HE'S WORKING ON ME

For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity. Proverbs 24:16 NKJV

James 3:2 says We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

Has there ever been a time when you have gotten upset with someone and later thought 'I really did not need to react that way?' One too many times this has happened to me and I would go back and apologize. It does not matter what the situation is, what you have done or even experienced; God can repurpose and repackage each and every one of us!

"Can you say He is still working on me"?

I think if we look at our biblical examples there are one too many that have made mistakes a time or two but ran back to God for forgiveness. There was this guy though that made quite a few mistakes and kept going though his end was disastrous and that was Samson. He was known to have strength but seemingly enough the end was catastrophic.

I am sure you've met some people of God that were on fire; healing the sick, transforming lives and doing great things BUT they fell, like all of us we may fall but we need grace, forgiveness and humility to get back up. Samson must have gotten overwhelmed, frustrated and tired but gave in to his feelings never asking for help.

That will not be our portion in Jesus' Name.

Picture being called to destroy a group of people but instead of destroying them taking a spouse from the same group of people you were sent to destroy. How sad do you think God was when he saw how Samson was being disobedient? This is exactly how God is feeling when he has ordained for each of us to do something special and because of our carnal desires or even because of our lack of understanding we marry, befriend and connect with people that actually came to destroy us and steal God's vision for our lives. Last week I shared my story about how my identity has been restored by the grace of God on www.mariamfavy.com through this story I shared how the enemy used different tactics like guilt and condemnation, shame, self-doubt and so on many others. But the enemy can also use lack, loss, depression, rebellion, pregnancy and even family to verbally declare negativity over the life of their loved ones. In the story of Samson based on what is written Samson was not corrected, his parents had an encounter prior to his birth with who he was but at some point, they lose his vision. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we disobey instructions given through the word of God, parents or that had been sent directly to us.

Moreover, Samson slept with the enemy who was paid to bring him down. Samson probably would not have experienced any of this had he destroyed those people as instructed and in the end pride caused him not to return to God and repent. God did not take away his strength or turn away from Samson because he had sinned. Sin took him further and further away from God. That is usually the result of sin causing guilt, condemnation, a feeling of failure, feeling like you are not good enough or that God will not forgive you but that is the exact opposite. Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard. Romans 3:23

Have you ever thought about where those negative thoughts came from? It is not from God, it is from the enemy giving these subtle negative suggestions that sometimes seem like truths. Yes, there was a mistake but that does not stop God from loving you, from blessing you but it is our own actions after we have sinned that can hinder the flow of blessings and anointing. My question in the case of Samson is why did he pray for the strength to destroy himself and not the people he actually meant to destroy; it must have been lies from the enemy. Such a tragic fall from a man appointed by God.

Additionally, there is another story with a horrendous failure and that was Saul in 1 Samuel. At the beginning of the story Saul was anointed as king by Samuel, this was an instruction from God because the people wanted a king. Somehow we humans always tend to think we know what's best, make mistakes and turn it on to God when the things we desire do not work out. Saul's beginning was great there were battles that he won but there was a specific instruction he received and did not obey. Throughout all of Saul's reign, he fought battles.

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities powers rulers of the darkness of this age-(Ephesians 6:12), fighting battles are not new but looking at family history we can see what kind of battles would be predominant. Like Saul, he probably battled with pride and rebellion. Pride gives you a sense of importance, the feeling that you do not need anyone else's help and rebellion causes disobedience. To overcome these spiritual strongholds we ask for mercy from God and others we have affected through our actions and TRY not to live in sin (disobedience).

REBELLION & PRIDE

Rebellion is the act or process of resisting authority.

Pride is a deep pleasure or desire derived from one's own achievements.

God is still working on us!

On the other hand, David made many mistakes; he committed adultery, murdered, loved women, and didn't correct and bring order in his home or his children but he was a man after God's own heart. He would make a mistake and would quickly run back to God crying, repenting and sharing what was on his heart with God. H also fought many battles but what differed from David is he also won them as well as another obedient child of God like Joshua.

SUBMISSION

Submission is yielding or accepting an authority.

Do you have someone that you truly admire? You pay attention to their colloquialisms, the way they embellish themselves, and their mannerisms. These are things that you probably will copy and paste whether you recognize it as submission or not.

True story, I recognized someone on social media that I admired and began following her without consideration I began using her slang, jargons and became a part of her network in the city where I lived without my knowledge an acquaintance began following her as well I later found out based on seeing me follow her but what happened is this person that I knew began having feelings of depression, thoughts of suicide and other harmful thoughts. I also began to battle with depression but quickly retreated to God. I disconnected from social media (at the time I was uncertain of what was the root cause but I needed to disconnect) God's grace ya'll. I later went to my Pastor, he seemed very perplexed as he recalled the weeks before I was fine, doing devotions, serving, not living in sin. He responded by asking how frequent I was on social media. Wow! I quickly told him that I disconnected but I had connected with a group in the city for young women in Christ he was able to connect the two stories and instructed me to discontinue following the group and the person. The people I had connected with although Christians battled with these things.

What would good people do if the wicked destroyed all that is good? Psalms 11:3 ERV

Although I do not believe her intent was malicious the outcome could have been disastrous. I first did not test her fruits and running from place to place with itchy ears can lead to many issues. Indirectly I saying is I do not trust what my pastor or parents have to say but there is a better word somewhere else through someone else. I repented and never looked back at the people or situation (not condemning myself for the mistake). Submitting is the ability to know that you can do something, you may have knowledge but choose to let someone else direct you. In a marriage, the wife submits to the husband, a student to a teacher, a child to the parent, a member of a church to the pastors and leads, an employee to the boss or supervisor or government officials to constituents.

Can you say, God please work on me?

I believe if I did not believe in my spiritual authority aka the pastor my story may never have been told. Who would have known the spiritual battle I was fighting? I did not recognize my subtle rebellion.

Internally check your heart. What areas have you been weaker in? Do you know the devil has been around longer than you have and he knows what you like and what can make you fall? Both Samson, David and King Solomon had a weakness for women. It is possible if they had asked for help that they would've been even greater than they were. Sometimes in the Christian world, we do not recognize or speak openly about some of these strongholds like lust, sex, pornography, masturbation, fornication materialism and so many other things because it is a stronghold and we have not sought help it keep us bound. Rather we allow shame and guilt (the enemy) to win by keeping it private until it may unfold publically. Looking from the outside in, David's issues seem clear but why did no one address them? Rape, murder and anger are so many scandals unaddressed and never dealt with.

I don't mean I am exactly what God wants me to be. I have not yet reached that goal. But I continue trying to reach it and make it mine. That's what Christ Jesus wants me to do. It is the reason he made me His. Philippians 3:12 ERV

In closing, there are times we make mistakes knowingly or unknowingly but it is up to us as children of God to get help directly from God or from people he has placed around us without judgement the person helping us. The crazy thing about how God works is that He does not use perfect people but imperfect people that are willing to be obedient. In Ezekiel God was able to transport him from one location to another, Elijah was sent on a mission unknown to him, Jesus was sent to sinners, and John the Baptist was sent to pave the way for Jesus. We all have been called with different assignments and following each assignment helps another person in Christ. Or like Samson who did not defeat the Philistine's left David to come after him and had to fight a battle that should have already been defeated. Or Moses not being able to see the promise land and Joshua having to take the mantle. There is cause and effect also in the spiritual realm to our submission and obedience to the word of God. We all make many mistakes. A person who never said anything wrong would be perfect. Someone like that would be able to control their whole body too.

Submit to God's repurpose and repackaging deal to become giants in the kingdom of God.

Ohhh chile God is working on me!

#hesworkingonme #repurposeandrepackagedforthekingdom #kingdomgiants #spiritualbattles