Christ Consciousness

Christ’s consciousness is grace consciousness!

Jesus, our redemption, says, God is not angry with you (1 Corinthians 1:30)! I venture to say He’s madly in love with you. He gave His only Son, Jesus, just for you! Was that love or anger? It’s easy to imagine God is angry, seeing how when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they were cast out of the Garden. But God restored us through the blood of Jesus. God had to judge the sin in the Garden of Eden, but anger doesn’t need to be a judgment component. My church attendance led me to believe Father God was angry with me because of my sin. When the opposite is true, He’s not mad but loves me without measure. So many examples in the Bible capture the heart of God. 

God’s Heart for His Creation

The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing since Abraham shall indeed become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? God didn’t keep secrets about His intentions for Sodom and Gomorrah in honouring His covenant with Abraham. 

Abraham Negotiates with his Covenant Partner, Almighty God!

Remember Abraham’s nephew Lot was in that great city. Abraham came near and asked the Lord, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? The righteous He spoke of was Lot (2 Peter 2:7). Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous? Far be it from You to do sure a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the judge of all the earth do, right? So, the Lord said, “If I find fifty, I will not destroy the city.” Abraham negotiates with God to not destroy the city for ten. The Lord said, “I will not destroy the city for ten righteous. Well, you know the rest of the story: the Lord destroyed the town. If God liked to kill people, He would’ve done it. He loves people! His creation! 

God’s Heart is Demonstrated in the Book of Jonah!

Another example of God’s heart toward man is in the book of Jonah. The word of the Lord came to Jonah saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” But Jonah fled to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord like God was only in one place! Then he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish again. The scripture says he went down. You’re going down every time you don’t listen to the Lord. So, Jonah gets on this ship, trying to escape his assignment. Then, a great wind came on the sea to the point of breaking the vessel. All the men on the boat cried out to their god. They also threw cargo from the ship to lighten the load, but Jonah had gone to the lowest parts of the vessel and went fast asleep. 

Fast Asleep in Disobedience!

Johan is fast asleep! The captain went to him and said, “What do you mean sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us so we may not perish.” The fear had gotten so great among the crew they cast lots. The Bible doesn’t say what method they used, but this activity revealed Jonah as the troublemaker to them. The crew members questioned him about what caused this trouble, his occupation, and who his people were. Jonah told them, “I am a Hebrew; I fear the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.” Now, the men were struck by fear because I knew Jonah was attempting to flee the presence of the Lord. They asked him, “What shall we do so that the sea may calm us?” He said, throw me into the sea. But the men didn’t want to throw him into the ocean and attempted to row back to the land. 

The Lord makes all things work together for good!

Romans 8:28

The storm got only worse, and then they cried out to the Lord (the unbelieving) and said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and don’t charge us with innocent blood for You, O Lord have done as it pleased You, Jonah 1:14. They picked Jonah up and threw him in the water. The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, where he spent three days. 

Jonah’s Disobedience Brings Crew Members to the Lord 

What’s impressive about this whole ordeal is the men on the ship became believers. Talk about all things working together for good, Rom 8:28. Jonah’s disobedience brought unbelievers to the Lord. As often as I’ve read this book, I ignored that part. But these crew members were, in the beginning, calling out to their gods. But in the end, they were calling on the Lord back to Jonah in the belly of the big fish. Jonah cried out to the Lord, and the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited him on dry land, Jonah 2:1-10. Again, the word of the Lord came to Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach, but this time he arose and went. He cried and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” The people of Nineveh believed in God and proclaimed a fast, Jonah 3:1-5. That has got to be the shortest sermon ever to save so many. God doesn’t want to destroy; He wants to set free. Sin is bondage, and in both cases with Nineveh, Sodom, and Gomorrah, God didn’t want to kill, but the judgment was imminent and necessary. 

Beloved,

Jesus is for us! Jesus Christ is who the Lord God sent to save us! He paid the sin debt for us, and in Him, we are the righteousness of God 2 Corinthians 5:21. Christ’s consciousness knows Jesus did it all for you and us.

Accept Him as Lord and allow Him to change your consciousness!

🙏🏽Say, Lord Jesus, come into my heart!🙏🏽

Jesus is Lord!