GOD'S PAIN PILL Series (Spiritual Interventions)

Time for a final application activity, also known as homework. Are you still with me? Things worth doing usually involve some hard work and lots of processing. This is no exception. Let me know if you have any breakthroughs in your spiritual life. We can celebrate together.

APPLICATION ACTIVITY

Get alone with God. Let God know you are aware of His presence. Be still with God and listen for Him.

1. Welcome God as you give Him these minutes of quietness. Rest in God’s presence. Allow His sweetness to envelop you and your spirit. Ask God for a fuller awareness of His presence. Confess, repent, and surrender. Thank God for His forgiveness and grace. Write down thoughts you wish to remember or praises you are expressing to God.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 ESV

2. Meditate on Galatians 2:20. What does each phrase in this verse say to you? Why is it important to crucify self to Christ? If you have not had a complete yielding of yourself to Christ, then you have not participated in being crucified with Christ. Becoming real as a Christian is part of this spiritual transaction of placing yourself in God and experiencing a death to self and any self-interest.

3. Identify the areas in you where you are fearful or vulnerable. Picture God taking you through a door as you leave the fears and uncertainties behind, you walk into the presence of God’s divine radiance, no longer shackled by their hindering presence.

4. Praise God for the work He is doing in you. Let go of any bondage you know exists in you that inhibits your relationship with God and with others. Give this to God. Ask for a release of God’s intervening work within you, to set you free.

5. Ask a praying friend to walk though this with you if you are feeling weak and unable. Satan is powerful. He will engage to dissuade or defeat you to stop you from taking this step of surrender. He will try to block your healing. There are times when we need praying friends to join in the spiritual battle. Do not hesitate to ask for prayer support.

6. Share what you are learning and experiencing in your relationship with Christ with a friend or a relative. Begin walking in freedom. If there is no release, healing, or sense of closeness with God, review and repeat earlier lessons. This might be a positive thing to do regardless.

7. Allow your emotions to surface for their presence is part of the healing process. If you are rigid or harsh there is need for a deeper awareness and spiritual awakening. The character of Christ is kind, loving, firm/strong, and unhurried and much, much more. Record areas you see within you that are being transformed or transformed into Christ-likeness.

Accessing and applying God's word is critical to spiritual health.

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Feedback: As you complete this series what has been helpful or informative? Please leave a comment. I welcome your input.

There are times we want to quit. We want to lie down, We’ve had enough: Discouraged, disheartened, frustrated, unsure, disappointed, unhappy. The thoughts roll through our minds. This stinks! I quit. It’s too hard! I don’t want to do this anymore. Frustration is besting us.

God is the needle, and we are the thread.

Other times we want to rebel. I don’t like this. I’m going to do it my way. But God is with us in those moments too. The truth is, we are not in it alone. God has bound Himself to us. God is the lead person in the relationship, and we are the follower.

Remember this principle, because it holds true. As an African believer once said to a young minister, “God is the needle, and we are the thread.”

To quit would be to miss out on something, The Someone, the One Who is delightful and totally present. It is easy to stumble when it comes to who is going to be the boss. We like to be our own boss. It seems safest that way. The opposite is actually true. Contrary to what one might think, God is a wonderful leader. He gives and gives in the relationship. He also empowers us and gives us courage.

When God becomes our all in all, it is possible to live in victory regardless of everything and everyone in our lives. He gives us what we need at the time we need it and then some. If you have known anyone who walks close to God in this way, you will see that they no longer operate out of fear, doubt, bitterness, or uncertainty. They have a calmness and unhurried state, much like, it seems, Jesus did.

God is our friend. He seeks intimacy with us.

We either are in the real, or we are not in the real. The basic idea underlying the whole biblical story, creation through today, is this great compelling of God with His creation, specifically with human kind.

God desires close friendship with us.

God wants us to yield our cares, desires, needs, troubles, hurts—all of them, to Him. God wants to be our closest of relationships, to become the One whom we personally love the very most, more than any of our human relationships, even more than our own desires and wants, and more than our own right to self. God loves us. We are dear to His heart.

Why is this? We’re only human.

That’s just it. We are created for God. We are not complete until we find our full completeness in God. He has been drawing us to this union of soul-to-God connectedness. God’s love for us is strong, passionate.

God desires to be loved which is one of the reasons He created us in the first place. God longs for us, to know us and to be known by us, and to find our joy in Him.

God’s love is more fulfilling than any other love.

God’s love is totally unselfish, totally life-giving, and totally trans-formative in nature. God takes what we give Him, and then He inserts His healing strength. He understands sorrow for He has suffered. He understands pain, for He has experienced pain. He also IS love. His very essence is love. It is His wish to give us a taste of His beauty and to satisfy us in His presence.

God is a deep well which never goes dry. He offers refreshing water so that we will never thirst again. In Him, is life eternal. Those who seek Him with an open mind and heart will find the supernatural to be very close. God speaks today.

God's love transforms in a beautiful way ... and makes authentic Christians.

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We’re not quite done yet but getting close.

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