Living Beyond the Cycle of Defeat
Finding More Power than Self-Discipline Can Deliver
by
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One night, while relaxing in my back yard in a quiet community just outside of Chicago, I suddenly became aware of the zapping sound of the bug light, as it mindlessly went about its business of reducing the insect population to a tolerable level. At about the same time, it became evident that the mercury-vapor lamp which transformed my small part of the night into broad daylight was so much brighter than the bug light that it seemed incredible that the insects were not attracted to it instead.
Why would an insect choose the lesser of the lights and, in so doing, fly headlong to its death? The literal answer was no mystery, but the implication, when applied to man''s spiritual condition, struck me as something I desperately needed to know.
Literally speaking, the insects were responding instinctively, not to the intensity of the light as one might suppose, but to a particularly impelling band of frequency that men had discovered was extremely attractive to insects. Once discovered, it had been simple enough for scientists to make use of that knowledge to alter the outcome of that driving force, in such a way as to attract insects to their death.
Meanwhile, the poor, unsuspecting insects didn''t have the foggiest idea that some "superior intellect" had changed the rules. They didn''t know that it had now become fatal for them to follow their instincts. They didn''t understand that if they were to live, they would have to switch to a totally new driving force. If they were to avoid a horrible death, they would have to curb their natural appetites and cultivate a taste for a totally new and different light.
Spiritually speaking, each of us is in pretty much the same predicament. As we shall see, it is fatal for us to follow the instincts we inherited from Adam. If we are to live, we must switch to a totally new driving force. If we are to avoid a horrible, eternal death, we must cultivate a taste for a totally new and different “light.”
When our Lord was among his disciples he clearly told them and us that He would not leave them/us as orphans: He would send the Helper, the Holy Spirit. Before Jesus ascended to his Father he said that the disciples should wait and they would receive power from on high to obey the Lord and to fulfill their mission even if it were to lead to death.
That same Person, the Holy Spirit, is the One Who empowers us to live for Christ and to fulfill our mission. Alas though, how many times we fall short, we rely on our strength and abilities and eventually become self-centered and reliant.
Don Robbins explores this phenomena and he accurately brings us back to the very simple and basic truth that our becoming dependent upon the Holy Spirit sent to us from Christ is the ONLY avenue to our obeying the Lord and fulfilling the call that God has for each of us.
It is the life of self or the life of the Spirit. Read how Don has brought us back to the great truth that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow concerning His powerful work in our lives in His Son through the Spirit.
Rev. Sam Rotman, Senior Pastor, Grace Evangelical Free Church, Mesa AZ.
Don Robbins has opened my eyes to some truth in the scriptures that can bring hope and victory to anyone living in "The Cycle of Defeat."
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About the Book
About the Book
Since the beginning of time, mankind had desperately sought what he had found, but Paul, a first century Jew, was the first to find it…or was he just the first to write everyone and tell everyone about it?
He hadn’t even been looking for it when he had found it, but when he stumbled upon it he knew he had something everyone would want and fortunately for us, Paul was too excited about what he had found to keep this secret to himself. As one might expect, Paul’s account of what he had found caused quite a stir in his day and has continued to powerfully impact the lives of those thousands who have followed his example down through the centuries.
Because Paul’s account has been told and retold so many times in so many languages, and because times and terms have changed so drastically over the centuries, Paul’s first-century, first-hand, how-to account has been all but lost to us today.
We don’t have to guess what Paul was writing about. All we have to do is look at what he wrote: “I have learned how to be content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am. I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough to spare or going without and being in want.”
If he were still writing today Paul might call his book, Living Beyond the Cycle of Defeat: Finding More Power than Self-discipline can Deliver.
About the Author
Though a professional writer for over forty years, and a teacher for over fifty years, that's not what makes Don¹s books so compelling.
Like many of us, Don was "raised in the church." Unlike us, by the time he was 28 he had fathered four children, two of which were born with muscular disorders so rare that they were not expected to live let alone walk.
Years of surgeries later, when both daughters were finally out of their casts and braces, the younger‹at age eight--died suddenly in her sleep. That tragedy stripped her mother of her faith in a kind, compassionate God and sent her into an eight-year, downward-spiraling, self-incriminating, Valium-dependent, suicidal mode.
Without Don¹s having noticed it, each cycle of defeat had taken its toll! Worse yet, now that his soul mate teetered on death’s door he found useless the tools he had learned while securing a Masters in Social Work. Fervent Bible study and prayer also failed. Everything he had been trying to hold together was coming apart. Nothing secular or otherwise was working and there was nothing he could do about it! He knew he couldn¹t ease his wife¹s sorrow and he knew that if he couldn¹t rescue her, he didn¹t want to live either.
That¹s when the controller within him‹his confidence in the absolute power of his SELF-effort--died!
And unbelievably, that¹s when everything that had gone wrong was almost instantly made right by the God Who repeatedly tells us, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.² Zech 4:6, (KJV). That Spirit chided Don for his having believed his SELF-effort was needed, effortlessly revived all that had been dead and dying in his wife¹s heart, and guaranteed peace in the face of adversity.