Hello, Everyone –
When I opened up Yahoo this morning, I saw that President Trump wants to bring his favorite book, the Bible, back into public education. Wow, what a blessing that would be…
Jonathan’s new year message was really good so I thought I’d share it with you…
Blessings in Messiah For The New Year!
Many of us grew up being taught that Isaac Newton came up with the law of gravity after having an apple fall on his head. The story is most likely a fable, but Newton did formulate the law of gravitation. We generally think of gravity as the force that makes things go down. But gravity is really not a force that pulls down, but rather, it’s a force that pulls objects to each other. The closer you get to an object, the more you’re affected by its gravitational pull. This is true for stars and solar systems, planets, moons, and satellites. It’s even true for small objects. Every object has a gravitational pull.
At this point, you might be asking, “But what does this have to do with my spiritual life?” Everything. Every believer deals with habits, sins, temptations, things they want to overcome and break free of. Hidden in the law of gravitation is a spiritual principle and secret that can change your life. Just as physical entities contain gravity – a gravitational pull, so also do spiritual entities. And what this means is that the closer you get to an object, the more you come in contact with its gravitational field and pull.
Thus, if you hang around people who are into a specific sin, you’re more likely to be drawn into that same sin. If you hang around with people into gossip and negativity and complaining, you’re more likely to be pulled into that same gossip, negativity, and complaining. It means that if you’re tempted with romantic feelings that are outside God’s will, the closer you stay to that person, the object of the temptation, the stronger the temptation becomes and the greater the chance you’ll fall. It means that if you’ve had a vulnerability to alcohol, then the closer your proximity to a drink, or to a bar, or to an event where alcohol is served, the greater the gravity and chance for falling. It the same way, if you’re struggling with lust, the closer you are to that magazine, or that television show, or that website, or whatever else it is, the greater the gravitational pull toward falling will be.
In the inverse of this law comes the secret. If you want to break free from any sin, habit,m failure, the first and most basic thing you have to do is get out of its gravitational pull. In other words, get as far away from its proximity as you can. The farther away you go, the weaker its gravitational pull will be, the weaker its force and influence on your life. This can be something as simple as getting out of the situation, our of the relationship, out of the house, out of the room, out of the area, our out of the gathering. Then you want to keep going farther away. You’ll want to get yourself away from even the possibility of temptation. The word of God tells us not only to stay away from adultery, but stay away from the door of the adulteress. In other words, protect yourself not only from the sin, but even from a situation that might leave the door open to that sin. If you’re more vulnerable to falling when you’re tired, then leave the situation before you get tired. If being in a certain room could open the door for temptation, then don’t just avoid going in that room, avoid the house, avoid even the street if you have to. It works for temptation, it works for idols, and it even works for distractions. Get away from the gravitational pull and it will weaken.
Once you do this, you can move to the next stage of freedom. You can start moving even your thoughts out of the gravitational field of that sin. Start practicing moving your thoughts as far from that sin as possible. Direct them to a new gravitational field – the gravity of God, His word, and His love. Replace the unclean thing with the pure and the holy. Replace the temptation with the joys of the Lord. The more you get away from the gravity of this world, the more you’ll be free to dwell in the heavenlies and vice versa. So get more and more into the joy of dwelling with God every day in His heavenly places and you’ll live in greater freedom, for there is no gravity in heaven!
“And God raised us up with Messiah and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Messiah.” (Ephesians 2:6) If we are raised up with Messiah then the gravity of earth will ultimately be powerless over us! Rejoice today and make a commitment to move farther and farther away from earthly gravitation to take up your rightful place in the heavenly realms where there is no gravity.
In His Love and Service,
Jonathan
God bless,
Mark