Turn the Light On

God Gold of the Day

Yesterday’s God Gold, we dug into the question that finds most of confused in our lives as followers of Christ. This question has definitely opened me up and pushed me to seek out answers in my own life, I pray the answers that I’ve found are even more of an encouragement to you than they have been for me!

The question, “How could we hope to ever have the heart of Jesus?”

Looking at all of the examples that God’s Word shows us of who Jesus is, all the qualities that He possesses and shows throughout His ministry on earth, all in the same context that we live in, temptation, resistance from our surroundings and very difficult situations. Jesus is so perfect in every single way, He handles every situation with love, peace, and grace no matter how hard the situation is.

I found that for myself, I handle these daily tough situations a lot differently. I’m not even close to who Jesus is or being able to act in His ways. So I ask, “how do we have the heart of Jesus?”

The truth is found all over God’s Word, as follower’s of Jesus being united with Him in a personal relationship, Galatians 2:20 says, “Christ lives in me.” Also, so many other places in God’s Word shows us that we are ONE with Christ, He lives in us and we live in Him. No longer is it just Jesus way up there in the Heavens and then just us all by ourselves here on earth, there is no separation. We are one with Christ and realizing that truth has answers this question in the most life-changing of ways. How could we, weak and as sinful as we are, ever to hope to have the heart of Christ? The answer is; WE ALREADY DO!!!

Which brings me to the next question I had, with that being true, I am one with Christ and He is one with me, I have Christ, His love, and the powerful characteristics of His heart in my heart, then why do I still act the way I do? Why do I still feel defeated, lost, confused and a failure so much of the time??

I found an AWESOME illustration used in the book, “Just Like Jesus,” by Max Lucado that helps us see an answer to these questions we find ourselves having.

“Part of the answer is illustrated in a story about a lady who had a small house on the seashore of Ireland at the turn of the century. She was quite wealthy but also quite frugal. The people were surprised, then, when she decided to be among the first to have electricity in her home.

Several weeks after the installation, a meter reader appeared at her door. He asked if her electricity was working well, and she assured him it was . “I’m wondering if you can explain something to me,” he said. “Your meter shows scarcely any usage. Are you using your power?” 

“Certainly,” she answered. “Each evening when the sun sets, I turn on my lights just long enough to light my candles; then I turn them off.” 

She tapped into the power but doesn’t use it. Her house is connected but not altered. Don’t we make the same mistake? We, too—with our souls saved but our hearts unchanged—are connected but not altered. Trusting Christ for salvation but most of the time we settle for shadows.

What would happen if we left the light on? What would happen if we not only flipped the switch but lived in the light? What changes would occur if we set about the task of dwelling in the radiance of Christ?” -Max Lucado (Just like Jesus)

Pretty powerful illustration right?!?! I hope that resonated with you as deeply as it has me! Think about that for a moment. We have full access, 24/7 to Jesus, to His amazing, life changing power, we have the power installed and every thing set for us to use it throughout each moment of our lives, including the tough situations we face. But how often do we only flip the switch to sit in and live in the power and light of Jesus only when we feel like it or really really need Him? And we wonder why so often we still struggle and live defeated lives of fear and doubt?

This truth has made it real for myself and I pray it makes it real for you! Why would we only flip the switch of Jesus’ powerful presence in our lives only here and there? What would happen if we just get out of the way, stop trusting in the way we’ve always done or seen things, put our old candles to the side that always end up burning out anyways and come before Jesus to flip the switch of His light in our lives? To live in the presence of His heart that we already have installed within us? At the end of the day, I’ve found the biggest barrier to flipping the switch to Jesus’ work in my heart and life to be ME! It’s myself that holds back what could happen, but thank God for sending His Son so living that way behind the barrier of our preconceived notions of what we see as truth, isn’t the only way to go! For THE truth is Jesus, the only way to access His truth and powerful presence in our lives, the only way to truly live in His ways even in the messy situations of our lives is to stop trusting in ME and begin trusting in Jesus, and only Jesus. What we see as what “could” is no longer just a dream or really good idea, it’s the truth of not just what “could” happen but what WILL happen in our lives as His power is turned on to shine through our darkness!!!! No reason to live in the shadows any longer!! Flip the switch and live in the light of Jesus!!!!!

 

Power Given. Purpose Driven.

God Gold of the Day

“8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

–Acts 1:8

Was going to keep going in Colossians like I promised but I’ve been learning some awesome Gold at church lately that I’m so excited to share! I’ll go ahead and warn you, as much as I’d love to plan out and script these messages for you. God doesn’t work on my time and His timing and intervention is always 100x better than anything I could ever create! Hope these next few messages from Acts brings some big time BOLDNESS to your lives and moves you from comfortable Christian to a follower of Christ who is on the move, living for the Gospel and the spread of it!

This verse from Acts is kind of like a foundation verse for the whole book of Acts! Beyond all the stories of men doing amazing things for God, how they show us examples of living this life with Christ and for Christ. Acts 1:8 shows us HOW these men do what they do and WHY they do what they do.

First we’ll look at the HOW?

The Holy Spirit. I could just leave it there but I’ll explain, so during this time Jesus had just died, raised from the grave and these disciples were sitting around looking at each other clueless as what to do next. Christ comes on the scene and speaks a life changing, power giving Promise to them. Yes, Jesus, who has died and been resurrected shows up to speak to these guys in person. Sounds crazy but it’s just Jesus! It shows how capable and loving He is to come back and give these guys some direction and a promise to hold onto while they sat in their cluelessness.

HOW do these believers do what they do throughout this book of Acts? Sharing the Good News of the Gospel, preaching and telling people about Christ, performing amazing miracles? The HOW is in the first part of this verse, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;.”

When one receives Christ into their lives, just as these disciples had, Jesus has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit living within us. The same Holy Spirit that worked through Christ during His earthly Ministry allowing Him to speak truth, love without limits and face a lot of persecution and turmoil surrounding Him. That same Holy Spirit lives within every born again believer!!!! The inflow of the Holy Spirit, the power of God at work within us, that inflow causes the outflow of our lives to change in a lot of big ways. Having the power of the Holy Spirit living within me is something I’ve overlooked throughout my life with Christ and overlooking the power we have, it makes it really hard to live FOR Christ.

The Holy Spirit enables us to do more than we could ever possibly do on our own. And we see in the second part of the verses after seeing the HOW in living this life not only with Christ but FOR Christ, we see the WHY?

Why would we need this power? Because without it, with out the power of God flowing within us, we are incapable of doing anything. In the second part of these verses we see the WHY, “and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The inflow of the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives allows us to accomplish greater than we could ever do alone. With the inflow of Jesus’ power, comes the outflow of Jesus’s purpose in our lives.

Jesus says the HOW in the first half of verse 8, and in the second part He gives the WHY! He gives the disciples and us direction here on what to do, what the mission is, what the primary purpose is for this gift of power from the Holy Spirit. To WITNESS!!!

Jesus didn’t stop working after the resurrection, He gives us the power of the Holy Spirit so through us He can continue to do what He did in His Ministry here on earth, telling others of the Good News! The power of the Holy Spirit gives us help in so many areas, reading and understanding God’s Word, living more like Christ on the daily, the wisdom and discernment in that guides and controls our thoughts and actions. But in all those smaller things, which are all necessary to grow in, all that leads to the bigger overall specific purpose that Jesus has given us. To WITNESS.

To share Him and the Good News that He died, bled, and rose from the grave to give us! In the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus entrusts to live in this power for the lives around us. It’s the fact that Jesus has given us everything we need to do anything possible and the one, big thing He tells us to do, the grand, huge, ultimate life mission that He’s given us, be honest, how much do we really use this power for the purpose in which Jesus gave it??? I’ll be honest. Outside of these messages, I struggle in Witness. I may have a conversation about faith here and there but sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News that changed my life completely around in the most awesome of ways. I’ll be honest and tell you that I fail to witness 9 times out of 10 but seeing this truth, seeing HOW Jesus has given us this great gift of power from God Himself through the Holy Spirit and the mission to be BOLD in witness for Him, it makes me question everything that I say I stand for when I am really just laying down looking up at the awesome opportunity Jesus has set before me.

It’s convicting for sure but I don’t want it to just hit you in your or my gut and feel bad for a minute then go back to living this comfortable Christian life like we have been doing. I pray that God speaks His truth so powerfully through these next few messages on examples of living a life with Christ that changes lives for Christ, that we don’t just feel bad but we move. We move from conviction to application, from life to LIVING and showing, telling, and yelling to others the Good News that’s changed our lives and how Jesus’ love can do the same for theirs! Let’s take this in and get prepared to move in the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus has given us so we can live out the purpose that Jesus has left us with!!!