"Patty, do you think you'll need to go up to our storage unit while you're home?"  That was just one of the hundreds of questions I asked my wife before she left for the States to see our kids and especially our beautiful new baby granddaughter, Myah Joy ( Jesse and Kristi )!  It was really just an innocent question, like I said, one of many.  So why did I just keep seeing our self-storage unit in my mind all day long?  You know what I'm talking about, right? You see them everywhere in America.  All of them with the same gray or white or light blue doors and a big "Self-Storage" sign above the entrance.  We got one before we left for South Africa and filled it with everything that we didn't sell or give away.  But why did I keep seeing that sign over and over in my mind?

Folks, the Holy Spirit is a practical teacher.  He doesn't always send and angel or a prophet to declare His will for our lives, nor does He always speak to us in a still, small voice.  No, sometimes the Lord sends loud and clear messages through our surroundings.  Don't get me wrong, I don't look for deep prophetic directives if I can't find a parking space downtown, but I do try and remain aware of the Holy Spirit's presence and ask Him if there is significance to people, places, or objects that strike my spirit.

"OK, God, what's up with these self-storage images that keep flooding my mind?"  And then it hit me, and it didn't take a prophet to interpret the message.  It was clearer than 20/20 vision:  It was time to put my "self" in storage!  It was time to decrease a little more that He might increase.  It was time to go to a new level....a lower one!

You know, Webster's Dictionary has quite a laundry list of definitions that begin with "self".  Most of them are kind of self-serving.  There's self-absorbed, self-advancement, and self-appointed.  And we haven't even got out of the A's yet!  There's self-deception and self-existent.  There's self-indulgent, self-justification, and self-reliant.  Hey, and let's not forget good ol' self-righteousness, that religious version that looks good on the outside but is rotten on the inside.

Get the picture?  Perhaps that's why I kept seeing those rows of doors.  One self-storage unit for each of the "self" areas I needed to put away.  As I thought about it, It seemed to me that the worst self-issue is self-will.  Webster defines a self-willed person as one who is stubborn about getting his own way.  A self-willed person is a willful person.  The willful person does what he or she pleases.  The problem arises when what he or she pleases does not please God.  That's when self-will takes us down the path of self-reliance, past the alley of self-indulgence, and out onto the street of self-deception!

Do you remember what Jesus said about false prophets?  In Matt. 7:15, Jesus tells us to beware of false prophets who appear as harmless as doves, but are dangerous as serpents.  Then in vs. 21 he warns his disciples that not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.  Jesus makes it very clear that only those who do the will of the Father will enter in.

"Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out
devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart
from me, ye that work iniquity."   Matt. 7:22-23

So what are we going to do with that?  Jesus began His teaching talking about false prophets and then drilled down to the core issue:  self-will.

In other words, "you did not do the will of My Father.  You did your own will.  You were self-willed.  You did what you wanted to do without asking God what he thought about it.  You prophesied without permission.  You cast out devils to draw attention to yourself.  You used your gifts as it pleased you.  You may have used My name, but I never authorized you to do those things."   Just listen to this verse in the Message Bible translation:

" I can see it now - at the final judgment thousands
strutting up to me saying, ' Master, we preached the
message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored
projects had everyone talking.'  And do you know what
I'm going to say?  ' You missed the boat.  All you did
was use Me to make yourself important.  You don't
impress me one bit.  You're out of here! ' "

I don't know about you, but that's enough to drive me to the self-storage facility and pay the price to rent as many units as it takes to unload the self-assertion, the self conceit, the self-interest, and especially, the self-will!  It's a character issue.  Hey friend, maybe you are like me and have seen the same "self-storage" sign recently.  I challenge you to exercise some self-control, self-denial, and self-discipline.  I appeal to you to go through some self-examination, self-revealing and self-restraint.  Rid yourself of self will.  Self-will is stubbornness.  Remember, the road to self-deception is not as long as you might think, and the end, I fear, is self-destruction.