Joyful Inspiration

There is a pattern in my life that I would like to describe in this article. The reason I want to review the events I am going to describe is because I believe the pattern is universal is the sense that a spiritual principle is involved for all believers. One of the scriptures that support this belief is found in the Final Discourses of Jesus:

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one that this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.” (John 15: 9 – 17 NIV)

This is a very familiar passage. I have read and quoted it many times and have considered it through many years and in relationship to many situations. Yesterday I had a task before me that intimately involved this passage. My wife, Helen, and I were scheduled to visit a friend in an assisted living retirement home. This visit involved driving for four hours each way; additional driving to go out to lunch; and spending time with a person who consistently speaks very negatively about herself. To speak frankly, we were going to visit a person who was “hard to love.” Since our whole purpose of visiting was to encourage and express our love for this person; my enthusiasm for the visit was low. Basically, I did not believe that our visit would be positive and productive. Yet, I did believe that I was fulfilling the command of Jesus to: “Love each other.”

Let my give the conclusion of the visit before I give the glorious events that happened along the way. The visit was very positive, very encouraging for Helen and me, and very encouraging for the person we went to visit. Smiles and hugs were a part of the visit and sincere and meaningful, positive conversation became part of the exchange. Our visit was not only appreciated but seemed to have a very positive affect.

The glorious events that happened along the way will need some brief explanation to relate these events to the quoted scripture. The particular part of the scripture I am making reference to is, “Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” Helen and I are involved in several projects related to furthering the kingdom of God. These include the ministry of Living Fully; leading the Church on the Way; and establishing churches and a Bible School in Kenya, Africa. All of these ministries involve web sites published on the internet. I have been considering for a long time how these ministries interrelate and what needs to be published on each of these web sites. Basically, what I have been contemplating is what our heavenly Father wants me to do on a daily basis to make these ministries fulfill the scripture of “bearing fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” In other words, how to fit into God’s plans and purposes.

Well, as we traveled to our visit in the morning God began to reveal to me how these ministries interrelate and what my daily tasks will be in relationship to each one, including how to update the web sites for each ministry. I dictated these revelations to Helen as we drove and so we now have a plan and purpose before us. Our task now becomes to grasp this revelation and complete the daily assignments as we go forward. In other words, believe what has been revealed and follow the daily leading of the Holy Spirit as we progress with God’s plan. Or, to put it another way, to grasp the promises of God and watch as He carries them to completion.

The lesson shown here is that when we follow the command of Jesus to love each other; the promise of God that we will have whatever we ask for to bring fruit that will last into the kingdom will be fulfilled. As you can see I am preaching more to myself than to my readers. The encouragement here is about following the command to love each other now matter the cost and the promise of God will them develop according to His plan and purpose.

Restoration of the Fallen Tent

“`In that day I will restore David’s fallen shelter—I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins—and will rebuild it as it used to be, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name,’ declares the Lord, who will do these things.

“`The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, `when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.

“`They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,’ says the Lord your God.” (Amos 9: 11 – 15 NIV)

When I sat down before my computer to write this morning the first thing I did was write in my daily journal, “Father, I just want to worship you. May all I do come out of worshiping you. Help me write today all out of worship. May all I do be in joy, thanksgiving, and worship.” Please, so not think this comes from holiness or purity or a sense of worthiness on my part to come before God. These thoughts and attitudes come more from a sense of need for the presence of God and a realization that I really can do nothing without Him.

Anyway, those thoughts reminded me of the passage in Amos that I quoted above. The restoration of the Tabernacle of David is really about the restoration of worship. May I share with you what I think is the most significant thing about this prophecy? There are several phrases in this passage that indicate that God is going to do what Amos is prophesying: “I will restore;” “declares the Lord, who will do these things;” “I will bring my people Israel back from exile;” “I will plant Israel in their own land,” and “says the Lord your God.”

I am a Gentile, as far as I know. I don’t need to think foolish thoughts about being a descendent of the ten lost tribes of Israel. Jesus died for me and has made one out of Jew and Gentile in Christ. We have seen in our day the fulfillment of this passage in Amos in multiple ways. In 1948 Israel was established in what we now call “Palestine” and they never again will be uprooted. I have visited the current nation of Israel and surely the abundance of the land fits the prophecy of Amos. We rejoice in this because it is the work of God among us.

But there is another sense in which this prophecy is fulfilled. All over the world we are learning what it means to worship again. Through worship we come into the very presence of God. Through worship we build a place in the spiritual realm and invite God to come and dwell with us. Worship is actually entering into the spiritual realm all about us otherwise invisible to us. What I have discovered in this realm of worship are the effects of worship in my life. The effects of the restoration of the fallen tent of David are outlined in Amos:

“`The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, `when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.

“`They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.”

I have made mistakes. You might find that hard to believe, but take my word for it. I am in debt. I owe more than I can pay. The reasons for my debt are because of unbelief in the power of God to supply and trusting in other sources that I thought necessary at the time. I have realized my mistake and have repented of it and God has forgiven me. We have taken up worship, thanksgiving, and joyful living in place of doubt and fear. Now, because I have entered into worship; because I have allowed God to restore the fallen tent of David in my life; because I am in fact a child of Abraham; and because I have entered into all the blessings of Abraham; God is, in fact, showing me ways to get out of debt and enter into the prosperity He has supplied for His daughters and sons.

Love is the Key

“Jesus replied, `Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.’

“`All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.’

“`You heard me say, `I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.’

“`Come now; let us leave.’” (John 14: 23 – 31 NIV)

Love is the key. Allowing the love of the Father to flow into our lives and through us into the world around us is the essential key to the relationship that makes us one. Note in the brief passage above that Jesus spoke to His disciples at the conclusion of the Last Supper how many times He makes reference to love:

1. “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.”
2. “My Father will love them.”
3. In the negative – “Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.”
4. “If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father.”
5. “so that the world may learn that I love the Father.”

Love is the key to obedience. How often we want to make obedience the key to love. We want to prove our love by our obedience. Any lack of obedience in our lives is like a red flag to alert us to an area of our lives where our love has not been perfected. When that red flag pops up it is not our task at that point to screw ourselves up to greater obedience but to come humbly in submission to God, confess the area of weakness, seek His way of change called repentance, and ask for forgiveness in Jesus’ name. God’s forgiveness draws us back into the love relationship that is His ultimate desire for each one of us.

Love is the key to being one. The sending of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, makes the love relationship between each of us possible. That is why Jesus said we who love Him are glad that He is going to the Father. The coming of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to love Jesus and the Father and each other. We become one. The kingdom of God is among us and within us. God the Father comes and lives within each of us. Jesus the Son comes and lives within each of us. The Holy Spirit comes and lives within each of us. We become one.

Love is the key to witnessing to the world. As we are loved by God and return that love to God there is a dynamic of love that cannot help but overflow to the world all about us. We love our neighbors as ourselves. When the love of God is fully expressed in us it must, by its very nature, flow through us to others. First, we love one another thereby fulfilling the last command of Jesus, “This is my command: Love each other.” (John 15: 17 NIV) As the love of God flows through us and brings us to complete unity the world is then able to see God’s love in us: “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17: 22, 23 NIV)

Love is the key. 

Culmination of the Plan

One of my goals for this year (2015) is to write a book I would like to call “The Plan.” Basically, I would like to declare what I see revealed in Scripture of the plan of salvation that God is in the process of completing. Parallel to such a declaration is another possible approach to declaring what I believe has been revealed in the Bible of God working among us that I think of as the “Redemption Narrative.” Why would I write of these projects in an article to be published as a blog on the website we call “Living Fully” www.vmtc.ca? We are in a battle. You and I are experiencing opposition from the devil. Jesus addressed our worldly situation during His final instructions to the Twelve just before His arrest by the Jewish leaders:

“You heard me say, `I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has not hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.” (John 14: 28 – 31a NIV)

There are three principles in this passage of scripture that I want to point out that answers the question I have proposed, “Why would I write of these projects in an article to be published as a blog on the website we call `Living Fully?’”

1. The first reason and possibly the most important is Jesus’ statement “I am going away and I am coming back to you.” The culmination of the plan of salvation is encapsulated in this statement. We are saying that the plan of salvation is the salvation of the world by the salvation of individuals in it. When Jesus was among us He demonstrated the working in power of a person anointed with the Holy Spirit. Note Luke 4: 18, 19: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” In verse 4: 21 Jesus went on to say in the synagogue in Nazareth, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” This was the announcement by Jesus that He was the Messiah. It was the expectation that Jesus was to be anointed by Israel as the Messiah, the Anointed One. Israel, His own people, rejected Jesus as the Messiah and the statement by Jesus “I am going away and I am coming back to you,” was a statement of the result of that rejection. Jesus was about to be crucified. Jesus was about to die. The work of Jesus on earth was completed. Jesus would soon ascend to the Father and together they would send the Holy Spirit to anoint each of us to carry on what Jesus began. This is the culmination of the plan of salvation.
2. The second reason why I would write of these projects is shown by the statement of Jesus “I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.” I am imitating my Lord. I am attempting to walk in the footsteps of Jesus as He obeyed His Father. He carried out here a principle that we should note and emulate. This was not the first time Jesus had done this. Jesus had taught His disciples of His impending death at the hands of the high priests three times. He declared with His mouth what the scriptures taught about Him. By declaring what was to take place, Jesus made it a reality in the physical world. That principle is exactly what I am attempting to carry out. I have heard the Holy Spirit guide and inspire me to write of the plan of salvation and of the redemption narrative. I am declaring before it happens that it will happen. By making such declaration I am bringing into physical reality what I have perceived in the spiritual realm.
3. The third reason why I would write of these projects is shown by the additional statement of Jesus “I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.” The principle contained in this statement is one of the guiding principles of spiritual warfare. The sword proceeds from our mouth. Jesus wielded it in the wilderness when he answered the temptations of the devil. Jesus wielded the sword all through His teaching and revelation of the Father during His ministry. As we allow Jesus to wield the sword in us, through us, and around us we will be enabled to carry out the ministry of Jesus on earth. So we find that the culmination of the plan of salvation was the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. By the Holy Spirit we are empowered to carry on the work of Jesus by being witnesses of what He did to bring each person in the world into God’s plan. Jesus has physically gone away and returned to the Father; but in the spiritual realm Jesus is ever with us and empowers us by the Holy Spirit, also known as, the Spirit of Christ.