Yesterday's meeting was amazing. The presence of the Father was tangible as He ministered His love and healing to us. The Lord spoke to us about how we need spiritual revelation to "understand what God has freely given us" (1 Cor. 2:9-12). This is what He showed us:
We have received
God has given every believer fullness in Christ. Col. 2:9,10; 1 John 4:15
In Christ every believer has received every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Eph.1:3
In Christ every believer is sanctified - made holy and righteous. 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:4; 5:25-27
To become or to be?
Many believers think that God saved them to become like Jesus and that their Christian lives are about God refining them to become increasingly Christ-like. Suffering, sickness and challenges in life are all attributed to God's sanctifying process and understood as God's disciplining work to improve His children. Ultimately God is held responsible for making the believer more Christ-like and is also blamed for the believer's lack of Christ-likeness!
The truth is that God has given every believer His fullness - His divine presence and power so that the believer can walk like Jesus did and be like Him as He is (Eph. 4:24; 2 Peter 1:3; 1 John 1:6; 4:17). It is the believer's responsibility to be obedient and to put on Christ because s/he has received Him (Eph. 5:1; 8,9; Col. 3:10-14). The believer doesn't become loving - s/he is commanded to love because God, who is love, dwells in him/her! We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
The nature of God in the believer is revealed by faith and obedience.
Similarly the fruit of the Spirit is produced by faith and obedience as the believer follows the desires of the Spirit and keeps in step with Him (Gal. 5:16-25). Faith works through love as the believer realises the One who dwells within and chooses to love as He loves.
The believer is sanctified to love!
We praise God for His revelation to us and for showing us what He has freely given us.
"Therefore as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may still have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:12-14
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