Faithlessness

P 3107 We bring Him joy.

/ DVH

Our faith in God’s goodness is His joy – especially when we simply enjoy Who He is, no matter what is going on around us! He is looking for all His people to live by faith, believing He is always good. All through the Old Testament, our Heavenly Father repeatedly gave Israel opportunities to leave all their known and established routines behind them, and trust in Him to care for them. The majority of them refused, because they thought they could run their lives without Him. They only wanted rescuing when they thought it was appropriate … they did not want transformation. What are you looking for? “How can two walk together unless they be in agreement?” Amos 3:3.

In the bible we have real life examples of what God’s goodness looks like in other people’s lives. There are men like Abraham, who left everything behind because God told the man: ‘Come and walk with Me to a new place I have for you.’ And Moses, who saved his nation for a far better life than the one they had. And David, a king without a throne, fighting for his life almost daily, being led every step of the way by God Himself.

Plus there were women like Ruth, who left her own family and became a part of history. She adopted and was obedient to Naomi’s family, and their faith. Noah’s wife — the woman who watched her husband build an ark, when it had never rained! Then she went in to a contained space filled with wild animals … plus she actually took her kids! Then there’s Esther who risked death to save her nation. There are countless others I could name here. These people all illustrate what faith in God’s goodness looks like. It looks like action – it looks like being stretched – it looks like being in danger – it looks like being uncomfortable.

I believe the Lord is still looking for people who will voluntarily live out their knowledge of Who He is to them – day by day. These people will live their lives like they believe to the depths of their souls, that He is a good, good Father Who cares deeply about each and every life. Almighty God’s loyalty, and investment into mankind’s relationship with Him, cost Him everything. Almighty God showed His faith in us when He sent His Son here — and then we turned around and clearly showed our faithlessness – by killing His Son! But the obvious love of His never-ending loving-kindness can still be followed right through-out the bible. It stretches way before our beginning in this world and goes on marching into eternity. 

Let’s look at Genesis 1:26-27… It was not enough for Him to make just another species, God wanted the MAN He made to look like HIM! “Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

And Revelation 11:5 illustrates what His ultimate goal is:“Then the seventh angel sounded [his trumpet]; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom (dominion, rule) of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” Jesus came to this earth to restore an overabundance of the very essence of what Adam and Eve had given away through their disobedience. I think that God Himself wants that garden we carelessly gave away, back. He misses us, because each one of us is special to Him. The intimacy, the fellowship, the shared love, the fun! Meanwhile, AnyOne who can make the variety of species we enjoy on this earth has to have a sense of FUN. 

I believe our God wants us to usher in His kingdom for Him, right here and right now, wherever we are. We don’t have to be “ready” – we just follow our Leader and do what He says. So much time has been wasted with us trying to get ourselves ready to obey Him! As we walk through our lives we are to be His announcers, heralds, the proclaimers — and Jesus Himself gave us the power to do it! Because of what He did for us, now we have become the aroma of Christ in this world. We go from place to place releasing the sight, smell, sound, love, joy, peace, reconciliation of His kingdom everywhere we go. We bring this tired, angry, broken world glimpses of what is to come.

We can use our gift of sight, to see the lack in our lives – most of us have some kind of lack or other — OR we can choose to live in His kingdom now, in our little corner of the world. It is our greatest joy to be given the privilege of fellowship with God Himself, daily, as well as enjoying everything He made. We need to remember that He made all those people around us too – even the grumpy, disappointed, fearful, greedy ones! I can stick my hand up for all those responses – how about you?

Many Christians want to live in the book of Acts, but those men and women were set on fire by the power of the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t just a tiny little match that caught fire, it was like a huge forest fire that spread everywhere. It consumed those who were ambitious for themselves, but empowered those who were willing to die for what they believed. God loves our faith. Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God Who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” WE CAN  BRING HIM JOY! Bye. 👋

P 2650 Rest belongs to us.

/ DVH

Nobody can chuck us out of the place He freely gave us. It’s ours. SomeBody died to pay for it in full, and He gave it to us, LEGALLY. The only way we can lose the benefits of His kingdom is if we undervalue what we’ve been given. Every single day we can rest in our new position, IN CHRIST, safe and assured that we belong to Him and He will have our back. The only thing that can pinch that safety and security from us is what we choose to believe. Resting in what He has done, in a nutshell, means we believe in His goodness no matter what is going on around us. Good or bad, our trust is in Him.

When we carefully read the scriptures we can plainly see that from their beginnings, the Israelite nation did not value what they were given. He gave them Himself –  and they needed to acknowledge Him with their trust and obedience. Sadly the Israelite nation refused to enter into the Lord’s REST. They fussed and fretted, and grizzled, moaned and complained. Obeyed one day only to disobey for the next few hundreds of days! We must learn from them that there can be no rest for anyone, if we continue to cultivate two minds. “A double minded man can’t receive anything from the Lord.” Abraham himself demonstrated what God can do with a man who believes Him and rests in what He says.

Father God proved He was Who He said He was by what He did for that nation … over and over again. We also need to remember, even though their disobedience led to punishment, the Lord has never, and will never ever let go of them, despite THEIR FAITHLESSNESS — He will always remain faithful to His promise. Their history with Him should encourage us as we bumble along, even when we miss the mark! Our God is not only reliable, He is also faithful, and honourable. He keeps His promises. 

“Now the promise of entering into God’s rest is still for us today. So we must be extremely careful to ensure that we all embrace the fullness of that promise and not fail to experience it. For we have heard the good news of deliverance just as they did, yet they didn’t join their faith with the Word. Instead, what they heard didn’t affect them deeply, for they doubted. For those of us who believe, faith activates the promise and we experience the realm of confident rest! For He has said, “I was grieved with them and made a solemn oath, ‘They will not enter into my rest.’ ” God’s works have all been completed from the foundation of the world,” Hebrews 4:1-3, 6-7. TPT  “Those who first heard the good news of deliverance failed to enter into that realm of faith’s rest because of their unbelieving hearts. Yet the fact remains that we still have the opportunity to enter into the faith-rest life and experience the fulfilment of the promise! For God still has ordained a day for us to enter into called “Today.” For it was long afterwards that God repeated it in David’s words, “If only today you would listen to His voice and do not harden your hearts!””

It is extremely important that we choose to learn from their mistakes, and understand that what we’ve been given spiritually belongs to us, but we are still answerable for what we do with it! Nobody, no circumstances – whether uncomfortable, difficult or easy – can take, or trick us out of believing what God has said and done FOR US is true. That’s what faith is.  We don’t believe in the results, or what we can see. WE BELIEVE IN HIM! His goodness, His unchanging faithful character. Our God does not lie. Rest has been given to us. Now instead of fretting we know SomeBody else has our back.

When we believe what He said and did, and respond with obedience, we enter into a place that has already been reserved for us… REST. It takes faith steps to enter into rest. However, we don’t have to worry about how things will turn out, because we have a whole book that explains our relationship with Him. This means we know that ‘He will work ALL things together for our good, because we love Him and we are called according to His purpose.’  That BTW includes not having enough money, nowhere to live, a grumpy spouse or some other person we know. Difficulties aren’t our problem – believing what He says is! We have been blessed to be able to come from a place of rest. Striving to get stuff right is exhausting, as well as fruitless.

We cannot follow Jesus unless we are totally certain that His Way is the only Way. We also cannot follow Him unless we are utterly convinced that He truly is God! That means we seek to know what He wants in and from our lives, then we do whatever He tells us to do. My advice to anyone reading this blog today, is learn to live in REST. It is our God-given right. Bye. 🙌