I like this from "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers today:
Whereby Shall I Know?
I thank Thee, O Father,…because Thou hast hid these things from the
wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. — Matthew 11:25
In spiritual relationship we do not grow step by step, we are either
there or we are not. God does not cleanse us more and more from sin, but when
we are in the light, walking in the light, we are cleansed from all
sin. It is a question of obedience, and instantly the relationship is
perfected. Turn away for one second out of obedience, and darkness and death
are at work at once.
All God’s revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by
obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately
you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God’s truth work in you by soaking in it,
not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know is to stop trying to
find out and by being born again. Obey God in the thing He shows you, and
instantly the next thing is opened up. We read tomes on the work of the Holy
Spirit, when one five minutes of drastic obedience would make things as clear
as a sunbeam. “I suppose I shall understand these things some day!” You can
understand them now. It is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest
fragment of obedience, and heaven opens and the profoundest truths of God are
yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself until you
have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming “wise and prudent.”
So many people today have the misconception that by sinning after being born again they will lose their salvation. This is simply NOT true! Sin is NOT the issue! JESUS became sin with ALL sin so that sin can never again keep us from HIM! The issue is: "What have you done with JESUS?"? Once you are born again, you become an entirely new person - on the inside! Remember, you ARE a spirit being. You HAVE a soul (mind, emotions and will), which ALWAYS goes where the spirit goes! AND, you live, while on this earth, in a physical body meant to operate here! When you receive JESUS as Lord and personal Savior, Holy Spirit comes IMMEDIATELY into your dead human spirit (dead because of the inherited sin nature that all of mankind inherits from Adam) and makes YOU an entirely new person! You are, by the perfect seed of the Living Word of God, born again into the family of God, perfectly in the image of God - IN YOUR SPIRIT MAN! NOW, you and I must continually renew our minds to think like God through His Word and Holy Spirit as our live-in Teacher! At the appearing pf JESUS for His Church (us) our physical bodies will be changed in a moment to be like the one that JESUS presently has! Until that time, we are to grow up in the things of God through His Word, and obedience to it, and through continual intimate fellowship with HIM! When you stray away from God, you do NOT have to be 'born again, again"! You simply get yourself back into fellowship with Him by OBEDIENCE and renew your desire to know Him more (Philippians 3:10 APMC)! AMEN! Now refuse to be intimidated by those who preach that we must operate perfectly without sin in order to KEEP our Salvation! We never lose our RELATIONSHIP with JESUS through sin, but we CAN and DO sometimes lose our fellowship with Him, because sin causes us to become self conscious and to sometimes pull away from God, the very ONE Who can and will help us to get back where we desire to be! Here is another quote by Oswald Chambers from one of his teachings that I really like!
It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us.
We must NEVER attempt to convince people about our own personal opinions of God and His Word. Just simply share the Word without judgment, and then pray that eyes will see what GOD desires them to see! We are NOT to follow the doctrines of men, but the Word of God, which is TRUTH (John 17:17)! AMEN! Here is Hillsong with "Desert Song":
Shalom in Him!
