Where shall we go?

The love of God is invasive, it invades even the smallest part of our lives. Nothing is hidden in the sight of God. The love of God wants to change us into the likeness of Christ and therefor the love of God is often painful on us. It wants to transform us and that transformation is often very painful. The words of Jesus HURT US, they are painful to us, they often offend us but those are the words of truth and if we obey those words we are transformed into His likeness and we are pleasing to God. That is what love is about.

Love is about ENDURING THE LOVE OF GOD. The love of God is faithful to us and He will never leave us. His love wants to work in us perfection but our love for Him works in us TRUST IN GOD, ENDURANCE WITH HIS HANDLING OF US and with His interference in our lives, His invasion of our privacy and our WANTS and our LIKES and our OFFENCES because God has got to take out every bit of resistance, every bit of the flesh has got to be broken down so that we can come out as pure gold.

God allowed satan to treat Job extremely harsh to the point where Job's wife said to him: “Curse God and die, man!” We read in Job 2:9,10 “Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”

You see, we want to accept the good from God but as soon as God starts disciplining us then we want to run away. Then we say:”No, I can't handle this!” But God treats us harshly, we learn through what we suffer and we will go through suffering, and if we are men and women of God then we are the oracles of God and we will often say things to other people, that are harsh, because those are the words of God. We are not here to please each other, to make each other feel good, WE ARE HERE TO SPEAK THE WORDS OF GOD that will bring us closer to Him in our relationship with the Father. That is what we are here for. We are not here to make friends and influence people, we are here to bring people into the presence of God. We are the oracles of God .

We must submit ourselves to the discipline of the Holy Spirit so that we can do the will of God and be pleasing to Him. Job submitted himself to the point where he said, I read from Job 13:15 “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.” Though He slay me, though He kills me I will still hope in Him. Job did not reject God, even in his suffering, in his predicament he did not reject God, he did not curse God, his trust was still in God and that is what God requires of us, that we SHOULD TRUST HIM. Our life is in His hands, we belong to Him, no matter what happens to us, our focus must be on the Father, on doing His will because He determines our life.

The disciples were also offended at the words of Jesus and Jesus will offend us also if we walk with Him,. THE CLOSER WE WALK WITH CHRIST THE DEEPER HIS WORDS WILL CUT INTO OUR LIVES, will invade us, will invade our privacy, our desires, because Jesus said:”If you wish to follow Me, deny yourself, pick up your cross and come here follow Me,” and He meant what He said. We read in John 6:53 “Jesus therefore said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54“ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55“ For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56“ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57“ As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me. 58“ This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate, and died, he who eats this bread shall live forever.”

Verse 60 Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?”

66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore. 67Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” 68Simon Peter answered Him, “LORD, TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? YOU HAVE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE.”

Jesus is the BREAD OF LIFE, His words CUT us. We have got to EAT that bread, it will go into us, it will hurt us but it will transform us through our obedience to Christ, we become children of the Kingdom of God, but if we do not submit to God, if we do not endure we will not be suitable for the kingdom of heaven and PEOPLE DON'T WANT THE WORDS OF CHRIST, THEY DON'T WANT THE WORDS OF JESUS. It offends them, it makes them want to walk away. Jesus is not begging us to follow Him. He said to Peter:”Don't you also want to go?” He said “Lord, where will we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

If we cannot accept the Word that comes from God, then we are not worthy of Him. If we cannot eat the Bead of Life we will not have life in us. If we reject the words of Jesus, we reject Him. If we reject that which the Lord gives us through His oracles, through His spokesmen, through those whom He sends to warn us, to teach us His ways, then we reject the bread of life. We must entrust our lives unto Christ and TRUST HIM and say:”Lord I am here to do Your will.” Our only purpose must be to bring people to Jesus. In the first place, ourselves, to walk with God to SUBMIT TO HIM in everything and to BRING OTHERS INTO RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST, INTO TOTAL OBEDIENCE TO HIM.

This is a hard word. Who can take it? The words of Jesus are hard words, they cut into us. Peter said:”LORD, WHERE CAN WE GO TO? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE.”

If we want LIFE we must STAY with the WORDS OF JESUS and SUBMIT OURSELVES TOTALLY TO HIM. We must EAT THE BREAD OF LIFE, the Words that come from Christ and then we will have life in us.

May Jesus bless you.