Monday, January 31, 2005

We Are Accepted In Christ

"To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved." Ephesians 1:6

Our Father has made us accepted in Christ and since He has, it brings praises to the glory of His grace! Through the power of Christ we are a Church without spot, without wrinkle, and without blemish. “That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:27

We have been made glorious in our oneness with Christ. The Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead has now quickened our mortal bodies and our flesh, and all of the evils that were associated with it have been destroyed. “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Romans 6:6 Yet even though our old man has been destroyed, we still live, and live abundantly, full of faith, hope, and most of all full of love. We now live in the love and posses the love that our Father has for Jesus. We live in the love of God that covers a multitude of sins. The love that has been born into us allows the Gifts of the Spirit to flow through our lives. The perfect love of our Father that dwells in us also casts out all fear! A-men, we now live in God’s love! “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 Hallelujah, we live continually united and one with the love that God has for His Son Jesus.

“May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!” Ephesians 3:17-19 Amplified Bible

We don’t just live in the Love of our Father, we know the love of our Father! We are rooted in it and we are secure in it! We are strong in God’s love and it works through us in every area of our lives! Through the love of God, which now dwells within us, we are filled with the richest measure of His Divine presence and we are bodies wholly filled and flooded with God Himself! This is how greatly God has accepted us, that we are filled with all of Him! He has held nothing back from us! We live with the very glory that Jesus has. We now have the mind of Christ; we are now His body, His flesh, and His bones. We live with complete knowledge and wisdom because we now have the Holy Ghost dwelling within us, Who teaches us all things, and we live abundantly because we are filled with the fullness of God. “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

Jesus had all of these Truths fully realized within Him while He was on earth as a man, because God accepted Him and because He was One with God! And we have all of these Truths because God has now accepted us and because we are now one with God through Jesus our Lord and Savior. Jesus had all of these things because He was perfect; He was born of God and He was God in the flesh! Well, we have been born again from God’s Incorruptible Seed, the same Seed that bore our Savior and we are now one with God through Jesus; we are now His body. God accepts Jesus completely and we are now Jesus’ body, so God accepts us completely! Who Jesus is, we are, and what Jesus is, we are; we have been freely given this by grace. The only thing that Jesus has that we don’t, is sovereignty. Jesus is the Lord; we are the Lords body! He is the Christ; we are one with the Christ! Jesus is the Head, He is the Vine, we are the body and the branches, but everything else that He has, He has given us!

Our Father calls things that are not as though they are, and they become what He proclaims, these things God has proclaimed for us. “(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, Who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” Romans 4:17 We have the mind of Christ that dares to profess that we are filled with the fullness of God! Our Father has given us a heart and a Spirit that dares to believe that He is powerful and loving enough to provide all of these things for us! We have the Spirit of Jesus within us that dares to ask our Father for them, so that the world may believe in Him as their Savior! Faith is the evidence of things hoped for! "Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given us." Romans 5:5 Amplified Bible

Hope in the Truth of God never disappoints or shames us! Wow! Hope never disappoints us! Our Father has poured His love into our hearts and we will never be ashamed or disappointed! Faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the substance of things not seen, and hope in God’s Word never disappoints us! Satan has crept into religion; He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Matthew 7:15 Satan uses false prophets who speak softly, they profess that perfection in Christ is arrogance, that we can agree to disagree, and that we are only men. These false prophets are why our Father is having us going over scripture after scripture that proclaim His Truth. God’s Word says something entirely different.

So if we can get people to read the Truth of who we are now in Christ, hope will come, then faith, true faith, Authored and Finished by Jesus Himself! Jesus will Author His faith through us that will allow Him to transform the world. Faith that will set the captives free, faith that will allow God to do the works through us that He did through Jesus, and which will allow Him to do even greater works because Jesus has been raised from the dead! This is why God keeps me writing and talking about these verses. Our Father wants people to hope for the Truth, and how can we hear without a preacher, and how can we preach without the Word! And Praise God we are all able bodied ministers through the strength of our Lord!

Saturday, January 29, 2005

Let's Pray For Televsion News

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:43-45

According to Jesus, if we want to be the children of God, then we must love our enemies, do good to our enemies, bless our enemies, and pray for our enemies! As Christians we have lots of enemies: the ACLU, the Courts, many politicians, other religions, the world, false prophets, wolves in sheep’s clothing, and the News Media. It is very easy for us to point out what they are doing against us, but as the children of God, it hasn’t been borne into us to condemn the speck that is in others eyes. As Christians we have been borne again from the Incorruptible Seed of God, and what has been borne into us is the true heartfelt desire for all men to be saved. Our Father doesn’t hold back the Sun from those who oppose Him and as His children, we don’t hold back the Light from them either.

So with that in mind, together let’s pray for those who are cursing and hating us: the people of the worlds television News Media’s, the BBC, Al Jazeera, CNN, CBS, ABC, Fox, NBC, and PBS. Let’s bless them with the following desires of our Father.

Father we come to You in the power and Name of Your Son and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Name that has been placed above every Name. Father together we ask You in Jesus’ Name that all who work at the worlds television News outlets be saved! Father we thank You that You are revealed to them all, from the interns to the Presidents. Father we ask You in Jesus’ Name that You grant unto them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You. We ask that the eyes of their understanding are enlightened, so that they may know and understand You fully, and truly know what is the hope of Your calling, and how rich is Your inheritance! Father we ask that they might come to know the rich and measureless greatness of Your power for those of us who believe, and that Your power might actually be demonstrated in their lives through the working of Your strength, as it was when You raised Jesus from the dead, and gave Him power and dominion, and authority over the world and the world to come! (Ephesians 1:16-20)

Father we ask that their love may abound more and more to its fullest development. So that they may learn and know what is vital and approve and prize what is truly excellent and of real value. We ask and believe that through Your grace and power that they become unerring and blameless as they approach the Day of Christ, never stumbling or causing others to stumble. We pray that they abound and are filled with the fruits of righteousness, which can only come through Jesus! (Philippians 1:9-11)

And Finally Father we ask that through faith, Authored and Finished by Jesus, that You actually dwell in their hearts, so that they may be rooted and secured in Your love. So that they might be strong to apprehend and grasp the breadth, length, height, and depth of Your love. We ask that they might actually come to know the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge, that they might be filled with all of Your fullness Father. (Ephesians 3: 17-19 Amplified Bible)

Now unto You Father, Who are able to do far above all that we ask or think, by Your power that is at work within us, we ask for these desires of Yours to be truly realized in lived in all who work at a worldly News agency! Thank You Father for choosing us and allowing us to truly be Your children. Thank You Father for giving us a heart, mind, and spirit that desires to bless, and not curse, those who hate us and despitefully use us, and who say all manner of evil against us. Father Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven! A-men!

Be blessed this day in the power of His might!

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

We Are Holy And Blameless In God

"According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love:" Ephesians 1:4

We have studied together that God’s Word boldly proclaims that we have been glorified! “And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are One.” John 17:22 We have seen in the Word of God that we are perfect through our oneness with Christ. “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 We have also seen that all things are now new for us. “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 And now we see that our Father has chosen us and that we are holy and without blame before Him. Our Father's Truths are awesome, plain and simply awesome! The Blood of Christ is that strong for us, no work can justify what the Blood of Christ, shed on the cross, has so freely bestowed upon us. We need the Holy Spirit to begin to allow us to believe this Truth and to strengthen us in the Truth that through Christ we are more than able to live a life without any blame! We tend to talk about this lifestyle of perfection and blamelessness in the future tense, when we are in Heaven, but the Truth that will set us free is that God is more than willing and able to cause us to live this way right now! We can never earn this own our own, through our own efforts, but we can have it, and its an easy yoke to be borne, by simply looking unto Jesus to Author and Finish our faith! The Truth is that we stand before our Father blameless, apart from any work, with free and complete redemption through the power of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! Our Father has chosen us because He is able to do these glorious things through us!

Turn to John 8:4, “They say to Him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.” You want to see a picture of how God really is; well here is a great one! “When Jesus had lifted up Himself and saw none but the woman, He said unto her, woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” John 8:10-11

Not only didn’t Jesus condemn this woman, who had every right to be condemned, He was able to run off all of those who could condemn her! This verse shows us plainly how our Father is; He is compassionate. He knows who we are and how we are, and God knows what to do about it. Our Father doesn’t want to condemn us; He doesn’t want to be separated from us. So to insure that He didn’t have to be, He sent His Son, to make an everlasting sacrifice for us, so that we could stand before Him without blame! Through Christ we stand holy, sanctified, perfected, and all by the power of the Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! Jesus did it all for us, so that as Romans 8:1 proclaims, “There is now therefore no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus!”

If there is now no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus, than there is now no fault for us who are in Christ Jesus! There is no fault for us because the Blood of Jesus has cleansed us from all unrighteousness. “Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” Romans 5:9 “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace;” Ephesians 1:7 “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the Blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:13 “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the Blood of Jesus,” Hebrews 10:19

People may call us arrogant for confessing that we are perfect, holy, spotless, sanctified, and glorified in Christ, as all of these scriptures have proclaimed that we are. But the Truth is that we actually have to be extremely humble to confess and believe them. Because all of the glory is totally directed towards Jesus, only He can do it, there is absolutely nothing that we can do to even begin to scratch the surface to possess such awesome attributes. Humility does not mean tearing ourselves down, true humility is saying yes to Jesus and accepting and confessing we possess all that He went to the cross to give us. We have been redeemed by the Blood of Christ! Redemption means that someone else did it for us, the ransom was paid for us by Jesus and true humility, not arrogance, accepts this Truth and directs all of the attention towards Him!

Jesus is called the stumbling stone. Romans 9:32-33, “Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” When we talk about perfection, holiness, glory, and honor, people tend to immediately think of human works and efforts as the forces that bring these things to pass. This type of belief is the stumbling stone and the rock of offense that is Jesus, because these things are only given by faith and not by works!

The great humbling Truth is this; even our faith is not a human work, because our faith is Authored and Finished by Jesus. We have boldness and access to true Holiness through the free gift of Jesus’ Blood. We are as He is, because He is Who He is, and He is now within us. He has chosen us to be one with Him, without fault and without blame. Jesus paid a high price to buy our redemption! Don’t stumble at who we are in Christ, because of who you think we are in the flesh. Our flesh is not the force that brings the blessings of God into our lives; Jesus’ flesh is, and His flesh has accomplished it all. There is no need for us to ever stumble, we have the Anointing of our Father within us, strengthening us with the Truth and the Truth sets us free! God has placed His Spirit within us, and He will lead us into the paths of righteousness, and He will cause us to walk in His ways. Through Christ we can do all things, and without Him we can do nothing! The Blood of Jesus has made us all of these things!

Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God! The Word of our Father is what allows us to walk in this revelation of the power of the Blood. The Spirit will lead us into the paths of righteousness that the Word of God holds for us, and through the power of Christ (the Anointing) God will be able to do all things through us! Our part is our Father using us, to look to Him to Author and Finish the faith in our lives, and be the branches that bear the fruit that the Vine produces. Jesus is our Head and we are His body. The Head directs, leads, unifies, and allows the body to walk in perfection. Remember faith is not the human ability to believe God and thus unlock the riches and power of His Kingdom; faith is from our Father and it is His key, that He Authors and Finishes through us, to unlock the power and victory of His Kingdom! Through Jesus we are now holy and blameless before God in love!

Our man made laws are not the tools that unlock the favor and blessings of our Father! What pleases God is for us to serve Him through the power of His Spirit that now dwells within us. And by being empowered by the Holy Spirit to allow His Son, our Savior, to Author and Finish our faith in believing that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who allow Jesus to lead them and guide them in the paths of righteousness! If we truly want to change the attitudes of the world, it is not accomplished by influencing governments to pass laws. It is accomplished by our Father using us as lamps on the side of the hills! The weapons of our warfare are spiritual and they are mighty to the bringing down of strongholds. We change the world by showing them Christ and by proclaiming God’s Word that does not fall void to the earth. In America we have passed laws that resemble the Ten Commandments and every year the crimes against those laws increase or at best stay the same. We need to stop trying to pass laws that attempt to force righteousness and allow God to show the world Jesus through us. So that the presence, pleasure, penalty, and power of sin will be destroyed and then people will be truly be set free. Laws didn’t allow the Israelites to become one with God and be free and laws wont allow us to either. Why Christians are so concerned with passing laws always stumps me. We weren’t set free and saved by a law, why do we think that laws will now bring the favor and blessings of God? “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” Galatians 3:3 There is no fear for us in Christ and we don’t need a law to protect us. Our Father is for us, so who or what can be against us! Our Father doesn’t pour His favor out on us because we have a laws that resemble the Ten Commandments. Our Father pours His blessing on us because we are one with Him because He has caused us to believe in Jesus and accept Him as Lord! Be blessed and where are energies and efforts are, that is where are hearts will be as well!

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

We Are In The Holy Ghost

"This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Galatians 5:16

Remember how we have seen in the Word that wherever we find a verse that instructs us to do something, we can find other verses that proclaim that is our within us given us the power, the will, and the ability to accomplish it. Well there is definitely no exception here! We are told to walk in the Spirit, and if we do, then we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So what does our Father have to say about enabling us to walk in the Spirit?

First God says, "And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land I gave your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses:" Ezekiel 36:27-28 We are told to walk in the Spirit and here we see that our Father has placed His Spirit within us to cause us to walk in His statutes and to keep His judgments! Our Father gave us His Spirit so that we will do what is right and so that He can save us from all of our uncleanness! Our Father is our God and we are not alone in our fight to live right. We have the Spirit of the Living God within us causing us to do what is right, so that we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh! We are completely saved from hell and from ourselves through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Second, Christ is now the One living within us, we have been crucified with Him, so we can only walk in the Spirit.

“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

Our bodies which could sin have been destroyed.“ Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”Romans 6:6 So many of us wrestle with our flesh. But when we truly are empowered to ask God into our lives, even though we were dead in our sins, He quickens our mortal bodies. Our Father has placed His Spirit within us and He will cause us to walk in His statutes and keep His judgments and do them. We no longer look unto ourselves, we look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith and we allow Him to be all that He is within us and since we are saved, we are now only able to walk in the Spirit!

In Galatians 5:14 our Father has Paul write that love covers all of the requirements of a godly life. God is love and we are born again of Him, we are born again of love. Now if God is Love, then His Spirit is love. So if we walk in Love, we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, right? Well, turn again to John 17:26 and let’s see what Jesus said. “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.”

To insure that we walk in the Spirit, which is Love, so that we don’t fulfill the lust of the flesh, our Father gave us His very Own love. Jesus said that is why He declared God to the people and will declare Him; so that we could have the very thing that will allow us to walk in perfection, love! No where does God ever write that we can’t have His level of love. Jesus said that He declared God’s name and that He will continue to declare it, so that God’s love may be in us. Well, Jesus is still declaring God and His Spirit remains in our hearts, crying out Father. Jesus does this so that we can spend eternity with Him from the moment that we say yes to Him as Lord and are accepted by Him. That is the timeline of our salvation, from that point of acceptance throughout all of eternity, not from the time when we get to heaven on. We walk one with God from the very instant that He chose us and we accepted Him, that is when He empowered us to begin to walk in His Spirit!

You and I have Christ within us, we can’t help but to walk in the Spirit. We have been sealed by the Spirit. "Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 We have been Anointed by God, and God can now do all things through us by the power of His Anointing that strengthens us! God has established us with His Anointing, He has sealed us with His Spirit, He has called us, He has justified us, and He has glorified us, and what can we say to all of this? If God be for us, who or what, can be against us!

“And grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30 We are sealed until the day of redemption. Well if we are sealed, that isn’t from the inside, that is from the outside. Think of a plastic baggie, the zip lock kind, that is sealed, think about Tupperware, that is sealed. Well we are sealed, so we can’t help but walk in the Spirit. Once again we see that it is God telling us to do something and again we see that it is God empowering us with Himself to do it. We can do all things through Christ that strengthens us! A-men!

Monday, January 24, 2005

Jesus Dwells In Our Hearts

"And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." Galatians 4:6-7

It’s not hard for us to say that we are God’s children; actually it’s really easy. But to say that we are now God’s sons and to believe that we are actually heirs of God and that everything He has is now ours, takes faith. And praise God our faith is now Authored and Finished by Jesus, Who knows exactly what it means to be an heir of God! What does an heir receive, all that the Father has. “And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” Luke 15:31 An heir receives all that the father has and our Father has far more than we can think of! Our Father has omnipotence, righteousness, love, power, power unspeakable, glory, honor, knowledge, wisdom, faith, light, victory in every situation, ability, and so much more. This is what we are heirs of and these things are only a fraction of what we have as God’s heirs! How awesome is that? Every great and wonderful thing that we praise God for being is ours as well! We are no longer hired hands; we are now the son’s and daughters of God. We are now the heirs of God and to insure that we think this way, God has sent His very Spirit into our hearts to tell us continually who we are in Him. We are ever with God, and all that He has in ours!

Go back and review all of the verses that we have studied so far in these postings, they all say that we are glorious in Christ, perfected in Him, glorious through Him, and victorious with Him! Out of the abundance of our hearts our mouths will speak. “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 of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” Luke 6:45 Our Father has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, so that what is in abundance in them will be the Truth that sets us free! No one knows better about being an heir than Jesus, and He has filled our hearts with the Word of God, and that is what our mouths speak!

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Romans 10:17 Faith comes for us by hearing the Truth that we are now the sons of God and that we are now the heirs of God. We need to share the scriptures daily with each other and pray that those whom our Father has brought into our lives will rest in the Truth of who we now are in Christ Jesus. We all need the encouragement of the Truth; the Word of God is Truth. The Truth of God will not fall void to the earth, and the Truth will set us free. “For the Word of God is quick, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asssunder of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 12:4 The Word of our Father is quick, it will rapidly change the hearts and minds and situations of those who find it! The Word of God will cut out all doubt from within us and it will quickly take over our hearts and fill us with the abundance of God’s Truth. Our Father has proclaimed that He will give us a new heart, and the heart that is given by God is one that is filled with His eternal Word! The heart that we have from God rejoices in the glory of the Truth that we are now the heirs of God, just as Jesus is an heir of God. We are joint-heirs this day with Christ and we have the Spirit of Christ crying out this Truth from within us!

Jesus is dwelling in our hearts; we are never alone. Jesus will never leave us or forsake us. “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5 If we have a problem, Jesus is right here with us. When Jesus was on the earth as a man and He came upon a problem, what did He do about it? Did He walk away, no, He stopped and solved it, even when the problem was a naked guy who lived in a tomb and could break the chains that bound him! Did Jesus condemn the people, no! Even when the person was caught in a sin, He simply said go and sin no more! Did Jesus say that it was God’s will that the person had the problem, no! He said that satan came to kill, steal, and destroy, but that God sent Him so that they might have life and have it more abundantly! Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, changed the weather, gave specific answers to specific problems, told the demons where to go, and Jesus only spoke the Word of God. Jesus never stood passively by, He was and is action oriented; Jesus is the answer man! When Jesus went to His hometown and tried to heal the sick and the people rejected is offering, He simply marveled at their unbelief. Jesus did not condemn them and even though He marveled at their unbelief, He never condemned them. And remember this, before He marveled, He had first tried to serve them. Even though He knew what they were going to do, He still offered! Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, He changes not, Malachi 3:6! If Jesus was that way back then, He is that way today. Jesus ever lives to intercede for us!

This is Who we have living within us, this is what Jesus is like, and just like 2000 years ago, He marvels if people will not let Him help. Yet the great thing about Jesus is, give Him the least bit of an opportunity, and Help is right there! So take it, just ask, and it shall be given unto you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened. For all who ask, receive, and all who seek find, and all who knock, the door is opened! This is the Truth that is now in our hearts, this is what is crying out for us, this is salvation, and there is no down side to our salvation! The Holy Spirit always has us seek our Father.

We have absolutely the most powerful and loving Being on our side, period! Our Father's very Spirit cries out from within us of the greatness of who we are in Him. Together with Christ and through the power that comes from being one with Him, God is able and willing to cause us to walk in complete and total victory, ever pleasing to Him, without spot, without wrinkle, and without blemish. We are united with Jesus and there is no weapon formed that will prosper against us, with Jesus we have peace that passes all understanding, and with Jesus we have unity with each other. This unity will allow salvation to flourish around the world. We are now one with The One!

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Abounding Grace To Help The World

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:” 2 Corinthians 9:8

Our Father is willing and able to make all grace abound towards us, so that we will always have all sufficiency in all things, and so that we may abound in every good work! That was such an awesome verse that I just had to repeat it! God teaches us that faith is believing that He is able and that He is willing to perform His Word, Romans 4:20-22. And faith comes for us by hearing God’s Word. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17 So we need to hear each and every day, and even multiple times a day, that our Father will make all grace abound towards us. We need to hear that through Christ we will always have all sufficiency in all things, so that we may be used by our Father to abound in every good work!

With that being said, what exactly is grace? The Strong’s Concordance defines grace like this: that which affords joy, pleasure, sweetness, and delight. Grace means favor, the merciful kindness of God exerting His influence on our souls that causes us to turn to Christ and that which keeps us, strengthens us, and increases our faith, knowledge, affection, and Christian virtues!

Using the Strong’s definition of grace lets read 2 Corinthians 9:8 again. And our Father is able to make all favor, influence, strength, faith, affection, virtue, and protection that causes joy, pleasure, and delight to abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work. Our Father will always favor us, and He will always strengthen us with affection, virtue, and faith so that we can be used by Him to perform every good work that is needed, wherever we go! Our Father will always protect us as we are always used by Him. Our Father will always influence us, so that it is always Christ Who is strengthening us! So that we can be used by Him in all things through the power of Christ! Our Father will always do this for us and Jesus ever lives to intercede for us that we are saved to the uttermost!

Our Father will always cause His grace to abound towards us so that we will always have all sufficiency on all things! God will always exert His influence on us, because He will never leave us or forsake us, Hebrews 13:5. Because of Grace we will always have all of the love, wisdom, knowledge, power, faith, hope, forgiveness, joy, health, money, resources, and Anointing that we need! And since we have all of these things in abundance, God will always abound through us in every good work! Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly, and grace is the power of our Father working for us that allows us to live in His abundance!

Is this grace just for pastors or evangelist? No, it’s for all believers! “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” Ephesians 4:7 We all have grace that has been measured to us according to the gift of Christ! That means we all have tons of grace! The gift of Christ is measureless, and since it is, the grace that we all have been given is measureless! God without measure will always pour out His influence in our lives, so that we may always abound in every good work. Through Christ we will never lack all of the sufficiency that is needed to abound!

Can sin overcome God’s grace? Can sin stop God from exerting His influence on our souls? No! “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Romans 6:14 Turn to John 15:1-2, “I am the Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman. 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.” If there is anything within us that hinders the production of fruit through us, God prunes it out of us, so that we may produce more and more fruit! We are not under the dominion of sin; we are under grace. And even if our Father has to prune some things out of us, once we are chosen by Him, He never stops exerting His influence on our souls that causes us to have all sufficiency in all things, so that we may now abound unto every good work! Nothing can stop our Father now from using us in every thing; nothing can ever separate us from His love! God can now work through us as He worked through Jesus, and He can even work greater through us, because Jesus has secured the New Covenant that allows Him to, John 14:12! We now always have the needed faith, Authored and Finished by Jesus, to heal the sick, raise the dead, prophecy specific truths, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison, and to preach the Gospel to every creature! Nothing can stop God from completely and fully using us in all things!

“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,” 2 Peter 1:2 The knowledge of the Truth of grace allows grace and peace to be multiplied unto us. The world is hurting: tsunamis, earthquakes, Iraq, terrorism, abortion, epidemics, and hopelessness. But through the Truth that has set us free, we can abound in every good work and in every situation, because we always have all sufficiency in all things. God is not limited, so if we only have five loaves of bread and two small fishes, He can use them to feed the multitudes that are starving, Matthew 14:20-22! If we only have a rock, God can flow water from it to quench the thirst of an entire nation that has been displaced, Exodus 17:6! If we are caught in the middle of a storm that will surely kill us and we have no shelter, we still have our mouths! And God can speak through them and cause the storm to instantly cease, Mark 4:39! Our Father has no limits and even if we are in the innermost prisons, or if the body has been in the tomb for four days, God can still use us to bring freedom and deliverance! No matter what the situation, no matter the level of physical resources, and no matter our maturity level. Our Father will always cause all sufficiency in all things through us so that He may use us to abound in every one of His good works! This gift has been measured out to every last one of us according to the limitless measure of the gift of Christ and knowledge of this Truth allows God to abound His grace and peace that passes all understanding to us!

Be blessed this day in the knowledge of this Truth and if God be for us, there is nothing that can be against us! The world needs us to abound in God’s grace, because there are so many problems with absolutely no answers. The only answer is God and the answer will always abound through us unto every good work! Faith comes from hearing this and the Truth sets us free!

Thursday, January 20, 2005

We Are Batized and One With Christ

"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" Galatians 3:26-28

The Greek word that we translate baptized from is baptizo. The best way to explain what baptizo means is to use an example of a cucumber becoming a pickle. A cucumber is submerged into the pickling spice and is forever changed, while it is still looks like a cucumber, it has taken on the characteristics of the spices and even has the pickling spices through it. The cucumber can never go back to being a cucumber; it has been forever changed into a pickle. This is how we now are in Christ, our old man has passed away, and behold the new man, created in God’s image has been born. We may look like our old selves, but we now have Christ in us, on us, through us, and we are now one with Christ, we can never go back.
“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
We have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless we live, yet it is not us who lives, it is Christ in us Who lives. Praise God we need to say this Truth out loud daily! “We are new creatures in Christ, we have put on Christ, old things are passed away for us, and behold all things have become new for us.” Thank God we have been baptized into Christ and we have put on Christ, and A-men, we are now one with Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and we cannot go back!
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,” Ephesians 1:13

“And grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30 For how long of time has our Father sealed us with His Holy Spirit? God has sealed us with His Spirit until the day of redemption! The Holy Ghost doesn’t seal us for just a moment, or just as long as we act right, no! The Holy Spirit seals us until the day of redemption. The day when Jesus returns to the earth! We are new creatures in Christ, who have been sealed with the very Spirit of God! We have been made one with the very Anointing of our Father and we are now the Temples of God, how awesome are these Truths? These Truths set us free and faith comes by us hearing them! These Truth will set us free from fear, from sickness, from doubt, and from sin! “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 alive unto God, just as Jesus is alive unto God! We have been baptized with Christ and we have put on Christ! We are one with Him right now. We are not one with Who He was, we are one with Who He is! “And now O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine Own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” John 17:5 Jesus has been raised from the dead, death has no more dominion over Him, and He now has the complete and full glory of God; this is Who we are now one with!

I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Revelation 1:8 This is Who we are one with! “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive evermore, A-men; and have the keys of hell and death.” Revelation 1:18 This is Who we have put on and Who we have been baptized with!
“And in the midst of the seven candlesticks One like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnance; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He held in His right hand seven stars; and out of His mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He said unto me, Fear not; I am the First and the Last.” Revelation 1:13-17 This is Who is in us and Who we are in, and this is Who we are perfected with!

“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 have been born again and have put on the new man that has been created just as the Alpha and Omega was created! The Beginning and the Ending, the Almighty, Who is alive for evermore has perfected us by allowing us to become one with Him! He lives within us and His voice thunders the Word of God through us and His brightness shines from within us! “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.” Matthew 5:14 We say so casually that we are saved, but the Truth that sets us free is that these verses describe the glory and power of Who we are now one with! We have been created with the same righteousness that created Jesus and we are now new creatures in the same holiness that glorifies Jesus! The Light of Jesus has driven out the darkness of sin that was in us! The keys of death and Hell are in His hands, and He has used them to set us free from the torment that they deliver! Jesus has set us free from death and hell by raising us up together with Himself! “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:” Ephesians 2:6

Let’s talk about the word Christ, which means the Anointing of God, for a minute. We use the word Christ a lot as Christians; so let’s make sure that we know what it means. When we read Jesus Christ, it means Jesus the Anointed One. So with that in mind we can accurately say, we have been baptized into the exact same Anointing as Jesus, we have put on the exact same Anointing that God used for Himself, when He came to the earth as a man! Take hold of that Truth, we have been given the exact same strength that God gave to Himself when He was here as a man! We are continually one with the exact same anointing that God gave to Jesus, so that He could work through Jesus! Our Father has freely given us His glory and the Holy Spirit has made us alive together with the Anointing of God! We can do nothing without the Anointing, yet with it, we have been strengthened, just as Jesus was strengthened, so that our Father can now do everything through us. Our Father actually desires for us to be used by Him to do marvelous and miraculous things! “Herein is My Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be My disciples.” John 15:8

Father I ask You in Jesus’ Name to allow the mind that was in Christ to be in us, so that we will know just as powerfully as Jesus knew Who we are in You and Who You are in us! "Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power," Ephesians 1:16-19 In Jesus’ Name I ask You Father for the same things for us, that You enlighten us completely on being baptized into Christ so that we will know the greatness and power of Your Anointing within us this day! Father Your will be done!

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

We Are New In Christ

"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

When we were called and chosen to make Jesus the Lord of our lives, the Anointing of God came upon us, and everything that was old about us passed away. We became new in Christ, completely new creatures in Christ, our old self was crucified with its passions and lusts and we were united with the Living God. We were perfected in our unity with Christ, so that the world would believe! "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me " Galatians 2:20 God now lives within us, and we are now the Temple of the Holy Ghost. Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world. Jesus has given us His glory, and Jesus is now glorified in us and through us. Jesus has made us perfect, created in His image in righteousness and true holiness, and we are now filled with His fullness.

"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. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them also glorified. What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:29-31 We are new creatures in Christ and all things, all things mind you, are new for us in Him!

"This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all." 1 John 1:5 A-men, we are in Jesus right now and He is now in us. We are no longer darkness, the Light of God has driven out the darkness that was within us and we have been glorified with Christ, old things are passed away for us and all things are new. We have a new Spirit. "And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land I gave your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses:" Ezekiel 36:27 We now have a new heart. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26 We now have a new mind. “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:16 We now have a new body. “For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.” Ephesians 5:30 We are new creatures in Christ, new in spirit, soul, and body!

If all things are now new for us, do we still have a sinful nature? No, that was part of our old nature and it was crucified with Christ and it has passed away! What about sickness? No, the Anointing of God came that we might have life and have it abundantly as we prosper and are in health! “Who His Own self bare our sins in His body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by Whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 2:24 Do we still have fear? No, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7 In Christ we now have no fear; fear was an old thing and it has passed away! What about hatred and unforgiveness? No, “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Romans 5:5 Do we still have lack? Absolutely not, “And God is able to make all grace abound towards you; that ye, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8 All of our old shortcomings, that were brought on by sin, are now gone, because God has given us His Anointing, which is Christ! We now have His love, His peace, His joy, His power, His abilities, His grace, and His very self within us to insure that all things are now new for us! If God said old things are passed away, old things are passed away! Today is the day of our salvation and faith comes from us hearing the Truth of God and God’s Truth sets us free! God is not a man that He should lie and God said old things are passed away for us!

“And all things are of God, Who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:18

Our Father has said that our old things have passed away for us, and that all things are now new for us, and then God says in the very next verse that all things for us are now of Him. We have been reconciled with God through the power of Jesus Christ. Look at God, look at Who He is, and what He has, then you will see what He has given us. “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Ephesians 3:19 Our Father has given us all of Himself, He has held nothing back from us, and the love of His Anointing that now abides within us allows us to be filled with all of His fullness! “And of His fullness have we all received, and grace for grace.” John 1:16 “And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the church, Which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” Ephesians 1:22-23 We have been chosen by God, so that we might be the vessels of His honor as we are filled with His fullness! We are the new creatures of God’s Anointing and we are filled with all of Him!

Satan is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He has crept into the church and has deceived so many into believing that sickness is acceptable, that a little fear is alright, that it is alright that we agree to disagree, that the old things are still present, and one day all things will be new, but that day isn’t until we are in Heaven. This is why divorce is running rampant in the church, this is why we have hundreds of denominations, and this is why the saints are just as sick as those who are in the world! Go and read the Book of Acts, the sick used to flock to the Church to be healed, not to hear a sermon about how God wanted them sick, so they could minister to the sick! I have written this before, but I am going to write it again, that is just plain wrong, or as Paul wrote, dung!

Think about it, lets say I had cancer, yet it was curable, would I really be able to go and witness to a non-curable cancer victim? Do I have to be gay, to minister to a homosexual? Do I have to be divorced to minister to someone divorced? Do we see in the Bible where our Father sent only Gentiles to minister to Gentiles? Can men only minister to men, or women to women? Our Father said that we were healed by Jesus’ stripes; He never said that we were made sick by Jesus stripes! Satan has crept into the Church and made these things sound religious, and now many of the people are being destroyed by a lack of knowledge! In the power of Jesus’ Name and with His Truth this ends this day! Our Father is able to use us to witness by the power of His Spirit that is within us, not by the evils of this world that we have experienced! “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” John 14:26

“Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Galatians 3:3

This is an awesome scripture; does our flesh, or the things of the flesh, the old things, now make us perfect to serve God? All things are now of God for us, they are not of our flesh. Old things are passed away, and behold all things are now new! Our Father does not use the old things of our lives to witness of His new things. Look at Paul’s ministry, how often does he talk about His old life when witnessing the new Truths of God? Out of all of the books in the New Testament that God had Paul write, not often, not often at all. “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” 2 Corinthians 4:5 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,” Philippians 3:15

THe power of the Holy Spirit will allow God to be Who He is in you this day. Jesus loves us and He has given us the power to love each other.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Even Though We Are Dead, We Live

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" Galatians 2:20-21 (Notice all of the present tense words that God uses here!)

This is not just a godly saying; some nice little thing that we say to each other on Sundays, it’s the Truth! It is the Truth of God that has set us free! When we were chosen by our Father and born again of His Incorruptible Seed, our old man was crucified with Christ and our body of sin was destroyed! “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Romans 6:6 Our sinful nature, with all of its corruption, was crucified by the Anointing of God and our bodies of sin were destroyed, and our relationship with sin and our old self was permanently broken. Christ came immediately to dwell within us and we were raised from the dead by the very power of God that raised Jesus from the dead, and we now live by the very power that Jesus lives by; God within us! And the life we now live in this world is lived by the exact same power that Jesus lives in Heaven with, the Anointing of God! Greater is He that is now within us, than he that is in the world! “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” 1 John 4:4

"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

"That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. 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 17:21-23

"And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them." John 17:10

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

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

The life we now live in the flesh is lived by the faith of Jesus Christ. “Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2 It is now the love of Christ that lives within us, we are in this world, but we are no longer of this world! Jesus is now glorified within us and we now have the glory of Christ within us, so that the world will believe and be saved! The Anointing of God has made us one with Him, so that the world will know that God loves us just as He loves Jesus! The Words of Christ are now abiding within us and the Word of God is what is in abundance in our hearts! It is now Christ Who produces much Godly fruit through us! We now have all of these things and so much more, more than we can think of and more than we can pray for, because it is now Christ within us Who is alive. We are dead, the Glory of God has killed us, and yet we live, because the Glory of God lives within us! We can’t help but to live by Jesus’ faith, dead men don’t have faith! “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3

Ask yourself this question honestly; do you believe all of these verses? If you don’t, here is what you do: First of all remember this Godly Truth, there is now no condemnation for us, none! Say that out loud, there is now no condemnation for me! Jesus has set us free from condemnation by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:1 Our Father is not out to condemn us, thank You Lord for Your grace. Our Father doesn't want us condemning ourselves either, once again thank You Lord! But what our Father does want for us is to live in the fullness of His Truth and to be set free by it! Our Father wants to live within us. He wants to cause us to walk in His Truth, and it's not a burden, it’s pleasant, it’s life and peace that passes all understanding. Our Father's Truth is easy to be borne and it will set us free!

If you are struggling with accepting who you are in Christ Jesus now, look to the Spirit of Truth that is within you to call out for our Father to help. It’s really just that simple, all we have to do is ask! We don’t have to get all caught up in how we ask, our Father knows our hearts! “Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him.” Matthew 6:8 You may start to believe immediately, it may take some time, but ask and you shall receive! “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” John 16:24

Is it our Father's will for us to live as He is in this world, and He empowers us to do so by Anointing us to be one with Him in this world? “In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him], because as He is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17 Amplified Bible We are able to have confidence and boldness because of our union and communion that we now have with God! “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 We are now one with God and we now have union and communion with Him and God’s Light has driven out the darkness that was in us by crucifying us with His Anointing!

Look at all of the scriptures that we have studied together in these postings. If we lack anything, we now have the Spirit within us that leads us to just ask our Father for it. Our Father is the supplier of all of our needs and our needs are met according to His riches and glory. “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 There is no ten step program here; the answer for us is to simply ask and it is Jesus within us Who is directing us to ask. Jesus knows where the answers come from and He is leading us in the paths of righteousness! We now have His Anointed mind and that mind knows fully that God is willing and able to do all that He has spoken! The mind that we have been given has been to the Cross and has been raised from the dead! The Anointed mind that we now have walked through the Red Sea with the children of Israel, it saw David triumph over Goliath, it saw Elijah call fire down from Heaven, it told the storm to cease, it walked on the water, it was with God from the very beginning and it is seated with Him right now! Our mind knows the Truth and it knows that we now have the petitions that are required to receive from God! “And if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” 1 John 5:15

Jesus, I pray in Your Name, the Name that has been placed above every other name, that all You have chosen and all who have accepted You as Lord, and all that we come into contact with will live and walk in the full and complete knowledge and faith of the Truth that You are now within us. That You never leave us or forsake us. I pray that we truly accept and walk in the fact that Your love now abides within us, and that we love as You love, that we forgive as You forgive, and that we serve as You serve! I pray that it is Your glory that we walk in, and that we experience a glorious life of Jesus producing much fruit through us. I pray that we are Your vessels of honor and virtue, and that Your virtue flows from us as rivers of living water! I thank You Lord that we are one, even as You and the Father are One! Thank You Jesus that we are healthy, that we are prosperous, that we are victorious, that we are honorable, that we see as You see, have faith as You have faith, hear as You hear, live as You live, and love as You love! I pray these things Father and I ask that they are truly lived in and walked in by us this day, thank You, and A-men!

Monday, January 17, 2005

We Are To Desire Jesus To Be In Us

"To reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:" Galatians 1:16

When we read John 17:1, we see that Jesus prayed that our Father would glorify Him, so that He could in turn glorify our Father. “These Words spake Jesus and lifted up His eyes towards Heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify You.” Jesus wanted to be glorified by God, so that He could glorify God, and Paul wanted Jesus to be revealed within him, so that he might be able to preach the fullness of Him. We cannot preach God without God enabling us to do so. We can’t serve our Father, worship Him, we can’t do anything with Him, unless He first enables us to do so! This is the awesome Truth about our salvation; our Father has the desire and the ability to reveal Himself fully to us, so that we can be used fully by Him and the world will believe! “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

"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. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:29-31

It is the desire of our Father to reveal Jesus within us. He has predestined us to be conformed to the very image of His Son and our Savior Jesus Christ the Lord. Our Father has not destined us to be conformed to some vague resemblance of Jesus; He has predestined us to be exactly and completely like Jesus. God has called us, He has justified us, and He has glorified us, so that we may be just like Jesus, a member of His body and flesh of His flesh. The blood of Jesus has now purged our consciences from dead works, and because of this He is able to glorify us with Himself, so that we are able to be used perfectly by God to preach the fullness of the salvation of Jesus Christ to the world! “That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us,: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are One.” John 17:21-22 Jesus prayed that He would be glorified by God so that He could glorify God, and then Jesus gave us the same glory, so that we too can glorify God! We have been empowered with the exact same Godly force as Jesus to serve God. We are one with Jesus and His glory is revealed through us as He is glorified within us!

Paul makes such a great statement of faith in Galatians 1:16, “immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood!” How many of us want to rush a new believer off to a class, or group, we don’t want them to loose the momentum! Our Father is big enough and powerful enough, and loving enough to insure that someone who has truly been chosen by Him will not loose momentum. Our Father chooses us for a reason, and He doesn’t choose those who will fall away! God is an intimate Father and He has called us and He has chosen us. Salvation isn’t a one sided thing, we don’t have it solely because we chose it; we are also chosen! “According as He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love:” Ephesians 1:4

When a child is born, who does that child spend their time with? New born’s spend time with their parents, brothers and sisters and friends come by, but new babies spend the majority of their time with their parents, and we are now born of God. We are not born of flesh and blood, we are born of the Spirit, and the Spirit is willing and able, and even demanding of our time. “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 Paul went right into an intimate relationship with our Father when he was born again, and look at the result of it, God used him to write ¾ of the New Testament. Dozens of churches were also started because of our Father using Paul throughout the entire Mediterranean Region. We are still learning from what God had Paul do thousands of years ago! “But the Anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things, and is Truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.” 1 John 2:27

Now I am not for one-second saying that churches are bad. Our Father had Paul setting them up all over the place! “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25 But, far too often we try to make new believers and older believers find out about our Father through us. God is found and learned about through the precious and glorious relationship that we enjoy with Him, One on one. God is our Father, He chose to have us, and we are born of Him, born of His Incorruptible Seed.

It was the will of the Almighty God to have us! We can tell our brothers and sisters about our Father, what He has taught us and what He has done for us, but there is no more powerful time, there is no more precious time, then when God is One on one with us, sharing His Truth and His will for our lives! Clearly you can see I believe in sharing the Word of God; He is having me post this study guide! Yet, if you learn anything from these studies of God’s Word, learn that it is God in us Who is the One thing that makes everything else come together. It is only because of our Father Anointing us with Himself that we can fellowship with each other! God is the One Who teaches us the Truth that sets us free! Our Father is the One that heals our bodies, fills us with His joy and gives us His peace that passes all understanding! It is only because of God within us that we are able to forgive one another, walk in faith, and have hope. All of these things and everything else that pertains to life and to godliness come first from us having a life that first and foremost confers not with flesh and blood, but with our Father, Who is God! We are only able to proclaim God because He has revealed Himself to us and glorified us with Himself to do so! How can man apart from God speak of Godly things?

Please pray for me, and I will pray the same for you, that all who we come in contact with will come into complete and total salvation, perfectly united with God and with each other, and that they will be full of glory, so that all of the world may believe and be saved! Jesus loves you and so do I, be blessed in the power of His might!

Saturday, January 15, 2005

We Are Justified

“Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” Romans 8:30

I think that one of the greatest Truths of God’s Word is that He has called us and that He has chosen us. Our salvation is not one sided. We didn’t just choose God; He first called and chose us! “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 of the Father in My name, He may give it you.” John 15:16 “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love:” Ephesians 1:4 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;” 1 Peter 2:9

The peace with this Truth is that our Father was and is actively involved in our salvation! If we had just chosen God on our own, there would always be doubt that we were accepted. But God first called and chose us, so there is no doubt that He wants us! In Mathew 20, Jesus likens the Kingdom of Heaven unto a landowner who went into the market place and called workers. Notice that the landowner called the workers; the workers didn’t call him! Notice the landowner went to them; they didn’t come to him! This is how Jesus likens the Kingdom of Heaven. Our Father came to us and He called us, and I don’t know about you, but that brings me great peace that we belong!

Now since God has called us, He also has justified us. But what exactly does it mean to be justified? Let’s look justified up in the dictionary and see what it actually means. Justification means to be right, to be declared guiltless, and to be just. The Greek word that we translated justified from is dikaioo, Strong’s Concordance 1344, and it means to render righteous, to show and exhibit one to be righteous, to declare and pronounce one to be just and righteous, and as we ought to be. Now with this understanding of what justified means let’s read Romans 8:30 again. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also declared guiltless and He pronounced them to be just and righteous, and who He has declared to be guiltless and pronounced just and righteous, them He also has glorified! How awesome is that?

“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.” 1 Corinthians 6:11 According to God we aren’t going to be declared guiltless, just, and righteous, we are guiltless, just and righteous. We are all of these things because of Jesus, our Lord and Savior and we don’t have to wait until Heaven to be them! Jesus has gone to the Cross and He has been raised from the dead. “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” Romans 4:25 Jesus was sacrificed for our sins. His Blood was shed, so that our sins might be covered. But praise God, He was raised from the dead so that He could declare us guiltless, just, and righteous! In the Old Testament they would sacrifice an animals blood and it would cover their sins until they committed another one. It was a vicious cycle that would have to be repeated continually! But not for us! Jesus came and was sacrificed. He shed His perfect Blood and our sins were covered and then He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. And since He was raised, we are forever declared guiltless, just, and righteous! And we are declared these things by God, the only Judge that matters, and whom Jesus has made free, are free indeed! “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:36

“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Romans 3:24 Our guiltlessness, our justification, and our righteousness is free!

“Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” Romans 5:9 Are guiltlessness, our justification, and our righteousness is now!

We have been made free by Jesus and we are free indeed. Our Father, Who is God, has called us and since He has, He will never condemn us! We have been eternally saved from His wrath! “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us.” Romans 8:33-34 The only Ones, God and Jesus, Who could ever condemn us, have now declared us to be guiltless, just, and righteous! God has elected us. He has chosen us and He has glorified us! Nothing shall ever separate us from our Father's love. No action, no one, and no thing. We didn’t just choose God, He chose us. And He chose us because He knows our hearts better than we do. We could never fool Him. He chose us because He knows us and since He has, we are eternally guiltless, just, and righteous! And since we weren’t declared these thing by our actions, we will never be condemned by our actions! There is no fear in this, because God has not chosen those who desire sin, He has chosen those who desire righteousness. God has truly examined our hearts and He knows what He is doing!

Thursday, January 13, 2005

We Are Now The Temple of God

"Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" 1 Corinthians 3:16

“When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the Temple of the Lord. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the Glory of the Lord filled His Temple.” 1 Kings 8:10-11 In the Old Testament there was a physical building known as the Temple of God, it was made of wood, stone, and precious metals. It was built to the exacting standards that our Father had prescribed and when Solomon had completed the work given to him, God filled this man made building with His Glory. The Glory of our Father was so great that the priests were unable to work because of it. Mere men were unable to work because of the Glory of our Father that was present. With that in mind remember what Jesus prayed for us to have in John 17? Remember how He prayed that we would have the exact same Glory that He has. Jesus prayed that we would have the magnificence of God, the Excellency of God, the Dignity of God, God’s preeminence, God’s grace, His majesty, and His splendor; that is His glory, dwelling within us! These are the descriptions of what filled that man made Temple and as the glory of God filled that room it completely overcame the Priests and they were unable to work.

Now here is the really cool part, man can’t work in the presence of God’s glory! “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.” Hebrews 4:10 Yet as the Temple was used by our Father, so are we! How exactly are we used? By our Father working through us! We are now strong by the Anointing of Christ that has strengthened us. Our flesh has been quickened, or made alive in Christ, and our Father is now able to do all things through us! As He is so are we in this world and through the power of Jesus we now are the vessels that are used by God to bring His glory and fruit to the world!

“That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. 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 17:21-23

Our own works, our dead works, our carnal mind, the enmity of our flesh, our sinful natures are destroyed by the Glory of God that now dwells within us! Yet we live, but it is no longer us that lives, it is God’s Anointing within us that lives, and it is now our Father working through us! The Light has driven out the darkness and God can now do all things through us by the strength of His Anointing that is upon us!

When our Father was having Paul write this, the people knew of the power of the Glory of God that once lived in that man made Temple. They knew that if a man would enter into the Holy Place without being first cleansed with blood, he would fall over dead from the power of the Glory that had filled the room. When Paul was writing that we are now the Temples of God, it meant something to these people. It meant that through Christ we are cleansed; it meant that the Blood of Jesus has been permanently applied to our lives. It meant that we are now all High Priests.

“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 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 9:13-14

The Blood of Christ has cleansed us, so that we may be filled with the Glory of God and the Glory of God dwelling within us allows us to serve Him in fullness of the Spirit! The glory of our Father now lives within us, we are united with it, covered in it, and filled with its fullness! The glory of God has stopped our work, it has purged our dead works, and praise be to God it has enabled Him to fully work through us! The Glory of our Father now does the works through us that it did through Jesus and even greater works, because Jesus has gone to be with the Father! Faith comes form us hearing this Truth, and the Truth sets us free!

There are so many needs in this world, fear, sickness, hatred, unforgiveness, lack of unity, and doubt. All of these things and so many more are needlessly being allowed to flourish. The world needs us; we need God to be Who He is within us. So many try so desperately to do what is right on our own, yet even with their best intentions they can never do it, only God can do it through us!

As I am writing this, the world is being assaulted by the hatred and bitterness of radical Muslims. They are killing and destroying so many. The anger and hatred of hundreds of years of strife are overflowing through murder and terrorism. America and Europe are spending billions of dollars and young men and woman are given their lives to try and end it. The news media is preaching hopelessness, the World is divided on the answer, and many believe there is no answer. Yet there is and it is God within us, Him doing the works; the works of love, the works of power, the works of reconciliation. Money will not solve this problem. How many billions have been spent already? Islamic faith is not the answer, look at the bitterness that it has caused, this sect of Muslims are killing that sect of Muslims, there is no unity there. Yet love, the love that God has for Jesus, the love that now abides within us can change it. The love and the glory of God that have made their home within us will change it. Through our unity with Christ, the world will believe!

How many of us where filled with hatred, anger, drugs, lust, whatever, and then Christ came to us, He called us, and then we where home, and He was at home within us. Our old self was destroyed and behold all things became new for us. The hatred and bitterness of the past was removed and replaced with the abounding hope that was shed abroad in our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit! Most of us can credit a mother, grandmother, friend, child, or spouse for praying continually for us. There is the answer, the weapon of our warfare, the Spiritual force that will bring down the stronghold, love, and we are now the home of it. The Glory of God that stopped them dead in their tracks under the Old Covenant, now empowers those of us under the New Covenant of Jesus Christ.

Jesus taught that the greatest man ever born of a woman was John the Baptist. Yet He went on to say that the least in the Kingdom of God was greater than John, Mathew 11:11. The reason Jesus said this was because John was under the Old Covenant. The Power and Glory of God had not yet come to dwell within man, but it has now, and God is now able to work through the least of us far greater than He was ever able to work with John! The Kingdom of Heaven is now! Now is the Day of our Salvation, now we are the Temple’s of God, and now the Spirit of God dwells within us! So as Jesus proclaimed, “And as ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” Matthew 10:7-8

Our Father can do all of these things through us and so much more, because greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world! “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” Ephesians 3:19-21 Our Father can stop the lies of the Muslim Clerics who preach hatred and destruction, without a shot ever being fired and without a bomb ever being dropped. He can use us to stop the lies of abortion and the deceitfulness and destruction of a homosexual lifestyle. Through prayer, by looking to Jesus to Author and Finish our faith, and by allowing the power of the love of our Father to freely and completely flow through us, we can cause the governments of the world to be glorious and honorable, workers of righteousness. Through Christ we are now a royal priesthood and a peculiar people. We are a united nation of believers, united in the Spirit, whose fruitfulness will overflow to every corner of the earth. We are the Temples of God, and His Spirit now dwells within us! Our consciousnesses of unforgiveness, of hatred, and revenge have been purged from us! We now pray for them that hate us, and we now bless them that curse us, freely we have received and freely we now give! "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." 1 Corinthians 12:27


Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Jesus Has Purged Us

“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

Jesus is now our Divine Advocate; an Advocate Who will never leave us or forsake us. An Advocate Who was willing and able to endure the Cross. An Advocate Who took on every last one of our sins and Who paid the price in full for all sin, forever destroying the wage of it for all of us who have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to accept Him as Lord! An Advocate Who ratified the New Covenant with His pure and Holy Blood.

“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

It is Jesus Who empowers us to walk in the virtues and glory of salvation. It is Jesus Who Authors our faith to live in the fullness of salvation. It is Jesus Who sheds His love abroad in our hearts. It is Jesus Who heals us and it is Jesus Who leads us and guides us in the paths of righteousness. We can do nothing without Him, and A-men, we are empowered to do everything with Him. Our Father is now strong through us by the power of Jesus’ might and we are now more than conquerors through His Anointing that loves us! And praise God for the Truth that Jesus has purged our consciences from dead works so that we might truly serve! Jesus is our refiners fire and our fullers soap that perfectly cleanses us as we are conformed into His Divine image. The Blood of Jesus has cleansed us from the old things and from all sin, and it has recreated us in His image of righteousness and true holiness! Greater is He that is within us than He that is in the world!

Have you ever heard someone say that God will not take our will from us? It’s like they believe we have this carnal nature of dead works, or this sin nature, and then we also have this Godly nature. They believe that we are doomed, while we are on this earth, to keep this old sinful thought process and on any given day we may choose to use either one. I know this sounds right, and I know that most of us feel this way, but the Bible teaches us that a divided house cannot stand. “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Mark 3:25. If we still have this good conscience and this bad conscience coexisting within us at the same time, than we are a divided house and we cannot stand, we will fall! God teaches us that if we are double minded then we will not receive anything from Him. “For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:7-8 If we have these two contrary natures within us, even though we are saved, then God’s Word has destined us to fail! Jesus did not come to cause us to fail, He came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly, John 10:10!

Our destiny on this earth as Christians is not failure; it is to be victorious through Christ Who strengthens us! Jesus taught that we are perfect in Him, so that the world will believe and be saved! The Light drives out any part of our wills that is darkness, Our Father prunes it away, and anything that hinders our deliverance is removed by the Anointing of the Holy Spirit! The Bible teaches us that the carnal mind is enmity against God and that it cannot please Him. “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Romans 8:6. The Bible teaches that we have now been given the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:16. And in Hebrews 9:14, the Word of our Father proclaims that Jesus has purged our conscience, or our sin nature of dead works, from us so that we can serve God in newness of the Spirit. Jesus has purged our will of dead works, so that our Father can work through us mightily, just as He works through Jesus mightily and that brings us life and peace! To believe that we still have our carnal will is death, because there is no fellowship between righteousness and unrighteousness, 2 Corinthians 6:14.

Once again we see that there is a need in our lives, we are to have no dead works, and we see that Jesus did something about it, He purged our thought process, our free will that was full of dead works. Find any requirement in the Bible that speaks of us living a full and complete life with God, and you’ll also find a scripture that says God is in us allowing us to do it. The carnal mind says that we are weak, but the Spiritual mind that our Father has birthed into us says that we are strong, strong through His power. The carnal mind says that our flesh is sinful, but the Spiritual mind says that we have been quickened together with Jesus by the resurrecting power of the Holy Spirit that now dwells within us! The mind that thinks on our inabilities is carnal, it doesn’t please our Father to talk about how weak we are, it pleases Him to talk and think about how strong He is within us! It pleases and glorifies God when we allow the Truth of Who He has made us, to be what is in abundance within our hearts! Our Father has given us an Anointed mind that thinks on His glorious Spiritual ways and He has given us a heart that believes the Truth on Who He has made us, which is alive in Christ!

For those who confess that God will not take our free will from us, OK, I’ll give you that, even though He has said that He will purge our conscious of dead works from us. But let me ask you this, can we give it to Him? If you still have your free carnal will that is not pleasing to God, just give Him permission to purge it out of you. We are now one with the One Who is perfect, Who is glorious, and Who is virtuous, and He gives us what we ask Him for so that our joy may be full. OUr Father's will is for us to be mature and perfect, to be healthy, to have peace, to be filled with joy, to live abundantly, in spirit, soul, and in body. His will is for us is to have the very best of Him, to be filled with all of His fullness! If you are hanging on to your old human will, a will that is filled with dead works, cast that burden on Him, allow Him to purge you, walk in the fullness of Christ, walk in power and glory of Christ, and walk in His perfect love! This is the thought process that glorifies our Father and this is the mind that He has given us! We are born of God’s Incorruptible Seed and we now only live because of the Anointing of Christ that lives within us! Our bodies of sin have been destroyed and we have been crucified with Christ. We are now new creatures in Christ who live unto God and we have been raised up together with Jesus our Lord and Savior by the power of the Holy Spirit that He has given us!

Jesus ever lives to purge us from dead works and if we have truly been empowered to say yes to Him, He will purge us from dead works! Imagine a life without any, and I mean any, dead works. Faith for this comes form hearing and hearing from the Word of God. We have Jesus within us, He is willing, and He is able to do it! Right now we need to begin to imagine our lives without any faults, lives where the Spirit leads us; lives just like Jesus. You don’t think it’s possible? Turn to 1 John 2:6 and read another requirement of us living a godly life. “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” Jesus had absolutely no dead works, and He is the only One that can fully purge them completely from us! We are one with Him, we are one with Him this day. Faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the substance of things not seen. The Holy Spirit within us allows us to abound in hope for such a life!