Survive or Thrive 

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          We’re all familiar with the story of Lazarus, Mary and Martha’s brother. In John 11:21-26, Jesus responds to hearing about Lazarus’ death. He goes to the tomb and meets Mary and Martha. Martha tells Jesus that if he had been there her brother would not have died.

          In John 11:25: Jesus tells Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies. And in verse 26 he says, “and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

What a great question. Do you believe this? Al Menconi from the Anchor Church in California wrote about these verses. He said, “Jesus was making a couple of claims. First, he is the resurrection. Jesus is the one who makes the future resurrection happen. He has the power of resurrection. He claimed that anyone who believed in him would not stay dead, but would be raised because of him! He also said he was the life. One who believes in him will have a life- what life ought to be. One of John’s themes is that Jesus came to bring life. By that he meant not just existence, but life as God intended.”

Life as God intended. The word life in John 11 literally means the state of one who is possessed of vitality, a life real and genuine, active and vigorous, and devoted to God.

Our key verse for this weekend is: John 10:10. Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Abundant life. Jesus came, died, and rose so that we may have abundant life. But what is that? Do we as Christians live a full, vigorous, abundant life?

In their book Repacking Your Bags, Richard Leider and David Shapiro wrote, “on the whole, we are a society of notoriously numb people. Lonely, bored, dependent people who are happy only when we have killed the time we are trying to save. We worry constantly about making a living but rarely about making a life.”

A few years ago the Lord impressed upon me that there was this disconnect- I had somehow side-stepped the abundant life and had settled on just existing, just surviving. I remember asking the Lord, “Is surviving so bad?”

I am a survivor. Many of us are survivors of cancer, abuse, tragedy. We can take a kind of pride in the fact that we have come against something that has devastated others and we’re still here.

Survival seems like a good thing. It not only means to exist, but to persist; remain alive, to carry on despite hardships.

Consider the popularity of at all the reality survival shows out there. I must admit I am kind of a survival show junkie. I am fascinated with how people willingly put themselves in often very desperate circumstances, sometimes for money but sometimes just to see if they can do it.

But I had to wonder if my survivor mentality had affected my spirituality. Is having this inner fight, this inner pride a good thing or a detriment to growth-to having the abundant life Jesus talked about.

The need to survive is a basic human need- unless you are clinically depressed you have the desire, the will to survive. If you’re struggling in water, you will fight to stay afloat. Lifeguards often tell of how people who are drowning will fight them when they are trying to rescue them. We are desperate to survive.

Because I’ve seen time after time how looking at things in the natural can enlighten us spiritually, I decided to do some research on survival to see what the experts in the field had to say and I promise this will all make sense in the end. Just stay with me.

First everywhere I looked it talked about something called the rule of three. In any extreme situation you cannot survive for more than: 3 minutes without air—3 hours without shelter3 days without water—3 weeks without food. 

According to the US Army Survival Manual, there are six basic survival skills and needs. What do you think number one was? Attitude. More than anything else, attitude can determine how successful you are and can even determine whether you live or die. When you’re in a difficult wilderness situation you need to avoid panic. Their suggestion? Remember to use a "SPEAR":

Stop
Plan
Execute
Assess &
Re-evaluate

If you follow these steps, your mind and body will be engaged in positive action that will help you avoid panic. When you have a positive attitude, your chances of survival are greatly improved.

The next thing is shelter. Many people who are forced into survival situations often get into serious trouble because of direct exposure to the elements. Having a shelter is important to prevent or minimize heat loss, or if in a desert environment, to minimize water loss.

The third one is water. The human body is composed of up to 78% water. It should be no surprise that water is higher on the list than fire or food. Ideally, a person should drink about a gallon of water per day. Many lost persons will die due to dehydration.

Number four is fire. This is one of the most useful basic survival skills. It can help warm your body or your shelter, dry your clothes, boil your water, and cook your food. Also, fire can provide psychological support in a survival situation, creating a sense of security and safety.

Number five is food. You might be surprised to see food so low on the list. Even though a person can survive without food for roughly three weeks, I'm sure you wouldn’t want to go that long without food. We need to know how to not only get our food, but how to prepare it.

The last one is having naturalist skills. It makes sense that the more I know about nature, the better I’ll be able to survive in the outdoors. If I spend a lot of time in the woods, I’ll be much more in tune with the sights, sounds and ways of that environment.

So now you know what the experts say you need to know to survive. We need to be able to have shelter, clean drinking water, food, a good attitude, fire, food, and a safe shelter. Seems very basic. But is that all we are called to do? Just survive this life? Just the basics?

Sometimes I feel like I am in survival mode all too often. When the pressure is on and everyone is looking to you for answers, you are tired, mentally and physically, you are stretched to the breaking point. There are times when all you can think about is I’ve got to get out of bed, put one foot in front of the other, grab a cup of coffee. You feel like you are walking with a ball and chain tied to your ankle, dragging the weight with you as you try to take just one more step.

So is survival really so bad? Don’t we need these basic physical things to move on to higher things? Maslow in his Hierarchy of Needs seemed to think so. Don’t we first need to survive to get to the thrive part? After all, survival tests our individual resolve. Am I strong enough? Physically? Mentally? Do I have what it takes?

But wait a minute. Did Jesus say he came so we could just have our physical needs met? So we could live out each day just putting one foot in front of the other? No, he said he came so we could have abundant life. You see the reality is Our greatest need is not physical it is spiritual. SURVIVAL FOCUSES ON THE PHYSICAL

So what is the abundant life? What do we think it is? We need to consider what we believe because we will live what we believe. Do we think it is more success? A Bigger house? More stuff? Perfect Health? I had to ask what did I believe?

Let’s break it down: first and foremost this abundant life is eternal. Because we are in the here and now and it is easy to get world-focused instead of other-world focused, we adhere to the old saying, “so heavenly-minded that you’re no earthly good.” We were reborn into an eternal kingdom. There are over forty verses in the New Testament about eternal life—no beginning, no end, life real and genuine, active and vigorous, devoted to God. But Can I really grasp this? I had to wonder if I failed to live the abundant life in the here and now because I didn’t really understand what it was. And I had to ask myself if I was disappointed to find out it didn’t mean what I thought it did?

There are some things we intrinsically know. We know what abundant life is not longing for things that are temporary. Abundant life is not having a lot of stuff. The biggest misconception? Abundant life is not having a perfect life. A perfect life does not equal an abundant life.

As I sat and worked on this lesson, I prayed and asked the Lord about all this and here are fa few things He spoke to my heart to help me get going on the right path:

Abundant life is a life where Jesus is magnified, glorified, and worshiped.

Abundant life is standing daily on His word

Abundant life is waiting in grace and running in his strength with single-mindedness of heart

It is enjoying the journey and seeing the bigger picture when the particular scene we are in is difficult. Why? Because we know how the story ends.

Abundant life is giving the Holy Spirit free reign in our lives and learning to dance to the inner harmonies of the spirit.

Abundant life is not only kneeling at the foot of his throne but at the foot of his cross. Oswald Chambers wrote we need to understand that Gethsemane and Calvary are the gateway into abundant life.

I started to get a bit overwhelmed at this point, so I asked the Lord how do I maintain this life? I think I was looking for the How-To’s.” Here are the five steps to an abundant life. The Lord said for me to look at what was preventing me from dwelling in his abundance. So I asked and the first thing the Lord brought to my mind was misguided affections. These are worthless longings; to wish for that which has no value; temporary, carnal things; setting the heart upon the fulfillment of the temporary.

Col. 3:5: The MESSAGE Bible puts it this way:

           And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual   promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God.

          Grabbing whatever attracts your fancy—setting your heart on things and feelings instead of God. Misguided affections lead to wandering eyes. Where are my eyes fixed? Heb. 12:2: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.”

I also found that misguided affections lead to the tithing attitude about our lives: 90/10. 90 percent is mine and God gets just 10 percent. In our attempt to manage our lives, we forget who God is and who we are in Christ. David Eckman in his book Knowing the Heart of the Father said, “Many believers have spiritual dementia. They rapidly forget who they are in Christ. Wandering off from where they are cared for-the presence of God-they stumble along through life, sometimes more in the way than helpful.”

We stumble through a life that’s been unequally portioned out with God getting the three day-old leftovers. Col. 3:2 tells us to “set our affection on the things above not on the things on the earth.” We set our hearts on the if-onlys in life. If only I had this, if only God would do that. I set my affection on the conditional not on the sure fastness that is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

How do misguided affections inhibit abundant life? If I have placed my heart on the temporary things that appeal to my old man and if I care more for the life I want rather than the life God desires me to have, I will never fully experience the exceedingly vibrant life that Jesus died for.

The second thing the Lord brought to my mind was false dependence. How does a false dependence prevent abundant life? I had to ask what I was depending on. Was it my own strengths and natural talents? My own agenda? My relationships? What is a false dependence anyway? It is a false need, requirement, necessity, addiction and craving. What am I craving? 

Ga. 3:3(The Amplified Bible): “Are you so foolish and so senseless and so silly? Having begun [your new life spiritually] with the [Holy] Spirit, are you now reaching perfection [by dependence] on the flesh?”

Dependence on the flesh denotes mere human nature; it’s a dependence on the earthly nature of man apart from divine influence. So when I have a need and  rely on myself, my own ability to succeed, to survive, I miss the opportunity to live.

But remember it’s not dependence that inhibits abundant living it is false dependence. Is there a good dependence that leads to and encourages an abundant life? Absolutely. One of the things we can depend on is Jesus’ word. 

John 8:14:

          Jesus replied, "You're right that you only have my word. But you can depend on   it being true. I know where I've come from and where I go next. You don't know where I'm from or where I'm headed." Our view is limited.

1 Cor. 13:12:

Now we see but a poor reflection; then we shall see face to face. Now we know in part; then we shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

The next thing we can depend on is the Word of God the Father.

Not on your life! Depend on it: God keeps his word even when the whole world is lying through its teeth.

Oswald Chambers wrote, “Let the attitude of the life be a continual “going out” in dependence upon God, and your life will have an [inexpressible] charm about it which is satisfaction to Jesus.”

For me, issues with false dependence pop up when my sense of well-being feels threatened. I seemed to have a kind of carnal bag of tricks that I could easily reach into when the need arose? What is my default? Is it to rely on God and what Chambers calls “supernatural sense” instead of just the common sense that has been my go to my whole life? He wrote:

Is the Lord Jesus Christ being abundantly satisfied in your life or have you got a spiritual strut on? Never let common sense obtrude and push the Son of God on one side. Common sense is a gift which God gave to human nature; but common sense is not a gift of His Son. Supernatural sense is the gift of His Son; never enthrone common sense. The Son detects the Father; common sense never yet detected the Father and never will. Our ordinary wits never worship God unless they are transfigured by the indwelling Son of God. .. Are we living in such human dependence upon Jesus Christ that His life is being manifested moment by moment?

Supernatural sense feeds to abundant living. Common sense feeds survival.

The next thing the Lord spoke to me about was ingratitude. Ingratitude inhibits abundant life. Pam did a wonderful teaching a few years back on the importance of having a thankful heart. Thankfulness and gratitude. Do we practice gratitude?

Ingratitude is really a discontentment. In the natural, we can be discontent with the particulars of our lives—our jobs, our spouses, our finances, maybe even our families. We complain: do I have everything I think I need? And do they have more than me?

An ungrateful heart releases a plague on not only the one who is ungrateful but on all those who are connected with that person. It leads to judgment, bitterness, an unforgiving and hard heart. There is absolutely no way to live the abundant life with an ungrateful heart.

We need to pray as it says in Psalm 139: 23-24:  “Search me oh God and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way (any hurtful way, any idols) in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”

          Consider Heb. 12:28: Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe.

          Gratitude is more than just a mere thank you. It is an acceptable service we offer God. But remember it is gratitude, not guilt that leads to life.

The next inhibitor to abundant life is being stagnant, having no movement, being dense. We should not accept this in our lives because we are in a relationship with a God who is not stagnant. There is a danger in allowing this. Zep. 1:12 says:

It will come about at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are stagnant in spirit, who say in their hearts, `The Lord will not do good or evil!' (New American Standard)

A stagnant spirit leads to a blaming heart. Not only blaming others, but ultimately blaming God. When you have no current or flow, you are dead and lethargic and far from the vigorous, active life. Remember the abundant life is vigorous and active.

In Isiah 60:1 we are told, "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." Even though it’s a Scripture about Zion it applies to us. We are to rise up and stand and then we are to walk, run, and soar. There is nothing stagnant about the Christian life. Even when you are in times of waiting, it is an active passivity as Francis Schaffer calls it.

The stagnant life goes nowhere. It is a life stuck in a survivalist state of mind. How do I know this? One of the things they tell you if you are lost in the woods is to stay where you are. 

Heb. 12:1: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

1 Co 9:24: Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Php. 3:13-14: Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

          Straining toward;  stretching one's self forward; pressing on toward a goal, the end one has in view. What is your goal? What end do you have in view? Now don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying as long as you are busy you are living an abundant life. Losing yourself in busywork, whether we call it Christian service or not, can be a distraction maybe even a way to avoid going deeper with God.

What is the opposite of stagnant? Alive, awake, breathing. We need to consider: Are we alive in Christ? Awake to the movement of the Holy Spirit? Are we daily breathing in His every word?

The next thing that hinders living an abundant life is Fear. This is closely related to stagnancy; we don’t move ahead because we are afraid. Fifty-seven times “do not fear” appears in the Bible. We are repeatedly told not to be afraid.

Last month I watched a movie called After Earth. Set in the future, Will Smith plays a father who ends up stranded on a hostile planet with his son. There are these creature, who even though they are blind, they can find and destroy you if they smell your fear. He tells his son that fear lives in the imagination, and that it is different from danger which is real, he says fear is not real.

The movie told the story of how the son overcame his fear. The point was to focus on the here and now and become what the father called a ghost. Become invisible so the creature could not find you.

I started thinking about this. The world’s answer to fear? Become a ghost through the focus and determination of your mind, become invisible. But as I thought about it, as a child of God, we too become invisible to fear because we hide ourselves in the shadow of the Almighty. If we seek refuge in God, if we stand behind the shield of faith and hide in the cleft of the rock and under the shadow of his wings, the enemy does not see our weak, fear-ridden selves, but the promise, power and might of our Lord.

Why is fear not rational as a Christian? Because the reality is we have a God who protects us.

Listen to what it says in 2 Sam. 22:13-20:

Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning blazed forth. The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the most high resounded. He shot arrows and scattered the enemies, bolts of lightning and routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at the rebuke of the lord, at the blast of breath from his nostrils.

He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters; he rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place. He rescued me because he delighted in me.”

We are rescued by a powerful God who delights in us.

But as a species we are filled with fear. We’re afraid of the unpredictability of the natural elements, we are afraid of what we see, of what we can’t see-often more afraid of the unseen because then our imaginations come into play.

In Matthew 10:31, Jesus tells us,"So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows." He tells us don’t fear because you feel you are insignificant. Here fear means to put to flight by terrifying. Basically, Jesus is telling his disciples not to rely on the fight or flight instinct—a key element in surviving.

What do we see animals do when they are afraid? They either fight and attack or they flee and run away. But don’t we do the same thing when we’re afraid? Think about it. How does fear prevent me from living the abundant life? When I’m afraid, I’m disconnecting from the reality that I am safe in Christ.

There is a lot of fear in survival. Will I have enough to eat? Will I freeze to death without a warm shelter? These are all important things to consider in a survival situation.

But when we carry physical fear of survival into our spiritual relationships with God, we find ourselves just existing, not living. Do not fear.

The next thing the Lord spoke to my heart that inhibits abundant living is loss of identity. We live as who we were before we were saved. We drag the old man into the new life and rely on him to take us forward.

Do we sometimes forget who we are in Christ? Do we forget we have not only been bought with a price, we have been redeemed by love, we have been restored by grace and we have been made new. We are a new creation in Christ.

We all know 2 Cor. 5:17: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.

This is not just some clever quote that simply becomes just a quasi-spiritual verse on some refrigerator magnet. Literally this verse reads: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, that which was from the beginning has passed away, behold, new things have come into existence, have been made, have been finished.

It is finished. Remember where Jesus spoke those words. Being made new is a reflection of the finished, completed work Christ did on the cross. We are made new.

The last area that The Lord brought to my mind was weird. One Sunday morning in church we were all praying, and I’m not even sure I was praying about the retreat but the word blight came very strongly into my mind, and I knew it had to do with the retreat. I wrote it down and went home and looked it up. I’ve heard of it; in fact, one year our tomatoes didn’t grow right and looked awful and our neighbor said it was the blight. So in the natural, what is blight? It is a disease that makes plants dry up and die , something that causes harm or damage like a disease.

How does this apply to us? In Ezekiel 37, which is titled the Valley of Dry Bones in my NIV, it speaks of a vision Ezekiel had where the Lord showed him a valley of bones. In verse two, it says: “He led me back and forth among them and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.” In verse eleven, the Lord tells Ezekiel “son of man these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say our bones are dried up and our hope is gone, we are cut off.”

One of the contributors to spiritual blight is loss of hope. It is the disease that causes us to live a half-life, just barely surviving. We are dry, brittle, breaking whenever a wind comes up. Listen to the description of plant blight and see how it applies: I didn’t change the wording at all:

As the plant starts to die, it can dry up. Parts of the plant may break off or collapse, depending on the source of the infection.

Consider what has infected you? What causes you to break off from God or from fellowship. What causes you to collapse under the weight of trials?

The gardening site I looked at said:

Blight can spread from plant to plant, causing an entire crop to become infested and useless.

Did you know loss of hope is contagious?

The site said:

Early blight strikes toward the beginning of the growing season, while plants are developing. Plants may have difficulty sprouting, or sicken and die soon after getting established.

Blight can strike towards the beginning of the growing season. So many times as I enter a time of growth in the Lord, that’s when the battle for my heart and mind is the fiercest. And spiritual blight can infiltrate the heart anytime. In the natural, a late blight can wait until the end of the season and attack when plants are fully mature.

There are so many Scriptures that use the natural world to instruct and teach us. Jesus used the natural world all the time to instruct:

Matt. 6:28-32: the lilies of the field. He tells us to be assured of God’s provision.

Matt 13 the parable of the sower

Matt 13:31: parable of the mustard seed

Matt 20: parable of the vineyard

These verses are just a few examples of how you can look at the natural to understand the spiritual. How is this possible?

Romans 1:20 tells us:

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

What have you seen? Is there blight in your life that has clouded your vision? This is very important because as 1 John 1 says: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”

What have you seen? What have you heard the Spirit speak to your heart? What have you touched? What is your life proclaiming?

Once we consider what hinders abundant life, Jesus poses an all-important question. In the fifth Chapter of John, verses 36-40, Jesus is talking to those who wanted to kill him and he said, “You have your head in your bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These scriptures are all about me and here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from me the life you say you want.”

We need to ask ourselves, how willing are we to receive the life Jesus has to offer? Our first response is “Yes! I’m willing.” But something happens between the saying yes and the working out of the life. I found myself asking the Lord can we really live the abundant life when we feel like we are dropped in the middle of nowhere, away from familiar resources, away from friends, away from what is predictable?

Consider how people who are put in adverse situations come out of them. Some come out better some worse. Like when we go through a really rough trial: we either become stronger in our faith or we become more ridged in our belief that we are victims, we make inner vows: I’ll never put myself in that position again won’t be vulnerable won’t be used won’t be…

We determine the direction of our lives based not on the lessons we’ve learned but on the hurts we’ve experienced.

But there is hope because the answer to whether we can live abundantly is a resounding yes. 2 Peter 1:3-4 tells us:

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these (his glory and goodness) he has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

He has given us everything we need to live.

But do we know his divine power? We won’t be able to live a spiritually abundant life if we don’t know the One who gives it. We could do an entire retreat about Jesus, who he is what he has done.

In Matthew 16:14, Jesus asks his disciples who do people say he is? They say some think he is John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or a prophet . But then Jesus asks who they say he is. In verse 16, Peter answered,  "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Peter said that Jesus is the Messiah and acknowledges that he is God’s son. And not just God’s son, He states that God is a living God. Living here means not only among the living, it means to have true life, active, blessed, strong, having vital power in itself and exerting the same upon the soul. 

Since Jesus said that he and his Father are one, these life giving qualities are also His. John 14:6 is a very well-known scripture. Jesus states that he is the way, the truth and the life. But consider what this means:

Jesus is not only the way to the Father, the way through the desert, through the valley, the way to the high places, the doorway to the place of healed emotions and wholeness and the pathway on which we stand and walk.

He is the truth, the standard that erases the grey areas of our lives, the truth that tears down our walls, invalidates our excuses, the truth that exposes and reveals, and he is the life.

He is our sustenance who grows us up in the way we should go –his death provided a way back to relationship with the father, and his resurrection paved the way to eternal life with him.

          
          We Begin with accepting the gift he has given but then what? We began this morning looking at things important for physical survival. I’d like to come full circle from survival to abundant life back to survival. Why? Because the instinct, the need to survive and what is required to survive is placed there by God. How can I say this when I just said we shouldn’t stay in survival mode in our Christian lives?

Because since sin entered the world, these God-given instincts have only focused on the physical. I believe before sin these survival instincts were placed there to for us to connect, t reflect, and to remind us of our need for our Creator.

The first thing I spoke about that is necessary was attitude. In the natural, we understand that having a good attitude is imperative. When we have a bad attitude, we close ourselves off. We’re defeated before we begin. What about spiritually? Why is attitude important to abundant life?

Your attitude is your outlook on things. How do you see your life? The people around you? What has formed your attitude? Do you see the world around you with the mind of Christ? With a transformed mind? Consider Romans 12:2: Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

          The survival manual suggested that when you are faced with a potential survival situation use a spear. Remember? Stop, plan, execute, assess and reevaluate. Well spiritually, I say don’t use a spear, use a SWORD.

S=salvation: Begin here. When you understand what has been done for you, the sacrifice the love, your attitude about the world changes. Those around you are not there to serve you, you are there to exhibit the love, the generosity, and the grace that has been extended to you.

W=worship: Worship puts your mind in proper perspective. Giving God the glory, praising Him sets your eyes on the right place, puts your mind on him not on your own circumstances and limited understanding

O=obedience: To obey is better than sacrifice. How does obedience affect your attitude? And how do we obey? Grudgingly? We know what it’s like when our children obey us but resent it. Not very pretty is it?

R=remember: Over and over again we are told to remember. God remembers: Ge. 9:16: "When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." Remember means to call to mind, be brought to your mind. What do we bring to mind? One of the things Jesus calls us to remember is his provision. Mark 8: 17-19: “Do you have eyes but fail to see and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand? How many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” Remember God’s provision in your life.

D=dwell: Where do you live? Where you live will affect your attitude. If you believe you are not given what you need, you will have an impoverished attitude toward others and toward God.

Abundant living requires a mind that is stayed on Christ.

The next thing that is important in survival is shelter. I repeat, where do you live? The psalms are full of references to shelter:

Ps 27:5: For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock.

Ps 31:20:In the shelter of your presence you hide them from the intrigues of men; in your dwelling you keep them safe from accusing tongues.

Ps 55:8: I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.
Ps 61:4: I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.

Ps 5:11: But let all who take refuge in You be glad  Let them ever sing for joy;  And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You.

Shelter literally means to hedge, fence about, shut in , to block, overshadow, screen, stop the approach, and to cover.

What is the last mention of shelter in God’s Word? 
Rev. 7:15:

For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.

When we build up and inhabit the shelter God provides we are secure, we are not afraid, and we can enjoy the abundant life God intended. We do not live in a shelter we have created but instead we are living in the One who has created everything.

Next is the need for water. We know in the natural water is very important to our well-being. What about water for spiritual survival? For abundant life? Remember the story in John 4 about the Samaritan woman who came to the well to get water. Jesus asks for water and then proceeds to tell the woman about her life. In verse ten Jesus says, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” The woman came for water to satisfy her natural thirst, but Jesus provides water that is living to satisfy our spiritual thirst.

John 7:38:Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

          Living water—vital, active, fluid nourishment absolutely necessary for spiritual health. We need to daily partake of the living water Jesus said he would willingly give to all who ask. Do we ask?

The next is fire. I love that fire is before food. Food satisfies our hunger, but fire, passion sustains our souls. In Matthew 3:11, John says that Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire. The word fire there literally means fiery fire.

Matthew Henry in his commentary said:

Is fire enlightening? So the Spirit is a Spirit of illumination. Is it warming? And do not their hearts burn within them? Is it consuming?

And does not the Spirit of judgment, as a Spirit of burning, consume the dross of their corruptions? Does fire make all it seizes like itself? And does it move upwards? So does the Spirit make the soul holy like itself, and its tendency is heaven-ward. Christ says I am come to send fire,

Fire to warm, fire to protect, fire to ignite passion. To have a desire a hunger a thirst an ache for the Lord. Are we passionate for God? Really? Do we burn for Christ?

The next thing necessary for survival was food. We love food. There seems to be nothing more satisfying than a good meal. We need food to survive but there is also something deeper, something comforting to feeling full. Spiritually we also need food.

In John 4:31-34, the disciples tell Jesus to eat something. He tells them he has food to eat that they don’t know anything about. What was his food? Verse 34: “to do the will of him who sent him and to finish his work.”

John 6:51: I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.

John 6:57: As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. 

          Even though in the natural we can live three weeks without food, think of how weak we’d be if we did that. Ever watch the show Survivor? The contestants have small amounts of food to eat, rice, maybe some coconuts or fruit that might grow in the surrounding area. The change in their bodies after more than thirty days is crazy. They look emaciated. 
          Spiritually, if we go without feeding on the Word of God, feasting on the Bread of Life, we will not only be weak, but the longer we go, we can become spiritually emaciated. Emaciated means to waste away like a skeleton. It means withered, shrunken, pinched, and gaunt. Does this sound like someone who is living in abundance? Feast on God’s Word, feast on Jesus, the Bread of Life, and feast on the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

We choose eternal life when we choose God’s provision through Christ. We accept his sacrifice and enter into life.

The last thing the army manual says we need to survive is naturalists skills. How can we translate this into the spiritual? I say the more you know about the reality we live in the more abundant our lives.

Eph. 6:12: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Living in and understanding this reality makes us better able to handle the people and circumstances that often come against us.

We need to understand that choosing spiritual life translates into how we live life in the natural. One feeds the other. We choose. Is it our spiritual life feeding our natural life? Or does our natural life feed into our spirits?

De 30:19-20: Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live! Choose to love the LORD your God and to obey him and commit yourself to him, for he is your life.

          I’d like to conclude with a call to life. In Eph. 5:14, we are told: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." We need to decide to wake up and live. Oswald Chambers wrote:

We all have any number of visions and ideals when we are young, but sooner or later we find that we have no power to make them real. We cannot do the things we long to do and we are apt to settle down to the visions and ideals as dead, and God has to come and say-‘Arise from the dead’.

When the inspiration of God does come, it comes with such miraculous power that we are able to arise from the dead and do the impossible thing. The remarkable thing about spiritual initiative is that the life comes after we do the ‘bucking up.’ God does not give us overcoming life; He gives us life as we overcome.

When the inspiration of God comes, and He says, ‘Arise from the dead,’ we have to get up; God does not lift us up. Our Lord said to the man with the withered hand-‘Stretch forth thy hand,’ and as soon as the man did so, his hand was healed, but he had to take the initiative. If we will do the overcoming, we shall find we are inspired of God because He gives life immediately.

          God gives life immediately; when we ask we shall receive. Don’t allow the enemy of your heart ell you that the visions and ideals the Lord spoke to you is beyond your grasp, that the life, the abundant life has passed you by and all that’s left for you is just a bare existence. The reality is that there is more. God desires to breathe His life into your life. He has called you to an abundant life—a life where Jesus is magnified, glorified, and worshiped, a life that waits in grace, runs in His strength, and a life where you enjoy the journey.

I’d like to end with a part from a book by Tosca Lee called Havah. It is the fictionalized story of Eve. It spoke to my heart about the beginning of the understanding of real life. It is a call to all of us:

Ah! I was filled with joy. I was slain with pleasure! It brimmed through me, galvanized my spirit. I recalled the primal excitement of the animals as the One had blazed across the earth.

I lifted my voice in wordless jubilation.

I was more alive than the first day I drew breath. Than the first time I lay in the adam’s arms. I was alive as one can only be in the presence of the One.

          Was there air? Was there earth? Was there animal or mountain or river?

I was all of these things. I was the ripple of wind through the tail feathers of bird, the soft pad of cat. I was the soul that knows the secret name of the One who fashioned it.

In the distance I heard the chatter of the stream, the dance of the needle dropping from the stem, the song of the sun through glaciers a world away, throwing off an orchestra of light…

          Leaves rustle upon the vine, as loud as a blast of wind in my ear, raising the

          hair on my arms.

          Daughter!

          Again as softly as the light of the moon: Daughter.

          Here I am.

          Partaker of life. Knower of mystery.

          Mystery? I have so many questions.

          You will learn answers.

Do not leave me! Stay with me!

           I could hardly have stood it had it continued. I could not bear for it to stop.

Faintly, and I thought with a longing I did not yet recognize as sadness, it came: Until the end of days.