Maybe, Just Maybe, There is More

It is most difficult to bring Christians to the cross of Christ. We are familiar with the sinner’s prayer and from long years past have come to great comfort with solid understanding and knowledge; paradigms are established and lenses are polished to a sheen.

We’ve drawn near to God in comfortable distance and see no need to tamper with this. Our boundaries are secure, “Yes, this near, but no closer please.” We think that the amount of the Holy Spirit that we have right now is good enough, “No more Lord. I’m good.”

Our habits are well in hand. We give of ourselves to others. We share what we have. Temperance is practiced with care and great pride. Satisfaction is ripe, fortunes are good, future is secure. Why mess with this?

We’ve got love figured out. Our sacrifices are ordered and measured and established. We can parse scripture and rattle off verse along with rhyme and reason.

Yet, we have mistaken surety for life.

I accepted Christ at six years of age. I came to Christ at thirty-five years of age. The first was marked by the sealing of the Holy Spirit. The latter was marked by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Though similar, each was vastly different from the other.

At thirty-five years of age my life had become ground to a pulp in many ways. It was into this broken-down space and place that Jesus began knocking at the doors of my heart. He began at the room called self-sufficiency, “So Cyndy, how well is this working for you?” “Not so well Lord.” I replied. “Would you like to let me in now?” He offered.

And so began a decade of intensive and deliberate cleaning out of my heart. One by one, intentionally and systematically Jesus entered and swept clean rooms in my heart that went by the names of pride, self-righteousness, hatred, arrogance, and so much more. Once the rooms were cleaned we started in on the closets and the breath of the Holy Spirit began to dance within me.

I am now exceptionally grateful for the extreme difficulties in my life that led to this internal house-cleaning. Without this process through these many years I shudder to think of who I might be today. More perfect perhaps but certainly less real (living dead even). Entrenched in self-realization with little real sense of Christ. Most likely trying harder yet only caught in ought and should, the idols of performance religion.

God loves me, Christ has transformed me, the Holy Spirit breathes through me. And I in turn, am privileged to facilitate this in the lives of others. But it is not easy. For our psyches are so intent on keeping the status quo. Our minds are not very good of letting go of paradigms. We are not taught how to be vulnerable before the Lord.

The restructuring process of what we believe is so close, seemingly right next door, to insanity that our mind kicks into protection mode by shunning anything we do not understand or have not previously comprehended. We say we want Christ to come near to us but when He does and when the light of revelation begins to shine in the dark corners of the rooms of our hearts our immediate response is to back off and to shut down these rooms; we react as one in danger of drowning.

What is so exceptional to me as I look back on my own process of inner healing is that I had no clue to the rooms in my heart. I was living in a very small space, had been for so long, that this was all I thought there was to my life. Live in this space, enjoy the amount of God and of light that I have, and go on day to day. Now, I live out of my whole heart. It’s a lot roomier, to say the least.

God is faithful to reveal to us the secrets of our hearts.

It is a scary-as-heck proposition.

It is the bedrock process of transformation and of freedom.

I have eleven prayer clients at this time and each one of these courageous souls are daring to ask the Lord about the truths about the lies that are girding up the broken areas of life. Each one has come to see paradigms and belief systems that have been the reason for loss and dysfunction on various levels. Each one has come to the end of themselves and took a chance to seek the Lord and to come afresh to the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Taking responsibility for our own hearts is an amazing process. I watch individuals go from confusion to clarity and peace. I see them move from frantic despair to impassioned forward movement. I recognize hearts once afraid now open and clear and clean. And in this process the spirit of the living God moves through bringing life and love and freedom and joy. It is not all easy by any means, but it is all good.

There are no tricks in the Kingdom of God. It is the presence of God that heals us. Christ is knocking on the doors of our hearts. Will we say yes to him? How might you say ‘Yes’ to Him today?

When Jesus sat at the well with the Samaritan woman it was not long before she was receiving every single thing He had to say about her. She had no pretence. She needed what He offered and she openly admitted it. And as a result, she and her entire village, received the ministry of the King of Kings in their hearts and lives. They were never the same again.

The Body of Christ has been given the keys to the health and healing of our communities and our nations. It is this, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

Each one of us, intimately, personally, courageously, coming to the cross of Christ, even when we think we’ve got it all figured out, (especially when we think we’ve got it all figured out), is the healing of our nations as ordained by the Lord. Will we do our part? This is the question, this is our call to action.

Such is the movement of the King of Kings in our lives, if we will just come to recognize our need. If we will just stop long enough to see that perhaps, just maybe, there is more to God than we ever imagined. Maybe, just maybe, we could use more of Him in our hearts. Perhaps, just perhaps, we have some rooms or closets that we’ve been keeping from Him. Maybe, just maybe, there could be greater freedom and joy in our lives. Maybe there is more. Just maybe …