5551	Forums / Main Forum / Re: "Is Jesus the Lord of your life?"	on: February 12, 2009, 11:20:46 AM
We cannot comprehend the amount of control that Jesus has in this universe. But we know that when He ascended into heaven He left His Spirit here so that He might give us the power of kings. For we are all kings in priest in the house of our God. There is always a comparison to this earthly tabernacle , this reality as we live under these heavens we can see. I mean we are a tabernacle of God in which God dwells. But God dwells in every square inch of this universe, this present time ordered reality . So that when we think of the Lord ship of Christ, that He has all things put under His feet, we think that He has sent His Spirit into this world to accomplish the work that He has ordered in His rule. Now the Spirit is compared to the wind, the rivers, the mountains, the oil that was in the tabernacle and the oil that was used in purification. He is like a Dove, a fire of tongues, etc. So that every working element in this universe could be an action compared to Christ rule in the universe through His Spirit.  Now we know that the Spirit cannot be resisted in His saving work. But the Spirit is God and He is sovereign. So that He works the works of God in divine sovereignty. For who can thwart His working. That is why the fruit of the Spirit is the evidence of the presence of the Spirit. Just as the spirit is poured forth so is love poured out into our hearts. So that the Spirits working in this universe in a spiritual sense is as real as the wind that blows. Even tho we cannot see the Spirit, He is always at work in us as flowing around us in us and through all things. For there is nothing of life that does not come from the Spirit breathing life into it. And just as God speaks His word and it is done so He sends forth His Spirit and it is accomplished in all of His power.  As you can see that this is bigger than we can ever imagine. If we had our eyes opened to the workings of the Spirit then we would know that there is nothing that transpires in this universe in which there is a divine influence that moves as the wind. Here we are so very small in a corporal sense. Our space is invisible compared to the space in this universe. But we have been made to glorify God by His Spirit. And we are always within the presence of this Spirit. What ever influence that He wills to accomplish in us will not come in bits and spirts. As if we were under some kind of rule . But it will flow as love and faith and joy and peace. It will breath as the word breaths new life of transformation. For there is no cap on what the Spirit can do to us who partake in Christ word and sacraments. May the Spirit breathe on us so that there is rivers of living waters flowing out of us. May He so fill us with His word that we are assured of this divine unction to follow His flow. 5561  Forums / Main Forum / Re: "Is Jesus the Lord of your life?" on: February 11, 2009, 07:14:18 PM I do not think we can make Jesus... Lord... He is Lord! So what i am saying is the intention is not what makes the reality. Rather the reality is what causes the movement. Unless God initiates the knowledge necessary to have an understanding of the spiritual life in Christ then He will not be our Lord. So it is humanly impossible for us to make Him the Lord of our lives. If i said that it would take a certain amount of effort to move this mountain in order to see the light in order for the light to enter though the eye so that i could have a new understanding then i am asking an impossibility. That is the way it is for Christ to rule us in our hearts. The reality is that we do not even have the proper motivation in order to want to know Christ. This is our own reality under the dominion of sin. Our wills are bent on pleasing one person. That is we have a motivation that is purely selfish. In order for us to know these spiritual realities we must have the nature of Christ. This new knowledge to our understanding comes by the will of Christ. It is a translation from a state of death to a state of life.  Now we must also have new motivations so that we will choose for ourselves the good things. Its not enough to have our old will with the addition of a new will. But our old will is put to death because it was under the bondage of the law and was dead in sins and trespasses. We must be given a new will, with completely different motivations.Just like it was impossible for us to practice righteousness in our former state under sin, now it is impossible for us to be put back under the bondage of sin. We now have a new will to love those things that are spiritual. Our nature has  been changed. He is Lord by His making us new. Our wills are forever changed in certain ways. Because we choose based upon our understanding of Christ our motivations to please Him are always teaching us to obey Him. In this way the Spirit is controlling our general disposition. Now the new will looks like this. Once we loved our siins, but now we hate our sins. And then we were comfortable being our own master. But now we have a new master. We thought that we were good enough on our own to be able to be good. But now we know that we are not good, only Christ righteousness makes us good. Now since we have a new will our desires in this life are His desires. So that we have a new self. In this way even tho we still choose to sin , we are no longer divided in our identity in Christ.  Now these things that i have alluded to are being taught to us by the Spirit. These realities in the new will are more and more gaining ground under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit. This new wholeness is what causes us to know that we are complete even tho we fail. I mean this wholeness is a divine communication of the reality that Christ has been our substitute so that in our conflicting inward struggle with sin, we are gaining an understanding that He has given us the ability in our identity in Him that causes our spiritual desires to triumph over our sorrow. In other words we have a new will that is being revealed to us by grace. Our inability to gain a complete victory over sin is replaced by a delight in His work on our behalf so that we are always assured that our identity in Him is the reality of our new self. This is how we learn to grow in obedience.  He is Lord by how He has developed this new will in us. Because we no longer plead our own case. We plead His name. As you know that a will that is in conflict is a will that is going to be frustrated. I mean the conflict is that we serve sin and then we serve righteousness. But we do not define our self identity by our conflict. The authority as to the causes of our desires and the view we have as it relates to our guilt and sorrow has been subdued so that we are always under the obligation to the authority of Christ substitution as to our identity.  5565  Forums / Main Forum / Re: Question about prayer on: February 11, 2009, 03:56:36 PM Maybe my advice is what you have already been given in relating to other married people. But a lot of finding a partner is just in having fun and being loose. Ok.... maybe you should not focus on your weakness, but just on what you are passionate about. I know how passionate you are since you relayed that in your post.... I mean marriage.  Ok... like finding and pursuing. But then attractiveness is not necessarily physical... although most of the time we are attracted to people that would never be attracted to us.  I think there is a difference between looks and countenance. Even tho we may be very well built with the physical looks, i think countenance is what attracts. I have found that if i am more in love with Jesus then i can relax and let my guard down so to speak. All of this gives us a happy countenance. Its not really in trying to change but its being accepting of someone else wort's and all. Ok i sound like one of Jobs friends.