The Inescapable Emptiness

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 28

         

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

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

We left off the last writing mentioning that Michael was just getting ready to address three problems facing those who are “born dead to God in the spirit.”  Today we find him talking about the 1^st one…

THE INESCAPABLE EMPTINESS

excerpt from pages 76-79 of SIW (5^th printing, March 1998)

excerpt from pages 72-75 of SIW (14^th printing, March 2012)

                   (used with permission from ALMI):

First…man is driven, and ends up looking in places other than God to make up his deficiency…Man becomes thoroughly and intensely self-centered in his quest for love and acceptance.

…The self-centered life is a miserable one.  It tries to draw every item in the world to itself…

Consider the stupidity of self-centered life…Unfortunately, self-life is a force much greater than reason, capable of enslaving mankind.

…Self-life is ugly, wicked, and will always lead to misery, controlling people and giving them a truly beastly existence.  That is what it is meant to be carnal: to live as an animal.

An animal has a soul (mind, will, emotions) and body, but no spirit…

In my work, I’m amazed at the depth and extent of the hideous nature of the self-life.

(Michael gives an extensive list of the characteristics of the self-centered)

…The self-centered man is blinded both to his condition and to the destruction that he causes, not only in his own life, but also in its wake.  He will begin to experience turmoil in the personality, disturbed emotions, and sickness, followed by discord and division in his relationships with others.

One of the saddest things for Christians is to reject God’s grace when faced with any issue of life and to fall back into dealing with life in the same manner they did prior to being born into the Family of God: self-centeredness.  Rejecting God’s grace negates the power of Christ’s Spirit living within AND negates the awesome availability of His mind, will, and emotions also possessed. 

To be a Child of God and to live like a child of the devil is the most pitiful life.  How man could be persuaded to do this, to most is incomprehensible.  Yet, it is simply a CHOICE.  And that choice is basically determined by UNBELIEF.  Every test in life is about WHAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT GOD.

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  

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

leemccm@gmail.com

1737 CR 2051    Nacogdoches, Tx 75965                                               936-559-5696

The Development of Self-life

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 27

         

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

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 begins this section by addressing the biggest dilemma every human being born on this earth faces…being “dead to God in the spirit” and yet having our greatest need facing us: satisfying the need to be loved and accepted by God.  In this short dialogue, Michael brings us to three problems every human being faces…

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-LIFE

excerpt from pages 75-76 of SIW (5^th printing, March 1998)

excerpt from pages 71-72 of SIW (14^th printing, March 2012)

                   (used with permission from ALMI):

According to 1 John 4:8, God is love.  Since love must have an object, God created man to be this entity.  To assure that His inclination to love would be met, God put in man’s spirit the need to be loved and accepted by Him.  The moment we are born, we are driven to find our Creator to meet this need within us.

There is, however, one major obstacle to having God meet our spiritual need for love and acceptance.  We are born dead to God in our spirits, making it impossible to have the desire consummated.  In Genesis 2:17, God said, “But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.”  It is an absolute imperative that if they eat of the tree they will die!  They did eat thereof, and God said they were dead, even though their souls were still active (they were thinking, feeling, and choosing) and their bodies were still functioning.  They were dead and yet living; where, then, did the death take place?  There is only one place left – the spirit.  They were dead to God in the spirit, the result being that it would now be impossible to have their deepest needs – spiritual love and acceptance that could come only from God – met.  This condition presents three particular problems for man.

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

What a sad state to live in: dead to God in the spirit, faced with the impossibility of having their deepest needs – spiritual love and acceptance – met by God, and yet functioning with a body and a soul that craves everything THE OPPOSITE or WITHOUT God…and, really not knowing they are in that condition! (2 Corin. 4:3-4)

It is incredible that “man” seeks knowledge far and wide, but spiritual truth is at the bottom of the list that most ever seek.  And those of us who have found The Truth seem oblivious to the one thing that grasped our attention, the one thing God used to break through to us…He used someone to answer that question that perhaps we weren’t even asking: How can I find spiritual love and acceptance?

Man, in his feeble efforts, has tried to find love and acceptance through the flesh, missing the point that it is spiritual love and acceptance he really needs.  And the church has constantly done a good job of pointing out the failures of man’s flesh, all the while never addressing the need for spiritual love and acceptance.  When will we as a whole begin to address this with everyone? 

For as life has dealt many Christians a severe blow, and their response to God has been incorrect, they now deal with the same emptiness that someone who doesn’t know God is dealing with.  God’s answer is always the same: JESUS.

Want to know what the three problems are?  Want to know God’s solution to each?  Michael gets to these and other issues in the next few pages of the book…

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  

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

leemccm@gmail.com

1737 CR 2051    Nacogdoches, Tx 75965                                               936-559-5696

The Conviction of Self-Life

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 26

         

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

In this brief introduction to the long discourse on the “self-life,” Michael simply asks the questions that he answers in the next 25 pages (chapter 6), which is followed by 30 pages of “The Loss of Self-Life”! (chapter 7).  So, we begin a journey of finding out what the self-life is before we can get lose it.  Grab a pen, get your Bible and a Concordance…and prepare for a tremendous journey into the best discipling you will have ever heard.  Chapter 6…

THE CONVICTION OF SELF-LIFE

excerpt from pages 75 of SIW (5^th printing, March 1998)

excerpt from pages 71 of SIW (14^th printing, March 2012)

                   (used with permission from ALMI):

“If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.  For whosoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is one who will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24)   Jesus says the way to life will be through death, and if they are to follow Him, they must deny self.  What is this self that we are commanded to deny, and what is the life that must be lost in order to live?

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

“Self” and “Life”…two different things.  But when put together, all sorts of havoc is noted in anyone’s life…lost or born again.  The journey Michael takes us on in the next 25 pages of SIW show us clearly what these two are, and how devastating they can be.  But like the great discipler he is, he always gives us God’s answer to our dilemma.  We will learn “what it is.”  We will learn “how to deny.”  We will learn “how to lose.”  And most importantly, we will learn “how to be convicted, and to recognize it when it comes.”

Let me wet your whistle with a couple of harbingers of what is to come:

·         “Even the believer who is born again and has Christ’s Spirit within the renewed inner person can erect a wall of unbelief that disallows Christ’s rule over the soul; at that moment the believer, too, is quite insane.”

·         “In order to have a problem we must rebel against God, and the only thing that will justify rebellion is anger.”

Well, it will be an exciting journey, to say the least.  Why don’t you take the time to dig into the Greek words behind “deny,” “self,” “save,” and “life” in this passage from Luke ch.9.  This will give you a great start to discovering some important truths which will be of great help in the weeks to come.

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  

If you desire to get a weekly email of this blog, look to the top right hand side of the web page, enter your email address in the box under “Follow,” then click on SUBMIT.  You will receive a “confirmation email,” and when you click on the link and “confirm,” you will receive all new posts via email.

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

leemccm@gmail.com

1737 CR 2051    Nacogdoches, Tx 75965                                               936-559-5696

The Hard Part

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 25

         

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

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. 

Do you find it difficult to have your faith tested?  Do you fail these tests very often?  To close out chapter 5, Michael addresses the “course on faith” that all Christians must take.  See how you are faring…

THE HARD PART

excerpt from pages 68-74 of SIW (5^th printing, March 1998)

excerpt from pages 64-70 of SIW (14^th printing, March 2012)

                   (used with permission from ALMI):

Sometimes just as the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted, He will drive us into a wilderness to have our faith tested…

…When you have tried almost everything to regain emotional awareness, the enemy slips in and says things like, ‘If only…’…

In the midst of this you might even doubt whether you are truly born again…You want to perform to gain God’s acceptance.

Many who boast of breathtaking faith, telling magnificent stories of all that they have accomplished because of their awesome belief, are crushed and dismantled in this room.  And why not?  How long can a man who trusts in himself walk in darkness and not stumble and be overcome, broken, and humbled?...

…prolonged state of darkness will test us and reveal any unbelief that might reside within.  The longer the period of darkness and absence of emotion, the more will be revealed.  We will again try a series of procedures to regain our emotional standing, all of which will be telling of what we really trust in our daily lives to bring contentment, and which God, of course, will not allow to succeed.  It may be revealed we trust idols…perhaps we trust in particular brothers or sisters…we may look again to the teaching that promised us eternal bliss…we might appeal to our achievements and the many other things done in the past…

When everything fails, we begin to complain, making the error that so many do: in the midst of misfortune we do not simply remain silent and wait, but instead begin to blame God for the whole situation…

We become sick of the whole situation…

…nothing comes into our lives without first passing through the loving hands of our Father in heaven…

What do you see at the end of the chain that binds you?...would you be willing to see Jesus Christ as the Author of it, which will allow you to rest, knowing that the outcome will be for your ultimate benefit?...

Who is like our God, His lessons so wonderful, so perfectly fitted to our condition and His purpose?  We must all take this course of faith, for without it we cannot please God…

…the greatness of faith is not to be judged by how many of God’s promises you have experienced today, or how much material gain you possess, or even how much good health you have received.  The greatness of your faith is shown in proportion to how long you can wait for the fulfillment of a promise…

…the greatness of faith is proven in the ability of the believer to rest until harvest, knowing all the while that the work that must be done is a supernatural one that God alone can accomplish.

We must come to see that it is rarely in the big events that true faith is shown or proven…

Once we have completed our lesson on faith, we will be much more ready to accept without question all that God tells us.  We will be better equipped to no longer trust in our idols, in what we feel, or even in what we see; we will understand we are to trust only in Him.

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

The testing of our faith…what a constant test!  Then is it no wonder God tells us in Hebrews 11:6: “But without faith, it is impossible to please Him…”

Let me go back to the very first question I posed at the start: “Do you find it difficult to have your faith tested?”  If so, why?  Michael has already told us the solution to passing these tests…BELIEVE GOD.  Do not be an Unbelieving Believer.  When we make that choice…to BELIEVE GOD, then we become overcomers.  Our faith becomes as the testimony of all those God tells us about in the rest of Hebrews 11.  That’s what they did.  That’s how they were “super” Saints.  We can be such also!

And yet, Michael takes us to another problem for so many Christians…next week we begin Ch. 6…”The Loss of Self-life.”

p.s.  let me recommend you find one of Bruce Wilkinson’s DVD series entitled, “The Testing of Your Faith.”  It would be a great asset to go along with this Ch. 5 study, and the whole Sidetracked book.

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  

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

leemccm@gmail.com

1737 CR 2051    Nacogdoches, Tx 75965                                               936-559-5696

Faith

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 24

         

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

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. 

We now begin Ch. 5 of the book.  Michael takes us to something that God says without it… “Without faith, it is IMPOSSIBLE to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6).  Imagine…God tells us point blank, faith is the bedrock of our relationship and fellowship with Him.  Why is this not a more prevalent topic of preaching and teaching, instead of “works” and “performance”?

FAITH

excerpt from pages 67-68 of SIW (5^th printing, March 1998)

excerpt from pages 63-64 of SIW (14^th printing, March 2012)

                   (used with permission from ALMI):

…many busy themselves trying to find faith, when they have had all they needed right along…

Faith is an organ of the Spirit allowing us to receive whatever God is doing…Faith itself, not quantity of faith, is the issue.

Faith is a wonderful thing, something that every believer possesses.  It takes the pressure off us to perform and initiate His works, and places emphasis on God, the Creator of the actions…

If faith is simply receiving what God desires to do, then do you see how important your concept of God is when it comes to the issues of daily life?...

The same is true in our spiritual lives; many have a concept of God that is poisoned.  They do not know who He is, and even though they are dying, they refuse to allow His life to enter in.

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

Michael puts “faith” in a totally different perspective than most Christians have ever even imagined, much less acted upon: “…an organ of the Spirit allowing us to receive whatever God is doing.”  For most, faith has been something they have to “work up” or get in some manner of activity.  All the while missing out on whatever God is doing, or wants to be doing, in their lives.

Years of ministry has proven that far too many Christians have an incorrect concept of God, therefore missing Him in the daily issues of their life.  Correct concepts of God and losing the “self-life” are coming in future chapters…but next week we will see the rest of Ch. 5, which examines some of the most difficult challenges facing those who are lacking in faith.

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  

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

leemccm@gmail.com

1737 CR 2051    Nacogdoches, Tx 75965                                               936-559-5696

Who, Then, Is God?

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 23

         

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

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

Coming off last week’s writing…is it staggering, or what, to hear Michael say that among the defeated Christians he disciples MORE THAN 90% of the time their concepts of God really describes their fathers?!?  Goodness, how do pastors and teachers reach and communicate truth about God to such believers?

WHO, THEN, IS GOD?

excerpt from pages 64-66 of SIW (5^th printing, March 1998)

excerpt from pages 59-62 of SIW (14^th printing, March 2012)

            (used with permission from ALMI)

I like to read through 1 Corinthians 13 with those who have an unrealistic concept of God, because if He is love, then this chapter must describe Him.  How many sermons have you heard regarding this passage that made you come away thinking, I have got to love more?  Yet what a joy it is to read it substituting the name of God for the word love, and realize that this is the God who loves us and lives His life through us….

        (Michael then gives a description of who God is in that chapter)

Many have spent their whole lives trying to get their spiritual needs met.  Jesus Christ is the only One who can meet those needs, but so often we run from Him because we feel He is something other than the God of 1 Corinthians 13.

…many people have never given God a fair opportunity to prove Himself, for they reject who they feel He is before He can act on their behalf.

The way out of emotional unbelief is quite simple.  We need only confess as sin our wrong feelings of who God is and profess who He really is…Unbelief is the mother of sin; however, the depth of our unbelief is truly revealed in how we respond to God when we fail.  If we wallow, cut ourselves off from Him, and traffic in self-punishment we prove that our acceptance never rested in the Son of God, but rather in how well we could perform.

…If we remain miserable with such a great God, we can blame no one but ourselves!

It is a great step of faith to go against all the lying emotions you have concerning who God is and to just open that door to His life one time, for one time is all it will take for you to discover the abundant life for which you have searched so long.  There is a verse often quoted to unbelievers which was actually written to unbelieving believers: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

In the closing words of the fourth chapter of the book, Michael takes us one step further into the dreadful state of the believer who is sidetracked somewhere in the wilderness of life: from just being an unbelieving believer…which certainly is terrible enough…to realizing that for most it is actually emotional unbelief (fired by lying emotions) that is keeping the individual from ever really having an intimate fellowship with Almighty God, their Savior God.  The devastation and defeat at the core of the believer’s Christian experience is shown to be so consuming that Michael states “we prove that our acceptance never rested in the Son of God, but rather in how well we could perform.”

How many grew up in homes with a Dad and Mom who loved conditionally…love dished out based on performance?  “God will get you; you can never please Him” (what about pleasing Dad and Mom???).

But (and that is a HOLY “but”!), God is one decision away…saying “no” to our lying emotions and trusting God for who He really is.  And the choice is ours.

May God help anyone who needs this…especially to make the choice of the preceding paragraph!

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  

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

leemccm@gmail.com

1737 CR 2051    Nacogdoches, Tx 75965                                               936-559-5696

Hindered By Your Concept of God

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 22

         

Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International

Littleton, Colorado

(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

Notice:  this email is part of a BLOG, called Getting Out of the Wilderness.  Why a blog?  So that multitudes can receive the weekly thoughts I express on Michael’s writings in an easy manner.  In the event you sign up to receive the weekly emails (see info at bottom) and then sometime in the future stop getting the emails, please remember you can go to the BLOGSITE and read each posting each week.  Then let me know (my email address below), and I will work to correct the problem.

Michael turns our attention to one of the greatest problems our churches and Christianity in general face today: who do we think God is?  Both our evangelism efforts and our discipleship of new Christians has left us with many who are not truly Born Again and/or many who are unbelieving believers.  As Michael starts off: “One of the greatest weaknesses in Christianity today…”  Read these seven (7) pages of the book first asking God to give you great insight into how this might be affecting you.

HINDERED BY YOUR CONCEPT OF GOD

excerpt from pages 57-64 of SIW (5^th printing, March 1998)

excerpt from pages 53-59 of SIW (14^th printing, March 2012)

                   (used with permission from ALMI):

One of the greatest weaknesses of Christianity today is that we ask a person to accept Jesus Christ into his life or we tell the defeated Christian to make Him Lord without taking the time to find out who the unbeliever feels is coming into his life or who the believer feels he is making Lord.

…It is a depressing thought, but what you are at your worst moment is your true condition…

…there was (is) a great difference between what he knew (we know) intellectually and what he felt (we feel) emotionally…

God, and God alone, can meet our deepest needs; we all recognize this in our minds,  from running to God to have these needs met, thus embarking us on an endless journey trying to find that one person, that special thing, that incredible place, yes, that adored idol that will meet our needs?...

…We do not take seriously that many reject the Lord not on the basis of what is heard but what is being felt…

…I have found among the defeated whom I disciple that more than 90% of the time their concepts of God really describe their fathers (or, if not their mothers…).  All we can know of authority is what we have learned from those in control around us.  Does it not then make sense that when we are commanded to call God our Father in heaven, this would stir in our emotions a concept of our father on earth?

…If there is one word that describes the condition of the recipients of the Book of Hebrews, it is unbelief.  They are not able to trust, and the writer battles with their false concept of God derived from interaction with their earthly fathers.  “For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness” (12:10).

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        

Red – GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

Here’s a question for you: How many folks are received into fellowship as a member of a church without any real questioning of their salvation testimony, and/or their knowledge of several key “beliefs”?  Part of that interaction prior to the person becoming a member of a church would be to ask the questions Michael presents in the first paragraph of this section’s writing.  And then on top of that, we don’t “require” any discipleship to help the new member discover things like “what you are at your worst moment is your true condition.”  Yikes!  What does that tell us about the likely spiritual condition of most of the members of most of our churches?!?  And add to that, what discipleship have we given them regarding the basic beliefs of the church?

And my goodness…if the condition of the recipients of the Book of Hebrews is “unbelief,” how do we expect the condition of many of our fellow believers to be anything other than “unbelieving believers”?

Does anyone know a fellow church member who might be “hindered by their concept of God”???

Note: if you don’t have one of Michael’s Sidetracked In The Wilderness books, let me encourage you to 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  

If you desire to get a weekly email of this blog, look to the top right hand side of the web page, enter your email address in the box under “Follow,” then click on SUBMIT.  You will receive a “confirmation email,” and when you click on the link and “confirm,” you will receive all new posts via email.

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

leemccm@gmail.com

1737 CR 2051    Nacogdoches, Tx 75965                                               936-559-5696