Spiritual Breakthrough

It's amazing when you come to the other side of a particular struggle and it's as though the sun breaks through the clouds, we come out of a desert wasteland where we felt lost, uncertain and maybe even afraid, into a beautiful green meadow with flowers and fruit trees and a sparkling stream. We kick off our dusty shoes and soak our tired feet (after getting a big refreshing drink) and just sit back and go "Ahhh." And yet it takes a while to find actual rest. We are used to struggling and striving through something difficult so the abrupt change of pace from pushing forward to resting can take some adjustment. I believe God blesses both the struggle and the rest.

About three or so years ago my particular journey towards rest began. I felt like God was leading me away from church, which seems like a contradiction, but I can honestly say that since stepping away from church I've stepped a whole lot closer to God. I'm not saying church is bad, and I'm not saying for breakthrough you have to walk away from church. I'm saying that for this season in my life I felt this is what God asked me to do, and I had no desire to disobey Him. Now I'm beginning to see what He is trying to do in my life. He is giving me a new start to enable me to become the woman I truly want to become.

We've been in Australia for nearly a year now. In all honesty it's been one of the most emotionally challenging years of my life. But I can also say that as hard as it has been, it has also been an amazing year as God has faithfully stripped away the unhealthy layers that had accumulated in my life and I am able to rebuild on His solid foundation.

So after almost a full year of intense spiritual, emotional, and mental struggle I can say now that I am finally free from the bondage of Formula Christianity. And I believe it truly all started when I obeyed him and stopped going to church.

A definition of Formula Christianity could be..."If I do A and/or B then I get C" In other words if I follow a particular Formula, I will get what I want.

If I read my bible and go to church then God will reward me by giving me what I want. If I tithe my money properly and pray for friends who are sick then I can wag my tail and God will pat me on the head and give me a present (or a doggie treat). If I read this self-help book by a famous christian pastor with his face plastered on the cover and follow the step by step program then my life will finally work out the way I want it to, i.e. the way it's supposed to. If I say the Prayer of Jabez three times a day everyday for a year then....

Do you ever think that way? If...Then...

If I do this...then God will do that. If I find the right formula, the right sequence of doing things, then life will fall into place.

Are those thoughts there lingering in the back of your mind whenever you are good and 'follow the rules'?

"Wow I've been really good lately! God has got to be proud of me!" I bet I get rewarded soon! I hope it's a raise, or He motivates me to lose weight and excercise, or my knee problem goes away.

I know I was caught in the trap of subconsciously thinking that way. But it's not the way God works, He's teaching me that.

He doesn't want our obedience to a 10 step program we've devised to draw closer to Him. He wants US. He wants our love, He wants to spend time with us, He wants to share with us. If we do something for Him it shoul be because we love him, not because we love being devoted to the rules. We are not under law, but under grace. Grace means we might have to throw out the 'rulebook' and start running the race He set out for us and not worry if we fall in the mud, but just pick ourselves up again and keep running.

Have you been bound up by rules? Afraid to move forward because you might make a mistake? Are you praying for breakthrough in your life? Breakthrough will never come if you don't move forward.

Don't know what direction to go? Maybe just try moving forward in any direction, as long as you are moving.

God likens himself to a shepherd and us, his children, to sheep. When a shepherd herds his flock they normally don't all trundle along single file in a straight line directly to the intended destination. They go left, they go right, they spread out, they bunch together....but they are moving...and as long as they are moving in the general direction the shepherd wants them to go it's good enough. He will make sure the sheep don't walk off a cliff or into a bog, but the sheep need to know his voice. If the sheep refuse to move at all then there's no hope of them getting to the greener pasture. Sit too long and you'll find yourself in a desert and wonder where the grass has all gone.

So I finally got off my duff and started shuffling along. More than 3 years later I have breakthrough that I've been praying and yearning for. And I realize that I haven't come to an end, but to the beginning, and the whole world is opening up through Christ. With him there really is nothing we cannot do.

Right now I have suddenly found myself in a place of rest. A time of being still. Not laziness or complacency, but free from distractions so that I can communicate with God and know His voice. Sometimes in our busy modern world we think we have to be doing something all the time to have a fulfilling life. We have tons of activities and are constantly rushing from one thing to the next, wearing ourselves out and telling God "not now, I'm busy doing all these good things that are fulfilling."

I feel in this time God doesn't want me racing around filling my days with distractions. He wants me to be still and get to know him better. I'm truly thankful for this time I have just entered in to. In a few months we'll have a new baby, before that we will be moving to a bigger place, have company, Christmas, birthdays, and then family coming to visit after the baby, and who knows what God has in store! I'm glad to take my rest now because who knows when I will get it again!

I don't know who reads this blog, I leave that entirely up to God, but if you read it and want prayer for something similar in your life then leave me a note or contact me through email or facebook. Bless you today!