Beholding – See, observe, view, look at, watch, gaze at/upon, regard, contemplate, inspect… Meditate…
1 John 3:1 – Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
When an artist creates something, his intention is to capture something of value to him that he wants to share with you.
Therefore, in order for you to catch his intention, you need to take time to gaze intently at it so that you can catch the ‘hidden’ purpose of that painting. You need to gaze and see the tree, the rays of light, the nest, the delicate flowers, the blades of grass, the little bee hovering…it’s all intentional and all of it is part of the story that the artist is trying to convey to you.
So too, to ‘know’ God, we must take the time to meditate on the word to catch the ’hidden’ purpose of that Word.
Remembering always, that His Word reveals His nature, His character and His sovereignty.
Step by step, layer upon layer, the intricately woven plan of God for our lives is being revealed to us by the Almighty Spirit of Grace.
The lamp light that shows us the “place “ where we are currently “standing” graciously gives way to the light that leads us on to where He is calling us.
Our teacher, the Holy Spirit, has gently led us onwards and through opening the spiritual eyes of our understanding we have come to know that once we stepped through the Cross, we stepped into Christ.
In Christ.
In Him, we received the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of His righteousness, the ONLY reason we can stand this side of the Cross at all.
In Him, we were reconciled to the Father and in Him, we will be saved by His life.
In Him, we became joint heirs with Him and received the promises and the benefits of the Kingdom of God. One of those benefits is the privilege of being transformed by our teacher, the wonderful Holy Spirit.
Christ in us.
In Him, we are being transformed from glory to glory by the Holy Spirit so that what is in Him, will also be in us. 2 Cor.3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding, as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
And so, the plan of God, spoken by God in Genesis 1:26 is continually becoming manifested in our surrendered lives.
We have journeyed with the Holy Spirit through teachings like ‘The Greater Works’, The Resurrected Christ in me, Living with Intention, The Light Bearer…all teachings which speak to our God given potential.
Our last teachings, the Light Bearer, reveals to us what our potential is.
Our potential is to carry the One who has all authority and power and as we surrender to Him, Jesus Christ, the One who is the Light, all of the above teachings can become manifested through our lives.
He does the work through us. We are the ones who get to live in rest. Understanding His love for us and for others allows us to live in the place of rest. However, understanding His love for us can only come from ‘knowing’ Him.
Knowing Him.
There is a marked difference between knowing about God intellectually and really ‘knowing’ Him.
In our last teachings, we have spoken about ‘knowing’
You will recall from Matthew 25 that Jesus rejected the 5 foolish virgins because He did not ‘know’ them.
In Matthew 7:21-23 Comes the stern warning…
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. V22 Many will say to Me in that day, ’Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name and done many wonders in Your name?’ V23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Knowing then, must be more than knowing about Him. It denotes a familiarity, an understanding of one another that exists between two people. It is intimate.
As we spend time in the Word and meditating on His attributes we are learning about His nature and His character.
It is in this time of ‘beholding’ that God begins to reveal truth about Himself, opening our hearts to see Him…to really SEE Him and ‘know’ Him.
He breathes into our spirit and deposits a knowing there…deep calls unto deep and suddenly we ‘understand’…and we are changed by that interaction.
Rom. 8:37-39 – Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I know that He loves me but I only started to grasp just how much He loves me when I watched an epic love story – 3 seasons long and 30 something episodes.
The hero of the story is 6’3”, extremely well built and strong. He is a great protector, courageous and brave. He is a man of great integrity and honour. He has empathy and is patient and kind and offers himself up sacrificially on behalf of the weak, the unfairly treated and to rescue his wife from being brutally beaten and raped.
Often, you catch him gazing tenderly at his wife and a little smile begins to dance across his lips.
The love that he feels for her is evident.
As a parent, I recognised that feeling…I couldn’t stop gazing at my daughter Tammy and such love and joy would fill my heart that it escaped and landed upon my lips as a smile.
During this time of ‘beholding’ this character – the Lord Jesus Christ whispered into my spirit, ‘That is how I feel about you…’ I was astonished and very gingerly started to meditate on what I had just heard…
This is who Jesus is, He is the great protector, courageous and brave. He is absolutely righteous, has empathy, is love and kindness, is patient and longsuffering, is gentle and is faithful and has self-control. Besides all of this, He gave Himself sacrificially to rescue us. I felt such joy, such gratitude arise in my soul…Jesus loves us.
He gazes at us tenderly, has good thoughts towards us, is always looking out for us.
In the story, the hero is always listening and is aware of any threat that may be facing his wife.
Again, I did exactly the same with Tammy. I was always listening out for her, making sure she would be safe…something that she wasn’t always aware of.
At some point in the story, the hero defines what true love is…when you are willing to risk your life and to die in order to rescue that person…that is love.
Need I say more? The parallel is obvious. The truth of it though needs to sink down deep into our understanding.
As we look deeper, gaze intently at our Lord and Saviour – we must ask ourselves the following questions.
Why did Jesus go to the cross?
Why did He die for me?
Why does He spend the time waiting for us to want Him?
Why does He want us to live with Him eternally?
Why is God so patient, so forgiving, so willing to be our Father and not just the Creator?
Here is the answer…
He loves you. You! He loves you! You are valuable and precious to Him. There is not a day that goes by that He does not love you!!! It is a pre-existing condition. You did not earn it, deserve it – it is who He is.
Rom. 8:33-35 – Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
It is essential that you and I meditate on (behold) this truth because it is the foundation of the strength of our faith in Him! Understanding His love for you fuels your faith. Galatians 5:6 …faith working through love. It is essential to know that He loves you…always!
James 2:18b – Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
1 John 4:19 – We love Him, because He first loved us.
Love looks like something… it has a physical outworking, a visible expression of what is in the heart.
Let us behold Him together for a while…
He is the God of ALL creation… He created the Universe, the Galaxies, the Cosmos, the Sun, the Moon and Stars and lastly, He created us and placed us in this wonderful place that He created.
He initiated the plan of salvation…a plan to rescue an undeserving people, giving them a whole new start, an opportunity to enter into a relationship with Him. He blesses them with promises and benefits as we become His heirs.
When He created the giant canvas that represents all of the above… He meticulously planned and created each and every living thing on purpose… for a purpose. With great love and consideration, He made you and placed you in His picture.
The artist painted each flower, each blade of grass meticulously, with care and with love.
Love is the primary motivator of God.
Love designed you, love created you and love placed you.
Love redeemed you so that you could never be cut off from Him again except by your
own personal choice.
Love provides for you. Love protects you. Love heals you. Love guides you. Love
teaches you. Love inspires you and gives you hope.
Love rejoices in your victories and Love is merciful to you.
God is love (1 John 4:16)
Eph. 3:14-19 – For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes all knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
God wanted you. You are His design. He had always intended for there to be a ‘you’. No matter what the circumstances were. If you are here, it is completely intentional.
Even in the brokenness, in the chaos, the downstream collateral of sin, His desire to have you, His intention for you to be here…brings you…perfectly designed and able into the circumstances.
He traded the innocence of His only Son for the guilt and shame that is in your life so that He could open His arms to you as a son or daughter of the sovereign King.
Do you feel it every day? Of course not but when we don’t feel it, we go back to the foundation of the Cross. This is the time to ponder on the reason for the Cross. It is here that God is revealing Himself to us and that love defines who we are!
The Sovereign God is madly in love with you and not only are you an essential part of His story – your life has been designed to reveal the story about Him.