Christ Is Risen - Matt Maher

Only Two Reasons

Now we may infer from any defeat of ours that it is due either to lack of faith or failure to obey. No other reason can suffice. Conceivably a defeat could flow from both these reasons; if not from both, then from one or the other. We ought to learn how to live in Christ by faith, never seeing or thinking of ourselves outside of Him. Learn to believe daily that we are in Christ and that whatever is true of Him is true of us. Likewise, through the power of God we must learn daily to keep our consecration unspotted. Count all things as refuse, for there is nothing in the world we cannot relinquish for the Lord and nothing that we should want to keep for ourselves. Let us be disposed to respond positively to God's demands, however difficult or contrary to the flesh they may be. For God no cost is too high. Anything can be sacrificed if only we may please Him. Let us daily learn to be obedient children.

I'm A Soul Man

The soul which comes under the Holy Spirit's authority is a restful one. Once we busily planned, today we calmly trust the Lord. Once we were flushed with anxieties, today we are like a child quieted at its mother's breast. Once we entertained many thoughts and ambitions, today we consider God's will best and rest ourselves in Him. In obeying the Lord wholly, we rejoice in heart fully. With complete consecration comes perfect peace. "As bondmen of Christ doing the will of God from the soul" (Eph. 6.6 Darby). We do not rely upon the soul to execute God's will, rather we perform His will from the soul, that is, with our whole heart. The soul which once rebelled against God's desire is now perfectly committed to Him through the operation of the cross. That which carried out its own will, or tried to do God's will by its own idea, is now of one heart with God in all things.

Israel Houghton ... Your Presence Is Heaven

Keep On Obeying

James 1:21-26 (WNT) So strip yourselves of everything impure and all the evils prevailing around you, and in humble spirit welcome the message which when rooted in your hearts is able to save your souls. Keep on obeying this message; do not merely listen to it, and so deceive yourselves. Because if anyone merely listens to the message without obeying it, he is like a man who looks in a mirror at his own face, for he looks and then goes off and at once forgets how he looked. But the man who looks at the flawless law that makes men free, and keeps on looking, proving himself to be, not a forgetful hearer but an actual doer of what it requires, will be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives himself, his religious worship is worthless. 

We Know

(1 Peter 4.19)
"Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful Creator" .

Many people know God as the Creator but not as Father; believers, though, should experience Him not only as Father but also as Creator. As the latter God reveals to us His power. By this we will understand and acknowledge that the whole universe is in fact in His hand. Formerly it was hard for us to believe the idea that things in the world could not move against His will; but now we know that every element in the universe, be it human, natural, or supernatural is under His careful scrutiny and clever ordering. We now acknowledge that all things come to us either through His order or by His permission. A soul governed by the Holy Spirit is a trusting one.

I Am The True Vine

John 15: 1-4 (The Living Bible)  
I am the True Vine, and my Father is the Gardener. 
He lops off every branch that doesn't produce. 
And He prunes those branches that bear fruit for even larger crops.
He has already tended you by pruning you back for greater strength
and usefulness by means of the commands I gave you. Take care to
live in Me, and let Me live in you. For a branch can't produce fruit
when severed from the vine. Nor can you be fruitful apart from Me.

yield yourselves to God

"neither yield your members instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God as alive from among the dead and your members instruments of righteousness to God" (Rom. 6.13 Darby). 

This is the essential element of consecration. If we persist in holding on to something which God wants us to relinquish, sin shall have dominion over us, and our reckoning shall be futile. If we fail to yield our members as godly instruments of righteousness to speak and do what He desires and go where He directs, should we be surprised we are not yet delivered from sin! Whenever we refuse to relinquish or we offer resistance to God, sin shall return to its dominion. Under such circumstances we naturally lose the power to reckon, that is, to believe God's Word. In our ceasing to exercise faith and to reckon, can we still be said to be positionally in Christ? Yes, but we are living no longer in Him according to the sense of the "abide in me" of John 15. Accordingly we are unqualified to experience what is factual in Christ, even our crucifixion!

Jesus said:

John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in union with me and I in union with him will bear abundant fruit, because you cannot do anything cut off from union with me.

Dissatisfied

The procedure of the operation of the Holy Spirit in us is first to create in us a longing, causing us to be dissatisfied with our current life; for the start of retrogression in one’s spiritual life is satisfaction, whereas the commencement of progress is dissatisfaction. The Holy Spirit does the work of emptying before He does the work of filling. God hollows us out in order to then fill us. Hollowing out is God’s means, but filling up is God’s end. For the purpose of emptying us, the Holy Spirit will allow us to meet difficulties. All these difficulties are arranged by the Holy Spirit to lead us to deeper seeking. The victory at Jericho cannot be used to fight against the next and smaller city of Ai. We cannot use yesterday’s huge victory to fight today’s small battle. Past experience is not sufficient for present need. God never asks us to eat yesterday’s manna.

Dead Man Walking

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”  Galatians 2:20

“I live yet not I.”  This statement should resonate deep within those who have yielded the totality of their being to the Lord.

There is a process that we must go through for this higher realm of identity with Jesus to become a personal reality in our daily life experience.  Jesus is to become the manifest head of His Body (us) because we have become so transparent that only He can be seen.  This is the end-time “witness” that will greatly affect the world.

“But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses to Me….”  Acts 1:8

In the original, the word translated “witness” is “martyr.”  To the extent that we die to our self-life, we become the expression of the life of Jesus.  We ourselves are to be this witness (You shall be witnesses).  As we come into a personal relationship with Jesus, and become one with Him in intent and purpose, His life will be seen through our lives.

Few of us will ever have the opportunity to give our lives as a martyr, but all of us can become a living martyr.  We are, by divine design, capable of becoming this witness – “I live yet not I.”

In Your Presence....Elevation Worship

The Spirit of the Overcomer...Part 1

Rev 5:10 “And hast made us unto our God kings and priests:

                  and we shall reign on the earth.”

We must become faithful and consecrated Priests before we can operate with authority as overcoming Kings. As Priests we are a people who are totally yielded to the Lord in intimacy and love. We live a life in the secret place of His presence. We are holy and set apart unto Him because we have allowed the Lord to fully capture our hearts. We are undone and forever changed by God's glory, and we live for one thing to feed upon the Lord, The Tree of Life, The Bread of Life and to manifest His glory on the earth. This is the Priestly calling and enabling.

Your Love Is Extravagant....Casting Crowns

Overcometh...

1. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches: To him that OVERCOMETH will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” –Revelation 2:7

2. “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that OVERCOMETH shall not be hurt of the second death.” –Revelation 2:10-11

3. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that OVERCOMETH will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” –Revelation 2:17

4. “And he that OVERCOMETH, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of My Father. And I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” –Revelation 2:26-29

5. “He that OVERCOMETH, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” –Revelation 3:5-6

6. “Him that OVERCOMETH will I make a pillar in the Temple of My God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” –Revelation 3:12-13

7. “To him that OVERCOMETH will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” –Revelation 3:21-22