PREPARING TO COME OUT OF THE DECAY PT. 2

February 5, 2024February 5, 2024 / joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

HERE IS A DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT I RECENTLY SHARED WITH OUR CONGREGATION.

AS A CONGREGATION, we have been given a congregational sentence that comes through the many prophetic words which have been spoken to us over the last year or so. That sentence says: “Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! Prepare you Spirit (come out of the decay of your strongholds). Prepare your Souls(Prepare to practice and feel compassion). Prepare your facility (your structures, infrastructures and plans). Prepare for the storm (Pray for action plan, Pray for a spirit of perseverance). Prepare your witness (know your gifts, earn the right to speak, build your relationships with those outside the church, build your example). Prepare your hope and faith (think hope, speak hope, act in hope). Prepare your love (love each other, love the people in your towns, love those who disagree with you, love through the doors that open).“

Today I would like to talk a bit about coming out of the decay of our personal strongholds.

DAY 2: PREPARE YOUR SPIRIT(COME OUT OF THE DECAY OF YOUR STRONGHOLDS).

Photo by Jean-Paul Wettstein on Pexels.com

WHAT IS SO BAD ABOUT STRONGHOLDS?

Strongholds cause spiritual decay.

Strongholds are controlled by and flow out of our flesh nature. Of this nature Paul the Apostle said, “⁵Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.⁶The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸Those who are in the realm of the fleshcannot please God.” Romans 8: 5-8

When we choose not to deal with our strongholds we are for all intents and purposes voting against God and His plan for our lives. When we refuse to deal with our strongholds we are in effect sabotaging our spiritual walk.

IS THERE ANYWHERE IN YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE YOU ARE EXPERIENCING HABITUAL FAILURE? WHAT MINDSET (STRONGHOLD) IS CREATING THE SELF SABOTAGE?

Pray with me: Dear Lord, You see this area of failure in my life. Forgive me for my sin and help me to see how my thinking is keeping me stuck in this failure. Deliver me from my wrong thinking and help me to start thinking Your thoughts. In Jesus name Amen.

LOTS OF REASONS

February 2, 2024 / joseph elon lillie / 4 Comments

I have been thinking about my grandmother a lot lately. One of her statements, in particular, keeps coming to mind. “There are lots of reasons to go to church, J. It’s not always about God.”

Now…God is the reason the church exists. He is the center of it all, but my grandmother was not wrong in her assessment. In and through the church God provides many things that are essential for life. One of those things is community. For most of my life and ministry, I have downplayed the need for community to my shame.

This week we met with a hospice agency for Mom’s care going forward. Truth be told, I have been pretty stressed out, grieved and weighed down by this. In spite of all that I am doing OK…because of my family and my church community.

During the course of ministry, I have had the opportunity to meet many people who do not have the benefit of healthy family or community of any kind. They often come to the church in an hour of desperate need because they have no place else to turn. It is not that they have relationship with us at all. They come to us because they have no one else to turn to. Often by the time they reach out to us there is little left we can actually do. I often think though “If only we had known them when the issues were smaller, we maybe could have helped.”

I will be the first to attest to the fact that church life is not perfect. Our communities, all of them, are imperfect. BUT…I can say with certainty that my life and my family’s life is stronger because we have been part of this church that we minister in and have been ministered to by. My family is strong enough to see Mom through this season of her life because we are part of the church and have our faith and our community to draw on. This is hard, but we will walk through it and come out stronger on the other side. I can credit the church community for the health of my family. I can credit the church community for the health of my spirit and mind.

This morning one of the men in the church reached out to me, as a friend, offering to help in anyway he could. He did that because I am a part of this community.

I cannot imagine facing this gauntlet, called hospice, without the wonderful tribe God has placed me in. There are lots of reasons to go to church. Knowing God is perhaps the most important reason, but a close second is the power of community.