My child, I am with you. I give you the ability to fulfill your calling. Nothing is impossible for Me. In Me you will conquer. In Me you will succeed. Remain in Me as you go through your day. I give you everything you need as you seek Me first and remain in Me.
Matthew 6:33
My child, don’t rely on anything or anyone but Me. Place all your confidence and strength in Me alone. Take your eyes off of the world and seek Me above all else. I am your strength. I am your joy. I am your all and all.
This is a re-phrased prayer taken from Sally Brook’s recent trip to Turkey, Italy & Greece following Paul’s travels to the seven churches:
“My love is what people need most. Let My love burn in your heart and flow to the hearts of all those you meet today. Turn from envy, malice, hatred and fear. Let not indifference, apathy, contempt or pride be in you. Instead, let My love well up as a brightly burning fire so you can warm the cold, lonely and lifeless souls with the comfort of My love. Do this in the power of My Holy Spirit and to the glory of My Name.”
Unquestionably, God wants good for us here, but His plan ultimately revolves around our union with Him later. So He has designed things such that His purpose can only come to fruition as we receive Christ as Lord and Savior, and then enter into a lifelong pursuit of God in spite of our human penchant to choose self in place of Him.
So our ongoing battle with the flesh, as we’re confronted daily by a world steeped in sin, boils down to one thing only: choice with teeth, decision with real meaning. And this is precisely why God had to allow sin to play such a major role in our decision-making.
But how could God (whose very essence is goodness) give evil the right to exist at all, much less allow it to have such overwhelming and destructive power over mankind? Again, choice is the answer to this age-old question. In His unfathomable wisdom, God has ordained that His children choose Him freely—and the more difficult the choice, the better He likes our yes. It makes the value we place on Him all the more meaningful.
Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself
Let’s dispel a myth quite popular in Christian circles. It is this: the idea that our life here on earth would be so wonderful if only Adam had not sinned. Well, I suppose it would be, but all the same it stands in direct opposition to God’s purpose. Why? Because given the nature of man, Adam was doomed to sin. Strong words, I know, yet true. But why would God set the stage for that to happen—both to him and to us? Couldn’t we more wholeheartedly commit ourselves to Christ’s lordship if sin were never an issue?
What could possibly be wrong with wanting complete freedom from the influence of sin so that single-minded devotion to God might not only be easier but more pleasurable? Well, we need to think about what letting us slide through life here on earth in the comfort and security of sinlessness would ultimately achieve. It’s only possible outcome would be a good life here, with the added hope of even a better eternal life in heaven.
What’s the problem with that, you might ask? The trouble with this notion is that, while nice, it’s not God’s reality. He has a much greater purpose for our lives, because our eternal destiny with Him in heaven is indeed much more than just a wonderful place to spend eternity.
Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself
The gift of self-interest has become twisted. What began in a more perfect world as a healthy motivation to support and enhance life has degenerated in this fallen world into a power struggle—man against his fellow man in an egotistical attempt to improve his standing in life.
Satan is well aware of this weakness in our nature. So he uses it to dominate man, taking him down the road to self-destruction in an endless cycle of immorality and greed.(Ephesians 4:19) The truth is that self-will can never be satisfied devoid of relationship with God, and it’s desperately sad that so many have been blinded to this reality.
Man’s first taste of the bitterness of self-will was experienced by Adam. The fall of man is a very sad beginning to human history, but is also interesting because it says so much about our nature. Many Christians view Adam as being a perfect man—someone very different from man as we know him today. The fact is he was a perfect man. He was created sinless in a sinless world, which is the reason God could inhabit his being so freely and completely.
Yet this raises a question as to what the true definition of human perfection actually is. I think Adam was human in all the ways we’ve seen man’s nature to be in the foregoing chapters. What perfected his humanity was his relationship with God, and the fact that he dwelt in fellowship with God in a sinless world.
A commonly taught principle relevant to God’s purpose for man is that he is endowed with free will. It is said that man is a free moral agent, meaning he possesses unrestricted power in making moral choices.Indeed, how could God possibly have designed man devoid of the power of choice? He had to give him the ability to choose—not merely between right and wrong, but more importantly choice in regard to the lordship of God over his life.
Yet what appears on the surface to be the ability to choose freely, is in a very real sense something more than merely free will.
Man’s rejection of God as Lord of his life does not in any way mean that he possesses the ability of free choice in regard to everything else. Rather, in refusing to accept God’s purpose and plan for his life, he inevitably opens himself up to control by some other outside force. And this force is ultimately Satan. But the tool the devil uses to subjugate mankind is man’s will—a will inherently rooted in self-interest. So we should instead think of this self-serving attribute of man’s nature—what we commonly call free will—as self-will.
Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself
Man’s soul, his mind, and his body are designed in such a way that they cannot fulfill their purpose unless the his spirit is alive, and thus capable of action. So movement in our spirit can only take place when it is securely fastened to God and thus enlivened by the power of His Spirit.
All the elements of our nature (body, mind, soul and spirit) are interrelated—they are progressively hinged to one another, each changing automatically as its neighbor changes. Progress in the spirit changes the soul, in turn affecting the mind which dictates the behavior of the body. It is impossible for our elements to operate effectively independent of one another, because they are all securely hinged together.
Now, what happens if our spirit is not securely hinged to God? Tug all you want on the body and it won’t effect our mind and soul much at all. The sad fact is that the purpose of man is totally lost when his connection to God severed.
Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself
Without question our spiritual nature is the supreme gift of God to man. Why do I say the supreme gift? Because through our spirit, and only through our spirit, has God given us the opportunity to commune with Him. We need to realize that the opportunity for His indwelling presence is the primary purpose for the existence of our spirit. God actually takes up residence in our spirit as we allow Him to do so.
It may sound a bit presumptuous to say that He indwells us only as we allow it, but that is exactly the case. Because He has given us the capacity of free will, God lives within us only as an invited guest. Our spirit has been formed by God in such a way as to provide His Holy Spirit a dwelling place within our nature.(1 Corinthians 3:16: Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?)
I’m sure you’ve heard it said that within each person there is a God-shaped vacuum which only He can fill. That place is our spirit. Without the inhabiting presence of God, our spirit is simply dead—and therefore purposeless. So in one very large sense, our spirit is the essence of our being.
What does it mean to be God’s son or daughter? It’s vitally important to understand the dynamic status we’ve freely been given in Christ, because without an appreciation for what this relationship encompasses, we are unlikely to move beyond a certain level of spiritual growth. “I realize what it means to be a child of God,” you might again be thinking. But have you really come to grips with the magnitude of this promise?
How often do we stop and think about what Paul meant by saying, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…”(Romans 8:16-17). Do you notice the principle of inheritance here? Just as God promised that Abraham would be an heir, we also are heirs of God. Paul makes it very clear in Romans 4:16 that “those who are of the faith of Abraham” are his descendants and therefore heirs of the promise. But in our case the promise is even greater, because what we are to inherit is the fulfillment of that which God planned for His children from the very beginning of time—the promise of “a new covenant”; that of an “eternal inheritance,” as the writer of Hebrews so succinctly states.(Hebrews 9:15) What an incredible opportunity we’ve been handed!
Fellow heirs with Christ? It’s tough, isn’t it, trying to envision ourselves as the heirs of the splendors of all that belongs to God. Can you even imagine? If we could really grasp this truth, wouldn’t it change everything for us? Wouldn’t we just naturally live out our faith in a whole new way—a life of greater focus, a life so much more motivated to “…walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called?”(6)
My child, I am God and there is no other. I am God, and there is no one like Me. I declare the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, My purpose will be established. I will accomplish all My good pleasure. Truly I have spoken, truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it. Believe Me My child. Remove all doubts and place your faith in Me. I WILL bring it to pass.
Isaiah 46: 9-11