Jesus Is Praying For You In Heaven
Jesus is praying for you. That’s part of his role as the High Priest over the new and better covenant. At this very moment, he is at the Father's right hand, interceding for you. What do you think he is praying?
We know this, he is not perpetually making offerings and sacrifices for your sin as the priests did under the former covenant. He doesn’t have to because his body and blood were a sufficient one-time offering for all sin. You can rest assured that you are forgiven in Christ.
The author of Hebrews does a masterful job of describing Christ’s role as the High Priest of Heaven. Hebrews is multi-faceted, but one of the major themes is the priesthood of Jesus. Walk with me through the passages in Hebrews that cover this fascinating topic. Hebrews covers a lot of ground, I am going to address the passages related to Christ’s new high priest position.
Jesus Descended Into Hades
What happened once Jesus died on the cross? Some say he went straight to the Father. Some say he went into Hades as a conquering king to defeat the devil. But there’s a much more profound truth. Jesus passed into the grave to suffer your death. His faith eventually overcame death, hades, and the enemy as God prepared to rescue him from the pit.
Jesus Died In Your Place
God didn’t unjustly punish Jesus instead of us, something much deeper happened. God performed the opposite transaction in Jesus that he does in us.
In him, we die to sin and are made alive, but when Jesus was made like us, he died as us. He was a man in all ways like we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15), but God changed that on the cross. He made Jesus a sinner by nature. Jesus never sinned, but God made him to be sin. If he didn’t, God would be unjust in punishing our sin in Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:21 God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
God didn’t symbolically place our sin on Jesus like an Old Covenant lamb. He quite literally made Jesus to BE sin to the core.
Spiritual Mindfulness
How do you become spiritually minded? Fill your mind with thoughts that are true about spiritual realities. For example, when you are feeling sad, you can begin to meditate on the idea that the joy of the Lord is your strength. Once that becomes a reality in your heart, your experience will change, and joy will replace sadness.
There is plenty of instruction in scripture on what and how to think. In any situation you face in life, there is a promise related to your spiritual existence. The external status may not change, but your inner man and the state of your life don't have to be swayed by those external circumstances.
It's not just positive thinking; it's about changing your thoughts and feelings to match what God says is possible, rather than embracing the physical circumstance. As you hold God's promise, specifically his Word concerning that promise, it can and will manifest into your life.
The Word of God is alive. The Word of God planted in a believing heart can and will produce joy, peace, healing, righteousness, transformation, and any other aspect of abundant life that Jesus died for you to have.
You Can Touch God and Draw on His Power
God's Ways Are Higher Than Ours But He Reveals Them To Us
People misquote passages like “God’s ways are higher than our ways,” as a justification to be confused about God’s will. The fact is, if you are a Christian, God’s Spirit lives in you and is teaching you God’s ways. He even gave us a book to renew our minds so we would know his ways and be able to teach others his ways. Join us today as we discuss how to know God’s ways.
Stop Judging Yourself For Not Doing Enough
Jesus calls his followers salt of the earth and light of the world. Salt brings flavor, or fulfillment, and light brings clarity, or revelation. We are quite simply part of God’s story, life is not about us, it’s about him. We, as his followers, are to help people find fulfillment and enlightenment in him. Our only strategy is walking in love and communicating the Gospel. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. To be salt and light, we illuminate the Gospel so it can help people come out of the darkness and into his light.
Love Is A Lifestyle
Your life is not your own for you were bought with a price. When we hear these statements we can slip into a performance mindset. Yes, we do need to lay our lives down for the sake of the Gospel, but it's a natural process as we lead with love. Love is the greatest attraction to Jesus, it's our strategy. Love will win the world.
Don't Confuse Letting Yourself Down with Letting God Down
In our discipleship group, someone asked this question.
I tried fasting for a week and after 72 hours , I broke it . I feel super guilty about it . How do I deal with this guilt and not think God is mad at me?
This was my answer…
You let yourself down, but you didn't let God down. When we don't reach our goals and disappoint ourselves, we have to process that and make choices to trust ourselves going forward. But God's not upset with you.
As far as fasting, it's a good exercise when we've become dull of hearing or hard-hearted toward God. It quiets our carnal bodies and desires and allows our spiritual senses to take a front seat, so you can remember who you already are in Christ.