By Nita Johnson

NOLA Revival Services June, 2011

From last week…

The first lesson on how you walk with Jesus is that you must leave Egypt behind. What does it mean to leave Egypt behind? Egypt is the spirit of the world. How does the spirit of the world affect our lives? Everything you desire outside of God is probably provoked by the spirit of the world.
Romans 1; 18For God's [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative.19For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them.20For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification],21Because when they knew and recognized Him as God, they did not honor and glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. But instead they became futile and [c]godless in their thinking [with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid speculations] and their senseless minds were darkened.22Claiming to be wise, they became fools [professing to be smart, they made simpletons of themselves].23And by them the glory and majesty and excellence of the immortal God were exchanged for and represented by images, resembling mortal man and birds and beasts and reptiles.24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their [own] hearts to sexual impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves [abandoning them to the degrading power of sin],25Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen (so be it).26For this reason God gave them over and abandoned them to vile affections and degrading passions. For their women exchanged their natural function for an unnatural and abnormal one,27And the men also turned from natural relations with women and were set ablaze (burning out, consumed) with lust for one another--men committing shameful acts with men and suffering in their own [d]bodies and personalities the inevitable consequences and penalty of their wrong-doing and going astray, which was [their] fitting retribution.28And so, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave them over to a base and condemned mind to do things not proper or decent but loathsome…

These verses show man’s self-sovereignty and lack of appreciation for God’s divinity, sovereignty, and lordship. This is again the operation of the spirit of the world. This is what happens when you cease to give God the glory and honor due His name and when you cease to hold Him up in your heart as is His due. Then you start on a path where you are embracing greater and greater darkness. You will be wise only in your own eyes. The spirit of the world calls, drives and entices you only to satisfy your own lust. The Bible says: Lean not on your own understanding, but in all of your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. That does not mean that you are skipping down the primrose path (I love you Jesus. I acknowledge you Jesus. I know You are here to get me through this wonderful primrose path and everything is going to be great on the other side). That is not acknowledging Him. Acknowledging Him means you do not get on the path until you have heard the voice of the Lord; not until He has clarified it in your heart and shown to you through circumstances that this is what He wants for you.

When He is leading, sometimes you will feel that He is close and sometimes you will not feel Him close to you. If you do not have the knowledge that this is where He wants you, then you are not going to have the faith to make it through to the end and at some point you will stop and turn around. The hardships may just get rough enough to convince you that He is not in it. If you believe what a lot of Christians believe, then you will take your thought and judgement as the higher thought and judgement (Things are rough so God is not in this. I am leaving. Adios. Goodbye). Consequently, you do not fulfill the will of God. What would Paul have done if he had made that decision? What would we have done? Look at all Paul learned about Christ through His suffering. 

Do you think that he never asked: why is this happening to me? Do you think he never said to God: I do not understand! I am trying to serve you. This is not the way we have been taught in Judaism. This is not the way we have been taught that you act. God, I do not understand! When Nehemiah went back to Jerusalem, he had everything he needed to fulfill his task. This is the way we Jews were taught. When Moses went out to do everything that you asked him to do, he had everything he needed and you were right there. This is the way we Jews were taught. What is happening to me now seems to be the exact opposite of everything I have ever been taught. How can you be in this?
Do you think he might have thought that way? I can promise you – he did. Why do you think we have the beautiful teaching on Love? It was because Paul cried. He wept. What is Love? How does it work? How do I understand a love that perseveres in the midst of so much hardship? He wept because he was hurting. Paul was a Pharisee, and the son of Pharisees. I can promise you that self-righteousness went very deep in Paul, as deep as it can go in a man. That is why God had to take him through so many afflictions. He was dealing with his inner-nature. Paul wanted to see his inner-nature die so that Christ could live in him. It was not easy. Remember that you must prefer to endure the hardships, rather than to be identified with Pharaoh. You made the choice to identify yourself with the people of God rather than to live as a son of Pharaoh. That was your choice. No one made you do it. Though you may not understand it yet, there is a hunger in you to leave Egypt behind. You really do want to learn the ways of love. You really do want to learn the ways of peace. You really do want to learn the ways of righteousness. You really do want to separate yourself from everything that can hinder the knowledge of God.

There is something in you that calls to you. You may not like the game. You may not like the warfare. You may not like all the difficulties. You may get upset every day over everything that you are going through. But something in you is crying out for truth. You have come to realize that you will never say ‘no’ to God and you will never find truth as a son of Pharaoh. Do not start vacillating after you’ve already come so far on your journey. Keep your eyes fixed on God, the ultimate Prize, as Moses did. Keep your eyes fixed on the One that is invisible. The One you know is calling you and loves you, and will bring you through the hardships. Part of the journey is learning to understand how God sees other people and how He sees circumstances and how He sees your own heart. It is part of the journey. You have to go through it. The problem comes when you want God but are not willing to look at the junk in you.

My dear friends, I cannot tell you how many people have said to me over the years: I want you to mentor me. I want you to teach me the way of God. I promise you I will learn. I will learn and I will do whatever you say. I want to learn the way of God.

I have never found one person in all these years who is really willing to learn the way of God. Not even one. Why is that? It is because to learn the way of God you must abandon your way and that is very hard. It is very difficult. To learn God’s way you have got to love to pray. You have got to learn to love His discipline. I cannot say that I am crazy about His discipline, but I would be terrified if God ever spoke to me and said: I am not going to discipline you anymore. I would fall to my face, grab a hold of His robe and say: Well then, You cannot go anywhere. I am not going to let You go until you change Your mind.

The discipline of God are not easy but they are measured. They adapt to your present need and level of grace. He is not going to discipline you like He will discipline me. He is not going to discipline you over the same things that He will discipline me over. Some people may say: Why would He discipline you over that? That is stupid. For you, it may be stupid, but for where I walk, He does not think it is stupid. It is all adapted and measured to our present need, present level of grace, what we know and understand about God, and what we are able to walk through in the knowledge of God. He never over-does it because He knows that we are frail and that we cannot bear it if He is too heavy with us. He will take us through a lesson and carry us around the mountain several times, until we are sick of seeing the east side of the mountain. But He will take you around as many times as many times as He needs to in order to teach you the lesson, if you are serious. If He pulls you out of the lesson prematurely, it is because He knows that you are not serious. Some people can learn to walk with God over 40 years. For Moses, it took 80 years. Abraham walked with God for many, many, many years. But some of us here will be given 3 years, some will be given 5, some will be given 7, some will be given 10. Why the difference? The one who is given the smaller space of time is not really serious. God will take you around the mountain once or twice and when He sees that your heart is not serious, He lets go. When He lets go, the desire for union leaves.

To be continued next week…

In His Amazing Love,

Nita Johnson