“My presence shall go with you and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14.
“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3.
Indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:19-22.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Never let your struggle become your identity. It might be what you are going through but it is not who you are. I have made you a new creation in Christ and the old man is gone, you are new. And now you died with Him to the old man of sin and were raised with Him and seated with Him in Heaven justified and glorified.
Keep running. You have not reached the finish line yet, but I can get you there. Do you believe that? Nothing is too hard for Me, nothing is impossible for Me, and all things are possible for you when you believe that.
When you come in by the Blood, I see you through the Blood and you come in holy, blameless, and beyond reproach. Now you can enter My Most Holy Place, the very Holy of Holies, with confidence by the Blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for you through the curtain, that is, His body, and since you have a great high priest over My house, you can draw near to Me with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having your hearts sprinkled to cleanse you from a guilty conscience and having your bodies washed with pure water, the washing with the water of the Word. Hebrews 10:19-22. The Blood and My Word make you clean and pure, spotless, blameless, and holy. I have sanctified you in truth, and My Word is truth. John 17:17.
I created you for fellowship, redeemed you for fellowship, and raised you up with Jesus to bring you right to My throne now and forever in fellowship. I have called you to fellowship in Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 1:9. So that you would walk in a manner worthy of Me, your Father who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. 1 Thessalonians 2:12.
If you are after YOURSELF and feeling that you cannot have full fellowship with Me for not “doing” enough for Me you are not looking at Me (and My manifested love for you in the Blood of Jesus) but at YOURSELF. You are living on the surface and walking in the flesh and not the spirit and the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. And living on the surface and not down to the deep—to the core. But My thoughts are deep and can only be drawn out by My Spirit in your spirit and revealed to you in fellowship in the deep stillness of your heart. In the outer court of the temple there was nose and bustle but in the Holy of Holies, the innermost place of the sanctuary, all was still. It was the place of revelation and impartation, it was the place of fellowship where man and God met in an encounter over the mercy seat, the propitiatory. I told Moses I would meet WITH him there. Exodus 25:22. I spoke with him. Exodus 33:9. And the Holy of Holies was not a place of worldly distraction. It was not a place of “doing” outside activities but a place of “being,” a place of deep focused fellowship.
You will notice that when Moses was in My presence there was an exchange of conversation and deep friendship. I called him My friend. His “doing” (works) came from his communication with Me. And then his “doing” became meaningful because I was WITH him both to will and to do in him and with him as he walked it out and manifested My power through his arm and his own voice, so that it became uniquely his in a way that no other would have manifested it quite the same way. The same was true for Joshua, Gideon, David, Elizabeth, Mary, Paul, and myriads of others. Jesus Himself said He did nothing on His own but only the works I showed Him and accomplished in Him and He did not speak from His own initiative but from the Words I revealed to Him. And everyone who did that became a champion and a hero, doing extraordinary works of excellence. You will note the same was true with Daniel, he spent more time in fellowship with Me and asking Me questions than anything else but he accomplished more in a few hours in his outside activities for the empires for whom he was advisor and in high government positions than others accomplish in a lifetime of personal and self-focused endeavors, even if they are “working for Me.” But it is something like Martha, she was so anxious and busy to prepare a meal worthy of My Son that she lost sight of the one thing necessary to give her the direction of what activities to actually undertake.
That is ministry, to do things with Me and not just “for” Me.
I explained to Moses when I said, “My presence shall go with you and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14. Working for Me should be from resting in Me, not stressing for Me. In other words, from a place of fellowship and partnership. I told Joshua, “Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9.
When Gideon questioned his own ability to do the amazing assignment I gave him (and I gave him this assignment to answer his prayer), I simply told him that “Surely, I will be with you.” Judges 6:16. And that should have been enough to relieve his fears. But even though he called out to Me in a rather demanding way, he had no fellowship with Me to base the relationship upon so at first he had no trust.
Moses told Me in the journey to the promised land across the wilderness that he would not go forward unless I promised that My presence would be with him and the Israelites, and then he said to Me, “Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people.” Exodus 33:12-13. Notice, in fellowship you learn My ways, which are love and truth. And I assured him My presence would go with him and I would give him rest. Exodus 33:14. But what was the reason? I told Moses, and I tell you, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” Exodus 33:17. This sums up fellowship. I call you each by name, you are Mine, and I love you, but one-sided love is not fellowship. Both must know the other’s name, so to speak. You know the names of your friends and you recognize their voices when they call and when they speak to you before you see them. I knew Moses’ name on a personal friendly basis. Do you remember what Jesus told you? “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’” Matthew 7:22-23. In other words, they were basing their relationship with Me on “doing” things for Me but nothing that was My Will, which they could only know in fellowship with Me. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” Matthew 7:22. Please also note from the reply those who do not fellowship with Me and know My ways are often practicing lawlessness, i.e., not walking in love but in unforgiveness and bitterness, selfish ambition, self-glorification, and strife. Paul gave this advice to Timothy: “Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.” 2 Timothy 2:20-21. And how do you do that? In fellowship with Me. Jesus told His disciples they were clean already because of the Word He had spoken to them which they had received. John 15:3. And then He told them that by abiding in Him (fellowship), as a branch in a vine, they would bear much fruit. John 15:5. Close fellowship with Me leads to the fruit of good works as you rest in that fellowship and draw from Me as the source of the fellowship in you.
When you know what the Blood has done for you, and you receive with meekness the engrafted Word, it is like a bone marrow transplant. You get new blood, a new identity, and a new outlook. Heavenly. In process with My Word and the Blood of Jesus you will change from the depressed, weak, fearful, anxious sinner you once were into a new glorious existence as My implanted Word saves your soul—changes your mind, will and emotions.
In My love you find ALL. Every good thing and every perfect gift comes down from Me, your father of lights, and you are all lights, you are lit with the light of the world.
I so loved, so greatly and completely loved, that I gave My Son so that all who believe in Him will never perish but will have eternal life. You will not be judged, because He was judged and punished in your place. And in Him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and all My magnificent promises are “yes” to you in Him.
Jeremiah wrote what He heard from Me, “The LORD appeared from afar: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.” Jeremiah 31:3. The word translated there as “lovingkindness” is the Hebrew word “chesed.” It is a term that refers to My love—pure, gracious, unselfish, unconditional, tender, merciful, all-consuming, and compassionate love. You could translate it as “grace” but also as agape in Greek.
I appear with everlasting love. I draw you to Me. You were lost in your sins and the hardness of your hearts, involved in maliciousness and evil, BUT when My kindness and love for mankind appeared (in the flesh in Jesus), I saved you and I made you My heirs, joint heirs with Christ. Being justified by grace, I have drawn you into one with Me in Christ. Titus 3:4-5.
To reconcile you with Me, I had to make you new. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from Me, for I was in Christ reconciling the world to Myself, not counting your trespasses against you. I made Him who knew no sin to be sin on your behalf, so that you might become the righteousness of God in Him. Through Him then, continually offer up a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices I am pleased. Hebrews 13:15-16.
I love you. Your calling is to fellowship closely with Me. My part is do give you the assignments of excellence, the skill to do them, and to equip you with all you need to do every good work to accomplish the particular Kingdom assignment that I have prepared to fit the desires of your heart. Hebrews 13:20-21. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” Revelation 3:20-21. Fellowship makes for partnership. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3. True “doing” comes from true “knowing.”