Family

We are a family now, adopted children and our heavenly Father delights in us."

DID THE living God move inside you, inside me, for a dry-toast experience? Is He simply collecting fruit to weigh and measure, to say how much He has? He’s only concerned with the numbers. Or could it be, He is inside us to live with us, Emmanuel? My mother made this analogy. When Peter began to sink, the wind-blown waves growing huge in his eyesight, how far away was Jesus? An arm’s length. How far is God from us now? Is He in heaven or in our heart? And what good is it to have Him in there yet walk in the confusion, the poor decision-making of our mind?

That doesn’t sound like Him at all. Why would God send His only Son to suffer a cruel death in order to buy us back, to rebirth our spirit man, then do no more than that? “Oh, they’re mine, but …” He is an exceeding, abundantly God (Ephesians 3:20). Romans 8 pictures God’s heart beautifully. Verse 32 says, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” All things means eternal life, physical and mental health, well-being, in fact, our every need being met. Our heavenly Father knows what we have need of, Jesus said, and He gave the example of food and clothing. But it is also all those sudden things that pop up, and all the day-to-day ones as well.

God provides intimate conversation, the beauty of His presence, access to His wisdom, and our own heavenly language. The devil speaks our native tongue and uses it to deceive. But our heavenly language, speaking in the Spirit, cannot be messed up. The Bible says the Holy Spirit takes our every sign and groan and makes them into words which speak the perfect will of God. And here’s the best part, the devil has no idea what we’re saying. God is that close, that involved in us.

“Abide in me, and I in you.” (John 15:4)

We are told to walk in the Spirit, to be led of the Spirit, because there is no place where God ends in us and we begin. No place where He begins and we end. We are in perfect unity. Just as the Father speaks to Jesus and the Spirit speaks for them in such closeness that they appear as one God, we are meant to be that connected. We pray because we know He will answer, and as we develop our spiritual hearing and awareness, we hear Him in the between times as well. We worship with our actions and our words. We’re not up one minute and down the next, emotional roller coasters, but confident and sure, holding fast to the Word, without giving thought to fear or doubt of anything God is doing in us and through us.

Many present God and faith as a constant struggle to maintain, but that isn’t God’s heart. We’re not praying in desperation, clinging to the remnants of the altar. Instead, we’ve meditated in the Word. We’ve made His voice our priority. We know Him. Faith is that absolute trust in His goodness. Because He is trustworthy, because He is consistent and keeps His Word, because He is merciful and kind, we never flinch in the face of what the world is doing. How did Jesus put it? We are in the world, but we are no longer of it.

“If you lived on the world’s terms, the world would love you as one of its own. But since I picked you to live on God’s terms and no longer on the world’s terms, the world is going to hate you.” (John 15:19, MSG)

“If you belonged to the world, the world would treat you with affection and would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world [no longer one with it], but I have chosen (selected) you out of the world, the world hates (detests) you.” (John 15:19, AMPC)

We don’t fear Satan. We’re not walking targets, continual victims to His attacks. When he tried to trick Jesus, Jesus quoted the Scriptures to him that said who He was as the Lord God and then Satan left Him. Jesus didn’t go forth to preach the gospel of the kingdom, He didn’t lay hands on the sick and cast out demons, while looking continually around Him because the devil might come back. He knew what He’d come to earth to do and knew He would be victorious in it. He’s provided that triumph to us. We not only have His authority in speaking His name, but we have His Spirit power to back it up.

We must watch our words. Get out of the habit of confessing sickness and all types of lack. Stop thinking from a worldly, carnal perspective and think, instead from God’s. Close the gap between your thinking of God as hard to contact and instead know He is there at every breath. Expect to hear from Him, expect to feel His presence, and guard carefully what He tells you. We are a family now, adopted children, and our heavenly Father delights in us. Make Him more real to you than what you can see and hear with your physical eyes and ears. Stop expecting to fall into error because you choose to be supernaturally minded, to think in terms of the kingdom of God that you cannot see, and trust Him to guard you, to teach you, and to give you revelation of Him.

“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15)

“And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:6)

For God did what He did for His own benefit, for His own sake. We are redeemed and cleansed so we can be with Him, so He can be with us, not just for a short time on this earth, but for eternity. And it is as Minister Bill Johnson always says, Eternal life starts today. We don’t have to wait for heaven to live in the benefits of it. God surrounds us with His beauty today and every blessing of salvation because He SO LOVED us that much. He sent Jesus to satisfy His own heart, His big generous gentle heart. We worship Him so that He can be with us, work in us. We exalt Him, so He can show us great and mighty things. The future is rich before us, the present suffused with joy and unending pleasures more than we can ever ask or think.

“Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.” (John 15:8-9)

Image by davidyonathan4 at Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com