HE did it!

“The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest” (Exodus 14:14 AMP).

“The Lord will fight for you. ”Do you know that there is somebody on your side? Who is it? It is the Lord: “The Lord will fight for you.” Is the Lord: the same yesterday, today, and forever? Do you have a situation where you have a bit of a battle going on right now? Do you need the Lord to fight for you? I do. There are situations out there right now that I have no clue how to resolve. How about you? The Lord will fight for you. “You shall hold your peace and remain at rest.” Isn’t that interesting? When there is a fight going on and the Lord is doing the fighting, what are you to be doing? What is your focus? What should you be doing in this battle? What is the atmosphere of heaven? It is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17). What does the Lord want you to be and to do when there is a battle raging? He wants you to be at peace and at rest. Sometimes the Lord will orchestrate certain scenarios, just for one purpose -- so that His glory would be seen in all of the earth.

If you are not at the end of your rope, get there quickly. Get to the place where there is no natural way to get out of it. Get there quickly. If you have been able to figure it out it probably isn’t God. If you have been able to figure your way out, it probably isn’t God. When the Lord fights your battles, the only thing that He asks you to do is to be at rest and to be at peace. Did you know that we like to fight these battles? When the Lord says that He is going to do it, we need to enter into rest and peace.

“And after He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly, behold, there arose a violent storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered up by the waves; but He was sleeping. (Jesus at rest) And they went and awakened Him, saying, Lord, rescue and preserve us! We are perishing! And He said to them, Why are you timid and afraid, Oh you of little faith? Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great and wonderful calm (a perfect peaceableness)” (Matthew 8:23-26 Amp).

In Matthew 8, we read an account of Jesus performing miracles. After the miracles, He gets in the boat and immediately falls asleep. Would you say that is rest and peace? What happens in this story? The twelve disciples wake Jesus up as the storm starts to get worse. (Are you in a worse storm today than you were in yesterday?) The disciples come to a consensus and decide to wake Him up. So, Jesus awakes and He rebukes the storm. He will always rebuke the storm. He rebukes the storm and then turns to His twelve and says, “Why are you timid and afraid?” This is the opposite of peace and rest which He was doing until they interrupted Him.

Would you like to experience the atmosphere of heaven? Jesus walked in it totally and completely. As far as I know from the scripture, there was only one time when Jesus was in the Garden and He said, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will [not what I desire], but as You will and desire” (Matt 26:39 Amp). Do you remember that? I believe that is the only time in scripture that Jesus spoke from His natural man. The nature of man is to not die. Is that a fair statement? The nature of natural man is not to die. He said, “If you can please take it from Me, Father, but nevertheless not My will but Your will be done.” So, He turned to the twelve and He said, “Why are you timid and afraid, O you of little faith?”He said, “Oh you of little faith.” Spiritually revealed truth is my definition of faith: spiritually revealed truth. Why are you of such little spiritually revealed truth? Rest and peace are an attribute of the kingdom of God. Have you been attacked by things other than rest and peace? Wouldn’t it be good to be attacked by rest and peace; encapsulating the atmosphere of heaven? Our natural nature walks against the nature of heaven, and the nature of God in our lives.

So what does ‘being encapsulated’ mean? It is having the likeness and the attitudes of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. What was His attitude? It was rest. What is our attitude in the storm? Do you want the atmosphere of heaven? One of the attributes of God is flowing out of rest and peace of God, as well as an assurance that He will do what He said He will do.

On May 18, 2005, I was on my face at the altar in the Capri Centre in Red Deer, Alberta in the midst of a supernatural encounter conference. It was just after noon, and we were doing a conference. I went into an open vision where I saw myself at the instant of the Lord’s death on the cross. It was almost as if I was beside Him as He was saying the words, “It is finished!” All around the base of the cross were men and women scurrying and screaming. There was no understanding of what had just taken place and quite naturally the people believed death had robbed them of this great leader Christ. Death has a way of totally affecting each one of us but death did not reign and three days later Christ rose after possessing the enemy's most massive weapon of control over our lives as humans.

Do you have a promise from God that you haven’t seen answered yet? When the Lord said, “It is finished!” rest and a sense of peace enveloped me. I was saturated in it. That is why I can say today that rest and peace are attributes of God. Yeah, there is a lot of fight and turmoil, but He paid the price. He made a way, and He did it for the promises He has given you, and for the promises, He has given me. I haven’t seen the end result yet, and there are things that I continue to stand for and work towards possessing spiritually. I will not be the one working for it yet the Holy Spirit propels me towards the finish line like the apostle Paul. I can’t work it, but I know One who has already paid the price for it.

So, there is a spiritual pursuit infused by heaven, that longing that is deep inside of us. Many times our focus is in the wrong place. Our focus many times is on resolving something when it should be on the cross and the finished work of what He has achieved for you and me. There is a real enemy out there who wants to keep your focus on your natural considerations in life. He wants you to look down: He does not want you to lookup. Let me say this: your victory is never in your circumstance: your victory is in the cross of Jesus Christ. Your victory is not in your circumstances; the victory is in the cross. (I do repeat myself often) There are so many times when I just cry because I see lives that are plagued with turmoil and defeatism when I know there is One who has given us the victory already. It is there. It is right there for you and me. Many times I will weep -- literally weep, because the eyes of our understanding need to see by the spirit. You can never look with your natural eyes: you must look into the Spirit.

I will never speak defeat over any person. I have people that come to me and speak defeat, and I speak victory. Why? I will never agree with the devil running your life. Defeat is not from God, but victory is. He has already paid the price. It is a free gift that we just walk in by the Spirit of the Lord. Now, I’m not blind either. The reality is that we need to have a mindset that sees the victory of God. Do you know that what you see, you can have by the spirit? The Lord will fight your battles.

“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” (Mark 11:23 NKJ). A while back, somebody kept telling me, “I’m dying, I’m dying!” Guess what? That person died. What do you see by the spirit? I can’t change your mindset, but we all need a mindset of victory and not defeat. Our natural nature will never understand the things of God and cannot. By faith we inherit the promises, not by pushing our own way. “Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great and wonderful calm (a perfect peaceableness)” (Matthew 8:26). When Jesus enters in, all turmoil ceases, through the cross of Christ. This is not a natural work, but a supernatural work. It may not be, in your circumstance, but when the Spirit of the Lord enters in, there is freedom, liberty, peace, and joy.

We Have an Enemy

“The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my desire shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them” (Exodus 15:9 Amp).

When we read this passage in Exodus 15:9, we can see that we have a real enemy, and he’s out to destroy. You have a real adversary, and his job is to take you out so that you have no effect on God or on the advancement of the kingdom of God. The church is called to advance the kingdom of God. The devil says that he’s going to destroy us, but he is a liar. He is the father of every lie, and his first lie started in the garden.

Do you know that we sometimes entertain lies? Here is a good one: I’ll never be good enough. When I present the gospel to nonbelievers the common thread in many responses is that I will never be good enough and they are completely correct. We are not good enough but Christ in us changes us into a heavenly acceptable entity. Christ in us the hope of glory. I know by the Spirit that I am the righteousness of Christ: so are you. Why? The Word of God says so. It is not because you are so great -- that may be, but it is the Word of God that is the truth for your life and for my life.

What does the Word of God say about you? It says that you are more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:37); you are the head and not the tail (Deut 28:13); and you are the righteousness of God, through Jesus (Romans 3:22). It is based on what He did (Eph 2:8-10). You may think in your mind that you are no good, or you may be like me: when I went to confession as a young adult, I made up sins because I didn’t want to tell the real ones. He has made a way whereby we can enter in, (Hebrews 10:20), not because of how great you are - it is about how great He is. I encourage you to examine the scriptures and see what they really say about you. Scripture declares you are seated in heavenly places far above your natural circumstances. Thats' your position in Christ and HE has already achieved it . "it is finished". Much love!