We all go through tests in this life, but it isn’t God testing you.

Jesus passed all your tests for you! With Jesus as your representative, you are now qualified with God, and if you are already qualified, what is left to test?

So when you are persecuted in this world, there are essentially two reasons why. 1. You have done something right and are being persecuted for doing so. In which case, your faith is then proved and God then has a trophy to say, “Look what their faith has accomplished!”. Read 1 Peter to see what I mean. 2. You have done something that is wrong and are being punished by this world’s rule system. 1 Peter tells us to obey the kings and government of this world so that we don’t give foolish men any ammunition to use against the faith. When we disobey this world’s laws we get punished.

Governments have the God-given right to punish evildoers. You see, not everyone has tapped into the grace of God to live their lives in His righteousness. Governments are then needed to protect the weak from such people. We live in this world, as strangers or aliens or visitors, if you will, and must abide by societies structures.

However, it’s important to note that when those laws contradict our supreme government, we must remember that we are ambassadors in this land. Ambassadors obey the laws of their HOME government first. God’s kingdom is peace, joy and righteousness in Christ Jesus. If we are punished for obeying God’s word (not Torah or law but Jesus come in the flesh . See John 1:1) then we bring a “good name” to the family. If we are punished for doing something our earthly government has deemed wrong, we open ourselves up for criticism. This does NOT mean we have sinned. We are free from sin. It means we broke the law. God’s favor is untouched, but MAN’S favor is breached.

You see, there is a difference between the favor of God and the favor of Man. God’s favor is a gift because of Jesus. Man’s favor is earned and can be a manifestation of God’s favor, but it is fickle and finite. The Bible tells us that Jesus increased in BOTH.

Luk 2:52  And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

Now remember, Jesus was a LAW man. That is, He was a man under the law of Moses. He had to gain favor with God. When He died, He had fulfilled all the law and the prophetic teachings, so the LAW man died or man under the law died. He was raised as a resurrected man. He had the same physical attributes, yet His disciples had a hard time recognizing Him at first because He was a New Creation. He was no longer a man under the law. He had passed all the tests once and for all.

Look for more articles on suffering and what it means.

Many people believe the Bible without actually believing the Word.

John 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2  The same was in the beginning with God.
John 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
John 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
John 1:5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
John 1:6  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
John 1:7  The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
John 1:8  He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
John 1:9  That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
John 1:10  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
John 1:11  He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
John 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
John 1:13  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

So the Word is Jesus. What did Jesus accomplish? He was the 2nd Adam. The first Adam represented us and by his sin death entered the world. Jesus obeyed and by His obedience we now have life. God’s kind of life at that. So faith in the obedience of Christ brings God Life.

That is Word. Period. Nothing added or subtracted. So then when we read scripture, we ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the Word to us.

If you’re in the kingdom of “I am not, I must become”, then you read 2 Corinthians 13:11.

2Co 13:11  Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

You might think this is telling you to try harder to be perfect, because you know you”re not, right? Wrong.

In the kingdom of “I AM” we read it and understand that we are made perfect by the blood of the Lamb AND the God of love and peace SHALL be with me”

Hallelujah! That’s good news.

We’ll discuss this more in the next post.

I AM vs. I am not, I must become

Can you spot the Difference?

Boy, I’m really nervous to be speaking in front of you because I’m worried you won’t accept me. Or what if I blow it? What if…

Lord, thank You that You speak through me. That Your Word is alive in me, and that it will flow from me with grace so that the hearers can understand.

Can you guess which kingdom is which?

Let’’s another:

“If I want to have financial prosperity, I must tithe and sow into the kingdom of God.”

“I declare that I am prosperous because of 2 Corinthians 8:9 which says that He became poor so that I could BE rich. I”m free to give so that this good news can be spread further!”

Or what about this one:

“My children are always misbehaving. I must be a terrible parent.”

“My children rise up and call me blessed. I am the perfect mother because I have the mind of Christ. Lord, what are some memories we can make today!”

HINT: If you guessed that the second response in each scenario belongs in the “I AM” kingdom, you guessed correctly.

Measuring a cup with a ruler

And you thought it was those pesky Jews and Romans. Wrong.

Jesus died by faith. You see He kept the full letter and heart of the law. He was blameless. But by faith, He took upon himself the sins of the world.

He was the spotless lamb that was sacrificed once and FOR ALL. He took the punishment for all sins for all time.

So then, I have a choice. I can either be judged/justified by my faith in Jesus or be judged by my own works of the law, my own righteousness. I can tell you right now, I’d fail if I had to stand before a Holy God and count on my own goodness to gain favor.

Thank God for His gift of righteousness. I choose Jesus.

I believe in Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Because of that belief I am then persuaded of God’s goodness. In fact, without that belief, I could not believe that God is good. I could not have hope … hope for life after death, hope for blessings, hope for forgiveness, hope for attaining perfection, or hope for any kind of relationship with God. Therefore, that belief is foundational. It’s at the core of life itself.

Now, we’ve all tried living life. Anyone who has been born has tried it in fact. Some are pretty good at it. Some appear to be good at it. Some stink at it, and some are in denial!

Believing that Jesus lived a blameless life, was crucified unjustly, was the Son of God in the flesh, and rose again means that God made a way for me to attain righteousness. The very persuasion I hold that all that is true allows me access to ALL God has and is. If I’m not convinced of this simple thing, then I am on my own, trying to live life without God. Period.

Sunsets represent hope for another day

Now if the creator of life is absent from my “life”, how can I be truly living? In fact, I would be a “dead man walking”. Hopeless. I’m aware that there are a lot of people out there who are just that – hopeless. They have faith that “you live, you die, and that’s it”. Which, from a mere human response, seems stupid to me. If you’re going to have “faith” why NOT seek out something of HOPE to have faith IN?

In other words, there is no point to faith without hope. My hope is in salvation – rescue from hopelessness, if you will.

Just a thought.

Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

So many people are down on faith, but faith is simply believing something. Literally “faith” means “persuasion”. I am persuaded about a ton of things that no one argues with at all.

I am persuaded that the sky is blue. Of course I can see that.  I also believe that with my next step my foot will meet with solid ground. For people in areas prone to earthquakes that persuasion is a little “shaky” (pun intended). We all believe in some things. If you didn’t you would have NO relationships because relationships require faith. Even stoic scientists have faith in their hypotheses, theories, and laws.

Now people believe for different reasons, and we”ll explore those reasons in another post.

For now, just think about this: what are you persuaded about? That you are no good? That you are pretty good? That you rock? That God is good? That there must not be a god? That God cannot be good if there is evil in the world?

I’ve heard people say to me that if you come up against road blocks then it must not be God’s will. For instance, if you want to go shopping downtown, but as you travel you get a flat tire, you come up on an accident, you run out of gas and your window is stuck down in freezing cold weather. All those obstacles are then an indication that it must not be God’s will for you to go shopping. I once thought that as well. Then the opposite was that if everything went smoothly it must be God’s will. There’s some serious flaws in that theology.

First of all, it smacks of a law mentality. “If I do this then this…” But I’ve found God to be more dynamic than that. Paul tells us in Romans 1:13 that he had planned to visit the Roman Christians many times, but something always kept him from doing so. He expresses his desire to win converts among them. So can we conclude that it was NOT Gods will for Paul to go to Rome? It was NOT God’s will for him to win converts in Rome? What did God have against the Romans? It’s a stretch to come to that conclusion. And frankly, I think Paul would have informed us of that conclusion if it were truth. I know it’s a popular idea that Paul went against God’s plan here, and I’m no theologian. But without borrowing from other areas of thought, the context of the verse is really just matter of fact, informative – hey, I’d love to come but something kept coming up.

We read in Acts (27th and 28th chapters) that Paul came through a LOT of trouble to get to Rome finally. Does that mean it wasn’t God’s will? How can we draw that conclusion? Not only was the Kingdom of God preached to the Gentiles in Rome for many years but when Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Malta during the trip, he healed the natives who were sick!

If we conclude anything from this, we can say that hardships come. The bible says that it rains on the just and the unjust. It also says that the storms came to both the house built on the rock and the one built on sinking sands. Troubles are a part of this life. They are not indicators of God’s will or punishments for wrongdoing or any other such nonsense. However, we can use troubles like tools when we know whose we are and who we are. If we listen, God will warn us so that we can avoid certain troubles as well.

The point is to place your trust in God – in and out of situations. That is, build your house on the rock! And if you”re looking for God’s will? Read the Bible. Ask the Holy Spirit for revelation. Get to know the character of God. Listen to what God has already placed in your heart. Listen to those in authority over you. That’s it.

I’m pleased to introduce a brand new blog from the brain and heart of Jennifer Driller (Drillerweb.com). This blog is to be an encouragement to the lowly of spirit. You may think you”re in a rough place, but the Bible says that yours is the kingdom of heaven. Meaning you”re in just the right place for God to dwell with you. It isn’t BECAUSE you are lowly in spirit that God dwells with you. It is because you are lowly in spirit that you are ready to receive grace! And ONLY when we receive grace do we really make a tent (or home) for God.

We do that by recognizing we cannot be perfect. What a revelation, eh? In our own abilities we are incapable of doing it all right, getting it all right, thinking rightly, being right. Yet the world expects us to do accomplish just that. God, however, expects you to understand that in yourself – without Him – you are nothing. But IN HIM you LACK nothing. After all, if the very Giver of Life is not your source, then what are you left with? Answer: No life. And no life equals death.

God loves us so much that He allows us to choose whether to live IN Him or apart from Him – life or death. Isn’t He good? The problem is we think we”re actually doing something worthwhile by trying to make something of our lives without Him. Some of us even say we”re doing it FOR Him.

Let me tell you right now, God wants you to give up! He’’s been trying to tell you that you cannot be perfect apart from Him. You need a savior. Adam sinned by thinking He lacked something in God, and he represented all of mankind in that choice. Nice, huh? But the Good News is Jesus represented us all too! And He obeyed God – every jot and tittle of the law.

You were a sinner, not because you sinned, but because you were born to sin (a la Adam). When you acknowledge this and accept that Jesus Christ took your place and received the punishment for sin once and for all, then you are now perfected, born again into God’’s life.

Isn’t that cool? You bet it is!

So what’’s all the fuss?

Well, we”re gonna talk about that here. Look for many more posts as we explore the lowly spirit and the kingdom of heaven together!

Grace and Peace to you!