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Did you know that King David visualized the Lord at his right hand all the time? I sure didn't. Not until Brad Jersek showed me Acts 2:25. David said of him, I saw the Lord before my face at all times, for he is at my right hand, so that I may not be moved” (Acts 2:25 BBE). “I have set the LORD always before me …” (Ps. 16:8 KJV). King David knew how to abide in the Lord’s presence (Ps. 91).

My word gives you the promise of victory. It speaks a great deal of success and triumph. It also speaks of laying down your life and picking up your cross and following me. Do these seem like contradictory statements? Dying and victory may seem like opposites, but I turned my own death into my greatest triumph, and left a pattern for you to follow. Not in the grand scale that I did, but the same principle applies in your own life. For he who seeks to keep his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will gain eternal life. Have you experienced this? How a series of small ‘deaths’ and ‘resurrections’ transforms you into my likeness?

You accept the fact that I am omnipotent as a matter of theology and doctrine. If you were responding to this question on a test you would get it right. Does this square with your experience of life? Do you see me as active and involved or distant and withdrawn? Do all the troubles of the world bother you, sin and sickness and death, while I appear to speak in a still small voice if at all? Is your perceived experience of me closer to omnipotence or impotence? Don’t mistake my patience for impotence. I am closer than you think, and more active, involved, and loving than you think. Open your eyes and see. 

Have you ever examined your life and been demoralized to realize how far you have to go? I am aware of this as well but your morale is important to me. I do not willingly grieve or crush the hearts of men. So I deal with your life in stages and comfort you during this process. I told my disciples that I had more to tell them, but they could not bear it then. I promised that the Comforter would lead them into all truth, and He will do the same for you as you are able to bear it. I call you to rejoice and want it to be possible for you. I want you to understand the difference between the desirable state of  brokenness and the despair of being crushed. 

My word teaches you that in Christ there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, bond nor free. These distinctions may not hit you where you live, so realize that this list was not meant to be exhaustive. What divisions are more meaningful to you today? Liberal or conservative? Protestant or Catholic? Black or white? Where do you draw a line that places you and yours on the inside and others on the outside? Yet this passage implies that all such distinctions are transcended in Christ. The distinctions still exist, but in Christ they lose their power to divide. Are you ready to see them erased in my love?

Do you think it is an interesting concept, becoming as little children to enter the Kingdom of God, since you were already a child once? This implies that you have lost something you once had to make you who you are now. Do you wonder what you lost and how you may recover it to enter the Kingdom? Children are transparent and authentic, not having had the time to develop a false self for a public image. Just as it is hard for a camel to go through the eye of a needle so it is hard for a rich man and someone conflicted about who they are, who they think they are, and who they want others to think they are to enter the Kingdom of God. 

We have been looking at the ineptitude of our spiritual enemy and examining the potential access points our negative feelings make available to him. Today we will consider several Scriptures to learn more about the armor God has provided to keep us safe in battle.

My word teaches you to speak the truth in love. Can you see that I did this myself? I told the woman caught in adultery to go and sin no more. To the woman at the well I said that she did not understand true worship, correcting her understanding and saying that salvation is of the Jews. These were loving statements but they were not affirmations to proceed without correction. Can you see how both elements are necessary? For the people you encounter are free and their responses are voluntary. Can you present the truth in a way that is so loving that they will voluntarily choose it? 

Celebrate with Ruth Roman as she shares her amazing testimony of emotional and physical healing!

You have my promise that if you are on trial for your life that I will give you the words that you need at the time; divine wisdom that your enemies will not be able to refute. With this comes the admonition not to prepare your remarks in advance. The purpose is that your prepared speech will interfere with the flow of my Spirit. Have you ever been called on to do this? Do you have the faith not to prepare your defense? Hopefully this is a rare situation, but the power of life or death is in your words whether you are on trial or not. My wisdom is available to you at all times. Are you willing to go with it rather than your own words?