Deeper part 4
"O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep" (Psalm 92:5). Going deeper in God (deeper in love) means moving out of head knowledge and into heart knowledge. Out of knowing "about" Him and into KNOWING Him. Out of religion and into relationship. Don't be scared though, because while God's thoughts are deep, that doesn't mean they're complicated. It doesn't mean they're confusing. What it means--Jeremiah 29:11 spells His thoughts out of us, and they are of peace and not evil to give us the expected end that came on the cross--what it means is that God's thought CAN be hard to hear. Hard to accept. Because His thought, plain and simple, is "I love you." But sometimes I think we only accept the love we think we deserve. Which is to say we don't accept any love because we don't think we deserve it. We look at ourselves--and nobody knows all the "bad" stuff I've done like I do--and we think, "God could never love a sinner like me." But the Scripture tells us something different. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). And let me just throw in this little nugget: He saved us when we WERE sinners, past tense, before the cross. A "sinner saved by grace" isn't a sinner anymore. He's a saint. Guys... sin is unbelief, so by definition a believer cannot sin. Jesus transformed us. He CONFORMED us to His image. 1 John 4:17 tells us that, "...as he is, so are we in this world." So if you're the same as Jesus--if you ARE Jesus--then for YOU to be a sinner HE would have to be a sinner. And obviously that's ridiculous. So stop labelling yourself incorrectly and stop believing the lie. Stop settling for surface stuff and judging yourself (and others) by actions. There's something deeper. Something deep inside. The Holy Spirit. The Spirit of truth. Leading and guiding us into all truth. Teaching us to understand everything we know. We have an unction from the Holy Spirit and we know all things. But we don't yet understand it completely. That's why--if you want to--you can always go deeper and deeper. You can let the mind of Christ that's already in you BE in you. You can hear the thought of God (I LOVE YOU) and you can think the thought of God (I LOVE YOU)! You can experience life on a much deeper, much more abundant level. You can accept His love when you realize that it's not about you and what you've done, but it's about Him and what He did on the cross! And when you receive it you can release it. In fact, you can receive it BY releasing it. You can draw living water (love) from the well (that you are) with joy. Because you know that you ARE loved, and that you ARE LOVE! You can explore the Kingdom that you're already in instead of trying (and failing) to work your way into it. It's a gift! You can't earn a gift! So just unwrap it and start enjoying it! Start sharing it. And don't be afraid, because it won't run out. (We're seriously going to look at that aspect tomorrow... Seriously!)