By Francis Frangipane
As Christians, we spend too much time battling basic, elementary battles: "Am I truly saved?" "Am I really forgiven?" The fact is, God has so much more for us. He seeks to conform our thought-life to the actual thought-life of Christ. Indeed, the Holy Spirit comes, not just to give us goose bumps and chills, but to restructure our attitudes and perceptions until we think the thoughts of Jesus.
Consider Paul's remarkable insights. He wrote,
"But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:14-16).
Possessing the Redeemer’s Mind
The Holy Obsession
To be in love is to be obsessed with one's beloved; it is "to think continually about the same thing." In this sense, the Father is obsessed with love for His Son, Jesus Christ. Indeed, beginning with eternity past, revealing the Firstborn in the womb of time, and then continuing with the transformation of the church, the Father's ultimate goal is for all creation to be summed up in Christ (Eph. 1:10). Our goal is to participate in this "summing up" until all that we are -- our loves, our passions, our dreams and our character -- is conformed to Christ.
Now, if the Father is obsessed with His Son, let us also surrender to this divine obsession. For such is the prayer of Christ Himself for His followers. He prayed,
"I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:26).
Jesus of the Bible
By Francis Frangipane,
One may argue, "The Lord I know is loving, not confrontational." Really? I agree He is most loving and accepting of us and has gone to unfathomable lengths to rescue us. Yet that does not mean He is hesitant about correcting us when we are in sin or deception. Consider, to this same church in Laodicea, Jesus described the kind of love He has. He said, "Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline" (Rev. 3:19).
Personally, I love that Christ confronts me. I love that He shows Himself strong in delivering me from evil. I love that my salvation is not up to me but is the effect of His passionate working in my life. I know He loves me, because He does not leave me to my innate patterns of self-deception.
Again, one argues, "Jesus is the gentle shepherd." Yes, He is. But allow me to illustrate my point with a story.
Great Is Your Reward
By Francis Frangipane
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. —Matthew 5:12, NIV
The antidote to persecution is in Jesus’ command to "rejoice and be glad" (Matt. 5:12). If we read the rest of verse 12, we discover that we will receive the same great reward as those who were persecuted before us.
There is a sequence for those God uses to speak to nations, those God anoints to get to the place where they truly represent Him. There are those who operate with the gift of prophecy and those who hold the prophetic office.
The Shelter of Glory
By Francis Frangipane
What we define doctrinally as "salvation" is, in truth, the entrance,
and then expansion, of Christ's Presence throughout our person. What we
call salvation is, in truth, the beginning of God's glory in man.
If you are a Christian, then Christ is in you; you are already in glory.
You have been clothed with Christ, who is Himself the "radiance of [the
Father's] glory" (Heb 1:3). The fact is, Satan knows you are a
Christian, not simply because he heard you repeat a prayer at a church
altar; the Devil sees what happened when you prayed: The glory of Christ
entered your spirit!