Category: Spirituality and Truth

Again, the inescapably personal question: Is your God happy? Is he deeply pleased, eternally bright, the waterfall cascading the edges and satisfying your adopted soul, if born again you be? Can you join to sing,

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,
God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee,
Opening to the sun above.

I want my heart to unfold more sweetly, more fully. So, let’s gaze up at the brilliance of the divine happiness together. As with the apostle John, if everything were to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books (John 21:25). Most must be omitted, but even as a little honey can brighten the eyes, a few glimpses of his happiness can freshen our joy in him.

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Is the God you think of day to day much happier than you? Do you think the Father bright and abundant or rather frownful and displeased? Does he enjoy his Life? Or is he just a tad bored, waiting for you to cheer him up a bit? What is your God like? We smile less than we might, because we feel little warmth from the smiling God.

We have heard the good news of the holy God, the just God, the three-in-one God, the mighty and compassionate, the faithful and all-wise, the loving and prayer-hearing and covenant-keeping God — but what of the happy God, the blessed God? If we look forward to “enjoying him forever,” do we not first need to be convinced that he is enjoyable? And can a King who stifles song or laughter really satisfy our souls (though he be otherwise strong and wise and good)? Do we color the God of Beauty grey, imagining him who makes the seraph burn and the bird warble to be the Sovereign Eeyore in these Hundred Acre Woods?

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Second, then, to those groaning under trials, tempted to doubt or even grow bitter against God, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” This God doesn’t give bad gifts. Again, “God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13). No, if he has made you his own, everything he gives you or allows you to experience will ultimately be good for you.

Not only that, trials are opportunities to feel the goodness of all we’ve been given. He’s not only the giver of everything we might have or crave; he’s also the giver of every good thing we lose or fear to lose — a first home, a beloved pet, a dream job, a decades-long friendship, a clean bill of health, a precious spouse, a faithful church. God gave you whatever this trial has taken from you. Even the pain is its own reminder of his kindness and generosity.

And he’s still, even in the loss, giving you more than you deserve — “life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). James says in the very next verse, “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (James 1:18). As troubled and discouraged as you may feel in these painful circumstances, through faith, you are a new creation. God raised you from the dead and opened your eyes to see, in Christ, what you could never see on your own.

This gift of new, eternal life is why Paul can say of any suffering, even what you’re suffering now, “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Not only will these fleeting trials soon give way to glory, but they’re actually preparing glory for you — and you for that glory.

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First, to those tempted to seek comfort and relief in sinful desires, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” How does God’s immeasurable generosity weaken worldliness? How does wide-eyed gratitude take the edge off of deceitful desires? God is the giver of every good we might sinfully crave.

When we see the hand of God behind everything we might idolize, we remember why every good and perfect gift exists in the first place: to help us see, taste, touch, smell, and hear the glory of God. The goodness of our world is rooted in the God-ness of our world. Nothing is good when it is ripped from his purposes and turned against its Maker — when a gift of God becomes a rival to him. “What do you have that you did not receive?” the apostle Paul asks. “If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). Every pleasure we’re tempted to chase or demand is designed to lead us to see God, thank God, and enjoy God.

When we see he’s the giver, we remember again why we have anything we have. We also remember just how small and fleeting every other pleasure is compared with him. Jeremiah Burroughs writes, “A soul that is capable of God can be filled with nothing else but God; nothing but God can fill a soul that is capable of God” (The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, 43). Our sinful, worldly desires are attempts to fill a God-sized canyon with crayons and animal crackers. We remember not only that he gives every good thing, but that he himself is better and more fulfilling than every good thing, even the very best things.

So don’t be deceived when temptation comes. Your sinful cravings will not soothe or satisfy apart from Christ. In fact, they’ll kill you if you let them: “Desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15). That means good gifts can be deadly ones if they don’t draw us nearer to the good and greater Treasure.

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What verses do you reach for most often when you pause to give thanks to God?

Maybe you’re bowing over a home-cooked meal after an especially long and frustrating day. Maybe God came through in a moment of more acute desperation or need — at the office, with the kids, over the family budget. Maybe you and your friends got to do that thing you love to do together (but rarely get the chance to anymore). Maybe you simply felt the warmth of the sun on your skin after a week of overcast skies. And you know that meal, that friend, that sun is from God, and so you want to thank him. What verses come to mind?

One comes to mind for me, one I’ve leaned on countless times in prayer:

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1:17)

It’s a heart-warming, soul-stirring perspective: Every good thing you have, you have from God. In just a few words, James pulls every conceivable blessing — from the smallest snacks or shortest conversations to the weightier gifts of children, churches, homes, and health — all under the brilliant umbrella of the Father’s love.

Recently, though, as I slowly read through James again, I stumbled over the familiar verse because of the verse immediately before it. What would you expect to read before such an immense statement of God’s lavish generosity? Probably not this:

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above . . . (James 1:16–17)

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“Christ Jesus has totally defeated Satan and all of his wicked powers and authorities totally and forever”.  The enemy would like to have God’s children ignorant of the fact that Christ already defeated Satan one hundred percent. The battle is won totally and forever.

“And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it”. (Colossians 2:13-15)

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• Do you say or think things like this? I forgive the person but I will let God deal with them. If you want God to judge and punish them, that is not forgiveness.
• Do you say things like, I forgive the person but I do not want to see them or talk to them again. How would you feel if God said to you I forgive you but I am going to avoid you and not speak to you, would you feel forgiven? That is not forgiveness. God’s forgiveness always restores.
• Do you still have any anger or bad feelings toward the person? When you fully forgive the person, anger will be replaced with pity for them.
• Do you still hold on to the memory of the wrong done to you thinking about it often? True forgiveness forgets, because of the healing of forgiveness the pain disappears as if it did not happen. When God forgives He forgets it forever as if it never occurred.
• Do you have trouble accepting God’s love for you, and accepting God’s forgiveness? If so it could be because you are standing in judgement of another person, because you don’t have mercy, it is hard for you to believe that God has mercy and compassion for you. Forgive others and you will be able to forgive yourself, and accept God’s forgiveness in your life. “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)

Part of the meaning of the word blessed means to be happy, joyful, and depression free. Sometimes we may think that we have forgiven someone but we really have not. When you forgive someone then they are also forgiven by God. Again Jesus said, “Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” (John 20:21-23)

This is how to enter into the healing forgiveness, compassion, mercy, and Love of God, which is His grace. Get on your knees and enter into prayer for the person that has hurt you. Approach the throne of grace, in front of the mercy seat, and petition your Father in heaven to please forgive this person. Ask God almighty to pour out His grace, mercy, and compassion upon this person, and in this person. Name off every sin that has been done against you, God will reveal them to you there so you can leave them behind.

Tell God please forgive this person because they did not know what they were doing, they did not know how bad their sin was and how much pain it would cause. Just as Jesus hanging upon the cross in agony looked down on the people murdering Him and said Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing. Ask God in Jesus name, and by the blood that Jesus shed on the cross to please forgive each sin done against you individually. As you name each sin against you and ask God to forgive a ten ton burden will lift off with each one. You will know when they are all gone.

“Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” (James 3:13-18)

Recently God took me into the deepest realm of forgiveness that I have ever experienced. Feeling wronged by a Christian Brother, I was offended, and felt that I did not deserve the false judgments and things he was saying against me, mainly to other people. Jesus teaches us if someone has something against us to go and be reconciled to your brother before you even bring a gift to the Lord. I wanted to reconcile but it seemed impossible because we were unable and it seemed unwilling to even communicate so that we could reconcile. One night when this was a heavy weight upon my soul I began crying out to the Lord not even knowing what to say or pray. I sometimes just groaned in my Spirit and even groaning out loud at times. For about two hours I sought the Lord and His help.

At one point it finally occurred to me that the Lord must be trying to teach me something because it seems always at my lowest points of despair God gives me the greatest revelations. So I said Lord what are you trying to teach me? Within a few minutes the revelation began. I felt that I should pray what I have been teaching others to pray. That is for God to have grace, mercy, and compassion upon the person who I felt had wronged me. But immediately I thought no maybe God needs to deal with this person and “teach him a lesson”. Recognizing that this was judgmental on my part and a very wrong attitude, I proceeded to pray for him that God would have grace, mercy and compassion on him.

At that moment I felt in my spirit that I was moving into the presence of God and my burden starting to lift. I then proceeded to ask God to please forgive my brother who I felt wronged me and I started to name off each offence I felt was done against me. Each time I named an offence and asked God to please forgive him I felt a heavy burden lift from my being. When I named the last one that I could think of I was free. Immediately I felt the Holy Spirit say to me the words of Jesus “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” I knew that my brothers’ sins were fully forgiven, not just by me but also by the Lord, and now Satan had no right and no more hold over my brother, or me, the next day we began to be reconciled. I believe that as his sins were forgiven he was set free from deception

I had always thought that I was very good at forgiveness, and I believe people that know me would agree with that because of some situations I have gone through before. But this time the Lord took me to a new dimension of forgiveness that I had never known before. Now I realize that what I thought was forgiveness was not. Until you go before the throne of grace in front of the mercy seat and plead for God to also forgive the people who have wronged or offended you, you have not fully forgiven. Just as Jesus hanging in agony on the cross, looked down at the people killing Him and said “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”. God wants us to come to that point in our life. When you get to that point you are dead to yourself, you have given up all of your rights, all your rights to be angry, hurt, offended, to punish, and to judge the other person. It is the most humbling spiritual experience I have ever had, it is very painful to cross that line of giving up all your rights and dying to yourself. But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” (James 4:6)

But once I was there, and I felt that burden lift, I felt the most awesome blessing of God come upon me. “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” (Matt 5:7).  I felt God’s compassion come all over me, and fill me to overflowing. We have to be very careful to not let ourselves become offended at other people because we will be judged the same way we judge others. “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” (Matt 7:1-2)

We must forgive everyone that offends us, and everyone that sins against us.  “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matt 6:14-15)

It is clear from God’s word that we are required to forgive sins that are against ourselves because our God and Father forgives, so as His children He wants us to forgive also. Forgiveness is an action of compassion, an act of love. “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”(Luke 6:35-38)

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) “For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.” (Heb 5:1-3)

“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. “(1 Peter 4:8)

For more about forgiveness see our message about how we are “Called to Be Royal Priest” at www.seekgod.org/message/intercession.html

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And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…. Word here is the Greek word “rhema” which means an actual spoken message from God. Therefore the sword of the Spirit is the word (or message) that God speaks to us. It is a quickened word which God provides to counter a wrong situation, or to encourage someone when they need it, to give direction or reassurance etc. You can picture God sitting up there in Heaven and He sees something that needs His attention. He says to Himself “Hmmm, I think I’ll send Moses with a message for those people. Holy Spirit, go to Moses and tell him to go to Pharaoh and say ‘If you don’t let my people go I will bring a plague of locust upon your land’”. The end result was that Pharaoh could not stand against the Lord, and had to let His people go. It is the same today. God uses us to take a message from Him to different people at different times according to His purposes.

We can all hear from God like this, and His message can be one of reassurance, rebuke, direction, or any one of a number of different things. For that sword to be all sharpened up and ready for use requires an active relationship with the Lord. Take time out at the start of each day, and then periods throughout the day, to just give Him your fellowship. It is amazing how He speaks to people who have the ears to hear! This is another piece of the armour of God that is automatically intact and properly fitted when we have a right relationship with God.

When David faced Goliath, Saul had David fitted out in his armour, but David found that it was heavy and uncomfortable, and so he chose to go without it. In the same way we cannot wear anyone else’s armour. It is not good enough to know about God through someone else. We are each responsible for our own personal relationship with the Lord to keep our armour intact. The plus is that when we have a right relationship with Him, our lives are complete and nothing can match the beauty that we find there even in adversity.

There are many different aspects to having a meaningful relationship with God. Some of these are regular Bible reading, prayer, thanksgiving and praise, but along with these is the need for time out to “be still and know that I am God”. A time of fellowship where we stop and let Him enjoy our company, while we enjoy His. A time without noise, or the need to do or say anything. A time of just being still before Him and available to Him.

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Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” When you fully forgive, God’s peace will rest upon you, and the Holy Spirit will comfort you.

A root of bitterness can grow up in a person because of unforgiveness. This root can be buried deep inside your heart and can block the flow of God’s love from penetrating deep within your heart. It also blocks the flow of God through you, making it difficult to experience God’s love for others. Unforgiveness is a major cause of depression, many people have unforgiveness but are not even aware of it because it is buried so deep inside. Sometimes people do and say things that hurt us very deeply. Sometimes we are hurt by the ones that are closest to us. Sometimes people are hurt in childhood, at the most vulnerable time of life, leaving wounds that we think are healed but they have left scars that still remind us of the wound.

These painful hurts can be buried so deep within us so that we may be unaware that we are still carrying some resentment toward the person who hurt us. Unforgiveness is a form of pride that rejects God and invites Satan in. “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.” (Ephesians 4:26-27 KJV)

“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.”(Hebrews 12:14-15)

Unforgiveness is an unforgivable sin allowing Satan an open door into your life. “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15)

Jesus says; “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matt 5:44-48)

“Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:14-21)

“But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.” (Luke 6:35-37)

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And take the helmet of salvation…. The helmet obviously protects our heads and in particular, our minds and is simply the knowledge and reassurance we have of our salvation. Because we know Jesus not only in the Scriptures, but also in our hearts, this is our protection against doubt and anything else that would seek to undermine our faith. Romans 8:15-16 reads “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption (sonship) by whom we cry out Abba Father”. The ways to keep our helmet firmly intact are chiefly to have a good Bible knowledge (through regular reading), but more importantly, to make sure that our actual personal relationship with the Lord is alive and meaningful.

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