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Monday, March 31, 2014

Who Are You?

2 Corinthians 5 : 14 – 17, For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if one died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. NKJV
Do you know who you are in Christ? Who we are has been a mystery to mankind since our very creation. Wasn’t Eve led astray by Satan and into sin over the mystery of her identity? Didn’t Satan lie to her about the result of eating from the tree of knowledge; he told her that she would be LIKE God. By eating from the tree, Eve was rebellious, and we know that we can’t become like God through disobedience.  Satan made it appear as though God was keeping something back or hidden from Eve and convinced her that she could discover the mystery of her hidden identity by participating in sinful activity.
Why did the Lord God create us in His image and likeness and then leave us ignorant about who we were? Since the Bible declares that man, both male and female were created in the image and likeness of God, we now know Who to go to for the answers surrounding the mystery of our spiritual identity. Obviously, God didn’t desire for mankind to be a “ROBOT.” He created us in His image, but with a void of the knowledge of who He is and who we are in Him so that we might seek to know Him through a relationship.
The Lord God’s desire is for us to want to be intimate with Him. He wants us to desire Him, not just have knowledge about Him. By the Lord creating us with the void of knowing Him, He was giving mankind the freedom and the option to choose for ourselves to know Him. Unfortunately, man chose to “learn” about God outside the perimeters of God’s provision and will. Instead of man becoming like God through Satan’s lie, we became spiritually blinded to God’s ways and lost our ability to know who we are or who we were to become.  
It was unbelief that caused Adam and Eve to believe Satan’s lies about God. If they had chosen God’s way of knowing Him as Lord, they would have  discovered their spiritual identity. So wouldn’t it stand to reason that “faith,” the opposite of unbelief, would be the way to know God and to know who we are spiritually? When we choose to walk by faith in Christ as Abraham, Sarah, and a host of other men and women of God have done, we have chosen the only path that will lead us to know God and discover our true identity.
The path of righteousness is the only avenue that gives humans the liberty to be all that God has called us to be. Faith in Christ and obedience to His Word liberates us from the bondage of the flesh nature so that the new man can burst forth. To the degree that we can say we know God or His ways will be the degree that we will know our spiritual identity. Therefore, if we desire to know our true identity and seek to be free from this world, then we must form a deep desire and hunger for God and His righteousness. Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that if we hunger and thirst for Him, we shall be filled.    
There’s only one way to fill that void completely in our hearts and that is to seek God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. As we diligently seek Him, He will reward us with the understanding of who we are in Christ. Any other way we choose to try and discover who we are, other than God’s predetermined plan, will end up in disappointment and disaster. We have learned that lesson through the decisions of Adam and Eve. Let us choose to walk in the Light while He is with us so that we won’t stumble in the dark and fall.
Discovering Who I Really Am,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Friday, March 28, 2014

Seize Your Miracle

Matthew 20 : 30 – 34, And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!" Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!" So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" They said to Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened." So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him. NKJV
There are so many accounts in the gospels where people were healed even though they put forth very little effort of their own. Many times Jesus would seek people out in order to heal them, or He would travel to them when He was asked. Then, once He made the connection with them, He did all that was needed to ensure that the person was made whole.
However, there are those like the story of the two blind men that I shared with you today. In this example, the person had to overcome some obstacles that stood in the way of their healing, EVEN THOUGH THEY HAD THE FAITH FOR A MIRACLE. I really wanted you to get that, did you?
These two men received their miracle once they got to Jesus, so that wasn’t the issue. Nevertheless, the problem for believers sometimes is being able to make their way to Jesus. Do you remember the woman with an issue of blood? She had been plagued with that condition for twelve years. She had tremendous faith in her heart because Mark tells us in chapter 5 what she was thinking and believing as she pressed through the throng of people that surrounded Jesus. She also had to overcome the condemnation of the law which forbade such a person to be caught out in public. She was determined to make it through the crowd and get her miracle. However, before she could overcome and receive, she had to physically lower herself.
There’s yet another story where a man was a paralytic. Jesus was in a house ministering, and it was filled with people. Nevertheless, this man had four friends who didn’t allow this situation to deter their faith. They climbed upon the roof and began to tear it off. Then they lowered the man to where Jesus was, and he was healed.  
Sometimes we need more than just the faith to be healed. There are times when we also need to add perseverance to our faith so that we overcome the obstacles that are in our way of reaching the Lord. Satan is very effective at placing roadblocks, hindrances, and people in the way of others who need a touch from Jesus. The Lord laid this word on my heart for somebody that perhaps has given up, or is about to give up on getting their miracle.
Allow a righteous indignation to arise in your spirit because you know that Jesus has already paid the price for your miracle, and Satan is trying to rob it from you. Stand on God’s Word, overcome anything or anyone through the prayer of faith, and you will touch the Healer. Seize your miracle or healing today!
You are the Healed of the Lord,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Processing Your Emotions

Deuteronomy 8 : 1 – 4, "Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. NKJV
I have discovered that when believers are hit with serious trails, they are more open to taking a closer look at themselves. There’s something about having something go wrong in a person’s life that causes us to evaluate our past conduct. However, too many times this can open the door for the enemy to bring us under condemnation. If you find yourself leaning toward self-doubt, condemnation, and guilt when you’re surrounded by “shark-infested waters,” take notice of what Jesus did when He was tempted in the wilderness by the Devil. He answered Satan’s thoughts with, “It Is Written.”
Jesus knew His spiritual identity. Nevertheless, many times Christians will turn to other sources to find help and strength when responding to spiritual assaults from their adversary, the Devil. This brings us to the teaching for today. Just as Jesus turned to His heavenly Father to draw His identity and power, we must be WILLING as His disciples to follow His example while under an attack of Satan.  
Having faith in Christ means that your confidence is in Him; your faith is no longer in yourself, or the ways of the world. So when trials come that challenge your faith and cause you to begin to doubt God’s faithfulness or the authority of His Word, then we must, at that point, decide where we will turn. It will be determined in the trial, not on a pew in church, whether or not our faith is genuine.  
Jesus was out in the wilderness and had fasted for forty days when He found Himself being tempted by the Devil in every point that we will be tempted as Christians. He was tempted in the areas of provision, protection, and power. These areas are covered in the Apostle John’s epistle who wrote, “All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.”
How we choose to react to trouble, heartache, and disappointment will determine if we have true faith in Christ. True Biblical faith will produce hope. Hope is needed for those moments and times when it may seem as though God has abandoned us. The writer of Hebrews describes or defines faith as being the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. Therefore, if we have true faith and are born again, we will have a true hope in our hearts that God is faithful to His Word and us, even in a tragic or life-threatening situation.
Lest you get under momentary condemnation because you don’t feel hope the very moment calamity hits your life, you must also remember that you and I are human. It’s easy for us to become disoriented while being blind-sided by the Devil because we will be experiencing the raw emotions of our situation. The Lord not only understands this about us, but gives us time to heal and find our direction before He begins to push us in the direction of finding Him when the cloud of “dust and doubt” begins to settle.
The place that we must guard our hearts is when Satan tries to exploit our raw emotions to seek vengeance or go out on our own to find healing and comfort in the ways of the world. These would be classified as acts of the flesh responding to “a wrong.” However, we must choose to remain submitted and committed to Christ. The Lord knows that our emotions will respond because He made us that way. We must process and judge what has occurred in our lives so that our hearts won’t be overwhelmed. This is more of a process than it is a reaction of the will. Whew!
When God brought Israel out of Egypt, He didn’t lead them directly into the land of promise. He was testing their obedience to see whether they had faith or unbelief in their hearts. It seemed that Israel as a nation walked with Moses and God until something “wrong” happened to them. You see, they repeatedly hardened their hearts against God and didn’t choose to obey His Word whenever they came under a spiritual attack. Since they consistently chose  for forty years to reject God and harden their hearts to the Holy Spirit, they had no hope that would carry them through the trials in the wilderness.  
As a result, that generation all perished in the wilderness because they were filled with unbelief. We must be careful to guard our hearts from entertaining unbelief and departing from the living God when we find ourselves going through difficult situations in our walk. True faith will produce true hope, and hope will always bring us back to the Word of God as the final authority. Once we overcome the initial emotional process of hurt, loss, and disappointment, we will find renewed hope and strength. However, we must first decide in the fiery furnace to turn to the Lord as our eternal source for this temporal life.
God is faithful to His Word, and you will find that He will be faithful to you when you make a heart decision to trust and obey His Word always. God won’t always come on the scene in our time. Nevertheless, He has given us the power of the Holy Spirit, and He gives us hope that doesn’t make us ashamed. He won’t let us hope in something that will never happen. Once He gives us hope, we can know that what we are hoping in, He will bring to pass. Abraham hoped even though everything in the natural screamed there is nothing to be hopeful about.
True hope will do just that in your life. Even so, you must make the decision to place your complete trust in the Lord. We all must make the decision to have hope, even after we have made the decision to have faith in Jesus. Why? Because we live in a world that is filled with tribulation that will challenge our faith.
Walking by faith and Not by Sight,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Pressured

Matthew 26: 36 – 43, Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there." And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me." He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done." NKJV
I used this story about Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane as a way to encourage you today in your walk of faith and in your prayer life. Please note that Jesus was asking the Father to let the cup pass from Him. Even though, earlier in the Gospels, He had said that He was sent to suffer and die on the cross, we read here that Jesus still prayed for the cup of suffering to pass from Him.
Jesus was praying a prayer that diametrically opposed God’s will…and He asked this request of God three times. However, after the third time He knew the answer. Jesus woke up His sleeping disciples and told them that His betrayer was at hand. Isn’t it interesting that shortly after Jesus prays a prayer that God doesn’t answer in the way Jesus requested, the betrayer shows up on the scene?
Over the years of being a pastor, I have had many occasions where people would ask about their unanswered prayers concerning an infirmed loved-one. You guessed it; their loved-one died. Consequently, this tragedy left the believer wondering where God was and why He allowed it to happen. The Lord gave me specific instructions to write this word for someone today. If you have prayed for a friend or family member, and the Lord took them into His presence, you could easily become discouraged, lose heart, and lose your faith in the power of prayer.
However, let’s look at this principle from a different perspective. We have the desire to see everyone come through sickness and be made whole. I have seen or heard of many that were terminally ill, and God heard the prayers of the righteous and saved those who were at death’s door. Nevertheless, there may be those times when you pray for someone, and it will appear as though God didn’t even hear your prayers. God had a bigger picture in mind when Jesus prayed, and He may also have a bigger purpose in mind when your requests didn’t seem to get past your mouth.  
The Lord doesn’t always let us know the outcome of certain prayers because there are things that He knows, but we can’t handle or understand that information at the time. Therefore, He will give us the opportunity to trust in His will and judgment. Even so, if we should disagree with His answer, or if His answer doesn’t fit our desire, the enemy will use that breech in our fellowship to bring in the betrayer. You will know he has arrived if you find very little or no desire to pray after the passing of someone you love.  
When Jesus was about to depart from the disciples and return to heaven, He told them that He had many things to discuss with them, but they were not able, at that moment, to bear the news. He went on to tell them that the Holy Spirit would come and be with them and in them, and He would guide them into ALL truth. When God is silent concerning our unanswered prayers, we must rely on the Holy Spirit to empower us to one day face the truth. In the meantime, we must go on trusting our heavenly Father.  
Jesus concluded His prayer with “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Ultimately, at the end of a prayer for a serious situation, we must leave the outcome in the hands of the Father, knowing that we have done everything we could for the person in need.
The Lord is my Rock,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

More Life

Genesis 2: 7, And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. NKJV
John 10: 10, The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. NKJV
I find something very intriguing in what Jesus stated in John 10: 10. He said that He had come that we might have life. Maybe I’m strange, and you might agree, but weren’t people already living when Jesus spoke this in their ears that day? There is as much difference between living and having life as there is between earth and heaven. Therefore, we can conclude that the only true way to experience the God-kind-of-life that Jesus was teaching about is to be included in the One who is life- Jesus.
I used the verse in Genesis 2: 7 to try and illustrate the difference between a living being and having life in Christ. When God breathed into man’s nostrils, he became a living being, having breath. When Jesus breathed on the disciples shortly before His passion, He told them to receive the Holy Spirit. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we not only receive life at that moment, but we also have eternal life. Jesus didn’t stop at us having life; He desired that we have abundant life. The only way to have that kind of life is through abiding in the Vine.  
Remember, we can only have a new life if we are in Christ. If we “confess” Christ, but “live” according to the world, we’re not abiding in the true Vine. It doesn’t matter what you and I confess if we don’t follow through with obedience and the action that backs up what we say we believe. In the same way, if we don’t look to Jesus and obey His will in our lives, then we deceive ourselves. We are only living; we are not walking in His life.
If you read about the pioneers of the faith such as Noah, Job, Sarah, Ruth, and the father of the faith, Abraham, you will notice that when they began walking with God, they possessed very little. However, eventually God increased them with greatness. It isn’t about how much you possess, but how much of God’s attributes you possess. We are required to come to know the God that we say we believe. Consequently, as we walk in faith with God, the life of God will begin to flow into our life through the Holy Spirit and bless us with God’s character and characteristics.
The longer you and I walk in faith and obedience to God’s will and maintain our fellowship with Him, the greater His life will increase in us. The Bible tells us that God never changes; it also teaches us that His kingdom and dominion on the earth are always increasing. Even so, how can it increase on the earth if it’s not done through His people, who dwell on the earth? You are a people…this tells me you are a very good candidate for the life of God to shine through so that He can show the world His greatness in an earthen vessel.  
Do you want to shine for God today? Do you want to be great for God today?  A thousand-mile journey begins with the first step. If you’re accustomed to just existing and getting by, then get better connected to the Vine and let His life and glory begin to increase both, you and your family. You can do all things through Christ, who strengthens you, but you must be willing to let His strength flow through you. It’s all a matter of the heart.
Abiding in the Vine,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Monday, March 24, 2014

Exceeding Abundantly Above

Mark 11 : 23 – 24, For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. NKJV
Aren’t you glad that God knows the end from the beginning? Since God is both omnipotent (all powerful) and omniscient (all knowing), He knows what we need before we even realize it. Paul tells us in Romans 12: 3 that God has dealt to every person the measure of faith. Through faith, we have the power and access in Christ to come boldly before the throne of God and obtain mercy and find help in times of need. Jesus instructs us to believe when we come before our heavenly Father so that we might receive the answer to our need.
Too many times, we can allow our human constraints to place limits on our God. Today, I want to encourage you to begin to seek God for more than just your everyday needs to be met, or your problems to be solved. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6: 25, “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?”
Our purpose as Christians on the earth is to be ambassadors for God’s Kingdom. Jesus challenged us in Matthew 6 to think and live higher than the heathen who don’t have a covenant with the supernal God. Wasn’t it God who gave us the ability to dream big dreams and to imagine the impossible? With God, all things are possible. So we must learn how to come into agreement or alignment with His perfect will and not lean too heavily on our flawed human limitations. Let me leave you with an example so that you might see how God operates in a believer’s life in order to get them to believe Him for more, not settle for less.
Genesis 15: 1 – 5, After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward." However, Abram said, "Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed, one born in my house is my heir!" And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." NKJV
Abraham is widely known as the “father of the faith” meaning that God used him to begin a new work in the earth and to establish a “seed” by faith. He was the father of the faith, yet we see him asking God why he remained childless; he even offered to take in someone else’s son as an heir. However, we can pull back from the story and look at the entire time that Abraham was waiting on God for his own son and see more clearly that there was a disconnect with Abraham.  
In the scripture from Genesis 15, we read where Abraham is talking to God about a SON, yet God is trying to convey to Abraham about a NATION that would span many generations. If the father of the faith struggled for twenty-five years to grasp and accept one of the first promises that God had spoken to him, then could it be that we might have our sight set too low? Could it be that God has promised you greatness, but life has beaten you down, and you have settled for far less than God’s intended best? Perhaps it’s time to begin to look back over the past years of your walk with the Lord and resurrect the old prophecies, visions, and dreams that He has declared over your life.
Dream BIG,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Friday, March 21, 2014

A Covenant of the Spirit

John 4: 24, God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." NKJV
Why did God, the Creator of man, create us with flesh instead of allowing us to be spirit beings… seeing that He is Spirit? After all, didn’t He tell the Word (Christ) and the Holy Spirit (on earth), “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness?” Fortunately, for us the mystery can be solved by simply looking at the transformation of a seed. When a seed is planted into the ground, it begins to take on a metamorphosis. As the seed goes into the ground and dies, it gives life and way to the sprout, which becomes the new life above the ground. From that point on, the seed is never seen again. However, we know that it existed because we can see the fruit or evidence of the seed.
We know through the Word of God that God is Spirit, and that He created us as living beings with flesh. Even so, the flesh (us) is just a “temporary seed,” if you will, that awaits the season in which the Farmer (the Father) plants it in the new Soil (Jesus) of His Kingdom.  When man sinned and decided to partake of the Tree of Knowledge instead the Tree of Life, all of us were cut off from becoming partakers of God’s life. Had Adam decided to eat of the Tree of Life, He would have given us the power to be transformed from flesh into spirit beings. However, since there was no life in us, but rather sin, we had no power to be transformed from living in the flesh into walking in the spirit.
Mankind lived in this fallen state until the Seed of God (Jesus) came and was buried in the earth for three days in order to redeem fallen man from sin. Jesus spent three days in the earth and rose again; this was a foreshadow of how He would afterwards enter the soil of man’s heart and resurrect us into the “new creation” in Him, thus fulfilling God’s original plan for those who believe.
Now that we have seen and known the disastrous results that stemmed from man’s sin, let us not walk according to our fleshly desires, but let us walk after the Holy Spirit and live. To gain a fuller understanding of my final thoughts today, I encourage you to read Romans 5: 1 – 8: 5.
In these chapters, Paul takes us on a journey of how man died in sin, but has now been given the opportunity to choose life in Christ and become born again. Even though Paul is speaking to believers, both then and now, he exhorts us to walk according to the Spirit, not rely on or live after the lusts of our flesh.
In Romans 5 and 6, Paul gives us many analogies in which he shows what will happen to believers if we should decide to abuse saving grace for the opportunity to go back under the flesh and sin. When you read chapter 7, you will see that Paul tells us that if we don’t choose to die (in Christ) to our old man and become alive unto God, we won’t have the power to become changed into the image of Christ (the Seed buried in us). Finally, he tells us that if we continue to neglect Christ’s life in us and His will for us to die to the flesh and sin, and we choose to live in our old ways, we will also live under the condemnation of the Law.
In Christ, we have died to the old man who was under the power and penalty of God’s Law. When we choose to live by faith in Christ, the Law of God loses its hold on us because we are living in the spirit and not in our flesh. After we have chosen Christ as our savior, God (the Farmer) requires us to live by faith and die to self so that the life of Christ might transform us into His glorious image. If you’re a believer in Christ, but remain in bondage to self and sin, yield your heart completely to God, and He will live His life through your humility.  
My Life Is Hidden in Christ,
Pastor Asa Dockery   

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Abraham Believed

Galatians 3: 6 – 9, Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. NIV
We’re instructed by the Apostle Paul to study the Word of God so that we might show ourselves truly approved to represent the heart of God. When we don’t know exactly what the Word has to say about a particular subject, or we don’t know its meaning, then we assume certain details that can mislead us and those we teach. Having stated this, let me say that Abraham didn’t have a clue who God was when He spoke to him in Genesis 12. Nevertheless, in spite of Abraham’s ignorance of God, he chose to go ahead and believe God when He spoke His will over Abraham’s life.  
If only it were that easy and simple for everyone to take God at His Word and not waiver when He speaks to us. However, that’s not always what happens. There’s a part of us that wants to respond to truth more like Thomas than like Abraham when it has been spoken. Thomas was told that Jesus had risen from the dead, but he refused to believe it; he stated that he would have to see for himself before he would believe.
When we choose, as Abraham did, to believe ONLY God and His Word, it releases the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and lives to fulfill in us all that God desires for us. What would happen in the body of Christ if we just believed God and His Word without the confirmation of seeing physical evidence like Thomas required? I can tell you on the authority of today’s scriptures that we would see the supernatural power of God manifested in us and through our obedient faith just like Abraham.
Now remember, even though Abraham believed God, the manifestation of God’s promise didn’t occur for twenty-five years after it was spoken. Even so, this didn’t prevent Abraham from continuing in the faith. Why? Abraham believed God and refused to believe or accept any report that contradicted what God had promised. I have taught extensively about the reason it took so long for God to release the manifestation of His promise in the natural. Nevertheless, today, let’s look at it a little deeper.  
When Jesus heard that Lazarus was dead, He waited until he had been dead for four days because the Pharisees (religious zealots) believed that people could still revive themselves after three days. Jesus wanted them to know for sure that no flesh had anything to do with the resurrection of Lazarus. There are many examples in the Old Testament of when God waited until people’s ordeals became humanly hopeless to revive or resurrect, just so that we would know that God can perform what is impossible for us.
While I have concentrated on Abraham’s faith in believing God for a son of his own, we must not forget to look at what his faith did for Abraham’s stand in God’s sight. Our faith in Christ (what God has said and done for us) makes us righteous in God’s sight. As we continue to believe God, even though all of His promises haven’t been fulfilled on our behalf yet, God is at work on the inside forming Christ in our hearts. By the end of our faith journey, God will fulfill both His will in us and through us so that we might have all that has been promised to us.
Because Abraham simply believed God, he became both the father of Isaac and the father of the faith. You may be trusting in God for a need in your life, but God is busy working through your faith to transform you into the image of His Son. God didn’t just give Abraham a son; He gave him a son by promise...Christ in you, the HOPE of glory- by promise.
Waiting On God,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Application Produces Transformation

2 Peter 1 : 2 – 4, Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. NKJV
Do you need the grace and peace of God in your life? When you place confidence in the promises and principles contained within the Word of God, you will begin to experience His grace and peace. The Lord never intended for us just to read the Bible like a book. He gave us the measure of faith so that we might become partakers of His Son through His Word.
Jesus told us in John 6, “The words that I speak, they are spirit, and they are life.” Therefore, when we choose to live according to the Holy Spirit, the Word will be able to give us life. Allow me to give you an example of what it means to experience the Word of God so that it changes us (instead of just reading it).    
People can be religious all day long. However, that doesn’t mean that the Word of God is hidden in their hearts. If you really want to know if a believer is applying the Word of God to their life and walking in Christ, then look at their fruit. Is their life exemplifying the fruit of the Spirit that Paul listed in Galatians 5? People, who say they have placed faith in Christ, but refuse to place faith in or honor the Word of God through obedience will not be able to demonstrate the life of God in their walk. Here’s an example:
In Matthew 13, Jesus was in Nazareth teaching the people through parables. When He separated Himself from the people and was alone with His disciples, He revealed to them the mystery of the parables. However, the multitude of people didn’t have the understanding of them. At the end of the chapter, we see the reason why they didn't understand what Jesus had said; it was because they never honored Jesus as the Son of God. So now we see what happens when believers hear, but don’t apply or honor God’s Word. The Word doesn’t pierce through the walls of their spiritual hearts and empower them to be transformed. If we dishonor God’s Word by not applying it to our life, then we, too, will remain powerless and unaffected by its potential to change us.  
God requires us to hide the Word of God in our hearts and to apply its principles to our everyday lives so that we might become partakers of His divine nature. The Word is alive and will transform us from living beings into spirit-filled creations in Christ, but we must honor the Word.  You need the grace and peace of God in your heart and life.  Therefore, are you honoring the Word of God by applying it to your decisions? If not, you can begin experiencing the life of God today through the liberty of the Holy Spirit, who gives power to the Word that is hidden in our hearts.
The Father wants us to be more than “saved." His desire is that we live the new life in Christ, which honors Him and brings glory to His name. God desires that you experience His love… not just know “about” Him.
Alive in Christ,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

You Have Authority

Mark 16 : 17 – 18, And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." NKJV
There is a huge difference between power and authority. A weight lifter has power. However, that doesn’t automatically mean they have authority. They might be able to power-lift the front of a car, but a policeman can raise one hand in the middle of a highway and stop hundreds of cars. When you and I are weak, Christ is our strength. It is through His authority that we are His ambassadors.
When Jesus tells us that we can perform the miraculous in His name, He is giving us spiritual authority over the kingdom of darkness. Another word for authority is jurisdiction. Jurisdiction is the realm in which a person of authority must operate. If they should go beyond their jurisdiction, then they will lose their authority.
When Adam sinned, he forfeited the dominion over the jurisdiction that God had granted to him. Satan gained that dominion over the realm of Adam through his sin. However, after Jesus came to earth and obeyed the will of His Father, God gave Him ALL authority in heaven, the earth, and beneath the earth. Before Jesus departed from the earth, He gave us (His ambassadors of the Kingdom of God) His name. In His name, we have jurisdiction over the principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness in high places, and the rulers of darkness. 
Everything that was lost in Adam as it pertained to our God-given dominion was replaced and increased in Christ for the believer. Adam was only given dominion in the realm of the earth and the first heaven. In Christ, whatever we bind on earth will also be bound in the third heaven where God and Christ dwell. Whatever we loose on earth will also be loosed in the third heaven.
Now that you know you have authority in the name of Christ, and you also know where your jurisdictional lines allow you to exercise your spiritual authority, you can begin to have signs and wonders follow you. Here’s a hint: You have to exercise your authority in order to have the confidence to walk in your authority. Now go find a person in need and put that God-given authority to work for them.
There Is Power in the Name of Jesus,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Monday, March 17, 2014

Immovable

Psalms 92 : 12 – 15, The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing, to declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. NKJV
Ephesians 4 : 11 – 15, And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ… NKJV
Paul tells us that Satan can appear as an angel of light in order to deceive people. You will know when something or someone is having an influence in your life if something happens or is said that forces you to make a decision. However, ask yourself one question before you decide. “Will this decision draw me closer to Christ or move me away from Christ?” We’re told in Proverbs to guard our hearts with all diligence. Satan loves to use people and situations to test our “root system." If we don’t know what the Lord’s will and purpose for our lives are, or we don’t know what the Word of God says about such decisions, then we leave ourselves prey to be deceived and led astray.
Young trees have “root balls” that pull nourishment from the earth beneath them. Large trees will have roots that grow at least to the edge of its longest limbs. The roots that are buried deep in the earth do more than provide the nutrients; they also keep it from being moved in a wind storm. Paul teaches us that Christians have been planted in Christ and placed under the leadership of His church for their spiritual growth and protection. The Lord has provided a safe place for believers to come and thrive so that they can become strong enough to withstand the temptations and the lies of the enemy out in the world. Paul uses the term “wind of doctrine” in his writings. This suggests that Satan’s lies and/or man’s lies will try to sway or move us away from the safety of God’s covering. Even so, we must remain planted in Christ.
Our heavenly Father has placed us in Christ just like He placed trees in the earth so that we might grow up in Him and live a life of abundance. Since we’re in this world, but not of the world because we’re in Christ, then we will be able to produce spiritual fruit; we should not produce  works of the flesh in our walk with Christ. Throughout the Bible, we’re instructed to dwell in the house of the Lord and to partake of His goodness, not of the world’s sinful pleasures, in order that we might grow up. If we struggle to develop a “taste” for the Lord, we will fail to see His goodness, will remain weak and vulnerable to the doctrines of men, and will be swayed from the truth.
There is one final thought I want to share with you that is the very key to your spiritual growth and protection. Satan loves to prey on people who rely on their intuition or “gut instincts” when it comes to discerning people’s motives and agendas. Guarding our hearts might protect us from people we don’t trust. However, Jesus was betrayed and denied by those who were closest to Him. Therefore, we must invest time in God’s presence and in His Word  so that He might protect and keep us from greedy or vile people whose only motive is to rob us of our peace and faith in Christ.
Buried in Christ,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Friday, March 14, 2014

Remember to Apply the Blood

Matthew 27 : 50 – 53, And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. NKJV
There isn’t much said about the blood of Jesus at His crucifixion. However, we can certainly see the effects of it at Calvary when He had yielded up His Spirit. Two miracles of great significance occurred; one happened shortly after Jesus died, and the other one after He returned to earth in His glorified body.
The first miracle occurred when the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom and the second when the graves of many burst open and those who were dead got up and walked through Jerusalem. Why did God allow these miracles to take place? They were manifested so that He could confirm from heaven that the blood of Jesus was sufficient for the sins of man. Now we can enter the holy place where God dwells in heaven; death no longer has dominion over believers in Christ.
The writer of Hebrews teaches us, without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins. So if a person never confesses the name of Christ, or he chooses to reject the gift of His life on the cross, he won’t have the power to experience God’s forgiveness (even though in Christ, his sins are already forgiven) nor will he experience freedom in his heart from the bondages of sin and death.
The shed blood of Jesus purchased our salvation. God, through Christ has ransomed or redeemed us back from sin and from having to live under the dominion of Satan’s lies. “Whom the Son of God sets free, they are free indeed.” Let me ask you a couple of questions. Have you applied the blood of Jesus to your heart and life through faith in Christ? As a believer in Christ, do you have something that is trying to hold onto your life or robbing  you of your abundant life in Christ? If so, it is a thieving spirit that has violated the blood-line of Christ, which was spilled for you, your family, and your life in this world.  
Remember to apply the blood; remind the enemy, who is trying to rob you in the spirit realm, that the blood of Jesus is against him as well. You took a stand of faith for your soul’s salvation, now you must take another for your freedom in the area that Satan has stolen from you. The blood of Jesus is our freedom from the curse brought on by the sin of Adam and Eve. In Christ, you are blessed! Satan can’t do anything about it!
I Plead the Blood of Jesus,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Peacemaker

Ephesians 2 : 13 – 16, But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. NKJV
If religion is the solution to the issues that we are plagued with in the world, then how does one explain that religion has been the catalyst for the majority of history’s conflicts and wars. The first murder in the Bible was over an offering unto the Lord between two brothers. The core reason for the violent act wasn’t just over the offering. It was a result of God rejecting Cain’s offering and accepting Abel’s.
When man rejects God by refusing to honor His Word, it opens a huge door for Satan to attack. It’s not that God rejected Cain or us; however, God tells us that it is us who reject Him when we choose to sin in His sight. The world and its systems or kingdoms have rejected God because they refuse to abide by His kingdom principles. As a result, those who are caught up in the world’s system look only to themselves and not God when they find themselves in a conflict or feeling threatened.
When Jesus came to the earth as the embodiment of the Word, the world and the spirit of religion rejected Him. He was God incarnate or God in flesh. As God in the flesh, Jesus proved to us that it wasn’t God the Father, who first rejected man, rather it was man, who had hardened their hearts toward Him. You see; Jesus wasn’t born of the seed of a man. He was God’s Seed in the earth. Therefore, He was truth incarnate and there was no sin in His heart or deceit in His mouth. Still, religion hated Him and sought many times to begin a conflict with Him in order to bring His life to an abrupt end. When God chose to wrap Himself in flesh, it took away the excuse man used to cover our sin.  
Because Jesus had no sin in Him, religious zealots could find no fault in which to base a case against Him. This is the reason they became infuriated at Him- He was exposing them for the sinners and deceivers whom they truly were in their hearts, and this threatened them.  
John 15 : 22 – 25, If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both, Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled, which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.' NKJV
Had Jesus been just a “good Man” or another “great prophet of God,” they (and us) would have continued to blame one another for our faults. However,  Jesus, the Son of the living God, through the Word that He spoke on the earth has taken away man’s excuse for their sin. It is at this point that I want to remind you of how Jesus never used His deity and purity of heart to condemn those who sought to condemn Him in order to destroy Him Instead, He showed sinners His greatest act of love on the cross, where he was hung without a cause. He said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Jesus didn’t condemn the world; instead, He used what Satan meant for evil and turned their violent act of war into the greatest act of love known to mankind and forgave us all.  
When people reject God, who is our peace, they are choosing to live a life of war. Because they can’t kill God, people will place blame and see other people as the source of their problems. Once this occurs, conflict usually follows. Jesus is the Prince of peace. Even so, He came to die for the sins of mankind so that we might have peace with God.  Therefore, you can clearly see that Christianity isn’t a religion; it is based on a relationship. Once we’re in Christ, we have been reconciled with God and have peace with Him.      
Do you have peace with God today? Please take some time and allow the Lord to reveal whether or not you really have peace with Him. If you discover that there is no peace in your heart, and you have lost most of your closest relationships while fighting for what you felt that you deserved, then ask the Prince of peace to forgive your sins and fill your heart with His presence and love. Now you can have love for your brothers and sisters and peace in your life.
He Is Our Peace,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Secret Worship

Matthew 6: 1 – 4, "Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly. NKJV
Matthew 6: 5 – 6, "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. NKJV
Matthew 6: 16 – 18, "Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. NKJV
When it comes to being a witness for Christ, our heavenly Father wants us to live out loud. Jesus commands us in Matthew 5 to be salt and light to the world. He instructs us to let our light shine in a way that brings glory to our heavenly Father. However, when it comes to our personal acts of worship and obedience to the Lord, Jesus commands that we keep them secret.
You will notice that in the areas of giving, praying, and fasting, our Lord doesn’t give us an option. He only tells us “when” we respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit in these three areas, then we are to see to it that no one knows what we are doing because His desire is for our reward to come from God and not man.  
The Lord doesn’t want us to give any place for our flesh to participate in these areas so that we may receive a greater reward from the Father… who sees what we secretly do. Our secrecy will also challenge the motive behind what we do for Christ and the kingdom of God. If we can give, pray, and fast without recognition from man, then it shows the Lord that we have truly fulfilled these acts of worship solely for His pleasure from a heart of love and gratitude.
Scripture commands that the emphasis in these areas of personal worship and devotion before the Lord be made on the importance of doing them in secrecy before God and not on the acts themselves. Doesn’t this principle remind you of what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13, the chapter on love? He admonishes us to carry out what we do for God from a heart of love. If we perform acts of worship for the accolades of man, not from love, Paul tells us that our worship will be in vain. Therefore, we will know that we have given, prayed, and fasted from a heart motivated by love when we do them all in secret before God.
Only God knows,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Established

1 Peter 5 : 10 – 11, But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. NKJV
In recent weeks, the Lord has led me to write to you on the subject of man being created in the image and likeness of God. Today, the Holy Spirit has laid a specific word on my heart for believers who find themselves surrounded with troubles. As a result of the fall, sin defiled the heart of man. “Self” became the replacement for the authority of God, and the mind of man took the place of the voice of God as the final word on wisdom. The perverted lusts of man became the compass and the basis for poor and immoral decisions.
Now that we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus and made complete in Christ, we must begin to allow God to strip the old man and his ways from us and begin to be renewed, once again, into the image of the One who has created us. This transformation will require us to suffer many things as we lose the heart for the world and gain a new heart for the Lord and His Kingdom. While we are kept in Christ, God can transform us from the image of the first Adam and into the image of the Last Adam, Christ.  
Since we are human, troubles cause us to fear because situations are out of our control. Therefore, we must train ourselves to rely on the strong arm of the Lord. Once a believer begins the conversion process of becoming Christ-like, it will shake us down to the very core of our being. Nevertheless, according to Jesus and the writers of the New Testament, these things must come to pass, if we are going to overcome the flesh nature, and, ultimately, the things of the world, through our faith in Christ.
Peter admonishes us in his epistle not to think it strange when we’re faced with fiery trials. Even so, James tells us to count it all joy when we fall into various trials. IT IS IN THE SHAKING AND THE SIFTING THAT WE BECOME ESTABLISHED IN CHRIST. It is through the hard and terrible trials that we learn where we should be firmly planted. Hard times in and of themselves can’t make us like Christ. However, our faith in Christ during the hard seasons of life will make us Christ-like.
As we learn and grow in our faith walk, we will become established firmly in the Lord. At this point, I can only speak from my own experiences; in the past few years, while the world has been shaking all around us, I have become more unsettled than ever before in my life. The unsettling came as a result of the shaking… this was a part of my maturation process. God wanted me to stop relying on and listening to the soulish part of my being, which was crying out to keep control.
Today, I saw a picture in my mind of God wrapping His arms around His children while the “shaking to mature” was all around us. He constantly tells us by the Holy Spirit and in His Word that He has us in His care. Nevertheless, we must come into agreement with that truth before we can begin to experience the loving embrace of our heavenly Father while the storms are raging all around us.
When we “FEEL” out of control and become shaken, we will try to console our flesh and bury the feelings with self-help tactics. These futile attempts eventually give way to the sinking feeling in our heart as we realize that it will take God in His time to settle and establish us. The way I have found that I am overcoming the weaknesses of my flesh and being established in Christ is confirmed with a peace that doesn’t make any sense. As the peace grows in my heart and “keeps me” so that shaking no longer moves me to fear or self-protection, I can begin to know that God has been doing “a good work” in my heart and life.
Jesus said that He would give us peace, but it would be in the midst of tribulations. How will any of us know whether we’re rooted and grounded in Christ if God never allows us to suffer or be shaken? The cause of the shaking isn’t good, but the results of the process will yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness and are good because God is good. So the next time trouble knocks at your door, remember the Words that God spoke to Moses at the banks of the Red Sea when they had no way of escape. Be still and see the salvation of the Lord. Let me leave you today with a perfect verse that sums up what I have tried to articulate.
Psalms 23: 4 – 5, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; NKJV
Because God is with you, you can walk through death and not fear. Because the Lord is with you, you can eat in the presence of your enemies. Why? Because He has established you in Christ, and nothing shall pluck you up.
I Feel a Praise About To Erupt,
Pastor Asa

Monday, March 10, 2014

The Goodness Of God

Romans 2 : 1 – 5, Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? NKJV
How often do you take the time to recognize the goodness of the Lord in your life? Unfortunately, it’s so easy for us to fall into a rut or routine and lose sight of His goodness. However, it is the goodness of God that makes our lives in this world enjoyable and, at times, even tolerable. Whenever life becomes trying or filled with pain, we can be reminded of and long for the days when life was better. Even so, let’s learn something very important from this. It is when we recognize that our lives are filled with God’s goodness that we most often forget to include Him in it. Further, when we forget God and then our lives take a turn for the worse, pain, and misfortune can grab our attention very quickly.
The purpose of this word today is to bring attention to the value that must be placed by believers on God’s presence in our lives. I have heard it said that respect and honor must be earned, not given. However, that isn’t the case…especially when it comes to God; we must become humble and give Him both respect and honor because of who He is. Even so, beyond that, God has sacrificed His Son, and Jesus gave His life for us while we were still sinners. Why did God pay such a high price for our soul’s salvation? Through this one ACT of love, Jesus displayed the depth of His love for us in order that we might honor and respect God's goodness. Nevertheless, now that we are His people, it is incumbent upon us to honor His presence and not take for granted His goodness.  
What exactly does His goodness do for those who have it on their lives? In Psalms 23, we see that goodness will follow those who place their complete trust in the Lord. They will be anointed with oil, which means God’s presence will be smeared on their being. They will be filled with His divine nature and with the attributes that will attract overflow into their lives. He will cause them to have protection, provision, and the power to eat in the presence of their enemies. He will give them peace to lie down and nourishment to keep them built up both spiritually and physically.
Here’s a lesson that Israel learned the hard way, and we would be smart to heed the wisdom they gained instead of  making the same mistake. Israel saw the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. He brought them out of the land of bondage and through the Red Sea. He gave them water from the Rock and fed them with Manna from heaven. Nevertheless, they despised the goodness of the Lord in His sight because they chose to harden their hearts to the voice of God when He spoke to them concerning His commandments. They disdained the goodness of the Lord instead of honoring Him. As a result, they lost His goodness, which had held back sickness and disease. His presence had brought multiplied blessings upon them as the people of God. His presence had also kept the enemies of Israel at bay. One of the last points is probably the most important: When Israel chose to dishonor and rebel against the Lord, and showed contempt for His goodness, they lost His protection. The enemies of Israel took them into captivity because the spiritual protection of Israel was removed.
I really can’t do justice in this short devotion on the goodness of God, but if you have breath today, then you have partaken of it already. The Lord isn’t asking for much in comparison to what you will receive in return. All that He wants is for us to put Him first and to honor the gift of His goodness in our everyday lives. The goodness of God gives us the protection to live another day in the world,  the ability to fulfill His purpose, and the opportunity to give Him the glory He so richly deserves. Oh how I love Jesus!
Thanking God for His Goodness,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Friday, March 7, 2014

Gains and Losses

Matthew 16: 26, What profit is there if you gain the whole world-and lose eternal life? What can be compared with the value of eternal life? TLB
Everything in this world has a value. Today, the Lord wants to speak to us about the things in which we place great value; they might not be as valuable as we might think. From time to time, we all have been guilty of placing more emphasis on the temporal, simply because it is our existence…for now. However, the Word of God teaches us that we should keep our focus on the eternal, so that we don’t lose sight of what’s really important in this life.
In John 3, we’re told that God loved the world SO much that He gave His only-begotten Son to die in our place. The greatest and most valuable gift that has ever been, or will ever be given costs us absolutely nothing. We don’t have to pay for eternal life, nor do we have to earn it or even measure up to someone’s standards before it becomes ours.  All that is required of us is that we believe Jesus is the Son of God and that God sent Him as ransom for our sin debt.
Even though our soul’s salvation and the gift of eternal life cost God His Son, and it cost Jesus His life on earth, it’s free to those who accept it! Now that we’ve established these truths, let me ask you a question. How much value do you place on God’s gift of eternal life for you? How much of your heart, time, resources, and effort do you invest in serving God? What we do for God now that we’ve been redeemed will determine how much value we place on God’s free gift.
I find the choice of terms that Jesus uses in today’s scripture very interesting. He speaks the language that is generally associated with investment bankers or perhaps stock brokers. Jesus uses terms such as “gain,” “profit,” and “loss.” Jesus makes a very powerful comparison between the value of the entire world and the free gift of eternal life. Before I continue, let me interject that God has already determined the value of our soul’s salvation, and He has already paid for its redemption in FULL! Now it’s up to us to decide what value we’re going to place on our soul’s salvation.
Jesus tells us that if we were to gain the entire world, but lose our soul, it will not profit us at all. Since everything in the world has a value, let’s suppose that you add the worth of everything and came up with a total. Let’s suppose that the value of the entire world is one trillion times one trillion dollars. Jesus goes on to say that even if we were to be successful in gaining all of it, we still would have made an unwise business decision.
In other words, He’s saying that this world is very temporal; nevertheless, our souls are eternal. Money can’t buy us everlasting life. Are you making sound investments with the new life that Christ has given you? Are you serving the Lord with your whole heart by placing Him first every day? This devotion may come across as being very serious; and it should be. Our salvation was serious enough to send Jesus to the cross, the grave, and to hell on our behalf.
Since our soul is eternal, and we will live in either heaven or hell forever, shouldn’t our decisions be based on an eternal perspective rather than a temporal one? We only have today to serve Christ. We have no promise of tomorrow.
Blessing God for His Great Love,
Pastor Asa Dockery

Thursday, March 6, 2014

The Free Gift

Ephesians 2 : 8 – 9, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. NKJV
Since Adam and Eve fell in the garden, mankind has been performance based. Being performance based is rooted in the fact that, as sinners, we lost our spiritual identity and worth. Therefore, we struggle with not having an identity or value because sin stripped us of our spiritual inheritance. We have sought to earn or regain them through being good enough or by working hard enough (performance). It doesn’t matter how many jobs we work or how many titles that men give to us; none of our works can match the value and worth of God’s love for us.
I understand why the Lord had Paul write about GRACE being a gift that doesn’t have to be earned because God knows how we struggle. However, the point that I want to discuss with you today isn’t about performance, or trying to earn what has already been freely given. Instead, it is about the abuse of God’s unmerited favor called “grace.”
Abuse can occur when someone has been given a precious gift that cost them absolutely nothing. Paul explains the free gift of God’s love in Romans 5 by teaching us that while we were yet sinners, God demonstrated His love for us by giving Jesus for our sins. The world didn’t know or understand the work of the cross until after it was all over. Even so, God loved us, even though we were sinners and ignorant of His love, and of the grace that He had given on our behalf.  
Since believers enter salvation and experience God’s unmerited favor without any real, personal cost, there is a tendency for many to abuse or take grace for granted. Why do you suppose God would entrust such a precious and valuable gift of love to former sinners who might, at times, handle it with carelessness? The best way to teach someone how to be responsible is to give them responsibility. God requires us to be responsible for the free gift of His love and mercy called grace. The Bible says, “Where much is given, much will be required.”
We might not start out treating God’s grace as sacred, but let us go through some fiery trials because we walked away from His love for the pleasures of this world, and it will be the goodness of God that will recapture our attention. I’ll explain.
Suppose a person has been gloriously saved. Nonetheless, they decide to use grace as an excuse to go back into sin. Now suppose that their sin causes them to get into trouble, and they face severe consequences. However, instead of God allowing that person to face the full brunt of their rebellion, He decides to give them another opportunity. That “second chance” shows them the goodness and longsuffering of God while under grace. When a person who abuses grace, but God allows them to experience mercy instead of judgment (they knew they deserved a lot worse), they will see the goodness of God. According to Romans 2, His goodness produces or brings about a truly repentant heart.
It will be the goodness of God that will humble our prideful self and cause us to begin to respect and esteem the value of God’s gift of love. If you’re a child of God, then you have experienced the unmerited/unearned favor of God. There may be times that this world will pull you out of the will of God. However, it will be His goodness in times of trouble that will bring you back…and with a broken and contrite heart. If this sounds familiar to you, it’s because Jesus taught us about the grace and goodness of God in the story of the prodigal son. When the son found himself wallowing in filth and eating with the swine, he came to his senses and desired to return to his father’s house as a servant, not as a son. He no longer felt worthy to be his father’s son. Nevertheless, the father lavished his love on the son when he saw him coming home.
After a child of God waivers and falls into sin, it will be the goodness of God that restores him to the place of grace from which he has fallen. We have a loving and compassionate heavenly Father, who is longsuffering. Let us honor the free gift of God and save ourselves from hardships and heartaches. Are you walking with the Lord today? Or has something in this world pulled you away from Him? If you are away from your heavenly Father and have a desire to return, consider this devotion as His invitation to come back to Him. If you need us to pray for you and your walk with Christ, please email us at prayer@whcnorth.org
Saved by Grace,
Pastor Asa Dockery