Discipleship

P 2840 We must remember, we sin against GOD, first.

/ DVH

“Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.” 2 Samuel 12:13. 

“And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’”Luke 15:21.

“Against You, and You alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in Your sight. You will be proved right in what You say, and Your judgment against me is just.”Psalm 51:4.

We often talk a great deal about sinning against each other, but today I want to talk about the fact that first of all, any sin is against Him. When we dismiss or disobey His word, our sin is dismissive of God’s holiness. Yes, we need to fix things with others, but we need to start at the top … with Father God Himself. Everyone of our sins had a consequence. And Jesus bore the penalty of those consequences on His body – so we need to treat these things with humility, honestly, reverence and respect. 

Let me be as clear as I can be … Our sins are absolutely, positively, completely G.O.N.E. – gone forever! Thrown into the sea of forgetfulness, with a NO FISHING sign clearly displayed. That sign needs to be read over and over again because guilt and shame no longer belong to us. “Jesus said, “I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave can’t come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through.”John 8:34-36.

This means that before we repent and repair things with others, first of all, we need to thank God and His precious Son again, for all Jesus suffered and chose to do for us. Thankfulness, not guilt is now our response – however presumption is not a right response either. We need to treasure our relationship with our Loving generous Father above all else. There is no longer any fear in sin and God’s love has now taken over our way of thinking, doing and being. We live a life of love now, standing by our choices- we are now free to choose His Will, His Way.

We’ve been set free from the demands and focus of sin, to focus upon HIM.  Freedom means we can still sin – however, now, we’ve been empowered not to!! Instead of blame and shame motivating us, we can be confident that we can restore things – simply because Christ’s death on our behalf has empowered us. Now we praise Him for all He has willingly done for us and we go back into happily submit to His will, His way. The point of the ‘get out of jail free card‘ is not carelessness – it is redemption. So we must acknowledge our sin against His freely-given goodness.

Here is another scripture for all of us to think on today:“My little children (believers, dear ones), I am writing you these things so that you will not sin and violate God’s law. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate [who will intercede for us] with the Father: Jesus Christ the righteous [the upright, the just One, Who conforms to the Father’s will in every way—purpose, thought, and action].”  1 John 2:1. The best news ever is this, JESUS is in the throne room praying for us, every single second of the day. IMAGINE THAT! Because of what He willingly did, sin is not the “norm” for us. Our new normal life is in Him. THAT’S WHERE THE POWER TO OVERCOME COMES FROM!

Almighty God does not wink at our sin … it says so in the book!  An exchange took place 2,000 years ago and Jesus Christ became the Lamb Who was slain, forever. It’s part of His title, just like Prince of peace, wonderful wise Counsellor, and Saviour of the World. So when we sin and disobey God, we take ourselves out of fellowship with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, Who is the One Who helps us – and the Son. The One Person Who perfectly understands how hard it is to be human! Dumb move … He knows the way through temptation!

Let’s be clear. God made sure all this stuff was written down, we have a book! Now we do not have to be dragged about by our weaknesses, and weird ideas. Because of what Jesus did, we have a live-in Helper. The Holy Spirit was our midwife! He birthed us and now He is raising us, day by day as we learn to live a life of obedience. God did not just trust our discipleship to ordinary men … Jesus Christ, Who followed the Holy Spirit’s instructions to the letter – is still making disciples! 

We have the bible to show us where we are out of order with His ways and we need to respond to conviction with real repentance. Because when sin happens we stop walking with Him and start hiding from Him. And people don’t just hide by leaving the church, they hide in busyness, and by elevating things that are distractions, or supposed  recreational activities. Dead people don’t need that stuff – they don’t have an opinion or a need. That’s why we rely upon God to meet them!

If we sin, we need to go to our Heavenly Father, first, and confess our faults, errors, lapses, nasty attitudes and selfish ways and He will empower us to overcome. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. Bye. 🕊️

P 2666 It will never seem safe …

/ DVH

…and you will get a testimony, just like this guy did! Here is a stunning example of the Holy Spirit working. It’s from the Old Testament…”And (the servant) said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, Who has not left my master bereft and destitute of His loving-kindness and steadfastness. As for me, going on the way [of obedience and faith] the Lord led me to the house of my master’s kinsmen.” Genesis 24:27. 

The person who said the above profound sentence, was a senior servant in Abraham’s household. He prayed that the Holy Spirit would guide him, yet he didn’t even know his master’s God! This man simply took his orders from Abraham, and stepped out into the unknown. This is how the bible works. As the Holy Spirit kisses it, and highlights something to us, then we act in faith … and probably feel nothing whatsoever – except maybe a little bit dumb!

This man made a deal with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit honoured his faith. (The whole story is in Genesis chapter 24.) He was charged with finding a wife for Isaac in a land far away. We don’t even know this man’s name! And when he prays for help, it is clear that he does not personally know Abraham’s God! But he knows His master — and he knows how to be obedient.  He clarifies the specific directions from the now elderly Abraham, and sets out, he knows not where, to find a specific wife for Isaac. A series of miracles happen to him, because God honours faith – no matter who has it – even when it is redirected!

That man never took his eyes off the prize. And the prize was fulfilling his Master’s wishes. He didn’t sit on the ground and wail about everything being too hard, yet his task was extremely difficult …instead he found where he was told to go, and using prayer and faith, he made a way to complete what he was given to do. Then he rejoiced mightily that God sent him to the right place at the right time to meet the right girl! Even when the girl’s father tried to slow up the process of returning back to Isaac with her – this servant put obedience over people pleasing.

This is how we walk with the Holy Spirit. Let’s use an example. We read in the bible that we should love one another and forgive others. However, at the same time, there is somebody in our lives that really gets our goat! We have every reason to avoid this person, but instead we’ve made a quality decision to obey what the book says over how we feel. So we pray about whatever it is, and next, we go to the person involved and humbly tell them that we are sorry we haven’t been able to get along with them. We don’t list everything they have done to us over the years to hurt us – after all, Jesus let us go free without conditions – so we do the same for them! Then we ask them how we can contribute to mending the relationship. Obedience to the instructions is our goal.

Remember, when we live like this we are only being good obedient servants — so we don’t expect thunderous applause or recognition. Personally, I could give you a list of the things that people have done to hurt me over the years. They made my life miserable … BUT I tore that list up and forgot what was on it … BY CHOICE. I make that choice every single time I see them!  I choose God – not my need for retribution, or holding onto my hurt feelings, or even as some sort of ridiculous ineffective protection against what they will do or say this time. Instead, I’m hiding behind the Holy Spirit! I obey what He says. I’m safe with Him when I obey His directions.

The servant who belonged to Abraham felt nothing! He bumbled into the right place at the right time and God did the rest. This is a great example of working with the Holy Spirit – we follow our Master’s instructions and we do it ASAP. The longer we wait to feel better first, the worse our feelings will get. satan will be delighted to hand us new reasons to not reconcile. Actually, there’s a chance that this person is probably going to ring us up and say something worse! Our enemy hates reconciliation. Humbling yourself is the key to a Holy Spirit filled life – you can’t walk with Him and not be reconciled to your brother. And I don’t care who does what, even if they keep on doing it, ad nauseam. 

This is the real choice — we are deciding WHO we want to walk with, not just choosing a way to make things better. If we truly want to walk with the Lord, we will have to do more than talk about our faith… we will have to live by it, every single day. We need to obey His instructions, even if what it says seems ridiculous to our thinking. Christians are a people who take what the bible says seriously. That obedient servant had no idea how his quest would end, but his desire to please HIS MASTER superseded his need to be safe. 👋

P 2337 Do we value comfort and healing ABOVE obedience?

/ DVH

Are we prepared to follow Jesus no matter what shape we are currently in? There is a trait within the body of Christ to seek healing and wholeness first, because we think we will be in better shape to serve Him. Actually, the bible says we are to seek His kingdom, first. When Jesus died for us, and the Holy Spirit came here to stay with us on earth – the doors of healing and transformation flew open. They cannot be shut. The cross of Christ sealed the most incredible deal mankind has ever seen.

As we walk with Him, using our faith, day by day, endless possibilities open up in front of us. The Lord our God is a fantastic, reliable, all-powerful Healer. The bible says so, over and over again. However, there are people who are very used to having healing available and handed to them through other people’s recognised gifts. Their OWN faith has not prepared them for spiritual opposition or the strength to fight and go get things for themselves. I think the power to grow in our faith is linked to our willingness to go all out for Him. Sadly the children of God have not always fought for the kind of God-given strengths we need to combat all the stuff that comes at us.

We’ve have made being ‘whole and trained,’ a more valuable attribute than things like ‘servanthood, surrender, discipleship and being a laid-down lover of Jesus.’  The truth is, in our interactions with the Lord, sometimes, like Jacob, we could end up limping! I’ve ended up as sick as you can get in hospital, only to discover there was someone I was meant to comfort, and witness to, that I would not have met any other way. My little story was relevant to them. I am NOT saying God made me sick – but He used it for His purposes. Sometimes, like Sarah we could end up healed and whole, with a whole life scenario that is is just plain impossible. These things serve God’s purposes. Did you get that? His purposes.

Some of the most fruitful transformational words I have ever had are words of correction. I love to see the body of Christ grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord.  And when we receive what we believe is a prophetic word then we need to take it seriously. BUT, we also know that God corrects His kids, and if we accept His correction with faith – we will also grow – we don’t always have to be babied along. Take whatever God gives your pastor to preach as food for your soul, pray over it and ask the Lord to make it personal to you. We desperately need ‘every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,” because that’s where the power of God is. In the truth of what God Himself says.

Perhaps we are inadvertently waiting for the Lord to swoop in, and zap us, and then we will get an instant spiritual makeover to prepare us for the wonderful things that lie ahead. That thought makes no sense whatsoever to me. This is the God Who we know does things, ‘layer upon layer, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little.…’ We need to be in agreement and prepared to engage with His processes – complete with His correction when we’ve wandered off into lah lah land.

Otherwise we will limit Him to our own understanding. There are totally sold-out people all over this planet who will follow Jesus anywhere anytime into any kind of danger. My problem is I can’t see where those dedicated people are supposed to be in a separate category to ME.  For those of us who live in the West, we need to make it our great quest to take His Words even more seriously … otherwise ease, and comfort will distract us into the grave and we will have lost the precious time allocated to us by the Lord.  We cannot be distracted by the so-called quest to be READY for whatever He wants us to do – no matter how difficult, or life-changing it seems to be. We need to step out in faith and obey.

We are at the place where we need to be relying upon Him  and His written word more than anything else. Fortunately that is a learned skill – gained by using our faith, followed up by action. Let us not allow the enemy to lie to us that we are not ready, or we are not up to the task. Instead let’s remind ourselves that our God uses the willing! He qualifies hearts that are passionate and sold out to His purposes. He will heal, correct and guide us as we go ahead living out His word, for this world to read in our lives.👋🏻