Sunday, October 8, 2017

Rediscover Your Identity In Jesus Christ!

Malachi 3:7, “Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?”

We find numerous passages in the Bible where God instructed His people to repent and return to Him. How can that be relevant to the Body of Christ? Because our attention can be easily diverted from the vision we have of God's work and our mission. We are easily distracted from God's business so we need Him to remind us often of where we are and what we need to be doing. We need the Holy Spirit to reveal where we have slipped away and to where we need to return.

Enabled by the Holy Ghost, go back to the inception of the vision. Go back to where you started. Examine anew your decision to follow Christ, your mission and purpose. What was your perception of your relationship then and where are you now? What has changed? What about the vision needs your attention? In the beginning it was all about Jesus, the truth of God's Word and His commission. We must allow the Holy Spirit to open the windows of our soul to the revelation of His perfect truth and how that will be implemented through our lives.

John 1:14, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” Jesus is the focus here. The Word was made flesh and lived among mortal flesh. The Greek term for “word” is “logos.” Revelation is the idea contained in the perception of “logos.” The Word is the revelation of the Triune God. Triune being three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

1 John 1:1, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) 3That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” Therefore we can conclude that the essence of God is fully accessible by mortal flesh through Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost.

What does that mean to us? It is important for us to understand that God, in all his awesomeness, is fully approachable through Jesus Christ. John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Ryrie says that the logos concept, “here is applied to Jesus who is all that God is and an expression of Him. The Word is said to be with God (IE., in communion with and yet distinct from God) and to be God (IE., identical in essence with God).” Sounds awesome, right? That believers have full access to such a magnanimous person. But, we do in Jesus Christ. God wants us to know Him that we can fully know ourselves in Him.

We don't need to back away from the mountain of God in fear of His presence. He wants us to not only be aware of Him but to share His presence in our daily walk with Him. The Israelites recoiled in fear at the manifest presence of God on Mt. Sinai. They had witnessed the power of God, but without faith to trust Him, God's presence created fear. They had seen with their own eyes what He could do. So, God placed a boundary at the foot of the mountain and they were instructed not to approach the mountain. The Israelites had to communicate with God through a mediator. God gave His instructions to the Israelites through Moses. What made Moses different from the rest? He trusted God! He was willing to leave the things that he didn't understand in the hands of God.

We have no need to be fearful and afraid. Jesus became our mediator with God when we accepted His sacrifice at Calvary. Because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ we have the boldness to draw near to God and through our mediator, Jesus, we bring our petitions to Him. He invites us to come boldly before the throne of grace and make our petitions know to Him. This is a very important attribute of our relationship with God. In the presence of God, we will discovery who we are in Jesus Christ. He will define the terms and boundaries of our mission by the revelation and leading of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives.

His presence is absolutely indispensable if we are to understand who we are in Jesus Christ and what that means to us and to a lost and dying world. God help us to be receptive to the illumination of His Spirit!

No comments:

Post a Comment