KNOWING GOD FROM THE STAND POINT OF RELATIONSHIP

PART 2

HEBREWS 8:6-13

When you know God by law and not by relationship you will hate people whom God loves, you will stay in an abusive relationship that God wants you to come out from. 

So that we can know His heart and not just His Words, God gave us His Spirit in addition to His Word. 

The Holy Spirit  helps us to know the heart of God behind His commandments so that when we read the bible we read by the Spirit and we receive life, 1Corinthians 2:11. 

To act on the Word of God without the Spirit of God is to receive ministration of death. The bible says the letter killeth but the spirit gives life, 2Corinthians 3:6.

Many times when people come to us for counselling we just go by the Word alone and counsel them by the Word without the Spirit of God. 

So a person that God wants to liberate we put them in bondage by giving them the Word but not spoken by the Spirit.  

Only when we understand the heart of God behind his laws can we operate well with His laws. 

This was the basis of the conflict that Jesus always had with the religious leaders of His days. 

They put people in bondage by the Word of God and it is this same Word of God that Jesus was using to set the same people at liberty. 

So what was wrong? 

Jesus said you err not knowing the scripture or the power of God, Matthew 22:29. 

In another place He said, "Ye search the scriptures thinking in them you will find life but you will not come to me. But, they are they which testify of me", John 5John 5:39&40.

They have the Word of God, they know it by heart and can even quote it verbatim, yet Jesus is saying they won't come to Him. 

By what was He saying they should come to Him again apart from His Word? What were they lacking? 

They have the Word of God, what else do they need? They had no reverance for the Spirit of God. 

You can't understand scripture nor interprete it correctly without the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit  that wrote scriptures, so you need Him to understand what He wrote.

I always know when I am reading without the participation of the Holy Spirit,  because I would be receiving information but no revelation. 

When He joins me to read I see beyond the information and I gain access to the mind of the author when He wrote the book.

I plan to keep this post short but permit me to share this true life story. 

The late Pastor Yongii Cho said in his book The Fourth dimension, that some group of teenagers were going for a crusade and there was a flood and they had to cross a river to get to the crusade. 

One of them just said afterall Peter walked on water, that they should exercise their faith by walking on water too. They did, but guess what happened? The four of them drowned!

What killed them? The Word of God without the Spirit of God! Remember the man that went to the lion's den because he read of Daniel's miraculous escape from the lion's den?

Be sure what you are calling faith is not presumption. Be sure what you are calling faith is not tempting God, Matthew 4:6&7.  

Daniel did not put himself in the lion's den, it was a situation he found himself in, Daniel 6:4&5. Peter did not just walk on water, the Lord bid him comeMatthew 14:28&29. 

If we keep on approaching God and His laws from a legalistic stand point we will suffer so many casualties that God doesn't want us to suffer at all; all in the name of wanting to keep His commandments. 

But when we understand the heart of God behind his commandments; we will enjoy His love and swim in his mercy. 

In Gods heirachy of rating things, mercy superceed sacrifice, Matthew 9:13, Hosea 6:6. 

A man leaning on the mercy of God will get His attention faster than a man leaning on his works, Luke 18: 10-14. 

This does mot mean we should abuse God's mercy.

This is why David and his men could eat the shew bread that was meant only for the priest and nothing happened to Him or his men. 

God knew he did it because there was nothing else for them to eat not as an act of dishonour for His commandments. 

His heart of love and mercy overuled his commandment in that instance. David understood the mercy of God and rode on it many times. 

This was why he talked about a man whose iniquities are covered whose transgressions are forgiven, Psalm 32:1. He tapped into the NewTestament covenant while he was still in the Old.

Please lets be careful, that you miss paying your tithe one or two months because of situation beyond your control does not mean God will kill you or allow something bad to happen to you. 

He is a loving Father, not a task master even though He is LORD too. 

The devil takes advantage of this legalistic approach that we have towards God to push us to the extreme and make us suffer what God never want us to suffer at all. 

Infact, the devil builds strongholds around such belief system to ensure we never get free. But this word is coming to you today to liberate you. 

If you are born again, God has given you His Holy Spirit  so that you can relate with Him from the stand point of relationship and not just from the stand point of His Word alone. 

He wants you to know His heart behind His Words. Infact knowing God by His Spirit superceed knowing Him by His Word. 

It is where the Spirit of God is that there is liberty, 2Corinthians 3:17. Truth spoken without the Spirit of God cannot set people free but bound them.

For the bible says if anyone does not have the Spirit of God, he is none of His, Romans 8:9. 

Somewhere else, the Bible says as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God, Romans 8:14. 

The good thing there is that you cannot  separate the Spirit of God from the Word of God.  

Scriptures are written by the Spirit of God; so you can't be led by the Spirit of God without of the Word of God, 2Timothy 3:16. 

However, you can have head knowledge of  the Word of God without the participation of the Spirit of God. 

If the Word of God alone is enough Jesus need not have died. He died and rose again and ascended so that the Spirit of God can come into full operation and live in our hearts, John 16:7.

Don't forget, it is the Spirit of God that raised Jesus up from death and quickened His mortal body, Romans 8:11.

I hope you have been taking advantage of His presence in your life, if you are born again? 

If not, you can start today by addressing Him as a person not as an infuence and invite Him into your Bible study and prayer life. 

He is the difference. He is the quickening Spirit. He makes your Bible study to come alive and He mantles upon you in prayer to pray effectively, Romans 8:26&27. 

If you have not been involving him in these things and your entire life, you are short changing yourself. 

When He came into my Word study life and my prayer life and my every day affair, my wilderness became a fruitful field and my fruitful field became a forest, Isaiah 32:15. 

Not to have Him involved in my affairs is to be miserable. He is the Spirit of truth and He guides us into all truth. 

You need him to raise your children. You need him to prosper in business and in ministry. You need him to live life effectively. 

He is the guarantee that we are going to receive everything that God promised, Ephesians 1:13&14. 

The best thing you can do for yourself is to start building your relationship with Him actively. 

You can be born again and still be ignoring Him. You can organize conferences and still ignore Him. 

You can prepare your sermons and not involve Him at all. You can even raise your children without His contributions. 

What this means is, that you are born again does not mean He is an active part of your life. 

He is a person and He is waiting for you to turn to Him. 

You can have the a gteat anointing upon but a very weak anointing within, ask Samson. It takes strength to carry power. 

That strength comes from the anointing within, your personal walk and relationship with the Holy Spirit, 1John 2:20-27.

I also must say this, that we have a measure of relationship with Him does not mean we still don't have some religious mindsets that we hold on to and struggle with Him over. 

We are all a work in progress and for this reason we are going to cry to our Father to deliver us from every religious mindset that is preventing us from knowing Him and enjoying His love and mercy to the fullest.

SALVATION PRAYER

Salvation is found in none else, for there is no name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved, except the name of Jesus.

You may be reading this postand you have not yet given your life to Jesus. This is another opportunity for you to make that decision for Jesus by saying this prayer and mean it genuinely from your heart:

Lord Jesus, I love You with all my heart. I believe that You are the Son of God that died and she'd His blood for my sins. Today, I receive Your life and I declare thatI am Yours. Congratulations you are now born again.

PEACE

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