The Promised Land part 5
Let me see if I can make this make sense. Genesis 1:26 says, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." I think that's important. Because this whole idea that we have of, "God loves you just the way you are... but He loves you too much to leave you that way," I think that idea messes people up big time. It makes it feel like we are less than. Leaves us in a position where we think we need to do something in order to be something. Like, "God would love me if I could just do this and stop doing this." The tree of knowledge of good and evil, right? If I get enough knowledge about what's "right" and "wrong" then I can do good, not do evil, and earn what I'm looking for. Earn that thing that I think I'm missing. And we spend (waste) our three T's (time, talent, treasure) trying to earn something that can't be earned. Trying to get something we've already got by being someone we're not. When, in truth, God made us in His image. He made us exactly who--and how--we needed to be. Like I said yesterday, we can live IN the Promised Land (the land that flows with milk and honey, righteousness and revelation) because we ARE the Promised Land. And the land that was promised (Spiritually), was delivered on the cross. Look at Romans 8:29, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." In the beginning we were made in God's image. But we didn't know what He looked like, so we didn't know what WE looked like. But then, on the cross, we were CONFORMED to the image of God's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Jesus came to show us what God looks like. To show us what WE look like. What we REALLY look like. Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. That's who we really are. That's our true identity. And when we embrace who we really are--by knowing it and believing it--that's when what's inside can flow out. If you're seeking in order to try to find, or get, something that you think you haven't got... then you're robbing yourself of experiencing and enjoying what you have got. But if you know what you have... if you know who you are... that's when you can give what you've got. And, by the way, giving it away--sharing it--is how you experience and enjoy it! So this Promised Land that we're still waiting for (or worse yet, trying to earn) is not only something we already have... its who we already are. Who we've always been. We just didn't know it. Until Jesus revealed Himself to us, and in us, and through us, and as us. Until we were conformed to HIS image. Until we stopped trying to earn a gift that can't be earned, and simply began to receive it and release it. Receive it BY releasing it. Release it by receiving it. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Living out of our abundance. Letting what's inside flow out of us. I'm IN the Promised Land because I AM the Promised Land. God lives in His people. We live in Him. Love lives in us, and we can live in love!