God With Us

Isaiah 7:14

The story of the Virgin birth of Jesus Christ is crucial to the purity of Christianity. His divine birth assured that He would not be born with the nature to sin of an earthly father, thus doomed to suffer for those sins. His arrival was also a herald of “Immanuel”, meaning in Hebrew, “God with us”. Jesus was the literal appearance of God in human flesh, living and dwelling among men.

What a joyous occasion this must have been! For a Hebrew, the thought that God would descend from heaven and clothe Himself in humanity had to be almost overwhelming. Isaiah’s prophecy of a virgin conception is the token mention of this occasion by God until the angel Gabriel reminds Joseph of this prophecy, some 750 years later (Matthew 1:23), but we can be assured that it was the single most monumental prophecy of Christ’s arrival.

The prophecy is actually given as a sign to the house of David that God is faithful to do what He says that He will do. Though it would take over 7 centuries for the prophecy to be fulfilled, it was to be used as a reminder that God did not forget what He promised to His people. When Mary claimed to be carrying the Son of God by the Holy Ghost, she was taking the people back to this promise and claiming that God had indeed arrived.

It must have been a daily struggle for young Mary to face her community of family and friends. Who would possibly believe her when she explained to them that the baby that she was carrying was neither Joseph’s nor any other man’s? By invoking the power of Isaiah 7:14, she was involving God in her pregnancy, a charge that neither she nor anyone else could take lightly.

It is for this cause that Jesus faced scrutiny in His life, particularly from the Pharisees, who seemed to take pleasure in reminding Him of the circumstances surrounding His birth. Jesus tells them that, “I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father” (John 8:38). They take Jesus to have been speaking of His earthly father Joseph, so they respond with, “We be not born of fornication” (John 8:41), an obvious jab at the widely held consensus that Jesus was born of a pre-marital affair between Joseph and Mary. Of course this charge was bogus, but a lie does not need to contain any truth in order to be told.

If Christ could face such contradiction against Himself and His heritage, and still maintain His identity as the beloved Son, surely we can take a lesson from the Master. Remember, Jesus did say “learn of me” (Matthew 11:29). We can learn a lot from Jesus’ dealings with other people, both in what He said and in how He responded. He was confident as to who He was and where He was from, and He never allowed other people’s opinions and feelings to persuade Him in any way. May we be more like our Lord Jesus today, knowing that we are what the Bible says that we are, free from the chains of the words of those around us.

Go in peace!

The Hole by the Door

Song of Solomon 5:3-6

Song of Solomon is a love letter between King Solomon and his wife and it is full of beautiful imagery and romance. It also jumps from character to character without warning in the dialogue, so you must read carefully to determine which one is speaking. The fifth chapter opens with the bridegroom speaking for one verse, and then suddenly changes to the bride from verses 2-8.

The bridegroom is a type of Christ while the bride is His church. When you read the book from this viewpoint, you see the passion and the love that is shared between Jesus and His church, and how much He truly loves and cares for us. We also see some problems with the love as given and received by the bride, but never by the groom; a telling scenario for us in the church today.
The bride is asleep, not in her heart but in her situation. Christians are not asleep in their hearts, but in their actions and in their lifestyles, they far too often are. To arouse us from our slumber, Jesus knocks on our hearts door, desperately desiring a relationship with us that is both intimate and personal. The bridegroom knocks, asking for the bride to open, even calling her, “my undefiled” (Song of Solomon 5:2). It is wonderful to know that Jesus sees a slumbering bride as undefiled.

The third verse shows the objections of the bride as she explains why she is not quick to rise and open the door. She has removed her coat and wonders how she can put it on and she has washed her feet and does not wish to defile them. Both objections are evidence of her lack of understanding of the finished work of Christ. Why has she removed her coat (robe of righteousness)? Apparently she views her righteousness as a work which she puts on and off, and why is she washing her own feet? Jesus is the one who washes His church by the water of the Word (Ephesians 5:26).

The groom “put in his hand by hole of the door” (verse 3). This ancient phrase harkens back to the architecture of that day and age. The modern keys that we use on door locks were not in use back then, but instead it was usually a piece of wood with pegs in it corresponding to small holes in a wooden bolt within, and was put through a hole in the door, drawing the bolt. The bride sees the hand of her lover come through the hole of the door, but He will not force His way in, so she rises and grabs the handle from the inside (verse 5) but is too late to catch him before he leaves. Notice how our Jesus shows us His nail-scarred hand to display to us His love, but will not use that same hand to force His will upon us?

In His message to the church at Laodicea, Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Have you ever wondered why Jesus is standing outside of the house, knocking on the door? His desire is for a personal relationship with us where we eat with Him and He eats with us. This fellowshipping is at the forefront of God’s heart, but oftentimes He must knock on our door just to get permission to enter.

Jesus will not force Himself into the house, just as the groom would put his hand in the hole in the door, but obviously did not have the key to the lock. Jesus wants to be invited in rather than come rushing in taking what He wants. True romance is only possible if both parties reciprocate the same feelings and emotions, and Jesus desires that true romance with all of us. If He is outside, won’t you open your heart to Him today?

The Fear of the Lord

Proverbs 9:10

Did you know that there is a proper and an improper fear of God? David said that, “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever” (Psalms 19:9), showing us that proper fear is pure and clean and it will last for all of time. Paul wrote to the Hebrews, “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Hebrews 12:28). Here, we see that there is “godly fear” which comes only from those who “have grace”.

Jesus was confronted by the devil in the wilderness with various temptations. One of those temptations was to take possession of the earth without going to the cross. Satan offered all of it to Christ if Jesus would only worship him (Luke 4:6, 7). Jesus refused, and said, “For it is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve’” (Luke 4:8). Notice that Jesus said, ‘it is written’, meaning that He is quoting from the scriptures. The only problem is that what He claims was written is not written!

Jesus puts two verses together, both from the book of Deuteronomy:

“Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name” (Deuteronomy 6:13).

“Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name” (Deuteronomy 10:20).

In neither verse do we see, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God”, yet Jesus says, “It is written”. In fact, the phrase, “Thou shalt worship the Lord they God” never appears in the Bible until Jesus says it in the wilderness. Rather than assume that Jesus is mistaken, we must take into account something of more importance.

Jesus is the author of Deuteronomy! John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”, and then he writes, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus was there in the beginning and He was the inspiration for all of the Old Testament scriptures. As the author of the Old Testament, he retains the right to change the wording in the New Testament, thus, when He speaks to Satan in the wilderness, He is not confused, He is simply changing the wording to reflect the Spirit of the New Testament.

With the arrival of grace and truth in the form of Jesus Christ, God no longer wants man to have an unhealthy fear of Him. Now, instead of fear, Jesus changes the words to “worship the Lord thy God”. Every time you read of the fear of the Lord in the Old Testament, you have the right to insert “worship” in its place, for this is how New Covenant believers live. We do not fear our heavenly Father; we worship Him because He is so good.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). As a believer in Jesus Christ, remember that now, “The worship of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. The man who is wise enough to worship the Lord for who and what He is is truly wise indeed.

Watching From Heaven

Revelation 6:9-11

Everyone either has lost a loved one, or will lose one; it is a brutal fact of life. The hope of an afterlife is what pushes many people forward through those horrible moments of loss, with the assurance that they will meet that person again. Paul confirmed this with, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

In Revelation 6, John is shown the opening of the seven seals in heaven. With the opening of the fifth seal, he sees the martyred remnant, under the altar of god, slain for the testimony which they held (Revelation 6:9). He hears them crying out to God to judge and avenge their blood, even asking the Lord how long He is going to wait to do so. In our endless quest to learn something from the prophetic, sometimes we overlook the most obvious things. This story teaches us something about the souls in heaven.

How do these martyrs know that the Lord has not already avenged their deaths? They must have the ability to see what is transpiring on the earth, and they are still concerned about it. When I was younger, I remember hearing it preached that heaven is so much better than earth that no one in heaven could possibly be concerned about what is happening here. I even remember asking a preacher if saints in heaven were watching us to see what happens, and he said, “It is so good over there, they don’t care what we are doing here”. That makes heaven sound good, but it doesn’t say much for how my dead loved ones feel about me!

It makes no sense that God would make heaven so much different than what we are accustomed to. Consider that God created both the heavens and earth and that prior to the fall of man in the Garden, the earth was a perfect place with no curse on it of any kind. This earth that we live on is often a very beautiful place; so beautiful in fact that it can nearly take your breath away. Imagine the scenery with the curse and the death lifted away, and you are envisioning God’s ultimate design. Heaven will be wonderful, but it most certainly will not be isolated.

The martyrs of Revelation 6 retained a very earthly interest. They were watching the events on earth with great attention, and they still possessed emotions about the world that they had left behind. These saints even petitioned God for what was happening on the earth. This does not sound like a group of people who could not care less about what happens to their loved ones.

Jesus told us that when a sinner repents, “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God” (Luke 15:10). Notice that the joy is “in the presence of the angels”, not necessarily coming from the angels themselves. Who in heaven would be so excited about a sinner coming home? Angels have no investment in the salvation of souls, for they can neither share the gospel nor understand the feeling of being born-again. Only those who have gone on before us can understand the joy of sins forgiven. Those who left this life, still believing for that lost son or wayward grandson, would have joy, “in the presence of angels” when they look to the earth and see that child repent.

Take heart in the knowledge that if your loved one knew Jesus Christ and they have slipped the bonds of this earth, they are not gone forever. You will be reunited someday around the throne of God, so live in a way today that will make those in the presence of angels rejoice.

You Are Anointed

1 John 2:20-27

Much is made of “the anointing” in many circles, with many different types of anointing being described. Some speak of singing anointing, teaching anointing, prayer anointing, etc. There is nothing wrong with describing these things as being done in an anointed manner, but it does make it sound like the anointing is a tangible thing that rides on other things, making them better or more useful. Actually, the anointing that is spoken of in the Bible is a smearing, meaning literally that in the Greek.

When John writes of “an unction from the Holy One”, his word ‘unction’ is the same word as ‘anointing’. He does not specify that this anointing is on the preacher or the teacher only, but that it is smeared on every single believer. This anointing assures that the believer, “know all things”.

I may not know much, but I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know it all! How can we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit and thus, “know all things”? John is addressing the influx of false teachers that was infiltrating the church, denying the finished work of Jesus Christ (verse 23), and some were denying the teaching of eternal life (verse 25). John said that they were there to “seduce you” (verse 26). “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:27).

The smearing of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to assure us of truth, so that we do not fall into error. John was encouraging the church to let them know that they had inside of them all that they needed to keep from being led astray. You have the identification of the Holy Spirit inside of you that teaches you what is right and wrong. Too often in the church, we think that they way to get people to live right is to shove as many rules and regulations in front of them as possible. Truthfully, many pastors trust more in their ability to get people to live right than they do the Holy Spirit inside of that person.

We are learning more every day about God and His goodness and love toward us. It is for this cause that we are sure that we do not know it all and that there is much more about our Lord that there is to learn. John’s writing is not to say that we do not need preachers and teachers, for the body of Christ grows and learns by fellowshipping and the sharing of doctrine (Acts 2:42). John is reminding us that we are all equal when it comes to the instruction of the Holy Spirit. From the newborn saint to the veteran of the cross, we all have the same smearing of the same Holy Spirit. We need only to listen to His voice as He ministers His truth into our lives.

Jesus said that His sheep know His voice (John 10:27) and that they would not follow the voice of a stranger (10:5). When Jesus speaks in your heart, it always ministers grace and love to you, edifying you, and lifting you up. The voice of condemnation and fear cannot be Christ, for it goes against His finished work (John 3:17), so avoid that which drags you down. When you are in error or following after that which is harmful, the Holy Spirit will lead you back to Christ, for that is always His primary purpose (John 16:14). The unction of the Spirit is to cause you to see Jesus, and no voice of the enemy will ever do that.

He Bore it All

1 Peter 2:24

The death of Jesus at Calvary was more than the execution of a Jewish carpenter some 2000 years ago. By living a sinless life, and fulfilling every demand of the law, Jesus was incapable of dying as a result of His own sins, for He had none. As a perfect man, He offered His life in exchange for all who would put faith in Him, and in order to make the sacrifice proper, all of the sins and transgressions of the world were placed on Christ so that His death would not be for Himself, but for the whole world.

What happened at the cross was a great exchange: my sins for His righteousness. He knew no sin of His own, yet He bore my sins “in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). As awesome as that thought is, the apostle Paul took it even further.

While Peter explains that Jesus bore our sins by His sacrificial death, which killed our sin nature, allowing us to live righteously, Paul says that Jesus did even more than bear the sin, for the Father, “made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus was actually viewed as sin when He hung at Calvary, and it was for this reason that “it pleased the Lord to bruise him” (Isaiah 53:10).

The understanding of this is crucial if you wish to have knowledge as to your right standing with God. If Jesus bore your sins, then you bear His righteousness. That is great, but it denotes that you can take it off by your actions, thus bringing righteousness back into your hands instead of His. However, if Jesus was made to be sin, and we were made to be righteousness, that speaks to a position, not a possession. In that case, I am not simply wearing His righteousness (though we certainly are), but I am doing even more than that, as I AM HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS!

The only way that the believer could ever do as Peter said and “live unto righteousness” is if our sins and their consequences were gone. Nothing stands in the way to growth and development like the constant guilt and condemnation that is accompanied with our sins and failures. If that guilt and condemnation is done away with by the sacrifice of Jesus, then the sin is soon to follow, as we will live righteous only when we realize that He has borne our sins.

Paul confirmed this when he told the Corinthian church to “Awake to righteousness, and sin not” (1 Corinthians 15:34). The power to stop falling into sin and failure is to wake up to how righteous that Jesus is in us, knowing that He has took our sins into His body at the cross and then had that body split open by the judgment of God. If God has judged it once, then the results are a guarantee. That is why Peter closes the verse with, “by whose stripes ye were healed”. If our healing is spoken of in the past tense, our sins should be as well. Hallelujah!

God Hears Your Prayers

James 5:16-18

Much ado is made about prayer, with a new book hitting stores seemingly every day on how to have your prayers answered, or how to have a successful prayer life. Of course, much ado should be made, seeing as prayer is communication with God, and what could be more important?

The disciples never asked Jesus to teach them how to teach or preach, but they did ask Him to teach them how to pray (Luke 11:1). Obviously there was something about the manner in which Jesus prayed, and the results that He reaped that caused the disciples to seek Him for instruction.

Jesus taught the disciples to pray for things, both spiritual and material. He instructed them to pray for God to send workers into the harvest field (Matthew 9:38) and to pray for God to remove obstacles from their spiritual path (Mark 11:23). He also told His disciples about how to pray with faith, not doubting in their heart. This prayer was for “what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24).

James speaks of the “prayer of faith” (James 5:15) which will “save the sick” and is the same prayer that Jesus spoke of in Mark 11. He then informs us that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (verse 16). This verse has led many to believe that there is such thing as “praying hard” or “grabbing hold of the horns of the altar”; and that such prayers are answered quicker. The Greek for “effectual fervent” is one word, ‘energeo’ which means “to be operative, to put forth power”. Fervent prayer has nothing to do with yelling or screaming or “getting serious” as some might say, but it has to do with praying the way Jesus told us to pray: with faith.

The Holy Spirit then does something through the apostle James that speaks wonderful encouragement for every believer. He uses Elijah as an example of a prayer warrior, and assures the reader that Elijah was no different than all of us in that he, “was a man subject to like passions as we are” (James 5:17). This means that Elijah shared the same feelings and affections that we do. How can this be considered encouraging? Observe some of Elijah’s “passions” as well as his successes in prayer:

• Speaks a 3 ½ year drought into existence (1 Kings 17:1).
• He calls down fire from heaven with a prayer consisting of less than 65 words (1 Kings 18:37, 38)
• Calls for rain following the drought, and God sends it (1 Kings 18:41).
• Runs from a woman out of fear for his life (1 Kings 19:3).
• Requests that God kill him (1 Kings 19:4).
• Whines that he is the only one actually doing any good (1 Kings 19:14).

Notice that Elijah has many of the same problems that we have, yet he was a prayer warrior. Jesus speaks nothing of short prayers, but He actually comments on loud, long one’s (Matthew 6:5-7), so please understand that there is no formula for the “perfect prayer”. Communicate with God in an open manner and be prepared to receive from Him. Trust that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him and that it truly is His pleasure to give to you the kingdom. Do not disqualify yourself because of “stuff” in your life. If God will answer Elijah, God will answer you!