I
want to continue sharing about our birthright as followers of Jesus.
Remember
when we surrendered our lives to Christ. There were things that occurred as
God’s Spirit entered us and changed us into new creations.
Romans
8:35
Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
Romans
8:37-39
No,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I
am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither
the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our lord.
There
are two birthrights mentioned here.
One
is that we are secure in Christ’s love for us.
It
says in this passage that nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s
love for us in Jesus.
The
knowledge that no matter what we do, no matter what life brings to us, or no
matter what spiritual attack we face, God and His love for us will never go
away or even diminish.
Hebrews
13:5 backs up this truth. It says that God will never leave us or forsake us.
Raise the Roof and
Remove the Walls
is living knowing beyond any doubt that God loves us.
The
second birthright in this passage is that we are an overwhelming conqueror in
Jesus against all that would come against us.
We
are more than conquerors through Jesus.
I
was puzzled for years over what was meant by “more than conquerors” in this
passage.
When
you conquer another country or group, you are then in control of them. You have
them under your authority through the conquest.
What
could be more than that? The more is to conqueror a country or group and then
make them our friends. First, we come under Jesus’s authority, His servants. He
then elevates us to be His friends.
Jesus
tells His disciples that He no longer calls them servants but He now calls them
friends. We have been conquered and become intimate friends with the One who
conquered us.
Raise the Roof and
Remove the Walls
is becoming friends with Jesus and thus overcoming all those things that Jesus
died to secure our freedom from.
1
Corinthians 6:17
But
he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.
We
are united to the Lord and one in spirit with Him.
In
John 17 Jesus prays that His followers will be one with Him as He and the
Father are one.
Jesus
does not want a casual relationship with us. He wants an intimate love
relationship with us. He wants to share life with us as His people.
The
awesome things about this relationship are that we never face a situation where
Jesus is not there and that it is eternal.
Raise the Roof and
Remove the Walls
is experiencing oneness with Jesus.
1
Corinthians 12:27
Now
you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a part of it.
I
am a member of Christ’s body.
By
surrendering our lives to Jesus, not only do we get God as our Father and
experience His unconditional love through Jesus. We also get a huge family of
brothers and sisters.
I
know that many people look at the church today and see negative things and feel
that they don’t need or even want the church to be able to follow Jesus.
That
attitude is wrong. Jesus died to bring many sons to the Lord according to
Hebrews 2:10. Following Jesus is about community.
Jesus
tells the parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd went and found the one sheep
who had moved away from the flock and brought the sheep back to the flock. He
did that because he knows that, away from the flock, isolated and alone, the
sheep would be killed. Remember our enemy the devil wants to kill, steal, and
destroy.
We
need each other.
Raise the Roof and
Remove the Walls
is living in community with fellow believers.
2
Corinthians 5:17
Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has
come!
We
are new creations in Jesus. Old things are passing away.
When
people surrender their lives to Jesus, two things happen.
First,
we become new people.
Second,
the old things go away and are replaced with new things.
New
Desires
New
Thoughts
New
Attitudes
New
Priorities
New
Words
New
Actions
Jesus
didn’t come to make us better. He came to make us new and different.
2
Corinthians 5:18-19
All
this is from God, who reconciled is to Himself through Christ and gave us the
ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in
Christ, not counting men’s sins against them, and He committed to us the
message of reconciliation.
I
am reconciled to God and am a minister of reconciliation with God to others.
Reconciled
means to bring something or someone back into favor. Through Jesus’ death on
the cross God brought us back into His favor. We were at odds with God, we were
enemies of God. He brought us back into favor with Himself through Jesus’ death
on the cross. We then became the bearers of that message to the world.
Raise the Roof and
Remove the Walls
is living in the grace of God.
Confidently
and Securely Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
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