"But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).
Posted : 12 Oct, 2011 12:23 PM
Devotional
We are used to thinking that we have one Intercessor. But the believer has two courts with which prayer has to do. In the court below, where prayer is offered, the Spirit is his Intercessor. In the court above, where prayer is presented, Jesus is his Intercessor.
Then, what an honored, privileged one is the praying believer! On earth�the lower court�he has a Counselor instructing him for what he should pray, and how he should order his suit. In heaven�the higher court�he has an Advocate presenting to God each petition as it ascends, separating from it all that is ignorant, sinful, and weak, and pleading for its gracious acceptance, and asking for its full bestowment.
Here, then, is your vast encouragement in prayer. The requests of the Spirit�the Intercessor of earth�are always in agreement with the mind of God. In prayer we need just such a Divine counselor.
Is it temporal blessing that you crave? You need to be taught how to graduate your request to your necessity, and how to shape your necessity to your heavenly calling. Supplication for temporal good is, we think, limited. And this is the limit, "if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content" (1 Tim. 6:8). What child of God is warranted in asking worldly wealth, or distinction, or rank? And what child of God, in a healthy state of soul, would ask them? "And," says the apostle, "my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:19). Should God, in his providence, send either of these temporal things undesired, unasked, and unexpected, receive it as from him, and use it as to him.
But with regard to spiritual blessings, your grant is unlimited. Your requests may be boundless. "Ask whatever you wish" (John 15:7) is the broad, unrestricted warrant. When you ask to be perfected in the love of God, you ask for that which accords with the will of God�for "God is love" (1 John 4:8). When you ask for an increase of faith, you ask for that which accords with the will of God; for "without faith it is impossible to please him" (Heb. 11:6). When you ask for more conformity to Christ, you ask for that which is in harmony with God's will; for he has said, "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (1 Pet. 1:16). And when you ask for comfort, you plead for that which it is in his heart to give�for he is the "God of all comfort" (2 Cor. 1:3).
Oh, to possess a Divine Counselor, dwelling in your heart, who will never compose a wrong prayer, nor suggest a weak argument, nor mislead us in any one particular in the solemn, important, and holy engagement of prayer. O to possess a Counselor who is acquainted with the purpose of God; who knows the mind of God; who understands the will of God; who reads the heart of God; yes, who is God himself.
What an encouragement this is to more real prayer! Are you moved to pray? While you muse, does the fire burn? Is your heart stirred up to ask of God some especial blessing for yourself, or for others? Are you afflicted? Oh, then, rise and pray�the Spirit prompts you�the Savior invites you�your heavenly Father waits to answer you. With such an Intercessor in the court on earth�so divine, so loving, and so sympathizing�and with such an Intercessor in the court in heaven�so powerful, so eloquent, and so successful, "let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:16).
"But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).
Posted : 12 Oct, 2011 02:47 PM
Romans 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
"But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).
Posted : 12 Oct, 2011 03:47 PM
2 nd Tim2:14 � Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
2 nd Tim2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2 nd Tim2:16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
There is a good illustration made in this context in 2nd tim, but we will focus on rightly dividing the word of truth.
Romans 7
Verse one Paul is speaking of being under the law the old teststament, and also before being born again man is under the law of sin and death.
Verse is very enlighting and revealing to those who say man is born into sin, Paul said he was alive until the age of accountability.
All the way down until verse twenty four, he is still talking about being under the law until Christ, and notice he says who will deliver me from this body of death, and then you see the answer in verse 25 and unto the next chapter talking about being delivered from the body of sin in Christ Jesus.
For to continually point the seventh chapter you of Romans as applying to a Christian they are neither born again or deceived.
"But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).
Posted : 12 Oct, 2011 05:02 PM
Free from Indwelling Sin Through Jesus the Christ:yay:
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he/she does not belong to Christ. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
HAL-LA-LU-JERR!... Praise God for Jesus Christ and the cleansing power of His indwelling Holy Spirit!!.... HAL-LA-LU-JERR!.... makes me wanna dance, dance, dance all night, like David did:dancingp::dancingp:
