Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. Ephesians 5:1-2.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלוהים) says:
The more you act like Jesus, the more you will be like Jesus. Imitate Me as My dear children and walk in love, like Jesus, whose life was a sweet aroma to Me. And now you who follow Him and walk in love spread that sweet aroma everywhere.
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 2 Corinthians 2:14-15. Your prayers rise up as incense before Me and your hands lifted up in praise as the evening offering. I am talking of spiritual sacrifice.
And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5.
What was the evening offering? The burnt offering of the unblemished lamb, the unleavened bread, and a hin of wine. All this was fulfilled once for all in My Son and carried forth by you who are in Him. You can lead others to Me by the sweet aroma of your anointing. For as His body on earth you have the same anointing as the Head. And what is that anointing? I anointed Jesus as Messiah, Lord, King, and High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. I anointed Him with the Holy Spirit, who is Melchizedek, and I tell you what that fragrant anointing oil is: the oil of joy. Psalm 45:7; Hebrews 1:9. You cannot but help be filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.
Do you see it takes all Three in One to make you like Me.
Do you remember it was the sweet odor of the burnt offerings of the unblemished animals that Noah made when he came out of the ark that brought forth from Me My promise never again to destroy all mankind of which the rainbow was the sign and seal? Genesis 8:20-21. In that burnt offering I smelled the fragrant life of My Son, for I know the end from the beginning. Isaiah 54:7-10.
That is what tricked Isaac into thinking Jacob was his firstborn, the sweet aroma of the open fields was in the clothes of Esau in which Rebekah clothed Jacob to obtain the blessing of the firstborn and the blessing of Abraham. Do you see? In baptism and the new birth you clothe yourself in Christ and in you I smell the sweet aroma of the sacrifice of My Son making you worthy of the double portion blessing of the firstborn (joint heirs with Jesus who is the firstborn of many brethren), the blessing of Abraham, and the promise of the Spirit by faith in Jesus.
But let Me go back to what I opened with. Jesus imitated Me. He only did what He saw Me do and He only said what He heard Me say.
You conform to what you imitate, and you perform as the one you imitate. This is how people learn skills and progress to expertise. They make preparation by imitation until it becomes their own skill.
How do you imitate Me? You cannot see Me. And that is where the Three in One comes into play in you each and every day.
Who I am you see in the Three in One, that is, you see the various aspects of who I am and particularly who I am to you. You see how I operate and relate to you and all creation.
I am your Father, Creator, sustainer, source, and LORD. I give you life, breath, and being. I protect you, bless you, honor you, and prosper you. Every good thing given and every perfect gift comes down from above from Me, the Father of lights. I watch over you and make all things work together for good when you allow Me into your life by having a heart open to Me in love.
In My Son, you see Me healing, providing, teaching, leading, guiding, correcting, perfecting, loving, forgiving, and, above all, redeeming you by from your sins by His blood. In Him, I make you holy, blameless and without reproach before Me. I have put you in Christ, and made Him to be wisdom for you, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption of your spirit, soul, and body unto resurrection and eternal life.
In the Holy Spirit, you see Me revealing mysteries to you that have been hidden since the foundation of the world. In My Spirit, I give you revelation of My Word, wisdom, guidance to all truth, holiness, love, peace, and joy. By Him I pour My love, that is, My divine nature, into your heart, which, by the regeneration of the new birth from above, I have made into a magnificent temple for My Spirit to live in you and fill you with grace endowments and gifts. My Spirit witnesses with your spirit that you are My child and that your sins and offenses I remember no more. I strengthen you, empower you, help you, counsel you, lead you, advocate for you, give you answers and solutions just when you need them, and reveal My deepest thoughts to you by My Spirit in you and on you.
My Spirit in you and on you lets you discern things as I see them. He gives you knowledge of current things and things to come that you otherwise could not know. He lights your lamp with the anointing oil of joy and raises you up to eternal life.
Knowing who I am, how do you become like Me? How do you do as I direct you, that is, imitate Me as My dear children?
To imitate means to act so exactly like another that you are identified with them as being like them. But I am Spirit and right now your spirit is clothed in flesh. Job felt that because of that I could not understand him and he could not understand Me so that we could relate to each other, so he prayed for a mediator that would know what it was like to be man and know what it was like to be God and put one hand on him and one hand on Me and join the two as one. And I did this in Jesus. He is God with Me and He is man with you in one seamless perfect life. In Him, I have not only given you a kinsman redeemer to redeem you out of the slavery of sin and death, but I have also given you the perfect example of how you in your humanity can be like Me who am Spirit.
I tell you that I want you transformed by being conformed to My Son. How do you become conformed to someone or something?
You become conformed to the world by acting like it, that is, by imitating its morals, its way of speaking, its culture and its ideologies.
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:15-17.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2.
How then do you become conformed to Christ, for I tell you that is My plan for you. Romans 8:29. The same way people conform to the world. You imitate His morals, His ways, His culture (Kingdom culture), His Words, and His teachings. And in seeing Him you see Me. Why? Let Him explain:
Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. John 14:9-11.
He only said My Words and only did the works I showed Him. He was a hearer and a doer. He knew that in My Words was eternal life and He would speak nothing else.
How do you do that? The same way He did. Remember that though He was God with Me, when He became flesh and dwelt among you He emptied Himself of His powers as God and became like you in all things except sin for He was born from above by the imperishable seed of My Word as Adam was originally before he corrupted the seed by submitting himself to lies.
Jesus lived a life of perfect imitation of Me. How can you do that? The same way He did, by being led by the Holy Spirit. And where was the first place the Holy Spirit led Jesus after He descended upon Him from on high and remained in Him at the baptism by John at the Jordan? The Spirit led Him into the wilderness and trained Him how to put the devil under His feet with My Word in His mouth to answer any temptation or attack of evil.
My ways and My thoughts are not yours in the flesh, they are higher. But in Christ, the anointed One and His anointing, I take you higher. In Him you died to sin and in Him you were raised to newness of life, born from above a new creation in Christ. Walk now in that newness of life. Not in malice, but love, Not in strife, but in peace. Not struggling but resting in Me in Jesus by the power of My Spirit within. No cursing should come out of your mouth, only blessing.
Conform your words and ways to Mine. I never curse, I only bless. I never complain, I simply change things by speaking the truth in love with joy. I never speak what I do not want, I tell the good end from the beginning and never change it to a bad end no matter how many go against My plan. It may take longer but it will come to pass if you stay standing and do not retreat. I am not “yes” and “no” about My promises to you, only “yes,” and you can count on that. So you can say it with trust.
And I forgive.
You have a choice every minute of every day and night, you can be thinking thoughts of blessing or cursing, life or death, love or hate, good will or malice, joy or sorrow, peace or agitation, seeing people as blessings or burdens, and your thoughts will determine what you speak—whether you speak words of faith or of fear, words of purpose or idle words. And what you choose for the thoughts and meditations of your heart is who you will become and who you are now. Understand this before you spend your life consumed in negative thoughts about the behavior, character, and looks of others in your life, WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT YOU WILL BECOME LIKE. Do not harbor thoughts of how fat, ugly, mean or hateful another is, instead I tell you to raise your mind off that to where Christ is seated at My right hand, and I am very precise in what you think of and how you get to that point:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:4-9.
Hand everything over to Me in prayer and let Me show you what to do and say. Let Me take care of you and the other person in the very best way for both of you. I never try you beyond your strength but provide you a way out, and you go out with joy and are led forth by peace. You must be like Jesus, who imitated Me, and speak to mountains, storms, problems, and every evil thing to take them down and then hand your restoration over to Me for a good, pleasing, and perfect result. And the more joy, faith, and peace you have the better the result, good (thirtyfold), pleasing (sixtyfold), or perfect (one hundredfold). It is up to you. Thoughts are seeds and so are words. You will eat the fruit of your lips.
Who are you imitating? The evil you see in others or the good you see in Me?
In seeing My Son you see Me and He told you how you know that: by His works.
If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” John 10:37-38.
In seeing My Spirit you see Me. How do you know that? By His works. You know when the Holy Spirit shows up by revelation, inspiration, and the miracles, signs, and wonders you see in yourself and others.
And how do others know you? By your works.
How do you know others? By their works.
You can give lip service, but the works prove what went into your heart.
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Matthew 7:15-20.
I love you. Learn from the Three in One how to be and how to see and you will become just like Me, not My position, role, and divine attributes but in character and purpose. Imitate Me as My dear children and walk in love and you, like Me, will become love. And that is a wonderful way to be. Come share your Father’s joy.