We are accepted in the beloved, redeemed,, ransomed and
called by His Name. Jesus then puts HIS righteousness on us so that we can have
a relationship with Him. He sees us through HIS righteousness.
That same righteousness equips us to see others the
way HE sees them, and love them the way HE loved us! He doesn’t discount us
because we fall, He doesn’t see us as failures but He sees our potentials, He
sees us through His righteousness.
His righteousness is what equips us not only to have the
right relationship with Him but to have the right relationship with others. We
don’t impute their sin to them, but proclaim the truth that Romans 8.38-39
tells us, For
I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As Christ did as He walked, we can be mocked for loving
the tax collector and sinner, because we
know that God shows and clearly proves
His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the
Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us. (Romans 5.8 AMP)
Before His righteousness sin blocked the way of our
relationships with God and others. Because He took sin to the cross, we no
longer need to hold people hostage for their sins, for what we need to receive
from them (for we have all in Christ – He provides our needs according to His
riches!), for how they fall short (ALL
have sinned and come short of His glory! Romans 3.23).
In fact “love covers all offenses,” (Proverbs 10.12 – not
only ours in the Lord’s sight, but others offenses are covered by US, thus
covering OUR potential offenses against them as well!)
We KNOW the power of those “re-“ words I love so much:
REstoration, REnewal, REvival, REfreshment, REconciliation, REpentence,
REdemption, REformation, REcover, REvelation!!!!! We were there and we know what we REceived
and we have been committed the MINISTRY of REconciliation!
In
other words, God was using Christ to restore his relationship with humanity. He
didn’t hold people’s faults against them, and he has given us this message of
restored relationships to tell others.
(2 Corinthians 5:19 GWORD)
In Luke 15.11-32 we know the parable of the “prodigal
son.” There are three main people in the parable: the father, the prodigal son,
and the older son. To me, there are a few things that go without saying in the
parable that God wants to show us:
- · There are many who “waste” their inheritance and live contrary to the will of the Father and choose the pig sty despite their ability to live in the palace.
- · The Father’s love is constant; He is waiting at the door for His son’s return. He gives the son his free will.
The part of the parable that concerns me with REvival is
when the prodigal returns, the older brother doesn’t want to attend the
celebration. In REvival, it is important that the “older brothers” that have
continued to do the Father’s will, and have not “recklessly” and “loose from
restraint” “wasted” their inheritance, are not able to celebrate when the
prodigals “come to themselves” to come back to the Father. He piously states
how he has obeyed and yet nothing “special” was done for him. Hear the Father’s Word: “Son, you are always
with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it is fitting to make
merry, to revel and feast and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and
is alive again! He was lost and is found!” If we are going to see REvival, we
need to have the heart of the older brother—one with the Father knowing that
all He has we have been given, especially His heart to rejoice when the lost
are found and to REjoice with the heart of the Father! We older brothers need
to get beyond what the Father can GIVE us to what we can do FOR and WITH the
Father! As long as we are living the “God for me” baby mentality, we will never
get to the maturity of “me for God”… what can I do for HIM not what He can do
for me. And that will get us back to what God has us to be doing—drawing,
loving and celebrating the return of the prodigals.
Let us fill our hearts and minds with His message on how
to love! We need to see how the Lord continually draws and loves and sees what
He wants to do with those who have fallen… the Davids after they commit
adultery and murder while on the throne professing God, the Josephs with their
broken dreams in prison falsely accused, the Jacobs grasping for all they can
get until they wrestle with God…
In a separate blog, I will put some Bible verses to print: proclaim
them; memorize them; LIVE them out through the power of God, and let’s show the
world a REvival of what God wants to do through our REstored RElationship with
Him that results in REdemption and REconciliation of others!
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