2015 – A Year Of Great Change (Part 6)
2015 – A Year Of Great Change.
Jesus came to seek and save the lost.
So the only qualification for salvation is that you are lost, whether you are aware of it or not. I find it tragic that religion has so complicated things.
Over the years I have heard many people’s stories of how they were born again. It wasn’t hard or complicated for them to get saved, it was easy.
2015 – A Year Of Great Change.
I believe great change is coming when the church once again embraces the stripped back simplicity of the message of salvation, digging down through the layers of religious tradition and getting back to the foundation that is Jesus.
Hebrews 10: 5 – 23
5 Hence, when He [Christ] entered into the world, He said, Sacrifices and offerings You have not desired, but instead You have made ready a body for Me [to offer];
6 In burnt offerings and sin offerings You have taken no delight.
7 Then I said, Behold, here I am, coming to do Your will, O God—[to fulfill] what is written of Me in the volume of the Book.
8 When He said just before, You have neither desired, nor have You taken delight in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings—all of which are offered according to the Law—
9 He then went on to say, Behold, [here] I am, coming to do Your will. Thus He does away with and annuls the first (former) order [as a means of expiating sin] so that He might inaugurate and establish the second (latter) order.
10 And in accordance with this will [of God], we have been made holy (consecrated and sanctified) through the offering made once for all of the body of Jesus Christ (the Anointed One).
11 Furthermore, every [human] priest stands [at his altar of service] ministering daily, offering the same sacrifices over and over again, which never are able to strip [from every side of us] the sins [that envelop us] and take them away—
12 Whereas this One [Christ], after He had offered a single sacrifice for our sins [that shall avail] for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,
13 Then to wait until His enemies should be made a stool beneath His feet.
14 For by a single offering He has forever completely cleansed and perfected those who are consecrated and made holy.
15 And also the Holy Spirit adds His testimony to us [in confirmation of this]. For having said,
16 This is the agreement (testament, covenant) that I will set up and conclude with them after those days, says the Lord: I will imprint My laws upon their hearts, and I will inscribe them on their minds (on their inmost thoughts and understanding),
17 He then goes on to say, And their sins and their lawbreaking I will remember no more.
18 Now where there is absolute remission (forgiveness and cancellation of the penalty) of these [sins and lawbreaking], there is no longer any offering made to atone for sin.
19 Therefore, brethren, since we have full freedom and confidence to enter into the [Holy of] Holies [by the power and virtue] in the blood of Jesus,
20 By this fresh (new) and living way which He initiated and dedicated and opened for us through the separating curtain (veil of the Holy of Holies), that is, through His flesh,
21 And since we have [such] a great and wonderful and noble Priest [Who rules] over the house of God,
22 Let us all come forward and draw near with true (honest and sincere) hearts in unqualified assurance and absolute conviction engendered by faith (by that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness), having our hearts sprinkled and purified from a guilty (evil) conscience and our bodies cleansed with pure water.
23 So let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgement of it, for He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word.
Why would anyone ever want to remain in the old life of sin and sickness and oppression, or even a half-way house between the old and the new when we have the opportunity to seize, hold fast to, and retain without wavering, supernatural hope. We have supernatural hope that empowers us to boldly confess and proclaim before a lost world that our Abba Father, who is always faithful, will fulfill every promise of His Word in our lives.
Colossians 1: 13 – 14
13 [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14 In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, [which means] the forgiveness of our sins.
We have been delivered from Satan’s dominion and so he no longer has a right to reign over us.
We have been transferred into the kingdom of God’s Son and we are recreated and now have authority over Satan and all of his works.
We have redemption through the blood of Jesus so that all of our sins (failures, shortcomings) have been forgiven, remitted, cancelled out, obliterated, and once and for all time removed and forgotten! Now that is GOOD NEWS!
That is the word of righteousness which is the foundation for a life of faith that is the supernatural by-product of an unhindered relationship with our heavenly Father and the ministry that arises out of that relationship.
That is where we get the authority to say STOP to everything that comes to harm us. It is not complicated or super-spiritual and so we should never let anyone make it that way for us.
We have unhindered access into the presence of our heavenly Father, our Abba, Almighty God himself, the Lord of heaven and earth, and we can ask whatever we want and expect an answer.
We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! The devil hates that, and so he has sought to use religion to undermine and remove the power from that truth. Sadly he has often succeeded by deceiving believers back into once again receiving condemnation in their lives, crippling them in their ability to come boldly into our Father’s presence and to speak the language of faith!
Righteousness restores to man all that he lost in the Fall, and MORE! It also gives him a new relationship with God as a son, with all the accompanying blessings and privileges!
It is time for us to experience the great change that results from embracing our new relationship with Abba Father as the righteousness of God that we have become.
It is time to see the restoration of the revelation of righteousness. That is the prophetic mandate we have received, to proclaim a message that digs down through the layers of religion and uncovers the foundation that Jesus laid and allows the church to be built according to the pattern that he has given.
We need to remind ourselves of what the revelation of righteousness restores and the great change that results.
Righteousness restores our standing with God and removes and replaces the old sin-consciousness that was so effective in paralyzing our faith and robbing us of our confidence and assurance in God’s presence. Righteousness gives to us the same standing and level of relationship with the Father that Jesus had in His time on earth. Just think for a minute about his total lack of fear in his Father’s presence, and his utter fearlessness in the face of satan! No wonder the devil hates righteousness and has sought to steal the revelation of it from the church!
Jesus had no sense of weakness, powerlessness or inferiority in the face of demons, sickness, the weather, or even death! He was not afraid to speak to any of these and expect them to submit to his authority and conform to his Word!
And now that we are the righteousness of God in him we can expect the same!
2015 – A Year Of Great Change