He has not only reconciled us to God but created a new spirit in us where the Holy Spirit can live. Our spirit has been made whole and when God sees us He sees Christ in us.
Do we know who we as saved believers? If not how can we get to know who we are in Him? We all know how we look physically having spent a lot of time looking at our reflections in mirrors. Who has not looked into a mirror today? The Scriptures however tell us that we are spiritual beings who posses a soul and live in a body. To know who we really are means we have to take a look at our spirit. It is impossible to see our spiritual nature from our physical perspective.
God desires that we manifest the full stature of the man or woman He has chosen us to be. As believers our spirits have been renewed and made whole. However, we were used to doing a lot of things that were contrary to the Word of God before our salvation and these habits do not just go away. We still rely on the flesh although we have been spiritually renewed.
These habits have resulted in a mindset that acts contrary to the spirit of God. The only way to overcome the flesh is to renew our minds. We renew our minds by believing and depending on the Word of God. As we study, understand and apply the Word of God it will lead to a renewal of our minds and to total trust and obedience in the Word of God. When our minds are renewed the effects will be evident in our lives. It is only then that we will be able to physically manifest the life of Christ in our lives.
We will love as Christ loved us and become a blessing to those around us as we share with them their need for salvation. Our Lord Jesus Christ was perfect in every area of His being and demonstrated His perfect love for us by meeting our greatest need — our need for forgiveness. To do this Jesus had to pay a great price. It took the cross to reconcile us to God for us to experience peace with God and the peace of God.
Jesus, who says that he loved us as his heavenly Father loved him, loved us more than his own life. Our response to such love is to remain in His love and love as He has loved us. Angela Hibbard. We are in desperate need of rejuvenation of mind, body, and most importantly spirit. I am called and most of my preaching will be controversial, this is only because it's true. I may not get to meet any of them, but I can share the comfort of God with them through intercession.
What a privilege! What an honour! What an awesome blessing! But to whom do I owe this empathising ability? I can only give as I am graciously given by the Holy Spirit. He is still with me and is still consoling, comforting and strengthening me. Confidence as a chosen vessel is in the context of provision, and also in the context of authority. When you know that God is the One who called and sent you, there is a trust that God will provide.
This is a trust you display in spite of what you see in front of you. There may even be times when it is our obedience to the will of God that takes us from a physical state of plenty: Paul declared that he had experienced hunger and thirst in 2 Corinthians Elijah declared a famine in Israel and guess what? It affected him too! But God commanded ravens and a widow to feed him. Know this: you may not have the overflow you would like to have or even once had, and all because you have stepped out in obedience to the call of God on your life.
Then, we became tenants for three years. We had to pay rent, utilities, and buy groceries for the whole family. It was sometimes a bit precarious, and we had some rough patches where our utilities were cut off for a while, but faithfully, God kept on providing. Our children were never forsaken. When you move in the direction and will of God, rest assured there will be provision. You will be sustained! Another level to being confident is in facing the dragon and his angels mentioned in Revelation It is a confidence in war.
The sons of Sceva Acts took something on themselves. God had not given it to them. So, when faced with a particularly stubborn demon, they were overcome. As we go forward in ministry, we must know that we did not choose ourselves. As Paul was busy going about his own affairs, even so many of us were minding our own business when God stepped in with His call.
You may sometimes see this in a negative light, but this is what gives you power to stand in the face of the enemy. You may sometimes feel like God imposed Himself on you and now has you suffering for it.
But rejoice about it, because that is the source of your authority. When we go out by ourselves, we go limited in power and authority because we bear witness of our limited selves. But when a chosen vessel steps out, he or she goes not in his or her name, but in the name of the One who came and interrupted that life for His purpose. Many of you never asked for ministry. As chosen vessels we did not take this on ourselves; it was God who called, chose, processed and sent us. As being called by God brings authority over the Devil, so ongoing submission to God and His will help to maintain that authority.
I know God wanted me to marry, and to marry a pastor, and to specifically marry my husband. That makes me confident to contend with the enemy for my marriage and family when the Devil tries to enter.
But I also have an ongoing responsibility to daily honour God in my marriage and family—loving, submitting to, supporting and reverencing my husband; loving my children and teaching them to fear God. What do these activities have to do with waging war against the kingdom of darkness? As chosen vessels of God, we can never take a break from surrendering to the call or the cost of the call.
We should never assume that we have yielded once and for all. As new challenges arise, we can be confident of victory when we are continuing to position ourselves in the will of God. I dare not give you the impression that this is easy. Daily submission to both God and my husband takes daily death to self. But when we face a principality in prayer, we can rejoice when we look back at the painful tests we have passed.
Rather, it is bearing a limp from a wounded hip, so we can have power with God Genesis It is therefore something to be surrendered to, rather than to be resisted.
And so the whole world is the Great Potter's field, and Christ's "chosen vessels" were all at first of the earth, earthy. The apostle tells us that he was the chief of sinners, and that he owes all to the grace of God. What hope for all! Splendid vessels are now made from mere rubbish, broken glass, and old bones, and so the Divine Potter's art can triumph over the rudeness of the most unpromising materials.
That beautiful cup is not self-made. The potter took the clay, tempered, moulded, baked, painted, and fired it, and then put his mark upon it. And Christians "are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. Hill, "you look very like my bungling work.
In making chosen vessels, the potter attends to the chief parts of the work himself; for all depends on the skill of the workman. With his own hand he mixes the materials, and trims the fire. The potter must also have complete power over the clay, and travellers in the East notice how thoroughly it is in his hands.
Many vessels are made partly of flint or granite, but these rocks have first been ground into the softest powder. And Christ's chosen vessels are all fashioned in contrite hearts. Contrite means rubbed together and made soft, exactly as stones are ground into the softest clay in our potteries.
And youth is the yielding and moulding time in life. The world has a strange power of hardening the soul into an unbending frame. None of Christ's vessels are for ornament only, they are all "meet for the Master's use. Such a vessel was the apostle. Christ's name was the water for the thirsty and balm for the wounded, and Paul was the vessel in which that heavenly treasure was carried round and offered to all.
But the humblest vessel has its use. A poor broken cup may hold the water that saves the life of a dying man, and the humblest Christian may carry Christ's name to a perishing sinner.
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