MY POSITION AS A BELIEVER
SCRIPTURE: John 15:7
INTRODUCTION
Being a child of God is more than a guarantee to go to heaven. There are present benefits to Christian living. God is as concerned with our daily life as He is with our future life. The entire Godhead is involved with our present secure position in the Lord. This must be realized in order to enjoy the blessings of being a Christian.
God’s attitude is expressed in Luke 12:32: "Fear not, little flock; for it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom." I emphasize the word good to note His pleasure. Just to say it was His pleasure would have been sufficient, but He added the word good to accent His will to us.
GOD’S PART
"If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31).
As a child of God, I am assured God is for me! God stated in Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man . . . and let [him] have dominion. It amazed the psalmist that man should have dominion over all the works of His hands (Psalm 8:4-6).
This statement was not to reduce man to puppet status in God’s hands, nor was man to be a toy for the devil. Man was made to be victorious. Some men have tried to give man more credit than is due. He is not master of his own fate, but a possession of his divine Creator. We must never seek to rise above that level.
At the same time we must remember we rank as children of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our first relationship to God is through creation, and our second is through recreation in Jesus Christ and His offering at Calvary.
God has no stepchildren, in-laws, or half-breeds for children. If we are children of God, we are equal. There are no degrees of sonship. God is no respecter of persons. We are made in His image to glorify Him and not ourselves.
If one uses Scripture to bolster any idea of personal or material gain and looks at another as being inferior, he loses sight of the real meaning of Scripture and is likely to become carnal. This must not be!
It would also be carnal to censure a person who has achieved much of this world’s goods through rightful attitude and adherence to the Scripture. A rich person is not to censured just because he is rich. I have no more right to condemn him for his wealth than he does to condemn me if I am not wealthy. It is carnal to judge spirituality by the size of a bank account.
Jesus did not die to make us possessors of this world’s goods without a life dedicated to the things of God.
The dilemma raised by Jesus which caused His disciples to ask, "How hardly can a rich man enter the kingdom?" and is a question we have a right to ask. But wealth was not the sin; attitude was the sin.
Jesus gave us the example of Lazarus laid at the rich man’s gate. The rich man lifted up his eyes in hell, while Lazarus was taken by the angels to Father Abraham’s bosom. Scripture does not say you have to be a Lazarus to go to heaven, but it says being a Lazarus will not prevent you.
In this world of sin, while confronted with the devil, I have assurance I am a child of God. His Spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am the son of God. Paul reminds me, "And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17). As a joint heir of Jesus Christ, I have the highest rank possible.
Sometimes in my travels I see people who are defeated. Provided our goals are what they should be, there is no room for defeat in God. Our victory is not in our own achievements but by accepting the provisions God has made for us as His children. We are not our own. We are possessed by him.
To be what God intends us to be, it is an absolute must that we know our proper relationship to the Creator.
These are not the words of a preacher expecting to elevate the level of his flock’s hopes by hitching to a star of positive thinking. We are not gods. We are not ever going to evolve into gods. We will not be reincarnated into another spirit being, but we will always remain a subject of God’s divine grace through His Son Jesus Christ.
I am an overcomer, not of a falling stock market, but of this world and the devil.
I am an overcomer, however, only through Christ by whose grace Paul said, "If God be for us, who can be against us!" (Romans 8:31).
JESUS’ PART
Jesus said, "A" power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," (Matthew 28:18). And again He said, "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them" (John 17:22). “A" power was given to Him and He now gives it to us!
Another noteworthy statement comes from Matthew 28:28:
"Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
So we see God is for us and Jesus is with us. He of whom it is said, "All things were made by him" (John 1:3) is now involved with each of us who are believers. Paul wrote, "Christ came who is over all," (Romans 9:5); and John put it in these words, "He that cometh from above is above all" (John 3:31), thus giving Him undisputed claim to the position of Son of God.
For this creator of all things to say to me as a believer in Him, "I will be with you always, even to the end of the world," is reason for me to rejoice.
I have no problem accepting the salvation He provides for me. I have accepted eternal life in Him.
But my blessing does not stop there!
I have God for me!
I have Jesus with me!
In Him I live and move and have my being!
"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow" (Philippians 2:9,10). If every atheist is to bow, if every unbeliever will be required to bow, how much more important is It that I should bow before Him now!
It thrills me when I think of all those people who have tried to remove His name from our vocabulary and realize they too will have to bow. The ones who have declared Him no more than any other man-they too will have to bow. Pilate, Voltaire-both will have to bow and honor Christ.
We are so blessed to know He Is with us always.
THE HOLY SPIRITS PART
"Greater Is he that is In you, than he that Is In the world" (1 John 4:4).
"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive for he dwelleth with you and shall be In you" (John 14:17).
according to the power that worketh in us" (Epheslans 3:20).
God Is for me!
Jesus Is with me!
The Holy Spirit Is in me!
The language of the Scripture is very clear concerning the experience of receiving the Holy Spirit. Numerous and sundry scriptures accent the Old Testament saints as having the Holy Spirit to move "upon" them but only three where the Spirit Is spoken of as being "In" the individual. Daniel Is said to be a man In whom the Spirit is. God instructs Moses to choose Joshua, a man in whom the Spirit is. John the Baptist Is said to be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. Paul stated In 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17 and in 6:19, we are the temple or the dwelling place, of the Holy Spirit. That accounts for the Importance of living a holy life. The Holy Spirit does not dwell in an unclean temple.
All the references in the Book of Acts make it clear the Holy Spirit came "in" the candidate. On the Day of Pentecost they were "filled." We are also instructed in Ephesians 5:18, ’Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." If we are "filled," he is "in" us to be sure. In fact, Paul makes it as great a sin not to be filled with the Spirit as he does to be drunk with wine. It is not an instruction which is to be taken lightly.
I have God for me!
I have Jesus with me!
I have the Holy Spirit in me!
THE ANGEL’S PART
"The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them" (Psalms 34:7).
We do not really know how many angels there are but we know that, if one third of them fell with Lucifer (Revelation 12:4), God still has two thirds of them left.
"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14). So God has two angels available to Him for every one demon which fell with Lucifer.
We certainly must not pay more attention to the one demon sent by the devil to tantalize us while overlooking the many angels sent to minister to us.
God is for me!
Jesus is with me!
The Holy spirit is in me!
And angels are all around me!
How can I fail?
The fact remains, though, that it is possible to have all these provisions and still not realize it. When the servant of the prophet fretted about the queen’s army arranging to take their lives, the calmness of the prophet astounded the troubled servant. He reminded the prophet their lives were being sought. Then came the words, "Lord open, the young man’s eyes." Then came the announcement, "They that are with us are more than they that are against us!"
Conclusion:
We are serving the same God!
I am overwhelmed when I think of what we have available and how little we appropriate those blessings. Luke showed us God’s love when he recorded Jesus’ words, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).
God is for us, Jesus is with us, the Holy Spirit is in us, and the Angels are all around us.
How can we fail? We are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37)
