It is from Beth Moore and it applies to my life so much right now it is not funny. Somebody I love is struggling with an addiction that not only affects their life, but the lives of everybody this person loves.
My sin in it all is not trusting God that He can change this person's heart, and in affect, my life.
I am guilty of not believing that GOD is personally interested in me. I long for the days when all I had to worry about was what part of the Bible I was going to read and how long I could pray before I missed class or work....and how I was getting to my next Bible Study. Oh how I long to return to the fervor of my "early days" in Christ.
Father, forgive my wonderlust from you. You have not strayed, I have moved, and too far away at that. Renew my spirit and make it ever true.
oh, and change the life of that person I spoke about. Help them see you and the pit and help them get out of it.
Laurie, thank you for sending this today....it was just what I needed.
Here is Beth's study:
Mind the Holy Spirit’s Warning!
with Beth Moore
“For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy;
for I betrothed you to one husband, that to
Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.
But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived
Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be
led astray from the simplicity and purity of
devotion to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:2, 3)
A young woman confided to me that she had fallen into an area of sin after swearing just the day before she would never do such a thing! What is being eroded to give the enemy that kind of entrance to overtake the externals of our lives and our actions? We cannot be possessed by Satan when we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and totally secured by Christ's salvation, but what happens when we slip into his seductive trap?
The Bible shows us that someone can be suddenly and unexpectedly overtaken in sin. Even the most spiritual person can be totally guarded in one area of their life and be trapped by the enemy in another unguarded area. That seems to be the real art of Satan’s plan of seduction. The day-to-day warfare Christians experience may be the hard ball, but seduction is the curve ball that comes from a direction we are not expecting.
No child dreams of being an alcoholic or a drug addict. Nobody plans a sexual addiction. The curious person that viewed pornography for a few moments never intended to be so obsessed that they spend their work hours craving more images.
The truth is that the enemy has planned an addiction for you and he drapes the rope of bondage very loosely at first, then suddenly jerks on the other end and you slip into his pit. We can’t walk in fear or hyper-legalism, but we must learn to walk in the spirit so we sense God’s warning signals.
On occasion, I have walked away from a place or a situation without knowing why. I just sensed the Spirit’s caution. Jesus abides in us by way of His Holy Spirit once we receive Him as our personal savior. It is imperative that we ask Him to fill us so when the Holy Spirit checks us, we will obey His warning regardless of how it appears in the natural.
I asked Christians who’d found themselves in a seductive mess if they were given a warning. Every person said, “Yes.”
“Why didn't you heed it,” I asked.
The consistent answer was, “I thought I was imagining it, so I talked myself out of it.”
Galatians 5:16 commands us to, “Walk in the spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” When we sense the Holy Spirit is alerting us, we must learn to mind the spirit.
He will also tell us when a person is worthy of being helped, but we are not the one to help them. We have a very mean-spirited enemy who turns something that looks good into something evil. We may find ourselves broken, devastated and humiliated if we fail to heed the warning.
The voice on the airport tram warns, “Please step away from the door,” meaning if you don't get back, this door will take your head off! Under the open eyes of the Holy Spirit, we hear signals communicated from inside of us. If we don't learn to listen and walk in the Spirit we will feel it and slip into an early grave the devil prepares for us. He wants to bury us alive so far under the mud that we see no way out.
Often we won't make cry for help because we're too ashamed reveal the mess we are in. God has a rescue plan and if we obey Him, we will be able to say as the Psalmist did,
I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.
Blessed is the man
who makes the LORD his trust,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods.
Many, O LORD my God,
are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us
no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to declare.
(Psalm 40:1-5)
This Week
God wants you to come before Him and cry out, “Here I am—with all the broken mess I have made of my life. Here I am.”
Prayer
“Lord, pull me out of the enemy’s pit, and put my feet on The Rock, so I have a firm place to stand. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that I will not be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
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