Let go of your rebellion

Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”

Hosea 6:1-3

Re-read that again, and maybe a few more times, line by line, of what Hosea is prophesying over Israel and Judah. The three verses are jam packed summarizing our rebellion against God, His reprimanding of us, redemption found for our souls because of Jesus Christ, and how our Father’s love is steadfast every day of our lives. God wants YOU, all of YOU, not just whatever part you give Him when it is convenient. He desires relationship with you, is for you, with you, and wants to work through you. BUT first we have to let go…

Hosea first speaks of returning to the Lord, to turn from our rebellion against Him. If we don’t, we get to learn the hard way through God allowing us to suffer and soak in misery. God allows us to make bad choices, allows us to turn from Him and follow the world Satan runs. He loves us enough to let us choose wrong and loves us enough to take us back when we realize the poor choices that we made without His counsel. The Father will let you take a spanking from the world if you live in disobedience. He allows it so you can choose to keep chasing you, your desires, and your strength, or you can choose relationship with Him, choosing His desires and His strength. So where do you begin to change and turn to the Lord, and seek His will for your life?

The bible speaks of letting go of your life and relying on God’s wisdom and guidance each day, rather than leaning on your own. So you must let go of YOU, let go of YOUR life, let go of YOUR thoughts, YOUR feelings, YOUR desires, YOUR identity, YOUR world, YOUR passion, LET GO OF YOUR FLESH and EVERYTHING that comes with it. God desires ALL of YOU, your complete and total submission, attention, emotions, feelings, desires, identity, talents, ideas, all of it. Why? Because God is: perfect, sovereign, creator of you and the world around you, all knowing, all seeing, and all powerful, perfectly kind, just, and merciful, grace giving, loving, and kind Father. He knows best for your life; the Creator of the universe, who gave His Son to pay your debt, for your sins, wants to know YOU and wants you to know HIM. We have a heavenly Father who uniquely made each one of us, and knows our every, everything better than we do. Yet we constantly live our lives acting like we know more about us and how we should feel, work, love, play, and spend our time. We act like our own gods on a daily basis making choices and excluding God from them as if we somehow have better plans than He does for our lives.

We have a problem with submission to God, our Father, who created us. We have an issue with living in daily surrender to God and His will for our daily walk. He knows this, yet doesn’t give up on each of our souls. He gave us Jesus, the perfect example of surrender and submission to God, in the flesh for the world to see. If you are unsure of what your walk should look like, get to know Jesus, make Him your best friend. He is the epitome of who God is and who we are called to be. Jesus lived a life constantly seeking the will God had for His life, always working to align His heart, with the heart of the Father. Jesus then outwardly encouraged everyone else to do the same. Jesus didn’t look to His own wisdom, identity, passions, ideas, or work to fill His life and His heart. Even though He was wholly God and wholly man, He looked to the Father, His Father, OUR Father, to seek out His identity, joy, and life mission. If we are really seeking God, and relationship with Him, then that means we are not seeking self satisfaction or self righteous lives. We are called to live greater than our own desires; our hearts are deceitful and imperfect because of our sin, so look to the One who is perfect.

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Jeremiah 17:5-10

We encounter worldly temptations daily like a battering ram, and frequently lean on our own deceitful hearts (corrupted by our sin), but there’s a better solution and it is God’s solution, which is a complete turning away from self focus, to God focus. We are each completely equipped no matter where we are in our walk to seek communion with God each day and get before Him in total submission and thankfulness. If we create a space where we meet with God each day with intention, He will meet us there without fail every time. That is the beginning of relationship and then we see the transformative power of God working in our hearts. From that space where the Holy Spirit is working in our hearts and minds, we start to operate outwardly and not just inwardly. Then we can fulfill the ultimate calling on each of our lives, which is living outwardly a lifestyle of selfless love towards others and a spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ, our ultimate commission.

We cultivate relationship with God and change in our hearts through the active Holy Spirit, who Jesus left within each of us, the day He ascended to Heaven. He left us a helper, comforter, wise counsel, and direct line access to the voice of God and Spirit who gives us eyes to see life differently. The Holy Spirit knows the intimate knowledge of each of us and the complete and total nature, thoughts, and works of God. We have access to a mediator, the Spirit of God, who hovered over the waters and darkness in Genesis 1:2 as God created the world. We have that unique access to God, just as Jesus did; we just have to choose to cultivate that relationship, because He’s ready to go to work and grow us. We find the Holy Spirit many times in prayer, worship, scripture, and Christ centered community. It is in these places we find revelation, truth and true change of the heart. Prayer allows us to speak to God about where we need help in our growth, seek wise counsel, hear His voice, praise Him, and thank Him for all He does and has done. Scripture is the unwavering truth and living word of God, which speaks into our lives, breathing sobriety into the chaos we inevitably live in. Scripture without fail, never lies to us, and allows us to understand who God is throughout time, coming to understand His nature, and intentions for His people. Worship allows us to get before God in the most raw and open way. Worship whether there is music or silence is a place to praise, thank, and cry before God for all He has done, and all He has yet to do. Finally Christ focused community is a place where we can meet with other fellow believers and come to meet and speak truth to one another. Community allows us to have a space where we can encourage others, press into spiritual gifts, push on another forward to where they are called, as well as rebuke those falling from the truth.

So press on to know the Lord and let Him shape your life and identity. Allow Him to cultivate your soul and grow you in a way that the world never will. God desires unique and intimate relationship with each of us, so that we can spread His love, and the good news to others, fulfilling an eternal destiny in heaven. God wants to see all people come to know Him, so they can commune with Him at His table. All we have to do to accept and grow in relationship with God is to openly receive all that He has already given us. Hosea speaks of God coming to us as sure as the dawn every morning, and He does, but many times we don’t and He stands waiting. He waters us like spring rains encouraging growth, but we have to accept and soak in the rain. God is very simple with us, but we make it complicated. So the challenge is, will we receive what we are given freely, or will we keep God locked out of our house, only allowing Him to enter when it serves our purposes. God can bring peace, purpose, and patience in process to each of us in our walk. So will you let go of your life as you see it and allow God to give it greater vision? Will you let Him use you for greater purposes leading to an eternity with Him for you and for others? Will you tell God YES, to Him saying let’s go? Will you say yes to let’s go, no matter where it takes you? Will you put your faith in letting go of your life and identity and trusting God with it instead? Will you actively pursue His vision, instead of your own?

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Galations 5:16-25