Week 20: 1 John 5:5

"Who is the one who overcome the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"

1 John 5:5

 

Hello there promise movers!  Pretty simple promise this week, but sometimes in the kingdom of God, the simplest things are the most powerful.  Would you like to overcome the world?  I sure would!  According to this promise, the only thing we have to do to have victory over the world is believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God!

 

Verse 4 tells us that "whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world -- our faith."  It doesn't matter what part of the world you're looking for victory over; sickness, fatigue, lusts, addictions, relationships, finances, career - faith in Jesus Christ grants you victory over every single aspect of the world.  Not just slight victories either, but complete and total victory!

 

So exercise your faith this week.  If things are getting hard and it's looking like the world is starting to get the upper hand, cling to this promise, along with the countless other promises that God gives us in His Word.  YOU ARE VICTORIOUS OVER THE WORLD!  Not because of anything that you did or didn't do, but because you have put your faith, hope and love in the One who first conquered the world: Jesus Christ!

 

That's it!  Told you it was pretty simple.  Now go and walk in victory my friends!  Move on this AWESOME promise the Lord has granted us!

Week 19: 1 Thessalonians 5:24

Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.

1 Thessalonians 5:24

Hey fellow promise movers!  Man do I have some outstanding praises to report.  I will have to get to it a little later in the week though.  I have been so blessed by our Mighty God that I just don't have any time to get into it right now!!

This promise is fairly simple, so I won't make you read a whole lot of my blabbing(sighs of relief going up around the world).  I absolutely love this verse.  We could make this the verse that this group is all about.  If God isn't faithful, we are wasting our time moving on His promises.  If He isn't faithful and only keeps some or even most of His promises, this group would be completely hit or miss.

The only reason we are able to move on these promises week in and week out - and expect results - is because HE is faithful.  I love the description of Jesus we read from Revelations 19:11, "...and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True..."

Here's the only catch.  You can believe God is faithful all you want.  You can believe it more than anyone else in the entire world.  You CANNOT see the promise fulfilled though until you MOVE!  James 1:22 tells us, "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves."  I can believe every single word that Jesus said.  I can believe it with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.  But what good am I if I never DO what He says?  What kind of love is that?

So this is a huge promise.  What is God's promise to you?  It could be anything.  A child, a financial need, a job, salvation for yourself, a loved one?  Whatever His promise is to you - He is faithful.  Like Revelations says...it's one of His names...what He goes by.  He is literally called, Faithful and True.  He will bring it to pass!

So how do we cash in on this promise?  We move from being hearers of the Word to doers of the word.  We'll keep it contained to 1 Thessalonians 5 as a great place to start for this week.  Starting in verse 16 we get some great advice as to how we can actively live for Christ.

1. Rejoice always - yes, even when you don't feel like rejoicing.
2. pray without ceasing - yes, even if it makes you look crazy.
3. in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus - emphasis on the words IN EVERYTHING
4. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances - God might tell you to do something you don't want to.  He might be leading you somewhere you don't want to go.  Don't stop the Spirit with your reservations.  He's God...He's got you covered!
5. Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil. - be very cautious what you let have a hold in your life.  Like the song says, "Oh, be careful little eyes what you see/ears what you hear/mouth what you say/feet where you go"

There is even a little additional promise added on in verse 23, "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."  In all honesty, that's the better of the two promises.  When we do what Christ says, He sanctifies us ENTIRELY!  As flawed as we are, we are no longer because Jesus Christ has promised us His sanctification...He has transferred His holiness to us.  And how do we know we can trust Him?  Because "Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass"!

What are you waiting for?  Let's MOVE!

Week 10: Psalm 77:12(7-20)

Hey gang!  This week we are going to be moving on Psalm 77; sticking with the meditation theme for one more week.  The entire Psalm is outstanding, but verse 12 is the verse that has to do with meditation.

Will the Lord reject forever? And will He never be favorable again? Has His lovingkindness ceased forever? Has His promise come to an end forever? Has God forgotten to be gracious, Or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion? Selah. Then I said, "It is my grief, That the right hand of the Most High has changed." I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds. Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples. You have by Your power redeemed Your people, The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. The waters saw You, O God; The waters saw You, they were in anguish; The deeps also trembled. The clouds poured out water; The skies gave forth a sound; Your arrows flashed here and there. The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; The lightnings lit up the world; The earth trembled and shook. Your way was in the sea And Your paths in the mighty waters, And Your footprints may not be known. You led Your people like a flock By the hand of Moses and Aaron.
(Psalms 77:7-20)

Kind of a cool little personal story behind this verse:  A few weeks ago, we had a meeting with some of the friends joining us on these promises and decided to move on Joshua 1:8-9, then Psalm 119, then Psalm 77:12.  That was the order that I had presented them to the group, so that was the order we decided to move on them.

Then on February 25, while we were moving on Joshua 1:8-9, the Lord gave me the verse from Jeremiah 32:27, "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for me?"  I really felt like God was telling me that something big was going to happen - maybe not even to me, but to someone moving on these promises.

It was a good kick in the pants to stop "praying like a sissy" and start trusting in the Lord to deliver!  I mean, come on!  He's God...NOTHING is too difficult for Him!  So for the rest of that week and into the next week meditating on Psalm 119, Jana and I pressed in and prayed hard.  We asked for the impossible.

And to date...nothing has happened.  In fact, last week I had a particularly bad week.  There have been "mountains" in my life that I have been praying to move and they all seemed to come crashing down on me last Wednesday.  I actually made the comment to Jana, "I know what David meant when he said, 'My eyes fail with longing for Your word, while I say, "When will You comfort me?"'  I have been looking for God's answer to this prayer for so long, I just physically don't know that I can look for it anymore."

"Ummm...Jeremy," you're probably thinking, "not the kind of thing you want to post to get people to join your group."  I know, it doesn't exactly inspire does it?  But that's because the story isn't finished!

I have to be honest, we chose these verses to move on because they all had to do with meditation.  I really didn't study all of them in depth before I picked them.  I read through the verses, but generally I don't read the context of the verses until a few days before we move on them...primarily so I can write this blog.

God knows His word though (duh!), and I believe that He laid out this plan and my circumstances perfectly for this exact moment.  Reaching a point of brokenness is no fun, but it can also be the most beautiful thing in the world.  When you reach the point when you can't solve the problem on your own, when you have exhausted all avenues and there is only one road left to take - total and utter dependence on God - that is when things can finally start to move.  You can't give up though.  You have to press in, even when your eyes fail looking for God to come to the rescue.

That's why I love Psalm 77 so much, and that's why I love that God designed it to come this week; the perfect time for me (and hopefully you as well).  Psalm 77 is all about pressing in.  The writer is filled with the same questions I have been asking this past week:

"Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?"

But look at what the author does when these questions threaten to destroy his faith.  When doubt begins to attack and strangle out the hope that is ours. 

Then I thought, "To this I will appeal: the years of the right hand of the Most High." I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed. The clouds poured down water, the skies resounded with thunder; your arrows flashed back and forth. Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked. Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

 The same is true today.  We serve the same God who parted the sea for Moses and Aaron.  The same God who brought down the walls of Jericho.  The same God who slew Goliath.  I don't know if we don't believe those stories, or if we just don't believe that they happen anymore, but we serve that same GOD! 

I don't know that you'll be in a situation where you literally need a sea parted so you can walk through it, but I know that God can do it.  I don't know that you or I will literally need to break down the walls of a fortified city or kill a giant threatening our nation, but I know that God can still do it!

It doesn't matter what you need as long as you know who you need.  When fear and doubt start to creep in and replace peace and hope, meditate on God's past works and mighty deeds.  He is the same God!  He hasn't gotten weak in His old age...in fact, He doesn't age!

So press in!  Remember God's miracles of long ago, meditate on them, and apply them to your life!  When you reach the point when your eyes fail looking for God's promise, remembering His faithfulness in the past will fuel your hope and give you the faith to push on.

"not one word has failed of all His good promise..."
1 Kings 8:56
 

Week 4: John 15:7

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

John 15:7

 

We wanted to wrap up our first week of moving on God's promises with one final abiding promise.  The first month has been all about abiding in Christ, and I know for me personally, it has been something that I am going to continue whether we're focusing on that promise or not!  John 15 is actually a great place to go to for a better understanding on exactly what it means to abide. Jake actually brought up this passage of scripture during week one when we first started talking about abiding in Christ.  It is only fitting that we come full circle.

This is a scary promise to move on, but this is exactly the kind of promise that I was tired of standing on. I feel like people love to believe in this passage, believe that God always hears and answers our prayers, but they also love to give God an escape route. "Yes," too many people say, "I 100% believe that God will answer this prayer...but if He doesn't it's just because He has something bigger." or "His answer is no." and the excuses go on and on.

I don't believe that is the case though. The Creator of the Universe doesn't need a way out of our prayers! We don't need to give Him an exit strategy. The danger in giving excuses to God as to why He may or may not answer our prayers is that we start to think that way. Instead of trusting Him 100% we end up trusting Him 90%, then that turns to 80%, then 70 and so on. I am done insulting the Lord with that kind of thinking! What promise does the Bible say He has ever broken? NONE OF THEM! So why are you going to put anything less than 100% trust in Him? I'm done doing it!

There is a very thin line that must be carefully walked here though.  This is not a prosperity gospel that we are believing in.  Yes, I believe that God wants to, and does, bless the sock off of those who follow Him.  Far too many people attribute this to only financial or worldly blessings.  "Well, John 15 says I get whatever I ask for in the name of Jesus...so I'd like a Ferrari, two summer homes in the Caribbean, and sixteen million dollars."  I don't think that's how it works.

The key to this, as has been the key to all of the promises we have moved on this month, is ABIDING.  Take week one for example:  we had to walk a dangerous line in keeping that promise.  If we stopped focusing on abiding in Christ, and turned our attention instead to the outcome of abiding, that we cannot and would not sin, then it is no longer Christ that we are following, but a horrible form of legalism - following rules to get closer to God.  The same goes with this promise.  The goal is abiding in Jesus Christ through all things.  Staying connected to the True Vine spoken of in John 15.  Realizing that Jesus is correct when He says in verse 5, "apart from me you can do nothing."  The outcome of the promise, that God will give us everything we ask for CANNOT EVER become the focus.  That would make God to be our servant; just a little footman at our beck and call. 

I believe that when we abide in Jesus Christ - when we let the Holy Spirit invade our lives and take over everything, that Jesus Christ answers 100% of our prayers.  Why would He say it if He didn't.  Yes, sometimes the answer is no.  Yes, sometimes He has something bigger.  When we are plugged in to the True Vine though, He reveals His plan to us.  Jesus Christ tells us in verse 15 that He no longer calls His disciples servants, but friends, because He is revealing to us His Father's business.

We can have 100% confidence that God will answer every single prayer we ask of Him, without any hesitation or need of a way out, because as we abide in Him, He will make His will known to us.  Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me."  The Lord gave Paul a "no" answer, but He also let Him know why.

When we abide in Christ, we walk every moment of our lives in the Father's will, we speak every word in the Father's will, we pray every prayer in the Father's will.  Those are the prayers that are answered.

So pray BIG this week!  Pray the boldest prayers you have ever prayed!  But make sure that you are abiding in Christ when you do it.  When we ask for things that are in the will of the Father, they are always answered!  There is no "better plan" than His plan.

It's your turn now!  MOVE!

Week 3: Psalm 91:13-16

You will tread upon the lion and cobra,

The young lion and the serpent you will trample down.

“Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him;

I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.

“He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble;

I will rescue him and honor him.

“With a long life I will satisfy him

And let him see My salvation.”

Psalm 91: 13-16

Happy Monday, everyone! This blog is coming from someone other than Jeremy this week. Jeremy asked me, Jake, to write up the blog this week and so I gladly took up the offer. It's been a joy walking with Jeremy and his wife Jana, as well as my fiance Liz over the past couple weeks as we move on the promises of God. God has shown His faithfulness in many ways including the healing of Jana from strep throat this week as she and Jeremy stood on Psalm 91:9-10 which speaks of no harm or plague befalling on those who make the Lord their dwelling place. Praise God for being faithful and true to His word!

This week the focus is on the end of Psalm 91 which comes with many promises for us to move on. In verse 13 we see how the Lord has given us authority over the lion and the serpent. Both the lion and serpent are authoritative, fearless animals who control the territories in which they dwell. I believe the Lord is telling us here that we can take confidence in the authority He has given us over things in our life that seem insurmountable. Whatever the "lion" or "serpent" is in your life that seems to be controlling your territory has nothing on us who have received all authority by the blood of Jesus!

Beyond that, I take joy in reading the final three verses of the chapter which speak of the promises given to us as we call upon the Lord and love Him. God does not speak words that are not true. Every word spoken by the Lord is truth for He Himself is Truth. With this knowledge we can claim these promises as given to us. These are the promises, listed out, that we are joyfully and violently claiming this week.

Because we love Him, know His name, and call upon Him, He will...

• Deliver us
• Set us securely on high 
• Answer us
• Be with us in trouble
• Rescue us
• Honor us
• Satisfy us with a long life
• Let us see His salvation

Praise God for His word of truth and for the many promises we have in Him. I pray that we all would experience these promises in a greater measure as we go about our week. I claim these upon us as we move forward in Him. His word does not return void but bears great fruit. Have a blessed week in Jesus!

Healing When We Abide

It was Saturday, January, 12 and I was starting to get a cold. The cold was nothing serious at this point, but I was starting to feel a little achy and my throat had a little scratch in it. This is always such a bummer when I start to feel sick on the weekend ,so I was trying to combat it with extra sleep and lots of tea with added cinnamon and sugar of course!
When I woke up Sunday morning my throat was still scratchy but my husband, Jeremy, and I were able to go to church together for the first time in a long time. This is a rare occurrence because we both serve on the worship team at church. Later on that day we went out to eat with my mom and brother and I was feeling good. After returning home from a quick trip to Walmart, I started to feel really bad. I tried to lay down for a nap but was not even able to do that because I could not swallow. I was in so much pain.
Monday morning came and I wanted to try and go to work that day. I thought I would be okay and the day would go fast, no big deal. It was a terrible day and to be honest, I barely made it through. I was starting to feel worse and worse, my fever was 103.5 and I didn’t know if I was going to make it. This is not to say I thought I was going to die, I just felt so bad and I was in so much pain.
When Jeremy and I were laying our son Elam down for bed, Jeremy prayed healing over my body and shared that when we make the Lord our dwelling, no harm will overtake us and no disaster will overtake our home. Like our promise to move on this week (Psalm 91:9-10) says in the New American Standard version, this also includes “Nor will any plague come near your tent”. So as Jeremy started praying this more and more throughout the night, we started believing it and trusting God to heal me.
Our son Elam still tends to get up in the night and when he woke up about 1:30, I quickly realized my fever broke. This was an answer to prayer! When I woke up Tuesday morning, I felt great! The Lord had healed me and I was feeling back to normal. This was not only a boost to my physical body, but it was such an encouragement to my prayer life. It has made such a difference focusing on abiding in the Lord ALL the time. What a difference that makes on the outlook of situations. What a difference that makes in the situations that life brings us. Dwelling in the Lord, abiding in Christ…every second, every moment, all the time- makes such a difference! 

Abiding In Christ

So the first week is almost in the books.  It happened just like I hoped it would too!  I had such a great week MOVING on the promise of abiding in Christ and that resulting in the complete absence of sin in my life.  It wasn't just that though.  His promise was true (if you had any questions about this, I'll spoil it for you: they always are!) and I did not sin at all while I was abiding in Him.  The few slip ups that I had were all times when I was not abiding very well.

Along with not sinning though, I also found myself in such a better mood overall.  I was slow to get frustrated at work and even while driving...GASP(I tend to be a little impatient while behind the wheel)!  I had a smile on my face a good majority of the day, I was a better father and husband, I was even a better coworker.  I could feel God's love with me the entire time I was abiding in Him, and I was therefore able to love those around me...even those I am normally not particularly fond of.

Now some of you may wonder how one abides in Christ, or gets started doing it anyway.  As I wrote in my post that described what we were going to be doing this week, abiding in Christ is simply being IN Him every single part of the day.  Like one abides in their house or state or country, you remain in Him in everything you do.  This is not as easy as it sounds and it takes a lot of getting used to.  I found myself getting better and better at it as the week went along.  I happened to have a fairly easy time getting started on it because I worked by myself for the majority of the first part of the week.

Now this was the approach that I took in abiding in Christ - it's not the only way, it's not the right way, it's just the way that I did it.  I am sure that for those who are used to abiding in Christ it probably comes very naturally.  I am hoping that this little experiment leads to that...in fact, I know that it will.  Since I am not to that point yet though, I had to continuously remind myself to abide in the Lord.  I did this by quite literally praying and worshiping the Lord all day long. 

As I said, I worked alone most days, so I was able to pray and sing out loud.  This made it very easy to abide in the Lord.  Being constantly reminded of His presence, constantly offering up praises to Him, which in turn, reminds me exactly who He is, makes it very easy to be in a good mood.  Forget Arby's, my good mood food is the Bread of Life (sorry, that was a little cheesy...but seriously, they should make Christian shirts with that)!  Even when I was working with people though, I still got into the habit of praying silently or humming or whistling worship songs.

For anyone wanting a little boost in their walk with Jesus, I would definitely suggest giving this abiding in Him a try.  Even if you set out to only do it for a week, I think...no...I know you will find it too awesome to stop.  This is something that I am going to continue for the rest of my life.  When I first started this experiment I had a feeling that this is how these weekly promises would turn out.  I imagine this is similar to what David was talking about in Psalm 34:8 when he said, "Taste and see that the Lord is good..."

All it takes is a taste of the Lord to find out exactly what He has to offer.  It doesn't say to take a bite and then keep going even though the first bite isn't very good...eventually you acquire a taste for it.  Once you experience a little bit of the Lord, you know it's all good!

That is exactly what this first week has been: a taste of what is to come if we take God at His Word.  If we move on the promises He gives us, we will find so much more than what we are expecting.  I started this week expecting to eliminate sin from my life while I took God at His Word and started abiding in Him.  I got so much more though.  I got an entire life makeover.  He turned my world upside down, showed me how to love, showed me how serve, showed me how to LIVE!  To be honest, I don't want to remember what it's like to live outside of abiding in Him.

So now it's your turn.  Give it a try!  I promise you'll like what you find!

MOVE!

Week One:1 John 3:6

Hey everybody!  I know that this is a little late, being that we actually started our "promise moving" on Monday, but better late than never.  Don't let the tardiness stop you from joining us.  Just like the parable Jesus tells in Matthew 20.  Whether God "hires" you first thing in the morning or with one hour left on the shift, we all get the same blessing in the end: eternal life with the Creator of everything!

The promise we decided to start the year with comes from 1 John 3:5-10,

But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
 

This is no new thing.  I think that a lot of us only look at half of this wonderful truth though.  We are so enthralled with the fact that Jesus forgives us of our sins that we forget something even bigger.  Jesus takes away our sins.  In Him there is NO SIN.  No one who lives in Him keeps sinning.  No one born of God continues to sin.  This is completely different than simply forgiveness of sins.  This is life changing.  This is world altering!

I really like the New American Standard Bible's interpretation of verse six, "No one who abides in Him sins..."  I love that word, "abides".  When I think of the word abide, the first thing that pops into my mind is an abode, another word for your house or the place that you live.  So to abide means to live.  Now we are all familiar with the fact that we are to live for Christ and that He will live in us, but how many of us really follow through with that?  I know that I never used to.

So that is the promise we are moving on.  Abiding in Christ.  Absolutely drowning in Him.  Not just for an hour in the morning during Bible reading and prayer time, not just before bed, or any other silent times in the day while we are praying.  Abiding in Christ is just like living in your house.  If you are there, you are constantly there, constantly under your roof, constantly wrapped in your houses protection from the outside elements.  The difference though, we can take Christ with us.  We don't have to only abide in Him at home.  We can abide in Jesus in the middle of the chaos that swirls around us daily.  The promise is that if we do that, we are 100% incapable of sinning.  We don't need forgiveness (we do, just not while we're abiding in Him because forgiveness is already present) because He promises us that as long as we are immersed in Him we will not sin.  It's impossible to.

One important distinction should be made before I end.  The focus of this promise is very important.  Should you choose to join us (and we all really hope you do!) the priority MUST be abiding in Christ.  If the focus becomes the result of the promise, not sinning, then you are serving the law and not Jesus Christ.  That is, by definition, legalism.  Even the end goal of this promise isn't necessarily to stop sinning.  Don't get me wrong, I want to stop sinning, but the goal of this whole process is to draw closer to God.  That has to be our end goal for everything.  If it is not, then we end up running after the wrong prize and will not like the destination we end up finding.

So there it is; there is the first promise to move on.  Some of us will be blogging a little later in the week to let you know how things are going or how the week went.  I know my week has been incredible and I can't wait to share more.  Now, I will leave you with the words from the band Switchfoot:

"I dare you to MOVE"

Introducing The Promises

Last year, my wife and I participated in this really cool thing that the National Community Church and their pastor Mark Batterson put on dubbed the “7:14 Experilent”.  Every day at 7:14 during Lent, people around the world dropped to their knees and humbled themselves before God.  The inspiration came from 2 Chronicles 7:14.  Overall the experience was very cool and my wife and I experienced some awesome breakthroughs as we joined other Christians around the world, humbling ourselves before our Lord.

Part of this process was that we would receive text messages every day at 7:14 to give us different things to pray about and reflect on.  One of these text messages was burned into my mind and I haven’t been able to shake it since.  It read, “The world has yet to see what God can do through a person FULLY CONSECRATED to Him.  Why not you?  Why not now?”  It’s a beautiful, yet convicting message.  I looked this quote up before I started writing this and found that it was first said by Henry Varley, a friend of the great evangelist D.L. Moody.  These were supposedly the words that inspired Moody to begin pursuing becoming an evangelist.  Varley’s exact words were: "The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him."

For the longest time, I didn’t do anything of importance with these words.  Out of nowhere though, they came back to me a few days ago.  Believe what you will about spontaneous memory of past events, but I don’t believe in chance.  If you believe in the Christian God of the Bible, then you shouldn’t either.  He is the Grand Weaver, the Architect of everyday, there is no chance or coincidence or happenstance with my God.  I believe that He brought this text message back to me on New Years Eve of 2012 to rock my world in 2013.  I want to document it too, so that your world can be equally rocked.  Why should I have all the fun?

Last year, just after the new year started (January 10^th to be exact), I decided to step up my prayer game.  I experienced some huge breakthroughs from it too.  I was baptized in the Holy Spirit for the first time and spoke in tongues.  I was baptized in water for the first time since I was an infant.  I was so close to God.  He was talking to me and I was talking to Him.  It was such a sweet time in my life.  Then about six months ago the communication line started to go bad.  I could still feel God with me…He just wasn’t talking to me anymore.  I think that time is over now though.  I think that might have been my little vacation.  My time of rest before it was time to get knee deep in the Lord’s work.  Up to my elbows in it.  And believe me, after being so on fire and then having six months off…I am ready to get to work!

As I stated, I believe that this whole plan came from the Lord.  I have been thinking about trying to write a book for awhile and actually started writing a few chapters of a book that was going to be about the promises that God has made to us in the Bible.  Then this text message came back to me.  “Why not you?  Why not now?”  Why not me?  What if I started taking God at His Word?  What if I started living by God’s promises to me?  Through all of history and for the rest of eternity, God has never and will never break one of the promises He has made.  So why am I not living according those promises?

There is an old hymn that most of you are probably familiar with, “Standing on the Promises”:

Standing on the promises of Christ my King,
Through eternal ages let His praises ring,
Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
Standing on the promises of God.

Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Savior;
Standing, standing,
I’m standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises I now can see
Perfect, present cleansing in the blood for me;
Standing in the liberty where Christ makes free,
Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord,
Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord,
Overcoming daily with the Spirit’s sword,
Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises I shall not fall,
List’ning every moment to the Spirit’s call.
Resting in my Savior as my All in all,
Standing on the promises of God.
(Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/340#ixzz2GqNxmmgI)

I absolutely love this song.  Those lyrics are so rich and just dripping with God’s truth and goodness.  Just thought I’d get that out of the way so no one thinks I am saying anything against this hymn.  The problem in my life with “Standing on the Promises” is that I am tired of standing on them.  I want to MOVE on them.  The world needs more movers and fewer talkers.  The book of James is big on this topic.  James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.”  James 2:18 continues, “But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’  Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” and in verse 20, “You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?”  Perhaps the most well known verse from James is 2:26, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

I think James was going through the same thing I am: just fed up with all the talk.  Jesus said the same thing to His disciples.  Don’t just listen.  Do it!  Jesus compared it to a person building their house on a firm foundation (the one who does what Jesus teaches) versus one who builds on a foundation of sand (the one who listens but does not do).

So I am done standing on the promises of God.  I am ready to start doing the promises of God.  That’s my New Year’s resolution.  Every week, my friend Jake, his fiance Liz, my wife and I are going to search out a promise God gives us in the Bible and we are going to LIVE by that promise.  We are going to document it each week too.  The successes and failures.  The good, the bad and the ugly.  Hopefully it will inspire some of you to join us.  If this little experiment works the way I think it will, it will be something that will change us forever.  By the end of this experiment, the world WILL know what God can do “with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him”.

 

If you would like to join us in this "experiment" please let Jake, Liz, Jana or I know.  We would be thrilled to have you along for the ride and just KNOW that God is going to do some insanely wonderful things through this small act of faithfulness.  Even if you just leave a comment on this blog that you would like to be a part, we will let you know what promise we are focusing on for the week and you can join in on the MOVING!  Ball is in your court...

 

MOVE!