Friday 2 March 2018

God is Able


Scripture: Jeremiah 32 v 17:  "Ah Lord God! Behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee."


Have you ever looked into the night sky and wondered at the power and size of our God who has no beginning or end, and who created our Earth and every thing in the Cosmos? He stretched out His arm and by His Word all things were created.

Nothing is too difficult for Him. There is no death, pain or sickness in God. In order to comprehend the hardships of man in a sin-sick world He had to send His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to find out.

This is equivalent to a human becoming an ant to find out if they feel pain when someone stands on them or sprays insecticide on them. Do they feel sad or cry. Only by being in their body and circumstances would a human truly know. This is how Jesus can say that He was tempted in every way we could be. He did this as Son of Man rather than Son of God.

Jesus came to Earth to be born as a baby, grow up from child to adult, be baptised by John, do miracles and teach about Heaven, Hell, God and the Devil.  He came to die to take away the sins, sicknesses, evil power, trauma of this world so that we may overcome these ills in our own lives.  He made it possible.  He made it easier for us because He is able.

Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and is constantly interceding for us with Him. As we pray for one another, for nations, for our eternal home; God receives our prayers through the Holy Spirit and Jesus advises Him on what that problem is like.  

Before the fall of Satan, and the fall of man, through sin, God did not know what death was.  He was life, goodness and harmony.  Satan also did not know how to kill a human being when they were first created.  He found one way when Cain killed Able and this opened a Pandora's Box of disease, destruction and death to be unleashed on mankind.

God does not withhold the answers but our faith and understanding and obedience either open the way to receiving, or block it. When answers take a long time coming we start to get very serious with God and He reveals the barriers in our lives and situations that need to change.

God knew that our only real protection from Satan and his destructive demons was for us to be free from sin. When we come into His Kingdom through the Blood of Jesus, which cleanses us from all sin, that is His blessing on us.  It is our responsibility to keep ourselves free of further sin.  If we wander away from the truth we soon find the enemy trying to cause trouble.

Nothing is too difficult for Him but the difficulties in us cause us to either submit or rebel. Through our Father's love and patience we grow through the problems into the person He wants us to become.  We need the gifts of the Holy Spirit to empower us to help ourselves and others stay out of harm's way.

If we are filled with the Holy Spirit the fruit begins to grow in our lives.  Galatians 5 v 22 - 23:  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

If the flesh still rules us because we have not surrendered our passions to the Cross and still indulge in those things, this is what manifests in us.  Galatians 5 v 19 - 21: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
 20  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
 21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

So let us acknowledge that God is Able to change us from darkness to light and we need to invite Him to make us righteous in His eyes.  What is the point of being cleansed by the Blood of Jesus but not getting rid of our fleshly passions?  Unfortunately, too many Christians are unwilling to surrender and need to be reminded that we cannot serve God and Mammon.  Mammon is the world system of lust, power, partying, lies, war, strife.

Jesus came to save us from all this and give us an abundantly good life.  Plus an eternity in a place that we cannot quite remember called Heaven.  For those who overcome this world and faithfully follow the Lamb is this promise given.  1 Corinthians 2 v 9 - 10: "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
 10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God."

Prayer: Heavenly Father, You are unfathomable in Your depths and wisdom but Your love is everything to us. We know that You are able and that nothing is too difficult for You. We pray for our hearts and minds to submit graciously to your will so that our needs will be met and that we will find favour in Your eyes.  In Jesus' name. Amen.