“For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring.” Isaiah 44:3
If there is one evidence of expectant faith, it is rejoicing, rejoicing in the Lord. Why? The believer who truly comes to grips with the realities of Scripture in their declaration of who God is, and what is the infallible way to Him, and the assurance that He gives us as to providing all, so that we can come to God, is a rejoicing Christian. This joyful believer not only understands something of the magnitude of the blessing of God in Christ, but also grasps something of the present, active working of the Spirit of God in the heart to enable the believer to receive all that God desires to give. The believer who is “glad” is one who has seen something of the beauty of Christ by the Spirit, the immeasureable blesssing of being in living union with Him, but also, the very practical exercise of appropriating Him for everything. God the Father has made all the fulness of God to dwell in Christ, for He is God. He has made also every Christian to be placed in living union with Christ, and thus, has made the believer to be complete in Him, nothing lacking. In the eyes of the Father, the child of God is perfectly received before the throne of God in peace, but also, is that one who is met by the Father in the place of singular, certain aloneness with Him. God has become a reality to the believer who has seen that God in Christ has made a certain way to God the Father, to have audience with Him, to commune with Him, and he with the disciple of Christ. From where then does this wonderful assurance of immeasureable blessings come from? And what does the believer need to know so that he can receive from God, by the Spirit, all that the Father desires to give?
The concept of cleanness and holiness go hand in hand. Since God in Christ has dealt with sin in all of its hideous forms, effects, and essence, the Father expects his child to come before Him with clean hands and a pure heart. How can this be? It is by Christ’s singular provision of His shed blood on Calvary. Scripture tells us in regard to coming to God, that the believer has, “…boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus…,” (Heb. 10:19). He has a full and free access to the Father, not by anything he might trust in, or have done, but by faith in the blood of Christ. When Jesus entered into that holy, heavenly temple with His precious blood, He presented to the Father His claim upon the believer, for in His blood was the total, worthy price paid for the purchase of the sinner in debt to God for every sin. Not only was there the testimony of that debt paid in Christ’s blood, but there was a power and promise of cleansing, and justifiying of the sinner before God. Christ’s blood dealt with all sin, washing the sinner perfectly clean. The righteousness of Christ in that blood was that perfect declaration of the fact that the believer is now perfectly right with God, being received before Him in peace. Where the wrath of God once resided upon the sinner, now the peace of God envelopes him.
The second great truth that is essential for the believer to grasp in order to live rejoicingly, is the fact that in Jesus’ name, access is given by the Eternal Spirit. The promise of the Father is that the Spirit of Christ has been given to dwell forever in the believer’s heart. All that is in Christ is now made available by the Spirit’s power, so that the believer can receive the fulness of the Father, and the Son, abiding in Christ, and Christ in him. Therefore, nothing is too difficult for him.
Dear Father, Make us glad today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.