Author: Charlie Brignac

In Jesus’ last hours with the apostles, He really emphasized the importance of abiding in Him.  Jesus wanted the apostles to know that their strength and their appeal to others would be through His presence in their lives.  So it is for us also.  We need to abide in Jesus to attain the fullness of the purpose that God has intended for us on earth – to reveal His Son to the world through our living testimony.   

Little children trust their parents for everything.  They rarely have a thought about needing food, needing clothing, needing protection or even needing love.  They have all these things so they have no reason to believe that they will need to have them tomorrow.

For small children, the future is always certain as long as they know that their parents are around to care for them.  No wonder Jesus tells us to we should be like little children.  Their faith is certain.  Oh, that we should have such faith in our Heavenly Father.

God gave us the family unit to help us understand our position as children of God.  Just as an earthly father enjoys his children coming to him and acknowledging their love for him, so too does our Heavenly Father enjoy the attention and praises of His children.  Just as an earthly father is disappointed when his children neglect to visit or communicate with him, so too does our Heavenly Father feel disappointment.  

When any of God’s children take for granted all that He has done for them and continues to do for them, there is a sadness in the Heavenly Throne.  Most importantly, the children themselves suffer by failing to nourish their love relationship with their father/Father.

All that we do should be done for the Lord, not for ourselves nor for any other man or men.  It is the focus on the Lord that gives us our strength, our courage and our wisdom to pursue and complete every task.  It is abiding in Him that provides our armor against the evil one who is trying to ruin all that we do – especially those things which are done to bring honor and glory to God and to bring others to know Him.

When we look at the world through our own eyes, we set out to do things that we are confident that we can do.  When we look at the world through God’s eyes, we are given things to do that are beyond our current capabilities.  We are likely to experience frustration and failure as we attempt these things of God because we start our relying on ourselves.  Only after we call on and rely on God’s hand in our work for Him and learn to wait on Him, do we bear the fruit that God is looking for.

When we receive Jesus into our hearts and are fully submitted to Him, there comes an influx of joy and peace unlike anything that we have known in our lives before.  We can lose a portion of our joy and peace if we allow our focus to shift toward worldly things and away from our Lord and Savior.  This can happen even in periods of Christian service if our focus is not on the King.  Abundant joy is in us and in heaven when we exalt our Lord and look to Him to be our Rock in all that we do.

God calls us unto Himself first.  When we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then the outward expression of who we truly are begins.  

The new relationship that we have with Jesus will lead us into our areas of service to the kingdom of God.  Our endeavors in service will bring us unspeakable joy and deepen our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Until we receive Jesus into our lives and until we submit to God’s authority over our lives, the only call we are going to hear is the call of our flesh.  Once we receive Jesus and submit to God’s authority, then we put ourselves in a position to hear God’s calling upon our lives.  We must, however, block out all the noise around us if we are going to hear God’s urgings.  Of course, this includes all the physical noise.  More to the point, we must remove the distraction that we cause by putting our worldly things in a more important place than the Lord Himself.

The real struggle for many Christians is the balancing act of trying to live two lives – one according to this world and one according to God’s kingdom.  There is no balance point between these two worlds.  This is certainly no place of peace.  The Holy Spirit will gnaw at you relentlessly until you come to that place in your life where you can walk away from worldly choices and make the choices that Jesus would make.  Only then will the struggle end.

When God places a calling upon our lives, He is the ultimate gentleman.  He always allows us the right to choose.  He never compels us to be obedient to His request.

“Send me, Lord,” is the only appropriate response.  Any questioning or negotiating of the importance, the location or the timing of the mission (perhaps for a more pleasant assignment) indicates that we are not in full submission to God’s call.   

Again, God will allow us to choose to be obedient or not.  But on the other hand, God will march us around the desert like the Jews until He receives our complete submission to His will.  Then, He will send us.