Filled With Gratitude
"Rejoice always;
pray without ceasing;
in everything give thanks; for this is God's
will for you in Christ Jesus”
(1 Thessalonians
5:18).
Every day there comes a time when I'm filled with gratitude.
Whatever sparks that moment I am reminded of this verse, and that makes me
even more grateful because I'm also reminded of so many really cool things that
our Abba Father and Jesus have done and are doing .. As a kid I knew an old lady who used to say:
"count your blessings"! I do .. I count my blessings ..
AND I'm very grateful that I live under the New Covenant and
not the Old.
As New Covenant people we have blessings in abundance. Paul
said that we live in the time of the "ministry
of the Spirit" and the “ministry
of righteousness" and that these bring glory (2 Corinthians 3:8)!
Many of the blessings we so easily take for granted were
totally beyond the reach of Old Covenant people, even for the heroes of our
faith like Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, Daniel, Ruth and Esther. We can see a
fullness like that which was present after the Creation, then lacking after the
Fall.
I’m so very grateful to know that I am part of God’s
Creation.
As we get to know more about who God is, we can deduce that His
purpose will always be “good” (Genesis
1:12), indeed, "very good"
(Genesis 1:31). His purpose brought about the Creation where matter and life first came to be. Time and history began. God created over six
days then rested. Almost all the creation came into being when God said "Let there be".
"Then the Lord
God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the
breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7
Amplified); here "living being" can be translated from the Hebrew as
"speaking spirit"; we humans have language and can speak and we are
spiritual.
Humankind are the ultimate created beings. We are not part
of any other "kind", like monkeys, spiders or whales. Humans are
unique in the universe because each of us is created in "the image and likeness" of God (Genesis 1:26). “God is spirit” (John 4:24). This tells
us why, of all the creatures, we are the only spiritual beings.
(More than 80% of the world's 7.6 billion people believe
that the spiritual world is real and that humans are spiritual beings).
Our spiritual life is the most important part of us. This
explains why we are so creative and also so varied; we have free will just as
God does, and, in part, we can see “the
end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10). We can visualise things and then
make them:
music, art, books, sticky date pudding, aircraft, puffer
jackets, bridges, football .. No other creatures do any of these things ..
The Creation centres on family. Family takes the shape of
the God-head:
• Lord God, or Jehovah, or Adonai is Father.
•
The Son, Jesus, is Son.
•
Holy Spirit is the enabling power, the counselor
and the helper in the Trinity (John 14:16).
They were and are eternally family, the original family.
This is why family seems natural and desirable to us, and is the building block
of every human culture in the whole world, and has been so throughout all of
history.
We were designed to be in eternal, intimate and loving
relationship with God; you just have to look at Adam and Eve, before the Fall,
to see this. I can't figure out what they thought they would gain by eating
that forbidden fruit!
I believe that this spiritual reality is little recognised,
particularly in Western countries and in the Media. It seems that whenever we
see Christians on TV panels, they, and those with them, talk entirely in
physical or psychological terms, and never mention any spiritual truth ..
Christianity is referred to as "a religion" which it is not! Jesus loves faith and strongly
disapproves of religion; Jesus explained to the Pharisees of His day: "What goes into someone's mouth does
not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles
them" (Matthew 15:11).
I’m so very grateful that Jesus brought the New Covenant.
Many generations after the Fall of Adam and Eve the world
was in a terrible mess. Every human effort to overcome sin had failed. So God
sent Jesus, as the only sinless human being. God had a plan, and through Jesus'
perfect life, paid the price for all sin for all time. Jesus' crucifixion and
resurrection redeemed humankind and defeated death and the power of sin (Romans
8:2).
With the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31, Luke 22:20) Jesus
brought:
Light: "In him
was life, and the life was the light of humankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:4-5).
Redemption: "For
Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he
might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the
spirit" (1 Peter 3:18)
Salvation: "Even
when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ
.. by grace you have been saved" (Ephesians 2:5)
Justification: "Since,
therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved
by him from the wrath of God" (Romans 5:9)
Peace with God: "Therefore,
since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1)
Righteousness: "God made him who had no sin to be sin
for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2
Corinthians 5:21).
Relationship: Because
we are spiritual beings we are able to be in intimate relationship with God,
who is spirit (John 4:24). Indeed we are in
Him and He is in each one of us;
Jesus said: "In that day you will
know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you" (John
14:20, see also John 14:16-17, John 15:4, John 17:20-21, Colossians 3:3).
"I am so very grateful that Jesus made me spiritually alive".
Donald Miller (2003. "Blue
Like Jazz": Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality. Nashville , TN
Donald Miller is of my children’s generation. He sees things
clearly and is able to explain them. I borrowed this book so many times that I
bought my own copy: He explains the faith position of Christians:
“For me, the beginning of sharing my faith with people began
by throwing out Christianity and embracing Christian spirituality, a
non-political mysterious system that can be experienced but not explained”.
And: "Christianity is a relationship with a living God
who, as a man as well as God, can be experienced – this experiential life is
modelled on marriage (or marriage on this heavenly relationship?) It is not an
intellectual assent to a set of ideas; it is not propositional".
§
our spirit first, that is the part most
intimately interfacing with Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
§
then our soul, which is our personality, our
will and emotions, our consciousness, our "self";
§
then, least of all, our body, our physical
being.
These three parts of us are inter-dependent:
§ we know that "the joy of the Lord"
(spiritual) can be "our strength" (physical) (Nehemiah 8:10);
§
and that laughter (from our soul) can be a great
medicine (physical);
§
my testimony is that Jesus (spiritual) took away
fear from me (from my soul, my emotions).
§
And as a Christian I know that I am free from
the curse of sin and alive with Christ: "even
when we were dead in our trespasses, [God (spiritual)] made us alive together with Christ .. by grace you have been saved (all
of our person)" (Ephesians 2:5).
§
And I am free: "For freedom Christ (spiritual) has set us free; stand firm (our soul) therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (physical)" (Galatians
5:1).
These are spiritual truths .. take away the spiritual element
of humanity and what have you got?
Fear, want, depression, anxiety, loss of identity .. all
epidemic in our society, and all are fueled
by the media relentlessly bombarding us with "politically correct" propaganda.
Political correctness is just another name for untruths, lies. Scripture calls
these lies “strongholds” and tells us that Jesus can set us free from all strongholds.
"The weapons we
fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine [spiritual]
power to demolish strongholds. We
demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the
knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to
Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:4-5
NIV).
I’m grateful for all that happens when Jesus comes into our
life.
At the time of our salvation several almost unbelievable
things happen. Because you have repented of your sins and believed on the name
of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. They are now so far removed that God
can no longer see them. You are now redeemed, you have been bought back;
someone else paid the price for all your wrongdoing!
Jesus immediately brings you to His Father God and says
something like: "Abba Father, here is John, will you please adopt him into
our family and make him a son, just as I am?" Father God always says
"Yes". I've heard a great many testimonies from Christians; everyone
remembers the moment that these glorious changes took place.
We are "born
again", born into the Kingdom
of God
We become a "new
creation": "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Corinthians
5:17).
We are brought into Jesus' family and are one with Him "So in Christ Jesus you are all
children of God through faith, for all
of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ"
(Galatians 3:26-27).
We are made alive in our spirit: "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the
unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but
made alive in the spirit" (1 Peter 3:18).
We will have “rivers
of living water flowing from our belly” (John 7:37-39, Psalm 46:4).
We become witnesses and ambassadors of Jesus and His gospel:
"But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and Samaria
We become a temple housing God Himself: "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit
within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify
God in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19).
We are able to pray in partnership with God: "In the same way, the Spirit helps us
in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit
himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind
of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance
with the will of God" (Romans 8:26-27).
I’m so grateful that I know the grace which pours forth from
Jesus.
"For from his
fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace
and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:16-17).
We get to "stand
in the grace" which flows from Jesus (Romans 5:1-2)
The Bible talks about grace as though it has physical
properties; I found this to be a strange notion until I began to see how Jesus'
grace has a real impact on my life and our family life. I see it in other
Christians too.
We can stand in
this grace, just as we can stand in the flow of a river, it is a constant
stream:
"Therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice
in [certain] hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:1-2).
I’m so grateful to have received spiritual gifts.
Paul prays that we may be transformed in our very selves:
"I keep asking
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the
Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
I pray that the eyes
of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know
[1] the hope to which he has called you,
[2] the riches of his glorious inheritance in his
holy people, and
[3] his incomparably great power for us who
believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he
raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly
realms" (Ephesians 1:20).
I went to Scripture Union Masterclass which was great. It was intended for
senior High School kids. Some of my readers are young people so I was able to
attend. The MC spoke of his theology teacher who said that:
God is very big; so big that we can never know Him fully, probably not
even very well .. but we can know Him truly
!! How very profound .. our God is personal!!
We see movies where the hero (or heroine) gets special
powers and is able to perform amazing supernatural feats. Of course, this is
all imaginary and nobody takes it seriously .. right ??
Well, we can take
it seriously because Paul's prayer is
answered when we are "baptised in
the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 3:11)
We receive spiritual gifts of extraordinary and supernatural
power.
Here is a summary of Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and
Ephesians 4:
§
"There
are different kinds of gifts, of service, of working, but it is the same Spirit
in all of them, and in everyone, it is the same God at work, and for the common
good.
§
There are
gifts of wisdom, of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, helps, leadership,
evangelism, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in tongues,
interpreting tongues and ministry and teaching.
§
All these
are the work of one and the same Holy Spirit, and He distributes them to each
[Christian], just as He determines".
These gifts can be seen in the Christian church today. I
have been involved in hundreds of workings of spiritual gifts and witnessed
many hundreds more.
Trish and I went to a school of the prophetic and learned to
hear what God is saying and see what He is doing .. and how to share these
things .. what a great blessing this has been. We have also attended schools on healing and prayer with
some outstanding results .. we see miracles!
This is supernatural power from God. The New Covenant has
transformed how humanity may live on this beautiful planet.
God is love.
We know that God is love (1 John 4:16). How much is He
demonstrating His love for us in His care and anointing towards us? And we also
know that: "[we can be] confident of
this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until
the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6)
I thank Jesus for including me in His life and work in these
days.
Yes, I have so very much to be grateful for .. Thank you
Jesus ..
Amen.
Note:
CNBC says that "Studies show that taking the time to be thankful and appreciative for things you have received, tangible or intangible, makes you feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improves your health, helps you deal with adversity and builds strong relationships".
CNBC says that "Studies show that taking the time to be thankful and appreciative for things you have received, tangible or intangible, makes you feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improves your health, helps you deal with adversity and builds strong relationships".
Praise Jesus.
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Amen.
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