I start this by laughing…

I laugh because the first couple of lines began as a social media post; but I quickly knew that I needed to change platforms if I was to continue. Yes, I was being told to…

“GET OUT…”

Was I being kicked out? Looking back to a few seconds ago, it almost feels that way. But, I shake off those distracting thoughts, and I run to take my seat for what I know is getting ready to be an amazing lesson that Father is preparing to pour into me.

That lesson begins now…

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9:05pm Wed Oct 13 2021

What I had begun to write on social media was this.

“At some point in time, we need to stop calling things “spiritual” only to then address it with a limited and fleshly mindset / understanding. To do this confuses those who are not yet accustomed to looking to the Lord for the answers they seek.”

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

The fact that we address the “spiritual” nature of things do not make it “spooky”, as one would interpret our experiences due to their lack in understanding the meaning behind the terminology we tend to use to express that which we experience.

(We need to be mindful of our audience and make sure that we are talking to the heart and mind of our audience and not over their heads.)

…and it is here that my social media post began to change causing me to be so grateful that I am back to writing on my websites.

So addressing something as spiritual really means that the issue (whatever it is) is larger and bigger than how we tend to look at and mentally (grasp) things within our natural limitations – the reach, the applications, the implications are much bigger, much greater than us; and it is when we understand this that for us it becomes spiritual. CATCH.

Simply put, we are at that point acknowledging the hand of our Heavenly Father God in the matter being discussed when we address whatever the matter is as being spiritual.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. – Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV

This experience does not make anyone better than the another. On the contrary, it is a very humbling experience. Humbling, yet enriching that we can have such a connection with our Creator; and this is an experience that our Heavenly Father wants for and with us all .

So, instead of making the spiritually enriching experience appear to be only for “the elite”, our prayer should be that everyone comes to know and understand and experience our Creator on such a deeper level; and we should speak and communicate in such a matter to make this possible.

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. – Ephesians 3:14-19 NKJV

As a matter of fact, the various levels of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding that God grants us is a gift that was given to us because God was entrusting us to take our gift and increase it by teaching others thru our gift to recognize their gift, where it comes from, and show them how to walk in their gifts.

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;… – Ephesians 4:11-13 NKJV

…but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. – Ephesians 4:15-16NKJV

This edifying and growth of the body does not happen when we desire to gain a following for ourselves and we attempt to create pockets of followers who will celebrate the gifts in us. This is not the reason God gave us the gifts according to Ephesians 4:11-16.

The gifts God gave us is not about us or for us to be celebrated, admired, or worshipped; but are to be used to bless and edify the body as a whole.

Therefore, when God chooses to use any of us, when he calls us according to His purpose, we need to not let that go to our heads.

Can God trust you with the gift He chose you to carry?

When you get a chance, read Matthew 25:14-30 about those who were given talents and how they cared for their gifts. Some took their gifts and multiplied them, but there was also one who didn’t multiply their gift.

Why do you think that is?

I believe it is because they didn’t understand that they could. They didn’t understand how. They saw their own failures and inabilities, and they magnified that.

Being one who has been gifted with various talents, as I begin to understand Ephesians 4:11-16, I am understanding that with my talent I am to help others to walk in (operate in) theirs. As such every joint supplies.

With that being the case, because I am a writer with a gift to teach, I try to follow in the example of Jesus Christ who used illustrations to teach the people and help them to understand spiritual matters.

So following that example, let’s look at examples of those whom was called to walk in a spiritual experience that would cause them to abound (grow) and how they responded.

Have you ever been given an opportunity to prosper, but you denied its possibility to BE because of the limitations of your current situation?

Exposing the Spirit of “I CAN’T”

Example 1: God calls Moses to do an amazing job for HIM. Moses says …”I Can’t…”

And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” – Exodus 3:7,10-12NKJV

Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ”So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.”And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand),“that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”Furthermore the Lord said to him, “Now put your hand in your bosom.” And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow.And He said, “Put your hand in your bosom again.” So he put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, it was restored like his other flesh.“Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign.And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land. ” – Exodus 4:1-9 NKJV

Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” – Exodus 4:10-12 NKJV

But he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do.So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.” – Exodus 4:13-17 NKJV

Example 2: Jesus comes up to a Man at the pool of Siloam who had some type of impairment that hindered him for 38 years. He asked the man if he wanted to be made well and the man gave excuses as to why he wasn’t healed already.

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. – John 5:1-9 NKJV

Of which mindset are you?

What makes turning “I can’t” into “I CAN” so simple is that it only requires you to do one thing… BELIEVE.

Example 1: what if Ezekiel would have addressed the matter of what he was being shown from the limitations of his own understanding? Take a look:

The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry.And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone.Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” ’ ”So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, ” says the Lord .’ ” – Ezekiel 37:1-14 NKJV

God asked Ezekiel if something was possible and instead of Ezekiel addressing what he was being shown with the limitations of his fleshly mindset, Ezekiel’s response to God was… “You alone know the answer to that.”

He gave the charge for something being possible back into the hands of the Lord who then told Ezekiel what to do when where and how.

Example 2: A virgin named Mary, whom was promised to become wife to a certain man named Joseph, was approached by the angel Gabriel with an assignment that our Heavenly Father had choosen her to carry out. She didn’t know how she could fulfill the assignment due to her lack of experience, yet she didn’t reject the assignment because of her limitations. Instead, she said, let it ne with me as the Lord has said.

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”And the angel answered and said to her, “ The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.For with God nothing will be impossible.”Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. – Luke 1:26-38 NKJV

After considering all of the examples, and identifying with not all but several, I realize that our ability to operate i multiply our gifts, and our ability to grow, especially (CATCH this now…) in the area of understanding things “spiritually”, all comes from our looking to God for help, direction, and correction.

With each step we take, we grow in our understanding that more and more we need the help of our Heavenly Father; and it is that growth that takes us from a fleshly way of thinking to becoming more “spiritual” in out thinking.

From faith to faith. From I can’t, to I will try, to I can.

We (you and i) CAN do all things thru Christ who strengthens us.