What an Astounding Reality!

For the purpose of participating in a Real Time Evangelism – Scripture Blog Tag Event I was recently invited by my fellow blogger and sister in Christ, Lynn Baber at www.lynnbaber.com  to share my three favorite Scripture verses.  And just as Lynn expresses in her post, “the biggest problem was narrowing my Scriptures down to only three ….” that’s my biggest problem too!  Where does one start, when there are 31,175 (KJV) Verses to choose from?  Of course, not all of them are my favorites!! … but thousands of them are simply because they are the word of Almighty God.  What an astounding reality!  In 26 years I’ve never gotten used to it.

My first favorite verse is, “All that the Father gives to Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” John 6:37.  I never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ until I discovered it in a book when I was 39 years of age. Nobody spoke to me about it or ever shared their testimony or gave a tract … I was completely ignorant of it.  I am not saying people didn’t pray for my soul in my first 39 years, for they probably did – and for that I am eternally grateful.  They’ll be the second people I’ll be seeking out in heaven to give thanks to!  And yes, I may have read some Scripture on church boards while driving by, but this verse was not among them.

“All that the Father gives to Me…..” still takes my breath away when I meditate on it.  You mean … gives?  Yes.  You mean, I don’t have to work up some religious stuff so as You’ll see that there’s some good in me that might grab Your attention?  No … you already had My attention before you were conceived in your mother’s womb Jeremiah 1:4-5.  Besides, there’s no good in you.  It’s not about goodness … your kind of goodness stinks! Isaiah 64:6.  How about You, Jesus?  Don’t You want something?  I was told that Your suffering was so great on that cross that I would certainly be “cast out” unless I come to You through Mary, a priest or a minister.  You were lied to.  My Father and I are One in what He told you right now … His word is My word.

No, you won’t find that conversation anywhere in Scripture, but it is Scriptural to the nth degree.  So much so that I have dedicated my life to telling others who are just as ignorant as to Who the true God is and have the faulty concepts of Him that I once had.  At the risk of sounding like a broken record (based on my numerous previous posts here) some of the greatest faulty concepts of the Lord I encounter in people have been planted and watered by religious people in churches. The one group mandated by God to proclaim the purest of all truth about His reality, redemption and requirements has in many cases become so polluted with man-centered stuff that it doesn’t recognize truth itself anymore.

My second favorite verse is, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” Isaiah 41:10.  The day God spoke this Scripture to me was a blessed one indeed.  I had been in the company of a mocking, blaspheming friend who fired multi-questions at me about the Lord Jesus, but who in turn wanted not one truthful answer.  In those days I was not well grounded in the Scriptures or the power and authority that they contain and nor was I well-grounded in God’s ways of bringing such a reality about.  So the devil had a win that day.

However, the next day things began to change very definitely when the Lord quickened this verse to me.  He led me to quite a few others in Isaiah as well that confirmed it.  If it were not for the Bible being my favorite book, Isaiah could be … but then again??  As all biblical servants of God will testify, His promise to strengthen, help and uphold comes at a price  – a high price.  This has to be the case.  If one truly wants to be like Christ then God will put us through some similar stuff.  In other words, we must know what it’s like to be misunderstood, dejected, rejected, accused, abused, shocked and mocked – by the same kind of people – religious people!

One of the great truths we see in Scripture is that all who served God were God-only-reliant, Christ-only-reliant.  That’s not what’s taught in most churches today. We are taught to be people-reliant, leadership-reliant, church-reliant, doctrine-reliant, group-reliant, church-program-reliant, church-tradition-reliant and denomination-reliant … there goes that broken record again!!!  People ask, “why are you always going on with this tack?”  They really mean ATtack.  People such as myself are seen in the church as rebels, unsubmissive to leaders, lone rangers.  Not true though.  One: We don’t have the luxury to speak and do whatever comes into our mind.  Two: If I’m “other” -reliant I will never truly know what it truly means to be truly Christ-reliant.

Am I saying I don’t need other people?  Certainly not.  I violate every biblical truth and principle if I believe that, which then puts me as much in opposition with God as His “other”-reliant people are in opposition with Him.  The church is people – but it’s God’s people – on the pathway to divine spiritual, mental, moral and (much) physical freedom.  The “other”-reliant mindset does not/cannot deliver that.  Therefore, I will bless them and pray for them but I will not join them.  And this post appeals to other brothers and sisters in Christ to do the same, for I know that God is speaking to someone as he or she reads this.  How do I know that?  Here’s how.

My third favorite verse is, “Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say” Exodus 4:12. I was astounded the day the Lord gave me this verse.  I was not like Moses.  I’ve never been slow of speech and slow of tongue.  I’ve never been eloquent either!  Lord, are You going to be with my mouth?  Yes.  I don’t argue with that Lord, but the bulk of what’s ever been expressed from it was ignorance, arrogance, filth, self-righteous opinions and the like.  I know, but you died on My Son’s cross too along with that stuff.  You no longer live … it’s Christ who lives in you, you’re a new creature, the old has gone the new has come Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Many there are whose job it is to speak, act on behalf of and represent kings, queens, presidents, premiers and prime ministers of nations.  No doubt they see themselves as privileged people to be in such a position, and rightly so. “I could never have imagined this in my wildest dreams,” they may well say and why not?  Well, that’s how I view the privilege given by God Almighty Himself to me.  There can never be a higher privilege because there’s nobody higher than God.  Imagine it, God Almighty of the entire Universe Himself, coming down to our level to show us Who and What He is and then elevating us to His level to speak and act on His behalf.  As stated earlier, what an astounding reality!

There’s another astounding reality in my opinion, and that is that most of God’s people do not believe that this truth and promise is for them.  If this is not so, then why isn’t it demonstrated by the church in the western world on the scale that it should be?  One answer today: “Other”-reliance.  If that’s what people are taught and labels such as ‘independent’ ‘unsubmissive’ ‘lone ranger’ ‘rebel’ ‘self-fathered’ etc are heavily expressed in such teaching, then nobody is going to sit up, speak up, step out and speak out.  It just won’t happen; they will simply put up & shut up!  They become sweet little conformers to the mechanisms and manipulations that are brought into play to shut them down.

Based on the opinion expressed in the above paragraph, I believe it to be the major reason why it has often been the religious churchgoer more-so than the unbeliever, who has angrily asked, “Who gave you the right to speak this way?  Who do you think you are?!”  Some unbelievers will even laugh, perhaps mock and insult, but not so the religious churchgoer.  Regardless, I’m now not dejected or shocked and find it much easier to bless and pray for them should the Holy Spirit lay them on my heart.  Why?  Because I know without one shadow of doubt that God most definitely has been with my mouth, teaching me what to say.  I know it’s God because of their reactions.  

Jesus had those reactions, and He too got most of them from religious people.  Now – if you’ve ever had the same sorts of reactions, you too be mightily encouraged; God is with your mouth also.  Receiving overt or covert anger-responses is one sure witness that God is with you every step of the way.  The fact that people reject and malign you is simply God showing you that He’s backing up every word you speak.  It took me a long time (years) to learn that truth …”other”-reliant ministers and church people were (for a time) successful in having me believe otherwise.  But I bless them nevertheless, because they drove me into God and away from them.

This post is a testimony to my experiences based on the truth of those three Scripture verses.  But I believe it to be more than that.  Somewhere within it, is somebody else’s testimony too but you’ve slipped into shutdown as a result of yielding to the “other”-reliant whom you thought were Christ-reliant.   So I pray you will read this again, only this time look away from me and, with the ministry of the Holy Spirit look to yourself.  God is going to encourage you, bless you and reveal something in it for you.  How do I know?  I know because God is with my mouth and He’s telling me to tell you.  Put that to the test and He will confirm it. “And He said to me, ‘You are My servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’ Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; yet surely my just reward is with the Lord, and my work with my God.’ “ Isaiah 49:3-4. 

Lynn Baber is a gifted author and inspirational writer and much more.  Click on Lynn’s post here  and get blessed as you read her blog-tag post.  More blessings for you too …. Lynn  has 2 other websites: www.AmazingGraysMinistry.com