Bypassing Behavior

I'm actually not that great of a church attender.  I mean, I'm there but I'm not a super good 'engaged listener'.  Or maybe I'm not giving myself enough credit.  Maybe it's that I'm too engaged.  (or maybe it's that I'm usually in the same service 3 times on a weekend? ;)  I tend to listen to the message to the point that I hear something that stirs me to start a conversation with God on and then I'm off.  Off to journal and wrestle with the concept until I get a measure of peace or revelation on the topic and then reengage with the rest of the 'class'.  It's just the way it works for me.

Ever had one of those revelations that seemed like deja vu?  It's like, 'haven't I had this revelation before?' and yet you're having it in that moment.  Everything is a process and sometimes things are revealed in stages so that could be the reason for those kind of moments.  I don't know.  All I know is that I had one of them today.

Jesus speaks life.  He doesn't just teach or help.  He speaks, and life is created and formed.  He bypasses our behavior so as not to be distracted by the smoke-screen and speaks life to the death in us that causes the behavior.  He's good.  He's very, very good.  We camp out on the behavior.  We condemn it, mask it, ridicule it, manage it and engage it to the point that we are just exhausted and angry with ourselves and God.  All the while, Jesus is speaking life.

Sin is not a behavioral issue.  It is the evidence that there is death in me.  Jesus came to give life, and when His life takes root in me I change from the inside out.  It's so amazing after all these years of walking with Him that, when I get quiet and ask, He still shows me places in my hear that are dead and have been causing behavior that is counterproductive to the life that is inside of me.  So, once I get the revelation I set to work on how to fix it.  And, He lovingly just bypasses my work and my behavior and speaks life.

To quote Jon Foreman "You're raising the dead in me."