The other day I was talking about prayer requests with someone & they told me the serious health problems people were having and how they'd pray for all that, but the minor ache and pain that they themselves suffered.... it wasn't as serious & they decided to just live with it.
I was stuck in a place where there wasn't room for me to interject, but it saddened me & later the Lord gave me a parable & told me what happens when people think along those lines...
He showed me that it's like a person being treated to a free buffet. The recipient is happy for some of it but when it comes to dessert (doing something for themselves) they reject the inclusion and insist on paying. We can think to ourselves, "How ridiculous would it be to go up to the dessert bar at a buffet and try and shove them money in an all inclusive environment?"; but it's worse than that... God showed me the offense to the sacrifice His Son had to make in even rejecting one part of the very costly 'buffet' He paid for.
OUCH... I had never thought of a person being content to suffer in line with willful rejection; offending God! And then He pointed out what the underlying roots of the enemy that have a hold blocking that person's abundant life: pride, self hatred, rejection, self pity and doubt. Even though the person reads the bible daily, unless that person can be delivered from such, they are trapped in that cycle; which brings up the subject of Deliverance.
Philippians 2:12-13 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Let me post some of the distinct Strong's meanings for 'salvation' used above: "deliverance from the molestation of enemies; in an ethical sense, that which concludes to the soul's safety or salvation". So working out your salvation is actively seeking deliverance; part of the whole 'conforming to Christ Jesus' plan.
We are NEVER meant to 'settle' for less and anything blocking the way of that is ripe for deliverance. WE must change & part of that change is removing that which hinders or OPPRESSES our conforming to Christ Jesus. Jesus has assured us that we have authority in His Name, right? How about we use it?!! Deliverance is FOR the believer - AMEN!
www.hearingGod.tv