As we have discussed the limitless, unconditional grace of God, the question of how I can experience that grace on a daily basis naturally
arises. How does having my sins—past, present, and future—FORGIVEN and even FORGOTTEN by God (Jeremiah 31:33, 34) actually change the way I live?
I ONLY understand this fact because I believe God has chosen to personally open the eyes of my heart as He experientially speaks to me. I have not necessarily learned correct doctrine, read the Bible in the original languages, or gone to seminary.
There is nothing wrong with these activities, but I believe God Himself, by His Holy Spirit, is giving me the FAITH OF A LITTLE CHILD to simply BELIEVE what I sense my Heavenly Abba Father has told me in His Word and then revealed to me in my heart! My only goal in life is to answer Him with “Yes, Daddy!” and never “Why, Daddy?”
When we actually believe we are God’s little children, we are then ready to do what we were created to do: 1.) Reflect God’s image, 2.) Rule over the earth, wherever we go and in whatever we do, a rule that has been delegated to us by Jesus from God’s right hand, and 3.) Reproduce more rulers, both physically and spiritually (Genesis 1:26-28).
This is why we were created—not to get to Heaven and retire on a cloud, praising God while playing a harp on “flowery beds of ease!” Instead, we are bound for the “City with Foundations,” the New Jerusalem, where we will rule with the King of all other kings.
I have gradually come to a point in my life where I actually believe this! That is called “faith,” and it is a gift from God, which I literally had nothing to do with.
For example, Hebrews 11:1 is the classic definition of this gift of faith. I knew this verse by heart for literally decades as a “Christian leader,” before God gave me a glimpse into what it actually means: “Now faith is the substance (hupostasis – “that which has actual existence”) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (KJV). Yes, faith causes “what we hope for” to become real to us in our experience; it “substantiates” (gives “actual existence to”) that hope, right now!
In other words, faith equips us to realize our hope, that we will accomplish that for which God created us. As you read the rest of Hebrews 11, it includes the “Hall of Faith.” This is a litany of biblical heroes who each had the faith of a little child, as they learned to trust their Abba Father in the difficult circumstances in which they found themselves.
That trust was “ruling”—bringing the life of God into every situation that these “rulers” faced. It happened naturally, spontaneously and unconsciously (NSU), for each of them, just as it does with us! They were not “trying to rule;” they generally had no clue they were “ruling,” nor do we. As God’s children, we are simply going about our daily activities, be it running a corporation or digging a ditch. When we do so as God’s little children, He is using us to RULE OVER THE EARTH as He lives through us, loving, giving, sacrificing, leading, and laying down our lives for others.
That is what the author tells us in Hebrews 12, right after the “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11! He issues this same call to us in chapter 12:1: “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses (Those in the “Hall of Faith” who are observing our lives), let us lay aside every weight, and the sin (unbelief) which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus (our perfect example of a “little child” who always says, “Yes, Daddy”) the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (to rule!) Hebrews 12:1, 2).
Here’s why the author told us to “look to Jesus”—He is our perfect model of the image of God, but, shockingly, also of the “little child” Jesus told us to become (Matthew 18:2-5). These verses are just a sample of the plethora of verses in John that teach this truth:
“The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner”.(John 5:19).
“I can of Myself do nothing…I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30).
“He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him…as My Father taught Me, I speak these things” (John 8:26, 28).
“For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should peak…Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” (John 12:49, 50).
“The word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me” (John 14:24)..
Incredible! The very 2nd Person of the eternal, divine Trinity came to earth and laid aside His divine power and became a man, the perfect model of how God created us to be! Jesus “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men…and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7, 8).
This means that Jesus, here on earth, always remained divine (“very God of very God”) in His essence, but He never acted from that deity. He ALWAYS LIVED FROM HIS HUMANITY ONLY. He was showing us, as a perfect model, how God had created us to live—by faith in the Holy Spirit within, whom He had received at His baptism and we (post-Pentecost) receive when we believe.
Are you ready? The grace of God has empowered us as His little children to fulfill our purpose to rule over the earth; Jesus is our perfect model to show us how that will look. It is that FAITH OF A LITTLE CHILD that calls to us now: “YES, DADDY! ATTACK!”
