We Give It Away
Jesus said, “If you continue in my word then you shall be my disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” The Apostle Paul said by inspiriation, “That which you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou unto faithful men that will be able to teach others also.”
These two verses summarize Jesus’ great commission in Matthew 28:19-20 which he spoke to his disciples before he ascended into heaven: “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.” In Acts 1:8 he said, “Tarry ye here in Jerusalem and you shall be endued with (clothed with) power from on high not many days hence.” Jesus had told his disciples in John 14, “I have to leave you so that the Holy Spirit can come. The Holy Spirit is the comforter, called along side you and within you to teach you all (spiritual) things.”
In our own ability we have no power to share the gospel of the good news of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Without the power from on high we cannot help but sin…. to miss the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The power from on high is the spirit of God we received when we were born again, not of biological seed of the flesh we inherited from Adam. Instead, we were born again of God’s Holy Spirit, a spiritual new birth by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever.
As followers of Christ, we’re called to share the gospel of salvation. This message is in John 3:16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Jesus Came not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. According to 1 John 5:11-13, “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written to you that believe on the son of God and that ye may know that you have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name of the son of God.”
No one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit. When we’re born again of God’s seed, our spirit bears witness with God’s spirit that we are sons of God. When any man is in Christ he is a new creation. The new creation is the spirit of God in Christ in us.
Jesus said to his disciples in Galilee, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” They had dedicated their lives to be fishers of fish. Jesus changed the purpose of their lives…. to be fishers of men. He taught them to be nodes in God’s fishing net…. the fishing network that would spread unto the uttermost part of the earth. Jesus poured his life into twelve disciples and an inner circle of three: Peter, James, and John. The power of God is spread through an exponential explosion to the power of three.
Jesus said, ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. You shall know the word of God and Jesus Christ, the word of God made manifest in the flesh. The truth shall make you free. Galatians 5 says, Therefore, stand fast in liberty wherewith Christ has made you free and be not entangled in the yoke of bondage (of the Old Testament law of sin and death.) The freedom is not an occasion to sin… to run wild, but instead it is the freedom to serve one another in love.
God chose men and women who hunger and thirst after righteousness. They will be filled with the power of God, born again of God’s incorruptible seed. They will be disciples, disciplined followers of their Lord Jesus Christ. As sons of God and followers of Christ, He’s called us to be witnesses of God’s power in manifestation. Paul said, for we speak not ourselves but Jesus Christ and him crucified. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
John said, “walk in the light as he is in the light and the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The light of the Son of God is a disinfectant cleansing us from infectious pathogens… the darkness, destruction, and decadence of this world. The cleansing is in walking with Christ. When we walk according to the spirit of Christ, then we exercise Christ’s feet behind our feet, his eyes behind our eyes, his ears behind our ears, his hands behind our hands…. his heart behind our heart.
You’re most like the people with whom you spend time.. Who are your twelve and who are your three? Be careful who your enemies are, but even more careful about who your friends are. Bad company corrupts good morals. Therefore find a man of God and come along side him. Then hang on his screen door like a cat clinging desperately to a screen door slamming in a windstorm.
When we come to know Jesus Christ, we will understand the love of God. For it is the goodness, the loving kindness and tender mercy of God that calls a man to repentance. When we surrender our lives and make God’s desires our desires, his delight our delight, and his purpose our purpose, then he will work with us and within us to will and to do of His good pleasure.
A wise man said, most men can overcome adversity. However, only one of ten men can handle success. The temptation is that the trappings of worldly success become their god. The problem with the rich young ruler is that he had the wrong lord. He was not willing to forsake his worldly riches to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. America is a rich nation. There is irony in the motto of the United States: “in God we trust.” This motto is printed on our currency. The Irony is that money is the god in which most Americans trust.
Jesus calls us where we are for such a time as this. God works best with people whose hands are empty. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. America today is like the opening line from Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities: It is the best of times and the worst of times. Because America is emerging from the global pandemic, many Americans are desperate for deliverance. God has called us to spread the good news of deliverance from the bondage of the troubles of this world. He has given us the ministry of reconciliation… to reconcile God’s people back to him. He has called us as ambassadors from our home in heaven, empowered with the word of reconciliation to deliver a peace treaty from our Sovreign Lord. We are the only bibles some people will ever read. For ye are our epistles, God’s love letters, known and read of all men. This is our mission and our great commission: Go give ‘em Heaven…..
…that together we may live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
