GET OUT OF THE REARVIEW MIRROR (Part I)

GET OUT OF THE REARVIEW MIRROR! (Part I)

Sometimes it’s a wise and wonderful thing to look back.  We can never afford to forget our spiritual legacy, i.e. the life lessons and blessings gleaned in our past.  It’s called gratitude, a rather rare commodity in our day.  And we certainly do not want to develop SPIRITUAL AMNESIA, which means we have forgotten where GOD has brought us from or what He requires of us.  So sometimes it’s a good thing to look back.

However, it is a dangerous and destructive thing to become trapped in our past and unable to live joyfully in the now because we are plagued and perturbed by the issues and challenges of yesterday.  Please make up your mind to lay aside that weight. (Hebrews 12:1) Refuse to spend days and nights pondering PAST tragedies, PAST mishaps, or PAST sins.  Free yourself from the paralysis of analysis.

When it comes down to your FORGIVEN SINS, how dare you join in with the enemy of your soul and accuse yourself day and night?  That’s Satan’s miserable mission., not yours.  But here’s some great news.  His satanic mess and message will SOON come to an end.  The Apostle John confirmed it while exiled on the island of Patmos: “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation, and strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” (Revelation 12:10)

This Kingdom principle is so important that it bears repetition.  Why would you make the unwise choice to join in with satan and accuse yourself IF you have been covered by the blood of Jesus?  Hear me now!  IF I should fall asleep before the Rapture of the Church…IF I should find myself knock-knock-knocking on Heaven’s door...IF anyone should call out through the pearly gates, “Who is it?”…let me tell you how I would respond.  I would NOT answer “It’s Wayne Bass.”  There is no power or spiritual authority in that name.  I’m not trippin’ – but if an angel should call out “Who is it?” – my response will be simply this: “It’s Jesus!”  How could I truthfully respond like this?  Because the Word declares “If any man be IN CHRIST… he is a new creature!” (II Corinthians 5:17)  “And [I am] found IN HIM, not having mine own righteousness, but that which is through the FAITH OF CHRIST!” (Philippians 3:9) 

I love how the Apostle Paul sums it up: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places…and HATH RAISED US UP TOGETHER and made us sit together in heavenly places IN CHRIST JESUS.” (Ephesians 1:3 and 2:4-6)  So the Word declares that we are already there…IN CHRIST JESUS…so we have a bona fide and blood-bought right to announce ourselves with bold confidence at Heaven’s gates: “IT’S JESUS!”  Somebody ought to shout “AMEN!”

Allow this truth to settle in your spirit.  How dare you ponder and perish in memories of things that GOD has already forgotten!  Our Lord and Savior declares: “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” (Hebrews 8:12) How dare you become fixated and focused on LOOKING BACK when GOD has forgiven you and restored you to full fellowship with Him?

First natural, then spiritual.  Unless I am about to change lanes while driving along the highway, there is no pressing need to look in the mirror – other than to satisfy my curiosity about what is behind me, or to check out my personal appearance.  Note to self: Don’t look too long!  Fact is, if I never needed to change lanes on the highway, I would not actually need a rearview mirror, not very much at all.

Here is a prophetic message for some – and you know who you are.  In this season, you will not have to worry about changing lanes.  So move forward!  Drive straight ahead unless you hear a redirecting Rhema from Heaven.  Sisters and brothers, since you won’t be changing lanes right now, you will not be requiring a rearview mirror.  At any rate, perhaps you have been looking into that mirror too long…perhaps you are so moved and mesmerized by what is behind…perhaps you are so caught up in old images of yourself that you cannot see what God has planned and prepared.  “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11, NKJV) 

Bear this in mind.  What so many have become focused on (and obsessed with) is THE OLD IMAGE OF YOU.  It’s how you used to look.  It’s how you used to be.  It’s those things you used to say and do.  It’s where you used to hang out and get hung up.  Fact is, you may not even be seeing what you THINK you are seeing!  Hear me with your spirit!  Images can be profoundly distorted – especially in your side-view mirror.  Have you considered that tiny inscription on the side-view mirror?  “Objects in the mirror may be CLOSER than they APPEAR!”  It’s an entirely distorted view.  Some of us claim that we are tired of people looking at us with that so-called SIDE-EYE, but here is an inconvenient truth.: PERHAPS YOU ARE LOOKING AT YOURSELF WITH A SIDE-EYE…MORE SO THAN ANYONE ELSE!

SO GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK, and do it NOW!  Telling your future by focusing on your past assumes that conditions always remain constant.  This is tantamount to driving your car forward while ONLY looking in your rearview mirror.  It’s not reasonable.  It’s not right.  It’s not wise.  It’s not safe.  Get out the rearview mirror.  You just might crash.

Stay tuned…more to come tomorrow!

Sisters and brothers, be continually blessed, and please (above all else) MAKE SURE YOU ARE READY TO MEET OUR SOON COMING KING. Maranatha!