God’s dream

As I sat praying to the Lord today and asking Him to have His way with my life; wanting to know what was His desire for my life? What was His will and wanting to fulfill it? I began to ponder “what is it about my life that God so desired that He would pay such a high price as the LIFE of His very own SON!  Why would God go to such an extreme to purchase me back? Of course, I know the OBVIOUS which is I was His from the beginning and He has every right to take back what was rightly His; His desire to have a family so that He could lavish His love on them and more. But other than the OBVIOUS why…what moved His heart so that He willingly made himself nothing, taking the form of a HUMBLE SERVANT and became a MAN (Phil 2:7).  In John 17:5 He even asks the Father to glorify Him with the glory that He had before the world existed. Are you hearing me…does this not imply that the LORD, Jesus Christ, gave up His glory to become a Servant; a servant to and for His Father to redeem mankind. What then? Why? It has to be more than the obvious. It has to be for more than what we have been fed from the church’s menu. The delicacies from this menu are filled with “blessings” and they are not the blessings of the “beatitudes” which is found in the Sermon on the Mount. Rather, these blessings are of those that constantly tell me that I am blessed and highly favored of the Lord and God has plans to “give” me all the (material) blessings that I want. When good things happen to or for me such as finding the right mate, getting a promotion on my job, increased finances, having a nice home, nice cars, rearing obedient, outstanding children, even being in good health and more then it clearly identifies me as being “blessed and highly favored of the Lord.” Now, mind you, I don’t have a problem with these things because all throughout the Bible we can see where God delights in blessing His children. BUT! Is this the dream of God’s heart? Is that it? Did God send His Son to die to give me things? Did Jesus die just so that I could have a luxurious, worry free, happy, woohoo, I’m better than you lifestyle. Am I supposed to become rich, wealthy, and full of the blessings of God just to be able to show people that I belong to God or is there more?

Throughout the Christian community there is an increased emphasis on the fact that the world is in chaos and that greater chaos is coming. This scripture (amongst many) is proof enough of that and to me it seems that those material things will not mean a hill of beans when the shakings increase....

Heb 12:26  At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens."

With that being said does it not strike the heart as to there being something more to being a child of God other than my ability to prove that I am “blessed and highly favored of the Lord” by all of the goods that I have accumulated through my prosperous well paying, easy going, job or my increased finances-riches, or better yet my bragolicious, boastful, (unknowingly) prideful, tithing which gives me a RIGHT to God’s blessings.  Before I go on let me say this: I CAN NOT EARN MATERIAL BLESSINGS FROM GOD…WHEN HE DIED…THEY CAME WITH THE PACKAGE…ACCORDING TO HIS WORD…HE HAS GIVEN US EVERYTHING THAT PERTAINS TO LIFE AND GODLINESS and for the naysayers and religious who will roll their necks and say…well why are there children of God who seem to be in want and need? Why are there children of God who suffer and more?  Well, I say, read the BOOK meaning the BIBLE and you will see WHY.

In my search to understand more fully “why” God would go to such lengths as to take on “flesh;” I have come to believe that God has a dream for my life. That there is something inside the heart and mind of God that delights Him so and He desires to bring it to pass through me.  I believe that this dream although it encompasses blessings has more to do with God being made known in the earth.  That God desires to be seen in the earth and that He has chosen to be seen through ME. God is more than big houses, fine cars, fat bank accounts, and other material things that we acquire in an effort to prove to the world that we belong to Christ.  There is an image that the LORD is looking to restore in the earth and this is why He died as far as I am concerned (you see I am speaking for myself here) and that image is HIS IMAGE and HIS LIKENESS. Before the fall of man God prepared a place in a garden that was said to be good and very good for such a one who would be fashioned in HIS IMAGE and HIS LIKENESS.  Why did God do that? I believe (and again I speak for myself) that the LORD longs to come to earth AGAIN and walk and talk with us the way He did before so that the people who are sitting in darkness will see HIS GREAT LIGHT-HIS GLORY. To me those who are blinded by the god of this world, bound in prisons of pain, sickness, despair, discouragement, anger, rage, deception, and more would be helped in a greater way through encountering God than encountering those of us who are so caught up and bound by the self- focused Christianity message that we are being constantly fed.  

I believe that there is a call for God’s children to make an about face or better yet remove the cart from in front of the horse and let him lead. I believe that the Lord desires a people who will stop talking about dying to their flesh and do it.  In other words, return to TRUTH and HIS WAY. Let Holy Spirit take His rightful place in our lives and begin to instruct us, to reveal to us the dream that is on the heart of God.  This dream has to include “perfection and holiness.” This dream has to include living our lives as Jesus did when He walked the earth. Impossible to do, I think not, Jesus showed us that it truly is possible to live in this world but not be “of” it.

LORD, there is so much of ME, MY, and I that is so very much alive…and I know that this is a scary prayer to pray because it will cost me...ME.  But I cost you…YOU. Holy Spirit come and teach me, help me, show me, how to become the very fulfillment of the dream of God’s heart. Help me to yield to the molding of His mighty hand as He once again forms His IMAGE and LIKENESS in me.

Until He Returns

Anemone

As “in the days of Noah?”

 (Note: I received this while in the Prayer Room on 4-10-11 and felt impressed to write about it but I forgot and today it was confirmed when I received a phone call telling me of a drama that was done in a church in Alabama on yesterday about “the days of Noah.”)

“God-Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever?” Heb 13:8

 God-Jesus, “the Righteous Judge?”2 Tim 4:8; Rev 19:11

Mt. 24:37-39; 1 Pe 3:18-20

According to 1 Peter 3:20 only eight souls were saved by water.  It is by this same water that we are saved now…the water which is the WORD of God…Jesus declared that He was the Living Water. Just as Jesus went into the depths of the earth and preached the gospel to those in prison – 1 Pe 3:19…He is doing the same now through His anointed “preachers of righteousness” who preach the message of the CROSS. BUT, are we hearing? Are we yet so asleep, or have we become so dull by the preaching of the Bless me-give me – Santa Claus gospel until we are unable to receive TRUTH.  Have our ministers, preachers, men/women of God, priests, shepherds become like Eli, so FAT and BLIND from living off of the good things of God’s house that they are unable or rather refuse to deal with their sons and daughters for fear of losing their contributions when they know that their behavior does not bring glory to our Holy God. Have we watered down the gospel so much so and made it suitable for our taste that we are refusing to see the God of the BIBLE?  Don’t get me wrong…He is a very GOOD, KIND, and LOVING GOD. Yet, He says in His WORD that He is the same God and He changes not. Let’s reason together for a second. According to scripture the last days will be as “in the days of Noah,” well what does that mean? It means take a look around with your own eyes, listen or watch your local news, ride around your local city, look at that which is offered as entertainment…nothing is off limits now…it’s all or nothing. Does this not clearly speak of the same as “in the days of Noah?”

The Righteous Judge

First of all let me clarify something here, I believe that God’s judgment and wrath was poured out upon His son for the sin of mankind. I prefer to see this as a divine exchange, my wretchedness, darkness, iniquity, SIN, for His righteousness, glory, and more.  I am the redeemed of the Lord and I have received His mercy, grace, and forgiveness that came THROUGH HIS SON’S DEATH ON THE CROSS therefore, I do not stand in fear of His righteous judgment and neither should you if you have embraced the work of the CROSS, made the exchange… His life for your death.  His love for me causes me to love Him and this cycle of love from Him to me and me to Him produces obedience to His Will and His Word causing my faith to be anchored and strengthens my foundation…it is the rock upon which I stand. His love has not imprisoned me but given me freedom. Not freedom as a license to do whatever I want to do but a desire to live and be who He created me to be.  A child, a bride, a friend, and lover of God.  With that being said, it does not change the TRUTH that God is still a Righteous Judge and because He cannot be anything other than WHO He is. He has to judge wickedness. In the days of Noah it is written that “it grieved the heart of God that He had made man-(Gen 6:6).”  As then so now the wickedness of man does in fact grieve the heart of God.  If you don’t believe this then take a look at the scene of Jesus on the cross. The word states that Jesus cried out when feeling forsaken by God as He hung there bearing God’s wrath because of our sin….our-my sin upon His Son.  God, the Son, grieved. If we are permitted to continue in our liberties living as if there are no consequences for our behavior then God killed His Son for nothing.  God has to judge wickedness…WHY…because the price for it has been paid...and the price was God’s own LIFE.           

The Bible calls Noah a “preacher of righteousness.” The righteous message declared that something never seen nor heard of before was going to take place and that God was vying for their deliverance.  It stands to reason that God is gracious and longsuffering for we know that it took Noah at least 100 years to complete the building of the Ark. The same resistance to Noah’s message in the days of old exists today in what the Bible calls “the last days.”  God has begun to raises up  voices that are speaking of things that are in direct conflict with the Santa Claus, bless me-give me gospel and there will be resistance.

Noah, his family, and the animals (I believe that this speaks of every tribe, tongue, and nation-remember Peter on the roof of the tanner house) entered INto the Ark. The Ark represented a place of safety, protection, deliverance. The Ark spoke of God as a refuge, a shelter in a time of storm, a place where life is preserved.  The Ark was God’s righteous dwelling place that He prepared through Noah for His creation. The righteous message: Judgment upon the earth, because of “sin,” will take place BUT God has a place prepared for those who will enter in and find safety. Yet, unbelief and doubt caused the people to harden their hearts, close their eyes, and shut their ears up from hearing this and do business as usual. WHAT are the true preachers of righteousness crying out today? The message of repentance, the message of being a friend of the Bridegroom, the message of true holiness, the message of love which leads to obedience, the message of death to self and living unto a Holy God, the message of turning away from the things of this world and living for another day, the message of understanding that we are eternal beings and not merely here to live for our own self-gratification, the message that Jesus is going to return again.  BUT will we miss Him like His own (the Jews) who rejected Him because He did not come as they EXPECTED. The Jews were expecting a KING…but He came as a SERVANT, a LAMB…are we EXPECTING the humble man who rose from the grave and ascended into heaven? He is coming back, as the King of Kings and LORD of Lords, with eyes like a flame of fire. It is written…I did not make that up.

The message of RIGHTEOUSNESS today is “THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS”…the ARK today is...JESUS.  He is our Ark of safety, protection, deliverance, salvation, redeemer, and the propitiation for our sin, our peace, our righteousness, our life.  We are told that our lives are “HIDDEN” IN HIM. To me this means that not only must I receive the Lamb of God as my Savior but I must also enter INto Him in order to have life. Better yet, in order for me to know who I am I must discover who I am IN Him. With that being said I find peace in that the message of the cross anchors my house, my dwelling place, which is “IN” Jesus, who is the rock, and rest assured the rains are coming and only the house that is built on the ROCK will remain standing…just as only those who were IN Noah’s Ark were able to survive the storm.

One of the saddest things to me is something I believe grieves the heart of God and that is this:

Upon providing a way of escape from death there are those who will refuse The WAY and yet BLAME God when He permits them to reap what they have sown.

Until He Returns......