Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Matthew 16: 17, 18
I was listening to a major ministry this morning, a pastor that is the Shepard of what we would call, a mega church. His sermon was on the 7 steps to activating God’s word in your life. It saddened me. He used as one of the key scriptures, John 14: 13-14.
“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
“If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”
These are words from the mouth of Jesus, and they are powerful, they are full of life and they will set you free. The part that saddened me is that in teaching this powerful word there was no mention of the One that spoke them, in fact the words, “you failed,” were mentioned so many times that I lost count.
Out of the mouth of Jesus, He made it very clear that the revelation of who He is, and what He did, where the foundations that He would build His church upon. We as men, try to teach His word using our own wisdom and understanding of the word. Jesus also made it very clear who the Teacher is.
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
John 14:26
Let me ask you a question, “Which is more liberating, having to follow a 7 step process in order to activate your faith, or gazing upon the beauty of the finished work of Jesus?” If we are not careful we become so absorbed with “doing” the word, that it turns completely around and becomes a task, or a labor. I love every single word in the bible, and they are all God breathed for our edification and instruction. Remember this though, Jesus is the word, He is also the life that the word contains, when you quote the word without the life it becomes void.
I have experienced this in my own life. I would be facing a problem so I would go to the word of God and locate the promise concerning the problem, then I would confess it, then I would thank God that I already had the answer, I would say it over and over and over every day, all day. Nothing changed. I would listen to more preaching about how to do this and how to make God answer, still nothing happened. This always, without fail would lead me into doubt, I had to be doing something wrong. Is it about what I do, or who Jesus is? Is it about who I am, or what Jesus did?
Then one day, Jesus spoke directly to my heart and told me that His church has forgotten their first love. The love that broke down every single wall that separated them from a relationship with the Father. The love that was demonstrated when Jesus died on the cross. The love of the Father for His lost children. His love for us, was our 1st love for Him.
He reminded me that He has already done everything, there is nothing left for us to do, the veil has been ripped apart. We have access to the very throne of grace, through His broken body. All He wants us to do is believe on Him. Something wonderful, and completely unexplainable happens when we let go of the “doing” and simply dare to believe in Jesus.
Just by focusing on Him, His Spirit works within us; teaching us, guiding us, leading us, transforming us into His image. We start producing the fruit of living holy lives, we start seeing prosperity in everything we do, we start seeing people healed and delivered. Not from following steps, just from feeding on the word that was made flesh and dwelt among us. His name is Jesus.
He then reminded me that it was not my job to try and reach him, it was His love that found me and set me free. It is His love for me that saves me, it is His love for me that produces change. It is a gift from God, and all I have to do is reach out my hand and receive His great love for me by simple child-like faith. His name is Jesus and He did it all.
Thank You and Be Blessed,
Joe D. Willis


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