Today we continue our series “God is faithful!” The Lord led me to 2 Corinthians 4. In this passage, we are looking at what it looks like to believe God is faithful. Because of God’s faithfulness towards us, we can withstand and overcome anything!
(2 Corinthians 4:1, 7-13, 16-18 TPT)
1 Now, it’s because of God’s mercy that we have been entrusted with the privilege of this new covenant ministry. And we will not quit or faint with weariness.
7 We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that this immeasurable power will be seen as God’s, not ours.
8 Though we experience every kind of pressure, we’re not crushed. At times we don’t know what to do, but quitting is not an option.
9 We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us. We may be knocked down, but not out.
10 We continually share in the death of Jesus in our own bodies so that the resurrection life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity.
11 We consider living to mean that we are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that the life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity.
12 So, then, death is at work in us but it releases life in you.
13 We have the same Spirit of faith that is described in the Scriptures when it says, “First I believed, then I spoke in faith.” So we also first believe then speak in faith.
16 So no wonder we don’t give up. For even though our outer person gradually wears out, our inner being is renewed every single day.
17 We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison,
18 because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.
We have also been looking at Ephesians 3. Let’s go back to it again today.
(Ephesians 3:16-20 TPT)
16 And I pray that he would unveil within you the unlimited riches of his glory and favor until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with his divine might and explosive power.
17 Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life.
18–19 Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is his love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!
20 Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. God wants you to accept and embrace His love based on His unearned grace.
I dealt with this point yesterday, and I will add to it today.
— You will never become the man/woman God called you to be until you see yourself as the man/woman ON THE INSIDE first! And you will never see yourself this way until you are convinced God loves you.
— Once you are Born-Again, you are declared righteous because of Jesus. You are not free TO sin, but you are free FROM sin. You are free from the power of sin. Sin is no longer your issue. God is not stumbling over your sin; you are, and you need to stop if you want to walk in God’s best.
— You can’t live your life focused on sin and your performance and be led by the Holy Spirit at the same time. If you allow God’s Spirit to lead you daily, your focus will no longer be sin. Your focus will be the purpose God sent you to this planet to achieve, and you will be too busy walking in your purpose to consume yourself with sin.
— The transformation I am talking about happens on the inside first. You will never prosper in life beyond the level of prosperity you experience in your soul (3 John 2).
— You will never consistently walk in what you do not believe. The life you experience on the earth is a manifestation of what you believe in your heart. This is why God deals with you on the inside, first, so you can change on the outside. But none of this will happen until you are convinced that God loves you.
— God does not just teach us through the book; He teaches us through encounters. In the world, they look to teach only through books and repeating what was taught (rote memorization). The Bible is not looking for you to quote it. The Bible is looking for you to live it and experience it. And this all starts with the love of God.
— Once you open your heart to God’s love and you free yourself from performance-based religion, you are in a position to be used by God to change the world. You will start to see yourself the way God sees you, and once you believe it on the inside, it is only a matter of time before God’s reality (in your heart) manifests itself in your life!
2. For your faith to be strong, it must be rooted and grounded in the reality of God’s love towards you.
Paul said, “the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life.
— God is love. Your faith must be rooted and grounded in God’s love. Love is an inside job. God’s focus is not the outer man. Your outer man is wearing away day by day. God’s focus is the inner man. While your outer man is wearing out, your inner man is being renewed by the Holy Spirit! This is why divine change happens on the inside first.
— Love is something that takes place internally, and we get to express it externally.
— I only love you with true (God’s) love when what I am doing externally is a reflection of what is going on in my heart by the Holy Spirit!
— You won’t comprehend the revelation of God’s goodness in your life until you develop a root of God’s love. Everything in the Kingdom of God is rooted and grounded in God’s love.
— Once the love of God becomes the source and the root of your life, your faith will be strong because the root of your faith will be God Himself. In other words, for your faith to be strong the way God wants it to be strong, it cannot be contingent upon you!
— Your faith must be rooted and grounded in God’s love. This way, your faith will not fail because God will never stop loving you. But if your faith is based on your performance (meaning that if you do something wrong, you think you can no longer believe God because God will not bless you), then your faith will constantly fail because your performance will inevitably waiver!
— If you want to walk in strong and unwavering faith, your faith must be rooted in the reality of God’s unwavering love!
3. It takes a while to wrap your mind and heart around the immeasurable nature of God’s love, but when you do, it will change you forever.
— It takes the Holy Spirit to comprehend what God has in mind for you!
— You will have difficulty receiving God’s best until you know He loves you and that He wants to bless you simply because He is good!
— For you to comprehend things that exceed your ability to think or even imagine, your heart must be rooted and grounded in God’s love.
— This is how it works… Love comes, the root comes, and then revelation comes. Once you are rooted and grounded in love, you will start to receive the revelation of the Holy Spirit concerning God’s best for your life. You will start to see, believe and pursue what He reveals. You will accept it and pursue it, even though you know you are not worthy of it because, by that point, you will be convinced God loves you.
— When you know God loves you with unconditional love, you can embrace the grace and the anointing to pursue and experience what the Holy Spirit reveals.
— If I am rooted and grounded in love God’s, it will be reflected outwardly because it is my reality inwardly.
— The love of Christ surpasses human knowledge. The love of Christ passes your head. The Love of Christ passes this physical world. God says to you, “I want you to know the love I have for you. This love goes beyond anything you can comprehend in your head. The only way for you to know this love is for me to pour it out into your heart by my Spirit” (Romans 5:5).
— When you allow a root of God’s love to form in your heart, you can see yourself the way He sees you! Once you do, it sets the stage for the greatest life you can live. It’s the life God called you to live! It’s the life God planned for you before the world began. But you will never experience this life until you are convinced that God loves you!
*** When you know God loves you, you can withstand and overcome anything!
Declaration of Faith:
Father, this is a season of LEVELING UP for me. I LEVEL UP by resting in Your love. You pour Your love into my heart by the Holy Spirit. I receive Your love. I believe Your love. I am fully persuaded by Your love to believe what You believe about me. You are tripping over my performance. You are not dismayed by my flaws. Therefore, I won’t be either. From now on, I focus my attention on the revelation of the Holy Spirit, and I refuse to factor IN the flaws You chose to factor OUT. You use me despite my performance, not because of it. You choose to use me because You love me. So I enter this day as Your beloved. I am Your favorite. I am the apple of Your eye. I am loved by my God and I know it. This is why I am convinced GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
