Are You Thirsty?
Our self-life will never “mellow” with age. We can’t tame it…we have to crucify it.
* “But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Galatians 6:14
*Are we a doer of the Word or a hearer only?
*It is one thing to receive truth. It is quite another to receive it humbly. That can only happen if we understand our need of God’s truth in my life.
*James 1:21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
*”Meekness is an attitude toward God“ in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting.”
*A humble heart doesn’t fight against God or contend with Him.
*God’s powerful Word, implanted in our hearts, is a trustworthy source of spiritual wisdom and strength.
*It’s available to all who will humbly receive it.
*God who formed worlds by the power of His Word Speaks through the Scriptures His truth to be heard;
*And if we read with the will to obey,
He by His Spirit will show us His way.
Isaiah 55:1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.
The thirst Isaiah describes here is not a reactive RESULT of the absence of something, but a pro-active DISPOSITION before the Lord that says, “God, I need more of you!”
Moses was thirsty and wanted all of God. He knew God’s ways, but wanted God Himself!
God will use a circumstance or need in the natural to create an area of thirst in our spirit.
* A thirsty man will not just sit waiting for water to come, but will assume a disposition to seek that which will quench his thirst. He PURSUES it.
Moses pursued the very face of God and His glory…the fullness of all God is.
We can pursue God the same way in removing our self – our flesh – from our very own pursuits.
* Try this…take one day and look for the God in others around you.
*God is there, even in non-believers, there is the image of God created in them.
**Share a story with them, minister to their hurting soul…show them the Christ in you that YOU pursued and are still pursuing!
It will surprise you just where you begin to see the Lord habitating!!!
Romans 8: 28 And we know that for those who LOVE God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
*This is the LOVE of Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.”
* It is Christ’s love for the church, his bride.
* Christ has a love for all, and he has a special, saving, preserving love for his bride. You know you are part of that bride if you trust Christ. Anyone — no exceptions — anyone who trusts Christ can say, I am part of his bride, his church, his called and chosen ones, the ones who verse 35 in Romans 8- says are kept and protected forever no matter what.
The world may influence us and still have influence because we live in this world but we are no longer enslaved or dominated by this world system, presided over by Satan, the love of the world the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, is to be crucified, so we need to ask our self a ?—- Are we living a crucified life???
There is victory in the cross:
* when we yield to the lordship of Christ,
* when we make Christ, the throne of our hearts, we are on the cross,
*BUT if WE ARE ON the throne of our hearts, then we in effect is leaving Jesus, on the cross.
That’s the hard message of the cross.
* If you are going through suffering don’t focus on the pain up lift the cross and Christ, his love, his grace in our lives.
*To live a life that exualt the cross, then praise him with our worship and then through our witness.
* Jesus, said if I be lifted up then I will draw all into me, be blessed.
1 thess. 2:13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
*Praise be to God for taking the initiative of saving us. For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. *The Word is God’s revelation to us! How we receive the Bible affects how we live the Christian life.
*We must be in prayer, claiming the promise, praying for God to cause His Word to work in us, and through us, to others!
*if I want to know what God wants for my life, I must dedicate some time apart from my life to study his word and plan for my life, an then apply it.
Thank You Jesus-Your Love for each one of us is so so unbelievable. Help us love others and our self’s as You do. Amen.