Daily Friendship with God #28 The Past
So it came to pass, when they (the angel) had brought them outside, that he said, "Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed." Gen 19:17
But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Looking back at the life you lived is not of Gods plan. Yes, Jesus did teach that we can learn from past examples. Gen 19:26
Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. "In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. "Remember Lot's wife. Luke 17:30-32
And Paul wrights
Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 1 Corinthians 10:11
It is not hard to see that the past can teach us but in both cases in the word of God He does not tell us to look at our past but the examples of others past. The best thing about the past is it past. The past is gone and to send time dwelling in it is not part of God’s plan. Many well intended people seek to be used to see people delivered from there past by going on journeys with them to find the bad that happened in their past and trying to fix it. The past is gone Christ has come! Don’t end up likes Lots wife, don’t look back. Listen to the word God gave to Isaiah.
"Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Isaiah 43:18
Here is the Strong’s definition for “zakar” remember to remember, recall, call to mind, to perceive, discern to understand, know (with the mind) to observe, mark, give heed to, distinguish, consider to have discernment, insight, understanding. It sounds like God does not want us to spend time in the past to me. He lives in the now and He desires us to spend our time with Him in the now. The looking into your past can cause some real problems in your present. For example, in the practical if you drove down the road always looking at where you have been then it won’t be long before you crash. If you wake up in the morning and spend the rest of your day thinking about what you did in the past, then nothing will get done that day. Most people will also find that in a matter of days they will be homeless and full of bed sores. This may seem extreme but that is the point of hyperbole. The point being is God took care of our past at the cross. That is where we all are free from every wrong we have done or that has been done to us. Our debt for all the bad from the past is paid. Remember we are called believers so if you do not believe that you are free from your past then you will not be free. But thanks be to God that if you believe what God has said and stand on the authority of His word then you are free from the past. Jesus said this:
“No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62
It is important to understand, being fit for the kingdom is something that every believer should greatly desire and is designed to live in now. Jesus says if you are looking back you will not be ready for the use of the Kingdom of God. If you are looking back your life is not adapted or suitable for the purpose and new use of the activity of the Kingdom of God. Basically you are still in the mindset of the old kingdom of this world/darkness. That’s because you are looking back like lots wife. The world she looked back on was destroyed by God, just as he will do to the current world, at the end of the age, so why would you ever want to waste time looking upon it. God paid the highest price to do away with our past at the cross, His Sons Blood and life. The past is an attempt to steal your present relationship with God and others. The past is gone but God is with you now. The past does not exist in the present. Here is an example of what I mean. If you throw a ball into a basket at a point of time. That point of time is gone and it never can be truly experienced again. You can think about it for the rest of your life but you can never relive that moment of time. It is gone, it existed and was experienced then, but now it is gone it does not exist in the present.
in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39??
. The hidden treasure in this passage is not found in what is stated, it is found in what was left out in the phrase “not things present nor things to come”. It is clear to see that what was left out is “our past”. For our past does have the ability to separate us from the love of God. Why? Because when we focus on the past we enter the playground (which is really a battle ground) of the enemy who comes to get our attention on him. His tactic is to have us focused on what he has done in us, through us, to us and through others in the past. All those things do not keep us in the place of the love of God. They are used to separate us from Gods love. Listen to what Jude says.
keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Jude 1:21
The verb tense for “Looking” is present not past, for we are not to be looking into our past. Paul does not use the omission clause leaving out the past just once.
Therefore, let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. 1 Corinthians 3:21-22
Note “or things present or things to come” the past is not listed in what is yours. So your past is not yours, it belongs to God for He paid the price of His Son so you can be free from your past. Remember we are called believers and if you believe you are free from your past then you will be free indeed. If you do not believe you are free then you can spend the rest of your life trying to work through your past and you will find that does not work. So receive the grace of God and stop trying to work through what Jesus did the work on the cross for you to set you free from...your works of trying to overcome your past.
If you find that the enemy keeps reminding you of your past or that you are living out your life now the same way as you did in the past God has made a way to become free from it. When God tells us to do something it is not just an idea to be considered. The reason He tells us to do something is for our good. Living thinking about the past life of sin is out of bounds for a new creation. If the Devil and his minions keeps firing darts of your past into your mind, then God has a strategy to stop the harassment. 1 Confess the sin you committed as sin. 2 Repent which means to change your mind about the sin. In other words, what was natural to us to do before Jesus saved us, is to sin. Now we are to submit to God and resist the devil and he will flee from us. Once you have confessed and repented of past sin God takes what you have done seriously. The Devil does not. He is the accuser of Gods children. So the Devil will continue to try and use our past to get us to repeat the past. The Devil uses our flesh and the world to try and draw us in to our past life. We must remember when he tries to do so that we have confessed our past sins and repented of them so now he has no power to hold us in the bondage based on our confession and repentance. The words we speak have the power of life and death in them according to God (proverbs 18:21). This is a powerful truth to remember especially in context to getting rid of the past. Remember once you have done your part of confession and repentance it will not stop the Devil from trying to use your past but it does empower you to denounce your past thoughts and actions of wrong and come into agreement with God that you are free from your past. The next step is to thank God that based on your confession and repentance you are free from your past and are a new creation now living for God’s purpose and plan.
Jesus said in John 10 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him. This means the strangers voice (the enemy) does not stop speaking to us, but we are not to follow it, instead we are to follow Jesus voice. The moment we have a thought about the past which would lead us into condemnation or sin we know that is not the voice to listen to for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:17). You may say why does God allow the voice of the enemy to keep speaking? Each time you hear the voice of the enemy speak and you exercise your faith to listen to the voice of God who is saying do not listen to him but listen for My voice you are actually growing stronger in faith and drawing near to God. It is as though every time the enemy speaks to us it is really an invitation to start a conversation with God! How cool is that, What the enemy means for evil God uses for good if we just have understanding of what is going on. So the next time the past comes to condemn you or lead you into sin just thank God. Then direct your heart and mind to Him with praise for Who He is. Thank Him for how wise He is and that He truly works all things together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ. Philippians 3:7-8
He counted his past as rubbish. The word in the Greek for rubbish is “skybalon” which means "excrement," that which is cast out from the body. Paul is obviously not waxing poetic here. He is making a point about his view of the past it is the same to him as excrement. Who in their right mind would ever spend time focused on their excrement/past. Who would ever go try and dig up their excrement/past to try and fix it. No it is to flushed and never to be thought of again. He used his view of his past as an example for us to not spend time in our past. In fact, Paul is the person that God used to write more books of the Bible than any other person that has ever lived on the plant through-out all of history, only once narrows done his writings to “one thing” that he did. The one thing that he did is make it perfectly clear as to what part his past was to have in his life.
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14
The one thing Paul was committed to, is forgetting his past and that only left him reaching forward to those things which are ahead! No looking back, no listening to the enemy who through his fiery darts of the past seeks to separate you from the love of God. No more conversation in your head with those that have hurt you. No more thinking about what you would have said if you could go back and change the past. No more talking to people about what other people did to you in the past. Let me help you with that way of thinking, do as Paul did, flush it and never go back, it is gone, let it go, move on, forget the past, be free in the present, stay connected to the Love of God. The present is a present from God that cannot be enjoyed in the past it can only be enjoyed in the present.
Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Philippians 3:15
Paul is saying, those that are mature do not think about their past life. He is also saying realize that thinking about your past life of sin or the sins that have been done to you is not an option for the child of God. Then he goes on to say If you do not agree with him about not thinking about your past then, God Himself will (as an absolute fact) unveil this to His children as His will and the way in which they are to conduct their lives. (see vines dictionary 1d for the specific Greek verb usage). Remember the Past is Past and being free from it is really Good News.