Well, I have had time to think

An incredible thought that can become a reality;

“To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame and have sat down with My Father in His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Rev 3:21-22)

What are we to overcome? I believe we are to overcome the false belief systems of our carnal minds and indeed the world. Many of us are caught in this trap of an internal battle that many of us push onto the Devil, when in fact it’s our inner me that is our enemy. Flesh and blood do not define your true reality! Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus Christ came and shed His blood and had his flesh so disfigured that no man could recognize him. So that is why we are not identified this way; unless of course our minds hold us captive. That’s why I believe we must over come our minds. He came to do away with an identity attached to flesh and blood, or what I like to call an “identity crisis”. After his resurrection they no longer recognized him by his fleshly identity. They recognized him by His voice! His sheep will know His voice and follow!

"Faithful is he that calls you, who also will do it." (I Thes 5:24).

The One who calls you to a life of righteousness is the One who by our consent lives that life of righteousness through you! The One who calls you to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, is the One who by your consent, goes into all the world and preaches the Gospel to every creature through you!

This is the God that saves a man from the futility of self-effort. It relieves the Christian of the burden of trying to pull himself up by his own bootstraps! If it were not for this divine provision, the call to Christ would be a source of utter frustration, presenting the sorry picture of a sincere human, constantly stopped by his own failings. Unfortunately this is how many Christians live today, caught up in the "one day when " syndrome. You know, one day when I stop this or one day when I start this or one day when my life is better"…you get the idea!

If you will trust Christ, not only for the death He died in order to redeem you, but also for the life that He lives and waits to live through you, the very next step you take will be met by God himself, as the One who rewards those who diligently seek Him. You will have begun to live a life which is essentially supernatural yet overflowing with our own personality.

You will have become totally dependent upon the life of Christ within you, and never before will you have been so free, so released from the pressure of your circumstances, so released at last from that ever present mind game of good/bad, always in bondage to the fear of other men's opinions. What a terrible thing that many Christians are so motivated by the fear of man.

“I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

In other words, you can do no more without Him than He could do without the Father. But how much could the Father do through the Son? Everything! ­ He was available to all that the Father made available to Him. We can at times kid ourselves with our "sense of duty and availability". But my heart tells me that God wants willing sacrificial service that in spite of our mind battling against everything spiritual we rise up and offer ourselves wholeheartedly by faith trusting in Him.

“…because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be” (Romans 8:7)

“For it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell.” (Col 1:19)

How much then can Jesus Christ do through you and through me? Everything! He is limited only by the measure of our availability.

Let me encourage you with the fact that God saved you with a purpose in mind, and if He had a purpose, then He had a plan and a procedure to make it happen! All that we can do is trust and obey for there is no other way.

Those are some of my thoughts. Pastor Rob