SMS Magazine-Winter 2023, Release the Power and Authority of Christ in Your Life

GOD

Glory to God in the highest, in the name of our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Sundie Morning Sistas Magazine

Release the Power and Authority of Christ in Your Life

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hen powerlessness grips our lives and we feel we’re at our lowest point, trusting and believing the knowledge from God’s Word will transform our conditions and circumstances. It will achieve this by first transforming us from the inside out. Society would like us to focus on the external and allow it to consume our focus and thoughts, but God commands us to shift our focus on to Him. Through the Apostle Paul, in Romans 12:1-2(NLT), God tells us, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don't copy the behavior 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.”

This passage informs us that the very least we can do for all that God has done for us is to present our bodies and everything in them to Him, because this is the kind of worship He desires. He tells us not to copy the behaviors and customs of this world, because the world’s behaviors, cultures, and customs will not help us reach our destiny in Christ. We must copy the culture of heaven, which is one of continual faith and gratitude towards God. Before we knew Jesus Christ and accepted him as our Lord and Savior, we thought, behaved, and spoke like the world, but now that we’ve given our lives to him, we need to disconnect from old worldly programming, and renew our minds to think like Christ.

The mind and the heart must be transformed to line up with the new life that Christ has given us. Because we’ve been made new and our friendship with God has been restored, we have received spiritual blessings of immeasurable treasure. With this vast spiritual treasure is the authority and power of Christ. 1John 5:4(NLT) tells us, “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.” This victorious reality is because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for us through his sacrifice and resurrection. We can achieve victory in every aspect of our lives because of him, and the way to get this done is to change the way we think and speak to match the standard of God’s Word.

We have been empowered by God through His Holy Spirit to stand firm in His Word. This is what makes us victorious in life! We must know the Word of God to walk with the authority and power of Christ, and we believe this issue of the Sundie Morning Sistas Magazine entitled, “Release the Power and Authority of Christ in Your Life”, will increase your understanding of the treasure God has given you. It’s dedicated to revealing the truths in God’s Word that help us shift our thoughts and confessions from powerless to victorious in Christ!

Lovingly In Christ, Reverend Fran Mack, President and Founder, SMS

PS: Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Romans 8:37(NKJV)

esus Christ tells us in John 10:10 that he came to the earth to make a more than abundant life available to anyone and everyone that will trust and believe in God through him. One of the most challenging things in the lives of believers is for us to believe this deeply in our hearts. God has empowered us through Jesus Christ to live abundantly! We can do it because God has given us everything that we need to get it done. Ephesians 1:3(NIV) says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” The words “every spiritual blessing” in Ephesians 1:3 means “all spiritual blessings without exception.” God has fully equipped us in Christ, and He didn’t leave anything out. His Will is that we walk the earth with dominion and authority over our lives. He commands that we renew our minds to what He’s said in His Word, because this is the way to receive in this life everything that He’s made available through Jesus Christ.

Our problem is one of faith and believing. Many of us haven’t renewed our minds to God’s Word, and one of the reasons for this is because we’re too distracted by everything other than what He says. Our hearts are weighted down by all the cares and worries of this world, and unknowingly, we have pushed the promises of God out of our minds and hearts, and ultimately out of our lives. He tells us in Proverbs 4:23 to guard our hearts with His Word and in Ephesians 4:23, He tells us to renew our minds to His Word. The prevailing theme in the life of every believer is always going to be God’s Word and Will. If we miss this, we miss everything. The psalmist said in Psalm 119:105(NIV), “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Romans 10:17 (NKJV) says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” His Word is life to us, and nothing other than His Word can help us walk with the dominion and authority that He has made available through Christ. When we look in other places for what can only be found in God’s truth, we’re setting ourselves up to

live beneath our privilege as His sons and daughters. He wants us to choose the knowledge He gives us, because choosing His Word is choosing life, love, and liberty through Christ.

In Genesis 1:26-27(ESV), God informs us of the conversation He had with His Son, Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit. The conversation went like this, “26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Very simply, He made human beings in His image and after His likeness because He has always wanted a relationship with us.

The image of the Godhead is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In His likeness, we are human spirit, human soul, and human body. Without any one of those three components, we would not be humans, we’d be something else.

God has all dominion, power, and authority. We can see from Genesis 1:26 that He’s shared it. He’s given humans dominion and authority as well. This is a gift from Him to us, and He commands us to exercise it all over the earth and in accordance with His Word. Many power-hungry and corrupt individuals have tried to usurp the power of others and keep them enslaved. In so doing, they stepped outside God’s Will. Our Heavenly Father didn’t give us the authority to rule over another human being’s life. The dominion and authority that God has given us is for the purpose of living the kind of life that Jesus Christ made available in John 10:10. This is a life of faith, love, power, and self-control, but many believers are not exercising what God has given them. We keep asking Him to do the things that He has commanded us to do. This makes a statement to heaven above, and everything beneath it, about our faith in His blessings and promises. It affirms that we don’t know our rights and privileges as God’s children, and therefore, we cannot walk and live by them.

King David, the psalmist, declared in Psalm 139:14 (ESV), “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” God also tells us in Ephesians 2:10(NLT), “For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Our most perfect, excellent, brilliant, and magnificent God doesn’t do flimsy work. Through Jesus Christ, He took care of the sin issue that Adam caused and made us new creations in Christ. Now we are equipped in every way to do the good things that God planned for us long before we entered our mother’s wombs. God is incapable of making a mistake, and He didn’t make a mistake when He created each of us. Every individual that accepts the truth of God’s Word and believes it with their whole hearts can live powerfully through God’s Holy Spirit as they grow in Christ. It’s all about our relationship with God, because the more we know Him intimately and the more we know about Him through His Word, the more we can manifest His love and power in our lives.

AT ONE WITH GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST

he Words of Jesus Christ in John 10:10(NKJV) are both transformative and informative to the lives of believers. He tells us, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Jesus makes it clear what he came to earth to make available to us, and he also reveals that we have opposition. This opposition is the thief, the devil, and he is in the earth to steal, kill, and destroy. This shouldn’t cause fear in us, because 1John 4:4(NKJV) declares, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Jesus Christ is in us, and the power and authority God has made available to us through Christ is greater than the evil that is in the world.

God said in Hosea 4:6 that His people are destroyed because they lack knowledge about Him. When we don’t realize what God has given us, the devil uses our lack of knowledge to deceive and steal from us. In the lives of believers, marriages collapse, sickness and disease prevail, and lack and loneliness paralyze us emotionally. These and more

can keep us feeling sad and defeated, and our circumstances and condition begin to mirror this externally. This is not the Will of God for us. Through Christ, He has made us more than overcomers.

1John 5:4(ESV) tells us, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith.” You and I have a responsibility to God to get to a point where we are fully persuaded and sold out on the reality of who God has made us in Christ. We must trust God’s empowerment! We must believe that yes, through the power of God in Christ, marriages are restored, sickness and disease are healed, new and fulfilling relationships are received, finances are replenished and lack is reversed, and loneliness is a thing of the past. 1Corinthians

4:20(NLT) declares, “For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God's power.” You must have faith in God’s miraculous power, and you must trust that His power is in you through the Holy Spirit. God requires your faith in His love and power, because your faith is the foundation of your relationship with Him.

LIKE A MARRIAGE

Whether it’s marriage or a relationship that’s not quite there yet, our significant relationships can teach us a lot about the kind of relationship that our Heavenly Father desires with us. In our personal lives, when we find the person that God has ordained to walk with us through life, it’s exciting and fulfilling. It makes our souls feel good because not only do we like this person, but we want to spend time with them. We love being in their presence and look forward to the relationship deepening through communication, affection, respect and honor. We’re created by God to respond to each other in this way, and we need to think deeply about that. Our Heavenly Father is an ‘on-purpose’ God. He doesn’t do anything randomly. Because of this, we can have confidence that He wants us to learn about the intimacy He desires with us through the intimacy we desire in all our relationships with other people.

Just as we understand the importance and benefits of what marrying the right person will do for our lives, we must understand, even more so, the benefits of what having an intimate relationship with God will do for us. It literally makes us! Without a relationship with God, we cannot live through His power and authority. He doesn’t want anyone to live that kind of existence. 1Timothy 2:4 tells us that He wants everyone to be saved. God wants us to live a powerful Christian life, and through it, He wants us to demonstrate His love and power to others.

God has a Will, and His Will is His Word. If we ever want to know the plans that God has for us, we need only look in His Word. 2Peter 1:3 tells us that God, the One that created and called us to His own glory and excellence, has given us extreme and unfathomable treasure. This treasure was given to us through His divine power and here’s what it is: it is everything (All, without exception) that is related to life and Godliness. The treasure is wrapped up and delivered to us by access to the knowledge of Him through His Word. In other words, God has provided us beyond overwhelming access to the knowledge of God’s Will, and this knowledge of Him and His Will is everything (All, without exception) that you and I need to live a more than abundant, Godly life. God didn’t leave not one thing out. The knowledge of Him and His Word fills us to overflowing with His goodness, and it is all that we need in life. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 4:4 (ESV), “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” God’s Word feeds us deep down in a place that is at the core of our very existence. All of us are aware of this place deep down, and we are all aware that it needs to be fed. Jesus Christ makes it clear that we must be fed by the Source, which is the One True Living God. Our problem is that most people don’t do this. They don’t go to the Source through Jesus Christ, but look to people, relationships, materialism, substances, and other things that are disconnected from God. They seek these and try to make them their source. We will always run on empty when

we do this.

As human beings, we long for connection. God built us that way. Many people haven’t learned about our Heavenly Father and His love. They don’t know that He created us to be His children so that we can be in close relationship with Him. They don’t know that what they’re really longing for in life is an intimate connection with their Creator because He is the Source of all power, love, peace, joy, and strength. This longing for God is in us, and it responds to His longing for us.

Jesus Christ said in Luke 15:10(ESV), “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” He then went on to elaborate on this in his parable of the prodigal son. The parable begins with a father who had two sons. It was common for a father to leave an inheritance to his son(s) after his death, because it was unlawful for him to leave it to a daughter. So, both his sons understood that they would inherit their father’s wealth. The youngest of the two brothers was impatient and did not want to wait until his father died but wanted all the loot right then and there. Luke 15:12 tells us, “And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them.” Most of us can relate to the younger son, because this is how WE are. We’re an “on the double” society and we don’t want to wait. Some of us will go to God with this same impatient attitude in our prayers, and then God will teach us how fruitless it is to try to rush His perfect timing. The young son learned this lesson the hard way. He squandered his money, and it just so happened that a famine hit the land. He was in quite the fix, no money, no family, and no one willing to help him. He got hired by a country farmer to feed his pigs, but he said to himself, “the pigs eat better than me.” He remembered that his father’s servants also ate very well. He then hatched a plan to humble himself and return home to his father’s house.

One would think that his father would be angry with his son, but instead, his father rejoiced when he saw him and threw a great feast to welcome him home. This wonderful parable that Christ taught paints a beautiful portrait of our Heavenly Father’s love. God delights in us, and He wants us to delight in Him. He accepts us completely and wants us to know that only He can fill our cups.

When two people marry, God tells us that they become one person. That’s how He sees them. Jesus Christ taught us this in Mark 10:6-9(NLT), “6 But 'God made them male and female' from the beginning of creation. 7 'This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, 8 and the two are united into one.' Since they are no longer two but one, 9 let no one split apart what God has joined together." This very special marital union teaches us the reverence and blessing of our union with God through Jesus Christ. It’s out of our union with God that the love, unity, and strength of Christ truly ministers to the heart of another.

God placed all these yummies of yearning, desire, love, respect, honor, and trust in us to learn to live in relationship first with Him. When this is our reality, when God is in the number one spot of our lives, all of His goodness flows from us to others. We just keep growing in more of His grace and love, and this is what we’re here on this earth to do.

God wants to spend time with us. He wants us to read about Him in His Word, and to communicate with Him all the time. This is what we desire

from the people we love, and this is what God desires from us. He created relationships for His good pleasure, and everything that pleases God will please us. Jesus Christ prayed to God for the disciples in John 17:21(NLT), “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” Through Christ, we are one with our Heavenly Father. Let’s be as attentive to our relationship with Him as we possibly can, because the more we live in Him, the better our lives will be.

STANDING IN THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS CHRIST

It’s clear that we can stand on the authority and power of Christ because of our commitment to God and the quality of our relationship with Him. When we know who we are in Christ—who God has made us in him, we will not allow people and situations to break us. Even though someone may disappoint us or cause us heartbreak, we will not fall apart because of it. We won’t allow our emotions to dictate our lives, but instead, we will recognize that our faith in God and His love for us is our sure and

WHAT IS AUTHORITY

The Word of God is the record of the power and authority of Jesus Christ. Through it, we have a witness of how Jesus Christ lived his life with God’s mandate to save the entire world. There was no equal to the power and authority of Christ in the earth, and he used it perfectly, with compassion and reverence for God, as he mightily blessed and healed the lives of others. He showed us how to walk in this and did the same for the disciples. He told them in Luke 9:1-2(KJV), "1 Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. 2 And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.” Their commission was to go out and preach the Gospel and to confirm it by miracles. They were to enforce the light of Christ and spread it. This same call is upon us, but many of us haven’t understood it. We’ve tried to use the authority and power of Christ in our lives, yet we’ve shown no interest in his mission, and that isn’t going to work.

The authority of Jesus Christ is the unchallenged right to share the Gospel and to serve others through his love, strength, and power. It is an authority to cast out demons and with them the oppression of sickness and disease. The authority of Christ is the route to exercise control and rule according to the Will of God, and this control and rule is gained and enforced through our motivation to please Him and obey His Word. Without the components of the Gospel, service, and the motivation to please God, we cannot walk in the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have often tried to use the power of Christ where we had no authority to do so, and this can be a costly mistake. We are born anew in the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, and the authority he has given us is to bring about and spread a lifestyle of faith. This is the part of our foundation in Christ that allows us to exercise his authority. Believers often think of the authority of Christ as their own to build and exercise, but none of us have any authority to call our own. It all belongs to Christ, and we can only use it as we walk and live in him and love through him.

Romans 1:5(NLT) sheds more light on the authority that we have received as children of God. The Apostle Paul declared, “Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.” Here we see the purpose of exercising the authority of Jesus Christ. It is to do the work of Christ so that we bring glory to God, and not to ourselves.

POWER AND AUTHORITY BELONG TO GOD

We are given the authority of Christ for purposes in the Plan and Will of God, and we are not to

attempt to exercise it outside God’s purpose. It is to do God’s Will, not our own will. This is a mindset that welcomes God’s power and positions us to walk in it. We are conduits of God’s power and authority, and we must be committed to use them His way. Our humility to God’s Word and our obedience to be led by His Holy Spirit will always keep us in the victory of Christ.

We can’t outsmart the devil with carnal or physical weapons, because he is a spiritual enemy and only spiritual weapons can outsmart a spiritual enemy. This is why God commands us in Ephesians

6:11(NLT), “Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.” Standing firm requires us to stand in the authority and power of Christ and to be unmovable in faith. Spiritual attacks are when satan sends troublesome people and situations to separate us from our relationship with God. We can overcome them by putting on God’s armor and understanding that we are not defeated, because Christ has already won the victory for us.

There are times when we do have to let people know who we are in an authoritative manner, but we also must be careful to appropriately let go and let God. His grace covers us. He is a redeeming God, and what the enemy meant for bad, God will work it out toward our good if we patiently and faithfully endure.

We are not called to address every meanspirited attack. There are plenty of them in life, and if we expend our energy worrying about how to respond to them, we are bringing ourselves equal to those the enemy uses. The best use of our resources is to give it to God, to wait on Him, and to only move according to His leadership and guidance. This is how we move in the authority and power of Christ, by being motivated only by what pleases God and ultimately yields glory to His name.

BY THE POWER OF YOUR CONFESSION

esus Christ has shown us how incredibly important our confessions are. When we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, we are confessing our own identity as his siblings and God’s children. When we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, we are confessing the truth. We are confessing what God says and we are coming into agreement with what God thinks and has done for us through Christ. By speaking and confessing God’s thoughts about us, we are transferred from death and given eternal life. John 1:14 (NLT) tells us, “So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.” Jesus Christ is the living Word of God, and his Spirit lives in us. But so often, even when we receive salvation, we continue to think, speak, and confess the opposite of what God’s Word says. This thinking, speaking, and confessing negativity disconnects us from the truth.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. John 16:13(NLT) tells us, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” How can a person be guided in the truth if they will not speak the truth? The words we speak demonstrate whether or not we have chosen to be led. Our words are a gateway that allow us to connect with the power of the Holy Spirit, where we can begin to create for ourselves the life that God desires for us.

In Genesis 1, God showed us His thoughts, and He also showed us the power of His Holy Spirit to turn His thoughts into everything we see. He said, “Let there be light!” and light appeared. It responded to the power and authority of God. It had no other choice, because the Source of light spoke it into being. God continued to speak His thoughts, and the power of the Holy Spirit got busy turning those

thoughts into reality. These are God’s laws at work. Transferring thoughts from the containment of our minds into words that flow from our mouths is following the pattern God, Himself, has set.

Again, our words create the gateway for us to connect to the power of the Holy Spirit, and that power is in us. If you speak and confess something other than what God says, you will deny yourself access to the power of God. We must always speak God’s Word. Jesus Christ demonstrated this in Matthew 4 when he was tempted by satan. He has fasted forty days and nights and was physically very hungry. It was during this time that the devil came to him and tempted him to turn stones into loaves of bread. Mathew 4:4 (ESV) tells us, “But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Each time that Jesus Christ was

tempted by satan, his response was “IT IS WRITTEN…”

Our Master Jesus studied the writings of the prophets from the time he was a child. If God required Jesus Christ to study the Word, we can know with certainty that it is required of us. We have to know the Word of God. You cannot rise above what you don’t know. So, in those times when you are tested and tempted by satan, you must realize that only power and authority of Christ overcomes the evil one, and that power and authority of Christ is the Word of God! Jesus Christ only spoke what God said in His Word. Our victory comes from the Word, from living and confessing what he, the living Word of God, spoke.

The Word of God is what makes demons flee seven different ways, but that won’t happen if you don’t open your mouth and say what God says. When our words line up with God’s Word, God’s power can then flow through the gateway that our words produce. This will not happen if we don’t speak the truth. The Holy Spirit can only connect with the truth; he can only connect with the mind of Christ, and this is one of the reasons that many of us are not witnessing the dynamic move of his power. It’s because we are not saying what God is saying. We are not thinking what God is thinking, and not confessing what He says in His Word. This is not difficult to change, but it takes practice and commitment.

When God’s Word is spoken and believed, light enters a dark situation. When God’s Word is spoken and believed, chaos is turned to order. When God’s Word is spoken and believed, newness is ushered in. Marriages are restored, sickness and disease are delivered, and wholeness is restored when His Word is spoken and believed. God’s Word is always the solution. When we are obedient to confess and live by it, He will give us solutions and strategies to overcome.

This is the ultimate partnership, it’s the partnership that we have with God in Christ, through His Spirit. Whatever God says, we must obey, and we must confess what He says. If we are in agreement with the truth, we can release God’s power and authority in a situation. Watch what you say! Speak life, and not death, into your own life! We cannot afford to say what the world says, neither can we be aligned with it if we want to become all that God has called us to be. We must not only control our tongues; we must recognize the authority Christ has given us to call those things which are not as though they were.

We expand God’s Kingdom through the power of the Holy Spirit, by thinking, speaking, and behaving like Christ and confessing what he says. We will not be put to shame for doing this, because Christ cannot fail,

and our hope should forever be in him. So, we must let God’s transformation take form in us by confessing His Word and believing it in our hearts. Through the power and authority that Christ has given us, we can live powerfully and have the life we’ve been destined to live. When we speak the truth in love and serve others, and when pleasing God is the most important thing to us, we can walk in the power and authority of Christ every day of our lives. ■

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Thank you for helping us strive for excellence for the Kingdom of God.

any of us say that we want whatever God wants for us, but is this really true? What happens when He reveals His plan and purpose for our lives, and it doesn’t match the vision we’ve been floating around in our heads? We think we found the man that God has destined for our lives and it turns out he wasn’t. We imagined a career in entertainment, and we’ve been a manager at

an RV dealership the last 13 years. We wanted to live in a huge metropolitan city and take it by storm, and instead we had to drop out of college and never had enough funds to start over. Many of us ended up in a place we never thought or wanted to be, and we’re unhappy about it. We tell ourselves repeatedly that the life we’re living just can’t be God’s plan for our existences. It’s not what we expected, and we don’t understand why.

The foundation of any life that is lived well is faith in God. Period. Without faith in God’s love, Word, and goodness, we don’t have a foundation. We’re going to be lost because we don’t trust His Word and therefore, lack His direction. Proverbs 3:5-6(NLT) gives us an absolutely crucial truth for building a life. It says, “5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” When it comes to where we have our feet firmly planted this very moment, we must allow an opening in our hearts and minds for the reality that God had something to do with that. Whether it’s to our liking or far from it, our positioning is purposeful to where the Lord is taking us.

God knows that if we lean on our own understanding, we will be disappointed, confused, and dissatisfied with life. On our own, we lack the understanding to move in a way that He has purposed. So, wherever we are in life this very moment, He doesn’t want us to forget that He alone holds the key to our tomorrows.

In Acts 17:26-28(NLT), God tells us exactly how to frame our thinking around our positioning in life. This passage states, “26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. 27 "His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him--though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'” God, and God alone, has the plan for our lives. He determined our boundaries. The time of our births, where we were born and who our parents would be, all of this was predestined according to His divine plan. He has strategically positioned us so that we would seek after Him, and every detail of our lives, from the smallest to the greatest, is for that purpose.

Verse 28 of this same passage tells us that it is in God that we live, move, and have our being. It’s in Him that we find everything that we could ever possibly need, and as His children, we shouldn’t exit this life without realizing this truth. Jesus Christ commands us in Matthew 6:33 (NKJV), “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” This commandment is the answer many of us have overlooked. It is only when we seek God first, when He is first in our hearts and lives, that we will begin to walk in all that He has in store. The bottom line is that we are strategically positioned right this very moment to give God the praise and glory regardless of our conditions and circumstances.

From where we are, we have the perfect view to see the vision of where God wants to take us. We’re in the perfect place to seek Him with all our hearts so that we understand that He is our greatest treasure, and no one compares to Him. Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT) tells us “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” God’s plan is infinitely better than any plan we have for ourselves. Whether you realize it or not, your life is proving this truth in one way or another. Humble yourself before God. Let your prayers be about seeking Him and getting to know Him better. Ask Heavenly Father to help you truly want what He wants for you. When this is your aim, no matter where you are, you’ll have a song in your heart every day. ■

his verse in Psalm 145:19 is very encouraging for those that have marriage on their minds. As single Christians, we can be crystal clear that God is faithful to His promises. For those who honor, love, and obey Him, it’s His Will to grant them the desires of their hearts. His promises are not filled with holes. We can depend on them with all that we are. He hears, He rescues, and He certainly delivers us from darkness and tribulation, because this is who He is. Romans 8:32(NLT) declares, “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” God is a God who blesses His people, but we can’t forget that as His people, we have a responsibility as well. Jesus Christ said in John 14:15 that if we love him, we will keep his commandments. Our commitment to do His Will always gives us the faith to see God’s promises come to pass in our lives.

In the mind of just about every sane and moral individual is an understanding that nothing is free, and everything has a price. Sin has a price, and the corporate sin of all human beings had an extremely high price. Jesus Christ paid it for us all and did so with his life. 1Corinthians 6:19-20(NLT) says, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” Jesus paid the debt of our sin and redeemed us from satan’s realm of darkness. Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages or cost of sin is death, and Jesus Christ paid it with his sacrifice on the cross.

A good parent will not raise a child to think that it’s okay to be an adult that always accepts things for free and never earns anything by working for it. God put Adam in the garden to tend it. Adam had work to do. This sets a Godly precedent for all those who sojourn on earth. Jesus Christ is in heaven preparing a place for us. He’s advocating for us in the courts of our Heavenly Father, so Jesus is working. 2Thessalonians 3:9-11(NLT) takes us to school on this by letting us in on the Apostle Paul setting the church straight. It says, “9 We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow.

10 Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.” Good works and a good work ethic is the mark of a true disciple of Christ. God commands us in Colossians 3:23(NLT), “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”

Each of the twelve disciples that Christ called had to take up their cross and follow him. They had to leave everything behind and learn from him. He prepared them to carry on the work that he set in motion during his time here. We cannot think that we are greater than them. In truth, none of us have measured up to even a fraction of the good works and deeds that the disciples who walked with Christ did. We have infinitely more tools, technology, and knowledge, yet we do less. God doesn’t punish us for this, but Galatians 6:2(ESV) warns, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” If you’re not doing the sowing according to God’s Will and Word, then you cannot reap.

“He grants the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them.” Psalm 145:19 (NLT)

hether it’s marriage or not quite there yet, significant relationships teach us a lot about our relationship with Heavenly Father. When we find the person that God has ordained to walk with us through life, it’s exciting and fulfilling. It makes our souls feel good because not only do we like this person, but we get to spend time with them. We love being in their presence and look forward to

MATTHEW 4:4(ESV)

the relationship deepening through communication, affection, respect and honor. We’re created by God to respond to each other in this way. We need to think deeply about that. Our Heavenly Father is an ‘on-purpose’ God. He’s doesn’t do anything randomly, and because of this, we can have confidence in Him and in the relationship that He desires with each of us.

“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”

God has a Will. His Will is His Word. If we ever want to know the plans that God has for us, we need only look in His Word. 2Peter 1:3 tells us that God, the One that created and called us to His own glory and excellence, and given us extreme, unfathomable treasure. This treasure was given to us through His divine power and here’s what it is: it is everything (All, without exception) that is related to life and Godliness. The treasure is wrapped up and delivered to us by the access to the knowledge of Him through His Word. In other words, God has provided us beyond overwhelming access to the knowledge of God’s Will, and this knowledge of Him and His Will is everything (All, without exception) that you and I need to live a Godly life.

God didn’t leave not one thing out. The knowledge of God and His Word fills us to overflowing with His goodness, and it is all that we need in life. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 4:4(ESV), “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” God’s Word feeds us deep down in a place that is at the core of our very existence. All of us are aware of this place deep down, and we are all aware that it needs to be fed. Jesus Christ makes it clear that we must be fed by the Source, which is the One True Living God.

Our problem is that most people don’t do this. They don’t go to the Source through Jesus Christ, but look to people, relationships, materialism, substances, and other things that are disconnected from God. They seek these and try to make them their source. We will always run on empty when we do this.

As human beings, we long for connection. God built us that way. Genesis 1:26-27(ESV) tells us, “26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Our Heavenly Father is letting us in on the conversation He had with His

Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. In the New Testament, in 1Thessalonians 5:23(ESV), God sheds more light on how He’s created us. This verse says, “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

From His Word in Genesis 1:26-27, we know that we are created in the image of God, and we are three-part beings. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and 1Thessalonians 5:23 affirms that He created human beings to be three parts as well. We are spirit, soul, and body. The spirit of a human being is often referred to as “spirit man” or “inner man”. The human spirit is not to be confused with God’s Holy Spirit. Our human spirit or spirit man is the highest part of our being because it is the part of us that connects to God through the salvation that Jesus Christ offers.

Many people haven’t learned about our Heavenly Father and His love. They don’t know that He created us to be His children so that we can be in close relationship with Him. They don’t know that what they’re really longing for in life is an intimate connection with their Creator in the most intimate of ways. This longing for God is in us, and it responds to His longing for us.

Jesus Christ said in Luke 15:10(ESV), “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” He then went on to elaborate on this in his parable of the prodigal son. The parable begins with a father who had two sons. As it was common for a father to leave an inheritance to his sons after his death. Both his son understood that they would inherit their father’s wealth. The youngest of the two brothers was impatient and did not want to wait until his father died but wanted it right then and there. Luke 15:12 tells us, “And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them.”

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“ARE YOU SAVED?”

This is one of the simplest yet most consequential questions that we can ask a person. It opens a door that can transfer them from death and darkness to life evermore in Christ. When I’m out and about, I’m sometimes compelled by the Holy Spirit to tell someone that I may not know personally about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As believers, we also have a beautiful

opportunity to witness to those closest to us. With our family and friends, it is easy to assume that they know our wonderful Redeemer in the pardon of their sins, but it isn’t always the case. They may not have repented and made the confession of Romans 10:9-10, and it’s possible that they have not invited the Holy Spirit to come into their lives.

HAT IT MEANS TO BE SAVED

God teaches us in Romans 10:9-10(NLT), “9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.” Most people hear the word ‘saved’ and think of it in very general terms. Being rescued from harm or danger immediately comes to their mind. So, if a person doesn’t perceive that he or she is in immediate danger, they may not understand the staggering importance of salvation and being born again through Jesus Christ.

In truth, there is nothing more harmful or dangerous than to spend an eternity cut off from the One True Living God, and therefore being in perpetual eternal darkness and despair. It’s a fate far worse than our minds can comprehend, and this is the reality of all who are not saved through Jesus Christ. God proclaims in Colossians 1:13-14 (NLT) that He has “rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.” God freely offers us His love, rescue, and help, but it is our responsibility to accept what He offers. Our earthly experience is an opportunity to do just that, to accept God’s love and help by accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.

JESUS IS LORD!

The psalmist said about our Heavenly Father in Psalm 144:2(NLT), “He is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my rescuer. He is my shield, and I take refuge in him.” Through

Jesus Christ, God has made salvation from eternal darkness and damnation available to us, but He will not force anyone to accept the salvation He offers. Love never forces, it lovingly guides. Our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ is delighted to guide us into salvation and into his magnificent light, but we must be willing to make him Lord. This means that we must turn our whole lives over to him.

Regarding the royalty that most of us are acquainted with, the title of “lord” is given to some people that have been exemplary at their talents, skills, or abilities. In earlier Biblical periods, this word “lord” had even greater importance and significance. It was a royal distinction of tremendous respect and honor. So, a lord is a distinguished title for someone of superior rank and is the very best of all that is esteemed. Before we come to Jesus Christ and make him the Lord of our lives, we had assumed that title. Before salvation, we made our own choice and decisions, and many of those sent us down a very troublesome path. Once we accept the salvation that Jesus Christ offers, we transfer lordship to him. He then has Lordship over us and is in charge of our entire lives.

LOVING GOD IS A CHOICE

Genesis 1:26 tells us that God created human beings in His own image. Like Him, we are self-governing. We make our own decisions, and we get to decide who we are going to be. We decide whether we will be a child of God or a child of satan. An in between doesn’t exist. Jesus Christ makes it clear in Matthew 6:24 that we can’t serve two masters, we will love one and hate the other or vice versa, but we can’t serve both. We’re not built that way.

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God has given each of us the gift of freewill, and Romans 11:29(NLT) says, “For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn.” God is all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect and magnificent in every way. He never has to do a do-over or a take-back. He does things perfectly from the very beginning according to His divine design. He means for us to have what He wants to give us, and He is faithful to the gifts He gives. He will not override our free-will choice.

God offers us salvation and it is a free gift. We can’t do anything to earn it. Heavenly Father freely offers us the blessing of spending an eternity

WE CAN’T SAVE OURSELVES

Roman 5:11(NLT) tells us, “So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.” Through Jesus Christ, God has made us righteous because being righteous is necessary to be friends with God. Romans 3:25-26 The Message (MSG) tells us, “God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.”

with Him through Jesus Christ. God loves us, and because of His great love, He offers us the extreme privilege and honor to choose to love Him back. John 3:16(NLT) says, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” When we were at our worse, God sent His only begotten Son to save us and give us eternal life. He did this because He loves us more than we can ever know. He wants to have a relationship with every living person, and His greatest delight is loving and sharing His Kingdom with us.

Because of what God accomplished through Jesus Christ, we now live in God’s “rightness”. It’s not that we are so good, God is the only One that is righteous and good. You and I don’t have any righteousness of our own. So, God gave us His righteousness through Christ. Sometimes people will say, “I’m not ready to have a relationship with God yet. I’m too worldly, too angry, too sinful, or too this or that…” Maybe they think they are enjoying themselves by doing all the things that pleasure their senses, but we were not created to live that way. We were created to walk in God’s Spirit! Only Jesus Christ can fill our cups and give us joy.

It’s a myth that we can make ourselves “okay enough” to come to God. We can’t. None of us can do this. For instance, some that have an addiction to a substance might think they’ll come to God when they give up the drugs or alcohol, but in reality, they find that the struggle never ends. They keep disappointing themselves and can’t understand why they can’t stop. Others might be very unhappy with their lives because they struggle with insecurities, anxieties, and fears. Spending most of their lives feeling lost, it’s challenging for them to believe that God wants to have a relationship with them; that He loves them in their brokenness and wants to help them. Before we come to Christ, we are all broken and in desperate need of God’s saving grace. We need to be cleansed by the blood of the lamb. We desperately need the new life that Jesus Christ offers us, and God wants to help us. All we have to do is come to Him and invite Him into our hearts.

YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN

In John 3:3(NLT), Jesus Christ had a conversation with a man named Nicodemus. He told him, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Just as we are birthed from our mother’s womb and have our biological father’s seed, when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts as our Savior, we are spiritually born again. In order to be a child of God, we must be born physically, and we must be born spiritually. Accepting God’s love through Jesus Christ causes a spiritual consummation. We receive God’s seed by faith, and the Holy Spirit comes to live inside us. So, to be saved is to be born-again. It is to come alive to God spiritually as His child.

Faith is not magic, and magic doesn’t come from God. It’s not about a ‘kid in a candy store’ attitude or mentality, where God gives us anything we want. Faith is believing that God gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to save all of us, and it is

believing that our all-powerful, awesome God can do anything and through His resurrection power, He raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Believing this truth, repenting from our sins, and asking God for forgiveness transfers us from eternal death to eternal life in Christ.

We’re on this earth to decide who we are going to be for the rest of eternity, and if we choose God, we must remain committed to Him. We must apologize for the sins we have committed, because sin is an offense to Him. The first man, Adam, sinned against God, and everyone after him sinned as well. As God’s children, we must reject Adam’s disobedience and surrender ourselves to God to be guided and led by Him.

In John 14:6(NLT), Jesus Christ declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” The world would like us to believe that there are many paths to get to God. Well, it’s true that there are many paths, but they lead to destruction and idolatry. Jesus Christ is the only path to our Heavenly Father, the One True Living God. If we miss this, we’ve missed life entirely.

Don’t assume that your loved ones know Jesus Christ. They may need to get to know him better, and you might be the one that God has sent to help them. Talk to your loved ones and tell them about how God set them free by giving the life of His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sins. Christ is the Prince of Peace and Life and through him, we can live an eternity with God. In your own life, make sure that you’ve asked Heavenly Father to forgive you for your sins. We must ask Him to come into our lives, and we must accept His love in our hearts by believing in what He has done for us all through Jesus Christ. ■

Dear Heavenly Father,

You are holy and Your name is holy. I give You all the praise, glory, and honor, because You alone are worthy. You are the great “I Am”. You are Yahweh, Creator of the entire universe. Psalm 24:1 affirms that everything in the earth, including all its people, belong to You. I come to You, Almighty God, in the most humble way that I know how. In the precious and powerful name of Jesus Christ, I ask You to please forgive me for all my sins. I have not always done the right thing. Sometimes, I didn’t know what the right thing was, and other times I did. I’m sorry, Father. I want to do better and I need Your help.

Thank You for loving us so much that You gave Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for our sins. I accept him as my Lord and Savior. I believe that he died on the cross for my sins, and he did this willingness because he loves us all so much. I believe that You have all power in Your hands, and that You did not let Your Son stay in the grave, but You resurrected him from the dead. He is now seated at Your right hand on Your throne. Please accept me as Your child. I thank You for Your unconditional and limitless love, and I accept Your love into my heart through faith. I invite Your Holy Spirit to live inside me and to help and guide me. I give my whole life to You, Heavenly Father, and I thank You for saving me and giving me the gift of eternal life so that I can spend it with You. Thank You for the gift of salvation and for giving me new birth through Jesus Christ! He is Lord over my life. Please send those that can help me to learn and study Your Word, so that I can be like Christ in everything that I do. Thank You for Your amazing grace, for all that You have done for my life and for bringing me this far. In the powerful name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

Conclusion: “In Relationship with God”

Most of us can relate to the younger son, because this is how we are. We’re an “on the double” society and we don’t want to wait. Some of us will go to God with this same impatient attitude in our prayers. The young son squandered his money, and it just happened that a famine hit the land. He was in quite the fix, no money, no family, and no one will to help him. He got hired by a country farmer to feed his pigs, but he said to himself, “the pigs eat better than me.” He remembered that his father’s servants also ate very well. He then hatched a plan to humble himself and return home to his father’s house.

One would think that his father would be angry with his son, but instead, his father rejoiced when he saw him and threw a great feast to welcome him home. This wonderful parable that Christ taught paints a beautiful portrait of our Heavenly Father’s love. God delights in us, and He wants us to delight in Him. He wants us to know that only He can fill our cups.

When two people marry, God tells us that they become one person. That’s how He sees them. Jesus Christ taught us this in Mark 10:6-9 (NLT), “6 But 'God made them male and female' from the beginning of creation. 7 'This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, 8 and the two are united into one.' Since they are no longer two but one, 9 let no one split apart what God has joined together." This very special marital union teaches us the reverence and blessing of our union with God through Christ. It’s out of our union with God that the love, unity, and strength of Christ truly ministers to the heart of the other.

God placed all these yummies in us to learn to live in relationship first with Him. When this is our reality, all of His goodness flows from us to others. God wants to spend time with us. He wants us to read about Him in His Word, and to communicate with Him all the time. This is what we desire from the people we love, and this is what God desires from us. He created relationships for His good pleasure, and everything that pleases God will please us. Jesus Christ prayed to God for the disciples in John 17:21(NLT), “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” Through Christ, we are one with our Heavenly Father. Let’s be as attentive to our relationship with Him as we possibly can, because the more we live in Him, the better our lives will be.■

Conclusion: “God Hears and Delivers”

You can’t produce something out of nothing, but many of us have missed this spiritual lesson entirely, especially those of us praying to cross paths with our future spouses. We want him to be all we hoped he would be, yet many of us are not committed to be the same for God.

God promises in Psalm 145:19 that He will grant us the desires of our hearts, and He has done this. Now, it’s our responsibility to reach out and grab what He has granted, and we can’t do that if we lack the spiritual knowledge and strength to do so. Jesus Christ is our Big Brother, and God has called us to follow his example. We’re in our Heavenly Father’s family business, and our lives must reflect that we understand this and are actively pursuing His objectives. God hears and delivers, but we must listen and receive. We must grow more intimately in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. This is a relationship where we find great pleasure in talking to God. Our roots must grow deep into Christ, and this is achieved as we are obedient to God’s Word, and back our faith in Him by telling others about Christ and being a blessing to as many people that we possibly can.■

Kim Times, Minister, Writer, and Editor

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