Beloved, if you are struggling with condemnation, fear, and sin, the power to overcome is found in knowing that you are the righteousness of God in Christ. When the Bible says, “Awake to righteousness, and sin not,” it means that the more you realize that you are indeed righteous in Christ, and that you are righteous apart from your works, the more you will be empowered to live righteously. Let the truth sink in and be set free by the knowledge that the Holy Spirit is your Helper, given by God to convict you of righteousness. You are the righteousness of God in Christ!
Today’s Thought
The more I awake to the fact that I am the righteousness of God in Christ, and that I am righteous apart from my works, the more I am empowered to live a life that brings glory to God
.
Today’s Prayer
Father, thank You that Your Word clearly calls me to awake to my righteousness in Christ. I ask that Your Holy Spirit would open my eyes to see everything Jesus has done for me at the cross and to be quick to believe Your Word. As I keep hearing about His grace and finished work, I believe that You will empower me to live a life that glorifies You and to be transformed beyond my wildest imagination. In the mighty name of Jesus, Amen
.
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness
.
R
OMANS
4:5
The righteous person faces many troubles, but the L
ORD
comes to the rescue each time
.
P
SALM
34:19
NLT
“…the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings…”
M
ALACHI
4:2
Today’s Scripture
“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.”
M
ATTHEW
12:35
M
ost of us think that if we could just change our circumstances, we could have the lives we want. However, today’s Scripture shows us that that is not what Jesus said. Do you see from His words that your life today is a reflection of what has been hidden and carried in your heart all this time? If you don’t want your life to remain the same, the solution is not in changing your circumstances. It is in changing your heart, changing what you believe. My friend, for every area of weakness, failure, or defeat that you may be experiencing right now, I assure you that there is some wrong believing in that area. Search the Scriptures for the truth. Your answer lies in right believing.
Now, commit this to memory:
right believing always leads to right living!
Say it out loud for this is a powerful revelation you cannot afford to miss.
Let me share with you a powerful testimony of a precious brother in my church who struggled with a smoking habit. He had been smoking for many years and went through at least one pack of cigarettes a day. Besides feeling lousy every time he smoked, he felt condemned and constantly heard the voice of the accuser bombarding him with accusations:
How can you call yourself a Christian? Look at you—you are still a smoker!
Give up, you hypocrite! You are not worthy to be a Christian
.
The more he heard the accusations, the more he smoked. Though he tried to muster all his willpower to overcome this destructive habit, he just could not do it. He knew that his body was a temple of God, and he sincerely wanted to glorify the Lord, but there was no power to do so.
Then, he heard me preach on how the Holy Spirit is present in him to convict him of
righteousness
, and how the more he believed that he was righteous because of Jesus Christ, the more his behavior would line up with what he believed. So he began to confess this daily: “I am the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ,” even when he succumbed to the temptation and lit up. Every day, he would wake up, stare at himself in the mirror, and say, “I see a righteous man standing in front of me.”
This brother really believed that he was righteous, not because of what he did, but because of what Jesus has done. And the more he believed that he was the righteousness of God in Christ, the more his nicotine addiction faded. He began to have a supernatural strength to cut down his daily tobacco intake within a short span of time. He began to replace the voice of the accuser that called him a hypocrite with the voice of the Holy Spirit that declared, “You are righteous in God’s eyes. God sees you as righteous as Jesus Christ today.” The voice of the Holy Spirit became louder and louder until he finally heard only His voice, and one day he woke up and realized that the desire for cigarettes was no longer there! Hallelujah!
Can you see?
Deliverance from destructive habits comes simply by believing the voice of the Holy Spirit and seeing yourself as the righteousness of God in Christ every day
. Just being faithful in believing and confessing, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ,” will cause a power to be released in your life that overcomes the bondage to cigarettes, pornography, alcohol, drugs, or gambling. Today is the day that the Lord will set you free from every lie, guilt, and condemnation that the accuser has been bombarding you with.
Please pray today’s prayer with me right now. Let’s silence the voice of the accuser and allow Jesus to set you free to reign, my friend!
Today’s Thought
Deliverance from destructive habits comes simply by believing the voice of the Holy Spirit and seeing myself as the righteousness of God in Christ every day
.
Today’s Prayer
Lord Jesus, I thank You for the cross. I thank You that when You died for me, Your blood cleansed me from all my unrighteousness and the sins of my entire life. You are my Lord and Savior. I give You all my addictions today. I am sick and tired of being defeated and condemned by the accuser. Today, I confess that because of Your blood, I am right now the righteousness of God. By the supernatural strength and power of the Holy Spirit who is present to convict me of my righteousness, I will be reminded every day that I am the righteousness of God through You. Amen!
… Those who are righteous will be long remembered. They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the L
ORD
to care for them. They are confident and fearless and can face their foes triumphantly
.
P
SALM
112:6–8
NLT
…he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy…
T
ITUS
3:5
NIV
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the L
ORD
, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green
.
P
SALM
92:12–14
NIV
Today’s Scripture
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
.
R
OMANS
8:1
NASB
I
don’t know about you, but when I read the Bible, I feel encouraged that the apostle Paul—the trailblazing apostle of grace that he was—faced the same struggles with the flesh and with condemnation that you and I face today. Who among us cannot totally identify with his frustrated cry of “…the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice… O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:19, 24). When Paul was struggling under the law, he was condemned again and again (you can read Paul’s account of his struggle in Romans 7).
But thank God, Paul does not stop there. He goes on to show us in today’s Scripture that we can counter the accuser’s attacks because there is
now no condemnation
for those who are
in Christ Jesus!
That is it, my friend—even when there is sin, there is
now no condemnation
for those in Christ Jesus,
period
. There are no conditions and no prerequisites. Jesus has already been condemned for all our sins. It’s all about His finished work and none of man’s efforts. He Himself is
the
answer to Paul’s cry for help. Hallelujah!
When the accuser comes to condemn you for all your faults, declare yourself righteous because of what Jesus has done and because His blood cleanses you continually. Remind yourself that the Holy Spirit was sent to convict you of your righteousness apart from works. The declaration is true every moment, every day. It is true in the morning. It is true in the night. And when tomorrow comes, it is still true. There is presently, continuously, no condemnation for you because you are in Christ!
Here’s how liberating God’s grace is. A brother named Jeff wrote and told me of how he had been severely depressed for almost ten months, and became so introspective and self-conscious that he had anxiety attacks. He focused on his actions and failures and allowed his condemning thoughts to define his identity and sense of worth. Hungry and desperate for answers from the Lord, he read the Bible and many books on theology, listened to sermons by various preachers, and researched Bible topics online. Yet, when he tried to apply all this knowledge to his life, none of it worked. He still felt depressed, defeated, and worthless.
Then, he discovered the gospel of grace through one of my books, and this is what he experienced:
Pastor Prince, the huge burden of trying to live up to the law for almost a decade, and which led to my depression, was finally lifted! I was already a Christian, but I was only set free after I discovered the true meaning of grace and being saved. It was such a simple shift in perspective that I can’t believe I didn’t know this before! It’s not our ability to obey in our thoughts, but it’s Christ’s obedience
.
Because I now know that I’m righteous in Christ and that God no longer condemns me because of Jesus, I have no more fears as my focus is now on Him and not me! I am now even more confident and joyful than I was before the depression had even started!
Beloved, what will give you the boldness to go to God is the knowledge that today, He is ever gracious and He sees you completely righteous. What will cause you to go boldly before His throne of grace is the knowledge that He will never condemn you because you are
in
Jesus Christ! Praise be to God, there is therefore now—presently and continuously—
no condemnation
for those who are in Christ. This is the Word of God for you today!
Today’s Thought
There is presently, continuously, no condemnation for me because I am in Christ!
Today’s Prayer
Father, thank You that Jesus took all my condemnation at the cross so that I can freely receive Your gift of no condemnation and undeserved favor, and be empowered to sin no more. You are so worthy of my worship, and Your salvation is so much greater and more wonderful than what I can ever imagine. I believe that no matter what happens, no matter what I’ve done, You do not condemn me because I am in Christ Jesus. I thank You that because I am righteous in Your sight through Christ, You always hear me when I pray. Amen
.
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
J
OHN
3:18
…I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith
.
P
HILIPPIANS
3:9
NLT
Today’s Scripture
“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.”
L
UKE
15:20–24
D
o you want to see how your heavenly Father responds when you have failed? Then I encourage you to read the entire parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11–32. Better yet, if you are feeling stressed and worried about something, take time to pull away from life’s hustle and bustle and simply meditate on Jesus’ words in this story and let His message to you soak in.