“You are worthy O’ Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11). We were and are created by the will of God and exist by the will of God. It has been said that we are to be in God’s will and walk in God’s will. God created all things and by Him all things that are were created by His will. If we walk in the creation, we are walking in God’s will. But man has a will that has forgotten God and does not give God the glory that He is worthy to receive. Mankind has salvation through Jesus and will not admit they need it, and live in God’s will always and will not acknowledge it. Open my eyes Lord that I may see the will of God in everything.
It was needful that the covenant of old be fulfilled and a covenant of grace, peace and love be delivered. For what is mercy except for grace (forgiveness – another paying your debt), peace (surrender to the Lord and do war against God no more) and love (giving of self regardless of the return). It was forgetting God’s mercy that condemned man in the garden and not the act of eating – it was accepting the lie and denying the truth that caused man to believe they could know without knowing God. But without knowing God, you can only know the lie, for God is truth.
Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me (Revelation 3:20). There is no commandment that reads, “Hear the knock and My voice and open the door.” There is a promise that is written, “I knock, if you hear My voice and open I will come in” (see Revelation 3:20). Who is the voice of Jesus? Did Jesus not say it was the Holy Spirit, the Comforter? Is it not the Holy Spirit in His own that we will hear and know the voice of our Shepherd, Jesus?
The Shepherd became a lamb so that He could care for the flock Himself. The Lamb was taken and killed as a sacrifice for our sins. First the lamb fulfilled the covenant walk and in life gave to us the covenant of mercy and in life gives us His peace. But the mercy of God was always ours – it was a hidden mankind that could not know mercy, because mercy is truth and without God we do not know truth. Jesus came to show us mercy. Down on my face I pray for mercy and God gives to me mercy because He always has given to me mercy. When I prayed for salvation, God showed me that I already had salvation in Christ.
The first to be forgiven by our Lord Jesus Christ was the people that put Him to death. Dying on the cross Jesus said, “Forgive them Father for they know not.” Can we be that forgiving – enough to forgive someone as they take our physical life? If we lay our life down like Jesus did; no one can take what you give. Jesus has died for our salvation and lives for the glory of the Father. All we have to do is give Jesus the glory that is already His and we will lay down our life and pick up His.