What Are We Missing?

11/20/2004

You’ve heard the announcement:
“It’s 11 p.m. Do you know where your children are?”

Since we are the children of God, what if we switched that to:
”This is your life. Do you know where your Father is?”

Of course we can answer that question, our Father is in Heaven, seated on His throne. And to His right is seated our Savior, Jesus Christ. Where does the Holy Spirit sit? Does He get a seat in Heaven? Jesus said He would send the Holy Spirit to earth as our Comforter so I have to believe that the Holy Spirit is not seated on a heavenly throne, but that He is seated in our hearts, working through us to bring us peace and comfort and filling us with the strength we need to meet the demands of each day.

…God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
and now you can call God your dear Father.”
Galatians 4:6 (NLT)

The other day I was going about my business when I heard a familiar voice…I knew it wasn’t the voice of God, I knew it was the voice of the enemy about to fill me with more of his vicious lies. Haven’t you heard them? “You’re not worthy. You’ll never make it. Nobody loves you.” That voice that can haunt us and fill us with dread. It’s very real, it’s not made up, it is the voice of Satan, and his desire is to kill, steal and destroy anything good in our lives.

But on this day, there was something different in what he was telling me. As his “torture tactics” began, I knew what I was hearing was the truth…how’s that you might be asking yourself? Well, he was telling me, “I can’t do this, it’s much too painful. I just can’t live without my son. It’s just too much to bear.” As quickly as his “truth” started to fill my head, a Greater Truth took over. I answered the enemy back with that Greater Truth. I told him that I know I can’t, but I don’t have to. My flesh is not capable of living with such pain, such missing, but it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live, I live by faith (by trusting) in the Son of God who loves me and gave Himself up for me. (Gal. 2:20)

The enemy left immediately. He was defeated, and I went on my way…but this moment in time has stayed with me. It has made an impression on me. It has strengthened my relationship with the Spirit who lives in me.

As I read Philippians 3 this morning, Paul said, “We put no confidence in human effort. Instead, we boast about what Christ Jesus has done for us.” (NLT) In the King James Bible it says, we “have no confidence in the flesh.” And in the Living Bible it says we realize, “we are helpless to save ourselves.”

The freedom that is found in these passages of Scripture, in this Greater Truth, is beyond what words can describe. There is so much in this world that we cannot do, and living without someone that we dearly love is right up there at the top. Our human effort cannot come close to accomplishing something on this scale. But in realizing that we are helpless to save ourselves, that we should put no confidence in the flesh, we can then redirect our attention to the only One who can save us now, the Lord Jesus Christ. In that act of surrender, we are set free from the burden of impossible tasks as He takes them from us and enables us to not just survive the greatest trials of our lives, but to come out on the other side thriving, totally alive and living in all the Promises we have been given.

Oswald Chambers said for November 17th in “My Utmost For His Highest,” “The promises of God are of no value to us until by obedience we understand the nature of God.”

If we will not be obedient, and in that disobedience refuse to surrender to our Maker, then we will miss the greatest work of God in our lives, the crucifixion of our flesh and the resurrection of God’s Spirit becoming so alive in us that no lie from the enemy can overcome the Truth that fills our very soul.

Oh, we want to hold on to our flesh, it is what we have always known, what will we do without it…but when it can be set aside, when it is no longer of any great value to us on this earth, we will then begin to “boast about what Christ Jesus has done for us.” The enemy cannot STAND THIS!! He will be gone! He will once again be defeated! We will live in the victory we have been given and experiences the promises of God fully!

I don’t want to live in the pain of missing but it will always be with me as long as I cling to it. I don’t want to live in places of doubt and fear and questioning, but as long as I cling to those more than I relinquish it all up to the authority of my Savior, I will dwell in those places and experience unnecessary anguish.

Wow, I just looked ahead to the 18th in Oswald’s “My Utmost For His Highest” and it says, “We have to deliver ourselves from individuality, i.e., to present our natural life to God and sacrifice it until it is transformed into a spiritual life by obedience.”

What are most of us missing? We are missing the spiritual life we have been offered in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For some reason we want to go on living in the flesh, missing out on God’s greatest gift to us, God’s Son and the power of the Holy Spirit who now lives in us.

Do you know what it means to give up your son, let alone your One and only Son? Jim and I have three boys, we “gave up” one for the rest of our years on this earth…but God gave up His Only Son for us. What greater love is there than that? Why are we so afraid to rest in that love, and yet we will run after other loves and try resting in them? “Loves” that can in no way compare to what God has offered us! Why are we so afraid of God? Why are we so afraid to abandon ourselves to the One who loves us so deeply, and so intimately, and only longs to give us everything we will ever need while we live on this earth? What are we missing in the picture that God is painting for us? Maybe we need to switch a light on and take a closer look? Maybe we need to get ourselves out of the way and let His light shine on what’s happening here!

Have you seen the new show, “The Rebel Billionaire”? I’ve just started watching it, but in thinking about what happened last night on that show, and comparing that to abandoning ourselves to God, what a comparison! The people on the show were required to jump out towards another person, who would catch them. Sounds easy enough, except that should this person not catch them, they would then plummet hundreds of feet into a deep ravine over a river…they were attached to a bungee cord. Some made the jump and were caught by the person hanging out over this gorge on a wire, some got to try out the strength and elasticity of a bungee cord. And, if this was not enough, two of the “lucky” contestants then got to move on to an even greater challenge. They were asked to get into an untested barrel and be dropped from a crane over a huge waterfall…all for the sake of the game and the prize they would win at the end of the show, should they be the last to survive all these challenges.

I watch this show amazed at all these people will do to win the grand prize. Sometimes, it means putting their life on the line--as in the barrel drop, which never happened by the way. After one contestant refused to take on this barrel-drop challenge, the billionaire himself and the one other contestant asked to do it climbed into the barrel and were lifted into the air over the waterfall. What the “willing” contestant found out was that he had made an unwise choice. The billionaire was not testing his fear factor with this challenge, he was testing his ability to make a wise decision--to weigh the consequences, the risks, and then decide yea or nay. The contestant who refused went on to play the game, the contestant who made the foolish choice to be dropped over a waterfall was sent home. The game was over for him.

These are intelligent people who have been chosen to participate in this game. The winner will go on to become president of the airlines owned by the billionaire. The prize they are striving for is huge, but the journey there is full of risks. Many decisions need to be made along the way, and it is not always clear which is the best choice, or should I say, the choice the billionaire is looking for in the person who will become the president of his company. They have to be ever watchful, ever clever to not miss anything, or they will not complete the race and win the prize they so desire.

In Philippians 3:13-14 (NLT) it says, “I am focusing all my energies on this one thing. Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.”

How many of us will watch “The Rebel Billionaire” and enjoy watching these people “strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize” and never realize that we are in a race of our own? Is this one of the things we are missing in the picture God is painting? Do we not realize the challenges we face and the decisions we need to make every day? Have we not yet fully realized that we have been called to get out of our comfort zone, to jump into the waiting arms of Jesus and abandon all sense of ourselves? And how many fail to realize that in making that jump we WILL BE caught by Him! The jump is not easy, I grant you that, but the prize we receive in trusting our Lord fully is far greater than any prize any billionaire on this earth could offer us! Jesus is not calling us to be president of an earthly company, He is “calling us up to heaven.” There is no greater calling!! There is no greater prize! There is nothing we should covet more than this!!

But we miss it!

As the people on this show make the jump out over the ravine into the waiting arms of a stranger, they are fixed on only one thing…winning the prize that has been offered. If these people are willing to risk jumping into the arms of a stranger, how much more should we be willing to risk jumping into the arms of Jesus and focusing our attention on an even greater prize?

Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right.
Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
Philippians 4:8 (NLT)

If we should do this, what is our earthly prize, the prize we get to enjoy while we are still on this earth? If we read on it says, “The God of peace will be with you.” And if we go back up a few lines, it says we are not to worry about anything but pray about everything and “If we do this, we will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.” Phil. 4:7 (NLT)

How many of us live in turmoil every day? How many of us lose sleep at night with all the thoughts that keep running through our minds when we need to be getting some rest? How many of us would give anything to just have some peace of mind? Well, our Father says, “His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:7 NLT) How many of us miss that?

I know I have!! I know there are times when I still do, but I am also learning how to combat the enemy with the Greater Truth and find peace when it seems no peace should be found. That’s what trials do for us! They either make us crazy, causing us to lose sleep and become irritable and angry at the world, or they take us to our knees, allowing us the opportunity to know our Lord in a way we may have never gotten to know Him in any other way. In abandoning ourselves to Him in prayer, we will find the peace we so long for.

We also pray that you will be strengthened with his glorious
power so that you will have all the patience and endurance
you need.
Colossians 1:11 (NLT)

Life is a challenge!! It is a race! We need strength and endurance to complete it! Patience is a hard lesson to learn! It is not fun! But we can find some fun in the lessons God is teaching us when our thoughts are on what is true and honorable and right. Then it doesn’t have so much to do with what is happening to us as it has to do with what God might be trying to teach us in any given situation.

Lately, Jim and I have had some “patience building” experiences in restaurants. We have started to joke about it and wonder which one of us God is trying to speak to. As our food takes forever arriving, as the waitress disappears on break, as the bill never gets brought to the table…we look at each other and laugh. Which one of us is God working on? We’ve even thought we might go in and sit at separate tables and see who gets the better service and then we’d know who has the “problem.” So far, we haven’t gone that far.

This is just a little inconvenience, but one that we probably all deal with from time to time. It is not a problem that takes us to our knees, but it is one of the little things along the journey through life that can irritate our fleshly nature causing us to act in a way that is not very Christ-like! A little test, as opposed to one of the bigger tests, but tests all the same and combated in the very same way. If we are not filled with the peace of God, if we are not fixed on what is true and honorable and right, if we are not aware of the power of the Holy Spirit living inside each of us as believers, then we will bow to our fleshly nature and the peace that has been offered to us will be lost.

For some reason, we tend to compare our problems. We say, “Well yes, I have this struggle, but it is not as big as that persons.” Or we may be saying, “Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen.” Wherever it is we find ourselves in life, we need not be as focused on the problems we are facing as much as realizing the answer is always the same--jump into the waiting arms of Jesus and He will rescue you, He will not let you fall, He is your Savior.

May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father, who has
enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to God’s
holy people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from
the one who rules in the kingdom of darkness, and he has brought
us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.
Colossians 1:11b-13 (NLT)

The enemy really, really, really wants us to be buried in his darkness. He will try anything to suck us into it, from bad service, to emotional turmoil, to filling us with fear and doubt and so many other things we couldn’t even go into all of them here. He has a book full of every kind of torture and mishap and ways of confusing us from now until Kingdom come!! Literally!! When God’s Kingdom comes, he will be finished, so let’s not let him finish us off before that day arrives!!

There can be joy in the journey!! There can be peace in the storms! We can live in the light in a very dark world! “In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing, so that no one can speak a word of blame against you. You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them. Hold tightly to the word of life…” (Phil. 2:14-16 NLT)

That’s what we miss…the “word of life,” or as the Message Bible puts it, the “light- giving Message.” We let go of it, we won’t reach out and grab a hold of it, we let it slip through our fingers and we end up plummeting down into a dark ravine feeling so all alone and defeated.

When the contestants on that show were asked to jump out over the ravine, they learned something by example after the first guy missed his mark and got to test out the bungee cord. They learned that they just couldn’t just jump out, they had to jump up and out. As believers we can’t just look out at the world, we have to look up and out if we are to live in the light, if we are not to miss the “word of life.” You see, this is not all there is, Jesus is coming back!! “And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take these weak mortal bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same mighty power that he will use to conquer everything, everywhere.” (Phil. 3:20-21 NLT) If we could only plug into the power that lives within us as believers, our lives would so drastically change for the better we could scarcely contain our joy!

Is that the way we are living? Is that the way we feel? If not, we’re missing out on so much of what we’ve been given through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! It’s time to find what we have been missing! It’s time for believers to stop feeling so beaten down, so exhausted, so worn thin from the world we live in and to live in the light we’ve been given—to hold tightly to it and not let it be stolen from us by the lies of the enemy! It’s time for believers to take a leap of faith like none we have ever taken before! To find out what we’ve been missing! To jump up and out and thereby landing in the very presence of God that’s been offered to us! To stop putting our confidence in anything we have ever done or will ever do and understand that without resting in the arms of Jesus, we will never rest at all.

If you don’t desire rest and peace, then ignore this message. Toss it in the trash can, go on your way, maybe it’s not for you. But, if you do desire peace and rest, take that leap of faith and abandon yourself into the arms of Jesus. He’s waiting for you! His arms are stretched out to you…don’t look down, jump up and out into a whole new way of living as a believer!! The “word of life” will in turn hold you so tightly that the light of Truth will swallow up the darkness that seeks to destroy you. It won’t matter if you are in the depths of despair or simply not getting a refill on your coffee in a timely fashion, you will find the peace and rest you so desire in the presence of God, because you will discover a place that far exceeds the limitations of this world. We are not citizens of earth, we are citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus lives! (Phil. 3:20)

He has done this through his death on the cross in his own
human body. As a result, he has brought you into the very
presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you
stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue
to believe this truth and stand in it firmly. Don’t drift away
from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.
Colossians 1:22-23 (NLT)

What are most of us missing? We are missing the very presence of God that Jesus died to give us! We are missing out on the very best of what we’ve been given and end up struggling with the challenges of the Christian faith, and life in general, without experiencing the blessings that come when we realize and utilize the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within.

I can’t live without my son… oh, I can walk and talk and live another 40 years, but that’s not really living, that’s just going through the motions. I refuse to settle for that when we’ve been offered so much more. When we are willing to abandon our flesh and jump into the waiting arms of Jesus, we will truly start to live by the power of the Holy Spirit and discover that “so much more.”

In taking that leap of faith, I am starting to feel like a kid in a candy store or a child on the night before Christmas…there is joy and hope and awe in all that Jesus will do for us and through us as we rest in His arms.

Let’s not miss any of it!!!

Diane