Can you confess the title of this blog? Do you feel that death has no sting and that you are the bride of Christ, a part of His church, firm in faith and pure adoration so that He could return at any time and it’d be to your delight?
Throughout scripture, this is the kind of Spirit that God’s people lean into Him to cultivate. It is highly honorable and encouraged as wise and full of faith, whereas correction must be heeded in trouble frequented hurt churches who’ve become idle to the things of God and even backslidden into idol worship.
Let us gather the confidence and courage of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego!
— Old Testament saints (Daniel 3) who God blessed, miraculously preserving with salvation, as He met them in the fire they were thrown into after refusing to bow to idols, and glorify and worship anyone other than Him, YAH, the one true living God over all the earth.
Let us embody the attitude of Paul the apostle and Hebrews 11 saints!
— Believers who demonstrated with their lives that they trusted and esteemed their life in Christ more than anything else. In opportunities of self-preservation, they chose to love God and His promise of justice and eternal shelter and His people’s confidence and hope more than temporal luxuries in an ungodly and wicked generation.
• These counted the cost and weighed Christ as worthy. They knew the truth and life in Him and it’d set them free to follow the path and way of life. They lived worthy of Christ because they were already walking toward Him in faith, ready to treasure Him as their bridegroom. Christ has sacrificially loved the church and named it His bride, and they witnessed His love, heard His call to God’s kingdom, and believed.
Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Matthew 25: 1-13
“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
6 “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ 7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.
11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ 12 But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
Are you keeping watch for Jesus’s return? If you’re a believer, and you’re not keeping watch, you’ll likely be found short of oil on the day He suddenly returns. As a fellow sister in Christ, I encourage you to keep your fire for Jesus! God’s word, alongside an entire cloud of faithful witnesses, roots for you and encourages you also! Live set apart! Though you’ll be a stranger to the world, we have a home in heaven and a righteous family in God!
Read scripture. Note the true calling and engagement given to God’s people. Recognize you can no longer think like or walk with the world and justify sin or living outside of God’s will. You are called the light and salt of the world (Matthew 5:13-16) and warned to not allow these things to dull. Be encouraged! Set your whole life on Christ, knowing He is the only lasting foundation you are chosen to know! You’re within all the redemption and promises and good nature of God!
Ephesians 2: 10 “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
When your eyes are fixed on your treasure in heaven, the Holy Spirit is doing its task and will continue to work in your heart and the speech and actions that flow from it! He will keep praise on your tongue and enjoyment in the work of your hands. The flesh will be dying, but the Spirit will live and persevere. The Spirit will testify to you. It cannot deny Him. But without the Holy Spirit, without Christ sending this gift and seal through His sacrifice, and without Him restoring life/ new life/ born-again in Him, we cannot confess and cherish these things.
John 14: 1-3
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
Revelation19:7-9
Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her, it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.”
2 Corinthians 3:15-18
But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Our God is beautiful and powerful! Only lies and deceit could cheat us of receiving the goodness of God! So, don’t allow or accept misguidance or temptation by the enemy. Don’t settle for idols that have no life in and of themselves, and will wither and fail in time. Choose faith! Stay armed and ready.
Matthew 10:16
Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
Ephesians 6: 13-18
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,
• You are in a spiritual war that God has already won! Remove your veil to see the work God has done, and keep on your crown. Your kingdom and treasure are ahead of you. Though our physical can die, our spirit will live! (2nd Corinthians 4:16 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. “) Know what you gain through death! There will be no more adversaries or pain! Neither sin nor mistake against our Lord who we thank in His advocating for us.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Keep watch and pray.
Commune with the Lord, talk and walk with Him and He’ll guide you to life.
Death has no sting when you’re favored and held forever in the hands that made you and love you!!
1st John Chapter 3:
1Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. 20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this, we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
1 Corinthians 15:55-57 “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.