Romans 5:1-2 (KJV) Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
The Lord has already given us everything we need to live a successful life. Eph. 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”
But…what does this mean exactly?
Gal. 5:22-23 tells us that the fruit of the Spirit (that we have already received) is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Let me ask you a question, as a Christian, are you currently experiencing a life of love, joy, peace, etc.?
Even though Paul the Apostle tells us that we HAVE been blessed with all these spiritual blessings at our spiritual birth, that does not necessarily mean that we automatically experience these in our personal reality. Many times, my attitude is not one of love, joy seems far away and often my promised present of peace is anything but my present state of mind. And kindness…let’s not even go there!
So, where have we gone wrong? We know the Bible is Truth, so the problem is with us. Obviously, WE have not learned to ‘walk out’ the promises in our lives. And the reason is that we are showing up for life every morning without our armor on (Eph. 6:11). The Christian life is a battle from day one. Too many of us believe that once you say the prayer of salvation, that’s it; we are now a child of God, everything is supposed to fall into place. The truth is, you just showed up on Satan’s radar and he’s not going to make it easy for you.
Our battle is spiritual and therefore, our weapons must be spiritual as well (2 Cor. 10:4-5). Our spiritual weapons are: Truth (the Word of God), Faith (believing the Word of God), and our own Tongues (speaking the Truth, Mark 11:23).
This battle takes place in the spiritual realm, where everything spiritual resides. And FAITH is the ACCESSOR of all those spiritual blessings that are already provided by God’s Grace in the spiritual realm (Rom. 5:1-2, ref. above).
Now, Satan tries to defeat us through building strongholds in our minds… strongholds of ‘untruths’ (lies). 2 Cor. 10:4-5 tells us that the weapons of our (spiritual) warfare are mighty to pull down those strongholds that Satan has erected in our minds (the lies, that he’s convinced us to believe, for instance, that we will never, in reality, effectively live the abundant life).
The truth is that God has already given us all the spiritual blessings that we need to live a successful life (Ref. Eph. 1:3 above and 2 Pet. 1:3 “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness“). But, these ‘things’ are residing in the realm of God’s grace and it is by faith that we must reach into the spiritual realm, by our heart belief and our words to lay hold of them – everything comes from the spiritual world into the tangible world by our faith and words!
So, I make my declaration: “Today, I reach into the realm of God’s Grace (by faith) and I lay claim to the love, the joy, and the peace that I already have in my possession through the Spirit of God Who lives inside of me. And by my confession, I cast down all the spirits and attitudes of discontent, of worry, and of defeat. I command all critical and negative attitudes to “Go” in Jesus’ name. I will not live a life of futility, but I will be fruitful in all things that pertain to the ABUNDANT LIFE that Jesus died to provide…in Jesus’ precious name!”
When our world doesn’t line up with what the Word of God tells us we have, then we need to reach out with faith-filled Words of Truth and draw those promises to us from the heavenly realms into our earthly reality.
This morning, I got up battling depression and discontent. But this was simply a lie devised by Satan. How do I know that? …because the Bible says that I have been given the joy of the Lord and that I have an abundant life through Jesus (John 10:10). I made the mistake of listening to the wrong voice and I was living from my feelings, rather than my spirit. In my spirit, I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing that I need for each day and for every circumstance I face. So, I cast Satan’s lies down and (by faith and words of Truth) traded my depression and negative feelings for the beautiful and blessed day that Jesus has already provided for me in the realm of His grace.
I hope my title is not offensive to anyone… all similarities to the song by Queen “I Want it All” was entirely intentional. I could not help myself. I prayed and asked the Lord what to name this blog and that was the next thing that popped into my mind so I went with it. (Don’t tell me the Holy Spirit doesn’t have a sense of humor. Ha!)
