March 18, 2005 – CLAIM THE PROMISES OF GOD

Many of you are living as paupers and impoverished (at least Spiritually) though you have a right, through your rebirth into the family of God, to a wealth of promises and blessings that you have not claimed. The more you pray and read the word and spend precious time dedicated to God, the more God gives you understanding of your rights and privileges. In fact, He desires for you to have everything He has promised! Jesus Christ died so that we can have an abundance of life. John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

As you look around, you see many of God’s children bound and unfruitful because of worries and troubles. They are willing to settle for the crumbs underneath the table of God’s bountiful blessings. The “new creation” of our lives is all about changing us to meet God’s standard for holiness. When we desire to become Holy, God pours forth our blessing in wondrous abundance. Deuteronomy 30:19 This day I call Heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the LORD is your life, and He will give you many years in the land.Ignoring the choices we are given by God, is to ignore God, Heaven, and all His Help and blessings. If we remain passive, then the good life will pass us by. Remember, we must pursue holiness and abundant life through Christ. The more of Christ we have, and the more we allow God to re-create us, the more abundance of life we possess. John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take Heart! I have overcome the world.” 1 John 4:4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world (THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD IS SATAN). Satan deceives us into thinking we do not have any power over him or our circumstances and sickness. That isn’t true! The power of Christ and His life in us has overcome the world and the above scripture plainly tells us that the Christ in us is greater than satan. Look at your circumstances and your life and make a list of the things you need changed to bring your life into abundant living.

First, we must understand clearly that Christ has already paid the price for healing everything in us and around us. The power of faith in Christ and knowing His promises can recreate everything in our lives. It is a matter of simply taking God at His word and asking God for what we need. God’s law requires that we “ask, seek, and knock” until we get our answer. God requires that we are faithful to Him and obey Him. We are to seek His counsel and fellowship daily. We will never know what we have been promised unless we read and devour His word consistently; it is our bread and staff of life. Psalms 107:20 He sent forth His word and Healed them; He rescued them from the grave. 21 Let them give thanks to the LORD for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men. Psalms 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless. 12 O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.

Remember that God has given us a printed copy of His decrees and promises so we are without excuse. Pleading ignorance will be a lie. His word is living truth, but it cannot become a reality in your life unless you have faith and ask God for what you need. We all need help and God wants to show us how to overcome any and every problem.

If we are the problem, God will make us a new creation when we ask. The only limitation and obstacle God has for His work and miracles is “us.” If our heart and lives are clean before Him, we can ask what we will and it shall be done for us. All things are possible with God, so we should not have any impossibility in our lives. When we make up our minds and determine that we want a change in our lives, God always meets us. He is just waiting for us to call on Him for help. Remember, prayer is not a monologue, it is two-way communication. If we get serious with God, He will get serious with us. He will fill our empty heart and deliver us from the sins that corrupt our life. He will fill our lives with miraculous changes.

Passivity in us is a road block! God wants us to rise up and take what He promised. We are called to overcome and that means we are to actively seek the changes we need in our lives. We are to ask God to work miracles in our lives! 1 John 5:4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. We are not to sit and weep and let satan destroy us, our families, and those whom we pray. Rise up children of God, put on your armor because we are at war! Satan is robbing, destroying, and deceiving. He has a full arsenal of weapons and we are his #1 weapon. He does not go out and create “sin” to entice us, he uses people that sin to entice. He uses the sin in us and multiplies it. 1 Corinthians 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?Indulge in a little sin and soon you will become its slave. Sin separates us from God and we cannot afford to be separated from His Spirit for even a second. Christ is coming soon and we need to be ready for the rapture.

Do not stand by and let destruction come to your marriage or anything you hold dear. Make up your mind that you are going to war against evil! No longer be passive and let satan reign in your life. Psalms 97:10 Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for He guards the lives of His faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Romans 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

God is the creator and He has come to re-create our lives totally. That means everything having to do with our life. The kingdom of God is within us. He does not want any defilement in the temple of God. His purity is a high standard for us to attain, but He has provided everything we need to become Holy. All we have to do is “ask Him,” “seek Him,” and “knock” on God’s door until the re-creation is in progress.

God can tell how really desperate we are to have our lives made perfectly whole by the number of times we bring that need before Him and the desperation of our pleas. We have to be prepared to listen to God. Sometimes He tells us that we need to change ourselves. He once told me that He could not answer my prayer because I was a part of the problem. I was told by God that I must confess my own sins in the matter and He very plainly told me what they were. After I took care of my own load of sin He said He would listen and begin to work. I confessed the sins He told me about. (I thought I was innocent and yet I had four separate sins to confess!) Believe me when I tell you that God means it when He says, “He that is without sin cast the first stone.” When both parties are sinning I am sure God will not answer until the petitioning party is cleansed from their own sins. This shows God’s justice in settling accounts.

When we are our own worst enemy, then confession and repentance must take place before change can come. Attitudes are a big part of a relationship “gone wrong.” This requires inner re-creation. When God tells you what needs to change, it is “new life giving” and it takes a “load of sin” off the carrier….your burdens become lighter. I have seen changed attitudes bring immediate change in a hostile situation. There is no such thing as one guilty party if two are involved. One might be less guilty, but none of us are without sin. We would like to blame the other person because we feel better, but there is always something we need to do to bring about change.

When I was desperate for change in my marriage, I had a constant dialogue with God about my needs. I confessed and turned from my sinful attitudes and He brought a miracle of change in both my husband and me. After a number of weeks, my husband came to me and said, “I have never seen such a change in anyone! I truly love you.” Even if God did not change my husband’s behavior, the changes He made in my own life were worth silver and gold to me spiritually. It changed my relationship with God and others. It takes two to ruin a relationship and I was totally blinded to my own faults. I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn’t desperately sought God until I was willing to hear His answer for my own life.

If you want changes in your life, you have to be willing to totally surrender your own life for correction. If we are not earnestly and steadfastly seeking the answers to our problems, then they, as all sins, can multiply and grow worse through the years. Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Psalms 57:2 I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills His purpose for me. 3 He sends from Heaven and saves me, rebuking those who hotly pursue me; Selah God sends His love and His faithfulness.

The rewards for overcoming evil, trials, and tribulations:

Revelations 2:7 He who has an ear, let Him Hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To Him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Revelations 2:11 He who has an ear, let Him Hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.

Revelations 2:17 He who has an ear, let Him Hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To Him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give Him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to Him who receives it.

Revelations 2:26 To Him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations –

Revelations 3:5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out His name from the book of life, but will acknowledge His name before my Father and His angels.

Revelations 3:12 Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will He leave it. I will write on Him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of Heaven from my God; and I will also write on Him my new name.

Revelations 2:21 I have given Her time to repent of Her immorality, but she is unwilling.

Revelations 21:7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be His God and He will be my son.