My beloved child…the allotted time I have given you to exist in the physical realm at the moment of your conception is my most precious gift. And the eternal purpose for the time I have given was for you to be engaged in the plans I have ordained for you…to do the good works I Myself have planned in advance for you to do. Time does not belong to you; it belongs to Me, and I will hold you accountable for how you have spent your time. The only act of worship on your part that is acceptable to Me, that is pleasing to Me…which must be first of all before any other worship or sacrificial offering…is to take the free will I have given you and freely, of your own free will, lay it on the altar of sacrifice in absolute surrender, and say from your heart, “Not my will, but Thy will be done.” Apart from that, you cannot truly worship Me…you can not worship Me in Spirit and in truth. Giving your free will back to God is the only thing you can give Me, precious child, that I don’t already have…because I had freely given it to you in the first place in Creation. You cannot become part of My holy remnant without being willing to lay your entire life on the altar of sacrifice…to be wholly surrendered unto God, wholly given for the blessings and salvation of souls.
Brothers and sisters in Christ…Relationship with God…deep, intimate, intensely personal…is Man’s missing crown of glory. Worship…in Spirit and in Truth…is the missing jewel in the Royal Diadem. These two foundational principles, the very underlying purposes for God’s Creation, are missing…both in the lives of individual souls and in the life of the Church.
Jesus interceded before the Father on our behalf, in His High Priestly Prayer when He knew His hour had come, “that they all may be one, just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us.” [John 17:21] Relationship between God and Man whom He created in His Own image and Glory, was purposed to be characterized by a soul’s living union of oneness with the Triune God…a oneness that mirrored Their Own relationship with One Another in that blessed Holy Trinity. Christ Jesus prayed for the Father’s fulfillment of God’s original intended purpose for the souls of Man.
In our present times, the lives of the vast majority of Christians characterize anything and everything but a living union of oneness with God. There is no concept of Divine marriage, no concept of Sacred Covenant relationship! Christ Jesus poured out His Own Precious Blood in payment of the price for our redemption, to purchase souls for God from every Tribe and Tongue and People and Nation. The Father Himself did not spare His Own Son, but gave Him up for us all. We, for our part, are taught to put a few small coins in God’s gumball machine, turn the knob, and out comes our eternal salvation! We take our prize home, tuck it safely away in a drawer to remind us every now and again that we have fulfilled our goal, and proceed to get on with the enjoyment of our life in this world. And yes…we, of course, honor God with some tokens of our time, scheduling Him into our otherwise busy worldly lifestyle. Like school-children dutifully going about their homework even though all the while their hearts are outside playing, even so we dutifully render to God whatever minimal time is necessary to appease our conscience and satisfy our sense of duty. Divine marriage? Shallow! Sacred Covenant relationship? Superficial! Jesus…our crown of glory? It is missing! God’s Love…so amazing, so Divine that it demands my soul, my life, my ALL? There is only a small remnant of such souls as these. God enable us by the Power of His Indwelling Spirit to embrace His purposes and thereby be counted part of that remnant!
Jesus explained to the Samaritan woman at the well, “The time is coming, and is already here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” [John 4:23] True worshipers such as the Father seeks will worship Him in Spirit and Truth. There is only a small remnant of souls who long to live faithfully in that Sacred Covenant relationship with God for which purpose we were created, who seek to become the true worshipers that please the Father, who desire to be the mirror of the Almighty we were called to be. May the Spirit of the Living God work in us both to will and to do by the Power of His enabling grace to become a part of that remnant!
God’s controversy with His people:
I made you for Myself, in My Own image and in My Own likeness, to be joined together with Me in a Sacred Covenant relationship…a living union of oneness…the very crown jewels of My Creation, and that, as a mirror of the Almighty, you would reflect My Glory to the created Universe! I purchased you, by Myself and for Myself, with the precious and priceless blood of My Divine Son Jesus, that you would declare My praises…the praises of the One Who called you out of darkness into My marvelous light! I made you to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, consecrated and set apart to the worship of God…consecrated and set apart to worship Me!
But no…instead, you are like an unfaithful, adulterous wife, having intimacy and love affairs with the world and thereby breaking your marriage vows to God! Your sweetest, most tender affections are not reserved for Me! I am not the choicest, most precious treasure of your heart! You have no longing to linger in My Presence, just sitting at My feet! Yes, I know that you honor Me with your lips…but your heart is far from Me! I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot…not willing to give up your pretension and claim to My name, yet having too much love for the world to stand steadfast and immovable with Me! I wish you were either one or the other… make up your mind, would you, please! So, because you are lukewarm…neither hot nor cold…I am thoroughly disgusted with you and am about to spew you out of My mouth! You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and am in need of nothing.” But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked! I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white garments to wear, to cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so your eyes would be opened and you can truly see! Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So, therefore, be earnest, and repent!” [Rev 3:15-19]
Surely, as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, says the Lord! O, spiritual adulteresses, untrue to God your husband, do you not know that your friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore would desire after mature consideration to be a friend of the world is thereby constituted an enemy of God! Or, do you think that the Scripture says in an empty manner and to no purpose, “The Holy Spirit who has been caused to make His permanent home in us has a passionate desire to control us to the point of envy of any control indwelling sin may have over us?” [Jer 3:20; James 4:4-5]
But you have played the harlot against Me with many lovers…yet do you even think to return to Me? Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see. Where have you not been adulterously lain with? By the wayside you have sat waiting for lovers eager for idolatry, like an Arabian desert tribesman who waits to plunder in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your vile harlotry and your wickedness, unfaithfulness, and disobedience to God! [Jer 3:1b-2]
A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am your Father, where is the honor due Me? If I am your Master, where is the respect due Me? says the Lord Almighty. [Mal 1:6]
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken your first love! Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first! If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. [Rev 2:1, 4-5]
To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: you have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent, therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth! [Rev 2:12,14-16]
To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: Nevertheless, I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways! I will strike her children dead! Then all the churches will know that I am He Who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds! [Rev 2:18, 20-23]
To the angel of the church in Sardis write: I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead! Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of My God! Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent! But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you! [Rev 3:1-3]
Brothers and sisters…living faithfully in that Sacred Covenant relationship with God embraces yearning just to be in His Presence more than anywhere else, communing with Him, inquiring of Him, listening to Him, pouring out my heart to Him. It embraces God as ALL I would ever need or want or desire. It is the devotion of my heart wherein I’d rather have Jesus…more than silver or gold; more than riches or pleasures untold; more than to engage in the follies of sin; more than to indulge in the pleasures of life; more than to own the things that this world esteems; more than anything this whole world can offer me. I will know just how precious my Lord is to me when I struggle just to keep my mind from wandering to Him when I am trying to focus on responsibilities that require my attention. And I will know just how far short I fall in this Sacred Covenant relationship when I struggle just to keep my mind from wandering away from Him when I am trying to commune with Him. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed. Other times, after He had dismissed the crowds, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. Some of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. [Mark 1:35; Matt 14:23; Luke 6:12 NIV]
I am to be wholly surrendered unto God, wholly given for the blessing and salvation of souls. Lord…none of my possessions belong to me; they all belong to You. You are free to do what You will with them, for all that I have has come from You; You are free to give and free to take away. I have no plans of my own; whatever plans I may have are all subject to Your plans, purposes, and will for me. I am here to do Your will, O Lord. I no longer have any privileges here in this world, because I am no longer a citizen here; You have transferred me out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light. All of my privileges are at my home in Heaven, where I am a citizen. There I am privileged to walk the streets of gold, and eat those immortal fruits that grow along the river flowing from the Throne. I have no expectations from the people of this world…nothing I expect of them to be or to do, for they continually fail to meet my expectations. All of my expectations are from You, Lord…You have never failed me, and You never will. I have no rights here on Earth, because I am not a citizen here; I am a resident alien. Since I have no rights here, there is nothing that anyone can violate. All of my rights are as a citizen of Heaven, and those rights will never be violated. I have no honor here among the people of this world, for anything I have done that is worthy of honor was not done by me, but rather by You working through me, with me, and in me. Therefore, all the glory belongs to You alone. All of the time I have been allotted here on Earth belongs to You; I have no time of my own. You are free to use my time here as You will. I have no desires of my heart for anything this world has to offer; I have only one desire, “I desire to do Your will, O Lord, and to finish the work You have given me to do.” I have no purposes of my own for my life, no goals that I cling to. My only purpose for life is to do the good works that You Yourself have planned in advance for me to do. I have no affections for the people of this world, or for anything this world has to offer, that competes with my affection for You. My sweetest, most tender affections are reserved for You alone. I have no attractions to the people of this world, or to anything this world has to offer, that competes with my attraction to You. You alone are the choicest, most precious treasure of my heart. All of my motives for doing things, my attitude in doing them, and my disposition while doing them, is intended to bring glory to You; enable me, Lord, to have godly motives, a good attitude, and a sweet disposition in all that I do.
Revelation 22:1-5
Then the angel showed me the river of the Water of Life, immortal and Divine, as clear as crystal, flowing direct from the Eternal Throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of every one of the great streets of the Holy City, solely for the exhaustless pleasure and blessedness of the celestial king-priests who occupy it! On each side of the river stood the tree of life, a species of tree bearing twelve different crops of fruit, yielding a new variety of its fruit each and every month, again solely for the unmeasured pleasure and blessedness of the immortal glorified saints who reside there! And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the peoples of the nations that inhabit the Earth below...for the preservation of their health, comfort, and Life-blessedness forever and ever. No longer will there ever be any penalty or curse resulting from sin and its consequences. The Throne of God and of the Lamb…a single Throne, shared with His glorified saints as He had promised, which is the seat and center of all the authority and power thenceforward put forth for the regulation and government of human affairs…will be in the City, and they shall reign to the ages of the ages! And His immortal and glorified servants will serve Him with a universal obedience and a loving devotion; no more sin, no more rebellion, no more forgetfulness or neglect of the claims or Word of the Eternal King. All life is permeated and transfigured with the most complete and happy accord with the Divine will, which then is done “on Earth as it is in Heaven.” They will see His face, and they shall stand continually before Him, and His name will be on their foreheads as a token of their sublime office and consecration, and of an honor and blessedness of the highest degree. There will be no more night in this celestial home of the Lamb’s Bride. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God Himself will give them His glorious, ever abiding, light. And they will reign for ever and ever, holding dominion over the nations… all people, languages, and nations under the whole Heaven…and their kingdom is an everlasting kingdom that will never end!
Friends, brothers and sisters…
There is one absolutely necessary preparation for every living soul on the face of this Earth, for the soon coming and imminent return of Jesus Christ…the one preparation that will irrevocably determine in which neighborhood you will spend all eternity, whether in Heaven or in Hell. You must be a born-again child of God. I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s Kingdom. I tell you the truth, no one can ever enter the Kingdom of God unless you are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at My saying you must be born again. [Jesus…John 3:3-7]
If you have never been born again,
or you are not sure whether you have been born again,
or you have been living your life as a lukewarm Christian and would now like to recommit your life and enter into a deep and intimate relationship with Christ Jesus in preparation for the soon coming marriage supper of the Lamb…
then I counsel you to get alone with God, read the solemn marriage vows you must make to become the bride of Christ and thereby be born-again, [https://preservechristianfamily.org/2019/01/21/bride-of-christ/], and with sincerity of heart from within the depths of your being, acknowledge before God, “I DO.”
He walks with me and He talks with me:
Preserve Christian Family 