For whatever the reasons and Divine purpose in the delay of this post, I returned to it today to share the beginning thoughts to the new year 2020. Sometimes in the God's mysterious sovereignty we need to go back in order to go forward. Such is the case in my life and the hard events that came at the beginning of 2019
The time of mourning and processing the deep grief of this momma's heart, must give way for a return to the plans and purpose and even "works" that God has prepared for me at the foundation of the world. Thankfully Eternity awaits and the sweet hope of reunion with those who have gone before calms the emotions and steadies the weak knees. Until that day we press on with greater understanding and determination to share the hope we have in Christ Jesus with the lost world around us.
2020 A Victory Over the Darkness
Waking up after the cross over to another year, I hear the Lord speak into the dawn of a new day and a new year,
"Go back to the original mandate I gave humanity in the garden of your origins".
It always interesting how one sentence from the Lord to my mind, sends me into the catacombs of deep thought and curiosity as to what He has to show me in any given day. What better "point to ponder" on new year's day, than a look back to where time itself began.
I grab the Word and re-read the account in Genesis 1:27-28. I see where the human mandate given by God back in the beginning was to go forth and multiply (create) and to have (exercise) dominion over all the Lord God made. Mankind was to be the care-giver over all the Lord's vast creation.
As I read and re-read the account, I realize that the original mandate was never revoked nor cancelled after the fall. The thing that changed due to a sinful choice, was the over-bearing continuous presence of an evil antagonist and the painful challenges he brings to that original mandate of our delegated dominion and authority.
Humanity got deceived and most of us have lived under that dark deception over the ages. Throughout all the generations since the fall, evil has been acting out an alternative narrative to the one God ordained from the beginning which was this: The Creator and the ones He designed as His "image bearers" (that's us) would rule and reign together WITH Him as His regent/representative over all He caused to exist. That is to include the angelic beings called the Heavenly Hosts. And therein, I believe, was the rub to Satan and his rebellious crew. In order to not be subject to inferior mankind, Satan left his place of serving God and humanity and in rebellion hatched a plot to cause division between God and man that would leave dominion power and authority in his, not man's hands.
God's original mandate for humankind to rule and reign with Him has been the overarching purpose throughout all the generations and that purpose continues to this day. But what of our dominion lost? And how could the plan go forward with such an evil supernatural antagonist who "seems" to control life and the situations we meet? Who but God Himself could take back the power of our "stolen" dominion intended for mankind and place it back in the hands of it's original holder?
Enter Jesus, God in a flesh body to win back what was lost by the first flesh/man Adam. Since a purely flesh man made in the image of God was too accommodating to flesh temptations, God's eternal plan involved redemption by a "hybrid" if you will, of the Spirit of God Himself infused in a flesh body. God sent His Son to redeem humanity and pay the price of .Holiness which was death for sin. Do not think that God did not have the plan in mind before the fall. That was Satan's weakness and his epic fail. The great deceiver himself was deceived into thinking that he could separate God from His Beloved creation for all eternity.
Salvation of the human race required the co-ordinated effort of the Holy Sovereign God and flesh-man to complete the plan and provide the way of escape for all humanity. Salvation can be described as the rescue from an eternal penalty for rebellion of our Creator. Death spoken of in Genesis was more than physical as Adam and Eve lived on after the fall.. It was death of the beautiful relationship they once enjoyed and a carefree fulfillment of the Divine mandate.
God, the Father sent His Son Jesus to accomplish the means of reconciliation He planned before the fall, back to the original relationship whereby we are in a co-governing role with God Himself. Unlike any generation before the Lord came to show us the Father and the plan, we have the grace in the power of the Holy Spirit to be reconciled and re-united with our Creator God. We have the ability to live in co-laboring government with Him in the world that touches our lives.
That unity involves the 3rd person of the Trinity called the Holy Spirit who by His indwelling presence enacts the power of God within. If we attempt to fulfill the mandate without the Holy Spirit we will fail. Satan is a corrupting influence and our flesh is still weak.
While we have certain constraints to our dominion until Jesus comes back to evict Satan for good, our sin issue has been dealt with so we can and must press on with all our strength. We can and must go forth and multiply (with good works that glorify God) and operate in our delegated and restored dominion as the Holy Spirit leads and empowers us over the things in this temporal world that touch our lives.
The never ending story of our relationship with the Author of Life continues and so we will continue to grow ever so slowly in the knowledge of the Holy One who calls us His own. But this year He has reminded me to take up what He has ordained and what Jesus died to provide as our delegated dominion and see what He will anoint and empower in all we are impressed to do.
Happy New Year 2020
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
The time of mourning and processing the deep grief of this momma's heart, must give way for a return to the plans and purpose and even "works" that God has prepared for me at the foundation of the world. Thankfully Eternity awaits and the sweet hope of reunion with those who have gone before calms the emotions and steadies the weak knees. Until that day we press on with greater understanding and determination to share the hope we have in Christ Jesus with the lost world around us.
2020 A Victory Over the Darkness
Waking up after the cross over to another year, I hear the Lord speak into the dawn of a new day and a new year,
"Go back to the original mandate I gave humanity in the garden of your origins".
It always interesting how one sentence from the Lord to my mind, sends me into the catacombs of deep thought and curiosity as to what He has to show me in any given day. What better "point to ponder" on new year's day, than a look back to where time itself began.
I grab the Word and re-read the account in Genesis 1:27-28. I see where the human mandate given by God back in the beginning was to go forth and multiply (create) and to have (exercise) dominion over all the Lord God made. Mankind was to be the care-giver over all the Lord's vast creation.
As I read and re-read the account, I realize that the original mandate was never revoked nor cancelled after the fall. The thing that changed due to a sinful choice, was the over-bearing continuous presence of an evil antagonist and the painful challenges he brings to that original mandate of our delegated dominion and authority.
Humanity got deceived and most of us have lived under that dark deception over the ages. Throughout all the generations since the fall, evil has been acting out an alternative narrative to the one God ordained from the beginning which was this: The Creator and the ones He designed as His "image bearers" (that's us) would rule and reign together WITH Him as His regent/representative over all He caused to exist. That is to include the angelic beings called the Heavenly Hosts. And therein, I believe, was the rub to Satan and his rebellious crew. In order to not be subject to inferior mankind, Satan left his place of serving God and humanity and in rebellion hatched a plot to cause division between God and man that would leave dominion power and authority in his, not man's hands.
God's original mandate for humankind to rule and reign with Him has been the overarching purpose throughout all the generations and that purpose continues to this day. But what of our dominion lost? And how could the plan go forward with such an evil supernatural antagonist who "seems" to control life and the situations we meet? Who but God Himself could take back the power of our "stolen" dominion intended for mankind and place it back in the hands of it's original holder?
Enter Jesus, God in a flesh body to win back what was lost by the first flesh/man Adam. Since a purely flesh man made in the image of God was too accommodating to flesh temptations, God's eternal plan involved redemption by a "hybrid" if you will, of the Spirit of God Himself infused in a flesh body. God sent His Son to redeem humanity and pay the price of .Holiness which was death for sin. Do not think that God did not have the plan in mind before the fall. That was Satan's weakness and his epic fail. The great deceiver himself was deceived into thinking that he could separate God from His Beloved creation for all eternity.
Salvation of the human race required the co-ordinated effort of the Holy Sovereign God and flesh-man to complete the plan and provide the way of escape for all humanity. Salvation can be described as the rescue from an eternal penalty for rebellion of our Creator. Death spoken of in Genesis was more than physical as Adam and Eve lived on after the fall.. It was death of the beautiful relationship they once enjoyed and a carefree fulfillment of the Divine mandate.
God, the Father sent His Son Jesus to accomplish the means of reconciliation He planned before the fall, back to the original relationship whereby we are in a co-governing role with God Himself. Unlike any generation before the Lord came to show us the Father and the plan, we have the grace in the power of the Holy Spirit to be reconciled and re-united with our Creator God. We have the ability to live in co-laboring government with Him in the world that touches our lives.
That unity involves the 3rd person of the Trinity called the Holy Spirit who by His indwelling presence enacts the power of God within. If we attempt to fulfill the mandate without the Holy Spirit we will fail. Satan is a corrupting influence and our flesh is still weak.
While we have certain constraints to our dominion until Jesus comes back to evict Satan for good, our sin issue has been dealt with so we can and must press on with all our strength. We can and must go forth and multiply (with good works that glorify God) and operate in our delegated and restored dominion as the Holy Spirit leads and empowers us over the things in this temporal world that touch our lives.
The never ending story of our relationship with the Author of Life continues and so we will continue to grow ever so slowly in the knowledge of the Holy One who calls us His own. But this year He has reminded me to take up what He has ordained and what Jesus died to provide as our delegated dominion and see what He will anoint and empower in all we are impressed to do.
Happy New Year 2020
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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