THE BACKGROUND OF TRUE FAITH!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY JUNE 16, 2021.

SUBJECT: THE BACKGROUND OF TRUE FAITH!

Memory verse: "That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." (First Corinthians 2 vs 5.)

READ: Second Corinthians 10 vs 3 -5:

10:3: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 

10:4: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 

10:5: casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

INTIMATION:

True faith is not based upon reason nor upon things that men can see unless the thing they see is the Word of God. In accordance with our memory verse, our faith should not be based on wisdom (sense knowledge) of men but on God's ability. In the next two verses (6 & 7), Paul explained that fact further, saying,  "However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory."

We cast down reasonings (arguments or imaginations), for men have deified reasonings. The great reasoners of the world and the great philosophers of the world have gained the ascendancy over the human mind. And that is human’s greatest undoing in working with God and walking in His ways. Philosophy has never given anything of any value to the body of Christ—the Church. What we call our Christian philosophers are often men who denied the miraculous and the supernatural, always wanting to explain it away through sense knowledge activities and reasonings.

But unfortunately, the ways of God are beyond finding out; it’s beyond man’s reasoning ability; “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 21 vs 33.) It’s foolishness to start reasoning on God’s ways—His thinking and planning. His knowledge and wisdom are far greater than any human’s. 

God declares in Isaiah 55 vs 8 - 9, saying, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways...For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Therefore, we are to cast down imaginations or reasonings, everything that sense knowledge has exalted against the Word of God, and we are to bring into captivity our thinking so we will think God's thoughts instead of man's thoughts. So we will be inspired by the Word of God rather than by the word of men. And only in so doing that our faith life is solidly built in accordance with God’s ordinance.

Faith deals with facts. The Word of God has no speculations, no theories, just declarations of fact. When we come to recognize that spiritual things are as real as physical things, then we will be able to understand the background of the faith life. 

Prayer: Abba Father, forever You are God, and Your ways are supreme! Your ways are inexplicable—beyond our reasonings. O Lord, my absolute trust and confidence are in You. May I never imagine or reason anything that will dent my faith in You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Serve God with Your Thirst

 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. (2 Corinthians 5:9)

What if you discovered (like the Pharisees did) that you had devoted your whole life to trying to please God, but all the while had been doing things that in God’s sight were abominations (Luke 16:14–15)?

Someone may question this and say, “I don’t think that’s possible; God wouldn’t reject a person who has been trying to please him.” But do you see what this questioner has done? He has based his conviction about what would please God on his idea of what God is like. That is precisely why we must begin with the character of God revealed in Scripture.

God is a mountain spring, not a watering trough. A mountain spring is self-replenishing. It constantly overflows and supplies others. But a watering trough needs to be filled with a pump or bucket. So, the great question is: How do you serve a spring? And: How do you serve a watering trough? How do you glorify God the way he really is?

If you want to glorify the worth of a watering trough, you work hard to keep it full and useful. But if you want to glorify the worth of a spring, you do it by getting down on your hands and knees and drinking to your heart’s satisfaction, until you have the refreshment and strength to go back down in the valley and tell the people what you’ve found.

My hope as a desperate sinner hangs on this biblical truth: that God is the kind of God who will be pleased with the one thing I have to offer: my thirst. That’s why the sovereign freedom and self-sufficiency of God are so precious to me: they are the foundation of my hope that God is delighted not by the resourcefulness of bucket brigades, but by the bending down of broken sinners to drink at the fountain of grace.

By all means we should seek to please God, now and forever. But woe to us if our whole life proves to be based on a false view of what pleases God. The Lord is pleased not by those who treat him as a needy watering trough, but as an inexhaustible, all-satisfying spring. As Psalm 147:11 says, “The Lord takes pleasure . . . in those who hope in his steadfast love.”

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. (2 Corinthians 5:9)

What if you discovered (like the Pharisees did) that you had devoted your whole life to trying to please God, but all the while had been doing things that in God’s sight were abominations (Luke 16:14–15)?

Someone may question this and say, “I don’t think that’s possible; God wouldn’t reject a person who has been trying to please him.” But do you see what this questioner has done? He has based his conviction about what would please God on his idea of what God is like. That is precisely why we must begin with the character of God revealed in Scripture.

God is a mountain spring, not a watering trough. A mountain spring is self-replenishing. It constantly overflows and supplies others. But a watering trough needs to be filled with a pump or bucket. So, the great question is: How do you serve a spring? And: How do you serve a watering trough? How do you glorify God the way he really is?

If you want to glorify the worth of a watering trough, you work hard to keep it full and useful. But if you want to glorify the worth of a spring, you do it by getting down on your hands and knees and drinking to your heart’s satisfaction, until you have the refreshment and strength to go back down in the valley and tell the people what you’ve found.

My hope as a desperate sinner hangs on this biblical truth: that God is the kind of God who will be pleased with the one thing I have to offer: my thirst. That’s why the sovereign freedom and self-sufficiency of God are so precious to me: they are the foundation of my hope that God is delighted not by the resourcefulness of bucket brigades, but by the bending down of broken sinners to drink at the fountain of grace.

By all means we should seek to please God, now and forever. But woe to us if our whole life proves to be based on a false view of what pleases God. The Lord is pleased not by those who treat him as a needy watering trough, but as an inexhaustible, all-satisfying spring. As Psalm 147:11 says, “The Lord takes pleasure . . . in those who hope in his steadfast love.”

The Honeymoon That Never Ends

 

As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. (Isaiah 62:5)

When God does good to his people, it is not so much like a reluctant judge showing kindness to a criminal whom he finds despicable. It is like a bridegroom showing affection to his bride.

Sometimes we joke and say about a marriage, “The honeymoon is over.” But that’s because we are finite. We can’t sustain a honeymoon level of intensity and affection. But God says that his joy over his people is like a bridegroom over a bride. And he doesn’t mean it starts out that way and then fades.

He is talking about honeymoon intensity and honeymoon pleasures and honeymoon energy and excitement and enthusiasm and enjoyment. He is trying to get into our hearts what he means when he says he rejoices over us with all his heart. Jeremiah 32:41, “I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.” Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

With God the honeymoon never ends. He is infinite in power and wisdom and creativity so that there will be no boredom for the next trillion ages of millenniums.

LEGAL AND VITAL PARTS OF REDEMPTION!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY JUNE 15, 2021.

SUBJECT : LEGAL AND VITAL PARTS OF REDEMPTION!

Memory verse: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." (John 1 vs 12.)

READ: Ephesians 3 vs 16 - 19:

3:16: That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 

3:17: that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 

3:18: may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width, and length and depth and height—

3:19: to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.

INTIMATION:

Every child of God is legally in the family in the new birth. Our redemption is based on legal grounds. There are two phases of our redemption: One is legal and the other is the vital. The legal is what God has done for us in the past—like the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. It is in this that fellowship with the Father in prayer is legalized. The vital is what the Holy Spirit, through the Word, is doing in us.

The planned legality of our relationship with the Father in redemption is documented in the Book of Romans—the greatest legal document in existence. And the “New Testament,” or “New Covenant” as a whole, is the greatest document on jurisprudence ever given man.

You remember that the Bible is made up of two covenants: the old one and the new one. The first covenant was made with Abraham and sealed with blood. The second covenant was between Jesus and the Father, and sealed with the Son's blood. Israel were the beneficiaries of that first covenant, while we all are the beneficiaries of the second covenant. The Old Covenant with Abraham was backed by God's assurances. God said to Abraham, "By Myself have I sworn." (Genesis 22 vs 16). He becomes the surety of the old covenant. The New Covenant is backed by the Throne of God, Jesus and the Father are back of the New Covenant. 

The Scripture in Romans 4 vs 25, gives us a good illustration of the legality; "Who was delivered up on account of our trespasses and was raised for our justification." When we believe, an exchange takes place. We give Christ our sins, and He gives us His righteousness and forgiveness. 

The vital is illustrated in Philippians 2 vs 13, "For it is God who is at work within us both to will and to do forHis good pleasure." God never leaves us alone in our struggles to do His Will.  He wants to come alongside and do come, and be within us to help. God helps us want to obey Him and then gives us power to do what He wants. Remember what God did with Pharaoh of Egypt to actualize His purpose and Will. (See Exodus 4 vs 21; 14 vs 4; 14 vs 17).

Redemption is legal. It is in the past. It is a finished work. The new birth is vital. It is now. When you know that prayer is based on legal grounds and you know that God has legally tied Himself; has bound Himself to do certain things, then you will learn to take your place in Christ and act accordingly. Knowing this, therefore, you understand that prayer isn’t dependent upon struggle and long hours of agonizing before the Lord. It isn't based upon pity, but upon a legal foundation.

When you know the legality of your relationship with Him, and the planned vital fellowship with Him, prayer will not be work to you, rather it will expression of your love for Him, contending with Him with your strong reasons in accordance with His Word, and putting Him into remembrance of His promises in the love relationship.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for what You wrought for me in redemption. O Lord, engrace me to manifest fully the privileges of sonship, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

How Much God Wants to Bless You

“The Lord will again take delight in prospering you.” (Deuteronomy 30:9)

God does not bless us begrudgingly. There is a kind of eagerness about the beneficence of God. He does not wait for us to come to him. He seeks us out, because it is his pleasure to do us good. God is not waiting for us; he is pursuing us. That, in fact, is the literal translation of Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life.”

God loves to show mercy. Let me say it again. God loves to show mercy. He is not hesitant or indecisive or tentative in his desires to do good to his people. His anger must be released by a stiff safety lock, but his mercy has a hair trigger. That’s what he meant when he came down on Mount Sinai and said to Moses, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (Exodus 34:6). It’s what he meant when he said in Jeremiah 9:24, “I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

God is never irritable or edgy. His anger never has a short fuse. Instead he is infinitely energetic with absolutely unbounded and unending enthusiasm for the fulfillment of his delights.

This is hard for us to comprehend, because we have to sleep every day just to cope, not to mention thrive. Our emotions go up and down. We get bored and discouraged one day and feel hopeful and excited another.

We are like little geysers that gurgle and sputter and pop erratically. But God is like a great Niagara Falls — you look at 186,000 tons of water crashing over the precipice every minute, and think: Surely this can’t keep going at this force year after year after year. Yet it does.

That’s the way God is about doing us good. He never grows weary of it. It never gets boring to him. The Niagara of his grace has no end.

THE ABOUNDING GRACE OF GOD TOWARD THE BELIEVER!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY JUNE 14, 2021.

SUBJECT : THE ABOUNDING GRACE OF GOD TOWARD THE BELIEVER!

Memory verse: "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work." (Second Corinthians 9 vs 8).

READ: Ephesians 1 vs 7 - 9: 

1:7: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 

1:8: which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

1:9: having made known to us the mystery of His Will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself.

INTIMATION:

God is making His grace to come leaping toward the believers in all its fullness, and that grace has within it His all sufficiency for every emergency. Yes, I said yesterday that we should be ashamed if we have ever talked about our weakness and our lack when the ability of God, the measureless ability of God is ours.

The Scriptures in Ephesians 1 vs 3 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." We become the disciples of Christ in utilizing the blessings to bear fruit, even much fruit. It is in doing so that the Father is glorified. And He promised to increase and multiply whatever we do to bear fruit. (John 15 vs 8). How little we have appreciated this, that His very sufficiency and ability—all the heavenly blessings—are all at our disposal. 

Let us look at the tenth verse of Second Corinthians 9 that says, "Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness." Do you understand what He means by "fruits of your righteousness?" It means all the gracious things you are able to do with these heavenly blessings at your disposal just as Jesus did. 

All the gracious words that Jesus said and all the mighty acts that He performed were the fruits of His righteousness. I wonder if we have ever thought of it this way. Jesus was fearless in the presence of the enemy in every place. He had no fear of a storm at sea. He had no fear of lack. He wasn't afraid of death. He raised Lazarus who had been dead four days. He wasn't afraid of a mob. He exercised power over nature and its forces. Those were some of the fruits of His righteousness. When these fruits abound in us they will make us like Jesus, and these fruits can abound in us.

Righteousness and all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places was given to us in Christ with the intent that we bear fruit with them. The apostle Paul says in Second Corinthians 3 vs 4 - 6: "And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant....." 

Now, notice this carefully, He is not only our ability, but He is our sufficiency. There is no lack in us, in our service, in our finances, in anything connected with our earth walk. You see when He took us over and came into us and began to build His Word into us, He was building His sufficiency and His ability into us. His Word created this universe; created this earth with all its flowers and fruits, its wealth of minerals, chemicals, and oils. His efficiency in that living Word created these things. Now He is building into us that Living Word with its supernatural efficiency. 

A prayer life backed with this whole knowledge becomes invincible. All we need to do now is to take our place and act our part knowing that is God who is at work within us. Not only is He building Himself into us, but He is there to work through us. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. You are blessed with everything that you need. His very fullness is yours. His love is yours. Yes, He Himself is yours, and you are complete in Him.

Prayer: Abba Father, Your loving kindness toward me is immeasurable and overwhelming. Everything within me is thanking You for the riches of the glory of the inheritance You have given me in Jesus Christ. My utmost heart desire is to manifest to the fullest my inheritance now, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen

PRAISE THE LORD.

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISE OF PRAYER IS THE TONIC OF LIFE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY JUNE 13, 2021.

SUBJECT: THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISE OF PRAYER IS THE TONIC OF LIFE!

Memory verse: "But whoever drinks the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in Him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4 vs 14.)

READ: John 7 vs 37 - 38:

7:37: On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If any one thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 

7:38: He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

7:39: But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yer given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. 

INTIMATION:

Many spiritual functions parallel physical functions. As our bodies need exercising physically, so our souls. Our spiritual exercise is through prayer, and is very profitable to our spiritual lives. Hence the apostle Paul said:

“For bodily exercise profits little; but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that is now, and of that which is to come.” (First Timothy 4 vs 8.) In our society much emphasis is placed on physical fitness, but spiritual health is even more important. Our physical health is susceptible to disease and injury, but faith, through our spiritual exercise resulting into godliness, can sustain us through any tragedy. 

Also, as our bodies hunger and thirst, so do our souls. Our souls need spiritual nourishments. We would not think of depriving our bodies of food and water when they hunger or thirst, lest we are weakened, and this might result to death after a time. If our physical bodies need food and water to stay strong and alive, our souls also needs the same spiritual nourishments to stay alive and active. Spiritual exercise of prayer in the “Living Word,” Jesus Christ, and the “Written Word,” the Bible, can satisfy our hungry and thirsty souls.

In our memory verse, Jesus was speaking to the Samaritan woman, and used the term "living water" to indicate eternal life. In the Scripture we read today, the same term referred to the Holy Spirit. The two go together; wherever the Holy Spirit is accepted, He brings eternal life. Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit's indwelling presence that comes from our inner life of prayer, and there gushes forth a torrent of the very life of God that speeds on its way to who is in need. The Holy Spirit is God's promise or guarantee of eternal life for those who believe in Him. It is that same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead that dwells in them, and the Spirit will also quicken their mortal bodies (Romans 8 vs 11). 

Through the spiritual exercise of prayer your spirit is contacting the Father through the Holy Spirit. Your spirit is reaching other human spirits through the Father. Through prayer your spirit connects to the spirit of other believers, and consequently, the Body of Christ is strengthened. In First Corinthians 5 vs 4, the apostle Paul enumerated this revelation as it relates to prayers when he said, "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Paul was writing to the church on members who are involved in sexual immorality especially where a man has his father's wife. He told the church that when they are gathered in their prayer meetings, he will be with them, and also the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ are present with them in the spirit. It is in the realm of the recreated spirit that we become utterly one with Jesus. Therefore, we become so utterly ruled and governed by the Word and the Holy Spirit that we become masters of demons and of their works.

In prayer we are cooperating with the Lord. God, through us in prayers, is ruling the demons and evil forces all over the world. We are workers with Jesus (Second Corinthians 6 vs 1). How are we workers with Him? Through this marvelous prayer life.  We have entered the Holy Priesthood in your prayer life (Revelation 5 vs 10). We can be God's voice, His spokesman, His ambassador, His under-ruler in Jesus' Name through the Word in our lips. Our prayers bring the very presence of God upon men in any part of the world.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for privilege of being Your co-worker through the spiritual exercise of prayer. The Word on my lips in prayers is the same as the Word on the lips of Christ; Your very life flows through my lips in prayer. Endue me with the spirit of praying without ceasing, that I may be in Your presence and partnering with You at all times, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!