GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION
When I started my worship playlist this morning during my walk the first song that popped up was He Knows My Name by Francesca Battistelli. What a great way to start my walk with these lyrics: I don’t need my name in lights I’m famous in my Father’s eyes Make no mistake He knows my name I’m not […]
The post We’ve Got Nothing Left To Prove appeared first on Sandra McCollom.
People don’t wake up one morning and decide to ruin their lives. Our messes are usually the result of some lie, abuse or trauma that’s plagued us our whole lives. The only way to experience a different life is to become a different person. Living from our identity in Christ is the only way to experience that new life.
But how do we become another person in Christ. We know we’re saved by grace through faith but how do we experience transformation? The simple answer is that we’re transformed by the renewing of our minds. But how does that transform us?
The progression of transformation is to believe on Jesus, receive a new heart, become indwelt by his spirit, change the way we think to agree with God’s truth and finally yield our hearts to his influence so our will and desires will be changed. When our will and desires reflect God’s intents and purposes for us, we will reflect his glory in this earth and he will be glorified.
Yielding to his influence is the labor we must do to enter the rest found in transformation. We must learn to create emotional margin within our souls so we have the presence of mind and patience to choose God’s options in our lives. We have to consciously choose to expose our inner man or our hearts to his grace, his influence and desire a change. Own where you are but be willing to change.
God can’t just show up and change you apart from you making decisions as you are inspired by his influence and begin to live a new way. You have the responsibility to respond and take corresponding action.
This does not invalidate the completeness of your salvation which comes by grace through faith. Yielding to transformation is not a dead work of the flesh or self-effort. Taking responsibility to experience continual transformation is simply a decision to outwardly reflect what’s inwardly true of your new creation identity.
You can fill your mind and heart with the Gospel. The Gospel is the power of salvation. This will create the environment to allow God’s power to work in and through you. As your inner man experiences transformation you will see the world through God’s perspectives and begin to live a new way!
This series will facilitate this process and bring more understanding to the process of transformation.
The Power of the Gospel: The Key to Unlock Transformation
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Message Titles
- The Power of the Gospel
- Righteousness Comes by Faith
- Identity Christianity vs Performance Christianity
- Take Ownership of Your Inheritance
- The Key to Unlock Transformation
- The Progression of Transformation
The GOOD NEWS about Jesus will change you!
The good news (gospel) about Jesus means good news for you. Believing the Gospel doesn’t just mean you’re on your way to Heaven, it means you’re qualified for a new life now. Experiencing lasting transformation and experiencing ongoing salvation is easier than you think. Living in this new life is not easy at times but it’s closer than you think.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes… Romans 1:16a
True transformation comes by a revelation of Christ’s life in you. I will show you how to prepare your heart for revelation. The secret is, you already have this new life inside and it will take over your old life as you discover your true identity. There is a key to unlocking transformation that lies within the Gospel itself.
You can do this, you don’t have to struggle and barely get by the rest of your life. I want to help you learn how to rebuild your identity based on Christ has done for you and in you and live a new life.
The post The Progression of Transformation appeared first on Forward Ministries.
When you believe the truth of God’s word in your heart you will begin to see the manifestation of kingdom realities in every area of your life.
Real transformation in your life happens only by a revelation in your heart of Christ in you. What is revelation? How does it come? How does it relate to transformation?
Christianity is not a personal development course to a better you because you can’t get any better than Jesus in you.
Everything that God has for you is received by grace through faith.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
The promises, quality of life and general “things” you want/need from God are included in the salvation you receive from him through confidence in the finished work of Jesus. In other words, you can not work for the things you want/need from God, every aspect of salvation is in Jesus already but it becomes real in our lives when we receive it by grace through faith.
Saved = Made whole, rescued, delivered, restored, provided for
Grace = God’s influence in your heart. Unmerited favor and his acts of favor toward you.
Faith = Confidence (that God is who he says he is and that you have what Jesus paid for)
As you become confident in what Jesus did and who he is, trust grows in your heart, which causes you to allow God to be who he is in your life. He is not withholding any aspect of salvation from you, you are merely limiting it through a lack of confidence in him.
How do you develop confidence in him? (Notice I didn’t say how do you get more faith?)
If it’s received by grace, let’s look a little deeper at grace. The Greek word for grace is charis. The Greek root word for charis is chario. (Why Greek? Because the Net Testament letters, like Ephesians, were originally written in Greek. So we’re just going to the original language to extrapolate a more accurate understanding from the writers original intention.)
Why is the root word important? In this case, chario gives us the attitude or inner environment that is present when charis (grace) is flowing in our hearts.
Chario = be glad or rejoice
The environment in which grace is most effective is when you’re glad or happy about the things that Jesus accomplished and made available for you. When you feel like those things are possible. When you’re happy that every aspect of salvation in Jesus is already true for you and God wants you to live in all of them now. A joyful heart receives better.
Psalm 9:1 I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. 2 I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.
Here’s the progression of transformation. You experience salvation by saying yes to God’s influence in your heart because he favors you, which is done from a position of confidence in Jesus and your new identity in him. You’re transformed by the renewing of your mind. So you can renew your mind with the truth of your currently available salvation provided in Jesus and experience the fruit of that salvation.
Use the truth about your salvation in Jesus to renew your mind, because what you allow to rule in your mind will be reflected into your life. If you allow God’s truth about Jesus and who you are in him to influence your thinking, you will be transformed into that image because you will eventually believe that truth in your heart, and whatever you believe in your heart will manifest in your life.
Pretty simple, right?
I know, it’s a mouthful but it’s actually a simple process. The bottom line is this, you become what you think about. So think about what’s already true about Jesus in you so you will be outwardly transformed into that image. It’s your destiny!
Consider these passages in light of renewing your mind with the good news about Jesus.
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”
“The gospel is the power unto salvation,” is a perfect description of the progression of transformation by grace through faith. Do you see the connection?
You are destined to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Think about the good news of Jesus; what he’s done for you and who you now are in him. Allow that to develop confidence in your heart toward God and allow him to establish his salvation in and through you.
The good news about Jesus is truly powerful enough to inspire your heart to grab hold of every aspect of salvation to be established in your life as you take ownership of your identity in Christ!
CHECK OUT THIS RELATED SERIES
Renovate Your Mind: Transforming Into the Image of Jesus
Message Titles
1. Renovate Your Mind
2. Renovate Your Mind 2
3. The Spitting Image of Jesus
4. Tearing Down Strong Holds
5. Start and Finish In Spirit
6. Proving the Will of GodRen-o-vate: verb – rearrange, revive, make new, refresh
No amount of physical effort can produce a spiritual change
The changes we want in our lives only come through renewing our minds, not works of the flesh. The flesh is a mindset that trusts seeks to establish a spiritual truth rather than allowing the spirit of God to form us by grace through faith. In this series you’ll learn to be transformed by the spirit of God from within rather than change through striving and self-effort.
The post Use the Good News About Jesus to Renew Your Mind and See Salvation Established In Your Life appeared first on Forward Ministries.
God’s Love Blows My Mind! Last night we attended the JUMP Christmas production at our church, St. Louis Family Church, which was fabulous by the way! Standing room only! Before the producton started I had gone into the restroom and was standing there in front of the mirror at church trying to figure out how to […]
The post Receive A Revelation Of God’s Love And Be Transformed appeared first on Sandra McCollom.
You only allow yourself to think thoughts that match your self-image. The thoughts you choose to dwell on are shaping your life. You can change your entire life by dealing with your thoughts. The way to change your abiding thoughts is to repaint the self-image on your heart to look like Jesus.
Imagine a tornado of thoughts swirling around you, you choose which one to reach out and grab. But first you look at your self portrait to see what you look like, which determines what thought you’ll grab and dwell on.
Do you see yourself as a failure? Guess what thoughts you’ll think
Do you see yourself struggling with your emotions? Guess what thoughts you’ll think
Do you see yourself as fat? Guess what thoughts you’ll think
Do you see yourself as sad? Guess what thoughts you’ll think
Do you see yourself successful? Guess what thoughts you’ll think
Do you see yourself righteous? Guess what thoughts you’ll think
Do you see yourself holy? Guess what thoughts you’ll think
Do you see yourself full of grace and favor? Guess what thoughts you’ll think
Do you see yourself loved by God? Guess what thoughts you’ll think
You already know that your beliefs determine your thoughts and your thoughts determine your choices and actions. But you may not know you don’t have to be a victim of your thoughts. It’s your mind, your life and they’re your choices. Only allow the ones that match your new creation self to roll around in your mind. If you allow your thoughts to be influenced by God’s truths, by your new creation self-image, you will get used to thinking God’s way and you will follow him when he leads because you’ll already think like he’s thinking.
Don’t wait until your point of weakness to seek God, seek him now. Listen to the message below for more on finding grace in weakness. I also address Paul’s thorn in the flesh.
Message Titles
- What is Repentance?
- Think Like Heaven
- Think Like God
- Points of View
- Ambassadors of Heaven
How would your life change if you knew what God was thinking?
Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Jesus launched his public ministry with a call to repentance. To repent is to have a change of mind. We needed to think differently because Jesus was joining people to his kingdom in a way that was not possible before.
Discover how to be spiritually minded and continually walk in the spirit. Being spiritually minded is the key to experiencing life and peace. Believers have been given the mind of Christ which means we can know his thoughts and Think Like Heaven. God doesn’t want you in the dark, wandering around trying to figure out this thing called life. God has given you the gift of a renewed mind and continually speaks to you because you are his children.
Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded [is] death; but to be spiritually minded [is] life and peace.
In this empowering series, you will:
- Discover true New Covenant repentance
- Develop your spiritual mind
- Think Heaven’s thoughts and let go of carnality
- Have your mind renewed and see the Kingdom
- Come into harmony with God’s thoughts
- Unlock the mystery of walking in the spirit
The post Change Your Life by Choosing Your Thoughts appeared first on Forward Ministries.
Religion encourages a change in behavior as proof of holiness. Grace empowers a change in the desires of the heart, which drives behavior. If you leave out the heart, you leave out grace.
The heart craves what it thinks it needs to survive, the flesh seeks to survive without God. The flesh isn’t concerned with truth, only satisfaction, which can masquerade as peace. The heart or the real you knows there is a truth. That’s why it seeks to make sense of things it knows to be wrong or have been promised by God but may not be in our lives. If it’s not in ones life, we will seek a justification, often putting the blame on God.
To experience all of God, our hearts must be fully persuaded of his character and Christ’s finished work.
Many believers still struggle with destructive habits, sin and doubt. Some teach that those are natural issues out of a wicked heart. But we know that God gives believers new hearts that are not wicked. The remaining issue is to root our hearts in his love for us to the degree that our natural cravings and desires change. This is not through our own effort, it’s the fruit of his spirit influencing us, which we must choose to allow.
Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Psalm 37:4-6
The post How Do I Make My Heart Soft Toward God So My Natural Desires Change? appeared first on Forward Ministries.
God is shining the light from the face of Jesus into your heart. Connecting with that glory inwardly is the secret to outward transformation. Seeing his righteousness in the deepest part of your being will facilitate an environment of peace and his peace will guard those deep places of your heart. In that environment, righteousness and joy will effortlessly grow and take over every part of your being.
You have to think from the inner man, in the presence of God, aware of Christ in you, beholding what’s true of him in spite of what the world and your actions say is true of you. In that place his peace will guard your heart, the place your beliefs dwell. In that place, under his influence, honest before him, seeing his reality as your own, you WILL transform.
Set your mind and heart on God, change the way you think, get into agreement with what Jesus has already done in you and your emotional/thought life will change which means your actions will change
Transformation is effortless but you must choose to draw on the only source that can produce transformation…Christ in you.
Message Titles
1. Conquering Temptation
2. God is Active in Our Lives
3. Grace Works from the Heart
4. Grace Reigns through Righteousness
5. Confession unto salvation
6. The Law of Death vs The Spirit of Life
Have you ever asked “HOW DO I GET GRACE TO WORK?” Every aspect of salvation works by grace through faith. Every blessing and promise you’ll ever experience from God is spiritual in nature and exists in a dimension called Heaven. The essence of the Kingdom of Heaven dwells within each believer. Intellect or dead works only serve to hinder manifestation, what’s needed is the power of grace working from the heart.
Grace is not magic, it’s just spiritual. In this series I teach you how to access that spiritual reservoir of Heaven within and walk in the power of God’s grace from the heart.
FREE MESSAGE FROM THIS SERIES
The post Looking at Unseen Eternal Truth with Your Heart appeared first on Forward Ministries.
Believers have become new creatures with a new kind of life source flowing in us. Leviticus 17:11 tells us that the life of the creature is in the blood. We have been reformed into righteous, spiritually eternal beings through faith in the atoning blood of Christ.
In this process, the dead man/heart is cut out of us and the new man/heart is placed within us. Physically we’re the same person but we are exactly like Jesus in our spirit. The problem is that our minds are caught in the middle of our new hearts and our former way of thinking.
Our journey now, is to renew our minds to be in agreement with what God has done and is doing in our spirits. All of this comes together in our hearts. The heart is the deepest part of our being; it’s part spirit and part soul, it’s where our beliefs dwell and it’s where we make decisions on what we believe about God and ourselves.
Proverbs 4:23 from various Bible versions
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. NIV
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. NLT
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. ESV
Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life. NASB
Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life. HCSB
Keep your heart with all caution because from it is the outgoing of life. Aramaic Bible
Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it. God’s Word
Above every charge keep thy heart, For out of it are the outgoings of life. YLT
God influences us through our hearts, which is the very definition of grace. It’s our responsibility to keep our hearts in confidence toward him so we will allow his influence to transform us. If you don’t, you do not lose your salvation, it doesn’t make you any less righteous and it doesn’t make you any less qualified for God’s blessings…it only limits your experience of God’s promises and kingdom in this life.
The first video in this series lays the foundation of your new heart, stay in touch for next week’s video where I go through Mark 4 and shed light on Jesus’ explanation of why we don’t always experience God’s kingdom in this life and how to stop limiting him.
Listen to the first message in my newest series, “The Secret to Experiencing God’s Kingdom In This Life.”
The post Living from the Heart – Part 1 appeared first on Forward Ministries.
Do you know people that seem impossible to reach? Have you ever seen someone on tv or read about in an article and thought to yourself, “that person is definitely going to hell, there’s no hope for them?” What about the radical Muslim that is plotting the next attack, do you believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ can change his heart?
We look at the world today and often come to the conclusion that some people are just too far gone. Many have bought into the idea that some people are too evil or too hopeless to change and come to God’s saving truth.
When we think this way:
I hear lots of people these days that have this attitude toward the world in general; things are so bad there’s no hope other than Jesus coming back and rescuing us from the mess we’ve made of the planet. Some even seem to think the devil is stronger than the body of Christ in this world.
The spiritual force of God’s love is powerful enough to transform any and every human it encounters. Yes, some have rejected God but he still died to save that person and it only takes one change of mind within that person to have an encounter with Him.
As ministers we often trust in our ministry for people more than we trust God’s spirit to teach, lead and transform people. I see ministers that fight against a radical grace message due to fear of the hearer falling into sin. The truth is this message reveals the heart and actually gives the hearer an option, a hope and a path to transformation. The ministers I see that oppose radical grace also look at certain sections of the world’s population as hopeless, I think that is revealing in light of their trust in the ability of God’s love to make people whole.
I want to urge you to trust God for others more than you trust yourself for others. God is an optimist that believes in his own capacity to change others to the degree that he was willing to die for it. Let’s give him the benefit of our doubt and agree with God that everyone is reachable if they could just get a glimpse of His love for them, and then take the responsibility that we may be the avenue through which he does the “impossible.”
SO THE WORLD WILL BELIEVE
Message Titles
- Faith Begins With Love
- Love is the Way of the Kingdom
- Who is your Passion
- Defy Your Excuses
Jesus tells us there’s only one way to reach the world, LOVE. Love is the only strategy that never fails. His strategy has two steps…
STEP 1: Our love for one another should be a testimony to the world that we follow Jesus. There should be something different in the way we treat each other that sends a message to the world that Jesus followers have a unique relationship with one another that is rooted in love.
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. John 13:34-35
STEP 2: There should be a unity among believers that the world is compelled to believe. The strength of this unity is our love for one another and the purpose of this unity is so the world will believe.
I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. John 17:21
When we allow division to dwell within the body of Christ we are working against God’s plans to reach the world. In this series I challenge the church to take Jesus at his word and begin to walk according to his commandments and purposes.
The post No One Is Too Far Gone To Reach with the Love of God appeared first on Forward Ministries.
There’s a story that John tells in chapter 6 of his gospel about Jesus feeding thousands of people with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. After everyone ate, there were 12 baskets of food collected. Take a moment to imagine that, enough food to fit on a large plate fed thousands of people and then turned into 12 baskets. That’s our God! His idea of meeting your need is exceedingly, abundantly above what you can even imagine!
The next day, many from that crowd found him and asked for more food. He begins a dialogue where he tries to turn their thinking from carnal to spiritual. He uses their hunger for bread to present the idea that he can give them something that will give them life forever instead of for a day. When these Jews ask him for this bread he makes a confusing statement.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. John 6:51
Say what, Jesus?
Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. John 6:53-57
You’d think he’d explain the spiritual implications of this radical concept but he didn’t, he left that up to the Holy Spirit to bring revelation to those whose hearts were open to receiving him.
Read this entry from the Expositor’s Greek Testament.
He (Jesus) becomes as truly assimilated to the life of the individual as the nourishing elements in food enter into the substance of the body. The believer abides in Christ as finding his life in Him (Galatians 2:20); and Christ abides in the believer, continually imparting to him what constitutes spiritual life. For in Christ man reaches the source of all life in the Father (John 6:57),The living Father has sent Christ forth as the bearer of life. He lives, not equivalent to, through or by means of the Father, but “because of,” or “by reason of the Father”. The Father is the cause of my life; I live because the Father lives. The Father is the absolute source of life; the Son is the bearer of that life to the world. Every one that eateth Christ will by that connection participate in the life of God.
We understand that the body and blood or life of Christ are fed to us in our inner man, to our hearts from his spirit that dwells in believers. This spiritual life in us is not just a theological doctrine, it’s an actual force or presence that nourishes our emotions, our minds, our bodies and teaches us to think and see the world through God’s eyes. When we allow his spirit to be assimilated into every aspect of our being it acts just like physical food for the body, it brings life. As we learn to partake of the life of God flowing in us we can experience the same zoe (quality of life) that is in the Father.
Jesus says he lives because the Father lives. He understood that he was in the Father and the Father was in him. The same is true for us. Just like a branch of a tree receives the same nutrients that the roots of that tree draw from the soil, so do we draw life from God because we are in an eternal union with him in Christ.
Discussion questions:
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Message Titles:
These are some of the most powerful and concise messages I have given on the subject of Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. I go into much detail about the old testament day of atonement sacrifice and how it points to Jesus.
To fully understand the depth of which Christ cleansed us in his sacrifice we must look at the type and shadow detailed under the Levitical priesthood. These messages will give you razor sharp understanding of the cross and overwhelm your heart with compassion for all that Jesus accomplished on our behalf on the cross, in the grave and in his ascension.
These are my messages from the “Three Days that Changed the World” conference in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with Dr. Jim Richards.
The post The body and blood (life) of Christ is real food for us appeared first on Forward Ministries.
