John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth came through Jesus Christ."
It can be hard to look at our natural life, with all our shortcomings, and then see what God's Word says about our new creation life. We're all aware of our faults and how we're not worthy or righteous in ourselves to deserve God's Blessing. When we continue to see who we once were, instead of seeing who God has made us to be, we feel unworthy and don't feel righteous. God doesn't charge us or see us in our own worth or righteousness, but He sees us in Jesus Christ. Remember, you were worth so much to God, that He gave Jesus to gain you back. You have worth to Him!
This is Truth and Grace. This is the family covenant we've entered into with God. Grace is after all, unearned, undeserved favor. The Father didn't birth children into this earth and then decide which ones were worthy. The Word tells us that, "None were worthy, no not one."
This is why it's so important that we renew our minds by God's Word. Romans 12:2 (Amplified) says, "Do not be conformed to this world (this age, fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs), but be transformed (changed) by the entire renewal of your mind, by its new ideals and its new attitude, so that you may prove for yourselves what is the Good and acceptable and perfect will of God (even the thing which is Good and acceptable and perfect in His eyes for you)."
When you read the Word with a new and changed mind, as God's children and not just someone He pities, you will see Him as "Father" and not only as God. I didn't take care of my children out of pity, but I did so because I loved them. I never gave them just enough food to prevent their starving, but I gave them enough to make them grow into strong and able adults. Our Heavenly Father doesn't put us on rations, but He has given us His Very Self, according to 2Peter 1:3 (Amplified) which says, "For His Divine Power has bestowed upon us all things that are requisite and suited to life and Godliness, through the full, personal knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His Own Glory and Excellence (Virtue)."
We've somehow limited God's Word for being, "someday when we go to Heaven," and dismissed much of it as for here and now, on earth. What we see, feel or think about what God's Word says, doesn't change the Truth of His Word. We've allowed the teaching of the Law and the world to enter into our thinking, failing to recognize God's Word is Truth. If healing, salvation, the Holy Spirit or the Blessing of Abraham don't come to you, then we need to be humble enough to realize that we missed it and it wasn't God Who missed it.
God's Word tells us, "It's impossible to please God without faith" and God meant that. Trying to obtain God's Grace any other way is not pleasing to Him. Grace is a Gift and a Spiritual Blessing and must be received by faith. Paul writes in Galatians 5:4 (Amplified), "If you seek to be justified and declared righteous and to be given a right standing with God through the Law, you are brought to nothing and so separated (severed) from Christ. You have fallen away from Grace (from God's Gracious favor and unmerited Blessing)." Paul's message might sound harsh and not given in love, but he preached from a Revelation he received directly from Jesus.
Few are walking in the full Law of Moses, but are walking in laws that we've must abide by, in order to qualify us to receive God's favor and Blessing. Many of these laws deal with how to dress and our outward appearance, like mentioned in 1Peter 3:3-4. Peter didn't say you couldn't wear such and such, but he said we're not to let people be drawn to you because of things we wear. People should be drawn to us, because of the inward beauty of our spirit (the Holy Spirit and the beauty of God's Love in our hearts). Wearing jewelry has nothing to do with our pleasing God or wearing jewelry, because these are simply man's ideas of holiness and have nothing to do with Holiness.
We don't transgress with our words, because we wish to be pleasing to God and honor His Word in our lives. When we confess that we trust Him and then say things that are in opposition to His Word, we're displaying our lack of trust in Him. This is exactly what the Israelites in the Wilderness did. God wanted to deliver them by His Grace and His Promise to Abraham, but they instead trusted in their own efforts and devices, according to Exodus 2:23-24 (Amplified) which says, "However after a long time (nearly forty years), the king of Egypt died; and the Israelites were sighing and groaning because of the bondage. They kept crying, and their cry because of slavery ascended to God. And God heard their sighing and groaning and earnestly remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob."
This was a God's covenant of Grace that was given before the Law was made and was based on faith and the Promise was sure. Hebrews 4:1-2 (Amplified) tells us, "Therefore, while the Promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered today, let us be afraid to distrust it lest any of you should think he has come too ate and has come short of reaching it For indeed we have had the Glad tidings of the Gospel of God proclaimed to us jut as truly as they (the Israelites) of old did when the good news of deliverance from bondage came to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith, with the leaning of the entire Personality of God in absolute trust and confidence in His Power, Wisdom, and Goodness by those who heard it; neither were they united in faith with the ones (Joshua and Caleb), who heard and did believe."
The people in the Wilderness provoked God, by not speaking His Word and murmuring against what He said, until it destroyed them. We're to speak God's Word out of respect for Who He is and in order to be pleasing to Him. In the covenant of Grace, we're to trust, rely on, have faith in and agree with God's Word, instead of finding our own ways of disagreeing with Him. If God says that, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus," then that is what I am. God told Abraham, "You are the father of a multitude," when Abraham didn't have any children. Abraham changed and agreed with God's Word, calling himself "the Father of a multitude," by faith.
Today, we see the fulfillment of that Promise God made to Abraham and even though Abraham has gone to be with the Lord, the Promise continues working like God said. Galatians 3:14 (Amplified) says, "To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing Promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we, through faith might all receive the realization of the Promise of the Holy Spirit." The Promise God made to Abraham of his being "the father of a multitude," is still growing years after Abraham has gone, IN JESUS.
Don't limit God to "being God only in Heaven," because He desires to be God in and on this earth, through faithfulness in His Word to us, through Jesus. He is God of Heaven and earth. We've limited His doing so many things through us and for us, because we don't have faith like Abraham did and simply trust Him. God changed Abram's name to Abraham and Abraham called himself what God called him. God has also changed our name as His children and He expects us to call ourselves what He calls us, in faith. It didn't matter that Abraham had no children. He called himself the "father of a multitude," even before Sara had a child.
In John 1:22-23 (Amplified), John the Baptist was asked, "What then, are you Elijah? and he said, I am not! Are you the Prophet? And he answered, No! Then they said to him, Who are you? Tell us, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying aloud in the wilderness (the voice of one shouting in the desert), Prepare the way of the Lord (level, straighten out the path of the Lord), as the prophet Isaiah said." John was quoting Isaiah 40:3 (Amplified) which says, "A voice of one who cries; Prepare in the wilderness the way of the Lord (clear away the obstacles, make straight and smooth in the desert a highway for our God)."
Notice how John the Baptists called himself what God called him. He never said, "I'm the son of Zachariah and Elizabeth," but he said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." This is what God called him and just like Abraham did, John called himself what God called him. We must also call ourselves what God calls us. Why do we deny what God has called us, by saying what everyone else thinks our name should be? Let's allow God to fulfill His call on us, by extending His Word and Promise to us, like He did with John and Abraham.
No comments:
Post a Comment