DAYS OF OUR LIVES
THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES
“Thine eyes
have seen my unformed substance’ and in Thy book they were all written, the days
that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. Ps. 139:
When we
call God infinite, and He is infinite in every way, it gives us pause. He is
infinite in terms of space. He is infinite in terms of time and He is infinite
in terms of knowledge and wisdom. He is also infinite in terms of holiness and righteousness
and in terms of grace and longsuffering.
In fact
when we look at the fruit of the Spirit, we usually think of these fruits as
attributes of the Holy Spirit that He has downloaded into us and that our lives
are made up of learning how to live out this fruit so that our lives become an
expression of who He is. But that in the finite view of the Fruit of the
Spirit, for we think of it in terms of us and what should be.
But
looking at this fruit in terms of who God is, He is infinite in love… infinite
in joy… infinite in peace, patience, goodness, kindness gentleness, faithfulness
and self- control.
So when
it comes to God’s infinite qualities, David sought to express it in Psalms 139
saying: “Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from Thy presence?”
Psalms 139:7
But
when David gets to verse 16 we must contemplate the fact that every day of our
lives was written in His book from the foundation of the world. Within the infinity
of His mind, God wrote in His book, that I, Rick would live in the closing days
of earth’s history. He would say, “Rick is going to live this exact number of
days, a page for each day, and I know what each day will contain.
So God
has known me from the beginning of creation and He loved me and He called me, and
He saw the days of my wandering and He wouldn’t let me go because He saw that
this prodigal would come home and He was waiting from afar off, and when He saw
me on the horizon, He ran out to meet me with His robe and with His ring and He
brought me back into the family, celebrating as if I had never taken a wrong
turn.
The
days of my wandering… the days that I lived in the flesh, He has brought to an
end by entering me into His infinite death and then by giving me new birth by the
power of His resurrection into the kingdom of His Son Jesus Christ. I came back
to Him feeling unworthy to be a son any more. I would be glad just to be His
servant, but God said “Nonsense, kill the fattened calf and strike up the band…
My son has returned.”
As I
contemplate the days that have passed since I returned, I find myself wondering
how many of those pages that are in His book, contain anything of eternal
value. How many days have gone by in which nothing supernatural took place? How
many days have gone by where I lived more as a prodigal than as a son? How many
times have I acted as s hired servant instead of a mature son?
You see, Our Father is looking for sons who
are becoming mature enough to run the family business. We are to take up where
Jesus left off. As sons, we are to be as Christ in this world. IN fact, Jesus
in His prayer for us in John 17:17 Jesus said: “As Thou didst send Me into the
world, I also have sent them into the world.”
I
shudder to think of all of the pages of my life on which nothing of consequence
has been written. I have been given supernatural power and authority to conduct
the King’s business in His name… so why am I living life as if I have not been
given these things.
One of the
singers on our worship team at church rides a Goldwing 3 wheeler. (She is a
rather free spirit) and so she took our Keyboard player for a ride out to the Norris
dam for a scenic ride. Our keyboard player is a young man from Zambia and one
of the most talented and anointed keyboard players that I have ever had the pleasure
of knowing. His name is Abashai. So Glynda and Abashai arrived at a high
lookout over the dam and they are looking at the beautiful scene, when a couple
pulled up to see the sights.
Abashai
walked over to the couple and greeted them and then in his Zambian accent he
asked them if they go to church. They answered “No”, and so Abashai asked if he
could pray for them. They said “Yes,” so Abashai proceeded to pray for them and
then to present the Gospel to them as the couple stood there respectfully and listened
intently to all that Abashai had to say.
Now,
when Abashai prays, as he does sometimes at our group practice, it is not just
so many words. When he prays, heaven comes down and for those moments you feel
as if caught up into a supernatural realm of God’s presence. It is as if a
portal has been opened up between heaven and earth.
Glynda
came back to our next practice overflowing with wonder at this divine appointment
that happened so naturally for Abashai, so that he went on about the rest of his
day as if nothing unusual had happened.
This
inspired Bonnie and I so much that we have started randomly praying for People
on the street, as the Lord leads and it is amazing how receptive people are to
the love of God. We ended up in front of a store standing in a circle holding
hands and praying with a homeless couple.
Friends,
we are entering into the harvest season and God is calling us to maturity. He
is calling us to be sons and daughters who are mature enough to carry on the King’s
business. It is time to stop filling our book with empty pages. Everywhere
Jesus went while on earth, each day was packed with divine appointments and as
His joint heirs, we have to ask ourselves if we are living by divine appointment
or are we so wrapped up with ourselves and our own affairs that we have become
blind to the people all around us that desperately need a touch of heaven.
God
said through Isaiah: “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” says the Lord.
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. And I
take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. When you come to appear
before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts? Bring your
worthless offerings no longer. Their incense is an abomination to Me. New moon
and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies- I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn
assembly. I hate your new moon festivals and you’re appointed feasts; they have
become a burden to Me. I am weary of bearing them.” Isa. 1:11-14
What is
God saying here? Was He not the one who gave them the Sabbaths and the
appointed feasts in the first place? So why is He now fed up with it all?
It is
because just like us, they had made a religion of the Sabbaths, the sacrifices
and the feast days, but they never gave any thought to the fact that these were
mere shadows of a much greater reality… for as it says in Colossians 2: 16, 17:
“Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food and drink or in
respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day_ things which are a mere
shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”
Is it possible
that we have made a religion out of Sabbaths and doctrines and new moons and festivals,
while never going out to actually live the life of Christ? Have we gathered ourselves
together to observe our precious traditions even as the world languishes in
hopelessness simply because Christ is not being seen? WHERE ARE THE SONS WHO
ARE MATURING ENOUGH TO CARRY ON THE FATHER’S BUSINESS? And why is it that we have made a religion
out of the shadows?
“For the
anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of
God.” Romans 8:19. It is time for the harvest at the end of the age, and in
order to bring in that harvest we must move on from being hired servants to
being sons, who can carry on the Father’s business. Enough with this
brandishing of types and shadows and church programs. We need to minister as
Jesus did, to bring the lost into a divine encounter with an infinite God.
God is
sick of our new moons and Sabbaths and our sacrifices offered behind closed
doors. He is now looking for sons who will carry on where Jesus left off. And
if we will enter into sonship, He has said that the works that He did and even
greater works will we do because He has gone to the Father. (John 14:12-20) It
is time to stop operating in the flesh and to begin operating in the supernatural
realm of God’s divine appointments.
Wow! The
Lord is really dealing with me on this as I prepare to teach a series on the Feasts
of Israel. If all I do is to teach them the age old rituals of the feasts, I
will have done nothing more than to offer them dead religion. But these feasts
are only pictures of the kind of relationship that we are to have with the Lord
and not the very substance. The Spring feasts teach us how to walk with God in
a true New Birth, while the Fall Feasts teach us how to prepare for His coming
Kingdom and how to live as sons who will inherit the kingdom. We must now act
as joint heirs of the Kingdom. We must cross over into the living realities of
these things… into the supernatural realm of the ministry of Christ, or our
teaching will have been in vain.
When we
have matured as sons, Jesus promised saying: “In that day you shall know that I
am in My Father and you in Me and I in you. John 14:20. This is the new
revelation that we must now come to grips with so that we can live like sons
that are mature enough to carry on the Father’s business.
It is
time to make the days of our lives count for eternity. If we will enter into
the supernatural ministry of Christ, His promise is that He will provide
everything we need to finish His work on earth. New moons and Sabbaths have
value, but only as they point us to Christ. Selah.
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