“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
No comments:
Post a Comment