Taste and See part 2
You are what you eat. What you ingest, or what you put inside you, is what, in a very real way, defines you. Garbage in... garbage out, right? Or, in the same way, God in... God out! And the best part about that is: God has already filled you with Himself. We're not starting at empty. We're starting at full of the Holy Spirit. All we need to do is fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Look at 2 Peter 1:4-5 (NLT), "And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires. In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God's promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and more excellence with knowledge." It goes on and on, adding more and more. But the important part to realize is that you aren't adding anything that God hasn't already added. It's about looking into the mirror, seeing the glory of God, and being changed into that same image from GLORY to GLORY. We start at glory. We start at full. We aren't missing anything or lacking anything. Tasting and seeing about about "getting" anything. It's about experiencing what we already have. When Jesus said, "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need" (Matthew 6:33 NLT), I believe He was telling us HOW to EXPERIENCE all that He has given to us. We don't seek the Kingdom in the sense of finding and getting something we don't have. He gave us the Kingdom. We are in the Kingdom. And we are the Kingdom. We don't need to seek FOR it. We need to seek it in the sense of exploring it. Finding out what we have. Testing the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of God's love by loving people bigger and stronger than we ever thought we could. Love is giving. It's never about getting. We love because He first loved us. He gave us everything we need. He prepared a table for us in the midst of our enemies. He finished the work. He did everything that needed to be done. So now we can enjoy the fruit of His labor. We can take the ball and run with it. We can bear the fruit that He has produced, and we can make it available to the people who need it--which, by the way, is everybody. Everybody needs love. If you have it--and if you understand that love is giving--than you can give people what they need. By letting what's inside come out. By adding all the things God has already added to you until they overflow out of you. Learning how to love by learning how you are loved. Letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's already in there. Tasting and seeing. Eating the six course meal (the six steps to the throne) that Jesus prepared for us. And not only eating that love feast, but sharing it. Making sure nobody around us is hungry. Making sure everybody around us has what they need too. Showing how good God is by loving people. Giving what we've got. Letting the love inside come out. Then other people can taste and see too. And then other people can receive and release that love in the same way that we have received it and released it. A Holy Ghost wildfire that rages out of control and consumes everything but itself!