How you doin? After hearing Dan Mohler over this past weekend, I'm trying to yield myself to God. I so desperately want to live in His manifest love. I so desire to walk in the full revelation of the identity and destiny of the new covenant. I'm trying to deny myself, pick up my cross, and follow Jesus. For know I'm trying to figure out what that means. It's one of those Scriptures that I've read and pushed off to the side because it doesn't sound fun. It's now convicting me in a huge way. I believe that understanding of this commandment will serve to be a passage way to a closer relationship with Him. A deeper, more intimate, relationship with Him. SO GOOD!!!!!!! This isn't a study. It's a conversation with Him. I know He will tell me through prayer and conversation. Revelation 16 today.
This chapter is more about God's wrath that I belief has already been poured out in entirety. I did see a few verses that stood out. Verse 9, "Men were scorched with [g]fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory." Verses 10-11, "Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues because of pain, 11 and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds." Verse 21, "And huge [n]hailstones, about [o]one hundred pounds each, *came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague *was extremely [p]severe." "Blasphemed" in the dictionary of my NIV Bible is, "to dishonor or address God with irreverence". The word "repent" means, "to experience sorrow for and seek to change wrong behavior". Most of my life I've associated repentance with forgiveness. As of the past few years I see repentance as my business and forgiveness as God's business. My free will has everything to do with repentance and God's grace, mercy, and love has everything to do with forgiveness. My repentance activates God's forgiveness. I've also seen repentance as something behavioral. Now I see repentance as relational. I repent of things that inhibit my relationship with Him. This is possible because I've heard God's invitation to a relationship with Him. I'm not about to continue trading my relationship with Him for a list of rules.
Blasphemy is all together different. Blasphemy could be one of the most misunderstood and misused words in the church. The most gross misuse of this word is when someone speaks of the knowledge they have of the righteousness, identity, authority, and power they have in Christ and it's said that they are blaspheming God. Receiving revelation of the truth certainly isn't "to dishonor or address God with irreverence". This is a Spiritual paradox. I can't say that I can relate this part of my relationship with God to my relationship with my kids. It would be easier if I had a great inheritance to offer them here in the natural and they refused to accept it or didn't know they had it. I do know my heavenly Father has a tremendous inheritance to offer me and my kids and all of us. Accepting it is NOT blasphemy. This is going to be hard to land today so I'm just going to stop. Repent of something that inhibits your relationship with Him today.
PS Between Stacey and I here this morning, the Holy Ghost is really starting a process of change in us. We both feel hatred toward this feeling of "I have rights". "I have rights" is a glaring display of self. I see myself running full speed toward God, but I'm chained to this wall that's keeping me from running into His arms. This chain and wall is "rights" and "self". Again, I'm trying to yield myself to God so this chain and wall are removed. This is the repentance that I'm talking about. Repenting of self or denying myself comes as a result of His love. So I will be praying "to experience sorrow for and seek to change wrong behavior". Not doing away with misbehavior, but denying my "self", picking up my cross, and following Him. AWESOME!!!!!!!
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