Today’s Thought
Because my sin debt has been settled, I can walk in all the benefits of Jesus’ finished work. Healing, being redeemed from destruction, and being crowned with loving-kindness are blessings that are mine today
.
Today’s Prayer
Father, thank You that because You have secured my perfect forgiveness in Jesus, my sin debt is paid, and You do not condemn me today. Thank You that because forgiveness is mine, healing for every part of my being is also mine, redemption from every evil thing is mine, and being crowned with loving-kindness and tender mercies is also mine. I believe that I have a blood-bought right to break free of all that holds me back from experiencing the abundant life that is found in Jesus. Amen
.
Praise the L
ORD
, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases
.
P
SALM
103:2–3
NIV
Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea
.
M
ICAH
7:18–19
NIV
Today’s Scripture
Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself
.
L
UKE
24:25–27
A
fter Jesus rose from the dead, He ministered comfort to two sad and discouraged disciples who were walking to a village called Emmaus. From the way they spoke, you could tell that they did not believe that Jesus would be resurrected. They said that they were hoping that it was Jesus who was going to redeem Israel, so they were utterly discouraged when He was crucified. They were also astonished when certain women of their company, who had gone to Jesus’ tomb, told them that they could not find His body.
In today’s Scripture, the two indictments that Jesus spoke to those disciples are the same ones He speaks to the body of Christ today. The first is that we are “foolish,” that is, we are suffering from ignorance and the lack of knowledge of and revelation from the Word of God. The second is that even when we do have knowledge of the Word, we are “slow of heart to believe.”
Now, our Lord Jesus is so loving that He would not just tell the disciples what their problem was without giving them the solution. So immediately, He began to expound the Scriptures. He started at Moses, which refers to the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), before moving on to the rest of the Old Testament, which would include the major and minor prophets. He expounded to them “the things concerning Himself” in every single book, showing them pictures of Himself throughout the Scriptures. What a tremendous time of Bible study it must have been!
This tells us that the Bible is all about Jesus. Jesus is in the Old Testament
concealed
and in the New Testament
revealed
. Jesus began to unveil to the disciples that He was the promised Seed in the Garden of Eden who would crush Satan’s head. He would have moved on to share about how each of the five Levitical offerings depicted different aspects of His one perfect work on the cross. He would have shared about the high priest and how the high priest’s garments spoke of Himself as our perfect representative before God. Jesus would even have unveiled Himself in all the typologies embedded in the Old Testament stories. There are no insignificant details in the Bible and everything in it is there to point to Jesus.
In expounding the Scriptures to the two disciples, I believe that Jesus showed us
how
we are to study the Bible today. He does not want us to read the Bible to find out what to do and what not to do. He wants us to study the Bible to see
Him
and all the things in the Scriptures concerning
Himself
. When you begin to see Jesus in every page of the Bible and to search out all the hidden gems and truths about Jesus, the Bible comes alive. Faith comes alive in your heart to strengthen your heart and to receive your breakthrough when you see your Savior and His saving grace toward His people.
Jesus’ solution for those who are “foolish” and “slow of heart to believe” is for them to study the Bible to see more of Him. At the end of the disciples’ journey, the Bible says that they said to one another, “Did not our heart
burn
within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32). My friend, when Jesus is unveiled in the Scriptures, our hearts will burn within us with the warmth of His love.
Whatever your need is today, whether it is physical, emotional, mental, social, or financial, your solution is found in a greater revelation of Jesus. When Jesus is unveiled in all His magnificence, the poor will experience provision, the weak will be made strong, and the sick will be healed. I pray that you will make it your priority to read the Word and hear preaching that unveils the beauty and grace of your Savior. Your life, finances, marriage, and your entire household will be blessed beyond measure.
Today’s Thought
Whatever my need is today, whether it is physical, emotional, mental, social, or financial, my solution is found in a greater revelation of Jesus
.
Today’s Prayer
Father, thank You for giving me Your Word to study and for showing me that it is all about seeing Jesus. Thank You that no matter what my need is today, whether it is physical, emotional, mental, social, or financial, my solution is found in a greater revelation of Jesus. I ask that the Holy Spirit will open my eyes to see Jesus in all His beauty, glory, and grace in the Scriptures. I believe that the more I see of Jesus’ love and grace for me, the more my life, finances, marriage, and my entire household will be blessed beyond measure. Amen
.
“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!”
J
OHN
5:39
NLT
They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”
L
UKE
24:32
NLT
Today’s Scripture
My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body
.
P
ROVERBS
4:20–22
NLT
I
want to begin this day by asking you this question: amid all the different things you hear clamoring for your attention every day, are you hearing messages that are full of the good news of Jesus? This is so important because it is the basis of your walking in peace of mind and heart, and life and healing in your body.
The true ministry of any new covenant Bible teacher or preacher is to unveil Jesus to you and qualify you by the blood of Jesus. He or she does not come to unveil your faults or bring your sins to remembrance to disqualify you from entering God’s presence and enjoying His blessings. That is what an old covenant preacher does. In the Old Testament, the widow of Zarephath said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance…?” (1 Kings 17:18).
The enemy, our accuser, wants you to be conscious of yourself and keeps telling you to look at your every wrong deed and thought. My friend, don’t play his game. Turn away from his accusations and from yourself, and see Jesus. God is not judging you today based on you. He has placed you
in Christ
, and He sees the excellence, beauty, and perfection of Jesus when He looks at you. The devil wants you self-conscious. God wants you Jesus-conscious. It is in your best interest to find out as much as you can about Jesus—who He is, His titles, His official glories, all that He possesses—because all that He is, God has set to your account. You are a joint heir to all that He has and all the inheritance that is due to Jesus is yours as well (see Rom. 8:17)!
The
law
is all about you looking at
yourself
. The new covenant of
grace
is all about you
seeing Jesus
. The Pharisees committed large portions of the Word of God to memory and yet they could not see the Word of God in the flesh, standing before them. We should not be interested in just accumulating Bible knowledge. We should be opening the Scriptures to see more of Jesus. Some people think that if they knew Hebrew and Greek, they would understand the Bible better. Well, the Pharisees knew Hebrew and that did nothing for them. What we need is for the Holy Spirit to unveil to us revelations and hidden gems about Jesus and His finished work.
Very often, when Jesus and His grace are not our focus, we find ourselves wandering in the desert of legalism and becoming discouraged and disillusioned with life as a believer. This was something Raymond, who lives in Australia, went through after becoming a believer when he was twelve. He was brought up believing that God would smite him if he did not keep the law perfectly. At the age of fifteen, he stopped going to church and reading the Bible as he felt that it was all too hard. But over the years, he never stopped believing that Jesus is the Son of God. At the age of fifty-four, Raymond kept a promise he made to his father to return to church. It was there that Raymond was introduced to my ministry, and this was his response to receiving the message of grace:
When I heard about what Jesus had accomplished for me at the cross, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. For the first time in my life, I felt so close to my Savior and all I could do was cry and say, “You are awesome, Jesus!” over and over again. I know that I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ through His perfect finished work on the cross and that as Jesus is in heaven, so am I in this world. So every time I go through a trial, I just ask myself, “Is Jesus defeated by this in heaven? No. Well, neither am I here on earth.”
I have learned to bring Jesus into every situation quickly so that I can rest in His unmerited and undeserved grace and love. Because God is with me, it does not matter what things look like in the natural as God is above all of it. I have learned to trust Jesus and tap into His love and wisdom daily. He is faithful and will NEVER leave me nor forsake me. I can truly say I have experienced the superabundance of God’s grace
.
I know now that God had never forgotten me even though I turned away from Him. God answered my dad’s prayer and now his entire family serves the Lord! Hallelujah, praise Jesus!
Beloved, your enjoying peace, joy, and victory in this life is all about seeing Jesus, because from Him comes every supply and provision—His grace, His love, His righteousness, and His forgiveness. Keep focusing on His grace and love for you and I promise you, your life will be transformed beyond your wildest imagination.
Today’s Thought
What I need is for the Holy Spirit to unveil to me revelations and hidden gems about Jesus and His finished work
.
Today’s Prayer
Father, thank You that for every one of my challenges, Jesus is my answer. I choose to turn away from myself and the enemy’s accusations and to focus on my beautiful Savior instead. As He is, risen and seated at Your right hand, so am I in this world, because You have placed me in Him. I ask that every day, the Holy Spirit will unveil to me revelations and hidden gems about who Jesus is—His titles, His official glories, and all that He possesses and has for me. I believe that as I grow in my revelation of Him, my life will be transformed beyond my wildest imagination! Amen
.
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
J
OHN
14:26
NASB
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God
.
R
OMANS
8:16
Today’s Scripture
“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.”
J
OHN
6:48–50
I
trust that you are excited to see Jesus in the Scriptures, so over the next few days, I want to take Old Testament Scriptures and unveil Jesus to you through the use of typology. If you are not familiar with the use of typology in interpreting the Scriptures, I hope the examples you will read here will give you a good understanding of it. The Bible says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter” (Prov. 25:2). God has hidden the mysteries of His beloved Son and His finished work throughout the Bible, and it is our glory as kings to search out all these things concerning Himself. Are you ready to see Jesus?