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One More Time Around The Mountain

by Steve Countryman  
1/09/2015 / Christian Living

It isn't a metaphor. It isn't something that only took place back in time. It isn't make-believe. It isn't a myth. It isn't the ramblings of the insane. It isn't fantasy or a hallucination. It isn't an illusion or parlor tricks. It isn't a fairy tale, fable or a bedtime story. Plain and simple, it is war! The war winds up in the natural and the results of it shows up in our daily lives. But this war is fought in the supernatural and in our minds. It is the war between good and evil, between God's kingdom of Light and Satan's kingdom of darkness.

Most Christians do not believe the war exists. Some believe that Satan was defeated at the cross and is imprisoned. The majority of Christians just choose to ignore the war all together. Seeing their problems and struggles as just typical life issues. The war I'm talking about here is the war that we fight and struggle with daily. Ephesians 6:12 For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.

The battles take place in your mind and with your memory. It is easier to hold on to what you're used to from your past then to trust God to provide an unknown future for you. It takes faith in your God and for you to believe in His Word that will help bring you into your future and God's destiny for you. God provides the victory over all of the battles in your mind. You must choose to trust Him for it.

Your past is one of the enemy's greatest weapons. The Devil's goal is your destruction and if he cannot do that then he will settle for your immobilization. To reduce you to a useless and worthless Christian. He will use your past to distract you, detour you, derail you, snag you, entrap you, snare you, depress you and imprison you. The Devil will try to get you to re-live any part of your sinful past. Or to get you to long for it as the children of Israel did when they were in the desert after God rescued them. They started complaining about missing their old lives of captivity in Egypt and that kept them going around their mountain and out of their promised land for forty years.

By keeping you tied to your past the Devil can maintain access to your life through it. Abuses, regrets, addictions, un-forgiveness, grudges, the blame game, failures, mistakes and getting you to be stuck there in them is what Satan wants to do to you. If you can't get past your past then you will deny yourself God's future for you.

"You're not worthy of anything good." "You don't deserve to have a good life." "Look at what you've done in the past, you're nothing but scum." "You'll never amount to anything." "Go ahead and go back to the things you know best, your addictions and your failures." "Who do you think you are you sinner?" "You're ugly, pathetic loser, worthless and everyone hates you! That's all you'll ever be." "It's everyone else's fault that you turned out this way." "You deserve all the problems and troubles you get." These are some of the lies the Devil uses to deceive you back to your past. If you believe lies like these then you will use them to justify why you're stuck in your sinful past!

The more often that you re-visit your past problems, troubles, and issues the more likely it is that you will relive them over and over again. Your victory is not found in your past but in your future with Jesus. Freedom from your past is located in the One who holds your future in His hands. Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

For you to get over your past, you must be willing to do so. There are things that you can do to help yourself do just that. Avoid the old routines. Don't go and hang out at those places that will drag you back into your past. If you were a party animal or would go on drunken binges then don't go to anymore parties. Find some Christian friends or church where they have outings or get-togethers where you can spend your free time with good people. Don't hang out with those people who were your "friends" drug friends, bootie-calls, gang bangers, dealers, in other words "low-livers". If they don't care about you or for your well being, how can they really be your friends? Nick names, tattoos, jewelry or certain clothes that all represented who you were have to go. You can't be free for your past if you continue to wear your past. You must "put on" the new you. For you are a new creation in Christ. When you "put on" your clothes each day it takes a careful decision for you to do it. It also takes making a careful decision to "put on" the new you. To put on love, peace, joy, understanding, wisdom, forgiveness and contentment. When you were born again you died to your sinful past and now live and reign with Christ.

A good start is to be water baptized. It is a command of God once you're born again to seal your salvation. It represents you dying to self, to your old sinful life and sinful lifestyle. A public declaration of the new you in Christ. You must let go of your past if you ever want to have a future. If not you are destined to keep going around your mountain forever stuck in your past.

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