We sometimes look at the Bible and forget that every person written IN the Word of God were living and breathing people – just like you and I. THEY WERE REAL. They were not characters in a book of fiction, they were people spoken about FOR A TIME SUCH AS THIS.
God has placed US here for the same reason – FOR A TIME SUCH AS THIS. Are we going to respond in faith as they did or are we going to respond to life’s circumstances in despair, as those that are without hope?
Holy Spirit woke me up this morning with a whisper, this is what He said:
“Count it ALL joy.”
Holy Spirit gave me 1 James 2-18 to reflect upon:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”
I then found myself reflecting on the lives of Paul and of Peter, and of the disciples who followed Jesus, IF you are REALLY a part of who God is calling to be His Remnant, you have to determine in your heart that no matter WHAT comes your way, you are going to follow Jesus.
Believing that Jesus is your Savior, accepting Him into your heart as Lord of your life, DOES NOT MEAN that you will not hit hard times in your faith. It does not mean that life will be as smooth a butter – but it does mean that no matter what comes your way, God will be right there with you. He will never leave nor forsake you. It means that your skip will be one of faith and joy because you know within your heart, within your mind, within your soul, that HE IS WITH YOU. The joy that believers experience is due to the fact that we have come into the knowledge of the One Who loved us enough to die on the cross for forgiveness of our sins! GOD LOVES YOU! HE LOVES YOU!
That’s just not some display-sign sentiment, it is the honest to God genuine truth! And when that truth gets from your head into your heart, your heart fills with the MOST tremendous joy! Especially when you experience for yourself that God’s love IS the REALEST thing you will EVER experience in your life, and when you grasp hold of the grand-ness of it – that God’s love is measureless, deeper than the sea, bigger than anything our human minds can comprehend – THAT is when the peace that passes ALL understanding comes in, the one spoken about in Philippians 4:6:
“And the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
It’s not something I can adequately find words to write that will accurately explain it, where “you get it” unless you open yourself up to receive it personally. If you are a part of God’s Called Remnant (and if you don’t know what I mean when I write that – take a look at my home page by clicking on the pink link listed below for the description) than you already know what I mean.
Home | (the-called-remnant.com)
If you are a follower of Christ who has decided, “COME WHAT MAY I am NOT letting go,” then YOU KNOW what I’m talking about. The Witness of Holy Spirit is inside of you, and you know that NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS in this life, you are NOT letting Go of the One Who is NOT letting Go of you! You are wrapping your arms, your legs, your torso, your WHOLE body around your Father and you are NOT letting Him put you down! I am that child! Are you?? Have you determined in your heart that NO MATTER WHAT comes your way, you are sold out for Jesus?
Can you believe Him through the tough times in life? Through sickness? Through financial trials? Through persecution for your faith by those satan will use to mock you for it? Make fun of you for it? Abandon you for it? Through any kind of things that come your way (and they will) to test your faith in God’s Word? Listen – God gives you faith and strength to endure whatever trials come your way. The point is that we are dependent upon Him, not upon ourselves. There have been times in my walk where unsaved family or friends have actually questioned me, “how can you STILL believe??!” And my response is this – “I am not in this walk of faith because of WHAT God can do for me – He doesn’t OWE me ANYTHING… I am in it and have chosen to follow Him BECAUSE OF WHAT HE DID FOR ME. Because HE FIRST LOVED ME! As it says in 1 John 4:19:
“We love because he first loved us.”
For those of us who are married, making a commitment to Jesus, is like a couple who recited wedding vows; determined that come rain or come shine, they are NOT letting go. An example of a standard wedding vow would include the following:
“I _____, take you ______, to be my wedded wife/husband. To have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish till death do us part. And hereto I pledge you, my faithfulness.”
Although divorce is a commonality today – the vows are “for better or for worse.” When you acknowledge Jesus Christ as your Savior and make the commitment to Him of making Him Lord over Your life, you are acknowledging the fact that Jesus Christ gave His life for you. YOU are making a decision to GIVE Him YOUR life, or as it says in Galatians 2:20:
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
That means that that no matter what life throws your way, you know that Jesus walks with you and beside you. You learn that as in 1 John 4:4:
“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
If you read about the Apostles in the New Testament, you will see that up unto the point that God called them individually home, they stood firm in their faith; yes, there were rocky times; yes, there were times when they failed Jesus (we ALL come up short) but the fact of the matter is that they were completely “sold out” for Jesus. You have to ask yourself (I have asked myself this as well…) Are you sold out for Jesus? Things happen that make no sense to us, because while God sees it ALL and NOTHING comes as a surprise to Him, things DO come as a surprise to us. When the going gets rough (as at times it will), will you bail out on Jesus? Or will you trust Him to bring you through whatever life brings your way???
Being 34 years old in Christ, I speak from 34 years of experience (and of one where I am still learning), during these 34 years in Him, here are a few things I have experienced in my walk with Christ:
Cancer – And with that, the loss of a 20 year marriage. – God healed me, God strengthened me, God provided for me, GOD GREW ME. GOD did NOT let go of me. One of my worst pains resulted in an amazing amount of spiritual growth. I learned to trust in HIM no matter what came my way, and God was faithful to me – and I don’t mean because He totally healed me of Triple Negative Stage 2 Breast Cancer (although He did), but the fact that even if He had not, I would have stuck with Him right up until the point of death because I knew/know the Bible says in Philippians 1:21:
“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Rejection and persecution for my faith – Family who have mocked me for my faith, turned their backs on me, friends who have betrayed me – but God surrounded me with brethren who love Jesus and are filled with the MOST amazing faith. Through this and more, God taught me that I am called to intercede for those who hurt me, for those I love (who are deceived), and to recognize that it is NOT loved ones who hurt you, but ol’slewfoot and his demons who know the best way to attack you, through what I call “heart-attacks,” which he does by keeping those who you love most blinded to God’s truth, in other words he uses them as tools to discourage you and dissuade you from being ALL that God has called you to do or be. And if you allow him the victory of that area, he wins. (See the post I wrote called “Heart – Attacks” by clicking the pink link listed below):
Are You Experiencing Heart-Attacks?? Otherwise Known as “People Wounds” | (the-called-remnant.com)
Financial Attacks – Oh yes, I have learned that we have to trust God in ALL things, including of a financial nature. Do you trust God or do you trust money? This is a real hot button for people and it was for me – until God taught me that ALL things belong to Him and that you CANNOT outgive God! Psalms 50:10 says:
“For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.”
A Prodigal Time – I experienced a time in my walk, where I turned away from God. satan tripped me up and I walked right into a trap that I had NO business walking into… It doesn’t matter that I did it naively, I did it. I chose to do it. And it just about destroyed me. Destroyed my life, destroyed my family – BUT GOD. You see, through my prodigal time, it taught me that you CANNOT EARN Heaven. That NO WORKS will get you through the gates of Heaven. The Bible tells us in Isaiah 64:6:
“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
Listen, you CANNOT get into Heaven “because of your good works.” Because “you are a good person.” YOU CANNOT. The whole point of God leaving the glories of Heaven and coming down to earth in the form of Man – Jesus Christ was to reconcile you to God by His having been born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life and died on the Cross for FORGIVENESS OF YOUR SINS (and mine), so that His Blood, (the blood of the lamb), would COVER you and gain you access into Heaven and back into a rightful relationship with God the Father. No matter WHAT you think – YOU CANNOT EARN HEAVEN ON YOUR OWN ACCORD. To believe that you can, is calling God a liar. Rejecting the sacrifice that He IN LOVE made for YOU. I learned this by my prodigal time. I learned that there go I, but for the grace of God. I learned to thank God for His mercy, for His forgiveness, and for His love because THAT is what saved ME. And that is what saves YOU. God used my incredible mess to teach me a powerful message and in turn, to be able to share that message with you. I pray you learn from it…
Those are just a few of the things that I have learned in my walk with Him. And I am STILL learning. God is the God who refines… Before Jesus ascended to Heaven, He prayed in John 17:15:
“My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that you have sent Me. I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are One— I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.”
Will you love Jesus as He loves you? Will you determine in your heart that NOTHING will sway you, (no matter HOW difficult life may seem), from the One Who is the giver of life? For the One Who REALLY does hold YOU in the palm of His hand? Will you choose through everything you go through to hold tight to the Father, trusting that He sees you? He loves you? He cares? He is GREATER than whatever situation comes your way? That even if you don’t see a way – HE IS THE WAY? Will you commit your life over to Him and trust that He will do a GOOD work in you? Through you? For the glory of His kingdom??? Even in the darkest moments of my life, I have felt the Light of Christ right there beside me – even to the point of carrying me because I knew (and I know) that God IS in complete control over ALL situations, even if I feel out of control. THIS is what it means to “count it all joy,” not “because of the situation,” but because of the One Who is in control over the situation, even when you feel it is totally out of control. We are NOT to be led by our feelings; we are to be led by our faith. And oh, the One who loves us, who loved us EVEN unto the point of death – He is worthy! HE IS WORTHY. And He IS Sovereign. I pray your eyes never fall from His truth. I pray you determine in your heart to go forward, knowing that the victory has ALREADY been won. Because if you do, at the end of this earthly life, when you stand before Him, He WILL say to you, (should you not lose faith):
“Well done my good and faithful servant.”
There truly is NO greater joy than knowing you belong to the King of Kings… May you continue to grow in Him, through Him and by Him, all to His glory, in Jesus precious name I pray. AMEN.
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