The Daily Word of Righteousness

It Is Time To Move Forward, #13

Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. (Hosea 6:1—NIV)

As we press past Pentecost, seeking God with sincerity, we may find we are being made uncomfortable as various elements of our personality are coming up for examination. We do not realize it but before we can gain the peace of God's rest we must first be wounded, so to speak. God is angry with us for a season as our idols are addressed by the Lord. But such anger works for our good, because if we continue in prayer we eventually are blessed with the coming of the Father and the Son to make Their eternal abode in us.

We can't really know the Lord to the degree we hope for until we endure the process of tearing and healing; of experiencing the Lord's anger and then being comforted by Him.

In that day you will say: "I will praise you, O LORD. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me." (Isaiah 12:1—NIV)

The next verse in the third chapter of the Book of Revelation tells us that if we emerge from the struggle victoriously we will sit with Christ in His throne. This is the throne of our heart.

To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. (Revelation 3:21—NIV)

When our heart becomes the Throne of God and of the Lamb, the eternal Life of the Holy Spirit will flow out from our innermost being and bring life to the saved peoples of the earth.

So we see we are moving forward from the twenty-third Psalm to the twenty-fourth Psalm. Yet the blessings of the twenty-third Psalm shall always follow us.

But now we are to think about our great inheritance as a coheir of the Lord Jesus.

The good land lies before us. Let us not be like unbelieving Israel and refuse to follow God to total victory. Let us have the spirit of Caleb who cried out, "Give me this mountain."

God is pleased when we overcome our doubts and fears and press forward into all He has promised.

Let each one of us be counted among those who please God by pressing forward until we lay hold on every particle of that for which we have been laid hold of by the Lord.

The LORD your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you. But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed. (Deuteronomy 7:22,23—NIV)

"Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said." (Joshua 14:12—NIV)

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (Philippians 3:12—NIV) (from It Is Time To Move Forward)