Enlightenment....

Just a personal post here. (I know... I know..... they don't happen very often).

I have noticed (especially as of late) that there is a direct correlation between how intimate and enthralled I am with Jesus and His Life in me (the excitement that His Word brings and the truly awesome Power and Sweetness of of His Presence in my life) and the extreme intensity of the lies of the evil one and the quick infiltration of those lies into my thought processes. It seems sometimes almost instantaneous and immediate.

What an exciting place to be ..... NOT......but I think that if this had been happening at the intensity it seems to be happening now, a couple of years ago, I probably would have run for the hills..... quickly and given up with a wail of "Where are You, God?". In a lot of ways this IS an exciting time because I can recognize (most of the time) immediately (most of the time) that the darts of anger, false thoughts, lies, insecurity, and all that wonderful stuff that is definitely not the Truth and not from God and not from the Christ that is leading this pathetic life that is mine....when left to my own devices.....is a sign of spiritual enlightenment.....and that is my word for growth...because I really feel that it is all there within because of Christ who lives in and through me....I just have not embraced all that is there yet. Little pieces are shown to me....thanking God for that because it could be a little overwhelming and ill-received by my self if given all at once... He seems to give a little revelation of Himself just as we need it and as we come to a certain place.....

But back to these darts...and thoughts of the father of lies....once they enter and they are replaced quickly with the Truth....re-focus on Jesus and what He has said to me about me and the wondrous Love that He is ....and has for me....those thoughts can be gone.....Amazing! Now this is not a boasting post of my spirituality because if it were I guess I would not have so many occasions to have lies coming my way....but the point is ..... and believe me I am trying to bring this point out succinctly :).... Quickly come the attacks of the evil one....but just as quickly they can be fended off, erased, ignored and rebuked as I learn to completely trust my Jesus who is always for me.....never to bring these thoughts to mind...how absolutely thrilling to recognize that He is Almighty, Powerful, and yet there constantly, gently reminding, ..... no condemnation....none at all and the negative thoughts ..... they are not from Him......

And so I continue to live this Life and glean from it what I need to endure in this sin-cursed world. I will continue to wonder what the evil one would ever want with me.....I pose no threat to his dispicable work here on earth.....and yet I remember, it is not me....it is Him in me who is far greater than anything I can do or imagine and I realize.....the battle rages fiercely around me and attacks are at every opportune moment that my focus is not staid on Jesus, my Life. I am so grateful that I never am alone. How can the world, devoid of His Life in them ..... survive? That is where the greatest sorrow for me, comes from when I really think on it. In His Hands, I leave that thought as well.

What joy this journey of enlightenment brings!