A while ago (4 years) I wrote an article about a truth God revealed to me. Fortunately, I now have a deeper understanding on it! The essence of what I understood before: all works, no matter how good it might seem are dead works (insufficient, unsatisfactory, meager) if it does not flow from the heart of God. But now I will explain my new/deeper understanding.

In short: I now understand that God establishes His character in us. With that, His seeds planted in us grow to maturity and bring forth fruit to eat. Thus, we are changed from a slave (who always waits for exact instructions from God), to a son who knows (the Truth) when to sow, when to reap and when to do that all the things (and more!) he saw the Father doing as he was busy growing up. But there are two very important things tied in with this, both feed into the fact that He is our daily bread:

• As Jesus stated, we firstly need to love God our Father with all we have got – this means relationship.
• We should be weary of when the cloud moves. More on this below.

To step back, before this deeper understanding I used to live in a space where I would sometimes feel self-condemnation. I felt some of my works were dead because they did not flow from an explicit prompting by the Holy Spirit. But now I know that where God has established His character in me, there will be good fruit to eat, and works flowing from that does not always have to originate with an explicit thought coming from Him. But I definitely still need my daily Bread to be able to live and be continously transformed in the areas in me that need to be taken from glory to glory! And Jesus stays our ‘head’ – we must always be sensitive and submit to His will/guidance no matter to what degree of glory He has transformed us.

Backing it up with scripture

God’s transformation of our character

It happens as we see the glory of the Lord revealed in us. Scripture states that as we walk in Him and we see His glory in us (we look in a mirror and see His glory) we are then transformed to that image by the Spirit of the Lord.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [emancipation from bondage, true freedom]. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit.

2Co 3:17-18

The son that expands upon the works of the Father

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

Joh 14:12

The cloud that moves

Just like the glory faded from Moses’ face, and God’s presence faded from the holiest of holies in the temple, we need to watch where God is moving and not stick to simple rhymes and structures (which God establishes initially and has great power/effect, but which fades or grows stale). Thus we need to steer away from the things we make laws (aka religion) to replace the Living God – and keep our focus on Him as he moves. Manna only lasted a day (well two if there was a Sabath) – see Exodus 16:21.

and we are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites would not gaze at the end of the glory which was fading away.

2 Cor 3:13

The [presence of the] Lord was going before them by day in a pillar (column) of cloud to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, so that they could travel by day and by night.

Exodus 13:21

Prevent Dead Works

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.22 Many will say to Me on that day [when I judge them], ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and driven out demons in Your name, and done many miracles in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them publicly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me [you are banished from My presence], you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands].’

Mat 7:21-23

Putting God first, your neighbor (and yourself) second

and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul (life), and with all your mind (thought, understanding), and with all your strength.’ 31 This is the second: ‘You shall [unselfishly] love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mar 12:30-31

End note

One of the most valuable experiences God blessed me with the past week, was stepping out of my comfort zone to share His love with the people that came across my path. The more I simply stepped out to share the love He has for those who do not know it (and even those who do), the more I experienced His love (in such a deep and almost unbelievable way) for myself. I can truly say it is blessed to give and step out in faith. I pray for all of us reading this that we would let His river of love run through us, and not simply keep it locked up inside. People are dying every day without ever getting to know the love of God.