Seeking Jesus First - Aug. 23, 2023
Christ Jesus is the door through which God’s “sheep”, His children, enter into relationship with The Heavenly Father. We cannot go through another person - only Christ Jesus is the door to The Father. This is simply because no other person was qualified to lay his life down for the “sheep”.
“Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”” (John 10:7–18, NKJV)
Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. All others were made sons when they entered through the door of The Son. We have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, “Abba, Father”. There is no way to qualify to be a son of God except to receive the adoption through faith in Christ Jesus. There is no other way to receive The Spirit of God to dwell in us except through faith in God and His Son whom He sent.
Take a look at how much love God, the Father and The Son, have for all, in order to create such a door through such a sacrifice. Through this door, we become God’s beloved family. We are made inheritors of the kingdom of God - heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus. What He inherits, we inherit. Jesus is the firstborn among many brethren so He is in charge of all of the inheritance. He is the King of kings, the Prince of kings, the first inheritor. And He shares that inheritance with us.
Did you know that a son can leave home and live without his inheritance? If he chooses, he can shun what his father wants to give him. He can even leave home over false pretenses or ignorance of his inheritance. He may not be aware that his father put his name on the title deed. He may not know that all of the inheritance is in a family trust and he is one of the beneficiaries. He may not know that he had been made a co-signer on the family business holdings.
All he needs is someone to show him how the family trust agreement spells his rights and benefits - everything that he can access and how to access it. Honestly, he could read it for himself. But the family attorney is more than capable and more than willing to help him understand it. Especially since the family attorney is also family and truly has his best interests at heart.
The Trust Agreement is The New Covenant. The Trust Grantor Is The Heavenly Father. The Trust Attorney is Christ Jesus. He made sure that all of the benefits would be legally passed on to the beneficiaries. The Trustee on the earth is Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit helps us to understand the trust and access all of our benefits. We are the Trust’s Beneficiaries. The Trust was made for our benefit.
One understanding of the Greek word “kosmos” is the orderly arrangement. “For God so loved the “kosmos” that He gave His only begotten son…” What God gave us is called a Testament, which is also known as a Will, a Covenant, or a “Trust Agreement”.
I believe the inheritance starts now, in this life. As we begin to grow in faith, hope and love, we begin to access more of our inheritance. The greatest of these is love, but receiving the love of God takes faith. It takes faith but you can’t even begin to believe until you have heard the loving words of God. So God gives us a gift, a door. The door speaks The word of God and shows the heart of God. The door expresses the love of God and the promises of God. We look at the door and hear what the door says and feel the love that the door expresses, and we come to the door and enter in.
The same thing that attracted us to the door attracts us to everything in God’s kingdom. We hear the loving words. We see the loving acts. We experience the unconditional hope that love inspires. So we start believing that all of God’s promises are, in fact, our inheritance. We start thinking that it is not impossible for us to be what God says that we are - His righteousness. We start believing that it is possible to do what God says we can do. And we start knowing that we can have what God says we can have. We begin experiencing the fulness of the kingdom (righteousness, peace and joy) through faith, hope and love.
Every temptation, trial, persecution and even trespasses begin to give us opportunities to prove out and experience the promises of God in our lives. We start looking at troubles with joyful expectation because we know God is about to reveal more of His love for us by keeping His promises to us.
Just as Jesus had the authority and power to lay down His life and take it up again, we have the authority and power to access all of the trust agreement benefits. We just have to know and believe them. And we have to “partner with” the Trustee. We have to deal with the Trustee to access what belongs to us in the trust. Holy Spirit will teach us, comfort us, help us, and lead us into all the truth.