Road Blocks to the Kingdom of God

Galatians 5:19-21
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,[c] fornication, uncleanness, lewdness (lust), 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders,[d] drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

God is speaking. For a few weeks I have been wondering exactly what has been going on with my spiritual life. I have noticed that the revelations of the kingdom of God have not been coming like they used to. What did I do different you make ask? Absolutely nothing. This answer may come as a shock to you, as you may say, “Well, sure you would say that, no one blames themselves for anything…” Well, I will tell you that I am the first to point the finger at myself when it comes to spiritual matters, because it is because of my carnal mind that I find myself in trouble so many times.

Let me explain to you what I mean. See in the past few weeks, God has really been elevating my faith; I don’t mean knocking it up a few notches either, I mean taken to the next level, friend of God type of advancement in faith. That was an awesome experience, probably won’t forget it as long as I live.

In the last few days I became very confused. Why? Well, because here I am, so excited about exercising my faith and seeing God work, yet I couldn’t buy some new revelation into the Kingdom of God. Though, I do remember adding some notes to my dry erase board last week sometime concerning the Kingdom, which was very insightful, but there was no passion to continue; there was no passion to explore; I would read the Bible out of habit, only grasping ‘right beneath the surface’ revelation, but most times, just what appeared on the surface.

Last week we had a Living Free training session and God spoke to me concerning some areas of my life that was hindering Him from continuing the good work that He had started in me. The three areas that he showed me in particular were that of lust, idolatry, and selfishness. As you might imagine, these hit me pretty hard, and I was embarrassed before God, and even to myself. The lust issue I somewhat knew about, but because it was always such a casual thing, I paid it little or no mind; it wasn’t even a real issue to me, that’s why I thought it normal to no pay it no mind. That was the mistake. Idolatry; I think this one hit me the hardest. What was the idol? Oh, not a what, but a who… and who else but myself… I remember becoming nervous as I pieced the various pieces of the puzzle together, first there was the pride, then self aggrandizement, and finally the realization that it was my desire to want people to desire me. Wow! You could imagine the expression on my face, you could imagine the condition of my heart; but could you imagine the look on satan’s face when he realized that I realized the three carnal components that were keeping me from inheriting the kingdom of God?

Just like Galatians 5: 21 says, a man cannot inherit the kingdom of God while these issues exist and are being practiced.

The last area of carnality revealed to me was selfishness. This one eventually made sense to me, but not initially; boy was I blind. I thought about it and said, “Well I can’t be selfish if I give to the poor, the church, and family and friends. I can’t be selfish if I am always willing to help out. I can’t be selfish, if I was called to be a giver…” When faced with this time of self discovery, I was so focused on the more obvious external good deeds that I did, that I lost focus on the fact that God doesn’t judge a man by his deeds, but by the condition of his whole heart. Now, try to understand me, I really feel a peace that my heart has been in doing these things, but there were other aspects of my life and another part of my heart that I chose to be oblivious to, deep down inside somewhere, buried in some crevice, these desires to have things my way, to say what I wanted to say with no consequence, to do what I wanted to do to others with no consequence, and to just focus on my needs being met. It was horrible.

How could these things exist inside me? How could I say I am living a life totally surrendered to God, yet these things existed in my heart? Quite easily actually. What is satan’s #1 strategy to leading people astray? Convincing them he doesn’t exist. In the same way, satan deceives many of us Christians into thinking that certain aspects of carnality don't exist within us by making us blind to it and making us defend ourselves constantly, only to give satan control in our lives through these unknown strongholds.

Saying, “God, I surrender my life to you.” Is great. Saying, “God, search my heart and reveal all the impurities.” Is even better. However, most Christians get stuck at this second question, because we just want God to know that we have verbalized our ‘concern’ to Him, so it makes us more comfortable to know that we said it, even though we don’t really look to find impurities. It is when we say, “God, I am lustful, I have practiced idolatry, and I have been selfish. I thank you for revealing this sin to me; I thank you for convicting me of this sin. Lord, right now I am brought low. I have exalted myself and you have honored your word and have humbled me. My heart has become heavy; I feel pain, I feel weak, but I know that when I am weak, you are strong. I will trust you. I surrender my life to you, once again.”

I am excited actually, because these three areas of carnality that have been plaguing me behind my back, have been brought to light; and we all know what happens when light invades darkness… darkness, has to flee.

Thanks be to God, my Deliverer, my Rock, and my Salvation.