Believing is a choice of what we will choose to desire. It is saying, "I desire what God wants more than I desire what I want". It is saying, "I desire to obey God's calling more than I desire to run my own life according to my own rules". Simple right? There are things in life that we choose to desire [our own spouses for example] and things we choose not to desire [someone else's spouse].
Believing is a choice, it involves our will. It is an act of will to confess and repent and then turn away from those things which are cultivating negativity and darkness into our lives. It is an act of will to yield ourselves [our desires, our goals, our thoughts, our plans] to the Holy Spirit and say to the Lord, "Not my will, but Thy will be done".
Once you begin to turn your thoughts over to the Lord - you will find that they are filled with hope. That despite your circumstances, you feel peaceful and joyful. Not the kind of peace that comes from a few hours of rest, but the kind that is so deep you don't even really understand why you feel so peaceful, or how you could feel so peaceful. But you will know that it is the peace that Jesus left for you before He joined our Father.
When you begin to turn your decision making and goal setting over to God - you will find that His Spirit that is in you will lead you down the right paths. Things will begin to happen that feel like coincidence, but are WAY to coincidental and WAY too God oriented and WAY too good! For instance, someone mentioned to me a few days ago, a situation in their life that I immediately felt compelled to pray about. I left work for a bit to pray and on my way back I stopped at the coffee shop to grab lunch. While waiting for my sandwich, I saw a little book on the shelf - I do not even know what it was called, but it was something about "Grace" and it caught my eye...so I picked it up and flipped through it - it opened right to a page that held a scriptural verse on it that I had been studying earlier in the day and had been using in prayer for this person. Simple confirmation of God's voice....or coincidence? I choose to believe it was God's voice. I shared the scripture with this person and I believe it shed light on their circumstances, just as God intended. You will find that when you give your life to God and allow the Spirit to lead you, these types of divine interventions will occur on a regular basis. As I've said before, if you seek Him, you will find Him. He will not hide his face from you. You just have to choose Him. Choose to believe Him. Not believe IN Him. But believe Him. Believe that He is who He says He is and He does what He says He will do. Choose to believe and see your life be transformed and richly blessed.
The Old Way Has to Go
[an excerpt from Paul's letter to the Ephesians from "The Message" bible]
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And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They've refused for so long to deal with God that they've lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can't think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.
But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. "
But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. "
Eph. 4:15-24
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