Know the Father and You Know Your Future

This morning, I was meditating on the past two month's prayer message of abiding in Jesus and abiding in His word (John 15).  From the depths of my spirit came the title of today's blog, "Know the Father and You Know Your Future."  Everyone is interested in knowing what their future is, but is anybody interested in knowing our Heavenly Father.

There is a vast difference in knowing about somebody and actually knowing them personally.  Many people claim to have a knowledge OF God and never really get to know Him.  Because people only know OF God, He gets blamed for a myriad of things including: storms, death, sickness, poverty and every one of the ills of life.  To begin with, those actions are not the handywork of our God.  They are the byproduct of a selfish relationship with evil itself, Satan.  Look for yourself at the first couple of chapters of Genesis and show me where God CREATED any of these malicious things.  You would have to lie about it to tell me.  It was when sin began to dominate man's actions that God's protective covering over man was taken away and hurtful things came.  It wasn't God doing it at all.  Man chose to live in sin and according to Dt 28, sin brought all the manifestations of evil.  Thank God that His Son, Jesus Christ, died for our sins and paved the way for a new and loving relationship between man and His Creator.

1 John 4:16-And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.  The Apostles and their followers began to turn the world around for the name of Jesus because they knew and believed how much God loved them.  They didn't have great seminaries to go to.  They did not have millions of books to read.  They did not even have access to the jillions of Bibles that we have access to today.  Outside of Jesus Christ, they did not have great examples to follow and mimick.  What they did have, though, was a red hot prayer life.  They spent hours at a time in God's Holy Presence.  It was such an important part of ministry, that the early church had to create the office of deacons so that the Apostles could spend their time enhancing their relationship with God.  They saw that as one of the most important parts of building the body of Christ.

How many of us can say today that we 'know and believe the love that God has for us?'  Before we can go very deep into the subject, let's talk about something simple.  For example, most of us have NO problem at all believing that we are going to Heaven one day to be with Jesus forever and ever.  We believe in the New Jersulem, streets of gold and gates of pearl.  None of us sit around and worry and fret about how will we get there, when will we get there, just exactly where is it or any other doubtful thought.  We just KNOW AND BELIEVE that God loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for us so we could go to Heaven and be with Him.  To us it is just that simple.

However, when it comes to believing God for revival, salvation for our loved ones, healing for our bodies, or finances to build the kingdom we come up with all of the vague ambiguities about how it might not happen.  God might not like us.  God might not want our loved ones saved.  God might not want to heal us.  God might just want to keep us poor and sick to teach us some lesson.  Where is your scripture for all of this mullarky?  Preachers and seminary professors, you don't have any scriptures for it.  You may twist and tear and create your own doctrine, but the Word of God is explicit.  However, today's blog is not to argue the Word of God.  It is simply to provoke a relationship with Him.

When you throw your questions and ifs and buts down and begin to fall in love with HIM, when you become so malcontent with just knowing ABOUT God and get down to the business of knowing Him personally, your questions begin to change.  Your arguments begin to be pointed at the established religions instead of our Loving Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  As you grow to love and actually KNOW, and BECOME ACQUAINTED with a very personal Savior, your questions melt away in the chasm of His love and grace.  A boldness  in the Word of God begins to form way down inside.  You begin to doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs instead of the other way around.

As you throw yourself into the loving arms of Jesus and decide to stay there, you begin to wonder, "Why haven't I been told about this place in Christ before?"  Actually you have.  You have just always chosen to know about it instead of knowing it as a reality.

Let's ask the right questions.  Can anybody or anything keep God from taking a believer to Heaven?  Your answer would adamantly be something along the line of----Why that's the MOST absurd question I have ever heard.  You would begin to quote scripture and declare God's love to be greater than any hinderance.  You would berate your accuser as if he were the most illiterate individual on the face of this earth.

The next right question is, if the same God that is honor bound to take us to Heaven made any other promises, would HE hesitate in any way, shape or form in performing those promises?  HIS LOVE would cry out a resounding, NO!

In the small book--A 12-MONTH GUIDE TO BETTER PRAYER--I have been challenged to (John 15) abide in Jesus and abide in His Word throughout the day and not just 10-15 minutes whenever I get a chance.  It is making a difference in my approach to the One Who gave His life for me.  I see many things differently from the lap of His love.  His Word is becoming a stronger light on my future.  Do I know which stocks to pick to make a fortune?  No and that's not the point.  The point is His Love has said that my needs were met according to His riches in glory.  I have chosen to know and believe His Love for me.  Therefore, I read His Word and know my future.  How, where and when He chooses to bring those things to pass are up to Him and His love.  As for me, my choice is to abide in His love------stay in His lap----never get out of arm's reach-----always stay close to hear Him say, "I love you."

Come join me in Daddy's lap.