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Godrest and Godspeed,
David Baroni
Here is a link to a video of the song “Within the Heart of God” recorded in Kuwait. I hope it is a blessing to you! It starts with a spontaneous instrumental.
““If you could see you how I see you says the Lord, it would free you to be you. Then you would know me for I will show you Who I Am and who you are.”
Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Hebrews 4:11 (KJV)
A preacher friend of mine said years ago: “Where you find a paradox, you find God.” Some famous paradoxes are in the words of Jesus- “when you lose your life for My sake then you will find it,” and “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit.”
Jesus was asked by the people “what shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?”
He replied (and I can just see some of them getting their quills ready to write it down in numbered list form) “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” What a letdown for the listmaking human “do-ers!”
Imagine yourself in a canoe floating down a stream that is flowing in the direction you want to go.
All you have to do is sit in the canoe for awhile, admiring the scenery, waving at the fellow boaters, delighting in the sight of a fish leaping gleefully in front of you. You smell the sweetness from the fragrant trees on the shore. Perhaps you are enjoying a cool drink and a bite to eat. The current and the boat cooperate marvelously to facilitate this journey. You are resting, yet still making good progress toward your destination.
How foolish it would be to suddenly grab a paddle and begin to over-exert yourself with stroking, thinking that it takes your effort to complete the journey.
Welcome to the world of the Believer who is (unwittingly) serving God in his (her) own strength.
As author Major Ian Thomas says in his wonderful book, The Saving Life of Christ: “Serving God in our own strength is like someone giving us a fine automobile, and we receive the gift thankfully, then proceed to get behind it and push it where we want to go!. We are sincere, we are going in the right direction, and we are… exhausted!” Why? Because the automobile was never designed to operate properly by being pushed!
And we were not created to live the “Christian life” in our own strength. As the Apostle Paul said: “I live, nevertheless not I, but Christ Who lives in me!”
Many times we grasp in prayer, asking for what we have already received. Sometimes we respond in a knee-jerk way to a need, instead of following the example of Jesus Who only did what He saw the Father doing. Even Christ did not minister out of His own strength!
Often I find myself striving, living in my own power. What is the answer? To put the paddle down, reach for a drink of Living Water and by faith appropriate- “put on” the Life of Christ. He is our Life! He is our Strength. Christ in us is the hope of glory!
Godrest and Godspeed!
David Baroni
Where do believers in Christ go when they die? Why, heaven of course. Of all the beliefs that could (and do) divide people, this is not one of them.
This writing borrows a lot from Pastor Bill Johnson at Bethel Church in Redding CA. There is a biblical passage, John 3:13 in which Jesus states: “No one has ascended to heaven but He who descended: The Son of Man who is in heaven.” (emphasis mine)
Some translations leave off the last four words. That is unfortunate, for in those four words: “…who is in heaven,” there is a wonderful, empowering truth for those who have ears to hear.
Jesus was standing on terra firma, solid ground, fully present in the physical realm when He declared that the Son of Man…”is in heaven.” What could He possibly have meant by that statement?
Let’s go back to my first question. Where do we go when we die? When we die physically, we go to heaven. But what about before then? In Romans 6:4 the Word says: “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” We, through faith, died in Him and are raised in Him to new life. If He, Jesus, said He was in heaven while He walked on earth, and if we are in Him, then we too are, by faith, already in heaven!
Paul in Ephesians tells us that we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
If that be true (and I believe that the Word of God is true), how shall we then live?
From heaven!
Again to paraphrase Bill Johnson: “Because we are born again and our old nature was crucified with Christ and we’re raised into newness of life we have constant legal access to heavenly realms… the realm where faith is normal. We, by grace have influence upon humanity through yielded vessels that is significant beyond all human talent and human ability.”
Again, one of my favorite passages in Romans talks about the entire creation groaning and travailing together in pain waiting for… the manifestation of the sons of God! We are more than we’ve imagined through Jesus Christ!
I hasten to add that being “in heaven” and on earth at the same time does not exempt us from the limitations of our physical body. Jesus Himself got hungry and thirsty and tired. But He operated in the realm of faith, in the realm of the Spirit. He saw the invisible, heard the inaudible and did the impossible- yet not Him but His Father in Him did the works! His meat (sustenance, agenda, passion, motivating force) was to do the will of His Father Who sent Him and to finish His work. We receive the peace that transcends the natural by merely, and profoundly, receiving and appropriating by faith His Very Life!!
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away- behold, all is become new!” In Him we have…
Godrest and Godspeed!
David Baroni
Rita, my wife, is a wonderful, beautiful, courageous woman. She has been an inspiration to me, her children and so many people that she has known through the years.
She shares her powerful, humorous, heart-touching story in her first book- the recently released “Fragrance of Grace”.
I want to make the readers of my blog, visitors to my web-site (www.davidbaroni.com) and my Facebook and Myspace friends aware of this book release. Even if Rita wasn’t my wife and best friend, I would highly recommend this book to you.
You can order it at www.davidbaroni.com/store – it is also available as an e-book download.
Prepare to laugh and cry and celebrate with Rita as she shares from her heart. I think you will love reading “Fragrance of Grace”
Godrest and Godspeed,
David Baroni
