“And He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 18:3
Through trials, temptations, tribulations, traumas, travails, turmoil, threats, tensions, tumults, thundering, toxins, trepidation, trouble, teasing, transgressions, trespasses, talk, technology, tangles, thistles, thorns, tripping, trappings, trajectories, tragedies, trivia, tangents, turbulence, transitions, twisting, trembling, treks, tasks, tears, tides, trenches, torture, and tunnels, our Father is teaching, training, testing, and turning us into transparent, thoughtful, tender, and triumphant troopers of truth — for His name’s sake, His kingdom, — and for our joy in Him.
“Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.” Ps. 8:2
He does not need us, but He has chosen us, created us according to His everlasting covenant made with His Son “before the world was” — to make us His children, to love us, and bless us in this world which we will inherit when He has gathered all His children in Christ and finished His work here.
We can praise Him through whatever we must endure because we have an inheritance of eternal life which Jesus secured for us. By the things He suffered for us, making us joint heirs with Him, He will work in us all that is needful for us to accept the circumstances He is bringing us through.
It is through our weakness that He, by His power, accomplishes His plans in us — and all to His glory alone. We have little need of His grace until we find ourselves helpless. In this state, humility becomes our hope for Him to fulfill His covenant in and through us. The new birth — born of the Spirit — born of God — is necessary for us to praise Him as the “little children” we become in our conversion.
“I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’” Zach. 13:9
In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Do not fear; Zion, let not your hands be weak. The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zeph. 3:16-17
So as not to miss any gods they might appease, the Athenians had set up an “unknown god” among the others. And so, Christianity today is seen as a religion among many others. The God of Christianity is “unknown” even to some who claim it as their faith. If we see little more than the surface of this way of life, we simply exist without the source and the power of this life. For the most part, we fail to differentiate between what other religions offer.
We must be sure that it is an offering; a supernatural offering between our God and us. It is a spiritual gift from the Lord God of Christianity, whom we know as Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of Jehovah, our Almighty God and Father, Creator of the heavens and the earth, and Redeemer of mankind.
Baptized as a child on a profession of faith, Christianity was basic but ineffective in my life until as an adult, I was drawn to read, then study; to write and teach what I was learning from the Bible. During those years, the Holy Spirit I was reading about in the Bible used God’s own words to transform my life. Through a new birth, with a new heart and spirit, my life was changed and has not been the same for decades. My books, articles, and poems attest to the revealed and fulfilled promises made to those He brings to Himself.
The best way I can describe this new way of life is with a parable I heard several years ago.
A prisoner was held captive for years, not knowing where he was. He existed in an obscure stronghold in a foreign country. His food and drink were barely enough to keep him alive. Since he knew no other way of life, he did not wish for anything else.
One day a stranger entered his cell and told him about life outside his captivity. He had come to deliver him. At first, the man could not vision anything beyond his own existence, and so refused to follow him out. Unknown to the prisoner, the stranger had broken through the outside barrier of the stronghold to save him. He was there, not to be refused; and so, stayed with him, living off the same fare by which the prisoner had been fed most of his life. At times he would open the cell door and lead him down a long dark hallway to show him the light outside. Not used to the light, the prisoner would soon move back to his comfortable cell.
With time, the stranger presented truths about the light, each day praying with him and leading him a little further out from his cell. Gradually getting used to the light, he was drawn more; then more, to it. One day, his eyes becoming used to the light, embraced the light, walking with the stranger into a new life outside himself.
As I contemplated writing this post, I was reminded of an old TV series Mission Impossible. A different mission presented to the team with every episode including the statement, “This is your mission if you choose to accept it.” The missions involved seemingly impossible situations providing an escape for captives.
I imagined what this would have looked like for Jesus before Creation. He and the Holy Spirit were the team, Jesus being the one who would suffer and sacrifice to bring His people out of their bondage. His mission from God the Father was to go down, go to, and live with the captives on earth; live in full obedience to God’s law, which no man had ever done, and provide a true understanding of the laws of His kingdom. He would be the light from heaven to people living in darkness, under oppression and sin. He would at the appointed time, be offered up as a means of appeasing the unknown God and ascend back to the Father, where He would live and reign for us as His people. He would send His Spirit of light from heaven; through His Word bring us out of our captivity and guide us into all truth.
Jesus accepted and fulfilled His mission. His Holy Spirit is now fulfilling His mission in our hearts and lives as we continue to follow Jesus.
Gracious Father in heaven, we praise you for so loving us that you sent your Son to be a propitiation for our sins. Lord Jesus, we thank you for being the author and finisher of our faith; for breaking through and enabling us to follow through this darkness until we see you in your full glory. Holy Spirit, we know your presence and power of the life of Christ in us. Continue to reveal and fulfill all that the Father has willed for us as your people. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Fran
‘As a man thinks in his own heart, so is he.’ Pro. 23:7
To counteract the entrance of millions of illegal immigrants into the US, President Trump signed orders to send 1500 troops to secure the southern border.
The American people have suffered in different ways from those of discontent who have come here illegally.
Without upholding the laws set for all people a nation cannot stand.
Such conditions are an analogy for what I call “Invasion of the Mind.”.
This invasion shapes our character and the persons we become.
Our Senses and Our Devices
Our God-given senses are the means whereby we watch and listen to what is available.
In this century, the invasion has become even more detrimental. The media is a common influence coupled with our devices to shove all things into the secret places of our minds and hearts – shaping individuals, families, neighborhoods, cities, states, countries, and the world. We are more connected – nations to nations – than ever before.
Many children are allowed to watch and listen to anything they choose without knowing how they will be affected. And when they come to a point in life where their choices have produced a negative outcome, they are unable to accept correction.
They are happy with their own choices and do not understand why others cannot be happy with them.
For centuries, the world and its atmosphere has been invaded with such images and words that has changed the overall landscape and the appearance of nations that have become more and more divided, from each other, even as within.
Inner Transformation
With the knowledge of what is happening all over the world, we are continually receiving data and adding to the data in our own way to the files of our knowledge base.
Our culture is continually changing by the invasion that continues.
What is the answer to this dilemma that seems unstoppable?
Restoration
We must restore the ramparts that have been torn down.
We must consider how we are personally susceptible to this invasion, agree that we have been experiencing this phenomenon, and admit this as a need to be addressed.
We, as Christians at least, must appeal to our heavenly Father to reveal His Commander-in-Chief to us, our Lord Jesus Christ – to whom He has given all authority and power. In His name, we pray for them to send the Holy Spirit and His Sword – His powerful Word to guard our minds, our senses, our knowledge of Him, His truth, and His plans for us. We must, by His mighty power, take captive our thoughts in obedience before Him. (2 Cor. 10:5)
We must gird up our minds and examine our thoughts in relation to His Word.
This is only an alien country for God’s children. We are blessed to be a citizen while we still have the freedom to know from His Word the protection and promises for the life He has planned for us, but we are here in a holding pattern, in preparation for that eternal country that is promised to us for eternal life.
God’s Words are sentinels, standing guard on the wall of our minds as watchmen against the enemy’s entrance from all borders.
Submitting to His Guarding and Girding our Minds
To know His plans for us, we must admit our need for guarding and girding our minds, submit our minds to Him and commit to the direction of His Spirit and Word.,
He appeals to us by His great mercies to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to Him. (Rom. 12:1-2)
Our bodies are the housing for all He created by which He would reveal Himself – through our faculties He speaks to us by His Word and in the power of His Spirit.
They are effective to do all in us that He wants to do – creating in us the image of His Son who is the express image of our heavenly Father.
Is anything I am saying foreign to you? If so, please take the Bible in your hands and read as if you have never read it. Ask our Father for His Holy Spirit to make His Word your guard for your mind and your life – and your soul that is eternal.
Guard your mind in everything you see and hear, touch and handle.
Ask these questions of every word and image. Good or bad, they will find a place in your heart and take over your life.
Is this precious to our Father, from His mind and heart to mine to draw me closer to Him?
Is this from Him to keep the world’s thinking from entering?
Is this good for me and for those I love?
Will this enable me to love Him and those who love me?
Will this bring unity in my thinking with His and my family?
Will these thoughts be those He wants me to share with others?
Will these thoughts, images, and sounds mold me into His image and prepare me for His eternal glory?
Praise Him that He knows where we are. He knows our thoughts and the power of His Spirit and words that conquer, arrest, and remove those invading thoughts and images and enable us to live joyfully with Him.
Pray for His Spirit of Truth to guide you into all truth, for conviction of sin for how you have opened your mind to illegal thoughts, and His goodness will bring you to repentance, reconciliation, renewal, and blessed fellowship with Him. Through you He will reveal the power of His presence and truth to others.
Gracious Father, we are desperate children, captive to the world’s thinking, its devices, its ideologies. We need your resources, your power, your orders for our protection from those who would remove your grace and truth that protect us. Restore your walls, your Words, your standards, and bring to fruition the life you planned for us through Christ our Lord. Reveal Christ, your Son, as the means for our liberty from those who enter to spy out and destroy the freedom you have given us in Him. Bring the power of your church – the body of Christ — to unity in Him to set the standards you have placed upon us, and through us to the world. This is our only means to experience the love, joy, and peace you give us. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Dead leaves are proof of an ending of the old and the anticipation of a new season of Nature.
If we consider where we have been as a nation recently, we must believe that our God and Father has given us a reprieve.
“Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence—
To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence! Isa. 64:1-2
He has answered prayers for our concerns about the season we have been experiencing –
With His judgment looming over us, He has truly shown us His mercy in not cosuming us.
As our pastor has reminded us: we cannot sit back and boast of anything good any man has done.
We cannot rest on our laurels, any greatness of any nation or of any man. Any good in this country, from the beginning, has been by the mighty hand of God, our Father and Creator.
“His greatness is unsearchable.” Ps. 145:3
Now we have the opportunity to return to our roots, for us to stand in the light of His grace, and move forward with the truth while we still have the freedom to proclaim His name among the nations.
Four years is a short time, with no guarantee. Except for our diligence to obedience and His presence with us, the enemy will steal His blessings from us.
Our hope is based on His promises as we trust Him, repent from our individual seasons of rebellion to His Word, live in praise, prayer, and proclamation of His truth with each other and those outside the church.
We must gather as His people during these uncertain times to multiply our ranks, to pray for unity through the sound preaching and attendance of God’s Word and worship.
We must be restored by His Spirit to reverence and awe – as His children to live in humility and wonder of our God and Father. .
He makes the nations tremble – But, In His loving kindness and tender mercies, He opens His heart and love to us.
If you understand what He has been doing in recent events, return as His child to the body of Christ –to the Church where He dwells with His people – in individual hearts and as His family.
We must live in the fellowship and joy of our Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit as one people, to prove to the world the power of his presence among us.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who, in Christ, Has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.” Eph. 1:3
When this blessed season is done and we face another onslaught from the enemy, we will be prepared, equipped, ready, and victorious, rejoicing with Him our victor, our Lord and King — His triumph in and through us. — now and forever.
“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;{ 1 Pet. 2:9
“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Eph. 5:15-16
In Praise to our Father, His Son our Lord, and His Holy Spirit. Love and blessings. Fran
The complexities of this world are more than any one person, or any combination of minds can discern. The perplexities are beyond what human nature can comprehend.
We have yet to be unified in our understanding of how life began and how people breathe and move about in the vast space that we call the universe.
Adults with all their education — feeding on information that men from one generation to another have compiled — continue to add more and more to the uncertainty of life here in this present world. Their technologies only generate more power for delusion and destruction.
NEW WORDS, NEW LIFE
Jesus told His disciples, “Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” What did He mean? If we study this man, His life, and His words, we learn that He was teaching a new thing not known before He began His ministry.
“The kingdom of heaven” – Greek — ouranos, meaning, the region above the sidereal heavens, the seat of order of things eternal and consummately perfect where God dwells and other heavenly beings” Heaven is another world beyond this one — a spiritual world that requires conversion — otherwise, we are incompatabile.
Jesus’ life and His words are recorded in the Holy Bible, in the second section, known as The New Testament.
The first part, The Old Testament, is a record of life, written by men of the Jewish faith, From creation through the history of the nation of Israel, we learn of God, the Creator, who was with His people through generations of hardships and promises for a better life beyond this world.
FULFILLMENT OF THE PROMISE
Jesus was the fulfillment of this promise, who at the age of 30 gathered 12 men and taught them about the God of the Old Testament.
He showed them a completely different way – by a totally radical mindset.
By His actions in response to every person, every word, every action, every need, He presented a new means for men to see, think, speak, and relate to others.
He portrayed a life of purpose and meaning no man had ever shown or taught.
HIS WORDS — HIS POWER
His words not only brought meaning to this life, but the power in His words for eternal life.
Those who have believed Him and followed in His teachings have been transformed and seek to live as He lived.
This world is no longer complex, nor are His followers perplexed, but they understand this world – its chaos and confusion – how to relate and respond differently.
Jesus taught that we must begin again – to start over – to be ‘born again’ – spiritually.
A FATHER WE HAVE NEVER KNOWN
As ‘little children’ – infants—we experience what it means to have a new ‘Father’ — a Father who never leaves us, but abides in us — His Spirit through our spirit, forever.
Jesus’ life, and identifying Himself as the Son of God, shed new light on the meaning of our creation.
His teachings bring us to understand God differently than the world sees Him.
His Holy Spirit ‘makes us alive’ as He teaches us the truth – truth that we cannot receive in our ‘old man’ – the only self we know and through which we formerly lived.
As with His teachings and the power of His Spirit, we learn to live supernaturally in this natural world.
His Spirit, by which God gave life at His Creation, in us, was subdued and taken captive.
Until and unless we are converted and become as little children, we live under the power of an enemy, in a hostile world that lives in sin against God, the Creator.
We are ignorant of our personal rebellion against a Father who gives us the very air we breathe and the power to move and have our being.
Only His Spirit can do this work in us. Just as we have no power to birth ourselves naturally into this world so only He can give us the power for an eternal life with Him.
We are reconciled and renewed and brought into fellowship with our Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, through whom we are bought, sought, brought, and taught.
CHILDREN WHO LOVE, REJOICE, AND OBEY
The remainder of our natural life is sanctified by the working of His Holy Spirit of truth guiding us into all truth and living through us – to His Glory and our joy in Him. As His children, we enjoy the life of Christ within us to love, enjoy HIs presence, and obey – for His glory and our joy with Him and all His children.
This life begins here but never ends.
Our Father, abiding in us forever, closes our eyes and returns His Spirit and our souls to Him in His timing.
“The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” The Shorter Catechism
Out Father in heaven, by the power of your Holy Spirit abiding in us, make us to know you and your Son, Jesus, whom you sent to die for our sins and bring us to you. We need to know you as our Father and the eternal life you give us now. Turn our hearts to you and grow us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and conform us to His image — in whose name we pray. Amen.
In the last four years, I have been more vulnerable than ever, and prey to what has come across my radar. Mixed with a lot of good, there has been much in a quagmire of offers as I have hoped for ways to exit the grave of mourning. When death still seems to loom as the mode of everyday existence, anything can appear as a solution, some with astounding promises, and almost impossible to refuse.
Such has been my spiritual warfare and training ground as I have been taken captive a few times (amazed at other times that I was enabled to turn and take our Father’s hand). It is the harder way but the way He promises to love, care, direct, and keep us in the path of Life as He has planned it.
As I started this post, I was reminded of a 2016 post, The Idolatry of Technology. The technology of our present day is precisely used for good and for evil, depending on who is leading the way for each of us. I am personally obligated to live in compliance with our Father who created all things. My human nature carves for any and all things of this world that appeal to my fleshly desires and feelings. Many techniques can be used to gain the information and the help I am looking for.
LOSING MY ANCHOR
During fifty-nine years together, Jerry became my anchor — we were “one flesh” — learning to depend on each other. He was my physical leader; I was his helpmate, according to God’s design. Our Father brought me to Christ many years before He gave Jerry a new heart. His gain of true life in Christ came after the loss of his leg. Through this natural experience, we both learned the need for more than physical life and to see beyond our needs to understand the needs of others.
We were united together in heart, mind, soul, and strength in Christ nine years before he was taken home and I was left alone. Those years and the last four for me were the time for our Father’s working — especially these last four — no technique but His supernatural power could accomplish His holy, eternal, will for His own glory. Such has been His means to glorify Himself and to prove the love and joy that is mine in Him.
No method man will devise can hallow His name, set up His kingdom in our hearts, and establish His will in our lives — as His name, kingdom and will are operative in heaven. He has no method but His will and power to accomplish what He established in HIs everlasting covenant with each of His children before Creation. In His timing, He continues to redeem a people for Himself through whom He is revealing his presence and power in the world of darkness.
Strategies are unnecessary for God our Father to bring His children to Himself and to accomplish in them all He desires of us. By His Holy Spirit alone, He draws us to Christ, His Son, through whom we come to Him for that “eternal life that was with the Father and manifested to” mere men while He was on earth. Jesus was the Word of Life that continues forever in the hearts and lives of His children. He still speaks to us today through His written Word. By His Spirit and His Word, we have the power of His presence within us for all we need. We have abundant life in and through Him — from death to Life, we are His and His alone, forever. No intelligence accumulated by men has the wisdom and knowledge of God revealed only through His Son, to us and our children. Deut. 29:29
I praise Him for bringing me through this stage — from a dark mourning to a new bright morning. By His Holy Light and Life given to us by His Holy Spirit, He will continue to show me “the path of life.” Anything without the Spirit of Christ living in us is deception and darkness.
“You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fulness of joy. In Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Ps. 16:11
Gracious Father, we praise you for revealing Yourself to us — to lost children, who need a Father. As little children, in our new birth with a new heart and a new spirit, we ask your forgiveness for seeking other ways and ask that you continue to strengthen us, help us, hold us by our right hand, uphold us by your righteous right hand, and guide us with your Spirit of truth, and your counsel, that afterward you may receive us into your glory. Reveal through the power of your presence to others. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen Fran
Grace, and grace alone, could save a wretch like me. I could not die for my own sins. Christ had to die for me. A thousand deaths would not atone for my eternity; Christ’s blood, and His alone, bought my sanctity.
His light, and His alone,
shined deep within my soul. The darkness of my heart was readily exposed. His Word, and His alone, could speak new life in me. My sin is great, but greater still, His grace has set me free.
His love, and His alone, drew me to His Son; In covenant with Him, to be His very own. In goodness, and in His alone, He brought me to repent, To turn, to trust, to follow Jesus, whom He had sent.
His power, and His alone, gives life beyond my dreams; Life in Christ, the life of grace, according to His means. His glory, and His alone, suffices as an end. His purpose in heaven and on earth, for Him; for me. Amen.
(This poem is the result of waking one morning around 5:00, hearing the steady refreshing rain that was needful. As with many mornings, I was reminded of God’s grace, and after a few minutes I got up and began to write. Following are the Biblical references that apply. I pray that those who read may use one or both to discover and refresh your heart in the truth of God’s grace and His glory, which hasbeen my encouragement since beginning this blog in 2011)
I am grateful to be able to share our pastor’s recent sermon from 1 John 2. Abiding and holding fast to Christ is not readily understood or experienced in the lives of many Christians today. This 45-minute message will encourage and strengthen your heart and spirit to experience the fellowship we have with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Or, you can download audiohere.
“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me. They are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine. And I am glorified in them.” Jn. 17:10-11
In our continued study ofAn Excavation of John 17, we find Jesus’ prayer to the heavenly Father. Before His crucifixion, He gave His disciples a clear understanding of His union with the Father “before the world was” and His purpose for being here. He did not pray for everybody.
“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
It is clear in Jesus’ prayer who was included and who was excluded. He said, “I pray for them” – identified in the first three verses and throughout His prayer as “those” whom the Father had given Him. The purpose for the Father giving the men to Jesus, His Son, is so He would give them “eternal life.” (vs. 2)
Jesus specifically states, “I do not pray for the world.
Jesus did not give the Father’s Word and eternal life to the world but only to those men given to Him. They heard and believed. They received this truth from Him, knowing “the Father and Jesus Christ whom He sent.” (vs. 3)
“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” (vs. 14)
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;” (vs. 20)
We find many references to His prayers. Few others were heard and recorded by His disciples, His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the brief statement at Lazarus’ resurrection are two others.
His purpose for being here was to set up His kingdom and prepare His people for eternity with Him and His Father. Through Him we who once were disobedient, living in and of the world, have become a “chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. We are a special people to Him, to proclaim the praises of Him who brought us out of darkness into His marvelous light — the people of God.” 1 Pet. 2:9-10
CHOSEN BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD
“ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,” (Eph. 1:4-5)
BEFORE TIME BEGAN
“who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,” 2 Tim.1:9
There are many more references that teach the difference in God’s people and the world. (Psalm 1)
Jesus said, “They are yours.” He added, “Mine are yours and yours are mine.” As the Father and Son were one, having the same glory before the creation, the Father has given all to the Son in heaven and on earth. Jesus is glorified in His followers and will “bring many sons to glory with Him” in heaven. (Heb. 2:10-11)
If you believe and follow the humble Lamb of God, you can rejoice that Jesus prayed for you. He continues as our High Priest to pray for us at the right hand of the Father in heaven. We have the same privilege Jesus gave His disciples in The Lord’s Prayer. Many people quote this prayer without understanding its meaning between the Father and His children — those who are born of the Spirit as disciples of His Son. We belong to Christ and are one with Him and the Father.
Heavenly Father, we are blessed to know that you chose a people for yourself. We praise you for revealing Jesus to us, giving us eternal life in Him, giving us a new heart and a new spirit – bringing us to the light and writing on our hearts the truth of your Word. Let us proclaim your name and your kingdom of light in a dark world. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Fran
We are continually alerted by the experts with information for what we need to live a healthy physical life. Yet, no matter how knowledgeable we are as human beings and how hard we try to take care of ourselves, there is a limit to the years we live in the flesh.
Jesus Christ, the giver of eternal life has much to say about how to live forever; but the majority of people don’t want to hear. We want to live here and now our own way ~ forget later. What will satisfy me now? We trust others like us to tell us.
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God, “That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord.” Amos 8:11
If I have your attention, I want to share what I think Jesus meant when He quoted from Deuteronomy in Matthew 4:4.
After living in the desert forty days and forty nights without bread or water, He said to the devil who wanted Him to prove He was the Son of God by turning stones into bread ~
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
Man ~ God’s creation ~ was made with an inner, spiritual need for his Creator. He was made in the image of God, filled with His Spirit to become a living soul through His power. This power was passed down from Adam’s generation to his posterity. Men still breathe through this same Spirit from generation to generation. His Spirit within us needs be to be fed and given new life.
Souls are living in poverty and dying in despair for lack of knowledge and resources for true life.
Today, I am especially asking, “What are the ingredients of His Word.” What are we needing that is so detrimental to the human spirit and soul? What are the nutrients and power for all of life provided in His Word?
I share only a few in this post.
Jesus said to those who believed in Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31:32
TRUTH
The world is destitute of “truth.” We have an abundance of truth in Jesus Christ. For centuries the gospel, the good news of Christ, has been broadcast to all nations. The knowledge of the truth was sent by God to His creation in His Son. His Spirit gives this truth to those who are awakened to their need (their soul’s hunger) drawing them to God’s Word. To those who come to Him accepting His Son as their Savior, their mediator, and giver of eternal life, He opens His storehouse and fountain of living water.
Nothing is held back from those who admit their need, submit themselves to His care, and commit their lives to Him. He supplies every need of those who come to Him through Christ and the power of His Spirit.
RIGHTEOUSNESS
Truth being the main ingredient, from Christ who is the “truth,” we see our need for righteousness. In the sermon on the mount Jesus spoke of the need for what we eat, what we drink, and for clothing. He assured His disciples that our heavenly Father would provide these material things if we first desire and ask for the spiritual things.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matt. 6:33
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.” Matt. 5:6
It is a renewed relationship between a Father and His children that satisfies and gratifies the soul, and provides for all our needs ~ physically and spiritually.
LOVE
Truth reveals the need and supply of love. Where most people look for what they think is love, God, our Father, who is love, feeds us with His love through His Spirit and His Son. Through this knowledge, truth, and love we experience a fulness we have never known.
“Nothing can separate us from the love of God (our Father) which is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord.“ Roms. 8:36
JOY
In truth, righteousness, and love, a joy is given to prove our satisfaction of our Father’s righteousness, love and fulness.
“Strenthened with all might according to His glorious power for all patience and long-suffering with JOY.” Col. 1:11
PEACE
In this relationship between our Father and His children, He establishes His peace within us. He continues to feed and fill us with Himself, transforming us by the renewing of our minds through His Word and Spirit. It is His fulness that conforms us to His image ~ and fulfills His purpose for our creation and redemption in Christ.
God’s Word reveals the storehouse of His provisions for us as His children, now and forever. We could also write about faith, obedience, hope, and many more.
We must take His Word in hand as His search engine, to find all He has prepared for those who come to Him.
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Romans 8:32
Dear Father in heaven, you have held nothing back from your children, promising to give us your kingdom. Thank you for revealing our needs and your provisions for this life and for the life to come. We praise you for your presence and power with us always, so we are never lacking anything we need. Keep us fruitful; able to share what we have with others. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
“You are the strength of heart and my portion, forever.” Psalm 73:26
