Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all…
God’s grace is His undeserved, unearned and unmerited favor. And because it is undeserved, unearned and unmerited, all of us qualify for it. But how do we walk in it?
Just as a password gives you access to a computer program, faith enables you to walk in God’s unmerited favor. Now, faith has nothing to do with what you do or what you can do. Faith is simply believing and declaring what God has done and is doing for you.
When you believe that the favor of God is on you because of Christ’s finished work, His promises of provision, healing and restoration become sure to you. They are not just sure to the Jews, but also to you and me because we are “of the faith of Abraham”.
Ruth was a Gentile widow who put her faith in God’s grace. She believed and declared that God’s favor would lead her to the right field in which to glean, where she would find favor in the owner’s sight. (Ruth 2:2) Because she depended on God’s unmerited favor, God not only placed her in wealthy Boaz’s field, but also in the genealogy of Jesus! (Matthew 1:5)
Ruth’s faith in God’s favor opened up a whole new world for her. She went from poverty to supply, widowhood to marriage, and from being childless to having a complete family. She also became a respected member of the community. (Ruth 4:13–15)
If Ruth, a Gentile who was under the old covenant, enjoyed God’s favor, how much more will we who are under the new covenant of grace enjoy the blessings that the unmerited favor of God brings! In fact, because God sees us in the Beloved today, we enjoy the same favor that Jesus has! (Ephesians 1:3–6)
My friend, when you believe that you have the same favor that Jesus has, a whole new world will open up to you—a world where all of God’s promises are “Yes” and “Amen” in Christ! (2 Corinthians 1:20)
Thought For The Day
When you believe that the favor of God is on you because of Christ’s finished work, His promises of provision, healing and restoration become sure to you.
Memorise: Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: 1st Corinthians 12:22
Read: Luke 5:1-11, Luke 5:1 And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, Luke 5:2 And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.
Luke 5:3 And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
Luke 5:4 Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.
Luke 5:5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.
Luke 5:6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.
Luke 5:7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.
Luke 5:8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
Luke 5:9 For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken:
Luke 5:10 And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. Luke 5:11 And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him. Bible in one year: Genesis 17-18,And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! John 13:1-30
When the time comes for God to fulfil a plan He has predestined to happen, He looks out for those He can use for this purpose. God does not discriminate in His choice of persons to use to accomplish His mission. He can use the great or the small. When the time came for Him to choose those who would serve and learn under His Son, He chose some raw fishermen. Our God is awesome, and His ways are past finding out! In today’s Bible reading, when Jesus found Peter, He told him that from that day, he would no longer catch fishes from the sea, but human souls from the world. If God can use a raw uneducated fisherman like Peter, He can use you more. You are very useful to God. However, do you make yourself available for His use? Ironically, as the number of ministers is increasing, the number of those who are available for God’s use is decreasing. As a result of this, many people bear the title of minister, but they are not available to perform their assignments. Have we forgotten the acronym F.A.T., which stands for Faithfulness, Availability and Teach-ability? If God will use you, these three must be the code you live by. Today, because the people we consider more suitable for kingdom assignments are either too busy or giving too much excuses, God is moving to those who have made themselves available to do His work, even when those people appear less suitable for the work. Are you available to serve God? If you can create time to do your secular work that you will have to leave someday, why can’t you create time to serve your Maker who can reward you for your service in eternity?
There are some people who feel God cannot use them, because they have not yet bagged a degree, amassed some wealth or become famous. Oh, how mistaken they are! Do you know that God can use you just as you are? He can use you even in your limited state, if you will only turn your life over to Jesus. Do not wait to get your miracle first before telling others about the love of God. In any way you can share the gospel with the unsaved, go on and do so. Lead others to Christ. Use your influence to motivate people to do the right thing. Be a positive, holy influence on your peers. Remember, if you bear fruit for God’s kingdom, it will be His responsibility to do what He can to make you more fruitful.
Action Point
You are very important to God. If you fail to play your role in the Body of Christ, it could bring losses to God’s kingdom. Determine to play your role today.
Christian rapper Lecrae leads the pack of nominees for the 46th annual Dove Awards with seven nominations, including artist of the year, thanks to his chart-topping album, “Anomaly.”
The Gospel Music Association announced on Wednesday the nominees for the awards, which will be held on Oct. 13 in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Grammy-winning artist, who was a co-host of the awards show in 2014, topped the Billboard 200 albums chart last year with his seventh studio album. Brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone, who perform as for KING & COUNTRY, have five nominations including artist of the year, and Crowder, Matt Maher and Chris Tomlin have four nominations each.
Francesca Battistelli, Kari Jobe and Mercy Me round out the artist-of-the-year nominations.
Can you imagine the Lord sick, nursing a cold or fever while He walked on earth? No, our Lord Jesus was never sick! He was vibrant, full of life and full of health. When He told His disciples, “Take, eat; this is My body”, they could practically visualize what it meant because they had lived and walked with this Man. They had seen people without hands or feet made whole when they touched His body. (Matthew 15:30–31)
Even His clothes were soaked with His health! A woman who had a bleeding condition for 12 years—no doctor could cure her—was healed immediately when she touched the hem of His garment. If the hem of His garment was soaked with His health, vibrancy, energy and divine radiance, how much more His body!
You know, some of the most encouraging verses in the Gospels are these: “And as many as touched Him were made well” (Mark 6:56), for “power went out from Him and healed them all”. (Luke 6:19) I love those verses! That is our Jesus!
The Bible says that they put sick people along the streets, and Jesus walked around, touched them and healed them. Now, you see movie stars doing this: They run here and there, they slap their fans’ hands, but nobody gets healed. But wherever Jesus walked, whoever He touched, He healed. Picture this: A trail of people. Those in front of Jesus are lying down, but those behind Him whom He has touched are leaping with joy and following Him! That is how Jesus healed the sick.
So that night, when He said, “Take, eat; this is My body,” as He broke the bread and gave it to His disciples to eat, they knew what it meant. They were probably thinking, “We are going to ingest His health into our bodies! Hallelujah!”
That is what you must believe when you partake of the Holy Communion. It is not just a ritual or symbolic act. No, you must believe that He is the true bread from heaven who took your cancer, diabetes and heart disease, so that you can have His supernatural health! And when you eat of His broken body with this revelation, you will have life in abundance and the health of the Lord!
Thought For The Day
Believe that Jesus is the true bread from heaven who took your cancer, diabetes and heart disease, so that you can have His supernatural health!
A blind lady was led to a great healing evangelist for prayer. After he had prayed for her, he asked her, “Now, tell me what you see.” She opened her eyes only to be told, “Close your eyes. Tell me what you see.” She opened her eyes again only to be told, “I didn’t say to open your eyes. I asked you what you saw. Close your eyes! Now, tell me what you see.”
This went on for a while, until the lady realized that the evangelist was asking her what she saw on the inside. Did she see herself seeing? When she understood that, she said, “I see myself with sight.” Then, the evangelist told her, “Now, slowly open your eyes.” That moment, she opened her eyes to perfect vision!
When you prayed just now, what did you see inside you? Were you praying for someone’s healing, but seeing that person in a coffin? Were you praying for a financial breakthrough, but seeing the banks pursuing you till you were bankrupt?
You see, you don’t get what you pray for. You get what you believe you receive when you pray. Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
Beloved, “whatever things” covers your every need. And believing that you receive them comes before having them. Jesus once told a centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” The centurion’s servant was healed that same hour. (Matthew 8:13) The centurion believed that he received his miracle even before he saw it in the natural.
So when you pray, what do you really believe and see on the inside?
“Well, Pastor Prince, I really can’t see it.”
Then don’t pray yet. Change your vision on the inside first. Start seeing yourself with the answer. See yourself healed. See yourself living in the bigger house that you need. See yourself enjoying more than enough. When you can see it and believe it, then pray in faith, and you will have whatever you ask for!
Thought For The Day
You don’t get what you pray for. You get what you believe and see yourself receiving on the inside when you pray.
Click HERE to DOWNLOAD Daily Open Heavens Devotional from January to December 2015 Topic: Look Beyond the Bus Stop [Wednesday August 12, 2015]
Memorise:For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. –Hebrews 12:3
Read:Hebrews 12:1-3(KJV)
1. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Bible In One Year:Genesis 11-13; John 12:9-26
MESSAGE:
From Hebrews 12:1, we understand that a race has been set before us as Christians. We did not initiate the race, but our decision to fellow Jesus Christ automatically signed us in as partakers. Moreover, this race is an unusual marathon. If you lack patience, you cannot run the race. If you want to run it like a spirit, you would only be wasting your time, because God will not redesign the race for you; rather, you are the one who needs to adjust to His programme.
The Christian life is a process and not a single event. As a process, you are expected to move from one stage to another. You must be like a traveller who goes from one bus stop to another, continuing his journey until he reaches his final destination. In the course of the journey, you may be required to stop over at the bus stop of lack. This is meant to test your faith and ability to trust God for provision. No matter how long you stay there, never turn that bus stop into your destination. God may allow you to stop over at the bus stop of ridicule, to test whether you will continue the race in spite of belittlement. Those who overinflated egos and those who hold themselves in high esteem may have problems here. Do you know that some people have called off their trip to Heaven just because they were mocked, ridiculed and laughed to scorn? Never truncate your journey to Heaven because of any unpleasant experience encountered at any bus stop. The very Author and Finisher of this race also went through this bus stop. People mocked Him and seriously ridiculed Him, but He overcame it all with the weapons of prayer, patience and quietness, and he finally reached the finish line. He got to the end because He focused on the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2) How you see the race that is set before you will definitely affect your attitude to it. While many people see what is before them as a worrisome race, Jesus saw the same as a joyous event. Therefore, one way you can run this race victoriously is by ignoring the challenges on the way and focusing on the rewards that await you on the other side. If your heart is on what you will receive in Heaven, you will not turn your bus stop into a destination by building a tent there. How are you handling this race? After the present unpleasant experiences comes the glorious, eternal experience of joy, awaiting you on the other side. Don’t miss out on it!
Key Point: If you do not focus on the silver lining at the end of the marathon race to Heaven, you will grow weary along the way.
Open Heavens Daily Devotional guide was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer’s Ministries.
Those are the words every expectant couple wants to hear. But what happens when a couple gets the most stomach-churning news imaginable — news that there’s a medical issue with the tiny little baby growing in his mother’s womb? Parents start to ask questions. Will my baby be okay? What will our little boy’s life be like? How will this boy’s health affect our lives? Will it all be worth the struggle?
A set of parents I know had the same questions race through their minds. They brought a tiny little boy into the world — born without arms. In the face of all those fears, these parents were told the little boy would be helpless and entirely dependent on their care for the duration of his life. The news was grim as doctors painted a picture of toil and frustration in the life of this boy.
Fear and worry flooded their hearts, but for all the bad news, these parents were resting on good news. God loved this little boy. God fearfully and wonderfully made this little boy. God had a plan for this little boy. They shoved fear and doubt to the side and embraced the little boy God had given them.
Parenthood as the Gospel
The realities of the gospel are intoxicating in the book of Romans. InRomans 5:6, Paul writes, “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” Christ died for us when we were spiritually helpless. He takes those who are helpless and broken and redeems us. And not only does he rescue the spiritually helpless, but the physically helpless as well.
While the gospel reveals a Savior who lays down his life for those who ran from him, abortion reveals humans extinguishing a life we were meant to love and protect. As you scan the pages of Scripture, it is clear that abortion is the anti-gospel.
Abortion says,
Unborn babies have value only as expendable commodities.
Each baby is only a clump of tissue, devoid of any purpose or life.
There’s not a place for you in my plan right now.
Disability limits a chance at any manner of a quality of life.
But the gospel says,
We have tremendous value as God’s image-bearers (Genesis 1:27).
Each one of us is “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).
We have lovingly “received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15).
God’s glory and grace shine even, and especially, in those with physical limitations or weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Abortion is an assault on the image, character, grace, gospel, and glory of God. For the Christian to see it as anything less than that is to reject a biblical view of God’s gospel and God’s glory. John 9:1–3 shows us how God himself, in the person of Christ, viewed human life as he walked among us, as one of us.
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
While the disciples saw the man’s blindness as a direct result of sin, Jesus saw him as a vessel of God’s grace and glory. Every life is uniquely formed by God to be powerfully rescued and redeemed in Christ for the glory of the Father. Every child in the womb is a masterpiece shaped by the master craftsman.
All Human Life with a Gospel Lens
That baby boy born with no arms is me. Thirty-one years later, God has crushed the professional opinions of skeptical doctors. I’ve been in student ministry for nearly a decade, I have a remarkable wife of nine years, and we have a beautiful three-year-old boy, with a little girl on the way.
I thank God I had parents who willingly and joyfully embraced me with all the challenges that came with having a baby with a disability. They could have chosen to give me up for adoption, or put me in state care, or they could have chosen to abort me. For my parents, abortion would have never been an option. The realities of me being made in the image of God and being wonderfully made in the womb by the Father were forefront in their minds.
Human life is the physical handiwork of God — created in God’s image for God’s glory. Every man or woman that is formed in the hands of the faithful Father has value, purpose, and grace. Never determine the value, quality, or sanctity of a life on the basis of socio-economic background, family structure, ethnicity, or any sort of disability. View human life through the lens of the gospel — that the work of God might be displayed in every single lives
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