I love this time of year because there is always a sense of optimism and a feeling of fresh starts. We say goodbye to 2011 with mixed emotions because we’ve all had successes to hang our hat on and failures to hang our head over. Regardless of where we are in life, I would suggest that all of us have a desire to make 2012 better than 2011. In prayer this week I believe God specifically spoke a word of encouragement to me that I feel was for the Church. While praying and seeking direction for my own life, my family and the Church He’s blessed me to Pastor, the Spirit of God spoke to my heart and shared with me what I believe to be the answer to a spiritually successful year. Simply put, what He said to me was that in order for us to walk in victory, the number one thing we need to know is who God says we are and what He thinks of us. See, it’s not that we don’t know what God wants (the Bible is full of the details), the problem is that we don’t know who we are as God sees us. In other words, the voices in our head are louder to us than the voice of our Father that knows us better than anyone else knows us. I ask you to consider these truths about what God says about you. Accept them. Believe them. Own them. Let them become your new identity. When this happens, no one can talk you out of anything that God tells you to do. You will not be defeated by discouragement because you will know who you are. You will have courage to fight your giants because you will know how God sees you. Yes, friend, this could change everything in the upcoming year. Here are a few of the things God says about you:
1) You Are His child – He is Your Father – 1John 3:1-2, “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! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God.”
2) You Are His Friend – John 15:15, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
3) You Have Been Adopted Into His Family – Ephesians 1:4-5, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.”
4) You Are Blessed With Every Spiritual Blessing – Ephesians 1:3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
5) You’ve Been Given Promises – 2Peter 1:3-4, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
6) You Are Redeemed and Forgiven – Ephesians 1:6-8, “to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”
7) You Are Free From Condemnation – Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
8) You Have Been Given The Mind Of Christ – 1Corinthians 2:16, “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
9) You Are A New Creation – 2Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
10) You Are The Temple Of God – 1Corinthians 3:16; 6:19, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? “
11) You Are A Member Of Christ’s Body – 1Corinthians 12:27, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”
12) You Are A Saint – Ephesians 3:4, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”
13) You’ve Been Rescued From Satan – Colossians 1:13, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves”
14) You Are Hidden In God With Christ – Colossians 3:3, “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
15) You Are Chosen Of God – Holy and Beloved – Colossians 3:12, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”
16) You Have Spiritual Authority – Luke 10:19, “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”
17) You Are To Be Salt and Light – Matthew 5:13-14, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”
18) You Are Appointed to Bear Fruit – John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”
19) You Are To Do The Works Of Christ – John 14:12, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
Happy New Year!
Pastor Jeff
pastorjeff@lwwconline.com
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