“They will fly high on wings like eagles.”
Isaiah 40:31
From my Journal 2005...Best to start this story from the beginning..."Travel Lines - 1: The Self Train Line - Derailed"
Downtrodden and defeated, a demise of mind, body, and spirit, delivered from the evil stronghold, broken of the man made by my own rule, I looked upward. The eagle soared in the heavens with majestic wings. High above all the conditions of this world, the magnificent bird rode the wind currents and experienced the solitude of heavenly peace. The eagle’s watchful eye kept guard over the lost soul, waiting for his Master’s next command.1
I had no trouble making the decision to give myself completely, utterly, and absolutely to my Father God. The man I had never met, who prayed for me on the phone, asked if I would willfully give up my life for Christ to live in me. My heart cried out, Yes! And I humbly replied, “Yes, I want to receive Him now.” The man continued to pray, leading me with these words that I prayed in my heart:
Father God, You created me and brought me into this world. I receive and accept Your Son, Christ Jesus, as Lord and Savior of my life. I have sinned and kept Your presence from me so that I could rule my life. I made many wrong choices and did many bad things. I repent of all these choices and behaviors. I choose to stop the thoughts, hold the words, and remove the actions that disgrace You and me as a child of God. I open my Self to Your perfect will in my life. Teach me Your ways. Show me Your means of traveling through life’s journey in this world. I place my Self in Your Almighty hands.
My Lord Jesus, forgive me for every sin I have committed. Wash my spirit clean of all the evil I have allowed in my life. Bind and remove the strongholds in my life and free me from their bondage. Replace them with the Holy Spirit that brings liberty and freedom from all sin.
I receive the Holy Spirit with my heart open to You living within me. I embrace You and take refuge under Your wing. Cover me with Your presence. Show me the way to Your place of safety when I am tempted, and keep me from all evil. In Jesus Name, Amen.
The silence that followed was one of tranquility and peace. The heaviness of spirit to which I was accustomed was lifted. The catharsis—the purification and purgation that brought spiritual renewal2—of my mind, body, and spirit were refreshing.
“My brother in Christ, you are free,” said the man on the other end of the phone line.
“Thank God.” I breathed a sigh of relief and laid my head on my arm resting on the bureau. “What is your name,” I asked, not remembering if he had already told me.
“Brother Gerald,” he replied. I am an elder at the Church on the Hill. We received your call, and I have been trying to reach you. Sorry for the delay …”
“I know,” I interrupted his apology, “So has He, and I thank God for your role in saving me.”
“I want to invite you to our School of Spiritual Warfare. You will need God’s protection from the enemy’s return. It will take His power and your employment of it to stand up against the enemy.”
Brother Gerald told me how to stand firm against the enemy. He instructed me to speak out God’s Word—to read aloud from the Holy Bible, Scriptures that I felt spoke to me personally. He said that God’s Word pierces the darkness like a sword of Light—it is my weapon against the temptation that may torment me. Brother Gerald called me a “child of God” and said that I inherited all of the power of the Kingdom of heaven to take authority over Satan and his tormenting demons. He reminded me that God’s forgiveness of my sins was freely given by His grace—I did not earn it, and no one could take it away from me, not even the Devil—and that any guilt from any sin of which I asked God to forgive me was from the Devil trying to deceive me.
“God’s Word is the most powerful weapon you have to resist the devil; it is your Sword of the Spirit,” Brother Gerald explained. “Carry it with you wherever you go by inscribing it on your heart. Take the Scriptures that speak to your heart and commit them to memory, and then God’s Word will be there when you feel the torment of temptation. When you feel condemned or tormented by your past, remember that this is not from God. God will take your broken past and use it for your renewed future. Listen to these words written by the Apostle Paul inspired by God. Before Paul’s salvation he was a different person—he had people killed because of their faith in Christ as Savior—and when he wrote these words in a letter to the Christians in Rome he was writing to people like you who repented of their past and wanted to make their journey through life traveling with the Holy Spirit:
"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And he gave them right standing with himself, and he promised them his glory.
"What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?
"Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us.
"Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."3
This was the beginning of my journey on God’s Spirit Airline—experiencing the love of Christ.
Next: The Spirit Airline: God’s Wisdom…”First of all Pure.”
Praise to Our Father for the words He has given me.
Jeff Cambridge
Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2016 Stellar Rhema Ministry,
Jeff Cambridge
References
All
Scripture quotations unless otherwise noted are from the Holy Bible, New
Living Translation, copyright © 1996.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois
60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy
Bible, New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International
Bible Society. Used by permission of
International Bible Society. “NIV” and
“New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States
Patent and Trademark office by International Bible Society.
Scripture
quotations marked NKJV are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James
Version, copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
1. Psalm 91:11
2. Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, copyright © 1984, Merriam-Webster, Inc.
3. Romans 8:28-35, 37-39
No comments:
Post a Comment