He Sent His Word

God's Word always has a purpose...

"Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure; calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a far country.

"Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it." [Isaiah 40:10,11]

'Then the LORD said to me, "You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it."' [Jeremiah 1:12]

'By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses...For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.' [Psalm 33:6,9]

He speaks with the express purpose of His Word coming to pass, creating whatever He commands. In fact, His Word IS His command!

Ezekiel 38 says He put hooks in their jaws...in other words, He turned them the way He wanted them to go by His prophecy, His Word in the earth.

Proverbs 21:1 says 'The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.'

In other words, what He says goes and He has said a lot about us!

And I'm pretty sure He means for it to come to pass.

Think about it.

Love...The Missing Ingredient

I struggled with intercessory prayer, and usually feel pretty guilty that I'm not doing more.

Yes, I know certain Christians have a distinct gift, or calling, for intercession. But deep down, I always felt that was a bit of an excuse, at least for me.

It hit me today, like a bolt out of the blue. Love is the missing ingredient to intercessory prayer!

I was praying...pleading, really, on behalf of my son...heartfelt, emotional prayers based on the Word. And I realized that intercession comes naturally for those we love. Love never wants to see the loved one in pain, or hurt, or disappointed in any way.

The problem with general intercession is we just don't love enough. If we loved the troubled kid down the block like we love our sons and daughters, his hurts and problems would move us to prayer in an instant.

Love. God is Love, and we are created in His image, filled with His Spirit.

That's why He was so surprised to find no one interceding for justice.

'And He saw there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.' [Isaiah 59:16,17]

Since He is Love and He created man in His own image, I guess He was shocked at how little we really love. So He came Himself, wrapped in zeal! And it sounds like He was pretty mad...read Psalm 18:6-16!

Now, the resurrected Christ lives to intercedes for us always!

'Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He ALWAYS lives to make intercession for them.' [Hebrews 7:25]

So if you want to intercede for others, add the missing ingredient. See them as your sons, daughters, brothers and sisters...your mothers and fathers and dearest friends.

Love them as thought they were your own.

And intercede by faith, because faith works by or through love.

Hallelujah!

Jesus, The Word of God

Want to walk free from sin? Free from doubt, unbelief and failure?

Want the wisdom of God in every situation...at work, at school, at home?

Someone once said your life will be the result of the four people you spend the most time with...why? Because you are soaking your mind with their speech and their beliefs.

What if you spent time with Jesus?

That sounds great, but how would you do that, exactly?

By spending time in the Word...Jesus IS the Word!

He IS the WORD! All of it, manifested in flesh and blood.

'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and THE WORD WAS GOD. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has cone into being. In Him [The Word] was LIFE, and the LIFE was the LIGHT of men. The LIGHT shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

'And the WORD became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.' [John 1:1-5,14]

'He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called THE WORD OF GOD. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From HIS MOUTH comes a SHARP SWORD...' [Revelation 19:13-15]

That's why 2 Corinthians 1:20 can say that every promise, or word, of God is YES in Him...because THEY ARE HIM!!! And we are one Spirit with the Lord...and WE are IN HIM! [1 Corinthians 6:17]

1 Corinthians 1:5 tells us that '...in everything you were enriched IN HIM...'

Okay. Now What?
Here are some of the reasons it's important to read the Word every day, to speak the Word every day, to meditate on the Word throughout the day:

'Establish my footsteps in Your Word, and do not let any iniquity have dominion over me. Redeem me from the oppression of man, that I may keep Your precepts. Make Your face shine upon Your servant, and teach me Your statutes.' [Psalm 119:133-135]

'The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.' [Psalm 19:7]

'This book of the law shall not depart from your MOUTH, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to DO according to all that is written in it; for then YOU will make your way PROSPEROUS, and then YOU will have SUCCESS.' [Joshua 1:8]

"It is the Spirit Who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the WORDS that I have spoken to you are SPIRIT and LIFE." [John 6:64]

'And do not be conformed to this world, but BE TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind, so that you may PROVE what the WILL OF GOD is, that which is GOOD and ACCEPTABLE and PERFECT.' [Romans 12;2]

An interesting aside...did you know that unclean spirits come out of the MOUTH of the dragon? Check it out...Revelation 16:13,14.

Why? Because words are spirit, period. In Deuteronomy 30 we are told to CHOOSE life and prosperity or death and adversity...how do we choose? Proverbs 18:21 explains that death and life are in the power, or hand, of the TONGUE! We choose with our mouths!

Hallelujah!

Read One With The Word

The I AM Principle

Originally published as 'The Great I AM' this is revised and improved! A little long, maybe, but pretty good...

God is all the things He says He is, and He is them for all eternity, past, present and future. He is them to us, individually and collectively as the church, and His Word is settled forever. [Psalm 119:89]

In fact, the instant the words 'I AM...' [fill in the blank] came out of His mouth, He was that very thing! He cannot lie, because the second He speaks, His words become reality! His names were not only a description of Who He was, but in declaring them, He became the substance of each name! Here are just a few:

Jehovah Jireh—The Lord will Provide
Jehovah Shalom—The Lord is Peace
Jehovah Tsidkenu—The Lord our Righteousness
Jehovah—The Lord my Banner [military reference]
Jehovah Ro'i—The Lord my Shepherd

And because our new self is created in the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness of the truth [Ephesians 4:24], we are also the things He says we are now! He is the great I AM...we are I am's, too. In Ephesians 5:1 we are told to be imitators of God, as beloved children; therefore, we are to be like Him. I John 4:17 says '...as He is, so also are we in this world.'

Be like Him
We are one Spirit with Him—He is in us, and we are in Him. [ref Stop Begging—It's Inside!] In fact, Peter writes '...for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.' [1 Peter 1:23] We are born of the same seed planted in the womb of a young virgin, 2000 years ago!! He is the Word, and we are the Word multiplied!

In fact, The Father Himself told us how to change our lives...'Let the weak say, "I am a mighty man."' [Joel 3:10] The books of Psalms and Proverbs are filled with references to the power of our speech—and Jesus told us to talk to mountains and trees.

One great example is Gideon...God's angel called him 'valiant warrior' when he was anything but. [Judges 6:12] And a valiant warrior is exactly what he became. But remember, there is no time in eternity, and eternity is forward and back, up and down. So he was really a valiant warrior, even before the angel gave him the Word of the Lord. His works were finished from the foundation of the world!

God changed Abram's name to Abraham...the Father of a multitude when he had no children. [Genesis 17:5] Ditto the above—he was made a Father of a multitude BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD!

[sorry for shouting, but it's really just too much to think about sometimes]

And then there's Peter...Jesus called him 'Rock' when he was the most volatile of His disciples! Unstable and impulsive, Jesus called him what he was created to be, or more exactly, was FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD!

Think about the prophecies in the Old Testament...each one calling Jesus what He would be, even though He was yet to come. And so it is with us...God has called us many wonderful things in the Word that

Can you see it? God, the Great I AM is telling us to proclaim who we are...'I am a mighty man!' 'By His stripes, I am healed.' He told us to see the unseen—the already accomplished promises of God—and speak them into existence! We are told to '...put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.' [Ephesians 4:24]

Just Be
Just be. Be what the Word says, just because it says so, because it is forever settled, finished from the foundation of the world.

Just be. Don't try to be, or have. Just be. Be healed, be rich, be love. Be One Spirit with the Lord. Be seated in heavenly places in Him...

God doesn't have love, He IS love. He doesn't have power, He IS power. Jesus doesn't have the Word, He IS the Word...and we are the Word multiplied, His Body in the earth.

And He has decreed exactly what we are, just as He decreed "Light, be!" in the beginning.

Be the Word.

Glory?
It is imperative that we develop a consciousness of who and what we are now. Eternity is not a time-oriented existence.

Colossians 1:13 says the we have been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of His beloved Son. These things have already taken place, and we are eternal beings, recreated in our Father's image! We are everything that He says we are now, and satan is forever defeated in our lives now!

2 Corinthians 3:17,18 says: 'Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.' What this means is this: as we behold His glory, we are transformed into the same image by the power of the Holy Spirit. Same image! Hallelujah!

In fact, just before His death, Jesus prayed for us. "The glory which You have given Me, I have given to them, that they may be on, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world my know that You sent Me, and love them, even as You have loved Me.'

Yes, in the Old Covenant, God said that He would not give His glory to another [Isaiah 48:11], and we here that preached on a regular basis. But we are not another! We are one with Him and He has already given His glory to us!!

The whole idea of salvation was to bring many sons [Gr. huios, meaning offspring of man] to Glory! Jesus was the last Adam, and the Firstborn of Many Brethren!

The Great I AM spoke the Word—the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us. Then the Word multiplied and grew daily.

Now
Therefore, realizing that we are now members of the kingdom of God, we are to walk by faith and not by sight. Faith is sight...it is seeing into the kingdom of God and walking by what God says instead of walking by natural sight, which is fixed on a dying and decaying fallen world.

It is the eternal view, from God's viewpoint. He sees our needs met now, and so should we. Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, and Romans 10:17 says it comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. This is spiritual hearing, hearing what Jesus says to you—rhema, or the spoken word of God, which comes out of logos [the written word of God].

It is His will that we awaken from our sleep and become strong sons and daughters, administering His Kingdom on the earth [Ephesians 1:10]. He desires that we come to the place where we see everything that He has said is true now, and has called us to reign in life through the One, Christ Jesus. [Romans 5:17]

Read Be the Ball

One With The Word

1 Corinthians 6:17 states that we are One Spirit with the Lord, and we've seen in the last article, One [more], that we're One Spirit with the Father as well.

But according the Bible, Jesus is The Word, and we're the Word multiplied! [John 1, Acts 12:24]

Back to our math example...if a = b and b = c, then a = c.

So if we're One with the Lord, and Jesus is the Word, we're ONE WITH THE WORD!

I can't stand it!!

Let's see what The Word has to say about The Word...

'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

'And the WORD became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. [John 1:1-3, 14]

This is good...remember, eternity is not only forward, it's backwards, too, because there is no time in eternity! Ephesians 1 says we were chosen IN HIM before the foundation of the world, and Colossians 1:16 says all things were created by Him...by the Word of God!

Were we in Him when He made the world? I really think we were...

An interesting aside...in John 1, He is the only begotten of the Father, but after His resurrection, all who believe on Him are born of God, born again of the imperishable seed which is the living and enduring WORD of God. [1 Peter 1:23]

He is the Firstborn of many brethren [Romans 8:29] and the Firstborn from the dead. [Colossians 1:18]

We are called the Church of the Firstborn. [Hebrews 12:23]

He is the Word, the Firstborn, and we are One Spirit with Him!

Of course, He's still the only begotten of the Father, because we are ONE WITH HIM!! We're in Him and He is in us...one.

Hallelujah! One with the WORD!!

Read One [more], One, One Spirit With The Lord, God Isn't Holding Back.

One [more]

We know from 1 Corinthians 6:17 that we are One Spirit with the Lord...

But did you know that, according to John 10:30, that means we are One with the Father as well?

Remember your math...if a = b and b = c, then a = c.

If we are One with Jesus, and Jesus is One with the Father, then we must be One with the Father as well.

"...that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in US, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

‘Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”’ [John 14:23]

"I in them and You in Me, that they may be PERFECTED IN UNITY, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me." [John 17:2,23]

And get this...

"...Believe THE WORKS, so that you may KNOW and UNDERSTAND that the Father is IN Me and I in the Father." [John 10:38]

The works are the proof of unity with the Father! No wonder He told us that we would do greater works than He did...He knew that we would be One with Him AND with the Father!

That's why He instructed us to speak to mountains and trees and the sick and the dead! He was telling us how to operate in the earth after we became One with Him...

And the Holy Spirit promised in Ephesians 3 that we would be filled up to ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD! Colossians 1:11 says ‘...strengthened with ALL power according to HIS glorious might…’

Think about it.

Read One, One Spirit with the Lord, With Us, God Isn't Holding Back, God Isn't Holding Back 2, The Name, Tap the Power, Abide, Complete.

God's Thoughts and Ways

Here's a well-known passage...let's take a fresh look.

'"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

"So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it."' [Isaiah 55:9-11]

God's first statement is just that—a statement of fact. It's not an explanation of how, just what is.

His thoughts and ways are higher than ours—different, better. In other words, He doesn't operate the way we do, or to put it more accurately, we don't operate the way He does. At least not in the Old Testament...

In the New Covenant, however, we have the mind of Christ—His thoughts—and we are One Spirit with the Lord, born of the imperishable seed which is the Word of God! And Jesus told us plainly that the works He did, we would do also, and greater works because He was going to the Father! [1 Corinthians 2:16; 1 Corinthians 6:17; John 14:12]

Jesus also said that if we've known and seen Him, we've known and seen the Father. In other words, He thinks and acts just like the Father! [John 14:7]

So it would make sense for us to know just what God the Father is talking about in this passage...what are His thoughts and ways?

Happily, He reveals them in the very next couple of verses!

His Word goes forth and succeeds in the matter for which He sends it! That's how He does things...His thoughts and His ways!

He speaks with the intent that it WILL come to pass, period. And it does.

Isn't that exactly what Jesus told us to do when He told us to speak to mountains and trees? Believe that what you say will happen? [Mark 11:22-24]

Sounds like intent to me.

Ephesians 5:1 tells us to be imitators of God, as beloved children, and 5:8 tells us to walk as children of Light. And Proverbs 18:21 says 'Death and life are in the power [hand] of the tongue...'

Think and act like Him.

Read God's Ways, Think Like God.

Whatever...

I realize that the word whatever brings to mind the image of an obnoxious teenager, rolling her eyes while chewing gum and twirling hair, but that's really not the picture painted in the New Testament.

Think about the meaning of the word whatever...it really means anything, or everything. It is an all inclusive word, and Jesus used it in several key scriptures.

The dictionary describes it as a relative pronoun, used to emphasize a lack of restriction in referring to any thing or amount, no matter what.

Consider how Jesus used it:

"Truly I say to you, WHATEVER you bind [forbid, prohibit] shall have been bound in heaven; and WHATEVER you loose [undo, destroy] on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." [Matthew 18:18]
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and WHATEVER you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and WHATEVER you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." [Matthew 16:19]
"WHATEVER you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it." [John 14:13,14]
"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask WHATEVER you wish, and it will be done for you." [John 15:7]
"You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that WHATEVER you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you." [John 15:16]
'For WHATEVER is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? [1 John 5:4,5]

No matter how you look at them, these are promises without restriction of any kind. There are no prerequisites, no conditions, no limitations.

Carte blanche.

Think of it this way...what if the world's richest, most powerful person told you "Whatever you ask for, I'll give it to you...whatever you forbid or allow, I'll back it."

This is exactly what happened! Jesus fully intended to equip us to reign in life by these precious and magnificent promise...He said them, and as God expects His Word to come to pass in the earth.

He gave us these promises for us to use as His Body in the earth! He was without limits, and expected to continue to walk in that limitlessness throughout the ages. We are One Spirit with the Lord! [1 Corinthians 6:17]

1 John 4:17 puts it this way: '...as He [Jesus] IS, so also are we IN THIS WORLD.'

This is the very essence of believing you receive when you pray, of believing that all things are possible to him who believes.

It is the antithesis of religious error, which tells us sometimes the answer is no, to embrace the wilderness experience, God may not want to heal/prosper/fill-in-the-blank, blah blah blah.

The Fine Print
What's the catch?

I'm glad you asked.

There are, in fact, a couple of built-in safeguards...just so we don't blow people up on the freeway or send politicians to an ice floe in the North Atlantic.

1) Your requests must be based on the promises of God...this is Bible HOPE.

'For as many as are the PROMISES OF GOD, in Him they are YES; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.' [2 Corinthians 1:20]

Find the promise(s) that pertain to your situation and base your prayers on them. Don't bother praying contrary to His will as found in His written word...you're wasting your breath.

Why is this great? Because He has granted us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them we may become PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE! [2 Peter 1:4]

There are lots of promises in the Book and they are all YES for us! Promises to cover every situation, promises made by a loving Father to His children!

There are even carte blanche promises! Try Luke 12:32, Mark 9:23 & 11:24, 2 Corinthians 1:20, 1 Corinthians 3:21,22, 1 Timothy 6:17 for a start…

2) Love and forgive.

Faith works through, or by, love!

Because God IS love, and His Word—Jesus IS the Word—is love. [Galatians 5:6]

Love is the power in the universe, and faith works by love.

And forgiveness comes from the heart of love.

I realize that this may be hard for some, but we wouldn't be told to forgive if we were not able to do so. Forgive by faith, not by feeling. Decide to do it, speak it out and trust God to heal your hurts.

Choose to love. 1 Corinthians 13 says, in a nutshell, that nothing we do apart from love counts.

It also states that LOVE NEVER FAILS.

If you're in a situation where you could use a little 'never fails' try love.

3) Faith.

'For WHATEVER is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? [1 John 5:4,5]
'Now faith is the ASSURANCE [SUBSTANCE] of THINGS HOPED FOR, the CONVICTION [PROOF] of things not seen...and without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a REWARDER of those who seek Him.' [Hebrews 11:1,6]

That's it, folks. Faith, hope and love...these make up the 'safety catch' on the prayer promises of God.

The good news [get it...the gospel?] is that if you're born again, you're One Spirit with the Lord! You've already got all the faith, hope and love in your inner man that He has! Remember, as He is, so are we in this world...

Power
We're filled with ALL miracle-working power! Unless, of course, the Holy Spirit's prayer didn't get answered...

We don't walk in it because we've had 2000 years of lies to brainwash us out of our power. But it's true, regardless.

And that miracle-working power is Love...God Himself, the treasure in these earthen vessels.

So go ahead. Use the power within to walk in faith, hope and love and believe God for whatever.

It already belongs to you.

Hallelujah!

Did Jesus Sing?

I was listening to some particularly anointed music and had this thought...did Jesus sing? And if He did, what did He sing?

I mean, music is woven throughout the Word...Lucifer was the Angel of Worship. [Which is why I think he is so skillful at perverting music...he knows how and why it cuts right to the spirit. But that's a topic for another time]

So I knew that Jesus just had to sing. Revelations 1:15 says His voice is like the sound of many waters!

But what? What did He sing?

And I heard, inside, "I sang the songs of David. That's why you love them so much."

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I am One Spirit with the Lord! [1 Corinthians 6:17]

It's true...I love the Psalms. I spend way too much time there, and have in the past thought that I should be spending more time in the New Covenant.

Which is probably true, because it is my Covenant.

But for some reason I am always drawn back to the Psalms. They are so full of revelation, of timeless truth. I marvel time and time again at how much David knew about God, how much he saw that would be fulfilled in the New Covenant. And while reading them, I see links to other truths, many in the New Covenant.

But now I know. I love the Psalms because Jesus loved them. Hallelujah!! He sang them during His time on the earth, and we will sing them together with Him in Heaven.

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Glory to God!