Tag: #toGodbetheglory

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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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Youthful Resurrection – Part 2

The Word I believe The Lord gave me regarding the dream in Part 1 of this series is precisely this: 

Now is the beginning of the manifestation of a fresh, new expanse for God’s sons and daughters. The ones who endured long-suffering, processed through it God’s way, and continue to receive the resurrected life of Christ are coming into true (original) longstanding.

God has strengthened His sons and daughters in Him through a process of long-suffering to be able to stand long in their new expanse outwardly. 

In regards to this dream, the Word of Knowledge, “youthful resurrection,” essentially means to newly stand in the new place.

Youthful, by definition, means “new” and refers to a lot more than chronological age in scripture.

Our “new” covenant in Christ is both new in respect to time (Strong’s #3501 – or the Greek word neos; He 12:24) and in respect to character (Strong’s #2537 – or the Greek word kainos; He 9:15).

In this recent prophetic dream, in which two young men were shifted from their enclosed dwelling place into an expanse of destiny (see Part 1), they were sons of God, which meant that they had already been born again and were led by Holy Spirit.

So, they had overcome their old (original) nature and character with which they were born into the world. 

“New” as character, or a kainos kind of new, has to do with quality and form (or innovation) and freshness in development or opportunity. It’s an uncommon, unheard of, superior kind of new (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon).

It is what scripture refers to in Revelation 21:5 TPT, where God says, “I am making everything to be new and fresh.”

It’s about God bringing us up higher in terms of quality and quantity.

There are two key scriptures that particularly reference this kainos kind of “new” (Vine’s):

One is 2 Corinthians 5:17 TPT, which pertains to a new-man character. It says, “Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.” 

The second scripture is Galatians 6:15 AMPC, in which Paul references being made a new creation in Christ, saying it is “the result of a new birth and new nature in Christ.” 

There is a finality that goes along with what Paul said. He implies that what God has cut away or pruned (flesh) has passed away and will not be resurrected. (In the Old Testament, this relates metaphorically to circumcision and Passover in Joshua 5:2-12, just before they ate the fruit of the land and the produce of Canaan that same year.)

Paul goes on to say that “The only thing that really matters is living by the transforming power of this wonderful new creation life” (Ga 6:15 TPT). 

We know this as “resurrection life,” which happens inside of us and also in Heaven.

So, in the dream God gave me, those two young men had to be made new in character before they could stand long in the expanse of a new place.  

This is God’s order of sequence in the miraculous process of resurrection, which, in this case, means to rise and stand. 

Greater assignments require that we die to flesh and come into agreement with Christ.  

So, compromise has to go for our next-level divine destiny to manifest (1 Co 5:7).

In the dream, once the two young men were taken past their limited ways, by the power of God’s mercy, they discovered their deeper purpose and were instantly catapulted from an inward sitting (receiving) position to one of outwardly and standing (action) in their new expanse. 

The God of Amen (which means “so let it be”), who is The God of Faithfulness and The God of Truth, launched these two sons into the new place of divine destiny when He knew they were ready and could continue to live holy in an expanded blessing.

In this regard, Colossians 3:10 TPT says, “For you have acquired new creation life which is continually being renewed into the likeness of the One who created you; giving you the full revelation of God.”

These sons of God in the dream understood that God desires that we walk with Him in new (neos) discoveries and join Him in new (neos) places as in Isaiah 40:31 NLT, which says, “those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”

They understood God was doing a new thing and had matured them to the point where they could live disciplined lives with self-restraint and prudence (Ti 2:6). They were ready for a new beginning, a neos kind of youthful resurrection. 

It was time (neos) for them to cross into the dream of their hearts that God manifested for them.

So, friends, are you ready and willing to be launched into your manifest dreams God’s way?

If your answer is “yes,” then it’s time to cross over. 

This is my prayer for you…

“I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted him to the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm” (Ep 1:19-20 TPT)!

To God be the Glory.

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

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God’s Glory On Flag Day

On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed a resolution that allowed the country to adopt its first official flag: the 13-star and stripe banner. Later, an act of Congress, signed by President Harry Truman in 1949, designated the anniversary of this resolution as National Flag Day. 

This act was signed 70 years ago this year. 

Also, three years before President Truman signed this act of Congress, President Trump was born … yes, on National Flag Day 1946. 

God birthed both an act and a promise—signs of opportunity for complete restoration—victory through unity in Christ for our nation.

Song of Songs 2:4 assures us that God’s banner over us is love. 

According to Strong’s Concordance, banner can mean sign, signal or standard. 

Moses experienced God raising up a standard of authoritative triumph in Exodus 17:15 as he surrendered to divine victory to rule over a nation of wandering Amalekites at Rephidim. As a sacrifice and a remembrance to God, Moses built an altar there, naming it “The Lord Is My Banner.” 

Prominent Episcopalian, lawyer and poet, Francis Scott Key, knew Jehovah-Nissi’s miraculous victory too.

Anchored eight miles away from Ft. McHenry, on a sloop, during the Battle of Baltimore in September 1814, Key wrote the poem that became our national anthem. 

Key witnessed local commissioned seamstress Mary Pickersgill’s two wool 15-star-and-stripe banners reign over the fort—a small “storm” flag, which measured 17 by 25 feet and flew during the bombardment by the British, and a larger garrison flag, which measured 30 by 42 feet and was raised the morning of Sept. 14, 1814, when the British retreated.

Key saw the battle from darkness to “the dawn’s early light.” 

Moses saw the battle from morning to sunset, when a new day begins, according to the Hebrew calendar (Ex. 17:12). 

Jesus is the standard Father has raised up for our new beginning (Isa. 11:10). What is Jesus, our miracle-sign, birthing through you to co-rule and co-reign over in this new day? Do you also see His victory as your co-labor with Him?

When we surrender to God, we surrender to divine victory.  Have you seen His greater victory after your storm?

Prayer

Lord Our Banner (Jehovah-Nissi), Thank You for Your banner strategy of victorious love for me. Help me to be brave like Moses and Joshua in prayer and Word. Help me to trade in my stones of hindrance (Isa. 62:10) for Your stone-of-treasure foundation (Isa. 54:11). Open my eyes to see Your compassionate banner of love and victory over me during and after my storms—the resurrection of new life evangelism that flows from You, through me and beyond me for Your glory, honor and greater good of nations. Thank You for making me into a glory carrier for Your Great Name. Amen. 

Scriptures

Lamentations 3:22-24 MEV – “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed; His compassions do not fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him.'”

Isaiah 11:10 TPT – “On that day, the root of Jesse will be lifted up as a miracle-sign to rally the people. Gentiles will diligently seek him, and his resting place will be glorious!”

Psalm 37:6 TPT – “He will appear as your righteousness, as sure as the dawning of a new day. He will manifest as your justice, as sure and strong as the noonday sun.”

Psalm 37:20 TPT – “All the enemies of God will perish. For the wicked have only a momentary value, a fading glory.”

Proverbs 4:18 TPT – “But the lovers of God walk on the highway of light, and their way shines brighter and brighter until they bring forth the perfect day.”

Isaiah 54:11 TPT – “You unhappy one, storm-tossed and troubled, I am ready to rebuild you with precious stones and embed your foundation with sapphires.”

Ephesians 6:10, 13 TPT – ” . . . Be supernaturally infused with strength through your life-union with the Lord Jesus. Stand victorious with the force of his explosive power flowing in and through you…you must wear all the armor that God provides so you’re protected as you confront the slanderer, for you are destined for all things and will rise victorious.”

Isaiah 62:10 TPT – “Pass through, pass through the gates, and go from old to new. Prepare a new path for the people. Build! Build up a highway for them to come to me! Remove every hindrance and unfurl a banner for the nations!”

Psalm 36:5 TPT – “But you, O Lord, your mercy-seat love is limitless, reaching higher than the highest heavens. Your great faithfulness is infinite, stretching over the whole earth. 

The Star-Spangled Banner excerpts by Francis Scott Key

“Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”

Twenty-two years ago, God enabled me to write my first cover story for a major city newspaper on the topic of Flag Day. At the time, it was the 220thanniversary of the flag resolution. This article was re-published on CharismaNews.com at 2:00 pm. Rabbi Jonathan Cahn says the number 2 in Hebrew can mean change, especially in regards to newness of life. So change for the better is what I’m believing. How about you? Scroll down and comment below.

This article graciously appeared online at SpiritLed Woman Magazine and Charisma News on Flag Day, June 14, 2019 under the title “How God Birthed a Prophetic Act and Promise on June 14.”