AN EXPECTED END

A REVELATION OF CHRIST
(By David Musick)

Somewhere, at some time and some place in our walk with God, [if we really want a revelation of Jesus Christ], we will have to be content to take our hands off of our own lives and let God be God in and through us. We will have to trust Him to be all He says he is for us. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you an expected end." (Jeremiah 29:11). If we are to receive from the Lord that divine "expected end", then we, as sons of God, must be willing to submit to His divine purposes for us and yield to the Holy Ghost for direction. TRUST. How hard is it for us to trust in God when our whole world, it seems, is coming apart before our very eyes? Some of us have suffered great loss, illness, death of a loved one or many loved ones. We have suffered grinding poverty, and we have encountered evil on every hand. Satan has blinded our path and covered our eyes, confused our minds with worldly encounters and twisted our reason with the mythology of humanism and false hopes. Some of us have turned in on ourselves to find the answer. Others have looked to doctrines and religious form and ritual for comfort only to find an emptiness and a void in the exercise of vanity. But our Hope is in Christ Jesus the Lord, the only begotten of the Father. Our focus should transcend our despair and our vision be fixed on Him. We must see with spiritual eyes beyond the transcendent, corruptible, mundane exsistence of this life and get a view into the everlasting Kingdom of God. Then we will begin to really live and we will see only the beauty of the Lord in our surroundings.

God said "I know the the thought I think toward you..."  He knows His own mind and we do not, but we can by relationship with His Son Jesus Christ. There is where we will find our purpose; IN CHRIST!! We are not a grain of sand on the larger beach of God's earth. We are "His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 10:9). Walk in what? Good works, faith, in the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. We are to walk as kings, as Sons of the Most High. We are to walk in the Love of God. "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, hath quickened [made us alive] together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places IN CHRIST JESUS (Eph. 2:4-6). Beloved, this is a NOW reality. We are seated with Christ NOW; if we are In Christ. This is your purpose. To be In Christ showing forth the Love of God and the Righteousness of the the Divine through your relationship with Him.

At some point, as we allow ourselves to be drawn deeper into the vastness of His eternal presence, we will have to quit seeking our own identity and demanding our rights in the Kingdom of God. Our identity is HIM. He is all in all. We speak so flippantly of having a revelation of Jesus and of having received earth shattering communication from the Word of God yet in our inconsistency and contradiction, we miss the simplest command......that ye love one another "even as". Even as Christ loved and gave.....gave of Himself. Do we give ourselves to one another? With the revelation of Christ comes liberty and that liberty binds us to Him. We are corralled, as it were, to the Divine life of God through Christ. Liberty in Christ is a large room with no end in sight, for He is the room. In this room of liberty in Christ we find one simple point: that Christ be glorified in the Spirit of Holiness. What is Holiness. It is not what you wear, how you fix your hair, the color of your skin, how many Bibles you own, where you go to church, speaking in tongues, being a preacher, deacon or saint. Holiness belongs to God and is ours only through relationship to Him. It is an attitude of worship and devotion to the living God. In this room of liberty in Christ, He is glorified. He said "If I be lifted up, I will draw...." So Christ glorified is Christ revealed! Glorifying the Son in ALL THINGS, opens up to the believer a vast realm of spiritual expression and insight, which in turn is poured out yet again to others to maintain that high state of humility at Jesus' feet. Lifting up the Glorified Christ will bring us into real worship, love and unity. Obedience to Love deflates our earthly and religious ambitions and brings us to true worship.

God said "I know my thoughts toward you". Dear friends, brethren, be encouraged in Christ. As you have placed your hope in God, as you have placed your trust in God you shall not be ashamed nor disappointed. Only wait with your whole heart upon Him in expectation and confidence and you will see the salvation of the Lord. It will come in due season. Great will be your rejoicing in that day. He is your husband and you have been espoused unto Him. He will do you no harm for he has for you "Thoughts of peace, and not evil, to give you an expected end."