AGREED (Guest Post)

By infinity love God came down to the world to save humans. From the outset His hand reached out waiting for us to accept Him. His great plan has been prepared for each people who willing to surrender to Him. There is no one that “simply” salvaged but each people are given the honor to work with God on this earth.

His plan is not ordinary plan, yet a terrific plan which is not affordable by the hand and human existence, EXCEPT when we willing to walk with Him! Not just to walk together, but hand in hand and AGREED with Him.

Like one yoke on the two oxen’s shoulder… Without a deal, two people cannot walk together and achieve the goal, because it will tug of war between the two interests.

“Can two walk together, unless they are AGREED?” (Amos 3:3 NKJV)

“Do two people walk hand in hand if they aren’t GOING TO THE SAME PLACE?” (Amos 3:3 MSG)

Amos, the Prophet speaks of the God of Israel. That verse is not just about the relationship of man with man, but the image of God and man walk together.

We will never be able to walk with God if we do not agree with him. Agreed with His mind, agreed with His heart, agreed with His ways, and agree with His objectives. That means we have agreed with the whole His word.

Agree with God means always say yes and no arguing (contend) with His word. When we do not do His word, that’s when we do not agree with him. When we act out of His word, that’s when we’re arguing (contend) with Him.

Agreed with God means always be obey to Him no matter the conditions! Indeed it is not easy for people have full of limitations and weaknesses. But there is ONE INFINITUDE WAY WITH GOD… THAT IS FAITH!

 

FAITH

If we want a life above average, let’s walk with Jesus. But, often His way is not the same as our way. Often our brain cannot understand His ways. His truth is always contrary with the world concept, but we must continue to be in it without compromise! That’s why we must have faith..

Without faith, there would be no meeting point between God and us. Without faith, no one is able to walk with Him. His plan is too magical. His ways is fathomless. His mind is immeasurable.

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways!” (Romans 11:33 NET)

“O Lord, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep. A senseless man does not know, Nor does a fool understand this.” (Psalms 92:5-6 NKJV)

“I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work.” God’s Decree. “For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think.” (Isaiah 55:8-9 MSG)

Walk with God means live by faith. If we want to walk with Him, let’s prepared to believe and trust to His guidance. Not easy, but not too difficult, because God never leaves us to fend for themselves. He is with us, in us. Our part is to be always agrees with His word.

Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the prophets, apostles and followers of Christ are faithful to the end, are the ones who agrees with God. They catch the vision of God and totally give themselves to live in it. They walk with the Lord faithfully though the world often opposed. Their faith is proven by obedience in their every action.

Faith is not just a “sense of trust”, but faith is always accompanied by concrete actions, because our works are evidence of our faith.

How can they catch the vision of God and are fully confident to stay in it until the end?? Because they do not simply have knowledge about God, but they live in intimate fellowship with God in their daily life.

 

LIVING IN HABITUAL FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD

Our relationship with God is a very personal relationship. Jesus several times describes His people as the bride, and Christ is the bridegroom. And with the revelation of God, Isaiah, the prophet was uttered very beautiful prophetic about the relationship of God and His people:

For as a young man marries a virgin, So shall your sons marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So shall your God rejoice over you. (Isaiah 62:5 NKJV)

That’s supposed to be as close and as intimate our relationship with God. But our intimacy with God will be not established if we do not accustom and train ourselves to interact closely with God.

Enoch is a man who walked with God and continues to build intimacy with God in all of his life until God lifted him. “Enoch WALKED STEADILY WITH GOD. And then one day he was simply gone: God took him.” (Genesis 5:24 MSG)

As well as Noah

“These are the records of the generations (family history) of Noah. Noah was a righteous man [one who was just and had right standing with God], blameless in his [evil] generation; Noah walked (LIVED) [IN HABITUAL FELLOWSHIP] with God.” (Genesis 6:9 AMP)

They both were very thirsty for fellowship with God more than his contemporaries and God responded by use their life in unexpected ways.

God wants much closer to us compared to we want to know Him. When we seek God wholeheartedly and says “yes, I do” to Him, God will impart His power and change us until we have the capacity to be the doer of the divine plan of God.

“…..but the people who [are spiritually mature and] know their God will display strength and take action [to resist].” (Daniel 11:32b AMP)

“….. the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” (Daniel 11:32b NKJV)

Only people who know God that can be His co-worker because to walk together with Him need agreement and unity in all things. If we don’t know God so we will not know His “language”. Without the same “language” we will impossible to understand each other. If not understanding each other will be impossible to agree each other. What is God’s “language”? How God speaks with us? The answer is through His word.

 

IN HIS WORD

“Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.” (John 8:43 NKJV)

God never acts contrary to His word. Because it is very important for us to diligently read, contemplate, and do His word. When we faithfully abide in the God’s word, then our sensitivity to the Lord’s voice will be more refined, our minds will be renewed, and our hearts will be more aligned with God. Thus, the easier it is for God to direct us according to His will!

 

CONTINUOUSLY WILLINGNESS

Our agreement with God begins when by God’s grace we open our hearts to receive Jesus as Lord and one and only savior. That’s the first step of our faith with the seed of faith that comes from God alone. Surely we are being welcomed His outstretched hand. It is our first step of walk with the Lord and begins to enter to His plan. Keep moving, don’t stop, don’t turn, and don’t turn back!

“Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” (Hebrews 10:38 NKJV)

The first step is the beginning of everything, but we cannot stop and be satisfied until there. If we want to continue to grow in God, so we must have the continuously willingness as when we have opened our heart to invite the Lord Jesus come into our heart. Continuously willingness to leave all of ego, seeking personal satisfaction, sin and worldly pleasures. Also willingness to always obey and formed by God until we will in the image of God.

We cannot continue to be the spiritual baby. We must grow to be adult, puberty, and is ready to become the bride of Christ. Only people who have grown that can be trusted well by God.

Continue to agree with God by constantly obedient to His every word. Many people want to know God’s will, but did not want to obey. Many people want to hear the voice of God, but do not regularly read God’s word. CAN NOT!

As the two persons who continue to closely communicate intensely, the longer they “language” will be the same, their thoughts and perspectives more aligned, and then they are more able to reach an agreement. So it is between us and God. If we understand “His language”, then we will be understand His heart, easily capture His vision, and easier to understand of His every instruction.

God does not force us. God is looking who are willing. Obey and do all of God’s will in willingness, then every our step of obedience will bring us to achieve the fulfillment of His plan for our lives.

May the strength and wisdom of the Holy Spirit will sustain us, so that we remain firm and able to remain faithful to all calls and tasks assigned to us resolved definitively, according to His will. Amen.

 

By: Sella Irene – Beautiful Words

Image source: Google Images (edit with pixlr app)

Best Friend Forever of GOD

Hello my dear friends, once again my post this time talk about best friends. Do we need a best friend in our lives? I am strongly believed mostly of us would answer yes we need best friend. So it is with me! I have a very best friend named Kimiko. She lives in Japan. I have a close friendship with her since we were in college. Beside my Parents and Husband, she’s the one that really knows my secret. To her I could openly and shamelessly talk about everything, even something very personal. Our closeness sometimes exceeds our closeness with our own kin. We have a strong emotional bond. Believe it or not, she once suddenly phoned me in the early morning and said “I don’t know why, this morning I just feel you have a problem. Talk to me…” at the time yes she was true. I had a problem in the office. On the contrary, I also soon could feel if she currently has problems.

My dear friends, I pondered something. If having a best friend of human beings has been very delightful, what about have a very close friendship with our God? It’s something unimaginable how happy we are. The question is, is it possible? Isn’t God too great and cannot longer be reached by the human ability?  That’s right; God is so great, incomparable with the humans. But being a close friend of God isn’t something impossible but actually very possible. From the beginning God longs we could be His best friend but unfortunately man fall into the sin from the beginning. However, God didn’t stop waiting for our willingness to come to Him and got along closely with Him.

The bible clearly mentions some names that had a close relationship with God.  Let’s take a look one of them. Let’s pay attention to Enoch. Let’s have a look in Genesis 5:22a

So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.  And Enoch walked with God;

What an incredible close relationship! A great form of timeless relationship. We could see through this verse how Enoch was able to maintain a relationship with the Lord; live in harmony with God for so long. His faithfulness was tested in the long time span, more than of the normal human age.  Enoch lived in the broken era. He lived in the era before the world destroyed by the flood. Enoch lived in the days of the most evil. Human fell into the sin (Genesis 3), murder happened for the first time (Genesis 4), and finally the earth destroyed by the flood (Genesis 6). But in the world filled with sins, Enoch remain faithful live, made a friendship, and walk with God for very long time.  He wasn’t affected by the worldly temptation.  The Bible mentions the fact that Enoch walked with God for more than three hundred years. What happened to Enoch at the time? We all know that because of his very close relationship and walk with God faithfully; he didn’t experience a physical death. Enoch was taken away directly from the sinful world to Heaven with God forever.

And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:24)

The author of Hebrews then wrote again about Enoch:

By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. (Hebrews 11:5)

I took a bit time to imagine the fact of Enoch. He was taken away so that he didn’t see death. Wow!  I think it was a beautiful and great privilege that given by God to Enoch. He didn’t feel any pain or suffering before death. My dear friends, we might not experience the same thing like Enoch but when we make a very close relationship with God, we will also get privilege from God. What kind of privilege that we will get when we have very close relationship and always walk with God? In the book of Leviticus 10:3 God said:

‘I will display my holiness through those who come near me. I will display my glory before all the people.”

The Lord is a friend to those who fear Him, He teaches them his covenant. (Psalm 25:14)

By make a close relationship with God then God will open to us and show His Holiness and covenant. Another privilege is, let’s take a look to this verse:

Jesus said:” I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15)

Jesus said this thing not just for His disciples but also to us. He longs become our best friend and He started proactively with the concrete proof by sacrificing Himself to die on the cross for our sin. He really loves us as His true friend.

My beloved readers, what about us now? I do believe as a Christian we have placed God as a best friend in our lives and walk with Him. But the question is, how the quality of our relationship with God and what about our behavior when we get along closely with Him? Let’s go back to Enoch for a moment. I pondered the words “And Enoch walked with God” there are two important thing we can get from those words. First, normally if there are two best friends walked together, then they will talk and listen to each other. In this case, God talked with Enoch and Enoch heard God, and so did Enoch talked then God heard. Have we made a balance between talking and hearing? Well, we have to be honest that the fact is we more talking than hearing. Almost every day we moan about our lives problems. Or we are listening God talks just when we take a quiet time around one hour or even less in the morning. After that we will busy with our activities and we will forget about our fellowship with God. We tend to talk more than hearing. There is a reason why God gives us two ears and one mouth, God wants us listen more than talking to Him. God’s word said:

So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;

(James 1:19)

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27)

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)

The second thing, have a close relationship and walk with God also mean that we are in line with God. We walk “side by side” with God with the same direction. “Enoch walk in God, not God walk with Enoch” So, it doesn’t mean God must follow the way as our will, but we must follow God’s way and everything we do must be in Him and only to glorify Him.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Colossians 3:17)

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.(1 Corinthians 10:31)

A question to ponder, when we are facing the difficult situation, have we always choose God’s way or we tend to choose the worldly way? Often time worldly way seems more easy and simple than the God’s way. Choosing God’s way often need quite time, worldly way offers an instant solution.  Which way we choose? Remain walk in God or walk in the worldly way and then we will like a lost sheep as written in Isaiah 53:6:

And when we walk with God we will not go astray like sheep that choose their own way.

My beloved readers, allow me to end this post by encourage all of us to learn from Enoch’s life who always walked with God and faithfully get along closely with God. Next week we will commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Lord. Approaching of His resurrection day let’s take time for self-reflection. If we say we love Jesus the Lord, Have we make Jesus the Lord as our true friend in our lives and always make a very close relationship with Him every day? Have we been able to hear more His voice than asking Him to hear our voice? Which way we walk, walk in God’s way or worldly way? God may not take away us like He did to Enoch, but we have been awarded the greatest love in human life. God gave His only son died on the Cross to redeem our sins. This is a proof of how great His love as a true friend.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:14)

God doesn’t ask us to sacrifice our lives. He just longs and asks us to love Him earnestly and wholeheartedly, life in Him, has a very close relationship, and glorifies Him. Let’s make this Passover season to be a momentum to rebuild and renew our relationship with the Lord Jesus and truly make Him as a true friend, always walk with God in every step of our life. Always hear His voice more and do all which has been commanded by Him, and always maintain our intimacy with God through His word. Rebuild a healthy conversation with God through diligent prayer. Eventually people will know that we are the Best friend forever of God. Amen.

My beloved readers, although Easter day still a week away, allow me,  my husband, and our little son Andrew say, Joining you in gratitude for Christ’s sacrifice and the joyful renewal it brings to all God’s children this Easter season. Happy Easter! We love you all.

 

Karina – Living by faith

Image credit: http://www.firstfilmbc.org