Today, I’d like to take a look at the wonderful truth of living by faith. It’s quite a different reality from what most people think. There's so much rubbish being preached about this topic, with false doctrines getting punted around the church circuits that promote living by our own dead works instead of by faith alone in Christ Jesus. Alternatively, the pure gospel reveals a righteousness that comes solely through faith from start to finish—no working your way into it. Any teaching that tries to mix works with faith for our righteousness is just a false gospel through and through!
Today I want to take a bit of a wander through the wonderful truth of the grace we have in Christ Jesus. So often in Christian circles, we can hear grace being mentioned, but sadly it's frequently mixed with law and legalism, it’s far more common than not. The sad reality is that much of the church still operates from an old covenant mindset, a works mindset, rather than embracing the glorious new covenant we have been ushered into by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Today I want to share some thoughts from a powerful passage in Hebrews that gets to the heart of how we can truly experience intimacy with God. It's a journey from sin-consciousness to righteousness-consciousness, and it's the key that unlocks the door to the deep relationship with our Heavenly Father that we were created for.
Today I want to dive into what is perhaps the most profound and important question any of us can ask ourselves: “Who am I?” The answer to that inquiry gets to the very core of our identity – the deep essence of our being that shapes how we see ourselves and move through this world.
I've been doing a lot of pondering lately on the staggering truth of our righteousness in Christ. It's one of those concepts that can so easily become an intellectual theological idea rather than the mind-blowing, life-transforming reality it truly is. But when we grab hold of this with renewed wonder, everything changes!
I was reflecting this morning on the profound significance of foundations – those unseen but oh-so crucial elements that everything is built upon. Whether we're talking about the foundations of a building, a relationship, or a life, the foundations determine the stability, integrity and shape of what will be constructed.
When we look at the word “hope,” often in secular use, it's a term used to describe something that might happen, like it'll be good if it does happen. But biblically, the word “hope” is far different in its meaning. Hope in Scripture means something is definitely done; it's completed; it's a done deal already. All we are doing when entertaining the use of biblical hope is fully anticipating that which is hoped for coming to fruition.
Today, I want to share a theme that struck me during my prayer time this morning, “Casting Off the Earthly Crown.” Crowns are mentioned in several parts of the Bible, like the crown of righteousness, the crown of life, and the crown of glory. We know that when we meet Jesus at the Bema seat, or Christ's Judgment seat, we'll be evaluated on whether we can receive our inheritance and rewards. For a saint walking in the spirit in their faith walk, they can be sure of keeping their inheritance and rewards. But for those who are regenerated, therefore becoming saints, and walk in the flesh all their lives, the assurance of rewards and inheritance is shaky.
Over the past week, the Lord has mentioned the word “whosoever” to me twice in my morning prayer time, and once He ministered the word to me in my sleep. It's interesting that parallel to this, I have hurt my back for the 10,000th time, so sitting here at the computer is possible only due to anti-inflammatories and Panadol; it sort of helps. I hurt my back in the Army, and it's been a problem my whole adult life.
This morning, I was reading in Ephesians about putting off the old man and putting on the new man. We have a new man that dwells within, a new creation, but sometimes, we don't naturally operate out of that new man, that new creation. Paul was instructing the church in Ephesus not to walk in the flesh but to walk in the spirit. His instruction was along the lines of, “If indeed you are a new man, a new creation, why put on the old dead man and operate as if you weren't new at all?”