HINDRANCES TO THE MANIFESTATION OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN US
If your hindrance is ambition, God may open to you a tremendous door of opportunity. It might be the biggest, most ambitious project of your life and God will allow you to step into it thinking, “This is it! I finally got my big break.”
Then the Lord will allow the whole thing to fall to the ground. You'll end up standing amid the ruins of your dream, crying, “Lord, I thought this project was Your will. I thought it had Your blessing. I prayed to You faithfully about it, and You brought me this far. How could You allow it to fail so miserably?”
The failure of your project is meant to be a death to everything that hinders the Christ-life from being manifested in you.
Your hindrance could be the incredible revelations you receive from God's Word. You may ask, “How can fresh revelation ever be a hindrance to a lover of Jesus?” One day you may be reveling in new truths being opened to you, profound doctrines you have never seen before. Your confidence is growing, because you consistently apply every new revelation to your walk with the Lord.
Then suddenly, for no apparent reason, your soul is stricken with dryness. Soon your joy and assurance give way to a sense of frailty and uselessness. An unexplainable depression fills your soul, and each day becomes a burden to you.
The Scriptures that had come so alive in your heart now seem like a closed book. Instead of receiving revelation, you wonder if you'll ever learn anything again—but the problem isn't your intellect. Your dryness is meant to hasten your death to all confidence in your flesh. It's a death to your tendency to glory in the revelation you are given, rather than getting your joy from Christ.
The fact is, revelation tends to produce pride. This is the very reason God gave Paul a thorn in his flesh. He was restraining Paul from glorying in his many great revelations. God wanted His faithful servant to remain humble in all things.
This whole process of having to endure “death situations” can seem cruel. Without question, it is one of the most painful aspects of our walk with Jesus. But if we allow death to finish its work in us, Christ's own resurrection life will flow freely out of us. If, on the other hand, we resist death's work, we will not ever have Christ's life in us!
Then the Lord will allow the whole thing to fall to the ground. You'll end up standing amid the ruins of your dream, crying, “Lord, I thought this project was Your will. I thought it had Your blessing. I prayed to You faithfully about it, and You brought me this far. How could You allow it to fail so miserably?”
The failure of your project is meant to be a death to everything that hinders the Christ-life from being manifested in you.
Your hindrance could be the incredible revelations you receive from God's Word. You may ask, “How can fresh revelation ever be a hindrance to a lover of Jesus?” One day you may be reveling in new truths being opened to you, profound doctrines you have never seen before. Your confidence is growing, because you consistently apply every new revelation to your walk with the Lord.
Then suddenly, for no apparent reason, your soul is stricken with dryness. Soon your joy and assurance give way to a sense of frailty and uselessness. An unexplainable depression fills your soul, and each day becomes a burden to you.
The Scriptures that had come so alive in your heart now seem like a closed book. Instead of receiving revelation, you wonder if you'll ever learn anything again—but the problem isn't your intellect. Your dryness is meant to hasten your death to all confidence in your flesh. It's a death to your tendency to glory in the revelation you are given, rather than getting your joy from Christ.
The fact is, revelation tends to produce pride. This is the very reason God gave Paul a thorn in his flesh. He was restraining Paul from glorying in his many great revelations. God wanted His faithful servant to remain humble in all things.
This whole process of having to endure “death situations” can seem cruel. Without question, it is one of the most painful aspects of our walk with Jesus. But if we allow death to finish its work in us, Christ's own resurrection life will flow freely out of us. If, on the other hand, we resist death's work, we will not ever have Christ's life in us!