Righteous Reign part 3
We are capable of so much more than we think. There's a sign in my mom's living room that says, "If we did all the things we were capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves." And I absolutely agree. The problem, it seems, is that we keep waiting for God to do something for us. When, in truth, He has already done everything He needed to do. Everything He's GOING to do. I heard one preacher say it like this, "People are always asking me what God's going to do this year. And my response is, 'What are YOU going to do this year?'." Jesus said it like this, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father" (John 14:12). What Jesus (already) did is what empowers us to do what we need to do! He gave us His Spirit so that instead of Jesus being one man in one human body, He could be one NEW Man in ALL of our bodies! The King of kings made us kings and priests so that WE could reign on this earth. The Father passed the righteous judgment down to His Son and then equipped and empowered US to execute that righteous judgment. To reign in righteousness, and rule in judgment. But, again, we don't seem to know who we are or what we're capable of. We're afraid that a distant, angry God is going to judge us. Even though Jesus said, "...the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son" (John 5:22). It is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment. On the cross Jesus laid His life down as a sacrifice. Then the Father judged Him. And the Father's judgment wasn't AGAINST Jesus (and us in Him), it was FOR Jesus. The Father's judgment was to raise the Son back to life! To give us that abundant, eternal, everlasting, Resurrection Life that is the gift of God. And because Jesus gave His life for us--and gave His life TO us--now we can do everything He did and GREATER things! Which brings me to John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." This is what Jesus literally did for us on the cross. He laid His life down (so that He could pick it back up). He proved His love to us by giving His life for us (and to us). And now we can do this for each other. Both literally--because there have been many martyrs in the church's history--and in the sense of esteeming others higher than ourselves. Putting others first. Ruling and reigning by loving and serving. Not trying to earn anything from God, not trying to make someone else look smaller so we look bigger, but simply receiving and releasing what we already have. Sharing that love that we have been filled with. And by sharing it, we fill ourselves with the fulness of God! I think we're afraid sometimes that if we put ourselves out there--if we love someone else--we might lose what we have. They might not love us back. But that's not true, Godly, agape love. Because true love flows from the love that we already have. That's we're already full of! We can't lose it, even when we give it away!