2002-01-01
Good Morning Fellow Believers,
Each of you is very dear to me. You have patiently waded through the messages that God has led me to write in this long covenant series, and if I’m right, we all learned a lot from it. God has made it clear to me that He wants us first to come to faith in Christ, repenting of our sins. The way John puts in JN 3: 6-7 is that we must be born again. But then, he wants us to grow in the faith, which is why He sent us a Counselor (Helper) to dwell within us, the Holy Spirit Who reveals the truth about God [JN 14: 16-17 & 26]. JN 15: 8 takes us to the next step in God’s will for us. “My Father’s glory is revealed when you bear much fruit; and in this way you become My disciples.” If we look at these citations, what we should see is the individual first coming to faith and repenting, the individual growing in faith by living “in Christ,” and then the individual serving God by serving others and using his talents to witness to his faith. In other words, it’s not enough for us to come to faith, but we must also engage in faith-building personally, as part of a congregation, and as part of the larger Body of Christ.
In writing these messages about our covenant relationship with God, it is my hope that I was able to convey God’s will that we should take this relationship seriously, that we should appreciate the blessings He gives us by having it, that it has a rich history, that we should see how the Covenant of Grace is a great improvement over the Covenant of the Law, God’s wisdom in bringing the Covenant of Grace when He knew mankind was ready for it, God’s consistency in His will throughout mankind’s history, God’s faithfulness in executing His part of the agreement, and the need for us to mirror that consistency in the execution of ours. Yes, I know I said a lot in that sentence. Read it over again if you need to. It’s important.
GA 5: 25, “The Spirit has given us life; He must also control our lives.” Our loving Abba is the Source of our faith. We didn’t just get it by osmosis. If He didn’t love us so much, He wouldn’t have given us the faith that propels us toward a life “in Christ” that will lead to eternal life of joy and fellowship with Him. We all know the alternative is unacceptable, e.g. the lake of fire and sulfur, that eternal existence of conscious pain and torment. We need to think about what it means to allow the Holy Spirit to control our lives. It certainly means yielding control and leadership to Him, i.e. emptying our spiritual vessels, so He can come in and do what He does best. For the promise of eternal life to come true, we must endure in faithful obedience to God’s commands. In fact, look at what God reveals through Christ’s words in JN 14: 21, “Whoever accepts My commandments and obey them is the one who loves Me. My Father will love whoever loves Me; I too will love Him and reveal Myself to him.”
Satan is about the business of challenging our faith every day. His challenges tempt us and cause us to suffer. That is no reason to give in to this evil. If we have faith in our covenant relationship with God, then we will know that He has equipped us to do battle against the forces of evil and be victorious in Jesus Christ [EPH 6: 10-18]. We also must deal with the conflict that goes on within us as the process of sanctification proceeds. That is the battle between the flesh and the Spirit which is so aptly described in RO 7: 14-25. RO 8: 9-11 helps us to understand what happens when we trust in the Spirit and give Him control in our lives. “But you do not live as your human nature tells to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to-if in fact, God’s Spirit lives in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ lives in you, the Spirit is life for you because you have been put right with God, even though your bodies are going to die because of sin. If the Spirit of God, Who raised Jesus from death, lives in you, then He Who raised Christ from death will also give life to your mortal bodies by the presence of His Spirit in you.”
Dr. Michael Youssef of Leading the Way Ministries spoke eloquently how we are called to witness, but not to assume that we bring another person to faith. This will never happen without the intervention of the Holy Spirit. It is we who lead the horse to water, but it is He Who makes him drink. Before we can do God’s work successfully, we need to first confess our own sin, present ourselves to God with empty spiritual vessels, and each time ask the Holy Spirit to fill us. That is how we can make ourselves useful in the process of faith-building and bringing others to faith. As Christ always does, we must stay ever-connected to God through that personal relationship He has asked us to build with Him.
PRAYER: O Lord, it is Your will that we should confess and repent from our sin, come to faith in Your Son, live a life “in Christ,” and spread our faith to others by serving You and them. You have given us the great commission with a clear message that Your will for us is that we should spend our lives on earth obeying Your commandments to serve You through serving others. We present ourselves today to You, Dearest Lord, ready to move from spiritual milk to spiritual meat. We dedicate ourselves to ridding ourselves of human agendas, making Your work and our personal relationship with You our first priority. We acknowledge that You have blessed us abundantly by calling us to the Covenant of Grace relationship we have with You. We offer You our humble gratitude that You remain ever-present in our lives to guide us, show compassion for us, to encourage us, and to warn of the danger of the adversary’s attempts to challenge our faith through temptation and suffering. We pledge to place our trust in You and never to forget that You have equipped us for victory in spiritual warfare. We beseech You to give us the courage to answer Your commands when and where You make them even if they seem difficult for us. We thank You for allowing us to understand through the Law what Your will for us is and then to offer Your Son as a once-for-all sufficient sin sacrifice on the cross, so that we could be saved. For giving us the gift of Your Spirit to dwell within us, we offer You honor, praise, and glory. These are the heartfelt words of Your children who love You, Dearest Abba, who want nothing more than to yield to Your leadership in their lives. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow’s message will the first in a series on spiritual warfare. God compels me to write about this important subject as we face the complexity and challenges of a world in which our security has been seriously compromised. Just yesterday without being specific, Secretary of Homeland Security, Thomas Ridge, issued the fourth warning since 9-11-01 that we would be alert to possible terrorism and on our toes about other threats, such as biological and chemical warfare. Of course, these are not the only dangers that surround us. Mr. Ridge does not want us to stop living our lives and cower in mortal fear. Neither does the Lord. It is my hope that this new series of messages will remind us that with faith, we do not need to live in fear and that our Lord loves each of us dearly every moment of our lives. Peter and I send our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn