THE DRAWING OF THE FATHER (2)

There is a deep-seated hunger inside the heart of every human being. Truth be told, but i know that it is not everyone that will agree with me that this hunger is because of the desire for a relationship or fellowship with God. Like I said in my last post, this hunger doesn't originate from us exclusively. I mean that it is not we ourselves that planted that hunger. It was put there by God so that we can hunger or desire Him. He created Adam in His image and likeness for a reason - to have dominion over everything created and to have fellowship with Him. (Genesis 1:26, Genesis 3:8). But when Adam sold out deliberately to the devil's deception of Eve, God didn't give up in his pursuit of fellowship with mankind. 

Today, i want to conclude the topic: the drawing of the Father, so i can go on to other parts of the discussion. In Philippians 2:13, the bible tells us that God is at work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. But what is His good pleasure? In Revelations 4:11, the bible tells us that God created all things and for His pleasure they are created. This means that creation is to give God joy when He looks at His handiwork, when He looks at the rest of the created things, His joy increases, as well as when He looks at mankind. 

Another question would be, what is it about mankind that makes Him to rejoice? His ultimate goal for creating man was to represent Him on earth and for fellowship, this fellowship is for eternity. And so He removed the barrier of sin when Jesus died, and also sent the Holy Spirit to help us live the supernatural life that we have received at the new birth. So to get the most of this restoration to fellowship with God, mankind has to accept the gift of salvation. And to also decide to walk with Him in trust and prompt obedience. Both of these has to do with our heart postures. 

God has called us to an intimate relationship with Him. This is why we cannot do without the fellowship with the Holy Spirit as believers in Christ. Anyone who is not yet born again lives by the spirit of the world, but once anyone receives salvation in Christ, he or she must of a necessity have this wonderful fellowship with the Holy Spirit. And to get the best of this our relationship with God, our hearts must be fully involved. God demands a wholehearted service or relationship or nothing at all. Any relationship where one party is the giver alone, that relationship is parasitic. Sadly, that is the experience of some of God's people with their Heavenly Father. To them He exists for only what they can get from Him and they are oblivious of His needs. Yes, God has a need. and that need is what brought Jesus to die for mankind. 

According to Matthew 15:1-8,  Jesus educated us about something very important in worshiping God. In verse 8, He made an observation about the Pharisees, and He said that they worship God but their hearts are far from Him. Today, a question is thrown at us, where is your heart? In order to answer this question accurately, let us examine something. 

• What preoccupies your mind? 
  
• When you have a need, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? 
• As you are desiring better relationship or a better marriage, business, life, career, in 2023 what has been your mind's preoccupations?
• Who comes into your mind first? 
  

 This is one of the ways we can use to check if we are in love with God or in love with something or someone else. 

Our Precious Heavenly Father is asking for a deeper and closer walk with us from all of us. So He is drawing us by the Holy Spirit because He sent the Holy Spirit to abide in us forever. That abiding has to do with fellowship as well as for His good pleasure and will to be accomplished in our lives.