Valley of the Flesh
2 Tim 4:7
7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
1 Tim 6:12
12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
Revelation sometimes comes when you least expect it.
From the mind of God, to the mind of the human, through
The fingertips to the keyboard…….Revelation marches on.
It’s a place of awakening, a time of realizing where you have been
and what has changed, and it begins to ignite a spark of excitement
within you as your faith begins to take flight, and it leaps inside as you come
to the realization that you are no longer the same person you were before
Jesus began the work in your heart.
It starts slowly, but suddenly something will happen, and you will notice
that you didn’t react the same way you did before….and it makes you
really truly think and meditate upon where you were, where you are going
and where you are. It brings a pondering, a sense of humility, a meekness, and a
deep reverence for God, knowing that through all the worst times of your
life, when you were the worst flesh ball out there, He stuck by you like
glue and never let go! That’s what I call a Holy Adhesive! Stuck on you!
Not only that, but you begin to notice the people who have stuck with you
through it all, through all the pain, and even sacrificed a lot to be there
with you through it all. (mostly their sanity) Not to mention putting on hold
their own lives, in order to serve you and see you through these things.
You also notice the ones that gave up too soon before your final polishing by God was done.
And you forgive them because you realize that they had no idea the process it takes to free someone from the valley of the flesh.
All my life, through all the things I experienced, someone must have prayed for me. If they had not, I don’t believe I would be here or writing this today.
I don’t know who prayed for me to receive Salvation and Jesus, or prayed that I would take up my Sword, and walk the walk of faith with the Lord in the lead the rest of my life, but I am forever grateful for them. I hope they get an extra special blessing and a huge hug from Jesus for their love for me.
Because way back before I even knew the Lord, someone was looking out For my eternal soul, they looked ahead and wanted to see me receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
Then it begins to dawn on you just how much of a pain you really WERE going through all these things, and how much strength and fortitude it took for someone to stick by you through it all. It takes more strength and power to stand by someone struggling, than just giving up and walking away with your hands up.
I am thankful for all those that didn’t leave me and who didn’t forsake me. (you know who you are!) I want GOD to bless you, and get GODS blessings not mine! His is WAY
Better!!!! That’s why I am thanking Him in secret.
I am eternally grateful for Gods love, and Jesus’ sacrifice, and for HIS love too, and for my life in Him as I am being molded and perfected by Him. I am forever thankful for those in my life that did stand by me. I am NOT an easy person to get along with, even though on my resumes, I say I am easy to get along with. I really thought I was.
I am a happy person for the most part. Easy to get along with in most circumstances.
But when you are being perfected and molded, suddenly you are not so easy to get along with and you realize all the things inside you that you don’t want to admit that
needs to be surrendered to the Lord.
I was a carnal Christian most of my walk……..and didn’t know it.
Does any of this describe you? How many would admit it?
Not many. I know that I wouldn’t at first and the valley of the flesh is tough.
Its something that is birthed in you, its molded in you by the world, and then
Its cemented by how you were raised, and then by spiritual carnality.
You learn a lot of spiritual bondage also, by the teaching in churches that don’t
teach about Jesus and His Ministry, they just teach legality and the doctrine of man!
So getting free of it, requires spending a great deal of time with the Lord of Lords, spending time in prayer, seeking Him, and being in a place where people wont
let you get away with the wrong behavior, and they will get in your face if need be, and let me tell you conviction power is something else!
I learned that conviction power, was not Gods hand coming down to flatten me like a fritter. It was something different, and it can drop you to your knees.
It feels a bit like guilt, but there is no condemnation with it. You just know you are wrong and it brings a sadness in your spirit, and you cant shake it……..and then you
begin to realize its because you are in sin, and you have to repent. Once you ask forgiveness, that feeling goes away. With condemnation it never leaves. You always want to beat yourself up over things you did wrong. That’s the enemy’s territory that makes us feel that way.
God convicts us of our sin, so we will repent and so He can forgive us and move us forward.
I will say this, conviction, and correction are totally different, both bring you to
Your knees. In one, you feel Gods displeasure……in the other one you FEEL it.
More than just in your spirit.
God does punish when we don’t listen and we don’t repent, and when we stay in sin.
He doesn’t do it to be mean. He does it to send a message. He LOVES US, and wants
To see us change, so we can move forward in Him and begin to move in Resurrection power!! To go beyond the cross, to the POWER of JESUS! It doesn’t happen by living in the valley of the flesh.
Then you begin to see other things have changed in your life. Continuing right along you realize that when someone is sharing a story of a loved one, your eyes fill with tears as your heart breaks for the un justice that was done to someone who had no control over what happened to them, and you feel something you haven’t felt before, and that is Gods compassion and love for that person, and for that persons suffering.
None of us deserve some of the things that happen to us when we were little, and while we are growing up. There are many out there that suffer inwardly, never sharing their
secrets because they are in fear of sharing. For fear of rejection.
Some act out. Some cry. Some withdraw.
I learned something. God is changing my heart. All these things I am sharing are from the pages of my life.
Its from the pages of my walk with God.
Its not been easy for me, regarding the valley of the flesh. Its been a long hard road. I guess I had taken up residence in the valley of the flesh and God wanted me to get out and stay out of it and I realized He was continuing to mold me and make me into the person I am becoming and its all because of GOD! His LOVE!
I am learning as God plants this deep within my heart……..to love His creation with the same agape love He has for us all. To hate sin, to serve, and to put others ahead of myself. Yes, this is Sheila talking! Suddenly it matters not, about my needs. I want to make sure others needs are met.
I guess I wasn’t as easy to get along as I thought amen?
God knows our hearts. He listens to our hearts, and He answers our prayers.
He will not bless selfish prayers, or answer them. He will not bless selfishness, rudeness, demanding, commanding, fleeces, pride, and all the rest of the flesh
“tudes”……But he WILL hear the fervent prayers of a righteous person. God is holy.
So many of us forget that. We also don’t have a reverential fear of God in our hearts.
Its not something that is taught in church either. Other than those churches that beat the flock with the Bible with such condemnation, that they run screaming never to return. They teach about Gods anger, but they teach wrongly, and what God gets angry with is SIN! He gets angry when people go out of their way to disobey and rebel and do
It willingly against Him! He is our FRIEND! He is our FATHER! He is our BEST FRIEND! One that will hold us when we are needing comfort, one that will never leave us nor forsake us.
Sadly, some also take this too far in the opposite direction and don’t believe God will punish or correct and that He is all love. That’s dangerous territory to get into. It will
keep a person in a place of spiritual immaturity. They are blinded. Once the blinders are off, they will realize its out of Gods love for us that He will keep us in line. I am glad He keeps me in line. I wouldn’t want it any other way. He is my Lord and Master. He has my best interest at heart, and He has yours too! He wants us to succeed and to grow up and mature in Him.
What is being cemented it me, at this moment, is the fact that my God will never fail me. He will watch my back. He will protect me. He will love and nourish me. He will always be there for me. He is my rock and my Salvation. In Him do I place my complete trust. In Him do I place the reigns of my life, and surrender all to Him. For He knows what I need, and He knows how to take care of me. He knows how to provide for me, and I need never fear. I can tell you that I can see the light at the end of the long tunnel of flesh and I can say quite honestly that I see hope and my faith
increases each day as I notice each new thing the Lord has completed in me, and in my heart. I am seeing answers to prayers, that were long prayed for, for boldness, and for compassion, to love what God loves and to hate what God hates. To be joined heart to heart, in the great commission! To go forth wherever He tells me to go. To be ready when He sends me.
For all of you who struggle with flesh, and attitudes, and offenses. I can tell you right now, there IS a way out, and God is the only one that can provide that way out. He uses people He knows He can trust in order to do this work.
Don’t be discouraged if someone doesn’t hang out long enough to see you delivered and set free, but rejoice in the fact that God will never give up and will complete the good work that He started in you! If you let Him!
Heb 13:5
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
I am living proof of Gods mighty work, and He is going to be able to finish it.
I am not done YET, but I now can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Praise be to God almighty!
For He is MIGHTY to be praised!
Sheila
Formerly from
The valley of the Flesh
I am becoming FREE!
PRAISE GOD!
End of the Age Harvesters Ministry
silverstone@earthlink.net