FIRST THINGS FIRST: Your Relationship with God

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Jesus wasn't impressed when people sought Him out only for the material blessings they could get from Him. When the multitudes went all over looking for Him after enjoying His miraculous provision of fish and bread, instead of commending them for diligently seeking Him, Jesus actually rebuked them saying:

²⁷ Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life…” – John 6:27 NKJV

Yes, God has promised to supply our needs. Yes, He even invites us to ask Him for provision, but – NEWSFLASH – God is much more interested in transforming us into the image of His Son than in meeting our temporary fleeting needs. He is a loving, responsible Father who’s got His priorities right. He is not our errand boy, nor is He some genie in a bottle waiting to grant our every whim and wish… Sometimes I feel like our modern version of Christianity has made God into a cosmic vending machine. You put in the right amount of money, punch the right buttons and voila…you have whatever it is you want. We’ve reduced our relationship with God to a business transaction of sorts… no fellowship, no intimacy whatsoever.     You see beloved, even in the natural, healthy relationships are reciprocal, to have a relationship with someone solely based on what you can get from them is pretty selfish and somewhat abusive too. The thing is, when you have a healthy relationship with someone, access to each other’s stuff is simply a byproduct of that relationship.

Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we are privileged to have an intimate relationship with God. We have an eternal Covenant with God and in that Covenant we have been made joint heirs with Christ. We can do ALL THINGS through Christ...How awesome is that!

Beloved, spend quality time with the Lover of your soul, throughout your day talk to Him, share stuff with Him, get His viewpoint on issues. He is very interested in what interests you, remember it is He who gave you those pure desires in the first place, so don’t compartmentalize your life – share it with Him – not just needs and wants but all of it...plus, He is with you 24/7! Don’t limit Him to only “church time”, Bible study or all the other Christian ministry stuff you do. Include Him in everything you do, ask for His input and direction. He so loves that and enjoys seeing you excel in what you do, no wonder the Word says:

⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths. – Proverbs 3:6 NKJV

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You see beloved, once we have a healthy vibrant relationship with the Lord, we will enjoy His provision, direction and everything else as byproducts of our intimacy with Him. No more fretting over our needs and wants for He shall supply them abundantly as we continue to delight ourselves in Him.

Amen!  

WHAT ARE YOUR WORDS IMPARTING? Grace or Corruption?

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²⁹ LET no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. – Ephesians 4:29 NKJV (Emphasis added)

  

Beloved, we have the power to both “LET” and “NOT TO LET” corrupt words out of our mouths and sadly many have gone right ahead and done the former with dire consequences. It is better not to speak at all than to spout off corruption filled words. The long and short of it is, if our words aren't imparting grace to those we converse with, then they are corrupt – regardless of how eloquently we express them. We may even lace them with Scripture but they are still corrupt, there's no two ways about it. The good news is, we are well able to change all that, and we will...or won't we? 

If our words are to reflect the Father’s heart concerning ourselves, other people and situations, if our words are to have a positive, edifying effect on others … we must first believe that we have been made righteous before God and we are perfectly and unreservedly accepted by the Father based solely on Jesus' perfect sacrifice of Himself. We must believe that we have been born from above, we have become New Creations in Christ, and we have been joined to the Lord and so we are now one with Him. We have become His Temple, His Dwelling place, His habitation. In Him we live and move and have our being. We have the mind of Christ. In and through Christ, we are conquerors and more than conquerors…All that to simply remind us of who we truly are – God’s own beloved children.  

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Now, since words proceed from thoughts, let’s start by refusing to spout off those unnecessary, non-edifying, good-for-nothing thoughts that pop up in our heads. We have the power to both “LET” and to “LET NOT” as far as our words are concerned.

We have the Spirit of Christ in us, as we follow His leading our words will unveil and reflect Christ – through whom Grace and Truth came – to those we cross paths with. Blessings beloved!  

God’s True Portait: JESUS

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If the idea of God you have in your mind is any different from that of Christ Jesus, then I submit to you that what you have is at best, a distorted picture of God.

God looks nothing like what religions, the various flavors of the Christian kind included, paints Him out to be, you know some version of a mean- faultfinding-always furious- uptight-hard-to-please-sadist or something similar. Nothing could be further from the truth, a quick look at Jesus paints a very beautiful picture of God. Nothing like what religion, for so long, has conditioned us to believe.

The thing is, no one has ever seen God, that is, no one except Jesus, and He is the one who reveals Him to mankind. Wasn’t He even appropriately called “Emmanuel” –“ God with us”?!

Jesus made that point over and over again. Let’s go over a couple of instances, shall we?

Speaking of Jesus, John the apostle writes:

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. – John 1:1-3 ESV

Then he adds:

¹⁸ No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.- John 1:18 NKJV

Jesus speaking:

¹⁹ Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. – John 5:19 NKJV

³⁰ I and My Father are one.” – John 10:30 NKJV

The apostle Paul came along and by inspiration of the Holy Spirit penned this powerful truth:

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, - Colossians 1:19 ESV

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, - Colossians 2:9 NIV

So there we have it, Jesus came to reveal God to us and in all His interactions with people, He did just that. He expressed the heart of His Father every single time. Now the religious leaders of His day thought with all the Scriptures, the rules and the regulations they had, if anyone knew God and His ways, it should be them. How sorely mistaken were they! To say they were opposed to Him would be an understatement – they hated him.

And just like God - His Father - Jesus did not avoid those religion considered sinners and outcasts in society. He welcomed them, ate with them, spent time with them so much so that the religious folk complained against Him:

² And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” – Luke 15:2 NKJV  

And interestingly, those considered "sinners" were flocking to Him and gladly listening to Him, as Luke once noted and this, as we all know, didn't sit well with the religious leaders.

Jesus himself repeated one the many accusations leveled against Him by those who considered themselves righteous...

¹⁹ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.” – Matthew 11:19 NKJV (emphasis added)

Now the Good News is:

If Jesus is your Lord and Savior, then be reminded that this same Jesus is in you

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today by His Holy Spirit and through Him you have been born from Above. You are now one with the Father just like Jesus is one with the Father. You are complete in Him, you lack nothing! So beloved, since the love of God is already poured out in your hearts, go ahead and joyfully express your Father’s heart in all your interactions today! And if religious folk criticize you, well..rejoice...you're in good company! 

Blessings!

    

GOD is for YOU, Yes YOU…

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The fact that you are here, alive on this planet is proof that God loves you. He created you and put you here for a reason. In all His dealings with you, He has your best interest at heart. He so desires to have a healthy relationship with you, a Father child relationship with you and He has made provision for that to be a reality for you today. He is not against you, He is for you.

For far too long religion has misrepresented the true Nature of God, painting Him out to be nothing like He really is. He is not waiting for you to mess up so He can strike you down, He is not looking for opportunities to make your life miserable…No, no, no…

On the contrary, He is waiting for you to realize how much He loves you and how He’s made it possible for you to become His Child. That is, by believing in Jesus and what He did by taking the sins of the entire world, yours included, and dying on that rugged cross – resurrecting three days later – just so you can be a brand New Creation reconciled to God and begin to relate with Him as your Father. He so desires for you to know Him, only then can you truly know yourself and enjoy the abundant life He has in store for you.

  

When Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, this is what Jesus said:

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? – John 14:9 ESV(emphasis added)

Jesus is the perfect representation of God the Father. So if we want to know what God looks like and how He acts, we would do well to take a closer look at Jesus and how He conducted Himself.

Paul the apostle was inspired by the Holy Spirit to reiterate this truth and so he wrote:

⁹ For in Him (in Christ Jesus, that is) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily – Colossians 2:9 NKJV (emphasis added)

He loved, taught, healed and blessed people, He welcomed the outcasts and those considered not socially desirable like the tax collectors and “sinners”. Heck, the Pharisees, a self-righteous religious bunch complained about Him in Luke 15 saying "this man receives sinners and eats with them"; His response to them revealed the Father's heart towards us through the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son. 

Now that’s exactly what God is like! Isn’t He awesome!

His harshest words were reserved for the political and religious leaders of His time who had so misrepresented God to the people and had them bound with empty religious rituals.

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Be encouraged, God is for you not against you. He loves you just the way you are and He is not shocked by anything you’ve done, He knows everything about you and He loves you with an everlasting, perfect love. His loves towards you doesn’t fluctuate, it is always perfect. His arms are wide open to you at all times. 

Believe in the Lord Jesus and begin to experience His promise of eternal and abundant life now. Blessings!     

ABIDE IN HIS WORD...Your Freedom Depends on it!

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³¹ Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” – John 8:31-32 NRSV

Beloved, here Jesus was talking to Jews who were versed in all the Jewish Scriptures from Genesis to Malachi as well as in other non-canonical Jewish writings. They were no strangers to The Law, the Prophets and the Psalms.

Notice this: Jesus didn't say to them “If you continue in the Scriptures…” He said “if you continue in My word”.  

Now in John 6:63 the Lord Jesus reveals to us that His words are both spirit and life. It gets better…Today He is in us by His Spirit, therefore we have His life within us, so we'll do well to acquaint ourselves with the Spirit of Christ aka The Holy Spirit who lives in us. We are His temple, His dwelling place, His habitation.

Let us do ourselves a huge favor and pay attention to what Jesus is saying to us for our very lives depend on His specific word to us. To enjoy the freedom that is ours in Christ, that is freedom from sin and it's effects as well as freedom from the Old Covenant Law and all its accompanying requirements, we must continue, abide and remain in His word and how can we do that unless we first hear what He is saying in us and to us.

When He was being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, Jesus said:

⁴ Jesus answered, “Scripture says, ‘A person cannot live on bread alone but on every word that God speaks.’”– Matthew 4:4 GW

Beloved, the quality of our lives depends on what we do with EVERY WORD that God speaks to us. We know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17). We hear what Christ is saying before faith can spring up in our hearts, and that ability to hear Christ doesn't come through just some random Scripture – no it comes through a specific WORD from CHRIST.  Faith for what He says to you comes with HIS WORD, never apart from it. And we can hear His voice for He is our Shepherd and we are His sheep (John 10:27).

Walking in freedom starts with knowledge of the truth and knowledge of the truth comes from abiding in the Word of Christ. The level of freedom we walk in is directly proportional to the truth we know and live by, the more truth we know and continue in, the more liberty we enjoy.

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The Lord has wonderful plans and purposes for our lives, now for us to know them and to walk in them we will have to hear His Word, obey it and continue in it. Let us stop listening to the lies of the enemy, we are no longer under the sway of sin nor are we bound by the Old Covenant Law that was rendered obsolete by the establishment of the New Covenant that was inaugurated by the precious Blood of the Son of God.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Let us continue in His Word and get to know Him intimately then our lives will be fruitful bringing glory to the Father. No wonder The Good Book tell us "those who know their God will do exploits..." - It's all for His glory of course! Blessings!

Oh! That We May Truly Know HIM – 3

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Beloved, Jesus came to reveal God as ”Abba” Daddy to us and to reconcile us to Him. Now the very word “Abba” (or the English equivalent would be “Daddy” how little kids would call their dads, not so much the formal “Father”) is a rather intimate relational word. It implies a closeness, a special bond and likeness if you will, between the one calling and the One being called Abba.

Today, many people, believers and even unbelievers, casually refer to God as “Father” without even thinking twice. Many are clueless of what such a reference implies. Back in those days no one dared to call God their Father, no wonder the Jews wanted to stone Jesus, for He called God His Father, and by doing that He (Jesus) made Himself equal with God.

¹⁸ Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but (JESUS) ALSO SAID THAT GOD WAS HIS FATHER, MAKING HIMSELF EQUAL WITH GOD. – John 5:18 NKJV (emphasis added)

Now, remember the “Lord’s Prayer” – Jesus instructed His disciples to address God as “Our Father”  and after His resurrection from the dead, He said to Mary Magdalene:

                

¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to MY FATHER AND YOUR FATHER, AND TO MY GOD AND YOUR GOD – John 20:17 NKJV (emphasis added)

Now that you are a child of God, you can boldly call God your Father and enjoy the Father-child privileges that are now rightfully yours and of course as with any normal functional family, there are family chores and responsibilities that are part and parcel of your Family life.  

You become a child of God by believing in Jesus, believing that He took our sin which had come between us and God on His own body on the cross and put it away once and for all and in doing so He reconciled us to God. When we believe in Jesus we are accepted and pleasing to God, not because of anything we have done but because of what Jesus did. We do not need to perform to earn brownie points with God; we are His beloved children, so we can come freely and boldly before him knowing we are eternally and perfectly loved.

²⁶ For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. – Galatians 3:26 NKJV 

   

As children of God, sons and daughters, we are led by His Spirit who now resides in us.

¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of         God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, - Romans 8:14-16 NKJV

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Now having been made children of God, His Spirit lives in us, we have become His dwelling place, His habitation, His address if you will. In the Old Covenant they had the Tabernacle and later the Temple and God’s presence was in the Holy of Holies. Today, God lives in you, He said it and He meant it. These are not just some nice words to make us feel good, no, this is as real and as true as it gets beloved!

It is therefore in our best interest not to just get acquainted with Our Abba Father who now lives in us, but to get intimate with Him. So getting to know God and to live this life with Him is what we should be majoring in. Blessings!

TO BE CONTINUED >>>

Oh! That We May Truly Know HIM – 2

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Beloved, as we continue to explore how we can actually know God this side of eternity, let us take a look at the Scriptures and establish a few things. I believe and am fully convinced that God wants us to know Him, that’s His heart, that’s His desire and that to us is Eternal Life itself. Even though we are we've all heard phrases like “God works in mysterious ways”, “we can never really figure God out” and we even quote those popular verses in Isaiah that say, and I quote:

                ⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
         neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
                ⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
        so are my ways higher than your ways
        and my thoughts than your thoughts. – Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV

See there it is, we can never really know God, we can never really know His thoughts nor His ways, all we can do is just trust Him! So we conclude and console ourselves….but is it so, beloved? Well, I think not…at least not quite, not exactly…just hang on now!

When reading the Good Book, it is important to keep in mind a few things:

One – What Covenant is operational at that time,

Two - Who is speaking,

Three – Who is the intended audience,

Four – What is being said and

Five – Is it applicable to us today? If yes, then how?

Not paying attention to these pointers will almost always result in us incorrectly dividing the Word and that to our own detriment.

Moses asked to know God and God said sure and that was under the Old Covenant, Moses spoke from the understanding that he had God’s grace on Him and was pleasing to Him, I mean the Lord spoke to him “face to face”, isn't that close enough? Not to Moses, he couldn't get enough of God…

Here’s how the exchange went…

² Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me.Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ ¹³ Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, SHOW ME NOW YOUR WAY, THAT I MAY KNOW YOU and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”

¹⁴ And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”       – Exodus 33:12-14 NKJV (emphasis added)

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Moses’ request was granted, for the psalmist records:

⁷ HE MADE KNOWN HIS WAYS TO MOSES,
His acts to the children of Israel. – Psalm 103:7 NKJV (emphasis added)

Moses wasn't content with just God knowing him intimately; he also wanted to know God more and more. The grace of God on his life was not in vain. Beloved if Moses was favored (graced) and pleasing to God to the point of being that bold in his communion with the Lord, shouldn't we – who have a better Covenant, built on better promises – be bolder in our pursuit of knowing Him to whom all praise is due?

TO BE CONTINUED >>>

Oh, That We May Truly Know HIM!

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¹⁷ Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! – 2 Corinthians 5:17 AMP

When we hear the Good News of what God has done for us through Christ and we believe that Jesus was raised from the dead and confess Him as our Lord we become brand new creations. On the outside we might still look the same, have the same physical features and all, but inwardly we have been transformed into a brand new species that has never existed before. Our spirits are alive and joined to God, we've become one with Deity! As mind boggling as it may sound, that is exactly what happens when one is born of God and the Scriptures are pretty clear…Paul didn’t mince words when he said:

                ¹⁷ But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with     Him. – 1 Corinthians 6:17 AMP

Now that we are one spirit with God, we have His Spirit in us, we can and should endeavor to know Him and the best way to know someone is to start hanging out with them, spending time with them! Let us make it a priority to spend time with God through reading, studying and meditating on His Word, in prayer and in fellowship with other like minded saints. Let’s find out what our Abba Father is up to and be part of it where we are. Let us allow God’s Word to shape our thinking and our lives, and if we do, the Word will renew our minds and then we can confidently say with the Apostle Paul, “we have the mind of Christ”!

Beloved, through knowing God and His promises to us we become partakers of His divine nature – 2 Peter 1:3-4 comes to mind. The importance of knowing Him and that is – knowing Him correctly – cannot be overemphasized, for Jesus

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Himself while praying to His Father said this:

        ³ And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only  true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.– John 17:3 NKJV

We now have this awesome privilege of knowing the Father and knowing Christ intimately; and that my friends, is eternal life, which shouldn't be limited to or confused with living forever. Knowing God now becomes our never ending pursuit and delight; and will be throughout eternity.

The more we pursue knowing God and knowing Christ, the more we realize there is still much much more of Him to discover and enjoy...never a dull moment...life becomes a whole lot more exciting and fun, not to mention the impact on us and those we come across is eternal and the Father receives all the glory! Is it any wonder that the Apostle Paul's one desire was "that I may know Him..." (Philippians 3:10), even after all the revelations and encounters he had experienced? 

May knowing God and knowing Christ our desire, preoccupation and obsession in 2015! Blessings!