Cleansed!

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit (Psalm 32:1-2).

In the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, sin was not cleansed, it was covered. The life of an animal was sacrificed and its blood was poured on the Mercy Seat, which was the lid of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies in the temple. The presence of God dwelt in this man made place, and the animal blood provided a covering of “life” for the sins of the Israelites.
 
For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul (Leviticus 17:11). The word atonement means a covering. Sins were not removed, they were only covered, and the blood had to be re-applied to the Mercy Seat every year on the Day of Atonement. The life represented in the blood covered the sins of Israel so that they could fellowship with a Holy God. When He looked at the Ark of the Covenant with its contents of the Ten Commandments, He saw the blood that covered Israel’s failure to obey His commandments and judgment was abated.
 
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world according to John the Baptist. When Jesus spilled His blood on Calvary, died and was resurrected, He took His blood into heaven and placed it before God as an eternal cleansing for our sins. Jesus’ death and resurrection doesn’t just forgive us and cover sin, His death and resurrection literally removes our sin! Our sins are remitted, not covered!

Notice Hebrews 9:24-26: For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another —  He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
 
Our sins have been judged and removed from us when we are Born Again! We are justified. It is Just-As-If-I’d-Never-Sinned!  The sin is expunged and forever removed, not covered to be remembered year after year! Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more (Hebrews 10:17). And now, when you miss the mark and sin as a believer, sin is cleansed when you confess it (1 John 1:9).
 
When thoughts of your past deeds come to mind today, remind yourself and the Lord that you are totally forgiven; that your sins have been removed; and thank Him for never remembering them again! The accuser of the brethren wants you to live in the past and brood over your failures. God has made a way through the blood of Jesus for you to completely forget the things which are behind, and reach forward to the things ahead! Act like a person who has never sinned today!

Developing a Habit of Prayer

…Steadfastly maintain the habit of prayer (Romans 12:12-J.B. Phillips).

The Father wants us to develop our intimacy in prayer with Him. He wants prayer to become a habit. The prayer habit will be one habit that can transform the atmosphere of your life.

E.W. Kenyon in his book In His Presence says: Prayer should be as natural as breathing and as enjoyable as eating. Prayer should be as unconscious as our communication with one another. He goes on the say: You can’t spend any length of time in prayer without being affected by it. The quietness, the unshaken faith, the deep unsounded peace that pervades the Godhead, will overflow into the prayer’s life.

Many people find prayer a great challenge. The flesh struggles with relating to a God you can’t see. But God is the Father of spirits. He relates to our spiritual nature, not to our mentality and emotions. Here are some tips to help develop the prayer habit.

First, you must know that the Father sees you as righteous, that is, as though you had never sinned. Our sin debt has been completely paid by Jesus, and God sees us as pure as Jesus before Him! It’s as though we have never sinned!

Secondly, you must know that The Father loves you as much as He does His own Son. In John 17:23, Jesus prays that he Father will reveal to us the fact that You have loved them as you have loved me!  You must know that you are endeared to the heart of the Father, and that He wants your companionship and fellowship.

Then you must begin to develop you fellowship with Him based on your right standing with Him according to the Word; not according to your feelings. Take some time to get alone and just tell Him that you love Him and tell Him how glad you are to be saved from sin and redeemed from hell.

Remind Him of what His word says about you, and of what His word says about answered prayer. Talk to Him in specific terms about every single concern you have in life and ask Him specifically to help you. Share your heart life with Him. Bear to Him your thoughts and feelings and ask for His aid.

Take time too to pray in the spirit, in other tongues. Your spirit, in communion with the Holy Spirit will pray God’s perfect will in all areas of your life.

Start slowly. You may pray to begin with for ten or fifteen minutes. That’s just fine. If you keep it up every day, you’ll find the need to pray longer. You’ll find it easier and easier to express your heart and you’ll begin to want to take more time.
 
Life will become a partnership between you and the Father. You’ll begin to talk over every problem, every challenge, and every circumstance good and bad with Him. And before long, you will have developed and unconscious communion with Him that will erase fear and worry from your life.

Prayer will become an unconscious act of communion throughout your day. Daunting impossibilities will turn into opportunities for your Father to show Himself strong in your life. You’ll begin to fulfill Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

Attitude Check

The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph's authority, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper (Genesis 39:23).
 
Joseph’s life is an example of the attitude we should have when things go awry in our lives. As a teenager, God gave him a vision of himself as a leader. This vision changed how Joseph saw himself, and affected everything he did. Because he saw himself as an overcomer, he rose above every problem he encountered.

Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him and sold Joseph to some slave traders. The traders sold him to the household of an Egyptian leader to be their slave. Because Joseph didn’t see himself as a slave, he became the ruler of the leader’s  household.

Joseph was thrown into prison after being wrongfully accused of attempted rape. But Joseph’s attitude caused him to rise above the prison chains. He became one of the leaders among the prisoners and helped the guards greatly.

Finally, after correctly interpreting the Pharaoh of Egypt’s dream, Joseph was appointed as Prime Minister of Egypt. No one but Pharaoh had greater power than Joseph. And Joseph’s teenage dream of his family bowing before was literally fulfilled when he was thirty years of age.

Joseph is a great example to us of the power of our attitude to regulate us during hard times. Attitude determines altitude someone has said. You never rise above attitude. What you think about yourself deep inside determines how you respond to life’s circumstances.

Joseph saw himself as a winner and his attitude brought him through being rejected by his siblings; through being sold as a slave; through false accusation; and through being wrongfully imprisoned.

What attitude do you have right now in the midst of your current circumstance? You never rise above what you think about yourself. I’ll leave you with these scriptures to help you with attitude adjustments that we all must make at times:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32) Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37).
Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place (2 Corinthians 2:14). For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18) Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be people perfectly and fully developed with no defects, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4- Amplified).



 

Strength

He gives power to the tired and worn out, and strength to the weak. Even the youths shall be exhausted, and the young men will all give up. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:29-31- Living)

Like a place of shelter in a storm, the throne of God is a place for you and me to go and be refreshed and strengthened after facing the pressures of the day.

We have an open invitation to come boldly to the throne of grace so that we can receive mercy, grace, and help for our needs (Hebrews 4:16).

When you go to this throne room of the Father with your needs and lay them before Him, He then places in you strength and ability to obey Him, and peace that soothes and heals. Like a platoon of soldiers guarding a city, the peace of God will push worry and fear away from you and enable you to walk in the rest of God.

Make sure you take time to visit the throne room today. Strength, rest, peace, love, joy, insight, and healing abide there. You’ll come away with a spring in your step ready for whatever comes your way today. You’ll have an expectation of God’s best in everything you do. And you’ll spread that Throne Room atmosphere to others!

Don’t allow the enemy to get you so busy that you don’t visit the Throne Room. He’s intimidated that you may get smart enough to go there more and more frequently. And the more frequently you go, the more the quiet strength of God will be upon you, and the less and less you’ll be weighted down with the pressures and challenges of life.
 
No longer will you be intimidated by circumstances that rise up. You’ll have the spirit of a conqueror, facing each challenge today like David faced Goliath. Take plenty of time today to visit with the Father in the Throne Room. It will show on you!   

The Call

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; Vanity of vanities, all is vanity (Ecclesiastes1:2).

It was February of 1977 and I had been attending college and working in a grocery store. Six months prior to this I had received the baptism with the Holy Spirit and my entire life had changed.

While I was working at about 2:00 O’clock in the afternoon I heard the words deep within me, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. These words kept repeating over and over again as I continued to work the rest of the afternoon.

Upon arriving at home (I was 18) I asked my mother if she had ever heard these words before. And she told me that of course she had; they were from the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. After dinner, I retired to my room and read the entire book of Ecclesiastes.
 
There I saw what this strange phrase meant. Solomon was decrying all of the work and labor he had given himself to as empty, useless, and vain in the context of eternity. And God used this phrase to call me into the ministry.

Up until this time, my goal in life was to go into business and make a lot of money. The desire to for this vanished, and an intensity to pursue God rose up within me. I enrolled in Bible School the following fall, and the rest is history.

The call of God is a very personal thing. No one should consider entering ministry without a supernatural call! This was a defining moment in my life. I would draw upon the strength of God’s word to me on that day in February of 1977 again and again throughout my life as the Satan would seek to discourage me from fulfilling God’s purposes for my life.

When you find your life’s call, it seems as though demonic forces seek you out to push you away from what the Father has for you. That’s the reason when you’re called to ministry, there must be a defining moment when you know that God has spoken to you. Then, you must do what Jesus said and set your hand to the plow and never look back!

God uses all of us in so many different ways. Not everyone has to full time ministry. But all of us are called to make a difference in the world, and to use our energy and talents for the glory of God.

Just as the human body cannot function without every organ fulfilling its God designed function, so every member of the body of Christ has a part to play in fulfilling the great commission that Jesus gave the church. Some are called to finance the kingdom of God, and are blessed by the Father to earn money so they can give liberally. Other are called to assist those God has called to full time ministry. No member of Christ’s body should be static.
 
The Father needs us all. And as we pursue Him, He will place a deep desire within each of us to do a particular thing. When you find out what He desires for your life, pursue it with passion!

Develop Your Own Personal Faith

When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also (2 Timothy 1:5).

Faith can be inherited, as it was the case of Timothy. His grandmother and mother were believers, and he followed them into the kingdom of God.

While inherited faith can be a blessing, it can also be a hindrance. We can lean on others so much that we don’t develop the faith to stand on our own.
 
Lot was Abraham’s nephew, and lot was exceedingly blessed as long as he hung around Abraham. The land couldn’t contain them both. As soon as lot separated from Abraham, his blessing ceased. He ended up losing everything but the shirt on his back.
 
I’ve watched children who were raised in a strong Christian home seem to lose their faith when they left home. They didn’t realize the blessing that they had in life was because of the faith of their parents. They never developed a faith on their own apart from their parents.

I’ve seen Bible school graduates who sensed the call of God on their lives get involved in a large growing church. They didn’t realize that the blessing they had was because of the association with the man of God whose faith was carrying them. When they left to “go it alone” in starting a church in another town, they floundered. They found that they had been riding on the pastor’s faith.

My mother prayed me into the kingdom of God, and had an unusually close relationship with the Holy Spirit. She would know things about my future before I knew them. As a young man, I began to realize that I can’t “ride her coattails” to heaven. I had to purposely ask her to share no insights with me that she had received from the Lord, and to let me develop on my own.

As a pastor I’ve see people who seem to be robust in their faith and confidence in God. Yet when they leave our church, they lose the faith they thought they had.
 
Don’t allow your faith to only be an episode in your life. Make sure that you develop your own confidence in God, and that what you have is more than a derivative of faith that you received from another person. That way, if God calls you on to do something your own, you’ll be fully prepared and ready for the assignment.

Stumbling Blocks into Stepping Stones

But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive (Genesis 50:20).

When facing a severe trial of long duration, it’s important to keep perspective. Joseph spent many years bearing the repercussions of his brother’s misdeeds. Though he spent years of suffering shame and mockery in prison, the end result for Joseph was blessing, honor, and favor.
 
Tests and difficulties are part of living on a fallen planet. Our faith in God’s Word will navigate us through every test if we’ll let it! Satan attacks us, sometimes using others, sometimes using circumstances, and at other times using our own mistakes to ridicule and seek to discourage us.

But we must face each difficulty knowing that we are conquerors! God has destined us to win! We are victors! We can’t be defeated if we refuse to lie down and quit! The promises of God are YES and AMEN in every circumstance. He will never leave us or forsake us! If God be for us, who can be against us!

If we keep the right perspective, tests will only bring out the best in us. Tests will cause the dross to rise to the surface. Tempered steel is the strongest because the heat drew out the impurities that weakened it. Notice what Peter said: That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:7).

Years ago, I found myself in the middle of one of the most difficult periods of my life. Nothing was going the way I thought it would. It seemed as though I would fail. At times, death seemed appealing as a sweet escape. Really, it was a very hard place. But the Holy Spirit kept reminding me of the promises of God when I wanted to just quit. He wouldn’t let me! Day after day, week after week, month after month, this particular test droned on.

At my lowest points, I found my God to be faithful. Knowing what He planned for me, the Father just would not let quit in the middle of my journey. He urged me to act on His Word and keep on going. He sees the end from the beginning. Sometimes we allow the pain of present circumstance to cloud the vision of where we’re headed.

Now looking back, I can see that some of the greatest things God did in me were a result of the pressure I went through. Character changes occurred in me as the pressure squeezed flaws to the surface of my life and forced me to face them.
 
The enemy sought to destroy me through circumstance, but God turned it all around and used it for my good. Joseph was able to lead Egypt out of a dark period because of the work of preparation during the testing years.

See your present circumstance, not as a stumbling block, but as a stepping stone into God’s greater purposes for you. If you’ll do this in every test and trial, God will turn what was meant by the enemy as evil into opportunity to help you grow!
 
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18). Keep your chin up today!