Believe Right!

Romans 3 tells us: 26 ″…and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. ” “Faith without works is dead" means that being in Christ (believing the above verse) without bearing much fruit (producing works of faith) is as impossible as jumping into the sea naked without getting wet. Christ says in John 15:5- 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." The Passion Translation puts it thus: “ I am the sprouting vine and you’re My branches. As you live in union with Me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from Me you are powerless.” Christ cannot lie. In union with Him, we who believe

Believer, Christ said to His disciples in John 16: 23 “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. 25 “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. 26 In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; 27 for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. 28 I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.” "In that day" is AFTER our Saviour's resurrection. And why did God raise Christ from the dead? See why in Romans 4:25- " who was delivered up because of our offences,

Believers, do you remember the story of Balak and Balaam and how the former hired the latter to curse the children of Israel? Balaam tried to curse them from three different locations but ended up blessing them according to God’s will instead. Check out part of what the Lord caused him to say at his second prophecy- 20 Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. 21 “He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, And the shout of a King is among them. God did not observe iniquity in Jacob nor did He see wickedness in Israel. But wait a minute. Look what Moses told the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 9:6-7 after Balaam failed in his bid to curse them and as they were about to cross the River Jordan into the Promised Land – “ 6 Therefore understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-

Believers in Christ, the power that saves and heals us is the same power that sets things right in our lives, causing us to live right, reign over death and do God's good pleasure. See Christ's counsel to us in John 6:43-46 (MSG) "Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over Me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent Me is in charge. He draws people to Me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End."" Consider "setting them on their feet." What does this mean? It has to do with the relationship that Christ the Good Shepherd has with we His sheep (all who have Christ as their righteousness and strength.) Did you know that whenever a sheep gets cast (falls on its back with all four legs in the air,) it can never right itself on its own? This is a picture of what happens to the believer (Christ's sheep) whenever we fall. The Shepherd puts