When I was a young child I always believed I was my father’s favorite child. I am the third child in a family of six children. I just knew I had a special relationship that no one else in the family had with my dad. He loved me and I knew it. I knew that no matter what I did, whether he agreed with me or not, I still had his total, unconditional love. It was a great way to grow up, being able to have such security and trust in your parent. Now you can imagine my surprise to find out after I was grown that another one of my siblings felt the same way! Yet at the same time another felt that he was demanding and could never be satisfied with what you did. What I found was that each of us had a slightly, or vastly, different opinion of my dad. It came as a shock to me.

Now that I know my Heavenly Father in a deeper way, I know His love is also unconditional and no matter what I do it will not change His love for me. The sad thing is that so many of my brothers and sisters in the Lord see our Father differently. Some see Him as sitting on His throne totally removed from what goes on down on earth. Others see Him as the big cop in the sky, ready to swat you if you do something wrong. Many see Him as having conditional love; you must do everything right in order to please Him. One thing wrong and you’re no good. My question is, how do you see Him? Is He the one who loved you so much that He gave His most precious child to gain you entrance into His family? Or is He a God of anger and judgment?

The apostle John in his first letter gives us a good look at who God is and what He is like. In chapter 4, verse 8 and again in verse 16 he says that God is Love. It doesn’t say that God has love but that He is Love. Now the world talks about love all the time but don’t be confused. The world’s brand of love and our God of Love are two very different kinds of love. If you want to know our God, you should meditate and study in depth I Corinthians, chapter 13, verses 4-8. This is an excellent description of our God. It gives you a good idea of what you can expect from God under any circumstance. After you have studied this awhile, you will never again think that He is out to get you, or waiting for you to goof up so He can beat on you. This love that is described is the very essence of our God. Get to know Him.

What about us? Who are we as children of God? In Romans 5:5 we read that the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and in I John 4:16 it says “. . . God is love and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” This can only mean one thing: we, who have God living on the inside after being born again, are also love. If the Father is Love, then so are the children. What we as the church need to be doing is learning how to allow this love to rule and reign in us so all we show the world is God’s Love. What a difference it would make.

We all are at different levels in learning to abide in love. Jesus told us more than once that there was a new commandment to follow, to love one another as He had loved us. He made it possible for us to do this by His death on the cross and His resurrection victory. It is a fact that the more mature we are in the things of God, the more we act and behave like love. It takes mature love to cast out fear and to lay down our lives for the brethren. What brings about mature love? A mature Christian (little Christ). Studying the Apostle John and what he wrote can deepen your understanding of God, Love and what is expected of us.

Since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, we know that His essence is also Love. In Jude 20 and 21 we read, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” What a wonderful gift we were given when we received the ability to pray in tongues, our prayer language. Not only does it build us up in faith but it keeps us in the love of God. In I Corinthians 14 it speaks of tongues as giving thanks well and speaking mysteries to God. Now do you understand why satan does his best to stop the church from praying in the Spirit? For him, it is a dangerous weapon unleashed on him every time we pray using our prayer language. For us it is a beautiful gift that builds up our faith, enhances our love walk, gives thanks to our Heavenly Father and we can pray out the mysteries of God.

Let’s make a vow to spend some time every day praying in the Spirit if only to make the devil mad!!!

Check out the following scriptures: 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Romans 5:17, “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” According to these scriptures our identification with Jesus enable us to reign in this life. Therefore, we can approach life in a positive and victorious manner.

Let’s come to an understanding of what identification means so we can live in the triumph of Jesus. As a verb, identify means to cause to be or become identical. As a noun, identification means the sameness of essential traits in different instances. This means that salvation has enabled us to become in essential traits exactly like Jesus. That is almost hard to fathom but it is true. 2 Peter 1:4 declares that we have become partakers of the divine nature. That is why in the new birth the old nature becomes non-existent and the new nature takes over. The old is gone all things have become new. We need to look to the Bible to tell us how we are like Jesus so that we know who we are in Him. Notice we look to the Bible to find out how we are like Jesus. We need to know what things we have in common with Jesus. Our natural tendency is to claim our shortcomings as we look to Jesus. However, when we do that we are not identifying with Him. If we take the Bible as the truth then we should accept what it says concerning our likeness to Jesus.

Galatians 4:7 reveals, “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying out, Abba Father! Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son, then an heir through Christ.” Like Jesus, we are sons and therefore heirs of God through faith in Him. Jesus himself spoke about our identification with Him. John records these words in the 14th Chapter, the 12th verse, “Most assuredly, I say to you he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also and greater works than these will he do, because I go to my Father.” In these two verse we catch a glimpse of two more likeness with Jesus: 1. We are sons. 2. We can do His works. There are many verses that describe our likeness to Jesus.

Being a son awards us privileges. Read these fascinating scriptures that reveal our identity in Jesus:

Acts 17:28 “for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’” Our entire being can be in tune with Jesus – our thoughts, our words and our actions.

Eph 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” We are no longer under Satan’s bondage, but we are created with divine attributes.

1 Cor 1:30 “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God — and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” – Do you lack wisdom? In Jesus wisdom becomes yours.

Col 1:13-14 “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” We have been released from all the power of darkness- fear, envy, sickness, failure, defeat and bondage!

Rom 8:37 “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Our identity in Jesus causes us to triumph.

God wants us to focus on our identity with Jesus, not our differences. When we live in our likenesses, we are living in righteousness. When we focus on our differences, we live in sin consciousness. When sin consciousness abounds, we separate ourselves from our identity in Jesus and then our foundation for living can be easily shaken. You may be thinking, “I’m not perfect” What about the sin in my life? The scripture in 1 John 1:9 tells us that when we confess our trespasses, He will forgive us and restore our righteousness. This is how we maintain our identity in Him. Your mistakes cannot change what God has made you in the new birth.

We can avoid identity crises and devastating times by focusing on how much we are like Jesus. See yourself as the Father sees you, in unity with Him not separated from Him. You will experience triumph as you begin to live in this new identity.

The scriptures from James 1:22 and 25 helps to answer this question. (V22), “But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (V25), “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” Yes, James says that we must hear the Word and put it into practice in our daily lives in order to be blessed in what we do. This is critical to faith-filled living! Jesus also taught us the importance of the Word in the parable of the soils where He described 3 hindrances to acting on the Word. We find this parable in Matthew 13:3-23. We do not have the space to reprint it here but you should look these scriptures and meditate upon them during your time with the Lord.

The first hindrance to acting on the Word is a lack of understanding of God’s Word. This is found in Matthew 13:19. Simply put, one does not know what the Word means. This implies that there is a failure on the part of the hearer to obtain adequate teaching. A sermon once a week is not enough to answer your needs. The study of the Word is absolutely necessary to receive understanding. You must value the Word and treasure it by assigning it top priority. Many times during conversations I hear that it is difficult with our busy life styles to find time to study the Word. Yet, at the same time, I hear discussions of the latest movies for rent, of television shows or the latest sale at the store. This is really saying that things have grabbed your attention, and the Word is a lower in priority in your life. These distractions will not give you understanding of the Word. Time is required so that the Holy Spirit can teach you as you are meditating on the scriptures you are seeking to understand. It is impossible to live by the Word of God when you do not understand it. The ministry gifts (pastors, teachers, and evangelists) have been given by the Lord to help you understand the scriptures. Make it a practice to receive good teaching at church and through books and tapes so that you understand how to live by the Word.

The second hindrance to acting on the Word is allowing what others say to influence your behavior and thinking. Who are these others? They can be your family, friends or even yourself as opinion is expressed that does not agree with the Bible. They usually will tell you all the reasons why you will fail or will not obtain God’s promise. Many times this reasoning is based on experience that does not reflect the will of God. How can you stop negative influences from directing your words and actions? The answer to overcoming this hindrance is to discipline your thought life to reflect what the promise God has made to you. Accept your new identity as an over-comer! This means adopting a life-style that allows the truth of the Word to dominate your endeavors not other people’s experiences. Doubt, contradiction and fear will keep you from acting of God’s Word.

The third hindrance to acting on the Word is carnality and worldly treasures. The Bible tells that the carnal mind is enmity against God and cannot receive the things of God. In reality, the hearer is self-centered rather than Christ centered. He lacks the purpose of God; his treasure is here on earth. The self-centered, worldly person will act presumptuously by demanding his own way. Presumption is never fruitful.

There is a reward for hearing and doing the Word. The one who acts on the Word will receive as much as a 100-fold return in his life. In other words the blessing of God will be with him. Who is the sower described in this parable? You are! You are responsible for sowing the Word in your heart. The word that is sown will be used by the Holy Spirit to guide your actions and bring them into unity with the Lord. Get in the Word today!

Jesus understood the importance of words to the life of faith when He spoke in Mark 11:23, “ But believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says.” He addressed a spiritual principle: the belief in our heart and the words we speak must agree for them to come to pass. He also implied that our words determine our future. What kind of future do you desire? The words you use initiate the influences that determine the future. The context of Jesus statement is very clear. He refers to times when we face problems in life. He also is very clear about what to say. Jesus taught us to command that the mountain be removed. It is critical that our words agree with God’s Word. He did not say to complain to the mountain nor be afraid of the mountain. He did not say to reason the mountain away. But he did say to command it to be gone. Other scriptures support the concept of prophetic speaking. Proverbs 21:23, “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his life from destruction.” To keep means to guard or protect from an enemy. This verse of scripture concludes that as we guard against wrong speaking, we guard against destruction. There are many such scriptures throughout the Bible and concrete examples to back them up. You might want to look at the speech of Daniel or David as he fought Goliath.

Is a person lying if he says I’m healed when there are symptoms of illness? I believe that when a person says, “I’m healed,” with symptoms present, he is speaking prophetically. He is speaking what God has promised will take place. Therefore, this statement is not a lie. In the context of scripture believing and speaking should be based on truth not physical evidence. This is hard for some to grasp. It is easier when you view speaking from God’s perspective not your own.

We read in Proverbs 13:3, “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life, but he that openeth his mouth shall have destruction. We need to be deliberate in speech not impulsive. David refers to the destructive speaking of Moses in Psalm 106:33, “Because they provoked his spirit, so that he (Moses) spoke unadvisedly with his lips.” Provocation usually breeds the wrong kind of speaking. Learn the art of keeping quiet when provoked and avoid speaking unadvisedly which will prohibit you from entering into your promises.

Your words are related to victory. The more you speak in line with the promise, the quicker you will overcome in a problem. Let your heart be filled with God’s Word and your conversation will line up with what God says. You will have a wonderful future!