Inside Man
Hebrews 10:22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
Sincere - (def) free from pretense of deceit.
The death of Jesus and the shedding of His blood makes us right with God! We go from being someone on the outside looking in to someone on the inside looking deeper. This change of relationship status allows us a deep walk with God and as the above scripture says we are able to go "right into the presence of God" with sincere hearts that are fully trusting Him. And yet....we sometimes shy away from developing this closer walk with God. Why is that? It could be that we are scared of what it will do to "our" life purpose. Which means we might not be fully committed to following the will of God in our everyday life. Just letting go and letting God is what verse 22 is saying when it says "fully trusting Him"
As a follower of Christ it might insult us for anyone to think we are not "fully" trusting God, especially when we are so convinced that we are totallly sold out to His will and His way. This is where the "reality" of our walk must come into focus. To be honest I lived my faith at arms length and continued to control so much of my life by my own impressions and the impressions of those in authority over me. So confining!! I am shucking off so many of those first impressions of my faith and my perceptions about my faith have changed drastically. Oh I was growing somewhat in those early days but there was so much truth I was missing and that void is being filled on a daily basis now that I am living more in the presence of God. Praise God for the truth of His "living" word and how it is impacting my daily life. I now realize that I am inside that curtain and it is time to live my life out of that intimate relationship Jesus died to give me.
Revelation 3:20 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Boy, that permanent lunch date is one I don't want to miss. To be able to spend time with the maker of the universe in close fellowship is unmatched by anything else we could ever do. So don't try to avoid the wooing of the Holy Spirit to step into a closer walk with God and you will experience a peace that does pass all understanding. To be "friends" of God our heavenly Father and to have this close "daddy" walk with Him is awesome!! Paul wrote to the church at Rome these words in Romans 8:15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” And of course, as it says in the scripture in Hebrews
10 :22, come into His presence with a "sincere" heart. God already knows our heart so the reasons for what we do should be pure in every part of it and that is totally possible by asking the Holy Spirit to purify our heart. By the way, the Holy Spirit WILL purify our heart and show us where things are not right. He convicts and "goes deep" to make us see our failings and draws us back to center.
All of this process only comes when we pursue a deeper walk with God and enter His presence with a sincere heart of worship. All of this is possible by the blood of Jesus! We go from being on the outside looking in to being on the inside looking deeper, and oh how deep that depth is.
The Pilgrimage continues.....
David Warren