A Vital Necessity: Chapter 2
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Dearest Michelle,
So wonderful to hear your heart. I love how the Lord is moving in and through you. I am so glad this study is provoking in depth conversations with your husband. I also really believe in what you are sharing about guilt. I am daily learning to live out
Romans 8:1(AMP)
8 Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.
I recognize that the tools of the enemy are guilt, shame and condemnation. So when those feelings show up I know who is at work. I also know that I am no longer under that authority so I don't have to submit to it anymore. I immediately recognize it as a place I can repent and receive God's forgiveness and His restoration. It is kind of like my signal to open my heart up to God. No more guilt for me. Guilt leads to remorse not a humble heart. Repentance does. A humble heart is what God can use. That is what I want.
You truly spoke my heart when you said, "He is going to use us each individually different! He knows what each of us understands, and how we understand it. He knows what each of us needs in our course of learning. He knows what to put in our hearts to share with others. He is so awesome like this! Thank you Jesus for doing all of these wonderful things so that each of us can learn and understand you more. Thank you for teaching us by using your children you have called." I love how God is using each of us. Thank you for being the vessel today. Big hugs to you. :flowerforyou:0 -
So this is the third time I've written on Chapter 2. (A side note, I also wrote on the introduction a couple times before I got it posted) It’s very interesting that since I started reading this book, “The Battlefield of the Mind,” how my life really did become a battlefield. I stopped doing this study because of it. The first time I wrote about this chapter was a few months ago. I spent a couple hours writing and responding, and when I was finishing up, I somehow lost all that I had written. I cried, got mad, felt defeated, and walked away from it. Today, I spent another two hours writing, and as I was writing a prayer at the end, it somehow went to another screen and I lost it again. Yes, I threw another fit! I screamed for my husband to come help me and try to find it, but as I've learned many times on this sight, once it’s gone, it’s gone. I began to sob and right away started to feel that I must not have anything to share anyway. My negativity became overwhelming to me. The defeated, negative, unhealthy thoughts were flooding my head. If God wanted me to share, it wouldn't keep getting deleted. I decided that I was done and I wasn't going to do this study. My husband then said, “Are you serious?! Can’t you see that God had nothing to do with this? The enemy does not want you to share because of power and strength your words give.” I told him that I had spent enough time on it and I was done. I have way too much to do today to take another hour and try to retype anything I just said. He then told me, “If you stop now, you are letting the enemy win. You are believing the lies that your words don’t matter. You need to rise up and show the enemy that you will not be defeated. That you will continue to speak truth and will continue to achieve what God has set in motion. There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God!”
So I say again… interesting. First of all, interesting that for whatever reason my words keep disappearing, but also interesting that I had just written out a page on, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he…” Proverbs 23:7 I was put to the test, and I failed. My mind turned straight to my flesh, my mind became flooded with negative thoughts, my mind did not ask the Spirit what to do. My mind flailed, and I believed every thought that entered it. It took my husband’s words to calm me and point out truth. I then realized how irrational I was being and was able to get control over my thoughts again. So all the things I wrote about earlier were good, but I have lived out an example that I have not mastered this thing called, “The mind of the flesh vs. the mind of the Spirit,” or “As you think, so you are.”
My thoughts are the foundation of what I do in my life. My thoughts have dictated how I live for Christ. Good and bad. My thoughts have challenged me, knocked me down, lifted me up, renewed me, defeated me, had me make good decisions, bad decisions, ripped others apart, loved on others, made me depressed, made me happy… and the list goes on and on. This proves that my thoughts are a witness to how I act and the choices I make. If my mind is filled with negativity, then I do and say negative things. If my mind is filled with God’s Word and His truth, then I say and do God’s will.
My mind is a battlefield, and through my own strength I can do nothing. Only by the Lord and His Holy Spirit can I achieve anything! “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit… says the Lord.” Zechariah 4:6
So, this is and may always be something that I have to work at. It is so simple, and yet for me, so hard. I cannot have a positive life and a negative mind. My life has been in a state of chaos because of years of wrong thinking. This includes my food. How I think about it, how I dwell on it, how I feel deprived if I don’t have it. How is my thinking affecting my food intake? That’s huge! I must not only change how I think about other things, but my way of thinking about food MUST change if I want victory in this area!!! As you think, so you are? Well, I've thought about food for way to long now. Because even though I've lost a lot of weight, my thinking is still working for my flesh and for staying fat.
Lord,
Help me to draw closer to You! Call my name each day Lord to seek You out and to worship You and rely on You for all things, including checking all thoughts that come into my mind. Help me Lord to take every thought captive, that I may produce Your fruits and grow victorious in all I do for YOU. Show me Lord when my flesh starts to take over and show me how to produce thoughts and behaviors that are pleasing to You. Lord, help me with my food!!! Show me when I have thoughts that lead me to turn to food and not turn to You. I plead the blood of Jesus over my mind and also over the women that are doing this study. I pray for your hedge of protection around us and help us all to stay in your Word and learn Your truth.
Thank you Lord for your mercies, your grace, and your love.
In Jesus name, Amen0 -
My thoughts are the foundation of what I do in my life. My thoughts have dictated how I live for Christ. Good and bad. My thoughts have challenged me, knocked me down, lifted me up, renewed me, defeated me, had me make good decisions, bad decisions, ripped others apart, loved on others, made me depressed, made me happy… and the list goes on and on. This proves that my thoughts are a witness to how I act and the choices I make. If my mind is filled with negativity, then I do and say negative things. If my mind is filled with God’s Word and His truth, then I say and do God’s will.
My mind is a battlefield, and through my own strength I can do nothing. Only by the Lord and His Holy Spirit can I achieve anything! “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit… says the Lord.” Zechariah 4:6
So, this is and may always be something that I have to work at. It is so simple, and yet for me, so hard. I cannot have a positive life and a negative mind. My life has been in a state of chaos because of years of wrong thinking. This includes my food. How I think about it, how I dwell on it, how I feel deprived if I don’t have it. How is my thinking affecting my food intake? That’s huge! I must not only change how I think about other things, but my way of thinking about food MUST change if I want victory in this area!!! As you think, so you are? Well, I've thought about food for way to long now. Because even though I've lost a lot of weight, my thinking is still working for my flesh and for staying fat.
Oh My Friend,
Your words are truly powerful! Yes, they need to be heard. I am so proud of you for passing this test. For overcoming the enemy! For enduring in the midst of trial and actually learning. Every step you take, large or small, He is leading you. I love how your heart was open to the leading of the Lord. It just took a few words from your husband and you were right back on track. Your heart is so lovely! I am so sorry that this chapter was such a trial to you but so happy the enemy was defeated!
Truly, it is not by our strength or by our own power but by His Spirit! Isn't it wonderful that He always gives us the strength we need? That includes helping us to know what to think about. I know that as you seek the Lord about how to think, He will guide you how to think about food. This, and many other areas are hard for me also. But God is faithful and teaching me how to think and I am seeing results as I practice what I am learning. I know that God will redeem the time that was stolen from us in wrong thinking. That is what I am believing by faith.
God loves you and wants you to have the victory. He is helping you to receive it and walk in it. Today's experience shows me how amazingly humble your heart is. I love that about you and I love you.
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