CHRIST IN YOUR HEART, NOW

The kingdom of God is when you have Christ in your heart now. Jesus personifies the Kingdom of God as Mark 10:15 and Luke 17:20-21 say,

Receiving the children to Himself….

“Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Mark 10:15 NIV

And answering to the Pharisees about the Kingdom of God,

“Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst’.” Luke 17:20-21 NIV

This is why we need to daily surrender and to daily ask for the Holy Spirit during our worship time. The decisive moment will be when we stand before God, Did we have the saving personal relationship with Christ and did we stay in Him? (see John 15:1-17) Don’t you long for more – for greater fulfillment in your faith?

DO YOU EAT?

Whoever spends little or no quiet time with God or only has an inadequate worship time will probably only be strengthened by their worship once or twice a week. That is similar to someone only eating once or twice a week. To make a comparison: Wouldn’t it be absurd to only want to nourish yourself once a week? Doesn’t this mean that a Christian without worship is carnal?

This also means that if he stays in this condition then he isn’t saved. When we are carnal Christians worship can be just an obligation.

When we are spiritual then worship will become more and more a necessity and joy.

In order that we may have the righteousness of Christ, we need daily to be transformed by the influence of the Spirit, to be a partaker of the divine nature.

In Jim Vaus booklet “I was a Gangster”, he was a criminal who became converted. He wholeheartedly confessed his sins – for example perjury, theft, etc. He experienced tremendous divine intervention. Isn’t that impressive?

We could say to ourselves, “I am doing fine in almost every way, but I don’t have experiences like that.” Maybe we should start praying to the Lord…

“Father in heaven, I also want to confess all my known sins and all the sins that you will yet show me. In addition, I will get up an hour earlier to pray and read the Bible. Then I want to see if you will also intervene in my life.”

Praise God! He can and will intervene in our life. Especially in our morning worship and in connecting with Him through Sabbath – both factors show if we are seeking the Kingdom of God first.

Through daily surrender and through being daily filled with the Holy Spirit our lives will be beneficially changed. As a result, our new life “in Christ” will be preserved and will bear fruit. This happens during our personal worship time.

QUESTIONS FOR MEDITATION & DEVOTION

1. Repeating the question in the first section today, Are you having the saving personal relationship with Christ and did we stay in Him?

2. What would happen if you just had one meal a week? Why do we think one spiritual moment per week would do?

3. We all like to hear stories of transformation and get impacted. Why are we all not producing those stories? What is your “gangster” story?