The Keys Of Abundance In Christ

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10

The first key to an abundant life is to know that it is the will of our Father that we have one! God is so concerned with us living abundantly that He sent Jesus so that we could. Just take a minute and consider all of the scriptures that talk about our Father's desires for us to have life abundantly. Virtually ever Book in the New Testament proclaims that through Christ we will be victorious as God works through us!

One of the first Truths that God ever shared with me is that He wants us to have abundance in our salvation. “Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25

Our Father also wants us to be abundantly healthy, as a loving Father should. “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” 3 John 1:2

Our Father wants our prayer lives to be abundant. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:” Mathew 7:7

Our Father wants us to have the gifts of His Spirit abundantly as we wait for Jesus’ return. “So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 1:7-8

Our Father wants us to be abundantly prosperous in our finances so that we may be charitable and so that we may be self-sufficient. “And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation].” 2 Corinthians 9:8 Amplified Bible

Our Father wants us to have abundant knowledge and wisdom and He wants us to know all things. “But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.” 1 John 2:27

Our Father wants us to have abundant love. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19

And Finally our Father wants us to have an abundant relationship with Him. “I in them, and Thou in Me that they may be made perfect in One; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” John 17:23

These are only a few of the Truths of God, that show us clearly that it is the will of our Father that we have an abundant life. This week God has been dealing with me a lot concerning the fulfillment of His will within our lives. As I look around at most of us I don’t see abundance. I see bits and pieces of the greatness of God, but nothing near what these, and so many other verses have to say about our abundant lives in Christ. And this isn’t our Father's desire for us, Jesus came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly! God is not a man that He should lie and all Scripture has been given to us by His Divine Inspiration. So if our Father had it written, we should all be living it!

So here is what He has shared with me concerning us living in His abundance. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Galatians 6:7 Whatsoever we sow is exactly what we are going to reap. And what does the Christian sow? “The sower soweth the Word.” Mark 4:14 The Truth of God is that what we sow is what we are going to reap and Jesus taught us that we are to sow the Word! Think about Jesus, He only spoke the Word of God, because He was the Word of God, and look at what He reaped. Jesus reaped abundance in everything. He knew God’s will for every area of His life. He was able to Heal the sick, raise the dead, preach the Gospel, perform miracles, and be raised from the dead Himself as King of Kings and Lord of Lords! “Whoever says he abides in Him ought [as a personal debt] to walk and conduct himself in the same way in which He walked and conducted Himself.” 1 John 2:6 Amplified Bible Jesus lived abundantly because He abundantly sowed the Word of God and the same holds true for us today. We have access to the fulness of God and the full abundance of God. Jesus told us to go into all of the world and preach the Gospel to every creature and whatsoever things we sow, that is what we are going to reap! Faith comes from hearing the Truth and the Holy Spirit will cause us to sow the Word abundantly.

Now we are talking abundance here. Most of us sow some Word and since we do, we reap some Word back, but through Christ we want and desire abundance! We want our Father to use us completely and we want to experience all that He has provided for us! “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Matthew 7:2 If we want the abundance of Christ, than the Truth of God is that we must abundantly sow His Word! This is the key that will bring abundance into all of our lives. This is the will of our Father for each and every one of us! And our Father will never leave us or forsake us, so He is right here with us always empowering us to live a lifestyle of abundantly sowing His Word. He does this so that we may always reap abundantly the blessings of His Word!

The yoke of our salvation is easy to be borne and it is pleasant. “For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good-not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.” Matthew 11:30 Amplified Bible We now have the Holy Spirit teaching us all things and bringing all of the Words of God to our remembrance. “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” John 14:26 So we are never alone in sowing our Father's Word! We always have God right here with us making it an easy and pleasant thing to do!

Faith comes from hearing the Truth and the Truth will set us free! The Truth is that our Father wants us to have abundance in everything and our example is Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! Jesus ever lives so that we may have the abundance of God to the uttermost and He has not given us a spirit of fear in accepting it! All things are now possible for us who love the Lord and God can now do all things through us because Christ has strengthened us! Greater is He that is now within us than he that is in the world and through Jesus we have been perfected, so that we may be the vessels of God’s righteousness. Be blessed this New Years Eve and may the abundance of our Father be all of ours from now and throughout all of eternity, as He leads us and Authors our faith into abundantly sowing His Truth to world!

We Are Now In Jesus And Jesus Is Now In Us

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can you, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing." John 15:4-5

We now abide in Christ, which means we now dwell in Him, we live in Him, and we remain one with Him. And Jesus now dwells in, lives in, and remains one with us. Consider the branch of a vine, with the vine the branch is everything and without the vine it produces nothing and dies. The branch bears the fruit; the vine gives the branch the life and the ability to do so, and the branch can only bear the fruit of the vine that it is one with. The branch gives the vine life, energy, and purpose. A vine without any branches is worthless. Stop and think about that for a minute. Our Father created us in His own image, in order to have fellowship with us, to have companionship with us, and to love us and to be loved by us. The Word of God boldly proclaims that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us, "Wherein He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him. Seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." Hebrews 7:25 Jesus lives to serve us, as a vine lives to serve the branches that are united with it. Parents will know what I am saying here. Can God survive without us, absolutely He can, but that wasn’t His desire! His desire is to spend eternity with us and to have continual unbroken fellowship with us.

To have and enjoy a full and abundant life we need others to be part of our lives, and we are created in God's image; He too needs and wants us. He created us to have fellowship with. If it wasn’t God’s need and desire for fellowship with His own children, those created by Him in His Own likeness, why would He have done it in the first place? I love dogs, I have two of them, and I really enjoy their companionship, yet I need and eagerly desire to have other people in my life. My wife Beth, my kids, my friends, and my family, I need them to live abundantly. That’s just how God has created us, we need others. Put any of us on an island with no one else, and while we may survive, it would not be a desirous life, an abundant life, or a fulfilled life.

Our Father has angels and other created beings, but they are not created in His image as we are. I really believe that our Father needs us for true fellowship. Beth and I could have stopped at one child, but we desired more, and God graced us with the ability to have more. We love the fellowship that we have with our kids. We love experiencing the fellowship that Kennedy and Lauren have with each other; we love providing for them, teaching them, and protecting them, it’s part of an abundant life! There is something overwhelmingly comforting to know that God desires us and that we need Him. Sure God would continue to exist without us, but we are where He receives His glory. "And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, and I am glorified in them." John 17:10 Never underestimate the joy and companionship, and satisfaction that we provide for our Father. I know it doesn’t sound religious to say God needs us for anything, but History sure has proven one thing, even at our worst, He continues to long for our fellowship! And even at our worst He has continually provided a way for it to occur! Our Father loves us and He will never leave or forsake us. “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5

Together with Jesus we are unstoppable! We are now strong in the power of Jesus’ might and because of His Anointing, our Father can now do all things through us! “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” Ephesians 6:10 Through the power of Christ that has been freely bestowed upon us there is now no sickness, no demon, no threat, no law, no politician, no court, and no special interest group that can stop us from being fully used by our Father. By abiding in Jesus and Jesus abiding in us, God will produce much glorious fruit through us! We are now in Jesus, and Jesus is in the Father, and Jesus is in us. We are members of His body, flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone!

We Are In Jesus Today

"At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." John 14:20 (We shall know, confidence, fully assured, no man able to pluck it away from us, the Holy Spirit will cause us to know!)

There is no greater Truth that will empower the believer than the Truth that once we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to say yes to Jesus and make Him the Lord of our lives, that we actually become one with God through Him. This Truth will empower our obedience towards the Lord, it will strengthen and permit our abilities to serve, and it will allow us to be the children that God intended for us to be. Unity with our Father brings peace, joy, faith, hope, love, forgiveness, power, wisdom, knowledge, discernment, healings, and miracles, and all of them at Godly levels! Mere human abilities are diminished to obscurity by the presence of God! We no longer walk alone. It is no longer just up to us to try and be a good Christian, it is now by the power of God within us that we are able to be who we should be in Christ! Our Father is now within us and we are now in Him! He consumes us and every fiber of our being is united with God, the Creator of it all!

This is why Jesus went to the Cross, to enable us to become one with God, as He is one with God. “That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” John 17:21

I will say it again, there is no greater Truth than the one we are about to study: we are now and forevermore one with Jesus, our Lord and Savior! He is in us and we are one with the Father through Him, and the Holy Spirit has been sent to dwell permanently within us. We now enjoy unity with the Father, we are born of Him, His Divine Sperm has conceived us. We are born again from His Divine and Incorruptible Seed! Jesus is in the Father and we are now in Jesus, and Jesus is now in us! We are now one with the Lord and as we will read, Jesus proclaims that we are perfected in One!

Our Father proclaims, through John, that we need no one to teach us, because through His Holy Spirit, He will teach us all things. "But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him." 1 John 2:27 This truth of our unity with God and with each other, can only be taught to us by the Holy Spirit. The magnificence of who we are in Christ and the unity that we enjoy with Him, and the power activated by that unity, will run contrary to most religious teaching. This is why we will use dozens upon dozens of verses to proclaim it. Yet without the Spirit of God revealing His Truth, they cannot be received and accepted! He is the One Who teaches us all things!

So often rely on a preacher, a tape series, a study guide such as this to teach us. But we have a Father Who has the time, the patience, the love, the wisdom, and the desire to teach us all things! I will write and share what He has taught and shared with me, and you will share with others what He has taught you, as we both should. But we should never place a preacher, a tape series, a church, or a book before our Father. Don’t even put the Bible before your one on one relationship with God. I love the written Word of God, it is Jesus, it is God, the Word written in the Bible was with God from the beginning of time and it will be with Him for all of eternity, but it is not all of Jesus. John writes in John 21:25 that all the books in the world could not contain the works of our Lord. Yet we have the complete and total Spirit of God dwelling within us, and He will teach us all things! Don’t ever neglect that precious time spent in fellowship with the Father. “Pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit, with all [manner of] prayer and entreaty. To that end keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints (God's consecrated people).” Ephesians 6:18 Amplified Bible

We don't just have to read our Father's love letters and Truth’s to us, we can talk one on one with Him. As we read something or experience something, the Holy Ghost will expound upon it, just as Jesus expounded on it to the Disciples. The Holy Spirit will lead us through our everyday lives in constant and continual fellowship. I have two children, Kennedy and Lauren, and the greatest gift they can give me is their time and their attention. We have been strengthened with Christ, the Anointing of God, and He leads us in the paths of righteousness, and He leads us in our fellowship with the Father. This fellowship and unity gives us the strength, desire, and ability to fully study and walk in the Truth’s that the Bible holds.

"At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." John 14:20 That day Jesus is referring to is the day when the Holy Ghost comes to dwell within us, I will not write out all of the verses here, but if you read all of John 14 you will see that is the Truth. What I want you to see here is that we will know that we are one with Christ. Make sure you know! I was so blessed when I was eleven to have a complete life changing experience that allowed me to know and I have never doubted it since. I know that this day is the day of my salvation and I know that Jesus is in me and that I am in Him. Too many of us don’t know and we live in a constant state of doubt and fear, fear of loosing our relationship with God, fear of not pleasing God, just plain fear that is contrary to faith. Fear brings torment and condemnation and these are contrary to the blessings of God. We do not have to live that way; God loves us completely, we can have complete assurance of who we are in Christ. And there is now therefore no condemnation to us who are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:1!

Pray that all who read this study and all who you and I come in contact with will know that they are in Christ and that He is in them! I thank God that we are all vessels of His Anointing, that God uses us to be a great blessing in the lives of those whom we have contact with. I thank God that they see our unity with Him, that they see the Spirit in operation within us, and that they eagerly desire the same thing! When people receive a revelation of who they are in Christ and that He is actually dwelling within them, when they see the unity they possess with the Alpha and the Omega, the world and satan loose! The strength and assurance of God’s Truth consumes them, peace that passes understanding and unspeakable joy flow through and from their lives as never before, it is an awesome revelation that empowers the believer to be used by God to do His mighty works! Plain and simple it is the only way we will ever do any work of the Lord!

A Benefit of Salvation: Joy

“These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” John 15:11

What were the Words that Jesus spoke that would allow our joy to be full? And not just any joy either, Jesus’ spoke Words that would allow His joy, the joy of the Lord, which is our strength, to remain in us! Amen we now have the joy of the One Who was with God from the very beginning and Who is with Him right now, seated in power on the Throne with God. We now have the joy of the One Who knows the full power of God, the One Who was delivered out of Hades and Who has seen all that God has to offer and the One Who is One with it! We now have His joy remaining within us! Don’t just play that off, allow the Holy Ghost to reveal to you exactly what Jesus’ joy is and the power of it, and the Truth that His joy remains with us! Jesus’ joy doesn’t come and go, it remains with us; it never leaves us or forsakes us!

The First thing that Jesus spoke in John 15 that allows His joy to remain in us, is that He is the Vine and that our Father is our Gardener. Jesus taught us that our Father would prune every branch that was within Him that produced fruit, so that He could produce even more everlasting fruit through it. This is the first thing that brings us joy! When we are saved, our Father is right here with us, leading us into the paths of righteousness, so that He can produce more and more righteous fruit through us! As we are used by our Father to produce His fruit, through the power and abilities of Jesus Who is within us, we are continually strengthened to produce even more fruit. As we grow, the glories of our Father and the fruit of our Father will ever increase through us. The love of our Father will increase, the wisdom of our Father will increase, the peace of our Father, the strength of our Father, the gifts of our Father, the faith of our Father, everything of our Father will increase through us. Because He is right here with us, insuring that it does. our Father will take away all of the unnecessary things in our lives, as Jesus, our Vine, is giving us everything that pertains unto life and unto godliness! When we have been called and chosen to accept Jesus as Lord and have become one with Him we cannot help but to be used to produce much fruit.

“I am the Vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” John 15:5 Jesus said we would produce much fruit, so we will produce much fruit! Jesus spoke this Truth so that our joy may be full as His joy remains within us!

The next thing that Jesus spoke, “If ye abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” John 15:7 Jesus is our Vine, and the Vine gives the branch its nutrients and its abilities to produce fruit; a branch is only able to bear what the vine that it is one with enables it to bear. A grape vine produces grapes, a pumpkin vine produces pumpkins, and the Jesus Vine produces much Godliness! Now we also have our Father as our Gardener and He is pruning away anything from our lives that would hinder the production of His fruit through us. Because of Jesus enabling us and God keeping us, we are able to keep this commandment of abiding in Him and His Word abiding within us. And if there is anything within us that is contrary to the will of God, anything at all that would hinder the production of His righteous fruit, our Father just prunes it out of us!

This Truth brings great joy to our lives, because our Father has placed the responsibility of us being fruitful on Himself. The battle is God’s and the victory is ours! What Jesus is saying is this: if we are truly saved we will produce fruit, and as we grow up in the Lord, we will continually produce more and more fruit! So ask and it shall be done unto you! How great is that, ask for salvation for others, God would that all men be saved, so ask for it! Ask that we may be able to be charitable unto every good work: spiritually, soulfully, and physically and look to Jesus to Author and Finish our faith; it will be done for you as you ask! Ask that our Father does the works through us that He did through Jesus and that He does even greater ones, and it shall be done unto us! Ask that we actually live in the Truth of taking no thought for our own lives and that we have the mind of Christ, and it will be done unto us! Ask and we shall receive because we now abide in Jesus, permanently sealed with the Holy Spirit as God keeps us until the Day of Jesus’ return!

Think about Jesus’ joy for a moment. He ever lives to intercede for us; Jesus lives so that we can be saved to the uttermost. This is Jesus’ purpose and this is His joy! Jesus’ life of service makes Him the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven and we now have His joy within us. We now have Jesus’ joy of serving, which allows our Father to produce much fruit through us. This glorifies God and as this allows our joy to be full. It’s better to give than receive, and giving is the only way that we are able to have full joy, so Jesus gave us His joy of giving! We have the ability to ask as Jesus asks, and receive as He receives! We have the ability to serve others as Jesus serves. Look in the Book of Acts, the believers had the gift of healing, just as Jesus had the gift, God performed miracles through them, as He did through Jesus. They had visions, prophecies, and they did many of the same works that Jesus did. Jesus never said that we wouldn’t do the things He did; He actually said that if we believe than we would. This is the joy that we now have within us! There is a joy in serving, and we have the joy of the greatest servant of all, Jesus!

Finally, Jesus says in John 15 that if we keep His commandments than we will abide in God’s love, as He abides in God’s love, and this is His commandment, that we love one another. Remember what Jesus proclaimed, that we could only produce fruit because of Him. Jesus knew that we must love, so be of full joy, because He is right here with us causing us to love. “But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.” 1 Thessalonians 4:9 We have Jesus as our Vine and His love flows through us allowing us to bear much fruit, and we have our Father pruning away anything that would hinder us from loving, and as we mature in Him, we love more and more and more! That is why we have full joy; because we can’t help but love! We are born of love; the Incorruptible Seed of God, Who is love, has bore us! We are one with love, the Temples of love, and member of loves body and of His flesh! We have the mind of love and the Spirit of love abides and remains within us. And if there is anything that isn’t love within us, God prunes it out! That is simply awesome Truth, Truth that brings full joy that remains in us!

“And now come I to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” John 17:13 What does Jesus say in John 17 that allows His joy to be fulfilled within us? Jesus says that He gave us His glory. Jesus says that we now have eternal life, and that we now know God. Jesus teaches us that our Father is the One Who now keeps us, that we are sanctified by His Truth, and that we are now one with Him. Jesus proclaims that we are perfect in our oneness with Him, so that the world will believe that He is Lord, and that God loves us just as He loves Him! Now because of these Truths, we have Jesus’ joy fulfilled within us. These Truths are awesome! The children of God should be joyous and we should be happy; a merry heart worketh good as a medicine! People should look at us and desire what we have, just as they looked at Jesus and desired what He had. Look at the crowds that followed Him, they were healed, they were fed, they had miracles performed all around them, it was a joy to be around Jesus! Little children would hang out with Him, they were around Him so much that some of His disciples actually rebuked them, and Jesus turned right around and rebuked the adults and told them to be more like the kids. Think about children, they are happy, they sing, dance, and tell bad jokes and just laugh. They come over and have no reason for it, other than to just hang out. This is how we should be; God has taken care of everything for us, to the point where Jesus says that we should take no thought for our own lives!

Christians shouldn’t be angry, constantly pointing out the faults of the world. We should be of good cheer, our Lord and Savior has overcome the world and He has robbed it of its power to harm us. We are now the salt of the earth; we are a light to be displayed on the top of the hill, a beacon of hope to all who see us. our Father has enabled and strengthened us, He has quickened our mortal bodies, so that we are now able to abide constantly within His love. He has perfected us in our unity with Him. He has glorified us with Himself, and we have an abundant life through Him. He has given us His peace that passes all understanding, and His peace now keeps our hearts and our minds, our Father has given us everything, everything, that pertains unto life and unto Godliness!

“According as His Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue; Whereby are given unto us great and precious promises: that by these ye may be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in this world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:3-4

We now have Jesus’ joy, because we are now partakers of His Divine nature. We have Jesus’ joy because we have escaped the corruption that is within the world, and we have been called to glory and virtue through the power of our Savior Jesus Christ! Wow! “Thou shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at they right hand are pleasures evermore.” Psalm 16:11

"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." Romans 15:13 The same holds true for us today, may our Father fill us with the joy of believing all that we have studied and all that we will study, may He cause us to abound in hope through the power of His Holy Spirit, A-men!

A Benefit of Salvation: Peace

“And the peace of God, which passeth understanding, shall keep your hearts, and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7

The peace of our Father that passes understanding shall keep our hearts and our minds, now that is some kind of peace! God, Who is Omnipotent, Who is Omnipresent, Who is the Beginning and the End, and Who is not afraid of anything, has given us His peace and He shall keep our hearts! Our Father has made everything that has been made, so what can threaten Him? The devil led a rebellion with a third of the Angels and our Father just threw them out of Heaven. There was no Heavenly War I that our Father was required to lead the troops into to put the rebellion down. There was no bloodshed when satan was kicked out and there was no disruption in our Father's Authority or His power! He just spoke, sent over Michael, and satan was flung from Heaven and like a lightning bolt he came crashing to the earth! Our Father does not have to concern Himself or take thought for sickness, debt, fear, work, fellowship, or anything, He’s at perfect peace with Who He is and what He is and how He is. His peace is the perfect peace that passes all understanding! That peace, the perfect Omnipotent peace of God, now keeps our hearts and our minds!

We are born from the peace of God! We are now members of His body and we are now His Temple! Our Father has no threats, none whatsoever, and He sent Jesus to die for us so that we could have and enjoy the fruits of peace, and not just any peace, we enjoy His peace, and that is the peace that now keeps us. God doesn’t say that our peace will keep us. He doesn’t leave the responsibility of such a powerful life force to chance, He takes care of it Himself; we now have God’s very Own peace keeping us. We can see the power of our Father's peace in action with Paul and Silas. They were beaten and cast into the innermost part of the prison and shackled, and even though they were wrongly accused, they sang praises to God at midnight, and our Father delivered them.

“And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all doors were opened, and all bands loosed.” Acts 16:23-26

Paul and Silas were beaten and shackled. Yet they had God’s peace keeping their minds and their hearts during it. So they were strengthened and able to sing praises unto Him, and they were loosed, and if you read on, they won the jailor and his family to Christ. They didn’t do this on their own, they did it because of God, and they did it because God’s peace kept their hearts and their minds! Remember in Psalm 18 how we studied how our Father reacts when we are in trouble and call upon Him? Well, here is a New Testament example of the reality of God’s nature!

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27 Jesus gave us His peace, and Jesus’ peace is God’s peace. Jesus is God and God is Jesus and everything that Jesus has, He gave to us. There is nothing in the world that can equal Jesus' peace and we now have it keeping our hearts! Think about Jesus’ peace and the immense power of it. He is God, He has been God from the beginning and He freely gave up His godly state to come to earth as a man. He came to take on every sin and sickness that the world and all of its inhabitants would ever have. He knew that those whom He had created would kill Him and He knew it would be by the horrific act of being crucified on the Cross. Jesus knew that before He would be crucified that they were going to beat Him so badly that He will not even be recognized as a man. He knew He was going to be thrown into Hell. And yet the greatest thing that Jesus knew, was that He had been given the perfect peace that He would be raised from the dead and restored again to His former glory and honor in Heaven with God. “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” John 17:5

Jesus also had the peace that He wouldn’t mess up while He was here as a man, even though He was going to be tempted in every way that men could ever be tempted. “For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15 Now this is some kind of peace and Jesus gave it to us, this is peace that passes all understanding and we now have it! And we have the Holy Spirit within us insuring we grow to full maturity in it!

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 This world and all of its systems offer no peace, none, governments cannot give it, insurance cannot provide it, and jobs and family are incapable of securing it. Yet we have the peace of the One Who overcame the world. We have His Holy Spirit within us teaching and strengthening us in all things. We have the peace that we are healed by Jesus' stripes. We enjoy the perfect peace that Jesus came that we might have an abundant life. We have the peace that Jesus rebukes the devour for our sakes, that there is now no weapon that has been formed against us that will prosper, and that our needs are now met according to His riches and glory. Anything and everything that pertains to life and to godliness we now have through Jesus, these Truths are now the peace that keeps us! It doesn’t matter if we understand it. The peace of God passes understanding and the blessings of our Father overtake us, because we have been empowered to accept Jesus as Lord and we are a chosen generation and we are a royal priesthood!

Every bit as sure as Jesus was that He was going to spend eternity with God; we now have His exact same peace. Peter had this peace, read Acts 12:2-7. Herod had killed James and the Jewish masses loved it. So Herod decided that he was going to kill Peter as well. Herod threw him in jail, surrounded him with guards, and Peter just slept. He slept and was at peace even though just the day before James was murdered. Peter slept so soundly that when the Angel of the Lord came to rescue him, he had to strike Peter to wake him up! Now that is an assured peace that only God can give! This peace is for each and every believer, there is no circumstance the world has that can move or shake it, and it’s for us all and it shall keep us! “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? Psalm 118:6

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18 OUr Father is love and we are born of Him. “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” 1 John 4:8 We are born of perfect love and we now dwell in perfect love, because we are born again of God. We now dwell in God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and God is perfect love. The love that our Father had for Jesus now abides within us, John 17:26, so we have the perfect love of God abiding within us that casts out all fear from us! Fear has torment, so our Father gave us Himself to cast out all torment. God gave us His peace, so that in a world of tribulation, we could stand without fear as He rebukes the devourer for our sakes! Our Father gave us a new heart and a new mind, so that we could accept and walk in these Truths that pass all human understanding! God’s peace passes all understanding and that peace now keeps us! We are now strong in the power of our Father's might!

God is not a man that He should lie, He said these things regarding our peace, so they are Truth. Our Father will lead us in the paths of righteousness. So even if we are immature and not able to fully understand these Truth’s, our Father is right here walking with us, through the valley of the shadow of death. Because we are now born of God and because He is now within us and we are now within Him, we will fear no evil! For we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of love, peace, and a sound mind! Our Father has provided it all for us, and He will Author and Finish the faith needed to walk in and live in His full and complete peace, His perfect peace! We may not understand it all, God’s peace does pass all understanding, but that doesn’t matter, it will keep us. Our Father's perfect love has cast out all fear for those who have accepted His salvation through Jesus Christ!

Consider all of the benefits that we have studied so far about our salvation through Jesus: eternal life, abundant life, health, direct access to our Father, peace, Truth, God’s protection, whatever we do prospers, safety, and all of the other of His glorious benefits. Everything that would bring fear, has been done away with and our Father has taken care of it. God has brought us into a place in Him that we are able to take no thought for our own lives, just as Jesus takes no thought for His life. That is probably the greatest and most peaceful thing of all, just knowing that our Father has us in His hands and that no man and no thing can take us out of them, and knowing that we will be with Him forever! That is the peace that allows us to clearly and lovingly share Him with every creature. The same peace that Jesus had to come and serve is now the peace that we have to serve, and we now dwell in perfect love of God that casteth out all fear!

A Benefit of Salvation: Health

“Who His Own self bare our sins in His Own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by Whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

As we read the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John one thing becomes very clear, Jesus is all about healing the sick. Jesus healed lepers, He healed the blind, the lame, and He even raised the dead. “Now when He came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much of the people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said unto her, weep not. And He came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And He said, Young man, I say to thee, arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And He delivered him unto his mother.” Luke 7:12-15 Jesus had not yet gone to the Cross and He had not yet received a single stripe, yet we see that His purpose and His ministry was to make people whole, and healing is part of being whole! If this was Jesus’ Ministry before He was sacrificed and if this is how He acted before He was raised from the dead, how much more do you suppose that it is how His Ministry is now? Now that He has shed His Blood and ushered in the New Testament, the better Testament?

Let me ask you this as well, did that mother, whose son had died, come to Jesus and ask for a miracle? Did her son ask to be raised from the dead? No, Jesus was just walking by and He had compassion and acted on His compassion. Look at John 5:5-9. “And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, He saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Arise, take up thy bed and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked: and on the same day was the Sabbath.”

This lame man at the Pool of Bethesda showed no faith whatsoever; he only had doubt and when Jesus asked him if he wanted to be whole, he said that he couldn’t be, because someone else would beat him to it. Did this man’s complete lack of faith stop Jesus? Absolutely not! Jesus just told him to be whole and he was. There are a lot of people that will try to tell you that your healing depends solely on our faith, or our ability to believe that we can be. Well here are two examples where there was none and yet there were healings! Faith can play a role in healings, Jesus told the woman with an issue of blood, Luke 8:43, that her faith had made her whole. But grace and compassion are a huge part of our Father's personality and our Father is not limited!

Go back and review the Greek words for salvation and saved, they both mean health and deliverance from sickness and disease. Soteria (salvation), Strong’s 4991: means deliverer, health, rescue, and safety. Fourfold salvation: saved from the penalty, power, presence and most importantly the pleasure of sin. Deliverance from the molestation of enemies, future salvation: the sum of benefits and blessings which the Christians, redeemed from all earthly ills, will enjoy after the visible return of Christ from heaven in the consummated and eternal kingdom of God. Sozo (saved), Strong's 4982, means to keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger and destruction. To save one from perishing, to save from disease, to make well, to heal, to restore. To preserve, to deliver from the penalties of sin and judgment and finally to save from the evils which obstruct the reception of deliverance.

Jesus healed so many people during His earthly ministry that when they couldn’t get to Him with the sick they literally ripped the roofs off where He was, so that they could get to Him, Mark 2:4. We can’t read the Gospels and ever come up with the conclusion that our Father wants us sick; it’s just not the Truth! Not once does Jesus say that He wants someone sick. He never says that He has allowed sickness on a person to teach them a Truth about God, nor does He ever deny to heal anyone. Jesus never said that He couldn’t heal because it was our Father's will for them to be sick! Everywhere that Jesus went He healed, whether they could accept it or not! Even in His hometown where He marveled at their unbelief, the Word says Jesus healed! Now Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, He changes not. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 So if God acted that way through Jesus 2000 years ago, He is the same way today. If He was healing the sick back then, He is healing them today, He ever lives to intercede for us and that is why we are saved, and healed to the uttermost! By Jesus’ stripes we are healed!

Ask yourself this, when does the Word of God say that we were healed? Our Father had Peter write that it was when Jesus went to the Cross. Now God just didn’t have Peter write this, He also had Isaiah write it hundreds of years before Jesus was born. “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5 Hundreds of years before it happened; God was talking as if it already did.

I have heard it said that our Father allows sickness on us so that we can minister to those who are sick. That’s just foolish, do I need to be gay to minister to a homosexual? Do I need to be convicted of a crime to minister to those in jail? Do I need to murder to minister to a murderer? Let’s say I have had a cold, does that qualify me then to minister to someone with cancer? And what if I have had a curable cancer, does that then give me the ability to minister to those with terminal cancer? It’s absolutely foolish to think this way, but many do. The scripture teaches us that we can minister because we have the Holy Ghost abiding within us teaching us all things. We need not to have endured the specific situation to minister to the person who is in it. We have God; we have His Spirit dwelling within us, and that is what gives us the ability to minister to each and every need! We are born of God; we are of His seed. We are born of the same seed that bore Jesus; we have the same Spirit within us that God gave to Jesus, the Holy Spirit. Did Jesus need to have leprosy to minister to the lepers? Did Jesus need to die to raise the dead? Did Jesus need to sin to minister to the sinners? Well, how did He do it, how did He minister if He had not suffered all of these things? He did it because God’s Truth ministers to all situations and the gifts of God minister to the needs of the people! We have God within us and He knows how to use us to minister to each and every situation!

What are the gifts of God that allows Him to use us to minister and profit those in need? “And there are distinctive varieties of operation [of working to accomplish things], but it is the same God Who inspires and energizes them all in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the [Holy] Spirit [the evidence, the spiritual illumination of the Spirit] for good and profit. To one is given in and through the [Holy] Spirit [the power to speak] a message of wisdom, and to another [the power to express] a word of knowledge and understanding according to the same Holy Spirit. To another [wonder working] faith by the same [Holy] Spirit, to another the extraordinary powers of healing by the one Spirit; To another the working of miracles, to another prophetic insight (the gift of interpreting the Divine will and purpose); to another the ability to discern and distinguish between [the utterances of true] spirits [and false ones]; to another various kinds of [unknown] tongues, to another the ability to interpret [such] tongues.” 1 Corinthians 12:5-10 Amplified Bible

Our Father never says there is a gift of sickness! There is no gift of disease to educate or allow us to minister, but there is a gift to heal! These are the gifts to profit and the gifts that do good, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and sickness and disease are not one of them!

God’s desire for us is to be in health and for us to be prospering, 3 John 3:2. It is an absolute lie of satan to think anything else! Jesus paid a high price so that we could live righteously and so that we could have health. Salvation means health, it is one of the greatest earthly benefits of salvation. Jesus went about healing all who were sick, and He even gave His disciples the power to do the same. We read that when the Holy Ghost came to dwell in man, one of the results was healing. Jesus marveled when people refused it. Never once do we read anything that remotely resembles a desire or willingness of Jesus for us to be sick. If it were true that sickness was to be used as a teaching or strengthening tool of God, don’t you think there would be a least one chapter in the Gospels that taught about Jesus releasing sickness on someone? I hear it all of the time in Church that sickness is allowed on us by God to teach us to minster to the sick, if it were that true, don’t you think we would read plainly about it being so in the Word? But it’s not in there, the Word proclaims that by His stripes we are healed, He came that we might have life and that we might have it abundantly! Our darkness is as the noonday and glory be to God we are His Temple, flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone! Salvation means health, and now is the day of salvation!

Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly. An abundant life is one of health. The Greek Word that means abundance is perissos, Strong’s 4053, it means exceeding, over and above, more than necessary, supremely, extraordinary, surpassing, uncommon, more remarkable, and more excellent. If an abundant life meant we were to be sick, than we should be sicker than any one else, far more than necessary, we should be uncommonly sick, far above those who aren’t saved. People who are sick are trying to be well. You know anyone who is sick that isn’t. They go to the doctor, people are trying to eat right and exercise to avoid being sick, abundance does not include sickness.

The Bible teaches us that as God is, so are we on this earth, 1 John 4:17, is our Father sick, can He be sick, does He need to be sick to minister to us? Our Father proclaims that if we are saved than sickness will not even come near where we dwell. “Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” Psalm 91:9-10 Is God lying here? Did God lie when He said that by Jesus’ stripes we were healed? Did Jesus respect those people He ministered to some 2000 years ago more than He does us? Jesus said it was better that He went away, because if He went away then the Holy Ghost would come. So shouldn’t healing and health be even more prevalent within us, for it to be better for us?

These Truths are why salvation is so great! No man can steal them from us; words only begin to scratch the surface of the power of these Truths. These Truths of health and abundance, about wisdom and knowledge, and a victorious life through Christ are for all men. There is no reason each and every one of us can’t live fully within them. Through God all things are possible and with Him no foe is able to stand! God will provide complete and total victory, in every area of our lives, every day, from now throughout all of eternity! Grab a hold of God, and you will never experience the disappointment of failure. God will lead you into the paths of righteousness and virtue will be yours! You are a child of God; Jesus is our example, the first born among many brethren. If God did it through Jesus, it is a pattern for how He will do it through us as well! Salvation means health, any other doctrine, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing!

Go and read how Jesus healed the Centurions servant, how He healed Peters mother-in-law, how He healed the ten lepers, the man with the withered hand, and the little girl that had died. Read about Lazarus, read how the Apostles would walk by and people were instantly healed, read how Paul anointed handkerchiefs and the people who touched them were healed. Go and read how Paul was preaching and a guy fell to his death during the sermon, and how Paul went down and raised Him from the dead, and went on preaching until morning. Go read how Paul was stoned and taken out of the city, and was raised from the dead. Read all of these and allow God to reveal to you that salvation means health, Godly Health, abundant health, more than needed health, health in excess, and uncommon health! Jesus is Lord and He is a Lord of abundance!

Our Father Leads Us In All Truth

"Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shew it unto you." John 16:13-15

“And ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.” John 8:32 We shall know all of the Truth of God, because our Father will guide us into all of His Truth and His Truth shall make us free! Our Father is not limited by our humanity or by our flesh. Our Father loves us so much that He gave us His Holy Spirit and through Him, God is able to guide us into all Truth. The Holy Ghost will take each and every last thing that our Father has given to Jesus and He will reveal it all to us, and through His Truth, we shall be free!

The Holy Spirit will strengthen us to accept the Truth and the eternal power that is within it! He will go to God and advocate on our behalf and He will empower us to actually live in the fullness of God’s Truth! The Holy Spirit will teach us and strengthen us in the Truth of God’s love and through the power of Christ within us, we will love as Jesus loves! The love of God will set us free and it will cast out all fear from within us! The Holy Ghost, the very Spirit of God, shall teach us of the abundance of God. He will take all that Jesus is and reveal it to us and through the power of the Holy Spirit we shall know our Father, as Jesus knows our Father, and we shall be free! The Holy Ghost shall teach us to be used by God in the ministering of His spiritual gifts, as Jesus was used by God in the ministering of His spiritual gifts, and we shall be free. The Holy Ghost shall teach us to pray, to witness, to forgive, to hope, to love, to live, and to live abundantly in every area of our lives, spirit, soul, and body, as Jesus lives abundantly, and we shall be free, free as Jesus is free!

“Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:9-11

Our Father's ways are higher than mans ways, this is the Truth; God knows this Truth, so He gave Himself to us to guide us in all of His Truth, so His ways can now be our ways as well! “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” John 14:26

There is absolutely nothing that our Father does not know and He gave us the Holy Ghost to teach us everything! Our relationship with our Father, Who is God, is so complete and so intimate that He proclaims, “But the anointing which ye received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is Truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.” 1 John 2:27 Our Father has provided a way for us to know all of His Truth, even if we never have a Bible! Even if we were cast out on an island with no other human being around, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we could still be taught everything and know everything and be free! Once we are empowered to say yes to Jesus, we are never alone again; He will never leave us or forsake us. Jesus leads us in the paths of righteousness and A-men, He knows the way! Our Father knows how to teach each one of us, what may be needed for me, may not be needed for you. Our Father deals with each of us individually, as He leads us into all of His Truths that set us free!

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 1 Corinthians 2:13 Man’s wisdom is foolishness to God! “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” 1 Corinthians 1:25 Just look at America, we try to have the government take care of our elderly. So we created Social Security and it is virtually bankrupting the Country, and no one can live on the puny amount provided by it. America spends billions of dollars on educating our youth, and yet millions of our children aren’t being taught. We have passed hundreds of laws that demand that we respect each other, and yet racial and social divides still exist. These things are all examples of man’s wisdom and none of them work! But with God, there is no failure, God has all of the answers; God gives peace that passes understanding, Philippians 4:7, even in a world where people blow themselves up to kill others in the name of Allah. God’s ways are higher than mans ways. Our Father has a retirement plan for all of His children and it’s an inheritance to our children’s, children, Proverbs 13:22. Our Father has a health plan that doesn’t even require a minimum co-pay, 1 Peter 2:24. These Truth’s all sound like foolishness to men, but for those of us who have believed on Jesus as Lord and who have been filled with His Holy Spirit, these are the Truth’s that have set us free! Through the Truth we have ceased from our own labors and have entered into God’s rest. We have been given a sound mind that no longer fears and we now are empowered by Christ to take no thought for our own lives, for Our Father knows what we need and when we need it, and He supplies our needs and our wants in abundance!

Over the last several postings we have discussed some pretty awesome truths and I know that it can be an intimidating thing to look at a verse and see that we can ask for anything we want or read that we should be prosperous in everything we do. Everything: spiritually, soulfully, and physically, prosperous in everything, this is the Truth of the power of God within us. When was the last time you heard it preached that we could know all of the Truth that Jesus knows? I know that many in religion try to qualify these truths, or even shy away from them, out of fear. But we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and we have a sound mind, the mind of Christ, 2 Timothy 1:7! Think about it, only if a person is truly saved will God perform His Truths through them, so why shy away from them? If a person is saved, great, they are new creatures in Christ and they will ask and desire godly things. If they are not, they won't, and it does not matter if they desire or ask for evil, because what they ask for and desire, will not be heard by God! "Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doth His will, him He heareth." John 9:31

The reason there is no fear in the incredible power described in these verses we have been studying is because of the Truth mentioned by Jesus in John 16: “the Holy Ghost will guide us in all Truth!” God has given Himself to strengthen and teach those of us who have truly accepted Jesus as Lord and who walk in His salvation. God will give us the desires of our hearts! Now that not only means that we will get something we have asked for, but it means that God put the desire in our hearts in the first place, so that we would ask for it. We can ask, because we have been made perfect in our oneness: Jesus is now within us, we are now in Jesus, and Jesus is in God, all made perfect in one so that the world may believe and be saved! Paul describes being born again like this, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20

We have said yes to Jesus, so we can ask, desire, and believe for what our Father wills this day. We have been born of God, we have been chosen by Him, and He has given us a new heart and a new spirit that is completely and perfectly equipped to ask for His will! Not only do we now have a new heart and spirit, we now have God within us, insuring that we are saved to the uttermost, teaching us all Truth and allowing us to be set free by the knowledge and wisdom that He is now teaching us. Heaven and earth will pass away, but the Truth that God is teaching us will remain! God has given us everything needed, even Authoring and Finishing our faith to believe that He able and willing to do what He has spoken! Our Father is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 Through the strength of the Anointing of God, which is Christ, we are able to allow God to be Who He is within us, and we are able to allow these Truths to transform us into the children that Jesus went to the Cross-for us to be!

"So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." Romans 10:17 "Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of things we hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality. Hebrews 11:1 Amplified Bible And praise God, “Looking unto Jesus the Authorer and Finisher of our faith,” Hebrews 12:2. We have been given the Holy Ghost to teach us all things; we have Jesus Who allows us to have the faith to diligently seek God, and be rewarded because of it, and we have God’s Word on it. It’s finished! Greater is He that is within us, than he that is in the world and God can now do all things through us by Christ Who has strengthened us!

A Benefit of Salvation: Asking & Receiving

"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." John 15:7

Hallelujah, there are so many different areas that we can praise our Father concerning this Truth! As I was praying about what He wanted us to study, He told me that the real power of this verse is with our relationship with Him. More specifically, the fact that we have direct access and ability through Jesus to go to our Father with anything and everything! "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing." John 15:4-5

Our Father is the Creator of everything, there is no power that is greater than He is, and He has allowed us to have direct access to Him. OUr Father has given us the ability through faith Authored by Jesus to ask Him for whatever we will! Our Father the Creator of it all has said that He will give us whatever we ask for, and all we have to do is to abide in Him and have His Word abide in us. This isn’t a benefit of salvation that is reserved for just a select few of us either; it’s for each and every believer, because every believer has the Word abiding within Him. This isn’t a hard Truth to live either, “For My yoke is easy, and My burden light.” Matthew 11:30 Jesus is the Word, John 1:14, and every one of us been called and chosen has Jesus abiding within him. “And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, as we are One: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfect in one, and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” John 17:22-23 It is impossible for us to accept Jesus and make Him the Lord of our lives, and then choose to not have Him abiding within us. If we choose to live apart from Christ then we aren’t saved! The two go hand in hand! Salvation is unity and oneness with God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!

The Bible teaches us that Jesus is the firstborn among many brethren. “For those whom He foreknew [of whom He was aware and loved beforehand], He also destined from the beginning [foreordained them] to be molded into the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness], that He might become the firstborn among many brethren.” Romans 8:9 (Amplified Bible) The reason that our Father sent Jesus was not just to save us, but so that we could be made like Him, that’s the fullness of His salvation! Our Father just didn’t provide a way for us to escape an eternity in Hell, an eternity separated from Him; He provided a way through the power of His Anointing, which is Christ, for us to actually be like Him! That’s what our Father has always wanted and desired for us to be. God created us in His image, and Jesus came so that we might be! Jesus is the greatest, there is none greater, He is the Alpha and the Omega, He is our Head, He is our Savior, and these Truths of Who He is, does not for one second limit us from being like Him!

It does not demean Jesus for us to live in the fullness and completeness of His salvation! Jesus came so that we could be like Him. Jesus came so that we could have direct access to God, as He has direct access to God. Jesus came so that our Father would be able to do the works through us, that He did through Him, and yes even greater ones! The power of God within man has been perfected by the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior! John 14:12. Jesus came so that we could ask of our Father for everything and receive, as He asked everything of God and received! Too many of us try to elevate Jesus by degrading ourselves. That is basically just placing the focus on us and not on God. That’s not how Jesus says we are to elevate and praise God. Jesus said that we elevate our Father and bring praise to Him by being used to produce much fruit. “Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples.” John 15:8 Man apart from God can do nothing, however man with God can do everything, Mark 10:27.

One of the best examples that I have ever found in the Bible of how our Father is concerning us asking Him for things can be found when Jesus began His ministry. “And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, they have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever He saith unto you do it.” John 2:3-5 Jesus proclaimed that He only spoke what He was commanded of God to speak, John 12:49. So what He said to Mary was of God, and Jesus said that it wasn’t yet His time! So what did Mary do? She went right ahead and persisted. And Jesus without rebuking her, began His public ministry. How great is that? Mary asked our Father what she willed and God did it, even though He had at first said no! For those of us that have kids, we know exactly why God did what He did for her.

I hope you see this Truth that our Father is not inaccessible. God’s provided a way for us to be one with Him, exactly like Jesus is one with Him. Jesus asked our Father for everything. He spoke only what God had told Him to speak and Jesus gave God the glory and honor for everything that happened. Jesus had a 100% success ratio with God! He did because He was one with God, and because of Jesus, we too can have a 100% success ratio, because through Jesus, we too are one with God. Our strength does not lie within our own abilities to serve our Father; they lie within Jesus’ ability to serve God by serving us. He ever lives to intercede for us and that is why we are saved to the uttermost! We are not alone, Jesus is our Head, He is the Vine and we are the branches, and He is our Shepherd, leading us in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake!

What’s really powerful about asking and receiving is our will, “ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.” I mean think about it, Jesus said this, so it’s an absolute Truth, but is it an attainable Truth for us? Most of the Christians I talk with question whether their will and God’s will are actually the same? They believe that we may get it right once in a while, but how can we be sure? I hear it said all of the time that God will not take our free will from us, but is that Truth? Ask yourself these two questions, can we have God’s will 100% of the time, and if we are saved, are we permitted to retain our own will that is contrary to His? Let’s turn to the Word and see the Truth, and the Truth will set us free!

“Not with eye service, as men pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” Ephesians 6:6 Doing the will of God comes from the heart! So it’s with our hearts that we do the will of God! That’s cool! What does God say about our hearts? “A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.” Ezekiel 36:26-27 Wow!

Our Father takes care of our will. He does it by giving us a new heart and He gives us a new spirit, and He places His Spirit within us, so that we can do what? So that we can do His will! A-men, we are not alone! Our Father is right here in us, with us, leading us, providing the necessary components, and strengthening us to do His will in everything. We can ask and receive because our Father has given us a heart and a spirit that can ask His will, and He doesn’t stop there, He put Himself within us to finish the job completely! God never says that there is a benefit or a requirement that is from Him, that He doesn’t fully empower us with Himself to obtain or to fulfill!

I have heard people say that our Father will not take away our free will; He does to! God takes away, yes and A-men, He takes away our sinful free will. Look at Ezekiel 36:26. Our Father said that He would take away our stony hearts, our hearts of dead works, dead wills, and dead desires, and we thank you Father that You do! Our Father said that He would cause us to walk in what is right and righteous, and we praise You Father that You do! If it were up to us, we would keep it, and then we would not be able to ask and receive. But God loves us so much that He put a new heart and a new spirit within us that only wants His will and we can ask away; because we have Him within us a 100% of the time and with God there is a 100% success ratio!

Now don’t get me wrong, can we ask amiss, yes, James 4:3. But hear me out; faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The reality of so many believers is this: that we are just humans, bound to mess up, we have this free will which is contrary to God’s will and that’s just the way it is. So even though Jesus said ask what ye will, the chances of us living that way are slim to none! They believe that with a lot of hard work and self-determination that maybe once and a while we can get it right, but never all of the time like Jesus did. But the Bible says that our Father's yoke is easy, and the Bible says that God gave us a spirit and a heart that can. The Bible says that our Father did take away our will that was contrary to His, and Jesus said ask and receive! This is the great victory of our salvation, nothing is ever left to chance, and everything is left up to God!

We have studied that our Father wants us prosperous with abundance, having all of our desires and all of our needs fulfilled through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Through His Love, by His presence, and with His Word, God has provided a way for us to be as Jesus is. We now have seen that God has faith and boldness in us, because He knows absolutely that Christ dwells within us, and He knows far better than you and I the power of our unity with Him. Our Father knows the heart and the spirit that He gave us; He knows their power that allows us to walk in His will. Our Father can say that we can have whatsoever we ask, because He has given our will to us, and it’s no longer our will but His will. Old things have passed away for us and all things have become new, including our will! And our Father's will for us is an abundant life. His will is Health, His will is Peace, His will is Joy, His will is Wisdom, Miraculous, Forgiving, Kind, Gentle, and Powerful! These are the attributes of the heart we have been given by God and out of the abundance of our hearts, our mouths will ask!

Do not shy away from this power or be intimidated by it. It’s God, it’s all Him, we only can because of Him! We have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible. We have been given the Holy Ghost to teach us all things. Our Father has faith in His salvation and in our unity with Christ, and so should we. Its God Who said these things are true, so walk in boldness and have faith in the power of our salvation, God does!

A Benefit Of Salvation: Our Needs Are Met Abundantly

"But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” Psalm 23:5

“And they all did eat, and were filled, and they took up the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children” Matthew 14:20-21

When our Father meets our needs, He does it according to His riches and according to His glory. The standard that our Father meets our needs by is so far beyond anything that this world has to offer; God’s minimum is superabundant to man’s abundance. When our Father fills our cup it runs over, and when He feeds us He starts with nothing and then when He is done there are baskets full left over. our Father is a God of superabundance! Our needs are met with far more provision than ever is required. The Truth is our Father wants us to lack in nothing. Consider Heaven for a moment. Heaven is a perfect place, love, faith, and hope abound, no sickness, no fear, streets of gold, mansions, abundance, everlasting life, and power, everything is met abundantly! In Heaven God’s power shines so brightly that they don’t even need the Sun, God’s glory lights up the place! Now let me ask you a question, is God a respecter of persons? Does He favor one person above another? No! Acts 10:34

"Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons."

So if in Heaven people have all their needs met, spiritually, soulfully, and physically, why wouldn't we have the same here on earth? It is the same God providing the abundance in Heaven as it is here on the earth. Does our Father respect them more than us? Haven't we read and studied that now is the day of our salvation? According to God, we don’t have to wait to be saved, so we don’t have to wait for our needs to be abundantly met!

You may say that Brad, "there are no people in Heaven, at least not in human bodies." If you believe that there are only spirits there now, shouldn’t our spirits be as abundantly supplied as theirs? But there are more than just spirits in Heaven; there are bodies. I was preaching once and as I spoke our Father began to speak to me. It was amazing; Words flowed from me, yet I was totally in another conversation with God. our Father asked me the very same questions, "Am I a respecter of persons? I said, no. He then asked me about Heaven, is there sickness? Is there hunger? Is there lack? Is there fear? Is there a lack of understanding? Do people get killed? Do people owe money? All of these questions I answered no to. Then our Father said if my children do not have lack in Heaven, and I am not a respecter of persons, than there should be no lack on the earth for My children! I shouted I see it and A-men, and never skipped a beat in my other sermon, and until I said what had happened no one knew what was going on.

God allowed me to taste just a little fraction of what He is like and capable of. He talks to millions of us all at once, in individual conversations, and never skips a beat. our Father had John write in 1 John 4:17 that as He is so are we in this world. I didn’t do anything to do this, it was our Father within me that was allowing me to preach and have a conversation with Him at the same time. I was really just along for the ride. But He showed me that this is how we all can live 100% of the time. Think of all of the millions of dollars that are spent on preachers traveling, then think of how our Father is? Our Father is more than capable of allowing us to talk to each other as He does, without ever leaving where we are. If man can make a phone that can conference call, or video conference, God can allow us to talk through our spirits!

Now back to people being in Heaven, there are people, just like us with physical bodies. The Bible speaks of at least two of them, Enoch and Elijah. The Bible teaches that neither tasted death, but both were delivered to Heaven. Scriptural proof: Hebrews 11:5 "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death;" and 2 Kings 2:11 "..there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into Heaven." Now Enoch and Elijah are not in fear, they do not have sickness, they do not have lack, and they are in Heaven. Our Father showed me this during that sermon and it was so exciting. God sees our needs as being so far above what we see them as. We tend to think as a need as being the bare minimum; God sees it as abundance!

“Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and the body more than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies in the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of them.” Matthew 6:25-29 Jesus tells us to take no thought for our physical needs; food, clothing, or our lives, which are all definitely needs we have while on the earth, and Jesus teaches us to take no thought for them! Jesus teaches this because He knows, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that our needs are now met according to God’s riches and glory! So; “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith.” Matthew 6:30

How many sermons have you heard that teach us how to pray or act to get something, a new home, a car, clothes for the kids, a spouse, a job, more money, or whatever else we need? I have heard hundreds of them; whole ministries are out there devoted to preaching nothing but that kind of stuff. Well, Jesus said to take no thought for these things, it’s kind of hard to reconcile the two isn’t it? God teaches us to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all of these things will be given to us, and they will be given to us according to His riches! “But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all of these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33 Our Father knows what we need and He doesn’t slouch in meeting our needs! If you are concerned with your needs, don’t be like the unsaved and worry about them, and focus on them, seek first God’s Kingdom, and all of your needs will be met. “(For after all of these things do the Gentiles seek;) for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” Matthew 6:32

Our Father knows that we need all of these things to live, and He teaches us to seek Him first and seek His righteousness and all of it will be added unto us. Our Father is not mocked, whatsoever He has promised, He will do! Our Father is not a man that He should lie, so if He said that we are not to take thought, He meant, take no thought! Now that goes against what most of us have heard and it definitely goes against society, but remember that our Father has given us a new heart and He has placed His Spirit within us to cause us to walk in His Truth’s. Jesus’ yoke is easy to be born, this Truth is in us, and we are more than capable through the power of Christ that strengthens us to live without taking any thought for our own lives! We are far better than flowers and we are far better than birds! Look at the birds, they get to fly south every winter, they don’t have to hang out in the snow and cold! Our Father is a God of abundance!

Think about our Father for a second? Is He taking thought for His own life? We never read that He is; yet we read that He is always taking thought for ours! His Spirit now abides within us, we are born of Him, born of His incorruptible seed, and Jesus is now the One giving us everything needed to live, just as a branch receives everything needed to live by the vine! We are now alive because our Father has birthed us and He now lives within us. So we will resemble Him, taking no thought for our own lives, yet ever living to help others. Jesus ever lives to intercede for us, and we are now one with Him, so we too ever live to intercede for others! Jesus’ needs are being met in abundance and our needs are met by the same abundance! Our Father loves us, just as He loves Jesus. Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God. This needs to be preached, we need to encourage each other with it daily, our needs have been met according to the same riches and glory that Jesus’ needs have been met! Since they are we can have peace and joy as we take no thought for our own lives, we have been given the mind of Christ, it’s how He has made us! Jesus came that we might have an abundant life, and our abundance is measured with the same level of abundance as Jesus’ is!

A Benefit of Salvation: Being Given the Desires of Our Hearts

"Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Mark 11:24

"Delight thyself also in the Lord: and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Psalm 37:4

When we love Jesus, our Father will give us whatsoever things we desire. Hallelujah! Now stop and read that out loud again, what things soever, (that’s in red, Jesus said it) that we desire, when we pray we are to believe that we will receive from our Father and we shall have them! Remember that faith believes that God is and that He is a rewarded of those who diligently seek Him! Also remember that we have our faith Authored and Finished by Jesus Himself. We are empowered with the strength of Christ to believe that God is willing and able to perform what He has spoken! We are powerful, able, and willing through the Anointing of our Father to delight ourselves in the Lord and He will give us the desires of our hearts! That’s just good stuff! That’s the Truth of God and the Truth of God sets us free!

You ever hear someone say that our Father will only provide our needs, not our wants. I have heard that so many times and I just shout for joy, because I know that our Father is not just a provider of our needs, He goes right on over to our wants and desires. He is a God of abundance and great mercies. He is a Father Who wants His offspring to greatly prosper in every area of our lives: Spirit, Soul, and Body! Our Father sent the best He had, Jesus, so that we could have it all through Him. Jesus paid a high price for you and I.

Our being blessed isn't dependent upon our ability to understand all that Jesus has done for us and it doesn’t matter whether we feel worthy enough to receive it. Our Father's Truth is His Truth and Jesus said whatsoever things we desire! We don’t look to ourselves for this faith. Man on his own has no ability to accept and believe this, we look unto Jesus for the needed faith to live and walk in this awesome Truth.

"Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the God." Hebrews 12:2

We have Jesus living within us to lead us in the paths of righteousness and we have Jesus within us to Author and Finish whatever faith is needed to realize and to live in the fullness of our Father's Truths!

When we hear such verses the first thing that satan will do is attempt to make us question our motives. I have shared these verses before and have had people ask me, "you mean I can desire for someone to be killed and God will do it?" I always marvel at such bizarre responses. When we hear such foolishness, we should immediately ask the person if they would like to be saved? When our Father leads us in studying these types of verses we should get excited. Because the Holy Spirit has caused the desire of our hearts to be to please our Father, to walk in the fullness of His wisdom, to walk in the power of His Spirit, to witness His truths, to provide for our families, to love and provide for our enemies, to allow Him to use us to heal the sick, to comfort the hurting, and to give specific prophesies to edify and grow the church. When we hear these scriptures our first thought, or any thought, is never to do harm to someone or to commit a despicable act, our thoughts are to allow our Father to work mightily through us. These are the desires of our hearts, because our Father has given us new hearts, when we called and chosen to believe in Him, Ezekiel 36:26.

“For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guides and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart.” 1 Corinthians 2:16 Amplified Bible.

People who have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to accept Jesus as the Lord of their lives and who are saved, hold the thoughts and purposes of Christ in our Anointed minds. The thoughts and purposes of the minds that we now have, believe for what our Father desires and we want and hope for what our Father wants. We are born again, we can’t help it, we are born from God’s Incorruptible Seed, the old things of our lives are passed away and behold all things are become new unto us! We now have Jesus Authoring and Finishing our faith, and believe me, we can’t go and ask our Father for anything and actually believe we can have it without Jesus being the One within us, telling us to ask for it! And Jesus isn’t going to ask for something that is contrary to God’s thoughts, intents, and purposes. So we may have full peace and joy in allowing Jesus to empower us to not only ask God for whatsoever things we desire, but we also are able to delight in asking!

“If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples.” John 15:7-8 Do you see why our Father has said that we are able to delight in asking? Because when we bear much fruit it glorifies our Father. Jesus fully allowed God to produce much fruit through Him and so should we. How could we do anything less, Jesus now Authors our faith. His Word now abides within us and we now abide in Him, so don’t you think that if all of these things are true, we would look and act like Jesus?

If someone’s first response is a negative one, that’s all right, it will clearly show us that the person hearing the Truth needs to hear it. This person may be in church, they may go to church more then we ever will. They may even be in a position of leadership within a church. But if the response given by an individual when these scriptures are shared with them is to commit a sinful act, we will know where their heart is. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. “Either make the tree good, and his fruit is good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil of his treasure bringeth forth evil things.” Matthew 12:33-35

Remember this fact, we did not write these Truth’s, our Father did. God also wrote them in such a way that it would take faith to hear and to accept them. "And the disciples came and said unto Him, why speakest Thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath." Matthew 13:10-12

What Jesus is saying here is that those of us who are truly saved have the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost shall give us the needed understanding and we shall grow. Jesus also shows us that those who are not saved, even though they hear, will not understand. Remember in John 14:26, Jesus said that He was sending the Holy Ghost to act on His behalf. The Disciples had Jesus right there with them and we now have the Holy Ghost right here living permanently within us. Which according to Jesus is a great and powerful thing, a thing to be desired and cherished!. "However, I am telling you nothing but the Truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come unto you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you]." John 16:7 Amplified

If someone wishes to disagree with God’s Word, they are disagreeing with God, not us. It’s just for us to share our Father's Word with the world; God keeps the responsibility for Himself to make His Word grow. Remember too, that all who hear God's Word may not prosper because of it.

"Listen to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches it from his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The one who receives the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the Word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among thorns is the man who hears the Word, but the worries of life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the Word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." Matthew 13:18-23 NIV

Even though all may not prosper, it is our desire and our prayer that all will. God's Word does not fall void to the earth. The Anointing of Christ within us loves those who disagree with our Father and it empowers us to pray for them, and to intercede for them. If they won’t listen to us, pray that our Father sends someone who they will listen to. Think about our Father and how He acts, how many prophets did He send in the Old Testament, how many times has He forgiven us, and does He ever change, does His Word ever change? That’s what we are born of and that is Who is alive within us!

Jesus taught us to ask for whatsoever things we desire, and He told us that by receiving and producing much fruit through our asking, actually glorifies our Father. This is God’s will for our lives. He wants to provide for us and He wants to give us more than just our needs, He wants to give us our wants. The Lord is our Shepherd; we shall not want, Psalm 23:1. He gave us the Holy Ghost to empower us and He gave us Jesus to Author and Finish our faith. Our Father gave us a new heart that will allow us to walk in His will, and He gave us the mind of Christ. Our Father will never leave us or forsake us, and He has allowed us to actually be one with Him through Jesus our Lord and our Savior. Now let me ask you this again, if all of these verses are true, don’t you think we will resemble Jesus, Who is the Word of God manifested in the flesh? Jesus asked and received and you can’t tell me that asking for water to be turned into wine was a need, that was definitely a want! “Not with eye service, as men pleasers; but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;” Ephesians 6:6 It’s God’s will for our wants as well as our needs to be realized through Him!

Rejoice this day, because today is the day of salvation, and today our Father will give us the desires of our hearts because we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to delight ourselves in Him! Love those who love you. Love those who hate you. Love those in authority. Pray for the governments of this world and our leaders. Allow the Love you were born from to consume you. You are the child of God, and God is Love, so you are Love. Delight yourself in Love and you will be given the desires of your heart!