I am firmly convinced that many of our so called issues and problems in both our own personal lives and our church lives all flow from our lack of grasping THE PURPOSE OF GOD. God is not hard to deal with, nor are HIS WAYS so unbearable. I feel that we just do not comprehend HIS PURPOSE, so we get upset or even messed up in the process.
First, we must see that GOD LOVES US and wants us back. This is shown through CALVARY. He willingly paid the terrible price of REDEEMING us so we then could be RECONCILED and stand JUSTIFIED in HIS PRESENCE. We must get this: it was GOD and not man that worked at RECONCILIATION so that we could and would appreciate and then APPROPRIATE all HE has provided for our own SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING.
God began the healing of the BREACH that had occurred with SIN, we could not do anything as we were all GUILTY and had no grounds to do anything about our own HORRIBLE STATE. God so loved us and wanted us back, He willingly worked in and through JESUS to pay whatever was required to bring us back to HIMSELF, which is what we call SALVATION.
I must impress upon you that CALVARY brought us back, but PENTECOST allowed GOD to now indwell us with HIS SPIRIT, thus making us HIS HOUSE ... Once we had been FREED from sin, we now could be a HABITATION OF GOD and become HIS ARMY OF INVADERS. We have not experienced these things just to feel better about ourselves, but rather that we now are LIVING EPISTLES and HARMFUL to the KINGDOM OF SATAN, EVIL AND ERROR.
We must see ourselves fulfilling HIS PURPOSE, which involves the LIBERATION of all lost souls, the EDUCATION of these souls and the EQUIPPING for battle.
I feel sometimes that we just do not get it; we are not seeing ourselves as SOLDIERS being sent into battle for the souls of men.
We must see HIS PURPOSE for our lives both now and later. We have been drafted into HIS FAMILY so we can impact this world for HIM . . .
~ Rev Jeff Arnold
Five More Minutes ~ Volume Two