This series started with an article on “What Paralyzes You?“, which dealt with the topic of things in our lives which can paralyze us both physically and spiritually. I also stated that when an area of our soul becomes paralyzed through actions of others or ourselves our perspective of life becomes distorted, thus we live less than God intended. God always intends for us to do great things with our lives yet so few grasp that truth, let alone walk in it, myself included.  If you haven’t read the first article on this topic please read that first.

When I travel around, especially in airports or overseas, I see many people who are paralyzed from various debilitating diseases and it hits me how fortunate and blessed I am to only have a few things wrong with my body that hinder my life experiences at this age. When I see a person who is partially broken or paralyzed I pray a simple prayer for them and myself. First, I apologize to the Lord for my complaining over small pains and problems and I also ask the Lord to bless that particular person with the obvious difficulties. That he or she would be healed both physically, emotionally and spiritually. So often I recognize they do better with their disabilities than I do with my seemingly normal life.

Learning to have balance in our lives is becoming harder and harder to achieve partly because we all develop our sense of values and character by the actions of others. When heroes of character are in short supply, and I do believe they are in our day and age, we can lose heart in pursuing a high standard in our own personal lives.

In Part 1 I talked about getting trapped in the deception of idols in our lives. That it’s not just an Old Testament idea or practice. I shared that Israel being set free from the slavery of Egypt were trapped in the wilderness because they continued to have idols in their lives which messed up their relationship with God. Finally, I closed the first article with how Joshua, the leader of Israel after Moses, challenged the Israelites to rid themselves of the idols their parents had brought with them from Egypt and had taught their children to embrace at such a high cost.

Previously, I wrote an article titled “Are There Idols to Kill?” and since people commented about wanting more clarity on the subject please read that article before this one.

Unfortunately, in our modern culture we don’t recognize idols when they are present do in part to stereotyping them as statues in old movies or in books depicting ancient culture statues. Secondly, we miss identifying idols because we think it’s an Old Testament concept that doesn’t relate to the time of Jesus onward, which is far from the truth. It’s similar for many Christians to assume demons no longer torment people’s lives nor control certain behaviors. That they don’t typify the behavior of the man in the New Testament with the legion of demons. Satan is smart enough to mask his activities and warfare to fool the simple-minded and cover his deception.

So often we go to counseling to help us unravel our past to reveal the things that might have had a negative impact on our lives and therefore cause us to respond to people or behave in some negative way. There is a lot of good that can come from counselors who are gifted in discerning and unraveling past issues and encounters, but have you ever heard of a person going to a counselor and asking the question of why they behave well and make good sound decisions? I’ve been counseling people for nearly 40 years now and in all that time not one person has asked that question.

When I became a believer in Jesus Christ and embraced him as the Lord of my life I understood that all other idols in my life needed to bow to Christ lordship. The truth is I resisted becoming a Christian for just that reason. I truly “Loved” certain things and was always “Sacrificing” for them. For 9 months I was under constant conviction yet was so stubborn that it took hitting a car that was stationary with my motorcycle at 55 mph to get me to cry out for help to the Lord.

Ever wonder why some people seem to have stories of God doing extraordinary things in their lives while the majority of believers don’t? Things like providing great jobs, healing sickness, finances from seemingly nowhere and so on. The four gospels are full of not only Jesus performing miracles, but many of his close disciples as well. To be truthful, I believe the miraculous is meant to be a part of each believers daily life. So why the disconnect for many of us in experiencing the miraculous? The best way to answer this important question is to go back to the scriptures and see what Jesus said about it.

If you have not read the previous three articles with the same title please do so before reading this one.

In the previous articles I dealt with the “Traps & Pitfalls” of leaders. One of the reasons for doing so was our need to see what causes leaders and believers in general to be great examples to follow and which examples we need to avoid lest we learn damaged values and try to emulate them.

This article has part 1 & 2 so please read the two previous articles with the same title before reading this one which is part 3. The purpose of the series is to look at the hunger amongst church people to embrace a leader because they speak well, while their conduct and treatment of the people in their congregation is less than Christ would expect from shepherds of his flocks.