GOSPEL CORNER : TODAY, TURN YOUR EYES AWAY FROM YOURSELF AND STOP THE SELF-INTROSPECTION! LOOK TO JESUS, THE LAMB OF GOD, AND SEE HIS PERFECTION AS YOUR PERFECTION. 

27/01/24

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
TODAY’S WORD

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
“When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.”
Isaiah 43:2, NLT

FIRE
California’s magnificent sequoia trees can stand over three hundred feet tall and live over two thousand years. What’s significant is that the sequoia cones are full of seeds that are locked up inside. Fire dries out the cones, enabling them to crack open and deposit their seeds on the forest floor. Then the seeds are able to germinate and become what they were created to be. The fire is necessary for new growth.

In a similar way, there are seeds that are locked up in you—seeds of favor, greatness, and purpose. The only way they’ll come out is through fire—the business slows, a friend walks away, the medical report isn’t good. It’s easy to get discouraged, but God won’t allow a difficulty unless He has a purpose for it. There is potential locked up in you, gifts and talents that you won’t discover without going through times of adversity when it’s uncomfortable and you don’t understand. The fire is a part of God’s plan so you can become everything you were created to be.

A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You for Your promise to be with me through life’s fires. I know that You’re here with me now, and I invite You into every challenging situation in my life. I believe that You are using the fire to unlock gifts and talents in my life so I can become what You created me to be. In Jesus’ Name, Amen

SECTION TWO

I encourage you to start every new day with this thought: “God loves me and gave His only Son for me. Jesus is all for me today. I am saved, healed, favored, righteous, and accepted in Christ the Beloved.”

Start your day by occupying your mind with Jesus. For a season in my life, before I even got out of bed, I would repeat to myself over and over again, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ.”

Some mornings I would say it more than fifty times. I wanted it to be a revelation pulsating in my heart, an unshakable belief that God is for me and with me. When you occupy your mind with Jesus, every struggle, fear, and bondage that you are entangled with will lose its evil grasp on you!

There is a beautiful picture of Jesus hidden in the Old Testament. Under the old covenant of the law, those who sinned were told to bring a sheep that was without blemish, wrinkle, or spot to the priest. The priest does not examine the person to see if he is perfect (without sin), because he has sinned. So the priest examines the sheep.

If the sheep is indeed perfect, the person who has sinned lays his hands on the sheep in an act of transferring his sins to the innocent sheep. At the same time, the innocence and perfection of the sheep are transferred to the person.

The sheep is then killed, and the person leaves with his conscience cleared and his sin debt forgiven. He walks away under an open heaven of God’s favor and blessing.

Can you see Jesus in this Old Testament practice? The sheep without blemish, spot, or wrinkle is a picture of the perfect Lamb of God, Jesus Christ Himself, who takes away the sins of the world.

The priest is a picture of God. He doesn’t examine you for your sins. Instead, He examines Jesus, and because Jesus is gloriously perfect, you can live today with your conscience cleared and your sin debt forgiven.

You can walk under an open heaven and expect God’s favor and blessings in your life. What a beautiful picture of God’s abundant and lavish grace.

Today, turn your eyes away from yourself and stop the self-introspection! Look to Jesus, the Lamb of God, and see His perfection as your perfection. See His innocence as your innocence, His righteousness as your righteousness. Be occupied with Him, and be transformed from the inside out.