Fearful and Unbelieving

Revelation 21:8
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Fearful and Unbelieving

I am reminded of a word our pastor spoke recently about how we tend to measure sins by the degree of their sinfulness. We don’t think of telling a little white lie as being the same as murder or stealing. We tend to categorize our sins and even our righteousness. Romans 14:23 tells us that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” At this point we might ask ourselves do I live my life out of faith or fear? While we may tend to judge the ungodly for their sin look who leads the list of those who are bound for the lake of fire. It doesn’t fall in our neat little prioritized list of sins from greatest to least. Sin is sin, but the greatest failure we can have is not to believe God’s Word and to fear the things of this world more than we fear Him.
Jesus says in Matthew 10:28 “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” God is the one who can destroy both soul and body. Satan or man can kill the body with God’s permission, but the only way that he can destroy the soul is by bringing us into that place of fear, doubt and unbelief. When we are drawn out of our place of faith in Christ then sin has place to work. Fear and doubt creep in and they rob our confidence and assurance of who we are in Christ.
The conditions of this world can lead many of us to a place of fear and doubt as we see our economy dissolving before us and our way of life, as we’ve known it, quickly disappearing. If our eyes are on the outward things we will begin to be swayed by fear, doubt and unbelief, but this is an hour our eyes must be fixed upon the Lord as never before. This world is not the believer’s economy and kingdom. We have come into a heavenly kingdom and a kingdom economy. Ephesians 2:4-10 tells us about what God has delivered us out of and what He is bringing us into. “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” It tells us here that we are not redeemed by our righteousness, but by His grace and ‘God raised us up with Christ and seated us in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus’. Many of us have grown up with the concept that we can’t go to heaven until we die, but right here it tells us that those who are in Christ are already seated there in Him. It is our faith in Christ that maintains and secures this position that we have with Him. Fear and doubt bring us out of the realm of godly thinking and trust in Christ and bring us back down into the corruptibility and fear of this world. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” The spirit of fear does not come from the Lord. Our courage, our optimism, our faith in the midst of a fearful world is centered in our faith in Christ. In Him we overcome the world, because the divine Overcomer resides in us. ‘We can do all things through Christ that strengthens us.’ In this hour do not let fearfulness, doubt and unbelief grip your heart. You may have been weak in that former man, but that man is dead and you are a new creature in Christ; one that is filled with the Holy Spirit and with power. Unbind the strong man, Christ in you. The way you unbind Him is by your faith and confidence in Him. Fear, doubt and unbelief are what bind up the grace of God from abounding in our lives. Rise up and be loosed from fear, doubt and unbelief by declaring the Word of God over you life and circumstances and then praise Him as if you already have the manifestation of it, because you do, but it may not yet be revealed in this realm.
This is what the Lord was speaking into my spirit this morning and I pass on this exhortation to you oh mighty people of God. “Contend manfully oh mighty men of valor. Stand your grand. Hold fast your faith. Be not moved by fear or the trepidation of men. YOU are the testimony to the Almighty of His life made flesh.”

Blessings,
#kent

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Formed for a Purpose

Isaiah 44:24
“This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb:
I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself,”

Formed for a Purpose

The same God and Father that made all things and created all, “formed you in the womb”.  He not only formed your body, but your destiny and your purpose in Him.   Father already knows you.  He knows what you think, how you live, you innermost thoughts, desires and actions.  He knows you inside out.  He knows the destiny that He planned for you and knows whether you will pursue your destiny in His will or your own.
Ephesians 4:1-6 says, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”  In the destiny that God has given you, He has given you a calling.  That calling in Christ Jesus is to live, move and have your being in Him.  Before you answered that call your life was on track with a destiny of darkness and destruction.  Then, Ephesians 2:1-10 tells us, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  We were on a destiny of destruction, but because of God’s grace and calling in our lives He diverted our destiny into His.  He changed  and helped us to come into the purpose for which He formed us.  He created in us by His workmanship in Christ Jesus “to do good works”.   What are “good works”?  They are His works of righteousness expressed now through lives that are consecrated to Him and led by the Holy Spirit.  They are lives that are responding to His call upon us to be the new creation formed in the image and likeness of Him.
1 Peter 2: 9 says  this of His called out ones, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
The Old Testament has many scriptures that link us to a common destiny called death.  Christ has given us the destiny of life.  “In Christ”  we no longer identify with the death  that is at work in the world  and we receive what Jesus told Martha in John 11:26, “And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”  Death is not just the cessation of breath in the body, it is a principality.   Those who live in Christ no longer have to live under this principality whose power is in the law and operates out of the power of sin.  Death was introduced into the world when Adam broke the law of God and sinned by partaking of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Jesus brought us back into the tree of life, for He is that tree and its fruit is life everlasting.  Romans 8:1-3 starts out by reminding us who we are in Christ, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 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, in 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.
You see, we have changed positions from those who walk according the sin nature to those who walk after the Spirit of God.  This is our calling and destiny.  This is the purpose for which God formed us in the womb.  That is us answering our calling in Christ Jesus.  That is us living into what Father formed us to be.

Blessings,
kent

The End of Worldly Reliance

Revelations 14:8
A second angel followed and said, “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”

The End of Worldly Reliance

We have grown up in a way of life that has been dependent upon the world system for our livelihood and survival.  As a result in many ways it has become our master; controlling our time, our resources and our lives.   Revelation makes clear here what its end shall be and then what?
God isn’t trying to instill fear in His people, but He is awakening us to what it is to operate out of a new system.  When Jesus came as the kingdom of God to deposit the kingdom of God in the earth.  Many of us as believers have embraced that to a degree, but we have a mixture of both kingdoms operating in our lives.  This the time for us to begin to learn operating out of the kingdom of God as we are coming out of the Babylonish system that controls the world.  In order for us to do that we have to really turn our attention to more fully and intimately know our God and His ways.  We must unlearn our religious thinking while learning to embrace kingdom principles and precepts of God’s Word.  For most of us that is like Peter when he stepped out of the boat to come to Jesus on the water.  In the process of our learning what kingdom really looks like and how we are to operate in it, we are going to be like Peter.  There will be times our circumstances will rise up like billowing waves and they will take our eyes off of Jesus.  Know that Jesus is always there to save.
Kingdom of heaven living comes out of knowing who you are, your God given identity.  It comes from knowing where you live.  If you only live with an earthly mindset that only see the surrounding circumstances as reality, then how can you do as Ephesians 2:4-7 tells us?  “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”  Kingdom people are learning to live out of their heavenly position and not their earthly one.  The kingdom of God is a realm of faith and to live there we must learn to operate and live out of faith.  It is not faith in ourselves and our abilities any longer; it is faith in the Word of God and the direction of the Holy Spirit.
God is pulling back the veil that has hidden the kingdom from our eyes of unbelief.  He is making that dimension more real and known as we are moving forward in this new day.  But the eyes that see and step into it are the eyes of faith.
Jesus has completed the work and set down at the right hand of the Father till His enemies be made His footstool.  That means all of the enemies of Christ must be put under our feet as well if we are indeed the body of Christ.  We are the completion and fulfillment of what Jesus accomplished upon the cross.  He did the hard part, now we must appropriate what He has already accomplished.
Father is moving and calling us out of Babylon.  It is already a fallen and failed system.  What takes its place, is for us to learn how to operate out of a heavenly system with Father God as our resource.  The old system was built upon your works, this one is built upon your rest.  Trust and obedience are the foundational supports.

Blessings,
kent