An ever enlarging breach exists in America today between God and His people. We are guilty in America of abandoning our first love, Jesus Christ. God is speaking directly to His children in America in Revelation 2:4-5: "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lamp stand out of its place unless you repent." Notice the only place to go when you leave your first love is down (’...from where you have fallen...") and the only way up is repentance leading to the deeds you did at first. John the Apostle mentions repentance twice in these verses because without repentance God "will remove your lamp stand out of its place."
The current state of society today is a sign to God’s people that God has removed His lamp stand. God is crying out to His people for them to repent because they are lukewarm. Listen to God’s admonition to America:. "So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing;" and you do not know that you are blind and naked." (Rev. 3:16-17) God is crying because His children are blinded by affluence and religion and don’t feel they need Him anymore. Repentance is seen as an act at salvation but rarely a necessity in the life of a believer. We have forgotten or never been taught what the exchanged life is all about. Thus, with a tearful heart, the Lord is tenderly pleading with His children in America: "You don’t love me anymore, you don’t commune with me anymore and you don’t depend on me to live My Life through you. You have been born again but you haven’t truly been evangelized. You are lukewarm and lacking victory."
Without repentance in the heart, the God of all grace, cannot consent to help us and be our strength in weakness even though this is His desire. God will not violate our free will. Thus, God remains grieved over the current state of His people in America. And we as a nation have ignored His admonition: "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." (Eph. 4:30) God’s solution for setting us free and repairing the breach is clear. It is contained in 2 Chronicles 7:14. Listen with your heart to God’s precious promise and words of hope for His people and this nation:
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
God is saying the hope for America rests with the Christian not the lost sinner....."If my people, which are called by my name...” If the breach is going to be repaired, the Christian must acknowledge and accept responsibility for making it happen. Only the Christian in America holds the key that can turn God’s heart to restore this great nation. Only the Christian has "Christ in you, the hope of glory!" But Christian’s today are not living the victorious life. Most Christians today are broken down, burned out or beaten up. The breach has caused the bridge to the victorious life to collapse and the Christian is living in His own power.
Therefore, the first step is realizing we are the cause of the breach and taking responsibility to repair it. We must not blame one another but confront our own sins. We must learn how to take by faith the baton of the victorious life and go with it. We must give the old clothes to Goodwill and put on the new garments of living for God’s will. We have the solution in the resurrection: Christ alive and in us, the hope of glory!!
God is faithful and patiently looking everyday for the prodigal’s return. You remember, the prodigal in rebellion and ignorance was living his life but not the Father’s life. God has done His part at Calvary where through His Son, Jesus Christ, He reconciled the world to Himself. He did away with the law and ushered in grace. He crowned the Cross with the glorious resurrection of Jesus from the dead and in so doing made the exchanged life possible for His children. Christ bore our sins in His body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness--that is the exchanged or victorious life, which the Father through Christ makes possible--but a breach currently exists which must be repaired.
As in the story of the prodigal, it is our decision to leave the pig sty of affluence and religion and take the first step toward giving our life to Him. We must see our utter weakness and futility in living the abundant life in our own power and come back to our first love, Jesus, if we want to fix the breach. Thus, in 2 Chronicles 7:14 God outlines the steps necessary for His people to return to their first love, to exchange their old life and to repair the breach in the relationship.
First, to repair the breach, WE MUST SUBMIT OUR SCHEDULES TO GOD. This is not to be done in a legalistic sense but with love and trust in our hearts for the Lord. God is saying, "If you love me, Hand over your Daily Planner or your Month At A Glance Calendar. Submit it unto me, my child. I am Christ in you and want to complete the tasks the world lays before you. Not only will I complete your tasks to My glory but your time with me will remain undivided."
Listen again to God’s word in 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves....” Notice, the Lord’s use of the word "If." This means the decision is ours. The choice is ours. Grace doesn’t force our hand in marriage, it desires our hand in marriage. Christ wants us to be "one flesh" with Him (Christ in you) but He will never force Himself upon us to do it. Thus, the word "humble", which means to "bend the knee or bring down into subjection", is also voluntary and should be motivated by our own heart. However, God’s children have refused to bring their schedules down into subjection to the Master because they view it as an intrusion into an already stretched agenda or as an "add on" which will be "the straw that broke the camel’s back." In the process, we forget the name we bear: the One who bought and paid for us at the Cross and offers us victorious life for the taking. In our own pride, we forget He doesn’t want to be an add on, but an add in.
The Apostle Paul learned the secret of the submitting his schedule to God. He said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." The word "strengthen" means, "infuse." We are infused with Christ. He is our strength and not we ourselves--we are weak. Let illustrate this point as it was taught to me. Christ is the tea bag and we are the cup of hot water. The tea bag has no impact on the cup when it is outside the cup or an "add on" to it. The impact occurs when the tea bag is added in the cup, then an infusion of the tea and hot water takes place. The cup is now no longer filled with water but tea. This is what it means to humble ourselves. It is desiring Christ to live in us and through us; it is coming back to our first love.
Sadly, our schedules dictate our time with God today rather than God working through our schedules. And in this there is a world of difference. The question should not be, "How much time do you allow on your schedule for God but is God working your schedule?" Like the prodigal, we’ve gone away to a far country and we need to come to our senses. We have drifted away from the source of all blessings and the One who wants to give us rest. Our desire to control our own schedule is causing us to squander the precious grace of God while there is still much to be done in the Father’s house. Until we are willing to submit our schedules to God and trust Him to accomplish our tasks, we will never repair the breach in this country.
Second, to repair the breach, WE MUST COMMUNE WITH OUR GOD. Listen again to God’s word in 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray..." Again, prayer is voluntary ("If"). Thus, the word "pray" in this verse means to "make supplication or intercede" before God willingly. It means to plea or make petition for oneself or another. Interestingly, Luke 18:1 tells us "...that men ought to always to pray, and not to faint..." or in essence to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Yet, we have missed the mark when it comes to praying or communing with God.
Listen to what God is saying to His people in America today: "I miss your company. We live together but do not commune with one another. I miss the quiet moments when I am not on your mind. My Only Son, Jesus Christ, not only gave His life so that you who believe might have direct access into My Holy of Holies and My precious Mercy Seat but also He conquered death through His bodily resurrection so you might be in Christ and Christ in you. Yet, you seem to take for granted that you can come before Me any hour of the day. Do you not remember, I allowed only the High Priest to enter the Holy of Holies once a year (Day of Atonement)? But for you I made "a better way." You do not have to schedule time with Me anymore!!! You have unceasing access to Me through the Son who is in you and because of Him you can come boldly before Me. Yet, you rarely speak to Me except when there is a crisis or a need in your life. Yet, you could constantly bathe in the beauty of My light and love for you. Why have you confined Me to a certain time or place or a building when I’ve told you to worship me in Spirit and Truth? My dear children, you have forgotten your first love and fallen into a breach of your own making."
Prayer is not limited to a scheduled time although I believe that is wonderful habit to develop. But a schedule time in prayer of itself should not be a substitute for communion with God. Prayer in the resurrected life is the breath for everything we do. Prayer is the means by which we commune with our God and God wants us to commune with Him constantly. Prayer is not to be placed in a legalistic box--that breaks commune rather than enhancing it. If we are not enjoying the communion God desires for us, we need to take seriously the words of James: "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." (James 4:9-10) Why? Because we have left our first love and the breach needs to be repaired.
Third, to repair the breach, WE MUST SEEK OF THE AUTHOR OF THE WORD NOT THE WORD OF THE AUTHOR. Listen again to God’s voice in 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray and seek my face..." The phrase "seek my face" means, "to search, beseech, or desire the person (will, purpose, pleasure, etc.) of God." Now listen to the Apostle Paul as he mentions the great mystery now revealed: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor. 4:6) Notice the "light of the knowledge of the glory of God" is "in the face of Jesus Christ." Few in the Body of Christ realize this today. They may read the Word of God, study the Word of God, memorize the Word of God and some may even preach the Word of God and not yet live in Christ, the author of the book. The Bible is an amazing book. Most books we read for the purpose of understanding the book rather than the author. But the Bible is just the opposite. Understanding the author is the sole purpose for reading the Book. Listen to Jesus’ words to the Pharisees in John 5:39-40: "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." That is seeking the Word of the Author rather than the Author of the Word.
The purpose of the Bible is to reveal to us the person, Jesus Christ, who wants to live His life in us, through us and for us. He is the reason we should have a love affair with the Bible. Our life is to be hid in Him and the Bible is to serve as a menu to lead us into the deeper relationship with Christ. The menu tells me about the entree but it is not the entree. Jesus not the Bible is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the one in whom we are complete. He is the One who is to now be our life and He is the One who takes pleasure in communing with us, His children, through His Word and desires to teach us His ways.
Sadly, when we are not letting Christ live His life through us, we suffer and our counsel to others is often lacking, our ability to witness weakened and our attempts to encouraged others lessened. Often those who sought us out, leave disillusioned to seek the counsel of the worldly, the witness of the temporal and the encouragement of those things, which ultimately kill, steal and destroy. The Bible is clear that we are to seek things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.
Finally, to repair the breach and return to our first love, WE MUST OWN UP TO OUR SINS AND TURN FROM OUR WICKED WAYS. Listen again to God’s word in
2 Chronicles 7:14, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways..." To "turn from their wicked ways" means "to turn back, to repair or to cease a bad or evil course of life." It starts with acknowledging our sins and weaknesses rather than blaming something or someone else. It starts with our being accountable before God and turning our weaknesses over to Him. He wants them anyway and wants to be our strength. The victory is not in trying to live the Christian life ourselves but letting Christ live our life through us. Each time we encounter a temptation that should trigger us to call upon the Christ in us to live His victorious life through us.
Christians in America have covered their sins too long and told God, themselves and others everything is alright. But everything is not alright. We cannot repair the breach or be victorious relying on our own resources. We are no match for our own flesh, the world or Satan. Our victory is Christ in us the hope of glory!! God cannot extend His mercy and grace to us while we are playing religious games with Him or rationalizing our sinful behavior away. Such behavior makes void His grace. It is only when we are willing to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and turn from our wicked ways that God will know we have returned to our first love and will live His life through us.
Then, and only then, does God promise to repair the breach. Listen again to God’s word in 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." God promises to "hear from heaven." The word "hear" in the Hebrew text means to "consent or agree to; consider or declare." God promises to "forgive their sin” The word "sin" in this text means "an offense or habitual sinfulness and its penalty." Finally, God promises to "heal their land." "Heal" as used in this verse means "mend, to cause to heal or to make whole." That is the way to repair the breach between God and His people and bridge the gap to victorious Christian living.
May your prayer and mine be that we live the exchanged life and know the rest of letting Christ live for us. Remember walk so close to God that nothing can come between. Jesus paid it all, all to Him we owe, give Him the Glory!
