November 2024
A person comes in the Family of God by confessing and believing the Lordship of Jesus over his or her life! The Apostle Paul gives us insight as to how a person can be saved (born again) and come into the Family of God. In Romans 10:9-10, Paul says, “That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Then in the eleventh verse, He climaxes it by saying, “For the Scripture says, Whosoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed.”
You see, the recognition of the Lordship of Jesus is the condition on which we receive eternal life. Faith is not a creation of the intellect but of the human spirit; and when the Lord says through the Apostle Paul, “Believe in your heart,” He means that our spirits must act upon the Word. So, when the heart man believes that Jesus is his righteousness, he then makes a confession of his salvation, of the Lordship of Jesus over his life. The word “Lordship” really means “the Bread Provider,” the One Who Sustains, Protects, Cares for, and owns us. So, in the very beginning of the divine life, Jesus assumes the responsibility of our caretaker.
Jesus said in Mathew 6:25-34, “Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take you thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, ‘What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?’ For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek you first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for tomorrow: for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Jesus gives us a bird’s-eye view of the Father’s attitude toward His very own children.
This was written for the new creation. The Jews could not understand it. Another translation reads of verse 25, “Be not anxious for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body, what you shall wear or put on.” He illustrates it by the Father’s care for the birds, and says, “Are not you of much more value than they?”
And then we show lack of wisdom in worrying over our finances, He says, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.”
Then in verses 30-32, He says, “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Be not therefore anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat, or what shall we drink? or, how shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your Heavenly Father knows you have need of all these things.” And then we have the climax in the thirty-third verse, “But seek you first His Kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
The Apostle Paul says it this way in Colossians 1:12-13, “Giving thanks unto the Father, Who has made us meet [able] to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light. Who has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the Kingdom of His Dear Son [of the Son of His love].
In Second Corinthians 5:21 Paul tells us that we have found God’s Righteousness, “Him Who knew no sin He made sin on our behalf’ that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Then we are in the Family of God. Paul also says in Romans 8:14-16, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”
Paul shows us the ability of God that becomes ours the moment that we come into the family of God. That will be the end of worry, and the end of fear. That means that God, our Father, has assumed the responsibility that came to Him when He gave us eternal life.
I want to encourage you to stay in faith. Stay in the Word of God every day. This is the only thing that will keep the believer in the days we are living in. Keep INCREASE ON YOUR MIND, KEEP SPEAKING INCREASE, and the right things and making the right confessions of faith. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; and remember “God loves you; we love you and JESUS IS LORD!”
In the Service of Our King,
Darrell G. Harrelson
