Forever Grace

"Love before we were, He knew us and loved us."

CREATION BECAME REDEMPTION. Across ages of time, and generations of people, God worked a perfect plan that not only came into being but includes all of us. Hebrews 12:1 says we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. All those who have gone before us and walked by faith, names we have read about, who trusted God for their success and victory, now cheer us on from heaven.

The greatest name is Jesus Christ. Facing the cross, the sum total of God’s plan for Him, He saw not His immediate death, He heard not the mocking and jeers, but our praises, our worship in the future. Long before we were, He knew us and loved us.

READ “Forever Forgiveness.”
https://sdwauthor.blogspot.com/2024/03/forever-forgiveness.html

Facing the Sadducees, a Jewish sect that did not believe in the Resurrection, He made a statement in this regard. They had given Him a suppose-this-happened story to trap Him with His words, but He knew their wicked desire and spoke to their misbeliefs. “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not dead but living in heaven, made righteous through their belief in God’s covenant, that was His words. The Sadducees didn’t understand this. To them, dead was dead.

However, the physical body will die one day, but the spirit of man will live, either in eternal life, in God’s life, or in eternity of death. What is unseen is more powerful than what is seen. To believe in a kingdom not made with hands, and a God who rules over all of everything, seems ludicrous until salvation and the Spirit of God enters the heart.

Man is a spirit, with a soul (mind, will, and emotions), who lives in a physical body. The physical body makes us human, and this is why Jesus had to be born and die to fulfill the Old Covenant. Animals have no spirit, so their sacrifice could only atone for a brief time. By laying His life down, He redeemed man forever. He was not a sinner, but through the Spirit, as Christ, His physical death had a spiritual result.

Pilate asked Him if He was King and His answer was incomprehensible to him. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36).” We are born again into a spiritual kingdom, one with God as Father and Jesus as Savior and King of Kings. The Spirit of God leads us through this physical life with spiritual principles. We aren’t reliant on ourselves anymore. We can’t cure ourselves nor make ourselves wise. We speak to God in the spirit, the Holy Spirit is our communication, and we worship God in the spirit (John 4:24).

“Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? I encourage you to surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship.” (Romans 12:1 TPT)

We are to become living sacrifices. What does this mean? We are alive unto God, our spirits made new with His life, and we are alive in the flesh, in our bodies. But our bodies and our minds do not make our choices now. We choose to do what God asks of us and set aside our self-will and selfishness to become spiritually mature. Our spirit life requires spiritual growth which will only come through time spent in the Word, learning its truth, and time spent in prayer and worship. We can only know intimately what we choose to give everything to. Our spiritual life is a lifestyle, not simply something extracurricular, done on the side.

Forgiveness is forever. God knows the man He created. He knows our thought processes. He designed them. He knows how the enemy works to deceive and draw us away from Him. He was not above becoming human to rescue us and extends to us His great mercy. Jesus’ name gives us authority over the devil and the Holy Spirit gives us the power to overcome him. He is a defeated foe. Within us now is all the wisdom and understanding we need for any situation we face. With us day-to-day is the Spirit of God who resurrected Jesus from the dead. We can trust Him 100% to heal our minds and bodies from any trauma, sickness, or disease.

This is God’s heart for us. He so loved the world enough to send His Son to die for us and give us all that He is for eternity. As Minister Bill Johnson says, “Eternity begins today.” Heaven is ours, after we die, and how beautiful that is, to be forever with God. But eternal life, quality of life, starts the minute we are saved. And how grateful we are, that despite our worst and no matter how many times we falter, our good and loving God pours out His best over us, forever full of grace.

“Settle their minds so fully and completely into the truth that nothing can ever move them from it—your word is truth.” (John 17:17, Remedy)

“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

Image by Rosy / Bad Homburg / Germany from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com