Saturday, April 30, 2005

Our Flesh Is Made Alive By God

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." Romans 8:9-11

It’s important to notice that there are two Spirits here, the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Now God and Jesus are One and their Spirits are One, but there are two different manifestations mentioned here, the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Christ. According to God, if we have His Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we are no longer in the flesh. The Spirit of God has that power for us! Now in the flesh there is sin, there is sickness, there is fear, there is hate, and every sort of evil. But in the Spirit there is life and life abundantly. In the Spirit there is peace, power, and soundness of mind! In the Spirit there is righteousness and in the Spirit there is life eternal, even for our mortal flesh!

I know it sounds weird, especially since we are sitting here in the world, all of us with flesh, saying that if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, then we are no longer in the flesh. But don’t allow that to throw you, it’s really not a difficult Truth to accept, because here is what is being said. When we were unsaved, we only had our flesh to trust in. We trusted in our own abilities and in our own efforts. We were in the world apart from God and we could only rely on ourselves. But we are now one with God through Jesus Christ and we are now in God through His Spirit. And while we may still be in the world, we are every bit as much in God here on this earth, as we will be one with God when we are in Heaven! God is God! There is not the God of the earth and then the God of Heaven; He is the God of Heaven and of earth! “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” Acts 17:24 And we are in Him now, we may have flesh, but our flesh is not what we depend upon. We are now new creatures in Christ, old things are passed away and behold all things are new for us. We are now members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones! We have now been perfected in our union with God through the perfection of our Savior Jesus! We now have the mind of Christ. We are now filled with His Spirit, and we now have a new heart and a new mind given to us by God Himself. Our mortal bodies have been renewed and made alive together with Jesus, and we are now united with the Eternal God through the power of the Blood of Christ!

Our old flesh, our mortal flesh, the flesh that was apart from God, has been quickened together with God. Our flesh has been made alive together with God through the power of His Holy Spirit that now dwells within us. Just as Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, we too have been empowered by Him. Our mortal flesh has been made alive with God by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ flesh was dead after the Cross. The Romans had beaten Jesus, they tortured Him, and then after brutalizing Him, they killed Him. Jesus’ flesh was so brutalized that Isaiah prophesied that He wouldn’t even be recognized as a man, and yet the power of the Holy Spirit raised that destroyed dead body up. The Holy Spirit made Jesus alive again. The flesh of Jesus that was dead, His carnal flesh, was made alive by the power of the Holy Spirit, just as the Holy Spirit has made our mortal flesh alive. “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved,) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus:” Ephesians 2:5-6 Our flesh that was dead, our flesh that was separated from God, has now been made alive together with God, and we now sit together in Heavenly places with Christ. We have been raised up together with Him! We no longer are dependent upon our on efforts, or our own abilities. We are now dependent upon God’s abilities and efforts! “I am the Vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same bringeth froth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” John 15:5 And the only way that we may have the Holy Spirit, and this freedom from our flesh, is if we first have Christ’s Spirit; we must accept Jesus first, and only after we have, can we have the Holy Spirit!

“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Romans 8:6 The carnal mind cannot begin to understand or accept this Truth: that even though we have flesh, we are not in the flesh. But the spiritual mind, the new mind that God has given us, the mind of Christ, easily accepts and understands the freedom that God has provided for us! Jesus has given us peace that passes all understanding. “And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7 The peace of Jesus will keep our hearts and our minds in all of His Truths, and the peace of Jesus will keep our hearts and minds even if that Truth passes understanding!

If we were still in the flesh, we would have a chance to loose God, and that isn’t peace. But God has given us Himself. He has given us the exact same Spirit that He gave Jesus, and just as Christ has died to sin once, so have we. “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 6:10-11 And just as Jesus has been made alive together with God, so have we! “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:4 This is the spiritual mind that pleases God, a mind that looks to Him for everything, a mind that is kept by Christ, and a mind that hears the Truth and is set free by it! God knows fully the heart that will please Him, that is why He has given us a new heart that is able to accept and believe! “A new heart will I give unto 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

The Truth of Romans 8:9-11 is this, our flesh no longer hinders us from being perfectly united with God! The Spirit of God is extremely far more powerful within us than the weakness of our flesh. The grace of God easily overcomes the carnal shortcomings of man! Everything that God did for Jesus to insure His success; He has done for us! We are born from the same Incorruptible Seed as Jesus. We have the same Father as Jesus and we are filled with the same Spirit that Jesus was filled with. Truly greater is He that is within us than he that is in the world! The glory and the power are God’s and through Him and through His grace that is at work within us we are able to escape the corruption that is in this world through the flesh!

Friday, April 29, 2005

Jesus Came And Gave Us Freedom

"All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not." 1 Corinthians 10:23

We are free to do as we please? Now how in the world is it that Holy Ghost could have Paul write such a thing? Well, the Holy Ghost did, because it’s the Truth. God did have Paul write it because this is the power of our salvation through Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost knows the full extent of God’s power that He now has through us when we are truly saved! “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, Who hath reconciled the world unto Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given unto us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 When we say yes to Jesus our old man passes away. Now God didn’t say that just some of our old man would pass away and that some would stay. No, God said that all of our old man passes away and that all things become new for us! The sinful flesh of our old man has been buried with Jesus by the baptism of the Holy Ghost and we are now raised up together with Him by the power of God. Just as God raised Jesus from the dead, He raised us from the dead! And when He did, He placed a new heart within us, and that heart is not a heart of sin, but a heart of His righteousness. Old things are passed away for us and we now have the Incorruptible Seed of God dwelling within us! “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 6:10-11

"And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful unto me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." 1 Corinthians 6:11-12 We have been washed clean by the Holy Spirit, we are sanctified by the Holy Spirit, the Blood of Christ has now cleansed us, and every old thing about us has passed away. The life we now live, we live unto God, and we live by the power of the Holy Spirit that is within us. Jesus now leads us into the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake and we are now filled with the fruits of righteousness! We have taken on the full Armor of God and we have the Breastplate of Righteousness protecting our hearts from the evils of this world! Christ came that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly, and the power of our abundance is the Holy Spirit within us, the same Holy Spirit that is within Jesus. The same Holy Spirit that strengthened Jesus now strengthens us. The same Spirit that encouraged Jesus now encourages us. Every function that the Holy Ghost operated in for Jesus, He now operates in for us. For we are members of Jesus’ body, flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone! God never leaves us or forsakes us! We are not in this journey alone, trying to keep ourselves righteous. God is right here with us, one with us, and He is pruning out all that would hinder His production of righteous fruit through us. We have been cleansed, sanctified, and justified so that He can!

The righteousness of the law is now fulfilled within us because Jesus has condemned sin in our flesh. Jesus has enabled us to put on a new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, being born again from His very Seed! By Jesus’ sacrifice we have been made righteous, apart from any works! God did it, and He is more than capable and more than willing to, and since the Vine is Holy, so are His branches Holy. Jesus is our Vine and we are His branches! We are complete in Him, Who is the Head of all power and principality! Jesus has removed us from the law that was contrary to us, and where there is no law, there is no sin! He has removed us from the law and by doing so made a shew of every evil that was against us! He removed us from the law, and now we are free to do all things! But Jesus just didn’t remove us from the law, He made us one with Himself, so that we would act as He acts. Jesus just didn’t set us free, He empowered us to act as we were created to act, and to live as we were created to live, in the image of God! We are free to do all things, as God is free, yet as God doesn’t do all things, neither do we, because we now live by the power of God through us. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which 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 “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3

“For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7 This absolute freedom that we now have in Christ should inspire us to serve, it shouldn’t bring fear. Here is the Truth, if we aren’t saved, we won’t have this freedom, it’s that simple; the wage of sin for the unsaved is death. But if we are saved, we have the gift of God, and that gift is eternal life through Christ Jesus! You see as a Christian, we may mess up, but that isn’t going to cause us to be separated for one second from God. God is right here with us, and He will prune out what caused it, so that He can produce more and more fruit through us. We have the freedom to do all things, yet if they are not expedient for us, God will remove them from our lives. The burden is not solely on us, we have a loving Father Who is right here with us, and if there is any disciplining to be done, He will do it. He will never allow satan, who came to kill and destroy us, to correct us. Correction for us is reserved for our Father alone! The law that allowed satan in, has been removed. We now have grace, and with it comes righteousness, and not just any righteousness, God’s righteousness, and His righteousness is now our breastplate!

"But if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law." Galatians 5:18 We are not under the Law, Jesus has removed us from it, and where there is no law, there can be no conviction. We have been baptized with the Holy Ghost, and He now leads us, so we have been removed from the law. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” Romans 8:1-2 There is now no condemnation for us, no price to be paid by us, and there is now no penalty for us!

Finally, I want you to think of being free to do all things, and as you think about this, remember this verse. “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 Now think about being free, so that God can do all things through you. Think of being free so that God can use you to heal the sick. Think of being free so that God can use you to cast out demons. Think about being free to have direct access to God and having complete unbroken fellowship with Him. Think about being free to be perfect in your unity with God through Jesus. Think about being free so that God can use you to minister just as He used Jesus to minister! These are now the things that God is free to do through us. The law that held us back from being used by God has been removed. Jesus has fulfilled the requirements of the Law, and now we are free to be who God has created us to be! This is the freedom that we now have in Christ, and everything that was in man’s way, has been removed by the power of the Blood of Christ! This is the freedom that we hope for, because we have the mind of Christ; a freedom that allows God to be the One within us doing the works, as He was the One in Jesus doing the works. This is who we are now, for now is the time of our salvation. There is even greater things awaiting us, but there is also greatness in Christ Jesus now! “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” 1 John 3:2-3 We need to ask ourselves this question, do we believe that we are truly free, or do we believe that we are still bound? There is absolute freedom for us in Christ. There is perfect love, and His perfect love will cast out all fear, and His freedom and His love are for every one of us this day!

Thursday, April 28, 2005

There Is No Conviction of Sin For The Saved

"For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law." Romans 5:13

We read in Romans 4:8 that King David wrote that we are blessed because our Father will not impute sin against us! How can our Father do this for us? He can because all of the law that would impute sin, has been nailed to the Cross and the condemnation and power that satan used through the weakness of our flesh has been made a show of openly and Jesus has triumphed over it! Sin is not imputed where there is no law and without law there is no sin. We are blessed beyond expression and we are blessed apart from any work of our own. Jesus came and secured for us an abundant life, by doing away with the law that robbed us of it!

"But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter." Romans 7:6 Now we are delivered from the law! Hallelujah, now we are delivered from the Law! So now sin is not imputed to us and now there is no sin for us, because now we are delivered from the law, and now we are righteous only because of Jesus! We can take on the breastplate of God’s very own righteousness, which protects our hearts because all of the laws that we were unable to keep, have been taken away from us! We have been delivered from them all! Blessed are we, for God will never count our sins against us! We serve our Father by the power of His very Spirit that dwells within us. Our Father strengthens us with Himself and there is nothing that can stand up against the strength of God! We serve in a new way, we are new creatures in Christ, old things are passed away, and behold all things are new for us!

"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." 1 John 3:9 You see we cannot sin because Jesus did away with the very thing that would convict us of sin, the law! There is now no Law for us! We have free access to this freedom because Jesus is now within us; God’s Seed, His Incorruptible Seed, Jesus, is now within us. We now live under the Law of Liberty through Christ Jesus, freedom applies to our lives, and there is now no condemnation for us. We are no longer carnally minded, concerning ourselves with the flesh; we have the mind of Christ, and serve our Father by the power of the Holy Spirit! Just as Jesus serves God by the power of the Holy Spirit! We no longer serve in the old way of do this and don’t do that. Jesus’ Blood and the rights that it brought forth are what keep us from sin, not our actions. Blessed are we who God does not impute sin, blessed are we whose iniquities He remembers no more, and blessed are we whose sins have been removed, removed from us as far as the East is from the West. There would have to be a law for us that could be broken for us to sin, and there’s not, we have been removed from the law!

Because we cannot sin, think of what we can now be used by God to do! We now have direct access to our Father and there is no unrighteousness that can hinder it. We can now have fellowship with God as Jesus fellowships with God and God can now work through us as He works through Jesus! We can hear the things of righteousness and we can serve God in righteousness. We can now be used to do the works of Jesus; we can be used to heal the sick, raise the dead, and preach recovering of sight to the blind. Our Father can now use us to ever live to serve others as Jesus ever lives to serve us! We can be as He is in this world! “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17

Because sin is never imputed against us, our love has been made perfect, and our Father's perfect love casts out all fear and all torment from us! There is no fear in love and we are born of Love! We can serve our Father and live with our Father without any fear of ever loosing Him. We can serve others and never fear what they shall do to us. All of the torments of failure are gone, because now the righteousness of the law has been fulfilled within us! Now it’s the Father within us doing the works and we are now righteous because He is righteous! And the world will look at us and see it, and they will know that we are born again because of it! Jesus will Author and Finish all of the faith needed for us to accept and believe this. The Holy Spirit has abundantly supplied all of the hope needed within us, to have the faith to live it. This is who we are in Christ Jesus; this is the hope of the Seed that bore us. This is the will of God, that sin and all of its power against us should be removed from us, and He did it! God did it with the perfect Blood of our Savior and His Son Jesus! People who want to hang out and preach on the errors and weakness of the flesh are preaching an erroneous message. We preach Christ and His strength, and we preach it because of Him. Sin is not imputed unto us and we preach this because His Seed remains within us. We are perfected in God’s love and there is no fear with this Truth, and there is no fear in the Truth that as He is so are we in this world. Because it’s God within us doing all of the works of His righteousness! True preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of Freedom, the Gospel of Liberty, direct the hearer’s attention towards God and His abilities, not towards man and our inabilities! Faith is not a human ability to accept God’s Truths, faiths is God’s ability through us to accept His Truths, and God has given every man the measure of faith!

"Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself will be saved; yet so as by fire." 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is life eternal through Jesus Christ. We may not always do what is right, but our actions are never counted as sin against us, and we never loose our salvation because of them. If a person is truly saved, I mean truly saved, he cannot sin. There is no law to convict him with, because Jesus has removed the law and all of the ordinances and handwritings that were against us. Jesus remains in us, He never leaves us or forsakes us! For the person who has truly been empowered by the Holy SPirit to accept Jesus as Lord, God is now the One Who removes anything that would be contrary to producing righteous fruit through them. There is complete and total freedom through Christ Jesus, and Jesus said we are to take no thought for our own lives, because God has taken every thought for them!

If your first thought in this freedom is now to go and commit some evil act, or to do someone harm, I want to invite you to be saved. This freedom from sin inspires us to walk in power and demonstration of the Spirit. This freedom inspires us to ask for our Father to move in power through our lives, because the fear of sin has been done away with, the fear of messing up, the fear of disappointing our Father, and the fear of loosing our salvation. This freedom is only available for those who truly accept Jesus, no one is able to fool God, and so no one will fake their way in! If you, or someone that you tell this to, first reaction is, "I have freedom to go do harmful or mean acts," salvation has not been accepted or received. Our Father has made us free to be the tools of His righteousness, not the workers of iniquities! If someone has truly been chosen by God to accept Jesus as Lord and has truly become one with Him, they are united with His Spirit and His will, His desires and His hopes, His faith and His love. They will act like Him, not like the fallen one. We are born from God’s Incorruptible Seed. We are members of His body, flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone, and there is no fellowship between righteousness and unrighteousness!

Pray and ask God for a full understanding and wisdom in this. If we can get the church to get past worrying about sin, think of where we can move to in our Father. Think of the power, the faith, the healings, the prophecies, the love, and the unity. Remember all of the scriptures that say that we are one with God and that He lives within us. Remember the scriptures that say we are holy, blameless, sanctified, perfect, and godly because of our unity with Christ. This just builds on those scriptural Truths. We are one with Jesus, so we are perfect and sanctified, and since we are perfect and sanctified, we have been delivered from the Law, and because of Jesus we cannot sin! "Beloved if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." 1 John 3:21-22

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

No Law, No Conviction

"Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. Romans 4:15

Where there is no law there is no transgression! That is an awesome statement from our Father and when we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to allow Jesus to Author and Finish our faith in actually accepting it, and when the Holy Ghost teaches us all of what it means, it’s a Godly Truth that will set us free. It will set us free from guilt, free from sin, free from fear, free from condemnation, and free from the power, presence, penalty, and pleasure of sin! The Truth that where there is no law, there is no transgression, sets us free from the wrath of God! “For God hath not appointed us unto wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:9 These Truths allow us to live and enjoy all of the fruits of our Father's righteousness. The righteousness that has been freely bestowed upon us through the power of Christ, and they allow us to live as God intended for us to live, as Jesus lives, without transgression!

"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiving you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." Colossians 2:13-14

Jesus blotted out all of the handwriting and all of the ordinances that were against us, all of them, all of the “thou shalt not’s and thou shalt’s.” Jesus took these things out of the way for us and because they are no longer in the way that we find God or serve God, all of satan’s power against us has been broken. The flesh of man was weak, and satan knew it, and our Father knew it. But Jesus isn’t weak and we are now members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones! “For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.” Ephesians 5:30 Jesus’ Blood that has been shed for us and which has washed us isn’t weak. The Holy Ghost within us isn’t weak, and we have now been quickened, or made alive together, with them! We are now strong in the power of Jesus’ might! “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” Ephesians 6:10 We are now more than conquerors through Christ Who loves us, and with Jesus, our Father is now able to do all things through us! Our flesh was weak, but now let the weak say they are strong! We have been quickened together with the Strong Eternal One and greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world!

Jesus made a shew of satan and all of his power openly at the Cross. Jesus made a new way for us, a way that was not harsh, a way that was pleasant, and a way that was easy to be born. “For My yoke is easy, and My burden light.” Matthew 11:30 Our trespasses no longer count against us. Jesus’ Blood has been shed and all of our trespasses, all of them, past, present, and future, are now forgiven us, because of Jesus’ sacrifice for them, not because of our works and not because of our sacrifices offered for them. "Even David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." Romans 4:6-8 The Law required works, we are righteous without works, our sins are covered eternally by the Blood of Christ and God will never count any of them against us! The man that our Father used to write so many of the Psalm’s that we enjoy to read, also was used by God to write about how through Christ we would be righteous without works. King David, the Giant slayer, envied us!

The Holy Ghost had Paul write in Colossians 2 that Jesus took away the ordinances and the handwritings that were against us. And the Holy Ghost also had Paul write in Romans 4 that where there is no law, there is no transgression. All scripture is given by Divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, these are Truths that fully apply to us! Jesus is the end of the law for us. When we accept Jesus as Lord, all of the things under the Old Covenant that were contrary to us, were nailed to the Cross and we are now free to live as Jesus lives! “In Whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: buried with Him in baptism, wherein ye are also risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, Who hath raised Him from the dead.” Colossians 2:11-12 Notice in these verses that the body of our sins have been put off and that we are risen with Christ by the faith of the operation of God. These things do not come into being by anything that we can do, they come into being by God, and to show that He is more than able, our Father raised Jesus from the dead first! This is our proof that we too live as Jesus lives, dead to sin, and eternally alive unto God! We do this through faith, faith Authored and Finished by Jesus, Who is our Lord and Savior. We no longer do this by the works of keeping laws! The Ten Commandments served a purpose, but they are no longer the way of righteousness for those who have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior! We have moved on to the works of righteousness through Jesus Christ, the works of God through us! Mighty works that glorify Him and exalt Him, works that only our Father can do! Everything that was in our way, everything that hindered our Father from working through us, has been nailed to the Cross! God is now free to use us, as He used Jesus! Jesus was born righteous; He never performed one work that earned it. His Father was God and He was conceived of a woman and the Holy Ghost. God’s Divine Seed made Jesus righteous. We too have been born of a woman and of the Holy Spirit! The same Divine Seed of God makes us righteous, just as it made Jesus righteous! We are righteous apart from any works, just as Jesus was righteous apart from any works!

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

We Are Filled With Righteous Fruit

“Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:11

We are filled with the fruits of righteousness through Jesus and since we are, we do the works of righteousness, and we speak righteously and it brings glory and praise to God! “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Luke 6:45 We will work righteously and we will talk righteously by the power of Christ that is within us and that will bring glory to God, and since we do, people will know that we are born of God! Not all who say Lord, Lord, will be saved. Only those who are known by Jesus and who are empowered with the Holy Spirit to do the works of the Lord shall be saved!

What are the fruits of righteousness? Well, first let’s read what Jesus said about us and fruit. “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, He may give it you.” John 15:16 The first fruit of righteousness and the reason that Jesus has chosen us and ordained us is to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature! Now to assist us in producing this fruit we have the power to go to God and ask for what is needed and it will be given us! We have the Holy Ghost within us to teach us all things, so as we are preaching the Gospel to every creature the Holy Ghost will tell us what we need to accomplish it. The Name of Jesus gives us access to go to God and get it, and out of the abundance of our hearts we will speak it, and then the power of God through us will produce righteous fruit that will remain! And every angel in Heaven will rejoice because a lost sheep has come home, someone is saved! This is our great commission; to ever live to serve others by allowing God to freely work through us. Just as it is Jesus’ great commission, and we are one with Him, to ever live to serve believers! And since Jesus does ever live to serve us, we are saved to the uttermost! And Jesus says that with the Word of God, we will be used to produce thirty, sixty, and even a hundredfold return! Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

The next fruit of righteousness is this: “But now being made free from sin, and become servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” Romans 6:22
We are free from sin, praise God we are free from sin! Just as if we are free from debt, and owe no man anything, we are free from sin; there is none within us. What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? Notice that we are made free from sin? God doesn’t say that we just don’t sin, God actually frees us from sin and He does it through the Blood of Christ, and the Blood washes us clean from sin! And since we are free from sin by the Blood of Christ, we are holy. Being holy is a fruit of righteousness. I know so many people that believe we will always be sinners while we are here on this earth, but that’s not true. The real problem with this thought process is that the people who believe this way are relying on themselves to keep clean from sin, and they will fail every time! They are putting their trust and faith in their own abilities and not where it should be, which is in God! God is not weak in this area, Jesus’ Blood doesn’t fail to wash us clean from all of our sin, and as King David said, we are blessed, because we are righteous and our works didn’t make us that way! We are now free from sin, and we are holy only because of Jesus, and this is one of our fruits of righteousness! “For if the First-Fruit be Holy (Jesus), the lump is also holy: and if the Root be Holy, so are the branches.” Romans 11:16

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

We are now filled with all of these things, the glass isn’t half full, it’s full! We are filled with the fruit of the Spirit by the power of Jesus Christ within us and since we are full, it brings praise and glory to God! Jesus fills us with all of these things, and if there is anything that would hinder them from filling us, God will prune it out of us! “Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” John 15:2 This is the greatness of His salvation for us; we continually grow in the fruits of righteousness! We will continually produce more fruit by the power of Christ within us, and God will continually receive more and more glory through us! God is the perfect Gardener, and we are one with the Perfect Vine, and if the Vine is righteous, the branches are righteous as well! Hallelujah, that is great preaching! We will continually be used by God to produce more love, joy, peace, faith, goodness, gentleness, meekness, temperance, and we will continually suffer people not believing in Jesus, even though they see His righteousness through us. This is the fruit of the Holy Ghost within us! “(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and Truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord” Ephesians 5:9-10

“Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with Truth, and having the breastplate of righteousness upon you. And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; Above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” Ephesians 6:13-17 Now this is really good here, we have the breastplate of righteousness, we have God’s breastplate of righteousness, it’s not a duplicate, it’s His very own! That’s good Truth in and of itself! But, what does God’s breastplate of righteousness protect? The breastplate protects our hearts; righteousness protects our hearts! We believe with the heart and that is how we are saved! Oh, do you see where God is going with this? Faith is to be taken above all of the other armor, but if we fail to allow God to use it through us in a situation, His righteousness still protects our hearts! Glory be to God, I have lived this so many times. Something comes and shakes me, and I don’t allow Jesus to Author and Finish His faith within me to speak the Word to the situation, and yet I come out unharmed, and stronger than before the attack! And I do, because God’s righteousness has protected the very thing that I have to believe in Him, my heart!

We are righteous because Jesus is righteous. Jesus fills us with the fruits of righteousness, and the Holy Spirit produces the fruits of righteousness within us, and if anything is hindering this process, God removes it, so that He can produce more fruit through us! And praise God if we fail to allow Him to Author our faith, or we fail to use His Word, or if we fail to act in peace, or if we fail to operate in Truth, the breastplate of God’s righteousness will still protect our hearts! We are completely saved and through Christ we are righteous, and that is how people will know that we are born again!

Monday, April 25, 2005

God Uses Us Righteously

“If you know (perceive and are sure) that He [Christ] is [absolutely] righteous [conforming to the Father's will in purpose, thought, and action], you may also know (be sure) that everyone who does righteously [and is therefore in like manner conformed to the divine will] is born (begotten) of Him [God].” 1 John 2:29

This scripture is one of the most powerful scriptures that we will ever find in the New Testament and the reason is this, the eternal Word of God says that we are actually righteous! We can actually be righteous, our flesh doesn’t hinder us from being righteous, and our past doesn’t limit us. Not only does the sacrifice of Jesus make us righteous in our Father's eyes, it actually empowers Him to use us to do righteous works! And because we are used by God to do righteous works, people will know that we are born again. Now the really powerful thing with this verse is that our Father puts our righteous works right in the same category as Jesus’ righteous works! God does this because He is the One doing the works through us, just as He was the One doing the works through Jesus!

Jesus came so that we might be saved. He came to be offered on the Cross and to shed His Blood for us. Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice; so that we could stand righteous before God, apart form our own works. Jesus came so that our Father's grace and mercy might be fully shown to all who are called and chosen.

Yet ask yourself this question, if this was the only reason that Jesus came, why did He have to wait until He was in His thirties to be offered? If this was the only reason that Jesus came, why did He have a ministry before hand? Why did Jesus heal people, why did He perform miracles? Why did He expound on our Father's Truths and why did He prophesy? The reason Jesus did all of these things as well is because Jesus came not only to save us, but also to show us how we could live through the power of God which is His Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that He has!

“He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” 1 John 2:6 Jesus didn’t begin His public ministry or any of His miraculous works until He was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now He was fully God before He did any of these things, so He was fully the Holy Spirit before His baptism. But yet our Father had it happen as an event, so John the Baptist could see the Spirit descending upon Him as God told him that he would. This was to show that we too would have the Holy Spirit come upon us, that Jesus wasn’t apart from us, but rather that He was the First-born among many brethren. “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Romans 8:29

Jesus did all of His ministerial works, He spoke all of His prophesies, and He performed all of His healings and miracles by the power of God that dwelled within Him. “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doth the works.” John 14:10 We have the exact same Holy Spirit within us that Jesus has and we have the exact same God within us that Jesus has. We are born from the same exact same Incorruptible Seed that bore Jesus; so we too will have God performing His righteous works through us just as He did through Jesus! Because the same forces of righteousness that worked through Jesus, now work through us!

This is the biggest mistake that most people make about Jesus while attempting to glorifying Him as Lord, they think we have to limit God’s ability through us to something less than it was through Him. It doesn’t glorify Jesus by attempting to degrade our Father's power through us. What glorifies Jesus as Lord is our Father being the force within our lives, as it is the force within His life! Jesus came as a Savior so that God could be all He is within us. Jesus repeatedly said that it was our Father within Him and Jesus called Himself the Son of Man. He did this to show us, that we could serve God in the same way He serves God, by God being all that He is within us! Now because that is true, our works will be righteous ones. This is how people will know that we are born again, by our Father working righteously through us, just as He worked righteously through Jesus! We aren’t just called righteous by God, we actually are righteous and we actually perform righteous works. Our humanity doesn’t limit God; the Blood of Christ has overcome the weakness of our flesh! “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father.” John 14:12

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Through Christ There Are No Do's And Don'ts

"And ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power: In Whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, Who hath raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiving you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." Colossians 2:10-15

Our Father tells us that through Christ, He has taken off our body of sins of the flesh. Now look at just how far the Word of God says that the sins of our flesh have been removed from us; according to God, they were buried with Jesus. Our sinful flesh was buried with Jesus! Yet we still live and according to our Father we have been resurrected with Jesus. What does all of this actually this mean? Look at Romans 6:9-10, "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."

Jesus died to sin once and death now has no dominion or power over Him. Jesus forever lives unto God; He forever lives by the power of God! Their relationship will never be broken; there will never be any separation between the Two at all. Jesus is now and forever united with God and sins power has no ability to come upon Him! This is exactly how we now are and this is how we should think of ourselves! Do I mean that we should think that we are dead to sin and alive to God like Jesus? Absolutely!

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:11 We are to consider ourselves dead to sin and dead to the power, presence, penalty, and pleasure of it, just as Jesus is dead to it! Faith Authored and Finished by Jesus sets us free, not our works! Our Father has quickened us, which means He has made us alive together with Christ. And because we are now one with Christ, we are like Christ; we have His mind, we are now members of His body, and we are filled with His Spirit. We have been given His glory, He ever lives to intercede for us, and with Jesus God is able to do all things through us, because Jesus’ strength permits it! Jesus never leaves us or forsakes us and through Him we are empowered with the Anointing of God to be like Him! “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Our Father, through the power of the sacrifice of Jesus has forgiving us all of our trespasses, all of them! Our Father has blotted out all of the handwriting of ordinances that were against us, which were contrary to us. Jesus took the don'ts and the do's out of the way, nailing them to the cross. Jesus spoiled the principalities and powers of darkness and He destroyed sin and its effects for those of us who have been empowered to accept Him. Jesus made a shew of the principalities that were against us and that were contrary to us, and He did it openly, triumphing over them at the cross. He took all of the ordinances that were impossible for man to live and nailed them to the Cross as well. He set us free from a life filled with do this and don’t do that. He gave us an abundant life, a life to be richly enjoyed by God’s grace, a life full of faith! And as we studied a life that King David said was to be envied because of the freedom we enjoy through Christ! Because of this we can truly walk as God's children, we can walk as the perfect Church, without spot, wrinkle, or blemish, the perfect body of Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus died to sin once, so did we. When we were empowered by the Holy Spirit to say yes to Jesus we died to sin, and just like Jesus, sin has lost its power to harm us and the wages of it were destroyed! Our Father loves us that much and His salvation through Christ is that complete.

God has forgiven us of all our trespasses and He has removed all of the ordinances that would condemn us. Our Father has removed them all! There are no longer any ordinances to judge us by, they were nailed to the Cross and blotted out; we are now only judged by our faith and acceptance of Jesus as Lord! “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” Matthew 7:22-23 Jesus said that these people must depart from Him because He never knew them, not because of their works of iniquity!

"Even David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." Romans 4:6-8 We are blessed through Jesus and our Father will never count our sins against us. He has forgiven every last one and He has covered every last one, and we enjoy all of this apart from any works!

The righteousness of the Law has been fulfilled within us by Jesus and greater is He that is now within us than anything that is in this world! By the obedience of one man, Jesus Christ, we have been made righteous! We now are filled with the fruits of righteousness because of our Lord and Savior Jesus. And because we are, we can truly be used by our Father to do the works that Jesus did and even greater ones, because He has gone to the Father. Our Father has now been given the ability and freedom to work through us by the Blood of Jesus that is ever living to allow Him to!

You want to talk about works, it goes so far beyond thou shalt not, it goes into raise up from the dead, receive your sight, and water now be wine! Jesus came and gave us was a personal intimate relationship with God. Jesus gave us a life of ever living to serve others. He came and gave us the ability, the will, and the desire to be just as He is. People want to hang out at the Ten Commandments, why? Those are nothing compared with what Jesus came to give us. Think about it, those are what God gave to people who did not have the Holy Ghost dwelling within them. Jesus came and gave us perfection, He gave us righteousness, He gave us glory, and He gave us faith, hope, and love. Jesus came and gave us peace that passes all understanding, He came and gave us His joy, and He came and gave us life, just as He has life! You want to hang out at the Ten Commandments, go right ahead, but through Christ, we have access to perfection!

Be blessed in this grace that God has so freely bestowed on us this day! We are not saved and unsaved by our actions; we have been made righteous apart from our works. If we have said yes to Jesus, we are saved, once and for all! Stop worrying about sin, it means nothing to us anymore, we have been made free, and who God makes free, is free indeed!

Saturday, April 23, 2005

We Are Now Complete In Christ

"And ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power: In Whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, Who hath raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiving you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." Colossians 2:10-15

We are complete in Jesus right now! Our Father doesn’t say that we are becoming complete in Jesus; He says that we are complete in Jesus. We don’t have to wait until Jesus’ return or wait until we are in Heaven to be complete; we are complete in Christ right now. “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Ephesians 4:23-24

We are complete in Christ because we have been born again, born from God’s Seed, created in righteousness and in true holiness. We are complete in the One Who is the Head of all power and all principality. We are no longer just humans. Through Christ God has made us new men, born again from His Incorruptible Seed in righteousness and true holiness, not born in sin! There is nothing above Jesus, and we are now complete in Him. There is nothing that can overcome Jesus and God has now made us complete in Him. We are complete in the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, the Head of all principality and all power. We are now members of His body, we are flesh of His flesh, and we are bone of His bone, Ephesians 5:30. We are now complete in Jesus because we have been born again from Jesus. We aren’t just born from Him though, we are one with Him, and there is no separation between us. There is no room for satan or evil to come between us, because we are now one and united with the Complete One! The Holy Ghost has renewed us and regenerated us in God’s image, the image that God desired for us. And unlike Adam, we now have the strength of Christ, which is God’s Anointing. Jesus has given us His glory, the glory of God Himself.

“And the glory Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are One: 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 17:22-23 And because of these Truths, we now have life abundantly and we now have righteousness that is of God.

Here is a question to ask yourself, the Word of God says that we are complete; does this Truth mean that we cannot mature or grow in our completeness? “Furthermore, brethren, we beg and admonish you in [virtue of our union with] the Lord Jesus, that [you follow the instructions which] you learned from us about how you ought to walk so as to please and gratify God, as indeed you are doing, [and] that you do so even more and more abundantly [attaining yet greater perfection in living this life.]” 1 Thessalonians 4:1 Amplified Bible.

We absolutely can grow and mature in Christ, even though we are now complete in Him, and even though Jesus said that we have been made perfect in our oneness with Him. Our Father showed it to me like this. Think about a person’s bicep muscle. They may only be able to curl 10lbs. But their muscle may be perfect and complete. All the muscle tissue that they have can only lift 10lbs. The muscle is perfect; lifting all that it has the capacity to lift. However, that muscle can grow. If muscle tissue is added, that arm can now lift 15lbs. You might say that their bicep grew in perfection. It is exactly the same way that we are in Christ. When we are chosen by God and truly accept Jesus as the Lord of our lives, we are complete in Him. Yet we have the capacity to grow in Him. This capacity to grow in no way makes those who are younger in Christ less perfect or less complete. Our Father says that we are all complete in Him, it just means we can grow, no one left behind, no one less saved, because God is not a respecter of persons! Isn't that great! All who are saved are complete in Jesus this day! We are raised with Him this day. We are born from the very Seed that bore Jesus, God’s Incorruptible Seed, so that He may be the first born among many brethren. We are joint-heirs with Christ, He is our Head, we are His body, and we are made perfect and complete with Him!

Friday, April 22, 2005

Renew Your Mind New Man

“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Ephesians 4:23-24 when we are chosen by God and born again, He creates us in righteousness and true holiness just like He is, because we are born again from His Incorruptible Seed. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” 1 Peter 2:23 God is righteousness, He cannot sin, it is impossible for Him, and His seed that births us is incorruptible. Satan can’t touch God’s seed, sin can’t be found in it, and that seed is what we are born again of. Through the power of Christ we have put on a new man that is created from the Incorruptible Seed of God, we are born again, recreated in righteousness and in true holiness. We are now kept eternally through the power of the incorruptible Blood of Jesus, and we are to be envied as the Holy Spirit inspired King David to write! We are righteous because God is righteous and we are holy because God is Holy! We are of our Father and we can be no other way.

‘Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:11 Being righteous not only benefits us, it also benefits God. Our righteousness that is from Jesus brings praise and glory to God. The righteousness that is given to us through salvation allows God to be Who He is within us. There is no fellowship between unrighteousness and righteousness, none! “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” 2 Corinthians 6:14. God needed for us to be as He is, so that He could become one with us. The way for this to come to pass was through Jesus. Jesus freely gave Himself and we are now born from the very seed that bore Jesus, God’s incorruptible seed. Jesus is our Head, we are His brothers, and we are His body, we are all of these things because we have been renewed with His righteousness. We are one with Him. God has birthed us with the same glory that He birthed Jesus. “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Romans 8:29 God has predestined all of us who would call Jesus Lord, to be like Him, so that we could have unbroken communion and fellowship with Him throughout eternity!

“Not by the works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:5-7 God has given us the Holy Ghost abundantly and because He has, we are abundantly righteous in Him and there is not one work that we did to earn it. But because of what God has done abundantly for us, He is now able to do all of His works of righteousness through us. “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 Righteousness brings the godly works of faith! We will be used by God to do the things that Jesus did and even greater things, because of His righteousness being bestowed abundantly upon us. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” John 14:12 This is the Seed that we are born of, we can’t help it, and as Jesus said in John 15, God will prune out anything from us that would hinder us from being used to produce righteous fruit. Salvation is absolutely complete and through it we have abundant righteousness that is from God, and we are complete in Him! “And ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power.” Colossians 2:10 We are abundantly complete in Christ!

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Our Righteousness Is Of God

"Even David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." Romans 4:6-8

You ever want to know what a powerhouse of faith from the Old Testament thought about us; well these verses in Romans 6 give us great insight. The man that was called the friend of our Father, the man who slew the giant Goliath and saved all of Israel, and when he was only sixteen, the man who pleased God so greatly with His faith, that our Father promised him Jesus would be one of His descendents, says that we are blessed. Actually the Amplified Bible translates this verse by saying we should be envied because God will give us righteousness apart from our works! Think of what God showed David about salvation and then think of David’s life. When he messed up, there were sacrifices, shed this animal’s blood, offer this grain offering, and then wear sackcloth and throw some ashes on your head to show that you was sorrowful for what you had done. Then after you did all of these physical acts of repentance, you still were separated from God. This is the life of an Old Testament believer, the power and sole responsibility of faith and righteousness was based on their ability to keep a set of rules called the Law, which included the Ten Commandments. The people had absolutely no ability to succeed, it was up to their own human strength, which was weak because of their flesh; they were continually living this vicious cycle! Even the very best under the Old Covenant, never enjoyed unity with God!

David came to God with a pure heart, and he dearly loved the Lord. So our Father showed him how it would be with us and God showed David that He was going to use one of his descendents to accomplish it! David saw what we would be and he glorified God for it, writing that we are blessed, and praise God we are blessed, blessed beyond expression! Our Father has made us righteous, we didn’t make ourselves righteous, it is a gift of Father! Think of the freedom that David saw for us through Christ! Our sins are forgiven and covered by the Blood of Jesus and our Father will never count them against us. David saw that through Jesus we would be righteous. He saw that our sins would be buried and completely covered up, and he wrote that we are to be envied because of the freedom that we now enjoy in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior! David saw that through Christ the continual process of messing up and then coming back was going to be done away with. He saw that once a person said yes because they were empowered by the Holy Spirit to accept Jesus as their Lord, it was finished. He saw that the called and chosen would be forever righteous through salvation! David saw that we would actually be united with God through Christ and would never be left alone or forsaken! “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” John 14:20 “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

The Greek word that we translate saved from: sozo, means to be free from the power, the presence, the penalty, and the pleasure of sin; saved means being righteous. This is what David saw and envied, this is what our Father has provided for us through Jesus, eternal righteousness because of His grace! “For I will be merciful and gracious towards their sins and I will remember their deeds of unrighteousness no more.” Hebrews 8:12 Amplified Bible. Under the Old Covenant God was unable to allow people to be free from sin, but now He is able too, the Blood of Jesus has enabled Him to completely wipe out our sins and remember them no more. The Blood of Christ has allowed our Father to free us from the power of sin, the presence of sin, the penalty of sin and the pleasure of sin! The sacrifice of Jesus enabled God to bring in the New Covenant, a covenant that allowed Him to show the full extent of His mercy and grace towards us! Our Father's desire was to be one with us and He knew how to accomplish it, so He did!

The Old Covenant was about works; the New Covenant is about grace! “When God speaks of a new [covenant or agreement], He makes the first one obsolete (out of use). And what is obsolete (out of use and annulled because of age) is ripe for disappearance and to be dispensed with altogether.” Hebrews 8:13 Amplified Bible. Serving God by being good enough has been done away with. If you are all upset that the Ten Commandments have been removed from some building, stop it; man without Jesus was never able to keep them anyway. So unless there was an inscription talking about the power of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ along with them, they were useless, that Covenant has been done away with! We no longer glorify God by trying to keep a set of rules; we now glorify God by allowing the Holy Spirit to empower us to believe that Jesus is our Lord. Who came and died for us, so that we could be set free from sin and ever live to serve God in true righteousness and holiness!

“For by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” Romans 5:19 This is really what the whole New Testament is about, taking the focus away from man and placing it on Jesus. We are righteous solely because of Jesus; there is no work that we could do to earn this glorified state. We are now free from the power, the presence, the pleasure, and the penalty of sin solely because of Jesus and what He has accomplished! “And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are One: 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 17:22-23

Our Father knew our weaknesses, and He knew what was needed to overcome them. So He sent Jesus to accomplish it, and it has been accomplished. We are now one with God through Jesus and we have His glory, we have His righteousness, and we have it apart from any of our own works. And as King David said, we are blessed because of it. Jesus is not continually being sacrificed, He was offered once, and the power of His sacrifice is eternal! And we are eternally blessed because of it, and our sins are eternally covered by it, and God will never count them against us! Through Christ we have eternal forgiveness of sins, and through Christ we are eternally righteous!

“For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:3-4

Notice where God said that He condemned sin, in our flesh, not in our spirits. Our Father deprived sin of its power; He subdued it, and overcame it in our flesh. We don’t have to wait until we get to Heaven to be free from sin; Jesus has freed us from it right now. Jesus came so that all of the righteousness of the Law would be fulfilled within us, and thus all of the blessings associated with it would be ours as well! Jesus came so that we might have life and have it abundantly. “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

What do you think the thief, who is satan, stole? He stole Adams righteousness, and all of his descendents righteousness as well, and he caused Adam and everyone after him to sin. Our Father knew this, so He sent Jesus and Jesus came and gave righteousness back to us, and not just any righteousness, He gave us His Own righteousness, so that we might live abundantly. Jesus came so that all of the benefits of righteousness might be lived and enjoyed by those who would accept Him. Salvation goes so much deeper than what was ever available under the Old Covenant. The righteousness of the Law under the Old Covenant gave the Israelites earthly benefits: prosperity, health, peace, and so forth. But Jesus came so that we actually could become one with God, through the power of His shed Blood. Flesh is weak, but God isn’t, the Blood of Christ isn’t, and the Holy Spirit isn’t, they are strong and powerful, and they are the One’s keeping us. The Blood is always and forever working to keep us righteous, it will never fail and there is nothing that can penetrate or end its power!

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

We Are God's Children This Day

"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." 1 John 3:2-3

Now we are the sons of God, do you know just how powerful this Truth is? Turn to John 5:18, “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God." When Jesus said that He was the Son of God, the Jews wanted to kill Him, and I mean they really wanted to kill Him, for by saying God was His Father, because to say that Jesus was making Himself equal with God. That was a capital offense to the Jews, Jesus was breaking their law, and He knew it, yet He still said it. He had to; it was the Truth that would set the captives free! He knew how they would react, yet He still said it. We see how God is here, there is no fear within Him, there is no political correctness, His love goes beyond that, most of what He has to say will offend, yet all that He has to say is love and is freedom. This is the Spirit that abides within us. “For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

Here is the really powerful thing about our own lives, when Jesus taught us to pray, He said to begin the prayer with, “Our Father.” Thus Jesus is telling us to consider ourselves equal with God, and He said to do this because it is Truth, God is now our Father. That is the measure of love that God has for us, that He allowed us to be born again of Him. He used the same power that He used to bring Jesus into a body, His Spirit, and He is allowed to do it for us because Jesus was sacrificed and His Blood was shed, and there was no fault found in Him! We are not born of the will of man; we are born of God! “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name; Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12-13

A child does not choose to be born; he is just born. It is the parents that willed it. Well, the same is true with us, we can seek God, but He is the One Who chooses for us to be born again. Now God is not stingy, He would that all men be saved, but He knows the hearts of all men, and He sees what is Truth, and He chooses who will be born. That is a powerful Truth, because so many believe that we are the ones who do it, which is why they believe we can fall away and loose our salvation! But we are not born again by a man’s will, or by our own will, we are born by God’s Will. There is no fooling God; He has no illegitimate children, that is why Jesus said that we should pray in a way that tells the world we are equal with God! We are a chosen generation and we are a royal priesthood. “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous Light:” 1 Peter 2:9

Next, let’s study why this hope of being a child of God is so important, “every man that has this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” Wow, pure as God is pure, and all we have to do is have this hope. But wait, we have to hope, can we do it, do we have the power, this is big stuff, pure as God, can a mere mortal, weakened by the flesh hope for such a thing? Well, I honestly believe that God has never required us to do anything that He is not within us giving us the power to do, so let’s see what the Word says? “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope; through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

Praise God, if we want to be pure like God is pure, all we have to do is have the hope that we are now His children and that when Jesus comes back we will be like Him. No problem, God, through His Holy Spirit, fills us with all joy and peace of believing, that we may abound in hope. And faith is the evidence of things hoped for, so we have the faith to live it, because God has empowered us with Himself to abound in hope, so we may abound in faith. It’s all God. But look, we may have all joy and all peace in believing, that is so awesome, peace in believing. When God says pure, as He is pure, we may have peace and joy in believing it. I have said this verse in so many churches and they have gotten so made at me. I have been asked to leave, I have been damned, I have been cursed and yelled at, but I have peace in this Truth, the Holy Spirit has given it to me. I know, because God is within me, that this is Truth. I don’t struggle with it, I don’t hesitate at it, it’s just as sure within me as the Sun will rise! Heaven and Earth will pass away, but this Truth, will last forever.

We are now the children of God, and He has sealed us with His Spirit, and there is nothing that can penetrate that seal, nothing! I didn’t fool God to start with. We aren’t used by satan to fool God into accepting us His Truth, so that we can escape back to the world and then use it against Him. God knew us, and He chose us, and we have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible!

God told us that the way we would know who was born of Him, was by the righteous acts that He would do through them. "If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him." 1 John 2:29 God not only said righteous acts, but righteousness as Jesus’ righteousness! Now that is righteous, and here in 1 John 3, we see that we are pure as God is pure. Jesus gave this to us, we were created in His image, and He is the firstborn among many brethren. But it’s so much more powerful than just being in His image, we are actually one with Him, we live because the same power that lives within Him lives within us. So it shouldn’t be a stumbling block, this should be an area of our rejoicing, because we are one, one with Him, and one with each other, and since we are one, the world will believe!

“How much more shall the Blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God? Hebrews 9:14 Remember when we studied about righteousness, that it means to be guiltless? Well so many don’t feel guiltless, so when we talk about now being God’s children and being pure as God is pure, they tend to have issues. God knows who we are, He knows what we are, Jesus was tempted in every area, just as we are, so Jesus was tempted to feel guilty. About what I don’t know, but the Bible teaches us that He was tempted as we are, so He was! And God did something about it, He sent Jesus, and God knew that the Blood of Jesus would purge our consciences from dead works. The Blood will clean all of that guilt up. I have so many things I could feel guilty over, yet I don’t. That’s not bragging on my ability that is being thankful for God’s ability! We have the Spirit of God within us, He is strengthening us to trust this, He is allowing us to believe this, and He is empowering us to live in it. The Spirit has given us the joy and peace of believing this, that we may abound in hope, and that hope has brought faith, faith Authored and Finished by Jesus!

Now one last tidbit of Truth from God’s Word, to overcome any issues of doubt concerning our purity. “But if we walk in the Light, as He is in the Light, we have fellowship one with another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7. 1 Peter 2:9 teaches us that we have been called out of darkness into God’s Light, and 1 John 1:7 teaches us that if we are in the Light than Jesus’ Blood cleanseth us from all sin. So if you are saved and have the Spirit of God within you are pure even as He is pure! We are because of Jesus, and we have the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are now the sons of God. And His Spirit cries out from within us that we are. We know the Truth and the Truth has set us free. We are what our Father has born us to be, as He is! That is Truth, and that is good preaching brother! They may want to kill us for saying it, but man for those who find it, peace that passes all understanding and Light that drives out all the darkness are to be found!

We are blessed beyond expression through the power of God’s might that eternally abides within us!

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Born Again People Are Righteous

"If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him." 1 John 2:29

“If you know (perceive and are sure) that He [Christ] is [absolutely] righteous [conforming to the Father’s will and purpose, thought, and action], you may also know (be sure) that everyone who does righteously [and is therefore in like manner conformed to the Divine will is born (begotten) of Him [God].” 1 John 2:29 Amplified Bible
As we begin this study let’s first look at what righteousness actually means. According to the Dictionary and Strong’s Concordance righteousness means to be morally upright, virtuous, without guilt or sin, innocent, faultless, approved and accepted by God, one whose thinking, feeling, and acting is conformed to the will of God, and integrity. We can take these meanings and replace them for righteousness and be saying the exact same thing. So with that in mind, we can accurately say for us to know that someone is born again of God they must be morally upright, virtues, guiltless, sinless, innocent, faultless, accepted by God, and one whose thoughts, actions, and feelings are conformed to God’s will, and all of these things must be in a like manner to Christ’s righteousness! God had John write it, so it’s Truth! Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t believe that most Christians have this mind within them. But as we have done so many times before, we are going to look at God’s Word and we are going to see what the Truth is, and faith will come to us by hearing and studying the Truth of God’s Word. Because God’s Word will give us hope that extends past our own abilities and it will transcend us into the reality of God’s abilities.
“Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:11 Righteousness is by Jesus Christ and it brings praise and glory unto God. Man has no ability to be faultless; yet for those who accept Jesus as Lord, His Blood makes them faultless, Hebrews 13:2. Man has no ability on his own to be sinless, yet for those of us who are born again, who have God’s Seed within us, we cannot sin, 1 John 3:9. Man apart from God cannot be upright and virtuous, but God has given us a new heart and has placed His Spirit within us, and He causes us to walk virtuously and uprightly, Ezekiel 36:26-30. Righteousness and all that it means can only be had by Jesus freely given them, we can’t will them into our lives on our own, we can’t even come close to accomplishing righteousness, our righteousness is as filthy rags. Thank God we are no longer required to operate in our own righteousness, we are filled with His righteousness and since we are, it brings praise and glory unto God. If we were righteous on our own, if we conformed to God’s will through our own efforts, it would bring praise and glory to us, because we did it. But since we can’t, yet righteousness is still the measure of if someone is saved, it brings glory to God. Every bit as much as the Israelites had no ability to part the Red Sea and escape the Egyptian Army, yet it happened and they did escape, so it is with us regarding righteousness! We have escaped the death of sin, by the act of righteousness bestowed on us by God! Through Jesus the righteousness requirements of life have been fully met within us. God just gave me that example of the Red Sea and it is good preaching, thank you Lord!
“Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:22-23 We are freely justified by God’s Grace through Jesus our Lord. Sure we all have fallen short of His glory, which is why Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would have His glory, ours isn’t enough. We need to move on past the principle of Christ that says we have forgiveness of sins, so many dwell there, we need to move on to perfection, walking in the victory and love of the righteousness that has been freely bestowed on us who have been empowered by the Holy Ghost to believe! Freely, without any works, we have been made righteous, virtuous, morally upright, free from guilt and sin, approved and accepted by God, and through Jesus we are faultless. Jesus has saved us to the uttermost and we are one with the One Who is sanctified and Who sanctifies, and He is not ashamed to call us His brethren.
“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Romans 4:5-8 King David, and all who were under the Old Covenant had to perform works and try to earn righteousness, because the Blood of Jesus had not yet been shed. They longed for what we have, King David, an extremely blessed man, said that we were blessed because of this freedom through Christ. He saw who we would be, as did the other Prophets of old, and they longed for it, and were willing to be persecuted just for talking about it. “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:4 The thing they could never achieve, righteousness fulfilled, has been fulfilled within us by the Holy Spirit.

“Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” Romans 6:18 This does not get preached nearly enough, we are free form sin, we should consider ourselves dead to it, Romans 6:11, Christ has broken the relationship that we had with it. Our bodies which could sin have been destroyed, Romans 6:6. We are now members of Righteousness body, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones. We are now the Temples of Righteousness. Righteousness is now our Head, we have the Spirit of Righteousness, the Mind of Righteousness, and as Righteousness walked so to should we walk. The requirements of righteousness have been fully met within us, freely and without any works!

So many are preaching that we should walk righteously, as if by our own power we have an ability too. “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” Romans 10:3-4 The righteousness that is trying to be established is this, we will sin, yet we will be righteous as long as we repent and ask God for forgiveness. What is the difference between that work or going out and offering up a goat or cow as a sin offering? There is none. God doesn’t say that we will know who is born of Him by the way they repent, He says that we will know them by the way they are empowered by Him to walk righteously, as Jesus was empowered by God to walk righteously. Jesus didn’t earn His righteousness, He was born with it, He was born of God, He was and is God! He can’t help but be righteous, He is one with it, it’s in Him, and now who are we one with? People are trying to go out and earn righteousness, they are ignorant of the Truth of God and they will fail each and every time. You want to be righteous, look unto to Jesus to Author and Finish the faith within you that will allow you to see who God has made you! Than will you walk as Jesus, in an unshakeable knowledge of who you are in God!

“So that no mortal man should have [pretense for glorying and] boast in the presence of God. But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus. Whom God made our Wisdom from God, [revealed to us a knowledge of the Divine plan of salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as] our Righteousness [this making us upright and putting us in right standing with God], and our Consecration [making us pure and holy], and our Redemption [providing our ransom from eternal penalty for sin.] 1 Corinthians 1:29-30 Amplified Bible When Jesus walked down the street people were healed by just touching His garments, and as they did, He said He perceived that virtue had gone from Him. Jesus had not gone to the Cross yet, the only thing Jesus had done was be born. He had done no work to earn righteousness, the Old Covenant was still in place, so there was no work that could be done, mans righteousness was as filthy rags! The only thing Jesus did was be born of God, born of a woman and of the Holy Spirit, just as we have been born again! We cannot glory before God, as Jesus couldn’t glory before Him. That is why Jesus said that He wasn’t good, that only God was. This is why Jesus said He didn’t do the works, but that it was the Father within Him doing the works!

When you study, as the Spirit leads you, allow Jesus to reveal to you the power of these Truths, life changing is an understatement! You talk about entering God’s rest! The burden is gone, and the living begins! Jesus said to be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven we have to be the biggest servants; this is the only way we will ever be able to serve! We need to stop trying to be righteous on our own, through works, and allow God to bring to fullness His righteousness within us. How do we do it, we allow Him to lead us into the paths of righteousness for His Name sake. Then works will come and they will be the works that Jesus did and even greater ones, because He has gone unto the Father!

Be blessed, if you have said yes to Jesus, righteousness is born into you. It may not be mature, but God is pouring His Spirit out on all men, and the glorious Church without spot, wrinkle, or blemish is coming into its fullness! "No weapon that is formed against us shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord." Isaiah 54:17 "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." Psalm 23:1-3

Sunday, April 17, 2005

God Will Be Made Known By His Fruit

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

“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

“Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” Matthew 7:16

The fruit of God is: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. And according to Jesus if we are saved and He abides within us, then we will be used by God to produce much of His fruit and we will be known by our fruit! Jesus is our Vine and we are now His branches and without Him we can do nothing. The only fruit that we will produce as the branches of Jesus our Lord and Savior, is the fruit that He produces through us! Do we gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? The fruit of Jesus is: love, joy, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. So if we are truly saved and if we are truly the branches of Jesus then we should absolutely expect that He produces only much love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance through us! “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

Here is what God was showing me this morning, not only will we be known by our fruit, but that He will be made known by His fruit that He produces through us. “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” John 14:10 It’s God within us Who does the works and the only reason that we can do anything is because of Jesus. So when the world sees fruit being produced through us, what they are actually seeing is God and the world will know Him by His fruit! And we are now the branches of His Vine that bear His fruit! God is a God of action and deed. We serve God in action and Truth because He is within us, and He is a Being of only action and Truth! We are now members of His body, of His flesh, and His bones as Ephesians 5:30 proclaims we are.

God has never asked man to believe on Him solely by hearing about Him. “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:” 1 Corinthians 2:14 “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works' sake.” John 14:11 God has demonstrated His presence from the very beginning and He never changes, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever! Jesus taught us that if we have faith, even faith as small as a grain of mustard seed, than God could work miraculously through us. And as we just read, faith is the evidence of what we hope for. Faith for us comes from hearing the Truth and the Truth sets us free. We need to hear that God working powerfully through us shows the world Who and what He is! The world will come to know God by the fruit that He produces through us. We should expect to have faith directly from God so that we may be used by Him to perform miraculous things. We should expect God to cause us to love regardless of the situation. We should expect God to cause us to be patient, good, gentle, and meek. And we should expect God to cause us to be full of joy continually. We are the branches of the Vine that produces this fruit. The fruit will make this Truth known and through this fruit the world will believe and be saved! Greater is He that is within us than he that is in the world!

Be blessed in the power of His might!

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Love Others And Never Stumble

"He that loveth his brother abideth in the Light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him." 1 John 2:10

“Whoever loves His brother [believer] abides (lives) in the Light, and in it or in him there is no occasion for stumbling or cause for error or sin.” 1 John 2:10 Amplified Bible

If we love one another, there is no occasion for us to stumble and there is no occasion for us to sin, none! Our Father said, and His Word is everlasting, if we love our brothers in the Lord, there is absolutely and positively no occasion that we can sin. Now that is some powerful stuff, but here is what even makes it more powerful.

“And I have declared unto them Thy Name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:26

Jesus is declaring God’s Name to us. He ever lives to do it, so the love that God has for Jesus, the Head of the Body of whom we are part of, is now in us. If we are truly saved, than we can’t help but love our brothers, because we have the same love for them that God has! Man that is so awesome, the love that has been born into us is the same love of God, now that just isn’t love, that’s perfect love. And since we now have our Father's love within us, there is no occasion for us to stumble or to sin! We now have the mind of Christ that allows the power and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to teach us the full victory of this Truth! I know that it is easy to struggle with these verses. I mean how in the world could we ever love as God loves. But we can love as God loves because the power of the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior has allowed our Father to do it through us. If we walk by sight with this we will stumble and fall into the ditch. But because Jesus is the Author and Finisher our faith, we can see clearly that our Father is willing and He is able to that which He has spoken. Through Christ we humbly accept the power of Jesus and acknowledge that it is the Father within us; He does the works! And the Truth sets us free and we cannot help but to love as God loves and there is never an occasion for us to stumble or fall!

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.” Galatians 5:22

“And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that ye might be filled with the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19

Jesus has sent the Holy Ghost to dwell within us, and because He does, we have love; we have our Father's love. We actually have living within us the love of God, the love that came to die on the Cross to serve us, the love that lives for the very purpose of interceding for all believers. This is the love that has been born into us; we are commanded to love our brothers in the Lord, if we are saved, that is a non-issue for us! If we don’t love our brothers and sisters in the Lord, we are in darkness, and we don’t have salvation, that is what 1 John 2:9 has to say about it. We have the Holy Spirit and the fruit of that relationship is love and since we know that love, we are filled with the fullness of God, and through Christ we have uttermost salvation!

"And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." 1 John 2:3-6

The love of our Father is perfected within us. In Christ there is no occasion for us to stumble and we are able to actually dare to believe that we can walk as Jesus walked. These are the Truths that our Father has to say about those who have been empowered to accept the sacrifice of Jesus and who are baptized with the Holy Spirit. Do you see that salvation is not us just getting by, barely making it into Heaven? Our Father talks about us being in His Holiest. Our Father, Who is God, says that as He is, so are we in this world and He says that through the Blood of Christ we are saved to the uttermost! God tells us to consider ourselves dead to sin, in the same way that Jesus is dead to sin. Jesus tells us that we will do greater works than He did and Jesus tells us that the Holy Ghost will teach us all things, perfect love is part of all. Salvation is bringing us into line with what God created, man in His image. But it goes so far beyond just being in His image, it goes into us being one with Him, no separation, as the branch lives only because the vine is ever connected to it, so do we live, because we are always connected to Jesus. He is the One Who is alive within us, so of course we would have and share in His personality, His character, His abilities, His everything. We are now one with Jesus and the only reason we live is because He lives. We are flesh of Jesus' flesh and bone of His bones!

Think about it, do you hear that the Church actually has the power to never stumble. Have you ever heard that God’s love can be perfected within us, or that we are saved to the uttermost? I have heard that we should strive for these things, but it was preached and implied that we must use our own efforts to get there, and if we did everything just right than it would come. It was never preached that we couldn’t help but be there, because we are now one with God, and He is always there. Actually if someone would have stood up and said that they were there, no one would have believed them. This is not pie in the sky thinking, it is reality, it’s who we are, and it’s what we are.

"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to Whom be glory for ever and ever. A-men." Hebrews 13:20-21

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, Who also will do it." 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

When you see verses like these two, you can see that it’s not impossible to live as one who is saved to the uttermost, sanctified wholly, perfect in every good work, and well pleasing to our Father. It’s not even hard to have the faith that we can never stumble and live in perfection. Look at what God says, it’s not us doing it; it’s Him doing it within us. The Blood makes us perfect in every good work and God is faithful to preserve us blameless. Our Father will do it! I don’t think any believer stumbles at believing God can do anything, we stumble when we think we have to, but praise God it’s not up to us, it’s up to Him, and He is faithful to do what He has said.

The Bible teaches us that we will know a person by their fruit. “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” Matthew 7:16 Jesus is our Vine. “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 We need to settle it right now, we should all expect to be used fully by our Father to bear much fruit to prove that we are in the Vine! According to Jesus, if we are saved we will produce much fruit! Through the power of Christ that is at work within us, every one of us should be producing godly fruit: love, peace, joy, gentleness, faith, longsuffering, and goodness, and producing much of it! God had it written that it would prove that we are part of the Vine of Jesus Christ!

I don’t want to sound condemning here, but Jesus said that through Him we will bring forth much fruit and Jesus said that we would be known by our fruit! I think for most of us we believe that it is unrealistic to think this way. But we should expect that all of us are fully used by God to produce much fruit. Jesus said that if we are one of His branches then we will bear much fruit. That’s awesome, we should shout for joy, we should hope for this and faith will come, and we will be used by our Father to bear much fruit. Think of how much the world needs it? Look at the Middle East, you think they need some gentleness, goodness, love, and peace? Take a gander at Washington DC, you think that group may need some of what God has to offer? Two of us agree as touching anything and it will come to pass, together we can agree that these verses of Truth are fulfilled within our lives and that we actually mature to the fullest stature of Jesus Christ, and we move on to perfection, and we will, God said so!

We need to preach it, it’s Truth, and the Truth will set us free! I know people who never produce any fruit and they have been so called saved for years, and no one loves them enough to call them on it. I mean Peter said that he didn’t want Jesus to be crucified and Jesus called him satan! We all need to look in the mirror and allow God to be Who He is within us. Ask Him, am I producing much fruit? He will tell you. The great thing about much is it’s relative. A new branch may not be bearing as much fruit as a mature branch, but in reality, compared to its size, it’s producing more than the older one, or much. God knows where you are and He knows what much is for you and what’s great, it is God producing the fruit for us anyway, so He defines much for each of us. And if you are truly saved, it just happens, a branch doesn’t have to take thought for producing fruit, the Vine and the Gardener determine that! And the Gardener and the Vine have determined for us to have much!

“But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught by God to love one another.” 1 Thessalonians 4:9