Enriched in Everything

     As Moses stood overlooking the Promised Land, knowing that he would not enter it, his last message to the Israelites reminded God’s people of their covenant with the Lord. He reminded them of the blessing and curse set before them. What will they choose? The choice is always between the Tree of Life—the life and blessings that comes from being in relationship with God—and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—settling for less than God’s best and succumbing to the ways of Satan, the god of this age. Blessings or curses.
       “Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you” (Deut. 30:1-3).
      By rejecting the time of their visitation from the Messiah at Christ’s first coming, in a sense, they are once again in captivity. As in times past—the early Days—their captivities always resulted from the choice not to pursue their relationship with God with all their heart and soul.
       End-Time Lesson: The same two choices are set before us in these last Days. Peter echoes Moses’ last words in the first chapter of 2 Peter 1. Only this time the message is set in the covenant of grace made possible through our Lord Jesus, to those who have obtained this same precious faith by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
       “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (vs. 2-4).
        Did you catch that? He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness even while we live out our earthly lives. We don’t have to wait for that glorious Day when we are perfected at the rapture. We can learn to walk in godliness even now. Why? Because God has given us His promises in His Word. By diligently studying and acting on these, we can we partake of the divine nature—that is. experiencing the supernatural ways of Heaven. We don’t become Gods, but we are expected to walk in godliness and Christlikeness.
       Practically speaking, these promises mean we don’t have to pray to God to give us these things. He’s already done His part. Our part is to give all diligence to add to the measure of faith God has already given us  regarding the things Peter lists in the rest of chapter 1. We can summarize them as the fruit of the Spirit that is already inside us. If they’re already in us, then why do we need to give all diligence? Because it is up to us to draw out of that living well what is within us.
      Now for most of us, drawing up all that water at once would overwhelm us like a supernatural tsunami. Instead, the Spirit brings those things to our remembrance that we need when the circumstances of life threaten to engulf us. But to do this, we have to be “in touch” with the Spirit. That’s why Peter prays that grace and peace be multiplied to us through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. That is, through our times of intimacy with the Godhead. This is really what the majority of our prayer time is about—fellowshipping with God.
      He longs to fellowship with us in the same way He would come into the garden in the cool of the day to commune with Adam and Eve. Think about that. It happened before the fall. They had every provision they needed in the Garden. We could say that they had no prayer needs to bring to His attention. So what did they do? They ministered to the Lord by spending precious time with Him, learning His heart and His ways. Isn’t that what every spouse and parent longs for from those closest to them?
      This is why prayer should be a dialogue. We need to be still and listen for His voice. We need to quiet our own thoughts so that we can come to know Him in a deeper, more intimate way.