The Blessings of Knowing Him More - Part 2

Dearest Blessed Saints, As a continuation of what we read about the Souvereignty of God and His awesome knowledge of all and foreknowledge on things to come, this is a great reminder that His love will always exceed our thoughts because He knows all the sins we will ever commit. Regardless, He still loves us immensely and desires a rich relationship with Him. It's as though He overlooks any of our transgressions we may yet commit and still desires for each of us to have a relationship with Him. I would like to now focus on the fact that He is "All-Powerful" and how that can relate to His immeasurable love for each of us and proof of His ability and willingness to care deeply for us. When you read Hebrews 1:3, He tells us that He establishes everything by upholding, maintaining, guiding and propelling the whole entire universe by the power of His Word. It's amazing to think that sand on the seashore should stop the mighty ocean waves from coming up unto dry land to destroy it (Prov 8:29), and when His voice tells the waves to only come thus far and no further. If there was no order in the universe, I don't think anyone could imagine the utter chaos that would take place if it weren't for the power of His Word to perform. When we think how Awesome in Power and authority He has, its amazing how much greater His love and mercies are because He could very well have wiped us all off the map when we have rebelled & many others continue to rebel against Him. And yet, He withholds and relents so much which is why He tells us that His Mercy exceeds Judgment (James 2:13). The book of Job 38 & 39 are remarkable chapters that identify His greatness that no man can answer what He questions Job with. Just imagine how many times we have rebelled against Him, and yet He always relented from doing what our sins deserved (Ps 103:10) and was always merciful towards us beyond measure. That in itself should cause us to have such awe, admiration, a thankful spirit & a greatful heart beyond measure towards Him. Every breath we breathe is His continual sign of Mercy towards us. When many people would disprove Gods love and care for them, I put these questions to them: Are we putting anything or anyone else in our lives above God? How can we prove our faith towards Him if we didn't have to be tested in the first place? Just like Jesus tells His Disciples: "What good is loving the lovely? Don't the pagans do that?" How can we prove our love for the Lord when only good things come our way? How can we prove our faith? He asks us when He comes, will He find faith? I have heard it said that the real "me" comes out of us when we are hard pressed. Have we taken the time to really know Him the way we should? Just like He questions Job, we have to ask ourselves: "How much do we realize our very lives and every breath are in His hands?" If we did spend quality time with Him and come to know His Greatness in all His excellencies, we would stop doubting and continue to have that strong confidence in Him because of His sustaining power upon our very lives each second we live. With this knowledge and revelation in mind, when we pray, we would pray with such boldness and confidence simply because we KNOW HIM and His love for us the way we should. The reason why He may not be able to do for us in our lives is because we have exalted our circumstances in our lives above His Majestic greatness who is souvereign over all the universe. Do we continue to make excuses rather then humbling ourselves before Him? We may have not adhered to His instructions. Do we remain a prisoner of holding on to unforgiveness? Have we forgotten to use His Word like a mighty Sword (Eph 6:17)? We literally stop the hand of God when we doubt and fail to trust in Him. Jesus could not do any miracles in His own hometown because their unbelief literally stops Him from doing what He can and what He wants to do (Matt 13:58). We should consider that when we ever doubt, worry or have unbelief in any way should be an abomination and a stench to us when we fail to truly trust in the Lord. This is why it is so important to spend quality time to understand His exceeding knowledge and awesome power and meditate on the fact that everything we see was created by the power of His Word. Men may have built, but God is the One who gives man the skills and ability to accomplish anything and everything in the first place. When we read Isaiah Chapter 6, Vs 1-5, this is a good description of how we would likely react if we were to see God, just like Isaiah did. When we develop true Godly Fear, there would be no room for any other fears to dominate our thinking. Proverbs 1:7 tells us that when we fear Him, this is just the beginning of having true wisdom. In other words, we fail to have any Godly wisdom at all when we have no reverentially Fear of Him. One thing I find troubling is that many people will only limit God to their way of thinking because they don't go beyond their own understanding (Prov 3:5). As an example, someone would question me: "How can God foreknow events?" If this person were to read the Bible, many prophecies that were written in the days of old are only coming to pass during this day and age. He even tells us that He knew us before we were knit in the womb (Jer 1:5). I am so glad God knows the future for me which means that I can totally trust in Him to lead and direct my future simply because we understand His love is so great when we see He is so great. David says in Ps 139:14, that he is fearfully and wonderfully made. How can anyone think that we were not created by such an awesome intelligent designer when you see how just the complexity of the human eye alone is created. I want to encourage each one (including myself) to take some time each day and consider how everything we can see (and the unseen) that God has placed into existence and everything is held together and moves around in proper order by the power of His Word. When we meditate on these concepts, meditation is mentioned in the Bible (KJV) 20 times, so its not a mystical cult in the far eastern religions, but is Biblical. Meditation means to take time to do the following: Review; Repeat what you have read; reflect; think about what you read and analyze how His Word applies to us and our lives today. Taking time to meditate is where it becomes a powerful revelation that gets from the mind to the heart where our faith becomes more solid. Understanding His Glorious excellencies is just the beginning of wisdom. Who in their right mind doesn't want the wisdom that comes from above? His wisdom is always available to those who are humble enough to see their need and ask of Him (James 1:5). Let's receive the Grace of God to ask Him to give you a heart to know Him more and more each day so we can be the people He can use mightily for His glory. In the Matchless Name of Jesus Richard Associate Director Answers2Prayer http://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife http://www.answers2prayer.org/