The Father God blesses what the Son, Jesus Christ, redeems, and the Holy Spirit seals.
The Big Picture
Jesus came from the Father God. While on earth, He showed us who the Father God is. So we have only to ask, “What would Jesus do?” This phrase has lost its meaning in today’s society. What would Jesus do in these circumstances? What about his most famous sermon?
In Matthew 5, Jesus begins with the beatitudes, “Blessed are…” He then lays out the principles of the Kingdom of God. He reveals the heart of God behind the Ten Commandments, showing how God sees our hearts. These words reveal the spiritual and inner nature of His commands. He shows us that we must keep these commands, not just our actions, in our hearts and minds.
John 14:8-10 Philip: Lord, all I am asking is that You show us the Father. Jesus (to Philip): I have lived with you all this time, and you still don’t know who I am? If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. How can you keep asking to see the Father? Don’t you believe Me when I say I abide in the Father and the Father dwells in Me? I’m not making this up as I go along. The Father has given Me these truths that I have been speaking to you, and He empowers all My actions.
How are we to follow Him in this way? I can rejoice in Him through His Spirit if I am humble enough to realize my spiritual lack. The Holy Spirit comforts me, prays when I have no words, reminds me of the scriptures when I need them, and gives me strength and refuge to fight temptation, evil, and worldly influences.
How does that have a bearing on my daily life?
Seasons
Every season in my life has been different, and my habits have changed drastically with each one. As a young girl, I followed the patterns my family laid out. My life was filled with love, school, church, and family dinners. As a teenager, I struggled with my life purposes. I loved music but hated the stage.
As a young wife, I learned to listen and expand my viewpoint to include my husband’s. When our children arrived, I became sleep-deprived. Everything revolved around me getting sleep and babies growing safely. I became an expert in tallying up sleep in 30-minute intervals. I could also see where things were without using a light.
After years of schooling, I went back to work. And my sleep habits had to be worked on. Later, when I worked from home, it became easier. I didn’t have to get up before dawn to leave the house and get in line on the freeway. I enjoyed working from home. I could be anywhere but still working – and I did. I visited parents who needed help and worked several hours a day. Or I helped my children by watching pets and still worked several hours.
But I went full-time writing when the contract work dried up, and I approached retirement age. Some authors write one book yearly, and some have over 100 books in their catalog! Now, I’m learning to write, sleep, and visit parents, children, and grandchildren simultaneously.
For each stage of life, my focus has been to read scriptures, even if it is only one verse a day. Pray past the point of Ohdeargodhelpme to remember family, friends, and those in authority. One aspect remained the same. Listening for the answer. I heard someone say that God is always speaking to us. Are we listening?
Read – Pray – Listen
Usually, I set my goals around spiritual, physical, or relational realms. What should I work on this year?
For the last two years, I’ve worked on prayer, learning about it, practicing it, and finding my niche. I’ve written over 25 daily prayer guides to help others pray scripturally. My prayers range from warrior to despondent, joyful to wretched, angry to peace-filled.
This year, my focus should possibly be on health. My spiritual health is being able to withstand whatever comes with God at my side. My physical health is learning to eat, walk, and stretch to glorify God. My mental health is living boldly, with confidence that God will guide me and strengthen my emotions.
Ephesians 1, paraphrased (Please read in your Bible)
Anna, an emissary of Jesus the Anointed, was commissioned as His representative by the will of God to the hurting faithful in Jesus the Anointed. May God the Father and the Lord Jesus the Anointed surround you with grace and peace.
Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One, who grants us every spiritual blessing in these heavenly realms where we live in the Anointed—not because of anything we have done, but because of what He has done for us.
God chose us to be in a relationship with Him even before He laid out plans for this world; He wanted us to live holy lives characterized by love, free from sin, and blameless before Him. He destined us to be adopted as His children through the covenant Jesus the Anointed inaugurated in His sacrificial life. This was His pleasure and will for us.
Ultimately, God is worthy of praise for showing us His grace; He is merciful and marvelous, freely giving us these gifts in His Beloved. Visualize this: His blood freely flowing down the cross, setting us free! We are forgiven for our sinful ways by the richness of His grace, which He has poured all over us.
With all wisdom and insight, He has enlightened us to the great mystery at the center of His will. With immense pleasure, He laid out His intentions through Jesus, a plan that will climax when the time is right as He returns to create order and unity—both in heaven and on earth—when all things are brought together under the Anointed’s royal rule.
In Him, we stand to inherit even more. As His heirs, we are predestined to play a key role in His unfolding purpose, energizing everything to conform to His will. As a result, we—the first to place our hope in the Anointed One—will live in a way that brings Him glory and praise.
Because you, too, have heard the word of truth—the good news of your salvation—and because you believed in the One who is truth, your lives are marked with His seal. This is the Holy Spirit, who was promised the guarantee of the inheritance we will receive when He frees and rescues all who belong to Him. To God be all praise and glory!
This is why I haven’t stopped thanking Him for you when I heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus present in your community and of your great love for all God’s people. I am continually speaking to Him on your behalf in my prayers. Here’s what I say:
God of our Lord Jesus the Anointed, Father of Glory: I call out to You on behalf of Your people. Give them minds ready to receive wisdom and revelation so they will honestly know You. Open the eyes of their hearts, and let the light of Your truth flood in. Shine Your light on the hope You are calling them to embrace. Reveal to them the glorious riches You are preparing as their inheritance.
Let them see the full extent of Your power at work in those of us who believe, and may it be done according to Your will and power.
Friends, He used this same might and resurrection power in the Anointed One to raise Him from the dead and position Him at His right hand in heaven. There is nothing over Him. He’s above all rule, authority, power, and dominion; over every name invoked, over every title bestowed in this age and the next. God has placed all things beneath His feet and anointed Him as the head over all things for His church. This church is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.
