"For now we live, if we stand fast in the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 3:8
On our own and with our own human strength, we could never stand fast in the Lord. This is why we have become one with God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, so that we may live and stand fast in the power of His might. “Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;” Colossians 1:11 We are now strong in the power of our Father's might, because we now have the Holy Ghost, Who teaches and strengthens us in all things! We have the whole armor of God, so that we are able to stand against all of the attacks of the world and evil! We are dead, and still we live; yet it is not us who is alive, but it is Christ within us Who is alive. We stand fast because we are one with the Lord and He stands fast within us! Greater is He that is now within us than he that is in the world! We have put on Christ and we have been renewed in the very image of God, recreated in righteousness and true holiness.
There are so many of us who are wishy washy about our salvation. Too many of our brethren are self-condemning, fearful and in doubt of their eternal state because they are in doubt of who they are in Christ. They may have gone to church for years, yet they never walk in any power or demonstration of the Spirit. The reason they are living this way is because they are trying to stand fast in the Lord on their own and they fail each and every time! Jesus told us that He never said anything that He had not heard first from the Father and that it was God in Him, Who was doing the works. Until we actually begin to think of ourselves to be crucified with Christ and give it all up, including our free will, we will never be able to stand fast in the Lord. I hear about free will and I just marvel. The Word teaches us that if we put anything before Jesus, than we are not worthy of Him, Matthew 10:37. The first thing I wanted rid of when I found Jesus was my free will. Not my will Lord, but yours!
People, who say they maintain their free will to walk away from our Father, have never truly experienced Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They may have a form of godliness, but they have denied the power of it because they have not been empowered to cast the burden of their free will on God. “No man can serve two masters; for they will either love the one and hate the other; or else they will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6:24 People who think that they still have a free will are trying to serve two masters. They are trying to serve Jesus and themselves and they will fail every time. They are a divided house and they will never stand fast in Jesus, they cannot!
The last act of my free will was to allow God to crucify me with Christ, which allowed me to live, because Christ was now the One living in me. I can’t even brag about giving up my free will, because it was our Father Who gave me the strength and the ability to do so! And praise God, the burden of messing up was no longer solely my concern; it was God's as well. Don't believe me? "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. And ye shall dwell in the land I gave your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses:" Ezekiel 36:27-28
On our own and with our own human strength, we could never stand fast in the Lord. This is why we have become one with God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, so that we may live and stand fast in the power of His might. “Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;” Colossians 1:11 We are now strong in the power of our Father's might, because we now have the Holy Ghost, Who teaches and strengthens us in all things! We have the whole armor of God, so that we are able to stand against all of the attacks of the world and evil! We are dead, and still we live; yet it is not us who is alive, but it is Christ within us Who is alive. We stand fast because we are one with the Lord and He stands fast within us! Greater is He that is now within us than he that is in the world! We have put on Christ and we have been renewed in the very image of God, recreated in righteousness and true holiness.
There are so many of us who are wishy washy about our salvation. Too many of our brethren are self-condemning, fearful and in doubt of their eternal state because they are in doubt of who they are in Christ. They may have gone to church for years, yet they never walk in any power or demonstration of the Spirit. The reason they are living this way is because they are trying to stand fast in the Lord on their own and they fail each and every time! Jesus told us that He never said anything that He had not heard first from the Father and that it was God in Him, Who was doing the works. Until we actually begin to think of ourselves to be crucified with Christ and give it all up, including our free will, we will never be able to stand fast in the Lord. I hear about free will and I just marvel. The Word teaches us that if we put anything before Jesus, than we are not worthy of Him, Matthew 10:37. The first thing I wanted rid of when I found Jesus was my free will. Not my will Lord, but yours!
People, who say they maintain their free will to walk away from our Father, have never truly experienced Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They may have a form of godliness, but they have denied the power of it because they have not been empowered to cast the burden of their free will on God. “No man can serve two masters; for they will either love the one and hate the other; or else they will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6:24 People who think that they still have a free will are trying to serve two masters. They are trying to serve Jesus and themselves and they will fail every time. They are a divided house and they will never stand fast in Jesus, they cannot!
The last act of my free will was to allow God to crucify me with Christ, which allowed me to live, because Christ was now the One living in me. I can’t even brag about giving up my free will, because it was our Father Who gave me the strength and the ability to do so! And praise God, the burden of messing up was no longer solely my concern; it was God's as well. Don't believe me? "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. And ye shall dwell in the land I gave your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses:" Ezekiel 36:27-28
Our Father is the Gardener, Jesus is our Shepherd, we are the branches, and we are the sheep. Branches do not bear the responsibility of producing quality fruit, it is the vine and the gardener that do. Sheep do not bear the burden of their own safety, the shepherd does. God is the One Who cast the burdens of our salvation on Himself. Jesus teaches us that to be the greatest in God’s Kingdom, we have to be the biggest servants. Jesus is by far the greatest, because He is the biggest servant, ever living to intercede for us. Any remnants of our free will are pruned out of us by God and burned out of us by Jesus, Who is the refiners fire, so that we may be used by our Father to produce everlasting righteous fruit! We are never alone; God in all of His forms is always vitally united with us!
Think for a minute about a young child. They don’t take thought for paying a mortgage. They don’t take thought for utility bills, they don’t worry about groceries, because they are standing fast in their parents’ provisions. That is how Jesus said we can be, and that we have to be. “And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 18:3 Through Christ we are converted and we enter into God’s rest. The power and freedom of our salvation allows us to be as a little children. Jesus allows us to dance like a child, to love to be around people like a child, to play like a child, and to be accepting like a child, this is the peace of Jesus. My two kids and all the neighborhood kids have such a blast. They just come over, who cares if they are dirty and have on old clothes, there are boys and girls, Black, White, and Hispanic, they laugh, they play, they rejoice, it’s awesome. "Except we are converted and become as little children we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!"
Think for a minute about a young child. They don’t take thought for paying a mortgage. They don’t take thought for utility bills, they don’t worry about groceries, because they are standing fast in their parents’ provisions. That is how Jesus said we can be, and that we have to be. “And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 18:3 Through Christ we are converted and we enter into God’s rest. The power and freedom of our salvation allows us to be as a little children. Jesus allows us to dance like a child, to love to be around people like a child, to play like a child, and to be accepting like a child, this is the peace of Jesus. My two kids and all the neighborhood kids have such a blast. They just come over, who cares if they are dirty and have on old clothes, there are boys and girls, Black, White, and Hispanic, they laugh, they play, they rejoice, it’s awesome. "Except we are converted and become as little children we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!"
Look in the Gospels at how Jesus lived. He talked in riddles or parables. He loved to be around people, young and old, rich and poor, male and female! Kids were around Him so much that the adults rebuked them. His earthly ministry was for the Jews, Gentiles were to receive it after His death, yet whenever He came upon a non-Jew He helped them as well! He loved to cause trouble by going against the establishment and His first miracle was turning water to wine at a party! When someone would trouble Him He would moan or cry out, “how long do I have to be with you?” Jesus’ life sounds like a child’s life doesn’t it?
When Beth and I first moved into our community, we had lived in the country, all of the neighborhood kids just gravitated towards us. If I was lying in the hammock they would just run and jump right on in, if I was shooting hoops they just joined in. I was uncomfortable with this at first, but then God said to me, relax, kids loved to be around Jesus as well, Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18. God is the best parent of all, He has all, He is in all, He loves us just like He loves Jesus, He doesn’t respect any of His kids over another, so because He is Who He is, we are able to be like a little child with Him. God began to use these little children around me to reveal to me just what Jesus was teaching us in the Sermon on the Mount. I clearly saw that when children have strong loving parents, they just naturally go into the world and take no thought for their needs. There is just an outright confidence in their parents taking care of everything! We are now born again of God Himself. Our Father is the Creator of everything and through His Anointing we are strong in the power of His might and we too are able to take no thought for our own lives. Our Father knows that we have needs and He has provided for them. If we look at the Lilies in the field, we can see just how magnificently He will provide for us! Children don’t lay up money for themselves, they get money and they want to spend it, they do this because they are taking no thought for their lives. They just know that dad and mom are providing, that is the rest that we now enjoy in our Father through our Savior Jesus Christ!
“Which of you by taking thought cad 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, I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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? Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek for. Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 27-33
That is the power of our salvation through Christ; we are able take no thought about our own lives, because Jesus is ever living to intercede for us. Find a child who is well provided for, whose parents love him, and who are raising him properly, and you will see what Jesus is saying that we can and should be like. We stand fast in the Lord because He has empowered us to stand fast and He has provided everything for us to stand fast! Through the love and glory of our Father, we are able to be just like little kids, as we take no thought for our own lives! Salvation allows us to enter our Father's perfect rest, and His peace that passes all understanding allows us to confidently trust in His abundant provision for our lives! Through Christ we stand fast and through Christ we have life and we have it abundantly!
When Beth and I first moved into our community, we had lived in the country, all of the neighborhood kids just gravitated towards us. If I was lying in the hammock they would just run and jump right on in, if I was shooting hoops they just joined in. I was uncomfortable with this at first, but then God said to me, relax, kids loved to be around Jesus as well, Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18. God is the best parent of all, He has all, He is in all, He loves us just like He loves Jesus, He doesn’t respect any of His kids over another, so because He is Who He is, we are able to be like a little child with Him. God began to use these little children around me to reveal to me just what Jesus was teaching us in the Sermon on the Mount. I clearly saw that when children have strong loving parents, they just naturally go into the world and take no thought for their needs. There is just an outright confidence in their parents taking care of everything! We are now born again of God Himself. Our Father is the Creator of everything and through His Anointing we are strong in the power of His might and we too are able to take no thought for our own lives. Our Father knows that we have needs and He has provided for them. If we look at the Lilies in the field, we can see just how magnificently He will provide for us! Children don’t lay up money for themselves, they get money and they want to spend it, they do this because they are taking no thought for their lives. They just know that dad and mom are providing, that is the rest that we now enjoy in our Father through our Savior Jesus Christ!
“Which of you by taking thought cad 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, I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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? Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek for. Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 27-33
That is the power of our salvation through Christ; we are able take no thought about our own lives, because Jesus is ever living to intercede for us. Find a child who is well provided for, whose parents love him, and who are raising him properly, and you will see what Jesus is saying that we can and should be like. We stand fast in the Lord because He has empowered us to stand fast and He has provided everything for us to stand fast! Through the love and glory of our Father, we are able to be just like little kids, as we take no thought for our own lives! Salvation allows us to enter our Father's perfect rest, and His peace that passes all understanding allows us to confidently trust in His abundant provision for our lives! Through Christ we stand fast and through Christ we have life and we have it abundantly!
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