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The Future Is Now Exo 3:13-14 “And Moses said unto God, Behold, [when] I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What [is] his name? what shall I say unto them? (14) And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” Why do we worry about the future? All we need to do is grow in Christ, remembering that He is the “I AM” – the “Eternal Present.” Christ always is what God Is. God and Christ are what They are right now. He wants each of us to be a part of Himself, of what He always is. He desires for us to continue to grow until it can be said of us we are fully with Him where He is. Then the future will take care of itself. If we are to be kept from the mundane, and temporary, we must be listening moment-by-moment to what the Lord is saying, presenting each decision to Him for His will and blessing. We must strive to be a part of what He is. In John 8:58 Jesus did not say, “before Abraham was born I was.” He said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” In John 14:3 He said, “that you also may be where I am,” not “where I will be.” Jesus is speaking in present tense so that we will not be concerned about the future, but that we will learn to think of God and Christ in the now. Jesus is talking about oneness with the Father – complete unity in the “I AM”. Mat 28:20 “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world.” Amen. always = wholly now. If we spend too much time worrying about coming from or going to heaven (which is our hope to be with the Lord), we may miss what Christ is doing today in our life to bring us into oneness with Him and the Father. “All there is, is now.” If we spend too much time on the future we will neglect the Lord in every detail of our lives now. Any point in the future is always the now, the present, when we get there. In worrying about the future we are trying to establish the future – then we are filled with disappointments and frustrations because it doesn’t happen the way we expected. We literally create emergencies in our lives because of what we expect the future to be. {Yes, we are at times to consider the future to make sure we are headed in the right direction.} The reason the world is passing us by so fast is that we are living for the future instead of the now. Christ is always the “I AM,” not the “I will be.” Christ desires that we be with Him where He is, not where He will be - always = wholly now. If Christ is always with us and we are with Him, then the future is now. The Lord wants us to enter into a timeless relationship. He wants each of us to be with Him where He is. He desires that we grow in Him until it can be said we are wholly with Him in what He is and where He is. Then the future will take care of itself. Do you worry about the future? Ask yourself – Right now, this very moment is there anything I can’t do that I know I should do?] Then why worry? Christ is the I AM. What is the problem? Isa 26:3 “Thou wilt keep [him] in perfect peace, [whose] mind [is] stayed [on thee]: because he trusteth in thee.” Right now, this very moment, there is no problem. “All that there is, is now.” Much of the pain we suffer comes from our anticipation of the future. The Lord wants you to know the meaning of “I AM.” Christ wants to be our life now. He wants to be expressed through us. This is oneness – not so we can have more power or be more successful, or to get what we want. God wants total union because He is love. That love is our life. Divine love in union is not the means to some religious end. It is the end. Listen carefully to Rev. 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” The Lord never stops knocking. He always wants to dine with us. When we join Him, we are eating His flesh and drinking His blood. But what does He eat and drink? (Song of Solomon 5:1) myrrh = bitter/sweet honeycomb = forest (Revelation 10:9-10) He eats the sweet word of life in you. He is looking for every part of your personality and being to be filled with Him – possibly only through surrender. Heb 13:5 “[Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” I can spend time speculating about what the future holds. Or I can keep looking to Jesus, making sure that at this very moment I am living in His presence, expressing His will in the earth. While I remain in Christ Jesus, doing exactly what I know He desires, I am indestructible. He is health to my soul; He is energy to my being; He is wisdom to my mind. “Lord, I want to be a part of the I AM right now, I want to live by your life. All there is, is now, and there is no problem. When later comes it will be now. You are with me at all times.” To what level of union are you being brought? To be precisely what He is. Can you imagine the battle our carnal nature has to relinquish in its rights to be this and to get there? When we are seeking to be filled with Christ, to dwell in Christ, at any moment, He is there. It is not a case of you seeking to be part of God. It is God seeking to be part of man. Every aspect of salvation originates in God. We cannot run after Him except He draws us. No person comes to Jesus unless the Father draws Him. No individual takes this honor upon himself except he is called of God. He has created us to be His shining glory. We are to be the image of God, the expression of God in His creation. How marvelous. Yet we resist, and ignore. Christ in God is calling us to Himself. “Come be a part of Me, this is why you were created. Cease from your own works and enter into My rest.” The result is a conscientious decision to follow the great I Am to come into untroubled rest in the Father through Jesus Christ, being made one with Them, we dwelling in Them and They in us. -Pr. Steve October Newsletter 2006 | The Future is Now | As Unto the Lord |
Biblical Counseling for Leaders
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