Sunday, May 19, 2024 – Apostle BILLEY
Ephesians 3:17
So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; so that being rooted and grounded in love…
What is the dwelling place of the Lord Jesus? Where is he supposed to live?
In our hearts.
It’s the spirit of man that we call the heart.
So Christ must dwell in us in his flesh? Is it the flesh that must dwell in me?
No, it’s his Word that must dwell in us.
Everything that comes from the mouth of Jesus is the Word. And the Word is Jesus.
So how do you receive Jesus? How do you start a relationship with him?
We don’t receive Jesus physically. He’s not even physically present.
Jesus is spirit – so it’s by receiving his Word that we receive him.
We have to be very careful how we listen to the Word. We mustn’t listen to the Word of Jesus like we listen to the news on TV or when we listen to our friends.
When it comes to the Word, we must be under God’s authority because whatever the Lord says produces life.
If we learn to receive God’s Word, then we will receive life.
So, if the Word enters you, something must happen.
How do we have faith?
Faith comes from hearing the Word of God.
Romans 10.17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
If Christ dwells in us so that we have faith, that means Christ is the Word.
Through the Word that we must let dwell in our hearts, we will have faith. And through this faith, we will be rooted and grounded in his love.
So how do we love God?
It’s by receiving his Word.
And even our thoughts must be subject to God’s Word.
2 corinthians 10.5
We overthrow reasonings and every loftiness that rises against the knowledge of God, and bring every captive thought to the obedience of Christ.
This means that my heart and my mind must be aligned – they must walk together.
Christ dwells in my heart which means the Word is in my heart and my thoughts must not do what they want, but bring them to obedience to God’s Word so we can be one.
So, since the Lord Jesus is in my heart, everything around me must submit to him.
Every Christian must make sure that his thoughts submit to Jesus – the Word.
What happens if it doesn’t?
The Christian will find himself in the situation of the prophet Elijah. In other words, if thoughts don’t submit to the Word, there will be conflict.
The heart desires something, but the thoughts say something else. This conflict does not allow the Christian to be victorious. It prevents us from being grounded in God’s Word.
It’s an internal conflict and we need to resolve it. And the Holy Spirit is there to help us.
The Lord says in:
Amos 3.3
Do two men walk together without agreement?
How does the heart want to love God, but the thoughts say something else?
This is a problem for many Christians. Thoughts are attacked.
What they do is not what they want to do.
So victory can easily be snatched away. They may make a resolution today and the next day drop it.
For thoughts have their own agenda, which is not God’s agenda. The man did it. So we can bring our thoughts back to the obedience of Christ.
We must accept Jesus Christ without trying to judge him by our thoughts.
Example: If the word comes and tells you: “Jesus is here”.
You have to receive this into your heart by aligning your thoughts so that they don’t go elsewhere.
It’s not a good idea to start thinking: If God is present, why can’t I see this or that? Why isn’t there such and such?
This leads to internal debate.
The fact that Jesus is present – whether you believe it or not – doesn’t cancel out God’s presence – it doesn’t change Jesus’ identity – Truth can’t change.
It is we who must change in order to accept the Truth that has existed since the beginning.
Jesus came to reveal to us God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is always there to help us know God the Father, the Son and himself the Holy Spirit.
For example, it’s the Holy – Spirit who convicts us of sin, if he doesn’t do that, we won’t know we’ve sinned – And, we’d go to hell.
All those who are not evolving in the Lord, their main problem is because of debates in the head.
They question God at every turn – with intentions to go against God, not forward.
We need to ask questions in order to move forward.
In 2 Corinthians 10.5 we read
...we bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
** So when you pray your thoughts must be aligned with the Word. That is, when you pray, you must be focused on prayer, on the presence of God.
The moment you take your mind off what you’re doing – whether you have your eyes closed or not – and start thinking about something else: your work, what you’re going to do next, what you’re going to eat, your laundry…
Seeing this, the Lord will say, you’re not serious, and your prayer is set aside until you decide to be really serious.
The spiritual world is very organized – you don’t mix flesh and spirit, carnal thoughts and spiritual thoughts.
When you’re with Jesus – stay with Him. Don’t spread yourself too thin.
** Beloved, blessed are you!
If you really accept this – you’ll feel freedom – your problems will be worthless.
When God speaks to us, we automatically become what he says.
There’s no debate – If you take the time, you’ll lose your mind.
Because the spiritual world is fast-moving.
Those who walk in the flesh can never succeed.
But those who walk by the spirit, that is, the spirit of the Word, leaning on the Rock, they will succeed.
What God says is the final signature – everything he takes from you that fully and quickly.
Don’t worry about whether there are enough signatures to reassure you. Don’t consult your mind, because human thinking is so slow.
The Word that comes from the mouth of God is the final point. No debate.
My brother – my sister – Walk in the spirit, not in the flesh.
As Christians, we don’t follow the Lord with our thoughts, but we must train our thoughts to receive the Word – in order to align with God’s Word.
If he doesn’t, this Christian will be weak.
1 Corinthians 6.
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
20 For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Our owner is Jesus. He’s the owner of the temple.
In a house, we have several rooms, including the main one.
The one in the master bedroom is the ruler of the house. That’s why Jesus has to be in the main room, the heart.
Suppose the thoughts are in another room, they don’t have to have their own program – their program has to come from the master Jesus.
Thus, the program of the Word must be applied to all the other residents in the other rooms of the house.
We receive the Word in our hearts, we think about it, we desire things in relation to it, we decide in relation to it…
Jesus is the owner of the temple, i.e. the body. For example – I can’t bring cigarettes into the temple, because Jesus doesn’t like cigarette smoke.
There is only one master, and that is Jesus, and he is in us through his Word. It is He who has set us free.
Remember that the Word is food. But when food enters you – you become one with it. So you become one with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – when the Word enters you.
So what must my thoughts be? What should my mindset be? How do you see me now?
All these answers will become your reality – your reality to operate. Since I have eaten the Word, I have become a child of God, I have become one with God, therefore I am strong, I am the glory of God…
All this becomes your reality, level by level…
Elijah said to Elisha –
If you see me
you will receive what you ask for – (a double portion)
2 Kings2.10 Elijah said: You ask a difficult thing. But if you see me while I’m being taken away from you, it will happen to you like this; if not, it won’t.
It’s important to see in the spirit, to listen and accept what God tells us with our heart.
** We are God’s temple and belong to Him.
Then we must see God in us, that is, in his temple which is our body.
And The Word/ the Lord is inside us – we are his dwelling place – so I speak to him in his temple – inside me.
So, to speak to God, we must do so from the heart.
And it’s important to learn to listen and speak from the heart to anyone, so that our thoughts are easily conditioned to listen to God.
LET US PRAY →