Know the Lord our God

The Word of God is a Lush, Green and Rich Pasture!

KNOWING the Lord our God is both easy and hard if you ask me. It’s easy in the sense that we have the revelation of God of Himself in the Scriptures which is easily accessible. From it He teaches you all truth about himself, his pleasures, His wills, His purposes, His plans, His benefits and his requirements. He made you in such a way you’ll thirst and hunger for Him as you start seeking for Him. And that seeking started from Him too. In fact all good things come from Him. For without Him NOTHING came to being of all the things that came to being. NOTHING is or acts or increases without Him.

Plainly the Bible says that when we act without his help this is idolatry. You are dishonoring Him. You are in rebellion against Him. He will let you but don’t expect His grace, i.e., providence. You will be in a situation that you think things happen because of yourself; or proceeding because of things you already have, e.g., social standing, education, possessions, power, position of influence, and so on. God becomes jealous that you have become Satan’s child.¹ You forgot you are His from the start. That’s why the Bible says the people of Israel were adulterous when they made the created things their idols. Likewise we are adulterous when we love the things we have and do more than God. Watch out. Adultery presages miseries, trouble, failures and fears along our journey through life just as what’s revealed by Israel’s history.

The ONE thing we can have forever—one that fully satisfies our thirst and hunger is God. Put Him first in your heart, in your thoughts, activities and plans and you’ll have His grace, i.e., power. It’s not things before God. Without God you will ever want. With Him you will have what your heart desires—although these should be within His will and His purposes for you. What He gives you might be opposite of what you previously desired but to be sure they are the desires He want you to have. And He will have changed your heart to find joy in these new desires.

WANTS and NEEDS can become idols. You’ll miss the target, who is God, because of them. Either Him first in all things and all things second or other things first and Him second. In His sovereign will He will let you choose. If you choose Him He will bear all the consequences; if you choose self you’ll bear alone the consequences. In this situation God remains to be fair or just and righteous. He changes not, the Bible says.

TRUSTING the Lord our God on his providence depends on how well you know Him. Ignorance leads to no trust; full knowledge of God translates to full trust. They are directly proportional. If you ask me, putting your trust on God rather on your self (or on created things including people) is the wisest thing to do. Knowing Him well will make you trust Him more. It’s a learning experience as you completely surrender your heart to Him and be instructed and guided and directed by His Word. And obedient to them I might add. This is the hardest part of the redemption process, but His grace will see you through and great rewards on the present life and afterlife.

HEAVEN will pour its full might to protect her citizens – God’s children. Remember that you are a God’s child and heir once you have accepted and received Our Lord Jesus Christ in your heart and have committed everything to Him. In short you are joined (Bible term: yoked) with Christ. You did because He has given you faith in the first place and has removed the guilt you have heretofore felt. God’s grace will ever minister to all your needs and desires as they are aligned to His will and purposes for your life. As you KNOW him more you will experience him really as your Savior, Lord, Friend, Provider, Counselor, and Leader, Comforter, Father, Wisdom, Ever-present Help, Peace or Safety, etc. All you ever need or desire is with Him. We can trust Him to really minister to us in various ways for as the Bible says, “Great is thy (God) faithfulness.”

ETERNAL things will mostly occupy your mind as your relationship with the Lord our God becomes more intimate. You would want to be like our Lord Jesus Christ and you will because God has implanted the divine nature in your mind and in your heart as soon as you have received His Son and believed in Him. And what he started in you He will finish. Discipline your self to be obedient and remain in Him through His Word through which the Holy Spirit works in you. This is your part in the equation called redemption. Thinking of eternal things and living accordingly brings eternal hope, eternal rewards and inheritance which further feed your faith. They dull or even nullify your occupation and love of material and other non-spiritual things that are at the same time temporal.

Christ the Center of our Lives

Our LORD Jesus Christ becomes the center of our lives when we begin to know our Lord God well. Mightily we strive to align our lives along His when He was on earth.² His teachings (or words) counsel our thoughts, behavior and actions. In doing this we will feel His power manifested in our personal, social, mental and spiritual life. He said, “I will be with you (his disciples like you are) until the end of time.” He bears our daily burdens with us.

“I have ORDAINED all your days,” the Lord our God says. God knows you from day one (even at the womb) to your last breathing day. This is my testimony. This knowledge fills me with extreme joy and hope as well as a healthy fear of the Lord. The joy is because it says matter-of-factly that God will always have His eyes on me. Righteousness (right doing) will be my daily fare for God will protect me from the devil’s temptation and at the same time strengthens me to do the right thing all the time. Still, there might be times—it should be few—that I might think and actually stray from the straight path but he’ll straighten me out in no time in ways I might not even be aware of. He works supernaturally, does He not? So I expect the supernatural as I do with the natural things.

DAILY walks with God will always be blameless. It’s our duty no less. He will shut out completely the devil’s hand in your life. The Bible says God is our armor, which consists of truth, gospel, peace, salvation, His word (Bible as a sword) to nullify the lies that the devil sells. Didn’t I tell you He has eyes on you always?

OVERCOMING temptations, trials and all negative circumstances defines your walk with God. There’s a promise of the Bible which says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Joined with Christ there’s nothing you cannot accomplish for God’s grace and strength are yours.

UNDERSTANDING all life situations through biblical eyes and ears is the hallmark of the ordained-life. You will interpret all things with wisdom through your knowledge of God’s Word. You’ll have peace for nothing will confound you. Confusion is not your daily fare. The lamp that is the Word gives light to your thoughts and ways.

REMEMBERING God’s mighty acts, signs, wonders and judgments will fill every moment of your days. Also the small and ordinary parcels of life that God’s hand brought will be huge and mighty in your consciousness. All these will grow and mature your faith. Knowing God really blesses you immensely. Truly, God, who is good and he change not, has put you in a good spacious place. Complete freedom is yours but use it for good.

GOD’S Kingdom is joyous because of your righteous and godly life; it gives praise and glory to the Most High. Be assured God’s grace will continually minister to all your needs and desires as they are lined up to His will and purposes. Holiness becomes a habit for God has you as His possession. Gone is the past life where Satan rules.

One with God: Peace, Serenity and Tranquility

ONE with God the Father and the Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit defines your spiritual relationship. It means you have become the image of God like the first time God made man. They are near you and you are near to them, which is the situation always. To a devil’s child God is so far away even though God is near everywhere (all people included). Truth to tell a person’s sin makes a huge gulf between him and a pure (holy) God. God and the sinner are near but they cannot commune with each other. In contrast, as God’s child, you have the Almighty God within you and around you.

Becoming God’s child has assured you a good place at the DAY of the Lord which is the Day of Judgment. It’s the same Day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again to get God’s people (both living and the resurrected righteous dead) and bring them into heaven. If you are living on that Day, Our Lord Jesus Christ will translate you alive into heaven together with the resurrected righteous dead like David, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and many more (Old Testament saints) and the Virgin Mary, the apostles, Paul, and your deceased parents or family or relative if they had Jesus Christ in their lives (New Testament saints).

Notes:

¹The Bible is very clear that those who are not God’s children are in fact the children of Satan. Their deeds are world apart. Did not the Jesus say, “Be righteous as your Father in Heaven is righteous?” We are righteous as our acts are righteous. We can only be righteous if Christ has freed us from our sinful nature, from Satan and his demon’s influence and from worldly temptations at the time we have believed Him.

²Studying and understanding of the gospels according to Mathew, Mark, Luke and John would inform anyone how Jesus lived his life as a man. The Bible says we should walk i. e., live, as Jesus walked.