Hope for Change in 2015

Place Your Life Before God in 2015! Embracing Him and what He does for you each moment is our only hope of Joy Strength, Change, Prosperity, Wholeness, etc.

12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

3 I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. I will let the Word of God speak for itself. Ron Ross

Blessings and Decrees for 2015

“God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.  This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:17-20)

“….. Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27 NKJV)

I bless you family of God to live and function (reign) in an ever increasing atmosphere of hope – where Christ in you, the hope of glory is real and a lifestyle.

I decree that all those who enter your doors will rise above any clouds of doubt and despair into Christ’s hope-filled perspective and Presence – shifting from a lingering sense of hopelessness by embracing the promises and strength of faith-filled, childlike hope.

I decree that 2015 will be known as the Year of Hope – a year where the Valley of Achor (challenges) becomes a “doorway of hope”. (Hosea 2:14-15)

I bless your Inner Journey, where the Holy Spirit pours out His indwelling strength and encouragement upon you and through you. May all seeking refuge and a sure and steadfast “anchor for their soul” be comforted and blessed beyond measure in your company?

I boldly agree that God desires to breathe His life into every area of hope deferred within your life.  And I say, yes and amen! Do it Lord!

I speak life into situations, circumstances and Divine promises in your life which appeared dead or hopeless. May you walk in abundance of grace for each day and let go of all doubt and unbelief. Be still and listen for any shift as God breathes life and His Spirit into your heart.

I declare, Lord, that we put our trust in you; that you are our strong refuge; our rock and fortress.  You, O Lord God, are our hope. (Psalm 71:1-5)

I decree, once again, that You, O God, are good! And I also declare that we “lean on, trust in, and are confident in you with all our hearts and minds and do not rely on our own insight or understanding.  In all our ways we know, recognize and acknowledge You, Lord, and You will direct and make straight and plain our paths.”  (Proverbs 3:5-6) 

Peace and joy in 2015, Ron Ross

Without Question-We Are Loved

Without question, my greatest struggle and crisis of faith is, 'AM I LOVED'? Could it be difficult for you also? This question releases its evil first cousin; 'WILL I BE LOVED? Is being loved and loving contingent upon my doing some proverbial duty, service, and behavior, or am I performing enough and well enough?  Close on their heels is 'Can I Really Love' without impure motive or impunity?

The only correct answer to these questions is simply God is Love. "What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it - we're called children of God! That's who we really are." (1 John 3:1a, Msg) Look deeply into the glory of love! Having begun in Father's unmerited, unconditional, unending love; it elicits the following response!

My beloved friends let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. 8 The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love - so you can't know him if you don't love. 9 This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. 10 This is the kind of love we are talking about - not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. 11 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. 12 No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us - perfect love! (1 John 4:7-12, Msg)

13 This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. 14 Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. 15 Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. 16 We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God. 17 This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and matures in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day - our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. (1 John 4:13-17, Msg)

There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life - fear of death, fear of judgment - is one not yet fully formed in love. 19 We, though, are going to love - love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. 20 If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? 21 The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both. (1 John3:18-21, Msg) 

There can be no less a response with us. The Royal law is to Love God, We and others. Your faith experience of love gives rise to the intensity of your hope. "There remains faith, hope and love; the greatest of these is love." The Abba of Jesus always pursues you and me as a tremendous, unrelenting lover! Herein is the essence of what we call Christianity. This is the Good News of Jesus Christ! This is the Gospel of Grace! Following is what the love of Jesus looks like…it really is all about love!

He Took on the Status of a Slave. If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father...Phil 2

Father, because I am loved and I love...

I don't have to explain myself to you.

I don't have to explain myself to me.

I don't have to excuse myself to you.

I don't have to abase myself before you.

You know all about me, and you call me friend.

You call me your delight.

You call me your beloved.

Because I am loved and I love...

I need not lie prostrate on my face before you.

I am free to run to you.

I am free to run into the circle of your waiting, always open arms, to enter the fullness of your embrace,

to be held safely, strongly, securely, softly against your heart.

Because I am loved and I love...

I don't have to worry about my response or lack of it.

I don't have to struggle with my desire to understand.

I don't have to wrestle with my feeling of unworthiness.

All I have to do is be still, stay close and let you love me.

But because I am loved and I love, I try.

Here I am, Father.

Still, for once. Closer than I've ever been.

Waiting. Accepting. Wanting. Believing.

Love me, Father. I will love. (Inspired by Brennan Manning)

Loved and loving. Ron Ross

Paid in Full

"It cost God plenty to get you and me out of that dead-end, empty-headed life we grew up in."  Is the price Jesus paid for you and me enough? Do you feel that you need to add your (good intentioned) efforts-kind of like the “Cross of Calvary”, plus you? We may need to meditate on the following scriptures to sort out the before questions?
I posted this recently, but have a strong sense from God that someone desperately needs this truth, right at this moment! Please stand with me in intercession for those who truly can’t live another day without the revelation of Calvary.

^3-6 How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

^7-10 Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And just barely free either; abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, and everything on planet earth.
^11-12 It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
^13-14 It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.(Ephesians 1:3-14, Msg) We are not an after- thought or plan 'B'.  I can't give you a better word picture of the efficacy of Calvary’s Cross than Max Lucado.
The Main Event
"History has only one Main Event, Man-kinds time line is dotted with important moments...The first spark from the first flint, the rolling of the first wheel, the treating of the first wound, who dares minimize these events? But, who dares compare them with THE CROSS? History has only ONE MAIN EVENT.
Scripture has only ONE MAIN EVENT. Others matter, but only one is essential. The story of Jericho might stir you, but falling walls can't redeem you. Moses will give you direction for the wilderness, but, no solution for your sin-David's defeat of Goliath might reduce your timidity, but only THE CROSS prepares you for eternity! Scripture has only ONE MAIN EVENT.
Even in the life of Jesus, there is only ONE MAIN EVENT! For if there is no CROSS OF CHRIST-then there is no truth to Christ. And when it comes to your life, the same is true, to remove THE CROSS, is to remove the hinge pin from the door of Hope-the door of your Hope! If there is no CROSS, then there is no sacrifice for sin. And if there is no sacrifice for sin, how will you face a sinless God? Will you cleanse yourself from your own sin?
If there is no CROSS OF CHRIST, then there is no resurrection, and if there is no resurrection how will you live again? Will you push back your own grave? Forgiveness of sin, deliverance from death-these are the claims of the CROSS. Let there be no mistake-the CROSS is not an event in history...It is THE EVENT OF HISTORY!"

THE CROSS makes the journey possible, hopeful, purposeful, powerful and doable...Ron Ross
 

The Gospel According to Jesus

The supreme wonder of the gospel is its present realization of life - life of such unfathomable and enduring quality that it cannot fade for all eternity. World religions may claim to have the answers to the present misery of the individual, but what does it profit a man to achieve harmony with nature yet lose his soul? Jesus offers eternal life now. He said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die" (John 11:25, 26). God bless you. REINHARD BONNKE

The Gospel imparts a hope that is beyond sin, judgment and fear of exposure or death! You will never exhaust the vast ocean of God's love. You will be forever discovering greater lengths, widths, depths, and heights of His love.

A very important verse (so often translated and understood wrong!) is 2 Cor 10:4 and 5 Paul says in the Greek, that we arrest every thought at spear point.
I do live in the world. But I don’t fight my battles the way the people of the world do. ⁴ The weapons I fight with are not the weapons the world uses. In fact, it is just the opposite. My weapons have the power of God to destroy the camps of the enemy.
⁵ I destroy every claim and every reason that keeps people from knowing God. I keep every thought under control in order to make it obey Christ.

This is important to notice, it is the power in the sharpness of the spear that arrests the thought. In the previous verse Paul says, "We have weapons that demolish strongholds!"

A stronghold is typically a mindset, a thought pattern; now if a single thought can activate and engage a complete thought pattern, (almost like opening a complete document on your computer with a single click!) then if that thought can be arrested, the thought pattern is de-activated!

Here is the good news: Paul did not say like most translations do, "we must make thoughts obedient to Christ!”

The Greek says we arrest every thought at spear point by the obedience OF Christ!!!! Our own obedience couldn’t save us under Moses neither can it save us under Christ.

It’s the revelation of the obedience of Christ that gives authority to the weapon that we employ to put every thought contrary to us, under arrest!
(Rom 5:19, the Mirror) The disobedience of the one man exhibits humanity as sinners; the obedience of another man (Jesus) exhibits humanity as righteous. The presence of the law made no difference, instead it merely highlighted the offence; but where sin increased, grace superseded it.

I am hyper-grace and you might as well throw in hyper-love for good measure! And it is not a theological position; it is a lifestyle of Grace through faith in every moment and every experience of my life! "His power (great grace) is made evident in my weakness!" Hyper grace, huh?

From Dictionary.com
hyper: word-forming element meaning "over, above, beyond, exceedingly, to excess," from Greek hyper (prep. and adv.) “Meaning super-over, beyond, overmuch, above measure,"

If we can invent technology that can be an effective anti-virus shield to work even while we sleep, then let’s not underestimate the powerful and effective weapon God has given us in our ability to understand the full implication and benefit we have in the obedience of Christ!!!

2 Corinthians 10:3 The fact that we are living in a physical world in human bodies of flesh does not mean that we engage ourselves in a combat dictated to by the typical “tit-for-tat” strategies of the politics of the day.

10:4 the dynamic of our strategy is revealed in God’s ability to disengage mindsets and perceptions that have held people captive in pseudo fortresses for centuries!

10:5 every lofty idea and argument positioned against the knowledge of God is cast down and exposed to be a mere invention of our own imagination. We arrest every thought that could possibly trigger an opposing threat to our redeemed identity and innocence at spear point! The caliber of our weapon is empowered by the revelation of the global consequence of the obedience of Christ.

10:6 our ears are fine tuned to echo the voice of likeness that resonates within us. We are acquainted with the articulate detail of the authentic voice of our origin.

Love brought me back from the future to live as Jesus, fully human and fully divine by embracing all that today can be in Him!
He has brought me back from the past, trading the shame and failures to live today in the fullness of Mercy and Grace!
He has brought me to another today to live with hope while embracing a love that liberates me to be extra-ordinarily ordinary!
I will enjoy the peace to be at peace with His great love and divine design! I will enjoy Him in me and I in Him each moment of potential called now!

Ron Ross

http://youtu.be/aCGJUcor30M  “Chasing You” Jenn Johnson, from ‘Tides’

You Belong!

The longing to belong is very powerful and foundational to our sense of self. But there is an infinitely greater pull –Father’s. He is constantly seeking us out and calling our heart to his! “My son, give me your heart” (Proverbs) When we respond to this call it becomes a homecoming. The prodigal came to himself while slopping hogs and experienced a homecoming that he never imagined possible. How about you? Do you know beyond a shadow of doubt that you belong? Don’t allow anyone to tell you something else.

 “Make sure no outsider who now follows God ever has occasion to say, ‘God put me in second-class. I don’t really belong. “(Isaiah 56:2 Msg) There are religious outsiders who will judge you. Their only agenda is dissuading your journey to Father’s heart. As a matter of fact they don’t even understand the conversation of the heart. Belonging empowers you to embrace and live in Grace. Belonging is the path to love. And belonging is bigger and louder than the voices of rejection.

To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God's grace means. Brennan Manning Even the darker parts of our journey become a homecoming. In the state of belonging we can truly rest. Read the following scriptures and settle in to belonging.

You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. Eph 2:19 Msg

All the nations in the world shall see that you belong to the Lord, and they will stand in awe. Deuteronomy 28:10 TLB

 If you belong to the Lord, reverence him; for everyone who does this has everything he needs. Ps. 34:9 TLB

“My plea is not for the world but for those you have given me because they belong to you.

And all of them, since they are mine, belong to you; and you have given them back to me with everything else of yours, and so they are my glory! John 17:9-10 TLB

So there is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus. Rom. 8:1 TLB

Just as there are many parts to our bodies, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of it, and it takes every one of us to make it complete, for we each have different work to do. So we belong to each other, and each needs all the others. Rom. 12:4-5 TLB

He has put his brand upon us—his mark of ownership—and given us his Holy Spirit in our hearts as guarantee that we belong to him and as the first installment of all that he is going to give us. 2 Cor. 1:22 TLB

Ephesians 1:3

How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every blessing in heaven because we belong to Christ.

Ephesians 1:6

Now all praise to God for his wonderful kindness to us and his favor that he has poured out upon us because we belong to his dearly loved Son.

Ephesians 1:13

And because of what Christ did, all you others too, who heard the Good News about how to be saved, and trusted Christ, were marked as belonging to Christ by the Holy Spirit, who long ago had been promised to all of us Christians.

Ephesians 2:13

But now you belong to Christ Jesus, and though you once were far away from God, now you have been brought very near to him because of what Jesus Christ has done for you with his blood.

Ephesians 2:19

Now you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God’s very own family, citizens of God’s country and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.

2 Thessalonians 1:12

Then everyone will be praising the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because of the results they see in you; and your greatest glory will be that you belong to him. The tender mercy of our God and of the Lord Jesus Christ has made all this possible for you.

Your greatest glory will be that you belong to him! Ron Ross