Someone recently sent me an “in Christ” ID Card. It had my name on it and stated that I have been identified in Christ’s death, resurrection and victory, with the privilege of receiving every benefit provided in Jesus Christ. That got me thinking. What are the benefits of being a Christian? When we interview for a new job, we like to know what benefits we’ll receive. Is there vision and dental coverage, prescription and pharmacy benefits, specialist services, mental health coverage? Today, I would like to look at five benefits of being a Christian. There are many, many more , but I have chosen these five in the interest of brevity. 1. We are washed clean by the blood of Jesus. “From John...and from Jesus Christ the Faithful witness, the Firstborn from among the dead...(who) has loosed us from our sins by his own blood, and...has appointed us as a kingdom of priests...” (Revelation 1:4-6 TPT). Through Jesus, our sins are forgiven, and we have freedom from the power of sin. “ 2. We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. "...the Anointed One, who had never experienced sin, became sin for us so that in Him we might embody the very righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 VOICE). Think about that. When God looks at you, He doesn’t see someone dressed in rags. He sees someone clothed in the very righteousness of His Son, Jesus. Take off those old rags, and put on the righteousness Jesus died and rose again to give us. 3. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit. “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [do not offend or vex or sadden Him], by Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God’s own, secured) for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin)” (Ephesians 4:30 AMPC). In Paul’s day, the sealing he refers to was an official mark of identification placed on a letter, contract, or other document of importance. Usually made from hot wax, the seal was placed on the document and impressed with a signet ring. This identified the document as being under the authority of the person who owned the signet ring. God has sealed us with the Holy Spirit that we are His own, beloved children. 4. We are taught and directed by the Holy Spirit. We are not rudderless. “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come” (John 16:13 NKJV). As you can see from the NKJV quoted above, some English translations say the Holy Spirit will guide us into “all truth”. However, the Greek New Testament includes the definite article - the Holy Spirit will guide us into all the truth. Truth today is relative. But Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). When we listen to and obey the Holy Spirit living inside us, then we know real truth. 5. We have the hope of eternal life. “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never lose it or perish throughout the ages. [To all eternity they shall never by any means be destroyed.] And no one is able to snatch them out of My hand (John 10:28 AMPC). Not only do we have the hope of eternal life, but through Jesus, we have victory here on earth. “But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as trophies of Christ’s victory] and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere...” (2 Corinthians 2:14 AMPC). It doesn’t say that sometimes or maybe He will lead us in triumph. It says always. In conclusion, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:58 (EXB), “So my dear [beloved] brothers and sisters, stand strong. Do not let anything move you.” As we stand firm and immovable, our feet stuck in the cement of God’s Word and His promises, we will be victorious. Praise the Lord for His amazing benefits.
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Do you want to be a mighty man or woman of God? I know I do. In our home group Bible study, we will be looking at the Book of Joshua. There are three things I have noticed about Joshua, which made him a mighty man of God.
1. He believed God In Joshua 1:2-3 (NIV), God said to Joshua, "“Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.” You know the story. Twelve spies went to explore the land. Ten came back with a bad report – the cities are fortified, there are giants, and we’re like grasshoppers in their sight. Joshua and Caleb brought back a good report. I like the Message translation of Numbers 14:6-9: “Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, members of the scouting party, ripped their clothes and addressed the assembled People of Israel: “The land we walked through and scouted out is a very good land—very good indeed. If God is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land that flows, as they say, with milk and honey. And he’ll give it to us. Just don’t rebel against God! And don’t be afraid of those people. Why, we’ll have them for lunch! They have no protection and God is on our side. Don’t be afraid of them!” Joshua believed God would give them the land. All they had to do was believe what He said, not be afraid, and go in and take the land. At the end of his life, in Joshua 23:14 (MSG), he said, “As you can see, I’m about to go the way we all end up going. Know this with all your heart, with everything in you, that not one detail has failed of all the good things God, your God, promised you. It has all happened. Nothing’s left undone—not so much as a word.” 2. He sought God Even after Moses left the Tent of Meeting, the Scripture says Joshua would continue to stay. “So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle” (Exodus 33:11 NKJV). When Moses and the elders of Israel ascended Mount Sinai to see God and eat in His presence, Joshua was with them. And as Moses’ assistant, he and Moses ascended still further. Exodus 24:16 (NKJV) says, “Now the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days...” Joshua experienced the glory of God. Deuteronomy 34:9 (NKJV) says, “Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him...” The Holy Spirit passed from Moses to Joshua to enable him to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. 3. He obeyed God a) God gave Joshua a strange battle plan for taking the city of Jericho. March around it once for six days. On the seventh day, march around seven times. Have seven priests blow the trumpets as they walk in front of the Ark of the Covenant. Then have them give one long blast on the ram's horn. The people were to shout and the city wall would collapse. When that happened, they were to go in and take the city. I wonder what went through Joshua's mind when God gave him this plan. He didn't let his reasoning get in the way. He did what God told him to do and the result was victory. b) “Joshua renewed the Covenant at Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. “Joshua then read to them all the blessings and curses Moses had written in the Book of Instruction. Every word of every command that Moses had ever given was read to the entire assembly of Israel, including the women and children and the foreigners who lived among them” (Joshua 8:34-35 NLT) c) Everything God commanded Moses to do, Joshua did. Joshua’s obedience encouraged the Israelites to follow the Lord. “And Israel served the Eternal faithfully for as long as Joshua lived, and then throughout the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had seen all the mighty things that the Eternal One did for Israel” (Joshua 24:31 VOICE). CLOSING PRAYER Dear Lord Jesus, I want to be a mighty woman (man) of God like Joshua – to love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and my neighbour as myself. Enable me, in the power of Your precious Holy Spirit, to believe Your Word, seek Your ways, and obey Your commands. As I follow You, I expect to see walls coming tumbling down – in my own life and in the lives of others and the power of darkness to be replaced by Your light as ground is take for the Kingdom of God. I pray this in the precious Name of Jesus, Amen. “The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell; it goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell.” The hymn, “Love of God”, was written by Frederick Lehman in 1917 in response to a sermon he heard about God’s love. He had lost everything through business reversals and the words came to him as he packaged oranges and lemons in a packing house.
In a book I am currently working on, one of the main characters has just miscarried a baby she and her husband wanted very badly. She questions God’s love for her and ends up searching the New Testament to find concrete examples of Jesus demonstrating love while here on earth. There are many, many, many instances but here a few that she found: 1. When Jesus received word His cousin, John the Baptist had been beheaded, He went away to a lonely place so He could be by Himself. But the crowds found Him. Instead of getting angry and telling them to leave Him alone, He healed them. 2. Twice He supernaturally fed the multitudes who had been listening to His teaching for a long time so they wouldn’t faint on their way home. He showed concern for their bodies as well as their souls. 3. In Matthew 8, a leper knelt down before Jesus and said that if Jesus was willing, He could heal him of his leprosy. Jesus reached out His hand and touched the leper, told him he was willing and commanded him to “Be clean!” The passage goes on to say that “immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy” (Matthew 8: 3 NIV). 4. The woman taken in the act of adultery. Jesus treated her with love and compassion, when the Pharisees wanted to stone her. He told her He didn’t condemn her and to go and sin no more. 5. Mary and her sister Martha showed Jesus where His friend Lazarus was buried. Jesus wept when He saw the place. The Jews present commented on how much Jesus loved Lazarus. Jesus proved His power and His love by raising Lazarus from the dead. 6. On the cross, Jesus told John to take care of His mother. He was in spiritual and physical agony, but He wanted to make sure she was provided for. 7. Instead of maligning those who put Him on the cross, He asked His Father to forgive them 8. He forgave Peter who cussed and swore and said he never knew Jesus, after travelling with Him for more than three years. 9. In the Garden of Gethsemane He submitted to those who came to arrest Him, and later He yielded to His executioners as they nailed Him on the cross. In the Garden He asked them, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53 NIV). A legion was a military term from the Roman army which denoted a group of at least 6,000 soldiers. Should He have chosen to, Jesus could have summoned 72,000 dazzling, mighty, glorious angels to deliver Him. But He didn’t, because of His love for you and me. 10. In his Gospel, Luke wrote that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was in such agony of spirit that His sweat was like great drops of blood falling on the ground. 11. In Luke 22:42 (NIV) Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” In love, He put aside His will for the Father’s. You may say, “Why enumerate these? We already know them.” I ‘ve written them down because when the answer to our prayers is delayed, when nothing in our circumstances seems to change, when God doesn’t answer as we thought He would, one of Satan’s tactics is to tell us God doesn’t love us and that He’s not a good God. We need to remind ourselves from the Scriptures of the many times when God in human flesh demonstrated His love for us while here on earth. The whole life of Jesus was a message of love. Love Himself sent His Son to purchase our redemption. Closing Prayer Dear God, whatever problem we’re facing today, may we not be like Peter who grabbed a sword and started swinging in the might of his flesh to deal with trouble , but may we remember the God we serve has the power and the resources to fix any problem which comes our way. When we doubt You, bring to our minds examples of Your unfathomable love. In the precious Name of Jesus, Amen. In Genesis 17:5, God changed Abram’s name. “Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.” Abram means “exalted father”; Abraham, “father of many nations” or “father of a multitude”.
Every time someone called Abraham’s name, they were calling him a father of many nations, when as yet, he had no children and he and his wife were old. In changing Abram to Abraham, God added the Hebrew letter ‘hey’ (ha). ‘Hey’, the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, when spoken, sounds like our letter ‘h’. Every letter has a meaning in Hebrew, and the letter ‘hey’ means “breath, sigh, look, reveal’. When spoken, it has a very breathy sound. It is said to represent the breath of God, which we understand to be the Holy Spirit. I believe when God changed Abraham’s name, He breathed into him His Holy Spirit, reviving Abraham’s old body and enabling him to become the father of many nations. God also changed Sarai’s name. “And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be” (Genesis 17:15) . Sarai means ‘honoured mother’ but Sarah signifies ‘mother of a ruler of nations’. Once again, God added a ‘hey’ (‘h’) to Sarah’s name – thus empowering her old, barren body to conceive a child. God changed the name of Jacob (cheater, deceiver, supplanter) to Israel (one who struggles with God) after Jacob had put away his idols and purified himself and struggled with God at Peniel. “Because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome” (Genesis 32:28). In the New Testament, Jesus changed the name of his disciple, Simon to Peter. Simeon in Hebrew means, ‘the one who hears’; Peter (‘Chepas’ in Hebrew, ‘Petros’ in Greek), ‘a rock’. In the Scripture, we see the transformation of Peter from a brash, vacillating, foot in his mouth, Christ denying man to the rock who stood up and preached on the day of Pentecost. Why have I mentioned these name changes? Because in changing their names, God infused the natural with His supernatural. And as born-again believers, we’ve been given His precious Holy Spirit, Who indwells us – Almighty God, creator of the universe, living in mortal men and women. And that brings me to another question. As a born-again believer, what do you call yourself? Do you call yourself an old sinner, or the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus? “For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness]” (2Corinthians 5:21 AMPC). Do you see yourself sick, old, and deteriorating, or healed by the wounds Jesus bore? “Yet it was our suffering he carried, our pain and distress, our sick-to-the-soul-ness. We just figured that God had rejected him, that God was the reason he hurt so badly. But he was hurt because of us; he suffered so. Our wrongdoing wounded and crushed him. He endured the breaking that made us whole. The injuries he suffered became our healing” (Isaiah 53:4-5 VOICE). Do you view yourself as poor, just barely getting by, living pay cheque to pay cheque? Or are you abundantly supplied, as the Scripture says you are? ““For you are becoming progressively acquainted with and recognizing more strongly and clearly the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (His kindness, His gracious generosity, His undeserved favor and spiritual blessing), [in] that though He was [so very] rich, yet for your sakes He became [so very] poor, in order that by His poverty you might become enriched (abundantly supplied)” (2 Corinthians 8:9 AMPC). Instead of saying what the world says about us, we need to start saying what God’s Word says. God is faithful to His Word, which WILL come to pass in our lives, IF we continue to stand on it, no matter what we see around us. And lastly, Revelation 2:17 says the following, ““Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’ll give the sacred manna to every conqueror; I’ll also give a clear, smooth stone inscribed with your new name, your secret new name” (Revelation 2:17 MSG). Yes, believer in Jesus, we will have a new name, only we and God know. It will be a name signifying the new creation we are in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). It will reflect who we’ve become because of God’s grace. And that’s how we’ll be known for all eternity! So dear friend, see yourself as God sees you. Call yourself as He calls you. See yourself with a new name – more than a conqueror, chosen, royal, holy. See yourself as the special possession of God you truly are. “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid” (Genesis 3:8-10). After Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, God asked them where they were. They hid and told God they were afraid. Today, I would like to look at four Bible characters who didn’t hide when God called their name. ABRAHAM After these things God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." Right after Abraham said, “Here I am,” God said to him, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Mori'ah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you" (Genesis 22:1). We know Abraham was obedient and put his son on the altar of sacrifice. We hear Abraham responding again to God’s call in Genesis 22:11-12 – But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” SAMUEL In 1 Samuel 3, God called to Samuel three times. Each time, Samuel said, “Here I am.” Finally, Eli, priest at the tabernacle in Shiloh, and the second-to-last judge of Israel, told Samuel that when God called again, he should tell God to speak and that he was listening. Samuel did so and God said, “Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle” (1 Samuel 3:11). Samuel was called by God at a very young age, and was faithful to that call throughout his life. ISAIAH Isaiah had a vision of the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne. He heard the voice of the Lord asking a question.“…Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me” (Isaiah 6:8 NLT). Isaiah took the call of God personally and said he would go. This was the beginning of God’s commission to him. Isaiah’s name, which means “YHWH (the Lord) is salvation”, is widely regarded as one of the greatest prophets of the Bible. ANANIAS “Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord” (Acts 9:10 NRSV). In the New Testament, this is the only occurrence of someone responding to God with “Here I am.” From the account, we know Ananias wasn’t thrilled about going to see Paul, a persecutor of the Body of Christ. But Ananias was obedient because God told him Paul was a chosen instrument to proclaim God’s Name to the Gentiles, their kings, and the people of Israel. Today, when God calls our name, how will we answer? Will we run and hide like Adam and Eve or answer, “Here I am” like Abraham, Samuel, Isaiah, and Ananias? God has a purpose and a plan for each day of our lives. And we have a choice. Dear Lord Jesus, today, and every day, in the power of Your precious Holy Spirit, may I respond with, “Here I am, send me.” In Ezekiel 47, we read about water flowing from the temple of God. “The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east)…” (Ezekiel 47:2 NIV).
In Revelation, the water is called the river of the water of life. “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb…” (Revelation 22:1 NIV). And back in Ezekiel, it says that “where the river flows everything will live (Ezekiel 47:9 NIV). In John 7:38 (NOG), Jesus said, “As Scripture says, ‘Streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me.’” When Jesus talked to the woman at the well, in John 4:10 (VOICE), He said to her, “…You don’t know the gift of God or who is asking you for a drink of this water from Jacob’s well. Because if you did, you would have asked Him for something greater; and He would have given you the living water.” Jesus went on to say, “…’Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life’” (John 4:13-14 NLT). Jesus was waiting to give the Samaritan woman the same life-giving water which flows from the throne of God. All she had to do was ask. In the New Covenant, we as believers are the temple of God and His Holy Spirit indwells us. “Don’t you realise that you yourselves are the temple of God, and God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16 Phillips). In Jeremiah 2:13 (MSG), God says to the Israelites, “My people have committed a compound sin: they’ve walked out on me, the fountain Of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns— cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves.” God, through His precious Holy Spirit is the Source of the river of the water of life. You may say, “I’m born again. I’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit but I don’t see any evidence of the river of life flowing from me – not even a trickle. When that happens, we may have a dam in the way, blocking the flow. What things can dam up the life-giving river? Here are a few:
It’s important to remember that faith works by love. “For [if we are] in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love” (Galatians 5:6 AMPC). The message is clear- if we’re not walking in love, our faith isn’t working. 4. Cares of this life. “…but the worries of the world, the deceitful glamor of wealth and all the other kinds of desires push in and choke the message; so that it produces nothing” (Mark 4:19 CJB). 5. Deceitfulness and pleasures of this world. “Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. (1 John 2:16 MSG). As we clear away the debris from our lives which stops God’s life giving water from flowing through us to others, we will have a continual supply for those who are thirsty. And the river will grow in depth from ankle to knee to waist deep, and then it will become a river, bringing life to those around us. Today, the idea of ultimate truth – that something is true all the time in all places and is relevant for our lives, has become extinct. In this present world, the idea of ultimate truth is ranked with fairy tales, judged outdated, or as an insult to human intelligence. When ultimate truth is denied, then you enter the land of “Whatever”.
In the land of Whatever, you do what seems right to you. You search for what gives you pleasure and live for it, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. You are tolerant and never tell anyone their “whatever” is wrong. The standards lived by in the land of Whatever are:
In the Word of God, Jesus said He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He is truth personified. Contrary to walking like the world walks, when we know Jesus as our Saviour and walk according to the Word of God, we walk in truth. “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32 NKJV). God's truth makes us free from the consequences and power of sin. The apostle John wrote, “For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth” (3 John 3 NKJV). When we walk in God’s truth, we acknowledge it, hate what is sin, and put sin to death by the power of the Holy Spirit in us, Who is the Spirit of truth. Contrary to the world’s way of thinking, the glorious truth of God saves us, liberates us, and transforms us. As born again Christians, we’re not to live in the land of Whatever, but in the Promised Land of the glorious truth of God and His Word. As born-again believers, we have a covenant with God. The word “testament”, as in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, means “covenant”. The Old and New Testaments are binding documents God has given to His covenant people. They reveal His will and what He has provided for us. 2 Peter 1:3-4 (WEB) says, “…seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue, by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.” All the great and precious promises of God in His Word He has provided for us through the covenant blood of Jesus, shed on the cross. What is a blood covenant? In Genesis 15, God made a blood agreement with Abram. God had promised Abram he would inherit the Promised Land and he asked God how he could know he would inherit it. God told him to prepare for a blood covenant. “Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not” (Genesis 15:9-10). A blood covenant in Abram’s day was very important. It signified an unbreakable and absolute guarantee of a man’s word. God cutting a blood covenant with Abram convinced him of God’s desire to bless him. What is involved in cutting a blood covenant? In Abram’s day, when two families made a blood covenant together, the following happened.
Romans 4:21 tells us that after God cut a blood covenant with Abram, Abram got the message and became fully persuaded God was able to perform what He had promised. And God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, meaning “father of many nations”. How does this apply to us as believers in the 21st century? In the Old Covenant, in Deuteronomy 28, you will find the blessings of those who keep the terms of the covenant. You’ll also find the curses for those who break it. In the New Covenant, Jesus NEVER broke the terms of the covenant. But when He went to the cross, He bore the penalty for breaking it so we could go free. “Yet, Christ paid the full price to set us free from the curse of the law. He absorbed the curse completely as he became a curse in our place. For it is written: “Everyone who is hung upon a tree is cursed.” Jesus Christ dissolved the curse from our lives, so that in him all the blessings of Abraham can be poured out upon gentiles…” (Galatians 3:13-14 TPT). What happened at the cross?
We have a covenant with Almighty God, through His Son, Jesus. May we be like Abraham, who became fully persuaded that what God promised, He would perform. And like David, who stood on that covenant and whipped the uncircumcised giant standing in his way. Today, my friend, whatever you’re facing, stand on God’s unshakable covenant, written with the precious blood of Jesus. Acknowlegement - Kenneth Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries provided many of the insights for this posting. 1 Timothy 6:12 (MEV) says the following, “Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, to which you are called and have professed a good profession before many witnesses.” In 2 Timothy 2:3 (Phillips), Paul writes, "Put up with your share of hardship as a loyal soldier in Christ’s army."
Faith is a fight. Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) tells us to, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” The reason God’s Word tells us not to lean on our own understanding is because if we rely on our own reasonings, thoughts, and feelings, that is where Satan can defeat us. He defeats us in the realm of our reasoning. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (NIV) says, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” Things will push against us. We can’t control everything that comes across our path. But we can control our response in the power of His Holy Spirit. Is it possible, as 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 says, to be pressed, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned, and struck down, but not destroyed? Yes! Yes, it is. Faith is what moves God. Without it, it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). God does not respond to our bawling, squalling, and pleading. He responds to our faith. And faith is a choice. When negative or troublesome thoughts come contrary to the Word of God, we do as 2 Corinthians 10:5 (VOICE) tells us. We cast them down. “We are demolishing arguments and ideas, every high-and-mighty philosophy that pits itself against the knowledge of the one true God. We are taking prisoners of every thought, every emotion, and subduing them into obedience to the Anointed One.” Hebrews 4:11 (KJ21) says something interesting. It says, “Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall according to the same example of unbelief.” Labour to enter into rest? Sounds a bit counterintuitive, doesn’t it? Why must we labour? Because as soon as we’ve entered into the rest of believing God’s Word, are fully persuaded that what He has promised He will perform (Romans 4:21), Satan will do everything to get us out of that rest. He knows if he can do that, he can steal our victory. How many healings, financial breakthroughs, deliverances have we allowed Satan to steal from us because we haven't held fast to the Word of God, but rather listened to the lies of the evil one? When Satan attacks our thoughts and causes us to look at the contradictions, symptoms, and lack, we must examine our commitment to God and His Word. Are we a tiny bit persuaded, half persuaded, I’m getting there persuaded, I’m sleeping better at night persuaded, or fully persuaded God is faithful to His Word and will bring about what He has promised? When we’re fully persuaded, then we’re at rest. Today, my friend, whatever you’re facing, whether it be poor health, fractured relationships, no money in your bank account, or the recent loss of a loved one, determine in your heart to be fully persuaded what God has promised He will do. Then enter His rest and stay there, unmovable, your feet forged in concrete, until your answer arrives. Paul writes to Timothy, his son in the faith, “Constantly keep in mind Jesus Christ…risen from the dead…” (2 Timothy 2:8 AMPC). Paul wrote second Timothy from a dank prison cell shortly before his martyrdom. He knew the resurrection of Jesus was foundational to the faith. Why did he need to tell Timothy to constantly keep it in mind?
When Jesus rose from the dead and conquered the devil, He did it for us. As the Son of God, He wasn’t subject to sin, sickness, or poverty. He was not defeated. But you and I were. Jesus won the victory on our behalf and gave it to us. Just writing this makes my spirit rise. We need to constantly remember what Jesus accomplished when He came out of that tomb. The Scripture tells us when Christ rose from the dead, we were raised up too. “He (God) took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah” (Ephesians 2:6 MSG). We became joint heirs with Jesus. “Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17 NIVUK). When Jesus rose from the dead, the Father put all things (except Himself) under the feet of His Son. “All this will happen to fulfill the Scripture that says, ‘You placed everything on earth beneath His feet...” (1 Corinthians 15:27 VOICE). That means that all things are under our feet because we are in Christ Jesus. God expects us to rule and reign in life. “If one man’s sin brought a reign of death--that’s Adam’s legacy—how much more will those who receive grace in abundance and the free gift of redeeming justice reign in life by means of one other man—Jesus the Anointed” (Romans 5:17 VOICE). When we remember Jesus, risen from the dead, Satan can’t talk us out of our victory. We won’t believe him when he tells us we’re going to fail, our bills won’t be paid, we’re going to get sick and die. We’ll tell that old liar Jesus rose from the dead and won the victory. Defeat isn’t part of our vocabulary, because when push comes to shove, we remember Jesus, risen from the dead. |
AuthorIn this Blog, I want to share with you some of the things I've learned from many years of following Jesus. Archives
February 2024
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