This month of October, we have been working the subject of forgiveness. What will determine how powerful and confident you will walk, is realized in understanding and accepting what the Heavenly Father has done in forgiving your sins.
Jan Magiera recently shared with us about different words in the Hebrew and Aramaic which handles forgiveness in its varied details. She shared perhaps the most challenging part of dealing with forgiveness and God’s involvement with it is: We do not forgive ourselves. Many times we can forgive others, but we carry our own burdens and condemnations without letting them go. We also, realize the consequences of our sins and put up with them as it is the normal thing to do.
While the other words in her study dealt with, covering over sin, pardoning and restoring to favor, emptying the debt and dismissing it, one unique word is nasa. It literally means to lift off and carry away something. It infers the removal of sin. It is connected to the Old Testament when they would put all the sins of the people upon the goat and send him away. It is called a Scapegoat.
Another wonderful reality of this word is that the situation is over and there is no more debt owed. It is empty. The case is no more, totally shut down as it never happened!
When the devil goes to retrieve your sin to put it in your face, it is not there because it has been expunged! Only you, in your mind, will remember it and allow it to fester.
Expunged means, according to Webster, “To eliminate completely, destroy.” Legally when something is expunged it is taken off the record never to be returned. It is as if it never existed before. This is how big our remission of sins are when Jesus Christ fully and completely eliminated them!
Colossians 2:14 (ESV): by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Hebrews 10:14 and 17: For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Now, it is our opportunity to confess the Word of God and believe it. Let’s expunge any negative thoughts Satan tries to use against us. Christ is our complete savior allowing us to serve the Heavenly Father.
Hebrews 9:14: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Agape, Bob
PS: Listen to Jan Magiera’s teaching on Oct. 21, 2018 at www.actsnowfellowship.net
It blesses me when someone says, “I was just thinking of you.” We all want to be loved and thought of. Obviously the ones we love and care for are the ones we think about all the time.
The Heavenly Father expresses His love to us in many ways, and perhaps it is best said, in “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” What a wonderful relationship God has setup with His children. The thought came to me. How much does God think of us? My wife answered it with the following verse:
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered! I can't even count them;
They outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up, you are still with me!
Psalm 139:17, 18 NLT
Recently Jeanie was prayer journaling with the Father. After she wrote what was on her heart to the Father, she listened for His response. What really blew her heart away was His final words, “I love you my child every nanosecond of the day.”
What is a nanosecond? It is one billioneth of a second. That is mind blowing! He thinks about us a billion times a second. My next thought was, “How much time am I spending thinking about Him?” At least now I am motivated to think about Him more.
And what can I do that blesses Him while thinking of Him? Speaking in tongues! It is His way of helping us talk to our Heavenly Father all day long. When you speak in tongues you are magnifying Him (Acts 10:46); you are giving Him thanks well (I Corinthians 14:15 & 17); you are speaking the wonderful works of God (Acts 2:11); you are worshipping God truly with the spirit (John 4:23 & 24 and Philippians 3:3).
What is so fantastic is that we can SIT while driving, eating, working, dancing, running etc. Our fellowship with our Heavenly Father is the greatest source of joy in our lives.
Agape,
Bob
For many, man’s perception of God has been skewed. Even after 2,000 years of Christianity how most people see God is contrary to His desire.
Over 70 years ago a wonderful man of God, E.W. Kenyon pointed out the truth that has shadowed the thinking of so many. The following is an excerpt from an article on the subject of the Father-God:
For many years as a preacher and a Bible teacher; I failed to grasp the significance of the Father Revelation.
One must realize that no other religion but Christianity, has a Father-God, and even the Jews had no conception of a Father-God until Jesus began to teach.
The thing was so new and so startling to them that they stoned Him for it … They said, “Because He makes God His Father, therefore He is a blasphemer and ought to die.”
It is remarkable that at no period of the Church, since Reformation, has there been any adequate teaching of the Fatherhood of God.
Modern Christianity is practically a Jesus religion. The majority of Christians pray to Jesus. Jesus said, “When ye pray, say “Our Father who art in heaven” and “In that day ye shall ask me nothing but whosoever ye ask the Father in my name I will give it you.”
When I say we have a Jesus religion, all you need to do is turn to the hymnbooks. There are very few “Father” songs. When I began to write hymns, there were only two or three popular Father songs in all the range of hymnology.
The Father fact is the basis of all the range of Christianity. Jesus came to introduce the Father. “No one hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father; He hath introduced Him.”
You cannot think of the word “Father” without thinking of a family. You cannot think of the word “Father” without an unconscious feeling of nearness to Him. You cannot say “My Father” without feeling His embrace.
When you call Him “God”, there is a sense of Him being afar off – hard to approach. But when you say “Father”, there is a place to rest your head.
When Jesus said, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions” – and “I will come again and receive you to myself,” Jesus made Heaven real, attractive, wanted. No longer just God, upon a throne; Holy Righteous and unapproachable, but a Father in His great home, waiting for His children to come.
Agape, Bob
“Rest, in contrast with strife, and denoting the absence or end of strife… a state of untroubled, undisturbed well being.” (E.W. Bullinger definition of the word “peace” in his concordance).
Perhaps no other quality of life outside of love and joy would a person desire to obtain than peace.
While the world desperately and fruitlessly seeks world peace, the born again Christian treasures the peace they have in Jesus Christ. Prior to His death Jesus Christ shares about the comforter, which was the gift of holy spirit, that a person receives at the new birth. The attribute connected to the comforter was it contained the peace of Jesus Christ.
John 14:26 &27: But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Now and forever more we believers have inherited His peace. Regardless of the troubles and challenges we face, we can live a life absent of strife because we have His peace. We can experience an undisturbed well-being knowing with the peace of Christ we have the assurance our Heavenly Father will be in every situation to overcome the challenge.
Isaiah 26:3: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
When trouble arises we focus on the Lord not the problem. Too many times we get all wrapped up in the details of our strife, when all we need to do is give it to our Heavenly Father. Staying our mind on the peace we have through Jesus Christ and soon we will experience a state of rest and well-being because we have His peace.
Colossians 3:15: And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Agape,
Bob
PS: Vikki Barnhart’s recent teaching, “My Peace,” is an excellent resource on understanding peace. Check our web site: www.actsnowfellowship.net for audio version and Facebook for video version.
There are two very special declarations of liberty that are dear to me. One that man wrote, and the other God wrote.
The one that man wrote is the Declaration of Independence. It is the basis for the foundation of freedoms our country appreciates today. It also reflects truths from what God wrote and that is why I feel it is effective and has stood the test of time.
It started because men sought liberty from a government that oppressed them. But enjoying the fruits of liberty from government intervention does not guarantee happiness nor fulfillment in life. Yes, it may allow the pursuit of happiness, but not ensure it.
In our free and glorious country we still have people living in bondage to fear, worry and doubt. Only the second declaration that I love most dearly can secure these life’s challenges. It is the Word of God which teaches how to have the highest form of freedom. God’s liberty brings man to a true and vital relationship with God their Father, providing the greatest freedom to love and be loved. It also imparts the great spiritual realities of life that far outweigh the things of this world.
Celebrate today for the liberties you have as sons of the Heavenly Father and as American citizens.
Galatians 5:1: Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
2 Corinthians 3:17: Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
John 8:31b & 32: …If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Galatians 5:13: For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Agape,
Bob