Friday, February 01, 2008

Yes, there is a disorder that is becoming predominant among Americans that call themselves Christian and it is “SADD.” Yes, it is sad and the acronym is SADD which is better know as “Spiritual Attention Deficit Disorder.”

Continuing in the same thought as the alabaster box word that I previously sent out, we must recognize that we are the greatest obstacle to the Spirit of God in the earth. I am sure that you would have guessed that Satan was God’s biggest hindrance. I contend it is ourselves. If we were out of the way and in total cooperation with the Lord, we would certainly see the Lord make incredible advances in the earth. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen the power of God widespread in this country since Azusa Street.

What is the hindrance? My understanding is this—we have physical limitations. We can only lift so much weight, walk so far, and stay awake so long. We physically have a limit. Somehow, we think that our soul-man is unlimited in strength. We are so loaded down mentally, emotionally, and goal-oriented ( tasks to do) in the will that we have no strength for the Spirit of God to use us. We are so “full” of things on this earth that we have absolutely no room for the Lord.

The Lord has been very specific with me recently to clear the mind, the will, and the emotions. We stay constantly so engaged mentally, emotionally involved, and driven with things on earth that the Lord cannot make any headway with us much less through us. Do we realize that the only way the body of Christ can be exhorted and the lost evangelized is for the Spirit of God to come up out of our spirit, through our soul, and touch someone else?

I read somewhere (Psa 27:7) "A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb." The Spirit of God is burdened and yet that burden can never leave our spirit due to condition of our soul. I also read that someone said (Matt 11:30) "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" compared to ours. We carry this huge burden of the world’s activities around in our souls while the Spirit is there wanting to burden us with what God is burdened with. That burden he promises that we can carry; however, the one that we carry around He makes no promises. Matter of fact, Paul said (Phil 4:6) “Be anxious for nothing!”

We are consumed on carnal matters while Paul teaches us (NLT Rom 8:6, 1 Cor 2:16, 2 Tim 4:5) that we should be “minding” the things of the Spirit. In Colossians, Paul says (Col 3:2) that we should have our mind on the things “above” and not below. I had to begin fasting in many ways from the the things of this earth, just to get my mind back on the things of the Spirit. It is the story of the “frog in the pot.” Story has it that a frog can be place in a cold pot of water and he will not even notice the water warm until he is boiling. It is gradual and goes unnoticed.

Back to the “SADD” theme, we are not paying attention. If the Lord right now wanted to use your mind, “does He have room?” If he wanted to give you affection for a brother or sister or a lost person, “do you have that capacity in your emotions right this moment?” God forbid that He wanted to lock your will in on a task, a word, a service, or healing that would require a “tenacious, bulldog” type of faith. We are so caught up in “stuff” many of us can’t even distinguish his voice anymore. Then if we do hear His voice, we say, “Sorry, Lord, I have this that I am doing.” As Watchman Nee so aptly writes, “The trouble today is that our spirit is available to God –able to receive God’s burden—but our soul is driven by such multitudinous, confusing thoughts from morning till night that our spirit can find no outlet.”

The writer of Hebrew (Heb 4:1-5) declares, “there is a rest for the people of God.” Paul wrote (Phil 4:11, 1 Tim 6:8) that “he could be content in all things..” Dear brethren, we need to clean this house we call “our soul”, observing the contents in the light of God, have a garage sale nailing all this baggage to the cross, and invite the Holy Ghost cleaning service to make a run through. Then the wind of the Spirit can blow right through just like the alley-way of the barn that has that nice breeze blowing through it. It is not obstructed in any way. Like my mawmaw’s house back in the seventies during the summer. We’d open up all the windows and that breeze somehow would just blow on through keeping us cool. We had to actually use the sheets to cover up in August.. imagine that.

Brothers and sisters, the wind of God is blowing… (2 Chr 16:9) He is running to and fro seeking for someone with faith (loyalty) on this earth. Someone who is willing to lay their agendas down, their appetites down. Actually lay their life down for His sake. It is not what will the Glory of God do for you, but what you will do for the Glory of God.

So be healed in Jesus’ name from that “SADD” disorder….. let God’s wind blow right through your soul unobstructed so that God may get glory our of your life today!!