You Are Highly Favored Because Of Jesus! by Joseph Prince
The Bible tells us that God has made us “accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). The “Beloved” here refers to Jesus and the word “accepted” in the original Greek text means “given special honor” or “highly favored.”
My friend, because you have Jesus who is God’s Beloved, and you are found in Him, you are also God’s beloved son or daughter, deeply loved and highly favored by Him!
Now, because you are highly favored by God in the Beloved, you can expect to have favor with your spouse, children, colleagues, clients and yes, even your in-laws!
When you speak, people listen. When you step into a room, it lights up. Everything you touch is blessed and increased.
Beloved, as the apple of God’s eye, expect good things to happen to you each day. Expect divine protection because His favor surrounds you like a shield. Expect every need to be met by the One who highly favors you. Expect good, because you are precious in His eyes!
psa. 44:3
The Race Is Not To The Swift
The world tells you that those with the qualifications, talents and experience get the jobs, promotions and high salaries.
My friend, though you live in this world, as God’s beloved child, you need not be limited by it. You have God’s grace—His unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor!
So even if you are not the smartest, strongest or best looking in the natural, God can still give you good success when you depend on His grace.
Instead of mulling over your “disqualifications,” be conscious of God’s favor on you. Smile and say, “God’s favor is all over me because of Jesus. I expect good things to happen to me today!”
Beloved, be conscious of His favor today. Believe it. Speak it. And you will experience it!
romans 8:16,17
It’s Time To Change Your Believing
I’m too young. I’m too old. I don’t have the relevant experience. They’re hiring only college graduates.
If you’re looking for a job and your mind is gripped by such thoughts, then you’re already defeated by your thoughts before you even step out to look for a job.
It’s time to change your believing!
A lady in her mid-fifties in my congregation, after hearing me share on this, changed her believing. She decided to put her trust in the Lord’s unmerited favor, got her résumé ready and sent it out by faith. That very week, she was called for interviews by two different companies, which led to two job offers! She picked one and has been gainfully employed.
Beloved, as God’s child, you are His heir and a joint heir with Christ. This means that you have the same unclouded favor that Jesus has. So step out in faith and expect His favor to open doors for you and give you the job or breakthrough you desire, regardless of your natural limitations!
deut. 28:8
Step Out By Faith Into Your Field Of Provision
In the Old Testament story of Ruth, we see a beautiful picture of what it’s like to walk in God’s favor.
Ruth, a Moabite widow, travels to Bethlehem with Naomi, her Jewish mother-in-law. Putting her faith in God’s favor, she sets out to find work gleaning in the wheat and barley fields. Because of her trust in the Lord’s favor, she ends up in the field of Boaz, a wealthy man of position in Bethlehem, and (unknown to her initially) a kinsman to Naomi.
As Ruth works in Boaz’s field, she sees plenty of grain and just picks it all up. It is the much-needed provision for herself and her mother-in-law. What Ruth doesn’t know is that Boaz has actually commanded his men to “let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her” (Ruth 2:16), because she had found favor in his eyes.
Isn’t it cool when Jesus, our heavenly Boaz, purposely commands the blessings on us, and tells His angels to drop them along our way? All we have to do is to go out into the “fields” and “pick them up.”
Beloved, because you have found favor in His eyes, the Lord is purposely dropping His blessings along your path every day. Like Ruth, all you have to do is to step out into your field of provision. With eyes of faith, see doors of opportunities opening before you. Have the courage to apply for that job or to go for that audition or much-needed holiday. Go forth and pick up those blessings the Lord has already laid before you. Your future is bright!
Get To Know Jesus More And More
The Bible gives us a secret to walking in favor and well-being in 2 Peter 1:2—“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” In the original Greek, it actually says, “...through the knowledge of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
So God’s unmerited favor and His shalom-peace (health, provision and total well-being) are multiplied in your life through the knowledge of JESUS. The more you know Jesus, the more you will be able to tap into the ever-flowing supply of His favor, healing and provision!
Beloved, every answer you need, whether it has to do with your finances, health, career or family life, is found in knowing more about Jesus in a personal and intimate way. I pray that every day, as you study the Scriptures or listen to Christ-centered sermons, the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see more of Jesus—His beauty, His love and grace toward you, and His finished work at Calvary!
This article was created by Joseph Prince. Visit josephprince.com for more resources.
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Friday, November 17, 2017
popular 5 sayings non scriptural
5 Things You Won't Believe are NOT in the Bible
Cindi McMenamin
Would you believe there are some secular sayings that sound so religious people often believe they came from the Bible?
These pieces of presumed Christian “wisdom” can sound biblical on the surface, but a closer look at Scripture will show you that some of them are actually far from the truth of God’s Word.
Here are five sayings that are NOT a part of Scripture:
1. God helps those who help themselves.
I’m sure you’ve heard it and possibly even said it to encourage someone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get it done. But this verse is not in the Bible. And its premise is not true. To the contrary, God helps those who admit they can’t help themselves.
Scripture is loaded with examples of God calling weak, humble people who would have been inadequate for the Lord’s work without His enabling strength. Scripture says that Christ’s power is made perfect in our weakness. And Paul states “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10, NIV).
Furthermore, James 4:10 tells us “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” If God helped those who helped themselves, that verse would read: “Show yourself capable and God will come along and help.” Many times those of us who believe we can help ourselves don’t feel we need God and therefore, we don’t rely on Him. God wants us to admit we’re helpless so we can start depending on His strength to get us through situations. That is faith.
2. God won’t give you more than you can handle.
I think we’ve all said this at one time or another, primarily to comfort another believer or even an unbeliever who is struggling with something or fearful that something bad might happen. But this verse does not exist. And this statement doesn’t hold true. God will often give us more than we can handle so that we will depend on Him to carry the burden for us.
Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (NKJV), and Matthew 11:28-30 tells us to come to Him when we are weary and take His yoke upon us so we can bear a load that is too heavy to lift ourselves.
I believe we get the idea that God won’t give us more than we can bear from 1 Corinthians 10:13 which tells us “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” That verse tells us God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to resist. But He will allow us to struggle beyond our capacity in other aspects of life so we understand what it means to surrender and allow Him to carry the burden for us.
3. We are all God’s children.
Here’s another one that sounds true. And although God is the Creator of all, He is not the father of all. Romans 8:9 clearly tells us “if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”
Jesus said those who are apart from Him are children of Satan, the “father of lies” (John 8:44) and Romans 8:15 tells us when we receive God’s spirit we have received “a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’” God adopts us through our surrender to Christ Jesus. Therefore, a more accurate saying is: We are all God’s creation, but we are not all God’s children.
4. The sinner’s prayer.
As I was discipling a young believer, I asked her if she had ever said “the sinner’s prayer.” She read it in the discipleship material we had in front of us and then asked me where it was found in the Bible. “Well, it’s not. It’s implied,” I said.
This is a tough one for us because we want to point to something in the Bible that someone needs to actually say in order to be saved. However, Romans 10:9-10 says “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” No wordy prayer involving the words “repent” or “confess” or asking Jesus to “come into our hearts” exists in Scripture.
What we do find, however, are short heartfelt cries for God’s mercy, including: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42), and “Lord, I believe” (John 9:38).
5. God works in mysterious ways.
This might be one of the most quoted sayings of all time when it comes to God. The only problem is that it isn’t a verse in the Bible. Yes, God does work in ways we don’t understand, but this saying is most likely a simplified paraphrasing of two verses.
Ecclesiastes 11:5 says,“As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.” And Jeremiah 33:3 reads, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” In this case, it’s not that this saying is wrong, it’s simply not in the Bible.
Can you think of some more sayings that people quote as if they’re Scripture? Include them in the comment section below as a way of letting others know what is not, in fact, in the Bible.
Cindi McMenamin
Would you believe there are some secular sayings that sound so religious people often believe they came from the Bible?
These pieces of presumed Christian “wisdom” can sound biblical on the surface, but a closer look at Scripture will show you that some of them are actually far from the truth of God’s Word.
Here are five sayings that are NOT a part of Scripture:
1. God helps those who help themselves.
I’m sure you’ve heard it and possibly even said it to encourage someone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get it done. But this verse is not in the Bible. And its premise is not true. To the contrary, God helps those who admit they can’t help themselves.
Scripture is loaded with examples of God calling weak, humble people who would have been inadequate for the Lord’s work without His enabling strength. Scripture says that Christ’s power is made perfect in our weakness. And Paul states “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10, NIV).
Furthermore, James 4:10 tells us “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” If God helped those who helped themselves, that verse would read: “Show yourself capable and God will come along and help.” Many times those of us who believe we can help ourselves don’t feel we need God and therefore, we don’t rely on Him. God wants us to admit we’re helpless so we can start depending on His strength to get us through situations. That is faith.
2. God won’t give you more than you can handle.
I think we’ve all said this at one time or another, primarily to comfort another believer or even an unbeliever who is struggling with something or fearful that something bad might happen. But this verse does not exist. And this statement doesn’t hold true. God will often give us more than we can handle so that we will depend on Him to carry the burden for us.
Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (NKJV), and Matthew 11:28-30 tells us to come to Him when we are weary and take His yoke upon us so we can bear a load that is too heavy to lift ourselves.
I believe we get the idea that God won’t give us more than we can bear from 1 Corinthians 10:13 which tells us “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” That verse tells us God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to resist. But He will allow us to struggle beyond our capacity in other aspects of life so we understand what it means to surrender and allow Him to carry the burden for us.
3. We are all God’s children.
Here’s another one that sounds true. And although God is the Creator of all, He is not the father of all. Romans 8:9 clearly tells us “if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”
Jesus said those who are apart from Him are children of Satan, the “father of lies” (John 8:44) and Romans 8:15 tells us when we receive God’s spirit we have received “a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’” God adopts us through our surrender to Christ Jesus. Therefore, a more accurate saying is: We are all God’s creation, but we are not all God’s children.
4. The sinner’s prayer.
As I was discipling a young believer, I asked her if she had ever said “the sinner’s prayer.” She read it in the discipleship material we had in front of us and then asked me where it was found in the Bible. “Well, it’s not. It’s implied,” I said.
This is a tough one for us because we want to point to something in the Bible that someone needs to actually say in order to be saved. However, Romans 10:9-10 says “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” No wordy prayer involving the words “repent” or “confess” or asking Jesus to “come into our hearts” exists in Scripture.
What we do find, however, are short heartfelt cries for God’s mercy, including: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42), and “Lord, I believe” (John 9:38).
5. God works in mysterious ways.
This might be one of the most quoted sayings of all time when it comes to God. The only problem is that it isn’t a verse in the Bible. Yes, God does work in ways we don’t understand, but this saying is most likely a simplified paraphrasing of two verses.
Ecclesiastes 11:5 says,“As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.” And Jeremiah 33:3 reads, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” In this case, it’s not that this saying is wrong, it’s simply not in the Bible.
Can you think of some more sayings that people quote as if they’re Scripture? Include them in the comment section below as a way of letting others know what is not, in fact, in the Bible.
Thursday, November 16, 2017
the way the truth the life
How to Know God Personally – Four Spiritual Principles
What does it take to begin a relationship with God? Devote yourself to unselfish religious deeds? Become a better person so that God will accept you?
You may be surprised that none of those things will work. But God has made it very clear in the Bible how we can know Him.
The following principles will explain how you can personally begin a relationship with God, right now, through Jesus Christ…
Principle 1:
God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
God’s Love
“God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” 1
“God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” 1
God’s Plan
[Christ speaking] “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” [that it might be full and meaningful]. 2
[Christ speaking] “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” [that it might be full and meaningful]. 2
Why is it that most people are not experiencing the abundant life? Because…
Principle 2:
All of us sin and our sin has separated us from God.
We Are Sinful
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” 3
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” 3
We were created to have fellowship with God; but, because of our stubborn self-will, we chose to go our own independent way, and fellowship with God was broken. This self-will, characterized by an attitude of active rebellion or passive indifference, is evidence of what the Bible calls sin.
We Are Separated“The wages of sin is death” [spiritual separation from God]. 4
This diagram illustrates that God is holy and people are sinful. A great gulf separates us. The arrows illustrate that we are continually trying to reach God and the abundant life through our own efforts, such as a good life, philosophy, or religion — but we inevitably fail.
The third law explains the only way to bridge this gulf…
Principle 3:
Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for our sin. Through Him we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our life.
He Died in Our Place
“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” 5
“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” 5
He Rose From the Dead
“Christ died for our sins…He was buried…He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures…He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred…” 6
“Christ died for our sins…He was buried…He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures…He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred…” 6
He Is the Only Way to God
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.'” 7
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.'” 7
This diagram illustrates that God has bridged the gulf which separates us from Him by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross in our place to pay the penalty for our sins.
It is not enough just to know these three principles…
Principle 4:
We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.
We Must Receive Christ
“As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” 8
“As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” 8
We Receive Christ Through Faith
“By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” 9
“By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” 9
When We Receive Christ, We Experience a New Birth
We Receive Christ by Personal Invitation
[Christ speaking] “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him.” 10
[Christ speaking] “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him.” 10
Receiving Christ involves turning to God from self (repentance) and trusting Christ to come into our lives to forgive our sins and to make us what He wants us to be. Just to agree intellectually that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for your sins is not enough. Nor is it enough to have an emotional experience. You receive Jesus Christ by faith, as an act of the will.
The following explains how you can receive Christ:
You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer
Prayer is talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. The following is a suggested prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.”
If this prayer expresses the desire of your heart, then you can pray this prayer right now and Christ will come into your life, as He promised.
Does this prayer express the desire of your heart?
If yes, pray now and according to his promise, Jesus Christ will come into your life.
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Hidup dalam Roh Kudus
Hidup dalam Roh Kudus: Mengalami Kuasa, Pelayanan yang Lebih Baik, dan Pembaharuan Setiap Hari Pendahuluan: Saudara-saudaraku yang dikasi...
