Most people today don't take the words of Christ seriously, when he sought to stress their need to be delivered.  Nor do most people seriously consider, how radical Christ said we must be willing to be, in participating in our deliverance process. Today there is very obvious lack of the fruits of real deliverance, in the lives of many who claim to be delivered.  This is not how it was when I first got saved, back then I witnessed a dramatic change in the lives of those whom God set free.   This included the deliverance God wrought in my life.  As we know, when the early church was started on the day of Pentecost, one of the most outstanding characteristic was the dramatic change, the Holy Ghost brought in the lives of those who were saved. The apostle Paul noted the fact that men and women from every background were being dramatically set free from every possible manner of sin.  9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,  10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.  11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 1st Cor 6:9-11.   Many today who claim to be in Christ are continuing in many of these items Paul listed here.   Paul went on to say, that the type of deliverance and transformation, which took place in the lives of those who repented and believed on Christ, was not a gradual 12 step withdrawal type of deliverance..  Paul tells us this deliverance was powerful, sudden, dramatic, and complete, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new, 2nd Cor 5:17.    Some may wonder why many today are not partaking of this powerful deliverance.    I believe one of the main problems is a lack of focus on reaching out for true deliverance, and a refusal to accept anything less.  Many today seem to view the process by which they are delivered as being something, which God's expects then to do no more than be spectators of their deliverance process.  If we view our role in the deliverance process as that of a spectator, we will never obtain true deliverance.  There many today who say they are waiting for God to deliver them.  The truth of the matter God is waiting on them to do the things they must do in order to be delivered.  As we know the word  "repentance" means a change of mind.  Repentance never comes by accident, it is always preceded by a act of the will to turn from certain aspects of ones life. This mindset is a  as a matter of choice.   The mind God placed in us is designed in such a way as to enable us to choose. We can either choose to trust and obey him to the point of dying to our self: or we can choose to reject and ignore him. For those who truly inwardly repents, God has decreed there is no power anywhere that can stop our deliverance.  But you must choose. This is why the scriptures states that you must allow (LET), the mindset of Christ be in you. 5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:  6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:  7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:  8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  Phil 2:5-8. To vividly illustrate the fact that God calls for focused efforts on ur part, to aide in our own deliverance,  Christ gave instructions to his listeners which no doubt stunned their senses.  (compare below).

PARTICIPATING IN MY DELIVERANCE BY WAY FOCUSED PARTICIPATION.   For those who come to God for true deliverance, through his greatest call in our lives is to take up the cross of self denial and follow Christ.  To do this we must be willing to apply the word, or should we say, use the sword of the word against our own selves. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:  Ephe 6:17....12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 Heb 4:12.   To use the sword of the word, there are certain things we must be willing to do.  We must first of all have a willingness to HEAR the word, and secondly we must have a willingness to ACCEPT the word, and thirdly we must be willing to APPLY  the word of God to our day the life living. When it came time for Christ to face the hour of extreme temptation, he set the example for us to follow. As we know Christ went into the wilderness, with nothing but the word. And contrary to popular opinion, Christ was not using the word to preach to, teach, or try and convert Satan.  Christ was using the word to battle against his own flesh. It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.   for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.  13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. Luke 4:2-13.

No person in his right mind will knowingly harm his body. Yet, there comes a time when a person will consent to allowing a physician to amputate certain parts of his body. We each recognize the principle of sacrificing the lesser good for the sake of the larger good. When a person's diseased members of his body endangers the rest of the body's life, the individual will consent to having it removed.  Jesus referred to this principle in His instructions in Mark 9:43-46. Here is His statement:  43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:  46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.  47 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Mk 9:43-46. This lesson is a hard lesson for Christians to learn. We seem to think too much of this world; we forget that everything in it and all of the pleasures which it can offer us are temporal. The pleasures of sin are passing away (Heb. 11:24-25; 1 Jn. 2:15-17). Whatever enjoyment sin can give me, at the best will last only a short time. This fact should never be forgotten. The strongest warning about avoiding the coming wrath of God, come from Christ himself.  It is Jesus who will sit and the throne in the day of his wrath and judge all men.  Because he already knows the terrible fate awaiting all who reject God, he calls for drastic measures to avoid this fate.  Jesus said lake of fire is so bad, if our eyes caused us to sin, we would be better off gouging our eyes out, than allowing them to cause us to be cast into the lake of fire.  He said something similar concerning our hand, he said if our hand causes us to sin, we would be better off cutting our hand off, than allowing it to cause us to be cast into the lake of fire.  He then mentioned our feet; he said if our feet was causing us to be cast into the fire, we would be better off cutting them off.   Jesus based this seeming extreme advice, on the fact that, the fires of hell shall never go out. The carnal mind functions according to the dictates of the flesh. Once we are saved our spiritual man strives to obey God Thus the battle between spirit and flesh will never cease in this life. There will always be one part of us wanting to do that which feels good (but is wrong) and that part which we know is right (but does not always feel good).   Christ tells us, we do have a choice in using the sword, (THE WORD) or not.  If we don't we will never be able to function in true deliverance.

And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.  Matt 5:30. The story of Aron Ralston is a shockingly powerful modern illustration of the dynamics that stand behind this teaching of Christ.  Ralston is the young climber who became trapped in a three foot wide section of the Blue John Canyon in Canyonlands National Park in Utah when an 800 pound boulder shifted, pinning him by his forearm. After four long days his water ran out. On the sixth day he knew that he would die in the canyon. Help had still not come. So, he committed himself to an extreme resort that, when the story got out, shocked the world and made him an instant celebrity. Ralston cut off his own right arm. Applying a tourniquet just below his elbow, he did the deed with his own knife. No anesthetic; no going back. He then rappelled sixty feet to the canyon floor and hiked out some seven miles before a rescue helicopter spotted him and rushed him to a medical center. At a press conference, when he was asked what it felt like to cut off his own arm, reporters were shocked by his reply. He said, "My self-amputation was a beautiful experience because it gave me my life back."   As we know, when Christ spoke of cutting off certain bodily members this was symbolic of us cutting off the sinful aspects of our lives. It also tells us that rather than looking our own selves, we must look to God. Aron Ralston still goes back there, to the place in the Utah mountains where after six days trapped by a boulder, out of food and water and hours from death, he experienced the "epiphany" that saved his life. He was there again yesterday, in part sharing his amazing survival with friends, in part reliving the moment when he realized that by breaking his own arm and then cutting off his pinned right hand and lower forearm, he would beat the odds and probably live. It was, he says, a euphoric moment. "There was no hesitation, no 'should I or shouldn't I?' " In an interview he said, "Break the bones? oh yeah! Then I pick up the knife and I'm going at it. It's just an hour and five minutes, maybe four, from that time and it was over. I was free. "To me, the amputation is the most beautiful experience I'll ever have in my life because it comes from the contrast of being dead in my grave for six days and (then) having my life back. My sense of euphoria is never more intense than when I am actually in that spot. It brings me to tears to be there . . . the tears of joy." Ralston's story of self-amputation in has become the stuff of legend and is now the subject of an intense self-penned book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place.  Because of our sinful nature we are also between a rock and a hard place.  We are connected to a fallen nature which is prone to sin, which in turn leads to death. Consider what Paul says: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Rom 6:6-12. We must make up in our minds that we are going to rely on God alone.  Even to the point of cutting off, or dying to the part of ourselves, which will strives to rely on someone else other than God.

If you want to really see the move of God in your life, you must cut your eyes out. You do this by ceasing to focus on what your flesh wants. And sincerely focusing on applying his word, (his will and way) in your life.  When you begin to do this out of a pure heart, you will see by way of the knowledge of faith, the move of God through the good, the bad, and the very ugly. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God,  Matt 5:8.  This was Paul's prayer for us,  17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,   Ephe 1:17-19

If you want to get to the place, that God seeks to lead and guide you to, you must cut off your feet. You do this by ceasing in your carnal efforts to get to where you think you should be positionally in life.  You must apply the word of God, (in a cutting fashion) in every direction you find yourself going, In doing this you will reach the place of life, and life more abundant, 13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.  Matt 7:13-14.  There is a old song which is not sang much anymore, which applies to these guidelines.  The song ask must Jesus bare the cross alone, and all the world go free.  Christ himself answer this question.  NO there is a cross for everyone, and there's a cross for me.  (compare below, click the next tab, to advance slides).