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 WHAT HAS YOU IN ITS THRALL? 

Traditions, new and old, that are not grounded in and growing out of the Word of God written may seem spiritual, but can actually be a distraction, a diversion, even a kind of delusion that ultimately dilutes the one sure focus of the believer's heart from Christ Jesus. We are to fix our eyes on Jesus, the One upon Whom our faith depends from start to finish, not to some experience or alternative mediation.

A blessing you receive from the Lord is never to be the stencil you overlay on the lives of others, trying to impose on others your experience of God's grace given to you in your time of need.

The story goes that a man fell into a deep hole from which he could not rescue himself. He cried out for help to any who might hear. Exhausted, he cried out to the Lord to somehow send someone to pull him out of his predicament. In a moment, an angel from the Lord lowered a shining ladder into the pit and the man climbed out to safety. As he emerged from the hole, the angel vanished.

So moved by his experience of special grace from the Lord, he spent the rest of his life pushing people into pits for them to have his experience. Traditions can be birthed from such religious fervor. Keep watch over yourself by the Holy Spirit. Your experience of His grace applied will be fitted to you, your circumstance, your need and may not ever fit another in the same way it fitted you.

Testimony of God's intervention is meant to inspire courage and faith in others, not set up a template that must be applied to all. People have been healed by the Holy Spirit as we call out in Jesus Name. That prayer articulated didn't heal the sick, the Lord did the healing. Some have taught that if you pray in this way, with these words, God will act. That is a tradition grounded in what you experienced, not a specific directive from the Lord. You ask the Lord how to pray and what to pray as He alone knows the need and how He intends to engage the heart of the one in need.

The Apostles were never recorded as saying, "I hope this works." as they prayed for the sick, the possessed, and the dead. They knew they had the authority of the Lord to do what Jesus had been doing. They walked in the Spirit, led by the Lord, not some newly codified "tradition" or methodology.

Let the Lord Jesus hold your attention. Trust the Holy Spirit to guide and direct. His mercies are new every morning. Be aware what threatens to hold you in its thrall that is not grounded in God's Word written.

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