“Who do people say that I, the Son of Man am? Matthew 16:13

Jesus asked His disciples this question. The disciples speculated that Jesus was John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the other prophets. Jesus restated the question and Peter responded “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”.

This question is now directed at you. Who do you think Jesus is? Most people would respond Jesus is the Son of God. This is really a superficial or incomplete answer for a believer dwelling in God and does not relate to the reality of the Living Christ.

Peter was able to respond correctly because the answer was revealed to him not by intellect or fleshly insight but by the spirit of God. And, Peter had not witnessed the death or resurrection of Christ at the time he spoke.

You cannot understand who Christ is or how He can relate to your life until He is revealed to you by the Holy Spirit. At this time, He changes from a storybook character to a Living God. It is impossible to know Christ through emotions or intellect.

You meet the Living Christ when you abandon yourself to Him and make a decision to live for Him. Until then, you will just be like the other disciples who were confused and uncertain about the significance of Christ.

The only way you can know Christ is to live out His Word in your life. This requires walking by faith and trusting Him implicitly regardless of the circumstances in your life.

My response to this question is Jesus is greatness, power, glory, victory, and majesty. There is no one like Him!

He lives so you can live!

 

“Quench not the Spirit” 1 Thessalonians 5:19

There is no perfect Christian and there never will be one.

In fact, the closer you draw near to God the more glaring are your sins. You cannot escape this quagmire but it is possible to live through the righteousness of Jesus and distance yourself from sin.

It is difficult for most to grasp you have been “sold under sin” and are genetically unacceptable to God.

The breaking point is to allow God to give you the ability to see into your inner condition. Then you will be able to accept in your heart the reality you are a sinner and that it is impossible to meet the standards of God.

Let’s move on and discuss how a believer defies Christ? The primary reason this happens is because you and I believe we are capable of managing our own life. We place ourselves above God.

There is a big difference between acknowledging God and giving Him authority over your life. Self sufficiency blocks out God and opens the door to destruction and misery.

Secondly, most people don’t really understand the sovereignty of God and how this can personally effect your life. God is the creator of the heavens and earth and has power and dominion over all things.

God blesses and He curses. He can jolt your life in a moment! If you really understand the character of God you will come to Him with respect and a genuine desire to please Him.

Many believers dismiss the importance of the Holy Spirit and are unwilling to make an effort to live in oneness with God through His Spirit. This a big mistake because you will never be able to avoid the temptations of sin unless you are yielding to the Holy Spirit.

Finally, you and I choose to blame God when troubles arrive. We develop an attitude God doesn’t really care about me so why try to live for Him. This causes you to take actions to get back at God for His failure to help you. Your backlash against God will only dig your hole deeper in the morass of sin.

The hope in Christ is to believe He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world. Walk by faith and live with God through the Holy Spirit.

 

“All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” John 16:15

The Holy Spirit is the life of Christ and He lives in you.

Like a live stream on your mobile device, the Holy Spirit is flowing the life of Jesus into you. He is God and His purposes are perfect.

The Holy Spirit is the mouthpiece of Christ and He desires to have conversations with you. He wants to be your confidant and best friend.

The Holy Spirit is the source of the fullness of Christ and all of the fruit of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit speaks wisdom and guides your footsteps.

The Holy Spirit is the provider of dreams, visions, signs and wonders.

The Holy Spirit speaks correction into your life and is grieved by your sins.

The Holy Spirit determines your spiritual needs and works diligently to fulfill them. He labors unconsciously to draw you into oneness with Christ.

The Holy Spirit is crafting a masterpiece within you replicating the personality and life of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is continually streaming the life of Jesus into your being. Sometimes you can quickly grasp His purposes and actions. And, other times you have no idea what He is doing or how to interpret the manifestations of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is omniscient and sees your future.

The Holy Spirit makes intercession through you to set others free from the bondage of sin.

The Holy Spirit (like Christ) works in mysterious ways. He is above understanding.

The Holy Spirit ushers in the seasons of God. He goes before you to prepare the way for your mission with Christ.

The Holy Spirit is life and truth! He is your umbilical cord to Christ Jesus!

Invite the Holy Spirit to have authority in your life and you will see the splendor and glory of the Risen Christ.

 

“For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13

This is the third lesson in a series of establishing, nourishing, and sustaining a strong connection with Christ. And, it is the most difficult of all!

It is relatively easy to make a decision for Christ and to seek Him out through worship and prayer. You can walk with God by yielding to the Holy Spirit which requires discipline and some practice but can be experienced by all who are serious about God. So it is possible to find harmony in Christ and hear His voice without a lot of difficulty.

At this point, the challenge is sustaining a strong connection with Christ. In other words, learning to accept the reality of Christ. This is very difficult primarily for a couple of reasons:

You have unrealistic expectations about Christ.

Your perception of who Christ is has been tarnished by the false teaching of religion.

For the most part, religion (including Christianity) has elected to whitewash the role of God in the life of a believer. God can do with you as He pleases. He can test you similar to Job who lost everything but His life. He can make you wait for years to find His purpose. Moses tended sheep for forty years before He was ready to serve God.

There is no predictable pattern in walking with God. The Israelites were taken by God on a nonsensical journey lasting forty years.

Then there is the conflict between faith and living by laws and regulations. Religion tends to brand you as a puppet with a long list of laws and works to justify yourself with God. Many leaders teach you must fall under the authority of religion to be blessed by God. Nothing can be further from the truth and the freedom in Christ.

The fact that Christ rules with retribution is mostly overlooked in religion. God blesses and He curses. You and I are accountable for all our actions and have to live with the consequences when we drift away from God.

Most importantly, Christ wants you to walk by faith and express the doctrine of faith in every aspect of life. Faith is living in the promises of God and never the circumstances of life. Faith is a lifestyle of living that touches your every thought, word, and action.

If you are serious about God you will be severely tested and at times nothing will make sense. Life with God can be unpredictable and at times seem very controversial.

In summary, you can sustain a strong foundation in Christ by accepting Him for who He is and walking by faith without any expectations.

Your life belongs to Christ!

 

“He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him” Psalm 91:15

The reality of life with Christ is recognizing He is alive and taking Him out of the context of a storybook or biblical character. He wants to be significant in your life today.

To develop a close relationship with Christ it is vital to inquire of Him everyday of your life. This is the essence of faith. You are not trusting yourself for wisdom and direction; you are seeking out God who has power and dominion over all things.

You and I compromise the truths of God when we act out of self and deny the reality of Christ. This action will always lead to sin, destruction and misery. Many times you and I unconsciously replace God with self. This happens because we are not abiding in God.

It is most important to dwell with God and seek out His beauty. You do this through prayer, living in His Word, and listening for His voice. Without taking these steps, it is like the blind leading the blind.

The beauty of God is His perfect love, wisdom, strength, and protection. God wants to be the strength of your life. Jesus is a man of all seasons! He arises to the occasion!

When troubles arrive seek out God and reject worldly solutions. God responds in times of trouble to hide you under His canopy and protect you.

The virtue of God comes to those who wait on the Lord and asks for His strength and courage to meet the challenges of life.

There is no one like Him!

 

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their cry.” Psalm 34:15

My desire is to live in the presence of God and have a strong connection with Him. I want the eyes of God to be looking at Me and His ears open to my cries.

The challenge is how to make this connection? The block preventing this from happening is sin and a lackadaisical attitude about God.

The sin issue is easy to deal with if you are honest with yourself and God. Come before God and acknowledge your sins and ask Him to search your heart and find any hidden sin. The sin will always be there so your responsibility is just to be open to God and make changes as He instructs.

Also, your genuine faith in the promises of God will bring the righteousness of God and will over shadow your sin.

Secondly, God looks at your openness of heart and receptivity to His Word. Are you willing to apply the values of God in your life? And, will you be obedient to His voice even if His request is costly or controversial?

It comes down to an issue of your will or the will of God. Who is going to be your God?

 

“Can you discover the depths of God?” Job 11:7

Most people desire a formality in dealing with God. They want a defined and rational set of rules or procedures in a relationship with Christ.

Unfortunately, God does not like to act with formality or predictability.

He wants you to be consistent in worshipping Him through praise and prayer. And, He wants you to be still and listen for His voice.

The challenge is how to deal with the various responses from God?

At times, God will be very close to you and speak with wisdom, clarity, and guidance. He wants to be your best friend!

However, God can also decide to respond to you in ways that seem confusing and makes no sense.

God can choose to be completely silent and seem very distant. At one time, He chose not to speak to anyone for a period of four hundred years.

God can act in ways that are oblivious to your immediate situation in life. For example, He can give you a dream, a vision, or speak words to you that have no context to your life.

God can allow adversity and troubles to overwhelm you which can lead to stress, anger, and fear.

God can ask you to do something which is extreme or costly and makes no sense at all. God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his son.

God tends to blindfold you from seeing into the future. He desires for you to walk by faith and live with Him one day at a time.

God is never in a hurry. Time is of no consequence to Him. This requires patience and the ability to wait upon the perfect timing of God.

God desires for you to rest in Him. The spiritual principle is not by might nor by power but by the Spirit of God. Like Josaphat stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!

God operates in ways which are impossible for you or I to understand. Inspite of God’s unusual manifestations, He wants to be a kindred spirit sharing His life with you.

God is an omnipotent spiritual being with power and authority over all things. He is a God of greatness and glory. He is omniscient and sees every detail of your future.

The spiritual approach in dealing with God is to accept Him for who He is without understanding how He thinks or acts. In other words, let God be God!

God does not need to justify His actions. He is a perfect God and our responsibility is to obey Him without any reservations or limitations.

What makes no sense to you is perfect to God!

 

“A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed. Matthew 16:4

This vignette between Jesus and the religious leaders of the day clearly distinguishes between living by faith or accepting Christ by a sign.

By asking for a sign the religious leaders were demanding proof of the divinity of Jesus. They would not accept Jesus by faith.

Jesus used the analogy of the weather condition to explain their actions of unbelief. He said you can look with your eyes to discern if the weather today is going to be sunny or stormy.

Jesus calls them hypocrites because they will only believe what they can see. In other words, they can see the condition of the sky but are blinded to the spiritual signs of the times.

Then Jesus calls them a wicked and adulterous generation because they insist on a sign to believe in Him. Jesus refutes their unbelief and says no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah who laid inside a whale for three days before he was set free.

Jesus uses the term “wicked and adulterous” because the religious leaders insisted on worshipping the outcome of the blessings of God but were not willing to live by faith in Jesus who is the author of the blessings. Their hidden interest was in worldly things like power, prestige, and prosperity.

This is a perfect example of how twisted motives have crept into religion. As a believer you choose to worship Jesus for who He is and not what you can get out of Him.

You will find the signs of the times by walking with Jesus and yielding to the Holy Spirit!

The spiritual man judges all things but is judged by no one!

 

“He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” Ephesians 1:9-10

God’s plan is to unite all things in heaven and earth under Christ. This plan will be accomplished in the perfect timing of God.

The question is how does this global plan fit into your life and mine? As mere human beings we cannot grasp the enormity of this mission of God. It is way over our heads. So what is the purpose of Christ for you today?

God wants to unite all things in your life under Christ Jesus. Literally, this covers all your thoughts, words, and actions. And, He is at work in your life to fulfill this purpose.

The catalyst to unite you with Christ begins and ends with your faith in His promises. You cannot leapfrog this priority to pursue works or religion.

The initial building block is trusting God and living out your faith in every detail of your life. You will never be a valuable disciple of Christ until you demonstrate your faith in adversity and all the challenges of life.

Without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is understanding the attributes of Christ and believing He rewards those who diligently seek Him. You seek Him by expressing your faith in who He is!

Your faith in Christ will fill you with His life through the efficacy of the Holy Spirit. Today invite the Holy Spirit to fill you with the Living Water of Christ so you can touch others with the love, joy, and peace of God.

This is how you can contribute to the global plan of God!

 

“He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.” Psalm 33:10

God can see your future perfectly but He does not allow you to look very far ahead. He is content with you living one day at a time and walking with Him by faith.

It is very uncomfortable to live in uncharted waters. You and I want security but God wants your security in Him. The security of the world short circuits your faith in God. You begin to take liberties and God loses His importance.

God prefers to work in ways that can create feelings of desperation and chaos. God does this because His priority is for you to trust Him unequivocally when all you see see is a dense fog with no answer to your prayers.

God removes the foundations of your world so you will cling to Him and come to know His ways. This pleases the heart of God. He is doing something very special within you!

Your faith has to be put through the fires of God. It has to be lived out in your journey with Christ. The purpose of God is to get you to the place where you will never allow the ups and downs of the world to influence your faith in Christ.

God wants to create this attitude in your heart; “Who am I to question Christ. He can do with me as He pleases.”

From your point of view life today may seem upside down but God sees your life as perfect!