What makes us think that we can take cities for Jesus?

From the beginning man was given dominion on the earth (Gen. 1:26). We lost that dominion through Adams sin, but praise God we got it back through Jesus sacrifice! Now it is for us to take up arms and take back what the enemy has stolen.  The question is not “can we?”  The question is “will we?”

Jesus already stripped the enemy of all authority, the only power he has is that which we give him by believing His lies.

Jesus promise is that He will always lead us in triumph. His command is that we “take the land!”  In Him we are more than conquerors and we have everything we need to dominate on the earth.  The main thing that we have to remember is that our weapons are spiritual not physical.  The Key to our success is to be filled with the Spirit, given in prayer, steeped in the Word, inquire of the Lord, and follow His commands! Then we will be His mighty army, will do great exploits, and experience the victory He has promised.

What has God asked you to do for your city? Will you take hold in faith and embrace the call? Choose to live your life for something that really matters, be a tool in God’s had for the saving of souls.  Even creation itself is waiting for the people of God to be manifest, to rise up, and to dominate the earth!

(Romans 8:37; 2 Corinthians 2:14; Matthew 17:20 & 28:18-20; 2 Peter 1:2-4)

Arise and shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles (unbelievers) shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60 1-3 (NKJV)

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God, the Big Bang, and Creation
Are you searching for meaning?
What does it really mean to say YES to God? 

“And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3)

Sometimes I picture God creating the world by throwing stars into the night sky like pixie dust. Except, that’s not how it went down. God pre-existed the beginning of time. He’s always been and always will be. The word for that is eternal. But lots of religions and gods claim the same everlasting qualities.

So how is Elohim any different? The great and mighty God would reveal Himself to humanity, not yet created, in the following millennia. But during creation, before man’s existence, God was. And in this moment, He is known by one very human attribute.

If we were to witness creation, we would only hear Him. That’s right. We would hear His voice. The whisper would reverberate through the void as creation became itself at His command.

God spoke. Everything else followed.

God is not a busy sprite or super-Santa. He is not a Greek myth that needs to throw lightning bolts in order to have any effect on the world. He simply speaks and reality changes. C. S. Lewis was once compelled to conclude, “Christianity is the one, true, factual myth”.   It’s places like creation where I can see this the clearest.

God: the true myth. He is the power and the person, the reality, and the mystery.

How does speech create anything? I’m not sure, but I love that His power is revealed through speech because it makes Him somewhat accessible. After all, we speak too. Communication is one of the most human characteristics. God is both powerful and personal and we are created in His image.

God created. That’s too much for me to understand! But God spoke? That’s something I can digest. The myth and the truth are one.

He is the master… and yet His commandments are not burdensome.

He is so high above… and yet He has come that we may have life to the fullest.

He is eternal and outside of time… yet He relates to us in time.

He is the Lord… of love.

He is the God… of grace.

He is the Big… of all that are small.

Let’s make our hearts small before Him. Let’s humble ourselves to His lordship. Let’s embrace the reality that He controls everything, by merely speaking. It’s a great comfort to rest under the shadow of that wing.

Father, Help me to understand the vastness of Your power and love.  Amen.

Question: How does God’s powerful nature affect your day?

Many people think that science and faith tell conflicting stories about how the universe began. But they might not be as different as you think. Scientists speak of a definite moment of creation in a vast cosmic explosion (the ‘Big Bang’), which had to be carefully adjusted for human life to be possible. Far from conflicting, the scientific picture may point us towards a supernatural creator God. What really happened back in the beginning?

Watch the video series: God and the Big Bang 

Take the next step:
Finding truth in the stars
What science can’t explain
What is God like? Try our online study to find out more

“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:15-16)

God spoke my son, Jeremy, into my wife’s womb, just as God spoke you into your mother’s womb. Jeremy was “fearfully and wonderfully made,” and God ordained his days, just as he’s ordained yours. (Psalm 139:14, 16 NIV)

Jeremy was one of God’s great ideas. Like you, Jeremy was an expression of God’s blue-ribbon brilliance. He was a Matisse-like masterpiece, lovingly, deliberately, and carefully created by the One True God, the creative Creator of the universe.

My son, Jeremy, died at birth because of a destructive DNA disorder called Trisomy 18, but that didn’t diminish the value of his life, his legacy, or his significance to God. Jeremy’s every chromosome fit intricately – and for now, unexplainably to us – into God’s flawless planning.

If you grasp this – “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:18-19a) – then you’re on your way to understanding the extraordinary value of every human life, how each individual is a masterpiece created by God.

You, too, are a masterpiece created by God.

Oswald Chambers wrote, “Individual lives are the expression of a pre-existing idea in the mind of God.” In other words, every human being is a unique, one-of-a-kind, never-to-be-repeated expression of God’s incredible creativity, and as a Christian you become a unique reflection of Jesus Christ as he works through you to serve others.

The point is, God thought you up (Jeremiah 1:5), and now he lovingly thinks of you.

You are of immeasurable worth to God, and your value is not determined by your appearance or performance, or how much time or money you can contribute, or how well you sing or teach – or how long you live. The value of any container is determined by its contents, and you are a one and only, custom-made container of Uncommon Stuff – as a believer, you contain the very life of God.

Rejoice in this truth, and be set free.

What does this mean?

· God’s love transforms – When you understand your value to God, you will be less likely to sin. His love will compel you to walk in the light. If you deeply and truly understood how much God loved you, how would your behavior change?

· We devalue others – When we think in such terms as “You’re valuable to me as long as you’re useful” or “You’re valuable to me as long as I enjoy your company.” This reduces people to mere tools or objects of pleasure.

· God’s masterpiece is on the couch – If you are God’s masterpiece, so is the couch potato in your house, or the person at church who you diplomatically describe as “contrary.” (That’s the Southerner (U.S.) in me coming out – ha!)

Question: How can the fact that you are God’s valued creation encourage you when it seems like everything is going wrong?

Related
A Conversation about Love and God

Want a significant life? Learn how to find significance today.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish…” (Proverbs 29:18 King James Version).

“If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; but when they attend to what He reveals, they are most blessed” (The Message).

So many meanings to the word dream: to think, imagine, have ideas. An internet search reveals over 200 million sites related to that one word! People of renown have used the word to inspire and challenge: ‘I have a dream’ (Martin Luther King, Jr.); “Nothing happens without a dream” (Carl Sandburg); “Hold fast to dreams…” (Langston Hughes).

Of all people, followers of God should dream big because God is the reason for our dreaming. From the beginning of time it has been His plan that all people everywhere know of His great love. He used—and continues to use—men and women and His creation to tell the story, and the ultimate message became His very Son.

With God’s goal in mind and His Holy Spirit to empower us, we can look at the needs of the world and dream about how God would want those needs met. When God challenged Moses to lead the people out of Egypt, He asked, “What is that in your hand?” God had a dream and was ready to use Moses in the fulfillment of the dream, even when what he had in his hand looked like a mere stick of wood.

We would do well to consistently look at what is in our “hands,” consider God’s vision for the world and then dream big about how He might use us. We must constantly encourage our children and grandchildren along these same lines. Involve them early in projects where they see how their seemingly small efforts contribute to the fulfillment of God’s dream, projects such as making sandwiches for the homeless, meeting missionaries, going on short-term mission trips and living out God’s vision of love with the those around them, especially towards the un-lovely.

When we open our eyes to God’s dream—“what God is doing”—and then “attend to what He reveals”—we will be blessed.

Father, I stand in awe of exactly how big your dream is. Then I am humbled by the understanding that you have chosen me to help accomplish that dream. Guide my imagination and my dreams so that they line up with yours.

Questions: What are some dreams that you have had about being used by God? Stop right now and think about what  skills or talents do you possess that God could use in fulfilling His dream for the world?

Originally written by Charles H. Spurgeon, published in “Mornings & Evenings,” entry for March 28th, AM.

Updated to modern English by Darren Hewer, 2011.

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:16-19

The love of Christ, in its sweetness, its fullness, its greatness, its faithfulness, surpasses all human comprehension. Where will language be found which describes His matchless unparalleled love towards His children? It is so vast and boundless that, as the bird skims the water and does not dive into its depths, in the same way all descriptive words merely touch the surface, while the depths of God’s love rest immeasurably beneath. As an unknown poet once said, “O love, thou fathomless abyss!” This love of Christ is indeed measureless and unfathomable. No one can claim to have fully comprehended it.

Before we can have any right idea of the love of Jesus, we must understand His previous glory in its height of majesty, and His incarnation on the earth in all its depths of shame. When He was enthroned in the highest heavens He was very God of very God. By Him were the heavens made, and all heaven’s hosts. His own almighty arm upheld the spheres. The praises of cherubim and seraphim perpetually surrounded Him. The full chorus of the hallelujahs of the universe unceasingly flowed to the foot of his throne. He reigned supreme above all His creatures, God over all, blessed forever. Who can tell His height of glory then?

And who, on the other hand, can tell how low He descended? To be a man was something, to be a man of sorrows, far more. To bleed, and suffer, and die, these were much for Him who was the Son of God. But to suffer such unparalleled agony – to endure a death of shame and desertion by His Father, this is a depth of condescending love which the most inspired mind must utterly fail to fathom.

Herein is love! And truly it is love that “surpasses knowledge.” Let this love fill our hearts with adoring gratitude, and lead us to practical actions to live out its power in our own lives.

Question: How does love demonstrated in the life of Christ inspire you to live out a life of love yourself?

About the Author: Charles Spurgeon

Originally written by Charles H. Spurgeon, published in “Mornings & Evenings,” entry for November 5th, PM.

“Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.” Psalm 100:4, KJV

Our Lord wishes all His children would richly possess high and happy thoughts concerning His blessed person. Jesus is not content when His sons and daughters think wrongly of Him. It is His pleasure whenever His adopted ones are delighted with His beauty.

We should not consider Him as a bare necessary, like to bread and water, but instead as a luxurious delicacy, as a rare and ravishing delight. To this end He has revealed Himself as the “pearl of great price” in its peerless beauty, as the “bundle of myrrh” in its refreshing fragrance, as the “rose of Sharon” in its lasting perfume, as the “lily” in its spotless purity. (Matthew 13:46; Song of Solomon 1:13, 2:1, 2:2, KJV)

Remember how far Christ is exalted beyond the skies, where things are measured by the only true standard. Think how God esteems the Only Begotten, His unspeakable gift to us. Consider what the angels think of Him, as they count it their highest honor to veil their faces at His feet. Consider what the blood-washed think of Him, as day without night they sing His well deserved praises.

High thoughts of Christ will enable us to act consistently in our relations with Him. The more loftily we see Christ enthroned, and the lowlier we are when bowing before the foot of the throne, the more truly we will be prepared to act our part towards Him. Our Lord Jesus desires us to think well of Him, that we may submit cheerfully to His authority. High thoughts of Him increase our love. Love and esteem go together.

Therefore, think much of your Master’s excellencies. Study Him in all His preexistent glory, before He took on Himself human form. Think of the mighty love which drew Him from His throne to die on the cross. Admire Him as He conquers all the powers of hell. See Him risen, crowned, glorified! Bow before Him as Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God, for only then will your love to Him be as it should.

Question: How has God revealed His beauty in your life lately? How can you make a point to share this with others?

About the Author: Charles Spurgeon

“… and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18

She stands watch high over Hickory Nut Gorge, topped off with a giant Stars and Stripes. As I rock on my deck, I can see her, and her flag, clearly as I gaze across the valley. She is relatively young, as the history of the earth goes, some 535 million years, give or take a million or two. I first climbed to her summit forty nine years ago this summer and have admired her majesty ever since. They call her Chimney Rock.

As I once again went to visit her a few days ago, while walking in the rock tunnel to board the twenty-six story elevator ride to the top, I saw a sign that caught my eye. It said “Rocks Can Tell a Story,” and proceeded to explain how one can examine rocks and find out all sorts of things, including the history of the world. My, how true that is.

Indeed, the planet Earth is made of rock, from the tallest mountains to the floor of the deepest ocean. Thousands of different types of rocks and minerals have been found on Earth. Most rocks at the Earth’s surface are formed from only eight elements (oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, and sodium), but these elements are combined in a number of ways to make rocks that are very different and each have a different story to tell.

Though the process is slow, rocks are continually changing. Wind and water wear them down and carry bits of rock away; the tiny particles accumulate in a lake or ocean and harden into rock again. Geologists say the oldest rock that has ever been found is more than 3.9 billion years old. Rocks and the history of the earth are synonymous.

But then I thought how rocks have a deep history in the Christian faith. Rocky sites are referred to many times in the Bible as places of refuge. There are frequent images of God as a rock, that is, a source of protection. Titles of God include: the “Stone of Israel” and the “Rock of salvation.” In Matthew Jesus’ teaching is the rock-solid foundation for life. Peter’s God-revealed confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God is the foundation of the church which lays siege to the gates of Hell.

Some of the most striking and beautiful imagery of the Bible is based upon the rocks. They are a symbol of God. “Be thou to me a strong rock a house of defense to save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress” (Psalm 31:2-3)

Rocks are used for a foundation upon which to build, because they are strong and do not deteriorate. They are much like to Gospel, as it represents both strength and longevity. Jesus’ Word is strong and never changing. It is the foundation upon which we can build a secure life and an assurance of a life to come.

Question: What “rock(s)” imagery in the Bible do you find most personally compelling, and why?

About the Author: John Grant