ANOTHER VIGILANCE

I wish I could reach a point where I never had to learn the same lessons more than once. But on too many occasions I find that the Lord will put me through a similar experience and often to my annoyance I discover I never really learned from the first encounter since I end up making the same mistake.

That is perhaps one of the major risks in spiritual warfare where a victory occurs. One has to be on constant guard to not let the heart fill with overconfidence. The old axiom that "pride cometh before a fall" is far to applicable.

I think by nature we like to treat any test as a one time event. The only problem is that Satan will watch and observe our every move. He will see if our hearts get too filled with pride or over confidence. Then we stop doing the things that brought the first victory. Thus we become so vulnerable to being blindsided in the process.

Perhaps the biggest danger in some ways is if a victory occurs and a door of opportunity opens, we might think it has to be a blessing and not recognize it may in fact be a for of temptation. One can see the sad instances of this happen with certain ministries that experience a great deal of fame and fortune.

It can be a blessing, however it can also be a way to corrupt the person till the actually end up being lure farther away from Lord as the intended blessing end up leading to a spiritual decline. None of us is perfect so anyone who thinks they are not vulnerable to such instances are only kidding themselves.

With each opportunity, with each occasion of change, the heart must always be prepared to keep open to asking, what is the Lord's will in this situation. There are times when the ego will say, this doorway is leading only to good. Nothing bad could ever happen to me in this situation.

It might be a true challenge to have to cope with accepting with what appears to be a blessing really isn't. Every aspect of our being could see nothing, but good. However somewhere deep inside there is an uneasy sensation that this situation is way too out of balanced.

If we don't ask the right questions, if we don't remain willing to be ever vigilant to only let the light for the Lord come into our eyes and not be consumed by some temporary feel good sense of dazzle, we can miss the truth. More than one person has interpreted the information in such situations wrong.

Going through the process of being vigilant can be less than impressive to others. Doing what God says is faithful doesn't always mean that anyone else will agree. This to is the element of being vigilant. To listen to the Lord regardless of what other voices claim is truth.

It is a journey that leads in many different directions, but ultimately to the same destination. A place where the light and vigilance will be eternal.