Knowing Who You Are
/The message was about being a son and not a slave. The main thought I believe that God wanted to communicate was the fact that in Christ, we have received a position as a son. And everything lost in the death of Adam, He is giving us back in the resurrection power of Jesus.
In Exodus 4, He said, 22…Israel is my firstborn. Israel is my son. 23 …Let my son go so that he can serve me.
He wants us to serve Him from the position of a Son. Not only the thought of son and it’s relationship to inheritance but a bride and it’s relationship of intimacy. How do we bear fruit without intimacy?
Romans 7:4 you are dead to the Law by the body of Christ that you might be married to another, even to Him that is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit from God.
There is a layer in the word where it becomes legalistic— knowledge puffs up, and that is stated in the love chapter. Head knowledge isn’t the same as heart knowledge. To know Jesus with one’s heart, that is intimacy. Satan wants you to feel hopeless when you’re going through pain. At that moment, he will try to attack you harder, because he doesn’t want you to take the nest step—
What’s the next step? You cry
How does one become intimate with the Lord?
Prayer
Reading
Fasting
Repentance and turning from sin
Not earning, but seeking!
Intimacy will give us a desire to serve Him from a heart of love instead of obligation.
When we serve Him, we glorify His name. We go where He tells us, do what he tells us to do and say what He tells us to say. As we do this, we bring glory to His name. We preach the kingdom of God to a lost world and help them realize that there is eternal life and an inheritance to gain.
God wants His people to serve Him. I can’t repeat it enough times. When we just say that we love God that holds no merit in His eyes. He said:
25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.. 26 So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.
The scripture explains that there is a circumcision of the heart:
Romans 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit…
In another place:
Galatians 5:24
…they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
As His bride, we can’t have intimacy with Him and at the same time intimacy with another!
Ongoing Christianity is marked in a large way by this truth: those that belong to Christ have and are crucifying the flesh.
But many people don’t want their flesh crucified, and they are willing to live a double life. A life that includes a little bit of the Lord and a little bit of the world. A little scripture, a little sin. It’s just a little bit, what’s the big deal? A little leaven leaven’s the whole lump. A little bit unfaithful to God and His word is cheating!
As the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness continue to dwell on the earth, there will be real prophets of God and there will be false prophets of God, and I can tell you that there is a lot more to being a prophet than predicting the future. A true prophet of God is going to tell the truth. He will not manipulate God’s word in an attempt to manipulate God’s people. 1 John:
1 John 4:1-6. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
In order to properly understand what John is saying, it is important to know that he was combating a false doctrine called Gnosticism. The Gnostics believed that he did not come in the flesh, therefore, they did not believe things committed in the flesh were really sin, so the inner man could be renewed, and at the same time they could live sinfully in the flesh and get away with it. Essentially, what this means is that the gnostics rejected a message that required the flesh be crucified.
For some reason, this reminds me of much that goes on in the church. People want to experience the presence of God and feel the love of God, but when the truth is preached about sin or dying to self, they become offended and don’t want to hear what God’s word says.
John 6 they got offended and left Him. They didn’t like what He said
There is a process of growing up in Christ that must take place in all believers. But too often, people that love God allow themselves to become so easily offended by the word of God, that they uproot themselves and never allow themselves to grow up into a son and instead remain a slave:
Sometimes God’s people literally act like a child that has been offended on the playground and they’re like, “I don’t want to play with you anymore.” God help us, what will we do if any real persecution comes our way?
1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
There is a process of growth that must take place in the life of believers, a process where we go from slaves to sons.
Galatians 4:1-7. Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant [slave NKJV], though he be lord of all; 2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Whether it’s a son or a bride both must know what their Father/ husband desire, or else they may be divorced or disinherited.
Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. reserved in heaven for you,
Hebrews 3:7-10. 7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
Ephesians 4:22-24. That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.