A Resolution Towards Your Resolutions

It’s a well-known tradition to make a resolution going into the New Year. A resolution, by definition, is “a course of action determined or decided upon; a firm determination or resolve”. While I am not against resolutions, I am against waiting until New Years to make any (but don't not make any on New Year's either!) Having said that, I do want to encourage anyone reading this to make a resolution in regards to your resolutions with me.

Resolutions by nature initiate change where change is honestly needed. We have all made them (whether we know it or not). In fact, our culture is full of people who gladly sign the proverbial dotted-line during this time of year on a new resolution that they hope will fulfill their expectations of a “better life”. Those resolutions consist of everything from working out more in order to shave off a few unwanted pounds, to spending more time with family and friends.

Many of the common resolutions people make in light of creating a “better life” for themselves can be great things, and I’m not here to tell anyone to stop making them. Today I simply want to challenge you to approach this year of resolutions differently: Let’s not make today about a resolution that will fulfill our expectations for a “better life”; instead let us resolve ourselves to make a year’s worth of resolutions based upon God’s expectations for a surrendered life. After all, Jesus did not come to give us a “better life” according to our expectations, but rather to exemplify the surrendered life according to His Father’s expectations.

“...the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” (Jn. 5:19)

“I seek not my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.” (Jn. 5:30)

“…for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him [the Father].” (Jn. 8:29)

Here are the first of my resolutions for 2013:

• To pursue God beyond any pursuit of Him I have had in the past.
• To make room for an insatiable hunger for His presence moment by moment.
• To never make excuses for powerlessness in my life.

We have been given life in order that we would bear the image of the Eternal God. This year I want my resolutions to be motivated to that end. I hope you do too!

Be Blessed!

Andrew

(If you have any resolutions that you want to share, please post them below in the comments section. I would love to hear and be inspired by any resolutions that you have made!)

Do Not Fear, Only Believe

"Do not fear, only believe." (Mk. 5:36)

Jesus always says the best stuff.

Be Blessed!
Andrew

Confessing Jesus From the Book of Hebrews

A few days ago I went through the book of Hebrews specifically with the intention of discovering every explicit truth about Jesus I could find within it’s pages. I did this for two primary reasons:

1. To broaden my confession about who He is.

2. To broaden my confession about what He has accomplished on my behalf.

In total, I found fifty-two clear truths about Jesus my first time through (some of these truths repeated a number of times throughout the book. I did not, however, include the recurring ones in my final count). The following is a list of all fifty-two – in order of when they appear in the book with verses included for each:

•       Jesus is the Son of God and heir of all things (Heb. 1:2)

•       Jesus is the creator of the universe (Heb. 1:2)

•       Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature (Heb. 1:3)

•       Jesus upholds the universe by His word (Heb. 1:3)

•       Jesus is better than angels (Heb. 1:3)

•       Jesus now sits at the right hand of power/majesty (Heb. 1:3)

•       Jesus' throne is forever (Heb. 1:8) and His years will have no end (Heb. 1:12)

•       Jesus will have everything put in subjection under His feet (Heb. 2:8)

•       Jesus is crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering and death (Heb. 2:9)

•       Jesus has tasted death for everyone (Heb. 2:9)

•       Jesus is the founder of salvation (Heb. 2:10)

•       Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers (Heb. 2:11)

•       Jesus has destroyed the devil (Heb. 2:14)

•       Jesus became 100% man (Heb. 2:17)

•       Jesus is the merciful and faithful high priest (Heb. 2:17)

•       Jesus helps those who are being tempted (Heb. 2:18)

•       Jesus is the apostle and high priest of our confession (Heb. 3:1)

•       Jesus is worthy of more honor than Moses as the builder of all things (Heb. 3:3-4)

•       Jesus is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb. 4:12)

•       Jesus was and is without sin (Heb. 4:15)

•       Jesus is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 5:6)

•       Jesus is the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him (Heb. 5:9)

•       Jesus cannot lie (Heb. 6:18)

•       Jesus has gone as a forerunner to open the veil on our behalf (Heb. 6:20)

•       Jesus is the King of righteousness (Heb. 7:2)

•       Jesus is the King of peace (Heb. 7:2)

•       Jesus is without genealogy and has neither beginning of days nor end of life (Heb. 7:3)

•       Jesus lives (Heb. 7:8)

•       Jesus became a priest on the basis of the power of an indestructible life (Heb. 7:16)

•       Jesus is the better hope through which we draw near to God (Heb. 7:19)

•       Jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant (Heb. 7:22)

•       Jesus holds the priesthood permanently (Heb. 7:24)

•       Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who would draw near to God through Him (Heb. 7:25)

•       Jesus lives to make intercession (Heb. 7:25)

•       Jesus is holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens (Heb. 7:26)

•       Jesus is the minister in the holy places (Heb. 8:2)

•       Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant that is enacted on better promises (Heb. 8:6)

•       Jesus has secured an eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12)

•       Jesus has entered heaven to appear in the presence of God on our behalf (Heb. 9:24)

•       Jesus appeared once for all to put away sin (Heb. 9:26)

•       Jesus will appear a second time (Heb. 9:28)

•       Jesus came to do the will of God (Heb. 10:7)

•       Jesus has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (Heb. 10:14)

•       Jesus is faithful to His promises (Heb. 10:23)

•       Jesus is a better possession and an abiding one (Heb. 10:34)

•       Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2)

•       Jesus' blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:24)

•       Jesus is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29)

•       Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5)

•       Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8)

•       Jesus is the great shepherd (Heb. 13:20)

•       Jesus is deserving of eternal glory and honor (Heb. 13:21)

There is a high likelihood that I missed a few in there, so if anyone finds any that I overlooked please let me know in the comments section below.

I put these in my blog not to impress you, but rather to help you. I’m serious when I say that confession of truth is one of the most important disciplines we can possibly cultivate in our lives. It has strengthened my own walk with God tremendously and I know that it will yours.

Challenge: Take 10/day for 5 days this week and put them into your confession. You will be amazed at how much your faith in who Jesus is and what He has done will grow!

Be Blessed!

Andrew

You Have Been Sent

"As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." (Jn. 20:21)

There is no doubt that this statement of Jesus' has profound ramifications. The problem is that I had never really considered them before. Maybe you are in the same boat? Well sit back and allow me to share some thoughts!

Just a short time before Jesus left His disciples on their own he dropped this statement on them. Now for sure Jesus had dropped plenty of other mind-blowing statements on them, but I believe that this one may have set in with even more force than any prior to it. Was it because it was it was coming from their newly resurrected friend? Perhaps. Was it because it was immediately followed by them receiving the indwelling Spirit for the first time? Likely. Was it because the reality of their divine destiny just became that much clearer? Also very likely.

To tell you the truth, every one of these reasons (not to mention countless others) probably made this statement pierce the hearts of the disciples. And the fact is that this statement ought to pierce our hearts in similar fashion. In the same way that Jesus was sent by His Father, we have also been sent. Humbled.. Privileged.... Responsible........ All words that came rushing to my mind as I pondered the implications that I have become a co-laborer with Christ in His mission to:

• Seek and to save the lost (Lk. 19:10)
• Destroy the works of the Devil (1 Jn. 3:8)
• Reveal the Father (Mt. 11:27)
• Proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom (Mt. 4:23)
• Heal the sick (Mt. 4:23, Mt. 10:8)
• Raise the dead (Mt. 10:8)
• Cast out Demons (Mt. 10:8)
• Make Disciples (Mt. 28:18-20)
• Forgive people of their sin (Jn. 20:23, 2 Cor. 5:19)
• Testify to the truth (Jn. 18:37)
• Serve (Mt. 20:28)

(This list is by no means comprehensive; it is just a sampling of verses that I considered during the short time I wrote this. Any more that you can think of would help me to expound on this topic and would be greatly appreciated! Please put them in the comments section below.)

Now to be sure, His work is unrepeatable (Heb. 9:26) - but His works are meant to be repeated and even amplified (Jn. 14:12). For all who have put their faith in Christ: We have been welcomed into a partnership with God (2 Cor. 6:1) that is beyond the ability for words to fully describe. This is an important element of our divine destiny that we must surrender to - In the same way that Jesus was sent, so are we.

We have both the privilege and the responsibility to bear fruit for God. This fruit would be impossible to bear except for one fact: we have been given the Spirit of the resurrected Christ - He lives in us and through us (Col. 1:27, Gal. 2:20). The impossible has become possible. There are no longer any viable excuses. With Jesus' words in Jn. 20:21-22, all who have been born-again into a living hope are left with no other options but to partner with the God of the impossible. That is good news!

Be Blessed!

Andrew

Confess the Truth About Yourself

Back in January I wrote about how there are two sides to biblical confession in the life of a believer: the confession of sin and the confession of truth. Both are found throughout the scriptures. However, one is leaned on heavily in the church today (confession of sin), while the other is actually quite neglected in practice (confession of truth). The truth is that both have a place in our lives, but one is more necessary to grasp. It is my belief that if we get truth into our confession more then sin will be in our confession less.

Read my post from January 28th of this year to read more of an explanation of this subject:

http://andrewhess2.blogspot.com/2012/01/confession-of-truth.html

Today, I simply want to give you a few verses that are in my confession regularly. Most of these particular truths are focused on identity (who you are in Christ). My challenge to you is to confess these things daily to the Holy Spirit for the next week or two and watch your confidence in who you are in Christ grow exponentially. Making this a daily practice takes no more than a few minutes, but make no mistake - doing it by faith has more eternal significance than we know.

Note: It is important that we don't just speak these things to the air (nothing will happen), we need to confess them to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit Himself supernaturally transforms us to become the very things that we confess about ourselves from God's Word. The demonstration of the Spirit follows the declaration of a believer. It is His work, but He won't do it apart from us.

The following are ten confessions that are true about every disciple of Jesus: 

• I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21).
• I have been re-created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:24).
• My sin has been separated from me as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12).
• I am dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11)
• I am a slave to righteousness (Rom. 6:18).
• There is no condemnation for me because I am in Christ (Rom. 8:1).
• I am a child and heir of God (Rom. 8:16).
• I am a new creation in Christ, the old is gone and the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17).
• I am an image-bearer of God (1 Cor. 15:49).
• I am blessed with every spiritual blessing in heaven (Eph. 1:3).

There are countless others I could list, and probably will in the future. But for now, each of these scriptures are packed with truth about who you are in Christ. Through faith, get them into your confession today and watch the Holy Spirit cause the Word to become flesh again in you. Seriously, start today!

Be Blessed!

Andrew

PS - as always, comments are appreciated!

Keep Your Love On!

It is undeniable that loving the way that God loves is part of our inheritance. 

• We are called to love: "God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." (1 Jn. 4:16)
• We have access to love: "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Rom. 5:5)

We have been given everything necessary in order to love like Jesus loved. It is God's heart to make provision for us to love like Him, but His provision includes the choice to do so or not. So once we understand that we possess everything needed to love the way that God loves the only thing left is to "keep your love on". I'll explain that more in a second, but first it is important to keep in mind that this requires a conscious decision to be others focused, even in the face of inconvenience to yourself. Loving like God means that "counting others more significant than ourselves" (Phil. 2:3) is a necessity. 

If you have been a Christian for any length of time you know that daily we come face to face with the decision to deny ourselves in light of serving others, and if we are being honest we have all blown it a time or two. What many have failed to understand is that these daily opportunities are a major part of our inheritance as well. These opportunities are not just random happenstance but were actually designed in wisdom by God for His children to walk in (Eph. 2:10), and thus they need to be stewarded well.

So how does a believer steward well over their inheritance of those daily opportunities to love? I believe the answer to this question is found in "keeping your love on". This is what I believe the apostle Paul is communicating in 2 Corinthians 6:11-13 where he tells the Corinthian church that his heart is "wide open" but that they are "restricted by their own affections" and that they are to "widen their hearts also".

Paul walked with an incredible measure of discernment and wisdom regarding God's supernatural avenues of victory over the schemes of the enemy. This is one of those instances where we get a glimpse into what Paul saw was happening in these people that he loved so much. What Paul recognized was that the people of the Corinthian church had become self-focused - meaning they were worried, anxious, fearful, self-centered, etc. Basically, they had turned inward and thus restricted the flow of God's love through their lives to alter the environment around them - especially the lives of people. This is one of the enemies tactics - he desires to make you self-focused by attempting to steer you towards worry, fear, doubt, etc. Satan knows that by doing so your affections will be closed off and you will hinder the anointing of God's love from affecting the lives of those around you. But, in the words of Paul, "that is not the way you learned Christ!"

When Paul encourages the Corinthians to "widen their hearts" he is saying that they no longer have to live under the weight of deception. Instead they have been equipped to both enjoy and impart the love of God, provided that they are not turned inward, but rather they live "wide open" - AKA they "keep their love on"!

My conviction is that if together we would live with our love on, this world will experience the love of God through His church the way He intends it. We owe the world an encounter with Jesus - an encounter with the great Lover of our souls. Each and every person was fearfully and wonderfully made with a desire to love and to be loved, and prepared before us today is an inheritance of opportunities for us to live in that reality as well as usher that reality into the lives of others! So if you haven't already: turn your love on and keep it that way! There is no better way to live!

The Holy Spirit is Your Friend!

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment…” (Jn. 16:7-8)

You will find these verses above to be red letter in your bible – meaning that it was Jesus Himself that said them. He was teaching His disciples about the person and work of the Holy Spirit just hours before He would be lifted up on a cross while bearing the weight of all sin on His shoulders. Listen; when Jesus said to His disciples that it was to their advantage that He would go because then the Holy Spirit would come He was not exaggerating in the slightest. As followers of Jesus it is important that we comprehend why!

“the Helper...”

The bottom line is that the Holy Spirit has been given to us in order to help us – which is great news! His willingness to help us in everything is beyond measure; He simply waits for our surrender.

“He will convict the world…”

Jesus goes on to describe three aspects of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in our life. Don’t be troubled by the word convict, it simply means that He will convince us of certain truths about God. The Holy Spirit is in the business of persuasion, not accusation. There is one who sits in the seat of accusation, and I assure you that our God is not him (Rev. 12:10, Jn. 3:17).

1. First, the Holy Spirit desires to convince us that sin is destructive – it is deadly. This is a foundational revelation of the Old Testament: that the wages of our sin is death. This persuasion of the destructiveness of sin is the only way that you and I could become aware of our need for a Savior! Praise God for the persuasiveness of the Holy Spirit concerning sin!

2. Second, the Holy Spirit makes it His mission to convince you of your righteousness – your right standing before God through Christ. The realization that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21) is just as supernatural as the realization that you were once lost. Many believers are so conscious of their old sinful nature that they refuse to embrace the truth that they have been declared righteous! The nature of sin is to always cling to hopelessness and shame; it always gravitates downward, never upward. That is the disposition of the mind that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit. If this describes the way you think about yourself, now is the time to surrender to the righteous persuasion of the Holy Spirit!

3. Lastly, the Holy Spirit has been sent to continually remind us that the ruler of this world (Satan; Jn. 12:31, Jn. 4:30) has been judged - that Satan has been crushed under the feet of Jesus! He is an outlaw and no longer has authority over our lives. Come on, that is good news! Thank you Holy Spirit for convincing us of the demise of our enemy!

All this being said, the Holy Spirit is your friend and you have no reason to be afraid of Him. He has been given to help you to live victorious in Christ. The abundant life that Jesus promised can be yours through an intimate friendship with God, the Holy Spirit.