Spiritual Prosperity

GOD? What Do You Want From Me? [Part 2]


Spiritual Blog -

1 John 4:7-11 – “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  NKJV

 

             Imagine a God who is Omniscient (all knowing) who does not like us.  That is a horrific thought, right?  Most of us have or have had a secret(s) that we were ashamed to confess even to our closest friends but God KNOWS everything about us and knows our thoughts even before we think them.  The terror that would accompany the thought that God who knows all about us and does not even like us would drive us suicidal.  He would be an infinite monster!

The Bible never says:  God HAS Power or Love it says HE IS!  Love is not something apart from Him it is WHO HE IS.  But what is Love?  What is Love as it is spoken of here in this passage?  Love, in the English language has become almost a worthless word for we apply it to so many things and give it some many shades of meaning.  What do we think of when we say or hear Love?

Let me suggest a possibility:  It means that we reach out to someone we can reasonably count on that is in our class.  Before you get self-righteous and pious, that is exactly what most of us do much of the time if not all the time.  In European history when a member of a royal family fell in love with a commoner they were fired.  If the king fell for a commoner and married them he would be required to give up his throne.  Likewise when we humans fall in love we tend to keep within our self-imposed boundaries.  Naturally we do not talk about it and possibly refuse to admit it but we do it.

When we say LOVE what do we mean?  If I love a person I am acknowledging that person calls forth my highest admiration and when I look at them I admire them.  We are so captivated by them that when we talk about them they are elevated to a level of worship in our eyes and minds.  We adore them!  Likewise when we LOVE someone it means they answer to what I feel is beauty (eye of the beholder).  Beauty is something that happens in our heads and that is what we usually understand to be love.

But when it comes to God and the Bible declares:  “God is Love” many assume that God is Love in the same way we love.  Virtually every religion in existence has a concept of God based on human love.  However, if God loves like we love how would that work out?  Think with me through some problems with that concept:

  • He cannot find anyone in His Class so immediately we are eliminated. If he were to get friendly with us he would be fired as being God so we are out in the cold.
  • He cannot find anyone in harmony with Him (before salvation) so our disharmony disqualifies us. He is love and holiness and we are selfish and have no plans to change (before salvation).
  • He cannot find any human that would elicit in Him a sense that says about us, ‘That is the best person I know’ for our righteousness are as filthy rags and there is none good (before salvation).

         The dilemma for us is that if God loves like we love we are TOAST!  It is over! We are without hope and hopeless lost forever!   I heard a most appropriate illustration that explains this beautifully:

A missionary went to a witch-doctor and said:  “You preach to me. I come to you with a problem. How would you tell me to reach the Most High God?  I know you have many gods, but I want to reach the Big One, the Most High God.”  The witch-doctor said: “First, you have a big problem, because the Most High God is not interested in you for you are not good enough for him.”  That’s where their religion begins!  Sadly, we have heard the same thing in much more sophisticated terms in church.  We have been told, in so many ways, that we are not good enough for God and He is not interested.

When the Bible says:  God is Love it means that He does not reach out to someone in His class but reaches out to Whosoever Will or reaches down to mankind.  Human love reaches up but God’s love reaches down.  God loves the lost, hopeless, messed up, twisted, distorted, bent, wicked, evil and sinful man and offers LIFE, LOVE and LIBERTY through Jesus!  That is the Gospel message.  What does God want from us?  He wants to dwell in us and with us and manifest Himself through us!

God bless you as you go through this day!

0 CommentsLeave a comment

SPIRITUAL PROSPERITY – (Continued) …


Spiritual Blog - Protection

Numbers 6:22-27 – “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: 

24 The LORD  bless you, and keep you; 25 The LORD  make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; 26 The LORD  lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’  27 “So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”  NASU

Now shall we continue to consider this matter of THE BLESSING and SPIRITUAL PROSPERITY?  When David wrote Psalms 23 and 27 he wrote them from a shepherd’s heart.  He understood that the shepherd lived to protect the sheep.  No animal or person could get to the sheep without going through the shepherd.  That is why the shepherd is frequently referred to as THE DOOR.  He would sleep or sit awake all night at the door of the sheepfold.  He was essentially THE DOOR.  He was a living breathing human door.  In the midst of David’s trials he penned, “You are my shepherd…”  He was cognizant that no matter what was happening around Him God was his shepherd and therefore he had no lack.  Even though he walked with possible impending death around him He recognized that He was KEPT by the Hand of God!

The last verse of Psalm 23 declares, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”  Notice the word ‘surely’ could well be translated ‘only’.  David is declaring:  “I know what I see, hear and feel around me BUT when the facts are in I know that Goodness and Mercy are keeping me!”  They are pursuing us relentlessly it is not just following but pursuing with dogged determination.  What a testimony!  David is dogged by Saul on every turn and he declares that God’s Goodness and Mercy are relentlessly pursuing Him to KEEP him.

At the end of that traumatic encounter David wrote Psalm 27 which is a Psalm of Triumph and shouted, “The Lord is my LIGHT and my SALVATION, whom shall I fear?”  He is being pursued by one wanting to snuff out his life and in the midst of that His covenant heart cried out GOD IS MY LIGHT and SALVATION!  No matter what I see in the natural I know in my heart that GOD IS THERE!

Spiritual Blog - Safe

Where we fail too often is we look ‘at’ our circumstances but David looked ‘through’ or ‘beyond’ them.  Another Psalm written exclusively with the Blessings of Covenant in mind was Psalms 121.  Read it and you will be unable to miss this powerful truth!  Psalm 18 is where David gave a summary of his life.  He recognized God as his fortress or stronghold.  If you are being pursued by an enemy you can have confidence that you can ‘walk into God’.  Basically it is a ‘realization’ of who God is and who you are in Him!

When you come to the New Testament you find this conveyed in 1 Peter 1:5 where we read we are ‘protected’ by the Power of God.  In Philippians 4:7 we have the ‘peace of God’ that passes all human understanding and guards our hearts and minds.  When we draw from what is inside we are drawing from His strength and that produces PEACE!

So, no matter what you face or where you are remember, “Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.”  (1 John 4:4)  Too many believers are afraid.  The fear the devil and that is wrong on so many levels if we are IN CHRIST!  Remember you are BLESSED (enabled to prosper) and KEPT (protected and defended) by the LORD our God!

This is God’s Covenant Word and as Psalm 138:2 tells us He honors His word above His Name! HE WILL NOT FAIL.   May you walk in the fullness of His covenant blessing!

0 CommentsLeave a comment