Heaven's passion

No matter what may come your way, when we are in Christ through the Spirit, nothing in this world can separate us from His love. All we need is to find our place in prayer so as to realize our place in His heart.

God’s great desire for His people is that we feel secure in His love and in His power. Everything else in life may be unstable—our health, our family, our job, our education, our society, our world. At any given time and within any given moment you may feel as if you are out on a ledge forty stories up in an unpredictable wind. You feel yourself losing balance and falling, and every brick you grab pulls out of its mortar. When we walk according to "ourself" the ground beneath and the pillars all around us will only crumble.

Stability only comes from the One born in the stable.

Paradox of life is that being in Christ is the riskiest decision you can make…according to the world.

And yet saying "yes" to Jesus is the greatest decision you can take security in. Saying yes to Christ is saying yes to the crazy of life so as to find the stability of heaven's passion. As Paul writes, life in Christ is: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword—we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered (Romans 8:35–36).

Paul knew the craziness of a life of a disciple but he knew that the love of Christ was even crazier in its power, presence and passion.

“In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us…for nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (vs 37-39).

Paul’s life of faith was much like ours, one many questioned as to why do it? Why live such a life? Why give sacrificially when you are beaten, ostracized, criticized, while being opposed from every side?

But for Paul, as is for us today, the stability and power needed comes from the truth of being in Christ. For in Christ and through the Spirit we encounter the heart of God so as to find security in His love and strength in His power, even if everything else in the world is uncertain.

We have to be willing to fall to our knees and thank the One who became sin so as to seal us with His eternal love. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection far surpass all understanding and knowledge and yet they are so simple that a child can understand that Jesus loves them. This is why Christ’s incarnational performance is to be the foundation of who we are if we are to be the foundation of love this world so desperately needs.

Jesus wants to be our security. Question is, “How will you respond to the life Jesus is calling you into? Resting in His security or trying to secure your own rest?”

Father Almighty, in Christ and through the Spirit, we are covered in Your eternal security and presence so that we might be the covering of Your love for all the world to experience. Amen Jesus!

Choose Joy

Read Psalm 100; John 15.1-11

All around people struggle to find happiness. I know I get caught up in this battle. But what I have come to find is that I am not in search of happiness, but joy…And He is right there before me.

Truth is, there is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is usually something on the surface—it comes and goes with our feelings. But joy…joy is different. It is deeper. It is alive and in our soul.

One of my favorite authors, Henri Nouwen once wrote:

“Joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us…Often we discover the joy in the midst of the sorrow. I remember the most painful times of my life as times in which I became aware of a spiritual reality much larger than myself, a reality that allowed me to live the pain with hope. I dare even to say: ‘My grief was a place where I found joy.’ Joy does not happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to Jesus and have found in Him our refuge and our safety, and that nothing, not even death, can take Him away from us.”

Yes, unlike happiness, joy is essential to spiritual life. When we are not joyful we cannot bear fruit. Jesus calls us to Himself so that His joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete…if only we go to Jesus.

Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing — sickness, failure, emotional distress, wandering, oppression, doubt, war, or even death — can take that love away.

Right now (you may need to find a “secret” place) let yourself celebrate joy…let yourself celebrate Jesus. Stand up, dance around, sing out, throw your hands up in the air, laugh uncontrollably, fall to your knees, cry profusely… whatever you need to do to celebrate heaven’s joy, do it. 

Right now forget formalities and normalcy. 

Right now enter into the joyous praise from Mercy Me and let this beautiful song fill your heart… Greater.

Right now embrace the Spirit and choose Joy by stepping into the crazy insane love of Jesus and celebrating His undeniable love for you. Amen Jesus!

The heart of Jesus

Read John 17

Every moment I spend with Jesus is yet another moment I am filled with wonder. Every minute I spend in prayer is time I spend taking in the beauty of eternity. In Christ and through the Spirit, I have come to know this—Love.

When we come before His throne of grace we find the peace, the hope, the joy of heaven. We find that in Christ we are not alone.

We are not alone because He is our strength, our defender, our refuge in the storm. When we embrace the Spirit so as to step into the heart of Christ we come to find that through all the trials He has always been faithful, bringing healing to our soul.

Let Jesus be your everything. Today, become engulfed in the prayer of Christ—His prayer to the Father for the protection, the blessing and the glory of His beloved.

“I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours” (v8-9).

For the truth of His love is the truth of our eternal joy. He came to wrap us up in His arms so that we might have peace, so that we might know that we are His own. Jesus’ prayer for us should bring our hearts to such a place of worship that we can do nothing but proclaim:

“You amaze me, Redeem me, You call me as Your own.”

If we say we love Jesus, our lives must show we love Jesus and the greatest way to do this is to jump into the “heart of Jesus.” Take a moment and listen to I am not alone by Kari Jobe and let the truth of this song invigorate the glory of your day. Amen Jesus!

The way Jesus did...

Read Luke 22.39-46

The days after Easter can be a time when many of us “get back to the grind.” That is, it can become the road to moving on all the while forgetting the magnitude of what was just celebrated.

If today slides into the realm of “moving on” we fall prey to moving beyond the glory of the empty tomb. So how do we move into the glorious truth of the empty tomb so as to live out the momentous truth of Easter?

Prayer…

In order for the glory of Easter to become the truth of our lives, we must always remember what Jesus stepped into before stepping up to the cross and stepping out of the tomb. We must always remember how He covered Himself in prayer.

Think about it, before He went to the cross so as to bring about the truth of Easter, what did Jesus do? He prayed. In fact, He told His disciples the action they needed most was prayer.

“When He arrived at the place, He said to them, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’” (40).

Jesus knew that when faced with turmoil, chaos and evil, the disciples would be tempted to either run away, or attempt to solve the problem on their own, and such is the case with us today. When the world confronts us how often do we attempt to fight against it on our own? And when we do this, when we seek resolution of our own doing we fail to fight with the most powerful source we have been given—prayer.

When we seek to solve life on our own we act as if we actually believe that prayer is not enough. We act as if prayer is our last solution when in fact, prayer should be our first response…just as it was for Jesus.

In the midst of the chaos and the eruptions of struggle and turmoil, those who know Jesus, need to pray. The world needs more prayer because it needs more Jesus.

“And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (44).

Let us this day seek to continue the Easter miracle by kneeling down in prayer. Let us face our troubles and struggles in life the way Jesus did…

“Jesus offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears…and was heard” (Heb 5.7).

Unspeakable Joy

Read John 16.16-33

Many of us have heard that we have to choose joy. Sure, one could argue that joy is a choice, an attitude, a perspective. But truth be told, we will never find joy until we find Jesus… 

You cannot be raised up from the cross if you have not first laid down in the cradle. See so often we look to the rewards of the cross as opposed to the One nailed to the cross. So often we look to the joy of the cross as opposed to thanking the One whose joy led Him to the cross. So often we want joy before wanting Jesus…

But joy is only found in Christ and through the Spirit. Joy is received when we first receive our King who was born so as to die in order that joy might overwhelm our souls. When we fall to our knees so as to embrace the Spirit, we are taken deep into the heart of Jesus so that His love covers our souls as His joy rises up and never lets us go…

Truth is, we will never bask in the glory of Easter if we have not broken down and cried with the King who gave up His throne so as to be born in a manger. If our hearts need joy, we must daily crawl into the manger so as to ascend upon the cross in order to embrace our Savior who reigns.

Take a moment, listen to Chris and let your heart be swept up in prayer as you give thanks to the One who is the joy of the world because He came to die and give us unspeakable joy…