The Search For Identity预览

ELECT OF GOD We are not the elite but the elect of God. We are not selected by God on the basis of our personal goodness, ability or merit but we are elected by God. That is why Scripture uses the distinctive word, "elect". The person who mentored me used to say, "God has voted for you, the devil has voted against you, your vote determines whose side you are on." God has voted for us at the very beginning of time, before even the foundation of the earth and before we were formed in our mothers' wombs. He has chosen us in His foreknowledge — this is predestination but not predetermination as our casting vote determines how we will live on earth and where we will spend eternity. God entered into a personal relationship with man whereby if we choose to be obedient to all His commandments we would fulfill our God-planned destiny. But despite knowing these truths even the best of us are unable to obey all His commandments and we fall short of reaching God's glorious goal for our lives. Our nature and our earthly compulsions compel us to cast a vote against ourselves. The Devil tells God, "Look your precious creation has failed in abiding by the very rules you have set for them. Now, they belong to me." It is two votes against one with all the votes equal. Now, the Lord knows there is only one way of redeeming us or purchasing us and that is sacrificing of His own Word, His own Son - a member of the Trinity. A new covenant or sacred agreement will replace and fulfill the requirements of the old one. The children of men will still have to vote for themselves by just believing in the terms of this historic and history-changing agreement. Our belief in the atoning power of the blood of this Heaven-provided blemishless Lamb would be reckoned as complete obedience. Now, it is the work of the third member of the Trinity to make us holy and blameless so that the reality would agree with the ideal. Our responsibility as the elect is to co-operate with the Holy Spirit in His ministry to us.The gateway is Christ Jesus. The path is the Holy Spirit. Our destiny or destination is God like all rivers, great and small end up in the ocean. The gateway opens up into vistas of grace and peace. Grace are the blessings that we do not deserve while peace are the curses that we deserve but God has protected us from on account of our faith in the blood of Jesus. As a sign of our continuing faith, we should sprinkle the blood of Jesus on our bodies, our minds, our families and all that we own and do. No wonder the Holy Spirit revealed,"Your home is a blood-zone." As the elect of God, we can pray that both grace and peace be multiplied in our lives. This will fulfill our earthly and divine destinies, glorify God and enable us to obey the first commandment of God to man, "Go forth, be fruitful (spiritually) and multiply (spiritually)." Let us go forth into another day, let grace and peace be multiplied in our lives, our families, our profession and our ministry.