Musings of a Prodigal Son - Restoration - Part 6 (from an earlier post)

I cannot speak enough about the wonderous Grace of God. Our denial of Christ in our lives is turned by God into a resounding witness as He resurrects in us, as He did in the Apostle Peter, our Pentecost. It is comforting to know that He is always at busy expanding the Kingdom even when we are not.


ALL THINGS (good and bad) work together for good (the advancement of the Kingdom of God) to those who love God and who are called according to HIS purpose (Romans 8:28).




One of my most prized possessions is a throw (blanket) that the church gave me on my fifth (5th) anniversary as their pastor. In  the corner of this blanket is embroidered the above verse (minus my additions of course). Every time that I look at it, it has special meaning to me. It reminds me that Jesus just wants us to recognize our inability to live the victorious life but just wants us to embrace Him and live His Life so that others may know God.

I haven't committed all the sins that you think I have. I have committed more than you think I have. Those people that you look up to every day, if the truth were revealed, are not doing much better than you are. We are all subject to doing the wrong things. We are all subject to omitting the things that we should do. The distance created by those things often encourages us to become numb to them in order to continue living. That is until someone reminds us of those things. The quest of the cross is to become totally aware of those things but to take it one step further and realize that Jesus died so that you can be forgiven and live in communion with God as a result. You never get "good" enough. That is the fallacy of the modern church and the lie that many Christians live in. That if I spend enough time around good people doing good things, I will be good. All the while, we are all bad in our flesh (there is none righteous, no not one). Remember the flesh has to be crucified, it is not redeemable. Jesus died to give us a new LIFE, not to remodel the old. We still carry around that flesh but it is no more good than it was before Jesus redeemed us. It must still be crucified daily, hourly, at every moment. It still exerts itself in our lives no matter how much we try to keep it at bay. The only recourse we have is to "walk in the Spirit". That means living in Kingdom of God reality and not according to the laws of this world. Now before anyone reading this becomes concerned, I am not saying that we are not subject to this worlds laws. Part of Walking in the Spirit is obeying the laws of the land (see Jesus' response to the Pharisee's when they asked Him if it is right to pay taxes). What I am saying is that Kingdom Law applies to our lives. Kingdom Laws are higher laws. They sometimes operate outside of natural laws. They defy the laws of science. How can one operate there? By faith. If we have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed (very small), we can say to a mountain, move and the mountain will move. We could heal the sick, raise the dead, cause blind people to see. I know, I know. That is not our experience. What I am saying is that the Bible teaches that we should bring our experience up to Kingdom living instead of bringing Kingdom living down to our experience. There is one caveat that I would like to mention here. Sometimes, those who want to live in Kingdom of God power fail to remember that it is for ONE purpose only. That purpose is that others may know HIM (Jesus) and also experience the forgiveness of God. Otherwise, when a person comes to know Christ, they would immediately separate from this fleshly body and go to be with Jesus in full Kingdom reality. But we stay here. Why? So that Christ in us can draw others to Him. You cannot access the power without committing to the life. For there to be POWER, we must live for the right PURPOSE. Many people today want to be close to God so that HE CAN BLESS THEM. He has already blessed you by allowing you to come to Him. He wants to be powerful in YOU SO THAT YOU CAN BLESS OTHERS. Therefore, I believe the power of God comes to those who give their life away that others may know Him, live or die, that he may be glorified so that others can come to Him. We are told that even though this type of life may be tough, it is the most fulfilling joyous life imaginable. Jesus wants our "joy to be full." Joy in living is blocked to the extent that we do not live fully surrendered to the life of Christ. I believe this is the reason why many people who don't know Christ often live "happier" lives than many Christians you may see. It is because many Christians live a "divided" life. A divided life is much less joyous than a life lived one way or the other. Much of my life has been spent divided. God is saying to me and to many of you that it is time to step out of the divide. If you know Christ, you will only live joyously if you are crucified daily with him. When you are committed to Him and crucify the flesh daily, you are subject to Kingdom reality and Kingdom Laws which transcend this present realm. To live or die, to be here or to be present with the Lord, can be your reality. This seems to be the reason that the apostle Paul said, "Oh death where is thy sting?" So much of His life was already lived in Kingdom reality that to pass over from this reality and to be present with Jesus was just a step away. Oh, that we all lived there in that reality HERE! How the world would change! We could see things that we don't currently see, we could experience things that we don't currently experience, we could access power that we don't currently access. If only everything we could gain and have gained, we count as loss for the glory of God! What if we all laid down everything important to us and said, "Here am I Lord, send me!"