John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth, came through Jesus Christ."
Today is America's "National Day of Prayer," and I would admonish all those know to pray, to pray as the Word tells us to pray. It doesn't matter whether you identify as a Baptist, Catholic or an Evangelical, we are all one in Christ Jesus and can pray for our country. 1Timothy 2:1-4 (Amplified) says, "First of all, then, I admonish and urge that petitions (prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving) be offered on behalf of all men. For kings [or presidents] and all who are in positions of authority or high responsibility, that outwardly we may pass a quiet and undisturbed life, and inwardly a peaceable one in all Godliness and reverence and seriousness in every way. For such praying is good and right, and it is pleasing and acceptable to God our Savior. Who wishes all men to be saved and increasingly to perceive and recognize and discern and know precisely and correctly the Divine Truth."
It doesn't matter which political party is in office to Christians. We just want our nation to be moved by God, into an Awakening. We must not allow the world to determine who is to lead America, but pray that our leaders are under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Many Christians have moved into a party faction, just like the world has, and have allowed many ungodly laws and statutes to be passed by our government.
I want to encourage you to not be dismayed, by what you think is a lack of faith among our countrymen and women. I found it difficult to color inside the lines, when I was 3 or 4 years old. It seemed like I would never be able to control the crayon, but with my teacher's help, I finally was able to do this. Then I had to learn, count and work with numbers and letters. These things seemed to be beyond my ability to know, at the time.
We've heard many things about Christianity, which leads us to have "crayon faith" in. If you begin to diligently and constantly study God's Word, from where you are now, then you'll eventually walk naturally Super-natural. We don't struggle to color, count or do the small things anymore. Sometimes though, we are overwhelmed because we try painting a portrait, before we know how to color inside the lines. Hebrews 5:14 (Amplified) tells us, "But solid food is for full grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to distinguish and discriminate between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to Divine or human Law."
In order to become disciples and students of God's Word, we must develop consistency by training and practicing our mental faculties and senses by God's Word. 2Corinthians 1:20 (Amplified) says, "For as many as are the Promises of God, they all find their Yes Answer in Him, Christ, For this reason we also utter the Amen (So be it), to God through Him, in His Person and by His Agency, to the Glory of God." God's Word and His Promises are all Yes and Amen, to His Own Praise and Glory.
Many give up and resign their faith because they're still training their natural senses. We start growing in faith, from where our faith is. Many believers still find it difficult to believe we've been made righteous, by faith in Jesus and His Righteousness. Go to God's Word to find our about our righteousness in Jesus and when you know that He has made you righteous, then you can get past your old sin nature and begin putting faith in the fact that you now have the ability to enter into God's Presence and His Throne Room of Grace. You will have faith that God has accepted and sees you as being righteous and in right standing by Jesus.
The Holy Spirit inspires Paul to write in Romans 1:17 (Amplified), "For in the Gospel a Righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith, disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith, As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith."
Your faith must begin, with believing that Jesus has made you to be righteous. No one can become righteous on his/her own, it must be accepted by faith in Jesus Christ. Once your faith accepts His Righteousness, then old condemnation of your own righteousness is put away and you can begin accepting the Promises God made to the righteous, by faith. Remember that, "The righteousness that God ascribes is revealed, " according to Romans 1:17. This is what God accepts as righteous and in right standing with Him. When your faith is established in the Truth of His Righteousness, you can have boldness by faith, to enter into God's Presence. And, you can put faith in what God has Promised to you, in Jesus.
So long as you "try to be righteous," you're not walking in faith and receiving God's ascribed righteousness, because it must by by faith in the works of Jesus. We cannot be righteous on our own or by our own works. We are righteous in God's eyes, because we put faith in the works of Jesus and His Righteousness. One of the greatest hindrances to our faith, is our sin conscience and our lack of understanding the Finished Work of Jesus. No one can come into God's Holy Presence with a sense of unrighteousness and unworthiness befalling them. Even though we know that we're not righteous within ourselves, we must put faith in Jesus and accept His Righteousness, so we can enter into God's Presence.
When you receive your righteousness by faith in God's Word and works through Jesus, your faith will be able to accept the Promises God made to the righteous. Romans 1:17 tells us that, "Righteousness is revealed through faith in God's Word." This is God's way of doing and being right (righteous). Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 (Amplified), "But see, aim at and strive after first of all His Kingdom and His Righteousness (His way of doing and being right) AND THEN all these things taken together will be given you besides."
It must come by faith and not by works or Law. This is Grace. Until this first point where faith is settled in your heart, you will always be in the Outer Court, instead of His Presence. You're righteous in God's eyes through Jesus, but you lack faith in the Finished Word of Jesus, so you sadly don't enter into God's Throne Room of Grace and mercy. God's not holding back on us, but we're not receiving the things that He has already given us.
We grow in our faith and trust in God's Word. We all receive and believe that we're going to Heaven when we die, but we struggle at the Truth that we've been made righteous already. Do you know that there is no unrighteousness in Heaven? If we're not righteous and in right standing with God, then how will we become righteous after we die?
The Truth is that when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we died already and the old sinful person died the death of the cross with Him and a new creation man was raised in the place of the old, sinful person's place. The new creation man has no sin and unrighteousness, because Jesus became our sin Bearer and He bore the death of our sins. We've been born again and been made new creation. We weren't just patched up, but were made new, according to 2Corinthians 5:17, 20-21 (Amplified) which says, "Therefore, if any person is ingrated in Christ (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old previous moral and spiritual condition has passed awa. Behold! the fresh and new HAS COME."
Verses 20 goes on, saying, "So we are Christ's ambassadors God making His appeal as it were through us),We, as Christ's personal representatives beg you For His sake to lay hold of the Divine favor now offered you and be reconciled to God."
Through the Sacrifice of His Own Son Jesus, God has reconciled Himself to mankind. We however, have failed to be reconciled to Him, by placing faith and trust in His offer of peace and righteousness. We still don't trust in God's offer of reconciliation and right standing with Him. Verse 21 says, "For out sake He made Christ virtually to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become, endued with, viewed as being in and examples of the Righteousness of God, what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His Goodness."
This scripture tells us that, "In and through Jesus, God has made us to be endued with, viewed as being and examples of the Righteousness of God, what we ought to be." "What we ought to be," is what God always meant us to be. We need to reconcile ourselves to the Truth that He has already reconciled us to Himself through His Righteousness. When we don't understand what righteousness is truly about, we don't enter into His Presence and Goodness. Righteousness isn't a feeling, it's a place of right standing with God and a right to stand in His Presence.
We've looked at righteousness from man's viewpoint, instead of God's viewpoint. When Adam fell from Grace in the Garden, man lost his place of standing in God's Presence. Before the fall, God and Adam walked, talked and moved together. Heaven came to earth and united earth with Heaven. Adam could enter God's Presence anytime. He was always in right standing or had the right to be in God's Presence. This was God's Plan and His will, from the beginning.
Adam's fall resulted in man's no longer having the right to enter into God's Presence, like he previously did. Now, it required the sacrifice of bulls and goats, for man to even approach God. Jesus broke the wall of petition and flesh, by giving Life again into our new creation man. He restored man back into the place by His Sacrifice. We now have the right again, to stand in the Presence of our Father, as His family. This is reconciling ourselves back to Him by faith in His Goodness. Don't allow the word "righteousness" discourage you, but reconcile yourself to Him. Take your place in His Presence, as His child.
Our lack of understanding this, has kept the Father from lavishing us, with the things He prepared for His children in Eden. God's will for His family has never changed. From the time God said, "Let us make man in Our Image and Likeness, and let him have dominion over all things in the earth." Through Jesus, God's will and Plan have been continued again.
God's will and heart towards the First Adam is exactly what the Last Adam Jesus, brought back to mankind. We can't allow the world's religion or the senses (flesh) to keep us from reconciling ourselves back to Him. Paul gives a strong Word to the Church, in 2Corinthians 5:20 (Amplified), saying, "We beg you for His Sake, lay hold of the Divine favor now offered you and be reconciled to God."
It might sound like foolishness to the natural man, but all that Jesus did, was for God's Sake. The Father wanted us back and was willing to do whatever it took to do so. Now, we must reconcile ourselves back to Him, for His Sake. He has done all that was necessary to reconcile Himself back to us and only now, by our faith, can His Grace move toward us.
Everything now depends on our trusting in His Sacrifice of Reconciliation and placing faith in His Grace. This was and is all for His Sake. We couldn't reconcile ourselves or become righteous. The only way God could get His children back, was by shedding His Own Blood. God sent His Only Begotten Son, in order to satisfy His heart of Love, so He could pass and declare peace on earth. Luke 2:14 (Amplified) tells us, "Glory to God in the Highest Heaven, and on earth peace among men with whom He is well-pleased, men of good will of His favor."
God offered the peace of Himself to men and now it's up to men, to accept this peace and reconcile it in Jesus. God has declared a Peace Covenant to mankind, by His Peace Offering of Jesus. Man had never reconciled themselves to Him and warred against Him. His Grace still offered right standing and acceptance through Jesus, though. All that He requires of us, is to reconcile ourselves to Him. He has, for His Sake, taken care of everything else.
God laid before us, "Life, death, Blessing and curse," leaving us to make the choice between these things in Deuteronomy 30:19. This is reconciling ourselves back to right standing with Him by choice. God has already chosen Life and Blessing for us, if we will only accept them.
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