John 14:23-24
Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
It is a reconciled and restored relationship that God seeks from you. Why does He seek this? Because, He loves you. The word 'love' is very misunderstood today. Love is the very nature of God. This love cannot be understood because we have the sinful nature of the Devil planted in us from the garden of Eden. God's love could be seen in the garden of Eden. Even though Adam and Eve had sinned through their own disobedience, God still loved them. He showed it through this act.
Genesis 3:21-24
The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove them out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
It's more than an earthly father's love. As the heavenly Father, He cared for them even though they had disobeyed Him and given their allegiance to the Devil instead of their Creator God whom they rightfully belong to. How He was grieved of their act, when He had to tell them to go way from that garden which He had specially prepared for them. He drove them out so that they could lead their own lives in their own ways that they have chosen for themselves. They had refused God's ways. Now, God had another plan in store for them initially, but they aborted it through their own disobedience. They cannot continue to live on there in the garden because the secret to God's eternal plan was in that garden too. He had to keep them away from that garden so that God's eternal plan for mankind will not be defiled eternally. The first Adam failed Him and all mankind after him. It's not enough if they have become like God, knowing good and evil. They need to know the difference of good from evil. They must know the difference and not mix the two up. The evil in them has to be put to death. That evil is the sinful nature of the Devil which was deceptively planted in them by the Devil.
God continued to show His love to them, even though they were driven out of the garden of Eden. He showed His love to Adam's sons but the sinful nature of the Devil took the life of the one whom God was pleased with, Abel. The Devil kept showing that his way is working on mankind, not God's. He was striving with God.The sinful nature of the Devil is filled with hatred, jealousy, strife, pride, arrogance, envy, murder, divisions, factions, greed, covetousness, thieving, stealing, robbery, drunkenness, rebellion, stubborness, violence, all kinds of sexual immorality, lust and so forth. He continued showing His love to mankind until demons and mankind were no different. He had to warn them through Noah His servant, that they are all His creations who have gone terribly wrong because of the interference of the Devil in their lives directly now.
He was again grieved badly when they refused to listen to His warnings for a long-suffering, one hundred and twenty years in all. He had no choice again. He had to send all of them down to the centre of the Earth in imprisonment, whom the Lord Jesus Christ had visited and preached to them, when He had resurrected from His death on the cross at Calvary. Such is God's love. He never forgets His children. He always keeps giving them another chance, hoping that they will change. He sent His only begotten Son, who was the Tree of life in the garden of Eden.
He kept it secret until it was time to reveal His eternal plan again. Even that the Devil tried to interfere with but this time he failed miserably in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. He resurrected from death and took the keys of death and hades away from the Devil and Christ our Lord is the life-giver to everyone who believes in Him. Believing in Him is not enough. You must love and obey everything He has commanded. In this way, His divine nature will take over the sinful nature of the Devil in you through your obedience to Him. He sends a helper for you, God the Holy Spirit through the Father in Heaven, after He had returned to the Father's right hand. Now, He is interceding for you to the Father that you too will have full Christformation by eating from the Tree of life, which is Him. He, as the Tree of life, gives the eternal fruit of His divine nature to be formed in you who obediently "eat and drink" from Him. Such is His eternal love for you but what are you doing with it?
Are you as stubborn as most of the mankind from the start. in the garden of Eden? God continues to show His love towards you so that you will return to Him through His firstborn Son who happens to be the last Adam too. If you have full Christformation in you, one day, then He will be pleased that He has reached out to you and won you over from the Devil completely. Isn't Christformation in you the centre, middle and the heart of everything between God who created heaven and earth and you. Christ is truly the mediator between us and God. Won't you obey Him today! He loves you and they will make their home in you forever, if you obey Christ whom He had sent to this Earth. He wants this relationship restored. He has no ill-intentions for you, but the Devil had, right from the beginning of things. Why can't you see that!
Christformation in you is the centre of your life,emotions, feelings, relationships,vocation, growth, marriage, well-being, health, a contented life-style, children, grand-children and all that you would need for eternity. God loves you, do you love Him? If you do, obey all that Christ had commanded now! You will have eternal life which the Father had reserved from the garden of Eden, for you who obey Him. What long-suffering love of God for you and me!
Isaiah 9:6-7
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
