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Monday, January 31, 2022

Cross or Empty Tomb




When all I see is the battle, You see my victory.

When all I see is the mountain, You see a mountain moved.

When all I see are the ashes, You see the beauty.

When all I see is a cross, God, You see the empty tomb.

—from The Battle Belongs to You by Phil Wickham

 

When I only see the battle—the mountain—and the ashes of my life, then all I see is the cross. But when I see what you see, Lord—when I see my life from your perspective, I see your victory. I see the mountain moved. I see the living beauty of your Grace because I see what you see—an empty tomb. 

 

When I only see the cross, I miss the Resurrection power of the empty tomb. The same battle is waged again and again. The mountain is always in front of me. My life perpetually stays in ashes. But when I allow your truth to challenge my understanding—when I dare to gain your perspective, then I believe the victory has already been won on the cross. The battle becomes nothing. In my spirit, I’m not the old person I once was. My ashes have risen to live again because of new life in you.

 

Convince me who I am in you, Jesus. Show me, Holy Spirit, how to gain your perspective. My perspective is all flesh. Your perspective is all spirit and life. Reveal to me the new person you have made me. I desire only to see and hear with your understanding—to know myself as you know me.

 

There had to be a cross for me to know the Resurrection power of the empty tomb. Lord, when I fail to believe that I am your finished work, I miss the miracle of the empty tomb. I remain defeated and powerless to stand strong against the enemy in the battles of life. When I allow you to teach me the person you have made me, I receive understanding of your finished work on the cross. I know it was perfect. There is nothing else I have to do but to receive—to believe in your finished work of salvation full of joy and peace and health—to exercise by faith all you have given me.

 

You have given me beauty for ashes! I don’t have to live as if the cross never took place! I have nothing to prove. When I see that the war and all its battles have already been won—that everything is finished—done, I rest in the peace and the power of the empty tomb. I have nothing to prove. I just receive by faith what you have given me. 

 

“I do not cease to give thanks for you,” Paul writes to me, “making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:16-21, NKJV).

 

Only you reveal truth, Holy Spirit! Thank you for continually imparting a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of your Word! Reveal yourself to all who are hungry enough to seek and seek and seek again. When we seek, we find the revelation of your amazing Grace. The cross is done. We live in the power of your resurrection life. No more death. No more fear. No more sickness. No more crying. No more pain.

 

Your Kingdom lives within us. May it rise like the phoenix from the ashes to new life!

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/cross-or-empty-tomb.html

Friday, January 28, 2022

Know and Believe


 

Without knowing who we are in Christ, we face failure and defeat. Exercising faith to believe in God’s truth develops good character traits to help us live successfully. The same measure of faith God has given each of us is powerful (Romans 12:3). His faith empowers us to walk positively through anything. Hope helps us believe in God’s promises when we can’t see them (Hebrews 11:1).

 

“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm,” the writer to the Hebrews penned, “for God can be trusted to keep his promise” (Hebrews 10:23, NLT).  

 

We can trust God to keep His promise. Don't waver in hope. Don't doubt it.

 

“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life,” Peter wrote. “We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires” (2 Peter 1:3-4, NLT).

 

God has given us everything we need to walk in the righteousness Christ has given us. And we received "all of this" the day we believed in Christ. We received Jesus by faith (Ephesians 2:8), and we also receive by faith everything we need to live a righteous life.

 

God has given us great and precious promises that enable us to share in His divine nature. But if we don’t know the promises that are ours, we live defeated and powerless lives. When we exercise faith and allow the Holy Spirit to renew the way we think with the truth of God’s Word, we learn to see from God’s perspective instead of our own. The full righteousness of God lives in us, but we can’t know what that means until we allow our faith to transform our understanding.

 

“For this very reason,” Peter continued, “make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love (2 Peter 1:5-7, NLT). 

 

Make every effort to add to your faith, Paul said—not just attempt and then when it gets too hard to give up. You decide to add these virtues in your life, and the Holy Spirit nurtures spiritual understanding that results in personal growth. 

 

You decide to grow. You decide to change. You decide to forgive. You decide to persevere. You decide to be patient. You decide to surrender and allow Him to mold your mind. God empowers your choices and carries you in His strength, and your perception changes to His. You are transformed in the spirit of your mind (Ephesians 4:23). You know that you have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). Peace isn’t just a dream. You discover it more quickly. Fear is defeated more easily. Walking the road of life is one of joy because your eyes aren’t on the road but on God.

 

Life will always present trials. Whatever you face will either spur you on or hold you back. Christ promises success, but you decide to believe what you have received. Without allowing the truth of His Word to impact your mind, you won’t understand the incredible gift of righteousness He has given you. His promises are true, but if you don’t know and believe them, you remain in bondage. Faith comes by hearing the Word (Romans 10:17). The Word brings life to God’s promises. And believing who Christ says you are sets you free. 

 

“The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Peter wrote in conclusion. “But those who fail to develop in this way are short-sighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins” (2 Peter 1:8-9, NLT).

 

If you live with shame and guilt—if you choose to remain in fear and doubt, you’re in bondage to the old person you were before you knew Jesus. You haven’t allowed the Holy Spirit to help you grow in spiritual understanding of what Jesus has given you. 

 

Never remain spiritually short-sighted in your knowledge and understanding of the grace of Jesus. Make every effort, and He will transform your understanding. The glass no longer has to appear half-empty or even half-full. It is always overflowing in Christ. Christ, the hope of glory, lives in you (Colossians 1:27).

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/know-and-believe.html

 

 

 

Thursday, January 27, 2022

Truth and Life


 

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing,” Jesus said. “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

—John 6:63, 14:6 (NKJV)

 

The flesh profits us nothing. We can’t earn our way to the Father. Jesus is the way to the Father. He earned the way to the Father with His life. No one comes to the Father unless they believe in Jesus. 

 

Why do we try to come to God on our own merit—on our own good works? They buy us nothing. Jesus has already purchased us right standing with God (Romans 5:1). We come to the Father based on Christ’s finished work. We don’t come in fear. We come knowing what Christ has purchased for us. We are safe in our identity in Him. We are accepted and approved by His Grace. We are His chosen purchase (Ephesians 1:4-6). And as His chosen purchase, we have become heirs to the Kingdom of God (Romans 8:17, Ephesians 3:6).

 

The Kingdom of God is not just about waiting for the day we go to heaven. We received the finished work of Jesus within us when we believed in Him. The Kingdom of God lives within us now (Luke 17:21). We have an everlasting relationship with God now. Jesus, the Word, lives within us. And the Word is truth and life.

 

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth” (Isaiah 40:21, NKJV)?

 

You have received a Kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28). Seek to know the Kingdom of God that Christ has purchased for you—His Kingdom that lives in you. Allow the Holy Spirit to renew your mind with God’s Word of life and truth. Make His truth your own. (Romans 12:2). And believe in your heart that you are His new creation (Romans 10:10, 2 Corinthians 5:17). Trust in the finished work of Grace that is yours.

 

His Words are truth. They are life.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/truth-and-life.html

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Your Sense of Worthiness



 

Before God created the world, He chose us to know Him and to have fellowship with Him. But the powerful God who made us was pure and holy, and sin separated us from His presence. God loved us so much that He made a way for us to have an intimate and loving relationship with Him. He sent His dear Son to us—not to condemn us but to save us (Ephesians 1:4-6, John 3:16-17). When you accept Christ as your Savior, God adopts you as His own. You are His. He is in you, and you are in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).

 

—And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

—Galatians 4:6-7 (NKJV)

 

“Abba” is a term of endearment that indicates a deeply loving and intimate relationship with God. The presence of the Holy Spirit within us proves that we are the children of God. God is our Abba Father—our loving “Daddy.” This is a spirit of sonship, and it brings a sense of worthiness that we are at peace with God. Knowing God loves and accepts us is the opposite of feeling we are slaves to God. The thought of being a slave to God creates a feeling that we need to earn the privilege to be in His presence. And there is no way to be at peace in the presence of God if we believe we are not worthy in His eyes.

 

—For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

—Romans 8:15 (NKJV)

 

The law made God our judge but the Grace of Jesus made God our Father. We are no longer under the law but under Grace (Romans 6:14). God desires for us to know Him not as the Father who judges but as the Father who loves us. As His child, you don’t need to fear His judgment. He doesn’t want you to have a tense and uncomfortable relationship with Him. God longs for you to know that you have the freedom to boldly come to Him in your time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

 

God chose us to be His sons and daughters. The “sonship” that Christ has given us is found in three ways, and we were created to need these three things—a secure identity, acceptance, and approval. Without these things, you cannot live a peaceful life. But no person can give you a sense of worthiness. Only in knowing who you are in Christ do you find your worth in God.

 

When you don’t understand who you are in Christ, you live with a sense of never being good enough. You don’t grasp the liberating truth that Christ has set you free. You try to find your identity, acceptance, and your worth in the opinions of others and in your circumstances. Instead of resting in the Grace of Jesus who has already made you worthy, you live in fear and insecurity. The law gives you no security because you can never be good enough to meet it. The Grace of Jesus gives you unshakeable security. And Christ is within you crying out that you are no longer slaves to the law, but a child of His Grace. 

 

—To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

—Colossians 1:27 (NKJV)

 

The love of God has been made known to us in Christ. Christ lives within us, the hope of glory. We receive our identity, our acceptance, and approval from being His and being in Him. As Jesus is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). When God sees us, He sees the identity of His Son. Just as much as God loved and accepted and approved of His Son, so He loves, accepts, and approves of us.

 

You were created to overcome in His Grace—not to be defeated by the fear of not being good enough. Who you believe you are in Christ—your identity in Him—your sense of worthiness in Him—makes all the difference between living a fearful or a peaceful life. 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/your-sense-of-worthiness.html

 

 

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Thrive



 

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)

 

The thief wants to destroy you, and he begins by stealing from you. But he can only steal what you possess. He can’t take what you don’t have. He only fights for what Jesus has given you. You have received the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Satan tries to steal your peace, stir up fear, create frustration and doubt—make you angry, jealous, and impatient. He knows if he can kill your confident hope in what Jesus has done for you, you will have a defeated life. When you know your identity in Christ and what His Grace has given you, it is hard for the thief to steal what is yours. 

 

“Against such there is no law,” Paul writes about the fruit of the Spirit. “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:23b-25). 

 

Nothing has the power to destroy you when you know who you are in Christ and you exercise what is yours. The enemy can’t stir up your feelings and tempt your flesh with all its passions and desires. When you live in the identity Christ has given you, you have the power to choose to walk in His Spirit.

 

When the naked man, terrorized by the legion of demons, met Jesus, everything in his life changed. He was healed and sat down peacefully at Jesus’ feet—right in his mind and fully clothed (Mark 5:15). When we realize that we can be delivered from Satan’s lies like this healed man, we are no longer naked with no power to stand against the enemy. We clothe ourselves in our new identity in Jesus’s finished work of Grace. We realize our authority and speak it (Matthew 28:18-19, Proverbs 18:21). And we take back any gift the enemy has stolen. And these are gifts Jesus died for us to possess—joy—peace—health. 

 

“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2). Jesus died so we might prosper in all things. When we are renewed in our minds by God’s Word, our souls prosper, and we grow to believe the gifts that Christ has given us in salvation are ours.

 

Jesus doesn’t have to die again for these gifts to be ours. His agony on the Cross was enough to finish it all. We need to believe, possess and speak the miracle of Grace that we could never give ourselves. Jesus paid the price for our salvation and healing and provision. He gave us the authority of the power of God. If we don’t exercise what He died to give us, we make what cost Jesus His life worthless. God wants you to have an abundant life. He wants you to have the life Jesus died for you to have. 

 

Whoever you submit to becomes the one to whom you listen—the one who controls your mind and your feelings. Submit yourself to God, and resist the enemy. He will flee from you (James 4:7). Rebuke and resist and stand against the liar who comes to steal, kill, and destroy you. Yield yourself to God, the lover of your soul. You have the authority and the power of God in you (Ephesians 1:18-19). And Christ has already won your deliverance.

 

God wants you to know the abundant life He has given you—what His finished work of Grace has purchased for you. He wants you to prosper in your knowledge of who you are in Christ (3 John 2). You are His, chosen and redeemed by Him (Ephesians 1:4). You are filled with His spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3). You are sealed by the Holy Spirit who guarantees what Christ has given you (Ephesians 1:13). You have been given the authority to stand against any lie, any circumstance, any person, any deceit—anything that tempts to convince you that you are not who Christ says you are.

 

When you believe the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is yours, you take possession of that truth (Ephesians 1:18-19). Nothing the enemy attempts can steal, kill, or destroy your trust in the security of the relationship you have with God who loves you. When you know and believe who you are in Christ and exercise the authority that is yours, you speak death to the enemy and life to the truth that is yours (Proverbs 18:21). The abundant life Christ has given you thrives within you.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/thrive.html

 

Monday, January 24, 2022

Enough is Enough



 

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

—Galatians 5:25 (NKJV)

 

 

Are you tired of feeling condemned—that you are not good enough? Each born-again Christian is made new by the Spirit of the living God. Living in the Spirit refers to the immediate new birth that takes place in our spirit when we believe by faith in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). But that doesn’t mean that we automatically walk in the truth of the new person that we have become. Walking in the Spirit refers to how a believer needs to conduct his life. So if we are new in Christ and live in the Spirit, Paul says that we should also walk in the Spirit.

 

Living in the Spirit is the new person we are in Christ, and it is an unchanging position. Walking in the Spirit is the result of knowing who we are in Christ, and it is conditional upon our minds being renewed and also upon our openness to the leading of the Holy Spirit. To know the new person that Christ has made us we need to be renewed in our minds by His truth (Romans 12:2). Then we will know and experience what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:3). 

 

Nothing that we do earns us acceptance by God. It is only by His mercy that we find ourselves holy and acceptable to Him (Romans 12:1). We have been reborn by His Grace and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13). Because of God’s great love, there is no condemnation for us who are reborn in Christ.

 

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 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 8:1,5, NKJV).

 

When we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us the new person that we are in Christ, we learn the truths and promises of who we are in Him. When we start to believe, our perception changes from that of our flesh to that of His Spirit. And we walk according to the Spirit because we have set our minds on the things of the Spirit.  

 

“For we walk by faith, not by sight,” Paul said (2 Corinthians 5:7, NKJV).

 

Even when we can’t see with our physical eyes the truth of who we are in Christ, we walk by faith and not by sight. God has made us new (2 Corinthians 5:17). We don’t always feel new. God says we are His (Isaiah 43:1). We don’t always feel that assurance. God says we are blameless, holy, and acceptable to Him (Ephesians 1:4). Our flesh tells us differently. When we fail or sin, it condemns us and tells us that we have to earn His love. We can’t go by our feelings. Our flesh determines our feelings. The Spirit yields the truth of what can’t be seen. And the flesh will come against God’s truth every time.

 

“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace,” Paul said (Romans 8:6, NKJV).

 

Walking in the Spirit (in the truth of who you are in Christ) is your choice. The things of the flesh—being ruled by our emotions instead of God’s truth—are death. The things of the Spirit—which come from a mind that has been renewed by the Spirit—are life and peace.

 

Enough is enough. Draw a line in the sand, and determine that your flesh will not determine your feelings. Be renewed by God’s truth in your mind, and put on the truth of who you are in Christ (Ephesians 4:23-24). Make that truth your own. Take possession of it. 

 

You walk in the Spirit by faith and not by sight. 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/walk-in-the-spirit.html

Friday, January 21, 2022

His Wisdom


However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

—1 Corinthians 2:7-10 (NKJV)

 

God’s wisdom is not a mystery that He hides “from” His children. His wisdom is hidden “for” His children. If we put our faith in Jesus and receive Him in our hearts, we receive the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). We can receive the revelation of the things of God. But if we discard God’s wisdom that the Holy Spirit tries to impart to us, then it remains a mystery. 

 

Paul declared that Jesus Christ was both the power and wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). But God’s power and wisdom are only for those who are His children in Christ. His wisdom is hidden from those who don’t know Him. The Holy Spirit is the only one who grants access to the wisdom found in Christ (1 Corinthians 2:13). And God’s wisdom is only spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).

 

In 1 Corinthians 2:9 Paul quotes from Isaiah 64:4 and from a time when God was a mystery to His people and His ways could not be understood. But Jesus Christ changed all this for those who believe in Him. When read in context with the other verses and in the understanding of what Christ has done for us, that is not what this verse says. I Corinthians 2:9-10 says the thing that keeps us from knowing the things of God is not receiving the spiritual revelation of the Holy Spirit. When we only use human wisdom, we can’t understand the things of God. We are blind to them. But verse 10 clearly shows that God has granted us revelation knowledge through the instruction of the Holy Spirit. We have to believe what is ours in Christ and open our hearts to receive. 

 

“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? 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, NKJV).

 

In 1 Corinthians 2:11, Paul says that just like no one really knows the deep thoughts of anyone else no one really knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. We have received the Spirit of God, but we must be totally dependent on the Holy Spirit to give us God’s wisdom. In verse 12, Paul explains that if we have received the Holy Spirit, we have an open door to His wisdom. Observe in verse 12 that the Holy Spirit “freely” gives us His revelation. We don’t have to beg or strive to receive what Christ has freely given us. 

 

The Holy Spirit wants to give us the revelation of Christ more than we want to receive it (John 14:26, 15:26, and 16:13). But the revelation from the Holy Spirit just doesn’t fall on us. We have to be still and quiet and listen to what the Spirit reveals (Psalms 46:10). We have to receive what is ours in Christ. 

 

“These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But 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. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:13-16, NKJV).

 

The things of God are not foolishness. They are spiritually understood and are life and peace (Romans 8:6). You have received the mind of Christ. Be still and listen—not with your natural-thinking mind but with His spiritual one. 

 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). Your natural eye may not have seen or your natural ear heard, but Christ within you knows and wants you to receive the wisdom that God generously gives.

 

The things of God are not hidden from you. They are hidden for you. You have received the Spirit who is from God, that you might know the things that have been freely given to you by God. Open your heart to receive.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/his-wisdom_21.html

 

Thursday, January 20, 2022

His Good Report


 

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23, NKJV).  

 

What we speak is what we receive (Proverbs 18:21). What we experience in this natural world are facts, and what is real in the spiritual realm is God’s truth. When we speak of what we feel as truth—we confess what is felt by our senses. But when we speak the truth of the Word—no matter how we feel or what our circumstance—we confess the truth of the supernatural realm of God. We speak the authority of God’s unseen over what is seen. 

 

The world says to be afraid. God has not given you a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7) The world says you are sick and have no chance of healing. God says that by His stripes you were healed (1 Peter 2:24). The world says your needs won’t be met. The Word says He supplies all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ (Philippians 4:19). If you really believed the Word, wouldn’t you confess His truth instead of what the world says or what the enemy says about you? Wouldn’t you believe the Savior who died for you over the one who attempts to steal, kill and destroy your life?  

 

Walking by faith and not by sight is believing in the unseen truth of God over what you see or feel. The Holy Spirit will guide you into all of God’s truth—into the unseen of God’s spiritual realm that fills you with every spiritual blessing (John 14:17, 16:13, Ephesians 1:3). Not knowing and spiritually understanding the Word keeps you from receiving what Christ has given you. The truth of your identity in Christ needs to be known and understood over what the world or what any other person says. You have the mind of Christ to understand His truth (1 Corinthians 2:16). And when you allow His truth to renew your mind, you believe (Romans 12:2). And when you believe by faith in God’s Word, you sow His Good News in your heart, and you reap its good benefits.

 

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17, NKJV). 

 

Faith and the Word of God are interchangeable. You can’t have faith without hearing the Word, and the Word can’t be heard without it building your faith. Faith has no power without the Word. An alive faith comes by hearing the Word and not by just having heard the Word in the past. Faith pleases God (Hebrews 11:6). When you appropriate (take) by faith what Jesus has given His life for you to have, it pleases Him. And God rewards those who diligently seek Him with the revealed truth of His Word. You seek God, and you receive His Word (John 1:1, Matthew 7:8).

 

“Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed (Isaiah 53:1, NKJV)?

 

When you take (appropriate) the report of the Lord—His Word—at its unfailing value—when you believe it by faith, you receive its unseen truth. God’s Word is settled in heaven. It is the final authority (Psalm 119:89).

 

The work of Jesus is finished. It is perfect. The Word is the final authority. It is perfect. When you believe and confess its truth, that truth arises from the abundance of what you believe in your heart (Matthew 12:34). And you receive what Jesus died for you to receive. 

 

Allow the Holy Spirit to teach you God’s Word (John 16:13). Be renewed by His truth again and again (Romans 12:2). Hear His truth in your heart. Believe His good report. Hold fast to it (Hebrews 10:23). Speak life to it (Proverbs 18:21). When you believe His good report, you have the power of His final Word that sets you free. (John 8:32).

 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/his-good-report.html

 

 

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

His Faith in You


 

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

—Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)

 

Our faith is so important to God that without faith it is impossible to please Him. We please God when we believe Him and rest in His Son’s finished work of Grace. 

 

Faith in the finished work of Jesus is the opposite of faith in our own ability to do something that pleases God. Our work tries to appease Him—not please Him. The finished work of Jesus is what satisfies and pleases God. And it is Christ’s work of Grace that favored and saved us with His unconditional love. We can’t save ourselves or win God’s favor. We can’t earn what has already been earned. We are favored by God because of the finished work of Grace. Jesus already took our sins, our sickness, and our pain so that they don’t have to define who we are.

 

Everything good God has for us is provided in the finished work of Jesus on the Cross. Faith doesn’t create anything new. It can’t create healing or deliverance or provision. Faith takes what God has already provided. When we make ourselves the authors and the finishers of our faith, we aren’t going to like the results. Anytime we make receiving from God about ourselves—when we think we have to do something to earn the favor of God—we become disappointed and disillusioned.

 

“Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon’s, greatly amazed. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: ‘Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk’” (Acts 3:11-12, NKJV)?

 

These two Spirit-filled men knew that this miracle was not anything they had done. They knew it was the supernatural power of God that flowed through them that had made a change in this man’s life. From lame to healed, this man was now whole. 

 

“Through faith in the name of Jesus,” Peter said, “this man was healed—and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes” (Acts 3:16).

 

We never receive the promises of God through anyone else’s work or through our own work. We only receive by exercising the measure of faith Christ has given us (Galatians 2:16, Romans 12:3). 

 

Are you tired of having peace one moment and living in fear the next? You will never walk in the peace of God when circumstances or the opinions of others determine your life. These are unfinished and changing and always will be. But the finished work of Jesus on the Cross for you is complete. It is unchanging.

 

In your born-again spirit, you have been made new by the finished work of Christ (John 3:6 2, Corinthians 5:17)). When you choose to believe what Christ has given you—when you choose to walk by faith in that truth, you take possession of the new life that is yours. You believe in your mind what is yours, and the way you think changes to believe everything about you is new. 

 

What you believe in your heart determines the course of your life (Proverbs 23:7). When you believe in your heart that Christ’s work on the Cross for you is finished, then you know that there is nothing you have to do to win God’s favor and love. You know you are favored and loved. You live in a new dimension of peace that removes everything you thought necessary to be His. You are free to receive His love. 

 

Faith that receives is faith that comes from hearing God’s Word (Romans 10:17). The mind of Christ within you takes hold of the Word, and His Word speaks truth to you (1 Corinthians 2:16). Your beliefs are changed by God’s truth (Romans 12:2). When you seek God with all your heart, you are rewarded (Hebrews 11:6). You know that He is who He says He is in your life.

 

You will trust and be at rest in God when you believe that He has already provided everything good in your life. And when you believe the new person you are in the finished work of Jesus, you don’t struggle to put your faith in Him. You are at rest—at peace—in His perfect love for you. You live who He says you are by faith. 

 

It is only through faith in the finished work of Christ—in the name that is above all names—that you receive what God has already provided. Christ, the hope of glory, lives in you.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/his-faith-in-you.html

 

 

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

No Temptation




No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

—1 Corinthians 10:13, NKJV).

 

Your temptation is not unique. Any temptation you face is just a variation of what the enemy uses to tempt others. It may appear to be different but its purpose is just the same as any other temptation experienced by someone else. If the enemy can convince you that no one has ever faced your issue—if he can convince you that no one understands, then he can isolate you and destroy your hope. The Corinthians Christians to whom Paul was writing thought they could eat meat offered to idols without any temptation on their part. Paul warned them that they needed to think again. There was no new temptation. The temptation that the Israelites faced wandering in the wilderness was still around. “Flee from idolatry,” Paul warned them (1 Corinthians 10:14). If these Corinthian believers toyed with sin, they would be tempted. The same is true for us.

 

Although we encounter temptation, we do not face it alone. God is faithful. He never leaves or forsakes us (Hebrews 13:5).  Jesus was tempted just like we are, and He still overcame every temptation (Hebrews 4:15). Not only did Christ make the payment for our sins, but He helps us to overcome temptation (Hebrews 2:17-18). Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10:13 give us God’s assurance that He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle. 

 

Most everyone has experienced times when they thought they couldn’t resist any longer. They were either wrong about what they could handle or were on the edge of a breakthrough. God promises that He will not allow us to be tempted above what we can bear. When you think you cannot resist any longer, stand for one more minute and then one more. God’s promise will bring you through. 

 

This verse has been interpreted by some to say that the Lord tempts us and that this is His promise to not place on us more than we can handle. That is not true. God does not bring temptation into our lives. God tempts no one.

 

“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God;' for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” (James 1:13, NKJV). 

 

It is our own desire that lures us into temptation (James 1:14). Just as he did with Jesus, Satan also comes against us without any invitation on our part (Matthew 4:1-10 and Luke 4:1-13). 

 

We are all tempted. It is not a sin to be tempted. It is sin to yield to it. This verse does not give God the credit for temptation but instead says there are limits to what He will allow when we are under temptation. Even when we reach that limit, this verse does not promise that God will take away the problem. He makes a way of escape, but we have to take it. Anyone who yields to temptation either fails to see God’s way of escape or just decides to reject it. 

 

God is faithful. We also must be faithful to resist temptation. When we trust God to show us His way and then we choose to take it, we will experience the truth of this promise.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/no-temptation.html

Christ My Hope of Glory

  .   And now, Lord, for what do I expectantly wait? My hope [my confident expectation] is in You. —Psalms 39:7 (AMP)   I wait [patiently] f...