When God says "No"
Have you had a moment in your walk with God when you opened the door to entertain something that the Holy Spirit has distinctly instructed you not to do?
Our defiant, stubborn, and unsubmitted resolve usually ends up tasting bitter consequences of our disobedience. In an ideal situation, we would obey the first time God says "no"; however, it can take some hard lessons of those choices against His instruction before we reach the point of total surrender. Obedience is always better than sacrifice.
Obedience means compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another's authority. To carry out or fulfill the command, order, or instruction of.
When I think of the term obedience and carrying out duties, I get the imagery of a soldier receiving instructions from his or her commanding officer. The solider is expected to comply, and to submit to the authority of their superior. By not doing so, there can be harsh consequences that impact the rest of the force. On the battlefield, not following instructions can even lead to the loss of life.
We may feel mixed emotions when it comes to the word; however, in light of this picture, you can see that it is much better to obey the Holy Spirit's instructions and promptings than to suffer through the painful and often shameful repercussions of our wrong choice.
Relationship "NO"
Have you ever been interested in someone that you know God has told you to cut the situation off?
Perhaps you know that this person is not a believer and does not care about the things of Jesus.
Perhaps the Lord has already told you that this person cannot deposit or carry you further in your spiritual life or your walk with Him.
Perhaps God has told you to break it off because you keep compromising, and the relationship is pulling you further away from Him.
Perhaps you are trying to reason that you and this person can just be friends. However, you keep compromising with sex.
God is telling you to cut the situation off, not because He is cruel and does not care about your feelings, but because He sees the bigger picture. He is a good father, who is trying to protect you from what could destroy you (mentally, spiritually, and emotionally). He knows how complicated and confusing things can get. He desires for you to avoid the heartbreak and soul wounds that will result if you keep going. He is protecting you from a heartache that comes when you awakening love before its time and give your heart prematurely.
God knows WHO can be trusted with your heart, yet too often, we keep giving ourselves to those who are terrible with the responsibility of it.
God tells us not to do certain things because he knows how crappy it will make us feel. He does not like to see us upset of grieved by our choices. That is why He warns us and tries to redirect us; to protect us from that.
Guilt trips the enemy uses to try to keep us in bondage.
The enemy will accuse you of being a mean or cruel person because you cut this person off. He will play mind games with you to keep you going around in a cycle with people year after year.
He will tell you, "this is not how Christians are supposed to be," and "cutting someone off is not Christ-like". It is a lie because if that relationship is equally causing you to compromise your walk with God, then the truth is that it hurts you and grieves the Holy Spirit. That relationship is too expensive if it is robbing you of your peace of mind and stealing your soul's wellness.
He will try to guilt-trip you to keep the door open and cracked so that he can slither in and have a field day with your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and manipulating your desires. Holy Spirit will prompt you to BLOCK a number and take more extreme measures to get you delivered from this soul-tie. However, the enemy will try to convince you that it's "not that deep" and "you are strong enough "not to give in. Satan is the father of lies, and a belief that we can entertain his cunning and crafty deception has been proven since Genesis with Eve in the garden that we cannot.
Holy Spirit is not only asking us to resist him completely and to humble ourselves before God, but the Holy Spirit is showing us how to get untangled from the entanglement we got in. #ThatsAWholeWord
He will convince you that this person needs YOU to help them find Jesus and develop their spiritual walk. It is a bold-faced lie. That person needs the Holy Spirit and some accountability from the same sex. You can pray for that person, but you need to trust God to be God in their life and excuse yourself from trying to play that role.
God knows your desire a husband, and the enemy does too. Therefore, what he does is tempt you to settle for Ishmael (something born out of God's timing and will), when God has promised you Isaac (God's promise and provision fulfilled).
You must not look at the other person or spend too much time on your feelings. Decide to obey God, and I assure you that your feelings will eventually catch up. Jesus came to set captives free and to break the yokes of bondage. You can be set free and experience the freedom of no longer being entangled in sin. You can strip off the weigh, which so easily trips you up.
Choose this day to obey and keep on choosing day after day. One-step at a time. <3
Until next time,
