Beloved, I pray that you have been growing in the revelation of how much God loves you as you see all that Jesus has accomplished for you on the cross. The more you realize that it is a revelation of Jesus’ love for you and not your love for Jesus, the more you, your family, and your future will be filled with the fullness and riches of His grace.
Today’s Thought
Good things happen to me when I believe that God loves me!
Today’s Prayer
Father, thank You that even when I fail, You will still love, forgive, heal, and help me because of Your grace and the work of Jesus. Help me to comprehend the width and length and depth and height of the love of Jesus so that I may be filled with all of Your fullness. I believe that good things happen to me when I simply believe that You love me! Amen
.
In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him
.
1 J
OHN
4:9
How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings
.
P
SALM
36:7
Hear me, O L
ORD
, for Your lovingkindness is good; turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies
.
P
SALM
69:16
The L
ORD
has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”
J
EREMIAH
31:3
Today’s Scripture
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen
.
E
PHESIANS
3:20–21
Y
esterday, we saw that when we know the love of Christ, we will be filled with the fullness of God! That is amazing! But notice in today’s Scripture that Paul didn’t stop there. God becomes big in your life when you know His love. He will give you not just exceedingly, not just abundantly, but exceedingly abundantly above
all
you can ask or think! So when you know His love for you, you can
ask big
and
think big
, and God will still exceed all that you ask or think! It’s all about
His
love for you and me. Yet, there are people today who continue to boast in
their
love for God, believing that He would bless them in tandem with their good works.
In my own life, there were some things that I had been believing God for, but for years, nothing happened, until I realized just how much God loves me. When I realized how much He loves me, it was like all of a sudden, the floodgate of His blessings opened wide, and all kinds of good things started happening to me, in me, and around me.
One such occasion was when my daughter, Jessica, was about two years old, and she was suffering from a viral attack that the doctors could not remedy. She cried all day and night. I tried everything I knew. I was binding and loosing, I was confessing the Word of God, I was shouting, I was laying hands…all to no avail. And then the Lord brought me to Genesis 22, where God told Abraham to offer his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering to Him—a foreshadow of God sacrificing His own Son, Jesus.
As I read the passage, I realized just how much God loved me. He loved me so much that He did not withhold His Son, His only Son, the Son whom He loved, for me. I began to weep from a deep and intimate sense of God’s overwhelming love for me. At that moment, I felt His love all over me. And right there and then, my daughter stopped crying in the other room. From that point onward, she was completely healed! As I was experiencing a fresh revelation of His love for me, the miracle for my daughter happened!
Let me share another testimony with you. Bill, a brother from California, wrote to thank me for my teachings about our inheritance as God’s beloved children when we believe right. He shared that prior to his honeymoon in Cancun, rain and thunderstorms had been forecast for 80 to 90 percent of the duration of their trip. One morning during his quiet time with God, it occurred to him that because God loves him and his wife, he could pray to God to change the weather for their honeymoon, for surely this was no big deal for the God of the universe. So three days prior to their departure, he prayed just that.
This was Bill’s report: “The sun was shining with storm clouds in the far distance everywhere we went during our six-day honeymoon. The thunderstorms were spectacular but always at a distance. Rain only fell late at night after we had retired to bed. Even though fierce storms were predicted along the entire coastline, we woke up every morning to sunshine and freshly watered, beautiful nature. Some will scoff and call this a coincidence, and some simply won’t believe that God changed the weather for one of His own. But I believe that’s exactly what He did!”
Let me say this again: when you know His love for you, you can
ask big
and
think big
, and God will still exceed all that you ask or think! When you believe right, the floodgates of blessings open! Nothing is impossible when you believe right in the person of Jesus and in His love and goodness. Praise God!
Today’s Thought
When I know God’s love for me, I can ask big and think big, and God will still exceed all that I ask or think!
Today’s Prayer
Father, thank You that You give me not just exceedingly, not just abundantly, but exceedingly abundantly above all I can ask or think. Help me to keep growing in the revelation of Your love and to be bold to ask big and think big. I believe that You have amazing plans for my life and that nothing is impossible with You—because Jesus has paid the price for me to simply receive Your abundant and superabounding grace. Amen
.
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him
.
1 J
OHN
4:16
…we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!
R
OMANS
5:5
THE MESSAGE
…And let them say continually, “Let the L
ORD
be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.”
P
SALM
35:27
Today’s Scripture
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
M
ATTHEW
3:16–17
T
oday’s Scripture is for your benefit. God wants you to know that He has accepted you in Christ the Beloved (Eph. 1:6). Right now, as God is well pleased with His beloved Son, He is also well pleased with you because He has placed you in Christ. So just as Jesus is God’s beloved Son, in the Father’s eyes, you are also His beloved child. In fact, Jesus prayed to the Father that His disciples (that covers us also) would know that the way in which His Father loves Him is the same way in which His Father loves them (see John 17:23).
Immediately after Jesus was baptized, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. What did the devil say to Jesus? He said, “If You are the Son of God…” (Matt. 4:3). Notice that the devil craftily dropped the Father’s word, “beloved,” when he taunted Jesus to prove that He was the Son of God. He does the same thing with you today because
once you know that you are God’s beloved, whatever the devil wants to bring against you will fail
. People give their lives to sin when they feel rejected and unwanted. But when they know that they are God’s beloved, no temptation can succeed against them (see 1 John 2:15).
Now, look at Jesus’ reply to the devil: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” (Matt. 4:4). When Jesus referred to the “word that proceeds from the mouth of God,” He was referring to the
rhema
word or “now word.” What did God just say to Jesus before He entered the wilderness? He had said, “This is My
beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This is the word that we are to live by today as well!
Today, I encourage you to meditate on how you are God’s beloved through Jesus Christ. We are not to live by the Ten Commandments written and engraved on stones. There is no nourishment in the ministry of death and condemnation (2 Cor. 3:7–9). Jesus died on the cross so that we can be in Him, and live by the same word that proceeded from the mouth of God when He called Jesus His beloved.
How practical is this truth? Just see what happened to Jamie in Tennessee when she became “beloved-conscious.” Jamie’s graphic design business was failing, and she was thinking about folding it up and looking for a nine-to-five job when her mom gave her one of my books. Jamie said, “I hung on to every word and was ecstatic! My mindset about myself and, more importantly, how much God loves me through Jesus Christ, began to change. I began to believe and see that Jesus is my success and that it is not my career that makes me a success. Well, two months later I began to see my business turn around, slowly at first, but within a year, business was booming! I’ve been able to license my work and receive monthly royalty checks that I had never dreamed of receiving. This blessing is from the Lord, and I can’t thank Him enough for His love and favor.”
If you are struggling to overcome a fear, a disorder, or an addiction, close your eyes, see yourself in Christ, and hear your Father saying to you, “You are My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.” Every time you are consumed by worry, anger, or depression, hear your Father saying to you, “You are My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.” Would you believe that with all your heart today?
Today’s Thought
My Father sees me in Christ, His beloved Son, and in Christ I am His precious, beloved child, in whom He is well pleased
.
Today’s Prayer
Father, thank You that You have accepted me in Your beloved Son, Jesus, and that because I am in Jesus, I am Your precious, beloved child, in whom You are well pleased. I choose to be “beloved-conscious” and to listen to Your voice speaking Your love to me. Thank You, Father, for the peace, rest, and hope that Your Word brings today. There is no fear, no addiction, no worry, and no anxiety that can remain in the presence of Your great love. Amen
.
“I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
J
OHN
17:23
…to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved
.
E
PHESIANS
1:6
Today’s Scripture
Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the L
ORD
of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the L
ORD
will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you…”
1 S
AMUEL
17:45–46
B
eloved, start practicing God’s love for you and it will translate into victories in your daily life. I am sure you are familiar with the story of how a young shepherd boy named David came against an ugly bully of a giant named Goliath and defeated him. I want you to know that this can be your story and testimony too.
There are no insignificant details in the Bible. Even the names in the Bible carry secrets for our benefit. The name “Goliath” comes from the Hebrew root word,
galah
, which means “to exile.”
1
To be exiled is to be stripped of everything you are and everything you own. So Goliath’s name essentially means that he had been stripped of everything—an exile. What a name! Goliath is a picture of the devil as he really is—stripped of all his weapons against us because of the cross (see Col. 2:15). The name “David” on the other hand means “beloved.”
2
The battle in the valley of Elah was thus a battle between a beloved of God and a stripped exile.
Now, catch this revelation: it takes someone who knows that he is the beloved of God to bring down a giant! This is the secret of becoming a giant slayer! It doesn’t matter what your giant is today. It could be a marital problem or financial situation. Begin to see that you are God’s beloved and your giants will come tumbling down.