Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today I am in Angola, Africa. I have been blessed to be with several church leaders on Saturday and Sunday. I also spoke on the radio on Sunday morning and ministered in a great church Sunday morning. It was great to be with believers that were hungry for the presence of God and eager to receive His words of life. I have a full week of training here with many leaders.
Our fight is not a fight against flesh and blood. It is a fight against spiritual forces and powers because it is an empowerment of life that destroys all manner of distraction and death. It is a fight of faith. It is not merely a fight against something but a fight to be empowered by an internal connection to God at all times through His Holy Spirit. Our wrestle is not a wrestle against the flesh but an empowerment by God’s Spirit to be fully connected to Him at all times and in all things.
Our confession should be a confession of love and life. Our relationship with God in Christ empowers us to live godly lives with wholesome words and expressions of life to others in our world. The way of the world is self-willed and self-focused. When we seek our own way, we become proud, and we end up in disputes and arguments with others over words that are inspired by envy, strife, evil suspicions, and argumentative attitudes. The way of the world is to seek to get things in life that satisfy their own desires and to be someone of stature and importance in their own eyes. They seek the things of the world to give them satisfaction in the world. This is not to be our way in Christ.
The apostle Paul exhorted his spiritual son Timothy to live his life in godliness with contentment for each day. He encouraged him to know that seeking the riches of the world can be the root of many kinds of evil. A desire for the things of the world can be a distraction from what really counts. What really counts in life is a daily relationship with God. This is not just life, but life eternal and life abundant.
1 Timothy 6:11 But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, 15 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
The appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ is not just an appearing at a future event of fullness, but an appearing of Him in many ways in the seasons of our lives. We will no doubt see Him at the culmination of the harvest of our lives when we transition from this world of corruption to the incorruptible glory of God’s presence. His coming is not just an event in time but an increasing reality of His nearness and presence in our lives and in all times. We will no doubt see Him when all things are summed up in Him and presented to God our Father but we must live each day to see Him by faith in our hearts and to know His manifest presence in us and with us in all things. Knowing His presence in our lives will inspire us to express His presence in the power of love to our world.
Hebrews 6:10 For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. 11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
It is through intimacy with God in our hearts and an embracing of His presence that we can be empowered by faith with a steadfast adherence to Him. This is the faith and patience that empowers our labor of love. That labor of love is a love for Him that inspires each of us to make sacrifices willingly and willfully for the sake of giving life to others in our world. This is the diligence that we must walk in through the full course of our lives to the greater glory that lies ahead.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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