God’s Love: Making Jesus Christ Lord–Part 2, Back to Basics

Have you ever seen a  newborn puppy or kitten, though blind, find their mother and begin to nurse? God built these “basics” (like feeding ourselves) into life. The basics are simple and easy to find and understand. When things get complicated, they can lose their value. Russian writer Leo Tolstoy said, “Give thanks to God who made necessary things simple, and complicated things unnecessary.”

Our Basic Relationships

We saw in God’s Love: Making Jesus Christ Lord–Part 1, Our Helper, how to live the way our Father wants us to and serve our Lord Jesus Christ.  We can make Jesus lord by receiving God’s gift of holy spirit and walking in love. When we “walk by the spirit,” we are carrying out Jesus’ great desire for our lives because we are obeying the Father’s will for us.

In order to walk in love and by the spirit, we need to enjoy our “basic” relationships. These are God-designed and work perfectly every time. That is how we have the victory each day.

I Corinthians 8:1-3:
Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity [God’s love] edifieth [builds up].
And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
But if any man love God, the same is known of him.

Just “knowing” something can only puff up a person’s ego. We may think we are smart, but we don’t know anything really. When we love God, He knows it. And when we love one another, people are built up.

I Corinthians 8:3-6:
As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)
But to us there is but one God, the Father, of [ek, the source] whom are all things, and we in him….

That is our basic relationship with God. He is the source of all good things. When asked how to pray, Jesus Christ gave them the basics. He said “our Father.” He did not say “our God” or “our Lord.” Jesus Christ made known the Father (John 1:18). He also said of the Father, “in heaven, holy be your name.” Jesus Christ recognized God’s power and authority.

Next he said, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Just as the angels obey God in heaven, so we too want to obey Him on earth.

Then he said, “give us this day our daily bread, forgive our mistakes as we forgive others.” Jesus Christ knew that people would err and need forgiveness. He also knew that God was a forgiving Father.

Finally, he told them to ask God not to allow them to come into temptation from the Devil. And if they should fall prey to such an attack, they were to ask the Father to deliver them from the evil one and his forces. That is how we can still pray today—straight from the heart to our loving Father.

I Corinthians 8:6:
…and one Lord Jesus Christ, by [dia, by means of] whom are all things, and we by him.

All good things from God come by making His Son, Jesus Christ, lord in our lives. That is how we get born again of God’s spirit.

Romans 10:9,10:
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

This relationship with the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ is more than just knowledge. It is a loving relationship that passes knowledge. When we are filled with the gift of holy spirit, we have God’s fullness in us as the Body of Christ.

Ephesians 3:19:
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Making Jesus Lord: Walking by the Spirit

It is by walking in the spirit that we truly make Jesus Christ lord.

I Corinthians 12:1-3:
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost [holy spirit].

The context of “speaking by the Spirit of God” in verse 3 is speaking in tongues and the other manifestations of holy spirit. When we walk by the spirit and speak for God, we are making Jesus Christ lord.

I Corinthians 12:4-11:
Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit [same spiritual source].
And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord [the same lord, Jesus Christ].
And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God [our Father] which worketh [energizes] all in all.
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
But all these worketh [energizes] that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

These are ways we demonstrate God’s spiritual power in the natural world. Walking by the spirit allows us to speak and act “by the spirit of God”—and make Jesus Christ lord of our lives. Then God is “working in us” just as He did in His Son.

Act 10:38:
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power [holy spirit power]: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

Philippians 2:5,13:
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
For it is God which worketh [energizes] in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 

Enjoy every moment of your basic relationships with God the Father, and with the Lord Jesus Christ. Your life will be energized and dynamic as you walk by the spirit!

NEXT: God’s Love: Making Jesus Christ Lord – Part 3, Knowing Him

PREVIOUS: God’s Love: Making Jesus Christ Lord – Part 1, Our Helper