Tag Archives: God’s Grace

Faith

When We Walk With The Lord


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Jesus answered, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. The one who doesn’t love Me will not keep My words. The word that you hear is not Mine but is from the Father who sent Me.  John 14:23-24

God Was Uninvited

I was brushing my teeth, getting ready for school.  It was the early ’60’s.  I could hear a young John Kennedy talking about the idea that some people believe God is dead.  Kennedy went on to say that he does not hold that belief, and if he gets to be president, he will make sure that our religious liberties remain intact.

President Kennedy did make it to the Oval office.  He was killed before he could make too many significant changes in America.

Shortly after that, God was kicked out of schools, offices and public discourse.  The Bible is forbidden in public.  The Ten Commandments are no longer tolerated and are being removed from every public display.

Children in public schools have every occult and ungodly viewpoint forced down their throats, but telling anyone of the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ is a hate crime.

When God was uninvited in our nation, in our schools, in our homes, we removed an aspect of God from our nation that kept evil at bay.  We removed His protection and guidance.

We removed His guiding wisdom.  We removed an objective viewpoint that made it possible for us to dileneate between good and evil. We removed clear vision and hope.  We removed the baseline for understanding honesty and the ability to recognize truth.

We now live in what liberals celebrate as the “Post-Truth” society.  Truth and facts are no longer as relevant as are our feelings about things.  We forget that feelings are not facts, and raise feelings to be above facts, and use that as the determiner of our behavior and the law.

When we evict God and His word from our lives, we get the America we see today.

When God is Absent, Evil is King.

So what do we get when we tell God to leave us alone.  Because He is not a dictator, because He has granted us complete freedom to do as we will, He gives us exactly what we have asked for.  In spite of the fact that every nation on earth who has abandoned God has fallen, we choose to ignore history and the will and word of God.  In our stupidity, we call ourselves “enlightened”, and do not see how wretched and blind we have made ourselves.

When God is absent, the Spirit of God, who protects His children, is removed.  Evil fills the vacuum and reigns over all.  We forget what happened to Israel back in the day when she did the very same thing:

Isaiah 5:20King James Version (KJV)

20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

When we removed God from our hearts and souls, we opened ourselves for every delusion that can possibly exist.  We embrace the pleasure of evil, and forsake the discipline of truth.

There Is A Path To The Truth

When Jesus went to the cross, he became every sin that exists. He became everything God judges to be unholy, and it pleased God to pour His wrath on Jesus and judge him and put Him to death.  It pleased God to do this because He would rather do this to His own beloved Son than have YOU experience His wrath.  So, Jesus became all evil for all time.

Then He went to Hell and suffered.  When the cup of suffering was drained, God spoke the promise of eternal life and the reign of Heavn over Jesus and our Christ ascended from Hell, bringing with him all the dead who perished before the cross.  Death and hell no longer had authority, but Christ, the Son of the living God became all authority.

When you accept this free gift of the death and resurrection of Christ on your behalf, YOU become free of sin.  You become the Son of God, the Daughter of God, the sweet Child of God.  You will be free.  You will be free to know God in His infinite wisdom and love.  You will be able to see what the Word of God says and means.  You will no longer be mind blind and bereft of a living Soul.  You will be alive.  Really and truly and forever, alive.

His word will be food for you.  Your love for Him will be powerful and fulfilling.  You will not be obligated to any religion or law, but will be compelled out fo Love for God to be all you can to become just like Christ. Hisd Spirit will fill you and empower you to do all these things and more.

We need this to happen across America.  We need revival in our land.  We have kicked God out of our lives and our nation in the name of “Tolerance and Enlightenment”.

We are now stupid and blind.

Lets find time to invite God back.  He will never force Himself on anyone.  But he will respond to a broken and contrite heart.  He will pitch His tent with you and dwell with you.  His spirit will encompass you and protect you.

You will be His beloved Child.  No nation ever became Christian, only the people who inhabit it.  It starts one soul at a time.

Will you invite God back into your home?

 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  John 8:31-32

Let’s Be About It!

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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Faith

Whom God Chooses – Part 3a – “Through”


But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene–walk!”
(Act 3:1-8)

In Part One, we looked at how the heroes of faith got out of the way of God. God helped them get out of the way, so He could work through them.

In Part Two, we saw that the heroes of faith acted out of absolute assurance that they were in God’s plan.

In this part, Part Three, we will see that the Heroes of faith are absolutely willing to be a channel through whom God blesses others.

“… while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.” (Act 4:30)

The operative word here is “through”. The point made about getting out of the way of God and be willing to let go of your agenda and be confident that you are in His will is so that God can work HIS will through you. God does the work. He chooses to do His work through us. We do not bring our agenda to Him and hope he blesses it. One of the best summaries of this thought is given by the Chinese Evangelist, Watchman Nee. Nee was giving a series of messages at a special conference held in Shanghai from June 11 through June 18, 1940. In that series of messages, Nee talked about the question, “What is God’s Work?”

He said:

“In Philippians Paul says: “That I may lay hold on that for which I also was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.” The Lord Jesus has a special, specific purpose in laying hold on us – and that specific purpose is the thing we want to lay hold of. He has a purpose, and this purpose is that we might be co-workers with Him. Nonetheless it is still true that we cannot do God’s work, since it is absolutely and wholly His. But on the other hand, we ARE His coworkers. So that on the one hand we must recognize and acknowledge that we cannot touch with even one little finger the work of God, yet on the other hand we are called to be co-workers with Him! And this is that for which He has laid hold on us. The Lord has a definite purpose in salvation – and a clear and specific purpose in saving us – which is, that he might have us as His co-workers.”

“Now just who is a co-worker of God? Well, it is NOT one who wants to work for God, one who sees a need and wants to meet it; it is not even one who gets people saved; rather is it the one who does what God has appointed him to do in His eternal purpose, and ONLY that does he do. If we truly see that for which we have been laid hold on by Christ Jesus, all our labors, all our former works for Him will be smashed to pieces”

“The aim and object of God in everything is to reveal His Son, to manifest His Son, to “show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward is us in Christ Jesus.” This is His eternal purpose. Is this YOUR object in the work you are doing now? If it is any lower than this, then you are not a co-worker with God.” – (“God’s Work” by Watchman Nee, Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc.)

Am I saying that you shouldn’t do good works? No, what I am saying is that our good works are led by God. God is doing them through us because we have gotten out of the way. Our works will reflect the will of God. We are the conduit through which God’s will is excised.

Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.
(John 5:19)

“I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
(John 5:30)

If the King of Heaven was subject to the will of God on earth, why do we think we can develop our own agenda and bring it to God and expect Him to bless it? We are called to be just like the Master.

The Apostle Paul reminded us to:

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” (Php 2:5-7)

 

Even this is not a work we humans can strive to accomplish. It is already accomplished in Christ Jesus. If we rest in the finished work of the cross, we are filled with the spirit of God. We are able and empowered to act and be what God has designed us to be.

God does all this in us, so that, when it is time, He can work through us. The aim and object of everything God does is to reveal His Son, to “show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

 

“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

At our very best, we can imitate some of the works of God, but they, being driven by the flesh, are ineffective. There will be no works in Heaven that are not of Christ, and for Christ. All other efforts will be destroyed in the end.

 

“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ (Mat 7:22-23)

The difference is not what they did, but whom they obeyed when they did it. Any and all works, even if they were done in the name of Jesus, if they were not first conceived by God and flowing from Christ through you, then they are of no account.

When we bless others, it is because we see Christ doing this through us. When we do anything at all, it is because we are in the vine, who is Christ Jesus. We hear the voice of Jesus and know the will of the Him who sent us, and we obey.

God worked through Jesus. We are to let Jesus work through us. The work He will do through us will be to demonstrate what the message of the Cross is so that as many as will accept this free gift will be saved.

“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

(John 14:11-13)

When we get out of the way, and understand we are part of the plan of God, and let God work the life of Jesus into us and through us, we will become a channel through whom God blesses others.

This is what it means to be chosen.

Stay tuned for part 3b.

Let’s be about it.

I love you,

David G. perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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Faith

Whom God Chooses…Part 2a – Blessed Assurance




 

Going From Called To Chosen Means Having Your Faith Tested – IT IS PART OF THE PLAN

STATEMENTS OF FAITH

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Heb 11:1

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. (1Pe 1:6-9)

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have her
perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (Jas 1:2-4)

A MESSAGE FROM GOD

‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. (Jer 29:11)

WHAT JESUS HAD TO SAY ABOUT IT

“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” (Joh 15:2)

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” (Joh 14:21)

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (Joh 14:18)

 Training Wheels

Having the faith of the chosen means having absolute assurance you are in God’s plan. We are dealing with faith in God’s plan, meaning we may not always see what it is that God is planning.

It is not difficult to see you are in God’s plan when things are going exactly as they should. For example, when Moses threw down his walking stick and it turned into a snake and ate up the snakes of the High Priests of Pharos court. That is a dead giveaway that what God said would happen is what would happen. Recall that Moses and God rehearsed that on Mount Horeb.

Moses had been chosen. What do you do, however, when you are in training to be chosen, and circumstances show up? Is it any different from when God prepared Moses for his call?

God will use circumstances to train your faith.

The faith comes in when you do not see the plan, or even God in your circumstances. Sometimes the plan you thought you saw is not the plan God had in store for you.

This is the time for your faith to be tested in the fire. This is good news. It means you are being strengthened. Circumstances are a time to rejoice. Circumstances mean that God is about to reveal Himself.

When we are in the crucible of our circumstances, we are in a position to discover we either do not want to answer the His call, or to discover we want to answer His call regardless why we are in that circumstance.

Circumstances are where you get to know God better, and you get to see where God is in your life. It is where the Spirit of God will reveal places in you where you get to grow to be more like Christ.

No circumstance or problem will exist in your life that will not also come with a revelation of who God is in your circumstance. This is the crucible where you are smelted and purified. This is the table where the potter molds the clay. And where the clay is fired.

The goal here is that you are made into the image of Christ, so that God’s ultimate plan can be fulfilled through you. That plan was laid out by Jesus Christ at the end of the book of Matthew. We are to go in to all the world and teach and make disciples. We are all asked to answer that call.

If you are in this crucible, then you are already walking the walk of a chosen one. Here is where your faith grows and your joy in the Lord increases.

What We Will See

Part Two of this series will reveal God’s plan in our circumstances.

We will go from the confusion of our circumstances to the absolute assurance that we are in God’s plan.

Part One was about understanding that we have to be less of ourselves and more dependent on the strength and grace and power of God through Jesus Christ. This takes faith in the one who called you.

This part will explore how that faith is developed to the point that you begin to see the truth in this promise of God:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

(Rom 8:28-30)

We will see that, even though God did not bring on your circumstances, He, in His wisdom, used this circumstance to grow you up. Therein lay the difference between the called and the chosen.

This will not happen in a vacuum. It will be public, and sometimes painful. But it will always be to the best good God has for you. You will become a Godly person, in the image of Jesus, and others will be drawn to Him through your life.

Many are called, few are chosen.

Let’s be about it!

Stay tuned for Part 2b.

 


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