Each of us is something of a schizophrenic personality, tragically divided against ourselves.
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in Galatians 3
Oh beloved, it is true.
We come to Christ, and we realize that we are broken. We come to find that we have been lying to ourselves in so many ways. We thought we were good. We thought we could enjoy the things of the world and that we would be OK. But somehow, He crashes through our defenses. He convinces us of our badness and brokenness.
And up agreeing with Him, He sets about a miraculous work that saves us – not only from hell – but also from ourselves. It is amazing. Where there was once fetid and foul smelling death, there is now clear air and the freshness of new infant, but eternal life.
We see in our past, that we were schizophrenic and a terribly dangerous way. We thought we were good enough, when we weren’t. But now, a similar danger lurks around the bends of our soul. And in some ways it is just as eternally dangerous.
Can we see it?
Read the passage again, and let Him speak to you.
That old part of us, that will never be redeemed, must be reckoned dead – or it will kill us. This same lying voice that told us we were good enough in the past, will tell us another lie. This voice will tell us, that we are so bad that we need to begin trying be good enough for the G_d Who has already saved us.
If we listen, we are in very bad trouble. And, just because we believe a lie, it will never make it true.
The only way we were saved in the first place was to have the very Spirit of G_d renew us in the Life of Jesus Christ. And… the only way we are going to keep growing in holiness and maturity, is to keep walking in, even abiding in The Spirit.
If we do it any other way; if we listen to any other voice, we are risking terrible destruction.
So, are you struggling with fear or doubt or failure in your walk with Him? It happens to each of us. But, for us to stay in this schizophrenic state of listening to the voice that has NEVER pointed us in the right direction, is to nearly abandon the very Grace That saved us in the first place.
Tonight is your night. Time to walk in The Spirit. Everything else will get us killed.
We will never receive if we ask with an end in view; if we ask, not out of our poverty but out of our lust. A pauper does not ask from any other reason than the abject panging condition of his poverty, he is not ashamed to beg. Blessed are the paupers in spirit.
~Oswald Chambers
