We all have a ministry whether we know it or not. What we do and say impact the lives of others and without God we can get a quite distorted view of ourselves and the world as we know it. My pastor is training me right now and I am learning each day that what I was once thought as truth is far from it….

Let me share some more of God’s wisdom with you and my prayer for you is that you will sit with these truths and see it if brings some light into your being.

Many of you including myself have had enough negative and or traumatic experiences in our lives to develop what might be called “negatively-programmed flesh.”

Rejections and traumas might come from your relationships or circumstances that you once faced or even presently face. Whatever the case, these experiences cause a lot of emotional pain and result in your being “programmed” to think and feel negatively. Isn’t it true when others hurt us we hold them to the fire yet when we hurt others we want zero accountability?

Emotions you may come to feel may include….

Anxiousness

Worthlessness

Incompetent

Insignificant

Unacceptable

Failure

Hopeless

Helpless

Unloved

Used

For example, perhaps you are afraid to try new things out of fear of failure because someone made you feel unacceptable when you did not perform perfectly ( in their eyes). Or you are struggling with self-doubt( feeling incompetent and inadequate) because, in childhood, you were made to feel worthless or stupid.

The result? You might even carry a vague, indefinable sense of guilt for simply being you. As these feelings are accepted by you as the “truth” about yourself, you build within yourself a distorted image of God, of yourself and of others.

Your thinking might be something like this, “Since, I keep feeling rejected, surely God doesn’t love me or he would have not allowed this to happen to me.” With regard to your relationships with others your thinking might be “Who would want to be my friend?” Does this kind of thinking resonate with you?

Such a thought-life will eventually cause certain behavior patterns. Choosing your will to depend on the flesh you may put up one or more of the following “coping defenses.” You may feel like a victim or wallow in self-pity. You may even avoid your problems all together and draw near to anything that makes you feel good.

Some may choose to withdraw from friends and family into stony silence and others may try to perform for everyone’s acceptance. Lastly, some will even try and control circumstances and people who are important to them. The result? You usually end up driving these people away.

Most people harbor anger inside towards those they feel have wronged them. Often they end up experiencing one or more stress-related health problems such as tension headaches, digestive distress or hypertension.

Is it any wonder that, when you are using these kinds of coping defenses, they cause you to come into conflict with others who are often putting up their own fleshly defenses? Are relationships with others bringing you into conflict and frustration within and without?

When you depend upon your own strength to cope with present and pressures and past rejections, the result is ultimately conflict and frustration.

Now, let’s take a look at “positively programmed flesh” There are others who have had mostly positive experiences and few, rejections thus far. You may have had a lovely home life as a child where you received much praise and affirmation from your parents and other relationships. Life was always pretty stable and nothing really bad ever happened to you.

You might see yourself as quite self-sufficient. You may consider yourself to be highly talented and very adequate. Emotionally you may feel…

Strong

Confident

Competent

Significant

Successful

Secure

Worthy

Loved.

Sounds great to me? Does it to you? Even though a person with positively programmed flesh may be born again and truly love God, he may subscribe to the idea that “God helps those who help themselves.” He/She too, has a distorted view of God, of himself, and others.

Such a person probably wouldn’t think of himself as putting up coping defenses. It’s just that his coping defenses give him  general feelings of superiority rather than inferiority or inadequacy/ He/She may be prideful about their abilities, or may indulge in self-righteousness. Often this involves his being a bit judgmental towards others who are having problems. Since this person feels and thinks he has all the answers to life, he/she may also feel they need to control the lives of others, especially those who just can’t seem to get their “act” together. The fact He/She is unknowingly depending upon their own natural talents and resources that in fact are all God’s. He leans on his own understanding not on God even though he talks a good game and may even believe in God. The reality is that, as he/she chooses to depend on their own talented self, and is exactly what he does. Still, this causes conflict and frustration.

Now, finally on to the good news….

God loves both his negatively and positively programmed children. He loves them so much that He will let them suffer the consequences of trying to live and cope out of their own resources. Why? So that they will eventually see the bankruptcy of the flesh and choose to exchange flesh for Christ.

Weakening you through an All Things Process

When God wants to use his children and he wants to use all of his children… You may expect Him to take you through a weakening process. You might call it the “all things” process referred to in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Rome

And we know that God causes all things (good and bad) to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose- Romans 8:28

Patterns that you have used to cope with life will begin to fail. Perhaps you have depended upon your intellect trying to understand spiritual truth and now find yourself confronted with the sheer simplicity of what God has provided for you in Christ. Such a revelation had brought you to the end of your mental resources. Just what is your choice now? Could it be that God would have you turn in childlike dependence upon Him rather than attempt to use your intellect as the means of apprehending truth- truth that can really only be revealed to you by the Holy Spirit.

Now we have not received the spirit ( that belongs to the world, but the Holy Spirit who is from God, given to us that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate the gifts ( of divine favor and blessings so freely and lavishly) bestowed on us by God. And we are setting truths forth in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Holy Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths and spiritual language to those who possess the Holy Spirit. But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly ( meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them ( of progressively recognizing, understanding and becoming better acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated- 1 Corinthians 2, 12-14, Amplified Bible

The Lord may weaken you in your finances, health, relationships, and emotional resources to get you to draw near to Him so he can show you the better way, the truth. All resources, ALL!!! are God’s including His children and their talents. Everything belongs to God, period! This is truth so why do we keep fighting Him? For some it’s because we haven’t had revelation to a better way, for others its our pride and feeling pretty good about the way our life is turning out. However, I will tell you, it won’t last. Our Lord wants to be all things in the lives of His children. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Give it up to God and you will begin to see the light. He will strengthen and equip you, the wilderness season won’t last if we surrender to His will and way for our lives. I tell you, it’s the best place you can be.. Calling on God for all things. You can do it because He believes in you.

Instagram @armedforgood

xo