Perfection Isn't the Goal- Jesus Is!

This is such a short and sweet post from the Ransomed Heart Devotion book.

Here is why I love it. The writer knows exactly what true Salvation is about.

His grace keeps filling you up while you are changing from glory to glory.

You are more merciful because you are acquiring slowly but surely those melting affections and well-matured gentleness and will, which are also Christ’s characters.

You are no longer bound to sin: Of my Lord, this is so good. Here the freedom from sin fills your soul. You have been crucified with Him and nothing else lives in you, but your redeemer. One of the beauties of being freed from sin, is that “you do not have to sin” – This is why I said in one my post this year, that when you sin, you can tell it is no longer coming from the same place when you were slave to sins

When we can see the work the Holy Spirit is doing within, Christianity truly becomes exciting. There is joy to contemplate the mystery of this life as He work out His life in us. 

FROM: http://ransomedheart.com

Jesus is inviting us to relax into the beauty he has bestowed upon us and cease striving to attain a level of smooth perfection that looks wonderful on a doll or on a magazine cover but is not attainable in the living, breathing realm of humanity. God does not tell us that the goal is perfection. Perfection in any vital area of our life is not going to happen. There, I said it. Now, we can improve. We can grow. We can become more loving, more grace filled, more merciful. We are no longer bound to sin, slaves to its din of temptation. We are still going to sin. But we don’t have to. The secret is Jesus.

Our hope doesn’t rest on our finally getting it together. Our hope rests in Jesus. Jesus in us. It’s Christ in us, the hope of glory. Paul says, “To them God chose to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). We won’t be perfect on this side of heaven. But Jesus is perfect. Always. We are becoming more holy and true. Jesus already is. His name isn’t “Becoming.” It is “I AM.” Perfection isn’t the goal. Jesus is.

Church Is Not A Building

Church is not a building. Church is not an event that takes place on Sundays. I know, it's how we think of it. "I go to First Baptist." "We are members of St. Luke's." "Is it time to go to church?" Much to our surprise, that is not how the Bible uses the term. Not at all. When the Scripture talks about church, it means community. The little fellowships of the heart that are outposts of the kingdom. A shared life. They worship together, eat together, pray for one another, go on quests together. They hang out together, in each other's homes. When Peter is sprung from prison, "he went to the house of Mary the mother of John…where many people had gathered and were praying" (Acts 12:12).

Anytime an army goes to war or an expedition takes to the field, it breaks down into little platoons and squads. And every chronicle of war or quest will tell you that the men and women who fought so bravely fought for each other. That's where the acts of heroism and sacrifice take place, because that's where the devotion is. You simply can't be devoted to a mass of people; devotion takes place in small units, just like a family.

We have stopped short of being an organization; we are an organism instead, a living and spontaneous association of individuals who know one another intimately, care for each other deeply, and feel a kind of respect for one another that makes rules and bylaws unnecessary. A group is the right size, I would guess, when each member can pray for every other member, individually and by name.

This is the wisdom of Brother Andrew, who smuggled Bibles into communist countries for decades. It's the model, frankly, of the church in nearly every country but the U.S. Now, I'm not suggesting you don't do whatever it is you do on Sunday mornings. I'm simply helping you accept reality—that whatever else you do, you must have a small fellowship to walk with you and fight with you and bandage your wounds. This is essential.

Courtesy of: http://RansomedHeart.com

The Person With The Spirit Makes Judgments About All Things

1 Corinthians 2:15

“The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,”

1 Cor. 2:14-16…”But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.  But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.  For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.”

Most Christians who are not led by the Spirit cringe when they realize that your words are somewhat judging them. They find solace and hang on to comments like this one: “Didn't Jesus say not to judge others?”  Or they would say things like, “who are you to judge?” Like a dog with a bone they cannot let go of this verse in the Bible and their stand in their self-righteousness without the Spirit. IT IS SO SAD TO WATCH AND READ SUCH PEOPLE.  

I have to admit that when I first came to know the Lord, I found solace in knowing that Christ Himself said in Matthew 7:1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” Because I was sealed with the spirit, He led me to stop hanging onto a simple verse and build my life on it. As I let go, I started seeing other verses that I read about but never truly paid attention to them, as if they never entered my mind. I first noticed that God wants us to judge with the Spirit. Then, I was floored when I realized how much Christ judged the people of His time. In fact, I found Him very harsh at times.

Later, I learned it was not because Christ was trying to hurt others, it was the Spirit of God calling things exactly what they were. I could also see how I was thinking like someone with no spiritual understanding looking for Christ to sympathize with them instead of judging them rightly. I had a need for Christ to say things like other human being would, which means you have to downplay what you see to avoid telling the blunt truth to someone. As human being we do not like being told a blunt truth and we do not like facing ourselves, hence why we constantly wear masks in order to protect our fragile ego.

I also understood much later, after God equipped me with the truth and boldness to share His word, when you speak, live and walk in Spirit you cannot control the Holy Spirit. In fact, trying to control the Holy Spirit calling things the way He sees things through you, is a sin. If we try to sympathize with people instead of holding them accountable, we condemn them to hell and we nullify Christ’s work on the cross. Most of the time, we Christians use sympathy instead of the Agape love of Christ.  We also do things as we walk with common sense and self-righteousness, all to avoid righteous judgement and our desperate need to please man.  When we cultivate this state of mind, there is no question about it that we are not living or walking in the Spirit, let alone living a spirit filled life.

I will share a secret with you and you can take it to the bank.  When you find yourself fighting with everything that you are, the idea of being judged, you can bank on it that you are in the flesh. Why? Because the Holy Spirit could care less that someone is making wrong judgment about Him. Furthermore, when you know you are living and walking in the Spirit and all your judgments are flowing through Him, anyone who dares judge you will deal with God. Why? Because once again it is not about you, it is about the Spirit of God in you. In fact, as you mature spiritually in the faith and you are living the Spirit filled life, the Holy Spirit in you, shares the fact this natural person talking about you or with you is simply a fool. And instead of feeling pain for yourself, you take pity on them for their ignorance. What’s more sad is that you are watching someone calling himself or herself a Christian and who’s so devoid of spiritual understanding and complete absence of the Holy Spirit activities, yet they are no wiser of their own situation.

Years ago, I used to be upset at people for lying to my pastors so that they can be promoted or just so they can be held in high esteem by them. One of my pastors made a big mistake that was costly to the Church and his life with God just by listening to people he thought were good Christians. In reality, these people were not. One of them God revealed it to me through a dream and made me confront this person. I used to be so mad when I knew people lied to my pastor. I felt, by lying to a pastor you cause him to make the wrong decision and jeopardize the Church. Later on when God moves to heal my heart because I was mad at these people for lying, He taught me that while it is true these people were wrong, but the onus was on my pastor to be living and walking in the Spirit so that these people would not have prevailed. My pastor would have been led by the Spirit and the actions taken through the Church would have been different.  

The moral of the story is, if you find yourself like a dog with a bone hanging onto Matthew 7:1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” If you find yourself putting much more weight on this verse to demand your rights be respected. If you are a pastor and you find ample materials to preach about how we should not judge others, then you have a much bigger problem and you need the Holy Spirit big time.

This is also one of the reasons you see the internet is filled with Christian sites devoted to denounce real Christians, talking about much deeper Christianity. Yet they, in their self-righteousness have felt the need to blast these people’s names all over the internet, denouncing them as false teachers. When in reality, the person who has the site devoted to this so called “unmasking the false prophets” is the one doing Satan’s deed.

It is strange to see that I am not a minister, God has taught me there are many out there with mega ministry without His blessings and some with those mega ministries are saved by the skin of their teeth. He taught me to identify those who are truly false prophets, yet He also taught me to keep these things for myself. If those with internet programs devoted to blast God’s true messengers as being false prophets knew how badly God will judge them, they would shudder right now. While God does not want me to turn what I know into a ministry to unmask anyone, but, He wants me to use it on a one to one basis with people that I know for sure are following the wrong ministers on television.

"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him" (Psalm 25:14). Let the Spirit of God takes you to a higher ground and you will see human being has nothing on you.

MATHEW HENRY’S CONCIZE COMMENTARY

”1Cor.2:10-16 God has revealed true wisdom to us by his Spirit. Here is a proof of the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures, 2Pe 1:21. In proof of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, observe that he knows all things, and he searches all things, even the deep things of God. No one can know the things of God, but his Holy Spirit, who is one with the Father and the Son, and who makes known Divine mysteries to his church. This is most clear testimony, both to the real Godhead and the distinct person of the Holy Spirit. The apostles were not guided by worldly principles. They had the revelation of these things from the Spirit of God, and the saving impression of them from the same Spirit. These things they declared in plain, simple language, taught by the Holy Spirit, totally different from the affected oratory or enticing words of man's wisdom. The natural man, the wise man of the world, receives not the things of the Spirit of God. The pride of carnal reasoning is really as much opposed to spirituality, as the basest sensuality. The sanctified mind discerns the real beauties of holiness, but the power of discerning and judging about common and natural things is not lost. But the carnal man is a stranger to the principles, and pleasures, and actings of the Divine life. The spiritual man only, is the person to whom God gives the knowledge of his will. How little have any known of the mind of God by natural power! And the apostles were enabled by his Spirit to make known his mind. In the Holy Scriptures, the mind of Christ, and the mind of God in Christ, are fully made known to us. It is the great privilege of Christians, that they have the mind of Christ revealed to them by his Spirit. They experience his sanctifying power in their hearts, and bring forth good fruits in their lives.”

Taking Every Thought Captive

Well, I hesitate about this post from Ransomed Hearts because of two reasons.

1)     First, it seems like it is geared toward women only. But, in reality any child of Christ males or females experience spiritual warfare.

2)     The second reason I hesitate is because while the author did not say it, but this idea of struggling through spiritual warfare with Satan because he is trying so hard to create doubt in our mind about Christ, purchasing you and I through His blood, works to a certain extend.

Satan can play this kind of game with us when we are babe in the faith because we do not know who we are in Him, quite yet.

If you have passed the stage of being a babe in the faith, because you have been a Christian for a while now, yet Satan can still make you doubt your Sonship and the price that was paid for you and me, then this means you need to get on your knees and find out what has been happening with you in terms of your salvation. The only proof that you have been sealed as a born again Christian is that the Holy Spirit is working in your life. It is His job to witness to your soul that you are a child of God. So if this has not been drilled down within to a place where Satan has lost the power to play this basic game with you, then you are failing somehow or the Holy Spirit is failing. Take your pick

When you are a true child of God and you are maturing in the faith no matter how bad and how big your sin is, like David when he was confronted about his sins of adultery and murder, he was able to fall down to his face and call upon his father for forgiveness. Why was it so easy for Him to do? Simply because he knew no matter how he messed up, God would not stop being his father. When we mess up with our human father, there are always consequences, but the love does not go away. If we as human being we can love in spite of the offenses and imperfections of our children, then what about God?

By the same token, I have people in my family, friends and acquaintances who claim to be Christians, they are involved in Church activities, mission, and leadership and so on, yet nothing about them seems to show they have been born again. Yet, they sound good because intellect, education and common sense are at work. They have this kind of twisted frame of mind where they put all their stocks and bet on God’s love to fix everything for them. Some of them actually believe the more you sin, the more grace abounds so they act as if God’s grace is a license to sin. Most of these people fall under this verse you find in Matthew 23:15 “"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” This is a very big accusation on Christ’s part and some people would tell us that this verse is for those under the law.

What some of us do not realize is that Satan has a very big ministry right inside the Church. There is nothing new under the sun. This ministry of his is to keep people from truly turning to God while they remain busy living some form of godliness. Satan is very well aware when we are selling this kind of diluted Salvation and he steps in big time with these “Christians.”  Sadly, we might not know where we are with God, but Satan knows it. So, with these kinds of Christians, he does not bother whispering to them that they have failed, rather, he does the reverse and keep them thinking they are alright with God while he helps them minimize sin and believe God’s word backwards.

I hope you can see the difference. Know that there is a balance in the Christian faith. It is found only in Him as we allow Him to live this life through us. 

HERE IS YOUR POST FROM RANSOMED HEART

In order for us to live in freedom and become the women we are to become, we need to receive God’s love even in our lowest places. Spiritual warfare is designed to separate you from the love of God. Its goal is to keep you from living in the freedom that Jesus has purchased for you. Satan whispers to us when we have failed or sinned or are feeling horrid that we are nothing and no one. He is a liar. And our fight for our freedom involves exposing him for who he is even when the lies feel completely true. The battle is waged and won in our thought life: in our minds and in our hearts.So what are you thinking? (Yeah, right now.) Descartes famously wrote, “I think, therefore I am.” I would add a fill-in-the-blank in each phrase. I think I am ______, therefore I am __________. I think I am kind, therefore I am kind. I think I am chosen, therefore I am chosen. I think I am becoming more loving, therefore I am becoming more loving. I think I am forever bound to sin, therefore I am forever bound to sin. What we think about ourselves, others, or a circumstance informs how we perceive it, which informs the way we experience it. Our thoughts play out in our lives."We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Cor. 10:5)What do you think about God? What do you think about yourself? Who are you? What do you think life is about? What do you think is true? Because what you think informs your reality and has a direct effect on how you live your life. What we focus on, we move toward. What we look at, esteem, molds us in its direction. What we think is true plays out in our moment-by-moment existence

God Thwarts Us to Save Us

This is a very dangerous moment, when God seems set against everything that has meant life to us. Satan spies his opportunity, and leaps to accuse God in our hearts. You see, he says, God is angry with you. He's disappointed in you. If he loved you he would make things smoother. He's not out for your best, you know. The Enemy always tempts us back toward control, to recover and rebuild the false self. We must remember that it is out of love that God thwarts our impostor. As Hebrews reminds us, it is the son whom God disciplines, therefore do not lose heart (12:5-6).

God thwarts us to save us. We think it will destroy us, but the opposite is true—we must be saved from what really will destroy us. If we would walk with him in our journey, we must walk away from the false self—set it down, give it up willingly. It feels crazy; it feels immensely vulnerable. We simply accept the invitation to leave all that we've relied on and venture out with God. We can choose to do it ourselves, or we can wait for God to bring it all down.

If you have no clue as to what your false self may be, then a starting point would be to ask those you live with and work with, "What is my effect on you? What am I like to live with (or work with)? What don't you feel free to bring up with me?" Drop the fig leaf; come out from hiding. For how long? Longer than you want to; long enough to raise the deeper issues, let the wound surface from beneath it all. 

Courtesy of: http:// Ransomedheart.com

An Identity We Received

Identity is not something that falls on us out of the sky. For better or for worse, identity is bestowed. We are who we are in relation to others. But far more important, we draw our identity from our impact on those others—if and how we affect them. We long to know that we make a difference in the lives of others, to know that we matter, that our presence cannot be replaced by a pet, a possession, or even another person. The awful burden of the false self is that it must be constantly maintained.

We think we have to keep doing something in order to be desirable. Once we find something that will bring us some attention, we have to keep it going or risk the loss of the attention.

And so we live with the fear of not being chosen and the burden of maintaining whatever it is about us that might get us noticed and the commitment never to be seen for who we really are. We develop a functional self-image, even if it is a negative one. The little boy paints his red wagon a speckled gray with whatever Father left in the can after putting a new coat on the backyard fence. "Look what I did!" he says, hoping for affirmation of the wonderful impact his presence has on the world. The angry father shames him: "What do you think you're doing? You've ruined it." The boy forms an identity: My impact is awful; I foul good things up. I am a fouler. And he forms a commitment never to be in a place where he can foul things up again. Years later, his colleagues wonder why he turned down an attractive promotion. The answer lies in his identity, an identity he received from the impact he had on the most important person in his world and his fear of ever being in such a place again.

Courtesy of Ransomed Heart

Are We Open to Intimacy?

This is why we accept the false reverence—it’s like having a relationship with someone out of state. It doesn’t intrude into your life like a spouse or a good friend does. There is safety in the distance. We secure ourselves against a fuller experience of Jesus’ presence because he is so unnerving. There is no faking it in the presence of Jesus; there is no way we can cling to our idols and agendas. We sense this intuitively, and so we keep our distance without really looking like we’re keeping our distance. By using false reverence. “The Good Lord” probably isn’t going to show up at your New Year’s Eve party.

Want more?

So, when it comes to experiencing more of Jesus in your life, much depends on what we are open to experiencing—what we have been told we can experience, and, what we are comfortable with. Are you willing to let Jesus be himself with you?

From Ransomed Heart devotion book

What Does It Mean To Be God's Example Of His Message?

 To put this post in context, please read Oswald Chambers devotion message for today March 10  RIGHT HERE
  

Today’s devotion in My Utmost For His Highest book is sweet. It is a short one, but there is so much in there. I learned that if we truly learn to live out this life God has for us and if we truly live in oneness, love, faith, obedience and His will alone, then the Holy Spirit is delighted to show us how we are slowly becoming like Him. This part of Salvation is so sweet because you KNOW it is nothing that you are doing except living your average Joe life on earth. Yet you can see how you are changing like Him on the inside. You are becoming this person as Christ’s character is being worked within and right before your eyes you are becoming “THE GOSPEL MESSAGE”

This goes beyond living a holy life because even after you are made holy and living out the holy life, you find that God is still crushing you into submission. It is hard for me to explain it without going into a much lengthy post. But for lack of better words I could tell you that it is the difference between taking your regular cup of coffee or tea with one tablespoon of sugar vs two spoons. You want more sugar because it is sweeter. It is a different submission from the one when you were broken so that your will can become His will while you stop acting like a wild horse.  It is no longer about making you holy either because He would have already worked that within, through great pain. But it is more like weaving His Holiness through you like dough when you mix it up with the leaven you are watching it changing as the leaven is mixed up with every part of the dough. It is also the type of submission where He is making sure you look the part on the outside, because this life on the inside is spilling out big time. Yet it is amazing how this life can be so subtle.

I notice, every time I meet someone from the old Church, of course I always talk to them about God, and almost every single time they would say something like “you should be a preacher.” I guess because the minute we start talking about God, I am no longer hungry or tired and suddenly time no longer matters to me. I talk with conviction, passion and with hand and body language gestures. But, what they do not realize is that God has not called me to be a preacher. What they see, is me becoming slowly, God’s message. Yes, I have a long way to go and I need to live at least ten more years in the faith and complete oneness to even come close to someone like Oswald in terms of knowledge of God. But, it is the reality of a walk completely immersed in God living out the true Christian life according to God’s will and plan for all of us Christians.  

My point is, God taught me that the process was lengthy and tedious, although sometimes very intense, but this work goes beyond the basic in Christianity. When I say basic, even the work of holiness is also part of the basic package before God can take us to what really matters and the real goal of the gospel. Anyone who has been made holy knows what I mean. After holiness sets in, you feel as if you are starting the Christian life all over again. I was annoyed that there was not something like continuity. I was also tempted to start living my holiness in my own strength. But, after we are made holy, which comes after brokenness, what seems to be a second regeneration and so on, all these things are lumped together to build the base or the foundation of God’s Masterpiece. On a side note, I found out this is why one can build a whole Christian life on sinking sand and not aware of it. When we say that the foundation is Christ, then He must be allowed to build it up within us. If He is not allowed to build it in us, then, we are doing the work as a substitute for the real thing.

I shared with you in one of my posts how God showed me how Salvation was like making a cake and on the table every single ingredient, molds, utensils and so on, needed to proceed and make the cake are right there for us and nothing is missing. All was provided and God is the one mixing up the ingredients to put the cake together and He alone knows what the cake will look like once finish. My role was to stir up once in a while with His help. Yet He was so generous, He showed me a picture of the most beautiful cake that I have ever seen. I remember when I saw the finished cake, in my mind I thought “Wow! God is the best chef that I know” – I have no idea if because at that time I was like this child by His side or why this idea of Him being a chef came to mind. Nevertheless, the past few months, I am learning that it is true, it feels like you are starting over after holiness, but it is because He is using the basic which is like the cake has been baked, pull out of the oven and cool off. Now, He is creating a chef-d’oeuvre. This piece of art is you becoming like Christ and it is you becoming the message.

I encourage even pushed people through showing the urgency of going forward with Him because I KNOW that I KNOW what I KNOW. As God showed me how crucial it is to let Him do the work in 2009, I wanted to go with an offer that I had received to participate in Church planting. People had great plans for me, I felt like I was letting them down. I was so exited and I wanted to serve Him this way. God knew I wanted to serve Him with all my heart and the stumbling block that was put in front of me was because of what I had learned from men made Christianity’s idea. Since I was in bondage to the wrong things that I had learned in the Church, He showed me how the first work that will decide our rewards in heaven has nothing to do with building up churches or mega television ministry “FOR HIM.” This is not to say they are not good. But, the work of our Salvation and the work of our faith is first and foremost the work that we have allowed Him to work within each of us. The whole life, plans, goals, desires, spiritual agenda, wishes, motivation, attitude and everything we are able to think of, all of it flows through the work being done within us as we slowly become “THE MESSAGE.”

He showed me if I can walk with Him in oneness as He leads, then someone who has built a mega television ministry has nothing on me. He made it clear to me that this does not mean He is not going to use these people to bring some of His sheep home. But He uses them through His sovereignty because He can use even Satan to get through those that are His own. But, when He uses us, in spite of us, not because we are living out His will for our lives, then, we lose the reward that would have come to us for all our deeds.

So, brothers and sisters, work out your salvation with fear in trembling, because there will be a day where all masks are taken off. Unlike Adam and Eve, who were able to hide from God when they first found out they were naked, after they sinned, we will not have this option to hide. Judgement day is not like God is going to humiliate us in front of everyone to show who we truly are. The problem will be “FACING GOD.” Facing God when you know you have not been living up to par in accordance with His word is one thing. But, facing Him when at the same time you have the naked truth in front of you and you cannot escape it, is more than horrible.

There will be a drastic difference in facing God because it will be according to what we have allowed God to become in our lives. We need to go through that phase of salvation where God ceases to be just our Saviour because salvation is about us. We need to grab onto Him as sons and daughters of the most High through faith, humility, obedience, love and dependence and oneness. Until we know such a life in the reality of our consciousness because it has been worked out in us, then we will face God with a master and slave mentality. The beauty of facing God as His heirs, is different because you have let your daddy down and hurt Him. It will no longer be about guilt, but love. The love of a master and a daddy is different. So, is He your daddy through head knowledge only according to what you have been reading or is He your daddy because you have allowed Him to take you there? – There is a big difference and you would be wise to find it out before you die.

John 6:63 “The word that I speak to you are spirit and they are life” – How is this working for you?

Make the decision to surrender once and for all. Not the type of surrender through lip service, but one where you are willing to accept any pain and inconvenience that comes your way.—That is the only way. —Allow Him to work out His life through you. Let Him flood your inner spirit and saturate your soul with His waters. Allow Him to refine you and mold you as you welcome those characteristics in Him that will give you this meek and lowly heart that you need to walk this walk. CHOOSE LIFE!

The Offer Is Life

"The glory of God is man fully alive. (Saint Irenaeus)When I first stumbled across this quote my initial reaction was . . . You’re kidding me. Really? I mean, is that what you’ve been told? That the purpose of God—the very thing he’s staked his reputation on—is your coming fully alive? Huh. Well, that’s a different take on things. It made me wonder, What are God’s intentions toward me? What is it I’ve come to believe about that? Yes, we’ve been told any number of times that God does care, and there are some pretty glowing promises given to us in Scripture along those lines. But on the other hand, we have the days of our lives, and they have a way of casting a rather long shadow over our hearts when it comes to God’s intentions toward us in particular. I read the quote again, “The glory of God is man fully alive,” and something began to stir in me. Could it be?

I turned to the New Testament to have another look, read for myself what Jesus said he offers. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Wow. That’s different from saying, “I have come to forgive you. Period.” Forgiveness is awesome, but Jesus says here he came to give us life. Hmmm. Sounds like ol’ Irenaeus might be on to something. “I am the bread of life” (John 6:48). “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:38). The more I looked, the more this whole theme of life jumped off the pages. I mean, it’s everywhere.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Prov. 4:23).“You have made known to me the path of life” (Ps. 16:11).“In him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4).“Come to me to have life” (John 5:40).“Tell the people the full message of this new life” (Acts 5:20).

From the Ransomed Heart Devotion Book

Invite Him In

Oh, I know this too well. I am trying to refrain myself to avoid a whole post on this issue. But the reality is that God keeps asking us over and over again to give Him permission because He refuses to force Himself on us. 

This verse of Revelation 3:20 is not only for the unbelievers, but for us Christians too. Not because God cannot do the work without our permission, but like Paul mentioned several times in his writing, God wants us to offer ourselves up voluntarily as a living sacrifice on a daily basis. We ought to remember that it is a daily battle where we choose Him over and over again as our Master while we yield completely to Him. 

When the eyes of your heart open you can see so many people out there that God has tried to bring to a place where they can be broken by Him. But, they get nothing out of the experience with God. They end up suffering for nothing because they would not allow God to do the work within. As such, they come out of the experience, broken in all the wrong places and they never know what healing from God’s point of view means.

It took me a long time in the wilderness to understand that He wants us to invite Him in, and that it was His way of glorifying Himself as well, every time we say yes to Him and to the work of salvation within. Our yes to the work within means we understand the salvation He is offering and appreciate the price it cost Him. It means we value it. It means we reaffirm our love and so on. I still remember after all the time I spent in the wilderness with Him, when it was time to teach me the abiding process in 2009, He gave me the option. This in itself is a long story and an unforgettable experience on how He walked me through it. But as we remain surrendered into His hands and abide in Him, we truly delight His heart as we allow Him to glorify Himself through us.

I better stop there…..

 Invite Him In 

courtesy of http://ransomedheart.com

There is a famous passage of Scripture which many people have heard in the context of an invitation to know Christ as Savior. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in…" (Rev 3:20). He does not force himself upon us. He knocks, and waits for us to ask him in. There is an initial step, the first step of this which we call salvation. We hear Christ knocking and we open our hearts to him as Savior. It is the first turning. But the principle of this "knocking and waiting for permission to come in" remains true well into our Christian life.

You see, we all pretty much handle our brokenness in the same way - we mishandle it. It hurts too much to go there. So we shut the door to that room in our heart and we throw away the key - much like Lord Craven locks the Secret Garden upon the death of his wife, and buries the key. But that does not bring healing. Not at all. It might bring relief - for awhile. But never healing. Usually it orphans the little girl in that room, leaves her to fend for herself. The best thing we can do is to let Jesus come in, open the door and invite him in to find us in those hurting places.

It might come as a surprise that Christ asks our permission to come in and heal, but he is kind, and the door is shut from the inside, and healing never comes against our will. In order to experience his healing we must also give him permission to come in to the places we have so long shut to anyone. Will you let me heal you?He knocks through our loneliness. He knocks through our sorrows. He knocks through events that feel too close to what happened to us when we were young - a betrayal, a rejection, a word is spoken, a relationship is lost. He knocks through many things, waiting for us to give him permission to enter in.