“There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.” Hebrews 4:9-10

The problems come when a believer takes control of his life and makes hasty decisions on his own. He is putting himself above God and will encounter misery and destruction. The Israelites refused to rest in the promises of Jesus and all the adults died in the wilderness. 

The gift of salvation calls for a believer to rest in the life and death of Jesus. The instruction is to cease from works or striving and enter into the rest of Jesus. The analogy is God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day.

Resting is trusting in Jesus for your every need. We walk by faith not by what we see with our eyes. Resting is not about living idly and doing nothing.

Resting is living under the authority of the Holy Spirit and following the wisdom and guidance of Jesus.

Resting is understanding a believer is purchased with a price and his life is not his own. The decision for Jesus requires a believer to live under the terms of the Cross. 

The Christ follower dies to self and lives for Jesus. The priority is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all the other things will follow.

The Christ follower rests in the promises of Jesus. He knows Jesus calls things that do not exist as if they did. This is how God created the world and works in the life of a believer.

Resting is drawing on the strength of Jesus to do all the things required today. 

Resting is inviting the Holy Spirit to have authority over your life and walking in oneness with Jesus.

Resting is turning away from the desires of the flesh and worldly values and yielding to the Holy Spirit.

Resting is seeking repentance and forgiveness for all your sins through the blood of Jesus.

Resting is committing your works each day to Jesus and living by the words of God:

“Not by might nor by strength but by My Spirit”

I AM who I AM!

Do not take the offer of Jesus lightly. It is life changing, powerful and eternal. 

The invitation cost Jesus a lot of pain and the loss of His life.

What are the terms of the invitation? 

The believer agrees to trade his life for the life of Jesus. This sounds ridiculous from a worldly point of view.

But the world cannot make or keep promises to you or overcome death with eternal life. 

The world is filled with darkness and will eventually fade away and be replaced by the righteousness of God.

Jesus has power and dominion over the heavens and earth. Nothing is impossible for Him.

Jesus is omniscient and knows every detail of your past and future. He hears your every thought and all your words.

Jesus identifies with all your emotions. He was born in a human form but is perfect and without sin.

Jesus desires to give you an abundant life filled with His goodness. He wants to do awesome things you can never achieve on your own. 

Jesus desires to heal your body and emotions. He wants you to be healthy with a sound mind.

Jesus asks you to pray, read the Bible and listen for His voice. He speaks to His people.

The decision for Jesus requires a believer to seek the will of God above all else. 

The gift of salvation is the start of becoming transformed into the character of Jesus. The believer is “born again” with a new identity and purpose in life.

This happens when you repent from sin and seek the forgiveness of Jesus. The believer must live under the cover of the blood of Jesus and be open to conviction and change in his life. 

The believer is sealed with the Holy Spirit. He is the life of Jesus. Invite the Holy Spirit to have authority over your life and you will be amazed to live in the reality of the Living Christ. 

Jesus wants to bring order and simplicity to your life. He wants to enhance every aspect of your life. He is a God of quality and integrity. 

Jesus is a powerful refuge and fortress for His people. He promises no weapon formed against you shall prosper. He protects believers from evil and harm.

Jesus is a God of unconditional love and is readily accessible to all humanity.

Jesus hates religion but desires to have a personal and embracing relationship with a believer and live in your presence in all the moments of life.

Jesus is the way the truth and the life!

“Jesus is the same today, yesterday and forever.” Hebrews 13:8

The Holy Spirit spoke to me today about this subject. The definition of ingratiate is to flatter a person to get their favor.  

In the spiritual realm, we are discussing the motives of a believer in relationship with Jesus. 

The practice of ingratiating is widespread in Christianity but Jesus is non negotiable. We follow His teachings or face judgment.

We have to operate with integrity in dealing with Jesus. He never changes.

Jesus desires for  a believer to ask Him for his needs but you must ask according to His will and with no hidden motives.

There is a demarcation line established by Jesus defining the boundaries between asking by faith and attempting to influence Him with false motives.

Be transparent with Jesus. He knows everything about you and it is impossible to keep secrets from Him.

To keep yourself aligned in the will of God, ask Jesus to reveal anything you are thinking or doing that grieves the Holy Spirit. This will keep your motives pure.

The command from Jesus is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all the other things will be added to you. 

Ask Jesus to show you the priorities in your life and what you need to let go of in the big picture.

Sever your ties with the world and concentrate on prayer, reading the Word, and listening for the voice of Jesus.

Praise and worship must be pure and focusing on the greatness and glory of Jesus. 

Most trials are engineered by God and they have to run their course. They refine you with patience and strengthen your faith.

Pray God will give you the strength and endurance to overcome the trials. Don’t pray or seek the easy way out. 

Jesus keeps His promises and will deliver you in His perfect timing.

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” 1 Corinthians 2:12

You cannot meet the Living Christ through an intellectual approach, pursuing religion, or listening to sermons. The revelation of Jesus comes through the work of the Holy Spirit. This is where you will experience the authenticity of Christ.

Forget works. They will not give you a personal and symbiotic relationship with Jesus. They will just bring condemnation upon you. 

The wisdom of the world is foolishness to God. The world is the antithesis of Jesus. The world ends for a human being but Jesus endures forever. The world cannot make promises but Jesus is a promise keeper.

The Holy Spirit is the life of Jesus and He is sealed in all believers. He desires to give you the fullness of Jesus. 

The Holy Spirit knows you better than you know yourself. He is the portal to all the deep truths of Jesus.

The calling of God requires a mere mortal to make a decision to live for Jesus above all else and to submit to the authority of the Holy Spirit. This will bring the greatness and glory of God into your life.

The decision for Jesus is a covenant to die to self and live for Jesus. It is agreeing “Not my will but Yours be done”. The trade off is your life for the life of Jesus.

The covenant with Jesus is to develop a personal and embracing relationship built on faith and obedience. 

Walk by faith believing in the promises of Jesus and not what you see with your eyes. Listen for the voice of Jesus and respond with obedience to His instructions regardless of the personal cost or lack of knowledge. 

The Holy Spirit provides omniscient wisdom and supernatural protection against evil. He is a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your pathway.

Pray vigilantly seeking the will of God, read the Word, and commit your works each day to Jesus.

For in Him, we live and move and have our being!

“Not by might nor by strength but by My Spirit” Zechariah 4:7

What happens is Jesus gives a believer a vision or prophecy concerning the future and the tendency is to rush out into action.

Abraham was an old man when God spoke to Him about His role in the future. He told Abraham that he would become the Father of many nations. 

Moses waited forty years before his vision came into reality. He spent more time with Jesus than anyone in history. 

We have to live in the vision as we go about doing routine and boring things in life. 

At times, we see no progress towards the prophecies of Jesus and we lose faith and get involved in worldly or religious activities to pass the time away.

Jesus desires for a believer to trust fully in the prophecies and not to discard or treat them lightly.

When the whirlwinds come we must be walking by faith and worshipping Jesus in Spirit and Truth. 

Don’t let the passion fade away. Keep the vision strong through the ups and downs of life.

Wait on the Holy Spirit before entering into a ministry or you will fail miserably. 

Become a powerful prayer warrior, read the Word, and listen for the voice of Jesus. 

The Holy Spirit is a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your pathway. 

Commit your works each day to Jesus and live under the authority of the Holy Spirit.

Learn to be obedience to the instructions of Jesus in the little things of life and this will prepare you for the big things in ministry. 

Build a personal, embracing and devoted relationship with Jesus. Get to know Jesus intimately and understand His ways.

Jesus will equip and release you into an anointed ministry in His perfect timing. He is a promise keeper!

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

This promise from Jesus will only work if you are vigilantly seeking His will for your life.

The desire of Jesus is to have a personal, embracing and symbolic relationship with a believer. He wants to be your best friend. 

The believer must have a deep love for God, be covered with the blood of Jesus and yielding to the Holy Spirit.

Jesus knows a believer can never be free from all sin and He just asks for an open heart to change.

Jesus asks you to get to know Him through prayer, reading the Word and listening for His voice.

The priorities are to walk by faith believing in the promises of Jesus and not what a believer sees with his eyes. 

Jesus wants a believer to be obedient to His instructions regardless of the personal cost or lack of logic.

The mistakes in life teach a believer about the importance of fleeing from darkness and spiritual decision making.

Most of the bad things are caused because our motives are not pure or aligned with God.

Let the past be a reminder of what it is like to live for self and pursue the desires of the flesh.

The key to doing the will of God is to invite the Holy Spirit to have authority over your life.

Pray this simple proverb every day in the morning. It will radically change your life.

“Commit your works to God and He will establish your thoughts.” 

The believer has the mind of Christ and Jesus wants to be present in all the moments of life.

“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Romans 8:26

Jesus sees the big picture but we have limited vision.

Sometimes we just don’t know how to pray over confusing and difficult circumstances in our life. Or, we may be dealing with spiritual warfare and feel defeated.

At times, we become weak and emotionally distraught and have no answers.

This is the perfect time to turn to Jesus and ask Him to make intercession through the Holy Spirit sealed within you. In all likelihood He is already working on your behalf,

The Holy Spirit is the life of Jesus. He will search your heart and discern how to pray for you according to the will of God. 

The groaning of the prayers are too deep to understand but God is precisely targeting your needs and refining you into His character.

Intercession is filling up the flesh with the afflictions of Jesus for His body the church. 

The afflictions of Jesus are laid upon believers according to the work of the Cross.

Salvation comes to non believers when strongholds are broken and they reach out for the redeeming blood of Jesus.

Intercession is an important spiritual tool for a Christ follower and is a pure work of God.

“But where sin abounded, grace abounded more” Romans 5:20-21

God defined sin by giving Moses the law. The law was designed to show humanity the righteousness of God and the fallacy of man. No one can keep the laws of God and all will perish.

The love of God for humanity created a resolution to this conflict. God sent Jesus, His son, to the earth to be a sacrifice for sin and to offer all the gift of salvation. 

Sin abounds because all humanity was born with an inner nature to defy God and live for self. And, there is no way to correct this behavior. All humanity is doomed.

The love of God can forgive all sin and transform a believer into the character of Jesus.

This transformation requires a voluntary decision to live for Jesus above all else.

This is a commitment from the heart to follow Jesus not religion. 

The red flag is most people make a  partial decision to live for Jesus.  This might be ten, twenty or fifty percent their life.

This leaves the door open for sin and denigrates the process of sanctification. 

If a believer wants the fullness of Jesus he must devote one hundred per cent of his life to the Lord. He must turn away from the darkness of the world and seek the values of Jesus. 

God is not looking for perfection but a willing heart to change.

The gift of eternal life is a command to die to self and live for Jesus.

Seek the blood of Christ for repentance and forgiveness. 

Walk by faith anchored to the Holy Spirit.

Give Jesus all and He will give you all of His life.

He lives so you can live!

“And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.” John 16:3-4

The world is greatly influenced by Satan who wants to destroy Jesus and His followers. 

Persecution comes because light cannot coexist with darkness.

The Christ follower can expect persecution from those who do not know God. 

Satan wants to steal, kill and destroy believers. Flee from all darkness and do not be yoked to an unbeliever.

We live in an invisible war between Jesus and Satan. Pray for wisdom and be alert to the attacks of Satan.

The Bible instructs believers not to believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God or the Antichrist.

Satan’s attacks are vicious and damaging.

Pray for inner healing from the scars and pain caused by persecution.

The Christ follower must submit to the authority and protection of the Holy Spirit. He must learn to be quiet and humble with his words and actions.

Jesus promises that no weapon formed against a believer shall prosper. Fight off Satan with the words of Jesus.

The name of Jesus terrifies Satan and the blood of Jesus is your protection against Satan’s tactics.

He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world!

Walk with Jesus in boldness and confidence. He has power and dominion over all things.

“But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” James 14-15

Jesus forgives all sin and makes a believer clean through His blood. However, we are all accountable to turn away from darkness and walk in the light of Jesus.

This blog discusses how we get entangled in sin and spiritual insight to overcome the temptations of Satan.

The conflict between Jesus and sin goes on every day of your life. No one is immune.

The driving forces that lead to sin are the desires of the flesh and the attraction of the world.

James explains very clearly how this happens. The believer is tempted by some form of evil. This happens to every one. But when the temptation is allowed to turn into a desire then sin is conceived in the believer’s inner being and will be lived out in his life. If the sin continues Satan can easily create a stronghold and the believer will be in bondage.

The remedy is to immediately flee from any temptation and pray for protection from Jesus.

Another spiritual tool is to take every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus. He will provide wisdom and discernment between light and darkness.

The world’s standards of life and moral values are contrary to Jesus. The world is a temptation and will cause a believer to be led astray. He should sever all evil ties and compulsive behaviors of the world and be grounded in Jesus.

The spiritual solution is to walk with Jesus anchored to the Holy Spirit. Jesus desires to be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your pathway but this will only happen to those who invite the Holy Spirit to have authority over their life.  He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Pray, read the Bible and listen to the voice of Jesus. He desires to protect you from all evil!