The Same Power

Same power that conquered the grave lives in me, lives in me. 

Your love that rescued the earth lives in me, lives in me. 

-Hillsong "You are Here (The Same Power)" (This is Our God)

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I think that song is rather appropriate, well anytime, but especially as a reminder the last few weeks. God has been revealing a lot of things about me in my time with him and there are some things that seem like impossible strongholds. I have things I never knew were "lies of the enemy" and now that it is being shown to me, I wonder how I can uproot it. That is when the promise that the EXACT same power that rose Jesus Christ from the grave is the same power that lives inside of me, to uproot those strongholds are possible. I am reminded once again of what Jesus said in Mark 9:23 when he said "Everything is possible to him who believes."

To give you some insight into what I am talking about. Something God has shown me in the last week is that anything a person of authority tells me (pastor, parent, teacher, doctor) I claim as truth, without ever comparing it to God's truth and so have believed many lies of the enemy. More about myself than anything else, but now I'm having to go back through and find out who GOD says that I am and not the "authorities" of this world. So yeah, you can see why some of these are big deals. There are a lot of things that might be "okay" but are not what God has told me I am. Some of them on the other hand are flat out lies. Deep down I think I've always known some of these are lies, or maybe not always deep down, but due to not realizing how much stock I was putting into those words, I never realized they were a problem.

My boss, Carol, told me today that she believes that areas I've thought I've "dealt" with and should be done with have been me "weeding my garden" but never uprooting those weeds. I'll pull the heads off so that I can no longer see them, but then they grow back larger and stronger than before. I've done this over and over many times and now I see strongholds too big for me to move. So I think God is putting me through a refining process to truly pull out the weeds FROM THE CORE and be done with them once and for all, replacing those spaces with the Word of God and the truth of His word.

This process is not a fun process, but I'm still excited and encouraged in it, knowing that God is present and God is working despite where I feel I am at. I am excited about what the other side will look like. I'm excited to know what freedom feels like. I'm excited to be in that deeper place of faith and intimacy with Jesus Christ. So right now, I'm not okay and I am not "happy-go-lucky", I am encouraged and hold onto Philippians 1:6, "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." I know that this refining and uprooting process is needed so I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14) 

Please continue to pray for me. Continue to encourage me. I am thankful you are apart of my life in some form or fashion. God is good! Follow Him!