'Paul' Tagged Posts
I’m An Olive Shoot? (Part of the One New Man Series)
Olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole…
Great Works Face Great Opposition
1 Corinthians 16:8-9(NIV) “But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.” Paul the apostle penned these words from Ephesus as he eagerly desired to visit the church he birthed in Corinth. He says he cannot go to Corinth right away. He must continue in Ephesus where he has been ministering for 3 years. Why?….because Paul had a ‘great door’ open in…
Stop Kicking…
We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ Acts 26:14 I’ve grown accustomed to living life and ministering in a certain way. The Holy Spirit has helped me come into a fuller dimension of expressing His purposes and call in my life. But in my humanity, I like routine, comfort, and not having to change. …
Keep the Gift!
In my last post I encouraged you to completely unwrap and embrace The Father’s gift of grace; imputed righteousness, power, knowledge, readiness, and insight into the Father’s heart of grace. Assuming you have opened, unwrapped and embraced the free gift of grace by faith in Jesus, you have all the enrichment spoken of in 1 Cor. 1:4-9. Many believers receive the gift grace and open it, but as time goes by begin to fall into old patterns of belief and…
Grace – The Enriching Gift of God
The Apostle Paul began each of his letters to churches by speaking grace and peace to the churches. For example, he said to the church in Corinth, ‘Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.’(1 Cor. 1:3) This frequent greeting was Paul’s way of undergirding and reinforcing the doctrine, value, and position of grace for the believer under the New Covenant. He reminded the Jews that they were no longer under the law. He…
Growing Brings Glory
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Col. 2:6-10 In this one sentence, written by Paul the Apostle, we have a picture of the three levels of maturity in a believer. The three levels can be symbolized by a tree. In my previous post I elaborated upon the root system, that first level of…
You Are Risen….Because Christ Is Risen!
This Resurrection Day consider who it is that lives in your body. Who are you? Who is the person that walks through each day at the office, in the coffee shop, in the family, and in the church? Is it the natural soul-man, the physical body-man, or the resurrected spirit-man? The outward body that many see and know walking down the street no longer lives, from God’s perspective. The one of the flesh, the one of the sin nature, the…
Corrective Re-ailignment, A Blessing of Grace
Corrective re-alignment is a blessing of grace. The New Covenant declares believers in Jesus are holy and pure in God’s sight. Col. 2:21, 22 says ‘Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation.’ Wow! Your spiritual position in Christ is holy and free from any blemish…
Does Your Message Bring Glory to God?
Does your message bring glory to God? There are many things for which we believers should be thankful, but the one thing that stands above all others is ‘GRACE’. Were it not for God’s grace, He would not have sent Jesus to die in our place. If it were not for God’s grace, we would have to obey the Law of Moses to gain access to the Father. If it were not for grace, we would never have an assurance…
The Great Commission is Our Life Mission
For the last several posts on my blog I have revealed seven essentials of the heavenly kingdom; essentials that must be established in each of us in order for God to govern our lives and our sphere of influence on this earth. Those seven essentials are (1) grace is your base, (2) righteousness is your identity, (3) love is the connective tissue for the body of Christ, (4) God’s process is your cross to bear (i.e. transformation), (5) giving as…
New territory brings new provision
New territory brings new provision. This is my second post describing three aspects of change you can expect as you cross into new territory in 2011. Joshua crossed the Jordan River into Canaan thus fulfilling God’s promise and bringing a new dimension of provision to the nation. We see in Joshua 5 that the entire nation has crossed the Jordan and is camped at Gilgal poised to conquer Jericho. ‘The day after Passover, that very day, they ate some of…
Ruling Like The King – Stay Within Your Territory
Every king must stick to his assigned territory. The apostle Paul gave us a hint of the meaning of divine territory when he wrote his second letter to the Corinthian church. In regard to being commended for work done in the church he said, ‘We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the field God has assigned to us, a field that reaches even to you.’ Every leader in the kingdom of God has…