No Longer a Sinner - Not Limiting God

God provides us with the desire and the will to bring Him pleasure (Philippians 2:13). He also gives us His Spirit to teach us all things that we need to know for a successful life of Godliness (1 Corinthians 2:12; 2 Peter 1:3).

Without the presence of Christ dwelling within us, we cannot walk in victory over sin, sickness and death. We wallow in our humanity, and limit our spiritual maturity by our lack of comprehension of God's ways.

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). This is as true as the fact that airplanes can overcome the law of gravity and fly suspended in the air.

When Christ moves into our life by His Holy Spirit, changes begin. He sweeps our spirit free of sin and starts His sanctifying work in our soul, as well as maturity in our spirit.

He exchanges our sin for His righteousness and He replaces our carnality with the fruit of His Spirit. He gives us His gifts to allow us to function in His Body for the growth of the Kingdom of God.

When the love we feel for our fellow mankind springs from our love for God and His affection for us, it is more committed, merciful, gracious, empathetic and unconditional.

The deepest aspect of our relationship with God is when we come to intimately know Him as the one true Father of compassion, the God of all comfort. We fall on our face and worship Him from the depths of our heart.

God calls for us to realize that, moment by moment throughout the day, He wants to live His life through Christ in us and to accomplish greater works on this earth for His glory (2 Corinthians 1:3; John 17:3).

Prayer:

Father God, we want to daily contemplate Your goodness, majesty, power, mercy, love, wisdom, justice and sovereignty. You call us to walk in a different dimension than unsaved humanity. Remind us to keep our values and purpose centered on Your Kingdom.

You supply us with the spiritual resources to perform supernatural feats as we interact in our daily activities with family, church, work and community. You made Jesus the first fruit of Your Sons, and all of creation is eagerly waiting for our final manifestation (Romans 8:19).

Thought for the Day:

When we surrender our life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ we enter the realm of abundant life, which He promises.

- John 10:10

The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus

As humans, we have a big problem. We do not practice the activities and habits, which we know is best for us, but we do the very thing we despise doing (Romans 7:15-16). We know better, but we do it anyway. We have a loving heart and good intentions, but we end up disappointing our self, our loved ones and our Father God. This occurs, because we are all born with a penchant to sin. These fleshly desires drive our behavior and we talk our self into sinning (Romans 7:17-21).

Sin simply exploits our weak will and carnality. Sin is sly, appealing and convincing. It gets us into all sorts of trouble because we are too weak to resist it. We are sin’s hopeless slaves (Romans 6:20; 8:1). Eventually, we come to the realization that we are wretched, we recognize our helplessness, and we realize that we need a Savior to free us from sin’s grip and to pay its penalty for us (Romans 6:12-13, 7:24-25). Jesus came to the rescue and both justifies and sanctifies us (1 Corinthians 6:11).

The good news is that we are not the sin we commit. We end up hating our sin, which drives us to the cross of Christ. He removes all condemnation for past sins. He regenerates our spirit, and sets us free from the Law of Sin and Death by the Law of the Spirit of Life found only in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1-8). Satan’s battle for our mind and body is also defeated by Calvary’s sacrifice. We no longer live a lifestyle of sin, because Christ dwells in us (1 John 3:8-10).

Our forgiveness and holiness come when we rely totally on the Lord Jesus Christ. It does not depend on our works. We accept Christ by faith, and we live by faith, not by our self-righteousness (Titus 3:5-7; 2 Corinthians 5:7). We do only those works, which He created for us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 2:8-10). God works in us and through us, and He receives all of the glory for our accomplishments (Philippians 2:12-13). Our life in Christ is full or righteousness, peace and joy (Romans 14:17).

Prayer:

Father God, we thank you for sending Jesus to pay our sin debt for us. He control’s sin’s power over us as we wait on Him (Psalm 27:14). We know that You always give us a way to avoid the temptation to sin (1 Corinthians 10:13). Thank You for giving us the blessings of eternal life both on this earth and for all of eternity (John 17:3). We vow to walk in Your righteousness by walking in the Spirit from now on and no longer gratifying the deeds of the flesh (Galatians 5:16, 25).            

Thought for the Day:

When we come to Christ though salvation, we are joined with Him in one Spirit. - 1 Corinthians 6:17

 

Freedom from the Law

 

The law is necessary to bring us to the realization that we can never keep it; therefore, we need our Savior, Jesus Christ. As long as we insist on working FOR God, we are like the foolish Galatians (3:1-3). We attempt to please God in our own strength and effort. But our best efforts are only filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). We cannot earn God’s favor by our works (Ephesians 2:8-10).

We come to realize, that as Born Again Believers we are no longer separated from God, but we are one with both the Father and the Son (John 17:11, 21-23). We live and move and have our being only in Him and not in people, places or things. We no longer chase after our way of life or pursue our goals, ambitions and desires. We live only for Christ, just as He lived only for our Father.

We are hidden, in union with Christ in God. Christ is our only way, truth and life (Colossians 3:3-4; John 14:6). God and Christ have a divergence in manifestation, with Christ being Emmanuel, the physical form of Father God. They are also different in person, with God as the Father and Jesus as the Son. However, Jesus states that they are united as one. Then He goes one step further and prays for us to be one in them as well.

Christ, who dwells in us by His Spirit, actually does unite us with them as one (John 17:11, 21-23). Our old, fleshly human nature is dead and buried (Colossians 1:10-12). Now, everything about us is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). When our old nature, our flesh manifests itself in us this is simply a demonstration of Satan’s pitiful effort to pull us back under his dominion.

However, Christ in us is greater than Satan who rules in this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). When we stand firm in the power of Christ’s might (Ephesians 6:10), we withstand the devil and his demons, and he no longer blinds our eyes to God’s truth. We are no longer slaves to sin or under the law of sin and death. We are set free by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2).

Prayer:

Father God, We totally surrender our self to You. When we abide in You, You abide in us (John 15:4), and the stronger our faith in His faithfulness grows. Give us a continued desire for You and an ever increasing hunger to feast on Your Word. When Jesus gave His life on the cross, He took our sin and nailed it to the cross, giving us His righteousness in exchange (2 Corinthians 5:21). Your raised us to walk in a new life, as an expression of Christ in the earth.

Thought for the Day:
God calls us to do greater works than Jesus did, because His Spirit abides within each one of us. - John 14:12

 

 

Surprise Revelation

In writing to the Romans, Paul laments over his unsuccessful attempts to overcome the flesh in his own strength and to put on the mind of Christ. He realized the wretchedness of his humanity. He struggled with our need to be holy, and his inability to reach this level of consecration (Romans 7:19-24). Then, God surprised Paul with a revelation (Romans 7:25). He was thrilled to realize that we do not have to suffer under the weight of condemnation any longer, because Christ already set us all free from the law of sin and death on Calvary’s Cross (Romans 8:1-2). 

As authentic Christians we now live by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2). Our transformation rests firmly on the rock of the gospel of Christ (Romans 12:2; Psalm 18:2). We live by His faith in love, filled with the fruit of, and following the leading of God’s Spirit on a moment-by-moment basis (Galatians 5:1; 5:22-23; Ephesians 5:18). We no longer strive to earn God’s love or to live a holy life. We simply walk in obedience. We live on earth to glorify our Father, not by our own efforts, but only by the power of Christ within us.

Jesus loves us so much, that for our benefit he gave Himself up to the horrific death on Calvary’s cross. Through His sacrifice, we are now acceptable to God in Christ (1 Peter 2:5; Romans 15:7). We have been crucified with Christ. Therefore, it is no longer we who live our life, but Christ, the Messiah, who lives in us. The life that we now live in our body on this earth, we live by faith in, devotion to, dependence on and complete confidence in the Son of God (Galatians 2:20, Amplified Bible).

Jesus is our only hope of experiencing God’s glory (Colossians 1:27). We could never be good enough in our human effort to earn a place in Heaven (Ephesians 2:8-10). Jesus gave up His glory in Heaven to take the form of a man, and He humbled Himself and willingly died in our place (Philippians 2:8).  Now, we can put on the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5). We renew our mind by reading God’s Word, and we walk in the Spirit. Therefore, we will no longer succumb to the negative suggestions of our carnal nature (Romans 12:2; Galatians 5:16).

We completely surrender our will to God’s will for our life and we live in perfect union with Christ. Our old sinful nature is crucified with Christ, and sin has no more power over our choices. Just as the Son could do nothing of Himself, we too are nothing without Christ in us. The only effort we need to make in order to walk in the reality of this victory is to totally surrendering control of our life to God. In doing this, we successfully enter His rest (Hebrews 4:3).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, our Father exalted You with a name above all other names. One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that You, Jesus Christ, are Lord (Philippians 2:9-10). We were buried with You through baptism into Your death.  In the same way in which You were raised from the dead through the glory of our Father, we too are raised to live a new life through You. We are no longer slaves to sin, because You set us free from sin’s power when we died with You on Calvary’s cross (Romans 6:4-7).

Thought for the Day:

Just as God the Father, Son and Spirit are united as one, Jesus died so we can share in this same unity of oneness with our triune God. - 1 Corinthians 6:17

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emotional Freedom

Read: Isaiah 53:4-5

“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.” - Colossians 3:15

An attitude of gratitude ensures our success in overcoming negative thoughts and in renewing our mind. Somebody said, "There are only two kinds of people in the world: there are those who wake up cheerfully in the morning and say, ‘Good morning, Lord,’ Then there are those who wake up depressed in the morning and say, ‘Good Lord, it's morning.’" If you sound like the second person, then surrendering your life to God will bring you to a place of healing.

We overcome Satan through our Salvation in Christ first, and then by our testimony about what He does in our lives (Revelation 12:11). Once we are firmly adopted into God’s family, His Spirit starts to replace our negative attitudes with positive ones (Galatians 5:22-23). The first place to begin cleansing our soul and renewing our spirit is in the area of bitterness and unforgiveness. Negative attitudes reflect a wounded soul. Forgiveness helps us to move on toward emotional freedom.

Bitterness rises from woundedness deep within our soul, and can be rooted years back into our past. Pride is one lie that guards the secrets of our past. We do not want to admit to ourself, nor to anyone else, the things that others did to us. We block these memories from our conscious mind, and we put a wall of pride and sometimes anger all around them. We falsely believe that these strong, negative emotions will protect us from any past, present and future hurt. What these negative emotions actually do, however, is to block our soul from receiving the fullness of the love that God has for us.

We do not need anger and pride to protect us when we have Jesus, the King of kings, as our mighty stronghold and fortress. As we put our trust in Christ we live in abiding peace and joy - not only in our spirit, but deep within our soul as well. If you do not have this peace, then Satan has deceived you with his lies (Isaiah 26:3; Isaiah 30:15). I like to use this exercise to dispell stress: I take a deep breath into my lungs and think the word “Jesus” as I breathe in. Then I think the word “stress” as I breathe out. I visualize God’s peace filling me with every deep inhale as stress leaves my body with every deep exhale.

When we have the King of kings hovering over us and sheltering us under His wings, we can forgive past hurts, and put future hurts into proper perspective. We can look for the seed of a miracle in every negative circumstance, because God promises to work all things, even the bad things, out for our good (Romans 8:28).

If we do not forgive, then God cannot forgive us (Matthew 6:15). Until we forgive our self and others, Satan gains the advantage over us. If we refuse to forgive, we give him permission to control that part of our soul, and to inflict his demons on our body and spirit as well. He holds us captive and the fruit of the Holy Spirit cannot manifest in that area of our soul (2 Corinthians 2:10-11; Hebrews 12:16).

Once we find God’s forgiveness for our self and for those who hurt us, then we receive healing from the lies Satan planted in those wounds. We live in freedom from the affects of his lies and we walk in God’s truth throughout our life. Satan wants us to live in bondage to the Law of Sin and death, but Christ already freed us by the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus (Romans 7:22-8:3).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, give me the courage to face the past and the future by focusing on You now in the present moment. Help me to remember that You will complete the work You started in my life (Philippians 1:6). Fill me with Your Spirit and renew my soul day by day until You conform me into Your image. Allow me to set the captives free and to heal the broken hearted who suffered as I did at the hand of unregenerate people.

Thought for the Day:

The Lord is always voting for you…and the devil is always voting against you. It's up to you to break the tie!

 

 

 

 Thank you, Sarah Patterson, for the use of your photo.

 

 

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