Where are you?

Well I've recently been convicted of many things... a good sign.
I don't want to go into all the details because it would just take too long.

This morning I woke up, thanked the Lord, ate breakfast, exercised, took a shower, washed the dishes.
PAUSE.
I've been trying to take advantage of every single minute of my day to think of the Lord... or to take something in that will help me focus on Him, run towards Him.
(Mind you, right after taking a shower I was led to "depart" from Facebook... it has been a conviction that I do spend quite a lot of time on there... and if it's not big chunks of time, then it's little minutes of my day that I use in order to check up on it. In other words, I go into my Facebook everyday. And that puts me NOT at ease... it makes me uncomfortable... to want to go to that site everyday.)
So before I began washing the dishes I went to http://www.gty.org/, to the sermon archive and I was searching for a sermon that would speak. As in, speak directly to me, as if the preacher were personally admonishing me, Katherine.
I started listening to a sermon from Galatians 1 but after 15 minutes of it, that wasn't what the Lord was wanting me to hear. I typed in the search box of Grace to You, "listening to God." Ding! Like a pastry ready to be taken out of the oven, I found the message titled, "Be Careful How You Listen."
"Yes," I said.
*Click* and the sermon began while I turned the faucet on to wash.
John MacArthur gave 4 "tests by which you can validate your spiritual condition..." how you listen. The 4 were: listening evangelistically (listening to what God has to say for the sole purpose to spread the word and shine your light), listening authentically (be no hypocrite), listening fruitfully (like a seed in good soil grows, we must also grow), and listening obediently (do what He says; not just "wanting to" do what He says, but actually putting it into action). If you're interested in the sermon follow the link http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/42-106_Be-Careful-How-You-Listen?q=listening+to+God. But, aside from the various points that MacArthur made, the phrase that stuck with me was, "The kind of listener you are will tell you your spiritual condition." Not too hard to understand.

So I asked myself, "What's MY spiritual condition? I'd like to know yes."
Note: sometimes one forgets to examine oneself in the midst of the "religious" life to delineate the evidences that one is still following Christ. If not examined, one can easily fall prey to the enemy and not even know it.

After recognizing things in my life that are not pleasing to the Lord (pleasing others more than the Lord, needing to go to FB everyday), and therefore moved to wanting to erase those things from controlling my life, this message/sermon was a good way to begin that process: where am I? (spiritually speaking)

The aspect of the message that most struck me was: you'll know where you're at when you recognize what type of listener you are. As if the way you listen is a proof of where you are in the Lord... or if you even are in Him. But this makes complete sense. If you have a consuming passion for the Lord, you will obey Him. But what will you obey? You will obey what He says to obey. But in order to obey, you must hear Him first no? So you must be a good listener in order for you to obey (which is an evidence of your spiritual condition: listening and obeying Him is a great spiritual condition). You can listen to Him, but not obey Him, so there's the forgetful hearer, and it is revealed where you are spiritually.

So just meditating on where I am right now with the Lord, I have come to the conclusion that I am running dry. Serving in ministry, singing and playing the guitar, and running dry. This is an alert. Frankly, the verse that says, "'Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" (Matt 7:22-23) has been brought to mind. So these people actually did all these things in Jesus' name yet, they were not the Lord's. Do you see what I'm trying to say? That one can think that one is in the Lord but one may not have the faintest idea that they are not. And I'm not trying to scare anybody or make things more complicated. Not at all. Actually, this blog makes things all the more clearer to me: there are evidences that you are in the Lord, so make sure that you see these in your life and you're a-ok.

It's like taking any class: the teacher teaches you and every now and then you have a quiz or test to see if you're actually learning something. The test reveals if you truly understood that material.

So examining ourselves and lining up the evidences that Christ is dwelling in us is crucial to living a life pleasing to Him. It should be a regular part of our lives, a habit, to do this. It's not like a person's going to say, "Oh no! You're actually making sure you're really a Christian?!" like if checking yourself now and again is a sign that you're going to hell. Actually, this should be something to be admired, something a wise person does often. To know your spiritual condition (and fix whatever you need to fix), to know where you stand in Christ, to have evidences and proofs available to line yourself up by, is such an opporunity given by the Lord. There we see grace again because He has made evidences available to which we can simply check off or leave blank (according to if we see those in our lives or not) and He allows us to take the time to examine ourselves because He wants, so much, for us to be in Him 100%.

So I encourage you to do this regularly, examine yourselves, your hearts, your walk. And for evidences of a true saving faith, read my other blog called "Make Much" and follow the link.