“I Want My People to Make Their
Election Sure”
The link to the podcast can be found at:
http://revsusanthebrave.podomatic.com/entry/2015-04-10T22_34_47-07_00
The link to the podcast can be found at:
http://revsusanthebrave.podomatic.com/entry/2015-04-10T22_34_47-07_00
The Lord spoke to me:
“I want My people to make their election sure, and grow into the deeper
knowledge of Me. The things that I allow to occur in your life, are also
opening your spiritual eyes so that you can truly see. You cannot view the
things that you go through only with your natural eyes, but you must see your
life through Me. You must understand that I am unfolding My plan within you,
and you must also grow up into it outwardly. You must grow up fully into Me!”
“You are My Ambassadors to all men, and they must understand who I am,
and they shall see Me through the process of your transformation. I want you to
make your election sure. I want you to make your paths straight, and enter
through My narrow gate, and walk in the Spirit with Me. I am doing a great work
within you, and also without. Do not think that you shall fail Me, nor miss My
purposes for your life.”
“Everything shall unfold as I have planned for you, and the least of
what you shall be has not yet been fully told, so do not limit My hands by your
opinions in the midst of the process, but realize that you are My Vessels of
Old. I have long range plans for you, and all that I have invested into you
shall surely be realized as you transform before men’s eyes. Take My yoke upon
you and rest in Me. I shall bring you forth fully fashioned in this Season of
My Glorious Liberty, and you shall fish for men with the higher revelation of
Me.”
Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.
Growing in the knowledge of Christ is a process of
transformation:
2 Peter 1:2 May grace (God’s favor) and peace (which
is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and
freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to
you in [the full, personal, precise, and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus
our Lord. 3 For
His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and
suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him
Who called us by and to His own
glory and excellence (virtue). 4 By means of these He has bestowed on us
His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may
escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in
the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers
(partakers) of the divine nature. 5 For
this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every
effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution,
Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge
(intelligence), 6 And in
[exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control
[develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising]
steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety), 7 And in
[exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising]
brotherly affection [develop] Christian love.
Our various trials and
battles will reveal the quality of the knowledge of Christ that we possess. (V.5-6)
These lessons perfect our
faith, and produce the fruit of Christ, and the knowledge of Christ within us,
as we develop His character and likeness.
Add diligence to the
divine promises - Exercise our faith in our trials to
develop…
Develop virtue,
excellence
Develop knowledge
Develop self-control
Develop steadfastness
Develop patience
Develop endurance
Develop godliness
Develop brotherly
affection
Develop Christian love
8 For as
these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep [you]
from being idle or unfruitful unto the [full personal] knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is
blind, [spiritually] shortsighted, seeing only what is near to him, and has
become oblivious [to the fact] that he was cleansed from his old sins.
Ian
Clayton just said in his April newsletter: "Your
character is not really revealed when things get tough. Your nature is. Your
character gets revealed when you are given to much and your response in the
midst of that. It's our character that God wants to develop in us, and our
nature that He wants to mature. Our nature is connected to our thoughts
and our character is connected to our intentions.
Make your election sure:
10 Because
of this, brethren, be all the more solicitous and eager to make sure (to ratify, to strengthen, to make
steadfast) your calling and election; for if you do this, you will never
stumble or fall. 11 Thus there will be richly and abundantly provided for you entry
into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 So I intend always to remind you about
these things, although indeed you know them and are firm in the truth that
[you] now [hold].
Make Straight Paths:
Proverbs 3:5 Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all
your heart and mind and do not
rely on your own insight or
understanding. 6 In all
your ways know, recognize, and
acknowledge Him, and He will direct and
make straight and plain your
paths.
Luke 3:4 As it is written in the book of the
words of Isaiah the prophet, The voice of one crying in the wilderness
[shouting in the desert]: Prepare the way of the Lord, make His beaten paths
straight. 5 Every
valley and ravine shall be
filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be leveled; and the crooked places
shall be made straight, and the rough roads shall be made smooth;
Hebrews 12:12 So then, brace up and reinvigorate and set right your slackened and weakened and drooping hands and strengthen your feeble and palsied and tottering knees, 13 And
cut through and make firm and plain and smooth, straight paths for your feet [yes, make them safe
and upright and happy paths that go in the right direction], so that the lame and halting [limbs] may not be put
out of joint, but rather may be cured.
Narrow Gate:
Matthew 7:13 Enter through the narrow gate; for wide
is the gate and spacious and
broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are
entering through it. 14 But
the gate is narrow (contracted by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed that leads away to
life, and few are those who find it.
Entering His Rest:
Hebrews 3:18 And to whom did He swear that they
should not enter His rest, but to those who disobeyed [who had not listened to
His word and who refused to be compliant or be persuaded]? 19 So we see that they were not able to
enter [into His rest], because of their unwillingness to adhere to and trust in and rely on God [unbelief had shut them out].
Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, while the promise of entering
His rest still holds and is
offered [today], let us be afraid [to distrust it], lest any of you should
think he has come too late and
has come short of [reaching] it. 2 For indeed we have had the glad tidings
[Gospel of God] proclaimed to us just as truly as they [the Israelites of old
did when the good news of deliverance from bondage came to them]; but the
message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith
(with the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and
confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) by those who heard it; neither were they united in faith with the
ones [Joshua and Caleb] who heard (did believe). 3 For we who have believed (adhered to and
trusted in and relied on God) do enter that rest, in accordance with His
declaration that those [who did not believe] should not enter when He said, As
I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest; and this He said although
[His] works had been completed and
prepared [and waiting for all who would believe] from the foundation of the
world.
Taking His Yoke:
Matthew
11:29 Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me,
for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest
(relief and ease and refreshment and recreation
and blessed quiet) for your souls. 30 For My yoke is wholesome (useful,
good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and
pleasant), and My burden is light and
easy to be borne.
-
Susan O’Marra
-
04-10-15