Good afternoon to my Facebook Family! It is on my mind today, the word “Abound”. It just seems that I have been hearing that word over and over during these last few days. And today, as I prepared my dinner to take to work, I heard it several times in the sermons I have listened to, ABOUND, ABOUND, ABOUND. I then sat down to read my daily devotional and there it is again! The 103rd Psalm, “the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy”. My KJV does not use abound here, but the meaning here is the same and it does use abound in so many other places. I stopped and began to look at this word. I was led to Romans 15:13, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” I looked this word up in the Greek and its “Perisseuo” and it means- to exceed a fixed number of measure, to be left over and above a certain number or measure, to be over, to remain, to exist or be at hand in abundance, to be great (abundant), a thing which comes in abundance, or overflows unto one. Romans 5:20 talks about where sin abounded, Grace abounded much moreso. I got to thinking, there are so many things that we allow, by way of conscience choice, into our lives that permits our own sin to abound, our disobedience to the Lord to abound. I believe, because I am one who was wholeheartedly and am still mildly while convicted to change, there are people who believe that there is nothing that we can do about all the sinful, negative, unhealthy influences that abound in our presence, on our job, in our society, in our home. I believe that there are people who do not care not only about these things but about the condition of their soul, IF they believe they have a soul at all. I would ask that you reconsider, but nevertheless, I do speak to those who are concerned. As a people we have to be in the world where satan and all his confusion and influence abounds. That is why the bible talks about wearing armor, it talks about the bible as weapon for your use against the abundance of darkness. It is not a condition that YOU need to abound in. It is not that you are forced to be OF the world. It is that this has become such a condition of your soul that if you would allow the mercy of God to abound, if you allowed the grace of God to abound, if you would make it so your obedience to God would abound you would miss the worldliness. You would miss the dark music, or TV, or entertainment. If you read, 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” you believe that you would have to change so much that it is painful to even think about. As a parent, if we are to change the spiritual condition of the home so that we are abounding in the work of the Lord, we look at the crushed faces of our children who are now used to being in and of the world. We say that I am forced to keep the music, I am forced to let them watch the TV, I am forced to allow them to keep the friends that lead them down a road to utter darkness, I am forced to buy them the supplies, the clothes, the luxuries of life that serve no purpose in the plans of our Lord. But the truth my brothers and sisters is that our obedience to God does not abound in us because if it did we would know that although we were never told that being obedient would be easy, we were told that God’s grace and mercy and love for us wound abound if we are abounding in him. 2 Peter 1:8 "For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Listen, we are to be separate, and different. And yes, satan is the conman that is trying to convince you that you can serve two masters, you can call yourself a Christian and follow none of God’s expectation. He wants you to believe that you can call yourself a Christian and follow only half of God’s expectations. He wants you to believe that you can call yourself a Christian and follow all of God’s expectations except one. Romans 6:1- “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” God knows that satan will try to deceive you that you can do both, but you cannot. And this very verse should scream truth into your heart, it should stamp the will of God into you heart that it is to your peril if you believe this misleading whisper of satan. You cannot serve two masters! James 4:4 “know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” We are saved by the grace of God; we have faith in our hearts that God is real, his plan of salvation is real, His rewards for our obedience in heaven are real. Have you then the faith that his expectation of our obedience to his will, not our will, but obedience to his will is real. We cannot put our conditions on this relationship, we cannot dictate to God the nature of the rules of this game. I ask, does God abound in you? And most importantly, are you Abounding in God? I pray that this message reaches your heart, and convicts you as the Lord sees fit. Let the divine peace of God Abounds with you today. Yours in Christ, Brother Mike
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 18:20:02 +0000