Hey there!
My posts haven't been as frequent as I had initially hoped they would be but hey, I'm trying here.
So now that I have finished the 504 fast for 21 days I find that I am now experiencing that feeling of coming down from the mountaintop again.
You know that feeling, when you have had such an AMAZING unique experience with God and then, when it's all said and done, you have to leave and trek it all on your own out in the scary world called Reality.
I loved having the resources that were available to me during the fast like multiple chapel services throughout the week, a 24/7 prayer room at the church and that feeling of being "high" on God's Presence and the Holy Spirit. It was this support and the fact that the fast occurred during a time when I wasn't at school that helped me to be able to focus on God rather than the world. I wasn't constantly being distracted by the media and other worldly factors that tried to tear me away from God at every moment.
Now I am back at The College at Brockport, in classes for 5 hours a day, 3 days a week while also working as well on my off days (for the most part).
During the fast, I was able to be constantly surrounded by godly people who encouraged me and sowed seeds of knowledge and wisdom into me for 3 weeks. Now I'm kinda out there on my own to fend for myself it seems.
Of course I know that I am not REALLY alone but it does seem like that when I am not in constant fellowship with believers and reading my Bible all the time. It's like I am a radio on one setting that, if I don't constantly keep tuned on the right frequency, the song will fade out intil it's too hard to hear properly.
This past Sunday, I was at church and my pastor was speaking about Moses and how he led the Israelites out of Egypt after centuries of being kept in slavery. This message gave me a whole new perspective and outlook on my journey after 504. Pastor Pierre talked about the well-known 10 plagues that struck Egypt's population and how Pharaoh kept on reneging on his agreements to let the Israelites go after each plague was lifted, etc. If you know the story, you already know what happens. They were eventually allowed to go and left Egypt together out into the wilderness.
The parts Pastor Pierre focused on was the fact that when they became trapped between the Red Sea and an oncoming army of Egyptian soldiers, they actually had the gall to exclaim "Why did you bring us out here to die? At least in Egypt we had food in our stomachs and could have died with a full stomach instead of starving out here in the desert!" (or something to that effect; my paraphrasing isn't exactly the most accurate).
Even despite their complaining, God still saved them by parting the Red Sea so that they could cross over on the dry land. When the Egyptians tried to follow them once they had crossed, God returned the sea to its watery bed and drowned them all.
In the 40 or more years that followed, the Israelite people kept returning to this idea of regressing back into their old habits wanting to go back to Egypt. They thought that going back to a life of slavery and opression would be better than wandering in the desert as they journeyed towards the Promised Land! WHAT?!?
Now, I don't know about you, but from what I have heard of and read about slavery, it must have seemed PRETTY bad if they wanted to go back there again. They were unwilling to endure hardship and fight to finally arrive at what God had promised for His people.
Pastor Pierre then related this story to our lives today. The congregation of The Father's House has just ended this 21 day fast where people have been freed from various chains of bondage that came in many different forms: a bad relationship, an addiction, bad habits, negative thoughts, suicidal tendencies, etc. We were finally free!
He said however, that many people, even the day after the fast ended, probably went right back into their old ways, or at least wanted badly to do so. How is it that we can go back to such a bad place in our lives SO quickly? Just like the Israelites longed for Egypt as soon as they had left, we also long to return to our own "Egypt" once we have been freed.
A few points to remember in your own "Journey to Canaan":
1. Your focus will become your reality
*God will not contaminate your destination with where you came from. The Promised Land will be better beyond our imagining; it will be so much better that when we look at the old life, it will be a mere shadow compared to life in God's Presence.
*Do not desire where you came from but instead, set your mind on the place you come from, using it as motivation in your journey into a new life.
2. Do Not Forget
*We have a tendency to mask truth with desire. We justify our decisions rather than facing the truth of our own sin
*Don't put makeup on the monster! Unmask the sin in your life
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8)
*Don't allow sin to crush your courage to stay out of Egypt
-If you slip up, don't let it get you down too much because there is redemption for our mistakes.
1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and
purify us from all unrighteousness."
3. Renewing of My Mind
*It may have taken a short time to get the Israelites out of Egypt, but it took around 45 years to get Egypt out of the Israelites.
*Change the way you think so that instead of focusing on the past, you can look forward to the future.
*Just like blood dialysis must be used frequently to keep purifying the blood for the kidneys on a person's body, our soul must also go through a spiritual "dialysis" by reading the Word of God and talking to God every day.
*Don't turn off your spiritual engine or else like a plane, you'll take a quick and dangerous nosedive.
1) Read your Bible
2) Talk to God every day. It doesn't have to be formal prayer, but just as if you were talking to Him face to face.
3) Surround yourself with people who refuse to go back. They can keep you accountable for your choices and actions (even when you wish they wouldn't)
*There is no such thing as "Christian-friendly" for your "Egypt"
-For example, if drinking is your "Egypt," don't even put yourself into a situation where it will be present to tempt you
Finally, Pastor Pierre addressed how Israel's oppressors were drowned and killed by the waters of the Red Sea after being delivered from Egypt.
In order to be saved from their enemy, they had to first choose to cross through the parted waters to the other side. If they had stayed on the shore, they would have died. If they had stopped halfway through, they would have perished along with the other Egyptian soldiers. They had to go all the way in order to be delivered. I imagine that they even had to leave things behind that would not go through the muck and mire with them that would bog them down on their way across to the other side. It would be hard to leave these things behind because they didn't know what was to become of them in the years ahead. What if they needed these things later on? How would they survive? However, they must have left them behind anyways because they were able to make it to the other side before the waters obliterated the enemy's army that had oppressed them for so long.
What is this miraculous, life-saving water to us in our own spiritual journey?
~Galatians 2:20 says: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
~Romans 6:3-4 "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
~Acts 2:38-39 "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, [even] as many as the Lord our God shall call."
The next step after turning your life around and committing your life to Christ is to be baptized to publicly declare to other believers that you belong to God FOR GOOD. By being baptized, you also symbolically take the same place as Jesus in His resurrection by going under the water where your old life is left behind and you come up again a new person.
You don't have to have gone through a 21 day fast where your soul got an intense spiritual cleansing like I did. Even if you have simply made a decision to turn your life around to live right, you will ALWAYS be tempted to go back, every single day of your life.
I know that it will always be a struggle for me for the rest of my life but I want to be up for the task when it comes to that.
That's why this past Sunday I made the decision to finally be baptized in church this coming Sunday. I held it off for a long time and I feel that now is the time to make that final commitment. People say that when you accept Christ into your life, it's like that is only being engaged in the relationship. You aren't "married" to Christ until you formally declare your true and permanent commitment by being baptized. If that's true then I have been engaged to my faith for too long and I want to take the leap and finalize my "transformation" into who I am supposed to be in Christ. I want to have the boldness to change my world and not just stand back and watch others do my work for me. I'm sick of complaining and going back to old habits.
I want a fresh start. How about you?
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