Day 11

Defining the Gospel:

The Process of God

Roger and Eileen Himes

www.ThePracticalGospel.com

The gospel is the greatest truth, and spiritual motivator the world has ever seen. No wonder Satan works so hard to keep it secret. He doesn’t want us to get high on God every day of our lives. He doesn’t want us to know that the Christian life has more height, breadth, depth and length than we can ever experience in only one lifetime.

I’m sometimes accused of giving the gospel of Christ’s finished work too much credence and credit. I laugh at this. The reverse of this is true: failure to give Jesus all the credit is the biggest problem in Christianity. It is why Christians live hum-drum lives, scraping by, wondering where God is most of the time, and living by human principles. They become religious addicts in need of a ‘fix’ every week.

The gospel is worshipping the Creator, not the creature.
It is looking to him to work all things together for good.
It is expecting each day to embrace the abundant life of Christ.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #21

Specifically, what is the gospel? Here is gospel truth in a snapshot. First, we experience the gospel in three broad areas, defined by John:

(1) God’s revelation light: his thoughts made know to us.
(2) God’s agape love: unconditional love in us and through us.
(3) God’s Zoë life: the daily abundant, overcoming life of Christ.
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(4) The gospel is salvation: being born again.
(5) It is everything a loving Father has done for us in his Son.
(6) It is all the free things we saw that God gives us in Jesus.
(7) It is experiencing the very person and presence of God.
(8) It is our identity: who we are in Christ in this world.
(9) It is entering into God’s ways: the means of his process in us.
(10) It makes God’s vibrant life known: giving what we have.

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What does this produce in us? What does the process of the gospel do for us? How does it cause us to live better by accident than we can on purpose? What is the gospel life it produces in us?

Living in the process of the gospel is hearing from God. All he asks is we take time to tune him in, and listen for his voice. He is always speaking. He is ‘the word that became life.’ When we take time to listen, he speaks. He may not speak at that exact time, but he will speak. He is sometimes like a radio announcer who says, “Keep tuned in and listening — an update is coming up.”

Living in the process of the gospel is living in connection with God. Acknowledging that we know he’s close produces his presence in us. He constantly show us he cares about us — and everyone around us. He even shows us what he is doing, and allows us to be part of it.

Living in the process of the gospel results in living in gratitude, thankfulness and expectancy. I like to call this worship. Worship is so much more than just what we experience in a church service. It is a daily way of life. Living like this, there is no murmuring, complaining or moaning. Life may not be perfect — often far from it — but we know God is working all things together for good. It may not be good as we would define it — but he’s working for our good.

Living in the process of the gospel is being on a journey, and you may never reach the destination. You don’t care because God is the destination. If he is with you, the journey is all that matters. Yes, you’ve got goals and priorities and purposes in life. The Gospel Road leads to these. But every step along the way is glorious — not just the end result.

Living in the process of the gospel is not taking ownership over things that happen. It is responding in faith to things that happens, knowing God’s ways are so beyond ours we’ll never figure them out in one lifetime. It is being a participant in life, and even a coach in life, — but also keeping a light touch on things that happen, especially things we don’t like.

Living in the process of the gospel, we experience pain, sorrow, suffering, and even grief. But it is accepting that this is a natural part of life — that God is not punishing us or disciplining us. It is knowing that life, in its most simple form, consists of four things: (1) birth, (2) times happiness, (3) times of sorrow, and (4) death. We fully embracing the grievous reality of life, but not letting it take ownership over us.

Living in the process of the gospel is knowing God wants to prosper us, and have us be in health, to the same degree our soul prospers in him. He doesn’t want us to live life excluding him, but including him in everything, knowing this is how our soul prospers. Prosperity does not mean we can always design and construct life based on our wishes. Sometimes bad things happen to good people.

Living in the process of the gospel is knowing God’s best is our health, and that healing is his second best. This doesn’t mean we live forever here on this planet, or that we will always experience good health. But living in a covenant of health gives us a greater quality of life, health and happiness most of the time.

Living in the process of the gospel, we know that things happen to us, and we experience things in life, so what we are better able to help other people through similar experiences. We are always looking for ways to release what we have inside of us. We are always looking for ways to impact others with our experience of life.

Living in the process of the gospel, we look for ways to manifest the gifts of the Spirit. We know the gifts are like manna, and are received by us from the Holy Spirit as he directs. We can’t stockpile them, to use at our will. They are his gifts, not ours. But we live in constant awareness that he wants to manifest his gifts through us.

Living in the process of the gospel, we don’t try to understand all things of the spirit in our human, natural wisdom. We remember Paul says the gospel is a mystery. Yes, it is revealed to us, but it is God who does the revealing — not our minds that effect the discovery. This is knowing that our faith is in God — not in what occurs in our lives.

Living in the process of the gospel is releasing our creativity because we are one with the creativeness of God, who creates all things. This is by means of receiving the seed, that creates deep, strong roots, — and then good fruit. We don’t live life in a formula, but know we are being formed into the image of Christ.

Living in the process of the gospel means that we live life knowing we are aliens on this planet, and are a vital part of The Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world.” It is living in constant awareness of God’s Kingdom in us, and in the full rights, privileges, blessings, and inheritance of that Kingdom — because we are EQUAL BENEFICIARIES with Christ, or what Paul calls ‘joint heirs.’

Living in the process of the gospel, we learn from our past mistakes, but we are not consumed by them. We ‘forget’ them by knowing God is involved in everything and causes ALL things to work together for good if we will let him. This includes our misteaks. Excuse me, ‘mistakes.’

Living in the process of the gospel, we know that we receive all things of God — everything he has in his kingdom. Jesus says his very kingdom is ours. We also know that we don’t have anything of value, except what we receive. We know that we are the branch, in to which the Vine is giving constant transfusion of the body and blood of Christ.

Living in the process of the gospel, we don’t try to change other people, and we don’t even try to change ourselves. We just give ourselves into God’s hands and ask the Potter to transform the clay. We know that lasting, meaningful change is done in us by God. We give him permission, and space to do his work in us. Trusting him, we welcome what he does.

Living in the process of the gospel, we know we are not right in ourselves. We know we will die with at least one thing about us that is not right — that is not Christ like — that is not Christian. We know God loves our weaknesses, because in them he is able to be strong, and the power of his grace will abound.

Living in the process of the gospel, we do not impose our values, our conditions, or our expectancies on other people. We consider the board in our own eye before we look for specks in the eyes of other people. In this sense, we are very self-focused, and present minded. We don’t live in guilt over the past, or in fear of the future. Our fear is that we may become lax and lose connection with the Vine that impacts our every need.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #22

As we assess how we live life in the gospel, we shouldn’t look at these things as a check list of what WE should do. We don’t keep a list handy to make certain we abide by all these things. If we do this, it is living life by principles, or as a formula— as a gauge of what we must do next.

Our job is not to implement these things, but to believe they are the things God is progressively doing in us and through us. We see them as him fulfilling his good pleasure in us, not as us working them out. The process of the gospel is a barometer of what GOD is doing in us.

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Living in the process of the gospel, like Paul, our focus is on whom we believe, not what we believe. Looking at what we believe causes us to look at things. Knowing whom we believe causes us to look only to God. Living in the process of the gospel, we live life in constant joy, not as a job to do. Knowing God’s presence in us, we simply want to experience it and share it with others. We need other people: to interact with them — both imparting to them, and receiving from them. We allow others access to us, but not control over us. We don’t need the approval of others. Tuned into the voice of God, we allow him the control of our beliefs,— and what we think, say and do.

Living in the process of the gospel, we are very caring, responsive people. We show compassion to others, whether we like them or not. We love them with the love we receive from God, knowing we are a channel.

Living in the process of the gospel, we approach life with a sense of humor, knowing we don’t always see the big picture. We see through a glass dimly. Sometimes it’s like we’re looking through a keyhole: we are very narrow minded. We view life as serious business, but we take what life throws at us, and ourselves, less seriously. We know humor is what smoothes the bumps of life.

Again, this is not a checklist. This is a progress report.
It allows us to connect with God more.
It allows us to see that we’re not as good as we could be,
but we’re better than we used to be.
And it allows us to engage others more.
This is what the process of the gospel is all about.
It is all about HIM: what HE is doing in US.