Have You Flatlined?

I wrote this devotion a couple of years ago. I was coming out of a place of deadness. As I read over it again before posting it I realized how easy it has been to fall into the traps of complacency in my own life. I have not flatlined, but this year has brought me to places at times where if I has not clung to Jesus I would have spiritually died. As I come to the close of 2009 I am able to look back and the vally deep and the mountain peeks. I can look back at the times where if I had not be hooked up to God's life support then I would have not made it. I don't know what 2010 holds, however I do know who holds it. Be Blessed in the New Year.

Have You Flatlined?

Flatline is a medical term used when a person has no heartbeat. It means you are dying and if your heart doesn’t get a jump start (defibrillation) or CPR you could die. Sometimes these methods don’t work and the person is never revived. At that point, the person is pronounced dead!

Have you ever seen a heart monitor in a hospital? If so, you would know that it’s always going up and down in peeks (these are called QRS waves). These waves are normal on a monitor showing that the heart is functioning like it should. I learned this week that the heart (waves) need to go up and down and not too fast or too slow to work at its best. Our hearts were not meant to stay at high fast peeks or slow peeks, it was meant to work as the peeks. It starts off with “P,” a small peek and mellows down to “Q”, then up to “R”, down again to “ST”, then back up to a little “T”. Lastly, the line returns down to a resting place and then the cycle (waves) begins again as the heart pumps blood through our bodies so that we may live. When the heart is sick it does not function properly!!

Now that you have some back ground info on the heart monitor I would like to share a vision the Lord gave me this week as I was sitting in church. Our Pastor spoke these words:

“Today God’s people are afraid to go to the mountain peaks for the fear of the valley deep. So we as Christians are staying flat walking through life trying to maintain a steady walk afraid of mountain peeks that are high with celebration and/or fear of the valleys that bring trials.

Immediately I got a picture of the heart monitor and a vision of an ECG. It wasn’t until I shared it with my husband that the vision and revelation became even clearer. I was saying the “straight line” on the monitor when my husband corrected me and said it was called a “flatline” Sometimes we become comfortable not experiencing anything but a flat life and that is not what God wants for us. He wants us to celebrate the mountain peeks and experience growth in the valley.

This is what the Lord placed on my heart. Living a flat life is like being spiritually dead. Yes dead I said dead. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

When we choose to place the things of this world in the place where God should be then we have allowed that thing to become an idol. The Word is so true when it says, “They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.” Psalms 103:36 These things become a snare that is killing us and separating us from the abundant life with Jesus!

The reason we are dying or “flatlining” is because we are not allowing ourselves to be transformed by the renewing of our mind through His word. “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.” Romans 12:2

Today we busy ourselves renewing our minds on the things of this world for example entertainment, materialism, business, success, and the latest fashion. When we continuously place our eyes on things we have no business looking at, we renew our minds with ungodliness. And then we wonder why we cannot handle the hour of testing that has come. In the hour of testing, James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Everyday we have to allow God to renew our minds and take down the idols so that He will be our priority. We have not been allowing ourselves to be transformed though the word of God! We need to know that the hour of temptation lurks at the door and it is as God said,

“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Genesis 4:7

I believe most of us would rather stay flatlined (dead to the things of God) then to press in and climb the mountain or pray/praise when we are in the valley. It’s easy to be dead because there is no work involved, no pain, and nothing to feel because we’re DEAD!!!!!

I am reminded of the scripture of us holding a form of godliness but denying His power. How true that is. We have no power because we have flatlined! Dead people don’t do anything!

Paul writes to Timothy about the last days and “holding a form of godliness”:

Godlessness in the Last Days
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 2 Timothy 3:1-5

God wants to change our hearts and our minds so that we can live out changed lives. I am going to ask some personal questions for you to think on. Does this passage describe where you have been? If so, then you need to be revived! “Have you flatlined spiritually?” Have you been walking around dead to the things of God? Have you chosen to compromise, grown complacent and allow sin to take hold? Sin is like a cancer, it will hide and slowly bring death if not found and removed! Have you lost your passion to live the life God called you to live? Have you chosen to not press in and climb the mountains because of the fear of the valley deep? These are questions only you can answer.

If you will allow me to be open, transparent, and honest with those of you who may read this, I would like to tell you that I have had to be resuscitated back to life many times. It became easy for me to do nothing rather than climb the mountain and see the victory or stand in the valley praising. But as I write this devotion I can truly say there is nothing I would change for the sweet presence of Jesus in my life, family, and home. There is life-giving grace flowing through me, my family and home again. I have been given another chance to leave the spiritual death I was in and say, “Not again Lord! I choose to live for you!” If you were to ask me “Jackie, what do you do when you realize you have flatlined?” I would say, “Find your way back to the cross and fall into the arms of Jesus.”

Father I embrace the mountains and I embrace the valleys. It is in the climbing of those mountains that I become equipped with strength to handle the time in the valley. I used to think that on this journey I would walk alone but now I know that no matter where I am, whether it’s on the mountain or in the valley, You are with me! I love you Jesus.

Rooted in Christ,
Jackie Burgess