The Glory of God is going to shake us in every place we are connected to the ways of this present age. It is not until we connect ourselves and are fully connected to the thoughts of Heaven - in body, soul and spirit - that we become bridged to Heaven's reality.
This reality of walking with is not just found in knowing healing, or in knowing the restoration of God's purposes exist in Heaven and then causing a token of them to come forth on earth. It's not just found in believing that angels interact with us and interface with our physical existence moment-by-moment and cause unseen creative expressions to become tangible - such as causing a person's limbs to grow out, a beautiful painting to be painted, or gold and diamonds to appear. We do value and pray for all of these things to be here as they are on Heaven. However, gifts are a token; God is all. Belief is conviction; God is both the only provocation of believing conviction and the only fulfillment of its desire. What we see now are only His outer fringes.
This reality of walking with is first brought forth in the thoughts of the mind and intentions of the heart, finding expression through thinking the thoughts of God and holding His posture of heart. And it is first found in how we think toward Him and toward what He loves most - people.
I recently heard it said that John (the Beloved) had such a radically transformed view of the church after receiving the revelation of Jesus that we know as the book, Revelation. What he saw in Heaven (and we read in Revelation chapter 19) was burned in his eyes and he could no longer view people through his own conceptions, but instead saw what Heaven sees. We see dry bones, but God so loved the world and knew it would change if He sent His Son to believe in, that He sent His One, His only Son, so that anyone who believed in this Son would have an unending existence inside of Him. For God did not send His Son into our hearts that we would condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. This most basic precept of the Christian faith will be formed in God's people. He's going to let us be shaken until we grab ahold of this love which is the foundation for unshakeable truth. The only question is, "How hard will He have to shake us?"
To put it another way: "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me." (Luke 9:48) Those we think the least of - in wealth, in social status, even in holiness - are the very ones we need to receive the most.
What Has God Entrusted to You?
3 weeks ago
2 comments:
Perhaps you could write something in response to this. When preaching the gospel, where does the balance lie between giving the cold hard truth that were lost sinners seperated from God and the comforting message that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. I find that when I talk to a unsaved person or someone that has not fully given their life to God I usually tend to be really nice, I talk about how much God loves them and I talk about their destiny and so on. And they seem to recieve that but afterwards I feel like perhaps my message was too tame, lacking conviction. I think of the early church revivalists and how they talked openly about repenting and turning from sin and holiness. Yet when I give that kind of message ( still bathed in love) I feel guilty afterwards too, like perhaps I was focusing too much on sin and not on the great love God has for them. I don't want to give a lukewarm version of the gospel, especially in todays day and age when everything in our culture and even the church at times is so new-agey and humanistic, spiritual and shallow. I want to be bold and preach purity and holiness and obedience to the word of God. But I also want to to magnify Gods love above all of that, that being the chief thing. That he sent his son because of love. So,any thoughts when it comes to witnessing or even speaking into the lives of those who don't know the Lord?
Will do. I'll try to make that my next post up sometime this week or next.
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