Fix your eyes upon Jesus
This morning, after nearly 3 weeks I was in a strange season of rest and learning. I wanted that which I am to naturally come forth from me. I wanted my love for God to naturally and spontaneously flow out of me, BUT IT DIDN’T!
To my great dismay and even disgust I found out that when I am left to allow the Spirit and the Love of God to spontaneously come forth I actually found that I became passive in my thinking and my feelings were only in survival mode or I had the opposite tendency!
I was doing allot of things around the house and fixed and even made some things for the children and truly enjoyed it, but I did not feel especially closer to God during this time of rest!
After the holiday was nearly over I started to wonder and speak to God about WHY I still reacted in such an ungodly manner? No answer came for a few days, UNTIL one day, suddenly a word of knowledge came to me: “Fix your eyes upon Jesus!” This continued to happen the next three days in a row until I suddenly understood what God wanted to say to me!
THEREFORE THEN, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, 2 Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. Heb 12:1
It was then that I realized that we do not NATURALLY or SPONTANEOUSLY do this in this world due to SIN that is in the world! When we do not make a conscious decision to FIX or eyes of our heart upon Jesus! This is actually a command! The writer of Hebrews, commands the Hebrews to “…throw aside…” every worry and anxiety or fear they have!
The apostle Peter told us to: “Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. [Psa55:22] 1Pet 5:7
The whole world is UNDER SIN! The natural tendency for those who are still in this world is to drift away because of SIN!
“…We have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles), are under sin [held down by and subject to its power and control]. Rom 3:9 This world is consistently subject to SIN and constantly be work in upon by the influence and impact of SIN! When man fell they were cast out of Paradise or the higher level of spiritual living in the Spirit of God!
The apostle Paul also tells us: Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men, [no one being able to stop it or to escape its power] because all men sinned. Rom 5:12
Paul goes even further to explain the impact of sin in the world upon mankind: For the creation (nature) was subjected to frailty (to futility, condemned to frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it--[yet] with the hope [Ecc1:2] 21 that nature (creation) itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption [and gain an entrance] into the glorious freedom of God's children. 22 We know that the whole creation [of irrational creatures] has been moaning together in the pains of labor until now. [Jer12:4, Jer12:11] Rom 8:20
In order for us to not drift away from the GREAT SALVATION we have received we must FIX our eyes upon Jesus by discipline and even routine of spending time with God!
Paul warn us in the book of Hebrews: SINCE ALL this is true, we ought to pay much closer attention than ever to the truths that we have heard, lest in any way we drift past [them] and slip away. 2 For if the message given through angels [the Law spoken by them to Moses] was authentic and proved sure, and every violation and disobedience received an appropriate (just and adequate) penalty, 3 How shall we escape [appropriate retribution] if we neglect and refuse to pay attention to such a great salvation [as is now offered to us, letting it drift past us forever]? Heb 2:1
God has offered us an immense precious gospel to save us with unimaginable benefits, but we could miss it if we do not pay close attention to ALL that God in His love had granted us!
When Jesus spoke to the teacher of the law, Nicodemus, He revealed one of the most quoted verses in the Word of God: ““For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.” John 3:16-17
But most pay very little attention to the profound statement and revelation, which Jesus gave to Nicodemus after He had told him that he had to be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God, saying to him: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert [on a pole], so must [so it is necessary that] the Son of Man be lifted up [on the cross],…” [Num21:9] John 3:14
You might think that the answer is obvious, but not until you understand the awesome plan and intention which God had and the immense love and grace God had for the people of Israel who were caught in their own sin!
When the people saw that they were dying and were killed by the poison of the serpents because of their sins they said to Moses: “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord, that He may take away the serpents from us.”
After Moses prayed and asked God to have mercy upon them God said to Moses: “Make a fiery serpent [of bronze] and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” We do not often realize that the people asked for mercy and grace from God. Paul the apostle say this about what was prophesied: “The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith.”
God wanted to find a way to NOT punish those who have sinned against Him. God is righteous and will punish according to perfect righteousness! But God is love and His mercy triumphs over His judgment! God new that there was NOTHING man could do to be RIGHT and in RIGHT-STANDING with Him, so He told the Israelites to ONLY LOOK upon the snake! But far more was hidden in this simple mystery that most overlook!
Why did God lift up a snake in the desert? And why would Jesus be compared to the snake being lifted up? And how does mere LOOKING at a snake on a pole or branch save you? Too many questions at the same time? Let’s try to answer them one by one…
Why would Jesus be compared to the snake being lifted up?
The snake represents the punishment that came because of the sin that was committed by the people. The snake also in directly represent Satan’s power that he gained over man when man sinned against God! Paul says this about what happened at the cross: “Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross. 15 [God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross].” Col 2:14
God wants us to LOOK at something that happened through and on the cross!!! God wants us to see EVERYTHING that He in His immense LOVE and WISDOM achieved at the cross and through the death of Jesus Christ!
God removed the very power that the LAW with its legal and righteous requirements required of ALL who sinned!
In the spirit realm, God destroyed the authority and power which the forces in the heavenly realm had, giving them legal right to steal, destroy and kill in the lives of those who are disobedient and in sin!
BUT God did far more!
God came to SHOW or demonstrate His LOVE and GRACE that triumphs over the righteous judgment He had to execute against those whom He loved! God came to make a TOTAL exchange: the snake for the lives of His people! When an Israelite righteously deserved to die because of the poison of the snakes, God came to show twofold GRACE and MERCY! God NOT ONLY came to forgive the sin committed by the people, BUT ALSO to break the curse and reverse and heal the consequences of the sins of men!
God brought a whole salvation – spirit, soul and body – salvation for the spirit, deliverance for the soul and healing for the body! The MOST and MORE important than WHAT He has done, the greatest principal of WHAT God did was to SHOW and demonstrate HOW MUCH He loves us! God want us to believe He is NOT ALWAYS angry and out to JUST find fault in us, but want us to know that He has mercy on our mistakes, slips, transgressions, iniquities!
In order to PROVE or SHOW us, so that we may LOOK at, not only WHAT He has done, but especially WHY He has done WHAT He had done, He lifted up His own Son, Himself coming to die in our place! He did not only forgive and forget our sins, BUT gave us GIFTS instead! God gave us COMPLETE healing, deliverance and salvation of the spirit, because of His love for all mankind, in the hope that they would grab and take hold of His love for them and believe and be convinced that He has never had any other intention with them, BUT LOVE!
BUT God did MORE, far MORE, than we can ever imagine anyone would ever dare to do for anybody! God took our place in and through His Son, so that we could become His sons! The apostle Paul revealed: “For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness]. 2Cor 5:21
God make Jesus to become SIN! Now Jesus represented ALL our sin, carried in His body on the cross as the apostle Peter wrote: “He personally bore our sins in His [own] body on the tree [as on an altar and offered Himself on it], that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” 1Pet 2:24
By LOOKING UNTO JESUS our sins are exchanged for His righteousness, as a consequence our sins are forgiven and proven by God to have been completely wiped clean and forgotten! By LOOKING UNTO Jesus His ‘sinlessness’ is exchanged for our corrupt and disgusting nature of sin and it consequences! By LOOKING UNTO JESUS our souls are freed from all guilt and shame because of our sins and the separation it has caused. By LOOKING UNTO JESUS our bodies are instantly healed restored to health and perfect well-being!
Why did God lift up a snake in the desert?
Why did God LIFT UP HIS SON on a cross? By LOOKING UNTO Jesus we are overwhelmed by His immense, immense, unlimited LOVE of God, which He CLEARLY came to SHOW and DEMONSTRATE by LIFTING JESUS UP for ALL to SEE!!!
WHY did God the Father, in His great WISDOM, do this:
“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him. John 3:1
Why did God do what He did? So that:
John 3:18 He who believes in Him [who clings to, trusts in, relies on Him] is not judged [he who trusts in Him never comes up for judgment; for him there is no rejection, no condemnation--he incurs no damnation]; but he who does not believe (cleave to, rely on, trust in Him) is judged already [he has already been convicted and has already received his sentence] because he has not believed in and trusted in the name of the only begotten Son of God. [He is condemned for refusing to let his trust rest in Christ's name.]”
So that all who LOOK at WHAT God has done and WHY He has done it and BELIEVE it shall be truly set free and saved! So that all who believe His love for them and allow that love to change them to be NEW CREATIONS and LOVED SONS and DAUGHTERS of God!
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