New Wine for New Wineskins April 2019


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How Much Life Do You Want? (Part 1)

John 10: 10 (Amplified)

10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).

If what you are experiencing personally or seeing happen in someone else’s life has stealing, killing, or destroying attached to it then it is the work of the thief. But if it has abundance of life as it’s fruit then it is the work of Jesus.

In these days of shaking, where only what cannot be shaken (that which is firmly established on the revelation of Jesus’ Lordship and his ability to fulfill his covenant word) will remain, God’s reputation is at stake, and so he is looking for a people who will restore his reputation in the earth – people who will be a true representation of his church.  That’s not just a congregation of people, but the church of Jesus Christ – a body connected to the Head and functioning as an expression of the will of the Head.

Jesus very clearly stated (John 3: 16 – 17) that God did not send him into the world to condemn the world but to save (heal and deliver).  Jesus came as a walking, talking, living demonstration of God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will.  He came teaching and preaching the good news of the kingdom of heaven and his message was confirmed by his ministry of healing the sick, cleansing lepers, casting out demons, and raising the dead.

Jesus also very clearly stated that his intention was to send us with the same message and ministry (John 20: 21).

So what does the thief come to steal, kill, and destroy?  The word, the word, the word. Why? Because Jesus said that the abundant life that God has planned and provided for us to live comes through the word, the word, the word!. The life is in the seed and God’s word is the seed that reproduces his life in us.

We live our new creation life by faith which is activated, energised, expressed, and put to work by hearing the word of God’s love. And so, as long as we walk in the revelation of God’s love we will be empowered to live by faith.



Listen to this:

Hosea 4: 6

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Ignorance is not bliss – it is death and destruction.

Proverbs 29: 18

18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps the law.


The word, the word, the word!

People have often asked me why I spend so much time talking about, and placing so much emphasis on healing.  The answer to that is simple.  Healing is a fundamental and integral part of the good news that Jesus commissioned us to preach. If you are not healed – spirit, soul, and body – you will not live, you will die!

How much life do you want?

Listen!

Deuteronomy 30: 11 – 20

11 “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, 18 I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may
love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”


Before you say, “That’s Old Covenant!” remember that Jesus got enough ammunition out of three verses contained in two chapters of Deuteronomy to defeat the devil in the three basic areas of temptation and send him off with a headache.

You can believe that you have no say in what happens to you – and have “Que sera, sera, whatever will be will be” as your anthem – or you can choose to believe God’s word. If you have been ignorant of this, or if you have been misinformed regarding this, then it is time for you to realise that your life is a result of the choices that you have made since you came to an age of responsibility.  What happened before then was often a result of the choices that were made by those who were responsible for you, whether they were good or bad.  But now the choice is yours.  You need no longer be bound by your past if you choose not to be.  You can no longer blame your past because you now have the opportunity to choose life and good.

Listen to this again!

15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil”

The message is clear and simple.  You don’t need a degree in theology to understand it.  Life is good and death is evil. We have a good God who only has plans of life for us and there is an evil devil who only has plans of death for us.

Say it and go on saying it until it fully registers.  Good God – evil devil.  Life is good – death is evil.  Life and good are synonymous – just as death and evil are synonymous!

The fact that God can bring good out of death does not make death good!  That simply emphasises and confirms the goodness of God!

And so it is time to deal confusion a fatal blow and repent and turn away from our double-mindedness that has tainted the reputation of our heavenly Father.  We have tried to justify our failure to receive good from him by calling evil good.  We have often failed to receive good from him because we have rejected the only way that life comes – by the hearing, believing and applying of what he says.

19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.

You choose life!  Why? Because God has already chosen life for you!  You choose blessing!  Why? Because God has already chosen blessing for you! How much life do you want?

Jeremiah 29: 11 (NKJV)

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

(NLT)

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

That is why it is essential that we think his thoughts – so that his words become our words, and his ways become our ways.

20 that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days

If we walk in love we will live by faith. We love him because he first loved us and and demonstrated the awesome extent of his love for us by placing the highest value upon us when we are at our most worthless.

Remember – Jesus is the word, Jesus is the message, Jesus is the vision, Jesus is the revelation.  Bring everything back to him and measure everything against him.

Colossians 1: 16 – 18

16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

But we have an adversary – the thief who only ever comes to steal and kill and destroy.  Let’s look at how he sought to do the only thing he knows how to do in the life of Jesus.

STEAL

Luke 1: 26 – 38

26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.


One of the biggest enemies we face is our human reason because it has been programmed to think way below God’s thoughts.  That is why we must learn to pull down mental strongholds, cast down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10: 4 – 5).  Mary reasoned initially that it couldn’t happen because it was contrary to natural law.  But if everything we need can happen naturally why do we need God?  

God operates in the realm of the supernatural and although we were designed to live in this natural world there was an extra dimension of our lives that was always supposed to function supernaturally.  We were designed to live supernaturally naturally.  Faith activated by hearing the word of God is the gateway into the supernatural. It was disobedience to the word of God that caused man to fall from the realm of the spirit back into the realm of the soul – to a place where he was subject to his mind, will, and emotions. You can only truly have dominion in the natural world if you live in the realm of the supernatural.  Otherwise every attempt to exercise dominion will result in the soulish counterfeit of domination (intimidation and manipulation) that can lead to hooking up with witchcraft spirits in order to  have your will done. 

 

 
When we are living according to God’s design and are led and empowered by the Holy Spirit we only seek God’s will to be done and so we exercise true dominion which is always subject to His Lordship.  

When God found Mary he found someone who would be willing to submit to his word regardless of how ridiculous or impossible it sounded, and so the word that was Jesus could not be stolen and instead was connected with faith – allowing conception to take place and find an environment where the Word made flesh could grow and develop.

Mary was a young woman – her whole life was ahead of her.  She was making a lifetime commitment.  This is how we must see it every time we say, “Let it be to me according to your word!”  We need to see it as a lifetime commitment so that we cannot be moved from our decision by anything that comes against it….

To be continued….

 

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