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1John 3:2(NIV) tells us, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Many of us do not take the time to really allow it to sink into our heads that the Creator of the entire universe calls us His children. Right now, right this very moment, we are distinctly God’s kids. We’re His off-spring! When we consider how incredibly magnificent and powerful He is, this is just mind blowing. God even took it a step further in 1John 3:2 by letting us know that He’s not done yet. This is one of those verses where, in your mind, you pump the breaks and hear the screeching noise of rubber hitting the road. It’s simply stated, but like all of God’s revelation, it’s packed with multifaceted treasures. God has planned a new thing for you in the future, and to prepare you for it, He’s doing a new work in your life right now!
God, in His infinite intellect and knowledge, already knows what we will be like when Christ returns. He knows it, but you and I don’t know the fullness of this truth. The only knowledge we have about it is that when we see Christ upon his return, we will be like him. In and of itself, that’s enough to fuel our hopes a lifetime. Think of his love. Think of his compassion. Dwell on his wondrous working power and his desire to glorify the Father. We only appreciate these qualities in part. We don’t have a full sense of them now, but when we see our brother face to face, we will have the complete scope and measure of Godliness. It feels almost too good to be true.
1John 3:2 gives us a glimpse of what is to come, but what about now? Many of us are striving amongst incredible struggle and we can’t understand it. We’re fighting against the tide it seems—fighting an uphill battle. It’s no fun. For some of us, our hope is dwindling, and we don’t have a clue how to come up out of the murk and mire of our circumstances. I will venture to say that the greatest reason why many of us are having such difficulty in the come up is because we are still so unsure of our standing in the RIGHT NOW!
“NOW are we the children of God!” Heavenly Father tells us! He’s a right now God. He’s not waiting to bless us. We’re already blessed, and God has assured us in 1John 3:2 that it just keeps getting better and better. But far too many of us are stumbling to believe this truth.
How can we be optimistic about what God is going to do for and in us in the future, when we don’t fully believe in what He’s doing for and in us right now? He said to the Children of Israel in Deuteronomy 28:13 (NIV) “The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.” He said this to them and they were not spiritual sons and daughters as we are. They were not born of His spirit. They were servants. We are God’s chosen people. So if God would make the servants the head and not the tail all those years ago, how much more will He do for His spiritual children living today?
You wonder why you’re receiving so much opposition. You wonder why it seems that every time you take one step forward, something happens to kick you two steps back. You’re wondering why your circumstances are beyond anything you’ve heard about from anyone else. It’s because now is your time. This is your season. All this commotion is happening in your life because you’re waking up. Things are beginning to stir and the enemy has taken notice of your walk in Christ. The new thing is getting ready to burst forth! It’s breaking through the walls of your circumstances and the devil is trying to squash your shine.
The enemy wants you clothed in ignorance so that you continue to lack stamina and confidence. You were placed on this earth to take authority in the name of Jesus Christ, our King. You are his ambassador. You’re supposed to say what he said. You’re to think like he thought. You are to have rulership and dominion over your own life. No one should be able to take from you what God Almighty has given to you. But too often, I see and hear of God’s people cloaked in pity and content to let others think of them as weak and defeated, rather than strong and incomparable.
Pitifulness is a state of mind that a person wears to evoke pity from others. What business have the people of God to do with possessing this kind of mindset? None at all. We’re to have pity and compassion on those who do not know the Word as we do, but how can we help them when we will not help ourselves by growing in the Spirit? Heavenly Father is snatching every drop of this kind of mentality from those who are serious about His Kingdom. Our crutches are being destroyed; our security blankets shredded to pieces. We’ve mistakenly believed that because we’re no longer comfortable that God wants us to grovel on the ground, begging for crumbs. With all the new and blazing revelation from God that we’re receiving in our time, shame on those who are still teaching us to acquiesce and believe this way.
God doesn’t want us groveling on the ground for crumbs. He’s given us the whole table and everything on it. God’s Word declares in Ephesians 1:3(NLT), “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.” HE who is ALL has blessed His children with ALL. You just don’t get any better than this.
We just can’t keep rebelling against God’s divinity by forfeiting our standing as joint-heirs with Christ. We are settling for crumbs. We are settling for a corner-of-the-room mindset when our destiny is to influence a nation. This back and forth we are doing, make a little progress and then shrink back, it’s got to stop. God is looking for consistency from us. He’s looking for us to stick to our commitments to Him, and become fully persuaded in the person He has called us to be. We’ve been on this journey too long to think that God won’t have our backs, when He’s demonstrated time and time again that He’s with us no matter what.
Those old excuses that we’ve used to remain stagnant…God has allowed them all to be taken away. All of our comforts with business as usual are disintegrating. Compromises will no longer be tolerated. Something is rising in you! Don’t hide it and don’t run from it! God is doing a new thing in your life; you don’t need to fight it. You are being prepared and honed for the destiny that awaits you. It’s everything you have wanted and more. Stay ready! ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“God Is Doing A New Thing!” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2016. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.
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