Jesus says to the Church,
“Awake O Sleeper. You are not called to be a sleeping beauty, slumbering in her chamber waiting for her prince to come. I have already come and now is not a time to sleep and slumber! You are a battle ready, armor wearing Warrior Bride, going in the power of His strength and might. Soon and very soon I will be coming. You are called to announce the return of the King”.
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How does God see you?
First we have to answer a few more questions.
Are you His?
Or do you still belong to the kingdom of darkness?
There is only two kingdoms. God’s Kingdom and Satan’s kingdom (the world’s).
So if you aren’t His, He sees you as the prodigal son. The one He loves with all His heart and He longs for you to come home to Him. He’s not mad at you. He doesn’t hate you. You don’t disgust Him, no matter what anyone else may say. He loves you. But, until you give yourself to Him, you are not His child. He won’t forcibly take you into His family. In fact, He has no legal right to treat you like a son. Like the prodigal son of the Bible, the choice is yours.
Now, if you have surrendered your heart to Him, He sees you as His very own child. Born of heaven, sitting there with Jesus. God sees you as sinless, righteous and holy. Just like Jesus. How can that be? Because Jesus took your place. He paid the price you couldn’t pay. Once and for all. The Father sees you as His “beloved”, “the apple of His eye.” He sees you as an “heir and a joint heir with Christ.” The Father sees you as the “Bride of Christ.” He chose you to marry His Son. He doesn’t remember who you were before He adopted you into His family. He chose to throw your sins into the sea of forgetfulness. The accuser can’t accuse you anymore, not to God anyway. “But I still make mistakes, I sin,” you say. Of course, we aren’t perfected yet. Don’t make a big deal out of it. Repent and move on. Repentance simply put, is changing your thoughts, and turning to God. Build a strong relationship with God and you will find those mistakes come fewer and farther between. Find out who He is, and how He sees you.
Now, the important question is:
“How do I see myself?”
Why do we as humans try to add to the work of Christ? Or why do we want to keep dragging Him back to the cross to re-crucify Him, as if the one time wasn’t enough? Charles Spurgeon says, “There is an inherent blasphemy in seeking to add to what Christ Jesus in His dying moments declared to be finished, or to improve that in which the Lord Jehovah finds perfect satisfaction. Trembling sinner, away with thy tools, and fall upon thy knees in humble supplication; and accept the Lord Jesus to be the altar of thine atonement, and rest in Him alone.” Jesus Himself declared, “And the one sitting on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true: It is finished!” (Rev 21:5-6) Jesus told John to even write it down, so that he would always remember and so that we would have these words forever! John shows us again in John 19:30 the scene of the cross stating, “So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.” What God Himself has declared as FINISHED, can we declare incomplete? Sometimes I think we must all be crazy! How patient the Father is. God gave me a picture of my frustrated efforts in the past. When I had been calling out to Jesus to ‘DO SOMETHING’. It was a half comical movie of a woman with the emaciated version of Christ (the way the old renaissance paintings portray Him, skinny and weak). He was lying on the ground, with the white loin cloth, rolling His eyes to heaven, while this woman had Him by the wrist, dragging Him back to the cross. In her other hand she held a big spike! I had to laugh and said, ‘how stupid”! Then God showed me her face! Yep, it was me! I didn’t even have to ask Him to explain. I got it. I know I am not the only one…admit it we’ve all been there at least once. But I am DETERMINED not to “crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame”. (Heb 6:6 NKJV) The work of the cross is not incomplete. We do not have to ‘earn it’! There is no work that we can do that is greater than what He already did! Jesus is not a man that He should lie! HE SAID IT IS FINISHED! Stand on that!