My Final Thoughts from OnGoing Call (#3)

It's been a week since I posted #2! I needed some serious time to process this last thing. God had to give me some practical application before I could really understand how serious He was about this.

Transformation by the Word of God was the theme of the previous post and goodness,who doesn't need a transformation!

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things. Proverbs 27:19 says that "As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man". I want so desperately to reflect my Jesus and only my Jesus. To do that, my deceitful heart NEEDS the transformation only the Word of God can bring.

Over the last little while, God has reminded me through several avenues to ask Him to break my heart with what breaks His. He's been doing some serious heart surgery on me. Showing me what has to go so that He can be seen.

Several weeks ago, God impressed upon my heart that there was something in our home that needed to change, or better said...something needed to go. This particular thing (9 times out of 10) does not line up with Philippians 4:8. Very little of what it puts out is pure, lovely, true, or ANY of the attributes that passage describes.

I did my best to ignore it for several days. Then, the impression began to grow and I felt like if I didn't tell Chad I was going to choke. So I casually brought it up one night. I just let it hang out there. You see, the removal of this particular thing is going to HAVE to come from him. He is the head of this house and I feel very strongly that if this is to be removed the ultimate decision has to come from him.

A couple of days later he commented he had been thinking about what I said and asked if I was still feeling led to do this. Dadgum it. I knew this was God confirming it. I think in the back of my mind I was secretly hoping that Chad would totally disagree. (That way if we kept "it", God could take it out on him not me! Real spiritual isn't it...) Anyway..we agreed to pray and talk again after I returned from Winnsboro.

In my mind I had made a mental pro's and con's list. With the con's side significantly longer than the pro's. The more I thought on the list the more disgusted I became. Yes, God I see. For right now, it has to go.

During the Saturday sessions as Jill was continuing on with the transformation theme, she quoted a book. "5 Laws of the Dying Seed" by Fuschia Pickett.

This quote. Oh my goodness. It totally made me realize WHY God had placed this radical thing on my heart.

Do you want to know what the quote says? I thought so. Get ready....

"When we embrace the mind of Christ, HE pierces the carnality of our mind."

God immediately spoke to my heart. I have been asking Him to break my heart with what breaks His heart. THAT is what was happening. He was answering my prayer. I saw things a different way. He showed me just how carnal (worldly, sinful, everything opposite of holy) that "thing" is. AND, it disgusts me.

He transformed my thinking. He pierced my unholy mind and let me see just how broken His heart is when I entertain that "thing".

He challenged me to not just quote Romans 12:1-3, but to LIVE IT OUT. To no longer conform to the world but be transformed by the renewing of my mind. He didn't just pierce my mind to hurt me. He pierced my mind to show me how much it needed to be renewed! Verse 1 of Romans 12 tells us to present our bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God. Girls, your mind is part of your body.

As you can see, I'm not broadcasting what this thing is that will be leaving our home this week. That is between us and God. He told us to do this, not you. It may be for a season, it may be for the rest of our life I don't know. However, I do know that Romans 14:12 says that each of us will give an account of himself to God. We are responsible for what God tells us to do, as you are responsible for what God tells you to do.

As Jill read that quote and I heard the word pierce, my mind thought of how Jesus was pierced for my sin. After what He did for me, how can I not obey?

So..there it is. Has God pierced the carnality of your mind? Is there something that you feel like He's calling you to put aside for awhile?