Stirring the pot.
In reading, and studying Acts with my friend Travis,
I began realizing that when you stir the pot, all hell breaks loose. After saying that, I didn't realize what i was dealing with.
God began stirring my pot last year. A lot. I went through leaving a church, the loss of a child, the one area that I had left was finances. I chose to no longer send my money to the Assemblies of God, as required by their by-laws. In so-doing, I sent a clear message to GOD that I was His man, all the way through. I stirred the pot by getting closer to God. Now I find out, after telling myself and Satan that my money is Gods, that I can't really afford school anymore, I owe $800 AFTER financial aid was paid, and now I am looking at an additional $4200 for the next year and a half to keep going.
Where am I going with this...
Acts 9:1
Saul in this part of the story is doing what he thinks is right. This man, acting on his faith and religion, goes out and persecutes the early church. He puts the hurt on them real bad.
IF you think about it, there's a Saul in each of us. The Saul is what our human nature. Saul, after his conversion, was renamed Paul. He went on to be the greatest (arguably) follower and advocate of Christ! However, you see in his life, that part of him never really went away.
Romans 7:14-25
Paul fought Saul, He knew there was a battle. I was hurt about the loss of my son ( due to miscarriage), I was sad and hurt about church situations, and then I became blindsided with school.
Why is it that when we choose to do what we know is good, the enemy comes in so quickly? Because he is afraid! Yes, that's right, he's afraid that we will fulfill our purpose in Christ. He has waged a bloody mind game for years in the church. telling us, just subtly enough that we begin to think its God's voice, "You are fine the way you are."
Paul says later, after having this huge internal struggle, " For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (2 Cor. 2:2)
There's a ton of thoughts going through my head right now. But the bottom line is this... When God, or you, choose to stir the pot (change things and begin to serve God more whole-heartedly) the devil will stop at nothing to smear you.
I began realizing that when you stir the pot, all hell breaks loose. After saying that, I didn't realize what i was dealing with.
God began stirring my pot last year. A lot. I went through leaving a church, the loss of a child, the one area that I had left was finances. I chose to no longer send my money to the Assemblies of God, as required by their by-laws. In so-doing, I sent a clear message to GOD that I was His man, all the way through. I stirred the pot by getting closer to God. Now I find out, after telling myself and Satan that my money is Gods, that I can't really afford school anymore, I owe $800 AFTER financial aid was paid, and now I am looking at an additional $4200 for the next year and a half to keep going.
Where am I going with this...
Acts 9:1
1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest
Saul in this part of the story is doing what he thinks is right. This man, acting on his faith and religion, goes out and persecutes the early church. He puts the hurt on them real bad.
IF you think about it, there's a Saul in each of us. The Saul is what our human nature. Saul, after his conversion, was renamed Paul. He went on to be the greatest (arguably) follower and advocate of Christ! However, you see in his life, that part of him never really went away.
Romans 7:14-25
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[d] a slave to the law of sin.
Paul fought Saul, He knew there was a battle. I was hurt about the loss of my son ( due to miscarriage), I was sad and hurt about church situations, and then I became blindsided with school.
Why is it that when we choose to do what we know is good, the enemy comes in so quickly? Because he is afraid! Yes, that's right, he's afraid that we will fulfill our purpose in Christ. He has waged a bloody mind game for years in the church. telling us, just subtly enough that we begin to think its God's voice, "You are fine the way you are."
Paul says later, after having this huge internal struggle, " For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (2 Cor. 2:2)
There's a ton of thoughts going through my head right now. But the bottom line is this... When God, or you, choose to stir the pot (change things and begin to serve God more whole-heartedly) the devil will stop at nothing to smear you.
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