More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
September 15 - December 1, 2019
So now, instead of being a reason for endless shame, guilt, and regret, our past is a reason for endless worship and free-flowing testimony. And for continual, grateful, heartfelt prayer.
if the only reason you aren’t moving forward is fear, then don’t you see that the enemy is trying to paralyze you? He’s the one behind this. Don’t sit there and let him do that. Don’t let him stop you from moving forward. I don’t care how afraid or not ready you may feel. Obey God anyway!”
Anytime I begin seeing that the only thing keeping me from receiving everything God wants to give me is the fear tactic the enemy is using against me—it makes me mad. I start feeling a holy indignation rolling up over my shoulders and picking me up from behind. Because if he’s working that hard to keep me from moving forward, there must be some blessing or beauty from heaven he’s trying to divert me from.
The fact is this: fear is one of Satan’s primary schemes for crippling God’s people.
Worst-case scenarios becoming the only probabilities you can think about. Fears like these, instead of simply raising our blood pressure, ought to set off some fire alarms. Why am I feeling so paralyzed like this?
Aren’t you at least a little bit curious what he’s trying to keep you from experiencing?
Because if they did, they risked not sticking around long enough to experience the stunning miracle their God was about to perform. And even more, they risked not getting to the other side. To the Promised Land. To the milk and to the honey. To destiny.
I know the kind of paralysis that can harden around you when you’re scared to death about going through with something you’ve committed to do, and you just don’t think you’ve got what it takes to do it.
Do. Not. Be. Afraid.
“Don’t be afraid.”
It’s the enemy telling you, “Be very afraid.”
If God has given you clear direction, like He gave the children of Israel (or like He’s given to my friend Shawna)—direction that’s confirmed by His written Word and by the sounding board of wise, godly counsel—and your only real reason for resisting Him is because you’re afraid of what following Him down this path might mean or cost or entail, then you’re not only on the threshold of being disobedient, you’re about to miss an opportunity to give God some fresh, new glory by doing what He’s wanting to do through you, which is the true impetus behind His invitation for you to join Him on this
...more
Our God is fearless. And because He is fearless, we can be fearless too.
Instead of letting fear be the loudest voice in the room, she’s been able to go back and implement obedience, going forward as instructed. She’s not the one crying in the backseat anymore. She’s thrown fear into the backseat.
Obedience to God garners intimacy and nearness, divine blessing and favor. Always. And disobedience creates a sense of distance and loss, grief and regret. Always.
Impurity weakens your praying—which in turn weakens your power. When our lives are not aligned with the teaching of Scripture and the transforming work of God’s Spirit—when we’re resisting His wise, loving instruction concerning our lifestyle and attitudes—our prayer closets start to feel like soundproof rooms.
It’s not because God’s hand is “so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear”
Prayers that have power come from a person in pursuit of righteous living.
The devil’s strategy is to make us believe impurity is, well . . . normal . . . that nobody’s hurt if we keep a few forbidden things on hand and enjoy them from time to time.
Impure living, impure thinking, impure relationships, impure affections—upside-down living—creates the perfect environment and breeding ground for demonic activity.
while committing to pray fervently and consistently that we’ll recognize the ploys of the enemy the moment they come into view.
our purity deflects the enemy.
to become such a stick-of-dynamite prayer warrior
But life with this much pressure? From a nonstop pace? A schedule that never allows time for rest or refreshment or maybe actually enjoying the people we’re staying so busy with?
a fruitful life—a life of truly eternal significance—the life you were created by God to live.
And guess what? “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).
“For My yoke is easy,” He said, “and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:30).
Who’s saying you’re worth nothing more than the overall tally of your output? You know exactly who.
the kind of internal and external pressure that turns busyness into a badge of honor.
It’s why we turn Christian living into legalism, for fear that God will be displeased if we don’t rigorously stick to the program. It’s why we don’t know how to sit still.
“God doesn’t want something from you. He wants something for you.”
pressure is often a mask for idolatry.
The purpose of Israel’s liberty from bondage—and the purpose behind your own liberty from the slavery of undue pressure—is not merely freedom for freedom’s sake. God’s purpose in giving you Sabbath spaces amid your full, productive life is to help you be uninhibited in your devotion, service, and worship of Yahweh. Margin keeps you from marginalizing God.
The enemy wants other things and other people to replace God’s preeminence in our schedule, in our mind, in our heart, in our home.
one chance to choose:
But by the Spirit’s power helping you gain control of your schedule, creating spaces within which to breathe, obeying the principles of God’s Sabbath, and establishing boundaries based on the truth of His all-wise Word, your destiny comes into clearer focus. Your worship blossoms into brilliant colors. And your day amazingly brightens into joy. The enemy’s going to hate this. Let’s do it . . .
Forgive and comfort. Obedience in everything. Outwitted by Satan. Ignorant of his designs.
Unforgiveness is a strategic “design,” craftily implemented by your enemy to “outwit” you, to cripple your effectiveness in prayer and your power to stand against him victoriously.
Forgive. Comfort. Obedience. Outwitted. Designs.
knew He wanted more. He wanted me to show comfort to this one who had offended me. This was the only way I could be “obedient in everything”
But my resistance to what God’s Word and command were saying clued me in beyond any doubt that I’d allowed a root of bitterness to spring up within my heart.
demonic design.
Because forgiveness matters.
He wants you to be a bitter woman behind that beautiful face. He
wants your heart coated with the calluses of resentment, crippled by offenses from your past.
But forgive anyway. Not because it’s easy but because your enemy gets exactly what he wants from you otherwise. Forgive anyway.
He can produce the healing we so desperately need, before we continue down these same old broken roads that only end up hurting other people—children, grandchildren, people who had nothing to do with this matter at all, except to be within proximity of our resentful responses.
To set us free. To fan fresh air into the stagnant rooms of your heart. To sweeten the taste in your mouth where bitterness and unforgiveness have soured your appetite for spiritual things.
Division, disharmony, friendly fire. They’re breaks in the line of our peace.
Do you ever sense any tearing or breakdown between the close bonds you share with these people? Do you occasionally grow tired of the level of commitments you’ve made with some of them, considering it more of an intrusion than a mutual blessing? Do you sometimes wish they wouldn’t call or want anything of you tonight or wouldn’t ask about how you’ve been managing yourself lately? Do you find yourself almost physically drawn toward gossiping and listening to stories about
