June 2015 Spirit Food

This month, let’s focus on Jesus as our Redeemer!

Leviticus 1:4 - Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.

The instructions of Leviticus emphasize ritual, legal and moral practices that were given to the priests to follow when a man brought his blood sacrifice to the priest.

In the case of the burnt offering, when the offerer lays his hand on the animal sacrifice (Leviticus 1:3–4), the perfection and beauty of the unblemished sacrifice is transferred to him, and God sees and accepts him in the perfection of the animal.

Now, imagine the perfection of Jesus covering you from head to toe in the sight of God every moment of the day. Does that sound like a dream? My friend, that is your reality today because Jesus became your burnt offering at the cross.

Jesus is your atonement for sin. He, by faith (right believing), took all of mankind’s sin (past, present and future) upon Himself and suffered the punishment for that sin, to redeem mankind. How precious Jesus is to the Father is how precious you are to the Father because when the Father sees you, He sees Jesus, your atonement, your covering.

Once you accepted Jesus as the Lord of your life, you were redeemed from all the ungodliness in life, and now the goal should be to enter into His rest. So, what about all the “lost time” you’ve had without a redeemer?

Joel 2:25-27. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten — I will compensate you, or make you amends, for what the locusts have eaten in the ...

This equates to restoration! God is so good … all the time! His restoration goes beyond what you can ask or think.

Psalm 23:3 - He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Remember, we are spirit beings; we have soul, and we live in a body. Our soul consists of our mind, our will and our emotions. When you accepted Jesus as your Lord, the Holy Spirit came to live inside of you, to comfort you, to guide you in your thoughts and actions, to teach and train you to receive by faith that what Jesus did on the cross made you righteous in the eyes of Almighty God (Our Heavenly Father).

When Almighty God raised Jesus from the dead to sit at His right hand, Jesus was still a man, and remains a man forever. This means that being a man, Jesus understands what a human being is subject to here on this earth. When Jesus redeemed mankind by what he did on the cross, He bore all our sin, sickness, injuries and poverty, so we don’t have to live/abide with it while we journey through life here on this earth.

Jeremiah 30:17 For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; …

It’s not God’s will for mankind to be in lack. Psalm 23:1 – The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want/lack.

God is a God of restoration. When something negative in life happens, it is not always, but usually the result of not being focused on the task at hand and not paying attention to detail; but not always. We are constantly making choices in life, the choices we make are a result of our thinking, our thinking is in line with what we believe. Our actions sometimes result in an unfavorable outcome. When this happens, it enables us to re-focus and ensure that we are constantly and consistently working to enter into His rest.

Take the time to develop a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and your Heavenly Father (Abba/Daddy). Take the time to lie down (rest) in green pastures (His provisions), and enter into His peace.

Think about it, God created time; therefore, He lives outside of time. Mankind in general (having a carnal nature) is demand oriented, with all their rules, laws and expectations. In being so, they impose pressure towards compliance with society rules created to bring people into their compliance. Attempting to keep all these laws mankind has set up (and the fear of the penalty of such), leads to condemnation, fear, stress, and a demand oriented way of thinking. Whereas, when we focus on God’s love and what Jesus did for us on the cross to redeem us and restore us into right standing with Our Creator/Father, we can leave all that demand oriented thinking behind and believe that as Our Loving Heavenly Father we can walk in His Grace and have a peace that passes all understanding from the carnal way of thinking.

If you love your neighbor, you won’t steal from him or covet what he has, because you know that all you need to do is ask your Heavenly Father and He’ll provide it to you. When you decide to function in this world operating in God’s grace, walking in fellowship with your creator, life is good!

When you begin to function in His grace, you begin to see Deuteronomy 28:10 – “Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.” come to pass in your life. People will respect you. Your boss will favor you and even your competitors will esteem you highly. They know that there is something special about you because good things happen when you are around!

Those who have accepted Jesus as the Lord of their lives are called Christians. The word Christ in the Greek is Redeemer, The Anointed One (among other things), and because you are also called by the name of the Lord, wherever you go, you are empowered to be a blessing. His blessing is on you. The people around you will look at you and know that you are a blessing going somewhere to happen!

Be conscious of your position in Christ. John 15:5 - “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

As His branches, we only have to abide or remain in Christ our vine. How do we do that? We do that by simply being conscious every day of our position in Christ. Because we have received Christ, we are in Christ and are accepted in the Beloved. (2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 1:6) God accepts us because we are in the Beloved and He is in us. And that is how God sees us today when we come into His presence.

What the devil wants to do then is to get you to focus on your condition instead of your position in Christ. The condition you are facing could be financial lack or deteriorating health. The devil wants you to focus on your condition and forget your position—that you are the righteousness of God in Christ and that you are seated with Him in heavenly places at the Father’s right hand. (2 Corinthians 5:21, Ephesians 2:6) He wants you to forget that you are an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. (Romans 8:17)

The devil knows that once you focus on your position in Christ, it will give you the power to change your condition and circumstances. John 15:5 says that you will bear “much fruit”. This means that when you pray against any lack, abundant supply will flow. When you pray for healing, sickness will leave and restoration will occur.

Look at Zechariah 9:12 - Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you.

I am sure that you have heard the expression, “When life throws lemons at you, make lemonade!” Well, I want you to know that when the devil throws lemons at you, God will restore twice what was taken! After all, the Bible says that God works all things together for your good. (Romans8:28)

Consider Job in the Old Testament. When he lost everything, his wife told him to curse God and die. He refused and, instead, responded to God in faith, and “the Lord gave to Job twice as much as he had before”. (Job 42:10)

Today, God promises to restore double for your trouble—“Even today I declare that I will restore double to you.” If He declared it, He will do it! So you cannot but have hope that things will be even better than before. That is why in the same verse, He calls you “prisoners of hope”. My friend, hope in the biblical sense means a confident expectation of good things happening in your life. You are a prisoner of that! You can’t help but wake up feeling hopeful. You can’t help but expect good things to happen to you!