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Living in the Fullness of Jesus Christ

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The living water, which is Jesus Christ, is within us when we receive Our Lord as Our Savior.  The living water is ever present.  It is never removed.  It is always available to us and to those around us.  The only restrictor of the living water is our own faith.

When we have no faith in the indwelling power of Our Lord, we build a dam from which no living water can flow.  With little faith, we restrict the level of the flow.  With great faith, we release an unlimited torrent of absolute power into our lives and into the lives of those who surround us. 

Doubt should never be an option for a believer under any circumstances.  Jesus loved us so much that He was willing to die for us.  How could we ever doubt His presence and His power in our lives?  How could we ever fear with the King of Kings as our protector?  We should live in the triumphant belief of who He is.  Our faith must be, not in ourselves nor in the world, but in the One from Whom our salvation springs.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us the Cornerstone of our faith, Your Son, Jesus Christ.  With His death on the Cross, we received victory over all evil.  We bless the name of Our Savior who made it possible for us to live our lives without fear.  May we live by the faith that we have been given.  We pray, Lord, that You will give us the wisdom and the strength to fasten ourselves upon Jesus Himself.  May we learn to live in the fullness of the One who dwells within us.

Walking in the Light

John 14:20
In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

As new men and women in Christ, we are identified by our obedience to God’s commandments and the fruit that we bear from His callings.  Our lives become expressions of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that have been given to us – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  In everything we do, we share the perfect love and forgiveness that we received from the Father with the world around us.  We please the Father by bringing honor and glory to His name, the name of His Son, Jesus and to the Holy Spirit.

And we know with absolute certainty, that there is no possibility that our lives are the result of our inherent holiness.  All that we see that is good that is being manifested in our lives is being worked out through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.  The indwelling of Our Savior is the foundation of our lives and our reasoning.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son Jesus to be Our Savior.  We rejoice in our new lives that we take on when we receive and accept the redemptive work of the Cross.  We pray, Father, that we be emancipated completely from the darkness in our old lives.  May we walk in the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.    


The Faith of Abraham

Genesis 22:2
He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

We are going to experience trials in our lives.  This is as certain in our lives as death and taxes.   Some of the trials will be small and some will be so big that we will nearly faint.  In each case, no matter the weightiness, the real test will be the test of our faith. 

Who of us could have answered God’s request to sacrifice a child like Abraham did?  It was his faith that allowed him to go.  Notice what Abraham said to the men who was with him before he headed up the mountain to the place of sacrifice.  “I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”  Abraham was resting on God’s promise to make him the head of many nations.  Abraham knew that this was only possible through his son.  Abraham had the faith that in some manner God would provide a way through this test.

Trials and tests are God’s way of drawing us close to Him and teaching us His ways.  It is through the trials and tests that our faith is built up so that we can become the person that God has intended for us to be.  God may not have created us to be a leader of a nation like Abraham, but He does have a specific plan for our lives.  We can only fulfill this plan by putting all of our faith in the One in whose hands we rest. 

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for each trial that You allow in our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that we are resting in Your hands as we go through each of these challenges to our faith.  We ask, Lord, that we will have the faith of Abraham.  We pray that we will not turn away from any test that you set before us.  May our character and our faith be built up in accordance with Your perfect plans for our lives. 

Coming Out of the Thicket

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.

When we are in full submission to Jesus Christ, we have prepared ourselves to allow the bountiful power of the Holy Spirit to be released through us to the world around us.  At this juncture, we are capable of doing all that God has created and willed for our lives.

Even when it seems to us that our lives are a tangled mess, there is always the wonderful hope in the promises of Almighty God.  Through His grace and His mercy we will come through the thicket that we see ourselves caught in.  We will find our comfort and our strength by listening for and responding to the urgings of the Holy Spirit.  If we are diligent in listening and responding to the Holy Spirit, our paths will be productive and our fruit will be plentiful.

We have to learn that God is using us from His personal standpoint.  All that He asks is that we trust in Him, 

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the free grace and mercy that our hopes are based on.  We praise the name of Jesus, who is the fountain of all the good that we have hope for.  Father, we pray for the strength to overcome our doubtful minds that make us halting in our duties.  May You grant us the unwavering faith that we need to set aside our own self-reliance and to learn to trust in Your promises.  May we be comforted in our hearts as we await all the good things that You have already set aside for us and our loved ones.

The Extraordinary Work of God in Our Ordinary Lives

1 Corinthians 12:6
There are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

When we try to teach, preach or evangelize by our own strength and capability, we will be unsuccessful.  The power is not in us.  The power is in the Holy Spirit that is within us.  We must let the Holy Spirit lead us and let the outpouring of the Holy Spirit be our product.

It is not our job to convert people.  It is our job to have people drawn to us by the way that we live our lives in Jesus Christ.  Even though our labors may be ordinary, if they are done as works of faith, labors of love and with persistent hope in Our Savior, the Holy Spirit will carry on and complete the work of Our Heavenly Father in His children.  

Once drawn to us by our walk with Jesus, the people around us will have Jesus revealed to them as the way, the truth and the life. Through our living testimonies, those around us will be able to receive every good and perfect gift of The Father.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing Yourself through all Your works in nature throughout the universe, including Your humble servants who are so undeserving.  We thank You, Lord, for assigning to us various gifts, administrations and operations for us to carry out in the name of Jesus.  We rejoice, Father, in knowing that the world can learn of Your good and perfect gifts by observing the lives of those who have already accepted Your gift of salvation and are obedient to You in the ordinary things of life.  We pray, Lord, that Your grace will fill our hearts so that the world will know You.

Repositories of His Gifts

2 Corinthians 4:7
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

We are vessels of the living water that dwells within us.  We are not the the stream or the rain shower that brings the precious water.  We are only the collecting places where the thirsty can come to be quenched.

We are the lanterns of the Light of the World.  We are not the sun or the moon that brings the precious light.  We are only the beacons that allow the light to shine into the darkness of the world around us.

We are the temples of Jesus Christ.  We produce nothing on our own, but we are the repositories of the gifts of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

We are conduits of the perfect love and forgiveness of Our Heavenly Father.  Nothing that flows from us is of ourselves.  It is all the perfection of Jesus Christ within us.  God could have chosen angels to deliver His message, but He chose weaker vessels so that His power might be glorified and His treasures might be shared with all men.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for choosing us to deliver Your treasures to the world.  We rejoice in knowing that You have pulled us from the pit, cleansed us with the blood of Your Son, Jesus, and made us worthy to be lamps upon a hill.  We pray, Lord, that You will reveal to us everything in our lives that hinders the flow of Your gifts.  May we live in the fullness of Our Savior.  May all the glory be Yours.


We Are All Intercessors

1 Thessalonians 5:24
He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

New government authority, new boss, new co-worker, new neighbor, new acquaintance, new friend – not a single one is new by chance.  God has placed each of those that are around us to teach us new things about ourselves.  It seems impossible that such a plan could be put in place for each of us.  But our God is a God of the impossible.  He has no limits to His power and His authority.  He loves us so much that He goes to an extraordinary, nearly unimaginable, level to insure that we are surrounded by a host of intercessors.  These intercessors in our lives are placed there for one reason.  God in His mercy and His grace wants to insure that we are properly prepared to spend eternity with Him.

In the life of the believer, there is no such thing as chance.  Our sovereign God is always in total control of everything.  Do not miss the flip side of our relationships with our surrounding intercessors.  We are simultaneously the other half of all of these relationships in our lives – the new boss, new co-worker, new neighbor, new acquaintance, new friend – and again, not a single one is new by chance.  God has purposely placed us in each relationship to be a giver as well as a receiver of His intercessory work in our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your providence in our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that You understand our weaknesses and provide intercessory support through those that You place around us.  We pray, Father, that Your Holy Spirit will alert us to the intercession that You have planned for us.  May we learn to grow through the circumstances that engulf us from time to time.  We pray that You will provide the wisdom that we need to be fruitful intercessors for others as we engage them in the journey that is life.









It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than That

Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

It is likely that at one time or another that you have heard someone say, “I am not worried.  Everything always works out for the best.”  Of course, what you probably did not know when the person made the statement was whether that person had made the statement from a spiritual or worldly perspective.  Were they counting on continued good fortune because they trusted in the God that they loved to stand up to His promises or were they just feeling lucky? 

Through the grace of God, the followers of Jesus Christ do not have to wonder or worry about whether good things are coming their way.  We have been promised by Almighty God that if we love Him and follow the calling that He has placed on our lives that all things will work for together for good in our lives.   

Does this mean that we will always live in riches?  Does this mean that we will always live without illness?  Does this mean that we will live trouble free lives?  No it does not.  What it does mean is that we will be broken from sin, we will be drawn closer and closer to Our Savior and in the end we will be made fit for our eternal place in heaven.  Now it just doesn’t get any better than that.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for drawing us unto Yourself.  We exalt Your name for the perfect love and forgiveness that we receive through Your grace and Your mercy.  We thank You for the eternal blessings that are ours through the redemptive work of Your Son, Our Savior, Jesus Christ.  We pray that the world may know Your Son because we boldly proclaim the name of the One who brings us our eternal riches.

Transformation Through Trial

1 Peter 4:13
But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

If we are to be used by God, He will allow us to go through a multitude of experiences that are meant to transform us into instruments of His good work.  Some of the experiences will be easy, but some of the experiences will certainly be difficult.  All will be meticulously worked into the fabric of our lives with the final product in mind.

We need to understand that the sufferings that we go through are not those of ordinary men and women.  We are being prepared for greater things to come.  While we view our lives in the fabric of time, God views our lives in the fabric of eternity.  While all we see is the weaving of one single thread at a time, God sees the final finished product all woven together in accordance with His will and plan for our lives.

Because God is who He is, the final product will be much more beautiful and useful than anything that we could ever even imagine or hope for.  We will realize it when the whole is complete and we stand before the Father in glory.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to experience life through many different trials.  We rejoice in knowing that when we are struggling in the tribulations that the world brings to our door that Your Holy Spirit is always there strengthening us and guiding us to the next experience that You have set aside for us.  Father, we pray for the patient perseverance to endure through all that You have prepared for us.  May we be transformed according to Your will and plan for our lives.

Dwelling in the Shadow of Almighty God

James 4:7
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Man without Jesus Christ is not capable of standing against the powers that seek to devour and destroy him.  In the darkness of the flesh, we are unable to see that we are being lead into lives that will never be totally satisfying.  We cannot see that our lives are much less than they could be, much less than they should be.

But when the light of Jesus Christ comes into our lives, we see how life can be, how life should be, how our lives are renewed in the spirit of Our Savior.  We come to recognize that the renewal of our minds and our spirits is only available to us through our submission to Our Savior.  We come to discover that the dominating power of the world, our flesh and Satan himself are defeated through the victory that Jesus Christ won for us on the Cross. 

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to come to You to gain the armor that we need to defend ourselves from the enemy who comes to defeat us.  We thank You for the weapon of prayer, the sword of Your Holy Word and the shield of faith.  We rejoice in knowing that the victory is ours because Your Son, Jesus, claimed it for us forever when He died on the Cross for our sins.  We humbly come before You, Lord, to proclaim that we are laying aside our own strength so that we may dwell in the protection of Your shadow.