Tuesday 20 October 2009

Receiving the Truth!

Praise be to God!

Since the Church has received Christ Jesus as Lord, God wants the Church to continue to live In Christ and be rooted, built up and established in Him (Col. 2:6). For the Church to realise the truth of her identity in Christ, she must have a conviction of the truth and realise the truth in order to demonstrate the truth. Only if the Church carries the conviction of being in Christ, will she rise up and be seated in the place of authority and power that she has received in Christ (Eph. 1:18-23; Col. 2:6 - 3:4)! Kingdom conviction is the faith that realises, reveals and releases the Truth. The Lord then showed us how the believer can receive Kingdom convictions. This is what He showed us:

Hear!
  • The believer needs to be exposed to the truth for it to influence him/her. Rom. 10:17

Receive!
  • The believer needs to receive the truth by first trusting it, even if s/he does not understand it.
  • To trust the truth is to submit to it.
  • To receive the truth is to be vulnerable and allow God's truth to do whatever He desires in one's life.
  • The believer must learn to receive the truth in His spirit before it is filtered by the natural mind.
  • Spiritual revelation of the truth is received in the spirit and then in the heart and mind. 1 Cor. 2:14

Search!
  • Once the truth is received, the believer needs to "search the scriptures" to ensure that there are two to three witnesses of the truth. Acts 17:11

Speak!
  • God created by speaking. Gen. 1:3; John 1:1-3
  • For Kingdom convictions to be formed or birthed in the believer, s/he must speak the truth over her life.
  • The believer's utterance has the power to create. Pr. 18:21

Dwell!
  • The believer must dwell on the truth and allow the truth to dwell in him/her. John 15:7; Ps. 119:11

Understand!
  • The believer must receive spiritual understanding of the truth for it to become a conviction that bears fruit. Mt. 13:11,23
  • The believer must depend on the Holy Spirit for spiritual understanding of the truth. John 16:12,13; 1 John 2:27

Apply!
  • If the believer has received the truth and understands the truth it will become a conviction that will determine his/her way of life (culture).
  • Convictions are only convictions when they affect the believer's lifestyle. Conviction without action is only an opinion!

We praise God for revealing His Truth to us so that Kingdom convictions are formed in our lives that determine our way of life to form Kingdom culture.

Quote of the week:

"The one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." Matthew 13:23

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