Thank you

Father,
Thank you for the wonderful year that I've had. The valuable lessons You've taught me, new friends You've introduced me to and my territory that You have extended. You're simply AWESOME! I do not know what 2009 will hold but I believe that my God who knows my tomorrows from today will take care of what concerns me.

The Best Invitation!!

I was visiting 'The Power Of Your Love' blog site and Beth had this invitation posted. I just love it!!

You are cordially invited to A BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!!!

Guest of Honor: Jesus Christ

Date: Every day. Traditionally, December 25but He's always around, so the date is flexible...

Time: Whenever you're ready.(Please don't be late, though, or you'll miss out on all the fun!)

Place: In your heart.... He'll meet you there.(You'll hear Him knock)

Attire: Come as you are... grubbies are okay.He'll be washing our clothes anyway. He said something aboutnew white robes and crowns for everyone who stays till the last.

Tickets: Admission is free. He'salready paid for everyone...(He says you wouldn't have beenable to afford it anyway...it cost Him everything He had. Butyou do need to accept the ticket!!

Refreshments: New wine, bread, and afar-out drink He calls "Living Water,"followed by a supper that promises to be out of this world!

Gift Suggestions: Your life. He's one of thosepeople who already has everything else.(He's very generous in return though.Just wait until you see what He has for you!)

Entertainment: Joy, Peace, Truth,Light, Life, Love, Real Happiness,Communion with God, Forgiveness, Miracles, Healing, Power,Eternity in Paradise, Contentment, and much more!(All "G" rated, so bring your family and friends.)

R.S.V.P. Very Important!He must know ahead so He canreserve a spot for you at the table.Also, He's keeping a list of His friends for futurereference. He calls it the "Lamb's Book of Life."

Party being given by His Kids (that's us!!)!Hope to see you there! For those of you whom I will see at the party, share this with someone today!

P.S. Please feel free to post this invitation on your blog...if you like.
We want this to be the biggest birthday party for Jesus...so spread the word!!!

Our God is a Covenant God - Part 10

OBEDIENCE is the key.
God sent His Spirit giving us power to walk in 100 percent obedience to Him! God placed His Spirit within man to reveal His will to him and teach him His ways. Jesus told His disciples the Spirit would 'lead and guide them into all truth.' Jesus told them, 'He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your rememberance, whatsoever I have said unto you' (John 14:26).The Holy Spirit not only writes God's laws in our hearts, He gives us the power to do them!

What an awesome God we serve! By His Spirit, He has circumcised our hearts...taken out our stony hearts...and has given us new hearts filled with His love. He has restored our will and brought it into harmony with His will, so that we now have a desire to love and obey Him with our whole hearts. He has given us power to obey Him and power over sin!

In this blood-covenant relationship, He has 'given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness' (2Pet.1:4). He has given us 'exceeding great promises' and has made us 'partakers of the divine nature' (2Pet.1:4). He has given us an inheritance as joint heirs of the Kingdom of God.

By His Spirit He placed within me, I am set free from the bondage of the Law. Christ has purchased my freedom! To walk in freedom, I must be led by the Spirit. I must no longer depend upon my own strength, but upon the power of the Holy Spirit God has placed within me. 'So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.......But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law' (Gal.5:16,18).

Our God is a Covenant God - Part 9

Jesus offered Himself as a blood sacrifice so that we would enter into a blood-covenant relationship with Him. His blood....His life flows through us! It is through a continual partaking of His flesh and His blood...His life....that we have life in abundance!

Through that one Sacrifice all the sin of mankind has been erased forever. There is absolutely nothing that remains to be done to secure this everlasting covenant God made with us. No further sacrifice is needed! The work has been done!
'But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool, because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy' (Heb.10:12-14).

Our God is a Covenant God - Part 8

Fear and Unbelief

Through their fear and unbelief, Israel was disobedient and did not take possession of their inheritance. They forfeited their covenant promises and were forced to wander around in the wilderness for 40 years.
Have you allowed fear and unbelief to hinder you from taking possession of your inheritance??

• Know who you are in Christ and what is legally yours.
• Allow these promises to sink deep within your spirit knowing they have been sealed with the Blood of Jesus and that they cannot fail.
• Be filled with hope......an expectation that you are going to receive what you have desired.
• Believe....have faith, be fully persuaded that God is going to do exactly what he has promised He would do!!!!!!!!!

Our God is a Covenant God - Part 7

God Has Given Us a Special Guide....the Holy Spirit!
God sent the 'angel of His presence'.....the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God...before the children of Israel to drive out their enemies, to protect, to lead and guide them to the Promised land. He led them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. As they were obedient to Him, they were to inherit the promised blessings.
Under the New Covenant, God has given us a special guide...the Holy Spirit...to cause us to know and do the commandments of God, to direct and guide us into the place He has prepared for us. He has placed His Spirit within us to teach us His ways.

God told Israel: 'I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws' (Ezekial 36:27).
Jesus said: 'And I will ask the Father and He will give you another counsellor to be with you forever-the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you will know Him, for he lives with you and will be in you.....But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you' (John 14:16-17,26).

Not only do we have the Holy Spirit to teach, lead and guide us to the promised land...that Heavenly city, New Jerusalem.....it is the Holy Spirit working within us that gives us the will and the power to keep the covenant God has made with us...to walk in obedience to Him.

Allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us is very important! I need to walk each day with the consciousness of His Presence and I need to know the covenant promises-what is mine in the Name of Jesus! How do I know what is mine??? Spend time reading the Word of God!

Our God is a Covenant God - Part 6

Jesus became the Mediator of the new Covenant. Through His Blood we have entered into a blood-covenant relationship with God where we are one with Him.

Christian @ Comments101.com

The Blood of Jesus has been commingled together with ours! His life flows through us.
Through His Blood, we have forgiveness and are given power over sin!
Through His Blood, we have been made partakers of His divine nature!
Through His Blood, we have an inheritance that will never fade away!
Through his Blood, we have inherited all the covenant promises of God!
THANK YOU JESUS!!!!

Our God is a Covenant God - Part 5

What an amazing God we serve!!! He so desires to do us good but we sometimes think that He is so far removed from our situations!!! Just continuing from the previous entry.......
The old covenant proved that man in His sinful state could not save himself. God so desired to be joined together with man in a blood covenant relationship where He was ONE with Him, that He sealed His covenant in His own Blood...in the Blood of His begotten Son. He loved us......He still loves us and will continue to love us!!! John 3:16 says 'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that who so ever believes in Him should not perish but have ever lasting life'.
I am so grateful to Jesus because He came willingly to offer Himself as the perfect Sacrifice, to give His Blood that we would enter into a blood covenant relationship with God where we would forever be bound together as one...that we would inherit all that God has and is.
When Christ came into the world, He said: '........Sacrifice and offereings You have not desired, but instead You have made ready a body for Me (to offer); In burnt offerings and sin offerings You have taken no delight. Then I said, Lo, here I am, come to do Your will, O God;(to fulfill) what is written of Me in the volume of the Book' (Heb. 10:5-7).
Under the Old Testament, God's one requirement was obedience. Man, in his weak, sinful nature could not walk in obedience. Jesus became the perfect Sacrifice for man's sin because He had come to the earth in the form of human flesh and had lived a life of 100 percent obedience to God. Jesus fulfilled the Law! It was His obedience that made His blood accepted once and for all as the perfect and only sacrifice for the sins of the world.
There is POWER in the BLOOD of Jesus!! Without Jesus, there is no forgiveness...there is no hope...there is no life! Heb.9:22 says; in fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Through His obedience ' Jesus became the author of eternal salvation' (Heb.5:9). Also read Heb.9:12-14.

Our God is a Covenant God - Part 4

What is the sign of the covenant relationship with God?
Circumcision
This was to be the sign identifying those who had entered into a blood-covenant relationship.

Abraham's righteousness was by faith not in the outward circumcision of his flesh. Through faith, Abraham entred into a covenant relationship with God. His faith in God's promises resulted in obedience to the conditions of the covenant.

I am learning.......it's fascinating to make connections in the Word of God :)

Under the new covenant God still requires circumcision. With us it's the circumcision of the heart! Read Romans 2:28-29 then Colosians 2:11-12. As we come to Christ by faith our hearts are circumcised. God writes His statutes and commandments upon our hearts and places a desire and a will within us to know, to love and to obey Him. Our flesh.......our carnal nature.....is crucified. We are cleansed, our sins forgiven and we are righteous before God.

No spiritual circumcision of the heart-No covenant relationship with God! 'It is through faith in the Spirit of God working within us that our hearts are circumcised, not through our own attempts of trying to crucify our flesh. Our righteousness is by faith, not in works.
Our dependence must not be upon ourselves.....but upon the Spirit God has placed within us to accomplish His righteouness in us'.

Our God is a Covenant God - Part 3

God planned to bring us into a relationship as His covenant people!

He designed two different covenants.

1. The Old Covenant established with Israel on Mount Sinai
2. The New Covenant established on Calvary and fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.

Each one of these covenant fulfilled a specific purpose in God's plan. So did God make a mistake in establishing the Old Covenant? NO! It was absolutely indispensable for working out His purposes.

If you read Galations 4:22-26,31, here Paul compared the Old Covenant to Ishmael, which was dependent upon the flesh and the will of man and the New Covenant he compared to Isaac, which was based upon faith and the quickening power of the Holy Spirit.

The Old Covenant God established with Israel was totally dependent upon man's obedience to the Law. He revealed the Law and His commandments through Moses, then He told Israel, 'Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.' (Jeremiah 7:23)

But you know, it was impossible for man in his sinful state to keep the Law and obey all of the commandments God had given him. Even before Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the tablets, the people had created a golden calf and were worhipping it!

Israel disobeyed and the covenant with God was broken! Through their disobedience 'they limited the Holy One of Israel '(Psalms 78:41).

Why would God establish a covenant that was totally insufficient for freeing them from the bondage of sin???

God's purpose for establishing the law under the Old Covenant was to convince man of the awfulness of sin...it's misery...it's bondage into slavery! The Law was given to reveal to man his total inability to save himself and his need for a Saviour! (Galatians 3:19-20).

You see the Old Covenant was only in preparation.....a foreshadowing of the New Covenant which God would establish as an everlasting covenant, which would not be broken!!!

to be continued.....

Our God is a Covenant God - Part 2

What I've learnt
To have a clear understanding of this powerful covenant, I need to understand fully the type of covenant God has made with us and what it means to enter into a covenant.

A step back in history
It has been interesting going back in history to understand the significance of entering into a blood covenant.
The rites of blood covenanting was and is still being practised in some parts of the world. In Syria for example, when two men enter this covenant, their relatives and neighbours are called to witness the sealing of this blood-covenant relationship, write down their declarations regarding the covenant in duplicate......one paper for each of them. This declaration is signed by both of the men and several witnesses.
One of the men entering into the covenant takes a sharp lancet and opens the vein in the other's arm. Into this opening, he inserts a quill through which he sucks the blood of his friend. The blade is then carefully wiped on one of the covenant papers. The other friend does exactly the same thing.
The two friends take an oath before all witnesses: 'We are brothers in a covenant made before God;who deceiveth the other,him will God deceive.' Each blood stained covenant record is folded and placed in a small case, about an inch square, that is worn around the neck or bound upon the arm as a token of their covenant relationship.
Now in the Bible days,blood covenanting was also practiced between two families or two tribes. A family that was weak in a particular area and strong in a another, would enter into a blood covenant with a family that possessed strengths they lacked. Terms of conditions were discussed, covenant representatives were chosen and a site was chosen where the families could witness the sealing of the covenant.
The covenant cut was made down the spine of the animal selected as the blood sacrifice. The two halves were set opposite each other, creating a walkway of blood between the two halves.
The two representatives,in full view of the two families, took off their coats and exchanged them. Their coats represented their authority and stood for who they were. With this exchange of coats each rep. was saying, 'Iam giving you all that I am and my authority.' then, each representative took off his weapon belt and they exchanged weapons. As each one did this he was saying, 'Iam giving you my strength. Your enemies are mine. I will stand with you, even unto death.'
Then each rep. walked through the path of blood twice and stopping in the middle together and saying out loud 'Even as this animal has died, I will stand with you even in the midst of death.'

The Tie Between Covenant Friends Is stronger Than That of Natural Birth.
Following this swearing or taking an oath to keep the terms of the covenant, the covenant cut was made in the wrist of each rep. The two wrists were joined with a cord so their blood would be mingled. Their arms were raised so all could see the blood running down their arms. Then they would make promises to one another.
At this point of the ceremony, each family took on the other's name saying....'Your family is now my family. Your ways are my ways. My strengths are your strengths.'
After the covenant has been sealed with blood, the families share a meal together. They shared bread and wine.
This type of blood-covenant relationship was deeper and meant more than being born of the same mother! It was to last for eight generations.
This was the type of covenant that bound David and Jonathan together....1 Samuel 18:1-4 and 1 Samuel 20:13-17).

So what is a covenant?
The Greek word for covenant means 'a contract; a will.' Our covenant with God is the 'title deed' to our inheritance. It is a contract....a legal binding agreement...between us and God.

Our God is a Covenant God - Part 1

I am reading a book called 'God's Covenant Annointing-The Title Deed Of Your Inheritance' by Morris Cerullo. Heavy stuff but powerful!!!I know my tiny mind sometimes cannot comprehend the mysteries of God. I've had to go back over chapters - read it s-l-o-w then move on!!!
I'm hoping that each day (when I have time to get on the computer), I will reflect on my journey through this book.
Cerullo says...'The majority of Christians today have not taken possession of the 'Title Deed' of their inheritance. It has been bought and paid for. It belongs to them as legal heirs in the Kingdom of God. But, because of a lack of knowledge, they have not taken hold of it and are living as spiritual 'paupers', when God has planned for them to be priests and kings!

Not knowing their legal rights in the covenant they have entered into with God, through Christ, when Satan tries to afflict their bodies, rob them of their finances, and attack their families; they sit back with their hands folded in defeat, thinking there is nothing they can do.

Not knowing or understanding the full significance of the blood covenant they have entered into with Christ, many Christians are living their lives in a weakened condition.'
Hosea 4:6 says 'my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.'