Spiritual OCD

A.W. Tozer: "Among the gifts of the Spirit scarcely one is of greater practical usefulness than the gift of discernment. This gift should be highly valued and frankly sought as being almost indispensable in these critical times. This gift will enable us to distinguish the chaff from the wheat and to divide the manifestations of the flesh from the operations of the Spirit."




Lately, I have been praying for spiritual discernment. For those who don't know, discernment is one a spiritual gift  given by the Holy Spirit. ..The things that God has shown me this week are astounding.  I think I've learned more in a week than I have the last six months combined.

One thing that He showed me was the issue of spiritual OCD.. I found myself caught up in a trap of some sort of spiritual obsessive compulsive disorder.

I know that this may strange to some, but here me out....

I know that there are others out there that will identify with this...

There have been times when Christ has promted me to work harder. He truly taught me that. He taught me to have integrity in the things that I do. He taught me the danger of lies. I have reached a place in life where I am so careful not to lie. I see too much deception around me and I see the dangers even in the slightest twisting of the truth. When we twist the truth, even slightly, we allow seeds of confusion to be planted in others. This confusion can be the breeding grounds for spiritual death.  We are left weak and vulnerable when we are deceived.  Christ says in His Word that deceivers, of any sort, will burn in a lake of fire.
Lies are so dangerous.  I've seen people complain about other's lies and then practice deciet themselves.
Tell the truth. It's not hard.

...ok..back to the subject of spiritual OCD..

For a time I found myself obsessing over little things, especially at work. The truth is that I can see God's love for order. God has a plan..what He does is ordered.  It's something that He showed me.
I took that knowledge, coupled with the fact that He taught me to work harder, and I often found myself obsessing about little details at the jobsite.

Tiny, trivial little  details. I found myself picking up trash in the in the railyard, hoping to make things clean and ordered. I found myself nit-picking over minor details. I found myself so immersed in truth telling that, instead of rounding off numbers during my rounds, which is perfectly fine, I wanted exactitude. I often found myself spitting out exact numbers with all their decimal points and then including  tenths and hundreths and thosandths places..even when a rounded number still would have sufficed.

I kept wondering if God was going to catch me on a technicality. The thing of it is, the truth is so important. More important than many of realize...but I was at a place where I was being ruled by an unhealthy fear... I had a truly unhealthy focus on many of these little small details...

Today, Jesus spoke to me and said, "quit worrying so much about these trivial things. It's men's souls that I care about. It's people that I want." Be honest, work hard, but stop the obessing.."

The enemy will often try to come in and take away our focus. He will even try to use what we have learned from God to do it..

Have you ever seen two people nit pick about a verse in the Bible? They focus on a verse, but they forget the entire story... What is the story of Jesus? Isn't it a story of love and sacrifice? and yet, you will always find someone nit picking and fighting, mad and angry, over a verse or two...

Following the verses is important. Following the verses is crucial! But don't forget about the story.

It's a story of love and many of us aren't really living it out. 
Today, remember the story...

make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, ¹² so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. - 1 Thessalonians 4:11