by J.L. Morgan
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Hot or Cold?
Science will tell you that cold as a “thing” doesn’t exist. Cold is just the absence of heat. Our bodies tell us that 32 degrees is cold, our own defense mechanisms push us towards seeking a heat source.
Jesus said he would rather us be hot or cold, instead we are lukewarm. In His terminology what would He define as hot and cold?
Clearly to be hot would mean we are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and on fire for God. Cold would mean we lack the understanding that there is indeed a thing called “heat”, or our defense mechanism hasn’t kicked in yet to tell us there is warmth and we should seek it.
The lost do not know they are lost, they don’t know they are cold, which means it’s up to us, that are on fire for God, to go after the cold, because a warm blanket is all they need to help them know that there is heat. Us who have the heat of the Holy Spirit, must go reveal their cold frozen state, to let them know about this wonderful thing called warmth, and to live a life that radiates the image of Christ.
What does it mean to be lukewarm then? It only means that you have left your cold state and have gotten comfortable in your present surroundings. It is the Lukewarm who must be encouraged to seek more heat, or you will get too comfortable in the apparent “warmth”. You need to be pushed to receive the fire, and power from the Holy Spirit. It means that you are still holding on to the “things” of this world. It means you have not placed everything on the altar and given it fully into His control.
I do not mean to say that any man has ever been able to place everything on the altar the first time. There may be things in which he did not know needed to be placed on the altar. When you surrender all, that never means some.
The most precious thing that Abraham had was his son Isaac. It was promised by the Creator Himself, that the World would be blessed through Isaac. But God told Abraham that He needed to place Isaac on the Altar and offer Him up to the Lord.
Watch this friends, it wasn’t until Abraham had placed Isaac on the Altar that the transaction had been made. But Abraham didn’t know this, which is why he raised his knife in the air to show God he could do it. God commanded him to stay the knife and to not harm the boy. Understand this, Abraham thought it required the actual killing of Isaac to please God, but in the willingness to comply Abraham’s faith had been proven to God, and God knew that Abraham would follow God and do whatever God asked of Him. Abraham thought he had to kill the sacrifice for it to be good. He even convinced himself that God would raise Isaac from the dead.
“Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ The “sacrifice” was made when he placed Isaac on the altar
Many of us have the idea that God is asking us to put ourselves on the altar, we walk down the aisle and kneel thinking time after time, Why do you not accept my offering of myself? Am I not good enough for you God? Why do you hate me God? Do I really need to just keep saying this prayer? Am I not tithing enough for you God? You ask the same things Cain asked with his “insufficient offering”
God is not asking you to place yourself on the altar, He wants you to be like Abraham and Abel, and place what is most precious to you in the care of The Almighty God.
It takes that kind of commitment, God asks for everything, because He is a jealous God. He wants us to Worship Him, and Him alone.
Have you earnestly placed your spouse, your finances, your cars, your house… Do you see where this list eventually leads? It leads to you, but you have to put the things you value on the altar first.
If you could only see yourself in your coffin, finally laid to rest 6 feet below the surface. If you could see you laying there, almost peaceful. It would only be when you looked around and noticed that all your things, your friends, family, money, they are not with you in that grave, because in that place, they have no value to you whatsoever, they can do nothing to change your situation. They only have value while you are still alive to cherish them
With the understanding that you have nothing in the end, look at what you have now. Everything around you that is in your life is precious to you. Those are the items God commands you to place on the altar.
God’s Holy Spirit has a purifying power. It works to burn off our impurities (sin) that we never even knew were there! Praise God!
The Holy Spirit will keep those things in your life that are Glorifying to the Father, and remove those that even though you may like them, He ultimately works to help you see that you are better off without them in your life.
This is the Way for Christians.
Many people today are mimicking the motions, trying hard to be like Christ. You go to church, engage in an experience, try diligently to do what your pastor says you should do, and do, and do, and do, hoping that someday your efforts will amount to something. But you still feel the sense that something is missing. Religion has become something that kind of resembles a savings account that you throw $20 a month into, hoping that when it comes time to stand before the Almighty Judge. You hand Him your ledger of “accomplishments” and say “Here, does this count for anything?”
“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’
He said that to You right now. Jesus is always talking to You in the Bible. There, that is a great mystery revealed. You right now without the indwelling of Holy Spirit have just heard that your worst fear is come true. You are a Sinner, everyone is, every last one of us.
The Way for Christians is this: We understand that no matter how hard we try, we know we will never be good enough, there is nothing that we possess on our own to allow us to rise up from our cold sinful state. We cry out from our knees saying “Lord this is what happens when I am in charge, break me, fix me, do whatever you need to, please, take control and save me!”
The Way for Christians is to know that upon crying out to God to take control of all your life, turn it all over to Him, Lay everything on the altar and run to God who is waiting with open arms to welcome you home. Then, get baptized in the name of the Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit, this is the formula for receiving Holy Spirit.
The Christian knows this truth because the Christian knows the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the One who reveals all things is actually living inside of every born again Christian. If you do not know Him, then go back a few paragraphs and take the time to comprehend, ask Holy Spirit to give you wisdom so that you may understand.
The Way for Christians is to understand that Christ who is Divine, gave up His divinity and came to earth as a mere Human. He restricted His Power to “only” that of Holy Spirit. To show us that with His help we can be beyond better, we can be blessed. Even to the point of describing our life as abundant.
The Way for Christians is to know that Holy Spirit works on us daily to keep us humble, to always test ourselves. Holy Spirit works in us to remove our imperfections. We must be reminded that we cannot remove them on our own.
And this is what we do daily.
We seek His face to shine upon us Good and faithful servants. And we know that none of us is perfect, because we don’t achieve perfection until death or Jesus comes back first. Pressing forward.
STAY IN THE LOOP
