MATTIE'S CHRISTIAN PAGES

March 18, 2000
Compiled by:
Tammy Rudstrom
© 2000 All rights reserved

NEAR TO THE HEART OF GOD

The Holy Spirit of God, our comforter, will help us to keep our focus on our Father in heaven throughout everything that arises. Only with our eyes will we see the reward of the wicked. When the Holy Spirit is grieved he leaves. When the Holy Spirit is grieved in us over what we see with our eyes, we need to leave that which we see and run to the Father, find ourselves close to His heart to know His very heart beat about everything. Those, whose God is their belly, Philippians 3:19, who mind earthly things, pray for them and bless them. God is still God over every situation that arises. Seek the heart of the Father and trust them to Him. He loves them.

Those who offend us may be close family members or those we have worshipped with in the presence of God. It hurts deeply, but we need to leave them with the Lord and seek an even closer walk with the Lord, loving Him with all of our heart. Trust every situation into His keeping and go on with Him, forgetting those things that are behind and pressing on toward our high calling in Christ Jesus.

The true Body of Christ will keep their eyes on Him. And so much the more as we see the day of Christ's return approaching as it is. We are our brother's keeper but we cannot help them unless we know the heart beat of God. It may be that we will need to do, as Paul had to do on one occasion recorded in the Bible. It may be necessary for us to deliver them unto Satan for the destruction of their flesh. We do not desire to see them suffer. We desire to love them as God loves them and we want them to be blessed. But we know that purging is necessary for all of us to be delivered from all dead works to serving a Living God.

We need to be in agreement with the word of God as Paul was. Paul wrote those words in his letter to the church in I Corinthians 5:5, with all the love and grace of our Savior in his heart for that person, believing for the finished work of God to manifest in that person's life through the working of the Holy Spirit to purge him from dead works to serve a living God.

Our own hearts need to be pure before God when we pray for our offenders. We need to pray: Father, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. When the Holy Spirit sheds light on a dark area in my life that needs purging, I need to pray that God will purge me, purify me and make me clean. I invite Him to do this for me. I know I can trust myself to Him. I know it is His will to make me clean. And likewise, when I pray for those souls I commit to Him, I can trust my Father in heaven to save them from destruction when Satan desires to sift them as wheat.

In Luke 22:31, we see Jesus speaking to Satan while rebuking Peter for his high imaginations that exalted themselves above the knowledge of God, savoring the things of the world instead of the ways of the Kingdom of God, saying, 'Get thee behind me, Satan'. We know Jesus spoke those words of pure truth to Peter in love and in earnest prayer, believing for the salvation of his soul. He went on to tell Peter that Satan desired to sift him as wheat but that He had prayed for him that His faith fail not. And we are to do the same if we need to deliver someone unto the Satan for the destruction of the flesh. We do it trusting in God their faith will not fail. We can pray for them the same prayer that Jesus did for Peter that their faith fails not when Satan does sift them. We will need to pray for them in the unconditional love, mercy and grace of God.

It is the heart of the Father that Jesus experienced when He said, FATHER FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING. They are already forgiven. They are already in the heavenlies, hid in God with Christ Jesus our Lord. All of us, we were yet dead in sin were delivered out of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of His dear Son, Jesus, Eph. 2:4-6; Col.1:12-14 (KJV).

While we were yet dead in our sins, our heavenly Father quickened us together with Christ when He raised Him up to sit with Him in the heavenlies. And likewise, while they are yet dead in their sins our heavenly Father quickened them together with Christ when He raised Jesus up to sit with Him in the heavenlies.

We leave the offenders with the Father. We do not judge. He is God and He is judge. He is a God of infinite mercy and love. He knows best how to handle the whole thing. And we can trust it all to Him. Let God be God and let us go on to perfection. Who is the Body of Christ? I believe they are those who are going on to perfection letting Him purge them from all dead works unto the Living God. His bride will have washed himself/herself in the blood of the Lamb. They will be pure and spotless.

Christ will arise in His Body and you will know His Body by their fruits. Will the real Jesus arise? Yes, He will. The real Jesus will arise in this earth and the world will know that He has come by our love for one another and by our works, healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind, healing the broken hearted, setting the captives free, undoing the heavy burdens, feeding the poor and housing the homeless, declaring the good news: Our God has reconciled us back unto Himself through His only begotten Son, Jesus!

Let us read again the words of Paul to the Colossians and to us who have received his word and prayers:

COLOSSIANS 1:9-17

(9) For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
(10) That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
(11) Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
(12) Giving thanks to the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;
(13) Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His Dear Son>
(14) In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
(15) Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of EVERY creature:
(16) For by Him were ALL things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: ALL things were created by Him, and for Him:
(17) And He is before ALL things, and by Him ALL things consist.

E-mail: btrud@zianet.com
tammyrudstrom@netscape.com