Eternity Is Reality

I have been studying John 3 the past few weeks. What an amazing chapter. I want to share what I wrote in my studies a few days ago. I read it this morning and thought it was really good. In fact I can’t believe I wrote it. I can not remember reading it from anywhere, so it must be mine. Anyway, Mike Bickle has a saying. Rewrite teaching notes and put your name on it…it’s yours.

We were created for fellowship, to commune with God. Man chose to exalt Himself to be like God, by disobeying His command too not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We were created in His image. He said at the end of the creation story that His creation was very good. God must have made man with a tendency to be autonomous and govern Himself. Could it be that since we are made in His image, that we have an innate desire to be like Him? The problem is that we were not given the capacity to navigate and govern in that kind of capacity. God planted the tree in the garden so that Adam would voluntarily trust God’s goodness and believe that He had Adam’s goodness in mind. When He ate the fruit, it corrupted everything in Adam. This is the mystery of iniquity. We prefer sin and self interest over fellowship with God.

Could it be that God has given us the ability to choose, so that He would receive our love and devotion voluntarily? A divine partnership?

I am really excited! The IHOP community has been stirred with taking care orphans. Many in our community are taking the leap into adoption. Some friends of ours, Marcus and Rachel Meier are adopting 2 children from Ethopia. They already have 4 children of their own, ages 1-5. We went to a fund raising party held in their honor on Sunday.

They began this process with no money to pay for an adoption. They began by just saying yes to the Lord and agree with what He is doing. God provided all the initial expenses and the money for the home study. Next week was to be their first installment to the adoption agency of $10k. The total cost is estimated to be between $25k and $30k. They had zero dollars. They were hoping to get the necessary $10k for the first installment. They received $23k. The Lord is so amazing! It is not like this community has a bunch of extra cash laying around. Most people around here raise support, and live simple missionary lifestyles.

This has really built our faith. We always know that God will provide all of our needs, but it is awesome to see firsthand when He actually does it. We are going to be adopting at some point in the near future. It is encouraging to see that God will provide our expenses when the time comes as well!