THEREFORE THERE IS NOW NO CONDEMNATION FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS.”

GOSPEL CORNER

23/10/24

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
TODAY’S WORD

Today’s Scripture
Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”
John 5:8, NLT

A New Beginning
In John 5, the man who Jesus healed had been crippled for thirty-eight years. This man never dreamed he’d be able to walk, play ball with his children, dance with his wife, or take a stroll on the beach. That’s the mercy of our God. Notice that Jesus didn’t say, “I’m going to get you a better mat to lay on, lighter and more comfortable. I’m going to get more help and better caregivers.” Jesus came to give the man complete freedom from his problem so that he never needed that mat.

Life is too short for you to have things lingering that are holding you back. Sometimes, we don’t realize how restricted we are. We’ve become so used to a dysfunction that it feels comfortable. You have to stir yourself up. God’s idea of freedom is not to make you more comfortable in a dysfunction but to set you free. It’s to set you on a whole new path of health, peace, joy, and blessing. God is doing a new thing. You’re about to rise, take up your bed, and walk in freedom.

A PRAYER FOR TODAY
“Father, thank You that with Your calling upon my life comes the power to release any old thinking, old habits, discouragement, and dysfunction that would keep me stuck. I’m dropping the excuses that hold me back and taking steps of faith for a new beginning today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

SECTION TWO
Today, I want to talk about how you can have a victorious thought life. My friend, the solution to temptations, sinful desires, and thoughts is found in the very first verse of Romans 8: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

(By the way, some Bible translations, like the New King James Version, go on to say “who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” This was added by the later Bible translators. In the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament available today, the Greek simply states, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”)

You may experience temptations and sinful thoughts from time to time, but right in the midst of that temptation, you need to know this: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Notice that this verse is in the present tense. Right now, even if at this very moment, sinful thoughts are going through your mind, there is no condemnation because you are IN CHRIST JESUS! Are we then to sit still and entertain those sinful thoughts? Of course not.

Sin cannot take root in a person who is full of the consciousness that he is righteous in Christ. You cannot stop birds from flying over your head, but you can certainly stop a bird from building a nest on your head.

In the same way, you cannot stop temptations, sinful thoughts, and desires from passing through your mind, but you can certainly stop yourself from acting on these temptations, sinful thoughts, and desires. How? By confessing at the very moment of temptation that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!

The power of Jesus to overcome every temptation kicks in when you remain conscious that even at the point of temptation, Jesus is still with you and that you are righteous in Him apart from your works (Rom. 4:6)! When you do that, you reject the condemnation for the temptation that you faced.

You now have the power of Christ to rise above your temptation and to rest in your righteous identity in Christ apart from your works. That, beloved, is the overcoming life in Christ!