A Second Chance at Life…who wouldn’t want that?

Imagine with me for a moment if you will.  Please close your eyes.  Right now everything you know is suspended.  It is as if you have literally been taken out of this world to experience a brand new life.  It is your opportunity.  You can begin a whole new state of existence but only now and only at this very moment.  You have to make a choice………there is someone knocking.  (Tap, tap, tap).  It is time.  It is your time.   

To be truly born-again…would you?  Now, open your eyes, please.

April 19, 2011 found us rejoicing in the “fairy tale” wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.  A fairy tale life…I wanted that.  I can tell you that I certainly tried to simulate one all throughout the years of my life.  When I first heard the story of Cinderella it was all I needed to stoke the flame of fairy tale living in my heart and mind.  Might add here that there is no fairy tale life and there are not real fairies…Tinker Bell was a thought that was dreamed up by John M. Barrie who wrote the play, Peter Pan.  But today know this: God does indeed have a plan and a purpose for your life. He wants to give you a second chance at life.

Hindsight is always 20 20.  Oh! If we could only be able to see behind us right in front of us.  There probably would be little error on our part as humans. 

There were certainly times in my life when I look back, there’s that 20 20 again, and see that God would send someone to help me but all I could think of was, “Please don’t preach to me.”  It was only when I had come to my wit’s end and asked Him for help that tangible things started to happen. 

“I want a new life; I want my old life to be over; I hate my life the way it is.”  These are the phrases I uttered when I had come to the end of the road I had traveled, in life, for so long in defeat.  I would go on and on, stating things I wanted, how I wanted them.

How do we have a second chance?

Luke 11:9-10 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you= ASK

I had to make a conscience choice to grab hold to the very lifeline being placed before me.  I kept feeling I needed to open a Bible.  I tracked down the Bible I had been given when I was twelve years old.  Maybe at the very least, I thought this might get the itch off me that I was feeling.  And, then a thought did pop into my mind, Maybe there is something in this I don’t know.

I began to turn the pages. I was trying specifically to locate the section about the crucifixion.  I found it and I read it.  I had a vague understanding of why Jesus had died but didn’t ever grasp the full scope of it.  I knew of Easter, but beyond that, I had no real perception who my Father in heaven really was.  At some level, I think I wanted to, but something was keeping me from ascertaining "the more."

One evening, I looked right where I imagined God to be and told Him with tears running down my face, “I just don’t get the thees and the thous.”  You know, when you don’t understand something it can keep you from learning. It can become a stumbling block to you. Three nights later, my older brother handed me a Bible stating, “God told me to buy you this.”  It was a NIV version of God’s holy Word.  I humbly said, “Thank you.”  I started thumbing through it heading directly to the part where I had been trying to read about Christ and His death.  For the very first time in my life my eyes were opened and I began to think I could truly understand what had seemed like such a mountain to me.  It was a small beginning but it was a beginning.

At this particular juncture in my life, I owned my own business.  I worked an average of ten to eleven hours a day, six days a week.  With a schedule that demanded all my time and then some, there was practically no extra time for anything else in my life.  I was allowing the business to literally kill me thinking I was doing something for God.  But my thoughts were never, I don’t have time to read my Bible.

When I would finally go home at the end of a long day, I would crawl up on the couch to go to sleep, but not before most times opening my Bible and reading a paragraph or two.  

I had heard a scripture quoted several times by customers when they would talk to me about my life. Jeremiah 29:11 states, “I know the plans I have for you to give you a hope and a future.” I wanted a hope and a future. 

So, I went before the Lord one night, picked up my Bible, and opened to this particular scripture, which I read aloud to God.  I pointed my finger at Him telling him of what He said in his Word.  “I figure if you did it for Jeremiah, you will do it for me.”  I got up and shut up.  I wanted to believe He heard me but I wasn’t certain He did.  All I knew was that He was my last hope.

The life I was living brought me to the brink of total exhaustion.  I had to make a choice.  Only then did I decide fully to turn my life over to the only One who could give me the life I so desperately longed for. I still wanted a fairy tale life.

I hated my life and the torment was unbearable.  I really didn’t want to live any longer.  I had known such great success but felt something was missing.  I could not seem to make all of the pieces of a happy life fit together all at one time. I was now tired of the failure.  I thought, maybe, just maybe, if God were really real, He would somehow help me. 

Oh Yes!  I could be the recipient of great and mighty things but what I didn’t realize was that God was NOT going to let me have any material or spiritual abundance and continue living the exact way I had been.  In other words, I was not going to be able to “name and claim” anything and think God would honor it unless there were changes made.  I was going to have to do something different in the way I had been living.

The very first thing you have to learn to do is get your flesh under control and that is not an easy task.  It can be like YOU trying to tame a wild stallion.  You are a spirit man, you live in a flesh body, and you have to train the spirit man to be in control.  This task in and of itself can be daunting but you have a Helper if you accept Christ as your Savior. 

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.  “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. “

The choice becomes ours as to whether or not we choose to do life His way.  I had to take in a deep breath and realize that I could no longer be in control. 

We have grown up learning from our parents and the individuals around us. And then there are the things that will come at us, such as temptation and oppression from the enemy of our souls that will try to keep us from attaining God’s best. Our destinies. We

have to be able to recognize the different variables that are affecting our lives and know they have to be dealt with.  If we want great and mighty things from the Lord, and a second chance at a new life, that the Lord longs to give us, then learning to do life His way can take time, effort and a lot of readjusting.

The Bible teaches that unless a man is "born-again" he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).  My question to you today is:  are you truly born-again? If you really want a new state of existence from what you have known up to this point, then turn your heart to Jesus.  Even if you already think you have done that, then do it again...secure your path and destiny.

I was baptized twice before I truly committed my heart to Him.  The first time was to help get my second husband turned around…’cause I just had to have a man!  I found myself in a horrible marriage and I wanted it “fixed”.  So, on the advice of the Pastor in the church I was attending, my husband and I were baptized.  I was secretly hoping that somehow that water would wash the hell out of my husband.  But, it didn’t him and it didn’t me.  Looking back (good ‘ole 20/20) and seeing how stubborn my flesh was, even being dunked twice would not have helped.  I went down a devil and came up a devil that first time.

When you truly accept the Savior into your life, you will then step up into the kingdom of God and there will be a marked difference in how you feel inside.  A change occurs.  It is supernatural and unexplainable.  Nevertheless, it happens.

God tells us in Jeremiah 11:20 “I test the mind and I test the heart.”

Your flesh will now have to be trained to do life God’s way instead of the world’s way (your old ways).  You are given an opportunity to live by the kingdom of God.  But, YOU will have to be proactive with this.  There will be a difference in how you are going to approach your life. You will have to accept this by faith.  The Bible teaches that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).  Old things will be passed away and everything will become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).  You can purpose yourself to change your hair, your make-up, your clothes and your surroundings but if you are not “born-again” it will be momentary happiness. Change comes from the inside and goes out. 

In order for the spirit man in you to rise up and take control of your flesh you will have to feed him.  This new man only listens to the Word, has to eat the Word, and then puts into practice the new things.  This occurs moment by moment and day by day.  There is no “quick fix”. You must come to terms with the fact that you must not quit…ever.  Settle in your heart that you want your purpose and you want your destiny fulfilled.  (Yes, YOU have one that has been designed just for you.)  Quitters never win and winners never quit.

Make a commitment to yourself (write it down so you will keep it) before God to seek Him for at least six months.  If you tend to quit things easily, thirty days won’t be long enough.  I have always done better when I write things down so I can have as a reminder what I have said I would do.  I realize that six months may seem like a lifetime to you (it was to me), but when you look at the entirety of your life, it isn’t, especially when you are talking about really being happy, finally being settled in your soul, path and purpose.  We have been so conditioned to a “fast food life” that six months seems like an eternity, but this will give your flesh time to get used to something new.  Also, setting a goal will give you the strength to follow through because you know there will be an end.  You should be able to look back (20/20) and gauge what has taken place.

Instead of just letting life happen to you, take control and be consistent.  Inconsistency can be unnerving, being a detriment to your state of existence.  I think one of the worst things is seeing potential go down the drain and YOU don’t have to allow that to happen.  You need to purpose to get up early and put in a good day’s worth of work unto the Lord.  Tell Him you are committing to “do your part” and ask Him to help you get there.  The Bible teaches you have not because you ask not (Matthew 21:22). 

Stop making excuses.  Put excuses to bed for the duration of this six-month period.  Too tired, too distraught, too overworked, too sick or too depressed have no place in the kingdom of God that you have stepped up into.  God will honor your effort if you will just try.  I have been so down in my spirit that I thought I was going to die, but I would force myself and push forward.  When you have a tendency to be depressed and on top of that you are oppressed by Satan, many times you can’t see past your own self.  I understand that but you have to try to take “the bull by the horns.”  You will be the conqueror but in order to obtain a victory, there has to be a battle.  “Greater is He that is within me than he that is within this world.  Get off me Satan, in Jesus’ name.”  Get used to saying this, because whether or not you believe in the devil, you will have to come to terms with the fact that he is here to destroy you. 

What happens in our lives is done at the discretion of the Lord.  But, it is your effort of staying close to God that will help Him help you with what you face.

To recap:

Make certain you are born-again.  That is where to begin. 

Ask Him to help you. 

God has a plan just for you and an exact purpose.  Are you fulfilling that? 

Stop making excuses for what you don’t have and turn to the One who can help you. 

Make a commitment to stay steadfast in YOUR journey. 

Realize there are going to be similarities to other brothers and sisters in Christ because there is only ONE Holy Spirit, but YOUR life is unique unto God.

      Make the choice to have the ‘more’ of God.

If you do your, part God will always do His part. But!  YOU will have to lose your life to Christ to truly embark upon the purpose and plan that God has designed just for you.  Go after “the more”.  Do not settle in this life.  I lay the choice before you in all of hearing of heaven this day. I came here today for you. Just begin...

In closing: 

It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead.  The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.  Winston Churchill