faith

Five Steps to Crossing Over (Numbers 33)

…pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ⁵²then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places. ⁵³And you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it.

God has a “promised land”, over the river Jordan, for each of His children. It is a place in the Spirit for us to live in where the promises of God for our lives, our callings and our ministries are made manifest.

The command to cross over and possess that land involves the following five steps according to this passage:

“Cross over the Jordan” – Passing over the Jordan is symbolic of the baptism of the Spirit. We need to first pass through the waters of the river Jordan, exchanging the ways of the flesh for being filled with the Holy Spirit.
“…drive out the inhabitants” – Who is possessing the arena of your inheritance? If it’s your family – what strongmen are present in your line? If it is business – what strongholds are at work? If it is an area of ministry – what spirit is opposing you? Discern it, ask God for His strategy and pray taking authority over it.
“Destroy…” – By taking ground you will encounter new temptations and new battles. Identify the idolatry and remove yourself far from them. Renounce any rights they have over you in all humility and the fear of the Lord.
“Take possession” – Once you have identified the land of promise and consecrated yourself to the Lord for it, claim it for the Lordship of Jesus. Not for yourself or your glory – but for His! Declare His Lordship over it!
“Settle in it” – Now you are ready to make the shift, from the old to the new. You no longer live in the old circumstance, you are living in the dimension of the promise of the Spirit. Settle in it by aligning your thoughts and words to this truth in God.

PRAYER: Father, I thank you for my promised land inheritance in you. I thank you you are faithful and desire to lead me into it. I ask you for understanding and revelation for how I can possess it, in Jesus name, Amen

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The Importance of Foundations

Concrete Pour

Psalm 11:3 says:

If the foundations are destroyed,
What can the righteous do?”

Foundations are the most important part of any building. Everything else that is built is then built upon the foundations. If the foundations are firm, then the building will stand. But if the foundations are faulty, then there is a strong chance the building will need to be destroyed and rebuilt.

This is also true of Christ and our walk with Him. If the foundation upon which we build our lives is faulty, then our very lives are in jeopardy. If the foundation of our life is not Christ, then all that we have built and slaved over in our lives in susceptible to cracking, splitting, slipping and causing irreparable damage to what we’ve built.

The issue with a foundation is that it is the lowest part of the building. It is not readily fixed from above. There is few if any quick fixes or patches that will protect what has been built.

So too with our lives, apart from the foundation of Christ. When the day comes and that foundation cracks, slips or splits, the “righteous” are unable to help. “What can the righteous do?”

If the foundation of your life is not secure in Christ, go back, re-dig it, pull it apart. Make Jesus the foundation – firm and secure – and rebuilt your life upon Him. He will never let you down.

PRAYER: Father, I ask you to reveal any area of my life not firmly established upon the foundation of Jesus Christ your son. I submit all of my life to you Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.

The Call of Abram Part 3 (Genesis 12)

Blessing

Starting the walk of Faith as we learn from the life of Abram, the Father of Faith.

The Call of Abram Part 1
The Call of Abram Part 2

Genesis 12:1-3 says:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Abram has left his home and ventured out in obedience to God. To where he didn’t know, but he went in faith.

But the Word of the Lord to Abram didn’t end there.

God said “Abram, you do this and I will bless you”. Wow, what a promise!

Whenever, we leave and go in obedience to the Lord we also do so with a promise from the Lord that this will result in blessing. Abram didn’t receive blessing from God immediately, it wasn’t as though he never encountered hardship or difficulty from that point. Far from it! But neither is that true blessing from the Lord.

Blessing comes as a result of God’s face shining upon our lives as they are lived in alignment with Him. As Abram committed to walking in obedience to the call of God upon his life, counting the cost, enduring the difficulty, he was also committing to a course that God has said is blessed. And, as history shows, it was as God said it would be.

When you commit your way to the Lord, to live in alignment with His calling and purposes for your life, you are committing to 1) LEAVE the old and to 2) GO in obedience. And when you do that, you also commit yourself to the promise that accompanies that path and that is a promise of blessing.

If you are already on this path – the way of faith – I want you to be reminded of this promise from God that He will bless you. You need to be reminded of this promise and thank the Lord for it. Because of your willingness, and your obedience, God can and will fulfil that in your life.

PRAYER: Thank you Lord for your promise. I align myself to your way of faith today and I declare your promise of blessing over my life and I receive that blessing in Jesus name, Amen.

The Call of Abram Part 1 (Genesis 12)

Abram's Call and the Way of Faith

Abram’s call is a great template for us to learn the way of faith from the man who would later become the Father of the Faith, Abraham.

Genesis 12:1 tells us:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

The Lord calls Abram and gives him three clear instructions. When we too walk in obedience to these 3 things, we are beginning to walk in the way of God-pleasing faith.

1. LEAVE

The Lord’s call to Abram is to get up and leave.

Leave your family, leave your country, leave your people and your Father’s household. Get up and leave. Why did God ask Abram to do this? I believe it was to establish in Abram a complete trust in God.

When we come to Jesus, He asks us to leave behind everything from our old way of life and follow Him. When we make Jesus No.1 in our life, He won’t tolerate competition for that place of affection and commitment in our hearts, so the only option is to choose.

Take Jesus, leave the rest!

When no-one else is around, when all our other comforts and familiarities are removed, when everything we’ve added to our lives has been removed – we find out who we are. God told Abram to leave his familiar, comfortable life because God didn’t want Abram to trust in the stuff he knew – he wanted Abram to trust in Him and Him alone.

In doing this – removing the old, familiar, comfortable things – not only does God establish trust in Abram’s life, He also establishes in Abram His true God-given identity.

Abram was the old identity, Abraham was the identity God created for him to walk in and live out.

If you want to find who God created you to be and discover your God-given identity in Christ, it’s going to take you heeding the call of Christ to LEAVE behind the stuff you’ve accumulated along the way. You are not your job, your friends, your education, your music, your sport, your abilities or your experiences. Leave them behind and embrace who God calls you to be.

PRAYER: Lord, I give myself back to you today. I recommit my way, my heart and affections to you. I choose to lay down my old identity and I choose to put on the identity you’ve given me as your Child. Thank you Lord, Amen.

Click for Part Two Here