In my last post, “Could This Be the Day?” I shared how some Christian prophetic circles were predicting that Christ could rapture His bride, the church, during the Jewish New Year (5778) celebration—also known as Rosh Hashanah 2017.
Well, it came and went and Christ’s spotless bride is still here on planet earth.
If the word I use to describe Christ’s bride—spotless—bothers you, you might want to read a couple of my previous posts titled “Ready or Not, Here I Come (Part 1)” and “Ready or Not, Here I Come (Part 2).”
In a nutshell, everyone who has believed in (into) Jesus is already ready for His return.
He or she is already a spotless saint.
(The fact that we are “in” Jesus says it all. There is no impurity or unholiness in Him, and we are in Him.)
Now, spotless saint, let’s move on to the serious business of enjoying our Beloved’s indwelling presence in the here and now.
The title of today’s post, “The Serious Business of Enjoying God,” is adapted from one of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes: “Joy is the serious business of Heaven.”
If the world is going to be drawn to Jesus through our believing lives, it will be through the supernatural love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control they see/sense emanating from us—the fruit of our intimacy with our Spiritual Bridegroom (Gal. 5:22-23).
In my prior posts, “How to Tune into God’s Live Love Stream,” “Simple Devotion to Christ,” “Pure Devotion to Christ,” and “Undivided Devotion to Christ,” we focused on 2 Corinthians 11:3, where the distressed apostle Paul is pouring out his heart to the Corinthian Christians (whom he had personally led to Christ):
“I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent” (NLT).
Paul was upset because some so-called Jewish “super apostles” were coming in behind him with outward pomp and circumstance, corrupting his “naked gospel” message.
They were influencing this group of immature believers to add requirements (works) to the simple gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8-9).
So now, instead of being enamored with Christ alone, the Corinthian church’s attention was being diverted from Him to a “different” Jesus, Spirit, and gospel.
They were, in a sense, eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, focusing on what they were doing (right and wrong) instead of who they are in Christ and who He is eternally in them (Gen. 2:15-17).
I’m wondering, dear reader, has this ever happened to you?
If so, then you’ve been hoodwinked along with every other believer in Christ (at some time or another) throughout the ages.
You’ve been subtly deceived into getting life from your perception of how well you are performing as a Christian (Mark Maulding calls this “Try Hard Christianity” in his wonderful book, God’s Best-Kept Secret) instead of drawing life from the River of Living Water that dwells within your new heart (“Trust Him Christianity”– Maulding) (John 7:38).
I don’t appreciate getting duped by the enemy any more than the next Christian, so let’s look at some ways that we can take back what we have (unknowingly) allowed him to steal from us (John 10:10).
Let’s start by looking at 2 Corinthians 11:3 in the New American Standard Bible:
“I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
The following is a review from a prior post of the Greek meanings of the words simplicity, purity, and devotion:
- simplicity – “singleness of mind, infused by God through the Spirit”
- purity – “exciting reverence, sacred, immaculate”
- devotion – “sitting by constantly, attending to enthusiastically”
Putting all three of these definitions together as it pertains to the serious business of enjoying God, I believe Christ is saying:
My beloved [insert your name],
You are invited to experience the romance of My astounding, no-strings-attached, one-of-a-kind love for your beautiful new heart.
This won’t make sense to your logic and reason, nor should you expect it to.
However, it will make perfect sense to your heart, My pure, spotless dwelling place.
In a world saturated with the temptation to get life from every outward source but Me—eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil instead of from the Tree of Life indwelling you—all I really want is for you to fix the eyes and ears of your spiritual heart on Me (in you) in excited anticipation of what I will live stream to the movie theater in your mind.
Rest assured, everything you see and hear from Me will sound like Perfect Love, My love.
If you are serious about learning how to enjoy God, you seriously don’t want to miss my next post!
I will be sharing with you secret of savoring my Beloved gave me one morning while I was fixing the eyes and ears of my spotless new heart on Him, and how you too can position yourself to enjoy the One who is already filled with delight over you!
“He happily rejoices over you, renews you with his love, and celebrates over you with shouts of joy” (Zeph. 3:17 GW).
Dear reader, I’m wondering, “Do you long to learn how to enjoy Christ and allow Him to refresh your life with His love?”
If you enjoyed this post, then I think you would enjoy both of my books where I share the undiluted, unpolluted love and grace of God.
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