Is God In The House?
We acknowledge that God is Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of which there is none greater. We know that He created man and woman for His pleasure, in His own image, and we are profoundly loved. The Bible warns us about good and evil, plus we’ve lived long enough to see it in our lives and around us. In addition, the history of our world bears direct connections to Biblical accounts written far before time as we know it existed. My conclusions say that this God we’re referring to, this nobody greater, warring, terrible God…
For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth. Psalm 47:2 (KJV).
…who is compassionate, forgiving, and all knowing, this end from the beginning God, this Creator and Final Judge who is LOVE God, is not to be messed with. He is in charge!
I am always looking for the biggest Aha! moment yet, so I can understand the why behind what God was doing in my life. You are probably with me on this in light of where the world is in this season. Perhaps like me you’ve walked out many blessings, had “God spot” flashes (those times when you undefinably know that a thing is God), and have been moved by His Presence. The scriptures direct us not to lean on our own understanding but to look for that peace that passes all understanding, and tells us that God has a plan of good for those who love Him.
Nevertheless, these Bible truths don’t stop my head from trying to figure out “Why?”
Simply put, there are just some things that God does or allows that will be a mystery to us. The Bible is a detailed love letter to us illuminating His love for us. Trouble does not cancel out God’s love or ability to take care of us. Let His Word have the final say as to the love, power and grace that we have within us through Christ.
“Life gives us the opportunity to experience ease and distress, mountaintop highs and valley lows regardless of location, economic status, religion, or cultural/ethnic status. Yes, bad things happen to good people, and good people can make bad mistakes. Still, the way we journey through life’s challenges can be altered by our faith.” —Faith Forward, Wellness Tools for Creating Change.
“How can I make today any different than yesterday?” The answer is, by faith.
Faith has a voice separate from that of the Holy Spirit (the part of the trinity that lives inside of us). Faith is that reasoning that a person gets deep from within that defies logic, or even the sight of disaster or mayhem. Faith is the decision to trust what you believe even when you cannot see it or when you are not experiencing what you believe yet. We speak of wanting the power of great faith when actually, the power is in acting on the faith we already have.
The Lord answered, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and thrown into the sea,’ and it would
obey you!’” Luke 17:6 (NLT).
Faith is like a waking stage—it can shine light into areas that were previously dark and frightening. There are no measuring devices for faith. God moves in great faith as well as He moves in simple, childlike faith.
When I learned that seeking faith and walking out that faith changes me, God opened up and healed numerous areas of my illnesses. I wrote about the journey in my first book, FAITH FORWARD, Wellness Tools for Creating Change: A Women’s Three-Part Harmony of Body, Mind, and Spirit 2016©. I needed to move away from the despair over losing most of the comforts I’d become accustomed to, like being gainfully employed, while God seemed silent and uncaring. In addition, I experienced the onset of serious autoimmune diseases. But I found a process of deliverance through faith. His messages and solutions to free my soul and allow my spirit to soar in Him created wholeness for me to live by.
With all of this growth and celebration came an old-but-new “it” that had been locked away and only briefly dealt with before. This part of the journey is captured in my book; Illusions Against Faith, God Knows What Needs Fixing 2019©.
There’s a moment when, all of a sudden, you realize that something you’ve carried around for a long time—something that you’ve disliked and put up with, or something you’ve longed for—was never really about the “details” of the thing, but about you.
This space in time comes when you have broken down the many barriers that surrounded this issue and now, with new eyes, you see “it” as clear as day. It has never been examined in the light before, always being hidden behind the closed doors of darkness. You know how you vowed not to let “it” overtake you? How you would not let “it” hurt you or steal from you or belittle you any longer?
The only way to contain this thing, it seemed, was to shut it away in the darkness of dead hopes and dreams. Each of us has an “it,” an illusion in our soul that makes our life’s purpose the same: To find guidance for our lives from our Creator.
The manner in which we use our faith will reflect God’s grace in our lives. Grace is the unmerited favor of God, giving us what we haven’t earned or deserve and bringing impossible things into our view and/or grasp. Sometimes we have difficulty accepting grace. We struggle because our focus is on how weak and imperfect we are, with fears about losing our faith, instead of focusing on the righteousness of Christ that lives within as a born-again Christian.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV).
What does all of this have to do with this current threat to our everyday lives? Plenty! To the degree that you and I are able to keep fear at bay and use faith as our line of thinking/— that degree will we be able to handle being quarantined from the various parts of life we’ve become accustomed too. Keeping our mind’s on how God loves us who believe, delivers that blessed assurance that He alone is in control. God does not send terror and disaster, although, for what ever reasons, He will use it for His purposes. You and I have to continually look at the hand of God and how He feels about us, then it will be well with our souls.
When God is in the House
A God List of Who We Are
God’s child (John 1:12)
A friend of Jesus Christ (John 15:15)
Justified (Romans 5:1)
United with the Lord; one with Him in spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17)
A member of Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 12:27)
Chosen and adopted (Ephesians 1:3–8)
Redeemed and forgiven (Colossians 1:13–14)
Complete (Colossians 2:9–10)
FREE from condemnation (Romans 8:1–2)
Established, anointed, and sealed by God (2 Corinthians 1:21–22)
Hidden with Christ (Colossians 3:1–4)
A citizen of Heaven (Philippians 3:20)
The branch of Jesus Christ, the true vine, and a channel of His life (John 15:5)
Chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16)
God’s temple (1 Corinthians 3:16)
A minister of reconciliation for God (2 Corinthians 5:17–21)
Seated with Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:6)
And God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10)
Excerpt from: “Illusions Against — Knows What Needs Fixing,” By Faith, pages. xii-xiii. Author Gayle Smith
