Don't Look Up 3

[Read Don't Look Up, Don't Look Up 2]

When we come to the Throne of Grace, we are not coming based on our performance or on our own righteousness. How much or how little we've done, what mistakes we may or may not have made...

We are coming in the Name of Jesus because we are one Spirit with Him.

Seated in Heavenly Places
We've seen that we're already seated in Him in heavenly places, right now, while walking around on the earth. Yes, it's a paradigm...we are, from a quantum point of view, in two places at once.

We are joined to Him—we have died, and He abides in us, with The Father and The Holy Spirit. [ref Christ in You]

When we come to the Throne of Grace, we are coming IN HIM. God sees Him and the Blood Covenant. Yes, Jesus ministers in the office of High Priest of our confession [Hebrews 3:1; 4:14], but He is also One with the one praying!

If I have died and Christ lives in me, who is praying? Who is coming boldly to the Throne of Grace?

Why is every promise of God YES in Him? [2 Corinthians 1:20] Why are we promised that if we ask ANYTHING in His Name He will do it? [John 14:14]

Because He lives in these earthen vessels! Because we are His Body and we are filled with His fulness!

When we pray, we pray IN HIS NAME! Why? Because it's our name, too...HE'S THE ONLY ONE IN THERE!!!

Yes, we must renew our minds to these precious and magnificent promises so that we can partake of the Divine nature! [2 Peter 1:4], and yes, we must crucify the flesh—take authority over it and not let it run our lives.

But we ARE one with Him now, in these earthen vessels and seated in Him in heavenly places.

So when you start to pray, come in the full knowledge and assurance that it is the One within you praying.

The Mouth is Connected To The Heart...Always!

We know from the Word that from the heart the mouth speaks.

"For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart." [Matthew 12:34]

"The good man out of the good treasure of his heart BRINGS FORTH what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure BRINGS FORTH what is evil; for his MOUTH SPEAKS from that which fills his HEART." [Luke 6:45]

Interesting, there are no disclaimers attached to these verses. They do NOT say, '...only when you are consciously making faith confessions...' or '...only when you mean to...' or '...only when you're not joking around...'

Speaking Spirit
Genesis 2:7 says 'Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.'

The Targum Onkelos, an ancient Aramaic translation says '...and man became ANOTHER speaking spirit.'

God breathed HIMSELF into the lump of clay, and man, both male and female, became ANOTHER speaking spirit! [Read Lumps of Clay]

The Hip Bone Connected to the Thigh Bone...
Yes, your mouth is ALWAYS connected to your heart!

This is a spiritual, and natural, fact.

The POWER [yad = hand] of life and death is IN THE TONGUE!! [Proverbs 18:21] This is not some made-up saying propagated by faith preachers...IT IS THE VERY WORD OF GOD!

Why did God create us as 'speaking spirits?' Because we are created in HIS IMAGE, and He is THE Speaking Spirit, Who does everything by the words of His mouth! He created us to reign on the earth with the power and authority of the spoken word.

Reign
It is our very nature to reign in the natural with our mouths. They are connected to the treasure in our hearts, whether good or bad, and they WILL bring that treasure forth.

Forth where? Forth, into the earth. In fact, this is exactly what happened to the prophets of old. They SPOKE Jesus into the earth, and the WORD became flesh. [John 1:14]

From where?

'How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the HIGHWAYS TO ZION! Passing through the valley of Baca [weeping] THEY make it a spring; the early rain also covers it with BLESSINGS. They go from strength to strength, every one of them appears before God in Zion.' [Psalm 84:4-7]

'But you have come to MOUNT ZION and to the city of the living God, the HEAVENLY JERUSALEM, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.' [Hebrews 12:22-24]

'But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved ), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.' [Ephesians 2:4-7]

Yikes.

This is why Jesus cautioned us about being too cavalier with the words of our mouths.

"But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment." [Matthew 12:36]

He knew the power of the spoken word, and He knew that this law works all the time, for good or ill.

And, for you faith critics, It's the very process by which we are born again!

'But what does it say? "The Word is near you, in your MOUTH and in your HEART"—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you CONFESS with your MOUTH Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

'...for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the MOUTH he confesses, resulting in salvation.' [Romans 10:8-10]

What's The Problem
What, then, is the problem? Why is it that, when we need our words to work, they don't seem to?

I think the answer may be found in Mark 11.

'And Jesus answered saying to them, "Have faith in God.

Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but BELIEVES THAT WHAt HE SAYS IS GOING TO HAPPEN, it will be granted him.

"Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE RECEIVED THEM, and they will be granted you."' [Mark 11:22-24]

We just don't believe that our words works. If we did, we wouldn't be so careless with them.

Even when we see the truth in the Word and begin to practice it, that nagging doubt stops them dead in the air. James 1:6-8 says a double-minded man shouldn't expect to receive anything from the Lord.

We must believe that what we say will happen, period.

Tower of Babel...Again
I've written a lot about the Tower of Babel [read about it in Genesis 11, do a search on this blog for articles]. But it is just so instructive—words work, whether you are born again or not!

Think about the cautionary tale of Jacob and Rachel, found in Genesis 31. They had fled from Laban, her father, and she had stolen some of his household gods. He pursued and accused Jacob. Jacob swore to him that whoever had taken the gods would not live, not knowing that his beloved wife was the culprit. And, according to his words, she died in childbirth a short time later.

The Tower of Babel was not God's will. In fact, He knew that if He didn't intervene, nothing could stop them.

How did He intervene? He confused their language, so that they could no longer agree IN THEIR WORDS!

What About Us?
If it is true that unregenerate man's words work in the earth, how much more is it true for those filled with the Spirit of God?

Jesus knew that we would be reborn and He knew that we would be one Spirit with Him. He knew that He and the Father would come to dwell in our earthen vessels by the Holy Spirit. [John 14; 1 Corinthians 4:7]

That's why He told us to talk to mountains and trees. To sick and dead bodies. Everywhere He went, He demonstrated what He knew was coming:

'"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father."' [John 14:12]

'...as He is, so also are we IN THIS WORLD.' [1 John 4:17]

As Christians, the power of our words should be magnified by the indwelling God!

Faith—believing and speaking—works through love. God is Love, and the love of God has been poured into our hearts. [1 John 4:8,16; Galatians 5:6; Romans 5:5]

But to use that magnified power, we must be walking in love...practicing the love of God which is within us!

Think about this...while explaining how the fig tree withered, Jesus preface His teaching with the words "Have faith in God."

Since God is love, He could've said "Have faith in love."

God's love for us, His love working through us, magnifying our power to reign upon the earth by our mouths.

Think about it.

What Are The Giants Saying To You [re-post]

This is really long, but worth the read, I think. Since I wrote this originally, I wrote a follow-up article entitled What Are You Saying to the Giants, which you may want to read as well.

You know the story...Moses sent 12 spies in to reconnoiter the Promised Land [read Numbers 13:1-14:38]. They came back with samples of the fruit of the land, and reported that, yes, the land did indeed flow with milk and honey. God's word was true!

But 10 of the spies explained that while it was everything God said it would be, there were powerful, strong people there, living in large, fortified cities. These were the sons of Anak, part of the Nephilim, which is the Hebrew word for giants.

We know that the other 2 spies, Joshua and Caleb, held out for God. Their report was "We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it." [Numbers 13:30]

Read the response from the 10 negative spies:

"We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us...The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight." [Numbers 13:31-33]

Wisdom

'The LORD by wisdom founded the earth, By understanding He established the heavens. By His knowledge the deeps were broken up and the skies drip with dew.' [Proverbs 3:19,20]

How did God found the earth? By His Word! Read Genesis 1: 'Then God said...then God said...then God said...then God said...'

When He spoke, it was immediately created. According to Proverbs, this is Wisdom.

In Proverbs 8, Wisdom describes herself as a master workman, working beside God as He created the earth!

Now consider this:

'"Counsel is mine and sound wisdom; I am understanding, power is mine.

"By me KINGS REIGN, and RULERS DECREE JUSTICE.

"By me PRINCES RULE, and NOBLES, all who judge rightly.

"I love those who love me; and those who diligently seek me will find me.

"Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even pure gold, and my yield better than choicest silver.

"I walk in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of justice, to endow those who love me with wealth, that I may fill their treasuries."' [Proverbs 8:14-21]

Wisdom is how God created all things...but in this passage we read that wisdom is how kings reign and how treasuries are filled with wealth.

Christ In You

'For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him...' [Romans 6:5-8]

'I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.' [Galatians 2:20]

'...the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.' [Colossians 1:26,27]

'But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one Spirit with Him.' [1 Corinthians 6:17]

Hallelujah! I died and Christ was formed in me, in ALL of His fulness...not just some sort of spiritual hitchhiker, but wall to wall God!

Abba, Father!

If you've been a Christian for any length of time, you've probably heard these scriptures:

'For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a SPIRIT OF ADOPTION AS SONS by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" [Romans 8:15]

'Because you are sons, God has sent forth the SPIRIT OF HIS SON into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"' [Galatians 4:6]

The word 'Abba' means Father.

Did you know that Jesus used this term in addressing God as well?

'And He was saying, "Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will."' [Mark 14:36]

We are to address God as Father because it is the very Spirit of HIs Son into our hearts! He is our Father, because we are One Spirit with the Lord! [1 Corinthians 6:17; Ephesians 4:4]

God is just as much our Father as He is Jesus' Father.

Consider these:

"In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full." [John 16:23,24]

'By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because AS HE IS , SO ALSO ARE WE IN THIS WORLD.' [1 John 4:17]

Hallelujah!

How to Trust God

Sometimes, even though you may have been a Christian for a long time, studied the Word for years and even seen miracles, it’s hard to trust God.

Sometimes unbelief takes hold and seems impossible to shake.

Or, you may be a new Christian and have no idea how to really trust God.

Until you realize that there’s a hand in your mouth.

‘Death and life are in the power [Hebrew yad = hand] of the tongue…’ [Proverbs 18:21]

"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So CHOOSE life in order that you may live, you and your descendants…” [Deuteronomy 30:19]

[Read Yad, The Yad of God, The Yad of God 2]

Remember what God told Joshua…to put the Word in his MOUTH day and night so that HE—Joshua—would MAKE his way prosperous and HAVE good success. [Joshua 1:8]

In other words, God has already spoken. It’s up to us to CHOOSE His Word, and we do that with our mouths. In fact, that’s what Jesus was teaching us to do in the Lord’s prayer…

Believe God

Anything in your life that does not agree with the forever settled Word of God is a deception and a lie.

Anything. Everything.

Remember 2 Corinthians 1:20...

'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.'

And just forget every sermon you've heard entitled 'Sometimes the answer is no.'

'For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.' [Psalm 84:11]

'Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.' [James 1:17]

"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]

"In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. [John 16:23,24]

'He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?' [Romans 8:32]

Hallelujah!

The Name

'For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the Name which is above every name, so that at the Name of Jesus every knee must bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.' [Philippians 2:9-11]

And He has given us that Name to use in the earth! We are One Spirit with the Lord, His Body in the earth...as He is, so are we in this world. [1 Corinthians 6:17; 1 Corinthians 12:27; 1 John 4:17]

That Name is ours—He was the Word and we are the Word multiplied [Acts 12:24]. We have been crucified with Christ—the Anointed One—and He lives in these earthen vessels. [Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 4:7]

Jesus is called the Only Begotten Son of the Father, yet the Word says that we are born of God as well [1 John 5:1]...this is not contradictory, but only proves that He is One in us and that we are One with Him and with every brother and sister in Christ.

He is the Head and we are the Body, and we bear one Name.

Jesus.

One

God breathed Himself into Adam the day He made him. He was a lifeless shell until God breathed Himself into him. They were one, just like Jesus was One with Him.

And now we are one with Him, born of Him, filled with Him! Restored to Adam's place of authority and dominion, One Spirit with the Lord. [1 Corinthians 6:17]

As Adam walked with God, so we can walk with Him because we are one with Him. We have this treasure in these earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. [2 Corinthians 2:7]

Hallelujah!