possible to become tender-hearted when once you were callous and insensitive. It is possible to stop being dominated by bitterness and anger. It is possible to become a loving person no matter what your background has been.
The Bible assumes that God is the decisive factor in making us what we should be. With wonderful bluntness the Bible says, “Put away malice and be tenderhearted.” It does not say, “If you can . . . ” Or: “If your parents were tender-hearted to you . . . ” Or: “If you weren’t terribly wronged or abused . . . ” It says, “Be tender-hearted.”
This is wonderfully freeing. It frees us from the terrible fatalism that says change is impossible. It frees us from mechanistic views that make our backgrounds our destinies.
If I were in prison and Jesus walked into my cell and said, “Leave this place tonight,” I might be stunned, but if I trusted his goodness and power, I would feel a rush of hope that freedom is possible. If he commands it, he can accomplish it.
If it is night and the storm is raging and the waves are breaking high over the pier, and the Lord comes to me and says, “Set sail tomorrow morning,” there is a burst of hope in the dark. He is God. He knows what he is doing. His commands are not throw-away words.
His commands always come with freeing, life-changing truth to believe. For example: “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other [that’s the command], just as God in Christ also has forgiven you [that’s the life-changing truth]. Therefore be imitators of God [command], as beloved children [life-changing truth]; and walk in love [command], just as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma [life-changing truth]” (Ephesians 4:32–5:2).
There is life-changing power in the truths of this text. Ponder them with me as you pray for that power to change you.
1. God adopted us as his children.
We have a new Father and a new family. This breaks the fatalistic forces of our “family of origin.” “Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, he who is in heaven” (Matthew 23:9).
I once heard a young man quoteHebrews 12:10–11 with tears of deep conviction and great joy because they assured him that he was not doomed to think of God in terms of his abusive earthly father: “They [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we share his holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
They did this . . . but he does that. This is a life-changing truth. We can know it, believe it, and be changed by it, no matter what kind of earthly fathers we have. God reveals himself in his word to revolutionize our thinking about his fatherhood. We are not cursed to think in the old categories if our upbringing was defective.
2. God loves us as his children.
We are “loved children.” The command to imitate the love of God does not hang in the air; it comes with power: “Be imitators of God as loved children.” “Love!” is the command and “being loved” is the power.
3. God has forgiven us in Christ.
Be tender-hearted and forgiving just as God in Christ forgave you. What God did for us becomes the power to change. He forgave us. That opens a relationship of love and a future of hope. And does not tender-heartedness flow from a heart overwhelmed with being loved undeservedly and being secured eternally? The command to be tender-hearted has more to do with what God has done for you than what your mother or father did to you. You are not enslaved to your past.
4. Christ loved you and gave himself up for you.
“Walk in love just as Christ loved you.” The command to walk in love comes with life-changing truth that we are loved. At the moment when there is a chance to love, and some voice says, “You are not a loving person,” you can say, “Christ’s love for me makes me a new kind of person. His command to love is just as surely possible for me as his promise of love is true for me.”
My pleasure is that you resist fatalism with all your might. No, with all God’s might. Change is possible. Pursue it until you are perfected at the coming of Christ.
Joint Heirs With Christ Jesus
Oct 12, 2015
As long as you are born again, you are no longer a “slave”, but a son of the Most High God. And God does not just call you His son. He also calls you “an heir” through Christ. (Galatians 4:7) In fact, Romans 8:17 says that you are “joint heirs” with Christ.
As a joint heir with Christ Jesus, you inherit everything that He is. How precious Jesus is to the Father, is how precious you are to the Father. The way the Father loves Jesus, is the way the Father loves you!
How accepted are you by God today? Look at Jesus. That is how accepted you are! Christ is the measure of your acceptance. How favored are you by God? Look at Jesus, who is seated at the Father’s right hand. You enjoy that same favor today because whatever Christ enjoys, you enjoy!
As a joint heir with Christ Jesus, you also inherit all that He has obtained from the Father. How much Jesus has, is how much you have. How prosperous is the one who made all things, and who put the gold, silver and diamonds in the earth? So are you in this world! (1 John 4:17)
I used to read the Bible to find out how to be a successful and victorious Christian. But now, I read it to find out more about Jesus because I know that when I find Him, I find my every blessing in Him. (Ephesians 1:3, 2 Peter 1:3)
My friend, all that Jesus is in heaven today, you are in this world. All that belongs to Him belongs to you. That is why it is in your interest to know Him more, to see Him in all His glory and beauty. And because Jesus is so glorious, it will take you a lifetime to discover everything that He has done for you and has for you.
Beloved, you are an heir of the Most High God. You are a joint heir with Christ Jesus. So find out all the blessings that your rich inheritance includes and start walking in them today!
Thought For The Day
All that Jesus is in heaven today, you are in this world
PERSEVERE
Today: 2015-10-12
Perseverance is the only way to preserve your place in the front.
Those who were lazy yesterday have been laid off today.
Life is a personal adventure, where you stop pressing is where things will stop working.
Press hard, press forward, press hard to escape hardship.
“Every man presseth”. Lk.16:16
Never seek convenience; it is the burial place of giants, press!
Stretch yourself to spread beyond; you cannot spread beyond your stretch.
Perseverance is an extension of endurance; it is required to take the believer through the trial of faith.
CHANGE THROUGH CONTACT
Memorise: But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 1st Corinthians 1:24
Read: 2nd Kings 2:19-22, 19 And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren.
20 And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him.
21 And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.
22 So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.
Bible in one year: Numbers 14:20-15:41, 2nd Corinthians 8
MESSAGE!
A sceptre is the symbol of a king’s authority. It carries so much power that a king can send it somewhere as a representation of his physical presence. Where the sceptre of a king is, it means the king is there himself; and only the king’s most trusted chamberlain’s can come in direct contact with the sceptre. These earthy royal traditions mirror some truths in the spiritual realm. In the kingdom of God, when you come in contact with the sceptre of power, not only will your life change, the lives of those connected to you will change also. In Mark 5:35-42, when Jairus contacted the sceptre of the Most High God, which is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the sorrow he once knew was turned into joy as death gave way to life. Similarly, in our Bible reading, the city of Jericho which had become accustomed to sorrow, tears, barrenness and death as a result of a curse place over it a long time ago (Joshua 6:26),n suddenly had a reversal when its people contacted God’s power through His anointed servant. What is that unpleasant situation in your life today that is causing pain, sorrow, weeping and depression? You shall contact the sceptre of God’s power through this devotional, and your situation shall experience a drastic, positive turn in Jesus’ Name.
When I joined the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), I felt like a fish out of water, because all my life, if I ever worshipped at all, it was at a cathedral or in a university chapel. I was used to being in places where everything was done decently and orderly. Then I came to RCCG and thought everything was in order until they began to pray. When the minister leading the prayer said, “In the Name of Jesus”, the man who sat next to me shouted “Amen” in such high decibels that I felt like running out of the place, but something tied me down. Not long after, I gave my life to Jesus. Soon after, I was taught about the baptism in the Holy Ghost. After this, I was taught about the things of the Spirit; then I started learning about the power of the Most-High God, and not long after, that power began to operate through me. When God’s power begins to flow through you, it goes far beyond you. It is for other people: the needy, the sick, the impoverished, those in captivity and everyone who needs a miracle from God. As you surrender to the sceptre of God’s power today by giving you life to Him, and by allowing Him to take His place as the Lord of your life, you will be amazed where that contact with His power can take you.
Prayer Point
Lord Jesus, Sceptre of the Most High God, please touch me today and make my life whole.
Receive His Grace
by Joyce Meyer – posted October 12, 2015
According to the grace (the special endowment for my task) of God bestowed on me, like a skillful architect and master builder I laid [the] foundation, and now another [man] is building upon it.
—1 Corinthians 3:10
Grace is the power of the Holy Spirit coming to us freely, enabling us to do with ease what we could never do on our own. You might find other definitions describing grace as God’s divine favor, and that is certainly true, but His grace is also the power you need to live in victory. Grace can be received only through faith, and that is one of the main reasons we must resist fear. When we allow fear to rule us, we unwittingly receive what Satan has planned for our lives. But when we live by faith through grace, God is able to work His divine plan in us. Whatever you need to do today, lean on God and let Him empower you to be successful.
Power Thought: By God’s grace I have the skills to do all He asks of me with ease.
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