Pastor Ken…
Well good morning, everyone. Great for us to be back here on this Wednesday morning. Welcome to our online pray-ers. Good morning to my online hosts. Love you, guys. So grateful for your faithfulness and your commitment to connect with people online.
Your journey is a life you must travel…
Before we pray, let me share a reflection in regards to living in God’s presence and cultivating an attitude of mindfulness when it comes to Him. Before I do that, I was reminded of this passage found in the Message translation. It’s First Peter 1:18. It says, “Your journey is a life you must travel with a deep consciousness of God.” I like that. “It costs God plenty to get you out of that dead end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it was only lately at the end of the ages, it became public knowledge. God always knew He was going to do this for you.”
I love that. It’s beautiful. He did what He did for you! For us personally and individually.
It goes on to say, “It’s because of this sacrifice Messiah whom God then raised from the dead and glorified that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.”
I like what it says at the beginning, in First Peter 1:18. It says “Your life is a journey and you must travel with a deep consciousness of God.” So just let your heart and your mindset be captivated by a deep and ever-expanding awareness that He is with you. He is for you. He lives in you. Right? He’s done much for you and for me. Hallelujah.
My eyes are ever toward the Lord…
And the reflection I wanted to share this morning is what David said in Psalm 25:15. “My eyes are ever toward the Lord.” That’s just the beginning of revival right there when we just turn our eyes toward Him. It says, “to live in the Spirit, we must continually be aware of God as being ever present.” Because He is. “God said He would never leave us or forsake us.” Even when you feel like He isn’t there, He is.
Let your heart be drawn to an awareness that He’s with you…
Wherever you are this morning, streaming this around the world, whatever you’re facing, there’s a lot of chaos in societies and nations right now and some pretty scary situations even that Christians and churches are facing in various parts of the world. And if you find yourself in the midst of that, then I just encourage you this morning to let your heart and your consciousness be drawn to an awareness that He’s there with you. The supernaturalness of God and ability and wisdom and counsel and comfort and protection of God the Holy Spirit is there for you. Lean into Him today. Trust Him today. Know He’s with you today.
Is He your vital need this morning?
This goes on to say, “How do we live a life in the spirit?” God told David in Psalm 27:8, “Seek you my face, inquire for and require my presence as your vital need.” Is He your vital need this morning? More than your morning cup of Joe? Your morning cup of coffee whether it’s cold press or Americana or Starbucks, Caribou or whatever. He must be what we crave. He must be what we pursue first and foremost, above all else in our daily life. Just today, right? Let’s just start with today.
Remember: what you look at enters your soul…
“God’s face is readily seen in His Word because He lives there. By faith we continue to fix our gaze upon God by holding and acting on His Word. Although trials and circumstances try to block our view of Him, sometimes it takes real waiting on God to secure Him before your eyes when you are going through tests that are boisterous.” Or distracting or difficult. I think I commented the other day that what you look at enters your soul. The Bible conveys a kingdom principle that we are transformed or changed as we gaze intently into His perfect law of liberty, the law of grace. Not the law of works and do’s and don’ts. And I’ll try and strive to be better today, Lord. Instead into the perfect law of liberty. His name is also known as Jesus. That law is also Jesus. He is the embodiment of grace and love and a fully satisfied list of expectations that God once had for us.
We fulfill every jot and tittle of the law in and through Jesus…
Isn’t that what the Bible says? That He went to the cross not only to hang between heaven and earth and pour forth His blood and water, that He contained, but also to nail and leave there for once and for all, and for all people in all time a list of things that were against us that we need to measure up to but could never quite do so. He took that list and a hammer with Him, if you will, in the spirit, and He nailed that list with boxes that were all checked. Check… check… check… My son, my daughter, you and me, we fulfill every jot and tittle of the law in and through Jesus. Not because of your striving, not because of your doing, not because of your measuring up, not because of your much spiritual activity, but because we find ourselves in Him through the blood and through the acceptance of the sacrificial work of Jesus.
The debt is satisfied—stamped “paid in full…”
And so that note that was against us, that condemned us, that shamed us, that we could never live up to was taken to the cross and forever nailed and left there. Stamped “paid in full.” With Jesus’ last breath as you recall, as He hung between two realms, He said as He breathed out His final breath, “It is finished.” In the original language, it is an accounting term what He actually said. That means “satisfied.” The bill, the debt that you and I were shackled with just by being born as a human because of Adam’s original sin, was satisfied! Paid in full! There’s nothing more to do. Amen.
We can rest in the knowledge that it is finished concerning our relationship with God…
Even this morning with maybe agitating thoughts that are trying to compete for your attention or some challenges you might be facing in life or continued chaos being reported on the news, we can rest in the knowledge and in the reality that it is finished concerning you and concerning me and our relationship with our Heavenly Father. He’s no longer ready to thump us over the head because of the slightest infraction. No. Jesus came to solve the sin problem of all humanity. So that we would not struggle or not strive, would not come to a place of prayer trying to put in some good works for God so that He would do something for us. No. God invites us on His own, out of His own initiative to come to Him boldly and without reservation, to ask and repeatedly ask, and to seek and to knock because He has already decided to answer. He’s already in fact prepared the way forward for you and for me, for the church, for what He intends and is doing in the earth. He just wants us to synchronize and align our hearts with the reality and the good news of the Gospel.
It’s a good news Gospel. Not a “sometimes He does and sometimes He don’t.” It is, “I am good and I want to do only good, and I have done good for you even in advance.” Because of that note that was stamped, “satisfied, paid in full.” Glory to God! It’s like if you were to get a call later today and somebody from the mortgage company said your mortgage on your house has been “satisfied, paid in full.” How would that make you feel? Woo. That would be something good. Huh? That would be a good call.
You are complete in Him…
Well, that’s the call that’s been made already. Your debt, my debt has been satisfied! You are all right the way you are. You are right in His sight. You are beloved. You are beautiful. You are complete in Him, right? You are forgiven. You are endowed with grace. You are a recipient of His goodness. That means His healing and His provision, and His protection and calling.
Just exhale this morning all of the toxicity and negativity and doubt and unbelief and struggle and agitation and frustration and hijacking the enemy’s done in our lives. Just exhale it out this morning with a breath and just be conscious to draw a fresh breath from an atmosphere of grace that hangs over and surrounds your life. Each day you wake up, the Bible says, His grace and His mercy our new… new each morning… new each minute His grace is available and flowing.
Focus on Jesus. Don’t focus on your failure…
The Bible reveals in fact that His grace when we even mess up and struggle and fail and miss it in some way or have a negative thought, His grace actually swells and grows and increases all the more to swallow up our mess-ups and to give us a fresh start. That’s important to have that consciousness because what you focus on enters your heart. Focus on Jesus. Don’t focus on your failure. Don’t focus on the negativity. Don’t focus on what they said or what happened or what has been perpetually dogging your steps each day. That’s of the enemy. That’s the law. The enemy wants to corrupt and pollute grace with little bits of law and legalism and self-introspection.
We need to set our gaze on Him…
We need a Christ perspective. We need to set our gaze on Him. It’s the answer to 10,000 temporal problems to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He is the one you’re called to be like. We’re called to be like Him… Jesus! And what you look at enters the core of your being and begins to be created. So look at the fact you’re forgiven. Look and stare into the perfect law of liberty and see that He’s already past tense made you whole body, soul, and spirit. Look at the fact that He is the author of liberty and freedom, that He’s opened prison doors, that He set us as captives of sin once free and forever free.
It takes waiting on God to secure Him before our eyes…
So fix your gaze upon God by holding and acting on His Word. Although trials and circumstances try to block our view of Him, sometimes it takes real waiting on God to secure Him before our eyes. When you’re going through tests that are boisterous. Life in the spirit means refusing to focus on anything but God. It means focusing our eyes and our hearts on Him. Life in the spirit means saying only that which pleases Him in conversations. Life in the spirit means allowing your thought life only thoughts that lead you to God, thoughts that are in line with His Word.
Follow your hearts instead of your flesh…
Yes, the devil will suggest evil, sinful thoughts to your mind, but you must resist and begin praising God. Your praises will stop those thoughts cold in their tracks. Living out of your spirit means following the direction of your heart instead of your flesh. Follow your hearts instead of your flesh.
