Waking up Blessed!!
The Bible says, all scripture is the inspired word of God and for our benefit. So we must believe if Jesus is our Lord and Savior, then all scripture and every promise contain within, is as though to be both received and applied personally, to each and everyone of us.
Hebrews 11:6 NKJ
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Lamentations 3:22-24 NKJ
22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”
MSG says it this way
22-24 God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
How great your faithfulness!
Whether you know it or not, if you're a child of God this morning you are truly blessed. Not just at this seasonal time of the year, but Scripture declares that you are a blessed people every day of the year.
For us to wake up every morning and have a brand-new set of mercy towards anyone and everyone we come in contact with, when you think about it… How hard would it be? It would be impossible! The odds are to impossible to even calculate.
But that's exactly what God does for each and everyone of us every morning. Every day a fresh and brand new start for all of us! How awesome is that! Yes friends, serving God is an awesome Adventure…
How many times have you ever heard someone say or have said yourself that you wished it was Christmas?
Here's something to think about. Because waking up to his mercies and blessings which are new every morning is like waking up to it being...Christmas every day of the year!
Ephesians 1:3-6 MSG
3-6 How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love,
(Which means He chose us...”God took His very own precious, personal time and chose YOU! I want you think about that right now, ponder and realize you are special to God… The moment He laid eyes on you He didn't think about, He chose you!
You were not a second round or third round draft choice, but you were a first round draft choice. Special enough that he chose you from the very beginning!)
continuing in the word… "to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son."
Just so you have a better understanding and realize the importance of what this promise means to the plans that God has for you. I want to define the word lavish a little better, in case your not aware of the description God is using to describe what He truly wants to do for you.
Synonyms for Lavish; generous, liberal, bountiful, openhanded, unstinting, unsparing, free and extravagant!
You see as we read this scripture we see...
that its not a once a year occurrence
but it's an every day,
open unending,
continual outpouring
of his goodness to us....
of his lavish gift-giving
by the hand of his beloved Son!!
Colossians 1:27 NKJ
27. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
You see the world sings a song in December, called Santa Claus is coming to town... and it's a fun song about Christmas, but everybody knows Santa comes and leaves the same day!
However Jesus came before there ever was a Christmas and introduced God's Grace to the world. And His grace message has never ever left, nor has never ever stop completing Gods objective of continually making a way for man to have relationship with Him and be blessed!
What a Gift Giver!!
Jesus already came to town and gave the greatest gift of all!
And you don't have to do anything at all to get it....except receive it! Amen?
When you look at yourself, because of the relationship that you have with His Son.
God wants you to behold as in a mirror the glory of His Son who is in you by His Spirit.
As you do this, His Word says that you are being transformed from glory to glory — from poor to rich, sick to healed, from losing to winning...from victory to victory one after another, with no limitations!
God doesn't see what we see in the mirror, which is our garments, our filthy rags, our actions, or our sin...
He only sees Jesus perfection...In, over and around our lives and He wants to be good to us..because He wants to be good to His Son...and He does it through the Grace that Jesus offers and is in charge of lavishly giving away!
It doesn't matter what time of year it is, because with Jesus it's Christmas every day of the year!
The world, I really mean the accuser, may say to you, “It can’t be that easy.
Christmas every day of the year..who are you trying to kid??
You see…Of all people the accuser knows it's true, because he has experienced Gods goodness first hand and thats
why he tells lies about Gods Amazing Grace!!
he says, come on now...You can’t be transformed just by beholding the glory of Jesus.
if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it...
if it was that easy, there wouldn’t be all the problems in the world there is today!
And the sad thing is, he has far to many in the world convinced of the lie...
that it's not that easy
However, God's word declares a different message…
Gods word says that there Is Hope....
God's Word declares that it is just that easy when you behold the glory of Jesus!
God's Word declares…nothing is impossible, when you put your faith and trust in His ability instead of your own!
How many know that if you tell a lie enough times that people start to believe it?
If you don't think that's possible… Then I guess you've never followed politics very much!
Because the accuser has lied so many times, that a big part of the world...he has convinced into
thinking not so fast, now wait just a minute here,
that’s not the way its been done for the last two thousand years around here,
Everybody knows…If your going to change things, "you" must do something about yourself first!
If you don’t put in effort, nothing will happen. If you don’t start making the changes, nothing will change.”
And when you, and that being the key word here, you make it all about your self effort, the way the world thinks of it...
Your chances for change and success... dramatically have just went out the window!
Remember TBS with God, all things are possible and nothing is Impossible, but with man nothing is possible!
The world will never understand that as you are beholding the glory of the Lord,
He is the successful one in you, He is the one who is doing the work!
And you are being transformed and changed from The inside out...
Something that only God...through his son Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit is able to accomplish!
It's not going to get accomplished by any effort of yours to get ahead in life, but only
by the Spirit of the Lord!
TBS. in Zechariah 4:6 NKJ
6. So he answered and said to me:
“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:
‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’
Says the Lord of hosts.
7. ‘Who are you, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!
And he shall bring forth the capstone
With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’”
Ephesians 2:8-9 KJ
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Grace made it possible, Grace always makes it possible!
That's why Zechariah declared;
Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’
Says the Lord of hosts.
Let me ask you...By your might, by your power, how much is possible?
Very little… If any. But the accuser still tries to use that tiny amount…
To keep you focused on what you think you can do yourself
And it's sad… Because for far to many, he's very successful at convincing them of.
Those are the limitations that the accuser gets a lot of people...
To self impose upon themselves
But life with God and his son Jesus… It's just the opposite
There are no limitations… Because it's not based on our ability,
but it's based solely upon His ability and love that He has for us.
By His Might, By His Power, By His Spirit, is there anything that’s not possible?
Everything is possible through Him and the possibilities are unlimited with the Lord in your life!
I don't know what your Bible says...but i'm going to go out on a limb here and say
that it says the exact same thing that My bible says in;
Phil. 4:13 NKJ
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
And the last time I checked....
"ALL ENCOMPASSES EVERYTHING, IT LEAVES NOTHING UNTOUCHED!"
Yes "All still means All"
Through who? Through who?
Who helps me?....who helped us moment by moment?
Jesus Does!! And to that I say "THANK YOU JESUS" thank you for The Gift of Your Grace!
Not my ability, but His Amazing, Unlimited, Never Ending...
12 baskets left running over...
Net breaking boat sinking load..
over the top...kind of Ability!!
Phil. 4:13 MSG. says it like this; Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.
When God looks at us, if we have a relationship with His Son, He sees His Son’s perfection,
He doesn’t see our imperfections, they were and are washed in the blood, cleansed forever, never to be remembered again.
Thus, when we look in the mirror, we should see the same thing God sees..
His Son Jesus and His Righteousness...
living in us!
And because of that, He has given to us, every benefit that Jesus has available to Him, just as if He was giving them to His own son!
Praise God!
Does anyone remember their parents telling them to share their toys,
with their brothers and sisters, or their friends that came over to play at playtime?
No I'm not making light of anything. But that's how God is with what He has given to Jesus.
He says Jesus, I want you to share everything with your brothers and sisters that I have given to you!
All the benefits that have been provided for us at the cross...
the moment we received what Jesus did for us by dying for our sins
and accepting Him as our Saviour, became ours!
And they're ours to be enjoyed each and every day of the year...
Beautiful gifts to be opened up...each of them filled with His abundant life
appropriate for the day that God has planned out for us.
Can you imagine? The fact that God loves us so much, that He has already placed blessings and gifts prepared for each
and everyone of us, appropriate just for that moment in time each day of our lives?
I just love the words the second verse in the song Lauren Daigle sings called "I will Trust in You" if you haven't heard it, look it up it will surely bless you!
Illus.
Truth is you know what tomorrow brings
There's not a day ahead you have not seen
So let all things be my life and breath
I want what you want Lord and nothing less
I can promise you, if you want what God wants and nothing less, you will never be disappointed!
1 John 4:12-17 NKJ
12. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
13. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
14. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
15. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
17. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
as He is, so are we in this world,
I make it a point to let you know this declaration quite often...
And it's a bold statement, worthy of repetition....and I can and will keep repeating it...but there comes a time and I have to ask you... It's one thing to hear it...but do you believe it to be true in your own life??
Me applying this promise in my life will get it working for me, but not for you!
You have to believe and apply this promise for yourself, into your own life to have it start working for you!
You should, it’s the word of God...And it's a word that he wants you to be aware of
Its pretty straight forward isn’t it? There is precision and clarity written there,
as He is, so are we in this world,
(not as He is and if we do everything we know to do.. or can ask advice from others to do, in this world)
No...what it says is "what He has we have"
And to that I say Hallelujah thank you Jesus!!!!
Right living...or the people who are trying to tell you how to live right
is not going to reveal this revelation in your life, that God has for you…
Only right believing…in the ability of God's son Jesus
Can make this promised truth...real in your life
You don't deserve Grace,
you can't buy Grace,
you can't earn Grace,
but you can have Grace
in the abundance that only Jesus can deliver...
Remember what our earlier text said?
Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
How much of Gods extravagances can one person handle?...How much can you believe Him for?
The word declares all things are possible to him who can and does BELIEVE!!
Just because someone doesn't receive everything Good God has for them, doesn't change
the fact that they are available in abundance for them to receive!
Because He has as much Grace as you care to try to receive each and every day of the year, if you can just believe, receive and accept it.
How good is God?… no words could accurately describe how good God is, but
Let me tell you, "He's just that good"…
To give you nothing less than his very best from the moment He introduced Jesus
to the entire world! God wants us to rest in what He has and does for us and to be
assured in this life that He has given us!
There is nothing that’s been left out, He thought of everything we would ever have need of and
included it with His Love He introduced that very first Christmas so long ago!
He not only Loved us enough to send His Son to redeem us, but Loved us enough to give us access
to everything Jesus has as well, when we establish a personal relationship with Him!
Do you know Him today?
Are you waking up to His mercies and living in His Extravagant Love?
If not, why not? Why not Start to see, what God already sees...
believe and know that He wants His very best for you in your life...
Amen?
