IN YOUR DUE SEASON, GOD WILL NOT ONLY MOVE THE WRONG PEOPLE OUT OF THE WAY, BUT HE ALSO WILL PAY YOU BACK FOR EVERY INJUSTICE. HE WILL MAKE UP FOR LOST TIME, OPEN DOORS TO THE RIGHT OPPORTUNITIES, AND BRING THE RIGHT PEOPLE ACROSS YOUR PATH.

GOSPEL CORNER

20/ 08/24

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
TODAY’S WORD

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.
Psalm 48:14, NIV

GOING BEFORE YOU
You may be discouraged today and think that your life situation will never change. Maybe you can’t see anything happening. But if the curtain was pulled back, you could see into the unseen realm. There, you would see God at work arranging things in your favor. It may not happen overnight, but at the right time, in your due season, God will not only move the wrong people out of the way, but He also will pay you back for every injustice. He will make up for lost time, open doors to the right opportunities, and bring the right people across your path. He’s even looking years down the road and arranging solutions to problems that you haven’t had yet. He will guide you to where you’re supposed to be.

You may have taken a couple of steps backward in recent times, but right now, God is going before you to prepare the next chapter of your life. If you stay in faith and keep the right attitude, you will enter a better chapter, a chapter with greater victories and greater fulfillment.

A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You that You have called me to walk by faith and not by sight. Thank You that Your power is working in the unseen realm to bring about Your promises in my life. I will live with a sense of expectancy that You are guiding me and leading me into new chapters of my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

SECTION TWO

Let me say something about faith. You cannot have faith without speaking it.

When you study Romans 10, you will notice that it says that “the righteousness which is of the law . . . does . . . But the righteousness of faith speaks.” The law is about doing, whereas faith is about speaking.

It is not enough to just know in your mind that you are righteous. It is not enough to just read this chapter or hear a sermon on righteousness and mentally agree that you are righteous. You need to open your mouth and say by faith, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:21).

This is where many believers are missing out on the blessing of Abraham. They are not speaking their righteousness by faith.

Our first response to a trying situation is very important. Our first response when we discover a symptom in our body, when we receive a bad report, or when we are faced with a trial, should always be to say, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ.”

Come on now, this is where the rubber meets the road. This is when we need to speak it. You need to not only know that you are righteous, you need to believe and speak your righteousness in Christ. It is not faith until you speak it!

Paul said, “And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak” (2 Cor. 4:13). The spirit of faith is clearly about believing and speaking.

So it does not matter how many sermons or books on righteousness you have heard and read. You need to believe it and speak it.

When you fail and fall short of the law’s perfect standard, that is the time you should exercise your faith to say, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ.” At that very moment when you are seething in anger at your spouse, or when you have just lost your cool on the road, it takes faith to say that you are righteous because you know that you have missed it.

And you know what? The moment you say it, even if you are still in the midst of your anger, you will feel like you have ushered something good into that situation. You take a step back and start to relax, and the anger dissipates as you begin to realize your true identity in Christ.

Men, if you see a scantily clad woman on television or on the cover of a magazine and you are tempted, what is your first response? Are you sin-conscious or righteousness-conscious?

Sin-consciousness will draw you to succumb to your temptation, whereas righteousness-consciousness gives you the power to overcome every temptation.

That is why the enemy wants to keep you sin-conscious. Confessing your sins all the time keeps you sin-conscious. It is as if Jesus did not become your sin on the cross.

Righteousness-consciousness keeps you conscious of Jesus. Every time you speak it, you magnify the work of Jesus on the cross.

So believe and speak the truth: “I am the righteousness of God in Christ.” Then, you cannot help but see the results of magnifying the Lord Jesus and His finished work!