues in their life and cast their total care and burdens on Him because; they have been finely persuaded that; He is faithful and they know that who ever puts their trust in Him will never be disappointed.
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