You are God’s beloved

This message is for Christians who have been born again and received salvation from our Father, and Son in the precious Lord Jesus Christ.  For those that are not Christians, and who have not received the promise then God is waiting for you to come to Him.

In 1 John 4:17 it says, Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.

In Matthew 3:17 it says:  ¹⁶ When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. ¹⁷ And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”

Once we receive the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit, after receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, our spirit becomes one with His spirit.  To explain this to people that might be new to Christianity, there are three parts to each person – there is the body, soul, and spirit.  The body is the external part of you, your hands, eyes, feet, nose, etc.  The soul consists of the mind, emotion, and will.  The spirit is the third part of the person.  The spirit once a person becomes born again, takes on a a new nature and becomes a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5:16 ¹⁶ Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

We become a ransomed bride of Christ because He redeemed us with His blood, which He shed on the Cross, taking up all the sin, shame, and guilt, of everything that we have done, will do, or are doing because He is outside of time and He was crucified once and for all.

Because the Word of God says that Jesus was and is the Father’s beloved, then we too are the Father’s beloved because He truly cares for us, but what pleases God?  Is it your works, or what you do, or what you don’t do, or how you live your life?  No it’s your faith because the Word of God says that “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”

Hebrews 11:6

⁶ But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

“who diligently seek Him” comes from the Greek word ekzeteo and in this context it means to “seek the favor of God, or to worship.”

Blue Letter Bible. “Dictionary and Word Search for ekzēteō (Strong’s 1567)“. Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2012. 17 Apr 2012. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?
Strongs=G1567&t=KJV >

The word “faith” here is not the word, “faithfulness”, but comes from the wordpistis in Greek, and it means “the conviction that God is the creator and ruler of all things, provider and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ.”

Blue Letter Bible. “Dictionary and Word Search for pistis (Strong’s 4102)“. Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2012. 17 Apr 2012. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?
Strongs=G4102&t=KJV >

Sometimes we get bogged down and weighed down with sin and guilt that we can’t see why God created us.  We think He’s angry with us.  Jesus is living inside of the believers through the Holy Spirit and we abide in Him.  When we become born again our spirit becomes born inside of Him, and our spirit being becomes a part of Him.

John 3 says:

The New Birth

3 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ² This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

³ Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴ Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Here’s what it says about abiding in Christ:

John 3:36

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

John 6:56

He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

John 8:31

[ The Truth Shall Make You Free ] Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.

John 8:35

And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.

John 12:46

I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.

When you become born again you are entering into a marriage contract with Jesus.  To know the conditions of that contract, and to know what you are getting into you have to read the Word of God which is the Bible to discover the beautiful books of poems, the beautiful things it to say about your husband.  The wonderous ways that He is Jealous for your attention and your love.

When He was looking for you, He chose you, and out of His gentle gentle, Spirit, He could not force you into commitment with Him, so He said only if “this person is willing to take on my name,” then I will allow her to become part of Me. After He chooses you He is not going to let you go without a fight, and you will have to fight like a good marriage does to stay together despite all the rumors, and all the commotion that goes on all around, despite all the danger lurking in various places, despite everyone and everything around you or in you that calls Him, and what He has promised to you in His Word a lie.  You must fight to hold on to that relationship, and keep Him the center of your affections, no matter what happens to you.  He loves you so much, and sometimes He will just hide so that you can find Him all over again, but He is always within you and you are within Him.  So you can rest secure that if you belong to Him, He will keep you in the palm of His hand.  Even if you turn your back on Him, like Peter did, He’ll still love you, and He’ll always be willing to redeem you if you turn to Him, but if you can’t live with the guilt of what you did, then you might be digging yourself into a place that you don’t want to be in like Judas did.  But that is not God’s heart.  God’s heart is to let you know that you are Jesus’ beloved and he will treasure you.  That doesn’t mean that trials and testings and tribulation won’t come, but it means that not only do you put your trust in Him, but He also trusts in you and He knows you better than you know yourself because He is willing to forgive you in anything that you do.

For men who don’t want to be called a bride, which is just a symbolic to term to indicate intimacy, if you prefer you are also the sons of God.

 

 

The Multi-Faceted Word of God

There are so many different ways to interpret the Bible these days, and we often wonder why.  That’s because we don’t understand who God is.  We have to begin by knowing the names of God, and then we can learn about the attributes of God.

I’ve touched before on the names of God.  You can search for my posting.  But there is something deeper to really get to understand what God is about.

6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. ² Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one cried to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!”

This was Isaiah speaking in the future because He had a vision where He had been taken up.  I read somewhere I believe it in the Bible that every time God turned around the angels would cry “Holy” at the new sight of God.

Irregardless, the WORD of GOD is still mutlifaceted meaning that Jesus has many sides to His character and personality.  He wants You to get to know Him, and the same is true with the Heavenly Father, which is why He sent His Son into the world to send the Holy Spirit into the world to convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

One of the ways that really needs to get ingrained into the Body of Christ is that we cannot mold God into our image, He has to mold us into His image.  We need to become more and more like Him.

One of the main causes of division in the Body of Christ was this divisions on how to understand God, and why He did all those things that He did in the Old Testament, and why He brings Judgment and Wrath upon the people.  Yes it is good to know Him as Abba Father, and as Jesus knows Him, but even your own earthly father, if you really unconditionally love him, you will want to love all parts of his personality, even the ones you don’t like because your father means a lot to you.  The Heavenly Father is the same way.

In Exodus 34:12 it says that (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).   With the foundation of Jesus as the Savior, you cannot properly understand the fullness of God unless you understand that He is Jealous.  Interestingly enough, the word used here is “Lord” and that means Jesus, and Jesus is the bridegroom, and He is Jealous for His bride like a husband is jealous for his wife.  If someone came and harmed His wife, He would take vengeance on her.  The Church is the Bride of Christ, and Israel is the Bride of the Father.  Everything God has done is for you, so that you would love Him with your whole heart and not love anything else above him.  He will destroy whatever hurts His bride, and He will protect His bride as well because He loves her.  God is very passionate and His love for you is so that you can love him in return.

I want to point out a scene – in the movie Bruce Almighty – again, where Jim Carrey who plays a man who has gotten the powers of God for a week says, “How can I get someone to love me with affecting free-will?”  Morgan Freeman, who plays God says, “If you find that one out let me know.”

Also Backstreet Boys have a song, Quit Playing Games with My Heart,  and one of the lines is “Everything I’ve done is for you so what is it that you can’t see?”  That’s the way God feels.  He feels like sometimes we play games with His heart, and we trample over His heart and we abuse His heart because we don’t live the way He wants us to.  We don’t accept Him for who He really is.  He is a whole person and the Word of God is the complete picture of who He is and every part of it is about His love for you and what he will do to people that don’t love Him completely.

If worldly people can capture this sense of passionate love, how come Christians can’t find the same thing about God?  Yes He is Grace, but He is also Justice.  If He is not justice, then who will bring justice to the earth?  What hope do we have then?  Yes His justice may not seem fair at times, but He can see things more clearly and from a better perspective than we can.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehendit.- John 1:1-4

This Word, was and is Jesus and here the word used is “logos” meaning Christ Himself, and the Bible is the only way we can discover who He is.  All Truth about Him is revealed through His Word and when we come to the realization that the Word of God and His attributes are mutually exclusive meaning that they cannot be separated.

We want Him to love us unconditionally, but do we love Him unconditionally, whatever He says in His Word, do we appreciate it?

So to get back to the point of the message I want to bring out – He has done everything on this earth for you, and just for you.  Just like a tree wants all it’s fruit, leaves, and branches, to be nourished, God wants you, and He desires you to protect You and to take You and embrace You like a hen is with her chicks under her wings.

¹⁶ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. – 2 Timothy 3:16

In this Scripture in 2 Timothy it says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and that means not only the New Testament,and not just  the Old Testament only.  Each part of Scripture is there so that you may be (saying that you not already are, when you accept Christ) complete.

There is a process in which you become complete.   Here is 2 Timothy 3:16 in the Amplified: ¹⁶Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose, and action).

To know God’s will we go to John 17:

⁶ “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. ⁷ Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. ⁸ For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.

⁹ “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. ¹⁰ And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹ Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me,^[b] that they may be one as We are. ¹² While I was with them in the world,^[c] I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept;^[d] and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³ But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. ¹⁸ As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

²² The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; ²³ I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵ “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; ²⁶ and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

For those believers out there that want to know more about righteousness, I want to ask you a question.  Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who is right all the time?  I mean every single time.  You can never win an argument with them.  They know what you’re going to say before you say it.  Imagine if your parents are that way.  They are right every single time.  If someone is right all the time then there are times when you will be wrong.  You cannot say that, “I am never wrong” in front of them because they know that they are right.  God is right all the time.  He is the Righteous Father.  We are supposed to seek the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness.  So there has to come to be a point where we admit that we are wrong, or that what we did is wrong.  That doesn’t change who we are.  We are still God’s children, but we have to admit that whatever we are thinking, or doing is wrong.  We must be careful not to grieve the Holy Spirit.

Some people believe that once you accept Jesus then you can still be the same.  Imagine a scenario of a rich loving King who finds a poor homeless uneducated woman (much like My Fair Lady and Eliza DoLittle)  who is depressed dejected, impoverished, and nothing to her and she is involved in all kinds  of licentious or sinful living, and then he takes her and shows her his wealth and showers her with love and affection, and she loves him with all her heart, then once they are married she cannot go on living like a beggar, she has to take on the role of a queen.  She has to put down her old ways and become a new person.  She has to make an effort to change.  His love will nurture her into health and teach her the way she should go, but there is a process from becoming a beggar to becoming a queen.  It is not just her clothes that have to change, but it is her language, it is her character and a transforming work on the inside from leaving the past behind and taking on her new identity as the queen.   It is not an overnight thing, it is a process.  Queen Esther had to go through 12 months of purification treatments so that she could win favor with the king.  If she really loves him, and not his riches or his wealth and everything that he has given her, she will make every effort to change because she loves him and wants to be with him.

The same way God is jealous for his bride.  He wants to see her enter into beauty and perfection.  Yes she has already inherited the throne, and that is hers, but she cannot continue to live the way she did before.  She cannot be spiteful and mean and catty.  She has to be kind, generous, loving, and pour out her heart to the people.  She has to give of herself, and she has to love with her heart.

The Word of God is Truth to every one that finds it and the Word of God is exalted above his name.  Whoever believes in the Word of God, and actually takes time to meditate on it, they will be prepared when the bridegroom comes.  There are many ways of looking at the Bible and the Word of God, but when you take a look at it don’t just get stuck in one a color lense.  God is technicolor and just like God gave Joseph a coat with many colors, He can give you a lense of perspective into His Word with many colors, so that you can see who He is.  Once you have truly began to see with clear eyes this Word of God, then your life will begin to change.  Try one time to read through the whole Bible to read through the eyes of Justice.  I am still trying to do that myself, but every time I turn to the Word, I see something I’ve never seen before.  We must never become familiar with the Word.  Also there is a point in time where we have to dig our own wells and actually take the time to read and study the Word.

Heavenly Father,

I pray that You give us more insight into the Word, and let Your Word become the light upon our feet from Genesis to Revelation let it bring insight into the Truth of who You are and let us have revelation of You that will really change and transform our lives so that we can become like you being whole and complete and conform to Your will and purpose for our lives.  Thank You Lord God that You do hear and listen to our prayers.  Thank You for Your manifest wisdom upon this Bride of Christ and the Church.  I seal this post with the Blood of Jesus and let what glorifies You be seen and let it transform hearts, break burdens, and show people the love that You have for them, so that they may know You and all of Your wisdom, because Your Word is Truth.  I pray for all Your precious saints, that not only know they are saints, but they become holy like You are holy too.

In Jesus Mighty Name I pray,

Amen.

 

 

 

The Jealousy of God

 

 

I know a lot of people cannot understand how God can be jealous, and what it means to be jealous.  The thing is that it is a different kind of jealousy than human jealousy.  It is above that standard.  This sermon based on the revelation of Exodus 34 and Song of Solomon 8 builds again on the foundations of the Justice of Christ, and the Treasures of Love posted on in the previous blog postings.  This sermon after watching it – it really shook me.  I did not know what to do with it or myself.  I knew that something needed to change, and I knew it was me.  It stirred up in my heart and continues to stir up this passion and zeal for God, but sometimes we get so caught up in our “idols” or “gods” that we lose sight of what is really important.  That is this love for God and this fire and zeal for the jealous God, and to hunger and thirst after Him, and to be holy like He is holy.  This speaker points out that God is Jealous and that He is also Grace.  I am hoping you are touched the same way, and maybe even to a greater extent than I am.