When the children of God forgot the miracle of deliverance from their past bondage in Egypt, they lost interest in the provision of daily bread as well as the shade by day and warmth by night. They turned their eyes to go back to slavery in Egypt. We all can lose our hunger for the miracles of today and replace our rejoicing with memories of the past. Let us never look back, but plan a future in the impossible!
As you negotiate through the traffic and the bustle of stores, and thrill in the beautifully decorated scenery around you, remember that on that night an angel stood in the heavens declaring the reason for our celebrations. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord…” (Luke 2:11). Merry Christmas! What a precious and amazing gift God has given to us!
We are like the town criers, announcing the truth to people that they are forgiven, healed and free—it’s already been given to them by grace and they don’t have to earn it! It’s God’s justice delivered to His children in Christ!
Egypt kept Israel in bondage for 400 years—long enough to cause them to forget how a free person thinks. When they had the opportunity to be free, they wanted to return to the security of the chains in Egypt. If a Christian is in bondage, it’s not because the devil is so strong, but rather their will to walk free is so weak. How is this bondage broken? By allowing the truth that Jesus has set them free to renew their minds and reprogram their thinking!
People who work too hard at having faith tend to have the least amount of it! They’re more aware of and focused on their lack of it—leaving them feeling like they’ll never measure up—instead of becoming the mountain-movers God intends them to be!
Justified means “just as if I’d never sinned,” but it also means, “just as if I was never a sinner and was never under the devil’s oppression, just as if I had never lost anything, just as if I had never been sick, and just as if I don’t have to be under the curse of the law anymore!”
When you really get it that Jesus paid the entire price for sin, you’ll understand that you’re no longer under the devil’s tyranny and oppression. Know this as confidently as you know your name—the devil has NO power over you anymore, in any area, because Jesus took your sin and permanently gave you HIS righteousness!
Jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Our sins for His righteousness. Our fear for His love. Our sickness for His health. Our unbelief for His faith. Our life for His LIFE. “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).
We declare salvation as a free gift, but it wasn’t really free. It came at a great price and cost God His best! His Son Jesus paid that price and it was NOT cheap. When you understand the magnitude of that price, it should forever settle the question of your value to God!
Jesus took off His equality with God, so He could put on human flesh and walk on this earth demonstrating to us what God looked like in human flesh. He had no sin nature, so the devil had no ability to put anything on Him or do anything to Him until it was time for the cross. There, He took YOUR sin nature, and all the judgements that were against you because of it, and gave you His LIFE in exchange! Now you are cleansed, with the nature of Christ in you, and the devil has no more right to touch you than he did Jesus! This is how we walk in the earth as He did, and can do the works He said we can do! “… as he is so also are we in this world” 1 John 4:17.
