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“All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them” (1 John 4:15; NLT). What an amazing truth! We have God living on the inside of us. That is more than my finite mind can comprehend! And our part? To confess
that Jesus is the Son of God. In John 14:23 Jesus is speaking to His disciples and says, “All who love Me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them” (John 14:23; NLT). What a beautiful promise, God will make us His home!
In Romans 8:11 we are told that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is living inside us and because of that He will bring life to our physical bodies. It’s amazing to ponder that verse; it is because we have the Spirit of Jesus on the inside of us that we can experience healing and resurrection life.
Galatians 2:20 is a well-known verse, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20; NLT). So, what does it mean to have Christ living in us? For one thing it means we can commune with Him any time of day and night. It means we have His love, faith, peace, power and all the attributes of God available to us. It means we share His victory and it means He can shine through our lives and bring hope to others. It means all this and much more. I encourage you today to remember that you take God with you everywhere you go! “Christ in You, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27; NKJV).
In John 5:19; (NKJV) Jesus said, “most assuredly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner”. If we all did what God directed us to do what victory, power, unity and effective ministry we would walk in! In Old Testament God
told Joshua to have his people walk around the city of Jericho once daily for 6 days, 7 times on the seventh day with shouting on the seventh circuit. As they shouted the walls fell down and they took the city (Josh 6:1-21). Joshua and Israel obeyed God’s intriguing plan and the result? Victory!
In the New Testament, God gave the apostle Peter a triple vision of animals that as a Jew, he was not allowed to eat, but each time God said, “eat” (Acts 10:9-16). God was preparing Peter to minister to the Gentiles with whom the Jewish people were not allowed to associate (Acts 10:19-20; 28-29). Peter obeyed God and shared the gospel with a Roman centurion at a house full of Gentiles. While Peter preached, “the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word” (Acts 10:24-48; NKJV).
Our Bibles are packed with God’s instructions and promises for life and ministry. God will also direct us in many other ways such as by words and thoughts He brings to our spirits. Let’s keep focused on Him, read, listen and obey; the results will be powerful, miraculous and life changing
The apostle Paul wrote, “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another (tie on the servant’s apron), for God is opposed to the proud (the disdainful, the presumptuous, and He defeats them), but He gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5b; AMP). Paul clearly emphasizes the importance of humility
by repeating his exhortation to clothe ourselves with humility in Colossians 3:12. James, the brother of Jesus, went so far as to write that God actually resists people who are full of pride but again blesses the humble with his grace (James 4:6). Jesus Himself said that “he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11b; (ESV).
Proverbs 3:34b (AMP) gives us a clue to what is involved in humility, “He gives His grace (His undeserved favour) to the humble (those who give up self-importance)”. Humility is to have a humble minded attitude devoid of an inflated and arrogant sense of self-importance and pride. We are to wear humility, In other words, we are to be intentional about being humble. In Philippians 2:8 (NKJV) we are reminded that we are to have the same mindset as Jesus, and what was that mindset? “He humbled Himself”.
In closing, in Romans 12:3a (AMP) Paul wrote, “For by the grace (of God) given to me I say to everyone of you not to think more highly of himself (and of his importance and ability) than he ought to think” If we follow that advice, we will be practicing humility.
“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple” (Psalm 27:4; NKJV). It’s not hard to see King David’s focus and priority in life. Sometimes we need to ask ourselves, how much of a priority is God in our lives?
When asked, Jesus told us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30; NKJV). That’s pretty straight forward! One psalmist told us to look to God (Ps 123:2b) and another taught us that if we delighted in the things of God we would flourish and prosper (Ps 1:1-6). King David in Psalm 37:4 exhorted us to delight in God and if we did, He would supply the very things our hearts desire (Ps 37:4). In Psalm 119:2 the psalmist showed us that we would be blessed if we obeyed God’s word and sought after Him with all our heart.
James, the brother of Jesus, wrote: “draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8; NKJV). Finally, the apostle Paul pressed into God to be all God wanted him to be (Phil 3:12-14). We are surely exhorted to love and focus on God, press in and be all He wants us to be, the blessings are overwhelming! Nuff said!
“Now may the Lord of peace Himself grant you His peace (the peace of His kingdom) at all times and in all ways (under all circumstances and conditions, whatever comes) (2 Thess 3:6; AMPC).
Most of us would love to have God’s peace at all times and in all circumstances, but how can that be? To begin
with, one of the names of God is Jehovah Shalom (Judges 6:24) which means the Lord is peace. Shalom is an Old Testament word referring to soundness, completeness, welfare, health, prosperity, harmony and the absence of strife. The Greek word for peace in our verse above is Eirene which translates very similarly to shalom. In Isa 9:6, Jesus is referred to as the Prince of peace and if we are born again Christians then we have the Prince of Peace living on the inside of us and making His peace available to us at all times. Peace is a fruit of the Spirit and so it develops and matures as we grow in our Christian walk, and in addition we find God’s peace in His presence.
However, although we have God’s peace inside of us, we may not always b e experiencing it because we are not perfectly matured yet, so what do we do? In 1 Peter 3:11 (AMPC) we are told that we need to “search for peace” and “seek it eagerly”. How do we do this? The Bible has much to say about peace, so we need to find those scriptures, write them out, study and meditate on them. Then when the devil tries to steal our peace, we can speak them right in his face and enjoy the fruit of peace!
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27; NKJV).