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Chapter 5- It's Not About You Anymore

The Message gives us a wonderful expanded understanding of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives (Galatians 5:22-26). "What happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard-things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good-crucified. Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. This means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives."

Yes, we do! Like walking, stomping, marching, and dancing forth on our destiny paths. We have a destiny promise within us that is going to burst forth even if it has to break the vessel it is planted in. God's plans are so much higher above our finite and often petty little plans. His plans for us must burst apart our boundaries, our preconceived ideas, our comfort zones, or we will be miserable. Totally miserable, just like an elephant with a breech birth blockage of overdue quadruplets! Oooooouch! (I know elephants don't have quadruplets, but I'm trying to convey the concept of serious consequences here.)

God has "arranged" His will in heaven to be manifested according to right prayers from earth. Jesus said we are to pray that the Father's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven (The Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6:10). This is not a calling forth, rather this is a right agreement alignment with His will to see His purposes transferred from the supernatural realm of heaven into the natural realm here on earth. God has always known what He intended to happen in our lives and in the lives of others that He expects us to pray right prayers for. We come into alignment with this through the dismantling of our unsurrendered souls' agendas by binding and loosing prayers. Or, we can cross our legs and try not to birth those elephant quadruplets as God breaks up the breech defense our souls are trying to keep in place.

I come from a family where everybody is a chief-no Indians, just chiefs. We experience some very dynamic family dynamics-dynamics being continuous interacting forces within a group. That's us, all right-heavy on the forces and heavy on the continuous. Most family dynamics begin over an upset of the balance of power among hurting souls. Then a second dynamic to change the focus enters and you find yourself embroiled in emotional discussions about things that have nothing to do with where it all started. Once a family is rolling this rapidly, everyone seems to get drawn in and it's downhill from there. God has been teaching me about making a paradigm shift in my thinking when viewing negative situations. I believe that many times people want a way out of a negative situation, but do not know how to withdraw without losing face or being embarrassed.

Christians can become that doorway out if they are willing to. It is only hard to do this when you have unhealed hurts and unmet needs that cause you to fear losing face or being embarrassed yourself. When you have bound your will to the will of God and loosed all hindrances within your soul blocking your own healing, you move closer to becoming that doorway. Not a door mat, but a doorway. However, if a doormat is what Jesus needs you to be for a hurting family member, the fruit of love will immediately try to flow out of your spirit into your "not-sure-it-wants-to" soul to obey His request. If the fruit of unconditional love can't get past your soul's defenses, it is because of the hardness of your own heart. Our difficult relationships are usually difficult because of our feelings towards the other person.

Some Christians tell me that they love their families, they just don't like them. What a deception. First Corinthians 13 was not put ino the Bible because its makes a really neat wall plaque to hang in your bathroom. It is the pattern of love. Only by binding my will to God's will and my mind to the mind of Christ, by loosing my soul's finite interpretation of difficult circumstances and issues, can I really see what is going on in dynamics with difficult people.

Continue to pray the Prayers of Commitment from Germaine's Prayers That Avail Much Commemorative Edition and ask to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord! You may also use the online Prayer Search to find additional prayers to address your specific concern.