The Holy One call to me this morning. He wakes me up with a sweet peace and the sense of His Presence. Since a recent day was spent confronting the demon of fear and finding yet again, in a deeply personal way, that the Holy One never left me, today I can look back and rejoice for another testimony of His grace and mercy.
His wisdom comes as He tells me, "The end of your testimony is fixed. I Am He Who will never leave you nor forsake you, but each person's testimony is a unique pathway to that end."
I need to settle into the word I have just heard. It is a hope-filled word since it speaks of a fixed end that the Lord is in control of. God's Word and His promises are like that. His thoughts and His ways are so much higher than mine (Isaiah 55:9) which means I may not always understand what He has arranged for me outside my comprehension of the circumstances that touch my life. However, I can trust that I will end with a good testimony of His unfailing love.
God's Word is truth and while we can read the historical accounts of His intervention into this world He created for His beloved humanity, I see how society and not His Holy principles change over time.
I realize in an odd way the trust that God placed in His people and know He is asking us to trust Him as well. From the prophets of Old Testament days, God trusted men to deliver His word and exhortations as they lived lives that were different and even more difficult than those they were commissioned to deliver the Lord's messages to.
The ultimate trust in humanity was on display when God wrapped Himself in flesh and came to the earth through a very special woman called Mary. Jesus came to earth and entered into the human arena of His creation to bring the truth about God as a loving Father.
Old Testament history recorded His Sovereign authority and Holiness, but Jesus came to convey His love and desire for relationship with every person ever born. Jesus took the image of God out of the ethereal and gave us a flesh representation we can humanly relate to. The mercy of that action is mind blowing to say the least. But it proves beyond any and all doubt that God wants us all in a personal relationship and was willing to wrap Himself in flesh to accomplish that end.
What more could He do to reach out from His Heavenly place than to appear to humanity in a way and a form whereby from man's end a true relationship could take place? The disciples experienced Him. They walked with Him. They talked with Him. They struggled past the rejection of thought that questioned His Deity and came to accept the insane idea that God would actually walk among men.
Before Jesus came, the Law and the Prophets established His Sovereignty and authority but in a very distant way. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob along with a few others each experienced God personally in their own way. We interpret the accounts of God's interaction in the Old Testament more like the burning bush of Moses and the epic event of the Red Sea parting in supernatural displays of His power.
Then came Jesus.
I wonder if the Scribes and Pharisees became resentful because Jesus was so personal. He knocked them off their long held religious axis. They thought it preposterous that God would become flesh even though the Holy Scriptures they studied and embraced promised such a coming.
Our relationship with Him is now personal. His life, death and resurrection changed everything relative to man's understanding of God. The Holy Spirit is the bridge Who now connects us with the Trinity. He is the Counselor Jesus declared He would send when He returned to the Throne of all power and authority.
Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are connected with the person of Jesus and never have to live in the fear of God or in the doubt of His unconditional love ever again. Once rescued from the sin nature and penalty that we were born with, life in our God ordained purpose carries us along forming testimonies as we go.
There is nothing new under the sun as they say. Our trials on earth are basically the same as for any other human but the Lord has a unique way to bring about His purpose in those struggles. His purpose and His will is not to destroy us.
The Lord reminds me again today that He is about the strengthening of His people. He is about giving us testimonies of His Presence in our lives that we can in turn share with others. The Lord draws us out of the places of our "victimization" in life and provides us with testimonies of His good will.
There was a man born blind back in the days when God walked in flesh among His created. When the disciples inquired as to the cause and nature of the man's blindness, Jesus made His glorious point in John 9:1-4, "As he went long he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned", said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in His life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him Who sent Me. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world I am the light of the world."
The "Light" is truth. Jesus is Truth. He told the crowds who were following Him in Matt 5:14 as they listened to Him speak and accepted His word, that they too were the light of the world. We who follow Him provide the testimony of His Light to the world.
This passage is loaded with Truth and confirms His personal word to me today. This man born blind was in a place with a condition that facilitated a testimony of God's love and power and intervention. The fixed end is a personal encounter with a personal God who brings a personal resolution to a personal problem. The pathway of the blind man's life was unique to him. How he came to be set up for that encounter took time and circumstances uniquely his own. But just like in the life of this blind man, Jesus through our trials is providing personal testimonies for us to share.
Testimonies of God's personal intervention are being written each and every day. There are many life trials that we have had to face and even more yet to come so long as we have our feet on planet earth. The only question is about the unique pathway the trials will take us on to find the fixed end, and therein lies our testimony to the world.
The Holy Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
His wisdom comes as He tells me, "The end of your testimony is fixed. I Am He Who will never leave you nor forsake you, but each person's testimony is a unique pathway to that end."
I need to settle into the word I have just heard. It is a hope-filled word since it speaks of a fixed end that the Lord is in control of. God's Word and His promises are like that. His thoughts and His ways are so much higher than mine (Isaiah 55:9) which means I may not always understand what He has arranged for me outside my comprehension of the circumstances that touch my life. However, I can trust that I will end with a good testimony of His unfailing love.
God's Word is truth and while we can read the historical accounts of His intervention into this world He created for His beloved humanity, I see how society and not His Holy principles change over time.
I realize in an odd way the trust that God placed in His people and know He is asking us to trust Him as well. From the prophets of Old Testament days, God trusted men to deliver His word and exhortations as they lived lives that were different and even more difficult than those they were commissioned to deliver the Lord's messages to.
The ultimate trust in humanity was on display when God wrapped Himself in flesh and came to the earth through a very special woman called Mary. Jesus came to earth and entered into the human arena of His creation to bring the truth about God as a loving Father.
Old Testament history recorded His Sovereign authority and Holiness, but Jesus came to convey His love and desire for relationship with every person ever born. Jesus took the image of God out of the ethereal and gave us a flesh representation we can humanly relate to. The mercy of that action is mind blowing to say the least. But it proves beyond any and all doubt that God wants us all in a personal relationship and was willing to wrap Himself in flesh to accomplish that end.
What more could He do to reach out from His Heavenly place than to appear to humanity in a way and a form whereby from man's end a true relationship could take place? The disciples experienced Him. They walked with Him. They talked with Him. They struggled past the rejection of thought that questioned His Deity and came to accept the insane idea that God would actually walk among men.
Before Jesus came, the Law and the Prophets established His Sovereignty and authority but in a very distant way. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob along with a few others each experienced God personally in their own way. We interpret the accounts of God's interaction in the Old Testament more like the burning bush of Moses and the epic event of the Red Sea parting in supernatural displays of His power.
Then came Jesus.
I wonder if the Scribes and Pharisees became resentful because Jesus was so personal. He knocked them off their long held religious axis. They thought it preposterous that God would become flesh even though the Holy Scriptures they studied and embraced promised such a coming.
Our relationship with Him is now personal. His life, death and resurrection changed everything relative to man's understanding of God. The Holy Spirit is the bridge Who now connects us with the Trinity. He is the Counselor Jesus declared He would send when He returned to the Throne of all power and authority.
Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are connected with the person of Jesus and never have to live in the fear of God or in the doubt of His unconditional love ever again. Once rescued from the sin nature and penalty that we were born with, life in our God ordained purpose carries us along forming testimonies as we go.
There is nothing new under the sun as they say. Our trials on earth are basically the same as for any other human but the Lord has a unique way to bring about His purpose in those struggles. His purpose and His will is not to destroy us.
The Lord reminds me again today that He is about the strengthening of His people. He is about giving us testimonies of His Presence in our lives that we can in turn share with others. The Lord draws us out of the places of our "victimization" in life and provides us with testimonies of His good will.
There was a man born blind back in the days when God walked in flesh among His created. When the disciples inquired as to the cause and nature of the man's blindness, Jesus made His glorious point in John 9:1-4, "As he went long he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned", said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in His life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him Who sent Me. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world I am the light of the world."
The "Light" is truth. Jesus is Truth. He told the crowds who were following Him in Matt 5:14 as they listened to Him speak and accepted His word, that they too were the light of the world. We who follow Him provide the testimony of His Light to the world.
This passage is loaded with Truth and confirms His personal word to me today. This man born blind was in a place with a condition that facilitated a testimony of God's love and power and intervention. The fixed end is a personal encounter with a personal God who brings a personal resolution to a personal problem. The pathway of the blind man's life was unique to him. How he came to be set up for that encounter took time and circumstances uniquely his own. But just like in the life of this blind man, Jesus through our trials is providing personal testimonies for us to share.
Testimonies of God's personal intervention are being written each and every day. There are many life trials that we have had to face and even more yet to come so long as we have our feet on planet earth. The only question is about the unique pathway the trials will take us on to find the fixed end, and therein lies our testimony to the world.
The Holy Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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