Walk with Jesus (eBook)

Chapter 1

Invisible Friends

When I was little, I always wanted an invisible friend, and now I have one! Sometimes, a kid at school would have an invisible friend and would talk with them and take them for walks. I thought it was cool that they had someone to talk to any time they felt like talking. Since I am a woman who likes to talk, this was an ideal situation and I am sure that my family wished I had one at times.

There were no girls in the neighborhood that were my age. My brother was four years older and would not always appreciate having a little sister around, especially when he and his friends would try and play softball in the alley. I have never been athletic and they would be patient and throw some balls for me but they always tended to hit me in the stomach and I would give up and leave.

Since this is a Christian book, you are likely to guess that my invisible friends are the Lord and his partners. I pray that you too, have invisible friends leading your life.

I would like to introduce you to several of my invisible friends. They are also the main characters in the Gospel story. You may already know three of them. They are called the Trinity. They are three people, with distinctly different jobs, yet they are really one person. It is much like the fact that I am a wife, mother, friend and now a ministry leader. Ot it can be like an egg, where there is a shell, the yolk and egg white. Each part is important in the birth of a bird or chicken; and yet they can be separated into three components.

The Trinity is known as the Father, the son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit or sometimes known as the Holy Ghost. They all do different jobs and have different characteristics when they do those jobs. In fact, the Trinity has so many that we could spend a lifetime studying them and never finish.

I believe the Holy Spirit is sometimes called Holy Ghost because in the days of the Bible, He would move in the earth and people saw the movement and didn’t know how to identify it, so they called him a ghost. Once Jesus came to the earth, He told people to call Him Holy Spirit.

The Father is like the CEO and is the administrator of the His kingdom. He was first recognized by creating what we know as Heaven and the earth. In Genesis, He formed the skies, water and land. He is all-powerful, holy, has no limits or boundaries. He also created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, and had fellowship with them on a one-to-one basis. They were made perfect and in God’s image until they allowed the evil one to persuade them to sin by desiring to be like God and have the knowledge of good and evil. They had received a sin-consciousness. They now had knowledge of good and evil that they did not have before. God needed a way to pay for the sin and allow him to be close to his family again. They needed a savior. They needed a way to lose their sin-consciousness and become more conscious of God again

The son Jesus, came to earth, He set aside his divinity and stepped into a human body, in the likeness of a man (Philippians 2:5-8). He left his ability to be equal with God and became a servant of men. The New Testament tells the story of Jesus, how he became the Word. He continually said that He only says what the Father says (John 12:49). Jesus never knew sin, healed the sick and performed miracles, and later was crucified to pay the price of our sin. He experienced a horrible death, was buried for three days and nights. During those three days He went into Hell. Evil people condemned Him to death on the cross because they didn’t understand his message and thought He was a horrible sinner. They thought he was insulting everything they knew to be true about God and his law. He was then resurrected and is still alive today in Heaven. No other god can make this claim that they are still are alive. Now, we may know Him as our Messiah and Savior.

In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

John 1:1-5

When Jesus made the world as God, He used His words to create the world and then gave us the rules to avoid sin. Sin is the exact opposite of what God wanted us to do and He gave us the rules so that we know what is right and wrong.

Jesus was known as the Word; but He has been given other titles such as joy, peace, love, mighty God, Wonderful Counselor. You can flip through the New Testament and you will begin to see them written out.

Holy Spirit is mentioned in the earth after Jesus died at the Cross and He went back to Heaven. However, the Trinity did not want to leave all the people on the earth without someone to help them. So, a fragment of the Holy Spirit went into each person that is born again to live inside them. This way God knows everything a person does or thinks. Because he lives inside us, He can tell when we are involved in sin or living the right way (righteous). Righteousness means we are in right standing with God. John 14:26 AMPC also describes Holy Spirit as Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby.

Two of the words in the attributes of Holy Spirit are not common words for us to use. Advocate is someone for fights, defends or supports us. Standby is the other.1 A standby is one who offers to help in an emergency, no matter the magnitude of the event. He strengthens us, never loses focus, and always has our best on His mind. A more common use of the word standby that you might know is standby power source used in a power outage.

All three co-existed in Heaven and were present at creation, before starting their ministries. Because they are spirits, it is mentally hard to wrap our heads around the concept. In this era, we have never seen them and we have little knowledge about spirit beings. Most people tend to only think of God and Jesus and have little understanding of Holy Spirit.

A man we know as Satan was believed to be the worship leader in Heaven. Isaiah 14:12-17 and Ezekiel 28:14-18 describe this. He was filled with pride and believed he could be like God. God kicked him out of Heaven along with 1/3 of the angels that followed Satan. Satan also convinced Adam and Eve to sin and was the downfall of the Human race (Genesis 3).

Since Satan got kicked out of Heaven, he is often called accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10). His sins were the cause of his need of correction.Now, he is constantly before God, pointing out the sins of the brothers and sisters in Christ. Because of this, Satan is no longer our friend and has become a foe. John 10:10 says that the thief’s (Satan) purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. Satan’s primary job is to steal the word from believers. Jesus is to give life in all its fullness. The line has been drawn in the sand. Satan only does evil and God only gives life and goodness. If there is confusion as to who is at work, look at the results and you will instantly know which side you are dealing with.

The last description of the players in this story is angels. As I have described, 1/3 of the angels were kicked out of Heaven and are considered demonic. That means that 2/3 of the angels work for God. Once we give our lives to God, for His use, angels are available to assist us in our daily lives. Psalm 91:10-11 say that the Lord orders his angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone.

Every way possible, angels are here to guide us and protect us on our course through life. They are God’s servants and always lead us to the Word and God’s Kingdom. If you watch for them, you may see times when you question if what happened was an angel helping the situation. I have heard of a person involved in a horrible car accident and didn’t know how they suddenly were found standing on the side of the road while the car was crumpled beyond recognition.

I think most people tend to be hard on themselves. All our lives we are told that we are not “good enough,” that we messed up, maybe we have been told we are stupid or some other name. God never will. He loves us and we are important to him.

If God is for us who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us that God has chosen for his own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to live for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t.

Nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31b-35, 38a, 39b.

I highly recommend reading that multiple times and even memorizing parts of it. Make it your verse to go to when you are having a...