We Are His Inheritance

(Ps.127, Eph. 1:18)

We often hear and pray that the Lord would give us the nations as an inheritance.  We ask in a way that the nations are our inheritance.  This is appropriate and true as we are, and are becoming, one with Jesus and our Father.  Consider that this was the prayer of Christ Himself to the Father, that we would be an inheritance for Himself.  He later prayed for those that the Father had given Him, that we would all be one.  The Son did nothing of Himself.  Such a unity, such a oneness, such a glory between the Father and the Son.  As believers, we are invited to be a part of that.  If we say yes to Him in whatever He calls us to, and continue to say yes, He will make it happen.  He is the author and perfecter, the finisher, of faith.

Children are the heritage of the Lord.  How happy is the man whose quiver is full of them.  This is written in the Psalms.  Lots of children around the table and the daddy rejoicing over, actually enjoying His children.  What a picture of a great family.  But see it from His perspective now.  This speaks of the Lord Himself, our Father, rejoicing over us.  We are that heritage, His inheritance.  Out of every nation, every natural tribe, every ethnic group, He has called and drawn a people for Himself.  He has caused us to be born of another life, the life that is in His Son, Jesus Christ.  As Peter wrote for us, we are His possession, a nation of kings and priests to Him.

Consider this.  What does one do with an inheritance?  Some may spend it all on themselves.  Some may give it all away.  What does our Father in heaven do?  He gives us away.  First to Jesus Himself.  He prayed for the ones that God had given Him.  He prayed first for those who were His direct and close companions, and then for all those who believe through their word.  Words are important.  How will they hear except someone preach, and how will we preach unless we know, truly know, we are sent?  Yes, some things are worth repeating.  We have mentioned that the gifts He gives are those apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists, we think of as being in ministry.  If they are genuine and fulfill their calling, they help raise us up to do the work of the ministry with them.  All of us taking our places as He, the head over all to the church, assigns and places us.

We have referred to the bride of Christ.  We together are His body, His church, His bride.  Ultimately, this is the finish, the crown for the Lord Jesus Himself to fully receive.  He will see the end of His trouble, the day of Jacob’s trouble, what we hear to be that final tribulation.  Some, as said to the church of Philadelphia, will be spared the trouble, intense trouble, that is about to come on the whole world.  It has been coming, and has been here in measure, but we understand it will yet intensify.  It is all to secure every member of His body as fully ready.  I think that only He knows what that really means.  Only He knows what she, that glorious bride, will really look like.  She is all glorious within.  Sometimes I think, because it is an inward beauty that attracts the Lord, only He will recognize when she is ready.  Many of us will not be aware.

We began this series of writings concerning the spiritual riches that Christ is and His giving of Himself to and for us.  We have touched on only the surface of these truths.  Our intent has been to stir more hunger, more love to pursue Him.  He has always been pursuing us.  As He catches us, opens our eyes, and transforms us, we become the inheritance.  We, together, are becoming the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.  This His reward.  As He said to Abraham, “I AM your exceeding great reward.”  And we are His reward.  That is the end of the age, a bride ready, truly filled with the fullness of Him who fills all in all.  Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Sons Are Sent

(John 20:21)

As disciples grow in spiritual maturity, their responsibility increases.  They will be sent with greater authority and works of power will follow after them.  I must admit, something here I do not yet understand.  How can some do miracles in His name and yet He later denies them?  He says that He never knew them.  I do not believe this is said simply as a sort of warning.  Note that their emphasis is on what they did.  “Look at us,” they say to the One who is worthy of all glory.  It appears they never saw Him for who He truly is.

As we mature we understand that we, like Jesus, learn obedience by the things, circumstances and experiences that we allow, and bear with.  They can be painful, more than unpleasant.  These are the means of our growing.  Jesus had Himself sent out the disciples as 12, and another time He sent 70.  He told the disciples that He was bringing us to the Father.  Even more, His prayer in John 17 is that we would be one with the Father and one with one another.  Remember, Jesus included all who believe on Him in that prayer.  How awesome!  How wonderful!  The time was coming for the disciples when they would ask Him no more but ask the Father, and He, our Father, would work on their behalf.  Of course, we are not leaving Jesus out of this.  He is at the right hand of our Father.  Jesus said that WE (Himself, and the Father) would come to the ones, the people and disciples, who wanted Him and THEY would make their abode in them.  He and the Father make their home in us by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.  Jesus has become a life giving Spirit.

We have written earlier that we are His sons being brought to glory.  Is our goal an earthly ministry full of signs and wonders?  Beware!  Jesus’ end on this earth was an answer to His cry to be returned to the glory He knew with His Father.  For us, the Spirit gives us foretastes of that glory.  As Jesus neared the time of His full return to our Father, He spoke to them and breathed on them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  This was before the outpouring, the immersion of those 120, and possession of them, in and by the Holy Spirit.  They experienced something more that day in Jerusalem.  Many others have known such experiences.  I have written before of my own experiences and many others have also known the fillings, and breakthroughs, and increases of authority and power in their lives.

Recently, I spoke with a young woman, a believer with a love for Jesus.  We spoke about some historical movements in the church.  When I mentioned that which we have called the charismatic movement, she responded matter-of-factly, “That is subject to interpretation.”  Now she held the Moravians and Zinzendorf in high regard as many of us do.  Yet she seemed unaware of their own Pentecostal experience that truly set them ablaze with a holy passion for the name of Jesus.  Without criticism, we yet pray for the Holy Spirit to cause our spirits to rise above our intellects.  He will bring that revealing of the One, Christ, and release a fuller flow of life to those around us.  We will know that we live in the Father’s presence and experience the growth of our inner man, Christ in us.

As we know more of that glory as we stand in grace before His throne, our corruptions are displaced and we stand in His pure righteousness alone.  From that place, He can send us filled with His Spirit, with the mind of Christ and the heart of our Father.  Then we will truly do His will as the Spirit directs us.  The word becomes flesh in us.  We walk as He walked.  Perfectly?  We do not know what His idea of that is for each of us until we get there.  Will you allow Him to refine you as you continue to come to Him?  Only He can complete that work in you.  He wants to.  He loves you with an everlasting, wonderful love.  It is worth all the pain and all the tears.  He takes that all away.  And we hear and know, we experience being sent as His sons.  As Jesus said, “Peace to you!  As the Father sent me, so I send you.”  May we know the continual filling of the Holy Spirit so that we overflow to the praise of the glory of the Father.

Disciples Are Sent

(Matt. 28:16-19)

Jesus closes His time on the earth with this instruction, this commission, this commandment as it is called, to go and preach and make disciples.  Who was His audience?  His closest disciples whom He had earlier called friends.  These had previously been related to Him as students and as servants, and as their relationship had grown closer, more intimate, He called them friends.  One cannot take such a name on themselves.  We sometimes use the term “friend” too lightly.  In the letter to the Hebrews, it says He is not ashamed to call us His brothers.  Friend is close to being family.  This is the progression we seek, to be truly part of God’s family, in thought, word, and deed.  Maturity is a fullness of oneness with Him. He desires it and works in us toward that goal, more than we sometimes are aware.

The disciples had spent three years of intense training with the Lord Jesus.  We have written earlier about the need for time in God’s presence.  Training through relationship is essential and time must be invested.  Time is our greatest investment.  May the Lord teach us to number our days that we may acquire wisdom.  In Western, especially American, culture we number our hours and even minutes.  We are prisoners too often of our watches.  Smith Wigglesworth declared that when Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead, time ended and eternity began.  I believe that.  We, as His people, need to move in that direction so that He holds and directs our hours and minutes.

No absolute time frame exists for our training before He may send us.  The simple point is again to emphasize that we must first hear His call to Himself, and then to hear Him send us.  Otherwise we should not move outside of those clear responsibilities of family and neighbors and communities.  Family is our training and proving ground.  It was so for Jesus.  What did He do until He was 30?  Certainly we also grow in every interaction outside of the family walls.  How do we relate to coworkers, people on the street, drivers on the road?  We typically begin our assignments from the Lord Himself in our personal Jerusalem.  To some who wanted to follow Him, Jesus sent them to the places they had been living, or to the priests as a testimony.

Are we following the Lamb of God wherever He leads us?  First, the disciples, and we as the same, followed Him.  They watched, they learned.  They would not have thought of going anywhere else but to be near Him.  That did not change after Pentecost.  Those who are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God.  For myself, I want to follow the Lamb wherever He leads.  In the process, I have found, He leads us to the Father.  When we arrive there, we behold His glory.  This can be ever increasing.  That is His intention.  Jesus said He wants to bring His disciples to the Father.  Once there, they are disciplined by Him as sons.  At the throne we are made to be more and more like that first born of many sons, to be like Jesus.  Then the Father sends us with, in, and filled by His Spirit to do His will.  To do whatever He shows us, tells us, to do.

He who wills to do His will, that one will know when the motivation is from Him.  We all have anointing, that is those who recognize Jesus as one who was sent Himself by God to bring us back to the One who is our Father.  Why would anyone not want to say yes to that?  But, each of us, at some time or another, has resisted that.  Something we saw as true was too hurtful, too costly to buy by simply saying yes to Him.  Buy the truth and sell it not is the King James version of an exhortation.  You search it out if you want to find and read it for yourself.  Whatever it costs you is not worth keeping in comparison to where He will take you in this life.  And it will add to what you gain for that life beyond this one.  Disciples are those who learn of Him and are sent.  Come to Him and He will teach you, and send you.  Then we all learn something more.  The son learns by the things He allows.  Allow is another word for “suffer.”  Think on that.

Sent Ones

(Isaiah 6)

Most people in the Western evangelical world are familiar with the passage I refer to above.  If you have not read it before, I urge you to do so before you continue here.  Isaiah has what we might call, to use some common language, an over the top experience.  God’s call on his life and purpose for him was extreme.  I have heard he was ultimately sawn in two by the religious leaders of his day because of the message he was given to deliver.  To prepare him, the Lord brought him into a visionary experience where he saw the glory of God.  This man was not one who had no faith or relationship with God beforehand.  It is implied and we believe it to be true, that Isaiah was saddened over the death of the king Uzziah.  With such a change, the people, Israel, were in transition.  Isaiah, in the awesome presence of God hears the Lord say, “Who will go for us, whom shall we send.”

I have heard this repeated many times as a means to move believers to go out into the world to spread the gospel.  But what are we spreading?  Have we been sent by Him?  Isaiah was not a novice when he was called.  Consider another prophet, Elijah.  I may have mentioned him before, but some things are worth repeating.  He appears on the scene in dramatic fashion with the words, “the God before whom I stand.”  Do we have that relationship with the Lord?  Do we know Him like that?  Elijah suddenly appears at a time when Israel had been separated from Jerusalem, God’s center in the earth at that time.  God was still working to gather people back to Himself including Ahab, the king of Israel.  One needs to read that story concerning the prophet and Ahab and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal truth for the reader.

To have and use the authority that Elijah had, he had spent much time in God’s very presence.  Yes, we have no details regarding that but I think it is not possible to wield that power without such a relationship.  Later, God’s approval of His servant is publicly displayed when He answers Elijah’s audacious claim that He will answer with fire.  His story is not one to simply teach us some principles of faith.  The Lord answered with literal fire, and Elijah responded with death to the prophets of Baal.  Careful here for I am in no way suggesting any of us should be putting people to physical death.  The Lord will do that if and when He chooses it.  Simply consider Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5).  In fact, He rules over the times and seasons not only of nations but of our individual lives.  The differences in our destinies lies in our response to Him when He is revealed to us, and His own sovereign rule over the days and hours of our lives.

We are told, “Today (every day) if you want to hear His voice (to know Him by real experience) don’t harden your heart (don’t stiffen up on the inside)”.  When you find yourself doing that, stop and say, “God soften my heart”.  He said He would take the stony heart out of us and give us a heart of flesh.  If we believe that, and want that, we learn to not resist Him when he speaks.  It is a process and we learn patience and long-suffering as part of growing.  We must submit to His personal, direct teaching and discipline before we are ready to be sent.  If we go without that, we speak an imperfect word at best, and a deceptive word at worst.  Jesus told the religious of His day, “You travel the world to make a convert and you make him twice a son of the devil as yourself.”

Didn’t He say to them, “Your father is the devil?”  He did not say it because He hated them.  He wanted them to see what they were so that they might turn away from it.  When we see bitterness come out of us, what do we do?  I know for me, I ask Him to search me and get the root of it out.  He will do it.  This is what we understand His refining fire, His sanctification, our growth and maturing to involve.  Faith comes by hearing. How will people believe unless they hear?  How will they hear except someone preaches, or declares it, or simply tells them?  How will they preach unless they are sent?  Whom shall He send?  He Himself will only send the ones He has prepared.

Some are mature and prepared and truly function as apostles.  They will know He has sent them and they will set His house in order.  Again, I warn us all, let no man take the title, “Apostle” to himself.  The basic meaning of that word is “sent one.”  As a brother recently wrote, we, as we hear Him, are all apostolic.  The Lord Himself knows those who are mature and fit and sends them.  Let them know and be His bond-servants, His love-slaves.  They are sent because of His love for them, and their love for Him and His people.

This is not written to discourage us from going but simply to learn to know His voice and go when and where He sends us.  He creates the hearing ear, that place in our spirits where His still, small voice registers.  I have known that inner voice to be very loud and emphatic, sometimes as a warning.  And sometimes it will come as a wake-up call.  Let our ears be those of disciples who He awakens morning by morning to be led by Him.  Those that are led by the Spirit, these are the sons of God.

Prayer and Fasting

(Isaiah 58)

As I considered this topic I referred to a book which is considered a classic on the subject of fasting. It is “God’s Chosen Fast” by Arthur Wallis and I recommend it for anyone wanting to understand fasting from God’s perspective.  For myself, I have fasted as I have been led by the Spirit over the years.  This should be our experience in our prayers as well as fasting that we are led by the Spirit for then we are progressing as sons of God (Read Romans 8).  As Arthur Wallis discusses, we should also consider practical issues related to fasting as well as spiritual.  While fasting will affect our bodies and can be uncomfortable, it should never be abusive.

The title of the book I mention is taken from the reference from Isaiah. The Lord rebukes His people for using fasting as a technique to get what they want.  Prayer, as I have heard many times recently, can be our way of trying to twist God’s arm on our behalf.  Thankfully, He often says no, or is silent.  I recall writing a similar thought not too long ago.  Some things are worth repetition.  Similar attitudes can affect our fasting.  This was God’s complaint with that people.

Many times we hear a call to corporate fasting. I have observed that this is sometimes the result of leaders are not getting the results they want, or they expect, or they think should happen.  I have been at a church where many believers came together and spent an entire Friday praying as part of a 21 fast.  Loudly they cried on and on.  I was impressed by their intensity.  Later I observed many other activities including requests for funds, even prayers to release money from my own bag.  As I got to know the leadership I heard more and more that conflicted with my spirit.  It was not aligned with what I was discerning from the Lord Himself and I had to cut myself off from that relationship for a season.

Sadly, I learned a hard lesson finding that the leader saw me as a resource to build and support his ministry. He had a heart for God and the people but he was infected with that attitude that he needed a conference center and a school and he needed the money to do it.  And he needed it now.  We must fulfill our call is our cry.  The cries of the 21-day fast were about fulfilling “apostleships” and the ministry of their church.  The mixture drowned out the heart and love for the Lord Himself.  Meekness and humility were lost in the noise.

As I reflected further on the loud voices I had heard, I was reminded of the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. If we are praying with focus on money, our hearts are divided at best, and we will receive nothing from the Lord Himself.  Jesus is walking through His churches today as He did through the churches of Asia as revealed to John on Patmos. (See Revelation 2, especially vs. 1)  He has never stopped the process of walking through the church and meeting with men and women like John to speak to His churches.  He speaks encouragement and also correction as needed.  Further, He will still flip the tables in the outer court when merchandizing replaces true prayer.

As we read the passage in Isaiah, the Lord calls us to move past fasting from food. This does not mean we never do it but the Lord makes it plain through His true servant, the prophet, that He is looking for more than the temporary fast from food.  The Spirit speaks of His sabbath.  We are encouraged to be pressing into that rest, that ceasing from our own efforts we might do His works.  The Lord, through Isaiah moves us to turn away from doing our own pleasure to doing what pleases Him on His sabbath.  Jesus has finished His work here and has taken his seat of authority in the heavenlies.  He did only what pleased our Father.  More than that He would only do what He saw the Father do; He would do nothing else.  When the people wanted to make Him king, He went the other way.

Jesus lived a whole life of prayer and fasting. He fasted permanently from His own will.  He did not come to do His own will but that of His Father.  He lived a life as a sabbath to God.  He was turned from His own desires to do the will and all the desire of the One who sent Him.  This is the reality of those who are maturing, who are growing toward the fullness that God is after.  Do we fast as a technique, or do we fast in love for the One who loved us and gave His most precious gift?  Read and consider the entire chapter 58 of Isaiah.  In Antioch, they fasted and prayed.  First, Barnabas and Saul were there for a year with other prophets and teachers (Acts 11:26, 13:1).  Later, as they worshipped the Lord, the Spirit directed them to send out Saul and Barnabas.  So they went as sent by the Holy Spirit.  May our praying and fasting bring us to the place where we hear from the Lord Himself and are directed only by His Spirit.

Prayer and Intercession-continued

(John 17)

Recently I had the opportunity to spend time with an older brother. By this I mean someone I respect as a follower of Jesus, not necessarily one older in years.  This man, Thom Gardner, has served the Lord’s people in various capacities for many years.  He recently listed the prayers of Jesus during His earthly ministry including references we often miss.

The main thrust of his review of Jesus’ prayers was this; Jesus was always in communication with His Father. This emphasizes what I shared previously.  Our life of prayer is an intimate communion with our heavenly Father.  Jesus lived and walked in this state perfectly.  We are learning to walk in it.  In recent years I have heard frequent references to Enoch.  He walked with God and he had a testimony from God Himself that he was pleasing to God.  This is the essence of our life with Him.  Is He pleased, is He satisfied?  Enoch’s walk speaks of progress, of going on wherever the Lord may lead us.  Is He not still, and forever, the Good Shepherd?  Enoch found what had been lost in the garden.  There Adam had walked with God in the cool of the day.  Regarding Enoch, we do not see a time limitation.  I believe he walked with God 24/7.  God was so pleased with that man that He simply took him home, directly into His full presence, without the experience of physical death.

If Enoch, after the fall in the garden and before the day of Noah and the flood, could know such a lifestyle and receive such a blessing, how much more is available to us.  Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. He shares that authority with us as we mature.  This is what the disciples knew.  This included the 12 but also the 70.  Later it included the 500 who saw Him alive after His resurrection, and the 120 who were in one accord in the upper room.  I expect the 120 were a part of those 500 but let us not be distracted.  The disciples grew in the knowledge, first-hand experience, of the Lord.  It reached a high point at Pentecost, when each received the Holy Spirit in a full way.  Now, we who have known Him, whatever measure of experience we may have, are included in that group of witnesses.  This is what Jesus prayed in John 17.

We have mentioned Jesus’ prayers and communion with His Father. He is now our Father.  We have the same access, yes the very same access.  We are not pure as He is pure but we are called to purify ourselves, to go on in the process toward that goal.  If we say He abides in us, we ought to walk as He walked.  Enoch came to that place.  I have read a book by a man DeVern Fromke, entitled Unto Full Stature.  The cover includes the following, “(the author) challenges the believer to expect and attain that measure of spiritual stature which God intends – though often considered impossible.  He shows how God’s provision is completely adequate for reaching this stature.”  Again, this is exactly what Jesus asked for in John 17, that we would be one as He and the Father are one.  The culmination of His time on earth was for this purpose to bring us together with Himself into such union, such harmony, such synchronization with the Father.  It is for us to believe and press into that.

The way is not impossible. It is for this He calls us so that we might be part of His ministry of intercession even in this life.  Reign in the midst of your enemies is His call to His nation of kings and priests.  We begin to know this in this life.  This is not just for the future.  I often realize that whatever that future reigning and authority and reward is about, He intends for us to be doing His works of love, compassion, healing, and deliverance now.  My hope for later is to be with Him, close to Him.  As a member of His bride, my goal, my heart is to one with Him.  What other goal is worthy of pursuit?

Prayer and Intercession

(Eph. 6:18-19, Col. 4:2-4, I Thess. 5:16-18)

Pray without ceasing. Simply stay in constant communication with the One who sits on the throne.  He remains a faithful high priest.  He is constantly our Savior.  I find as I go on after more than 40 years that I always need Him as my Good Shepherd.  Prayer is as much, or more, listening rather than speaking.  We make our requests, our needs known to Him.  This is always a part of our life with Him as our Father and we are His children.  We then listen to His response and seek understanding.

As we grow, as we mature, we come into a fuller understanding of our Father’s purposes in our lives, in the lives of our brothers and sisters in the church, and His purpose in the lives of everyone we meet. He will not involve us in things for which He has not prepared us.  If we refuse some lessons, some painful experiences, He will not involve us in certain areas.  It may be we have not refused Him, or a lesson.  It may be He has other intentions for us.  It is not for us to choose our place, or mode of service.  This happens too often, that we step into areas where He has not led us, but we also learn from such mistakes.

Missteps happen when we miss His voice. It can be that He speaks clearly but if it is so unlike a previous direction, we may simply not obey.  This can become a valuable lesson even while it may seem like a distraction or diversion.  Such mistakes are no surprise to Him and we learn to simply follow what He says.  We can ask for help to understand when it seems contrary to us.  He may the use circumstances to bring us on to a closer walk with Him.  Others will also have the opportunity to learn if they look to him for understanding as they may observe or be affected by our missing Him.

Over the years and after many lessons the Lord brings us to new levels. Some of these are gradual but some are significant promotions.  In the last few years I have experienced such a promotion.  This was not isolated to myself alone but happened in connection with new relationships among His people.  I found myself in an atmosphere of hunger for the Lord Jesus Himself.  I had been prepared for this and was accelerated because of His purpose in my life.  At such a time in our lives, the Lord, our Father, takes the initiative.  This is a truth for all true spiritual growth in our lives.  He takes the initiative and we follow.  We say yes, take His yoke on us and cooperate with Him by the Spirit.  We all know that this is never automatic because we are human, we are frail, we are flesh and blood.  He is faithful and will complete the work that He has begun.  Same idea here in this scripture; He is the initiator and we follow His lead.

So, during this promotional experience, in my spirit, I saw seats in the heavenly realm, in His presence. This was simply a revelation of the truth that we are seated with Him.  He brings us into a reality, an experience of this.  We begin to see more clearly from his perspective.  We know a greater measure of His mind, His heart, and His will.  We often think, and it is true, that we begin with the will of God but this causes us trouble.  We must then press on to know Him in His fullness.  Without His mind and heart, our doing of His will becomes a dead obedience.  As we see empty seats in the heavens and hear His call to take our seats with Him, we are brought into closer alignment with Him.

In these days the call to be with Him in the place of intercession is strong. We are hungry to sit at his feet to listen to Him.  Do you hear the call to be still and know that He is God?  Along with that I hear a cry for the fear of the Lord to return.  Yes, but we need to go on from there because the knowledge of the only One is understanding.  We need His mind and heart and the understanding, the wisdom that comes directly from Him alone.  Here is the truth concerning Issachar who knew the times and season and what the church, His bride, is to do.  Issachar is representative of sons of God today.  We are His children growing in maturity as sons to do His will.  Then we pray His heart and mind; we declare a thing and it is so because like the son, Christ Jesus, we say what we hear the Father say and do not speak from ourselves.

Judgement continued

(John 3:18-19,36, Rom. 1:18, II Cor. 2:15-16, 3:10-11)

God is faithful and just to forgive those who acknowledge their sin and walk in His light.   Some will not receive the love of the truth.  Loving the truth and walking in it go hand in hand.  Walk means to progress.  We have a destination in mind.  God has an intention for each one of us.  If we ask Him to lead us, He will do it.  We all together have a common destination.  He Himself is the destination.  No one escapes this.  He will hold each one of us accountable for what we have done.  Along the way, we can meet Him whenever we hear Him and we turn aside to see and listen.  Are we listening, or are we so distracted with this earthly existence.  We find that once we have begun the journey with and toward Him, we become hungry for more and more of the truth.

Jesus said the wrath of God remains on those who do not believe on Him. This statement taken alone, apart from the love of God displayed through Jesus Christ seems harsh, severe, and downright mean.  It is important to always remember the free gift of grace revealed at the cross.  God has shown us His love.  Refusal of it is a cause for fear.  We have seen that the Lord is gracious and gives opportunity and time for repentance.  But a limit exists.  The span of our life is limited but we ought not focus on that.  Rather, realize that we have a lifetime of opportunities to respond to His love.

At the end of time, the end of this age, we will give account for what we have done with our lives. The religious mind, which is self-centered, has misrepresented this accounting.  Jesus said plainly we would receive rewards, or recompense, based on what we have done.  He did not say what we believe, what we think, what we say, but what we have done.  This is said regarding reward, for those who gain an audience with Him in that eternal moment.  If we have not known His presence in this life, we will not have that audience.  There is a judgement before a great, white throne but we are not addressing that here except to say we will be held accountable.

Now what we think, and what we say also matter very much for out of the heart we speak. Our words originate from within based on what we think, what we ponder, what we meditate on.  If we meditate on a problem, it will be magnified and we will talk about that problem, often missing the solution which the Spirit would give us.  Our personal, internal belief system is the foundation of our lives and from that inner person will issue our words, and then ultimately our actions.  When we quiet all the negative thoughts words and actions and allow the Holy Spirit to speak faith into us we can recover.  Faith comes by hearing, by listening to the Spirit of truth.  No empty despair should rule us.  It is very simple, if we sin in thought, word, or action, go to the throne of grace and find help, restoration, healing for our souls.  As we practice these things we come to an abiding presence.  We never have to leave that place.  He will never leave us or forsake us.  He ever lives to make intercession for us.

In Revelation 21, before Jesus words about reward are recorded for us, He also said of the heavenly city that the fearful, or cowardly, and unbelieving are outside the city. Not only are they outside but they are assigned to the lake of fire.  Nothing impure or shameful will enter the city.  We might despair at this.  Which one of us has never done anything impure or shameful?  Yes, some may have avoided such as they have known Jesus from a very young age.  But who has never known a moment of fear or of unbelief.  Those are the first two sins that Jesus mentions here.  Consider that these are the first two.  It brings us back to the importance of our thoughts, our beliefs, and our doubts.  We progress in this way of learning to bring every thought, every failure to Him and let it go.

God is a righteous judge. This way of salvation, of becoming all that He intends for us to be, includes His judgements.  We need to accept and agree with Him.  This is our confession of sin, of anything that we see is short of His glory.  This is an intensely personal matter.  Intense because our God searches out every part of us.  Nothing escapes His view.  It is not for us to shift responsibility for our own actions.  To be sure, the actions of others have an effect on us, but we learn to lose offenses and stay focused on the One who can help us, and also help the offender.  In this way, we can bless our enemy.  We learn that when we see another offending the Holy Spirit, and us with Him, we can pray for them and not look to retaliate.

We live at an awesome, wonderful, and yet fearful time in history. The cosmos, the world, is approaching a critical mass.  We are more than 2000 years from the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.  He sits in an eternal dimension on a throne of authority.  This throne is a throne of grace and mercy.  He sits as the Lamb of God freshly slain.  We can live in this place.  We may have written before, the Lord said to Abraham, “Walk before me and be blameless.”  Jesus did this perfectly.  Now He says to us to do the same.  No, we don’t despair at this.  We say with God all things are possible, only believe.  The blood of the Lamb is enough.  We are all, each of us, a work in progress.  Stay in the light.  Grow in the love of the truth.  We may falter, and even fall but He is ever faithful to lift us back on our feet and say, “Don’t stop now, keep going.”

Judgement

(1 John 1)

The picture we have in John’s first epistle depicts a courtroom atmosphere. This is written by the one who in his Revelation of Christ saw and declared what he heard.  And he wrote that the accuser of the brethren is cast down.  He was thrown out of the courtroom.  In this passage he, the accuser, is not to be found in the courtroom of heaven.  We see instead of any accusations leveled against us, that God is faithful and just to forgive sins.  His justice is absolute, steadfast, and will never change.  It is based on the blood of the eternal covenant.  John continues and declares that we have an advocate, our high priest Jesus, who ensures our entrance to the Father’s presence, to the throne of grace.

We might now say that no judgement exists. God has taken care of it all.  Absolutely true because of the blood of Jesus Christ.  However, we cannot avoid the fact that man has fallen and needs someone to pick him up.  God wants restoration and reconciliation with man.  He sent Jesus to be that for us.  He, all by Himself, is the mediator, a true priest, between God and man.  All the writings of the New Testament point to this fact.  It has been and always will be about coming to Jesus.  As we wrote at the start of this series of messages, we come to Him where He is now, on His throne, a place of authority.  It remains a mercy seat, a place where God’s meeting with man always begins and ends with mercy.

God is the judge who forgives. He sees and judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  Do we come to Him to see what we can get?  Actually, if we come to Him honestly and ask Him about things we wish to do, He will show us His perspective. We may be surprised sometimes if we have a condemning heart that He will show us He is greater. No condemnation exists in His presence.  Other times we have to deal with consequences like the uncomfortable feelings of guilt, of remorse, and regret.  Today we use all sorts of means to make the bad feelings go away.  Sadly we can do this in our heads and pronounce away our bad feelings and choose to declare ourselves OK.  We mess with our conscience.  That is the part of our spirit where God makes that separation of soul and spirit and our true intent is exposed.  It is often called conviction, which is another word to express feelings of guilt, remorse, or regret.

After years of God’s working in my life, I hear John moving me, and us, to stay in the light. In this atmosphere, we recognize every idolatry, impurity, and whatever retards our true maturity, and agree with God that the Lamb, as freshly slain, takes that stain away.  John had this revelation when he saw the Lamb on the throne.  The blood was there, it remains there, and shall ever be there.  This is the blood of the eternal covenant.  Consider that word eternal.  It represents something ever and always present.  John’s message in this first chapter is to bring the believer to the point of eternal innocence.  No allowance for sin is here.  So he writes that we may not sin, but if we do, acknowledge it and move on, for our high priest, Jesus, intervenes for us.

A process exists in our earthly existence to get to this point. This is often not the automatic state, or experience, of the believer.  I ask us all this question.  Is the sacrifice for sin finished?  Are we required to “own” our sins?  We must acknowledge our specific sins.  Some sins have consequences for our families, for others in the church.  Some are so extreme that a brother or sister must be put outside.  Such an act of church discipline, as we call it, should not be seen as an end in itself.  We should be moved to prayer.

Lot chose to live in Sodom but he is accounted as a righteous man. Abraham prayed for him.  This was after Abraham had fought kings to deliver him and his family.  Is this our attitude when a brother makes bad choices?  Paul judged a man living with his father’s wife by turning him over to Satan for the destruction of his body that his spirit might be saved.  Consider this for an understanding of what is at stake in our lives and the life of our fellowships.  Yet, many understand, and I tend to agree, that the man who repents, and is to be received back into fellowship in the second letter to the Corinthians is this very same man.  While he was released into a place of torment, he changed his lifestyle, and was restored.  Mercy triumphs over judgement.

The Glory of His Grace

(Ephesians 1:6)

Jesus prayed that we would be with Him and behold His glory. We live in a day when the Holy Spirit is bringing us into more and more experience of His presence and His glory.  The maturity of those who are disciples of Jesus is increasing.  We also see acceleration in many who are coming to Him, meeting Him for the first time.  This is often the case where those who come to Him are not hindered by religious tradition.

We must spend time in His presence, beholding His glory for this is how we are changed. We are not changed by awesome, revelatory teaching.  We are not changed by going to the “best” church we can find.  Teaching is important, even essential.  So is gathering together with other disciples.  As we hear of what He has made available to us, we must receive, apprehend and pursue that which we have heard with our ears.  We learn by practice and experience to mix the word with faith.  This is further developed as we spend time with Him directly.  We hear His voice, not only the voice of the person who is the speaker.  This is what Jesus meant when He said, “Let Him who has ears to hear, hear.”

Our brother Paul prayed that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened. It is the same with the ears of our hearts, the ears of our inner man.  Here is our secret place, the place we commune with Him, the place that we sit at His feet.  Yes we need to have a physical place or places to do this.  Jesus would go off alone to a high place, above the noise of the day to commune with our Father.  We must do the same.

We find distraction, obstacles, and rocky places in our hearts that hinder our coming to Him and seeing and hearing clearly. He gives grace.  It is His grace that brings us near.  He wants us to come near.  He desires more than we do for us to know Him as Daddy.  His great delight is that His children come to Him.  He delights when a newborn believer appears before Him.  Some father in the church, or some mother has prayed, and interceded for someone and the birth comes.  We have heard and used the word travail.  That refers to prayer that is deep and earnest and often includes tears.  It becomes intense in the spirit.  In the natural, God gave us childbirth as a comparison.  But listen carefully.  There is no pain in true travail in the spirit.  It does not sound like the prophets of Baal, as if the Father does not hear.  It is a cooperative praying in and by the Spirit.

This prayer will result in great grace toward the one being prayed for. It is by grace, not by the following and application of a formula that repentance comes.  Isn’t it the goodness, the grace of God, that leads to repentance?  We fail of the grace of God when we stubbornly continue in our way.  Do we think we can save, deliver, cleanse, or fix ourselves?  No, but we struggle in our own efforts and expect our brothers and sisters to do the same.  We say things like, “You need to do business with God.”  What is that?  Be kind to the one who is struggling.  Love that one.  Has he fallen again?  Don’t beat him up.  Reach down with the grace you have known yourself and pull him back up to his feet.

Each one must know this grace. We are strengthened by grace not by the following and application of the right principle.  We are often taught and learn principles.  Like the natural world, they are helpful for our understanding and they reveal the glory of God.  But they never change us.  Get into His presence.  We pray for our nations.  We humble ourselves, pray, and turn from our wicked ways, and follow the right principles.  Do we seek His face, where the glory of God is?  It seems that we omit that part of that verse from Chronicles.  Only as we seek His face do we really see our wicked ways.  Our self-reliance is exposed there. Our inability to do or become what He is after becomes evident.  We see that without that shining, wonderful glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we cannot be changed and so fulfill His heart and purpose.  And what is that ultimate purpose but to be conformed to the image of that wonderful, first-born son Jesus.  Together we will be refined to be that bride that He waits for.  Stay in His presence wherever you may be for that bride is not made in the earth but in heaven.  She comes down out of heaven from God and is seen in earth, having the glory of God and shining with the glory of His grace.