GOD IS IN CONTROL

I realize the statement “God is in control” applies most directly to those who have entered into covenant with Him. But in another sense God must be in control of everything to be “God.” I can’t find the scriptures to support the story that somehow God lost control of his creation in the garden when man sinned. The Bible clearly and repeatedly states God created everything, and holds everything together.  The God who created the universe also created love... joy ...peace... reason... free will... We only know and learn within the boundaries of God’s creative framework. And He speaks specifically of creating evil in Isaiah and other passages: "I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity (evil); I, the Lord, do all these things."  “Calamity” is the Hebrew “ra” which covers all forms of adversity, affliction, misfortune, trouble, difficulty, disaster... all forms of Bad, and is the primary Old Testament word translated evil. In the Garden of Eden... the paradise of God, there was a tree whose fruit summed up experiential knowledge giving conceptual understanding of moral and ethical choices of both Good and Ra... Good and Evil. This tree bearing two distinctly different kinds of fruit is a natural marvel defying God’s natural laws. Who could create such a tree but God? No one!

Evil is not the opposite of God... God has no opposites. Evil is the opposite of good, defining good as “Good”, much like the Law defined sin as sin. God in His foreknowledge anticipated the need for evil to consummate His redemptive plan for freewill beings. God created the heavens, but He is not the heavens. God created the earth, but He is not the earth. God created evil and many other things, in fact all "things", but He is not evil or any of these "things"... He is God. You see, God does not have to will evil to accomplish His purposes, but He does allow it. He has satan, who is evil incarnate, on a leash, unwittingly and unwillingly serving His purposes, tempting Self-centered hearts to “give place”… to allow satan influence. He hardened pharaoh’s heart (which was already hard). He predestined every saint to be conformed into the image (nature) of Christ, before the foundations of the world. Our transformation involves adversity as our Self’s desires collide with God’s holiness. The “Bad” things of life are, in a sense, God shouting at us for attention. He wants us to surrender Self to the cross so He can give us something much better -- Him-Self, living His life through us as our life – while turning our bad into His purposeful good.  

Just look around at all the “western cultural Christians”; in fact, maybe we should look at our own heart. The four characteristics of Thornbushers as documented in the Sower Parables all deal with the allure of the world:  The desire for riches, the desire for worldly pleasures, the desire for other non-spiritual things, and preoccupation with the cares of this life, all of which divide our mind, distract us from God’s purposes, and ultimately leave us worried, unstable and anxious. Thorn cluttered hearts have good intensions but they are deceived, thinking they can concurrently abide in Christ and abide in the world... the very thing Christ died to save us from. Evil abounds and knows the Pied Piper’s tunes, but God’s grace superabounds. God will transform hearts that are willing -- even hearts willing to be made willing – for God is in control!

HE IS MAKING US HIS JEWELS!

KNOWLEDGE + FAITH = EXPERIENCE

"In the beginning was “The Word”, and “The Word” was with God, and “The Word” was God.” This phrase “The Word” is, among other things, referring to the knowledge of God conveyed by His written word, scripture, which includes knowledge of “The Word” which became flesh, the incarnate Word… Jesus. “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…” The Old Testament is God’s self-disclosure, and the New Testament is God speaking forth the revelation of His Son, both of which make up “The Word”, The Knowledge of God to mankind.

Hebrews chapter four establishes a spiritual principle within the context of receiving a promise from God. In this passage God is chiding Israel for failing to enter Canaan, which He calls His “rest”, because of unbelief. “For indeed the gospel was preached to us (New Covenant believers) as well as to them (Israel); but “The Word” which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.” Notice “The Word”, the knowledge of God’s promise of a rest for His people, did not profit them. They did not receive God’s promise because they did not mix the knowledge of His promise with faith.

It is the knowledge of God mixed with faith in that knowledge that enables our spiritual experiences. This is how God engages and intervenes in our life. The promise in Hebrews is the rest of God, which for New Covenant believers is the experience of one who has fully surrender to the Lordship of Christ and is totally controlled by the Holy Spirit. “For we who have believed do enter that rest”: To access this promise experientially we must first know the promise then believe it, mixing our knowledge with faith. We are called to be “partakers of Christ” -- not imitators – and to be the temple of the Godhead: It is faith in the knowledge of these promises that produce the indwelling Christ-Life.  Salvation becomes a living reality through faith in the knowledge that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” – wherein we recognize our need for God – and faith in the knowledge of who and what Jesus is that leads us to confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, which produces the salvation experience. And so it is with all the promises, blessings, and commandments of God. We must do the “mixing”: We must put our faith into the knowledge of God, His Word, to ever experience the life He has planned for us.

There are those who want to elevate spiritual experience by the belittling of spiritual knowledge. This is simply wrong! Without “The Word”, without the knowledge of God, we can have no meaningful experience of God – no understanding. Knowledge always precedes spiritual experience and defines it for our understanding… and, ultimately, for our spiritual wisdom. This is why it is so very important to make partaking of “The Word” of God a daily lifelong passion.

We cannot believe in “something” without knowledge of the “something”! We cannot experience God without knowledge of and faith in that which we are to experience.

(John 1:1; Heb. 1:1-2; Heb. 4:1-10; Heb. 3:14; 1 Cor. 3:16, 6:19; Rom. 3:23, 6:9-10)

GROWING INTO CHRISTLIKENESS

Saints, we won’t just morph into spiritual maturity, rather, just as an athlete trains the various attributes of their sport to become proficient, we develop spiritually through disciplined training. Spiritual maturity – growing into Christlikeness -- takes effort and discipline. Repetition is the mother of skill, and discipline is a habit formed from doing. It takes focused effort driven by fierce desire to change fleshly lumps of coal into radiant diamonds, jewels fit for the Father’s crown. The key attributes of spiritual discipleship are *study of God’s word, *pray, *seeking God, *worship, and *submission to the Lordship of Christ. 

God’s word is how God communicates His will to us, the primary tool of the Holy Spirit to teach, lead, guide and direct our pathway. We simply must taste of God’s word – gorge ourselves with it -- if we are to understand His will for us and know that He is good to us.

Prayer in its most basic form is asking God to do what He wants to do, understanding gained from His word. Prayer has an element of self-centeredness for we are and will always be dependent children needing provisions... our daily bread. But prayer will also demonstrate our love as we ask for the spiritual and physical needs of others, and as we ask for the desires of God’s heart, for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

We must pursue the one pursuing us to find God... to be found by Him. Much as an earthly father plays hide and seek with his child, leaving an elbow or foot exposed to help the child’s search, so our Heavenly Father ensures that we find Him when we seek Him. He pursues us through thick and thin, using everything of life to turn us ever Godward... ever home to Him.  As we will for God to have us… He does, invading our heart... working in us to will and do of His good pleasure.

In worship we willfully submit our body (position) and our soul and spirit (attitude) to our loving Father, bring Him worth and openly declaring His value. We become like the “god” we worship: Worship is important for worship determines what we will become, chooses what image we will be made into.

Submission to the Lordship of Christ which, of necessity, includes death to Self -- the pretender to the throne of our heart -- is the only way to fulfill God’s grand plan for us.  Our divine purpose is not to be imitators of Christ, but partakers in Christ, bone of His Bone, and flesh of His Flesh. In short, we must be willing to forsake our life for the matchless treasure of having His, as our life becomes His life lived through us as our life.

If we give ourselves to these five essential attributes of the Christian life we will bring to fruition the deep yearning of the Apostle Paul’s heart, “Christ in me, my only hope of glory.”

“IT IS NO LONGER I WHO LIVE, 

BUT CHRIST LIVES IN ME”!

UNDERSTANDING GOD’S WILL

Paul’s message in Romans 12:1 is all about lordship and submission.  All Christians know Jesus as their Savior but that is only half of His commission.  “God has made this Jesus ... both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36), “Lord and Savior” (2 Peter 3:18). As Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah, He brings salvation.  But He is also the Lord God Almighty, and total submission as a bondservant... love slave, to His lordship is not only mandatory, it is reasonable rational intelligent service... “a living sacrifice”, as the Apostle Paul states in Romans 12:1.  What matters now and in Rome two thousand years ago is not that we are Christians.  What matters is that we are Christlike.  God’s goal is not a label... God’s goal is a lifestyle, which brings us to Romans 12:2 where Paul addresses this issue with two commands and a promise:

* Commandment One: Stop living, thinking and acting like the world.

* Commandment Two: Start living, thinking and acting like Kingdom people by the renewing of your mind.

* The Promise: “Then” you will understand, test, and approve God’s will, His good, well pleasing and complete will for you.

Do you want to know God’s will? Here is the only recipe given in scripture: “PRESENT your bodies a living sacrifice.” STOP living, thinking and acting like the world. START living, thinking and acting like Kingdom people. THEN you will understand God’s will. It takes a thorough understanding of God’s word to differentiate between the world’s ways and Kingdom ways, equipping saints under the Lordship of Jesus to complete the recipe... setting their minds on things above moment by moment, day by day. Overcoming life is life lived in the will of God... His good, well-pleasing and complete will...

GODS’ GOAL IS NOT A LABEL...

GODS’ GOAL IS A LIFESTYLE...

LIVING HIS WILL...

STEWARDSHIP BEGINS AT HOME

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?  For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Therefore: “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty.” Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.    (2 Corinthians 6:16-18; 2 Corinthians 7:1) 

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)

DON’T DEFILE YOUR TEMPLE...

KEEP YOUR TEMPLE CLEAN!

OUR END WAS FIXED BEFORE OUR BEGINNING

God lives in eternity which has no time, no past, present, or future. Eternity only has “now.” God sovereignty works out His divine purposes through election, the selection of prescreened people who have a heart and passion for God. Election is God choosing the people in time who already chose Him in eternity: This is God in eternity past prescreening people by looking into time future and seeing who would say yes to the call of the Father. God’s foreknowledge always precedes His choosing, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined ... these He also called.” Predestination sets the boundaries of our meandering within the framework of God’s saving grace as our “steps”, our life, is ordered by the Lord. Our end was fixed before our beginning. The “now” we live is simply God’s plan being executed. Ever wonder how your name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundations of the world? Well... now you know...

AND THIS IS HOW IT WORKED FOR ME:

Before the first “let there be” in Genesis God, in eternity past, looked at my heart as a man living in time.  He looked beyond my sins, my short comings and my weaknesses because He had a decision to make and it would be based on only one thing; would I say yes when He called me to be one of His children?  Would I give my life, my heart and my very soul to Him?  When He seen in my heart that I would willfully serve Him, he wrote my name in the Lambs Book of Life!  Then He planned and decreed every aspect of my life to be, setting boundaries and orchestrating events of my life to make me receptive to His call, to justify me with the righteousness of Christ, to grow in me the spiritual nature and attributes of Jesus and, finally, to glorify my body with a heavenly body like His.  Then on December 7, 1999 at 7:45 p.m. like a bolt of lightning out of eternity into time the call of God came to my heart and I said yes.  At that very moment I was justified, declared righteous and placed in right standing with God through the precious blood of Jesus.  Since that moment I have been on a journey with God; the Holy Spirit is implementing God’s plan, the plan He made eons ago, and as I behold the glory of Jesus I am being transformed into His image, from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18). This is the Holy Spirit doing His job, manifesting Christ in me. As I learn to abide in the Spirit, setting my mind on things above , the holy nectar of God’s presence envelopes me more and more in intimate fellowship. The “now” I live is simply God’s plan being executed.  My “steps”, my life, is ordered by the Lord. And someday soon this old body of mine will also be glorified as I am changed and caught up to meet my Lord in the air.

THOSE HE FOREKNEW, HE ALSO PREDESTINED

OUR STEPS ARE ORDERED BY THE LORD

(Rom. 8: 29-30; Ps. 37:23)

“DO YOU NOT KNOW YOURSELVES, THAT JESUS CHRIST IS IN YOU”?

In Romans 8:29 scripture declares saints are predestined to be conformed to the image... the nature of The Son, predestined by God Himself. Image is translated from the Greek word eikon which means “to be like”, and assumes a prototype, that which it not merely resembles but from which it is drawn. Thus, the reflection of the sun on the water is eikon, as is the reflection of The Son on God’s children.

 “For we have become Partakers of Christ”:  “Partakers of His promise ...  Partakers of the heavenly calling ... Partakers of the inheritance ... Partakers of the Holy Spirit ... Partakers of the root and fatness ... Partakers of His holiness ... Partakers of the sufferings ... Partakers of the divine nature.” Partakers of Christ will exhibit the nature of Christ including the virtuous fruit of the indwelling Spirit and the personal attributes of the Beatitudes:

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” The word “Fruit” is singular: The fruit of the Holy Spirit is like an orange with 9 segments, a virtuous unity that can be separated into specific virtues. Love is the first and primary virtue out of which all the other virtues flow. Self-control, submission of Self to the Lordship of Jesus, is the disciplining virtue which makes the transforming work of the Holy Spirit possible. Love and Self-control are the end caps to this divine array of God’s nature. 

The Beatitudes, Jesus’ manifesto, is an intriguing, counterintuitive, and no doubt shocking descriptive narrative on the “kinds” of people that are blessed, fortunate, and to be envied in the Kingdom of God, literally the personal attributes of Kingdom people: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. The beatitudes provide a window into the kind of life God wants His people to live - what life in the Kingdom of God should look like. 

 “Until Christ is formed in you”: The Holy Spirit manifesting The Son in the Father’s children. The nature of Christ produces the works of Christ. Our transformation is the number one thing on God's to do list. "As He is so are we in this world". Christ “is” the fullness of the Godhead bodily. “So are we”: This is our destiny... At least it should be! This is why we are admonished to examine and test ourselves: “Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you”? Good Question! And, this “knowing” is qualified as an ongoing exponential process in the Greek: Do you not yourselves realize and know, thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience, that Jesus Christ is in you....

Christians are not normal people with a certain religious preference; they are radically principled participants in a high commitment endeavor… at least they should be.  The Christian life is not an imitation of Christ; it is a participation in Christ. Exceedingly great and precious promises have been given to us “that through these we may be partakers of the divine nature.” We must transcend the natural realm, immersing ourselves in the supernatural nature dwelling within. We must experience the power of this indwelling life, the resurrected Christ-life, and, relinquishing our own Self-life, becoming ever more fully possessed of His divine life.

“CHRIST IN YOU, THE (ONLY) HOPE OF GLORY”

(Rom. 8:29; Heb. 3:14; Eph. 3:6; Heb 3:1; Col. 1:12; Heb. 12:10; Heb. 6:4, 2 peter 1:4; 2 Cor. 1:7; Rom. 11:17; Gal. 5:22-23; Matt. 5:3-12; 1 cor. 13; Gal. 4:19; 1 Jn. 4:17; 2 Cor. 13:5; 2 Peter 1:4; Col. 1:27)