Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the LORD Proverbs 18:22
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abides in the vine; no more can you (bare righteous fruit) except you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing: 1 John 15:3&4
Synonyms for abiding – to be present with, under His authority, trusting in, in submission to, antonyms – on your own, lacking respect thereto, seeking your own righteousness, doing your own thing, not trusting.
And what is the fruit of abiding that we are to bear?
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 1 John 4:21
To live through Him means to acknowledge Him as our Lord and Savior. All our actions and thoughts first come from a relationship with Him. We do not act independently.
This is what impresses God, and the fruit of that is what the Lord seeks. Agape, God’s love for us, is what He seeks in us; being vessels emptied of self ( which is a miracle in itself) and filled with His Holy Spirit. From this position of abiding, we then can genuinely love others. Which is the whole Christian walk. Our joy, peace, wisdom, and holy ministry come from this relationship with Him. This is not easy; it’s impossible if you are trying to do it in your own strength.
Final verse…For thy Maker is thine Husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the LORD hath called thee a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth when thou wast refused, saith thy God (the Church and its individualmembers are recognized as the Bride of Christ). Isaiah 54:5
No mention of marriage in these verses, no mention of ministering to others, no mention of doing anything other than abiding in Him and the fruit that occurs when the vine, us, abides in the branch, Him. We bring forth fruit, and He is pleased and honored. What more can a son or daughter of the Greatest King want but to honor his or her Father? This is the joy of ministry in its purest form. It’s not how big your ministry is, how many people are in your Church, or how many have read your books. No, that’s man’s accounting, and praise God that faithful ministries have large followings. However, the focus of our life is not the numbers but to be pleasing to Him, our Husband, and humbled that we can bring Him honor.
….the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such, there is no law. Galatians 5:22&23
Some faiths are legalistic in their approach to God. Hence, they live a life of right and wrong, of self-effort seeking to be righteous on their own merit, voiding or severely limiting the peace of God. They believe that they must earn their salvation. They are good people, honest and hardworking people; however, they are directed by putting more emphasis on their efforts than God’s son’s victory at the Cross. They way underestimate God’s Holiness and, therefore, believe that they can earn their salvation. They think too much of themselves and, therefore, are blinded to what God did at the Cross for them.
For our redemption, God required a perfect, spotless sacrifice, which none of us come close to, and only one is qualified: God Himself in the form of His Son. God’s Holiness is so beyond us that it cannot be comprehended and is barely described by words.
Here’s Isaiah’s account of seeing the Lord.
Above it (The Throne) stood the seraphim, each with six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly( so these are Angelic Beings) beholding God and one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of His Glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke( though they are angelic beings, God’s Holiness is so Great that they will not look upon Him, so they covered their eyes and the feet are considered humbling so they covered their feet in His presence as well).
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen — the King, the LORD of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Isaiah 6: 3-7 (note Isaiah’s response, he was undone in God’s presence. He never once felt he was good enough, in fact he felt just the opposite ).
Ministry is not separate from abiding in Christ; it is the heart and the core of ministry. The fruit of ministry Christ seeks cannot happen successfully without abiding in Christ. Therefore, regardless of what our ministry is, be it our occupation, family, marriage, church leadership, or all the above, these fruits (love, peace, forgiveness, etc.) need to be present and ever-growing. If not, then we have a disconnect with Christ. All of us are called to minister and to represent Christ. Paul said we are His ambassadors, and we spread His “fragrance” (2 Cor. 2:14-15), not ours.
Now, thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and amongthose who are perishing. To wit, that God was in Christ (making Christ God)reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation( God in the form of His Son died on the Cross redeeming His Creation and then conquered death by rising from the dead. All because of His Agape Love for us – such amazing Love).
And now, what is our role?
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God beseeched you through us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. 2 Cor. 5:20( our witness is paramount; we represent the Triune God; let this sink in when sin knocks).
**Remember, our first and preeminent ministry is to Christ, the “Ministry of Abiding.” How many of us would take a long-distance drive on just a quarter tank of gas? We would not. So why do we seek to minister on Christ’s behalf without first being connected and filled with His Holy Spirit? God rebuked the Ephesian Church in Revelations because it did.
I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Rev 2:2-5
Religion is man’s work; it’s his attempt to please and justify himself before God, which is futile. The Cross is God’s means to reconcile man to Himself through faith in His Son’s Son and His Great Sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world ( there is no other way, period).
The next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the world’s sin. John 1:29
I believe there are ministries and people who are much like the Church of Ephesians. We do not teach enough about the importance of Abiding. We bypass that and emphasize what we call a “ministry.” Which is not a ministry if the Holy Spirit is absent. It is more like a job, a function of doing. We are complicated as people; if our self-worth is not coming from our relationship with Christ, where is it coming from? OUR SELF-WORTH SHOULD NOT BE BASED ON WHAT WE DO ( which, unfortunately, to a large extent, it is) BUT ON KNOWING JESUS AND HIS LOVE FOR US.
We slowly drift away as we focus on the doing rather than abiding. Our effectiveness dwindles, and we seek out pastors who are gifted with a quick and witty tongue, but there is no change or power of the Holy Spirit in their words. It all appeals to the intellect. Burnout can happen to us and pastors, and then sin and temptation are correct at the door. We forget that our first and foremost calling is to Abide. What could be more important? It’s like panning for gold; we collect small grains of pure gold in our pan but dismiss them because we see a nugget of what we consider greater worth. It turns out that the nugget is fool’s gold, and we dismissed the small grains of gold because they were not impressive enough. There is no greater or real ego boost than to be loved by God. He makes you feel necessary in a very whole and healthy way. After all, we are adopted into the family of the Great King as sons and daughters; how much more importance do we need?
I cannot tell you how many churches, ministers, and ministry classes I’ve been to that teach how to find “your ministry.””Your ministry” translates over to your purpose( which is false), and your purpose is translated to your value. Your gift determines your value, and gifts are ranked, with teachers and healing gifts at the top. However, this is man’s ranking, not God’s. The emphasis is all wrong; our gifts do not determine our worth. Our value is always and only determined by what the Lord paid to redeem us. Value is always determined by its cost, and it took God’s Son’s Life to procure salvation for all of us. We are more valuable than we even can realize.
Too many ” man’s” ways are in the Church, elevating one man above another and diluting the Church’s power. The emphasis should ALWAYS be on your relationship with Christ. Start with that, stay with that, and end with that, and imagine the power the Church could have if each member understood that.
Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39
We will end here. Please reread this and understand that I am not condemning any one faith or belief. However, the teaching that sinners can earn their salvation through our efforts is not true and is deceitfully wrong. It completely voids the Cross and gives pride too much of a foothold on us.
**And since this is a series on marriage, imagine how abiding by God’s Word will strengthen our marriage, give security to our children, and begin to correct the wrongs in our society. It starts here and now. Will you join me?
Therefore shall a man leave his Father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24
To leave is to come out from under your parents’ authority (no, momma’s boy) and now submit to the Lord’s authority.
To cleave the best example is what occurs in the process of welding. A welding stick is used to melt two pieces into one solid piece. So, from 3 distinct pieces, one is made. It takes extreme watts 3200- 8000 to do this. This parallels our marriage in what it takes to weaken and eventually destroy ourselves on the Throne of our heart and finally let the True King Jesus rule and reign. The welding rods are the trials and conflicts that come to divide us, and unfortunately, they do. However, as we have shared, they don’t have to be if our priorities are right.
We absolutely need Jesus on the Throne in our hearts, man and woman. This is how we stay married HAPPILY and fulfill our mandates from the Lord: to Agape each other, raise Godly offspring unto the Lord (Malachi 2:15), and affect our culture for Christ, being the light on the hill we are called to be (Matt 5:14). We are one solid unit, fulfilling the Lord’s mandates and enjoying His blessings.
Father,
Help us to hear Your Words, to take them in as a spiritual meal whose nourishment exceeds that of physical food. Give us a love for You and Your Words and a desire to walk close to You. We pray for all those in the L.A fires that we, the Church, use this crisis to reach out and show the Love of Christ. May this be a defining time to crush woke-ism and prove the love of Christ as man’s only answer.
Thank you and Amen, Your son by Grace,
Arthur