The Longest, Deepest, Darkest Journey – Part Two

This teaching is more in-depth than part 1 and continues to form part of the Systematic Discipleship curriculum. Before you begin to read its content, please ensure that you have already studied the original teaching of Part 1. If you feel led to review this, or have not already completed it, the link below will take you to there.

(Part 1)

The journey is all about walking in love. In the perfect love of Jesus, in the perfect way in which He always loves us. This second part of the teaching is to guide you into a deeper and guilt-free relationship with yourself and, to explain how you can deal with virtually every situation that arises from the rooms that you enter.

Now, you will need to take greater notice of the titles written on the doors of the corridor. To reiterate, you do not have to enter every door at the outset; you do not have to start at the first door. So, start where you will. Take notes along the way. Especially where you do not complete, overcome, or fulfil the reasons that you entered into the room in the first place. You will also find that you become so much happier with, and within yourself, as you progress. There is often a feeling that you are becoming closer to Jesus. Greater feelings of worthiness also often,  come upon you. What is happening is the fact that you are lifting burdens that have come upon you. Your overcoming. Your baggage, your load, is being lightened.

Jesus told us in Matthew 11:28 Come to Me all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And that is what this teaching is about. The fact that you can make your walk easier, lighter, more fulfilled and subsequently happier. You are becoming more and more Christ like.

The illustration of the man walking into the light at the end of the tunnel depicts a man walking into that greater freedom, being totally conscious of who they are, and who they are in the Lord. The full knowledge of where they are supposed to be, and in which direction they are meant to travel.  Fulfilling their destiny, if you will. The purpose for which we were  each uniquely created. Take the time to read through and study Psalm one hundred and thirty-nine and it will begin to show you who you are, how precious you are, and how very important you are to this world. A very unique you, and what is the very unique plan for your life. But, the choice of that fulfilment is solely yours.

So where do you begin?

When you are born again, you quickly realize that you are in a war, your enemy is Satan and his minions. But….

“And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:17-19)

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.  (John 10:10)

You will also already know that Satan will use anything and everything that he can to defeat you or drag you down. Although once you see that he is very repetitive in the methods he uses to attack the children of God, you also realize that these methods are very effective. He does not fight fair. He fights dirty. He is a past master in many things which can kill, steal or destroy. But his resources are not unlimited, nor sustainable to any great degree.

It is also been said that Satan has a reason for attacking you. Some will tell you that it is simply because you are one of God’s children. But why would you be of any threat to him? Because you have been given all power over all power of the enemy, and another point to understand is the fact that he knows your potential to both disrupt and overcome his plans and intentions. Defeating him at his own game.

Dealing With The Things Behind The Doors.

As you begin, and continue in this work, you will find that you overcome, neutralize, and finally discard the baggage that you no longer need to carry, by a simple process. It is a process that you can use in virtually every confrontation or battle with Satan, and win:-

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. (James 4:7-8)

Jesus gave us the perfect example of this process when He was confronted by the devil in the wilderness right after He had spent 40 days there. He was tired, weary and probably physically and spiritually depleted. But, Paul gives us the confirmation that we are in a war, against Satan and introduces this process of overcoming and defeating our enemy.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:10-12)

Now if we go to other Scriptures we can see what we use to defeat our enemy:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;    (2nd Corinthians 10:3-5)

First of all we have to recognize that our conflict is a spiritual one. You cannot use carnal weapons to defeat a spiritual enemy. Even if you could shoot the devil you are not going to hurt him in any way. We have to use the kind of weapon that will do harm to him.

Also, you have to be very proficient in using those weapons and, as anyone who uses any kind of weapon will tell you, if you are not proficient in the use, your weapon can be turned against you. This is exactly what Satan tried to achieve when he confronted Jesus in the wilderness:

Satan tried to use Scripture against Jesus. Tempting Him to prove God’s word.

And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. (Luke 4:9-12)

The weapon that Satan tried to use on Jesus was the Word of God. The Word of God is also called the “Sword of the Spirit”

So, as ridiculous as Satan can be, he tried to use the sword against the very sword itself (Himself). Check these Scriptures out…..

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)  This verse is identifying Jesus as both God and the Word itself.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: (Ephesians 6:17) This verse indicates the other name of the Word of God.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

Again, this shows us just how stupid Satan is trying to use the Word against itself, against himself. When you consider sword fighting it contains attacking and defensive moves. Jesus simply used the same principles of thrust and parry against the devil to defeat him. In the same manner, we can defeat Satan by first of all knowing the Word, believing it, and using it against our adversary. So, knowing the attack, where is targeted and what to use (whether to parry or thrust) we will prevail.

As an example, we are going to assume that we have entered the door with the word “Guilt” written on it.

The procedure then, that we can apply in every circumstance when dealing with the content of a room is pretty much identical.

Firstly, the situation has to be identified. (We will cover how to identify the situation later in this teaching) In this case, we know we are dealing with guilt. Guilt follows situations where you know what has been proven to you to be your fault, mistake or intent to harm. Along with the feelings of guilt come feelings that genuinely hurt you. These are a part of the weapon that guilt is. To hurt you and, in many cases, this can be coupled with the hurt caused to others. They may be the recipient of the action or lack of action that you have taken or have not taken which hurts them. Hurt may also be unintentionally inflicted by a person simply witnessing the event.

Once the situation has been identified and, you understand you have caused it, a major part of overcoming any of these obstacles is to admit to it. Admit to yourself and it will begin to open up further. It is not unlike a surgeon operating on a patient with cancer. The surgery is taking place surgeon intends to cut out all of the infection. Right down to the root. It is not done correctly all that is happening is a waste of time. None of that infected part should be left to grow again. It must be entirely cut out so that the patient will be fully healed.

A warning…

Once the surgeon has completed work on the patient, he will close the operation, often by stitching up the wound. We have to seal our wounds in the same way and there is a method of doing this which will truly help our recovery:-

As  Christians, we know that we can neutralize the attack of the enemy by using Scripture. This is what we use to seal up any wound that has been inflicted. Usually, the wound, in almost every case is, yet again, guilt. But this time it is because we have not acted in the way that we know, as Christians, we should be acting. So this time there is an absolute need for us to be forgiven by our Lord. Because we have sinned and it is against Him if self or another has been hurt. We must seek His forgiveness. It is also very courteous to ask for that forgiveness. You already know that Jesus died for our sins and that we are forgiven, regardless of what we have done. But it just is right to ask our Lord to forgiveness. We are acknowledging the fact that we have sinned against Him and, even though we know that we have that forgiveness from Him, when we ask for it we are not being assumptive nor belittling what Jesus did on the cross for us. That forgiveness will become so precious to you and, as it does you will find that you will take so much more care of what you do, how you do it, how you speak, what you say. You will become more and more conscious of loving people and not hurting them or causing them any kind of pain at all. It will result in you becoming more and more Christ-like bringing more power and meaning to your calling.

A Side Note:
You already know that Jesus is the Word. The lesson is partly to show you how to overcome the situation behind your door(s) by applying the Word effectively. By using the process we have explained to you, by identifying the situation, researching the Scripture(s) which deal with that situation, and speaking them over it, then finalizing everything with thanksgiving to God, you will prevail. What better testimony is there than when the victor recounts their victory.

Do you realize that by utilizing the Word you are “utilizing” Jesus?

So who is really fighting your battles for you? Of course, it is Jesus and, we must really take hold of that! As you move further into your corridor and come across different doors with different logos on the outside, you now know that you can overcome whatever it is that you need to address behind those doors. It may take you a long time to reach the end of your journey but, as you progress you will see and enhance your belief in the power of the word of God. Jesus could do it all for you but, as a warrior for the Lord, the more skilled, the more experienced you are, the greater the battles that you can fight and overcome; assisting in the victory for the Gospel’s sake so, carry on! You can do it and be very effective in it!