We are now approaching the day we
celebrate the entry of God into our world as a real human being, not just in a
temporary form of a person as indeed angels have from time to time appeared. We cannot begin to truly understand this
other than as God has revealed small parts of his truths to us.
Let’s be honest. We have no complete, detailed idea of just
who God is, other than that he is indeed God – all powerful, all knowing, all
seeing. We learn about him by studying
how he has acted in various situations in the Bible and also how he interacts
with us as individuals in prayer and our daily lives. And he has revealed to us several personality
traits, just as people have personality traits.
Although with God, they are absolute.
He is loving, really loving. And
he is truth, real truth. He doesn’t vary
from any of that. And he is ever patient
or long-suffering as sometimes said. He hates sin, anything which is rebellion
against him and the truths and commands he has passed on to us. Absolutely hates it. Can’t stand it. Will not tolerate it. And he is indeed a jealous God. He will not put up with his people having any
other idols or gods before him, whether they are little wooden idols or excessive
devotion to some sport or team or other person or cause or whatever. He must be first in the eyes and hearts of
people. This is very important to
God. People do not have an alternative
if they are to be his people. He also is
a vengeful God. He will take care of the
evil doers, those rebelling against him.
Imagine how horrible that will be.
And there are still more personality traits given in the Bible.
That is God. Our God.
We can’t fully conceive who he is.
We can’t. Oh I know, flippant
Americans like to think they can, just like flippant Americans often give lip
service to loving others and caring for others and serving others and so
on. But we just can’t. How can little human beings possibly
understand someone who can make planets and stars and people and so on? How?
And by speaking things into existence?
For that matter how can we
understand all the spiritual beings truly?
Angels, God’s messengers, God’s spiritual servants and workers who
strictly carry out his assignments. Some
of us have at times seen angels, and how wonderful has that been. They have been seen sometimes in the shape of
human beings which somehow they have assumed for a short time. They have also been seen as translucent
spirits. Once in a service while sitting
on the front row during the praise and worship portion, I suddenly saw three
such angels at the front of the room.
One giant one, about seven feet tall or so, stood by the podium and with
his arms motioned for me to come up to the podium, or showed me it was my
podium. Something like that. They were gigantic. The one at the podium was smiling. Later I received a message from a couple that
their young daughter in the room had seen the angels too.
So we have these angelic beings
who work with God and help him in caring for and running his creation. They are all ministering spirits sent to
serve those who will inherit salvation.
That’s all believers. Angels do
the Lord’s bidding. They obey his
word. The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and he delivers them.
We know that some time in the
past one-third of the angels then followed a beautiful top angel today called Lucifer,
or satan, or the devil, or the evil one in rebelling against God. How could this have happened? We can’t fathom an answer. How could a perfect all powerful, all seeing,
all knowing God have made a being who rebelled against him and led a third of
the angels away from him, themselves rebelling?
Well, we don’t really know do we, although we see that God also made
people, and millions upon millions of people have rebelled against God. Even the first man Adam, who had an intimate
relationship with God in the Garden, rebelled against him. So we do have some insight. God evidently created the angels with some of
the free will that he gave people, so they had the freedom to decide to
rebel.
And then there are these strange
spirit beings on earth called demons.
These are terrible things. They
torment mostly unsuspecting people. And
even though the Lord gave his believers the ability to cast them out in his
name, very few are bold enough to try.
In our ministry, people occasionally will come for help who really are
or who think they are being attacked by demons.
I remember one couple mentioning that the pastors in town (obviously
just the ones they had contacted) had no idea of what to do or didn’t want to
get involved. But these demons are
real. Once in a while in a service we will
suddenly be ministering to someone who has been attacked by demons, and we must
deal with that. And yes, it is true, we
can cast them out in Jesus’ name.
Sometimes it takes some time as they don’t initially want to leave.
But what in the world are demons? Some have thought they are fallen
angels. But there is no evidence in the
Bible that angels want to inhabit human bodies, and that is what demons seem to
want to do. Failing that, they will
inhabit animal bodies. They have been
called disembodied spirits. Let me tell
you, it is a bit unnerving the first time you encounter these beings in
ministering or otherwise. They have
names, they have emotions, and they are intelligent. And they will talk to you, out loud! These are not to be laughed at. Thank God for Jesus giving us the ability to
cast them out.
About two thousand years ago in
the event we now celebrate as Christmas God came down in real human form and
lived among us for about 33 years. He
came in the form of his son, Jesus Christ.
He came to take upon himself all that separated people from God and to
overcome that, thereby creating a way for people to be reconciled to God. Jesus accomplished that by making himself the
perfect sacrifice for the people and going to and through the cross. Why did he have to do this? Because there was no perfect sacrifice on earth. Only God is perfect. It is surely difficult to conceive that the
creator would put his son through such torture in order to redeem people. But he did.
That’s the truth.
And now we are rapidly moving to
the time of Jesus’ return to earth.
Jesus told us we could tell the season of his return, and we can. We see the signs everywhere that he pointed
out, and we know it is imminent. We also
know that a precious few human beings have joined his kingdom already, which he
called the kingdom of God. To do that
one must be born again, or born anew, in Jesus’ words. In brief, a person must truly repent – or
change - from his past actions, ask God’s forgiveness, ask Jesus to be the Lord
of his life, and receive a new spirit. This
in essence is a spiritual rebirth. As it
says in John 1, God himself becomes the person’s true Father. The apostle Paul described this as professing
that Jesus is Lord and believing God raised him from the dead. Professing Jesus is Lord means making him the
Lord of your life. You believe him. You obey his commands. Jesus himself said that if you obey his
commands you are his friend. He also
said he will love you if you obey his commands.
One last observation. After his
resurrection, Jesus had the disciples wait before beginning their work until
they had received power from the Holy Spirit – e.g., had been baptized in the Spirit. And throughout the book of Acts, whenever the
disciples ministered to other groups and prayed for them to receive Jesus and
be born again, they also prayed for them to be baptized in the Holy
Spirit. And the people were, gentiles
and Jews. Peter himself said the Holy
Spirit was for everyone, every believer of course. The Holy Spirit is the form of God that is on
the earth today.
So really the key is to be born
anew and baptized in the Holy Spirit. It
is this infilling and then receiving of the power of the Spirit that brings
God’s clear guidance to a person, his anointing, his gifts such as the gifts of
healing and prophecy and faith and miraculous works and speaking and
interpreting in tongues.
I still remember when my wife and
I decided to step out publically in faith and act on this anointing and Jesus’
commands and the gifts, specifically in healing people. And the signs and wonders that followed and
still do.
Who is this God we are talking
about? Well, God the Father, God the son
Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit. One
God, operating in three forms.
Quite a powerful ramble, this
discourse on God, is it not. I could
write more about why did he create people, but of course we don’t know. Or what is going to happen to those that go
with the Lord when he returns? Well, he
does give some indications but not much detail and I’ll save that for another
time. Perhaps in the end we will help
him not only in running his kingdom but also in establishing civilizations on
other planets? Who knows? We certainly don’t. Likely he has much in store for us we just
don’t know about.
For now we believers have to live
physically in a dangerous and uncomfortable world system where most in charge seem
often to make decisions not based on the Lord’s guidance and truths. It is where we physically are for a
moment. Spiritually, believers are already
in the Kingdom of God. We can dream and
be thankful and wait and do whatever he asks us to, or already has asked us to
in the Bible and in prayer and however else each of you hear from the Lord. Remember always Peter’s words when he and
John were ordered by local leaders to stop doing what they were doing. He replied that these leaders should judge
for themselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey them rather than God. He then concluded by saying that they (Peter
and John) could not help speaking about what they had seen or heard. Another verse in the Bible makes the point
clearly: Let God be true and every man a
liar. Pretty straight, isn’t it. God is always truth. And men?
Christmas. Can’t begin to truly celebrate and worship
him as we should, can we. But we should
try.
Copyright © 2013 by John Newlin
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
