“Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:18,19 NKJV
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24 NIV
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which 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 NKJV
The enemy of our souls, the devil, has a trusted weapon that he uses against us. It is the weapon of our flesh and its attachment to our old life. We all have a remembrance of the old ways, familiar patterns of thought and associations that want to hold us back. I am not solely referring to the old ways prior to becoming a Christian but also to ways that are 'old' and 'stagnant' that hinder our forward progress in God.
Be on guard when you start noticing a movement of your ‘past’ making a come back, whether through corrupted thought patterns, familiar unrenewed-by-the-Word responses to situations or old associations. Be vigilant over these ‘reconnections of the past’. There is no greater snare to our Christian walk than the old and the familiar. This is how the devil moves in subtly and 'under our radar' to start reestablishing old strongholds.
Your zeal for God, your pure passion and full commitment to move forward and deny all of the past is a threat to Satan and so he will use the most unassuming set ups - subtle reminders of old fond memories, the ‘sweetest’ of people and the ‘kindest’ of Christians - to pause or tone down your forward press of faith. Many believers sound 'right' but if they are not braving the intense winds of this hour in a forward momentum, then there will be a hinderance for you and a throw back to a pattern of stagnation that most of us are familiar with. The same is true in revisiting old memories and situations that are presently not edifying to our walk in God.
I believe that right now we are in a most radical move of the Holy Spirit. Unless we are willing to let it all go for Him and not count our life dear to us then forward in Him we can not go. Just as Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:9 "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ."
This hour is God's glory hour and full consecration, a death to self, is required for one to walk in His glory-pour-out. In this season His pour out of Himself is through us. This is not like in the book of Acts when on the day of Pentecost His Holy Spirit moved from Heaven to Earth. His Spirit is in us now, the born again believer. So unless we reckon that outer man dead - not to live out of your carnal flesh but through Christ in you - then you will limit His release through you. The Holy Spirit will not come through your flesh, nor your carnal nature. No matter how many Bible verses we may have memorized, can quote or what kind of desire we have to be used by God, unless we lay the old man down and pick up the cross of Christ, to be living sacrifices to God, then God is hindered by us (the uncrucified flesh part of us). Paul tells us "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:1,2)
Your associations are an important part of how God keeps you and encourages you to press forward in faith. The devil knows that and also uses associations, not to propel you forward in God, but to hinder and halt you, so that you eventfully slide back in your former ways from which God rescued you. Be especially guarded from old misinterpretations of the Word of God, through doctrines of man - these will be especially hard to break from as they are familiar to us and keep us stuck in an old stagnant religious mindset. God's call is upward and forward. Your walk in Him is to be sober and vigilant without stife and contention.
In Christ our portion is a separation onto Him for the fulfilment of His call in our life. This is a full giving of oneself to Him. We are accountable to that which He has shown us. We are not to stop the upward call of Christ in order to commiserate with another. We are not to allow the past and the familiar to halt us by either telling us we are good where we are at in God or to puff us up to believe we are better than another. In Christ we are made perfect and complete and while we sojourn on Earth we are to undergo constant and continual transformation which is by the Holy Spirit from glory to glory.
Today let us leave the comfort zone behind. Press forward in Him! Step out in the Spirit of God by yielding to His Word, in the brightness of His countenance. Your spirit man, your new man, will respond in pure joy and exhilaration. It will be an effortless press in an intensity that just prior to stepping out in Him you had no ability of your own to press beyond.
We are part of the army of God and want to be found faithful to the call He has enlisted us with and in. This is our Christian reality. It is a narrow path into Him but most free and unhindered in Him.
Let us be all in for Him as He is all in for us - the cross He bore and died on is our proof that He is all in for us! So we choose the narrow way of life that leads into the full liberty of the Holy Spirit!
His life alone now!
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