Trusting GOD Almighty as HE reveals our true identity is a really big step for many of us because trust doesn’t come easy for us. But we must trust HIM! We must do so confidently and focused on the fact that it will bring us into an intimate bond with HIM, and our brethren.
Neither the liberal nor conservative views regarding sin serves the healing purposes of GOD Almighty. I am not a democrat. I am not a republican. I am a Man of GOD and as a man of GOD I am commanded to see things through GOD’S lens. I am liberal on some issues and conservative on other issues.
We must stay focused on the commission already given us and not look to men and their weak understanding or personal interpretation of The Word. So, let’s focus on The Cross and on those around us that are in dire need of JESUS The CHRIST.
In spite of our own helplessness and emotional turmoil, there is Freedom. That freedom is found only in JESUS The CHRIST, as HE accepts us. HE has broken the power of our strongholds, our habits, our addictions, our sins, at the cross. Yet that doesn’t mean we have nothing else to do.
Created in the image of GOD Almighty; born in the image of Adam.
While sin has distorted HIS Image in us, our One True Living GOD robed HIMSELF in flesh, came to this earth becoming the man, JESUS The CHRIST, to be the sacrifice for your wrongs and mine! HE suffered death to Redeem us from all iniquity and to restore us to our intended identity, and to restore us in the liberty HE desires for HIS Children. We do have solid Hope!
To enter into The Way, we must continue to press forward towards the mark. Will we entrust our lives into those hands that were pierced for us? Will we commit ourselves to doing HIS Will rather than our own? Are we ready, willing and able to trust HIS Guidance rather than our own, or others’, ideas of what is best for us?
Our lives have been "unmanageable!" We must know by now that we have been under the wrong management. Now it is time that we learn how to give our life over to the Only ONE who can properly manage it. It is time to surrender.
We may have tried to entrust our lives to HIM before and failed. We may have entrusted our lives to HIM at one time and taken them back. Whatever may have gone wrong before, now we seek what HE desires for us, to rediscover who HE Created us to be in JESUS The CHRIST.
At one time I managed to confuse knowledge with faith. I thought that the more Bible I crammed into my head, the more Faith that I would have. I studied and studied, day by day, morning and night; faithfully attended “church” and entered the ministry.
I filled my head with Bible truth only to find that my Faith was still not strong enough to withstand the blows that came to me in life.
Please don’t misunderstand me. Knowledge is necessary. You cannot trust in The One you do not know. Knowledge alone, however, is not enough for Faith. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of GOD" (Romans 10:17), but faith is not merely hearing. It only comes by hearing.
Knowledge is the beginning of faith, but it is only the beginning. Truth must filter down from our heads into the very fiber of our souls. This does not happen quickly or easily. It is not obtained by mere human effort. It is the gift of GOD over time. I learned this slowly and painfully. And guess what? I am still learning and will continue to ‘be learning’ until HE comes for me. None of us has “arrived.” Remember that!
In the past, before surrendering to JESUS The CHRIST, when life overwhelmed me, I turned for comfort to homosexual activity, random sex, pornography, masturbation, gambling, drugs and the list goes on. This only led to greater woe--guilt, shame, fear, prison, disease, hurt, the loss of family & friends.
In the first few years of my walk there was doubt that I had any faith at all. I constantly feared that I could be lost forever--that JESUS The CHRIST would abandon me, and that HIS final word to me would be, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness." (Matthew 7:21-23).
Then, at a very low point in my walk, after I stumbled big time, GOD HIMSELF reached out to me. I cannot explain or describe it. Words are inadequate.
HE took the Truths I had learned (my study was not in vain) and began to apply them to my heart. Tenderly, The HOLY SPIRIT applied the balm of HIS Truth to my soul, and slowly I began to revive. HE gave me a heart transplant.
Not only did The FATHER minister to my heart directly, HE also used others to open my eyes to the meaning of HIS Scriptures for my life. HE taught me to meditate on HIS Truth until I could see how it applied to me and then to praise HIM for the mercy and grace I experienced as a result of this process.
Please be assured I still have much to learn.
I agree with the Apostle Paul, "12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." ~ Philippians 3:12-14
Neither the liberal nor conservative views regarding sin serves the healing purposes of GOD Almighty. I am not a democrat. I am not a republican. I am a Man of GOD and as a man of GOD I am commanded to see things through GOD’S lens. I am liberal on some issues and conservative on other issues.
We must stay focused on the commission already given us and not look to men and their weak understanding or personal interpretation of The Word. So, let’s focus on The Cross and on those around us that are in dire need of JESUS The CHRIST.
In spite of our own helplessness and emotional turmoil, there is Freedom. That freedom is found only in JESUS The CHRIST, as HE accepts us. HE has broken the power of our strongholds, our habits, our addictions, our sins, at the cross. Yet that doesn’t mean we have nothing else to do.
Created in the image of GOD Almighty; born in the image of Adam.
While sin has distorted HIS Image in us, our One True Living GOD robed HIMSELF in flesh, came to this earth becoming the man, JESUS The CHRIST, to be the sacrifice for your wrongs and mine! HE suffered death to Redeem us from all iniquity and to restore us to our intended identity, and to restore us in the liberty HE desires for HIS Children. We do have solid Hope!
To enter into The Way, we must continue to press forward towards the mark. Will we entrust our lives into those hands that were pierced for us? Will we commit ourselves to doing HIS Will rather than our own? Are we ready, willing and able to trust HIS Guidance rather than our own, or others’, ideas of what is best for us?
Our lives have been "unmanageable!" We must know by now that we have been under the wrong management. Now it is time that we learn how to give our life over to the Only ONE who can properly manage it. It is time to surrender.
We may have tried to entrust our lives to HIM before and failed. We may have entrusted our lives to HIM at one time and taken them back. Whatever may have gone wrong before, now we seek what HE desires for us, to rediscover who HE Created us to be in JESUS The CHRIST.
At one time I managed to confuse knowledge with faith. I thought that the more Bible I crammed into my head, the more Faith that I would have. I studied and studied, day by day, morning and night; faithfully attended “church” and entered the ministry.
I filled my head with Bible truth only to find that my Faith was still not strong enough to withstand the blows that came to me in life.
Please don’t misunderstand me. Knowledge is necessary. You cannot trust in The One you do not know. Knowledge alone, however, is not enough for Faith. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of GOD" (Romans 10:17), but faith is not merely hearing. It only comes by hearing.
Knowledge is the beginning of faith, but it is only the beginning. Truth must filter down from our heads into the very fiber of our souls. This does not happen quickly or easily. It is not obtained by mere human effort. It is the gift of GOD over time. I learned this slowly and painfully. And guess what? I am still learning and will continue to ‘be learning’ until HE comes for me. None of us has “arrived.” Remember that!
In the past, before surrendering to JESUS The CHRIST, when life overwhelmed me, I turned for comfort to homosexual activity, random sex, pornography, masturbation, gambling, drugs and the list goes on. This only led to greater woe--guilt, shame, fear, prison, disease, hurt, the loss of family & friends.
In the first few years of my walk there was doubt that I had any faith at all. I constantly feared that I could be lost forever--that JESUS The CHRIST would abandon me, and that HIS final word to me would be, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness." (Matthew 7:21-23).
Then, at a very low point in my walk, after I stumbled big time, GOD HIMSELF reached out to me. I cannot explain or describe it. Words are inadequate.
HE took the Truths I had learned (my study was not in vain) and began to apply them to my heart. Tenderly, The HOLY SPIRIT applied the balm of HIS Truth to my soul, and slowly I began to revive. HE gave me a heart transplant.
Not only did The FATHER minister to my heart directly, HE also used others to open my eyes to the meaning of HIS Scriptures for my life. HE taught me to meditate on HIS Truth until I could see how it applied to me and then to praise HIM for the mercy and grace I experienced as a result of this process.
Please be assured I still have much to learn.
I agree with the Apostle Paul, "12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." ~ Philippians 3:12-14