28/03/21 // God's Secret // Dave Watmore

Gods secret - He lives in you : Colossians 1:27

When I was first born again there was a national campaign called JIM. Jesus in me. It gave me opportunities to tell people about Jesus and my new found faith. It helped me visualise my understanding of grace and the work of the spirit. 

I want to encourage you to allow the Spirit to work again in your heart. 

In my preparation I have felt the Lord say “I am not some kind of Talisman that brings good luck. I am the living God who lives within you not on the outside. “

A challenge: Is he there by your side or is he working within you and flowing out from you?

Context: Colossians is written to the church because they were in danger of adding to the work of Christ thus nullifying the cross. 

Jesus explains the secret that has been hidden. It is the story of the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. 

“Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.””

“But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.””

This water bubbles up to eternal life. In Colossians the gift of the secret leads to eternal life. It’s the same thing. 

Do you drink of that water?

Let’s look at the bottles label: The ingredients - 100% love. 100% forgiveness. 100% His presence. 100% grace. 

These satisfy the heart. When we experience the living water it is SO satisfying that it changes everything. The law can’t change you. 

They have a political discussion about temples - the true temple is in Jerusalem not the Samaritan one BUT 

“But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24

 He is pointing to the cross. He knows his destiny and because of his love for us follows that path. 

On the cross we see 100% love. 100% forgiveness. 100% His presence. 100% grace. 

When you understand the grace of God, it sets down roots within you. It changes you from the inside out. 

“On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” John 7:37-38 

Just to prove all this Jesus rose from the dead that we will have eternal life and share in HIS glory. 

Church we are the streams on barren heights when we have grasped the secret of his living water and that it lives in us and will flow from us. 

Questions

1. Does “the secret that Jesus lives in you” give you the assurance of your salvation?
2. What scriptures do you know that would help you or others to be assured that once you are saved you are saved for eternity?
3. It is so easy to think of Christianity as a a talisman, how do you think of the work of the Spirit in your life? Working within you or there like a book on the shelf to be read when in trouble?
4. How easily do you find it to drink of the living water in the story in John 4? 

On the cross we see 100% love. 100% forgiveness. 100% His presence. 100% grace. Have you seen the Spirts work inn this way? How do you see the water?

1. The secret and the water of life are the same thing. Encourage each other to cultivate the changing power of the Spirit to flow out of you as much as it changes you inside. 
2. How can we be the rivers flowing on the barren heights? 
3. Pray for each other to have faith to see the Spirit flow and change in each one of us.