Straight and Narrow part 5
Here's what I think I'm trying to say about the straight and narrow way: You don't GET on the way by what you do. Jesus got you on the way when He took up abode in you. Because He IS the Way (and the Truth, and the Life). The way isn't somthing we walk out (in our own power). The way is something that we walk in by believing. We walk by faith and not by sight, remember? What you do doesn't dictate where you are. Where you are dictates what you do. Look at 1 John 3:7, "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous." And I can see the "religious folk" interpreting the verse like this, "See? You have to do righteousness in order to be righteous!" But that's not what it says. It says faith without works is dead. It says if you do righteousness... it's because you ARE righteous. Not the other way around. That's why John added, "even as he is righteous." What we do flows from what we believe. It flows from who we are. Our actions don't define us. Our identity defines us. That's why it's so important that--through the Holy Spirit--we listen to what our Father says about us. HIS opinion is the one that matters. And His opinion is that we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Jesus became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. Our righteousness doesn't come from what WE do, it comes from what HE did on the cross. And BECAUSE we are righteous... we DO righteousness. Because we are already ON the straight and narrow way--you know, the one that leads to LIFE--we are free to live. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is LIBERTY. The Law constricts and condemns and tries to keep us in a box of does and don'ts (mostly don'ts...). But Jesus came that we might have LIFE and have it more ABUNDANTLY. He didn't come to stop us from living. He came because we were already dead and we needed to be made alive! That's what the Way is... it's love. A life of love. What's in us coming out of us as we believe it and receive it and release it. And here's how I want to end this Rant series: I was wondering why the way was narrow when love is literally the biggest, greatest, most ever-expanding force in all of the universe. And here's what Daddy said, "It's narrow because you can't receive it except through revelation." We think a lot of crazy things about love. That's why I'm currently preaching the year of love every Wednesday. Because we need to explore what it REALLY is so that we can understand the true nature of God. The true nature of ourselves. So that we can understand the straight and narrow path that we're on. So we can know what it means to be loved unconditionally, and so that we can love each other that same way. I hear people say "there's only one way to God." And I agree. But to me, that one way is love. It's the Way of Grace that Jesus made on the cross. And we respond to that Way with the Walk of Faith. By believing what is true. By receiving and releasing the love of God that lives in us!