Jackie's Journey "Living An Illusion?"

‘Take My yoke upon you and learn of me…!” Matt. 11:29

How would you describe your Christian walk?  Up and down, peaks and valleys?  Good days and bad days?   Would you characterize your spiritual life as vibrant and free or continually battling your self-life (your personal rights, depression, unresolved relationships, entitlement…)?   Are you living a “Christian illusion”?

 If you want to learn of me, put your head in the yoke!

What?!  No way!  Who does that?

       WHY, I’D HAVE TO GIVE UP MY FREEDOM AND SUBMIT

TO THE OTHER PERSON IN THE YOKE!    ARE YOU CRAZY???

  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and

                   I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn

                   from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you

                   will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and

                   my burden light”!    (Matt. 11:28-30)               

 The Church will instruct us

The Bible will inform us

Prayer will empower and direct us.

But only…The Yoke will teach us how to live

and respond “in the Spirit” to life situations on a continual basis.

 Ezekiel 37:1-6 is a lesson on a “valley of dry bones”.  What does that have to do with my spiritual walk, you ask?  Lots!  Spiritual deadness is a permeating and engulfing phenomenon in our culture, churches, homes and hearts.  It sort of swallows us up like a tsunami!  Biblical Christianity is defined by our consistent attitudes in life practice.

 We carry seeds of decay through disobedience and rebellion toward God (i.e. anger, jealousy, self-love…).  We have adopted patterns through wrong influences and teachings (friends, music, ungodly worldviews, Hollywood, social media...).  Maybe we have been a believer since we cannot remember BUT there are places where we really do NOT know our own need.  Our life has become an illusion of biblical Christianity.  There is a measure of self-confidence and pride built on our bones…

 God says, “I will make breath enter you and you will come to life”.  God works out of Death!   Death to self!  His desire is to breathe life into our dead bones, moment by moment.     No illusion here…

 An illusion is a lie; it is not real.  Disillusionment with our daily walk is a gift of God… a challenge to enter into the yoke with Him and His rest... learning from His gentle and humble heart.

 There are two yokes: 

    1) The yoke with Christ and righteous purposes

    2) The yoke with Satan and his kill, steal and destroy (life) purposes  (Jn.10:10)                  

We choose who is in the yoke with us with every choice we make!

My husband asked me if every choice I make is a spiritual one?  For the life of me, I could not think of a single one that is not!  Can you think of one that is not a deliberate choosing of one kingdom or the other? 

 By taking Christ’s yoke upon us, we yield our right to do as we please, and we learn the wishes and commands of Christ our leader.

 God is not nearly concerned with what we are going through as He is with our response to what we go through.  His chief concern is that our attitude becomes consistent with His Son.  The question is:  Who do you choose to be in the yoke with you today?   There are only two choices! 

 Choose wisely, young mothers, little ones are watching and stepping into the same yoke with you.

“ It was for freedom that Christ set us free:

therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again

to a yoke of slavery (law/sin).”   Galatians 5: 1

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Dry Bones!"

If there was ever a day when our families, country and world call forRevival…

this is the day!

 “Revival is absolutely essential to restrain the righteous anger of God,

 to restore the conscious awareness of God, 

and to reveal the gracious activity of God.”

 Ezekiel was a prophet, a priest and a servant of God who was sent to give God’s message to a wicked and rebellious nation, not unlike our own.  Chapter 37 speaks of his vision of a “valley of dry bones”.  Verse 11 cries out, “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off”!  Spiritual deadnessis a frightening position. The absence of the fear of God reveals itself in our moment-by-moment life practice…

 Are we dedicated to comfort and convenience, 

claiming personal rights,

doing our own thing?

Or are we dedicated to Cavalry’s road and a God that calls us to holiness?

Our dedication determines how alive we are spiritually or if we are a mass of “dry bones”.  There is a quality of spiritual life that is rarely experienced among believers in the West because we are so busy…living in entitlements. Jesus says: Putting anything before me reveals spiritual deadness.

 Where are you living this moment?

 Stephen Olford in Heart Cry wrote, “O that God would teach us that it is just as important to be spiritual as to be sound in our approach to the Bible, just as vital to be obedient as to be orthodox, and that thepurpose of revelation is nothing less than transformation of human lives!”

Revival is the power of the Holy Spirit transforming God’s Word in our souls.  While in Bible School a fellow student introduced me to a small paperback book, The Calvary Road by Roy Hession.  Revival’s clear definition and seeing my need for personal application has been a constant reminder of God’s promise to set us free from sin and self…continually!

 Revival is the result of:

·     A new experience of the conviction of sin

·     A new vision of the cross of Jesus and redemption

·     A new willingness to walk in brokenness, repentance, confession and restitution

·     An understanding of how to maintain a consistent walk in the light

·     A joyful experience of the power of the blood of Jesus cleansing us fully from sin and healing all that sin has lost and broken

The test for knowing you are cleansed…ask yourself:

1.    Do I have any unconfessed sin?

2.    Is there anything between another person and me?

A new entering into the wholeness of the Holy Spirit and His power and His own work in and through us

    A new “gathering-in” of the lost ones to Christ

 Revival does not begin with someone else.  It begins with each of us! 

Is revival stirring in your soul?

 “The fruit of revival comes only as we come to the cross and acknowledge our emptiness and failure apart from Him.  It is not good Christians becoming better Christians…but rather Christians honestly confessing that their Christian life is a valley of dry bones and by that confession qualifying us for the grace that flows from the Cross and makes all things new… dry bones made alive again!”  Roy Hession

Understanding our desperate need initiates this promise: 

Jesus did not come into the world to make bad men good…

He came to make dead men live

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.