By Pastor Pam Sheppard

In order for truth to set us free, we are going to be challenged in all ways, spirit, soul, body, and mind. Challenges emerge from  people, places, and things, attitudes, and beliefs. The  main challenge  is linked to our assumptions.” Many of us don’t realize it but we assume God is not in control, and that we need to help Him out with everything. Part of walking in the spirit is to walk by faith knowing that God is ordering our steps. If you’ve had a false conversion and you know it, that was God. God has ordered your steps to know it. The word of God says that God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Now you have some knowledge that you can work with.

Don’t panic and try to figure out  “what must I do now?” What you must do now is wait. We need to learn how to wait. If things are going along the way God wants them to go along, then you may not hear from Him. Think about walking a dog. The dog is on a chain, and he’s walking along, and then he moves over into an area or a location where the one who’s walking him doesn’t want him to go, and a tug is placed on that chain. That’s kind of how walking in the spirit is. You’re walking by faith. God has got the path laid out, and He’s even got the trouble spots there for a reason. Don’t just think that because you ran into trouble or it looks like you failed in a particular situation that God was not guiding your journey. With decades to look back on and review, I  see God  in my failures because in His divine wisdom, He knew  that I would learn and retain  more wisdom from my  failures than from my apparent successes, particularly where my  productivity was not a struggle.

Bearing fruit is cultivated and refined by trouble and tribulation. So, when you have a piece of information that doesn’t sit well with you, and you say “Well why didn’t God tell me before? Why is it that I spent so many years in the Institutional Church and I was blind? Why didn’t He come to me before?” when I was finally undeceived, I never asked God such questions.  Why not? Well, because I have been blessed with  too much respect and fear of the Lord.  Not fear derived from panic, but sheer homage and respect.  So I am careful not  to question Him about His timing.  Even though I came into the church without any religious background, God took  28 years before my  blinders started coming off.  The issue I had to come to terms with is an assumption that the three dreams I had that compelled me to go to a particular  local denominational church DID NOT COME FROM GOD. As the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil,  the Holy Spirit led me into a a local church to be deceived. As such,  He allowed the enemy to send me those three dreams. Why would God do such a thing? Well,  He had His reasons. I  could not do the work that I  am chosen to do if I  had no background in the IC.  I would not be able to understand what those of you who He is calling out  of Her now have been through if I  had not been through it myself.

So yes, the enemy is put into the plan by God Himself.

Consequently, I have  never asked  God, “why did You wait so long?” Nor did I  go running around to other people or to other ministries to desperately confirm what God was saying and doing with me. Actually,  I  never looked for anybody’s approval or disapproval.  I  just kept moving forward. I simply  shook  all  religious dust from my feet. If people reject what I teach and practice, I leave them alone.  I don’t sulk.  I am too busy  preparing myself for those who WILL hear my voice. . As far as those who don’t hear, I say to myself  “Maybe they’ll come back around again, perhaps  they won’t.” that is it.  My thoughts on those who reject my teachings are brief and impersonal. The problem is too broad, too severe to get stuck on any individual.  When I am about the business of moving forward, I don’t challenge my equilibrium by turning around to look back.  I keep in mind that God is in control. He is in control of what He will allow the enemy to do to one of His own. He is in control. Period.

Think about Job. The enemy could do this, this, and this, but couldn’t do that. He couldn’t take Job’s life. There was something that God wanted Job to learn from that experience and he learned it. What Job learned was to stop being so religious because his religion was based in fear. After all, the very thing Job feared came upon him.  So Job learned to trust God, because He,— God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit— is in control, and He’s guiding our steps.

So be warned that the Lord will resist the proud. Spiritual pride can be our strongest enemy. .

So when you feel and even say things  like “how could I have been deceived, how could I have been so stupid,” you should understand this.  Present day deception is not new.  In fact, it  has been going on for centuries. So just be happy when God wakes you up. Don’t get all offended. God resists the proud. So receive your grace  by your humility.

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