Fear: Temptation That Is Not Sin***

The Holy One calls to me this morning. As I open my eyes to a new day, I can sense that "fear" is about to speak and Holiness is watching like a coach to see how I will handle the next few minutes on the clock. Anxiety is a vexing sensation that can plague the most reasonable person with all there is to fear in this chaotic world. 

I have been taught that fear and faith cannot co-habitate so the next little while may, in fact, determine where I will spend my day or even longer in fellowship depending on how I respond to the threat.

My coach speaks into the fear charged atmosphere and I hear his calming voice say, "fear is only a temptation, not part of who you are".

At that moment, the Holy One lifts me up and out of the grip of that evil one trying to impact my mind.  I know the fruit of the Holy Spirit is peace and I call out for Him to flood my mind with it now.

My Lord is faithful, and I can feel the warmth of his presence as my flare prayer is answered.  But what is the much more to be gleaned and applied from the lesson today?

The Holy One takes me back to His word and all the times He says, "do not fear", "fear not", "be anxious for nothing".

Of all the sins we might fall victim to, fear is one that offers no satisfaction to our flesh.  There is simply no "perk" to fear and so I wonder why I am so tempted to go with it.  The Holy One begins to explain: "Threats of harm are part of the human experience".    

A little fish in a big  pond can make for a harrowing existence for the little fish, but in reality, my Heavenly Father owns the pond and has arranged for and sustains  my life within it.

As I wait upon the Lord for more input, I am guided by my Counselor within to Proverbs 29:25, "Fear of man will prove to be a snare.  But whoever trusts in the Lord will be kept safe".

Then the light goes on.  I see how fear of anything apart from the "fear" of the Lord is a snare. Fear sets up the trap for my flesh to react in "sin".  Fear of man and what man can do to me in any given situation creates the setting for the sin in me to take center stage.

I am beginning to "get" what the Holy One is showing me.  Fear of failure can cause me to seek ungodly ways to succeed.  Fear of poverty can cause me to seek ungodly ways to make money and thereby make money an idol.  Fear of rejection can cause me to seek ungodly ways to be accepted.  Fear of losing control can cause me to seek ungodly ways of asserting control.  And to the big one mentioned, "fear of man" and ultimately fear of harm can cause me to seek ungodly ways to self-protect leading me to anger, bitterness, rage and even murder.

The examples keep rolling through my mind that confirm the truth I have just been given.  I have always seen fear as the sin rather than understanding that fear is the temptation and sin is the action that follows.

Fear is a snare that can lead me to unbelief, and to question God's Sovereign authority.  I see how fear is a game the enemy has always played with my mind.  But today, I have come to realize that I do not have to keep playing fear's game.   I can avoid the trap that fear sets up for my flesh.

Fear, like any other temptation in life, involves a choice and decision on the part of my free will: to yield to it or reject it.  Temptation to fear is not sin in and of itself, but rather a snare that tempts me to take the sin bait therein.

The enemy will not tell you that you have a choice, but the Holy One does.  Following His lead and His wisdom, I know I can and must choose to reject the enemy's fear and bypass the snare that it is.

"Whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe."

I have come to know that spoken words are a powerful and creative force in the atmosphere of life.  I have begun to grasp and apply the principle behind God's word that says, "The power of life and death is in the tongue".  So I make my verbal declarations into the unseen realm where things that touch my life and circumstances  originate, not in fear, but in faith that God will rescue.

I declare that God's Word is true and I am safe!  His great peace now reigns in my mind.

I sense that there is a big smile on the face of my Counselor today and I can feel it on my face as well. 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

God's Wonderful End of Job's Trial***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Today is Sunday.  The day to celebrate rest and to worship the Lord.

The battle rages and the trials continue, yet in the midst we are permitted and actually commanded to rest and worship.  As I lay the trials down for a  while, Holiness reminds me of a man named Job.

For those who know God's Word, much is revealed in the book of Job.  We are given a glimpse into the unseen world beginning with Job 1:6.  God's created beings called angels, came to present themselves to their Creator and Lord.

One such celestial being is called by the name, Satan.  He turns out to be man's arch enemy and the one who brought all the grief into Job's life.

The rest of the book that bears his name, is the story of Job's season of trials.  We are privy to the disasters Satan brought to him, the counsel he received from his friends and the ultimate connection he made with the Sovereign God of all Creation.

If we take God out of the equation, we can certainly become fearful in the epic contest between good and evil, light and dark.  Our trials can become hopeless and resign us to bitter defeat by the unseen forces that we cannot control.

While Job's trial are intense to read about and his sufferings almost unbearable, there is much to learn and apply in this ancient account of the man and his encounter with God.

In the historic time period of Job's life and trials, he lived before the Savior was sent into the world, and before the Holy Spirit took up residency in the being of men.

We now live in an informed era, where the Son of Holiness, Jesus the Christ, has come and left us with a legacy of hope that Job was not aware of before His trials.

The Holy One has a point to make to me today, so I am all ears.

He speaks to the trials we are all facing on earth today.  We all have a taste of what Job went through.  Some have physical infirmities, some have financial losses, some have relational heartaches and some are struggling with separation of the hardest sort through death of a loved one. 

All have some and some have all of these trials hitting their life today and The Holy One directs me to read the end of Job's story.

While we can all so relate to Job's life as the days of our suffering seem endless, if we skip to the end of Job's story we will see purpose and in purpose we will see hope.  If we can see that Job was being persecuted for his righteousness before God and tested in his loyalty toward his Benefactor, we can gain a better grasp of our own trials.

Job was a man just living out a relationship with his Creator to the best of his ability and understanding at the time.  Satan, the accuser brought a charge against Job that required he be tested so that God, as well as Job could be vindicated. 

Who would dare speak evil of the Maker?  Only the one who wants to rule in His place.  Only a being with free will not unlike our own.

As we progress through our trials and suffering does it ever occur to us that evil is the voice that challenges our loyalty to our Lord?  Do we stop to realize that our love response to our Lord and God is tested as the trials hit our lives?  Can we allow our reaction to the heat we feel in our lives to become a vindication of God's great love and wisdom in His creation of mankind rather than an inferno of self pity?

The enemy made his accusation about the man:  The only reason Job was loyal to God was because his life was protected , blessed and easy on earth.  Hidden therein is a patronizing suggestion that man, created in God's glorious image would betray him when suffering was permitted;  that man, just like Satan himself, would rebel and thus prove the worthlessness of God's Beloved.  While the rebel angel was tested and failed through power and privileged authority, Job was tested through sorrow and suffering on earth. 

In the free will all of us were given at birth to choose relationship with our Maker, there must come some heartburn that tests our loyalty to the One who created us to live eternally with Himself.

I am thankful to have Job's testimony of courage to stand in the heat of adversity.  I am blessed to see the source of our trials and the ultimate reason for them.  I am relieved to read the end of Job's story and how once the Divine purpose was accomplished in the testing of his faith, he was restored in the earth realm, and reconciled through repentance in his relationship with God.

Job's trial ended with a greater understanding of the mystery of the Lord's Sovereignty.  He is quoted as saying, "My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You, therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." Job 42:5

The hope we can glean from the life of Job is that after he suffered, "The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first".  Job 42:12

We can gain the same comfort from 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.  To Him be the power forever and ever.  Amen".

In an odd kind of way, the trial of Job also tested Satan's power of influence.  Could Job be convinced to betray the One he knew to be God? Some have buckled over the course of history to join the ranks of the rebel forces and we can read about their fate as well as Job's.  Judas failed the test as did King Saul.

Into each of our lives will come the day of reckoning when circumstances present difficulty and groaning and but also great opportunity.  Our loyalty to our Lord will be tested, of that we can be sure.  When that day comes will we stand firm and trust that our God is ultimately good? 

Job's story is not unlike our own.  Into a swirling saga of hard circumstances, faithless (but well-meaning) friends and oppressive evil, God spoke to Job about Himself.

And when God spoke, Job listened.

Job's end was a bountiful restoration of his earthly life, but even more important than that, Job's end was a personal encounter with the Sovereign and Majestic God of all creation.

As I look at Job's life, I may recoil at his suffering, but when I read of the end, I can rejoice for what it teaches me about my God. 

Today I find that rest is possible and even in the day of trial, worship of the Holy One is my delight for He is worthy.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?      
    

   

  

Sacrifice Goes With The Mission

The Holy Once calls to me this morning.  Yesterday was Veteran's Day and the nation took the time to honor our military veterans for the sacrifices they have made and are still making today.

The Holy Spirit brings to my mind the words of Jesus in Matt 24:6, "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it you are not alarmed such things must happen but the end is still to come.  Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.  There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of birth pains."

This is just a statement of what's happening today and the conditions we face on the ground and in the environment around planet earth.  The battle field is in the natural and in the Spirit realm as well.  There are natural famines and Spiritual ones.  There are natural earthquakes and Spiritual ones.There are natural wars and Spiritual ones.

These things are said to be like "birth pains".  Having birthed 4 of my 6 children, I understand "birth pains".  Having 3 adopted grandchildren, I can look upon the struggle and sacrifice in adoption to see that bringing forth new life, is laborious and hard work in the process.

The Holy One captivates my thoughts and He speaks to my meandering mind.  "The sacrifice that goes with the mission is part of the mission.  It cannot be avoided but will someday be understood".  My wise Counselor knows my unspoken thoughts as I think about those things that I see we suffer and yet do not understand why.

We are all suffering the high price of the calling by God on our lives.  In fact, it seems that, if we are not "suffering in the sacrifice", something is off in our service to our King.

There is not one mission given by our Lord that doesn't involve sacrifice. Whether it be one of inconvenience or some other more desperate form of death to comfort and ease in life, sacrifice is a reality in the Lord's commissioning of His people.

In my times of trials, I see how I have sometimes missed that memo and have not always understood the sacrifice that was required or why.  Self-pity can surely breakdown an otherwise potentially outrageous testimony of God working out the impossible things in our lives.  Testimonies are made in the furnace of adversity.

The Lord exhorts us to "count the cost" of following Him and being His servant and representative to a lost and dying world.  We read that in His word but then leap right over it without truly understanding the days we will spend in the dungeons of persecution, the times we will slosh through the mud pit of being misunderstood, or the hours we will spend away from all the glitz and glamor of a party with our friend that is unacceptable to our calling.

In this world, many will suffer through unprovoked divorce, family divisions, church splits, physical torture or abuse in different forms.  Some  will feel the arrows of the evil one in their bank accounts, their health or be made to endure losses to their dignity or assassinations to their godly character.

Some of the sacrifices we can see for what they are.  But what about the ones that's seem so pointless and having to be made for no discernible reason?  The Holy One speaks to my heart about "those"sacrifices today. 

In a perfect Christian world the good guys are supposed to win and come through every battle without a scratch.  But that is not my reality and the wounds can be deep.  Today I am thankful that my Counselor is ever present and a comfort as I nurse some of those wounds.

His words lift me up.  Somehow, as we wait for the promised resolutions to our struggles and continue on in the mission we have been called to execute in service to our King, there is great relief in knowing that the sacrifices we are required to make are not in vain.

I can find the peace to "keep on keeping on" knowing  that "the sacrifices cannot be avoided but will  someday be understood".

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

   
   




 



 

The Legacy of Miracles

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  It has been a very busy week in my earthly life.  I haven't been able to settle down and retreat into my "Sacred Romance" for a few days.

Life is surely fast paced and unless I make a deliberate decision to sit at My Lord's feet, I can get into the fast moving current of life and be carried downstream without even realizing it. 

When life is hard, desperation takes me naturally into my place of retreat, looking for resolutions that can only come from my Beloved.  But when the answers come and the pressures lift, and celebration  is in the camp,  we can forget to honor the One who supplies all the victories.

Today I am called by the Holy One to fellowship with Him in the celebration of a wonderful miraculous victory in life.  

The Children of Israel were told to build altars of remembrance and worship to the One who carried them out of Egypt so we can and must do the same.  Today I am building an altar of Worship and I praise Jesus for what He has brought forth and completed in my family nation today.

As I come in worship and thanksgiving, my Lord reminds me that there are still lots of things that He hasn't yet tied up in a bow. There are still issues of life that need the touch of the Master's Hand. There is always going to be a human need that requires the Divine Hand of the Sovereign God to touch and heal. But when victories come, we must stop and celebrate His miraculous interventions for these are His "Glory" moments. 

We are hard wired for dependency on our Creator.  We may fight for our own independence and try to prove our capability to handle life on our own, but in the end we simply cannot live this life
victoriously without the one who arranges for our next breath.

Today He wants me to celebrate the "legacy of miracles" He has given each one of us to live.

I have been given the privileged place of seeing His miraculous interventions in my life journey, since I was 18 years young.  Before I knew much about life or the One who rescued me for all eternity, He was very busy revealing Himself through circumstances that might have otherwise been disastrous. 

As I face the rigors and trials of life on planet earth, I am in awe of how many times He has lifted me out of fearsome, "death defying" situations.  The things that seem impossible to me are flawlessly execute by The One who has called Me to just watch Him work.  Human nerves may become frayed, but  His peace is available while He brings things under his Divine control.

Just as the Nation of Israel was brought out of Egypt, I have experienced the "Red Sea" parting over and over again.  I believe each and every generation needs that form of miraculous intervention and each individual needs to have a Red Sea parting experience in their lives to truly get to know the One who died for them personally.

Jesus came to show us God the Father.  Through God the Son, Jesus,  He touched lives and executed miracles on the earth. Jesus came to give this world, not only the personal experiences of miraculous intervention, but also to give His followers a legacy whereby we are to become conduits of His powerful and miraculous intervention on earth.

In John 14:11, Jesus says, "Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or at least believe in the evidence of the miracles themselves,  I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in My Name, so that the Son may bring Glory to the Father".

I confess to my Savior that I want my kids and the next generation to experience the miracles like the ones I have experienced, that have made Him a complete "reality" to me.  The Holy One speaks a sobering truth, "If you want them to see miracles they have to be put at risk, is that what you want?" 

I surely see His point and looking back over my life and the legacy of miracles I have lived, I see that each one had the element of potential disaster or impossibility in the natural associated with it.  Each had the drama and need of rescue.  Each had a desperate desire for the impossible that human ingenuity and control could not deliver.

While my journey with Jesus has not been just one crisis after another, my pathway has been marked with mountains leveled and valleys raised up by the power of My Lord. I know that as we journey with Jesus, we live on the razor's edge of "risk vs rescue", and that is where the "legacy of miracles" unfolds.

It is in the danger zones of living that we take possession of our inheritance of the miraculous.  Life with Jesus is no ordinary existence and I see that it takes faith and courage to accept and live the "legacy of miracles".  Risk for ourselves and others will happen.  The question is, "are we brave enough to venture there?" 

In answer to His question, I say, "yes, yes,yes".   Let us all be put at risk if that is the way to know Him better.  If that is the only way to experience our "Legacy of Miracles", the pain is surely worth the gain.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?
    

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?