LIVING SACRIFICE

Romans 12:1 (NKJV) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

God has redeemed us, and in His sight, we are new creations!  We are the very righteousness of God, in Christ Jesus.  Because of the death of Jesus on the cross and His shed blood, our spirit man, the real us, is alive and one with Him.

Our bodies, though, have not been fully redeemed yet.  They will be at the return of Jesus Christ, but what this verse is saying is that we have some work to do, by the strength of the Holy Spirit living within our spirit.  You see, God has placed Himself within us to help us overcome the struggles of our flesh.

If left to itself, the flesh would do all kinds of crazy things.  It would want to destroy itself with over-eating, over-indulging in fleshly things, and just doing things that would harm it.  But God has asked us to make these bodies living sacrifices to Him, and He has placed His strength within us to do it.

It would be one thing for God to ask us to do it, and then leave us to ourselves to accomplish it.  This would only work with strong willpower or strong self-control, which I have seen fail too many times.  But God has given us His grace, and this empowers us to be world overcomers. 

So you see, you are not on your own.  You are not thrown out there to the wolves to fight constantly.  God wants you to enter into His rest, knowing that with the Greater One in you, you will present your body to Him, holy and acceptable.

Remember, do not live in the guilt of a mistake.  Trust Him that He is bigger than any mistake that you might make, and He has delivered you from anything that the enemy might throw at you.

Confession:  Today, I present my body to God as a living sacrifice.  God does not want a dead sacrifice, but a living one.  I know today that He will empower me to overcome any test, trial, or temptation that the evil one may bring against me.

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STAND UNDER GRACE

Romans 6:14 (NKJV) For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

I love this verse!  It is so positive and right to the point.  Sin shall not have dominion over me.  Not maybe.  Not we will see.  Sin shall not have dominion over me!  On the cross, our Jesus defeated the devil and has given us the victory.  On the cross, my sins were laid on Him and now I am free of sin.

Many believe when you say that, it gives people a freedom to sin, but that is so far from the truth.  You see, when we understand that we are saved by grace and there was nothing we could do, and that it was all the work of Jesus and our heavenly Father, it gives us the empowerment to overcome sin.

I have found that as I confess what Jesus has already done for me, it breaks the enemy’s stronghold over me.  (I can find these truths in the letters written to the church).

There is nothing greater than to know that the Greater One lives in us and He empowers us to be world overcomers.  Remember, the Word says in 1 John 4:4, “…He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”  It also says in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

So today, do not dwell on your shortcomings.  We all have plenty of them.  Instead, dwell on Jesus!  See Him as living inside of you.  You are a pure and clean vessel, because sin shall not have dominion over you.  You are not under law, but under grace.  Thank God for the blood that washes you white as snow!

Confession: Today, I declare that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.  I declare that the Greater One lives in me, and He empowers me to overcome the dictates of the flesh.

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SING PRAISES TO GOD

Psalm 75:9-10 (NKJV) But as for me, I will declare it forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. 10 And all the horns of the wicked He will cut off, but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up.

Ever wonder why we sing praises to God?  I know there are many: He is worthy, all creation worships Him, He deserves our praise, and many more.  These are all true and good but today, I want to look at a different reason we sing praise to Him.

When I praise Him, it causes me to stop thinking about me and all of my problems.  It gets me thinking about Him: the Great Problem-Solver.  When I take time to focus my attention and mind on the Glorious One, the King of kings and Lord of lords, all of my problems become so small.

When I am not praising Him, I have a tendency to think of all the issues that I am going through.  But when my mind is set on Him, there is no problem, no situation that I see, that cannot be fixed.  He is the Creator of all good things, and when the enemy brings bad situations in, we need to praise God for the answer out of the mess.

Praise and worship is such an unselfish thing.  You are giving your Father God your spirit, soul, and body.  It is a complete giving of self.  In life, there is nothing that comes close to it except for the joining of a husband and wife.  It is that intimate!

So, do not worry about what this person or that person is going to say.  Enter into your bedroom and close the door, and let it be just you and your Father.  Let His love pour into you as you pour your love into Him.

Confession: Today, I am going to look at my praise life and see if it is lacking.  If it is, I am going to take the time to love my Father more, and tell Him how special He is to me.

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OVERCOMERS

Revelation 12:11 (NKJV) “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

God wants us to be world overcomers!  As we see in the Word of God, this is possible.  So if God wants this and it is possible, how do I go about being the world overcomer that God says I can be?  Well, this verse shows us how.

The first step to being an overcomer is to be under the blood of Jesus Christ.  You might ask, what does that mean?  Do I need to pour His blood on me every day?  No, this means that when you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you are placed under His blood. 

There is no work in this.  It is all by faith in what He has done, not by what we have to do.  Too many times, Christians try to work for their salvation, but we need to remember that it is a free gift through accepting what God has already done for us.  It is not by works that we are saved.  It is by faith.

The next part of this verse talks about the word of our testimony.  Faith always has a good testimony; a good report.  When you start speaking God's Word like it is true, like you have it already, you will see a drastic change in your life.  Jesus did this over and over in His earthly ministry, and we need to do the same thing.

We need to find out what the Word says about what we would like, and start saying that Word instead of the situation.  This will make us a world overcomer.  Abraham believed God before He ever saw his promise fulfilled, and believing for a child when you are a hundred and your wife is in her nineties is pretty amazing!

So today, look to Him and believe.  Look to the finished work of the cross and thank God that you do overcome by His blood and His Word.

Confession: I am a world overcomer because of the blood of Jesus and the Word of God!  I do not love this world, or the things of this world.  My love is for God.

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WAIT FOR HIM

Lamentations 3:25 (NKJV) The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

God, our Heavenly Father, looks for those who want Him.  God has given each of us a free will.  He does not push Himself on anyone.  But for those who are hungry for Him and wait for Him, look out!  Good things are coming your way.

Like an earthly father who desires fellowship with his children, so our Heavenly Father desires fellowship with us.  From the very beginning, God created Adam and Eve for fellowship.  He desired a family, just as a husband and wife desire one.  He is the One that put that desire within us, because it was in Him.

Our Father loves us so dearly and is longing for times of fellowship, times of good talks, and times of just hanging out.  The thing that hinders and limits this is that God is a Spirit and we are flesh.  But one day this flesh is going to get peeled off, and we are going to be able to fellowship, Spirit to spirit!

Nevertheless, do not look at the limitations that we have today.  There have been many throughout history that sought the Lord and hungered for Him, and God revealed Himself very strongly to them.  As this verse says, "The Lord is good to those who wait on Him.”

Make a decision today to wait upon Him, and to hunger for Him.  Jesus said that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled.  So let us do it!  Get quiet, get with Him, and see what a difference it will make in your life.  You will have peace and joy unspeakable and full of glory!

Confession: Today, I am making a decision to seek after my Father God more than I have before.  Today, I want to know Him and I desire Him.  My God is so good to me, and I want to bring joy to His heart.

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THE GREATER ONE

Isaiah 59:19 (NKJV) 19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.

Satan attacks us through his lies and deception.  But thank God for the Holy Spirit!  When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Holy Spirit will hold him back in our lives.  This is the great message of the Gospel.  The enemy has been defeated, and Jesus has given us the victory!

Too many times, we look to our own strength or to the outside, but what we need to do is look to the inside.  Look to the Greater One that lives within us!  He will help us, strengthen us, and guide us in the course of life.

When Jesus left the earth, He said that it was to our advantage that He leave, and that He would send us someone to help us.  He said that He would be with us 24/7, and He would protect us from the evil one.  So again, do not look at the enemy, but look to the Greater One.  Look to the One that has conquered him, and has now given us the victory!

The only power that the enemy has left against us is the power of deception.  He lies, and tells you how big and how mean he is.  He even goes around like a roaring lion.  But remember one thing, this roaring lion had his teeth knocked out.  So today, do not look to your own strength; look to the Greater One!  Do not look here and there, look within and you will see the victory come about in your life!

Confession: The enemy might come in like a flood, but Jesus, the Greater One, will dry him out by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Greater One lives within me, and He will conquer the enemy every time!

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UNITY IN THE CHURCH

Psalms 133:1-3 (NKJV) Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!  2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments.  3 It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; for there the LORD commanded the blessing—life forevermore.

It is so wonderful when family, friends, and churches walk in unity!  God wants us to be unified, and it is something that we can all work on a little harder.  Here we see this beautiful picture of Aaron, the high priest of the Lord, with the oil of the anointing running down his beard and then on to his garments.

Many people ask why we do not see more of the power of God in the church, or in our lives.  I believe that a big part of it is because so many people in the church do not walk in unity.  In the book of Acts, we see the words “one accord” mentioned more than ten times!  We also see so much power manifested in the book of Acts.

When Jesus was on earth, He prayed to the Father that we would be one body.  I want to fulfill the words of Jesus.  How about you?  I want to see the church operate like a smooth-running machine.  I want to see the Head, our Lord Jesus, give a command and we get right on board.  That takes unity.  That takes us putting ourselves down and lifting others up.

In 1 Corinthians 13:7 in the Amplified Bible, Paul (by the Holy Spirit) said, “Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]”.

Wow, think of that!  Love believes, bears, hopes, and is fadeless.  These are the words for the body of Christ.  So let us do it today!  Let us do it for our Jesus, and see unity spread throughout the churches.

Confession:  Today, I let love flow through me.  I will not let disunity rule in my life.  Sin will not control me, and I will not let disunity control me.  I will not let strife be a part of my life.

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