Making the Ideal Real

To discover the reality of the ideal sometimes we have to tramp through the desert. The worst wilderness, the most disturbing desert, is in the human heart. That is the lonely place where we are tempted to follow our desires instead of God’s, to misuse Scripture for our self-focused benefit, and to worship the devil by recklessly pursuing worldly pleasure and power. See Matthew 4:1-11.

Jesus wants your heart. The wilderness in your heart is the place where you can find “the mountain of God” — “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” and cultivate the fruit of His Spirit to grow and prosper within you. We humans desperately need inner discernment so that we can recognize the difference between the fruit of the Spirit and the deception of the devil who “disguises himself as an angel of light,” and whose servants are disguised as “servants of righteousness.” See 2 Corinthians 11:14-15.

Here is a guide to discernment — a map to the mountain of God. Whatever:

* Diminishes love,
* Dismantles joy,
* Deletes inner peace,
* Disrupts patience,
* Dumps kindness,
* Drives out goodness,
* Destroys faithfulness,
* Denounces gentleness,
* Dismantles self-control,
Isn’t the fruit of God’s Spirit.

Christ burning in your heart and speaking from His fire within you will illuminate your steps and empower you to follow and obey Him throughout each day and to continually demonstrate the reality of the inner mountain of God. Stir up the gift of the Holy Spirit if He lives within you. Quench not the Spirit. Be always looking unto Jesus. Behold the Lamb of God. Make your heart and life an altar where the fire of God ever burns.

The geography of the human heart is confusing. It’s mega-dimensional. We need the living Jesus to be our inner Guide to healing and spiritual growth. He calls to all, “Follow Me.” Will you continually listen to His still, small voice within you and then say and do what He tells you to?

Open wide your heart, Let the living Jesus lead you through the spiritual topography of your inner desert to the Mountain of God. Without 𝓙esus as the active, literal Head and director of meetings of His body on earth, Christianity is decapitated and looks like this; “__esus,” or this; “_______ianity.” It’s time for Christians to begin to let the living 𝓙esus direct us from within our heart.

If Christ is in you, you are a house of God, a temple of the Holy Spirit. Be an open house. Refuse to allow wrongful thoughts, feelings, and desires to hide and work inside of you. Walk humbly in the light of the risen Jesus.

Does going to church keep you excited about and obedient to Jesus all week long? If not, perhaps something is missing.

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