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"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" - 1 John 1:9 NKJV God doesn’t hold grudges. No matter who we are, not matter what we have done, when we confess our sins before Him, He is quick to forgive. Often when we forgive someone, we can still hold onto the memory of what they have previously done, and even though we may not mention it again, the memory still has the potential to affect our ongoing trust of that person. This is not the case with God, and there are two things I want to briefly look at regarding how He forgives us. Firstly, He no longer accredits those sins to us. Psalms 103:12 says that He separates us from our sins. That means they aren’t just out of reach, but totally gone. In fact, He says they are removed as far as the East is from the West. That’s a long way — a never ending line. East never meets West. Next, Hebrews 8:12 tells us that He doesn’t even remember our sins. It’s not that He has a bad memory, it’s that He chooses to never remember them again. Think about how much love that demonstrates. Every time we confess our sins before Him, He removes them from us and chooses to never remember them again. God’s grace is amazing. Declaration Starter: “I declare that I am forgiven and cleansed. Every time I confess my sins my Father forgives me. I accept His forgiveness and I walk in the joy of the knowledge that I am His, and that I am in right standing with Him…” 
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"Even Death and Destruction hold no secrets from the Lord. How much more does He know the human heart!" - Proverbs 15:11 NLT How amazing is it that God knows everything? He knows every thought you have, every secret you have, and every struggle you have, no matter what it is, no matter how insignificant or substantial, no matter who it’s about and no matter how happy or painful it may be to you. There is no secret you have that He doesn’t know about. You may wonder why that is so amazing but the truth is, that it means that you can never bring anything before Father that will surprise Him. There is nothing you can say that will cause Him to fall off His throne in shock. Not only that, He can sympathise with our weaknesses because He was tempted in all areas like we are. (Hebrews 4:15). He knows you intimately, and He still loves you unconditionally. That is so freeing, because it means that no matter what secrets we have, we can share them with Him, knowing that He isn’t shocked, surprised, or even disappointed. He wants to us to share everything with Him. Go to Him in faith. The very think you don’t know how to put in words, He already knows. Just go before Him and be open and honest and let Him lead you. You’ll be glad you did. Declaration Starter: “I declare that there is nothing that God doesn’t know. Even death and destruction hold no secrets from Him. He even knows the secrets of my heart and I know can trust Him with them all…”  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” - 2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV The word heritage is a really powerful word, but when used in this verse, it is referring to ‘property, possession and inheritance’. It is referring to something we have now, not because of who we are, but because of the One Whom we are related to. The moment we accepted Jesus Christ as our Saviour, He forgave us and wiped our slate clean. Not only that, He gave us a new heritage. Read this verse again - “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”. When Father looks at you, He sees the new creation that you are through Jesus Christ and if He sees you that way, then it would do you good to see yourself that way. You have both His heritage and His righteousness (Isaiah 54:17). It all comes from Him, and because it is His gift to you, the enemy can’t walk in and steal it. No weapon formed against you will prosper because you are a new creation - a child of the Living God. As you declare whom you are, let the truth of that soak deep into your spirit and become part of your identity. Declaration Starter: “I declare that I have a an amazing, God-given heritage. No weapon formed to harm me shall ever prosper and every tongue that speaks against who I am in Christ is wrong and void of any power. I am who God created me to be. My heritage and my righteousness are gifts given to me through Christ. I am His child, and He is my Father…”  "This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it." - Psalms 118:24 NKJV At the dawning of a new day, some people rise and say, “Good morning Lord”, whilst others say, “Good Lord, it’s morning!” From the moment they get up out of bed, the outlook some people have on the day is one of doom and gloom, but as children of Father God, we have good reason to be happy. Jesus gave His life for us so that we wouldn’t need to die for our sins. If you have asked Him to be Lord of your life, then you are saved, healed and delivered. You have His Word and Holy Spirit to equip you, empower you and lead you, and you are destined to live a life for Him that makes a difference in this world we live in. Our mission is to “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone” and to “Make disciples of all the nations” (Mark 16:15-18; Matt 28:18-20 NLT), so why wouldn’t we rejoice. We get the amazing opportunity to serve our Father. Today is a new day, with new mercies and new opportunities and you have God the Holy Spirit living inside you Who will never leave you or forsake you. You have it pretty good. So, let today be a day you rejoice in Him, and celebrate because you have the incredible opportunity of living your life to honour Him. Think about that in all that you put your hand to today. Declaration Starter: “I declare that today is the day that the Lord has made; I will choose to rejoice and be glad in it…”   Easter is an amazing time of the year. It’s not just a day where we get chocolates eggs. That’s one of the traditions of Easter in the same way that giving presents is at Christmas. But the more I thought about the things this Easter regarding everything that Jesus went through, the more I realise something very subtle. Satan doesn’t want us talking about Easter from the perspective of Salvation and Redemption. He is more than happy for us to be distracted with all the festivities of Easter. He’s more than happy for you to plan a big day with family, and have Easter egg hunts with the kids, and even going away camping. But the one thing he doesn’t want you talking about is the cross, and the fact that Jesus died, conquered sin and death, rose again from the dead and ascended to heaven as the victorious Christ. He doesn’t want us talking about that because he knows that if you can really latch onto that, he loses. He wants us to have a whitewashed view of a powerful God because he knows that if we don’t believe we have a powerful God, we will never live as a powerful people.
We need to grab hold of the fact that Jesus Christ isn’t just someone that lived on earth many years ago and died a wimpy death on the cross. Too often today we see a G-Rated Jesus but He was much more that that - He IS much more than that. We need to understand that the Romans were barbaric in their torture. Is 52:14 says he was marred more than any man - that’s pretty severe. The brutal beating that Jesus alone took on our behalf is something I never want to have to go through, and I don’t have to, because Jesus did that for me. He paid the price for my sins. His love for us is incredible. I cannot get over the fact that Jesus went through everything He did for our Salvation before we chose Him. He even did it knowing that we may not accept His love, but either way, His love is unconditional, it is amazing, it is bigger than we can ever imagine. This Easter, make sure that you acknowledge how great, powerful and loving our God is, because He went to incredible lengths to redeem you. Think about it; He died for you and I because He sees something valuable in us. We were made to be in relationship with Him. Have a God inspired Easter, Adrian Nyhuis |
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