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! 

Week 2: Psalm 91:9-10

"If you make the Most High your dwelling - even the Lord, who is my refuge - then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent."

Psalm 91:9-10

 

Sorry everybody, I am a day late with this one.  I know you all have been sitting at home so ready to move on our promise for this week and are going to have to start a day late now because of me!  I suppose, like I said last week, it's better late than never.  And on that note, if you haven't yet, please join us!  God did some incredible things in our lives last week as we moved on the promise from 1 John 3:6. 

 

If you joined us, please let us know how your week went - we would love to hear how God moved in your life. 

 

If you are planning on joining us for this week, please let us know - we would love to pray for and with you while we move together on trusting our Lord and Savior!

 

Now on to the good stuff:

 

As much as this pains me to say as a Cleveland Browns fan, our promise to move on this week comes from Baltimore Ravens Linebacker Ray Lewis.  Following their victory last Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts he was sporting a shirt that had Psalm 91 written on it.  Jake decided to look up Psalm 91 (I am far too stubborn a Browns fan to look up a verse on a Ravens player).  Thank the Lord someone doing this experiment isn't an idiot when it comes to sports. 

 

As it turns out, Psalm 91 ties directly into the promise we moved on last week from John 3:6, in which we focused on abiding in Christ in order to eliminate sin from our lives.  So when Psalm 91:9-10 talks about making the Lord our refuge and dwelling place, it kind of caught Jake's attention.  He shared the verse with Jana, Liz and I and we all agreed that this would be a great promise to move on for this week.

 

In Psalm 91:9-10 the outcome changes a little though.  We are still focusing on abiding in the Lord.  We are making Jesus Christ our refuge, the place we run to when we are in need - of anything! - we are making Him our dwelling place.  Just like you dwell in your house or apartment or tent or cave.  When you are dwelling in it, you are surrounded by it, protected by it, it completely covers you.  That is what we have been focusing on in these past two weeks.

 

The change in this promise comes in the outcome.  Where as abiding in Christ eliminated sin from our lives last week, this week abiding eliminates evil and plagues from our lives.  Now while I can't say that I am incredibly worried about plagues befalling my house, I would be more than happy to see sickness eliminated from my home.  And that is what we are counting on!

 

The rest of Psalm 91 continues to lay out the protection, deliverance and long life that come to those who make the Lord their dwelling and refuge.  I would highly suggest you read the entire Psalm.  I would also highly suggest that you join us in moving on that promise.  Cling to Him!  Cling to Him so tightly that He becomes absolutely everything - even the air that you breathe.  We learned from experience last week that abiding in Christ can eliminate sin from our lives.  This week I fully expect to see how abiding in Him also eliminates evil, sickness, danger and fear.

 

Just to make sure that this experiment is fully put to the test, Jana decided to come down with strep and I have developed a pretty nasty chest and sinus cold.  If there is anything last week taught us, and the Bible continually teaches us, it is that God's promises are faithful and true!  Give it a try...He won't let you down!

 

MOVE!

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!