With His Life

Greetings in Grace to you, the precious, holy, greatly loved Family of the Living God!

What a truly glorious and exhilarating day to be alive and an intimate part of the plan of God for our nation, and earth, in these last days of THE Great Awakening. What a joy and honor it was to have Bryan and Valerie Greenwood of OutboundLife.org with us this weekend. They carry so much of the Father’s heart that I am always humbled and teachable in their presence.

One of the places that I find great excitement and encouragement from my Good Father is through the comfort of the scriptures. I pray that you have also experienced this powerful revelation as well. Also, it may be a tad surprising for you to hear, but one of the most encouraging books is Revelation. It is not, “Revelation-S,” the way many people say it, but the book of, “Revelation,” because it was writing to give us a deeper, more intimate, and experiential knowing of Jesus Christ. Revelation in the Greek is, “apokálypsis,” which means: “manifestation, unveiling.” It is where we get our English word, “Apocalypse,” which usually carries a foreboding of a future war or destruction. See how the enemy twists the good into bad?

If we understand that Jesus is the Word of God, the Will of God, and the perfect Nature of God, then this book says that we will have an unveiling of these things in a clearer way if we study the prophecy with the comfort of the Holy Spirit. I am aware of the TON of books, teachings, and theology associated with this amazing book, and I am not going to even attempt to unravel all of that in this letter to you… as much fun as that would be. I do want to highlight something that should challenge and encourage you from the twenty-first chapter though:

5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. 

6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 

7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. 

8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Without getting too deep in my Eschatology (the study of End Times), let me just say that I believe these statements above are not for some future generation, but for you and I, Beloved. Jesus is the One Who offers the quality and quantity of life that God Himself possesses. The Zoe Life is often called New Life in scriptures because it is a constantly and consistently generating power flowing from the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit who embodies us as sons of God. So, when Jesus says, “Behold (look intensely upon), I make all things new.” He is not only talking about the new heavens and the new earth, but you and I through the new birth. Remember that ALL means ALL, and only Jesus can truly make that statement as God. As NEW people, our objectives should be to spread this NEW around into the lives and environments that we enter in our daily activities. We should have the same declaration as our Lord and make all things around us (with His power and Spirit) new!

Just to make sure we don’t try to usurp or intellectualize what He was stating… the second half of the verse removes all excuses by doubling down for us the hearer/reader. WRITE! For these words are TRUE and FAITHFUL! What is true is always true and when God says a word is faithful, He is defining that by HIS character as God who cannot lie.

In verse seven, we see an important link between His freely offered grace for newness and our responsibility by faith… to OVERCOME.

• When things are not going well in your health, you are to overcome with His life!
• When things are not going right in your personal relationships, you are to overcome with His life!
• When things are not going well in your thought-life, you are to overcome with His life!
• When things are not going well in your finances, you are to overcome with His life!
• When things do not look to be going well in society and/or government, WE are to overcome with His life!

The full inheritance belongs to the one that overcomes the efforts, deceptions, pressures, and influences of this world’s ways and systems. That full inheritance is living out eternity in, “sonship,” and that does not have to wait until we pass into the, “next life”… that is a promise for us here – now – today! NOW, we have eternal life (1 John 5:11-13) and should have great expectancy to see it released upon an unsuspecting world that incessantly speaks, lives in, and talks death. Go get em’ Beloved!

One of my intentions for today’s letter was to highlight something riveting in verse eight. This is the verse describing the nature of the people who will not have eternal life either in the present or future. In fact, these folks will have torment and misery in the present and future. I want you to look again at that list and notice that position #1 is “fearful” and position #2 is “unbelieving.” I pray that you are being shaken by that truth.

If you were to ask the average Christian what would, “send a person to hell,” the answers would be nearly universally around things like rape, murder, terrorism, and the like. But, notice what Jesus, the Author of life, says are the top two character traits and behaviors… fear and wrong believing… WOW!

Fear is so normal, commonplace, and accepted that our lives and language has been saturated by it. The top two influencers in people’s decision making process, that I have noticed, is money and fear. Fear of getting hurt (be careful!), getting sick (hello… pandemic?!), or getting dead (do not ever take any risks!). I am saying this to challenge us all to look at how much our thinking is affected by this and to start to, “overcome,” by avoiding it like it is the most detestable, “missing of the mark, sin,” that we could ever commit. Reject fear as if it was the devil himself! It took me almost a decade to deal with this in my own life, specifically the fear of other people’s opinions. It is called the, “fear of man,” and I was nearly possessed by it because I wanted to be liked, promoted, accepted, and successful… so I ignorantly feared that all of those benefits were given to me by man… how enormously stupid I was… and for how long. Embarrassing, but real.

Proverbs 29:25
The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.

Now, I am more safe than I have ever been because my trust in my Lord has overcome the old fear of man. The great God Jehovah is merciful!

The #2 position is unbelief or, better said as, wrong belief. You cannot actually, “un-believe,” you can only, “wrong-believe.” The Greek word is, “apistis,” which is the word for faith, believing, or full persuasion (pistis) with an, “a,” on the front which means, “no, not or without.” So, the revelation we should all grasp is that, “unbelief,” is simply not believing what God has said or promised… and instead believing what the world, “science,” society, circumstances and the enemy has said and promised.

Example: 
Philippians 4:19
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus

That is what God says or promises.

World – “The stock market is going to crash! You are going to lose your job! The price of gas is skyrocketing! You are short this month!”

That is what the circumstances say and/or promise.

Who do you believe?

As for me and my family, we will believe the report of the Lord and trust in His Word and promises… EXCLUSIVELY!

We ARE the overcomers, Beloved, and I am stoking your faith-fire to burn away ALL the fear and wrong-believing that is trying to steal the life of God from you. Spend time meditating on these great and precious promises so that you can allow them to immerse you in the life that is readily available on the inside of you.

I call you an OVERCOMER!

With all my love and gratitude,
Steve