Check out the video here on YouTube:
Hi Friends.
The Lord put this diagram in my heart several years ago and I thought it was time to make a video about it, sharing the concept with you as well as explaining what it all means. I do hope this helps all of us understand a little more about a couple of things. 1- How vital it is that we make the choice to surrender to Jesus as Lord and Savior as that will determine our eternal destiny. 2- Why things might not seem like they are changing even after we do sincerely surrender to Jesus. And 3- How merciful and great our God is that, once He begins this good work in us, He takes the responsibility to finish it as well. Please leave any comments, questions or even prayer requests below and I will get back to you. So let’s start…
So here is the diagram I am referring to. This encompasses our whole life. If we choose to surrender to Jesus, we enter into this triangle here, but if we do not, we continue to live outside of God’s forgiving love. This is certainly NOT to say God does not love everyone. It is though that unless we become born again, we have not received His forgiveness and continue to live as if we are on the throne of our own heart and lives. Jesus is not our King, and so we do not live in God’s Holy Will, but rather in His Permissive Will.
First, let me distinguish between God’s Holy Will and God’s Permissive Will. God’s Will will always be done since He is both Sovereign and Love. Let’s start with the Permissive Will. There are times when God allows us to make some choices that perhaps are not very godly, because He sees our hearts are set on making that choice. Think the Prodigal Son here. His father grants him his desire to take his inheritance and leave home, even though the father is still living and this was not done until after the father’s death btw. But because this father saw that the Prodigal Son’s heart was already far from the father, and even though it was not the right choice, and even though this choice ends up causing the Prodigal to lose it all, the father grants the request because this Prodigal had already left him in his heart. And so our Holy Father too allows us to make some choices that we refuse to let go of…thus His Permissive Will. Praise God for Romans 8:28!!! Go check it out if you are not familiar with that lovely and powerful verse. The issue is, God’s Permissive Will is still not obedience to God, as it centers on what we think, feel and want, it’s that MMI mentality motivated by Pride, and so it is sin. (see Ro 14:23; Jas 4:17) It is only God’s Holy Will that is perfect like He is.
God’s Holy Will. The only Human to walk this earth and follow God’s Holy Will 100% of the time was, of course, Jesus. This is reflected with the line straight up the middle of the diagram. This Holy Will is always choosing God’s Will over our own. It is making choices based upon what God thinks, feels and wants. It is always following the best plan for this life we live, as well as bringing us into the next Life too. It is always choosing to love God with all we’ve got, and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. This Holy Will is motivated by, grounded in and displays God’s Perfect Agape Love. It is self-less. It is serving. And it is sacrificing. Again, the only Human who ever could live this beautiful life according to God’s Holy Will is Jesus, but now in Jesus, you and I have to potential to come closer and closer to living it as well.
The triangle. Any space outside of the triangle is before we become born again. It is only once we surrender our lives to Jesus as Savior and Lord that we enter into this blessing of living the New Life in Christ. As many have said, God hedges us in so that He may protect us and guide us towards growth and the Abundant Life He designed, and desires, us to live. So see at the bottom of the triangle how I wrote “Salvation: born again, enter into God’s Eternal Family.” Once we surrender to Jesus and the Holy Spirit comes to live within our own spirit, bringing Eternal Life, we are New Creations in Christ and will be saved forevermore. We are adopted into God’s Forever Family and Heaven is our only destination, praise God! As the Bible says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (that’s John 1:12) We are God’s children the moment we sincerely surrender to His Love and will be His for all eternity. Again, praise God! This is the Abundant Life we were created to have, enjoy and share. It is a life united with God and learning to become more and more like Jesus.
So we are children! And children still have to grow, and learn and mature…and as a result, we still mess up. Thus the far lines of the triangle here and here. When we begin walking with God, we kind of either walk on the outskirts of one side or the other, as we learn what is acceptable and what is not, or if you are like me, we go from one side of the triangle all the way to the other side, trying to learn how not to live our lives in the two extremes. Dt 5:32 says, “So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left.” Living in one extreme or the other or going from one to the other, back and forth. This is what the Bible means when it talks about not turning from God’s Word to the right or to the left, or in my case, from the right all the way to the left and so on. This verse as well as many others, encourages us to live a straight path of obedience to God, yet we often stay on one side more or oscillate back and forth. Let me give you an example: I can go from being really depressed to being really full of myself, really fast! This is living life on the spectrum of harmful and demeaning inferiority to poisonous and deadly pridefulness. Yet some people tend to stay on one side or the other…in other words, they stay more on the depressed side than the arrogant side or vice versa. I hope I am making myself clear. Again, if you are like me and go from one extreme to the other, you live your life with little consistency and your moods change as quickly as the weather! But even as we go from one side to the other, we do have a greater possibility to hit God’s Holy Will in the middle there, but we must learn to stay in the middle and not allow ourselves to keep moving to the other side of the attitude, as we are moving from one side to the other. Those who live on one extreme more have to work with God a bit more intensely in order to get closer and closer to His Holy Will.
Whichever way is your nature, the inside of the triangle represents Sanctification. This is when we learn to work with God to make choices that are more towards His Holy Will and less from His Permissive Will. (see Jn 3:30) Remember the goal is to be like Jesus, so we want to choose God’s Will over our own, more and more. By His Grace, God begins to narrow our desire to choose things that are not godly, as we grow in Christ. This is represented by the narrowing triangle. We begin our Eternal Life at the bottom of this triangle with many potential choices being available to us, but as we grow, we move nearer and nearer to the top, and so, we live closer and closer to God’s Holy Will the more we live like Jesus. Now we all have our own individual lifespans so there is no set time limits or restraints on the triangle, of course. We are each individuals so the size and length of this triangle is different for each of us. For instance, my Beckie only lived 12 years here on earth, so her triangle would look different than mine as I am currently in my 54th year on earth. But I do hope you are getting the message. Once we become born again, we enter into this Sanctification process that God will guide and move us and live with us in.
First, we must enter into the triangle, which is a life walking with God as His forever child. Then we must grow in Christ to make choices that are more and more Holy rather than Permissive. In the end, God will help each of us reach that narrow door as we leave this world behind and enter into Eternity forevermore. God will make sure we continue to this point. (see Php 1:6) Our part is to desire to work with Him, more and more, and let Him guide us into this narrow door. Jesus talks about this is the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14. Listen: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
The pressure to walk this walk is not ours alone. The only way to live this life victoriously is to live it in union with Christ. Why? Because He has already walked this world perfectly AND moreover, has won the war against sin, death and Satan! If we want to have peace and joy to the overflow, no matter what is going on around us, then we must hold on to Jesus and allow Him to lead us. As we begin to think like He does, as we begin to control our emotions as He does, and as we begin to desire God’s Holy Will over our own like He does, then our lives will become more and more abundant. This means we will have that peace that surpasses understanding, that Joy in the Lord that strengthens us to do all we should and to enjoy it, that sense of righteousness that keeps us loving God and loving others as we love ourselves. Living our lives founded in love is the goal. This is how Jesus lived here, and it is how He desires us to live as well. Everyone wins as we choose to walk in God’s Holy Will, more and more. You and I sense a more fulfilling and satisfying life. Others are blessed by us more and more…and hopefully they too want to come to Jesus themselves. And God is glorified as we reflect His Holy Nature instead of our fallen one. Yes, by His Grace, we are growing, but we are still not perfected yet. But as we grow, as we start living in that narrowing triangle, we display God’s Goodness more and more. This blesses God, and us, because it is what we were created for. We were made in His Image, to be like Him, so the more we do this, the more life gets victorious, abundant and enteral.
Again leave any comments, questions or prayers requests below and I will get in touch with you. Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think.
<>< Peace
