A Whole Treasure Chest Of Riches...

After the hour I just spent with my Heavenly Father this morning, I find my heart so thankful for His presence in my life. I find my heart more in love with Him and more respectful for the way in which He is teaching, leading and correcting me. After the portion of scripture that He just took me through and choosing to open my heart to what it said, I see more clearly why He is doing what He is doing...why He is leading where is leading...why He is correcting where He is correcting...why He is teaching what He is teaching... I have a better understanding as to how His heart is working in mine. I stand in awe given the fact that as Kyle and I are preparing to begin teaching an adult Sunday School class at church on familiar spirits, the Lord opened a whole treasure chest of riches to me in my time with Him this new morning. Riches that give insight, understanding and direction. Riches that aren't just free for the taking yet require submission, acknowledgement and surrender. Riches that my God desires to lavish upon me yet demand my humble "return". Riches that will heal my life yet riches that come only by determined obedience. Riches that are full of blessings yet the reality and the fullness of those blessings will shine forth based on the condition and attitude of my heart.

We as individuals and God's children as a whole have accepted, carried and lived deliberate wickedness and unrighteousness that was born years-upon-years ago. It's a wickedness and unrighteousness that although we ourselves didn't originally choose and create, we are responsible to eradicate from our lives through the blood of Jesus Christ. As the Holy Spirit leads us and guides us in all Truth, we are to attentively listen, see and discern those areas-of-sin, wickedness and unrighteousness that have become "natural" to us and allow the Saviour of the world to prune, purge and refine us so that we can be healed, blessed and transformed. Healing, blessing and transformation that will in turn glorify the One who loves us more than anything.

I'm finding more-and-more where God desires for me to be in His continual presence and listen ever-so-closely to the tenderness of His voice so that I can recognize the "hidden" things that are preventing me from walking in the freedom and fullness of His grace. He's desiring for those areas of sin, wickedness and unrighteousness that have been "natural" to my flesh to become foreign, uncomfortable and detestable to my spirit. Foreign, uncomfortable and detestable to the point that I run to God with a humble, surrendered and repentant heart seeking healing, blessing and transformation. A heart willing to lose myself in order to find Him. A heart willing to let go of all that has been familiar in order to walk in a newness of life.

As a good friend of mine and I talked this past Sunday, we as Christians all-too-often accept our natural tendencies and allow them to drive, direct and determine our lives without giving thought that we are flesh and our Creator is Spirit. He has so much more! He has something far much different! He has a whole treasure chest of riches! For me, it's about returning, acknowledging, submitting, repenting, listening, discerning, surrendering...doing a new thing...something unfamiliar...God's thing!