David Pawson once said that his favourite name/title for Jesus was “Yes!” Jesus is God’s “Yes” to all His promises. I had a dream last night in which I was looking into an oven. I saw cakes representing promises God has made, which I have depended on in prayer. The cakes were being warmed and were rising, though they were still in that process and were not yet ready. The dream greatly encouraged me. I woke up with peace in my heart concerning one or two matters in particular.

Perhaps the dream that encouraged me will encourage you too, if you are living in a “waiting” time, which of course, in the deepest sense and the most positive sense is true of every believer.

It is not quite a daily routine for me, but I often start my day by saying and declaring to myself, to God, to any spiritual force or influence that may be listening in, “I believe God.” Not just I believe in Him – of course I do that: how could I not trust the God who bore the curse of my sin for me that I might be saved? However, as well as believing in Him, I find it a good thing to say “I believe God.” I believe in what He has said and promised in the Word that He has breathed, the Bible, the only book in all of time and history that is God-breathed, the only book we can trust as a revelation of the only God. I believe God, I believe that Jesus is God’s “Yes” to all He has said about Himself and to all He has promised. Eternity will show that not one of the Lord’s good promises has ever failed.

God bless

Kenny

“Saved!” Thank God. What a cost lies behind anyone being able to use that word of themselves. Paul tells us in Galatians, that as Jesus hung on the cross He was one cursed for us. What does that mean? Well instead of benediction, words of blessing from God, it means Jesus, the Beloved Son who brought God the Father such delight, coming under the opposite.

One way of putting the awful reality of that, is thinking of the opposite of Aaron’s blessing with which he was told to bless the people of God, being placed on Jesus. That is what R.C. Sproul suggests we think though in order to help us understand what our salvation meant for God, how it tore the heart of Father, Son and Spirit as their united desire to save people like you and me was fulfilled and accomplished. In effect that would mean something roughly like this is being pronounced at the cross:

“The LORD curse you, and treat you as lost to Him.
The LORD turn His face from you, and pour deserved judgement upon you.
The LORD turn his back upon you and give you torment of body, soul and spirit.”

Yet, how lightly and easily we sin. How lightly we use that now maligned and mocked word, “Saved!” and scoff at the idea of being washed in the blood of the Lamb.

This hymn meant a lot to me in my early years as a teenager saved by the grace of God.

1
O teach me what it meaneth:
That Cross uplifted high,
With One, the Man of Sorrows,
Condemned to bleed and die.
O teach me what it cost Thee
To make a sinner whole;
And teach me, Savior, teach me
The value of a soul.
2
O teach me what it meaneth:
That sacred crimson tide,
The blood and water flowing
From Thine own wounded side.
Teach me that if none other
*Had sinned, but I alone,
Yet still, Thy blood, O Jesus,
Thine only, must atone.
3
O teach me what it meaneth,
Thy love beyond compare,
The love that reacheth deeper
Than depths of self-despair!
Yea, teach me, till there gloweth
In this cold heart of mine
Some feeble, pale reflection
Of that pure love of Thine.
4
O teach me what it meaneth,
For I am full of sin;
And grace alone can reach me,
And love alone can win.
O teach me, for I need Thee,
I have no hope beside,
The chief of all the sinners
For whom the Savior died.
5
O infinite Redeemer,
I bring no other plea;
Because Thou dost invite me
I cast myself on Thee.
Because Thou dost accept me
I love and I adore;
Because Thy love constraineth,
I’ll praise Thee evermore

(Lucy Ann Bennett)

God bless

Kenny

I love the questions that some of you send to me from time to time. As I thought through one such question tonight, I was thinking about the promise of power to witness to Jesus that Jesus promised would come to the first believers “in not many days time.”

As we look at Peter after receiving the Spirit as He was poured out on the day of Pentecost, part of the power seems to have been not only a release from cowardice but a finding of a new confidence in the truth of Christ. He seems to be seeing clearly what before has been hidden to his understanding.

No doubt teaching from the Risen Lord contributed to that, but I get the feeling Peter is speaking forth revelation as he is receiving it there and then. Have you discovered that? I have discovered it when preaching. I have discovered the same dynamic happening when pastoring and even when speaking with some of you as we have talked about the things of God together! As I share what I know, more opens to my understanding even as I am speaking! It is a sort of law of the Kingdom of God. Give away what you have and more will be given to you.

Don’t hold back from speaking about Jesus till you know more. Share more and you will know more. It will kick start the anointing within you that is there within every believer according to the Apostle John. Yes, go on and learn more. The Bible itself encourages that we study with our minds, but it is not an either or. Give what you know and the Holy Spirit will show you know things you didn’t know you knew! It is a God thing! You will find yourself putting your hand to your mouth and saying with holy amazement and even fear, “Where did that come from?!” Rejoice and even laugh with God as you catch your breath again…and speak on!

God bless

Kenny