He was wounded and crushed because of our sins; by taking our punishment He made us completely whole. ~Isaiah 53:5 (CEV)
Are you completely whole? I don’t know many people who would say they were. And truth be told, I wouldn’t have in the past, before I knew how important my confession of faith was to my victory in this life. If God said it, we must believe it and settle it in our hearts forever. If you do not believe you are completely whole. You need to look at this scripture until you do and figure out how to bridge the truth from your head to your heart. We start by determining whether we believe that Jesus suffered and died for our sins, paying the penalty for all our sin: past, present, and future. I mean you have to believe it with your whole heart because there is no room for doubt regarding this foundational truth. So many people give mental ascent to the fact that Jesus died on the cross for their sins, but that truth hasn’t moved from their head to their heart to be established. This is true for all of God’s word. Do we believe it, or do we just think we believe it? And how do we determine the difference? It’s not as difficult as one might think because all truth is available to us for every question that we might have, and the answers are revealed by God’s Holy Spirit to our hearts.
It has always been interesting to me that it was important to God to let some people know that their sins were forgiven before they received their healings from Him. After reading the accounts it’s very clear that many people have an issue with sin consciousness. They just tend to be more aware of where they “miss the mark” than they are aware of their position in Christ. We can be excellent students of the word, memorizing scripture and picking through our key word search to find the right verse for the right time, but where is our heart in all of this? Are we consciously asking Jesus to reveal His truth to us through intimate fellowship. Are we sitting at His feet for however long it takes to get direction for ourselves and others? The early church didn’t have Google. They didn’t have cell phones and they didn’t have the internet. They had the Old Testament and the Holy Spirit, and that was enough! They were writing down the words of Jesus and sending out letters to the churches that were emerging from the gospel being preached. All of those so called “amenities” we have today can be a great addition to our time with the Lord, but they are also capable of being distractions from it as well. In Psalm 46:10 we read “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (NIV) When was the last time you were still and reflected on what God’s presence really means to you? What would your devotion times look like if it was just you and the Lord? No outside influences and possible distractions? Quiet your soul and let that sink in for just a minute. Then ask Him to show you where you are more conscious of what you are getting wrong than what He has made right for you. Speak to yourself. Declare with your mouth what He puts on your heart. Remind yourself of His promises. Your healing: spirit, soul, and body, depends on your understanding that you have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus and restored to a right relationship with your Holy Father. The salvation you have received was not a one-time occurrence, it was a precursor to the greatest relationship you will ever have! The power that raised Jesus lives on the inside of you and me. We are called to overcome, everything, through our faith in what has been accomplished on our behalf, by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You have to believe it to receive it, and we don’t believe with our heads. We believe with our hearts.
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ~Romans 10:9 (NIV)
What would your devotion times look like if it was just you and the Lord and no outside influences?
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