Leaving Babylon pgs. 138-139
Adam and Eve’s children have become more estranged from each other. Each has forgotten what God called them to be to each other. The divorce rate today is at an all-time high. Today many choose not to marry but to live together and have children without any binding commitment to each other. The fear of loving each other at that level overwhelms them, so they avoid it all together. Children grow up never knowing what it is to live under the security of a parental marriage covenant. Children grow up in the atmosphere that Dad or Mom may or may not be there tomorrow. They can just walk away or move out without any binding responsibility to them. The children of Adam and Eve are basically on their own, so they have made up their own rules of survival and developed their own coping strategies—strategies that feel good for the moment but will eventually consume them. Today, we see more and more of our youth consumed in lies, drugs, sex, and heinous acts of violence. Many of them are behaving with no understanding of love, mercy, or peace. They are driven by an anger that they cannot explain. Some, in their hunger for commitment from someone or anyone, pledge themselves to gangs, to cults, and, in some cases, to the occult.
What they need to know is that Someone is committed to them, and that Someone does love them unconditionally. We are beings that need nothing less than this. Without that critical element in our lives, we become fearful and angry beings. Without love, we are vulnerable to its opposite, hate.
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 nlt)
When we ask God for anything, I believe He looks at several things, such as our attentiveness and the focus of our request. The degree of these attributes tells Him of our hearts’ desire toward what we ask, our love and intention to care for what we ask for.
Sessions in Pain, pg. 189
AUTHOR’S COMMENTS: Sometimes what we have asked God for and received becomes old or weary to us. But even on the hard days God expects you to keep you vows to Him – to love what He has entrusted to your care. He is faithful who promised as you commit the gift to Him.
Crushed in soul, Hannah prayed to God and cried and cried—inconsolably. Then she made a vow: Oh, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, If you’ll take a good, hard look at my pain, If you’ll quit neglecting me and go into action for me
By giving me a son,
I’ll give him completely, unreservedly to you.
I’ll set him apart for a life of holy discipline (1 Samuel 1: 9-11 The Message Bible).
Leaving Babylon pg, 56
Anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord becomes a part of “spiritual Israel.” This is an act of faith in the one true God. They become a part of the ones who contend with God every day through their failures and mistakes. They hold on to Him because of their faith in the work done on the cross by the God-man.
God had a plan from the time we were deceived in the garden by His enemy. That plan was to reconnect with mankind through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the God-man. The Holy Scriptures refer to Jesus Christ as the Bridegroom, and the church or witnesses of Jesus as the bride. Jesus is the embodiment of the great marriage between God and humanity as is demonstrated in Matthew 25:1–12. When God accepted the sacrifice in Jesus Christ’s death and suffering for the sins of His bride, the marriage was complete. The bride could be saved. The bride could be rescued from Babylon.
As you submit to being examined by Christ, you will learn that He knows what is in your heart more than you do. This is why Peter made such a bold confession to stand by Jesus before His arrest, only to blatantly deny that he ever knew Him several hours later.
Sessions in Pain, pg. 236
AUTHOR’S COMMENTS: Christ brings us to a place of knowing ourselves. He will confront us as He did Peter; telling us the truth about where we are in our relationship with Him.
“before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.” (Luke 22:34 niv).
Paul wrote exhaustive texts on the battle between the flesh and the spirit. He implored us to “Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15). I like that word “circumspectly”; it literally means to look or see in a circle or all around you. You must be constantly aware of the battle you are in by maintaining your spiritual relationship with God. No one who walks in the flesh is exempt—no one! Sessions in Pain, pg. 147
AUTHOR’S COMMENTS: By far the greatest and most precious gift given to any human being is salvation. Salvation literally means “deliverance or escape”. Our salvation is a gift that must be cared for like an infant. If protected and nurtured it will grow keeping us safe from present and future evil. But we must be watchful, careful, and sober looking around us – “walking circumspectly”.
“How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Hebrews 2:3a
Leaving Babylon pg. 64
Jesus taught us that the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, would come to guide us into all truth. He will guide us into true peace, love and joy, and all of the other aspects of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23). The “comforters”of Babylon are counterfeits of the true “Comforter,” the Holy Spirit. We are utterly helpless without the guidance of the Holy One.
Our world stands today entrapped in the bondages of Babylon because so many have failed to be guided by and submitted to the Comforter. We took the job, the money, the position. We voted for the bill and became involved in the relationship, without a word of request to the Holy Spirit for guidance, and now we exist with the shackles of Babylon around our necks. We work all day and half the night to prove ourselves to her. We cannot go home from work or walk away from our electronic devices because of her demands. Meanwhile, Babylon ravages our spouses, children, family, and friends as we have abandoned them for her pleasures and dictates. We live in constant fear and insecurity of loosening the trappings to which we have become addicted. Our minds are bound to her persuasions as to how our lives should be lived.
Our future is bleak as Babylon continues to string us along with the promises of more things and a better society. She constantly works to comfort our flesh or bodies, for she can never comfort our spirits. She is rarely overt with her seductions but rather comes at us subtly with distracters and threats of failure, poverty, and rejection if we cease to serve her.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 14:26 nkjv
Guarding your heart requires daily checks with the Holy Spirit. Watch out for the words that you speak and the thoughts that you think: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14). God stands ever present as your strength and your Redeemer as you choose to speak His Word and meditate on Him. Sessions in Pain, pg. 167
AUTHOR’S COMMENTS: Of all the warnings given to humanity 
none stand more important than this, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (Proverbs 4:23 NLT).
LEAVING BABYLON PG. 67
Our rescue from Babylon is the most precious gift ever given to mankind, but it must be cared for. You must care for and cherish your relationship with God and your inheritance that was bought with the precious blood of Christ. You must be careful not to allow the thief to rob you of its riches through the neglect of your great salvation. You neglect your salvation when you allow it to become stagnant, unproductive, and it fails to carry out the purposes of God. As you remain in Babylon, the risk of robbery remains great as she actively seeks to take from you, daily, through the choices she will continually offer you.
The Scriptures describe her master as a roaring lion that is looking to seize upon any unsuspecting soul (1 Pet. 5:8). The lion’s impending attack is not always obvious. Sometimes it is insidious—creeping gradually into your life through good ideas and hopeful plans. You keep telling yourself that things will get better once I accomplish this thing or obtain that thing. The things I’m called to do for God can wait, and you ignore His voice as Babylon continues to gobble up your time and attention until all of your life and all of your time is gone. Her appetite is insatiable. She will take everything!
Many times well-meaning people will enable someone’s debilitation because they fail to be in tune with the heart and will of God concerning a situation. God will make us people of wisdom if we learn to consult Him in all matters. Do not be directed by your flesh, but by the Holy Spirit. Sessions in Pain, pg. 110
AUTHOR’S COMMENTS: Someone once told me, “whatever inspires you will control you. If your emotions inspire you, your emotions will control you, but if the Holy Spirit inspires you the Holy Spirit will control you.” Being a person of wisdom is as simple as asking for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
“Now therefore, O sons, listen to me,
For blessed [happy, prosperous, to be admired] are they who keep my ways. Heed (pay attention to) instruction and be wise,
And do not ignore or neglect it.” (Proverbs 8:32-33 AMP).
by admin on January 5, 2017
in Podcast
