WAITING WITHOUT STRESS

Here’s the problem: I would like to be writing full-time. I currently work as a painter and I like it, but eventually I’d like to do painting as a side job, and do my Christian writing as my main job. I think I’m trusting the Lord but why is it taking so long?

I recognize the problems. I can see what a possible solution might be. But what do I do with myself while I’m waiting?

The Bible says trust. But what does that mean and how do I do it consistently without doubting? Yesterday I realized that even though I think I’m trusting, sometimes I don’t act like it. I have faith and trust one day and then discouragement and doubt the next. James 1:6-8 says: “For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.  A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” So there you have it. If my trust level is wavering, then I’m not going to receive what I need from the Lord. That’s harsh! But it’s true, so I have to find a way to keep my trust level up and stable.

The only way I know of is to continually say, out loud, what the Bible says and write it down. I didn’t make this formula up. It’s in God’s Word in several places. Daniel 6:8 says that the way to establish something you say, is to write it down and sign it: “Establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed.” And Romans 10:17 says, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” It doesn’t say “faith cometh by reading,” or “faith cometh by thinking,” or that “faith cometh by talking to a lot of other people about your problems.” 

But faith comes by hearing and the best source of that hearing is our own mouths. We’re more likely to believe and act on something we say than something someone else says. If I say, “I’m going to the restroom,” I’m more likely to go than if someone else says, “Carolyn, go to the restroom.” 

From the scriptures we see that the winning combination is to write down the decree, say it and sign it. With this combination, we’ll be able to be stable and decrease the doubt or wipe it out. We will not be wavering, but trusting and we will receive from the Lord the true desires of our hearts. With the frenzy of life these days, I suggest saying our written decree every day at least one time, if not more, to confirm our trust and stability. The Holy Spirit will definitely help us with our efforts.

Proverbs 3: 5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Some of us who have grown up to be independent and learned to take care of ourselves have relied on and trusted in our own reasoning. We want to know why, when, how, and who. We want to get the facts up front and then trust, but that’s not the way God works. We need to leave all the reasoning behind for a while, and just trust Him. Reasoning gives us stress. Trust gives us rest.

Trust is love without having to know the details.

Here is my decree, as I got it from the Lord yesterday (with the scripture back-up listed at the end): “I trust the Lord. God is working in me to will and to do of His good pleasure. My times are in His hands. I cast my care on Him because he cares for me. It’s going to work out because God has a GOOD plan for my future. I do all things without murmuring because the Lord Jesus is with me and I’m following Him. I am complete in Him.” Proverbs 3:5, Philippians 2:13, Psalm 31:15, 1 Peter 5:7, Jeremiah 29:11, Philippians 2:14, Matthew 28:20, Matthew 4:19, Colossians 2:10.   

If you want, you can use this decree as a guide when you prayerfully write your own.

Have a wonderful week.

Love, Carolyn

Coming up this Thursday July 10 thru Monday July 14 FREE download of WINGS Sample C: WORKS OF FAITH. This sample has all true stories of different acts of faith that make our world a better place.

DEVIL GOT PUT DOWN WHEN CHRIST WENT UP

I heard a story where a brother and his sister were riding in the back seat of the family car when all of a sudden the little girl blurted out, “Shut up devil!” Mom turned around and asked, “Why did you say that?” The little girl answered, “Because the devil told me I should break John's leg.”

We all need to do more of what that little girl did and tell the devil to shut up and go back down where he belongs.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Matthew tells us Jesus responded with: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matt 4:10). Notice that Jesus didn't pray about it. He didn't ask God to get Satan away from him. He spoke directly to the spirit and “then the devil leaveth him” (vs.11). Throughout Jesus' walk on the earth we see that He speaks directly to that which is destructive and tells it to stop or depart. We can do the same.

I looked up the Greek translation for “get thee hence” from Matthew 4:10. It is hupago which comes from ago, which is to go, and hupo which is under, beneath, below, to an inferior position. So hupago is to go below. Jesus commanded Satan to back down.

Before I came to this revelation of sending evil deeply under and beneath, I would cast out devil spirits, but I only cast them away, not under. Demanding that evil take itself below is a much stronger image and agrees with many other passages we find in the Bible. For example there is the record of when Jesus cast the devil spirits out of the man of the Gadarenes. The evil spirits went into the pigs. And then what did they do? They jumped from a higher position on the cliffs to the water below and drowned:

And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand) and were choked in the sea. (Mark 5:12-13 AMP)

When Jesus allowed himself to be crucified, He allowed for every evil that possibly could be inflicted on a man or woman to be inflicted upon himself. That would include any sickness, disease, oppression, worry, guilt, lack, and anything you or I can possibly think of that is destructive to the body, soul, or spirit. Jesus took it all upon Himself. He also was buried with it. And all of that evil and sickness was taken to Hell with Him.

It took tremendous power for God to raise Jesus up out of that filth, every bit of slimy, clawing, insidious evil wanting to pull him back down, or hitch a ride up. The Devil thought he'd destroyed Jesus; he certainly would fight to keep him down there, but he couldn't. When God raised Jesus, all evil was left behind, dropped away, and Jesus was raised as the victorious Christ.

Without oppression, there could be freedom. Without sickness and disease, there could be health. Without the wretchedness of poverty, there could be abundance and generous overflow. Without the claw of addiction there could be the joy of liberty. Without the strain of jealousy, there could be the comfort of love. Jesus took all evil to Hell, left it there and was raised all the way up to Heaven to enjoy the full, unimpaired blessing of God.

The rightful position of believers is above with Christ, and without any of things Jesus took with Him to the grave and to Hell.

Because of “his great love wherewith he loved us,” God “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4 and 6), “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named” (Eph 1: 21).

Romans 6:4 tells us “that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Truthfully, any of the things that Jesus took to the grave and left deep in Hell, should not be in our lives. If they have deceitfully become a part of our lives, we have the perfect right to send them right back down to where they came from. We can walk in the new freedom we have.

God's given us victory and authority in Christ. If devil spirits try to talk us into things that are not the best for us, we can say, like the little girl in the back seat, “Shut up devil!” Or we can say, like Jesus, “Go back below, where you belong! You don't have any right to be here with me!”

Love, Carolyn

Look for the next free download on Thursday: Sample book E – Bible Studies – more exciting than you might think, it includes chapters such as “The Missing Manual,” “Why the Devil Has No Authority,” and “History told in the Heavenlies.” Also a good one on what we can gain from knowing about the O.T. festivals in the chapter on Father’s Day. Available from Amazon.