Tag Archives: Religion

The Soul’s Response to Righteousness

07 Monday Aug 2017

Posted by in America, Jerusalem, Nation, New Covenant, redemption, Sin, soul, Tracy Gatewood

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Jerusalem
Luke 19:41 – 44 AMP
“And as He approached, He saw the city, and He wept [audibly] over it. Exclaiming, Would that you had known personally, even at least in this your day, the things that make for peace (for freedom from all the distresses that are experienced as the result of sin and upon which your peace – your security, safety, prosperity, and happiness – depends)! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
For a time is coming upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank (with pointed stakes) about you and surround you and shut you in on every side.
And they will dash you down to the ground, you [Jerusalem] and your children within you; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, [all] because you did not come progressively to recognize and know and understand [from observation and experience] the time of your visitation [that is, when God was visiting you, the time in which God showed Himself gracious toward you and offered you salvation through Christ.]”

In this passage of scripture, Jesus grieved openly knowing what would be forthcoming for the people of Jerusalem. Despite what the people had personally witnessed, Jesus the Prince of Peace, Who had been presented to them as the living Son of God, would not be received into the hearts of the Jewish people.

What He knew for them: Know Jesus-Know Peace, No Jesus-No Peace

All Christians are commanded by God to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (PS122:6). The passage continues,”May they prosper who love you, May peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces”  To be a Christ-follower is to love and pray fervently, frequently for the entire nation of Israel. Although the peace of Jerusalem was not accomplished in Jesus’ earthly life, it has been left for us to cover His people in prayer and other means until His return. I fully believe that America’s first responsibility is to cover and protect Israel.

The following scripture describes the Peace that will come with God’s Reign:
Isaiah 32:15-18
“Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is valued as a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness will abide in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness will be peace [internal and external], and the result of righteousness will be quietness and confident trust forever. My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places.”

 We can experience His Peace Prior to His Reign Through the Understanding of  Righteousness. Righteousness means in right-standing with God and in conformity to His will and purposes. We cannot be righteous, or in right standing with God without understanding and accepting the working power of the blood of Jesus. The Blood is Heaven’s Clorox, its only cleansing agent.

It is impossible to work or perform our way into right-standing with God. Churches may teach that by watching our words, making our vessels (our bodies) more holy [yet holiness is important to God], or praying lengthy prayers every.single.day, or confessing sin can put us in right standing. This is erroneous. True righteousness welcomed by God comes by complete acknowledgement that His Son’s sacrifice fully achieved everything necessary to remove the dividing wall between God and You. This puts the focus (and responsibility) totally on Jesus for this achievement, one that no mortal could ever accomplish. To assume that one could actually be made righteous by a person’s own merits, clearly illustrates a lack of understanding of the magnitude of the Cross. This positioning creates ‘self-righteousness’ There may be nothing more noxious to God.

The Book of Romans could easily be named ‘the Book of Righteousness’, providing more information on this subject than any other chapter in the Bible. Romans 4:3 refers to Abraham, the Father of our Faith –
“For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.”

Have you ever exhibited ungodly behavior? Yes ____  No ____ Is it comforting to know that your behavior has already been justified by God through the blood of Jesus?  Yes_____ No _____Does this make you want to sin more? No ______  (of course not)

One cannot be justified by works – God imputes His righteousness ASIDE FROM OUR WORKS in exchange for our sin. This is called Grace – undeserved, unmerited favor which is freely given. We are only made righteous BY FAITH in Jesus and His sacrifice. His resurrection served as ratification for a New Covenant.  This is the only way pleasing to God. Does this soothe the soul (mind, will, emotions) bringing a quietness and a confident trust? (Isaiah 32:17).  That peace you may feel is the result of  Jesus’ righteousness and the acknowledgement, by resting in faith, that He (not you) has paid it all on your behalf.

Copyright 2017  All Rights Reserved Doorways of Grace ministries

Tracy Gatewood
#TheWriterWhomJesusLoves
Twitter: @TracyLGatewood
Facebook: Tracy Gatewood Writer Teacher

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Superman, Jesus, and the Justice of God

20 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Blood of Jesus, Bride of Christ, Christianity, Gospel of Grace, Grace, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Leadership, New Covenant, redemption, the Spirit, Tracy Gatewood, Tracy Gatewood Alabama

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DSCN2612-Jesus (2)
Man of Steel trailer  http://youtu.be/T6DJcgm3wNY?t=2s
Click the Trailer Link First

Psalm 91:17:  May the Favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands ~ yes, establish the work of our hands.

Superman (not his given name which was Star Trek-ish) was sent to Earth as an infant by his scientist father just before their home planet of Krypton was destroyed. His father’s remark upon releasing his son was, “My hopes and dreams travel with you.” The story recounts that the son was discovered and adopted by a Kansas farmer and his wife. They raised the child with the name, Clark Kent, who grew as a youth possessing good character and a strong moral compass. His parents began to feel that their child was the answer to society’s problems and that he was sent to them for a very special purpose. The young man aspired to something greater than his peers and much more than what society intended for him. Very early in life he began to display superhuman abilities, which upon reaching maturity, resolved to use for the benefit of humanity in the make believe American city of Metropolis. This bi-vocational crusader worked as a journalist for the Daily Planet, providing Clark a first hand view of crime scenes and a closer proximity for impromptu tussles with arch villain Lex Luthor. His compassion and love for people were evident to all. He possessed an underlying passion that made him known for Justice. Psalm 89:14  Righteousness and Justice are the foundation of God’s throne.

II Corinthians 3:2 No you yourselves are our letter of recommendation (our credentials), written in your hearts, to be known (perceived, recognized) and read by everybody. You show and make obvious that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, not written with ink but with (the) Spirit of (the) living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

For it is by and through an accepting Father when we accept His Son that we are loved with a depth and a height and a width we cannot fathom, an infinite love like the deepest ocean.  As those who know Jesus, we are individual testimonies for God; testimonies to His goodness and the message of His grace – a human sign and wonder for everyone in a sphere of influence or community to see as a flashpoint of light in a surrounding darkness. Imagine if you had that much influence over someone’s soul and spirit that everywhere they went they were a walking billboard for who you are and what you could do for them. You would wish to insure that they were seen as nothing less than Royalty, walking in favor and blessing, because after all ~ they represent your creation and your Kingdom.

Enter Jesus. In this great mystery, God Himself divested all of His glory and Godliness, and took on human form to be born of a woman.  The true Man of Steel fed 5000 with 5 small barley loaves and 2 fish (Mark 6:30-39), turned water into (alot of) wine (John 2:1-10), miraculously healed multitudes of suffering people and ratified an Eternal (permanent ) Covenant made between He and God by being resurrected from the dead (John 20:1-21). Try that one on Superman!  Although our beloved Super-hero had a strong moral compass, and a deep passion for justice, Superman could only save but could never be a Savior.  Jesus’ full power for us comes through His death, as He releases His Spirit to all that will believe and rest in Him. The truly powerful understand that His work is Finished and equally, that they have been made righteous ( meaning in right standing)  and holy in the sight of God through the blood of the Son. Everything given to Jesus by His loving Father has now been given to us. Remarkable.

Yep, there’s a new Sheriff in town, the Holy Spirit lives inside each one of us now. Our new moral compass is embedded with a direct line to the will of God, we need only to learn how to hear what He is saying.  God’s laws are now written on the soft tablets of our hearts by His Spirit, not on stone or paper. His peace and rest have been paid for, owned by us all along when we met Jesus. A peace and rest accessed confidently through the Holy Spirit’s power and the Finished work. This is a Grace (verb) gift and undeserved, unmerited favor (Amen, she says.)  We have inner justice that displays as radiance outwardly as we lean and rest all of our defenses on God’s promises to fight our battles and to make our crooked places straight. When we remain transfixed on Jesus (this takes some time and a new perspective) He smooth’s out the way. We look not to the left nor to the right, and give up our right to battle circumstances on our own, listening for direction,  understanding that what He will do for us is a better way than our own.

Luke 2:46-52 NAS Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. 48 When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.” 49 And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand the statement which He had made to them. 51 And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Our Father’s Houses serve as Embassies for His Kingdom; local churches, that are extensions of heaven on earth, and places of refuge for His “Ambassadors”.  Churches are protected places of common ground for renewal and refreshing, where people who live for Kingdom purposes are fed, tended and nurtured by Pastor-Shepherds that have been appointed and called by God. It is in our local churches where God’s Kingdom should truly live as we calibrate to Christ as our High Priest (read Hebrews) and Great Shepherd while understanding or learning to walk out our Kingdom purposes, and where we can be gently reminded of God’s promises as well as our authority in Christ Jesus.  We must each find our own  “embassy” of fellowship that best undergirds our Kingdom purposes and enables us to make His name Known.

Twitter:  TracyLGatewood
Wordpress Direct:  tracylgatewood.wordpress.com
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Forrest, Moses and the Mercies of God

08 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by in #HolySpirit, Blood of Jesus, Christianity, Emotions, Grace, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus, Blood of Jesus, New Covenant, redemption, Mercy, New Covenant, redemption, Sin, Tracy Gatewood Alabama, TracyLGatewood, Uncategorized

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Moses

FORREST GUMP TRAILER 3:12

FIRST please click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPIEn0M8su0


Psalm 5:12 AMP For you Lord, will bless the (uncompromisingly) righteous (him who is upright and in right standing with You); as with a shield You will surround him with goodwill (pleasure and favor).

Forrest Gump is a beloved movie character that stole hearts across America. Despite Forrest’s well below average IQ and slow speech, a flow of God’s mercy and compassion were evident in his life. He was blessed with a mother that worked diligently to give him a life of normalcy, he possessed extraordinary athleticism, and had a vast list of achievements; All American football star to war hero and as a Medal of Honor winner he even met two Presidents. Forrest also played on the winning National Championship Ping Pong team that traveled to China.

Forrest purchased a shrimp boat and asked Lieutenant Dan to go into business. When a Hurricane blew through Forrest’s south Alabama shrimping fields, every shrimp boat but his was destroyed, leaving the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company to net all the shrimp for their own gain. Following the death of his mother, Forrest chose to remain close to home, allowing Lieutenant Dan to run the business and invest their personal earnings, which Dan did in a “fruit company” called Apple Computers. Forrest became a multi-millionaire and given the ability to retire at an early age, all the while carrying an innocence about him that surrounded him like a shield. Favor is a shield.

Romans 9:15-20 AMP For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion (pity) on whom I will have compassion. So then God’s gift is not a question of human will and human effort, but of God’s mercy. (It depends not on one’s own willingness nor on his strenuous exertion as in running a race, but on God’s having mercy on him). For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, I have raised you up for this very purpose of displaying My power in dealing with you, so that My name may be proclaimed the whole world over.

In real life, God’s gifts are not bestowed to an individual due to intellect or performance. Although God may bestow a gift on a person because of character displayed during a season of difficulty, a person cannot intentionally earn His gifts through works – gifts are administered by the Holy Spirit and given out at His discretion. Holy Spirit gives each person spiritual gifts and abilities that no man can take away, and gifts God wants used for His glory and important Kingdom purposes. Moses, like Forrest, was slow of speech, but up in years yet was given a great mantle of responsibility by God. After hearing God speak through a burning bush that never really burned, he left armed with a wooden rod (Staff) and a discerning inner circle, charged with leading a few million people out of Egypt, no small feat. (Exodus 3:1-21)

Moses could have passed on the assignment but we know Moses today because he trusted in the nature of the One who made the request. Moses was given uncommon favor to accomplish an uncommon assignment which was not without its share, too, of uncommon hardship and difficulty. Mercy and compassion become highly valued attributes around hard and difficult times. We thank you Lord for your mercy.

It is the Holy Spirit that grants favor but it is God Himself, again in His enduring mercy and lovingkindness, that has set forth the principle of Grace by offering the life of His Son to complete the terms of an Eternal Covenant. Grace is both a Noun and a Verb. It is Grace that we can walk by faith in what Jesus has done and in close partnership with the Spirit to accomplish all that God desires for us. It is through Grace that God offers us a way around the sin conscious Law and the continual cycle of self-effort, self-consciousness and performance – a way that leads to death; death of relationships, spiritual death and even physical death. We cannot achieve through our own self effort being good enough to receive God’s gifts or even His mercy and compassion. If we could be good enough, there would have been no need for Jesus to die to redeem (buy us back) from Adam’s fall and sin.

When you accept Christ You are given as a Gift to Jesus From His Father. Isn’t that a beautiful revelation of the love that God has for each of us?

John 17:24 AMP  Father, I desire that they also whom You have entrusted to Me (as Your gift to Me) may be with Me where I am so that they may see My glory which You have given Me (Your love gift to Me): for You loved me before the Foundation of the world, O just and righteous Father, although the world has not known You and has failed to recognize You and has never acknowledged You, I have known You (continually): and these men know and understand that you have sent Me. I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your Self and I will continue to make (You) known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them (felt in their hearts) and I (Myself) may be in them.

Certainly we are all far more important to Jesus than a box of chocolates. Each one of us is a perfectly faceted jewel containing unique qualities fashioned by the hand of God, gifted and skilled for critical missions that only we can fulfill. We must only accept our mission knowing that the power of Christ lives within us and the mercy of God is with us to assist with our assigned task.

Twitter: @TracyLGatewood
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Author on Amazon: Doorways of Grace; My Uncommon Journey to Healing, Wholeness and Meeting Jesus
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Happy Independance Day

04 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by in Blood of Jesus, Bride of Christ, Christianity, Emotions, Grace, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus, Blood of Jesus, New Covenant, redemption, Sin, Tracy Gatewood, Tracy Gatewood Alabama, TracyLGatewood

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HEBREWS 8:10-12 AMP For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will imprint their laws upon their minds, even upon their innermost thoughts and understanding, and engrave them upon their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be My people. And it will nevermore be necessary for each one to teach his neighbor and his fellow citizen or each one his brother saying, Know (perceive, have knowledge of and get acquainted by experience with ) the Lord for all will know Me, from the smallest to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful and gracious toward their sins and I will remember their deeds no more.

The Lord is describing the New Covenant, and that we no longer must live with the aid of the Mosaic laws, but that He Himself has put in each of us an innate ability to know right from wrong, and that understanding will come through His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is imparted to us by Jesus Himself when we accept by faith that He is the Son of God and understand that His sacrifice was required to pay our sin debt. Equally important for us to note in this passage, not only are we being given the Holy Spirit but God’s statement that He will remember our sins no more. God has established a higher and better, and more fair approach for those that believe in Jesus. We are not to be sin-conscious, but filled by and with faith as righteous children of God, our righteousness paid for by Jesus Himself. Righteousness could mean Right Living – but like the Ten Commandments, we could never live right enough so we look again to Jesus who paid for our righteousness. Romans 1:17-19 AMP – For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live by faith. For God’s (holy) wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness make it inoperative. For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God Himself has shown it to them.
In other words, live by faith in the Gospel and stop your sinning because you know that you are doing it.

Colossians 2: 13-15 AMP And you who were dead in trespasses and in the un-circumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful, carnal nature), (God) brought to life together with (Christ) having (freely) forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This (note with its regulations, decrees and demands) He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to His cross. God disarmed the principalities and power that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, triumphing over them in Him and in it (the cross).

Most calling themselves Christians have a clear understanding that when Christ was crucified, that He paid for their sins. God being Holy and Perfect, can never look upon sin so He placed all of the sin of the entire world committed from its beginning to its end on His Son. Jesus took all of His Father’s wrath so that we would never be judged for our own sin. Colossians 2 refers to the nailing of laws to the cross of Jesus, because they were hostile to His people. These refer to the Laws of Moses. How could laws that seem so perfectly just be viewed as hostile to God’s people by God Himself? Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, Honor your Father and Your Mother, Do Not Murder, Do Not Commit Adultery, etc… you know them. Remember, the Holy Spirit wrote the bible and this is all in there. It is not the laws themselves that were hostile, but that for them to be fulfilled – ALL of them had to be adhered to perfectly for us to remain out of God’s judgment. This was an impossible exercise for His people to accomplish making these decrees and demands HOSTILE and also making His people SIN conscious rather than GRACE conscious. (Grace is undeserved, unmerited FAVOR)

And because God is God, He knew we would miss this one, and so planned from the very beginning in agreement with His Son (before the earth was formed in fact) that Jesus would return and walk out this agreement on earth that would complete a new, more perfect and everlasting covenant. This is the Gospel and the (very) Good News – because what Jesus gave us as the gift of grace, no man can boast. He freely gave up His life of His own volitional will (now if that’s not more grace, I do not know what is) to open the door so that all the blessings promised to Abraham, as his seed, are given to us.

Because God recognizes a legal system, His covenants can only be ratified through blood which always results in death. A person’s Last Will and Testament only becomes activated at the time of that person’s death, and the same with God’s New (and Final) Covenant for His people, which too became active at Christ’s death. His resurrection signified that the actual exchange at the cross took place proving to everyone that He had completed His assignment. After showing His disciples that He was ok and that His work was finished, He filled them with His Holy Spirit, giving them passion and momentum to forward what He had taught but now with holy, dunamis power. He then went back to Heaven, to hang out and rest next to His Daddy where He prays for us and mediates His covenant. His return to earth after his crucifixion demonstrated to all of the (now former) powers and principalities that previously ruled the earth that He had successfully completed the job of disarming them and He was now heading Home, but not before He released His Spirit which would give them an additional kick in the pants. There was no one ranking higher than Jesus, the sinless, blameless Son of God, that could pay for our iniquities; addictions, adultery, thefts, lies, envies, lusts, slanders, unforgiveness ….. you get the picture. It had to be Him – this was a very big job!!!

In recent months, I confess, that I have pondered the practice of churches offering their attendees the opportunity to “nail to the cross” their unforgiveness, shame, porn addictions and various other muck and weaknesses. I am now so grateful to understand that Jesus has already taken away all of this JUNK on His own body. A person nailing an iniquity to a cross in their own strength may not be truly aware of the magnitude and the complete truth of what Jesus has accomplished. “It is Finished!” – their acts do not count against them as sin. What we are left to manage is our own emotional condemnation; guilt, shame, or a weakness of will (unforgiveness) etc but God is not seeing any of these iniquities (iniquity means to go your own way) because He now sees all of us through the lens of the Blood of His Son. Jesus’ perpetual flow of blood never stops, constantly cleanses, purifies and even sanctifies those that belong to Him. Christ is in you, you are in Him and you are the righteousness of God through Jesus. If there was anything you could do in your own strength – even nailing your bad actions to a cross – then that act would be more transformational and more effective than Christ’s own sacrifice. Turn by faith to God and speak His promises to yourself ALOUD and thank Him and Jesus for what they did for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to cleanse you from unclean spirits and torment that plague your soul and body. You yourself are a One Stop Deliverance Shop! Jesus has already released us from oppression! Freedom is in the simple Gospel message – Jesus has paid it all. Believe and you can receive. Happy Independence Day!

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