Trust and Obey

In my studies this week I decided to go back to the gospel of Luke.

In the first chapter, verse 6 and 7 it says, “Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s eyes, careful to obey all of the Lords commandments and regulations. They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and they were both very old.”

Am I the problem?

When my son was 5 years old I became pregnant, that baby died and I miscarried. It was a struggle to become pregnant again. We really wanted another child. We prayed and our son prayed. I remember sitting in a hospital appointment and the lady addressing my husband, said, “we know you have fathered 2 children and your counts are showing fine so we don’t believe you’re the issue.” In that moment all I could think is, “this means I’m the problem, I’m the reason we can’t have another child. And other things that were said at the time from those around me validated this belief. I was subsequently diagnosed with secondary infertility. I was prescribed Clomid to help me ovulate, but on reading the side effects for myself and any child I should carry I decided against medication. We prayed and sought the Lord over this and keeping the story short, I gave birth to a daughter 5 years later. Anyone that has ever been through this will understand the turmoil and heartache month after month.

It’s not your fault.

So when I read this passage at the beginning of Luke, it said Elizabeth was righteous in Gods eyes, but she was unable to conceive. I believe that not everything we are going through in life is because we are in sin. We only need to look at Job to understand this. There may be cases where sins we partake in allow the devil a foothold in our lives. I believe we can hinder the power of God to move in our lives because we don’t fully accept the forgiveness God freely gives us when we accept Jesus into our lives. We believe we are at fault or deserve what we are going through. Life’s circumstances may validate these feelings you have about yourself. I want you to know that just because there may be storms in your life right now, don’t believe that they are your fault or that you deserve them at all. Choose to believe over all circumstances the truth that God has forgiven all your sins and chooses never to remember them again. Believe that by the blood of Jesus you are worthy to receive all the blessings and healing and prosperity that is yours once you step into the Kingdom of God.

 So let’s take a look at what becomes yours once you have accepted Jesus into heart and made a decision that he will be Lord of your life. Before we get into that I just want to say that even though all of these things belong to us and are ours now, it is up to us to believe them, receive them and walk them out in daily life.

Obedience is key.

All the things that God gives to us freely and wants for us have all been with restoration in mind. Everything has been working towards restoring what we had in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and gave in to temptation. This is evidence that the rules that God gives us, the advice, promptings of the Holy Spirit in our lives, they’re there to protect us. They are there so that we don’t allow the devil a foothold into our lives. But it is up to us to be obedient to those promptings and that advice.

There are so many promises of God for your life that are way too numerous to list here. What I will say is that as a Child of God, when you’re reading the bible and you see a promise of God there – that’s for you personally. Believe that as you read it and receive that promise over your life.

Everything you need.

To understand who you are in Christ you need to grasp what he says about you. To understand that you are completely a new creation. That all the things of your past, whatever they be, have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus, you are completely forgiven. Psalms 103:12 says that God has moved your sins as far away from you as east is as west. Your sins are at the opposite end of the earth to you and will never again catch you up. Various places through the bible. Isaiah 43:25, Hebrews 10:14-18, 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Romans 8:31-39 talk about how God chooses to never remember your sins again, that you are completely forgiven. If you feel weighed down by the pressure of past sins, that you are constantly reminded of what you have done in the past or that how could God accept you as you are. Know that those thoughts and feelings are not the truth. Rebuke the enemy’s voice in your lives and accept into your heart how forgiven and loved you are. This can be a constant daily thing. It is choosing to believe the truth above what you may feel in that given moment. It’s praying, God I really am not feeling this right now, but I am trusting that your Word and your truth is more powerful than anything the enemy can throw at me and I choose to believe you.

You are Loved.

You are Chosen

You are Forgiven.

You are Redeemed.

You are Adopted.

Matthew 17:20 talks about how faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains. That nothing would be impossible. Do you know how small a mustard seed is? It’s 2 millimetres at most. It’s not the size of faith, it’s whether there is any doubt present. See doubt pulls in the opposite direction of faith. Faith is moving you towards the promises of God and doubt will pull you in the opposite direction so much that you just can’t move either way. If you can choose faith and not doubt, believing that the mountain is going to move as you pray, it will move.

 Going back to Luke 1 for a minute. The Angel Gabriel revealed to Zechariah that God was to give him and his wife Elizabeth a son and gave many promises of how that child would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before birth. Zechariah asked, “How can I be sure this will happen?” Zechariah doubted that this would happen, and so the angel (who can do nothing apart from what God ordains him to do) silenced Zechariah and told him he would be silent and unable to speak until the child is born.

Why would God silence Zechariah until his child had been born? Because the words you speak are powerful and God knew that if Zechariah spoke the doubt that he felt in his heart it could remove the promise from coming to pass. What we speak in faith happens. So when we are talking about ourselves or other people or our situation, it is so important to declare the truth of Gods Word and what he says over those things. It could be that God has ordained great blessings for you and amazing things, yet it is your own tongue that is preventing those things from coming to pass by the way you speak. Proverbs 18:21 states that the tongue can bring life or death. Choose your words wisely – especially those you speak over yourself.

Our identity in Christ when we accept Him into our hearts is not just about, I know I’m going to go to Heaven now. I don’t have to worry about my eternity when I die. And although that’s true, it’s also true that Heaven starts now. God exchanges our spirit of death with a spirit of life when we accept Jesus. We have the Holy Spirit to come live on the inside of us in our spirit man. That’s the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives on the inside of you right now. You don’t have to ask Holy Spirit to come down, he’s already here. You don’t have to beg God to please heal you, he already healed you. What you need to do is learn how to declare that over your life by the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus. It’s all a free gift to you because God loves you so much. He wants the best for you which is to live in divine health, be prosperous which is blessed to be a blessing and live your live according to God’s purpose and plan for your life – which will be revealed to you as you seek him. The Word says he will give us the desires of your hearts. So if you are seeking God and putting him first in your life, the desires that you feel have been placed there by God to begin with, he’s already supporting you, he’s already gone before you to prepare a place for you to move in the anointing he’s given you. All he needs is for you to believe, trust and obey.