For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world 1 John 2:16 ESV

This thought begins with verse 15, to love not the world nor the things in the world. Not an easy thing to do when you live in the world.  The force of worldly love is strong enough to pull you from ‘of the world’ to ‘in it’.  The only thing I know of that holds this in check is the awareness that this is not our final destination.  Hebrews 13:14 reminds us that this world is not our permanent home but we are looking forward to a home yet to come.  This is our hope, thus, we do not fashion ourselves after worldly elements. 

The word ‘love’ in our verse is the greek word agape which means a self sacrificing, lay your life down for another, kind of love.  The only place this agape comes from is theFather, given to us by the Holy Spirit.  This love ensures us that we have passed from death, the dominion of sin, and have been translated into His Kingdom where we are to experience and enjoy life. We love Him because He first loves us.  

How is it then that we can take the love He gives us and pour it out on things that do not profit?  How can we spend and be spent on something that has eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear and have absolutely no power to save, heal or deliver?

When we invest ourselves into the culture and the thinking of this world we are transformed into images the world can relate to, understand and approve.  Yet the Bible tells us clearly we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  We are to be “re-newed” in the spirit of our mind. 

Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 11:3 that he was concerned the church would be deceived by the same cunning strategy Satan used on Eve which would then lead them astray from the sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  Jesus prayed from John 17 that while we were in the world we were kept from the evil one.  

There is no denying the pull that is in the world through these three things, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, yet all these are heart issues that can be kept under through the attachment we maintain living and abiding in HIM.  

Deception occurs when we continue to look at something long enough to change our mind about it.  Im hearing the Holy Spirit saying ~ Stop looking at the tree.  I understand this to simply mean, the things that would lead us away from our devotion to Christ must not be considered.  It was as Eve considered the tree, that she was able to agree.  The tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye and it could make you wise and she took the bait that hide the hook.  God didn’t say the tree wasn’t desirable, he simply said don’t eat from it.  

God doesn’t deny the reality of what the world seems to offer, He just says it’s not our fountain of life.  It is not our well of salvation.  

I’m assured that Jesus is coming again for His church, and that church is without spot, wrinkle and blemish.  Let us not be deceived into thinking His church is less than what His blood has purchased.  Pure, holy set apart for the Masters use.  In the world, not of it.  In the world, not defined by it. In the world, not adapting to it. 

For this purpose was the son of God manifest.... 1 John 3:8

Purpose is defined as ‘the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists”. There is a powerful truth in the statement ‘we misuse a thing when we don’t understand it’s purpose.’

From the book of Hebrews, we find that Jesus had a body prepared for Him for His purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.  We find from Acts 10:38, Jesus went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil. His life was offered as a sacrifice on the cross to redeem mankind.  

Understanding the Lord’s purpose for life is essential for a fulfilled life.  We are created with purpose by the very hand of God.  We are his workmanship created for good works which God prepared for us before we were ever born. The bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and that for His purpose.  

Paul on the road to Damascus, meets Jesus and finds himself asking the question, who are you and what must I do?  With eternity created in man, we all seek to answer this very question.

 From Ben Campbell Johnson’s paraphrase on the book of Romans we read Paul’s purpose. “I am Paul, a loyal follower of Jesus Christ.  I havebeen given a special commission to speak God’s good news, so I center my life around it.   

If we look at the life of John the Baptist we see John confident in purpose - I baptize you with water unto repentance.  He understands his set boundaries; there is one coming who is greater than I.  He must increase, I must decrease. This did not diminish John, rather it defined him.  

We are destined to find our ultimate fulfillment in achieving the very purpose of our unique creation.  When we try to duplicate others the fruit is conflict. When we compare ourselves to others the fruit is frustration.  Our expression is only clarified through intimacy with the Father.  

Do not confuse purpose with methods.  Methods change, but our purpose is constant. By living in union with God, we experience wholeness of life and fulfillment giving ourselves to the very purpose of our creation. 

Jesus answered, Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Mark 12:29

If I were to ask you, what did Jesus say was the most important commandment, you would probably quote verse 30,..”and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and while loving God and loving your neighbor is absolutely our command, Jesus began by telling us the Lord our God is one. This phrase is unique to Marks gospel in the New Testament. 

The profound truth of being able to love is found in the oneness we have with the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It is the very love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that enables us to love ‘even as’. Could we say the very word ‘love’ is the personification of Jesus? 

In the beginning, we observe the unique workings of each person of the Godhead but still unanimous in purpose. We find the body of Christ, unique in graces and parts, but one in purpose.  Psalm 133 tells us from this place of unity, God commands His blessing of life evermore. The Fathers heart and motivation is love and he achieves His purposes through the union He has with the son, the Holy Spirit and the body of Christ.  

We find Jesus praying in John 17 for the oneness he has with the Father to be known and shared by us. Verse 23,  “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me”.   It is in this oneness that the world knows and perceives the love of God.  

In John 15, Jesus tells his disciples that we are to remain vitally united to the vine.  Apart from this vine we are not able, not capable, of doing anything from a place of oneness with them. Consequently we are unable to offer anything more than our own human efforts.   

Our Father reminds us that divorce can only occur within a hard heart and that it is a violent act, covering ones garments with blood.  Mark 10:5; Malachi 2:16.  His cry is for us as His children is to abide in Him and His word to abide in us.  This is to be our standard and our guide for life.  We measure our lives, our hearts, by the willingness we have to submit to the Fathers ways and word.  

Our New Testament admonition is for His body to be of one accord.  Nothing done through strife or selfish ambitions, but in love esteeming one another higher than self.

I read from Brother Lawrence in Practicing His Presence, that Brother Lawerence practiced living as if each individual was Jesus and asked himself the question, would I do this if this was Jesus?  Would I say this, if this was Jesus?     

We are growing.  We are conforming. It does take time.  We do have to practice.  We will make mistakes but how gracious He is, as we lean into Him, to reveal Himself to us and make His ways known that we might be perfectly one.

But he answered, “It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 ESV

There are two words from the Greek translated as WORD: logos and rhema.  Simply stated, logos is the written word of God. It’s alive with potential waiting to be released.  Rhema is the spoken word; often it’s a portion of the written Word of God as it comes alive in our hearts. We live, or possess the ‘Zoë’ life of God as we feed on the rhema from God’s mouth.  

Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts is the admonition of the New Testament.  Daily we stand, to hear what the Spirit is saying to us.  He provides us with the living bread we are to feed on for this day and the green grass that nourishes us.  This word is a fountain of living water that refreshes not only our lives, but overflows to others. 

As we move through these days, the rhema of God becomes increasing more necessary for us to navigate our times.  It isn’t enough to simply know what the logos says, but we must position ourselves for the Rhema of God daily. Proverbs 8:34reads, Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. 35.For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”  From this chapter in Proverbs we find that wisdom was at the beginning of creation, daily His delight.   Shall it be less so for us?

From the books of John and Genesis, we discover the beginnings, the order of God for man.  In the beginning was the word, the logos, John 1:3 “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. Genesis 1:2-3 we read; And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.  And God said.... 

This spoken word and the working of the Holy Spirit is absolutely vital to our daily well being.  The Spirit of truth “hovers” each day waiting to create the works that God has ordained, written for our lives.  He brings to our remembrance all things that Jesus, the word, has said. He reveals the heart of the Father and gives to us the mind of Christ.  

Thus when we embrace what He is saying and agree with the Rhema that has come to us for the day, the word in our mouth is as God’s when he said ‘light be’.  All things become possible as logos becomes Rhema with the Spirit hovering over the sown word.  

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, Exodus 3:11-12 ESV

What do you do when the Lord requires something out of you that you believe is bigger than you?  You grow up.

We all like to think we are looking for God to enlarge our borders and give us great opportunities, but one of the things I am learning, is that the opportunities I want and the ones God gives me aren’t always the same thing.  His opportunities require us to come up higher, believe better and find more grace. His opportunities stretch us beyond all the comfort and security zones we’ve built.  

It’s not just the devil we fight but our own personal fears and limitations.  We can be so self centered that we convince ourselves God’s wisdom equals avoidance of hardship and trouble.  The Psalmist wrote, He alone makes me dwell in safety.  What times I am afraid I will trust in you.  He is our safe refuge, our strong tower, a very present help in time of need.  We know these things, right?  Yes, we know them, but do we walk in a way that proves we believe them?  

I’m reminded of two other Old testament events- both challenging the mindsets of the people involved.  The first event is the twelve spies and the second is Gideon. Both examples show how the people’s perceptions of themselves as grasshoppers, weak and least, challenged their ability to believe God could use them.  

The point is, it is not about our ability, it’s about how I perceive Gods.

God said to Moses, “But I will be with you”.

From Numbers 14:9 we find where Joshua encouraged the people saying, “ Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”  To Gideon, in Judges 6, the angel of the Lord, said “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

When the door is set before us, we can be assured there is the grace to walk through it. The question we must all answer is, ‘will I commit to God and move through the door?’ 

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Luke 9:57

Jesus gives us all many opportunities to follow Him and when they come there is always a press that accompanies it.  A pressing out of self preservation and control and a pressing into Him to walk through the door He has set before us.  

I believe the church is living in a now season of greater works.  A kyros moment in the Kingdom where the favour of God and open doors are abundant.  Revelation tells us God is the one who opens a door and no man can shut it.  Think about it, when God opens a door, there is grace and favour to walk through it.  Paul said, those doors of opportunity were met with adversity.  If we are not careful, the adversities seen or feared will prevent us from taking the opportunities, thus the press.  

Faced with opportunities and open doors, we run the gamut of our christianized thinking.  We count the cost.  We consider wise stewardship. We ask ourselves has God really said?  BUT when the questions are asked in hopes of finding a way out, we will.  

The individuals in Luke’s gospel all had a heart to follow Jesus.  The first thing Jesus told these followers was ‘the son of Man had no where to lay His head’.  In other words, he was always moving about to do the Fathers will.  Another individual needed to attend to his fathers funeral and another wanted to go home and say goodbye to his family.  

When the opportunity is set before you it must be seized.  The door must be walked through. Jesus replied to those who had said ‘let me do this first and I’ll be right back’, “those putting their hand to the plow and turning back are not fit for the Kingdom." 

We satisfy ourselves with the belief that we aren’t really turning back; we are just not doing this now. We think we can attend to this one thing first and then come back to the door.  Delayed obedience is still disobedience. God’s timing is perfect.

Jesus knew his time had come.  Jesus was prepared.  Jesus accessed the grace to yield to the Fathers will and commit himself to His care.  

Shall we do less?

“For with the heart man believes” Romans 10:10

Proverbs 4 reminds us to guard our hearts for from it flow the issues of life. It is from the abundance of our heart our mouths speak.  It is the things that we carry within us, according to Mark 7:15, that defile us.  It is the heart that God looks upon and judges from.  

I’m struck today by this verse simply because of something I read in Mrs. C. Nuzum’s book, the Life of Faith, c. 1928 where she wrote, “There is a head faith and a heart faith.  Head faith brings us nothing. Heart Faith brings us everything Jesus secured for us.”

Head faith would be the knowledge of God but never seeing the power working on your behalf.  jesus said faith the size of a mustard see would move mountains.  We’ve tried to turn faith into a formula and it can’t be done.

Faith is the absolute conviction and confidence that God is.  Faith moves us into God.  Faith holds us in Him.  Faith keeps us one with Him.  When my heart is fixed trusting in the Lord, my mouth is right, my actions are right, I am right.
For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and confession is made unto salvation,  A daily reality for perfect rest, spirit, soul and body.

With the head we see, we understand, we reason all from a natural perspective. The head doubts, questions, and is moved by what it sees and hears.  All of these will keep us from inheriting the promises of God.  With the heart, man believes what he can not see. By faith he understands and does not doubtingly question the promises of God.

Faith simply accesses grace and stands in it, resting and rejoicing as God works. Head faith grows weak and fails when the promise tarries.  Heart faith is assured in due season the promise comes because He watches over His word to perform.  

The Lord told Moses to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
Jesus told his disciples the work they were to do was believe.

Head faith struggles to understand how and when. Head faith has expectations.
Heart faith is content to watch God work in His way and wait on Him, knowing he does not fail us or forsake us and He is working all things together for our good.

For with the heart man believes and inherits the promises of God.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. John 15:11 ESV

Amplified Bible
I have told you these things that my joy and delight may be in you and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing.
 
Hebrews 1:9 tells us Jesus was anointed with the oil of joy by the Father because he loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.   The Amplified bible expounds this verse to read, You have loved, delighted in, integrity, virtue, and uprightness in purpose, thought and action and hated lawlessness, injustice and iniquity.  We know from studying the life of Jesus this very character was displayed throughout his earthly ministry.  Jesus said in Johns’ gospel his desire was to teach those followers the things that would bring them into the full measure of His joy.

In society today, much emphasis is placed on happiness. A definition for ‘happy’ is feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.  Most of us spend the majority of our lives trying to control external circumstances to experience ‘happy’. Jesus’ personal circumstances were not always ‘happy’ and yet His joy was full. Happy has to do with external HAPPEN-INGS, and Jesus lived from the inside out.  Joy is internal.  Joy is a work of the Holy Spirit.  Joy flows from our connection with the Father.  Joy comes from living with a clear conscience, being and doing right in the Fathers sight.  From John 15:8 onward we read the foundation Jesus sets for fullness of joy "... My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Verse Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love."

Jesus has never given a commandment that He has not given us the ability to keep.  It just has to be done through the grace He gives and by the power of the Holy Spirit requiring us to be one with Him.  

The Pulpit Commentary states in regards to John 15:11, “.... the words are more simply explained by Lange, Meyer, Lucke, Westcott, Alford, and Moulton, as the communication to his disciples of his own absolute and personal joy. "The joy that is mine," like "the peace which is mine," is graciously bestowed. A joy was set before him, the joy of perfect self-sacrifice, which gave to his present acts an intensity and fullness of bliss. It was this, in its motives and character and supernatural sweetness, which would be in them. If they receive his life into them, it will convey not only his peace, but that peace uprising and bursting into joy; and he adds, in order that your joy may be fulfilled, i.e. perfected, reach its highest expression, its fullness of contents and entire sufficiency for all needs.”

From Jesus great intercessory prayer in John 17, we read from verse 13,"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.

It is the intent of our Father for His children to live from this place of fullness of joy.  

A Song of Ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! Psalm 133:1 ESV

This Psalm goes on to say unity is like oil that runs down from the head upon all the body and it is the place God commands the blessing, life.

I began to think of all the places the bible speaks of being in one accord, everyone saying and doing the same thing, being of one heart and one mind.  This just can not be done apart from God.  Jesus’ greatest intercessory prayer for His church was that we would be one.  One with the Father. One with the Son. One with each other.  

Separation occurs when the heart removes it’s connection with God. When we hold fast to the head, everything about the Father, His love, His word, His spirit work to maintain vital unity.  It is simple deception to believe that we are one with God when we are separate from our brother.  You will remember from Malachi that God hates divorce.  Jesus said divorce is only allowable because of the hardness of heart.  God doesn’t hate the people, God hates what it does to them.  It is a violent act to separate one.  When we think of divorce we think in terms of marriage, yet the very principle is sound when it comes to the body of Christ.  God’s heart is for us to remain vitally united to him and to each other.

If God sets the members in the body as it pleases him, according to 1 Corinthians 12:18, and we remove ourselves from Gods ordained position, there can be no righteous unity in the place I’ve ordained for myself.  Mankind’s universal sin is the propensity to walk in his own way and do what is right in his own sight.  As believers, it is easy to continue this with clever Christianized justification.  Finding others who will affirm our sin. Offense or un-forgiveness will never make us right in the sight of God. It requires a returning to the Lord in repentance and restoration of relationships.

God looks at the heart of man. It’s not about what we perform.  We can look good on the outside while holding disdain and dishonor in our heart. Discord, division, in the body comes as a high price, we lose the place of God’s commanded blessings, life.

1 Corinthians chapter 11 gives us the picture of a body of believers lacking honor for its members. The disdain in the way they ate their meals without a care for the poor among them was a reproach. The apostle Paul went on to write that without judging the Lord’s body properly, a right union with God and a right union with the members, many are weak(sick and infirm) and many sleep (die).

We want to walk in the fulness of the blessing of God.  We want to enjoy the abundant life God has given us in Christ Jesus.  It does require a heart that remains open, embracing and honoring every member.  

Believing the best and honoring the brotherhood works to hold our hearts in a place of unity.  This is His way that promises the oil to flow and the blessing of life for us individually and collectively.  What God has joined together let not man put asunder.

Desire without knowledge is not good and to be overhasty is to sin and miss the mark. Proverbs 19:2

While God does give us the desires of our heart, He also gives us wisdom and understanding.  There are no short cuts with God in determining His will.   It takes time with Him to bring forth wisdom and understanding. His wisdom is a hidden treasure to be searched for.  

The ‘desire’ is the entrance into the purposes of God, but a wise man mines out the wisdom and understanding needed to build.  By wisdom a house is built, by understanding every room is filled.  Wisdom was with the Father in the beginning.  Wisdom was daily his delight as he created. Hosea reminds us destruction comes because we lack knowledge and yet the Father tells us in James, if you lack wisdom, just ask. The Holy Spirit living within each of us, fills us with the knowledge of his will with all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Since the Father is withholding nothing from us, we are assured as we seek, we will find.  As we knock it is opened.  He freely gives us everything needed for life and godliness.

Verse three of Proverbs19 reads ~ the foolishness of man subverts his way (ruins his affairs) then his heart is resentful and frets against the Lord. AMP

NLT ~ People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the LORD.
ESV ~ When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD.

The book of Romans gives us a principal to govern our lives - whatever is not of faith is sin and from 1 John 3:20 we find if our conscience condemns us God is greater than our hearts. Every step must be rooted in our confidence that God has said- this is right.  That confidence sustains us as we move.  The just shall live by faith.  When circumstances arise, as they always do, our faith is challenged and if we have not taken the time to build our steps from wisdom and understanding, we will falter.

"Perverse mankind! whose wills, created free,
Charge all their woes on absolute decree;
All to the dooming gods their guilt translate,
And follies are miscalled the crimes of fate."
Homer from Odyssey Book 1.

We would never equate secular writings with the scripture of Life, but isn’t it interesting to note that even the best philosophical minds see the folly of man-albeit it through a glass darkly.

It would serve us well in our relationship with the Father, if we could simply allow the Spirit of Truth to work in us and show us any place we walk in presumption.  

He who willfully separates and estranges himself (from God and man) seeks his own desire and pretext to break out against all wise and sound judgment.  Proverbs 18:1

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes but the Lord weighs the heart.  Proverbs 21.2

Our desire is to walk in His ways and rest in the blessings He brings.  Culture breeds impatience.  The Father works in us to rest in Him laying aside the ways of the world The knowledge of His will and His understanding works His peace in us in the midst of our circumstances to keep us stedfast in Him.    

Who his own self bare our sins to his own body on the tree that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 1 Peter 2:24 KJV

The Divine Exchange.  

Our focus this weekend has been on Christ, His cross and resurrection.  We’ve seen the very heart of God, love, compel Jesus to offer up his life as the perfect sacrifice to redeem ours.  The divine exchange: His life to redeem ours.  By his stripes we were healed.  “For by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified.”  Hebrews 10:14.  

Everything we have ever needed, or will ever need, can be found in this divine exchange. Ephesians 1:3, The Father, “Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” offers us a finished work.  What begins spiritually always has sufficient life to manifest itself naturally to the one who receives.

The cross is the divine exchange.
It was His place of death but it is where we find our life in Christ.
Jesus was punished that we would be forgiven.  He was wounded that we would be healed.  He was made sin that we could become the righteousness of God in Him.  His death has brought us abundant life. Though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich. His shame, his disgrace, gave us grace and glory in serving Him.  He was rejected and we find acceptance in the Fathers presence.  He became a curse that we might be blessed.

This isn’t just an Easter story.  It is the reality we live by.  It is truth that governs our daily existence and the hope which anchors our soul.
It is our divine exchange.

As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. Luke 19:11 ESV

From the gospels we read crowds laying cloaks and palm leaves on the ground as Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last week of his life on earth. The crowd is going before him and following him shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”  There was a great deal of excitement because these people expected Jesus to deliver them from the Roman rule.  They were excited abut a natural deliverer.  They supposed that the Kingdom of God was to appear immediately.

Jesus is a deliverer, but he often told the people His Kingdom was not of this world.  The Kingdom of God is spiritual.  It is within.  It is righteous, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  No matter how many times Jesus told them about the Kingdom, they weren’t hearing and understanding.  Their expectations hindered them from hearing what he was saying. They wanted a natural deliverer from Roman oppression.  They wanted a natural Kingdom and he was preparing an entrance into a Spiritual one.  

There are many things in our life that Jesus has communicated to us, but because of our preconceived expectations of what he should do, how he should do it, we have a difficult time hearing and seeing His reality.  As Jesus approaches the city he weeps over Jerusalem because they don’t recognize the time of their visitation.

I believe it is our misplaced expectations that go unfulfilled in our lives because they arenot shaped by the will of God and our hearts fret against the Lord.  These disappointments hold great opportunities for a sick heart.  

The Holy Spirit is always speaking and leading into truth and the question is, ‘do I have ears that hear and a heart to receive?  As long as we are looking for something else, we are hindered in our seeing or perceiving what God is doing. Reese Howell, wrote a book on intercession and made this statement, “Only the impartial can know the will of God”, quoting John 5:30.  As long as we have an opinion about how God has to do something we are still trying to control our events.  To commit something to the Father, is to roll the care over on him.  We put him in charge, believing he will work, and we simply do not have an opinion about how.

Let’s just expect God to work and leave the how to Him.

“....But because you bear the image of God, you must give back to God all that belongs to him.” Passion Translation of Mark 12:17

or

as the KJV reads ~  “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”

In a culture that thrives of self gratification one does not generally like to reflect on the potential of withholding from God. Proverbs tells us there is one that has but withholds more than is right yet it tends to poverty.  We find from the book of Malachi that withholding the tithe from God opens our lives to the curse that is on this earth by the very nature of robbing God of what belongs to Him.  

In the New Testament we find from 1 Corinthians, we are not our own.  If not our own, whose are we?  Paul continues, you’ve been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body.  In other words, we belong to God and yet while we belong to Him, He looks for willing submission and yielding to Him. He is not a hard taskmaster, nor does He make us do anything.  He is looking for the heart that says I want to.

Many Christians today practice a freedom from tithing, believing they are under grace and not the law.  Yet as NT believers, the greater reality of giving so far exceeds 10% that it begs the question, why would we stumble at ten and think we could ever give a hundred percent of us?  Malachi did not stop with simply the tithe when we wrote that we robbed God, he also said offerings, tithes and offerings.

I’ve been asking myself if this teaching could possibly be the very doctrine of devils.  Could the tithe represents to us the tree in the middle of the garden that was not to be eaten from and yet we find a way to eat the fruit (spend the tithe).  Are we in fact inviting the very curse that rests upon this earth to work in our lives?  Do we live within this wide space of allowing ourselves to indulge every appetite without restraint or consideration of spending what is not ours?

If we consider beyond the financial aspects and look to the very spending of life, how do we fare?  Paul wrote and asked, “what do we have that has not been given to us?”  John wrote in his epistle that every good and perfect gift comes into our life by the very hand of God, who gives freely and liberally that we may enjoy life and only asks that we take the blessings He has so graciously given and freely pass them along.

A life that is squandered on self, is a poor life indeed.  Living by the strength of our own hand hinders us from knowing the the goodness of God or recognizing the works of His hand.  It is as we give back to God what belongs to him - our very lives - that we find wholeness.  “He who loses his life for my sake, finds it.”
Because we bear the image of God, we must give back to God all that belongs to him.

I will give thanks unto thee; For I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Wonderful are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well ~ Psalm 139:14 KJV

I like the phrase, “and that my soul knoweth right well.”  It’s old English but very clearly gives the awareness that the psalmist’ praise is directly related to the confidence He has in God and His creation.

Identity is defined as the fact of being who or what a person is.  Proverbs tells us as a man thinks in his heart so is he.  Identity can be a huge issue for all of us through life.  Not only before Christ, but in Christ, with the desire to find your creation in God which is primary to knowing and understanding who you have been created to be.  Ephesians 2:10 reminds us that we are his workmanship, created in Christ, ordained for good works.  Every human being is God’s creation, fearfully and wonderfully made, but secure identity rests in your soul knowing that right well.   

Life is by nature a state of flux. Learning to adapt is paramount to keeping identity intact.  Who you are never changes, but what you do is reshaped time and again.

Identity crisis’ occur when change comes into our lives and shifts our natural reality.  Since the Father is the one who goes before us, perfecting the things that concern us, and Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled.... I go to prepare a place for you”, should we not believe that when the change comes, He knows exactly what we have been created to do in that season and the place we find ourselves simply changes what we do, not who we are.

While God put Adam in the garden to tend and keep it, his purpose flowed from the relationship He had with the Father, son and Holy Spirit.  He was first, made in their image, then set in the garden.  

As David and I began our married life in 1972, I went from being Jeanne Weber to Jeanne McGrew.  New name, new family, new expectations. Yet in life, I began my journey as woman, His creation, fearfully and wonderfully made.  ‘Wife’ gave me a role with responsibilities. ‘Mother’ does the same, but when either one of these change, our identity is challenged. . The year 1975 took us from sinners to saints and more changes.  We had to learn who this new Father was and what He said about us as His children.  It took great humility and determination to agree with Him in the face of natural appearing circumstances, but we chose to believe and adapt.  We went from saints to understanding grace and accepted the work He had created us for which ultimately led us to Canada in 1981 with a whole new season of opportunities for change.

Through every stage of growth, choices are required to follow the purpose of God and each time they require something new and different out of us. Each one of these moments can be met with fear and anxiety, but when they drive you back to your foundations in God and you hold to Him, you are able to move through with identity intact and purpose embraced.  Without this, you do move away from the opportunity and in doing so, you separate yourself from your Father, Jesus the word that is given to you for life and the Holy Spirit who has imparted the grace which enables you to do.  

Believing we are His workmanship, fearfully and wonderfully made, is the beginning of carrying a sense of value and right identity.  Learning to know the Father, as one who loves us endlessly and purposefully, frees us from the place of rejection.  

Rooted and grounded in Him gives us the ability to give thanks, knowing right well we are fearfully and wonderfully made: Wonderful are thy works.

“For the joy set before Him, endured......” Hebrews 12:2

Is it possible to endure in a Godly manner without a joy set before us?

There are two words in the Greek that speak of endurance.  One describes the heart condition, hupoménō, while you are engaged in adversities, the other, kakopathéō, simply expresses the conflict itself.  Jesus was a man acquainted with sorrows.  Paul knew afflictions and persecutions, which he describes in detail to the Corinthians.  We are aware, historically, of the circumstances that befell the first church, yet somehow today, have we developed a mindset that says we do not have to suffer these things?

To believe Gods love to us guarantees a trouble free life, is to be ignorant of scripture. “In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome it.”  John 16:33.  “God who is faithful will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will with the temptation make a way of escape.”1 Cor 10:13.  What’s he faithful to do ~ keep you in the midst of the trouble and lead you through it.  He shows us the way out.   I can’t ever get away from this ~ Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.  Luke 4:1.  It doesn’t matter if our troubles our demonic or just the effects of life, bad choices, etc., hardness will come and our admonition is to maintain a heart that absolutely stays connected to God in his love and is not move by what he sees, but endures. We meet it, just like Jesus did in Luke chapter 4. He goes in “full of the Spirit” and comes out “in the power of the Holy Ghost”.  

He goes to the garden and sustains himself for what he must meet by the grace of God and, for the joy set before Him, he endures.  He looked beyond the cross and saw the promise of God - many brethren.  We are encouraged to look unto Jesus.   We too mustchoose to see and believe His promises above our circumstances and trouble.

We can’t find in the bible men and women who lived in this world and did not suffer hardships.  The bible is story after story about the greatness of God, the goodness of a Father with overflowing love and mercy to help.

Isaiah 60:1 from the Amplified reads ~ ARISE [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you—rise to a new life]1... a great admonition and one we can do as we keep our eyes on Him.  With a purposed joy set before us we endure,  stedfast, immoveable and abounding in the work of the Lord. Amen.

“Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Romans 8:24

From the Complete Word Study Dictionary we find the meaning of two words;
 hope and patience ~

1679. ἐλπίζω elpízō; from elpís (G1680), hope. To hope, expect with desire

5281. ὑπομονή hupomonḗ; gen. hupomonḗs, fem. noun from hupoménō (G5278), to persevere, remain under. A bearing up under, patience, endurance as to things or circumstances. This is in contrast to makrothumía (G3115), long- suffering or endurance toward people. Hupomonḗ is associated with hope (1 Thess. 1:3) and refers to that quality of character which does not allow one to surrender to circumstances or succumb under trial.

We find in this verse simple hope.  An expectation with desire is the beginning of receiving the promise of God but this alone will not achieve receptivity.  We must add to hope patience, the quality of character that does not allow us to surrender to circumstances.  Be not weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not, Galatians 6:9.

Write the vision down, though it tarry, wait for it.  There is an appointed time for every word from God and we must remain stedfast in our expectations, unmoved by what we see.  

The bible tells us our hope is to be founded in God, Psalm 33:18; 42:11 and upon his promises, Psalm 78:7; 119:81,114Our hope is supernatural because it comes from the Father, who is the God of all hope, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  Our patience is supernatural becomes it comes from God, Romans 1:5 “Now may the God Who gives the power of patient endurance (steadfastness) and Who supplies encouragement...”.  What do we have that we have not received?  Our help is truly in the Lord and we are able to endure with the right heart and mind as we find our strength in the Lord.

Our promise is this ~ His hope never shames us because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  Simply meaning, that when we have a misplaced hope, an expectation, something that does not have its origins in God, we have no guarantee that it will come to pass.  We simply have the word of a man and we are strongly exhorted from the word to keep our eyes on God for He is not a man thatHe should lie, for it is impossible for God to lie. He only speaks truth and He watches over his word to perform it.  His word comes with a 100% guarantee to a believing heart.  This heart which stays connected to the love of God is never ashamed because of the confidence it holds in God, their Father, who has promised, “I will not in any way fail you, nor give you up, nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down ( relax My hold on you)! [ Assuredly not!].  So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, the Lord is my Helper I will not be afraid. Hebrews 13:5-6 Amplified translation.
 

May you be strengthened today to stand still and patiently wait for the salvation that comes from a Father who loves you.  

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14

My thought this morning is about this place of ‘press’.  I’m sure like so many we start our year filled with good intentions and a certain amount of faith and hope to achieve the purposes of God and I’m wondering if we are continuing to press. ‘THEY’ say it’s not how you start a race, it’s how you finish and we all desire to finish and finish well.  

 You will notice before Paul ever pressed to do, he pressed to know Him (verse 10).   We’ve all heard our doing for Him can never exceed our knowing of Him.  Without knowing Him, we begin to remove ourselves from a position of humble service.  We lose sight of who serves whom. It is only as we hold fast to the head we are sure to be righteously performing the works given to us. Press to know him. That’s step one.

Step two is the press to serve Him.  Press from the Greek tells us this is; To follow or press hard after, to pursue with earnestness and diligence in order to obtain, to go after with the desire of obtaining.  We all have assigned works to finish. We all have obstacles to overcome but with the measure of faith dealt to us, the Holy Spirit poured out for us and grace abounding moment by moment, we truly lack for no good thing spiritually, [cp.1 Cor. 1:7].  What we must provide is our will to press.    

I said we all have obstacles to overcome and one of those is our past.  You cannot move forward comparing today with yesterday especially if it creates within you a sense of failure for today.  Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown’s Commentary makes this note on “forgetting those things... behind-- Looking back is sure to end in going back (Lu 9:62):So Lot's wife (Lu 17:32). If in stemming a current we cease pulling the oar against it, we are carried back. God's word to us is as it was to Israel, "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward" (Ex 14:15). The Bible is our landmark to show us whether we are progressing or retrograding.”

May I encourage you today to find yourself in the words of Jesus, “but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father, Rise let us go from here. John 14:31.

Whatever position you find yourselves in today, make sure you are engaged in the press.  Press in to know Him, Press in to do His will.  

“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” John 7:37 KJV

 Our verse today, is one that expresses the heart of God for us.
Having just finished a week of corporate prayer with our foundation to be rich in Him, we were instructed from Luke's gospel to come, hear, and do.  Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.  It is in this simple invitation we discover the fullness of God’s heart for man.

This word cried is described as an onomatopoeia. An onomatopoeia is a word that phonetically imitates, resembles or suggests the source of the sound that it describes. Some examples would be honk, beep, meow, bam, etc.  You get the idea.

When it says Jesus cried, the Amplified translation reads, cried in a loud voice, I’m not just hearing a cry but something that comes from deep within His heart. I hear the intensity and passion of love calling a people to come to Him and find life. Oh that we could simply believe the heart of God is so rich and full of His desire for us to be whole.  Ephesians reminds us that it is this great love that brings His rich mercy and kindness to us. He has come that we might have life and have it MORE ABUNDANTLY through his son and Jesus carries His very heart and cries, come to me.

Oh how He loves you and me.  He simply but passionately cries.  He offers and we must respond. Come to Him because we believe He is and He is a rewarder.  Drink and be refreshed. Open our hearts and receive. Feed on Him and live.  He fills and truly we become His source of living water that flows with His love and life to all.

We choose so many other things endeavoring to satisfy our thirst; yet He alone can satisfy our soul.  As we come to Him, we enter into His rest and He restores our soul. He is the Good Shepherd who is calling this very day and if we come, we shall not want.  

Jesus continues to cry ~ “If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink.”

PS ~ The following is an interesting link that provides some historical information for those of you who would like to know more about the Feast of tabernacles:

http://considerthegospel.org/blog/2015/09/23/the-feast-of-tabernacles-layered-like-an-onion-with-meaning/

“To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying.. “ Acts 26:22 ESV

Help, what a great word. How many times each day do we face our need for some kind of help?  So many times we are looking to people who we think, should’ve, could’ve and didn’t and miss how God has worked supernaturally on our behalf to keep us standing. Paul had a way of acknowledging natural help without laying the expectation upon individuals to be his help.  He writes, I had the help that comes from God and so I stand......

No matter what form our help comes in naturally, we must always acknowledge God as the source of every good gift, every place of help and deliverance, every favour and earthly blessing only comes by the hand of God.  Thus, we have had help that comes from God and so we stand.....

This word help in the Greek from this verse strictly denotes such aid as is rendered by an epikouros, “an ally, an auxiliary”; Paul uses it in his testimony to Agrippa, “having therefore obtained the help that is from God.  From Hebrews 4:16 we find that the Lord is our helper or as the Greek says; boetheia (βοήθεια, 996), from boe, “a shout,” and theo, “to run,” denotes “help, succour,” Heb. 4:16, lit., “(grace) unto (timely) help”.  There is also this word sunantizambano (συναντιλαμβάνομαι, 4878) which signifies “to lake hold with at the side for assistance” (sun, “with,” and No. 1); hence, “to take a share in, help in bearing, to help in general.” It is used, in the middle voice in Martha’s request to the Lord to bid her sister help her, Luke 10:40; and of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in helping our infirmities, Rom. 8:26.  The help that comes to us from the Helper, who never leaves us because He dwells with us forever.

Hebrews 13: 5 reminds us, he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6. So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
The Amplified translation reads ~  for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]

Our help always comes and it always comes first in the form of His grace. His enabling power to do what He has told us to do.  The Holy Spirit comes alongside and gives us aid and assistance.  He doesn’t do our part, but he will help us do what we put our hand to in obedience to the Lord and it’s all in a realm we don’t see at first but we must believe.  By faith we access this grace wherein we stand, Romans 5:2. Therefore, we say:

To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying.  

Your eyes saw my unformed substance...

"Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. 17 How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!"
Psalm 139:16 Amplified

As we begin to walk out this new year, we must do so with the understanding that God
has already ordained the steps we are to take. Ephesians 2:10 reminds us that we
have been ordained, each one of us, for good works. Predestined, His intent was
intentional, and just so, this new year is filled with divine and supernatural purpose for
each day.
Our verse says, all my days of my life were written before they ever took shape and
verse seventeen reminds us they are written from a merciful and loving Father, precious
and weighty are His thoughts to us. The Spirit filled life bible study notes,
“Substance . . . unformed is language used for clay not yet formed into a pot, or a skein
of thread not yet unrolled and woven2 . As the God of Hope, He fills each creation with
joy and peace in believing that they may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Discovering His purpose for life is found as we open our bible and ‘see’ what He has
written for us. Find His word, quickened by His Spirit, by attending to His word. Go back
and read the words He’s already given you; making sure they are alive (sown) in your
heart and faith is watering the seed.
This one thing I know, light dispels darkness. Anywhere we have darkness in our lives
the light of the word of God will dispel it. The more light on a matter the greater
illumination and ultimately all darkness gone. You can’t spend all your time trying to get
the darkness out. Spend your self attending to the word, the entrance of His word gives
light, Psalm 119:130 and let the word work in you.
I believe the bible is the book of life. His words are alive. They are life and health to all
who find them. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If we search
and seek for His words as a treasure, we find the knowledge of God. We don’t know
and we won’t know, without coming to Him, Jesus, as the word made flesh and feeding
on Him daily as our bread of life. His Holy Spirit leads us, guides us into all truth. He
quickens (makes alive) the very word that we need to live by for the day, (really it’s
moment by moment).

Separated from the word for any reason is surely the beginning of death and destruction
working. Babies need someone else to feed them, many toddlers want someone else to
feed them, but growth only comes as we are stretched to do for ourselves. Believing
and receiving the word is my job. Jeremiah 15:16 Your words were found and I did eat
them and they became the joy and rejoicing of my heart.
God’s intent is for us to be sustained daily through His word and through the strength of
His Holy Spirit. Why not begin this year with a greater involvement of both and watch
the revelation and zeal it produces in us?

1 The Amplified Bible. (1987). (Ps 139:16–17). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
2 Hayford, J. W. (Ed.). (1997). Spirit filled life study Bible (electronic ed., Ps 139:16).
Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.