Life In The Spirit

A woman I know was talking to me about some of the challenges she’s facing in her life right now. She had been addicted to cocaine for a number of years, and though she’s now on her way to recovery, her life is still very hard because of all that she lost. She’s living in a place right now where she doesn’t like to use the kitchen because it’s not clean and she has to share it with other people who don’t keep it clean and don’t respect other people’s belongings. She doesn’t want to buy pots and pans to use there and she doesn’t want use anyone else’s. So even though she has heart disease, and her doctor is telling her to eat a heart healthy diet, she finds herself eating fast food that she knows is killing her. She’s in her 50’s, and she is so beautiful and young looking that you wouldn’t know the hardship she’s been living with. I would have thought she was 35 at most, and I never would have known about her addiction if she hadn’t told me.

There are people walking around every day with so much pain and we’d never know it. I know I’ve had my share, although I haven’t dealt with nearly what this woman has, but I have had my own hardships. A woman who was a friend of a boyfriend I had once looked at me and said, “A charmed life!” When I told that to a friend who’s known me for 30 years, she laughed and said, “She obviously doesn’t know anything about you.” We often judge people by the way they look, and if they’re not walking around with a sad expression on their face or looking old and drawn, we think they must be having the time of their life. Who are we to judge them? Some people even get jealous if you’re happy – they think you must be rich or something if you laugh and smile. Life doesn’t have to be a constant dirge – it is tough, I won’t deny that, but if a woman who has lost everything to a cocaine addiction and is now living in a place that she hates can still have a glow about her, so can I.

As I talked to this woman, something came into my spirit to share with her. As I wrote about yesterday, sometimes the Holy Spirit will have us say something to someone and we don’t know why we’re saying it but it’s just what they need to hear. I’ve been going through a tough time, not nearly as tough as hers, but tough for me all the same. As I spoke with her, the things that the Lord has been speaking to me were things I shared with her, even though our situations right now are very different. And He added things as she spoke, things that I didn't even understand myself, but she got them right away and they added to her ability to understand what was going on inside of herself.

When she started to talk about the bad fast food she eats because she doesn’t know what else to do, she said that eating junk food was like doing drugs – that we don’t really want to do it, but we get a craving for something, something that will satisfy our hunger or our need to feel full when we are feeling empty, and that we go ahead and do the drugs or eat the food, and then we feel physically and emotionally awful because it hurts our body, it cost us money, and we know we shouldn’t have done it. When she said that, it came into my spirit so strong to tell her that it was a lie of the enemy that unhealthy food was all she deserved. I said that the enemy wants us to believe that we’re never going to get anywhere different in our lives – that what we have now is all that we can ever have, so why not go and do the drugs or eat the unhealthy food – we’re going to die in the same place where we are now anyway, so what does it matter? I said that then, once we’ve gone ahead and done that thing that we know is wrong and unhealthy, that he makes us feel guilty about it, so we figure why not just keep doing it because I’m a bad person and I don’t deserve anything else.

I have no idea where those words came from except for God. I’m not trained to be a drug counselor or any other kind of therapist, but the words came from somewhere, and I know they were what she needed to hear because her whole face changed when I said them and she said, “That’s exactly what he does!” She went on to say that the devil talked to her that way and I said that as much as he talks to us, God talks to us too, and we can decide who we’re going to listen to. She said that she had almost stopped having faith – that she was even yelling at God sometimes because she was so angry with how she was living her life, and  I told her that God doesn’t blame her for doing what she was doing with her life before – that it doesn’t matter what we did in our lives before because when we come to Him with faith, He makes us righteous and clean again. I said that He doesn’t mind when we complain or yell about our situation – and I reminded her about Job and David in the Psalms.

Her whole face was lit up now, glowing with life. She looked at me and said, “I thought that God had forgotten about me,” and I was able to tell her that He never had. I was also able to tell her that sometimes we are in a place where we don’t want to be, and we don’t understand why God isn’t moving faster to get us out of it, but that it’s only because the place that He’s preparing for us isn’t ready yet – and as I write this I'm thinking of another thing, that maybe we’re not ready for it yet either. I said that sometimes we just have to find a way to rest in Him where we are, even if it’s not where we want to be and it’s not very comfortable either. That we can trust in Him to take us to that new place, but that we sometimes need to be patient with His timing. As I spoke with her, I kept hearing my own words in my own ears because this was a message for me too. When I had finished speaking, she said to me, “That’s a lot to take in, thank you.” She looked completely renewed and refreshed - I hadn't given her anything except for the encouraging words that came from a place that could only have been God, and so I responded, “It’s not coming from me, it’s what He wants you to know.”

In Romans 8:1-2 Paul tells us, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” I think that’s one of the great chapters of scripture – I’d put it all down here if I had the space and time. But here are a few more wonderful sections to give you a flavor for it if you don’t know it already and to remind you of it if you do, “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him, we cry 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.” (verses 15-17) “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” (verses 24-25) “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those He predestined He also called; those He called He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.” (verses 28-30)

And then, after all that beauty and power and glory, we have the finale of the greatest fireworks show there is, “What then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I could write more here, but there really is nothing more to say – He said it all. Take it in, deep into your spirit. It’s what He wants you to hear.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan