SweetZippy

Accessing the Father is not just looking upon His brilliant form , but knowing Him as our father; he gives us good gifts! We need to remember that "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of the heavenly lights", John 1:17. As we spend time with our father we will approach the throne room with boldness, knowing that He will impart His holy spirit to us. The Holy Spirit is His gift to us. We can only do this because Jesus made us joint heirs with him.

"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us", John 1:14. He was the lamb of God, the ultimate sacrifice. No earthly sacrifice could be such a complete unhindered doorway to the Father. Jesus fulfilled the mosaic law morally and ceremonially, by being the supreme righteous Word in the flesh sacrifice; there will be no better way to come to the Father. The Messiah completed the civil law by being king of the Jews. Thus, this is significant of the Jewish people as He created a kingdom not delineated by tribal boundaries and human blood ancestry, but by faith boundaries and Godly blood ancestry. He created a kingdom where the Jewish people can live freely unhindered by geography. Jesus is the rightful Messiah! This is significant for the gentiles because we now have access to the throne of grace through his sacrifice. We now are sanctified by faith in the Son of God. We are part of His righteousness and so belong to His kingdom, the kingdom not delineated by tribal ancestry, but by acknowledgement of the fulfillment of the law being Jesus. We are all, Jew and gentile alike, joint heirs with Jesus.

1A) If we forget what it means to be lost, we forget the isolation caused by separation from the Father. Jesus experienced this isolation when he cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?". He brought the lost to Himself by suffering the agony and loneliness of separation from the Father whilst having the ultimate separation from mankind, being killed from His own species. So, we need to remember the fundamentals of our Christian faith; the cross, the selfless cross, and as we do, we will witness out of gratefulness as we recall Calvary. A willingness to witness stems from gratefulness of what Jesus did for us. 1B)Those who don't know Christ are lost to what is in their own well-spring. We are filled from His compassion, His grace, His mercy. We have a connection with the Father, who is creating us to be the likeness of His own Son. The spiritual condition of those who doesn't know Christ is the same as Jesus when he hung on the cross and took our sin upon Himself, that is, forsaken, isolated by the Father, and experiencing the darkness of the world and humanity as Jesus did as the Earth was cloaked in darkness during His death.

Faith is an undoubted trust in the truth of God's Word, both written and spoke. We cannot take credit for possessing faith as we are each given a measure of faith. In Romans 12:2 we are told that God has given to every man "the" measure of faith. Jesus condemned the disciples when they were afraid and so lacked faith, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm." Matthew 8:26 Faith is knowing that you have always been heard by your Father and that He is to always be trusted. Trusting God, having faith, makes Him happy. Even when we don't see things turning out as we think they should, by knowing that God has heard you, and will work everything out for the best, is faith.

Faith is an undoubted trust in the truth of God's Word, both written and spoke. We cannot take credit for possessing faith as we are each given a measure of faith. In Romans 12:2 we are told that God has given to every man "the" measure of faith. Jesus condemned the disciples when they were afraid and so lacked faith, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm." Matthew 8:26 Faith is knowing that you have always been heard by your Father and that He is to always be trusted. Trusting God, having faith, makes Him happy. Even when we don't see things turning out as we think they should, by knowing that God has heard you, and will work everything out for the best, is faith.

Faith is an undoubted trust in the truth of God's Word, both written and spoke. We cannot take credit for possessing faith as we are each given a measure of faith. In Romans 12:2 we are told that God has given to every man "the" measure of faith. Jesus condemned the disciples when they were afraid and so lacked faith, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm." Matthew 8:26 Faith is knowing that you have always been heard by your Father and that He is to always be trusted. Trusting God, having faith, makes Him happy. Even when we don't see things turning out as we think they should, by knowing that God has heard you, and will work everything out for the best, is faith.

We are created to do His work, for His glory; these works are always good; these works shine; these works are a testament to God's handiwork. We are God's handiwork. When we do works in our own strength, we will boast. When we do God's works by His Spirit, we are not "doing" we are "being" in the likeness of His Son, co-heirs with Christ, and our light will shine as the resurrection power of Jesus works through us.

Saved means rescued. What do we all want to be rescued from? Things that hurt and destroy us, and things that we hate within ourselves that eventually hurt and destroy us and others. This horror in the world, and within ourselves is sin; sin hurts, it destroys. We all know we need to be rescued, it is a basic human preservation response. To understand that Jesus is sent from a God who is a creator, who sees the world, and our lives within it from His perspective, gives us faith that He knows what he is doing. He is supreme. Father God, who created the world gave us an opportunity to be rescued from the horror of sin, from others and from within ourselves. We are rescued from horror to what? We are rescued from the horror of sin to eternal life. What is eternal life? It starts now. John 17:3 states "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." Know Him and you will know real peace. Be rescued from you own hurt and you won't hurt others. Be rescued from sin and know Jesus, the eternal life.

Grace, is counter-culture in our Western society; we work, therefore we get. Because this is so ingrained in our psych, we think this way of others as well and find it difficult, if not impossible, to extend grace without God's nature being unhindered in His expression in us. We, are by human nature, unforgiving and ungracious. To understand grace, we need to delve into the Kingdom culture of Christ and ask for His infilling to extend it to others. Grace demolishes works, pay-back, expectations, and revenge. Grace is the antidote to bitterness. We relinquish bitterness as we understand God's true grace towards as. "Grace, Sweetheart, is like when your Dad came home from work and he was really tired, and sore from carrying all those logs, and he finds out that you have just kicked your toy through the glass door. I know you felt pretty bad. But Grace is like that time, when your Dad got you to clean your toys up and Dad cleaned the glass up so you would not cut yourself. He got you out of the mess and fixed it up."

Wow! We are partakers in His grace! To be seated with HIM - CHRIST! His job is complete, the throne belongs to Him, He rests in His victory, and we rest in His victory also. Oh and my revelation of the moment is that you cannot be seated with Christ, and so His authority, UNLESS you walk in grace and mercy and love, just as He has done for us. That if we are raised with Christ, we are raised with the same power that took Him to the cross..the power of complete surrender to His will...the power to have knowledge of sin against us and yet walk in love. Just look at Jesus at the Last Supper with Judas. Jesus addressed the sin, the consequence, and yet still shared his body and his blood. He still made the atonement for Judas' sin. This says that "God's grace is sufficient for me." His Victory is made perfect in our weakness if we recognize our weakness and ask for His infilling, His mercy, His strength. If we see through His eyes, hear with His ears, and are led by the power of His Spirit who takes us to heavenly realms. Our authority is in Him. Before Jesus went to the cross, to fulfill His boldest act, he prayed "yet not my will, but yours be done."

He is indeed loving, gracious and merciful. I feel a "wee tad", or perhaps more than a "tad" convicted. Where is the evidence of the grace God has given to me and continues to give to me? Where is the loving mercy that I owe others because Christ has died for me while I was a wicked sinner? Even if I had not repented He still would have offered me His nature through His death. It makes me ask for more grace, and to be filled with His mercy and His love. I am indeed reminded that I am completely reliant on Him filling me to overflowing to make His presence evident in my life. I am unable to even perform outside of my "self" without His living body sacrificed for me so that I too can live out His love, His grace, and His mercy.

If we remain in our sinful nature, blinded by Satan's deception, not realizing Christ's gift to us in the power of His blood, we will sin unwittingly. How can one be both "responsible" yet "unwitting"? For the Christian, saved by grace, it is through the ignorance of Satan's wiles. In Matthew chapter 4, Jesus was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit and yet tempted by Satan. Jesus was by no means unwitting as he knew the power of the scriptures and he recognized Satan using God's Word in a twisted manner. We are therefore responsible for rebellion if we do not adhere to the Word and abide in the Holy Spirit to give us discernment; this takes time in both reading the Word and hearing his rhema. God has to blame us or he will not prove himself holy. However, he has provided us a way out of our darkness in Jesus. The blame lies in us, by not accepting the sacrifice of His son to allow us to become God's own children with His nature evident in our lives. After all, when we know our Father, that's whose voice we will listen to and we will recognize Satan as being the deceiver that he is.

1. In death, there is a certain script, no chance for change, a definite outcome of grief. In life there is ability to write your script -with the Word of God, and an ability to change - we have the mind of Christ, with a definite outcome of joy. In death there is no choice. One resigns themselves to the inevitability of death and that nothing can change the outcome. As a non-believer, one resigns him/herself to "whatever will be will be", to the inevitable, and that, after our own strength.....there is nothing. Death cancels out the possibility of life; it cancels out the possibility of CHRIST. 2. The difference between them and us, is the choice of life. Deuteronomy 30:19 states:" This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live." The difference is, in Christ, we have a choice to actively refuse death by embracing the living Christ. 3. What should I do knowing that the unbeliever is subject to God's "wrath"? Knowing Romans 10:17,that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" I should speak to the unbeliever the word of God in which ever way he listens: pray the Word of God for him, speak the Word of God to him,and most importantly, live the word of God through myself- BEING the REDEEMED, BLESSED CHOICE!

If God appointed Jesus to be the head over everything for the Church, then he has appointed us to be in his body. If we are not part of His body, we are not walking in obedience, therefore we miss out on the blessings of obedience which bring "fullness". Secondly, we are starving the body/others of what blessing we can give them. Disobedience always hurts not only ourselves, but others also.

1. We "pass" on spiritual warfare because we ignorant of its importance in maintaining Jesus as the head. For those who are aware of its vital importance, it comes down to the acknowledgement of the Lordship of Jesus; laziness in prayer and spiritual warfare is evidence of the slip of Jesus as "head", the slip of Jesus being "Lord". 2. Paul's focus on the absolute spiritual authority in Christ is incredibly important because it is the victory that he claimed when he rose from the dead to forgive of us our sins, defeating death and the devil. His victory is our inheritance, that we can only walk in, if we position Christ as the head and we remain in a healthy body. We need to remind ourselves, and each other of Christ's position of absolute authority as it is the power of salvation. Paul reminds us of what Christ has done for us so we can appropriate our authority which Christ has claimed for us! 3.We can feel powerless in the face of spiritual enemies when we are not prepared; like any warfare, we must be listening to the commanders orders, and standing with our fellow fighters -the body of Christ. If we are not in a close position with Christ, and with the body, we leave ourselves open to defeat. To not be powerless, we need to rely on Him who has "holds the keys to death and Hades". Walk with the supreme victor, Jesus! 4. We are assured of victory in Christ if we keep Him as our head. This encourages us to think with the mind of Christ and have the assurance of His vicory!