Abiding in Jesus

 

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor any plague come near your dwelling.

—Psalm 91:1, 9-10

 

I have a tiny new puppy.  He has discovered he has a little igloo that has a small entrance. He feels secure and protected when he crawls into his dwelling. He likes to remain there. I’m sitting here this morning with him pressed up against my leg. He is relaxed and sleeping. He feels safe when he knows I am beside him.

Aren’t we the same way?  Don’t we know we are safe in God when we remain in His presence? Don’t we know we are secure in His promises when we abide in His truth?

If I dwell in the secret place—in the presence—of the Most High, my Lord, He favors me with His protection. This promise is true for those who dwell in the Lord’s presence—not just visit him. You can be clean in Jesus and not “abide” in Him. You can be saved and not have Him as Lord of your life.

“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you,” Jesus told His disciples. “Abide in Me, and I in you” (John 15:3-4a).

The promises of God are valid for those who choose to love Jesus above everything and everyone else. To experience the gift of the new life Jesus has given you, you must abide in Him. You spend time with Him. You take in God’s truth until it becomes your truth. You anticipate hearing from the Holy Spirit and you listen with expectancy. 

Dwelling in the secret place of the Most High is the same thing as setting your love upon the Lord. A loving relationship with Jesus opens the door to God’s secret place. When we remain in God’s presence and truth, we have entrance into the protection of our Most High God. The Hebrew word that is translated as “shadow” in Psalm 91:1 is “tsel.”  This same word was translated as a defense in Numbers 14:9 and Ecclesiastes 7:12. Those who unceasingly trust in the Lord will have Him come to their defense.

To abide in God means we have to abide in love (1 John 4:16). It is impossible for those who haven’t heard the Good News of Jesus’ unconditional love and grace to abide in God’s love. 

Have you heard the truth of Jesus’ unconditional love and grace in your heart? Have you made His truth your truth in your life?  Do you believe that He will abide in you if you abide in Him? That He will defend you from all evil? That no plague will come near your dwelling?

We certainly see evil befalling God’s children. We certainly see plagues coming against God’s people. But neither do we see the majority of God’s people fulfilling the requirements of this psalm and making Jesus the Lord of their lives. As impossible as this psalm seems to our human understanding, God promises complete protection from evil and plagues. But notice that evil and plagues don’t come near our “dwelling.” This whole psalm was written to those who abide under the shadow of the Most High God (Psalm 91:1, 9)—who in making Jesus Lord discover that He has become their habitation. Your habitation—your “dwelling” is where you abide in safety in Jesus. It is your “secret place” in God. It is your relationship with Him. That is where He protects you.

“The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore” (Psalm 121:7-8).

Amen.                                       

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/06/abiding-in-jesus.html

 

 

 

 

No Deceit in Christ

 

 

For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

—Galatians 6:3

 

         In the previous verse, Galatians 6:2, Paul gave instruction that we are to help others carry their burden. He says in today’s verse that if we think we are too important to stoop down and help others with their burdens, then we are deceived about our own importance. 

         Our self-importance—how we value ourselves—profits us nothing. None of us are anything of ourselves. None of us have any good excuse for not helping restore our fellow believers. This was one of the blatant hard-hearted sins of the Pharisees. 

         This verse in the Amplified Bible Classic Edition reads, “If any person thinks himself to be somebody [too important to condescend to shoulder another’s load] when he is nobody [of superiority except in his own estimation], he deceives and deludes and cheats himself.”

         Most people are rarely deluded and deceived by someone else’s arrogance and pride. The trouble is the difficulty we have in recognizing our own. We have the power to delude and cheat ourselves or to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s estimation of our worth in Jesus. Our true sense of worth is found in Christ—in the righteousness that He alone has imparted to us. There is no deceit in Christ. So we choose to not be deceived.  We choose not to think that we are above anyone else. 

         We fulfill the Law of Christ—we reveal the true worth of His love in us—when we are not too important or too prideful to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us to help others carry their burdens. Jesus had no lofty ambition. He never asked anyone about their sin before he healed them. The sin he addressed was the hard-heartedness of those who judged others harshly by the Old Testament Law instead of by the Law of His love. We are to be one-minded with Jesus. We are to love with His love without condemnation and hypocrisy. 

         “Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself (Philippians 2:1-3).

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/06/no-deceit-in-christ.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Law of Love

 

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

—Galatians 6:2

 

Jesus Christ brought together all of the Old Testament Law in His commandment to love God and love others as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). Then He gave us an even greater command. We are to love others as He has loved us (John 15:2).

 

All the law is fulfilled in the perfect sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. We fulfill this commandment of Christ by loving our neighbors as ourselves (Galatians 5:14) and bearing each other’s burdens.

 

“Give me understanding, Lord, and I shall keep your law. Yes, I shall observe it with my whole heart” (Psalm 119:34). But I can never keep all of the Old Testament Law, Jesus! Only your love, Jesus, fulfills all the Law (Galatians 5:7-14). Give me spiritual understanding. What does this mean for my life?

 

Jesus’ commandment (or the spiritual revelation of it that God had given to man through His Word) was nothing new to God. But it was never clearly seen by man because of the darkness that separated him from God. 

 

However, when a man believes in Jesus, he is delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the love Jesus has purchased for him (Colossians 1:8). In the light of Jesus’ love, this darkness is removed, and the old commandment of love becomes new through the example of Jesus’s life laid down for us. Christ reveals a way to love that the world has never before experienced.

 

The love of Jesus died for us. We love others as Christ has loved us by bearing the burdens of others.  And in doing this, we fulfill His New Covenant commandment that summed up all of the Old Testament Law.

 

The word “burden” in Galatians 6:2 is translated as a “heaviness, weight, trouble” in Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon. This can be such a heavy weight that if the burdened person has no help in carrying it, he will be overwhelmed. This may be either a sin (Galatians 6:1) or a trouble in life. 

 

We fulfill Christ’s law of love when we bear one another’s burdens. Our love must go beyond just seeing others hurt to helping them carry their load. If it is within our power to lessen their pain, we should allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to us how we can help them overcome their sin or trouble.

 

Our human love achieves nothing. It is only the love of Jesus in us that loves without judgment and condemnation.  We choose to extend Christ’s Law of Love and act upon the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Then the person who is suffering can find Christ’s strength to overcome.

 

Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

—Romans 13:10

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/the-law-of-love.html

 

 

 

Prayer Request

I have written devotionals five days a week for 13 years in August. Even though I have spent time preparing and praying over each devotional, I need to go deeper into the Word. For the next few weeks (or however long the Holy Spirit leads me), I'm meditating on His Word and resting in His grace. There is so much I have not spiritually understood. I'm asking to receive what the Holy Spirit wishes to reveal in His Word to me. 

Thank you for your prayers. 

In His Grace,

Lynn Lacher

Your Gift in Jesus

 

 

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

—Romans 8:9 (NKJV)

 

 

Not knowing who you are in Christ is like having the best gift in the world and not bothering to unwrap it. You believed in Christ by faith (Romans 10:10), and you also have to believe in your identity in Christ by faith. Jesus is God’s gift to you, just waiting to be opened. But if you don’t learn who you are in Christ, you won’t experience the miracle He has given you.

 

When Jesus becomes your Savior, you are born of the Holy Spirit. The redeeming and all-powerful God lives in your spirit, which has been born again by the precious blood of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit. You are no longer identified to God as “flesh.” The Holy Spirit identifies you as God’s own. And He wants to reveal to you the new life that is yours in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh [the physical is merely physical], and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6, AMP). 

 

The flesh is only physical. It can’t give you a right standing with God. The flesh will wear you out and drain you dry. The physical eventually ends in death, but the Holy Spirit gives everlasting life. What God speaks through His Word is of the Spirit. His Words are Truth, and they are life!

 

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:64, NKJV).

 

You have received the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. But to know what this means, you must be changed in your mind by the renewing of God’s life-giving Word. Don’t be conformed to man’s opinion that regards what is seen and felt as Truth. Be transformed in your thinking so you believe by faith the unseen Truth God in your heart (Romans 12:2). Until you believe that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21), you won’t live in freedom from the curse of the law from which Jesus redeemed you (Galatians 3:13). The unseen spiritual realm that lives in you is more real than the physical realm in which you live. 

 

Do we hunger to experience the freedom of our peace with God? We already have His peace within us. The peace of God lives within your spirit just waiting to calm your mind. The promises of God are just waiting to be known and experienced. You must draw from the Truth of what is yours in Christ. The Truth of God’s Word—His promises—is appropriated by faith. His Truth is opened up and taken as your soon. Without applying faith—without choosing to believe in His Truth that you can’t see or hear or feel, you can’t draw from the well of His Truth within you. 

 

God-in-the-flesh humbled himself and came to earth, taking our disgrace and shame, unconditionally giving us His righteousness, and making us one with Him. The Gospel of Grace is not that you serve Jesus and die for Jesus. The Gospel of Grace is that Jesus served you and, taking your sin, died as you. Then He rose from death to life as you, so you can be as He is in this world (I John 4:19).

 

The Gospel of Grace is the power of God for our complete redemption—our wholeness of spirit, soul, and body—where we live in the promise of forgiveness and healing and the provision for every need.

 

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).

 

Do you hunger to experience the Truth of who you are in Jesus Christ? To believe what your eyes haven’t seen? His Grace destroyed the veil that separated you from God and from His Truth that sets you free from sin and all its destruction (Mark 15:38, John 8:32, Psalm 107:20).

 

You have the Spirit of Christ, and you belong to God. God no longer identifies you as “flesh.” He knows the Truth of who you are in your reborn spirit. Draw from His Truth within you that never runs dry. Feast on the life of the Word the Holy Spirit continually reveals to you.  Learn the new person you are in your spirit and believe it in your heart. Take what is yours in Christ. Walk by faith and not by sight. 

 

Jesus is your gift. Unveil Him. Unwrap your identity in Him, and take Him completely as your own. You are being changed into God’s image by the Spirit of the Lord.

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/06/your-gift-in-jesus.html

 

 

 

Our Hope Rests in the Lord

Psalm 131

 

 

Lord, my heart is not haughty,
Nor my eyes lofty.
Neither do I concern myself with great matters,
Nor with things too profound for me.

Surely, I have calmed and quieted my soul,
Like a weaned child with his mother;
Like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord
From this time forth and forever.

—Psalm 131

 

 

David writes in this psalm about a time in his life when he humbled himself—about a time when he deliberately chose to calm and quieten his soul.

Perhaps, David was writing about the time between being chosen to be king and actually being made king. During that time, he humbled himself and refused to retaliate in response to Saul’s persecution. Perhaps, these verses refer to the time David was fleeing from his son, Absalom. David humbled himself and said that if the Lord was through with him, that was fine.

David possessed an incredibly humble attitude about his life. God chose him to be king because He “was a man after His own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). Even when David’s life was at stake, he was determined to do God’s will. David didn’t plead with God to make something happen. He was at peace with whatever the Lord desired. 

Look at the difference between David’s attitude and the attitudes of Saul and Absalom. Saul spent most of his time as king in rebellion against God and tried to promote himself in any way he could. Absalom didn’t care about God’s will or his father. He loved himself more.

Who is the one person out of these three that God chose to be king? He chose the one with the humble heart. If you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, He will exalt you in due time (1 Peter 5:6). 

Humbling yourself before the Lord gives you contentment no matter your circumstances. David didn’t like being persecuted but he trusted in the Lord. He knew His promise and waited on God’s timing. Trusting in the Lord and knowing we don’t have to be in control gives us peace no matter what we face in life. 

 

There are things in life that are under our control, but there are things that are under God’s control. It takes wisdom to know the difference (James 4:7).

 

A little child doesn’t care about anyone or anything else. He only wants what he wants. The more he wants something the more he demands it. But the older he grows, the more he learns to control himself. This is what David referred to when he said “he had calmed and quieted his soul.” He didn’t demand his rights like Saul or Absalom demanded theirs. He behaved and quieted himself, which was a sign of maturity. David was clearly able to control his emotions, and so should we. 

Jesus told the disciples in John 14:1, “Let not your heart be troubled.” It is our responsibility to control our hearts, and it is also the power of the Holy Spirit that makes it possible. We can choose to “not let our hearts be troubled”—to not worry—to be content in whatever situation. This verse goes on to say, “Believe in God.” Believing in God is how we conquer our emotions. Placing our faith in Him gives us His power to deny our feelings.

Even in circumstances like they would experience, Jesus told his disciples to not let their hearts be troubled. Jesus’ statement reveals the authority we have over our emotions. Jesus would have never commanded His disciples to do something they were powerless to accomplish. No matter the circumstance of our lives, we can control our emotions.

If we let our feelings control us, it is almost impossible to later reign them in. Controlling our emotions is the very first thing to do in a crisis situation. Most battles are won or lost in the first few moments.

David humbled himself and trusted in the Lord. He placed his hope in His faithfulness. When our hope and confidence are in God, we act differently. We respond peacefully with maturity. We aren’t stressed trying to control things. We don’t take the responsibility for the outcome upon ourselves. We allow God to have responsibility. We place our faith in Him.

Our hope rests in the Lord. 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/06/our-hope-rests-in-the-lord.html

 

What You Hear in Your Heart

 

 

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

 

Hebrews 10:23 says that when we hold on to confessing God’s promise with unswerving hope, God is faithful. We must hold fast to our trust and faith in what Jesus did for us, without wavering (James 1:6-8). The reason we can remain constant in our faith is that our faith is in Jesus and not in ourselves. Jesus never changes. Our feelings always change. Jesus, who is the Word (John 1:14), never changes. He is always the same.

 

When we speak 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 circumstances—we confess the truth of the supernatural realm of God. We speak the power 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 guides 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 has to be known and believed over what the world or any other person says. You have the mind of Christ to understand His truth (1 Corinthians 2:16). When you allow God’s truth to renew your mind, you begin to conform to its truth (Romans 12:2). Out of the heart, flows the issues your life (Psalm 103:4). When you sow God’s Good News in your heart and protect it and nourish it, you reap its benefits (Galatians 6:7, 2 Corinthians 9:16, Mark 4:15). 

 

“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 in your heart and not by 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).

 

The work of Jesus is finished. It is perfect. God’s Word is settled in heaven. It is the final authority, and it is perfect (Psalm 119:89). 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. When you confess its unseen truth, that truth arises from the abundance of what you believe in your heart (Matthew 12:34). You receive by faith, and you receive according to what you believe (Matthew 9:29). If you believe and confess what is not God’s truth, then that is what you receive. But if you believe and confess His truth, you profess the finished work of Jesus—the unseen realm—into your life. 

 

When you have so much faith in God that you have no room for doubt, then you believe the unseen promise of God in your life (Mark 11:2-24, James 1:7-8

 

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

 

Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to you God’s Word (John 16:13). It is His good report. Be renewed by His truth again and again (Romans 12:2). What you believe is in your heart (Romans 10:10). Hear His truth in your heart. Believe it. Hold fast to it (Hebrews 10:23). Speak life to it (Proverbs 18:21). Today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart (Hebrews 3:15). When you believe His good report, you have the power of His final Word that sets you free (John 8:32).

 

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/06/what-you-hear-in-your-heart.html

 

 

 

  

 

 

Expectation, Hope, and Faith

 

 

For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. 

—Philippians 1:19-20

 

 

What was Paul’s focus?  It was preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ. The message of new life in Christ was Paul’s absolute focus. Paul had the expectation and hope that God was with him in every moment directing and empowering him to share the Gospel. God’s grace was sufficient in everything. Nothing had the power to deter Paul from God’s will. He had the earnest expectation and hope that no distraction or feeling or circumstance had any power to discredit his faith. He was bold in his faith because he allowed the fruit of his relationship with Christ to be bold in him. Paul knew who Christ was manifested in his life. Paul had assurance—he trusted—he expected God to magnify Himself in his life. He was willing to give all for the grace of Jesus to be known and alive in others.

 

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only one who makes all the difference in you. He is the only one who gives you a new life.  It was you—knowing Christ and experiencing His grace—who was also Paul’s focus. Jesus Christ is the life Paul offered to you. Paul endured persecution for the sake of Christ so YOU could experience the fruit of your relationship with Jesus. Your expectation and hope make all the difference in how you live this new life.

 

Look at the phrase “according to my earnest expectation and hope” in Philippians 1:20. 

 

You are expecting something in life whether you are aware of it or not. Look at your expectation as “soil” from which your life grows. A pessimist only expects a negative life. An optimist discovers something positive in every circumstance and thing that happens. If you fill your life with negative influences—negative thoughts—negative things, you will find yourself wrestling with negative expectations.  If you dwell on the mistakes and sins of the past, you may be expecting more of the same in your future. Your attitude—your approach to life—is extremely powerful. 

 

Your expectations are either based on God’s promises or on your fears and failures.  Hope comes alive as a result of positive expectations. Hope in God’s promises can only grow from the “soil” of your positive expectations. Since faith is the substance of things hoped for (Hebrews 11:1), a negative approach to life can never inspire your faith to grow. Faith can only be inspired and exercised when positive expectations and hope are alive. Negative expectations are why so many Christians wrestle to experience a victorious life. 

 

Expectation, hope, and faith spring from a promise God has made to you. These grow in your life from a seed that has been sown in your heart.  Every promise of God activates your faith, and faith comes when you “hear” His Word in your heart (Romans 10:17). God does not lie. It is not God’s nature to lie. And God has designed seeds to multiply according to their nature. A farmer who plants seeds expects a harvest. A believer who sows God’s grace and His love into the lives of others can also expect a harvest. When you give, it will be given to you.

 

What do you expect in your life? What is the source of your attitude in life? If you are basing your life on God’s promises—if you believe you will reap a harvest from sowing His truth in your heart, you will without doubt live a life of faith. If you see everything through the eyes of a pessimist, you will be left to your own strength. You will experience a meager life when you could have had an abundant one.

 

Paul had the expectation, hope, and faith that the Holy Spirit would supply all his needs as he stepped out to share the message of grace so you could, also, plant the seed of God’s truth in your heart. So you, also, could choose to live by faith and not by sight. So you could, also, believe. 

 

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13).

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/expectation‑hope‑and-faith.html

 

 

 

 

Hearing the Word in Your Heart

 

 

Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

—Galatians 3:5

 

Faith is how we receive from God. God does miracles by the hearing of faith—not by anything you try to work up in yourself to believe. You receive the miracles of God by hearing God’s truth in your heart.

 

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. 

—Romans 8:16-17a

 

The Holy Spirit Himself bears witness with your spirit. He quickens the word of truth in your heart.

 

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 

—Romans 10:17

 

Faith doesn’t come by hearing the Word in your mind. Yes, the Holy Spirit must renew your mind with what the Word says is true. But it is when you believe God’s Word in your heart that His Word is quickened in you. This is when His Word comes alive in you. You believe, and the truth you believe is His truth.

 

When the Holy Spirit brings to life God’s Word in your heart, you believe what God has promised you beyond a shadow of a doubt. You know it is already yours in the spiritual. You have the faith to believe without seeing. No one can shake what you believe—not the tradition of men—not the opinions of others—not the devil—not anyone. 

 

Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.

—Luke 5:17

 

The healing presence of the Lord was with the Pharisees and teachers of the law but they did not receive healing. Healing was available but their hearts were hardened and ears dull. In them the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled:

 

“Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them” (Matthew 13:15)

 

Who received healing in the next few minutes?  The paralytic who was lowered through the ceiling by his four friends received. Jesus told the man that his sins were forgiven and to rise up and walk. And the presence of the Lord healed the paralytic. The faith to believe was alive in his four friends and in the paralytic who believed in his heart. He got up and took that first step.

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them”

—Mark 11:22-24

 

It is by hearing the Word in your heart that you have faith in God to receive His truth. Jesus says that when you speak and don’t doubt in your heart, you will receive what you have spoken. “Therefore”, Jesus then says, and “therefore” means the next point is crucial. “Whatever things you ask for when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

 

When the Word is quickened in your heart, the Word comes to life in you. You believe. You know God is faithful, and you let nothing sway you from what God has shown you. You believe before you see proof in your physical life. You renew your mind continually with the Word. You plant the truth the Holy Spirit has revealed to you in your heart. You guard your heart with all diligence and keep God’s truth from being choked out by the cares of life or stolen by the enemy. You know that just like the fig tree Jesus cursed in Mark 11:20 did not die right away that your healing also may not happen right away. You hang on to your truth no matter what happens in your life.

 

The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is the word of faith that we preach); that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

—Romans 10:9

 

Has the Holy Spirit persuaded your heart to believe that healing is the truth of your salvation?  Has the Word convinced your heart?

 

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

 

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

—John 20:29

 

What do you hear in your heart?

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/06/hearing-word-in-your-heart.html

 

 

 

 

 

Fight with the Peace of God in Your Heart

 

 

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

—1 Timothy 6:12 (NKJV)

 

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). We fight the good fight of faith with the knowledge of the Word of God and by believing in our hearts and confessing who we are in Christ.

 

“Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God” (1 Corinthians 15:34a, NKJV).

 

The enemy battles us from within our minds with lies—with deception—and twists Scripture to deceive us. We have to know the Word and what Christ has given us. We must wake up to the knowledge of God’s righteousness which is ours (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

 

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7, NKJV). 

 

Don’t submit your thoughts to the lies of the enemy. Don’t give him any power. Submit your thoughts to God. Resist the enemy, and he will flee.

 

You either submit to God or to the enemy in what you think and believe. You have a new nature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). You surrender the old person you were to the new one you are now in Christ. You submit your thoughts to God because He is your worthiness. He is your righteousness. He is your peace. The law is no longer your guardian to live a holy life. You are convicted by the righteousness that is yours in Christ—not by the unworthiness of shame and guilt that inability to keep the law brings. You have peace with God. The Holy Spirit gives you the ability and the desire to live in God’s peace. He instructs and guides with God’s grace and truth. 

 

When you understand how to fight sin from a position of righteousness, then you can understand how to fight for your promise from a position of victory in Christ.

  

Many believers don’t have the knowledge of God in regard to the righteousness Jesus purchased for them. When you know the power of the right standing with God Christ has given you, you are filled with spiritual wisdom in your knowledge of Him (Ephesians 1:17). 

 

You fight the good fight of faith from a position of victory. You never fight from a position of defeat. You take hold of the promises that are yours in your assurance of the new life Christ has given you. Have you confessed and declared your hope to others? Well, keep confessing the truth of God’s promises. And hold fast to the confession of your hope without wavering, for God who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23). 

 

How do you fight the good fight of faith and hang on to your promise when you are battle-weary? Just as you took hold of eternal life by faith in Jesus, you take hold of the fullness of your salvation by faith. You take hold of God’s righteousness that is yours in Christ by faith. You appropriate the truth of your new life in Christ. You have peace and right standing with God. 

 

Stand and trust God. Know the Word. You can’t stand and trust God if you don’t know His Word. Faith comes by spiritually hearing the Word of God in your heart (Romans 10:17)—not by hearing it in your mind. When you take the truth your mind has received and plant it in your heart, you spiritually receive God’s truth. It becomes your truth. 

 

Believing God’s truth in your heart doesn’t happen when you have received the answer to your prayer. That is not faith. Faith is the evidence of what you cannot see (Hebrews 11:1). When you pray believing that you have already received your answer, that is when you have the faith to receive. When you speak to your mountain—when you pray believing—your promise that is true in God’s spiritual realm will come to pass in this life (Mark 11:22-24).

 

Be renewed by the Word. Take the truth of the Holy Spirit and let it flourish in your heart. Believe who Christ is in you. Most often, time passes before the mountain you told to be gone is removed. It may be a long time before you experience your promise. 

 

Nourish God’s truth in your heart by continually renewing your mind with His Word. Don’t give up. You don’t make anything happen. Wait on God and trust and believe Him. This is not your work. Rest in His peace. Fight the good fight of faith from the position of righteousness—from the position of peace with God, that is yours in Christ. Fight with the peace of God in your heart. Believe God is faithful to perform His promise (Romans 4:21).

 

You are blessed with peace with God. You will receive God’s promise—if you will believe and never give up. Be still and KNOW in your heart He is God.

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher