PRODIGAL SUN

DECEMBER 2021

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

A very interesting word from the Lord was dropped into my spirit recently. It was, “I have made My attributes available to you.” For clarity I looked up the term attributes and the most accurate definition is ‘qualities.’ This is not a word just to me, for me, but to all people. God has made His attributes or qualities available to all of us without reservation. When Christ arose from the grave it opened the holiness highway for all to travel.

We have been so inundated with lies, deceptions, and threats from all corners of the globe that many have lost heart and all hope. As we enter into the last month of the year my ‘hope’ is that you would look at all current events from a heavenly position realizing that if you are in Christ you cannot be defeated. Regardless of what may happen, including physical death, anyone in Christ cannot be defeated. Paul understood this for he wrote to the Philippians in 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” He worked with his hands for this world’s needs but his eyes were fixed on the prize of the upward call of God. (Philippians 3:14)

I want to encourage you to do what I’ve been doing and that is making a list of God’s attributes that come to mind with the realization that all of them have been made available to you also. It is the Father’s heart that we follow in His footsteps. Paul describes this in Ephesians 4:17-24. He wrote, “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you have put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

It is our responsibility to put on this ‘new’ man by our actions/choices in this life. Ephesians 3:20 reads “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” This power is the Holy Spirit that works within us to direct, correct and empower the new man. We understand that repentance is a reversal of direction, a changing of the mind resulting in Godly attributes. By this we see that true repentance is not a one time action but a lifelong commitment to the One who purchased us with His Blood.

Another attribute I wrote down is He is faithful. Joshua 1:5 and several other verses read, “I will not leave you nor forsake you.”

He is truthful. Titus 1:2..in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie promised before time began.

He is compassionate and generous. John 3:16 For God so loved, He gave…

These were just a few of the attributes I initially wrote down. The longer you meditate about Him the more you will realize how many qualities He desires to impart to you for His glory. He wants us to be imitators of Him. (Rom 5:1)

A directive to us is found in Ephesians 5:8 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9(for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 10 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

A final admonition is found in verses 15-17, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

kenhayesfleming9@gmail.com (814) 687-3707