All that is mine is yours (II): Authority

This is what the Bible says concerning Christ: 

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him (Mat 28:18) – All authority/power is ALL authority or power. At the mention of His Name, every knee bows, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confesses that He is Lord (Phil 2:10). GOD has raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. He has put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church (Eph 1:20-22). The enemy is a footstool for His feet (Mat 22:44, Heb 1:13 & 10:13).

And this is what the Bible also says about us:

We were raised up from the dead with Him and are seated with Him, in Christ Jesus, in the heavenly places (Eph 2:6) – we are therefore in a position of domination; a position wherefrom we have a panoramic vision of events and things. We are seated; this means we are relaxed, comfortable and there is no stress.

We are not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. And we have the whole armour of God at our disposal, in order to withstand in the evil day and stand firm (Eph 6:12-13). We have the authority to tread over all the power of the enemy (Luc 10:19) and it's the Church's responsibility to make known the manifold wisdom of God to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places (Eph 3:10). 

In other words, there is NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING in heaven or on earth; no situation, no problem, nobody, no boss and no authority, that can resist and refuse to submit to what Jesus has decided. Certain things only persist because He has not yet said anything about them. But He only has to say a word and the issue will no longer be. If He sets free, NOTHING can oppose it. Why then is He not saying anything? Why doesn’t intervene?

Because the heavens are the Lord's, but He has given the earth to the children of man (Ps 115:16). GOD has delegated His authority and respects that; but Jesus has promised that what we bind/loose on earth will be bound/loosed in heaven (Mat 18:18). If there is chaos, it is not the LORD’s fault; it is the Church who is not doing her job. Instead of binding the oppressors and loosing the oppressed, she is relentlessly running after comfort and political and economic power. Instead of interceding, she gossips. When the land is not doing well, she doesn’t pray but she petitions. And meanwhile, God is saying: “I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none” (Ez 22:30)!

Life and death are in the power of the tongue (Pr 18:21); but instead of using the prophetic power of her tongue to bind or loose, the Church is cursing the land. How? you may ask. When Christians confess negative things, usually without even realising it. For instance: "This country is cursed... Nothing works... There are no jobs... There is no money in the country... It's impossible to get a job if you are not a freemason or a Rosicrucian… There will never be fair elections… All the Government officials are corrupt…” We don’t realise that in so speaking, we are bringing the fruit of our declarations to life and then we wonder why the state of our lives, families and nation is so... whatever. 

It’s time to change the way we speak!

It’s time to regain control. If Satan is the footstool of Christ, and Jesus is the Head and not the feet of the Church (Col 1:18), then it means that, in reality, it is the Church who tramples on the devil; it is the Church who treads on ALL the power of the enemy and nothing can harm her. Let’s use our spiritual authority wisely and bruise his head! 

GOD bless you and have a great week speaking right!

All that is mine is yours (I) : the Bride

The Church is weak! The Church and Her LORD are treated anyhow in the medias; our freedoms are increasingly restricted; and we seem powerless. There are many biblical promises that we are supposed to experience, but nothing is happening. And, since nothing is happening, we pretend. Where has “the pillar and the buttress of the truth” gone (1Tim 3:15)? Where are those men and women who had turned their world upside down and whom everybody was afraid of (Ac 17:6)? Why are we no longer experimenting fullness?

The answer is probably in the fact that the Church got lost somewhere and no longer knows who She is and what She has. Peter could say: “Silver and gold have I none; but what I have, that give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” (Ac 3.6) because he knew what he had. The Church could hardly say the same today. This is why I would like to start a little series on our identity in Christ. If you don’t know who you are and what you have, you won’t know what you can or must do. Let’s begin with the Church as the Bride of Christ.

In most countries, the bride takes the name of her husband and thus, acquires a new identity. In a way, she now lives through her husband. If she decides to keep her maiden name, or refuses to live her old life behind; or keeps reminding her husband of how her life in her father’s house or as a single was better; then we have a problem. When we accept Jesus as Husband, we also change names and become Christians. We must now turn our back to our past and build our life with Christ. We now belong to someone else.

We should be consumed by the zeal for our new house. Indeed, one of the greatest subjects of pride for a woman is her home; it’s when visitors admire her abode. Therefore, the Church should be seeking the interests of the Kingdom above all else; but her heart, the heart of the Christians, is sadly turned elsewhere. It is turned towards Self, Mammon and the world.  

Also, inasmuch as the wife is usually the one who manages the house, does the shopping and allocates various tasks, the Church should also be managing the Earth. Nothing should be done without her permission; but we notice that she is gagged and her hands and feet are tied instead. She should know the LORD intimately and know His secrets; but this is hardly the case, isn't it?

The woman is the glory of the man (1Cor 11:7b). A good husband takes very good care of his wife and showers her with love, honour, jewels, affection etc. He may be simply dressed, but when his wife passes by, immediately, you know who/what the husband is. As soon as a wife stops reflecting the glory of her husband; when you see a neglected wife, you know there is a problem – of adultery, ignorance or communication. You know there is a love crisis in that couple. Jesus is a good husband. He has loved us even more than His own life and has granted us access to everything He has.

Col 2:10, “In him ye are made full, who is the head of all principality and power.” “You have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority (NET)… You have everything in full in Him…(French version)”

If we have EVERYTHING in Him and IN FULL; if we truly are ONE with Him; and if ALL that He has is also ours and to enjoy freely, just like any earthly wife enjoys what belongs to her husband; then why are we still living a mediocre or average life? Why do we experience lack, limitations, hunger, thirst, joblessness or poverty? Why are we not deeply bothered when our life doesn’t reflect this reality/promise of the Scripture? The fault is not with the LORD; but with the Church, who must ask herself whether she truly is a good wife or not and adjust accordingly.

There are so many things that I can write about this marriage analogy, in order to explain what our privileges, rights and duties in Christ are. But this article is already longer than I wanted. I pray that the Holy Spirit continues to enlighten you on the topic.

Remember: We have EVERYTHING in Christ in FULL. ALL He has is ours. 

Go and live life in full; enjoy the fullness of life in Christ.

GOD bless you!

When dying is beneficial…

“This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” 1Jn 5:14-15

GOD’s sole interest and goal is that His will may be done; and this passage rightly means that EVERYTHING that we ask or declare according to His will will come to pass. In order to see 100% of our prayers fulfilled, we need to pray according to GOD’s will → we need to know it → we need to study the Scriptures → we need confess the Word. It’s quite simple, but many Christians would rather live and manage with just 5-10% of their prayers granted than pay the price necessary to ensure 100% of fulfilment. Why?

1. Laziness. They don’t want to invest time in Bible study. Between their sleep, job, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, games on their phones or tablets and TV, even GOD can see that they don’t have much time left, can He not? Now, if He was to give them 30-hour days instead of 24, maybe…

2. The fear of death. This was the dilemma of the Israelites. “Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live. Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die… 27 Go near and hear all that the Lord our God will say, and speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.” (Deut 5:24-25, 27)

They had just discovered that GOD could speak with man and man could still live; and yet, they still feared to die if they kept on hearing His voice! It's therefore clear that this wasn’t really about physical death. They were afraid that His voice –what He says, i.e. the Word of GOD– would kill their desires, plans, dreams, projects and ambitions. 

My daughter once said to me that she’d rather not ask GOD what His will was in certain areas, because whenever she did so in the past, He went against her desires. So, she had concluded that GOD didn’t really want her happiness. Let’s brush aside the fact that this implied that she thought she knew, better than GOD, what was good for her. The point is: to believe that GOD doesn’t want your happiness is to believe that GOD doesn’t want you to fully enjoy life. It is to think that "If I go near Him, He will forbid me this or that." This is why many people do not want to go to church or read the Bible: “If I do that, the person that I’ve been up until now will die.” They’d rather outsource it. The children of Israel told Moses to go to GOD, hear what He had to say and report it back to them. They even promised to listen. But, every time Moses came to inform them of what GOD had said, he was met with murmurs and rebellion!

What is your problem? You say you want to succeed; you say you want GOD to give you the desires of your heart and not withhold the request of his lips (Ps 21:2); but you don’t pray according to His will. You want to succeed, but you hardly open the book of the Law, which you ought to meditate day and night for this to happen (Jos 1.8). You want to succeed, but you don’t want to seek GOD for yourself; and yet, when those who seek find Him and tell you what He desires, you argue and get angry! Tell me: what do you really want? Do you really want to succeed? If yes, then why are you afraid to die? 

Let the Word of GOD –the perfect Law of liberty, the truth that sets free, the mirror of heaven and the soul into which we gaze– kill everything that is not of GOD in us and around us. If the grain of wheat does not fall into the earth and die, it cannot bear much fruits. Jesus received the Name above all names after agreeing to die on the Cross. 

Paul said: “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord [knowing His will]. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own… but that which comes through faith in Christ…— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…” (Phil 3:7-10) 

Listen, He must increase, but you must decrease (i.e. die to the god self; Jn 3:30). Think about it and have a great week. 

GOD bless you.

The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life…

The Bible declares that the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action or do exploits, according to some versions (Dan. 11:32). However, I’ve noticed something yesterday. Jesus is twelve when His parents, Mary and Joseph, left Jerusalem without Him after a pilgrimage. They finally found him after three days and Mary said to him: “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And Jesus replied: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” It is clear that He wasn’t referring to Joseph. 

In other words, at 12 years of age, Jesus already knew His real Father (GOD) pretty well and their intimacy was such that GOD would later say, on the day of His water baptism, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Lk. 2:42-49, Mat. 3:17). And yet, in spite of this growing intimacy; in spite of his knowledge of GOD, Jesus was still unknown, anonymous and was not doing exploits… Still at 12 years of age, Jesus was already basically the incarnation of the Word. He knew the Scriptures so well that the then theologians were flabbergasted. And yet, apart from that, His impressive knowledge was not yielding many fruits. It wasn’t a demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1Cor 2:4). The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2Cor 3:6).

The Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes were also versed in the Holy Scriptures, but still, Jesus described them as whitewashed tombs. They were so alien to miracles and the power of GOD that they even accused Jesus to performing signs by the power of Satan! They could not see the link between what they read and taught on one hand and what they saw Him do on the other hand. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Today, many priest, pastors, theologians and of course, Christians, are in the same situation. They are full of Bible verses and doctrines, but lifeless – as in the valley of dry bones. Indeed, Ezekiel said he looked and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them (Ez. 37:8). Everything seemed ok outwardly, but that “thing” could not move, because there was no breath/life in it. 

For a very long time, Jesus was also like that; He was also like all those Pharisees. Even after His baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on Him and He was full of the Holy Ghost (Luc 4.1); and yet, He still remained unknown. He was still not revealed to the world. His life was as if stuck somewhere and He could not fulfil His mission. Then one day, He went into the wilderness. He prayed and fasted for forty days. He resisted the devil and went back to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and the news about Him spread around like wild fire (Lk. 4:1-14). From that day onwards, His words ceased to be like everybody’s words. They became ‘Spirit and life’ (Jn. 6:63). Those who listened to Him testified that He taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. They said no one had ever spoken like Him. Miracles began to rain down from heaven. Life and death were now truly at the power of His tongue.

So what about you and I? What proportion of your words actually comes to pass? As you see, one can be full of words and even full of the Spirit and still be ignored, hidden and powerless. Elijah was a man like us and yet, whatever he said was accomplished, even things as extraordinary as stopping the rain from falling for three years (Ja. 5:17-18)!  The Egyptian-born French singer, Dalida, used to sing, “Words, words, words…” Much ado about nothing. Have impact this year. Use the Word of God like a god, the god that you truly are. Decide on a matter, declare a thing and let it be established in the Name of Jesus.  

Have a power-filled week and GOD bless you.