“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” Psalm 1:1

Every day of our life we make hundreds of choices and each of those choices will produce an outcome. For instance: we make a choice what foods we eat in the morning for breakfast; nutritious or unhealthy, we choose whether we will go to work or stay home and watch TV all day, and we choose whether we will ride a bike or a car on the highway to the mall.  In each of these situations we have a choice. If we make the wrong choice; the outcome will be obvious in a short amount of time that we made the wrong choice.

The outcome can look like this: You will run out of energy if you eat an unhealthy breakfast, you will soon loose your job if you don’t go to work, and you may find yourself in the hospital if you choose to ride your bike on the highway.  The outcome tells you quickly if you made the wrong choice.

The same is true in our spiritual life.  David says in the Psalm, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly”. When you take counsel from an ungodly person, you will soon see by the outcome that something is wrong with their counsel. It will be just as obvious as when you keep riding down the highway on a bike. You are in danger when you take counsel from an ungodly person because if they do not know God they do not know His ways.  David said, don’t walk in ungodly counsel. From the moment you hear ungodly counsel you have a choice; will you act upon it and walk down the wrong path, or choose the right path. It boils down to a simple choice, and the choice is yours. Wrong counsel can feel good at the moment, but if the counsel does not line up with the ways of God, the outcome will not be a blessing in the end.

Ask the Lord to show you where you are making wrong choices and listening to the wrong counsel; then pray this simple prayer: Teach me thy way O Lord; I will walk in thy truth… Psalm 86:1. Then you will soon see the blessings of the Lord.

“And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ”  Galatians 4: 6-7

Who am I?  What is my purpose in this life?  How can I find meaning and value?

People all over the world struggle with their identity, and what they mean to God.  God created each of us for a purpose and as we yield to Him, He will bring us to the reality of that identity.

God has a place and a purpose for each of us in His kingdom. In order for you to know where your place is, you must discover your identity.

Your spiritual identity is not based on worldly criteria, social status, or education.  You may be very successful in a profession, but still feel something is missing if you have not discovered your spiritual identity.

Healing is essential in discovering our identity. Pain and scars from the past keep us connected to the past and distort the way we perceive ourselves and who we are to God. God speaks to our hearts, telling us who we are, but we can’t clearly hear Him until we are healed.  Pain blocks and distorts our spiritual hearing. Through the healing process we experience restoration, being restored into favor and fellowship with God.

Sin separates us; healing restores us!

In the past several years, I noticed a block in hearing the Lord, especially through dreams. At the time, I could not understand why I wasn’t hearing Him or why I felt somewhat separated from Him. But as I continue down the path of my healing, I am able to hear God speaking to my heart, speaking to me through dreams, and I feel a stronger connection to Him now than I ever have before. It was because of my sin and pain that I was disconnected from God.  Communing with the Father is opening my eyes to how He sees me and showing me who I really am.

In Jeremiah 1:5, we read that God knew Jeremiah before he was in his mother’s womb. God knows you and He is waiting on you to know yourself. He wants you to know yourself as He knows you. The prodigal son is an example of a spiritual son who finally discovered who he was. He didn’t fully embrace his position and inheritance until he went astray and was restored to his family. He had to go through the death of who he thought he was so he could experience life; and the same is true for us today. The prodigal had a ring on his finger and a robe on his back as he sat at the banquet table that was prepared for him. He heard his father say, “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” Luke 15:24