The Advent Part 62
God never asks us for anything unless He has first given it to us. He instructs us to walk the path of life, to live the ways of life, and to pursue the source of life only after first revealing them to us through the Holy Spirit, and through the Word of His truth.
‘You have made known to me the ways of life.’
The ways of life are not a mystery, they are not a secret, they are not shrouded in fog and mist, God has made known to us the ways of life, and it is incumbent upon us to pursue them. We can begin knowing the ways of life, only after we have distanced and removed ourselves from the ways of death. Sin is death, and as long as we continue living in sin we cannot truly know or walk the ways of life.
There is no joy in the ways of death, only fleeting and momentary pleasures that leave a bitter aftertaste, which carry with themselves countless consequences and aftereffects. Sin is always made to look inviting, sin is always made to look attractive, sin is always made to look tempting, because if sin would present itself in its true form, we would see the mask of death, we would see the tears of regret, we would see the bitter fruit that it produces and we would stay far away from it. The enemy knows how to promote death in such a way that it attracts millions and millions of souls, injecting small amounts of pleasure into an otherwise dismal existence, just enough to keep the individual chained and bound.
The reality of sin that the enemy desires to keep hidden from the masses is that sin is a passing and temporary pleasure. As we are reminded in Hebrews, the saints of old such as Moses, chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for they looked to the reward.
God is the wellspring of life, and truth in all its forms is the way of life. If we are obedient to the truth, we walk the ways of life which God has made known to us.
John 17:15-17, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
By sending His Son, God has made known to us the ways of truth, and through Christ Jesus we have received both grace and hope. We cannot minimize the scope of what Jesus did, nor the paramount importance of Christ in the work of salvation, because doing so would mean denying the Word of God, as well as the words of Christ while He walked the earth. There are no gray areas when it comes to faith in Christ, we either walk the way of truth, or the way of deception, the way of life or the way of death.
Even the enemies of Christ acknowledged, if grudgingly so, that He lived a perfect life. He is the prototype for us as believers, the life which we ought to aspire to, and the life that we can live if we are wholly committed to Him. Living our lives in holiness and righteousness as Christ did is not an impossibility, because if it were God would not have called us to these things. God will not ask us to do the impossible just to see us try and fail, when He says ‘be holy’ then we must realize and know that holiness is attainable.
Among the many ways in which this present life can be defined or understood, we can also define it as the science of the knowledge of the ways of God. In this prophetic psalm, it is the Son, it is Christ who speaking to the Father says, ‘You have made known to me the ways of life.’
Even the Son of God deferred to the Father, not taking it upon Himself to know the ways of life, but following that which the Father revealed and made known to Him. Too often we take it upon ourselves to blaze our own trail, forge our own path, and make our own way without realizing that if the way we are walking is not the way that God has made known to us, then it is a way or a path of our own making that will lead to nowhere good.
God has made known the ways of life to us, and it is God’s guidance that we must follow, His path that we must walk, and not paths and ways of our own making.
Jesus remained in unceasing fellowship with the Father throughout His ministry here on earth, He was always in the Father’s presence, always doing the Father’s will and this was evident in all that He did.
If we desire to have lives of victory as Christ did, if we desire to see miracles and experience the power of the Holy Spirit in its full measure, then we must likewise remain in unceasing fellowship with Jesus, always in His presence, always being about the work of the kingdom.
He has made known the ways of life to us, and as such we have no excuse. We cannot claim ignorance, nor can we claim lack of knowledge, because the ways of life were not kept from us, but rather they were revealed to us through the life, work, death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.
After His ascension, we were also given the Helper, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit who came with power and with authority, and whose presence would remain with us, as Jesus said, until the end of time. God has done all, that we might be full of joy in His presence, He has done all that we might know the ways of life, and if we are humble, and teachable, and wise, we will know the fullness of all that He has for us.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
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