Spiritual Growth Articles for
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Because your Will rules you, instead of the Spirit of the Lord, you lack the discernment to distinguish what is from God and what is from your own will.
into my ideal image.”
Because you are strong-willed, instead of placing your faith in God, you place your faith in your abilities to live the “perfect Christian life” as you envision it. And you have many powerful abilities, especially your ability to mold yourself after your own image. You also possess the ability to influence others with your idealism.
Many of the teachings you practice and advocate (and perhaps even write) emphasize pursuing that image of idealism—the image you find so easy to live. You also find it easy to exchange one image for another because whatever you set out to do, your strong Will enables you to do it! Your strong Will rules, and your intellect follows closely behind.
You produce the fruit you want by sheer will power, and you search the Scriptures to shore up your image. Weak-willed people follow you, which props you up and brings you glory.
Instead of being influenced by other men, you unite with those who support you and identify with you—other strong-willed intellectuals. You band together so you can shape the world into your image, which increases pride in each strong-willed person rather than increasing Christ.
in your created images?
Why do you need Him?
You have everything all figured out.
Just walk in the path of your plan,
as outlined in the Scriptures that support your idealism.
You have no need to be changed into His likeness
because you are so secure in the image you have created.
Images can be likened to a coloring book page. You offer people a black-and-white page with a lifeless picture to be colored. They just need to accept your page and begin coloring within the lines.
Everyone who has accepted your image colors in the same coloring book page and lives within that same image.
Externally, you all look so godly.
You use mind control through selective Scripture interpretation to persuade others, even strong-willed intellectual members of your own family, that…
—and it does!—
but does it offer His Life
which will set you and others free
to become all you were created to be,
as you walk moment by moment with the Lord of Love?
You root yourself into your created image, and by your sheer will the “Tree of your family’s life” produces good-looking “oranges”—good for food, a delight to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise (Genesis 3:6).
In fact, this fruit is so desirable, others want it. So you market your fruit, an easy sell.
You and your image continue to increase while God decreases. You continue to promote your interpretations of Scripture and convince others to follow them.
Your underlying, yet hidden-to-you, heart motives for trying to mold others into your image are:
- looking good to others,
- being a model Christian or a model Christian family, and/or
- pride.
Weak-willed people often begin to search for the answer to this question much sooner than you because they simply can’t live within the images you advocate. But because you are so strong willed, it may take a few decades before you can really discern your own heart.
hinders you from examining your own heart
in light of the Spirit
moment by moment.
Sadly, you may not begin this process of yielding your heart to the Lord for circumcision of the flesh that binds your soul until some totally unexpected circumstance causes you to question your “self.”
Often that circumstance is the choice a child makes as he or she moves towards adulthood. One day a few decades later, one orange falls from the “Tree of your family’s life” and breaks open. You’re appalled at what you see!
Because the fruit produced came from an image rooted in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
when you promote your idealism,
especially as you impose your image on your children?
To evaluate the answer to this question, continue with Part 2 of this article.
but of the free woman.
~Galatians 4:31
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