2024 - The Promise of God

 2024

In 2024 the promise of God to you is that 

- You are still blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ .

- You are still seated in heavenly places in Christ .

- You are still righteous and united into Christ.

- You are still complete in Christ.

- You are still full, whole and healed.

- You are still a New Creation in Christ.

- You still live in the perpetual day of the Lord’s favour.

- You are still a child of God.

So let your thoughts and your mind know the truth of your new life in Christ. This year know that all the promises of God are still YES and Amen in Christ.

Fear is Needless

 

The Whole Package

 

A Highway of Grace

 

God speaks to you in the turmoil of the storm.

 For someone today 

God speaks to you in the turmoil of the storm.

God is not silent. He is speaking to you.  He has not deserted you or left you. God is not holding out on you. He is there with you in the very centre of the storm that is engulfing you. He is your safe stronghold in the wirlwind of life. 

God loves communion with you. You were created and designed to delight in communion with God. He loves to hear your voice, he adores the tones of your words and he longs for you to call out to him. He is never ever fed up with you. There are no boundaries to his love for you for you are the delight of his heart.

Today whatever storm you are going through God is speaking to you in it. He is guiding you and he is your deliverance from all captivity and oppression.   

God is speaking to you, listen to him and let him guide you and fill you with his delight and all good things.

I Am Your Watchword

 

Last Word

 

Vessel

 

Called To Life

 

Live In The Light

 

Rejoice In My Promises

 

Active Within You

 

Weep No More

 

Arise and Shake Off The Dust

 

It Is Time

 

Raging Fire

 

Radiate

 

Shining Light

 

Changeless Love

 

Dominant Thought

 

Simple Confidence

 

Fullness of Christ

 

Unbroken Peace

 

Simply Being With You

 

Value and Beauty

 

Confidence In Me

 

A Blank Canvas

 

The Letter

 

Release From Paralysis

There is a call of God to release the Church from its paralysis. The love and compassion of God for his precious children into life changing freedom. 

I felt that there is a sense that the Church has been stuck trying to climb. That a lot of things have become a struggle and a great deal of strength and resources have been expanded on trying to overcome. This trying to overcome had the consequence of a paralysis in the spirit. This paralysis has had the effect of things seeming unmoveable and stuck. This was spirituality a wrong perspective of what God and The Holy Spirit had already accomplished. The paralysis had the effect of concentrating on the problem and pushing the solution to one side. 

God was calling the Church to change its perspective and embrace the Holy Spirit new life given to every member, every living stone. God loves the Church, Christ gave his life for her. He is her head, Christ’s blood is her life, he took her judgment and her punishment so she could be released and live in freedom. He has made his Church alive in him and his call is to change his Children’s perspective and be released from the paralysis of the moment into freedom for the future.

Our Redemption

 God has done all He can in our redemption.

It is finished. God has done it all. Jesus death at the cross was a finished work. Jesus is not adding to his completed work on the cross. 

We have received eternal, not momentary, redemption. One sacrifice was made for all sin, and we have been perfected forever. Once you accept the sacrifice of Jesus for your sins by faith, then you are re-born a new creation and your spirit is made perfect. A million years from now, your spirit will be identical to what it is right now, and it is identical to Jesus. You’re redemption is complete in Christ Jesus. 

Our new creation spirits are already eternally redeemed. You are now accepted and adopted into the family of God and are now a joint heir with Jesus Christ, seated in heavenly places in him.

Redemption, the complete forgiveness of your sins, is Gods perfect foundation to you living in the fulness of the New Covenant.

The Ripe Grapes

 28/8 - “The Ripe Grapes”

I heard, “Today is the day of harvesting the ripe grapes.”

Numbers 13 : 20 - “…. It happened to be the season for harvesting the first ripe grapes.”

“My Treasure, the harvest is ripe, the grapes are ripe for picking. You don’t have to wait to harvest the ripe fruit of the harvest. I have given you the new season of my harvest. The soil is fertile, the soil of the finished work of Christ is rich in grace and full of provision. All things now work for your good because the harvest of the cross is your sustainable land of my promises. 

The rich grapes of the new season will Produce the best wine of the new season. The wine will overflow, with new life, every drop of this wine will overflow with my commitment to you. It will be unlike any wine you have ever drunk or tasted, it will be my wine of life and love into you.

The rich grapes of my harvest are given to you, let my new rich grapes grow and excel in the new rich, fertile soil of your life in Christ.”

Drink Deeply

 27/8 - “Drink Deeply”

I heard, “Drink deeply.”

Isaiah 66 : 11 -“Drink deeply of her glory even as an infant drinks at his mother’s comforting breasts.”

My Treasure this is a time to come and drink deeply of all the nourishment I have for you. Don’t hold back, don’t shy away, for this is a day I want to nourish you. I have provided all you need, I am reaching out and inviting you to come and drink deeply.

In this season come and fill up with my life, my abundance, my promises and my grace. My nourishment has been provided for you, to hold you, sustain you and make you flourish. My desire is that you thrive, so drink deeply and let my Spirit rise in you, and fill your thoughts and mind with the truth of my word.”

The Battle is Won

 For someone today 

"I have won the battle. You are victorious in Christ.", says God.

The battle is not yours, the war is over, Jesus has overcome for you. Jesus has overcome in you. Live in the the overcoming victory that is within in. 

Don't let the enemy deceive you.  Jesus has delivered you from the lies and distraction of the enemy. You have overcome because Jesus has overcome and he lives and works in you. 

Don't be drawn into fighting, don't be drawn in concentrating on the battle. Don't be drawn into contending for a breakthrough.  Jesus broke through at the cross for you, you now live in the victory he has won.

Rest and wait for the victory to manifest and let God align his thoughts with your thoughts.

Today renew your mind to the victory of the cross and the power of the Resurrection victory that lives inside you.

Jesus has won the battle, the war is over. Declare it out, believe it in your heart,  because God has settled it once and forever.

Lighthouse by Red Dirt Girl

The Keeper waits at the edge of the world,

as he knots his nets of starlight and air.

He watches and works and waits for the girl.

The one who charts the edge of this world.

Skating the edge, sharp bladed, she swirls.

He hears in her movement the breath of despair.

She makes her last turn and launches, midair

into madness

her sanity unfurls

into madness

her lunatic plunge.

Universe explodes pierced by radiant nets.

His scarred hands unfurl in their shattering pain.

The Keeper waits at the edge of the world.

Waiting, tear stained, for the girl.

Through space

starlight rushes.

She plummets

free-falls.

Will star nets contain her?

Suspended, she cries.

How will I chart the edge of this world

now that I’ve fallen off?

Here’s the Answer.

 John  Crowder - From The Cosmos Reborn

Our rationalistic Greek culture is obsessed with figuring out everything logically. “Why do some not believe?” How am I going to explain logically something as illogical as the sin of unbelief? You cannot explain evil. It is not logical. God never gives us an explanation of evil – he only gives us the answer to it. All we have before us is the mystery. If there were no bottomless pit of evil, then Christ’s cross was pointless. He would not have come to be the atoning sacrifice for sins. No He doesn’t explain evil; He just deals with it. He deals decisively and completely with darkness by entering that dark, hopeless void that separated us from Him and bridged the gap in His own life, death and resurrection.

He doesn’t say: Why no faith? He says: Here’s the Answer. 

He doesn’t say: Why are you sick? He says: Here’s the Answer. 

He doesn’t say: Why are you poor? He says: Here’s the Answer. 

He doesn’t say: Why is your marriage broken? He says: Here’s the Answer. 

Having spent years in healing ministry, I’ve seen the whole machine become obsessed with looking for roots and causes to the problems of sickness, rather than resting in the simple reality that by His stripes we are already healed. The Gospel is always the antidote. Let’s start with the answer, not the problem. It is the higher reality to which we continually appeal, even when circumstances fly seemingly opposite.

John Crowder - The Cosmos Reborn

Valued and Accepted

 For someone today:-

You are valued and accepted

Christ loves you with an everlasting love

It is time to lay down your weapons

It is time to stop listening to false accusations

It is time to stop listening to lies

It is time to stop fighting

It is time to rest and let truth triumph in your heart.

Stop being consumed with the battle and live in the victory

You have the victory of Christ living inside you

You have the light inside your heart

It is time to lay down your weapons

It is time to let Christ shine in you

Let the love of Christ flow and radiate in your life today.

You have the victory living in you.

THE DOOR IS OPEN

God is saying, “The door is open, it has never been shut, who has convinced you that the door is shut! I have opened the door, I have torn the curtain asunder, I have opened up an eternal access into my presence and my glory. I have opened up a door, and I have never shut it. It is constantly open, constant access, constant favor, constant life, constant glory!”

“Don’t believe the lies, don’t believe the lies of separation. You are accepted, Christ opened the door at the cross. The cross is enough! This is the new day of my life alive in you. You are my masterpiece, my life alive in you. To you, the door was always opened, forever into a living, vibrant, radiant life alive in me.”

“You don’t have to wait, the door is open, you don’t have to ask, the door is open, you don’t have to beg, the door is open, you don’t have to hesitate, the door is open. The curtain is ripped asunder. You have access! What Christ has opened, will never be shut!”

“The treasure of heaven is opened to you, the wonders and beauty and glory has always been open to you. Walk with me into the garden of my pleasure, the fullness of my bliss, I have given this to you. You are my delight and you are my treasure.” See less

GOD’S SHOUT IS GRACE - Romans 9 & 10

 GOD’S SHOUT IS GRACE - Romans 9 & 10

“What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble, and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.” – Romans 9 : 30-33

Here in Romans  9 & 10, Paul declares that the “dividing” wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile has been removed in Christ. God promised that all nations would be made righteous through his seed.  Israel throughout its history completely missed this and despised the Gentiles and treated them as inferior, thinking of themselves as superior since they have and "kept" Gods law. 

God doesn’t want to find fault with people. He loves the world. God loves us. He wants a relationship with us. It was out of his good pleasure that he created us. His intention is to have a people who are his own who will draw near to him for all time and eternity in an intimate covenant relationship. Jesus came to bring us into that relationship. He came to take us out of our own righteousness and bring us into His righteousness. A perfect righteousness that causes us to relate perfectly to God. Through Israel under the law man’s righteousness is an unstable and inferior righteousness that cannot sustain a relationship with God. God wanted an infallible and unbreakable relationship with mankind that would last for all eternity and that’s why the new covenant is a superior and far better covenant arrangement than the old law based on,

This was highlighted to Israel in no uncertain terms, 40 years (A generation) before the Northern Kingdom of Israel was taken into exile by the Assyrian Empire. During the reign of Jeroboam II God raised up and commissioned a prophet, Jonah to declare and demonstrate his grace to Israel by offering forgiveness and blessing to the underserving gentile city of Nineveh. There was nothing good about Nineveh, nothing deserving, nothing qualified them. But God sent Jonah to them to offer righteousness with him, based solely on believing the promise of God. This was more than just an offer, it was a declaration to Israel, that if they turned from the yoke of the law, God would turn from sending them into captivity. The Gentiles were chosen to show the children of Abraham, just how much God loved them. 

In the book of Jonah, we can see God’s intentional love and grace offered to unqualified people, to demonstrate that once God gives a promise, he is committed to keeping it. Israel was given a promise, but the promise of Christ and freedom from the law needed to be believed. 

THE PROMISE IS TRUE - Romans 4

“He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” - Romans 4 : 20-22

God chose Abram and it is important to understand that Abram did not qualify. It is evident that it was not because Abram was a holy and righteous man that God chose him. In fact, he never knew God, but God chose him. God came to him and told him he was going to bless him. He told him that he was choosing him to qualify for his blessings. And to seal it with Abram, God was going to make a covenant with him. God swore an oath, and bound himself to him with a promise that said, “I will bless you and make you into many nations even though you do not deserve it.”

Abraham believed the promise! It was an amazing moment in history, that a childless man believed in a promise that God would bless him and give him a child. And because he believed God and considered the promise to be true, it was counted to him as righteousness.

Therefore, It was in and through the grace of God that would be later paid for and completed by Christ’s perfect sacrifice and finished work at the cross. 

God's promise is as inevitable as rain falling. His promise is secure. God does not lie. We are called to inherit his promises. The Holy Spirit in us is the promise of God to give us all things in grace. And just as Abraham without the Holy Spirit believed the promise, we with the Indwelling power of Christ are encouraged to have a confident expectation that God’s promise made manifest in Christ is ours.

For Abraham, God's promise to him became the anchor point of his life. This anchor point is now the promise fulfilled in Christ and the grace we now live through the finished work of the cross.

LIVE IN THE SPIRIT - ROMANS 12

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” - Romans 12 : 1-2

Renewing the mind? We have heard this so much as Christians, but what does it actually mean? In the context of this letter to the Romans from chapters 1 to 11 what does the word renewing mean here?

Most people will tell you that it means to get your mind to line up with the Bible and the more you read and study the Bible and get revelation on it the more your mind will be renewed. Now I have no problem with this but I don’t believe that this tells the complete story! This definition although helpful does not tell us what renewing the mind is. In fact, it just assumes what it is! 

Renewing here in Romans 12 : 2 means “to make new” or “back to new” or “new again.” It is a statement that tells us that once our minds were new, then they became old, and now they need to be new again. It has everything to do with all that Paul has been saying in Romans chapters 5 - 8. This statement here is the conclusion of all that Paul had previously written. 

It is talking to us to renew our minds to the fact that we have died to the flesh and are now alive in the spirit. When we are in Christ we are now alive in the spirit and are free from the flesh and Adam.

God's nature is in you, you have been transferred from living in Adam to living in Christ. Your spirit was made righteous and you were given a new nature, the God nature, his desire and encouragement to you is that you now walk in this nature and this nature becomes your daily experience. Your new spirit in Christ is empowered by a new position in Christ and it would be alien and strange to go back to that old place under the law where you were under the dominion of sin. 

It is the desire of God that you renew your mind to this amazing reality that you have died to your old inherited sin nature in Adam and have become a new creation in Christ in your new nature from God. To take every thought captive and live now from your new creation spirit man.

THE POWER OF SALVATION - Romans 1

“I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes first for the Jew and then for the Gentile". - Romans 1 : 16

Paul in his opening statement of Romans describes the gospel as the power unto salvation to all who believe. That word "salvation" is the word "soterio" and the short version is "sozo". It means "wholeness, health and blessing and provision and protection". Some people think that salvation means only going to heaven. So get this, it doesn't speak about "heaven" here. Paul says I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God unto wholeness, protection, preservation, cleansing, power for provision for health, for wholeness for all who believe! 

Today when you hear people say; "I am not ashamed of this gospel" - they do not mean the same thing that Paul means. Paul lived in a time that was dominated by the Old Covenant law way of thinking. The very idea that someone could be righteous apart from their work, performance, or obedience was an alien thing. They would kill you and stone you if you said you were the righteousness of God apart from your law, works or performance. 

Paul says I am not ashamed to say that the power that operates in you for wholeness, health, wellbeing, preservation, and protection doesn't come from my works but it comes from a gift of righteousness that is God's gift to me. That is how I reign in life! Not through my works, not through how well I do, my obedience, or my holiness - it comes from a gift of righteousness. This is the message that brings liberty and freedom and deliverance  - this message of grace brings people into liberty! 

"for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed - a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it is written the righteous will live by faith". - Romans 1 : 17

How does this great power flow? What is the cause of this power? What releases this power? A revelation that a righteousness from God has been given to you as a free gift. No obligation! Just believe it and you will see the outworking of it!

PREDESTINED IN CHRIST- Romans 8 : 28 - 39

 PREDESTINED IN CHRIST- Romans 8 : 28 - 39

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” - Romans 8 : 28 - 30

Many of us read the above verses and look at them from the wrong perspective. They take them out of context and try to answer questions that do not exist. The question that the majority ask is, “Who has God predestined?” But it is not about that! It is more about that Christ before time was predestined. 

Paul in chapters 5  to 8 has revealed that mankind is either “in Adam” or “in Christ” and that Christ was God’s plan, held in His foreknowledge to be the total and righteous solution for all mankind. This is the span of God’s eternal grace covenant right here! In the context of all that has gone before in Romans, it should now be read - “Before time he chose you to be In Christ. In time he justified you in Christ. After time he glorified you in Christ.” And all in the “past” tense to declare that it was always God’s plan right from the start for you to be in Christ. You were always predestined to be in Christ before the foundation of the world.   

Notice how none of the qualifications has anything to do you? Only God can qualify people. The only thing we are called to do is to believe the promise of Christ. God does not call the qualified. He calls us all, because, in Adam, we are incapable of qualifying ourselves! He asks us to respond to his offer of love, his offer to be our qualification. Those who respond to Christ, die to their old sin nature and are reborn into Christ, where he justifies us, he makes us righteous and he ultimately glorifies us. Those who don’t and continue to rely on their own efforts will, unfortunately, be lost.

NO CONDEMNATION - ROMANS 8 : 1 - 27

 

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,” - Romans 8: 1

Why is there no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus? It is because now   “In Christ” you have died to the old man in Adam and you are now released from the condemnation of the law. Your first marriage partner has died and you are now married to Christ. In Christ, you have found love, intimacy, beauty, and new life. All the voices of condemnation have died and are silenced. A dead person cannot raise there voice to condemn, the voice that now speaks to you tells you that you are now loved forever and you can never be separated from this love.

Now you are birthed by the spirit of Christ, you are a new creation in Christ. You are no longer a child of the flesh, birthed in Adam, in the flesh. Paul picks up the revelation he started with a few chapters earlier in Romans 5 where he declares that you were once born in flesh in Adam and this meant that you inherited a sin nature, but now you are born in Christ, by the spirit and now you have inherited his righteousness. You are now holy and righteous in Christ, so don’t slip back into living by the flesh, your old and dead nature in Adam.

Unfortunately, many teacher’s think it is essential to teach a little condemnation because they feel that it is the solution for getting Christians not to sin again. But as we have seen Romans 8 clearly states that for the Christian there is now no condemnation.

Now we are free to live our lives from this revelation or go back to the law and condemnation or we can live from the spirit and live in grace constantly.

The key to understanding Romans 8 is that walking after or being in the flesh refers to being in Adam and walking in the spirit refers to being in Christ. If you are born again then the spirit of God dwells in you and you are in Christ. Therefore it is about living out your life, in your body, in Christ through the Spirit in you.

Once again the Church has taught condemnation into this passage, it has said, “When you are not sinning then you are walking in the spirit, but when you are sinning you are walking in the flesh!”  We need to understand that we could do fleshy things but that does not take us back to “being in the flesh.” Just like you cannot be in the flesh, and do spiritual things that could take you “bring in the spirit.” You have died to your old Adam nature birthed in the flesh and now you are raised to new life in Christ, in the spirit.

YOU ARE MARRIED TO CHRIST - Romans 7

 YOU ARE MARRIED TO CHRIST - Romans 7

“do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.” - Romans 7 : 1-3

Paul in Romans 7 now explains and emphasizes that those who are in Christ, are now married to Christ and therefore, are dead to the law. Christ fulfilled the law at the cross and released us from its marriage contract and we are free to marry the love of our hearts, in a wonderful glorious new marriage of beauty, intimacy and adventure. There is a clear distinction that someone can only be in one or other and not both. You cannot just go to marry grace when you are already married to the law. 

So what does this mean? It means that we can never go back to being under the law. It means we can’t be in Christ and be under the Law. Unfortunately, many Christians are confused about this and try to relate to God through grace, but also adding the law into the ingredients! We can try to do this but according to Roman 7 we are in reality committing spiritual adultery. According to God we are now married to Christ, therefore the law has no bearing on our lives. In fact, the law is like a jealous ex-wife who tries to entice us away from Christ! It is this enticement that draws us into condemnation and tries to capture our hearts with guilt. The root cause of all spiritual adultery is condemnation. 

The Old Testament story of Isreal is about the law and the prophets proclaiming and pointing to Christ. They don’t point PAST Christ. Once we come into Christ then the law has done its purpose, we are released from the Law and come into a whole new way of life. Our new creation nature does not require the law because the new covenant is the fulfillment of the law. 

“But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve In newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter.” Romans 7:6

We have come into a new position in Christ which has changed everything. Our spirit has been reborn and made righteous and given a new nature. This means that an external law acting as an external restraint, giving us external motivation, is no longer needed. Because now we have an internal motivation which is Christ living in us, with his nature in us and his righteousness given to us. This is the new and living way of the Spirit.

SLAVES TO RIGHTEOUSNESS - Romans 6 : 14-18.

“Being then made free from sin, you have becomes slaves to righteousness.” - Romans 6 : 18

This verse out of context can be completely misread. The response can be “ If I am declared free in Christ, I don’t want to go back to being a slave. I don’t want to exchange one set of slavery for another set of slavery!” No, you don’t! But you have to see that is wonderful being a slave to righteousness! Because righteousness has now become your new master and not sin. So for all time and eternity, you are in Christ and in righteousness. You are therefore not in Adam, in sin, and under the law but you are in Christ and in grace.

“For sin shall have no dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” - Romans 6:14

This declares that the consequences of sin and the judgment of sin no longer has dominion over you. Why? Because you are now in Christ and you are no longer in Adam. Therefore you are not under the dominion of sin anymore, you are under the dominion of righteousness. 

Once we have understood this amazing revelation, it becomes imperative that we do not put Christians back under a performance mindset. The truth of Christ is that when you are in the position with Christ in righteousness, even if you do keep sinning, big or little, that sin has no dominion over you. There would be no condemnation, no judgment, no separation from God, no withholding of blessings of God. Why? Because you are in Christ and therefore you have inherited all of Christ or to put it another way, you now live in the grace of God.

God's nature is in you, you have been transferred from living in Adam to living in Christ. Your spirit was made righteous and you were given a new nature, the God nature, his desire and encouragement to you is that you now walk in this nature and this nature becomes your daily experience. Your new spirit in Christ is empowered by a new position in Christ and it would be alien and strange to go back to that old place under the law where you were under the dominion of sin. 

It is the desire of God that you renew your mind to this amazing reality that you have died to your old inherited sin nature in Adam and have become a new creation in Christ in your new nature from God. To take every thought captive and live now from your new creation spirit man.

Wield His Victory

 Jesus came through for you before you were even born.

He won the victory for you before you were even born. He defeated the enemy at the cross and he has given all authority to you to live in His victory. 

You were created to reign.

Today, God is saying to you to rise up and wield His victory over your circumstances and situations. 

Don't accept things that have come into your life to rob you of your peace and burden you down with oppression. 

Christ has promised to never leave you. Christ will Never abandon you. You are never alone in Christ. He lives in you. You are a living temple of the Holy Spirit and God lives in you.

Every battle you face He has won. Every skirmish that comes your way He has won. Every ambush the enemy sets for you, Christ has won.

Today stand firm in the finished work of Christ. Stand firm in his victory. Stand firm in the peace, joy, goodness, kindness, love, righteousness and faith of God.

God has faith in you because Christ has won the victory. 

Today wield the victory of Christ in your life.

DEAD TO SIN - ALIVE TO CHRIST - ROMANS 6 : 1 - 13

 

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound ?” - Romans 6 :1

This is a prime verse that people read and take out of context. It becomes a stick to prod Christians. It gets interpreted to - “stop sinning, do all you can to try to stop sinning, if you don’t you are basically abusing grace.” But in context, it is not talking about the action of sinning. It is talking about living out of your sin nature in Adam and not in righteousness. It can be read, “Shall I continue under Adam so that the law might come and expose sin and keep exposing sin, so that more law is needed, then even more grace will be revealed to overcome the sin !“ Paul just says, “NO, God forbid, you cannot! It is impossible! You cannot live in a state of sin, if you have come out of Adam, and are in Christ.

It is impossible you cannot live in sin if you are now in righteousness. Now you must see that it is still possible to do sinful things but that does not make you a sinner or in sin. You are now seated in heavenly places in Christ and you are righteous and holy united with Christ. Paul is very emphatic. He declares, 

“For that is dead is freed from sin.” - Romans 6:7

The enchantment of condemnation and the law has caused us to completely be misdirected by trying to do something that in reality the Bible says has actually taken place. We either died with Christ or we did not! There is no continual, drawn out for years, dying with Christ. You are either dead or you are not!

“Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.” For in that he died, he died to sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. “Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. “ - Romans 6:11

Understand and believe the truth that you have died with Christ. Reckon it. Don’t try to make it as though it is true. Believe it because it is true. It is not believing that makes it true. It is true so believe it. You have died with Christ. Understand that you are either dead or you are not and if you died in Adam, your sin nature died too.

Adam or Christ - Romans Chapter 5

 

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” - Romans 5 : 19

Mankind became sinful through Adam. But, through Christ, we are made righteous. So when you were born into Adam you were born into sin. You had nothing to do with the consequences of what Adam did. You had no choice, you were born into it. You didn’t need to have faith to be a sinner, you were born a sinner not because you sinned but because Adam sinned. You inherited Adam's sin and all its consequences. 

Likewise, it was exactly the same when you were re-born into Christ. You were made righteous. You are imputed with the gift of righteousness. It was not your righteous behaviour. It was given to you as a free gift. You were made righteous. You received the grace of God in Christ and you inherited God's riches through Christ’s sacrifice. This means you are now not in Adam but In Christ and therefore as Christ is so now, are you! That is, every blessing in the heavenly realms is now yours In Christ based entirely on grace.

Understanding Grace

 UNDERSTANDING GRACE 

It is so very important that we understand what the gospel is ! And I mean by that simple phrase, what the good news of the new covenant is! There is a tendency within Christianity and Christian understanding to isolate verses and chapters in the Bible and build a theology and a belief system around these scriptures and take them out of context.

The prime example of this is the book of Romans, where the Apostle Paul, creates a framework that contains a sequence and flow of historical and theological insights that each verse should be understood within. When some verses are taken out of this framework they lose their context and they can create an incorrect understanding of the gospel.

The framework of the gospel is mainly found in Romans chapters 5,6,7 & 8. Understanding these 4 chapters is crucial to understanding grace and the gospel. 

These chapters, give a unique insight into the heart of the gospel. They explain to us that the earth contains only two groups of people. Those who are in the first Adam and those who are in the last Adam. Romans five to eight is the contrasting states of existence of living your life in and through the first Adam or through the last Adam.

Starting at Romans 5 we are introduced to the two Adams. It is a statement of the difference between those born into Adam and those re-born into Christ. The most astonishing revelation of this chapter is that you can do nothing to put yourself into either of these. You were born into Adam and you had nothing to do with that.   When we were re-born into Christ you had nothing to do with that except believe. 

Romans 6 carries on with this revelation and contrasts the two positions. It is here where very often confusion starts to enter our understanding if we take verses out of the context. This chapter is often quoted about “sinning” or “not sinning” or “doing righteous things” or “doing unrighteous things” . But in context of the passage it is explaining our position in life. That we are either in Adam and controlled by our sin nature or we are in Christ and controlled by our righteousness nature. This change of nature from sin to righteousness means that now “in Christ “ that it does not matter how many bad works we do, we can never be in the first Adam again. We are now in Christ and in his righteousness.

Romans 7 progresses the argument and shows the utter futility of going back to “The Law” to deal with unrighteousness. That to use the Law to deal with your old man in the first Adam is in fact Spiritual Adultery. The law is, in fact, a message of condemnation and when it is preached or practiced to try to impress God or earn his love and blessings it nullifies the grace of God and you bring yourself back under the weight and burden of condemnation.

Romans 8 is contrasting those that live “in the flesh” to those who live “in the spirit “, those who walk after the first Adam and those who walk in Christ. It is talking to us to renew our minds to the fact that we have died to the flesh and are now alive in the spirit. When we are in Christ we are now alive in the spirit and are free from the flesh and Adam.

This is the sequence and flow of the passage. If you are in Adam you are controlled by your old sin nature and in the flesh. But if you are in Christ you are now righteous, under grace and in the spirit. 

Exception

 

Stamped On Your Heart

 

Blue Petals Bleeding - 28th February 2023

 

I saw a picture of “Blue petals bleeding in the sun” just that.

I felt God saying, “It is time for bleeding. It is a day of bleeding. It is not a day just to take in the sun, this is a day of bleeding, to flow into the breeze, for my fragrance to be carried on the wind, for the vein of my grace to flood the air, to saturate the wind and to water and refresh the land. It is not a time to bandage up,  it is a time to flow. It is not a time to stop the flow, the Spirit is here to bleed, to let the captives go free, to declare that I am not counting men's sins against them. It is a time to let my Spirit heal and revitalize my people and bring freedom and liberty. Let me bleed my grace over everything that has breath.”

The Thief of Joy

 

You Are Amazing

 

Counterfeit Edens - 26th February 2023

When we can’t get the Edens our hearts long and desire, we create “Counterfeit Edens” to satisfy our heart's desire. It is here in our “Counterfeit Edens “ that we create our own “Counterfeit God’s” that we have fashioned in our minds. 

I felt God saying “it is time to lay aside our Counterfeit Edens and return to the real Eden. It is time to leave our own Edens of self-effort, self-righteousness and self-achievement and return to the lover of our hearts. For only in Christ is their satisfaction. Men have built their own ministries, sung their own songs, and created their own music but the time is coming for the invitation to come into the fullness of your new Eden. A place you were birthed to live and delight in. I am calling you into a place of delight, my place of intimacy. Leave behind your counterfeit Edens and come with me into a delight beyond your wildest dreams.” 

TRAPEZE - 25th February 2023

My wife recently had a dream where she saw a line of people standing in a queue waiting for a trapeze. As the people jumped on the trapeze they looked down to see that there was no safety net. She asked me what I felt it meant, and here is what I felt God say,

“We are entering into a time when the safety net will disappear. All that we held as secure and safety will start to shift like grains of sand in the wind. A time when we won’t know the truth from the false, the fake from the real. A time when the media will cause confusion, doubt and fear.”

“But know that the trapeze is secure, it will hold you! You are safe and secure in Christ. You are held in the everlasting arms of the Father, he will keep you, he will  hold you, he is your safety. He has given himself to you, you are his beloved, his treasure. This is a time to let God hold you.”

No Event is the Final Word

 

The Drummer

 I felt God say today, “I am drumming out a call to my people. I have released a drum beat to call you in to me as my possession.”

The Drummer has arisen and calls out to his children an eternal beat to arise and take dominion. Thus is not a day or a moment for sleeping, for the resurrection life of the Holy Spirit is in you. You have the heart beat of God and the drummer is calling you. Listen, to the rhythm of life, the rhythm of the resurrection, the rhythm of the redeemed, the righteous, the forgiven. 

The Drummer is moving and invite’s you to move with him. To know the rhythm of grace, for you are now birthed into the day of the Lord’s favour. Let his heart beat be your heart beat, let his desires be your desires and let his song be your song. This is the day to release captives from prisons, heal the broken and open the eyes of those that are blinded.

The Drummer has released his song of freedom and calls you into his dance of grace and his story of love.

The Drummer

I felt God say today, “I am drumming out a call to my people. I have released a drum beat to call you in to me as my possession.”

The Drummer has arisen and calls out to his children an eternal beat to arise and take dominion. Thus is not a day or a moment for sleeping, for the resurrection life of the Holy Spirit is in you. You have the heart beat of God and the drummer is calling you. Listen, to the rhythm of life, the rhythm of the resurrection, the rhythm of the redeemed, the righteous, the forgiven. 

The Drummer is moving and invite’s you to move with him. To know the rhythm of grace, for you are now birthed into the day of the Lord’s favour. Let his heart beat be your heart beat, let his desires be your desires and let his song be your song. This is the day to release captives from prisons, heal the broken and open the eyes of those that are blinded.

The Drummer has released his song of freedom and calls you into his dance of grace and his story of love.

The Skies Are Red

There is something inspiring in a painted red sky. Red skies always remind me of scarlet soldiers and scarlet armies. It was prophesied by Nahum that an unstoppable scarlet army would arise and carry redemption and restoration to a forsaken city and land. Very often what we consider forsaken, God sees as a picture waiting to be painted. Nothing is forsaken to God. God who paints a red sky, declares the day of the scarlet army is arising. Creation exists to declare the glory of God and his red skies declare the victory of the cross.

The next time I see a red sky I need to BE aware of the victory Christ has won and that he declares that victory in the sky to all,

An Invitation

 Everything that exists is invitation to connect with the unconditional love of God and the truth found in Christ.  How we perceive life can alter our outlook on the world around us. We can look at life as a frightening place full of dark corners, hard edges and harsh lessons or a place to behold and experience love in everything that happens. Our outlook determines the nature of our heart to flourish.  The most mundane act becomes a divinely inspired experience when we hold it tenderly in love and open deeply to its truth in this moment.

But it is in this moment when we can get caught up in web of existing and start to feel the pangs of the lie of separation.  The necessity of everyday life, making ends meet, raising a family, enjoying a career is a place where we can easily forget the great story of creation and settle for a story of need. Getting involved in ordinary living has often been portrayed as a distraction from the purposes of God. But in fact, this is just a smokescreen to cloud our minds from the whisper of God.

A Reconciled Reality

 In a reconciled universe, it means that God has received us into His favour and brought us back into harmony with Himself. This reconciliation is the good news of the cross, God is not our enemy, He has received us into His family and has repaired the damage sin did to our relationship. And God did this through Christ. God was present in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world back to himself.

This reconciliation means that Christ has restored the whole world back to himself. So this means that without man’s help God has gone ahead and repaired the damage in the relationship, gone ahead and restored us to a place of His favour, a place of harmony with him. On the cross, God cancelled the sin debt of mankind. Through Jesus’s death, God was not counting men’s sin against them. This means that our sin did not keep us from God.

The eternal reality was reconciled with the earthly reality as God forgave our sin through Jesus’s death on the cross. Through Christ we are now received into the embrace of God.

Reconciled

 “But all things are from God, who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to himself (receiving us into favour, brought us into harmony) and gave us the ministry of reconciliation (that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with him). It was God (personally present) in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favour with himself, not counting and holding against (men) their sins (but cancelling them), and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favour). 2 Corinthians 5 : 18-19.

In these remarkable words, we discover the amazing heart of God for us. For here we understand that God is the author of all things. Before time and in time God designed and created all things, the earthly reality was created from the eternal reality, we find that existence is made up of the energy God created, the light he put in place to demonstrate through the cosmos that all realities are interconnected and there is no separation between the created and the spiritual. To put it another way, God in Christ reconciled our earthy reality and restored us to his eternal reality.

Christ is the Gift

 God has given the gift of Christ and this gift is now revealed in us. It is Christ in us that makes us rich, it is Christ in us that gives us glory, and it is Christ in us the wonderful gift given freely, Christ is the gift given on God’s initiative from his heart of love and kindness towards us. If you believe God doesn’t love you, you will behave in ways that are unloving towards yourself and so you will experience the world as an unloving place. If you If you believe that God is angry and vengeful, you will always try to get it right so that you protect yourself from his wrath and you will experience life as a punishing place. Your core beliefs, about yourself, others, the world, life and God create your reality. And humanities collective beliefs create the reality we live in. Today’s world is dominated by what we imagine of ourselves, what we create, and what we project. The divisions and barriers we encounter in the world are simply a reflection of the disconnection within our hearts.

Only by turning to the fulfillment of God’s plan for us can our hearts be transformed. And the key to this transformation is the grace of God given to us in Christ is a heart of love in communion and in perfect harmony with him. Our heart needs a revolution that is birthed in deep and intimate relationships that can radiate to light the darkness that surrounds us. When each of us unpacks and receives the gift that God has given to us in Christ.

Be In Christ

 The journey of the mystery of God alive inside is found in Christ. So often we look to God to fix the world before we realise that Christ alive inside our hearts, is the hope of glory. We believe that praying for God to do something will make the world a better place. But the truth is that God has already done something, He answered our prayers by sending Christ to become the answer. No amount of effort on our part will make God move, because he has already moved in Christ. If you have not embraced Christ, then how can you fully embrace the unconditional love of God? The unconditional love of God revealed in the truth of Jesus Christ is the only thing that can really heal the world, not more self-effort or more determination to make right triumph over wrong. If you truly begin to experience the radiating glory of God, you will find that it begins to make you complete and whole.

Healed

Nature is a whisper to our hearts of the love of the Father. It declares to us that everything and everyone’s purpose is to know, experienced and be united with the unconditional love of God. God simply is love. And it is us, his created humans that are the focus of his love. We are free either to embrace this love or push it away. Only God has the power of transformation, the ability to enter into and become part of his creation. And through his love we have the opportunity to embrace ourselves as manifestations of God.

And how does God pour his love out upon us, how does he enlighten us to his truth? Through the person of his son, Jesus. God by his love gives us the gift of faith and pours out his grace and peace as we come to embrace Jesus. We are brought into a spiritual union and relationship with God through Jesus.

The separation we feel in our innermost being is a conflict that Jesus came to heal. He came to heal all those who were broken-hearted, to heal the loss that kept us in the captivity of our own prisons. God has given us through Jesus everything we need for life, and everything we need to know and experience God

God has healed our separation by embodying himself into human flesh and opening a door of the spiritual power of reconciliation through his death on the cross. He came to everyone born to awaken us to his unconditional love and truth in Christ in every moment and every aspect of our lives. When we embrace Jesus Christ, we come into right relationship with God, the cosmos, and creation flows within our veins. Opening our minds and lives to receive Jesus in all his fullness penetrates all we are and starts us on the greatest grace adventure of our lives.

In Christ heaven and earth are united into you and me.

Close The Chapter

 

Everything

 Love and truth are the essence of who God is and his nature that reaches out with a cosmic embrace and offers us life. At the beginning of time, when out of chaos life was created His love stirred and implanted faith throughout the universe.

Everything that exists is a manifestation of God’s love and truth created for the pleasure and delight of the creator and the creation. Life is only possible with the breath of God breathing into it.

Everything that is natural is an expression of the heart of God. Every sunset is a vivid picture that lights the sky with lavish colour. Each season fills our thoughts and emotions with a tapestry of moments that fills our body, soul and spirit with the fullness of creation.

Never Leave You Stranded

 

The Truth

The truth is revealed in the life of Jesus when we see him through his eyes of compassion. It means seeing things from His perspective.  Compassion, mercy and goodness, eyes that reach down and meet us in our place of need. Truth is the life of God demonstrated and offered to us in his son.

Truth is the penetrating of this moment with the words of Christ alive in your heart. It happens when you are rooted into the life of Christ. Opening to Christ means letting the truth of all he is change how you think and feel. The more you immerse yourself in his truth the deeper the truth changes your soul. And the closer you get to the truth in Christ to more you understand who you truly are.

The truth is that you are deeply loved by God more than you can imagine and beyond your wildest dreams.  Truth is like a sword that cuts through all our weaknesses, our problems and our issues. In cutting through all that hold us we are free to take risks, free to try new things, free to be fallible and free to be wrong.

The truth is that all Christ has been poured out to us, because in the deep depths of God’s unconditional love his truth has been made know and given to us in Christ Jesus.

God's Love Does Not Change

God’s love doesn’t not change.  And that which does not change is his true nature. The deeper you go into the unconditional love of God the darkness disappears and the light goes on, the crooked places become straight and the storms become calm. No matter what, He is working for our good. Mostly the canvas of love is formed by the relationships we experience or the ones portrayed to us in our culture. We learn about love in the melting pot of life and we galvanize love into the good and the bad. But God is reaching out to contact us with the infinite embrace of his passionate love, he looks us straight in the eye and calls us his own.  His whisper is relentless and tender and tells us that we are valued and accepted even when we are lost. Sadly, somewhere in our hearts we find this difficult to believe.

Reveal Myself Through You

 

Free from Entanglement

 As we open up to the whisper of God, we begin to recognize that very often we are not looking for God; far from it, almost all the time we are so wrapped up in our own world that any consciousness of God is put to the  back of our experience.  The entanglement of everyday life and the pressures of survival fill our minds to the limit and added to this is the temptation of social media. No other generation has given the chance of fame and adoration to so many, so quickly.  We are so often either trapped in our world or captivated by a world which we are trying to create.  However, both options result in one goal and that is for us to feel valued and accepted by the God’s of our family, friends and others worship.

Day of Release

 

God's Whisper

 One of the biggest revelations that came to me was when I realized that God was constantly speaking in me. I stood in a shopping line, with my trolley, queuing in the supermarket. People were chatting all around me when an impression came into my mind. “Listen to the conversations around you and I will speak to you through them.” So, I took a few minutes to quieten my heart and mind and I listened and I let God speak to me. Conversation after conversation awakened me to the whisper of God.

God’s whisper that started off so quiet gradually became louder! So instead of struggling to hear it , I began to hear it in the places I went and in the voices of those around me and as I grew accustomed to it, it became part of my everyday life.

But it was just not that whisper in the midst of a busy life it became the whisper of God calling me through creation. It was a whisper that carried to me through the rustling of leaves in the wind.  It is a whisper that touches my hearts through favourite songs, enjoying the waves crashing onto the beach and the sunset setting the sky on fire on a warm summer’s evening.

It is here also that God whispers to us in the pain of life. Through the suffering that we endure God softens our hearts and dissolves the ocean of enmity that rises within us. God calls us through the deepest experiences and rouses a relentless wanting deep within us and sets our hearts on a course to find its creator.

This relentless wanting whispers in us to fully embrace the openness and depth of God’s presence. The whisper speaks in our heart to connect His spirit to our spirit.  And so, every time you open your heart to God you tune your heart to his voice and this softens you to your creator.

The interesting thing is, once you start to recognise this whisper is that you face your greatest challenges.  In other words, once you hear it you have got to deal with it. God is not going to give up on you. Once he started he was not going to go back!  Each day is a new opportunity for God to whisper into your life.

And his whisper keeps speaking to us over and over again and softens our hearts little by little until we come into the light of his grace and we embrace his oneness.

Confused Intentions - The Spiritual Strategy of the Enemy

I believe at this moment in time, that the enemy has unleashed a spiritual attack on the Christian community, the body of Christ to try to keep it in a state of misdirection. 

The spiritual attack is designed to keep Christians off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the truth behind his actions.

This will take place with a two-pronged strategy 

1. Guide them far enough down the wrong path.

2. Envelop them in enough smoke.

That by the time they realize the enemy's intentions, it will be too late!

TWO-PRONGED STRATEGY

1. Guide Them Far Enough Down the Wrong Path

The first spiritual attack of the enemy, to make the Church and Christianity have no sense of what he is up to. This firstly takes the form of throwing them off the scent by dragging red herrings across the path. Creating a fog or a mist so you cannot see the path where you are going. Changing the signals at the crossroads with ambiguous signals, and setting up misleading objects of desire, All of these are there to stop you from distinguishing the genuine from the false, so you cannot see or know your real goal.

2. Envelop Them in Enough Smoke

The second spiritual attack is to hide his intentions behind the comfortable and familiar. If you can lead the Church and Christianity down a familiar path, they won’t become aware and catch on when they are being led into a trap. The trap is to distract people from the real purpose by creating a bland spiritual realm. A realm where we accept as true or valid what is false or invalid. This is a very skillful strategy to conceal his progress and hide his purpose. This is to create a smoke of nonchalance, where the deception is to win the victory before the war is declared.

CONFUSED INTENTIONS

The confused Intentions that the Enemy uses are based on the subtle suggestions that invade our minds and enchant our hearts. In 2019 the author John Eldredge said that the enemy had unleashed a spirit of hatred over the world, and this I believe is still active today. The rise in conflict both in words, opinions, physical actions and media, bears this out.  

Today, Sunday 22nd January 2023 we are entering into a time when the strategy is still based upon the lying question he asked in Eden, “Did God say?”. And it is imperative that as the body of Christ, we see the attacks that are coming against us, know that Christ was utterly and totally victorious at the cross and that Christ’s victory now lives in us. We are the sons and daughters of the living God and God lives by the Holy Spirit in us. Let us center our lives, minds, and hearts on Christ and reject the enchantment that is placed before us.

Revealed in His Promises

 The secret of God’s plan for us is revealed in his promises. Over and over again through the ages he consistently declared his intentions and commitment to us. Through the prophet Jeremiah he told us that he loved us with an everlasting love. The prophet Hosea tells us that God will never give up on us. God says he will never leave us or forsake us and Jesus declared that whoever would come to him would never thirst again.

Embracing The Call

 Realizing that God wants you is simply a change of heart perspective to see God as the author of a creation founded in love and desire to be with you. Ultimately, it is a vision from the bondage of soul thinking to the liberation of God’s unconditional love. We don’t have to wait to be good enough or spiritual enough to realize that God has never separated himself from us. The fact is simple, that we separated ourselves from him in our shame.

The freedom that our hearts seek is found in God, in the very moment of his value and acceptance of us.  God is pursuing us and calling us with his Holy Spirit in every thought, each feeling and every connection with our heart.

It is embracing the call of a pursuing God that awakens our hearts to who we really are.

It is Time to Breathe

 

Start to Believe

God is awakening you to live in the fullness of your creation.  The truth is that God is pursing you. That you are the delight of his heart and his desire is to be with you. You are in fact loved greater than you could ever imagine. In the same way he came and showed himself to the first murderer, he comes to you and speaks to you. This may come as an extraordinary revelation that God is searching you out and seeking after you. That he has never withdrawn himself from you and that he is after you. It breaks the power of the lie of separation, the lie of a wall between God and us. We are so bound up with lies and illusions that the ordinary of God’s pursuit of us is overshadowed by our feelings of unworthiness.  We need to let go of what we feel and start to believe all God says about us.