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15 Minutes Psalm 102:27 God has a people who will continue to grow in their knowledge of who God is and, hopefully, in their intimacy with Him. There is a God that worldly wisdom wants, and there is a God who is as divine wisdom teaches...and they are not the same God. Dulled spiritual senses lead to a harden heart so that these become comfortable with or complacent about studying to show themselves approved. Overwhelmed by God’s divine candor, and lacking humility, too many reside in ignorance. Prayerfully looking at the passages studied again and reflecting on the different aspects of God presented with care and concern under the guidance of the Holy Spirit will transform natural views by conceptual evidence of truth. See God’s power, God’s authority, infinite power, unlimited authority. Almightiness applies to the God of the bible. The faculty of God is such that He can perform all things in polarity, having two opposite or contradictory tendencies or aspects according to His will. Deuteronomy 32:39 Isaiah 45:7 Romans 9:13 God is the Most High who is the Creator who by His word and through His wisdom gave the vast universe its form, stability, and regularity. Have we learned that God’s intervention generally consists in the reestablishment of order, arranged according to a plan, is the same for all people: the Israelites of the northern kingdom, the Judeans of the southern kingdom, the Arameans of Damascus, and the Assyrians and others for His performance. God’s elect knows the God of the last judgment. Our faith in God is to sum up all the attributes of the Being who is ruler of all the universe, perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness, who is worshipped as the very source of all things visible and invisible. Let’s try to reason with truth. We were created not according to “man-kind” but according to “God-kind”, according to the image of God. God desires to gain an image, an expression, in humanity, and for this He created man according to His character image inwardly and bearing His behavior likeness outwardly. The fullness in the understanding of the word of God speaks of how God will gain His image being expressed corporately in man. We need to ask ourselves as we reason with God Is there any difference between image and likeness? What is the image of God? How can an invisible God have a visible image? Who can be the image of God? How can we as human beings have God’s image and bear His likeness? We are to be God’s expression on earth. We are made in such a special way that even our redemption required a change in heavenly things...a different expression. His change was necessary that we might be changed that at the time of his manifestation we will see him as he is and be like him. II Corinthians 3:18 Is our God omniscient...all knowing? Did our God know that as man we would fall? Why did our God create man in His image, His likeness? We were not created as a hopeful experiment for God. We were created to reflect the beauty, the goodness, the creativeness, the holiness of God. We were to be so like Him, not in His omni spheres, but in attaining always unto godliness in every revealed realm of life. God is so creative that diversity is innate within His power to inclusively connect and unite all creation in uniqueness and interrelation. Creation is so organized that whatever we do has universal repercussions. As we reason about God's good creation and our place in it, we come to a great starting point and important truth. God expects us to change. It is as His likeness was determined to show all more of His glory as He condescended in the form of humanity that was determined to give us the power to ascend unto heavenliness. Be not obsessed with God’s changing from Spirit to flesh and blood to flesh and bone. Rather be obsessed with the reasoning of how and why God created us with the power to effect outcome by choice as a “likeness” of His attributes. God expects us to change; He expects us to think differently, and therefore to act differently from the world, and from the way we have been in the past. And it is because we have Jesus that we count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. Look at what we choose to do for his sake. Philippians 3:7-14 Things that we choose to leave behind are more than the things we failed in. They more meaningfully are those things whereby we were highly successful in. We reason that clinging to what we perceive to be the best part of ourselves is to lose Christ. With pride as our motivator, we might be tempted to look back on our lives to our own perceived successes and dwell on the way things used to be. It certainly is not wisdom that we seek to return. Ecclesiastes 7:10 We reason that the most important thing is our soul’s salvation. Everything else in life, past successes in particular, are not adequate at all in succeeding in what matters most. God’s priority is to save us. What “likeness” is in us that we set our minds on things above? We change our minds about what it means to worship God as coming to His likeness shifts our mindset and anchors our perspective on the sacrifice of Christ that provides our salvation. We reason the essence of true worship is not external, but internal, heart and head, sentiment and thought, spirit and truth. Worship will push us into our destiny and cleanse us of our past and we will change our behavior by doing what we know is right in serving our brother and sister. God loves us just as we are and better still God loves us so much that He will not let us stay there. God does not want to make us like Him. He wants to make us like Jesus...human with an indwelling divine spirit. That is why we need no more proof of God’s love...look to the cross. Luke 2:52 Romans 8:28, 29 God designed this destination for us long ago before we were created. And it was on purpose. Why did God determine all things before ever bringing forth anything? God does not change our circumstances. In His likeness He wants us to reason through our circumstances to begin to transform back to the “image”. Peace, wonderful peace comes to us as the reason of and when we learn from Jesus, we find rest for our souls, no matter what our circumstances are. God’s greatest change was from the Spiritual to the accommodation of the indwelling the human body. The Holy Spirit made his body a “meet habitation” for his holy soul, every way ready and complying with all actings of grace and virtue. The Spirit preserved the divine nature of Jesus as pure from all defilement of sin from the stock of sinful flesh of common humanity. And so we know that God does not change His mind, not in an eternal sense. However, He does in a temporal sense.

15 Minutes God is in accordance with His love. There is nothing that we could ever say to give expression to God’s ultimate highness and authority, it cannot be even thought of by another or any other. If we could only experience God. If our closeness with God was as internal silence. Just deep breathing. In..., out...! In, out. Feel God in your heartbeat. Think how our wordlessness can speak the awe of His glory as we wonder before God. God is so wonderful in His judgment, in His redemption, in His revelation, in His promises, that as we know Him, we are humbly struck silent. God is not some distant Being whom we worship by description only. Worshiping God illuminates our understanding. It models our faith reflectively to explore the old and the new testaments to reason with the obsolete phenomenon rather than the traditional theological explanation. In this, the Holy Spirit discloses and makes known different functions and meanings in diverse texts and contexts. Oh, if only we had the wisdom, the reasoning to conceptually explain sensibly how God could be understood to be God. We consider His relationship, His agency, His attributes. Our approach...to what can God be likened? What similarities to another god can be attributed to God? None, there can be no other god. And because our faith is shaped by the Christ-event, we look to our investigation of Jesus as our central Word for the uniqueness of proclaiming God as the ultimate reality of all things as the one cannot be without the other. This reality is of such excellence that God humiliates God self in Jesus unto death and predetermination. Nothing that God does can be sub-summed to the compliment that God the Father acknowledges His Son. God leads history to the purpose God has chosen. And because He is God, He, the holy One and He, the only One. This is a “vertical” relation. God is above anything else in authority and power. God is free to decide and to act in order to achieve God’s purposes. But this relation also has a “horizontal”, historical aspect. God leads God’s people as a shepherd to their future of peace and justice. In this sense God is proceeding to God’s kingdom. And God’s kingdom is a reality in this world and is being realized. God’s true power is the power He has given us to make judgment choices. That was part of the creation image and likeness. And to live that image, that likeness is the exercising of our choice as it is determined by God’s character, God’s will, God’s purposes, God’s mercy and righteousness. And with this awesome gift of free will, of choice, we are to have wisdom as reasoned with God. That means with every choice we are to realize the sure consequences. So, it is more than just the power of choice...it is the power of the right choice as it reflects the mind of Christ. And there’s an even deeper dimension...God’s purpose to reproduce Himself. God is a Family. And He loves to have sons and daughters. Otherwise, we would not have been created in His image (God’s character) and in His likeness (God’s features). The marring brought that to an end. So, now the power of God is working in accordance with the word of God in our lives, we speak God's word. And we speak simply because we have found our place in God, the life and the power of God is at work in us, and we gain command over life issues and circumstances. We walk in God's way. We have an understanding and knowledge of who God is as we bring His express image to others. The power to suffer and to die for others is love; the power to suffer and die for another is ultimate, divine, perfect love. God’s determination in His people reaches this dimension. And this power of God cannot have a more competent element, a more credible witness than the love, the life of Jesus. This power is indeed often hidden in human life and in the history of this world. But the crucified is risen and exalted. This means that our understanding of God’s power must be in accordance with God’s love. No means of manipulation, threat and coercion...choice alone. God’s power cooperating with human power without diminishing it. God is the unchangeable changer. He cannot gain or lose His attributes. But He does grow in grace and mercy. And whatever the circumstances we find ourselves in, the power of the Most High God is able to change the situations for good as He determined in the counsel and it is by our prayers that He accomplishes His will. When we reasonably investigate God’s specific promise that He does not change, His promise is based upon His character and His authority to uphold it. When God says He does not lie, it is because God’s nature is truthful and He has the power to uphold that truth. When God says He does not break His promises, it is because His nature and authority does not permit it. God said He does not change, this promise is specifically in reference to His covenantal promise to Israel that He would bless all nations through them despite their disobedience. Yet God offered to move that promise from Abraham to Moses. Was this design of intervention, of changing the fate decisioned in the Determinate Counsel? Pray, study, and reason with the 32nd chapter of Exodus. God has every right to judge us in our sin but consider the situation and the appeal in that passage because He promised to fulfill His covenant of redemption for mankind through Abraham. This covenant promise of God was fulfilled by the arrival of God Jesus in the flesh. When Jesus became flesh, God was changing. In fact, this is His providential fulfilling of the promise He gave beginning in Genesis 3:15 and 12:1-3 just as He said He would. Did God become flesh in order to fulfill His promise...it was determined ever before there was anything except the Godhead in Determinate Counsel. To best reason with this, one must understand the difference between nature and position. In order, for God to be faithful and always fulfill His covenant promises, it must require that His character, His nature never change. However, such promises do not necessitate that His position cannot change. Pause. We’ll return to this thought shortly. Remember the promise of Malachi is that God’s promise will not change based upon His truthful nature. Oh, what ignorance we possess when we fail to realize, to reason with the full influx of the truth as it is presented by God Himself. God calls us foolish, having no understanding, no knowledge. If we would but ask for wisdom, not thinking we know what we do not. To what is our God referring when He instructs us that He changes not. To what humbling state of hearing are we to ascend to gain the insightfulness to reason with His purposes determined for our attaining? Hear and consider, think and reflect... Malachi 3:6 Let’s ratify this change not comment. Here we have God's immutability asserted by Himself, and glorified in it. Is God a just revenger of those that rebel against Him? Is He the bountiful rewarder of those that diligently seek Him? In both these He is unchangeable. He is as much an enemy to sin as ever He was, and impenitent sinners will find Him so. God’s judgment is never antiquated, or out of date, but against those that go on still in their trespasses the curse of His law still remains in full force, power, and virtue. Israel had reason to say that He was an unchangeable God, for He had been faithful to His covenant with them and their fathers; if He had not adhered to that, they would have been consumed long ago and cut off from being a people; they had been false and fickle in their conduct to Him, and He might justly have abandoned them, and then they would soon have been consumed and ruined; but because He remembered His covenant, and would not violate that, nor alter the thing that had gone forth out of His lips, they were preserved from ruin and recovered from the brink of it. It was purely because He would be as good as His word. Now as God had kept Israel from ruin, while the covenant of peculiarity remained in force, purely because He would be faithful to that covenant, and would show that He is not a man that He should lie, so, when that covenant should be superseded and set aside by the new covenant, Jesus, and they, by rejecting the blessings of it, lay themselves open to the curses, God will show that in the determinations of His wrath, as well as in those of His mercy, neither is He a man, that He should repent, but will then be as true to His threatenings as previously He had been to His promises. If we are wise, or if we are becoming wise, we may all apply this very sensibly to ourselves; because we have to do with a God that changes not in His character. However, God can in His nature lower Himself in position, to the point of a servant in order to best fulfill His promises. He doesn’t have to change His character to do this, rather He lowers Himself in His nature to do this. He takes on a different position. In fact, we could take it one step further and say, Jesus’s position lowers so that he can fulfill his promises in accordance with his nature. This is our Sovereign God. Philippians 2:5-8

20 Minutes Please, please let us hear, let us speak the word. Not just as simply sounds, but as real power. Our words may not manifest reality to bring forth worlds, but they can manifest the faith in the uniqueness and power of God to give us wisdom that the words we speak are actually the overflow of our hearts in communion with all our brothers, sisters, and strangers. God gives us such blessings in the seriousness of the word that when spoken to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have in all readiness, they hear why and how we love the Lord. Our words should demonstrate the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives. When the word is serious to us it causes our thoughts to line up with God’s patterns to teach, correct, rebuke, encourage, direct, guide, comfort, and confront. God’s word is never contradictory when we have the mindset to effectively relate to the scripture. We should always evaluate our perception of the word to see if there’s anything holding us back from hearing God speak through the Word. Do we not understand that the word empowers us to intentionally interact with God. When we stall God’s word as though we know all that it has to say, we need to adjust our attitude. We should with deep sorrow and celebratory joy have the attitude of expectancy that with every word studied we learn something new about who God is. The word, when believed in seriously, will deposit revelation and understanding, reason and wisdom of the truth that we never come to the end of all there is to learn about God. With His character is revealed the reasoning of His interactions, His involvements with His people. The word is a testament to God’s movement designed to confirm His promises toward us. He wants us personally involved in His experience. That’s why it is so important that we know the word is serious as it is presented in every event of the bible. The problem is that too many cannot discern the difference between their words and God’s words. God speaks from the posture of truth and love. There are too many of us who speak from the stance of judgment and self-importance. Remember, there is another name for the One who guides us into all truth. It is “The Comforter”. Words should be filled with peace in reasoning by faith with what is written...it is God! And negative word without reasoning is just self-talk because of unfamiliarity with the word. There are to be no human add-ons. We will only hear God’s word when the Holy Spirit nurtures the mind. It is the word that gives us evidence of God’s character and His mind. In this God wants us to see, to hear how He relates in the various situations, circumstances, and events that are brought forth for our learning, for our knowledge of the scriptures and laws and in the midst of the most violently oppressive times ever known. He wants us to be filled with an absolute certainty as to the real and different path to peace, love and truth. Where else would such clarity and certainty come from other than the very God whose word is serious. The Word is expressed as a radical and essential message from God. It is a sword. This two-edged sword is the word spoken by one and heard by the other that convicts, convinces, and transforms by the word, both the speaker and the hearer. It is a dialogue. It forms an unbreakable bond with God. It is His will, and our purpose in life. It is manifested in the flesh. God’s Word is a Person and His name is Jesus Christ, our perfect Savior. The whole bible is about Him. The whole bible testifies of Him. Knowing the word is knowing more about the Son’s Father, the Father’s Son, and the Spirit that is Them. It is God with us in the beginning and in His coming quickly. Please see the evidence of the power of the word. Study the, “And God saids”, in Genesis chapter one. And when you get to the second chapter and hear the very climax expressed in the resting, the blessing, the sanctifying, pray. Is there a lesson here? The sabbath was made for man that we may by the word rest in God as we are being blessed by Jesus as we are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit in our communing with the Godhead. God created by resting. The Sabbath was of a different form than was the other days. Everything brought forth on the six days was outwardly visible. But the Sabbath symbolizes to God's children the fact that God is still creating by the word. It is the Sabbath that is producing in us the eternal and everlasting life. The Sabbath is that spiritual dimension of life that the physical alone cannot supply. Toward this end, the Sabbath is no mere afterthought of a tremendous creation. It is the deliberate word of God saying, “I am not yet finished creating. I am reproducing Myself, and you are to be the pleasure of My spiritual creation." By God's own word, He is memorialized and therefore honored by our observance of the Sabbath. God ceased what He was doing in the role of Christ as our Sabbath rest. There is coming a permanent rest for the people of God for the Sabbath is the foreshadowing of Christ in whom we rest and are blessed and are sanctified and are made holy. Jesus is the Word to whom we come, and he is our Sabbath rest in the flesh. Colossians 1:16, 17 Matthew 11:28 God’s Word is so powerful because it gives us all the answers we need for living a godly life. The bible itself is that word which gives us the understanding of the importance of the Word of God. The word is serious. The word is that truth that confirms our being made in the image, the likeness of God as it is His spirit that was breathed into us. Mere humans need food and water to sustain them physically. But our spirit doesn’t need food and water. It needs God’s word because God is Spirit. We are enduring by His word in this world. It is that pillar of truth that supports every teaching for the sum of God’s word is truth. And there is no way we will feed on the Word of God and not grow spiritually. And in that growth our faith progresses in building a deeper relationship with God. The word is serious. I first learned how serious it was when my momma told me as a child that every word in it was truth. That was an important moment for me. That is when I challenged God. I told Him that I would not accept His every word unless I was taught it under a tree. It was a stamp for good. That’s where Jesus saw Nathanael and it was “a” Nathaniel that God first used to teach me. John 1:48, 50 All things that happen to us along the way are determined. The word is serious. Our ultimate belief in the word of God comes when God allows us to come see. John 4:29 The word is determined by God, defined by God, and so are we. And therefore, we cannot know who we are without God. We can’t know who we are individually until we are saturated with His Word telling us. It is the word that moves us from the bible to the truth. Many read and study the bible but fail to understand the truth. Why? Their spirit does not resonate with the Word. They don’t come to see Jesus. Too many people believe what seems right to them. Why can’t they come to the truth of the word of God? They forget they are children. God says “ask”. We ask questions for answers. To come to the truth, you should ask What and Why and When and How and Where and Who. Asking questions is the key to understanding. God wants us to learn how to ask the right questions and reason with Him to reveal the right answers. Reasoning with God through the word is bible study. If anyone is so indifferent to the word as to just deny it without reasoning what can the Holy Spirit teach you. Do you remember that question put to Jesus – what is truth. The powerful aspect of truth is that it is the word in all seriousness. It is the individualization of the word that corresponds to our being. Truth is God’s mind, thought, word. Christ is the truth. And truth is not just saying anything you feel like saying. Study the word of God as they are what God means. When you realize it is He who speaks the word, you will know that you have truth. God is ultimate reality, and truth is what conforms to Him. The place that this reality and its representation in truth become most profoundly One is Jesus Himself...in the beginning was the Word, the reason and the revelation of all things real. And the Word is serious. And the truth of the bible says that the word became us. How serious are we to be about the word? We believe that when we go to the book all of it is true, and it has a centered foundation, a gathering place. And He is the Word, and all these words are meant to make Him plain. All these words are meant to highlight Him. This is a book about Jesus from beginning to end, as it leads to Him and flows from Him. God’s intentions revealed in the bible are the supreme and the final authority in testing all claims about what is truth and what is right. In matters not addressed by the bible, what is true and right is assessed by criteria consistent with the teachings of scripture that do nothing to abort the life giving word. Reasoning with the word presents trajectories and principles and transformative views of our life and heart and society and world, that if we’re confident with this Book, we can discern all kinds of moral issues that may confront us. We with integrity and authenticity, come to know the word as the truth. The worth of the truth of the word is found in the reason, and Christ is the reason we credit the word as truth. Unless we come to a reasonable, solid persuasion and conviction of the truth of the gospel by the internal evidences of it, by a sight of its glory, it is impossible that we should have any thorough and effectual conviction of it at all. The Word is serious.

10 Minutes Every word read or studied from the bible, every word spoken concerning the content of the bible must be characterized by deep thought. The most somber disposition must be displayed to ensure there is no trifling with the distinctive character of each word. Every word of truth read or spoken must be reflective of good judgment. We are to have a strong sense of responsibility to humbly hear and receive the word of God. And whenever we have the opportunity to share the word in any manner, it is to be as though we breathe out that spirit which was breathed into us at the beginning. Every word of God carries with it, its own creative power. Every word has its own fulfilment in that it is alive and incorruptible. The word is eternal because God is eternal. The word is living because God is living. The word is powerful because God is powerful. Everything that is true of God is true of His word. We receive the very life of God when He gives us the seed of His word. All things that He determined, everything in His plan for our life comes within our reach. God determined His will, the Word declared it, and we are to hear it. When we are serious about the word, we give it access to the deepest parts of our being, inviting it to test our hearts. There is an ever-increasing effectiveness of the word when we understand its capability to allow God to speak to us deep inside – in our spirit when we receive it. The word of God is grounded in the truth and builds faith that we can overcome every subtilty that opposes the presence and purposes of God in this world. When Jesus’ words are in us, they empower us to want what he wants and will what he wills. When we pray with his word in us, we’re so tuned to God’s will that we don’t need to pray, ‘If it be Thy will’. We already know God’s will because the word in us has renewed our minds shaping our sanctification. Every word of God which we truly receive in our spirit reveals itself in our thoughts, our deeds, and our words. God is the God of covenant. He created man in His image and His likeness, which implies that we also have a covenant nature. And God’s covenant is of such a truth of commitment that He promises us Himself! God gave us, He gives us Himself in Jesus Christ. And now God’s words become our words. This is what fulfills the promises of the covenant...when we declare them with our mouths. And with that we make two faith avowals; Abba, Father and Jesus is Lord. We could do neither of these without the Holy Spirit. It is He who bears witness with, in, and to us that we are God’s children. And it is He who testifies with and to us that Jesus is Lord. The seriousness of the word must be so principled as to detail the circumstances of our life that we abandon the world. Our desire is to perfectly fulfil God’s righteous standards and re-establish the love relationship we enjoyed before the fall. The solution is in the Christ of the cross. The word of God is not silent, sullen or remote; He’s the God of revelation who personally speaks and declares Himself to His people. With every word He reveals something about His own character and integrity. And His word is not ‘economical’ with the truth. It prevails exceedingly above our thoughts. And yet, we are made capable to spiritually grasp understanding through our reasoning with God under the graces of the presiding Holy Spirit. Jesus is himself ‘the truth’. All his words are fully the revelation of God’s truth. The written record of God’s word to us as expressed in temporal form does not contain everything that God ever says to His people. God is infinite. And we are to have no averseness to any word in scripture. There are revelations and deeper sufficiencies however, that teaches us all we need to know about God. We need but to allow the Word to breathe on us that our wisdom shows to be consistent with the word of God. While here, everything we need to understand about God is reasoned in the scripture when we learn to die to our own thoughts, emotions, feelings, desires and ambitions, and surrender to His full control. God makes Himself known to us in many ways in creation and in His providence, but when it comes to His word...the judgments of His mouth are magnified even above the designation of His glory. God is fixed in His position and in His character, but His word extends to His fixed determination. His name is used for everything which the name of God covers, everything the thought or feeling of which is aroused in the mind by mentioning, hearing, remembering who He is in authority, His interests, His pleasure, His commands, His excellences, His doings and yet even so are greater things done by His word. The wonders of grace exceed the wonders of nature; and what is discovered of God by revelation is the much more greater discerned and encountered by reason. In this we come to the essential Word...we come to know Jesus. Number the words in the bible that Jesus spoke. They are finite. Now think on how many words he most surely spoke in just the three and a half years of his ministry. Jesus’ seriousness in the word can be heard in just one of his words. He says “Go”. I pray that we undertake to know how serious is the word. By it we grow in the grace of God, and it increases our relationship with Him. But and if we do not seek to understand the fulness of the word the opposite can happen. We can slide away from God in the other direction. Now think of the intercourse between God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Counsel of Determination. Think of the passages of directives to His four living creatures, His Seraphims, His Cherubims. Think of the groanings of the Holy Spirit making serious the ascendant words of our prayers. Now think of the words that are not rooted in the bible and the bible alone as was shared to the unfallen worlds. This was received in the pure state of innocence as the inspired word of God. Think of how the recording angels embrace every word spoken that the twenty and four elders present to God. Some in our favor and some for our disservice to God. As we study God’s word our seriousness of mind must be as disciplined as self- awareness allows us to understand spiritual answers that we may expand and clarify truth by wisdom and reason. In this we maintain the peace of mind to wait with patience for every issue inwardly impressed to be outwardly expressed, in the uprightness of intention and fervency of affection, that none who speaks or receives the truth of the word will be ashamed of it. Here's the new reality that too many forget...Jesus is the Son of God, yes. And Jesus is God, yes. He is the one who after He created everything, now upholds all things by the word of His power. All things cohere in Him, and they are unto Him. And He conquers in the same way that He creates....through the power of His word. If He has power to do all of these amazing things by His words, can we even begin to imagine what the Lord can do with those who gratefully and eagerly receive these words? I say to us again...the word is serious.

5 Minutes God's peace is a permanent peace offered only by the only One who can be trusted to keep His Word. This peace comes from knowing that the Savior knows who we are and knows that we have faith in him, love him, and keep his commandments, even and especially amid life's devastating trials. This peace only exists among the covenanted community. The true peace of God’s people is not like the world’s peace. Our peace is the peace that only Jesus can offer, can give. This true peace will not change regardless of the circumstances. This true peace is foundationed in our love for the one true God. In this peace there is no smearing of character, no compromise of truth, no symptom of sin, no conflict of matters. This true peace forges a deep reconciliation with God in Christ. It crushes all iniquity, it heals all wounds. This true peace yokes up with the grace and the mercy of God. This true peace is the exercising and experiencing the faith of Jesus. This true peace is a spiritual peace. It is timely for all eternity. This true peace is a Godly peace that has nothing to do with human beings or human circumstances. In fact, it cannot be produced on a human level at all. It is not a fragile peace. This true peace cannot fail. It removes all doubt. It has no fear. It faces any difficulty. It is not a shame. It presents no regrets, brings no sorrow, and will never mistreat another. This true peace is an attitude of the heart and mind when we believe and therefore know deep down that all is well between ourselves and God. Along with it is the assurance that He is lovingly in control of everything. This true peace is the peace of God and is our possession and privilege by divine right. It underscores God’s personal involvement in every aspect of our relationships. This true peace comes personally from Him. It is unique to believers, it is the very essence of God’s nature. In this peace God’s people enjoy perfect harmony. In this true peace we have no threats to our confidence, no dimming to our thoughts, no retreat from truth. This true peace keeps our Lord always near, it is of a divine kind. A peace seared in our minds, our hearts. This true peace is our abiding in God’s word. It makes absolute our spiritual enlightenment with the reasoning of God. This true peace grows our urgency for obedience and our endurance for overcoming. So intense is this true peace that it has the power whereby God’s people recognize their inseparableness is gifted with Jesus’ own spirit. It is in this true peace that we know in our own lives the power of the One who enables in us the fullness of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to unite us in the purposes of God. It is this true peace that remains before us in hope that we are the chosen children of God tasked to hear God’s word because although we are redeemed, we continue to need redemption. This true peace is the assurance of our triumph in the cross of our Lord where we are already but not yet perfected in Christ. Psalms 119:165

7 Minutes Stand firm in the truth. Putting the truth constantly at the forefront of our minds is crucial. It is a challenge to understand precisely the vastness of what God's wisdom contains. The wisdom God gives is not just a scholarly or intelligence thing. God’s wisdom is so much richer than that, and the best part is if any person who is willing to ask God, will receive it. God's wisdom gives us an inner knowing on what is right. This inner knowing is our advocate, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will guide us to understanding God's wisdom in using the bible, the scriptures, God's word. We have to understand what the bible says and what it means if it is going to produce growth in us. We must soak our minds in the scriptures. In using the word of God, we will find solace and the answers to solve issues of concern. It is the absence of biblical knowledge that retards spiritual thinking and slows spiritual growth. As the truth of God’s word begins to occupy our minds and shape our thoughts, it will produce principles that we desire not to violate. This is what sanctification is about...being inwardly compelled to obedience. II Corinthians 4:13 Our beliefs must be our convictions. There can be no alternative. It is the testimony of our conscience in holiness and godly sincerity. The word is our spiritual sustenance. Worry not about any accusations made toward you. As you stand in truth a perpetual cycle of opposition and oppression will find you. You will have much solitary longing as Christ is revealed to you. He is transforming you into his likeness. We will garner knowledge by study, and gain wisdom by prayer, thought, and effort. Hearing others reason in the truth of the scriptures brings wisdom. Sometimes we are too close to a situation or have already decided what we want to know, but we’re wise to listen to the thoughts, insights, and suggestions of godly people in our lives. Even if the advice is unsolicited, wisdom will consider it anyway and decide if it’s worth heeding. Too often people think they truly have all the answers, but even the people we consider to be wise receive counsel from God. That’s how they continue to grow in wisdom! All have room to grow in spiritual wisdom if they humble themselves before the One who is wisdom eternal. God is not mocked. He will not allow His precepts to be set aside with contempt due to the willing ignorance of a created being...terrestrial or celestial. There is a bold witness in the heart of the one who has passion for gospel experience. Progressive maturity for a true faithful believer is in yielding to the Holy Spirit. One can only be full of faith when belief in a sovereign God to accomplish His eternal purpose is revealed as was at the cross; an inward experience of grace flowing outward into a gracious spirit toward others, even as they do us harm. When unbelieving believers see us in trials of persecution maintaining love it provides the platform for the powerful witness that we know God in a personal way. Blinded believers often see truth as a threat to their pride. So, they refute it, attacking the messenger. Be not hindered, conflict is the opportunity for grace. When you are certain in the truth, as was Jesus, relational conflict is not something that should surprise us as true believers. We need not be ashamed that it exists, and that we’re involved. We should expect it. The world is complicated and fallen, and we are complicated creatures, and fallen. Conflicts will come. They are unavoidable. Truth frees the mind of conflict while those who reject reason fester in faults. God’s love and grace take hold and enable us to rise above and forgive rather than retaliate. Being one of God’s elect is a high calling. He gives us a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the true knowledge of Him as we come to deeper understandings of crucial truths. As a believer, we are always in need of the Holy Spirit to enlighten the eyes of our heart to the great truths of the bible. Many professed believers have a “no” attitude when it comes to coping with the difficult truths of the bible. They think it spiritually dangerous to question the letter. With every revelation of truth, the faithful of God, with a heart that is full and a mind on fire, hold a doxology. God opens to us rare expanding truths to be embraced as joy for the renewing of our minds advancing in obedience of the faith of Jesus. Under this banner of seeing God for who He is, is to open a window in our mind to the infinite expanses of God, His causes, His purposes, His providences. We are brought higher to obey Him more consistently. God is infinitely wise. Unpack that for a moment. Flowing from His truth is wisdom and that is the greatest purpose for discernment to bring to light His will. This will performs the best possible results, by the best possible means, for the most possible people, for the longest possible time. Weigh that in the balances of the sanctuary and our lives become a veritable benediction. God’s wisdom constantly spreads around us providential circumstances where we repudiate our own wisdom and take instead the infinite wisdom of God...knowing that God has charged Himself with full responsibility for our eternal being. God takes us out of the limited philosophies of the world. The limited vision so that we can live in closer union with the Lord. We taste the life of Christ. God is testing us with truth to see how we respond to Him.

11 Minutes Sisters, dear sisters...brothers...we say we study the word of God. But do we approach it with the higher mind. We perceive and interpret countless thoughts throughout the day. Many do not realize that we have two distinct levels of our mind. The higher mind, and the lower mind. The lower mind: fear, doubt, and disbelief. The higher mind: pure truth and divine design. The higher mind is the gateway to our soul and intuition. This is the part of our mind that hears the communication of the Holy Spirit. The higher mind surpasses ego, transcends boundaries and holds universal truths. This is the part of the mind that knows no matter how difficult the situation is, we are loved, worthy and continuously protected and guided by the divine God. This is the part inspired by reasoning. The lower mind keeps us in a limited belief cycle coupled with facts based on past limitations. The lower mind is the representation of our wounded or damaged ego. This is the deception part of our mind because it convinces the self we are limited and are separate from universal truth. We have both. But reasoning with God, in the teachings of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit calms the lower mind so that we can receive answers and guidance. Why we do not understand. We are not reasoning with God. To hear the word is to hear God Himself. And while we distinguish between the word of God written and the living word of God spoken, these two have one thing in common: God. To hear the word written is to hear the word spoken by God. We should be in awe of what God speaks. We should study the word with persuasiveness. With a firm persuasion that the Holy Spirit will enable us to understand and to learn the heart of God towards us and our hearts toward God. Inspiration is true, illumination is necessary. Psalms 73:26 Proverbs 16:1 Psalms 73:28 Do we recall how Moses spoke with God concerning the waywardness of the people? God was not pleased. Moses encountered experimental knowledge of divine truth, which is absolutely necessary to salvation. Moses heard the word of God and reasoned with Him. This was determined by God in the counsel so as to affect the earnestness of the heart of one who communes with Him by faith. Moses talked with God with desire to know, to believe, and to obey the will of God as revealed in His word. This means that hearing the word is not just understanding with our heads the words on the page, but knowing by the work of the Spirit on our hearts the meaning of those words for me as purposed in Christ by God. It is the word of God that He has chosen to reveal Himself in doctrine and theological argument that offers proof of the persuasion of prayerful reasoning. We do not understand the word without reading it with such diligence and careful inquiry so as to accept it as our savor of life. We should read the word with personalness: with meditation, application, self-denial, and prayer. In this we learn the words of God, and we are personally to appropriate and to identify ourselves with the Word. It is not some abstract thing "out there." It is to dwell deeply within us. We are to think intently and intensely about it. Studying the word gets God's truth into our heads, then meditating on it gets it into our hearts, and reasoning with it moves the life spiritually. The more we learn about God, the more we should love God. And the more we love God, the more we should become living epistles of His love for the world. This done only with divine understanding. There’s a reason why we do not understand. Biblical truth cannot be discerned by human intellect alone, but must be spiritually discerned. Many fail to grasp how the words of God go together to form the gospel truth. What keeps some from understanding the truth? They reflect facts, truths, and things that you could prove by experiment. The bible reveals some things we find extraordinarily hard to understand; peculiarly unique things that perplex, confound, and even disturb us. But nature reveals traces of the same designer. Biblical truth is spiritual. We will never understand God exhaustively. The bible is clear that God is ultimately incomprehensible to us. His attributes are far beyond the realm of human experience. Because God can never be fully known, those who seek to know God should be deeply humbled in the process, realizing that they will always have more to learn. The appropriate response to God is a heart of wonder and awe in light of His incomprehensible greatness. Yet, God is knowable. He can be known truly, personally, and sufficiently through personal revelation of Himself. Why we do not understand. We need Christ to strengthen our faith in his word, every word. Philippians 4:13 With God all things are possible.... Divine inspiration moved the hearts of the biblical writers to record the truth. It must be divine inspiration that moves the hearts of the faithful to understand and to live the truth. Many of the questions we have concerning scripture must be answered by how God providentially provides knowledge for those who love Him. The bible merely states the truths. Yet our lack of ability to understand truth is not a reason to deny it. There is something about the communication of God’s truth to humanity. That something is that the origin of the written Word of God began in the mind and in the will of the Godhead. Not to cause complexity so as to confuse human logic, but to give to all those who have truly come to know Him things which human understanding alone will never see. Things that are only understood through spiritual illumination. The spirit in man knows him better than himself. In the same way, the one who knows God best is His Holy Spirit. He knows everything in the mind of God. We have received God’s Spirit if we are true followers of Christ, He is in us. Therefore, we have the mind of Christ in us and the capacity to know everything we need to know from God, not of God. Things we could not have understood before we received the Spirit, we can now understand through the Spirit’s help. A man without the Spirit cannot understand these things, because they are “spiritually appraised”. These things are freely given to us by God. He is not trying to withhold them from us. If we cooperate with Him and reason, He will make them known by His Spirit and by His Word. Once we learn these things from God’s Spirit and His Word, we are made able to share them with others through the power of spiritual words. What an incredible truth. God wants us so to understand. We can know the mind of God because He now lives in us! And we can speak the truths of God to others because He can speak through us. God’s interaction with humanity was formulated in the counsel. God does not have to change because what was divinely designed incorporated His apparent intervention in that formulation. God determined the change of His mind to show as a forewarning of a man, while at the same time, it was the words of the Most High God. Numbers 24:15-17 The authority to write scripture was given under God’s direct control and God decided to reveal certain truths about Himself through the scriptures. The final product was what God intended. Many do not understand because they do not understand the Determinate Counsel, the employment of God’s infinite mind, pursuant to such a purpose for an ultimate end that has a determinate final reference to Himself. It is His will to accomplish, in the dignity of His character, all the means which He would employ in fulfilling this great design. I Corinthians 2:9-16

15 Minutes The most important thing we are to understand to find the truths that perfect our characters is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This thing must be reasoned with God for love is more important than knowledge. Those who followed Jesus loved him yet they lacked spiritual understanding. Jesus was the perfect teacher, but understanding spiritual truth is not a human achievement. Jesus fed thousands and warned his followers to watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod. His followers concluded that Jesus meant that, since they hadn’t brought any bread and would have to buy some on the other shore, they shouldn’t buy any bread from a Pharisee or Herodian because something was incorrect about the yeast they used. Why didn’t they simply ask Jesus what he meant? They did not reason with the purposes of God as to why Jesus was sent. They did not want to appear not knowing, so they reasoned among themselves. They could remember facts, but they didn’t draw right conclusions. Jesus could make bread miraculously. The disciples didn’t need to worry about bread or yeast. Mark 8:14-21 Reasoning determines for us the fact that Jesus is our source of life, our source of truth. His teachings are what we need to live forever. What is it that prevents our learning truth as it is truth? Too many think ourselves correct even as we are to admit our fallibility. There is deep meaning in every word of God that only the Holy Spirit can teach. The dilemma is that not all are teachable. Too much pride fails to ask questions allowing reason to bring knowledge. If we would recount our experiences of ignorance due to denialism, which closes the door of opportunity to learn, we’d be more susceptible to reconciling the word. Matthew 16:5-12 Mark 6:52 We must come to understand that “hard teachings” will be a path to eternal life. Many left Jesus...left truth. Some who did not understand, wisely reasoned not to leave. Faith and patience brought them eventually to learn what Jesus was talking about. Those who left him, however, remained in ignorance. The human desire is to understand everything right away, we need patience when dealing with the comprehensive teachings of Jesus Christ. Prayer and the Holy Spirit will reveal to us whatever we need to know, if our hearts are right, if we are trusting in him. We do not always understand the things of God. That should not surprise us or alarm us. When it happens, we need to patiently wait for God to reveal more to us. Of course, we need to do our part, searching the scriptures and asking God for understanding. We should also take advantage of the tool that God provides, community. We are all learners. As followers of Jesus, we have to continue learning. The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth, but this doesn’t happen instantly. Quite the contrary: Jesus will return before we know it all. That’s why it is reassuring to know that God looks on the heart. Jesus revealed his glory to John, James, and Peter. He overshadowed their presumption, giving them spiritual vision allowing them to see Elijah and Moses in the present. Mark 9:2-10 Peter didn’t know what to say. They could have asked Jesus what he meant, but they did not. Instead, they discussed it among themselves, sharing their ignorance instead of learning from the teacher. Jesus was the perfect embodiment of love and truth, but his disciples were afraid to ask him what he meant. Perhaps they were afraid of the truth. Mark 9:30-32 The disciples didn’t understand. They argued. They did things they shouldn’t have. They didn’t ask questions they should have. They were ordinary people. God uses people like that. He can use people like us to help those, if our hearts and attitudes are right. It’s important that we always remain willing to examine the issues, admit our fallibility and be willing to change and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior. It may be difficult at times to change our ways, but that’s what we have been called to do. We are to be followers of Jesus, and thankfully, we are to be learning also. Our attitude toward the truth determines the outcome of our lives. If we don’t love the truth, if we resist it, we resist Christ. If we resist Christ we resist salvation. The whole point of the truth is that we be transformed. III John 3,4 There is no greater blessing, than to walk in the truth. This means to acknowledge it, to judge that which it shows us. We do this by rightly dividing the word of truth. Constant development, constant progress, continuous sanctification, and continuous transformation into the image of Christ. The more willing, obedient, and quick to acknowledge the truth, the quicker our progress will be. And what will the result of loving the truth be? That we are transformed from who we are by nature, and the life of Jesus will be manifested in us. Continuing diligence in the word, maintaining sound teaching allows us to handle straight truth and not allow our own opinions or views to cloud the meaning of what God has written. We should study the word of God to first consider, understand, and comprehend it literally and not be distracted from the main thought, the context. Now know that the word of God is inspired, authoritative, to be understood under the divine influence of the Holy Spirit. The depth of the word is found when the spiritual understanding is gleaned from the word of God. Not by qualification, it is simply by the Holy Spirit. There is natural understanding and there is spiritual understanding. The reason why the word of God appears to be less effective or less potent in the lives of many believers today is simply because they go no further than to try to understand the word of God naturally. Natural understanding talks about the place of intellect and logic to find meaning or relevance to the word of God. But it does not work this way. The word of God cannot be understood naturally because it has been spiritually designed. And spiritual understanding is what we get when the Holy Spirit gives us insight into the word of God. Colossians 1:9 We need to lean on the Holy Spirit. Literal words, natural words are not spoken by Jesus. The Holy Spirit opens our inner eyes to truth. He is to be our guide. John 6:63 Our intent in studying the word of God must be spiritual. It must be with the intention of laying hold of the promises of God. To gain spiritual understanding, we must be intentional with the word of God. We must take the word of God like all our life depends on it and without it, we are worthless. When we study the truth of the word to better gain understanding, we may ought to cultivate the practice of tarrying in the presence of God. And this is why we must not allow any other thing, any other being, to jeopardize our learning time with God. Deep spiritual understandings make most deliberate our coming into the character perfection of Christ. We do not understand the word of God as we should because we do not see the revelations of God as being continual. We think that all that is written, is all that is said, is all that is meant. We don’t understand the eternal power and divinity behind the testimony of God making Himself known to us more clearly through the experiences of the human construction cooperating with the designs of the determinate counsel to bring us to consider this question... how should I read the word? And the answer must be spiritual in its content so as to say the scriptures are to be read with an high and reverent esteem of them; with a firm persuasion that they are the very Word of God, and that He only can enable us to understand them; with desire to know, believe, and obey the will of God revealed in them; with diligence, and attention to the matter and scope of them; with meditation, application, self-denial, and prayer and with much reverence. Let’s hear it this way...if we love God, we will love truth as God reveals it about Himself. That which He inscribed with His finger and that which He breathed out of His mouth. Deuteronomy 4:10

5 Minutes For the glory of Christ, God puts out of His mind, our sin to remember no more. He regards us as being as righteous as Christ. This is intentional, not inadvertent, a decision, not a mistake. It is evidence of God’s character. And because we will be holy as God is holy, we will imitate our Father in His forgetfulness. We too will forget what we’ve done in sin. Our sins keep moving away from us, never to return. Psalms 103:12 Let’s reason upon this text. Isaiah 65:17 Past troubles, past sins never to come to mind? Nothing, not even our thoughts will diminish the wonders of Heaven. How is it that we will appreciate the depth and meaning of Christ’s glorious work for us? Our awareness of the perfect justice of love will enhance the depth of gratitude to God of those in Heaven. The drama on earth will be so eclipsed by the omni-wonders prepared for us that no eye has seen, no mind comprehended. Only God can do this, cause sin to be utterly non-existent. And that’s exactly what He did when He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to die for us. We deserved to die, but on the cross all our sins were placed on Him, and He died in our place. The origin of sin upon man was due to disobedience. The existing of sin is due to disobedience. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, so loved us that God gave us His Son to reflect the immensity of that love. The essence of our relationship with Jesus was based upon this commitment. This same love that prompted God to send His Son will be the power of God to remember sin no more. God is love. It is the propensity to sin that separated us from God and showed our need for a Savior. God loves us so much that He watched His Son die. And the most remarkable aspect of this love is that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit determined this to happen. Unlike the stated love we say we have for God, His love is immeasurably absolute. Our love is a love of posturing regardless of the words we use. If we loved God we would cooperate with His request...that we keep His commandments. Here we say we love Him yet the “if” renders us pretending. We cannot love God if we do not obey Him and we cannot obey God if we do not love Him. As our faith brings us into the fullness of the like character of Jesus, bringing us to perfection, our love will be as God wills. God the Son loved God the Father. Jesus’ obedience as a demonstration of his love for the Father was a side benefit. Jesus loves the Father because it is his nature: God is love. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, as one, all are love. Each member of the Triune cannot not love. It is their nature. Obedience of Jesus to the Father is a natural effect of being God and being a Spirit-filled man without sin. With hearts made new we will know the relationship between love and obedience. God knows that we will choose to love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. In this we declare that Jesus is Lord. It is our faith in his finished work that we are changed, and obedience is natural. That love and this declaration comes with the territory of being born again while here on earth. That love will justify God remembering sin no more. None of us are in perfect obedience to Jesus now. Yet, we can be characterized by “essential” obedience to Him by purposing to set our heart on hearing the word of God and acting on it. This includes what He asks of us in the Sabbath hours whereby we come to worship Him. Why the term “essential”...obedience is essential to salvation. Faith is essential to salvation. And faith is a command, a work, something required in obedience to God. Therefore, obedience is essential to salvation by faith in what Jesus did. Here we may approach the throne of God boldly as we can be “in” the Spirit. In heaven the Spirit will be “in” us fully. Because the Holy Spirit is God and sin will not, cannot abide in the presence of God, He remembers sin no more. In God promising to remember sin no more, He makes known to His people His heart and His deeds, His ways and His acts. He wants us to know Him and to know what His heart is toward us. He gives us His Word so there can be no excuses. The only reason we may not know what He wants us to know is because we choose to ignore or disregard His Word. He does not want us to be ignorant or misled about His character or about how He thinks about us. He wants us to know what He has done for us and what He will do for us.

5 Minutes I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. In the mouth of two or three witnesses...and these three agree in one. Their testimony is united in what God says He will do, and do it in so complete a way that He will remember their iniquities no more. The truth that God teaches is firm as an adamant. And He teaches us the truth about sin. Yet, we do not take transgression as serious as was the severity of its causing God to give His only Son as the sacrifice to demonstrate both the love and the justice of God. This was not an event done to appease God. It was done for the purpose of reconciliation. And God Himself made provision for such a costly gift. And it is this perfect atonement whereby the infinite grace of God makes the wonderful truth of His never remembering our sin the essential element for our eternal communion with the Father. For it was atonement that required God to come out of heaven, and yet heaven was not left void of divinity. Because sin was perfectly atoned for, it will be perfectly not remembered. The eternal Son, the second person of the Triune, He who is the same in substance as the Father and the Spirit, He who is equal to the Father and the Spirit in power and glory, left heaven to assume humanity in order to atone for the sins of His people. And in this death of death, in the death of Christ, our victory over death is that fabric in the relationship between Christ and God and God and us that the highest aspiration and hope among the holy and righteous is to see the face of God. And as Jesus knew no sin, so our God will remember sin no more. God remembering our sin no more...this is a wonder to me, a wonder of wonders, that God should say that He will do what in some sense He cannot do. That He should use speech which includes impossibility, and yet that it should be strictly truth as He intends it. For what is it that God cannot know? I write that there is impossibility in it, and so there is, because the Lord cannot in strict accuracy of speech forget anything, forgetfulness is an infirmity, and God has no infirmities. The Lord does not exercise memory as you and I do. His forgiveness is so true and deep that it amounts to an absolute oblivion. God’s forgiveness is so perfect and because God is always in the present, not the past, and our sins were in the past... Sin in any fashion, even memory, is of such a pervasive depravity and so abominable to God that He will not store them in His divine archives. No thought of sin will ever cast a shadow upon any mind in heaven. What Jesus did for us will show in the marked emblems in his hands. We will see such a treasury of glory beaming from our Lord unfolding to us that ultimate holiness, goodness, knowledge, wisdom, grace, hope, and God's revelation of all things transcendent to perfect beings. That light speaks to the inscription upon his hands...our eternal endearment of his love. Isaiah 49:16 God who is greater than immensity, will lift up His hands with adoring wonder, and say, “thy love to me is wonderful.” God will receive our love as He is love. In remembering His covenant, He will remember our sin no more because He remembers His Son’s suffering in our place and stead. God’s love is a desire to display the grace which pervades His nature. How does God remember our sin no more...through His everlasting love and this...the contentment He has in us as renewed and sanctified creatures. God will remember our sin no more. He’s making a choice and a promise. He’s choosing to put it out of His sight and mind. God does not gain or lose knowledge, and His understanding is always perfect. Then how can God not remember if His mind cannot change? God acts in accordance to what He has already determined. With God all things are possible. Isaiah 43:25 Do we understand why God will remember no more our sin? God states that He is the One who forgives our sins and blots out our transgressions. But notice the added phrase: "for my own sake." God specifically claims to remember our sins no more, but it isn’t just for our benefit...it is for God's benefit! When God forgives, He forgets. This is the great gem of God’s grace. God can remember no more because of what He is in Himself. Because of His glory and for the glory of the Lord Jesus who died and rose for us. Christ was made sin for us and there our sin died. By faith we must realize the awesome truth that at the cross Jesus, who knew no sin, actually became sin for us. There is this glory of God that is neglected...His forgetfulness is real. When God forgives our sin He puts it out of His mind; He erases it from the pages of time; He forgets it. This is the strength of His grace. Jeremiah 31:34

10 Minutes The truth of prayer resides in the power of prayer not to enter into temptation. Matthew 26:41 Pray for God's help to keep us from making wrong choices. The truth is that the power of prayer opens the heart, humbles the mind, and fills the life with awe of who our mighty God is. This is our confidence in going to God in prayer. Prayer is power and strength, a power and strength that influences God, and is most salutary, widespread, and marvelous in its gracious benefits to man. Prayer influences God. The ability of God to do for man is the measure of the possibility of prayer. Pride-filled beliefs are dismissive of God's provision. Pride invading the heart soon starts to bleed into the way truth is viewed and faith in the word is no longer a substance or evidence of things. None of us are immune from believing we can have a truth apart from Christ. But by God’s grace, we have the gift of discernment, wisdom, and clarity. You and I are called, commanded, and guided to live his way, in his truth, for our lives. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is it. His truth is our truth, end of story. So, to my brothers and sisters in Christ, let’s pray we take up our cross and live out the real truth of Jesus Christ to this ever-darkening world. Do we remember the choosing of Jesus? This election by God does for us that which we need to bring God’s truth to all peoples...it removes cultural distinctions that complicates interactions and relations. II Chronicles 7:14 In newer words, praying is our becoming in the circumstances in our life, the core of the character determined by what we talk to God about. And the power of prayer shows to be quite simply, the power of God, who hears and answers prayer. Prayer is an act on our part of worship that glorifies God and reinforces our need for Him. As we live a life of prayer, we communicate with the very source of, and purpose for, our existence. We are healed as heaven comes down to us. The truth of prayer is when we ask God to hear us, He does. When we ask for patience, He begins to tend to our hearts. When we ask Him to be near to us, His presence sweeps in and surrounds us, filling us with His peace and strength. It is prayer that brings the effective righteousness of Christ to our avail and advantages us in pleading for others to turn to righteousness. Power is inherent in prayer. A principal weapon of spiritual warfare is prayer. Not just routine or mediocre prayer, but prayer powerful enough to move God’s hand in order to determine the destiny of a whole nation. The truth of prayer is that we do not realize the power we have available to us when we take our authority in prayer as granted by God, in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit. If we did, we would be praying far more. We would be sacrificing everything else in order to pray. Instead of worrying about the increase in evil in our land, we would be on our faces before God crying out for obedience and His intervening in our lives to bring sin to an end. With this we will stand strong in God’s truth knowing that our God can provide everything for us when we pray. We are in the appointed season, and we have awesome responsibility. We need God’s revelation of our spiritual obligation in union with Christ. What a privilege we have in prayer. In this power we invite the resources of heaven to intervene in our situation that the omnipotent God might do His work. Prayer comes from us in the knowledge that we can of ourself do nothing. Thus our prayer must come from a place of truth. Take every situation to God in total openness and in its reality having no false belief. Our discernment of the determinate counsel teaches us that prayer cannot supersede or override the will of God, particularly as God has determined by His will to effect a change in accordance with our prayer. What an approachable God we serve! When we understand this and are aligned with God’s purpose, there is nothing that God will not do in answer to prayer because our prayers are already aligned with what He wants to do in the first place. The truth is, the only way to grow in prayer, is by praying. And look how God brings the sharing of His power of omnipresence to His believing faithful...truthful prayer and the love of God will reveal the most powerful influence wielded by His people. We can be in one place and impact situations around the world simply by asking God to intervene. That’s why it is important for us who are true believers to make prayer a priority and not just a profession. When we do, we position ourselves to see God’s power in operation. Regardless of the outcome, we have true intimacy with God. God uses the prayers of His people to accomplish His plans. He’s completely sufficient without us, but prayer teaches us humility, dependence, submission, and trust. Intimacy with God is built when we come to Him with our praises, thanks, confessions, and petitions. The profit of prayer is not that we receive something but that we’re able to relate to the One who supplies all our needs. Simply put, praying God's word means speaking His language. It means talking to Him using His words. Don't waste time looking for a “formula” or “right” way to pray God's word back to Him. This process comes from what is in our heart and on our mind. We are ever to be on alert for every scripture that reflects the mind of God toward strongholds in our life. We pray, asking God to guide us and to open our eyes to His truth. Let’s be fellow sojourners in the words of Christ. It is by Christ that our relationship with God is unique. We are in the very last of times. Our prayers are solemn requests for help. We are to offer them with expressions of praise, gratitude, adoration, and thanks. Humility will be the core of our souls. God is the only One who can speak things into existence. When He speaks His peace to us, we become His peace. When God says “I have put My words in thy mouth”, with an upright heart we trembleth as we become His word. The truth of prayer is seen in the sorrow of our prayer. We ask God to lift us from the darkness of this grief to peace and joy in His presence. Our experience with sorrow will be more that just a good cry. We will plead with God not to give us over to the weight of our sadness for the trials endured. It is in our prayer, as we truthfully take in our sorrow and bring it honestly before God is one way He strengthens and grows us. Heads bowed in submission to the Lord, we can expose the depth of our sadness to Him without hesitation. In truth, our prayer of faith signifies the promised end of our sorrow. While the layers of sadness that fill us here on earth are many, joy is our eternal posture. It is in the night, contemplating Christ, that the layers of sadness fill us with thoughts of the Prince of Peace. We recognize that prayer will be our last resort. We will come to the end of ourselves. We must hand everything over to God, He is our only hope. I imagine praying without ceasing and fall asleep, having my mind always on the things of God. And even when we are not speaking consciously to God, there is to be a deep, abiding dependence on Him that is woven into the heart of faith. What is this unconscious prayer? It is our deep innate desire, relentlessly on fire, making itself felt through the groaning of our mind and soul, silently begging the very energies of God Himself, to let it come to consummation. There will be powerful inner pressures in our life in these last days. Our prayer lives must express our deepest oratories for the consolation of God’s grace. Peaceful solitude will have us search for both a stunning revelation and a wonderful consolation from heaven in centering our prayer in dependence on the Holy Spirit. Our default prayer will be “O God, help...” God knows our needs in all circumstances.

8 Minutes Think on this before we begin to consider the truth of prayer – God is all-powerful, but God is also Reason. Reason is part of the very nature of who God is. And God has willed to abdicate His power to a certain extent in some situations. Hold this concept commonsensically; when God willed to create the universe, He was free to create it to operate degreeably “independently” of Himself. God is eternally the Primary Cause, yet He has created a universe that has both “laws of nature” and is also filled with free beings. God has the power, at will, to suspend “natural law”. It is in this establishing whereby the determinate counsel, the providence of God, the character of God, the mind of God, and the will of man conclude. This is the wonder of the love, of the power, of the wisdom, of the Oneness of the Godhead...the willingness to subordinate His preferences as was“determined” to so align our choices with His purposes. God is not the “cause” of every occasion except for the fact that He created a world based on physical laws. God created chemistry, but He does not “control” a campfire or “cause” a wildfire; the fire burns because of the “secondary cause” of reason or science, the law of nature. And God has also created a universe with free beings. These beings are truly free. They can choose God or another power to dominate their being. Therefore, they are free to act as “secondary causes.” Human beings are part of this kind of causality. This is why we have thieves, liars, and kidnappers. But it is also why we can have doctors, nurses, judges, and teachers. Human beings are free to choose to act or not to act. And in choosing, we become causes ourselves. This is why spiritually minded people, knowing the character of God, reason to discern the intent of the mind of God. When it comes to prayer and how prayer works, it might be helpful to consider this reality. Believers know that God exists, and that God cares and acts in this world. But we also know that there are an abundance of secondary causes at work. We go through our day counting on God’s care while simultaneously making choices that make a difference. We are accustomed to being secondary causes. In the bible, God has revealed that He wants prayer to operate in a similar way. There are many times when the bible teaches us that prayer makes a difference...in the character or the mind of God?! In fact, prayer is one of the ways in which we cooperate with God’s will. In the same way our choice to give to a person in need, is one way we can cooperate with God’s will to care for the poor, our decision to pray for a person is another. The truth of prayer reflects the truth of Christ as he says of the Father, "Thy will be done". Our prayers make a difference because they are fulfilling what is needed for God’s will to be done. When we pray, God extends to us the dignity of becoming a “cause.” The truth of prayer reveals a great deal about the nature and identity of God. It reveals that God wants us to work with Him and He with us. This helps us become more fully mature spiritually in the likeness of Jesus. This is God’s love sharing His strength with us. This prepares us for the suffering to render us sinless. This builds our faith. God shares His power with us. When He calls us to pray, and that prayer actually makes a difference, God makes us into something even more than children, He allows us to be co-workers with Him. And when we pray... when we work with God, we are drawn into even more intimate relationship with Him. And that kind of prayer and relationship definitely changes something else... it changes us. Prayer should be our greatest source of peace...out loud or in silence. It is the sure evidence of our acknowledging God as God. God’s intention is for us to stay connected with Him all day, every day. Prayers are powerful and that power is not dependent upon how long the prayer is. Prayer is not to be done with any vain glory nor aim to please man. As humbleness is shown for God, our thoughts are to soar upward. Impressive statements that lack sincerity may as well be voiceless. Right words and eloquent speaking do not impress a magnificent God. He hears the character care as coming to Him by faith. God wants us to come to Him as trusting that He knows our every situation. And prayer should be our first response in every situation. When we come to God by faith we will see the power and peace of God come into our life in ways that will absolutely amaze us. John 15:16 Chosen. Jesus declares those who are servants of his truth, the fruit of his way, his life, as chosen. And in the light of this, his Father, Our God, hears and responds to us according to His will. In essence, Jesus is saying, I have given you a fruit-bearing mission in order that your prayers might be answered! May we wonder that some or all our prayers malfunction if we are not praying in the faith that Jesus chose and appointed us. Are the blessings we ask for subordinate to spiritual desires? Are our prayers God-centered, Christ-exalting, God-glorifying? Do we pray that God would hallow His name and that the Kingdom would come and that the will of God would be done on earth? The seriousness of prayer should be to challenge us to be the kind of people who do not use God for our own ends but are utterly devoted to being used for His ends. The words of Jesus abiding in us makes us those kind of people. The more we are saturated by the words of Jesus, the more our prayers will be answered. Prayer is surrender. Prayer is rending ourself and allowing God’s presence to overwhelm every single bit of us. This is us bringing ourself to God. That takes us to where God not only hears us, but He speaks with us. The truth about prayer is that we don’t always have to say actual words. If we just sit in the silence of peace and listen for the Holy Spirit to move within the heart, within the mind, to deepen our bond so that when we pray, we are made able to express our innermost thoughts as we come as we are, however we are, in our approaching God. The truth of prayer is that we can come to God at any time and with any problem, in complete honesty. God knows our hearts. He knows every intimate thing about us. There is no secret we can hide from Him. Risk not developing a relationship with God by being dishonest about who we are and how we feel...pray the truth. By this God’s promise to love us unconditionally will be strengthened.