Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf.

1 Samuel 14:6 "Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf."Interesting statement. Its kind of a MAYBE. God might...we read on... "Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few." So we see, He might and that He is Able.

I think that many believers will end a statment like the above with "...if it is God's will."

Thats a good thing right? We want to be in the center of his will, we do not want to say or do things that fall outside of his perfect plan for our life. The problem is that God is perfect, WE are not.

We fall short of His perfect will in so many ways we can not begin to understand. We sin when we think we aren't and we do things in the name of the Lord that He never intended us to do, usually not bothering to consider Him in the equation.

We know this so we pray, "if it is God's will". I believe that many christians do not BELIEVE that He WANTS to act on their behalf, so they add this to their prayer in case God does not "show up" because deep down they think they don't deserve his favor.

The problems is we do deserve is favor. Whoa... hey you can't say that, yeah I did and I'll say it again...

YOU DESERVE GOD's FAVOR.

Wait, how is this possible, we just talked about how we ALL sin and fall short, these things can not mutually exist because God will not stand for Sin and therefore if we sin he can't stand FOR us.

Wrong, YOU DESERVE GOD's FAVOR.

Let's say that you drove through McDonalds drive through and they were running one of their contests that you have to collect all the game pieces to win. You got your Big Mac, Biggy Fry, 2 Apple pies and a Diet Coke, cause your trying to save on calories. You peal off the game pieces and toss them into the change tray, saying you'll look at them later, you only keep the Free fry coupon and the get 1 Big Mac with purchase of sandwich of equal value... you get the idea. At the end of the month you have amassed quite a lot of these little game pieces, so many that you can't get to the change underneath to by a Sundae off the dollar menu. It is time to clean out the car and you know that nobody ever wins these things so you take out the coin tray and dump it, fishing out the change before hand. The problem is, all the pieces to win $100,000 cash prize was right there available to you, now in the trash!

Question- You could have won right? But you believed that no body wins, otherwise you would have taken the time to see before tossing the pieces out.

Many Christians feel the same way about their relationship with the Lord. We pray, peel off the sticker and put it in the cash tray, not really thinking anything will come of it. We get a few answered prayers, but when it comes to the big ones we don't think we are gonna win, so we add "if its your will Lord" and we resign ourselves to the fact that He is really not in our Favor and lacks the desire to Do anything of major impact.

But the reality is that the Lord DOES act on our behalf. He can not state that His mercies are new every morning, if He does not renew them right? He did something before the son rose.

I did not misspell that, the Lord did something before He rose. When Jesus died on the cross and took on himself, the wrath of God that was rightfully ours, He received for us the penalty, the scripture even says "He became Sin for us."- 2 Cor 5:21

He became the thing that separates us from God. There is no way around this only THROUGH Jesus' SIN-LESS life. God demanded perfection, he got it through the sacrifice of His perfect Son.

It is now our RIGHT and RESPONSIBILITY to step out in faith toward the things the Lord puts on our hearts to attempt, to step where He alone will make our footing sure, and without out him, failure is eminant.

Again we read ; Samuel 14:6 -Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, "Come, let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few."

Jonathan was taking on the Philistine army with a KID, his only assurance was confidence in the fact the Lord was able and willing. We too must strive to attain this confidence and to take on the strongholds of the enemy in our lives whether they lie in the challenges of our everyday walk or in the spiritual battles that each of us wage daily.

"Lord help us to have the confidence of Jonathan and his young armorbearer, to have a vision of victory so large that without divine intervention failure is certain. Let our trust in the favor we have earned only through Faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Through this and nothing we have done, we are considered joint heirs with Christ, grafted into sonship. So Father, send your army to the battle field of our lives and fight the victorious battle on behalf of your most favored children. And in the future help us to trust you enough to declare in faith with boldness our prayers knowing IT IS your will to act on our behalf."

Conviction vs Condemnation

Hey I'm suppose to be encouraging you on this blog... what's with the heavy stuff?

I think there is fundamental misunderstanding in the minds of many believers with regard to conviction and condemnation. Not understanding the difference can cause you to live a life of defeat and bondage.

If you ask, many people do not know there is a difference, but the Bible makes a clear distinction;

Romans 8:1 - "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,"

So whats all the fuss, we should just believe what it says and move on, hold on to the scripture and turn our back on the feelings that we have of guilt and just press on. Some call it speaking positively, some call it saying no to the enemy's attack, I call it denial.

If all that we do is stuff all the feelings we have and wrap it up in the "hold every thought captive" scripture, we may be missing a tremendous opportunity for growth, an opportunity for blessing and most definetly an opportunity to hear from the Lord.

Lets face it, it starts off the same, the acquisation... You have Sinned.

Okay so there may be some of you out there that say, "I am living a Holy life, set aside for Jesus and I do not sin... Or at least when I do I repent and turn from my sinful ways. " Congratulations you have a holiness card and are probably going to be sainted or something soon.

I am talking to the rest of us that struggle with reality like Paul, saying;

"For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing." Romans 7:19

How did he know this was happening? He listened to something telling him he had commited the sin he wrote about here and that caused him to call himself "the worst of sinners" 1 Timothy 1:16.

Wow, what power of the enemy could have this kind of affect on one of the great fathers of the faith? What scheme of satan could cause him to believe such a lie about himself?

Well, it wasn't a lie.

Be careful from this point forward because what I am about to say may come off as heresy, I promise you I do not mean it to in any way. But it is fundamental to understanding the truth of the severity of our sin.

God and the Enemy agree. They will even say exactly the same thing. You are a sinner, they will both specify what you have done, with excruciating accuracy.

But my God has forgiven me of all my sins.... Your sins are as far from me as the east is from the west." I agree, but why do you still feel the guilt of your sin if this is really true?

Is it because you are really not saved after all? That is what the enemy would have you believe and he will use that card first for a new believer.

Is it because you really didn't mean what you said when you confessed to the Lord your sin? Again that is what the enemy will have you believe.

The problem is that even though we know with our minds the truths of God forgiveness, in those areas where we just can't get past it, we fail to make the full turn away from our sin. I know I have agreed with God and look down at my sinfulness and then start to agree with the enemy who was telling me to ponder long and hard about what I did, I should be ashamed, you should feel bad about how your acting, or what you were doing, you are a terrible person, God can't for give that...the list is endless.... Condemnation.

The time between Conviction and Condemnation is almost indiscernible. We go from trying to turn from our sinfulness and instead put out our hands and allow shackles to be placed on our faith to receive the forgiveness we so yearn for.

You see Conviction is the proving of guilt for a crime.

Condemnation is the pronounced sentence for the crime.

The problem is we agree with enemy's sentence, we should be punished, our simple minds can not handle unmerited forgiveness, we can't earn it so we don't see how its possible.

So what can we do? We have to hold to the one principle we agreed to on the day of our salvation, all scripture is hung on it, and without it there would be no need for Genesis or Revelation or anything in the middle.

Its the WHY - All the comforting scriptures that give us the reminder of the attributes of God's forgiveness are found in the single act of Jesus, paying the penalty of our sin.

No sentence can be pronounced on our sin because Jesus paid it in full. We need to AGREE with Jesus when he says "It is finished" as we hear the shackles hit the ground and we walk in the forgiveness he died for.

"Lord help us to Agree with you that we have sinned but also to agree with you that your Death was enough, once and for all to pay the price for my sin. Help me to spend more time looking at what you did and less time looking at what I did so that you may be magnified in my life.. When the enemy tries to tell me lies to bind me, help me to resist his voice and turn my ear to your voice of forgiveness and freedom."

Why we are Here....Bloggin

Over the years, Stephanie and I have been in various church settings, denominations, non-denominational, traditional and charismatic.

In each of these we have seen one common thread...

Many believers have lost the zeal for their First Love. The honeymoon is over and the bride's dress has become wrinkled and dingy, waiting for the bridegroom, impatiently waiting at that.

I also believe that it is this lack luster life many believers fall into that causes the new converts to fall away so quickly as the trials and struggles of living the faith begins to steal their joy, they look around for help and the life boats are already full, everyone looking to the horizon for their blessed savior to come and rescue them.

We sincerely believe there is another way, a challenging, exciting and rewarding way to live the Christian life. A Spirit filled life of victory, found by stepping out of the safety of the boat and on to the water. The Lord bids you to come.

We desire to come along side you in obtaining this promise of the Lord.