“How To Walk Close To God During Troubled Times”
Session Two
Part B
By Nita Johnson
Seattle Services
People don't want to be changed. They don't want to be told that they need to change. Do you ever find yourself struggling in those areas? Thank you for your honesty. If there is a struggle, that means there is a battle for truth. If you're not battling, you've already lost. Truth has been lost and Satan has won. Ouch, huh?
We must come to a place where we are willing to unclothe our soul with us and to clothe ourselves with Him, ultimately, completely. And it's the hardest battle there is. It's doable. You can do it. Anyone can do it if they want to badly enough. It's doable. It is just that not all people really want it. Not all people are willing to be taught. People come to me all the time, years, I'm talking about decades of seeking God, and people will come to me and say to me, "Please mentor me. Help me know how to walk with God so that I can have union. Please mentor me." And in the past I would often say, "Okay. I'll teach what I know, that's all I can give."
But you know what I learned? I learned that people don't want to change. People don't want to be told that they have to change. People resent being corrected. Do you know anyone like that? It's understandable, right? It's not easy to be corrected. The Bible clearly tells us that life in Christ is a life of correction. So whereas you may know people that don't want to be corrected, the fact is, if you are going to walk with the Lord you are going to have to learn how to receive correction. It's really the hardest part, what I'm giving you right now. It's the hardest part. Everyone wants to think that they are lovable just the way they are, and maybe they are lovable just the way they are but that's not going to necessarily help the real deep things that hide in our soul that will destroy the life of Christ. We can't like ourselves too much. Do you understand what I am saying?
What did Jesus say to the rich, young ruler? Remember when the Lord kind of corrected him, "You know what to do, now do it." And when he was told that, that was a correction, right? What was his response? He turned and walked away. And what did the Lord say about that? Yes, but how do we discern what is rich? Does it mean that he's really a rich young ruler and only that class of people will find it difficult? Or does it further mean, deeper mean that the people that are going to struggle with this the most are the people who are rich in their self-love?
If a person is rich in their self-love, does not like correction, loves the Lord, loves hanging around with the saints, maybe they have a great ministry, maybe they don't have any ministry at all – in the eyes of the church that person is highly prized, but what is hidden deep in the recesses of the heart is “I love who I am, what I am, what I want. I don't like to be corrected. I don't like to be challenged, to be changed. I don't like those kinds of messages.”
How many of you know what that feels like? But the fact of the matter is if you really want union you have to come back to the center and the center has to be changed from self to Christ. When that happens, things inside of you will change. Maybe even some of the old things that are so deep you never thought they could be changed. The Lord just doesn't pay attention to the “couldn'ts” and “can'ts.” If He knows that He owns you, He will bring you through whatever it is going to take to make the changes that have to be made.
But if you are not willing to be corrected, if you're not willing to take off the old, how can you put on the new? How can you clothe yourself with Christ so beautiful, so pure, so desirable if you're not willing to take off the old man, wrinkled, spotty? If you're one of those Christians that always has to be right and no one can question you on it no matter how badly it's needed, you'll never have union, ever. He won't even play with someone like that.
You have to be a person who is broken. Can you say broken? Who is contrite. You have to be a person – I'm feeling His love so great right now. Don't reject what I have for you tonight. Don't. Please don't. Please don't. He loves you so much and He loves you enough to tell you the truth. I've learned in my walk with Him that the best thing I can do is just never try to hide myself from the things that need to change. Just don't. Be the first one to mention it then you don't have to wage the battles publically. You can take them in before the Lord and He'll help you. But if you are always one of those that can never admit that you are wrong, never take correction, never – you are so afraid to see what He sees every day.
Can I share an experience with Him that I had in my earliest days of knowing Him? May I? Now when I got saved, I got saved out of a pretty worldly life and my life was like that because I was very broken as a young adult. I had lots of family problems, lots of family issues. I was very broken so it was very hard to take correction. I didn't even know where to go to get the kind of correction I needed, actually. But I needed correction, I needed it so badly and the very correction I needed I just wasn't yet ready for. And so I would talk to the Lord. I'm not saved, but I would talk to Him and I would tell Him, "I want Jesus as my Savior but somehow, some way I feel like it's not what everybody says it is."
You know, you don't get saved and move into the happy camp of life. You have to look at things you don't want to look at. You have to change in areas you don't know how to change in. I mean deep inside my heart. I don't know if you guys went through this but I am a real analyzer – I analyze everything. It's like my brain never wants to shut off and I'm that way with the Lord, too. So anyway I am thinking, "How am I going to deal with this? I want to get saved but at the same time all this picking of the pricks sounds so scary and so painful I don't know if I can handle it." Did you guys ever feel that way? I’m the only one, huh? Oh, okay!
Little did I know that what I was seeing in my heart was what life is like when you want deeper things in God. I didn’t understand that part. And I also didn’t understand that there is a living grace that helps you to see what you don’t want to see, what you feel like you can’t tolerate. When you finally come to the place of realizing that if you don’t like it He probably doesn’t either, so the best thing we can do is get on with the plan. Once I came to grips with that – that no matter how bad it looks, He will remove it and move me into greater places, and that it does not mean rejection. Can you say that? “Does not mean rejection.” Being corrected only means being redirected. It does not mean rejection.
To be continued next week...
In His Amazing love,
Nita Johnson