KNOWING GOD AND THE ONE HE SENT

Good morning, Beloved! This promise is very special, because it elucidates one of the ways that we know God's love. The Holy Spirit is around us all the time, and God knows everything that is happening to us and everything about us. But in order to really be open to God, and to be in a relationship with Him, we have to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit.

Jesus talks about people having ears to hear and eyes to see. He is speaking of this ability to be open to God and the willingness to seek God. Because of free will, God will not force us to be in relationship to Him. He deeply desire is that we know how much He loves us, and that we choose to trust him. When we come to realize how much God loves us, we are able to return His love, and we are able to understand that everyone who loves us is part of how God loves us.

And when we love others, we are loving them out of God's love. The only true love is love that has no agenda, and that is not given for anything in return. This is unconditional love, the kind of love that God gives us and the way that God loves everyone and all that He has created for us to be able to appreciate and wonder it.

God is so good and so faithful! Over and over, God is always trying to help you know Him and trust Him. Every moment of your life is an opportunity to open your heart to the Lord, and to get to know Him better. When we choose to do that, we open up a channel to receive God's grace, blessings, love, forgiveness and mercy.

And then we are able to be in right relationship with God and with everyone in our lives. When we come to know God and Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit reveals Him to us, we are able to receive the gift of faith, and we are able to live our lives in the fullness of His love and grace and peace and joy. 

This is eternal life, as Jesus says, to know God and to know the one who God has sent.

So eternal life begins now, while we are still on Earth. And forever and ever we wil be in Glory with Him and all the host of witnesses to His Love and Shalom, the Fulness of God's Peace.
Recently a friend posted something about not believing in Hell. It made me sad, because I know that she also doesn't believe in Heaven. She's a very loving person, but she doesn't know God and Jesus Christ, and there is something missing from her life because of that.

When I was in pastoral ministry in the local church, often when someone passed away, people would openly speculate about whether the soul of that person was in Heaven or not. It was interesting to hear the conversations about that, and as a pastor if I was involved in the conversation this is what I would say: only God knows what is in the heart of each person, and it is between that person then God whether or not the person has chosen to be open to the Holy Spirit and to know God. The Lord does not want any barriers to exist between him and each person who lives on earth or who has ever lived on earth. After He died on the cross, Jesus went to the netherworld to deliver people.

And when John the Baptist was imprisoned and sent his disciples to Jesus to ask Him if He was indeed the Messiah, Jesus answered by pointing out all of the miracles that He had done that were signs of who He is. Then Jesus said, "Blessed is he who is not offended because of me."

Jesus meant that no one should be turned away from God because of Him or because of doubts about Him. John the Baptist was the first one to recognize Jesus as Messiah when he was given a sign about Jesus before he baptized Him. When he sent his disciples to ask Jesus the question that they asked him, maybe John was having doubts himself, but I think John was hoping that Jesus would make it clear to his followers.

The decision to believe that God loves us and to know Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit comes only through our willingness to be open. The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus Christ to us, but even when that happens, we are the ones who must choose to believe or not. Again, this is because of the free will that God is given to each human being.

No person really talk anybody into believing in Jesus Christ. We only come to know God in Christ when the Holy Spirit gives us everything we need to believe and understand. And we have to be willing to open our hearts and give God a chance to show us.

An evangelist I know says that for people who have not grown up in the church, it will take maybe 900 or so invitations or incidents of someone's witness of his or her faith for a person to believe. This may have been an exaggeration for effect, but what he meant was that if people who don't know the Lord are no longer children, there are blocks and points of resistance to the Holy Spirit.

Maybe there are blocks to you, too. There are many kinds of obstacles that keep us from being able to believe. Sometimes we have been hurt in ways that make it difficult for us to see God as father. 

Maybe even if we grew up in church, we have been spiritually abused or have witnessed some hypocrisy so that we have been turned off by people in the church. But God is always calling each person to open his or her heart and even if someone is only willing to open up a small crack, the Lord is able to use that opening to pour in His love and to help each person but answering questions and alleviating doubts.

So as ever, Beloved, my prayer for you is that if you know the Lord, that you will allow him to draw you deeper into his love and come to know him even better so that you will have more faith, joy, peace, and love. And if you do not know the Lord, my prayer for you is that you will give Him a chance to show you how much He loves you and how you can trust Him.

May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours, today and always.