You Are Invited to a “Come as You Are” Party
One of the first things we ask when we are invited to a party is, “How should I dress?” Most of us like it best when we feel that we can come as we are. We like it when we can relax and be ourselves. I noticed this Scripture not too long ago and thought about how marvelous it is and what a message of acceptance it brings:
It is through Him that we have received grace (God’s unmerited favor) and [our] apostleship to promote obedience to the faith and make disciples for His name’s sake among all the nations.
And this includes you, called of Jesus Christ and invited [as you are] to belong to Him.
Romans 1:5–6
If you skipped over the Scripture please go back and read it and particularly notice that you are invited as you are. God will work in you by His Holy Spirit and help you become all that you need to be, but you can come as you are. You don’t have to stand afar and only hear the music of the party, you are invited to attend.
You have joy and peace today. You are redeemed, accepted, and made right with God. You are! Not “you will be someday.” We are destined to be molded into His image and nothing can stop it if we will simply come when He invites us. We don’t have to clean up our act first. We don’t have to put on a religious demeanor and get out our religious tone of voice.
Our view of God, ourselves, and His plan for us is too small. God wants us to come out of smallness and see the greatness of His calling and our inheritance in Him. When we inherit a thing it means that we get what someone else worked for. Jesus gained a prize for us. He worked for what we inherit, and all we can do is receive it by faith. Nothing else is required. Dave and I will leave our children an inheritance. They know about it and will enjoy it when we die. At that time they will not need to do anything but receive it and enjoy what Dave and I worked our whole lives to be able to pass on to them. Can we by faith receive what God has already done for us on the cross? We should not be waiting for Him to do anything, because He has done all that needs to be done. We need revelation knowledge concerning what He has done that it is ours right now. One step of faith will put you in the middle of the greatest inheritance ever passed from one person to another. That step of faith takes the struggle and frustration out of life. As 1 John 4:17 says, even “as He is, so are we in this world.” That is good news!
We Need Vision
We do not need more of anything, but we do need vision concerning what we already have. We need vision to do greater things for the glory of God. When we truly know God and we see the hope of His calling and our inheritance, we will step up to do greater things. Smallness will no longer satisfy us because we know that we have a great God and a great calling.
When God revealed Himself to Isaiah, the first thing Isaiah did was to recognize the importance and power of words and how vain many of his had been in the past (see Isa. 6:1–5). He saw the holiness of God, and he had a revelation of God that brought him to a place of repentance over some things concerning his words. Perhaps it was his small talk about God that convicted him.
Jesus asked Peter who people said that the Son of Man was, and Peter replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Then Jesus asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” God is listening to what we say about Him, about ourselves, and the plan of God for our lives. He listens to see if we know Him and our inheritance in Him. Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:13–16). Jesus went on to tell Peter that his knowledge had been revealed to him by God.
The other people looked at Jesus naturally and reasoned as to who He might be. As we can see by their answers, they really had no accurate knowledge. But Peter had revelation and Jesus told him that on that revelation God would build His church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it.
I tell you truly that when we know God, know His call and inheritance, and go on to know His power, then the gates of hell cannot ever prevail against us. We will do great things and have joyful lives regardless of our circumstances. We will live in the spirit of celebration because of what we know in our hearts.
Let Me Tell You What I Know
“Let me tell you what I know” would normally be a statement filled with pride, but in this case I have a purpose. I want to tell you what I know about you and me as Christians, and I am going to do it from memory without looking anything up in the Bible.
I know that we are children of God, and that we are called, anointed, and appointed by Him for greatness. We are destined to bring God glory and be molded into the image of Jesus Christ. We have (not will have) righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. We are forgiven for all of our sins and our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Jesus has gone before us to prepare a place for us that where He is we may be also.
I know that until He returns for us, He has sent His Holy Spirit as our guarantee of the even greater good things that are to come. We are guaranteed an inheritance for it was purchased with the blood of Jesus. We have a new covenant and are offered a new way of living. We are made new creatures in Christ, old things have passed away and all things have become brand new. We can let go of past mistakes, and press toward the mark of perfection. I know that God loves us with an everlasting, unconditional love and that His mercy endures forever. I know that all things are possible with God and we can do all things through Christ Who is our Strength.
I know that God never allows more to come on us than we can bear, but He always provides a way out, a safe place to land. I know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose and that what our enemies mean for harm, God intends for good. I know that He is our Vindicator, our Redeemer, and Restorer. He makes all things new.
I know that God never allows more to come on us than we can bear, but He always provides a way out, a safe place to land.
We don’t have to worry because God has all power in Heaven and on the earth and even under the earth, and He has everything under control. I know that God hears and answers our prayers. I know that God is our Keeper and we are safe. We have been set free from the power of sin, we are seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus and we are made acceptable to God through faith in Jesus.
The truth is that I could go for a while longer, but I think by now you have the point. Before I knew these things I had no power, no victory, and no hope, but now I know that my Redeemer lives! I know that we should be celebrating what we have right now, for truly we have more than enough in every area of life! All of these wonderful things are currently ours through our faith in Jesus Christ. In Him we are new creatures; old things have passed away and all things are made new (see 2 Cor. 5:17). I quoted Philemon 1:6 from the King James Version of the Bible in the previous chapter, but take a look at it in the Amplified Translation:
[And I pray] that the participation in and sharing of your faith may produce and promote full recognition and appreciation and understanding and precise knowledge of every good [thing] that is ours in [our identification with] Christ Jesus [and unto His glory].
Philemon 1:6
Paul prayed that the Christians would know the good things that were currently theirs, and that is my prayer for you.
Paul prayed that the Christians would know the good things that were currently theirs, and that is my prayer for you.
Know the Power of God
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul prayed that we would know the exceeding greatness of God’s power toward us. God is powerful and anyone who believes in God surely believes that, but the question is—do we believe that His power is available to us and that it exists for us? Paul spoke of God’s power toward us!
I lived in total defeat the first forty or so years of my life because I did not know that I had power as a Christian. I thought I just had to put up with whatever came my way and try to muddle through until I died, at which time I could go to Heaven. I can tell you for
sure that a life as I have just described does not give glory to God as we are called to do. We must know His power toward us!
This is a power that has already been given. In Luke, Jesus said, “Behold I have given you power…”. We do not need to strive for power or hope to have power someday—we have power now! The same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us (see Rom. 8:11) and we can be quickened (filled with life) by that power. This is not a onetime filling that then slowly drains away as the days go by, but we can be daily filled and even moment by moment we can experience His presence and power in our lives. The starting place is to believe! We must believe what God tells us in His word and we must believe it beyond doubt. Even if we don’t feel powerful we must believe that we have power, and it is not an effort to do so if we have revelation knowledge concerning God’s power toward us.
God’s power is indeed great and it is so great that unless God opens our spiritual eyes (gives us revelation) we will never grasp it. We have no way to determine how great God’s power is because it cannot be measured and it has no limits. The good news is that it is toward us. This good news is so exciting that I think I feel a party coming on! I think I need to eat a cookie or buy a pair of shoes or do something that makes me laugh; I need to celebrate because I know that I will never be left in a position of being without power!
This is better than knowing the head of the local power company. I have to pay for the power that comes into my home, but the power that I live by has been paid for by Jesus Christ. If the power company called and told us that we had been selected to have free power the rest of our lives, we would get so excited that before long everyone we know would know about the power available to us. We would not have to worry about turning off lights, or how much our hot water heater ran. And, what if the power company guaranteed us power even during a storm? We would not need to fear storms. We could look up and down the dark streets all around us during a storm, but our lights and power would still be on. That is the way it works when you are hooked into God’s unlimited power by faith.
We are living in hard and perilous times, but the darkness cannot put out our light because we have free, unlimited power. I am excited and I feel like celebrating, so I think I will take a break from my work, go make myself a wonderful latte, hug my dog, and give my husband a big kiss!
CHAPTER 9
Celebrate You
I am back! The latte was great and so was the kiss.
Now we need to talk about celebrating you, because you are valuable, and definitely someone worth a celebration! I cannot write a book without telling you how awesome you are and what great possibilities you have. I am afraid that perhaps nobody else has ever told you, and I just cannot let you go one more day without knowing the truth. You are fearfully and wonderfully made and you are made for a purpose. As a believer in Jesus Christ you are the home of God—yes, God lives inside of you (see Eph. 3:17).
Now we need to talk about celebrating you, because you are valuable, and definitely someone worth a celebration!
He has invested Himself in you and given you talents and abilities that equip you to do certain things. You are part of God’s plan and purpose.
What Do You Think of Yourself?
Have you ever taken time to think about what you think about yourself? God thinks that you are special and He celebrates you all the time. What is your attitude toward you? Are you worth a celebration? In the Bible we are told to sing, shout, rejoice, and be in high spirits because God has taken away the judgment that was against us. He has come to live in the midst of us and we have no need to fear. Because He loves us He does not even mention past sins, and He exults over us with singing (see Zeph. 3:14, 17).
God thinks that you are special and He celebrates you all the time.
These Scriptures don’t say that God is sitting in Heaven crying and mourning because we make mistakes and are not all that He had hoped we would be. They say that we should be in high spirits (a good mood) because God loves us and is singing over us. It sounds like a party to me!
When one lost sheep is found the shepherd rejoices (see Matt. 18:13), so if you just became a believer in Jesus yesterday, God is rejoicing over you. You may have a long way to go before reaching spiritual maturity, and you may have many faults that need to be dealt with, but God is still rejoicing over you. He is always happy about how far we have come no matter how far we still have to go. God always celebrates progress!
God Is Smiling over You
God is pleased with you! Now, before you decide to reject that piece of good news let me give you some scriptural backing for my statement. On two different occasions, a voice (God’s voice) came out of Heaven saying that He was pleased with His Son Jesus (see Luke 3:22 and Matt. 17:5). The first time this occurred was at Jesus’ baptism and the second time was when He and a few of His disciples were on the Mount of Transfiguration. Both of these events were major ones in the life of Jesus and I am sure that what God said was intended to add to the celebration and encourage Jesus.
You are probably thinking as I did upon initially seeing these Scriptures, “I can understand God saying that to Jesus because He was perfect.” The Holy Spirit was trying to use these Scriptures to encourage me to stop thinking that God was mad at me most of the time and to dare to believe that He was actually pleased with me. Like many Christians who lack revelation I had the mistaken idea that every time I did something wrong God was frowning and was a little bit angry at me. That had been my experience with my earthly father and I assumed God was the same way, but I was wrong. The Psalmist David, the little shepherd boy who became king, believed that God was pleased with him and yet we know from Scripture that David was far from perfect.
He brought me forth also into a large place; He was delivering me because He was pleased with me and delighted in me.
Psalm 18:19
This statement also came out of David’s mouth as part of a song that he sang to God on the day the Lord delivered him from all of his enemies and the hand of Saul (see 2 Sam. 22:1, 20). Just imagine walking around the house or driving in your car singing, “God is pleased with me and He delights in me!” I doubt that many of us would have that kind of confidence, but we should. David also said that he knew God favored him and was delighted in him because his enemies did not triumph over him (see Ps. 41:11).
Perhaps David was a little overly zealous and had an attitude problem. After all, who would have the audacity to say that God was pleased with him? But, we must also remember that God said David was a man after His own heart, so that means He liked his bold attitude of faith. It may have been one of the main reasons that God chose and anointed him to be king. David wasn’t the only one who talked like this. The Apostle John also spoke of himself as being the disciple whom Jesus loved (esteemed and was delighted in) (see John 13:23).
After much study, I finally had to agree with the Holy Spirit. God is not mad at us, and He is actually pleased with us and delights in us. I believe that God is smiling over us right now! He sees us in and through Jesus Christ. Are you ready to acknowledge who you are in Christ and every good thing that is yours in Him (see Phil. 1:6)?
I believe that God is smiling over us right now!
God gave Moses words to bless the Israelites with:
The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you;
The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you;
The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually).
Numbers 6:24–26
Don’t fail to notice the phrase “approving countenance.” God is smiling over you!
I once had a pastor who spoke these words over the congregation at the close of each church service. What would happen to us if we actually believed that God is smiling at us, that He approves of us? I believe it would add a high degree of confidence and boldness that is actually necessary not only for the e
njoyment of life, but also in order to accomplish the will of God. If you have the courage to begin speaking over yourself that God is pleased and delighted in you, I can promise you that the first few times you will feel embarrassed. You might even blush, but you will also begin to walk with new levels of confidence, power, peace, and joy.
As I say often—God is not pleased with all of our behavior, but He is pleased with us if we love Him and want to make progress. When we make positive confessions, such as I am suggesting, we are not talking about our behavior, but we are talking about our heart.