Is Jesus Your Lord?

Is Jesus Your Lord?

Did you have a moment some time ago where you heard the Gospel message and your heart stirred and a pastor led you in the sinner’s prayer?  And then the next day, you realized that you are the same person, dealing with the same problems, with the same friends, and you’re still doing the same old things, and there is no tangible difference in your life except you have the pastor’s assurance that at least you not going to hell when you die.

And so you ask yourself, did it work?  Am I really going to miss hell?  Is my name really written in the Lamb’s book of life? 

My answer is, I don’t know.  It depends.  There is a possibility that if you came to the alter with the attitude of ‘what’s in it for me?’ and not ‘what can I give for Him’ that you might not be born again.  If you came to the alter wanting to take what He has for you but not giving to Him what He requires, you may not be.

The pastor may have read Romans 10:9

If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Do you even know what that verse means? 

In a country where we are all free men and equals and have rights and no one is a bond-servant to another, and we are not subjects to a King, nor slaves to a master; do we even know what it means to confess ‘Jesus is Lord’?

Well let’s start with the Greek. 

The word ‘confess’ here is homologeó.  It means to make a public declaration and promise.  In the days of Jesus, when a person made a public profession or promise it was as binding as a 30 page mortgage contract.  Where generational covenants were bound by your word, this confession is not something you take lightly; like telling a telemarketer that you will consider their offer, just let me get off the phone.  This is a spiritually binding contract that you are getting into. One with no loopholes and bail-out clauses.  You are entering into a sacred blood covenant.

The phrase ‘is lord’, in this context, is kýrios. It is not the same word used for “LORD” as in God of Abraham and 'I AM'.  It doesn’t mean that you are professing that Jesus is Holy and part of the trinity, and is the Word; all of which is true.  But, it literally means ‘A PERSON EXERCISING ABSOLUTE OWNERSHIP RIGHTS’.  ‘ A MASTER’, ‘ONE WITH OVERALL AUTHORITY’.

So let’s put it all together.  Have you made a public declaration, binding on your life, that you are the property of and the servant to Jesus Christ of Nazareth?  In that, everything that you own is now His, that your life is now His, that your old identity is gone and dead and now your new identity is in Him?  As an American slave would have lost their previous identity and took on the identity of their master, so too must you die to your old self and be resurrected into your new identity. 

But our Lord isn’t a cruel master; a slave driver with a heavy yoke and sharp whip.  He is a master that instead of inflicting us with heavy burdens, he adopts us as his children; Children of God.  He gives us His ring, cloak, and banner; His authority under His name.  Just as Pharaoh gave authority to Joseph over Egypt, Jesus has given you authority in Him.  He wants more for you than you can even imagine.  In exchange for humbling and surrendering yourself to Him, He makes in you a new creation.  He brings His spirit in you to guide you and to teach you and to comfort you and to give you power and authority beyond your ability to believe.  He gives you His favor and prospers you and gives more than you will ever need to be effective and influential in the Kingdom of God.  He says, give and I will return to you more than you gave Me.  He says, seek Me with all your heart and I will give you all things.  He says, do what I command I will bless you beyond your ability to receive it all.

How do you know if you have been born again into this new covenant? 

One way is to look for the fruit. (John 15:1-11)

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

What kind of fruit are you bearing?

Another way to know is … do you hear His voice?

John 18:37

Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."

John 10:26-30

Jesus answered them, “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. “I and the Father are one.”

How is it possible that you have submitted to a master whom you don't even talk to or listen to for His direction. He is always talking, are you ever still and listening? Do you ignore the check in your spirit when you do something you shouldn't?  Are you sensitive enough to it to be your guide?

The Holy Spirit confirms in our spirit that we are children of God.

Romans 8:14

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

You can’t lie and steal an inheritance into the Father and into heaven.  You can certainly make the world believe that you have made Jesus your Lord, but you can’t fool Him.  You can’t come to Jesus and say Hocus-Pocus (or some other magic words) and tell God to stamp your ticket to heaven.  That is not how it works.  Saying 'Jesus is Lord', is more than just admitting His deity.  For even the devil knows that Jesus is God and believes that He has risen from the dead.  That's not the ticket to paradise.  You need to make Him Lord.  Lord of your life.  Lord of your finances.  Lord of your relationships.  Lord of your ambitions.  Lord of your everything.  LORD OF ALL.

And if you are ready to enter into this covenant with the creator of the universe and are ready to say, Jesus, everything I am and have is yours, He is waiting to receive you.  Luke 15:11-31

Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

“ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”

If you are ready to put it all aside and profess Jesus is Lord, and declare ‘I submit my all to you’, He is waiting to welcome you home.  He is looking for you in the distance.

You can start right now by praying this or what is on your heart.

Lord, I am so sorry that I have disappointed you.  That I have continuously broken your heart.  I am sorry that I have left you waiting for me for so long while I’ve squandered all that you have given me.  I believe that you died for me and rose again so that I might enter into this eternal covenant with you.  I give you all that I am.  I give you all that I have.  I give you all my ambitions.  I declare that you are lord and master over me.  I forever submit myself to your service and to your will.  Take all that I am and make in me a new creation for your glory.  I thank you Lord for the provision and inheritance that you will provide for me, but I’m not coming to you for the provision or reward.  I submit to you to be a humble servant and will serve you selflessly regardless of my lot in this life.  Transform me Lord into something that brings you Glory.  Use me Lord to make a difference for you.  Let me hear you clearly Lord so that I may know that I am your child and what you need from me.  Search my heart Lord to see my sincerity.  Show me Lord anything that I shouldn’t have and am hanging onto and I will lay it down and walk away.  Let me be an asset to the Kingdom.  Let my legacy be in you. Let me not be remembered for what I did or was, but let people remember me as ‘servant of the Most High God’.  Lord, see my heart and know that I am yours.  As I confess your Lordship and enter into this covenant with you, I receive your name.  I receive your ring.  I receive your banner.  I receive your salvation.  I receive your desires for me.  I will forever sing of your Glory.  Holy Spirit, fill me; teach me; guide me in Your ways.  Empower me to be effective in the Kingdom.  Let me speak and rely not through my experience, but through Your wisdom.  Let me speak in new tongues and flow in your anointing.  Let me fulfill my calling with signs and wonders; not for my glory but for Yours.  Let me share my testimony and preach the Gospel with boldness and let the words be not from my lips but from yours.  Let all who hear me, feel the same stirring in their spirit, that stirs in mine.  Give me a passion for the work of the Kingdom and a love for your people.  Let me hear from your lips when we finally meet face to face, ‘well done, my faithful servant’. 

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, my Lord and Savior, It is done (amen).

Joshua and Ai for Today

Rise up and sanctify yourself. You are holding onto and coveting things that are not of God and are cursed. They are impeding intimacy between you and the Lord and are preventing the blessings and protection that He promised from being realized. You will not be able to walk in His fullness until you cast aside all that is defiled and set your self apart for His holy purpose.
Yesterday you stood before your enemies and they were as giants; they mocked you and pursued you and drove you into the desert, where you were alone and vulnerable.
Repent and sanctify yourself for the Lord; for tomorrow He will be your banner and strong tower. The same enemies who chased you yesterday will now tremble and flee before you.

“Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land.” – Joshua 8:1

Don’t look to natural phenomenon to define and rationalize a supernatural God.

Don’t look to natural phenomenon to define and rationalize a supernatural God.

We are in an age where we are discovering and understanding the things of this world that have never been seen before.  An age of science and problem solving that when stacked on top the discoveries of the past, are mind blowing.  We boast about being close to unlocking the secrets of the universe and the fabric that holds it together.  This scientific drive has instilled a desire within us to prove our hypothesis and rationalize the unknown.

This drive has been wonderful in moving us to a realm of new innovations and practices that has changed our world, in so many ways for the better.

However, in our effort and drive to understand our natural world, we have extended that to the supernatural or spiritual.

We will try to rationalize how the works of God can happen within our scope of the natural.  We will say that vibrations of the tromping feet and shouts brought down the walls of Jericho, as opposed to believing that faith in action and the hand of God brought down the walls.  In our effort to want to believe there is a God, we will come up with wild theories and rationalizations that feed our carnal senses, instead of just believing it for what it is, a work of God.  We don’t need to understand it, and it doesn’t even need to seem possible, we just need to believe it.

When it comes to the works of God, it is far better to get revelation by faith than it is to be assured with your carnal logic and senses.

Thomas was like this.  He would not believe by faith but needed Christ’s resurrection proved to his senses in order for him to believe.

Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” – John 20:29

God doesn’t want his relationship with you to be based on carnality (what you can perceive with your senses), but his best for you is to just say, I don’t understand, but I believe.

You can spend your whole life searching for proof and validity of the Word; some artifact from the past, or a scientific algorithm to confirm a theory, but all you need to do is believe.

A very intelligent and respected teacher named Nicodemus, came to Jesus at night amazed by the signs and wonders that were following Him.  He believed in God but his focus was on the physical and carnal and not as much the spiritual.  When the Word of God gave him revelation that no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.  Instead of getting the revelation in his heart of the spiritual, he looked to the world and science and said, “surely a person can’t reenter their mothers womb a second time.”  When Jesus expanded on the spiritual, it only confused him more because his mind was trying to rationalize the spiritual around the laws of the natural.  He said, “How can this be?”

Jesus said, “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?” (John 3)

If you want to better understand the spiritual or heavenly things, you need to stop rationalizing the Word of God.  If the Word says it, you may not understand it, and it may not seem possible, but believe it.  Don’t be like Thomas and say that unless I put my fingers in the holes in His hand and press my hand into the wound in His side, I will not believe.  Don’t be so caught up on trying to rationalize the spiritual within the realms of the natural, that you miss out on the revelation of the heavenly.

Receive the blessing that only comes by faith.

How big is your problem?

So you believe that God is your provision, but things of this world have beaten you down and made you tired and have stolen the Word that was so strong in you before.  Sometimes, it seems, it takes more than you have left, to fight and believe when the problem seems unsurpassable and beyond what you can see.

Moses was in that boat.  At one time, he on top of the world, spiritually; calling down plagues, leading the people from Egypt (with much of the wealth of the world), pillars of fire and smoke following him, striking the red sea and splitting it.  But, the people were rebellious and he had to continuously fight to keep them in faith.  By the time he got to the Jordan he was getting tired.  God aimed to encourage Moses and told him to send out spies into the promise land to see the provision that he is providing.  The spies came back with good reports of the provision and bad reports of the opposition. 

This is where many people are.  You know what the Word says and that God is on your side.  However, you’re looking at the bad report and the doom settles into your heart and steals your hope and desire to fight.  You’re at a crossroad, or a raging river.  If you decide not to fight, God will still be with you and bless you, but you may be eating mana for a while instead of experiencing God’s best.

Sometimes when you see the impossible in front of you, and your spirit withers, it is not that God has placed the impossible there so that the fight would be bitter and taxing and heavy.  It is because he wants to show you the mighty way he will work within you if you would only believe and take that step forward.  He wants you to lift your self up in the spirit and cross the Jordan to the promise land.  You see, you may think that you are headed for the battle of your life and that you may surely be beaten.  But, God may have something else planned for you. 

If Moses only knew what Rahab had shared so many years later:

“I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us,

    and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you.

    For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt,

    and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan,

    to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.

    When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you;

    for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.”  (Joshua 2:8-11)

You see, God still blessed Moses as he wandered through the desert.  But it wasn’t what God had planned for him.  God intended Moses to step across the Jordan in the Might of the Father, wearing His Banner, and all whom stood before him would tremble with fear because they knew that God was with Moses.  Moses would possess the land and all the riches.  And then, who knows what else God might have had in mind for Moses;  what stories of the miraculous would have been passed down through the generations.  There could have been another book in the Bible about his walk with the Lord.  He could have walked in the power of Elijah and Elisha, calling down fire from the sky.

But instead, he let the bad report beat him and settled for the scraps at the table.

If you're tired and you don’t feel you have it in you to believe for God’s supernatural provision overcoming and defeating your obstacle, don’t give up and settle for the mana.  Step forward into the realm of the impossible and see what God has planned for you.  There is another book and testament of God’s Glory in your life that remains unwritten.  You just need to believe and keep walking towards His promises.

Salvation is a free gift, but what is the cost of eternal life?

Salvation is a free gift, but what is the cost of eternal life?

It costs you everything.  At least everything carnal (worldly) that your flesh desires.

You must die to yourself, so that you may live. 

“But that doesn’t sound like grace?  Grace says that I can do what I want and I’m redeemed.”

Fondness for carnality is enmity with God.  

“Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” – James 4:4

Want some Word?

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.” – 1 Peter 2:24

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” – Gal 2:20

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” - Eph 4:22

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.” - Gal 5:24

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature” - Col 3:5

“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” – Rom 6:11

“For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do put to death the deeds of the body, you shall live.” Rom 8:13

And one of my favorite illustrations of the new birth / new creature experience …

“We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” - Rom 6:2

Do you want your praises to God to be a sweet fragrance to Him?

Do you want your praises to God to be a sweet fragrance to Him?

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.” – James 3:9-12

What weighs on your heart?

So you’ve got a hold of sin? You are not doing the things that you know are bad … very often.
Sin has no dominion over you. That is so wonderful. But how are you with failing to do what you know is good?
“If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them.” – James 4:17

If you are like me, you periodically reflect on a situation and know that you were supposed to do something (i.e. pray for someone, talk to someone, buy them lunch, share Christ with them), and you failed to do it, for whatever reason. It burns on your heart and you grieve, “why didn’t I just …”.
At times I feel that failing to do what is good inflicts more consequential damage than doing wrong.
If God is laying something on your heart, just do it, just say it, just share it.
You will never know what could have been if you only would have followed your heart.