Unction

Unction

But ye have an unction from the Holy One. Ye are anointed with the Holy Spirit. – 1 John 2:20 (KJV)

Acts 16:12-15

 12 From there we reached Philippi, a major city of that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. And we stayed there several days.

 13 On the Sabbath we went a little way outside the city to a riverbank, where we thought people would be meeting for prayer, and we sat down to speak with some women who had gathered there.

 14 One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth, who worshiped God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying.

 15 She was baptized along with other members of her household, and she asked us to be her guests. “If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my home.” And she urged us until we agreed.

What is electricity and how does it work?

Electricity is made up of atoms. These atoms are a secondary energy source generated from the conversion of “primary sources” of energy such as coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear power, solar power, and so on.

Electricity travels in closed circuits. It has to have a complete path before electrons can move through it. When you turn on a light by flipping a switch, you close a circuit. Of course, this means that by flipping a switch off, you open a circuit. Electricity flows from the electric wire, through a light bulb, and back into the wire. The same concept applies to your television or your appliances – when you turn them on, you close a circuit for electricity to flow through the wires and power them (https://justenergy.com/).

You can have a fantastic light bulb. It is capable of producing light and warmth, but without electricity, it remains dark and cold.

The unction of the Holy Spirit is like electricity. People without unction are just like light bulbs without electricity. The unction or anointing of the Holy Spirit is the power that enables children of the King to serve Him and bring light and warmth to a dark, fallen world.

Biblical understanding and communication begin with the factual knowledge of the objective Word of God. But spiritual understanding is also essential. How do we acquire knowledge and understanding? We need the Holy Spirit to receive, comprehend, appropriate, and communicate divine truth (Grant Richison).

The story of Lydia illustrates how the Holy Spirit works. The Father opened her heart to understand and accept what she heard. It is the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit that ultimately draws people to the Lord Jesus Christ.

REFLECT & PRAY

The enemy of our souls does not want the glorious light of salvation to shine into people’s hearts. As the god of this age and the prince of this world, Satan is at work to keep us in the dark (Wiersbe).

Father thank You for providing the unction of the Holy Spirit. Thank You that my heart was opened to understand and accept the Truth of the Word of God.

INSIGHT

During the Old Testament period, anointing involved both recognition and empowerment. Kings and priests were physically anointed with oil. Being anointed with oil was analogous to an inauguration ceremony. Anointing empowered many individuals to carry out the Father’s tasks. The Old Testament prophets were anointed as needed by the Holy Spirit to receive the Father’s revelation and pass it on as prophesy.

Ezekiel 11:5 the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and he said to me . . ..

Old Testament prophets needed power from the Holy Spirit to speak and communicate the Father’s message. They were like lamps capable of illuminating and bringing light and warmth. but required energy to function. The power came from their unction.

The Greek term translated as unction or anointing is chrisma. Charisma comes from chrio, to anoint. Chrio literally meant to spread or pour oil or ointment. Chrisma was also used for commissioning and empowerment.

During the Old Testament period, special anointing oil was prepared. It was referred to as chrisma hagion – holy oil. In the New Testament, chrisma was also used for the empowering work of the Holy Spirit. 

The Greek word chrisma is used only three times in the New Testament 1 John 2:20, 1 John 2:27, and 2 Corinthians 1:21. The unction of the children of the King is not physical “oil of anointing” (Exodus 9:7). Rather, they were anointed with something vastly superior, the Holy Spirit – pneuma hagion.

The apostle John writes to the children of the King to remind them of who they are and what they already have. “The object of the apostle in writing was not to communicate fresh knowledge, but to bring into active and decisive use the knowledge which his readers already possessed” (Wescott).

Through the unction of the Holy Spirit, children of the King are given spiritual insight and the ability to communicate it powerfully. Prophets not only communicate, but they also stimulate reflection which often leads to a perspective transformation by the recipients.

1 John 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One. Ye are anointed with the Holy Spirit.

Lydia was a woman of faith. She was a God-fearing Gentile. Lydia desired to be around the children of the King and hear God’s word. What motivated her behavior? The Holy Spirit was working within her. She felt the tug of the Holy Spirit in her heart. The Holy Spirit opened her heart.

Acts 16:14 One of them was Lydia . . . who worshiped God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying.

The opening of Lydia’s heart occurred in conjunction with the unction of the Holy Spirit empowering Paul’s words.

1 John 2:27 As for you, the anointing which you received from Him lives in you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true – it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.

Feeling the tug of the Lord is common among children of the King. When we hear His voice, our response should be, Father, what would You have me do?

Pause for a moment and allow these words to sink in.

The ancient Greeks deduced that verbal proclamation would have the greatest force or influence if it had three essential characteristics – logos, ethos, and pathos. These three formed one inseparable whole. Logos referred to the intellectual and rational content of what was spoken. Did it make rational sense? Was it true? Did it correspond to reality?  Ethos had to do with the ethical element of the spoken word. Did the speaker affirm that which was morally good or right, and thereby beautiful. The union of logos and ethos resulted in pathos. Pathos was the passion with which the speaker spoke (https://www.placefortruth.org/blog/the-unction-of-the-holy-spirit).

What people hear, absorb, and react to is unique for each person. The Holy Spirit is responsible for all of these things. The unction of the Holy Spirit opens the heart and mind that the father’s message may be heard and accepted.

Is the Holy Spirit tugging at your heart?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

© Dr. H 2022

The Father is God, we are not

The Father is God, we are not

Stop and consider God’s wonders. – Job 37:14

Job 37:14-24

 14 Listen to this, O Job, Stand and consider the wonders of God.

 15 Do you know how God controls the storm and causes the lightning to flash from his clouds?

 16 Do you understand how he moves the clouds with wonderful perfection and skill?

 17 When you are sweltering in your clothes and the south wind dies down and everything is still,

 18 he makes the skies reflect the heat like a bronze mirror. Can you do that?

 19 So teach the rest of us what to say to God. We are too ignorant to make our own arguments.

 20 Should God be notified that I want to speak? Can people even speak when they are confused?

 21 We cannot look at the sun, for it shines brightly in the sky when the wind clears away the clouds.

 22 So also, golden splendor comes from the mountain of God. He is clothed in dazzling splendor.

 23 We cannot imagine the power of the Almighty; but even though he is just and righteous, he does not destroy us.

 24 No wonder people everywhere fear him. All who are wise show him reverence.

Goosebumps go by different names including goose pimples, goose flesh, goose bumples, horripilation, and piloerection. The medical term is cutis anserine (cutis means skin and anser means goose). Goosebumps are a skin response, a temporary change in its texture from smooth to bumpy. They are the result of the contraction of the piloerector muscles, triggered autonomously by the sympathetic nervous system.

Goosebumps erupt often when we are extremely cold. Goosebumps occur in unpleasant situations such as fear, or perhaps more accurately, horror. Goosebumps often arise during awesome experiences. When things occur that give us “chills.” When we are spiritually or emotionally moved. Their eruption is often concurrent with awe, pride, exhilaration, listening to music, and excitement of experiencing God.

Fallen humanity is incapable of comprehending the marvels of the creation and the creator God, the Father who made them all.

“It is good to remind ourselves that the Lord is God and we are not. He is the Creator; we are the created. He is the Original; we are the image. He is our Friend, but absolutely not our peer” (Stanley).

Job 37:14-16

 14 Pay attention to this, Job. Stop and consider the wonderful miracles of God!

 15 Do you know how God controls the storm and causes the lightning to flash from his clouds?

 16 Do you understand how he moves the clouds with wonderful perfection and skill?

The Father’s creation appears without end. In the book of Job, Elihu one of his friends points this out to him. He reminds Job that the Father alone is God, and Job is not. The Father is unlimited and all-powerful. The Father has perfect knowledge. Elihu is totally awed by the Father, the living God. He fixates on the Father’s majesty and perfection in all that He thinks and does. Elihu reminds Job that we as humans, can’t begin to understand the complexity of the Father and His creation.

Job 37:22 God is clothed with awesome majesty.

Elihu challenges Job to consider the Father’s awesome majesty as Job struggles with his losses. He warns Job against giving into arrogant conceit.

Job 37:24 All who are wise show him reverence. He does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.

Ultimately there are only two responses to the majestic glory of the eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God. Either people are wise and respect the Father, or they are conceded, wise in their own eyes, and turn away from the Father.

No matter what we’re going through, the Father is God. He is always at work even though we cannot see it or understand what He does.

Job 5:9 He does great things too marvelous to understand. He performs countless miracles.

Contemplating the Father and all that He is, and all that He has done and all that He is doing should give the children of the King chills. He is totally awesome!

REFLECT & PRAY

The Father is always at work. As we observe and recognize His handiwork and creativity, we are awed and moved to worship Him. His awesome intelligence and splendor give us chills.

Father thank You magnificent creation. Thank You that even when we cannot see You, You are at work in our lives. Empower me to see You with the eyes of faith.

INSIGHT

Our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven above

With wisdom pow’r and love. Our God is an awesome God

Deuteronomy 10:17 For the LORD your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God

The Hebrew word translated as awesome is yare. Yare means to inspire awe, reverence, or fear.

Job and his friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar enter into three rounds of heated discussion, they finally reach an impasse regarding theodicy, the question of why a good God permits evil. Elihu, being the youngest, waited for his turn to speak and now chimes in with his insights (Job 32-37).

Elihu spotlights the Father’s power, majesty, and sovereignty. He challenges Job to “consider the wonderful miracles” (Job 37:14). The Father governs His creation. Job is challenged to explain the inexplicable, the Father’s control of the clouds, lightning, winds, skies, and sun (Job 37:15-24). Such majesty and perfection compel the children of the King to revere the Father.

Job 37:14 Pay attention to this, Job. Stop and consider the wonderful miracles of God!

Hebrews 11:1-3

 3 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

 2 Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.

 3 By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.

Hebrews 11:6 It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

The Father is God and we are not!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

© Dr. H 2022

What more shall I say? ∙

What more shall I say? ∙

The two spies returned to Joshua and told him what they had learned, “The LORD has given us the whole land, for all the people in the land are terrified of us.” – Joshua 2:24

Hebrews 11:31 It was by faith that Rahab the harlot was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

Do you always believe what you hear or read on the Internet?

In 2012-2013, State Farm ran a TV Commercial which has come to be called, “The Internet and French Model.” A man named Mike is reporting an accident using his new State Farm mobile app. His neighbor walks by and she says, “I thought State Farm didn’t have all those apps.” Mike asked, “where did you hear that?” She responds, “the Internet.” Mike somewhat amazed queries, “and you believed it?” She responds, “yeah, they can’t put anything on the Internet that is not true.” Mike asks, “where did you hear that?” And they both respond simultaneously, “the Internet!”

The commercial ends with his neighbor introducing her date that she met on the Internet. She tells Mike that he’s a “French model.” He awkwardly mouths the words, “Ah, Bonjour.” Of course, the audience left aghast at the utter naïveté of the lady who believes everything she reads on the Internet.

Perhaps the best choice is to adhere to the sagacious advice of former president Ronald Reagan, “Trust but Verify.”

Long before the Internet and even without streaming 24×7 news services, word of major world events still got around. While the nation of Israel was wandering in the wilderness, news out of Egypt was spreading throughout the region. Stories were told and retold about how the God of Israel had brought the land of Egypt to its knees. Most of the army of Egypt had been destroyed. The God of Israel freed the Jewish people from their slavery and bondage by His mighty hand.

At that time, Egypt had the most powerful army on the face of the planet. No one had ever stood before Egypt’s armies and defeated them. They had mastered the use of what was then the new unmatched weapon of the day, the chariot. No doubt merchants and travelers had been telling and retelling the stories for decades. Undoubtedly, wealthy powerful cities such as Jericho had fortified their defenses to prepare for a possible invasion. But who could resist the power of the living God?

People were living in fear of the day that the armies of Israel would appear to take possession of “The Promised Land” that their God had sworn to give them. 40 years had come and gone, and the people of Jericho were still fearful of what the Lord might one day do.

Joshua 2:8-11

 8 Before the spies went to sleep that night, Rahab went up on the roof to talk with them.

 9 “I know the LORD has given you this land,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you. Everyone in the land is living in terror.

 10 For we have heard how the LORD made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt. . .

 11 No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the LORD your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.

Rahab was no princess. As a matter of fact, she is better known to biblical history as Rahab the harlot. But when she heard the truth regarding the Lord God of Israel, she believed in Him. Rahab dared to stand alone because she knew it was right. Rahab knew the risks of helping the spies, concealing them, deceiving their would-be captors, and helping them to escape. She provided the first “Hiding Place” much like the Dutch family of Corrie ten Boom during World War II.

Stellar reputations or the lack thereof never prevent people from going from unbelief to faith, from gross immorality to risking it all for the sake of what is right.

Joshua ordered two spies to go to Jericho to get the lay of the land. He directed them to secretly go to Rahab’s house. But they must have been seen. Somehow, word got out that they had come to her house. The king of Jericho sent out his stormtroopers to capture the Jewish spies. Rahab risked her life. She hid them and lied to protect them. They were able to escape alive from their pursuers. However, Rahab requested something in return for her hospitality, kindness, and protection. When the city was conquered, she wanted to be spared along with her family. The two spies agreed (Joshua 2:12-23). And it was so (Joshua 6:17).

Hebrews 11:31 It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

The two spies returned to Joshua and told him what they had learned, “The LORD has given us the whole land, for all the people in the land are terrified of us” (Joshua 2:24).

REFLECT & PRAY

The Father values faith and obedience even in the small details.

Father I long to be faithful and obedient, even when it involves risk and loss. Encourage me to be bold, daring, and faithful.

INSIGHT

But there’s more, the Father is always full of surprises.

After Rahab cleaned up her act and left her salacious life behind her, she became a part of the nation of Israel. She got married to a man named Salmon. They had a son named Boaz. Boaz was kind and generous and became a wealthy man. One day he found a young Moabitess, a widow, working in his fields. For Boaz, it was love at first sight. It turned out that her dead husband was a near kinsman. And Boaz had the right to become her kinsman-redeemer. He had to pull a few strings but eventually, he married her.

Her name was Ruth. Ruth and Boaz had a son. Their son’s name was Obed. None of this would’ve been very important except for the fact that Obed also had a son and his name was Jesse.

Now the name Jesse may sound very familiar. For you see Jesse was the father of David. And the great, great, great, . . . great-grandson of David is the Lord Jesus Christ.

A small deed done in faith for the right reasons at the right time for the right people had consequences beyond anybody’s wildest imagination. At the time, only the Father knew in advance that Rahab would be the distant ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:5-6,16).

Putting it another way. Rahab went against the tradition, custom, religion, and laws of Jericho. She stood alone and did what was right. If Rahab had refused to do what is right, would she have ever married and become part of the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Now is always the right time to do the right thing for the right reasons.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 2-03-2

Despite fear do right

Aslab
Aslan

Despite fear do right

For such a time as this. – Esther 4:14

Esther 3:8-13

 8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of all other people and they do not observe the king’s laws, so it is not in the king’s interest to let them remain.”

 9 “If it is pleasing to the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed.”

 13 Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children,

Esther 4:11-15

 11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king to the inner court who is not summoned, he has but one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live. And I have not been summoned to come to the king for these thirty days.”

 12 They related Esther’s words to Mordecai.

 13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews.

 14 “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”

“God is never bound by our faithlessness or cowardice. He desires to use us to bless His people, but if we fail to trust Him, He will use someone else. But He will always accomplish His will” (Stanley).

Throughout history, people overcame fear and rose to the occasion. They chose to risk their safety, their families, and their very lives to act on behalf of endangered, marked-for-death Jewish people. Unlike Queen Esther, these heroic people were not Jewish. Regardless of their ethnicity, they chose to protect and save the children of Israel who were threatened and imperiled. Consider Oskar Schindler (Schindler’s List), Corrie ten Boom, or the entire nation of Albania during World War II.

At Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Israel, there is a garden, The Righteous Among the Nations. His purpose is to remember and honor those men and women who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jewish people.

Esther had choices. She could’ve reasoned that she might escape the genocidal decree of King Ahasuerus to annihilate the Jewish people in Persia by simply hiding her Jewish ethnicity. Mordecai was quite clear that such a plan would not succeed.

Under the threat of death, with the outcome unknown, she chose to risk it all. Why? Because she realized that the Father had placed her in the palace, as queen of Persia, for such a time as this. The book of Esther is the only book in the Old Testament that does not have the word God and it. Yet the Father is present on every page. He is working behind the scenes invisibly without a spoken word to achieve His perfect plan. When a child of the King becomes convinced of this fact in their own mind, they realize that they are invincible until the will of the Father is accomplished in and through them.

Esther came to this realization. She is ready to die to save her people, the Jewish people. Her words echo down through the centuries to inspire every child of the King.

Esther 4:16 If I perish, I perish.

But there’s more. Once we are convinced of what is right for us to do, we are compelled to do it or we willfully sin.

James 4:17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

REFLECT & PRAY

It is always right to do right. The Father places each child of the King in His kingdom at the appropriate time in history to accomplish His will through and in them on earth as it is in heaven. For some of us, that time is special and obvious, “For such a time as this.”

Father, help me to be sensitive to Your guidance to know when and how to act. Strengthen me to be “all in” no matter what.

INSIGHT

Fear is a natural and normal human emotion. It often provides the adrenaline necessary to fight or take flight.

“When something threatens our lives, we naturally feel great fear. There is no sin in this. It’s how we respond to that fear – with a courageous trust in God or a spineless desire for self-preservation – that makes the difference” (Stanley).

What is fear? We all know what it is like to be afraid. Fear is emotional foreboding or dread of impending trouble or sorrow. Fear can result from real dangers or challenges. Fear can also be the result of imaginary dangers or challenges. This type of fear has no objective or logical basis. It is irrational. But it is real fear nonetheless to the one who experiences it.

Fear whether it is rational or irrational can be exchanged with faith and confidence, and the reverential fear of the Father our awesome God.

Where did fear begin? The Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve chose to disobey the Father, they lost their innocence. As a consequence, sin was introduced into the human race. With sin came fear.

Genesis 3:7-10

 7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

 8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the LORD God among the trees.

 9 Then the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

 10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”

Fear often immobilizes people, particularly when unrighteousness bubbles up from within.

Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flees when there is no one pursuing, but the righteous is as confident as a lion.

All children of the King have a unique, unsurpassed Redeemer Who in has come into their lives to liberate them from fear. The grip of fear is broken by the Lord Jesus Christ, through His sinless life, redemptive death, and resurrection. He now sits in heavenly places at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 1:20) making intercession for each child of the King (Hebrews 7:25).

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, because perfect love expels all fear. . .. the one who fears is not perfected in love.

The Lord Jesus Christ sets us free from fear. He purges each child of the King from a lifetime of fear. We have been liberated once and for all. By faith, we actualize our freedom from fear and newfound confidence.

Jesus Calling November 9

Sit quietly with Me, letting all your fears and worries bubble up to the surface of your consciousness. There, in the Light of My Presence, the bubbles pop and disappear. However, some fears surface over and over again, especially fear of the future. You tend to project yourself mentally into the next day, week, month, year, decade; and you visualize yourself coping badly in those times. What you are seeing is a false image, because it doesn’t include Me. Those gloomy times that you imagine will not come to pass since My Presence will be with you at all times.

When a future-oriented worry assails you, capture it and disarm it by suffusing the Light of My Presence into that mental image. Say to yourself, “Jesus will be with me then and there. With His help, I can cope!” Then, come home to the present moment, where you can enjoy Peace in My Presence.

Many of you receive a copy of the Reflection in your email.

Often after it is published, I review it one more time and tweak it.

To read the most up-to-date version, please click on the title.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

Debt forgiveness

Aslab
Aslan

Debt forgiveness

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9

Colossians 2:13-14

 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Robert F. Smith, a billionaire investor, and philanthropist was the commencement speaker at Morehouse College in May 2019. During his speech, he announced that a grant was established to pay off all student loan debt for Morehouse graduates in the Class of 2019.

Each graduate’s student loan debt would be paid in full. There were approximately 400 students and the gift is estimated at $40 million.

Smith gave the ultimate graduation gift – total debt forgiveness!

What is your first thought? “I wish I were a member of the graduating class,” right?

Well, if you are one of the Father’s children, you too are a member of a very special class, His forever family. The Father is far wealthier than Mr. Smith. And He has established a grant for each of His children to eliminate all of their sin debt. There was a high price to be paid. But His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, gladly paid that price. Now, forgiveness is available.

In 33 AD, when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, all of the sins that each of us would ever commit were still future. We would not be born for over 1900 years. He lumped them all together into one long list. Paul calls it a certificate of debt. Christ paid for all of our sins before we ever even committed them. He paid for them all at once and once for all.

The Father gave the ultimate eternal gift – total sin-debt forgiveness!

Colossians 2:13-14

 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

 14 by canceling the certificate of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

The Greek word translated certificate of debt or record of debt is cheirographon. It literally means made with hands. It comes from cheir – hand, and poieo – to make. It refers to a handwritten record of debt, a record of indebtedness. Paul uses this term to describe God’s record of charges against individual people for breaking His law. In our culture, we would call it the list of charges against us. Each of us has our own list. The Lord Jesus Christ took each of our individual lists and nailed them all to the cross. When He died, He announced for all time, tetelestai, “it is finished,” “paid in full” (John 19:30).

The entire debt was paid in full.

REFLECT & PRAY

Psalms 32:1 How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is covered!

Father how remarkable it is that all of our sins have been paid for. Thank You that we have been forgiven and continue to be forgiven as we recognize our sin and receive forgiveness and cleansing. What a wonderful plan!

INSIGHT

Forgiveness has a bit of a strange implementation. It comes in two phases. A rough analogy is buying a home or a car and making payments over time. First, you make a down payment, one lump sum. Then for the term of the contract, you continue to make monthly payments until the debt is paid in full.

Do you remember the freedom from bondage you experienced when you paid off your first loan? And that was only financial bondage. What about the bondage of sin? Do you think there is a way to actually pay off or work out of the bondage that sin has wrought? The debt is too great! And there is too little time. And additional sin debt continues to accrue to your account. It is simply beyond human ability alone.

The Father knows this. In His great love, paid your debt Himself. Regardless of your motivation, trying to pay off your debt will lead to frustration and ultimate failure.

“There is nothing you can to do make God love you more! There is nothing you can do to make God love you less” (Stanley)!

When we accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, the Father made something like a down payment. But what He provided was far more than a down payment. He made a one-time gift or endowment. He provided one large lump sum of forgiveness for each of us. He deposited all of the forgiveness we would ever need into our personal forgiveness accounts. At the moment we accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, we made one large withdrawal from our forgiveness fund. At that moment we were totally forgiven for all that we had done up until that time. Many of us can recall the tremendous relief of the burden being removed.

But as we all know, life goes on and we keep right on sinning. What happens then? All of our sins have been paid for. No further payment can be made.

But we no longer feel clean. Sometimes we feel alienated and separated from the Father. Sometimes circumstances, disappointment, tragedy, anger, or rage get the best of us. Yet all of our sins have already been paid for. All of the forgiveness we will ever need is already available. We do not need to acquire more forgiveness; we need only to experience the forgiveness we already have.

That is where the lump sum endowment comes in. There is enough forgiveness to fully pay off every sin that we would ever commit. The barrel has no bottom. Morning by morning new mercies are seen. It is impossible to draw down past the Father’s mercy and forgiveness.

All we have to do is make a withdrawal. We draw down our forgiveness through the act of confession. The Father simply applies forgiveness to our current sins. We are forgiven at that moment in time. We experience cleansing and restoration. Unfortunately being fallen creatures we will continue to sin. As we sin, we confess, and the Father applies the forgiveness we already have to our lives.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Confession clears our hearts spiritually and makes it possible for us to once more experience deep fellowship with God. Unconfessed sin makes us weak, discouraged, and ultimately miserable (Stanley). The need to confess new unconfessed sin is an important reminder to always keep our record clean and straight.

Many of you receive a copy of the Reflection in your email.

Often after it is published, I review it one more time and tweak it.

To read the most up-to-date version, please click on the title.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯