This is the glorious day of the resurrection and victory over death!
I Corinthians 15:54 -55 “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where [is] thy sting? O grave, where [is] thy victory?”
I want to paint a picture of this victory through the window of typology.
The story takes place in Pharaoh’s palace where Aaron obeys the Lord and casts down his rod to see it miraculously become a serpent. Pharaoh calls for his sorcerers who through their enchantments do the same thing. But what a victory over the enemy! Exodus 7:12 “For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.”
A rod represents authority, and Aaron’s rod represented delegated authority from God, which swallowed up the sorcerers’ power from their false gods. This beautifully confirms how the Lord Jesus lay down His rod i.e. His authority to become the brazen serpent for us, to swallow up death that we might rejoice in the reality and victory of Calvary.
I Corinthians 15:54-55 “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where [is] thy sting? O grave, where [is] thy victory?” After the victory of His glorious resurrection, Jesus declares in Matthew 28 : 18 “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” This power He delegates to His church in Luke 10:19 “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”
The Power of the Resurrection
Only the Potter Knows the Purpose of His Creation
Dear Child,
Creation has no choice but to fulfill its purpose and be what it was created for.
Man was given a choice, a free will and a creative mind to fulfill My purpose or create his own.
All I ask of you is that you be what you were created to be.
You can try to do that which you weren’t created to do.
But you can never be what you weren’t created to be, no matter how you struggle!
Thus saith Papa
Isa 64:8 But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
Eph 5:17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
Everything has a purpose
In order to know the purpose of a thing you do not ask the thing
You ask the creator of the thing
Only the creator knows the purpose of the thing he created
When the purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable!
Challenge: If you do not know the purpose of your being, ask the Potter?
Choose to fulfill His purpose by being who He created you to be.
Giving Gifts of Hospitality
Titus 1:8 But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate.
1 Peter 4:9 Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
When we get “dressed up” it is usually to go out somewhere. When we get our homes “dressed up” for Christmas we can’t take our home out so we instead invite others in to share our joy and our faith displayed in our home at Christmas.There is no greater joy than to gather around friends and neighbors in your home to celebrate the season.
Last Saturday we invited our friends and neighbors in to enjoy our “dressed up” home and fellowship with us.
After enjoying a buffet supper and fellowshipping over 40 of us gathered with candles to worship by filling the air in our home with the sound of the carols of old. I shared a short devotional message “The Seed of the Woman” feeding our guests some fresh manna from the Christmas story to inspire us during this season and also to encourage us in the New Year.
We laughed and laughed at our friends’ creativity as we exchanged “gag” gifts and finished the evening with a waft of romance in the air as couples danced to their special love song.
What a wonderful evening! Thanks to all our friends for warming our hearts with love and being pa
Invest in Relationships
After taking heed of the following word from my heavenly Papa, John and I decided to host a Christmas open house for over 50 of our neighbors. Many we hadn’t seen in years as we are all so busy . . . . and some we had never met. It was a time of sweet fellowship and an opportunity for us to just stop for an evening and invest time in each other. A great time of joy and blessing was had by all. Consider opening up your home, share the love of Christ and the true joy of the season through investing in old and new relationships.If we lived nearby we would love to invite you all to our open house!
Dear Child,
The joy of the season is found in relationships not in things!
Firstly a restored relationship with Me, and then the grace that I give that you may restore broken relationships with others, and to invest even more in current relationships.
Love cannot be displayed without relationships. In loving you find the meaning for living.
Love is only love when you give it away, and in order to give you must have someone to give it to. Therefore you must invest in relationships. If you are giving with the right motivation you will have joy. If you don’t have joy in giving, look inside and check the motivation.
Thus saith Papa.
God’s Own Daughters
Thank you Lord, for the opportunity to inspire and encourage your precious princesses at “God’s Own Daughter” ministry at Central Assembly on Saturday, as I remind them they are truly daughters of the King!