​Today, I want to continue looking at what it means to live an abundant life. Yesterday, we looked at the awesome grace of Jesus Christ. That grace gives us a beautiful freedom from slavery to sin and law which is the same thing. We can say this because without law, there is no sin although there is still death (Romans 4:15). Today, we will expound a bit on abundant life. I would venture to say that most lost people would consider that they are free to do anything while the Christian is forced to live a narrow and restricted life. I say the opposite is true; True Christianity broadens one’s life and opens the Believer to unimaginable possibilities and experiences in her life simply because she is now in a relationship with Jesus.
Many non-believers and too many people who claim Christianity believe this verse, “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard” taken out of context. Who would want to walk that way? But Beloved, that is not the whole verse, it is not the entire thought. In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus said,
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
The road may be narrow, but the journey is rich and the destination is more than we could ever fathom. The wider road is crowded, the journey is about trying to obtain prosperity, sumptuousness of sensation, and fulfilled desires. It is a selfish and self-centered road that too many people take. Even those who think they are living a selfless life, if they took a real look at the “love” they show and the things they do in service to others would see that they are trying to fill a hole, be ‘good,’ feel good or bring glory to themselves. Even a believer can often start living a life of trying to be good instead of a life of following Christ. They find themselves on that wide road and the only thing keeping them from the destruction at the end is His Love and Mercy, Jesus let them find destruction before sending them onto the Salvation and eternal life they could have been living since the moment they called on His name to be saved.
The way is not hard as in difficult to live. The original Greek words are translated to strait (not straight) and narrow. Strait comes from the Greek word stenos which means narrow because of obstacles. Those obstacles include things such as seeking sensual experiences, wealth, and virtue. These are the lies that keep people from Jesus.
Narrow is translated from the Greek word qlibw (pronounced thleebow) which means pressed like grapes. It gives more of a picture of difficult to get through, sort of that picture of the camel going through the eye of a needle (Mark 10:25). It gives me the image of grapes being pressed into wine.  A camel cannot go through the eye of a needle. It can only enter because Jesus makes it possible.
The only way through that strait and narrow gate that leads to life is Jesus Christ. Remember from yesterday’s reading in John 10, Jesus described Himself as the gate. And in John 14:6 Jesus proclaims, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Jesus is not only the door, but He is the Way to the door, He is the truth that gives us freedom on the way to the destination of life, and He is the Life both the destination and the gift. He is All in All. And in His awesome Grace, He did all the work for us in this gift of life we have received from Him. Let’s look back at John 10 again now so we can find out more about living life abundantly. Verses 7-18 read,
 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
In verses 14-15, Jesus says, “I Am the Good Shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” These two verses are profoundly full of meaning. And this is where I want to spend some time today learning about that abundance of life we are given. How was that life given to us? Jesus gave it to us of His own will. It was the will of the Father and so it was His will as well. He chose it, He bought us with a precious price to call us His own (1 Corinthians 6:20). When Jesus gave us His name in verse 14, He gave it in the same way that God did throughout the Bible, He started it with His most Holy and encompassing name, I Am. He is. He is God, He is The LORD. He is The LORD our Good Shepherd. And while we will look at being God’s own and Jesus as the Good Shepherd another day, today we will look at the great benefit of God knowing us and our knowing Him.
What is it to be known by God? Just think about that? He knows us. Do you need me to tell you just how wonderful and beautiful that is? He knows you! He not just is aware of us, the way we are aware of a co-worker, neighbor, or acquaintance, He knows us. He completely and absolutely recognizes, identifies, discerns, appreciates, and understands us. To me, that is astounding. Out of all the 7.8 billion people, that is 7800000000 people on this earth, if you are His own, He knows you personally, and above that He really loves you!
Not only does He know us, but we can know Him too! And because of this mutual knowing, we hear His voice and know His voice! We have a relationship with the LORD! Talking with God is one of the greatest things I know, not just talking to Him, which is special enough, but listening to Him talk to me. I can remember years ago wondering how people could hear God speak. I swore I couldn’t hear Him. Just about every person I asked, replied the same way. They said His voice was quiet and small. I wondered how they could differentiate God’s voice from their own thoughts. How do I know if that thought is God speaking or me wishing? Well, this is one of the ways that God’s knowing you is particularly important. God knows how you hear Him best and how you understand Him best. He knows if you will be listening closer while you walk in nature, submerge yourself in water, close yourself into a prayer closet, immerse yourself in music, kneel, or drive your car. He knows if you will understand Him more through verbal language, picture language or symbols.
But looking back at the passage from John 10 helps us find the answer to this question about recognizing Jesus’ voice. Verse 16 says, “they will listen to my voice.” How could I possibly ever hope to recognize a voice I’m not listening to? The more I know Jesus the more I will understand the way He conveys messages to me. What wording does He use, what expression and point of view? Does the message merge with the Bible? The more I listen the more I will recognize that voice and differentiate it from my own, from influences around me, and from the accuser of the brethren. Just like a newborn baby recognizes her mother’s voice because she has spent 40 weeks listening to her, we recognize Jesus ’voice because we have been in Him and He and His Spirit in us.  Nearly all newborns will turn their heads towards their mothers when they speak. When the main caretaker is not the birth mother, the infant will soon turn her head toward the main caretaker be it a father, adoptive parent, or other because she has bonded and developed a complete trust in that one person. Believer, we too will recognize Jesus’ voice because we have chosen to listen to Him, trust Him, and obey Him. We have a relationship with Him. Hosea 6:1-6 tells us,
Come, let us return to the Lord;
    for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
    he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will raise us up,
    that we may live before him.
3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
    his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
    as the spring rains that water the earth.”
4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
    What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
    like the dew that goes early away.
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
    I have slain them by the words of my mouth,
    and my judgment goes forth as the light.
6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
    the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Verse 1 doesn’t refer to God punishing us, it refers to Him removing the obstacles that keep us from experiencing and having all He wants for us. We can see that in verse 2, when we read it with a New Covenant perspective. We have been resurrected with Jesus to new life (Colossians2:12). While He has done all the work of giving us this relationship, our part is to want it to press onto know the Lord and He will come to us just as the spring rains water the earth. We choose to know God and He comes to us and He even nourishes the relationship. He does all the work, because He is merciful, and His Grace knows no boundaries. Even though our love is fleeting, His love is not. Even though He is so powerful that His very words could judge us, that is not what God wants for us. He wants our fleeting love to grow into the steadfast love and intimate knowledge of relationship.
That relationship God makes with us is such a wonderful and joyful thing. And what about all the longings we have as humans? The excuse that people us to say they don’t want the “straight and narrow.” Psalm 37:4 reads,
Delight yourself in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.
When we delight or as this word awnug means to luxuriate ourselves in the Lord, then He gives us the desires of our hearts! Are those desires different than the ones that kept us from Jesus before? They probably are, or at least they have changed into a new yearning. If we are luxuriating or reveling in the Lord, our heart is, like David going to be a heart after God’s heart. God wants good things for us. He has good plans for us. Jeremiah 29:10b-14a reads,
I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations
God is so good, He gives us good gifts. He gives us the desires of our hearts and since He knows us so well, He knows what it is we want! But He also listens to us and gives what we ask for. Anything we ask for in Jesus’ name, He gives us (John 14:13).
The life He has given us is rich and full and it gets better and better. This is just one part the abundant life He has given us. Yet even if a relationship with God was the one and only part, it would be more than any of us could ever have known without Him.
Stay with us as we continue this series about living life abundantly. Be blessed, Beloved!
 
 

​Recently I had the great privilege to be invited on to the Where Grace Abounds podcast with Eric Vaughn Floyd. I was honored because I have often listened to it and it has always been uplifting and edifying. I have never come away from it without some new treasure of wisdom. I have had the pleasure of knowing Eric for many years, he is one of the most humble and wise men of Christ I have ever known. His life displays a tangible love of Jesus, a perseverant pursuit of knowing the One True Living God and a steadfast walk in the Spirit. The writer and host of Where Grace Abounds lives what he claims to believe. Those beliefs are spelled out in the program’s description.
Where Grace Abounds is described as “A program dedicated to promoting the complete Gospel message of the Lord Jesus Christ. Meaning, the Gospel is not just about putting faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection so that we can go to Heaven when we die. See additionally, the Gospel is also the good news that Jesus came so that His followers could have life and life more abundant while they live out their days here on Planet Earth. Moreover, this program also aims to celebrate individuals who are being perpetually transformed for the better by both the Gospel message and the balance of what is contained in God’s Holy Word.” You can subscribe to Where Grace Abounds wherever you listen to your podcasts.
I am excited by this because for one, I hope to be the kind of person Eric describes. But moreover because I believe wholeheartedly that there is more to the Gospel than many Christians live and if we would all hold onto the fullness of the Gospel and the awesome grace of God, we would walk in such great love, victory, and power that the Kingdom of God would grow exponentially and the world would quake with the glory of Jesus Christ.
What is the complete Gospel of Jesus Christ? It is manifold yet simple and absolutely beautiful. When we first accept the Gospel, most of us receive it with joy and enthusiasm. We hear it, we believe it, and we declare it. Romans 10:6-13 in The Living Bible tells us,
But the salvation that comes through faith says, “You don’t need to search the heavens to find Christ and bring him down to help you,” and, 7 “You don’t need to go among the dead to bring Christ back to life again.”
8 For salvation that comes from trusting Christ—which is what we preach—is already within easy reach of each of us; in fact, it is as near as our own hearts and mouths. 9 For if you tell others with your own mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord and believe in your own heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in his heart that a man becomes right with God; and with his mouth he tells others of his faith, confirming his salvation.
11 For the Scriptures tell us that no one who believes in Christ will ever be disappointed. 12 Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect: they all have the same Lord who generously gives his riches to all those who ask him for them. 13 Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
Salvation doesn’t come from following laws and rules, a step by step program, or even repeating a multi-part prayer. It says quite simply that “anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” This is the Gospel of Grace, Ephesians 2:8-10 describes it this way,
Because of his kindness, you have been saved through trusting Christ. And even trusting is not of yourselves; it too is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good we have done, so none of us can take any credit for it. 10 It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others.
In the ESV verse 8 reads, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God”
So very often, some well-meaning but mixed-up person steps in and gives the new Christian a different message and that joy and enthusiasm ebbs away. They say now that you’re saved you must follow this list of rules, do these acts of service, give this amount of money, and stop doing this list of ‘sins.’ Paul did not take kindly to people stepping in and messing with the Church like that. When people came into the church in Galatia and told them they had to be circumcised, follow laws, and observe various feasts and festivals, Paul had some strong things to say, Galatians 1:6-10 reads,
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Do you know what freedom and joy there is in the Grace of Christ? This is not only the beginning of the remarkable journey with Christ but the inspiration to living that life in victory and hope rather than defeat and despair. It is grace that allows us to exclaim, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free!” (Galatians 5:1). We cannot do anything to earn Salvation, nothing at all! There is no score keeper in Heaven keeping track of the ‘good’ things you do versus the ‘bad’ things you do. There are no divine scales of justice. It is simply this question “are you covered by the blood of Christ or not?”
You cannot do anything to make God love you more than He already does, and oh, how he loves you! There is nothing you can do to cause Him to love you any less either. He is Love (1 John 4:8) and so His love is perfect and complete. It lacks nothing. Love doesn’t keep track of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5).  The freedom of living in Christ is that His Grace means there is no such thing as sin in Christ, nothing is sinful for us, Believer (1 Corinthians 6:12, 1 Corinthians 10:23, Romans 14:14 ). We don’t have to live a sin-conscious life, instead we can live for Christ becoming all we were meant to be, glorifying the Lord, and revealing the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness (Ephesians 2:6). How do we show God’s infinite grace and kindness if we are trying to earn points with Him by following impossible laws, living meager lives, or constantly punishing ourselves for sins we perceive we have committed?
No, we reveal the immense riches of grace and kindness by living the abundant life Jesus came to give us. Eternal life does not begin the day we die and ‘go to Heaven.’ It begins the moment we declare Jesus as Lord and Savior. In John 5:19-24 Jesus says,
Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Jesus has the authority to grant life and the authority to judge and He said that whoever believes, (Believers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ) will not come into judgement but has passed from death to life. He declares that we are passed to life at that moment, not eventually, but at the time of salvation. There is no judgement but rather a new and wonderful life that reveals the will of the Father in the work and the works of Christ.
So many of us walk through our lives on earth aware of every wrong thing we do, every mistake we make, and every sin we choose. How can we walk in the freedom of Christ, displaying God’s immense riches of grace and kindness if we are not walking in that grace and kindness? That is not the life that Jesus intended, it is the life the enemy wants you to live, it is a life that reveals a lie. The lie is one believed by so many lost, that the Christian life is about self-righteous hypocrites forgoing happiness and living insubstantial and paltry lives. Even many who call themselves Christians have come to believe they must live these meager lives. But that is not what Christ means for us! In John 10, Jesus is describing Himself as the Door and the Shepherd and in verses 9-11 He says,
I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Who is the thief? The thief is the enemy of Christ, it is Satan and all who would do his work by trying to destroy the life Jesus came to give. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” An abundant life is not a sin-conscious life but a God-conscious life. A life of awareness of God with us. A life where we walk not with a spirit of fear but of power, love, and self-control (1 Timothy 1:7).
Let’s read about this freedom from sin. Many people who declare grace, do so using grace as an excuse to continue living the way they always have, not a changed new free life, but as a slave to sin and basal desires. There is such a big difference between trying to live by the law and living under God’s perfect forgiveness!
Let’s begin reading in Romans 5:15-21 in The Living Bible.
For this one man, Adam, brought death to many through his sin. But this one man, Jesus Christ, brought forgiveness to many through God’s mercy. 16 Adam’s one sin brought the penalty of death to many, while Christ freely takes away many sins and gives glorious life instead. 17 The sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to be king over all, but all who will take God’s gift of forgiveness and acquittal are kings of life because of this one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Yes, Adam’s sin brought punishment to all, but Christ’s righteousness makes men right with God, so that they can live. 19 Adam caused many to be sinners because he disobeyed God, and Christ caused many to be made acceptable to God because he obeyed.
20 The Ten Commandments were given so that all could see the extent of their failure to obey God’s laws. But the more we see our sinfulness, the more we see God’s abounding grace forgiving us. 21 Before, sin ruled over all men and brought them to death, but now God’s kindness rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The ESV of verse 20 reads, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,” This beautiful verse is one that so many people have twisted to use as permission to sin. It is not. God’s grace is so much more than undeserved forgiveness of sins; it is unwarranted favor, unearned blessings and gifts and unmerited adoption as children of God. Let’s keep reading Romans as Paul continues his discourse in Chapter 6:1-8 in The Living Bible.
Well then, shall we keep on sinning so that God can keep on showing us more and more kindness and forgiveness?
2-3 Of course not! Should we keep on sinning when we don’t have to? For sin’s power over us was broken when we became Christians and were baptized to become a part of Jesus Christ; through his death the power of your sinful nature was shattered. 4 Your old sin-loving nature was buried with him by baptism when he died; and when God the Father, with glorious power, brought him back to life again, you were given his wonderful new life to enjoy.
5 For you have become a part of him, and so you died with him, so to speak, when he died; and now you share his new life and shall rise as he did. 6 Your old evil desires were nailed to the cross with him; that part of you that loves to sin was crushed and fatally wounded, so that your sin-loving body is no longer under sin’s control, no longer needs to be a slave to sin; 7 for when you are deadened to sin you are freed from all its allure and its power over you. 8 And since your old sin-loving nature “died” with Christ, we know that you will share his new life.
The power of sin is dead, we don’t live by laws and rules which cause us to be always aware of we cannot do and therefore desire to do those things. Do you get that? Consider a room with lots of buttons and flashing lights, and thick beautiful curtain that hides something. In the center of all those buttons is a large red one with a sign that reads, “Do not press the red button.” Which button will you desire to press? That big red button. Without the sign, pressing the buttons was allowed but with the sign, not only do you desire to press the button but you then somehow decide you are not allowed to pull back the curtain see what might lay beyond it. You have set up more rules that you also wish to break.
But our new life in Christ doesn’t have those laws; Jesus fulfilled all of them! We don’t live in bondage to those laws or the sin of breaking them, we live in freedom of new life as we now become the righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).
I want to continue looking at this new, eternal, and abundant life Jesus has given us. There is so much to it that we it will need to be continued in a series of devotionals. So in our upcoming devotionals we will look at the amazing relationship we get to enjoy with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the amazing transformation God grants us as His children, the power and authority experience and exercise in in that relationship, and the blessings He gives us in that relationship.
Please listen to my interview on Where Grace Abounds by clicking on the link below. Don’t forget to subscribe, listen to the other inspiring interviews Eric has done, and share with those who need some encouragement to live abundantly and victoriously in Jesus Christ.
Where Grace Abounds: An Edifying Exchange With Acclaimed Author Donna Campbell
Where Grace abounds is on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Tune-in, iHeart Radio and everywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts! 

​Envy is the opposite of contentedness. Perhaps some people think we should not be content with our lives. We use it as motivation, an excuse to make more money, gain more possessions, and become what some label as successful. But Believer, envy is poison to our walk with the Lord. It is a poison the enemy gleefully uses to put bitterness in our hearst, to water resentment, and destroy your joy and peace. Envy is painful, it eats away at us. Once the bitterness sets in, that root takes hold and it is difficult to remove it.
We can be envious of others’ possessions, lifestyle, qualities, station, even their so-called luck. While we look at what the Joneses have and who they are, we are missing what we have and who we are. Proverbs 14:30 says it this way.
A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh,
    but envy makes the bones rot.
I have envied so many others. I have coveted the families that other people have. People my age are enjoying their spouses and children. Some of my friends now have grandchildren. I have been so jealous of the money my friends have while I live paycheck to paycheck. I have begrudged those who travel and vacation. I have resented others’ good jobs. I was even envious of others’ health, beauty, and worst of all their spiritual gifts.
It was hurting me: it was feeding depression and anxiety. It was causing me to stop seeking God and begin seeking the stuff I didn’t have. My bones were rotting. In my time with the Lord, He revealed the envy I had to me and showed me what it was doing to me. I had to do something, but what?
Well, of course the first step in any problem is to pray. Nothing is impossible for God (Luke 1:37). The prayers of a righteous person has great power at its working (James 5:16). And whatever we ask in Jesus’ name, He will give us so that He will be glorified (John 14:13). An important part of prayer, one we often leave out is to listen to God’s side of the conversation. He reminded me of a few things and put me on the path to contentedness in Him. Now, I think there are some people He would simply choose to remove the envy from their hearts, but for me and for many, He knows the process is going to bring more good to me and perhaps to you, Reader.
How do I become contented? How do I stop wanting what I do not have? How do I develop contentedness in my life? We must recognize that envy is just as destructive as hatred, lying, and evil speech. It is in opposition to the person God means for us to be. It clashes with the image of Christ.
1 Peter 2:1-3 reads,
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
The Lord is good! Have I forgotten the taste of that pure spiritual milk Peter refers to? And what does he mean by that? The author of Hebrews also referred to this milk.
About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:11-14).
It is the basic teaching, one receives when he is first saved, the Gospel, the simple foundations of Christianity. Sadly, many do not move beyond these teachings. They remain babies or young children in Christ, even after twenty years as a believer. Their salvation is merely “fire insurance.” The Spirit is quenched within them and to them He is a seal on their salvation, not a transformer of their lives. They refuse to let Him work, to recognize the power and authority They live a life in and of the world, seeking the same things as the world and dressing up for church on Sunday mornings, going to lunch afterward to practice gluttony and gossip. They return to the world and are not recognizable as Christians, except perhaps for the cross necklace or the church bumper sticker.
We are not meant to simply confess Jesus as Lord, but to walk, to move forward with Jesus as our Lord, to constantly and consistently be changing from who we used to be into who we are meant to be, that is a child of the Living God, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for his own possession (1 John 3:1, 1 Peter 2:9). And often, that transformation happens in the hard times, the suffering, or the losses we endure. Envy sometimes comes from thinking we shouldn’t be suffering while everyone else is living an “their best life.” But the believers’ best life is the result of our response to suffering. Romans 5:1-5 reads,
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
The Holy Spirit will transform us if we let Him. God has given us freewill and he never takes that from us. Romans 8:9-17 in The Message says it this way,
But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!
There is nothing in our old life, nothing in the world for us that can outdo who we are meant to be, who we can be, and the amazing life God has for us as His sons and daughters. It’s not all rainbows and lollipops, but neither is life without Jesus. But with Jesus, with His Spirit leading us and working in us and through us, we are not alone and powerless through the hard stuff.
We are mistaken to imagine that some people lead these perfect trouble-free lives. That hard times have a purpose. If a person is not a believer, the troubles they face might bring them to Jesus. If a person is a believer, the hard times bring him closer to God, and work the amazing transformation from worldly person to spiritual person (Romans 8:28-29). The Spirit works in us to transform us into the image of Christ. If a person never struggles or suffers, it is because he has hardened his heart, he has chosen to never accept Christ and to never move toward who God created him to be.
1 Corinthians 3:1-3
But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
It is human to be jealous and jealousy breeds strife. But dissention is opposed to the unity we are called to as God’s very own, His bride and church. A house divided against itself cannot stand (Mark 3:25). We are not living in the flesh, the human way. We, Beloved, live in the Spirit! We have been told to rejoice! Whatever the circumstance, we can rejoice. That does not mean ignore the pain and not respond to the pain; it means that even in the sorrow we hold onto the joy of Christ, the hope of eternal life, and the faith that God will bring good from it. Paul said that whether he had just a little or more than enough, he had learned to be content. He said, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13).
What is the secret to being contented in any situation? What is it Paul learned? Let’s look a little farther back in Philippians 4 and see what that secret might be. After entreating two women whom he says have labored beside him to further the Gospel to stop bickering and get back into unity with the rest of his fellow workers, he says this in verses 4-7,
 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness[d] be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things
 
First let’s address that discontendtedness had resulted in two fellow laborers bickering, and that disunity had disrupted the very important work of furthering the Gospel. That’s what envy does. Next, what does Paul say? Let your reasonableness, this word means fairness, moderation and equanimity or calm composure be known. How can we do that? We know the Lord is at hand, He is near both in position (He is with us) and in time (He is coming soon). We present that calmness as a witness to our faith in Jesus to be who He says He is, God Almighty. We don’t need to be afraid of the bad news, the trials, or the suffering. We have God who loves us, knows us, and has good plans for us on our side (Psalm 112:7, Psalm 139, Jeremiah 29:11).
Then Paul says, don’t worry! And we react,, “easier said than done! How do we just not worry?” Well, Paul answers that as well. He says to pray about everything. Ask God to meet our needs and thank Him for His provision, His delivery of those needs. When we do that, we will not be anxious, we have a peace that people cannot understand, and that peace will stay with us and be real not just a mask we show off to the world.
In the next verses, Paul stays with this line of thought and presents in a way that says, take control of your thought life. Rather than worry, rather than consider what you might need, think you need, or want, how about think about all the good stuff?
Thanking God not only for what meeting our needs but for all of what He has given us in this life, is important to recognizing what it is we have. In my own walk with the Lord, I have once again gone back to making thanksgiving an important part of my prayer life and made myself accountable to appreciating my life by journaling my gratitude. This purposeful thankfulness and praise is a vital step in displacing envy with contentedness. Be aware as Paul was that the reason we can endure hunger and abundance and remain satisfied is because Paul knew “my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Philippians 4:19-20). God will meet every need and be glorified in doing so.
When we waste our time envying our neighbors, friends, sisters and brothers, we are not valuing or realizing the amazing abundance of what we have. God has given us so much! He has given Himself! He has made us coheirs with Christ (Romans 8:17)! He has provided our every need. When we delight in the Lord rather than covet the Jones’ green lawn, He gives us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4).
God commanded us, “You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:17). But, covetousness and the mistrust and resentment that grows from it are only human. We as humans have made excuses for discontentment to the point that we consider it not a flaw but a desirable attribute. But covetousness is greed and greed takes us farther from God. We do not live by the flesh, we do not live by our needs or basal desires, we live in the Spirit. We do not live by the laws of humanity but by the power of The LORD, He is I Am!
So, now that we realize we are not to be afraid of the bad news, the trials, or the suffering and we have all we need, we can move past the beginnings of our walk with Christ and move onto the rest of it. We can rejoice in our sufferings and be transformed and we can recognize the abundant life Jesus has given us, the freedom He has given us and find that we do not need to envy others at all. When we have hearts full of thankfulness and delight in the Lord, minds full of praise, hearts full of peace, and the Spirit of the Living God, there is no room for envy or bitterness.

Just a quick note, this was written several weeks ago and originally meant to be a seminar

​Peace amidst the Chaos
 
We are living in what many are calling unprecedented times. I don’t know about that, exactly, but I do know that for most of us, we’ve never personally experienced anything like the global, national, and individual unrest that is happening right now. I personally feel things very deeply including the pain of people around me. The sights of men being murdered, the riots that followed that, the divisiveness of elections, and of course the stress and isolation as well as financial difficulties from quarantining due to Covid-19 have affected me as I am certain it has affected most. I was told by someone close to me that she saw me more acutely affected than many from the George Floyd and Ahmaud Aubrey murders. I don’t know about that, but I know I am profoundly angry and sad and hurt by those murders as well as the many other injustices I see around me.
I am Caucasian, and an African American friend made a general statement that any non-black person could not understand the unrest. Once again, I don’t know if that’s true or not. I am not black, but I am human. I was offended by her statements until I remembered nothing can truly offend me in Christ. I have to have mercy on others as Christ has mercy on me. She is hurting too, maybe more than I am hurting. I don’t know her life or experience and she doesn’t know mine.
As people fight over things like protests, riots, elections, masks, business, and leisure, I have been becoming increasingly anxious and depressed. I know I am not alone in this either. I’ve heard so many people talking about their own depression, some who have never experienced it before and don’t understand what it is, some who have suffered for years. I have listened as many talked about worries, anxiety, and even panic attacks. I have even been wrongly envious of people getting three to four times more per week from the government than I receive at my work as I experience the privilege to depend on the Lord my God.
But, as believers, we do not have to give in to the chaos and worry. We may be moved in love by the sad and broken world we live in, but we do not have to fall victim to the schemes of the enemy to destroy our hope, joy, or love. We do live in this world, but we are not of the world. We are not the same as the lost. We are in a position to change things, to control our responses, and to glorify God through any tribulation.
It is easier said than done, right? Where do we start? We start with Jesus. We start with believing God is who He says He is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then, we take control of our thoughts and hearts, we respond rather than react. We depend on the LORD to be who He is so that we can be who He says we are. We remember that this earth is temporary but our life in Christ is eternal. We remembered that suffering and tribulation is promised and prophesied; but so is perfect peace, everlasting joy, and undying love.
God told us to “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
Who is God? He is All-Powerful. He is Sovereign. He is Love. He is The LORD of Hosts. He is the Prince of Peace. He is Omniscient. He is Wonderful Counselor. He is Father. He is Savior. He is the Truth, the Way, and the Life. He is our Helper. He is the Great I Am.
He is the God who Sees you. He knows you perfectly. He created you with purpose and has good plans for you. He is with you and He will never leave you (Hebrews 13:5). He will fight for you and you only have to be silent (Exodus 14:14).
Our part is to be still and to be silent. We aren’t trying to find peace through works and labor. We don’t get to know God by laboring, we get to know Him through being still, letting Him be God, letting Him fight for us. We need to rest. Especially when all these circumstances exhaust us. The author of Hebrews told us to strive to enter God’s rest. It seems like a contradiction to strive to enter rest. It isn’t. Enter God’s rest and being still and silent are choices we make, especially when the natural reaction is to worry and cry and yell and fight.
Jesus, the Son of God, God Himself, our Savior purposely sought rest and solitude (Luke 5:16). He withdrew to be alone with the Father often. The scriptures share several instances when He took time alone with God and when He chose to withdraw with the twelve to teach. When others were reacting with fear to storms, Jesus exhibited His faith and peace by resting so He would be prepared to do the Father’s will. Matthew 8:23-27 tells us
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
Even the winds and sea obey Jesus, why do we think He can’t or won’t be our Lord and Savior through any circumstance? He is able and willing (Matthew 8:3). He loves us and He thinks of us more than we could imagine. The world and everything in it belongs to God. We may see chaos, but the Creator knows His plan and we trust, we know nothing will thwart that plan. Acts 17:24-28 reads,
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.
Job 42:2-6 says this,
“I know that you can do all things,
    and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 ‘Hear, and I will speak;
    I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
    but now my eye sees you;
6 therefore I despise myself,
    and repent in dust and ashes.”
What are God’s plans? Well, of course He has plans for us on this earth. Jeremiah 29:11-14 says this,
 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
His plans for us are good, for a future, and a hope. Are we seeking Him? Do we really want to know Him? To know Him, to know who He is we need to seek Him. We seek Him not welfare, not a future, and not a hope, but God Himself. If we look seek to know Him, we will find Him. We will know He is God. Those are the plans He has for us.
But ultimately, His plan is for us to spend eternity with Him. This earth is just temporary, it is an opportunity to bring as many people to Him as possible. What will even a very long life of 120 years be like compared to a billion years, 10 trillion years, and forever?
This earth has to be destroyed before we get to the beautiful forever God has promised us. The bad stuff, the terrible stuff is not God’s doing but He is using it to bring people to Him, to give them every opportunity to confess He is Lord and be His very own. But then... Oh Believer, let’s read it in Revelation 21:1-8
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
This is our hope, this is our assurance. This is our promise! It is real. It feels far off. I know it does. After a thousand years with Jesus, I will not even think about the pain and suffering I went through in my earthly life, but right now, it is with me and I am in pain. I don’t know how much more of this injustice, pestilence, and war I can take. But eternal life doesn’t begin on the day we enter Heaven, eternal life began the day we confessed Jesus as Christ and Lord. God is with us and He will never leave us.
I don’t have to cry out for justice, because Justice will come! He will come riding on a white horse (Revelation 19:11-21). He has said, “Vengeance is Mine!” (Deuteronomy 32:35).
This life is difficult!. Yes, Jesus is coming and He is bringing us justice, but sometimes I forget. Sometimes, I give in to the selfishness of my humanity and I find myself too often giving into myself and becoming more depressed, anxious, and even bitter and angry. Believer, I am not alone, you are not alone! God is with us! He is Emmanuel. He will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).
But, we are also a part of the body of Christ with brothers and sisters who walk beside us. If you are not part of a local church, if you are trying to be a Christian without being a part of the body, you are short-changing yourself and you are not walking the way Jesus intended. My own local church are so much a part of who I am, I understand the concept of the bride being united as one with the Groom. I could not go through any of this without my beloved brothers and sisters walking beside me.
How do we go through a time like this? How do we make a difference in a world that seems to be degenerating exponentially day by day? What can we do?
Paul said it this way in Romans 12:9-21,
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
It may sound like too much. It really isn’t. Let’s look at that passage again, this time from The Living Bible.
Don’t just pretend that you love others: really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of the good. 10 Love each other with brotherly affection and take delight in honoring each other. 11 Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically.
12 Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and prayerful always. 13 When God’s children are in need, you be the one to help them out. And get into the habit of inviting guests home for dinner or, if they need lodging, for the night.
14 If someone mistreats you because you are a Christian, don’t curse him; pray that God will bless him. 15 When others are happy, be happy with them. If they are sad, share their sorrow. 16 Work happily together. Don’t try to act big. Don’t try to get into the good graces of important people, but enjoy the company of ordinary folks. And don’t think you know it all!
17 Never pay back evil for evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honest clear through. 18 Don’t quarrel with anyone. Be at peace with everyone, just as much as possible.
19 Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God, for he has said that he will repay those who deserve it. Don’t take the law into your own hands. 20 Instead, feed your enemy if he is hungry. If he is thirsty give him something to drink and you will be “heaping coals of fire on his head.” In other words, he will feel ashamed of himself for what he has done to you. 21 Don’t let evil get the upper hand, but conquer evil by doing good.
Point by point this says,

• Really (tangibly) love others.
• Hate evil, stand on the side of good.
• Take care of one another. See a need? Meet it!
• Love each other with empathy, truly be happy for each other’s happiness, be truly distressed for each other’s sorrows.
• Don’t think you’re better than anyone else.
• Whatever you can do to live peacefully, harmoniously with everyone. (no arguing, fighting, etc.)
• Don’t payback evil for evil, be honorable.
• Don’t avenge yourself. Vengeance belongs to God.
• Conquer evil by doing good.

In other words, Love one another. Love others. Love in action as well as in your heart. Love.
I know we can still feel anxious, we can still feel so devastated we wonder if we even want to keep going. What then? Paul said this in Philippians 4:4-9
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Wait! How am I supposed to rejoice when people are fighting all around me, when I don’t know how the rent is going to get paid, when men are pointlessly murdered and the world is falling apart all around me? Well, Believer, firstly, you have the hope that we talked about in Revelation 21, you are saved. Your suffering, our suffering gives us all the more reason to rejoice! 1 Peter 1:3-12 in The Message describes it this way,
 What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.
6-7 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
8-9 You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.
10-12 The prophets who told us this was coming asked a lot of questions about this gift of life God was preparing. The Messiah’s Spirit let them in on some of it—that the Messiah would experience suffering, followed by glory. They clamored to know who and when. All they were told was that they were serving you, you who by orders from heaven have now heard for yourselves—through the Holy Spirit—the Message of those prophecies fulfilled. Do you realize how fortunate you are? Angels would have given anything to be in on this!
You must purposely choose to rejoice, to bear in mind all this. We have that choice, we can control our thought life. And in controlling our thought life we control our responses and our actions. Paul tells us to fix our thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all we can praise God for and be glad about. Purposely choose to think about what we can praise God for and do it.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 says,
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
Yes, we can rejoice through any circumstance. There is always something to praise God for! Go ahead right now and make a list of five things for which you can praise the Lord. What is true? What is beautiful? What is good? What has God done for you? What is God doing for you? If you are able write the list down, add to it as often as you think of something to add. Do this, do this for yourself. You can even use social media to your advantage instead of your detriment by posting praise instead of complaints, blessings instead of curses, gratitude instead of grievances.
As a side note, personally, for the most part, I had to get off social media. People feel free to fight, be hateful, and angry or overshare their politics behind the safety of a smartphone or computer screen and I just had to stop reading all of that stuff. But that is me, not you. You might find there are certain people or situations that add to your stress, from which you may want to further yourself. You may not.
Let’s return to Philippians 4:4-9 Verse 5 tells us to “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.” What does that mean? Be levelheaded, don’t panic, don’t be the person running around screaming that the sky is falling because an acorn hit you on the head. Be rational, think. Be fair. Be sensible. Jesus is coming. We can’t forget that. That helps us remain reasonable and wise and it also helps us to glorify God as people observe us and note our calm faithful response to circumstances rather than our fear-fed reactions.
Verse 6 is the core to not worrying, it says, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” So, the key to not worrying is don’t worry? Yes, but not just don’t worry. Instead of worrying pray, pray about everything, tell it all to God, every need, every concern, every hope, every request. As you pray, thank Him, thank Him for what you are praying for, knowing that whatever you ask for in His name, He will give you. Let me list a few verses that repeat this promise: Matthew 18:19 and 21:22. Mark 11:24, John 14:13, 15:7, 15:16, and 16:23, James 1:17,and  1 John 5:14. Thank Him for what you have, thank Him for what He has given. Be thankful.
The Living Bible says it simply this way, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don’t forget to thank him for his answers.” This is your choice, your response to what could make you worry rather than your fearful reaction to circumstances. The promise that comes with this command is in verse 7, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
People really don’t understand that peace, they may question it and give the wonderful joy of an opportunity to share His love, word, and gospel with them. But it also benefits us personally peace in the midst of chaos, is wonderful. Peace feels good! Peace makes it easier to live out the Word of God to live in the love we have been commanded to live. Our lives transform to more naturally display love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. That leaves us free from law and rules; it leads to true freedom to love one another as Christ loves us. It is not freedom to sin, even though there is no sin in Christ (1 John 3:5); it is freedom to love more, to rejoice more, to have more peace, mercy, patience, faith, kindness, gentleness, and self-control.
Beloved Child of the Living God, have you like me been tormented by the pandemonium of this extraordinary time? Wash your hands of the worry, draw near to God. You will feel His closeness to you. Love, rejoice, pray, be thankful, take control of your thoughts. Be still and know He is God.
 
 

​When God gave me this revelation, I wondered how I could put it into words so that we could all be properly edified and encouraged. It took me some time to even figure out where to begin. The teaching is a little longer than most of my teachings but I hope you read it, because writing it taught me and brought me to a new place of intimacy with the Lord. I am certain it can do the same for you.
Do you seek God? Do you seek Him first? Do you seek to know God above anything else, like how to pay your bills, how to keep your family safe, even before things like serving Him? God wants us to know Him. One of my favorites of Jesus’ teachings is about how to know God more. It presents a profound picture of relationship that can and will change our lives if we let it.
John 14:8-21 reads,
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 
In response to Phillip’s request for Jesus to reveal the Father, Jesus replies that He has been with them all this time and they haven’t recognized Him or known Him yet. He said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Why? How? Because as Jesus said, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” we know that to know Jesus is to know the Father and to know the Father is to know Jesus. The intimacy of that relationship is just astounding.  A few verses later Jesus gives us the awesome news that we too can have that same relationship! He says,
 “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!
18-20 “I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you” (John 14:15-20 The Message).
 
John 14 gives us several reasons why having God indwell us and dwelling in God is not only good and beautiful but mindbogglingly marvelously miraculous. Firstly, Jesus said that the Father dwelling in Him gave Him authority so that each word He spoke manifested to works. And He promised us that same authority when He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
Sometimes we can get confused about the definition of glorify as it has become known as worship  and exalt. And it means that, but it means it because we make God known, we make Him famous. The true definition of the glorify is the ultimate revealing of God. Jesus did everything He did to show us God and bring us to Him. He is the supreme and perfect image of the Father and believers will reach that glory as well as the Spirit transforms us to the image of Christ (Colossians 1:15). And this brings us to the next wonderful result of this dwelling and indwelling of God in us and we in God, He is glorified, He is made known. Jesus said that Philip and the other disciples would have known the Father had they known Him. People who know us, should be led to know Jesus because of who we are in Him. Do we obey Him? Do we love as He loved? Do people know us by our love? Perhaps, we are not as intimate with the Lord as we think. Perhaps, we are not abiding quite in God.
Next and perhaps the best part of is what Jesus promised in verse 21, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Now, we know God loved us first, His love for us is not reliant on whether or not we love Him. It is, in fact, the other way around, our ability to love is because God loved us first and our love is proof and demonstration of God’s love. 1 John 4:13-21 says it this way,
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
The love Jesus talked about in John 14 is a tangible active love that is demonstrated in obedience, faith, and the greater works He spoke about. This is real love. Like James said, to say ‘be well’ is just lip service, it is the deed that proves the love (James 2:15-16).
The fact that God abides in us is flabbergasting! We have authority to do the works that Jesus did, to make the Father known, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to love as Jesus loved us, and to know that we have nothing to fear. We have the hope of Salvation. All because God chose to abide in us. The Spirit is powerful and He chooses to indwell you! That is the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11). He has the power to help you overcome sin and live in the freedom of grace as the sons and daughters of God. As His children we are heirs with Jesus Christ, carriers of His name, His image, and His authority, all because He abides in us.
Abide means to lodge or remain with to travel with. But there is some choice on our part. You see, we can choose to trust and obey, we can choose to rely on Him and recognize His power within us or we can choose to quench the Spirit and feed into our basal desires. While we walk with the Spirit, we glorify the Lord but when we stifle Him, we exalt ourselves. Let’s read what Paul said about this in 1 Corinthians 3:16-23
Don’t you realize that all of you together are the house of God, and that the Spirit of God lives among you in his house? 17 If anyone defiles and spoils God’s home, God will destroy him. For God’s home is holy and clean, and you are that home.
18 Stop fooling yourselves. If you count yourself above average in intelligence, as judged by this world’s standards, you had better put this all aside and be a fool rather than let it hold you back from the true wisdom from above. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As it says in the book of Job, God uses man’s own brilliance to trap him; he stumbles over his own “wisdom” and falls. 20 And again, in the book of Psalms, we are told that the Lord knows full well how the human mind reasons and how foolish and futile it is.
21 So don’t be proud of following the wise men of this world. For God has already given you everything you need. 22 He has given you Paul and Apollos and Peter as your helpers. He has given you the whole world to use, and life and even death are your servants. He has given you all of the present and all of the future. All are yours, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ is God’s (The Living Bible).
 
What about the other part of it, that is us dwelling in or abiding in God? Let’s take a look at the wonderful joy of abiding in God or dwelling in God. Dwelling in God is about your relational position to God, so you have a choice about what you believe, who you understand God to be, and how you understand He thinks of you. These choices affect your relationship with Him, the better you know Him, the closer you will be to Him. The more time you spend getting to know Him, the closer you will be to Him.
You can be in the same room as someone and be considered near to them, but if you are sitting by their side or at their feet, you are obviously closer than the person sitting across the room. If you spend every day with a friend, you are closer to them than the person who sees them once a week. If you spend your time with a person talking about yourself, you will not be as close as the friend who spends time in communication, listening, asking, and actively seeking to know the person. We can call ourselves a friend but really only be an acquaintance. It is no different with God. Let’s look at some of what the Word of God has to say about it.
Psalm 27 reads,
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
    of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evildoers assail me
    to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
    it is they who stumble and fall.
3 Though an army encamp against me,
    my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
    yet I will be confident.
4 One thing have I asked of the Lord,
    that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
    and to inquire in his temple.
5 For he will hide me in his shelter
    in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
    he will lift me high upon a rock.
6 And now my head shall be lifted up
    above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
    sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
    be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
    “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
9     Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
    O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
    O God of my salvation!
10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
    but the Lord will take me in.
11 Teach me your way, O Lord,
    and lead me on a level path
    because of my enemies.
12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
    for false witnesses have risen against me,
    and they breathe out violence.
13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living!
14 Wait for the Lord;
    be strong, and let your heart take courage;
    wait for the Lord!
 
David’s desire is to dwell in the house of the Lord so that he can see Him and inquire of Him. Because David seeks God’s face, that is presence, voice, and will, he doesn’t fear, he is protected, and he knows his eternity is secure. And like us, as David’s enemies do all they can to hurt him, as chaos reigns around him, David declares his belief, as if to remind himself, “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!” He is saying, ‘I don’t have to wait until I am dead to see God, I see Him now while I live!’ Then David reminds himself what dwelling in God’s house means. It means to wait for the Lord; don’t fight the enemy without God, wait and see what God will do, wait and hear what God will say. That is what takes real courage and strength, letting God be God rather than letting us take action without God’s commandment.
 
Why do I say that dwelling in God is positional and we have a choice in that position? Because of statements like the one that beings Psalm 91
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”
You see, the psalmist words it as our choice. “He who dwells,” the person who dwells in God’s shelter will abide in His shadow. His shadow doesn’t cover everyone, it covers those who are dwelling in His shelter or secret place.  The psalmist then goes on to tell us a few of the privileges of abiding in the shadow of the Almighty. He uses two awesome names for God here, first “the Most High” which explains God’s superior sovereignty over everything. Then He calls Him “Almighty” referring to His omnipotence, His power over everything.
  3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
    and from the deadly pestilence.
The first thing that is promised is that He will deliver you from the fowler’s trap, a bird trap. The trap killed the bird but more often it brought it into the use of the trapper or his customers’. If we are in God’s protection, no one will be able to use us for their purposes, we are set aside for God’s purposes, not the enemy’s.
Furthermore, we will not be given over to pestilence. Pestilence is specifically a deadly and overwhelming disease that affects an entire community, something like the black plague that killed 30% of Europe’s population in the mid fourteenth century. In the Bible, pestilence is a tool of the enemy that God uses to judge. Some might consider Covid-19 pestilence; the pandemic has affected the globe. Yet, many, not all Believers, have been in direct contact with the wildly contagious disease and have not contracted it. You see, not every believer is aware that they could be under God’s protection from pestilence. Some have simply stepped outside of His shadow. They are just not as close to God as they might think. Maybe they are not ascribing God’s attributes to Him, because they don’t know Him that well or they think He couldn’t love them enough to do all that He says He will or can. But, Believer, God loves you so much! He adores you. He can and will do what He says He can. He cannot deny who He is! But, we can and if we deny Him, He will deny us. 2 Timothy 2:11-13 says,
The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
Denying God doesn’t merely mean, saying God doesn’t exists; it is refuting or negating who He is and what He is capable of. If you say, God will not protect me or God will not heal through me or speak through me, then you will be correct. You have denied Him, and He will stand behind your words or beliefs. He gave you authority to make your words manifest to works, denying Him does the same thing, you deny He can or will and He will not.
Let’s be encouraged by reading the rest of Psalm 91.
4 He will cover you with his pinions,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
    nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
8 You will only look with your eyes
    and see the recompense of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
    the Most High, who is my refuge —
10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
    no plague come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways.

12 On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder;
    the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
    I will protect him, because he knows my name.
15 When he calls to me, I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble;
    I will rescue him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”
Read that and accept that every promise is for you, Beloved. It is contingent on your position to God, are you dwelling in His shelter and abiding in His shadow? Do you know Him as your refuge and fortress? Do you actually trust Him?
If you find like so many of us, that you have moved away from that intimate position of being in His shadow? What can we do? Here is a very quick rundown on some postures or positions with God.

1. We need frequent time alone with God. Even Jesus took frequent time alone with God and He is God!
2. We need time with other believers. Jesus went to church, shouldn’t we? (Luke 21:37-38, Mark 14:49, Mark 11:27). Meeting with one another helps us to draw closer to God! (Hebrews 10:21-26).
3. We need to sit at Jesus’ feet, that is listen to Him, learn from Him, allow Him to teach you. Imagine the perspective from the position of sitting at anyone’s feet. You are close to them, you can hear everything they say, even if they whisper. You are aware of their breathing, their every movement. No one and nothing else can distract you from your closeness because your relationship is expressed physically, emotionally, and psychologically by your proximity. (Luke 10:38-42, Luke 8:26-39).
4. We need to pray to the Father, looking up, looking toward the Father for our needs and allowing people to know that this is where we are meeting our needs and theirs, such as telling people you are praying for them and doing it and asking for God’s blessing on food or service (Mark 6:41, John 11:41-43).
5. We need to kneel before God. This is not only about requesting something, it is also a position of acknowledging God’s authority and Kingship, additionally it is a position of worship. We bend our knees in submission and acknowledgment. One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord! (Philippians 2:8-11).
6. We need to lift up our hands, this is another position of prayer, one that Paul said we should employ (1 Timothy 2:1-10). Paul wanted men everywhere to pray this way. That means that above all this pose is prayerful. It is one that speaks to God with and without our words. In addition, this position is often a public one which communicates a oneness with people sharing in that time of supplication, prayer, intercession, and thanksgiving. Finally, according this passage just as it conveys unity, it suggests respect, unpretentiousness, and self-control. It is an external display of our mind toward God. It is a posture of blessing others while we pray and worship (Luke:24-50-53). Additionally, this posture means we reach towards God’s holiness and sanctuary (Psalm 28:2). It is a posture of desire for God (Psalm 63:1-4).

If you look at each of the positions or postures I listed you will note that they are all about being with God, either speaking to Him, listening to Him, or worshipping Him. These positions are wrapped up with this, Psalm 46:10-11 says,
“Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
Being still and knowing that God is God is so simple and beautiful and it is the key to dwelling in the secret place, the shelter of the Most High! Being still takes a deliberate effort and it demonstrates faith. It allows God to strengthen us and it glorifies God as His power is displayed instead of ours. Waiting on God is a magnificent expression and revelation of our faith. It is not doing nothing; it is an intentional seeking of God’s face, His will, and His voice.
Be blessed, be still, abide in the Lord, and know that you are the Temple of God and He abides in you as well. Jesus is in the Father, we are in Jesus, and His Spirit is in us. Believer, nothing is impossible with God! Nothing!

According to Galatians 5:22-23 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control. For me, joy is not always easily found or expressed. But the fruit is meant to be expressed. So often I hear Christians tell one another they recognized them by the joy they convey, a joy that is not often seen outside of Christ. True joy cannot be found outside of God. Job 20:5 says, “that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?”  Joy is not happiness. It is not contingent on circumstances; it relies on who we are and how we perceive the world and our circumstances.
The fruit or results of having the Holy Spirit within us, of walking and acting in the Spirit is transformation to the image of Christ. The characteristics listed in Galatians 5:22-23 are characteristics of Christ. The verse goes on to say that “against these things, there is no law.” When our response is one of choosing to operate in Him, we will not sin. The law is not something we have to consider as we walk in the Spirit. We are freed from the law. Romans 8:1-2 reads, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” How awesome is that? How amazing? What a wonderful reason to rejoice! It seems so difficult for so many to give up the hold of the law though. They want the rules, as long as the rules fit their worldview. They want to know what they should do or shouldn’t do and they judge anyone who doesn’t go along with those rules, even when they, themselves often do not. But following Christ is not about rules, laws, or traditions, it is about seeking God and following Jesus which means walking in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit means having the Spirit indwell you. It means choosing to do what He leads you to do rather than what your natural self, often called “the flesh” would choose to do. Romans 8:5-10 in The Living Bible says,
Those who let themselves be controlled by their lower natures live only to please themselves, but those who follow after the Holy Spirit find themselves doing those things that please God. 6 Following after the Holy Spirit leads to life and peace, but following after the old nature leads to death 7 because the old sinful nature within us is against God. It never did obey God’s laws and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their old sinful selves, bent on following their old evil desires, can never please God.
9 But you are not like that. You are controlled by your new nature if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that if anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ living in him, he is not a Christian at all.)
In the ESV verses 6-7 read this way,
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.
To set one’s mind on the Spirit is a choice. We take part in whether we will think about the Spirit and what He wants for us or on our flesh or our basal desires and pride want. Are we choosing to be hostile to God or submissive to God? To choose to follow laws can still be hostility toward God. To follow laws without the Spirit is to feed one’s pride and that does not yield to God’s will for us. To set our minds on the Spirit and respond in the image of Christ is pleasing to God, glorifies God, and results in demonstrable  and demonstrated love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control, the fruit or results of the Holy Spirit in our lives and hearts.
We want happiness and mistakenly think joyful expression is the result of being happy. That is backward, happiness can be the result of joy but rarely if ever will mere happiness result in true lasting joy. Happiness is transitory since it is based on conditions, events, or situations. In fact, we can have joy even when we are going through difficulties. Psalm 27:5-7 reads,
For he will hide me in his shelter
    in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
    he will lift me high upon a rock.
6 And now my head shall be lifted up
    above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
    sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
    be gracious to me and answer me!
You see David was in a day of trouble, yet he was praying and so he was able to worship, shout joyfully, and sing to God because as he sought God, God lifted David’s head. David understood that the Lord was his salvation through everything, that gave him joy. Believer, does that give you joy? No matter what is happening around you, God is your salvation.
Where is joy? Where do we find it? The answer is somewhat obvious but, obvious doesn’t always mean easily understood or accepted. We find joy in The Lord. In 1 Chronicles 16:27 when David is singing a song of praise to God, he says, “Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his place.”
Once again, David was praising, he was seeking God. David was in God’s dwelling place and that is where he found strength and joy. The dwelling place of God was His Tabernacle and then the Temple, not a people but a tent and then a building. Now, the dwelling place of God is His church, it is His believers. Ephesians 2:18-22 tells us,
 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
We are joined together into a holy temple in the Lord, a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. The church is God’s dwelling place. Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20). If you can’t find joy, maybe you need to ask yourself when the last time you were with the church, praising and worshipping, fellowshipping and learning. Perhaps you need to consider if you are seeking God or finding yourself. I mean if Jesus is right there with us when only two or three are gathered, how can we not rejoice? If He is there when just a few of us gather, how much more will His presence be encountered, experienced and expressed when there are twenty or one hundred and twenty gathered in His name?
Joy is found in God’s presence. Joy is expressed through praising him and worshipping Him.  We know joy because we know God loves us and cares what happens to us. Psalm 35:27 says, “Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, “Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant!”
Joy is found in courageous obedience to Jesus, serving Him and His glory, and being a good steward over what He gives us. In The Parable of the Talents, Jesus tells the story of three servants who were entrusted with money from their master. The first was given five talents, the second was given two talents, and the third was given one talent. Upon the master’s return, he found that the first and second servant had traded and doubled the master’s money. The third merely buried the money in the ground. The master took the talent from the third servant. He then told each of the first two servants, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:14-46).
Other kinds of obedience result in joy as well. Spreading the good news about Jesus and helping them by demonstrating His love gives us joy. But the greater joy, the best joy is knowing we are chosen and known by God; we are saved. When Jesus sent out seventy-two disciples, they came back rejoicing over the great things they had done in Jesus name. Luke 10:17-20 reads,
The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
Just after this Jesus prayed in the Holy Spirit. The Bible refers to this as rejoicing! Consider that when we pray in the Spirit, we are rejoicing. Also think about this, in this passage (Luke 10:21-24), as Jesus prays in the Spirit to the Father, God’s triunity is shown so gloriously to us and He invites us into that unity with Him.
In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
23 Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
We rejoice over our salvation and Jesus’ revelation to us and to those He allows us to show Jesus to. We rejoice because we know Him and because we are known by Him! Do you understand this is The LORD, God Almighty, Creator, Lord of Hosts? He is God and He knows us, and He wants us to know Him! Praise God! That is a magnificent reason to be filled with joy.
There is so much more to say on this topic! Joy is a gift from God, it is a choice we are able make in the Holy Spirit. It is a blessing that we can and should openly express. I leave you with this benediction today.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13

At our church service we were asked to contemplate the question Paull raised in 1 Corinthians 12:29-30.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?
I know what I think my answer to this question is, but I want to answer it with scripture and not my own flawed opinions or knowledge. The first thing one must do to answer the question is to put it back into context. 1 Corinthians 12 talks about the gifts of the Spirit and about the body of Christ. Looking at verses 12-26 which immediately precede the question, we see that we are all members of the body and like the body, not everyone can be the mouth or the head or the foot. That is why we have a variety of gifts, we all have a purpose in the body. There is someone at your church gifted at teaching, someone else gifted at pastoring, and someone different gifted at prophecy, healing, and administration. We need the variety of gifts. So, no not all are apostles, prophets teachers, healers etc. But, is this the end of it? No, there is more to consider.
Regarding the gifts, in verses 4-11 Paul says,
 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
This passage says that to one this is given to another this is given. Paul also says, “All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” This implies that not everyone has every gift. But what the Spirit really called to my attention in this section was verse 6, “and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.”
You see God in the Holy Spirit gives these gifts to each one as He wills, the same Spirit empowers them all in everyone. This is not a contradiction, He gives as He wills and He gives to everyone. He is able to do as He wills or chooses. God gives good gifts to His children who ask Him. (Matthew 7:11) and whatever we ask for in His name or in agreeance with one another and with faith we will receive (Matthew 18:19, Matthew 21:22, Mark 11:24, John 15:7, John 15:16, and more). So just as God wills that all are saved, the scriptures infer that God wants to give everyone gifts and blessings.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:31 just after he poses the question, “But earnestly desire the higher gifts.”
What this means to me is that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to everyone, but we can ask for more, we can ask for all of them. Do all? No. Can all if we ask? Yes. Will He give those gifts to us when we ask? The answer is yes but with qualifiers. Yes, He gives whatever we ask Him for in His name, that is as His representative. He gives when we ask in agreeance with other saints, we would not agree for something evil. And He gives when we ask with faith. James explains this in James 1:5-6 when he talks about asking for the gift of wisdom,
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
This passage has given many a charlatan reason to explain why people are not healed by him or why people did not get the new Lexus they asked for. But what James is saying is that if you ask for wisdom (or some other gift) you must ask with faith because otherwise you would not listen to God for the wisdom or use the gift you asked for because you don’t really believe He gave it to you. You are double minded therefore hoping He gave it but not trusting He did. You would wait for some miracle to happen and empower you in a shimmering shower of gold or a gust of wind to hit you and make you suddenly sprout wise sayings or tongues or lightning to shoot from your hands and cause healings all around you. Without that faithful assurance, you will follow whatever speaker, teacher, or pastor gives you some teaching that tells you the steps you have to take to have the gifts that the Bible says God has already given you. With faith, you ask and then, knowing God gave you the gift, you use it. You listen for the wisdom, the word, or the knowledge. You step out in faith and declare healing or miracles in Jesus’ name.  
God would not tell you to desire the higher gifts if He were not going to give them to you when you ask. He would not tell us to ask for them if He were not going to give them to us. Perhaps, you have asked for a gift and have not seen it manifested. Maybe it isn’t time yet for you to get it. Maybe you need to take a step or two first. One thing many of us don’t consider doing is having the gift ignited by prayer and laying on of hands from elders or others already anointed and using the gift. In 2 Timothy 1:5-7 Paul reminds Timothy to do this. He says,
I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Paul knew Timothy had faith, that was not the issue, He wanted the elders of the church to lay their hands on Timothy and fan into flame the gift of God that was in him. How was the gift in Timothy? Paul had laid his hands on Timothy when he prayed for the Holy Spirit to indwell him. He reminded Timothy that we have a spirit of self-control, not fear. We can choose through our self-control to practice these gifts or we can choose to let fear rule us and not practice them in case we do not have the gift.
If God wants someone healed, He will heal Him through you or the guy next to you or the woman who meets the person next. He is the same Holy Spirit in you, your pastor, the person famous for his healing gift, and the person in your church who is gifted with it. He is the same Spirit in you as the person gifted with prophecy or knowledge or teaching. in your body. The same Holy Spirit who indwelled and empowered Paul, Peter, John, and James indwells you, Believer.
We must also practice the gifts we were given. We cannot and should not let them sit unused within us. That does no one any good, not us and not the people learning from us or watching us. In 1 Timothy 4:14-16 Paul said,
Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Earlier in the letter Paul in 4:7-8 Paul told Timothy  “Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” Encouraging him that just as we train our physical bodies we should train our spirits as well.
Let’s go back to Paul’s question now, “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” No, all are not, but it could be that way. We can operate in all the gifts, if we ask with faith, if we declare this in front of the body and let the elders lay hands on us to impart the anointing and fan the gift into flame, if in faith we step up and practice and use the gifts, knowing it is the Holy Spirit, not us who is wise, healing, miracle working, speaking, encouraging, and loving. We must remember too that Paul went on from that question to tell us the better way, the way of love. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that without love, none of the amazing things we do is worth anything. If we do these great things without love we are nothing and gain nothing. These gifts, our faith and our hope are all part of this temporary earth. Prophecies will one day be in the past. There will be no need of healing or encouragement because we will be living in perfect unity with Jesus Christ in New Jerusalem on the New Earth forever. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and there will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain. Earth and all its brokenness and sin will have passed away (Revelation 21:4)

Let’s begin by reading 1 Peter 1:3-9
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
 
Various trials… I would say we have seen our share of various trials recently. Yet, at least for me this church, even in its own turmoil has held me together, has been the comfort of God for me. You have wept with me, held your arms around me, and rejoiced with me.
I have not had the happiest couple of months. Losing my mother was extraordinarily difficult. It did not help that when I should have been processing that loss and the pain that accompanied it therefore healing, that it felt like a barrage of calamities hit me one after the other. I know that I was not the only person in this church to experience difficult times. Separately and together, we have had various trials hit us, we have suffered separately and together. I know that the enemy is afraid of Jesus Christ in us, he is afraid of what we can do and who we can be in the Holy Spirit.
There are a number of ways people can deal with tribulations like that.  We could let them defeat us, lay down and say, “you win.” We let the bad circumstances overcome us and become ineffective Christians or wounded self-pitying people. We could, like the world, blame God for the atrocities the enemy is performing all over this broken world.
We could try and fight the enemy, looking for solutions to the problems that pop up. We could run around looking for loans, suing people to get “justice,” or wounding those who have wounded us. But, that is us forgetting the goal, running a race aimlessly or beating the air like a boxer with his eyes closed. That is us fighting the problems, not standing in the faith and promise of God, not remembering our hope, that imperishable inheritance.
Or we could keep our eyes on Jesus, we could remember the goal, seek God, glorify the Lord and bring as many people with us to eternal life as possible. We can hold on to the hope of Christ and rejoice, even in midst of the sorrow. We can believe, truly really believe and so rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. We can listen to the voice of God and do what He tells us to do, even if what He says is, “Rest,” or “Forgive. Vengeance is mine.”
Suffering can result in us turning inward on ourselves and living in the pain the enemy wants us to live in, crippling us in the kingdom. But it can result in greater things, it can result in great glory to God. It can result in us becoming powerful and effective Christians.
In my own suffering, I felt a little like Job. I was not in a self-pity mode, but I reached a point where I was afraid to say, “At least it’s not worse,” because I felt like when I said it, the devil said, “It can be! Let me show you!” But, I stayed in communion with God, even when it wasn’t as passionate as it could have or should have been. He kept reminding me of Genesis 50:20 when Joseph explained to his brothers how and why he forgave them for what they had done to him as a teenager. “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
That is the hope we hold onto, that God will bring good out of all the stuff that happens to us. Paul reminds of it in Romans 8:28-29 as well. It is very good that we are made more like Jesus and other good comes out of it. God wants good for us, He wants salvation for everyone. That doesn’t make the tribulations any less tumultuous, but it does help us to trudge on through them, to obey God, and to eventually look back and even rejoice for what came out of it. The faith that God will work good out of evil and will work good for those who love Him can give us the reason to praise Him even when we are hurting and don’t know what else to say. I can say, “thank you Lord that some of my family and friends got to hear that my mother loved you.” I can praise the Lord because I know I will see my mother again in the resurrection and I know she is with Jesus completely at peace and joy, all her doubts vanished, all her pain gone. I can praise God because through the church being forced to find a new place to meet, we have come to know that we are the church, one body who loves each other very much, who loves Jesus very much and who will continue regardless of a home. That we will be a very strong core to a growing body who will glorify the Lord and impact His Kingdom in ways the devil never could have imagined. The evil he meant for us, God meant for good and to bring about that many people will be saved.
Then my sister encouraged me with some verses from Job. Job 5:8-11 reads,
“As for me, I would seek God,
    and to God would I commit my cause,
9 who does great things and unsearchable,
    marvelous things without number:
10 he gives rain on the earth
    and sends waters on the fields;
11 he sets on high those who are lowly,
    and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
 
Those verses and her prayers ignited me. I knew I needed to seek God even more during this time. I needed to cry out to Him and know He is omnipotent and that He loves perfectly and steadfastly.  I did. I read Psalm 42 because I completely understood what David meant when he described his soul as downcast. It’s so much more than sadness. David said his tears were his food day and night. He said that his soul was in turmoil. That is how I felt. I wanted to stop hurting. I, like David wanted to feel like I had felt in the past at a high point of faith and my walk with Jesus.
What was David’s answer? He said,
“As a deer pants for flowing streams,
    so pants my soul for you, O God.
 My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God”
He said his need for God was a desperation, an absolute requirement for his life, the way a deer requires water.
He said, that he remembered the praise when he poured his soul out to God. And He said in verse 8,
“By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.”
He ends the Psalm in verse 11 with,
“Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.”
 
David turned to God and God covered him in His love and reminded him of the hope and salvation He gave him. I did too. I finally turned fully to God.
We can’t expect to stand firm in Christ if we are not seeking God with the desperation of that panting thirsty deer. We can’t expect to resist the devil if we are inviting him to engage with us by trying to fight him and wrestle with him rather than crying out to God and letting the LORD do great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number as the book of Job reminds us, He does.
My sadness did not magically disappear, but my hope grew and my joy grew. God showed me that a person can be in deep grief, but still have joy. The more I spoke to God, the more I cried out to Him instead of an empty room, the more I looked for the Lord, the more hope and joy I had, regardless of my circumstances.
And then I saw God moving to help me, I saw Him shining His favor on me, improving some of the circumstances that had piled on me.
How does my crying out to God, how does us putting our faith in God rather than ourselves glorify the Lord? People are watching. People are watching our responses and reactions. They see if we dig way down and flex our own muscles or we stand firm in faith and ask the Lord to be our strength, provider, comforter, counselor, and savior. It is not about changing circumstances. Our circumstances can improve but we can remain bereft or we can grow farther away from God as we become what the world sees as strong. Paul was harassed by Satan who had given him something he described as a thorn in his flesh. Paul turned to the LORD and begged Him to take it away. God chose not to change the circumstances, instead He changed His servant.
2 Corinthians 12:7-12 reads,
 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
The Lord’s power, His omnipotent unimaginable strength is made perfect, that is it is shown and expressed in our weakness. God can do it all and it is shown best when displayed through our imperfection, our inability, our frailty. It is His strength, not ours that brings people to Jesus. It is God’s strength that allowed Him to lay His life down on the cross and raise up again to defeat death and sin. He empowers us and gives us strength to rise above our circumstances. Paul wrote to the Philippians and said in chapter 4 verses 12-13
12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
When we operate in His strength and not our own, the circumstances do not have to bring us down. But He can and does do great things for us. He does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number!
He will give us the church building He showed us. He will do it in a way, none of us imagined. He can do so much more than any of us can think up. He can and will and has provided for us again and again. He heals! He anoints! He brings people to Himself even through the evil campaigns of the enemy.
And what about the good that comes out of the evil that the enemy tries to work against us? Sometimes we don’t know about it. We don’t know how we were protected from some awful thing. Sometimes it takes time to come about. Scholars guess Joseph spent about thirteen years or so in prison for a crime he did not commit. It was two years from the time he interpreted the dreams of the cup bearer and baker to the time he was asked to serve Pharaoh. It was the gifts and wisdom God had given Joseph that saved Egypt and his family.
But there are many times when God let’s us see the good that came from the thwarted attack of the enemy, the weapons that tried to take us down and maybe even looked like they hit the target. I can tell you that I saw how many people I have that love and care about me, my good friends, my church, my family. God sends those people to be His arms hugging and holding you, His comfort as The Holy Spirit operates through His people as we obey the “one anothers” out of love for Jesus and each other. God sent Job’s friends to comfort him during what had to be horrific and unimaginable sorrow. His friends weren’t perfect, they proved that when they spoke out of themselves rather than the Spirit of God. But Job’s faithful response, changed his friends lives and gave them an encounter with the LORD of Lords.
And often, the good that comes from it is the transformation of our character to the image of Christ. Romans 5:3-5 describes it this way,
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
 When we’re suffering, not only does the Lord make us more like Jesus but if we choose to pay attention, we can be very aware of the awesome love He has for us. He pours His love into us through the Holy Spirit. He builds us up and He lets us feel that amazing love He is, fill us up with it and even helps us to love others with better with His agape love.
For me, the peace, the comfort, the love all came when I cried out to God, when I sought Him and asked for His help. The joy came when I praised Him for being awesome and good even when my circumstances were terrible.
We can feel so alone in suffering, in trials, and difficulties, but that is a lie from the enemy. Remember God’s promise, “I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you.” We might ignore God, but He will not leave us, and He will not ignore us. He will not remove His hand from our lives unless we want Him to do that.
One of my favorite names for God is, The God who Sees Me. This was what Hagar called him when she was so hurt by how she was treated by Sarai and Abram after she became pregnant. God pursued her into the wilderness, comforted her and gave her the promise of her son, Ishmael, which means God hears.
We can cry out to Him and know He hears us. We know He sees us, and We know He has compassion for us, and we know that God loves us perfectly because He is love.
And we have more than Hagar’s promise of God hears, we have Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us! We are definitely never alone. And if we are part of a Jesus following, Bible believing, Holy Spirit led church, we also know that the people around us can empathize, that the people around us love us because we are called and empowered to love one another as Jesus loved us. That has been proved in us again and again. We have rejoiced together, we have wept together, we have walked and grown together. That kind of love, the love of God and the love He gives us for one another is what gives us joy regardless of the circumstances.
John 15:7-12
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
 
I praise the Lord. I praise Him, not because the world is honkey dory, but because He is God. Because He is God with me, Awesome Mighty God, Lord God of Hosts. The world doesn’t need the lie that life is a rose garden if you’re saved, the world needs the truth that God is always God. They need to know that He prayed for them in the garden of Gethsemane and that He died for them and resurrected for them. They need to know the hope of eternal life. I praise God because He is I Am.
The world sees the way we respond to problems. They can call us stupid or apathetic, tell us religion is a crutch, or offer advice about what they would do in our circumstances. Their response will not affect or change our lives,; But maybe they can take notice and see how good God is and start a journey to Christ and let their life be changed by Jesus, who gives us strength to do all things.
The first and most important thing we can do when we are being attacked, when we are facing various trials is cry out to God and let Him be God! If we abide in Jesus, whatever we ask will be given to us! We cry out to God. We can listen and obey. We can move as He orders and rest as He orders. We can and should put on the full armor of God letting salvation, righteousness, truth, and faith protect us and wielding the very powerful sword of the Sprit, the Word of God. Every piece of the armor is about Jesus. Jesus is our Salvation. He gives us our righteousness. He gives us our Faith. He is the Truth. He is the Word of God. Ephesians 6:11 tells us to “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”
You have the Spirit of God in you! He adores you that much that He chose to live in you. Live in the Spirit rather than doing what the world says you ought to do in your circumstances. Cry out to God and obey Him, submit to His will. James 4:2-7 says it like this,
You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
You don’t have to do more than merely resist, the word for resist is antistēte, it means to set against and withstand.
The same word is used in 1 Peter 5:9 let’s read 1 Peter 5:6-11
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Once again we humble ourselves, we put ourselves under His mighty hand, we cast all our cares on Him and we resist.
What does it mean to resist, to withstand to stand firm or stand against? Exodus 14:13-14 describes a bit about resisting the enemy. When the Israelites reached the Red Sea and they looked and saw the Egyptian army closing in on them, they were afraid, but Moses spoke for the Lord and said, “And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
So, today whatever your circumstances, trials, anxieties, or sorrows I encourage you to cry out to God and put on the whole armor of God. Let’s humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand asking Him to fight for us; let’s resist, stand against the devil firm in our faith that God is mighty and He has called us to His eternal glory. He will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us! He is I Am! Jehovah, Lord God Almighty!