Rationalizing Religion

God is so amazing! Here's just a nugget of something He's got me "chewing on":

On my last mission trip to Mexico the discussion came up about the difference between a person's soul and spirit but none of us were really qualified or studied enough to give a proper response. Last Sunday, Pastor Jett preached about this very thing.

A person's BODY is their connection to the physical world, one's SOUL is their connection to the mental & emotional world and their SPIRIT is the connection to the spiritual world.

He mentioned this in his sermon on fasting and "these kind". The point he was making was that fasting is hardly at all about food, but rather the act of denying our flesh (body and soul) and surrendering it to the control and lordship of Jesus Christ. Pretty cool, huh?

Well in the past two days, I did something that I had justified in my MIND and felt (emotions) just fine about doing. In my head there was absolutely no reason to avoid this action and I even felt perfectly dainty when this happened. Oh but afterwards... I can't remember the last time I felt the Lord's conviction so strong in my life! Unmistakably the conviction of the Holy Spirit! And no matter how much I justified it in my head (I have no problem with this in my MIND), I could not escape the miserable feeling of a believer caught in sin. Upon confession, God confirmed once again in me that it doesn't matter if my study of the Scripture has led me to believe that what I've done isn't technically a sin - when the Holy Spirit of God convicts me about something, my ONLY act of worship is obediance. Obediance, regardless of what I think, no matter how "religious" or "studied" or how strong of a believer I am. Obediance, regardless of how I feel about the issue. If God's Spirit living inside of me is uncomfortable with anything in my life - it's gotta go. And the big thing for me is: IT DOESN'T HAVE TO MAKE SENSE TO ME! This is all a part of giving over control of my own body and soul to the Spirit of Christ Jesus living in me!

Another example occurred Sunday night. My entire Christian walk I've struggled with issue of healing. I believe that God can heal people but for some reason I've never been fully convinced that He wants to. I was having this conversation Friday night with a friend and he explained to me that God brings suffering into our lives for a season, but not for us to dwell in. Any time the issue is brought up I just tend to shy away, or throw my hands up in frustration and forget about it. But Sunday night, Pastor Jett was talking about spiritual warfare and how the spirit of disbelief can be one of the most destructive. Once again, I felt the Holy Spirit convicting me that I needed to ask God to remove any seed of disbelief in me...and I did.

That brings me to now: Do I know that God is going to heal everyone I pray for? Not neccesarily but I just want to be obediant to do whatever He calls me to.

So that's my charge to you - obey the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life, even when makes no sense at all!