Your Healing

 

The Gospel is God’s good news for man. It is the power of God to save everyone (Romans 1:16), and salvation is more than just a passage to heaven. The Gospel delivers and heals the whole man. 

 

You can’t separate healing from the Gospel. Jesus was healing personified. He healed all who came to Him with great compassion. Jesus never denied anyone healing or asked what they had done or what might have caused their sickness. He just loved and healed them.

 

“By His stripes, you are healed,” Isaiah prophesied about Jesus (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy. He healed and delivered all who were oppressed (Matthew 8:17, Acts 10:38). “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we may cease from sinning and live for righteousness. By his wounds you were healed" (1 Peter 2:24, NET).

 

Jesus accomplished healing for the whole man. 

 

The Gospel is all-powerful, and it stirs faith in those who hear it (Romans 10:17). When you hear the Gospel, it draws you into a relationship with Jesus. It draws you into the goodness of the love of God. It encourages you and sets you free from the lies of the enemy. It breaks through the bondage of sin, sickness, fear, torment, oppression, and shame. Evil dies in its truth, and your needs are met in its power. The Gospel sets you free.

 

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). The word here for salvation is the Greek word “soteria.”  Its meaning includes salvation, health, and deliverance. Whenever Jesus preached the Word, miracles of healing and deliverance followed. It is the same today. When the Gospel is preached, salvation in all its fullness is received. 

 

Forgiveness, healing, and deliverance are signs that follow the Word of God being spoken (Mark 16:17-18). These are all part of the goodness of God. When you hear the pure, unmodified Gospel of God’s grace, you know it. Its power changes you. Forgiven, healed, delivered, and lacking nothing—you are made new and whole in the love of God (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 

When you received salvation, you didn’t understand everything about it. You hadn’t read the whole Bible before you prayed to receive Christ. You heard that God forgave your sins and loved you. He wanted to be a part of your life. Accepting Christ into your heart, you received the Gospel with child-like faith. You receive healing in the same way that you responded to the Gospel when you were born again. You accept it without having to understand everything about it. 

 

Do you want to receive the wholeness the Gospel has for you?  Respond in the same way you asked Jesus into your heart—by faith. Healing begins by hearing the Word and allowing it to convince you of the depth, height, width, and length of God’s love for you (Ephesians 3:18).  The Word and faith work together to build confident hope. You receive by believing the Word.

 

“Daughter, your faith has made you well,” Jesus told the woman who touched the hem of His garment (Mark 5:4).

 

“Your faith has made you well,” Jesus told the blind man, “and immediately he received his sight” (Mark 10:52).

 

“Today the Scripture is fulfilled,” Jesus proclaimed after reading the prophecy of His coming from Isaiah (Luke 4:18). You have heard it. The Good News is yours in all its fullness and resurrection power.

  

“All things are possible to him who believes,” Jesus told the father of a tormented boy and healed him (Mark 9:23).  He tells you, too, that all things are possible to him who believes.

 

Jesus loved you without question all the way to the cross. He loved you unconditionally with every drop of His blood. He has delivered you from sin and all its destruction of pain and sickness. He is your Healer, your Deliverer, your Provider—your whole Healer of spirit, soul, and body.

 

Jesus heals all of you. All things are possible to him who believes.

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/04/your-healing.html

 

 

 

His Word is Your Truth

 

“Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance” (Ephesians 1:15-18, NLT).

 

Paul praises God for faithful believers and their love for each other. He prays that God would give them wisdom and revelation in their knowledge of Him. Paul wants them to understand what they have received in coming to know Christ. He knows that without these believers growing in the understanding of their new identity, they have no power to stand against the enemy's lies and have confidence in God’s calling. 

 

Have we grown in knowledge of what we have received in Christ?  Do we know what belongs to us? Do we often plead with God to give us what we have already received in Christ because we don’t have the wisdom to know that it is already ours?  

 

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

 

Christ had no sin within Him. He became my sin, my sickness, my need, and my brokenness so that I might receive His wholeness and right standing with God. When I received Christ into my life as my Savior, I received His righteousness. I became a new creation—all of the old was washed away. I received all the blessings His finished work on the grace purchased. 

 

“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, KJV).

 

Because He died for our sins over two thousand years ago, as a believer we are now dead to sin so we can live a righteous life. We don’t just enter into a position of grace that only forgives us of our sins. We enter into the finished work of Christ—a position of grace that gives us everything Christ’s payment for our sin accomplishes. The wounds He took over two-thousand years have healed us. 

 

When I spiritually understand what Christ’s ultimate love has given me, my perspective changes. The way I pray for healing changes. When I believe Jesus took my infirmities into His own body on the Cross, I don't plead with God to heal me. Jesus already carried in His tortured body the pain of my sin and sickness and healed me. I pray, praising Him for His finished work of grace. I praise Him, believing in my heart that I shall experience in my body the truth of His Word, “By His stripes, you were healed.”

 

“I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 1:19-20, NKJV).

 

Paul prays for us to understand the power we have when we believe God. It is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. His Resurrection power lives within us. We don’t plead with God from weakness. When we have the spiritual wisdom of who we are in Jesus Christ, we pray from strength. We know that in our weakness, He is strong. And that His strength and power are ours. We pray, believing we have already received what we ask (Mark 11:24, 1 John 5:14-15).

 

His Word is your truth. You can be a new creation in Christ and never experience new life. What is your need? Your illness? Your struggle? Your problem?  Jesus has overcome for you. You have received God’s greatest gift—the atoning grace of Jesus Christ. But you have to open your gift and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal what Christ has accomplished in you. You choose to accept the truth of His grace as your own. You choose to believe no matter what life throws at you.

 

His Word is your truth. You stand on His truth.

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/03/his-word-is-your-truth.html

 

 

 

His Finished Outcome

 

Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see (Hebrews 11:1). The hope God has given us never leads to disappointment! When we believe God’s promises are ours, we choose to live by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthian 5:7)! And when we believe, no enemy—no lie—nothing has any power to rob us of what is ours in Christ!

 

Do you want to live His life to the fullest? His life in you is lived by faith. When you believe in your heart that you are entirely new and lack nothing in Christ, what you see and feel doesn’t determine who you are. The righteousness Christ has given you determines who you are (2 Corinthians 5:21).

 

When Christ died for mankind, He died for the whole world. His finished work is a state of grace that is true for eternity. We enter into that state of grace through faith when we receive Christ’s righteousness as the perfect payment for our sins. And we are sealed in that state of grace by the promise of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). 

 

The Holy Spirit reveals who you are in the Word. Renew your mind with God’s truth (Romans 12:2). Believe in the finished work of Jesus in your life! Know who you are in Christ. Faith will fuel you. Your mind will be flooded with the love of the Holy Spirit, and you will know that the love of God fully dwells in you. 

 

When you believe you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21)—when you believe that the work of Jesus is finished (John 17:4), you stand strong in God’s power through each problem in life knowing He has already taken care of it. You see God’s finished outcome. And you walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). 

 

We don’t receive from God through anything we do. We don’t perform to receive.  We receive from God through faith in what Jesus has done. It is His work—not ours. Jesus has given us right standing with God. He has earned God’s holiness for us through His finished work. He has earned all of the blessings of God to supply all our needs (Philippians 4:19). 

Jesus completed the work God sent Him to do (John 17:4). If you believe in your heart that Jesus has risen from the dead, you receive by faith His righteousness. When you confess that truth, eternal life is yours (Romans 10:10). And nothing can separate you from that truth. Nothing can separate you from the love of God you have in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39).

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/03/his-finished-outcome.html

 

 

 

Your Faith in Christ Overcomes

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

—Romans 8:37 (NKJV)

 

 

God is not full of love and goodness one moment and then dumping something evil on you the next. Even after experiencing a great move of faith in your life—if you don’t believe in the goodness of God, you can doubt His faithfulness. 

 

God is love (1 John 4:8). He can’t have two natures. He is either good, or He is bad. We still live in a fallen world, but we have God’s power and His authority to overcome what comes against us. If God is for us, who can be against us? Why would God not freely give us good things (Romans 8:31-32)?

 

When you believe that God’s nature is good, it is easier for you to choose faith over doubt and fear. When you believe that your identity is in Christ, then you clothe yourself in the Truth of who He is and what He has given you. His righteousness and His power are yours (2 Corinthians 5:21, Ephesians 1:17-21). You know that you are more than a conqueror. You have His authority to overcome what comes against you. 

 

The enemy is the one who lies and tells us that God is going to do something terrible to bring about something good (John 8:44). Now does that make any sense? God doesn’t cause bad things in our lives to make us love Him. He doesn’t make His children sick or hurt them to drive them closer to Him. You can worship Him when all is well and be close to Him. You don’t need anything bad to happen to you. It is our choice whether we have an intimate relationship with God or wait for something like sickness or loss to make us turn to Him. But if we wait for something terrible to drive us to God, we miss the intimacy we could have had with Him all along. 

 

God can take whatever the enemy sends to steal, kill, and destroy and turn it around for His purpose (John 10:10).

 

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).  

 

“Watch me!” God declares. “Watch me take the very thing the enemy tries to do and redeem it with the power of my Word.” 

 

When you take God’s Truth by faith—when you take His Truth as your Truth—when who God says you are is greater than any circumstance or fear or sickness or issue or feeling you have, you become more than a conqueror! No matter what society, the enemy, or anyone throws at you, your God is good. No weapon that comes against you has a chance. He can breathe on any attempt to harm you with His precious mercy and power and bring forth good.

 

You receive what you believe (Matthew 9:22, 29)—either fear that comes from the lies of the enemy or faith that is birthed in God’s Truth. It is your choice. Feed your faith with the Truth of God’s Word. Don’t believe the lies of the enemy and feed your doubt with fear. Your promised land is God’s Truth, and the enemy feeds you his lies to keep you from receiving it. Are you tired of wandering in the desert when your promise is just waiting? If you identify with God’s Truth, you will know your identity in Him. You will have the faith to believe in your heart that God keeps His promises. 

 

Believe in the finished work that Jesus has done within your born-again spirit. Learn who this new person is, and believe who you are in Him. Christ has given you His authority to live an overcoming life. Take the authority He has given you, and exercise the power He has given you. He isn’t going to make you exercise it. You walk in faith and in His power because you believe He is for you. Don’t be in fear of the enemy who lies and tells you that your God wants to harm you. Despite anything that comes against you, overwhelming victory is yours through Christ, who loved you.

 

What do you need to be conquered in your life?  Fear? Sickness? Pain?  Don’t fear anything. God is not the author of your fear. He gives you power and love and a sound mind—a peaceful mind (2 Timothy 5:7). 

 

Choose faith. Feed your faith with God’s Truth, and believe it in your heart. What you believe flows out of the abundance of your heart (Luke 6:45). Confirm what you believe by speaking the revelation Truth of His Word into your life (Proverbs 18:21).

 

You are more than a conqueror!  You have overcome in Christ! You overcome by faith in the righteousness that is yours in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21, Philippians 3:9, Romans 4:5-13). You overcome by believing and speaking the Truth of His promises into your life (Proverbs 18:21). You take authority by faith because Christ has told you to take authority (Matthew 10:1, Mark 10:8, Luke 9:1, Luke 10:19, John 14:12).  

 

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” 1 John 5:4).

 

Your faith in Christ overcomes. 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/03/your-faith-in-christ-overcomes.html

 

 

 

 

Not Just A Moment

 

I may have bad, mad, or sad moments. But I can’t go by what I experience in this world or the emotions I feel. Those moments and the feelings they evoke are not the truth about my life. I choose to not live by what I feel. I choose to live by what God reveals is true about me in His Word. I choose to believe that my unworthy sinful nature has been crucified with Christ, and Christ has given me His new life. He has given me His righteousness (Galatians 2:20, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 21).

 

This truth is not just for a moment. It is my state of being. I choose to believe the truth of who Jesus says I am. I have no reason to live by what I feel. I am new in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). All the old in life that condemned me is forever gone. Jesus has presented me without fault or blemish or debt to the Father. That is not just a feeling. That is not just a moment. That is the truth. And that one moment which took place over two thousand years ago changed everything for me. My flesh—the feelings of the old person that I once was, will not control me. It is Christ who lives in me. I choose to live by His faith (Galatians 2:20). I will walk by His faith and not by what I experience in this life (2 Corinthians 5:7).

 

Blessed is the man who will not be charged with the debt of sin (Romans 4:8). The flesh will continually try to claim me all the days of my life. But Jesus died for all my sins. He paid the debt that was against me long before I was even born. He died for the sins I committed in my past, and the sins I will commit now and, in my future (Hebrew 10:10-14). If I think that I alone can live a sinless life, then I have made the grace of Christ of no worth (Galatians 2:21). It is only Christ living in me who lives a holy life. I choose to surrender to the righteousness He has imputed to me. I choose grace over sin because His grace abounds so much more (Romans 5:20). 

 

I was dead, but now I live. I was in sin and broken, but now I am forgiven and whole. I have no reason to live in shame. I have no reason to fear. I have no reason to worry. He is my living hope (1 Peter 1:3). I am safe. I am victorious in His love for me. It is who I am. Christ within me—His Word within me—is life and peace. He is my hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

 

I have one moment that cost Him everything. It was not just a moment in time. It was the moment that everything changed. And that one moment is true for me from now to eternity. I am His.

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/03/not-just-a-moment.html

 

The Abundant Grace of Jesus

 

 

But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 

—James 4:6-7

 

True humility is putting God first in your life. It is submitting your life to Him. Exalting yourself or even degrading yourself, is prideful. Pride focuses on you—your desires—your concerns—your problems—your worries—your work. Pride is self-centered. Humility is your life centered around God instead of your life centered around you.

 

God gives grace generously to those who recognize the righteousness He has credited to them. They know the undeserving value He has placed on their lives. When they know their worth in Jesus, they have no need to exalt themselves or make themselves look less. They have no need to prove themselves to God or to others. They are at peace in their relationship with God. 

 

When the Scripture says that God resists the proud, it doesn’t mean God doesn’t love His child who deals with pride. He wants to generously give you His grace, but God knows that pride frustrates and hinders His work of grace in our life. It is frustrating trying to earn something that is already ours. It is not our work. It was His work, and it is finished. You don’t have to prove your right standing to God. Jesus proved it for you. When you believe that Jesus who had no sin became your sin so you might receive His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21), you are free of your need to either exalt or degrade (humiliate) yourself. You are at peace with your Father, and you are free in your relationship with Him.

 

Whatever you submit to is what is going to have control in your life. If you submit to striving to prove yourself to God—if you submit to striving to convince yourself that you are at peace with God, you have not submitted to who God says you are. You have not believed you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You have submitted yourself to the lies and to the control of the enemy. BUT when you believe and submit yourself to God’s truth of your right standing because of Christ, you submit yourself to the power of God and the authority Christ has given you. And the enemy has no choice but to flee.

 

We make living our lives for Christ difficult. Christ lives in us. When we submit to the truth of His righteousness in us, our salvation and our lives rest on our faith in Him—and not on ourselves. When we believe it is His work and not ours, we humble ourselves because we know we are nothing without Him. We realize that exalting or degrading ourselves often ends in humiliating ourselves. We know that without humbling ourselves, we don’t give God a chance to exalt us (1 Peter 5:6).

 

There is no condemnation or humiliation in Jesus Christ. We have EVERYTHING JESUS earned for us. Jesus lives in us, and we choose to exercise by faith the righteousness He has given us. We live in peace with God when we believe nothing separates us from the love of God Jesus Christ has lavished on us. 

 

“Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt, but to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness” (Romans 4:4-5).

 

You can’t make yourself holy and righteous. Christ in you is holy. Christ in you is righteous. You never earn your right standing with God. If you try, you always fail. You burn out because your works only cause you debt. And Jesus died to pay your debt. He justified you to God. Jesus paid your whole debt with His finished work of grace. And your faith in Him credits you with His righteousness. 

 

Submit to God’s truth of who you are in Christ. Keep submitting to the truth of who you are in Christ, and you will eventually live out of His faith and not your works. Then your works will be born of faith in His righteousness and will not be your works. They shall be full of His life and power and His finished work of grace. You will exercise the authority He has given you. The devil will flee.

 

My friend, put your faith in Jesus who saved you. What you received as a gift, don’t now try to earn. Believe when Jesus took your sin, you became His righteousness. You are a new creation. The old in you is gone. BEHOLD. All is made new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 

You can come boldly to His throne of grace in your time of need (Hebrews 4:16). You have received the abundant and generous grace of Jesus (John 10:10).

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/03/the-abundant-grace-of-jesus.html

As Much as You Allow

 

 

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

— Ephesians 3:20 (NKJV)

 

We don’t use God. We don’t use His power. God uses us. God asks us to let Him live through us. When we live for God because we feel an obligation to live for Him, we serve Him out of our own ability instead of His strength. When we allow Him to live through us, we serve Him out of faith in what He has done within us. We know that in our weakness He is strong. Serving Him becomes our privilege, and His power is unhindered. He does abundantly more than we could ask or think through us.

 

Christ has given us an exchanged life. He exchanged our sins for His righteousness. We are new. The old is gone. We have received His righteousness. When we surrender our will, reasoning, and understanding to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to guide and empower us, Christ, who lives in us, lives through us. We serve Him out of His power at work within us. Serving Him flows out of faith instead of obligation. It becomes a joy because nothing rests on our ability. Everything rests on Hm.

 

Yes, God does abundantly more than we ask or think, but we must never forget the whole verse. He does abundantly more through us when we surrender to His work of righteousness within us. God doesn’t want us burned out from obligation. He wants us fulfilled in His finished work of grace. 

 

Surrendering to God is not your work. It is His work that you choose to allow in you. You must allow Him to work in you. You deny the flesh access, but it is God’s power in you that accomplishes what you have denied. Surrendering is allowing the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, gentleness, and patience—to flourish in your life. 

 

Your surrender is not a pick-and-choose surrender. Don’t refuse what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life. Don’t reject receiving the spiritual gifts that He wishes to bestow on you. Deny any fear. Allow the Holy Spirit to teach and guide and empower you as He never has before. Allow Him to challenge your human reasoning and reveal Himself to you.

 

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20, NKJV).

 

God uses as much of you as you allow.

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/03/as-much-as-you-allow.html

 

Not Hidden from You

 

 

In Matthew 17 (and also in Mark 9), Jesus had just returned from the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John to a father who begged him to cast a demon out of his son. The father told Jesus that the disciples had been unable to cast out the demon.

 

Jesus was upset and called his disciples faithless and perverse. He had already given his disciples the power to cast out all unclean spirits (Matthew 10:1). He expected His disciples to be able to cast this demon out of this boy. But when faced with the opposition of evil, the disciples just didn’t believe they had the authority Jesus had given them. How about us? When we are faced with evil, do we believe in Christ’s authority within us?

 

Jesus immediately cast the demon out of the boy. The disciples asked Jesus why they couldn’t cast it out.

 

“Because of your unbelief!” Jesus said. “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you have enough faith to move mountains. Nothing will be impossible to you. However, this kind of unbelief does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 17:20-21, Mark 9:28-29).

 

Jesus wasn’t saying that there are certain demons that only come out by prayer and fasting. There never was or ever will be a demon that the name of Jesus or faith in the name of Jesus won’t cast out. Jesus said in Matthew 17:21 that prayer and fasting cast out the kind of unbelief the disciples had. In Mark 9:29, He emphasized that it was the only way. 

 

Unbelief kept the disciples from casting out the boy’s demon. Unbelief will also keep us from overcoming the enemy. 

 

What kind of unbelief did the disciples have? 

 

There are three kinds of unbelief: unbelief from ignorance, unbelief from wrong information, and unbelief that rises from what we naturally feel and experience. Unbelief resulting from ignorance or erroneous teaching can be eliminated by receiving the truth of God’s Word.  However, the unbelief that hindered the disciples in casting the demon out of this boy was a “natural” type of unbelief. It came from what they felt—not from what Jesus had told them was true. Just like us, the disciples were simply dominated by their natural senses more than by the truth of what Jesus had told them—that He had given them power over evil. 

 

The Holy Spirit tells us, just as Jesus told the disciples, that the way we deal with this kind of “natural” unbelief is by prayer and fasting. But it is not the act of prayer or fasting that eliminates unbelief. If we focus on the acts of prayer and fasting instead of trusting in the truths they accomplish, then we trust in our own ability over God’s. Intimacy with God is not ours to accomplish. Intimacy with God comes when we yield to the Holy Spirit and to His truth.

 

Prayer and fasting change how we receive the Word. They change what we believe and give us spiritual insight into what is really true in God’s realm. The callousness of our natural mind to things of the Spirit—our ability to understand what we haven’t experienced—our perception—are all affected by prayer and fasting. Knowledge is the solution to not knowing the Word and also the solution to erroneous teaching. But knowledge by itself will not rid us of the “natural” unbelief that comes from what we sense.

 

The natural man does not receive the things of God. They are foolish to him (1 Corinthians 2:14). We connect with God spirit to Spirit—not by what we feel—not by the “natural” mind. We commune and worship with God in spirit and truth (John 4:24). A heart change from unbelieving to believing comes as a result of receiving the revealed truth of the Word by the Holy Spirit. 

 

God’s Word is truth and it is life. The flesh—what our “natural” mind understands—accomplishes nothing (John 6:63). We don’t “earn” the power that Jesus has given us—not through prayer or fasting or any act that we perform. Jesus earned everything. We can’t receive the truth of who we are in Christ or the authority He has given us through our senses—through our “natural” mind—or through anything we do. We receive God’s truth spirit to Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14). We can’t change the unbelief of our “natural” emotions from what we feel to the peace of spiritual truth by just wishing it to be so. We receive an understanding of God’s truth and conform to that truth when our minds are renewed spirit to Spirit (Romans 12:2, Ephesians 4:23). 

 

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26). He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come” (John 16:13).

 

Unbelief in God’s truth can be overcome. Jesus Christ has revealed who we are in Him. The Holy Spirit reveals this truth to us. When we receive an understanding of who we are and what is ours in Christ, we overcome our unbelief.

 

Pulling verses out of context can halt the depth of understanding that the Holy Spirit wishes to reveal to us. 

 

“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” we hear truthfully in reference to heaven, but then often fail to read the revelation in the next verse. “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). Before Christ’s finished work of grace, we were unable to see and hear and understand with our hardened ears and our dull hearts (Matthew 13:15). Once we couldn’t understand the hidden wisdom of His grace. But with our salvation we have received the mind of Christ that can see, hear, and understand the truth the Holy Spirit uncovers (1 Corinthians 2:7, 2:16, Ephesians 1:9). You have received the Spirit of God so that you might know the things He has revealed (1 Corinthians 2:12).

 

God does not hide Himself or His truth from you. Seek to understand God’s Word. Don’t dwell on the acts of prayer and fasting. Open yourself to what the Holy Spirit wishes to accomplish in your life through them. Receive the spiritual truth the Holy Spirit uncovers. Receive His spiritual understanding of who you are and what is yours in Christ’s finished work of grace.

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/03/not-hidden-from-you.html

 

Judgment and Forgiveness

 

“Judge not, that you be not judged,” Jesus said. ^“For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” 

—Matthew 7:1-2 NKJV

 

Judging is forming an opinion or a conclusion about something. God has given us His Word by which we judge if something is right or wrong. But judging, when based on what we feel instead of God’s truth becomes subject to our human emotions instead of what we know is true.

 

There is not only a right and wrong way to judge. What we judge is also important. It is not wrong to judge if something a person has done hurts or offends us. That is just life. You cannot go through life without being offended by someone. The problem is when we judge someone’s motive. Judging the motive behind someone’s word or action is wrong. We don’t know what is in another person’s heart. And truthfully, sometimes we do not even admit the real motive behind what we do. Only God knows what is in someone’s heart and in our hearts. So how can we judge the motive of someone else?

When judging another person’s motive, you set yourself up to be judged in return. When you judge the motive behind what someone else does or says, you set yourself up to experience a range of hurtful emotions. You not only judge the motive behind their words or action, but you allow the offense to wound you and put you on the defense. And then you react out of your hurt and pain. Your emotions become subject to manipulation by the enemy. You allow the wounds of the past and the hurts of the present to direct what you do and say. Your judgment of the motive of the person who has wounded you reminds you of every insufficiency in your own life, and you see insufficiency in the lives of others. In your judgment of another person’s motive, you hinder love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in your own life.

 

God determines right or wrong in our lives. He gives us His Word so we can know if our actions or someone else’s actions are right or wrong. But we have to separate an action that is wrong from the person who has done the wrong. God's standard judges if an action goes against His truth. That is apparent. What isn't apparent is the motive behind an action. God knows the heart. Not us. We forgive the offense to us because Christ has forgiven our offense. The problem is when we judge the motive behind another person’s action. The problem is when we react out of our feelings instead of out of His truth. We have to separate the action that God judges as wrong from the person who has done it.

 

Don’t judge the motive of someone else. Don’t react out of what you feel. You become harsh. And those of us who are harsh with others are treated the same way. When you injure someone they want to strike back. But when we sow mercy, we reap mercy (Matthew 5:7). How we respond to others is what we receive in return (Matthew 7:12).

 

God alone knows the motive in someone’s heart—ours included. With the measure we use to judge another person’s heart, it will be measured back to us. We give away what we have freely received. We are debt-free because Jesus has made us debt-free. We hold no one else’s heart in debt to us. We forgive with the forgiveness of Jesus who has forgiven us.

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/03/judgment-and-forgiveness.html

 

 

 

Your Truth is My Truth

 

 

He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!

—Psalm 107:20-21, NKJV

 

 

God sent His Word to heal us and deliver us from destruction and death.  The Word is not just the Bible. It is Jesus Himself—God in the flesh.

 

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14, NKJV).

 

God sent Himself—full of grace and truth—to heal us. The Word is Jesus, our Healer. The Word heals and delivers because the Word is Jesus Himself. When you take the Word into your heart, you take in grace and truth. 

 

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;

It shall not return to Me void,

But it shall accomplish what I please,

And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11, NKJV).

 

Those who receive God’s Word in their heart shall receive the promises God has spoken.

 

Have you received God’s Word in your heart? Are you standing on the Word—on Jesus—believing that He healed and delivered you from destruction and death when He gave His life’s blood for you? As you stand facing symptoms and illness and challenges in your life, give praise to Jesus for healing and delivering you. 

 

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you,” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, NKJV).  Give praise to God in all things. A heart of praise opens you to receive from God. When you praise God in all things, you always find something to be thankful for! A negative attitude filled with negative expectations can thwart God’s power in your life! 

 

You receive from God by faith in the finished work of Jesus—not by anything you do. It is the grace of Jesus that justifies you to God—not your works. Only those who are resolved and determined to receive God’s promises will receive them (Matthew 11:12).

_________

 

Lord Jesus, I praise you! You sent your Word and healed me and delivered me from destruction! I praise you no matter what my symptoms or my circumstances or my struggles! You say I am healed. You say I am delivered. You say I am whole! Your finished work on the cross is truth. You speak life and peace into my soul and body and circumstances. I am in awe of how much you love me. I stand upon your truth in this place where I am. I draw upon your living water—I draw upon you, Jesus. I draw truth from your Word which lives in my heart.  I believe your promises for me. I receive your truth and take it as my own. Your Word is mine. You are who is alive in me—not any lie that tries to comes against your truth in me. The life I live in this flesh I live by the faith you have given me. I walk by faith and not by sight. I do not relent. I do not give one inch to the deceiver. Your truth is my truth.

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/03/your-truth-is-my-truth.html

 

Intimacy with God

 

 

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

—Romans 8:31-32, NKJV

 

God never withholds His love from you. God didn’t withhold the life of His Son as payment for your sin. Why would He ever withhold anything good from you when He gave His Son so you could have a new and abundant life (John 10:10)?  

 

It is hard to draw near to a Father when you aren’t certain if He loves you. If you believe God takes away or harms you for an unknown purpose or for a greater good, you doubt the right-standing Jesus died to give you. You doubt how God thinks of you, and you don’t have freedom in your relationship with Him. Trust is very difficult, and fear springs up destroying any intimacy you might have.

 

God is love (1 John 4:8) He does not harm you. He never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). God does nothing to make you question His love. That is the enemy trying to steal, kill, and destroy the trust you have in your relationship with God (John 10:10). If the enemy can convince you that God will harm you for a greater good, then you will believe a lie that will keep you in perpetual bondage. Any peace you have will only be found when circumstances improve instead of being found in the intimacy of your relationship with God.

 

The true nature of God is unconditional love. Before Christ died for mankind, God’s love was conditional. His love remained conditional upon our actions until we believed by faith that Jesus was the Son and God. When you believed in your heart that Jesus met the condition of payment for your sins with God, God’s love was no longer conditional upon your actions. Your Savior came to live in your heart. Where once your sin had condemned you, Jesus imputed to you His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Your flesh no longer has the right to claim you. Jesus has claimed you for God. The Holy Spirit convicts you with the righteousness you received (John 16:18-11) so that you believe His righteousness is yours. When you have faith in who Christ is in you instead of the old person you once were, you know you have His power to defeat the flesh which always comes against you. You choose to exercise it.

 

If God did not spare His own Son out of love for you, why would He use harm to win your love?  Why wouldn’t He give you what you need to encourage you and build your trust?

 

Why are some Christians afraid of God? They have been told they must work to earn His love and approval. They have been told they will receive from God if they prove themselves to Him. You didn’t receive Christ in your heart by anything you did. You don’t receive anything from Him by what you do. To have an intimate relationship with your Heavenly Father, you have to believe in your heart that Jesus’ love for you on the cross was enough and that there is nothing more you have to do to be loved accepted by God (Ephesians 1:6). To live in intimacy with God, we continually, “draw near (to Him) with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22, NKJV).

 

When you believe in your heart that you have been completely washed clean in the blood of His sacrifice—when you believe in your heart that you have received the righteousness of God because of Christ’s sacrifice, you are delivered from a conscience that condemns you. You experience freedom in your relationship with God. You have peace in His love. 

 

God sees His Son when He sees you. He loves you because He loves His Son. He is pleased with you because He is pleased with His Son. What you have with God is not a religion. It is not a list of works to perform to win His love. You have a relationship with God, and He wants you to know Him as He knows you. 

 

Learn how God sees His Son when He sees you. Realize what it means that you are blameless because of Christ’s sacrifice. When you know who you are in Christ, you believe in your heart His forgiveness is enough. Your sins have been completely punished in the body of Christ on the cross (1 Peter 2:24, Galatians 3:13). Your sinful nature has been crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6). It is no longer you who live in your flesh but Christ who lives in you. You are free of condemnation by the faith you have received in Christ (Galatians 2:20.) You draw near to God with full assurance of faith. You come boldly into His presence to receive mercy in your time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

 

You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ Jesus has given you the power to live a righteous and holy life. When you are free of an evil conscience that condemns you (1 John 3:19-21), you live in the fullness of His grace. You believe His Grace was sufficient for your sins, your sickness, and your need (2 Corinthians 12:9). Christ has won God’s love for you. There is nothing more to be done. You are free of condemnation, guilt, and shame. 

 

The devil is your accuser. He is the one that terrorizes your life. The devil has no power over the righteousness of Christ in you. Be continually renewed in your mind by God’s truth and love for you. Continually put on the new nature Christ has given you—the righteous nature He gave to you with His life (Ephesians 4:23-24). 

 

Walk by faith and live in free intimacy with God. Jesus has already paid your price. 

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/03/intimacy-with-god.html