Eph3: 20 Now unto him that is able ( have power)to do( cause) exceeding (beyond, out of)abundantly (super abundant, more than enough)above(beyond, in behalf of) all( totality) that we ask(to desire) or think(right now, thought coming to mind), according ( motion down from higher to lower place, by virtue of)to the power that worketh( the energy of God’s Spirit at work within, the inworking of God producing an effect) in(intimate union) us,21 unto him be glory( exaltation of the source) in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
God can do for us far more than we could ever ask or think, according to His power that works in us. Referring to the Holy Spirit, It is the power within that creates the reality of all that God intends for us.
It is important for us to understand, in all respects the life that God has chosen for us revolves around fullness not measure.
John 1: 16And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
Everything connected with the Christ life, involves an experience of fullness. Permission has been granted for us to live an overflowing life. We need an overflowing mindset. We need an approach to problems that empowers our believing.
Rejoicing empowers faith, thanksgiving breeds confidence, confidence releases trust.
In the heart of everything in terms of our relationship with God, we will never step far away from rejoicing and thanksgiving as a lifestyle, as an expression of who we are and of who we believe God to be.
What would it take for us to develop an attitude, a personality, and a mindset based on fullness as a way of life? A poverty mindset will be dropping below that level of revelation of truth. A poverty spirit is not just about finances, it is not about being poor, it is about living with meager possibilities, it is about allowing yourself to think in a reduced way. In a way that reduces who you are and reduces who God is.
Life in the spirit is always about exploring majesty, exploring the sovereignty of God and who He is. We will find in our relationship to the Holy Spirit, in everything He is doing is geared to magnifying the Lord and the father; everything is geared to majesty, to sovereignty, to supremacy. And abundance is a part of that revelatory lifestyle.
We must attack measure and limitation wherever we find it, in ourselves and around us. We cannot tolerate it or put up with it, we must attack it. We attack a negative by focusing on a positive.
I believe! Help my unbelief. Set a guard against the negative. We do not get rid of a negative by engaging it. We displace it with a positive. Belief overpowers unbelief. I believe, help my unbelief. Grace and truth came with Jesus. Grace see’s ourselves as God see’s us, and the truth of that sets us free. The goal of the Holy Spirit is to introduce us to fullness as a revelation of Christ in us. As a lifestyle practice in relationship with the Father. To introduce us to fullness as the truth that sets us free to receive and to prosper.
Faith is not just an action on our part, it is actually a level for us to occupy. When we are introduced on that level, we have to learn the lessons on how to abide and grow in faith.
This is a really important principle, we do not work to enter God’s abundance, we are already in, because we are in Christ. We don’t work to enter in; we actually work to stay there. Our work is to abide, stay, dwell remain. We do not allow ourselves to be pushed out, pulled out by circumstances, by life, be events, by people. By the Holy Spirit we are working on our abiding, and He is helping us. We are partnering with the Holy Spirit in dwelling and remaining in Christ.
The situations where we learn to use faith are often the entry points to that level that God wants us to live on. Revelation therefore says that God has set aside problems and challenges for us to explore and discover this new level of fullness that He makes available. The entry point to that level is whatever our current problem, difficulty or challenge is, that is our doorway right there. And on the other side of that doorway is fullness and abundance. The problem is designed actually to enable us to succeed, to overcome, and to enable us to learn how to stand in something and believe who God is for us. So what level of faith are we on right now? How long have we been there? What have we learned? And what have we experienced about God? And is it time for an upgrade?
The thing that we have learned, and we are learning in a deeper way is that every revelation of God, maintains its authority and power through rejoicing. Every time that God shows us something more about Himself it is supposed to lead us into a deeper place of worship, rejoicing and thanksgiving.
Rom 8: 8But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Rom10:17 faith cometh by (motion out of) hearing (the act of hearing), and hearing by (the instrument, the cause) the word of God.
CELEBRATION
When we know God’s intention for us, we can choose to believe. When God has spoken, we must move into thanksgiving immediately. Don’t wait, when you hear the word of the Lord, get into some methodology that involves praise, thanksgiving, or rejoicing. Surround the word you have received with celebration.
Celebration is a lifestyle for us, it is not an option, it is an absolute necessity like water. We need it; we must never allow ourselves to get dehydrated. The thing about rejoicing is that it denies the possibility of doubt and unbelief. It builds a barrier to those things forming. It is easy for the enemy to touch us with doubt, because we are not living a celebratory lifestyle. We have no choice about thanksgiving and rejoicing we simply must do it. It is a command but it is also a promise behind it.
CONTINUOUS CONFESSION
Faith is fragile at first, it requires in the initial forming, when we are in a new situation and we are believing God for something, more of who He is, faith is fragile, it requires continuous confession. We don’t just confess the word of God just once. We keep on confessing it until it becomes an absolute stone-cold reality in our life.
The word of faith is in our mouth and in our heart. It is in our mouth right now and in our heart right now. It is the nature of God to believe, therefore if we are in Him, it is our nature to believe also.
The word of faith is in our mouth as a confession. Faith is something that we must speak back to the Lord. When we believe for something, it is important to tell the one person in “who art in heaven” that can bring it to pass in our life.
I totally believe in who you are, I believe in what you have said to me, I believe in who you are for me in my current circumstances. You said this; I believe it, which settles it.
When we mix rejoicing with faith it seriously strengthens our confession. Father, I thank you for your word towards me, I thank you for your promise towards me, I thank you for your heart towards me, I thank you for your intentions towards me at this point in time.
Rejoicing with confession is clear, it is articulate, it’s bold, it’s confident. There must be enthusiasm in our voice. Rejoicing is clear it is strong it is focused, it has breath, it has energy, it has power. When we mix rejoicing with faith, it seriously strengthens our stand before God in this particular situation.
Thanksgiving empowers our stand before God. We confess with our mouth and believe in our heart; we believe from our inner man of our heart, our spirit. Confess means to say the same thing as God says. When God speaks a yes to us, His permission becomes our confession.
You said Lord, you said this to me, your will is always in your Word. I am grateful for your intentionality towards me, you are not a liar.
Every time you speak everything you are, is in what you say. You had the pleasure of saying this to me; I now have the reciprocal pleasure of saying it back to you. We stand upon what God has said. Our request is authorized by our rejoicing.
Three times in this passage, it emphasis’s the power of the cooperation between our mouth and our heart in terms of attracting and using faith. What it says is that there is always a result. When we enter the partnership between our heart and our mouth, there will be a result of what God says.
The best way to confess is through rejoicing. The best way to believe is in thanksgiving. Confession attracts provision. Agreement releases power. Faith always gets a result.
JOY STRENGTHENS OUR FAITH
When the Father speaks to us, He releases His own personality through His words. These things I have spoken to you that my joy might be in you-John 15:11. Every time God speaks, He puts a smile on your face. His happiness goes out to us, and we are touched by it.
John 16:24 until now, you have asked nothing in my name, ask and you will receive so that your joy may be full. What is at stake here is not just getting a result in our situation, but our happiness now.
With God it is not just about resolving a problem, it is about bringing us into a deeper place of joy in who He is. Because that is how He travels, in the presence of the Lord there is fullness of Joy.
It is not just about, I will give you this because you ask, you must come into a deeper place of my laughter and happiness and my joy in you. We need to feel about ourselves, the way that God feels about us. Enter the joy of the Lord. God wants us always moving into that place of the happiness of God.
It is joy and rejoicing that attracts trust, confidence, and belief. They enable us to experience the glory of God, in the fullness of His heart towards us.
We are learning to live in that space in God’s heart that is absolutely, intentional towards us. Of all people on the face of the earth we are the most confident. I know in whom I believe, and I am confident that He can do all these things. We are a people who will never entertain doubt, or fear or unbelief. We have a lot more going for us than that.
Those things belong in the place of negativity, poverty spirit and measure. There is no place for doubt in our lives we are in this place where we are learning to be single minded about God.
We are not in two minds. We are not tossed around by the winds of circumstance or events. God’s plan is to take us to a level above our problem. To release us to a new dimension of presence where God’s believing can become ours. And that changes the way that we approach God. It changes the way that we approach life and people and circumstances.
Rejoicing comes out of beholding God’s joyfulness over us. The blessing of God on our life is that He makes his face shine towards us. This is a beautiful, poetic, creative way of saying that God loves to grin in our direction. He makes his face beam towards us. He lifts the light of His countenance, which is a fabulous way of describing a smile. God is so confident in His own heart towards us, in His own ability towards us, that He wants us to live every day under His smile.
God’s word creates faith, and rejoicing in it overcomes any negative that comes against faith. Joy lifts us out and away from a negative perspective because it is rooted in the nature of God.
Therefore, when we rejoice, we become partakers of His divine nature. Joy is an internal power that enables us to become transformed in our own thinking. If we think with happiness in our heart, we are going to have a way superior mindset than someone who thinks with negativity. We develop the mind of Christ through confession and believing.
A CERTAIN OUTCOME
1john 5: 14And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
When we know the will of God we enter a certainty of the outcome, even if we are not sure of the process. The key thing about faith is that faith speaks to the outcome. I believe this will happen; this will occur.
We may not know what the process is, but we can step out knowing that the outcome is guaranteed. The outcome is guaranteed, and I am walking towards it.
That means that if I am confessing the outcome and am rejoicing in who God is in terms of that outcome, I can start walking towards God knowing that the Holy Spirit will get me to my destination. We don’t have to understand the process; we don’t have to know the details.
I have an outcome therefore I know it is going to work and I can trust God to show me what that process is so that I can cooperate. But I am not waiting here for details for me to figure out how to walk in this thing. We just start walking towards the outcome.
When Jesus was walking on the water to the disciples in the boat, peter said if that is you Lord bid me to come, Jesus did not throw him a manual on how to walk on water in 12 easy lessons, He just said come. That was the level of His instruction.
You have the right to be where I am, you have permission, come. Peter stepped out because there was no risk involved, there is no risk for God, if Peter had maintained His look-his eyesight on Jesus there was no risk for Peter either.
It was only when he had taken his eyes off of Jesus and looked at everything around him that risk entered the picture. If we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus there is no risk, and rejoicing enforces that.
When we rejoice, when we get into a place of thanksgiving, we never think of something as a risk. It is so blinding obvious to us we get out there. And half of the time we are not even aware of the miracles until afterwards.
Then afterwards we think to ourselves, wow did I just do that. We are not aware of it in the moment, because our eyes are fixed on Jesus. He has this way of being so incredible to be involved with that we don’t see all the negative stuff around us. People around us are looking at us and thinking how on earth they can do that. But we are not aware of that, there is no risk. There is no risk when we are focused on God.
In our focus there is a divine connection where His life and power are flowing into us and moving and carrying us along.
It is when our eyes get off God that we suddenly realize the position that we are in, and it feels hazardous.
But when we are in rejoicing and thanksgiving and our eyes are fixed on Jesus it doesn’t feel dangerous it just feels ordinary. If feels normal, it doesn’t feel outrageous, it has none of this feeling attached to it whatsoever, it just feels ordinary, isn’t this normal? It is only afterwards we think; Lord did we just do that. It feels like the most normal thing in the world.
A mentor is in a place in Africa where they couldn’t produce food, so he asks the lord why we are here for such a time as this, He says I am going to give them water. It is about a day and a half west; take a bunch of guys with digging tools. Exactly where west-we’ll it is one step in front of the other, just walk until I tell you to stop.
When he heard God say that he immediately went into a place of rejoicing. Lord I am scared right now, so I don’t feel like celebrating but I want you to know that I am celebrating you, but I feel that I absolutely need to, He is so kind it really doesn’t matter to him as long as you do it.
So, he went into a place of worship, and he just started to speak the word of the Lord, the Lord says there is water west, so he steps out in faith and starts walking. It is not a risk to the Africans because they have nothing else to do.
And all that time he thinks I need to keep rejoicing right now, I need to keep thanksgiving, because thanksgiving and rejoicing is the only way of keeping our sanity inbound.
Right now, the enemy really wants to pull a number on us. Rejoicing is the only thing keeping negativity at bay. So, he set his heart to rejoice. They were so rejoicing that they forgot why they are out there. And the Lord has to say stop, they didn’t hear him for like a half an hour. So, he says you need to go back, and he says dig here, so they dug for a little over a day and find water. They were never more relieved about anything in their whole life. So, they send runners back and become euphoric.
But the whole couple of days taught him something about stepping out; it taught him the importance that if we are going to confess, we may as well rejoice. If we don’t rejoice our confession may not hold up.
So rejoicing is like self-preservation. It keeps fear out of our heart. Faith and fear are always in contention. Rejoicing keeps faith close and fear at bay. The issue here is to be certain of the outcome first in our heart. When we go to rejoice we want to know that what God has said to us, to walk a day and a half west, we wanted to be certain, and when we became certain in our heart, this is the word of the Lord, then I surrounded that certainty with thanksgiving and rejoicing, because now I have to protect it, I have to protect me. And then we are free to take part in the process and not be overcome by it. A day and a half is a long time to go with a bunch of people who have trusted in what you have said. We are following God and they are following us.
Many people want to know the process before they believe. God promises an outcome, therefore the journey that we take is where we learn thanksgiving and rejoicing, it is where we learn confession and belief, it is where we learn trust and peace. The outcome is always about faith. The process is about learning the level that God wants us to live on in this season. After this experience he went into a totally different dimension of life with God from that place.
Our current circumstances right now are not just about now. They are about what we are going to become next. The situation that we find ourselves in, the difficulty, the challenge to faith that we have right now is our doorway, it is our bridge into another dimension of life in the spirit. Sometimes there is more at stake than just the circumstances that we believe for. There is more on God’s agenda than just our current problem. Our circumstances are not just about situations being resolved, they are about us being changed in the process. The joyful confession of faith has a smile. We need to learn how to smile. Believing has a grin attached to it. If we are going to believe we may as well smile about it. We cannot say yes I believe with a frown on our face, or depression in our voice. No one believes that for a minute. Believing has a stance. The way we stand, the way we talk, people can see faith in our eyes. When we really believe we don’t care what anyone else thinks.
We are not just confessing God’s word back to Him; we are actually confessing His nature. We are confessing who He is to us. We are confessing what He is like. You are not a man that you should lie. You have never lied; you can only tell the truth. It is impossible for God to lie. We are confessing His nature; you are the truth. When we confess something back to God, we are confessing who He is.
MAINTAINING CONFIDENCE
Rejoicing, joy, and thanksgiving enable us to stay present to the moment with God. That enables our confidence to remain at a high level. We are responsible for our confidence not God. We are responsible for it, He has given us His word, so we need to be confident about that. Paul said I am confident in this very thing, he was right in your face about his confidence, he never left you in doubt about where he stood, he gave you eye contact. I am confident of this very thing, and then he names it. That He who began a good work in you, will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
When we confess and believe the outcome, we can be confident about the process. If we don’t believe in the outcome the process will totally outdo us.
The storm on the lake, Jesus told them the outcome. Let’s get in the boat and go to the other side. They didn’t believe in the outcome, so the process totally out did them. Looking daggers at Jesus how can he sleep at a time like this? The process is designed to both establish and increase faith through our confession and believing.
If we don’t know the will of God the key thing to do is to sit and listen for It, and we will discover the purpose of God. Prayer is finding out what God wants to do and then asking Him to do it. If we don’t know the will of God it is important to rejoice.
Rejoicing always sets us up for something. If we are confused, under attack, we rejoice. If life is difficult rejoice. If things are against us, rejoice. If we don’t know what the will of God is-rejoice. Rejoicing places, us before God in a way that we are likely to hear something incredible.
When we rejoice in the Lord, it sets us up to hear. Rejoicing releases our confidence so that we can stand before God. Rejoicing is an aid to listening. When we are in doubt, the best thing to do is to rejoice. We must learn how to make rejoicing an art form to us.
Rejoicing is not an option, we have no choice, it is a commandment. God commands us to do what He loves to do. He commands us because He loves us, like a father does A son or daughter whom He loves.
Rejoicing is totally essential like breathing. Always rejoice. When we haven’t got a clue what is going on-rejoice. We keep giving thanks until we become thanks. We are so filled with it that we radiate it, then it becomes second nature, becomes our true nature.
Thanksgiving has a way of clearing everything negative out of us, it has a cleansing affect, because it is a living word from God once we partake of the spirit of it.
Through thanksgiving a clear focus comes in, reality comes in. Rejoicing and thanksgiving open up our spiritual eyes. The obstruction between our heart and our mouth is removed.
When thanksgiving becomes written upon our heart, we no longer swear. We become so filled with the Spirit that only the spirit of God comes out of our mouth. When our heart is filled with thanksgiving and gratitude, we hear something and see something of God. Thanksgiving purifies our heart and the pure in heart see God. We begin to see what God is doing behind the scenes.
Something enters us when we rejoice. Faith comes alive inside when we rejoice. The joy of the Lord affects us. The joy of the Lord becomes addictive. And then we can listen to what the Lord is saying to us and write it out as a prayer and then we are praying with God and not towards Him.
Without rejoicing we are trying to find Gods will through prayer. But when we are rejoicing, we discover the will of God and then we are praying with Him. We are totally in a different league (a group with common interests and goals, a level of skill or performance).
Then when the Father gives us permission to receive something, we can write a psalm of thanksgiving. It is good to write down on paper exactly what we are being thankful for currently, particularly in a warfare situation we want to know exactly what we are thanking God for. Then we are going to speak out that thanksgiving just as powerfully as we would speak out any prayer we have written.
This is a psalm of David when he fled from Saul in the cave.
Psalm 57:1Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast. 2I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me. 3He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. 4My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
David is hiding out in the wilderness with a bunch of malcontents (discontented persons, somebody who is discontented or dissatisfied, especially somebody who seems continually or chronically discontented, rebel- somebody who opposes the established social or political system) some of the guys he can trust, at least a hundred of them, who are real warriors.
But there are a bunch of other guys traveling with him who would sell him for a hand full of shekels. He never knew if there was a spy in the camp or not.
They were moving around every single day, never sleeping in the same place twice, being pursued around the wilderness by a mega maniac, bent on his total destruction. He doesn’t know at times if there is anybody in his party that is going to slip away and tell Saul where he is hiding.
Then He gets into thanksgiving, begins to let his spirit move out towards God.
5Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth. 6They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah. 7My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise. 8Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.
Awaken the dawn= I will make enough noise to wake the whole camp up.
9I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations. 10For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. 11Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.
Destruction is against me; people are walking all over me. My soul is among lions. There are people breathing fire against me, their teeth are like spears and arrows, there tongue is a sharp sword. And then he launches into this psalm of rejoicing and thanksgiving.
In exaltation we refocus. This is what rejoicing is about, it enables us to re-focus on who God is and therefore on who we are, we are to become just like Him. And it is faith that comes into focus, confidence comes into focus, our believing rises up. This is how we attract believing and confession and faith. In this attitude we hear the voice of God, in which faith cometh.
It is really important, rejoicing is critical because it allows perceiving from a place inside His majesty (the title used to address or refer to a king, splendor- awesomely large size or great splendor, dignity- a deeply impressive, dignified quality, power- supreme authority and power).
Rejoicing gets us surrounded by who God is and our perception opens up. God inhabits the praises of His people, and in that atmosphere our spiritual eyes open up.
We are destined while we are here on earth to give praise from around the throne. Not just thanks from earth to heaven. This is the key thing about rejoicing; it lifts us out and away from being earth-bound, up into heavenly places. Places of rule and authority, the place of our inheritance, the place of absorbing His nature.
There can be times when we have given ourselves to thanksgiving; we lose sight of where we are-our natural surroundings. God has this way of elevating us in the spirit until it feels like we are around the throne; it feels like we are in some kind of ascended place.
Above the problem, above the attack, above what it is that would bring us down. And in that place of rejoicing, faith is attracted to us. Trust comes easy, it is impossible not to be confident.
We are destined to live an ascended lifestyle while we are here on earth. Rejoicing is part of that. Confession of faith is I believe you Lord! so I am going to rejoice in who you are. We give thanks, we learn, that whole practice brings us into a place, rejoicing brings us into a place of immediacy before the presence of God.
We do not have any choice about rejoicing. If we are going to get a Ph.D. in anything, it must be in giving thanks. In the spirit we must see that rejoicing is our breath. Without it we lose strength in our spirit. It is like water to us, without water there is no continued life. It is a matter of life and death.
We cannot fail in the matter of rejoicing; it is that important. It undergirds everything, it lifts us high. We must be continually filled with the Spirit, to find our high in God. To stay strong in the Lord and the power of His might, that we may increasingly grow in His nature.
We need to learn how to activate the word of God in our life. What permission do we have in this season with the Father? Is there a particular promise or prophecy for our life right now that we are living with or engaged in?
It is important that we bring our heart and our mouth into a place of thanks and rejoicing. That we confess and believe as an act of praise. We need to enter into songs of rejoicing. When we come to church, we must step out literally into a place of rejoicing. We don’t have to be brilliant at it, but we do have to be willing. We have to give ourselves to an act of rejoicing.
We focus on who God is. We wake up our inner man. This means we are going to be loud and intentional. It is important to wake up our inner person of the spirit. Our inner man is linked to our vocal cords. We need to let him out, we do not want our spirit to be clouded or imprisoned in our soul with no means of expression. It is important to let him out loud enough for our ears to hear. Our ears need to hear us confessing and rejoicing. This is not a moment for introspection; it is a moment for release. We need to put something out there.