We are in an awesome place in this nation, but it’s also a troubling place. Christianity is in a troubling place. We need to recognize it and see what we can do to change it. Do you want to change your life today? At the start of the 21 day fast, we opened the door to some personal responsibility toward our faith walk with Jesus. Last week we talked about the cross and the sacrifice. We stressed the need to follow Paul’s words in Philippians 2:17. It says we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
If you were left to yourself, how good and how strong would you be in God? Think about a baby. If you give birth to a baby and leave it sitting in a room, it’s not going to last very long. We’ve come to a place where we’ve become our own worst enemy, as far as it is to growing and maturing in Christ. I got saved in a church that was strong in the power of God and the teaching of revelation and the Word. We need to keep that balance going on. We have to take up our cross and follow Jesus. His cross is our walk. We are not asked to die for Him, but to live like, and for Him, every day. Yes, we must die. But, we’re only dying to self, which is the greatest battlefield that we have to deal with. So, we’re not giving up our lives, but we are giving up our selfish life. In humility and in brokenness we will make room for God to release His strength through our weaknesses in order to accomplish His plans.
What are His plans? The Lord has plans. As a father and mother would have plans for their child, God the Father has plans. He had plans for Adam and Eve. Jeremiah said in chapter 29, “I know the plans I have for you.” God the Father brings us into a revelation and a place where the cross is real, and we accept Jesus. But, if we don’t walk with Him and take up our cross, we gather up a false religion. There are going to be a lot of Christians who won’t make it when they die. I can prove that. The word says in Matthew that people came and said, “We did this in your name.” And Jesus said, “Depart from me, I don’t even know you.” You can put all the religious robes and gear on, but it’s not going to usher you in to the things of God.
I was listening in on a conference meeting, yesterday, and they were talking about where the Church is and what God wants to do with his Church. You and I are the subject of God’s discussion in the glorious eternities of Heaven. We are on the lips of God every single day. The Bible says that Jesus is before the throne of God making intercession on behalf of the saints, everyday! So, Jesus is ministering to the Father about you every single day. Don’t you know that the heart of God has to be overwhelmed, when His own Son, who bought and paid for us, is now giving a daily report about his children? It makes the heart of God proud!
