Monday 3 November 2008

God can transform you if you are willing

My friends, do you know the first miracle Jesus did? Is it healing the sick? Walking in the water? Feeding 5000 people? Casting away demons, or ...? I think every Christian should know about this. And if you really don't know, don't be discourage but I really hope that now you can see how little you know about God. I hope you begin to open your Bible and read. I am not writing this to shame you, but to encourage you to know more about God, as my dear friends.

Yes, the first miraculous sign Jesus did is changing water to wine. God taught me something today, He made me remember the parable of prodigal son. This parable shows us the very heart of God, how God the Father will be very happy if He find that His lost son come back home. The son chose to go on his own way and rebel against his Father until he was in deep trouble and lost everything he had. He lived in miserable place before he came to his senses and decided to go back to his Father's house.

I can feel the very heart of God the Father because I was a lost son. He doesn't care how dirty I was, He doesn't care about my terrible sins in my past, He doesn't care about my selfishness, my rebellion against Him, once I say "Father, please forgive me. I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son". Once I repent and ask His forgiveness with all my heart, once I surrender all, once I invite Jesus to come to my life and dwell inside me, once I have faith that Jesus is able to help me. His precious blood immediately begin to cleanse me. I become a new creation, old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). I knew that something happened in my life, people around me can feel that too.

My friends, the same things can happen to you. God doesn't care who you are, what you are, where you are. He really doesn't care how dirty and stinky you are. What He cares is YOU, his prodigal son, come back home and call Him "Abba, Father". He longs to listen when you call Him "Father, I am so sorry. Forgive me". And do you know what He will do?

He will call His servants, "Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found."

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My, friends, we are all dead, all lost because of our sins. We don't understand what we do. For the good that we want to do we don't do, but the things that not suppose to be done, we keep doing it. We have desire to do what is good, but we cannot carry it out. Just be honest to yourself, my friends. I know that this thing also happen inside your body. This happened in everyone of us. This body is full of sins. And the wages of sin is death. We are all dead, we are walking straight to hell. We are all the lost sons. We ate with pigs, slept in the mud of sins, nothing valuable from us. We are so stinky, dirty and poor, nothing valuable.

But, God doesn't think like that. We are so precious for Him. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). He loves you more than you can imagine. He longs to have interaction with you, to have fellowship with you. God wants to bring you out of your muds of sins. You are not suppose to be there. Move out from there, come back to your sense, my friends. God will change you from nothing to something, from children of darkness to children of God, from scum of the earth to more than conquerors, from poor in spirit to live abundantly in God.

This is the reason why Jesus changed water into wine as His first miraculous sign. He need to change you first to be His children, so that now you can join in His feasting, so that now you can receive all of His Glory, and His promise.

You will never receive anything fully from God if you are still His enemies. Stop daydreaming! Godly healing, godly deliverance, godly blessing will only for those who have faith in Jesus Christ, not for unbelievers. Have you read in the Bible where Jesus healed those who didn't have faith? None.

When you are full of sins and your hands were covered with blood, God will never listen to you, God will hide Himself from you because He is holy, He can't stand against your sins. My beloved, you need Jesus to cleanse you, to reconcile you with God, to make the two one and destroy the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations (Ephesians 2:14-15).

Jesus will change and transform your life

  • He will do miraculous things in you and through you
  • He will give you all His belonging. Whatever you ask in His name will be given
  • He will replace your cold, hard, rebellious, stony heart with a new heart
  • He will replace your wicked, adulterous mind with fine and sound mind
  • He will replace your sinful behaviour, carnal mind with godly characteristic, with holiness, with righteousness and with spiritual mind
  • He will replace your unforgettable, shameful, disappointment past with a hope and bright new future
  • He will replace your fear with peace, your anger, hatred, jealousy with love

Ezekiel 36:26-28

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them. And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

If you desperately want to remove your guilts, your sinful memories, to close your shameful books and start refresh. I have a solution for you since I was like you. Go to God and let Him change you. Is that so difficult? You don't need to do anything, just surrender all, let Him do whatever He wants. He is loving God, He knows the best for you, He will make you whole, live abundant life. Just be still, peace in your heart, trust Him.

It is God, not you, not by your power, not by your might, but God alone. It is God's grace, God's love, God's mercy upon you. It is Gift of God. My friends, you just need to repent and ask forgiveness, kneel down, pour out your heart, and speak to Him. God is near, His word is near to you. He wants to listen to you. He wants to be called "Abba, Father" by you. He wants you to be saved.

Romans 10:8-9

The word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

We are forgiven because Jesus was forsaken. We are accepted, because Jesus was condemned. We are loved by God because God's Spirit is in us. Jesus died on the cross and shed His precious blood for us, to make us precious in God's eyes. Do you really understand His sacrifice, my friends? Do you really understand what it takes to make you have peace with God? Do you really understand His blood of covenant, His Spirit of grace? If you really do understand, you will not trample it under your foot, you will not insult it, you will not deliberately keep on sinning after you receive the knowledge of truth.

If during this time, you felt abandoned, despised, worthless, lonely, object of mockery, today is your day to end all these miseries, come back to your senses. Jesus came to this world to save sinner, to save the blind, the oppressed, not the ones who think that he was something which in fact he is nothing.

  • The more you tired with this fallen world, the more God can use you. For God wants to use those people who do not love the world.
  • The less position you have in worldly life (sinners, adulterers, poors, orphans, prisoners), the more God can use you greatly, but you need to let God cleanse and discipline you. You are the best option to be used by God.

For God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, God chose the weak things in the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things --- and the things that are not --- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).

Once you surrender all to God, don't be surprise if you will become God's interest. Your life will become full of noise. You will have every blessing that God want to give you, but also, you will have a lot of persecution from those who can't accept Jesus in you. Count the cost. If you want to be blessed, follow God, but on the same time, you will be hated by the world. If you want to be like the world, you will become enemies of God. And if you want to be both, serving 2 masters, flesh and spirit, darkness and light. You are lukewarm and God will spew you out. 100% submit to God or stop dreaming about anything good from God, including eternal life.

Put God on the right place in your life. Don't put Him inside your box. He is greater than that, He is even greater than your life, your everything, even this universal. Let God rule you, not you rule God. God bless you

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