Never look back
Who is the greatest influence on your decision making process? Because your decisions always reflect the greatest influences on your life do you realize that? There is always some outside influence on your decision making. So who is the greatest influence of your decision maker? There will be all kinds of different answers. Now I want you to think about that for a moment because no matter what answer you gave it all can be categorized as either God or Satan.
Good or evil as the flesh or spirit. Every single influence that operates to affect your decision making process can be and should be put in one of those categories that is really what this series has been all about soul control Now we are on the last part of this study we are looking at the spirit now the real you. The real you is not a dirt bag that’s not the real you. The real you is the spirit made in the image and likeness of God. We have been talking about how to be spirit led. First of all you have to know how crucially important it is and in this lesson we talked about three keys. I believe three keys because we are a three part being a key to control our body a key to control the operation of our soul and the third key is the key or control on how to be led by the spirit.
The third key was the understanding of aligning our lives with the principles of sowing and reaping. Jesus said the whole kingdom of God works on the principles of sowing and reaping. He said if we didn’t understand that parable we would not understand any of them. In other words it is foundational or key to being spirit led. The leading of the spirit is not going to take you anywhere outside that paradigm of the seed principle because the whole kingdom works on that basis. Most people don’t know much about the seed principle, seed is the word of God the soil is the heart of man and it isn’t enough for you to just cultivate your own seed because the bible says it’s what you sow because the process has to continue. You can’t sow in your own heart and our harvest in life depends entirely on what we sow. So it is everything about your life saying something about God your manner of life, the words you speak, your actions, your attitudes, the way you dress the way you use your money everything about you says something to someone else about God. Now if you are sowing good seeds than you have a good harvest but if you are sowing weed seed than you have a problem. So that’s why we need to be open to the leading of the spirit because the spirit will guide us in the right direction.
Now today let’s turn that around let’s talk about the way the Spirit does not led. Never look back let’s look at Phil. 3:13-14
Philippians 3:13-14 (AMP)
(13) I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
(14) I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.
I press on toward the goal to win the supreme and heavenly prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward. That sums it up that is what we are supposed to do in this life. We are supposed to be a presser we have marks to press for the high calling, the grand plan God has for us. This is a plan that most people do not realize; there is a better plan God has for us than the one we are now living, we need to grab hold of that thought and never forget it. We have to come out of our peanut thinking we are potential world changers and we need to get with the program. God has plans for us that are just awesome. This is the high calling of God but we can’t achieve it any other way except through the anointing that Jesus brings. God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
That ultimately that prize is Heaven, but Jesus made it clear that we could have heaven on earth we don’t have to wait until we die because the Greek word Zoë is not a single dimensional concept. Because Zoë means the God kind of life and the word says we can have Zoë life on earth. Now what does that mean? As you reach closer and closer to your high calling you will experience more and more of the God kind of life. That is the prize. He says to press, that word means to make maximum continuous effort. Your life has to be focused like a laser beam on carrying out that command. It makes me sad because as a young man I took the worlds way instead of the Higher way and I often wonder how different my family’s life would have been if I would have lived these principles and taught them to my family when we were all young. That word press means giving maximum effort and doing the best you can do all the time. We can’t do that on our own but Jesus gives us marks or goals that we are to press for in our life some marks are general and we can find them in the word.
Then there are specific marks things that God shows you about your life and what you are supposed to do that you can press for this week this month this year and it will take you toward your high calling. This is all predicated on doing something Paul talks about in the verse prior to this before you can reach for that which lies ahead Paul says this one thing I do forgetting that which is past. This is one of the greatest challenges we as believer have today. Because most people whether they know it or not allow past experiences to hinder or influence their decision making process. Paul says you cannot do that. That not saying don’t learn from past mistakes don’t make adjustments but the word forget here means put out of mind. We control what we think about and we are being told not to think about what is past learn some lessons make some corrections but then don’t think about it anymore move on. Most people haven’t got to first base on this mandate yet. This is a prerequisite to reaching for what lies before. Paul said you got to get unhooked from your mind, the past or you will never be able to progress in God. The leading of the spirit will never be too think about or ponder the past. The leading of the spirit all orientates you towards today or tomorrow never backwards.
Three categories of things we need to forget about our past. It helps us be more specific in dealing with our thought life. So the three general categories that the bible says very clearly we are not to think about or to put them out of mind. The first thing that we are to put out of our mind and to forget about is your sin or in another way our disobedience one way or the other it is sin. Remember our sin is not graded on a one to ten scale a sin is a sin. It’s all disobedience and it breaks our fellowship with God. So what do we do if we sin? Well if we are born again I have good news for you we are not subject to slaved by or bound by sin. We all make mistakes no one is perfect so we need what the bible calls repentance. 1 John 1:9
1 John 1:9 (AMP)
(9) If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action].
This is often called the Christians bar of soap but it is just plain old repentance. We are not supposed to use grace as a cover all because it is not. The bible says we have been made a king and a priest unto God so we can go to God and ask for his forgiveness and we should do this every day. Because that verse says he cleanses us from all unrighteous even what we are not aware of but He knows. Isn’t that good news, but it doesn’t stop here because he says once the forgiveness has been dealt with there is something else yet to be done look in Isaiah 43:25-26
Isaiah 43:25-26 (AMP)
(25) I, even I, am He Who blots out and cancels your transgressions, for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins. (26) Put Me in remembrance [remind Me of your merits]; let us plead and argue together. Set forth your case, that you may be justified (proved right).
Not only does he blot them out but then He says I will not remember them. So forgiveness and forgetting always go hand in hand and let me add this if you do not forgive others God will not forgive you. There is nothing that will close the door on God’s plan for your life than a sense of guilt that you are holding on too. It’s a pervading sense of unworthiness that many people have that keeps them from receiving what God has for them. All of us have a calling on our lives that requires the anointing of God and if you hold on to this thought of unworthiness you will block the anointing from blessing your life. This is a very important issue think about it in your own life. Everyone has skeletons in their closet. Keep fighting it but don’t let it keep you from the anointing God has for you and if you continue to fight it God says in his word that he will perfect you and that thorn will fall away He that has started a good work in me will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ Amen! So the first thing you have to forget about your past is your sin.
The second thing you have to forget about your past are your failures similar to sin but not quite the same thing some failure is caused by sin but much of it is because we didn’t listen to God or we didn’t use wisdom and we did something we should not have done and we experience failure. Turn to Hebrews 10:32 this is one place in scripture where we are reminded of our past.
Hebrews 10:32 (AMP)
(32) But be ever mindful of the days gone by in which, after you were first spiritually enlightened, you endured a great and painful struggle,
What he is saying is think back on the past struggles that you over came to get where you are today.
Hebrews 10:35-36 (AMP)
(35) Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward. (36) For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away [and enjoy to the full] what is promised.
Paul is saying don’t forget that because it will give you confidence. So what he is saying is think back on your victories but forget your defeats. God doesn’t make failures he makes winners. The enemy will always remind you in what you failed in to slow your momentum for achieving your goals. Because it produces negative expectations for what your future holds. Disappointment is defined by Webster’s as the frustration of expectancy and it is the strategy of the enemy to reinforce these disappointments by repetitions because then it moves from being frustrated expectancy to negative expectancy that is the very opposite we need to walk in the promises of God. The Lord said he has prepared for us an expectant end. See many people believe God is a healer but they haven’t been able to expect God is a healer for their life. Usually because they have had a chronic illness that has robbed them of their expectation they can’t generate the expatiation necessary to make their faith work the force of disappointment which is always rooted in past experience. Disappointment on a repetitive basis produces negative expatiations. That robs your faith of an element needed to bring the promises of God in your life. Do not think of past failures. The key you can’t give up. You have to put your past failure out of your mind. These things are all in the past. So first of all you have to put your sins out of mind secondly you have to put your past failures out of mind. Past experiences should not control or influence present decision making. So you have to put these things out of mind. The third and maybe the most important category of past experiences you need to forget are the sin and failure of others. It will hold you back just as surely as your own failures and sin. Many times we don’t connect with this but believe me it is a biggie! Let’s take a look at Mark 11: 24-26
Mark 11:24-26 (NKJV)
24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. 25 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
I’m not sure why that hasn’t had more of an impact on the body of Christ than it has many people who complain that faith isn’t working for them are holding ought against someone in their life and they refuse to forgive them. I don’t mean just in their head either I mean a total forgiveness from the heart so it is completely gone from the mind; this cannot be faked, because you can’t fake God. 
What does it mean if God would not forgive you of your sin; the wages of sin is death. It might be a slow slide, maybe your marriage isn’t quite what it should be, your job is not working out like you thought, you have little health problems that won’t go away it’s a slow slide but it touches every area of your life. The only thing that will stop that slide for us is God’s forgiveness that he made available by the shed blood of Jesus. But He says He can’t forgive us, that means apply the blood to our lives if we refuse to forgive others. Now remember forgiving means forgetting. You can’t have one without the other. I believe this principle is most prevalent in relationships, families and marriages. If you will not apply the principle of forgiving and forgetting the relationships will never get stronger and eventually will wither and die off. That means you are locked into a consequence of your sin which means death. Because when you refuse to forgive and forget what you are saying is; its ok for God to forgive them, but not me. If you will not forgive and forget and you keep thinking about the other person’s failures and inadequacies you are playing with spiritual fire and you will get burned. This is something we have to get more serious about then we have been. When you hold somebody else’s sin or inadequacies in your mind you will relate to them totally different, because you are focusing on the sins of his flesh. Remember God uses people to minister to other people. You cut off that person from ever being used by God in your life again. Think about that! Don’t close yourself off from the provisions of God for your own lives remember this goes both ways.
Isaiah 43:25 (NKJV)
25 “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.
To be led of the Spirit, never look back; forget your own sin, forget your own failure, and forget the sin and failure of others
Shalom Alecheim,
PapaJD
