The Bible says you cannot serve two masters; you will love one and hate the other. Ask yourself, “Who do I love? Whose reign do I want to live under?” Because whoever’s reign you want to live under, that is the life you will reflect. People who live in different countries can meet us and know we are Americans. We demonstrate the life of an American. Other countries may hate us because we are free, or feel as though we are privileged, self-righteous, or rude. Regardless, when people interact with us, they can discern that we are Americans.
Consider this for a moment: When someone meets you, are they going to know Whose you are? Remember the song, “They Will Know we are Christians by our Love”? Are we living under the reign of Christ enough that our life demonstrates love, kindness, patience, understanding, joy, peace, and longsuffering? The fruits of the Spirit, the beatitudes, these should just ooze out of us, not just when we are together, on a phone line, or in a gathering. It should ooze out of us all the time because He is reigning in our lives.
My son’s professor told him that all students must do work studies. However, if they were to indicate that they’ve worked or volunteered for a religious organization, a potential employer could see them as confrontational, even contentious. The world is trying to label religious organizations as “confrontational and contentious, and affiliating with such an agency could affect your ability to gain employment later in life.” That is the message they are teaching in the universities across the country. So, it is up to us to prove them wrong! It is up to us to demonstrate people who are known by their love and who reflect the life of Christ, people walking under the reign of grace.
When we submit to Him in that work, He purifies and cleanses us. The result comes forth at times when we are faced with pressures and the first One we turn to is the One who rules and reigns in our life. Regardless of where we are, we are to demonstrate who Christ is and allow His deep love for us to pour out of us and into others.
Christ did not judge us, He covered us with His grace. The only ones He really came against were the hyper-religious people, those who were defiling the temple and those who were dictating and controlling people with their religion. The other 99% of what He did was to bring healing to the people, to heal their bodies, to heal their hearts, to heal their spirits. Jesus brought healing to who they were and demonstrated the love of God.
Who is ruling and reigning in your life? If you are to live the life He has created for you, if you are going to find the passion He put within you, if you are going to stop putting boundaries on what He will do for you, through you, and with you, He must reign in every area of your life. We must understand His grace. Our reflex must be to bow the knee to Him and Him alone. When we are hurt, our reflex must be to run to His bosom. When we are concerned, when we are afraid, our first reflex must be to run to Him because that is what demonstrates that He reigns in our lives. We are saved by grace, but what we do shows who reigns in our life.
Several months ago the Lord really started impressing upon me, “Know no bounds.” He told me to stop putting Him in the confines of my mind, my flesh, my heart, my understanding, my perceptions and so on. I was to stop putting limits on myself. I was to learn to “Know no Bounds.”
One day, our staff member, Don, shared with me this report about a missionary family:
A couple and their three children went to Indonesia and Japan. Don and Lin were getting messages from this family while they were traveling around these two countries. The father operates in a healing ministry and he and his wife have 9-year-old twin girls and a little boy who is 6, and they already had taught the kids how to pray.
At one point they indicated to Don that they’d missed their translator. They had pre-arranged to meet at a certain place but the translator was not there, so they left the airport (or train station) with a cabby who spoke a little bit of English. They asked him to take them to the people; they wanted to go to the neighborhoods where the people were.
The cabbie took them into the streets and they started asking, “Who is sick? Who needs healing?” Since no one understood them, they used their phones (Google translator) to figure out the words in the local vernacular. They then began praying for people and people were getting healed! Pretty soon they had a crowd of 50, and then a crowd of 100, and God moved! This process was so successful, they replicated that model at several other little stops.
During this time, a man who spoke fluent English saw what was going on and said, “Let me take you to another island.” Now this was a stranger in a strange land, but they took a step of faith and felt God’s peace. In the end, they learned this man had some church connections and so he began to interpret for them over the next week or ten days. Later, they had to move on and because he was unable to go on with them to the next island, they used the phone again to communicate with the people.
They had their children pray for certain kinds of illnesses and the mom and dad would pray for the other illnesses. It was a very successful trip, so much so that they want to go back to build some infrastructure there because they feel that with those who were healed, they now have the foundation of new church plant. They led these people to the Lord, but healing was the flag.
This family has found their passion and they are using it for Christ. They took the boundaries off of God rather than turning away when their translator didn’t show and with the help of their phone, they were able to lead people to Jesus and get them healed. Why? Because they did not consider lack of understanding as a boundary. They pressed through to the passion God imparted into their lives and birthed a mission, rather than allowing the enemy to box them in.
Each step we take toward the passion God places within us is another opportunity for God to expose the fullness of what He’s called us to do. They learned what it meant to let Christ reign in their daily life, and in their ministry. When people met them, they knew Who reigned in their lives.
I want to encourage you, if that story has pricked your heart, let God speak into it and help you, because your place in the Kingdom is essential. You will fulfill the call of God on your life when you understand not only His passion for you, but the passion He has put within you.
Closing prayer:
Heavenly Father, I want to thank You for Your Word. I want to thank You for the purification of Your Word. I want to thank You for the depth of Your Word and what it does in us, what it reveals to us about ourselves and about You. Your Word exposes what is deep inside of us. It ignites what You have placed in us. It cleanses away the contaminates of the world and allows us to become vessels, prepared to be used by You. Give us the grace, Lord, to allow Your Word to continue to do its work. To cause us to grow in You. To be fearless about the passion You have placed in our lives, in our hearts and to step outside the bounds, the restrictions that we’ve have placed on ourselves or that man has placed on us and follow hard after You! In Your precious Name, Amen!
Blessings & Love,
Ricci Wilson
