'I do not have a price tag - I belong to Jesus'

"'I will give it all to you if you will worship me.' (8) Jesus replied, 'The scriptures say, You must worship the LORD your God and serve Him only.'                        Luke 4:7-8   NLT 

Over the years, people have gone overboard in their desires to have what they want - NOW! One only has to look around and you will see people who will go into deep debt, in order to have better than their friends or neighbours have. There is a deep envy and jealousy that appears to take over at times, whatever the cost. The example of Jacob and Esau tells us the perils of this type of thing:

(29) 'Now Jacob cooked a stew and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. (30) And Esau said to Jacob, "Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary." Therefore, his name was called Edom (red).   (31) But Jacob said, "Sell me your birthright as of this day." (32) And Esau said, "Look I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?" (33) Then Jacob said, "Swear to me as of this day". So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. (34) And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose and went his way.' 

Esau was ravenous after being out in the fields all day and smelling this delicious food, he wanted some at that moment. One would have thought that Jacob would have given some to his brother, but he was more crafty and ruthless than that. He offered to sell him some - for his birthright, which was permissible around the area of Haran at that time. Esau, having little respect for this, agreed and paid a great price. This example shows us the peril of wanting something there and then and not being in control of ourselves. Some people will be so tempted by what they want, that they will cross that line and then, lose everything. 

The devil tried this with Jesus, believing that after 40 days and nights in the wilderness, He would be cold, weary and very hungry. He would be at His lowest, he thought. The devil offered Jesus, honour, power, status and success if He would only submit to Him. However, Jesus came right back at him with the Word of God. One paraphrase of what Jesus said reads, 'No offer of success and power is enough to shift My loyalty from God. I do not have a price tag. Even if I go to waste in the dust, I will bow My knee before Him alone. He will defend Me and reward Me - even unto death.' (Words of Jesus, Christian Art Publishers 2015).

Do not be tempted to cut corners in order to get what you want. Do not be tempted to give in to things that you will regret when you're caught out - and you will be. Do not sacrifice what Jesus paid for you on the cross. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is worth giving up your birthright as Esau did.

The devil will tempt you with your weaknesses, he knows what they are. So keep your wits about you and have your armour on at all times. The devil is out to discredit you; it may be through a bowl of stew or by swapping your allegiance from Jesus to something or someone who has hoodwinked you. Be careful and remember you were redeemed (paid for) at a great price and no matter what, you are not for sale.

Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard

grahame.howard@hotmail.co.uk

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com 

*If you would like to contact me, then please send me an email😄

The Meaning of Confession. Part 3

"For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me, gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak."                John 12:49   NKJV

To reinforce the meaning of the Hebrew word - Homologeo, we need to see that it is not only us who speak the same words as the Father's, but Jesus too. He never spoke on His own authority as we see from this passage. He only spoke what His Father was telling Him. And we need to do the same; it is paramount to our successful walk with Jesus.

Jesus suffered many bad comments about His ministry, if He had to suffer this, you can bet that we will too. When He was on His way to the Feast of Tabernacles, the Jews were openly accusing Him of deceiving the people with all of His comments. He went into the temple and taught. One had to admire His tenacity, nothing was going to stop Him doing His Father's will. After He had finished, the Jews said, 'How does this man know letters having never studied.' John 7:15. This was very similar to what was said about Peter and John in Acts 4:13, 'Now when  they saw the boldness of Pater and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marvelled. And that realised that they had been with Jesus.'

That last statement beats any degree or diploma that a bible college can offer. 'that they had been with Jesus.' What a wonderful testimony; what a privilege to have that said about you. There's noting wrong in being trained at bible college, in fact, it is very much needed, but to have this said about us, is in my opinion far better.

Jesus was taught by His Father and only spoke the words that His Father spoke. Peter and John and the others, were untrained in the Jews eyes, but they were personally taught by Jesus and the Holy Spirit and they too, only spoke what they heard from them. 

Which all goes to show just how important it is for us to learn this too. To be able to perform this way, we must know the Word of God. If we don't put some time in reading and studying our bibles, then how will we know what to say when we need too. It's the same with professions; if we don't study, we will lack the education for when we need it.

Why not make it a priority to set aside a certain amount of quality time each day to get a deeper understanding of God and what He means and intends for your life. It will be one the greatest things you ever do.

Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard

grahame.howard@hotmail.co.uk

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com 

*If you would like to contact me, then please send me an email😄

The Meaning of Confession. Part 2

"He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief."        Romans 4:20   NKJV

Carrying on from our study on confession yesterday, let's expound it and get a deeper understanding of it.

Homologeo in the Christian tense says the same things that God says. It confesses and declares it. It doesn't look at the natural but looks past it to the supernatural. What God says, may not happen in the natural immediately, but as we stand on our faith, it is lodged there and will manifest in due course. 

Abraham faced a rather impossible situation. God told him that he and Sarah, his wife, would have a child in their very old age. To many of us, this would have seemed bizarre and totally impossible. However, Abraham was adamant - if God had said it, he believed it. There would have been some Homologeo going on here as Abraham spoke and agreed with what God had said.

In Romans 4, we see that Abraham, 'contrary to hope, in hope believed'. (v18) 'Not being weak in faith', (19). 'He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief', (v20' and 'being fully convinced what He had promised,He was able to perform', v21. Abraham did not consider the natural things around him. We should never consider our own limitations. We need to be ready for the change that is coming.

Galatians 5:9 says, 'do not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose hope'. Find a verse that is relevant to your situation and then stand on it. Pray it out and allow the Homologeo to take place by starting to confess and declare what God says about your situation. Believe it even if it looks and sounds totally impossible with your natural eyes and belief. Stand on it, claim it, confess it and declare it until you have it. Habakkuk 2:2-3 says, 'Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come. It will not tarry.'

The devil may try to get you to forget about it - it won't happen. People may tell you that you have it wrong but if you're convinced it's God, keep pressing on with your faith. I once heard a visiting preacher give a sermon at a certain church. At the end, he gave an altar call but, he said, 'I want you to know that no one has ever been healed under my ministry. However, if you wish prayer for healing, we will give it a try'. As you can well imagine, no one was healed and I was totally flabbergasted at such a statement.

We must say things how God says them; we must agree and believe that it will happen. Never, ever waver through doubt and unbelief!

Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard

grahame.howard@hotmail.co.uk

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com 

*If you would like to contact me, then please send me an email😄

The Meaning of Confession

"John came baptising in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins"                                                                                   Mark 1:4   NKJV

There are four types of confession that we see in the bible:

(1) John the Baptist's confession that we need to repent.

(2) Our confession of sin at salvation.

(3) When we continue to sin in our walk with Jesus.

(4) Homologeo.

(1) John the Baptist paved the way for the Lord. Repentance is a prerequisite  to baptism; therefore, he came confessing God's Word, that he baptised with water but one was coming, who would baptise with the Holy Spirit. He confessed that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). It was an acknowledgement that we are all sinners and need Jesus to forgive and cleanse us from these sins.

(2)  The second one is in obedience to Jesus that we confess our sins to Him and receive forgiveness and eternal life. In fact, we are born again to life with Jesus, because we know, we can never enter the Kingdom of God without this salvation.

(3) We are in no way perfect yet and possibly each day we will commit sin. This may be in the form of a bad thought, a judging thought, a bad word uttered, gossip and much more. We therefore, need to confess our sins on a daily basis and when we do, Jesus will forgive us. (1 John 1:9).

(4) The fourth type of confession is called in the Hebrew Homologeo, which means to say what God says and speak His Will and Word of faith. To explain: Homo means 'the same'. Logeo means 'word'. The phrase is, to say the same thing as another. Keep with me on this one. When we say the same thing as another we are agreeing with them and we confess, profess and openly declare this. 

Bill Winston comments: 'What Homologeo means for the believer is to say the same thing that God says; to agree, assent, concede to, confess and declare what God says in His Word. No matter what things may look like in the natural, we have to look past what we're experiencing in our health, finances, relationships or our soul and say what God says about it all. This is our confession'.   (The Law of Confession Copyright 2009 Dr Bill Winston).

Therefore, as I commented in my daily blog: The words we speak 5th January 2021, we need to look at and put into action Romans 4:17: 'God who gives life to the dead, and calls those things which do not exist as though they did'. Put this verse together with 2 Corinthians 4:18: 'while we do not look at the things which are seen but at the things that are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.' And finally, 2 Corinthians 5:7: 'For we walk by faith, not by sight.'

We can begin to see where Homologeo fits into the Christian walk. To be in faith, we need to speak the words that God speaks. This includes walking in healing; in blessing, financially secure, at peace and full of the power of God. The devil will try to tell you that this does not work. He does not want you to be this powerful. It will give him a headache and cause panic in the demonic world. We read our bibles daily and we either believe it or we don't. We cannot take bits and pieces out that we like and agree with and discard the rest. With God it is all or nothing.

Do a study on Homologeo in the Christian tense and you will begin to find a new excitement; the excitement that God wants you and I to live in.

Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard

grahame.howard@hotmail.co.uk

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com 

*If you would like to contact me, then please send me an email😄

You're safe and protected

"9 Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, 10 No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling." 

                                                                                                     Psalm 91:9-10   NKJV

Just lately, I have heard some Christians talking in fear about how the Coronavirus is getting worse and how scary it is. To the world, it is scary, there is no doubt about that. It is a plague and if not conquered will cause a lot of death and heartache. However, we belong to Jesus, and because of this, Jesus lives in our hearts and gives us the protection of His Blood too, as long as we claim it and dwell in Jesus. He is available also to everyone who makes the choice to invite Him into their lives.

Look at our verses today. The LORD - Jehovah - is our refuge. A refuge is a safe place; a place that we can hide and shelter from any evil that may be going to attack us. A refuge is a kind of fortress and fortresses are very difficult to penetrate. Do you get the idea? As long as our eyes are on Jesus, we have a hedge of protection - a fortress - around us. No evil and no plague can come near our dwelling - which is Jesus, unless we invite it in by dropping our guard, causing a gap in this hedge. 

God is love 1 John 4:8, so therefore, if God is our refuge we are surrounded by love, and perfect love casts out fear 1 John 4:18. So, the God of love casts out all fear, which includes the torment that we may catch Covid 19. 

So, we can rest and be content in the fact that we have the protection of Jesus Christ in our lives. However, this does not mean that we can be slipshod in our approach to it all. At this time, we are in Lockdown and that means there are severe restrictions that we need to take notice of. God would expect us to do this. We are still subject to the law and, these restrictions are made in law. So we need to obey them. This doesn't mean that we have to be frightened out of our wits, not at all. We rest in the knowledge that our God protects us. But when we hear about people who are scared about it all, a word via text or a telephone, encouraging them, can be a lifesaver. 

Everyone needs Jesus, they just don't know this at the moment. So therefore, there is a harvest field of people who need to hear about Him. Perhaps, God is calling you to this, at this time.

Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard

grahame.howard@hotmail.co.uk

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com 

*If you would like to contact me, then please send me an email😄

Jesus knows what He is doing

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us."                                       Ephesians 3:20   NKJV

One thing is for sure, at this moment in time, you may not know what the Father is doing but, Jesus does and He's the one to trust. He knows the Father far better than we could ever do, and what's more, as we continue to trust Him, He will reveal more and more of what He has for us. He does it in stages because if he told us everything at once, we wouldn't be able to comprehend it; it would be too overwhelming.

Take for example Ephesians 3:20. He can do more than we could ever think; more than we could ever desire and much more than we could ever dream about. But note the latter part of this verse: 'according to the power that works in us' - and that is the Holy Spirit. God the Father sent Jesus and Jesus, when He had ascended into Heaven, sent the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the one that works the power within us. Without Him, very little will happen. With Him, He is our total power and guide, our truth-bearer and our friend.

God the Father, loves to surprise us. He is our Daddy and most Daddies love to thrill their children with gifts and love. Our Father loves to surprise us - His faithful people, with answers to our prayers that far exceed anything we could have hoped, imagined or asked Him for. He has wonderful plans for our lives so, refuse to be discouraged by disappointments that come your way. They are temporary, they are gone in a flash and sometimes, they are sent by God as a test to ascertain just how much we trust Him. When He sees our trust, when we pass the test, He can open the gates of His blessing towards us. So keep faithful to Him and continue to believe that He will answer any prayer in a manner that is better than you could ever have dreamed about. In fact, more than your wildest dreams. Why? Because, He is totally for you.

Just a quick word about disappointments. Sometimes thay come as tests from God because He wants us to learn something or overcome a particular point. However, at times the devil has a hand in the disappointment and if we allow him to, will completely wreck our minds with his lies. Don't let him do this. You have authority as a believer of Jesus Christ, to give the devil his marching orders. You can tell him to leave, and he must do this. He may cause some trouble in the process, but use your armour (Ephesians 6 - you should be wearing it all the time) - a believer clad in the armour of the Lord is a powerful warrior and when you prayerfully order him to be evicted from your presence, he will have to leave.

So, don't give in to disappointment because, following each disappointment there will be a blessing if you are in the right attitude spiritually. Jesus knows what He is doing and if you give Him your all, you too will know what you're doing.

Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard

grahame.howard@hotmail.co.uk

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com 

*If you would like to contact me, then please send me an email😄

The Words we Speak

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it, will eat its fruit". 

                                                                                                             Proverbs 18:21   NKJV

We have addressed this area many times over the past year but, it is so important that we could spend the rest of our lives studying it. Words bring death or life. Our lives largely reflect the fruit of our tongue. When we speak life, it is to speak God's perspective on any issue that we are faced with. To speak death is to declare a life of negativity; this includes declaring defeat on something or complaining constantly about whatever we see.

Proverbs 12:14 NIV says, 'From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him.' The notes on this verse tell us, A man who speaks with wisdom, will reap a harvest from his words, just as a farmer enjoys the crops he planted.' NIV Study Bible.

From this, we see just how important our words are. We can actually curse ourselves with what we say in the negative. Phrases such as, 'My back is killing me.' 'I think I'm coming down with the flu,' I am sure that I've got Covid.' These are negative words and it is possible that we will reap what we are saying here. Other phrases such as, 'Our David will never make anything of himself, everything he does fails.' "It's a waste of time going to Uni, I'll never pass the exams.' Can you see what is happening here? We are speaking negativity over ourselves and others and it is akin to cursing. We reap what we sow and we also get what we confess; we are prophets of our own doom and we need to stop this, right now!

We serve a, 'God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.' Romans 4:17. In other words we are to be faith-filled people, living and speaking the Word of God. Seeing things as God sees them and only speaking things that build us up. Be careful that nothing comes out of your mouth that is negative. Furthermore, do not be tempted to speak anything that could be classed as gossip. 'He who goes about as a gossip reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy and faithful, keeps a matter hidden.' Proverbs 11:13 Amplified Study Bible. 

God has so much for you and I. As we move with Him, walking in the Spirit and speaking Words of Life, we will begin to see things happening in our lives that we never thought were possible. Therefore, speak only what God wants you to speak.

Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard

grahamehoward@hotmail.com

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com 

*If you would like to contact me, then please send me an email😄