Come - God's Divine Invitation

 God's Word is addressed to your will.  Come.

When we are born again, our spirit becomes new, literally a new creation as we partake of divine nature, God in us.  When we physically go home to the Lord, we will be given a glorified body that will be like Jesus' after the resurrection which may be touched and yet can go through walls.  The challenge of living the Christian life is saving or restoring the soul, renewing the mind to think God's thoughts, allowing God's heart and desires to constrain and realign our emotions.  Then the test is letting this transformation lead us to make wise godly choices. Choose this day whom you will serve.  He invites us to come to Him and choose His life.  

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." according to Jesus in Matthew 11:28.  He reaches out to all those who are in trouble.  Likewise, in John 7:37, He invites those who desire more to come with promises of great rewards, "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink...out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be satisfied.

The key is that in each case God waits for us to respond to His invitation.  Many are called, but few are chosen. As a perfect gentleman, the Holy Spirit leads and guides those who are willing to come.  God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, but it was up to Moses to "turn aside and see this wonder."  When John the Baptist pointed out Jesus as the Lamb of God, two of his disciples turned to Jesus asking where do you live.  Jesus answered, "Come and see."

What about the prophecy in Isaiah 55, "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk wihtout money and without price. True to God's nature and heart to give, He rewards those who diligently seek Him.  So it follows that in this word, His admonition is "Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance."   Almost unbelieveable to our human understanding, our God has such grace and love for us, that this abundant life is "without money and without price."  Nothing we can do to earn it or work for it, His life is freely given, all we have to do is come, buy, eat.    

We live in God's kingdom during one of the most exciting times ever!  As darkness covers the earth, God promises His light will come and His glory will be seen on us.(Isaiah 60) Likewise in Revelation  which is the book that reveals Jesus in His total triumph over sin and all the evil in the world, we join the Holy Spirit calling Jesus to "Come" and repeating His invitation to all to come, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come!  And let him who hears say, 'Come!'  And let him who thirsts come.  Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely." (Revelation 22:17)  Don't be like the people in the parable who made excuses to not attend the wedding feast and had to be replaced with those willing.  Nothing is worth missing out on God's divine invitation to join Him and all He desires to do on the earth today.  The "eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth" (2 Chronicles 16:9) looking for those people who will allow Him to work mightily in and through them.  

The next time you see the word, "Come" in Scripture, realize God is personally inviting you to His place, to a higher experience, to share His overcoming triumph.  Consider these few admonitions:  Psalm 34  Come, you children, listen to Me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.  Psalm 66  Come and see the works of God.  Psalm 95  O Come, let us sing unto the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our Salvation.  O Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. Psalm 100  Come before His presence with singing.  Come.

Sacrifices Today?

 Nobody likes the word, sacrifice.  

Sacrifice sounds like we have to give up something, and goes against our fleshly drive "I want" which motivates us to possess all we can.  But the key is the internal character of sacrifice.  In the Old Testament sacrifices were animals offered as a regulation to deal with sin.  The sacrifice animal had to be without spot or blemish, suggesting that it was good.  The concept is that men would put aside our good choice for the purpose or belief that something greater will happen as a result.  

Obviously Jesus Christ was the ultimate sacrifice lamb who was slain for sin, once for all.  He laid down His perfect life trusting that redeeming sinful man back to God was the greater good.  The Father accepted His sacrifice. Therefore, there is no more a need for sacrifices to be made for sin.  

However, there does remain a call to sacrifice.  Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone.  He who loses his life will find life.  Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.  We are called to love God and love our neighbor by putting other's needs ahead of our personal desires.  

Yet, man doesn't have the ability or character to do this on our own.  All this is only possible because of accepting Jesus' sacrifice for us.  Then the love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which totally changes us into new creations.  Filled with this new life and the love of God, man's cup overflows and he can respond by pouring out of his life, his talents and abilities, to bless others.   

When I was a kid in the "cold war" days with Russia, one of my fantasies was that the atheistic Communists would line us up in front of a firing squad, asking, "Do you believe in God?"  I would answer, "yes," and die for the Lord.  End of story.  However, God didn't want me to die for the Lord like that, He wanted me to "die" by living for Him in a series of decisions to put His will first.  Each time I laid down my own selfish desires and chose obedience, it was living for Him.   

Based on this understanding, there is one simple response that we want to focus on: giving thanks and praise.   In Hebrews 13:15 it states, "Let us continually offer up the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name."  Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5 to "give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."  Likewise, in the psalms David reminds us to bless the Lord at all times. However, there is a challenge.

Everyone can easily praise God when things are going well.  The test is what do we do in the midst of trouble and hard times.  There is a reason this is called a "sacrifice" of praise.  Notice how Psalm 56:4 calls praise a freewill offering, "With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to You, I will give thanks and praise to Your name, O Lord, for it is good."  This is a choice your make to offer to God. 

Nothing pleases God more than when we sacrifice our feelings and choose to obey this instruction of the Spirit to praise Him in the hard place.  Do you agree that God is working everything for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28)?  Giving thanks and praise demonstrates the faith that God is good and His promises are true.  Imagine a conversation with God like this, "Thank you, for gas prices being above $3 gallon."  "Praise you, God, for letting me stand in this longest line at the grocery store."  "Thank you, Lord, for letting me work with this difficult person, for this boss who wants me to do more and more, for being caught in traffic, etc."  We give God more glory by obeying Him when it is difficult, much like the widow who put the two coins into the offering even though it was all she had to live on. 

The greater good, pleasing God, is always worth the sacrifice because He is worthy of all.  Those aren't just words, He really does deserve praise and thanks at all times.  And you pass the faith test by making this sacrifice to praise Him when your flesh wants to complain and gripe like the Israelites in the desert.  God also points out that your praise lets the demonic kingdom know the hidden wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10) and more personally, who is boss (Lord) of your life.  He is worthy to be praised. 

Sacrifice today!  Choose to make the freewill sacrifice of praise in every situation.  Ask the Holy Spirit to enable you and bring to your remembrance your commitment to God to be His house of thanksgiving and praise.  Thank you, Lord Jesus, for Your sacrifice so we can sacrifice for You.

Do You Hear the Roar? My Covenant Land

 Jesus, the mighty Lion of Judah, is roaring with absolute authority and power today.  A lion roars for three reasons: His roar is to gather His pride.  He roars to answer the challenge of an intruder.  A lion roars to declare ownership of a territory.  Jesus, God's lion, is roaring over America and declaring this is "My covenant land." 

The people on the Mayflower declared their faith toward Almighty God as they placed a cross on the shoreline and released this prayer and prophetic declaration: “We do hereby dedicate this land and ourselves to reach the people within these shores with the gospel of Jesus Christ and to raise up godly generations after us, and with these generations take the kingdom of God to all the earth…from these very shores, the gospel shall go forth, not only to this New World, but the entire world.”  From its beginning, America was established as God's covenanted land for His purpose. 

People in the jungles know that the roar of a lion can be heard five miles away.  It follows that the roar of the Lion of Judah is far reaching, to unite all those who belong to His pride. This coming together will only be produced as a fruit of God's kind of love, loving one another as the Father loved Jesus.  Jesus stated this need to love one another in John 13 as He continued to love Judas who had already agreed to betray Him!  Only through an infusion of the supernatural love of God will all believers demonstrate what Jesus purposed, that we would be one as He and the Father are one.  Even though the world exudes the darkness of division, strife, and hatred, God promises that the light of His love will overcome and be most visible in the midst of the darkness. 

God gives grace to the humble.  When we acknowledge our narrow, selfish motives of only loving those who agree with us and humbly ask for His love toward all believers. we can then receive a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit who plants "the love of God in our hearts" (Romans 5:5).  Jesus came to the world because God loved the world and desired all men to be set free from sin and the consequences of sin, yet we know the world and even His own did not receive Him.  However, the promise remains, as well as the joy that is set before us, that according to John 13:35, when we love each other God's way, the world will know we are His disciples.  He who calls us is faithful and He will do it. 

Secondly, the Lion of Judah is roaring against the intruders.  Sin and rebellion has entered the heart of man.  God, in His gooness and love, created man in His image and likeness and allowed us to enjoy His fullness, His abundant life.  Yet man in his pride has rebelled.  In Jeremiah 2, God asks what injustice has He done that would cause men to turn from Him.  Man has defiled the land by choosing to fall for the temptation to "be like God" and live according to the flesh doing things his own way.  Jesus came to rescue man from the bondage of sin by nailing the consequences on the cross.  He became the Way for all men to repent and be restored to right standing with God forever.  

Jesus defeated the devil who encouraged this rebellion by dying on the cross and then made a public show of him (Colossians 2:15).  Jesus came to destroy the work of the evil one and He did.  In union with His victory, we His saints will likewise overcome "by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives even to the death." (Revelation 12:11)  He is training our hands for war and anointing His church to fight the good fight of faith, by standing in the armor and using the supernatural weapons provided.  The final battle will clearly show that Jesus is Lord of all and no weapon formed against His people shall prosper.

Thirdly, the earth is the Lords's and the fullness thereof.  Jesus, the Lion of Judah, has marked His territory, and even though there is a challenge in the battle ahead, there is none like Him.   Revelation declares "The kingdoms of the earth have become the kingdoms of the Lord."  The book of Revelation is "the revelation of Jesus Christ," who manifests all God is and does.  He confirms His Word with signs and wonders, to keep His covenant forever.  

Therefore, His roar is releasing new victories, new positions of authority, sounds of bones rattling as they come to life to reign on the earth, and the very breath of God in His people.  Jesus exhorts man to "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."  This roar is also establishing the purpose and destiny of America as His covenant land.  God is not mocked, America will accomplish the design and eternal plan for which He founded it.  

The Lion is also the Lamb who is worthy of it all.  Let us rejoice and be glad as we respond wholeheartedly to the roar of our Lord Jesus Christ.      

You Take Control

Take control.  The ball is in your hands.

Through His death and resurrection, Jesus Christ overcame sin, sickness, and all the power of the enemy. As a result, He has been given all authority.  As Matthew 28 clearly reveals “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."  The key challenge is the next two words, "Go therefore."

Philippians 2 reminds us that God the Father was pleased to accept the humbling obedience of Jesus "even unto death" and rewarded Him with the commanding position and name which are above all.  "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth."  Go in My name and make disciples.  Can you see the excitement and awe of the disciples (in Luke 10:17) "Even the demons are subject to us in Your name." 

God rules on the earth through His people.  If my people...  Just as God gave donimion to Adam in Genesis 1:28, through the finished work of Jesus we now have the authority to rule again the way man was created to function.  Romans 5:17 declares this amazing truth "much more [than sin causing death for all men] those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ."  He has gifted us to rule. 

Jesus not only took our place in carrying the overwhelming price for sin, He also brought us with Him to enjoy the glorious victory of sharing divine life forever.  Ephesians 2 shows how we died with Christ, rose with Christ, and are now seated with Him in heavenly places.  This is not  a pie in the sky verse, but rather the wonderful accomplishment of what Jesus achieved for us.  Salvation, or deliverance from sin and all its consequences, is now.  Our position of authority has been given and we are to "go therefore" and exercise this dominion using the name above all names.  Bind and loose, the gates of hell cannot stop us.  

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. (Hosea 4:6)  Many Christians do not realize the "glorious liberty of the children of God" that Paul talks about in Romans 8, which even the creation waits to enjoy.  How are we going to come to know and learn to use this awesome calling to set My people free?

The answer is God.  The Holy Spirit has been sent to bear witness to our relationship with the Father and to reveal Jesus, causing us to know the truth of all He has done and said.  He will lead us and show us the way.  Jesus said it was better for us to have the Holy Spirit than if he were present physically on the earth.  We have the ultimate teacher and guide.  He will even teach us how to listen and obey, to will and to work for His pleasure.

Now is the time to do something.  What do you see that is wrong and out of order in your sphere of influence?  Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the plan how to attack the problem.  Then obey His prompting and take authority, "In Jesus' name, this situation _______________ must change.  I command this __________ to go.  In the authority given to me as a believer in Jesus Christ, I release the restoring power of God to change this.  It shall be so (Amen), in the name of Jesus."  This is just a sample declaration, but all we need to do is follow the words and guiding of the Spirit to declare your victory.  It is not as important that you have the right words as it is that you know your authority and stand.  Even the armor of God scriptures, found in Ephesians 6, states "Having done all to stand, stand therefore."

God reigns through His people.  Let Him rule through you and your words!  As Jesus taught us to pray, Come, thy Kingdom.  Be done, will of God.  These petitions are actualy commands He desires us to make.  Speak life through declaring the Word of God and He will establish it.  God has given you the Holy Spirit to enable you to take control.  God and all heaven's power is activated as you take control.   

Who Is In Charge?

Do you know the sun is 1.3 million times bigger than the earth?  It is hard to even imagine the vast difference in magnitutde.  Likewise, God is infinitely more powerful than His created archangel who fell from heaven, Lucifer or better known as the devil.  There really is no comparison, no contest, as to their relative power and ability.  Yet there is a spiritual battle.  Why and what is it really about? 

The question is who is in charge.  God obviously created the earth, man, and all the universe so it rightfully is His.  In Genesis 1:26-28, God creates man in His own image and likeness, and this created man is instructed to subdue the earth and given dominion over every living thing.  In short, God gave His authority to rule life on earth to man.

In sequence, Adam and Eve gave that authority to the serpent in the garden when they chose to obey him rather than God.  Romans 6 reminds us that who you obey is who has dominion over you.  There is a reason why when the devil tempted Jesus in the desert, he could say, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me."  In losing his authority, man also lost his pure nature to rule in harmony with God's purposes.  Now his thoughts, emotions, and will are poluted with the selfish desires of the temptation to "be like God" or in simple terms "me first."

The only possible way man could have this authority restored would be for a man to be without sin so there was no Satanic right to dominate him, and for someone to pay for the "death penalty" that sin rightfully deserved.  From the moment man sinned and gave up his authority, God revealed His plan to restore what was lost, by declaring the woman's Seed shall "bruise your head and you shall bruise His heal." (Genesis 3:15)  The good news is that is exactly what 1 John 3:8 assures us, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."   The last words of Jesus ultimately establish that  this goal is accomplished, "It is Finished." 

Understanding this foundation, the question remains, who is in charge of you?  What rules in your life?  Jesus has defeated the devil and taken back the keys for man to rule again, "I have given you the keys to the kingdom of heaven" with authority to bind and loose on earth.  However, it is up to us to choose God's revealed truth over our fleshly ideas, to walk according to the Word of God rather than fallen man's natural thoughts and feelings.  Romans 8 clearly delineates that flesh is death, and spirit is life and peace.  Jesus stated that His Word is spirit and life.  God sets before us life and death, telling us to choose life.  We have to choose.

2 Corinthians 10:3-6 explains that the warfare is in our mind and heart.  We have divinely powered weapons to pull down strongholds and arguments and every high thing that exalts itself above the knowledge of God.  Could it be that God is waiting on us to use these weapons?  Does He wait for a man to stand in the gap so He can save the land?  He waits to be gracious to you.

Jesus reveals what authority He has provided in Luke 10:19.  "Behold, I have given you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you."  Likewise, in Philippians 2:10, Paul points out that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven, on earth, and beneath the earth.  These are not only promises, but also spiritual reality of what we are going to do.  Notice what happens in Revelation 12:10, the saints overcome the accuser of the brethren (the devil) by "the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death."  Man will triumph, in the name of Jesus, the power of His blood, and through speaking His Word.

Jesus chose you, you didn't choose Him, and He has a purpose for you to bear fruit. (John 15:16)  His heart's desire is for you to overcome and He is commited to standing with you to bring it to pass. After Jesus walked on earth and defeated the enemy, He sent His Spirit to lead and guide us into all truth.  God will overcome the world through His church, through you and me. We need to let Him teach us how to stand in His authority and let Him move. 

We are not begging and pleading with God to act.  Instead we have been given God's own authority to use against everything which exalts itself above the knowledge of God.  God will move when we declare with faith His revealed truth.   Notice how the Gospel of Mark ends, "and they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the Word through accompanying signs."  So instead of begging God for forgiveness, we can declare "Thank you for your forgiveness."  Rather than pray hoping for healing, we state, "Thank you, Jesus, for Your stripes which heal me."  In all situations, we remember that Jesus' last words on the cross are not idle, but rather the ultimate deliverance of mankind, "It is finished." 

Life and death are in the power of the tongue.  We are led by the Spirit, according to 2 Corinthians 2:14, to always walk in triumph.  The Spirit brings to mind what Jesus said, so we agree by declaring what God has said rather than what we think or feel.  Our job is to speak God's Word, His job is to complete the action.    

This principle is applied to the bigger picture also.  As Christians unite in praying God's Word boldly, God is free to move in the world.  So instead of letting ourselves feel discouraged about the lies and anti-Christ movements seemingly dominating this country, we stand boldly and declare, "Jesus, in your name, no weapon formed against this land shall prosper, and we release your overcoming power to destroy enemy strongholds and restore righteousness to this land.   

Through Jesus' substitutionary death and resurrection for us, we have been raised with Him and are seated in heavenly places, now having His full authority once again to rule in this life (Romans 4:25).  In short, we (you and I) are in charge.