Chambers 090907

G.A.P. Ministries/N.J. Stevenson Ministries P.O. Box 764114* Dallas, TX 75376 (972) 697-5318 www.positioning4purpose.org www.gapmin.org email: [email protected]

A Way of Escape From Truth On any given day there are 1001 things we could and should pray for but recently, I was both broken and humbled when a colleague informed me that her husband attempted suicide by taking a saw and cutting though his wrist. After years of counseling and a regimen of medications, suicide was his way of escape. What's yours? Believe it or not, all of us have escape mechanisms. Some healthy, some not so healthy. Psychological counseling can bring a degree of healing to the hurting and medications can be a short-term method of 'managing' ones circumstances but my experiences over the years have demonstrated that they just don't bring life long resolution to our issues; especially if the treatments are not Christ centered. Unfortunately, they just don't provide true deliverance. And by the way everybody has issues and everybody needs deliverance in one area or another. . As a Certified Anger Resolution Therapist (CART) I am becoming more and more aware of the enemies tactic of escapism. His goal is to numb the believer to truth, making truth something that we need to escape from instead of face with the help of the Holy Spirit. What is truth? God's word is truth but for many their perceptions have become their truth. I have heard the cliché that "a person's perception is their truth" and this has proven true in the world and in the Body of Christ. But we know that we are growing and maturing in Christ when God's word becomes our truth rather than our perceptions. We also know that we are growing when we endure hardness as good soldiers (2 Tim 2:3-4), allowing ourselves to come face to face with truth. What happens when we face truth and let it do its thing? We get transformed by the renewing of our minds. What we perceive, how we view things, how we view ourselves and God changes and we are strengthened to go forward. There are many ways to escape truth; things like occupying all your time with other things so you don't have to face it. Pacifying yourself with food, drugs and/or alcohol, excessive spending or other compulsive behaviors and distractions. Or numbing the pain associated with truth with medication,

G.A.P. Ministries/N.J. Stevenson Ministries spirituality, busy work on church committees and programs and a facade so perfected even you can't see through it. You name it the devil's got it! And he'll be happy to give it to you.

Prophetically Speaking:

We are in a season of shifting and great transition. Demonic activity has been heightened to new levels and the enemy is strategic in his warfare. Are we? During this season God is calling for repentance and repositioning but some are looking for a way of escape. Some are attempting to escape the responsibility of being an accountable believer, trying to escape growing up by not allowing God to deal with their 'perceptions', escape being positioned for God's purpose And continuing to use excuses not to step out in and walk by faith. Beloved, here is the truth spoken in love; escapes lead to destruction. My colleagues’ husband will have to go through a year of extensive physical therapy and several surgeries because he tried to escape truth. Although he is a consistent church goer, truth has been pushed aside by escapism and that's exactly what the enemy desires. What is escapism? It is a mental diversion from reality. In layman’s terms we can say that escapism is when we create our own reality because we don’t like the reality we live in. We escape truth or at least we try to escape it, but it always seems to find us. Escapism is making a decision not to deal with life and its pain, trials, disappointments as it is, not allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us into all truth; that’s escapism. John 16:13 It’s easy to see this in others but if you were to examine your own life do you find that you sometimes escape truth, playing a dangerous game of hide and seek? Running from reality? Operating out of perceptions rather than God’s Word? Occupying yourself with “things to do” rather than spending quality time with God because you fear that he might show you yourself. Busying yourself with auxiliaries, programs, commitments so you won’t have to be alone with reality. Do you have escapism? In today’s world and church world we have developed a thought process which generates from an ‘unrenewed mind’ that makes us want to run as fast as we can from the truth of our trials. Beloved examine your life, are you running? Escaping?

G.A.P. Ministries/N.J. Stevenson Ministries The Challenge: Don't run from truth. Embrace it. Will it be painful? Yes. Will you want to escape it? Yes. Will you grow and prosper from embracing it? YES! During this season of repentance, God is going to give us revelation and strategies in ways we have not known. But it will come with a price. The believer that wants to move with the flow of God for this season must accept that there are no mark downs with God, no knock-offs, no price-slashes or price rollbacks, no short-cuts and NO ESCAPES so get ready to embrace truth! ****