Summarize
the content of the book in your own words:
Jesus is seated at the right hand of the
Father on His throne, and invites us to share in that glory as both an
inheritance as well as a privilege. The fullness of the blessing of God is
already our as believers, it just waits upon our comprehension and belief. I
come off as victorious constantly because I am born of God. By renewing my mind
and growing my faith, I can ‘walk out’ an overcoming life.
Although Christ’s death was for my sins, His
resurrection was for my justification. It is common to overemphasize His death,
and while He did do this for our sins, our focus should be on Him being raised.
His Finished Work was when He entered the Most Holy Place, and presented His
own blood, having won and obtained our eternal redemption, and sealing the New
Covenant. Our transformation is not the result of His death, but comes as a
result of the glory of His resurrection being our focus, as it is with Him in
His enthroning that we have our identity.
I am God’s representative whom He has covered
with His power and presence. I am to enforce and extend both His reign and His
name; bringing everything to its rightful place- under the headship of Christ,
which is the purpose of the Father. Jesus is waiting for the His Body, the
church, to use the authority that He has bestowed unto them to make His enemies
into His footstool. Although we may not see this as something that has been
completely manifested yet, by each of us walking in the Holy Spirit, we can see
this change spread throughout our world.
Complacency is not normal in healthy
Christians, but hunger is, and this desire should be fully present regardless
of their level of maturity. We also need to get our “head faith” to travel down
deep inside of us until our thinking and behavior is controlled by what we
believe, and it becomes “heart faith.”
I was raised when Jesus was raised for my
justification; He broke sin’s dominion over me, stripping it of all of its
guilt, power, and condemnation. By appropriating the abundant grace of God, we
find the dominion and rule of sin melting and disintegrating like snow in the
warm light of the sun.
Regarding the parable of the sower, since I
have been born again by the creative power of the Word of God, my heart is the
‘good ground’. In numerous places throughout the Bible there is a three
dimensional or three-fold unpacking, unfolding, and revealing of the truth.
Here we see that when it comes to God’s Word, there is a progressive way by
which we can have a ‘thirtyfold grasp’, a ‘sixtyfold understanding’, or a ‘hundredfold
comprehension’ of it. Intellectual comprehension of truth is good, but it is
the truth revealed to us by the Holy Spirit that changes our lives and
behavior, empowering us to live out what we comprehend and understand.
It is interesting to me that the enemy’s
strategy in our infancy as Christians is to draw us into or back into the
world, but that as we mature, his strategy then becomes to get us to become
introspective and self-focused, because he is afraid of us finding, entering
into, and exercising the authority that we have been given.
As dearly as we want Jesus to return, we must
fulfill the great commission, as Jesus is waiting for us to reach the people
that He died for with the gospel so that He can return. As much as we want to
be intercessors, we must first be proven in our own walk and also learn how to
assault our doubts, reject lies, and cast down vain imaginations that try to
exalt themselves above Christ. It is once we learn to use our authority over
our own situations, that we will be able and qualified to use it to help others
with their own.
We must be determined to overcome chronic
sickness, hindered ministry, personal insecurities, various testing and trials,
as well as anything else that the enemy would throw at us in order to press in
and claim the victory we have been given. We must be willing to continually
walk in humility and renew our minds if we are to live based on the Word and
want to have an open door of revelation by the Holy Spirit.
What
was new, stretching or revelatory to you personally?
When tempted, not only is there always a way
of escape whereby we may leave, but there is also a way of proactive
resistance, which causes us to be more than conquerors through Christ and His
love; this way also causes the enemy to flee from us.
My faith is the victory that overcomes the
world because I am born of God, a new creation that has the potential to come
off as victorious constantly. What grace gives, my faith is able to possess,
and all of the promises of God are available to me; none of them are nullified
or now not applicable due to the age, time, or place I live in today. The Bible
is alive and relevant. I don’t have to wait until I go to heaven to experience,
grasp hold of, and hold on to what is already mine in Christ, by faith. I can
start living the abundant life that He obtained for me right now.
Just as with the Old Covenant, it was not the
slaughter of the animal itself that brought the atonement for sin, but the
presenting of its blood before God; so the death of the spotless animal in the
outer court was the foreshadowing for Jesus’ death on the cross, and it is His
resurrection then presenting His blood in the heavenly sanctuary for our
atonement that is His Finished Work. His death on the cross is where that work
began.
Being part of Christ’s body, I am also His
feet, a part that walks upon the earth. It is under my feet that God has placed
the enemy. I am free from the oppression of the enemy and have been delivered
out from his authority. Because of God’s redemption, I now have authority over
him, because Christ now has all of the authority in heaven and on earth, and I
get to share in His inheritance, since I am in Him.
In order for something to become fruitful in
my life, the Holy Spirit must reveal it to me and Him doing that with even just
one verse, is more important than me reading through multiple verses without
recollection, recognition, or understanding. I could be searching the Bible for
a ‘thirtyfold grasp’ on scripture for an answer to my current problem or
situation, but in this intention, I could possibly miss God’s heart toward me
in revealing a ‘sixtyfold understanding’ or even a ‘hundred fold comprehension’
on truths that I already know. This process is one of the ways that God makes
Scripture rich and real to me, by increasing the meaning, tying things
together, giving them more depth, and raising my knowledge of the content from
facts to meaning to passion that influences who I am.
How
does this impact your life or thinking?
I was expecting to read a book about how to
do and accomplish certain things. Instead, this was a book explaining why we
are able and why we can, which is much more critical.
Are we zealous enough to repent of any kind
of being self-satisfied and lukewarm in order to have Jesus open the door for
us to join Him in the throne room? This question definitely reflects the
sentiment of my heart to the affirmative, as I am determined to overcome all
obstacles to get to Jesus. I want everything that He wants for my life and
nothing that He doesn't.
I am a participant in everything Jesus
endured, inclusive of His Finished Work; because of Him, in Him, and through
Him, I have victory, authority, and freedom. These divine realities are mine
for the taking and have been freely given to me by God’s grace. Through
aggressive faith I can possess my victorious destiny.
With Jesus having all of the authority, that
leaves none for the enemy, who is dethroned, defeated, and has come to nothing;
in his being overthrown, it is my job to enforce the death blow of defeat that
Christ already dealt to him. I will go forward in the name of Jesus and destroy
any and all works of darkness in the same way that He did.
It’s not how quickly I can get through the
whole Bible and how many times I can accomplish reading it, the real issue is
how much of it am I putting into practice and how much of it is becoming a part
of who I actually am.
Jesus endured the
cross for the joy set before Him and was held there not by the nails (He could
have ended His suffering at any moment), but by His love for me. Because He
loved me, Jesus suffered in every way (mind, soul, and body) more than any
human ever has. How can I possibly respond to the grandest gesture of love ever
made with selfishness or complacency? The very thought is not only ridiculous,
it is offensive; I will serve Him and His kingdom with all that I am and with
all that I have forever. It is better for me to expect too much in this life,
rather than for me to expect too little. I have counted the cost and made my
decision: I choose to overcome all obstacles to get to Jesus, I choose to live
with aggressive faith, and I will have all of the promises and I mean
absolutely everything that God has made available to me. It is at this very
moment that I choose to start now, and that with life more abundantly! I
am who God says I am, I have what He says I can have, and I will do what God
says I can do!
What
did you disagree with in this book? Give a clear and defended position as to
why you disagree.
I did not find it possible to disagree with
any of the content presented within this work, as all of it was in line with
Scripture and is clearly stated within the Bible.
[This book review has also been posted on Amazon.com and Goodreads.]
