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GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION

The body of Christ working together is a beautiful thing

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Welcome to Forward Church! We don’t do it perfectly but we put God’s love for you first and we encourage others to step out and share what God has placed on their heart. This week in my blog I wanted you to experience one of our recent gatherings. I had a sermon planned but the night before it became clear that God had other plans for Sunday morning. Actually all week long the message didn’t seem to be

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Living from the Heart – Part 1

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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.

No One Is Too Far Gone To Reach with the Love of God

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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:

  • we’re limiting the power of God
  • we’re giving up on that person
  • we are not trusting in the transformative grace of God
  • we think it’s up to us to change people

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.

It’s time to trust God for people

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

So The World Will Believe front

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Message Titles

  1. Faith Begins With Love
  2. Love is the Way of the Kingdom
  3. Who is your Passion
  4. 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.

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The post No One Is Too Far Gone To Reach with the Love of God appeared first on Forward Ministries.

VIDEO How Do You Seek God’s Kingdom and Righteousness?

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How would you answer that question for an unbeliever? You would tell him to believe on Jesus to receive forgiveness and eternal life. Why then does seeking the kingdom become about performance rather than believing for believers? Seeking God’s kingdom and his righteousness is something we do in our hearts to ensure that we are in confident faith toward God based on what Jesus having already made us righteous when we put faith in him.

The post VIDEO How Do You Seek God’s Kingdom and Righteousness? appeared first on Forward Ministries.

Information VS Instruction

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Believers have the mind of Christ. Our problem is not a lack of information. Our problem isn’t even a lack of “spiritual” information.

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15

Did you catch that? Jesus has revealed EVERYTHING to you that he learned from his father!!!

You don’t need more information, Jesus has already taught you everything you need to know by giving you a new heart when you were born again. You need wisdom and instruction to apply what you know.

Wisdom is less about information and more about a way of seeing. The wise are able to shift their lens to God’s perspective. Christ’s finished work is the lens of God’s point of view. In Christ we are complete, lack no thing, have all blessings, have all sufficiency and are righteous before the Father. These are spiritual truths that God is seeking to establish in our physical and emotional lives. His spirit is continually instructing us in the application of wisdom but many times we are too distracted by our focus on the world to be in agreement with His wisdom.

Our “task” as believers is to yield to God’s inner influence (grace) and allow his wisdom and truth to shift our inner environment to Heaven’s environment. Heaven’s atmosphere is righteousness, peace and joy.

Wisdom isn’t necessarily information on what we’re supposed to do but rather an acknowledgement of what we are (in him). Wisdom is a manifestation in our hearts, minds and souls that brings us into agreement with God’s perspective of the world, our lives and our specific circumstances. Heaven says there’s enough grace to overcome temptation, Heaven says there’s more than enough provision to meet that need, Heaven says the blessing you think you lack is present in Christ who is in you. Wisdom will teach your mind to be in agreement with Heaven’s state of existence which will change the way you see your world.

When wisdom bears fruit:

  • those situations that seem impossible become possible
  • You’re reminded of God’s promises
  • you’re reminded of Christ’s finished work
  • you make decisions from victory
  • you speak things that are spiritually true
  • fear is not an option
  • lack doesn’t drive you
  • money is not the thing you think about the most
  • and the list goes on… (what would you add)

We know what Jesus knows. The problem is we don’t always know how to apply of walk in the truth that he’s revealed to us. God says we can ask for wisdom and he’ll give it to us. Wisdom is not information, it’s a way of seeing situations through God’s eyes. You then need proper instruction to walk our truth. Make sure you’re not confusing instruction for information. You have enough information, seek instruction.

Godly instruction comes form many places but if you start from a place of completeness in Christ, then you can apply good instruction within the physical world to see success and fruit. Instruction is not works, just healthy principles to adhere to as we live life. Applying principles do not make God move or release blessings, they simply line up your thoughts and actions with your spirit so you’re not hindering the increase of the kingdom in your life.

Find good instruction and be diligent to move forward from a place of victory and completeness in Christ.

Check our these video and audio messages.

 

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Universe Building, Large Hadron Collider Kind of Faith

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Physicists have a problem, they don’t know why the universe works. They know much about how it works and what it’s made of but are missing the information about why matter behaves in such an organized fashion.

The Standard Model of physics includes quarks, leptons and 4 forces but the model is missing the bits that give it it’s intelligence to function the way it does.

Believers know that the unseen force that holds everything together is God, specifically, the word that God has spoken.

You can use this video in your small group for discussion purposes:
1. Do you believe God can work in your life?
2. How are you limiting God?
3. What would happen if you stopped limiting God?

 

Like what you hear? You will like this series:

The Quantum Kingdom front 300

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