This message was preached in Nyagatare, north japanese Rwanda on Might third, 2005.
Thanks on your very heat welcome. Within the night of final evening Bishop Bernard Munanira and his spouse and others had been sitting across the desk speaking about what we would do at the moment? The bishop really helpful that I do some educating on the right way to stroll with Jesus Christ; the right way to stroll within the kingdom of heaven; the right way to stroll prepared for the Lord to come back again to the world.
I feel among the finest issues to recollect is that if we are able to dwell in heaven right here on earth, then we’ll dwell our greatest each now and perpetually. Typically after we are very lonely and we’re fairly depressed in ourselves, we bow our heads. Typically when the ache is an excessive amount of on us, we disguise ourselves away utterly and we simply roll up into just a little ball and we do not need anyone to search out us.
However Jesus needs us to be a complete particular person and Jesus needs to make us develop. Amen? And Jesus places his Spirit into us. Amen? And when he places his Spirit into us and we begin to come to church and we take heed to the pastor’s instruction and a few of the instruction is just a little bit exhausting on us, however the pastor says, “There may be one within you who is larger than the world and he that’s on the earth (1 John 4:4)!” And also you consider him; and make just a little streeeetch to that concept.
You possibly can stretch just a little bit. Not loads. However you may develop just a bit bit. For instance, you retain coming to church, and also you regulate your self with just a little self-discipline, and after a whilst you assume to your self, “Sure, I’ve grown just a little bit, similar to the pastor stated, however that is sufficient for me. I need not stretch any greater than this that I’ve already achieved.”
We predict, “I’m a Christian now, and I can have a look at all of these people who find themselves not stretched and they’re completely different from me. I’m so great and so good, I’ve stretched just a little bit.”
However then the Lord says to you, “You need to obtain much more. You need to turn out to be a brand new particular person. You need to not merely be the outdated one that has stretched in his or her angle just a little bit. The outdated particular person should truly go away and a complete new particular person should be born.”
However you assume, “Sure, however I’ve already stretched sufficient!”
He says, “No, no, no. I’m going to stretch you much more.”
And God brings you into conditions that problem you and also you begin to stretch, like all of your world is being stretched and strained simply to accommodate the brand new issues and the brand new methods of pondering.
You assume to your self, “Oh, do not try this to me God. Do not stretch me, Lord! It is higher like I used to be earlier than. Earlier than you ever got here into my life. I used to be glad how I used to be…properly, roughly glad. God, sin is just not so dangerous. It is higher than this stretching you are doing to me!
However the Lord says, “No, no. Hearken to your coronary heart. Come and stretch out right here with Me, the place I’m.”
After just a little you yield and also you do stretch just a little bit. You begin to belief God. Then after a short time you assume to your self, “That is truly fairly good! Life is definitely higher out right here than earlier than. Though the stretch was fairly unusual and painful even, it was all value it.”
Then sooner or later the pastor involves you and says, “You could be full of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and speaking in tongues.” Someday in a service, the Holy Spirit was actually highly effective and he did that and impulsively…. arghh!…a giant stretch! And also you even stretch in your head simply making an attempt to get all of your concepts collectively about this wonderful new expertise in God…arghh!
However when it is throughout you assume to your self, “Ah, now I’ve discovered Jesus Christ! Now I’m actually a Christian. Now I can calm down and simply dwell my life in peace and quiet.” However then sooner or later your pastor comes alongside and says, “I would like folks to come back with me into Tanzania to do mission.”
You place your hand up, “Hey! Take me! Take me!” So that you go on the mission group and the mission stretches you much more! You come again and inform all people, “That is the way it was in Tanzania! We walked in all places! And we did issues within the Holy Spirit that stretched us in all places! Yeah! It was so manner cool. And folks bought saved, and healed, and the pastor did this wonderful deliverance on one man out within the bush. Oh, God is superior guys! Actually!”
However then in a while, the Lord comes and whispers in your coronary heart saying, “Now, I’m calling you to turn out to be like a pastor.” And also you assume to your self, “Ah, no, not me! No, I’m no one!”
However the Lord says, “I can do that in you. You possibly can’t do that in your personal power, however I can do it in you if you’ll stretch much more.”
You depend the fee in your self, weighing up all of your expertise and expertise and information and making an attempt exhausting to miss all of your shortcomings and also you say, “However Lord, that is as a lot stretch as I’ve bought!”
And the Lord says, “Oh, no, no, no. I’m the one who’s stretching now. If you’ll simply stick with Me, I’ll stretch and you’ll stretch with me.”
You say, “Okay God. I settle for, Lord. I’m now going to be a shepherd. OK, so change me in order that I can take care of my sheep. Carry these sheep to me, Lord. Carry it on.”
Then you might be praying and you might be praying and the Lord is stretching you into a spot the place you by no means thought you had a lot stretch. You’re actually changing into an individual of God now … a accountable particular person within the kingdom of heaven right here on earth. You could have your personal mission to do, and also you’re starting to do it.
You are coming via the city and also you’re seeing the individuals who haven’t any stretch and the glory of God comes onto you and now you can say, “Hear hear folks, the Lord Jesus Christ could make you larger than you might be. He may help you to resolve your issues and never make the identical errors sooner or later. He can deliver God’s glory into your life, and you’ll turn out to be a complete new particular person in him in case you’re prepared.”
Now you begin to work with the bishop and also you begin to work in all the church buildings, preaching and therapeutic and then you definitely get nice breakthroughs and the Lord stretches you much more…much more…and much more…and simply while you thought you had no stretch left in you, much more!
Then God takes you and he makes you right into a heavenly citizen. You’ve got been doing a pastor’s works on the earth however simply as a saved human being of the earth. Now he stretches you each which manner. Amen?
Amen! Glory to God! And that is who all of us are, stretched folks of God, and heavenly residents now. Jesus can stretch us to anyplace we need to be! He can take us anyplace. Amen? That is who we have gotten.
Now we’re going to discuss discovering God. Now that you recognize that you would be able to be stretched to a spot the place you’ll find God. At first search God. We do not know him, and we need to discover him. Then we consider about God, we consider in God. However then we determine to make Jesus the Lord of our life and we come to a spot the place we truly discover God; and God additionally finds us. We all know God, and we all know that he is aware of us personally. Discovering God is a most great factor that may occur to us. However then what follows after that’s that we begin to reveal God to different folks, simply as Jesus revealed the Father to us when he was on the earth amongst us. Revealing God is probably the most glorious factor to do. Of all the roles we might select from on the earth, revealing God to folks is the very best job there may be.
You present folks by God’s energy that they are often greater than what they assume they’re. God can flip us all into extra and we are able to do greater than what we already consider.
THE MAN WHO OVERCAME THE WORLD
After I first needed to search out God myself, God led me to 1 man. This man was a really uncommon man. He stated that he had discovered God. Not simply God within the Phrase and never simply loving God, however in himself he had been modified in order that God and he in his particular person had been capable of be like the identical particular person.
He would sit all day and he would sit all evening. He was utterly soaked on the earth and but he was not of it in any respect. If he did not eat, it did not matter to him. If he did not drink, it did not matter to him. If the mouse got here and began to eat his toes, it did not matter to him. He was utterly misplaced in God and was utterly disinterested in his physique and the world.
I assumed to myself, “This can be a great factor. How does a human being expertise a lot closeness of God? That is simply completely different from studying about God. That is being made right into a Godly particular person by God himself.”
Typically in our goals after we are sleeping at evening, God comes into our thoughts and we really feel that we’re full of God, do not we? Then we get up within the morning and we’re just a bit bizarre particular person once more, however we all know God has touched our minds someplace.
After we turn out to be Christians, we begin to perceive that God can utterly transfer into our self, and so I began to do what this man did. He advised me what he did with the intention to know God like this.
He stated, “I requested myself one query. After I was a younger boy of fourteen, one among my uncles died and I went to the funeral. Right here was my uncle laid out for the funeral and I used to be only a younger boy, simply watching. I requested myself the query, ‘What’s it that dies? The place is the person who dies?’
“I went residence to my home the place I used to be staying and I actually needed to know the reply to this query. So I laid down on the ground and I held my breath till I might discover the reply: ‘What was the factor that was going to die?’
“I held my breath for less than about half a minute after which one thing from inside me sprang ahead and it appeared to fill the entire universe, and it was additionally full of the presence of God.
“From that point onwards I’ve simply been sitting in peace with this which I’m in God. From that point on I simply sat in peace and God who was in me, and I who was in God, overcame all of the world fairly effortlessly.”
When he was concerning the age of forty-five he developed abdomen most cancers and he died. Somebody got here to him and stated, “You could have most cancers. Does not it harm you?”
He stated, “No. Ache is only a stress.”
“Does it matter to you that you will die?” they requested.
He stated, “No. When God is a lot in you, there isn’t any distinction between being alive and being lifeless. Dying is only a phrase…a mirrored image…it isn’t actual.”
So I need to finish that story now by saying that there’s a manner of realizing God intimately as a result of God can fill us up utterly in our self. We are able to sit in God and God can sit in us.
We are able to merge the one into the opposite, and it could make a distinction in how we relate to the whole lot, even the world itself.
However God would not name many women and men to dwell like that man, so I need to present you the extra frequent manner that God calls folks to know God. But, even then, within the frequent manner, many individuals spend time being rapt in God, even when just for just a few moments whereas they’re worshiping.
A MORE COMMON WAY TO KNOW GOD
If we open up the Bible and we search for good males who’ve identified God, we see that we discover Enoch in Genesis 5:24. He was good and he happy God, and God took him from the world.
Within the e-book of second Kings (2:11), we see Elijah-and Elijah was good; and God took him from the world.
Each of those males had been good in keeping with God’s concept of perfection-they happy him as a result of they completely did God’s will. However, as good as they had been, each of those two males did not do nearly as good a piece as Jesus did when he was right here.
Jesus got here to save lots of the world from its sin, however neither Enoch nor Elijah did that work. Amen?
We all know that for Jesus to do the work of saving the world from sin, Jesus the person should have a minimum of been as good as Enoch and Elijah. Amen? In any other case both Enoch or Elijah might have saved the world from its sin. However they did not, and could not. God did not give them that dominion and authority, regardless that they had been spiritually good and strolling in all of God’s good love that they may.
So now we ask ourselves, “Forgetting Enoch and Elijah for a second, as spiritually good as they had been, how did Jesus discover God?”
Jesus was the Son of God however he was born just a little child. He did not go to highschool day-after-day saying, “I’m the Son of God!” He went to highschool saying, “I’m Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, and I’ve brothers and sisters on this faculty additionally.” He did not actually discover out about being the Son of God till God totally revealed that to him at his baptism, when God stated the phrases to him about how he additionally happy him.
So we all know that there’s Jesus the human being. He’s rising up into the perfection of God. Earlier than he can turn out to be the “Son of God” who’s saving the world from its sin, he should first turn out to be the “good man” as a result of the bizarre man is just not able to doing the work of saving the world. He should a minimum of turn out to be the identical as, if not higher than, Enoch and Elijah.
So we have a look at Jesus and we ask ourselves, “When did he turn out to be good? When he turned good, he should have already utterly discovered God. And if he has discovered God, how does he show that he has discovered God? As a result of he should be capable to have discovered God initially, if he’s then going to do the work of God.”
In case your pastor sends you to Tanzania to go on mission, you have to a minimum of have discovered your pastor and been in dialogue with him. Amen?
So after we discover Jesus, we glance to him and say, “What’s he doing with the heavenly Father? As a result of if we are able to do what he’s doing with the heavenly Father, then we will probably be drawn into realizing God also-in simply the identical manner as Jesus is realizing God.”
When God took Enoch, Enoch “happy” God. The Bible makes use of the phrase “happy” to imply “good in God’s eyes”. However Enoch is ideal and but he isn’t given the job to save lots of the world. As quickly as he turns into good…whoosh! He’s taken from the world.
On the similar time that Elijah is taken from the world, we all know that Elijah has reached perfection too. To be taken from the world in fiery chariots of God’s energy is similar as saying they’re spiritually good in God’s love.
Now, let’s come into the e-book of Matthew. Let’s have a learn from Matthew 3:16 and 17. In English it says,
And when Jesus was baptized, instantly he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens had been opened to him, and he noticed the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to relaxation on him; and behold, a voice from heaven stated, “That is my beloved Son, with whom I’m properly happy.”
We see right here that God is “happy,” however it is a particular pleasing. If Jesus was a person or girl like us, we’d anticipate him then to be taken by God to heaven. However one thing completely different occurs right here.
Jesus comes up out of the water, after which whereas he’s standing within the water the heavens open above him and the Spirit of God involves him and that is the beginning of his new mission. For the primary time on the earth now, we see an ideal human being doing an prolonged mission of God.
We are able to additionally perceive that when the Spirit of God comes on him, the Spirit of God provides His imaginative and prescient for that mission.
We’re standing in a church and it has been constructed as a result of any individual had the imaginative and prescient to construct the church right here. It comes into your creativeness and God touches it and also you consider God goes to assist to make this occur.
So right here is Jesus and he’s receiving the imaginative and prescient from God to save lots of the world, and with the imaginative and prescient comes the Holy Spirit’s energy to do this. With that imaginative and prescient comes the complete remembrance, “I’m the Son of God.”
And now the human Jesus thoughts and the Son of God thoughts turn out to be the identical thoughts. He’s now Jesus on earth, however he extends proper up into the heavens to the Father as properly. Amen?
He is aware of God. He not solely got here from God, however as a human being he has grown up into the traditional vary of realizing God that all of us can develop into. So, he’s the proper particular person to ask our query: “How do we discover God?”
We have a look at Jesus and we discover that he does just one or two issues to inform us. Include me into Romans chapter 1, verse 17. In English it says,
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from religion for religion, as it’s written, “The righteous shall dwell by religion.”
So we now have discovered right here in Paul’s writings and expertise that Jesus’ relationship with the Father, which is wholly righteous-right with the Father-is pure religion. Amen?
Now, if we come into Deuteronomy, in chapter 30 we see God making human beings select. God places a excessive worth on us making a selection. In verse 19, God says,
“I’ve set earlier than you life and demise, blessing and curse. Subsequently select life.”
When Jesus ministers on the earth he says the identical factor, “Select the dominion of heaven.” (Matthew 13:44) At first of his ministry he simply says, “Select me. Select me. I got here from heaven. I’m the best way to the Father. Select me.”
After he sees that the Jews have a tough coronary heart, he says, “If you cannot select me, a minimum of select the Father due to my works.”
So we begin to see right here that the righteous, they dwell in religion however they need to make choices.
Now include me into John 5 and let us take a look at verse 19. In English it says,
“Actually, really, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his personal accord, however solely what he sees the Father doing. For regardless of the Father does, the Son does likewise.”
That tells us that we’re righteous and we dwell by religion, however religion is not only hoping that God goes to do one thing. Religion is making choices. After we have a look at Jesus, we see that when Jesus makes choices he solely does what the Father exhibits him to do.
So we ask ourselves the query, “If we are able to do solely what the Father exhibits us to do, can we discover the Father? Can we discover God in that manner?”
We will not search for God below the desk, amen? We will not search for the Father in our pockets, amen? We will not go to some place in the entire earth and discover the Father dwelling there, amen? We are able to go to the moon and we is not going to discover the Father there. We are able to go to the ends of the celebrities and we is not going to discover the Father there both.
It’d even be doable to go to heaven and never discover the Father, as a result of we discover the Father in religion. The Father exhibits us Himself on the earth, however we don’t come to really maintain Him till we maintain Him in religion, and that religion is in our coronary heart, amen? We don’t discover the Father by sight or by sound or by contact. We discover him by religion and in religion; and that religion which lives in our coronary heart.
So there should be one thing that we are able to discover in our coronary heart that exhibits us the Father. Now if we come into the Ebook of Matthew and switch to chapter 13 and verse 3, we hear Jesus telling the parable about sowing seed. In English it reads,
“A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell alongside the trail, and the birds got here and devoured them. Different seeds fell on rocky floor, the place they didn’t have a lot soil, and instantly they sprang up, since they’d no depth of soil, however when the solar rose they had been scorched. And since they’d no root, they withered away. Different seeds fell amongst thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Different seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”
Scripture supplies the reason we’re hungry to listen to. It says that a few of the seed falls into a spot the place the satan comes alongside and simply takes away that seed.
You would possibly come to splendidly wealthy conferences like this and then you definitely go away from right here and any individual says to you one thing that causes argument and you’re feeling that every one the blessing has simply been taken away from you.
instance of that’s in therapeutic. You come to a gathering and you might be prayed for, and then you definitely obtain therapeutic and you might be healed.
You inform your pals, “I’ve been healed.”
Someone says to you, “You haven’t been healed. It’s going to come again, you watch. I do not consider these Christians. If therapeutic was really easy, why did your father die? If therapeutic was really easy for you, why did you lose your child?” And the satan comes alongside and snatches away your seed-the hope that was within the promise of God regarding your state of affairs.
Then Jesus additionally explains that generally the seed is put right here and the weeds develop up round it. , you may have a weed right here in Rwanda that again residence we expect it’s a very particular flower-it’s the marigold flower. However outdoors the door of this church there I can see one plant that I feel positively is a weed each right here and again residence in Australia additionally. However both manner, when the weed grows up round your seed, it’s all the cares of the world that are available and smother your potential to bloom.
For instance, you say, “I need to go on mission with pastor into Tanzania, however I can not do it as a result of I am too busy right here with my household.
By no means thoughts, perhaps subsequent time I’ll go.” The following time comes alongside and the pastor says, “We’re going over to Congo. Will you include us?” And also you make up one other excuse due to the cares of the world which can be taking away your concentrate on God’s work and what God has on your life. You possibly can see after some time that the cares of the world are taking you away out of your blessing. The weeds are robbing you of what God has for you.
However there may be one seed that when it’s sown into good soil it produces very properly. Let’s take a look at verse 31 in that chapter 13. In English it says,
“The dominion of heaven is sort of a grain of mustard seed {that a} man took and sowed in his discipline. It’s the smallest of all seeds, however when it has grown it’s bigger than all of the backyard crops and turns into a tree, in order that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
What we are able to see right here is Jesus saying to us that when we live by religion we’re producing. We’re producing in our choices, and we’re producing in our choices as a result of God and ourselves are making a seed collectively. And no matter God makes as a seed, it would harvest God’s type of fruit.
That’s such a particular factor that I simply stated.
Come again into heaven with me and take heed to the dialog between the Father and the Son.
The Father says, “I must plant a seed into the universe that has turn out to be corrupted by Devil.”
The Son of God says, “I will probably be that seed! Ship me and plant me into that place!”
The Father says, “You need to not do your will, you have to solely do my will.”
The Son of God agrees and collectively they work out the plan. After they have made the plan, then the Son of God makes the choice, “I’m now going.”
The Son of God plans it and he comes and he’s sown into the womb of Mary-she is a virgin in that she has by no means earlier than had a child. He has made the choice with the Father. He’s the Father’s salvation seed and he’s this little mustard seed that’s going to develop into the dominion of heaven within the earth itself.
So we are able to look in heaven and we are able to see that the Son of God is with the Father. The Son of God is within the presence of the Father and collectively they make their religion resolution.
When Jesus grows up he teaches folks, “I would like you to make religion choices with the Father. The Father will put his Spirit in you. It is possible for you to to have fellowship with the Father.”
He says in Scripture, “The Father and I’ll each come to you. You should have fellowship with us each and within the energy of the Holy Spirit.”
After we obtain into our coronary heart’s love this Father, and this Son, and this Holy Spirit, and this Jesus the proper man, we now have this energy that comes upon us and which Scripture calls the Holy Spirit and fireplace (Matthew 3:11). The facility is that we now have the facility to enter into our religion believing and on this place we of believing we are able to meet God; we are able to discover God himself.
