I Will Be Just Like JESUS, I Will See HIM As HE is!

Before time began, before the worlds were created, Before time begins, before the worlds are created, before any angelic being fills the heavens with praise . . . there is neither past nor future tense. God lives entirely in and through Himself, rejoicing together in His triune nature, the Father rejoices in the beauty and power of His Son. The Son basks in the glory of His Father. The Spirit radiates the goodness and beauty and strength of the Son and the Father. To the Father, the Son is everything. To the Son, the Father is everything. To the Spirit, the Son and the Father are everything. The Father, being the greatest and mightiest of All, raises up His Son and places Him above every other part of Himself.

The Father says:      “I magnify My Word above all My Name.”

There, in the beginning, before time existed, the Father beholds His Son, raised in glory above all of Himself, and suddenly God stops, stunned, unable to believe what He sees. Suddenly, the Father, looking through the Son, catches a glimpse of the most beautiful thing in the entire universe. That’s it. It’s all over for God. God falls head over heels in love.

God sees me, Daniel Yordy. God sees me, _____________________, (put your own name in the blank), and His heart leaps into His throat. He can hardly believe His eyes. Yet there I am, the image of God’s glory, the  reflection of all that God is. There I am, Beauty and Might revealed. God will not rest another moment until He has me as His bride and friend, as His son and companion forever. In that moment time is.

God immediately counseled together with Himself. All the dynamics of God spun in fierce excitement. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit were in full agreement. They all knew they wanted me, that they would do whatever it took, pay any price, bear any cost, suffer any loss, endure any hardship. None of it mattered, each of Them would do the assigned task. God determined in His heart, right from the beginning, that He will win me as His own. And so the Father looked steadfastly at the me He sees from the beginning.
He gazed deeply at all that I am as He sees me in the end. He knows me, every part of me in my completed state. He knows my glory, my beauty, my strength. He looks fully and deeply at me and sees His own Son. He sees
the reflection of Himself in all of His fullness.

The Father motioned, “Are you ready?” “I am ready,” the Son replied. As God opened His mouth to speak, the Son, the Word God speaks, leaped forth to fulfill the determined purpose of God. God CALLED into
existence that awesome creature that bears His image, and in that moment I was conceived in my mother’s womb.
I exist now, because God called what He sees I am into existence.

And here I am, sitting in my chair, reading this book. Here I am, beset by weakness and limitation, sorrow and loss. Here I am, stumbling and falling short of God’s glory, my face so often covered in mud. Here I sit, seeing
myself as weak and fleshy, torn and divided, fully aware of my sin and my shame.

But suddenly, I sit up and take notice. “Could it be? Is it really possible that I am not who I imagine myself to be? Could it be that I am something very different from what I ‘see’ when I look at myself right now?”
I stop, suspended for a moment, and then the question flames in my mind. “If this that I ‘see’ myself to be is not who I am, then, for God’s sake,  WHO AM I?”

And if I have to look at something invisible to see who I really am, if the visible things I see of myself are not telling me the truth, then how on earth do I know who I am? How do I get from here to there? What is my guide?
Where is reality found?

God, from the very beginning, determined that I would be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be, not one solitary person, but the firstborn among many brethren.
And in the moment when God called me, the final me I really am, into existence, He justified me of every shortcoming I would ever know, and He glorified me forever in WHO I AM.

And the secret of who I am is right there, fully in the open, staring me right in the face my whole life.

Who I am is nothing more and nothing less than who Jesus is in me. To know myself, I simply look at Jesus. To know what I do, I simply look at what He does. Whatever He thinks, how He lives, whatever He does, that is what the real me does, that is how I live.

Jesus lives in me!

- Daniel Yordy

Heavy Loads

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you. --I Thessalonians 4:11

“Do not let down and do not stop working; the time is near!” “Are you doing all you can? People are dying, so where is your vision for missions? Get up! Go around the block preaching; there are those in your neighborhood who need saving!” “How can you enjoy your sandwich in the restaurant? Do you not know that sinners surround you?” “You only have so much time; do not waste it on anything but ministry!” Blah . . . blah . . . blah!

Usually we hear such things from someone who is in “full-time ministry” with no other job commitments. In the majority of the places to which I travel, those with whom I minister have full-time jobs and consider all of their activities to be an extension of ministry. “Ministry” must be redefined; it is not constant talking! Saint Francis said that we are to do everything possible to share the message of Jesus Christ, and then if we absolutely have to, say something! That is an overstatement, since the world must see but also must hear. The beauty of our “religion” is that we do not have to get out of the world, like the Buddhist, in order for it to work. It works right where we work! We do not have to move up a priestly ladder climbing toward heavenly work and moving away from earthly work. Our faith has its impact in the everyday tasks. As we live in Him and He lives through us, life’s activities are filled with Him.I Corinthians 10:31, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Paul did not separate our work under the headings of “secular” and “religious”; he combined it with the use of one word, all. “Do all to the glory of God.”Separation of the all that a believer does has led many to feel as though they are second-class believers, who then become dissatisfied with their vocations while looking for “the great Christian someday,” a day when ministry will fulfill them. Considering the list of admonitions at the start of this article, how do any of them apply to the first thirty years of the Savior’s life? He had a Kingdom to start, apostles to train, the whole of mankind to save, and yet for years He continued to work at a carpenter’s bench! In Him we see that the life of heaven and the life of earth can become one in the daily tasks of humanity.I remember succumbing to the teaching that spirituality equals activity. I felt condemned if I were not witnessing to everyone I met, yet the effort was rarely fruitful. I then discovered rest and became motivated to live for the glory of God. I stopped pressing for salvation decisions and began looking for ways to love. Rarely a week goes by that I do not find myself witnessing, but now it is natural, not contrived of my own doing, and it is fruitful. I love Christianity, for there is nothing else like it; it is unique, absolute, and it is the way.

Falling Forward

Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see
the glory of God? John 11:40

Mary and Martha could not not understand what their
Lord was doing. Each of them had said to Him, 'Lord,
if you had been here, my brother would not have died.'
And behind their words we seem to read their true
thoughts: 'Lord, we do not understand why you waited
so long to come or how you could allow the man you
love so much to die. We do not understand how you
could allow such sorrow and suffering to devastate our
lives when you could have stopped it all. Why didn't
you come? But Jesus simply had one great truth in
answer to all of this. He said, in essence, 'You may not
understand, but I am telling you that if you believe you
will see.'

Abraham could not understand why God would ask him
to sacrifice his son, but he trusted Him. Then he saw the
Lord's glory when the son he loved was restored to him.
Moses could not understand why God would require
him to stay forty years in the wilderness, but he also
trusted Him. Then he saw when God called him to lead
Israel from Egyptian bondage.

Joseph could not understand his brothers' cruelty toward
him, the false testimony of a treacherous woman, or the
long years of unjust imprisonment, but he trusted God
and finally he saw His glory in it all. And Joseph's
father, Jacob, could not understand how God's strange
providence could allow Joseph to be taken from him. Yet,
later he saw the Lord's glory when he looked into the
face of his son, who had become the governor for a great
king and the person used to preserve his own life and the
lives of an entire nation.

Perhaps you find yourself asking questions: "I do not
understand why affliction has been granted to strike me.
I do not understand why the Lord has led me down these
twisting paths. I do not understand why my own plans,
which seemed so good, have been so disappointing. I do
not understand why the blessings I so desperately need
are so long in coming."

Dear friend, you do not have to understand all God's
ways of dealing with you. He does not expect you to
understand them. You do not expect your children to
understand everything you do--you simply want them
to trust you. And someday you too will see the glory
of God in the things you do not understand. (J.H.M.)

What I see in this passage is this:
'You may not understand, but I am telling you that if
you believe you will see.' Not the exact words of Jesus,
but very close to what He was saying to Martha. You
see the enemy is constantly telling you that God is
not good to you, but in the stories above you can see
that He does care about you and He is always good.
As we walk through the darkness the Father wants us
to fall forward into His arms.

Independance

And the serpent said to the woman, "You shall surely
not die! For in the day you eat from it your eyes will
be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good
and evil.

(You will be like God. You will be equal with God, but
you might even be better than God. You will know evil.)

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food,
and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree
was desirable to make one wise, she took its fruit and
ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he
ate. Genesis 3:4-6)

(When the woman saw that the tree was desirable to
make one wise, she ate and gave some to Adam who
was standing next to her.

The sin of Adam was not in the eating of the
fruit but that he chose independence from God. Is that
not our biggest problem still; our biggest sin? We make
decisions every day without any thought of what God
has in mind. He wants even more of us in this regard.
He wants us to be that branch in the Vine receiving
continual nourishment and life. He wants us to so be
leaning on Him that if He moved we would fall down!

Adam in the Garden, Jesus on the Cross

  “Adam, where are you?” God’s first words spoken to a wayward Adam.

  “Here am I, I and the children whom You have given Me.” Jesus, during the last three hours on the cross, as expressed in the first part of Hebrews.

  God did not ask Adam “What did you do?” That was not nearly as important as “Where are you?” Adam, of course, continuing in his plummet to the cliff bottom gave the worst possible answer. He found fault with himself and blamed Eve and God for his misery.

- Daniel Yordy

Strive to Enter the Rest

 Yes, there is a labor that I engage in while in the midst of His rest, but that is a labor of agreement with the One who is already doing all things perfectly. I do not walk by what my eyes see or by what my feelings feel. The striving of labor is to keep my eyes on Jesus, and to never, ever look at sin or to see myself as fallen or to see myself as a self separate from Him.

- Daniel Yordy

That we might be filled with all the fullness of God.

  God created man with enormous capacity, but no ability.  God made our humanity weak.  Everything else God created, He created it sufficient in itself, able to do what it is called to do by drawing on what is inside of it. God did not make man that way. God made man weak, with all the capacity to contain God, but none of the ability to fulfill our purpose.
  Our purpose is to be the expression of God, to make God visible, so that God might reach out and touch others through us.
  Part of this process of becoming like Jesus is learning to stretch with God. If God reaches out to touch this dark place here, can we reach with Him in us that He might touch it though us?  When God crushes Satan, can He do it under our feet? You see, God cannot fulfill His purpose without us. God’s purpose is to reveal Himself to creation through us, He cannot do that without us. God’s purpose is to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ.
  Our role is to believe what God says, that God fills us with His power. Our fight is not against our human weakness.  We do not try to “fix” ourselves.  Paul said, I boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
  Consider Moses. Moses thought of himself as a frightened little man. Weak.  God said, “Go down to Egypt, I am with you.” Moses said, “Ah, ah, ah, send someone else, you’ve got the w-w-wrong guy.” And Moses carried on with that until God became angry with him.
  When Moses went to Egypt he didn’t do anything, except one little thing. He didn’t even talk; Aaron did the talking. Moses was a pretty limited fellow. What did Moses do that was so great?
  Moses had a little stick that he could put up in the air and wave back and forth.  He could do that little thing, and that is all he ever did.
  Can we do that? Can we put our little stick in the air and wave it back and forth?  Yes, we can. Moses did the stick thing; God did the rest. Moses raised his stick; God did the stuff. All that happened in Egypt, God did, but He did it when Moses raised his stick.
  Can we raise our stick? You see, it’s not up to our being a great one, to our being strong. No! You and I are weak, that is our glory. We raise the stick; we can do that. We believe what God says, and God does the rest.
  When Jesus said, He that believes in Me, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water, does that mean that we have to be this great healer, capable of miracles? Absolutely not! Jesus said “Believe in Me.” I can do that. I believe in Him; He does the rest. He just wants me to believe that He will move through me.
  The river is not up to me. The river will flow. All I do is believe what He says.  God will give me the simple thing that I am able to do.  And that little thing I am able to do will be different from the little thing you are able to do.

- Daniel Yordy