{"id":11949,"date":"2014-11-17T09:28:16","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T14:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=11949"},"modified":"2014-11-17T11:07:02","modified_gmt":"2014-11-17T16:07:02","slug":"the-eternal-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=11949","title":{"rendered":"The Eternal Goal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing\u2026I will bless you\u2026 \u2014Genesis 22:16-17<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2JI4CPfuLW0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nAbraham, at this point, has reached where he is in touch with the very nature of God. He now understands the reality of God&#8230;&#8230;My goal is God Himself\u2026 At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt any cost\u2026by any road\u201d means submitting to God\u2019s way of bringing us to the goal.<\/p>\n<p>There is no possibility of questioning God when He speaks, if He speaks to His own nature in me. Prompt obedience is the only result. When Jesus says, \u201cCome,\u201d I simply come; when He says, \u201cLet go,\u201d I let go; when He says, \u201cTrust God in this matter,\u201d I trust. This work of obedience is the evidence that the nature of God is in me. God\u2019s revelation of Himself to me is influenced by my character, not by God\u2019s character. \u2019Tis because I am ordinary,\u00a0 Thy ways so often look ordinary to me.<\/p>\n<p>It is through the discipline of obedience that I get to the place where Abraham was and I see who God is. God will never be real to me until I come face to face with Him in Jesus Christ. Then I will know and can boldly proclaim, \u201cIn all the world, my God, there is none but Thee, there is none but Thee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The promises of God are of no value to us until, through obedience, we come to understand the nature of God. We may read some things in the Bible every day for a year and they may mean nothing to us. Then, because we have been obedient to God in some small detail, we suddenly see what God means and His nature is instantly opened up to us. \u201cAll the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen\u2026\u201d (2 Corinthians 1:20). Our \u201cYes\u201d must be born of obedience; when by obedience we ratify a promise of God by saying, \u201cAmen,\u201d or, \u201cSo be it.\u201d That promise becomes ours.<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>November 17, 2014<\/p>\n<p>Journal Entry for Today-JDV<\/p>\n<p>Lord, this devotional brought to my attention my propensity for shaping my own behavior, discussions, actions and living so that I can, in my own judgment and opinion, \u00a0move my agenda or my idea of Your agenda forward. I will guard my words or offer up watered down or watered up status of a circumstance or opinion so that I do not offend anyone, or such that it casts a good light on my idea or initiative. I help shape the discussion so that it benefits me and my agenda. It is especially true when I can also feel as if I have moved Your agenda forward by shaping it in the \u201cright way\u201d. \u00a0But You tell me this is not obedience, even when my motivation and the outcome seems to support my efforts to grow Your Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>And God says\u2026\u201d<em>My ways are not your ways. I often move in ways that you will never understand and your attempts to make it right, or make it better or more spiritual can become acts of disobedience even when it looks more religious or spiritual.\u00a0 Just because your words are soothing, or your actions support the ABCs of churches (<strong>A<\/strong>ttendance, <strong>B<\/strong>uildings and <strong>C<\/strong>ash) does not mean you are being obedient, in fact it may mean the opposite. And when you add your own ways and means of growing the vision I have given you, you dilute the vision and by your actions tell me that you can take \u201ctake it from here\u201d.\u00a0 Surrender, and let Me take it from here, there and everywhere. Be connected to Me and allow Me to act because you have not interceded and given it your own brand of shaping. Trust in Me with all your heart and do not rely on your own ways and means and I will make your paths straight. \u00a0And your character will be shaped by the knowledge that it was and is God that manifests the vision.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing\u2026I will bless you\u2026 \u2014Genesis 22:16-17 Abraham, at this point, has reached where he is in touch with the very nature of God. He now understands the reality of God&#8230;&#8230;My goal is God Himself\u2026 At any cost, dear Lord, by any road. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11949"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11949"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11959,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11949\/revisions\/11959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}