THE POWER WITHIN US

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“…The riches of his glorious inheritance in His Holy people and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead…” –Eph1:18-20

Imagine, that within every person whom God’s Spirit came and took residence have a Spirit of Power. We ought to understand that the power within us is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. Thus, it is through this power that we can be empowered into victory.
John10:19 explains that we have the power within us to trample the enemy. Matter of fact, it declares that we have more power within us through Christ than all the power of the enemy, therefore NOTHING will harm us – no weapon formed against us, shall prosper!
Unleash into the power given to you by Almighty God!

LIVE CONFIDENT IN GOD'S POWER

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“The immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe . . .” (Ephesians 1:19)

The omnipotence of God means eternal, unshakable refuge in the everlasting glory of God no matter what happens on this earth. And that confidence is the power of radical obedience to the call of God. Is there anything more freeing, more thrilling, or more strengthening than the truth that God Almighty is your refuge — all day, every day in all the ordinary and extraordinary experiences of life? If we believed this, if we really let this truth of God’s omnipotence get hold
of us, what a difference it would make in our personal lives and in our ministries! How humble and powerful we would become for the saving purposes of God!

The omnipotence of God means refuge for the people of God. And when you really believe that your refuge is the omnipotence of God Almighty, there is a joy and a freedom and a power that spills over in a life of radical obedience to Jesus Christ. The omnipotence of God means reverence, recompense, and refuge for his
covenant people. (Piper)

I invite you to accept the terms of his covenant of grace: turn from sin and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the omnipotence of God Almighty will be the reverence of your soul, the recompense of your enemies, and the refuge of your life — forever.

HOPE FOR THE WORST OF SINNERS

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“I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” (Exodus 33:19)

Moses needed hope that God really could have mercy on a stiff-necked people who had just committed idolatry and scorned the God who brought them out of Egypt. To give Moses the hope and confidence he needed, God said, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.” In other words, “My choices do not depend on the degree of evil or good in man but solely upon my sovereign will. Therefore no one can say he is too evil to be shown grace.” It means that when it comes to being a candidate for grace, your background has nothing to do with God’s choice. If you have not been born again and brought to saving faith in Jesus Christ, do not sink into hopelessness thinking that the excessive rottenness or hardness of your past life is an insurmountable obstacle to God’s gracious work in your life. God loves to magnify the freedom of his grace by saving the worst of sinners.

“Come, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

OUR UNSPEAKABLE PRIVILEGE

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God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” (Exodus 3:14)

One implication of the magnificent name, I AM WHO I AM, is that this infinite, absolute, self-determining God has drawn near to us in Jesus Christ.

In John 8:56–58 Jesus is answering the criticism of the Jewish leaders. He says, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” The Jews then said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly! I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

Could Jesus have taken any more exalted words upon his lips? When Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” he took up all the majestic truth of the name of God, wrapped it in the humility of servanthood, offered himself to atone for all our rebellion, and made a way for us to see the glory of God without fear. In Jesus Christ we who are born of God have the unspeakable privilege of knowing Yahweh as our Father — I AM WHO I AM — the God who exists whose personality and power is owing solely to himself who never changes from whom all power and energy in the universe flows and to whom all creation should conform its life.

May those who know the name of God put their trust in him. (Piper)

PRESENT AND POWERFUL LOVE PT. 1

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“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Romans 8:35)

There are three things to notice in Romans 8:35 and we will look at the first one today.

1. Christ is loving us now.

A wife might say of her deceased husband: Nothing will separate me from his love. She might mean that the memory of his love will be sweet and powerful all her life. But that is not what Paul means here. In Romans 8:34 it says plainly, “Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” The reason Paul can say that nothing will separate us from the love of Christ is because Christ is alive and is still loving us now. He is at the right hand of God and is therefore ruling for us. And he is interceding for us, which means he is seeing to it that his finished work of redemption does in fact save us hour by hour and bring us safe to eternal joy. His love is not a memory. It is a moment-by-moment action by the omnipotent, living Son of God, to bring us to everlasting joy.

Saints of God it is comforting to know we have an interceder, and He is loving us all now. Glory be the God!

HE DOES ALL THAT HE PLEASES

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“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” (Psalm 115:3)

This verse teaches that whenever God acts, he acts in a way that pleases him. God is never constrained to do a thing that he despises. He is never backed into a corner where his only recourse is to do something he hates to do. He does whatever he pleases. And therefore, in some sense, he has pleasure in all that he does.

This should lead us to bow before God and praise his sovereign freedom — that in some sense at least he always acts in freedom, according to his own “good pleasure,” following the dictates of his own delights. God never becomes the victim of circumstance. He is never forced into a situation where he must do something in which he cannot rejoice. He is not mocked. He is not trapped or cornered or coerced. And on his way to Calvary, Jesus himself had legions at his disposal. He said, “No one takes my life from me; I lay it down of my own accord” — of his own good pleasure, for the joy that is set before him. Jesus looked trapped, he was totally in charge doing precisely what he pleased — dying to justify the ungodly like you and me. (Piper)

So let us stand in awe and wonder. And let us tremble that not only our praises of God’s sovereignty but also our salvation through the death of Christ for us, hang on this: “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever he pleases.”

JESUS WILL TRAMPLE ALL OUR ENEMIES

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“Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.” (1 Corinthians 15:24)

How far does the reign of Christ extend?

Verse 25 says, “He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” The word ALL tells us the extent. So does the word EVERY in verse 24: (the above verse) There is no disease, no addiction, no demon, no bad habit, no fault, no vice, no weakness, no temper, no moodiness, no pride, no self-pity, no strife, no jealousy, no perversion, no greed, no laziness that Christ does not aim to overcome as the enemy of his honor. And the encouragement in that promise is that when you set yourself to do battle with the enemies of your faith and your holiness, you will not fight alone. Jesus Christ is now, in this age, putting all his enemies under his feet. Every rule and every authority and every power will be conquered. So, remember that the extent of Christ’s reign reaches to the smallest and biggest enemy of his glory. It will be defeated. Now that is comforting! Rest assure that God’s promises are true.

Your day has already been blessed in Christ Jesus!

PAUL'S PRAYER

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Paul’s prayer for the believers in Ephesians 3:18-19 “That you may be able to comprehend…what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”
These verses expresses the heart of Paul  for his fellow believers to understand the fullness,  vastness and completeness of  Christ’s  love . The Apostle  prays  because only by divine intervention can our finite minds comprehend the great love that Christ gives. Such love  surpasses human  knowledge. John MacAuthur does a good contrast; human love lasts until it is offended. Christ love lasts despite every offense. Human  love is  for what it can get. Christ love is  for what it can give. Paul knows that when the child of God grasp the magnitude of this truth it will  result in deep gratitude manifested  in a life  yielded to the will and purpose of Christ born out of a deep sense of obligation. The book of Romans describe it as a living sacrifice which is our reasonable response to His love demonstrated through  His mercies and grace. Being filled with all the  fullness of God that is  being under God’s complete control and emptied of self. These are critical elements for a victorious Christian life.

BLESSED HOPE

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Isaiah 57:1-2 “The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.”
Death is not a pleasant topic to discuss, especially as morning devotion! But the fact is death will come to each of us one day in some way or the other. But in Christ we no longer need to fear it, for as it says in Heb.2:14-15, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he (Christ) too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death”. “Gone too soon” is the cry of loved ones left behind when death strikes. But those who belong to Him know deep down inside that in His infinite wisdom and abounding love God always does things at the right time, not too soon and not too late. In His mercy God ushers His people, away from further suffering and effects of sin, through the doors of death directly into the throne room of His presence where there is peace, rest and no more mourning, crying or pain. God has purpose for us in this life, to complete the work He has set before us in order that we may glorify Him and be a blessing to others. But while we carry out His purposes in this life and yet reflect on death, may we never fear it but rather live in that paradoxical state that Paul experienced and expressed with these words, “I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body” (Philippians 1:23-24). Live for Him yet die to gain Him!

THE NAMES OF GOD

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“Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory [is] above the earth and heaven.” Psa 148:13

Names are important it’s what identifies us.  In the Old Testament times, a name was not only identification, but an identity as well.  Often times a name  revealed the character or make up of a person . Abigail in explaining to David her husband’s poor decision explained,  Nabal, whose name means fool, “For as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him:” – 1Sam  25:25).

Throughout Scripture God reveals Himself to us through His names. When we study these names we will better understand who God really is. The meanings behind God’s names reveal His central personality and  nature. In the disciples prayer Jesus taught us to declare, “Hallowed be Your name.” To hallow a thing is to make it holy or to set it apart to be exalted as being worthy of absolute devotion. To hallow the name of God is to regard Him with complete devotion and loving admiration. The Priestly Levites declared to the Children of Israel,  “Arise, bless the Lord your God forever and ever! Oh may Your glorious name be blessed and exalted above all blessing and praise! (Neh 9:5). We should never take the  name of the Lord lightly (Ex 20:7; Lev 22:32), but always rejoice in it and reflect  deeply upon its true meaning.