Friends with Jesus

Last week, we started to look at our new identity in Christ. Remember that mental health comes from seeing ourselves as God sees us.

This week our focus is on the reality that Jesus calls us His friends.

In John 15:15, He states that He considers His followers His friends, and as a result, He shares all that the Father shares with Him.  Now, that’s intimacy.

Do you have any friends that you can share anything with and know that they will share your joy or sorrow?  That’s how Jesus views our relationship with Him.  Why?  Because He loves us with Phileo love — the love of friendship.

For friendships to be what God wants them to be, they have to be rooted in Agape.

Agape expressed in phileo looks like one friend considering his friend’s needs as more important than his own, as he sacrifices to serve his friend’s well-being, no matter the cost or how he is treated in return.

Jesus loved us with Phileo when He died on the cross for us, and He loves us with Phileo every day.

But, here’s something even harder to comprehend: He not only loves us, He really, really likes us too!

Now, He doesn’t like our flesh – the ways we operate in our own strength and selfishness, but we are not our flesh.

We are who we are based on being members of His family.

So, He sees us as we really are: complete in Him.  He sees the finished us.  He sees us in Him, righteous, holy, sanctified, and so much more that He’s given us by His grace.

Beloved, we don’t have to like our flesh; in fact, we shouldn’t.  We should detest our flesh patterns so much that we choose to put them off and put on our new identity in Him.

The more we learn to rest in our new life in Him, the more we will increase in our awareness of His presence dwelling in our spirit as He expresses Himself through our soul/personality.

As we connect with Him, He will speak in our spirit through His Word and through the Holy Spirit and share all the that the Father shares with Him.

Beloved, think about that.  All that Jesus has from the Father, He shares with us.  Why?  Because we are His friends!  How awesome is that!  That’s mind-blowing folks!

So, if you react to this with, “Why would He ever want to be my friend?”  Stop it!

Reset your mind on the reality that He is your friend because you are in Him and He is in you.  You have an intimate friendship with Him!

Blessings!

Robyn

The True You

Have you ever heard anyone say, “You just have to be true to yourself?”

What on earth does that mean?

Frankly, most of the time it’s an excuse to indulge their selfish flesh.

However, the reality is that our choices flow from our perception of self.

For example, if I see myself as a person with a bad temper, then I will be perfectly comfortable with biting someone’s head off.

On the other hand, if I see myself as a nice person but react to someone with angry words, it will bother me, and I will quickly apologize.

Our perception of self forms in large measure based on the verbal and physical feedback we get from our parents, siblings, friends, and teachers.

Unfortunately, none of those folks are the Source of Truth.

The key to mental health is perceiving ourselves as God perceives us.

Author Brennan Manning wrote:

“Define yourself radically as one beloved by God.  This is the true self.  Every other identity is illusion.”

In Christ, you are loved, accepted, made righteous and holy, safe and secure, His friend, complete, lacking nothing, blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

The very life and essence of Jesus flows in you and through you thanks to His gift of the Holy Spirit.

Beloved, we need to put off our old self perceptions and  put on God’s perception of us.

This is where truth is regardless of what we feel.

We have been taken out of Adam, so people no longer define us.

We have been born again into God’s family; we are children of the King of Kings; we are princes and princesses.

God sees us as we really are: complete in Him, perfect, holy, Christ-like brothers and sister of Jesus.

Beloved, this is the true you, so be true to yourself and live out of your new identity in Jesus.

Blessings!

Robyn

 

 

I Stand Amazed!

For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” Isaiah 57:15 KJV

I encountered this verse in my devotions last week and can’t stop thinking about it.  It simply amazes me to know that the high and lofty One who Isaiah saw in chapter 6, is the same One who dwells in me.  Wow!

I had to pause and examine my heart.  Was I living with an attitude of contrition and humility?

Do I need Him to revive my spirit and my heart?

When Isaiah saw the LORD, he passed out.  So did John when he received the Revelation.  I cannot fathom why this same LORD would ever want to reside in me.

The truth is that He made me so that I could experience His life flowing in me and through me.  It is what He has longed for since the beginning of Creation.

It is also true that experiencing His life in me is the only experience that satisfies my soul.  The world and Satan conspire to convince me that the lusts of the world, the flesh and the eyes will satisfy me, but they never will do anything but rob me of life and leave me empty.

To experience Him in His fullness, I need a contrite and humble spirit.  What does this mean?  Very simply, it means that I grieve over and turn from sin, and I live totally dependent on His strength to do all things through me.

Not only does the LORD dwell in me, but He calls me to dwell in Him and in His Word.  John 15 provides me with that beautiful illustration of the fruitful branch abiding in the Vine.

The LORD can’t get anymore ‘in’ me than He already is.  All of Him dwells in all of me.  That doesn’t make me Him, but it makes me His and He, mine.  Wow!

Truly, I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavens because Christ is in me and I am in Him!

Maranatha!  Come, Lord Jesus!