Proverbs 21:29
The upright give thought to their ways.
In a study of religious leaders who lost their way or fell, it was discovered that one of the first things to be let go in their life was a daily prayer of examination. They quit taking inventory of their thoughts, emotions, and actions.
This is not introspective absorption mind you, but rather a holy self-examination before the Father. Pride goes before a fall, and the way this looks is loss of accountability to a partner or group as well as to God Himself. I’ve seen this happen. It’s sad and ugly.
Look at anyone who has “crashed and burned”, and I can almost guarantee that they were nowhere near daily examination with a spiritual partner or the Holy Spirit.
Do you have a regular practice of self-examination? Before Abba Father?
Do you have someone with whom you are accountable and can share all? At least one person who you allow to “know everything”? Someone you can have a daily check-in with before you lose your mind? Someone/a few someones for daily mutual encouragement? (This could of course be your spouse, but can also be too much to put all on one person.)
John 12:24
“I assure you: unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop.
Unless you give yourself up in surrender to Christ, you will not be very effective in His kingdom. You may think you are, but you will only be as effective as your talents, personality, knowledge, etc.
What is most effective is the Holy Spirit.
Until we give up on self-reliance, we stifle the HS, hold her back. We will never make the impact God would have us to make because of our pseudo source of reliance for power. It makes little sense to fight a spiritual battle with physical weapons. Yet this is exactly what we do. What we’ve been trained to do. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood,” we quote, then turn around and rely on our programs, eloquence, and stage show to achieve results via Holy Spirit substitutes instead of humbling ourselves, and taking full advantage of the only genuine Source for change that is free and accessible to all.
Don’t sugar substitutes cause cancer? Maybe we should call our own stuff “Spirit and Low” or something to remind us of this lesson.
Here’s how YHWH set up the universe: death to self as total life. The sooner we got on board with this the better. It is peace and freedom. Wave the white flag and watch the Holy Spirit do some real work in you and others!