Daily Devotional: No Matter What, You Can Win

Hello devil! That’s what Christ said to Judas when he showed up to betray him. Jesus knew His purpose, His destiny and that made even his attackers his friends (Matthew 26:50).
 
There is no way we can be in a, “Hello Friend,” state of mind without being in a relationship with Jesus. I don’t mean a relationship of convenience — when it serves us or when we need a tow. A relationship of convenience does not create trust, it creates a giver and a taker — with only one doing the taking. We want so much more from Jesus.
 
Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). Jesus was rolling with God and his swagger came from his knowing that if God said it, you could take it to the bank. Is that the relationship you want with Jesus?  The kind of power that cannot be shook, the kind of peace that tells storms to hush, the kind of confidence that you can look at your Judas and say, “Hello Friend, do what you came to do?”
 
I figured out that the relationship that most of us want with Jesus is based on what we want for ourselves, what we want out of life and whether or not we want to live life with little assurance or a lot of assurance. Whether or not we want to have a little power or a lot of power. This is all personal but that’s why relationship with Jesus is personal.
 
Put This In Your Spirit: “Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me” (John 15:4).
 
The fruit that Christ is talking about is the fruit of the spirit, “…love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22). What in the heck does fruit have to do with how we act, react or respond to life?
 
Fruit are the Holy Spirit’s personality, qualities and power. Not just the fruit but the fact that without being plugged into Jesus, we cannot bear fruit. In case anybody thought being plugged into Jesus was just about bearing fruit, it’s not. It’s really not ya’ll.
 
Did you know that we cannot even resist the devil without abiding in Jesus — we don’t have the power or authority to rebuke the devil. The bible actually says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). The devil does not obey us, the devil obeys God. The devil will not flee from us unless we’re plugged in — “Submitted to God.” But wait, there’s more.
 
We don’t even have the ability to expect to receive an answer from God for a need or a want without being connected. The bible actually said, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you wish, and to you it will come to pass” (John 15:7). I don’t want to sound preachy but it sounds like God is saying, “If you’re not into Jesus, you’re going to be into some problems.” We cannot bear fruit, we cannot resist the enemy and we cannot even ask God for anything with honest expectation unless we’re abiding in or connected to the vine: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:16).
 
Can you imagine being disconnected, lightly attached or having a shallow relationship with Jesus and relying on the full power of the fruit? Our ability to stay in peace even while we’re in pieces comes from the fruit of self-control. Without self-control we’re emotionally driven — without brakes. We cannot have self-control without Joy – trust in God that no matter what, you win. Without joy it is impossible to have peace. Jesus is saying, “If you want all of me, that’s great, I want all of you too.”
 
Let’s say you didn’t have a relationship or history with someone and they were supposed to pick you up after work. When you get off, they’re not there. Because you don’t know them, would confidence in them showing up be high or low? Maybe you’re just trusting like that and it wouldn’t bother you. Would your confidence go up or down as time passed — not knowing what’s going on? After even an hour and no call, would you bet your life on them coming or would you start making other plans? Doesn’t your lack of experience/intimate knowledge of them influence your thoughts — negatively? Could you honestly be confident that somebody will show up who you don’t know well enough to testify about their character?
 
When we don’t have a real, worked-for relationship with Jesus, we do the same thing. Emotions will make other plans whenever conflict happens. Jesus is saying — “If you want confidence in me, you have to know me, trust me, go through some stuff with me and see that I am not a man that I should lie (Numbers 23:19)
 
Can you imagine the difference in our response to life’s encounters, struggles, mess, drama, trials and tests with a fought-for, struggled-for relationship with Jesus? Maybe you can see why we go to pieces when life temporarily goes against us. If a door closed, a bad relationship ended, a delay occurred, a lack occurred, a test occurred, a hurt occurred, a rejection occurred or a loss occurred, would it break you if you knew for sure that because of your relationship with Jesus, “God’s going to work it together for your good?” (Romans 8:28)?
 
If we really want stability, power and control in an unstable world, we’re really saying we want a deep relationship with Jesus. If we want to heal, control our anger, rely on confidence for strength, get past the past or whatever we cannot do on our own, we’re really saying, I want a deeper relationship with Jesus.
 
We talk a lot about, “Connecting with Jesus, being in the vine and abiding,” but without practical steps, without repeatable steps, without steps to practice, it’s like telling somebody to go fly like the birds — without instructions. No matter how long we’ve been in a relationship with Jesus, flying like the birds or walking on water is not easy – every new level comes with new flying lessons for new challenges. Nobody will become a flying expert, just more confident about flying.
 
Whether you are an experienced flyer or a beginner, there are three things that you can consider doing everyday to develop, cultivate and stay woke in your relationship with Jesus:
 
  • Commit at least 5 scriptures to your memory that you will meditate on and repeat daily — it’s best if you do this as early as you can before your day starts — but your time is the right time if your mind is clear. These are meditation scriptures, that means that they are reciprocal — promises tell us why God loves us, obedience or faithfulness tells us how we love God.  They can change, they can be added to but these scriptures represent your worship, your daily meditation and devotion. If we can go to the gym and do whatever else we want to do every day, we can set aside 15-20 minutes to seriously focus on why we love Jesus.
 
  • Self-correct or stay woke. Just like meditating on and worshiping Jesus takes practice, so does negativity, discouragement, doubt, fear and unhappiness. You have to work at being unhappy by meditating on and agreeing with thoughts and beliefs that completely contradict your truth. In other words, be your own mouth police. Correct and replace negative words. Don’t just say, “My bad Jesus,” practice replacing every negative with a positive — negative words, negative thoughts and negative behavior. Fix it, apologize for it, replace it — practice speed, the faster you fix it the more you begin to be conscious of it.
 
  • Continuously work on God’s plans for your life — including serving and fellowship with the body. No matter what anybody says, every church is not for everybody but everybody who desires to abide in Jesus, will attend a powerhouse church that ministers to the whole person for whole victory. Followers of Jesus are not built to walk, sharpen, build up and serve alone. Develop goals, life plans, fun and new discoveries, and relationship goals that grow you, stretch you beyond your comfort zone and support a positive life.
 
A full life, loving relationship, serving God, positive attitude and a destiny mindset makes it difficult for the enemy to break us down or keep us down at will. The enemy should have to fight for your attention.  Our ability to say, “Hello devil,” and know that no matter what we win, is based on what our worship with Jesus looks like. Desire a “Hello spirit,” that Jesus swagger, it will change your perspective, your mindset and your expectations for every area and aspect of your life.
 
Share and be blessed.
 
 
 
San Leandro, CA
 
Got Fruit? Is a powerful, practical short free eBook that will change the way you look at fruit.  You owe it to your destiny to become your own fruit inspector.
 
 
 

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