How much time do you personally spend with God?
How often do you have fellowship with Him?
Are you following Jesus Christ?
How strong is your faith?
I have realized that having fellowship with Jesus Christ our Savior or with God the Father in the presence of the Holy Spirit gives me incredible personal peace. In community with God I find peace and security and my faith is strengthened.
In the “quiet time,” as we followers of Christ call our prayer and Bible reading time, I begin to start a conversation with our God. At the beginning of these quiet times I sing songs from the hymn book or simply worship Him. All the honor belongs to him. At some point I realize that it is time to be quiet and let the Lord speak. Just as Samuel had to learn to listen to the voice of God as a little boy, so I also had to learn to wait on God. Most of the time I will hear the small, subtle voice of the Holy Spirit, but I have also experienced God the Father speaking to me. It's a deep voice. It usually sounds loving and soothing. On the other hand, I have experienced also that God can become loud and angry. Once He woke me up in the middle of the night wiith a great clap of thunder and shouted loudly:
“Repent, turn away from your wrong path, keep my commandments, especially the first and fourth!”*
I was extremely frightened and I was overcome by the awe of God; my knees trembled. I felt that God the Father is the same God as in the Old Testament. He has never changed and he never will change. He gave his people Israel, and therefore also us Christians, the Ten Commandments and the Holy Scriptures as a guidline to live by. From the Scriptures and His commandments, we know whether we are living righteously and according to His will, whether we are following His Word or some false message. ABBA Father loves us. He loves us so much that He was willing to give His son Jesus (Yeshua) as a sacrificial lamb for us. We are sinful people and in order to free ourselves from our guilt we need a sacrifice, an innocent victim. Jesus, the Son of God, fulfilled every law, every word. He agreed to be that sacrifice for us. He died innocently on the cross for our sins. His blood washes us clean.
Jesus' death on the cross enables us to come before God's throne again, to have fellowship with our holy God, with our eternal Father. This is grace. It is the greatest gift God could give us. Jesus is the only way to God. (John 14:6) However, it is also grace that we can always - even now, shortly before the time of grace ends - come before our Lord and ask for forgiveness.
But how do we recognize our transgressions? First, the Holy Spirit will remind us of the commandments which He has written on our hearts. Secondly, our conscience plagues us and thirdly, our faith will begin to shrink. It will get darker and darker in and around us until we finally turn away from God completely.
Things have become very dark around us these days and I expect the situation to get even worse in the coming months.
Jesus warned us:
It will be like the days of Noah. (Matthew 24:37-39)
What can we do to get out of this darkness? Jesus is still giving us the opportunity to return to Him, however He expects us to have a full turnaround. He wants to save everyone. He wants to welcome everyone into his kingdom. Nobody should get lost.
If you have entrusted your life to Jesus, He will take you by the hand and bring you into the truth and eternal life and, above all, into the presence of our Heavenly Father. Jesus is the only way that can lead you into the presence of the Father. He will teach you and strengthen your faith. Jesus died for you and me.
Jesus will be and is already our King of Peace. He will return very soon and then his thousand-year kingdom will begin. Only He can bring peace to this broken world.
Strengthen your faith. Isaiah already announced:
“If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.” (Isaiah 7:9).
Spend time with Jesus. Read the Bible, follow the Ten Commandments, and listen to God's voice. Don't let yourself be disturbed, but enter into God's rest.
Jesus is inviting you to follow him and get into his ark. Strengthen your faith. Be firmly anchored in your faith.
Explanations:
* 1st Commandment: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:2-3)
* 4th Commandment: Remember the Sabbath day (= Saturday), to keep it holy.Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.. (Exodus 20:8-11)
Comments