Alan Lucas

4 yrs

Believer See, Believer Do!

Joh 5:19 NKJV Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.

The good works which Jesus did He could not have done them without first seeing the Father do them. We who believe in Jesus were created in Him to also do like good works. All we need is to see what Jesus saw and then we too will be able to do the Father’s works. Because of the indwelling presence and gifts of the Spirit, we can see what Jesus saw.

Act 2:17 NKJV 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.

Every believer has been given by the Father the gift to see in visions and dreams the things He does and therefore we can do also.

4 yrs

Rejoice and again God says rejoice!

Those who have taken Jesus and believed upon His name have been born again, born afresh, born from above. All the old things have died, and God has made all things new. You are no longer the old you. You are now a new creation. You have died to sin just as Jesus died to sin upon the cross. You have been raised to new life just as Jesus was raised to life, to live a life unto God forever more, never to be under the dominion of sin again. God has given you a new heart and filled it with His Spirit. The Spirit has given you the desires of God and has given you power to live a new life, a glorious life. As you yield yourself to the Spirit and allow yourself to be led by the Spirit, walking by the Spirit, ordering your life by the Spirit, you will find yourself producing the wonderful fruit of His Spirit within you. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control will flow forth from within you effortlessly, as though it were a spring of living water gushing forth from within you.

But after receiving His Spirit, you one day awaken to find yourself not producing this wonderful fruit, do not despair. Jesus overcame this world for you, He has forever paid the price for all your sins., past, present, and future. You are not under the law that God should have to condemn you. You are under His grace so that He can love you, so that He can renew you daily, cleanse you of your sins continually. Do not allow your sins to overcome you but allow your sins to be overcome by the One who lives within you. Confess your sin, say the same thing about your sin that God has said about them. And what has He said? He said, “It is finished.” He is no longer keeping an account of your sin. Your name is forever recorded in the Book of Life and cannot be blotted out. The Father has given you to His Son, and His Son will not ever lose you or forsake you. The Spirit of Life within you causes you to have and live by faith, and the Spirit of Him who lives within you will bring to completion all that He created you in His Son to do. Your Lord, your God, your Savior will not fail for by His grace you have been saved. You were not saved by obedience to law that God should owe salvation to you. No, God gifted you with salvation in accordance with His grace, so that salvation could forever more be guaranteed to you.

So, allow the Spirit of Eternal Life that lives within you to rule your life today. Put behind you, forgetting the failures of yesterday because God has removed your sins as far as the east if from the west and He will remember them no more. Rejoice and again God says rejoice for how great His love for you is. For nothing can separate you from the love of God that is yours when you are in His Son, and because of His grace, you will always be found in His Son. God has made you a son and joint heir with Christ to all the glory that awaits those who He loves.

5 yrs

How to overcome feelings of failure and worthlessness.

When I get to feeling low, thinking that I am such a failure, and wondering why God would ever be pleased with me, I just remind myself why He chose me in the first place.

1Co 1:26-31 NLT Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. (27) Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. (28) God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. (29) As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. (3 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. (31) Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the LORD.”

That’s grace my friend, totally undeserved and absolutely unearned. His grace always brings me joy and sets my heart on fire. Suddenly I have my strength renewed as I immerse myself in the ocean of His grace. Every time we humble ourselves before Him, He exalts us and lifts us up high. Remember that it is not the self-righteous man who is doing everything right that pleases God, but rather the most unrighteous of men who humble themselves before the God of grace.

Luk 18:9-14 NKJV Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: (1 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. (11) The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. (12) I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' (13) And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' (14) I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

6 yrs

Testing versus Temptation, what is the difference?

God tests believers, ones who has been born of God, to prove that we will hold true to an already revealed truth. Will we react in accordance with the truth or will we abandon the truth for a lie? The purpose of the test is for God to demonstrate to others and satan that we will indeed be faithful to His truth, but if we should fail, then He will demonstrate to all the greater truth, that He will always remain faithful to His word and us, even when we might fail Him. The purpose of a temptation is for satan to demonstrate to us and God that we will not be faithful to the truth of God, that we will abandon the truth for a lie that satan has dressed up as the new truth. Satan desires that God will curse us because of our failure, but God cannot curse us because He has already executed judgement for our sins through the death of His Son, Jesus.

Gal 3:13-14 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE", (14) that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

2Co 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

God tests us and satan tempts us. But worry not! For whether we are faithful to the truth or prove ourselves to be temporarily faithless, God by His grace has forever fixed the outcome.

2Ti 2:13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.