Eternal You

We have such a limited view of spiritual reality...a sort of spiritual tunnel vision, if you will. Yes, man was separated from God by his own doing, but Jesus came that we might be reunited with Him. That's the story of the Gospel!

'For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.' [Romans 8:28,30]

He foreknew us! Ephesians 1:4 says '...just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.'

Chosen before the foundation of the world! Foreknown! That's more then seeing us through the ages and predicting that we would come to Him...He knew us, before the foundation of the world! We existed then, we exist now, we exist forever on Mt. Zion. [Hebrews 12:22-24]

These are amazing, quantum thoughts, straight from the heart of God! 2 Timothy 1:9 says that His purpose and grace was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity...not for all eternity, but from all eternity! 1 Peter 1:1,2 puts it this way '...who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father...'

He knew us from old; therefore, we existed from old. In Christ, from before the foundation of the world. We are with Him in Revelations and from before the foundation of the world....we are eternal beings, living for a time in these earthen vessels.

In fact, the Greek word for 'eternal' is aionios—without beginning and end, THAT WHICH ALWAYS HAS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE, never to cease, everlasting. Not just forward, as we tend to think, but backward, too.

Who Knew?
If these things are true, and since they are straight from the Word, they must be, why do we have such limited knowledge? It seems as if we are awake to only a small portion of our lives, eternity, the reality of God and who we are in Christ.

I think this must be what the Holy Spirit was saying in Ephesians 5:13, 14...'But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, "Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

When we allow the light of God's Word to shine into our thinking, the realities of the Kingdom are revealed. We can lay aside all preconceived notions and limitations and finally step into our calling—to reign in life through the One, Christ Jesus.

It's Time
It's time to lay aside our darkened thinking, to renew our minds to the realities of God's will for us. Time to step into His glorious light and realize that we live in two realms of existence...ambassadors in the earth, citizens of Heaven. Living here while seated in heavenly places in Christ. Foreknown from the foundation of the earth, with Him at the final trumpet of Revelations. Eternal, one with Him, full of His glory. Hallelujah

Why We Don't Trust God

The primary reason we don't walk in total victory in our lives is that we just don't trust God.

Those who have experienced a true re-birth, who have been born of God and are now one Spirit with the Lord, long to trust Him and His Word.

We read the Word and are afraid of the scary parts. We read the good promises and figure they're not guaranteed. We're afraid to really trust Him because His will for us might be to live in a hut in China and starve, or to 'take' our kids [what we really mean is kill our kids...] or worse. Maybe it's not His will for us to be healthy, maybe He'll want us to suffer with cancer, or paralysis, or [whatever]. And maybe the prosperity message is a lie...He really wants us to do without to prove our holiness. Or my personal favorite, it's ok to have some things but we shouldn't go overboard...

HORSE HOCKEY!!!

The Name of Jesus

As Christians, we have great respect for the name of Jesus. We are taught to pray in His Name to the Father, and this is correct.

However, I don't think we really understand what that means. We tend to tack it on before the 'Amen' as sort of a spiritual rabbit's foot...'gee, I really hope this works!'

To get a deeper understanding of what it means to pray 'in Jesus Name' we must grasp the truth that we are one Spirit with the Lord. We pray in His Name because it's our name, too--we are His Body in the earth! When He approaches the Father, I'm pretty sure He is heard and receives any request He might make.

But wait...we're not coming to the Father in our name, or by our righteousness...we're coming in our new position! We're in Him, and He's in us, and we bear His name because we are one with Him. So when we come, praying according to the Father's will as laid out in the Word, we know that we are heard.

'This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.' [1 John 5:14,15]

How do we know His will? His Word is His will. Don't ask anything that goes against His Word...it's that simple. [see Anything?]

Of course, there are always the blanket prayers in John 14-17 to cover things not in His Word...but His Word gives us the parameters within which to live and pray.

So when you pray, pray from your new position in Christ Jesus--one Spirit with the Lord, His Body in the earth, in His name

You Haven't Lost Your Faith...You've Been Deceived

You may feel afraid, defeated, faithless...you may feel deserted by God and alone. Worry over your current situation may keep you sleepless by night and anxious by day.

You may wonder if you've lost your faith.

I've got great news for you--your faith is part of who you are as the offspring of God!

When you claimed Jesus' sacrifice as your own, in the spiritual realm, you died and rose with Him, and were seated with Him in heavenly places. I John says that you are born of God, an heir of God and fellow heir with Christ [Romans 8:17]. You are now one Spirit with the Lord--if you could see into the spirit, you'd look just like Jesus. By God's doing, you've been made the righteousness of God in Christ [1 Corinthians 1:30].

So your new spiritual DNA is that of your Father and Elder Brother. Faith, hope, love--these are part of who you are, not things that you must strive to get. When you're feeling defeated and faithless, remember...IT'S A DECEPTION!!!

All Things Revisited

This is so good that I just have to re-post it. I think it's worth the re-read...

'...all things are Your servants.' [Psalm 119:91]

I awoke in the middle of the night with this verse in my head. David is talking about God here but I began to realize that we are heirs of God! Heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ [Romans 8:32], to whom belong all things! [1 Corinthians 3:22,23]

Knowing this, and knowing that we are one Spirit with the Lord, made complete in Him, it follows that all things are now our servants, as well!

This is why Jesus instructed us to speak to things--mountains, trees, storms, etc. He knew that we were called to reign in life through Him, and He was demonstrating how to live in the earth as a Spirit-filled man.