Through Jesus' Love

As children we go to our fathers often to gain their provision or their guidance.  Over time, we know our fathers’ answers before we even ask the questions because we have come to know our fathers so intimately.

So it is with Our Heavenly Father.  We know His will for our lives because we have framed it through uncounted visits to His Throne.  This intimacy, only be gained through the gift of grace, enhances our understanding of God Himself.  This intimacy grows and matures with every prayer we offer to Our Father.

When we are being led by the Holy Spirit, all of the movement in our lives will be toward the Lord and away from the trappings of our former carnal lives.  It is likely that the changes in our lives will be offensive to some who will feel that our new lives are a rejection of theirs.  This should be expected because the unbeliever does not and cannot understand the way of the Cross.

At times, we will not even understand where the Lord is leading us.  What separates us from the unbeliever is faith.  We love the one who is leading us and we have faith in Him as He leads us.  We move forward in our lives with a renewed mind that is centered on our personal relationship with our Good Shepherd.

When we accept Jesus into our lives, we will find that we are in bondage to many things that are not pleasing to God.  We will also discover that there are many other things in our lives that we were unaware of that are not perfectly pleasing to Our Lord.  These hidden things will be revealed to us over time as we mature in Christ.

As we accept Our Savior, the Holy Spirit begins to work with us immediately.  If we are receptive to His urgings, we will begin to repent of each and every thing that is not perfectly pleasing to Our Lord.  We will not be mature enough in Christ to recognize and repent of all things that require us to humble ourselves before Almighty God.  We will shed our flesh driven bonds one at a time as the Holy Spirit convicts us and as Jesus perfects His strength in our weakness.

There is overpowering sin waiting in every effort we make, if we are not working in accordance with the Lord’s will for our lives.  We must go into communion with Him and discover His plans for our lives.  To work outside the Lord’s will, no matter how noble or productive by the world’s standards, will have us fall short of the favor of the God.  We have to look no further than all the fallen religious leaders that we read about in the news to see how working outside of God’s will can lead to ruin. 

Each day we should go before the Lord and ask Him to help us to do our daily tasks in accordance with His plan and will for our lives.  Whether our tasks are magnificent or menial, they should be measured by one standard.  Are they in line with the will of God?  

The laws of man invariably turn toward tolerance for things that are not pleasing to God.  These new laws are used by all men to pressure one another to accept the behavior that is not pleasing to God as the truth.  

Let no one turn away from pleasing God.  Every little piece that is withheld from God or that is displeasing to God will find a home amongst evil.  That piece which is cloaked in evil will never stand still.  It will work to devour the good that is left in the man.

There will be seasons in our lives when doubt about God’s place in our lives will be questioned.  There will seem to be a gulf between what God promises and what is being experienced.  This period of void can be very frustrating and difficult to endure.  

God, however, is ready to reward the obedient child for standing firm in faith when the trials are overwhelming.  Rejoice in the trials.  Victory is at hand.

During the course of life, there will be times when desires of the flesh will be trying to overpower us.  Without Jesus in our lives, the carnal desires will put us into bondage.  If we turn our back on Jesus and yield to the flesh, we will be headed to a life of ruin.  

When we yield to Jesus, we can immediately claim victory over anything and everything that wants to rule over us.  Yielding to Jesus gives us the power to break every form of bondage in our lives. 

God gave us His Son so that we might have eternal life.  When we accept the Son, we exchange our doomed old carnal life for our new spirit filled eternal life.  

Our new life is possible because God gave us His Son as the sacrificial lamb required to atone for our sins.  Jesus bore it all for us.  We, on the other hand, received our new life without need of any sacrifice.  All we had to do was give up our old lives to accept Jesus as our Savior.  What we received is eternally greater that what we left behind.  

Jesus Christ calls us to Himself.  When He does, He is calling us to abandon our old selves and to move into complete submission to His Spirit within us.  

When we accept His calling, we begin abandoning everything in our lives that holds us back from complete submission to our new and regenerated lives in Christ.  The process is ongoing for the rest of our lives.  Layer upon layer of sin is pealed away until there is nothing left in us that is offensive to the Father.  

This process of sanctification is only possible through the saving grace of Jesus.  Our sanctification is fully completed when we leave this corrupted earth to join Our Lord in heaven.

Would you walk out into the night without any light to guide you?  Would you race ahead without any certainty of where you were going?  Then why would you move forward doing God’s work, if He is not leading the way?  

Waiting on God is the thing that we must do if we are going to bear fruit for the Lord.  We will struggle to produce much fruit if we do not wait on God to prepare our way.  If we do wait on Him, our path will be directly through the vineyard.