Precious Lord, the Breath of God is the holy Word of God.
When God created Adam why did He make only one person? For some time there was only one human being in the whole world. Why? For a very important reason, a reason which has its roots in incomprehensible love. Adam was the beginning of all of us. Long ago, away back then, God already knew and loved every individual, He would create, including you and me. Our Sovereign God never had or wanted a bunch of puppets or robots. Each one of us is special to God, personal, individual, planned in love, designed in beauty and destined for glory. We are (Ephesians 2:10) God’s WORKMANSHIP. (Dr. Stanley) “That word means MASTERPIECE”. We cannot compare ourselves to anyone else because there is nobody else like us. God has made each individual one of us competent to walk into the prepared good works that He requires of us. These will be different from what He requires of others whom He has wired differently. We need to grasp, to fill our hearts and minds with (John 14:21, John 15:9, John 16:27, John 17:23) God’s limitless abounding love.
Are you and I really getting this? Jesus loves us as much as the Father loves Him and the Father loves us as much as He loves His own beloved Son!!!!!! God’s original desire was to have a loving, personal, intimate relationship with each one of us. So the Lord took the time to come down every evening and go for a walk with Adam so that Adam could get to know Him in ever deepening fellowship. I’m gripped by the wonder of Creator and creature walking and talking together. But God did not intend this to be a forced relationship so He gave all of us a free will. Eventually the time came when God said (Genesis 2:18) that it wasn’t good for the man to be alone. God wants time alone with us but He does not want us to be lonely, so He ordained marriage, family and friendship. There is a huge difference between being alone and being lonely. Many of us live alone because of various circumstances but – if we know the Lord, we do not have to ever live with loneliness. We cannot, like Adam, visibly walk with God but because of the Shekinah glory of the Presence within us, we can walk and talk with God 24/7, not just in the evening. In addition to His promise (Hebrews 13:5-6) never to leave us, Jesus said (John 14:23) that God the Father and He, God the Son would make Their home in the hearts of those who love and obey Him.
Of course God knew everything Adam did and always knew where he was. When Adam sinned, God wanted not cover-up but genuine repentance. So in the cool of the evening at the regular time for their walk the Lord came down but (Genesis 3:8) Adam wasn’t there. Along with Adam and Eve we learned (Hebrews 9:22) that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness for sin. For God to forgive my sin it cost the breaking of the Father’s heart in the shedding of the priceless Blood of Jesus in the anguish of Gethsemane and the agony of the Cross. I want the awesome Truth of the vivid reality to grip me in a vice of love and loyalty to Jesus. (Oswald Chambers) “Our relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important thing we have and we must maintain it at all costs”. How can we go on to know the Lord better, deeper, more intimately; to know His ways as well as His deeds? He made known His ways unto Moses (Psalms 103:7), His acts unto the children of Israel. The Israelites saw what God did after it was done, but Moses knew His ways because (Exodus 33:11) the Lord spoke face-to-face with Moses as a man speaks to his friend. That quality of friendship with God takes time.
Just as there is taste, appetite, hunger, nourishment and enjoyment in physical food for the body, there is a developing growing taste, appetite, hunger for the spiritual nourishment and rich enjoyment in spiritual food as we feed our souls on the (1 Peter 2:2) pure milk, (1 Corinthians 3:2) solid food and (Hebrews 5:12-14) strong meat of the living Word of God. When a creature is separated from his Creator, no matter how rich and successful he is or how great his circumstances are, he has within him a deep inner loneliness and loneliness is the most painful of human emotions. God does not want us to be lonely but He does want time alone with us. When I deliberately take time to be alone with the Lord then (Mark 4:10-11) He expounds, explains, reveals the wonders, the jewels, the riches, the wisdom and the beauty of God’s Word. Why did Jesus say (John 15:7) if My Word abides in you then I will (John 14:21) reveal Myself to you, make Myself real to you? Because from beginning to end the Bible is the revelation of Jesus. It’s in the pages of the holy Scriptures that we see Jesus, get to know and love Him and develop and deepen our relationship with Him. If my Bible is a stranger to me then Jesus also is a stranger to me. The written Word is the backdrop, the setting the frame for the Living Word.
Jesus in His humanity represents every individual person in all the past and future history of human existence, both saved and unsaved. How? Let me put it this way, in order to explain. If Jesus had died before He fully paid our sin-debt, while still bearing sin - - all His good works during His life would have counted for nothing, He could not have risen from the dead or ascended to heaven. This represents an unsaved person who rejected God’s mercy through the atoning death of Jesus. That person has no forgiveness for his sins and does not have eternal life which is the only life that can exist in heaven. That person was created to exist forever and by his own choice he has chosen the only place which the unredeemed can exist - - the eternal distinction of unending torment in hell. BUT Jesus fully paid for the sin of the world, He fully satisfied the wrath of God so He rose victoriously from the dead and He ascended to heaven in triumph as the Mighty Conqueror. This represents those who receive from Jesus the forgiveness of their sin, are indwelt by the eternal life of God and have the assurance that (John 14:2) Jesus is preparing for them an eternal place in the Father’s house in heaven. Personal choice carries tremendous responsibility and consequences.
As I look at the forgiven sins of my past I realize that I have the potential for every sin. What I didn’t do in actual deed I did in thought. In me (Romans 7:18) there is nothing good. As I begin to grasp the damning offence of my sin against Holy God - - the light shines ever brighter on the limitless power of the precious, priceless, covenant Blood of Jesus.
The consequences of my sin is not God’s judgment but the timeless principle of reaping more than I sow. AMAZING GRACE - - When I look at Jesus I see God and when God looks at me He sees Jesus. We know about the Great Exchange (2 Corinthians 5:21) where God made Jesus to be sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God in Christ. But do we truly understand that this could never have been possible if there had not been a previous Great Exchange? The Son of God exchanged (Revelation 5:7-9) the glory, adoration and worship in heaven for the (Hebrews 12:3) contradiction, shame, rejection, abuse, torture and crucifixion in the world. (I did not write this without tears.) I have no fullness of comprehension, I have no adequate words, I can only believe and worship THE LAMB. Because God’s beloved Son made the first Great Exchange, He made it possible for me to enter into the Great Exchange of my sin for God’s righteousness!
God’s alarm clocks are sounding all over the world with His merciful offer of salvation and the warning of coming judgment. They are ringing just as surely as (Luke 22:34, Luke 22:60) the rooster crowed. The rooster awakened Peter and started him on the path back to restored relationship with the Lord. Are you awake to God’s loud alarms, the sign of the times? The time is short, the hour is late and (James 5:9) the Judge is already standing at the door.
The Bible is still the best-selling Book but it is the least read book. A recent survey reveals that only 18% of professing Christians read their Bible every day - - which means that 82% use their Bibles to collect dust. If you are one of them why (Isaiah 55:2) are you spending your life to end up with only a pile of dust? There is self-fulfilling power in every history-making Word that was ever spoken by God, the Almighty Sovereign Ruler of the universe and beyond. The Holy Spirit gave me a gardening tip and I want to share it with you. When the Holy Spirit plants a particular thought or Scripture verse in my mind and in fellowship with Him I cultivate it, then it flourishes amazingly. We are (2 Peter 1:4) partakers of the Divine Nature. Incarnate Deity is not (2 Peter 1:3) just something we believe but the reality we live. Does this sound like a conundrum? It’s not, it is part of the supernatural mystery. My desire and prayer for myself is to love God so supremely and completely that obedience will be the only option of my free will choice. Obedience is conscious freedom based on love.
How great (Zechariah 9:17) is God’s goodness and how great is His beauty. We experience God’s goodness as He constantly replenishes His storehouse of love and lavishes His grace upon us in spiritual riches and everyday essentials. His desire for us is that (Psalms 90:17) the beauty of our God would be upon us.
Dear Precious Lord, the Breath of God is the holy Word of God. May I be so one with You, so close to You, that I feel Your loving Breath on my cheek in the wondrous living reality of your glorious Word.
If we will (2 Corinthians 3:18) with open unveiled face, constantly look into the mirror of God’s Word, we will behold the glory of the Lord and continually be transfigured into His very own Image, growing from one level of glory to a higher level.