Author: words and signs

Like Him

“Behold, how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is. Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.”

1 John 3:2-3

We have in these verses some great encouragement to be the holy people of God. We are called the friends and children of the living God. What a privilege these things alone have afforded to us. God has brought us into His family and had given us the status of being daughters and sons of the royal family of heaven. We actually belong to God and are under His express care and protection. We are sisters and brothers of the Lord Jesus Christ and are joint heirs with Him of His eternal glory. This is a deep mystery, how sinful fallen people can attain such high rank position in the everlasting kingdom. It is beyond any privilege we could ever imagine – it is the highest of privileges.

We are brought into that divine family through the adoption process. We have been expressly chosen in Christ and adopted into the family of God, through His mercy and grace alone. We have no value to be there, and absolutely no right, but are brought in through his will and purposes, which we do not understand. Our desire for holiness comes from God and all our righteousness is from Christ. We are everlasting dyvors of that rich mercy and grace that has come to us, through no goodness of our own.

“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Ephesians 2:6-9

We are told here that what we will be has not yet been made known, yet we are told some things, many things about what is coming for us. It is inconceivable to us, the full extent of our spiritual blessings in the coming kingdom, and we would not appreciate them now anyway. Even the things we know about, we forget so easily and quickly, and we become bogged down in the negativity, or even the positivity of life. Even now with the revelation we have in the Word of God, we find it difficult to take it in and make the reality if it a part of our thinking processes.

It will all change when our Saviour comes again to take us home to heaven. We will be changed and made to be like Him who we love. We will see Jesus, face to face and the reality of His character will become clear to us. Our spiritual nature will fully take hold and holiness will then be our full portion. We will gladly embrace the Lord and all our foolish qualms about being perfect will disappear. We will fit into the culture of heaven perfectly and perfectly see our Saviour and Lord as He really is.

“We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.”

1 John 5:20

But we have Christ in the revealed Word. As we read and meditate and study the Word of God, we see Christ in His glory. There are visions of Him revealed to us in the Scripture that take our breath away. There are truths about Him that dazzle our understanding and show us His beauty and humility. We are so not like Him. We see someone we can only worship and adore, someone who makes us feel ashamed of ourselves and our sin and yet lifts us up in faith and forgiveness. We see again, our deep privileges in Christ. We have understanding, given to us by the Holy Spirit and the fellowship of Christ as we walk with Him every day.

If we are to be like our Lord and Saviour, surely we can see Him in the Word already and see the view of what we have in store. But we do not always view Him in all His glory and often see Him as some sort of special man, not as the Lord of all things that exist. Our fallen human eyes need to be opened to see Him increasingly near and dear to us. As we walk our road to heaven, we should see Jesus in a clearer light, as we walk with Him and are taught by the Holy Spirit, as we study the Word. We gain insight as we walk the pathway to heaven and purify ourselves from the sin that besets us.

It is too easy to study the Scripture in a worldly academic way, and never really see the Lord Jesus at all. It is too easy to teach Scripture and yet never really show Christ in His glory. Our view of Him is always dimmed by our own spiritual lethargy and slowness to grasp the deep things of God. The way Jesus spoke to people shows us what He is like and what we should be like. We observe how Jesus is with people, His attitudes and behaviour and this is the pattern for our lives too. We should want to be like Him, but we are afraid, because we won’t fit into the social settings we might find ourselves in.

So we conform to our Saviour a little, but we are always held back by our own sinfulness and cowardice. But one day that will change, for there will be a new culture that will rule in righteousness and joy. When we are finally changed to be the way we are supposed to be, we will fit into that culture. We will have the character of Christ in every part of our being and sin will finally be conquered.

Until then, we read and see our Saviour in the Scripture and we ask Him to reveal Himself to us more fully, so that we can follow Him more closely and have His character as part of our character. We conform ourselves to Him and love Him more and more. This is how we grow as Christian people and as sisters and brothers of Christ. This life is our preparation ground for that great and glorious kingdom that is coming when this fallen world is over.

“Therefore, prepare your minds for action, be sober and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ— as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance, but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy; for I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:13-16

This is our great hope and the motivation to purify our lives continually and draw near our Saviour in love and devotion, serving Him with full hearts in whatever He has called us to do. We are not yet pure, but one day we will be, and in the time we have in this world, we walk worthy of this great calling in Christ our Lord and God.

“If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear: knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ; who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of times for your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.”

1 Peter 1:17-21

Lurking at the door

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Sin lurks at the door of our hearts waiting to creep inside and tear us to pieces. It is a wild, ravening animal that will destroy everything and ruin our lives. We must guard against it and protect our souls from its deadening threat and influence. 

It does this though loosing our hold on our spiritual lives and undermines our motivation for the things about God that we love. We get less enjoyment about our reading of the Scripture, less inclination to pray and to draw near to God. We get more satisfaction for the things of temporal life than the things in our spiritual life. Our Christian service wears off and we stop reaching out to other people. We become cynical about others and our love for the people of God begins to dry up. Sin comes in easily then and we will have no defences left to fight it. 

We must not make excuses for ourselves, but come in repentance to the Lord and He will freely pardon us. He does not send us away, or reject us, but will forgive us and warm our hearts again. We need His protection in this fight against this enemy and the teaching of the Holy Spirit to watch for the attacks and face them head on. God has given us the protection of His holy Word and the presence of the Spirit in our lives. The people of God in the past were protected from the outcome of sin and death through the shed blood of the Passover lamb. 

The door posts of the houses of the people of God had the spilt blood of the lamb on the lintel and sides of the door. It was put there to protect all those inside from the avenging angel of death who God sent to kill all the firstborn in Egypt. The people of God had the remedy for that terrible night and were kept safe because they obeyed God and put the blood on the outside of the door. The spectre of death was swept away and the lurking form of sin was also kept away.

The people inside ate their meal with their coats on and ready to fly to freedom at a moments notice. They were kept safe by the promise of God and His provision of salvation, from the angel of death and from the crouching form of sin. They were safe because they accepted the remedy that God gave them, and obeyed what He told them to do. We also need this covering from the Lord, and we obey His commandments and keep ourselves in the love of God. He will protect us and give us the strength to resist the sin that so easily overcomes us and He will keep us safe from the final death. 

The blood spilt for us is not a lamb, but the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ who died for our sins. By faith in Him and the sacrifice He made on that cruel cross, we are set free from sin and death and have no more fear. 

“But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him.”

Romans 5:8-9

We must not fret or worry about sin in a craven and faithless way, but humbly accept the forgiveness afforded to us, so freely and with such love. The Lord forgives completely all those who come in repentance and faith and will not keep bringing our failures to our minds. He takes the sin away and the guilt of it. We can keep the guilt going as some kind of penance to try and somehow imagine we can pay for our sin, but we cannot. We accept the forgiveness in humility and turn from our sin and live our lives for God. The enemy lurks and will make us feel guilty forever, if he can. It is a false guilt and we turn away from it and rejoice in what the Lord has done for us. The way is difficult, but we cling to the promises of God.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

1 John 1:9

We must lay hold of the promises and exercise our faith and not grieve and wail because of our daily sin. God is looking for heartfelt repentance and not outward signs of sorrow. We may weep and that is good, but the work of the spirit is a deep work in the heart and thoroughly sincere. It hurts us at first, for the sting of conscience and condemnation is real, but the oil and the wine are poured into our lives and our sin is dealt with by God. We turn from it and He blesses us with His peace. 

We can never lie down and think that it is safe and sound to let sin pass. It will never pass until that great day when Christ returns to take His waiting church home to heaven, or we go to be with the Lord in death. As we step into eternity, we will put on the righteous robe of Christ and be made new, fully redeemed people of God and set free from the cloying effects of our sin. We will be the people we were meant to be and be able to enter into our full spiritual blessings in Christ and appreciate the glory we will share with Him.

“For as much then, as Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind; for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin; that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”

1 Peter 4:1-2

These thoughts of our eternal destiny should help us in our motivation to fight sin and be over-comers in the name of Christ. Sin may lurk at the door of our hearts and minds, but we refuse to let it in. We have the power, because we have the Spirit of God to help us and give us the strength to do so. 

“He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne.”

Revelation 3:21

Sin


Sin is anything that sets its self up against the Lord our God. It is anything that contaminates the heart and mind and takes the thoughts and motivations away from loving the Lord or serving the Lord. It is the ultimate idol of the human heart that infiltrates our thinking and spoils our communion with the Father in heaven. It can build up over time, or come upon us suddenly in a mighty wave of temptation. 

It is so dangerous for us, because the bent of our human hearts is towards its pleadings and it convinces us that it is ok to do this thing or think in this way. It is insidious in its infiltration and will quickly destroy all the good we have known. Sin must be dealt with ruthlessly and without mercy. It must be put to flight and put to death the instant it raises its ugly head. 

The problem for us is that we don’t think it is that ugly and we easily excuse it and let it fester in our minds. The mind is the first line of attack and defence. The thoughts come to us and we justify them and then we say and do. Our thought processes must be grounded in the Word of God, and we guard the citadel of our minds with great jealousy. This means we keep out the contamination that would encourage the weeds of unbelief and pride to grow. These are the chief sins that plague the human psyche. Unbelief that God is holy, and that He will excuse our failings and weak fightings, and pride, that we can fend of these intruders on our own. 

We can understand all we like about sin, but unless the power of the effecting blood of Christ has been applied to them, we will fail in our fight against this rampant foe. Our sins must be forgiven and they are only forgiven through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus, who gave His life for our sake. Only He can set us free from the power and effect of sin and give us the new life that will enable us to have the victory over the sin that so easily besets us. 

Confession and humility is the key to forgiveness. We recognise our sins through the honest examination of our consciences and the work of the powerful Holy Spirit in our minds and souls, and are humbled into the submission necessary for the confession of those sins that they be forgiven. 

“If we say we have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

1 John 1:6-7

To enjoy this fellowship we must be truthful with ourselves and face that reality of what we are like and have done. Only then can we be in a state to sort it out and come to God. Keeping ourselves in the love of God is so important, as we cannot walk for a minute without Him. Only He can keep us pure and strong in His strength and enable us to walk the difficult road that is the Christian pathway. We need to keep in step with the Spirit of God and walk in His worth manner.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”

Galatians 5:22-26

There are passions and desires that have to go and be put to death by the Christian. Everything that is to do with our fleshly human wants and desires, goes on the altar of faith and love for God. We do not seek our own, but the things to do with God and His will and purposes. This is very difficult for us, because it goes against what we want! This is the point of it. It is the thing that make the Christian life difficult. We are not saved from sin and then sit back and relax and everything is done for us. It is a war of attrition right to the end, to keep the will and mind in check and purify all we say and do. 

“Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure.”

1 John 3:2-3

This is the true hearted desire of every Christian, that they be like Christ. Everything in us will war against that desire, and those are the desires that must be put to death. We give up all our sinful mindset to the love of Christ and the desire to be like Him. Then we will have the motivation to put away the sin that so easily besets us and walk worthy lives for our precious Lord Jesus. Even as I write this I feel ashamed that I do not walk closely to Him all the time. It is all part of the fight, and we fight and overcome every day, because we have been bought out of the slavery of sin by that precious blood spilt for us. 

When we reach the end of the pathway of our lives, we face the last enemy who is already beaten by what Jesus did on the cross. As we have overcome in our fight with sin, by the power of the Holy Spirit, so we will over come in death and our Saviour will take us safely home to heaven. Then the fight will be over and the glory will be ours, because of Him. 

Do not give up, but let us acquiesce to the love of God today and put all other loves away from us. As we love Him and obey, all our other loves will come fully and freely back into play and we can love others properly and have true fellowship with sisters and brothers in Christ. God will renew and restore all that sin has spoiled and He will have the victory for our sake. 

Truth

By God’s grace we can conquer the inner fight with sin

Only His power and love will give the impetus to win

Over the indwelling power that still will reside

Until death conquers all and we in glory abide.

Until then we trust in faith to overcome the deadly foe

Who will seek to ruin our joy in the Lord here below.

We watch with faith and the sword of the the Spirit

Gaining confidence with every conquest we visit.

He will not leave us no matter how hot the fight

His unending love will humble us in our continual plight

To fix our eyes on our Saviour, Jesus, alone

And trust wholly in His promises as not in sinful man.

He is to be loved and adored above all others

No other name is worthy of our powers

He will give the victory to us as we fight and win

And every day deflect the evil intent of sin.

Tears and dancing

“A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;”

Ecclesiastes 3:4

These two opposing states deal with emotion and the expression of it. There is a time for tears, but not all the time. There are seasons were tears seem to be our food and drink, and times when they are not far from the surface. The time of weeping may be a time of loss or of sorrow for us in our lives and the circumstances that we find ourselves in, and we may experience deep feeling of the sorrow we face. It con cause us to be in a state of mourning, which is the expression of that grief we feel. The time for these expressions is not forever and they do pass, but to go through them can be hurtful and painful for us. We don’t need to run away for it, even when they tears flow, for we know they will stop soon and it will help us to deal with the pain we are going through.

There are tears with are particularly good for us, the tears of repentance and the seeking of forgiveness from the Lord. God gives recompense of reward to those who experience these tears and this kind of mourning. His Spirit draws close to pour in the oil and the wine of forgiveness and spiritual healing. These times are good times for us as they produce good spiritual growth and keep us close to the Lord.

There are times for laughter and joy also. Times when life is good and our circumstances are helpful to us, make us feel good and we feel we are doing well and God is blessing us. There is a time for parties and joyousness and happy celebrations and God is good in allowing us to experience these blessings on our lives. It causes us to give thanks to the Lord for His many and varied blessings and lifts out soul to heaven and the thoughts that lead our psyche to rejoice in the Lord.

“ I will bless The LORD at all times. His praise will always be in my mouth. My soul shall boast in The LORD. The humble shall hear of it, and be glad. Oh magnify The LORD with me. Let us exalt his name together. I sought The LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.”

Psalm 34:1-4

It is good to give outward expression to our emotions and not to hide ourselves away from them and from other people. We can find ourselves loosing our feelings and eventually not being able to relate to other people at all. We stop feeling the down side of emotion, but also stop feeling the upward side of emotion too. We don’t deal with our feelings and are unable to deal with other people’s feeling either. We stop sympathising and empathising with others in their troubles and joys and find ourselves outside of emotion completely.

Our hearts can become very hard and we shut people out from us, even our nearest and dearest. There are times that people, shut us out, but we do not reply in kind. We wait for the restoring hand of God and know that He does all things well. We may have times of sadness and mourning, but the happiness, laughter and dancing will come in due season.

To kill and to heal

“A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;”

Ecclesiastes 3:3

There is a time to kill something and a time to heal and bestow life. A time to take things down and a time to build them up.

A time when life should end and a time when it should continue. A time to destroy something and a time to renew it.

These are another set of pairs of opposites to make us think about the context in which we do things.

Solomon pits the two opposites against each other and shows how they are part of the same whole. He is showing us that everything joins up and that there are really no separate issues, but all come together as a holistic whole, that is life. God reveals it in the Word, and we can learn especially from such books as Ecclesiastes.

One of the premiere battle grounds of life and death, is the human mind. We must guard our minds against all that would infiltrate it and cause it to be idle or consider things that are too great for us. Our thoughts are centred on the Word of God, and as we learn it and know it, it makes us wise. Our decisions and choices are based on it’s wisdom and so we fight a war in the mind and heart to keep us in the love of God. There is a time to kill thoughts that are troubling us and leading us into wrong thought patterns and therefore will undermine our wisdom. We don’t need to know all the answers, but trust in God to guide and teach as we live our lives and make our decisions. He is our ever loving God and will mould our hearts and minds to His purposes.

When our mind gets troubled, we seek refuge in the Lord and the promises of the Word. We seek healing for the mind and the ability to sort out our pains and difficulties with the wisdom that we have learned in difficulties gone before. God will never leave us without a way of escape and a place fo refuge where we can go. No matter what we face, there is a place of healing and succour.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell. Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident…”

Psalm 27:1-3

The Lord will help us to know when it is time to put a stop to thought processes and when we need healing. His wisdom is good and does us good.

Then we go wrong, there is a time to turn away from evil and change out behaviour and trust God enough to follow Him and rely completely on His guidance and timing for all things. He will not let us suffer unnecessarily but will be there to help us and encourage us with thoughts and memories and the gracious presence of the Holy Spirit. He will help us to pull down the strongholds that would swamp our lives and bring us down, and He will help us to build the citadel of our soul, so that we are safe and secure in our relationship with Him. Our Saviour, Jesus has saved us and will keep us to the end.

Disaster

“Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds. Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done. …”

Isaiah 3:10-11

Even in this life there is some semblance of justice. Ultimately the Lord of all the earth will decide when and where it is meted out. We must trust in Him, because or faith has held thus far and will hold us to the end. He will decide who comes and goes for us, and He will make the decisions about what happens to us and where we end up in our lives. He encourages us with these words.

It will be well with the righteous, even when we cannot se the way ahead and it looks empty and dark in many ways. We see others succeed and live quiet and nice lives, while we cope with the turmoil and labour to fulfil our desires. 

 “You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”

Psalm 145:16

But this promise for the righteous is more. God will ensure that all is well with them, and that they will enjoy the outcome of what they have worked for, not just the temporary and temporal blessings, but the spiritual ones too. We will live to see the outworking of the hand of God in all of our lives, for He gives insight to those who He favours. In the dull, or dark, or tedious times, we hold on to this promise. It will come right and we will see it with our own eyes. 

For those who are evil, it will not be so. Those who do unrighteousness will suffer disaster and will not rise above it. They will pay for their misdeeds and evil thought processes. Many in these days seem good and think they are good, but they have evil intent and evil motivations. To think you are good and yet be evil, is the way to lead so many astray and destroy many good things. Disaster will come and you will never rise from it. This is the other side of the coin of this positive promise. God is true to His own and will protect them, but the evildoer will not succeed in all his evil plans and intentions of his heart. 

God so no respecter of persons. He does not have favourites but He will protect His own from the hand of the evildoer. He will release the trap that has been set for them and they will not be harmed. No matter what the Christian goes through, it will not harm them, and they will have no scars at the end of it. 

The unbelieving and cowardly person will have nothing to show for their lives and will dwell in darkness. The disaster will hit quickly and suddenly and they will cease to thrive. God will protect the righteous and deliver them for all their troubles. This is the promise to them. They will enjoy the fruits of their labours and be at peace. He will see what they do in the secret place and will reward them openly. All those who suffer injustice will see the recompense of their reward and will be vindicated some day.  We serve the living and true God, and we can trust in Him to always do what is right, He will keep what we have entrusted to Him and we remain faithful. 

Dying love

To whom will you cling when your dying

Who will you cling to for dear life

There’s no one can stop the advances

Of the Angel of death and cold strife.

She comes when you least expect her

Taking everything – all in sight

Reaping a day of vengeance

Plunging you into the night.

You cannot stop her endeavours

She is ruthless and brings total woe

Making it feel all so useless

Into the valley of shadow you go.

Relinquish your hold on reality

The madness of death reigns supreme

As you enter the gates of the city

And dip in the depths of the stream. 

It’s cold – no one warned you about that

It’s lonely and miserable as hell

Her presence is futile and sullen

Her hand at your throat as well.

How will you reach the shoreline?

Who will deliver your soul?

Without hope you will grasp at the nettle

Stinging you as a treachery whole.

Close you eyes it will soon be over

It’s a moment between life and death

Soon the deliverance certain will happen

As you gasp for your latest breath. 

Hold the hands that reaches out from the darkness

Grasp the line that is thrown to you

A Saviour will wait in the shadows 

To save and deliver you too.

Believe – the ending of you faith

Is now within sight and sound

The rumbling of the thunder

Of heaven’s eternal crowd.

Listen, as it ever grows louder

Takes the place of the eternal doom

They’re cheering you into the safety 

Of heavens everlasting room.

The arm pulls you ever closer

To the side once pierced for you

Nothing can separate you from that love

Not death’s cold river – just go through.

The sound of heaven takes the air 

The rushing of waters complete

Above your head the quickening clouds

The ground beneath your feet. 

Safe on the happy golden shore

Abiding in Christ now complete

Never a dark moment to haunt your peace

Deliverance full – the enemy runs in defeat…

Continue in Him

“And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. …”

1 John 2:28-29

Continuing in Him denotes our responsibility. We are to make the effort to be in the right frame of mind should the Lord return. Our spiritual walk with Him is confident and unashamed, because we are dwelling in His love and walking as Jesus walked. Confidence is based on righteousness and that comes from Christ. His righteousness is given to us and we accept it and live holy lives for His sake. Not loves full of self- righteousness and holier- than-though attitudes, but humble walking with God and knowing it is all of mercy and grace. 

“keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”

Jude 1:21

Heaven waits for the righteous and every saint of God will arrive safely to their eternal home through the mercy of our Lord Jesus. He will bring us to that home because of what He has done for us. Our task is to keep ourselves in that love, loving Him and loving others as He loves. We keep ourselves by living in the Word of God, constantly throwing off the sin that so easily clings to us and keeping a short account with God. We are in prayer to the Father, to keep us and deliver us from all evil. 

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”

Isaiah 26:3

Peace is a mind thing. Perfect peace is in the mind and heart of those who think on Christ and see all that He has done as trustworthy. Our faith is in Him and we walk worthy because of Him.

How to continue in Him is our full- time job in Christ. Our minds become taken up with God, and experience great peace because we are resting in Him. We fill our minds with the good things of God and the things of this world have less and less hold over us. We find ourselves needing Him and other supports become less and less relevant. The issues of live become clearer as we read the Word and get to know our Saviour increasingly intimately. He becomes our true love and we stay in His presence. Prayer is our breath and we walk through our lives in its attitude and frame of reference.

“Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

Colossians 2:6-7

We walk the walk with Him and in His strength, and as we walk we are built up and our faith becomes stronger, so we look only to Him. The need for other people becomes less and God becomes more real. We stick more and more closely to the things of God and the doctrines of the faith. Our overriding state of mind is thankfulness. This thankfulness continues every day right to the end of our lives, or when Jesus returns for us. We will then be confident and secure at His coming and will be looking to the skies daily.

Remain in Him

“As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, you will remain in him.”

1 John 2:27

We have the Word of God to teach us and guide us in all truth and the Spirit of the Lord who witnesses with our Spirit that we are Christ’s and Christ is true. The anointing is the inner means to understand the truth of God and every Christian has this. There is much error and counterfeit Christianity, especially in these times in which we live. It is all too easy to be taken in with the deceitfulness of sin, the lies of the evil one and the false witness of the charlatans.

The protection for the Christian is the whole council of God and the teaching of doctrine, as laid out in Holy Scripture. John is here teaching it, so that the young Christians will be thoroughly furnished for every good work, and will have the deep doctrines of the faith at their disposal. We judge all teaching and preaching from these principles.

If we imbibe the deep things of God and are full of the Holy Spirit, we will have the discernment necessary to stay on the right path in our minds and hearts, which will result in the good works of holy living. We will not heed any other teaching and will go on in the perfect way of Christ to live for Him and do great exploits.

As the Spirit of God teaches us and witnesses in us concerning all that we hear, we cannot fall into error, except we entertain the deathly presence of sin in our lives. If we listen to the teaching of error, we will know it is error and turn away. The teaching we have received from the Word of God is our protection, and certain guidance for the acceptance of truth. There is no other truth outside the Word of God, contained in the Old and New Testaments of the Scriptures. We really on them at all times and judge all things by the teaching of that Word.

Anyone who deviates is a false whiteness and an antichrist. We don’t listen, because we have been taught the doctrine of God by faithful witnesses who have kept to the Word and who themselves are taught of God through the Spirit.

We remain in Him as we receive and believe the doctrine of the Word and apply it to our lives and live it in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the way of truth. All teachers are judged by this criteria. Faithfulness to the Word of God and the fruits of holy living in their lives is the standard for recognition as a true teacher of the Word. This always presumes we know the Word, believe it and have the internal witness if the Spirit in our inner soul. We remain in Christ when we accept and believe the sound doctrine that is taught here, by John and in the rest of Holy writ.

There is no place for free wheeling or personal interpretation. The Spirit of God leads all the people of God into truth. There is no deviation from that truth, or inconsistency with its teaching, but there are counterfeits. We must be on our guard to ensure we are embracing truth and not the subtle errors of false teachers, hypocrites and those who are in the ministry for their own ends. They have their reward.

If we remain, there is peace of mind and heart and we will not be troubled by a bad conscience towards the Lord. He will witness to us that we belong to Him and strengthen us to study and love the Word of God, prizing it above all other things. This is the work of the Spirit within. The Spirit does not counteract the Word but is the witness to us that what we know is true. We know what is true because we have the Word of God. This is the anointing we receive and it leads us in all truth.

“.,, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming. He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine, and will declare it to you. All things whatever the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine, and will declare it to you.”

John 16:13-15

The witness of the Spirit of God is the Word of Christ from the Father. He will declare the truth to the people of God and bring glory to Christ alone. This is the anointing of the people of God. As the Spirit declares Christ and His doctrines of truth, so also does the faithful witness to God and His Word.

“We are of God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not of God doesn’t listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.”

1 John 4:6

We listen to the inerrant Word of God written for us by the inspired writers of that Word, and this is our standard for truth and error. We are faithful to the anointing, when we trust in that Word and obey its precepts. So, we remain in Him…