03/28/2019
Do you wake up every morning feeling like you are trapped in a dying body, a body steeped in death? How is it that a war so violently rages within you between the spiritual within and the physical that is without? You are not alone in this conflict between righteousness and sin, but there is assurance of your victory in Jesus. Do not feel like a prisoner of the world when our savior Jesus Christ has set all captives free.
“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Romans 7:24 ESV
It is easy to fall into the trap of hopelessness that Satan sets for us. We find ourselves wrestling with the same vile enemy day after day and we come to the point where we feel like captives of the struggle... trapped in a never ending battle with the world of sin that surrounds us and the weaknesses and longings of our body, but take heart! Many years before Jesus was born there was a prophet, and a prophesy, that told us Jesus was coming, and that He would set us free.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;”
Isaiah 61:1 ESV
Then came Jesus Christ... who was born into the world, and who came to abide in us as the victor over sin and death. All that remains for us to do is turn to Him, and let Him into our lives, and into ourselves. Don’t let Satan convince you that he has an eternal hold on you, or that the sins you are so desperately pitted against can’t be defeated, because in God all things are possible, and He stands ready to take up residence in you with all His strength and power. Jesus says He will come into us, and bring the Father with Him; this gives us reassurance of His victory...
“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
John 17:22-23 ESV
“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
1 John 4:4 ESV
In this way we conquer the sin against which we have been struggling, and gain victory over the temptation that comes against us. Do you believe this, and do you have faith in the absolute power of God over sin and death? Do you believe that Jesus died and was resurrected to redeem you and extend this victory to each and every one of us? If so then as He enters into you the death that you have been steeping in, and which Satan has been threatening you with, is defeated, and you have joined with Jesus in life... eternal life.
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
Romans 8:37 ESV
So our bodies will eventually die to this world because it is given for each of us to die, but we will be raised incorruptible in heaven, and the wage of sin, which was death, will have been defeated forever.
“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”
Romans 8:11 ESV
Are you ready to throw off the trappings of death, and step out of the stench of sin that has surrounded you for so long? Are you ready to take heart, and open yourself up, allowing Jesus to enter in, bringing the Father with Him? Are you ready to experience victory forever in our Savior? Well this is the moment, and He is ready to “deliver you from death.”
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who was born, suffered, died, and was resurrected that I might be freed of sin, and have life everlasting. I thank you for the victory over sin and death that you have brought me by way of Jesus, and the love that this has poured into my life. Teach me Father to love you more each day, and to grow in faith with every breath. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who is victorious over every sin, and brings eternal life to those who were once dying. Praised be you name Lord because there is none stronger than you, and no mercy that can compare to your perfect grace... through Jesus Christ. Holy Father may all glory be yours as I reach out to those who have not heard or accepted the Gospel of Jesus. Father, call out to those in the dark, and those who smell of sin and death, so that your kingdom will find increase by their prayer of salvation.
I pray now that all those who have not accepted you, and Jesus, into their lives will do so now by praying these simple words: “Lord, I am a sinner and I have not lived my life as I should, but I accept you now as my God, and your Son Jesus as my redeemer and savior. Forgive me of my sins Heavenly Father, and let your Holy Spirit come into my heart. I give myself wholly to you, and Jesus Christ. I pledge to love you with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind, and I pray this in the name of Jesus... Amen”
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 15:56-57 ESV
Rich Forbes