Jeremiah 17: 7 – 8 “Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit”. Selah!

This verse is every believer’s birthright in Jesus Christ, who gives us His victory that overcomes every adversity.  The Holy Spirit may also use it as a plumb line, or reality check to see if I am walking on resurrection ground, my birthright.  How easy it is to slip back into the thoughts and ways of the natural  man, reasoning and sense knowledge, eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, (Genesis 3), the old man and nature, instead of walking in the new man regenerated in Christ when we entered into salvation.

The apostle, Paul, encourages us to “put on the new man” (Ephesians 4: 24) that Jesus Christ has created in us, and put off the old.  Every day on our earthly journey we have these choices to make.  As we learn to make right choices under the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we will see the changes God is working in our lives.  Right choices produce right living which glorifies our heavenly Father.  As we make right choices, (our responsibility), the Holy Spirit comes alongside of our choice, seals it and enables and equips us to walk in the new man Christ has given us.  Our birthright is new life in Christ, Christ in you and me, the hope of glory!  Incrementally it should become every Believer’s acquired taste and lifestyle, on our journey to all the fullness of God, our destiny.  We see the grave clothes of the old nature being exchanged for the royal robes of a child of the kingdom of God as our journey continues.

There are some who may have spent many years acquiring a knowledge of God by reading, attending Church services, meetings, conferences etc. and yet, do not know the Lord intimately in a daily close walk with His Holy Spirit.  The words of Jesus in Matthew 7: 21 – 29 are a reality check regarding this issue.  He likens us to fruit trees, declaring “by their fruits they shall know them”, (verse 20).  No amount of acquired knowledge about God can replace an intimate relationship with Him.  We were created by Him and for Him…..for His good pleasure.  His delight is when He knows that He is our joy and delight, a heart united with His……the greatest love story in the world.

Matthew 7: 21 – 25    Jesus continues “Not everyone that says unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of My Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, Lord have we not prophesied in Your name, …cast out devils….done many wonderful works?  Then I will profess unto them, Depart from Me, I never KNEW you, depart from Me, you that work iniquity.  Therefore whoever hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon a rock.  The rain descended…floods ….winds…but it did not fall for it was founded on a rock.”  Jesus went on to compare the man who built his house upon the sand, a wrong foundation, and when the storms blew his house fell down.  A grave warning to hearing His word and His sayings, but not carrying them out.  When the house fell He said, ” and how great was the fall of it!”,  ( V.27), devastating!

There are many references in the New Testament warning regarding hearing the word, but not “doing” it.  The danger is when we receive revelation and light regarding a word, we can become so “enchanted but unchanged”, (Oswald Chambers).  It is easy to get excited about an anointed word and share it with others, but until I allow that word to create the nature of Christ in me as circumstances present themselves, it does not belong to me until proved in the trial of my faith.  Here it is wrought in the bedrock of my life and becomes established as I am changed into “His likeness”.  Only then have I made that word mine in the trial of affliction where God deposits His gold for His glory.  He receives all the glory, and I receive all the benefits of my inheritance in wonderful Jesus! He has made the provision, I must apply His word to my life.  The walk is more important than the talk!

Jesus spoke with authority entrusted to Him from His Father.  Jesus was completely one with His Father.  He only ever spoke the words His Father gave Him.  He only ever did what pleased Him that is why He operated in all the fullness of God.  We are on our individual earthly journey to our goal and destiny here, to be filled with all the fullness of God, conformed to the image of Christ.  As I obey and walk WITH  God in my daily choices, incrementally another measure of Christ Jesus will be formed in me.  When I abandon my will to His, His words spoken through me will decree, create and establish something for the glory of almighty God’s great name…..the Living Christ created in me manifesting to extend His kingdom here on earth.

Job 22:28 “Thou shalt decree a thing and it shall be established unto thee, and the light shall shine upon thy ways”.  This is the inheritance of the servant of the Lord, the child of God. A heart united with the Father has abandoned personal agendas, that is a daily surrender to the King of my heart, only then can I be trusted with God’s plans, interests and agendas, when I allow Him pre-eminence and all my agendas must take second place, or in some cases, abandoned.

There is a process in our lives wherein God is getting our hearts right with Him in order that the words we speak will be creative.  The trials in our lives are to prove God’s peace and joy in an ordered heart, united with His, or are the words I put on my lips just empty and unproved?  I only prove Him when I walk WITH  Him.  When Christ is ruling and reigning in my heart then only positivity in a creative force will come from my lips.

Jesus declared: “………for out of the abundance of  the heart the mouth speaks”, Luke 6:45   Good or evil?

My daily prayer: “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength, my redeemer”. Psalm 19:14.

Photo by Rajiv Bajaj on Unsplash