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The Power of One

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“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:  I in them and you in me.”  John 17:22-23a

Feeling stirs my heart as I ponder the words of our opening Scripture today. They flowed from the mouth of Jesus on the night of His arrest. You just read some of the last recorded utterances of the Word made flesh before His body dangled for you from a bloody cross.

We observe an intimate moment between God the Son and God the Father, the heart of God laid bare before us in His perfect Word. Did you know Jesus’ final prayers were for you?

Jesus had just finished praying for Himself and the disciples He would leave behind. Then in verse 20 He adds, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.” That’s you and me.

What did He pray for, dear one?

 “… that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”  John 17:21

Witness the Father’s revealed will spoken through the voice of His Son. His highest priority? Unity within the body of believers. Jesus prayed that believers would be one with each other in the same way that He is one with the Father. The resulting unity would cause the world to believe that Jesus did indeed come from God.

How is that possible?

Jesus and His Father are completely one in every way. Jesus declared it in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.” They share the same thoughts and desires; their actions flow from the same perfect will. So how can men and women with very different preferences and desires, longings, and needs truly share one mind . . . one heart . . . one will?

They can’t, at least not within the realm of the natural. But those who believe in Jesus and have received the seal of His Spirit within them aren’t limited to the natural. They possess the very glory of God.

Look at Jesus’ words in our opening verse. “I have given them the glory that you gave me.” According to Jesus, that glory will enable us to become one.

John 17:23 reveals His purpose in uniting us:

 “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Unity within Christ’s church will reveal two things to the world.

  1. Jesus did indeed come from God
  2. God loves them

I have to ask you to consider something, dear one. Is our generation giving Christ what He asked for? Are we allowing His Spirit within us to crucify the desires of our flesh and unite us with His glorious will so that we can become one with our brothers and sisters? Or do we hold tightly to our own desires and allow our differences to separate us?

Beloved, our unity in Christ will release the glory of God.

Let’s visit a prayer meeting that took place in the early church after Peter and John had been arrested for preaching about Jesus. Upon their release, a group of believers united together in fervent prayer with spectacular results.

Here’s how they began.

“Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”Acts 4:29-30

Do you notice anything significant about their prayer? Is that how you have prayed?

Let your thoughts settle on the words you speak when you approach God in prayer. When I did, the Spirit revealed one obvious difference about their request. Instead of asking God to rescue them, they asked God to reveal His glory.

Amazing. They didn’t ask God to take away the danger, stop the persecution, or even to protect them from the threats coming against them. Instead, they asked Him to empower them to boldly stand for Him in the midst of it. They asked for strength to speak His word with boldness in spite of the threats. They asked Him to reveal the power that comes through the name of Jesus.

These believers had one, single-minded purpose. They desired to see God reveal His glory through them. In spite of the danger, in spite of their fear, they cast aside their own desires to exalt His. And how did God respond to His humble, unified servants?

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.  Acts 4:31

Oh, that we would once again become a body so united in heart and purpose that our prayers shake our meeting halls! Notice that God granted their request. He filled each of them with His Spirit to empower them and equipped all of them to speak His Word boldly. Not one of them was exempt from the gift.

Dear one, when you submit your heart to the Father’s will instead of your own, neither are you.

Empowered in the Wilderness

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Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Luke 4:1 NIV

I imagine the wilderness isn’t high on your list of places you’d like to visit. It certainly doesn’t top my list. Give me oceans, lakes, or mountains with bubbling streams any day.

Yep. I’m a water girl. Something about the way the light glistens atop it stirs my soul. I love its sound, the feel of it on my skin, even the coolness in the air as you get closer to it. Water refreshes in so many ways—which makes the wilderness pretty unappealing.

So I find it surprising that the very first place the Holy Spirit led Jesus after His baptism was the desert.

Does it surprise you too? I mean, Scripture teaches that we’re supposed to follow the Spirit to abundant life. So why would He lead Jesus straight into the desert?

Verse 2 tells us what happened there.

 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. Luke 4:1-2

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun to me. The wilderness offered Jesus confrontation from the evil one and an empty belly. Conditions like that tend to defeat most of us. We wallow in our misery and assume that God has abandoned us.

But that’s not what happened to Jesus. Verse 14 describes Jesus at the end of His wilderness adventure:

 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.

Did you catch it, dear one? Jesus entered the wilderness under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and He left that wilderness empowered by the Spirit. Notice the Spirit never left Him. But what happened in the wilderness moved Jesus from simply following the Spirit to operating in His power.

Could it be that our own treks into the desert hold that very same purpose? What if our testing in the wilderness holds the key to igniting the power of the Spirit within us?

Listen, dear one. God wastes nothing. Nor does He allow or ordain anything for our lives that He can’t bring great good from. Jesus needed His wilderness experience to fulfill His purpose. If He didn’t, God never would’ve led Him there.

You and I spend our lives trying to avoid the desert. We want to head straight into our Promised Land that flows with milk and honey, endless provision, and rest. But we fail to realize that we’ll never make it into our Promised Land without traveling through the desert. God uses the wilderness to strengthen us in His Spirit so that we can defeat the enemy camping out on our inheritance. We will need to conquer the enemy to take our ground.

So what must you and I do to become empowered in the wilderness instead of defeated by it? We do what Jesus did. We must choose to stand on truth when faced with the enemy’s temptations.

When Satan challenged Jesus to take the easy way out and turn a stone into bread to end His hunger, Jesus replied, “It is written: Man does not live on bread alone” (Luke 4:4).

Over and over, each time Satan tempted Him, Jesus quoted Scripture to refute him.

Beloved, you and I are not strong enough to defeat the enemy on our own. But when we choose to challenge him with God’s truth and stand on His Word, something beautiful happens. The Spirit within us perks up. He rises within us to give us the strength we need to remain standing.

Unfortunately most of us don’t exit our wilderness experiences victoriously. When the Spirit leads us into the desert, instead of drawing on His strength to stand against the enemy’s fiery darts, we succumb to them. We allow the enemy to govern our thinking instead of standing on truth. We feel defeated and remain that way because we haven’t ignited the Spirit within us by choosing to claim and believe the truth of God’s Word.

Many of us even prolong our stays in the wilderness by allowing the enemy’s lies to control our thoughts.

What if you and I learned to do what Jesus did? What if we chose to respond differently in the wilderness? What if we determined to stand on Truth instead of bowing to the enemy’s lies?

I think we’d find what Jesus found. Each time we exercise faith by standing on truth when we don’t feel like it, the Spirit will equip us in our need. We will become stronger and stronger in Him. And when it’s time to exit the wilderness and head toward our destiny, we won’t just follow the Spirit. We’ll go in the power of the Spirit. And we’ll be equipped to claim our ground.

Kind of sheds new light on James 1:2-4, doesn’t it?

 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

That’s the point of the wilderness, beloved. God doesn’t want you leaving any of your blessings behind.

Week 9: Finishing Strong

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It’s here! Our last day of study together. More than anything, I pray that you have grown closer to Jesus. HE IS everything, and growing your relationship with Jesus is the key to receiving every blessing He poured out for you from the cross. He died so that you could have life more abundant. I sincerely hope you have begun to discover that abundance!

Click here to print the prepared note sheet for this video.

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Your Assignment

Your journey through Tested by Fire may be over, but your journey with Jesus has just begun. He desires to lead you into your inheritance and bring forth gold, silver, and costly stones from your life. Are you ready to let Him?

Take some time to read through this Prayer of Commitment. I suggest you print it out and keep it in your Bible. Use it as part of your daily prayers to help you remember what it is that God wants to do with your life and help you stay on the path He has set for you.

Dear one, God wants to do amazing things in and through you. If each of us will cooperate with Him, we will see something marvelous occur. We will witness the rise of Christ’s church! As we become one with Him, we will become one with each other, and Jesus will see the fulfillment of His prayer that night in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:22-23

Could ours be the generation that sees this accomplished? It’s time the world discovers that Jesus is exactly who He says He is.

I’m game. Are you?

Blessings, dear one.

Careless Words

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“But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:36-37

Careless words. We’re all guilty of speaking them. On a good day we offer flippant answers. On our bad days we easily express thoughtless putdowns and let angry outbursts fly without a second thought.

But they’re only words, right?

Beloved, when Christ returns, He will hold us accountable for all of them.

Words may seem an odd thing for Jesus to judge us by. We might expect righteous works or immoral sins as a basis for judgment, but careless words?

Scripture reveals at least two reasons why God would place such high importance on the words we speak. We find the first tucked right before our opening verse in Matthew 12.

 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. (verses 34-35)

What we say flows from what resides within our hearts. Our words reveal our true heart condition. As believers, the words we speak will either reflect the oppressive chains of sin or the life-giving presence of Jesus.

Dear one, 2 Peter 1:3 assures us that once we put our faith in Jesus, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him . . .”

According to Scripture, we lack nothing necessary to live a godly life, but we often neglect to draw on His power to enable us to live differently. Instead of taking on Christ’s nature, we choose to look and sound like the world He died to overcome.

Beloved, Jesus does not take that kind of misrepresentation lightly.

Ezekiel 36:26 reveals God’s desire to give us a new heart and a new Spirit. He plans to transform our hearts of stone into loving hearts of flesh that beat in communion with His. Our words indicate whether we’re cooperating to allow that change to take place. Instead of careless words, the mouth of the believer ought to build others up in keeping with Jesus’ character and presence.

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That brings us to the second reason our words hold such importance. Consider the nature of God’s words.

  •  And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Genesis 1:3
  • And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. Genesis 1:9
  • He [Jesus] got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. Mark 4:39

Do you notice anything significant about what happens when God speaks? In case you missed it, I’ll let God describe it for you.

 “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11

God’s words are powerful; they achieve whatever He speaks. Each word God utters produces a result. His words never fall carelessly or without effect. When the Creator speaks, that which He spoke is called into being. Whatever He speaks occurs.

Dear one, you were created in the image of God.

Contemplate the implications of that statement. You and I were created in the image of a God who speaks things into being. No wonder Proverbs 18:21 teaches,

 “The tongue has the power of life and death . . .”

Please don’t misunderstand me. We don’t share God’s power to call our desires into existence simply by speaking them forth. He alone is the almighty, omnipotent, Creator God. But as vessels made in His image, our words are also powerful and shouldn’t be tossed about without thought. They hold considerable potential to build up or destroy.

 The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. Proverbs 15:4

I can’t help but think of the times my own careless words have hurt the people I love. The times I chose to be right instead of silent. The times I’ve thoughtlessly undermined my husband’s leadership. The times I’ve watched my sons’ countenance crumble as a result of carelessly chosen words.

Then I consider the words of my Savior. I know firsthand how His encouraging whispers lift my soul, how they fill and never empty. They breathe life into my wounded places. They offer hope.

No wonder Jesus harbors concern over the words we speak.

As we give voice to the words that flood our thoughts, we have an opportunity. We can say whatever comes to mind and hope we don’t do too much damage, or we can deliberately choose to surrender our thoughts and words to Jesus.

With the Creator behind the words we speak, we may just get to witness a few miracles.

Approaching Glory

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“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46

Do you ever have moments when darkness seems to engulf you? When it becomes so thick and heavy you find it hard to remember the warmth of the light?

I do. They don’t come frequently, but they do come. Sometimes things just don’t play out like I hoped they would. And in those moments of darkness, doubt takes over. It tries to convince me that the God who loves me has abandoned me.  Forsaken me.

Ever been there? I’m guessing you have. You and I won’t follow Jesus for very long without facing some kind of adversity.

I wish I could tell you that once you step into the Light and give your life to Jesus you’ll never feel the touch of darkness. But I can’t. Jesus doesn’t promise an end to trouble on your path to abundant life. He promises the means to overcome it (John 16:33).

Beloved, there will be moments when adversity comes against you that you will feel abandoned by God. The logic of your circumstances won’t align with what you committed to believe by faith, and the enemy will do all he can to convince you that God has forsaken you. After all, he is the deceiver and the father of lies (John 8:44).

I’d like to ask you to consider another possibility. What if, in those moments of greatest darkness, God has never been closer? What if He is so near He must shield your eyes from viewing Him to protect you from His closeness? And as you trust Him through the darkness and the first streams of light begin to filter into view, you will glimpse His glory like you’ve never seen it before.

How can I make such a statement? It happened to Moses.

“When my glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.” Exodus 33:22-23

These words of God came in response to Moses’ bold request, “Now show me your glory” (verse 18). God responded by saying, “I will cause all of my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence.” (Verse 19)

Beloved, will you consider with me that in moments of great darkness, perhaps God has hidden you in the cleft of the Rock to shield you from His approaching glory? As He covers you with His protective hand, the darkness appears thickest, yet He is nearest. While the enemy whispers that God has forsaken you, He is actually holding you in His grasp, causing all His goodness to pass by and proclaiming His name, the LORD, in your presence.

You see, we cannot see God approaching. We can’t stare head on into the fullness of His glory and survive the experience, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (verse 20).

And so as He draws near to meet us in our need, He covers us with His hand. Darkness looms, not because it’s winning, but because in that moment, we are unable to see the light of His glory. But as it passes by and He removes His protective hand, we have the privilege of seeing His glory as it departs.

Have you ever noticed how you can’t see God’s handprint in a circumstance until after it’s over? In the midst of it, you can’t see Him anywhere, but afterward you begin to recognize His mark all over the place. When that happens, dear one, He has hidden you in the cleft of the Rock and caused His glory to pass by.

Darkness will come, beloved, but so will the glory of your God.

But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.  For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”  Isaiah 43:1-3

Notice that this isn’t an “if” promise. Adversity will come. If you and I are going to journey with Jesus to the mountain of the Lord, we will pass through swirling rivers and raging waters. We will face the heat of blazing flames. But take heart in this truth, beloved. We will never face them alone. And as we tuck ourselves under the shelter of the Most High, committed to stand on His truth and renounce the enemy’s lies, whatever the enemy brings cannot hurt us. In fact, as we walk on in step with Jesus, trusting His will even when we don’t understand, we set the stage to witness glory.

I pray you have discovered a few truths to stand on when the darkness comes. Let me leave you with one more. Why does God promise to be with us in our difficulties? To walk with us through turbulent waters and raging fires?

I’ll let Him answer.

“Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you.” Isaiah 43:4

 

 

Week 6: Loving God With All Your Heart

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Welcome back! I pray you are beginning to discover that Jesus longs to fill you with Himself. He wants more than simply to dwell within your heart; He wants to take it over.

This week we will try to gain some understanding of how that takes place. Although this video is the longest session, its message holds the key to dwelling in Christ’s empowerment and living in the freedom He died to give you. I pray you experience the blessing of  John 8:32,

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Click here to print the prepared note sheet for this video.

Click here to print copies of the heart slides used in the video.

Watch the Video

Week 6 Assignment

Complete Days 4-5 of Week 3 in your workbook

Additional Suggestion:

I encourage you to mark Psalm 139: 23-24 in your Bible and make it a consistent part of your prayer life. You will not recognize all that binds your heart without divine intervention, and Jesus longs to set you free, dear one.

Ask Him to begin revealing the sin that binds your heart and invite Him to show you the steps you must take to get free. Have you been pretending everything’s fine and ignoring the need for heart transformation? Maybe you’ve simply been admitting something to God and not really confessing it. Or do you expect God to miraculously free you from something while you still hold tightly to it with both hands? Ask Jesus to reveal the true condition of your heart. Then ask Him for the strength to trust Him completely. As you surrender your heart bit by bit to His leadership, you will discover a freedom and power that you have never known. And those around you will begin to witness and experience God’s love pouring out from your new heart.

Smoothing the Rough Places

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I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16

It was one of those frustrating days.

I think the rain started it. I usually don’t mind rain until I have to go out in it. I even enjoy listening to the soft patter outside when I’m tucked safely indoors with a good movie and a blanket. It’s when it pours on me that it bothers me.

That day, it poured on me.

I was running errands in the rain when I got a text from my son at school.

I never hear from my son at school.

He typed only three words, but they tied my stomach in knots. He confirmed the realization of his worry about a project he’d worked hard on the night before. It didn’t work. Though I tried to text him back, he gave me nothing more. His silence left me with only worry to consume my thoughts— about his grade, about what he was feeling in that moment, about the disappointment I knew I’d see on his face when he walked through the door that afternoon.

And I wanted to fix it for him, but I couldn’t.

Isn’t it amazing how one little thing has the power to send us reeling? All the work I had planned for that afternoon seemed lost behind the shadow of this one thing.

I felt like throwing a tantrum. I may have even started to once I had returned to the safety of my home. Just for a minute.

But then I took a breath and shifted the direction of my thinking. I turned my attention to the One who knew before my son ever selected his courses what this semester would bring. And although as a mom I hate watching my straight A student struggle through this class—I hate seeing his confusion and disappointment as he works so hard with less than results—deep down I know that God has a purpose in it.

So with a heavy heart, I determined to look up.

I walked toward the couch, carelessly picking up the Jesus Calling calendar I hadn’t looked at in over a week. “Ok, Lord. What do you have for me today?” The words didn’t carry much confidence, but even I heard within them the whisper of hope as I flipped through the pages toward that day’s date. Here’s what I read.

TRUST AND THANKFULNESS WILL get you safely through this day. Trust protects you from worrying and obsessing. Thankfulness keeps you from criticizing and complaining: those “sister sins” that so easily entangle you.

How does He always know? I kept reading.

Keeping your eyes on Me is the same thing as trusting Me. It is a free choice that you must make thousands of times daily. The more you choose to trust Me, the easier it becomes. Thought patterns of trust become etched into your brain. Relegate troubles to the periphery of your mind, so that I can be central in your thoughts. Thus you focus on Me, entrusting your concerns into My care. [February 21, Jesus Calling, Sarah Young, Thomas Nelson, 2004]

Do you find it amazing that Jesus always—somehow, some way—meets you right where you are? At least, He does when you’re willing to meet with Him.

“Trust and thankfulness will get you safely through this day.” I couldn’t help but think about  Matthew 6:25-27,

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life . . . Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

Indeed. Worry only robs our hours from us. Yet worry is what we do. Our natural instinct sends our thoughts running through one scenario after another, trying to figure out which calamity will come to pass. And let’s face it. We usually settle on the worst case.

But God says, “I’m holding all of this in my hand. You don’t need to obsess over this. Let your thoughts settle on me instead of your problem. I have the power to make the rough places smooth.”

When we focus our minds on God and His goodness, it becomes easier to practice gratitude. And gratitude, dear one, alters our feelings. Instead of grumbling and complaining about the rain and that teacher who refuses to teach, praise emerges. And soon you find that tightness in your stomach replaced by growing peace.

Bits of unwanted news don’t have to derail our day. We can practice Romans 12:2,

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

We can fix our eyes on the One who holds the key to every blessing, inviting Him to come near. And when Jesus enters, dear one, the enemy always flees.

Week 5: The God Who Fills

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Hello, dear one! We have reached a pivotal point in our study together. Our focus shifts this week from our exploration of faith to the inner work that Jesus desires to perform in each of our hearts. I pray that the understanding of this material will open the way for each of us to experience John 7:38,

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

Click here to print the prepared note sheet for this video.

Watch the Video

Week 5 Assignment

Complete Days 1-3 of Week 3 in your workbook

Additional Suggestion:

Spend some time in prayer asking God to ready your heart to receive Him fully. Ask Him to reveal any areas that you have held back from Him. Surrender everything to Him. Then boldly ask as Moses did:

“Now show me your glory.” Exodus 33:18

Carry Your Cross

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Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23

I’m guessing that’s not one of your favorite scriptures.

I get it. Your flesh cries out in rebellion against such commands. Deny myself? We spend our lives trying to indulge the desires of our “selves.”  That goes against everything in our nature. And carrying a cross doesn’t sound very fun. No one likes a burden. So those first two make the last one seem pretty unpalatable.

Why would I want to follow Jesus if to do so I have to deny myself and carry a cross?

Why, indeed? I’d like to suggest something that perhaps you haven’t considered. What if the fact that we find those commands so unappealing confirms how very important they are to overcoming the enemy and experiencing abundant life?

Here’s the truth of the matter: The enemy of our souls likes keeping us under his thumb. He’s been governing our sin nature since man’s fall at the beginning of time, and he’s not keen on giving up control. He enjoys the chaos and destruction he generates in our lives as he bends our wills to bring about death, all the while convincing us we’re free and making our own choices.

Maybe you didn’t realize that. Yes, dear one. If you don’t choose to submit your will to God, you’re already submitting it to the prince of this world, the ruler of the kingdom of the air (Ephesians 2:2).

Your will is not your own. You only think it is.

In 2 Timothy 2, Paul challenges believers to call on the Lord out of a pure heart. He says this about opponents of truth in verses 25-26,

Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

You see, beloved, your sin nature rebels so strongly against self-denial, because the enemy of your soul doesn’t want to lose his grip. He’s convinced you to believe that you’re free to do as you please. Meanwhile, he quietly pulls the strings. The “I” that you think is making your decisions actually has a master.

 “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. “ Romans 7:17

Precious one, allowing sin to continue to govern your “I” eventually brings about death.

For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. Romans 7:5

Because sin governs them, following our own passions and desires will always hurt us eventually. So can you understand, beloved, why the first step in following Jesus to new life must involve denying what your “self” insists you need?

When Jesus asks you to deny yourself, He isn’t trying to take away your right to choose. He wants to restore it to you! He simply wants to set your “I” free from the destructive rule of sin. Then the person He created you to be—your personality, your deep passions and sense of purpose—the real, unfettered you can emerge to step into abundant life. And your soul can soar with the joy that comes with it.

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36

Not so bad, right?

But what about taking up that cross? We know what it meant for Jesus. Death.

Beloved, the only death coming to you through the cross belongs to the sin that binds you. Remember, even for Jesus, the cross became the means to resurrection life. It offers the same promise for you.

That cross represents God’s beautiful will for your life. Yes, Jesus carried an actual cross up a hill to Golgotha, bearing its shame and shedding His blood so that you and I could be free. He lived out God’s will for Him so that we could live redeemed. Now that cross remains a symbol of what God wants to see lived out in each of our lives. “ . . . not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

But we forget what else that cross represents. What became available to us through that cross?

Love … forgiveness… the Holy Spirit… mercy… grace … freedom… sonship… power

Beloved, when Jesus asks you to take up your cross, He invites you to take up all that comes with it. He wants you to take up God’s will for your life, just like He did. He asks you to believe that He intends to prosper you and not harm you, that He means to offer you hope and a beautiful future (Jeremiah 29:11).

He also welcomes you to take up everything He poured out for you through His cross to empower you to step into the abundant life He’s planned for you.

The question is: will you believe? If so, there’s one thing left to do.

Follow.

My Righteous One Will Live by Faith

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“Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe.” –St Augustine

I spent a good bit of my life misunderstanding faith. Instead of exercising it and living my life by it, I thought of faith more like a noun—something we hold in our hearts. If we simply possess enough of it, God will act on our behalf, right?

Then I found myself discouraged because I didn’t see God move. It left me wondering about my own condition. Did I not have enough faith?

Perhaps you’ve been there, wondering why others can share powerful testimonies of how God showed up in their need, but you’re left doubting yourself and the God you claim to trust because your circumstances haven’t changed.

Dear one, if that’s you, perhaps you’ve missed the beautiful foundation through which true faith must flow: relationship.

Hebrews 11:6 states, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Look at the actions describing one who pleases God with faith. Not only must we believe He exists, but we must “come to Him” in that belief. True faith can only be exercised by one who comes near to God. And that approach isn’t simply uttering a casual prayer when the need arises. The verse is clear that God rewards those who “earnestly seek Him.”

Consider Romans 10:17:

“Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

Dear one, faith is birthed in us when we hear a message through the Word of Christ. Perhaps our faith is failing us because we haven’t drawn near to Christ to hear what He is saying. Maybe we’ve told God what we think we need, even believing He can provide it, but we haven’t approached Him to listen for what He knows we need. Beloved, faith comes from hearing.

In John 10:3-4, Jesus describes the true nature of faith.

“He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”

We express faith as we trust and follow. In order to follow, we must quiet ourselves and draw near to the One who speaks. Perhaps we don’t see God moving on our behalf because we haven’t bothered to quiet ourselves to hear Him speaking (Psalm 46:10). We haven’t given Him the opportunity to reveal His thoughts on the matter. Instead of following behind, we’ve wandered toward what we think we need and expected God to come with us.

Beloved, Jesus releases His power where He is. If you want to see Him move in your circumstances, you must draw near to Him with an open, listening heart. As He faithfully whispers His will into your life, you must trust Him through your obedience. Your faith—initiated as you hear from Him (Romans 10:17) and completed as you follow His instruction to you (James 2:22)—will open the door to the release of His grace.

You will see Him move. Perhaps not the way you first thought He would, but you will see Him nonetheless.  And you will discover with a thankful, joyous heart, that Jesus is, indeed, faithful. His love is better than life.