12/15/2019
When God called you to Himself, and introduced you to His Son Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit, did you feel inclined to consult with those around you regarding your acceptance of His invitation? Did you place your salvation, and future in the hands of those who hadn’t heard His call as you had, or did your spirit cry out “Here am I Lord!”, as you fell humbly before Him?
“But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;”
Galatians 1:15-16 ESV
God moves us in amazing ways as he calls us to Him, and He doesn’t just casually introduce Himself, He immediately introduces us to His Son, and shows us the depth of His love for us by revealing how He not only sent His Son Jesus to us, but offered up His life unto death, and raised Him from the dead to redeem our souls from sin and death. When we see this, and accept it as truth, then just like the Apostle Paul we don’t need to consult with anyone. The evidence is overwhelming in not only the written Word of scripture, but within our hearts, and often it shows itself on our countenance... our physical bodies. Jesus lives in us!
“For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.”
Romans 2:28-29 ESV
God speaks to our hearts, and like a farmer who prepares his field for planting, He prepares us to receive the seed of faith by circumcising our hearts in Jesus, and by cultivating our understanding, and power, through His Holy Spirit.
“In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,”
Colossians 2:11 ESV
So who do we ask guidance of when such wondrous acts, and revelations, have been given us? Who do we turn to that can give us further instruction as to the truth once the God of all truth has spoken to us, and called us to Him? It is within us that Jesus, and God now abide...
“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
John 17:22-23 ESV
When we pick up our cross do we ask permission of the world to do so? When we are crucified with Christ must those around us give us license? No, the world has already passed sentence upon Jesus, and by faith, we are one. So, like Paul didn’t ask either his traveling companions, or the Apostles themselves, if he could accept Jesus... neither should we. No one gives us permission to become the sons and daughters of God except Him through Jesus, and His judgement.
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the seed of faith you have planted within me, and by which you call me unto yourself. I thank you for your Son Jesus through whom I come to you. I thank you Lord for not giving any man dominion over my faith, our relationship, or my salvation, except Jesus. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who reaches out to me, and draws me to Himself. Great are you who, by your will alone, has led me to your Son, and brought me to abide in Him, and by Him you. Praised be your name Holy Father for you are omnipotent, and rule without question, or challenge. Wonderful is your love for me, and unending your mercy and grace. Be with me now Lord, and let your Holy Spirit abide lovingly in me forevermore.
Rich Forbes