January 28, 2008

Have you ever heard someone say something they believed about themselves (good or bad)
and had to hide the disbelief on your face because, the way they see themselves is not at all
the way you see them? Have you ever wondered why people see themselves so differently
sometimes than everyone around them?
Jana had a vision a while back where she saw that she had hid herself in a prison of cell
walls that she had created to protect herself. Jana’s not alone in this kind of self-preservation.
In times when we were not yielding to God, our souls used this mechanism to protect us from
getting hurt again. The problem with the cell we create is not only does it keep others out (and
not hurting us) but it also isolates us from ever loving or being loved. We sit inside those walls
wanting desperately to love and be loved and can’t understand why everyone’s staying out.
What God showed me is that we all have different layers of walls depending on what’s
happened to us, what curses have come from our generational lines, what worked at the time
in a certain situation that we decided to adopt as our way to cope and so on. The list is
probably endless of the kinds of walls and the reasons we built them. That’s why Jesus is the
only one who is worthy to break the seals. He’s the only one who knows which walls we’ve
built and what it will take to tear them down and which order they need to be torn down in. As
we sit in our lonely little pitiful cells we see in ourselves many of the things that God put in us
when He created us. We long to fulfill those dreams and become that person. We can feel and
sense the callings on our lives. We can feel the love He put in us for others. We dream about
relationships we’ll have, places we’ll go, things we’ll do for God, things we’ll have.
I saw some people on TV the other day that were doing some bad things, both of them said I
don’t know why I do this; I’m a good person. How many times have you heard someone say
'but they have such a good heart'. If the people doing bad things are really good people, are
there really any bad people?
Here’s what I think happens, as we start to interact with other people and say things (or a lot
of times just our body language), those things leave our mouths and travel through our many
layers of walls. Maybe those walls are distrust, maybe unbelief, maybe fear or bitterness,
hatred, rejection so on and so on and so on. I’ve come to see these walls as the strongholds
we often hear about in church. So something may leave your mouth and you believe it to be
good and pure of heart but by the time it’s traveled through all those layers it isn’t pretty on
the other side. To make matters worse the person you’re talking to has their own set of cell
walls and whatever you said or did now has to travel through their walls to get to them. It’s
like that game we used to play where the first person whispered something in the next person’
s ear and it went around the circle, by the time it got back to the beginning it sounded nothing
like what was originally said. Now if we go back to my original question maybe we can get the
answer. You are looking at those people through their cells walls or maybe you see inside
their walls to who they really are and they see themselves through the walls. In other words
sometimes people see themselves in a bad way and we don’t see that at all.
Jesus came to tear down those walls and set us free.

Therefore if the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8:36

 Now that we know the walls are there our next step is to let Jesus start tearing them down. I
heard on a tape recently something God spoke to me years ago. He showed me the closet of
my heart and Jesus was in there cleaning things out, just flinging stuff left and right. He went
so far and came to a concrete wall. I wanted to close the doors and say that’s enough but He
said no, we are getting a wrecking ball and this wall is coming down. But I had a part in this
process; He showed me that praising and worshipping Him set the ball in motion and kept the
doors open. I had to keep the doors open no matter how bad I wanted to shut them. I wasn’t
sure what was on the other side of that wall. Would I want to look at it? Did I really want it to
come down? It had protected me for a lot of years. How would I handle things if I were out
there exposed? I spoke that vision years ago in our church before I had had very many of my
walls torn down. Standing here years later and having had many torn down I can tell you it’s
been worth it every single time. It’s not always been easy, some harder to tear down than
others, but every one has brought me one step closer to walking in His image. Every one has
allowed me to let my husband, friends, and especially God a little closer.
There are some cautions I want to share with you. Things I’ve seen that have made people
stop the wall breaking process. Let me start it this way. We have dreams in our heads.
Whether we consciously realize it or not, I would guess probably thousands and thousands
of them. There are dreams of our marriages, our kids, our houses, our cars, our God, our
churches, our ministries, our bodies, our jobs, etc., etc., etc. The list of dreams we have goes
on so far I couldn’t even begin to name them all.
Some of those dreams we’ve had since we were kids. Some of them came as we grew up and
saw the world as a bigger place. Some came from not wanting to be like our parents and
some came from wanting to be just like them. Some were given to us from God and some
came from the enemy. Some came from the world system and some came from the Heavenly
System. Some were simply put in place as that mechanism to protect us. For whatever reason
our heads are full of things we’d like to accomplish someday.
The great thing about our dreams is that in our minds we can make them play out however
we want them to play out. Our husband is always attentive, giving us everything we think we
want and need. He never says anything we don’t like and of course always acts in way we see
as attractive. Our children are perfect little angels. They serve God and never rebel against our
authority. They pick up after themselves and even volunteer to do duties we didn’t ask them
to. They love us, hug us, and kiss us just because we are such good parents. Our bosses
couldn’t live without us. We are their number one employee and take care of everything
perfectly for them, never, ever making a mistake. We are irreplaceable to them and of course
they pay us handsomely for our time and effort. And we are, without a doubt, so efficient we
have plenty of time to go on exotic vacations and live exciting lives.
Years ago my pastor taught on someone who set in his easy chair and looked at brochures
constantly. This person never went anywhere or did anything but look at brochures. After that
teaching I put a note on my board that is still there today. It says, “Do not sit in your easy chair
and look at brochures all your life!”
Easy chair was a good word to use. It’s easy to have our dreams come true when they are
shut up in our prison cells, not so easy to make them manifest into our lives.
Let’s look at the above example. In our minds our husbands are perfect by our definition. In
the manifested world they are trying to be perfect by their definition and would like us also to
be perfect by their definition. The trick is to line up our definitions so they work for both of us
under God’s direction of what perfect is. This doesn’t always go smoothly. In fact it almost
never goes smoothly. The world’s remedy is to get divorced and find someone else who on
the surface look’s like they fit our definitions. God’s remedy is for both of us to change into
the image of His Son. This takes hard work, time, effort, scary looks into ourselves, not
exactly the dream we had to begin with.
Here lies the problem; our society has taught us to go the quick easy route. We sit in our
easy chairs (prison cells) watching unrealistic TV shows and dream of a husband like that
one. We ignore our manifested husband or treat him horribly or divorce him. We deceive
ourselves into believing we tried to make it work but he wouldn’t change. As soon as the
bumps in the road come we want to run back into our safe little prison cell where no one can
get to us. Oh no, we’ve put ourselves back behind the walls where no one can get to us, they
can’t hurt us but they can’t love us either. Every time a wall comes down we will come face to
face with a situation that makes us want to build it back up. This is true with every spiritual
thing you want to do and every natural thing you want to do. The only difference between
people who get where their going and people who don’t is whether they continue even when
things don’t go as planned in their mind.

James 2:14 what does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have
works? Can faith save him?  15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,  16
and  one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give
them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?  17 Thus also faith by itself,
if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your
works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do
well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!  20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that
faith without works is dead (useless)?  21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works  
when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?  22 Do you see that faith was working together
with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?
23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to
him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.  24 You see then that a man is
justified by works, and not by faith only.
25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the
messengers and sent them out another way?
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

 James said in the scripture above 'faith without works is dead (useless)'. It is useless to sit
around with dreams in our heads thinking they will just miraculously manifest without some
hard messy work. The dreams in our heads will never play out the way we’ve made them to
play out because we’ve always made them play out in whatever way is easiest on us. Every
one else sees things our way and every thing moves really fast.   It’s like those home
improvement shows where they all speed up and the painting is done in a few seconds.
Sorry, doesn’t work that way in real life. In real life the walls are crooked, you hit the ceiling
with the roller, you step on the paint lid and walk across the room leaving your footprint on
the carpet and it always takes longer than you planned. Real life is messy, lasting changes
take time. Tearing down walls leaves a pile of rubble on the floor that has to be cleaned up.
The process will be much better if you go into it being aware of these things.
Whatever you’re dreaming of in your mind and heart, first make sure it’s of God. Second, let
Him show you what the steps are to getting there (or at least the first one). Third, don’t get
discouraged when it doesn’t play out like it did in your mind. Last, don’t give up.

Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

 We have the same Holy Spirit living in us as Paul had living in him. Giving up is not an option.

Father, I ask You today to strengthen us with Your Holy Spirit. Father You have given us so
many dreams. Weed out of us the one’s that are not of You and establish in us the one’s that
are. Help us to see the snares of the enemy that will make our dreams not play out the way
we've imagined them. Also show us the wrong ideas we have that make us want them to play
out one way while Your trying to go another. Make us into diligent people who will not give up,
even when things do not go as planned. Tear down our many walls and make us free. Let us
see Your dreams manifested in this earth!
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