The Gift of Salvation
Acts 13:22 “And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’
The gift of salvation is the heavenly Father giving us His heart. Christ enables us to partake of this gift by imparting to us His Spirit; which holds the fullness of the heavenly Father. Ephesians 3:19, John 1:12, 2 Peter 1:4 With His heart, we can love as He asks and as we deeply desire, and without it we can do nothing. John 15:5, Mark 12:30-31, Ezekiel 36:26 With His heart, we can walk righteously because we walk in pure love. Thus, having salvation is having His heart.
Sometimes people are more concerned with obtaining spiritual gifts than seeking after and for the heart of God. Seek His heart and every other gift will manifest as it should. 1 Corinthians 13:2
I mentioned in a previous post that self-righteousness is thinking you are loving when you are actually harming. It’s being blind to your own ability to harm others at any time.
Hypocrisy is feigning love. One who is self-righteous also is hypocritical and BLIND to their hypocrisy. Thus, they believe they are loving, when they are actually being harmful and hypocritical.
This world defines what it means to be loving and kind. These definitions aren’t God’s definitions. What the world sees as kind and loving is tainted with all kinds of hypocrisy; some instances more apparent than others.
Hypocrisy and self-righteousness are very harmful in the lies and blindness they hold and cultivate. Blindness keeps people from repentance; thus unaware of their own creation of cruelty and unable to change. To mask harm with love is damaging and deceitful. Romans 7:24-25
Because our definitions of love and kindness are influenced by the world and what others think and say; we have to go to the heavenly Father one-on-one and learn what pure love entails. When we do, we see the wisdom His love holds is very different from the world’s love; for the world’s love is based on the world’s wisdom that is founded on lies and based on the corrupted carnal mind.
When God is calling us to Himself, He is calling us to the purest of love in all honor, holiness, beauty, righteousness, and perfection. When we start following His voice into His love; we find a glorious love far beyond what mankind can give. Thus, our desire to have His heart intensifies, because it isn’t within ourselves alone, until it’s our sole desire and we are willing to sell all to obtain it. Matthew 10:39, Matthew 13:46 To have His heart is our salvation for only by us in Him and Him in us can we live in an eternity of no sin, pain, suffering, and death.
What is the testimony that we are after God’s heart? We desire to do His will alone; therefore we seek and obey.
‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’ Acts 13:22
“I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. John 5:30
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Matthew 7:21
If we love God, we obey Him. When we obey Him, we abide in His love. John 14:15, John 15:10
Obedience to God has been greatly misunderstood. Therefore, it’s often dismissed, excused or taken lightly when it comes to our relationship with God; yet it is central to it.
To obey God isn’t burdensome because it means we are loving and growing in love; the deepest desire of our hearts. 1 John 5:3 When we obey His voice in our circumstances; He enables us with His grace to do that which He desires of us. It’s the path to manifesting His love in our lives because it’s following His voice into His will of perfect love. As we obey, He changes us and transforms us. And the more we become a part of His light, the easier it is to obey because we trust the perfection of His ways to bring true joy, peace, blessing, and yes love. And this trust and obedience allows Him to move into our soul.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
Living Light 
March 25, 2013 at 3:19 pm
I admit, I have been self righteous and hypocritical, very much of my life. My passion would justify my behavior and I bought the preachers, “im only a work in progress line” and watched my family fall apart. I was devasted, I don’t think Im through it after 4 years and more b4 the end; I felt a curse had me and only God could take it off-believed that until the fulness of Christ returned I was bound to it! I beleived that deep in me! Now I see it clearly but for all my prayer and seeking b4 I could not overcome the tail of satan wrapped around my leg. Now, the one conscious sin I had justified I could not best is all but gone, the lightest shadow of it remains and somehow now I have the authority and confidence to deny it; But I had to commit everything I thought I loved to Him and it scared me! Everyone and everything I held dear I had to ditch! Not holding one! The most terrifying thing to kill my own love!! Or what I insisted was love; The most radically painfull experience of my entire life in one! An indescribably painful realization. To find that my love was not love at all!! Mercy Father, if such is possible, Amen
March 26, 2013 at 3:12 pm
Your experience is a description of what I feel most go through or will go through .. so thank you for articulating so well.
We can’t find what is real until we are willing to let go of what isn’t. And often we have to start letting go by fully trusting God because we don’t yet see clearly why we should until after we let go.
March 25, 2013 at 4:38 pm
God’s heart – the pearl of infinite worth. Beautiful
March 27, 2013 at 1:38 pm
Perfectly said.
March 26, 2013 at 3:26 am
Amen.
I “bumped” in to you a few days ago.
As I watched through a couple of vids and read a few posts I realized that you have confirmed about everything that God has been teaching me since January 2012, when I drastically was awaken by Him.
I was a Christian for 31 years before that but was blind and a Pharisee.
You also brought clarity to many things I’ve been pondering.
Your gift to articulate these things are blowing my mind.
I’m growing in grace in that area 🙂
I also wanted to share what God spoke to me two days ago, He said:
“Be zealous in EVERY choice”
Because when our hearts are in line with His, He will be all in in our desires.
We are no longer zealous for wickedness but for love. So be hot/eager in every choice, He is with us in our desires, as long as we have commited them to Him and are walking close to Him.
Much blessings.
March 26, 2013 at 3:17 pm
Hi Samuel .. wonderfully said and very true “Because when our hearts are in line with His, He will be all in in our desires.” What an amazing gift.
March 26, 2013 at 4:13 am
Thank you for sharing this article! It made me realize a lot of things. I am am a self-righteous person who sees the wrongs of others and hate them for that. The worst part is that I do it almost all of the time without even a slight remorse. Thank you for opening my eyes on these things, for letting me think clearly, and also for letting me understand. May God bless you.
March 26, 2013 at 3:19 pm
Hi Erin, seeing the depths of it within yourself can be hard, I know! But yet the only way you see it is because the light is in you shining on it, otherwise we remain blind. It’s a great gift to see because then you also see the paths of life.
March 27, 2013 at 9:23 pm
…”the light is in you shining on it…” Thank you – I have hope that the Lord truly is working in me. I’m just trying to let Him work in me and not try to work at it myself because I think then I see myself as a fake. I want to have the purest love in me — so pure that my every thought is in line with His Word. Thank you Rachel for sharing – thank you so much. God bless you.
March 30, 2013 at 11:04 am
Leonora – it is a beautiful desire to be & give of the purest of love and it is God’s will to fulfill this desire in you .. for this is the essence of the spirit of Christ in us.
As we follow the promptings of our heart to truly love, thus following God’s words and instruction to us, His love is knit into our hearts. Obeying Him is easy because He leads us step by step, empowers us with His grace to act, and shows us the truth so we desire to act in purest of love without hypocrisy.
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
March 26, 2013 at 9:28 am
I am excited about your blog. Even more excited about what you share with us. Clarity of heart and mind melts the stoning of daily life. Only as we walk and yield to His presence do the scales fall off and we are transformed. Much love and truth in your writings. Plus a welcomed boot to the rear when needed. in the words of “Arnie” “I’ll be back!”
March 27, 2013 at 1:37 pm
As you said, “Only as we walk and yield to His presence do the scales fall off and we are transformed.” This is a powerful truth to realize and live.
March 28, 2013 at 9:38 am
I must say your blog was welcomed fresh breeze. Such truth put forth boldly. Must come from your Father.
March 26, 2013 at 10:44 am
Good afternoon Rachel, my sister. Twice I was compelled to urge you to discover the sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas. There is something there for you;
-Sonne
March 27, 2013 at 1:39 pm
Hi .. I have read this Gospel and agreed … very interesting.
March 28, 2013 at 12:21 am
Hi Rachel
I have followed you for quite some time now and there are many things here that i both agree with and that have helped me. But here is what God is showing me. It is easy for me to see and say what i don’t like about the church or someone elses ideas about what god is saying, and i know that i am just as guilty as anyone else of that. God gives us the word and our truth and honesty and all things good, I believe that he allows us to follow our own will if we choose to show us that it is only by following his that we will have what we have always searched for. But i do not believe that it is always the same path to discovery or outside source. We look to everyone for answers and when we think we have the answer we rush to tell everyone to follow us because we feel so much closer to god and want everyone to have this. I think though what we fail to realize is that it really isn’t that we finally figured it out it is that god has given us the enlightenment and the thoughts we only rush to ownership. I want to believe this but really i’m not that smart, i just think i am. It’s god giving me the answers I have been asking for and they are coming to me from both inside and from many places that he directs me to on the outside. Its kind of like take what u like and leave the rest and if we ask and have faith that the holy spirit is going to guide us it does. But i think it is always an individual thing and what works for one doesn’t always work for the other. We just somehow feel the need to tell everyone they are going the wrong way i think to reasurre ourselves that we are going the right way.
thanx
Dave
March 28, 2013 at 12:48 am
Hi Rachel
Just another thought. I was thinking kind of like this, we have to enter through the gate and i believe that the gate is through faith in god. I believe that god is in us, each of us. I feel as if it is many different gates (people) leading to the one place. I think of the gate as having a combination lock on it. Each of us having the same combination required to enter. What I think that is individual and very different for each of us though is because of our uniqueness and our different levels of awareness and spiritual growth we find that combination differently maybe with similarities to others. But when we talk to each other we can get scared that we may be on the wrong path and defend our position by questioning someone elses to give us some security that we are on the right one. I think though that maybe we are all on our own right individual paths if we are following the simple principles that Christ is telling us. Have faith in him, do his will. and that the holy spirit has all the answers we require. This is who we ask and who we rely on but i think that he does direct us to outside sources of enlightenment but that he doesn’t want us to rely solely on that but on him. By following his will we stay on the path he has designed for each of us. You could no sooner rely on me for all the answers no more than I could solely rely on you for all the answers but we may each have some of each others answers that he directs us to at a certain time or it is some other source. I think what god is showing me here is that we are all right, and we are all wrong but that if we just stay in faith and ask to do his will everyday and rely on the holy spirit to guide us we will arrive at our destiny. I truly mean no harm or judgement here but only to share what thoughts he has given me. Take what works for you and leave the rest.
God Bless
Dave
March 30, 2013 at 11:19 am
Hi David, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree we all have our own path and journey to take, and no one can walk it for us. We are all at different places, and the truth is established by different means and ways, yet truth is truth.
Truth is very powerful in a person’s life to create abundant love and peace. When we seek truth and find it ; one piece at a time, we no longer follow what wasn’t truth. We all come into the truth, the light and out of the darkness in different ways.
Often when we are seeking truth, we realize we weren’t in truth which is grounded in the purest of love, thus we turn (repent) so we can walk in the truth and as a result experience the beauty of it in our lives. And often experiencing what isn’t truth helps us to see what is.
May we all diligently seek the truth in love Matthew 6:33 … for narrow is the way as there is one truth and many lies. The truth we hold is reflected in our lives .. and when we are willing to be taught by God, He shows us what is of Him and what isn’t.
April 1, 2013 at 1:07 am
Hi Rachel
You know something, in the last month i have seen by looking inward and asking questions and getting honest with myself that god has opened my eyes to the fact that I was being hurt by someone and not knowing how to solve this in my life. I would sit with it and a resentment would form and eventually this relationship would breakdown. So I asked god to show me what i was doing wrong here and he did. I was too afraid to lovingly confront the other person with the truth about how i was feeling but that if I did that that it would open the eyes of the person who was hurting me so we could move closer. It made me realize like me they sometimes couldn’t see what they were doing because they were just on autopilot. He also revealed to me that we can love the person but not thier actions and there is a huge difference here. This was very revealing to me to see how it was only fear that was keeping me from what i wanted most in this world. And then the real revelation hit. It was when i realized that If I thought about my own guilt that I was carrying for years and seeing the separation between who i am in christ and my actions that I had been blaming myself for years and was unable to forgive myself because i was thinking I was to blame when in reality it was only what i was doing or saying that was wrong most of which i had learned in my growing up in my family. Once i could seperate myself i could forgive myself. Then changing the behaviour, something I had tried to change unsucsessfully for years became easy to change because my eyes had really been open to it. It also showed me just how selfish i was in not having the courage to forget myself in these situations then and start to show the other person what they had been doing to keep them from reaching what they had always wanted, to get closer to people. I see this as Jesus’s making us the fisher of men. We aproach a person full of joy and love and as we talk to them and pay attention to them and what they are saying we can see what it is they want and can plant the seed from our story or experience so that they may freely try it to see if it gets them to what they desire. I have gotten closer to my son in the last few months and in sharing this with someone else i could see that this is what she really desired. So I told her what i was doing wrong that was keeping me from my son and told her what i did to get me closer as the seed. I did not tell her that she needed to do this or even that she should try this. I was simply being honest in that i was full of joy when i was telling her my story because this was the truth and it was revealed to me by god. I had spent years trying to figure it out and was astounded at how simple it was. Salvation came to me truly when i realized this separation and then I could see why god loved me and could forgive me because their was nothing wrong with me at all and he could forgive me for what i did or said because I didn’t really know better at that point. But now after knowing this there is no more excuse for that one and it truly is my responsibitlty with god. You know something that is what we are doing wrong in the world today, we are thinking of our own pain and defending it instead of realizing that it is in the very act of facing the fear of rejection or hurt to let the truth out and share it so that we can forgive one another and move closer and really learn who we each are. Once we truly know in our hearts that god loves us and that it is what we may say or do that hurts others we are so much more loving because we are able to face our fear and step closer, and if they don’t hear us it is ok because of the fact that we know god does and he at least loves us.
I was so lost.
David Smith.
April 2, 2013 at 10:16 am
Hi David, you share some important realizations that as we desire and seek love we find. When we truly learn love we find incredible freedom within ourselves and with others. Thanks for sharing your story.