CONDEMNATION IS THE ROOT CAUSE

By Joseph Prince – Posted June 15, 2017

Romans 8:1, NASB

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

When you have a plant with sickly leaves, it would be foolish to just treat the leaves without knowing the root cause of the problem. Similarly, when “leaves” of sickness, poverty and destructive habits start sprouting in your life, you need to know what the root cause is.

Experts will tell you that it is stress. They may go a little deeper and say that it is fear—fear of the future, of rejection, of loss, of death and so on. But is fear really the root? Or is there something deeper than fear?

oThe Bible shows us that the most fundamental cause of problems in our lives is condemnation. With condemnation comes fear. Fear then induces stress which brings about the symptoms of the curse.

This is what happened to Adam. Long before he faced poverty, sickness and eventually death, he had stress. Because of his sin, God told him, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.” (Genesis 3:19) Sweat speaks of stress. But before there was stress, there was fear because Adam told God, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:10)

But what made Adam fearful? Adam only feared when, seeing his nakedness, he realized that he had sinned against God. He felt so ashamed and condemned that he hid himself. God then asked him, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11) There was no one else in the garden other than Adam and Eve, so we know that it was probably the devil who told Adam that he was naked.

My friend, condemnation is the root cause of the symptoms of the curse manifesting in your life. That is why you need to know that at the cross, God took all your sins, put them on Jesus and unleashed the full fury of His wrath against them until Jesus cried out, “It is finished!”

All your sins have been completely punished in the body of Christ who was condemned for you. The root cause of all your problems has been dealt with. This means that the devil cannot enforce the curse in your life apart from your receiving condemnation. So come to the place of no condemnation and no sick leaves will sprout in your life!

Thought For The Day

Condemnation is the root cause of the symptoms of the curse manifesting in your life.

Just Obey

By Joyce Meyer - Posted June 15, 2017

But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.
—1 Corinthians 2:14 AMPC

Many non-Christians don’t really understand the Gospel. This isn’t a new thing that is unique to our day. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he pointed out that the Greeks thought it was foolish. And to the natural mind, it is. God sent Jesus, the sinless One, to earth for the express purpose of dying for wicked, sinful people. To unbelievers that is foolish. The natural man cannot understand the power of the Gospel—it can only be “spiritually discerned.”

This is just as true in daily living. Sometimes God speaks to us, and if we try to explain it to people who don’t know Jesus, it doesn’t make sense. For example, I remember one couple that went to Africa as missionaries. They had no denomination or large church behind them, providing support. They sold everything they owned, including their wedding rings.

“Their wedding rings?” a skeptical relative asked. “You mean God wouldn’t provide for you, so you had to do it yourself?”

The wife smiled. “No, I think we had to decide if comfort and having things like everyone else was more important than serving Jesus.” The couple never doubted they were doing the right thing, but it never made sense to the skeptical relative.

It is difficult for many people to hear God speak and to obey without question. But Jesus did just that—and not only on the cross. John 4 relates the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. What most modern readers don’t get is the introduction to the story: It was necessary for Him to go through Samaria (John 4:4 AMPC). Jesus had been in Jerusalem, and He wanted to go north to Galilee. The country of the Samaritans was in between, but Jesus didn’t have to take the route that passed that way. He could have taken another route and avoided going through Samaria. Most Jews avoided going through Samaria because they hated the Samaritans for mixing and marrying with people from other nations.

But Jesus went to Samaria, even though it wasn’t what we would have called the normal or reasonable thing to do. He went because there was a woman—and eventually a whole village—that needed to hear the message that only He could deliver.

The natural people—those whose minds have not been enlightened by the Holy Spirit—scoff at us. What we do doesn’t always make sense to them. But then, who says our actions have to make sense? The biblical principle is that the natural or carnal mind doesn’t understand spiritual things. Too often, a thought comes to us that we push aside, saying, “This doesn’t make any sense,” and we actually ignore divine guidance. It’s true, of course, that the devil can flood our minds with wild thoughts, but if we pray and open ourselves to the Spirit, we soon know the difference.

Consider the story of Peter who had fished all night and caught nothing. Jesus, a carpenter, came along and told him, a professional fisherman, Put out into the deep [water], and lower your nets for a haul (Luke 5:4 AMPC).

Peter reasoned with Jesus, reminding Him that they had worked all night and caught nothing. But to his credit, Peter, exhausted from a long and unsuccessful night’s work, heard the Lord. I’ll say it again, Peter heard the Lord and said, …But on the ground of Your word, I will lower the nets [again] (v. 5). And Peter was not disappointed. They caught so many fish that the nets almost broke.

This is an important principle of obedience that we must grasp: obey instead of reasoning. Or as one of my friends calls it, “The Nevertheless Principle.” She says that sometimes she feels God leading her to do things that don’t always make a lot of sense. When she hears herself expressing that sentiment, she quickly adds, “Nevertheless.” Then she obeys.

That is really all God asks of us: to obey instead of reasoning.

Wise and wonderful God, sometimes things don’t make sense to me, but nevertheless, I want to be in Your will. Help me to develop spiritual discernment, and don’t let me miss a divine opportunity to serve You. Teach me to trust You more, and help me to obey You quickly instead of trying to reason things out. Thank You for hearing me today. Amen.

It's Yours

By Joel Osteen – Posted June 15, 2017

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE:

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God;"
(Ephesians 2:8, NKJV)

TODAY'S WORD:

If I stopped by your house and brought you a beautifully wrapped gift and set it in your living room, that gift would be yours. It’s in your home; I gave it to you. There’s nothing you could do to make it “more” yours or “less” yours. Now, you could see that present and be so excited. You could call your friends and tell them about it. You could even write me a thank you note; however, you really can’t enjoy the gift until you open it. It wouldn’t do you any good until you put it to use. In other words, you have to receive that gift before it affects your life. 

Friend, it’s the same way with spiritual gifts. God has a package of grace, favor, mercy, forgiveness, blessing, joy, peace and so much more available to you. But you have to receive it by faith in order for it to affect your life. You can’t earn it. You can’t pay for it. You simply have to receive it by faith. 

Today, if you’ve never received the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ, that’s the first gift to receive. Click here for more information. Then once you become a child of His, you can partake of His glorious inheritance. You can receive every spiritual gift and blessing He has in store for you!

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Father God, I bless You today. Thank You for Your goodness and faithfulness in my life. I receive, by faith, every gift You have for me. Open the eyes of my heart that I may see all the good things You have in store for me in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Believable!

By DR. David Jeremiah – Posted June 15, 2017

Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Revelation 21:2

Recommended Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:6-7

“Unbelievable!” is one of those expressions in our culture that is often used without a lot of forethought. If an athlete is interviewed following a victory in a championship game, he may say, “It was unbelievable!” But it is entirely believable since the scoreboard says they just won the game!

We are tempted to say “Unbelievable!” when we read the description of the eternal New Jerusalem in Revelation 21. Since no one has seen the New Jerusalem (except for the apostle John in a vision), such a city might indeed seem unbelievable. But therein lies the crux of the matter. In the Christian life we don’t see in order to believe; we believe in order to see. God asks us to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Even though we have not yet seen the New Jerusalem, we believe it is true because it is described in Scripture. We walk by faith in God’s promises, faith leading us to eventually see what we have believed.

 Are you looking forward to living in the New Jerusalem? Read Revelation 21, and instead of saying “Unbelievable!” say “Believable!”

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”
Augustine