Just as 2 Corinthians 5:17 teaches that “old things are passed away.” Who we were doesn’t exist, for God promises:
Our sins are gone. Our past is gone. As believers, we have no past record to pull from. Sins never happened.
Yet because our past is the only weapon to use against us, Satan will use it mercilessly and relentlessly to attack us.
When you begin to live with no limits and no past, victory will come to you, as with Moses and the children of Israel when they were trapped between the Red Sea and the mighty Egyptian army. Moses didn’t see the limitations, for he saw the Lord, who was more real than the natural.
When you begin to live with no limits and no past, victory will come to you, as with David, who in the natural faced the valley of the shadow of death, yet he saw the Lord, not his limitations.
This week I will move beyond those basic foundations.
Lighting the Darkness
Several times in the past I’ve spoken about my dear friends in South Africa, Nellie Roberts and her husband, the late Fred Roberts. They served the Lord so faithfully at Durban Christian Center, but their son, Llewellyn, was not serving the Lord. In fact, he was a drug dealer and increasingly evil.
I’ve mentioned how his mother witnessed to him and prayed for him faithfully. Nothing seemed to turn his open rebellion around. Then God led her to begin declaring over him, “You’re a man of God.”
Recently Llewellyn and I were talking. He shared even more of his story. He was deep into cocaine. When his mother tried to talk to him, he’d curse her.
When she’d say, “You’ll preach the Gospel, son,” he’d go crazy and spew filth toward her.
What she didn’t know was that when she would say, “Son, unless you turn your life over to the Lord Jesus, you’re going to spend eternity in hell,” the demons would stir inside him and agree excitedly: “Yes, yes! That’s where you’re going. You’re damned,” they would agree with her.
But when she started speaking words like, “You’re a man of God who will be used mightily,” the demons would quake and tremble inside Llewellyn. He could actually feel them.
Soon afterward, he had a vision of a massive demon, so powerful that Llewellyn wasn’t able to move. He could barely breathe until Jesus said to him, “Speak My name.” When he did, fear struck that evil spirit, and he fled.
Then Llewellyn saw himself walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and he saw horrible, massive wolf-looking dogs. They came and grabbed him by his arms and tried to take him down. As he struggled, losing strength, God said, “Speak the Word that you heard in Sunday school and from your mother and father.”
He began to speak scriptures that came to his mind, and as he did, those gigantic dog-creatures let go of him and ran.
He was amazed that it worked, of course, but he was even more astounded that as he spoke the words in those verses, his words came out as light.
“The words literally lit up the dark, dangerous path in front of me,” he told me. “The second I said those words, the light shone out of my mouth. The valley of the shadow of death began to shine, too, and I was able to see where I was going. The scripture I quoted drove evil away. In fact, I literally walked into the Word and onto the light.
He had heard the verse many times, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105 [Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)] ). But during that spiritual trial, he walked into that Word that had been placed in his heart as a child by his parents and Sunday school teachers.
It wasn’t long before he surrendered to the Lord and the words his mother had spoken. “You’re a mighty man of God” became a reality. Today, he is a wonderful man of God in Durban, South Africa, where he and his wife, Sylvia, continue to serve a large church.
Light in Your Mouth Bible in hands
I have news for you: there’s light in our mouths too. When the Word is in us, we can light up our path. We can walk into the Word.
Like Moses, we can speak what God tells us to say and do what He tells us to do. We don’t have to walk into the Red Sea and drown, nor do we have to walk back toward the Egyptian army and face certain death. We can move forward into the light of the Word.
Like David, we don’t have to struggle through the valley of the shadow of death; we can walk in the light of God’s Word. We can be in the presence of the Lord.
The way we see God is through His Word, and we have to fill our life with the Word.
Then we can begin walking in the Spirit. Those who live in the flesh do not see the promises of God. The Word of God makes no sense to the flesh. Only those living the new life can see the promises of God.
Moses saw the Almighty Presence of God. He walked into the realm of the Spirit. His mind had nothing to do with it. There was no army behind him, no sea in front of him. All he did was obey God’s Word.
Life in the Spirit does not see what the mind sees. Moses simply walked on the Word because He was moving in the covenant promises of God. The covenant was reality to him. At that moment he saw beyond the natural.
The 12 Spies
Few discover what Moses experienced at the Red Sea and what David experienced as he walked through the valley of the shadow of death, for the realm of the Spirit demands that we see God.
Never was this illustrated more clearly than with the 12 spies.
Numbers 13 and 14 of talk about the children of Israel when they came to Kadesh:
They return from spying out the land after forty days. Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel to the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told him, and said, “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.” Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we are in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13:25-33, NKJV )
These 10 spies did not see God. In their report, they did not mention God one time. They saw the land, the fruit, and the giants, but they did not see God or His possibilities.
It is never about the land. It’s always about seeing the Lord. Joshua and Caleb are the only men who talked about the Lord.
When we see the Lord, it changes everything. Joshua and Caleb had a different vision of the land. They saw God. God was more real to them than the land, fruit, and giants. They saw that God was bigger than all of them. They understood that giants are no longer giants in the presence of God. God is bigger than all of us!
Ten saw the giants, and only two saw God. Caleb and Joshua had the Word in them, and the Word produced power and vision. They didn’t see the giants. They saw the Lord. What happened next illustrates this even more clearly:
So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in the wilderness! Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.” Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. (Numbers 14:1-5, NKJV )
The majority of the Israelites saw everything in a negative light. They saw the natural. They did not see God. They didn’t see the spiritual as Joshua and Caleb did:
But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread, their protection has departed from the, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.… because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.… But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.… Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.” (Numbers 14:6-9 , 22-24 , 30 NKJV)
Imagine!
The children of Israel saw the glory and the miracles, but they never saw God. This is the church’s condition today. It’s possible to see the glory and the miracles and not see the Lord.
Glory and miracles are not enough. You cannot walk in signs and miracles only. You must see God, for when you see Him, you’ll walk with no limitations. You won’t see the giants. You won’t see the valleys. You won’t look back and see the Egyptian army. You won’t look ahead and see the Red Sea. You’ll just see God.
You won’t see your past. You won’t even see your future, for you are not limited to time. You are eternal.
See Yourself as God Sees You : reflection of self in glass
Life in the Spirit is when we see God, not the circumstances. All the 10 spies saw were the giants in the land. They never saw God. They only saw the people.
Life in the Spirit also means that we begin seeing ourselves as God sees us. Paul the apostle wrote:
“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” (Ephesians 1:4 ).
When we see ourselves the old way, the way the devil sees us, we are already defeated. But when we see ourselves the new way, as God sees us "holy and blameless" we can begin saying:
“I am chosen.”
“I am holy.”
“I am loved.”
“I am accepted.”
Holy means no sin. Before the foundation of the world He redeemed us. More than two thousand years ago Jesus gave His life as a sacrifice for us. This means we were forgiven before we ever sinned.
Of course we had to receive Him as our personal Savior and Lord, but the redemption was there long before we were born.
That’s what the Bible says about you.
The Word of God declares that when faith fills our heart, it is the starting point. The instant faith fills our life, it’s the beginning of true reality. We no longer have to walk by sight. We can walk by faith.
We don’t have to see limits and barriers, for life in the Spirit is more real than anything in the natural, so real that like David who practiced the presence of God from childhood, we won’t be terrified by the valley of the shadow of death.
For David, the greater reality was God. So it must be with us, but it takes practice. We must practice the presence of God.
It means spending time in the Word. It means spending time in God’s presence. It means confessing and declaring ourselves as God sees us. And how can we know that unless we have been spending time in the Word?
I’m talking about a world we move into with practice. It gets easier and easier to move from one world to the other. We can live in the natural world, but we can also move into the spiritual world of the unknown, the realm of no limitations.
God is the One we walk into. God is the Word. The Word in us is light. When we speak the Word, demons flee because they fear the Word.
The Shining Path
Increasingly, as you spend time in His presence and His Word, it is no longer difficult to understand, as Moses did, that there is no army behind you. You see only God. There is no Red Sea in front of you. You see only God.
As with the two faithful spies, there are no giants. You see only God.
As with David, there is no valley of the shadow of death, You see only God.
There is no limit in your life if you see God. The past is yours. The present is yours. The future is yours. Jesus is yours.
You are in control of your past, for it doesn’t exist in God’s eyes. Your flesh, mind, and emotions are no longer in control.
Your destiny is in Christ Jesus, for Scripture promises:
“The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18).
The world goes from life to death. Only those who have a destiny in Christ move from death to life. We in Christ go from darkness to light.
You are alive in Christ. Spiritually, you will never die, for He promised:
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me thought he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26, NKJV ).
It is time that you see God!
Moving into the Practice of His Presence
Walking in the Spirit in a world of no limits means putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul wrote:
“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Romans 13:14, NKJV ).
It means never accepting anything but what God has planned for your life. Jesus will give you what the world can never give you: peace and joy. But you can only walk in that realm when you get lost in the presence of Jesus. Let Him make Himself real to you. Then all you want is the Master.
Force out the flesh and the old way of dead-end thinking by spending time in the presence of God. Simply decide what kind of life you want to live.
It is all about Jesus. Worship Jesus. Put on the Lord Jesus day and night, and don’t let the flesh in. The flesh cannot stay in the presence of Jesus. When you are in the presence of Jesus, there is no place for sin.
The Christian life is a simple life. Just live in the presence of the Lord. Avoid places that trigger the flesh. Avoid places that the flesh craves. Strengthen who you are and not who you are not. Choose what and who will run your life.
Focus on the Lord. Paul wrote:
You have not so learned of Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus; that you out off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:20-24, NKJV)
In effect Jesus says, “I have much higher things for you. I want your affections set on Me.”
You and I need the presence of the Holy Spirit. Only He can truly fulfill you. Stay in contact with Him. You can’t do this without practicing His presence.
You can’t do it alone. Let Him teach you:
If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. (Ephesians 4:21-24 )
Learn how to imitate Him. First you receive His life, and then you draw from His life. Doing that, you become more and more like Him. You receive from Him, and you become joined to Him. Read Romans 5 to help you.
The flesh cannot imitate Him. It only comes by the Spirit.
Don’t let anything corrupt you. As you starve the flesh, the life of God will flow. When God comes alive in you, then you are strong. Rejoice in Him in the Midst of Challenges
Moving into Abundant Life
As you move into a no-limits life of walking in the Spirit, you will encounter barriers and trials. The secret is how you see them. Do you see the limitations or God?
The apostle Paul wrote:
“I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10, NKJV ).
God often allows trials in our life to draw the flesh. When we withstand the tests, our faith is strengthened; we become more patient, more perfect:
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (James 1:2-4, NKJV )
Rejoice, no matter what happens, because it weakens the old man when you respond spiritually, not naturally. The new man becomes strong. Your spirit becomes strong.
Trials are God-given opportunities to bring death to the flesh and bring the fullness of Christ in you. Trials resurrect the life of the Spirit. Only when this happens can you experience the holy of Holies.
Trials are difficult, but don’t worry. God will find a way to get you where you have no past, no Red Sea, no Egyptian army, no giants in the land, and no valley of the shadow of death.
Having a divine Mindset
When you begin to understand that God wants you to live without limitations, passages in Scripture such as this literally explode:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth…. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry…. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him. (Colossians 3:1-2 , 5, 8-10 , NKJV)
When you can “set your mind on things above” (verse 2), you can do the rest of the passage. When you set your affections on Him, you can do all things—even what seems humanly impossible.
You are His dwelling place: “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Corinthians 6:17, NKJV ).
It’s time to stop living in the flesh (the natural realm) and to begin walking in the Spirit:
We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18, NKJV )
Last week I began this teaching by sharing 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 and proclaiming that everything is yours, that you can have a life with no limitations.
It’s true. You can walk in the Spirit. You can live a life without limitations. Best of all, you can do it now. Rather than losing any more precious moments with God, spend time with Him through His Word and in His presence.
See for yourself how He will become more real than the natural world all around you. Your faith will soar. Your life will never be the same.
As you dive into the relm of possibility you will begin to see the manifestation for fullness and abundance. I believe that the remainder of 2018 can be your best season ever in every area of your life.
And it is important to be led by God in your finances, as in every other area,
In warmest Christian love,
Our sins are gone. Our past is gone. As believers, we have no past record to pull from. Sins never happened.
Yet because our past is the only weapon to use against us, Satan will use it mercilessly and relentlessly to attack us.
When you begin to live with no limits and no past, victory will come to you, as with Moses and the children of Israel when they were trapped between the Red Sea and the mighty Egyptian army. Moses didn’t see the limitations, for he saw the Lord, who was more real than the natural.
When you begin to live with no limits and no past, victory will come to you, as with David, who in the natural faced the valley of the shadow of death, yet he saw the Lord, not his limitations.
This week I will move beyond those basic foundations.
Lighting the Darkness
Several times in the past I’ve spoken about my dear friends in South Africa, Nellie Roberts and her husband, the late Fred Roberts. They served the Lord so faithfully at Durban Christian Center, but their son, Llewellyn, was not serving the Lord. In fact, he was a drug dealer and increasingly evil.
I’ve mentioned how his mother witnessed to him and prayed for him faithfully. Nothing seemed to turn his open rebellion around. Then God led her to begin declaring over him, “You’re a man of God.”
Recently Llewellyn and I were talking. He shared even more of his story. He was deep into cocaine. When his mother tried to talk to him, he’d curse her.
When she’d say, “You’ll preach the Gospel, son,” he’d go crazy and spew filth toward her.
What she didn’t know was that when she would say, “Son, unless you turn your life over to the Lord Jesus, you’re going to spend eternity in hell,” the demons would stir inside him and agree excitedly: “Yes, yes! That’s where you’re going. You’re damned,” they would agree with her.
But when she started speaking words like, “You’re a man of God who will be used mightily,” the demons would quake and tremble inside Llewellyn. He could actually feel them.
Soon afterward, he had a vision of a massive demon, so powerful that Llewellyn wasn’t able to move. He could barely breathe until Jesus said to him, “Speak My name.” When he did, fear struck that evil spirit, and he fled.
Then Llewellyn saw himself walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and he saw horrible, massive wolf-looking dogs. They came and grabbed him by his arms and tried to take him down. As he struggled, losing strength, God said, “Speak the Word that you heard in Sunday school and from your mother and father.”
He began to speak scriptures that came to his mind, and as he did, those gigantic dog-creatures let go of him and ran.
He was amazed that it worked, of course, but he was even more astounded that as he spoke the words in those verses, his words came out as light.
“The words literally lit up the dark, dangerous path in front of me,” he told me. “The second I said those words, the light shone out of my mouth. The valley of the shadow of death began to shine, too, and I was able to see where I was going. The scripture I quoted drove evil away. In fact, I literally walked into the Word and onto the light.
He had heard the verse many times, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105 [Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)] ). But during that spiritual trial, he walked into that Word that had been placed in his heart as a child by his parents and Sunday school teachers.
It wasn’t long before he surrendered to the Lord and the words his mother had spoken. “You’re a mighty man of God” became a reality. Today, he is a wonderful man of God in Durban, South Africa, where he and his wife, Sylvia, continue to serve a large church.
Light in Your Mouth Bible in hands
I have news for you: there’s light in our mouths too. When the Word is in us, we can light up our path. We can walk into the Word.
Like Moses, we can speak what God tells us to say and do what He tells us to do. We don’t have to walk into the Red Sea and drown, nor do we have to walk back toward the Egyptian army and face certain death. We can move forward into the light of the Word.
Like David, we don’t have to struggle through the valley of the shadow of death; we can walk in the light of God’s Word. We can be in the presence of the Lord.
The way we see God is through His Word, and we have to fill our life with the Word.
Then we can begin walking in the Spirit. Those who live in the flesh do not see the promises of God. The Word of God makes no sense to the flesh. Only those living the new life can see the promises of God.
Moses saw the Almighty Presence of God. He walked into the realm of the Spirit. His mind had nothing to do with it. There was no army behind him, no sea in front of him. All he did was obey God’s Word.
Life in the Spirit does not see what the mind sees. Moses simply walked on the Word because He was moving in the covenant promises of God. The covenant was reality to him. At that moment he saw beyond the natural.
The 12 Spies
Few discover what Moses experienced at the Red Sea and what David experienced as he walked through the valley of the shadow of death, for the realm of the Spirit demands that we see God.
Never was this illustrated more clearly than with the 12 spies.
Numbers 13 and 14 of talk about the children of Israel when they came to Kadesh:
They return from spying out the land after forty days. Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel to the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told him, and said, “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.” Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we are in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13:25-33, NKJV )
These 10 spies did not see God. In their report, they did not mention God one time. They saw the land, the fruit, and the giants, but they did not see God or His possibilities.
It is never about the land. It’s always about seeing the Lord. Joshua and Caleb are the only men who talked about the Lord.
When we see the Lord, it changes everything. Joshua and Caleb had a different vision of the land. They saw God. God was more real to them than the land, fruit, and giants. They saw that God was bigger than all of them. They understood that giants are no longer giants in the presence of God. God is bigger than all of us!
Ten saw the giants, and only two saw God. Caleb and Joshua had the Word in them, and the Word produced power and vision. They didn’t see the giants. They saw the Lord. What happened next illustrates this even more clearly:
So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in the wilderness! Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.” Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. (Numbers 14:1-5, NKJV )
The majority of the Israelites saw everything in a negative light. They saw the natural. They did not see God. They didn’t see the spiritual as Joshua and Caleb did:
But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread, their protection has departed from the, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.… because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.… But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.… Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.” (Numbers 14:6-9 , 22-24 , 30 NKJV)
Imagine!
The children of Israel saw the glory and the miracles, but they never saw God. This is the church’s condition today. It’s possible to see the glory and the miracles and not see the Lord.
Glory and miracles are not enough. You cannot walk in signs and miracles only. You must see God, for when you see Him, you’ll walk with no limitations. You won’t see the giants. You won’t see the valleys. You won’t look back and see the Egyptian army. You won’t look ahead and see the Red Sea. You’ll just see God.
You won’t see your past. You won’t even see your future, for you are not limited to time. You are eternal.
See Yourself as God Sees You : reflection of self in glass
Life in the Spirit is when we see God, not the circumstances. All the 10 spies saw were the giants in the land. They never saw God. They only saw the people.
Life in the Spirit also means that we begin seeing ourselves as God sees us. Paul the apostle wrote:
“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” (Ephesians 1:4 ).
When we see ourselves the old way, the way the devil sees us, we are already defeated. But when we see ourselves the new way, as God sees us "holy and blameless" we can begin saying:
“I am chosen.”
“I am holy.”
“I am loved.”
“I am accepted.”
Holy means no sin. Before the foundation of the world He redeemed us. More than two thousand years ago Jesus gave His life as a sacrifice for us. This means we were forgiven before we ever sinned.
Of course we had to receive Him as our personal Savior and Lord, but the redemption was there long before we were born.
That’s what the Bible says about you.
The Word of God declares that when faith fills our heart, it is the starting point. The instant faith fills our life, it’s the beginning of true reality. We no longer have to walk by sight. We can walk by faith.
We don’t have to see limits and barriers, for life in the Spirit is more real than anything in the natural, so real that like David who practiced the presence of God from childhood, we won’t be terrified by the valley of the shadow of death.
For David, the greater reality was God. So it must be with us, but it takes practice. We must practice the presence of God.
It means spending time in the Word. It means spending time in God’s presence. It means confessing and declaring ourselves as God sees us. And how can we know that unless we have been spending time in the Word?
I’m talking about a world we move into with practice. It gets easier and easier to move from one world to the other. We can live in the natural world, but we can also move into the spiritual world of the unknown, the realm of no limitations.
God is the One we walk into. God is the Word. The Word in us is light. When we speak the Word, demons flee because they fear the Word.
The Shining Path
Increasingly, as you spend time in His presence and His Word, it is no longer difficult to understand, as Moses did, that there is no army behind you. You see only God. There is no Red Sea in front of you. You see only God.
As with the two faithful spies, there are no giants. You see only God.
As with David, there is no valley of the shadow of death, You see only God.
There is no limit in your life if you see God. The past is yours. The present is yours. The future is yours. Jesus is yours.
You are in control of your past, for it doesn’t exist in God’s eyes. Your flesh, mind, and emotions are no longer in control.
Your destiny is in Christ Jesus, for Scripture promises:
“The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18).
The world goes from life to death. Only those who have a destiny in Christ move from death to life. We in Christ go from darkness to light.
You are alive in Christ. Spiritually, you will never die, for He promised:
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me thought he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26, NKJV ).
It is time that you see God!
Moving into the Practice of His Presence
Walking in the Spirit in a world of no limits means putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul wrote:
“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Romans 13:14, NKJV ).
It means never accepting anything but what God has planned for your life. Jesus will give you what the world can never give you: peace and joy. But you can only walk in that realm when you get lost in the presence of Jesus. Let Him make Himself real to you. Then all you want is the Master.
Force out the flesh and the old way of dead-end thinking by spending time in the presence of God. Simply decide what kind of life you want to live.
It is all about Jesus. Worship Jesus. Put on the Lord Jesus day and night, and don’t let the flesh in. The flesh cannot stay in the presence of Jesus. When you are in the presence of Jesus, there is no place for sin.
The Christian life is a simple life. Just live in the presence of the Lord. Avoid places that trigger the flesh. Avoid places that the flesh craves. Strengthen who you are and not who you are not. Choose what and who will run your life.
Focus on the Lord. Paul wrote:
You have not so learned of Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus; that you out off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:20-24, NKJV)
In effect Jesus says, “I have much higher things for you. I want your affections set on Me.”
You and I need the presence of the Holy Spirit. Only He can truly fulfill you. Stay in contact with Him. You can’t do this without practicing His presence.
You can’t do it alone. Let Him teach you:
If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. (Ephesians 4:21-24 )
Learn how to imitate Him. First you receive His life, and then you draw from His life. Doing that, you become more and more like Him. You receive from Him, and you become joined to Him. Read Romans 5 to help you.
The flesh cannot imitate Him. It only comes by the Spirit.
Don’t let anything corrupt you. As you starve the flesh, the life of God will flow. When God comes alive in you, then you are strong. Rejoice in Him in the Midst of Challenges
Moving into Abundant Life
As you move into a no-limits life of walking in the Spirit, you will encounter barriers and trials. The secret is how you see them. Do you see the limitations or God?
The apostle Paul wrote:
“I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10, NKJV ).
God often allows trials in our life to draw the flesh. When we withstand the tests, our faith is strengthened; we become more patient, more perfect:
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (James 1:2-4, NKJV )
Rejoice, no matter what happens, because it weakens the old man when you respond spiritually, not naturally. The new man becomes strong. Your spirit becomes strong.
Trials are God-given opportunities to bring death to the flesh and bring the fullness of Christ in you. Trials resurrect the life of the Spirit. Only when this happens can you experience the holy of Holies.
Trials are difficult, but don’t worry. God will find a way to get you where you have no past, no Red Sea, no Egyptian army, no giants in the land, and no valley of the shadow of death.
Having a divine Mindset
When you begin to understand that God wants you to live without limitations, passages in Scripture such as this literally explode:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth…. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry…. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him. (Colossians 3:1-2 , 5, 8-10 , NKJV)
When you can “set your mind on things above” (verse 2), you can do the rest of the passage. When you set your affections on Him, you can do all things—even what seems humanly impossible.
You are His dwelling place: “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Corinthians 6:17, NKJV ).
It’s time to stop living in the flesh (the natural realm) and to begin walking in the Spirit:
We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18, NKJV )
Last week I began this teaching by sharing 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 and proclaiming that everything is yours, that you can have a life with no limitations.
It’s true. You can walk in the Spirit. You can live a life without limitations. Best of all, you can do it now. Rather than losing any more precious moments with God, spend time with Him through His Word and in His presence.
See for yourself how He will become more real than the natural world all around you. Your faith will soar. Your life will never be the same.
As you dive into the relm of possibility you will begin to see the manifestation for fullness and abundance. I believe that the remainder of 2018 can be your best season ever in every area of your life.
And it is important to be led by God in your finances, as in every other area,
In warmest Christian love,
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