Sweet Jesus

"for our Redeemer has come and proven Life exceeds death."

WHEN DEATH COMES, does anything else matter? Does denomination or religious worship? Culture, skin color, education? Standing face-to-face with the King, will anything else matter? Let’s commit to bury the hatchet in the earth, not in each other, and to look and sound like God. Let’s shine the love of Jesus, love that died for all men, and speak the life of Jesus, life that raised Him from the dead, and let the Spirit of God draw men and women to Him through us. Let’s stop seeking things for ourself – promotions, attention, rewards – and seek what’s on His heart. Then He will give us everything else.

“But don’t let people idolize you, for you are all equals—learning the truth from the same Teacher.” (Matthew 23:8 Remedy)

Let’s commit to not worry. About ourselves. About each other. The gospel is so simple. Jesus came so we could have all of God and never worry again. That’s the height of it, the depth of it, in a sentence. We can know Him, talk to Him, hear Him speak, and live in full for eternity. Unworried about people, about the hostile one (the devil), or death. It sounds ideal, and it is. We talk ourselves out of the fantasy, reinserting struggles and hard times, doubts, when that is not God at all.

He is looking for RELATIONSHIP, for us to truly commit to Him, to surrender all, all to Jesus, and never look back. What He will show a mature son or daughter is beyond our understanding. We can live in heaven, here on earth.

“That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.” (Deuteronomy 11:21 KJV)

Elijah didn’t die. Nor did Enoch (Hebrews 11:5). We see these as rarities. And I’m not going out here on a limb; but place them into the picture where our expectations fall short. It is given unto men once to die (Hebrews 9:27). Jesus died physically. See the heart of God, though, that two men did not. See His heart that He saved Noah and his family, 8 souls, in the manner He did. They’d never seen rain yet believed it would rain. They lived far from deep waters but built an ark that required deep waters. Are we willing to go that far in our trust in Him? Why did they trust God to that extent?

Abraham talked with God and was His friend (Isaiah 41:8). Moses spent forty days in His Presence, so full of Him that men could not look on his face (Exodus 34:30). Elisha was so full of the Spirit of God that a dead man came alive when tossed on top of his bones (2 Kings 13:21).

Have you ever parted the waters of a vast sea and walked across? Moses did for Israel. Joshua did for their children. Elijah and Elisha did on several occasions. Jesus walked on top of it in the height of a tremendous storm. So did Peter.

Philip was translated from the desert to a nearby town without walking (Acts 8:39).

God wants us to, not only, never worry but to have greater expectations. Not in the flesh. Not with our bodies and our minds, although the Spirit will quicken both to enable us to do His work. But these are not selfish expectations, fueled by arrogance, mockery, and sinful behaviors outside of God’s design for life. He wants us to walk so close to Him, so in-tune with Him, that the unusual is usual. What we don’t see today is because He cannot yet trust us with it. When one does, we make fun of him instead of hungering for it. We are more apt to react like the Pharisees who saw the wonderful things Jesus did and so plotted to murder Him (Matthew 21:15) How does that make sense?

What does Jesus want? He gave us power and authority over the work of the devil and unclean spirits (Luke 10:19). But though it is spoken to all who are saved, He has called some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry. He has given some spiritual gifts, in manners in which they are needed, and these are given, and people are called to them because they are ready for them in their spiritual growth. They are committed to humility in their relationship, and are not distracted by the world’s ideas, their emotions over political issues or people’s opinions. They are never offended and will not pick up criticism.

No man on this earth has been truly perfect but Jesus. Sweet Jesus. We are all on the ignorant side, says the apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 13:9,12). This does not stop the heart of God from working through us, from desiring to give us more. In Isaiah, Israel settled from their prophets and seers, to hear a lie. They asked for one, rather than to hear truth (Isaiah 30:10). We should be much higher, for our Redeemer has come and proven Life exceeds death.

What the apostles saw Him perform, they then went on to do, and now, we are moving from glory to glory, not waiting on the Spirit to come our way but instead, seeking, clinging to Him. And in that place, our human will buried beneath the cross, we know truth. Not as an education, nor a program which forms so-called disciples. Church is not a business but a gathering of authority and power which ascends to heaven and descends to earth, as Beth-el. A permanent doorway, opened by our Savior, a connection of untold magnitude to whoever will press into it, altering their view for His.

Here, He sees not worries for us but worry in us and would, instead, have us faith-full and confident, willing vessels anointed with oil, overflowing into an earth, which is poised for His second coming, though many know it not.

Image by Victoria from Pixabay


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