“Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:7-8)

Who does not desire a shift in our lives when we know that our God has greater plans for us and His best is yet to come? 

The only way for us to have a changed life and resist the lusts of our flesh is to submit and draw near to God in prayer. More often than not, the time for us to bend our knees and lowly come before Him is when things become beyond our control. We humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord knowing that He will surely lift us up. We humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God knowing that at the proper time He may exalt us, as we cast all our anxieties on Him, because He cares for us affectionately and watchfully. When we are weighed down, buried by our circumstances and the only way out is for us to look up, see, call upon Him and acknowledge that that our help and hope comes from Him Who deeply loves us, Who is forever mindful of us, Who is with us, Who is for us and never against us, we are indeed drawing near to Him Who is faithful and true.

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
    From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.”  (Psalm 121:1)

In the beginning, God’s plan for mankind was to walk, talk and be in His presence in the cool of the day.  We are meant to live and move and have our being in His heavenly atmosphere.  We are fashioned and designed to have this unceasing connectedness with Him like a branch that stays alive, vital, green and fruitful  when it is connected to the vine.  

Because He is the same yesterday, today and forever, no amount of opposition can stop the fulfillment of His plan in spite of the fall in the Garden of Eden, for He is the One True God Who never backs out from what He has spoken.   Our “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind.  Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”  (Numbers 23:19)

Jesus, the Word, became flesh to redeem flesh, that is mankind.  He came “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)  He came down take lift us out of the fall by the power of His precious shed blood, His suffering, death and resurrection, and powerfully redeemed and re-instated us back into the level of our call, and that is to be in His presence forever. 

Not only that God desires for us to be with Him, but also He created you and I according to His image and likeness, with power and authority that flows from our intimate relationship with Him, for apart from Him, we can do nothing.

“Now let Us conceive a new creation—humanity—made in Our image, fashioned according to Our likeness. And let Us grant them authority over all the earth—the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, the domesticated animals and the small creeping creatures on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26 Voice)

For you and I to have hope, a confident expectation and joyful anticipation to be like Him, drawing near to the One Who made us as partakers of His divine nature is the key.   In Acts 4:13, when people saw the boldness and extra ordinary confidence of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated, untrained men, utterly ordinary fellows, they marveled.  And they realized that they had been with Jesus.  Being with Him, makes us become like Him, live like Him, think like Him and do things like Him.  In truth, He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and GREATER WORKS than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” (John 14:12).  This is how He sees us.  Let us therefore quit looking at ourselves and be defined by our own inferior thoughts and ways.  Instead, we look to the One Who created us according to His image and likeness, BELIEVE and say, “BE IT DONE TO ME, LORD, ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD.”

Jesus demonstrated how to live a heaven on earth life as Man where He only said what He heard the Father saying and only did what He saw Him doing.   He gave us the secret pattern for us to learn.  PRAYER!  Jesus prayed.  He was always in prayer.  He constantly drew near in prayer.  He gave His life to prayer.   

As a Man, anointed by the Holy Spirit and power,  Jesus defeated the devil and overcame the powers of darkness.  He came to destroy his evil works by pure obedience to God, our Father.  His saying, “not My will but Yours be done” brought Him to the place of utmost victory no matter what it cost.  He was fully obedient even  to the point of death for the joy that was set before Him perceiving and seeing you and I redeemed and restored to who we were originally created to be: to be His, to be with Him and in Him, for Him to dwell in us in the presence of the Holy Spirit Who graces us to be like Him.

As a Man, He resisted temptation though He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, so He can identify with the challenges that we face.

“So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.” (Hebrews 4:14-15 NLT)

In the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus was transformed.  His countenance changed.  The glory came and showed up.   “His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.” (Matthew 17:2).  Not only that, “While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” (Matthew 17:5)

Prayer transforms us.  Prayer enables us to hear Him speak.  Prayer strengthens us.  Prayer heals us.  Prayer make us sensitive to His leading.  Prayer gives us divine visions and dreams.  Prayer gives us confidence to access His throne 24/7.  Prayer revives and refreshes us.  Prayer gives us diving audacity to exercise the power and authority that Jesus bestowed upon us in His Name.  He said, these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;  they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:17-18).  This is who defined believers to be and nothing less. 

Prayer changes the way we think. Prayer is a time of divine exchange, where we can come to Him with a heavy heart and come out lightened and enlightened because this is where we take on the heart of God and sees things from His perspective. He said, “Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Come to me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis. Simply join your life with mine. Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please. You will find refreshment and rest in me. For all that I require of you will be pleasant and easy to bear.” (Matthew 11:28-30 TPT)

Prayer enhances and deepens our relationship with Him where we get in alignment to the plumb line of His revealed word. Prayer makes us become more and more like Him as we “offer our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice to God, a sacred offering that brings Him pleasure; this is our reasonable, essential worship. With this, we do not allow this world to mold us in its own image. Instead, we’ll be transformed from the inside out by renewing our minds. As a result, we will be able to discern what God wills and whatever God finds good, pleasing, and complete.” (Romans 12:1-2)

The Message Paraphrase says, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.  Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.  Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it.  Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” (Romans 12:2 MSG)

Embarking to intentionally pray is frequently challenging that may require our forceful will to break inner resistance and hesitation.  We muster the confidence to take the initial step knowing that in seeking, there is always a finding.  In asking, He is always answering.  In knocking, there is always an opening.  There will be loads of learnings and takeaways along the way and with our every step, we gain momentum.  We discover the joy of the Lord as we bask in His presence and get fortified and unstoppable. In this journey of drawing near in prayer we experientially see how He loads us with daily glorious benefits that would surely cause our hearts to yearn for MORE of Him.  

There are numerous testimonies in the Word of God of people who drew near to Jesus who were healed, comforted, fed, delivered from demons and raised to life to name a few.  These testimonies set peoples’ hearts on fire who witnessed His goodness and pant to experience Him themselves.

In the case of the woman at the well in the town of Sychar in John 4, after having a powerful irreversible encounter with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, she left her waterpot, the very reason why she came to the well to draw water with.   Not that she would not be needing physical water any longer, No!  She surely does!  But when she encountered Jesus, a superior Living Water was what she was able to partake and drink, becoming in her a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.  Because of her story, people drew near to Jesus.

“The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did.  Could this be the Christ?” Then they went out of the city and came to Him.” (John 4:28-30)

 ^“And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word.

 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed ^]the Christ, the Savior of the world.” (John 4:39-42)

This always blesses me every time I get to read these verses, how this encourages me to be a witness of God’s goodness, giving me the boldness to share my testimonies to those who have ears to hear.

But, this is not always the case.  My heart grieved when I saw another story that resulted to a totally opposite reaction from the spectators and hearers.

In Mark 5, when Jesus had come to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, there met Him a demon-possessed man, untamed, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. 

To cut the long story short, Jesus cast the demons out of that man that went into the herd of swine which suddenly ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water.

“So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that had happened. Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine. Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region.

Here, the herdsmen’s and the people in the city’s  reactions were totally at odds compared to the people of Samaria.  They came to meet Jesus, not for Him to stay but to beg Him to go away and leave them alone.

We all have unique and custom-made stories on how we have been ignited to passionately pursue our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  As the Holy Spirit touched our innermost being, He unveiled our eyes to see and opened our hearts to believe and receive the Lordship of Jesus  in our lives.

I, for one, did not immediately believe and receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior when the gospel of peace was preached to me.  There were a lot of questions, hesitations, oppositions and resistance from deep within me.  Human reasoning, customs and traditions got the better of me.  But, the Seed of God’s word is incorruptible.  No matter how the enemy fastened blinders over my eyes, when He spoke, everything went loose. Faith indeed comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.  

Because of my stubbornness at first, it gave me a confident hope and expectation that the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of His glory as the waters cover the sea, just as He planned it to be.  He ordained for each one to have his or her own timetable for it is the Holy Spirit Who will reveal to us Who Jesus is.  He never desires for anyone to perish, but for all of us to come to eternal life.   But, comes with His plan is you and I as His co-laborers who will carry the fragrance of His Glorious Presence and speak of His goodness and faithfulness. 

“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?  And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:14-15)

Our journey in hosting the Presence of God may not always result to an expected end of glory right away.  It may be that to some we are just instruments to sow the incorruptible Seed of His Word to the ground of peoples’ hearts and it is God Who will make it grow until they become a part of the harvest.  To others, their hearts may be fertile enough to receive straight away.  However way, Jesus is the WAY!

Jesus came in the flesh as a Man.  He came down to qualify the called, you and I, who with open hearts receive Him, allowing Him and giving Him the liberty to live His life in and through us.  He came and took our sin in His body although He knew no sin, nailed it at the cross and separated it as far as the east is from the west.  He redeemed us from the curse of the law. 

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:13-14)

He died, was buried and rose again INCORRUPTIBLE, UNDEFEATABLE, KING OF KINGS, LORD OF LORDS and FULL OF GLORY.  He ascended on high and sat down at the right hand of the Father highly exalted, given the Name above every names,  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.   

He poured out the Mighty Holy Spirit so He can put inside of us His abiding, eternal, inexhaustible reservoir of LOVE, CHRIST IN US, THE HOPE OF GLORY, Who has tremendous power and dynamic in His working, regenerating you and I after His own kind, according to His image and likeness, so that our lives, our speech, our thoughts, our perceptions, our visions will be consistently in alignment to Who He is.  Yes, this is our identity.  This is who we are.  “AS HE IS, SO ARE WE IN THIS WORLD.”

 ^“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17)

God is making Himself and His great love known to us by sending Jesus Christ to us.  He drew near to us FIRST by coming down from heaven to be like us, to upgrade us to be like Him.  For this to be made possible, let us receive Him, draw near to Him in response to His invitation and make Him the Lord of our lives, to Whom our “yes” is due.

With Jesus’ finished work, He positioned us for UPGRADE.

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, thank You for initiating to draw near to us because of Your great love for us.  You surely knew from the very foundation of time that left on our own, we will never have the courage and confidence to draw near to You fir You are Holy and Blameless.  Thank You for giving us Jesus Christ Who by the power of His shed precious Blood cleansed us from our sin and made us righteous before Your very eyes, so that we can come boldly to Your throne of grace to find mercy and find grace in time of our need.  Thank You, Jesus, for saying “YES” to come and be the Word made flesh Who dwelt among us, suffered, died and resurrected for the JOY of redeeming and restoring us to our true identity of being in Your presence, created according to Your image and likeness, called to live a heaven on earth life like You without limits.  Thank You, Holy Spirit, for opening our eyes to see Jesus face to face by the power of His revealed Word.  Thank You for igniting our hearts to draw near to Him so we can be like Him, not by our might nor by our power, but only made possible by You, O Holy Spirit.  Amen!

Photo Credits:  Edna Arriola; New Zealand