We need restoration today. A key area is in regard to honoring the Gifts Christ gave to the Church (see Ephesians 4:11). Many have either lost this understanding or abandoned this practice through neglect. Others were perhaps not taught, or have never seen it modeled in a Spiritual environment. Regardless, true honor must be restored as part of what it means to actually worship The Father "in Spirit and Truth" (John 4:24). God not only deserves and desires such honor; it is His condition for the Spirit to fully reveal Christ among us.
Recently, it became clear the Lord was revealing that anxiety (the spirit of the age) wants to subvert your constant, current connection with God's peace & progress in the Spirit. God wants you free & Jesus fully paid for you to live in liberty. Anxiety is dangerous; we know that it's detrimental to life in every way. That said: we tend to look at everything about just how it impacts us personally, but there is a greater issue at stake. Anxiety causes you to dishonor God, because it "exalts itself against" what the Lord says, wants, is doing & has prepared for us to receive, believe & see established. And it has various manifestations.
The Lord is good. Christ "ever liveth to make intercession" for you and all who have received Him (Hebrews 7:22). Let's allow what He has done and continues to do be fulfilled for His glory. Since Monday morning, I've been reminded time and again of what I used to hear from various people, ones who would go in to do various orthopedic rehabs with my Mother over the years. They would say to her: "I'm here to get you started, but you will have to do the work." Notice that I didn't say they were there to do 'various orthopedic rehabs for my Mother,' but instead they there to do them "with my Mother."
Before the beginning of what has ever existed, God decided His strategy. The Lord's strategy remains from the beginning - for mankind to be in a fulfilling and fruitful relationship with Him. Although living beings surrounded the throne and various ranks of angels filled Heaven and the universe, God purposed to have a people for Himself who could freely love and willingly serve Him (Revelation 5:8-11). God's intent was that human beings would intimately relate and completely follow Him by honoring His workmanship in and with them.
In this day, no one needs a tutorial with a litany of how the world has changed in the last few years in so many ways. What you may be experiencing that you did not ask for, could not predict and would never have chosen to happen is already in place. It is not eternal, but it is not going away. And it is you who must adjust. The Good News that remains forever true is that the Lord God has already arrived at this specific place and time ahead of you, prepared the way before you knew you would need one, and provided sufficient, overcoming grace for the journey.
For those who fast periodically - especially for spiritual reasons - I wanted to offer you some helps and experience I've picked up along the way. Much of this also applies to fasting for physical reasons. I am not a medical professional, but I have never had to take a regular prescription medication in my life and have been to the doctor so little in my adult life that I will simply pay the penalty not to be enrolled in heath insurance under the ACA. The Lord Jesus has paid the price for me: spirit, soul and body (I Thessalonians 5:23-24).
We have been emphasizing that those who have truly received Christ have been recreated with a new life source, one which originates in God, carrying His essence and quality. As the Lord said through Paul: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ" (2 Cor. 5:17-18). This thoroughly coincides with what Jesus Himself said: "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). Today, let's look at what Jesus said more closely. Those with the resources of the church have repeatedly been made aware of the emphases on the words "life" (zoe) and "abundantly" (perissos).
When we receive God's salvation through Jesus Christ, our reality is then forever changed. "Jesus said to him: 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life...'" (John 14:6). Then and forever, we as believers enter a new realm of authority. "'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, 'who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty'" (Rev.1:8). Although the way God's presence and power are experienced differs during distinct seasons in various settings, our priorities and processes of life are eternally impacted: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (Rev. 22:13). And for those fully responding to become truly positioned to move with God as He moves, life becomes more and more exclusively about the Lord: "to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Php. 1:21).
Everything in the universe began with God and it continues only through Christ. Last time I emphasized that 'we' are not the indispensable component for understanding what exists, how it is to be understood, or for what should take place. The Creator and Sustainer of all is where life originates and the only place absolute truth can ever be found. This means that if we truly are a believer in Christ, He is forever our "truth" (John 14:6). To truthfully represent Him, we must always begin with God in the Spirit, living with Him according to His design (John 4:23-24). This is the plan of the Lord for coming into His eternal purpose, to take hold of His call upon us, and to see all we are and do merge into His destiny for the Church (Philippians 3:11; Ephesians 3:11-12).
Everything in the universe began with God. The Scripture makes it clear: "Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him.
