GODS’S CHILDREN

 

GODS’S CHILDREN

5- 20-86

"Without vision the people perish, (fly to pieces)." “My people perish for lack of knowledge." "Be still, and Know that I am God.” "...that I may know Him (Christ)..." “Depart from me... I never knew you ... "

God's children need to know their Father. We have the fullness of God in Jesus. He is the mediator, the Way, the door to knowing the Father's heart, the Father's plan, and the Father's unsurpassed love.

 

We see in our own lives the ways we have suffered in not getting to know our earthly fathers. Hopefully we have known tender love from their hand. If we have chosen to remain aloof and detached we miss a chance to discover ourselves in our fathers. Some of us had little or no chance to know them. Others of us choose not to spend time with them. In one way or another we lose something precious in not knowing who our father was to us. Even though we may have failed, missed out, or been deprived, the Spirit of God can restore what has been lost. The Father above seeks to intimately know us through His Son by the revelation given us in the Spirit. In effect, we had a second chance to be known and to know, in God the Father. If we choose to avoid Him and ignore His call then we lose a great blessing and forfeit the chance of being included intimately in His greatest designs for this good pleasure. He desires to be the Father to the Fatherless and richly bestow all things to his children who choose to cling fast to his love in all ways.

 

The current-day, church is being given a watered down, limited, and therefore distorted view of what God desires of his people. We find self-anointed teachers and preachers lulling us into false peace painting the Father as the tolerant Grandmother of the Universe, or “fire and brimstone", "hell and damnation”, and hyper legalism now whips the listening folds into submission to provide a new sanctuary, new faces on the bus, and fresh asphalt on the parking lot. The people of God are bored with these settings and wane in their zealous love for their God. The saints sincerely follow their "man of the hour" building his mini-empire as a "testimony” of what God can do. These extremes burden the heart of our Father. We are rushing right past His arms reaching out to gently hold us and speak of His love.

 

Good intentions are not good enough. If we are not with God, for God, sensitive to God the Spirit -- then we are against him. God's people know no unity, no common vision and we “fly to pieces" doing that which is right in our own eyes. We are fools comparing each other and charting our individual progress by the fellow next to us. Where are we headed and what for?

Apart from missing out on intimate knowledge of the Father's love, the deep things of the Spirit, and the power of the resurrection of Christ, a more subtle deception has crept into the Body of Christ.

Regardless of whether we classify ourselves as liberals or fundamentalists in the faith, both camps overlook the need, the command to hold fast "and endure", the extremist to the left or the right will not interpret these phrases in the light of the Father’s Grand Plan. Liberals and "you’re okay" types cannot preach this in a true light. Instead we are to be tough people in tough times and keep on believing in yourself because God does and so on. Legalists and fundamentalists translate this call to maturity as a call to further serve in a greater capacity in the local church. "Hold fast" in tithing 48% for example -- and "endure the hard preaching against sin.” "Join the choir, get on the board or help us build a new gymnasium this Saturday afternoon and further the kingdom, are slogans you will hear.

 

I pause here to say that people are saved in our varied groups, taught the basics, and God blesses in spite of our dull hearing. Still the Spirit calls us on, the Spirit and the Bride say come. The Bride, by obedience through grace and faithful allegiance to Jesus, will make herself ready and the Father will present the glorious Bride to this Son.

 

But what of those who refuse to cooperate, refuse to die to self and disregard the call to overcome? When the Son of man returns will he find faith? Will His return instantly transform us into mature believers? Will we each take part in the many aspects promised in the kingdom to those who are "overcoming by the blood of the Lamb?”

 

Christ has indeed secured eternal life for the believer -- yet He challenges us to run a race, to be strong soldiers, and accept the sufferings He ordains. He will not force us to mature. Ezekiel says the Lord will judge between the sheep, each one. What do we forfeit by wandering in the wilderness of unbelief and rebellion? Are we Joshua’s and Caleb’s or do we stagnate in Christ’s so great a salvation?

Harsh and desperate hours face this planet and the prince of darkness roaming around it. A great shaking of the very universe awaits us. An hour of testing and tribulation comes. Many preach a novel idea of fast and easy escapism where the Lord Himself instantly snatches us away. “Be ready or not, here I come!" Others deny any such version of a caught away people. They say God's people will be forced to endure all the awful wrath to come. Scattered in front, in between, and after the last curtain, we teach the return of Jesus, for his Bride. What is the truth?

Repeatedly the sum of all the Lord had to say about His return covered essentially a simple message to those who cared to listen. "Watch and pray, be being prepared, and occupy, “hastening the coming Day of God til I come.” We are each to use what He has given us to spread the gospel of the Kingdom. We each have equal access to the same Spirit and the same power. All that is required is attentive listening and obedience to the light we are given.

 

God does not tell us to be holy and perfect because the principle should help us get along. It is His way. What His Son did, we are called to do. Jesus has opened the way, won the victory, and offers the power to win in our individual lives. He will not fail us. However, he will not overpower our will. The call is still, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve!"

 

Canaan, the Promised Land seemed an impossible dream. Giants, great walled cities, and the unknown seemed to stand impenetrable. In God's eyes, and in His offered reality, (by faith), the enemy was already defeated. Simple obedience, steadfast trust, and belief were the bridge across the Jordan but the Israelites refused. A delivered, saved people chose to stop and wander aimlessly. What was already theirs, went to their children and to two men who believed what God had said. The majority remained in the desert having left from Egypt but losing out on the ultimate challenge, "castaways" as Paul feared. The majority still had the ways of Egypt in their hearts.

Men like Paul feared missing something? What of this being an overcomer in Revelation? Who are the wise virgins? Do we love not our lives to the death? It is up to each one of us to resolve the issue? What vision does God want us to see? Do we really know Him? Are we overcoming or are we overcome?

He that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Will we be the called, chosen, and faithful ones of Rev. 17:14?