Last year I had to have some physical therapy for a problem with my feet, legs and hips. The first thing the therapist noticed when I took off my shoes was the long hard callous on the outside edge of my foot. She told me “You’re not using your whole foot when you walk so the muscles in your feet are compensating for the muscles you aren’t using. That is what is causing your problems. Basically your feet are running at half strength and doing the work of your knees and hips too.” This all started with trauma to my hip due to a car accident clear back in 1999. Over the years, it just grew worse until I could hardly walk at all.
So the first thing she made me do was to start walking intentionally, that is concentrating with every step how my foot was striking the ground, making sure that I was using my whole foot when I walked. In essence I had to learn how to walk again. I felt like a toddler as each tentative step was done with great deliberation. I often caught myself staring at my feet while I walked. I must have been quite a sight! But as I worked at it, the callous began to disappear, my feet started to hurt less and my knees and hips began to feel stronger. Between the exercises and the intentional walking, my need for therapy rapidly disappeared.
There is a spiritual lesson here to be learned. Not only must I walk intentionally in the natural, I must also walk intentionally in my spiritual life. And in order to avoid problems, I must use all the gospel to live my life.
15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil. 17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; 21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
It is an easy thing to walk half-footed. I know! Certain doctrines of the Bible become our “pet” doctrines by which we live our lives, while other doctrines remain uninvestigated or applied. For instance, if all we focus on is the doctrine of the cross, we live weak, pathetic, defeated lives because we have not embraced the doctrine of the resurrection power that is now ours through the indwelling Christ. We simply stand before the cross in a sin-confess cycle and never receive the power of the new nature and the new life in Christ to live above sin so that it is no longer our master. The verse “…behold all things become new” is filed along with all those verse we say but don’t live.
If we ignore the doctrine of healing that is so clearly stated in scripture, we end up accepting sickness, weakness and disease as “God’s will” or “a lesson God is teaching me.” If our sickness is God’s will, why do we fight it with medicine and treatment? We would rather walk half footed than to admit that maybe our revelation and faith levels could use a boost.
And the most neglected doctrine of the Bible is the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Because many depend on what they’ve been taught and have not sought the Lord with an open heart concerning this wonderful gift He will give to ALL believers, they limp through life attempting to build the Kingdom without the most important tool in their toolbox.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light…
The solution to this problem is that we must be people of the Word. We must believe that the power, presence and will of God has not diminished through the years, if anything, with the indwelling Holy Spirit, it has to have increased on the earth. If we could truly realize what it is that lives in and through us, our walk would be so much different. We would not limp through life and our feet would be firmly planted with each step.
Each day we must be in the Word, soaking in it, asking questions concerning it, praying and confessing it into our own life and experience. When we walk intentionally, we use all that God has given us to have victory and success in the Christian life.
So the first thing she made me do was to start walking intentionally, that is concentrating with every step how my foot was striking the ground, making sure that I was using my whole foot when I walked. In essence I had to learn how to walk again. I felt like a toddler as each tentative step was done with great deliberation. I often caught myself staring at my feet while I walked. I must have been quite a sight! But as I worked at it, the callous began to disappear, my feet started to hurt less and my knees and hips began to feel stronger. Between the exercises and the intentional walking, my need for therapy rapidly disappeared.
There is a spiritual lesson here to be learned. Not only must I walk intentionally in the natural, I must also walk intentionally in my spiritual life. And in order to avoid problems, I must use all the gospel to live my life.
15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil. 17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; 21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
It is an easy thing to walk half-footed. I know! Certain doctrines of the Bible become our “pet” doctrines by which we live our lives, while other doctrines remain uninvestigated or applied. For instance, if all we focus on is the doctrine of the cross, we live weak, pathetic, defeated lives because we have not embraced the doctrine of the resurrection power that is now ours through the indwelling Christ. We simply stand before the cross in a sin-confess cycle and never receive the power of the new nature and the new life in Christ to live above sin so that it is no longer our master. The verse “…behold all things become new” is filed along with all those verse we say but don’t live.
If we ignore the doctrine of healing that is so clearly stated in scripture, we end up accepting sickness, weakness and disease as “God’s will” or “a lesson God is teaching me.” If our sickness is God’s will, why do we fight it with medicine and treatment? We would rather walk half footed than to admit that maybe our revelation and faith levels could use a boost.
And the most neglected doctrine of the Bible is the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Because many depend on what they’ve been taught and have not sought the Lord with an open heart concerning this wonderful gift He will give to ALL believers, they limp through life attempting to build the Kingdom without the most important tool in their toolbox.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light…
The solution to this problem is that we must be people of the Word. We must believe that the power, presence and will of God has not diminished through the years, if anything, with the indwelling Holy Spirit, it has to have increased on the earth. If we could truly realize what it is that lives in and through us, our walk would be so much different. We would not limp through life and our feet would be firmly planted with each step.
Each day we must be in the Word, soaking in it, asking questions concerning it, praying and confessing it into our own life and experience. When we walk intentionally, we use all that God has given us to have victory and success in the Christian life.
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