CONFORMITY WITH GOD

Jesus was aware of His rights, His righteousness, with God. He relied on it completely during His earthly ministry and He ministered freely. He did what the Father told Him to do. This is the key to the mystery: The Father was in Jesus and Jesus was in the Father- they were one. In total harmony they walked and worked together. This is how believers are to live in Christ. Not His will deforming ours, nor ours bucking against Him. Both will conformed to each other.

I would like for you to think back to the Old Testament. There are many stories but the one that comes to mind first is Jonah in the whale. As long as Jonah was obeying God all was well, it was when Jonah decided, knowing exactly what God had told him to do, not to obey God, that he ran into problems. And Jonah did not have Jesus.

Being conformed to Christ is a much higher form of life then being in submission to Him. When we conform to God and conform to His will, and do His work you will reach a point where you entirely lean on your right-standing with Him. Then you will not hesitate to do what Jesus did. You will be able to exercise your rights in the kingdom of God as His child and as joint heir with Christ.

Many have a hard time understanding and even believing some of the Works that are happening in the world today within the ministry of God. Jesus told us we would do all He did and more, John 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. To be honest we should be seeing more and more, but we are not. Not yet anyway.

It is somewhat easy for most of us to look at our loving adult child and not think of the terror they might have been just a year ago. We have watched them fall, and crawl, and as one gospel singer wrote: Take him to the altar one more time and let him die. We have thought at times that might be the only way they would make it to heaven. A few years ago I prayed concerning my daughter and told the Lord I did not ask for her, she belongs to You. I have seen many changes since then, and He isn’t finished with her yet. But when he looks at her He is not looking through “rose-colored glasses”, He is in fact looking at her through the Blood of the Lamb. And when He looks at her she is perfect. And so am I.

God sees us just as Jesus does. That is hard to conceive. But as I was reading that it came to my mind Jesus looks at us through His own blood. That made it even more powerful to me. Now I want you to know when I wrote this, I got so excited I just sat in the chair. I had never thought of it that way before. I had to tell someone, so I stopped and called LJG. Now that is long distance. But when the Word of God jumps up and tells you something like that you can’t keep it under a basket.

Which brings to mind yesterday I ran into a lady who writes for our newspaper. She does a weekly column and lately I have noticed a difference in her writing. She has been writing on spiritual things. I told her I could tell it came from her heart. To this she replied that yes it was and maybe she should be keeping her personal thoughts hid. I looked at her and said under the basket, she said yes, Why I asked so it will burn your behind. And people that is what will happen if you keep the good things hid.

It is to our advantage to examine how Jesus prayed. Jesus knew how to pray, and He always got answers.

In John 17:20-21 Jesus is praying to God just before Calvary. Neither pray I for these alone, [His disciples] but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. . He is talking about everyone that receives Christ. It doesn’t matter whether it is through them directly or indirectly. It continues “That they all may be one; as thou, art in me, and I in thee. We are to follow in being one with another, and in conforming one to another and with Christ. We are to be one with the Father as Jesus was One with Him. 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

The Holy Spirit is the life-force of God and He lives in the heart of the believer. We get our life from Him. As Jesus taught in John 15:5 He is the vine and we are the branches.

Jesus goes on to say in John 17:23 “..that You have loved them as You have loved Me.” God loves you as much as He loves Jesus. He sees you as equal with Jesus. There is no difference in His eyes.

Begin to see yourself as God sees you and take advantage of His free gift of righteousness. Your right standing with God was bought with a high price.. do not take it lightly. The Father’s heart was hungry for a family, and Jesus freely gave Himself for this desire.

Today take a minute to realize that Jesus is looking at you through His own blood that He shed for you.

God Bless,
rECj/LJG