Over the last few studies, we’ve examined the power of our words, and speech.
Today, we’re looking at the other side of the coin, which is hearing what’s being said, whether that’s in spoken words or written, words.
The scripture gives equal important to hearing, as well as speaking, and just as with our words, you might be surprised how powerful hearing is.
Let’s get started.
One of the most common questions that comes up today, is that if God is in control, and He’s so good, and we are so blessed, then what’s going on with the world; why does the world seem to be getting worse?
Some people assume that it’s because humanity is a fallen and sinful creation, sheer ignorance, or the devil and his forces of evil!
Those things are all part of the equation but not the whole answer!
What if I were to tell you that you are playing the most critical role in the state and direction of the world, and you don’t even realize how! In fact, you are the one with all of the power, and your power is being used against you without your knowledge.
Last week, we explored what it means to abide in Christ, and we saw some powerful truths regarding His sacrifice for us and how it changes our position from sin to righteousness, and our nature from sinner to king priest in His kingdom and family.
During that study, something caught my attention which caused me to meditate on it more— specifically in Hebrews 4:10 which refers to ceasing from our own works, as God did from His.
It’s one thing to speak about ceasing from your own work or effort, and spiritually-speaking, we know that we should cease from our effort, though we find it challenging to fully rest in what Christ has accomplished.
I know this challenge quite well, I’ve been there, I’m familiar with the struggle; and so today I want to continue from where we paused last week. As we continue to explore abiding in Christ, with the details given to us in scripture, and I believe that as we study this together today, it will release a burden that has secretly been on the hearts of many who have been finding it difficult to rest in Christ.
Welcome to part four of our series about the blessings and promises of God for you. So far, we’ve seen quite a lot, ranging from our foundation in Christ, to a greater awareness of the the totality of salvation.
Now, with this information in mind, we will explore how to guard and keep these things. Knowing about your blessings and promises is the first step, but even that doesn’t mean much if you are being robbed of them constantly.
Fortunately, the scriptures have us covered in this regard as well, and today we will be looking at how to effective keep and guard your treasure of blessings in Christ.
Welcome back to our study on prosperity. We saw last week that prosperity is not a dirty word. In that study, we examined how scripture lists prosperity as a covenant blessing based on our relationship with God in Christ, and also that His prosperity has a purpose: to share His generosity and blessing with those around us.
Now today, we are going to discuss how this happens, and how to receive the blessing of prosperity into your life, because just as with every other aspect of grace, people tend to inject a layer of works over what God gives as a gift in Christ
Join me today, as we discover how to prosper in Christ.
Prosperity is quite a word in Christianity. There are Christians on both sides of the isle who will either embrace prosperity wholeheartedly, or denounce it completely. This kind of dichotomy is interesting since prosperity is mentioned and explained in the scriptures. However there is a certain caution that is latent regarding prosperity that the scriptures don’t demonstrate.
Prosperity is not evil. God is truly the most prosperous entity in all of existence! And furthermore, He is the giver of all good gifts, according to James 1:17.; which also includes prosperity.
And Jesus specifically stated that our Father in heaven will never give us dangerous or evil gifts, in Matthew 7:9-11.
Knowing this, we can therefore conclude that prosperity, as a gift and blessing from our divinely perfect and good Father God, cannot be wrong, evil, or bad.
How then does prosperity come to us? By what avenue does it travel? Many people need prosperity today, and because they haven’t been receiving, they erroneously conclude that God isn’t prospering anymore, or that His prosperity is only ethereal.
So we are going to explore this today, and get a better idea of how we prosper in Christ today.
What is your view of God? Some people see Him as a mere observer or a bystander; someone who is watching your life go by, but not taking part in it. In this view God is seen as more of a score-keeper, someone who is just watching your life, seeing the decisions that you make and keeping a record of your performance in order to judge you.
With this view of God, it is very difficult (or even impossible) to have any kind of real relationship with Him. You can never really have any closeness with someone who has real power to affect change and offer assistance, but refuses to act, and instead just uses your pain to judge you. Would you even want to have a relationship with someone like that?
The real question is, is this idea of God truly accurate? Is this the picture of God that we see in the scriptures?
We will explore this today; and the answer may surprise you.
I’ve encountered many people throughout my years, whom I have shared the truth with, that God is not angry with them. And many times, their response, was “I wish I could believe that.” They couldn’t receive the truth of God not being angry with them, because they were measuring His attitude towards them using a different standard. Instead of looking at the truth in scripture, they were looking at their current circumstances, their emotions and feelings of the moment, to gauge God’s mood, instead of what His eternal word says. When things were going well, God was obviously happy, and when things were not going well, God was obviously displeased. And so for these people, thy were constantly living a roller-coaster of ups and downs. Never on a solid foundation, but always on the shifting sand of the present moment.
However, God does not want us to live that way… that’s not the abundant life that He came to give us. He paid a high and precious price to reconcile us with Himself – and that is not a maybe, or a half-hearted reconciliation. Jesus has done a complete work, one that has a sure result; one that we can be confident in, and one that does not waiver back and forth like the wind, or get tossed around by the waters of daily life. What we will be studying today is why you can be absolutely sure of your status with God today. Why you can be bold and confident in your relationship with Him, and know beyond all doubt, why He is not angry with you today.
A phrase which makes a lot of people uneasy, is when Jesus said to “Take up your cross”. It makes people uneasy because the cross is an instrument of torturous suffering, terrible pain and an agonizing death. It is certainly not a pleasant image to have in our mind, and it generally doesn’t fill us with peace or confidence to have this image imprinted on us either. This situation is exasperated further when religious teachers use this phrase as a way to hammer legalistic, performance-driven ideas into our brain either; as is often the case in many churches today.
So today in this study, we will be examining this phrase from the perspective of the finished work of Jesus Christ, and what this statement means for us today. Jesus obviously said it for a reason, and it wasn’t to frighten or intimidate people – He knew what He was doing and He knew what He would do for us. As we see the truth of Christ in this area, it will free us from the irrational fear that this statement causes due to lack of understanding of what Jesus truly said.
Have you ever played a word association game? If I say to you “chocolate” what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Word association games are something that I used to play all of the time. And as humans we tend to associate things with words all of the time. If I say to you “love” what do you think of? What if I say “God’s love”? Many of us associate the love of God with ideas and thoughts of human love. We may associate with with a really good feeling of human love, or we may associate it with a really bad feeling of human love depending on our personal experiences… but most of the time we think and behave and have ideas of the love of God really not being much different than the love of a human.
However I want to share with you the truth of the love of God. His love is far superior and much better than even the best love that any human can ever offer. His love is divine. His love is all-encompassing and His love never fails. Today in this study we will be exploring the Divine love of God and how it is so much better than the love of humans. And by seeing this love, you will be able to approach God with a new attitude, free from fear, free from uncertainty and free from the shifting-sand of human ideas and emotions.