Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Leaders lead others to be strong in their relationship with God. It is not a matter of merely doing what God wants. It is a matter of becoming the sons and daughters of God that our heavenly Father knows we are destined to be. It is a matter of being loved by God and loving others in our world.
The strength of our relationship with God is found in our hearts and minds. What we believe in our hearts will inspire us to make a confession in our lives. How we act is connected to what we believe. As believers in Christ, how we act is connected to WHO we believe. What we believe can determine what we do, but WHO we believe will determine who we can become. When we know who God is, we grow in knowing who we are. When we know who we are, we act as we should act. Do we believe the One who is the life-giving Spirit within us? Christ in us is the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).
1 Peter 1:13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
The Scripture is not our teacher. Holy Spirit is our teacher, and the Scripture is a witness to the voice of Holy Spirit. The letter of the law will kill, but the Spirit gives us life. We can only know the Spirit that gives life through an intimate relationship with God in our hearts. The Pharisees of the first century knew the Scriptures in their minds, but they didn’t know God in their hearts. Jesus confronted their religious stronghold of valuing their understanding of the Scriptures above a personal relationship with Him – the word made flesh.
John 5:38 But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. 39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
Much of Christianity presents a faith that is based upon a rule of law. That rule of law is that the Scripture is our rule of faith. Faith doesn’t come by rules. Faith comes by hearing God in our hearts. We hear God in our hearts when we embrace a personal relationship with God in our hearts above all things. Only a personal relationship with God in our hearts will enable His kingdom to come and His will to be done in our lives.
When writing to the Jewish believers in the first century, Peter addressed the need for a personal relationship with Christ in all things. He was writing to Jewish believers who were rapidly approaching the day when their Torah/Temple system would be destroyed, and they would be left with the living testimony of being a Temple of Holy Spirit as the body of Christ. The Old Covenant was one of information and works, but the New Covenant was one of grace and transformed hearts and minds as members of the living body of Christ. The Old Temple had become obsolete, and the living temple of Christ was proving to be clothed in the overcoming power of grace. The first century church was overcoming the opposition of what was stuck in a system of law. They were overcoming by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and loving not their own lives even unto death. They were exhibiting the testimony of an internal Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles in their hearts. Jesus had fulfilled the Old Covenant Passover when He put an end to sin for all mankind upon our cross at Calvary. His shed blood granted all access to God’s gift of mercy and eternal life for all who believe. Holy Spirit had been poured out upon a firstfruit body of Christ to demonstrate that being the people of God comes by the presence of God’s Spirit and Word within our lives. We are the body of Christ and as His body we are being sanctified with a heavenly testimony in all things. A firstfruit church had embraced a partnership with God as their Father in all things; thus, the zeal for God’s house was empowering them to give life to their world even as Jesus, our eternal Adam, had done.
These things were, and are, the fruit of an intimate relationship with God in our hearts. This is where the rule of faith abides. Leaders lead others in living from the rule of faith in their hearts.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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