I Am Redeemed!
I have been thinking a great deal about redemption over the past several weeks and the Lord has directed me to write down my thoughts for you, to share what I have seen in His Word.
In Galatians 3:13 we read that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us…. What Jesus Christ (the Anointed One with His anointing to remove burdens and destroy yokes) did was to draw to Himself the curse and all the consequences of that curse. Like a magnet draws iron filings, like a vacuum sucks up dirt, Jesus drew to Himself sickness and disease, poverty, want, lack, doubt and unbelief, fear, worry, anxiety, concern, defeat, failure-----all that the curse involved. He knew what it would mean. It would mean separation from the Father He had been One with all His eternal existence. It would mean that He would voluntarily submit Himself to satan in our place. It would mean that He would go to hell in our place, for us. It meant that He would submit His whole self to satan as our representative, man’s substitute.
I want you to stop right here and right now and think about the great price Jesus paid for you, the great sacrifice He made. He was the great sacrifice of God because the Father loved each one of us with an intense, all-consuming love, and He wanted us back. There was only one way to get us back, one way to reconcile us, and Jesus paid the price in full. You could say it this way: He absorbed the curse for us. In 1 Corinthians 6:20 it says that we are bought with a price. This is the price God Almighty, the Father and Jesus the Son paid for us. He Who knew no sin, Jesus, became sin for us. He totally took the fullness of sin and all of its consequences for us. And He did it for one reason: LOVE.
This is a love that man had known very little about; this is the God-Love that God Himself is. This is a love that pays no attention to what someone is doing or has done or may do. This is a love that does not condemn or judge, even when you have done wrong. This is a love that reaches out to you when you ignore Him or even hate Him. This is a love that says I love you when the person says I hate you. This is a love and a mercy that you are given when you don’t deserve it, when you mess up, when you are nasty, when you walk in unforgiveness, when you are offended, when you talk about others, when you judge others, when you condemn others, when you look at others with prejudice, when you are selfish and self-centered. This is a love that we have to learn. This is a love that we have to be taught.
We in the Body of Christ say that we understand God’s Love. We don’t. His love is pure and free from any enmity toward anyone, regardless of how He is treated. What a love. My prayer used to be: Lord, teach me how to love as You love. Now, my prayer is: Lord, draw me to Your Presence that I may know You so intimately that Your Love is carried in my person deliberately everywhere I go. On my own I cannot love as You do. So, help me to be so consumed with You that I would not even think about hurting someone or condemning them, but I will embrace them in all their weakness, because without You I am weak also.
Now I understand Paul’s statement: I take pleasure in infirmity because when I am weak, You are strong. That was not a statement of unbelief or a statement of lack of faith or a statement of embracing suffering. Paul was making a statement of a fact that he had learned. In my own fleshly self I have an inability to produce results. But when He, the Strong One, is operating through me, all things are possible; nothing is impossible. In fact, in Philippians 4:13, Paul says that he can do all things through Christ which strengthens him. In Ephesians 6:10, he says that he is strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. You see, Paul had learned the secret to success in the Kingdom of God, and it is this: All of Him and none of me.
In Ephesians 1:23 in the Amplified Bible we read that Jesus Christ fills everything everywhere with Himself, with His Presence. But He will only fill that which has made a place for Him. Jesus cannot take a place that is already occupied. In my quiet time with Him, I am learning about many places in my own soul that He does not occupy. But as He reveals each one, I release that place of occupation to Him and He is filling me with Himself.
In all of this, it is so important to be led of the Spirit 24-7 in all that we do. It is not a matter of continually looking for places in your life where the Lord is not No. 1. It is a matter of worshipping Him, spending quiet time in His presence and allowing Him to reveal, remove, and replace with Himself. When Love Himself reveals and heals, it is painless and freeing and not condemning. Let’s make our quest the following of the Spirit of Love in all that we think, say and do. Oh, what a wonderful Lord we have. He loves to fill us with Himself to the full. My word to you today is let Him do it for you.
In Galatians 3:13 we read that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us…. What Jesus Christ (the Anointed One with His anointing to remove burdens and destroy yokes) did was to draw to Himself the curse and all the consequences of that curse. Like a magnet draws iron filings, like a vacuum sucks up dirt, Jesus drew to Himself sickness and disease, poverty, want, lack, doubt and unbelief, fear, worry, anxiety, concern, defeat, failure-----all that the curse involved. He knew what it would mean. It would mean separation from the Father He had been One with all His eternal existence. It would mean that He would voluntarily submit Himself to satan in our place. It would mean that He would go to hell in our place, for us. It meant that He would submit His whole self to satan as our representative, man’s substitute.
I want you to stop right here and right now and think about the great price Jesus paid for you, the great sacrifice He made. He was the great sacrifice of God because the Father loved each one of us with an intense, all-consuming love, and He wanted us back. There was only one way to get us back, one way to reconcile us, and Jesus paid the price in full. You could say it this way: He absorbed the curse for us. In 1 Corinthians 6:20 it says that we are bought with a price. This is the price God Almighty, the Father and Jesus the Son paid for us. He Who knew no sin, Jesus, became sin for us. He totally took the fullness of sin and all of its consequences for us. And He did it for one reason: LOVE.
This is a love that man had known very little about; this is the God-Love that God Himself is. This is a love that pays no attention to what someone is doing or has done or may do. This is a love that does not condemn or judge, even when you have done wrong. This is a love that reaches out to you when you ignore Him or even hate Him. This is a love that says I love you when the person says I hate you. This is a love and a mercy that you are given when you don’t deserve it, when you mess up, when you are nasty, when you walk in unforgiveness, when you are offended, when you talk about others, when you judge others, when you condemn others, when you look at others with prejudice, when you are selfish and self-centered. This is a love that we have to learn. This is a love that we have to be taught.
We in the Body of Christ say that we understand God’s Love. We don’t. His love is pure and free from any enmity toward anyone, regardless of how He is treated. What a love. My prayer used to be: Lord, teach me how to love as You love. Now, my prayer is: Lord, draw me to Your Presence that I may know You so intimately that Your Love is carried in my person deliberately everywhere I go. On my own I cannot love as You do. So, help me to be so consumed with You that I would not even think about hurting someone or condemning them, but I will embrace them in all their weakness, because without You I am weak also.
Now I understand Paul’s statement: I take pleasure in infirmity because when I am weak, You are strong. That was not a statement of unbelief or a statement of lack of faith or a statement of embracing suffering. Paul was making a statement of a fact that he had learned. In my own fleshly self I have an inability to produce results. But when He, the Strong One, is operating through me, all things are possible; nothing is impossible. In fact, in Philippians 4:13, Paul says that he can do all things through Christ which strengthens him. In Ephesians 6:10, he says that he is strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. You see, Paul had learned the secret to success in the Kingdom of God, and it is this: All of Him and none of me.
In Ephesians 1:23 in the Amplified Bible we read that Jesus Christ fills everything everywhere with Himself, with His Presence. But He will only fill that which has made a place for Him. Jesus cannot take a place that is already occupied. In my quiet time with Him, I am learning about many places in my own soul that He does not occupy. But as He reveals each one, I release that place of occupation to Him and He is filling me with Himself.
In all of this, it is so important to be led of the Spirit 24-7 in all that we do. It is not a matter of continually looking for places in your life where the Lord is not No. 1. It is a matter of worshipping Him, spending quiet time in His presence and allowing Him to reveal, remove, and replace with Himself. When Love Himself reveals and heals, it is painless and freeing and not condemning. Let’s make our quest the following of the Spirit of Love in all that we think, say and do. Oh, what a wonderful Lord we have. He loves to fill us with Himself to the full. My word to you today is let Him do it for you.
posted by Rev. Kialeen Potterton @ 6:28 AM
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