By
Mary Lindow
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The question is often asked...
..."What is the
reason for the weak spiritual lives of so many Christians?” This is an
excellent question and it is amazing how little the church responds to Christ's
voice, which is ever calling out! How little the church is what Christ wants
her to be!
What
really is the matter? What truly is needed?
Many answers will be given but there is one
answer that includes them all. each believer needs the full eye-opener of a
personal Christ as a spiritually internal, “living inside of me” Lord and
as someone who was a satisfying portion.
When the Lord was here on the earth what was it
that distinguished his disciples from other people? I think the answer is that
Jesus took them away from their fishnets their busyness and their homes. He
gathered them around himself and they knew him.
He was their Master, and he guarded them, and
they in turn followed him. What is supposed to make the difference today between
Christ's disciples-not those who are just hoping to get to heaven, but those
who are Christ's wholehearted disciples-and other people? I think it's this.
When Jesus was upon the earth, he was able to keep the disciples with him for
three years day after day. Now that Jesus is in heaven, and he is able to do
what he could not do when he was upon the earth - to keep in the closest
fellowship with every believer throughout the entire world. Imagine this!
You might know the verse in Ephesians: 4:10
“He that
descended is the same also,
that ascended up far above all heavens,
that He
might fulfill all things.”
Why
was our Lord Jesus taken up to heaven?
Away from the life of earth? He ascended to
heaven because the light of the earth is confined to localities, but the light
of heaven has no limits, no boundaries, and no localities. He was taken up to
heaven so that in the power of God the ever present omnipresent God, that he
might be able to fill every one of his followers on earth and be with every
individual believer in a personal way.
This is what my heart wants to experience by
faith. It is a possibility, it is a promise, it is my birthright, and I want to
have it! By the grace of God, I say to Jesus, “Jesus, I will not rest until you
have fully revealed your self fully to me.”
How
did the disciples get their burning hearts?
Remember that day that they were on the Road to
Emmaus? It was through the way in which Christ opened the Scriptures to them.
He made it all look different and new, and they saw what they had never seen
before! They could not help feeling how wonderful and how heavenly the teaching
was!
Many Christians have discovered that the best
time of the day is when they can read and pore over their Bibles, and they love
nothing more than to find a new spiritual insight. Just like a person who mines
diamonds rejoices when they have found a diamond these individuals delight when
they get some new thought from the Bible, and they feed upon it.
Yet, even with all of their interest in God's
word and with the joy that is stirred in our hearts, when we return to work or
attend our daily duties, we find that there is still something missing in our
lives.
From
time to time…
…We
must leave all the many and unique blessings that Jesus gives us,
and come to the one blessing that outshines all
of them.
The blessing that Jesus makes himself known,
that Jesus is willing to make himself known to us!
If I were to ask you, “Isn't this exactly what
you and I need, and what many of us have been longing for?” I am sure you would
answer, “Yes! This is exactly what I want!”
Listen to this poetic verse.
“Oh,
the peace my Savior gives!
Peace
I never knew before,
And
my way has brighter grown,
Since
I've learned to trust him more.”
An individual in the midst of great trouble and
difficulty wrote this poem.
She stated that it brought wonderful comfort
and strength to her.
However, how can a person maintain peace in his
or her life? It was the presence of Christ that brought the peace; therefore,
peace must be sustained through the continual presence of Jesus.
Remember that when the storm on the Sea, was
threatening to swallow up the disciples, that it was the presence of Jesus
himself that brought the peace.
Do
you want peace and rest?
Then you must have Jesus himself.
We talk of purity, and we talk of cleansing. We
also talk of deliverance from sin!
Praise God, for the deliverance and the
cleansing, when the living Jesus comes and gives us power and strength. It's
there that we find that we have that resurrected Christ who sits on the throne,
who is making himself known to you and I. This is the secret of purity and the
secret of strength.
Perhaps
some of you may be now asking,
“How
will Christ revealed himself to me? How will he come?” That is the secret
no one can know, it is the one that Jesus keeps to himself. It will come in the
power of the Holy Spirit. Remember the disciples on the road to Emmaus?
They had a sudden revelation of the living
risen Christ!
The Scripture says, “Then they knew Him!” He
revealed Himself, he showed Himself fully to them, and then he vanished from
their site! Was that moment of Christ visiting them revealing Himself to them
worth much? It was over in a minute, yet it was worth heaven, eternity, it was
everything!
From that time on Christ's disciples were no
longer to relate to him in an earthly way. Thank the Lord that Christ now
reveals Himself to each and every one of us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Yet, how He does this is a sacred thing between Christ and each individual
believer. Take this as an assurance, “their eyes were opened, and they knew Him,”
and believe that this was written for
you!
You
might be able to say that I have experienced a sad heart at times.
When I mourned that I did not know the living
Christ. And I have had times when my heart is slow to believe and have
struggled with my lack of faith, and I also know this stage of a burning heart
in what I experienced and the great
times of joy and blessedness.
If you can say these things you will come to a
place where you have a satisfied heart.
You
will have a heart that has been made glad and will last until eternity!
You will have a heart that cannot keep and hold
its joy but is poured out on other believers and shared, just as the disciples
ran back to the believers in Jerusalem and said, “It is true! Jesus has revealed himself! I know it! I feel it! It has
been made personal and real to me, alone!”
Dear
child of God.
I'm
sure you are asking but how would this revelation come?
Jesus will tell you. Just come to him and say a
simple childlike prayer. You need to come to Jesus yourself. What I share with
you here today is finished! I have pointed you to the risen One. Now you must
step into the presence of the Holy One and begin to crying out, saying, “Oh my precious Lord and Savior! I have come
to you and fully abandon my dreams my will, my hopes, and my sorrows. I have come so that I might have this
blessedness with me at all times.
Dear
Jesus! I want you completely the
fullness of all that You are. I want to know you personally and completely. Not
just simply by hearing the experiences of others. No Lord! I want to know that
I can have your blessed presence surrounding me at all times because I am your
child and I have been set free from my own condemning self-hatred, religious
thinking, performance-based actions, and fear of not measuring up.
Jesus!
Help me! Be my portion forever!”
Is
this possible? Can we always be thinking of Jesus?
Thank God you don't need to be consistently
thinking of him. You may be the manager of a grocery store and your whole
attention may require you to carry out the business that you have to do. While
you were thinking of your business, Jesus will be thinking of you and He will
come in, and if you listen to Him he will take charge of you.
When I was holding my new Grand-daughter just
today, (5 months old) I was thinking about when an infant sleeps in his or her
mother's or grandmother’s arms, he or she lies there helplessly. He or she
hardly even knows it’s mother or grandmother, he or she does not think of her,
but the mother and grandmother does think of the child. And this is the great mystery of love.
Jesus
waits to come to me in the fullness of His love.
And when He is allowed possession of my heart,
He gathers me into those Divine arms and tells me, “My child I am the ever faithful one, I Am the mighty one, and I will
remain with you. I Am watching over you and will keep you every day.”
Oh I can hear many of you saying, “Oh, if only I could believe that, if only I
could believe it is possible to have Jesus constantly taking and keeping charge
me every hour and every minute!”
But you see this is exactly what He said to
you. He said these words,
“For
low I am with you always”.
He meant it in the fullness of His divine love,
and He is longing to show himself to you and to me, as we have never seen Him
before.
“Your heart says this is too good to be true,
And that is just too wonderful to be possible
for you.”
Still you do admit that it is
an amazing way to live!
Oh you fearful one,
mistaken one, and anxious one!
I am bringing to
you God's promise; it is for me and for you.
Jesus will do it!
As God, He is able, and Jesus is willing and longing, having been the crucified
one to keep you in perfect peace.
This is a
wonderful fact…
… And it is the
secret of unspeakable joy.
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Thank You
Copyright © 2012 " THE MESSENGER " ~ Mary Lindow
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