Image of His Son

P 3023 The testing times.

/ DVH

John 19:11: ”When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free You or to crucify You?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

The fear of God is real! Here is an illustration of that reality from the Gospels. Pilate did what we all do from time to time — we question God, and then we chase about looking for a loop-hole because we don’t really want to know His answer.. We are not sure we will like it, and we definitely don’t like the cost! This man was looking for a way to let Jesus go free that wouldn’t throw blame on him … be-cau-se … his wife had told him to be careful….

Pilate’s wife told him to ‘have nothing to do with this good Man’. Pilate was not a complete numb-knuckle, he was  trying to negotiate a way to do both things at once. After all he was the procurator/prefect of Judea – this man had power! He really wanted to release Jesus, listen to his wife, plus try to please the Jews. Fat chance of that! Sadly the Jews had already made up their collective mind. But God had a bigger plan!

This portion of John shows us a wonderful truth about Father God’s dealings with His precious Son — and us. Jesus clearly tells us that nobody can have power over any one of us unless we give it away, or God allows it. Now before you get alienated by that statement, we need to look at Job. Job is greatly underestimated!

“And the LORD said to satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.”So satan went out from the presence of the LORD.” Job 1:7-12. Job loved God, but he feared for his family. and those fears put him squarely within satan’s reach. God did not hurt this man satan did. 

However, it is clear that Father God believed in this man’s ability to endure, or He would not have allowed him to be tested in the first place..so satan went all snarky about God’s blessings on this man’s life. Because our Father is a good, good God and Father, He knew that testing would bring out things in Job that were not there before. He and Job would grow closer – and one of the things that Job grew into was a greater intimacy with Him. Job himself says: “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes.” Chapter 42, verse 5.

Once we have given our lives and hearts to Jesus, Almighty God is constantly transforming our circumstances, our joys and sorrows, our likes and dislikes to shape us into the image of His Son. He’s God! He can do lots of things at once!! Remember, our destiny is to be Jesus’ bride … it’s far bigger than just going to heaven. The Lord Jesus deserves a bride worthy of His sacrifice for her. That is why our character – our heart toward Him – day by day by day, becomes more and more important. 

This is also why the bible says:  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28. My translation of this verse is this:  nothing can happen to me in my situation – or to you in your situation – that is beyond our Father’s redemptive loving care and transformation. All He requires from His Son’s bride-to-be is that she would yield to His greater wisdom as it is revealed in the bible, plus we have the precious Holy Spirit’s guidance always with us.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3. We can count on the fact that God knows the end from the beginning, and there is nothing that can prevent Him from taking all things—every single thing, and weaving and working them together for our good. This is the way the Apostles lived and worked and spread the Gospel. They believed In their Heavenly Father’s power to redeem bad situations into good. 

Doubt is our enemy. So is carelessness and a lack of love for others, and we dare not doubt His goodness and His faithfulness.  We are transformed from day to day by believing what He has said about WHO we are now, because of Christ’s sacrifice. Let’s not miss the mark and get picky and choosy about being obedient. Meanwhile, the Lord is all wisdom, so we would have to be mighty dumb, or pretty disobedient not to pay attention to the things that are written in His book. If He has allowed a testing time, then He knows you can get through this – the Holy Spirit will walk you through it – ask Him to help you..

We will get stuck if we believe the enemy’s lies that we can’t do, or endure whatever God told us to do. We quite simply cannot afford to believe our feelings over Christ’s life and His testimony. If we mess up and go the wrong way then we repent, turn around and go back and do whatever He asked you to do, the way the Holy Spirit said to do it. 

We are His, and He is ours, and nothing can separate us from His incredible love. Jesus Christ Himself died to release all of us from satan’s power and JESUS LOVES HIS BRIDE!  Keep believing God is good, and turn your eyes away from any and all of the circumstances that drag you under. Ask others to pray for you. When God stretches our faith, our faith will be even bigger on the other side of those testing times. Bye. 👋

P 2550 A fantastic exchange rate.

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“We have become His poetry, a re-created people that will fulfil the destiny He has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfil it!” Ephesians 2:10 TPT.

First of all, isn’t that verse above a beautiful thing? I may feel like last week’s washing on a bad day… BUT … I’m not!! I am His poetry … and … so are you! Re-created to fulfil the destiny He planned for our lives. And it’s all because of Jesus Christ and what He did for us. Our redemption story is not some sort of quick adjustment on our Heavenly Father’s part to our sin. NO – He planned this stuff before we were even born. Before my father met my mother. Before my grandmother met my grandfather etc. He planned us all. And His plan was always to give us a hope and a future.

Great place to stop and praise the Lord! 🙌 It is good to remind ourselves that our God is creatively brilliant beyond everything we can hope, dream or imagine, He can use anything — even awful stuff and transform it into wonderful. If’n ya don’t believe me … listen to this …”To grant [consolation and joy] to those who mourn in Zion—to give them an ornament (a garland or diadem) of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment [expressive] of praise instead of a heavy, burdened, and failing spirit—that they may be called oaks of righteousness [lofty, strong, and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice, and right standing with God], the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:3. 

Did you get that? Our God already has a plan in place to exchange our sorrows etc.  Even when all we have is ashes, mourning, a heavy burden, and a failing spirit. That’s a heck of a trade-in! His plan is for us to glorify Him in the middle of the awfulness that this life rains down on us. He doesn’t have to demand praise either — praise will bubble up when we look at Him and what He does! And that trade-in mentioned in Isaiah will help us to radiate love joy peace etc. to the people around us. We aren’t going to stay sorrowful for long with that kind of exchange rate! I remember this gorgeous old song we used to sing years ago: ‘I’m so happy and here’s the reason why, Jesus took my burdens all away. Now I’m singing as the days go by, Jesus took my burdens all away.”

Some of those old geysers were really switched on to the way God works. (Whoops. I are one!)😂 … Moving on … everything, everything God does is GOOD. We may not always initially be able to see the good — particularly if we switch off our faith and throw our hands in the air and panic. Did you know if you do that often enough it becomes an automatic response? Neither did I until He pointed it out. Since then, my first response is always “help” — and my second one is – “how are you going to get me out of this mess please Lord?” The Holy Spirit lives to run toward us when we need Him. Then I repent, because I know I did something!! … I’m definitely not perfected yet! And then I ask for His help to start looking for what’s good about it.

Sometimes what’s good is that I am in the middle of surviving whatever it is, no matter how I feel. The bad can drown out even His hope, His love and His truth …if I let it. That’s when my emotions will let me down and drag me under. Those bad things that happen in our lives are REAL, but we don’t have to stay there. I have learned to fight the good fight, sometimes second by second. I tell myself I won’t give in to my feelings just in this minute, and I choose to praise Him. (Did you know there is such a thing as a sacrifice of praise? Hebrews 13:15.) After that I avoid going back and looking again at the thing that dragged me under in the first place.  

I am talking about switching focus from what is going on … to whatever He told me to do next. Sometimes that might be “have a cuppa”  or “that lady needs help.”  We are always on assignment. Cry when you have to, but keep on walking. “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Galatians 6:9. Don’t faint, just keep going – this is how you develop perseverance. Do you remember that guy who talked to Jesus and said he wanted to follow the Lord but he had to go home and bury his father first? I love what happened, next … Jesus talked to this man about making the main thing, the main thing. (Read Matthew 8:21-23)

How can we live this life reassured, if we don’t talk to Him about everything – even our pain? Our DAD never sleeps and His thoughts are always towards us. I mean … really, does it get any better than that? We need to continually remind ourselves His destiny for us is to be saved, healed, transformed and delivered. Not necessarily always in that order! If we mess up then we repent, repair and move on. Getting stuck in sin and guilt is not part of our destiny. 

We have been pre-destined to look like Jesus. “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” Romans 8:29. Right here, right now, let’s concentrate on becoming His re-created people who are writing poems about Him with our lives, to His glory and grace. Amen! And let’s leave the details to the One Who created hummingbirds, jellyfish and daisies! He’s fantastic at it. Our God has the greatest exchange rate, every single day BTW. Bye ✋