Attachments is defined as those things that consume your time and attention, be it your house, career, or relationships. Attachments tell the story of your life. They reveal your character, your heart, and your priorities. They have the power to pull you up to a higher level, or push you down a notch or two---all because some attachments are God-ordained, and others are not.
Knowing the differnece and making the right choices between the two is what determines the kind of life you will lead, and the degree of influence you will have on everyone around you.
A powerful example is Ruth. Her story of course is found in the Book of Ruth. She was a widowed Gentile (Moabite) woman who attached herself to her Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi, and consequently the entire Jewish nation.
She attached herself by speaking covenant language to Naomi: "Where you go, I will go, where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried" (Ruth 1:16, 17 paraphrased).
The powerful results of this God-ordained attachments were more far reaching than Ruth could have even imagined. She attached herself to God's people, but more importantly to the genealogy and lineage of Jesus Christ. Through her marriage to Boaz, she gave birth to Obed, who became the father of Jesse, who became the father of King David....through whom Jesus Christ was a descendent.
Ruth cooperated with God to change the world through one decision--through one divine attachment.
On grave headstones we see the year of birth, and the year of death etched into the stone. In between those two different years, the beginning and ending is a dash. The dash is their life in which that person lived. Your life story, if you please. When your race is through on this earth, what story will your life tell? What will the attachments you made in this life produce--in the short term and the long term?
It is my prayer that through the lesson today and the next day or so, the Holy Spirit will showyou what to detach from and then attach to in your life. God wants nothing for you but success--spiritually, emotionally, socially, and physically. Through God-ordained attachments, you can have it in the highest measure.
A man while mowing his lawn one day was complaining about doing so. He was swirling up a cloud of dust that rivaled the best dust storm in the desert. God began to speak to him. "Did you ask Me for this house?" The man replied, "Yes." God continues, "Does the yard come with it?" The man again replies positively. God speaks once again, "Then mow the lawn and stop griping!"
There is a spiritual law that affects every area of our lives. It is a law whihc most folk don't give much attention to. It's the "law of attachment." Before I go into more detail about this particular law, let me explain the word "law." Its definition is "the body of rules and principles governing the affairs of a community and enforced by a legal system."
The laws of God are simply the ways in which He works. The spirit realm works according to God's system of laws and affects everything in the world. One example is the one of sowing and reaping. In this law, we find that whatever you sow, be it money, time, physical possessions, prayer, etc., you will reap. Whatever you give, you will receive in like kind. The law of sowing and reaping is a spiritual law that affects both you and me, regardless of whether we believe it or not.
There are many other examples of different types of laws throughout the pages of the Bible. Genesis 8:22 says, "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." In this verse alone we find four laws. 1. Seedtime and harvest, 2. Cold and heat, 3. Summer and Winter, 4. Day and night.
In addition to spiritual laws, we are alos governed by natural laws. They are called "natural" because they govern the natural world, and they work in the same way that spiritual laws do. For example, the law of gravity does not ask for your permission or approval to work. It automatically works whether you want it to or not. It is a natural law that you live with every day of your life.
Although there are many laws, both natural and spiritual, that govern and affect our daily lives, there are two basic laws that rule the earth. It's from these two laws that all others laws originate. There are the law of sin and death, and the law of life in Christ Jesus. Understanding how these laws operate will help you to recognize the characteristics of God and the way in which He desires to work in your life.
The law of attachment is a spiritual law. It is not a man made law or a law similar to one of the Ten Commandments, but one that you discover when you are led by the Holy Spirit to walk the path of righteousness. Psalm 23:3 says, "He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousess for his name's sake." The Holy Spirit is your teacher (1 John 2:27), and He will lead you into all truth (John 16:13).
Once you become aware of spiritual law, you will typically have one of three reactions:
1. You can understand it, observe it, and comply with it; and reap its benefits.
2. You can understand it, observer it, but ignore it; and reap the consequences.
3. You can do neither and still reap the consequences.
it is also important to realize that there are three wills in the earth. God's man's, and Satan's. God will not impose His will on you, and He will not allow the devil to impose his will on you either. He has left the choice up to you and me to decide how we will respond to God's laws.
If you're a born again believer, you are redeemed from the curse of the law, which results in both spiritual and natural death. We see in Romans 8:2 that "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made you free from the law of sin and death."
If you attach yourself to things that result in spiritual death, according to that verse, those attachments will drain you of peace, power, prosperity, health, and everything else you truly desire in life. Attachments that are not considered evil or bad can still rob you of the abundant life that God wants you to have. Remember this, attachments have the power to increase or decrease your life. Although you may be redeemed from the curse of the law, you may still have to partake of the curse if you attach yourself to its fruit.
From the time you were born, the law of attachment has either worked for you or against you. All through your life you have been attached to family, friends, animals, beliefs, foods, ideas, things, property, houses and so on.
This message is to help you determine which attachments are right for you, because clearly stated, "whatever you are attached to has a right to place a demand on your life."
It has been said that a child will not do well if he or she is kept away from a family environment. For proper growth and development, a child needs to be attached to parents. That's because parents are God-ordained attachments.
If you stay connected to God-ordained attachments, you will do well. You will flourish, grow, increase, prosper, and succeed. On the other hand, separation from God-ordained attachments will have the opposite effect on your life. Instead of succeeding you will fail.
Adam experienced this in the Garden of Eden. God, if you recall, told him not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, because on the day he ate of this fruit, he would surely die (Genesis 2:15-17). We all know the story. Adam disobeyed God and ate from this tree. While he didn't die physically immediately, he instantly experienced spiritual death and was separated from God. Spiritual death became the result of attaching himself to something forbidden. He made an attachment independent of God.
Mankind was created to become attached to things, places, and people. Typically, women grow attached to homes, jewelry, furniture, and the like. Men, on the other hand, typically become attached to cars, boats, hobbies, and sports.
Unfortunately, in our world today, many people have become unbalanced in their attachments to "stuff" in comparison to their attachment to God.
We are given an excellent illustration of the law of attachment through the incident that happened to the Apostle Peter. In Matthew 14, after Jesus had ministered to the multitudes, He went up a mountain to pray. The apostles were to cross over the Sea of Galilee in their boat. (read if you will the passage found in Matthew 14:25-19).
After Jesus finished praying, He came walking on the water. Peter, said, "If it is you, bid me to come." Jesus said only one word: "COME." Peter both received and believed this word. He then stepped out of the boat and walked a short distance on the water because he based his trust on a spiritual law--the law of life in Christ Jesus--and not on natural laws. He defied the natural laws that brought restraint and was able to walk on the water.
Jesus was able to walk on the water, not because He was the Son of God, but because the Spirit of Life was in Him. The same Spirit that dwelt in Jesus enabled Peter to be obedient to His command.
There is one more thing that Peter had to do before he could walk on the water. He had to detach himself from the boat. He had to break free from the law of sin and death. Then, he had to attach himself to the law of life in Christ Jesus.
Life in Christ Jesus is all you need to defy the laws of nature, the laws that restrain your life. The law of sin and death brings containment, restraints, and restrictions, but the law of life in Christ Jesus brings freedom and breaks natural restraints.
God wants you to detach yourself from the wrong things in your life and adhere (stick) to God-ordained, God-given attachments. He wants you to experience the full benefits of right attachments.
Jesus talked about the benefits of God-ordained attachments in John's Gospel when He said, "If you abide in me (remain attached to), and my words abide (remain attached to) in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
The right attachments demonstrated in this verse are "living, abiding, and residing in Him" and then letting His words, "live, abide, and reside in you." These actions demonstrate that you are connected and attached to Jesus and He to you.
In a world that is preoccupied with who has connections in politics, in the business world, or in the social world, and yes, even in the area of ministry, Jesus made an offer we can't refuse. He has given us the inside track on a connection that promises "Ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7).
"YOU CAN'T GET A BETTER CONNECTION THAT THAT!"
The reason we don't see more people walking in confidence and getting results when they ask God for something is because they've failed to understand the demands that wrong attachments can have on their lives.
The fact that attachments have the right to make demands on your life should not be a total surprise, especially if you're married! When you choose to marry, the relationship immediately begins with demands. Some of those demands are obvious. Marriage is a partnership in which everyday duties need to be shared between both husband and wife. Someone has to prepare meals and perform the household chores and make repairs to the house. Someone has to see to the finances and spend time with the kiddies (if you have any). Husbands often joke about some of those demands taking the form of a "Honey do. . . " list. The marriage attachments is a serious give and take situation.
Jesus said in Matthew 19:5, "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and the Twain shall be one flesh?"
In the same way you can't cleave until you leave, you can't attach until you detach. Many man try to hang on to Mom and dad and cleave to their wife at the same time. For all who have tried, it never worked and never will.
A man must first detach from the home he grew up in and from his parents before he can attach, or cleave, to his wife. Then, and only then, can the two truly become one flesh. All of life works in this same way.
You must detach from sin and attach to righteousness. You must detach from ignorance and attach to knowledge. You must detach from childhood and attach to adulthood. You must detach from your past to attach to your future.
Paul, the Apostle recognized that you can't press forward to the next mark in your life without detaching from what lies behind you. He wrote in Philippians 3:13, 14 "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Remember Peter? You can't walk on water and stay in the boat at the same time.
Attachments have the right to place demands on your life. So you can see the necessity of carefully choosing what you are attached to. There are many examples of attachments found in creation. Plants are attached to soil. Fish are attached to or contained by water. Mankind is attached to this planet--he has a need for an oxygen rich environment.
When you look at creation, it is evident that all of life is affected by attachments. God-ordained attachments will put you in position to ask God for what you need or want and confidently expect that He will answer your prayer.
On the other hand, wrong attachments can place demands on you that will pull you off of God's plan and timing for His best to manifest in your life. Begin to ask the Lord to show you which attachments are in your life by His design and plan and which ones are not.
