Dear Connections,
I would like to encourage you today and tell you a simple truth: you have already won. That means, because you know and accept Jesus Christ as your savior, just as He has overcome death, you have overcome death and are granted eternal life.
What I am noticing is that some become discouraged by how things are going in their lives and fail to realize how great a gift they’ve been given. Furthermore, if you have salvation, nothing else really matters more than that. You already have the pearl of great price, and everything else that seems wrong in your life is transitory.
The good news is that Jesus has overcome the world and that through a relationship with Him, the second death, which is eternal damnation, has no power over you. Whatever happens to you in this life cannot compare to the glory that shall be revealed when you hear those words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant, enter thou into my rest.”
This is what Jesus taught us, and He proved it when He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Death had no power over Him, and if we believe that He is the Christ, death has no power over us, either.
You have already won
Yes, things are not so good here on earth sometimes, and for some, they are much worse than for others. However, realize that we have already won in Jesus, and we can rest in His promise of eternal life with Him. Consequently, we don’t have to struggle and fight anymore, but can turn our attention toward doing the will of our Father in heaven. We don’t have to struggle to accumulate things, impress people, gain fame, or do any of the things people do who are still struggling to succeed in this life. We already have success in the most meaningful way possible – we have eternal life and are promised to live forever in the New Heavens and New Earth.
This means that instead of trying to be successful in this world, we can relax and do God’s will while we wait to enter into His rest. We don’t have to concern ourselves with gaining things here because everything we could possibly want or need will be given to us in the world to come. It is time to disconnect from our daily struggles and fears and realize that all we really need to do is hear our Master’s voice and say yes to whatever He wants in this current moment. God will take care of the rest.
God will do the heavy lifting
Many of us are used to fighting and struggling. Our lives have been tough, and we know little else, believing that if we don’t push and make life give us what we need, we will lose out. This is what people who do not know Jesus Christ do, but we don’t have to. We are the children of God, and as a son or daughter of the Most High, all our needs will be met as we live in His will, loving him and receiving His love.
Let’s disengage from the struggle for existence and focus, rather, on the business at hand, which is living the will of our Father. Perhaps, instead of getting up this morning and doing our own thing, why not pray and ask God what He would like us to do for Him today? Since we are already winners and have eternal life through Jesus’s sacrifice, maybe we could give our Lord our attention and time today to say thank you by doing something He needs done.
The truth is that literally nothing we have on this earth will remain, for God says through Peter:
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
2 Peter 2:3
Since we will keep nothing from this world and we have already been promised salvation, isn’t the best use of our time to focus on whatever our Father wants? We already have everything that really matters, so why not just do His will and please Him with our remaining days on earth?
It’s okay now, you can stop fighting
What I notice about some is that they forget to stop fighting when they win. They are so used to the struggle that it’s their way of life, and even when they win, they can’t stop running. I get it, I really do. However, we can allow Jesus to train us to stop focusing on what’s wrong with our lives so that we can begin to let Him live through us and help others around us overcome death, too.
In the end, if we lose our own souls, we truly lose everything. If we focus on what is wrong and never leave the rat race, though we may appear to win it in earthly terms, we can end up losing everything that really matters eternally.
Time to help others
In conclusion, realize that in Jesus you have already won everything, and sit down at His feet like Mary, listen to what He says, and rest. We don’t have to fight for anything anymore; we already have all that matters in Him. Instead, work while it is yet day and help others around you rest from their endless labors, too. Accept the gift of the Holy Spirit and taste the powers of the world to come. Live now as you will live in the New Heavens and New Earth, and be a light to others who are still struggling in this present darkness. Above all, be happy and thankful in Him, and He will give you rest.
Dear Connections,
I find that sometimes I get stuck in the present, because of habits of the past. likewise, the way that we chose to deal with things growing up naturally or spiritually, while the may even have been good or necessary at the time, tend to hinder my progress in Christ.
What I constantly struggle with is keeping my focus on what God wants me to do without letting circumstances or peoples attitudes distracted me from the things of God. Sometimes we do indeed have righteous indignation and it is right to fight against unjust things, but for me anyway, striving with the world and perhaps with others who don’t share my calling or world view, has mostly been unproductive. I have found that it isn’t really necessary to be right when doing so takes up a lot of emotional capital and time. Unless I really feel led to deal at length with someone who is not wanting to listen to what I have say, I would rather leave things alone and be about my Father business. The fact is, if you allow yourself to become all bound up in other peoples unbelief, you will have little time to do the things of God that actually matter and bear fruit.
Likewise, we can’t allow the trials of our past to take away the goodness of our present or our future in Christ. What happened, good or bad, is now in the past and to live back there, even partially, while we are trying to move forward is just another distraction that saps our strength and resolve. Living life, especially by the leading of the Holy Spirit, is a messy business. You are always seemingly out of sync with what the world believes you should be doing or thinking. You zig while others firmly believe that you should zag and they are often times not at all shy about expressing their displeasure. What’s more, you really have little idea how things will work out and can only really be sure of what God wants you to do at any given moment of the day. So when others demand that you explain how your current course of action is going to pan out, most of the time you have be honest and say, “I really don’t know, but I feel this is how the Holy Spirit is leading me at the moment.
I feel a sense in the Spirit that what is happening to many right now is that they feel bewildered and unsure. It is like we are all in the fog of Spiritual war that rages all about us. Everything is coming at us at once as we are trying to decide what is real, what is useful, and what is important. For me, I simply don’t try to figure it out anymore, but just do what God says, when He says to do it, with whomever He says to do it with. I really don’t have to understand what exactly is going on to trust and obey.
There is a term being bandied about that says we are in “the singularity.” As I understand it, this means a time when the progress of mankind is geometrically starting to compound so quickly that it is almost going up in a straight line. However, I think this is more of a smoke screen and is, in fact, is a replay of the tower of Babel reborn in a 21st century guise. All this wonder about what mankind is achieving and becoming is, in fact, all part of Strong Delusion which is preparing the whole would to be receptive of the Antichrist.
Therefore, as I walk this battlefield we call daily life, I have determined to default to whatever God says to me personally at any given moment. I trust my Father’s voice for He always proves truthful, even if I do not see it right away. The wars and rumors of wars that are taking place all over the earth are just outward manifestations of spiritual conflicts in the heavenly, principalities fighting with angels. In this sort of conflict, we must allow ourselves to be moved by His Spirit, to be where and when His Spirit leads us to be. I does not have to make sense, it only has to be God’s will.
We all just need to quit fighting each other and rather pay attention to what God says more than the frustration we feel. There will be unjust things done as well as unkind words spoken, but in the end, those don’t matter at all. People are sometimes weak, oppressed by demonic spirits as they allow unclean spirits to manifest through them. While I feel badly for the person, when I recognize the demonic nature of their speech or actions, I’m simply not interesting in allowing them to keep me from my Fathers business, unless, it is His will that I engage.
It is high time we take no thought for tomorrow, but to pay attention to what our Father wants to accomplish today. Whatever has happen yesterday should be left in the past unless God leads us to deal with it. Moreover, the future is not that important for if we do what our God wants us to do today, tomorrow will take care of itself.
Amen.
Dear Connections,
I want to encourage you that those who fight with you and sometimes treat you terribly, do not hate you. As you are attacked by them, they are oppressed by the Devil and goaded into to saying and sometimes doing unpleasant things. Obviously, this can be hurtful, but in reality, we do it too, often under the same duress and pressure from demonic forces pressing hard on our minds and emotions, making us also do and say unkind things.
While this is, of course, not a good situation, it is often the situation we find ourselves in. What then shall we do? What I personally do is try to see others with the grace and mercy that I hope and pray to receive from my Lord and Savior at His Great White Throne Judgement Seat. Ill winds from others may blow on us, sometimes with gale force intensity, but know that as we stand with Jesus and allow those storms to pass around us, we will stand. In everything, forgive for you can afford to do that, being a child of the Most High.
Big hugs and lots of love,
Michael