Who shall see God?

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God —Matthew 5:8

Purity is not innocence— it is much more than that. Purity is the result of continued spiritual harmony with God. We have to grow in purity. Our life with God may be right and our inner purity unblemished, yet occasionally our outer life may become spotted and stained. God intentionally does not protect us from this possibility, because this is the way we recognize the necessity of maintaining our spiritual vision through personal purity. 

If the outer level of our spiritual life with God is impaired to the slightest degree, we must put everything else aside until we make it right. Remember that spiritual vision depends on our character— it is “the pure in heart” who “see God.” 

God makes us pure by an act of His sovereign grace, but we still have something that we must carefully watch. It is through our bodily life coming in contact with other people and other points of view that we tend to become tarnished. 

Not only must our “inner sanctuary” be kept right with God, but also the “outer courts” must be brought into perfect harmony with the purity God gives us through His grace. Our spiritual vision and understanding is immediately blurred when our “outer court” is stained. If we want to maintain personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, it will mean refusing to do or even think certain things. And some things that are acceptable for others will become unacceptable for us. 

A practical help in keeping your personal purity unblemished in your relations with other people is to begin to see them as God does. Say to yourself, “That man or that woman is perfect in Christ Jesus! That friend or that relative is perfect in Christ Jesus!”

Oswald Chambers / My Utmost for His Highest

When Christ cried out “It is finished”, those were not words of despair and departure. They are words of joyous victory and restoration.

When you live in the forgiveness of God you are living in His revealed glory, His actual sacrifice, His blood of forgiveness, His obedience to the Father His resurrection and His fathomless love for you.  All guided and maintained perfectly by the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead, namely His Holy Spirit.  Forgiveness is not simply an altar phenomenon, one and done. Forgiveness is a constant state of being in which every one of the above continuously wash over you as if you were walking among the waves of the sea.  You cannot escape the presence of God’s forgiveness. You can only choose to live in deception to the notion that it is not there, or if it is there, that you simply do not want it to be so. You are precisely designed to be in perfect communion with God, reconciled to Him and forgiven. He did it flawlessly for you and it cannot be undone. You must choose a lie in order to remain dead in sin. “It is finished” states the plain truth, that man will never again be required to pay the price for his sin, our debt is cancelled.

The agony of the garden was due in part to the question of “Can the mortal flesh of a man filled with the Spirit of God withstand the full force of all the guilt of all the sin of all time and the horror of all evil, yet overcome its curse?”  The answer of the empty tomb is yes it can.  The entire focus of God and the kingdom of heaven were centered on Christ as he hung upon the cross. His righteous cry released such a torrent of forces that earth gave up its dead and the veil of the temple was torn in two. That veil had concealed the glory of God from man. The glory of God then was forever revealed on earth to man never again to be contained in a temple built by man, but in a temple built by God. You are that temple. The submission of Christ’s will in the garden in total accord and obedience to the Father’s will finalized the covenant to redeem mankind; it simply had to be walked out by Christ as agreed between them. Our determination to obey Christ and His word will seal the deal for us.  He will allow us to live in and share the glory of God on the earth as we obey Him, forgive others for their wrongs against us and reconcile those to God.

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Pride is the sin of making “self” our god. And some of us today do this, not like the Pharisee, but like the tax collector (see Luke 18:9-14). For you to say, “Oh, I’m no saint,” is acceptable by human standards of pride, but it is unconscious blasphemy against God. You defy God to make you a saint, as if to say, “I am too weak and hopeless and outside the reach of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.” Why aren’t you a saint? It is either that you do not want to be a saint, or that you do not believe that God can make you into one. You say it would be all right if God saved you and took you straight to heaven. That is exactly what He will do! And not only do we make our home with Him, but Jesus said of His Father and Himself, “. . . We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23). Put no conditions on your life— let Jesus be everything to you, and He will take you home with Him not only for a day, but for eternity.  Oswald Chambers – My Utmost for His Highest

Do not ask God to reveal or explain His character, purposes or demeanor to you. Explain those of yours to Him. 

Walk Humbly

James 4:6-10

Never allow a truth of God that is brought home to your soul to pass without acting on it, not necessarily physically, but in will. Record it, with ink or with blood. The feeblest saint who transacts business with Jesus Christ is emancipated the second he acts; all the almighty power of God is on his behalf.

We come up to the truth of God, we confess we are wrong, but go back again; then we come up to it again, and go back; until we learn that we have no business to go back.

We have to go clean over on some word of our redeeming Lord and transact business with Him. His word “come” means “transact.” “Come unto Me.” The last thing we do is to come; but everyone who does come knows that at that very second the supernatural rush of the life of God invades him instantly.

The dominating power of the world, the flesh and the devil is paralyzed, not by your act, but because your act has linked you on to God and His redemptive power.

1Peter 5:5-10

Humility must be t he mark of all of God’s people. It means an absence of pride, a consciousness of one’s weaknesses and a disposition to ascribe to God and others the credit for what one is achieving or has accomplished.

The word clothe in the Greek means “to attach a piece of clothing to oneself . In NT times slaves fastened a white piece of cloth or apron over their clothing so that others would know they were slaves. Peter exhorts us to tie the cloth of humility on ourselves in order :

1. To be identified as believers in Christ as we act humbly before others.
2. To receive God’s grace and help.

Peter may have had in mind Jesus’ action of tying on a towel and washing the disciple’s feet.    John 13:4-5

God’s care for the troubles of every one of His children is a truth emphasized throughout his word. We must decisively cast all of our fears, anxieties and concerns on God.

When mankind fell into sin Satan became the ruler of this world. We believers covered in the salvation of Christ blood sacrifice are delivered from Satan’s power. Yet he remains on the earth with power and does seek to spiritually destroy anyone who abandons the covering of God’s protection. Through faith in the blood of Christ, spiritual warfare and prayer we are fully equipped to defeat all evil schemes.

1 John 4:4  – You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

Oswald Chambers / My Utmost for His Highest

We are designed by God to master sin and overcome all things and draw near to Him.                                                                                     

Gen. 4:6-7

⁶ Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? ⁷ If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Romans 6:1-13

True believers are dead to sin, therefore they ought not to follow it. No man can at the same time be both dead and alive. He is a fool who, desiring to be dead unto sin, thinks he may live in it.

The corrupt nature, called the old man, because it is derived from our first father Adam, is crucified with Christ, in every true believer, by the grace derived from the cross. It is weakened and in a dying state, though it yet struggles for life, and even for victory. But the whole body of sin, whatever is not according to the holy law of God, must be done away, so that the believer may no more be the slave of sin, but live to God, and find happiness in his service.

Sin shall not have dominion. God’s promises to us are more powerful and effectual for mortifying sin, than our promises to God.

Sin may struggle in a real believer, and create him a great deal of trouble, but it shall not have dominion; it may vex him, but it shall not rule over him. Shall any take occasion from this encouraging doctrine to allow themselves in the practice of any sin? Far be such abominable thoughts, so contrary to the perfections of God, and the design of his gospel, so opposed to being under grace. What can be a stronger motive against sin than the love of Christ? Shall we sin against so much goodness, and such love?

The great need is not to do things, but to believe things. The Redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith upon it. If I construct my faith on my experience, I produce that most unscriptural type of life, an isolated life, my eyes will be fixed on my own whiteness. Beware of the piety that has no recognition of the death of our Lord for the Forgiveness of sin. It is of no use for anything but a sequestered life; it is useless to God and a nuisance to man.

Measure every type of experience by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the pre-supposition of the Forgiveness.

The Forgiveness of Jesus has to work out in practical, unobtrusive ways in my life. Every time I obey, absolute Deity is on my side, so that the grace of God and natural obedience coincide.

Obedience means that I have banked everything on the God’s Forgiveness, and my obedience is met immediately by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.

Beware of the piety that denies the natural life, it is a fraud. Continually bring yourself to the bar of the Forgiveness.

Oswald Chambers / My Utmost for His Highest

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God —Matthew 5:8

Purity is not innocence— it is much more than that. Purity is the result of continued spiritual harmony with God. We have to grow in purity. Our life with God may be right and our inner purity unblemished, yet occasionally our outer life may become spotted and stained. God intentionally does not protect us from this possibility, because this is the way we recognize the necessity of maintaining our spiritual vision through personal purity. If the outer level of our spiritual life with God is impaired to the slightest degree, we must put everything else aside until we make it right. Remember that spiritual vision depends on our character— it is “the pure in heart ” who “see God.”

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Ezekiel 36:26
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Stop struggling let God do it!

We never have to die for our sins, Christ did that for us. We must die, be broken and obedient as we forgive the sinful wrongs others have perpetrated against us. You say, “Hold it that is something only Christ can do. He’s the Son of God, that is his special mission and He fulfilled it perfectly.” God gave every believer this ministry and this message of reconciliation. He says it plainly and then plainly states that if you do not follow him this way you are not His disciple and you have no part in His ministry.

You must have a personal theology (defined as your personal philosophy of your spiritual life) that will sustain you when you there is no time to go through a spiritual inventory or reach someone else to explain things or assist you.

Your personal theology must never be based on your personal strength. If that were so you would only have to find what it is you are already good at and perfect it with your own human abilities and natural instincts. This is doomed to failure.

Fully understanding the forgiveness of God is fundamental to a personal theology. The glory of God is interwoven and expressed in forgiveness. You cannot know what it means to forgive until you know the greatness of God’s glory.

^{Matthew 27:50-54}

⁵⁰ And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

⁵¹ At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split ⁵² and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³ They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

⁵⁴ When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

The tearing of the veil revealed God’s glory to everyone in all the earth forever. The bursting forth from the grave of dead men is the testimony of God’s power and glory. There has never been one degree of separation between man and God’s glory since that moment and there never shall be. This greatest gift came to us through His humble obedient blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sin. Those who refuse to forgive as the Lord has forgiven them deny His glory, trample underfoot the cross, insult the Holy Spirit and treat the blood covenant as unholy.   Hebrews 10:29.

No one is instinctively good at forgiveness, it never originates with you. You can only offer that which has been given to you.  Forgiveness is a learned behavior and attitude.

To forgive may require every last ounce of physical and spiritual strength you possess. All that is in you and all the evil in the world may be aligned together to stop you from forgiving another. You must beat all of that and forgive in obedience to God.

To consciously build your personal theology on God’s forgiveness will require you to examine the hard places of your soul, consisting of your mind will and emotions. Areas of your life and personal experience will be shaken and broken.

If you do not think you have a personal theology, you are wrong, you have one that is undeveloped and it will lead you into disaster because you cannot explain it, which means you cannot act upon it. You have not nurtured it to make it your own, which means that you and others and the kingdom of God will suffer great loss when trouble strikes.

If you have not taken time to develop a personal theology you are most likely not walking in a forgiving spirit and you may be in rebellion to God.

God has ordained every believer with a ministry of reconciliation. It is very dangerous to have an ordained ministry without a personal theology.

You must know who He is and that He did what He said he would do. You must know the word of God. The word has mastery over all things and it makes absolute demands upon every believer.

You must be prepared to submit to the word in godly obedience.

A good foundation therefore is that God died and rose to save the whole world; there is a way for anyone to come to Him that way is forgiveness. He loves you and intercedes for you constantly at the throne of God. You can always trust your life in the hands of just and loving God.  You must forgive others as He forgave you.

The ministry of reconciliation is not one of jumping out of boats and walking on water. For reconciliation you must walk the mean dirty streets of life take the hits, get treated like a cockroach and forgive those who treat you that way without flinching.

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Luke 9:23-24 ²³ Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. ²⁵ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and lose or their very soul?

• There is no forgiveness without sacrifice. There is no sacrifice without obedience. No obedience without love.
• Never utter the words “This is my cross to bear” The world has twisted the words of Christ from this scripture to make them virtually mean the opposite of Christ’s intent.
• The cross is the greatest instrument of overcoming power in the total history of all creation. Christ suffered the torture of the cross so that you will never have to suffer that way for your sins. Then he handed the power of the cross to you to be used to set others free too.

Matthew 11:29-30 ⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The cross was torture for him. It is a gift of power, knowledge, humility and rest for us. He made the way for us at the cross, and it is complete and it is perfect.

Cancel the debt of others , disarm the powers and make a mockery of them

Colossians 2:13-15 ¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

• There was a death certificate assigned against each of us in the form of the law of Moses, the righteousness of God, the curse of sin, the blood sacrifice for sin which required blood and death. All of this was to instruct us that we simply could not earn and certainly not maintain our forgiveness.
• God himself will have to deliver us from sin and death and reconcile himself to us.
• As a husband and father, what are you willing to sacrifice, what are you willing to die for to see your family reconciled to God?

We trust a man who’s his first name we don’t even know, we just call him Doctor Jones. We let that man cut us open with a knife and reach inside us to remove a tumor, and do it while we are unconscious from anesthetic.  We have not a clue how it will all occur, we simply trust him to get it right. In fact we don’t even know who is in the room while he’s doing all this but it’s not our friends and family in there. But we let him do it because he’s trying to save our life. And we want to live. And the entire time he’s working on us we are out cold. Why can’t we trust God to cut deep into us and remove that thing that is killing our spirit?

When God is operating on us we are wide awake and talking to Him and He is speaking to us through His word and the Holy Spirit. And we can talk back to Him to tell Him we are hurting and where we feel pain. We are surrounded by friends, family and have every comfort available.

Sometimes doctors do a little extra work in surgery. They go in to sew up a separated shoulder when they find some arthritis that they scrape out or perhaps a bit of loose cartilage that they remove. They are skilled and competent and they are gratified that they have helped the patient, and we are all the better for it.

God is the most competent surgeon of all.  If we only let Him do his work we find he will do more than we thought was needed and He will be blessed and happy that he has done it for us.

There are times that a doctor goes in for surgery and stops because the matter is worse than he expected,  maybe more specialized surgery is required or an apparatus is needed which he cannot obtain at that time. Worse yet, he may realize that the disease has spread too far and there is simply nothing he can do. With our Lord, there is no excess of damage or disease that stops Him for doing precisely what we need done.

When the doctor opens us up to go after the tumor or disease, he does not curse out the mass of tissue or angrily call it by name as a perpetrator of evil. He just removes it and repairs the surrounding areas; happy once again to do it as he knows best.

Neither does our Lord view the tumor of our sin He is removing with a vile attitude. He’s not mad that we’ve let such a thing develop within us. He knows we live in a sick broken world where these diseases are rampant. He has saved and is saving us from all of this. In fact He is pleading our case to His father every moment to work everything out for our good. He simply removes the tumor and repairs the damage and He’s happy to do it.

Remember, he promised our deliverance to Adam and Eve in the garden.  He conducted all the affairs of mankind to prepare for His coming, all the way down to selecting the man Abraham, the tribe of people, the prophets, priests and warriors, the kings and the sheep herders, a virgin, a manger, a life to testify of His father and all truth and the selection of his disciples. His humble obedience in the face of every evil, denial, mockery and back stabbing.  His death and resurrection perfectly fulfilled all the prophecies of the ages. He descended to hell to tear off the gates, providing those captive with their freedom.  All this was celebrated in heaven more joyously than any event to have occurred in eternity. From this the Holy Spirit was sent to us as a guide, comforter and the knowledge of God to man on this earth. Then He sat down at the right hand of God His father to make constant intercession for us. And He was pleased to do it.

But for some reason we think we are the one person on this earth who will not qualify for the healing hand of God’s love. We alone were born to a condition or worse yet we have taken some path voluntarily that has removed us from the reach of His special mercies, healing, provision and love. Those are lies from the pit of hell. No such thought comes from God.

He has done every last thing, carried out every last mission to its finest point successfully to forgive all the sins of all mankind for all time. Do you think he will leave you with some sin disease that will drain your spirit dry? After all He’s done for us, sacrificed and died for, will He leave you withered, shriveled gasping your last breath alone on the windswept plain of desolation?

Never!

He will remove the disease of your sin and weakness and repair the damage without judgment and be glad to do it. That is who God is. That is how we were forgiven. That is how He is forgiving us. That is how we will be forgiven.