7/18/26 Chosen by I AM

Ephesians 1:4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.

Last week we focused on the first half of this verse on the meaning of and the value of being in Jesus and his foreknowledge of who of us would follow him. For a deeper understanding of this portion of what is taught today please reflect on last week. This week the remaining portion of the verse will draw on the premise given last week.

The second half of Ephesians 1:4 ties the foundation of the foreknowledge of God of who is going to follow his Son, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world with the reason, the purposes of our saving. These reasons & purposes seem to have been somewhat lost in many ministries as not a priority to be taught because of the focus on seeker-sensitive strategies rather than creating disciples who walk, talk, act, and position themselves as vessels for God to use & operate with the outpouring of Spiritual gifts to effect the lives of others.

When the emphasis is conversion then there is a void on what to do afterward, because you may say I was saved by Jesus, unless the individual attaches themselves to the word of God & sound teaching elsewhere there is a nothing more than an assumption of daily surrender to the leading of the Holy Spirit. This then looks like a person who experiences no life change but professes to be saved by Jesus. For those of us who know Christians who act as though they are not saved by choices they make, words they use, values they have which are ungodly, this could be the reason why.

This movement is built on the premise to surrender your life to Jesus but has not followed up with the effective teaching, & understanding of the purposes of Holy Spirit, the 3^rd member of the Trinity. The purposes of Holy Spirit are to help, guide, counsel, seals them for redemption, regenerates & renews the believer, to comfort, leads in paths of righteousness, Holy Spirit also diminishes the affect of the flesh, as well as to equip & distribute the Spiritual gifts, and the final purpose is to provide wisdom.

Neglecting the teaching of the Spirit does the Christian body a great disservice & I just gave you more than most know in :10 seconds. The way to summarize it is the Spirit is within us to so that we can live godly lives. Jesus said apart from him we can do nothing, the depth of this statement is not understood unless we recognize that the Spirit is his spirit and when we do not acknowledge, or even know the purposes of the Spirit in our lives we can do nothing. AM I saying you cannot walk, talk, operate? No that is not what Jesus meant.

The activities done in the flesh are not valuable. The things done in the Spirit are eternal. The conflict is we are driven by the flesh which is being driven by the sickness we all possess. The church is not to be orchestrated as a group of self-righteous, gossiping, condemning people who are broken theologically. We are to be appealing to the cause of Christ & reflecting him more than our flesh driven by the ways of the world driving us. This is something the outside world does not understand because obviously we cannot expect them to understand the things of God if we ourselves who sit & worship in houses of God unless it is taught properly.

According to the second half of this verse, we are chosen before creation is to be Holy & blameless before him in love. As stated previously this is the reasoning. In other words we are not chosen to operate in the guilt of the flesh. The curve ball here is the word holiness, because it is not a word used in the secular world, it is a church word & its meaning may not be understood. Jesus said Be Holy for I am Holy. This cannot mean blameless because that is what is added here & sadly many people falsely believe that is what holiness is.

For you to live out the reasoning he chose you, you have to know what it means. First it is an absolute command by Jesus for us to be holy, not a request. The importance of holiness is a requirement to see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14), so your like great I will get to work on that. The problem is you cannot achieve that without Jesus in you, because that is the crux of the series & operating in the flesh is not holiness, it is contrary to the Spirit. Being holy is by definition being set apart for honorable use. Honorable use is godly use which cannot begin until we have Christ in us, that being Holy Spirit to cultivate our lives, our directions, our values, & our attitudes by guiding us, living by the one who is leading us Holy Spirit.

For this verse to be fully realized in your life it takes surrender every day to the leading of what the Spirit tells you to do, which will never contradict scripture; additionally, this means communicate with the Spirit as you pray. Ask questions wait for answers which are sometimes audible & sometimes visual in your minds eye. Once you have the instructions you carry them out. Obedience is better than sacrifice & sometimes you will have to do both.

When you walk holy & blameless before him in love obviously means it is essential to be led by the Spirit to do what the Spirit calls to do equipped with what the Spirit equips us with, which is the spiritual gifts. The possibilities are to be able to prophesy or gain wisdom or even heal amongst others. In your everyday life you are meant to be set apart for sacred use, you are to be blameless before God in love. This all comes with surrender to the Holy Spirit daily after you have surrendered to Christ. For us to show Jesus we love him we obey, & obedience is more than just a moral conduct code, it is more than giving a tithe. Obedience is going into the world around you, led by the Spirit to bring change to the world around you in the name of and for the sake of Jesus.