Taking Your Inventory, You Cannot Prosper

It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities. "How can I best serve Thee - Thy will (not mine) be done." These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We can exercise our will power along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will.

Much has already been said about receiving strength, inspiration, and direction from Him who has all knowledge and power. If we have carefully followed directions, we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us. To some extent we have become God-conscious. We have begun to develop this vital sixth sense. But we must go further and that means more action. (AA, pg. 85)

 

The Alcoholics Anonymous program is suffused with secular psychology, and all of that tinkering with a man's mind will not set him free to live. We need more than a change of mind, people, but a new  heart, a new being:

 

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

 

"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

 

"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

 

This new heart we receive by the Power of the Holy Spirit, a gift which is released to us when we receive the Good News of Christ and Him Crucified. (Acts 10: 45)

 

Man refuses to be simple, refuses to rest in the goodness of God, which leads to repentance (Romans 2: 4), and every wind and wave of doctrine springs up to dissuade man from rest and persuade him to do something more. The Twelve Steps is one more example of the man-centered attempt to come to God, instead of by humble faith receiving Him and let His release His power in your life.

 

It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe.

 

From the fourth step to the Tenth Step and beyond, the member in the AA program must keep taking his inventory, checking for any issues, doing a cost-benefit analysis of everyday.

 

As a Believer also "trying" to work this program, I found myself going from one Tenth Step to another. People still hurt my feelings, I still found myself unhappy and miserable. "The people of this world still seemed" to dominate me.

 

In fact, I found that I was taking my inventory all the time. I never felt at rest, but was convinced time and again that I could keep ahead of myself.

 

This sin-consciousness is a great evil, once Christ Jesus died to free us from:

 

"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9: 14)

 

and

 

"For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins." (Hebrews 10: 2)

 

Then

 

"But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

"From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

"For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10: 12-14)

We are not supposed to keep taking our inventory, as if confessing our sins and making amends for what we have done could even begin to compare with the work of our High Priest, by whose death all sins for all time paid for:

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1: 7)

and

"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2: 2)

Satan's one tool was the law (Colossians 2: 13-15), which has been fulfilled, and thus Satan has been disarmed. Yet his fiery darts remain and can afflict the flesh of man with guilt, fear, apprehension, all of which are extinguished with the shield of faith (Ephesians 6: 16)

John's general epistles outline with the life of a believer is really all about:

"I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father." (2 John 4)

and

"Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son." (2 John 9)

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14: 6) and we are called to abide in Him (John 15: 4).

That way, He can accomplish in us the greatest wish:

"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." (3 John 2)

Now, we cannot prosper in our souls -- mind, will, emotions -- if we do not walk in the truth! We do not walk in the truth if we still insist on living under law, taking our inventory, trying to be obedient to God through our own efforts instead of resting and release His Spirit into our lives.

"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John 1: 17)

For years, I could not understand why my life was not prospering. I knew the Bible, I shared my life and experience with others, I learned more about Jesus' love for me. When I realized how astray and splayed were my thoughts, how easily provoked and distracted I was, I realized that I was not "prospering" in my thinking.

The chronic self-reflection of AA takes away the joyful force of prosperous thinking and instead forces us to concentrate on ourselves, looking at what we are thinking, speaking, doing.

Yet Paul declares fully:

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

"But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." (Galatians 5: 16-18)

If we are still taking our inventory, trying to put away sins which have already been paid for, then we are still in the flesh, we are still trying in our own efforts to accomplish what God so readily works within us to do for Him (Philippians 2: 12-13).

Instead of taking our inventory, let us rejoice in His grace and truth, and thus we prosper and enjoy good health!