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A Soul in Sync
I want to first start with a description of what the soul is because I keep forgetting myself. Our soul is our life and defines who we are, what we believe and what we stand for. It is our volition (desire), our mind (intellect), and our emotion. Our soul is moulded by experience, knowledge and understanding. God gave us talents that we nurtured with our soul. The Bible talks incessantly about soul, heart and mind being something that we need to guard. Our soul is what the world is after. They want us to think like them and in doing that we become them. They will not be happy until we are all like them. We are called by Jesus Christ to think differently from the world.
One Foot in the World One Foot in the Church
Our soul is sanctified (separated) from the world for us to think like Jesus., to take on the mind of Jesus. This is not as easy as it sounds. We read in the Bible we are being called out of the world but the world will hate us (John 15:19). This is why some of us have one foot in the world and one foot in the body. There are some who are just dipping their toe in the body because their soul is weak. A weak soul is a direct result of quenching the Spirit. A weak soul will not be allowed in the New Jerusalem because a weak soul has a penchant for sin. It follows its flesh and makes the flesh its master instead of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19-21).
Sanctification Not a Choice; Soul Sync a Choice!
Being sanctified is not our choice, it belongs to God alone, but after salvation we have the choice to live in the world or live in the body of Christ. We can choose to have our mind changed by God or we can choose to have the same mind as the world. The choice is ours to sync our soul with His Spirit or to sync it with the World. When we sync our mind with the Spirit we can expect change, we can expect wisdom, we can expect understanding and we can expect Jesus to move in us. We cannot expect any of this with the world. I do not need to go into a list of things the world expects from us but God expects Jesus from us. We are to have the mind of Jesus (1 Corinthians 2:16) therefore the deeds of Jesus. We are to sync our mind with the Spirit and bring our body into submission with our soul (1 Corinthians 9:27).
A Mind Meld with the Master
I know you are reading this thinking how impossible it is to kick habits, change ways, and most ridiculous to think like Jesus! God sent His only Son as an example to us but He also wrote this great book called the Holy Bible that we would have a reference book. Paul told Timothy All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16). ALL Scripture can be used to train us up into the mind of God and that is exactly what we will do. We are going to create a mind meld with the Master that we will be equipped for every good work the Master sends us to do. God is more than willing to reveal Himself in the Scripture and reveal Himself in us to others. I pray that He reveal Himself in you just as He is revealed in me!
Action
For this week pray to the Master He would give you an open heart for knowledge while we mould our mind into the mind of Christ using Scripture to solve about worldly issues. Pray for me also to bring today’s problems to Him for solution. If you have an issue that keeps plaguing you please IM me or send me an email at Kathleen@thelifeskillsstrategist.com and I will point you in the direction of Jesus and His Word for correction advice.
I know that if we choose life in the Word we will find solid Biblical strategies to improve our life. I ask Jesus to reveal himself in you just as He is revealed in me.
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Cry out to Him and See!
There is nothing like a death in the family to make us evaluate (or me anyway) the things we are doing. We watch as people walk through the room and how they react. We react with curiosity about how they have impacted the lives of those they knew. We evaluate how they have impacted our life. The only real way we can know what they have done for others is to listen to stories and listen intently to how people felt about that person. This is a skill that we must learn to utilize as we get older because we learn much about ourselves and about others. We can know someone all of our life and still not know the impact that person has had on others outside of our own relationship with them.
This begs me to ask of myself, “How have I had an impact on those in my life?” Have I created an atmosphere of love or contention? Have I taught my loved ones that I am determined or lazy? BUT the biggest question is, “Have I shown (not told) them that I love Jesus?” Will that be the first thing people say or will they have to find out from the pastor during my service. I have no other desire for you to know anything other than my love for Jesus and how I work that out in my life. What I want you to see is I love Jesus, I love my family, I love my friends and anyone whom I can touch through my teaching of Jesus Christ and my writings about how we can learn from Him.I want you to see my passion for the Word when I teach you what Jesus has been teaching me. I want you to see my determined devotion to Him while I help you learn what I have learned. I want you to see my steadfastness in doing what Jesus has asked me to do. In this you will find out that I have dedicated my life to knowing Jesus by studying His word so I can be of use to the women in the area in which Jesus has placed me. I cry out to God daily for them and I ask Him to position me to be of the most use to them.
How can we go forward when we feel like we are not doing enough? Jeremiah 33:3 says “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’” Cry out to Jesus and ask Him daily what He has planned for you. He will reveal in you just as He will reveal in me just exactly what He wants us to learn and how He wants us to use that knowledge. Then we must do it!
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My Soul Longs for Him!
I have been juggling three very good books over the last week and wonder how much more does God need to teach me. The most phenomenal thing is that they all are related to each other at this very moment. How amazing is that? Not at all because we are dealing with our God here! I am reading The One Year Chronological Bible, Water in the Dessert and The Spiritual Man. Each book has its own theme yet each book at this moment is speaking to me loud and clear.The One Year Chronological Bible is designed to allow us to read Scripture in the order in which it happened. I have read the New Testament already and am reading the Old Testament now, Numbers 5. I have read about the building of the Tabernacle and the placement of the tribes around the Tabernacle. Since I am not a numbers person I have to really force myself to go through any part of the Bible that adds, subtracts and divides people. I am reading it differently now based on the other books I am reading at the same time. What I learn in this Book continuously is when God chooses His people He takes good care of them and since I will never be done reading this book He will continue to teach me this fact. This Book continuously makes my soul long for Him.
The second book I pick up is Water in the Dessert by Sherry Stahl. To tell you the truth I didn’t want to pick this book up at all because first, I am not in a dessert right now and second, the green eyed giant. Each of them was a darn good excuse for not reading this book but they were just that, excuses. Sherry bases this book, so far, on the Exodus account of the Israelites being freed by God. Ironic enough that is what I just got finished reading. My Spirit was there but my soul and flesh did not want to pick this book up. That giant had a hold of me and I couldn’t shake it so I have to have a talk with soul. Had my soul not been transformed by the Spirit I could have been years longer letting that giant take me down. This book (or study) has helped me to bury deep in me the truths I know about our Jesus Christ and make my soul long even more for Him!
Then I pick up the most simple but complex book The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee. This book is most fantastic. It is a pondering book for certain. It is not one of those books you can read and walk away from without pondering the information. I have read a couple of Watchman’s books thus far and my soul is changed forever because I understand my soul better. As I read this book (I am on page 61) my soul becomes more aware of exactly what it should be doing. What wonderful information to know! It makes every Word I read in the Scriptures jump out at me and leave a mark so deep that I will be able to feel it forever. It, and Watchman’s other books together, have helped to create in me a longing for Jesus that cannot be quenched with just Sunday meetings. I long to hear the Spirit talk to me all day long.
Reading three books together may sound daunting to you but to me it is exciting. I read the Bible to know Jesus so the rest of the books I read have meaning in my life. Can they help me to understand the Word better? Can they help me live the Word better? Can they help me teach the Word better? These are the questions I ask when I read a book. If I am stranded on an island and I could pick three books to have I would choose these three books. BUT if I could only choose one it would most definitely be the Holy Bible. We will never long for Jesus by reading any other book! When God reveals Himself to us He does it through His own Word! Choose the Word over any book and He will reveal Himself to you!
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Excited to Learn? YEAH!
Knowledge is one thing but understanding is a whole new ball game. I love it when I begin to understand something whether related to the Word of God or at my job or even just reading a book that is hard to understand. I ponder stuff all the time and ask why a lot. Jesus is so patient with my questions and my lack of knowledge that it just blows me away when He teaches me something new. I do not deserve to know this much or to understand anything He is teaching me because I am so dim witted sometimes. How many times does He have to teach us something before we learn it? Well, let’s see what the Word has to say about that.
I want to start with Proverbs 6:6 when Solomon calls someone a sluggard. Lazy people cannot learn so he says to them go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise. He wants us not to be lazy and learn fully what we need to learn. Wisdom does not come in one day so the fact that he refers to us becoming wise tells me that he knows we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
Psalm 106:35 tells us that they mingled with the nations and learned their practices. That is us Christians. We mingle with the world and learn their ways in time and act like them but we need to mingle with God and learn His ways so we can become knowledgeable about the things of God. To do this we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
The Bible was written for us to learn from and Paul needed to tell us just that in Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. The length of time it takes us to learn is shown here in the term perseverance. Why would we need perseverance if our learning were going to be quick? Again, we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
Proverbs 1:7 says that the beginning of knowledge comes from fearing the Lord. Fearing the Lord is not based on what you don’t know it is based on what you do know. We cannot gain a fear of the Lord until we know the Lord. He has buried many secrets in His Word that He expects us to uncover. It takes learning to uncover those secrets. Only fools despise wisdom and instruction – be not a fool and fear the Lord. Take time learning and be taught often.
Read books but always come back to the Word! These are just a few verses that tell us about learning. Jesus taught us the whole time He was on the earth so that we would have a mentor; someone to teach us the ways to walk. Jesus said take His yoke upon us and learn from Him for He is gentle and lowly in heart and we will find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:29). Our learning begins and ends with Scripture. We can be taught the Bible from others but the truth can only be found in one place – the Holy Bible. It tells us that we need no other teacher (1 John 2:27) than Jesus and that God will send no one else to tell us the truth (Hebrews 1:1-3) because Jesus has told the truth to us, recorded and distributed it to us that we may learn. When the mystery of the truth is revealed to us it is an exciting thing to comprehend because it has taken us time to learn and we were taught often!
Be persistent this week to spend time in the word with the FULL understanding that it will take time to learn and we will need to be taught many times before we understand. God will reveal His mysteries to us if we persist.
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The Rewards for Study
I don’t know about you, I am an instant gratification person! Well, that might be a little strong but I like to see the reward from my work. I am a hard worker and I can see the reward sometimes but there are times when I work hard and see nothing, if you know what I mean. I don’t see the reward right away and it bothers me! I see that sometimes when I study the Bible! We have been talking about studying the Bible but do we know what we get out of studying the Bible? What is the reward and exactly when will we see this reward? Does each person get the same reward? Let’s see what the Bible says about that….
2 Timothy 2:15 says rightly dividing the Word of Truth, which is studying the Word and knowing it, means we can present ourselves approved to God an unashamed worker. If we diligently study the Word, God will approve us along with the rest of those who study the Word. Each of us will receive the same reward. This is an amazing thing all by itself because everyone will stand before Jesus one day but we will already be approved before we even stand before Him. That is a great thing to know while I live here on this earth but I must continue to study the Word to continue in that approval.
Joshua 1:8 Meditating in the Word, day and night, will surely help us do all that is written in it therefore we will be rewarded with a prosperous way and good success in what we do. If we meditate in the Word and do the Word, God will make our way prosper and give us good success along with the rest of those who do that same. Each of us will receive the same reward. Another great thing to know while here but I need to continue to meditate on His Word and observing to do all that is written in it to continue going in a prosperous way and having good success in that way!
John 8:31-32 A Disciple of Jesus who abides in His Word shall know the truth and that truth shall set him free. The reward for abiding in His Word is freedom. Abiding is more than just doing it is living. If we spend our days abiding in the things of Jesus we shall know the truth, which in turn shall set us free. Each of us will receive the same reward. Oh, freedom is the greatest thing to know but we must abide and continue to abide to know this freedom in the truth.
Proverbs 25:2 God takes glory in concealing a matter so that His kings can search it out to our glory. The reward for searching out a matter is glory from God. We should never be satisfied with our current knowledge but always searching out the matters of God. If we spend our days searching out matters from the Word we will obtain glory from God just like the rest of us kings who do the same. Each of us will receive the same reward. How wonderful it is to know that Jesus will see me as a king and bestow glory on me as long as I continue to search out the matters of God.
We know that all of these rewards are contingent on us continuing in mining for the treasures of God. He wants us to study so that our soul will be overtaken with doing the right thing, the will of God. Our soul will always want to do the ME thing but God wants us to do His thing and that is why we study the Word; to know God and to love Him so much that we do His will out of love.
Please don’t study the Word for your head or for the world, study for your heart and God will reward you mightily with approval, freedom, glory, a prosperous way, good success and so many more. Study the Bible to find other rewards and be further rewarded.
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The Yay’s and the Nay’s have it! Or do they?
In spite of what people may say God has gifted each one of us with gifts to be able to do our jobs. Our jobs consist of how we make our daily income as to not starve to death. We have what the world will call natural talents but we Christians know that these gifts are from God and are for His glory to do His good works. We get excited because we will be able to use them for the good of the Kingdom. When you attempt to activate these gifts inside the Body of Christ we will come across the nay’s and the yay’s in spite of what the Father has told us to do. Should you listen? Yes! Should you obey? Now that is another story all together!
The nay’s are the hardest to ignore. They are persistent and loud. They come from people who love you and people who hate you. They come from those who want to be you and those who just want you to go away! The goal of the nay is to stop you in your tracks – not to redirect you or help you – just to stop you! Stopping you could also mean many different things. It could be because they have a belief system that is built on false precepts and you are challenging those precepts. It could be that you ‘going’ might mean where they are in their eyes isn’t good enough. It could be that they actually have a good misguided heart and don’t want you to be hurt. The problem with each one of these is they are disobedient to the plans of the Father. Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:23 get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to Me! Peter was concerned about the things of men rather than of the thing of God. I am convinced there is a lot of people just like that. They set out to be stumbling blocks to people because they are not dealing well with their own stumbling blocks. It may be their thought processes, their beliefs or they just might be full of spite from their own lack of success! None of this is our problem unless they are successful at stopping us! I think we should listen but with our Spirit to discern the truth! I say, get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to God and to me. Then I will put the things of God on my mind and keep moving even if I am scared!
The yay sayers may very well be hard to ignore as well! How many times do we need to be patted on the back for a job well done before we become prideful and expect the pat? Sometimes the yay’s are for us to participate in something ‘not’ in the plan of God for us. Quite often this is the case and it keeps us from doing what we are suposed to do. We spend a lot of time doing stuff that doesn’t please God and ironically enough, doesn’t even please us. We clean when we hate cleaning, we take care of kids when we hate it, we lead but are not gifted for it, we preach but are not called to do it. There is just so much we do that doesn’t give glory to God because He has not asked us to go man has and we don’t have the words or the guts to say no. Every now and then we need to do stuff that is not appealing to us but the majority of the time we need to do what God has called us and gifted us to do. God does not gift you to be a door matt He gifts you to empower the Body of Christ. We cannot do that if we are not joyful in our work. Jesus said in Luke 9:24 that if you lose your life you shall live. Losing your life means dropping your own selfish plans and standing behind God’s plan for you even against other Christians who are not willing to lose their lives. All of God’s work is good but not all of it is beneficial to us or the Body of Christ when we are doing it. We need to listen with our Spirit for direction and do what we are told.
The nay’s and the yay’s can be considered but should never be held up before God’s plan for us. He may very well have sent those folks to us to test our faith or to actually get us to stop doing something He never told us to do nor gifted us to do. We need to know our Father so that we can tell the difference between a nay for men or for God and the yay from men or from God. Our lack of knowledge of the Father will always put us in a tricky position discovering what is of God and what is of men. We will be thrown to and fro if we don’t make sure that what we are doing is of God. For us to be successful at doing the will of God we need to put the nayers and the yayers behind us and God in front of us. As long as we are following God we will do exactly what He wants and not worry about what man wants from us.
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What Will it Take? Part 3
I have asked you what it will take to get you to read the Bible – what was your answer? I have also asked you what it will take to get you to study the Bible – what was you answer to that question? Now a new question if you can handle it. What will it take for you to memorize the Bible? I am not asking you to memorize the whole thing just parts of it. What is your biggest excuse for refusing to memorize Scripture? Actually, no matter what the excuse, there is no excuse for not knowing the Word of God. In Proverbs 1:7 Solomon says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and that fools reject wisdom and instruction. I am going to tell you on this day that memorizing Scripture is part of this knowledge because memorizing Scripture makes us ponder what it means to us right here, right now and it give us something to hang onto for future use. Shall you present yourself to Jesus mature in the things of God or not?
I hear all the time that people have “life verses” that they have memorized but I am confused about what exactly that means, or more so, what does it mean to them. They memorize a verse like Romans 8:28 but miss the verses before and after where it says that we are predestined to do good works. They memorize Jeremiah 29:11 but skip the fact that God said seek me first and you shall have this. Seeking Him means knowing everything that He says not just what we want to know at that moment or even for life. Has our soul been so spoiled by what we have been feeding it that we want to have life verses that tell us that we are only going to have good things for the future. What about memorizing Hebrews 4:12 or Psalm 149:5 or Isaiah 49:2 or even Jeremiah 23:29 and John 12:48? We are going to be judged by the Words of Jesus when we stand before Him and if we have never buried them in our soul we will not even know what we will be judged by. This is what the Word means to us right here and right now. It is not about our soul here on Earth it is about our soul in Heaven. Paul said to bring your soul into submission (1 Corinthians 9:26-27). Do not run aimlessly through life only putting fluffy verses into your soul, run to win this race to Jesus. Put verses into your soul that change you, encourage you to keep going and keep you on the pavement. Since our life is constantly changing so should our “life verse or verses” change. Challenge yourself and your soul to memorize a whole Psalm this week. Some good ones would be Psalm 8, Psalm 91, Psalm 100 and the all-favourite Psalm 23. Bring your soul into submission so that in the future you will be able to continue running through that desert.
A time is coming when you will not feel the Father around or Jesus or the Holy Spirit because your soul is inundated with worldly woes. Are you prepared for that? Will your whole Spirit come to a stand still? Will you wish you had prepared yourself? Yes, you will unless you let your soul whining take over. Will God be to blame if life happens and you have not prepared your soul to handle it with dignity? You won’t be alone. There are many Christians out there who have not prepared their souls for what is about to happen but that is still no excuse for them to be unprepared. What is it that you are preparing for? Are you preparing for financial disaster, a death in the family, kids coming or kids moving out, job or job loss? Jesus tells us that where our heart is, that is where our treasure is (Matthew 6:21) but our heart is supposed to be in Heaven and we are supposed to be preparing ourselves for when Jesus comes again. We are being sought after by a roaring lion to be devoured and the only way to beat him at his game is the Word. He will continue to come after us but if we know the Truth it shall set us free from the oppression that he has laid upon us. We are not without power but it is not our power that can beat the devil it is the power of God that beats him. The power of God is His Word and it is sharper than a two-edged sword piercing even to the separating of soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12).
If you know the things of God you shall present yourself to Jesus mature in the things of God! Is that not what we want? Therefore there is nothing in this world that should stop us from becoming mature and running the race well. Memorizing Scripture will give us this knowledge we need to present ourselves mature because memorizing Scripture makes us ponder what it means to us right here, right now and it give us something to fight the devil with in the future. I cannot say this enough – reading the Bible, studying the Bible and knowing the Bible is the only way to mature in the things of God. It is disappointing to find Christians who are not hell bent on knowing God. Yes, it is work but how well do you know how to search the Internet or run your computer? Do you think that will give you a free pass into the New Jerusalem? How many songs can you sing from memory? What is stopping you from singing a Psalm instead of a song? Can you see how weak your current excuse is, if you just ponder that excuse for just one moment? When Jesus comes He will take no excuses, only the Truth and His Word will judge us! Ignorance of His Word will not save us, it will kill us. We are to bring our soul into submission and make it do what Jesus wants us to do! Unless you read, study and know Scripture you will never know what that is! What will it take for you to understand that God’s will for us will not be thwarted by stubbornness? He knows what you will and won’t do and He will pull you along kicking and screaming if He has too so why don’t you just do what He wants! He wants you to know Him and to know Him you need to read the Word, study the Word and know the Words.
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What will it take? Part 2
I asked you last time to just ‘believe’ but and now I am asking you to go further and to know. We discussed what it will take to get you to read the Bible. Did you start? If you did I am super proud of you! Considering that God has made us all different we will have different ways of getting started and I told you my story so you would know how weird it was and how different God works in our life to mature us.
This week the question is – What will it take for you to start studying the Bible? Reading the Bible is one thing but studying it is something totally different. It takes time and effort to figure out what the Bible is talking about. It takes more than just going to the building where we congregate to study the Word. It takes more than a weekly Bible study to study the Scriptures. We are under the misguided perception that the Bible is incomplete due to missing information. There is nothing incomplete about Scripture. Let us go to Scripture to find out.
Paul tells us 2 Timothy 3:16 the Bible is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness and He said this before the New Testament ever existed. What other book is good for this? Romans 15:4 tells us that Scripture is good for encouraging us so we might have hope. What other book tells us it is there to encourage us and give us hope that also says it is profitable? Hebrews 4:12 tell us this Book is alive as well. What book, any book, can tell us the same and actually prove it? Jesus tells us Luke 8:11 that Scripture is a seed and 1 Peter 1:25 tells us the Seed will remain forever. What more do we need to tell us what a wonderful privileged it is to know the Word of God? What more do we need to decide that it is profitable to study the Scriptures because of it’s powerful characteristics.
Job 11:7 asked us if we can discover the depths of God? Why, yes we can! Daniel 2:28 reminds us there is a God in Heaven who reveals mysteries. Jesus told us in Matthew 13:11 that it is granted to us to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. The great mystery that has been hidden since the past ages has been manifested to His Saints (Col 1:26) is there for us to discover. The question still remains – what will it take for you to study the Word of God?
This week talk truth to yourself and figure out what it will take for you to want to uncover the mysteries hidden in Scripture. There are many rewards for gaining this information and one of them is listed in Proverbs 25:2. Do you want to be a king on the New Earth and go in and out of the New Jerusalem or would you rather just sit outside the gate waiting for the King of your Nation to bring you the latest news about Jesus. When Jesus returns there will be no more mystery to solve but our opportunity to search the Scriptures for this mystery will also be gone along with the reward we will get for searching out those mysteries.One last time I ask you – what will it take for you to begin studying Scripture? Start now and you won’t have to answer this question again.
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Did He Really Say That?
There is a couple of places in Scripture that tell us about salvation but we glance over them each time. Let me bring them to your attention and tell you why you should stop glancing and start pondering them but first let us get out of the way THE question, “Are you saved?” The one way to discover if anyone is saved is by asking this simple question, “Are you going to Heaven?” The answer is a great indicator whether they know if they are truly saved or not. I am not gifted for evangelism nor am I called to lead a tent revival even still it is my duty (and yours) to make sure that those who call themselves Christians know and understand what that means! We need to know whether they actual believe without any doubt they are saved from hell hence the question. If their answer has any ambiguity outside of a resounding ‘yes’ then they do not know they are saved. Let the teaching begin in your style and at your pace! Romans 10:9-10
Satan is crafty as all get out! The first way he will attack is to make you question your salvation. Did God really say that? Sound familiar? (Genesis verse) When Jesus tells us that all we need to do is accept Him as Lord and Saviour to be saved from hell that is exactly what He means but the devil goes about like a lion (1 Peter 5:8) devouring those who fall for this ploy. It is for this reason that it is extremely important that we strap on the helmet of Salvation and step into the new life available through the working out of our salvation.
You must Strap on the Helmet of Salvation
Once your salvation is established you must strap it on like a helmet or the devil will help you take it off. Your helmet is the Holy Bible! It is leather with your name written on it. It can be NKJV or ESV or HCSB shaped and look totally different from your friend’s helmet. Just as we all look different so must our helmets look different? We are gifted differently and are called to different tasks so our salvation may have come at different times in our lives BUT that does not make us any less saved or any less a Christian. The Devil will have you believe that because you are old you are not saved, because you are young you are not saved, because you are smart, silly, blonde, a red head, Asian, African, Canadian, a plumber, an electrician, a house wife, a woman or any other immature reason that will cause you to question God. Paul tells us to protect our head with this information so that we will not be held back from the good works that we are supposed to do in His Name. Put on your helmet of salvation so you can work it out easier.
You must Work out your Salvation!
Working out our salvation is a new lifestyle like working out our muscles. For our muscles to get taut we need to train them with weight but for our salvation to train our brain with the Word. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:5-13, the way we work out our salvation is to make our brain take on the attitude of Jesus Christ by allowing the Father work in us to fulfill His purpose. This definitely sounds a lot harder than putting on the helmet doesn’t it? Well, it is! We are to determine the purpose of our salvation and work it into our new life. The only way we can do that is put on the helmet and work. Paul used the word work because it is work. We work to know Jesus, work to find our gifts, work to use them, work to perfect them, work to live, work, work, work! There is no place in the Bible to relieve us of work. God has been working for 6000 plus years so we can certainly work for 60 plus years. Not all of our work will be physical but it will all need our brain and as long as we can use it we should be working out our salvation.
How shall we escape punishment when we ignore this great salvation (Hebrews 2:1-4)? When we strap on the helmet of salvation we are not finished we are just beginning the new life waiting for us through working out our salvation. Salvation is God’s work alone but you have been saved to do good works (Ephesians 2:8-10) and those works are to be done by us. The works start with us knowing that we are saved from hell and then walking in the new life of following Jesus from place to place. We may get lazy sometimes, disappointed sometimes or of track sometimes but that never takes away from our salvation. Our salvation determines whose we are on this Earth and our good works determine who we will be on the New Earth. I am going to sound like a broken record when it comes to this but I think that the more we hear it the more we will understand how important it is to work out our salvation.It is for eternity that we have been saved and it is on the New Earth that we will live! Picture what that will look like then ask yourself two questions: Am I saved? If your answer is yes then, are you working it out?
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Guard those Pieces with Your Life!
Joining the pieces of information together that God gives us takes time and knowledge to accomplish. We all use different methods to join those pieces together. To follow the will of God we need to be able to put those pieces together. Putting these pieces together takes a steadfast mind on the task. If we are keeping these pieces in our mind we cannot allow ourselves to be caught off guard. We need to guard these pieces with out life. Each of those pieces keeps us alive in Jesus so when we do not guard them we will lose them. Keeping guard of these pieces with your life will lead to two rewards, more pieces and growing up.As we learned from the last blog, pieces are bits of information that the Holy Spirit places in our heart/mind to help us stay in the Fathers will. As we guard the pieces we already have he will supply us with more. Jesus said in Matthew 13:12 that those who have will be given more but those who do not guard their pieces will lose their pieces. This applies to all knowledge and wisdom given us by the Father. We are gathering information because it helps us to get into position to fulfill the will of God in our life. Some of these pieces of information include how we are gifted, who Jesus is inside those gifts, how we can use those gifts each day and what other information we need. No information is complete by itself so we need to gather more to fully understand all the pieces. Guarding all the pieces information results in more and our growth as well.
With each piece of information we gather and guard we will grow in our faith of Jesus Christ but what is more important is that we will grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. When we grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ we begin to grow up in Him too. It does not take a rocket scientist to learn Jesus Christ it takes someone dedicated to learning Him and dedicated to growing up in Him. We can spend our whole lives warming the bench at church but once we leave our hope, our faith, and our stamina fail to continue as we go to work, parent our children, submit to our husband and follow our leaders. Gathering pieces together to grow is imperative to being who Jesus wants us to be.
It is all about who Jesus wants us to be. He gives us pieces of information so that we can keep doing what He has created us to do. He has created all things and all things hold together because of Him (Colossians 1:16-17). It is His great pleasure to give us more pieces and it behoves us to grow with those pieces. To live in ignorance about who Jesus is, is to live in ignorance about who you are. We are defined by who Jesus is which is why we need to guard those pieces with our lives and He will surely reveal the rewards to us.
