LUKE 18:15-17 MSG People brought babies to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. When the disciples saw it, they shooed them off. Jesus called them back. “Let these children alone. Don’t get between them and me. These children are the kingdom’s pride and joy. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.”

It’s the middle of March of 2024, that’s two thousand twenty-four years and three months. Whoa!

There are 40 calendars in use around the world. God doesn’t deal in time, He’s timeless. But for us, so that we can understand, He breaks things down into increments, allows us to use time as a measurement of space. With this being said, why 40?

You’d think that with all the knowledge out in the world, all of the advances in technology, all of the astronomical achievements and solar exploration and research, we’d have narrowed it down to only one calendar by now. 

I thought it would be pertinent to help us advance in God by edifying us through doing a “Coat Check,” that is, helping us realize the importance of “checking” ourselves before we approach God. Let’s get into the specifics.

In pursuit of Christ, that is, on the journey to meet Jesus, we’ve been given instructions in Luke 18. In addition to the admission and confession of our sins we then enter into repentance which leads us straight into the acceptance of Christ into our hearts. We are made anew.

It’s out of this newness of life that Christ requires us to leave our intellect and our pride “at coat check.”

Consecration produces sanctification.

Jehovah Mekoddishkem, The Lord who sanctifies you.

What do you mean? In order to really learn of God, to get to know Him, what He desires and How He wants to be treated, His statutes, His dislikes, His favorites, we must put ourselves under submission to His Deity. It’s at acceptance that we learn what submission means.

Submitting to His Sovereignty, His Will is further explained to us through our exploration of Him through several modes of exposition that we discover that God’s knowledge is much higher than ours. His level of thinking and seeing and even hearing is higher, greater. His wavelength and frequency is higher. You get the point yet? 

He’s Omnipresent, meaning that He’s everywhere. We’re in one place and even if we could teleport, we could only still teleport to one location at one time because we are one body with limited power.

He’s The Holy Spirit who is everywhere at the same time with unlimited POWER! He knows what’s going to happen every nanosecond but we don’t know what’s going to take place at any space in time, unless He discloses it to us. 

He’s Omniscient. We only know what we know at the moment we know it and even then we could be misinformed. He’s never misinformed! How do we think that we could ever bring our knowledge to the table and present it as if we could teach God as opposed to God having to be our Teacher?

How could we compare our knowledge to His, given that we are finite when God is infinite? Jehovah! Elohim!

He’s Omnipotent, He’s ALL POWERFUL. We have no power without Him! We cannot even breathe less He breathes within us. He’s The Creator yet gave us management ability as Curators as a part of His Creation.

Movement? We couldn’t have the activities of our limbs less God says so.  If God decided our time’s up, guess what? It’s up, but His Power sent Jesus to The Cross. That same Power took the penalty of sin away through Christ’s death then resurrection. The Resurrection released us from the hand of the enemy.

God adopted us. Now, we are Heirs of God! His Power is what captivates (us) His Children to yearn for Him. Our very being requires Him to survive. We hunger and thirst for Him. This is why we pray, praise, sing, preach, teach, study, worship, etc. Who are you thirsty for? Who do you have a taste for? We cannot serve two Masters.

Therefore, we must check ourselves before we enter into His Presence. Before we go before His Throne, we must have a heart of humility. We must repent before asking for God to do something for us and mean it.  We must approach Him with the mindset that He knows what is best for us and when it is best for us. Our hearts and minds must be under submission, in unity, that God dwells over us and that we are nothing without Him; this is how we progress in God. 

We grow in God when we understand that God wants us to approach Him as children approach their parents, in humility, wanting to know more, wanting to learn, eager to help, excited to see them, happy to love them and filled with joy to be in their presence. He wants us to be assured that whatever we need He will provide.

Abba, Father!

Put respect on God’s Name! 

He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

John 3:30 | NLT