On January 18, 2015 I attended Monrovia Fellowship for the first time. The evening’s theme was “Come Home.” Early in the meeting everyone was encouraged to stand, greet their neighbor and ask, “What reminds you of home?” We weren’t given the reason for asking the question, but in hindsight, it was to prepare the audience to benefit from the main talk. That was given by a new pastor, Becky White. She had raised four boys, a first-born son, then triplets. At some point she got divorced and was raising the boys by herself. Adding to the natural stress of raising four boys, one of the triplets, while growing physically, stopped maturing mentally beyond the age of two.
She saw a therapist so she could handle the stress. At one point the therapist said, “Whatever they are feeling or doing – angry, sad, being silly – assure them that ‘You always have a home with me.” So that’s what she did, though it wasn’t ‘til years later that she realized she had been teaching them that they would be loved while being themselves, no matter what that looked like at any particular point in time.
The point for us in the audience was that no matter what was going on in our lives, or how we reacted, if we had accepted ourselves as genuinely redeemed, then we could feel welcome in God’s house. Paul, explained it this way at Romans 7, 25: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then with the mind I myself serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” He was acknowledging that God had acquitted him of Adam’s sin that resided in his flesh, and had now invited him to, “Come home.” Do you remember how Jesus illustrated the result of a young man’s accepting that invitation? He told of the loving father who not only ran out to greet his returning prodigal son; more than that He gave him a fine robe, a ring, and threw a party to celebrate! (Luke 15, 11-32) God WANTS us to return home just as we are, no matter what we’ve done. He will clean us up. God’s home has an open door. And He wants us to make His home our home. Do you dare allow yourself to believe that?
“Come home, my child. Come home.”
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Be strong and courageous
It takes humility to come home if we’re ashamed of what we believe ourselves to be or what we’ve done. And after we have come home, then it will take strength and courage to become all God has created us to be, and to be as Oswald Chambers says, our “Utmost for His Highest.” But that is exactly what our heavenly Father wants us to do – be the best of which we are capable. So let’s look at another man Jehovah needed to be his best, Joshua. To set the scene, He and a large crowd of Israelites are on the east side of the Jordan River. Notice how God encourages Joshua.
And it happened after the death of Moses the servant of Jehovah, Jehovah spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying,
My servant Moses is dead. Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people to the land which I give to them, to the sons of Israel. (Notice that God owns the land.)
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, I have given that to you, as I said to Moses.
From the wilderness and this Lebanon even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border.
No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you.
Be strong and of good courage…
Only be strong and very courageous so that you may be careful to do according to all the Law which My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may act wisely wherever you go.
This book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it by day and by night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall act wisely.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, neither be dismayed. For Jehovah your God is with you in all places where you go. Joshua 1:1-9
Let me rephrase God’s command to Joshua, who was about to take the Israelites into “the promised land” that would be their new home. We’ll see how our heavenly Father encourages us to come home and what we will need to do. I’ll replace Israel’s deliverer, Moses, with our deliverer, Jesus. And Joshua will become you and me.
And it happened after the death of Jesus the servant of Jehovah, Jehovah spoke to you and me, God’s adoptive children, Jesus’ ministers, saying,
My servant Jesus is dead. Now, therefore, arise, cross this barrier between you and Me, sin, you and all this people into the kingdom of God, you, the sons of spiritual Israel.
Whatever you pray for, I have given that to you, as I said to Jesus.
From the simplest of your thoughts to the deepest of your feelings, and from the slightest disease in your body to the greatest of your relationships; you will regain control of your life.
No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Jesus, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you.
Be strong and of good courage…
Only be strong and very courageous so that you may be careful to do according to all that Jesus commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may act wisely wherever you go.
This book shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it by day and by night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall act wisely.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, neither be dismayed. For Jehovah your God is with you in all places where you go.
Joshua and the people with him were about to cross the barrier that separated them from “the promised land”, something they had hoped for for more than 400 years. Once they had crossed the Jordan, they would have to fight to take possession of the land currently occupied by pagans, people who did not worship Jehovah. Jesus provided us with a parallel when He said at Matthew 7, 13-14 “struggle to get in through the narrow gate that leads to life.” And at Matthew 11, 12, He said, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of Heaven is taken by violence, and the violent take it by force.”
My dear brother or sister, taking what God has promised us, full possession of our minds, hearts, and bodies (life in abundance, John 10, 10 and Roman 5, 17) in the kingdom of God, will not be a leisurely walk in the park. There is indeed a great deal of love, joy, and peace to be enjoyed, for these are fruits of God’s spirit. Seemingly paradoxically, however, we cultivate these in greatest measure in the midst of our struggles. (Isaiah 30, 20-21) For it is in reaching the limits of our strength and ability that we finally turn to God for the comfort, strength and the wisdom we need to survive in our spiritual youth. And as we mature, we turn to Him more often and with greater depth of heart to teach us to hallow God’s name with our lives.
Paul identified the opponents we must fight when he wrote to the Ephesians (6, 12) “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world’s rulers, of the darkness of this age, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” It is not the men and women who persecute us that we need to struggle against, but rather the spirit that motivates them, the “god of this world.” 2 Corinthians 4, 4
When the Israelites were to take the land away from those who worshipped false gods, they fought pagans in the flesh with carnal weapons. We who enter the “promised land” of reconciliation with our heavenly Father have a fight that is just as real as the Israelites’ battles. But our battles are against the “god of this system of things,” and what he has taught us and everyone around us. The lies, the illusions, the false values, and wrong priorities that we have acted upon because we believed them to be the truth, these we are to bring into “captivity to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10, 5) Ours are spiritual battles, not fleshly battles. This may be a long series of hard fought battles as you must first acknowledge details about yourself you’ve never faced before. That can be very scary, facing a weakness or habit that you’re ashamed of or feel terribly guilty about, but you must fight the battles.
Acknowledge the weakness. Often, you’ll be able to see it most clearly when you confess it to someone you trust to not judge you. (James 5, 16) But that may not be possible ‘til you’ve confessed to God and pray for the courage to confess to a brother or sister. Be strong and courageous because once you confess, you’ll find your sin (whatever separates you from God,) has lost a lot of its power over you. You will have taken back a portion of your promised land. In some measure, you will have come home.
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Reign in Life
Men fight wars for a number of reasons. Possibly the most common reason is to gain control of resources – oil, minerals, food, people, land, etc. About 6,000 years ago a war was fought that, at the time, seemed to be a bloodless coup. But with 20/20 hindsight, we can now see that in actuality, it killed not only Adam and Eve, but every single one of their descendants as well! The devil took control of humanity, and has been the ruler of this world ever since. (See Ephesians 2, 2.) It is out of this land of darkness that God invites us to “Come home,” so that we can reign in life instead of being slaves to sin. Romans 5,17
Let’s see how the devil took control.
Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said to the woman, (1) Is it so that God has said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.
And the serpent said to the woman, (2) You shall not surely die,
for (3) God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it (4) was pleasing to the eyes, and a tree (5) to be desired to make wise, (6) she took of its fruit, and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Genesis 3, 1 to 6
Here’s how he took control –
- The serpent raised a doubt in Eve’s mind,
- He lied to her
- He provided her with a false line of reasoning (thereby corrupting her ability to reason)
- He appealed to her flesh
- He appealed to her heart
- He persuaded her to use her body to do his will rather than God’s
The devil seduced her mind with false reasoning, her heart with wrong desires, and got her to use her body for a forbidden activity; and he took control without Eve’s knowing it. God had been in control as long as she was obedient, but it was so loving she wasn’t even aware of being controlled. Then satan took over and enslaved her, her husband, and all their descendants. “Therefore, even as through one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed on all men inasmuch as all sinned” Romans 5:12, see also 2 Peter 2, 19
God had created them for His own reasons, to accomplish His purposes, His will. His first assignment – multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. They were to expand the boundaries of the beautiful garden in which they lived to include the entire earth. And they would have experienced great joy and a deep sense of fulfillment as they exercised loving rulership under God’s supervision. But because satan co-opted the use of their minds, hearts, and bodies, the earth has, instead, experienced the results of their ignorant and destructive rulership.
But, God’s word never goes forth without returning to Him having accomplished His will. (Isaiah 55, 11) So His command that the earth be transformed into the likeness of the garden in which Adam and Eve lived, will be fulfilled. But our Creator and Owner has a war to fight to regain control of our minds, hearts, and bodies, so that we can then carry out His original command to Adam and Eve. That’s why He sent His Son, through whom He created the world and us humans, as His general to fight the war against the ruler of this world. John 14, 30; 16, 11
The First Step, Redemption
It is by making our mind over (Romans 12, 2,) by bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 10, 5) that we regain control over our minds, hearts, and bodies. So our very first battle leading to that victory must be accepting the redemptive value of Jesus’ death. Paul describes it this way, “(God) has made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5, 21) That is the basis for truly accepting that God has declared us righteous. That belief is essential if we are going to “… draw near (come home to God) with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies having been washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10, 22
When we have a clean conscience we don’t sabotage ourselves. (Self-sabotage is an example of God’s not being in control.) When we have clean bodies, we may be muddy from working in a ditch, but we are using our bodies for God’s purposes, not our own. This acceptance that we have been acquitted of our sins is one of the first battles we must fight. Replacing a stifling sense of shame and/or guilt may be a long, hard-fought battle for some who have been raised in a judgmental environment. But it is essential that they regain control of their hearts; at least enough to be able to say, “Lord, I can’t control it. Please, You be my Shepherd. I need You to show me what to do with my life, and how to do it.” When you surrender to Jesus, God’s name is hallowed, and He begins to regain control of your life. Once you have accepted our loving Father’s gift of redemption, then you can take the second step.
The Second Step, Sanctification
What Jesus is fighting for is control of our minds, hearts, and bodies. We, as individuals, can ignore Him or we can volunteer to be members of His army. If we choose to follow our Shepherd, our King, into battle we will be fighting for what He is fighting for – God’s loving control of our hearts, minds, and bodies. Or as Jesus put it, “… You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength (your body,) and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10, 27.) John wrote that loving God means obeying His commandments. (1 John 5:3.) That results in His controlling us, because we are doing His will rather than our own. But, as John continues, “His commandments are not burdensome.”
Paul gave a good description of why this battle must be fought at Romans 7, 15-23 ERV –
We know that the law is spiritual, but I am not. I am so human. Sin rules me as if I were its slave.
I don’t understand why I act the way I do. I don’t do the good I want to do, and I do the evil I hate.
And if I don’t want to do what I do, that means I agree that (God’s) law is good.
But I am not really the one doing the evil. It is sin living in me that does it.
Yes, I know that nothing good lives in me–I mean nothing good lives in the part of me that is not spiritual. I want to do what is good, but I don’t do it.
I don’t do the good that I want to do. I do the evil that I don’t want to do.
So if I do what I don’t want to do, then I am not really the one doing it. It is the sin living in me that does it.
So I have learned this rule: When I want to do good, evil is there with me.
In my mind I am happy with God’s law.
But I see another law working in my body. That law makes war against the law that my mind accepts. That other law working in my body is the law of sin, and that law makes me its prisoner.
What a miserable person I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death?
I thank God for his salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my mind I am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful self I am a slave to the law of sin.
Paul was saying, “I’m out of control, but I thank God that He has provided His son to sanctify me.” In the Bible, to be sanctified is to be 1) cleansed, and 2) dedicated to God’s purposes. So, we see that we are sanctified in two stages:
- “And such were some of you. But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6, 11
“For by one offering He has perfected (acquitted of Adam’s sin) forever those who are sanctified.” Hebrews 10, 14
- “Therefore if anyone purges himself from these, he shall be a vessel to honor, sanctified and useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.” 2 Timothy 2, 21
Here is Jesus’ invitation to let Him sanctify us:
Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke on you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls.
For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. Matthew 11, 28-30
And here is what Paul wrote about this battle that every one of us Christians must fight,
For you ought to put off the old man (according to your way of living before) who is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
And you should put on the new man, who according to God was created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4, 22-24
The “old man” consists of the body of knowledge and motives (in our minds, hearts, and bodies,) that do not serve God’s purposes. The “new man” is a new creation in the sense that it consists of a body of knowledge and motives taught by our Shepherd, that does serve God’s purposes. The “old man” accomplishes the devil’s will; the “new man” accomplishes God’s will.
Summing up – the devil wrested control of God’s children’s lives from Him by instilling a spirit of independence and disobedience. Jesus has fought the devil and conquered him (John 16, 11,) and thereby regained control of those who choose to follow Him, God’s appointed Shepherd. (John 10, 4 and 11) His job is to bring His Father’s sheep home safely. And ultimately, as 1 Corinthians 15, 28 says, “… when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subject to Him who has subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all things in all.”
When we, who currently suffer Paul’s dilemma of being controlled by the law of sin in our flesh, accept redemption and choose to dedicate our lives to serving God, (2 Corinthians 5, 15) we will have come home to “reign in life by the One, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5, 17) And we will be able to say as Paul did, “I (the “old man”) am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I (the inner man) live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, (Jesus’ faith about who and what I can be, not my old man’s faith) who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2, 20 KJV) At that point God, whose name we hallow, (Matthew 6:9) will have regained total control over our lives.
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The Inner Man
So, if our members are controlled by sin, who is it that wants to “come home” and is willing to fight the battles, along with Jesus, to regain control of our hearts, minds, and bodies? A reasonable question. Paul answers, “The inner man.” My body may be quadriplegic because of an accident, or perhaps I was born without arms or legs. That doesn’t stop God from loving me. My mind may be filled with all kinds of misinformation, and my heart with wrong desires. They don’t decrease God’s desire and efforts to see me whole. No, it is not the corruptible parts of us that are God’s primary focus. He focuses on “the inner man.” Ephesians 3:16
It is the inner man that resonates with the voice our Shepherd, the Mind of Christ. It is the inner man that is the source of our conscience.
This “inner man” or “inner being” apparently consists of a combination of our heart and our mind, for we read at Romans 7, 22-23,
For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
And earlier (Romans 2, 29) Paul had written,
But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.
And referring back to Jeremiah 31, 33, Hebrews 8, 10 says,
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
The important point here, though, is that that “inner man” can be strong, which is why Paul prays, “that (God) may grant you … to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in your inner man.” (Ephesians 3, 16) He also wrote to Timothy (2 Timothy 1, 7) “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” And he reminded the Corinthians, “But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2, 16) We know for an absolute certainty that that mind was strong and courageous.
And that brings us back to Jehovah’s triple exhortation to Joshua as he and a large crowd were about to enter the promised land – “Be strong and courageous.”
Our loving, heavenly Father has invited us, “Come home.” And we can do it by listening to the voice of our Shepherd and following Him. Hebrews 12, 2, (GNB) puts it this way,
“Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross! On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the right side of God’s throne.”
Let us be strong and courageous as our Shepherd leads us home to our “promised land,” our Father’s outstretched and waiting arms.” That is the joy that is set before us.
All scriptures are quoted from the Modern King James Version unless otherwise noted. 1-25-2015
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