Tag: #Joshuaandcaleb

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Victory Strategy: Obedience – Part 1

1 John 5:4-5 NLT reveal to us that “…every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”

In these two verses, God has given believers in Christ a certain truth and a sure strategy for victory over evil, which is to win battles by a choice of obedience to His faith inside of us. 

Seated together.

The Greek Word for “victory” in 1 John 5:4 is niké and means “conquest.” This is “a particular expression of victory, resulting from receiving (obeying) the faith Christ imparts (i.e., His in-worked persuasion)” (HELPS Word-studies). 

Obeying this faith means to believe it as truth and set ourselves to act accordingly.

This is an overcoming faith that the TPT version of verse 4 describes as “the victorious power that triumphs over the world.” Therefore, we believers of Jesus Messiah defeat false powers and conquer the world by believing in Jesus as the Son of God.

This kind of faith-believing obedience means to have confidence in and put trust in Jesus as Lord. It means we are persuaded to do God’s will by the faith He deposits in us by His Spirit.

Faith-believing obedience is a pre-requisite to receiving the nature and character of God in our souls, loving others and receiving harvest blessings. It is necessary to overcome issues personally or corporately.

1 John 5:1 AMPC tells us, “EVERYONE WHO believes (adheres to, trusts, and relies on the fact) that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah) is a born-again child of God; and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of Him (His offspring).”

1 John 5:2 TPT goes on to say, “This is how we can be sure that we love the children of God: by having a passionate love for God and by obedience to his commands.”

This said, it’s possible to have faith without believing in it, because we don’t recognize or understand faith. God deposits faith in His children. So, it’s there. But if we don’t know this or know how to apply it in our everyday lives, we won’t be victorious in our lifetime on earth.

The Israelites are an example of this. We know most of the Israelites got stuck in the desert due to their unbelief, which is disobedience. 

I believe their root issue was a lack of the knowledge of God’s grace and love for them due to their hard personal experiences in Egypt (worldliness).

The Israelites’ lives were indeed burdensome due to their enslavement to the world (Egypt), which was a consequence of their sin they had brought upon themselves. I believe, in their hardship, they grew weary and confused obedience to God with burden.

1 John 5:3 NLT says, ” Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.”

The AMPC version of 1 John 5:3 says God’s commandments are not “irksome (burdensome, oppressive, or grievous).”

The study note for 1 John 5:3 in the TPT version says, “God’s grace empowers us to love, which makes His commands a delight instead of a duty. The spontaneity of love is never crushed by the commands of a loving God.”

So, like the Israelites, if obedience to God feels burdensome to us, then we need deliverance from lies and unbelief into God’s truth of lovingkindness and grace.

It can be done. 

Joshua and Caleb received it.

Recovery can be as simple as repentance and receiving God’s forgiveness: forgiving those who caused us to feel hopeless; forgiving ourselves for behaving in hopelessness; asking God to enable us to see ourselves and others as He does—through eyes of truth, grace and equality; and helping us to awaken to His abounding love. 

In the New Testament (Mark 9:24 NIV), the father of a long-time possessed boy experienced a reality shift for Jesus to do the impossible when he turned his mind toward truth and grace, saying to Jesus, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Like this father and son, God desires to answer our urgent battle cries for impossible needs. He desires to bring us from a horrible place to a happy place—spirit, soul and body—by His Spirit and for His glory.

It can only happen in a place of faith-believing in The Lord and His goodness, because we won’t submit to anything (or anyone) we don’t believe in favorably, unless we are enslaved to deception. 

God has a new reality of breakthrough and increase for those who shift their hope and faith entirely on Him alone and obey His will.

We only receive that for which we believe. So, know Christ. Know your worth in Christ, Know His Word and expect His finest provision as you align with Him in every circumstance.

Since we prosper as our souls prosper, we live out what we believe. 

When we get it right, by the grace of God, we’ll see greater and greater harvests.

To Him be the glory. 

Join me next week for Part 2 of Victory Strategy: Obedience.

This video-devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.

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Solid Foundation – Part 1

The title of a sermon, I heard nearly two decades ago, has always stuck with me: It was Keep Your Tent Pegs Light.

While I don’t remember the sermon, I realize God has highlighted this title to me recently to remind me of an important message for this hour: 

That we are to continue to walk in holiness as we move forward with God and grow in His promises.

First, we must believe that we have one solid foundation, which is Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth and Christ’s resurrection life within us (Jn 14:17, 1 Tim 3:15).

1 Corinthians 3:11 AMPC tells us, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is [already] laid, which is Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).”

Acts 17:28 says, “For in Him we live and move and have our being…”

We know that Christ, as our firm foundation, doesn’t change; but He changes us. 

In this, we get to trust Him as we walk through the process of transformation to greater promise, which is God instilling His higher standard as He defines our path and delineates our boundaries—first inwardly, then outwardly.

Like Abraham and the Israelites, who moved with God into the unknown-to-them, we are to grow in the grace of pulling up stakes, departing from our past and moving from glory to glory as God continues to pour into us and out of us. 

We are to continually acknowledge Him and rely on Him during increase, as graciously held pegs re-set into holy ground (Is 22:23).

Move by move, every time the ancients of faith pierced the ground with their pegs of identity, purpose and commitment, their faith had an opportunity to grow; and their houses became increasingly established in a secure foundation of glorious new dominion with The Lord.

Like them, we are to go from Him to more of Him in our soul.

From more of Him to much more of Him.

And from much more of Him to much, much more. 

Psalms 18:31 TPT asks, “Could there be any other god like you? You are the only God to be worshiped, for there is not a more secure foundation to build my life upon than you.”

So, in this journey of consecration and fruit production, we are to keep our fierce focus on God and live in the honor of worship to Him alone, turning from all wickedness (Is 26:13, Pr 3:6, Is 19:13). 

As we align with our Chief Cornerstone, He will strengthen us, reveal what we need to know and ultimately deliver us into an expansive reward to make His Name great (Ps 119:38). 

Our full dependence on God invites His fulfillment of promise (Jn 1:16).

Just like Joshua, who was known to be carefully obedient, and Caleb, who was known to be wholehearted, our reality-walk will expand and go long from believing God’s promises; to acting on them; then to experiencing the manifest heart of God, which is to have and to hold Him in the possession of good, exponential fruit. For His glory.

It is a walk where we experience all the pieces come together.

We can be encouraged in this process by Ephesians 2:20-22 TPT, which say: 

You are rising like the perfectly fitted stones of the temple; and your lives are being built up together upon the ideal foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, and best of all, you are connected to the Head Cornerstone of the building, the Anointed One, Jesus Christ himself! This entire building is under construction and is continually growing under his supervision until it rises up completed as the holy temple of the Lord himself. This means that God is transforming each one of you into the Holy of Holies, his dwelling place, through the power of the Holy Spirit living in you!

So, in order for our reality to change for the better, we have to embrace The Lord’s higher ways and keep Him first and center as He reveals Himself and delivers us. 

We must believe God at His Word beyond our circumstances and trust that He sees us as deserving such an inheritance through Christ, our Savior, who makes a way by grace where we could not go otherwise.

We must willingly come to operate in the kind of balance that excels in both God’s Spirit and applied wisdom to the practical—remaining on solid ground.

This balance is the key to, and the fruit of, a life built on a firm foundation that is stable and, therefore, does not waffle or waver but produces what God intended.

For those who are not there yet, there’s hope for those who remember Him—the repentant and the willing.

He offers us an example in Isaiah 19:18-23, where we see people in five Egyptian (worldly) cities turn and commit themselves to God in worship and intimately knowing Him as their Lord. As a result, God revealed Himself as a promise keeper: He healed and restored them, and He called them His people. 

So, friends, how about you?

Are you ready to faithfully walk on the solid ground of wholeness, where you will see your life come together in purposeful ways?

Are you ready to trust God more in a greater role? To establish His Kingdom even more in the earth through you as you abide in Him? 

There is no need to fear; but there is a need for faith, as God raises a standard, does a new thing and helps us move past our past in His overcoming grace (Is 43:18-19).

Join me next week for Part 2 of Solid Foundation. 

This video-devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.