COMPELLED TO BECOME PERFECT

The divine providence of God, simply stated, means that God protects, guides and cares for believers.  Jesus understood the true goal of God’s providential care is not necessarily the believer’s well-being in the here and now; rather, the goal of God’s care is the fulfillment of His redemptive plan which includes our perfection -- “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48) – the conformance of our nature into Christlikeness.  This is why Jesus sweat drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane and said “Father, if it is Your will, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done”.  Our Savior was learning obedience through suffering, so that “being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation” (Heb. 5:8-9), through the providential will of the Father. As Christians we sometimes do experience God’s protection and at other times we experience suffering and hardship; our experiences of both protection and suffering are both a result of God’s providence, His ordering of the events in our life to further His redemptive plan. Perfection is the product of suffering (1 Peter 5:10), and God is very serious about our perfection which Paul summarized as being “conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). Paul knew a bit about suffering (2 Cor. 11:23-27, 12:7), having been shown by God the many things he would suffer. (Acts 9: 16) And we know that “all things work together for good” (Rom. 8:28); but don’t ignore the three conditions the rest of this verse place on this often quoted first line.   “To those who love God” (condition one), “To those who are the called” (condition two), and “according to (in harmony with) His purpose” (condition three). It is within the framework of God’s purposes for us that all things we experience work together for good – yes, even the unpleasant things. The Apostle Paul and Smith Wigglesworth came to understand what the Apostle John knew very well: “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask any thing according to (in harmony with) His will, He will hear us, and …we know that we have the petitions.” (1 Jn. 5:14, 15) Sometimes their prayers for healing were not answered that their suffering, their light affliction, might work for them “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”, in accordance with God’s will. (2 Cor. 4:17) God is purposeful and intentional, and irrevocably committed to our complete transformation. He knows what He wants, our perfection. He compels us with difficulties, for they compel us toward Him.

NEVERTHELESS NOT MY WILL, BUT YOURS

OVERCOMING LIFE

Blood-bought saint’s overcome adversity “by the word of their testimony.” Our testimony is produced by our experiences, growing with each new experience, so we must have experiences… even unto death experiences, to have a powerful testimony. Overcoming Life is the metaphorical three-legged stool. The seat is our shared testimony, and the legs supporting our testimony are the commandments of the Overcoming Life: “Rejoice Always”, “Pray Without Ceasing”, and “In Everything Give Thanks.” And the thing about a three-legged stool... it is useless without all three legs and the seat, useless! We conquer, subdue, prevail… are victorious, when we overcome the intended consequences of adversity through our growing testimony of Good arising out of the ashes of Bad. For it is God who wills and does in us of His good pleasure, masterfully turning life’s interruptions into good in accordance with His purposes, and transforming us in the process.

Rejoicing demonstrates the joy of the Lord, producing strength. Prayer engages God to release His Kingdom rule into our circumstances, in accordance with His will, aligning us with His heart and purposes, and bringing the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Giving thanks enthrones God in our heart adding worth to His name. The word of our testimony declares our heart to God, to all those about us, and to the powers of darkness: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”The enemy is defeated not because our circumstances change, they may or may not change, but in spite of them. He is defeated when we refuse to succumb to his intentions of destroying our Faith, Trust and Hope in our Daddy.

Overcomers reflect our Lord’s nature so others can understand what He is like. The Apostle Paul understood the Overcoming Life, for he penned its commands out of his own personal experiences, out of the skin and blood from his whip scared back.  Paul understood to the point of literally rejoicing in infirmities, troubles, suffering, hardships, afflictions, persecutions, in a nutshell adversity, referring to them as momentary “light afflictions” common to all saints. And hence the need for the three-legged stool!  John the Revelator spoke of the eternal rewards of overcomers in his letters to the seven churches, utilizing the Greek present participle to denote continuous action – overcoming requires patience endurance, for it is a lifestyle. Overcomers will eat from the Tree of Life, be unhurt by the second death, be fed hidden manna, be given power over the nations, be acknowledged by Christ before God as His own possessions, be pillars in the temple of God, be called by the Lord’s new name, and will sit with Christ on His throne. WOW!

Overcoming is a spiritual discipline, and like all disciplines must first be understood, then practiced, to become a discipline. Rejoice, pray, give thanks and share the testimony of God’s goodness, even when bad things happen, because Daddy is sovereign in His allowings, and purposeful in His working out of our “things.” He does not give us overcoming life; He gives us Life, His Divine Life, as we overcome. And He wants us to have a testimony, He wants us to overcome!   

           “FOR THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD…   

 (Rev. 12:11; 1 Thess. 5:16-18; Phil. 2:13; Rom.8:28; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21; Job 13:15; 2 Cor. 4:16-18, 11:23-27, 12:10)                                                                          

THE LOVE GOSPEL

 

The Love Gospel is a label for a theology that believes God’s love, in and of itself,  provides eternal salvation for all of mankind, whether they want it or not – i.e., Universalism through Love. Emphasizing love, at the exclusion of other aspects of God’s nature and attributes, proponents of this theology put a love-spin on everything and portray love as a divine get out of jail free card, God’s supernatural emotion stipend, prompting the sound-bite “love wins.”

The Apostle John made the primary assertion that "God is love." “God" has the definite article and "love" is anarthrous; the predicate is expressing the quality, character, or nature of the article here. This means, God as to His nature is love, He has a nature that is loving. But God is not literally ‘Love”, God is not an emotion! John also states “God is spirit” (Jn. 4:24) using the same Greek grammatical construction; God has a nature that is spirit, not physical or visible. John also said God is light and in Him is no darkness at all: “Be holy, for I am holy”, “A just God and a Savior.” (Heb. 1:16; Is. 45:21) The Bible states categorically and  unconditionally that God is holy; much of the N.T. is about the reconciliation of God's love and God's justice, a reflection of His holiness, which is found in the cross. God's holy demand for justice made the cross necessary, providing the opportunity for His love to be demonstrated. We simply cannot dissect God's nature and attributes; He is infinite in all of His perfections, holy in all His ways.

Jesus established the Great Commandment, encapsulating all of the Law and the Prophets, as the way to inherit eternal life: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:25, 27, 28) He then established obedience to His commandments as the demonstrated evidence of our love for Him, obedience to all His commandments, the new covenant (1 Jn. 5:2-3).  If the truth is that God’s unilateral love provides a free ticket on the Love Train to eternity with Him, then we can ignore obedience, repentance, faith, loving God or others, and… well, pretty much everything, reducing the Bible, Edward Scissorhands style, down to a 3x5 card that says “He Loves Me.”

It would be most foolish to think God’s love for us would somehow override His command to holiness or His demand for justice.  Blindness of this magnitude is motivated by man's desire to "help" God by tweaking His message into a “Cool" and "Relevant" love wins gospel where free will and our choices don’t matter. Ultimately, The Grace Gospel is repackaged cheap grace… or rather no grace at all since grace in not necessary if love empowers our salvation. Just bask in God’s love, satisfy the flesh, and be led by Self. But what about “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” (Gal. 6:7-8) We are all farmers, sowing daily that which we will eternally reap. The scriptures speak of a great falling away in the end times, and of deception that tempts the very elect. Deception is to be deceived, to believe what is false… what time is it, anyway?

LOVE LOSES WITHOUT OBEDIENCE