Through Jesus' Love

When we say that man is born with a sin nature, we are indicating that man puts himself above all things.  Our nature without Christ is to put ourselves before God in our decisions.  

“I am the Lord thy God.  Have no false gods before me,” is the first commandment sinned against by each of us.  There is no recovery from this sin except through the redemption provided by Jesus Christ.  

God does not hold us responsible for our sin nature.  He does hold us responsible for recognizing and accepting that Jesus is the only way that we can be redeemed from our sin nature.

Once we have Jesus in our lives, He will begin to reveal His plans for our lives.  Most of us will not have a big vision from God, at least not in the eyes of the world.  But rest assured that God has a very special plan for each of us.

The Lord will reveal His plan through gentle urgings in our spirit, through our prayers and through our reading of His Word.  Along the way, He will send others who will confirm the vision.  We can also be certain that Satan will send challengers and obstructors to to destroy the plans that God has for us.

But God will use the confirmers and the challengers to insure we fulfill our vision.  The confirmers will be there to encourage us, assist us and mentor us.  The challengers will be there to strengthen our resolution and to build character in us as we follow God’s plan for our lives.

Whatever we are doing as a result of God’s calling on our lives is reliant on His power provision.  The flow of the power provision is reliant on our relationship with Our Heavenly Father.  As long as we are in a good relationship with Our Lord,  every power that we need to produce good works in accordance with His plan for our lives is provided through the Holy Spirit. 

If we break fellowship with the Lord, our power provision will cease.  We may be able to manipulate some things through the power of our own flesh, but the things that we are working on for the kingdom will not endure under the burden of broken fellowship with God. 

The prodigal son left home thinking he could conquer the world on his own.  It did not take long for him to exhaust his resources and then realize everything he would ever need had always been available to him at his father’s house.

We all experience the same journey relative to our relationship with Our Heavenly Father.  We set out on our own way, thinking that we are self-sufficient.  As we meet our failures, the Lord awaits our return to Him.  Once we recognize the foolishness of living our lives in the flesh, we turn to Him for divine guidance and provision.  He always celebrates our return.

Throughout our Christian lives, we will experience “moments” in the presence of God.  The moments may come in different forms.  In some cases, they may be in the dramatic form of an audible voice, a dream or a visitation.  In most cases, they will be in the form of gentle urgings from the Holy Spirit into our spirits.

Each moment is meant to lift us up from day-to-day living into a kingdom experience.  Each moment can be very exciting and pleasing.  But God does not intend for us to stay in the moment.   Nor does He want us to seek continued residence there.  He simply uses the moment to show us a path, to build us up, to strengthen us and, most importantly, to prepare us to be with Him for all eternity.

God’s Holy Word tells us that we should rejoice in our trials because they are character builders in our lives.  The trials that we go through certainly do build character if we turn to the Lord for our strength during the trials.

Beyond the character building process, we gain more – much more.  We gain life experiences that we are able to share with others who find themselves going through similar trials.  God prepares us to be comforters for others in their times of need. 

When we reach heaven, having shed our earthly bodies, we will be fully submitted to Jesus.  We will have released every single remaining carnal desire that we carried on earth.

Jesus is the only man that ever achieved absolute abandonment to the Father while on earth.   He is looking for disciples that are willing to engage in the constant shedding of their carnal desires while still in their earthly bodies.  The Holy Spirit is provided to guide and strengthen each disciple in this process until the time when they find their place in heaven with their Master, Jesus Christ.    

Every logical consideration of receiving Jesus Christ as a personal Savior without the influence of the Holy Spirit will end up in a decision of “no” or “not now”.  Without the influence of the Holy Spirit, man will follow the callings of his flesh which is never ready to be laid down in submission at the feet of Jesus.  

Praise God.   In His endless mercy, knowing our eternally fatal weakness, He gives us the Holy Spirit to provide us with the faith that we need to receive Jesus as Our Savior.

Jesus Christ is the essence of perfect love and forgiveness.  He is the standard to which He is calling all people.  

The principle of love and forgiveness is so important in God’s kingdom that Jesus teaches us that we should go to reconcile our grievances with others before we come to His altar with our offerings.  If we are the offender, we should go and ask for forgiveness for our act and be willing to make retribution for the wrong.  If we are the offended, we should forgive the one that has wronged us.  In both cases, we should waive our own, perceived rights and obey the Lord’s call to pour out His love that is in us to the other party. 

Love God with your all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.  Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  Jesus called these the two greatest commandments.  He taught that these are the things that we must do to inherit eternal life in heaven.  

But clearly these things are beyond human capability.  That which is demanded of us is impossible without supernatural intervention.  Thus, Our Heavenly Father through his endless grace and mercy provided the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to provide the supernatural assistance that we all need to fulfill our requirements for entry into heaven.

So it is with God’s calling on our lives.  God does not ask us to do that which is possible for us naturally.   He asks us to do that which we are perfectly fitted for through His grace.