Whenever anyone makes us a promise, and we trust them, we depend on it. When we receive a promise from someone, we qualify it according to the character and integrity of the one who spoke it.
When we believe in the word spoken, when we trust in the integrity of the speaker, then all fear and nervousness is expelled from our heart. Peace is elevated above worry and anxiety in our minds. Our heart becomes settled. Our hearts are fixed.
What is true in the natural is much truer in the Spirit. When the father speaks into our lives with a promise, all that he is becomes treasured in our response. He is righteous. He can only do what is right. He is truth. He can never lie, flatter, or deceive. He is holy, pure, and innocent, without sin and with no guile.
The promise, therefore, is guaranteed by the quality of his nature. When we know what God is like it is easy to believe him.
WHAT WE BELIVE ABOUT GOD
What we believe about God, how we think about him, what we trust about him-these are the most important issues we’ll ever face in life. All of our life, all of our spirituality, is derived from this foundation. On this rock, he builds his church and hell has no hope of prevailing against the beloved of God.
A promise from him is a cast iron guarantee. When a promise is given, the Holy Spirit is given with it. He becomes our tutor to school us in response to it in faith. A promise must be fully received before it can be entered into and realized in its fullness.
Firstly, the promise must be studied and fully understood. What is God’s saying? Are there any obvious conditions that need to be fulfilled? The Holy Spirit is given to us to establish us in God’s grace. Grace is the empowering presence of God to enable us to enjoy the process of development in us and ensure that necessary conditions are met. All personal promises are conditional, whether those conditions are implied or stated. We are all in Christ, learning to be Christ like, and loving the learning.
The promise does not automatically happen, the necessary character must be developed in our life, for the promise to come to pass.
INCREASING THE PRESENCE
Promises are given in order to increase the presence of God in our lives. Promises are relational. They enhance our fellowship with the Lord. They create opportunities for advancement. There is a quickening spirit attached to them; A righteous shortcut to transformation into an accelerated way of doing something great.
We have our normal lifestyle routines of walking in the spirit: thanksgiving, rejoicing, prayer, daily devotion, waiting on the Lord. The trust and the delightful influence of righteousness-empowered in the holiness of the Holy Spirit. We have the joy and peace in believing, and the beauty of unceasing, unfailing love that constantly elevates us to the status of being the beloved of God.
Into this walk with God, the father speaks a promise, a declaration of upgraded intention. A promise is like rolling a six in a board game, it increases momentum by creating a fresh opportunity for advancement.
When a promise comes, our normal routine is given a major boost, a shot of divine favor. Something tangible and explicit has been placed before us. Favor has been specifically expressed.
Now, the Holy Spirit, our in-dwelling resident genius, can school us into a response that propels us into the new place that has been set aside for us.
THE WONDER OF A PROMISE
We are learning that when a promise comes, all our immediate possibilities are wonderfully increased.
Grace and peace are never measured, but always multiplied to us. The father is lavish towards us in his pursuit of our fullness in Christ. Grace and peace bring us into a dynamic encounter with who Jesus really is for us. The father is absolutely delighted with the sacrifice of Jesus and all of the possibilities that are opened up for us to know him fully.
He puts us into Christ so that our learning to relate to him would always be joyful, wonderful, and peaceful. When we have seen Jesus, we have seen the father. They are fully one. When we know Jesus, we know the father.
In scripture, knowledge does not just come by study, but it comes by an experience of what we have discovered. If our study has not led us to practical encounters, then our mind will always overrule our spirit in matters of faith. Faith is a fruit of the Spirit.
Our knowing about Jesus only becomes relational transformation when he is made real in our experience. The father has put us into Christ so that his divine power, the grace imparted by the Holy Spirit could accelerate our growth into fullness. Everything that we will ever need to become like Christ has already been given to us.
We are learning the difference between knowledge and THE TRUTH (2 Peter 1: 3). Knowledge without experience retains our immaturity in the things that matter.
Just knowing a Scripture intellectually, results in a poor relationship with the Father. Theological understanding will always come second to a close walk with God-Acts 4: 5-14. Obedience to the will of God will always surpass academic theology-John 7: 14-17.
Theology without experience can never be TRUTH. It can be right. It can be accurate. However, if it does not release people into personal freedom and transformation, it is not the truth. It is merely true. The truth sets us free. It unlocks our prison, unshackles our chains, overcomes our oppression, and removes all accusations of the enemy.
The bible points to the one true God. Scripture is true because Jesus is the Truth-John 14: 6. The truth is a person, not a book. Knowing Jesus by experiencing and encounter will set us free to become like him. Any other form of knowing is just a verse we know by memory.
FREEDOM
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free-Galatians 5: 1. In that freedom we are put into the one place that guarantees that everything pertaining to life and godliness will be made available to us. We are put into Christ.
The true knowledge of that position in Christ, will lead us into practical experiences of the glory and the excellence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Man has fallen short of that glory, but it has been restored in the Messiah, as he is, so are we in this world-1 John 4: 17.
Into this context, all promises are released and fulfilled- 2 Peter 1: 4. All promises are given to empower us to become like Jesus. It is vital that we see promises as being both precious and magnificent. Unless we understand that promises are much more than assurances, we will not realize their true value.
A promise is a particular part of a whole covenant that comes to life to us. It carries all the weight of the father’s commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.
By putting us into Christ, the promise is made as much to Jesus as it is to us. That is why when Jesus (whoever lives to make intercession for us) prays before the throne, he is petitioning the father for the promise on our behalf. He is joyfully reminding his father that: when you said it to them, you said it to me and you promised it.
As we join with him in prayer, our hearts become aligned in obedience and cooperation. By these promises we become partakers of the divine nature. Adherence to the promise makes us like Jesus. Becoming like Jesus triggers the fulfillment of the promise.
ELEVATION OF RELATIONSHIP
Promises are God’s way of elevating our relationship with him. Being in Jesus is a state of exalted spirituality that makes our life become of inestimable value in the Kingdom. We are priceless. We are cherished. We are his beloved.
There is a bond between the father and the son that is glorious. We are included in that bond, in that oneness, in that place and that relationship. The bond between us and the father is made glorious by the Holy Spirit who makes us into the image of Jesus.
Our spirituality is not earthbound but heavenly. Promises exalt us to the place that God has set aside for us in Christ. They are guarantees of God’s intent. They release to us all the possibilities of becoming the men and women that God sees when he looks at us in Christ.