I know everyone knows the answer to this but if I ask this question; Who do you have to spend the most time with in your life, who do you have to get on with every day of your life, and who do think is responsible for changing everything you don't like about yourself? I'm hoping, anyway, that you'll all know that that person is yourself.
Yup' the one person you can't get away from (or persons if your schizophrenic) is yourself, from the first breath you take, right through Eternity there is no escaping, that's why its worth taking some time to say hallo to you. Through many hours of consultation with people, hearing their problems and, trying to apply knowledge and spirit to many troubled individuals, I know that huge amounts of psychological trauma are as a result of not getting on with yourself.
Let's start with understanding who we are. Obviously we're God's creation, as set out in Genesis 1 and 2, but we want to explain to you that there are actually three parts to you; You are a spirit who has a soul that inhabits a body, lets look at this closer shall we.
Number 1 - You are a spirit. That's the eternal part of you, the part that's been redeemed by the blood of the lamb, that deepest part of you, the part that you feed with God's word and filled with God's Spirit. If the spirit part of you isn't happy then the rest of you is in deep trouble, that's why we need to nurture our inner being - not starving it as if it was some insipid size zero Hollywood celebrity! Your spirit only speaks good things, only speaks God things. It does not speak negative things, it does not speak unbelieving things, it always honors God, always desires deep within us to love God. That's our redeemed spirit.
It's the spirit part of us that goes on to be with Jesus in eternity so all in all what I'm saying here is that part of you is the most important. You don't always sense what is happening with that part of you but if you as a redeemed, spirit filled Christian feel coolness or a deadness, can't be bothered to read God's word, can't be bothered to worship, can't be bothered to speak in tongues then you know that you're spirit is sick, and you need to do something about that quickly. Set aside 20 minutes a day, speak in tongues (even if you feel nothing) worship God (even if you feel nothing) read his word (even if you feel nothing), (in cheesy voice) and you'll see a difference in five to six weeks this is a no money back guarantee.
Okay, I can hear you all out there screaming at me, 'RUBBISH my spirit has lots of negativity and unbelief!' I say, wait, bear with me one moment while we move on to point 2 - The Soul. Duh, Duh, Duh, Duh...
Number 2 - The soulish part of you is literally all about you, what you want, what you think, your negativity, your hurt, in other words it can be anything that is about you, our minds can either be directed by our spirit or a rogue bull (or in some cases heifer) that dictates every whinge that we have towards the spirit, like a small child that's spoilt.
The way to live happy fulfilled life is to understand and put into practice a few of the truths that we are speaking about here. Discipline - self discipline is always needed in order to reach a place of not being thrown around by every stray feeling, every stray thought and every stray desire that enters into our minds. The truth is we don't need to just do everything that the devil of negativity or our minds tells us to do. One of the biggest lies that time and time again we all fall for is that we can't do anything about ourselves. We have treasure in this earthen vessel of ours, we have everything within us to overcome any flaws in our personality, its just about whether or not we want to. Its just like this, if somebody has a severe alcohol problem then until that person first of all admits they have that problem, then wants to do something about it, then goes into the correct place for help there is nothing that can be done to help that person. Exactly the same principle is needed for a problem with say… laziness. You need to acknowledge you've got the problem, then do something about it, then go for help. Your mind will tell you always that it wont work, your feelings will tell you that you're tired, that you need to rest, but should you wish to overcome your laziness you will have to ignore how you feel because your feelings are only going to come from self, that soulish part again, if you agree with yourself then of course you'll never overcome, and all your couch potato days you'll be lazy!
It's actually theoretically easy to be free to serve God, the problem is in the reality that is day to day earthly reality, we have this soulish part that wants to stop us by various means of negativity and selfish fish faced desires that get thrown in and yes, unfortunately, those desires tend to feel more appealing than going with what the Word of God says about us. It's not always easy as even the apostle Paul found out:
“For I know that nothing good dwells within me that is within my flesh, I can will what is right but cannot perform it.”
-Romans 7:18This actually encapsulates what we're talking about here. Our spirit is redeemed but our mind flesh has a heck (would not use a stronger word!) of a lot of work to do on it. The one thing that I would say is that it is so worth that work on ourselves. It's worth the initial work and time and effort because once we get control of our wonderer emotions and negative mind sets - and I might add here that some of you have spent forty years out control and demand that in two days you're suddenly perfect in your own eyes - this is going to take a bit of time. You're out of control, Dude, and your heading for a wipeout! Anyway its worth it because you'll have peace and love and acceptivity like you have never known, learn to have the wisdom to change what you can about yourself and accept the things you cant change about yourself.
For instance its important for your own mental health (Ha ha) to speak good positive things into your life as the Bible says:
“Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
-Philippians 4:8It's equally important though to accept that if God has given you a certain body type or a physical feature you don't like (dangerous waters here) that it is good enough for God, and you need to learn to accept that and not freak out over yourself. Be mellow, dudes, remember God doesn't make mistakes, He made you in his likeness exactly as He wants you to be, so appreciate His workmanship - your nose is the size He wants it, your height is exactly as He wanted it. I could go somewhere else here as well but out of kindness we will not go deeper into that subject! Any way there's no point in freaking out over what you cant change its just self destructive (kablaaaaaaaam)
Now we'll move on to the easiest part.
Number 3 - The Body, which is usually reflective of how our spirit and soul are, the exception to that is when we get sick as then obviously how our body feels affects the rest of us. Have you ever tried to battle on when you've got flu? Then you'll know what we're talking about whenever anyone is attacked with disease, and by that it could be the simplest of things, it still affects us and makes life a heck of a lot harder. (would not use a stronger word) It is to be understood though that God is the one who protects us from disease (I am the Lord that heals you) Okay, our body responds to what we feed it (or the lack of) responds to what we say to it, responds to how we treat it. (Know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost) There is a great strength in every thing in moderation; feed yourself right, neither too much or too little, not to much caffeine, not to much alcohol, No Drugs…that's a Duuuuuuh point there by the way, not to much Chocolate (Peter!). Make sure you get enough sleep. We need to rest, it's a biological fact, even Jesus slept, that we need that beauty sleep. (But some need more beauty than sleep! Ha ha) As we all know 'All work and no play makes Jack a very dull boy!' *patronizing tone* and we don't want any dull boys (or girls) do we?
Okay we'll be wrapping this up now, because…well we've said everything there is to say about ME. (Josh takes no responsibility for Mum's vanity here, Josh receives stinging slap on head) so we will leave y'all just there...
