Consider and Consent

“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost…” (Luke 14:28) 

When God asks us to do something, it’s essential to count the cost. And, it’s essential to consent to what he’s asking, because he knows why he’s asking. In other words, don’t delay and don’t enter into the request without taking it seriously. 

How long had I kept hearing the conviction Stop drinking? Years. But when I’d asked, Is drinking wrong? God never said it was wrong.

While journaling on May 27^th and May 28^th, my spirit was stirred to ask God to deeply search me, for something was troubling me. I prayerfully asked for more understanding through scripture.  

Like David, the journaler and writer of Psalms, I began, “Lord search me and know my anxious thoughts.”  

And then the Lord spoke Proverbs 13:21 to my spirit. “Misfortune pursues the sinner, but prosperity is the reward of the righteous.”

As I considered the deep meaning of this, I was reminded of my life in New York City, and how so much hardship and misfortune beleaguered my business and personal life because of my ongoing sins. And God reminded me that his grace was all the more, because he brought me to this present place of righteousness in Christ. 

To prove his power in my life, God first led me to the scriptures that revealed sins misfortunes. “For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.” (Ezekiel 18:4) 

I had tried to assuage sin’s misfortunes with money’s shiny false blessings. Finally, humbled and emptied, I recognized God’s word, his powerful, real, and sober word is all that satisfies! And he had pursued me! 

Many years of spiritual rehabilitation mixed with joy and despair have wrought in me a spirit that recognizes my Lord amidst my circumstances.

I am free to choose with clarity and purpose, not reaction and survival.

In that time of journaling on the 27^th, after the reminder of sin’s misfortunes, the Spirit led me to other verses that highlighted the reward of righteousness. My favorite: “Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.” (Psalm 32:10) 

My spirit, that inner real me, the one that will rise up to heaven, asked the soul, the logical and reasoning me, “Chris, what is the one way you cling to that in your heart, you know the Lord is asking you to abandon and let go of?” 

And my flesh responded, “Alcohol.” 

My spirit responded, “So stop, abandon, and let go of it without thought, apprehension, or delay in Jesus’ name. He will make a way.” 

Just as quickly as this had come, my desires rose up as if to quench the fervor of clarity. 

Not recalling His request, I asked the Lord, “Did you ask me to stop drinking?” My flesh arose and immediately justified the excuse of drinking. I journaled the word excuse and pondered that it might be a clue to my problem, but paid it no mind. 

I fixed a martini and got depressed as I looked at homes online that I could not afford. In that instant, I remembered: I will not share my glory with another. 

I looked the scripture up. It became clear that the verse the Spirit was referring me to had been Isaiah 42:8. 

And this is for every Christian; every child, man, and woman who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus:  

I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness. I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison, and to release from the dungeons those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things have taken place and new things I declare; before they spring into being, I announce them to you. (Isaiah 42:6-9) 

And my eyes were opened! It’s an idol. Alcohol has become an idol! “O Lord, please remove this idol from me.” 

It doesn’t matter how I perceive it or think about it. It’s what the Lord says that matters. Does the Lord’s word torment us or provide discipline for our good? 

I got into the hot tub to consider. Cooling off, the Spirit began unlocking the treasure of insight and understanding. God revealed it had been generational spirits that tricked the men of my family to turn to alcohol, which became an idol, greater than our dependence upon God. It replaced the need to meet God in His way with an idol of false satisfaction, masking or dulling our response to meet Him and receive our desire for the true answers to the need!