For many years, I had it on my
heart to write a book about backsliding (which means to turn away from God
after having made a commitment to Him).
I wanted to share my own story of how God willingly saved me from
destroying myself, and lovingly brought me back to Himself. In addition, I wanted to know enough about
the subject that I could help prevent others from making the same terrible
decisions I had made that took me far away from the God of my childhood. So I began researching the topic and there
was so little information about it, that it took me something like 25 years to put
together a final outline. I wrote it
about five times before coming up with the final book, Victory Over Backsliding, which is available as an ebook on Amazon.
Early
on in my research, and after much prayer and deliberation, I saw a pattern
emerge as to what it was that would cause or influence a person to turn their
back on God. I discovered that there are
three main areas that a believing Christian will struggle with throughout their
lifetime: 1) self 2) the devil 3) and the
world. The book deals at length with
these three areas in addition to other important chapters.
Recently, in light of what
appears to be an all-out attack of persecution on the Church, and also
confusion, deadness and division within the Church itself, I have been deeply
impressed to share a part of my book in the form of blogs. Out of the three categories I mentioned above,
I am going to share the entire chapter on Self (in parts) in hopes that the
Church can begin to heal and rise up to where she needs to be beginning with
one person at a time.
This
first part is an introduction to “self.”
The blogs to follow offer specific topics under the same heading having
to do with what we all struggle with in our Christian life.
Chapter 6 – Overcoming Self
While the world
and Satan can be formidable foes, drawing us into their enticing snares, oftentimes
our own selves, or “self” can be our greatest adversary. Like the saying goes, “We can be our own worst
enemy.” What is Self? Self is the whole
person, how we come into the world. Self
resides in a physical body which also contains a soul – mind, emotions, will,
and heart. We are also born with a
spirit which God breathes into each and every person born. The spirit is the part of us that connects to
God when we become born again, and this is how we communicate with Him (see
John 4:24). When Adam and Eve sinned,
their spirits became disconnected from God and only the soulish part of them
remained along with the body, which was now cursed to die. So every person born into the world is born
with a spirit, a soul, and a body which is destined to die. In the Bible, the self is referred to as the
natural man (I Cor. 2:14), the carnal man (Romans 7:14) and the flesh.[1]
The Meaning of Lordship
Perhaps one of the best ways to picture the true
nature of self is to imagine a kingdom with self as its own lord and
master. When we think of “lord” we think
back to olden
times when the head of a household or large estate which might include choice
and vast land, was called a lord. In
Britain, titles of lord are granted to such people of high rank. The word and title itself is synonymous with
honor. A lord is respected and to be
highly esteemed.
We can picture our heart as a
miniature kingdom of its own, yet it is the grandest of places, for it directs
the life we live in all its many facets (see Prov. 4:23). We can imagine a throne room, where all
important issues of life are considered and all the decisions we make are
decided. But the important question is –
Who is sitting on the throne and making the final decisions? Is it myself, or is it Jesus, King of Kings
and Lord of Lords? This is a phenomenal question. How do I know the answer to this
question? By nature we habitually and consistently want to place our will
over God's and usurp his ultimate authority and lordship in our lives. This will happen many times in the course of
a single day if we have not spent time prayerfully before the Lord. We may choose anger over making peace by
forgiving someone when they hurt us. We
may think evil thoughts about people instead of thoughts that are praiseworthy. We may criticize instead of build someone
up. We might gossip instead of pray for
that person. There are many things to
cause “self” to rise up and dethrone the true Lord of our life, the Lord Jesus
Christ who bought us and calls us His own.
What really happens when we first
become saved and invite Jesus into our hearts and lives is that He not only forgives
us our sins, but we also give Him permission to sit on the throne of our
hearts. In fact, according to Ephesians
2:10, we are now “His workmanship,” and He will be faithful to bring about His
righteousness in us. Yet, still, we must
allow Jesus to work in our hearts and not stand in the way of His performing
His perfect work. If we refuse to allow
him entrance into any area of our lives, then “self” is in control rather than
the Holy Spirit. And often it is in
these areas that we will not have the victory since we are not allowing the
Lord to work, rule and reign.
Who’s In Authority?
Lordship also
means authority. Satan tempted Eve with
the notion that if she ate of the fruit she would be like a god. This was the quickest path to dethrone God’s
authority in humankind’s life, to want to be our own god. We are born with this desire. Many Christians accept the Lord into their
heart and life, but astonishingly, never allow Him Lordship. If we do not allow Him lordship we will
always be at odds in our spiritual life.
Self will be constantly vying for first place and we will likely waver
in our walk. So until self is dethroned,
and we allow Jesus to be Lord of all, we will not be able to experience freedom
from our fleshly demands and enjoy all the victory that is ours in Christ.
Taken from VictoryOver Backsliding,
by Linda McBurney-Gunhouse, Creative Focus Publishing, p. 61-62, 2007.
NOTE: If you decide to purchase the entire ebook,
and you will gain a much greater insight into this topic. It is critically important to stand strong in
these tumultuous days, and to be fully prepared for what is yet to come. It all begins with our own personal relationship
with Jesus, and this book is written to bring us back to Him, or draw us much
closer to Him.
Please stay tuned for the next
blog.
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