free (3)

DAY 7/31 DAYS OF PRAYER TO BEGIN 2015

VERSE: Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...(Romans 8:1)

PRAYER:
HEAVENLY FATHER, HERE WE STOOD, ACCUSED BY THE ACCUSER OF THE BRETHREN, FOUND GUILTY BY THE GOD OF HEAVEN AND DESTINED FOR DARKNESS FOREVER MORE, BUT YOU, YOU OH GOD, FATHER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, STOOD IN THE GAP BECAUSE THERE WAS NO ONE ELSE, AND PAID THE ULTIMATE COST, AS THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE POURED HIMSELF OUT FROM THE THRONE, THE ETERNAL THRONE TO BECOME A MAN.

THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT THAT ABBA FATHER, WHICH WE COULD NEVER COMPREHEND, AT LEAST ON THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN- THE VERY FACT THAT HE WHO HELD THE WORLD ON ITS FOOTINGS, WHO SPOKE THE UNIVERSE INTO CREATION, WHO FORMED ADAM FROM THE DUST AND WALKED WITH ENOCH, ABRAHAM AND MOSES - HE WOULD BE BORN UNDER THE SAME LAW HE GAVE US, THEN LIVE WITH PURPOSE AND CLARITY UNDER IT, WHILE NOT VIOLATING ONE JOT OR TITTLE OF IT. WHAT MANNER OF GOD IS HE, THE ANCIENT OF DAYS, OH MERCIFUL FATHER? WHO IS THIS KING OF GLORY, THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY? 

AND NOW,  BECAUSE HE GAVE HIS LIFE FREELY FOR OUR SAKE, FOR MY SAKE, I WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH, FOR THIS IS WHAT THE FATHER IS LOOKING FOR IN THESE LAST DAYS. I ACCEPT THE FORGIVENESS HE OFFERS ME. I ACCEPT THE REMOVAL OF THE CHARGE OF GUILTY AND THE SENTENCE OF ETERNAL DEATH.  I ACCEPT THE REMOVAL OF ALL MY GUILTY STAINS AND SINS THAT ARE NOW AS FAR AS THE EAST IS FROM THE WEST. I NOT ONLY FREE ACCEPT THE OFFER OF THAT FORGIVENESS BUT RECEIVE IT INTO MY SPIRIT, KNOWING YOU HAVE REMOVED ME FROM THE MAJORITY OF THE CONDEMNED, YOU HAVE TAKEN ME FROM THE DOMINION OF DARKNESS INTO THE MARVELOUS LIGHT OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. THIS IS NOT JUST A PIPE DREAM OR A PROMISE YOU HAVE MADE, HEAVENLY FATHER, BUT A REALITY I LIVE RIGHT NOW, THAT WE WHO ARE CALLED BY YOUR NAME AND HAVE BEEN ADOPTED AS SONS AND DAUGHTERS ARE CURRENTLY INTEGRATED INTO!

AT THE POINT OF CONVERSION, OH GOD, YOU TOOK US FROM THE PIT INTO THE ETERNAL REALM THAT WE MAY EXPERIENCE KINGDOM LIVING, KINGDOM AUTHORITY AND KINGDOM BLESSINGS, NOT IN THE FUTURE, BUT RIGHT NOW. I LIVE IN THIS MOMENT, KNOWING THAT MY CURRENT LIFE IS BUT A PHYSICAL BREATH AWAY FROM THE REALITY OF MY ALREADY ESTABLISHED RESIDENCE AND GUARANTEED HOME IN THE ETERNAL WITH THE ANCIENT OF DAYS. THANK YOU FOR REDEEMING MY SOUL, FOR RESCUING YOUR SERVANT AND FOR RESTORING THROUGH YOUR SALVATION, SANCTIFICATION AND SOVEREIGN WILL. OH WHAT A GLORIOUS THING TO REST IN YOU, RELY IN YOU AND RESIDE IN YOUR PRESENCE, KNOWING THERE IS NO MORE CONDEMNATION FROM US WHO WERE BOUGHT AT THE CROSS, IN THE MIGHTY NAME OF THE KING OF GLORY – JESUS CHRIST, AMEN.
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Draw Near To God, and He Will Draw Near To You

Let’s start thinking about this simple, but profound promise (Draw Near To God, and He Will Draw Near To You) by going back to square one, and moving forward with ideas on actual ways to do this.

In either your experience or your understanding, who approached whom first, you or God? You may have searched or studied about God, feeling that you were the driving force. However, most of us who now know God by faith and experience have come to understand from His Word that He is the One who took the initiative in our relationship, and even our own efforts were guided by Him. This does not in any way devalue the FREE WILL He provided us, based on His love for us. God will never force Himself on us, and the love He shows us in giving us free will has a lot to do with Him wanting us to CHOOSE to know Him and love Him back. He could have made us ROBOTS, but that would have killed the essence of us choosing to respond to His love and thereby experience a growing, vital, dynamic love relationship with Him.

So, what is the bedrock way to see and experience His love initiative toward us? Jesus’ whole brief life on earth focused on His mission as Emmanuel (God with us) to show us God in flesh-action on His way to offer us salvation via the cross and the empty tomb. All forces of human and evil spiritual authorities tried to kill or sidetrack Jesus from His mission to become our savior by paying full price for all our sins. Perhaps the strongest potential deterrent from His mission was the foreknowledge of the pending physical, spiritual, and emotional pain He faced in his mock trials and crucifixion. For example He sweat drops of blood as he wrestled to seek any alternative to making full payment by taking ALL our sins upon Himself on the cross. Since none was to be found if we were to be given the invitation of heaven in God’s holy presence, dressed in Christ’s robe of righteousness, the third time Jesus agonized alone in prayer, he yielded, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” Psalm 22 predicted His cries from the cross, as well as the answer to His grueling WHY question. “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help?...3 Yet you are holy”

So God the Father, Son, and Spirit planned before our known world began, to provide man a way that would satisfy God’s holiness, to live in their holy presence forever. They took love initiative way beyond our comprehension to invite us to love and worship them back. Only those who are impacted by the magnitude of such love, and respond with a decisive RSVP act of their will and commitment, will experience that extended transforming love, and be allowed into the holy presence of God forever.

So for those only, who have RSVP’d for heaven, God now offers us the opportunity to respond to His love initiative, in kind, with our initiative to draw near to Him. It is no surprise that some of these “methods” include: prayer, worship, adoration, sharing His worthiness and glory with others, and cooperating daily with the Holy Spirit to allow Him to produce and refine His fruit in us (which includes love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and Spirit-control). As we see God at work in this world and join Him as partners (ambassadors), we experience His enablement, filling, equipping, and transforming power at work in, through, and around us. As we mostly listen and worship in prayer we see Him High and lifted up. In King David’s impactful Psalm 51 prayer of brokenness and repentance, he prays, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.13 Then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you. There are many such ways to respond to God’s love and experience Him drawing near to us, but the first step is to accept His love initiative to us on the cross where the dearest and best died for us.

For more, please see: How to Draw Nearer to God; John Hoelzel Sr; 2011; Amazon.com

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YOU ARE FREE!

SO NOW --- STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP!

Too much has been said about freedom, deliverance, breaking free, breaking loose from the bondage and shackles of our past without the actual application of just doing it! So many Christians live such defeated lives that it would take me another book to dissect all the reasons; rhymes and horrible times we put ourselves through when we refuse to live in the Victory.


What Victory am I speaking about? This Victory is one we won when we took up residence at the Foot of the Cross. We then embraced its substitutionary atonement and subse accepted the Pardon which was paid for there, and is still valid almost 2000 years since!

Two verses today speak to this as we glance at the wonderful chapter of Romans 8 and see that verses 1 and 2 undergirds this foundational truth: "So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death"!

How about that! Here are just the facts, ma'am"

No condemnation: we have been pardoned and declared not guilty BECAUSE we surrendered all at the Foot of the Cross.
- We are not just not guilty (even though the Charge against us was "WE SINNED AGAINST GOD") but now the Judge Who said we are still "not guilty"  then says..."and furthermore, you now belong to My Son, Who created the Heaven's and the Earth! Can you just imagine how that feels?! WE BELONG TO THE ETERNAL KING!
- AND not just that, but because we DO belong to this Eternal King of Glory, the Lord God Almighty, the Powerful Force Who created and controls the entire Universe just pulled our fat out of the fire and given us"ZOE"! That word ZOE is a powerful word. It is officially described as "GOD intimately sharing His gift of life with people, created each of us in His image". Then gave us all the capacity/power/supernatural strength to know His eternal life.

Therefore, in light of all this mind-boggling Grace to us from our Heavenly Father, we can now not only be free from the past sinfulness but can proactively live victoriously. This can only come about because we are safe and solidly in the knowledge of the Holy, Who has given us more than we deserve! So friend, if you're struggling today with some past acquaintance reminding you of things which God has already forgiven you or even your conscience being used to play tricks on you....if you're saturated with societal lunacy, which never seems to satisfy but more than ever pulls you down into a zone of fleshy dissatisfaction with your current physical environment and circumstance....well then, remember these same verses from Romans 8:1 and 2!

Father, in the Name of Jesus, please seal this encouragement from Your Holy Scriptures in our heart. Help us to learn to not just accept that You have forgiven us, through repentance and the sacrifice on the Cross, but to comprehend that we can now hold on to with this Truth and walk in peace, joy, contentment and righteousness. Father, knowing that You love me and everyone reading this, I pray for those who have not been told the Truth. I pray that if they have truly come to the saving personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus as Lord and Savior, that they will believe with every fiber of their being that "He whom the Son sets free - is FREE indeed"....and THAT FREEDOM is now theirs!  In the Strong and Powerful Name of Jesus, amen!
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