Jesus said, “I am the Road… John 14:6 THE MESSAGE Bible

My first journey as a young adult was from the East Bay Area in California to Ohio to a Christian festival. A flock of us young ones travelled with an older adult in his old Toyota Land Cruiser. It was fun! Each of us had a job when we stopped for gas – either checking tire pressure, checking the oil, cleaning the windshield, or taking out trash, which we did at every stop. We drove straight through to Ohio, over eighteen hundred miles, in forty hours. A great American song – AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL – has a line about ‘purple mountains majesties’ which I never understood until I saw the Rocky Mountains in the predawn light. Purple and majestic, indeed! There are some things you will never see, never understand until you make the journey.

“I’m a pioneer on a love frontier, blazing new trails in my mind…” – Joe Fair

Our journey as Christians starts at the Cross and ends at the Throne. Fortunately, unlike our Ohio trip, you don’t have to make a return run. Most Christians, it seems are content to camp out at the Cross for their whole lifetimes. But if you don’t make the journey to the Throne, you miss out on the Throne, and all the wonders along the journey. Romans and Ephesians show us the way. Our journey begins in Romans chapter three where the kingdom of sin is dethroned in our hearts, and a new King begins to rule. We believed…

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith… Rom 3:21-25 NKJV

The Oregon Trail was originally established in the 1830’s as a path for settlers to make the journey from Independence Missouri to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, where our home is today. The explorers and settlers would follow landmarks along the way to know they were on the right path. Our trip from California to Ohio across interstate highways traced much of the original path of that trail. A landmark of our trail to the Throne is in Romans chapter five.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Rom 5:1-3 NKJV

The early settlers on the Oregon Trail ran into outlaws and other renegades. But because sin has been dethroned in us we are no longer renegades but have peace with God through our new King. Peace is necessary to hear the voice of God and get revelation. Now we can receive direct specific directions on our journey. On our trip to Ohio, we relied on maps – this was the prehistoric era before GPS and cell phones – but on our trip to the Throne, we can rely on perfect daily direction from the King Himself through His Holy Spirit who will take us to the Throne, if we decide to go. What an adventure!

On our journey next, we come to Romans Eight, which is a huge and important destination which we must fully appreciate. The Oregon trail had many great landmarks to show the travelers they were on the right path. Three great landmarks in our journey are found in Romans Eight. The first one…

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus… For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Rom 8:1-3 NKJV

Tornadoes, storms and rivers caused many deaths on the Oregon Trail, and the storm of guilt and condemnation has ruined many a Christians journey to the Throne. We must declare that we are who God says we are, regardless of how we feel. Throw out that old condemnation and realize you are a son or daughter of ABBA, cleansed by the blood of YESHUA from all sin and stain. Second Romans Eight marker on the journey…

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Rom 8:26-29 NKJV

The settlers on the Oregon trail carried powerful shotguns and rifles because they didn’t know what they would come up against on the journey. God has given us a weapon so powerful that He promises if you use it faithfully and abundantly that all things – good, bad, or indifferent – will work out for the best possible result because you love God and are following His calling to the Throne. Don’t you just want to sit down and pray in tongues for a while? The third landmark in Romans Eight gives us a view of the glory of the Throne from a distance…

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Rom 8:29-34 NKJV

“…at the right hand of God’ – that’s the Throne! You can see it all the way from Romans Eight. We’ve been made glorious – these He also glorified – in our preparation to join our King at the Throne! Look what else it says…

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom 8:35-39 NKJV

Now many settlers on the Oregon Trail stopped before reaching their ultimate goal and bought land in places like Denver Colorado – which we passed through – and others without reaching the Willamette Valley. Some believers do the same thing today, deciding they are more than conquerors and that is as good as it gets. But God beckons us to come up even higher, all the way to the Throne of God.

Many travelers stopped at ‘waystations,’ towns and forts along the Trail to rest up, resupply and get more clear directions for what was ahead. Before we get to the Throne, we must stop at a ‘waystation’ and do a checkup from the neck up, actually from the heart up, and that is in Romans Twelve.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Rom 12:1-2 NKJV

If you followed our work in the five stages of Christian development, this would be at the TEKNON stage, a teenager, not quite a son or daughter level believer but not a baby or young child either. TEKNON believers are to have Christ formed in their souls, which means habitual sin is to be dethroned permanently. You aggressively put off the old man and put on the new. We’ve seen the Throne in Romans Eight, but we have not arrived there in practice and lifestyle. You cannot enter an Ephesians level lifestyle with active, habitual sin in your life. You can’t have both. You must choose! It appears even Paul lost some of his fellow travelers…

Be diligent to come to me quickly; 10 for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica — Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. 2 Tim 4:9-11 NKJV

Redemption has two great aspects characterized by the prepositions ‘from’ and ‘unto’. Romans shows us what we have been redeemed ‘from’ – sin and all its claims on us. He became sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. But it takes Ephesians to lay out for us what we have been redeemed ‘unto’ – the authority and position of sons and daughters of the Almighty God. Ephesians is going to take us and show us the great mystery of God and how to live in the fullness of God. Don’t be seduced on the journey to settle for less than all God has for you, like Demas did. Stand strong on Romans truth as you prepare to finish the journey to the Throne, which we are going to discuss in our next exciting article…love you!

Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…