Intentions

Published on 19 May 2026 at 14:35

Purpose Edition

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (1)

When our intentions and will is to please God above all else, this is what it means to be born of God. This is what it means to be dead to the world and alive in God (2). Dead to the approval of others. Dead to the trends. It is to no longer live for the expectation of anyone to please or even save but simply to do what God wants of us which may be to disappoint or forsake someone or something in order to do His will and put Him first.

This was the faith that Abraham received because he became born again having received faith to leave his father’s house cross over the desert which was for him like entering the kingdom of God, the will of God in order to obey submit and please God as God had something much greater in store for him than the inheritance of the natural blessings he would have received from his earthly father in being his heir. No Abraham received something much greater than this he received faith to trust surrender and leave everything behind even to disappoint his earthly father in order to become the father of faith, an example, the friend of God and the heir of descendants more than the sands of the sea in the flesh and in the Spirit by faith. He received the faith that pleases God when we do not care about anything else in the world more than Him and His plans and will He has for our life.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.(3)

This was the faith of the Lord Jesus to come to the earth leaving behind His heavenly privileges only to make Himself a living offering as the Son of God to take upon Himself all the sin of man when He was unjustly judged and sentenced to death by crucifixion. The faith that made Him able to obey, trust and submit to the will of God despite the opposing current of the waves of religion, politics and power that pressed against Him as He fulfilled His mission despised the shame and carried His cross (4). The cross that was first in the Spirit which is to be born again from this world in order to do what pleases God and not man. To obey and do what was of God and not of man. The cross of sacrifice. To sacrifice His will. His dreams. His plans. His future. His Hope. To do what was right in the overseeing eyes of God. For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. (5)

Surrendered to God, He did not resist but having received this faith as Abraham did, He surrendered Himself over to the Cross. In order to fulfil the plan of Salvation, the will of God; at the appointed time, having received Faith, He received the courage, the understanding and surrendered to the injustice as His mission on earth would draw to its end. So that through His resurrection the mission would be fulfilled as He would be seated at the right hand of God (4) as the one who died and rose again. The living lamb of God.

He did not try to save His life to live an earthly life inheriting a wife and having a family. He did not try to save His life in order to continue His ministry on earth as a man. He did not try to save His life to stay with His disciples a little longer as Peter suggested. He did not try to save His life to appear impressive and mighty before His offenders mocking Him. No He obeyed submitted trusted the will of God the plan of God to drink the Cup of Salvation.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says 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. (6)

What is the cup of salvation? The cup of salvation is to do the will of God. The cup of salvation is to be ready and willing to lose our life, dreams, plans, people, desires, hopes and aspirations in exchange for the life that God has in store for us. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him. (7) To love God is to displease the world. To love the world and its ways is to displease God (8). In order to please God we have to obey and keep His advice in order to do His will. In order to do that is to be born of God. To be born of God is to no longer live for this world but through the baptism in the water pass through the first death, the spiritual death; separation from this world. To live intentionally until the second death, the physical separation when we return to the dust and enter into eternal life with our Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour of our soul.

The Cup of Salvation is faith and trust in God and His Word. The Cup of Salvation is surrender. The Cup of the wrath of God is simply the consequences of unbelief and denying His outstretched arms. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil (9). It is simply a consequence like the blaspheming of the Holy Spirit is simply the consequence of unbelief. The Holy Spirit cannot convince someone who does not believe and denies the truth. This is the blaspheme, the unbelieving heart (10).

In the Garden Adam and Eve first tasted the cup of wrath which is to deny and reject the advice and guidance from God. The Cup of Salvation would have been their obedience to obey Gods instruction not to eat from the fruit of the knowledge of Good and evil. Adam and Eve were still flesh and was not yet born of God. They did not pass the test to put God first and deny themselves of the desire of knowledge, power and to please each other when they shared in their disobedience.

But we know through Jesus the second Adam. Through the example of faith of Abraham. That by faith they obeyed. They believed and inherited what was more glorious and eternal than the temporary pleasures that the world had to offer.