John 8. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
The spiritual life is a life of struggle.
The Christian who understands this early on will no longer lament, will no longer put himself aside, but will realize the battle, understand that he is under attack and will rise up for victory.
The problem, the lasting weakness in the Christian’s life, when he doesn’t know where it comes from. But when he diagnoses the source, which is spiritual, he can quickly fix it.
Luke 24
13 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem.
14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.
16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
Galilee is the place to celebrate victory, for the whole world. This is the place to celebrate Satan’s defeat.
On the other hand, all that is sadness, lamentation and the past represents the road to Emmaus.
While they were lamenting, Jesus had already risen.
Not having taken the road to Galilee, as Jesus had told them, so they were in lament.
What’s the problem here? What prompted them to go to Emmaus? What are their heart’s desires? What are their thoughts?
We’ll see that the symptoms of the problem lie in the answers to these questions.
Who told them to go to Emmaus? Them.
Jesus asked them to Gallilee and they set off for Emmaus. This created blindness.
If they’d gone to Galilee, would they have been sad?
Not because of the objective written in their minds. They would perceive only what Jesus said.
Jesus drew near to them out of love. And they didn’t recognize it. So Emmaus is also the path of blindness.
God told Jonah he had to go to Nineveh, but he didn’t want to, so he went to Tarshish. It created blindness, it created a lot of problems for him. So much so, that he found himself in the belly of a fish for three days.
Sometimes the desires of our hearts can create blindness to the point where we don’t see Jesus.
That’s why what Jesus says, which is the truth, must always be in us.
Jesus is always there with us. We must develop this awareness at all times.
Even when we go to work, or to our activities, we need to be more of His presence. It is by His strength that we work and do all things. He’s the one who keeps us going every day.
As a child of God, I must live by God.
The two Christians were discussing negative things along the way. The way the Pharisees had treated Jesus unjustly. Their memory was on these things, they thought only of past events. So it created blindness, discouragement, lament, frustration…
This is why the Christian must rid himself of all discouragement, frustration, lament…
There’s the story of this young girl. She was engaged. A year before the wedding, she was courted by another. And finally, she left her fiancé.
She got together with the other guy and settled down with this new companion.
What happened? The desires of her heart.
She was attracted by the material. The new one had a car, a house…The first fiancé didn’t have much at the time.
After two years of living together, everything went wrong between them, to the point where they separated.
Her ex-fiancé, meanwhile, met someone else and got married.
This young woman was left alone. He lost his house and his car.
It’s the image of blindness.
She is a spirit, but she has let herself be led by the desires of her heart.
This is also what the two disciples did: they let themselves be led by the desires of their hearts.
Blindness consists in deciding according to the desires of one’s heart or the desires of the flesh.
And this is a path that the enemy exploits a great deal in the lives of Christians.
The Christian can easily lose the grace that is next to him, because of the desires of his heart.
Let’s suppose Jesus says: “Wait for me, I’m coming back”. And two or three days later, He’s still not there.
Most of the time, Jesus doesn’t say precise dates because time is canceled in spirit.
What should a Christian do? Stay alert, your mind needs to be on the alert.
For example, he shouldn’t make a decision because he can’t see or hasn’t seen anything yet.
Waiting is a spiritual position.
It means not being tormented, not being frustrated, confused…but being tranquil in your heart.
Any project, thought, desire or intention that leads the Christian away from God is a spirit of distraction.
When Jesus told the ten virgins to wait. Five could wait, five couldn’t because they had decided to do something else.
They slept. To sleep is to stop watching over the thoughts and desires of the heart.
This is also blindness.
We’re constantly at spiritual war. And it’s the one with the truth who dominates.
Discouragement is a state of mind that can happen to anyone.
That’s why we have to watch over our hearts.
What can create discouragement?
For example, Jesus says take this path straight ahead, there’s a town, where there’s a blue house, you go there and wait for me.
That’s a goal for the Christian. So he hit the road, walked for a day or two, but couldn’t find a path to the village.
What to do? It’s at this precise moment that you have to control yourself.
But what could happen? The Christian may begin to wonder, to be confused inside, to be discouraged, his vision may be blurred…
By the end of the third day, his vision was becoming increasingly blurred, and the word he had received was beginning to be attacked.
Another half-day and he’ll lose his confidence, the faith to carry on will be gone, and discouragement will set in.
If he meets someone who says: “There’s no town on this road. What’s going to happen? Confusion, because he will have received a contradictory word.
And if the person adds, there isn’t even a blue house.
Will he be able to continue? No, he’ll stop because he’ll wonder if it’s worth continuing. This means he won’t be able to hit the road with confidence.
This is the devil’s plan: to send things and situations to create confusion in the hearts of Christians.
Beloved, every time the Christian doesn’t see, doesn’t know why he got up in the morning, forgets the purpose for which he’s on earth, forgets what God said; it’s going to create discouragement, confusion.
Discouragement prevents the Christian from reaching his goal. And that’s because he began to doubt what he’d heard in the first place.
As in the boat during the storm, the disciples had begun to doubt Jesus’ ability. [Marc 4.35_41]
Just as Peter forgot that Jesus told him to come, and began to sink into the water. [Matthew 14:28-31]
Vision is linked to the Word.
What must this Christian do to win?
To move forward, we’ll have to stick to what the Lord said, saying to ourselves: My master told me to go to a blue house in this town, so I’m going. He must reject contradictory words, but persevere in following his master’s instructions with courage, with assurance.
What’s confidence, vision, courage?
Knowing that even if you keep going, you’ll always be attacked. So he must resist, destroy the evil voice he’s heard, and it will become weak. Take your eyes off yourself and put them on the voice of Jesus. So the voice of Jesus will be loud in him, above all else.
That’s dying to yourself. And he will have understood that Jesus is all he has. What’s more, Jesus didn’t tell him how many days he had to walk, nor did he tell him about the difficulties, the various obstacles along the way.
What will carry him through is determination, faith and clarity of vision. In the meantime, he must resist and reject frustration and lament.
Whoever has the revelation of how discouragement is formed, will be easily delivered. All we need to do is make decisions and pray to destroy it.
Discouragement is the loss of vision. And the vision is the goal you have to reach, the promises of God. Don't take your eyes off the promise. Always keep the vision, the promise.