THAT YOU MAY KNOW THE FATHER

“That you may know the Father”

And in knowing Him, you may come to love Him.

This will take some time. Peter spent several years with Jesus, face to face, and when it counted most, when Peter had been told he would deny God, when he insisted he would never do such a thing, and we must conclude that it was because of his love for Jesus that he said this, Peter loved himself more.

Discipleship is not an overnight endeavor. I do not wish to give you the impression that God cannot make us true lovers of Him overnight. My entire being screams out that He can!

Yet He hasn’t. It’s not just me, either. It’s every believer I know. We all take time, much time, to come to love the Father, even a little bit. But every once in a while, the Father sends His love in such a way that some love Him a little more than they did a little before.

So my words today, from my own mind, yet hopeful am I that they are drawn out from me by a love I cannot comprehend, say to you tonight, that God is patient, even with us.

He allows us all manner of freedom, to seek, to ask, to knock. Yes, even when we take short-cuts, even when we take no path at all.

The Kingdom is here, and there is so much we can do here. But will we wait until the Kingdom is revealed? For Jesus said the Kingdom does not come with our careful observation, but that it is in our midst.

At times, I admit, these words strike nothing but numbness inside of me. I cannot grasp the meaning of them. Then there are the times where those words send shivers up and down my spine, where my whole body and mind feel alive with sensation. Where I feel as though I can do ANYTHING, where there is no boundary keeping me held in prison, and no limit to what I can do.

All in God’s time, all in God’s time.

This will take some time, and I begin to wonder if perseverance has more to do with suffering our weakness, suffering our flesh, than it has to do with persecution. For to me, there are times where what I do makes me cry in agony, and shudder in disgust. How can this person still be this way? How, amidst this glorious Kingdom, can this man be so cold?

Then there are times where Jesus shines through, making all the memories of sin flee, and bringing warm, bright sunlight, through the thick clouds, and to my eyes, as I turn the corner to see Him. For one such glimpse, I would suffer my flesh for many years to come, and so I know that perseverance, yes, even that, is a gift to me from Him.

All things that lead us to love Him are from Him. There can be no more legalism in getting to know Him, in STRIVING to know Him, than there can be in the resurrection, where we see God’s glory as fully as we can see it at all. For if all things that lead us to know Him and Love Him are from Him, then there is now no condemnation in those things.

Even though once they were ritual, now, they have been made clean. Now we can pursue them, because we pursue Him. And this is our freedom, to pursue Him without fear of idolatry, without fear of sin, and without fear of judgment.

So my message is this; Let no man or woman tell you to stay put, to do nothing, to leave it all to Him. For if we know Him, then we know all things are already done through Him, how could we ever do anything that isn’t through Him now?

WE HAVE HIS BLESSING!

And may the Lord make His face to shine upon you all.