MORE THEN I CAN BE

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MORE THEN I CAN BE

Rolf U. Lovland wrote: “You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains; you raise me up, to walk on stormy seas; I am strong, when I am on your shoulders; you raise me up… to more then I can be.”

WHO can raise us to more then I can be?  GOD of course but how often do we fail to grasp this?

WHO builds you up?   ARE they the temporary things in life or GOD?     

The wick of “this” life is only so long… and what footprint will last in a world that will one day come to nothing?  Can you build upon something that will become nothing?

“Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore.” ISAIAH 65:17

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone.” REVELATION 21:1

God wants to raise us up to more then we thought possible… in HIM!

Ever felt anxiety, depressed, oppressed, worried, fearful, inadequate, spiritually hungry and thirsty?  

WHERE was your focus? Was it on the temporary?  What mental theme “music” was playing in your day?  Who’s shoulders did you place that enormous weight or burden?  

Was the day being “colored in” by what you understand, perceived, judged, and even felt?  Where was the emphasis on?  Why the bias?  What tainted and grayed your skies?

WHO is the BUILDER?

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. Psalm 127:1-2

Ever ask, “Where is that enormous immoveable foundation that my life is suppose to be standing on?”  Nothing has changed- God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow so why do I feel the way I do?  You look at the structure that surrounds you.  You have stacked every bail of hay and nailed every board and put stucco on the outside.   You even thatched the roof.   You did this!  But…. but why isn’t there more of this sense of accomplishment and pride in your work?  Why isn’t this any encouragement to you? Shouldn’t this boost your esteem?   It is then when your eyes fall to the trim along the floor you remember.  The trim is made of the purest gold.  It was the finest work in the entire the house.  It wasn’t you doing the work there but GOD doing this work through you.  It was a relationship and partnership with GOD that did this…   You stand and look a bit at all you have built.  A glowing smile then emerges on your face as you utter these words, “Yes, indeed it is time for some changes.  GOD will you help me?” 

Then as if there was no time to waste a curious wind comes…. It carries away the thatched roof and then simultaneously all four walls are taken away as well.  The only two things that are left is the foundation that he stood you upon when you came to Christ and the fine golden trim. 

Jesus, the architect of heaven and earth then comes.  He smiles and says, “Come let’s continue to build something lasting together.”

Is it a fortress? Is it a villa?  Is it high tower?  You never know unless you build with him….  But the more important question that needs to be seated firmly in our soul and consciousness is, “Is our life ours or HIS?”  Do we labor in vain thinking it’s ours?”

Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.  If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.  1 Corinthians 3:12-15

God the Creator does not grow tired and weary but we do.

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.” ISAIAH 40:28

Jesus said,  “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

REST FOR OUR SOULS IN THE EVERLASTING

Nothing is more “stabilizing” to our soul then our relationship with our everlasting GOD, JESUS CHRIST.  For the “things” of this life are only temporary but GOD is CONSTANT and FOREVER!

Rest for our soul comes when we “switch” yokes or understandings -realizing in whom we truly belong.  We stop yielding to our own understandings and what the world wants to oppress and impress upon us to yield to God’s Holy Spirit who wants us to realize and come to the “satisfying” reality in HIM. 

Our limited understanding and the world’s corruption constantly yanks us this way and that way by whatever comes and goes but by submitting to God there is no tide of in and out just peace.    

Temptations are those tides in the sea of understanding.  They are not just lusts of the flesh but also things that tempt us to fear, have anxiety, doubt, and give into oppression and peer pressure.  They are things that want to take God’s rightful seat in our hearts, minds, and souls.

James 1:6 speaks of this “... Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.”   

But I believe these things meant for evil also help us- they secure what was weak -building a stronger taller wall.  They dig a deeper divide.  They cause us to put less emphasis on the things of this life and more on GOD.  They give us a stronger deeper confident resolve in GOD.      

So knowing this, we strive to let go and let God, we strive to put our trust in God over our own understandings and what is happening around us in the great hope of becoming all that God wants us to become…

I don’t know about you but I can be hard on myself.  I don’t know if it is deserved or undeserved but I do know this one thing…. free from me is good for me. 

The Spirit of GOD allows us to be free from our worst critic, our most harsh observer, and overbearing judge- ourselves.  He allows us to see how great God’s grace is and allows us to be empowered by that grace realizing where life is meant to be lived.              

People are constantly looking for the way, the truth and a life to be satisfied, to be fulfilled, to be free, to be healed, to be content, to be more then just a stuffed suitcase with no where to go.  They are looking to be more then they can be.

JESUS says point blank:  “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.” JOHN 14:6

JESUS was the one who created you and I.  So being made by HIM, how could we ever be satisfied without HIM?  How could we ever feel comforted and encouraged without HIM?  How could we ever feel secure without Him?  How could we be something more then we think of ourselves without Him?

I have asked this question (probably more then once), “What is the purpose of this life?”  And the answer I receive is, “To know God.”   I believe and know that without God we are just a bunch of souls wandering around in the dark and there is no point.  

BUT seeing that JESUS holds LIFE and IS LIFE itself really changes our perceptive on life.

LIFE was always supposed to be a RELATIONSHIP with GOD.   Life is a relationship with JESUS, the EVERLASTING God.

HOW DEAR TO YOU HOLD YOUR LIFE?

“But I do not consider my life in any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.” ACTS 20:24

Sometimes we can hold our life with such a tight grip…  But if we realized whom really holds our life we might just find life more abundantly.

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10

The thief wants to convince us of what exactly?  Why doesn’t he want us to let go and let God?  Why doesn’t he want us pry our fingers loose from our life?  What does the thief, Satan, have to lose?  What greater confidence can we find in GOD if we do this? What ministry do we have to gain?    

Everyday it is a decision to let the SPIRIT have control or the FLESH.  It’s as if within ourselves we have a green meadow and before us a great horse.   The SPIRIT represents the great horse.  The SPIRIT is wild compared to our understanding but he was meant for us to ride.   It is our decision to either walk away or get on.  Hopefully everyday is a “ride” day for you.  But it seems that before we ride the wild stallion we sit and wait in the green lush grass.  The wild horse with no bridle or reigns then comes seeing our submitted way and we respectfully get on.  

Sometimes it’s a casual ride seeing and noticing things we had never seen/thought before, sometimes it’s experiencing to new heights, sometimes it’s riding behind a veil of deeper truths and sometimes it’s a ride in total abandonment.

“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.”  Zachariah 4:6

IS GOD OUR INFLUENCER? 

Is life only good depending on what day it is, when the sun is shining, your health is good and you have money in your pockets to spend?   OR is life good because you know GOD is with you?  

2 Corinthians 12:10 says “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

The Apostle Paul was physically a prisoner because of his faith in Christ Jesus yet prison life and punishment and torture were just “symptoms” or “conditions of this life.  They weren’t who he was for he was a Child of GOD. 

What earthly temporary things do you allow to be influencers over your life focus- stopping you from being all that GOD wants to help you to be?  God wants us to realize the FULLNESS of life in HIM regardless of the circumstances.

What things do you allow to manipulate you?     

I had a friend die of an incurable form of cancer that slowly shut down her body yet while she was here she said, “life was good” not because of her circumstances but because she continually felt the reassuring presence of God despite all the painful difficulties.

We think life is in our circumstances or conditions but is it? 

May GOD help us abide in a trusting confident relationship in HIM that we may sail over crippling and debilitating understandings that make us feel less then how GOD sees us and created us to be.  

Psalm 18:18 says “They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support.”

WE are GOD’s children if we have given our life to JESUS CHRIST.  The world loves to label people but as a child of GOD- circumstances, troubles and calamities can have no ownership over us.  Remember where your names are written and are registered. 

“But don't rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven." LUKE 10:20

REVELATION 3:5 ”The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.

Our names may mean nothing in this world but they mean something where it matters most.