A Gentle Spirit

 

Jeanne Stewart, Oklahoma

 

 

 

 

Blessed Assurance

 

I am stirred by the life of one of America’s greatest poets, Fanny Crosby. Losing her eyesight to an illness that inflamed her eyes in infancy, the retina was burned from the unauthorized cure of an inept doctor; she remained blind the rest of her life. Even without her natural sight, living in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, she wrote over 7000 hymns and songs that have touched the hearts of worshippers around the world for over 100 years.

 

One of my favorite Fanny Crosby hymns is “Blessed Assurance”. The beauty of its heartfelt words reveals an insight into a depth of her spiritual understanding that natural vision cannot compare with.

 

Foretaste of Glory

 

“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine; oh what a foretaste of glory divine!”

 

Foretaste is having a sample or indication of what is to come. Jesus spoke in mysteries of this foretaste of heaven’s eternal home within the first four gospels. Giving just enough illustration through His parables, we may look forward to once again having a close relationship with our Creator that had been lost in the Garden of Eden. Our Father God was meant to be enjoyed face to face in relationship with His children.

 

Born of His Spirit

 

“Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.” 

 

Eden’s assurance of sinless face-to-face relationship with God was broken because of disobedience of man. Born as sinners into this earthly world, we must now accept re-birth into the Kingdom of God for all eternity by receiving Jesus Christ as God’s Son.

 

The highest price was paid, as a life was given to heal that broken relationship between God and His creation. We are purchased by our Father through His plan of salvation to redeem. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)

 

Re-birth is by His Spirit in us, as our sinful nature is washed clean by the purchase God made through the sacrificed blood of Jesus. The Family blood line broken by disobedience can now be redeemed by Immanuel who came and walked among us speaking mysteries of our heavenly eternal home with God our Father.

 

Echoes of Mercy and Whispers of Love

 

“Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight; angels descending, bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love.”

 

As we humble ourselves, the breath of our soul calls out to God like whispers that echo. An echo then is a reflected sound, and then words are sounds heard. “So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17)

 

The visions of rapture are when the Holy Spirit reveals grace and mercy’s forgiveness as angels applaud in heaven at our conversion.

 

Lost In His Love

 

“Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Savior am happy and blest; watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love.”

 

The anticipation of our home throughout eternity with our Creator Father and Redeemer Jesus brings His Spirit of holiness closer into our heart. As we grow in grace, there is a knowing to believe His precious promises as our love for Him deepens. Our heart to heart relationship becomes surrounded by His care, as “... love suffers long and is kind … bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things for love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

 

True Worship

 

“This is my story; this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.”

 

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:

God was manifested in the flesh,

Justified in the Spirit,

Seen by angels,

Preached among the Gentiles,

Believed on in the world,

And Jesus was received up into glory as our intercessor at the right hand of Father. (1Timothy 3:16)

 

So this blessed assurance comes from knowing Jesus in a relationship of the ‘matters of the heart’, not the eyes of ‘seeing to believe.’ This joy comes from knowing how to rejoice in the assurance of believing that we are blessed to be forgiven. This power of love comes from the praise our heart sings forth to His acceptance of us. Then there is joy in our journey, bringing eternity’s home near.