Free Will

It's ultimately up to you to decide how much of God and His inheritance (gift to us through Jesus' death), life and reality you want.  Every aspect of it is available, but most people don't even choose cost-free, simple salvation!  Many children of God don't even want to work for more or battle demons to achieve victories; they accept what God offers easily... but it is a mere fraction of their actual inheritance.  Others want more, but haven't been taught what Jesus did for them and how to get it.

The Bible says you can reign in life together with Jesus Christ.  It's your decision to take up the scepter and reign or not.

To reign in your life (rather than the devils reigning) takes will, effort, constancy, work, and sacrifice.  When you don't see results every time, or when you fall in a little or a big way, great faith and trust are required to keep doing right, choosing right, defending and fighting - doing the things you need to do for yourself, your family, other believers, and the world.

Focus especially on your family and those you minister to; they need your protection.  In some areas, or with some people, a time will come when your work is done, the protection or healing complete.  At that time, a change will be required in your defense and'or offense strategy according to God's leading but the principles you learn here will always apply.

God is a Good Guy, Someone Worth Knowing.

God is a good guy and indescribably worth knowing.  Abraham was his friend; you are, too.  God wants all of us to worship Him as God Almighty, but He also wants us to understand that we are His friends.

Never forget:  Even though He is Almighty God and you are His friend, pride should have NO purchase in your heart or mind because no matter how deep your relationship is with Him, he will judge sin and wrongdoing;  He will correct you, just as any engaged, loving father would do.  Having said this, in His faithfulness, love, and fatherhood, you will find peace, love, wise counsel, and eternal friendship.

The whole thing sometimes seems absurd, doesn't it?  How can one person, standing on a speck of a planet in an extravagant universe, know God and he His friend( or anything even close)?

King David, too, pondered this question in the eighth Psalm, v.4, "What is man that you think of him, man that you care for him?"

After all, when was the last time the ruler of your country called and asked to be your friend?  Why would the ruler and creator of everything want to befriend you or me...to allow us to know Him?

I don't have that answer!  All I know, from all I've read and from my own experiences, is that this is exactly what He wants to do.

I can't begin to understand what God sees in me that He considers it worth the bother.  What can I possibly bring to the table?

My conclusion is that His character is love, fatherhood, and relationship.  He went to the point of moving heaven and earth through His Son's death to reconnect with you and me, because He places great value on folks like us.

Can it possibly be that God sees us in our defeats, battles, and losses and cheers for us - not excusing our sin, but seeing the hordes of dark evil spirits working against us and impossible odds of being saved?  The Bible says that is it "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle"  that to be saved.  God, in His love, helps us, the underdogs - choosing us, caring for us?

Declarations of Positive Faith

Use positive expressions to proclaim what the Bible says God has for you as a His child.  For salvation, healing, freedom from the curse and pain, proclaim and claim the complete work of the cross, even when your physical senses and present experiences seem contrary to the proclamation.  For freedom from sin or addictions, declare and believe in your victory over them even though you are not yet free.  (And do what is necessary to be free; see the getting help section.)  In the spirit world, you appropriate what God has done for you and given you through proclaiming His very real power over your situation; the physical will have to follow.

It is never foolish to proclaim (verbally, mentally, or physically) over situations, seen or unseen.  Your proclamation is your belief in action.  But it is not belief based on faith alone, is is belief based on something real; on the work that Christ did at Calvary.  It is real faith, based on real work that Christ did, and based upon the Word of God (the Bible).  The Word of God in your heart and your mouth, combined with your faith, is a force far more powerful than an atomic bomb.

Your words of faith are what put you in a position to receive from God and what puts God in position to move on your behalf.  Please understand that your words of faith (declaring what you are not experiencing), can take great effort.  John 6:24 says that our work is to believe in Jesus - including what He did for us.

Faith and Grace

In everything related to faith, there is no open door to do wrong.  Grace - Unmerited favor, forgiveness of sin through Jesus and relationship with God the Father through Jesus' death-is not a license to sin.  As a redeemed child of God, you are to make every effort to do right, to reflect His nature, power, and presence.

When you do fail (sin), grace gives you ample room to live before God without punishment (although there are natural consequences).  Part of God's grace at the time of your sin is to give you knowledge of right and wrong and the desire, and ultimately the power, to do what is right.

Because God is PERFECT, His acceptance of you outside of Jesus would only be possible if you always did right 100% of the time.  One wrongful "hiccup" (sin) would make you unacceptable.  Yikes!  Aren't you glad God made a way?  (The way is grace.)

The truth is, you and I break God's rules every day.  We frequently do wrong.  From God's perspective, no one is a "good person"  He certainly doesn't weigh our good and bad on a scale and let us connect with Him and go to heaven only if the good outweighs the bad.  That's a big relief;  no one could ever get there otherwise!

The Bible contains many passages about humankind's duties.  The Ten Commandments set the standards: Do no murders, do not steal etc.  Other commandments include the duty to love; see Romans 12:1 & 2 and 9-12, see also 13:8.  The duty to submit to governing authorities (but not as an excuse to reject Christ) is mentioned in Romans 13:1-7.  Homosexuality is condemned int he Old and New testaments (see Romans 1:26-27), as are bestiality and other sins.  Sexual immorality is dealt with in many places in the Bible and mentioned in 1 Corinthians 10:8.

God Has Not Abandoned You

Jesus came to you with Himself, with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  It isn't just that He came, showed you His love by dying for you, later to abandon you - leaving you to fend for yourself.

After Jesus rose from the dead, He returned to live in your heart. (remember that the spirit dimension is different from this one and that we live in it also.)  Jesus inside is no metaphor;  He really is inside you, and through His presence you have a new nature:  you are a new creation.

No matter how alone, ashamed or convicted you feel, God has not abandoned you.  If you've accepted Jesus into your heart, God is there-truly and actually there as spirit.  He moves inside your heart, mind and body to direct and heal you.  You have become fused to God.  In hardship and trauma, we often cannot feel or sense Him, even though He is inside us (cohabiting with our own spirit and the evil spirits who are working against us) directing our thoughts, memories and prayers.  John 14:26:  "He will teach you all things, and bring to remembrance all things that I said [scriptures and other divine messages] to you."

Through Christ, you've become God's child.  You're part of His family.  You carry His name.  You're protected and loved.  You belong to Him.  The Bible says in 1 John 3:1:  "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God.  And that is what we are...!" (NIV)

He also sent the Holy Spirit to live in you.  He, together with the fullness of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirits) is whit you forever.  He is not only with you, but continues to act on your behalf - teaching, counseling, and helping.  He is there in every decision, in every part of your life strengthening you, being a true friend.

God has a sense of humor

Aside from God's humor manifested through me (an individual and lowly member of his creation commenting on what He did, does, and is) I want to share a grand joke that God played on me.

I was in Lima, Peru en route to Ecuador.  I arrives late but wanted to go out for a meal.  The room clerk advised me to leave everything in the hotel safe except what I needed, so i took $20 dollars and went on my way.  Not long after, I was assaulted and the $20 dollars was stolen.  I went to the police.

I was mad.  That night I complained to God.  In my heart, I wanted a Christian to comfort me, to tell me how nasty these folks were to rob me.  But what I said to God was: "Father God, send me a Christian."

Before my flight left the next day, I got into a taxi for a tour of the city.  The driver, an off-duty cop who was moonlighting, would not shut up.  He spoke of his misadventures and, as the ride went on...sin.  I didn't want to hear it;  I wanted a tour.  But he just would not shut up.  For more than two hours I listened to this cop's sins.

When we arrived at the airport, fed up, I asked him if he would like to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  Suddenly in tears, he replied "Yes!"

I led him through the sinner's prayer - finishing just as we pulled up to the terminal.

As I reached for the door handle, God spoke to me: "You met a Christian!"  I could hear him laughing.  He knew that's not what I had meant when I told Him I wanted to meet a Christian;  I had wanted to be comforted.  The joke was on me.

I didn't know how to react.  It seemed unfair.  I wondered if there was any way I could return the "Touche'" and play a joke on Him without His being able to know all about it beforehand.  (Alas.  No way!  Well maybe, using the Bible to hold His feet to what we want?)

Yes.  God has a sense of humor.

God is Creative

This is one of the areas where we can get lost in our understanding of God.  He is creative beyond anything we will ever personally experience, but we can see His creativity and understand some of it through our own or another's creativity.  We can also discern its immense power whenever we unleash our own creativity.

I sat in a cafe in Vancouver, B.C. looking at a large books containing photographs of the universe.  I was overwhelmed at the colors, immensity, complexity, beauty, extravagance, engineering (atoms to galaxies), design, bizarreness, boldness, even brazenness of it all.  How could anybody do that?  Why?  Was any good thing not tried?  And the pictures were only of the physical dimension!  How many others exist in the same "space"?

My answer less question was: "What motivated God to do all this?!  Can He just not restrain Himself?"

You and I consider an atomic bomb to be powerful; same with the sun, our solar furnace, the engineering and creation of which is far beyond human understanding.  Yet, here before me in a solitary book was a manifestation of power, design, engineering, and artistry far beyond the sun and far beyond anything I had ever imagined.

Ad God created it all.  I find it beyond absurd, try as I might, to believe that the intricate design of a cell, of DNA, of a human body or that that a planet just "evolved".  Clearly such immense engineering feats call for questions:  Who is the architect?  Who is the builder?

God is creative and powerful beyond anything you or I can fully comprehend.  The good news is that He's also good and holy!  Our planet and immediate environment would be far more magnificent if they were connected to Him.  If He were the ruler of this world, all would work as He designed it to work at the outset:  He would have made it work in goodness and holiness, which is keeping with his character.