King ASA and I

Seated with Christ ... where?

The Bible says in Ephesians 2:6 that "... God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him ..." Who are "us"? It's you and I who are saved and have received Jesus Christ as Our Lord and Savior. We are seated with Jesus ... where? Let's look at the rest of the verse, "... in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus".
You and I are seated in the Heavenly realms!!!
What does that mean for you and me in Our daily walk here on earth? And how can I be seated in heaven when I am living here on earth?
To answer the last question first: We are more than physical beings, we are a spirit (which is born again), we have a soul (our will, emotions and thoughts, or our mental faculties), and we live in a physical body.
When I was born again, my body was the same, my feelings were the same as before initially, but my spirit was born again. And it is my spirit who is seated with Christ in the Heavenly realms.
What does this mean for my everyday life?
Many Christians live from the outside in, like all non-believers. They are dependent upon what happens to them in the Natural to determine what kind of life they are living. We, however, who are born again, should live from the inside out, meaning our spirit should be the "boss" and determine our situation, our feelings, thoughts and actions.
How can this happen? By focusing on God's Word. What the Word says, is what I should be living by. Yes, bad Things happen in the world around us, but if I keep my spiritual eyes fastened on my seating with Christ in Heavenly Places, and what the Bible says about my situation, I will become an overcomer in this life.
This is what Colossians 3:1 says, "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God."
Set Your hearts (or think on) Things above.
Does this come easy? No. Is it possible? Yes!
Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." All Things mean ALL THINGS.
If you haven't begun Your life "seated with Christ in Heavenly Places" before, start today. Ask God to help you, and you're in for an exciting and rewarding Journey here on eart.
God bless you today!

 

But the Lord ...

But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen (2 Timothy 4:17-18, my emphases).
Paul was under tremendous pressure during his service for the Lord. I don't think any of us can imagine what he went through. 
Many of us are also under pressure, some more, some less, but every human being experience some pressure during their life.
And we who are Christians, have an enemy who is more than willing and eager to add to those human and natural pressures, to make them seem unbearable.
However, notice what the apostle Paul said in the Scriptures above. When considering the past, he said; "But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength ...". He testified that the Lord was there with him during the trials and pressures he went through. He came out victorious. "I was delivered from the lion's mouth!" That's amazing!
But not only was Paul looking back and thanking God for what He had done for him in the past, he was also looking forward to situations, pressures and trials that he knew would show up, and said: "The Lord will rescue me ...".
What do you and I say when we're facing tests and trials and pressures? Do we succumb to the temptation to give up, give in and give everything over to the enemy, or do we expectantly say with Paul: "The Lord will rescue me!"
Yes, the world is a dangerous and difficult place to live, but the Lord ....
Was it not for the Lord, I would have given up a long time ago. But the Lord delivered me from the hand of my enemies, He delivered me from my fears and He delivered me from my distresses. (See Psalms 18:1;134:5; 107:6 among others).
Today, if you feel the pressure all around you and in you, remember: But the Lord ...
Don't give the devil foothold in your life anymore, but give the Lord room. He will deliver you!

Be refreshed!

Do you feel a little tired? Down? Depressed? I know - we all do from time to time. That's part of life, it's part of being a human being. But for you and me who are born again children of allmighty God, we don't have to stay that way! We can be refreshed! And we can also refresh others who need it.
Don't believe it? Read these scriptures from the Bible, and see for yourself. Here we see people who have been tired, down and depressed, and they are refreshed or refreshing others!
A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. (Proverbs 11:25)
... so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed. (Romans 15:32)
For they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition. (1 Corinthians 16:18)
By all this we are encouraged. In addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you. (2 Corinthians 7:13)
 May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. (2 Timothy 1:16)
Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints. (Filemon 1:7).
No need to stay depressed any longer. God wants you to be refreshed! And if you don't know anyone who can refresh you, why don't you go out and find someone whom YOU CAN REFRESH?
He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed!

The fruit never lies

How do you know if a piece of fruit is good or bad? You taste it. And it doesn't take more than a split second to determine if the fruit is to your liking.
To find out how God is, He encourages us to "taste" Him. He says:
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. (Psalm 34:9).
Taste and see ... Have you "tasted" the Lord? I have, and I have found that he is GOOD - all the time.

• When I am down, He helps me up
• When I am sad, He gives me joy
• When I am sick, He heals me
• When I am poor, He supplies my needs
• When I am lonely, He is my best companion

I could go on and on, the list never ends. God is ALL IN ALL. Whatever I need, He is it!
That is good to remember when times are bad: 
When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.  (Ecclesiastes 7:14).
God is always in control, if we let Him.
So today I encourage you to "taste and see that the Lord is good". Let Him into your life - 100 %, and let Him change your situation from bad to good!
He loves you!


 

The Word of God is powerful

For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12).

It says in the above verse that the Word of God is powerful. What does that mean? Let's look at it in more detail. Powerful here is the Greek word energes. We recognize the modern words "energy" and "energetic", which come from energes. If something is full of energy or someone is energetic, we immediately think of action. Something is being done or someone is doing something.
The Word of God is like that - it does something, all the time and every time.
When God created the heaven and the earth, He used words. God said, and things happened. Has God changed? No, He is the same yesterday, today and forever (see Hebrews 13:8). If His Word was active and achieved what He willed then, His Word is still active and achieves what He wills today. Does God walk around on the earth saying things today? No. Today you and I are the ones God has sent to proclaim His Word. His Word in our mouths has the same power today as His Word in His mouth had then. Amazing? Absolutely!
The question that comes to mind, is of course: If God's Word is as powerful, i.e. so full of energy and active as if God Himself spoke, why don't we see more of God's acts around us?
Good question.
I believe the reason is that we don't believe that God's Word works. We don't have faith in His Word.
You see, for God's Word to work and achieve what it is sent to achieve, it needs to be backed by faith. It's not enough to recite "by His stripes I am healed", and then leave it at that. You need to believe that by Jesus' stripes you were really healed. You need to say it with force, not necessarily with a loud voice, but with a firm conviction.
Faith comes by hearing (see Romans 10:17), and the more you say God's Word, the more you hear it and the more you believe it.
To encourage you to exercise you faith muscle and say God's Word on a daily and continuous basis, remember that
EVERY WORD FROM THE BIBLE IS FILLED WITH THE SAME POWER THAT RESURRECTED CHRIST FROM THE DEAD AND CREATED THE UNIVERSE.
Now that is Good News! That is powerful news!
 

Faith - how it developes

It's some time since my last post. It's due to summer and lots of activity. But I believe I will be coming back with more posts this fall.

Today I want to take a look at faith and see how it developes. Let's start by reading from Romans 4;19-20:

Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God ...

Abraham was an old man when God told him he was going to become a father and his old wife would be the mother. How would you and I have reacted in the same situation? We probably would have laughed it away with a shrug, and gone one with our lives as before. But not Abraham. In the two verses above, we see that he took 3 steps that led to Isak's miracle birth:

1. He faced the facts
2. He did not waver
3. His faith was strengthened through his persistence

1. What facts did he face? The facts that his body was as good as dead (today we would probably say that he was impotent), and that his wife was past the age of child-bearing. She had gone through menopause.
2. In spite of these obstacles, he did not waver. What does that mean? He held fast to God's promise in spite of the physical evidences.
3. In stead of thinking in his mind that he was impotent and his wife was past the age of child-bearing, he was thinking of God's promise. "God will give me a son. God is going to bless my wife and me with a son." These thoughts threngthened his faith and led to them having Isak.

I am reminded of a couple of verses from 2 Chorintians 4:17-18:

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

The clue is where we fix our eyes (meaning our thoughts, our attention). For Abraham, the seen were the actual facts of age, but the unseen was God's promise: their son. Abraham fixed his eyes on God's promise. Where do you fix your eyes?