When the Jesus in you meets the Jesus of heaven…

In his book titled “The Deeper Christian Life” author Andrew Murray speaks plainly and painfully to those of us who profess to be Christians.

“There are many children of God who need to confess, that though they are His children, they have never believed that God's promises are true, that He is willing to fill their hearts all the day long with His blessed presence. Have you believed this? If you have not, all our teaching will be of no profit to you. Will you not say, ‘By the help of God, I will begin now a new life of faith, and will not rest until I know what such a life means. I will believe that I am every moment in the Father's presence, and all that He has is mine.’”

While I may not agree totally with Mr. Murray is writing about because speaking only for myself I believe in God’s promises but there are times when those promises are only words in the bible and not words in my heart.

Mr. Murray goes on to write, “…all our teaching will be of not profit to you.” Again I do not totally agree. For me teaching at its deepest level is planting seeds, seeds that one day will begin to germinate because of the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. When I was a teenager attending church one of my favorite arguments for not going was, “I don’t need this stuff and I really don’t need to worry about eternal life.” Now after all these years I am so glad that my parents insisted on attending and I am thankful to those ministers and Sunday School Teachers who in spite of my reluctance planted those teaching seeds.

While I do not agree totally on what Mr. Murray has written one thing I do agree on and that we as individuals and the Christian Church, yours, mine, and theirs is living far below our potential. What is our true potential? The Apostle Paul clears the air and takes us to the gateway to our full potential as Christians whose life has been ignited by the Holy Spirit. “I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else in this world or in the world to come. And God has put all things under the authority of Christ, and he gave him this authority for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is filled by Christ, who fills everything everywhere with his presence.” (Ephesians 1:19 – 1:23)

What amazes me about God making such incredible power available to me is that his love for me is so powerful, so complete, so trusting that he’s willing to take a chance on me in the first place?

“I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him.” Thank you Paul for praying for me and I promise to do all I can to make myself available to God’s incredible power so I can make a difference in my part of the world.

Amen!

Grace and PEACE,
Gary

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.