Friday, September 18, 2015

79 Bible Verses aboutOur Identity In Christ

(Shamelessly purloined from: www.openbible.info - A great crowd-sourced Bible site)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

And you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ...

As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, ...

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. ...

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. ...

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. ...

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ...

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Success is obedience - NOT POSITIVE outcomes!

Don’t even look at “negative” results from prayer! The word of God is true REGARDLESS of what you see. Once you can grasp your identity in Christ, you will push aside the thoughts coming from the carnal mind, and good results will happen. DO USE the successes as encouragement, and keep building your faith through watching Youtube videos of healings from Tom Loud, Torben Sondergaard, Pete Cabrera Jr, and Dan Mohler.

Also, I follow Torben’s advice, that faith is like a muscle, and needs to be exercised to get strong. Ask DAD to give you subjects to build your faith and he will respond. God will put into your path people who have pain that needs healed and it will help you grow to the point of moving mountains! It’s not harder for Jesus to heal people in wheelchairs, but for many of us it seems more challenging, and our carnal mind weakens us - making is seem harder and so we see nothing.

Many blessings, and be sure to check out Tom Loud’s series many times, especially number 5, before going out!

Here is a post from my wife:

So excited to share about our first night out at Lake Anna.

We arrived at Lake Anna and started walking around the lake at the water’s edge. We first approached two ladies and asked them if we could pray for them. They were very receptive, but didn’t have anything we could pray for. After talking with them about what we were doing, we all held hands and prayed. That was a great ‘kickstart” for Bruce and I. We continued walking and encountered a couple fishing. After speaking with them, we determined that Roger had had a massive heart attack (called a widow maker heart attack) one month ago and needed prayer for recovery, they had financial needs, and Debbie (Roger’s wife) asked for prayer to stop smoking. We prayed healing for Roger, prayed for Debbie to be delivered from addiction to smoking and for God to bless them financially supernaturally. We moved on and encountered a young family with a daddy (James) who had his finger wrapped up. We determined that James had cut finger this morning and had to get stitches. After asking about his pain level we found out James had “permanent” nerve damage from several years back from a work injury when he touched a transformer and was electrocuted and that James had no feeling in his hands and arms. He couldn’t even feel when he got cut or when he got the stitches. We started praying for James and at first he did not notice any difference. After several times of praying healing for him, James noticed that he started having feeling in his fingers which he had not had in a long time. He indicated that he had about 10% of his feeling come back. We continued to press in and pray and James’ feelings in his hands and arms increased and increased. After praying with him for about 15 – 20 minutes, James was so amazed because he had so much feeling that he had not had before. Shocked, James just kept moving his hands and fingers and rubbing them together because he was so amazed. When we left, James just stood there for some time in disbelief from what God had just done for him. Such an indescribable look of shock, disbelief, and joy was on James’ face. Thank you Jesus for the complete healing that you gave to James tonight.

Well, we are totally pumped and ready to go for round two tomorrow.

I found these videos by Tom Loud to be extremely helpful. I hope you will too. He will especially help you understand how the carnal mind is scuttling your power as a disciple. Watch all five, I'm just linking to the first one here:

Tom Loud: Unlocking Kingdom Power

Friday, September 4, 2015

Mark 2:9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’?

If the gospel has power to forgive sins, how could it NOT have the power to heal?

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Jesus Saves, Heals, Delivers - Today!

If you belong to Christ, you are his body. Not figuratively - Literally! (Acts 9:4)
We went to the International Fair at our county seat, Medina, on Saturday, August 22, to pray. We kickstarted two people, Debbie and David, and prayed for a dozen and saw three dramatic healings. It was a tough crowd, mostly affluent, but we made several breakthroughs. Jesus lit up three of us at the same time when we ran into a friend who may have "have had" thyroid cancer. She had a recent uncertain diagnosis. We were praying and I felt the power of God, when just at the same time my wife and David from did. David's wife brought his son, and he has suffered from multiple health issues. His condition is markedly improved, and we continue to press-in (Luke 11 & 18) for complete healing. David was healed of a problem in his left ear, it took three iterations of this complex, theologically rich prayer, and I quote, "Be healed in the name of Jesus!".

Us hobbled, Spirit-starved disciples have made it way too complicated in the past. Guess what!? John 14:12-14 is actually true! Take that passage, memorize it, then go to Luke 18:1-8 and memorize that. When you are exercising faith, recite these passages to yourself. Then, you will see John 14:12 be confirmed. Remember, you don't believe what you don't act on, see Luke 6:46 & James 1:22!!!

At the end of that Saturday, the two we kickstarted were ecstatic with blessed rewards of obedience.

Sunday, at the BIFCCO (Building / Institution - Formerly Called Church Organization), a son of Debbie, one whom we kickstarted the day previous, came to me at the sound board requesting prayer for a pain in his rib cage, caused by congestion and coughing he was recovering from. This was astonishing to me, because NO ONE comes asking for prayer for anything, I usually have to chase them down. Our BIFCCO has rotating prayer teams down front after service, of which my wife and I have done one week out of the month for three years - and I've prayed for three individuals in that time. In this case, I prayed a short prayer four times, each time checking on his pain, and he said the pain was still there each time. Fifteen minutes later I took him to my wife and we both prayed three times - no better. Then I grabbed my phone, and we watched the video of the spinal stenosis case linked to above, to help bolster our faith. We prayed one more time, “Pain be gone in the name of Jesus!”. He looked up suddenly, with a surprised but delightful look, and said, “It’s GONE!” I could NOT contain my elation, high fives all around!. This was a huge victory for me, because I’ve had very little success getting miracles to flow in the BIFCCO. There is a threshold traversed when the seeker and the giver BOTH persist until the WORD is confirmed.

Just to clarify, BIFFCO is not a pejorative term for the "institutional church". I love my church family, and attend The Chapel in Wadsworth every Sunday. The church is Jesus' body. In Greek, it's ekklesia, which means literally "called out ones". The true church is not a building or an institution - it IS an assembly of "believers". It is the whole group of true disciples that live throughout the globe... past, present, and future. The New Testament is peppered with this concept of us being the body of Christ. In Acts 9:4, on the road to Damascus, Jesus' voice calls out to Saul (later called Paul), saying, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?!" Saul was persecuting Christians. Jesus equates his disciples with himself.

We are going to more events, and my wife is tracking down local food distributions like in Manchester that we can do regularly. I plan to start video documenting soon and posting them here.

Jesus, thanks for our amazing weekend!

To him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or imagine...

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Operation Rhizome aka Rootstalks

The Lord put on my mind a thought, two weeks ago when I was at a birthday party for a nonagenarian, the word, “Rhizome”. I knew it had something to do with roots, what with the root, “rhiz-“, meaning… well, root. I looked up the word in the dictionary.

rhizome - noun, Botany
1.a rootlike subterranean stem, commonly horizontal in position, that usually produces roots below and sends up shoots progressively from the upper surface.”

At first I my flesh kicked in and I thought it could be a great veiled pejorative, like calling someone a rhizome would be to call them a subterranean weed. After I reminded myself that calling someone a fool puts you in danger of “the hellfire”, I thought of how I’ve considered myself an ambassador to the institutional “church”, knowing that I’ve felt like an oddball for some time. Then it hit me. The discipleship that we are embracing, that of Jesus - preach the gospel and heal the sick, can become like a rhizome to the other zombies trapped in the "Building / Institution, Formerly the Church Organization” (henceforth BIFCO). If God can use us to disciple people from many of these BIFCO’s, then it would be like a rhizome. Roots growing underground to spring up in many other BIFCO’s. Another name for a rhizome is “Rootstalks”. I have registered two domain names for the purpose of growing new disciples in BIFCO’s: Rhizome.life and RootStalks.org . Not that I would have any greater contribution to this process than that of “the soil” (think of the parable of the soils - the gospel is the seed, WE are the dirt). It is Jesus who builds HIS Church. BTW, the oldest organism on earth, and maybe the largest, is thought to be a grove of Aspens known as Pando. I encourage you to look it up.

More to come...

Friday, August 21, 2015

Who Is Jesus?

Have you ever told a lie? All liars will have their part in the lake of fire.

"But to the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, idol worshipers, and ALL THOSE WHO LIE, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. That is the second death." Revelation 21:8

But - there is hope.

Jesus will save you from all of your sins. Sins are God's laws you have broken. Here's how to be saved: "...Repent, and each one of you be immersed into the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Acts 2:38

Repent means to turn from your evil ways. Turn to Jesus and call on HIS name. "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation." Romans 10:9-10

Then what?

When you are saved, you are now part of God's family. Jesus commands you to be baptized in water, be baptized in the Holy Spirit, then become a disciple AND make disciples of all nations. He spent three years teaching his disciples, then after he was resurrected, and the Holy Spirit came upon them, they started making more disciples by Doing What Jesus Did:

"...He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. “These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

Mark 16:15-18

Did you know that "preach the gospel" and "heal the sick" never appear apart from each other in the Bible? In John 14, Jesus makes some astonishing statements:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it."

Yes, we are called to do the works that Jesus did. This is to our great joy, because giving is better than receiving! The greatest gift is Jesus himself - HE is the truth, the way, and the life! That is the most profound statement in all of human history. Now the only way to "one-up" such a an immeasurable gift, is to give it away! Jesus knows this will bring us more joy, and so invites us to participate in his plan to bring the kingdom of heaven to all who would have him - destroying the works of the devil, saving, healing, and casting out demons. This is God's will.

We know this because even in the "Lord's Prayer", we are to ask that God's Kingdom come, AND that HIS will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Is there sickness in heaven? Is there disease? Is there selfishness, sin, or immorality? Are there blind people? Are there lame people? Is anyone depressed, anxious, or hungry? Did Jesus' ministry address all of these issues? Did he have his disciples do the same thing he did? Did he tell them to go make disciples of all nations? Did he tell them to go make buildings and hide inside them?

Join us, Do What Jesus Did.

I will have more to say, which I will add to this blog as I can. Here is something to think about until then. Is it possible to please God without faith? What activates the miracles of Jesus? What is faith?

-Bruce

Who is Jesus?

Do you KNOW him?