Your Ultimate Purpose Part 2
Receiving from God
In part one I talked about how your Ultimate Purpose is to become one with God, through union with Jesus Christ.
As we were designed before by him for the position of sons to himself, through Jesus Christ, in the good pleasure of his purpose, To the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely gave to us in the Loved One: In whom we have salvation through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins, through the wealth of his grace, (Ephesians 1:5-7 BBE).
Notice that it is according to God’s good pleasure that He designed you and made you his child. It is His pleasure to give to you from the abundance of His grace. Grace is that which causes joy, pleasure, gratification, favor, and acceptance. Grace is showing favor that is not earned. It is the free expression of God’s loving kindness to you. “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom, (Luke 12:32).
But God, who is abundant in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. By grace you are saved! He also raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavens, in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7 HCSB)
You are designed to be a recipient of the grace of God now, and for ages to come. That means part of your ultimate purpose is to receive from God. God wants to be your Father, He wants you to be His child. In the same way a baby is completely dependent upon a parent to care for them, so to a child of God depends on God’s grace. Truly I say to you, whoever does not accept and receive and welcome the kingdom of God like a little child shall not in any way enter it. (Luke 18:17 AMP)
Part of our ministry takes place in The Philippines in places where there is poverty. We like to help the people, especially the kids in the ways that we can. One day we were sharing our food with a few poor kids that we know. These kids often go hungry, sometimes not eating for a day or more. When we invited them to come and eat one boy just stayed back and did not come to the table.
He said he did not want to eat and that he was not hungry. I knew he was hungry. The Lord showed me that he was overwhelmed by our kindness and that he was trying to give back to us by not taking our food. However, by not receiving the food I offered he was keeping me from experiencing the pleasure and blessing of giving to him. When I realized this I heard the Lord say, “now you know how I feel.”
In that moment I realized how important it is to our holy Father that we receive from Him. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”, (Acts 20:35). So, is God more blessed from receiving from us or giving to us. God gets pleasure from giving to us. He cares much more about what we are willing to receive from Him than what we give to Him. I shared this revelation to the boy. He decided to eat when he learned that it makes God happy to give to him.
Actually, it is pride not to receive from God. Pride is the deception that we can be self-sufficient. To be humble is to recognize our total dependence on God. Humbling ourselves before God and acknowledging our need and His goodness, opens the door of our heart to receive from Him. But He gives more grace. “GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE”, (James 4:6 NKJV).
Our relationship with God begins with receiving from Him. He gave us life. Without receiving from God we have nothing to give back to Him. There is nothing that we can give to God or anyone else that we did not receive from Him first. Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow, (James 1:17 NLT).
As we believe God and receive from His goodness, we are receiving His love, we are receiving Him. The more of His grace we accept the more we know Him, and we know that He is good. This causes us to love and trust Him, more and more. The revelation of the goodness of God causes heart felt love to flow from our heart back to Him. In this way we fulfill the most important commandment, to love God with all our heart. We love Him because He first loved us, (1 John 4:19).
Jesus answered, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (John 14:23 HCSB)
One of the titles of Jesus Christ is the Word of God. When you love someone the words they speak are important to you. When we receive God’s words into our heart and hold them there as precious treasure we are receiving Him. Love is giving your heart to someone else. The only thing God wants from you, is you. As you give Him more and more of your heart you are giving yourself, your life to Him. The parts of your heart you give to God He will occupy. As you allow God to pour Himself into you He will only occupy the rooms in your heart where you welcome Him, the places you are willing to give Him. He will not force His way in because that would not be love. When you are fully occupied by Him you have become one with Him.
Experiencing God’s love is a heart felt experience, from His heart to your heart. If you want to know if God loves you, just ask Him. Get alone in a quiet place and listen with you heart. You will hear Him say this is how much I love you and He will show you Jesus on the cross paying the price so that you can be one with Him, before Him in love, forever.
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32 NKJV)
