Power Of Guilelessness

Key Scripture:  “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, (guile), hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, desire the pure milk of the Word that You may grow.”  1 Peter 2:21,22

Power Point:

    In John 1, Jesus sees Nathaniel coming toward Him and says of him, “Well, for goodness sake, would you look at this! Here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceitfulness!”  (That’s the Suzanne translation) He seemed surprised.  In the notes in my NSFB, it says that “Jesus discerned his transparency of spirit.”  What a proclamation!
     The truth is that Jesus had been watching Nathaniel.  He had been listening to his prayers.  The term, "under the mulberry tree", was a term used to describe prayer. Jesus was watching and Jesus was listening.

     When does it happen?  When do we become aware of the fact that the thousands of things that we say need to be pure?  When do we learn that we can’t say one thing to one person and another thing to someone else?  What happens to make us realize  that giving a false impression of ourselves is giving an ungodly impression?  When does holiness become important?

    We’ve read it hundreds of times:  “Be holy, even as I am holy.”

We tend to look at that command and consider it a “distinct impossibility” don’t we?  We forget that Jesus made us holy, when He gave us the privilege of being washed clean through and through by His precious blood. What we were, we are not now.  What we are now is a NEW creation, something never before seen or heard. 

     When you look at all the wonderful characters in the Old Testament, they all had these wonderful encounters with God, didn’t they?  Jacob wrestled.  David worshipped.  Abraham believed and Moses saw Him face to face.  And yet, none of them had the extraordinary privilege of being filled with His HOLY Spirit.  They were, in fact, faced with having to try to keep the law of Jehovah without the Spirit of Jehovah.

Enter Jesus.  Enter the GOOD NEWS that things were about to change.

The life of God, the ZOE of God was now being freely offered to us, by establishing His Holy Spirit in us.

Beloved, if we’re not growing, we’re slowing down the work of the Holy Spirit.  If we don’t grow in grace, and faith, and love, then the pure power of God cannot transform us.  We STAND in holiness through what Jesus did for us, but sometimes we don’t walk in holiness. I think that saddens His Spirit.

     Have you ever thought about the fact that God is completely without guile? There is not one ounce of deceitfulness in Him. That’s important for us to know because unless you understand that, you will never be able to grow in your faith.  You'll always be wondering what will happen next.  The truth is that if He says it, He means it.

If He means it, He’ll do it.  There are no ulterior motives.

When He says He loves you unconditionally, He does.  When He says He’ll always work things out for your good, He will.  When He gives you His word on anything, you can take it to the bank.

     And be sure to cash the check with His signature on it-because it’s good.
     I think Jesus is always looking for us to manifest the same transparency that He did. He knows that our holiness is absolutely critical to our becoming like Him. And He knows that being like Him is the way into an abundant life with Him. And when we think HIS thoughts, we are guileless.

Power Thought:

“For to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us,

leaving us an example that we should follow His steps: Who committed no sin, nor was deceit(guile) found in His mouth.  1 Peter 2:21,22









Copyright(c) 2014 Suzanne Roberts, Unpublished Work.