Did you know that as a believer you’ve been redeemed from the curse of grief and sorrow by the blood of Jesus Christ? You don’t have to put up with them any more than you have to put up with sin or sickness or disease.

God started teaching me about this personally several months before my mother went home to be with Him in August 1988. Every time He’d show me something about it, I’d put it into practice. (You ought to do that with anything God is teaching you. Start practicing it now, and you can walk in it when the time comes!)

So, eight and a half months before my mother left, I began standing against grief and sorrow. I made a decision to “sorrow not.” Immediately the devil began to attack my emotions.

But I’d say, “No. I won’t receive that. I take authority over these feelings in Jesus’ Name. I’ve given my body as a sacrifice well-pleasing unto the Lord, and I won’t partake of anything but His joy.” Then I’d start speaking the Word and praising out loud.

I went through three rugged days of resisting until those sorry spirits were gone.

What I’m telling you is this: You’re going to have to stand against grief and sorrow. It doesn’t belong to you. It’s not from your heavenly Father. You may have to walk the floor all night long. But instead of worrying and crying, walk the floor and quote the Word until that heavy spirit leaves and the joy of the Lord comes.

Remember who you are. You’re the one who shall obtain gladness and joy. You’re the one sorrow and grief shall flee away from. You are the redeemed!

Scripture Reading:
Psalm 97

God honors those who honor Him. He’ll never forget the seeds of loyalty you sow. He’ll multiply them and give them back to you in a harvest of blessing. And Malachi 3:17 says when He makes up His jewels, you’ll be forever among them.

Forever. Think about that for a moment. By honoring God with your life and your lips, you’re stepping into a realm of blessing that will literally take an eternity to explore.

Once you begin to get that kind of eternal perspective on things, you’ll see that it’s grossly immature to get mad at God when temporary things don’t work out exactly how and when you want them to. You’ll see that your loyalty must be first of all to God, that you must seek first His kingdom—even when things seem to be going wrong. The Bible says that if you’ll do that, all these other things will be added unto you.

God never forgets. He’ll never forget that in the heat of the battle, when others were giving up and saying, “Hey, this faith stuff doesn’t work!” you were still honoring Him by standing firm and speaking His promises.

So determine in your heart today to be loyal toward God in every word you speak. Make up your mind once and for all that nothing in your life is as vital as honoring Him. Keep honoring Him and speaking words of faith.

It will work deliverance for you in this life, and in eternity you’ll sure be glad you did.

Scripture Reading:
Psalm 61

It’s time we, as believers, began to enter into the oneness Jesus prayed for in John 17:21. It’s time we held on to one another in good times as well as bad. It’s time we realized that we need one another.

We do, you know. I need your faith as much as you need mine. Together, we can face anything and win in Jesus.

Let me show you why. In John 3:34, God says Jesus was given the Holy Spirit without measure. He was more powerful than all the demons of hell and all wicked spirits of all classes, including Satan himself. He was able to defeat their power combined.

Now consider this. We are His Body. Each of us has been given the measure of faith according to Romans 12:1-3. That measure is enough to take care of our own personal needs. However, there is more involved here than just our own personal lives.

We have a world to win! We are the end-time generation. We need all the help we can get. But, thank God, we can get all the help we need!

How? By joining together. Ephesians 4:13 says that when we all come together in the unity of the faith, we’ll have “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

In other words, when the Body of Christ comes together and begins to function as one, we’ll have the Holy Spirit without measure—just like Jesus did! We’ll begin to see ministries functioning in the fullness of their callings. We’ll begin to see manifestations of the Holy Spirit in full measure. We’ll see Jesus in fullness as we’ve never seen Him before.

Then the world will know the Father sent Him.

Step into that oneness today. Start today making a daily effort to make yourself available to God to pray for others. Start your day by saying, “Holy Spirit, use me to pray for someone today. I offer You my measure of faith.”

Once we truly join together in faith, all the demons of hell won’t be able to overcome us. We’ll march right over them in the fullness of the power of Jesus and bring the age to a glorious close!

Scripture Reading:
Ephesians 4:1-16

Born again. Do you know what Jesus had in mind when He said those two words to Nicodemus? He was talking covenant talk. He was telling Nicodemus what it meant to have a covenant with God.

Let me paint the picture I believe was in Jesus’ mind. Imagine a baby, a little baby born of an unwed mother. No one knows who its daddy is and no one wants to know. He is a child no one wants. He doesn’t belong to anyone.

Now, picture the best kind of family you can think of. A family that loves God. The man has a good job. They’re blessed financially. They’re givers and lovers of people, and they fall in love with this baby. Before long, they adopt it.

What’s happened? That baby was reborn. He got a new set of parents. Through adoption, he has now become an heir. Why? Not because of anything the baby has done. Those parents didn’t say, “I want you to look at that baby. I’m so impressed with all that that child has done for us. He has certainly earned our love and respect.”

No, it’s a baby. It couldn’t have done anything to earn its new life. This man and this woman agreed together out of the love in their hearts and bestowed grace on that child. Now he has access to everything they have. When they offer him a bottle, he doesn’t knock the bottle away and say, “I’m so humble and undeserving. Just give me water.”

Of course not. That baby acts like part of the family—and not just part of the family but the best part of the family. Because in Jesus’ day a covenant or adopted child had the same birthright as the firstborn son.

That’s what Jesus was talking about when He said, “You must be born again.” He was talking about grace. He was talking about a new relationship of favor. A new family. A new authority. A new power.

If you feel unworthy to receive the rich blessings God has for you today, think about that. Meditate on it, so instead of worrying about and struggling with the needs in your life, you can just walk boldly into the throne room of your Father and receive help to get those needs met.

Discover what it really means to be a blood-bought child of Almighty God with a big brother like Jesus. Discover what it means to be born again!

Scripture Reading:
John 3:1-8