The Law: To Abolish or Fulfill

Matthew 5:17-20
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The Law: To Abolish or Fulfill

Often times many us think of the Old Testament as being a former dispensation of God that applied to the Jewish people, gave the Law, the history, the Psalms, Proverbs and a lot of good stories. Many might think that because we are a New Testament people that the Old Testament doesn’t have real application and promise to us. After all we are no longer under the Law. While there is truth to this we might be overlooking what Jesus is saying here. Jesus declares that His mission and purpose isn’t to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. The Old Testament and the Law provided the foundation and groundwork for the fulfillment of that Law through Christ. What has changed for us is that it is no longer the works of the Law that we are trying to keep through the efforts of the flesh, but it is the Spirit of that Law now written upon the tablets of our heart. The nature of God has not changed or His Laws, but He has taken them from the outward to the inward through the power of the Holy Spirit and His nature that now resides in us. Romans 8:3-4 tells us, “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.” Christ fulfilled what we could not in that He fulfilled all of the requirements of the Law, but more than that, He became the sin offering to take upon Himself all of the penalty of sin for us. His faith in us embraces and appropriates that finished work of Christ that fulfilled the Law. It is that faith in His finished work that is now reckoned unto us for righteousness. The Law is fulfilled in us only through Christ. As we now live in Christ it is His nature within us that fulfills and keeps the Law. As we walk by the Spirit we no longer fulfill the lusts of our flesh. Romans 8:10-11 declares this truth by saying, “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” In Christ, in this New Testament man, we do not abolish the Old, but we become the fulfillment of it. We have the power, authority and life of Christ to walk into what the Old Testament saints dreamed about. They were our examples and mentors to help us walk into a greater dimension of faith and faithfulness to the Lord. We walk into it by the power of Christ in us and the identification that we have died to the weakness of the Law, which is our sinful flesh. We have the Holy Spirit living in us. We have the finished work of Christ behind us. We have a commission of Christ to bring Him into our entire world. The Law and the Prophets live on. They along with the apostles have become the foundation of our faith. What is it that God is building? Ephesians 2:19-22 declares, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” We are God’s lively stones built upon this foundation to be the holy temple of the Lord. This is that place where God chooses to make His abode. Christ didn’t come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them and we a part of that fulfillment as we abide in Christ Jesus.

Blessings,
#kent

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Word of the Lord– Run into Me

Psalms 121
I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?
2My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
3He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber;
4indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
7The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life;
8the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Word of the Lord– Run into Me

From the foundation of the world I have known you.  I have created you to be mine.   I have formed you in your mother’s womb and fashioned you in the secret parts.  You are My delight and creation.  You are not an accident or a happenstance.  I brought you forth for such a time as this that My love and My Son might be expressed through you.  You are the portals that join heaven and earth.  You are the conduits through which I might flow and spill My kingdom into earth.  You are My body, the divine structure of My Son.  Through His headship you will move by the Spirit to accomplish and do My will.
Compromise no longer with the world, for I have called you out of the world and set you in Christ Jesus at My right hand.  Out of that position in Me you rule and reign in righteousness.  The world may see you as helpless and weak, but I see you in the might of who I AM.  I AM is who you are because you carry Me resident in you.   The fullness has not yet been released unto you.  It is held back till the fullness of time.  Know this,  you carry within you earthquakes, thunder and lighting, forces untold.  When you rest in Me, then you know that what I do through you and in you is in My time and My way.   Don’t judge yourself or others by what you outwardly see.  My might and power are unseen forces waiting to be released in you.   Set your heart and eyes upon me.  Don’t compromised or be moved by the world around you.  You are to stand in readiness as my force upon the wall.  When I sound the trumpet you will respond and your enemies will fall.  It has not yet been revealed what you shall be, but when you fully see Me, you shall be like Me.
Run, run and again I say run.  You are running from this present evil age as you set your heart to run into Me.  I am your refuge.  I am your safety.  Run into Me that I may catch you up into My arms and rescue you.  I am the mountain of you salvation.  Flee into the hills from which comes your help in time of trouble.  Cut loose the bindings and shackles that are restraining your freedom in the Spirit.  You go to run, but you are held back by the weights and sins that have so easily beset you. Take the sword of My Spirit and cut them loose.  Remove all that hinders so that you are free to run full gait into Me.
Laughter and joy fill my courts.  Joy is going to be your strength, for whenever you think upon Me joy will well up and fill your heart.  Assurance and faith will rush in like a flood and you won’t hesitate to do what you haven’t yet done before.  It is all in Me.  Release  yourself  My children from all that turns your head from me.  Let all the idolatries and foreign affections go. YOU are My redeemed, the Son of My right hand.  In My Son, My honor is shown forth.  For He honors Me with complete obedience and does whatsoever I show Him.  In Him, you will do no less.

Blessings,
kent

The Power of Words

Ecclesiastes 10:12
The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him.

The Power of Words

Words can be so powerful that once there was a man who was called “the Word”.  John 1:1-5 says, ” In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”  Take special note of the creative power of  “the Word”.  It was Christ, the creative word of faith, spoken out of the mouth of the Father that brought all of creation into being and it is by the current and everlasting power of that word that every molecule and atom is held in perfect alignment and place.  Christ is the power of the Word made manifest in all of creation.  This same Word came dwealt among us in the man, Jesus.   Is it any wonder that the power of His Word and the Word of God birthed out of the Spirit of God still carries the power to transform and change lives today.  His Word never grows old or obsolete and its power never ceases.  We, as believers, are the product of that Word and that Word is alive, living in us and is still transforming us from day to day, unto the day of the Lord.
Matthew 24:25, Jesus says this, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”  The words of Jesus posses an everlasting life of their own and as such they have the power to impart life and transform the recipient who receives and believes them in faith.
If God’s Word has such power and we were created in His image then know that the words you speak have power as well.  Most of us are familiar with Proverbs 18:21 which says, ” The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. (NLT)”  The Word of God lets us know that even our words have the power of death and life. The words of your mouth are a two-edged sword. They can kill or they can give life. You can emotionally assault, maim and murder without ever raising your hand or you can give words of healing, hope and life. The tongue is a sharp instrument. Use it wisely, carefully and always in love.  Most of us know this through our own experiences. We have all been on the giving and receiving end of words that either built us up or tore us down.  We have felt how deep words could inflict their wounds into our heart.  When these come, especially from one we love or respect, they pierce our heart like a sword.  We don’t just erase them from our memory banks, but they play over and over again.  Often these wounds then become infected with bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, offense or shame, guilt, condemnation and the destruction of self worth.  People have committed suicide based upon the words that others spoke to them.  In our tongue we even have the power to murder and take life, if not physically, then emotionally.  We wouldn’t give a gun to an emotionally distraught person, but they often use their tongue as that weapon to vehemently vomit cursing, criticism, condemnation, ridicule and debasement upon the object of their scorn and anger.  Their tongue becomes the weapon of death as they swing it wildly with all abandon of good sense; cutting and whacking away at whatever they can to cut down their opponent.  Have we ever committed murder with our tongue?
Remember what James 6:3-12 says about the tongue?  “When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”  You see the tongue becomes the expression of the emotions of the heart and if the heart is not ruled by “the Word” and led by the Spirit of God, it can be immensely destructive.
On the other hand, the heart and life that is ruled by the Word of God and led by the Holy Spirit has at its disposal those same creative words of life that Jesus spoke.  That Word in us, energized by the power of the Spirit has the same power that Jesus had when He spoke as “the Word”, made flesh.
Many of us struggle with our tongue which is only the manifestation of deeper issues of our heart.  Jesus said in Luke 6:45, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”   The Lord wants to help heal and deliver us from those places where maybe our hearts have been wounded and out of that woundedness we lash out on others from our pain.  They may even be the cause of that pain, but Jesus wants to bring us into higher way.
Here is the instruction we receive in Romans 12:17-21, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil.  Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  Father God wants to suck the poison out of hearts and replace it with His love.  That love will rule not only our hearts, but our tongues.  Allow Him to heal your heart today and put within your mouth the words of life and not death.

Blessings,
kent