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You have been transformed! You were a soul trapped by Mr. Sin into doing his thing all the while thinking it was you doing your thing.
Then what are you after you have put your trust in Jesus? You are a slave to righteousness. You are a saint. You have been sanctified (set apart for God's use). Miss this and you miss the mark. A triumphant life is His life living you. Now, you are a soul captured by Mr. Love into doing His thing, all the while thinking it was you doing your thing. Salvation is often misunderstood as giving your life to Christ. Then what is salvation? Salvation is the fact that Christ has given you His life. You receive eternal life because He gave you His Eternal Living.
12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. 1 John 5:12 (NASB95) 1. Know Christ made you right with God, yourself, your neighbor, and your enemy.
2. Trust statement #1. 3. When life seems uncertain, out of control, worthless, go back to #1 and start all over again. Above all, Linda and I want to thank our Lord Jesus Christ whom we serve by way of his resident Spirit in union with our souls and for guiding us into some clarity concerning how we can let him live his life through us in this world. We acknowledge him in all our ways and trust he will continue to direct our paths. We stand in awe at God’s graces found only in Jesus our Lord. Not just a promise yet to be realized but his very person realized in those who trust him for everything.
Have you ever wondered what God's will is for you? The wonderful revelation is that it isn't difficult to know. Jesus told us in John 6:40, "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." This word 'behold' in this case doesn't only have the meaning of seeing with the eyes but also can mean to discern, experience, or perceive. That means that God's will for all of us who have put our trust in Him is eternal life.
How is this manifest in our lives here? 1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us "In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." We are not told to give thanks for the things we consider as 'good', but for those of us in Christ Jesus, His will is for us to give thanks in everything. Even Job knew this truth. In Job 1:21 he said, "..the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away: blessed be the name of the LORD." Again in Job 2:10, Job said..."shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his mouth." We have the confirmation here that Job was speaking the truth. Sometimes we forget that Satan has no power over us who trust in the living GOD. 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 tells us"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away: behold all things are become new. And all things are of GOD, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation:" Note the present tense of the verbs. All things are new for us. We are no longer dealing with the 'old man' or as some like to call it the 'sinful nature'. We are new creatures we have the nature of Jesus Christ. He IS our life, not He 'will be' our life. For us ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD, not just the things we think of as 'good' but ALL things. There is no way for sin to creep into our lives unless we stop trusting that Jesus IS our life. No wonder we are to be thankful in all things, this includes even COVID 19. We will be thanking God even for this and for every other thing in our lives because He is our life and He is in the process of reconciling all things to Himself. We have no reason to worry, fear, or be anxious. He loves us more than we can ever even imagine. He is purposing everything that is happening to us. We can rejoice in the LORD! Oddly, victory is not something for which we are fitted. Just as peculiar, victory is that state of being from which we are livened. We begin complete in Christ and His victory IS ours right now. But most of us don't like the 'now', and having predetermined it cannot be God having His way, we try, with great effort and platitudes, to wiggle off a cross we think the enemy both constructed and somehow when God wasn't looking, nailed us to it. Like worms on a hook, the more we wiggle, we hope to attract God's attention and find relief (a resurrection, but before we have really died).
I rejoice in the overpowering will of Father God on our behalf to make our unholy, independent, human efforts fail as sure as they appear. His design for you is to so reflect His person that when one looks at your life, they cannot but remember a story of the Son of God who not only was placed on a cross but thereby declared His purpose and destiny as the King of the Jews. With humility, He hung in shame. His victory was to count the shame as nothing and His obedience as everything. He won a home for your soul with His Spirit. From there all crosses are history. Just because your humility hasn't been completed does not exclude you from His total and complete victory as your humiliation. Victory! Is Jesus. Are you struggling in your spiritual life? In order to experience genuine peace, it is necessary to come to the place where you no longer rely on your self-sufficient techniques and patterns. You probably won’t give up easily, because you have relied on those resources all your life. So God may allow the weight of adverse circumstances to become greater than the strength of your flesh. And when this happens, it will hurt!
Have you noticed it? Most people think revival is getting back to some physical/emotional location they experienced in the past or heard of that happened in the long distant history of humanity. Nothing could be further from the truth. Revival is not a re-living, but Life itself so living you that what you once enjoyed is swept from view and your heart no longer rebels concerning God's will for you in the here and now.
I knew a man who wrote under many pseudonyms for readers digest. In fact, he wrote at least a third of the articles over a 15-year span - at least he so declared. They were all the same theme. Overwhelming problems, failed efforts, tenacity, a rebirth of purpose, more effort, breakthrough, victory, and 'the end'. Of course, that is the structure of any good story, written or televised. But I knew the lie behind the story. His personal life was a house of moral shambles with no intention of overcoming nor healing. His victim tried to escape. That was when I met her and learned her story. Soon, I met him and learned his story. He recaptured her and overnight she was once again under his control. To my knowledge she never escaped nor did he. His reappearing in her life produced a pseudo revival, but the old was never shattered. Too often, in church circles, we too are looking to get back to a bondage in which we felt comfortable when what we needed was freedom. Revival is meant to create something new and that means when it appears we won't at first, and maybe never, see it nor like it. Such a revival has covered the earth. What was has been stripped naked and what once was 'how it had to be' is no more. The God we could visit on Sundays has invaded our homes and a life we thought never was possible is even demanded by most governments. But are we rejoicing? Are we bowing in humility? Are we overcome by the twilight of possibilities? Or are we trying to rebuild what God is out to destroy? So it is with every human heart. God destroyed our need to trust, much less improve, this flesh-driven life. The new is ever so much better. Now invaded by Love as your life, you are destined to but one purpose, love indiscriminately and equally each soul you know 'or hear of' starting with your own soul. Then with each and every other person, you meet. There are no exceptions. If you can exclude one soul from God then you have already excluded your soul from Him. Love brings you into such a huge destiny we can only call it a revival. It shatters the old Once, a Pastor in Missouri and I, as usual, would pop in on people who were on our record as being members of the congregation but never showed up to any church function. In fact, after having been Pastor of that Church for a year, I dropped in on a son of my neighbor who like most of his sons did not attend any functions at the church building. After surviving three large hungry-looking and vocal dogs, I was able to stand before this man and have a, albeit uncomfortable, chat. For me, the walk away was one of his statements. I'll repeat, "Some people are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good." Of course, behind that was his declaration that I was just that and he had no intention of becoming 'no earthly good'.
Really, since that day some 40 years ago I have periodically pondered his comment (charge) looking for an appropriate comeback. This morning at twilight, that response took form. But before I retort let me say that without a 40-year foundation set by God and the revealing that God is Love itself and equally is the most functional Person in all of humanity both now as in history, I came to understand and now declare to you, "that most people are so earthly minded that they are no heavenly good." I am assured that this will not be your case. The risk that God runs in giving “us” a “real place” in the great dance is the possibility of our dis-ease, of our pain and sorrow and depression--even our ultimate and eternal sadness and misery. The distinction between us and God is as real as the union. It creates the possibility of confusion on our parts. And it is confusion on our parts, confusion of those who are in union with the Father, Son, and Spirit, that generates our misery and despair...
Without the union, there would be no uncomfortableness, no tears or sorrow or despair. We would never be touched by the smiles of our daughters or weep when their hearts are broken. We would never see the beauty of a given morning. A cup of coffee with an old friend would mean nothing to us, for there would be no friendship, no soul ties, no memories of shared joy. Without union with the Father, Son and Spirit, there is no life worth living--no joy, no fellowship or togetherness, no laughter or delight, no romance or love, no poetry in motion. But we are united with the Father, Son and Spirit. We belong to the Holy Trinity. |
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