The Force is in You

My husband told this story last Sunday about our house and how anyone is welcome inside it. We've got a nice big open kitchen/dining/living area that we keep picked up and clean and a beautiful guest suite where people can stay the night. But there's this other part of our house that we usually keep shut off. It's our master suite...which is a mirror image of the guest suite but it's ours. We keep it shut off because of guns but also mostly because when people come over, we shove all the clutter (mail, purses, dirty socks, random shoes, etc) into our bedroom. I also have a repulsion to putting clean laundry away so I have stacks of clothes I dig through until I get fed up enough to put it all away. Hey, don't judge me...we all have that clutter drawer/room in our lives. Our bathroom stays pretty clean except for the laundry basket and maybe some pajamas on the floor.

Well recently, I've felt a deep desire to remedy this dirty room. I hate that I'm embarrassed about our messy room and I want to be able to freely show people our entire house when we give tours. This weekend, I was prompted to rearrange the bedroom to a more balanced arrangement and in the process, we cleaned up a lot of the clutter. (My office is also in the bedroom so it accounts for some of the clutter that never disappears.) I swept up all the corners and floors (wondering how we ever breath easily with all that dust under the furniture), put up all the clothes and shoes, and Jarrod helped me move the furniture where I wanted it. I won't lie though, in the process of cleaning and moving, I wanted to quit. Everything was everywhere and it looked REALLY bad but we pressed on and I can honestly say we feel SO much better. It feels clean, open, and balanced. We love the new arrangement and we now keep our bedroom door open. The mess in the middle of the process was totally worth it and we actually slept better last night. I believe this is the way it feels when God cleans up the messy corners in our hearts and minds. It gets messy for a little while but in the end, we breath easier and feel peace with the result.

God wants you to know that everyone is capable of cleaning a room. That means you don't have to be a pastor, pastor's wife, youth minister, youth minister's wife, worship leader, or teacher to clean up a mess. Every. Single. Christian has access to the broom and furniture-mover named God.  We all have equal access to the Holy Spirit but not everyone is open to what the Holy Spirit has to say - and that is the limiting factor to being a living vessel for God.

As children of God, we have access to two realms: Earth and the Spirit Realm (the dwelling of the Trinity). It's up to you which realm you choose to live in/by. You can be ruled by the flesh (things of this Earth like material things, anger, control, self-centeredness, self-gratitude, chaos, arrogance, anxiety) or you can be ruled by the Spirit (the fruit of whom is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control). It's a very fine line that we as Earth dwellers walk every single day, all day. The only way not to cross the line into a flesh driven world is to constantly be in communication and relationship with the Holy Spirit. We have to make choices based on prayer and we need to ask God to speak through us so that the fruit of the Spirit remains in our wake.  If you cross the line into the flesh driven world don't worry, He is faithful to convict us of the crossover and leads us back into his company - usually through confession and repentance, He rights your wrongs and you walk back over the line to continue your relationship. We all make mistakes and fall off track but we all can CHOOSE to follow him in getting back on track.

If you've shut the door to certain "rooms" in your heart that you don't want God to have access to, please open your heart to what the Holy Spirit is saying and open your eyes to the truth. If this is foreign to you, take some time out of your day to pray and ask God to speak. It may get messy in the middle and feel like He is exposing your dirty laundry but the finished product will be worth the vulnerability. Trust me, you'll love your clean "room" when you're finished.