This morning I went to the prison that I go to weekly to, to minister to the young people that are held there. But this week something different happened.
I go there to minister to the young girls, but this week we were informed upon arrival that we would not be with the girls this week, but that there is a room full of young fathers from the prison that we will be visiting with. They were to have a course on how to be a good father.
It's very funny, because there we are, three young girls going to teach men in prison about being good men. God has a sense of humour.
Our entire plan was foiled, but that's ok, cause that is how the holy spirit is able to do his work. When we NEED him to show up.
It was a shaky start, not sure where to go with the spirit at first, I prayed and asked God to give me words, he was ever faithful to show up and give us something to talk about.
I felt the lord give me a message for these men in an instant, so I asked the girl that leads the group for permission to share what God had placed on my heart.
It was simple, I began to give a bit of my testimony, of how God has changed me and made me the woman that he created me to be. I will simply tell you what I told them:
The gospel is simple and we do not need to over complicate it. This world is full of "how to" formulas to have the life we want to have or to be the people we want to be. And yet, there are billions of people walking around so broken and without the slightest clue on how to be or do the things that they want to be and do. Maybe our formula's don't work! I didn't want to tell these men anything they already know about what they SHOULD be doing as husbands, fathers, and men. That's just like the law, just a list of do's and don'ts that don't change us inside.
The only way that we are changed is by spending time with God, and by asking the holy spirit to change us from the inside out.
In the garden of Eden, we walked with God and were complete. When we sinned, we were separated from his presence and began to not understand how to function as a man or as a woman, nor how to relate to and treat each other and our children. But that is the mystery of what Jesus did when he died on the cross. He died to make things right between us and God and to give us the HOLY SPIRIT. To return us to a state that is truly even better than the garden. No longer do we just walk with God, but he lives inside of us! The holy spirit is the mystery! When we ask him to, he comes and LIVES INSIDE of us, and changes us form the INSIDE out. Fulfilling what Isaiah wrote, when God said that he would "write the law on our hearts" no longer would we do the right thing out of obligation but out of DESIRE to do it!
This is what I have experience in my own life, the holy spirit changing my DESIRES to those of my fathers, as I have asked him to come and make me like my pappa!
I told these men, that the only way they were going to become what they want to be, and treat their families the way they should is by getting closer to God.
I gave them the analogy of our relationships being like a triangle. On the two lower ends of the triangle are a man and a woman. It's a lot more difficult to understand each other and bridge that gap when a man and a woman are trying to reach each other from the lower points of that triangle. But as each person moves closer to the top (which represents moving into a deeper intimacy with God) we are brought naturally together at the point at the top.
You should have seen these men, what I felt that I saw on their faces as I spoke. It was clear that the holy spirit was moving them deeply. The hope we feel as humans when we realize that our father in heaven loves us and forgives us, and not only that but that he wants to EMPOWER us to be the creation that we long to be, is so powerful! I told them I was going to show them how simple our father is, we got in a circle, held hands and began to pray: "Father, thank you that you have given so much so that we could come to you knowing that you forgive us and except us. Thank you that you care so much about us that you want to help change us inside, and that you've given us the Holy spirit which helps change our hearts so we DESIRE and are EMPOWERED to be righteous and godly. Father I thank you that these men do not have to strive to learn how to be good men and fathers, but that when they simply come to you, you will teach them because YOU are a good man and a good father."
We should stop striving to get our lives together and simply focus our entire selves to getting closer to our father in heaven, and everything else will NATURALLY fall into place. Seem to easy? Well, that's the beauty of my God. He doesn't make it complicated! He meant it when he said "seek first the kingdom of God and ALL THESE THINGS WILL BE ADDED TO YOU"
Moving closer to our saviour, and spending time with him and letting him love on us as we love on him is the cure to life. It is the cure to the sin we struggle with. It is the cure to the tragedies that we face (and I have had more than my share of tragedy) but I am full of JOY and LIFE because despite the way life tries to trample and break you, that relationship with God is TRULY all that we need.
As I have gotten closer to my father and worked on intimacy with him, I have become the woman that I was meant to be. I have begun to look more and more like my original design, and have naturally learned how to love the way I was meant to love. He IS the answer.
I refuse to let any other doctrine take place of the gospel, the truth. There is no cure but Jesus and the relationship we get to have with daddy.
We need only to look to him to become all that we were designed to be. To break every chain that holds us down. To have power over sin and sorrow.
He is everything.
"I believe in Christianity (Jesus) as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else" C.S. Lewis
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