UNITY THE FOCUS OF GOD’S DESIRE

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”—John 17:20-21

 

Sin is a divider.  That is what separated mankind from the Father God in the Garden of Eden, and it has been fracturing relationships ever since.  Adam and Eve had children after they were sent from the Garden of Eden.  The first child born was Cain and then his brother Abel.  In Genesis chapter 4, we find that Cain was a farmer and Abel was a sheep rancher.  At some point, Cain brought an offering to the Lord from what he had harvested, and Abel’s offering was the first-born from the flock of his sheep.  God “respected” Abel’s offering but Cain’s was not. God noticed Cain’s attitude and talked to him about it.  And then to help clarify to us what God meant, we find in Hebrews 11:4 that Abel’s offering was by faith and a more excellent sacrifice than Cain’s.   God is a God of faith.  Cain was offering something up to God without faith, and that is why he was corrected.  However, Cain would not receive the correction and ended up killing his brother, Cain (4:1-10).   This was the first recorded violence and the one responsible for Cain’s death was Abel, himself.  It was not the club held in his hands, but the attitude that Cain held in his heart against his brother.  God desired unity and oneness; however, Cain could only think of himself and how he felt.  He dealt with the entire situation according to his emotions.

 

Sin has been separating people and fracturing relationships since the Garden of Eden.  However, it is also the reason God considers reconciliation so very important.  He wants to re-establish an intimate relationship with fallen humanity, and for the church to shine their light for the world to see. 

 

The last time that Jesus prayed for His followers was before going to the cross, and He asked “that they may all be one” as the Father and His Son are one (vs. 21).  Despite the fact that we cannot attain perfect unity with God until we reach heaven, we do have the capacity to walk in humility and harmony with Him by living in obedience to His Holy within us.

 

God desires for us are unity, with one another within His church.  We will always have difference in what we prefer, and how we interpret certain Bible passages, but our common identity as Christians is based on the essential truths of the faith as revealed in God’s Word.  The unity Christ advocates is possible only when each member of His body walks in submission to the Spirit so that together they can achieve the purposes of God and reflect Christ’s character in their behavior. 

 

Prayer—Father I ask You to forgive me for the times that I have not walked in faith and allowed sin to separate us.  I ask You to help me and strengthen me so that I may be One with You as Jesus was, in Jesus’ Name.  Amen.

 

DARE TO DREAM

“I will give you a new heart.  I will give you new and right desires.  I will put a new spirit within you.”—Ezekiel 36:26(LB)

 

Are you willing to dare to dream?  Or is fear of failure or rejection keeping you shut down and imprisoned.   You are an important creation of God, and He wants you to desire His best.  “But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them …” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).  You were created for a particular purpose!  Go ahead and dream and ask God to direct you.  Remember, many great visions start with small dreams.   Michelangelo, the great sculptor, bought a chunk of marble which others thought was inferior.  When asked why, he replied, “Because there is an angel locked in that marble, and I must set it free.”

 

Many of us feel that we have not “made it” in life, or for that matter, we were not “made” for dreaming big.  I have heard some people say, “I wish I had a sense of humor.  I can not sing or act or think up clever things.”  Some may have had parents who thought they did not amount to anything.  I can remember when I went back to school as an older adult that I was not sure if I would be smart enough.   Have you ever thought like that?  A few of us may have achieved great goals or made a lot of money, but we still feel insecure inside.  Perhaps we have asked ourselves, “Who am I?” and not heard a clear answer.

 

No matter where we are in our self-evaluation today, we can move on.  We can dare to dream.  Dr. T.L. Osborn, once said, “When I think of any one who is imprisoned by a sense of inferiority because of race, color, social, academic or economic status, or when I see someone who is lonely, abused, discouraged or afraid, I know that inside that individual is a super person whom I must find the way to set free.”  Because Dr. T.L’s messages are so uplifting and positive, they help to remind me of God’s original idea for me: to share His life and His abilities with me, to make me happy, healthy, talented and prosperous.  Jesus summed up the Father’s will for me when He said, “…I come that you might have life and that more abundantly” (John 10:10).

 

In Barbra Streisand’s powerful film, YENTL, an intelligent young woman grows up under her rabbi father’s religious dominance.  As a female, she is forbidden an education, prohibited from reading rabbinical books, predestined to a lifetime of female inferiority and servitude.  Her hunger and thirst for knowledge coupled with her determination caused her to break sacred rules…she dared to read the Talmud.  She went as far as, disguising herself as a male in order to pursue Talmudic studies as a yeshiva—the sacred domain of male’s only.  She is finally alienated from her people and journeys off into the distance with a boatload of seemingly displaced nonpersons in search of a land that is free of religious bigotry.

 

Her sin?  She dared to desire and look beyond religious limitations.  She dared to dream that God must be as good to women as He is to men.  As Yentl struggles with her free spirit and struggles with religious prejudice, she expresses her desperation in some awesome songs. 

 

She asks:  Where is it written that I cannot be the person I am meant to be?  Describing the narrow views religion has permitted her to glimpse, she realized that she had only been allowed to see a piece of sky.  Now she had stepped outside and looked around, having never dreamed the sky was so wide or so high.  Because of her new found knowledge, Yentl is now born into a new world.  She has a voice now.  She has a choice now.  

 

Some of her additional lines include:  What is wrong with wanting more?  Why settle for just a piece of the sky?  Yentl sings about certain things which once you have, no wind can blow away, nor tide can turn away, no fire can burn away, nor time can wear away.  She asks the question, why is a bird given wings, if not to fly?  Why have eyes to see and not see? Or arms to reach, and not reach?  Or a mind unless you are meant to question why?  Or why have thirst if not to drink? 

 

The entire, moving story, dramatizes the glorious enthusiasm of a person who has at last understood that God gives us the power of positive desire.  When at last you understand that you are a new creature and that old things have passed away, at last you can say with Paul, “Those who belong to Christ have nailed their natural evil desires to his cross and crucified them there” (Galatians 5:24 LB).

 

You believe in the new creation—the new you that He has made you to be.  F.F. Bosworth said, “Always desire what God desires, and desire it for the same reason He desires it, and then His Holy Spirit will work with you to achieve what you want.” 

 

Prayer—Father I thank You for the power of positive desire.  Today, I examine my desires and I ask the Holy Spirit to shine His illumination upon anything in me that is not from You.  Lord, I repent of __________________and I ask You to forgive me.  Help me Father to desire what You desire for the same reason that You desire it, in Jesus’ Name.  Amen.

 

 

 

DESIRE GOD’S BEST

“I will give you a new heart.  I will give you new and right desires.  I will put a new spirit within you.”—Ezekiel 36:26(LB)

 

Are you willing to dare to dream?  Or is fear of failure or rejection keeping you shut down and imprisoned.   You are an important creation of God, and He wants you to desire His best.  “But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them …” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).  You were created for a particular purpose!  Go ahead and dream and ask God to direct you.  Remember, many great visions start with small dreams.   Michelangelo, the great sculptor, bought a chunk of marble which others thought was inferior.  When asked why, he replied, “Because there is an angel locked in that marble, and I must set it free.”

 

Many of us feel that we have not “made it” in life, or for that matter, we were not “made” for dreaming big.  I have heard some people say, “I wish I had a sense of humor.  I can not sing or act.”  Some may have had parents who thought they did not amount to anything.  I can remember thinking that when I went back to school, as an older adult, that I was not sure if I would be smart enough.   Have you ever thought like that?  A few of us may have achieved great goals or made a lot of money, but we still feel insecure inside.  Perhaps we have asked ourselves, “Who am I?” and did not hear a clear answer.

 

No matter where we are in our self-evaluation today, we can move on.  We can dare to dream.  Dr. T.L. Osborn, once said, “When I think of any one who is imprisoned by a sense of inferiority because of race, color, social, academic or economic status, or when I see someone who is lonely, abused, discouraged or afraid, I know that inside that individual is a super person whom I must find the way to set free.”  Because Dr. T.L’s messages are so uplifting and positive, they help to remind me of God’s original idea for me: to share His life and His abilities with me, to make me happy, healthy, talented and prosperous.  Jesus summed up the Father’s will for me when He said, “…I come that you might have life and that more abundantly” (John 10:10).

 

In Barbra Streisand’s powerful film, YENTL, an intelligent young woman grows up under her rabbi father’s religious dominance.  As a female, she is forbidden an education, prohibited from reading rabbinical books, predestined to a lifetime of female inferiority and servitude.  Her hunger and thirst for knowledge coupled with her determination caused her to break sacred rules…she dared to read the Talmud.  She went as far as, disguising herself as a male in order to pursue Talmudic studies as a yeshiva—the sacred domain of male’s only.  She is finally alienated from her people and journeys off into the distance with a boatload of seemingly displaced nonpersons in search of a land that is free of religious bigotry.

 

Her sin?  She dared to desire and look beyond religious limitations.  She dared to dream that God must be as good to women as He is to men.  As Yentl struggles with her free spirit and struggles with religious prejudice, she expresses her desperation in some awesome songs. 

 

She asks:  Where is it written that I cannot be the person I am meant to be?  Describing the narrow views religion has permitted her to glimpse, she realized that she had only been allowed to see a piece of sky.  Now she had stepped outside and looked around, having never dreamed the sky was so wide or so high.  Because of her new found knowledge, Yentl is now born into a new world.  She has a voice now.  She has a choice now.  

 

Some of her additional lines include:  What is wrong with wanting more?  Why settle for just a piece of the sky?  Yentl sings about certain things which once you have, no wind can blow away, nor tide can turn away, no fire can burn away, nor time can wear away.  She asks the question, why is a bird given wings, if not to fly?  Why have eyes to see and not see? Or arms to reach, and not reach?  Or a mind unless you are meant to question why?  Or why have thirst if not to drink? 

 

The entire, moving story, dramatizes the glorious enthusiasm of a person who has at last understood that God gives us the power of positive desire.  When at last you understand that you are a new creature and that old things have passed away, at last you can say with Paul, “Those who belong to Christ have nailed their natural evil desires to his cross and crucified them there” (Galatians 5:24 LB).

 

You believe in the new creation—the new you that He has made you to be.  F.F. Bosworth said, “Always desire what God desires, and desire it for the same reason He desires it, and then His Holy Spirit will work with you to achieve what you want.” 

 

Prayer—Father I thank You for the power of positive desire.  Today, I examine my desires and I ask the Holy Spirit to shine His illumination upon anything in me that is not from You.  Lord, I repent of __________________and I ask You to forgive me.  Help me Father to desire what You desire for the same reason that You desire it, in Jesus’ Name.  Amen.