Tag: Covenant

Oneness, Intimacy, and Covenant (Sunday Devotion)

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Sunday Morning Devotion: God is the Source we are the conduits. Let’s talk about oneness with God, intimacy, and marriage (oneness with another). 

If you want me to talk your ear off, ask about intimacy with God. It is my greatest pursuit; I ask Him questions/ search His Word for greater revelation. I am still learning and on this journey with Him. I hope you join me. I hope this post blesses you. 

God invites each person into personal relationship with Him. The invitation is personal, it is a 24/7 lifetime covenant relationship. It is the strongest covenant (commitment) a person can enter into (see Hebrews 8-9 for the new covenant info). 

God does not come simply for weekend visitations. He comes for a habitation-an indwelling of His Spirit. He comes to take up residence. He knocks on the door of our hearts saying, “I want to live here with you, abide in you, and you in Me.” He wants to be one with us. 

How on earth is God one with us? What is this oneness? Well, let’s start off talking about what it is not.

1. We Do Not Become the Other Person

Marriage is a good example of this. Husband and wife are to become one. This does not mean they become the other person (though some twist (pervert) it that way). They do not become conjoined twins who can not function without the other. They do not share a brain or body parts. They are still two individuals with their own likes, brains, dislikes, free wills, and personalities. God is not asking them to morph into the same person. 

God unites two people so they can agape love (unconditional, sacrificial, unselfish love), have a higher level of intimacy (knowing and being known), and so the blessings of each one can flow into the other. They connect deeply and like a conduit there is a flow back and forth. It is intended for mutual blessing, love. 

Spiritually and in the soul they connect through covenant and physical intimacy on a level that goes beyond just friends. Their bodies, souls, and spirits connect. Hence sex being so powerful. You are saying, “Whatever is in your soul or spirit, I invite it into me. Let’s be one, joined together.” 

In the spirit and soul realm, husband and wife are connected (This happens with all other sexual relationships too (1 Corinthians 6:16)). They are not the same person. That’s why when spouses die, or cheat, or are involved in pornography/immorality…one spouse may feel it. 

In death or divorce/breakup spouses may feel a part of them died. Why? They were connected and in covenant. Yet they are not the same person. If that were so, if one died they both would need to die. If one sinned, they would both be guilty. Yet we know this to be untrue. Each individual will give account for their individual life to God (Romans 14:12). 

God enters our lives through an eternal covenant. We repent and receive through faith in His Son Jesus. For born again believers the objective is for the Holy Spirit to take up residence in us (2 Timothy 1:14, Romans 8:11). If we do not have His Spirit, we do not belong to God (Romans 8:9). He is our seal, guarantee of what is to come (2 Corinthians 1:22). 

The Spirit of God (Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost) is connected to the Son, and the Father. They are one. Yet the Father is not the Son, the Son is not Holy Spirit. They are the Godhead manifested in unique, yet connected forms. 

So being one with God does not make us God. God does not become us. He comes in covenant with agape love, gifts, and the blessings of God flow in and through us. We also gain the highest form of intimacy-knowing God and being known by Him. He is the only One who will know everything about us. Through covenant we become the truest and best versions of ourselves. The love He gives, we give it back to Him. 

2. We Do Not Possess Unlimited Authority 

I am one with God, through Jesus. I am not Jesus. I am not Father God. I am not Holy Spirit. Even Jesus said, “I only do what I see the Father doing and say what I hear Him speaking (John 5:19).” 

It is dangerous to try to use authority that has not been given. Authority comes from the top down. God alone has ultimate authority. Even with ultimate authority He works within the framework He created to allow humans to choose. This means control, manipulation, and abuse of authority are a no go. Being one with God does not give us ultimate authority over everything and everyone. We are not demi gods. We do not have ultimate authority over everything or everyone. 

3. We Are Not Equal to God 

We are made in the image of God. We are His workmanship created for His glory. We are, if we are in Christ, raised up and seated with Him in heavenly places. We become joint heirs with Jesus. We do not become equal to God. God reaches down low to raise us up. He does not remove Himself from His throne and place us there. 

As Pastor TD Jakes says, “If God is on the throne, my flesh is on the cross. If I am on the throne, I am trying to put Jesus back on the cross.” 

We are not equal to God. We are children of God. He chooses to adopt us and work through us. He will always be God, the Great I AM, the Creator. 

Nothing God created is equal to His majesty. He values us tremendously, yet does not surrender His throne to us. Why? He is God. He also knows anything and anyone we worship other than Him brings bondage and is fueled by pride. Look what happened to Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12-17). God alone is 100% good. 

This is important in the picture of marriage too. God gave earthly marriage as a picture, not for the picture to replace Him or reality. What do I mean? Jesus is God. God alone is to be worshipped. 

Husbands are not God; they are not to be worshipped. They are to be respected and loved just like wives are to be respected and loved. The Church is to worship God. The wife is to worship God. He said, “Have no other gods before Me (Exodus 20:3).”

Husbands are to imitate Jesus in their sacrificial, unconditional, unselfish love for their wives. Part of Christ being the Head of the Church is He is the Chief Cornerstone, providing the most support and He sacrificed the most even to the laying down His life. Wives are to respond to that love and support with agape love, respect, and a willingness to yield to what honors God. Husbands too are to be willing to yield (Ephesians 5:21). All believers are to be willing to yield (submit)-same verse Ephesians 5:21. 

Both husband and wife are to yield to God, then each other. Neither is to become God for the other person. If that were so, God would have said, “You must worship two Gods-Me and your spouse.” He did not give us God alternatives. Our primary allegiance is to always first be to God. 

If a spouse tells us to do something that violates our relationship with God or is immoral or illegal, we are to forsake yielding to them and yield to God. Spouses are also to point each other to God. So going along with abuse or what is sinful or wrong is unGodly. 

Husbands who use their position in the family to abuse, hurt, control, manipulate, dominate, or mistreat their wives and/or children will be held accountable to God. 

Jesus told the disciples, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom (Matthew 20:28).” 

God views authority as a vehicle to protect from the attacks of the enemy, empower others, sacrificially and unselfishly love, honor, and serve. 

Jesus is the perfect model for leadership, authority, a disciple, a yielded (submitted) One. Jesus is the perfect model of a pastor or man or human or husband or leader. 

The one given the highest authority has been given the greatest capacity for sacrifice and is to abide in God to agape love. The highest calling isn’t boss or dictator-those are anti God leadership models for humans. The highest calling is agape (unconditional, sacrificial, unselfish, laid down love) and being a servant. 

Confusion comes when the picture of Jesus and the church is misused and misapplied in marriage.

Let’s jump back to oneness with God…

So becoming one with God comes through covenant and His Holy Spirit. God does not become us. We do not become God. We connect with God. Our spirit connects with His Spirit. His Spirit is to take up residence in our physical house. It is a connection that is meant to flow from this life into eternity. It is the only eternal covenant. Marriage is an earthly covenant that breaks at death, or in some cases divorce. 

Oneness with God provides us with: 

  • Intimacy with God/Friendship with God (the ability to know Him) 
  • Joint Heirship with Jesus 
  • Access to God (we do not need a liaison aside from Jesus-He is the mediator between God and mankind (1 Timothy 2:5))
  • Gifts of the Holy Spirit
  • Supernatural wisdom, revelation, and insight
  • Forgiveness of Sins/the Gift of Repentance 
  • New Identity in Christ 
  • Divine Deliverance 
  • Profound Understanding of His Word
  • Manifestations of His Glory/His love/His power
  • Partnership with God 
  • Name Written in the Lamb’s Book of Life 
  • Ability to Bless the World
  • Every Spiritual Blessing in the Heavenlies in Christ 
  • Advocate in Christ
  • An Eternal Covenant  

May you and I pursue deeper intimacy with God and increased revelation of oneness with Him. 

Here are some additional scriptures to back up this post: Ephesians 1, Ephesians 5, Exodus 20:3, John 17:20-24, Mark 10:7-9, Colossians 3:19, 21, Romans 14:12, Hebrews 8 and 9, 2 Timothy 1:14, Galatians 5:13-26, Romans 8

The King’s Table (Love Poem for The Bride of Christ)

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The King’s Table (written by Erin Lamb inspired by Jesus)👑

My Bride, My love. 
I’ve invited you to a continual feast at My Table. 

To dine with Me.

To meet with Me. 

To be with Me. 

My Beloved,

The one I gave My life for,

And the one My heart beats passionately for.

I made you for Me. 

You are of an elegant design.

Handcrafted.

An original masterpiece. 

I see great beauty when I look into your heart. 

I see a treasure

Made for Me. 

I love you with an everlasting love. 

It is a love that existed before you 

And it will continue on into eternity!

I am rejoicing over you. 

Singing you love songs.

Songs the Angels also sing. 

My Bride, My love.

I have prepared a place for us. 

Here in Paradise. 

Where the radiance of My Father 

Fills every crevice with His Brilliance and beauty. 

I have prepared a table for us.

It is decadent.

I ask that you come away…

be with Me. 

Come away with Me.

Lay aside the troubles of today, 

Come feast at the Banquet Table.

My heart erupts with joy,

When you look My way, 

When you seek My face.

I am overflowing with love for you. 

I am relentlessly pursuing you to love you. 

I am moving mountains for you that you cannot see. 

I am praying for you continuously. 

I gave My life so you and I could be, 

Closer, 

One,

Together for all of eternity, 

Here I am My Beloved,

Desiring you, 

Loving you, 

Craving more profound intimacy. 

I long for you to know Me,

Truly experience all that I am. 

I long for you to be with Me. 

I don’t take My eyes off you. 

You are covered in My Robe of Righteousness. 

I gave you My name. 

I sealed our covenant with My blood. 

Eternal love,

It’s what I pursued you for. 

No human being can love you more. 

No human being can fill your voids. 

It is I who completes,

Who fills to overflowing.

Come drink of My cup and you will not thirst. 

Come feast of My bread and you will hunger no more. 

Come rest your head on My chest, 

Feel My heart beat.

Can you hear it pounding? 

It’s a sweet melody. 

My love for you is custom to you. 

I know everything there is to know about you. 

And I am offering you all of Me. 

Come My love…

Come…

My Beloved, My Bride, My love…

Come and feast with Me. 
You are all so deeply loved. 

Papa God I thank You for each person reading this. I ask Your love would saturate each heart. Give us all (myself included) an even deeper revelation of Your incredible love…the height, depth, width, and breath of it. I ask for miracles in our souls. Healing to every single wound. A saturation of Your peace, love, joy, hope, goodness, and mercy. I bind fear, insecurity, worry, doubt, and unbelief. I bind the orphan and pauper spirits. I loose freedom to know our identity in Christ. We are Your beloved children, You said You’d meet ALL our needs according to Your riches in glory. We are not orphans, we are children. We are deeply loved, chosen, set apart by You. Holy Spirit fall afresh on each of us today and everyday, draw us deeper into the secret place…the deep reservoirs of Your heart. In Jesus powerful name, amen. 
Love, 
Erin Lamb

Image Bearers (Intimacy with God Part III)

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…you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit,~Ephesians 2:19-22.

God invites us into relationship with Him. It is a covenant relationship. His connection with us is Spirit to spirit. He imparts Himself to us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. It’s not simply a visitation with God on Sunday mornings. It’s intended to be a habitation.

What is a habitation? (Source Dictionary.com)

1. The act of inhabiting or the state of being inhabited.
2. A natural environment or locality.
3. A residence.

God abides in born again believers. The purpose of habitation is not simply to get us into heaven. It’s so we are transformed into the image of His Son, Jesus. The Holy Spirit resides in us and continually points to truth, righteousness, and reveals Jesus. Day by day, moment by moment, He’s revealing the Son and we (if we are submitted to God) are being transformed into His likeness. This is a powerful work of the Holy Spirit. We cannot strive to be like God. Our attempts will fail.

Our outward expressions will always manifest our internal reality. Just as an apple tree continues to produce apples. You can chop off the fruit, but it will continue to produce fruit.

We are called to have the fruit of God’s Spirit and be His image bearers in the earth. It brings Him glory when we act like Him, that is the truest form of who we are. Genesis 1 states in His image God created them. We were created by Him, in His image, to represent Him.

How do we become like Jesus?

1. It starts with relationship (see previous post Intimacy with God Part II). If you’re not saved, you will not become like Jesus because the Holy Spirit is not in you. Human efforts are futile.

2. We abide.

I will talk more about abiding in the next post.

Jesus stated in John 15:5, “I am the Vine and you are the branches. Those who remain in Me will bear much fruit. Apart from Me, you can do nothing.”

3. We submit.

Submission sounds horrible when we are self willed and do not understand how much God loves us.

Submission is beautiful when you realize the One you are saying yes to has your best interests at heart. God wants the best for us. So when He says, “Don’t go there. Don’t do this. This is a bad idea. You should go this way,” it’s because He can see all things and knows that the penalty for doing things sinful is death.

We do not become like Jesus by being rebellious, stubborn, disobedient, and living life our own way.

Jesus was obedient even to the cross. What if He decided He was not going to do the Father’s will? You and I would be in a bad place as He’s the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Lastly, God didn’t just save us so we could ride off into the sunset just as broken and messed up as He found us. He saved us out of love. He restores broken things and makes them brand new. He loves us as we are, yet out of that great love-never intends to leave us the way He found us. No parent would want their adult child wearing diapers. He loves us as is, yet the Holy Spirit works in us to grow us up in love, truth, maturity, and wisdom.

Our response to that great love is submission. We are transformed into our true identity.

As we become like Him in character, we become the greatest blessing to the world. We are salt and light. We reflect Him and bring His beautiful fragrance to the world. We will not impact the world by acting like the world. Our lives are meant to be beacons of light!

We reflect the nature, character, and goodness of God. We represent Him and heaven.

I want to stay connected to God and submitted to Him so when people encounter me, they encounter Him. I desire the pure essence of Jesus to be manifest in my life, for His glory.

Will you join me on this quest to know Him intimately?

I hope so!

Praying you are overwhelmed by His goodness, grace, love, and mercy! You are deeply loved.

Love,

Erin Lamb

Intimacy…Closeness to God

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When you say the word intimacy in our culture people normally relate it to only a relationship between a couple in a romantic relationship. Our culture defines intimacy in terms of physical affection. Intimacy is far more than physical touch. Intimacy can be defined as closeness, knowing (being known). The most intimate (close) relationship we can have is with God.

A friend, spouse, child, person cannot know everything there is to know about us. They cannot meet all our needs. God created us to need Him first, then people. Adam had a personal relationship with God before He had a relationship with Eve. While Eve was being created, Adam was asleep. They both knew God before they ever knew each other.

We were born with a deep-rooted desire for intimacy. God created us with the desire and need to be known, accepted, and unconditionally loved. He gave us a desire and need that He can fill. I’ve heard people say we have a God sized void, I believe it’s true. We can try to fill it with so many things, but none of them will completely fill us. People try food to fill emptiness, it leads to food addictions and obesity. People try relationships and sex to fill emptiness, and find they need more and more and aren’t completely satisfied. People try activities and busyness, and they end up discontent. Our need for intimacy must first be met by God in order for there to be balance in our lives.

Our world puts God somewhere towards the bottom on the list of relationships. He’s someone to seek out when we’re bored, hurting, need something, or not at all. The One who created all things, pursues our hearts with pure love. He longs for us to have an intimate (close) relationship with Him. He does not need our love. He wants our love. He knows that His love transforms who we are into who we were created to be.

Covenant Love:

God invites us into a covenant with Him. A covenant is an agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons. Covenant love is binding, it’s intended to be for life and in the case of God, for eternity. We have to refuse Him and walk away from Him; He is always faithful to us.

Old vs. New Covenant:

Under the old covenant, people could not come boldly into God’s presence. Priests performed rituals in order to be able to enter His presence. Under the new covenant, Jesus paid the price so all who have faith in Him can come boldly into the presence of God. He paid for our sins, so we could have unhindered access to the Father and the deposit of His Holy Spirit. God extends an invitation to intimacy. God has always longed to be with His children. He has always desired relationship with us.

The fundamental basis of this new covenant relationship is the conversion process, whereby each day the believer draws closer to God:

“Therefore we do not lose heart.  Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16)

“ . . . for it is God who works in you both to WILL and to DO for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)

This change of nature results in an intimate relationship with God.

We all have the opportunity to have a flourishing, close, and intimate relationship with God. Nothing on earth can fill the void in us; it’s where He belongs. He loves us more than we can imagine, and His love fills us to overflow. When we receive God’s love and love Him in return, we have overflowing love for others. All areas of our lives flourish when we put God first. When God is first, addictions diminish. When God is first, insecurities diminish. God always wanted and planned to be first in our lives…

You are deeply loved friends. Have a great week. Praying your relationship with God goes even deeper…

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