God’s Promises Are Power For Your Life
We know God’s Word is true. But more than that, it’s in God’s Word that we find Truth. When it comes to seeing our prayers answered, when it comes to seeing our faith manifest as we pull things from the supernatural, spiritual world into the natural, physical world we want to pay special attention to the promises of God.
Promises of God
For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
— 2 Corinthians 1:20 (NKJV)
All the promises of God are yes and amen in Jesus, not in us. God guarantees the promises because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross, and through His resurrection. This includes the Old Testament promises too!
That means we can read through the Bible, and when we see a promise on its pages, we can take it to the bank.
Do you understand how powerful that is?
Because Jesus was who He was, and did what He did, we now have access to every promise and blessing he deserved when we appropriate them by faith.
Wait. I get the sense that still might not be convinced. OK, then. Turn in your Bible to Galatians 3. Look with me at verse 13.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
— Galatians 3:13-14 (NKJV)
When Jesus went to the cross he rescued us from all of the curses that come from old system of the Law. He took all the curses we deserve on our behalf.
Then what does it say there in verse 14? He did all that so all the blessings of Abraham come on us, and so that we might receive the what? (The promise.) There’s that word again!
How do we receive that promise? Through faith!
For example, look at all the promises in Deuteronomy 28. The first 14 verses of that chapter are packed with some amazing promises God makes to you.
I love going to that chapter in my Bible app because I see a happy rainbow of highlighted colors there. I’ve marked all those verses to highlight those promises to remind me to meditate on them.
Every one of those promises is available to you too, because of the finished work of Jesus. Therefore you can receive each one of them by faith.
Inheriting the Kingdom of God
Some Christians get tripped up with the concept of inheriting the Kingdom of God. There are a couple different places in the Bible where Paul lists some fleshly, sinful behavior and then says that people who do those things won’t inherit the Kingdom of God. (See 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and Galatians 5:19-21 as two examples.)
Some folks interpret that to mean that we can lose our salvation. No! There is a difference between entering a house and inheriting it, right? You can live in the house your entire life without ever actually inheriting it.
In the same way you can be saved, and enter into the Kingdom of God, but not inherit the Kingdom.
Do you want to know how to inherit the Kingdom of God? Take a look at this passage,
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
— 2 Peter 1:2-4 (NKJV)
Peter tells us that everything we need for life and godliness comes from the knowledge of God and how His Kingdom operates. Therefore, the more we come to understand the Kingdom of God and align our lives, thoughts, and actions with the Kingdom, the more of the Kingdom resources will come our way. I’m talking all the resources of the Kingdom — wealth, health, wisdom, favor — you name it.
And it all works on the principle of promises. That’s how we get to the abundant life.
It’s also how we see our prayers answered. Therefore it’s vital that we have knowledge of God and how His Kingdom operates.
Inheriting the Promises
Wait. That passage told us how to be partakers of the divine nature (through the promises). But how to we inherit those promises?
I’m glad you asked.
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
— Hebrews 6:11-12 (NKJV)
We inherit the promises, meaning we take possession of them and see them manifest in our lives, through faith and patience.
Here are some articles to help better understand faith:
We’ve seen today what faith is and how it works. And we know that patience is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). So that’s already inside us, waiting to be let out.
We receive the promises of God by faith, just like Abraham. You can find any promise in the Word of God. Speak it out. Choose to believe it. And then apply the confidence of knowing that promise has already been answered Yes and Amen by God himself because we are in Christ.
Then get into action. We do something in the natural to take a step towards that promise. At that moment our faith starts to kick in.
What we do next is critical. It’s where so many believers miss their promise. According to Hebrews 6:12 above, the thing to do is to persevere. We hold fast to that promise until.
Until what? Until we see it move from the spiritual into the natural in our lives.
And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
— Galatians 6:9 (NKJV)
Lose heart means to become discouraged, to lose hope or confidence. As long as we continue to believe that God is able to keep His promise, and we don’t quit, we will see the harvest of that promise come to fruition in our lives.
All that to say, promises of God are incredibly powerful. They are a solid vessel of truth that we can tie our faith into as we bring those promises out of the spiritual realm and into the natural realm.
