Happy New Year 2012

I wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous New Year.  

We are now stepping into the year 2012, the "12th day" of the millennium which is the third day in God's eyes. Incidentally, this is also the 12th years of my walk with the Lord. For the first 3 years, I was not walking with the Lord; I was working for the Lord then… The revelation of His grace awakened me and enabled me to walk with Him again. He is concerned with our walk with Him, like Adam walking with in the cool of the evening… not our work for Him.

Because of the year 2012, the number twelve brought forth a new revelation in my heart. I want to declare that 2012 is going to be yet another fine year for our blessing is not in the year but in Christ! Those who settled for destruction in 2012 are preaching from Hollywood's point of view. As for me and my household, the year 2012 is going to be jolly good because we have the "Holy Word". The path of the righteous shines ever brighter and brighter until the noon day's sun!

Here is my revelation on the number 12 in respect of the year 2012. 

The number 12 represents divine authority and appointment, as well as governmental foundation and perfection, and shows completeness. In the Bible, we find 12 sons of Jacob which formed the 12 tribes in Israel; the Lord appointed 12 disciples, there are 12 elders representing the Old Covenant and 12 elders representing the New Covenant in the Book of Revelation. There were 12 Zodiac signs proclaiming the gospel story to Abraham in the night sky of the wilderness and etc. On top of that, there are 12 months in a year and 12 hours to divide a day from day and night… 

God called Abram on the 12th Chapter of Genesis, asking him to get out of his country, his people and his father’s house. By referring to Colossians 2:8 and apply this instruction in our walk with the Lord, we see that God was actually asking Abram to leave the basic principle of his country, the tradition of his people and the teaching of his father as these conducts and teachings are against the calling of God as Abram was righteous by faith not by work. Incidentally, God also brought the Israelites out of Egypt on the 12th Chapter of the Book of Exodus. 

When Elijah called Elisha, Elisha was ploughing with the 12th pair of oxen when Elijah called him by throwing his cloak (picture of righteousness) on him. Elisha then responded by leaving his father’s house, killing his oxen for food and burning his ploughing equipment. This reminds me of Abram leaving his country, his people and his father's household and the Israelites leaving Egypt. These responses are the act of faith for those whom God credited righteousness.

We are like Abraham, righteous by faith. Through the finished work of our Lord at the cross, we are already blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3) even all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). With this revelation, we have to start talking about things that we already have in Christ. We cannot keep on talking about what we are going to have or what we do not have. We already have everything because what were His were already ours and what were ours were already His! This divine exchange had taken place at the cross two thousand years ago.

However, if we are still unable to believe... there is no revelation… therefore, we are yet to see the manifestation of our blessings! The reason of not able to believe is that we do not see the way God sees things. We do not see the Word through His heart! In His eyes and His prospective, Jesus' righteousness is the foundation of all blessings (Matthews 6:33). That is why He credits righteousness to those who believe in Him. We have been blinded by the world for not appreciating His righteousness.

Are you enjoying what you are supposed to have in Christ? Although you might have been sitting under the ministry of grace preaching for awhile, are you still struggling in your walk with Him where you find yourself lacking in many areas of your life? You might not experience the abundant life that He promised in His word. Are you not witnessing the manifestation of His blessings in your life…? If that is the case, let us go to another account recorded in the Bible in respect of the number 12. It is none other than the woman who was subjected to bleeding for 12 years. Her bleeding condition is a picture of self-righteousness and self-righteousness is contradicting and against the flow of His grace and righteousness…

If a woman is subjected to bleeding, her life is not productive at all. Her condition is a destruction to her health and wealth. For the case of the woman recorded in the Books of Gospel, her decision to acknowledge the righteousness of God turned her situation around. When she touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak, she was immediate healed of her condition. That was before the cross, and as for us, we are much better than that woman because we are now clothed with Jesus’ righteousness.

Colossians 2
6  Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 
7  rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
8  Beware lest anyone rob you through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ. 
9  For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. 
10  And you are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power, 

To tell you the truth, it is the basic principle of this world, our human tradition and our (earthly) father's teaching that hinder us to walk in the blessing that we already have. Therefore, in God prospective, His righteousness is the foundation of all blessings. That is why before He was crucified, He leave behind His garments and tunic on this earth for the world. After He cried out, "It is finished!" at the cross, everyone who believe in Him are saved… and God call this faith as "righteous by faith"!

We are righteous by faith just like Abraham.  Abraham was a king in his dispensation and he is a believing Abraham (Galatians 3:9) . This means: a righteous man believes and continue to believe all the time. Jesus said the work of God is that we believe on Him whom He has sent. Our work in God's eye is to believe in Jesus. And if that is the case, are we working very hard in His eye?

For this New Year, let this revelation helps you in your walk with the Lord. We are already blessed and do not let any unbelieving word come out from your mouth. 

Mark 4
24  And He said to them, Take heed what you hear. With that measure which you measure, it shall be measured to you. And to you who hear, more shall be given. 
25  For he who has, more shall be given to him; and he who has not, from him shall be taken even that which he has. 

We are to work hard by believing in the Word of Christ. The Word of Christ always magnifies the righteousness of God - Christ and His finished work on the cross and subsequently, faith that comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. God's righteousness and faith always come hand in hand... 

We are already blessed to be a blessing!

The New Creation and The New Birth

by Andre Rabe of Hear Him on Friday, 22 April 2011 at 22:13

For more articles and a print friendly version please press the joliprint button here: http://hearhim.net/wordpress/2011/04/22/the-new-creation-and-the-new-birth/

What does creation have to do with redemption? What is the new creation and the new birth? When does the old stop and the new begin? How is the new creation related to the old creation … and what is the difference between them? Did God leave His rest to re-create? Did He make a mistake with His first attempt at creation? These are some of the question we’ll begin to answer in this writing.

The writers of the New Testament often speak of creation in the same breath as redemption.

John starts his version of the gospel making sure that his audience understands that the God he speaks about is the God who created all things and through whom all things exist.

“The original, authentic Word was face to face with God from the very beginning. God Himself is the content of this communication - revealing His personal presence and unique expression in all that exists.

In fact there is nothing original or innovative outside of Him! He is the only Creator and the source of all inspiration and creativity. Everything that is, has ‘Made by God’ stamped on its existence.

(John 1:1-4 Translated by Andre Rabe)

When Paul explores the scale of reconciliation in one of his most powerful writings, he starts with reminding us about the person we are dealing with - the Creator of all things:

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Col 1:15-20)

The psalmist said it this way: “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,” Ps 24:1

So how is redemption connected with creation?

The Creator has not forsaken His creation.

The Creator has not given up on His creation.

He has not renounced His declaration that what He made is good.

God believes that everything He made can be saved.

Evil did not obliterate God’s original creation. Evil did not succeed in perverting creation to such an extent that it was not worth saving. Evil could twist, pervert and suppress what God created, but it could not utterly corrupt it.

God still sees a value, in fallen creation, which is worth pursuing and paying the utmost price for.

The new creation is nothing less than God’s affirmation of the original creation.

In the new creation God declares that what He made originally was not a mistake, that creation is worth renewing and restoring.

When God finished creation, He entered His rest on the seventh day - an eternal day. (All the other days have a beginning and an end, the seventh day has no end) Heb 4 also reveals that God ceased from all His work, entered His rest and has never left that rest.

God did not become dissatisfied with what He made and consequently started working on a brand new plan for something that never existed before. The new creation was not another act of creating or work which required God to stop resting and start creating again. God is satisfied with what He originally created and confidently waits for its return to His original design.

God is not nervous about what He made … He is not anxious about your life. What He imagined originally when He first thought of you, is still His only reference to who you are. Agree with God and be at peace.

Let’s look at one of the most popular scriptures regarding the new creation: 2 Cor 5:14-17

“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them”

I want to specifically focus on verse 17:  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The ‘if’ in this sentence has often been seen as a conditional ‘if’. But Paul uses this ‘if’ as a conclusion, not as a condition. See for instance Rom 8:31 as well: If God is for us, who can be against us? Can you see that the ‘if’ is a conclusion … not a condition?

Also notice the word ‘therefore’. Whenever you see the word ‘therefore’, ask, what is it there for. You see verse 17 is the conclusion of verse 14-16 in which Paul makes it as clear as can be that all where included in the death of Christ. That is why Paul can no longer look at any man from a human point of view. History recorded the death of one man, but eternity saw humanity included in that event.

The word ‘new’ was translated from ‘kainos’ and refers to that which is new, especially in freshness and age. In other words that which has not been affected by time.

The word ‘creation’ was translated from ‘ktisis’. Strongs define it as: original formation, building, creation, creature, ordinance. It comes from the word ‘ktizō’ which Strongs defines as follows:

Probably akin to G2932 (through the idea of the proprietorship of the manufacturer); to fabricate, that is, found (formoriginally): - create, Creator, make.

It is also interesting to note that ‘any man’ can also be translated ‘any thing’.

The new creation, therefore, is the original creation that was found again by its founder and cleansed from the affects of time, renewed and refreshed.

The old creation is also the original creation, but in a state of decay as it was subjected to corruption.

In the same way as there is only one Creator, there is only one creation.

This one original creation has been in different states, namely ‘old’ or corrupted by the events in time, and ‘new’ or cleansed from the decay of time and restored to its authentic glory.

There is no such thing as an evil creation - evil never created anything.

The only thing Satan can give birth to, is lies.

In His death He did the unthinkable, He reached back into the irreversibility of time and loosened the grip of corrupting events from His creation. He reaches back into timeless eternity and restores the first creation to a place of blameless innocence, without a trace of decay or any evidence that it was ever touched by sin.

When the Word became flesh, when the Creator became a creation, the relation between them fundamentally changed. This act of incarnation, in which the Creator embraces his creation, in which God unites Himself with humanity, is the beginning of reconciliation and the end of hostility. Incarnation is how God releases His creation from corruption and affirms once again that what He made is good … when He said man is His image and likeness, He meant it.

I’m sure you have often heard this scripture used in the context of individual conversion, to show how a person’s life changes when they meet Christ. And I can understand that. When we look at the mess in which we lived before Christ and the peace we received when we received Him, this verse makes a lot of sense. However, the new creation has a larger context and relevance than your individual life and experience. God sees the universal renewal of all that exists to His authentic thought before the fall. We can individually participate in that renewal … but the new creation is a larger event that your individual decision.

The new birth.

When we understand the new creation, it is not difficult to understand the new birth. The new testament uses the words ‘born again’ only in the book of Peter! John 3 actually speaks about born from above. The word which some bibles translated ‘again’ is the Greek word ‘anōthen’ which means: from above; by analogy from the first; by implication anew: - from above, again, from the beginning (very first), the top. As with the new creation, this refers to a renewal, a restoration of the original.

Let’s have a look at these verses in detail. John 3 speaks of two births - what is born of flesh and what is born of spirit, our natural birth and our spirit birth. He refers to these births in different ways, namely: the spirit birth is also referred to as ‘born from above’, and the natural birth is also referred to as born of water - the natural womb from which we came.

Many sermon’s have been preached on ‘you must be born again’ as if this is something a person can do. However, in the same passage Jesus says: “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” As little as you contributed to your natural birth, as little you are capable of contributing to your spirit birth.

Jesus is stating a fact to Nicodemus: to see the kingdom of God, to even have an appetite for spiritual things, you have to have a spirit dimension … a part of you that has its origin ‘from above’

All men have spirits. There are multitudes of scriptures that show that all men have a spirit.

In Gen 6:3 God says that the life within flesh is His spirit! : “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

Num 16:22 (and others) refers to God as “the God of the spirits of all flesh”.

Job 27:3 calls man’s breath ‘the spirit of God is in my nostrils’

There are too many to mention. The truth is that man has a spirit dimension, a part that originates ‘from above’.

But when and how does this renewal happen? What is the basis and beginning of this new creation, this new birth?

“By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” 1 Pet 1:3

“You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God.” 1 Pet 1:23

Jesus came to remind us that we have a greater, and more valid identity than flesh. In His death He brings to judgement that identity of man that was tarnished by sin  - the events in time. He reaches into that eternal realm, where the blueprint of man’s design was preserved, and in His resurrection, the new creation begins. He was raised because of our justification.

What He accomplished is reality. Our appeal to man, is to enter into God’s reality. In Colossians this redemption is described as being transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the son of His love. Can you see how the new birth, is just like the new creation - it is the original creation that is rescued from the decay and chaos of the kingdom of darkness.

Our decision for Christ only has substance because of God’s decision for us. Our faith is simply entering into - saying yes - to what God already believes to be true.

As with the original creation, all Adam could do was to open his eyes to the perfection and completion of what God had done already, even so with redemption, our only contribution is to open our eyes to the perfection and completion of the salvation He achieved for us, with us and in us even before we were aware of it.

Hosea prophesies of the death and resurrection of Christ as follows: “After two days He will revive us (quicken us, give us life); on the third day He will raise us up that we may live before Him.” God was indeed in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.

What He accomplished is reality and it is complete. The future holds a further unveiling and manifestation of this reality … but the event that made it real was the life, death and resurrection of Christ.

“That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.”

Rom 8:18-25 MSG

Waiting for the full manifestation of these truth is not something that leaves us with a sense of lack in the present. No … this is a joyful expectation … a joy bursting forth in how we live life now.

4I continually thank my God for you because of the grace of God which is given you in Christ Jesus, 5that you are enriched by Him in every possible way, in all the fullness of what can be known and understood and being able to express it fully. 6Just as the evidence of Christ was confirmed within you - you have within yourselves the proof that He is! 7You don’t lack anything - you are fully qualified. You have every reason to expect the Lord Jesus Christ to be made visible through you. 8Who also confirms your blamelessness to the uttermost degree in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ( 1 Cor 1:4-8 a translation from the original by Andre Rabe)

You have every reason to expect the Lord Jesus Christ to be made visible through you!

New Covenant Prayer Life

The Old Covenant Saints were not born again and they did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. They were looking forward to the Cross prophetically and they had to seek, ask and knock at the door for answer. Begging prayer is Old Covenant prayer.

The New Covenant Saints are born again and we have the Holy Spirit living in us. That is why the Bible says no one ever born on this earth is greater than John the Baptist. But whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. We, as a born again believers, our Daddy has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. So instead of seeking, asking or knocking, we have to look back to the Cross for the revelation of what Daddy means by having blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

In this context, we are to listen to the preaching anointed by the Holy Spirit that unveils Christ and His Finished Work because every answer for our needs is found in the Person of Jesus. In this dispensation of grace, I think it is wise for us to use our ears more than our mouth… for the Bible says: faith comes by HEARING, and hearing by the word of Christ. Through faith then, we confess what we already have. It is the word about what Christ had done that bring forth faith, and surely, without faith it is impossible to please God. We do not have faith because we do not believe the word of Christ. We cannot produce faith from our Law keeping.

In the Book of John, the crowd was asking Jesus: "What must we do to do the works God requires?" And Jesus answered them that: "The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent." So believe His Finished Work is the key to our faith.

In order for people to believe, Apostle Paul asked this question: How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

God is pleased through the foolishness of preaching the word of Christ (the good news of the Finished Work of Christ) to save those who believe. Jesus’ Finished Work is a stumbling block to those who seek their own righteousness, but is the power of God and the wisdom of God for those who believe.

What kind of preaching have you been listening to?
- Preaching that points you to the Cross and unveil Jesus and His Finished Work or preaching that points you to yourself and what you should do?
- Preaching that points you to Jesus’ righteousness or preaching that points you to your sinfulness? Preaching that preaches the unearned and unmerited favour of God or preaching that preaches on what you must do in order to be qualified for God’s blessing?
- Preaching on the Bread of Life or preaching from the “stone”?
- Preaching from the Tree of Life or preaching from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?
- Preaching that preaches the grace of God or preaching that preaches legalism?

Grace minsters to our spirit while law ministers to our flesh. Christ centered preaching edifies our spirit man while legalistic preaching edifies our flesh. Preaching of grace balanced with law confuses us; we call this Babylonian teaching. If that is the case, have you been edifying your spirit or your flesh? Are you feeding on the Bread of Life or on the stone tablets? Are you climbing the Tree of Life or the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

Matthew 7:9 "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
Matthew 7:10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

See what the Bible is actually implicating - Which of you, if his son asks for GRACE (Manna, bread from heaven), will give him LAW (Two tablets of stone taken down by Moses)? Or if he asks for JESUS (Fish – A symbol for Jesus), will give him Satan (Snake – who tempted Eve in the Garden)?

We need to listen to the grace (word of Christ) of God and faith is responsible for the growth of a Spirit filled, born again believer. Our ear therefore, is an important channel for the growth of our spirit-man. New Covenant believers feed their spirit-man through their ears…

I think it will be wise for us to humble ourselves and listen to Him. Find out what Jesus’ Finished Work is all about. All the answers that we ever need are in Him. I also think it makes sense when revelation makes us understand that the act of listening is actually part of our prayer life in this grace dispensation.

In Christ We Have...

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In Christ we have:-

Love that can never be fathomed

Righteousness that can never be tarnished

Wisdom that can never be baffled

Peace that can never be understood

Joy that can never be diminished

Hope that can never be disappointed

Rest that can never be disturbed

Light that can never be darkened

Purity that can never be defiled

Beauty that can never be marred

Glory that can never be clouded

Resources that can never be exhausted

Life that can never die

and the Universe as our play ground...

... For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through Him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.

An Epistle of Christ

Our Christian life is a life of rest, a total rest in Christ, for He had finished everything that God could think of at the Cross two thousand years ago. A divine exchange of life between God and men had taken place at the Cross where the sinful and hopeless life of men had been totally absorbed by Jesus and His sinless, anointed life had been freely lavished into this world. Whosoever believes in Him shall have this new life eternally. This is what Jesus had promised before the Cross. He said He came to give us life, a life more abundantly and He gave it all through the Cross.

As His believers, what can we contribute in living out this abundant life? Can a bankrupt man trying to live out this abundant life? Is there any instruction from the Lord that we can follow so that we can live out this abundant life?

Certainly cannot, how can a bankrupt man live out this abundant life? Jesus did not say He came to teach us how to live but He came to give us this abundant life. This abundant life is a spirit life. He caused us to born again in the spirit as a new creation, a creation that never existed during the six days of His majestic creation work.

We, as a new creation, we just need to believe that we are righteous simply because of the gift of the righteousness that Christ died to give us. Our soul will be at rest when we establish ourselves in Christ's righteousness. This rest will enable the Holy Spirit to write the law in our heart and He will cause us to live out the abundant life through us.

Hebrews 10:17 then He adds, "THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE."
Hebrews 10:16 "THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR HEARTS, AND IN THEIR MINDS I WILL WRITE THEM,"

The best kind of Christian life to live is the life that we live out without our conscious of how we are going to live it. If we live our life conscious of how we are going to live, we ended up being religious and the outcome is self righteousness.

Recently, we came to understand of this Spirit led life happening in our midst. My wife, Penny had gone through a tough time in her office for the past two months due to the numerous closing of tender. Her working life then was quite stressful. After the closing of all these tenders, their office life was back to normal and a colleague who is quite new in the company, came to her and asked her whether she could know more about her God. Hey, this colleague of hers wanted to know more about Jesus…! Penny was surprised by her approach and introduced Jesus to her.

Though Penny does not know as much scriptures as I do, she does not share with people as much as I do, she does not pray as much as I do and she does not speak in tongue as much as I do, the Lord told me that she believes He is a good God. She trusts in His grace, the unearned and unmerited favour of God. She believes she is righteous because of what Jesus had done for her at the Cross. She believes and is resting His finished work.

Abundant life is not what we can do but what we believe and how we rest in our Lord. Just by believing and trusting in Jesus' goodness, He can write a beautiful epistle in our life.

2 Corinthians 3:1-3 (The Message)
Does it sound like we're patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? Well, we're not. Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you. You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.

Though I felt inferior after the Lord had revealed this truth to me, but He reaffirmed me by saying, "Son, you two are in one...!" Man..., this is the kind of righteous life that we should be living! An effortless life that lived through by the Holy Spirit. Indeed, we are an epistle of Christ, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart!

We are where we are now, because of the kind of message we have listened before. We will be who we are in the future, because of the message we are listening to now...

The No. 5 Jersey

In my early Christian life, I was always being taught to put Jesus No. 1 in my life. Under that sort of environment, I could only understand the life of Jesus when He was on earth serving His people and I have no idea of how His resurrection life is like. Nevertheless, the grace message has done a perfect job in bringing revival to my understanding of who the resurrected Jesus is.

After years of sitting under grace based and Jesus conscious ministry, I have totally forgotten about the idea of putting Jesus No. 1 in my life. From the comment given by my Pastor in my previous post (Do We Have To...?), his simple comment inspired me with a new insight on the rules of a football player in a football match.

I love to watch English Premier League and I know a bit of English football through the computer game called FIFA Manager. I am not going to tell you my favorite team because that is not important here… but I chose a particular team because they were computed to be rich and it was easy for me to buy good players and built my strong team. Anyway, my insight here is how we are going to position our players!


When we put Jesus No. 1 in our life, we are actually asking Jesus to wear the No. 1 jersey, and He is our Goalkeeper. Though we have the desire to put Him No. 1, we are actually restricted His movement within our own penalty box taking cares of all the penalties and free kicks. (The truth is, He had already taken care of all our penalties of sin and the free kicks because of our nonsense). Though we could never lose the match then, we have restricted Him in the box and we have to do all the defending and attacking ourselves. Mind you, that kind of match is tough and the score is hard to come… That is actually the scenario of my early Christian life when I put Jesus No. 1 in my life!

When we put Jesus to wear the No. 5 jersey, He is no more our Goalkeeper but our Midfielder, as He is now, always in the midst of us! (The penalties of our sins and the nonsense of our free kicks had all been exhausted by His body!) He is now no more restricted by the penalty box and He defends and attacks from box to box. He is the best defensive Midfielder as well as the best attacking Midfielder we can ever find. We can be assured that no one can go through His defense and we can rest assure that He can create the best chances up front for us to score. Whenever we miss in the defense, He will be there in time to clear the danger and whenever we score at the up front, He hugs us and we celebrate the goal together, as He credits the glory to us! This is the beautiful scenario when we don't let Him wear the No. 1 jersey but the No. 5 jersey... This is the beautiful fruit of a grace based, Jesus conscious Ministry.

That is why we can never put Jesus No. 1 in our life for we have been crucified with Christ and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. The life we live in the body, we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. For we are dead, and our life are now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then we also will appear with him in glory. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in us, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in us and Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Wow… What an inspiration! Who say Christian cannot watch English Premier League?

Nemo Knows, Do you...?

Have you ever thought of those fishes in the ocean? Even though the water in the ocean is salty, the bodies of these ocean fishes are not affected by the sea water. Their fleshes are fresh and not salty. When we cook them for our meals, we still need to put salt to make them tasty. Hmmm… interesting right?

For all I can understand is that, these fishes are alive! They just live out their life as fishes in the ocean! Nobody ever taught them on how to be fishes in the ocean. They just have the ability to pursue life in the ocean because they are not rebellious. They obey the instinct given by the Creator!

Christians are the same. We are righteous because of Jesus’ Finished Work. This mighty divine exchange had already happened at the cross. If we are believers, we are new creations. As new creations, we just need to live out our righteous life, the abundant life given by our Lord.

We do not need to perform to deserve our righteousness anymore! To be radical, we don’t even need to be taught on how to live a righteous life; because the Holy Spirit is already in us convicting us of righteousness! If we are those Christians who still choose to perform to deserve our righteousness, we just promote among ourselves another form of religion. We are worst then those fishes in the ocean, as we are rebellious to our Savior. It is sad to see that majority of the body of Christ today still try to live like a Christian (be righteous) instead of living out their Christian life (righteous life)!

If those fishes are trying to perform to be fishes in the ocean, life will be tough and they will end up dying in the ocean. Look at those dead fishes. In order to prevent them from decaying, they are preserved through seasoning with salt. This kind of fishes is called preserved salted fish! We can try our best to preserve them, but they are dead, being seasoned with salt, laid under the sun to be dried and end up hanging in the grocery shop for sales. Salted fish do not have the life to choose for themselves what they want and where they want to be. They are just helpless and being manipulated.

If we are Christians and still trying to be a Christian, we are as good as those salted fish. Religious people will try to preserve us through their religious teachings, demanding our performance to be righteous. We are being seasoned by their legalistic salt, laid to dry on the stones and bound by our religiosity from choosing what we want and where to go. We are also helpless and live a manipulated life in a religious kingdom…

Our Lord loves to use natural things of this world such as fish, bird, bread, stone, serpent, fig tree, lilies in the field to teach the mystery of His truth. His grace is ever present and fully lavished in our midst. Out of His outrageous grace, He lavishes His Spirit to convict us of righteousness. We need to come to our senses and respond to His conviction that we are righteous by faith not by work. Only through our establishment in His righteousness then we can start to appreciate His grace!

Romans 5:21b ~ so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Grace can only reign in a believer who is Christ conscious and righteousness conscious. If we are still full of sin consciousness, we have fallen back into law and we end up trying to justify ourselves through our law keeping and self effort.

Galatians 2:16 ~ knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

Once we can understand that it is all about His grace, we will start receiving His abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness and we will reign in life through this one Man, Jesus Christ.

I do not want to be a salted fish. I do not want to be a Christian being preserved and manipulated by religion. I want to be those fishes in the ocean knowing that they are fishes belong to the ocean and just following the instinct given by the Creator. I want to be a Christian knowing that I am forever righteous and live out the righteous life that my Savior had given me! He had come to give me His abundant life and He had told me that His sheep knows His voice! I just want to click on to His frequency of Grace and receive the abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness.

Even Nemo knows that he belongs to the ocean not aquarium… As for me, I know I belong to Jesus not religion. Hmmm... what about you? Nemo knows, do you...?

Doer Of Word

I beheld the Perfect Law of Liberty lately, He is the One who abide the 10 Commandments for me.
I beheld the Perfect Law of Liberty lately, I did not die but live, for He is the One who gave me His righteousness.


James 1:25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
James 1:24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
James 1:23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.


I looked into the Mirror lately, I saw perfect beauty in the Mirror... that’s me.
I looked into the Mirror lately, I saw a righteous man in the Mirror... and that’s me!

I stood in front of the Mirror and observed myself lately, I realized I was fearfully made by the Creator of this universe.
I stood in front of the Mirror and observed myself lately, I realized I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

Oooh... I have been brought back to simplicity lately, where the Holy Spirit first convicted me of Jesus' righteousness when I first put my trust in Him.
Oooh... I have been brought back to the basic lately, where the Holy Spirit first gave me the gift of speaking in tongue and I spoke out in marvel...

I stand in front of the Mirror and observing myself today, I realize I have not been a doer of Word. My heart is breaking...
I stand in front of the Mirror and observing myself today, I realize I have been a doer of my own word. My tear is falling...

Selah

I am now looking into the Mirror, I see perfect beauty in the Mirror and that’s my natural face.
I am now looking into the Mirror, I see a righteous man like Abraham and that’s my natural man!

I am now beholding the Perfect Law of Liberty and He is the One who abide the 10 Commandments for me.
I am now beholding the Perfect Law of Liberty and I am living forevermore, for He is the One who gives me His righteousness.


Now, I am a hearer of Word and I am a doer of Word. Whenever I walk away from this Mirror, the one and only thing I have to do is to BELIEVE that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Ooooh... He brings me back to basic and He brings me back to my First Love... I am now like an eagle renewing its youth.

I never know that it is so easy to be a doer of Word. Oh it is so easy to be a doer of Word… but men complicated it. I asked the Lord why is it soooo easy? He simply answered, “Son, this is My grace…”

Faith Without The Truth Is Dead!

Have you believe the truth to have the right kind of faith for your right work? Those who like to resort themselves with the phrase “faith without work is dead” is indeed religious and legalistic. It is clear evidence that they still have the mixture of old and new covenant mentality… most of all, their attention is not on faith but on the work. Remember, religion dealt with the fruit while Jesus dealt with the root!

The implication of work in its context is our spontaneous action from the Gospel we have heard but it has been religiously implied as our work for church and our work for God. That is why this verse is best used in a work oriented church environment. Faith without work is dead… so by hook or by crook, WORK!!!!... to show others that you have FAITH!!!! The MORE you work, the BIGGER your faith is!!!

John 6:28-29 ~ Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."

With reference to the phrase "faith without work is dead" and in respect of this life threatening verse (at least it was threatening to me for many years), what kind of fresh revelation do I have after I have established myself on His grace? Hmmm... at least I have a platform to establish myself on… and I choose to establish myself in His grace for the rest of my life, for grace and truth comes through Jesus… and I suppose it is good for my heart to be established in grace too.

James 1:22-25 ~ But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

James was actually talking about the spontaneous reaction of the hearer of the Gospel. The Gospel or the Resurrected Jesus Himself is our MIRROR. Every time we come to church, the preacher should take out this MIRROR and show Him to us. The MIRROR tells us that we are righteous, we are forgiven, we are blessed, we are prosperous, we are without sickness, we are free, we are precious in His eye… WE ARE IN CHRIST!

Before you question your own faith, ask yourself what kind of mirror have you been shown to when you come to church? Have you been shown with the mirror of Moses or the Mirror of Jesus? Have you been shown of your own sin, your shortcoming, your ugliness, or what you should do and what you shouldn’t do? WOW... That is not the right mirror! That is the mirror of Moses! If you have been shown to a wrong mirror, how are you going to have the right kind of faith? For faith comes by hearing, hearing by the words of CHRIST, not the words of Moses and also not the word of Elijah…

As I have said, it is not about faith that these legalistic people are concerned with. They are concerned with your work for their legalistic Kingdom. Our Lord Jesus is not concern with our work for His Kingdom for He said believe is the work for the work of God. He is more concerned with your WALK in His Kingdom!

Have you believe the right truth? (It is so sad that I have to add the word “right” in front of the word “truth”. Hey..., truth is truth, there is no right or wrong! But to certain people, we just have to add the word “right” there!) It is all about believing. When we believe right, our faith will be right and spontaneously, our work will be right. Please wake up from your sleep walking and come to your senses. Sleep walking cannot make you go far... you still have to go back to your bed and do your "waking up" there..., just like the Israelite in the wilderness!

Those who have ears, let them hear! This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent...

He Cares When I Don't Care...

Ever since I have been enlightened by the revelation of casting our cares away in last Thursday evening…, the devil would have thought that I have forgotten about this in a matter of four or five days. Well, before I could forget, I finally faced some little "cares" which raised from certain situation this morning.

The anointing in me is still teaching me the biblical way of casting our cares away... but I'm religiously slow to comprehend. So the best thing I could do is trying not to think about it… but I couldn’t. The next thing I tried to do is by occupying myself with other things hoping that I could forget about this little care… I couldn’t either. After these two attempts not knowing that these were my own self efforts, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart asking me to pray in the Spirit… i.e. speaking in tongue. In a matter of a few minutes, the burden was lightened and the care was gone…!

Indeed, Paul was right in his letter to Titus. For he had written…

Titus 2:11-12 ~ For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.

Grace teaches us...

When I went back for lunch, I saw Katherine Poon of Everything Grace followed up with a new post in her blog entitled: "When We Take Cares, God's Grace Cannot Flow"... and by the way, the Holy Spirit first used her to initial this wonderful revelation! So, not out of my religiosity, I felt honor to post my fresh encounter in her blog as comment. Hmmm... what a privileged!

We have chosen to humble before His grace and this is just part of the consequence... His grace teaches us or to be precised, He teaches us… Hey...! This is life; I'm growing in His grace...! Yahoo...! I'm so excited! This is what Paul meant by do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. I'm experiencing what Paul was preaching! Praying in tongue is giving thanks and Jesus, our faithful Master, is never too late to meet our needs that takes away our cares!!!!

In the midst of writing this post, a fresh revelation comes to me again in respect of the abundant of His grace and the gift of His righteousness.

Romans 5:17 ~ For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Now, we all know that the word "care" in its original meaning is "worry" and worry is sin. The word sin in Greek is “missing the mark.”

Wow..., this is going to be powerful!

When we have cares and worries, we are missing the mark. I realized from this morning experience that we cannot do away with cares and worries by our own effort. So, the moment we pray in tongue, we are resting in Him and making full use of His abundant provision of grace, for when sin (missing the mark) abound, grace super abound. Instead of letting our consciousness being condemned intentionally or unintentionally, the Spirit gives us life and set us free from any condemnation. Praying in tongue engages the Holy Spirit to bear witness with our spirit man that we are still the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Pointing us to Jesus' righteousness is the duty of the Holy Spirit. This is the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit in our life to cast out the spiritual force of cases and worries. That is why we are freed from our cares and worries when we engaged with praying in tongue...

If you still think that grace and righteousness is a doctrine or teaching, you have missed the mark! Grace and Righteousness is not a doctrine or a teaching at all! Grace and Righteousness is not for us to teach but when we unveil Jesus in His glorious form, we see His Grace and Righteousness as Grace and Righteousness are Jesus personified. We are encouraged to receive these abundant gifts continuously through unveiling of Jesus Christ, our Magnificent Savor.

How can we not reigning in life when we keep on receiving God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness?

You might think that I have gone crazy… but who cares???? I am sicked and tired of entertaining and pleasing my own logical mind and people's logical talk... and human logic always ends up in religiosity and bondage. I just want His truth, and only His truth can set me free... After all, He is the One who had shed His Blood for me!

Oh… I'm so bless and you can be bless too... if you choose not to please your logical mind. It is all about Jesus and God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness because He cares even before the foundation of the world...

I Don't Care Anymore!

The other day I was chatting with Katherine Poon in Facebook and out of my good humanly intention, I ended the chatting with “Take care!”. By the way, good humanly intention is religious and is not Godly intention… so Kat replied: “I don’t take care, I cast out care!” Wow...! What a revelation! It was a zap from heaven and I was totally revived by her reply!

1 Peter 5:7 ~ casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

The word “Care” means Merimna in Greek. From the word meiro, “to divide” and noos, “the mind.” The word denotes distractions, anxieties, burdens, and worries. Merimma means to be anxious beforehand about daily life. Such worry is unnecessary, because the Father’s love provides for both our daily needs and our special needs.

My spirit was quickened by this revelation to break forth the religious stronghold that was still in me. My religious mind (flesh) can never realize that even by taking care of myself is a self effort. Come to think of it, I realized that in the areas of my life where I don’t care much about, do not need much of my caring at all. But those areas where I care most need most of my caring! Dah... ! :) Hey, how come…? So, the revelation is... when I take care of myself, God’s hand is off me because grace cannot flow through my effort. Grace does not flow through my flesh but my spirit. Grace does not flow through my struggles but my rest in Him. Grace does not prompt me to perform but to rest in Jesus. Grace comes to my rescue and super abounding when my spirit rests in Him…

Religion is about a man with nothing trying to care for His everything in life! Life in Jesus is a man with nothing resting in the One who has everything! My flesh can never understand what Jesus had already done or even His cares for me since the foundation of the world!!!!

“Take care” is for those who do not have Jesus in their life because no one really cares for them! I boldly use the word “Jesus” because only Jesus cares and only Jesus ministers with grace, the unearned and unmerited favor of God. None of the religions care for us even in Christianity, if we choose to take good care of ourselves.

Maurice join in with his comment saying: “You still have cares mei…!” Yes Maurice, I still have because I'm not humble… not because of my action in front of people but simply because I still take good care of my situation and I did not cast my cares upon Him! For the verse before 1 Peter 5: 7 says: Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

So from now on, I am going to cast my cares upon Him one day at a time and will not labor to take care of myself but labor to enter His rest…

Do you “care” to join me…?

Transformer… (from glory to glory)

What happened historically and spiritually when Jesus suffered, died and raised from the dead represented the whole of mankind, whether we believe it or not. Father God was in Christ reconciling the whole world to Himself. God did not gamble with the life of His Begotten Son. God’s righteousness is not at risk. His love is based on value, not pity. He saw equal value in us. He redeemed His image and likeness in human form. He saw the fruit of the travail of His soul, and it satisfied Him. God’s faith sees us free! Our new birth is not the result of a sincere decision we make to follow Jesus, but an awakening of our spirit to the truth of what already took place two thousand years ago when God raised Jesus from the dead.

1 Peter 1:3-4 ~ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you.

To merely see Jesus die historically as an individual carries no further significance beyond religious sentiment. Jesus is not an example for man; He is the example of man! Have a good opinion of God. Beholding Him as what we see in a mirror, transform us into His likeness, from glory (opinion) to glory (opinion).

2 Corinthians 3:18 ~ And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

His glory (opinion) sets the pace and the mirror reflects the death and resurrection of us beholding. This mirror reflects mankind in Christ. This is the key to understanding the Gospel, the greatest story ever told in history. Therefore, see ourselves being mirrored in His death and in His resurrection. If Jesus had paid our debts simply because that He saw enough value in us to feel justified in doing that, then for us not to gratefully accept the Gift would be an insult.

Believe that God is right about you, He loves you and He believes in you.

Is this not grace?

A compilation of Thoughts for Life

Put The Horse Back Before The Cart

In the new Covenant, God can put His laws in our hearts because the blood of Jesus had cleansed us so clean that the Holy Spirit can dwell in us.

Hebrews 10:16-18 ~ "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.

When we are born again, God put His laws in our heart through the Holy Spirit, so that born again believers can have a Spirit led life. The problem with us for not responding to this truth is that, we are not established in the New Covenant truth. Our righteousness is a gift from God not our performance... When we think that we still have our sinful nature after we are born again, we are on the wrong platform and frequency to respond to His prompting. When we are sin conscious, our sin consciousness leads us back to the two tablets of stones for the knowledge of good and evil. The knowledge of good and evil in turn, prompts us to perform in order to achieve the righteousness that God required.

Everyone of us knows what is good and what is bad. It is our sinful nature that bound us from doing the good; for the good we want to do we cannot and the bad we do not want to do we do.

Romans 7:15 -19 ~ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

The truth is, although we are a new creation, our establishment on the wrong platform robs us from the resurrection life that God has given us to live in. That is why before God can put His laws in our hearts; He has to make sure that He remembers our sins and lawless acts no more. It is Jesus’ blood that washes us so clean that God can says "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." Forgiveness of sins and righteousness are one. When we are forgiven, we are righteous!

If we cannot established that our righteousness is a gift from God, and our nature is righteous, whatever God has written in our hearts are of no used because our evil conscious will still prompt us to go back to refer to the stones, trying to do the good and avoid the bad.

Repent my friends, renew your mind... new covenant believers are righteous in nature not action and our righteousness is a gift from God. Some of us may still think that even now, we still have sinful action. Be at rest friends, establish first in His righteousness so that whatever God has written in our hearts can work out in our hearts and become a spontaneous flow in the Spirit. By then, doing the good and avoid doing the bad is a lifestyle and no more a religion…

But first, let's put the horse back before the cart!

Generation Christ

1 Peter 2:9-10 (New King James Version)

9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.


Generation Christ


1 Peter 2:9-10 (Contemporary English Version)

9 But you are God's chosen and special people. You are a group of royal priests and a holy nation. God has brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now you must tell all the wonderful things that he has done. The Scriptures say, 10 "Once you were nobody.Now you are God's people. At one time no one had pity on you.Now God has treated you with kindness.



SIB Grace N.O.W. Generation Christ

It is through His Grace, not by our behavior that we are called Generation Christ!

How To Die... Har?

Two weeks ago, right after our Sunday Service, we were so fresh and full of revelation that we started asking each other: "How to die… har?" It was because during the preaching, Elder Alex expounded on the work of the Trinity in us from Romans chapter 8 verse 11…. What a powerful verse it is which expounded the work of the Trinity in our mortal bodies...

It was a week after this incident that the news of the Swine Flu outbreak in Mexico was released and it is now causing global concern. This new strain for virus was first clinically identified as influenza A (H1N1). When I recalled that moment in Church, I realized that in a grace based, Christ centered environment, the Holy Spirit is ever ready in dispensing the "now word" through the pulpit or the believers' mouths. It takes a quiet spirit to discern what the Holy Spirit is revealing.

In the time of shaking like this, the only sure and unshakable foundation is the Finished Work of Christ. Through the revelation of His Finished Work comes the understanding of His full redemption and forgiveness of sins, His unearned and unmerited favor and His everlasting lovingkindness for us. If we are still not establish in His Finished Work but on our own work to perform, we are sure to be blown and tossed by the wind of this world because we will always be doubtful for something that we have done or not done to deserve security...

James 1:6-8 ~ 6But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

The Lord said, "It is Finished!". Just rest in His Finished Work and meditate on the following verses from the Bible. Believe and it will start to mean something to you...

Romans 8:11 (New International Version)
And 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.

Romans 8:11 (The Message)
It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!

Romans 8:11 (Amplified Bible)
And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.

Romans 8:11 (New Living Translation)
The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

Romans 8:11 (Contemporary English Version)
Yet God raised Jesus to life! God's Spirit now lives in you, and he will raise you to life by his Spirit.

Romans 8:11 (New Century Version)
God raised Jesus from the dead, and if God's Spirit is living in you, he will also give life to your bodies that die. God is the One who raised Christ from the dead, and he will give life through his Spirit that lives in you

Romans 8:11 (Young's Literal Translation)
and if the Spirit of Him who did raise up Jesus out of the dead doth dwell in you, He who did raise up the Christ out of the dead shall quicken also your dying bodies, through His Spirit dwelling in you.

How to die when the Trinity is working in our mortal bodies... So be encouraged by these different translations of Romans 8:11. Surely, not maybe, the Lord is going to satisfy us with long good life...!

Psalm 91

1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust."

3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence.

4 He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.

5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day,

6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you.

8 Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked.

9 Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place,

10 No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;

11 For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.

12 In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.

13 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.

14 "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.

15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.

16 With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation."

Amen!

Well, how to die... har?

Emmanuel

To strive to obtain love, peace and joy or to pray to God to give you these qualities is a wasted religious energy. Nothing you can seek to do or wish and pray for could qualify you more for life. Nothing can make your life more significant than to simply become aware of His nature and presence in you and His favour towards you.

Hosea 4:6 ~ My people perish through lack of knowledge…

To realize His presence and provision within you, is what sets you free to be who you are. The more aware we become of God in us, the more overwhelmed we are with a sense of total fulfillment and completeness.

Needs disappear into insignificance; He is not a God who is a far off; Emmanuel means ‘God with us′.

Francois du Toit of Thoughts for Life (Daily Devotionals)

Climbing Up The Tree Of Life

The opposite of Law is Faith
If you observe the law, there will be no faith

The opposite of Work is Grace
If you work to deserve your blessing, grace stops flowing

The opposite of Flesh is Spirit
If you dwell in your flesh, you are not in the Spirit

Galatians 5:16 ~ 18 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.


By now, positive confession of God’s word is already our lifestyle, and this is the wonderful proof that we have been established firm in His Grace with revelation knowledge of His righteousness. To eat from the Tree of Life is to be led by the Spirit. This is the living of Zoe life no man can teach us but the Spirit of Truth. Man can affirm and guide us and give us the principle. To execute the principle, it is still the duty of the Holy Spirit. The consequence of this Spirit leads life is discovery of the power of the Trinity in us and our rightful identity in Christ.

1 John 2:27 ~ As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

Let’s have faith and believe in the word of God. If the Spirit of Him (Father) who raised Jesus (Son) 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 (Holy Spirit), who lives in you (Romans 8:11).

Jesus comes to give us life and life more abundantly. On the Cross before He gave up His life, He cried out in a loud voice, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthews 26:47) Jesus cried out loud my God, my God, so that we can call God my Father, my Father… and even we called out softy, our Father hears us because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." (Romans 8:14~15)

Chapter 8 of the Book of Romans ends with no separation from the love of God that is Christ Jesus our Lord (again, the mention of the Person of Jesus)…

Nobody can teach us how to climb the Tree of Life except the Holy Spirit. If man can teach us, the Tree we are climbing is still the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is where our faith comes in to trust in the Holy Spirit's leading. Again, it is still not our own faith but the faith that comes from believing that our Lord Jesus is always good and faithful for He alone, is the Author and the Finisher of our faith.

Always have a good expectation of God and know that we are in His good hand! God's grace had been lavished through Jesus' own body, and had provided us with a new and living way, step in the new and living way, this is what His grace is for...

Is Your Joy Complete?

John 16:22 ~ So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.
John 16:23 ~ In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
John 16:24 ~ Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

Our joy is complete when we ask of ANYTHING from the Father in Jesus’ Name. To be able to ask from the Father, we must have revelation knowledge of what His Grace means. Most of the believers are shy to ask from the Father because of their wrong conception of who God is. Our Lord declared the era of Grace at the end of His earthly ministry from the above scripture to portray the three stages of human destiny on before the Cross, after the Cross and when the mystery of Grace is revealed.

Before the Cross
John 16:22 ~ So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

After the Cross
John 16:23 ~ In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

When the mystery of Grace is revealed
John 16:24 ~ Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

Have you understand much about Grace? If we understand Grace, asking anything from the Father is the fruit of our understanding of His Grace; and our understanding of His Grace depends on:-

1) Whether we are born again or not.
- Jesus said no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

2) Whether we choose to humble ourselves before His Word that He has revealed to us in our heart or not.
- Before I was enlightened by Grace, I was taught to humble before man (Leader). Don’t get me wrong for encouraging disobedience in the midst. The truth is, when we humble before His word, we have the abundant Life to be obedience in proper prospective to anybody. In fact, when we are disobedient to man, we are obedient to God and in turn, our obedience is a holy obedience to anyone.

3) Whether we believe in His Finished Work on the Cross or not.
- Because of His Finished Work, everything bad that you can ever think of or even you cannot think of, is nailed on the Cross by Jesus. Therefore, our sin is a done deal and we are forgiven eternally. To be exact, the sin for the whole world has been forgiven because God so love the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life! The world just has to respond with faith and believe in Jesus to be saved! The providence for the forgiveness of sin is ever ready by grace and the world does not go hell because of their sin but because of their unbelief!

4) Our revelation knowledge that we are no more servant but son. Our relation with God is no more servant and Master Relationship but rather, son and Father Relationship.
- Before Jesus died on the Cross, He personally came to introduce the Name of Father and His death on the Cross brought forth this Father and sons relationship for us. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"— which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He cried out, "My God, My God!" so that we can call God, "My Father, My Father!"

5) When we question ourselves that what kind of son are we if we do not ask of anything from our father?
- For a child to ask from the father is proper thing to do. To be able to ask from the Father is an unmerited and undeserved favor from God not our merited and deserved achievement through law abiding. In the realm of Law, we all fell short to ask from God, while in the realm of Grace, God has given us a new life through His grace for us to ask from Him.

The Lord said: “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” To ask of anything from the Father is a lifestyle not an act. When our joy is complete, the full blossom of Grace is flourishing in our life!

This is Grace...!