Category Archives: Sonship

“That where I am, there they may be also”

by Michael

“That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them, as you have loved me.” (Joh 17:21-23 KJ2000)

Jesus told Philip, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” Oh, what pure obedience to the Father that He could safely say this and affirm to them that He only did the works He saw His Father doing and only spoke the words He heard His Father saying.

I once prayed this, “Father that I would be as your Son, that I would only speak the words you have for me to speak and would only do the works you have for me to do.” Don’t pray like this if you are not ready to suffer greatly and be totally broken by Him.

As we are broken of trusting in ourselves and seek only that Life that is found IN Christ to abide in us, we will be able to say to this lost and dying world as Christ’s body, “If you have seen us, you have seen Jesus” and it will stick. Until then we are just part of the problem.

“Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.” (1Jo 3:2-3 KJ2000)

Our End from the Beginning

by Michael

earth

Which Came First, the End or the Beginning?  This might seem like a trivial question to some. But if God is not bound by time for He created it, isn’t the beginning and the end both the same to Him as far as His purposes go? He declares the end from the beginning. Isaiah prophesied,

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: (Isa 46:9-10 Webster)

God also declares things that are not as though they are…

It is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.”(Genesis 17:5) God considers Abraham to be our father. The God that Abraham believed in gives life to the dead. Abraham’s God also speaks of things that do not exist as if they do exist. (Rom 4:17 NIRV)

 

Oh, how wondrous are the ways of God! I have been pondering these above passages for a long time. God not only knows all, knowing the things that will happen in the end of days as well as the past and present, but He has known it all from the beginning! This same God who through His Son, Jesus, spoke creation into being also had declared what the end of it all shall be from the beginning.

Here we have to deal with two concepts that are beyond our own human limitations. One that God creates all things simply by speaking them into existence. And two, He is not bound by time or any other human limitation as we are. Man can make nothing without first starting with something that God made and man does nothing without being subject to the limitations of time so these two concepts of making something from nothing and not being bound by time are a real stretch for us to comprehend. Both matter and time were the result of creation and God rests in a timeless state outside of His creation ever since it was completed. Yet, He sent Jesus to this earth to become subject to both time and matter. Christ was subjected to all the human frailties and weaknesses just as we are, yet in it all He was in perfect obedience to His Father and many of His acts defied both time and matter such as raising the rotting body of Lazarus from the dead.

Now, consider this passage:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:28-31 KJ2000)

God foreknew each of us who are His in a special way. Not only that, He predestined us not just to be born, to live on this earth and to be saved from our sins, but to be totally conformed to the image of His Son! What image? The image of the babe in the manger? How about the image of the Teacher walking around doing good and miracles? How about the image of Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places? Just what does it mean to be IN Christ? Paul went so far to say, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2Co 5:17 KJ2000).

God KNEW our end — being conformed into the image of Christ — from the very beginning of creation. In the New Testament we read that Jesus learned obedience by the things that He suffered. We also read that He was crucified from the very foundation of the world. Jesus subjected Himself to the hand of the Father from the beginning as the perfect obedient Son of God. I believe that all these wonderful thoughts are wrapped up in the council at the beginning of Genesis where we read these words, “Let us make man in our image and after our likeness… male and female made He them.” God knew what it would take from the very beginning to create many sons (and daughters) unto His glory and put creation in motion from day one with that end in mind.

In the above passage from Romans we see this wonderful progression designed by God to produce His desired outcome in the words; foreknew, predestinate, called, justified and glorified… the divine progression to a desired end starting with foreknew and ending with glorified. He knew our end (glorified in the image of God) from the beginning (foreknown and predestined). He not only foreknew who would be His, but He foreknew what it would take to get us there and incorporated us into that divine plan.

God from the beginning knew that He would be sending His Son to live and die and rise again for us and to lead the way as the Captain of our salvation. Thus we see our faith-trek as His family starting out with Abraham, continuing down through the patriarchs to Moses, and through the Children of Israel to Christ Himself. All that history of Israel (and the linage of Christ) was set in motion to bring forth His Son upon this earth in such a way that man would recognize Him when He came. The whole Old Testament is filled with prophesies and shadows of Christ and only those who received Him by faith were able to read those writings and see Him in it all (see Luke 24:13-36). God designed all that history of the people of Israel so that Christ could come and not only die for their sins, but the sins of the whole world and become manifest to all His creation as the Son of God. He was the First Born of many brethren. In Christ, the Father would have a vast family of many sons and daughters and this was His plan from the beginning.

Now consider this, God not only knew what it would take to save mankind from our sins and conform us into the image of Christ who are called (in a collective sense), but He also knew what it would take to get EACH of us to our appointed end IN Christ. We each have a history designed by God that was set in motion from the day we were born. Think about the chain of events that had to take place to get you where you are today in Christ. We each have had divine appointments and events along the way that were integral to our becoming saved, filled with His Spirit, tested, tried, and becoming “more than overcomers” as we have learned to trust in our Lord for all things. He has got us this far and He will get us to the His desired end for us as the sons of God. “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end” (Heb 3:14 KJ2000).

God has declared the end from the beginning! He has spoken our divine sonship into existence from the foundation of the world and He is arranging our lives so that we will reach that goal. Paul saw that end and wrote,

 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. (Rom 8:35-37 KJ2000)

Yes, many things that happen in our lives do not seem to be ideal or perfect and often seem adverse to God’s end, but He knows our end from the beginning. Do you not think that He knew from the beginning when we would make a wrong choice or were attacked and also had that worked into His plan? He did not destine us to blow it or others to sin against us, but He did have a plan that would take even that into consideration and redeem us from our mistakes and sins. His mind is always on the end, HIS desired end for us and it is that end, many sons who would share His glory, He has known from the beginning.

Paul wrote,

 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;) And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:4-10 KJ2000)

Did you catch that? We are not going to die in order to go to heaven. We are ALREADY in heavenly places as we abide IN Christ as branches of the True Vine. We have been created IN Christ and this is the source of all spiritual fruit and good works… He is our very Life. It is ALL a gift of God. We are HIS workmanship and were created IN Christ from the foundation of the world. It is from THIS enfolded joint life IN Christ that all everlasting works which the Father set in motion from the foundation of the world happen. All we can do is rest in the Son and watch the faith of Christ in us work through the love of God.

So, dear saints, our faith, rest, works, love, life, and even our hope are all bound up in our existence IN Christ and have been from the foundation of the world. This gives the “eternal salvation” of God great scope. Can we grieve the Spirit of God? Yes. Can we fall short of all that He has for us? Yes. But if we continue to walk by faith and not by sight, relying on the Son of God as our hope and salvation, He will make sure that we reach our eternal goal as sons of God. “For it is IN Him that we live and move and have our being.”

 

 

The Process of Faith – from Thorns to Sons

by Michael

fower among thorns

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from which they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he has prepared for them a city. (Heb 11:13-16 KJ2000)

As some of you might have observed, there has been a great struggle of gaining true faith in Christ and His kingdom within me. How many of us are truly “strangers and exiles” on this earth? We Christians, especially here in America, still have our hopes in a land where we can find our city. We still hope to get a secure place here on earth and this delusion is probably greatest in “the land of the free.” Our founding fathers thought that they had finally found that secure place on this earth. Many of them had fled Europe because of persecution for their faith. They worked hard to make America secure, not only for them, but for us. But in this present hour we are watching all their hard work and all our “securities” evaporate before out eyes; our 401k retirement plans, our property values, our family ties, world peace and safety, even our so-called Constitutional rights they fought so hard to secure! All that we relate to as “security” in this world is evaporating before our eyes and there is panic in the air.

The above passage is from the great “faith chapter” in Hebrews. There we find a list of people who put their trust in God. All these saints of old had one thing in common… not one of them ever found a secure place in this world, but their hopes were in something far off, “a heavenly.” Is that where we have our only hope? Is God “not ashamed to be called our God”?

Americans are about the richest people on earth, but our riches have deceived us. They have made us put our hopes in things that are temporary and transient. In His parable of the sower, Jesus warned, “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that hears the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful” (Mat 13:22 KJ2000). We American Christians hear the words of Christ and His gospel and we think that we are thus “saved,” because we once made a “decision” for Christ. But what happens after that? How many of us go out and get all wrapped up with the cares and concerns of this world after Jesus sets us free? Jesus said that where a man’s treasure is, there will his heart be also. The hearts of many are waxing cold for fear of what is coming upon this country and the world. Many Christians are even taking up arms and are willing to kill to save themselves and what is theirs. Have we not learned from the example of Peter with his sword? Jesus said, “He who finds his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will find it.” Thorns – the cares of this world, choke out faith and can kill our relationship with God.

In Romans we read,

For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope, Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body. (Rom 8:19-23 KJ2000)

Glorious liberty! Are we truly the Sons of Liberty? Our founding fathers thought they were. I think we are in the process of being freed in the truest spiritual since. We have been born into vanity and futility as sons of Adam. We are in bondage because we think that our continuing city, our “peace of the rock” is to be found on this earth. I can see why Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor.” They have a lot less “thorns” in their lives to be released of.

We give lip service that Jesus is our Rock, the Rock of our salvation, but are all our hopes and dreams founded on that Rock alone? So, as we watch all our earthly securities being vaporized, God is hoping we get the picture! HE has subjected us to lives of vanity here on earth in hope that we will finally see that being totally IN Christ is our only hope. HE alone is that which can not be shaken while everything else is shaking and falling apart (see Hebrews 12:26-29). Our hope and our lives must be IN Him or we will suffer great loss as the waves of tribulation come crashing in upon us.

Paul wrote, “For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.” He is talking about the labor pains of a woman. You see, the earth is the womb we are in. It is rumbling and pushing and being stressed to its limits. Why? So we who are Christ’s would dig in and hold on for all that we are worth? So we would fight to hold this existence together to our dying breaths?

Jesus defined some of these “birth pains” as wars, earthquakes, natural disasters, famines, pestilence, and such. Men cry “Peace! Peace! And there is no peace.” This age is coming to an end and the whole creation is giving birth, actually pushing us out of this world and all that pertains to it. Is it any wonder that everything we cling to as “security” in this life is failing?

I think a baby must feel a great deal of rejection in the birthing process. All of a sudden the walls of his world are closing in on that once warm and comfortable place that was its whole life and reality. Its whole known world is pushing it out as if it is unwanted! Then that blast of cold air and the bright lights. Oh, the trauma! No wonder they come out crying. But what is next? The mother takes the child, wraps it in a blanket and puts him on her breast. The crying is over. There is no more of a peaceful sight than a baby nursing at its mother’s breast. This is all a parable from God. We should take hope in what is ahead, dear saints. “Travail lasts for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

Paul continues, “We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body.” The redemption of our body… what does that mean? He is speaking of our being caught up into that eternal city whose builder and maker is God whose Foundation is Jesus Christ, God’s own Son. For here we have no continuing city. There is a groaning within us, those who are His, to get out of here and get on with REAL Life… that eternal life we have had a foretaste of in Christ!

Paul wrote,

“For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that has made us for the same thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord” (2Co 5:4-6 KJ2000).

Our redemption has been sealed by the Holy Spirit within. He is the “earnest money” of the agreement we have made with God when we first surrendered to Jesus. Next came the “down payment.” We gave all we had to get that house. We surrender ALL to Him in this life process. Then comes the closing and we finally get the keys to our house and we get to move in. And guess what? Once we are moved in we find a note on the kitchen counter that the rest of the loan is paid off! The house is totally ours because Jesus paid the full price after all.

Lord, open our eyes to what a great salvation you have given us. Free us of the thorns that seek to choke out our faith in your Son. Raise us up as joint heirs with Christ and let us see that we NOW live in heavenly places as we put our trust in Him alone. Amen.

That You Might Be Children of Your Father – Part 1

by Michael

David&Saul

One time I was praying, “Father, why can’t I perceive you as my Father? Why do you seem distant to me?” He answered me with this passage.

“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

You see, I had spent my life NOT loving my enemies, despising all who despised me, speaking evil of those who did me wrong, etc. The verbiage is interesting here, “Your reward will be great. You will be sons of the Most High… if you are merciful just as your Father is merciful.”  Only as we abide IN the Son, Jesus Christ, will we do this, because it is HIM in us doing it… making us truly sons of the Most High. Peter wrote:

“For even to this were you called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judges righteously” (1Pe 2:21-23 KJ2000).

We “follow in His steps” by walking IN Christ and not in our old adamic nature. The cross, always the cross is the door from one life to the other. We must embrace His cross in our lives. Only as we walk IN the Son, in His sufferings and rejections, yet in His love do we know God as our Father. “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”

Part 2 can be read at https://awildernessvoice.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/that-you-might-be-children-of-your-father-2/