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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