Can we just do it? – 11-23-22

“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:18 NKJV

RELATIONSHIP:                                                                   

Do you already have a relationship with a powerful God who cares about your every need because He loves you? Did you know my God can communicate with you and protect you – He has a plan for you to prosper if you just submit to His will and let His plan play out in your life!!! God wants a relationship with you and has already made a plan for your life. He loves you so much He sent His son to this world, to die as a sacrifice for your sins and rise from death with victory over sin and the ability to have a personal relationship with you.

Do you want to know truth? Be able to discern lies? Know how to figure it all out in these confusing times and have peace? The Bible says Jesus is the truth. I have experienced it and it has changed my life. I was once a hot mess of sin, promiscuity, drug and alcohol use and so much more. But I was lost and when I could not find my way, or find a truth, I numbed it with bad choses. When I found Jesus, and truth – I found peace and deliverance from those things.

If you want a relationship with God without truth you will get the counterfeit, hypocritical Christianity that has kept some of you away for too long. You need truth and relationship. You need to be honest with yourself and God (including honest repentance) and God will reveal truth to you. It becomes the two way, interaction that your relationship with God is built on. This is why Jesus is called the truth, because he is our only way to the Father. 

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 NIV
Here is a prayer for you to pray:
Jesus, I believe you are the way, the truth, the life, and the only way to the Father. I believe you are the son of God, you came to Earth and lived. That you died on the cross as a sacrifice for my sins, and rose again so that I may be saved from my sins and be able to get to know you. I declare: Jesus, you are Lord!
Therefore, I confess that I am a sinner and I ask that you forgive me of my sins and come into my life. Help me to turn away from my sins and transform me into what you have lovingly created me to be. Help me through a real personal relationship grow and accept your will for my life – that I may live in your blessings. Please walk with me, and talk with me – I accept a relationship with you and with our Father God, through you. In the name of Jesus I pray ~ Amen

BIBLE READING:

Dear Heavenly Father – Please give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of who you are, who Jesus is, and who the Holy Spirit is. Open the eyes of our understanding, please, so we may know the hope of our calling and the vast sovereignty and power of the grace of the cross. Please do not let us miss out on what you want and need from us today. Lord, I pray that your word prepares us and not scares us! We forbid the works and influences of fear over your word and our sound mind. And please keep us and bless us and shine your face upon us and pour out grace over us and give us peace! And we pray for the peace of Jerusalem! Thank you! – In Jesus name we pray, Amen

Today’s reading is the First Book of John, chapter 3 (embedded below for your convenience in the NKJV).

The Command to Love

3 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of ^[a]God! Therefore the world does not know ^[b]us, because it did not know Him. ² Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. ³ And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Sin and the Child of God

⁴ Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. ⁵ And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. ⁶ Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. ⁸ He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

The Imperative of Love

¹⁰ In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. ¹¹ For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, ¹² not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

¹³ Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love ^[c]his brother abides in death. ¹⁵ Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

The Outworking of Love

¹⁶ By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. ¹⁷ But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

¹⁸ My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. ¹⁹ And by this we ^[d]know that we are of the truth, and shall ^[e]assure our hearts before Him. ²⁰ For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. ²¹ Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. ²² And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. ²³ And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave ^[f]us commandment.

The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error

²⁴ Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

MEMORY VERSE CHALLENGE:

Colossians 4:2 – 

“Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving”

STUDY/DEVOTIONAL:

As we progress towards a holiday here in the USA (I know many of you are not from the US and do not celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday) but I will be becoming more and more busy. So I will attempt to be more brief. Although lately when I say I want to give a brief word the Holy Spirit takes the opportunity for a good laugh and fills me with many words. No promises, this week – I love you and my flesh will try.

Originally I was planning on taking Thanksgiving off for rest. Just me and Jesus. My son doesn’t usually come home for Thanksgiving anyway – so it is a nice quiet day for me. UNTIL… a friend asked me what I was doing for the holiday and I said I was doing nothing unless God filled my house with needy people – well, now the head count is up to 10. I guess God had other plans. And to testify: a friend offered to pay for the meal.  God is so good. So I will need to clean and meal prep and all that jazz.
I was looking on Facebook at my memories and at Thanksgivings of the past. There were a few with friends and full of love – but what stood out to me was the change of my heart over the year and my love for those who are not friends. It is easy to love my friends, fellow brothers and sisters, it is another thing to love stranger, like Christ would.

“¹ Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”

And sometimes what is even harder to learn and grow in is the fact that He loves us and calls us His.
The world does not know us – especially the old patriarchal concept of ownership implied through his. The slave / owner concept of a human owning a human. Our modern world has looked at the corruption and decline and says we can do better – but I think we might have thrown the baby out with the bath water! Seriously, we should revisit the Biblical ‘ownership’. Once upon a time a woman could say that is MY husband and because he was hers he could not give to others, what he was to give to her. Now a days, nothing is sacred. And yes – I fully think spiritually this older version of ownership had a different meaning that brings depth, security, and unconditional love to a relationship.

I am glad that I am His! It is Hid deep amazing love that makes me His child! Ask the Lord for the deep revelation of this kind of tender love that make us His, with the implied ownership.

“² Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. ³ And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

You see once we understand that – remove the corruption from the world – we long for this way of being that we cannot see yet or even understand. All we know is this indescribable peace that compels us to be pure and live right.

“⁴ Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. ⁵ And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. ⁶ Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.”

Without the revelation we are not compelled, or transformed and we continue in sin and darkness, without the light of the deep understanding. We cannot move past verse one today, until we know love.

“⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.”

This is pretty clear.
Now I know some unrighteous people can put on a show of righteousness for a temporary time – but a lie cannot be maintained for long.

“⁸ He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”

I remember reading this as a teen and thought – cool! Now it is impossible for me to sin. Boy was I sad when I realized I could still sin. It’s a real thing. And when I did sin I could feel shame and remorse and separation and a desire to repent to make it right and get back into right standing. And that helped me not sin as much.
Then there were sin struggles attached to demons and I had to be delivered from addiction, and other things and as I broke free of that and had the transformative experience with grace – sin lost more of its hold on me. And when you are not in bondage to sins, and you alone are responsible it is merely a matter of choosing not to sin. I do not believe we are ever perfect – But I do believe we can be free from the pull and able to not sin.

“¹⁰ In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. ¹¹ For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, ¹² not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.”

If you have been around, you know I fully believe we have entered a time of judgement and God is shaking everything – and if you do not feel a shaking you probably have already been shaken to the ground and probably should work on getting back into right relationship with Christ. Besides myself – many other have read the word of God, understand the signs of our time and therefore can apply the word of God in relation to this judgment. The shaking of the wheat and the tares, and the sheep from the sheep from the goats. Light cannot be with darkness and the world has been too gray for too long. There is a line being drawn, worlds being broken apart, and people being separated.
John says the Children of God will manifest light, love, and Christ-like works. And he says the children of the devil are all who are not behaving like Christ. This is not to condemn you, but to wake you up and shake the gray off of you, if there is any. Here is the awful truth: I came back to God and I laid hands on the sick and I cast out demons and I did all the things Jesus did. Then I was told I was wrong and I needed more understanding and that grace could not coat the work of the Lord. I was told to stop swinging my sword around all willy-nilly – in hindsight, some casual Christian were afraid they’d become casualties by my sword (and they still might if they do not let go of the hem of the enemies lies)! I was told I needed to wait to be loosed and anointed and appointed and ceremoniously released. JESUS NEVER ASKS FOR CEREMONY! Never do anything ceremoniously – there is room for the enemy in ceremony!! A wise mentor said to me: “God will send you sick people. Your job is to find them and lay hands on them and pray for them. God’s job is to heal them. He may do it instantly, most likely he will not, because you must continue to press in.”
It was like Jedi training camp. And the first one manifested in demons and let me pray but would not receive. It was wild! Then the next one was easier and easier. I asked my mentor why God sent me a demoniac first and she did not know. Oh I am getting off topic… the point is: Christian’s lay hands on the sick. Christians quote scriptures and swing their swords. Christians cast out demons in the name of Jesus. Signs and wonders follow those who believe.

“¹³ Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. ¹⁵ Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

Unforgiveness is also a form of hate and murder. It gives demons authority to hold you in chains. It give demons access to your life and family – it murders your life and your family! That there is a hard truth. It can remove your name from The Lambs Book of Life. Why do you think Jesus was so big on forgiveness? In the Lord’s Prayer – some have even taught that there is a direct correlation between the amount of forgiveness you give and the amount you receive. And I disagree – I think we receive forgiveness from God in a disproportionate amount – meaning we are forgiven SO MUCH MORE than we are ever asked to forgive!
Jesus laid down His life for me, born of sin and has participated in sin, and I am only asked to forgive someone for saying hurtful things. Perspective makes it so much easier to forgive. I may have been abused, but I abused grace with my abounding sin struggles and lack of love. In perspective it is easy to not only forgive but to love and bless others.

“¹⁶ By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. ¹⁷ But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?”

It just keeps coming back to if we are Christians then we should be doing it. If we are not doing it – there is NOTHING wrong with Christianity. There is something wrong with us.

“¹⁸ My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”

As many of us arrange to see family, people we need to forgive – let us remember to NOT ONLY forgive, but to love them. AND not by saying it – but by showing it. Ask God what you can do to show God’s love to them.

“¹⁹ And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. ²⁰ For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.”

If our hearts condemn us? Yes, besides the enemy accusing us – we do his job for him and accuse ourselves. If we have this time of guilt, shame or self-accusations show up in the form of condemnation it is because we deep down know we can do better, we should do better, and we are called to do better and have thus far failed. It is time to do better.

Our failure breaks our confidence in God – NOT because God is not faithful and firm. But because we have put up a wall prohibiting us from receive access.

“²¹ Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. ²² And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. ²³ And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”

Close the gates to the enemy but keep the gate to Christ wide open, by keeping a clean conscience – by doing the things we are told.

“²⁴ Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”

Trust the process and let Jesus be the Lord of your life – then live it.  

***

I also wanted to remind and inform all of you, that instead of writing a book on fasting (since it is the topic I get asked the most about) I have created a Facebook group that is designed to be interactive and give you all the Bible verses on fasting, all the types of fast, and how to fast. In the group are specialist to help us along the way, like the creator of The Fasting Protocol (fasting for health and weight loss; which is part of fasting and important to know about – He can also speak to fasting in a healthy manner). The group is new and other experts are invited, I am hopeful they will join. So let’s join the group and see what we will learn about prayer and fasting. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/509149707741862

Thank you for reading in 2022 – a Year of Wisdom and Salvation
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace. Walk in wisdom.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!