For the past couple of months, my messages from the Father have been on a hiatus. Issues in my personal life almost became overwhelming, but what I missed most was doing messages that He has always provided. I do understand that Satan has thrown just about everything he could to try and draw me away from my Father, my Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. The thing is, my wife and I have actually drawn closer in our faith in the Lord in spite of everything else. (ESV – all emphasis is mine)
There was a gospel song some years back that had the line, “When you don’t feel like praying – Pray.” And this is exactly what we did. Every day, and more than once each day, we would take time to ask for our needs to be met. True needs, not frivolous things. Step by step, we became closer to the Lord and could literally feel the love our God has for us.
Matthew 7:7 and Luke 11:9 state, “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door shall be opened unto you.” It’s a faith issue in which we believe that our Heavenly Father cannot, and will not, ever lie.
Isaiah 12:2 states, “Behold, God is my Salvation, I will trust and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song; and He has become my Salvation.”
For some, it seems easier to just fall in step with this world and hope everything will get easier. However, we have Matthew 7:13-14; “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Our Creator knows our every weakness. It would be so easy for Him to just leave us to fall into whatever pit that is before us. However, Romans 11:33-36 states, “Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable are His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Or who has given to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”
A song written by William Cowper (pronounced Cooper) around 1773 is called “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.” Cowper’s pastor at the time was John Newton, who wrote the popular hymn “Amazing Grace.”
1.) God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.
2.) Deep in unfathomable mines of never-failing skill, He treasures up His bright designs, and works His sovereign will.
3.) Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; the clouds ye so much dread, are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head.
4.) Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace; behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.
5.) His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour; the bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower.
6.) Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan His work in vain; God is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain.
In today’s atmosphere, Satan has convinced many people that God isn’t even real. We hear comments such as, “There’s many ways to Heaven”; “Jesus was a good prophet, but not truly the Son of God”; all religions worship the same deity”; and there’s really no hell.”
Numbers 23:19; “God is not man, that He should lie, or a son of man that He should change His mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?”
Hebrews 6:17-18; “So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.”
And then there is Titus 1:2; “in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began.”
In Acts 2:21, Peter quotes a passage from the prophet Joel (2:32); “And it shall come to pass that all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Paul repeats this in Romans 10:13; “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Our Heavenly Father provides simple steps to lead us to Salvation; however, some have tried to add to the “ABCs” to fit their own beliefs. Jesus had the most issues with the Pharisees and Sadducees of His day. He did not try to hide the fact that He was the Son of God, but they accused Him of blasphemy. Before His crucifixion and resurrection, even His disciples found it hard to completely believe in Him. He told them, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
In Revelation 22, the final warning is given about those who would add to or take away from God’s word, yet people continue to do just that. There are warnings throughout His love letter – the Bible – about not giving the true word. Eternity in the lake of fire will be their destination.
If we “A” – admit we’re all sinners and cannot be saved through any actions of ours alone; and “B” – believe that Jesus is truly the Son of God, a part of the Holy Trinity who came to Earth in the form of a human to be the only perfect, sinless blood sacrifice the Father could ever truly accept; and if we “C” – call on Jesus to forgive us and be our Savior forever, we will be saved.
Once we have received and accepted Jesus as our Savior, we will have the Holy Spirit live within us (John 14:15-19, John 14;26; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:38; Romans 8:26; and many more). Even so, we will still be fallible humans until we take our last breath on this Earth, and as such will still sin. The Father has known this all along, and in 1 John 1:8-10, He provides us with the pathway to forgiveness when, not if, we sin. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
Forever is a very long time, and all who were not in God’s will prior to Calvary, and all who will have rejected Jesus from Calvary to the end of time on this Earth, will spend forever in the lake of fire that was made for Satan and his demons, or fallen angels (Matthew 25:41). There are no pardons or reduced sentences from this judgment.
All who receive and accept Jesus as their Savior will not be at the Great White Throne Judgment of Revelation 20:11-15. Instead, we will be brought before the Judgment Seat of Christ, as given in 2 Corinthians 5:10-11. At this judgment, we will gain or lose rewards for whatever we did in our human life, but no one is condemned to the lake of fire here. We will spend all eternity with our Savior, our Heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit, and every soul that followed God’s will or received and accepted Jesus during their lifetime on Earth.
The Father moves in mysterious ways. He is willing to forgive any sin that we truly confess when we call on Jesus to be our Savior forever. The unforgivable sin right now is to take your last breath on this Earth and not receive or accept Jesus. The second unforgivable sin will take place during the 7-year tribulation for all who take the mark of the beast.
Our Heavenly Father forces no one to call out to be saved but will honor all who truly do so. We do not know the day or hour that the Trumpet of God will sound, and there is a shout from an archangel, and all true believers will be taken up to meet Jesus in the air. At that moment, we will all be transformed into our eternal, immortal bodies and have the mindset of our Savior. We will not enter the tribulation/wrath period (1 Thessalonians 4: 13-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-53).
Our Father wants no one to fail and is patient toward us right up to the last moment (2 Peter 3:9). However, when the time comes that He has determined, the dead in Christ will be taken up first, followed by those who are alive at the call.
Today would not be too early to call out to Jesus to forgive you and ask Him to be your Savior forever, if you have not already done so. Tomorrow could be too late. Our Savior is never too busy to take your call.
Hope to see you at Home!