There are countless attachments in your every day life, but there are three types that are worthy of our examination today. They will help you begin to consider to what you are attached and why.
Common attachment number 1: The result of our choices. Even though a car is a necessity for most people, when you purchase one, demands are immediately placed on you. To function properly, a car must be maintained. It needs gas, oil, and other basic services to keep it running smoothly. Tires do not last forever. Eventually they will need to be replaced. Batteries are another item that wears out. If you keep your car long enough, you may even incur costly expenses by replacing some of the major parts.
Unless you paid cash for your care, you will have a monthly payment, in addition to car insurance, and vehicle registration, and in some states, ad valorem taxes that must be paid.
You can't keep your attachment to your car unless you respond to the demands its ownership places on you. If you purchase a second car, those demands will double. A third car, they triple and so on.
The mistake that most of us make is that before we attach ourselves to something or someone, we fail to think through all of the demands an attachment will make on our lives. We fail to consider how an attachment will place restrictions on us while we have that attachment in our lives.
Entering into financial debt is another example. If you're in debt, when you want to give a financial gift or make a purchase, many times you have to think and ask yourself these questions: "Am I able to buy that item? Am I able to give that gift? Can I move to this city? I would love to give to that ministry, but do I have the money? I've been wanting to go back to school. Will I still be able to meet my debt obligations?"
Debt is really spending tomorrow's money today. It is an attachment that you don't want to make.
Common attachment number 2: when someone or something attaches to you. While debt is an example of an attachment you choose, not every attachment is chosen. Sometimes attachments are connected to you, either on their own accord, or because you inadvertently opened the door through disobedience or carelessness.
Think back to the last time you walked down a sidewalk or across a parking lot and stepped on someone's gum that had been spat out of their mouth. You didn't choose to attach yourself to the gum. It attached itself to you. You did not purposely look for gum to step on. You inadvertently stepped on it. Like gum on your shoe, sometimes your attachments choose you!
Let's look at what happened to Abraham. In Genesis 12:1 we see that God was attached to Abraham and made demands on their relationship. Whatever you're attached to has a right to make demands on you. God told Abraham: "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing."
In this verse, God did not make a suggestion. He placed a righteous demand on His relationship with Abraham that had four parts: 1. Leave your country, 2. Leave your people, 3. Leave your father's household, and don't take anyone with you. 4. Detach yourself from everything that is familiar to you, and go to a land that I will show you.
Abraham did not detach himself from everything God told him to leave behind. He was disobedient and as a result, opened the door for attachments to come.
While Abraham left his country, he did not leave his people as God directed. He brought with him his father, Terah, and his nephew, Lot. Abraham's refusal to detach from his father's household enabled them to later place demands on him that conflicted with God's perfect plan and timing for his life.
When Abraham's father became sick, he lived in the city of Haran for five years until his father died. That put him five years off of God's perfect timing. When he finally arrived in Canaan, it was during a time when the land was in the midst of drought and famine. He then had to detour into Egypt to get supplies. From the beginning of Abraham's efforts to obey God, he was out of God's ordained timing because of the attachments that encumbered him.
While in Egypt another attachment was made. This time Hagar became attached to Sarah as a handmaiden. What the consequence? Ishmael. Talk about gum on your shoe!
Just as Abraham, you can find yourself in a similar boat. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time means that you can attach yourself to things that are outside of God's plan. In addition to unwanted attachments, disobedience can lead you to miss God's timing.
It should be all of our desires to be at the right place at the right time. We should go daily to God and ask Him what we are to do. We can stand upon Psalm 37:23 "The steps of a good man are directed and established by the Lord when He delights in his way."
Let us strive never to step out of God's timing, plan or will. Let us never want to attach to something that would eventually drive a wedge between God and us.
God was able to make demands on Abraham because of the relationship the two of them had and because of the attachment Abraham had with God. In the same way, God has a right to make certain demands on you and me.
Some folk don't recognize that, because they're attached to God, He has a right to place demands on their lives. They think, "Well, I'm just going to think what I want to think, say what I want to say, act like I want to act, and do what I want to do with my life. I'm going to look at what I want to look at, whether or not it's okay with God."
Obviously, this type of thinking is not correct. When you're attached to God, He has a right to place a demand on your eyes, ears, time and especially your heart. a deep intimate relationship with Him will cost you something. And you are required, just as God is, to honor your relationship. You are required to walk in obedience to whatever He tells you to do. when you don't, wrong attachments will come.
You can be victorious in one area of your life because of a God-ordained attachment, but then at the same time, experience problems in antoher area because of ungodly attachments that have attached themselves to you. You're probably recalling those situations right now. It is important to eliminate those things that have attached themselves to your life that are not God-ordained.
Common attachment number 3: Attachments you form. In the Old Testament, Abraham's nephew, Lot, and his family lived in Sodom, a city full of moral corruption. When God rescued them moments before He destroyed the city, He told them not to look back. Nevertheless, Lot's wife longingly looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt (see Genesis 19:17, 26).
Lot's wife had formed a heartfelt attachment to the evil city of Sodom. She couldn't even obey one simple command, "DON"T LOOK BACK!" She was so emotionally attached that she just had to have one more look. Likewise, Lot's sons-in-law were also emotionally attached to the city. They laughed at Lot's warning that it would be destroyed and were led by their emotions. Instead of heeding to the word of warning, they stayed and were destroyed.
People form attachments to things--pornography, drugs, alcohol. tobacco, places, and even relationships. Because their will is involved, it can be difficult for them to receive deliverance from these things in order for detachment to occur. The biggest challenge you may face when trying to minister to someone is their will! You can't change it if they don't want to change.
It doesn't matter who tries to minister to people like this. Whether it by the "big name evangelist" or the lay minister across the street, nothing will happen when you lay hands on them because their will is in control.
In order to be free from ungodly attachments, they must be willing to detach themselves from it. Deliverance is available but only if they want to receive it. In each case, the person has to be willing to say, "I will to detach from this cursed thing."
If they are unwilling to break ungodly attachments, their faith will not work because they have too many internal disagreements battling inside of them. They may ask the Lord to forgive them time after time, only to have the devil continually beat them over the head when they fail, teasing them, "See, you missed it again, you failed. You sinned one more time."
This is why God warns us not to walk by sight, by our emotions, senses, and feelings, but to walk by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7). He does not want us to be led by our feelings but rather to follow Him with our whole heart. In order to do this, we must be attached to the Word of God, which in turn will cause our faith to become firmly established in His promises. We will then see the Word manifested in our lives. It is, therefore, imperative that we purpose to do the will of God. There is too much at stake in our lives to be careless about our attachments.
