Controlled Bondage
Baby Girl,
You went to bed at midnight again and turned off that alarm, supposing we would meet at 8:00 AM rather than 2:15 AM since it’s a Saturday morning and you don’t have to go to work.
Why was your thought process not, “It’s Friday night! I can have my appointment with my Daddy and sleep in as long as I want in the morning?”
These meetings aren’t casual and they aren’t an interruption to the plan. They are the plan.
Yesterday, you and your friend watched the introduction video to a lifestyle health program you are checking out. I’m glad you didn’t jump at the opportunity to promote it without first “seeing if it works.”
Do you think it is going to work?
Do you think that if you watch those eight lessons and fill out some workbook pages, your health is going to be dramatically improved?
For your friend, these next eight weeks could be radically life-changing if she grabs hold of the truths you will be looking at together. For her, she will be taking in a lot of new information. For her, some ignorance or lack of knowledge will be resolved. Whether or not her health and lifestyle will change drastically will depend on what she does with that new information.
For you, this is yet another exercise in futility. You don’t lack knowledge; you lack obedience.
The reason you lack obedience is because you treat knowledge lightly. You walk all over the “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts” I suggest throughout your day.
Last night, when your daughter left a large bag of candy on the kitchen counter, you paused three times next to the bag before grabbing a piece.
Once, you paused and then moved along.
The second time, you paused and considered.
The third time, you paused… opened a Reese's cup and walked back to the sink to continue cleaning. As you took a bite, you paused again, considered My suggestion, and threw the piece of candy away.
You and I both know that piece of candy is not going to kill you; but we both also know it is not in your body’s best interest.
You were not eating it to take part in a celebration with friends and family.
It was not a special occasion.
It was an impulse because you saw it.
You were not delighting in it and, due to the pause in your spirit, it brought with it no enjoyment at all.
If you promote this book as a lifestyle, you will be missing the point, those who hear you will miss the point, and the heart of the problem will be no different than before you brought your influence.
This is a good resource. It is full of information that will drive out ignorance. Driving out ignorance, in and of itself, will not produce lasting change. Driving out ignorance by providing more rules for living will not bring freedom but will perpetuate controlled bondage.
Did you notice the look on your friend’s face when she ate those two baby carrots you offered her? As she chewed them, she looked like a two-year-old watching her baby sister getting her dirty diaper changed and said it tasted like dirt.
The enemy has created an aversion in her mind to natural foods. Unless she breaks ties with the lies the enemy has offered her about fruits and vegetables, any changes she makes to include natural foods will be born of controlled bondage and will be short-lived.
Now, let’s talk about you.
You don’t physically make that face when considering the lifestyle changes this program suggests but, in your soul, your thoughts about adopting this lifestyle are the same.
This may seem like a shift in topics, and you wouldn’t want to admit it, but you spent the rest of your day almost mad about the conversation I had with you about paying taxes on your cash paying clients. You think it’s stupid.
You want to argue with Me right now but I know your thoughts. Don’t waste our time.
You have been mentally rehearsing the stories of several people you helped recently with “your” tithe money that actually belonged to your church. You were mentally justifying that the church wouldn’t have stepped in to do those things to help those people you helped. You’re right. They wouldn’t, so you took it upon yourself to play the role of Robin Hood, taking from the “rich” and giving to the poor, justifying as you have heard from others that there are people in the church who give of their money and others who give more in the way of time. You are to do both.
You are part of a family. By giving away the tithe that belongs to the church, you are being like an adult child who still lives in their parent’s basement, eating their food, sleeping in the comfort of their home, and MOOCHING off them.
Had you helped in the ways you felt led, despite having tithed, do you not think I would have made up for the difference?
You balk at Sabbath. You continue making internal declarations to honor it but you still have no real concept of rest. Do you think a one-hour lesson and a few workbook pages will change your heart about rest?
You aren’t lacking knowledge; you’re lacking motivation of the heart.
If you don’t correct the motivations of your heart about the things you will need to change to obtain the freedom that comes with better lifestyle choices, then this next eight weeks will simply be a tug-of-war with the devil where you are positioned with Me on the right side of the mud pit but intentionally hanging onto the rope and hindering the path to victory.
Let the rope go.
You told your friend today to not view this as a diet or a temporary change but rather a resetting of her perspective.
…You are so distracted because this is not what you thought I woke you up to talk about. Please dismiss all competing thoughts and focus on what I’m saying.
You are standing in a place of great influence for the Kingdom.
You are not walking in victory.
Although you have surrendered many areas to My care, you are still not honoring Me as LORD of your life. You are still attempting to walk a path of your own making.
When you make a path, you exert a LOT of energy. To make a path, you must clear out all the weeds in the way… and because your path leads to nowhere, the clearing work is endless.
You have free will and the world has provided all the tools, so if you want to keep hauling around those loppers, shovels, and gardening gloves and making your own path, I won’t stop you.
You can work until the day you die, all the while NEVER experiencing the FULLNESS of life that SHOULD be your experience in My Kingdom… OR… you can choose better.
You can stop turning your nose up at the “carrots” I offer you and choose to eat them with gratitude.
Baby, you are submitting more fully to My will and My ways than most but I have so much better for you; I just need your cooperation.
There are very few Christians who are aware that they represent the Kingdom of Heaven, and so few of those who know even care.
Your friend is also My daughter. She is also a representative of the Kingdom.
The man at the front desk at the hospital who is working his way through this book is also a representative of the Kingdom.
Each one of the Christian men and women in your recovery program is a representative of the Kingdom.
Every man and woman, boy and girl around the world who call on the name of Jesus as LORD and Savior represent this Kingdom.
You are not representing it well.
When you choose controlled bondage - sinning just a little, cheating just a little on taxes, cheating your health through exhaustion and poor nutrition when better options are readily available, lying just a little, playing Toon Blast every night, exchanging your first hour of sleep for a mindless addiction - you willingly forfeit freedom.
You willingly forfeit health. You willingly forfeit the best and settle for “good enough.”
When you forfeit freedom, you look like the world.
When you forfeit freedom, you have nothing better to offer the world than more information leading to more controlled bondage.
Who the Son sets free should live like it.
Set your alarm for six more hours and don’t get up until your alarm goes off. Sleep is important.
Sweet dreams,
Daddy
1 John 5:3