Our soul’s personal history with God is often an account of the death of our heroes. Over and over again God has to remove our friends to put Himself in their place, and that is when we falter, fail, and become discouraged. Let me think about this personally— when the person died who represented for me all that God was, did I give up on everything in life? Did I become ill or disheartened? Or did I do as Isaiah did and see the Lord?My vision of God is dependent upon the condition of my character. My character determines whether or not truth can even be revealed to me. Before I can say, “I saw the Lord,” there must be something in my character that conforms to the likeness of God. Until I am born again and really begin to see the kingdom of God, I only see from the perspective of my own biases. What I need is God’s surgical procedure— His use of external circumstances to bring about internal purification.Your priorities must be God first, God second, and God third, until your life is continually face to face with God and no one else is taken into account whatsoever. Your prayer will then be, “In all the world there is no one but You, dear God; there is no one but You.”Keep paying the price. Let God see that you are willing to live up to the vision.

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July 13 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, thank you for this lesson. A lesson about how our heroes and “life priorities” must take a back seat to our surrender and connection with You.  And yes I do understand, recall and remember (yesterday was not all that long ago) how You use life circumstances to surgically remove things from our character. I suspect that it would be wise to consider that when we are surrendered and connected with you in an intimate relationship, we are able to live out our lives trusting and believing You. And when we are not surrendered or connected with You, that You can use the consequences to help mold and shape us as we “get to go through it”.

And God says…”All things work together for good for those that love the Lord. There is symmetry about how this works. When you are surrendered and connected, the Holy Spirit can live through you and your circumstances and difficulties, guiding you to an abundant life even in difficult times. And when you are not surrendered and connected, the Holy Spirit can use your resulting difficulties and circumstances to shape you and bring you to surrender and connection. When you are surrendered and connected to Me, you know that I am God, and I have come to give you an abundant life…unencumbered by the circumstances or difficulties that may or may not still exist.”