We’re missing out on many of the small things that will ultimately cause some cataclysmic consequences in our life.  I mean, just a very casual reading of Deuteronomy: all, all, all My statutes, all My commands (Amen?), all, all.  What do you think “all” means?  Now, we could take time and go into each and every one of our lives and find a lot of categories that still need some work.  Amen?  Anything in you that still needs purging?  Does anybody still need to be cleansed and washed with the water of the Word?  And though redemption, and justification, has taken us out from under the judgment (the curse, the wrath) of God, it has not allowed us to relinquish our responsibility of obedience to what the Holy Spirit is speaking to us.  Amen?

The moment He speaks to us, “Thus sayeth the Lord,” and we put that on the shelf, in our disobedience we are now placing ourselves back under consequences to disobedience to the Word of God.  At what degree does it cost us eternal life?  I don’t know!  But I don’t want to find out.  So, I’m going to purpose to go as far the other direction as possible and not live back here as close to self‑independent living, as close to the world’s ideologies, as I can and hope I’m still experiencing at the end of this thing the benefits of justification.  Eternal security belongs to the believer.  You don’t have to be a theologian to read that and understand what it means.

The good news is, nothing external can separate us from the love of God that’s in Christ Jesus; amen?  So, I’m not worried, then, about all that stuff.  I’m worried about the most dangerous person on earth: me—my independent thinking, my pride, my selfishness, my stubbornness.  It manifests itself in so many little areas, the little foxes.  We’re all looking on the horizon for that lion that goes about seeking whom he may devour, and we’re being chewed on, from the ankles up, by little foxes.  “I have finished the course.  I’ve kept the faith.”

Jesus equates all that He does to the indwelling of the Spirit that’s in Him.  He said in John, again so thankful for the work of the Holy Spirit in His life, the power of God alive in Him.  He says, “I just want you to understand one thing.  Because of that indwelling power of God, I always do that that pleases My Father.”  What a testimony; amen?  Can we achieve that?  Not in our own strength.  Can we achieve that?  Greater things shall we do.  How do we achieve it?  Through repentance, through confession of sin, which cleanses us from all unrighteousness, which allows us now to continue in that state of not only legal righteousness but literal righteousness, as we draw upon the mercy, the grace, the finished work of redemption in our lives.  But those things that we leave unrepented of, those things that we refuse to acknowledge as sin in our life and still court them, will ultimately lead to judgment, for the Scripture says guilty of one, guilty of all.

We want every day of our lives to end with us being able to raise our hearts before God and thank Him that while we were sinners He loved us; thank Him that His blood has taken away the wrath of all the sins that are past; thanking Him that we are accepted in the Beloved; thanking Him that His blood gains us bold access into the Holy of Holies, the very presence of God; thank Him that He will never leave us nor forsake us; thank Him that He is renewing our minds and the things that we used to love, we now hate.  For that to happen, there needs to be a greater sensitivity of the Spirit’s voice in us, or we’ll go to bed justifying ourselves, blaming others, thinking somehow, we’re an exception.  But He, our loving Father, is no respecter of persons.  Justification did not undo the fact that He is a jealous God, and He will have no other gods before Him.

Father, we thank You for Your Word.  We just ask that You would continue to work in us, manifest Yourself.  O Father, that You would deliver us from ourselves.  We so need You in this hour.  We thank You for the enabling power of Your Spirit in us, and so Father, we yield ourselves to You as vessels.  Flow through us mightily.  Let us know a refreshing and an unction that we’ve never known before, and let the glory and the excellency be of You and not of us.  We thank You for all of those things, Father, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.