Choises.. And Consequences

[Ebn Barbara]

The Holy Spirit preoccupied me with this important subject during all this time to be able to share it with you today..
The purpose of this subject is to realize:
That we live and experience the consequences of the choices we’ve made; whether it is at important crossroads in our life or during our daily living.

When God called us to accept His salvation, we had totally the choice to accept or to refuse. Because we’ve accepted His invitation we are His children today and we have eternal life; but if we would have refused it, eternal damnation would be awaiting us. And the same principle applies to the life that we spend on this earth as believers before we go to heaven: we define our choices, and we reap their consequences.

A lot of believers live far away from the plan of God for their life, and they have a lot of questions in mind: Why Lord? Why Lord? Why Lord? And these questions start in the morning and don’t even end at night. They are living far from the promises of God for His children, those promises which the Bible’s pages are full of.
And there’s only one reason: these are the consequences of our choices!!!

Most certainly all of us as believers will go through the desert, through difficult periods and tests that might be hard sometimes, but will allow the Lord to correct our personalities, purify us and make us according to His heart, so He can fulfill His just purpose for us.. This is not a strange concept for the word of God told us about it.. but what is unusual is that all or most of our life is made of wilderness and difficult times. We will try to explain and clarify this in our meditation today because a lot of believers are suffering from this situation.

Beloved: our God is good and He is love, His love is unconditional, and He wants us to live victorious and happy, enjoying peace, abundance, perfect health and success.. you can add what you like of similar expressions.. and His word certifies what I’m telling you:
“… for God is love” (1 John 4:8).

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (James 1:16-17).

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10).

“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).
I’ve listed all these verses to declare to you the love of God and His purpose for His children, because we often forget those precious things under the pressure of trials and wars, and because an important number of believers doesn’t know who is Christ, and doesn’t know deeply the purpose of God toward them, and also because the lack of knowledge might destroy us:
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6)
After we understand the purpose of God toward us and His unconditional love for us, and after we know our rights in Christ, we should know with assurance that it’s impossible for us to live far from the promises of God for our life or to live humiliated and beaten without reason:
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” (Galatians 6:7-8).
It is a very important bible principle.. If you deeply grasp the purpose of God and His love for you, and you are a real believer possessing faith and living a life of holiness and daily relationship with the Lord, it is totally impossible not to fully experience the promises of God for you, and not to live the victorious life that the Lord gave you as a gift after He died and rose again and deprived the enemy from its power over you.. In other words, what you sow you will reap..
And also in other words with all certainty you will reap the consequences of your choices..

Beloved: what I want to say today is that coincidence doesn’t exist in the believer’s life.. rather the word says:
“… a curse without cause shall not alight.” (Proverbs 26:2).
It is completely impossible that curses, calamities, disasters, difficult diseases and other similar things come on the believer without a cause..

So come let us examine some verses that will clarify the subject for us more:
“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:1-2).

There will never come a time where the hand of the Lord is shortened and cannot help you when you need it, neither will come a time where the Lord does not hear your requests, rather what blocks your voice from the Lord’s ear and what hinders him from coming to your rescue, are only your sins..

And from the New Testament:
“For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” (1 John 3:20-22).
Clear words.. If our heart does not condemn us for doing things that are improper for believers, or if it doesn’t condemn us for being far from the plan of God for our life, so whatever.. whatever.. whatever we ask of Him we will get with all certainty.

Choices.. and consequences.. so none of us goes astray.. and none blames God, for the word tells us also:
“The foolishness of a man twists his way, And his heart frets against the Lord.”
(Proverbs 19:3).
Foolishness means: lack of knowledge.. lack of security, distance from the Lord, sins we don’t reject and resist, wrong attitude of heart.. this will bring evil toward us.. that is the consequences of our choices, so our heart will be angry at God and blame Him, when we are the guilty ones.

Often times the Lord warns us and the Holy Spirit rebukes us for specific sins or for a certain behavior, but we don’t respond to it because we are occupied with many things, and because of the Lord’s long suffering toward us, and His great love, He is patient with us and does not discipline us with the rod directly. But rather than repenting and returning back to Him, we harden our hearts many times and our choices are not as they ought to be and as the word teaches us, so we reap the consequences:
“He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” (Proverbs 29:1).

“Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord, They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies, For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them; But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil.” (Proverbs 1:29-33).

Beloved: the subject of choices and consequences is very clear in the word of God, therefore, come let us go deeper in it:
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish… I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:15-19).

Life and good or death and evil?
Life, death, blessing and curse..
Each one of us has the choice.. and then the consequences come..
What the Lord wants for us, is what He said in this passage: “therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live”.
This is an important message from the Lord to each one of us today..
What are your choices?

“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” (Daniel 1:8).
He purposed in his heart!!!

The prophet Daniel chose to be faithful to the Lord, purposing in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, with the desires and the love of the world.. defying the order of the king, careless of the lions’ den.. and we all know the consequence.. and for those who don’t, please read the book of Daniel: for he changed the king’s decision and made him believe in the Lord.. he escaped the lions’ den.. glorified God in his life.. and attained the highest positions…
So shall we purpose in our hearts today not to defile ourselves with the desires and love of the world, and with the filth of sin?
And be assured that you will only experience the consequences of your choices in your walk with the Lord..

When the father of the sick boy said to the Lord:
“If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
The Lord answered him saying:
“If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” (Mark 9:22-23).
So the problem is not with or in the Lord, but it is always in us.. in our choices:
You believe or you don’t
You are faithful to the Lord or you’re not
You live a holy life or you don’t
You choose to be in the fullness of the will of God for your life or you don’t
You choose to have a daily relationship and intimacy with the Lord or to be lukewarm and far
And for every choice its consequence for sure!!!

If only we could respond to the word of the Lord today without delaying..
For His word tells us:
“… Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 4:7).
We respond to it by examining all the choices we’ve made, and we repent with a real repentance for every wrong choice, so its consequences do not stay in control of our life.. even more than this.. so we can live what God ordained for us.

And I want to clarify the subject of repentance today, so we can expose the deception and delusion of the enemy.. Real repentance is not only a matter of confessing the sin we did, but it is an absolute change in our thoughts, which will result in a real change in our behavior, for the word says:
“He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13).

Believers often fall into this common mistake, they get used to always repeat their sins, then to always repent of them, without showing the Lord any seriousness to get rid of them, or to effectively resist them. However, the sin that we reject mentally, verbally and effectively, is the one that does not hinder our relationship and intimacy with the Lord..

That’s why let’s ask the Holy Spirit to make us repent a true repentance, and to help us to forsake our sins and wrong choices, so the Lord can be merciful with us, and give us back all that we lost, and we live the wonderful life that the Lord has prepared for each one of us.. To the Lord be all glory.

[بنت معلم الاجيال]

Thank you

very beautiful