241. COME AWAY…TO JESUS

(The Abundant Life Series – Batch 2)

This message is for the UNBELIEVER who still resides in the domain of darkness that is the world and the world system, the BACKSLIDER, who is dabbling with the world when the Lord is beseeching him and her to come out completely from it and on to something better with the focus exclusively on the things of heaven and Christ Jesus and the CHRISTIAN WHO IS SUBMITTED TO CHRIST but who may be feeling tempted by the world’s system or feeling stuck to any aspect of his or her past.

The following verses and notes were compiled and expanded upon, based on the message in a Crusade meeting I attended on 16th April, 2019, so as to remind me and others of the necessity and satisfaction and full assurance involved in coming away, from and out of the things that lure, tempt and seem attractive in the world and coming IN to that place of safety, which is in Jesus Christ.

THE MESSAGE: COME AWAY…TO JESUS

Like Abram, the Lord wants us to come out from our father’s house. In John 8:44, Jesus told the Jews: “Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do.”

When we are all born into this world, our father is the devil, due to the fall of mankind that occurred through Adam and Eve’s disobedience. They were the first of God’s human creation and when they disobeyed God, sin entered the world and entered them. As our ancestors, we, along with the whole world, have inherited sin from them and are therefore born with sin in our DNA.

As a result of our sin-sick condition, we are born separated from God (because he hates sin) and destined for hell (the only place that sin-sick people who have not been cleansed and washed and delivered from their condition, go after death). As long as we remain in that state and the devil remains our father, our lives will be a waste and our end destructive, so much so that it would have been better if we had not been born.

However, it is God’s desire that we come out from our father’s house (the devil’s house) and come into his family.

Genesis 12:1-3 states:

• “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Whenever God calls you to come out, it is so that you can then come in to something better. He commands that we come out of the world’s system and come into his family with Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.

This place is a place where we are assured protection, like God told Abram above, guidance and safety. It is like the ark which kept Noah and his family safe when God rained his wrath upon the earth and destroyed mankind from the face of it, through a flood.

Genesis 7:7 states: “And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.”

God’s message to the unbeliever and the backslider has always been to come OUT and come IN.

Whenever he says come, we must obey. Whenever he says come, we must be careful to keep our focus on him and not on what is happening around us. Once we do that, he will keep us afloat in life.

Jesus told Peter to come when they were out at sea and he obeyed but then he began to look around him and therefore began to sink. Initially, in obedience to the instruction to come, he came out of the boat and began, through his faith in Jesus, to walk miraculously on the water to meet him, who was also standing on the water some distance away. However, Peter became distracted by the waves and the fact that he was in the middle of a storm in the middle of the sea, he let go of his faith in Jesus to continue to enable him supernaturally to get to the point where he was safely and fear seeped in, causing him to start to sink.

The Bible states in Matthew 14:28-31:

• “And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.”

God’s call for humanity to come is echoed throughout scripture.

Revelations 22:17 states: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.…”

Jesus said in Mathew 11:28: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

This applies to all who are heavy laden with the world’s system, the hopelessness and futility of life, sin, the cares and worries of this world.

In Isaiah 55: 1-13, the call went out to come. God even stated what he would do for those who obeyed the call by (1) abandoning and coming out of the world’s system, the weight of sinful living and their own way and (2) turning their eyes in his direction and coming unto him.

The scripture reads:

• “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

• Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

• For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

• For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

In John 6:37, Jesus gave the assurance that all who come to him for salvation from the futility of this world, sin and eternal damnation in hell, he will not turn away or cast out but receive into the family of God. He stated: In John 6:37, Jesus gave the assurance that all who come to him for salvation from the futility of this world, sin and eternal damnation in hell, he will not turn away or cast out but receive into the family of God. He stated: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

Jesus stated that his purpose for coming down to earth was to call people to come out of the futility of the world’s system (which is under the devil’s control for a season) and to come into the family of God, through Him. For, those who remain in the devil’s house and with him as their father, will go to a lost eternity in hell, when they die and spend it there with the devil and his demons, as hell was initially prepared by God for the devil and his demons.

Those who come out of the world’s system and the devil’s house though and renounce him as their father, while coming to Jesus in obedience to His call, inherit eternal life and get to spend eternity in heaven with God!

Jesus is the ladder that the Godhead has provided to get to heaven, so all who wish to renounce the devil as their father, must come to Jesus. In John 14:6, Jesus stated: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.”

In the Bible, he stated of his mission on earth which was to draw men out of the destructive path of sin in the devil’s house and unto a better life through Him: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10). In Luke 5:32, he also stated: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” 

Jesus referred to the devil and this world’s system which is under the devil’s control, as having a destructive agenda. The intention of the devil is to destroy mankind. In this regard, he is a horrible father. For, whereas the Lord Jesus came to give those who come to him life and more abundantly, the devil who has the world blinded by deception, comes to kill, steal and destroy those who remain in his house (John 10:10).

Unlike the devil which hates mankind, the agenda of Jesus in calling us to come is good and pure. He loves the world and wants people to come to him, so that he can give them the free gift of eternal life. This is why he came to earth, died a sacrificial death for the sins of all humanity, so that his perfect blood which was shed, could then be made available to wash us from our sins and make us clean in God’s sight.

John 3:16 states: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him, should not perish but have everlasting life.”

For those who refuse to come out from the devil’s household and come to Jesus and into God’s family, Jesus has stated, that the reason they refuse to come to the light he freely offers is because the devil has blinded their eyes, making them think that there is something good in this world’s system.

In 2 Corinthians 4:4, Jesus stated of those who do not believe that he (Jesus) is the Son of the true and living God and that he rose up from the dead, that: “…the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

Only good can come to those who make the decision to come out from the house of their father the devil in which they were born, to renounce him as their Master and to come into the household of God, by surrendering their hearts and lives over to Jesus’ control. Yet, sadly, many remain under the devil’s control and keep him as their father (although he hates them and wants to see them destroyed). This is because he has deceived them into thinking that there is hope in the world’s dysfunctional system and in sin.

In Psalm 45:10-11, the Lord likens a person who makes the crucial decision to come out of the devil’s household and to embrace Jesus as his or her new Master and Lord, to a bride that is leaving the household she knew behind and going on to something better with her new husband and family. He urges her to forget her former life and all that pertained to it, not to long for the past and the former lifestyle and the house that she has abandoned, (like the Israelites did in longing for Egypt’s evil system after God took them out from it or Lot’s wife who looked back at Sodom and Gomorrah which was a wicked place, when the angel was taking her and her family out of it and therefore was turned into a pillar of salt).

The verses state: “Hearken O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.”

The sinner who comes to the Lord Jesus repentantly, asks him to come into his life and take control, while renouncing the devil as his father and all that pertained to his house is not to long to return or to enjoy what he was used to or how he was used to living while in his former father’s house. For, God has so much better planned for his life.

His focus is to be forward and never backward. For there is nothing in the devil’s house that could have ever satisfied his deepest desires or that would have redounded to his benefit or that could have saved him from the wrath that is to come from God on all those who choose to remain in the devil’s house, as children of disobedience.

Proverbs 4:25-27 states of the person who has made the right decision to come out from the devil’s destructive house and to come in to the family of Jesus:

• “Let thine eyes look right ON and let thine eyelids look STRAIGHT before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.”

Whereas the devil hated such a person while he was residing in his house and was invested in his failure by providing things that seemed good but which would ultimately destroy him, God, as his new Father, genuinely cares for and loves him and promises security.

When a person comes to the Lord, he is now in a new house with a new and caring Father and he therefore now has a new identity. The Lord therefore calls that person who comes to him, by a new name, much like that which occurs when a woman gets married and takes on her new husband’s name, to show that she is no longer in her father’s house but in a new family and under new management.

In Isaiah 62:2-4, God told the Israelites, who he likened unto a bride:

• “…And thou shalt be called by a NEW NAME, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a CROWN OF GLORY in the hand of the Lord and a ROYAL DIADEM in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called HEPHZIBAH, and thy land BEULAH: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.” (Isaiah 62:2-4)

CONCLUSION

To every person currently living in the world without knowing Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour and God as their Father, to every person living a life of disobedience and rebellion to God’s way of living as declared in the Bible, you are under the devil’s management. He is your father and was your father from birth. God is now calling you to make the decision to believe on his Son the Lord Jesus, that he died, rose again from that grave (because he has the power to do so as God the Son) and confess him with your mouth as Lord because this is the truth.

God is calling you to COME OUT of the devil’s household and through faith in Jesus Christ, to COME IN to that place of safety, the only place of safety, which is in God’s household.

Through your faith in Jesus, you can change fathers. One father (the devil) hates you and will lead you to death, while the other (God) loves you and will lead you to life everlasting.

To the backslider who once came to Jesus but has slipped back into the world or the Christian who is tempted to do so or is missing the world’s system or something or someone from their past, God is saying to COME OUT AND AWAY from that life of futility and return unto him. Come back home, even as the Prodigal son did when he came to his senses and remembered the value of what he used to have when in his father’s house.

Don’t stay in a world that can only feed you husks that belong to swine but come back to the Father of lights, who can spread a feast for you and clothe you in a purple robe.

You may feel unloved, unappreciated, invisible, insignificant, hated by others, weary, misunderstood, frustrated with where you are at because you want to move on so badly but yet feel stuck. COME AWAY to Jesus and keep pressing on in his direction.

The world’s system and the devil’s house have nothing to offer, whereas if you keep looking to Jesus who is the author and finisher of your faith, you will reap in due season if you faint not. (Galatians 6:9).

When feeling weak and tempted to look back as the Israelites did and as Lot’s wife did, to their detriment, we must say, as Paul stated in Philippians 3:13-14When feeling weak and tempted to look back as the Israelites did and as Lot’s wife did, to their detriment, we must say, as Paul stated in Philippians 3:13-14: “…forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I PRESS toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

(Written on 16th April, 2019)

Dear Reader, if you found this Note to be useful you should also consider reading:

• Note 17 – ‘Just One Thing May Be Holding You Back’
• Note 18 – ‘What Is God Calling You To Cast Out Of Your Life?’

Additionally, under the ‘BIBLE-BELIEVING Daughters’ Page:

• Note 208 – ‘The Revenger And The City Of Refuge’

Study the words of this Hymn:

Oh, why thus stand with reluctant feet,

Just on the verge of this rest so sweet?

While God invites and your steps will greet,

Come away to Jesus now.

Refrain: Come away to Jesus (x3),

Come away to Jesus now.

Thy Spirit strives, and yet there you stand,

In sight of bliss and the glory land;

Retreat is death in the sinking sand, Come away to Jesus NOW.