Another aspect of faith is separation.

I apologize for being a day late. I ate some bad beef jerky that gave me food poisoning. Needless to say, I’ve been resting and drinking lots of water to flush out my system. I had to get rid of the bacteria that was causing me to…well you know. It wasn’t pretty.

Bacteria are small. But bad bacteria can cause a lot of damage. And in order to get better, I had to separate myself from the damaging bacteria.

Faith. The above quote gives another perspective on what it is. It’s choosing to separate ourselves from the harmful bacteria – sin – to stay healthy not just spiritually but physically as well.

There are consequences to sin on earth. True, Scripture does say Jesus forgave all our sinful choices. This doesn’t mean, however, that there are not consequences on earth, which is why one of the names for the Holy Spirit is “fear of the LORD” (Is. 11:2).

This is a name of God! This is Who He is. Fear is not just reverence. It is also acknowledgment that there can be consequences for not choosing to separate ourselves from (“process”) whatever area of our lives that the Spirit is calling to transform.

Confession acknowledges it as sin after we sin. Faith acknowledges it as sin before we sin in order in the might of the Spirit, another name of Who He is (Is. 11:2), we can become more like Jesus.

Confess quickly. Choose faith quicker.

“In failing to confess, Lord, I only hide You from myself, not myself from You.” Augustine

For those who wear glasses, you know exactly what the following means: Spots on your lenses.

You’re cleaning them one moment. And the next, you’re seeing water spots. Dust particles. Fingerprint smudges. It doesn’t matter where or what, those spots affect your vision.

You’ll put up with them for a while. But when the sun hits them while you’re driving – watch out!

Augustine was spot on. Unconfessed sin doesn’t keep Jesus from seeing us or altering His view of us one iota. It does, however, allow our lie-based choices, sin, to stay on our lenses.

Let that sink in. Past unconfessed sin will overtime become the basis for our decision making in the present. The sin, the action we took based on a lie-based thought, is now stored in our brains (“the flesh” of Gal.6:8), which can become the basis of future choices.

Yet, 1 John 1:9 starts off with, “If we confess our sins.” Notice the word if. It’s our choice whether or not we confess or acknowledge that our choice was sin.

Confession is calling the thought we chose to follow a lie. This leads to asking for and receiving forgiveness for choosing to follow that lie. And because Jesus is faithful, He will cleanse us from that sin.

Stay clean. Make confession part of your daily devotional life. Start off by asking the Spirit to show you where you’ve sinned. Then be quiet. When He points out something, confess it. And when He’s done, you’re in a much better position to hear from Jesus in the Scriptures.

By the way, I carry a cloth to clean my lenses the moment I notice a spot. We all carry that same cloth, it’s called confession. Use it to stay clean throughout your day.

Words – catch ‘em, match ‘em, toss ‘em, keep ‘em. Your growth counts on it.

Last week we talked about the tremendously positive effect our words can have on those for whom the Lord leads us to pray.

Now, lets examine the words that we use on ourselves – self-talk. It’s the nouns we call and adjectives we use to describe ourselves, “I am such a….” “How could I be….?” I purposely didn’t mention any. But you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Know this, those words either spoken aloud or only in our heads, still plant neurons on our brains. These neurons will be places where the “you” part of you will draw on to make decisions. These self-talk words, then, can either become freedom fighters or slavery producers.

We are told, though, to take every thought captive, including the words we say to or about ourselves!  We are to catch those words with both hands and match them against the truths found in Scripture.

If those words are lies – rebuke where they came from (the adversary – no matter if he used humans – past or present – to say them) and then toss and replace them with truths the Spirit gives you. If the words are truth, however, keep them by acting on them.

What words do you use to call or describe yourself? Hopefully your powerful words will only reinforce the path to freedom and becoming more like Jesus.

So, let’s use our prayerful words for each other – prayer – to see our self-talk become more in line with Scripture, which leads to our lives being transformed.

“Prayer is the vital breath of the Jesus believer.” Oswald Chambers

Spoken words start with air from the lungs. This air can have tremendous power either for good or bad.

God spoke the first words when He brought forth creation and life (Gen. 1). Satan, however, spoke words that brought death when followed (Gen. 3).

Jesus’ words will last for eternity (Matt. 24:35). Whereas, Satan’s will not (Rev. 20).

While in prison. The church spoke words for Peter’s release, which happened supernaturally while they were speaking those words (Acts 12).

Daniel’s warfare words lasted three weeks. His words moved Michael to help an angel defeat a demonic prince so the angel could give Daniel God’s answer (Daniel 10).

Prayer is not tack on verse to spiritual warfare. Paul calls it a vital warfare tool (Eph. 6:10-20). We are asked to pray in the Spirit, which means before you utter a word, ask, “Spirit show and guide me to what You want said in this battle.”

Don’t expect a certain formula. Because there isn’t one! No, these words are warfare words given by the Spirit to achieve His results.

Because of this, we are told to be on alert. We are to be ready to pray at any time, day or night. Why? Our words can be used to bring about spiritual freedom from bondage to past thoughts and hurts and/or physical freedom from current challenges and battles.

It doesn’t matter whether or not you know who the Spirit asks you to pray for. He simply wants His people ready to fight in prayer.

Our words can have eternal value. Will we make them so?

God is perfection. Trust Him to produce it.

Every now and then I watch a reel of a person removing someone’s completely overgrown vegetation free of charge. Like this picture, you know something is there. You just can’t see or enjoy it.

Once the work began on removing the weeds and mowing the lawns, however, a porch that didn’t “exist” all of a sudden comes into view. Sidewalks, which were not there, can now be walked upon. This transformation quite literally takes place right before your very eyes.

I recently said to Jesus, “Lord, I know what You are asking. Yet, all my life I’ve made choices a certain way. And now You want me to choose differently? Seriously, I can’t see it.”

Jesus’ men literally saw perfection staring them in the face and didn’t see it either! Why? They only knew what they knew at the moment; and, a perfect man was not something they knew.

We only know what we know. So, are we seeing flowers/perfection or weeds? Weeds must come out to enjoy the roses. The Spirit will show us the weed thoughts (lies) that need to be replaced with the rose thoughts (truths).

Yet, we still have no idea what perfection actually looks like. I know, Jesus. But I’ve never actually seen Him in the flesh making the choices He is asking me to make.

This is when faith steps in. When we can’t picture what the choice He is asking us to make looks like, but have the truth the Spirit gave us, we must choose to act on the truth. And then we’ll see Him clear the path to enjoy all the wonderful walkways and porches He made.

Simple? Yes. Hard? Yes. Will it work? In this I have put my hope (Titus 2:13).