GOD'S WORD TO ME--Declare These Things

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GOD'S WORD TO ME:  "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works.  Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority.  Let no one disregard you."  (Titus 2: 11-15)

This is the call of every believer, but God is calling me specifically to this lifestyle.  He calls me to not only be self-controlled, upright and godly in these days, but He has also called me to be a voice that renounces ungodliness and worldly lusts.  It is wonderful truth that the Lord has redeemed us, but now He wants to purify us and re-create our hearts to be without spot or wrinkle. Once we have been redeemed, and are in the process of being purified into His Holy Bride, it is then that we will become a people who are ZEALOUS for good works.  Rev.  19:9 tells us that these good works are the very clothing that we will wear when we marry the Bridegroom.  I want to make sure that I am properly dressed for that ceremony in Heaven!  

Lord Jesus, show me every day who of Your flock I am to declare these things to.  Let me exhort and rebuke any that You are drawing to Yourself.  Without fear, let me proclaim to them the good news with all authority, in such a way that none will disregard me.  By Your power and for Your glory, Amen!

Jesus, Light of the World (12-2-2012)

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Isaiah 9: 6-7

"Today, in the Word, we see that Jesus is to be our burden bearer.  All too often we are walking under the heavy burden that is called 'self rule.'  We wrongly operate under the impression that we are to rule our lives.  But Jesus is the King and the Governor, or at least He is supposed to be.  We tend to wear heavy yokes as we try to walk out holiness, and we all too frequently collapse under the weight of it.  You see, the 'government' of our entire lives, yes EVERYTHING, is a yoke that is not fitted for our shoulders, but for the shoulders of Christ.  It is a yoke perfectly designed for Christ.

And the government (the rule of my life and yours) shall be upon His shoulders (not mine or yours) . . .

In order for us to experience an increase in peace, we must first lay our heavy and burdensome yokes down, in humble submission to His rule and authority in our lives.  With Jesus, there is no end to the governments (yokes) that He can wear and bear, for on Him is the government of every believer who chooses to take his yoke off.  Jesus is the only one who has no problem carrying the rule our lives.

When we give up the authority and 'right' to run our own lives, Jesus come and sets up His kingdom in us, and He becomes our King and Ruler.  Then He is responsible to uphold this new kingdom.  Righteousness becomes our way of life because of His rule in our lives.  And He will rule it forevermore.  For all eternity!  When Jesus bears our yoke, we need do nothing more than follow His lead.

When we come to this crossroads in our walk in His Light, we are blessed to experience the nature of Christ, the Light, in many new ways.  He becomes our Wonderful Counselor who gives us clear direction in our lives.  We see Him more often as the Mighty God, the One who can accomplish the impossible.  We know our God-family through Him as we sense the all-consuming love of our Everlasting Father, both now and with foreknowledge of the love we will enjoy in Heaven forever.  Can we continue another day, taking control of the life that was meant to be left in the hands of God?

Yes, Jesus is the Light, the Light of all men.  The prophets told us who He was and that He was coming.  Jesus, Himself, said that He was the Light of the world.  Who, then, are we to think we should be the god of our own lives, in light of who He is?  The question still remains:  Will we take a step deep with the One we call the Light?  If we do, we will find real peace this Christmastime.  But remember, peace is not a feeling inside us.  Peace is a Person, the Prince of Peace!  Seek Him, not it!"

Reaping What You Sow

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 10)

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap."  (Galatians 6:7)

"Do you see what your response is to be [to the enemy's deception and lies about the seriousness of our sin]?  God is calling you to surrender your sins and turn from them.  You are not to be deceived by the lies of the devil.  If you continue to make  excuses for not surrendering and repenting, God will eventually say to you, 'I will not be mocked!'  When you choose to sow for yourselves the seeds of denial of your sin and its corrupt influence, you will reap a bitter fruit of defeat.  But if you sow for yourself the seeds of repentance and surrender, from a heart that is broken and contrite, you will necessarily produce a different kind of fruit.  That fruit is victory over your sin and a powerful life in the Spirit that you will never know unless you turn from your sin and allow Him full control of your life.  Victory and power lie just around the corner for the one who will lay down the boastful pride of life for the purpose of surrendering to God's authority.  Persevering victory and power are the gifts of God for the truly broken-hearted, surrendered servant of the the Lord."

Are you interested in gaining victory over your sin?  Do you want to see what God can do through you?  Then God asks only one thing of you:  Remove all excuse to sin and replace it with real, heart-wrenching repentance and surrender to Him!  This response to your sin moves the heart of God.  In this, He will never feel that you are mocking Him!

Beginning next week (I am on retreat this weekend with my Women's Group) I will begin to explain to you what happens to the Holy Spirit when He enters us the moment we are saved, and what will be required of us in order for His power to be released out of us.  I will be using an Artesian Well to describe it to you.  The correlation is incredible!  You won't want to miss it!

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 16

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Day 16:  The Thankful Leper (Luke 17: 11-19)

Again we find Jesus in today’s passage on His way to Jerusalem, to the cross on which He would die to bring salvation to the world.  His path led Him through the middle of Samaria on the north, and into Galilee.  Upon entering a village along the way, a group of men stood off in the distance, hoping to meet Jesus.  Seizing the opportunity at hand, the ten men went out to the One they had heard so much about.  By this time, Jesus had healed many people.  Word of these healings had surely reached their village.

“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” they cried out, desperate to be heard over the crowd that was surrounding Him.  These ten men had been afflicted with the awful disease of leprosy, and they knew He had an authority like no one else they had ever seen.

Jesus’ attention turned to the lepers.  “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”  His answer was simple, yet it begged the next question.  Why did they need to go and show their leprosy to the priests?  It had been required of them when they first contracted it. Why show the priests now?  Jesus mused, knowing their thoughts, and knowing as well that their healing was on the way!  He had sent them to show the priests that their leprosy was healed.  In just a moment it would be GONE!

Deciding that it was best to obey the Master’s words, the ten men took off to show the priests, even though it seemed to make no sense.  On the way to the temple their “mercy” came.  All ten of them were healed of their despised condition.  What had made no sense before made perfect sense now.  Their meeting with the priests would render them all clean.  Nine continued on to the temple to fulfill the Jewish law, but one of them made a clear transition from the Law to the Grace of Jesus Christ.

As fast as his feet would carry him, he turned back to Jesus.  Glorifying God loudly, he fell at the feet of Jesus and worshipped Him, giving Him thanks for the awesome miracle that had taken place in his life.  On that day ten received cleansing, but only one received the greater healing—he was saved.  His faith had made his HEART well.  How’s your heart?

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 14

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Day 14:  The Remarkable Faith of a Centurion (Luke 7: 1-10)

The heart of the centurion was breaking.  How faithfully his slave had served him.  Never once had his servant disrespected him.  If the truth were known, the centurion loved him like a son.  Truly, he would never again have a servant as lovingly obedient as this one, and now his life was in grave danger.  His body lay motionless, and he was tormented by his paralysis.  “Oh, please spare him,” the centurion cried out as his tears fell silently to the floor.

Not many days later, the centurion, a Roman military man, heard about Jesus.  No one seemed to know how He healed people, only that He had some supernatural authority over diseases and even death.  So he sent some Jewish elders to find this Jesus, the ones he had befriended when he built them a synagogue.  He stayed behind to care for his servant.  Besides, he couldn’t bring ­­this Jewish man to Jesus because he was a Gentile.  He felt completely unworthy to come to Him.

The Jewish elders who had great respect for the centurion sought to find Jesus.  When they found Him, they pleaded with Him earnestly to come with them to heal their friend’s slave.

Jesus obliged and started out with them, but when they were very close to his house, they were stopped by some other friends of the centurion.

Jesus was surprised, and He marveled at the message sent by the centurion.   This man was completely humbled in his words, even though he was a man with great authority.  This kind of humility was refreshing to Jesus!  This Gentile centurion seemed to know that only a word spoken by Jesus would have the same authority to heal his servant as Jesus coming in person.  Amazing!  These comments revealed not only his great wisdom, but his great faith as well.  As a result of such faith, the centurion’s servant was completely healed in that very moment.

Do you believe that Jesus has been given all authority over heaven and earth?  If you do, does He have all authority over you?  Can you call Him your LORD if He doesn’t?  Does His Word have power over you and your life?  Do you obey His commands found in the Word?