God's Unconditional Love

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The blessing of my family feels like a warm and wonderful blanket as the temperature outside begins to drop.  Sweet thoughts and precious memories of each one come to mind and the bonds of love stretch to where they are in the world.

The morning conference with Holiness begins on that note:  Love for family.

The human love for flesh family is our first and (or should be) the best picture of God's love for his Beloved Creation.  What I "feel" emotionally in the exchange of family love sets the tone of thanksgiving that I offer up to the One who gave me those who make up my family.

God's love draws me and the Holy Spirit receives my gratitude.  Then the Holy One reminds me of the unconditional love He has for his Beloved....all of us....each of us, and I begin to compare the great love I have for my flesh family with the great love He has for humanity.

The truth about our Sovereign Creator is that He IS love.  The Holy One doesn't just give it, He IS love.  Everything He does stems from Who He is. God IS love.  Compare that to the love we "feel" as humanity and the difference between His love and ours is vast.

Human love emanates out of human need from birth on and without knowing it our love becomes quite conditional.  God's love on the other hand is unconditional.   God is outside our realm and He is self-sufficient to use a human word to describe the One who cannot be described by limited human language.  God needs nothing from us.  He is the Great benefactor of all we need and needs nothing in return.

What this means to me is that the love God has for me cannot be bought, exchanged, manipulated or destroyed.  I cannot earn it or demand it, or threaten it.  I cannot steal it from someone else.  I cannot direct it, dictate it or control it.  I cannot get away from it but most of all I cannot live without it.  God's love is to be accepted. respected and relished by me, the unworthy recipient.

Even as I say that I am unworthy of His love, there is a human component to my understanding of it that I must shed if I am to truly experience the depths of His unconditional love.

Jesus is our model and example of God's unconditional love.  He sat with sinners, touched lepers, healed demoniacs and yes, even, rebuked the Pharisees in love.

One of the most telling demonstrations of His unconditional love for all of us happened on a day when He was speaking to a crowd.  His human family was outside the place He was teaching and wanted to speak with him. 

Matt 12:46-50 tells of the encounter.  "Someone told Him. "Your mother and brothers are standing outside to speak to You".  He replied to him, "Who is my mother and who are my brothers?"  Pointing to His Disciples, He said, "Here are my mother and brothers, for whoever does the will of My Father in Heaven is My brother and my sister and my mother."

This has always hurt my human heart as a mother bound to my children.  I can only imagine the human hurt His statement might have caused His flesh family at that time.

Today I see  more into what He, God in the flesh, was teaching about His unconditional love.  I believe He was modelling the wider and broader scope of His love. It's not that He loved His human family less, but for those listening close, He was telling them that he didn't love His flesh family more.

Conditional love sets boundaries, and forms tight bonds.  Honor and reciprocation dictates human loyalties and then incorporates rejection.  Manipulation and relational abuse happens with conditional love. God's unconditional love covers over the sinner and the saint.

Today is a day for me to see through the boundaries of human conditional love and try to grasp the boundlessness of His unconditional love.  I know I cannot begin to operate at that depth of love without making more of the great exchange with My Lord.  I must bring to Him my conditional human love and ask for His unconditional Divine love in exchange.

I make no promises to my Counselor that I can do anything other than yield to Him in this matter.  Coming into His Presence and finding myself empty is one more hard lesson in humility.

The love I feel for my family is not diminished in the lesson of today. But knowing God's love is the standard and possibility set before me, and having the "love power" of His Holy Spirit within me, I  am assured that I can grow more and more in His unconditional love for my own family as well as the human world around  me.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?      

Pentecost Lost

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The time will be changing soon.  Daylight savings on this end means we gain an hour on the clock.  We have an extra hour to sleep, or do whatever makes us happy.

Extra time can be a true and blessed gift.  One more hour to meet a deadline; one more hour to correct a mistake: one more hour to redeem what may have been lost.

While the clock of history doesn't' stop ticking, I am aware that the One Who holds time will, in fact, stop it for a while to facilitate His Plan and reveal His supernatural intervention for all to see.  Such was the case in Joshua's life.

 In Joshua 10:13,  as Joshua prayed to the Lord, in the midst of a great battle against the Ammorites, we read, "O sun stand still over Gibeon. O moon over the Valley of Aijalon.  So the sun stood still and the moon stopped til the nation avenged itself on it's enemies.  As it is written in the Book of Jashai, the sun stopped in the middle of the day and delayed going down about a full day".

The Biblical account of time interrupted, lost or gained, depending on your perspective, has been discovered accurate by those who "chart time".  It was not their intention to affirm Biblical accuracy but that seems to be a by-product of their study. 

With that theme swirling through my mind, I wonder about what ground may have been lost that might be redeemed in God's glorious plan for His people, His Church.

I confess that I love the relationship with the Holy Spirit that allows me to meander with Him.  I truly never know quite where we will end up at the end of our morning conference.  Fellowship with the Creator provides no end to the subjects we can discuss nor the awe and wonder of His wisdom shared. 

I am captivated by the account of Pentecost.  It has been like a siren call to my spirit.  The supernatural mystery surrounding that day and time has always challenged my conservative, well-disciplined spiritual roots.

Looking back through scripture at that event and looking at the "Pentecostal" claim-to-fame today, I can't help but register a huge dichotomy between the two.  I have been asking the Lord to help me sort out His opinion and will in the matter.  As the earth turns and life presses on, I don't want to miss anything that my Lord would have me experience this side of Heaven.

I sense beyond words that the Holy One is planning something amazing.  Could it be a "day" in our times like that "day" of so long ago?  Could it be a mighty move of His Spirit that seems to have been lost in our "church" life?

If that is so, I want to be ready.  Part of being ready is to remain dependent on the Lord alone even while in community with others. The Holy Spirit indwells the individual believer and will lead each one of us into all truth.  His Presence and Power was revealed on the day of Pentecost, and the Church of the Living God was founded on His Presence in and on "Jesus Followers". 

Manifestations of the life of Christ, the Risen Savior, followed this Baptism by Fire.   People were convicted of sin, healed of infirmities, restored from crippling birth defects, formed communities to share the blessings of God with each other and then were empowered to be witnesses for Christ to all the nations even as persecution threatned their very lives . 

Do our fellowships (churches) manifest these same great works of His Spirit?

I have come to see that the "great deception" can and does begin with a small deviation from the Truth.  I also see how the few can impact the many.   Eve added to God's warning against eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Her add on to the warning not to "touch" the fruit became the opening for her rebellion and the seduction of the enemy to destroy her relationship with her Creator.

It seems the same kind of deception took place sometime after Pentecost and our relationship with the Holy Spirit in Power and Authority as it relates to His Baptism with fire was destroyed.  I have heard the lie.  Unless one "speaks in tongues" as evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, one is not saved.  That "add-on" not only changes the Gospel message that Salvation comes through the simple belief in Christ Jesus the Crucified Savior but it has also driven us to live without the true power to be found in the "Baptism by fire" that came down on the day of Pentecost. 

The deviation from truth by some of those known to be "Pentecostal" caused the Baptism by the Holy One to be rejected and ridiculed.  It looks to me as if true "Pentecost" got lost.  Over the annals of church history, as replacement and human pride stepped up, The Holy Spirit stepped away.

I have been asking the Lord about "Pentecost lost" and the prophecy out of Joel that says, "In the last days, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.  Your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams.  Even on My servants both men and women I will pour out my Spirit in those days".

Could it be that the same Divine Power that ignited the hearts and minds of true believers when the  Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost will once again be poured out over His people?  I can't help but wonder if the powerful manifestations of the Holy Spirit that began the "church age" will not come down once again, upon God's people to end it.

Could it be that we, the Church, are being given one more "hour" to correct a mistake, and cry out for that fiery Baptism by His Holy Spirit?

If that is the case, the time we have left is a blessed gift.  I hear the Holy Spirit speak today, "I am willing.  Are you?"  I am persuaded that if the Holy One can but have His way with us, we might just be the generation so filled with the Holy Spirit's fire that we can walk in the supernatural and maybe even redeem "Pentecost lost".

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?  

 

Unity With God

The Holy One calls to me this morning. Winter is setting in.  Life is slowing down in the forest:  leaves are turning and falling, birds have gone south for the season, and the carnivore bugs that were such an annoyance yesterday have all but disappeared.

The Lord has been teaching me to slow down too, seize each moment and deal with what is in that moment as His gift. It has required a different attitude toward life and I am beginning to capture the moment as a "freeze-frame" rather than a "fast-paced-action", "get-to-the-bus-stop-before-it leaves" kind of perspective.

I am learning that to "walk" in the Spirit doesn't mean to "run" in the Spirit.  Much can be overlooked if I sprint rather than walk.  Today, my wise Counselor draws me into His Presence to talk about just being here and savoring the moment with Him.

There are so many books written about prayer as the communication with God: how to get there, what to do with our list of desperate needs, what "order" prayer much be approached with.  But in this moment, when the deepest connection has been made, all the "how-to's" fade and I see the futility to my end of the relationship.

The Trinity is beyond our human comprehension in so many ways, yet today I see the Majesty of the Three in One.  Before time as we know time, God "was".  And, past this earth's expiration date, God "will be".  But right now in this moment, God is the Great I AM.  He is  present now, as He is in each eternal moment that comes and then becomes a part of eternity past.

His message to me this day, speaks a little more of the mystery of who He is.  Being drawn into His Presence is an invitation given and accepted.  He is the Host and we are the guests.

The Holy Trinity is a community in and of Himself.  We have been invited to become a part of that Divine Community through the person of Jesus, the Christ.  Our reconciliation with the Trinity has everything to do with the action of The "Jesus One".   Jesus came to make peace with His creation. He  invites us to join His Community and to have relationship with the Trinity. 

For those who have accepted His magnanimous invitation, Jesus equipped us to join Them through the mystery of His indwelling Holy Spirit.  To be part of that Divine community called the Trinity, we must undergo a change:  a heart change, a Spiritual re-birth. 

In and of ourselves we cannot pull it off no matter how hard we try.  "Apart from Me", Jesus says, "You can do nothing". Outside of the box I understand to be "works", I have found a deeper more profound meaning of that Truth for me today.  I can come into His Presence only by invitation and only because of the Holy Spirit who changes me to be like "Them".

John 14:17-20,  "On that day (Pentecost), you will realize I am in My Father, and you are in Me and I am in you". For a long time I have known that Heaven will have no citizens who march to their own beat or have their own agenda to serve.  All the self-exaltation parts of the human will fade and die when the enemy who stokes and challenges our pride is no more.

The years we have been given on earth are a gift from our Sovereign Creator to allow each one of us the time to seek out and discover who He is and, in free will, to make the decision to accept His gracious invitation to join Him in Community.

As I sit in His Presence this morning, I realize I have nothing to give that He has not provided.  Our amazing God is the Source of everything.  He needs nothing, not even me.  His unfathomable love is not like mine needing reciprocation. He is the ultimate Benefactor and He invites us into His eternal world.

I would love to glorify my Lord for all He has done and given for me.  But in the hard reality of Truth, I cannot.  However, He can glorify Himself through me and all I have to do is yield.

To yield to the indwelling Holy Spirit is not doing anything for Him.  It is simply allowing Him to do all the more for me.  The question for me today is this, "will my pride be able to handle that Truth?"

When Jesus came and took on a flesh body, He left all His Glory behind.  He emptied Himself.  Today in His Presence, as part of His community and in unity with my God, I know I must do the same.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

The Cure

The Holy One call to me this morning. I am reminded that there is much about the Book of Revelation that is being talked over in the confusing times we find ourselves living.  Notwithstanding the common teaching on the 7 churches of Revelation 2 and 3, the Holy One simply asks me this morning "So, which one are you?"

I have to admit that I never took these scriptures so personally as to realize that, who I am, makes up the Church.  The Church is,  because I am, and that fact is not too far from the truth.  I never made the correlation between the Church's violations and the attitude of my own heart. 

In moving past the shock of His question, I need to stop and read again what John writes and what Christ says, to the 7 churches as if He is saying them to me.  Corporate accountability begins with individual and personal accountability. 

The splinter in the eye of the church cannot be handled properly until the huge beam in my own eye has been dealt with.  The purity of the Church depends on the purity of the congregation, plain and simple. We all know that a little yeast........and  I cannot expect the church to go beyond what I am personally pouring into the Body of Christ. 

Reading what our Lord says to the churches, I must stop and ask Him, "Lord is it I?"   " Have you dived into the catacombs of my heart and found corruption?  Has Your residency found pockets of sin You want to clean up, or a wayward independence away from the leading of Your Spirit?   What, if anything, lies deep and brings defilement to Your temple?"

When Jesus spoke of the "betrayer", the Disciples were struck with the real possibility that it might have been themselves.  It is one thing to claim the "righteousness" of Christ and yet another to allow Him to clean out the dirty places of flesh corruption that hinder our walk, defame His presence, and limit His power of healing, not only for ourselves but for the world around us.

Past readings of the warnings to the churches has created an opportunity for Pharisaical legalism to take place in my mind.  I do not want to be associated with those things Jesus had against "those" churches and I can easily slide into a place of legalism and judgement.

I do not want to tolerate false teaching, turn a deaf ear to what the Holy Spirit has to say, be asleep at the switch, more dead than alive, be lukewarm and not hot, say I am rich when I am actually poor, blind and naked.  My desire is to be the one who has kept His word and not denied His Name, but in the end, I find myself in a place of judgement, not of myself, but of others.

The Holy One is working on me this morning because He wants me to move on to a greater lesson.  Jesus wants both my feet on the "Pentecostal side of the Cross".   He has pointed out that to live in legalism is to have one foot on either side of the Cross straddling both the Old and New Testaments.

The day that the Holy Spirit came upon the people and ignited their being, was a supernatural event.  That supernatural event began the legacy of the Church AKA the Body of Christ. 

Judgement is a sad part of the human mindset, yet Jesus said,  "I did not come to judge the world but to save it".  The real offense of legalism is not that it convicts, but that it condemns.  As the Holy One leads, I can see that legalism focuses on the disease while the Holy Spirit stands ready to bring down the cure.

Luke's account of the life of Jesus, says over and over that the Power of the Spirit was on Jesus as He executed the miraculous cures to the sick human conditions of life on earth.  Jesus gave us, who would follow Him, a sampling of what was to follow after His Ascension and His release of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus broke the power of sin through His death and resurrection.   By releasing the Holy Spirit and His Baptism of fire on the day of Pentecost, we can also experience and do those "greater works" that Jesus did by the Power of the Holy Spirit when He walked the earth.

Repentance and forgiveness between the human and our Creator begins the process, but is not the end goal of salvation. Something supernatural and bigger than our minds can fathom takes place in the human once the reconciliation has been made and our relationship with our Maker is restored.

The indwelling Holy Spirit wants to bring His fire to ignite my internal hearth.  I am convinced that the cold water I have doused Him with is legalism and the judgement that goes with it.  His is the power to heal, but to experience it, I must stop focusing on the disease and see to the "cure".

Forgiving myself and others releases His power and enables me to walk in the "Spirit".  With eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, instead of on each other and our failures, what healing might the Lord do to and through the Church under the anointing of His Holy Spirit?

Traditional legalism is a duality of thinking. Today I see that we need both feet on the same side of the Cross in order to walk in the Resurrection power of "Pentecost".  Only then will we see the same miracles that Jesus modelled and said that we would do too.  

The indwelling Holy Spirit of Christ has and is the Cure...shall we allow Him to bring and be it?

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?         

 

The Spirit of Truth

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Excitement floods my room.  Even in the darkness I can "feel" it.  There is a cause for celebration and I cannot wait to find out what this excitement is all about. 

The Spirit has been leading me through some pretty rough terrain lately, but today, I sense an "aha" moment and breakthrough of some kind.  Life and my studies seem like random dots on a chalkboard at times with all the people, situations, and "how come" questions that may grace or clutter the landscape.

But then, the Holy One begins to connect some of those dots and a picture takes shape which I recognize as Truth. Circumstances challenge my human frame and mind.  I realize that, due to pain or pride, I can miss the target I so desire to hit which is Truth.

Not withstanding the learning curve we all experience, I know and trust that the indwelling Holy Spirit, the One who wakes me up each day and draws me into His Presence, will guide me into all Truth. 

In John 16:5-15, as Jesus was preparing to depart planet earth and take up His eternal place at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, He left these words for all who would follow Him:

"Now, I am going to Him who sent Me....It is for your good that I am going away.....Unless I go, the Counselor will not come to you, but if I go, I will send Him to you.....I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear, but when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all Truth."

Line upon line, precept upon precept, the Holy One leads us into all truth if we are willing to go with Him.  The one great warning we have received is that, in the end, a great spiritual deception will cover the whole earth and therefore "truth" is going to be imperative for life.

Even as we speak, all kinds of information and mis-information floods the airwaves.  How can we know what is true? Without a deep reliance on the "Spirit of Truth" the challenge to know truth is too much for the human.  Intellectual pride stands in our way and we can trace it back to the toxic fruit consumed by our ancestors in the Garden of God.

To approach and understand the things of the "Spirit" through human intellect will tangle up the best of navigators.  It is with this understanding that, while wrestling our thoughts and analyzing our circumstances, we must always return to the Holy One, Who has promised to give Divine wisdom upon our request.  The excitement of today is the anticipation of a much sought after "breakthrough". 

Back in the days of Elijah, the Prophet, there was no rain for 3 years.  A drought was over the land and a famine occurred.  The nation of Israel had marched onto a time of great idolatry.  The drought and famine was a Divine judgement.  Rather than repenting for their corporate sin, they turned to the gods of the other nations in hopes that those gods could cure the consequences of their rebellion against "their" God.

Not to judge their folly, I cannot help but wonder how much do we look elsewhere to solve the problems that God has permitted to draw us back to Himself?

The one thing I notice about the life and trial of Job, is that he, wisely, did not seek remedy from any other "gods".  His friends came and gave counsel but in all the devastating circumstances, Job did not turn away from the firm bottom line of his faith in the One True God.  While Job did not understand the whys and wherefores of His God, he did not seek relief from another.

The wonder and reality of the Kingdom of Heaven and our God is that we belong to an "upside down" kingdom.  We are taught that we must die to live, and give to gain.  The same principle hits my heart and mind today. The way up is down.  Just like in the days of Elijah and Job, the humility of repentance marks the pathway to victory. 

For me, it sometimes takes a while to get my mind dialed up to recognize the ways I have offended the Holy Spirit of my Savior.  It's is due to His great mercy that I am not cut off at the knees.  The carnal mind is so strong and it sometimes represents a battle royal to purge my human mind of error.

 I am so thankful that the Holy Spirit does not go down without a fight and since that battle is His,  He will always end up the victor no matter how long it takes and I have the scars to prove it.

The excitement I feel in the atmosphere today is the realization that my part in the drama has been played out through repentance and forgiveness.  Repentance marks the beginning of our relationship with the Holy One and repentance is the way to maintain it.  Sin separates from our Beloved whether the sin nature, Jesus died to remove, or the flesh sin that after salvation grieves the Holy Spirit within.  Repentance is a life long requirement for a pure heart.

Knowing I am clean before the Lord, opens the way for the rain that ends the drought.  Truth is the crop that feeds the sheep.  As I have the indwelling Holy Spirit, I have Truth.  With that, I know beyond any doubt, that I have all I need and THAT is cause for celebration.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

Into The Deeps

The Holy One calls to me this morning. "Push out into the deeps".  It seems that I have already done that many times in my relationship with the Lord who speaks that command.  "The deeps", like dark water, is fearsome to me.  The big unknown, the mysterious ways of the Great I AM, and the sense of being so out of control all lend to the "oh no" that tries to come out of a tense exhaled breath.

Deeper water, like higher feeding ground for the sheep, requires effort and energy and letting go of familiar boundaries of temporal existence.  But then, I made a promise to the One who died for me, that where He leads I will follow, and He has taken me at my word.

There have been days and times when I couldn't see the path but I could see Him.  And then there have been days when life was so foggy that I couldn't see the path or Him, but I heard His gentle voice and knew He was not far away so I was safe.

That has been my experience with my beloved, so today, while the call is to "push out into the deep" brings some fear, I know all is well in the boat.  The study of Luke 5, where Jesus said to Peter, "Put out into the deep water and let down the nets for a catch",  He was setting the people up for an amazing miracle of God.  When the Holy Spirit of the Savior speaks a command, we will miss something amazing if we fail to obey.

Jesus came to show us the goodness of our God, not to harm us or rain on our temporal parade.  Those in the boat were called into service, not unlike us.  After a long night of fruitless effort, the Lord was asking them to use what little energy they had left and "put out into deep water", where their knowledge of fishing and their nets used in the shallows would, in the natural, be useless.

Common knowledge and their old life was about to change forever.  It is interesting to me that only the Disciples were called into the boat and told to "put out".  The crowds were following to "hear", but the Disciples were there to "do". 

Being a Disciple of Christ is quite different than just hearing and believing His message.  It seems that one can trust Jesus as Savior, yet not experience the depths of a life and relationship with Him like Peter, James and John.

To see and do the "greater works" that He promised, we must be willing to get back into the boat and against all our human wits and wisdom "put out into deep water".  Spending time at His feet, reading and obeying the directives in His Word as the Spirit reveals what they mean in my life,  are all a part of going deep.

Then comes the hard part.   The "catch" that the fishermen received, required help from others to finish the work of hauling it in.  That is called community effort.  Most of the time it seems so difficult to work in community, yet that is what is required if we are to see the amazing intervention of God's hand benefiting the world of men. We find so many reasons to act alone or "possess" the work we may be called to participate in.  But inter-dependency with fellow servants is God's plan.

The "catch" represents a lot of things symbolically, especially since the Lord referred to it as being the "men" in Peter's future, but today, I see it as abundant prosperity for the fishermen, the company they may have worked for, and the people of the region who would enjoy the bounty and the blessing. 

I also see that, without working together to bring in all that Jesus brought forth to a blessed end, the catch would have remained in the sea.  The coffer or stomach would have remained empty and the plan of God left unfulfilled. 

Peter would not be a lone servant but rather a builder of the "organized" unit we call the church. His future "catch" would require a lot more hands to help in the haul.  Networking as a "community" of  people toward the same goal or plan of God was going to be required for the future work of evangelism.

As the Holy One calls me this morning, my tendency toward isolation needs an overhaul.  My fear of man or getting involved with others defines my comfort zones in life and yet I know the Lord is taking me to places of inter-dependency that will stretch my self-sufficiency again. 

 At the conclusion of today's counselling session, I realize I must never allow my fear of the unknown get in the way of my obedience to the  Lord's commands. I know that the call to work together with other servants somehow ties to God's Divine plan.  I must be willing to go on with the Lord "into the deeps", for who knows what miracles I might miss out on, if I choose to remain on the shore?

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?       

A Temple or a Tomb?

The Holy one calls to me this morning.  His invitation to worship is in the early atmosphere around me.  Mixed with the symphony of the forest, is the sweet voice of the Holy Spirit.

He calls me to celebrate His life within me  Even as the darkness outside awaits the sun to chase it away, my soul needs the Presence of the Holy Spirit to illuminate my being and turn the darkness into light. 

In the peace of this time with my Lord, I realize that worship is an eternal condition, not reserved for the days of white robes and well orchestrated voices.  Worship is personal.  Worship is the heart's song:  the deepest gratitude and thanksgiving that can be expressed to the Author of that "heart song".

When I ponder this eternal moment and the wonder of what it means, the word"reconciliation" brings a much more extravagant understanding and definition than I have found in any mental assent I have undertaken in the past.

The word itself means, "to make friendly", "to make constant, "to make content".  Jesus came to bring reconciliation between the Creator and the created separated by the darkness of spiritual death at the fall of man.  Jesus came to bring us back to the relational unity with God that Adam and Eve had before they buckled to independent rebellion.

The Holy Spirit is the One who makes what Jesus did (on the Cross) a matter of human reconciliation with the Divine possible and peace with God a reality.  My journey with Jesus today finds me in a garden of peace and joy sharing in the celebration of life...His life.

Beyond the hardship and conditions of worldly circumstances there is offered a place of safety and rest. The great exchange was made in my life many years ago.  I gave Him my life in exchange for His.   My unrighteousness was exchanged for His righteousness.  The Creator witnessed the exchange and approved the contract signed in His Holy Blood.  Reconciliation with God happened on that day and we have been in relational unity ever since.

While the transaction with Holiness has taken place, for many there is a failure to realize the benefits and responsibilities in this reconciliation.  Many still act as if God is our enemy and not our friend.  Worship today reminds me of the Honor due the one who reached out to me and made the Sacred Romance with Him possible.

I know that in a little while the sun will come up.  In an hour of earth time, life will rev into action and we will need to meet it with who we are.

The Holy One gently poses His question of this day in my life:  "As you move into the clock and calendar of earth time, will you remember this eternal moment and allow it to change you?  Will you be my minister of reconciliation  and share my peace with your world?  Will you be a temple or a tomb for the life of Christ who dwells within you? 

2 Corinth 5:18 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;  the old has gone the new has come.  All this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:  that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ and not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf:  Be reconciled to God.  God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." 

That is the Great Exchange....and reconciliation with the Sovereign God of all Creation is the reality once we accept it for ourselves.

His question today requires a decision and a choice is made. 

Reconciliation with the one who gave me life deserves to be the Light and Life shining out of a temple...not one left sealed in a tomb.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?     



      

The Value Of Community

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The blessing of community is on my heart as I recall the hours spent "yesterday" wallowing in a place called "despair". 

Conferences with the Holy One who knows my deepest needs often leads to conferences with a beloved brother or sister in Christ who can speak to the human emotions and offer comfort of a different sort.

Conferences with the Holy One also speak to the need for prayers from the Elders in surrender to the directives outlined in God's Word. 

James 5:13-20, says, that in obedience to God's Word, we are exhorted to:  pray (when in trouble),  sing songs of praise (when happy), seek out the elders of the church to pray and anoint (when sick) and to confess our sins to one another (to be healed).

What causes the "infirmity" of the soul?  The reasons vary but always seem to boil down to a place of "crooked thinking".  For many of us the crooked thinking includes the deception that we can or should be a "Spiritual Lone Ranger". 

The enemy of our soul understands better than we do, our power in agreement and unity that comes with community.  His effort is to isolate us, especially in our times and places of suffering when the Holy Spirit is most needed, available and wanting to manifest His Presence and power.

The Body of Christ is the organization and unit called to represent the unity that is the Sovereign picture of the Trinity.  Jesus said,  "They will know you are My disciples by your love for one another".

It is sad that we will not give others the opportunity to share the blessing of compassion intended to be played out through the prayers and anointing by the Elders in the Church.   But the even greater sorrow is that we refuse to give the Holy One the opportunity to Glorify the Father and the Son through the supernatural manifestations of His Divine intervention via the Body of Christ as He ordained at the foundation of the world. 

We stand at a distance and wring our hands rather than come in unity and community to fold and then lay our hands on each other for healing and deliverance from all the human conditions we experience but may not need to suffer.

Last night was a set of conferences that remind me of the extreme value of community: a unity with others who are called by the same Holy Spirit and serve the same Lord.  Having someone reach into your darkness with their hope and faith is a lifeline we all will need at different times in our earthly journey. 

Fellowship with and dependency on others in the Body of Christ is important for all to understand the unique relationship of the Trinity in whose image we have been created and called to function.  It is also very important for those of us who have taken up the challenge of discipleship.  We are first a Disciple of Christ receiving from Him all Truth and wisdom, but then we care called to be His Discipler to others and share what He has so freely given to us.

In the great mosaic of the Lord's plan for humanity, each one of us is to be uniquely dependent on others in the Body of Christ.  When the enemy strikes with vengeance (and he will) we know that it is only the Lord who can rescue us completely, but He sends His other servants to speak His words of comfort and to provide the warm hugs of truth until the danger passes. 

I praise the Holy One for He knows my every need.  I praise the Lord for His Body and the servants whom He sends to lift the burdens that may be too much for us to recognize and then too much for us to bear.

My personal relationship with a beloved human counselor began the lesson that my corporate relationship with the beloved Body of Christ and the Elders sealed.  Laying down my pride and seeking out the prayers and anointing by leadership along with the love and compassion of brothers and sisters in Christ is the doorway to a greater understanding of the plans and purposes of Holiness for me.

The Holy Spirit brings hope with the daylight but last evening, I received prayers, wisdom and comfort from the Body to get me through the dark watches of the night.  The value of Community is priceless.  Have you received the blessing therein?

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?   

  

Greater Things

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  It is truly a new day.  Each and every day is a fresh start.  Closed into the history books is yesterday's sorrow, and yesterday's mistakes and even yesterday's victories.  God's mercies are new every morning and each day presents new opportunities to see and experience them.

The Holy One greets me this morning with, "Open your mind to My possibilities and remember the "human" limits the Divine".  That is a lot to unpack in one sentence, but I am excited to go deeper into this conference call today to grasp what the Holy Spirit is trying to convey.

Jesus, upon His departure from planet earth said, "Believe Me when I say I am in the Father and the Father is in me or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.  I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing and even greater things than these because I am going to the Father.  I will do whatever you ask in My name so that the Son may bring Glory to the Father.  You may ask Me for anything in My name and I will do it".

This promise looms large, yet even in the Body of Christ, there is little evidence of the things Jesus did, actually happening in our world today.  It seems that we always have an excuse to fall back on, that puts the failure onto anything but our own dismal unbelief and faithlessness. 

Why do we give up so easily on things Jesus told us we should expect to have Him do through us or in us?  Just like the things He did over 2000 years ago, during His first appearance on earth, we are told we can and should expect to do the "greater things".

His Word to me this morning challenges me to go deep.  Jesus charged and commissioned His followers to commit themselves to the great works that Glorify the Father just as He did during His earthy life.

In Matthew 17, there was a day when the disciples, having been sent out to experience and do the "greater things",  met with a demon possessed boy and his father.  The disciples were "powerless" to heal and all were brought to Jesus.  He rebuked the demon and the boy was healed from that very moment.

A discussion between Jesus and the disciples followed during which they asked about their inability to drive out the demon causing the boy's physical problems.  Jesus, as the patient Teacher that He is replied, "Because you have so little faith.  I tell you the truth if you have the faith as small as a mustard seed you can say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you."

We live on the Pentecostal side of the Cross.  We must adjust our carnal minds and surrender to the activity of the Holy Spirit sent forth on that Glorious day on earth.  Intellectual faith will never heal the sick or raise the dead.  Intellectual faith is carnal at best because our minds are still part of, and controlled by our flesh.

With this in "mind",  I think, "what on earth can I do to impact the suffering of those around me?"

Rather than speaking and operating in the unlimited "why nots", of restoration and healing, I come bringing soup and a crutch to the infirmed. What's so wrong with this picture is that soup and a crutch may reveal my egotistical sympathy, but it doesn't speak of God's power. authority and restorative love for the one suffering.

We humans seem to be willing to stop at asking the Lord to do what we cannot;  that which is beyond human ability to execute.  The church won't ask for anything more than church can do in and of itself. 

Jesus said "anything we ask in His name", that He would do.  We have the pride of calling ourselves by His Great and Holy Name but then get hung up about what we ask Him to do in that same Name.

Our salvation had nothing to do with our performance so why do we continue to think that these "greater works" depend entirely on our "anything" short of asking Him to intervene?

The link up we so often miss IS the Divine Nature of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us:

The faith we need is actually His.
The prayer we give voice to is actually His
The wisdom promised to all who ask is actually His
The power to change the circumstance is actually His.

Jesus said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing".  The Holy Spirit is His Spirit and He is part of my being.  If the Holy Spirit inside of me tells the mountain to move, move it must, and move it will!

Today I am humbled by my own pride of intellect realizing how often it has gotten in the way of the Divine Hand so willing to do "greater things" through me.  What can the Creator of all things possibly do in my world today?  Absolutely anything!  Once I place my faith IN Christ, I have inside my being the faith OF Christ.  And with that faith, nothing is impossible.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?      

God's Eternal Timetable

The Holy One calls to me this morning. Wrestles in the watches of the night made for interrupted sleep.  The day begins at first light,  later than I like.  The hours just before dawn are different for me.  Waking up "late" makes me feel that I have lost precious time.

Time seems to be the big theme to me these days.  I count it precious and I hate the thought of losing it.  The gentle and familiar voice of the Holy One speaks to my anxiety, "My timetable is eternity, why are you so worried?"

The days are fleeting, and time seems like it is flying by.  There is so much I "feel" I have yet to do and so much I hope yet to accomplish.  Then my Counselor reminds me of 2 Peter 3:8, "But do not forget this one thing dear friends:  With the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day". 

Who can comprehend the leisure of Holiness?  Who can fathom the actual thought of Eternity?

With the clock and calendar, sunrise and sunset, placing the boundaries on our earthly timetable, we humans find it hard to grasp eternity and therefore we worry and fret about eternal time or ignore it all together.

The message of 2 Peter touches on the very wrestles of the dark hours last night.  Of course my wise Counselor knows my most intimate thoughts and always conveys His Creator knowledge about me, His "created".

I feel a lot like that white rabbit in "Alice in Wonderland" when he was running around saying, "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date".  The anxiety hits especially hard when I realize how quickly the days, months, and even the last year have passed into my life as "history".

I am always in awe of the Holy One and His ability to meet me right where I am, bringing comfort by the minute against the pressures of this life.  His message comes alive as I read the words that Peter penned so long ago.

Peter seemed to know that his departure from this realm was imminent and wanted to leave instructions that would not be forgotten after he left planet earth.  Over the centuries his words have been life for the readers, for they are in fact words written through Peter from the Lord Himself.  All scripture is authored in Heaven and has been given through human scribes for the benefit of all humanity.

The Word of God is relevant and alive to me today just as it has been over all the centuries for those who believe in the Eternal One and only God who came to call in the Person of Jesus, the Christ.  As I read the scriptures the Holy One has taken me to this morning,  peace is restored.

His words are a reminder that He is in control.  The things that I "see" and hate in the form of evil, He sees and hates too.  The things I long for in the form of goodness and mercy, He provides as I lay hold of His promises and the Word of Truth.

We may grow impatient wanting to see the "instant" fix for problems we face here, but there is something amazing and profound going on from God's end of things.

"The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance."
(2 Peter 3:9).  

We cannot begin to know who might be affected as we make our journey with Jesus through the hard things in life, but God does.

Our conference today reminds me that, while I may "feel" like time is a fleeting commodity, the Author of time itself, gives liberally.  Opportunities to grow in the knowledge of the Holy and to share the benefits of our salvation with the world around us continue to come again and again.

This is called by a word many of us can't quite understand in the bigger picture, but it's know as our "sanctification".  Even if we don't quite "get it", we are in it and the process is a life-time long.  Knowing the Lord is patient somehow enables me to be patient too. 

To punctuate the lesson of today, the Holy Spirit speaks to my fears and His restoration of what seems to be lost in the passage of time. 

 I Peter 5:10, "And the God of all grace who called you to His eternal Glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast."  

And again in Joel 2:25, "And I will restore to you the years the locusts have eaten". 

As I ponder the words of wisdom and comfort given me today, I see more of what He is trying to teach me in this season.  The moment we are in is eternal, beyond time and space.  Earthly things have heavenly resolutions we just can't quite see here yet.  Just because a day is like a thousand years to the One who is beyond time doesn't mean I have to wait for a thousand years for the answers to today's problems.  I can expect that the answers will come at the exact moment of His will.  Time has no bearing on His being so I must learn how to release that burden on mine.

Jesus in His model prayer taught us to pray:

Thy Kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in Heaven. (Matt 6:10)

As Jesus walked on this turf we call earth, each situation and each miracle made for a manifestation of Heaven's eternal moment and immediate resolution to all the pain and suffering we experience here. That is our potential in that He said, greater things would we do because He was going to His Father in Heaven.

Knowing this, I can trust that all things are filtered through God's fingers of love to me. Each and every trial is calibrated with my weaknesses and strengths in mind. The Keeper of Eternity knows the duration of our tolerance for what we are enduring. In God's economy, nothing is lost that cannot be redeemed, restored, or replaced and He will supply our every need to accomplish His will for our lives.

God's eternal timetable is actually time-less. Time, once lost, seemed to be the enemy of my hope. But that was before this morning when the Lord had the last word on the subject.

The Holy Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

 


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