dickbraswell

Word for Today:  December 14

Believe.

• If you can believe, all things will be possible for you and nothing will ever be impossible to you.
• If you can believe, you can move into the realm of the miraculous.
• If you can believe you can change your life, your situation, your circumstances and your destiny.

Believing is the key to the impossible.  Believing is the secret to success.  Believing is the way into heaven.  Believing is the way man connects with God.  Jesus said that if we can believe all things will be possible to us (Mark 9:23).

The Bible says that if without Believing it is impossible to please God.   Believing is the way to please God and the way to tap into the supernatural power of God.  Believing is the most powerful force on earth.

Your believing can change things around you and make them line up with your will and the will of God.  Nothing you can do as a Christian is more important than Believing.

Believing can change our nation.  Believing can produce miracles.  Believing can bring God into your situation and solve all your problems.  Believing is life-changing.

Believing changes death into LIFE

Word for Today:  December 13

Worship God.

Come before His Presence.  Stand in Awe of His Glory and His Goodness and His Power.  Be still.  Listen.  Wait.  Be quiet.  Weep.  Tremble.  Fall on your face.  Bow down.  Kneel. Worship God.  Get lost in God.  Get “caught up” in God.  Stand before Him.

When the Glory filled the temple in the Old Testament the priests could not minister so powerful was the Presence of God.  On the Day of Pentecost in Acts, the saints who were filled with God staggered as drunk men and spoke in unlearned languages.

All around them people knew that something supernatural had taken place.  Some were amazed.  Some were confounded.  Some marveled.  All were moved by the awesome Presence of God… They Worshipped and God responded.

I walked into a convention center filled with over 1000 people 40 years ago and was met by an overwhelming Presence of the Holy Spirit.  Those present were mesmerized in True Worship.  They were singing in the Spirit.  They were praying in the Spirit.  Some were standing with uplifted hands, others were kneeling…. They were weeping and rejoicing and dancing and many were prostrate on the floor laying at the feet of their Glorious God.

They were as one and they all were literally “drunk with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2).  It was the most moving and emotional meeting I had ever experienced in my entire life.  It was at that moment God let me know I could have More of Him than I had ever received.

This revelation came in the atmosphere of True Worship.  I remember rushing to the altar for prayer.  I remember a saintly Episcopalian Rector who laid hands on me and gently prayed for me.  I was literally flooded with the awesome and Real Presence of the Holy Spirit… and my life (and ministry) was forever changed.

God-Life has it birth in the Womb of Worship

Word for Today:  December 12

Regeneration.

Regeneration is the God-ward side of Salvation.  In Regeneration, the dead human spirit is Quickened and brought to life by the Spirit of God and man is restored and made righteous.

The genetic signature of your spirit is “re-gened” with the identical genetic structure of God Himself.

Notice:

• The New Creation is redeemed from the curse and penalty of sin.
• The New Creation is made Righteous. The New Creation is restored to favor with God (Reconciled).
• The New Creation becomes an Heir of God and Joint Heir with Christ.
• The New Creation is provided Power to live in victory.
• The New Creation has access to all God’s Provisions:
• The New Creation Overcomes the World. I John 5:4

And as a result, the New Creation man will love:

• The Brethren: And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. 1 John 4:21

• God: By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 1 John 5:2  

• God’s Word: O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.119:97  

• The Church: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;  5:25  

• His enemies: But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;   5:44  

• The Lost: For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:   5:14  

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  2Co 5:17

Word for Today:  December 11

Spirit, Soul, Body

Spirit

When you became Born Again the King of kings and the Lord of lords Recreated your human spirit and gave it power to rule and reign with Jesus through the power of His Righteous Nature.

The new birth experience is compared to the Old Testament rite of circumcision.

For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit…  Romans 2:28-29

Just as there is a cutting away of the flesh in physical circumcision, there is a cutting away of the flesh in the Circumcision of the heart.  The sword of the Word cuts away and removes forever the sin nature in us and we are made righteous.  We do not have two natures… we have one nature… and that nature is the Nature of Christ.

But he that is JOINED unto the LORD is ONE SPIRIT… I Cor 6:17

Soul

Just as spirit was dead to God before the New Birth so was our mind darkened and blinded because of sin.  It was bound and limited to operate by reason, emotion and sense knowledge.

As our spirit was Quickened (made alive) and joined to the Lord, our soul (mind, will and emotions) was also joined to Jesus.  As our Spirit took on the image of Jesus Christ our mind (soul) became the mind of Christ capable of thinking God thoughts and storing up Word Truth.

For who hath known the mind of the LORD that He may instruct him?  But we have the MIND of CHRIST…  I Cor 2:16

Body

Our unsaved physical body also functioned in slavery, darkness and bondage to sin.  Its appetites and desires were unchecked and undisciplined.  It was subject to satan’s dominion and destined to die.

But now we are:

Members of His Body, of His Flesh, and of His Bones…  Eph 5:30

Our physical body has become the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which (who) is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s… I Cor 6:19-20

Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?  I Cor 3:16

We are a New Creation

Word for Today:  December 10

The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth… John 1:14.

He is more than a HELPLESS BABY wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

He is more than a once-a-year Christmas celebration.

He is more than a mere Carpenter’s Son.

He is more than an itinerant wandering Preacher.

The world saw Him (and still does) as a religious radical.  A revolutionary fanatic.  A miss-guided dreamer.  A disillusioned Jew and a false messiah.

Religion sees Him as a handy Crutch to lean on.  A “last minute” and last resort for panic and pain.  A “security blanket” to embrace when times are tough.

He is greater than Adam.  He is greater than Abraham.  He is greater than Moses.  He is greater than the angels.  He is greater than the prophets.  He is greater than the apostles. He is the Epitome of Perfection.  He is GOD.

• He is the BREAD of LIFE
• He is the LIGHT of the WORLD
• He is the DOOR into the FOLD
• He is the GOOD SHEPHERD
• He is the PRINCE of PEACE
• He is the MIGHTY GOD
• He is the EVERLASTING FATHER
• He is the ROSE of SHARON
• He is the BRIGHT  and MORNING STAR
• He is the LILY of the VALLEY
• He is the RESURRECTION and the LIFE
• He is the TRUE VINE
• He is the INTERCESSOR and ADVOCATE
• He is the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE
• He is the ALPHA and the OMEGA
• He is the GREAT I AM
• He is KING of kings and LORD of lords

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.   Isa 9:6

THANK GOD for JESUS

Word for Today:  December  9

There is something better on the way.

A woman diagnosed with a terminal illness called on her pastor to plan her funeral.  She had some ideas about what she hoped would happen, but she was insistent about one thing:  “I want to be buried with a fork in my hand.”

Her incredulous pastor demanded an explanation.  “Oh, it’s quite simple,” the woman said.  “In all my years of attending church socials and potlucks, I always remember that, when they clear the dishes, someone will say, ‘keep your fork.’  It’s my favorite part, because I know something better is coming.  So I want people to see me there in that coffin with a fork in my hand and know her best is yet to come.”

Present suffering, pain, heartache, rejection is NOTHING compared with the “glory which shall be revealed in us…”

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Rom. 8:18

Keep your fork

Word for Today:  December 11

Jesus came to reveal the Nature of God.

He came from Heaven to show us what God is like.  He came to earth to answer the question:  “What is God like?”  And He is the Perfect Revelation of God.  Jesus “condescended” and “made Himself of no reputation…” to reveal to you and me and all creation Who God is and What God is like.

The Incarnation of Christ is the greatest miracle of all time.

All the world can now know God and God’s Person, Nature and Character.

Jesus perfectly and completely reveals the Nature of our Father God.  He said:

 “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father…”

Jesus condescended to this earth and “made Himself of no reputation”   He “laid down” and literally “left in heaven”:

• His equality with God
• The Glory He shared with the Father in Heaven
• His Authority in Heaven
• His Divine attributes and outward powers

He “Emptied Himself” order to reveal the Nature and Character of God.  Jesus is the Perfect Revelation of God.

Philippians 2

6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery  (something to be grasped at)  to be equal with God:

7 But made himself of no reputation, (emptied Himself) and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Jesus came to earth and put a Face on God

Word for Today:  December 7

Jesus breaks the shackles of dead religion.

In spite of the horror of a world without God, Religion flourished.  Religion does not need God to flourish.  Most religion is without God anyway.  It is true today and it was true 2000 years ago.

In the Inter-biblical Period, (the time between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament) the Judiastic system continued on its path of rule and regulation and legalism.

Jesus makes us free.

• Free from dead religion, man’s traditions and flawed denominational customs.
• Free from laws and rules and regulations.
• Free from bondage to carnal deacons, elders, ungodly church leaders and unscriptural church government.

Jesus said that we would and could know the Truth (the Gospel) and the Truth would make us free.   John 8:32

The Jews in Jesus’ day lived in total subjection to:

• The Law of Moses
• The sayings of the Prophets and
• The Writings that had been handed down from generation to generation.

There were 613 separate laws, commandments, rules and regulations that every Jew was required to obey and keep.   Every day.   That is why Jesus said of the Scribes and Pharisees:

“They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men’s shoulders: but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers…”  Matt. 23:4

Jesus came from heaven to earth to break the shackles of dead religion.

• Religion builds walls. Jesus builds bridges.
• Religion separates. Jesus joins together.
• Religion kills.

Jesus gives Life

Word for Today:  December 9

The Heart of Scripture.

The heart of revealed Scripture is prophetic and messianic in nature.  God promised our deliverance from sin’s control and dominion in the first Book of the Bible.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Gen. 3:15  

The moment Adam sinned, God immediately set in motion a Plan to redeem His Dream.  Here God promises to do Something to bruise the head of satan.

The “It” that will bruise satan’s head is the seed of a woman.  That Seed is Jesus.  The bruise that satan renders to the Seed of woman is the Crucifixion of Jesus.

Here in the very beginning of the written Word, God accurately prophesies that Jesus will come to earth and do something about the devil.

It will take God’s immeasurable Grace and the Obedience of His Immaculate Son…

It will take a Calvary and a Cross

Word for Today:  December 5

The Real Jesus

I have tried to notice some characteristics in His Life that probably would not be accepted in the life of any preacher in our society today.  He is not who most people think He is.  He was not what most people think He was.

• He was Radical.
• He was outspoken. He pulled no punches.  He shot straight and true.  He did not “beat around the bush.”
• He was transparent. Who you saw was Who He was.  No pretense.  No hypocrisy.  No make-believe.  No disguise.
• He was non- religious. Did not run with the ministerial crowd.
• He was fearless.   He did not mince His words.  He did right with no fear of possible consequences.
• He was an iconoclast. A Non-conformist.  He kicked over sacred cows.
• He violated traditions and He shattered customs.
• To the religious world He was a troublemaker.
• He was controversial.
• He took sides with the underdog and challenged the respected.
• He was a friend to the sinner and the profane.
• He embraced the simple and rejected the complicated. He spoke so little children could understand and confounded the wise with Wisdom and Truth.
• He was Uncompromising. Even when He could have won friends in high places and ultimately saved His own life, He refused to compromise.
• He was Anointed. And this is what drove Him to the Cross…

He is The Anointed One.  The Messiah.  The Christ.