Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery
trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead,
be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering,
so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed
to all the world. I Peter 4:12-13
Father of our abundance, You who over flow Your abundance of grace on us and give us faith to believe You, we cannot live the Christian life out of gratitude! Teach us to receive from Your Holy Spirit, moment by moment, the power that enables us to bring You glory. We want all our acts of service and love to be the produce of Your Spirit . Thank You for abundant grace to meet whatever comes our way. We have You, our ever- present, ever-faithful Father, now and eternally. O God of abundant grace humble us that we might bring You glory, I pray in Jesus name.
Dear
Ones who are in the heart of Creator God,
“You
are so loved!
We
see so many Christians in spiritual warfare unlike anything in my lifetime. The
enemy comes in like a flood, not for a short time but often year after year!
God will use every spiritual attack and all we go through, to strengthen and
prepare us for what He knows is coming.
He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.”
Hebrews
13:5b
“Don’t be surprised if there is attack on your work, on you who
are called to do it, on your innermost nature- the hidden man of the heart. It
must be so. The great thing is not to be surprised, not to count it strange-
for that plays into the hand of the enemy.
Is it possible that anyone should set himself to exalt our
beloved Lord and not become instantly a target for many arrows? The very fact
that your work depends utterly on Him and can’t be done for a moment without
Him calls for a very close walk and a constant communion of spirit. This alone
is enough to account for anything the enemy can do. It costs to have a pure
work. Not for nothing is our God called a Consuming Fire. ac
Have you truly opened
yourself to “I will never desert you…” When
the battle rages and it seems He is not listening or is so far away that you
“feel” forsaken, it does not change the Truth of His words. By faith I am
learning to run to Him. Praising Him for what I know is true no matter what
arrows of the enemy are being hurled my way. “Thank You Lord, you are right
here with me. You are my Victory and You are all I need. Greater are You, O
Lord, now and forever” It is a matter of receiving
from the Holy Spirit strength and truth for each step. Walking by faith is not
something we do by trying hard in our strength; nor is it fueled by emotional thinking
such as: ‘Jesus gave His life for me, now I am to give my all for Him.’
How many messages exhort and
pressure us to consecrate, surrender and commit our life, out of gratitude for
His sacrifice at Calvary? Altar calls are often a manipulation of your earnest
desire to live for Christ! And a believer who is hungry to live for Him and has
the ‘will’ to obey thinks he should attempt to carry it out through his own
effort. He thinks that because he has the will, he has the power. He soon finds
out how little his gratitude supplies the power! But it is God who works in you
to will AND to obey. Then he may think what is needed is more prayer… but all
this may end in frustration.
All is not lost. Listen to
this: “as growing Christians, it is time for us to
see the necessity of going beyond the love motive to the life motive. “For me to live is Christ” Philippians
1:21a Our consecration,
surrender, or commitment will never hold up if we our responding to Him from
any other motive than the response to His life in us. Yielding to Him on any
other basis will simply amount to our trying to live for Him in the flesh. And God can accept absolutely
nothing from the old. jcm
Consecrating our old man to
the Lord, and then working hard to live for Him, in the strength of that flesh,
will end in disappointment deep within. Well meaning believers struggle
hopelessly for many years until they begin to receive truth from the Holy
Spirit. The believer must identify Galatians 2:20
‘I am Crucified with Christ’ before he can apply being risen with
Christ.
It is important to realize we cannot go from the substitution
truths of Romans 3 & 5 to the deeper truths of Romans 8 & 9, skipping
over the identification truths of Romans 6 & 7. God has arranged the book
of Romans in His divine order.
The power ‘to will’ is a
permanent gift, an attribute of the new nature. The power ‘to do’ is not a
permanent gift, but must be each moment received from the Holy Spirit. The man
who recognizes his own impotence as a believer, who will learn that only by the
Holy Spirit can he lead a life of holiness.
God has provided abundant
grace… if that doesn’t set you to worship. Read it again and hear what the
Spirit is saying, Those who receive the abundance
of grace….will reign in life through One, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17 I
read that this was written to slaves in Nero’s wicked palace. Wow! What faith
was given to Paul.
Us Too!
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” II Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” II Corinthians 12:9
Abundant grace, all we need,
when we need it! Divinely powerful strength and mercy and love and wisdom and
hope that we might take another step and grace to sing His praise and grace to
bow and worship.
Father of our abundance, You who over flow Your abundance of grace on us and give us faith to believe You, we cannot live the Christian life out of gratitude! Teach us to receive from Your Holy Spirit, moment by moment, the power that enables us to bring You glory. We want all our acts of service and love to be the produce of Your Spirit . Thank You for abundant grace to meet whatever comes our way. We have You, our ever- present, ever-faithful Father, now and eternally. O God of abundant grace humble us that we might bring You glory, I pray in Jesus name.
All is abundant grace,
az
