YOU ARE WELCOME HERE

 “Kicking the Cactus”

​

We have been going through this “All -In" series, talking about being fully devoted in our Christian walk to Jesus. To do that we must have Christ living within us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

​

We have been talking in our series about being “All In”, that it means being “all done“ living by our flesh; the fruit of our lives at one time may been fleshly i.e. anger, rage, rejection, religion, control but it is now gone because we have dealt with the root.

 

The Apostle Paul, as we talked about last week, had to deal with some of these issues: defects of character; or spiritual strongholds: his identity, his religious life which was full of pride and self-righteous behavior.

 

How was God able to break through that tough, stubborn, resistant, “I'll do it my way” character of Saul-  this guy's a tough nut to crack - how will God detour him off of this self-destructive road where he was “kicking the cactus?”

 

Acts 9: 3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”

 

The Lord appears to Saul on the road to Damascus and in doing so, in effect says: “ Your efforts at religiosity are an affront against Me Saul ; and your persecution of My people is a deliberate act against Me. Not only that, but your resistance and your rebellion against Me is like kicking against a goad  - an ox prod - you're going to injure yourself “ Its like someone intentionally kicking a cactus with their bare feet…it will only lead to harm.

 

Where are you on this road to revelation? Maybe Jesus has been trying to reveal Himself; but you're too busy kicking the cactus…you are doing other things, living for yourself and it's all leading nowhere…you are just hurting yourself. Jesus has been trying to detour you; he’s been putting up the detour signs and He’s patiently asking you to lay it down and submit to Him.