Guard Your Heart

  

 

My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

—Proverbs 4:20-23 (NLT)

 

Your heart determines the course of your life. What you believe is what you receive. If you believe something that is different from what the Word says, then that is what you will receive. If you want to receive what God promises you, know and believe what the Word reveals. 

 

“Pay attention and listen carefully to what I say in my Word,” God says. “If you let my words pierce your heart, you shall discover my complete wholeness of life and healing for your body.”

                                               

These verses are a life-changing Truth!

 

When I was in the hospital in April, I was very confused because of sodium loss. I couldn’t concentrate on anything. Medical staff worked with me, and I didn’t know what they were doing. Doctors asked questions, and I didn’t know what they asked or what I answered. In the midst of my mental confusion, the Holy Spirit encouraged me. I knew I needed a Word from God to hold on to. A friend gave me these verses in Proverbs 4, and I grabbed hold of them with all the mental strength that I could find. They spoke life and healing to me. I chose to believe their Truth. When I couldn’t remember the things that were happening around me, I could remember His Words of promise in Proverbs 4:20-23. I knew if I allowed His Truth to pierce my heart, I would discover wholeness and healing for my body.

 

In the New King James Version, Proverbs 4:23 reads, “Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life.”

 

Keep your heart safe, the Holy Spirit said. My Truth is life to you. What you believe will determine what happens to you. Believe sick and you will be sick. Believe health, and you will experience health. Out of your heart spring the issues of life you will experience—either death or life—blessing or curse. Believe my Truth.

 

During the next seven months with continuing health issues, I held on to these verses in Proverbs and let them penetrate my heart. Hearing the Word with my heart, my faith grew (Romans 10:17). I began to understand that I couldn’t guard my heart if I didn’t allow His Word to transform the way I thought. What I believed had to be His Truth. It had to take root and grow in me. 

 

Can I share some of what He has taught me? What you read or see or listen to ends up filling your mind and becoming what you believe. You have to be careful what you put in your heart. You want the promises of God to be real in your life? Put those in your heart. The Word will build your faith. Anything else will fight against His Truth for your life. 

 

Think about the good things of God in the Word that build your faith (Philippians 4:8). Don’t be conformed to things that are contrary to what the Word says about you. Allow God’s Truth to transform your thinking until what you believe in the depths of your heart is what His Word promises (Romans 12:2). Guard your heart with the power of God that lives in you. It is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. (Ephesians 1:19-20). Rebuke the enemy who comes to steal, kill, and destroy the abundant life Christ died to give you (John 10:10). One day you will believe, and ultimately receive.

 

 “Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, even as your soul is well” (3 John 3:2, MEV).

 

God wants good health for all His children. When my soul—my mind—believes His Truth, my soul is well. His fullness is alive in me. And what do I receive? Good health. 

 

By His stripes, I was healed (1 Peter 2:24, NKJV). I believe that I'm a healed child of God. That is who I am. I know in my heart that I have already received what Jesus died to give me.

Who do you believe?

 

©2021 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2021/01/guard-your-heart.html

 

His Banner of Love and Grace

 

God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”

—Hebrews 13:5b (NLT)

 

 

You can feel abandoned when you don’t understand the love of God. And when you feel alone, you feel rejected. Those are feelings. The truth is that God has never left you, and He will never abandon you. His very nature is love (1 John 4:8), and His intention toward you, His child, is only for good. God is consistently revealing His character to you through His Word. He speaks to you and provides for you out of who He is. God does nothing contrary to His nature.

 

God is Grace. When you learn to receive His Grace, you begin to know who He is and who He is in you. Your feelings are not what determine your life. The Grace of Jesus reveals to you who you are. Jesus has given you the power of His authority by Grace. You win battles by His Grace. You walk in victory by His Grace. When you learn what the gift of His righteousness means in your life, your faith grows to believe in the provision that God promises. Nothing can stand against you or withhold the power of God’s Grace in your life when you believe He is good.

 

Grace is the Resurrection power that brings life from death. It is God’s merciful provision for you to receive everything you need. There is Grace for forgiveness and Grace for healing. There is Grace for you to believe and Grace for you to receive. There is Grace for your financial need and Grace for every problem of life. There is Grace for your relationships and for those who are difficult to love. And there is Grace to defeat the lies and schemes of the enemy—who tries to convince you that Grace has no power.

 

When you know by God’s Grace that He loves you, you submit to His love. You respond to what you are submitted. You believe in His great goodness and His promises for you. When you receive Grace, you experience the power of God in your life. And what brings life to you, you unreservedly give away so others can experience His wholeness and healing.

 

“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons,” Jesus told the disciples. “Give as freely as you have received” (Matthew 10:18, NLT). Jesus commands us to do the miraculous. When you receive the fullness of God's Grace, you overflow with the power of His Spirit. God’s power lives in you. What He has provided, you unreservedly give away. The power of God flows through your understanding and revelation of His love. His healing in you is the healing for all of His children. His life in you is the life He has for all of mankind. His power in you is His power that moves mountains.

 

The key to receiving from God is believing without a doubt in His goodness and love for you (Matthew 11:23). God will never leave you. He is in you always. The Grace of God has brought you to His banquet table, filled with all the riches of His love. His banner over you is love (Song of Solomon 2:4). He yearns for you to partake. Believe in His love, and receive from His Grace.

 

©2021 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2021/01/his-banner-of-love-and-grace.html

Yes

For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory. 

—2 Corinthians 1:20 (NLT)

 

Not just some of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ. All of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Him. Look at the phrase “have been fulfilled.”  That means already accomplished. All of God’s promises are already fulfilled and accomplished in Jesus! These promises have Christ’s resounding approval. Through Christ, our “yes”—which is our agreement with what He has promised—ascends to God giving Him praise and glory. 

 

What God has promised you is approved with the “yes” of Jesus. You may not see it or feel it in the facts of your life right now but that doesn’t mean that God hasn’t approved it. Whatever the Holy Spirit has revealed as Truth in the Word is your promise. Your faith in agreement with His Truth opens you to receive.

 

In the Message, 2 Corinthians 20:20-22 reads this way: “Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us. By his Spirit he has stamped us with his eternal pledge—a sure beginning of what he is destined to complete.” 

 

The reason that God’s promises are true in your life is that Christ has placed His “yes”—His approval within you. You are stamped with His eternal pledge. You—yourself—are the promise of what He is destined to complete. What He has begun in you, He will finish. When you agree with the “yes” Jesus has placed in you—when you believe who He says you are—the Resurrection power that lives in you rises to receive the promises of God’s Truth.

 

Why do we live so far beneath what Christ has given His life for us to have? Are we afraid that we will not receive?  In our limited human thinking, we believe we have to see something to receive it. We have already received the fullness of God through the finished work of Jesus. We just have not believed it. 

 

Jesus gave His life to be your “yes.”  Believe that Truth. Agree with Him and grow to be who you are destined to be. The power of agreement—spirit-to spirit and transforming the soul—is Grace received in its fullness and glory.

 

©2021 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2021/01/yes.html

Eternity in Your Heart

God’s love is about Him loving us.

 

“This is how God loved the world. He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17 (NLT)

 

God’s love isn’t about your ability to love Him. The love of God isn't based on anything you’ve done. It’s offered without condition. Human love places conditions on love. “I’ll love you if,” it says. Not God’s love! His love for you is eternal. God loved you so much that He sent His Son to show you how much He loves you. Jesus came to die for you so you could receive the infinite and unfailing love of God. His love transforms you to believe that nothing can touch the assurance of His peace when His fullness is alive in you. Your eternal relationship with Christ begins the moment you receive His love. And that, my friend, is the beautiful beginning of eternity. 

 

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10, NKJV). 

 

Your relationship with Jesus gives you abundant life—no matter what the insecurity of your world says. It is a life of peace without your circumstances or your feelings being peaceful. Faith in Christ believes in the love of God no matter what happens in life. Faith believes that God has already met each need He knew you would have. He thoroughly saved you. He has forgiven your sins—healed your sicknesses—and delivered you from evil. In the midst of your hurt or problem or need, you can be at rest believing in the promises that He gave His life for you have. No other love came into the world to love you like this. And when you believe the fullness of that Truth in the depths of your heart, you receive all that God’s love promises. 

 

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17, NKJV). 

 

You are God’s child—redeemed, healed, and made whole by His Son. All things are new in you and for you. The enemy cannot kill, steal or destroy the abundance God has placed in your heart. Don't exclude yourself from God's promises because you feel unworthy. Your feelings aren't Truth. The Truth is that Christ made you worthy to receive God’s promises. You are new in Him—qualified in Him at the Cross. “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:13, NKJV). You are loved. The enemy is defeated. The kingdom of darkness has no power over you. 

 

Realize how much Jesus loves you. He accepted and justified you (Romans 8:33). It is the enemy who condemns you. God doesn’t (Romans 8:34). When God’s love is more real to you than what you see or feel, you believe. Your faith thrives. You praise Jesus for the Cross and new life in Him. You declare God’s promises. You speak His life into your need. You proclaim His love and faithfulness.

 

Ask God to show you how much He loves you. I pray “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19, NKJV).

 

When you have a spiritual revelation of how much God loves you, your heart is open to receive everything He has for you. And you are astonished at how you could have ever doubted Him and His love—His peace—His joy. 

 

Jesus prayed that God’s will would be done on earth as it was in heaven. And what is God’s will in heaven? When you receive a revelation of God’s love in your heart, nothing is the same. 

 

 

©2021 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2021/01/eternity-in-your-heart.html

 

 

Freedom of His Grace

 

I awakened one day to something new in my relationship with Jesus. I realized His Grace had already provided for every issue I would ever face in life. His Grace had completely forgiven me—supplied all my needs—healed every issue that would ever arise. Each failure—circumstance—illness—problem—struggle—heartbreak—everything had been redeemed and resolved by His life given in love for me. 

 

Scripture came alive for me in a way I had never understood. Jesus revealed His love to me right through His Word. And His love was unrestrained and rich and life-giving. I wanted to receive and receive it until I could contain no more. 

 

Through the years, something had held me back from this understanding of His Grace. It had been hard to reconcile the God of retribution in the Old Testament with the God of Grace and unconditional love in the New Testament. Then one day, I read Romans 6:14 differently, and it suddenly settled in my heart. “Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace” (Romans 6:14, NLT). And the Holy Spirit began a journey to share His heart with me.

 

I had always known in my head that Grace had fulfilled the demands of the law, but I had never allowed that Truth to restructure my heart. I didn’t need to carry shame as payment for sin. I didn’t need to struggle with the fear of punishment from God. I didn’t need to try to balance law with Grace in my mind. Jesus had made the payment for my inability to live a perfect life according to the law’s requirements. I no longer lived under those requirements but now was free to live them in the freedom of God's Grace. My struggle to be righteous had missed the transforming depth of the Cross—where Jesus had given me His righteousness. The Cross was the place where everything changed—where Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law that I could never fulfill. The Cross had taken care of all my sin, sickness, and need for all time. When I grasped that no matter how hard I tried to live righteously, I would fail, I finally let go and let God love me. I irrevocably understood that all I needed to do was to surrender and allow Him to live righteously in me. I became free from the bondage of the law. And I knew His Grace was mine. 

 

“If you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law,” Paul wrote, “you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace” (Galatians 5:4, NLT). 

 

How long I had dealt with feelings of guilt and shame of not being good enough! Through the years, I had tried to make myself right when His death on the Cross had already made me right! When Jesus said, "It is finished," there was nothing more for me to do but believe Him and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work in me. Repentance wasn’t scourging myself with feelings of shame. Repentance was a decision to turn entirely away from wrongdoing and never go back to it. No longer did I need to beat myself up when I failed. If I tried to make myself right with God, I would be cutting myself off from Christ. Struggling to make myself right wouldn't keep me from falling back into sin. Working to make myself right with God was falling away from Grace. I was awake! The Holy God of retribution in the Old Testament gave way to the God of Grace in the New. 

 

“You have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, ‘Abba, Father’” (Romans 8:15, NLT).

 

When you know that God is your Abba Father, you have child-like faith in Him. You know that your relationship is based on unconditional love that forgives and accepts you. You can trust Him with anything. God became my Abba Father of love and forgiveness. When Jesus died for me, He adopted me as His child. The love of the Cross opened access to my Father. I discovered a deeper intimacy and trust. I found that His discipline was never harsh but made as a loving parent guiding His child in spiritual growth. I understood that the gift of His Grace was freedom from the feelings of shame and guilt, which had bombarded me. I was free to receive His Grace and love as never before. And with this awareness, I experienced His peace and joy. His Grace alone was the answer I needed. 

 

Have you grasped this kind of Grace? Are you tired of striving and failing? Struggling to be perfect where only Christ can bring perfection? Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the Truth about His Grace and your relationship with Him. You don’t have to live in fear of failure and losing His love. He is no longer the God of retribution to you. He is love. 

 

“When we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love" (Galatians 5:6, NLT). You don't benefit from what you do, Paul is saying. What is important is you placing your faith in God’s redeeming love. You don’t have to earn the benefits Jesus has already earned for you. They are His gift to you. You receive them by faith.

 

Draw His Truth into your heart and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you. Receive the freedom of His grace. 

 

©2021 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2021/01/freedom-of-his-grace.html

 

ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH

He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.

—Romans 4:20-21 (NKJV)

 

 

Abraham was fully convinced that God—who had promised him in his old age that he would be the father of many nations—was able to provide that promise. Being fully convinced is believing without a doubt. Are you fully convinced? What promises are you hanging on to? What does God’s Word say about your circumstances or your healing?  

 

What you see in this physical world are facts. Facts that are real in the natural aren’t the same as God’s Truth in the supernatural. His Truth has the power to change the facts. God’s Word surpasses facts, and when His Truth is believed by faith, it ultimately changes them. Abraham didn’t waver at God’s promise through unbelief. In the natural, he couldn’t see the fulfillment of His promise. He and Sarah were way too old, but he completely believed God. Abraham praised God for what he hadn’t yet received. Instead of the facts defeating him, his faith was strengthened.

 

Faith is the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). It takes no faith to believe facts. You can see them. It only takes faith to believe the Truth. That is why we are told to walk by faith and not by what we see (2 Corinthians 5:7). Faith comes by hearing the Word (Romans 10:17). The Word is Truth (John 17:17). The Truth that you HEAR and you KNOW in your heart will set you free (John 8:32). God’s Truth doesn’t benefit your life if you don’t believe it by faith.

 

If we are going to see the supernatural power of God rise up in faith from within us, we have to connect what we believe and how we think to God’s Word. Then we can see God actually making a difference in our lives and someone else’s life. It is easy to identify with what you see—especially when you see symptoms of illness or problems in circumstances. To walk by faith and not by sight, you have to intentionally choose to have faith in God’s Truth over what you see.

 

Do you doubt? Do you believe facts over His Truth? Face the facts in your life, but believe what God promises in His Word. The facts of your physical life—sickness or circumstance or need—can change when you believe His Truth.

 

A father of a demon-possessed boy asked Jesus to help him. 

 

“‘What do you mean, If I can?’ Jesus asked the father. ‘Anything is possible if a person believes!’ The father instantly cried out, ‘I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief’” (Mark 9:22-24, NLT)! 

 

Jesus told the father to believe the impossible no matter the fact that his son was demon-possessed. The father cried out to Jesus to help his unbelief. And the boy was delivered. Do you ask the Holy Spirit to help you believe God’s Truth over the facts that you see?

 

Two blind men followed Jesus asking him to have mercy on them. 

 

“When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith, let it be done to you,’ and their sight was restored” (Matthew 9:28-30, NIV).

 

Faith doesn’t create anything. It only provides what Jesus has already created for you with the gift of His life. Believing by faith in God’s Truth is the power that alters your reality. Are you fully convinced that God’s Truth is greater than any fact before your eyes? Instead of the facts defeating you, allow faith to strengthen you. According to your faith, it will be done.

 

©2021 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2021/01/according-to-you-faith.html

Breathe Grace

Breathe Grace

 

 

For He remembered that they were but flesh, a breath that passes away and does not come again. Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

—Psalm 78:39, John 20:22 (NLT)

 

 

         You remember that I am only flesh—only a breath that passes away. But you made me, Lord. You breathed your life into me. I am your creation. Not my own. Yours. You have fashioned me for eternity! I may be like a flower that is here today and gone tomorrow, but I am never gone from your presence. I am with you forever.

 

          I receive you, Holy Spirit!  You are the breath in my lungs and the heartbeat of my soul. You are my comfort and my joy—my peace and my power. I remain strong in you. In your Word, you reveal your mind and your heart. I receive the revelation of your love and speak your words of life. My words have no power. But your words are Truth—all-knowing and life-changing. Let your breath within me speak your words of pure grace. Be the abundance in my heart and the words in my mouth. Keep me soft, pliable, and yielding to your Truth. The power of life and death are in what I speak. I will always speak your life.  

 

         You live in this body that will one day die, Lord. But my soul is forever alive in you. You have called me with your everlasting love. Pour your Truth continually into my heart so I may share your grace. I pray for your wisdom and for your revelation. Teach me the height, depth, and width of your love. 

 

         In this world, I am but a breath that passes away and never comes again. In the time that I have, I shall tell of your grace that has taken my breath away and given me yours. I shall write of your grace that breathes new life into lungs starved for the life-breath of your perfect love.

 

        With every breath, I will share your goodness, Lord.  Breathe grace in me, Holy Spirit.

 

©2021 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2021/01/breathe-grace.html

 

Shortcomings and Miracles

 

“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit” (James 5:16b-18, NKJV).

 

 

A righteous man is a man who has put his faith in the grace of God and has been forgiven of his sins. Elijah wasn't a perfect man. He had shortcomings just like we do. But when Elijah prayed in faith, he saw miracles.

 

You can’t live a righteous life until you believe in your heart that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. The Pharisees believed they were righteous based on their ability to keep the law. Their hearts were not right with God. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,” Jesus said! “You are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27, NKJV)! You have what the Pharisees didn’t have. You have righteousness that you didn’t have to earn. Jesus earned it for you. You are righteous because Jesus gave you His. When you believe that only in Christ you are righteous, then you live righteously without striving to be perfect. You have nothing to prove because Jesus proved Himself for you on Calvary.

 

Prayer is a spiritual relationship with God where you commune with each other. Prayer is also a way that God has set up for us to ask Him for things. We, like Elijah, can pray for specific outcomes. You don’t have to be “good enough” to pray explicitly. Remember you, like Elijah, are a natural man and have shortcomings. Elijah’s prayers held back the rain and then brought the rain. You, like Paul and Peter, have shortcomings. Their prayers healed the sick and cast out demons. Paul and Peter didn’t heal the sick. It was the righteousness of God within them. Your good living won’t bring results to any fervent prayer.  But the righteousness of Jesus Christ within you will bring forth miracles.

 

“Therefore I say to you,” Jesus said, “whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:24, NKJV). Pray specifically in faith. Pray from your assurance of your right-standing with God. That right-standing you have with God is the righteousness Christ has given you. Believe you will receive what you ask for. 

 

Even though we have shortcomings, we, too, can pray believing and see miracles. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

 

©2021 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2021/01/shortcomings-and-miracles.html

 

Spirit—Soul—Body

 

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

—1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NKJV)

  

 

1 Thessalonians 5:23 reveals that we were created by God to have three parts: a spirit, a soul, and a body.

 

The body is our physical part. Through our senses we feel pain; we see with our eyes; we hear with our ears; we taste with our mouth; we smell with our nose. The physical part of the body experiences things based on the perception of our five senses.

 

The soul is often referred to as the mind. The mind makes up our mental and emotional state—our personality. It is where we think and reason and where we feel the full range of human emotions like happiness and sadness—compassion and anger. The mind is where we reason and make choices. 

 

We are more than just a physical body and a soul. God also gave us a spirit. Our spirit is where we are reborn in Christ. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6, NKJV). Our spirit is also where we receive the fullness of God. “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness” (John 4:24, KJV). God created our spirit as the way to commune with Him. Through our spirit, we pray, receive, and worship God. 

 

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NKJV). When we are reborn by the Spirit of Christ, we become a new person in our spirit. We receive the full atonement of Christ, and He comes to live in us. In our spirit, old things have passed away and all things are completely new. However, the soul and body are not immediately changed. As our soul (mind)—receives the Truth of the Word through our reborn spirit in Christ, the understanding of our mind is transformed.

 

“Do not be conformed to this world,” Paul writes, “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2, NKJV). The Holy Spirit, as our teacher, brings a spiritually-revealed understanding of God’s Word. Our mind receives the Truth of the new life of the spirit that became ours when we were born again. The way we think and our emotions renew over time to the Truth of God’s Word. When we apply faith to what the Holy Spirit reveals, we believe all things are new. And when we believe this Truth in our mind, the Holy Spirit can flow from our spirit—healing us in spirit, soul, and body. 

 

Before the Holy Spirit became the new person within our reborn spirit, our thoughts and desires determined our decisions. We did what we wanted, based on our feelings and judgments. We might have lived a good life or a life that wasn’t good, but either way, how we lived was determined by our mind. But when we were reborn by Christ in our spirit with a new life, we received all things new. It is our choice to be renewed in mind and action by the new life we have received in our spirit.

 

Do we allow the Holy Spirit to change us in the spirit of our mind—in the way we think and respond and act (Ephesians 4:23)? We can either live by our feelings and emotions or by the new life of Christ within us. We choose to take in God’s Word and allow the new life we have received to transform our minds and actions.

 

We have a spirit within us created to hold God. We have a soul (mind) to express the new life we have received in our spirit. Our spirit contains the new person as the person of the Holy Spirit. Our soul (mind) reveals the transformation the Spirit brings. By continually choosing to live by our spirit, our soul and even our body will be renewed and changed by the flowing and unlimited power of God.

 

Understanding who you are in spirit, soul, and body helps you to understand how you receive from God. The fullness of God flows from your spirit to every part of your being. May your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

 

©2021 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/spiritsoulbody.html

UNRESERVED LOVE

 

When you don’t spiritually understand God’s love for you, you don’t experience His love. Many believers vacillate believe feeling His love and then feeling they are unworthy to receive love from Him. Many experience guilt because of their sense of unworthiness. They believe they are undeserving of God’s acceptance. But receiving acceptance from God isn’t about you or anything you’ve done. It’s all about Him and His eternal and unfailing love for you. God loved you first—before you ever knew Him.

 

Paul prays “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19, NKJV).

 

The love of God for you surpasses human knowledge. You can’t understand it with your natural mind, which is subject to your emotions. You have to receive the love of God spiritually with His understanding and not with yours (I Corinthians 2:14-16). When you allow the Holy Spirit to transform your human perception of God’s love with His Truth, you begin to grasp the width and length and depth and height of God’s love for you. God wants the Truth of His love for you to ground you—to hold you firmly in His grace—to heal you—to deliver and provide for you. 

 

Our love is conditional, and God’s love isn’t. His love was freely given on the Cross. He loves you just because you are lost without it. Jesus loved and died for the whole world, whether they believe in Him or not. God’s love came to you without any cost on your part. In whatever you go through or challenging circumstances you may even create for yourself, God unreservedly loves you. He doesn’t see any unworthiness or thing you may have done or any thought you have had as something that separates you from His love. He sees you—His child—that He gave His child’s life to save. 

 

Let the Holy Spirit guide you into understanding God’s love revealed in His Word (John 14:26, John 16:13). God wants you to receive all His fullness that the love of Christ purchased for you. Your Savior—you Healer—your Provider—your Deliver, lives in you. You had the faith to ask Him into your heart. And His love, which gave you His new life, is in you (2 Corinthians 5:17). Take the same mustard-seed of faith you used to believe in Him, and have faith to receive a revelation of His overwhelming love for you.

 

When God’s love finds resolution in your heart, everything changes. You believe you are more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37). Nothing that comes against you has any power (Isaiah 54:17). You belong to Him, and you experience the overflowing abundance of the love of God which is greater than anything you’ve ever known. Open your spiritual mind to the revelation of the Holy Spirit and settle in your heart once and for all how much God loves you. 

 

©2021 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2021/01/unreserved-love.html

 

 

With Long Life

Can I get you to consider something I have discovered in God’s Word? 

 

“With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation,” God promises in His Word (Psalm 91:16, NKJV). God wants to satisfy us with long life. This Truth is revealed in God’s salvation in Christ, “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24, NKJV). When we receive the Truth of 1 Peter 2:24 into our heart, we realize that not only sin died in the atonement. By the wounds Jesus took for us, sickness died too. 

 

The outward man—your body—perishes over time. But your inner man—your soul—is renewed by the truth of God’s Word (2 Corinthians 4:16). Your physical body can also be affected by the renewing of your mind with the Truth of God’s Word. Psalm 91 is a testament to God’s loving protection. The last verse states the result of this amazing love. “With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

 

God wants us to remember the benefits Jesus died to give us. Is the Holy Spirit revealing the depths of those benefits to you? Your forgiveness of sin? Your healing? Your deliverance? Resurrection power that lives in you? If He is, then you are growing to believe in the truth of those benefits. When you receive His benefits by faith, they change your perspective and have the power to change your reality. How do you find faith to believe? Faith comes by hearing the Word of God deeply within your heart (Romans 10:17).

 

The New Covenant grace of Jesus reveals the depth and width and height of God’s redeeming love that heals.

 

“My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body” (Proverbs 4:20-22, NLT).

 

“He sent out his word and healed them, snatching them from the door of death” (Psalm 107:20, NLT).

 

“Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases” (Psalm 103:2-3, NLT).

 

Out of the abundance of your heart, you speak (Matthew 12:34). When you speak the Word that is in your heart, you declare what God says is true. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverb 18:21, NKJV). 

 

Don’t declare sickness. Declare God is your healer. Speak health. God wants you to prosper and have good health (3 John 2). With long life, God promises to satisfy you (Psalm 91:16).

 

God’s Word is truth, or it isn’t. We can believe it or not believe it. I choose to believe, and I choose life. I place my faith in that choice, and I speak it. 

 

Praise you, Jesus, for how valuable each heart is to your heart! You are for us! If you are for us, who or what can come against us? I praise you for your power manifested in our lives! You want us to experience your healing, our Great Physician. Praise you, God, for being the same yesterday, today, and forever. You never change. Your Word is alive and powerful. Thank you for sending your Word to us. It won’t return void but will accomplish the healing grace you died to give us. Lord, thank you for being in the midst of our circumstances. Thank you for being in the midst of pain and suffering. We can say greater are you than the enemy that tries to steal, kill, and destroy the abundant life you have for us. Help us to receive by faith the healing you gave you precious life for us to have. We won’t be discouraged or give up. We won’t lose heart. We will receive our promise if we just won’t quit. Renew us over and over and over. We praise you again and again for never letting go. We believe you above everything else.

 

 

A Spiritual or Natural Mind

God is the Word. When you receive the Word, you receive God. But for God to make a difference in your life, He (the Word) must be spiritually understood.

 

“The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14, NKJV).

 

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,” Paul wrote (Philippians 2:5, (NKJV). We allow the mind of Christ within us to receive Truth. When we read the Word with our natural mind, we are incapable of receiving the spiritual depth of God’s Word. When we try to perceive with our natural understanding, we cannot receive what the Spirit is trying to reveal—much less be transformed by it. God’s Truth must be spiritually discerned. We are to be renewed in the spirit of our mind (Ephesians 4:23) by the Holy Spirit. To receive the spiritual revelation of God’s Word, we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us beyond what our natural mind understands. He guides us into all truth (John 16:13).

 

When we read with our natural mind something that we can’t understand, we doubt what we have read. But doubt doesn’t alter God’s Truth. When His Truth is spiritually discerned, it has the power to change our doubt, our unbelief, and our reality. The more we hear the Word (Romans 10:17), the more we believe and the greater our faith. The more we allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds with God’s Truth, the more we are transformed by the power of that Truth (Romans 12:1-2).

 

Man adds to the Word with his natural understanding. The Pharisees added to the law with their natural mind. They didn’t have the mind of Christ, because the opportunity for New Covenant grace hadn’t been revealed in Christ. But New Covenant grace is ours. We have the mind of Christ. We have the option to receive spiritually instead of with the natural mind.

 

“But my heart stands in awe of your word! I rejoice as one who finds great treasure” Psalm 119:161-162 (NKJV)

 

Is the Word your great treasure? Does your heart stand in awe of God’s revealed Truth? Has His Word changed your doubt—your unbelief—your reality? Faith believes what is not seen but knows is true (Hebrews 11:1). Do you receive the Word as fresh manna each day allowing the Holy Spirit to guide you into its depths, or do you accept the traditions of men without risk? 

 

The Word is most definitely your greatest treasure. Its Truth is your promise. Faith has the power to believe the promise instead of any doubt to which your natural mind succumbs. Plumb the depths of God’s Word. Don’t be afraid of its revelation. Allow grace to set you free to believe beyond the limits of what is naturally discerned. 

 

 

©2021 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2021/01/a-natural-or-spiritual-mind.html