IMPRISONED

Prov 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue. (NKJV)

Another area where we have put ourselves in bondage is in our use of, ‘self imposed laws’. These are laws that we or others have spoken over us: I must keep my house clean at all times. I must not show my emotions. I must not upset my parents etc etc.

Imposing a law upon ourselves means that when we break it, punishment will follow by means of guilt, shame, fear, condemnation, rejection. Eg: I must keep my house clean at all times; When our house is clean we feel peaceful, happy, fulfilled. But the day comes when the kitchen is untidy, the dogs footprints dirty the floor and the dishes pile up in the sink.

There’s a knock on the door; we remember we’ve invited our next door neighbour for coffee. We invite them in knowing they will see the kitchen. They’ll think we are dirty and disorganised, they’ll tell all the neighbours and they won’t return our invitation. We feel ashamed, guilty and rejected. What has happened? We are experiencing the punishment of breaking our own self imposed law.

On the cross, Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law (this includes self imposed laws). So although the law still stands, it no longer applies to us.Rom 6:14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. Therefore , when we do wrong, fail or fall short, we no longer have to accept the negative emotions of guilt, shame or fear because Jesus has taken that punishment in our place and His blood has cleansed us from all unrighteousness. Rom 8:1 Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus. (AMP)

We can now throw off all the accusations of satan and declare we’ve been set free from the punishment of the law and are now no longer under it’s constraints. We can now speak life to ourselves instead of death. “Thank you Lord that now I am in Christ I am no longer under the law and it’s punishment, therefore I refuse all negative emotions that would seek to imprison me and bring bondage to my life”.

Meditation point: I am no longer under the law, I am under grace. Jesus has set me free from the prison of my own self imposed laws.

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Rom 6:23 The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.   (KJV)

At this time of year we all look forward to giving and receiving gifts;  We would all agree that the greatest gift ever given was when God gave His only Son as a sacrifice for us on the cross at Calvary. God always wants us to imitate Him so I would like to suggest 3 principles to govern our gift giving at this time:

1) God gave His gift with no strings attached. Let us not give with an ulterior motive such as: because we feel we should, to control a person, to curry favour or to show our gift trumps everyone else’s. These kind of motives are all dead works and count for nothing in God’s eyes.

2) God gave His gift to His enemies (you and I) in order to demonstrate His love for us. Is there someone like that in your life that you can demonstrate God’s love to  and reach out with a gift to bridge the divide.

Rom 5:7-8 Finding someone who would die for a godly person is rare. Maybe someone would have the courage to die for a good person. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. This demonstrates God’s love for us. (GWB)

3) God gave His gift to people who were barren and in lack (you and I). Is there someone you know who is in need, who is lacking the essentials of life (food, clothing etc) at this time of year. May I suggest that you pray and ask God for Jesus sake what and who you can give to.

2 Sam 9:1  David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”

‘THE LORD BLESS YOU’

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I would like to express my appreciation to all those who have left comments re my blog. Your words have been very encouraging and helpful. My aim is to present the principles of scripture in the simplest of ways.     Thanks……..  Peter.

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Activate

Activation – To set in motion, make active, to move & do.

O.K. we’ve read, memorised, confessed, meditated & received revelation from God’s word. It’s now time to activate that word, to set it in motion, to do it. The scripture says in Rom 1:17 The just shall live by faith. ( KJV) Therefore  we activate the word by practising it  in our lives beleiving that as we do God will respond to our faith by producing the results of it in our experience.

Remember, God releases faith with revelation so as we act out God’s word there must be an expectation that God will do what His word says. For example: We are  anxious about a situation but scripture says in Phil 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything. (NIV) Therefore as we give that situation to God in prayer,  we leave it with Him and trust Him to resolve it.This releases God to work in that situation and bring it to a successful conclusion. But if we take that prayer back by worrying about it again in our minds, we have stopped God from working.

Faith releases God to answer our prayers. As we see the results of our faith worked out in our lives, it will embolden us to build on that faith by trusting God for more answers to prayer so now we are moving from Faith to faith Rom 1:17  (JKV).  Activating God’s word is to practise it in our lives and develop the muscle of faith.

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