Receiving from God 5
Scripture Reading - John 1:12-13 KJV
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
In today’s lesson we will continue to explore the subject of “Receiving from God”. “Receiving from God” is special and holy, however, it is not as hard or mysterious as some would lead us to believe. In a previous lesson we talked about receiving from God when we pray. We mentioned that it is an instantaneous transaction that occurs right when you pray. In another lesson we mentioned that a key to “receiving from God” is your belief in God’s Word. You acknowledge God’s Word as truth by simply believing in what God said, then on purpose “believing you received God’s Word (which is His Will and His Way)” into your heart. We must be sure to acknowledge that “we believe we received” God’s Word into our heart because it goes into the heart (your spirit) first, then it comes out of your mouth to affect this natural realm. Since the natural realm operates on a much slower speed we must be patience until we physically see the promise of God come to pass in the physical realm of our lives. We also spoke in one lesson about “receiving from God” through the ear-gate which basically means you have natural ears and spiritual ears that both should be selective on what they are hearing. As Christians, we are either hearing what is good and right unto the glory of God or we are hearing idle or evil things that could hurt us and others. We previously mentioned that receiving from God through the ministry of Jesus requires focus on exactly what you want from God and approaching God’s Will as being your will too. This basically means trusting God as your healer, provision, mental stability and foundation for all things pertaining to life and godliness. In today’s lesson we will examine “receiving” the foundation of God, Jesus Christ. You know in hindsight we probably should have called this lesson “Receiving from God - Part 1” because it is the foundation to all the truth we generally discussed in these lessons. We first must set the stage by seeing the truth according to Jesus Christ. The reason we are looking at Jesus is because without Him you can do nothing according to John 15:5 KJV which states: “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” This precisely means that without Jesus in your life you can’t produce any good fruit unto God. Let’s look at the previous verse to understand the context of John 15:5 KJV. John 15:4 KJV reads, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” Now we can understand that John 15:5 is referring to the fruit just discussed in John 15:4. It is very clear to see that Jesus Christ is the center of it all for without Jesus how could you produce any good godly fruit unto the Father God in heaven? We must always remember that God’s thoughts and His ways are higher than our thoughts and our ways.- Isaiah 55:9 The indication is that God’s perspective and man’s perspective can often be different so we must look up to God to make His Holy thoughts and ways be our personal thoughts and ways. Yes, when you “receive” Jesus into your heart you are “receiving God” into your heart. Yes, not just a set of rules (dos and don’ts) or a mean task master but rather a loving divine personality that chooses to come into your life for the sole purpose of helping you to be a better you through God’s graces, gifts and His goodness. The reason this is such a key component is because without Jesus in your life, “How can you properly filter out what is good and what is bad?” The truth to that question is, “You cannot!” We (ihlcc) have seen many people fall to foolish thinking and erroneous conclusions because they did not properly discern the voice of God compared to the voice of the evil one. We are thinking of a story involving David the King of Israel and Hanun, the new King of Ammon. King David sent certain noble (worthy) people to honor the passing away of Hanun’s father but Hanun thought evil of King David’s gesture by thinking King David was really coming to spy out the land in 1 Chronicles 19. This evil thinking was from the devil and it was believed by King Hanun causing a war between several nations that caused much death and destruction. The point being “receiving God” into your heart first will make all the difference in the world to keep you from the erroneous results that accompany bad decisions. In the Old Testament we generally heard one must “receive God” into their life to reap the blessings of God with all the wonderful benefits. However, in this specific dispensation we must “receive Jesus Christ” into our hearts to have engagement with God the Father, God the Son (known as Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit. This is now a package deal (which is so great) because when you “receive Jesus” into your heart you automatically get the Father God and The Holy Spirit too. “Receiving Jesus” into our hearts basically requires three things. 1) First hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ and 2) secondly believing the message that Jesus died for your sins and without Jesus Christ in your life you are destine for hell (an eternal life of torment and suffering) and 3) thirdly repenting from your ungodly prior lifestyle to confess Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior for the rest of your life here on earth and going up unto Heaven. Yes, it is that easy. “Receiving Jesus” isn’t hard and that goes along with the theme of these lessons that it is not hard to “receive from God” we just need to know what we should do. So we must “receive Jesus Christ” first because He Is that author and finisher of our faith according to Hebrews 12:2. Jesus is the Light of the world but He Is also our very own personal light too, so how can we know right from wrong without His (God’s) righteousness within us. We (ihlcc) do notice the reference verse stated, “as many as “received him”, to them gave he power to become the sons of God” so we must start with “receiving Jesus” then the Lord gave us the power (or we could say, the right, or the authority, or the privilege, or the honor) to be the sons and daughters of God. Therefore, “receiving from God” requires first that you “receive Jesus” and all future blessing you “receive from God” will never compete with the foundation of “receiving Jesus” into your heart and mind for your salvation and peace in Jesus Name. For without Jesus in your heart you can do nothing good or beneficial for The Lord and our Heavenly Father. This is not a suggestion or even a recommendation this is a divine calling and a commandment by God to join Him in eternity or forever be against Him. There is no neutral ground of indecision when it comes to Jesus you either love Jesus for being your personal Savior or you don’t personally know God as a family member. Choose you this day who you shall “receive” either eternal life through Jesus Christ or the permanent death of the destructive devil. We beg you choose Life, the Light of Jesus Christ the Savior of the world. Amen!