Walking in the Light

If we walk in the light as He is in the light . . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin —1 John 1:7

Up until the Holy Spirit stepped in to help me understand how I was to walk in the light, all I had was the model that I learned from my previous Church.  Like Oswald mentioned in March 16^th’s devotion “For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to the standards we have set up for another person. The deadliest attitude of the Pharisees that we exhibit today is not hypocrisy but that which comes from unconsciously living a lie” This is so powerful in so many ways that I do not even want to start unravelling it. Even those four tiny words “unconsciously living a lie” we do not have any idea how powerful and how they have merged in our Christian walk like leaven in the dough. In the meantime we are not even aware that the leaven of the Pharisees has found its way into our lives. So, unconsciously, we live this life where we cherish the lies as our truth and we stand on it so proudly, totally clueless.

I found it rather peculiar that to learn to live in the light of God that you have to first be able to withstand that light on you, in your actions and in your heart. This is not easy. When it comes to God, all of us like Adam and Eve, all we want is to hide away from Him. This is not even something the Holy Spirit can do for you. No, He cannot step in the light in your place. When you are summoned to walk into the light, the Holy Spirit can coach you up until it is time to step into the light. Because as you step into the light, you are dealing with God’s judgement of you, as you stand there you have the awareness of your nakedness before God, nothing is hidden and nowhere to hide. It is scary, paralyzing, and shameful to be so exposed before Him.  Imagine Adam and Eve only had one sin yet they needed to hide away from God’s eyes. Imagine now when you have a legion of sin within how hard it is to be in His presence.

Right before you step into His light you can completely see the difference between what you thought was the light you have been walking so far and God’s real light. It is amazing to see the contrast because our light compares  like murky water to God’s.  The big difference lies in the fact that we have a faulty understanding of the meaning of this doctrine. What we call walking in the light, is either made up of the light of our own conscience, our own understanding of the Scriptures and our own standards. 

 Walking in the light goes way deeper than saying “your word is a lamp unto my feet. To get the full picture of our walk in the light we have to understand, and know how is God in the light? What does it mean to Him? If you are used to your basic walk and you are satisfied with yourself, you might say to me that you do not see the need to go deeper and perhaps you might even go as far as believing that I am complicating your life. But, the truth is, His word is clear “If we are to walk in the Light as He is in the Light” We are called to be in the light like Him, His way, by His standards, His hatred for sin, His transparency, His love, His fellowship, His holiness, His need for purity, the need to be truly separated from evil and all that pertains to His standards alone and not ours.  In Him, there is no holding back, nothing hidden from the light, in Him there is no darkness and He delights in the truth.

God has a passionate hatred for sin and until we can see it and grasp it His way, until we can understand in unison with God, not just on the surface or through lip service but through who we have become in Him, we can see and taste and agree with His abhorrence for sin, then we are nowhere close to living in the light of God. Not only God is light and He is so radiant that darkness disappears wherever He is, but we ought to think about living in the light as a lifestyle. It is a lifestyle that goes beyond words, where you have no agenda of your own, nothing up your sleeves and you do not care if you actually can find loopholes in His Word, because you have taken up His agenda and you find delight in His desires for your life. It is a lifestyle where we basically find out that we are actually living out Romans 13:14 where we are clothed with Jesus-Christ our Lord. When you truly put on Christ, you find there is no room to gratify the desires of the flesh. The meaning of gratifying the desires of the flesh here simply refers to a sinful state where you are opposing the Holy Spirit.

I find that there is nothing like putting on and wrapping yourself in Christ to help you live out what Paul said in Philippians 1:21 “ for me to live is Christ and to die is gain”  As you put on Christ, and dancing in oneness and joy with Him, it makes you realize the depth of your limitations in the flesh. You have no idea what happen but somehow you sin. You ask yourself how did I get out of this precious fellowship? While you stand there with no answer, you feel like a child with dirty feet standing in the front door, you cannot come back in, unless you take your dirty shoes off and clean those feet. While you are standing there to be cleansed by His blood to merge in the fellowship again, you can see the contrast in your sinful state and God in His purest form. You don’t even need Him to tell you that you are dirty, you know it. This realization makes more real living in expectancy of the day you will not have to live separated from Him again and again because of sin. Oh! I wish all of us would long for that day.

Blessings to all of you! I am so grateful that my readership has catapulted in a way that I cannot explain. I am grateful to you all. Let's keep going forward toward Him, let's not look back because it is not worth it. Our God is all that we need. No matter what is going on in your life right now, in Him we are more than conquerors. He is real, he is love and He only wants what is good for us. Allow Him to get the work done in you.

To all my kindred brothers and sisters out there, I love you with His Agape love.

Take good care and love others even when you are not loved back and do not allow bitterness to touch your heart at all. 

The Opened Sight by Oswald Chambers

Oswald Chambers devotion for today has a boat load of information, we need for the Christian life. In fact, it is not stretching it if I say we have a lifetime of true Christianity in these few words and could be subject to several posts. One of the reasons I am so excited about this devotion is because it is so close to home. As I have shared with you before, my ministry is directly associated with these people who are in the Church, professed that they are Christians but have never made it to received true Salvation. Hence, my gifts of discernment and wisdom as well as the ability to judge according to the knowledge and leadership of the Holy Spirit in my life. If God felt that I needed these things in order that He can use me, can you imagine what He is able to bestow on those He truly called to occupy leadership and teaching positions in His Church?

Whether you are a pastor, an elder or evangelist, any kind of teaching position that He calls you to, there is no doubt that you will be equipped to see what needs to be seen through wisdom, discernment and more. The job is to open up other people’s eyes to the truth they do not know, to help them walk the walk. Why would He not do it for you first before He sent you? Why would Oswald Chambers able to see all these things and through his writings you can tell they are like natural abilities to him. He was not exceptional, he was just walking the walk.

His devotion today contains some truths that cannot be mere word that comes out of our mouths i.e receiving forgiveness of sin… This brings you face to face with a Holy repentance that you have never known in your life. This repentance could happen the same day you receive Christ in your life, but it could also happened few months down the road. Either way, you have to have the capability to receive this holy gift from Him. Too many people say they have received Christ but go on never knowing what it means to repent. Yet, this repentance is needed to make a 360 degree turn. Failing that, we live as people who are saved in their sins and not from sins. As long as you do not know the difference of what I just said, in your heart and in the quality of your life with God, well, you are not saved yet. Christ did not come to save us in our sins. This is not the real Salvation that He died on the cross for. The irony is that we keep saying salvation is through grace but we do not understand that getting there to the point where we know and compute that we have been saved from sins and we can see the ugliness of it and how and why God is disgusted by it is a MAJOR work of His grace in our lives.

Another truth in this devotion that must be considered very carefully is the fact that Oswald said “when a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God…” Do not take the word knows lightly. This knowing happened with an encounter with the Holy One that brings you to a place where you own that truth. You do not just repeat like a parrot that salvation is by grace, but it is your truth that is in the depth of your identity in Him, so deep within, that no one can take it away from you.

Another major truth in this devotion is that Oswald also said: “their eyes are open, but they have received nothing” this simply put you in the category of the seed that falls where there are rocks, and not much soil.

Another major truth is that even though our job is to open people’s eyes, we cannot do it by ourselves unless the Holy Spirit is allowed to move freely in our lives, with no hindrances to impede His work in others through us. That is a big responsibility that we learn the sacredness of it through being prepared by Him for service. This is where service to God becomes an extension of who you are in Him.

I have to stop in order to keep the length of this post to a reasonable document, but another truth that is devastating the Church is the fact that today’s preachers are not able to recognize which is which and how to deal with the lack of conversion in the pews and the pulpits. Please understand that I know there are some awesome pastor and teachers out there who have been called by God, took His personal training and walk in the Spirit with Him. They are the elite that God referred to in Jeremiah 3:15 “Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding”. These shepherds after God’s own heart did not and will not become such just by taking a few courses in college or university. They are aware that after they are trained by man, they have to go through God’s university and curriculum before they are ready to lead His flock. This makes the difference between leading and leading.

The problem is that we are living in a time where anyone can be a pastor or teacher, because they feel like it or they want to work for God, notice the emphasis is for God not with God. We also have greed; the need for status, insecurities, resources at their disposal, being well connected which was the practice of the Pharisees (blind leading blind) etc. You can understand why they are not equipped to deal with dires strait situations in their congregations that require an abundance of God’s grace.

I can understand that you might be offended by my writings, but do not stop there. Do not make it about you or me. Know that if you stop there and make it about you and me, there is a major problem in your walk that Satan does not want you to know. Examine yourself, ask the Holy Spirit to help you, to get your pride and bondage out of the way so that you can see what needs to be seen and know for sure where you stand with Him. Ask Him to save you, not because you deserve it, but for His glory. Keep praying day in, day out until He answers you. If you truly ask Him with a sincere and open heart, you will be amazed at His response.  

Here is Oswald Chambers devotional

The Opened Sight

01

10

2013

I now send you, to open their eyes . . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . —Acts 26:17-18

This verse is the greatest example of the true essence of the message of a disciple of Jesus Christ in all of the New Testament.

God’s first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the words, “. . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . .” When a person fails in his personal Christian life, it is usually because he has never received anything. The only sign that a person is saved is that he has received something from Jesus Christ. Our job as workers for God is to open people’s eyes so that they may turn themselves from darkness to light. But that is not salvation; it is conversion-only the effort of an awakened human being. I do not think it is too broad a statement to say that the majority of so-called Christians are like this. Their eyes are open, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is a neglected fact in our preaching today. When a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People may make vows and promises, and may be determined to follow through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, namely, forgiveness of sins.

This is followed by God’s second mighty work of grace: “. . . an inheritance among those who are sanctified . . . .” In sanctification, the one who has been born again deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God’s ministry to others

This Oswald chamber devotion is the courtesy of http://utmost.org/

The Proper Perspective

Devotion By Oswald Chambers

Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ . . . —

2 Corinthians 2:14

The proper perspective of a servant of God must not simply be as near to the highest as he can get, but it must be the highest. Be careful that you vigorously maintain God’s perspective, and remember that it must be done every day, little by little. Don’t think on a finite level. No outside power can touch the proper perspective.

The proper perspective to maintain is that we are here for only one purpose— to be captives marching in the procession of Christ’s triumphs. We are not on display in God’s showcase— we are here to exhibit only one thing— the “captivity [of our lives] to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). How small all the other perspectives are! For example, the ones that say, “I am standing all alone, battling for Jesus,” or, “I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold down this fort for Him.” But Paul said, in essence, “I am in the procession of a conqueror, and it doesn’t matter what the difficulties are, for I am always led in triumph.” Is this idea being worked out practically in us? Paul’s secret joy was that God took him as a blatant rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive— and that became his purpose. It was Paul’s joy to be a captive of the Lord, and he had no other interest in heaven or on earth. It is a shameful thing for a Christian to talk about getting the victory. We should belong so completely to the Victor that it is always His victory, and “we are more than conquerors through Him . . .” (Romans 8:37).

“We are to God the fragrance of Christ . . .” (2 Corinthians 2:15). We are encompassed with the sweet aroma of Jesus, and wherever we go we are a wonderful refreshment to God.