In the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned from reading the book of Galatians with you. Galatians is packed with lessons for Christians. Though the Galatians crisis wasn’t the same as the Corinthians one, it angered Paul just as much. The Christians in Corinth were in danger because of things like incest and idolatry, but the Galatians had problems that were just as bad if not worse.
While the Holy Spirit took me through Galatians, I wrote all over this book in the Bible. If you look at my Bible you will find all colors of pen and various colors of highlighter. It got so bad that I had no room in my Bible anymore to make notes, so I had to open my computer to make notes. I now have dozens of pages of notes on this one this book. .
Here is why the Spirit of God has so much to teach me in this chapter. When He first led me to the wilderness, He began teaching me very early. Paul became heated because he could anticipate their approach from a mile away and knew they were on a slippery slope. The Holy Spirit showed me how difficult it can be when we fall back into religious traditions, rituals and so on, we become so enmeshed in them that they become more important to us than the Truth of God. I am telling you the truth, as God is my witness. When we allow them to grow into our roots, these things become so deeply embedded that they cannot be taken away. When I was fighting with Him and would not let go of my religion because I was taught to be proud of my baptismal faith, He suddenly opened the depth of my heart to me. It was in the Baptist Church that I first started to have a relationship with God and understood what salvation was all about. My fight with Him was about refusing to let go of what I knew and had learned over the years. I asked the Spirit of God at one point if I gave you all these things I learned, that’d be like rejecting all the leaders who invested so much time in me, through coaching, preaching, and mentoring. When He opened my heart, I saw what no one else can see except Him, and I was shocked to see the reason I was so convinced to keep what I knew was true.
1) First, I have learned to admire the people who have worked with me such as pastors through their sermons and other leaders because they have so much knowledge. They have become my idols.
2) I could see why it was so crucial to give it to Him because, now I could see something tucked away in my heart. All these people were so important to me, these pastors, leaders, coaches, and mentors. As I used to say, I should be thankful and hold on to them, since they led me to Christ. What God showed me was that they had become more important to me than Christ. (By the way, this is why we get so territorial about one political leader or one pastor over another.)
3) The other thing that surprised me was that all these things I have accumulated from these people who taught me in the past have become my true identity. That was a real eye opener for me. The dilemma I was in was that even though the Spirit of God was telling me to let go and give all these things to Him, I had no idea what He would give me in return. I guess you’d think we’d be clued in since we all talk about who we are in Christ, right? Nope. The things we retain, the things that make sense to recall, seem to be blocked by God to give us the opportunity to exercise our will to “trust Him” first. In essence, His plan is to impart the word of God to our souls, make it a part of us, and transform us. However, we must first trust Him.
Since God has increased my faith over the years, I have learned that ‘trusting’ Him is the action of faith. I discovered the difference through Him. As you practice it, you suddenly realize why the Bible continually refers to faith and trust at the same time. The act of trusting God is what makes faith a reality, not the gift of faith itself. Where faith becomes challenging for us is when He gives us the opportunity to trust Him, and we do not cease the opportunity. Despite God’s gift of faith, if we don’t use it to step out in faith, then we don’t have faith. I learned in the wilderness that trusting forces us to apply faith to Christ personally. Each time we move forward to trust Him, we feel like we have something to lose, something to give up. Our faith has to be centered around Him.
Thus, even though I was hurt because I felt I had lost this negotiation with Him, I was also happy. I was happy because by seeing the depth of my heart and how we become who we are, I had access to something that therapists would kill to know and see for themselves.
Following this lesson of showing me my heart, I fully understood what Cobb was attempting to convey in the movie Inception. We are not composed of one idea; we are made of several ideas that we have accumulated over time, from our parents, leaders and so on. In the absence of the Spirit of God, I would not have realized the depth of our infirmities and how much we need Him. I certainly would not have recognized the significance of letting go of my identity in order to take on Christ’s identity. God can’t give us Christ-identity on top of what we already have. In order to take Him in, He has to remove all the tentacles of our previous lives. I personally can’t find the words to explain how our idea of what we think we know and who we think we are, is slowly killing us from the inside like a silent poison.
Paul was angered because he was aware of the danger in the Galatians’ course of life. As soon as they reestablished their Jewish heritage while returning to their traditional ways, it would have been very difficult for them to return to the true Salvation of Christ. Even though we say things like “Christ died for my sin, I am free” on a daily basis, we are unaware of how to live out this truth unless Christ teaches us. We are in bondage to our way of thinking, and salvation is an added benefit to who we think we are.
By insisting on returning to their strict Jewish rules, Paul knew they were going to open a path that would eventually lead them away from true salvation. All the while, they would have no idea that they were living a perverted gospel.
We’ll talk some more later…
QUOTE FROM THE MOVIE INCEPTION THAT APPLIES TO US IN THE FLESH.
In the movie Inception Cobb said: “Cobb: What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient… highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed – fully understood – that sticks; right in there somewhere.”
