“Pressed In On All Asides”...Thursday

 8/29/13

There was a time in my life where I felt pressed in on all sides, financial issues, family problems, work, you name it.  The world felt like it is crashing in on all sides? I was also living in the what if’s.  I was looking at all stuff and not at our God’s blessings in mine and my husband’s life.  Tired warn down ready to give in and quit.  On July 29^th 2010 I picked up the Word (Bible) held it in the air and said this book is either the truth or a lie, it either means what it says or it does not. That night I made it known that what the Word of God had to say was the truth and we were going to stand on all of it, We would not stand on just a portion of it, but its entirety.  The peace of God enveloping me like a blanket, it was glorious.  At that time I started seeking what it meant to be seated with Christ in heaven, right now today.

 Hebrews 10:12,14 says, 

But this Man, 

after He had offered  ONE SACRIFICE for sins FOREVER,
SAT DOWN at the right hand of God…
For by an offering has PERFECTED FOREVER
those who are being sanctified.   

Are we not those being sanctified?  This is great and glorious news that we are those who are being sanctified.   His finished work on the cross was offered as one sacrifice FOREVER, and when I received Jesus Christ into my life, I was PERFECTED FOREVER!   No matter how things look, no matter what mistakes I have made, NO MATTER WHAT!!!!   

So how long is forever?  INDEFENTLY!  I have been perfected forever by Jesus’ cleansing blood.  When Jesus my precious Savior offered His life as a sacrifice and payment for all my sins,  He sat down at the Fathers’ right hand. Under the old covenant every priest stood ministering daily and offered repeatedly the same sacrifices, over and over and over again, which could never take away sins?  But the Bible tells us that Jesus, “after He had offered ONE sacrifice for sins forever, SAT DOWN.  Glory to God.   Jesus sat down to demonstrate to us that the work is indeed finished. In the old covenant it could never be finished, but with Christ it is finished.   Not only did He sit down at the Father’s right hand, He made us (ME) SIT WITH HIM!

Ephesians 2:4-6  

But God, who is rich in mercy, 

because of His great love with which He loved us, 

even when we were dead in trespasses, 

made us alive together with Christ… 

and made us SIT TOGHETHER 

IN the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.    

So what does that mean to me?  Let me tell ya, “sitting down” in the Bible is a picture of the believer resting in the finished and completed work of Jesus.  He has finished all the work on the cross on our behalf and is now seated at the right hand of God.  As it has all been accomplished on our behalf, this means that I can stop depending on myself efforts to earn and qualify for God’s blessings in our lives. I can sit down with Jesus at the Father’s right hand! YAHOO!  I had to see that I must stop depending on myself efforts to earn and qualify for God’s blessings in mine and my husband’s life.  I was wondering what is it that I have to do,   I was looking to mine and my husband’s efforts.  Thinking and beating myself up with what were we doing wrong.  Our Jesus has done it all for us at the cross.  All I need to do is receive what He has already done for me. I had to stop trusting in our ways our qualifications to bring the blessings of God to us.  All I have to do is ask and believe and I shall receive.  It does not matter what I have done or not done, it has all been done already by our precious Jesus.  Our God loves us and it is never too late to receive what He has for our lives.  We already have them. They were given to us over 2000 years ago.  I am not saying I do nothing what I am saying is God’s grace does not make us lazy and unproductive.  On the contrary, it makes us labor more abundantly for His glory.  God’s way is to bless us first, and the knowledge of His blessing gives us the power to labor more abundantly.  In other words, we do not labor to be blessed, but rather we have the power to labor because we are already blessed.  I was defeated because I was struggling to qualify myself for God’s blessings by my own works.  Self-effort was robbing me of reigning in life by His grace.  I cannot earn my salvation, or healing, or our financial breakthrough by my own efforts. I started thinking about this the greatest miracle – being saved from hell- comes by grace through faith, and not by works, how much more the lesser miracles, such as healing, prosperity and restoration. Jesus has accomplished everything on the cross for my husband and for me.  Our part is to trust in HIS PERFECT WORK, receive with open arms the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, and begin to reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. That night it became my prayer that I would stop trying to earn God’s grace and righteousness.   It is not by my works! I have to let the Holy Spirit teach me to start depending on Jesus’ finished work and to start receiving by His grace.  This is God’s effortless way to success, wholeness, and victorious living!.. It is freedom. This God of ours has done it all for us.  I never have to do anything again, oh but how my heart wants to become more like Him because of the gift of Grace that He has given to us.  I have become Grace conscience and not sin conscience, not works conscience.  What freedom this has brought to me..  Our God is so awesome.   This past few years have been a complete faith walk for us.  He our God has brought provision for school, rent, food, gas, socks, you name it.  All we have to do is ask and believe and we received.

Blessings,

Kathryn Hanson

CO-Director of CBC San Jose, CA