Sunday morning (14th October 2012) I saw myself standing naked before God and a congregation of God`s people. I realized in my utter vulnerability, that every one of my bodily imperfections could be seen; the spots, blemishes and scars from surgery. Not only that, but parts not seen by most were on display for all to see. But then my mind turned to the fact that God sees all my inner parts along with my thoughts, feelings, motives, aspirations, sins and unwise conversation. In short He sees all. That of course is true of us all. We cover our bodies because it is right to do so. We cover our sins, our imperfect motives, our unforgiveness because we have to save face. This covering up only rebounds on us and is the cause of much heart ache. We try to brazen it out, but we fail. God sees all.

The enemy of our souls will capitalize on our sin, on these hooks we give him. So if we get rid of the sin and imperfect motives along with unforgiveness and never allow any of these things to remain unresolved, there will be nothing to accuse us of. There will be no hook for satan to use to pull us off course. If he does accuse us we simply have to remind him we are children of God and forgiven and cleansed from all our sin.
Then God reminded me He loves me and I had come to a place of forgiveness and repentance. I endeavour to remain there. I remembered words He spoke to me a few Sundays ago:-

Tell them I love them and need them for a witness to my (and for my) glory in these days. It will not be long before I come, but there are many I need to reach for my kingdom before then.
Do not be fearful that you will not measure up. I will do it. My Spirit will work through you as you determine to walk with me in this. Be prepared to speak your testimonies over the garden fence or at the supermarket checkout. I have so much for you all to do and will use all of you, just where you are. Draw close to me. Stay close to me. I will speak to you as never before. It will be easy and quite natural – the words will trip off your tongues and flow because I will fill you with my Spirit.

We are all loved by God despite our fallen humanity. In fact He desires to use us for His glory more than we can begin to imagine, despite what we think of ourselves. That of course is the rub, we often have such a poor image of ourselves. But it is not how God sees us. We need to shovel all this rubbish the enemy tries to heap on us onto God’s shoulders. Get rid of it. Confess it out. Pray for each other. Lay hands on each other. Do all you understand to do to free yourself of those hooks the enemy of our souls uses to try to bring us down.

Look into the mirror of the Word and see we are :-

More than conquerors (Romans 8:37)
Forgiven (Matt 26:28; Luke 1: 77; Luke 5:20 etc.)
Somebodies not Nobodies (we will reign with Him 2 Timothy 2:12)
Healed (Matthew 4:24)
Filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:4)
Loved (John 3:16)
The list can go on and on……….

Come on let us rejoice in our salvation and show it on our faces, in our manner of living. Show it in how we treat each other as Christians and those as yet strangers to walking by faith close to God.

David Weaver. Sussex November 2012