For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. Titus 2:11-14.
For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
I am present as your Helper. But most people do not really see Me that way. They see Me more as judge and observer. I did not send My Son to judge the world, but to save it, and in seeing Him, you see Me.
When the Israelites in Egypt finally remembered Me and cried out to Me, I did not reprimand them for all the years they had forgotten Me, I came down to redeem them with outstretched arm. Same with Gideon and myriads of others to this day.
Many of you desire to please Me, but it seems to you that it eludes your grasp. You do not want to gossip, judge, complain, exaggerate, lie, offend others and take offense yourself, answer in anger, or indulge your emotions and lustful appetites but somehow you find yourself doing these things. And when you do, you feel you have failed Me, you condemn yourself, weep, regret, get angry at yourself, and see yourself as totally incapable of doing things right. You feel that you have destroyed your relationship with Me and must somehow get back in My good graces by stopping these imperfect behaviors and performing perfectly. You see Me as disappointed in you as if your behavior surprised Me.
Now, I want to set things right with you. So come let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet, I make them whiter than snow. If you are willing, I can help you. Learn to lean on Me to become the person you want to be. I want you to have the victory more than you do and I have given it to you in Christ Jesus.
I am present as your Helper. I have even sent you a Helper to live in you and connect you with Me and My saving power, wisdom, and grace at all times forever. Yes, He is the Holy Spirit. I do not leave you alone, I do not leave you orphans, you were not meant to do life by yourself alone.
I emphasize again, you do not have to do things by yourself to live godly and please Me. I am not displeased with you. I see your heart and I know that the flesh is weak. I know how you are formed; I remember that your bodies as they are now are from the dust. But inside you, there is the real you. Spirit.
Holiness is a fruit and not a root of your life with Me. I want to help you, empower you, lead you, direct you, and give you My grace, that is, My life, to be able to please Me in all you do. I gave you Jesus so you could live your life through Him. I gave you all He is and has to use as your own. You are to draw all you need out of Him, like a branch out of the vine, and the result is much fruit without toil but in My rest. You never have to do life on your own to get My approval. You can do it with Jesus, keep your eyes on Him for He is the author and FINISHER of your faith. I gave Him to you as your life coach so that you will come out a winner.
Do everything you do with Him and sing with My apostle Paul, “thanks be to God who always causes me to triumph in Christ Jesus my Lord!” In Christ, I have given you the victory. Hands down. Take peace in that, His peace.
When you arise in the morning, do not dread the day, do not fear and have no anxiety, simply put your hand in Mine and rest in My everlasting arms as you declare, “Papa is going to work with me and in me and through me today so that I only do what pleases Him, just like Jesus.” And each time you feel the tug of sin and feel incapable of disciplining your tongue or your emotions, simply declare “I will not sin today. Sin no longer has power over me, I am under grace. God’s life is in me. I have been delivered from the power of darkness and transferred to the Kingdom of His Beloved Son. He has qualified me to share the glories of the inheritance of the saints in light. He has made me holy, blameless and beyond reproach. I have no interest in sin and the devil has no part in me.”
You can draw all you need from Me. I have given you everything I am and have. That is Covenant. You can lean on Me. But best of you can trust Me to be in you to will and to do all that needs doing to make you live a perfect life of love. Philippians 2:13. If you will let Me, today I will empower you to walk worthy with My grace, help, love, care, protection, direction, leading, teaching, anointing and wisdom. In Christ Jesus, I have created you for good works that I prepared in advance that you might walk them out. You just have to start agreeing with Me and walking with Me. You have to know that I am not against you, I am for you. And all I have is at your disposal and I will complete the good work I have begun in you. There will come a point when you will know I am your Shepherd and there is nothing you lack. And it is then that life becomes fun.
Read what My Spirit wrote for you through My apostle Paul and you will understand: “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:4-7.
My apostle Paul knew the failures of the flesh. He wrote, “For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate . . . For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.” So what is the remedy? Your Helper. “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” And then what does he tell you, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Very few, really very very few, realize how great a love I have for you and how willing I am to intervene, empower you, and make your life beautiful, filled with good things. I take delight in being with you, dwelling among you, and giving you everything that I am and have. I want you to have good success and prosper. I desire above all things that you prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers. Nothing pleases Me more than seeing you walking in the truth. For I know it is then that you are free. If you continue in My Word, you are truly My disciples and then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. What is the truth? My Word is truth, but what is the more important truth you can know and believe? My beloved disciple John knew: “We have come to know and to believe in the LOVE that God has for us.” David knew and it caused him to sing songs of praise and joy to Me even in the darkness of the caves in which he hid from Saul. He never saw Me as afflicting him but as saving him. He was amazed that Saul could chase him thirteen years with the army of Israel and never catch him or harm him. He reveled in My favor and goodness. He found My goodness in everything he gazed upon. And when he fell into the trap of lust and sin, he did not run away from Me, he ran to Me in repentant, heart broken love that he had failed to be the man I believed him to be and he simply asked Me to wash him clean and make him once again the man I believed him to be. And I did. Your sins and offenses I remember no more.
He knew this, that I was for him, never against him. That I was his good shepherd, his helper, his provider, his rock, his teacher, his protector, his fortress, his refuge, his deliverer, the lifter of his head, and his God in whom he trusted. Do you see Me that way even when all things seem to be going contrary to My Word? David never waivered in his good opinion of Me. He knew Me too well. And I showed Myself strong on his behalf. A man very conscious or the Covenant.
I want you to know that I am with you. That I never leave you or forsake you. That I want you to succeed more than you want it and that I am there to make it happen. I am for you all the time. Not just when you “behave,” but especially when you don’t for it is in weakness that My power reaches perfection. Let Me fill up your lack. In Me you are complete, lacking in no good thing. Let Me help you.
Things are much better done together. My Son sent His disciples out two by two. I never ask you to go anywhere alone. I go with you. I am ever present as your Helper. I have called you to be My own. I have called you to partnership with My Son. I have called you to My glory. And I am willing to do all it takes to get you there.
I love you and gave Myself to you in an everlasting Covenant of Love, entered into with Me by My Son as your substitute and representative. And in Him, you are in that Covenant forever. You are with Me always and all that is Mine is yours. I am there for you and that will never change. Let Me fill your cup till it overflows and then some. Dream with Me and let us do great things past finding out. Let Me go to work in you and for you as you walk it out with Me. Who would not want so great a helper without cost on your part?
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:4-10.