Accessing the Divine Nature

by Rob Packer

The Call

Like Abraham, we have been called on a 'grand adventure' with God, away from our 'home land', away from all that is familiar to us, and into the destiny that we were born for!

For most of us our 'home land' is not so much where we live physically, but where we live internally - our emotions, our perspectives, our attitudes. We can so easily be ruled by the current emotional landscape of our life at any given moment, and by our perspective of our current set of circumstances.

Over recent months the Lord has been reminding me again that He has called us to so much more than the puny limitations of our own default internal 'home land'. We were made for more! We were made for this amazing adventure of discovery into the wonder of who He is, and the wonder of who we are in Him.

One of the things that He wants us to learn on this adventure of discovery is to be aware of, and be influenced by, His perspective and His attitude.

Being aware of, and being influenced by, His perspective

Psa 89:15 (NASB)   says "How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O LORD, they walk in the light of Your countenance."

Taking the root meanings of those words it could be translated: "How blessed are those who know by experience the sound of celebration. O Lord, they go about in the illumination of Your perspective and attitude."

That sound of celebration is, at least in part, the sound of Jesus celebrating over you! He is excited about you! He is ecstatic about you! He is not disappointed in you, He does not wish that you were more like someone else, He loves you!!

What Psalm 89 is saying is that when we know by experience the perspective and attitude of God, ie His joyful singing over us, it illumines us, it changes the way we think, it changes what we see. Everything changes!

In Neh 8:10 (NASB) it says "Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." Whose joy is it talking about? It's not your joy, it's HIS joy.

Jesus is supremely happy, He's the happiest person in the universe. In His presence is fullness of joy! He's not wanting you to work up your own joy, He's wanting you to tap into His joy, His perspective on you, His perspective on your circumstances.

Remember what He said in the gospels:

John 15:11 (NASB)    These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

John 17:13 (NASB)    But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.

He even gives us His peace:

John 14:27 (NASB)    Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

He is totally at peace concerning you and your circumstances. Does He care about your circumstances? Absolutely. Is He worried about your circumstances? Absolutely not!

Don't worry if you feel that you do not have enough faith for a particular problem to be resolved. Tap into His faith, His supreme confidence in His ability to do whatever needs to be done. Nothing is impossible for Him.

Gal 2:20 (KJV) …and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

That is such a crucial statement..."The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith OF the Son of God..." Wow, that is so awesome!

His plan is not that we might just be aware of His perspective and attitude, but that we actually make it our own. That we become partakers of the divine nature.

Making it my perspective (partaking of the divine nature)

Have you ever noticed that in a room where people are worried, fretful, and preoccupied with their own problems, and a happy, vivacious person enters the room, the atmosphere changes? People are either really mad at the happy person and choose to stay grumpy, or they allow themselves to be affected by the happy person's buoyant mood and perspective.

When we really connect with Jesus, and spend time with Him, His perspective and attitude really rubs off on us. His perspective can become our perspective. His attitude can become our attitude.

This is not a passive process, however. Peter gives us a very significant key that will enable us to tap into and partake of the divine nature and perspective:

2 Pet 1:4    ...He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature...

It's His promises that He has given us that are the key. What promises? There are too many to mention them all here, but let's start with the ones we looked at earlier:

"These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you."

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you."

All aspects of our inheritance are accessed by faith, and so when we are discouraged, or we're facing a difficult circumstance, we can honestly acknowledge how we are feeling, but still choose to access the greater reality - His divine perspective.

We could say something like, "Jesus, you know that I am feeling troubled by this circumstance, but I thank You that you are not worried about it at all. You are totally joyful because You see what Your plan is to overcome it, and so I take your promise of Your joy, and I receive it now by faith. Let Your joy fill me; I receive Your peace, now. You are totally untroubled by this and so I let Your peace fill me and surround me." And then start to actively and deliberately give thanks to Him, and praise Him.

When we do this it won't be long before our attitudes and emotions start to change, and align themselves with the divine perspective. His perceptive will be our perspective and we will have become a partaker of aspects of the divine nature by acting on the promises and receiving them by faith.