It’s always so scary when you think about making sacrifices in your walk with God. All the people we read about in the Bible had to give up something in order to grow in their walk with God. The problem nowadays is that we want to accept Christ and continue with EVERYTHING we had before accepting Christ, but that’s not how it works. Sometimes that very thing you’re refusing to let go of is what’s blocking your breakthrough.
Phillipians 3:8 But more than that, I count everything as loss compared to the priceless privilege and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord [and of growing more deeply and thoroughly acquainted with Him—a joy unequaled]. For His sake I have lost everything, and I consider it all garbage, so that I may gain Christ,
I haven’t lost anything that I needed in my walk with God. Everything I had to give up, I have survived without it. Some of the things we idolise, we only idolise them due to trauma and ungodly reasons. When I got the conviction about removing all my piercings, I was proper sad. I had to dig deep to investigate why I was so attached to my piercings. I stumbled into some trauma and had to deal with that and heal. That’s when I was able to come to peace with removing my earrings and truly repent for having them in the first place. Now, when I look back at pictures of my fully bejewelled ears, I am almost grossed out by them. I see them in a completely different light now.
Luke 8:29 For Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was bound with chains and shackles, he had broken the chains and been driven by the demon into solitary places.
You know that initial anger you feel when they talk about ditching wigs or dressing a certain way? That’s not even you, my babes, it’s that thing inside of you that’s created that appetite for that thing you can’t let go of. Do you think that man who housed the Legion in the Bible continued being naked once the Legion went into the pigs? Nope, the Bible tells us that after the demons left him, he was found clothed at the feet of Jesus. A traumatic moment can create a soul wound that opens a door for nonsense to afflict us. For example, an unhealed young lady can develop daddy issues from the trauma of an absent father. Once she has healed from this, she won’t pick the same men she used to pick when she was unhealed.
Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
I like to randomly chasten the flesh. Just wake up and think, “how can I punish the flesh today?” It starts with simple things like refusing to hit that snooze button, denying yourself one more episode of whatever you’re binge-watching, it’s turning down a plate because you aren’t hungry. Sometimes, you just need to prove that you can do it. For example, Abraham was tested to see if he was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. Sometimes willingness is enough to prove to yourself, to God, that you could get rid of this thing if the need arose. Obedience is better than sacrifice, after all.
In my previous life, I was a John Wick fan and one thing I learned is, “how you do one thing is how you do everything.” I was having a conversation with a close friend about eating in the dream. I was explaining to him that if you’re not used to consecrating your food to the Lord in real life, you won’t be able to deny food in the spirit realm. If you don’t pray over every single plate of food, how will you deny a five-course meal in your nightmares? You have to exercise that muscle. You have to practice. Your physical weakness will be a spiritual weakness.
@lihlelynne
I recorded a video on TikTok about how if you never master your weaknesses, they will show up at the worst time. If you have an addiction, you have a price and the enemy knows it. There are people out there who would do anything for the latest iPhone. Untamed desires become a door of temptation. To be truly invincible, you have to overcome all the desires of the flesh and become untemptable. I’ll tell you this, whenever I’m going through spiritual warfare, the enemy will bring out my biggest triggers to trip me up. And one by one I have been conquering those triggers and his bag of tricks is almost empty, and I love that for me. In isiNdebele there’s a saying that goes, “zithiywa ngezikudlayo” which means the creatures are trapped using what they eat. People can easily tease or tempt you if they know what you like, or what your weaknesses are. True freedom is mastering the flesh.
Choose today whom you’ll serve. Giving up worldly things isn’t a favour to God, all the benefits are for you. It’s time to do some soul-searching about the things “you can’t live without” and find out why they have such a hold over you. Once you heal, the appetite for those items diminishes. You won’t even miss them. That secular music you are trauma bonding with? All of a sudden you can’t relate because the healed you has a change in perspective.
The only thing that should rule over you is your Lord and Saviour.
