God Has Made An Announcement

This is going to be a three-part devotional.  Today, Part I.  Below (past today’s devotional), are a list of Scriptures I am and will be using to share.

God made an announcement many times throughout history.  He announced through Noah a flood was coming.  He announced through the Prophets, a Savior was coming “in the flesh!”  And when Christ came, He Himself announced and proclaimed the Father’s plan of suffering on the cross for humanity, so that we might be saved from eternal death due to the fall.

He also announced the Father would send the Holy Spirit to dwell in man…astounding!

What else has God announced?

God began to teach the Apostles, especially through Paul, His chosen instrument, that man would now live a new way.  Thus, God’s announcement:     A New Way of Living.

Note in Isaiah 11 regarding HOW Christ lived and walked on planet earth:  He did not judge by the sight of the eyes, or hear by physical ears.  It says of Him:  He saw and listened with other eyes and ears to hear the Father.  He also said: “I do those things I see the Father doing, I speak those things I hear Him speaking…”

The Epistles of this New and Living Way, lay out for us the incredible work of Christ accomplished through His cross and resurrection.  Then the granting of the Holy Spirit to us, who believe in Him.  Awesome:  that God’s Holy Spirit lives in me and in you.

So part of the announcement is:  We do not live by the letter of the law through human striving, but by God’s Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.   The life and walk of a believer is more than just mentally receiving God’s Son and His righteousness, in order to be acceptable to God for all eternity.  

This great salvation is an incredible union of our spirit to God’s Spirit through Christ Jesus.

Jesus said:  “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”  The Holy of Holies is open to common man – and Paul even declared:  “not many who are noble in flesh are called…”

It’s the poor in spirit who “hear” and believe this new and living way.  The ones who have become bankrupt in self-effort to achieve righteousness and holiness by the letter written in tablets of stone.

Instead, they have come to Christ, trusting in Him to lift them by the power of His Spirit into this life of His which is mysterious, miraculous, and wondrous AND bears fruit unto God.

The Scriptures prove this.  But God says His Words of Life take discernment, a cry for understanding spiritually.  He not only gives it, but gives freely to all who look to Him to understand Christ, His Cross, and this new and living way.

God has called us to live and walk in this new and living way.  And it goes much deeper.  As His body, we can all rely on God’s Spirit to hear Him in ministering to one another or to understand what REALLY “ails” a person.  We can all easily look at the outward appearance of people and dictate what the Law requires, which is “stop doing that – that is sin.”

But I say God is interested in touching our hearts, not our heads!

This is what the Pharisees were doing to the woman caught in adultery.  She was certainly deserving of death according to the Law.  No one knows what happened between her and Jesus Christ in that moment.  All we know is, He said to her “Go…and sin no more.” 

I believe she was deeply touched by the Lord Himself and was freed to live differently.  His “Go” was not about her effort to start living differently – no, He gave her Himself in that moment – just like He gives us Himself each and every moment of our lives here on earth, and for all eternity.  We just have no idea the interaction that takes place between God and man, when their hearts fully look to Him alone.

And sometimes while we are still judging according to human eyesight, transformation is taking place.  For if a soul continues to look at Jesus Christ alone, according to God’s Word, we shall be transformed!

II Corinthians 3:18

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

Part II will come later, but here’s a question for pondering:

On a scale of 0-10, how deeply do we desire to be TRANSFORMED by the Life of the Son of God dwelling in us?  And how deeply do we desire for Him to teach us fully, this NEW WAY OF LIVING He Himself consecrated for us?

In Him,

Sue Gaither

For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding.  Proverbs 2:3

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment.     Phil 1:9

For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.   But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.  I Corinthians 2:10-16

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.   Romans 6; 4

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;   Isaiah 11:1-3

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil,  Hebrews 10: 19, 20

Discernment:

Acuteness of judgment and insight.  The act of an instance of discerning.

Penetration, insight.  KEENESS of understanding