Know what is yours in Christ & by faith put it to use

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” Ephesians 1:3

If we are IN CHRIST, then what keeps us from exercising and enjoying our spiritual blessings that we get the moment we believe?

The language of this portion of this long sentence (v3-14 is one long sentence) indicates that we are to bless God and that everything we need to live spiritually was provided for us as part of God’s plan and creation.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas Seminary Faculty points out that “Since these benefits have already been bestowed on believers, they should not ask for them but rather appropriate them by faith. Similarly Joshua was not to ask for land since God had already promised it to him (Josh. 1:3-4). But he was to enter into the enjoyment of that provision.”

Charles Stanley said about this, “unfortunately we, like the Ephesians, sometimes live as spiritual paupers because we focus on the mechanics of Christianity instead of a relationship with the Lord”.

Walking with God is about relationship, the relationship you entered the moment you believed in Jesus and He forgave your sin and gave you a new life as a child of God. As a Believer, a Christ Follower, you were adopted as a child of God with all rights of a family member (John 1:12, Eph. 1:11). Jesus is your Savior, your Lord and friend (John 15:15) and “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” 2 Peter 1:3

It is up to you to learn to use or exercise your gifts, blessing and rights. Learn, not by trying or doing things, but learn truth so you can by faith trust and BE. Be who and what you are in Christ. Believe you are what God says you are and that you have what He says you have; then trust Him enough to obey and let Him work in and through you.

All this takes time, time with God in prayer and Bible study to get to know Him better so that you can trust and love God. Then you can learn to allow God to use you and work through you. Like a perfect little baby that is born with all that he needs to one day run a race, you have to learn who and what you are as that new creation, and grow. First it may be learning to roll over, to crawl, to stand, to take a step or two, then to walk and then to run. After that it takes continual training to run faster and farther and build endurance. Your strength to run comes from the food you eat for energy; first the breast, then soft food and one day solid meat. The child gets his strength from outside himself just as we rely on our strength that comes provided by God and not self effort. It is God at work in you (Phil. 2:13) both to will and to do.

Apply yourself, train and trust and obey so that you can live a life of freedom from the position of victory and so that you can as walk in His power, will and love as “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:10”.

Cooperate with God in what He wants to do with you and through you. All your spiritual blessings are secured in Heaven by God and are yours because of what Jesus did for you. It isn’t you or your doing that allows you to see God use you, but by faith obeying God and claiming that which is already yours in Christ!

No need to find goats to kill...

Why do we want to keep killing the goat?
In Leviticus 16, Aaron, the high priest, had to make sacrifice for his own sin before he could offer a sacrifice for the people and every year on the Day of Atonement it had to be done over every year. “Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins;…”v21

Jesus being both man and God and living a perfect life was able to offer himself once and for all as the perfect sacrifice. He had no sin of His own to pay for, but God “made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21and His death was one time for all. Those who believe in Him receive the pardon He purchased when He died on that cross; then He rose from the grave in victory over sin and death for us too.

“For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” Romans 6:10 (NASB)
“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;” 1 Peter 3:18 (NASB)

No more works are necessary to pay for sin! There is no need for you and I to keep trying to make up for, do penance or in any way atone for our own sin. We do not have to deal with the penalty of sin because Jesus took care of it perfectly! We do live in a sinful world and in a body that has a sin nature, our flesh, so we do need to deal with what the Bible calls our Sanctification; our day to day being conformed to the image of Jesus.

Just as we were saved by GRACE, we need to live moment by moment by Grace too! We are alive spiritually as a new creation in Christ but we can choose to live by sight and in the flesh rather than by faith. When we do, we are as useless spiritually as a light touch on a green broke horse. Just as he has to learn what you want in order to respond to soft subtle cues, we have to study the Word and spend time with God growing so we can listen to that “still small voice” and so that we will have a habit of obedience.

Don’t spend time trying to overcome sins, but instead accept the finished work of Jesus on the cross as being complete and resist temptation with the Word and with the knowledge you are righteous in Christ. If you do choose to sin, then right away confess it and begin to get back to living as the forgiven child of the most high God that you are! We have victory in Christ and we need to act like it. The more you understand that the victory is yours already because of what Jesus did, the easier it becomes. Too often we are fooled by our flesh into looking at sin rather than our Savior.

If I sin it can break my fellowship with God, but it has no effect on what Jesus did and my relationship by grace through faith that I have being in Christ; THAT is based on what He did and the grace of God.

“so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” Hebrews 9:28

As one who has a certain future and hope based on Jesus’ work and not mine, I can live eager, never fearful to see Him return. I can be thankful and not fret and my thankful heart will lead me to love and obey.

The “goat is dead” and the perfect sacrifice is made. Believe and live by faith. Faith will produce works and they will be the works that Jesus has for you to do and wants to do through you. (Eph. 2:8-10, 2 Cor.5:17) Be the new creation you are in Christ!

Jesus is of infinite importance!

"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important." ~ C. S. Lewis

"He who believes in Him (Jesus) is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 3:18 (NASB)

What you do with Jesus is the most important decision you will ever make!
God provided the way out of judgment and the way to eternal life with Him.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16 (NASB)

This is the reason He came to earth... because He loves YOU.

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him." John 3:17 (NASB)

Jesus came and provided the only way to come into a relationship with God.
What decision will you make?
If you say you are His then love and obey Him and walk in what He has for you!

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-10 (NASB)

If you are not obeying God, check and see if there is a relationship! If there is NOT a relationship then place your faith and trust in Jesus and let Him give you a new life. If there is, then work on it, let your love grow and keep away from sin. Spend time praying and reading your Bible and growing spiritually. Relationships take time spent with each other and if you love Jesus, you will get to know His will and want to obey it.

"If you love Me (Jesus), you will keep My commandments." John 14:15 (NASB)

If you want to be in control of your life instead of God that is not loving Him, it is not obedience and it is time to change your mind and believe in Jesus; either for the first time or to get right with God; repent and begin to be who you really are in Christ.

 

Need protecting from Bible truths?

Have you ever felt you needed protection from the Bible and from Christian values?

Seems many in today’s society feel that they need protection from what God says. They try to drown it out or make it illegal in public. They say, “Keep it hidden away in your home or church, but your beliefs are not valid in public”; only their view is valid in public.

One example is abortion. Many today think that dismembering children is fine as long as all or part of them at least is still inside the mother. Then they want protection from the Bible and those awful things it says about God giving life. One of the sins of the people of Cana was sacrificing their babies to their god, but we are so clever we can do it before they are even born. My country has certainly changed in my lifetime! God said these people were to be wiped out, completely destroyed, so that they would not corrupt His people, but today they are accepted.

Look at the sexual perversion that is accepted today even in churches. There are so many living together who are not married that it is not even raising an eyebrow among many in the church. Yet these same people will rise up and denounce some sinner with a different sin. It is time to say “here is what God says” and believe it and obey it!

Both these groups and others are not only involved openly in sin, but are saying it is fine and condoning and even celebrating their sin.

Today, this verse from Isaiah is again very true!
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20

The only way to make a difference that will last is to change human hearts and only God can do that. Pray for revival in your heart and that God will use you to bring those to Jesus who accept and applaud evil. Only God can give them a new heart and a new life.

Then they can repent and join in the fight against our true enemy – the god of this world.

The world needs protection from the lies of the devil, not the truth of God. Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” and if we “know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Let Jesus use you to shed light in this dark world that is “exchanging the truth of God for a lie”! (Romans 1:25)

Has God made you new?

"God can't give us peace and happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing." ~ C.S. Lewis

The question is not have you made peace with God, but has God made peace with you through Jesus?

Do you know for sure if you are a Christian?

 Is that belief based on "what you think" or
 Is it based on what you know for sure from reading it that the Bible says?
 God says,
 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
 2 Corinthians 5:17

 Are you new and different not because you changed some behaviors, but different because someone outside of time and space - God - changed you?

 Do you dislike or even hate sin rather than enjoy your sin, or do you want to keep doing it? If so, what is radically new about that?

 Some sins are fun, but you really as the new person don't want to have anything to do with it since God changed you.

If you want to be sure take a real look at what God says and if I can help any with finding things in the Bible, feel free to message me.

Model or Disciples Prayer

Model Prayer

Not the Lord’s Prayer for what did He need forgiveness?

 

9  "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
10  'Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
11  'Give us this day our daily bread.
12  'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13  'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.'] Matthew 6:9-13 (NASB)

Pray this way, not pray this.
This prayer is short & to the point – 3 to God & 3 to human needs

OUR – not just Jesus’ Father but He is now our – mine and yours who are in Christ

Father – one of the big problems today with people knowing and trusting God is the lack of godly fathers being an example of the unconditional love of God to their children.
in Heaven – The dwelling place of God

Hallowed or kept holy or honored as holy (3^rd commandment), Set apart – may our words and behavior honor His name

Kingdom come – His Kingdom coming with Him ruling & reigning on Earth
Luke 1:32-33 – Gabriel’s promise to Mary, Rev 19:11-16, Acts 1:11 – 2^nd Coming
Not the snatching out of the Church in 1 Thess. 4:16 & I Cor. 15

Will be done here on Earth as in Heaven – let His will be done in our life and cooperate with Him in being used by God.

The three things toward God we just looked at & now 3 toward human needs –

1. Daily bread – He promise us food, shelter & clothing and that we have been given everything we need for life and godliness. (2Pet 1:3) Anything else is ‘extra’. Don’t worry about tomorrow.

2. Forgive (spiritual debts – sins) if we are saved, we have judicial forgiveness
            “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:14, so not taking about being totally forgiven or Justified but sin causing a break in fellowship or walk with God.

Here was where there was some question so I’m putting in this commentary:
Matt. 6:5-15 (Luke 11:2-4). Jesus then spoke about the practice of prayer, which the Pharisees loved to perform publicly. Rather than making prayer a matter between an individual and God, the Pharisees had turned it into an act to be seen by men—again, to demonstrate their supposed righteousness. Their prayers were directed not to God but to other men, and consisted of long, repetitive phrases (Matt. 6:7).

Jesus condemned such practices. Prayer should be addressed to your Father, who is unseen (cf. John 1:18; 1 Tim. 1:17) and who knows what you need (Matt. 6:8); it is not "to be seen by men." But Jesus also presented a model prayer for His disciples to follow. This prayer is commonly called "the Lord's Prayer," but it is actually "the disciples' prayer." This prayer, which is repeated by many Christians, contains elements that are important for all praying: (1) Prayer is to begin with worship. God is addressed as Our Father in heaven. Worship is the essence of all prayer. (In vv. 1-18 Jesus used the word "Father" 10 times! Only those who have true inner righteousness can address God in that way in worship.) (2) Reverence is a second element of prayer, for God's name is to be hallowed, that is, revered (hagiasthētō). (3) The desire for God's kingdom —Your kingdom come—is based on the assurance that God will fulfill all His covenant promises to His people. (4) Prayer is to include the request that His will be accomplished today on earth as it is being accomplished in heaven, that is, fully and willingly. (5) Petition for personal needs such as daily food is also to be a part of prayer. "Daily" (epiousion, used only here in the NT) means "sufficient for today." (6) Requests regarding spiritual needs, such as forgiveness, are included too. This implies that the petitioner has already forgiven those who had offended him. Sins (cf. Luke 11:4), as moral debts, reveal one's shortcomings before God. (7) Believers recognize their spiritual weakness as they pray for deliverance from temptation to evil (cf. James 1:13-14).

Jesus' words in Matthew 6:14-15 explain His statement about forgiveness in verse 12. Though God's forgiveness of sin is not based on one's forgiving others, a Christian's forgiveness is based on realizing he has been forgiven (cf. Eph. 4:32). Personal fellowship with God is in view in these verses (not salvation from sin). One cannot walk in fellowship with God if he refuses to forgive others. The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas Seminary Faculty.

I shared all that in case others might have confusion with being forgiven for sin but still having the need to confess sins to keep a close walk and fellowship with God!

We have been shown grace and we should show it to others; forgive because we are forgiven not because others deserve it – they may not, but neither do we deserve any forgiveness from God.
Our sanctification process as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord.

3. Don’t lead- this one is negative. Don’t lead us into temptation.
Strongly worded to implore God to keep temptation, hence sin, away from us. We also have the responsibility to flee sin. We are to not put ourselves in places and positions we know we may be tempted to give in to some thought or behavior we know we have a problem with.

I know this was long, but I hope you have enjoyed this look at the Disciples or Model Prayer.

Know your enemy but keep your focus on God!

Part 3 of 3 – Trust by Knowing your enemy and keeping your focus on God.

We have looked at several contrast between God and Satan and seen that God is the creator while Satan is a created being with limited power. Also, that God cannot lie but that Satan is the father of lies who wants to destroy you, while God love you enough to send His Son to provide the only way for you to be saved from the penalty of sin and made a part of the family of God.

Jesus is your advocate or attorney whose shed blood and death and resurrection covers your sin that Satan accuses you of. “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night".’” Revelation 12:10

Knowing all this about God, people still refuse to return His love and accept the forgiveness He provides because they believe the lies of the devil not only for salvation, but for their daily walk with God and spiritual growth.

For example, Do you believe lies of the devil that try to make you feel guilty for sin you have confessed (1Jn 1:9), or do you claim the promises of God such as “there is now no condemnation or judgment for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1)?

Look at the character of God and that of Satan and decide who you will follow. Trying to follow God in some areas but not others will not work and God calls it disobedience.

There will be a judgment one day, a final one where God will judge Satan and his followers. Satan has lost and he knows it. but he wants to keep people from Heaven and from being obedient loving Christians. He wants to take as many as he can with him to judgment. You can be with Jesus as Satan is judged or with Satan being judged. You can accept the payment Jesus made for your sin and live in freedom and know that one day you will spend eternity with God in Heaven or pay for your own sin. You can live in freedom as a Christian or listen to the lies of Satan and try to live a rules based life and miss out on the inner peace and joy of walking in what God has for you.

The fate of the devil and his followers is real; “And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever… And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:10-15

Give your life to Jesus and let Him live His life through you. Teach others how to do the same and enjoy your now and your eternity with Him! Trust in Him and love and obey Him. Don’t be fooled by the enemy who really does want to steal your joy now and to kill you eternally; all he has to offer is some very short term pleasure and an eternity of suffering separated from God and all that is good.

If you have believed in Jesus, keep your focus on God. Know that in Christ you have victory over the power of sin now as well as having been forgiven and given the righteousness of Jesus. Keep your eyes on your eternal future and enjoy preparing for it and telling others and training them how to prepare too!