Hosanna Restoration Church

Have you ever seen or heard of situations where someone is trying to deliver papers or certified letters to people who don’t want them? I understand that these are often what the recipients consider to be bad news or news that would require them to acknowledge that they have actually received the news and thus be responsible to answer the summons or whatever it is. I wonder if any of these folks have actually missed good news because they have become so conditioned to just reject any official notifications!

I certainly believe that this happens when it comes to the word of God. Some people are so conditioned to rejecting it that they miss His greatest promise of salvation! That is so sad. The religious rulers in Jesus time were so conditioned to their own way of thinking that they missed the very one they were looking for. He just did not fit in the box that they had prepared for Him.

Everything that Jesus has prepared for us; every promise that He makes comes with a choice. He gives us great gifts, and we have a choice as to how to use them. When we choose to follow Him and He increases the promise we choose whether or not to receive the next level. He speaks of forgiveness, regrets, rejection, victory, and peace, and we have the choice as to how we respond. In everything, the advice is to choose life but then the choice is left to us.

Jesus told the disciples that He was sending the promise of His Father upon them. In other words, “His Father promised that this was the next step, so they could count on it happening just the way the Father promised all along.” Their assignment was to go and wait in Jerusalem until His power came upon them. They had no idea what that was supposed to be like!

One day as they were waiting it sounded like the wind came up. Then they saw flames. Before they could run away they started speaking in languages they did not normally speak. They also must have been a little unsteady on their feet because some folks thought they were drunk. They may have been laughing out of sheer joy in response to this power of God. Some of them may have passed out on the floor. There may have been hooting and hollering in the celebration as well. I was not there, so I really cannot say.

I have been in the presence of God however when all of these things and more happened and sometimes I was all alone! In every instance it has been my choice to receive from God or not. After all, what is normal for God? I would rather have God tell me later that I got carried away, than have Him ask me why I did not just trust Him!

If the body of Christ is going to accomplish the promise of God in this age, the body of Christ is going to have to trust Him. We need to give Him that position that is above everything else, where compared to Him, nothing else matters. We need to believe and receive His great gifts and go with confidence to release them wherever we are. We need to allow Him to remove everything that hinders us, and choose to be what He has made us to be. As always, the choice is ours!