Thoughts
on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 60
Michael’s book is
available through:
Abiding Life Ministries
International
Littleton, Colorado
Notice: this email is part of a BLOG, called Getting Out of the
Wilderness. Why a blog? So that many can receive the weekly thoughts
I express on Michael’s writings in an easy manner.
Michael
gives us great counsel against this subtle lie of the devil. Every Born Again Believer must POSSESS based
on what God has told us, not by the enemy’s definitions, our emotions, any experiences,
or any other qualifiers.
Lie #3 - TO POSSESS I MUST
EXPERIENCE
excerpt
from pages 177-179 of SIW (5th printing,
March 1998)
excerpt
from pages 179-181 of SIW (14th printing,
March 2012)
(used with permission from
ALMI):
Many
are working to have oneness or one in their marriages, when in fact oneness is
something that is given, not worked for.
Experience must come out of faith, which is the “conviction of things
not yet seen.” Because we have not
experienced all does not mean that we do not possess all. If the experience never comes, still we
believe what He has spoken. The other
side of this problem is that the enemy would like to define for us what the
experience should be and have us believe that until we have those feelings he
specifies, we do not possess what God has given us.
Take,
for example, the whole issue of knowing whether a person is going to
heaven. Many have allowed the enemy to
define for them what this assurance will feel like, such as a great emotional
release, visions, appointments, the list being as varied as are the
believers. We must remember that our
assurance is based on what God tells us, not anything else…
There
are those who are so governed by emotion that the worst thing the Lord could do
for them upon first accepting Him would be to give them an emotional
experience, for in so doing, God would be encouraging them to continue to be
led by emotion. For this type of person
it would be important t have no emotional experience and to learn to walk by
faith without feeling. The experience
that God gives each individual will always be just the one needed.
We
must also be careful to allow all experiences to transpire without trying to
force them, because the enemy (sometimes by way of other believers) may have
defined a particular experience as our assurance. Know this, that one sure sign of assurance is
questioning the fact of being born again.
We
must be careful to allow only God to define what is ours in Christ, and not
allow the enemy to add qualifiers. We
also must not allow the enemy to define what a successful believer is, because
it will so often have to do with accomplishing something great for the Lord;
his logic is characteristically, “If I can do something great for the Lord,
then He will be pleased, and I will gain His favor and acceptance.” Such a thought has its roots in hell, for it
denies the Christian’s standing before the Father by faith in Christ’s work,
not his own. Nowhere are we commended
for doing the great thing; rather, the emphasis is on faithfulness in the
smallest of things: for the child, in such as obedience; for the wife, simple
respect for her husband; and for the husband, loving his wife. Successful Christianity involves forgiving,
loving the unlovable, giving instead of storing up treasures on earth, and
abiding in Him. We must always allow God
to specify what Christianity is, and we will find that it is rarely what we
think it is.
Isn’t
it beautiful what all God has done for every believer, what all God has given
every believer…all simply because of who we are in Christ. Well, amen!
Michael
clearly gives us two great truths to live by:
1.
We believe what GOD has spoken, therefore possessing because HE has said
so. It is only sad if we don’t
experience what we possess, but never an indication we don’t possess.
2.
We live based on GOD’s definition of what an experience should be. Again, it is only sad if we don’t experience
an experience exactly as God has prescribed, but we cannot let the enemy
re-define or add qualifiers to change God’s definition.
I
so appreciate Michael telling us what “successful Christianity involves," and
also his telling us to “always allow God to specify what Christianity IS.” We must not let “what we think it is” rule
our living as a Christian.
Thank
You, Lord, that You have given us Yourself to live in us, so that living life
as a Christian is merely living the life that is Christ. Hallelujah!
Note:
if you don’t have one of Michael’s Sidetracked In The Wilderness books,
please contact ALMI
(www.abidinglife.com) and get one today!
To access ALL past weekly
blogs, go to Getting
Out of the Wilderness by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com
NOTICE: another blog…on Michael Wells’ book, My
Weakness For His Strength, called Living Life With a Capital “C”. You can
access by logging onto www.leemccm.blogspot.com
Lee McDowell Christian Ministries
leemccm@gmail.com
1737 CR
2051 Nacogdoches, Tx 75965 936-559-5696
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