Want to Live a “Greater Life”?

Receiving Is An Action Word…

The Bible is filled to the absolute brim with thousands of promises that God meant for us to take as our own. I’ve heard it said that there are 7,147 promises from God to man in the Bible. That means that you could read a new promise from God to you daily for the next 19.5 years before you’d start reading them for a second time!

Let me say that again. For the next nearly 20 years of your life…every single day…you could read a new promise from God to you! 😲😲😲

I don’t know about you but when someone promises me something good if I will just take it from them…something that I KNOW I’m going to love…something that will improve my life and make it better…I’m going to make sure I get it from them…even if I have to race against others to get there first!

I’m so glad that with God’s promises there’s always enough supply to go around! We don’t have to fight others to receive our share. God has enough power in each one of His promises for every living soul to receive a blessing through them!

Here’s one of His promises that I bet you’ve read many times…but never really stopped to meditate on it or pay close attention to the words…

So many times we just spiritualize the promise right out of God’s Promises!

Romans 8:11…

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

According to Strong’s Concordance Give life—means to cause to live, make alive, by spiritual power to arouse and invigorate, to restore to life, to give increase of life…physical life; endued with new and greater powers of life.

Mortal—liable to death, our human body Body—the body both of men or animals, the physical body

When we have the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead living in us…that Spirit will endue our physical, and very mortal, body with new and greater powers of life.

Don’t those 2 words: New and Greater just catch at your heart? They are bigger than our minds are thinking about when we read this verse.

New = not existing before, discovered recently or now for the first time Greater = an adjective that describes the noun “power”; ability, quality, or eminence; amount or intensity considerably above the normal or average.

God never does anything in a minimum or skimpy fashion! Just a take a look at the beauty and variety of nature, the vastness of the universe, the intricacies of the human body!

God is not human and flawed like we are! Everything He does is “abundant, super abundant, full and overflowing, over and above, exceedingly abundantly”!

Even in this…quickening and giving life to our mortal bodies—we are not only given life—we are given an amount or intensity of life that is considerably above the “normal” or “average” quality of life!

Think of it “if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,” that same Spirit “who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

We are promised that God WILL…not might, not maybe…but WILL give us new and greater powers of life than we’ve ever had before! Wow!😲

Look at what Jesus also said about greater power in John 14:12…

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.

Notice, that again here, God says we WILL do…not might…not maybe…but WILL! We’ll be given an abundantly alive body that is able to do “greater works” than Jesus did… because He went to the Father and sent back His Holy Spirit to live in us!

Reading these verses made me realize that we have such limited and small minds. We think small—even when we think we’re thinking big—we’re still thinking small compared to God!

When we think of something being renewed—we think of it being brought back to “like new” condition. But our God is not the God of halfway, just enough, or “like new”! He’s the God of “more than enough” “exceedingly great” “super abundant” “exceedingly abundantly” and “immeasurably more”!

He freely gives us W-A-Y B-E-T-T-E-R than new!

Ephesians 3:20

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,

Exceedingly—over, beyond, more than, very highly, extremely Abundantly—plentifully, very highly, in large quantities Above—over, beyond, more than, very highly

The Holy Spirit wasn’t content to just say it once…He said the same thing three different ways…and when He does that it means we are supposed to take note and KNOW that He means what He’s saying! He’s emphasizing it just in case we missed it the first time or two.

The Holy Spirit is repeating Himself so that we don’t overlook this very important and life-giving FACT!

God, through His Holy Spirit has said that He WILL give us new and greater powers of life than we’ve ever had before! It’s a done deal. It’s already been done and completed in God’s eyes.

All that needs to be done now…is for us to receive these new and greater powers of life, to believe God’s promise, receive it as our own, and walk in it!

If God says we have it—then we have it! If God said it—then it is!

Selah—pause and think about that for a bit! Seriously! Stop right now and think about this… ponder it, roll it over and over in your mind till you get a revelation of what this means for you!

If meditating on the incredible, exceedingly great, superabundant, and immeasurably more… life that God has ready and waiting for you to receive it…doesn’t bring joy and excitement to your heart… then I would strongly suggest you check your pulse and call 9-1-1! 😉

Be a good Berean (Acts 17:11) and search the scriptures for yourself…with your concordance…to see if this is True or not!

What have you got to lose…and just think…how much could you gain?

Understanding your Spirit, Soul, and Body

May your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus.I Thessalonians 5:23

Have you ever struggled with understanding how your Spirit, Soul, and Body work together? If you’re like me…you might not have given it any thought till someone brought up the topic.

Maybe you’ve wondered what role the spirit and soul play in your life? Maybe you’ve been wondering about what that “spirit” part of you is…or what it does?

If you’ve been curious about how it all works together to create “you”…wonder no longer!

Here’s the best, most informative explanation I’ve ever heard. It cleared up a lot of questions I didn’t even know I had!

Spirit, Soul & Body by Andrew Wommack

Here’s a Cheque You Can Take to the Bank!

Today I wanted to share with you an example of how I meditate…using some verses from God’s Word. I’m still learning and experimenting in this area…so it won’t be perfect…never will be actually!

If you’re anything like me you like to see examples so you have some sense of where you’re going…so I thought I’d share mine from today.

As I was reading this morning certain verses kind of jumped out at me…so I took a screenshot of each of them and then typed them out in my journal on my computer so I could see them all together and see what picture they painted.

Here’s what I wrote down—you can follow along with my thought process as I waited before the Holy Spirit to show me what point He was trying to make.

Proverbs 31:

20—She extends her hand to the poor, Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.

26—She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness.

27—She watches over the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

30b—a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.

31—Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates.

Psalms 1:

1a—Blessed is the man who walk not in the counsel of the ungodly…

2—But his delight is in the law of the LORD and in His law he meditates day and night.

3—He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth it’s fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.

Proverbs 31 & Psalms 1 are like the male and female version of the same thing—those with ears to hear…with a God-listening, God-honoring heart…prosper and receive praise. They don’t shy away from work and have learned to discern the difference between good and evil… Their heart is to Love and Serve others just as Jesus did when He walked the earth!

In my eyes Psalms 1 and Proverbs 31 echo each other and fill each other out… it doesn’t matter whether the pronoun is he or she…they fit together and create 2 sides of the same coin!

The man or woman who doesn’t walk in ungodly counsel but rather delights in and meditates day and night on God’s Word…will be like a lush, fruitful, and bountiful tree that is planted and rooted deeply into the Source. This tree continues to produce a prolific amount of fruit…each in its own season.

Fruits of Wisdom, kindness, and provision for the spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally poor and needy…s/he continually provides for the needs of those around her/him…directly from the Source—the River of Living Water—Jesus Himself.

John 7:38—He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

This Living Water brings life, healing, and health to all the parts—spirit, body, and soul—the mind, will, and emotions.

I want to pause and meditate and think on this last verse for a moment…because there’s a promise here that I can take and make my own. He who believes in Me… well that’s me! I believe in Jesus with all my heart!

As the Scripture has said… and if the Scripture says it, it is a FACT. We can take that to the bank and cash it!

The King James Version says out of his belly will flow… Belly = the innermost part of a man, the soul, heart as the seat of thought, feeling, choice.

Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water… this doesn’t say that it might flow…but that it will flow! And that’s not just a trickle either. Look at how Strong’s Concordance defines “flow”…the Greek word “potamos” …a torrent, floods, freshet—the flood of a river from heavy rain or melted snow.

This isn’t just a trickle of water…this is a raging river of “living water” = having vital power in itself and exerting it upon the soul, to be in full vigor, strong, fresh, efficient, efficacious, powerful, to live.

When you take this verse… John 7:38—”He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” …and put it alongside the other verses I shared from Psalm 1 and Proverbs 31 you get a wonderful picture.

The man or woman who delights in and meditates day and night on God’s Word…will be like a lush, fruitful, and bountiful tree that is planted and rooted deeply into the Source …the Living Water! This bounty-filled tree continues to produce a prolific amount…a flood of fruit…each in its own season.

Fruits of Wisdom, kindness, and provision for the spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally poor and needy…s/he continually provides for the needs of those around her/him…directly from the Source—the River of Living Water—Jesus Himself.

Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water… this doesn’t say that it might flow…but that it will flow! And that’s not just a trickle either. Look at how Strong’s Concordance defines “flow” …the Greek word “potamos” = a torrent, floods, freshet—the flood of a river from heavy rain or melted snow.

This isn’t just a trickle of water…this is a raging river of “living water” = having vital power in itself and exerting it upon the soul, to be in full vigor, strong, fresh, efficient, efficacious, powerful, to live.

This creates an amazing picture! And then add in this verse from Isaiah 55:11 and you have a Word of tremendous POWER!

So shall My Word be that goes out from My mouth; it will not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

W-O-W! That is so powerful!

God said that His Word will accomplish and will prosper in the thing for which He sent it! Here is a cheque…written by God’s Own Hand, that we can take to the bank and cash. This is currency!

When we delight in and meditate on God’s Word day and night out of our heart will flow torrents of Jesus’ Living Water! And it brings life, health, healing, and fruitfulness wherever, and to whomever, it flows!

I don’t think it can get any more clear than this! God has said…and therefore it will be! This is His unbelievably incredible promise to us when we choose to meditate on His Word day and night! When we keep God’s Word forefront in our minds He promises to bless that Word and do amazing things through our hands, words, and life.

And what’s really cool… We don’t have to be perfect! God isn’t expecting us to perfectly remember at all times to keep His Word in our hearts and minds. God sees the intent of our hearts and He blesses it…and He blesses others through us!

When we set our hearts and minds to follow after Him…to get to know Him through His Word…to take that Word with us throughout the day and let it guide our thoughts and actions…then He promises to use that Word and cause Rivers of Living Water to flow from us to others!

I don’t know about you…BUT I can’t think of anything more exciting than this!