Repent; Proclaim a solemn assembly; fast;

In Chapter 1:11 of Joel, we read Be ashamed, O husbandmen; howl, O vinedressers for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. 12 The vine is dried up, (Ye are the vine and I am the branches, If you abide in the vine you will bear much fruit, we are taught in the scritpures in the new testament)  and the fig tree languishes; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field are withered; because joy is withered away from the sons of men.” 15 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, you ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God; for the meat offering and the drink offering is withheld from the house of your God.”

He then tells us to “Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God and cry unto the Lord.  15 Alas for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.”

Then later as we continue reading, we find the command for Hosea

That really sounds like all grace has been taking from our Sovereign God that we have read about in the New Testament.  Well, hold on!  He rebuked the religious Pharisees and called them “white washed tombs, open sepulchers, full of dead men’s bones.”  He ran the sellers in the temple who had “made His house of prayer, a “den of thieves.”   When the church in Acts had formed, Ananias and Sapphire decided to hold back some price of the money and “lie to the Holy Spirit.”  They fell dead at the disciples feet, as a result we read in horror.

So lets take some time to consider what the death to flesh really means.  It simply means to stop striving.  To stop “trying.” To forsake even the very deepest desire for God….you simply must let go of that, as well.  It all is a journey to discover that “He is all and IN all.”

I’ve been trying to memorize the rest of the passage in Ephesians.  I’m wanting the Lord to reveal His amazing grace and love to me so that I don’t have to be concerned about what it means to “die to the flesh” so that I can already be walking “IN HIM.”  As when I was first born again, the bible does teach I was dead in my trespasses and sins, but now I have been made alive in Christ.”  Old things have past away.”  But in the memorization, it can become debt instead of grace, as well.  So I have to ask Holy Spirit to make the word real to me or it is just another lifeless protocol or work of the flesh, which becomes debt.

Romans 4:4-5 explains. “Now to him that works, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.”

He then tells us in ……………………..after we have suffered a little while, He will strengthen, confirm and establish us in the faith.”  What does that mean?  We must die to the flesh and wait it out.  The trial is perfectly fitted to conform us to the image of Christ…..again, since we lost that glory in the garden thanks to Adam and Eve. Letting patience have her perfect work within us that we may be perfect in entire, lacking NOTHING!  Pretty powerful teaching, if you want to walk there, but most of us…..eat whatever we want, say whatever we want and watch on TV whatever our flesh dictates.

So if we let patience have her perfect work, what kind of man should we be in holiness and humility before the Lord?  What would that look like in your life?  Would you be more disciplined?  Would you watch less TV or change the channels more often to another less ungodly show?  How about turning the whole thing off and bowing before the Father of lights in WHOM is no variables, who does not change neither is their shifting of shadows.  The truth is in front of our eyes.  Which will we choose?  Deut says, “Choose life that you may live and your descendants after you.”   Every day God places before us choices.  We choose to take our thoughts captive or we choose to be lazy and “check out”

When we get home from work what happens to the brain?  We have a tendency to shut down because of the stress of the day.  Why are we stressed?  Are we in the flesh?  I know when I found myself single again after being widowed years earlier, I took time to spend with the Lord on my lunch break.  When I arrived home I was not stressed and didn’t  have a desire to “kick back” but to continue in what I had been doing ….. just as the Holy Spirit had led me to do the whole day long……to listen, to pray to wait and to want to please Him with all my heart.  i have to admit, I wasn’t like this when I was married to a pastor with 3 children in school and a whole lot of people calling me for help and prayer.  I was leading worship, teaching children’s church, visiting nursing homes, had a prison teaching ministry and then a women’s bible study during the week.  I was a busy lady and then fixed homemade meals every night for my family of 5.  Whew!

     I ended up on the front porch, weeping my eyes out because I could no longer hold it together.  My best friend came over to console me saying, “I should have done more.”  I said, No, I just should have done less.”   I was neglecting my children and Jesus, my first love. After my marriage fell apart, it took me a while to reflect and renew my vows of honor to the Lord.  A part-time job working as assistant to an electrician was all that came my way, at the time. I was scared to death to go out and look for a 9-5 job as I had not worked in 25 years.  After I realized the job with the electrician came not only with expectation for electrician’s assistant, but, seemed my boss wanted more perks, which I was not willing to open the door to.  I then much to my chagrin, found myself at Express Personnel shaking in my boots….in the corridor waiting for my appointment because I had to take a skills test. Skills?  What could I do after being “dormant” for 25 years?  I had fixed meals for 50; made children’s costumes and directed a play with playing all the music for it, I had taught Sunday School and Children’s church and cleaned the church and been a mother of home-schooled children, but still I hadn’t worked in an office setting in too long to be confident in anything of that sort.  I also knew the ugliness that most women exhibited when they found a newbie and wanted to show them they didn’t know anything to make sure they knew their place.  It was kinda like “pecking order.”  I’ve never been into any kind of emotional control like that, but I certainly had been a victim in my high school years.  I wasn’t looking forward to the possiblity of getting around working class of women, again.  The only skill I could recall…..in my own mind? I could still type 65-70 wpm and remembered how to do Word, excel and a few other computer programs like Quickbooks and Outlook. I had done things for the church and my husband, etc.

        Trembling, I stood outside the main office and spoke into the air,….at least that’s how I felt.  “What time I am afraid I will trust in Thee.”  If I said it one time, I said it 30.  By the time 10 minutes had passed, I guess it was 10-15 min, but it seemed like an eternity, the fear began to lift off my mind and soul. I felt the Holy Spirit come over my being and bring such peace and assurance, I was not alone.  Maybe I wasn’t speaking into the air, after all.   The trembling subsided. I thought, “So this is how people loose their minds!”  Fear is our enemy and it rules the human race, mostly everyone.  We want beauty and fame and riches, and others to think we are amazing.  The list is endless of the desires of the flesh.  Fear is a stronghold that can lead us astray, away from God’s best as well as pride, which go hand in hand.  You are fearful because you might not measure up. You are prideful because you feel you don’t. God has made us perfect and in His image, so the lies in our heads become pride.  “I will”  ….whatever your desire is and we leave God out of it and fight like banchees to make something happen….when all the while, we are miserable inside.

The word of God speaks specifically about that issue in James. 1  Love not the world, nor the things of the world for if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in HIM.  (WOW!)  For the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not of the Father bur of the world.”  That’s pretty plain.  How can we get around that one? We cannot!

I’m a musical person and a singer at heart.  I love opening my mouth and letting it “rip,” especially to the Lord.   I can get mesmerized when I hear a beautiful voice express themselves in song.  Somehow singing lifts you…..I suppose depending upon the words.  I heard Celine Dion for the first time and fell in love with her.  Who didn’t?  She is a kind and wonderfully thoughtful person and sings like an angel.  The world is always singing about a love relationship gone bad or one person they can’t do without.   Always horizontal thinking, instead of vertical……offering up a sacrifice of praise to our God who is most worthy of our praise.  So, I kinda got a habit of watching the greatest performers on AGT and X-Factor.  So much fun to see these young kids be excited to be chosen or get a ‘golden buzzer,’  yet i knew my time could be spent in a better way.  Then one day I was so convicted of someone telling their testimony of how those in the entertainment industry…..some, not all, have sold their souls to the darkness to get where they have risen today.  I had already known that.  Kurt Cobain was tormented in his soul, Elvis Presley was tormented, Marilyn Monroe,  The list goes on:

So I’m sure not bragging about where the Lord took me, it was just that he said, “I will take care of you” walk before me.”  So I did, as I had no choice, fear was still my task master.   I learned little by little to trust Him again and fear lifted from my life, but never really went away.  I was ensnared several times down the road, each time it happened, I was a bit more educated about how the enemy worked within me and through me when I listened to ungodly thoughts.

Without being on purpose to put Christ first and not lean upon our flesh or our own understanding….we can go through life, flitting around like a butterfly with no purpose.  I was so very busy being in ministry. I forgot to spend quality time in prayer and worship and praise before my Father. through .Christ His Son.   I found that I needed a deep approval and it ended up biting me from behind.

Habits that are from the Lord are those that include prayer, regular sleep habits, eating correctly fasting, prayer, bible study and choosing to be a servant, and giving sometimes till it is scary and it hurts.  Are you willing to let go of your life to do such a thing?

So it never hurts to fast, and set aside some time to be alone and let go of feeding the flesh for a few days so that you can hear things of the spirit a bit better and more accurately.  It is good to have godly habits.

So Consider the habits when you wake up in the morning….  after you eat our breakfast, what is next?  Do you have a plan, a habit that you can do daily which will eventually get you closer to your goal after you eat breakfast?   After you wash the dishes?  What are habits that you want to instill in your life that will cause:

1. To Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind
2. To love your neighbor as yourself.
3. To walk in the Spirit, not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh
4. To know what is the hope of His callling
5. To understand how to love the saints and make no provision for your flesh
6. To make provision for prayer and bible study that you might know the riches of the inheritance of the saints
7. To understand what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of HIS mighty power which He worked in Christ when HE raised Him from the dead and seated HIM at HIS right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and dominion, and every name that is named. …..not only in this age but the age to come. He put all things under His feet……..the scripture goes on in Eph 1.

Are we really understanding what we are reading?  Gee!  We have all power.  Then in the “Lord’s prayer”  He teaches us how to pray “Father who art in heaven  “Hallowed be Thy name.  Thy kingdom come…..thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  Hello?   What is this?  “On earth as it is in heaven?”   The one thing in heaven is no death and only healing and no sorrow and no unforgiveness, and certainly no gossip and no unbelief and no anger and no drunkenness…..nor fornication nor adultery nor homosexuality.

These are great and precious promises given to us from the Father.  If we wile away our time with frivolity, how can we expect for God to bless us with these things we long for?  “Ask of me and I will give you the nations.”  He is not kidding!  We are to rule and reign.

Having a plan that agrees with your short-term and long-term goals and you will eventually see those desires you have longed to happen come to pass.   James Clear has written a marvelous book that teaches you to use habits to access your goals, one minute step at a time.  I downloaded the book and bought the hard copy because it has meaningful ways to make lifetime bad habits cease and positive and uplifting goals to be established, one second at a time.  It is a powerful message.

He has a free 30 day lesson plan to anyone who wants to better themselves.  You can find it at Jamesclear.com   Or atomichabits.com

“Your passion is waiting for your courage to catch up.”