Because of love, God works in our lives in many different ways to make us the very best that we can be in Him. The same God that intervened in Moses’ life intervenes in our lives today. Despite our obstacles, our shortcomings, our fears, struggles and weaknesses, there is a one that is capable of stepping in and making everything alright. We have to accept the way that he steps in and intervenes and move accordingly.
And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. Mark 10:27
God created the way through Jesus who paved the way for us to make the journey from earth to heaven by promising us the gift of His Holy Spirit which intervenes on our behalf. The three are one and they work in unison.
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. John 16:7
In the midst of all that’s going on in our lives and in the world, sometimes we forget that this journey called life is to lead us to eternal life. Don’t forget the dispensation of the fullness of time when God is going to call us gather together in one all things in Christ. Jesus’ prayer in the garden describes that eternal life:
These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:1-3
God created us for eternity; not just time. God doesn’t deal with us for our temporal time but for eternity. However, we have lost a sense of eternity and a sense of accountability which causes a lack of focus. But thank God, in His infinite wisdom he knows how to keep us or get us on track.
God is at work in all areas and in all people of our world and He is pursuing them. When God starts to work in our world, He pursues us with a love relationship.
Keeping this in mind, we have to trust that God is able; that He is capable of seeing us through each and every obstacle we come against. So we don’t fight God in the obstacle, we seek God for his will to be made known to us. The only way we can accomplish this is to know God in a better way; in an intimate way; understanding that He is the only one that is in full, complete control. He’s the potter, we’re the clay. The prophet Isaiah tells us:
But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Isaiah 64:8
God is the one who is at work; he is the master molding and shaping us in the way that He would have us be.
Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding? Isaiah 29:16
Follow the example of Jesus. We don’t fit God in our plan, we fit our life into God’s plan. Whatever you see God doing that is what we should do.
. . . Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can
do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever
he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father
loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: . . . John
5:17-20
We can see that God – is seeking to save that which is lost
Rather we believe it or not, sometimes we sit right in the church and we have lost our way. But God, in His loving kindness, seeks us out and puts us in the midst of the people of God to help us find our way back to him and His plan.
God is working to bring His people together collectively to do His work. God shows up in the midst of our activity; our normal traffic place of our life.
God comes to us and makes His will known; just as He did with Moses, Peter, Joshua, Paul and many others. Accept that God will do the same with us. We need to open our heart and immediately adjust our will to His.
God’s standards are different than man’s. Just as we’ve lost sight of our eternal life, we’ve lost sight of the consequence to sin. We are so caught up with the world; the things of the world and the standards of the world that we have lost sight not only of God’s perspective but His standards and His purpose. God says deny self, God says lose your life for His sake to save it. It is no longer about me and my wants and desires. It’s about God’s desire for me.
There is a conflict in what we see and what God wants us to see. We need to make our ways the same as God’s way. We need to seek spiritual insight. This is the only way that we can be victorious in Christ.
Remember without God we are nothing, without God we can do nothing. This is not a statement of negativity or a pessimistic attitude, it is truth. What keeps us going and stops us from being dismayed is what Jesus tells us:
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5
That leads me to the conclusion that we must draw closer in our relationship with God in order that we can be and also remain attached to Him.
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. James 4:8a
In order to experience a close, intimate relationship with God, we must pursue it. It can’t be a one-sided relationship. God cannot be the only one putting in the work. We must be active participants and allow our experiences with God to grow our relationship with Him.
This is something that God requires of us,
And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. Luke 10:27
God pursues a continuing love relationship with us that is real and personal. We can’t fully love and appreciate God without believing who He is; it is His will:
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:40
Remember, God’s very nature is love. God began a love relationship with us before we even realized it. He extended Himself to us through the sacrifice of His son before we were even aware of Him.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
That was an act driven of Love! No wonder the greatest commandment is to love! That is dominant throughout the scripture. From the beginning to the end, we see the demonstrated love of God. Demonstrated through his grace, his mercy, his chastisement, his loving kindness, and favor!
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10
God is love and He desires us to have a love relationship with Him
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16
God by His nature is perfect love and can only express himself in perfect love; it would negate his very nature to act otherwise.
The perfect example of His love was found on the cross – God never comes to us except through His perfect love. This brings me to the crux of this lesson today
Whom the Lord loves, He chastens . . .
For
whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Hebrews
12:6
God knows far better what sin and iniquity can do and so God, out of His love for us, disciplines us. We should ask our self: Is my quiet time the only time I can encounter God? The response is no. God is our life and we want to have a loving relationship with Him that we cultivate all day long.
I’m reminded of the account of King Nebuchadnezzar, who though
he did not walk in the ways of God, made certain assertions of the Holy one but
never advanced beyond his words.
In this account with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, King
Nebuchadnezzar made some assertations that indicated He knew and believed in
the sovereignty of God. He said:
Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted
in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they
might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. Therefore I make a decree, That every people,
nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a
dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. Daniel
3:28-29
At that point, he had the opportunity to change his ungodly ways
and turn to the one true living God. He
had the opportunity to cancel all of his previous decrees that went against the
way of God, but he did not. In the
narrative of King Nebuchadnezzar, we find that after an accumulation of ungodly
standards and attitudes; puffed up in his pride, and full of himself; God spoke
to him thru a dream which he did not understand. None of His counsel could interpret it and so
He calls upon Daniel who we know interpreted it:
This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most High, which is come upon
my lord the king: That they shall drive
thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they
shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of
heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High
ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. And whereas they commanded to leave the
stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that
thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable
unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by
shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity. Daniel 4:24-27
Even with the interpretation of the dream, the king said:
. . . Is not this great Babylon, that I
have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the
honour of my majesty? Daniel
4:30
God met him where he
was; high and mighty in his kingdom and brought him down to the level of a
beast in the field:
The same hour was the thing fulfilled
upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and
did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his
hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws. Daniel
4:33
And he stayed in that state until the condition of His heart
was made right and, in his heart, he was able to acknowledge the sovereignty of
God:
Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol
and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways
judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase. Daniel
4:37
Beloved
the assertions that we make; that flow from our mouths must be founded in our
heart so that we don’t just speak them, we live them, we walk them out!
What makes this account so powerful is that God gave King Nebuchadnezzar space to come to his senses; to realize that God is sovereign and everything that we have and everything that we are is because of God and God alone. He didn’t just cut him off. He chastened him; a form of correction.
He took everything that King Nebuchadnezzar had away from him, stripped him from his kingly vestments; bought him down to the level of the beasts in the field! Yet, at the same time secured those very things for him - leave the stump of the tree roots - for that time when he got His mind right – which was to acknowledge from his heart the sovereignty of God - know that the heavens do rule. Not our idols, not us, but God!
God chastens us with love! He chastens us to get us back aligned to Him.
God’s
children are fighting Him because we do not understand the chastening that is
occurring. Though we may not like it, we
are chastened of God to humble us, to discipline us – to discipline us is to
correct us to redirect our thoughts and actions and to get us back on the right
path.
Because of Love! God chastens us out of love to get us to that right place in Him. He’s not just being mean, He is building us up, molding us, shaping us to be all that we can be in Him. We may lose some things in the process but what we get back will be better.
If we could never experience God without a natural example, we would be in bad shape. So stop fighting God, in the midst of our troubles; use this as your quiet time to lay before God and see what He is trying to show you so that you can alter your steps and become fully aligned with what God is doing.
We can look to the scripture to see the examples that God set and follow that. Let God tell you what He is doing and let Him show you your place in Him.
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