New Covenant

P 2555 Boldness/ confidence.

/ DVH

Boldness and confidence are both initiated and fostered by our personal relationship with the Lord. Let’s look at Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” The place to foster confidence in our relationship with the Lord, is in the throne room – in our intimate one on one, time with Him. This is the place where God freely gives us mercy and grace and the will to live new lives. Our desire to walk wholeheartedly with the Holy Spirit will lead us into His new life. 

Yielding our will to His, means we have chosen to learn to love Him through participating in His processes. Selfishness falls off when we love for what we can give, not just for what we can get! Some people believe we approach the Lord only to worship Him. YES! Please always do that! However, our primary reason to be with Him, is simply because we enjoy His company, His POV. We have fallen in love with the wonderful God we are coming to know, day by day.

Boldness and confidence are fostered by intimacy. There is no presumption, instead this precious intimacy becomes so important to us, we start to loathe the idea of any separation. That POV motivates us over and over again. I don’t believe that pretending to live in His love and grace can do that. satan knows each of us well enough to fling something at us and our self-effort will collapse. I know very little in this area, but I can say this, the more you seek the Lord for Himself, the more He will reveal Himself to you. Sometimes there are some questionable things that people have told me God said or did, and my heart jumps up, unbidden, and says: “No! He would never act like that!”  I think that’s a little part of what confident intimacy looks like.

Almighty God always wants us to be confident in Him, especially in His goodness and goodwill toward mankind. His book the bible becomes powerful for us individually, when we take His instructions personally and act on them. Our precious Father doesn’t want us to live in any fear, at all. He sent His perfect love in the form of a Man, Jesus Christ, to show us, in Person, that He loves us. Christ is our source of spiritual life.  Everything in this New covenant is voluntary and our participation and obedience are the result of our passion toward the Lord.

Let’s clarify that. The size of any disobedience is not the issue, the attitude of our heart toward whatever it is – will be the thing that comes between Him and us. Openness needs to prevail, and, in turn that leads to true openness with each other. Confidence in Who He is and how much He loves me will actually release incredible freedom. However, that freedom is never carte blanche to be nasty and use His agonisingly hard-won Grace against Him or others. 

Our Heavenly Father, God, is not a legalist. He took care of every single legal indictment against humanity at Calvary. We didn’t just escape punishment, because of what Jesus did, at the same time we inherited Christ’s status before the Father. We were given Christ’s FAVOUR. That includes the ability/power to resist the devil and overcome the stuff he throws at us, con-fid-ent-ly!

The Lord is not looking for us to tick boxes and get everything right, He’s looking for us to genuinely rely upon Him to help us to do the things He asks us to do. Leaning on Him and His power and wisdom is our birthright – that birthright makes us rich in incredible things this world simply cannot buy. As we live that way we will see Him work on our behalf and gain more and more confidence in the One we love, because what we believe is based on personal knowledge of HIM. We don’t have to live bewildered powerless lives, because we have been given the power to walk away from temptation and to live lives that bless, help, and bestow Grace everywhere. That’s our inheritance.

Boldness and confidence are also not about shouting or being forceful. Sometimes it means we simply stand our ground, quietly. Firmly insisting. We need to learn to recognise and resist the devil’s wiles, and horrid suggestions of hatred and bitterness. At the same time, we simply cannot afford to let our enemy con us out of what is now our birthright, by bringing up stuff that we’ve done wrong or things we omitted to do at all! Our enemy keeps lists of wrongs  – WE DON’T – neither does our Father. We fix the things we can, with repentance and humility, and own our own bad attitudes. Then we go on to pray confidently for the grace to continue our walk totally reconciled with Him and others. 

Personally I just keep telling myself: I need mercy so I’m going to give it away! I keep on sowing grace because I know I am going to need it every day, all day! Our boldness and confidence comes from our knowledge of Who He is, what He is like, and real-life, personal, intimate revelation of His goodness as we walk with Him. 👋

P 2343 The most beautiful robe ever.

/ DVH

Exodus 39:2-7 “They made the ephod of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen. They hammered out thin sheets of gold and cut strands to be worked into the blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen—the work of skilled hands. They made shoulder pieces for the ephod, which were attached to two of its corners, so it could be fastened.

Its skilfully woven waistband was like it—of one piece with the ephod and made with gold, and with blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and with finely twisted linen, as the Lord commanded Moses. They mounted the onyx stones in gold filigree settings and engraved them like a seal with the names of the sons of Israel. Then they fastened them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel, as the Lord commanded Moses.”

First of all I want to say that it is not my intention to downgrade this beautiful garment made for the High Priest, it is described in Exodus. This was also a supernatural garment – made from a heavenly downloaded design, and the construction of it was given to Holy Spirit-inspired craftsmen to complete. This garment was not man’s idea it was God’s. HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT RECONCILIATION – both robes show us that. But the most beautiful robe ever, by far, was designed with us in mind!

The only other comment I want to make about the one described in Exodus is that it must have weighed a ton!!  What with the precious stones, gold, silver, extensive complex embroidery, heavy linen layers, the bells round the bottom etc. Gold itself is a heavy metal. It’s a wonder the High Priest could walk and still function – it would be very HOT in the Holy of Holies! 

As I was reading these scriptures I was totally captured by the difference between the High Priest’s robe and the one Christ wore to His crucifixion. One was a religious item and the other reflected the Life of the One Who wore it.  ‘His (Jesus) robe…was seamless, woven in one piece from [the] top.’ John 19:23 NLT. I believe the fact that it was a seamless robe is a prophetic illustration that everything Christ did for us has no beginning or ending. It is interesting to compare Christ’s robe with the complexity of the robe in Exodus. Considering the fact that both of these robes were made for a High Priest and Jesus Christ is now our great High Priest – FOREVER – I think it is worth looking briefly at both.

It occurred to me that the difference between those two garments highlights the difference between law and life. Christ’s garment was light and easy to wear, but the garment from Exodus would have been cumbersome and heavy. What a perfect illustration of the contrast between the Old Covenant and the New. The Old had so many commandments and rules it would choke a horse, and Jesus reduced that complexity into two commandments. (Matthew 22:27-40.) BTW, don’t let anybody tell you Jesus threw out the rule book … He simplified it and then He fulfilled it! After that the Holy Spirit came back to live in us and help us to live that new SIMPLE way.

It was just like Jesus Christ to choose the lowest path. He could have been born into wealth and privilege … after all it was His right – as God’s only begotten Son. But He laid aside all of His privileges …so He could give them to us. You might want to pause and think on that. Sometimes we need to soak in what the bible says, so that we are not just reading words on a page. Words on a page won’t clearly convey the depth of the incredible generosity of God. We have to think about it prayerfully. I find it helpful to take what is said and put it in my own words. It is like chewing on it.

The Old Testament’s High priest garment was cumbersome, weighty and could only be worn by one man. Christ’s garment of righteousness can be worn by anyone – rich and poor alike. “Clothe yourselves therefore, as God’s own chosen ones (His own picked representatives), [who are] purified and holy and well-beloved [by God Himself, by putting on behaviour marked by] tenderhearted pity and mercy, kind feeling, a lowly opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, [and] patience [which is tireless and long-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever comes, with good temper].” Colossians 3:12

Christ is inviting us to choose that simple garment that He wore – it is not sumptuous or beautiful, but His garment, paid for, and saturated with His blood, is now ours for the taking. It qualifies in my eyes, as the most beautiful garment ever. It doesn’t weigh a ton, it is not impressive. Yet His garment is ours, as we choose His life, His way. And that’s worth thinking about. 👋🏻

P 2161 God is devoted to mankind.

/ DVH

Isaiah 54:11-12: “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor My covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, Who has compassion on you.“Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with lapis lazuli. I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones.”

There are so many times when we personally need to read and hear statements from the Lord like the one above. When this world and its troubles and sorrows overcome us, we need this kind of reassurance of His steadfastness from the bible. We are His city. This whole chapter of Isaiah 54 is so encouraging, it literally drips with His intentions and affections for us. 

Years ago, I studied a little on the subject of gemstones. Gemstones are amongst the hardest substances on earth, as well as being the most beautiful. Father God is telling us, in a pictorial language, that we may be broken down, and feel totally destroyed –  but He already has a plan to rebuild each one of us with the strongest and loveliest of materials. These verses are not just about decorating us with pretty things – He is expressing how valuable all of mankind is to Him.

God’s covenant of peace is a Person. Once, long before these verses were written down in the book of Isaiah, Almighty God carved His covenant into tablets of stone and gave them to Moses.  Now, He has inscribed His New Covenant onto a PERSON – Jesus Christ. “Though she … ( a mother, may forget her child) … I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands;” (Isaiah 49:15&16) Father God’s amazing love for us has been carved into Christ’s flesh, His very Being. Our God will never forget us, no matter how this life looks, or how difficult it gets. Because when He looks at us, He sees His beloved SON, Jesus Christ – A MAN! He sees the most beautiful thing this world has ever seen – His agreement with us carved into human flesh.

Father God does not look at things like we do – that’s why we have to change and transform our minds! Christ’s death and resurrection are a physical and spiritual reminder of the power and depth of Father God’s love. Human beings who feel passionately about someone, sometimes have that name tattooed onto their bodies. The mystery/miracle of Easter is that our God did this to Christ – to remind us both of the New Covenant. Christ’s Body is a legal contract between God and MAN. He carved the first contract into stone – He carved the second one into His SON. Jesus Christ is the document of Covenant.

Through Jesus Christ, Almighty God decreed His intention to have peace and reconciliation with all mankind, forever. These carvings will remain visible – forever. You and I made those dreadful wounds on Christ’s Body just as surely as if we had crucified Him ourselves. What we might see as an ugly abhorrent thing, God sees as a beautiful reminder of how much His Son loves Him, and how much They love US. That’s how serious God is about us, and the power of His word! 

Finally, I also love that these verses in Isaiah 54 talk about God’s compassion. Jesus Christ explained what compassionate love looks like when He told the story of the good Samaritan. Compassion is not a feeling, it is the practicality of helping someone in need. This parable is not just about someone being kind to someone else – Samaritans and Jews hated each other. In this parable Jesus is illustrating that while we were His enemies His love came after us to restore and heal us. God is incredibly dedicated to our restoration.

This life is full of things that batter and bruise us, however, those things are not sent by God – sin did those awful deeds – our sin or someone else’s sin. Father God has clearly revealed His passionate, committed love toward mankind. All He asks of His Son’s intended Bride is that She be equally committed to Christ. Each one of us is so important to God, He has promised to rebuild each one of us – with a beauty that goes way beyond mere words. 👋🏻