REASONS FOR HOPE TO OVERCOME FAILURE
Hope to overcome failure can best be found when there is light to see the hole that causes you to stumble. For that light we turn to Christ. He shows us the serpents that bit us and offers us specific healing for our problems. He shows us exactly what happened, what it caused, and how it happened. He also shows us His God guaranteed cure. He understands the exact problem, and its exact cure.
In the light of Christ revealed to you by God’s word, you can see the root of your problems, and then take the sword of God to cut it out. You can be totally free of all the causes of failure and despair. The law of the Spirit, which commands that there be LIFE has set you free from the law of sin and death. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of Almighty God, has paid the full penalty on that cross for all your sins. And in His resurrection into Eternal Life He has also given you the power of His eternal life by which you can live in this present life.
He set you free from the snare that caught you, and bound up your wounds, and made you strong to fly again. This time like an eagle, together with God. They that attend unto the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall rise up on wings like eagles. They shall run and fight and overcome the world, and not even breath heavy. They shall overcome their world by the faith of God in them. As you follow the Captain of Your Faith, Jesus Christ, the victory is assured.
He cannot fail. All who follow Him will see only victory. Because He never fails, none who follow Him will partake in any failure. The following of Him is the way for your success. You can partake in His victories as you follow Him into battle. Quit fighting your own wars. Quit fighting your own way. What has it gained you to do things your way? Are you willing now to follow the greatest general of all? Are you willing finally to adopt the patterns of the greatest successful man that ever lived? Are you at last willing to do things His way, according to His purpose?
Sure, it means you must give up being your own general. But what would you rather be, a loser general of your own life, or a winner follower of God’s life? Will you quit trying to be your own boss, and go to work for God? Would you be a private in a victorious army or the leader of a defeated army? The enemy has had since the world began to learn how to defeat you. He is wise and strong in the ways of defeating people in their lives.
But God has defeated your enemies for you. He offers you to partake in His victory. He has already totally annihilated the enemy for you. He will make you a sergeant in His army after you have learned His ways. For all this can you decide to join His team? Can you lay down your own paltry goals, and your own weak tools? Are you willing to trade in what you have for all that God offers?
WHAT GOD OFFERS TO YOU – What does He offer? Eternal life for you together with Him is what He offers. Eternal life with God, living in a glorified eternal body that never gets sick and never breaks… that is the big thing God offers to those who follow Him. For some, it is hard to be motivated for something that seems so far away. Let me say, you never know just when that heart will stop pumping. You take it for granted. You don’t even know all the things that go on in your body by God’s pattern just keeping you alive so you can have a chance to accept His ways.
You may have tomorrow, and you may not. You may live to be a hundred; but your life will be better then and now if you accept Him now. Join His team today, while it is still today, and you know you can right now. Tomorrow you may forget if you don’t do it now. Ask Jesus to help you know God. Let His Spirit work in your heart to know your Eternal Father who created you in your mother’s womb according to His pattern. He has good reasons for everything in your life, every circumstance and every event is a part of His plan to work glory into your soul for all eternity! He has laid out the affairs of your life in good ways that will give you good reason for joy as you begin to see things His way.
Let Him show you His way, His reasons, His purpose. He works everything together for good according to His eternal purpose for those that love Him and are willing to walk with Him.
Let this prayer be your prayer. Let these words be your words. From your heart, with all your soul, mean these words. Dear God, I have failed. I have failed in life and in the things I wanted to do. I have failed in so many ways, it makes me miserable just to think about them. So many things I did wrong. So many things I didn’t do that I should have done. Sometimes I knew better and still didn’t do the right thing. Sometimes I just didn’t know any better. Forgive me for all my sins, known and unknown. Lead me in the way of LIFE. Grant me eternal life together with YOU, in Jesus’ holy name I pray. I believe that Jesus Christ is YOUR SON. I believe that YOUR SPIRIT came upon the virgin Mary, and caused Jesus to be born of God by the virgin Mary.
I believe that He then lived as a man among us, preached the good news of YOUR SALVATION for all who would believe. LORD, I believe He allowed Himself to be crucified, and shed His precious blood on that cross, giving His life to pay the penalty of death for me and my sins. LORD, I am a sinner. Forgive me my sins. I confess my sins to you. I ask that the blood of Jesus be applied to pay the full penalty for all my sins, known and unknown. I repent of my sins. I choose the way of LIFE. I no longer will follow after sin, but from now on I follow God. In all your ways I will obey. I will listen and hear and learn, and I will do what you show me to do. In Jesus name I pray, let your LIFE come into me. I ask you to live in me, and let me live in you.
Let your Holy Spirit come to me now, and prove to me your power and love. Do not let me go, and I will not let you go. Keep me by your ALMIGHTY POWER. Keep me in your love. Show me your mercy and tender kindness.
If you have read that prayer, go back and get on your knees and read it with all your heart. Say it to GOD. He hears you. He knows the intent of your heart when you speak. Show Him how much you really mean what you say. When He sees you are seeking Him with all your heart and with all your mind, then He will let you know He hears. Take time to humble yourself before God, to seek His face. Wait on the Lord, then you will know Him. He attends to those who take time to draw near to Him. Let go of everything else you’re doing and focus with all your strength on God.
Let nothing else be in your mind. Let no other thoughts. Temporary failure and setbacks happen even in the life of a believer. These are some of the reasons why: PRESUMPTION Numbers 15:30 … the soul that does anything presumptuously…reproaches the LORD,…Presuming is a great cause of failure. Presuming and assuming are cousins of the same arrogant pride.
DOING EVIL Num 32:13 “…and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD was consumed. “Sometimes the will of God is delayed in our lives until all the flesh is consumed on the cross, until all the old nature is fully dead so it no longer mixes with our faith to follow God to obey HIM. Even with Israel there was a mixture. There was Joshua’s faith, Caleb’s faith, and the faith of all the rest. God did not bring them into Canaan until all the rest had died.
Truly it is said, In faith and patience inherit your souls. HIDDEN SINS AND SINS YOU THINK WON’T REALLY HURT Num 32:23 “…your sin will find you out.” Even when God is wanting to do a work, if we do not follow Him perfectly, our sin can cause us to receive less than God’s desire for us. Deut 5:29 ” O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever.” A mixture of obedience and flesh does not get the same results as when the old man is dead, and the works of God are untouched by our sin nature.
Deut 12:8 “You shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. For you are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God gives you. “Compare this thought with Heb 4 about ceasing from our own works and entering into the rest of God. We must have knowledge and understanding of dead works, and we must repent from dead works before we can enter into the rest of God and go on to perfection.
DOING DIFFERENTLY THAN GOD SAYS Deut 12:32 “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it; you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” See how a mixture of flesh and spirit in obeying the Lord would either add to or diminish from the leading of the Spirit of God. This is why all the unbelievers in Israel had to die off during the 40 desert years. This is also why today we get mixed results when we mix flesh and spirit in following God.
NOT SERVING HIM WITH JOYFULNESS Deut 28:47 “Because you served not the LORD your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things, therefore shall you serve your enemies… in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things…”We are instructed in many places to exercise faith, to be content with present circumstances, to count it all joy by faith. Murmuring and complaining are not faith builders, neither is it pleasing to the Lord. Christ does not murmur or complain.
WALKING IN THE IMAGINATION OF YOUR OWN HEART Deut 29:19 Those who walk in the imagination of their own heart shall not see the good things of God they expected. When a man does his own blessing of what he wants to do, when he presumptuously blesses his goals, he is deceiving himself. See Deut 29:19 In Joshua 1 we see Joshua explaining to Israel, (1) the Lord has given you rest, and (2) has given you this land. (Joshua 1:13,15) We only get God’s victory when we have ceased from our own works.
When we no longer exercise ourselves but let God in us do it, then we are resting in God and can fully expect the results He promised. (See Heb 4) These ideas of rest and ceasing from our own works seem simple enough on paper and by the dictionary; but in spiritual truth they are as mysterious as only faith born of God and developed by God can understand. As for me, I certainly know English words. I read those words over 20 years ago and endeavored to understand. At various times to various degrees I did understand.
But lately, understanding has been increasing. At least three times it seemed I had been fully pruned, fully dead to self. And yet it is only lately that I have tasted a few moments of really a pure sense of being in the rest of God. It was only after much healing of my soul that this awareness was experienced. As though the scars and layers of blindness on my soul blocked the light of His rest. And even now it is something new to which I am not yet trained but only still learning. But I offer this hint. A scared, warped soul can block light transferring from the spirit to the understanding. Our soul is the potter’s clay. It too must be reshaped into glory if we would walk perfectly with God.
The spirit is born again as we believe in Christ as Saviour. Our soul is reshaped, purified as we obey the truth. Oh, pray for those who do not appreciate this terrible need for obedience to the truth. And pray they would also open their hearts and minds to all the truth which they need to obey that it might be well with them. It is for this reason of obedience to the truth by the spirit (1 Pet 1:22) that this understanding about bread is sent forth.
So many who believe in Christ, presumptuously ignore or fail to see their need for obedience to the truth. Consequently, their soul lacks in purification; consequently, the light God shines to their understanding is blocked by the impurities of their soul. Oh, for the yoke of Christ to purify our soul! The reason for hope to overcome failure is that Christ has given us light to see what caused our failure, and He has given us redemption from that failure. He has forgiven us our sins and made us one with God who cannot fail.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and all who looked upon it were healed; so also, must Christ be lifted up, and all who look upon Him shall be saved. Be willing to accept the things God points out to you that are sins. Some people hear what God says about their sins, and then turn away from His voice because they don’t want to hear it. They don’t want to believe, much less admit what their sins have been. They say they want to be well, but when the doctor shows them what needs to change, they refuse. Don’t be like those people. As He shows you what was wrong, admit it, and be willing to change it.
When a building inspector makes a list of things to be corrected in the building, the whole list needs fixing. If you want the best results in your life, let God show you the whole list. Be willing, and even eager to change things for the better in your life. He comes to you so you can have life and have it more abundantly. He is not here to condemn you, or to shame you, only to help you.
Some of the worst common problems people have that caused failure in their life are: Not going to bed early enough to feel right the next morning on time. Refusing to submit to authorities in their life, whether it be teachers or bosses at work. No persistence in anything they started. Never finishing the task they started for themselves. Making excuses for not doing the small things in their life that needed doing. Always planning and waiting for the big things, but not taking care of the small minor things that build up to the bigger things they wanted. All of these are sin. In the same way that murder, rape, second degree murder with a vehicle of driving while drunk are sins, so are these attitude problems people have.
All sin needs repentance. Admit these white-collar sins in your life and repent from those things that cause you failure. Take the yoke of Christ, and go through life successfully together with Him. He is the Captain of your faith, and He never fails. All who turn to Him shall be blessed. They will live and prosper. Pray every evening and every morning. Put His yoke on first thing each morning. Pray for the day every evening. Your day begins with the evening. The pattern is for you to pray for the daylight hours of the day before they come, sleep (rest in Him), and then go forth into the day together with Him (having put on His yoke first thing after waking up.) A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. He shall receive nothing from the Lord. But he that is faithful shall be established in all that he does.
He that is faithful in the seemingly small things will discover they were stepping stones to greater things. Small things that seem unimportant to most people are such things as praying for the day on the evening before it comes, so your prayer can have time to be effective in changing things. Getting up early in the morning to finish the day successfully. Putting on the yoke of Christ each morning to do things His way and do them joyfully.
Remember how God showed Noah the plans for a ship to save his life. Those detailed plans didn’t come all in one day. But the details did come. And Noah did all that he was shown, exactly right, to save his own life and the lives of others. God will show you the details of what to do. Maybe not all at once, but He will show you what you need to know each day. Be content with what He gives you for it is all you need for that day. Do not try to overload yourself with more. Rest in Him, and faithfully do what He gives. And brick by brick, day by day, your mansion will be established.
He is faithful who promised. And He is plenty powerful to do what He says. He is willing and able to help you. Only follow His way. Obey His orders. Take instruction from the God of the universe who wants to teach you in the ways of LIFE. Can you imagine the slaughter that would have resulted if all the people of Israel would have crossed over the river Jordan before God’s blessing? The giants would have wiped them out. They needed the powerful help of God to overcome the problems in that land into which they were going. To receive the powerful help of God they had to learn how to follow God. They had to stay in His obedience school until they were ready to go fight the battles. Then and only then was God ready to send them out.
It may seem to you that staying in your own desert until God sends you out is a boring thing. You may want greater and bigger things. But consider again the Israelites and the defeats they would have certainly faced had they gone out prematurely. They would have been decimated, and so would you if you go into battle prematurely. There must be a time of preparation. Just as the baby is formed in the womb, grows nine months, then is birthed; so, we too need time to grow strong enough for each new stage of life so we can successfully cross the bridge when the time is right.
The desert training years refer to teachers and authorities over your life, watching over you, guiding you and protecting you until you are ready and able to navigate the sea of life yourself. This means you must stay under tutors and authorities you can see, while you learn how to submit to the authority of God whom you cannot see. Then you are ready to take orders from Him by faith, orders you cannot hear with your ears, or see with your eyes, you can only receive them by faith.
Then you can be trusted to win and not lose. Trusted to win because you are faithful and able to follow His way to victory. When the teachers and authorities see that you are ready, they will let you know. They will release you from their authority and send you out to follow God on your own. You will no longer have mother to put you in bed at night, get you up in the morning, and make you smile with pleasant words of love and encouragement. It will all be up to you.
What you have learned must stand you in good stead. For the captain of a ship at sea in the middle of a storm must know how to weather it through. He cannot push a button and drain the ocean. The pilot of a fighter jet in real combat cannot push the stop button and walk out of the simulator trainer like in school. No, my friend, you do not want to go out there prematurely. Learn all you can. Get the skills of life into your soul before you attempt to go out on your own. If you want further enlightenment and understanding along these lines, get the manual on “THE MILK, AND WEANING OF GOD “. It goes into great detail on the subject of training and preparation for the giants that everyone faces in life.
Now I leave you in the blessings of God as you pray in His will for your life. Be faithful in your evening prayer time for each new day. Understanding that prayer before the events is greatly preferred to prayer after the events. Start each new day with prayer on the evening of the day. Genesis tells us that the ‘evening and the morning were the first day’. Start your day with prayer to God each evening. Then sleep, resting in Him. Then arise, put on His yoke, and go forth with joy and confidence of Him.