Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for Your grace. Thank you for taking on the cross; the divine exchange for our health, wholeness and completeness where we don't deserve. You shed Your precious blood so that we are covered today by Your favor, love and blessings. Amen! Thank you, Jesus.
This week we will take a little break from the series "Seeing Jesus In OT". We will continue next week.
As I was doing the domestic work today, I heard faintly these thoughts running through my mind. "When a person agreed and shared the same sentiments as the other, there is a sense of concurrence for both parties." Whenever two parties come together and share about their same hobbies and interest, usually that conversation or communion will last longer than any couple without any common subject.
And then, I was reminded that this is exactly what the devil wants to do whenever he put bad thoughts in our mind. Previously, we have done the Spiritual Warfare series, we shall not go into it. But, I want to highlight the key to this warfare.
The thing is the devil is good in playing mind game. No doubt about it. If in doubt, go to the beginning in Genesis and see how the devil talked out of Eve and brought sin to this earth and the fall of mankind.
Today, our posture towards this defeated spirit changes because of Christ. We no longer fear him nor be troubled by him. This is something he loves to do in our lives. And when he is able to have concurrence from us (in other words, we bite his bait of doubt, fear, trouble, condemnation or guilt), he could reel in his agenda of poor, weak, guilty, failure, sickness, poverty, disease and of course the ultimatum death into our lives. Because he knows, when we are NOT in Christ, we are OUT of Christ. The Holy Spirit will always point us to Christ, but for the devil, he loves to point us to ourselves. Only when we look at ourselves, we can see our lack. Even when we have done enough, he will remind us that it is not enough. His objective is to draw the attention to ourselves. That is his game plan.
Here is what I love to do whenever I am attacked by this cunning little spirit. I proclaim "I am the righteousness of God in Christ." And I will proclaim as often as I want to and as long as he try to put bad thoughts in me. This is warfare! He fire at me, I fire back by reminding him that he has already been defeated by Christ! Hallelujah!
I am sure in my spirit that the devil must be very frustrated. I believe he hate to hear the word "Christ" or "Jesus" coming out of my mouth. As much as I may not have my act altogether at that very moment of attack, I proclaim my righteousness in Christ anyway. Because that is the truth! I am sure in no time, the devil will have to leave since he can't seem to find my concurrence with him. He cannot find any common subject to continue his plot against me. Amen!
In order to remind the devil of who he is (a defeated spirit who act like a roaring lion 1Peter 5:8) It is so important that we remind ourselves that we are righteous in Christ no matter what! Jesus has paid for our righteousness on the cross. The blood He shed has cleansed us from our sins so that today we can come boldly before the throne of our Almighty God. Amen!
Albert Benjamin "A.B." Simpson (December 15, 1843 – October 29, 1919), a Canadian preacher, theologian, author, and founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA), brought great blessing and converts wherever he preached and his unique gospel of Jesus.
AB Simpson has written over 70 books on the Bible and the Christian life. His many hymns and poems are full of inspiration and truth. One of his writing is called "Himself", I have extracted a portion below in this blog.
I wish to speak to you about Jesus, and Jesus only. I often hear people say, "I wish I could get hold of Divine Healing, but I cannot." Sometimes they say, "I have got it." If I ask them, "What have you got?" the answer is sometimes, "I have got the blessing", sometimes it is, "I have got the theory"; sometimes it is, "I have got the healing"; sometimes, "I have got the sanctification."
But I thank God we have been taught that it is not the blessing, it is not the healing, it is not the sanctification, it is not the thing, it is not the it that you want, but it is something better. It is "the Christ"; it is Himself. How often that comes out in His Word - "Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses", Himself "bare our sins in his own body on the tree"! It is the person of Jesus Christ we want. Plenty of people get the idea and do not get anything out of it. They get it into their head, and it into their conscience, and it into their will; but somehow they do not get Him into their life and spirit, because they have only that which is the outward expression and symbol of the spiritual reality.
I once saw a picture of the Constitution of the United States, very skillfully engraved in copper plate, so that when you looked at it closely it was nothing more than a piece of writing, but when you looked at it at a distance, it was the face of George Washington. The face shone out in the shading of the letters at a little distance, and I saw the person, not the words, nor the ideas; and I thought, "'That is the way to look at the Scriptures and understand the thoughts of God, to see in them the face of love, shining through and through; not ideas, nor doctrines, but Jesus Himself as the Life and Source and sustaining Presence of all our life."
I prayed a long time to get sanctified, and sometimes I thought I had it. On one occasion I felt something, and I held on with a desperate grip for fear I should lose it, and kept awake the whole night fearing it would go, and, of course, it went with the next sensation and the next mood. Of course, I lost it because I did not hold on to Him. I had been taking a little water from the reservoir, when I might have all the time received from Him fullness through the open channels. I went to meetings and heard people speak of joy. I even thought I had the joy, but I did not keep it because I had not Himself as my joy.
At last He said to me - Oh so tenderly - "My child, just take Me, and let Me be in you the constant supply of all this, Myself." And when at last I got my eyes off my sanctification, and my experience of it, and just placed them on the Christ in me, I found, instead of an experience, the Christ larger than the moment's need, the Christ that had all that I should ever need who was given to me at once, and forever! And when I thus saw Him, it was such rest; it was all right, and right forever. For I had not only what I could hold that little hour, but also in Him, all that I should need the next and the next and so on, until sometimes I get a glimpse of what it will be a million years afterwards, when we shall "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of our Father" (Matt. 13: 43), and have "all the fullness of God."
And so I thought the healing would be an it too, that the Lord would take me like the old run-down clock, wind me up, and set me going like a machine. It is not thus at all. I found it was Himself coming in instead and giving me what I needed at the moment. I wanted to have a great stock, so that I could feel rich; a great store laid up for many years, so that I would not be dependent upon Him the next day; but He never gave me such a store. I never had more holiness or healing at one time than I needed for that hour.
He said: "My child, you must come to Me for the next breath because I love you so dearly I want you to come all the time. If I gave you a great supply, you would do without Me and would not come to Me so often; now you have to come to Me every second, and lie on My breast every moment." He gave me a great fortune, placed thousands and millions at credit, but He gave a cheque-book with this one condition, "You never can draw more than you need at the time." Every time a cheque was wanted, however, there was the name of Jesus upon it, and so it brought more glory to Him, kept His name before the heavenly world and God was glorified in His Son.
I had to learn to take from Him my spiritual life every second, to breathe Himself in as I breathed, and breathe myself out. So, moment by moment for the spirit, and moment by moment for the body, we must receive. You say, "Is not that a terrible bondage, to be always on the strain ?" What, on the strain with one you love, your dearest Friend ? Oh, no! It comes so naturally, so spontaneously, so like a fountain, without consciousness, without effort, for true life is always easy, and overflowing.
For the full article, please go to this link: "Himself" by AB Simpson
Grace and peace be with you.
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