Faith is “Knowing”

 

 

Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 

—1 Corinthians 2:11-12

 

 

This verse says that, as believers in Jesus Christ, we have received the Spirit of God so that we might know what He has freely given us. The Holy Spirit is the One who reveals the things God has given us in Jesus's finished work of grace. He unveils Jesus to us. He reveals God’s promises to come.

 

God wants us to “know” what He has freely given us. “Knowing” is not just “wishing” or “hoping” for something. It isn’t striving to convince yourself a promise in the Word is true for you. “Knowing” is the deepest intimacy of being one with God in Jesus. “Knowing” is the assurance of your promise, as if it has already happened. You may not know the specifics or the timing, but you “know” the outcome. 

 

When you have true faith in God, you don’t need to be convinced His promises are true. You know they are. 

 

“Believing,” for many Christians, is just “hoping.” When you are just “hoping,” you aren’t fully convinced. It is so hard to convince yourself that you believe and convince others that you believe. Faith isn’t working yourself up to believe. It is a real conviction so deep within you that it produces peace and quiet confidence. Faith is “knowing.”

 

Just as a vinedresser knows that the grape seed he has sown will produce grapes, he trusts that the seed's future harvest won’t fail. A believer trusts that the seed of God’s Word, sown in his heart, won’t fail. He doesn’t need to convince himself of God’s future promise. He is already convinced it is true in his life. Faith is the “evidence of things not yet seen” (Hebrews 11:1)

 

When you “know” in your heart that God’s promises are true for you, you go from working yourself up to “believe” to being “fully convinced.” The evidence of true faith in God is peace and assurance. True faith “knows” the future outcome. It sees God’s promise as though it already is. True faith sees what is not yet seen.

 

Colossians 2:9-10 says we are complete in Christ, and the fullness of God dwells in us. 1 Corinthians 6:17 says that we who are joined to the Lord are one spirit with Him. I John 4:17 says as Jesus is, we are also in this world. 

 

We are one spirit with God? We are as Jesus in this world? The fullness of God dwells in us? His truth is in us? His righteousness? His promises? If these are true, where are all these things in us? Certainly not in our flesh. These things are true in our born-again spirit. To be fully convinced, we must be renewed in the spirit of our minds (Ephesians 4:23).

 

The Greek word for renewed in Ephesians 4:23 literally means to be “remade by an inward renovation.” Our minds need a total renovation from natural worldly thinking to the truth of who we are in our born-again spirits. We must be renewed by the "inside" of our spirits to the "outside" of our minds until the Holy Spirit totally renovates our natural reasoning and understanding. 

 

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

 

You have the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, dwelling in your born-again spirit. He will give life to your mortal body. You have the incorruptible seed of God’s Word in your spirit with your future harvest. Being renewed in your mind by the Holy Spirit to the truths that are yours in Christ begins His work in your heart to “know” the things you have been freely given. 

 

“For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength’” (Isaiah 30:15).

 

Working yourself up to “believe” God’s promise yields worry and anxiety. True faith “knows” and produces quietness and confidence. 

 

Do you want to “know” the new creation you are in Christ? Old things have been completely cut away from you. They are dead, and God’s new life has come to life in you. When you “know” what is inside you, it changes you from the inside out.

 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/faith-is-knowing.html

 

 

This is Abundant Life!

 

 

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

—John 10:10

 

 

If you sow a seed, you reap a plant with more seeds. And if you keep sowing all those seeds, you will reap a harvest. The same is true in the spiritual realm. If you sow the seed of God’s Word, you will reap the harvest of its truth.

 

God’s abundance is in the incorruptible seed of His Word that gave you new life (1 Peter 1:23).

 

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:8: “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”

 

In 2 Corinthians 9:6, Paul applies this same truth to giving: “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6).

 

Paul presents resources and money as a seed. What does a seed do? It produces a harvest based on the amount of seed sown. And what is the harvest? The harvest is God’s grace “abounding toward you,” giving you sufficiency in all things to do more good works. 

 

Grace is God’s provision for man’s every need—for his spirit, soul, and body. Grace exists for every man to receive through faith, but not everyone walks in His abounding grace. Not all walk in God’s sufficiency or abundance. 

 

What is the reason? Because he who sows sparingly shall reap sparingly. 

 

God’s grace is in the seed we sow. God’s abundance is in the seed. Whatever seeds we sow right now include the abundance of our future harvest. You can sow seeds of forgiveness, compassion, wisdom, time, service, and resources. These seeds are the “fruits of righteousness” from our new birth in Christ.

 

“Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God” (2 Corinthians 9:10-11).

 

The Lord multiplies the seeds we sow and increases the “fruits of our righteousness.” His blessings on the seeds we sow can be realized in many ways. Favor with other people, greater opportunities in ministry and life, the Spirit giving us new ideas, and even unexpected financial blessings can all be part of His harvest. But “sowing seeds” is not a formula. Sowing seeds is a lifestyle. Some harvests don’t take a long time, while others take years. We inherit God’s promises by faith and patience (Hebrews 6:12). In due time, we will reap if we don’t grow weary (Galatians 6:9).

 

Our sowing will become consistent when our giving comes from God “prospering” in us. When we “know” the truth of God’s unconditional love in our hearts, His love abounds in us. The Holy Spirit precedes our flesh saying “no.” The Spirit in us says “yes.” We have compassion for others. We love because God first loved us. We serve because Jesus served us. We give because Jesus gave His life for us. As we spiritually prosper, submitting ourselves to God, we receive more grace. Our giving will grow consistently, and our harvests will become more frequent. All of God’s grace—all of His provision—will abound toward us. God will supply our needs and even more for every good work. God makes “all grace abound toward you” so you may prosper in every good work.

 

“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2).

 

The Lord wants you to prosper in all things, just as your soul spiritually prospers. “All” of God’s grace is yours to prosper in “all” things. In health. In your need. In your circumstance. Our lifestyle is to sow seeds and give as we have freely received. We prosper to prosper others. We are blessed to bless others. 

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:7-9).

 

When we truly “know” the love of God that has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we live to give, and hope for our harvest does not disappoint (Romans 5:5). As we sow seeds of love and compassion, we freely receive. God’s abundance to live and give continues on and on. We have found our identity—our home in God’s heart. This is abundant life! This is true grace!

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/this-is-abundant-life.html

 

 

The Spirit or the Flesh

 

Fruit is nourishing and beneficial, and it tastes good. Paul uses “fruit” to describe the wonderful things the Holy Spirit wishes to produce in us. He writes in Galatians 5:22-23 concerning this fruit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

 

In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul discusses the “works” of the flesh. In stark contrast, in Galatians 5:22-23, he declares the Holy Spirit's desire to produce “fruit” in our lives. The contrast between the flesh and the Spirit is profound. The flesh produces “works.” This is a hard life filled with destructive excesses, idleness, hatred, conflict, bitterness, and recklessness. The flesh demands to be in control. However, a life yielded to the Holy Spirit is filled with spiritual benefits and favor, producing the fruit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The Holy Spirit produces this fruit in us—not us. 

 

The word “fruit” is from the Greek word “karpos,” which describes the fruit of plants or trees or the fruit of the body, such as a person’s children or offspring (New Testament Greek Lexicon).

 

Whether the fruit of a plant or a human, all fruit is produced from some seed. Without a seed, there is no fruit. The kind of seed that is sown determines the fruit that will be produced (Genesis 1:11,12). Grapes only produce grapes, and humans only produce humans. The kind of seed determines the type of fruit.

 

When you received Jesus Christ as your Savior, God sowed the seed of His Spirit and Word into your heart. You were spiritually born again by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God (1 Peter 1:23). Just like a grape seed only produces grapes, you began to produce God’s nature in you. Since the sown seed determines the kind of fruit produced, you should expect to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit. If your life is not producing the fruit of the Spirit, your flesh is in control, and you will reap from what you sow. 

 

A person who plants a grape seed doesn’t question if that seed will become a grapevine. Once that grape seed is in the ground, he can rest assured that, eventually, he will have grapes. The same principle is true in the spiritual realm. You must plant the right seed because seed always produces fruit after its own kind.

 

The fruit that the Holy Spirit produces is godly and overflowing with blessings and life. As you allow the Holy Spirit to produce His fruit in you, you will discover that people enjoy your presence. Once they share in God’s fruit flowing out of your life—once they share in His love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, they will desire to experience the Holy Spirit’s wonderful fruit.

 

Since God has sown His Spirit and Word into your heart, you can expect His fruit to be produced in you. However, you make the final decision as to what is produced in your life. You choose who will rule you—the flesh or the Spirit. Don’t yield to the flesh and allow it to produce its horrible work. Instead, yield to the Spirit and allow the seed of God’s Spirit and Word to produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life. 

 

Your sinful nature has been crucified with Christ. You have God’s nature within you. You have His righteousness and holiness. You have His love, joy, and peace. You have His goodness, faith, and patience. 

 

Paul wrote in Galatians 5:16, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” If you sow to the flesh, you reap hatred, greed, dissatisfaction, bitterness, and pride. Sow to the Spirit and reap love, joy, peace, patience, and all His luscious fruit. 

 

Do you want to walk in the hard and bitter works of the flesh? Or would you rather humble yourself and allow the Holy Spirit to produce His wonderful fruit in you? 

 

Which are you going to choose—the Spirit or the flesh?

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/the-spirit-or-flesh.html

 

Don’t Complain, Impart Grace

 

 

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

—Ephesians 4:29

 

 

Does complaining do you any good? Does it produce life, joy, and peace? As murmuring was for the Israelites wandering in the desert for forty years, complaining appears to be the norm for many people. 

 

Complaining, while it may make us feel justified, is a destructive force. It harms us and our relationships. The attitude of “they are wrong, and I am right” leads many people to complain about their marriage, relationships, family, finances, church, and anything that does not agree with their opinion. 

 

How do you react to a person who says or does something that disagrees with your opinion? 

 

Everything the Lord has to say in His Word about complaining is negative. When the Israelites complained, God was displeased and angry (Numbers 11:1). They were His children who complained from a lack of belief in His guidance and provision. They didn’t trust in Him. 

 

Complaining is simply a symptom of unbelief. 

 

We complain when we lack trust in God and His Word, and complaining indicates the lack of trust we have in our hearts. When we murmur and complain about our fellow believers, we “accuse the brethren.” The devil is the “accuser of the brethren.” Do we want to be his instrument? A critical and complaining heart also keeps us from the promises of God. Look at the Israelites who complained and wandered in the desert for forty years. It should have taken eleven days to reach the Promised Land.

 

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things” (Matthew 12:35).

The “treasure” of a complaining heart is evil.  

 

Real faith in God and words spoken out of the “good treasure” of faith are life-giving, enriching, and encouraging. Real faith flows from absolute peace with God and unconditional trust in His goodness. It empowers our choice to walk in the Spirit instead of our flesh. When God is the source of our life, we can have peace regardless of the world’s craziness. Jesus calls us to be salt and light, not bitter and irate. The joy of the Lord is our strength. There is no lasting joy in the heart of a criticizing, murmuring complainer.

 

If you are tired of wandering around in the dryness of your desert, stop complaining! Trust in the Lord, give Him thanks and speak words of life and peace! We will never agree on everything, but we can agree that God is good and reveals His goodness through us! Don’t throw away good years wandering in misery! Do you want to bring forth good things out of the treasure of Jesus in your heart? Don’t murmur and complain. Build others up. Speak His best into their lives. You not only encourage others. You also encourage your faith. Eleven days is much better than forty years.

 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/dont-complain-impart-grace.html

 

Holiness in the Fruit of Your Relationship with Jesus

 

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

—1 John 1:7

 

 

According to 1 John 1:5, God is light. Walking in the light is not living a completely sinless life because we all have fallen short of God's perfection (Romans 3:23). If walking in the light was living a sinless life, then there would be no need for Jesus to cleanse us from all sin as I John 1:7 declares. 

 

Walking in the light is walking in God. 

 

Born-again Christians are one spirit with the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:17) but don’t instinctively walk in Him or live the way He desires. In Romans 8:5-9, Paul teaches about being in the Spirit and walking after the Spirit. He explains why only those who walk after the Spirit experience the righteousness of God fulfilled in their lives. 

 

Walking in the light doesn’t produce fellowship with God. However, fellowship with God produces the ability to walk in the light. This is an important difference and one that is often missed. Our actions reveal whether or not we have fellowship with the Lord. But our actions do not cause us to have fellowship with Him.

 

Failure to understand that our actions do not give us a relationship with God has led many believers to try and earn fellowship with Him through what they do. When we do this, we are trusting in our own holiness. We are coming to God without trusting in Christ and His righteousness. When we come to God on our own merits, we are defenseless against Satan’s condemnation. God doesn’t accept us based on what we do. He accepts us based on our faith in Jesus. If we have faith in Jesus and fellowship with Him, holiness will come as a fruit of that relationship (Romans 6:22).

 

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5).

 

Romans 8:5 gives us a test so that we can determine if we are walking after the flesh or after the Spirit: We have to judge what we are thinking about. If we are consistently thinking about the things of the Spirit (John 6:63), then we are walking after the Spirit. If we are thinking about carnal things, then we are walking according to the flesh and are subject to our feelings instead of God’s truth. We need to constantly remind ourselves—to be continually renewed in the spirit of our minds (Ephesians 4:23) that to be carnally minded is death and to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Romans 8:6).

 

We are now new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and have a new identity, which is our spiritual man and not the flesh. But we will always be in the flesh until we put our faith in Christ alone. We have to put on the righteousness in which we have been reborn (Ephesians 4:24). We walk in His light by faith in Christ, realizing that within ourselves we are nothing. We can’t earn the righteousness of God. It is His gift to us in Christ. When we believe this in our hearts and submit to the new righteous identity Jesus has given us, holiness is the fruit of our relationship with God.

 

“And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:10-11).

 

Holiness is not born of your works. Holiness is the fruit of your relationship with God in Christ. Holiness in you is only born of your relationship with Jesus whose work was perfect. 

 

Walk in the light—walk in God—walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).

 

You only reap holiness as a result of your relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

 

https://www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/walking-in-light.html

 

 

Jesus Overcame for You

 

 

Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

—Romans 8:33-34 (NKJV).

 

 

Before you knew Him, God chose to love you (1 John 4:19). When you believed in Jesus’ perfect love for you, God delivered you from the power of darkness and moved you into the Kingdom of His beloved Son (Colossians 1:13-14). God is now your Father. You are no orphan. You belong to Him (Romans 8:15). 

 

Christ has destroyed the one who once held the power of death. He has destroyed the works of the devil (Hebrews 2:14, 1 John 3:8). The enemy has no power over you (Luke 10:19). No one has any right to condemn you. Jesus is the one who validates and justifies you (Romans 8:33).

 

Not only is your sin crucified and buried with Christ but your life is completely delivered from the power of darkness. You are reborn and raised with Him in new life (Romans 6:1-4). You are whole and new in His grace. Your spirit has been reborn with the Spirit of the living God (John 3:6). You are a new person with a new lineage (2 Corinthians 5:17). 

 

The enemy will tell you that you are the same—that the old man still determines your life—that your circumstances will never change, and you will never receive God's promises. But God’s love says differently. God is the author of life (John 14:6), and the enemy is the author of death (John 10:10). You are delivered from the enemy’s clutches. You are saved, forgiven, healed, delivered, and complete in God.

 

Jesus Christ, who was dead and then raised to life, now sits at the right hand of God (Hebrews 1:3). He intercedes for you (John 17:20). Jesus doesn’t beg for His blood to be enough for you. He knows what the gift of His life accomplished on your behalf. He pleads His blood for you. He presents you clean to the Father and reminds Him that the work of the cross is finished and that His blood is enough.

 

Jesus doesn’t intercede for you out of weakness. He intercedes for you with the power of His resurrection. Neither do you need to pray to God out of your weakness because in your weakness, Jesus is strong (2 Corinthians 12:9). You pray in the name and authority of Jesus. He has given you the power over anything or any lie coming against the righteousness He gave His life for you to receive (Luke 9:1, 10:19). 

 

Your prayers remind God that Jesus has made you clean and whole with the gift of His blood. When you believe in God's love for you, you praise Him for Jesus’ forgiveness of sins, healing, and the abundant life His Son purchased. You don’t have to beg God for what His Son has already given you in the gift of His life. You are a new creation complete in Him. Praise God for all He has done (Hebrews 13:15). You have victory because Jesus was victorious. 

 

“Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else” (Romans 8:32, NKJV)?

 

God’s nature is unconditional love (1 John 4:8). You are loved. God loves you so much that He did not even spare the life of His Son. And if He let His Son die for you, which of His promises does He keep from you? He already gave you the most exorbitant gift. Nothing else can surpass it. God would never give you the life of His Son and then hold back the gifts of redemption Jesus died for you to have. Why would He hold back what you need to live? He feeds and takes care of the birds of the air (Matthew 6:26), and He clothes the lilies of the field (Matthew 6:28-29). Are you not more important than these? Why would God withhold your forgiveness, deliverance, provision, or healing?

 

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:35,37, NKJV).

 

Nothing separates you from the love of God. You overcome the power of darkness with the power of God's Resurrection love. You overcome sin because Jesus overcame sin. You overcome sickness because Jesus overcame sickness. You overcome fear, hardship, and persecution.  When you know how much God loves you, you fight every lie coming against you with the truth of Jesus’ atonement. In all these lies, you are more than a conqueror. Every sin, symptom, sickness, emotion, feeling, and attack of the enemy is defeated. You more than conquer the enemy with a revelation of God’s love. Your salvation is thorough, and it is enough. You are forgiven of sin and healed through and through with His amazing and relentless grace.

 

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39, NKJV).

 

Are you persuaded—are you convinced that nothing coming against you—no circumstance, no power of darkness, no lie, and nothing in all creation can separate you from the love of God you have received in Jesus Christ? Nothing can separate you from the power of God's love. When you believe this truth, you are convinced of God's love. You live the confidence that His love gives you. You persevere and believe in what you are promised.

 

The name of Jesus is greater than sin, sickness, fear, sorrow, and the lies of the enemy. Hold on to God’s truth, and believe the promises of your new life in Christ. He is the Lord who completely restores what sin ravaged. God’s will for you is living life in the fullness of His love and grace. Persevere and believe by faith. Never give up on His love for you. He supplies all you need according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:19). God lacks nothing. Jesus overcame for you. You receive from the abundance of His overcoming love.

 

“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us” (2 Corinthians 1:20, NKJV).

 

 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/jesus-overcame-for-you.html

 

 

 

Your Fruit-Bearing Season

As you, therefore, have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

— Colossians 2:6-7

Have you given yourself to God’s purpose and not seen fruit? Have you grown tired of waiting so long for His promise? Paul gives direction in Colossians 2:6 as to what you should do. “As you, therefore, have received Jesus Christ the Lord, so walk in Him.” 

How did you receive Jesus? You received the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, and you must walk in Him the same way—by faith. Don’t despair and give up because you haven’t seen the fruit of God’s promise. You have the measure of faith God has given you to exercise (Romans 12:3). A tiny little mustard seed of faith can produce much fruit in your life. 

Before a fruit-bearing tree ever blossoms and bears fruit, it must send its roots deeply down into the earth to receive continuous sustenance. As that tree receives nourishment from below, it grows upward, eventually bringing forth blossoms that produce fruit. However, before that tree ever blossoms, it must weather the elements of every season. Heat, cold, snow, ice, rain, drought, and other environmental things come against it. But because its roots go deeply into the earth for sustained nourishment, that tree can survive the seasons and ultimately bear fruit.

Psalm 1:3 uses the example of a tree to declare that when a person is rooted in God’s Word, he is “like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.”

 

Now consider Paul’s words in Colossians 2:7, “rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” The word “rooted” in this verse is derived from the Greek word “ridzo,” which means “something that is established or firmly fixed.” 

 

This meaning gives the image of a strong tree with roots growing deep into the earth to draw ongoing sustenance. Despite the environmental elements to be weathered, the deep roots of that tree hold it firmly and securely in place.

 

Instead of murmuring that it is taking too long for your promise to be realized, you need to thank God for this time of growth. This is the time to send your roots deep into the strength of God’s Word and fellowship with His Spirit. If your roots are firmly fixed in Jesus Christ, you will survive every season and every storm. Finally, you will enter into the fruit-bearing season of your life. You will receive what God has promised you.

A person who achieves success too quickly usually loses it as soon as he gets it. He doesn’t have the roots or experience necessary to maintain it. When someone achieves success too quickly, he often lacks the roots, depth, and foundation to sustain him in the hard times that will come throughout the seasons of his life.

The new spiritual person you are in Jesus needs to change your life. Take this time of waiting to be obedient to the faith and work on your life: your mind, attitude, discipline, finances, and relationships. While you wait for your fruit-bearing season, put off the old man and put on the new one (Colossians 3:9,10). Spend your time wisely by renewing your mind to the Word of God (Ephesians 4:23). Set your mind on things above, not on things of this earth (Colossians 3:2).

Wisely and carefully use your time. Don’t sit around and declare your fruit is taking too long. You can’t produce the fruit of your promise. The Holy Spirit produces fruit in your life. If you sit around and impatiently declare it is taking too long, you further delay the work of the Holy Spirit and the appearance of your promise. 

As you received Jesus, so walk in Him. You can only walk through waiting seasons by faith and not by what you see. Stay the course, and don’t give up. Don’t murmur or complain. Praise the Lord for His promise. Look at this season of waiting as a time to prepare you for a season of abundantly more. Praise God for this time of blessing to help you to become strongly rooted in Jesus. One day, you will reach upwards in the power of God. Blossoms will begin to bloom in your life, letting you know you are about to enter your long-anticipated fruit-bearing season.

www.lynnlacher.com/your-fruitbearing-season.html

 

 

Receive His Gift

 

 

Even though despised and mocked, Jesus loved us to the cross. Even though we turned our backs and looked the other way, He continued. Even though He was despised, He loved us without condition. It was our weakness and our sins He carried. It was our sorrow that weighed Him down. And we rejected Him.  He loved us in our ugliness and rebellion. And we did not care. His reason was us, and we looked the other way. Yet, no matter how ugly we were and how we abused Him, it did not matter. He knew what He had been sent to do and how beautiful we would be. The unconditional gift of His precious blood would change everything (Isaiah 5.3:3-5).

 

Do we get the truth that His blood has changed everything—that we have died with Him so we can be raised with Him in new life?  Then why do we still live defeated lives? 

 

Jesus carried our weaknesses to the cross. We can walk in the power of His resurrection strength. Where we are weak in our flesh, He lives in perfect power in our born-again spirits. We have His strength to overcome difficult circumstances and His faith to see beyond our natural existence into the supernatural realm of His Truth. Jesus carried our sin so we could be thoroughly restored in our relationship with our Creator. He bore our sins in His own body, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes we were healed (1 Peter 2:24).

 

Jesus received the full weight of punishment for our sins, so we don't have to receive punishment. But how often do we punish ourselves with guilt and shame instead of living in the forgiving freedom of His Grace? His punishment was not for His sin. He had none. His punishment was for ours. We no longer have a debt to pay. But how often do we live indebted lives, believing that we are not good enough—not worthy to receive the benefits of His gift of perfect love? He wiped our debt clean by being pierced for our rebellion and crushed for our sins.

 

Beaten so we can be whole—whipped so we can be healed, Jesus died to heal us. Not just partially heal us, but completely heal us. He purchased our healing of spirit, soul, and body. Everything we were before the cross died with Him on the cross. Everything we are in Him rose victoriously with Him from the grave. 

 

You are free of sin's shame! Are you aware? You are healed! Do you believe it? All the powerful resources our wonderful Savior gave His life for are yours! Believe in Him, and you are saved. Believe in the righteous life He has purchased for you on Calvary! Sin is the root of all sickness, and sin was crucified with Christ. We often live far beneath the gift of Jesus’ precious blood. 

 

Jesus spoke in parables to the people who followed Him. He quoted from Isaiah: "For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes—so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them" (Matthew 13:15, NLT).

 

Do we have ears that cannot hear, eyes that cannot see, and hearts that cannot understand?  Are we born-again and, yet, not know this new person we are in Christ? 

 

"Blessed are your eyes," Jesus said to His disciples, "because they see; and your ears, because they hear" (Matthew 13:16, NLT). 

 

Your heart can understand. You can see and hear the promises of the Kingdom of God. You can walk by faith and not by sight. You can believe in the substance of God’s unseen. Jesus has paid the full price for you. There is no sin, shame, sickness, condemnation, or guilt in Him. He has healed you. Your eyes may not see it. But in Him, you can see and believe it in your heart. You are whole in His wonderful Grace. 

 

The unconditional gift of Jesus’ precious blood changed everything. He took all your ugliness. You are beautifully recreated in Him. He offers His body broken for you and His blood shed for you. His gift is finished and complete, but cannot produce God’s truth in your life without you opening it. Just how wonderful is Jesus to you? Do you trust Him? Are you ready to receive the gift He died to give you? 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/receive-his-gift.html

 

Receive the Holy Spirit

Going to heaven one day is the ultimate victory, but do you realize that God has something more for you here on earth? 

Jesus told us to pray, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). 

What is God’s will in heaven? 

“I have come,” Jesus said, “that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). 

 

We can experience the abundant life Jesus died for us to receive, which will increase and be completed when we reach heaven. This abundant life is exceedingly greater than many believers think or ask.

Many Christians believe God can do anything. They pray for peace, joy, healing, and other things lacking. Yet, many seem powerless to receive the abundant life promised in Christ. 

Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 

The power to live the Christian life comes from the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The Christian life isn’t just difficult. It is impossible without the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Look again at Acts 1:8. Jesus had just told His disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4–5). The disciples had just witnessed the greatest miracle the world had ever seen. They had the greatest news the world had ever heard. What more could they need to be His witnesses? 

Jesus told the disciples exactly what they would need. He told them that the Helper would come upon them. He didn’t want the disciples to share the Good News until they received the power of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, they would fail.

The disciples hid during Jesus’ crucifixion— before Pentecost and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. During His earthly ministry, they did not understand much of what Jesus told them. But after the day of Pentecost and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, these same men were transformed. They boldly faced the Pharisees and those who had frightened them and declared their guilt in crucifying the Son of God. They performed miraculous deeds as Jesus did (John 14:12). They cast out demons, healed the sick, and raised the dead. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they wrote some of the books of the Bible. All but one died a martyr’s death. 

As Jesus told the disciples, they received power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. These average men were changed into powerful dynamos who ushered in the new church age and established the kingdom of God here on earth. 

The disciples didn’t just tell people what happened to Jesus. They revealed that Jesus was still alive, living in and through them. 

“For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power,” Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 4:20.

You can be a Christian and lack the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit to live a victorious Christian life. Many Christians haven’t experienced God’s power. Some people have even rejected Christianity because it has been presented to them without the power of the Holy Spirit. 

If the disciples had not waited for the indwelling Holy Spirit as Jesus instructed, we would not have the opportunity to share the Gospel today. These men believed in Jesus, but He knew they needed the Holy Spirit to present the miraculous power of the Word they preached. We need the power of the same Holy Spirit they needed.

Are you boldly ministering the love of Jesus Christ, or are you hesitant?  Do you experience the Holy Spirit speaking, guiding, and imparting power to you to minister to the body of Christ? Is the Word revealed through you in power?

 

Without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, your words as a witness to the change Jesus has made in your life have no power and make no difference in another’s life. Without the Spirit empowering your life, you live a defeated life. But with the power of the Holy Spirit, God does abundantly and exceedingly more through His work in you than you could humanly accomplish.

 

^“Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:14-17).

 

The Holy Spirit had not yet fallen on those baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Peter and John laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

 

Those who have received the Holy Spirit have God’s power, but His power must be accessed. The Holy Spirit doesn’t force Himself on anyone. Receiving the indwelling of the Holy Spirit isn’t just a one-time experience.

 

You cannot understand the indwelling of the Spirit with your mind. Your reasoning will stand in the way. You will not receive what you question. Surrender all of yourself—your thoughts, fears, feelings, and your preconceptions. Be open to Him and to the gifts He has for you. You need not beg. It is the greatest pleasure of the Father to fill you. You shall receive the Holy Spirit. 

 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/receive-holy-spirit.html