Week Four

Welcome to our Route 66 Bible Study. I am thankful you are here. Over the past three weeks we have covered the topics Be aware of the road signs, stay on the road until you reach your destination and focus on the road. This week we will cover the 4th topic in our study. It is titled Beware of Hitchhikers.

As God was speaking this study to me, he made this point and it kind of stuck with me because I am guilty of this. He said Beware of hitchhikers. They can bring all their baggage and weight or slow you down. You must be mindful of the company you keep and the things you allow in your life. If you are keeping company with individuals that you know are not Kingdom minded and you are trying to grow in the Lord and your walk with Him, you have become your own worst enemy. We must surround ourselves with people who are reaching as high as us in the Spirit or higher so that we give ourselves room to grow. If we constantly surround ourselves with people who are negative, and always carrying burdens of addiction, lies, deception and other things of this world, eventually their baggage and weights will begin to burden us down.

Have you ever had someone in your life that every time they come around you, they are always negative? Every conversation, no matter how you try to move them to a positive note, they always make it back to the negative conversation. They are always gossiping and talking about other people and all the wrong they are doing. Yet, they never bring up their own faults. When you allow this in your life this is you picking up a hitchhiker, because eventually your spirit will become vexed by the negative spirits they are allowing to work in their lives. Sometimes you have to politely excuse yourself and stop the flow of this evil in its tracks. We must learn to serve notice on the devil and let him know he has no power in our lives and we refuse to allow his voice to control our lives, our emotions, our actions. We must learn to separate ourselves from this type of situation and seek after the things of God so we can be free in Him.

Hebrews 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

When we are saved through obedience to Acts 2:38 in that we repent, are baptized in Jesus’ name and we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, this begins the journey we are walking on with Jesus. From this point we begin the process of sanctification. This is where we learn as we walk with Jesus, how to die out to this flesh and fall in love with Jesus. As we grow in our relationship with Jesus, the old sins we used to allow in our lives become a burden to us and hinder us in our walk with Him if we continue to allow them. The closer we get to Jesus and fall in love with Him, the more we surrender our hearts to Him. As we daily walk with Him, He will begin to bring to our attention arears of our lives that have sin in them and are a hinderance to our salvation and our relationship with Him. This is not condemnation; this is conviction unto repentance. He wants us to be free from sin and fully walk in what He has called us to do.

The process of sanctification is not just being set apart from sin or being set apart from this world. It is both of these things. It is being set apart from those things so that we can be fully set unto Jesus. If you only run from sin but never run to Jesus with your whole heart you will eventually run back to sin. Sin is not defeated by your will power. It is defeated by intimacy with Jesus because he broke the power of sin over your life. You have to build a relationship and a love relationship with Jesus. You must fall more in love with Jesus than you love anything else and when you do, He will take the desire for sin out of you. Jesus said in John 14:15 if you love Me, keep My commandments. He commanded us over and over and stated to us in His word over and over that we are called out and are to be separated from this world. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says it is God’s will for us to be sanctified. This process of sanctification is the laying aside of ever weight that does so easily beset us as mentioned in Hebrews 12: 1-2. This is His great love for us in action when we surrender to Him and His will for our lives and He lovingly gives us victory over sin.

1 Peter 1:13-16 says Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

1 Peter 2:9-10 says but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light; Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Leviticus 11:44 says For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

We are called to be set apart. God longs for us to come unto Him. He longs for us to seek after Him. He longs for us to choose Him just like he chose us. He longs for us to separate ourselves unto Him and love Him just as much as He loves us. Freely and unconditionally. He longs for us to trust Him. So, as we move forward in our walk with Jesus, let’s set aside everything that is not like Him. Call unto Him and allow Him to draw us close to Him. He said if you draw nigh unto Him, He will draw nigh unto you. Now is the time for us to walk in sanctification. Don’t fight the process. Allow God to touch and change your heart. You will never regret it. There is nothing in this world that is more precious nor important than our relationship with Jesus.

I want to close this week with two questions for you to search your self with this week. I pray that this Bible study has been a help to you as much as it has been to me. God truly is walking this study out in my own life as He gives it to me to teach each week. I pray that He will continue to work with us all as we are on this journey with Him until we reach our final destination which is heaven.

QUESTIONS:

1. What are some hitchhikers that you have allowed in your life? ___

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2. What are some practices you can implement in your life to remove and avoid new hitchhikers in your life? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________