Through Jesus' Love

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.

Once we have asked Jesus into our lives, He will not leave us nor will He leave us alone.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, He will pursue us to the ends of our sanctification.  He will not allow us to remain in our old ways.  He will continually prune away every bit of the old life that is not consistent with the new life that He has given us.  When we turn loose of this world and go to Him alone, the process will be complete.

The constant work of the Holy Spirit is revealing to us our own nature.  We cannot see our own nature clearly because it has been masked from us by the scars of life.  We only see what we have become and judge that creature by what the world tolerates.  The Holy Spirit strips away the facade and shows us the ugly truth of who we are without Jesus, but also shows us the beautiful truth of who we are with Him.

The power of the Holy Spirit strengthens us to stand firm through the waves of circumstances that life sends our way.  Through this process, we learn to trust in Jesus as the seas roil around us.  

His peace will also hold us steady when the riptide returns toward us.  Then His grace will allow us to teach others how to find comfort in the storm.  His awesome power will take us and those around us into new waters of unspeakable beauty.

When you receive Jesus into your heart as your Savior, you are no longer the person that lived without Him.  You become totally regenerated.  The old you is dead.  The new you is risen in Jesus Christ.  Although your flesh will try to pull you back into sin, your new spirit will have no part of it.  The new you has died to sin.  In God’s eyes, you are free from sin for all eternity.  You are eternally bound to your Savior who took away your sin so you could be with Him.

Man cannot, in his own right, come to an understanding of the grievous nature of his sin nor can he come to a place of full repentance.  These things are only done through the power of the Holy Spirit and are only possible because Jesus prepared the way.  He prepared the way through His sacrifice on the Cross.  He prepares the way daily by standing before the Father on our behalf.

God does not want us to sacrifice anything just for the sake of sacrifice.  He wants us to submit our lives to Him.  He wants us to submit daily to His calling on our lives.  He wants us to love Him above all things with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength.  He wants our every action to be for His glory. He wants our lives to be a living reflection of His Spirit within us.  He wants the world to see The Lamb of God in us.

To know Jesus is to know a peace in our lives that dwarfs any peace that we may have gained through any other relationship or circumstance.  To know Jesus is to know the purpose in our lives with more depth than we could have ever imagined.  To know Jesus is to know a joy that exceeds any happiness that the world has ever given to us.  To know Jesus is to know that we have no other need in our lives.

Worshipping God, waiting on God and doing God’s work are not meant to be intermittent activities.  They are intertwined like the cords on a rope and operate in a continuum when we are functioning according to God’s plans and not our own.  God wants us to continually grow in all areas of our lives, so He provides us with the power of the Holy Spirit to keep us in perpetual motion toward our ultimate place next to Him for all eternity.

Everyday we must endeavor to remember that we need the cleansing blood of Jesus in our lives.  Without the armor of protection that He gives us through His Holy Spirit, we are helpless to avoid sin.
Until we understand this, we will try to live a good life on our own.  It will be fruitless until we accept our utter failure at righteousness without the Lamb of God standing before the Throne of God on our behalf.  Praise Jesus.