CCC

Forgiveness does not mean that what someone else did wrong was right; forgiveness is no longer holding someone else responsible for our wholeness. Forgiveness means acknowledging that only God can make our broken hearts whole again. No one else has the ability to make us whole; only Jesus can do that.

No matter where you’re going, you’ve got to pack prayer. Don’t get so busy that you forget to pack the principles of God, the Holy Spirit, and the precious foundations of godliness. We can’t move into the places and spaces where God’s Word or the Holy Spirit isn’t able to go.

What we say reveals what is in our hearts. It's the inward things that drive the outward response. To be defiled means that we are at odds with God. When we are at odds with people, then we are at odds with God.

Some of us have been deprived of having an earthly father. Maybe we have been taken advantage of, abused, neglected, harmed, or experienced pain from our fathers. But, there is a father in heaven who loves us so much that he gave his only begotten son.

When we look at Ephesians 2:4-9, we might be tempted to think: “If I’m saved by grace through faith, not of works, then why would I need to do any works?” But the truth is that we are actually saved by works--just not our works.

Before we have made a choice to follow Jesus, we live based on our own thoughts, feelings, bodies, and social influences, and we develop patterns of behavior based on our experiences. When we make the decision to follow Jesus, we allow the word of God to mold our thoughts, feelings and actions. When Christ’s spirit enters our hearts, we learn how to be who God has called us to be.

The hurt and pain we experience in life causes us to build up walls of self-protection in our hearts. Because we have built walls in our hearts, our will becomes hardened against God's will. As a result, we do not receive God's blessings or truth, because we have filtered them through our experiences that have left us broken.

When we find our identity in Christ, God wants us to receive a full revelation of who he is with hope, confidence, and power.

In Christ, we are adopted, we are redeemed, and we are forgiven. Your fall cannot determine or define who you are because your walk hasn’t determined or defined who you are. Who you are is not achieved; it’s received by faith. Your identity is received. John 10 says my sheep know my voice. He says no one will be able to snatch them out of my hand.

When Jesus has you, sin can't have you. You have been gripped by grace. Paul tells us that in Christ, you are blessed, you are chosen, you are adopted, you are redeemed, and you are forgiven. So many of us believe today that we have to earn our way, but our identity is received not achieved in Christ. Like Paul, we should celebrate the fact that we’ve been redeemed.

When we begin to see who we are in Christ, God teaches us the rhythms of grace. Our God is a loving father who blesses us with every spiritual blessing, he chose us, he calls us holy, blameless, and he’s predestined us before he laid the foundations of the earth.

God loves you and has always loved you. His grace is sufficient in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 12:9). Keep rhythm with his grace because God has chosen you for such a time as this. There is nothing you can do to disqualify yourself from his plan.

Identity always comes before activity. Christianity says, “look who you are--now you can do...” Once we know who we are, then we can fully do all that God has purposed us to do. When we don’t know who we are, everything we do is fleeting because it’s not rooted in Christ.

Paul knew who he was in Christ and counted all of his achievements as rubbish (Phillippians 3:8). Do you know who you are in Christ today? When you know who you truly are, you can live in freedom to do the things that you were created to do.

Every benefit that Jesus gave to us is from the Abrahamic covenant. Our belief in Jesus passes the benefits of this Old Testament covenant that God made with Abraham to us. This is all a part of our inheritance: our children will be blessed, and we will receive financial blessing, lands and healing.

All of these blessings that were applied to Abraham are now applied to us because we are covered under the blood of Jesus Christ. The blessings of Abraham were not just extended to him, but also to his descendants.