Not everyone who
says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does
the will of My Father in heaven. Many
will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name,
and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name done many wonderful works?’
“And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness!” Matthew 7: 20-23
The proof of whether or not Jesus is our Lord isn’t by our works or our
ministry; it’s proven by our surrender to Him in the everyday circumstances of
life, especially the ones that aren’t the way we want them to be and know He
has the authority and ability to change but chooses not to or the circumstances
created by something He allowed to happen that He could have prevented. Our life in Him isn’t about
external things but about our heart. Our response to the external things serves
as a barometer of our heart and measures the authenticity of Jesus' Lordship
over us. His Lordship over us is directly related to how well He knows us, not
because of His omniscience but by our willingness to open our hearts up to
Him in an ongoing intimate relationship because we trust him.
It is interesting that Jesus doesn’t
say I am not your Lord, but that “I never knew you”. That Jesus is Lord is a
fact for He is Lord of Lords, but the degree to which He is our Lord on a
personal level will depend on the degree to which we allow Him to know us. The
degree to which He is our Lord directly affects whether or not we do
the will of the Father. Doing His will, not merely knowing it determines
whether or not we enter the
kingdom. Being born again gives us the ability to see the kingdom, doing His will
enables us to enter.
OR 
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