Month: January 2016

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He Is Faithful and Just

8th January

“But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”

1 John 1:9

Confession of sin is multifaceted, but there is a core principle. It is not sorrow, guilt, or shame. It is agreement. The Greek translation for “confess” is made of two words: homos means “same,” and lego means “say or speak.” So, to confess means “to say the same thing as.” As who? As God! We don’t inform God of our sins by confessing them. He already knows what we have done. Our greatest need is to humbly agree with Him: “Father, You call what I did ‘sin’ and I agree with You.”1

Yet it doesn’t end there. We don’t confess/agree with God so He can tell us off or make us feel bad. We do so, because we have full confidence that God wants to make right our wrongs and ‘cleanse us from all wickedness’. God is our loving Father, who freely wants to pour His grace upon us and set us free from the things that separate us from Him. As John says, ‘He is faithful and just’.

Yes we acknowledge and accept that what we have done is wrong according to God’s holy standards but we also acknowledge that He has the power to forgive and the love and grace to release us from the condemnation that our sin brings. Praise God for His grace. He knows when we sin, but loves us nevertheless. Thank you Jesus for Your gift of forgiveness.

1Taken from Turning Point Daily Devotional (7/01/2016)

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A Stake In The Ground: In Jesus’ Strength Not Ours

7th January

“For the Lord your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and He will give you the victory!”

Deuteronomy 20:4

The last few days we have been discussing making a conscious decision to reject the enemy’s lies, his temptations and all the evil that he tries to throw at us and put in a stake in the ground, to declare that we will not follow his evil schemes anymore but rather make a decision to follow Jesus.

Friends, however, let us not forget this one, most important thing; Yes, a conscious decision to reject the enemy comes from hearts ready to fight and rally against the enemy’s evil, yet victory must be found in Jesus and in His cross. Our role is to decide to not compromise but it Jesus’ power that gives us the strength to follow through with our decisions. When we try to fight in our own strength, albeit with the best intentions, we will stumble and fall. Yet if we fight in the power of Jesus, victory is guaranteed. God fights with and for us.

Let our number desire be to put Jesus at the front, in the middle and all around every decision we make, so that when the battle is won, Jesus can get the victory. Yes, let us put a stake in the ground, but let us surrender to Jesus to fight with and for us.

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A Stake In The Ground: Run Away

6th January

“Run away from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.”

2 Timothy 2:22

Francis Chan recently preached a message on how we allow the lie, that what the enemy has to offer is better than God’s best, to easily deceive us. In his sermon he gave an example of fishing. On the hook of a fishing rod, he put a $100 bill. He explained that many would reach out to take it, yet concealed by the money was the hook used to catch the bait. He explained that many of us also fall into the same trap. We take the bait that the enemy dangles in front of us, fully knowing that behind the pleasures of sin, is a hook that can lead to addiction and captivity. We deny God’s goodness and take the bait of the enemy’s sugar coated temptation. Yet the enemy’s best can never compare to God’s goodness and always falls short in comparison.

What if we were to take a stand and reject those temptations; To, as Paul says, run away from anything that simulates youthful lusts. Joseph did, when approached by Potiphar’s wife. Jesus did when tempted by the enemy. And we too can by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us put a stake in the ground and declare that WE WILL NOT STAND IN THE PATH OF SINNERS BUT RUN AWAY FROM TEMPTATION. Let us heed Paul’s advice even if that means making new friends, getting accountable, or even changing our lifestyles. In Jesus’ power we can overcome. Keep your eyes fixed on Him. Let us live in His grace.

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A Stake In The Ground: No More Bitterness

5th January

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behaviour. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, FORGIVING ONE ANOTHER, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”

Ephesians 4:31-32

On paper, it can seem so easy to forgive. We can almost work it out like an equation. This person did this wrong to me + desire to forgive and forget = forgiveness.. Yet somehow it is not that easy. Mixed into this equation is emotion, hurt, and bitterness. Sometimes we believe that it is our right to hold onto the bitterness and hurt. It is almost comforting. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Holding onto to hurt and bitterness only causes more pain. It only causes us to become depressed and carry heavy burdens on our shoulders. Bitterness spreads like a cancerous disease in our hearts, slowly eating away at all that is good in us.

When we look at our own lives in relationship with Christ, we can see so many times that we have sinned against God, yet time and time again, He has forgiven us by the blood of Son Jesus Christ and the grace and mercy of Almighty God. There are probably so many times that God has every right to not forgive, yet if we ask Him, He always does. It is this example that we should live our lives by. Christ has set the bar for what our attitudes should be like. Forgive as we have been forgiven. If Christ forgave us, then we too should forgive others. Lets us put a stake in the ground, making a conscious decision to FORGIVE WITH THE SAME MEASURE WE HAVE RECEIVED FROM JESUS. Let us lean on Christ’s strength to help us forgive and trust He will make right what has been wronged.

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A Stake In The Ground: No More Worrying

4th January

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.”

Philippians 4:6

How many minutes of our lives do we waste worrying? Worrying about circumstances that are beyond our control? The truth is, as Jesus said, ‘worrying does not add a single moment to your life?’ It is a fruitless agenda. It belittles our faith in Jesus and it lessens our understanding of God as ABBA Father: The God who will provide.

Yet having said all that, our natural instinct is to worry. Even though we know God is more than capable to deliver us, provide us and sometimes sort out the mess that we have gotten ourselves into. Yet there comes a time in our lives where we need to suppress these feelings of worry and exercise our faith by trusting in God. Let us put a stake in the ground and say from this moment on, WE WILL NOT WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING BUT TRUST IN GOD ALMIGHTY FOR EVERYTHING! He is our Rock and Redeemer. It is Jesus’ words that re-assure and comfort us to not worry but trust in Him and it is Paul’s words that re-affirm that truth, so that in thanksgiving we too can rejoice that God is in control. There is no need to worry. It is a promise. This is not to belittle your problems, but rather to magnify God to become greater than your than worries.

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A Stake In The Ground: Rejecting The Lies

2nd January

“…he was a murderer from the beginning. he has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

John 8:44b

Who has God made you to be? Is your identity as a failure, or loner? Do you believe that you will never achieve anything or that you are too much of a sinner to be used by God? If so, you are believing lies. This is not what God intended for your life. You are child of Almighty God. He has a plan and purpose for your life. You are His best creation. When He made you, He saw you and said ‘it was very good!’ In fact, so great is His love for you, that He sent His only Son to close the gap between God and man with His life, so that He can have a relationship with you again.

In order to reject the lies, first we must know the truth. It is the truth that sets us free from the lies that the enemy continually tries to deceive us with: The truth about who God is, the truth about who we are and the truth about what God’s plan for our life is. Inside the enemy there is not truth at all. That gives a clear indication that everything he is whispering in our ears is contrary to what God is saying and has said and is a complete lie, which therefore giving us the right to reject it, put a stake in the ground, and say, from this moment on, I choose to believe the truth and reject the lies.

Know who you are in Jesus. Know the truth about who God says you are. Reject the enemy’s lies and live life in the fullness of all God has for you!

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A Stake In The Ground: A Renewed Mind

1st January

“Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Romans 12:2

According to a recent sermon by Bill Johnson, many Christians are allowing the enemy to be so comfortable in their minds, to terrorise them with lies and bombard them with thoughts contrary to God’s best for us, that it’s almost like we’re giving him permission to set up his own base in our minds. However, as Bill Johnson said, we can break down these “comfortable bases” and replace them with Holy Spirit fortresses that cannot be penetrated by the enemies evil lies. It is from the truth of Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit that we can fend off the enemies cheap attacks without fear and in victory.

The enemy is relentless in his attacks trying to make us stumble and fall, however in Jesus, we do have the power to overcome and resist all that he throws at us. In fact, staying on the ‘stake in the ground’ theme, we can make a conscious decision to reject those thoughts and to not let them be comfortable in our minds. For example, when a lustful thought enters our mind, we can take authority right then to reject it, rebuke it and send it back to where it came from in Jesus’ Name. The same is with bitterness, rage, anger, un-forgiveness and so on. The more we allow these small thoughts into our minds, the more we are resourcing the enemy with bricks to build his camp in our minds.

As followers of Jesus, we are constantly being transformed into the image of Christ. Yet the change of character, as Paul wisely writes, comes from our renewed minds. God literally transforms the way we think, which in turn is reflected in our characters. We need to guard our minds to not return to the way we used to think before Christ. Let us put our stakes in the ground, and say from here on, we will not let the enemy be comfortable in our minds. Let us stand firm and reject his lies in Jesus’ power. We have the victory in Jesus Christ.