John 14:23 - Jesus answered (one of His followers) and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."
What a night. God will wake us up in the middle of the night when it's quiet to get our attention. I know when He wants to get our attention He repeats himself in His Word. These are so we will heed what He's saying. Example: O give thanks to the LORD; for He is good: for His mercy endures for ever is written in several Psalms. Jesus says Truly, truly, I say to you often. God tells us all throughout His Word to fear not. There are many other examples.
Well, He was relentless last night as I tossed and turned. First I was in a dreamlike sleep when He kept repeating a message over and over in my head. It was a heavy word and it pressed on me until I awoke. It was as if I was trying to express myself repeatedly to someone else. Like I was standing on a corner or like Jesus on a hillside wanting to get these words across to someone. There was an urgency in this dream.
I couldn't shake these words and had to get up and write. I asked Him to reveal exactly what He wanted to show me. Was it for me or someone else? Was I supposed to write it? Did someone need to hear (read) these words? Was He setting the stage?
I got up and began to write hoping the Holy Spirit would take over. Then I remembered something Pastor Joe from the little Baptist church I attend in Arizona asked yesterday morning at church: "Do you love the Word? Do you love it enough to read it every day or just sometimes?"
"If anyone loves Me he will keep My word." Was this where this was all heading, I wondered? Pastor Joe further stated we are to keep His Word hidden in our hearts. This is a biblical mandate. The only way that can happen is if we are in His Word...reading it diligently. Not that we are making a work out of it...having to spend this much time each day or having to read the Bible from front to back each year. But by even just taking one scripture each and truly meditating on it and applying it to our day or life. There's really no set way of hiding His Word in one's heart.
But then again, the words or the Word? Abide in Me also means the same thing as being in His Word and having God make His home with us. I wrote, trusting the Holy Spirit, and these words came forth: My Word is the truth. When one knows the truth they know Me. When they reject My Word they do not want to know the truth and the truth is not in them.
Gee, where have I heard those words before: 1John 1:6, 8, 10 - If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. We are filled with sin until we know the Truth. Truth comes from being in Christ, in the Word...the Bible. If we do not want to do this, we are rejecting the Word and the Truth (Jesus) is not in us. Of course, in between these statements we are told that if we turn away from these things, if we confess Jesus, then the light of Christ is in us. His light uncovers our sins and shows us His truth.
Those are pretty sobering words. His light, His Word, His truth. God's Word is His Bible. God's Word is Jesus. His Word is His instruction manual for our life. His Word IS life. Jesus is the Word. Jesus is the Truth and the Life. No one can go to the Father without first knowing the truth of His Word. No one goes to the Father without first knowing Jesus. It's a simple concept. God the Father, Jesus and the Word are one and the same. You cannot have one without the other.
Then for some reason I remembered an email a friend of mine sent earlier. She confided something about which I've had the same thought for awhile. It may be something many of us are feeling lately. We feel as though we are treading water. I continue to wonder if I have grown cold and fallen away. I have felt like I really need more of the Lord, yet I tell myself that I must persevere and stand and not give up any ground and trust that the Lord is with me. Sometimes I feel I am just going through the motions of being a believer. But, I must stand "in faith" and not waiver.
I know the Word is in her heart. I know her heart. I've heard this more than once lately. It's almost a thought you don't want to admit for fear of it being true. You don't want anyone to think you've lost faith.
The words the Lord spoke last night first were quiet then to the point where I felt He was shouting at me. They were hard to put into my own words because, like dreams often do, they make sense as you're dreaming but when formulating them you find it was more like just a thought, inexpressible.
So where is this all going? Like my friend and I and others I'm sure, if we doubt ourselves as believers, how can others claim to know Jesus? Have they honestly confessed Him? How many really have Him, God's Word, in their heart? How many love Him and His Word enough to be in it each day? How many truly spend time communicating with Him each day?
I think God's plans are to be revealed soon in our lives. It's like the lull before the storm. Perhaps that is when the urgency of my dream will manifest itself, although the urgency is now. The world is going to see an outpouring of something soon. It might not all be good. But those who know Christ will stand firm...and then it will be we who others turn to in difficult times. Perhaps then His Word will be heard, understood and finally taken seriously. I can only pray that others have the same dream some time and that it attaches itself to their hearts. That His truth...no, that He...become real in the lives of so many now.
I don't think this was a dream. I think it was God Himself prompting me. It was more like prodding me.
When someone gets the Word of God in their hearts it will pierce them. Like in Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
If Jesus is the Word and He is alive, what He has said in the past is as relevant today. Do not reject Him or His Word. Today is the day to receive Him. Do not reject the Father or He will reject you in the same way. You don't want that. Tomorrow may be too late. Let the words of His truth pierce your heart. I look at that piercing as being more like a cauterizing. Our hearts are like open wounds or sores for the hurts and rejections we have had in our lives, for the evil and lies that have manifested themselves in our hearts. Our hearts fester until He is received and His Word brings conviction and healing.
The dream I had was pressing. Whether for me or for others, it was a reminder of what God expects of us. To abide in Him means to be in His Word, to hide it in our hearts and even to be ready to speak His word in season or out, to be salt and light, to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a lost world. To tell others that receiving Christ removes God's final judgment from them. Yes, God will judge all mankind. Make no mistake about that. If we want to avoid that eternal judgment, it is imperative we receive Christ, His Son, the Word, the Truth and the Life, now.
John 12:47-50 - And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him--the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak."
No comments:
Post a Comment