Hope Fixed on Him
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 10040 |
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June 05, 2011 |
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 "And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." (1 John 3:3)
We should resemble the Lord if we have hope for the heavenly kingdom where there is no tear, pain, sorrow, and death and we can live with the Lord forever and ever. No matter how many times you confess that you long for the Lord and have hope for Heaven with your lip, if you still commit sins, you cannot achieve the hope. To the extent you purify yourself, cast off sins, and accomplish sanctification, you can enter more beautiful Heaven. What kind of life should we lead as a person who has hope fixed on the Lord?
Firstly, we should purify ourselves.
To purify yourself, you have to check your heart, thoughts, and actions with the Word of God. I hope you will try your best in your Christian lives thinking about how you should make your heart, deeds, and lips holy and how you can please God. In order to do this, what should you do specifically?
First of all, truth has to be cultivated in your heart completely. In other words, you must have the ability to listen to the Word and understand it properly and not judge or discern it according to your own thoughts.
For example, you have some jealousy towards a certain person and you are cold to her, but you don't acknowledge your evilness. You justify yourself saying, "I don't want to be cold-hearted toward her, but I can't help it because she is never first to realize her wrongdoing." As above, you must not distort the truth as you see fit and according to your thoughts. You must have the standard that is the Word of God and use it to reflect upon yourself correctly.
Next, in order to purify yourself, you must practice what you have heard and been made clear to you. Faith without the deeds is dead faith. No matter how much truth you heard and know, you have no faith if you do not practice it. But by just knowing a lot of truth, many of you mistakenly believe that you have great faith and you live in the truth. If God says 'Cast away' you must cast away. If God says 'Don't do that' you must not do it. If God says, 'Do it' you must do it. Only when you practice the Word can that Word change your life.
Secondly, you must live with the Lord always.
For those who live with the Lord, everything will be orderly and holy in their lives. God is watching all your actions 24 hours a day, even the moving of your eyes in their sockets.
I so surely believe that God is always watching me. For this reason, there is no difference in my mindset and appearances between when I am in public and by myself. Even when I go to bed, I comb my hair and make myself neat. It is because I want to appear lovely in the sight of Father God. Even when I am alone, I know angels are watching me, so I always behave myself.
Many people pray that the Lord be with them and keep them with His blazing eyes. If they really pray so with truthful hearts, their lives will change. If the Lord is with them, would they still make jokes and talk about other people's faults while passing judgment? Would you still take the flesh and follow the worldly pleasures even while the angels are watching you? If you walk in the darkness, the Lord cannot walk with you. Your guardian angels cannot help you either.
I hope you will walk in the truth not just in the church but at your work, at home, and when you are walking on the streets, and when you are speaking or eating. Always remember that the Lord is watching you, listening to you, and is always with you. Then, you can quickly adorn yourselves as pure brides.
Thirdly, you must cry out towards the Lord.
Jeremiah 29:12-13 says, "Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." Just attending the prayer meetings does not mean that you pray very well. You have to cry out in your prayer thinking as if the Lord is standing right in front of you, and believing that He is listening to you.
If you have the earnest desire to receive the answer, you will soon be filled with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Then, you don't have to try to make a loud voice; you will naturally cry out with a clear voice.
As you pray every day, you might pray with similar contents every day. But even though you pray for the same thing one hundred times, you have to pray with all your heart and with new inspiration every time. If you really cry out to the Lord without changing, you will continually seek to fill up the measure of your prayer. It is the evidence that you have faith to cry out to the Lord in your prayers.
If you are drowning, how loudly would you cry for help? In the same sense, in this sin-filled world, how earnestly do you think you should be crying out to keep yourself from worldly things and to cast off sins and evil? You cannot just pray with lip-service when you ask God to enable you to cast away sins like hatred, envy, desires, adulterous mind, and anger. You have to pray with earnestness just like Elijah who brought down fire from Heaven.
If you pray that earnestly, and that earnestness will remain in your heart even after the prayer in your daily lives. So your heart and deeds will actually change and sins and evil will be cast out from you. It means that you have the true faith, and only these ones can walk with the Lord. I pray in the name of the Lord that you will purify yourselves with hope for the second coming of the Lord and possess eternal Heaven.
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