1 Peter 1:14-15 says, “As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in ALL your conduct.” We cannot be holy in our conduct in our own strength. That is impossible. Where do we get our strength? As we walk in the Spirit. Yielding to the Holy Spirit will help us to reckon ourselves dead to our flesh. Dead things have no response. 

1 Peter 1:22 says that we purify our mind, will, and emotions, “…in obeying the truth through the Spirit…” John 16:13 says that the Holy Spirit, “…will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” In John 14:16 Jesus said that the Father would, “…give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.” He described the Holy Spirit as, “The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

1 John 2:27 says, “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.” John 8:31-32 says, “…If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Let me make one thing clear. Our standing position in Christ makes us holy. It is our present state that the Holy Spirit works with. In the above verses from 1 Peter, he used the words obedient and obeying. Let’s look at Jesus’ example. Hebrews 5:8-9 says, “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things that He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.”

We are children of God being taught by the Holy Spirit how to obey. Are we learning all that the Holy Spirit wants to teach us? Trials are His training ground. Hebrews 12:11 says, “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

We will only be trained by our trials when we embrace them fully. James 1:3 in the J. B. Phillips encouraged his readers to welcome their trials like friends. Maybe it will help if we picture a knock on our door. We open it and find our trial waiting. What is our fleshly reaction? Slam the door shut. However, if we have been trained by previous trials, we will open the door wide and fully embrace what stands before us.

Amos 9:9 was written about the children of Israel, yet we can take comfort from His words. It says, “…I will…sift the house of Israel…as grain is sifted in a sieve; yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground.” Jesus told Peter that satan wanted to sift him as wheat. Luke 22:32 says, “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”

Our sifting-trials are divinely orchestrated and tempered. All the while Jesus is interceding for us. Every trial, no matter its magnitude, purifies our faith. It brings up the hidden dross of unbelief. Any lie of satan that we have believed is like a land mine ready to explode. We remain unaware until the Lord uses our trial to reveal it. We can fully embrace each trial knowing that it is for our spiritual growth, strengthening for our faith, and the impartation of His grace so we can endure for His glory.

Numbers 20 should be a wake up call for all of us. Before I continue, please ask yourself: what have I not believed that has caused me to take matters into my own hands? The narrative is another test for the children of Israel and their leaders. Contention arose because there was no water. Verse 3 says, “And the people contended with Moses…” 

In their contention, they brought up their past again. Verse 5 says, “And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink.” They had totally forgotten about the other time there was no water. Moses had struck the rock and water came out for everyone.

The Lord instructed Moses and Aaron to gather the congregation. Verse 8 says, “…Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water…” Watch now how the scene played out. In verse 10 Moses took matters into his own hands. His hidden anger at the people was revealed. It says, “…Hear now you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses struck the rock in his anger. 

Verse 12 says, “Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” Derailed. Chilling. Hallow means to make the Lord holy in the eyes of the people. Moses disobeyed God’s instructions to speak to the rock before their eyes. 

Contention means: heated disagreement, dispute, argument, discord, and quarrelsome. Proverbs 20:3 says, “It is honorable for a man to stop striving, since any fool can start a quarrel.” The Amplified says, “…to cease from strife and keep aloof from it…” Proverbs 29:11 Amplified says, “A (self-confident) fool utters all his anger, but a wise man holds it back and stills it.”

Interpersonal relationships are God’s way of teaching us harmony through unity. There will be clashes of will, fleshly reactions, offenses, and contentions. When they come up, we are instructed in His word how to navigate through them. We must believe them and put them into practice. 1 Peter 1:22 says, “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.”

As the result of an angry man, I suffered another brain injury in 1997. I live with those effects even today. Your situation may not involve the physical, but rather emotional or spiritual consequences from someone’s anger. Jesus said that offenses would come. They are part of our lives. Yet, in the face of them, do we present the Lord as holy?

Ephesians 4:31-32 is key instruction for our interpersonal relationships. It says, “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” We glorify the Lord when we live in heart forgiveness.

Paul stayed the course the Lord had set out before him. He left us a written testimony. One of his ways was recorded in Philippians 3:13-14. It says, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Note that the words, ‘forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward’ are fluid in motion. I like to think of this verse through the illustration of trapeze artists. They have to let go of the first bar in order to grasp the oncoming bar. If they did not let go of the first bar, they would be injured. When we hold onto our past, we remain stationary and inert to reach out. 

On November 9, 2018 the Holy Spirit gave me these words: the forgetting is the empowerment to reach. Those words helped me let go of something that changed the course of my path. I had not been able to attend my church because of the brain injury 1/2/17. However, the Lord led me to another that was within driving distance when I could finally drive again.

Paul wrote another way that helped him stay his course. Philippians 4:11-12 says, “…I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” Verse 13 was his empowerment. It says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

The moment we accepted Jesus as our personal Savior, our pathway changed. We, who walked the course of this world, began our journey of progressive sanctification. Before, our minds were dark, our thoughts were sinful, and we were alienated from God. Salvation brought us into a new family. John 1:13 says, “Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Romans 8:15 says, “…you received  the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba Father.”

Scripture was written for our learning. As we read the Old Testament, 1 Corinthians 10:6 says, “Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.” As we read the New Testament, we are given sound doctrine that will enlighten our understanding. As we progress in our sanctification, old things begin to fall away.

Ephesians 4:1-2 says, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.” Verse 32 continued that instruction. It says, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”

One of the key ways that we can successfully stay our course is through heart forgiveness. We have to remember that satan will use others to try to derail us. The Lord uses others to hone our heart. Proverbs 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” Iron rubbing against iron causes friction. Our progressive sanctification process teaches us how to live in harmony with others.

Who do you believe you are at the core of your being? In Matthew 16:13-16 Jesus was talking to His disciples. He asked in verse 13, “…Who do men say that I, the Son of Man am?” They told Him. In verse 15 He asked, “…But who do you say that I am?” From Peter’s answer we see there was a difference of belief. Verse 16 says, “Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

What do others believe about you from what you say and do? What do you believe about yourself? Our heart’s core is our belief center. Every thought originates from there. Our thoughts become our words, then our actions or behavior. Our behavior reveals our character. Since satan is a master deceiver, he will seek to attack our core beliefs. He does that through fiery dart lies.

His lies are like the bullet of a sharp shooter assassin. They come by stealth. In my personal experience, they come in the first person. “I can’t…” “I’m not…” “I’m overwhelmed.” They are seemingly just a thought that pops into my mind. I had a broken record. I repeatedly said, “I can’t believe…” until a dear friend pointed it out to me. She gave me her own story.

She was at Yosemite. She had asked the Lord to give her a place all to herself. She hiked into this one little lake area. No one was around. It was quiet and peaceful. She sat down on a flat rock overlooking the lake and said, “I can’t believe it…” She had prayed, but when the Lord answered her prayer she spoke the words of unbelief. Immediately a very screechy female voice broke the silence as a husband and wife sat near her. Lesson learned, and she passed on her lesson to me. I’m passing it on to you. 

Matthew 12:34 says, “…For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Matthew 15:19 says, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts…” A well placed fiery dart targets our faith. That is why the Lord gave us His armor. It protects every aspect of our walk with Him. When David was about to face Goliath, Saul tried to give him his armor. 

1 Samuel 17:39-40 says, “…And David said to Saul, I cannot walk in these, for I have not tested them. So David took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near the Philistine.”

David was a shepherd. His sling was his tested armor. He knew what he could do with it. He had proven it over and over as he kept his father’s sheep. When we hide God’s word in our heart, it is our proven weapon. We can whip it out at any moment to defeat satan’s attack against our mind. That is what Jeremiah did. He was sinking down into a negative spiral, until he recalled a truth that changed the direction of his thoughts.

If our core belief is not in God’s faithfulness, winds of adversity, barrages of lies, and negative dialogues will cause our faith to falter. Here is one of my anchor verses. 2 Timothy 2:13 says, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” Our belief in God’s faithfulness will be challenged by satan’s fiery dart lies. However we can hide in His character of Faithfulness behind our door shield of faith and be safe. We will stand through His promises as we become a partaker of His nature, according to 2 Peter 1:4.

I wanted to give this post a different title. Conforming to transform is more what I am going to write about. However, that title might have gotten me thrown off. Our progressive sanctification path is one of conforming our thoughts, purpose, and actions to God’s will. It is that conforming process that facilitates inner transformation.

Romans 12:2 says that we are not to allow the world to conform us to their system. 1 John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” James 4:4 says, “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity against God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

In Jesus’ prayer He made His request to the Father for us. John 17:15 says, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” What does the evil one speak? John 8:44 described his modus operandi. It says, “…and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” On the other hand, God cannot lie. 

John commended the young men in 1 John 2:14. It says, “…I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.” It is God’s word IN us that will be the instrument He uses for our inner transformation. Romans 12:2 gives us the counter action to the world’s lures. It says, “…but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

God’s will is to conform us to His image, that we might bear His truth to others. Renewing our mind is an essential part of that conforming. Our mind is not transformed the moment we accept Jesus as our Savior. We come into salvation with our former mindsets. Ephesians 2:2 says that we walked according to the course of the world. Verse 3 says that we were controlled by the evil one, “…we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind…”

Understanding and applying 2 Corinthians 5:17 requires a new mindset. It says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” When our thoughts return to a negative dialogue based in our past, it is an indicator that the lies we believed are still active. We have to kill them through renewing our mind.

Jeremiah 1:10 is our script. It says, “…to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the lies that you still believe that continue to affect every aspect of your life. He is Faithful. He is our Guide into truths that will set us free. I want you to picture this. In the middle of your uncultivated field there is a tree. You cut down the tree. Did that allow your plow to till the ground? No. Why? The stump and roots have to be removed first.

Picture the lie you have believed as the stump and roots. In my former backyard there were old oak trees. Even removing a rooted acorn took diligence. The tap root went way down. Lies have tap roots. There is no inner transformation without getting to the tap root-lie. If how you see yourself does not align with what the Lord says about you, then you are still bound in a lie. Your past is passed. Don’t let it hinder you from being all that He has called you to be.

This is my warfare art that I wrote about in my last post. You Are Lord Of All is squared in green in the lower right hand corner.

In view of the giants in the land, the 10 leaders of the children of Israel saw themselves as grasshoppers. Here is something of interest. Isaiah 40:22-23 says, “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless.”

What giants are you facing in your life? How do you see yourself in view of your giants of impossibilities? Nothing in our lives is a match for God. He is far above all things. In 2017 I had drawn my journaling for the day. At the time I was staying in my cousin’s trailer until the mold in my place could be remedied. I walked out to the dumpster and then came back. Somehow the door to the trailer was locked. No problem. He showed me where the key was hidden. It wasn’t there.

I faced a giant. I was locked out. It was cold. I was weak from the mold contamination. The office was closed for lunch. I slowly walked through the RV grounds looking for a person. The whole time I was quoting my journal, “You are Lord Of All. I saw someone and they came over to see if there was any way to get in. He let me use his cellphone to call my cousin. He came and let me in and brought the key that was supposed to be hidden.

I used Scripture that the Holy Spirit had given me that morning to decrease the size of my giant. David faced a formidable giant. How did he see himself? In 1 Samuel 17:37 he said, “…The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine…” Verse 45 David said to the giant, “…I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”

The enemies’ taunts only fueled David’s desire to take out the one who was spouting lies. David fought with a tried and true weapon in his hand. We have the word of God that is like a sharp two-edged sword. Here is a scene I like to think about. The man who gathered the folks who went on the Mayflower faced a giant who was bent on killing him.

One day Brewster was walking into his cottage. An excellent swordsman was hiding inside. As Brewster came in the door, this man jumped out with his sword to kill Brewster. Brewster whipped out his sword and the battle began. Brewster eventually knocked the other’s sword out of his hand and stabbed him in the stomach and slid the sword up. The man only had time for a surprised look on his face and then he died and fell over. 

Do you see yourself as a victorious faith-filled warrior? We have an amazing weapon that can whack every giant in our life to death. Their lie-words will die in their mouth, like Brewster’s opponent died speechless. We need to strategically use God’s word as our mouth-sword. His words hidden in our heart can be whipped out through one thought. One! One thought of God’s truth, spoken from our mouth, will instantly fell the enemy’s lies! It will look like Psalm 18:42. Picture this in your mind as you read. It says, “Then I beat them as fine as the dust before the wind; I cast them out like dirt in the streets.”

Our enemy is defeated. He knows that his time is short, so he is using other mouth-propaganda’s to disquiet God’s children. We must stand and keep on standing. Do not give in, but rise up and take the charge. We are to be His truth-bearers that defeat every lie before it can land. Let us lie in ambush through prayer. The enemy of our soul cannot combat God’s hidden word, nor God’s army on its knees. Let us be courageous and fight! 

Yesterday we looked at how we might eclipse the Son. Today I want to showcase the things that would eclipse our faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Therefore, satan’s strategy is to weaken and destroy our faith.

How does the Lord keep our faith strong? Through our trials. 1 Peter 1:7 says that it is our fiery (hard) trials that purify our faith. Years ago I worked in our church’s print shop. I operated the linotype. It is like a giant typewriter, but instead of paper it printed the letters on lead slugs. The slugs would get ink on them in the printing process. We had to purify it by putting it in a smelting pot. The dross would come to the top so it could be skimmed off. 

So it is in our trials. Our faith goes through God’s fire. The alloy-dross surfaces. Allow-dross are things like doubt, fear, unbelief, presumptions, misperceptions, etc. They have a common denominator. They were once a fiery dart-lie that we accepted and believed. They are all lies! I want to bring you to two accounts that illustrate this truth.

1 Kings 22:19-22 was a scene in heaven. The Lord was going to have Ahab die in battle. Verse 19 says that He gathered all the host of heaven. Verse 20 says, “And the Lord said, Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?…” Verse 21 a spirit came forward declaring that he would persuade him. In verse 22 the Lord asked him how he would do it. He answered, “…I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets…”

Revelation 16:13 was written about the sixth bowl. It says, “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.” Notice it is from the mouth of each. Verse 14 says, “For they are spirits of demons…” 2 Thessalonians 2:11 says of those who did not love the truth, “And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie.”

We need to guard our heart where our faith resides. Romans 10:10 says that it is with our heart that we believe. Since our heart is our belief center, it is our belief in God that satan will throw his lies at. He hates God, and he hates us because we are made in God’s image. We are created to glorify God. If satan can get us to believe a lie, he will use it to control our lives.

Numbers 13 is a very vivid illustration for me. Moses had sent out 12 leaders to spy out the promised land. 10 came back with a bad report. Capture their words. Verse 27-28 says, “…It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless…” That word ‘nevertheless’ was the precursor to their bad report. They saw the land. It was as God had said. They brought back one cluster of grapes carried by two men on a pole.

Verse 32 says that they saw giants in the land. Verse 33 is the ‘nevertheless’ of the lie they believed. It says of the giants, “…we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” The lie they believed caused them to forfeit what God had promised. I don’t want anything to cause me to forfeit what God has called me to do!

Beware of lying spirits that are prevalent in our land. Sequester yourself in God’s word. It is the truth! As we continue to yield to the Holy Spirit’s leading, He will use God’s word to purify our faith. Here is one verse. Psalm 15:2 says, “He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart. There are three areas that you can line your faith up against. Do you believe them with your whole heart? Then don’t let any lie of the enemy eclipse your faith.

Spiritual Eclipse

Here is the dictionary definition of an eclipse. An obscuring of the light from one celestial body by the passage of another between it and the observer, or between it and its source of illumination. Ephesians 1:18 was Paul’s prayer. It says, “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”

Isaiah 60:1 says, “Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.” John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Verse 7 was speaking of John the Baptist. It says, “This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.” Like John, we are also called to be witnesses of Jesus, the Light.

Our fleshly reactions eclipse the Son. Romans 8:5 says that those who live according to the flesh set their minds on fleshly things. Verse 7-8 says, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God…So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Then Paul reminded his readers that, in truth, they are of the Spirit. The Spirit of God dwells in the heart of every born again believer.

Our progressive sanctification is a journey of decreasing our fleshly ways, and conforming to His will and ways, Therefore, the Holy Spirit within will resist us when we veer off track. We cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit through our flesh. Let me list them from Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

It is essential to connect the fruit of the Spirit to the inward graces that Peter wrote about. 2 Peter 15-7 is a list of what we are to add to our faith. Virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Did you notice the overlap? It takes faith to yield to the Holy Spirit. When we allow Him to lead us, our hidden unresolved issues surface to thwart us. They were hidden in a fleshly moment.

Ephesians 5:8-10 says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.” We know from Hebrews 11:6 that it is impossible to please the Lord without faith. It takes faith to walk in His Light.

John 3:20 says that those who practice evil (fleshly ways) hate the light. Did you know that cockroaches hate the light? If you walk into a dark room and turn on the light they will scatter. That is a great picture for us to remember as we read verse 21. It says, “But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” This verse gives weight to 1 Thessalonians 5:22. It says, “Abstain from every form of evil.”

Romans 6 is a very instructive chapter on how to live as children of light. Verse 1 asks the question: shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Pauls uses an emphatic statement in verse 2. It says, “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” Verse 4 is a reminder for us of our death to sin. It says, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

Romans 13:12 says to throw off the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light. Verse 14 is key to how not to eclipse the Lord. It says, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make NO provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” Consider this. Anything that you do in the dark, that you don’t want anyone to know about, is fulfilling the lust of your flesh. Anything that we do in our flesh eclipses the Son, and darkens our witness of His Light.

Cravings

Cravings are rooted in something from our past. If we never had it in the first place, we would not miss it when it was taken away. We see an example of this in Numbers 11. Note how verse 4 starts with, “Now the mixed multitude…” 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Do not be deceived: Evil company corrupts good habits.” The children of Israel brought some of the Egyptians with them. When the complaining began, it spread its contamination to everyone around the disgruntled ones.

Verse 4 goes on to say, “…yielded  to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: Who will give us any meat to eat?” Watch how they looked back. Verse 5 says, “We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.” That list reveals that they were dialoguing about what they didn’t have. It made them discontent with God’s miraculous provision. They totally forgot that they were enslaved, and that they were treated harshly. Verse 6 says, “But our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”

The Lord was angry. Moses took up the offense of the people and lashed out at the Lord. The Lord answered the cravings of the people. Yet there was a severe price to pay. The Lord sent quail. Verse 33 says, “But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.” Verse 34 says, “…they buried the people who had yielded to craving.”

Here is a very serious verse that makes me tremble. Psalm 106:15 says, “And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.” The contrast is in Jeremiah 31:14. It says, “I will satiate the soul of the priests with abundance, and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the Lord.” There is nothing on this earth that is worth living in spiritual leanness for.

Cravings are a distraction in our progressive sanctification. The Lord has us on a journey to learn how to lean on Him and not our own understanding. He is teaching us how to conform our thoughts, purpose, and actions to His will through our trials. We are also learning how persistent our fleshly lust can be. When we deprive our flesh, it rears up from its hiding place to scream out its displeasure.

The danger with cravings is they make us dissatisfied with what we have. The children of Israel had God’s wonderful provision of manna. It was His miraculous sustenance for them. It had all the nutrients needed to keep them healthy, because He provided it for 40 years! 

There are times in our lives when we believe that the Lord’s manna-provision for us is not enough. This can be especially true in hard trials. We are tempted to complain, which is sin because it displeases the Lord. There are times that we might lose sight of His goal for us. Romans 8:28 says that He is working everything in our lives for our good. The trial we are in will yield a benefit that we lacked if we endure.

Hebrews 10:36 says, “For you have need of endurance…” The Greek word for endurance is humpomone. I love this word. Here is the note in my Bible from the Strong’s definition that I frequently visit. It says, “Constancy, perseverance, continuance, bearing up, steadfastness, holding out, patient endurance.

It describes the capacity to continue to bear up under difficult circumstances, not with a passive complacency, but with a hopeful fortitude that actively resists weariness and defeat.” As you can imagine, when we look back, we lose sight of our goal. We are viciously thrown off track. Let us keep our eyes on the Lord, and be continually grateful for His provision for us through His death, burial, and resurrection.