Saturday 3 February 2018

Knowing God

Scripture: Phillipians 3 v 10 - 11: "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."

Jeremiah 31 v 34: "And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

Our Father sent Jesus to save us because He wanted us to know Him!  In Ecclesiastes 1 v 11 it says that we have no memory of the former things.  We have forgotten the beauty of our Heavenly home.  We don't remember our Father and His wonderful love.  We have lost the peace, joy, righteousness and tranquillity where we did not need faith or hope because we could experience the reality of eternity continually.

Between Heaven and Earth we suffered the loss of all things.  We were separated from our God and given many alternative lifestyles of our own choosing.  We never read the fine print.  Our newly formed souls only wanted gratification.  Instant fulfilment of every demand.  Lust.

It killed us so God made a plan.  He made Earth a blessed place for us.  He made us a body of flesh and overcame our death with His own breath of life.  The outcome was worse than He could bear.  There were so few who heard His voice and obeyed it. He spared 8 people and sent the Flood to drown the rest.

He sent Moses to deliver the Hebrews and give them laws to show them the errors of following their own ways.  He disciplined them so He could restore fellowship with them.  

He sent His Son Jesus to take away the barrier of sin so that we may know Him.  Paul cried, That I might know Him and the power of His resurrection.  If anyone knew the potential of that power Paul did, and he achieved much, but he knew the time would come when the full power of the Holy Spirit would be unleashed.  Everyone would know God though some would still reject Him.

The closer you walk with Jesus, the deeper you know the Father.  Jesus reduced the ten commandments to just two.  The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.  The second is to love your neighbour as yourself.

Your neighbour is not just the person living next door, but those people in your vicinity with a need.  You must measure the extent of your helpfulness by how you would deal with the situation if it was your own need.  When you are busy loving your neighbour you will have no time to be angry, hateful, bitter or evil towards him.  You won't steal from him, or covet his wife, murder him or slander his name to the neighbourhood.

God says that we cannot love Him more than we love each other.  1 John 4 v 12 - if we love one another God dwells in us.  God is love, it is His complete, divine nature.  His love forgives us unconditionally for our sins.  

The only unforgivable sin is when someone who is truly anointed by God is condemned for being an agent of Satan and being used by demons.  Just as the Pharisees who said Jesus was using Beelzebub to cast out demons.  It justified their decision to have Jesus crucified.  
Matthew 12 v 31 - 32: "Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
 32  And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come."

God wants us to know Him and love Him.  He wants to gather His children around Him to bless us and comfort us.  He wants us to approach His throne without fear.  He says we may boldly come to Him with confidence of HIs love.  If we have sinned He will forgive and restore us.  He loves us all equally.

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, we love, adore and worship You in Spirit and in truth.  Father restore our memories of Heaven and of You.  Unleash the power of the resurrection of Jesus to revive us in these last days.  Let Your Glory be over all the Earth. In Jesus' name. Amen.