Have you ever known a love like this?

For Australians the month of April this year was back to back weekends of Easter and Anzac day. Both times when we remember the sacrifices others have made for us. Knowing someone has literally laid down their life for you can really change your future. When your identity has been solidified by your creator and isn’t reliant on other humans opinions you’ll find this life so much easier to navigate.

If you haven’t watched the crowdfunded tv series The Chosen yet you won’t remember the scene where Jesus calls Matthew the despised tax collector and tells him to follow him. Matthew can’t believe he is being called, the other disciple’s can’t believe it, Matthew’s roman guard can’t believe it. In the moment the only one it makes sense to is Jesus. This doesn’t all have to make sense to you right away, but he wants you to follow him to. Will you choose right now to follow him and work out the details along the way?

Contracts

We have grown up in a world of contracts and the problem with contracts is they are made to be broken. God’s design isn’t contracts, it’s commitments and covenants. If you do a deep dive into covenants you’ll gain a greater understanding of the love God has for you. He doesn’t make contracts that are designed to be broken, he makes covenants that will never be broken.

One of his promises is that, all that is yours is mine, all that is mine is yours. When you truly give up all your rights, all your entitlements, and 100% submit to his will you’ll discover real freedom. In a world where everything is about your rights and entitlements it’s a very counter cultural discussion and life choice. It was also counter cultural 2,000 years ago.

You Are Loved

He died for me because he saw value in me, he wouldn’t have gone through all he went through if he didn’t think I was more than all that pain and suffering. Why does a mother go through the pain of childbirth? She knows the worth of the child she is bringing into the world. God brought us into the world and Jesus death and resurrection reunited that relationship that was damaged when Adam and Eve chose to be selfish.

No consciousness of sin, no guilt, no shame, living in grace = freedom from all that. Living sensual has robbed us from the freedom of living by faith, living by the truth rather than how I feel is a revolutionary act.

Feeling unloved or unworthy isn’t a problem. YOU ARE LOVED. The problem is everything in our society has programmed us to live sensually. Buy clothes on credit, upgrade your meal, you need this new phone, car, house, you deserve a holiday. It’s a certain date on a calendar if you aren’t in a relationship you don’t fit into society.

If you cut out all media from your life for a year I guarantee you’d notice a difference in your life. If you go one step further and not only subtract the negative programming from your life but replace it with positive programming you may discover a life you have til now only been able to dream about.

How do you replace the lies with the truth?

The truth is the word of God. The more the Bible becomes your oxygen rather than just a book you read because you know you should, the less the lies of this world can control you. The Bible isn’t just words on a page in a history book. They can literally bring life when they become alive inside you. Nothing can scare you when you know you weren’t created for your short time on earth. When you realise you are never going to die, why fear death. When you realise that your time spent in this body is temporary what does it matter what happens to it?

When you sincerely want to be transformed and put desire into action others may see the change in you before you do. Desiring an athletes body doesn’t transform your body into one, it requires a healthy diet, regular exercise, dedication and commitment. Spiritually it’s no different, if your diet is produced by Hollywood, you exercise once a week, and you made a dedication once and say you are committed only if someone asks..

Faith

When your hope becomes a realisation your life becomes unrecognisable. It only takes exercising your faith to get you there. If that faith still has doubts, questions, objections you’ll grow fatigued and weary and potentially give up along the way. The only way to obliterate the lies forever is to truly know that you are loved. You were created to be God’s son/daughter. Your life experience may have taught you that you weren’t lovable, that you were unworthy, that you can’t be free. Your experience was real but the reality of God supersedes that and he says you are loved, you are worthy and he died and rose again so you can be as free as Adam and Eve were before they chose to be selfish.

“The only reason you doing what you do, is you fail to see who you are. When you see who you are, you lose the capacity to do the things you did, that you thought you were only worth.”

Dan Mohler

3 of Neville’s previous encouraging articles: