|City on a Hill - Writings for Refuge

Trying to be a good person is very different than being willing to be led by God. God leads in ways man would not lead himself. The reason the world is so broken is man's leadership, not God's. The more of my life I give to God, the more I can see how much I was responsible for the brokenness around me. The brokenness I introduced to the world mostly came by trying to be good, look good, be loved, or to make my life, or the lives of those closest to me "good" in my limited understanding. There is truly none good but God. To be led by Him is to lose your own leadership. A person cannot have two masters. I am either wanting to be a child or a ruler. Luke 18:17-34 NKJV — “Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. “You ...

The earth has a spiritual problem. A spiritual problem is never addressed with physical effort, only YIELDING what we could do to what God WILL do if we give Him our part of the world. Overwhelming need is overtaking the world.  That need prompts self-righteousness. It's automatic. It's where flesh that wants good goes if it is unchecked by the restrainer. Resist giving in to self righteousness, self saving, rallying, gathering together the like-minded, etc.  if you truly want to be helpful to the earth. Man believes he is more concerned about war, pain, injustice, and lack than God is.  That is literally crazy. God hears the cries of the broken.  He tells us to give ourselves to Him, not be God to the broken. If I give myself to God, He is SURE to see to the needs all around me.  He may or may not use me, but His help is sure.   There is no disconnect in seeing need and not turning into the need, but turning into God. That is the way heaven comes, not...

God is more pleased with my trust than my uncertainty. This has to start with righteousness.... Do I trust in the God of my righteousness, or am I uncertain how He feels because I know where my weaknesses lie? Satan works very hard to keep a person uncertain of God's love for them. When I feel good because I do good, and feel bad where I am weak, I am trusting in myself, and not God. This leaves me always uncertain about how God truly feels about me, and is the exact place the fall of man left us. We have to get out of self leadership, which always judges things self-righteously. I am supposed to humble myself and start seeing God's righteousness in me.  When I am confident in God's love for me, then I stop letting my performance determine my confidence in my relationship with God. My fickle experience of confidence in my performance never ACTUALLY changes my ability to perform! That is the irony. Relying on myself and my ability to perform righteousness leaves me exactly i...

The most important principle in truly giving myself to God is to see His ways are the way out of trouble, hurt and pain, and my ways are why I'm in trouble, hurt, and pain. Romans 12:19-21 NKJV — Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. The world has a Spiritual problem that manifests in physical brokeness. Trying to fix spiritual problems with worldly (what the Bible calls carnal) solutions INCREASES brokeness, it never decreases it. More brokeness = more pain, loss, and fear I want to let God lead me out of acting like those who resist me. Satan is prowling, looking for those he can covertly and craftily devour with his ways of thinking and acting. He does this by attaching good/God reason...

1 John 4:5-8 NKJV — They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NKJV — Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. The true and the false are so near to one another the only discernable factor is the fruit of the Spirit in the vessel proclaiming to know God. Do they rightly deal with others in love? Do they bring all things into the light? Do they put Jesus be...

When God asks you to do something, the enemy tries to stop you from being obedient. The enemy is crafty.  He generally doesn't wage a frontal assault against obedience. He uses our flesh. Satan quietly provokes our flesh to work against our own calling ... All in the name of God. Fear, offense, jealousy, impatience, anxiety, shame, doubt, selfish ambition, anger, pride/self righteous thinking, distraction... This is how Satan mostly wages war against obedience.  Some external resistance, yes, but the "spiritual and not carnal war" is mostly waged by Satan's internal feeding of our old self with bad ideas and emotions. A vision of sanctification... A changing heart... That is where victory in God is truly found, as well as faithfully walking out what God has asked us to do!  Many are falling away rn.  Obedience unto heart change is what it means to "work out our salvation"  Philippians 2:12-15 NKJV — Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in...