Faith

““My old identity has been co-crucified with Messiah and no longer lives; for the nails of his cross crucified me with him. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me— we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, and dispenses his life into mine!” Galatians 2:20 TPT

Jesus had the faith
To be water baptised
Even though to others
It seemed superfluous
But it confirmed His standing
As God’s Beloved Son

Jesus had the faith
To go into the desert
And stay true to God
Through hunger and temptation
And reject the lies
That were satan’s deception

Jesus had the faith
To turn water into wine
And use one child’s lunch
To feed five thousand
For He knew how to call
On God’s abundant provision

Jesus had the faith
To heal the sick
And raise the dead
To life once again
For He knew how to draw on
God’s heavenly kingdom

Jesus had the faith
To calm violent storms
And cast out demons
From the most possessed ones
For He knew His authority
As one of God’s Sons

Jesus had the faith
To free sinners from sin
To announce their forgiveness
Bring them home to God again
For He lived God’s love
As God’s Spirit filled Him

Jesus had the faith
To reject faithless religion
The reliance on rules
And performance restriction
For He knew God’s love
And His power to bring freedom

Jesus had the faith
To bear our accusations
To take on our guilt
To receive our beating
For He knew by His stripes
He could bring us healing

Jesus had the faith
To die our death in the cross
To take the full burden
Of our separation from God
For the joy of seeing
Us made into His siblings

Jesus had the faith
To rise from the dead
And take up His place
As King by God’s side
To rule heaven and earth
With God’s law of love

Jesus had the faith
To become One with us
To share all His power
And all that He is
To make us God’s children
His co-rulers and co-heirs

It’s His faith that I draw on
Through trials and temptations
To stay true to God
In all situations
Empowered by God’s grace
And filled with His Spirit

It’s His faith that I draw on
To live Him each day
To live His kingdom’s rule
To embrace His love’s way
To know I’m by God’s side
Each and every day

God’s Holy People

“This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 1:1 NLT

What is it like Lord
To be your holy people?
Please give me vision to see
How it can include me

God:
My holy people
Are filled with My Presence
Filled with My Love
They shine with My Glory
Changing earth to heaven
Wherever they live or go

The stain of sin does not touch them
They’re as pure as fresh fallen snow
For Jesus’ blood keeps them clean
By His blood they have overcome

Their old, sinful self is dead and buried
Crucified with Christ on the cross
They live now as My Sons and daughters
Full of Jesus’s resurrection power

My holy people
Are filled with My Presence
Filled with My Love
They shine with My Glory
Changing earth to heaven
Wherever they live or go

They have no interest in earthly glory
They leave behind earthly power
Money and possessions have no hold on them
For all they need I provide

They live in the joy of serving
To see others made whole and alive
To bring all in love to My Kingdom
To care for each person as My child

My holy people
Are filled with My Presence
Filled with My Love
They shine with My Glory
Changing earth to heaven
Wherever they live or go

They give to all, My forgiveness
They give to all, My love
They bring healing and restoration
My salvation’s rule

They seek to restore this planet
So it can grow and thrive
Providing a home and food
For all that is alive

My holy people
Are filled with My Presence
Filled with My Love
They shine with My Glory
Changing earth to heaven
Wherever they live or go

In this world they’ll be crushed and broken
Some even martyred and died
Rejected, abused and slandered
Because of the love they bear for my Son

But nothing will stop them from loving
No one can take them from My arms
Together we’ll live Jesus’ victory
For Jesus this world, has overcome

My holy people
Are filled with My Presence
Filled with My Love
They shine with My Glory
Changing earth to heaven
Wherever they live or go

Loving Difficult People

Suppose you have a difficult person to deal with in your workplace or somewhere else and you want some ideas on how to dealt with that. Here are some suggestions:

I want to say up front that these things do NOT mean you should stay in a situation where another person is being violent or seriously abusive. Nor do I in any way suggest that reporting violent and abusive people to the relevant authorities is not needed. Nevertheless even if you are coming out of a very abusive situation these things will still help.

Start by looking at this other difficult person not as a problem but as a gift to you so you can learn how to live more fully in peace, love and forgiveness.

Instead of seeing them as the enemy, trying looking for the strengths in them that could be the foundation of a good relationship between the two of you.

Do not assume they are out to get you. Start from the belief that they are simply a hurt and damaged person themselves, acting in way that they think will protect them from further hurt because that is what the overwhelming majority of badly behaved people are. They simply do not have the skills to deal with their own hurts in an appropriate manner.

Then ask God/Jesus to impart to you the desire and power to forgive this other person, forgive everything negative they have said and done.

It might be worth making a list or collection of those negative things or and then destroying them as you pronounce forgiveness for them.

If these negative incidents are replaying in your mind, do something with it in your mind like painting with a bucket of Jesus blood or nailing it to the cross with His hands and watching it die with Him. And I would keep doing that until the past did not bother me.

I would also take every opportunity I had in further contact with that person to announce they were forgiven as soon as possible or even before they had a chance to do or say anything. You could do that in your mind, quietly out loud so no one else can’t hear it, or if it seems suitable, say it out loud to their face. That will free you from having your future determined by your past interactions with that person

Secondly I would ask Jesus to to use His resurrection power to replace those bad interactions with blessings for both myself and the other person. I like to ask Him to show me what those blessings are.

Thirdly I would meditate daily on Jesus to receive His love, peace and forgiveness. I would ask Him to show me what they look and feel like, how I should receive them today, and how He would envisage me using them to bless others today.

This is so that I can carry that peace, love and forgiveness within me and overflowing from me and release it in my workplace (or indeed wherever I am) to change the atmosphere. I might even choose to wander around my the place where I interact with the difficult person quietly saying “I release peace/love/forgiveness”, or get symbols of those things to put in their, or even donate coffee cups with those words written on them to the tea room. Whatever seems appropriate or Jesus suggests.

I can’t guarantee doing these things will stop the problem person behaving badly but I can guarantee it will release the person who chooses to practice them from constantly living in the adverse effects of the bad behaviours of others.

Jesus spent most of His ministry dealing with difficult people, troubled people and abusively religious people, yet they were not able to diminish the love, peace and forgiveness He live in and gave out. He can give the same grace to you.

Our Only Hope

About 2000 years ago
A man named Jesus
Was condemned by the crowd
As one guilty of a great crime
Though He was innocent
Completely without sin
He was beaten mercilessly
Till He was unrecognisable
And then cruelly crucified
As though He was a criminal

Yet Jesus had great power
Which He had demonstrated daily
He could’ve simply walked away
And no one could’ve stopped Him
He could’ve called on angel armies
To overthrow all His accusers
Build His own earthly kingdom
With His disciple followers
So why did Jesus choose
The cross on that day?

Though He was sinless
Jesus was fully human
He’d been tried and tempted
Lived under sin’s dominion
He knew the suffering
The hurts of this world
And his words and actions
Showed his desire to free us
To release us from all sin
To live as God’s children

Jesus used His great authority
And all His heavenly power
Not to take control of us
Or command us in that hour
But serve us as a scapegoat
Be our sacrificial lamb
Pay for our sin with his blood
Die our death to man and God
All the punishment we deserved
Jesus took on Him in our stead

For Jesus knew the only way
We could be freed from sin’s sway
Was for us to be re-born
Remade as true sons of God
New hearts, new spirits
Full of his love and grace
Set apart as holy ones
Living His righteousness
Joined to His Holy Spirit
With Him made One

So when Jesus was resurrected
As King over all by God appointed
He used his power and authority
To make his death and resurrection ours for free
All that He is, He has given to us
So we can live as God’s true sons
Remade, reborn in His image
Filled with His powerful spirit
Not because we’ve earned this gift
But through Jesus righteous merit

Now we who are His, can live like Him
In the power of His resurrection
Filling this world with His love, joy and peace
Bringing in healing and freedom from sin
Revealing Jesus in all that we do
Loving our enemies and forgiving them too
Raising up the poor and the broken
Regardless of religion or political persuasion
Releasing to all the freedom of God’s justice
Treating all as God sons for whom Jesus paid the price

You see Jesus is our only salvation
The only true hope for our planet and nations
For no law or rule no matter how good
Can break sin’s curse so we can live in love
Laws and regulations can make us pay
When we’ve done wrong or gone astray
But they’re powerless to heal our hearts
Or break sin’s hold on our minds
Only Jesus death and resurrection
Can give us all heavenly life everlasting

Jesus Thank You

Jesus thank You for Your blood
Which washes over and through me
Cleansing me from all sin
And setting me free
To live as a full son of God
Your righteousness imparting to me

Jesus thank You for the guilty judgement
That You took on my behalf
Releasing me to a place if innocence
Made holy by Your sacrifice
To live as a full son of God
Justified by You, O Living Word

Jesus thank You for the punishment
That You took for me though I deserved it
The stripes that hurt You restored me
Saved and healed by Your obedience
To live as a full son of God
Made whole and holy by You Lord

Jesus thank You for the death to sin
That You took on the cross in my stead
The devastating separation from God
You released me from to live again
To live as a full son of God
Made one with Him through the Holy Spirit

Jesus thank You for the new eternal life
That You imparted to me as You rose to God side
That resurrection power that raised You from the grave
Raised me with You as Your eternal bride
To live as a full son of God
In Your kingdom, with You as One

Jesus thank You for Your Holy Spirit
That You give to me based on Your merit
To fill me with Your Holy Presence
And impart to me Your very essence
To live as a full son of God
In your kingdom, with You as One

Jesus thank You for all heavens‘s blessings
That You pour out on me as my inheritance
The riches of Your kingdom’s Grace
The power to heal, deliver, the dead raise
To live as a full son of God
In Your kingdom, with You as One

Be transformed

“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT

Be transformed
By the renewing of your mind
See Jesus blood cleansing you
From sin, it’s grip, it’s bind
Imagine what life would be
Full of His love, joy and peace
Then live from that vision
Till it becomes reality

Be transformed
By the renewing of your mind
See Jesus fill you
With His Spirit and His life
Imagine what life would be
Full of His love, joy and peace
Then live from that vision
Till it becomes reality

Be transformed
By the renewing of your mind
Imagine living Jesus righteousness
As God’s beloved child
Imagine what life would be
Full of His love, joy and peace
Then live from that vision
Till it becomes reality

Be transformed
By the renewing of your mind
See yourself as Jesus co-heir
His Kingdom find
Imagine what life would be
Full of His love, joy and peace
Then live from that vision
Till it becomes reality

Be transformed
By the renewing of your mind
See others from Jesus perspective
As forgiven and beloved
Imagine what life would be
Full of His love, joy and peace
Then live from that vision
Till it becomes reality

Be transformed
By the renewing of your mind
See this world as Jesus sees it
His Kingdom find
Imagine what this world would be
Full of His love, joy and peace
Then live from that vision
Till it becomes reality

Be transformed
By the renewing of your mind
See all from Jesus perspective
His Kingdom find
Imagine what life would be
Full of His love, joy and peace
Then live from that vision
Till it becomes reality

There Will Be A Day

I can look at my life
Focus on trials and tribulations
See sickness and alike
And problematic situations
But I know Jesus died
So I could live His resurrection
Be God’s beloved child
With all God‘s Kingdom blessings