Christianity is not a Bible-centered belief system, it is a Christ-bought relationship. You have a Personal Relationship with God, because He loves you, in which both you and God can be yourself, and be real. Take some time this week to let the Lord show you any areas where you are wearing a mask or faking it with Him. Let Him tell you the truth about how He feels about you. Remember to test what you hear, “Lord, is that You?”
God is perpetually creative, and is not restricted in the ways He may choose to lead, guide and direct you. God likes to have fun, so don’t put limits on your expectations of His activities or the ways He may choose to reveal Himself to you. Confidence in your ability to hear Him comes ONLY through experiencing His guidance! Trial and error is part of learning to know God’s voice.
LOOK AND LIVE by Ray Prinzing
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15)
Israel was murmuring and complaining again during their wilderness journey, and God sent fiery serpents among the people, correctional chastening. Then Moses was instructed to make a serpent of brass and put it on a pole, and whomever a serpent bit, when he looked at the brazen serpent, he lived. So also Christ was lifted up on a pole (cross), and now whosoever looks to Him, believes in Him, shall live.
Jesus foretold in the latter days, “men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth”, (Luke 21:26). This looking at the negative conditions is devastating. “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold,” (Matt. 24:12). To see natural conditions – wars and rumors of wars, famines earthquakes floods, fires, is hard enough to cope with, but when combined with the abounding of iniquity the view is enough to cause ‘heart failure’.
BUT THERE IS ANOTHER VIEW, and Jude writes, verse 21, of “looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life”. And Jesus instructed that “when these things begin to come to pass, then LOOK UP, AND LIFT UP YOUR HEADS; FOR YOUR REDEMPTION DRAWETH NIGH”, (Luke 21:31).
One can see all the evil abounding and become despondent and afraid, or they can look “unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith”, and LIVE. Paul joyously proclaimed, “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound”, (Rom. 5:20). Therefore, we look for new manifestations of His grace to super-abound and counter-balance all negative expressions. Looking for His mercy, looking for His grace, looking for the redemption drawing nigh.
What seest thou? I hear the answer, which He gives to me,
I see in Christ a full salvation, perfect victory!
One of the changes that is taking place as our soul and spirit are reunited is in how we think about our relationship with God, and why He sent His Son to be the Messiah. Jesus wasn’t sent to earth just to die for our sins. He was sent to do a new thing — to give us Life, to make us sons. You can’t put new wine into an old wineskin. He had to start over. In order to do that, the old way of knowing God, the law, had to be completed, fulfilled, and date-stamped. We now live according to Grace, a new way of relating altogether. We are no longer sinners saved by grace, but saints, sons of the most High God, and joint heirs with the Son of God Himself.
We’ve often talked about learning to live as a spirit. Its a process. We’ve gotten so used to living out of our soul that we’ve lost the ability and instinct to live as anything other than a soul with a body. It will take an effort to create new habits and release old ones. To start, spend the next week thinking about what you ask God to do on your behalf. I suspect you will find that you ask for Him to guide you, take care of others, reveal Himself to you, grow in a gift, perhaps you’re in need of healing, etc. Go ahead and write these things down. Then, take some time and consider whether those requests are actually something you, as a spirit being, are to be involved in. For instance, you, as a spirit being, already know what decision to make. Your spirit has authority over your soul, and can stir up those gifts that reside within your soul. You, as a spirit, can heal your body. Of course, there are many things we rightfully ask God to do, but let’s learn to take on our God-given responsibility in those areas where we have the authority. In coming posts we’ll experiment with practical application.
Don’t judge how you are doing by how happy or sad you are. Emotions are fleeting, and they don’t always reveal or reflect the truth. God loves your emotions, they are His gift to you, but because they are part of your soul, they are still undergoing the process of reunion with your spirit. Until that reunion is complete, they are unreliable and manipulative. Be objective and realistic about your situation and your relationships, and make changes if necessary.
God wants us to know Him fully. We were created to be one with Him. Our spirit, our soul and our body function best when reunited as one, receiving His Life. Our soul’s transition is from self-reliance to reunion with our spirit. Just as our body’s natural state of locomotion is walking, not rolling, or crawling, our soul’s natural, normal state is to be in a moment by moment relationship with God through our spirit. We are returning to our original state of being, and are finding rest, contentment and authority.