Everything

As I start this post, I'm reminded of a song that I used to sing...


He is my everything
He is my all
He is my everything
Both great and small
He gave His life for me
Made everything new
He is my everything
Now how about you?

This Sunday, Pastor Joshua was preaching the message, "As Christ is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4)

We use faith to get healing, prosperity etc.. We 'use' Jesus to get monies, blessings, favour.. so that Jesus becomes a means to something that we want.

This is erronous.

What are we saying when we tell someone, "I'm believing God for a great job!" There's nothing wrong in saying that. It's one thing to say it to remind myself, it's another thing to say it to convince myself. The latter can become a formula, the former is a rest.

What do I mean?

See, people get distracted easily about what they see around them. We forget that all the blessings come with Jesus and we don't have to use faith to get them. When we have Jesus we have everything.

A man is poor or rich, not by what he owns but what he sees within himself. He comes poor by looking at what he does not have.

We're looking at things on the outside, whereas God gave us wealth on the inside already.

You see, we judge whether we have everything by what we actually have - and not simply by His Word. This is totally natural. Our understanding has to do with our 5 senses after all. But are we able to shape reality by the Word alone?

We talk about the bible. The bible says this, the bible says that. But what is the bible? The bible is the Word right? And who is the Word? The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. The Word is Jesus.

So reality is Jesus.

When the Holy Spirit comes and indwells us - it is almighty God Himself within us! He is the richness, the fullness God within us. But we don't realise it.

When we have Jesus, we already have everything. When we have symptoms - we are able to disregard them (this depends on your level of faith - how intimate you are with Jesus) because Jesus IS my health.

Now, this can seem really out of this world? Whatcha mean 'disregard' symptoms?

Hence, the qualifier. It depends on your level of faith.

Then, isn't the question back to having enough faith? Am I having to convince myself, psycho myself, to believe?

Nope. Jesus is the author and finisher of the faith. So who is your faith? Your faith is Jesus. You don't look at yourself for the faith you need. You look at Jesus, and faith will come.

That is why Paul prayed that we would have a greater revelation of Jesus. If we knew His value; if we knew how much He cares and loves us - the fact that He would come true and through for us is a given. We 'judge' reality then by what we see within and not our physical eyes.

1 John 4 - (my analysis is bracketed)

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.

God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us (God is perfected within us), so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love (in context, the Holy Spirit who is that love perfected within me assures me) casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love (is growing in the revelation of Christ in him.)

What is the temptation of us Christians today?

The temptation of the devil is to make me see myself apart from Christ.

Discontentment can be a subtle thing. When we ask for things, there can be no end. There's always something bigger, brighter, better on the other side. Is it then wrong to ask for things?

Why, not at all! But it is an accurate observation is it now? If only I can have a notebook, I'll be happy. When the notebook comes, I may think, oh I wish I had this other model...

So what do I do? To ask or not?

There's no right or wrong answer. It is okay to want. God is not about freeing one's mind and heart from desires like some other religions would say. They say, without 'want', there can be no pain. Without 'expectations' there can be no regret.

A rather colourless way to live in my opinion.

But God wants our desires, our contentment, not in things - becomes He knows us. That things alone can never satisfy the soul and the spirit. We are His created beings, breathed into life by His breath - forever incomplete unless we invite Him to complete us. Contentment and satisfaction is found in Christ alone.

When God fills us, passion fills us. Have you read the bible? Oh! The language! The poetry, the hunger, the want, the joy, the exhileration! Nothing like the zen-like books I used to flip through and puzzle over. None of the intellectual stuff that makes one's brain run about in circles arriving to no conclusion. But God is a passionate God, who pursues us and embraces us! He is God! Worthy of worship!