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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

 

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