"Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed." (Hebrews 12:13 NIV)

The restoration of our spirits, souls and bodies to their true purpose and function involves our active cooperation with the Holy Spirit. The salvaging of our minds, emotions and wills is not automatic but the result of our yieldedness to the Word and Spirit of Christ. God has provided His Word (John 17:17) for our sanctification, but we must run with it (Hebrews 12:1; Philippians 3:12-15; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27). He has provided His Spirit (1 Peter 1:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:13) but we must to participate with His restorative work by responding to His prompting, conviction, revelation and empowering.

Faith is our positive response as a believer that gives the Living God permission to live His life in and through us according to His intended purpose. Faith is the clutch that engages the driving power of the Divine Engine and links it to the task of propelling us to live for His glory. Faith is the switch that completes the circuit and allows the power of God to illuminate and activate our lives for Christ's use. Faith is the lung that draws in the breath of God's life and exhales the repudiated rule of our Adamic self-life with its carnal programming. Faith is intentionally living according to God's original intention.

This is the key to the victorious Christian life. Instead of striving in the energies of our old nature to depose the rule of sin, we engage the power of God to walk in the Spirit. Satan tricks us into thinking that we must work to merit the Spirit's empowering of our lives. He gets us on the religious treadmill of self-effort; holding the promise of the Spirit-filled life before us as a luscious carrot. He tells us that if we don't fulfill the lust of the flesh, we can walk in the Spirit. Be good and you can have God. But the Word of God tells us: "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (the old sin nature)." (Galatians 5:16). Have God and you can be good.

Faith starts with giving God our permission to exercise His rights to rule in our lives. It then cooperates with the revelation of His mind. He says, "Make straight paths for you feet." This reminds us of the words of John the Baptist, "Prepare the way of the Lord" (Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:2); a call to repentance (metanoia- a change of thinking). Be willing to deal with obstructions, crookedness, and patterns of thought and behavior that are contrary to Christ's way of living. Level the mountains of pride by yielding yourself to Christ. Fill in the potholes of doubt and believe the promise. If we cooperate with Him, the Holy Spirit will heal what is lame and restore us to our true purpose and function as one made in the image of God. If we don't respond to His Word and His discipline that which is lame in our lives will become disabled rather than healed.

God does not intend for us to live with a 'disability policy'. He intends to heal that which is lame and restore us to a responsible Christian walk. This is responsible Christian living -- Walk in the Spirit. Responsibility. Our response to His ability.

Offering my lameness,