Christ in Claudia…
Please enjoy the word of the Lord in Claudia…
- The carnal mind is like a child, unruly. It must become “meek” so it can inherit the earth. The carnal mind is always trying to second-guess Me (Life, ‘what will be’). Leaning on its own wisdom causes it to miss the mark. This IS the part that falls short and is the reason you must ‘become as a child’ to see Me.
- The hardest thing for the mind to do is ‘defer to Me’ …to grant Me its [presumed] authority and control.
- Pride will not bend its knee; it can only be slain. Pride is what I must ‘do away with’ until you are living according to the heart of a servant. A servant’s heart knows its Master and defers to Him. Pride says, “I am, and there is none else beside me.” This is why it cannot see Me. It thinks ‘it is enough.’ Worry, torment, and anxiety come from the prideful mind’s ‘falling short’ or (in other words) its refusal to defer to Me. When it experiences its ‘falling short’, it fears.
- Be the child that knows its nurturer, its guide, its mother and father. . . in honor. Go beyond your own thoughts. To go beyond your own thoughts is to go beyond the thought that you know what will be or the direction things will go. It is going beyond your own answers. To go beyond your own thinking is to embrace the ‘not knowing place’ with full assurance of My Provision and guidance. Assurance says, “I don’t know how this need will be met, but I know He’ll meet it. He always takes care of me. “
- I AM YOUR BARREL THAT WILL NEVER GO EMPTY.
- A man’s abusive behavior (verbal) is ‘his thinking he is in control.’ You don’t ever have to give answer to it. Quietly knowing is enough. Keep your peace by abiding in the Spirit’s knowing. That is your refuge from all the contrary noise of the tongue (mind) and remember . . .no man can take from you what I have given you.
- Quietly defer all things concerning you to Me…
Humble Heart vs Proud Mind
The mind gets desperate when it wants a new problem to solve and will attach itself to anything. Like a junkie needing a fix, it craves a conflict to resolve. It will tackle any topic, even the examination of scripture. In deciphering truth it only creates more encryption. It deliberates contradictions only to debate its own confusion.
A humble heart knows far more than a proud mind. I know nothing at all unless I know that God alone knows it all. I know things that I don’t know I know, and there are things I don’t know that I think I do. Questions persist and beliefs remain untested, but disputes or variances in interpretation can offer new meaning to old explanations.
I don’t want to speak as though my take on a subject is immune to disagreement or forget that the word of God is filled with paradox. Mystery sits tantalizingly out of reach and paradox remains a contradiction in logic – but the spirit effortlessly extrapolates the truth from both ends of the spectrum.
The mind is linear. It prefers cut and dry or black and white with no shades of grey. It calls for “either” “or” and chokes on the abstract of “both.” Its insistence on true or false, right or wrong, or good or evil evidences little desire for relationship with the One who knows apart from reason.
My mind has been busy examining a point allowing the ego to satisfy its many needs. It needs closure on a subject that remains open, it needs to be right, it needs truth carved in stone so it can feel in control, it needs to justify the time it has spent pondering the subject, it needs to feel alive. The ego wants to be my hero!
Yes, the hero; the one that figures it out and presents me with “absolute truth” on the subject of choice. It wants to conquer the enemy and deliver the head on a silver platter. It wants the glory, the prize, the homecoming, the parade. It wants to usurp the throne and be the interpreter of truth, the great delineator, the one I turn to in times of trouble. Dare I say, it wants to be God? But the ego is denied…
Revelation is a gift that’s given by God alone. He shines light, imparts insight, and awakens the understanding. God gets to be the hero and the knight in shining armor. He rescues me from the curse of living with reason as my only guide. The tyranny of the mind can be unbearable and my opinions make me crazy.
Learning Occurs IN Me
Old belief patterns concerning God were triggered recently when Mike took a radical action of faith. The internal realm was his guide and he dismissed external circumstances that suggested he not do that which his gut told him he must. My insides leaped as he shared his intent. I was delighted and apprehensive – my heart was at rest while the flesh trembled. I trusted the source of his decision, which allowed me to quickly applaud his courage. We’ve known for a while that resigning his position at the college was a part of our dream…but the timing of the spirit can feel audacious!
Mike did it…he took the leap, and a few days later my panic hit! Little what-ifs with dismal paint brushes systematically sketched pictures of doom. Where was my original trust and abandon? Fear began a litany by suggesting that God used peace to trick us into taking a particular action just to teach us a few more hard lessons. Trepidation offered the small consolation that we’d make it through and character would be built…and in the end we’d be grateful for the demanding experience. This interpretation has appeased me through many rough seasons…but now it seemed misguided.
Confusion and dread were present. I had a decision to make. Would I believe that God was engineering our demise just to build character? Or would I trust His benevolence to prosper the dream He’d planted in us? Must every lesson come through pain and heartache? Or could I abandon a false need for suffering? Circumstance always aids comprehension and what looks like conflict, confusion, or an onslaught of doubt, is often a catalyst for increased faith.
I recognized the ego trying to attach itself to the education process as it deliberated which lessons I still needed to learn or repeat. Ego wants the glory that only an abiding life can produce. God doesn’t need me to figure out the lesson He’s teaching so the ego (with its misguided notion of a separate identity) can jump on board and help Him along. It’s false to think I must know ahead of time what the next lesson is going to be.
True lessons come through the spontaneous life of Christ. He isn’t trying to teach (in a separated sense) or needing cooperation or collaboration to ensure success. He teaches by being Himself in, through, and as me. Learning occurs in me, not to me. It’s the effect of union with Christ; a natural by-product of the new heart. It is a component of who I am; I have no need to be taught…and yet, I will learn.
There’s a paradox at play. When I say, “I can learn,” the role of teacher, lesson, and student are integrated as one. But the idea that there’s still a “lesson I need to be taught” separates me from the teacher and from the lesson I need to learn. The words suggest division, incompletion, and the necessity of an outside source. In reality, I don’t learn externally – which doesn’t mean that outside sources don’t ignite internal lessons…they do. But the outside source is not my “teacher” because it has no power to cause me to learn. Learning is a response, an ability that is gifted in and through union with Christ.
There’s not a hard lesson waiting to be taught, only a life of learning to be spontaneously lived…in peace and joy and the absence of fear…