The 8 Mighty D's

(A Bible study from Duane)

Let’s talk about something that we all experience in some way and at some point in our lives. That something is the desperate decline in our lives.

When does this most unwanted and undesirable decline begin? Well, it begins the very moment that we let our sin get a good foothold within us. that is, once we forget about god and start wanting or craving and giving in to our own sinful nature. it is at that precise moment that our lives begin a dreadful downward spiral.

This is a spiral that many, many people simply find impossible to recover from. We are going to take a closer look at just what happens to us when we CHOOSE to step out of God’s will. NOTICE - I did not say ‘when somebody twists our arm and MAKES us step out of God’s will’. It is when WE - us, all by ourselves, CHOOSE to step out of the will of GOD.

You see, God would NEVER CAUSE us to choose sin. Why? Because God HATES sin. Perhaps Romans 6:13 tells us best as it reminds us that THE WAGES OF SIN ARE DEATH.

So, when we CHOOSE to step out of the will of God and walk in our own sinful nature, a very significant and HARMFUL thing begins to happen. We SET OFF a deadly chain reaction in our lives. This is nothing new in life, though, because the same sad scenario has been taking place throughout history.

Let me use an example which we all are familiar with. If we recall the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Luke, beginning with the eleventh verse, we find the story of the PRODICAL SON. Most Christians know the story - how the son squandered his part of his inheritance, sank to the very depths of degradation and then of what happened when he returned home. It is THE DIFINATIVE case of ‘FATHERLY LOVE’.

However, to understand this story even better, let us follow the footsteps of the wayward son and see, not only WHAT happened to him by WHY it happened, as well. I refer to this entire process as ‘TRAIL OF THE 8 MIGHTY D’S”.

The FIRST D - the D that leads all of us in getting ‘off track’ and AWAY from God’s desired path for us is - DESIRE. ALL SIN BEGINS WITH DESIRE. Desire is WHATEVER lures us away from God. Eve DESIRED to taste the forbidden fruit; King David DESIRED Bathsheba and so on and so on. That is EXACTLY what the Prodigal son experienced. He was not satisfied with the very comfortable life that he enjoyed with his father. He DESIRED to experience more. So, he progressed, or rather DEGRESSED, depending on the way you want to view it, straight to the SECOND D - DECISION.

We DECIDE to live away from God. God doesn’t decide that for us. WE exercise that FREE WILL that God gave us and WE decide to lay down our cross and quit following Him. THAT is what the prodigal son did. HE decided to leave his father’s house. HE decided to move away from the ways of his father. THAT is when the dominos of his life started to fall and they do so any time WE make the SAME decision in our lives today. The house of cards of our lives begin to crumble at the very MOMENT we move onto the THIRD D in our pathetic freefall. That D is DEPARTURE.

DEPARTURE is when we get far enough away from God that we do not think he can monitor us. However - and listen to me well - that simply just CAN NOT happen. God can find us anywhere we go. Just ask Jonah. Just where is this ‘far away’ place? The ‘far country’ is really ANYPLACE we choose to live outside the WILL of God, Our Father. That ‘far country’ inevitably turns out to be a very LONELY and desolate place. Now, what’s the NEXT step in our pitiful downward spiral? We ultimately give in to the FOURTH D - DECEPTION.

By now, we are very confused and hurt and vulnerable and the Master Deceiver (Satan, himself) is very much AWARE of our status. He wastes no time in stepping in and taking full advantage and he makes SURE that both he and the world continue to deceive us by telling us that we don’t really NEED God. He convinces us that the are perfectly capable of making it on our own and get rewards of money and material THINGS. But Satan NEVER tells us the WHOLE truth and he NEVER, EVER tells us ALL we are going to get. More importantly, Satan NEVER EVER tells us ALL that we are going to LOSE. He gets us to lower ourselves into such a pitiful state that we find ourselves squarely in the middle of the FIFTH D --- DEFEAT.

Moral defeat, financial defeat, defeat at EVERY turn - defeat in our own PERSONHOOD. In this condition we lose ALL self respect, ALL self esteem and ALL relationships (especially our relationship with Our Heavenly Father). We suddenly find ourselves out on a long limb - and ALL ALONE. This is really a pretty TERRIBLE place to be -- ALONE. When we have digressed to this very LOW point in our lives we have plummeted, headlong, into the world of the SIXTH D --- DISPAIR.

DISPAIR is when it looks like there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY OUT of the situation for us. When ANY Christian chooses to walk away from God, they will ultimately - without a shadow of a doubt - meet despair head on. Sooner or later, it WILL happen. And isn’t THAT EXACTLY where the prodigal son ended up?

Sure it is.

I mean, this boy had sunken about as low as a Jewish boy could go. He was at the very bottom of his barrel. Think about it. Here was an impoverished Jew working for a Gentile - slopping the man’s hogs, no less - and wallowing with those very pigs. He simply could not have sunk to any lower state. When WE finally sink to this humiliating and degrading level of DISPAIR in our lives - then we become trapped and ensnared by the SEVENTH D - DESPERATION.

When we fall into this pathetic state of complete desperation, we tend to panic. We hit the button and begin grabbing at straws - ANY straw - and will do ANYTHING - grab at ANYTHING and cling to ANYTHING. Anything that we think will get us back on track to some type of resemblance to a halfway decent life. THIS is where we really fall into very DANGEROUS ground. We become so DESPERATE that we turn to ANYTHING - SATANISM and ALL KINDS OF FALSE DOCTRINES in our hunt. We look to false prophets, Humanism, Palmists and Stargazers - ANYTHING to help. We are SO VERY LOST that it really does look like there is NO HOPE and NO WAY OUT of the mess we have gotten ourselves into.

BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? There is ANOTHER MIGHTY D which is perhaps the mightiest of them all. Unlike the other seven D’s - which are all denoting BAD things in our lives, this great D is a POSITIVE. THIS D IS DELIVERANCE. Yes, there IS AN ANSWER to ALL OUR TROUBLES. HALLILULIAH! Give God all the praise and glory. What IS this way out of this mess we have found ourselves in? SIMPLE. We MUST come home to Our Father. We MUST RETURN TO GOD. God responds to our failures with Forgiving Grace. The Prodical son was NOT forgiven because he CAME HOME. LISTEN TO ME. He WAS FORGIVEN BEFORE HE EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT COMING HOME. That is really how much Our Father in Heaven loves us. ISN’T THAT GREAT? You see, it is God’s CHARACTER to love us - unconditionally - and we SHOULD fall on our knees EVERY DAY and praise Him for that. GOD DOES NOT CHANGE. So, next time you feel that Satan is planting those DESIRES in your heart - or in the heart of someone you know - just remember the terrible road which it leads us too and the DEADLY downward SPIRAL that it will send us on. JUST REMEMBER THE EIGHT MIGHTY D’s.

Thank you for letting me share some of your time.