God. In you. In your room.

God is in your body and in your room if you believe that Jesus came. 
Died. 
Rose. 
Ascended.

What else matters?
What else is worth focusing on and living by?
Unless you don’t believe it.

Why do I believe it?

I feel Him in me, listening to me, with me, responding to me.
Just as I felt Him the day I trusted Jesus.
Like a blanket of peace covering me.
Like power flowing over my mind, enabling me to speak for Him.

God is in my body in this room right now.
Nothing else matters.
Nothing else is worth focusing on or living by.
I believe it. His Spirit is why I believe it.

How can you know this is true for you?

It is written,

“The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.”

If you want to feel God near to you, call on Him in truth.

In total helpless honesty and vulnerability, talk to God right now.
You will feel His listening ear, like when someone looks you in the eyes while you are talking, as if you were the only person in the world to him.

Because of the amazing omniscient mind of God, this is how He listens to you…if you’ll call on Him.

Getting our deepest NEEDS and DESIRES MET!

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”― C.S. Lewis

Only God can touch us all of the time.  This is a revelation of affection.  If we seek constant affection, to constantly touch and be touched, then we seek what is inherently an impossibility physically.  Our bodies can't always touch other bodies, or be touched by other bodies.

But the need remains.
The desire lingers.

For hunger, food exists.
For thirst, water exists.
For sexual arousal, marriage exists.

But what about a hunger we still feel after we eat?
Or a thirst we still feel after we drink?
Or an intimacy we still need after we marry?

Jesus is the bread of life.  He fulfills our deepest hunger.
Trusting him quenches our deepest thirst.
In his presence there is complete joy and eternal pleasure; eternal life is intimacy with him.

Some gorge themselves on ice cream when they are depressed.
Some smoke or drink to relax.
Some watch pornography for fantasies of intimacy.

But it is written,

"Taste and see that the LORD is good."
"Don't be anxious about anything but pray about everything.  And the incomprehensible peace of God will guard your heart and mind."
"Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Instead of drunkenness with wine, God offers the fullness of His Spirit.
Instead of an intoxicating adulteress or adulterer, he offers an intoxicating wife or husband.
Instead of lies and slavery he offers the truth which brings liberty.

These exchanges are the keys to rebirth by faith in Christ.
Worship the Creator instead of creation.
This is our salvation.

This is how we get our deepest needs and desires met!

God's First Question (Part 2)

Jesus answered, "Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going.  John 8:14

And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." 
Matthew 3:17

“I believe that God made me for a purpose. But He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure.” Eric Liddell

Jesus knew His origin and destination, the answers to God's ultimate questions: 

"Where have you come from and where are you going?"

In knowing these, He felt God's pleasure, the smile of God from the heart of God.

When you fulfill your purpose, when you live according to your origin and destination, you will touch the heart of God and feel God's pleasure in you!

Imagine that!

Imagine being a singer.
Imagine singing your heart out, pouring out your life in your heart song.
Now imagine touching God.  Imagine tears filling the eyes of Jesus.  Imagine overwhelming the Spirit with deep emotion.

This is what it's like when you know and live according your origin and destination.

Imagine being an artist who paints a tree with the moon in the background.
Imagine the sense of fulfillment you have when what you felt when you saw this mysterious scene is perfectly captured in the portrait.
Now imagine God whispering to you, "Finally, someone understands me.  Finally someone sees what I see."

I believe this is what it meant for David to be a "man after God's own heart." 
I believe God finally found someone in Israel who really understood Him, that David alone understood how God felt.

As it is written by the Prophet Jeremiah,

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

 

You are made in the image of God in such a way that you understand and know Him like no other creature. 

 

In this you will feel Gods pleasure. 

This is your origin and destination. 

This is where you come from. 

This is where you are going.

God's first question

But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:9

Here we are.
Writing and reading.
Why?
What drew you to me and me to you?
What draws me to you is the truth.
The words of God.
The first question of God:

Where

are

you?

Right now.
In life.
You know where you are geographically.
But where are we eternally?
Where are you in life approaching death?
This is the first question God asked the first man.
The question He asks you right now.

Where are you?

 

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?  If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?  Genesis 4:6-7

 

What are you feeling right now?  And why?

Why are we unhappy?  Why are we angry?

Why do we feel rejected?  Or why don't we care whether we are accepted or rejected?

Do we care to do what is right?

The penetrating questions of God must be answered.  Will be answered. 







The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur.  The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?”  Genesis 16:7-8

 

God's first questions, and all of God's questions come back to these two questions:  our origin and destination.

 

What are we doing and why are we doing it?

Sooner or later we must answer.

On the day we die we will answer, once and for all. 

But why wait until it's too late?

 

Where are you? 

Where have you come from?

Where are you going?

 



There are only two options in life

There are only two options in life:  Submission to God or Rebellion against God.

The nature of volition is liberation.  Your will should be free.  Free will.
The reason shows options to volition.  The mind distinguishes options or choices.
The emotions fuel volition.  Emotions make us want to take action.

Oppression seeks coercion of volition.  The oppressor forces the oppressed against their wills.
Mental confusion paralyzes volition.  Too many options, noises, voices, or choices make wise choice impossible.
Overwhelming emotion seeks manipulation or seduction of volition.  When there is passion, volition feels it must take action.

But as it is written,
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

The Spirit of truth is truth, and he guides us into all truth.  There are only two mental choices or options of focus:  The True or The Untrue.

The Lord is the Spirit.  There are only two options:  His will or our will--Submission or Rebellion:  Obedience or Disobedience.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  There are only two emotions:  Peace or No Peace--  God's pleasure or God's displeasure.

The essence of self control is our will.  The nature of volition is liberation.  Reason reveals options.  Emotions fuel volition towards action.

God's will or our will.
We choose which of these we focus our minds on.  We choose God's pleasure or displeasure.

Being like God: Knowing and Enjoying It!

Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. The Apostle John

Practice makes us righteous in experience.  Not just righteous, but just as righteous as Christ.

Really righteous.

Whoever practices patience is patient, just as patient as Christ. 

Think about it.

If I’m practicing patience, practicing waiting before I speak, what is the difference between what I am doing and what a “patient person” does?  Patient people can wait, and do wait.  If I am waiting, then I can wait, and I do wait, at least at that moment.  But what other moment do I have than right now?

Not only are these things true, but they can be fun!

I remember band practice and choir practice.  What we did in practice, we did on stage.  It was fun on and off stage. 

Or put it another way.

What if you went to school to learn something you enjoy, but needed the degree or diploma or license for a job.  And what if the professor said to everyone in the class, “You all pass.  You all have an A.  You will have your diploma at the end of this course.  Now simply enjoy learning and applying what you are learning!  You're already A students!”?

That’s like what God did for us.

When Jesus died for our sins and rose for our justification, we could become God’s children, if we accept what God did for us in Christ.  Now that I am a child of God, already perfect in God’s eyes, I can simply practice perfection!  Not to gain perfection, but to EXPRESS the perfection that I am!  Just for the fun of it!

After all, I’m sure it’s fun being  God!

Why shouldn’t it be fun to be like God?!?

How to CHANGE and STAY CHANGED

You are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  The Apostle Paul

As many as received Him, as many as believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of human will, but of God. 

The Apostle John

If anyone is united to Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.  The Apostle Paul

We all have default settings, or automatic habitual responses that we learned and practiced to the point of skillful identity.  When we are angry, we have an automatic response.  When we feel anxiety, we react like we always have in the past.  We learned these responses in our families and upbringing, a combination of temperament and environment.

How do we change our default settings?  Our automatic habitual responses?

We must be born again, become new creations, given new default assumptions.

The default setting of believers is belief.
The default setting of unbelievers is unbelief.

Put this another way.
The default setting of unbelievers is SELF TRUST ALONE.
The default setting of believers is GOD TRUST ALONE.

As it is written,

Trust in the LORD with all of your heart and lean not to your own understanding.  In all of your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.

Unbelievers trust in themselves with all of their hearts, and totally lean to their own understandings.  In none of their ways do they acknowledge God, nor do they seek Him to direct their paths.

But those who were born again were born again by faith in the Lord Jesus. 
And their lives are characterized by this very faith, or complete God trust, as it is written,

For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

The believer's new, changed life begins by faith and continues by faith.  It is the defining principle of their lives, the new default setting, the new automatic response, the new habitual reaction.

When  believers disbelieve, or do not live by the same faith that changed them, they are not being true to who they are, to their new identity.  This is why they feel convicted by the Spirit in them.  That is what conscience is, consciousness revealed to the soul.

R.A. Torrey said these powerful words,

Every act of sin is an act of distrust in God.  Trusting God deprives sin and temptation of all their power.  The one who trusts God will do right though the heavens fall.

Whatever your default vice is if you are a believer, it is not in agreement with the new principle of your life:  God Trust ALONE.  You used to live by self trust, and thus respond or react accordingly.

How did you express faith in God?  Prayer!  You confessed your sin through prayer, and you accepted God's Son through prayer.

Now live by the same expression of faith.  Pray before, during, and after every action and interaction as an expression of total trust in God and total distrust in yourself; totally seeking God's direction and not your own.

The prayer of faith is your new default setting.