Love Like Jesus

 

 

 

Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.

—Romans 12:17

 

Our humanness often wants to retaliate when it is offended. It declares that we should treat people the way they treat us. 

 

But in Luke 23:34, Jesus taught the very opposite when he said, “Father, forgive them because they don’t know what they do.” 

 

Jesus gave His life to prove that you do not repay evil with evil. We are commanded in Ephesians 4:32 to “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”  Paul says in Romans 13:8, “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.”  Forgive. Do not be in debt to anyone else’s actions, and you fulfill Christ’s Law to love as He has loved you. 

            

Jesus was the greatest example of love ever known. Truly, God is love (1 John 4:8, 16), and Jesus is God (1 Timothy 3:16). Still, Jesus was rejected by those He came to die for. He was without fault. It wasn’t His fault He was rejected. We aren’t responsible for the actions of someone else. But we are responsible for the way we react to make sure it is not our fault that they reject us. 

 

In Romans 12:17, Paul repeated the same teaching. If we are to be like Christ, then we don’t give people what they deserve. Jesus gave His love unconditionally to us when we did not deserve it. 

 

Just being honest in God’s eyes isn’t enough. Romans 12:17 directs us to have integrity in the sight of others. This parallels what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 22. We are to “abstain from all appearance of evil.” In 2 Corinthians 8:21 Paul writes, “providing honorable things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.”  Not only are we to be honest in God’s eyes but also in the eyes of men. 

 

“If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men” (Romans 12:18).

 

This verse advises us to live peaceably with all people. However, the wording of the verse shows this isn’t always possible. We are responsible for our actions and how we react to others, but we aren’t responsible for the actions of other people. We are to pursue love and peace with others (1 Corinthians 14:1)—even when we aren’t at fault. It is our choice. We need to be sure that we are at peace with other people. But it is their decision if they are at peace with us.

 

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).

 

We cannot combat evil with evil. Evil is only overcome with good. It is maddening to see the plans of the enemy played out in someone’s life. However, we must never allow our frustration with them to make us utilize the enemy’s tactics. Our anger never accomplishes the righteousness of God (James 1:20). We need to curse the darkness and be the light of Christ. 

 

“But I say to you who hear,” Jesus instructed in Luke 6:27. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.”

 

It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). The goodness of God in us—where we don’t repay evil with evil—can lead another to repentance, too.

We love with the unconditional love Jesus has given us. Freely we have received. Freely give.

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/10/love-like-jesus.html

 

 

 

 

The Fullness of Christ

 

 

 

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

—Colossians 2:9-10

 

The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
 But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

—Psalm 34:10

 

 

 

Those who are immature in the knowledge of their faith in Jesus Christ experience a lack—a shortage—and suffer the results of their lack of knowledge. Instead of hungering for the knowledge of their faith, they hunger for what feel. What they see and hear with their natural minds doesn’t impact them spiritually (1 Corinthians 2:14). Their changing feelings rule their emotions and the circumstances of their lives instead of their unchanging identity in Jesus Christ. They face destruction, desolation, fear, and continual unrest because they suffer from a lack of knowledge of who they are in the finished work of Jesus and what is theirs in His grace (Hosea 4:6).

 

However, those who seek the Lord know who He is in their lives and believe His finished work of grace completes them (Colossians 2:9-10). They believe they are the person who Jesus—the Word (John 1:1)—says they are. They are growing in their understanding of grace and trust the perfect love of Jesus in their lives to cast out all fear (1 John 4:18). They are not tormented by the enemy’s lies of fear and unrest. They know that God is greater than the enemy (I John 4:4). They are at peace in their relationship with the Lord (Romans 5:1). They know that there is no weapon that rises against them that can destroy them. They draw on the strength of the Holy Spirit and stand against anything that comes against the peace they have in Jesus (Isaiah 54:17). They believe they have received the righteousness of God in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21).

 

Those who know that they lack nothing in the finished work of Jesus believe that His perfect work of grace has made them whole. No work earns them any earthly status or reward from God. Christ has received the fullness of the Godhead, and they are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power. They believe when they were saved they were reborn as new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). They realize the battle of the flesh, but they believe Jesus’ grace abounds more (Romans 5:20). They draw on the righteousness they have received in Christ to stand against sin. They know that the shame of sin will keep them from intimacy with their Father. When the Holy Spirit convicts them, they repent and do anything He guides them to do. They choose to walk by faith and not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). They live in the belief that they are new creations in their spirit (John 3:6) and they lack nothing in Christ (Colossians 2:9-10).

 

If you are saved, you are born again. You are not still in the process of being born-again. You were reborn when you were saved. What you received when you were born again was the finished work of Jesus. Being renewed in the spirit of your mind and growing in the knowledge of His grace is how you come to know the new person you have become in Christ. The Holy Spirit empowers your decision to put on your new man in all righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:23-24).   It is not your righteousness. You have none. It is the righteousness that Christ has bestowed in your life.

 

Never set aside the grace of Jesus. Your righteousness in the grace of Jesus does not come through the law—through any work you do—through any status, recognition or practice. These only bring forth pride. Do not give into the temptation to sin. Your righteousness is the gift of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not die for you in vain (Galatians 2:21). 

 

Seek the Lord’s truth in your life. You shall not lack any good thing (Psalm 34:10). His love for you was not in vain. You are complete in Him. The fullness of Christ has made you whole (Colossians 2:9-10).

 

“And now,” Paul writes, “just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority” (Colossians 2:6-10, NLT).

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/10/the-fullness-of-christ.html

 

 

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By Grace Through Faith

  

 

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

—Ephesians 2:8-9

 

 

Ephesians 2:8-9 says that the source of our salvation is grace. Grace is God’s unmerited favor toward us revealed in the redeeming love of His Son. The way God saves us is through faith. It is through faith we accept God’s gift of salvation that is offered by grace. Therefore, we are saved “by grace through faith.”

 

Faith gives us access to God’s grace (Romans 5:2). Without faith, God’s grace cannot bear fruit in us, and without grace, faith has no power. Faith in God’s grace has to be exercised to receive what God has provided through Jesus Christ. 

 

Ephesians 2:8 refers to the gift of our salvation in Christ. Our salvation is not of ourselves. It is the gift of God. Grace and faith are not exclusive of each other. Just as salvation is a gift so is faith a gift of God. The faith we exercise to receive salvation is not of ourselves. 

 

“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3)

 

Grace has been given to you by God. Each Christian has been dealt a measure of faith by Him. 

 

“Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1).

 

Each Christian has obtained “like” precious faith. Each one has received the same “like” faith or the same measure of faith from God. Not one Christian has received more faith than another Christian. The difference is found in how much the gift of God’s faith has been exercised. 

 

The faith given to us by God is faith that believes in the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). God’s kind of faith believes without seeing or needing physical proof.

 

To receive God’s gift of salvation, we had to use God’s kind of faith that isn’t limited by what we see or feel. This is because to be saved, we must believe in things that we can’t see or feel. We haven’t physically seen God or Satan. Yet, as believers, we believe each one exists. We don’t believe they exist because of our human faith that senses. Human faith can’t even believe the Gospel on its own. It takes God’s kind of faith to receive the gift of salvation. 

 

God moves of His own free will by His grace. God gives us free will to exercise the faith that has been given to us by His grace. Faith only appropriates what God has already provided through His finished work of grace. Putting faith in what God has already provided by grace is the only way to live a victorious Christian life.

 

How do we understand what we have received “by grace through faith?” Paul says in Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” We received our salvation by God’s gift of faith when we heard His Word in our hearts. As we continually hear the Word of God, God’s faith comes alive in us so we can believe God’s Word and live by it.

 

We live by the faith of God. 

 

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, KJV).

 

God has given each believer a gift of His faith by hearing of the Word in his heart. It empowers us to live in Christ. This is not the spiritual gift of faith Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 12:9. The spiritual gift of faith is given to certain believers as the Holy Spirit decides. It is a supernatural faith that brings supernatural results. “The faith of the Son of God” mentioned by Paul in Galatians 2:20  is the measure of faith that God has dealt every believer. It is His faith given to us for salvation and to appropriate what God has provided in the redeeming love of Jesus. We must renew our minds with God’s Word to believe that we have received God’s kind of faith, and then learn how to exercise it. 

 

“By grace through faith.”

 

This is how we receive salvation, and this is how we receive the truths of God’s salvation in our hearts. Grace and faith are God’s gifts that work together in our lives. They come not by our own merit or our own works or our own human faith, lest we should boast in any way. What Christ has given to us with His precious blood is precious beyond any measure. It is His Word yearning to live in us.

 

 

 

 © 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/10/by-grace-through-faith.html

 

A Testimony of His Amazing Grace

 

 

         Three years ago my husband named a star after me. He had no idea what it meant to me, and He certainly had no idea the confirmation it was for what I had experienced two months earlier. I had not told him what I had experienced with Jesus. But the Holy Spirit knew, and He stirred this gift in Pat’s heart.  

 

         In April of 2020 I was rushed to the hospital. I had collapsed on the floor because my legs could not hold me up. For weeks I had fought sickness with no diagnosis. I remember very little of the ambulance trip to the hospital or the diagnosis I was given in the ER. However, I remember I was told that my sodium was so low they were amazed I was not having seizures. I remember very little of the actual time in the hospital. What I do remember is my experience with Jesus and the two verses that I believed were His truth for me.

 

         The weeks before I went to the hospital the Holy Spirit quickened a Word in my heart. Paul said he was hard-pressed between going home to be with the Lord or remaining to fulfill His message of grace. Paul found his answer, and his answer became the Holy Spirit’s answer for me. I knew I could believe it and rest on it. When I went into the hospital, I rested in it. Sharing the message the Holy Spirit was continually revealing to me was the desire of my heart.

 

          “Knowing this,” Paul said. “I am convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help you grow and experience the joy of your faith” (Philippians 1:25).  

 

         I took this Word as God’s will for me.  The other Word I was given was Proverbs 4:20-22.

 

         “My child, pay attention to what I say.
          Listen carefully to my words.
         Don’t lose sight of them.
          Let them penetrate deep into your heart,
         for they bring life to those who find them,
          and healing to their whole body.”

 

         These were the verses that carried me through a physical time in the hospital of which I remember very little. What I do remember with clarity is my time with Jesus. At one time he carried me in my spirit upward into the starry sky. We rose from one constellation into another. The stars shone brighter as we slowed near our destination. Previously, I have tried to share this, but no words can express what I really experienced. But I can share the question Jesus asked me. He asked me if I wanted to stay or return. I saw those who might believe. I saw those in the class. I saw those I had prayed for through the years. I knew Philippians 1:25 was my answer.  

 

         It was physically painful to return from this experience. It was physically painful with the bombardment of other illnesses that afterwards came from the enemy. I chose to let the spiritual peace of Jesus rule in my heart. I held on to His Words. I refused to lose sight of them. I let them penetrate deeply into my heart. I believed I would receive their truth. His Words became my Words. They were the truth of who I was in His love. I knew I would experience the healing He had purchased for me long before I had ever known Him. 

 

         After three hospital visits including a blood clot, bowel obstruction, and a diagnosis of an illness that I was told I would have for the rest of my life, I chose God’s healing answer for my life by faith. Daily, I continued to receive spiritual understanding of the truth of His healing. This spiritual truth impacted me physically as I grew spiritually in Him. It took a long time for me to walk in the gift of His healing. But I never let go. 

 

         The enemy always comes against me to try and convince me that God's healing grace for me is a lie. Physically, he still attacks. But the truth is Jesus died so I might receive His healing. Being renewed by the Word daily is life and healing to my body. The Holy Spirit convinces me daily of God’s truth. His healing is nothing I can accomplish. It is His gift for me to receive. I rest in His truth and refuse to receive the lie of the enemy. I choose not to give place to fear. And I keep moving forward in the truth of His amazing grace.

         

         I received the gift of the star named for me just weeks after my second illness in the hospital. The certificate is in a frame on my dresser to remind me every time I see it that His Word to me is true. It is who I am. His Word is healing to me when I hear it in my heart and believe it.

 

         God doesn’t love one person more than another. He wants each one of us to know the truth of His love and grace. He wants you to know in your heart what He has done for you out of His love for you. He gave each one of us the same measure of faith. You can take His Word as your truth. His Word works in your life by faith.

 

         Praise you, Jesus, for your amazing grace! 

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/10/a-testimony-of-his-amazing-grace.html

Born of God’s Incorruptible Seed

 

 

“Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23). 

 

 

Just as it takes a seed to produce physical life, it takes the seed of God’s Word to produce spiritual life. The seed that produces salvation is God’s Word. Unlike a natural seed that is corruptible, God’s Word is an incorruptible seed. Natural seeds sometimes rot and cannot produce life. But God’s Word is incorruptible. It always produces life.

 

The word “seed” in this verse was translated from the Greek word “spora,” (Strong’s Concordance), and it means “a sowing.” It is similar to the Greek word “sperma” from which we get the word “sperm.” Just like human life cannot be produced without a sperm, spiritual life in Christ cannot be produced without the incorruptible seed of God’s Word having been sown in the heart.

 

Not only does the Word of God produce life. The seed of God’s Word lives and abides forever. Its truth is final. Its power is eternal. The spoken Word of God is alive and active and always produces fruit in our lives. 

 

“For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it” (Hebrews 4:2).

 

When you mix the Word of God with faith, you hear it in your heart (Romans 10:17). And when you hear the Word of faith in your heart, it profits your life. 

 

When you believe the incorruptible seed of God’s Word in your heart over any circumstance—over any feeling—over anything that comes to steal its truth, you put your faith in the absolute truth of His Word. You believe His truth over what you see or hear or experience. You don’t analyze your circumstances or whatever comes against you with your natural mind. You have the mind of Christ to spiritually understand and receive God’s Word. You believe the truth God says about your circumstances and the issues of your life. The Word is God’s final authority and faith that you place in His Word profits your life.

 

We don’t need faith to see what is going on in this life. We need faith to believe the truth that God’s Word is greater than what we see. 

 

Continually renew your mind with the Word. Exercise your faith to believe it in your heart. Protect it from the enemy who comes to steal its truth. Take God's truth as your truth. Trust that God, who gave the Word to be the truth for your life, is true to His promises. 

 

“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).

 

You are not born of the corruptible that passes away. You are born of God’s incorruptible truth. In Jesus, you overcome. Faith in His Word is your victory.

 

God is faithful. Put your faith in His Word.

 

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/10/born-of-gods-incorruptible-seed.html

 

 

No Condemnation in Christ

 

 

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

—Romans 8:1

 

 

 

When we have given our hearts to Jesus but believe we have "unfinished" forgiveness, condemnation robs us of the peace that comes from receiving the truth of God’s love. If we believe that Jesus’ work of forgiveness is not finished, we will believe we still owe God and that the grace of Jesus has not qualified us—that His grace has not justified us enough to receive God’s acceptance and love until we somehow pay Him.

 

When some Christians experience hardship, they believe God is upset and withholds His forgiveness. Hardship is not punishment. It is what happens in life because we live in a fallen world. God does not condemn us and withhold His forgiveness by punishing us. Jesus took the punishment for all our sins. Even though the blood of Jesus has set us free from the debt for all of our sins, some Christians believe God is waiting to condemn and punish them instead of loving and forgiving them.

 

God wants to give us a revelation of His love for us. Through the precious blood of Jesus, we are forgiven of all our sins. When God sees us—His children saved by His grace—He sees the precious blood of His Son. He sees Jesus and not our humanness, our failures, and our sins. They are gone—as far as the East is from the West.

 

If there is anything God wants to accomplish in your life that requires you to be qualified, Jesus has qualified you. 

 

“…giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:12-14).

 

 Your Father in heaven has made you qualified to be partakers in His inheritance. Jesus has justified you to Him. You have been delivered from the power of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son. And through His blood, you are forgiven. 

 

In Colossians 1:12-14, these truths are in the past tense meaning that they have already been accomplished. Our flesh may draw us toward the power of darkness and sin, but if we are forgiven and qualified and justified in Jesus, that is who we are in our born-again spirits. We are new creations in His finished work of forgiveness on the cross for all our sins. 

 

When we have been qualified by Jesus, our Father has rendered us fit through His blood. When you have been completely forgiven a debt, it means that the debt has been paid in full. Your debt is canceled. It no longer exists. The blood of Jesus was the complete and finished ransom payment for your freedom from the debt for your sins. His grace is greater than all of your sins. You have nothing standing between you and God. Because we have been fully forgiven by Jesus for all of our sins, we have the freedom to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 

 

Knowing we are forgiven is crucial to walking in freedom from our flesh every day. When we don’t believe Jesus has qualified and justified and presented us without blemish to the Father, one of two things will probably happen. We will continue to try to pay a debt that Jesus has already paid, or, when we finally realize that our debt is impossible to pay, condemnation will overwhelm us, and we will give up in shame 

 

Neither one of these is living a life of freedom from sin. Each one is obsessed with sin—the very thing from which Jesus died to save us. 

 

Jesus did not come into this world to condemn it. He came so that the world through Him might be saved and receive His finished work of forgiveness. The Holy Spirit convicts us with the righteousness Jesus has paid the price for us to receive. The enemy condemns us with shame. Stop rehearsing your failures and sins. Believe Jesus has forgiven you, repent, and start going over in your heart the truths of the new life that is yours in Christ. 

 

Your forgiveness is the finished work of Jesus. He completed God’s forgiveness—His love—His finished work of grace in you. God no longer imputes sin to you. He has given you the power to walk in His Spirit and not complete the lust of your flesh. 

 

Walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh. You are debt-free to walk in the redeeming love of Jesus. 

 

(Romans 4:8, 5:9,13, 8:1, 8:30, 10:11; Ephesians 1:4-7; Psalm 103:12, 1 John 4:17; Galatians 3:13, 5:1; Colossians 1:12-14; 2 Corinthians 5:17, 5:21; Romans 10:11; John 3:16-17; 16:8; 19:28-30)

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/10/no-condemnation-in-christ.html

 

 

 

Trust and Delight in the Lord

 

 

 

Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

—Psalm 37:3-4 (NKJV)

 

 

When we trust in the Lord and do as He guides us, we have His promise that we will dwell in the land and receive His provision. The land spoken of in Psalm 37:1 was the Jews’ Promised Land. We, who are reborn as the children of God in Jesus Christ, will dwell in the fulfillment of God’s promise to us and receive His provision. We will not only inhabit the life He has for us but will receive it abundantly (John 10:10). 

 

Psalm 37:2 does not promise that when we trust in the Lord, He will give us whatever we desire. However, it does say that when we trust in the Lord, He will place His desires in our hearts. When we delight in the Lord, we trust Him. This is one of the humblest and most predominant ways to receive guidance and direction from the Lord.

 

 

Strong’s Concordance states that the word “delight” in Psalm 37:4 means, “to be soft or pliable.”  To receive guidance from the Lord, our hearts must be “soft and pliable” toward Him.

 

What we “dwell” on—or think about—is what we become sensitive to. If we want to “dwell” in God’s promises, our hearts need to be trusting, leaning, pliable, and listening to Him. If we don’t “dwell” on God, our hearts become hardened to His guidance and direction. Focusing on the things of God keeps our hearts soft and pliable and able to hear His voice. If our hearts are humble and sensitive toward the Lord, then His desires will be foremost in our hearts.

 

In Psalm 1:2, David said those whose delight is in the Word of God and who meditate on it day and night will be blessed. This expresses what David also expressed in Psalm 37:4. When you “delight” yourself in the Word, you meditate on it day and night (Joshua 1:8).

 

Delighting yourself in the Lord and in His Word does not happen overnight.  You choose to delight and place your trust in the Lord every day. You commit yourself not to be distracted by what your physical eyes see and your physical ears hear and what your natural mind rationalizes. You focus your thoughts on God’s truth and not anything else. You become transformed in the spirit of your mind with His truth. You hear the Word of His truth in your heart. You believe by faith in what He has promised. You place faith in the abundant and life-affirming promises of God revealed to you in Jesus Christ.

 

Are you waiting for His promise?  Do you believe it in your heart? Do you delight yourself in His Word and follow His leading? Do you allow His faithfulness to encourage you?

 

“Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit” (1 John 4:13).  

 

The Spirit Himself bears witness that we are in Christ. If we dwell in Him, we will inhabit the life He has given us. Dwell in God’s truth, and let the Word of God dwell “richly” in you.

 

“Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:5).

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/10/trust-and-delight-in-lord.html

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

God is Faithful to His Word

 

 

Have you heard this? “God said it and that settles it.”  

 

What has the Word said to you? Whatever the Holy Spirit has shown you in the Word is settled in your life. It is God’s will for you. 

 

Settled means “established, stable, solid, firm, matured, and complete.” God’s promises are established. They are solid. They are mature and settled in His Word just as they are settled in heaven.

 

“Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you established the earth, and it abides” (Psalm 119:89-90).

 

God’s Word reveals His promises, and He is faithful to accomplish His promises in your life. His Word abides. It is unchanging. How you believe the promises of God in your heart determines whether His truth is established, solid, and complete in your life or not.

 

God has given you His Word to know His will. His Word is His will. It is His final authority in your life. To experience the power of the faith that is yours in Christ, you need to know what His Word reveals. When you believe God’s truth is “settled, established, stable, solid, firm, matured and complete in your life,” you know it is your final authority. It is your final truth. It is the end result. You receive it as your truth by faith. You make it your own. Stop the doubt in your heart. It will keep you from receiving God’s truth. It is your choice to constantly renew your mind with His Word and stand on it. It is your choice to believe without wavering (Romans 12:2, James 1:6-7) and put on the new life that Christ has given you (Ephesians 4:24).

 

You receive the settled and final authority of God’s Word when you believe its truth in your heart. You mature in the finished work of Christ when you are transformed by the renewing of your mind with the Word and guard it as the final authority in your heart (Ephesians 4:23, Romans 12:2). You believe by faith the incorruptible seed of God’s final Word.

 

The enemy will come and try to snatch away God’s truth which has been sown. Perhaps, you received God’s promise with joy and believed in it for a while. But when tribulation came—either from circumstances or the opinions of others—you let go and doubted God’s final authority on your promise. The cares of life and the deceitfulness of riches also keep the Word from bringing forth the abundant life the Word promises. However, when you receive the seed of God’s Word in your heart—when you hear the Word of faith in your heart and understand it, it “indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Matthew 13:23).

 

Is the Word the settled and final authority in your life? Do you believe in God’s truth?  What has God’s truth birthed in your life? Not what you try to birth. Not what the world or the opinions of others try to birth. It is His Word that births the fruit of His truth in your life. What has His truth brought forth in you?

 

You have been born again, my brother and sister in Christ, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever (1 Peter 1:23). His Word is the final authority in your life. It is His truth. It is mature and complete. It makes a difference in your life when you know and believe in your heart what Jesus gave His precious blood for you to have. 

 

God’s Word is settled. His promises are His final say. Hear and believe His Word of faith in your heart. He is faithful to accomplish His Word (Psalm 119:90). Hold fast the confession of your hope without wavering, for God, who promised, is faithful (Hebrews 10:23).

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/10/god-is-faithful-to-his-word.html

 

 

 

Singing with Grace

 

 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

—Colossians 3:16

 

We have to do more than just memorize Scripture for it to teach us God’s truth. For the Word to make a difference we have to receive it by faith in our hearts. God’s Word has to dwell—it has to abide—and it has to remain in us “richly in all wisdom.” This occurs as the Holy Spirit guides and quickens our understanding of God’s Word and reveals how to apply it in our lives. One of the major ways the Holy Spirit reveals God’s truth is through “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” that we sing in our hearts.

 

In this verse, the word “richly” was translated from the Greek word “plousios.” This word means “copiously” (Strong’s Concordance). “Copiously” is defined as “yielding something abundantly” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Jesus came to give us abundant life (John 10:10). As Jesus yielded His life to God, we yield our lives to Him to receive His abundant truth in our hearts.

 

When we sing “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” to the Lord, we let the Word of Christ dwell richly in us as Colossians 3:16 describes. We “yield” gratitude to Him. “Singing with grace” in our hearts is speaking of singing with gratitude in our hearts to God for all the wonderful things God has done for us.

 

This verse also shows that “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” are one of the ways we teach and admonish. Many people view the praise-and-worship service at a church as just leading up to the preaching to come. But anointed praise and worship is just as much a part of the ministry of God’s Word as anointed teaching and preaching. The Holy Spirit quickens the Word of truth in our hearts. Just as the Holy Spirit quickens the spoken Word of God in our hearts, He also quickens the Word in our hearts through singing “psalms and hymns and spiritual song.” To receive what the Holy Spirit wishes to reveal to us, we need to change our attitude toward praise and worship and open our hearts with expectancy to receive from Him.

 

The early church was a singing church, Before the New Testament was ever put into written form, “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” were a key source of teaching God’s truth. It is still one of the church’s most effective ways of communicating to us the truth the Holy Spirit teaches. The Holy Spirit has inspired praise and worship throughout the centuries, and He continues to inspire us in praise and worship. Every move of God throughout history has produced an incredible amount of spiritual songs to sing in praise and worship.

 

Praise and worship music—praising God in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs—helps us recall and meditate on Scriptural truth. It opens us to receive the abundant wisdom God wishes to bestow in our hearts. It helps the Word of God to dwell “richly” in all wisdom in us. 

 

“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.  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” (2 Corinthians 2:9-12).

 

 

We have received the Spirit who is from God so we might know what God has given to us in Christ. The Holy Spirit wishes to reveal the truth and the power of God’s truth in us. He not only reveals it through the spoken Word heard in our hearts but also through singing with thankful praise and gratitude in our hearts to the Lord.

 

 

The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17). Praising God is wielding the two-edged sword of God’s truth against the enemy whose purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy the abundant life you yield your heart to receive (Psalm 149:6, (John 10:10). Praising the Lord takes the natural you see with your mind and reveals God’s supernatural truth—that incorruptible seed—He has planted in your heart. 

 

 

Praise the Lord!  All that has breath, praise the Lord! Never forget His benefits! Sing with the grace of Jesus in your hearts to the Lord!

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/10/singing-with-grace.html