THE TRUTH ABOUT BEING LOST

        Before you go reading deep into this article, I want you to stop for a second and spend a little time praying to the Lord for truth.  We as Christians are sometimes led by the imaginations of our heart.  For us to seek and understand truth, we must understand that the first truth we need to find is the truth about ourselves. 

     Dear Heavenly Father,

I pray right now that we seek You first and that by Your Spirit we enter into all truth.  Lord forgive us of our trespasses and I pray the spirit of denial would be cast to the pit of hell in the Name, Power, and Authority of Jesus Christ.  I pray that we would be honest with ourselves which connects to the integrity and truth of Jesus Christ the Messiah.  Let us worship You in Spirit and in Truth.  And let us understand the true meaning of those words.  Lord give us Your Wisdom and empower us by Your Spirit.  Lord we thank you for all the gifts that You bestow upon us.  Let us be thankful in all things.  Thank You for your  trials and tribulations which test the strength of the Spirit that is within us.  Let us cry out for more of You and let our flesh not feed itself through our selfish desires.  Let us give and serve until death.  Let us understand our surroundings and the times that we are in.  And Father I pray You cast that spirit of bondage to the pit of hell that covers our minds and ties us down to the religiosity of this world.  Free us Father from all earthly desires and may we understand the absolute Truth that will set us free.  In Jesus' Name I pray.  Amen. 

     I want to start with the definition of "lost".  If we do not know the meaning of the word, we cannot define if it applies to us.  So let's start with the true meaning.  The word "lost" is a past tense or a past part of the root word "lose".  So now we need to understand the definition of "lose".  The word "lose" means:  #1.  to be deprived of or cease to have by negligence.  #2.  be deprived of by death.  #3. become unable to find, follow, or understand.  #4.  let or have pass from one's control or reach.  #5.  be defeated in.  #6.  get rid of.  #7.  be lost, in being engrossed in.  #8.  be lost or be wasted on; not noticed or appreciated by.  #9.  lose face, be deprived of one's dignity. 

     Is the meaning of "lost" changing form as you read?  One of the first mentions in the New Testament of the word "lost" is in Matthew 10:6.  But before I quote that scripture verse, let me give a little foundation to what the Lord is saying.  We find in Matthew, chapter 3, verse 2, John the Baptist is preaching in the wilderness of Judea.  The words that are coming out of his mouth are:  "Repent you: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  Later on John baptizes Jesus in the river Jordan and the Father publicly acknowledges His Son Jesus in Matthew 3:17.  "And Lo a voice from heaven, saying, this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."  Now we find in Matthew,  chapter 4, verse 17, Jesus beginning to preach and to say, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  This is twice we've heard this being stated:  "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  Now it's time for our scripture verse.  We'll start with Matthew 10, verse 5 and directly go to verses 6 and 7.  Verse 5:  "These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter you not:  Verse 6, "But go rather, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  Verse 7, "And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand."  The first mention of "lost" in the New Testament seems to be surrounded by preaching and proclaiming "The kingdom of heaven is at hand."  One would have to think that the Lord does not want us lost.  In other words, "Prepare for time is short and the kingdom is coming."  What kingdom?  The kingdom of heaven.  The Lord's kingdom.  Is this making sense?  So now I'm going to ask you a very important question. 

     "Are you lost?" 

     Before you jump to a conclusion, remember the prayer you hopefully prayed.  Let me help you a bit by explaining some heart motives.  Many have paralleled the word "journey" with our walk in Christ.  In other words, we have not arrived.  Now, if we know exactly where we're going, then there is no problem with arriving.  But I ask you a simple question:  "Have you seen heaven?"  "Have you already been to the kingdom of heaven and returned, so that you can draw a map for others who have not been gifted with the treasure find?"  Because, I can answer that for you:  "No one has seen heaven."  Oh, I know the Christians say that our family members have died and gone to heaven, but they forgot to read their Word and confirm the Truth.  And if you think I'm mistaken, you need to read John 3:13.  Now, let's return.  What if our heart mode is to reach the kingdom of heaven and we are trying with all of our might, but we have not arrived.  Are we considered lost?  Here would be my answer to that.  No.  But, must I remind you that the deception of the enemy could very well be giving wrong directions so that we become lost and disorientated.  In other words, our heart motive is pure, but we can get lost.  Let me explain further. 

     A man gives you directions to go to the grocery store.  You're in a big city and you're not sure where this store is.  When you receive the directions from the man (by the way, you do not know) he tells you to proceed north three miles, turn left at the Walgreens, drive two more miles, turn right at the Shell station, proceed one more mile and make another right at the Sinclair station.  Go two more blocks, and the grocery store will be on the left hand side.  Life is good.  You have directions.  So, you start to proceed north and while you're traveling, you begin to think to yourself, maybe I should have written those directions down.  No, it'll be o.k.  Did he say Walgreens or Walmart?  Because, as you drive a ways north, you find a Walmart and down the street you can see the Walgreens.  Now. . . worry sets in.  It doesn't matter.  I'll find it.  So, you proceed left, at the Walmart. . . or. . . was that right at the Walmart?  Oh, it's o.k.  I have plenty of time.  So, after you turn at the Walmart, you drive a couple of blocks and make a right.  And, as you make that right, you know that you must make another right. . . . Yeah, I remember.  So, you now proceed with your second right and that leads to your humility of character.  Because, now, you're sitting in the parking lot of Walgreens.  You don't know where the man is with the directions, and you truthfully don't know who he is anyways.  And, you now, with your frustration, have forgotten left from right, Shell from Sinclair, or Chevron, or Texaco. . . . You just know it's some kind of gas station.  And you can't remember the sequence of turns, the right amount of miles to go, and you realize something that you don't want to see. . .(and men, this always seems to happen in front of our wives) You. . . are. . .  lost! 

     Your intentions were never to be lost.  You heard the directions clearly.  You anticipated and assumed this would never happen.  And now. . . number three. . . in the definition of "lose" applies to you, and you only.  "become unable to find, follow, or understand."  Uh-oh, Now, meaning #4 applies too:  "let, or have pass from one's control or reach."  And now as you dig deeper into your own self (if you're truthful) meaning #1 now applies:  "be deprived of, or cease to have, especially by negligence."  And we finish this with the word. . . "OUCH!"  We cease to have. We cease to understand.  We cease to not have the kingdom of God based on our negligence. 

     Some questions for you to sift:  1.  Is the church "lost"?  2.  Who is the person giving you directions to the kingdom of heaven?  3.  Directing truth to number 1, are you personally "lost"?  Can you honestly admit that you are "lost"?  Who should we hear directions from?  How do we hear God?  Because God is the Truth in directions to the kingdom of heaven.  Does pride keep us wrapped in negligence?  Can we overcome our pride and admit that we are "lost"?   If we carry pride, we will always, continually, be in negligence. . . and thus, we lose.  I have many people that ask me, "How do you hear God?"  I don't think I'm hearing God.  I recently gave Word in a home meeting, about hearing the Word of the Lord.  I will do an in depth teaching on this later.  But, let me give you a nugget, until I teach on this.  Hearing God is about obeying.  It is to obey at all costs.  No analyzing, no judging. . . just obey.  When the Word of the Lord comes to us, and we do not obey, after time, the Lord will stop speaking to us.  For those of us that do not hear God, it is a high probable fact that you are walking in disobedience.  Now, that's the spanking, let's get to the healing.

     Correction sucks when there is no solution.  Many "so-called" leaders correct and abuse, and leave no hope.  For those that are in disobedience.  For those that are lost.  For those that do not understand.  For those that are broken.  I present to you hope.  Matthew, chapter 18, verse 11:  "For the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost."  Verse 12:  "How think you?  If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains, and seeks that which is gone astray?"  Verse 13:  "And if so be that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray."  As we talked about earlier in the article, Matthew 10:6:  "But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  Here's a question for you, "Who is the lost house of Israel?"  Is this the Jews?  Is this the mainstream Christian church?  One would think it could be mainstream Christianity, but most mainstream Christians are not Jewish, but rather. . . Gentiles.  The kingdom of heaven is at hand, in other words. . . near. . . soon. . . coming rapidly.  There are those of us that are lost and wandering around like the Israelites in the desert.  There are those of us that are lost and sitting at Walgreens, not knowing where to go.  There are those of us that are guessing where the kingdom of heaven is at.  And there are few of us that diligently wrote the directions down and are truly on our way to the kingdom of heaven.  If you have not diligently written down the directions, and not by man, but by the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord,  I encourage you to repent and seek the Lord's
Face in which direction you should go.  In plain English. . . "You're going the wrong way!"  If your directions are from a very famous pastor who has multiple radio stations, conferences, and authored gazillions of books. . . I ask you a simple question:  "How do you know if he has directions?"  Are you willing to lay your life in that famous mans' hand?  Are you willing to have unquestioning belief in a man?  If you are. . . you might want to take a few fire extinguishers with you.  It might get hot where you're going.  For me, I will trust in the Spirit of the Lord that sets upon man, and the Spirit of the Lord that sits within me.  I shall pray to the Lord continually, without ceasing:  "Lord, I do not want to be lost.  I worship You in Spirit and in Truth.  Guide and direct me to Your heavenly kingdom."  And let's not forget Matthew 10, verse 8, you might even say these are written orders, written directions:  "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely you have received, freely give." 

     I end this Word with some simple notes.  Many are spending multiple man hours in Christian schools learning how to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out devils.  Is there a class in Christian school, colleges, conferences, that train people to freely give?  Notice the word in front of give.  It says. . . "freely".  Wouldn't this mean to give to who the Lord tells you?  Not  to the controlling minister who needs a new parking lot for his church.  I have had many jobs where I am delivering product for that job.  The most frustrating thing that I remember about those jobs. . . was to be lost.  And when I finally arrived at the destination, being late, had the utmost consequences.  I'm absolutely positive we do not want to be late to the kingdom of heaven.  This would be the parable of Noah and the ark door being shut by God.  Those that were left behind after the ark door shut realized that death was upon them.  What a chilling thought.

Love to all that read and heed.