So in worship today as the music started flowing and I was feeling the sweet and gentle presence of God flowing throughout the room I was brought back to certain memories. God was showing me where He had taken me from and where I was now. He flashed me back to my days of my empty partying life, getting drunk and then ending up in shambles, the days of fear and anxiety where I was afraid to even leave my room at times and I could barely function, the times of near suicide. I was shown another image of my brokenness as I wept at work in secret, just exhausted and feeling so void of His love and a true purpose on my life. But He had a plan all along, He knows every hair on my head and my destiny. Then He showed me how He saved me, how on the rain ridden streets of PennState on a cold day He reached out to me once again and I finally let Him into my broken and dismantled life. Ever since that moment two years ago nearly now, things have changed beyond my wildest imaginations. He showed me how He brought me into fellowship with people who really love without strings attached and without agendas. People who pulled out the gold in me, when all I saw was dirt. God laid out a plan for me that I couldn’t have ever imagined.
Then in worship I opened my eyes and looked around at where I was. I was in the midst of hundreds of students in the thick of Gods presence at The Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Redding, California. Every day He is teaching me something new, and encountering me in a new way, and speaking to me and molding me. So so so lovingly, only the way that He can. The days of emptiness are over, its now fullness. The days of shame are now over, I’m a new creation in Christ. Perfectly righteous, Perfectly holy, perfectly sanctified. Perfect and loved in the eyes of the Father. The days of getting wasted with this world are over, I get drunk on The Holy Spirit. Being drunk with heavenly wine is millions times better than the wine of this world. It’s beyond comparison. The days of being high smoking pot are over, Gods love filling me lifts me higher then I could have ever imagined. The joy of heaven fills me and is greater than any drug upon this earth. Fear cannot contain me, the Prince of Peace and I are one. The same spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the grave dwells in me. I am in Christ and Christ is in me. There is safety and love in the arms of Daddy God. There is nothing I can do to make the Father love me more, and there is nothing I can do to make the Father love me less. He loves me because he loves me because he loves me. It is not about what I do, but who I am in. I’m in Christ and Christ is in me. I am a beloved son of the most high God. Nothing will ever change that.
God always has something better than what this world gives us. What the world gives is only the counterfeit and a mere shadow of what our loving heavenly Father has for us. It is so key that I remain focused upon Jesus Christ, the cross, and His resurrection. It is from that focus that everything will flow.
Paul says in Ephesians, “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with Him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead.”
My right standing with God is not dependent upon my works, what I do or don’t do. It’s based on faith in Jesus Christ, not works! For if I could do nothing to work my way INTO the Kingdom of God, then what makes me think I could every sin my way OUT? Once I was a slave to sin, now I am a slave to righteousness. I was transferred from one realm to another. From darkness to light. From bondage to freedom. Nothing can change your standing with the Father once you are in Christ. Your sins; past, present, AND FUTURE were all paid for on the cross. Let’s look at this, when was Christ crucified? In scripture it’s before the beginning of time and also physically 2,000 years ago. When he died ALL of your sins were future. You are free!
Nothing can separate you from His love. Jesus gives life and life abundant. If you are in Christ, the Father remembers your sins no more! He doesn’t even remember them!!! So why should you?
So where does it say that God doesn’t remember my sins anymore?
Hebrews 8:12 I will remember their sins no more.
Hebrews 10:17 Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more
1 Cor 13 Love keeps no record of wrong (God IS love, so therefore there is NO RECORD of your wrongs)
Well……..that went into a whole lot more than I thought I was going to write about! But, I just kind of kept going!
Basicallyyyyyyy, God loves you!
Grace & Peace,
-john
johngaston17 
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