Choose Life

Shortly after we arrived on Cape Breton in the fall of 2007, it seemed like Everette and I entered into our own kind of Discipleship Training School with God. We had all of our previous support gone and we had begun a new journey. The process had started at some point before we left BC, but it was very clear and intense when we were here on Cape Breton and especially once the cold eastern winter set in. We were home much of the time, engrossed in the Word, online teachings thru podcasts or videos, and reading books. We each had our own journey, but they were overlapping quite often.

I was seeking to know God better, and to clear my mind and heart of all the religious things I'd grown up with. I had put God in a pretty small box, and had limited Him pretty much to my experience. I was wanting to serve a powerful BIG God. I was on the search to find Him.

I started to hear a voice. I don't know how to explain it, but it was clear and precise. I suppose it was in my head that I heard it, but it wasn't like the flurry of thoughts that seem to be constantly going around in this females head. It was loud, and everything else stopped. It got my total attention, although it was just one single word. It stood out like a beacon amidst a storm.

LIFE!!

How simple was that? Of course, I choose life. I wasn't considering suicide. I don't agree with abortion or euthanasia. Of course I choose life.

But then God brought me to Deuteronomy 30:19 "This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live."

As I pondered this verse and started looking into blessings and curses, it became more apparent to me that through ignorance and/or naivety I was living with a form of death and with curses in my life, considering it a normal part of living in a fallen world. But when I became aware of the life and the blessings that God has for His children, and I recognized that as a citizen of the Kingdom I don't live under the rulership of this world (unless I'd choose to), then I really started to LIVE!

I started to evaluate my thoughts, and wonder if they were bringing life to my soul and spirit. If they weren't, then I would "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Cor 10:3-5
I would reject lies for I recognized that "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I (Jesus) came that they may have life and have it abundantly." John 10:10

Jesus came and died for me, that I would not only have life, not only eternal life, but abundant here-&-now life. He sent His Spirit in fullness to live in me, that I can have a very different life than those that are without Him. But I must constantly be choosing life, not death and the ways of the thief.

I started to see things more simply. Life....or death. Blessings......or curses. No brainer, of course I wanted the Life and the Blessings. So, how did that look in my daily life? (You can check out Deut 28 for a list of blessings and curses)

I would choose to think thoughts of Life. This isn't the same as being a positive thinker. This is thinking thoughts or words that originate from God, and from Jesus, since He is the Truth and the Life. (John 14:6)

Bill Johnson says, "I can't afford to have a thought in my head about me that is not in His." Chew on that for awhile. That was a biggie for me. It was a turning point, actually.

So, by choosing Life I was definitely choosing Jesus who is the Life, and I was choosing His thoughts about me. Thoughts like.....

I am a new creation in Christ; old things have passed away and all things have become new. (2 Cor 5:17)

I am united to the Lord and am one spirit with Him. (1 Cor 6:17)

I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. (2Cor 5:21)

I am righteous and holy. (Eph 4:24)

I am hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:3)

I am more than a conqueror through Christ. (Rom 8:37)

I am a child of God who always triumphs in Christ and releases His fragrance in every place. (2 Cor 2:14)

I am a recipient of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. (Eph 1:3)

If I sin and confess it, I now stand righteous before God. (1 John 1:9)

When I started to decree the truths God gave in the Bible, I was choosing words of LIFE over the lies of death that my spiritual enemy tried to feed me. I was working at doing what Bill Johnson said......not having thoughts about myself that God doesn't have. I find LIFE the more my thinking truly lines up with God's Word. There is really no other way to have LIFE than from the Life-Giver.


Question for You: Have you ever audibly heard the voice of God?