Psalm 139
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, oh God! How vast is the sum of them. Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand-
These words are life changing. I’ve talked to many people who believe they’re in their current condition because they were “born that way”. They believe that they were wired wrong and that God created them in a way contrary to his will. This is simply not true, yet such a common belief. You are wonderfully made by God! There was nothing hidden from him that he missed. He loves you so much. In fact he loved you long before you entered this world. He thought about you so much that his thoughts about you outnumber the grains of sand. He spent time designing your every part, down to the smallest cell in your body. He numbered your hairs and he intricately wove you together. Some of the greatest things we know of, such as light and the universe, were simply spoken into existence… but God formed you with his hands. He even wrote out each day of your life with plans to prosper you and not to harm you. He created your inmost being and filled it with all of the gifts, talents, personality, and purpose that are specific and unique for you and for your part of his great story and yours. Then, being so in love with you with a love so great that nothing could separate you from it, he has to do an unthinkable thing……. He has to send you, his wonderful creation, into this world through the sinful flesh. God’s masterpiece, wrapped in corruption. Even David said in Psalm 51:5, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” We also know from Jesus himself that what is born of the flesh is flesh, but what is born of the Spirit is Spirit. We were all born of the flesh. So when you say you were “born that way”, I can agree with you, but let me assure you that you weren’t created that way! God still sees the masterpiece he created when he sees you and no amount of darkness can hide it from him. He sees your inmost being. However, we often don’t see it when we find our identity through the flesh and not the spirit. We allow the inmost being to be filled with all the lies of the world and of our own corrupted flesh and it’s desires.
Psalm 51:6 says that God desires TRUTH in the innermost being… that’s the place he filled with “who you are” when he made you and it’s were you find your sense of self. So how do we do this? Where do we find this truth? Well, we know his word is true, we know that Jesus is the truth (the life and the way), and we know that his Spirit is the Spirit of truth…. so when we get saved and we allow TRUTH to fill that innermost being, it’s then and only then that we find out who we really are. That’s when all the lies of the flesh come face to face with the true, inescapable, un-arguable truth of who God says you are! We come alive at that moment. The Holy Spirit brings to life that which God created before you entered this world. We are born again of the Spirit. We all have a flesh that desires the complete opposite of what God desires, so don’t let that flesh become your identity. You have already been given one! Surrender your life to Him and let Truth himself do his work!
But it doesn’t stop there. Sometimes we get saved and expect everything to instantaneously change. We expect all of our desires to be different immediately and when they aren’t we doubt that anything has happened. We may even believe we’re the same person we were before we got saved. I’ve discovered that getting set free isn’t the problem. Learning to walk in the freedom we’ve received seems to be the issue more often than not. Our minds have already become trained to think and process certain ways, and our first response of action is to let our emotions take the wheel. It’s hard enough to walk by faith and not by sight… but faith and not by feelings can be even harder! Martin Luther wrote a poem that has impacted my life. He wrote,
“Feelings come and feelings go,
And feelings are deceiving;
My warrant is the Word of God–
Naught else is worth believing.
Though all my heart should feel condemned
For want of some sweet token,
There is One greater than my heart
Whose Word cannot be broken.
I’ll trust in God’s unchanging Word
Till soul and body sever,
For, though all things shall pass away,
HIS WORD SHALL STAND FOREVER!”
Freedom is not based on feelings! He who the Son has set free is free indeed, whether you feel like it or not. We still have flesh and we still live in a fallen world. Don’t be discouraged when you desire things that you don’t want to desire. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Galatians 5:17
We’re told in the word that this is taking place. Everyone deals with this. That’s why the word says, No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
James 1:14 says that each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires.
Satan would love to trick you with condemnation and lies. If he can fool you into thinking that it’s hopeless because you still battle and still desire wrong things, he’s got a foothold in your life. We must be aware of his scheme, and aware that though our flesh has evil desires, we know how to get the right desires placed directly into the heart! We have the promise that when we delight ourselves in the Lord, he will give us the desires of our heart. He gives us right desires. Some people read that verse and think that God’s gonna give them what their heart already desires or what their flesh wants, but what He’s saying is…”Here are the right desires. I’m giving them to you as you delight yourself not in what you took delight in before, but in ME”. We often think that delight comes from what we desire, but according to the word, our desires come from what we take delight in.
Thoughts are also key. They are powerful. A tiny thought enters your mind, you meditate on it, it grows, and by the times it gets into your heart it’s so much bigger than what it was when it started. This is how we get full of rage, bitterness, confusion, and deceit. Have you ever blown up at a situation that started off small and ended up huge? A thought entered your mind, you meditated on it and it got down into your inmost being. Then it grew until it became something that changed you, changed your perspective, effected the people around you, and get this… it changed the way you felt! The principal is the same for the word! We get it in our minds and we think on it and meditate on it until it sinks down into our inmost being, the heart, and it grows into something so amazing and beautiful. It changes us and our perspective. It effects the people around us and even changes the way we feel.
Psalms 1 says, Blessed is the one…whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.
The mind is the portal to the inmost being! Our thought life is so important in the process of transformation that God gives us a list of things to think on. Philippians 4:8 (ESV) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
I challenge you to fill your mind and heart with the TRUTH. Surrender, be emptied, and be filled with everything God has for you. Be filled with Him and be who you are in and through Him. That’s what you were born for! Be born of the Spirit so that when people see the change in your life and wonder what’s happened, you can simply say… I WAS BORN THIS WAY!
EPHESIANS 3:16 (AMP)
May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality].