You are not bound to be the person you were in the past. If Jesus is your Lord, the old you is dead and you are now a resurrected person — a new creation — with the potential of God in you!
It doesn’t matter how long you have been in ministry or how long you’ve been studying the Bible, the Word of God can become like stale bread if you allow it to lay dormant in your heart!
God created us in His image with dignity and purpose. He created us to experience His love. He has entrusted us with His authority and only requires one thing from us—that we believe and trust His words to us!
Those things that have limited you in your body, your background or your relationships may have made you believe that your future is limited. But I want to let you know that if Jesus is your Lord, your future has NO LIMITS!
In 1865, William and Catherine Booth started what would become known as the Salvation Army. They fed the poor and opened lodging houses to shelter the homeless from London’s bitter winters. As their work expanded, William began the practice of sending a telegram of encouragement each Christmas Eve to his “soldiers” around the world. In what would be his last telegram, he realized that because of the cost, his message would have to be brief. He decided to send only one word: “OTHERS.” This Christmas season, allow Christ to dwell in you and live through you—and have a merry, OTHERS-minded Christmas!
If a branch of a tree is abiding in the life of that tree, that means its connection to that tree is stable and fixed. When we are truly abiding in Christ then our connection should be stable and fixed, so like a healthy branch, we will grow, strengthen, and produce fruit!
The highest method of learning, and the least expensive, is to learn from others. The lowest method is personal experience. It will always cost you time and opportunity. One industrialist said, “It’s a shame that people learn from their own mistakes rather than from others. By the time they learn the lessons to be productive, it’s time to retire.”
Many years ago in my church they took me to the cross where I saw the crucified Christ, but I never IDENTIFIED with Him. My spiritual leaders never took me beyond the cross…never understood that it was me up on the cross dying so it would be me resurrecting to a new life!
What do you have that makes you rich? You have been given righteousness, which gives you a new self-image. You have been given authority, which is the right to exercise power over all sicknesses, all bondages and all demons!
The choice is ours. If we won’t see and embrace the truth of how God sees us and thinks about us, we’ll be doomed to a life of perceiving ourselves as helpless, weak, and subject to circumstances. That’s called prison, and it’s NOT how God created us to live!
