Be of One Mind
When we compare ourselves with others, we are not hearing from the voice of the Lord for ourselves. Similarly, when God asks us something, He requires an answer. But how can we answer unless we first hear Him? Jesus said,
“I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”
John 5:30
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”
John 6:38
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”
John 4:34
As followers of Christ, we should be the same. This is the example He has set. Jesus said we are to portray ourselves as examples of Christ. What this means, is that when we do things, we should do them as Christ would do them – With the same heart and the same mind.
After washing the disciples’ feet Jesus said to them,
“You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”
John 13:13 - 17
The Apostle Paul also said,
“Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfil my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
Philippians 2:1 -8
“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”
Ephesians 5:1 & 2
Be Taught of the Lord Daily
But how can we learn unless He first teaches us? The Lord once said to me, “You must first receive in order to give. I am teaching you how to receive.” An example of this is found when Peter and John came into conflict with the priests and the Sadducees because they preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. But when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they marvelled because they were uneducated and untrained men. But they took note that they had been with Jesus.
- The disciples had been receiving what they shared from the Lord.
“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”
Acts 4:13 NIV
Don’t allow yourself to be distracted. How much time do you spend with the Lord? The Apostle Paul said of himself,
“I die daily.”
1 Corinthians 15:31
This meant the putting away of his selfish desires and his own way of doing things, warning us to do the same, saying,
“I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!’ Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits.’ Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.”
1 Corinthians 15:31 - 34
In saying this he is being redemptive of the purposes of God.
Each of us is an Individual Gifted by God for the Purposes of Christ
When the disciples first met Christ, they saw He was ‘a one of a kind’ (meaning something or someone completely unique), not realizing in fact that they were too. Different in design, different in purpose, but set apart for the Kingdom of God. If all were the same there would be no Body. God needs us all to be different as the Apostle Paul explains,
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.”
1 Corinthians 12:12
“If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?”
1 Corinthians 12:17 NIV
“So Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
Ephesians 4:11 – 16
To see this happen, each part must do its work. Each one of us has a part to play. Some time ago the Lord said to me, “I am enormously proud of My Body. I have designed it to function exceptionally well!” “Perfect in design, perfect in promise.”
- We each have a purpose that is fit for Christ, for He made us all individually.
Jesus Was Servant of All
Jesus said,
“If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”
Mark 9:35
Jesus modelled this kind of life. It didn’t mean that He was a ‘door mat’ (meaning someone people could ‘walk all over’ or do what they liked with), but He gave up His life so we could go free. He obeyed the Lord and did His bidding. “Happy are they who trust this way.” Jesus also said,
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?”
Luke 9:23 - 25
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
Mark 12:30 (Not half-heartedly).
What Does it Mean to Trust?
What does it mean to trust?
It means we trust He Who is trustworthy before all else.
“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Numbers 23:19
If God says we can trust Him then we can trust Him. Trusting Him before all else means to seek Him first. Speaking of the Gentile believers Jesus said,
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
Mark 6:28 – 33
When we seek the way of the Lord for our homes what do we do?
We pray to the Lord and ask for His guidance and we don’t move until He shows us. For if we pray more, we will obey more. Warning the Jewish disciples the Lord said,
“You will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.”
Deuteronomy 4:27 - 31
So Why do we Seek Him?
We seek Him to find His choice for our design. Not our choice; not anyone else’s choice; His choice. For it is He who crafted us in the first place. We were formed purposely by God’s perfect hand according to His intricate design. King David the psalmist said,
“For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”
Psalm 139:13 – 16
- He understood that every part of him was beautifully made!
This means we are pleasing to God when we walk according to His design. For we are patterned by His design, not another’s. Each one working according to God’s designated pattern for our lives; according to our own natural bent (aptitude, talent, or specific way of doing things). The Apostle Paul reminded those in the Body of Christ at Ephesus,
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Ephesians 2:10
- Each one of us has a work to do and a call to fulfil.
- Don’t try to be someone else says God; Just be yourself.
- What He is looking for is not the size of the wallet, but the size of the heart.
Seek the Will of the Lord While it may be Found
“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.”
Isaiah 55:1 & 2
“Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.”
Isaiah 55:6
When tempted by the devil in the wilderness to seek His own way and provide wrongly for Himself, quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3 Jesus defeated him, saying,
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:4
Similarly, after Jesus addressed the multitudes telling them the parable of the Sower (See the gospel of Matthew chapter 13 v 3), the disciples came and said to Him,
“’Why do You speak to them in parables?’ He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.’”
Matthew 13:10 - 12
Quoting from the Scriptures He then said,
“Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ’Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
Matthew 13:13 - 17
The Life of Christ is Important
The gift of Salvation and the Kingdom of Heaven is so vitally important, that Jesus went to the nth degree (to the greatest possible extent) to describe it once again, saying,
“’Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Have you understood all these things?’ They said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord.’”
Matthew 13:44 - 51
- There is importance in searching it out.
- If it costs you everything, do it!
Jesus Reveals Himself
Going through the city of Samaria, Jesus sat down by Jacob’s well.
“A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink.’ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, ‘How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?’ For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give Me a drink,” you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?’ Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You have well said, “I have no husband,” for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.’”
John 4:7 – 19
Jesus didn’t guess at it. He knew her history completely. The Samaritan woman then went on to talk about worship, saying,
“’Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When He comes, He will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.’”
John 4:20 - 26
The Woman at the Well Saw Jesus for Who He Was
The woman at the well saw Jesus for who He was, not who He wasn’t. Her Saviour, redeemer and Lord. The One who forgave her.
“And at this point His disciples came, and they marvelled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, ‘What do You seek?’ or, ‘Why are You talking with her?’ The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, ‘Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’ Then they went out of the city and came to Him.”
John 4:27 – 30
- Jesus wasn’t just telling a story; He was seeking His own.
The Sanctity Was of God
The following is from the Lord’s hand not mine….
In a believer’s context, when you change the importance from who people are to what they do, what gets taken from them? Their identity doesn’t change (because it is sealed in Christ), but their attitude may — I have to perform; I have to be seen. Instead, we identify ourselves by the blood of Christ, as a chosen vessel of God, not by another - and so we are the beloved of God. Having repented, we have given up the warrior spirit driven by human pride and aggression, in favour of Christ and His witness. His way is best. He is the mediator of a better covenant. The writer of Hebrews explains,
“But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
Hebrews 9:11 – 15
To explain this more fully, quoting from Jeremiah 31:33 & 34 this writer continues,
“And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”
Hebrews 10:11 - 23
