I John 5:4-5 (Message)
Every God-begotten person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world’s ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.
Have we made Christianity so complicated that no one can seem to follow the rules anymore? I wonder sometimes if the church has made membership so conditional that ordinary people no longer can find their way in. Do this, don’t do this, dress like this, look like that, sing this, don’t listen to that has all made a convoluted maze of things that the Lord never intended when He said, “Whosoever will come…” (Mark 8:34) Jesus did not give a long list of things that were required and His Disciples did not have fill out an application to follow the Lord. It was the answer to a simple question followed by changed lives and miracles. It really is that simple. However, there is another side to the simplicity found in the false teaching of today that tells people you can live God’s Way and have it your way, too. People living contradictory lifestyles in the Name of Jesus shrouded in the darkness of this world. It is a dangerous lie that will be revealed altogether too late when Jesus tells these people “I knew you not!”I John 4 pulls it all back together for every God-begotten person to conquer the world’s ways. The conquering power is our faith. Anyone who believes in Jesus Christ wins out over the world’s ways. Do you know what you believe? Do you know the One in whom you trust? It is time to pick up our faith and shake off religion and humanism to reveal its simplicity.
Deuteronomy 6:4-6 (NLT)
“Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.”
The Lord’s requirement of His People is really quite basic. The Lord is to be your God alone. No other idols should ever take His Place as owner and ruler of your heart. You must love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength. It is a commitment of your mind, body and spirit. No component of your life is left out of this agreement. The Lord has promised to align His Being with you. Jesus lives on the inside of you. It is a total investment of all that He is into a feeble human being. Yet, we struggle to make a full life commitment to God as if we have something to offer. We do not even know how to elongate our life and escape death outside of the Lord, but think that we have something to offer God that He cannot get anywhere else. Everything has been given to Jesus Christ and put under His Authority until all of His Enemies become His Footstool. (Hebrews 10:12-13) There Jesus waits for everyone to decide who they will serve. His Grace is the freedom of choice. What you do with grace determines your destiny. Those who choose to live in agreement with Christ and love the Lord with all their heart, all their soul and all their strength will live with Jesus forever. Those who deny Him in one, two or all three ways will be considered an enemy of the Kingdom and lover of darkness denied access to His Glory forevermore.
John 5:24 (Message)
“It’s urgent that you listen carefully to this: Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put me in charge, has at this very moment the real, lasting life and is no longer condemned to be an outsider. This person has taken a giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living.”
While the transformation from death to life is an enormous and radical change on the inside of you, it will take time for it to work its way to the outside. Anyone who believes in Jesus Christ enough to align their life with Him will make their way to Heaven expeditiously. The problem is we want to go to Heaven our way. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. (John 14:6) You cannot make it to His Kingdom without following Jesus. You will never make it to His Kingdom through the darkness under the disguise of grace. It will not happen. You must align your life with the Father, His Son and Spirit to gain safe passage. It is all an act of faith. Faith is not some word to be flippantly used by every person who comes along like a password but rather it is a heart searching and heart breaking revelation that Jesus is all we need and that we have nothing and are nothing outside of the Lord. Grace allows us to take this revelation and make our way into His Presence despite our imperfection and sin. Why do we make it so hard? Anytime there is conflict it creates confusion. Have we become so confused by the stronghold of religion and society that we no longer know how to build a relationship with Jesus anymore? Relationships struggle with the separation of body, mind and spirit. People now tend to withhold parts of their being in natural relationships caused largely by distrust and the need for self-preservation. This has permeated Kingdom relationships too. We do not know Jesus personally so we cannot trust Him faithfully. Instead we invest a small percentage of our life expecting a massive return. This is limited by minuscule faith that crumbles when tested. So God becomes just another heartbreaker in our life. He no longer is the promise keeper we had hoped for who like all the others has left us behind. I assure you Child of God – this is not the case.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NLT)
We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.
We are empowered by Jesus Christ to know the Way, the Truth and the Life. However, if we do not align our life with Jesus these three things will remain elusive. It would be like craving tacos but going to a sushi bar. It would not make sense. Yet we expect God to show us the glory and power of His Kingdom remaining in the darkness of this world. The trouble is life is a buffet that compromises on quality to give us the quantity of options that we desire. Trying to decide on one place to eat may be a difficult choice, so one might opt for the buffet to please everybody. But if someone in the same part is in a place of honor such as a birthday celebration OR if one person is paying the bill, they would get to pick. If Jesus is honored in your life since He paid the bill for your sin, it would seem that we should allow Him to choose how we live and follow Him where the Lord desires for us to go. We must capture our rebellious thoughts pulling them back to be compared with His Way. We must smash the strongholds of human reasoning by comparing them to the Truth found in His Word. We must allow Jesus to take the controls our Life by His Spirit guiding us constantly to follow Him. Simple faith allows us to compare everything to Jesus Christ and get to know the Way, Truth and Life that will lead us to satisfaction and completion.
John 6:35-38 (Message)
Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don’t really believe me. Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go. I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me.
The most basic thing that we must come to know and understand about Jesus Christ is simply that He is all that we need. If you align your life to Jesus Christ, you will be satisfied. It is dissatisfaction that leads to wandering for fulfillment. Compromise is the need to fulfill unmet desire that leads to substitutes and second best. Hopeless lets our discontent hearts break into pieces giving everyone a piece of our life and nothing left to give Jesus Christ. Many have heard the Good News and deemed it too good to be true, they have heard the testimonies of those who have been set free and hurt by the very same saints of God living alternative lifestyles of sin. Every person eventually comes running to Jesus Christ. It is up to you when and where this will happen. Why not take back the pieces of your life and give them all to Jesus? He promises to hold on and never let go. You have just enough faith to hold on to. Why not use it today? It is a simple call with supernatural possibilities for those who will come back to Jesus – body, mind and spirit! He is asking for your love today – all of your heart, all of your soul and all of your strength even if there is very little left – Jesus will complete you!
John 6:39-40 (Message)
“This, in a nutshell, is that will: that everything handed over to me by the Father be completed—not a single detail missed—and at the wrap-up of time I have everything and everyone put together, upright and whole. This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time.”
Outside of the Way, Truth and Life, Children of God will never be complete. You will remain dissatisfied with faith and discontent in your hope until you fully trust in the Lord. Everything given to Jesus by God is to be completed. It is God’s Mandate to His Son. Jesus is unable to go back on any promise especially His Commitment to His Father. God wants all you have called on the Name of Jesus to be “put together, upright and whole.” Jesus is desperate to complete your life before the end of time. This urgency is the conviction of His Spirit inside of you. Jesus is pointing you back to Him. He is beckoning you to follow Him. He is trying to usher you home before it’s too late. Come out of the darkness into the Light of His Amazing Love. Do not be deceived darkness does not just surround the lost. It encompasses anyone who is not living according to His Way, His Truth and His Life. Without faith in Jesus Christ that leads to repentance and a change of direction, you have no hope. Seek the Lord today! It is a simple path yet not many choose to follow. Will you be one who does? God has given you His Power to conquer the world! It is your faith! What are you doing with it today? It really is that simple.
Hebrews 11:1 (Message)
The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.
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