Honor Jesus in Your Heart
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Christ is in you if you are zealous for peace and for doing what is good, in the eyes of the LORD.
To be zealous and eagerly desire and be committed to what is good, and not evil, peace, not war or dissension, is to honor Jesus in one’s heart.
Fear has no hold on the believer who withdraws from the world and draws together with the Spirit. To withdraw from the world’s ways is to honor, to sanctify, with the Spirit and the Lord Jesus. Those who continue to do good and pursue peace, during evil times, even though they may suffer, are sanctified with Christ, blessed in the Spirit.
So then...What is the reason for your hope in Christ? Peace? Joy? Love? Why do you and I pursue Jesus?
Peter is writing to believers, mostly Gentile believers, who are experiencing their world on fire. They have sought peace with God, answered the call of faith in Jesus, God’s son, the Messiah, the “Prince of Peace”, and are now beginning to experience persecution by the Ceasar cult and it’s Roman citizens. New kings, kingdoms and ways of thinking are not welcomed in established kingdoms.
The world is under the rule of Satan, allowed by God, for a fulfilled prophetic time. But Satan’s rule over this world will be finally overthrown by the return of Jesus at His prophetic second coming. Jesus’ disciples, His friends, take an active part in overthrowing Satan’s rule by turning away from evil, pursuing peace and doing what is good in the Lord’s eyes.
The zealous pursuit of peace and doing good, brings the Lord to be king of our hearts, following the guidance of the Spirit, the power of God, in our lives. This pursuit of peace “with everyone” and zealousness to do good will lead to people questioning who you are and why you do what you do. People will want to know why do good when everything is falling apart? Why pursue peace when people are cursing you our and blaming you for the problems the world is facing.
People will want to know why do good and pursue peace? What hope is in doing these two things. People will fear death, joblessness, insecurity their neighbors even disease and rumours of wars. People will be pited against one another, but the Christian committed to peace and goodness will promote and seek reconciliation and even accept suffering instead of doing evil.
Just as Christ endured suffering for the sins and wrongdoing of others, Jesus’ friends sill endure the same…willingly for the chance to share the hope of Jesus’ saving love with the lost. Accusations and lies will be cast upon our testimonies of Jesus, but the actions of the disciple of Jesus will vindicate our hope.
So am I willing to suffer for pursuing peace and doing good as this is the way to allow Jesus to rule my heart, establish His kingdom and overthrow the shackles of this king and the present kingdom?
1 Peter 3:18 (HCSB)
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God, after being put to death in the fleshly realm but made alive in the spiritual realm.
Am I honoring Jesus in my heart?
The Apostle Peter poses this question to us: “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2 Peter 3:11-12)?
Since this world is going to be set on fire and dissolved (2 Peter 3:12), everything will be lost and destroyed, what loss is there in living for Jesus, good and peace, even if it costs you everything?
And who will harm you if you are deeply committed to what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear or be disturbed, but honor the Messiah as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
However, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are accused, those who denounce your Christian life will be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God, after being put to death in the fleshly realm but made alive in the spiritual realm.
What is the reason for your hope in Christ?
Honor the Lord as Messiah in your hearts.
Fear results when we do not honor the Lord as Messiah in our hearts.
Heart - the seat of the desires, feelings, affections, passions and impulses.
The “pure in heart” are those who have allowed Jesus to become Lord of the Seat of the Heart.
Our center of life has been made pure by Jesus.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
When I am troubled in my heart, the seat of my life, Jesus has been dislodged from Lord over my desires, feeling, affections, passions and impulses.
When I allow my mind to wander to worry, Jesus is replaced by anxiety.
Jesus commands us to take all thoughts captive? Why? Because thoughts can be given the power to free us or bind us.
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
How does one destroy a stronghold, or a fortress, over desires, feelings, affections, passions and impulses? By God’s power, His Holy Spirit, and obeying His leading.
For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.
For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more
Strongholds are destroyed by living in the power of God…the Holy Spirit, given to us, to lead us, upon the ascension of our Lord Jesus.
This power, the Holy Spirit, enabled the Lord Jesus to live, follow, and obey the Father’s will and do the Father’s work and destroy strongholds that man is susceptible to.
Do I know this power? Do I know this person? Do I know God in this way?
Does the Lord Jesus rule the Seat of your Heart? Desires, feeling, affections, passions and impulses?
If Jesus does not yet rule the Seat of your Heart, how can you be ready to defend your hope in Him? Does my hope in Him actually exist? To a point?
Am I a follower of Jesus or just a fan? Followers have Jesus ruling on the Seat of their Hearts, not fans.
Jesus rules through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Have I embraced, come alive to the power of the Holy Spirit within me?
The Holy Spirit is the actually living Hope, Jesus, God within me…the power of God as the Apostle Paul says.
The difference between being a mere fan of Jesus and a follower of Jesus is being awaken to and following the power of God, the Holy Spirit within you.
I pray that He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power in the inner man through His Spirit, and that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us— to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
The Power of God works in us! The Holy Spirit! Are you aware of Him? Are you in communication with Him? Do you hear Him speak?
If I am struggling with the strongholds of sin in my life, there is a good possibility that I am distant from the power of God in my life…the Holy Spirit. HIs power makes us pure! His power makes us strong! His person makes it so that Jesus dwells on the seat of life, our hearts.
Is Jesus ruling on the seat of my life? If not, it is likely that I am not walking in the power of the Spirit of God in my life. If He is not ruling, it is likely the love of God is not as powerfully present in my life, nor displayed, nor understood.
Do I understand, really understand the length, width, height and depth of God’s love for me? For humanity? Likely not, if the Holy Spirit does not have my attention in my living. The kind of love that Jesus calls us to does not make sense outside of the ruling of the Holy Spirit in my heart.
There is no way I can possibly love my enemy -pray for them, feed them, cloth them, have compassion on them without hearing and obeying the Holy Spirit.
There is no way I can have compassion on my brother or sister and bless them, without listening to the Holy Spirit and obeying.
I have been the receipient and giver of blessings only because of the movement of the Holy Spirit and obedience.
Strongholds only come down by the power of the Holy Spirit and one’s obedience to His voice and promptings.
So then, how can I share a ready defence of the hope I have in Christ, unless I am walking in the power of the Spirit? Without walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, I have no understanding of the depth of God’s love for me, Jesus’ death for me and the Spirit’s work in me. Without this understanding, I will have no hope, no defence and no reasons to give for the hope I think I have in Christ. I either believe and follow or do not…there is no such thing as maybe. Faith is a yes or no fact.
To be zealous for good and peace, is to have Christ at the center of your heart, feeding your hope, and the reason for your faith. Strongholds fall as the Jesus ascends your throne room of the heart and I follow the Spirit’s leading. A disciple of Christ believes this world is not the prize. The world to come, the kingdom to come, under the Lordship of King Jesus, is the prize, the goal.
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
To keep Jesus on the throne of your heart is to remain faithful to the Lamb in dealing with evil and with power in His ways; especially in patiently enduring pain and suffering at the hands of others.
A ready defence of my hope in Christ is evidence of following the Spirit of God. Even though persecuted and accused, I will choose to live for good, peace and the love of God. I will follow Jesus’ example, even though it cost me everything. This is the disciples example. This is the king we follow. Jesus be praised and glorified in my life. Amen.