" I am not ashamed ( news I am proud to proclaim- not ashamed speaks of wanting to speak about this all the time) of the gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation ( sozo- we all know what sozo means) for all who believe. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed from first to last ( some translations: from faith to faith- not based on a single ounce if human effort)"
As I was pondering on this scripture something dawned on me: access to sozo is based not being ashamed of the gospel, in other words proclaiming the gospel of Gods grace. Why? because in the gospel a righteousness FROM GOD is revealed (or given).
We cannot go after healing, deliverance, well being, prosperity unless we are fully aware of our position. Understanding our position is the door into sozo, it is not just enough to say we know our position, we must be living in our position, this should ooze from our lives, we must be full of grace. What happens if we do not understand our position and we fail at driving out a demon or seeing someone healed? We will end up feeling guilty, like we have not done enough, we will feel condemned and try harder to do more thinking that we would need to pray more or fast more or spend time in the word more, and even asses to see what sin we are living in. When we do this we take the focus off Jesus and what He has done, we take our focus off our position given by God and we revert to trying on our own, when we do this we are not acting in faith. We will become frustrated when we "fail", we will beat ourselves and other up over these "failures".
We must refrain from doing this, it helps no one. Paul says " I am not ashamed of this good news" meaning " I am proud to proclaim it". If you are proud to say something it means you will want to talk about it ALL the time! What is he proud to talk about? The GRACE OF GOD. He is proud to speak about Gods grace all the time, proud to tell of a righteous imputed to us without our effort.
Why is he wanting to speak about it all the time? Because he knows that there is power for sozo in the revelation of this truth because the Holy Spirit is activated in our lives when we stop focusing on our efforts, accept that Jesus' efforts were enough and we then yield to the Holy Spirit instead of being "navel gazers".
Do we want to see the sick healed, the dead raised, the lepers cleansed and the demons cast out? Do we want the priesthood of all believers to live like this and do these things? Then proclaim the gospel of Gods grace, our unchangeable position in Jesus, which will lift the eyes of the believers from their own efforts and issues and place them on the King above and His efforts on our behalf.
God Bless,
Bradley Dearlove
Bradley Dearlove
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