Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

     Vacation cancelled! (Refer to previous post)  I never know how I am going to feel about things from day to day, but I am beginning to understand that God speaks to me on the tail end of processing things through my emotions. I believe He is transitioning me from my emotional realm to the realm of the spirit. The post yesterday about me needing a vacation, and then going on to justify it based on what I was feeling emotionally was an example of how I sometimes process things in my mind. The problem is that my (our) emotions are so flighty, and not a stable place to make decisions from.
     Today, on the other side of my emotional slump, I am seeing much more clearly. I am seeing that my desire to go on  a vacation for myself, was just a knee-jerk reaction to relieve myself of the shaking God is doing in me. I wanted to avoid it by focusing on something of "this earth" and then I justified it with Scripture. So, I had deceived myself.
      I had forgotten, though, that God is taking me on a different path. In fact, many years ago, He led me to a writing which describes others who He also has led in this way. (I truly believe He wants this kind of walk for "all who are in Christ Jesus" but each person must be open to "hearing" this for themselves.) It is printed below.

 

Others May; I Cannot



 

If God has called you to be really like Jesus He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. God’s call will put such demands of obedience on you that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians. At times, He will let other people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians who seem very religious will push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans. You cannot, and if you attempt it, you will meet with failure and rebuke from the Lord.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their successes, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you to despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor. God wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence upon Him, that He may demonstrate His faithful love for you in supplying your needs day by day.

God may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity in order to produce some fragrant fruit for His coming glory which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it now. The reward for your work is held in the hands of Jesus and you will not see it until He comes.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you with a jealous love. He will rebuke you for the little words and feelings or for wasting your time. So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own. He does not owe you an explanation of these mysteries. But if you give yourself to be His child, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and give you the precious blessings for those who belong, heart and soul, to Him.

Settle it forever, then, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit. It is His option to tie your tongue, or chain your hand, or close your eyes in ways that He does not seem to use with others. And when you are so possessed by the living God that your heart delights over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.

What is your only comfort in life and death?

That I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and He has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.

He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him.

I desire to get to the place that "my heart delights in this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and managment of the Holy Spirit" over my  life. I know that as I allow Him to clean me up and deliver me from all that is not of Him in me, He will get me there. So, no vacation, to divert this process. I am so grateful that He has shown me the truth of my heart this morning, for I know, that the truth will set me free to be satisfied with that place He is bringing me into. Amen.