Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do… —John 14:13

Am I fulfilling this ministry of intercession deep within the hidden recesses of my life? There is no trap nor any danger at all of being deceived or of showing pride in true intercession. It is a hidden ministry that brings forth fruit through which the Father is glorified. Am I allowing my spiritual life to waste away, or am I focused, bringing everything to one central point— the atonement of my Lord? Is Jesus Christ more and more dominating every interest of my life? If the central point, or the most powerful influence, of my life is the atonement of the Lord, then every aspect of my life will bear fruit for Him.

However, I must take the time to realize what this central point of power is. Am I willing to give one minute out of every hour to concentrate on it? “If you abide in Me…”— that is, if you continue to act, and think, and work from that central point— “you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). Am I abiding? Am I taking the time to abide? What is the greatest source of power in my life? Is it my work, service, and sacrifice for others, or is it my striving to work for God? It should be none of these— what ought to exert the greatest power in my life is the atonement of the Lord. It is not on what we spend the greatest amount of time that molds us the most, but whatever exerts the most power over us. We must make a determination to limit and concentrate our desires and interests on the atonement by the Cross of Christ.

“Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do….” The disciple who abides in Jesus is the will of God, and what appears to be his free choices are actually God’s foreordained decrees. Is this mysterious? Does it appear to contradict sound logic or seem totally absurd? Yes, but what a glorious truth it is to a saint of God.

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June 7, 20017

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Where have you been? This a question you may have asked? Did we just get tired or bored? Did we lose interest?……. Not at all. We just got caught up in being led and directed to some teaching that was very new for us, and we struggled with how or even IF we should share this teaching. You know how we can read a book, or hear a sermon and run off and try to share this new spiritual insight with a brother or a sister and it just doesn’t work? They were not as excited as we were about this “new insight”. Well that is where we landed for about six months as we contrasted and compared (iron sharpening iron) Richard Rohr’s devotionals https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/ and Oswald Chambers https://utmost.org/.  But we agreed, even as we are still learning about this new (to us) teaching about God’s love, we also learned (or were guided to know) that journaling was and is an essential part of our learning and communicating. And if this teaching is truth, and was to find its way out of us, that it would do so naturally wrapped inside our regular living, learning and writing.

Today Chambers says atonement is to be our focus. Christ’s atonement for us. In dictionaries, the meaning is “the reconciliation of God and humankind through Jesus Christ” or; “the reparation or expiation for sin.”  

But what if, as we are being taught by Richard Roher and his colleagues, Jesus was not about atonement at all, He came as a love offering……. to simply demonstrate God’s love for us? Our Franciscan teachers ask us to consider that perhaps God does not make mistakes and He knew before he even made Adam and Eve how they would respond to His direction. What if, as they suggest, God is love, grace and mercy and all of this covered mankind since the beginning of time?  What if it was not our sin that God wants to cover; what if as they suggest,  Jesus is not atonement, but is The cosmic, transformative and powerful statement of love?

Well, David and I decided, after days and weeks of prayer and connection, that it was not our place to communicate or try to teach this kind of theology, even as we are still learning thoughtfully. In fact it is not even our place to understand it fully. It is our place to surrender ourselves, our rights to ourselves and our rights to offer up any proposed teaching, give it up and be connected to Jesus. And live out of that.

We decided for us that doctrines and conflicting teaching does not matter as long as we are surrendered and connected to Jesus. He will lead us as we live it out in a surrendered and connected state. And we know that what we learn tomorrow will be revealed tomorrow. However, day by day,  as Chambers says, we agree to ask ourselves, “Is Jesus Christ more and more dominating every interest of my life?”

If the central point or the most powerful influence of my life is my surrender and connection to Jesus, then I am to live out of that because whatever is revealed or manifested as a result comes from God. So for us the teaching or truth of it is not the discussion. Our surrender and connection is. God will take care of the rest.

And God said, “Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and everything else you need will be provided. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and I will make your paths straight. I do not want your good behavior, nor do I care about your doctrines or how you interpret the scriptures. I simply desire a personal relationship with you, and this starts with your surrender and connection. Live out of that and let Me live through you; and I will take care of everything else. 

He Himself has said….So we may boldly say… —Hebrews 13:5-6

If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left. —Genesis 13:9

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. —Revelation 1:17

…do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. —Matthew 6:25

…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us… —John 17:21

If you are going through a time of isolation, seemingly all alone, read John 17 . It will explain exactly why you are where you are— because Jesus has prayed that you “may be one” with the Father as He is. Are you helping God to answer that prayer, or do you have some other goal for your life? Since you became a disciple, you cannot be as independent as you used to be.

God reveals in John 17 that His purpose is not just to answer our prayers, but that through prayer we might come to discern His mind. Yet there is one prayer which God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22). Are we as close to Jesus Christ as that?

God is not concerned about our plans; He doesn’t ask, “Do you want to go through this loss of a loved one, this difficulty, or this defeat?” No, He allows these things for His own purpose. The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, and nobler men and women, or they are making us more critical and fault-finding, and more insistent on our own way. The things that happen either make us evil, or they make us more saintly, depending entirely on our relationship with God and its level of intimacy. If we will pray, regarding our own lives, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42), then we will be encouraged and comforted by John 17, knowing that our Father is working according to His own wisdom, accomplishing what is best. When we understand God’s purpose, we will not become small-minded and cynical. Jesus prayed nothing less for us than absolute oneness with Himself, just as He was one with the Father. Some of us are far from this oneness; yet God will not leave us alone until we are one with Him— because Jesus prayed, “…that they all may be one….”

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? —Romans 8:35

God does not keep His child immune from trouble; He promises, “I will be with him in trouble…” (Psalm 91:15). It doesn’t matter how real or intense the adversities may be; nothing can ever separate him from his relationship to God. “In all these things we are more than conquerors…” (Romans 8:37). Paul was not referring here to imaginary things, but to things that are dangerously real. And he said we are “super-victors” in the midst of them, not because of our own ingenuity, nor because of our courage, but because none of them affects our essential relationship with God in Jesus Christ. I feel sorry for the Christian who doesn’t have something in the circumstances of his life that he wishes were not there.

“Shall tribulation…?” Tribulation is never a grand, highly welcomed event; but whatever it may be— whether exhausting, irritating, or simply causing some weakness— it is not able to “separate us from the love of Christ.” Never allow tribulations or the “cares of this world” to separate you from remembering that God loves you (Matthew 13:22).

“Shall…distress…?” Can God’s love continue to hold fast, even when everyone and everything around us seems to be saying that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?

“Shall…famine…?” Can we not only believe in the love of God but also be “more than conquerors,” even while we are being starved?

Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver, having deceived even Paul, or else some extraordinary thing happens to someone who holds on to the love of God when the odds are totally against him. Logic is silenced in the face of each of these things which come against him. Only one thing can account for it— the love of God in Christ Jesus. “Out of the wreck I rise” every time.

Look at the birds of the air….Consider the lilies of the field… —Matthew 6:26, 28

It came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. —Luke 24:51