Our Image in Christ

“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? The words I say to you I do not speak on My own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work.”  -John 14:10

Have you ever found yourself lost in something?  We can often find ourselves lost in movies, entertainment, work, or other activities.  It isn’t wrong to be completely focused on something; in fact God calls us to work diligently and faithfully.

But when something consumes us before God, it can cause identity issues, limiting us from God’s unlimited power and presence in our lives.

Recently I was sitting in church during worship asking God some questions about certain things that were going on in my life.  "Look to Me," I heard Him say. At that moment, a gush of revelation about being "in Christ" came over me. 

"Your image in Me is going to look different than anybody else.  Don’t look to others - look to Me.  I am the source of your true identity."  When we look to Jesus, we don’t look to anything else to find or define ourselves.  We are defined by God and His plan for our lives. We can’t look to others for our identity because God has made us each unique.  It is okay to honor someone who has helped you in your walk, and it is okay to look to an admirable person as a good example.  But, when we cross the line into comparing ourselves and trying to live exactly how they live and do the things they do in order to earn acceptance by others, we are headed for trouble. God made us each uniquely, with a unique call and a unique set of gifts for our life.  This is not to say we do not live blameless, holy lives. 

When we look to Christ, the old image of our old self passes away.  (2 Cor 5:17) We become a new creation in Him.  We are no longer bound by old ways of thinking - we are released to live life to its fullest potential.  Our faith in Christ releases us to pursue all we’ve been given with everything we are.  Our weaknesses are overcome by His image being released in us.    If we are in Him then He is in us - and our true identity with shine through.  We find ourselves in Him.  "Lose your life to find it," (Matt 10:39) means when we lose ourselves in Him we find all we were really meant to be. 

Do you find your image in Christ?  Let Him help you discover all you were meant to be in Him today. 

Strengthening Our Faith Muscle

"And without faith, it is impossible to please God" – Hebrews 11:6

Do you regularly strengthen your "faith muscle"?  All the time, we need strengthening of our faith.  Just as it’s healthy to go to the gym and build muscle mass, (it prevents osteoporosis) it’s spiritually healthy for us to build our faith muscle. (And, it prevents the drying of our spiritual bones, A.K.A. DISCOURAGEMENT!)  (Ezekiel 37:11)

But, sometimes in life circumstances can get the better of us.  When one thing happens after another, we lose the ability to BELIEVE.  When these times come, we need our brothers and sisters who do have faith for the situation to pray and believe for us.  This will strengthen our faith - even for the most languid in spirit.  We need to continually stay in a place of faith in order to allow God to work.  God cannot work in a situation where there is no faith.  Faith is the precursor to God’s action on our behalf.  It is the fertile ground necessary for the miraculous to occur.  It is in faith that we are "alive in Christ."

Gunnar Olsen, a Christian businessman in Sweden tells a story called "The Plastic Bag Story."  At one time he owned a packing business, and during this time he received a large order for some plastic bags.  After receiving the shipment, the warehouse manager had informed Gunnar that the bags were sealed shut!  On a Friday, they checked all the boxes of bags - and every one of them had melted together.

Well, as you can imagine, it caused quite a panic.  Gunnar’s brother who also worked with him became very upset and Gunnar asked him to go play golf. His brother was incredulous - but Gunnar knew it would not be a good idea for his brother to be around.  He needed to be filled with faith for the situation, and he knew his brother was afraid.

Gunnar and his family went to the warehouse the following Saturday and stood in a circle praying together.  After they had prayed his daughter spoke up, "I think we should pray for the boxes!  God wouldn't want these bags to be sealed." So they did.  They laid hands on all 3,000 boxes of them.

The following Monday, they checked the bags.  They were unsealed, as if nothing had ever happened. 

The enemy wants nothing more than to STEAL our seeds of faith.  If he does that, he knows he can discourage us, and make us feel completely devoid of hope.  But, this is not what God wants for us!  God wants us to be full of faith – all the time!  However, in order to have faith in our lives we must want it – and we must learn to activate it.

Are you strengthening your "faith muscle"?

Hopefulness

 

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“We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized.” -Hebrews 6:11

There are situations in life that can knock the wind out of us.  Obstacles get in the way of our hopes and dreams and keep us from seeing the fulfillment of them.  When all seems dark and the light has grown dim, we need to put our hope in something.  When we lose hope, we lose desire  - we lose our ability to fight for what’s important in life.  When this happens, it is easy to get to a place of doubt.  But, the good news for us is that we can always put our hope and trust in our unfailing heavenly Father, focusing on His love and promises for us regardless of what is happening now. (1 Thes 4:13)

Abraham and Sarah had been promised a son.  They were both getting very old, (90 and 100, respectively) and began to wonder where God was on fulfilling this promise.  When Sarah overheard a visitor saying she would have a child at her age, she laughed.  She didn’t realize it was God speaking to Abraham. 

A year later she conceived the promised son. ^“Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.” -Gen 21:2

Sometimes we lose hope in what God has promised. We can get bitter. But it takes incredible situations for God to do the miraculous on our behalf, that only He can do.  During these times of testing, we need to be sure we don’t falter in our trust in Him!

Do you have hope for your situation?  If you don’t, pray today that God would give you hope to bring you to the next step. It could be hope for a dream, a goal, a relationship, or even a new job.  When there’s been nothing for so long, we need to have hope and focus on the positive – because hope is the place where faith can grow.  We have to have true hope first if we are ever going to live in true faith for our situations. (Heb 11:1)

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." -Romans 15:13

God Uses a Reject

"Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute." -Judges 11:1

There is an incredible story in the Bible about a very unlikely leader.

Jephthah was a man who was the illegitimate son of his father Gilead.  His brothers drove him away and said to Jephthah, “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family, because you are the son of another woman.”

Rejected and humiliated, Jephthah fled from his family to a place called Tob.

During this time, Israel has been unfaithful to God, worshipping other idols. At this the Lord became angry, and he sold them to their enemies the Philistines and the Ammonites.  (10:7)  However, after 18 years of oppression, the Israelites cried out to God to save them, got rid of their idols and repented. Judges 10:16 says, "And (God) could bear Israel’s misery no longer."

Eventually, the Ammonites were engaged in a war against Israel. The elders of Gilead went to Jephthah and asked him to be their commander.

Initially he asked them why they were coming to him after they he had been exiled.  But because they insisted, and offered him full rulership of Gilead, he accepted the challenge (11:8).  God gave their enemies over to Jephthah, and he won the war. "Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands." (11:32)

Have you ever felt like you were the unlucky one, like God couldn't use you due to things that have happened in your life?  Know that He is preparing a way for you - in spite of your circumstances - to turn rejection into purpose, hardship into hope, and disgrace into His glory.

Everyday Miracles

 

“You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.” -Psalm 77:14

Have you ever had something miraculous happen to you?  We tend to think of miracles as big things such as winning a million dollars or getting healed from cancer.  When these types of big things happen, they are incredible!  And we should give God the glory.  But too often we forget to remember the everyday miracles that God puts right in front of us. 

We miss getting in a car accident by just inches, or, we gain the courage to try something new.  We find the perfect dress for the perfect occasion (for girls), or a butterfly flutters across our path – these are many a small miracle that we tend to take for granted.

The Bible says that not one sparrow falls without God knowing about it. ”Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.”  -Matthew 10:29

Things that may seem small really are miraculous. It is a miracle to me that we have so many jobs in America, even if the unemployment rate is high.  It's incredible that my Father in heaven takes care of my mom everyday, and there isn’t more crime and hated among people with everything negative that’s happened to each of us.  The presence of love is a small miracle in itself!  But I can also cite specific times when God did small miracles.  It helps me recognize His presence and activity in my life.

Can you think of a time when God performed a miracle in your life, small or big?  Reminisce on that today, and thank Him for it. If you can’t think of a time, ask God to reveal himself to you in this way.  We never know what can happen when we have faith in our unfailing God.

Forgetting the Former Things

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.  Is 43:18-20

Are there things from your past that you keep going back to?  Old mistakes, past regrets, personal failures, or things that you still feel guilt over? Are there things that you need to “forget” or stop dwelling on in your life?

In the Old Testament, when the Israelites were far away from God, rebelling and worshipping other gods, the prophet Isaiah was one of the prophets to call them into account. But, even though the Israelites had done horrible things, (even sacrificing their children to idols! Ezekiel 16:20), God was willing to give them another chance. 

“‘Come now, let’s settle this,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow.  Though they are red like crimson,  I will make them as white as wool.’” - Isaiah 1:18

Sometimes we are unable to fully move forward in life because we are continually looking behind us.  Mistakes, regrets, and avoidable circumstances may continue to plague us even after we’ve asked forgiveness and laid it to rest - even against ourselves! But the fact of the matter is, when the past is behind us, and we’ve been forgiven, it really is no more.   Satan wants our past and present to be our future. But God always sees us for who we are becoming.

Are you ready to receive God’s forgiveness, and decide to let go of the “former things”? Pray and ask God to give you the strength and grace to leave the past behind you.  

Salty Sweet

"Kind words are like honey - sweet to the soul and healthy for the body." -Proverbs 16:24
 
What does it mean to be salty or sweet? A friend of mine put together a website that parallels the internal state of our hearts with flavors. I thought it was such a great way to think about guarding our hearts and making sure we stay at a good balance of "salty" and "sweet"! 

I love being around salty sweet people. To me, this means a person who has an understanding of the love of God in their life, (sweet) and also an understanding of His boundaries and revelation (salty). These two words can also parallel spending time with God, as Mary did, (sweet) and also doing the work of God (salty) - as Martha did. Both are essential components of the Christian life. 

However, sometimes when situations get us down, they can allow us to get bitter or sour, instead of salty or sweet. There are many people in the world who are still dealing with past hurts or wounds unable to get past them. (Unfortunately, many of these people are Christians!) When our circumstances are continuously negative, it is easy to question the good nature of God, and allow our hearts to get bitter or sour. But the truth of the matter is, we must learn to forgive and let go. We mustn't let outside circumstances, people, or things dictate our faith or keep us from experiencing God's love in our lives. If we allow Him to, Jesus can heal those things that can turn us bitter or sour so that we will be cleansed and become salty and sweet instead. We don't need to leave people with a bad "taste" in their mouth! 

Are you salty and sweet, or are there any areas in your life where you are sour or bitter? Pray and ask God to cleanse your heart from any form of sourness or bitterness. He desires that we be continuously filled with His overflowing love and light.



You can check out my friend Toya's website at http://31flavours.weebly.com/what-flavour-are-you.html!

Weapons of Warfare

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” -2 Corinthians 4:10

My dad turned to me one day and said something I had never really thought about before. “You know,” he said, “you have so much at your age that I never had.  It’s like you have a tool belt full of weapons against the enemy.”  He was referring to the preparation I had been undergoing through a series of trainings, and the healing work that God had been doing in my life.

“I guess you’re right!” I said. I knew he wasn’t necessarily saying it so I would feel proud of myself, (although I could tell he was proud.)  He was saying it so that I would recognize the responsibility I had to be able to help others.

The Bible talks about weapons of warfare. It makes a clear distinction between the weapons of this world and weapons in the spiritual realm. The Message version states:  “The tools of our trade aren't for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.”  

 

What are our weapons of warfare?  They include faith, prayer, grace, revelation, love, and God's truth.  Most of all, they are the things we have been through that God has healed and delivered us from.  Once we have overcome and are healed, we have the ability to speak truth to that obstacle in someone else’s life with authority.  (2 Cor 13:4)

When we align ourselves with God’s Word, we are taking a clear stand between us and the forces of darkness.  However, when we speak of weapons, it's not people we're looking to use them on.  It's the darkness.  So often we make the mistake of trying to shoot at the enemy, but we end up shooting the person he is holding hostage instead.

Do you know the weapons of warfare God has given to you? Let us use these weapons to remove obstacles to God, so that people can live free and unfettered in the saving grace and love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told

"How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume more than any spice!"  -Song of Solomon 4:10

"Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: 'This is what the LORD says: "'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown."'" -Jeremiah 2:2

All throughout scripture a beautiful love story is interwoven between all of humanity and her bridegroom, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Every great love story has this plot of the handsome prince saving his princess, fighting off evil enemies in order to rescue her and gain the chance to win her hand.  In modern times, Beauty and the Beast, Allie and Noah, and Bella and Edward have been the forefront characters... but all great love stories involve a certain mystery, a certain magic, and a certain struggle that the man must endure and overcome to win the heart of his bride.  And continue to win it.

Jesus' death and resurrection on the cross was payment for every sin on this earth.  No one is without sin, and so we desperately needed a Savior who would be willing to lay down His life for us so we would not have to endure eternal death.

In this, as we realize just a piece of what kind of sacrifice was required, we learn to love a God who gave up His Son Jesus so that we wouldn't have to die.  Every great story has a derivative of this narrative; that's what makes it so great, and so compelling. 

As the story goes, Jesus is coming back for His bride one day, in a glorious wedding ceremony.  "I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband." -Revelation 21:2

But in order for Jesus to return for His bride, we have to be ready.  "Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready." -Revelation 19:7

Do you know your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?  Pray that He would reveal Himself to you, and that He would win over your heart. We need to be found ready, so that His glory can be revealed in all those who believe in Him - His bride, the Church. 

Uproot the Root!

 

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"And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.'" -Exodus 34:6-7

Have you ever had a problem that you simply could not get rid of?  Have you ever had something, whether an emotion, a habit, or a particular thought pattern, no matter how hard you tried, you could rid yourself of it - even after confession and repentance? After we become a Christian and we are “born again” this doesn’t mean that our battle with sin is over.  It simply means that we have become “new in Christ.”  (2 Cor 5:17)  Freedom from sin is a journey, as God reveals what is hidden in our hearts, bringing them to light and into His cleaning power.  (1 John 1:7)

Sometimes we may struggle with something that we've "always" seemed to struggle with. This problem may have had an origin long ago – even before we were born.  We may notice that those in our family struggle with similar issues, or perhaps we never even noticed it was a sin before we became a Christian. But as we walk on our journey, and the Holy Spirit begins to reveal certain things to us that were once okay and are now not as okay anymore, we may realize that something has a hold on our life that shouldn’t.

Once I heard a man speak to a church group about his struggles with sexual sin.  He explained to the audience that infidelity and sexual thoughts were something that he had always struggled with, and he had never known life without these issues.  He kept on going through “sin management”, where he confessed and repented for his actions but would see the same issue rear its ugly head 6 to 8 weeks later.

Eventually, this man received a revelation from the Holy Spirit through reading the scripture that “confession” means to “discover the root” and repent of the root in order to get free.  Since he had no recollection of when the issue began, he realized he was not the one who opened this door to sin initially. Only when he confessed the “genesis” of these issues, where they began from his father and grandfather, was he able to become truly free of their influence.

Are there any issues in your life that you struggle with continuously?  Pray and ask God to show you where they may have their root.  He is faithful to forgive and cleanse us so we can have complete freedom in Him!

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

Living by Faith vs. Living by Emotion

"A sound mind makes for a robust body, but runaway emotions corrode the bones." -Proverbs 14:30 (MSG)

We tend to live by emotion in our culture. "Just do what feels right," seems to be the general norm. Many of our thoughts about right and wrong are based on our emotions, on what we perceive is right, or wrong.
 
When someone hurts us, we stand on the perceived reality that they "hurt our feelings." Sometimes we imply a motive behind others' actions which causes us to wrongfully judge them instead of asking about their intentions. We fail to employ discernment to see if the wound had a deeper root from something from our own past or even theirs. And then, we often do not do the even deeper work to discover and let God restore and heal what's broken through the power of forgiveness.
 
Faith, although a substance like emotion, is different from emotion. Faith comes as a response to God's words that knows that what the Bible says is true. It is a response to situations which says, "My God is in control."
 
When we live by emotion, it's like our faith hasn't fully taken root in our hearts. It hasn't yet extended to those situations that make us upset. Jesus described it in this way: "The seed cast in the gravel - this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it." -Matthew 13:20
 
Character is what we do when no one else is looking. It's also what we do in the midst of challenge. Do we bend and fold, or are we able to stand strong on the foundation of our faith? Living by faith ensures a firm foundation. Although it is natural to feel emotion, we should not make decisions based on our emotion. We should make them based on our faith.
 
"The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." -Matthew 7:25
 
Let us be like the house on that firm foundation of faith, as we place our faith and trust in God with whatever difficulties come our way - no matter how we feel.

Love One Another

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." -John 13:34&35

Life can get stressful at times. The bills need paying, the job is insane or isn't quite what we hoped for; the kids are running around crazy, we've gotten a cold. During these times of pressure is when we're pushed to our limits-and our true colors show. Whatever is in us comes out of us - and it can be quite revealing - and embarrassing.

But what we need to remember during these times of pressure is what really matters. Seeds may have been planted early on  in our lives to suggest we're nothing without stellar performance, we're nothing without money, we're nothing without achievement, we're nothing without beauty & a sleek physic. Yes, these things are nice to have, and we should set goals for our lives. But the reality is, without LOVE, it means nothing.

What remains in our lives after we're gone and all is said and done is our love for others. The Bible says only three things will remain - faith, hope, and love- the greatest of these being love. So the next time we are tempted to think our performance is what matters, the amount of money that we make is what matters, or how much we've achieved is what really makes us count, we need to think again. Love is the only thing that truly matters. Have love, and we win the world over. Lose love, and we lose all that Jesus died for.

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." -1 Cor 13:13