13 God's Precious Promises
2 Peter 1:3-4 “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
What are these precious promises?
First of all, you must settle the question of whether or not God has spoken, and made promises to man. We know by a law of our nature, that whatever God has promised He will do! Our confidence in the promise of any being cannot be the result of the promise itself, we can only have confidence in the promise of any being in direct proportion as we have confidence in his character; therefore our natures affirm that God cannot lie, that He must be a God of truth. No man ever doubted this really, nor could any man honestly doubt it. You must remember, one of the attributes of God is that He is perfect!
When God promises something . . .
1. Because of the truthful nature and Holiness of God, we must believe that :
2. God will perform any promise that He makes.
3. That when He makes a promise, that promise is a direct revelation of His will.
4. Since God is Almighty, nothing but our unbelief can stop His promise from coming to fruition.
The promises of God are given to us on the condition of our faith, we must operate in a believing not unbelieving mode!
“Jesus Christ Is The Promise Of God“ Jesus is our Savior, God sent Him into the world to affect our salvation. This is the reason that Jesus said what He did in John 15:5 . . .
"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit;
For Apart From Me You Can Do Nothing.”
The true beginning of your victory in God will be the moment you truly apprehend and believe this great truth from the crown of your head to the tip of your toe! No true and lasting changes will take place in your life until you receive this most important truth! Mental assent will not do here, you must understand that until Christ is in reality your life, you are incapable of doing anything of value. The reason is, until we have the life of Christ, all we have is the life of a fallen unregenerate creature at our disposal. You cannot do or say anything of Eternal value until Jesus Christ has a true birth in you! This is the bottom Line, and it can't be changed.
The Promises
Accidents, Change and Happenstance
Many people worry about things that “might happen,” sometimes, they can't sleep at night. Does this happen to you? It doesn't have to, if you believe one of the most versatile promises that God has given us. Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
If you believe this, you can rest! In fact, you are resting! God has told us that no matter what happens, He will work it out for “Good.” Do you “Know this,” if you do, it will change your entire life! This kind of resignation is especially important to have when: You lose your job, and your car breaks down on the way home; or when you are late for work, and the traffic is especially slow. No matter what happens, it is God's will for your life! God will make even the very things that seem like a catastrophe work out for good. God really meant ALL THINGS!
Always remember and impress it upon your mind deeply, that no circumstance of life is for the purpose of enjoyment, nor are they to make your life unnecessarily difficult, truly all conditions and circumstances of this life are a trial, a test! Here is the reason for the trials that God allows to come into our lives Romans 8:29. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son . . .
A Familiar Promise
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 16:3 Most people today do not understand what this promise means, what the Apostle meant is made clear in the last verse of this chapter John 3:36. "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Unfortunately the King James Bible does not use the correct meaning of the Greek word for believe, in this case, the word is “apeitheoin” the meaning is to disbelieve (willfully and perversely) not believe, be disobedient, obey not, unbelieving. Jesus taught us this very definition when he asked the question in Luke 6:46 "And why do you call Me, `Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?”
True Faith Always Ends In True Obedience!
Another powerful Scripture that explains this to us is found in 1 John 2:3-6 “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
Now use all of the finesse of interpretation you will, put the blinders on your eyes, shut your ears, but it's too late, you have just read the will of God in this matter and your conscience will never be at peace, from this time on and forever more, because now you know that this is true!
More Promises
Matthew 5:48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Now you may say “This is a commandment, not a
promise!” But remember, whenever God commands us to do something He is making us a promise, that WE CAN DO IT!
Worry
Philippians 4:6-7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Here is our Biblical promise of never having a necessity of worrying. The habit of many is to worry and fret about everything. God is telling us to take all of our anxieties to Him in prayer and we shall have peace in the midst of the problem! Peter also encourages us by saying . . . . “Casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.”
Fear
John gives us the antidote for all fear by telling us . . “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” Jesus has something to say on the subject of fear: "And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. He then tells us to fear nothing else in this world but the losing of our souls by saying . . "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore do not fear; you are of more value than many sparrows.
More from Jesus
"For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than
clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. Do not be anxious then, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `With what shall we clothe ourselves?' For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Nothing needs to be added, I believe Jesus said it better than anyone else could, and it does not need to be explained! The only thing that it needs is this, It only needs to be believed!
The Greatest Promise Of All
Luke 24:49 "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."
And again in the book of Acts . . “And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to
know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
Can you see why this is the greatest promise of all? Remember, the Apostles were given power over all diseases, sickness and demonic powers, they were commanded to raise the dead, heal the sick and cast out demons! What was this new power from on high needed for? What was its purpose? This new power that Jesus wanted them to have was the power to live consistent Holy lives. The power to speak transforming words of victory!
Notice what Jesus said,
“You are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."
Jesus realized that He wouldn't be with them on earth, and they must walk perfect in all things. To do this they would need a Heavenly power, or to put it in His words, “A power from on high."
Jesus knew that nothing else would do, Jesus didn't tell them to go to a Bible college. He didn't say to them that education would make the difference between being successful or failing, all that He told them that they needed was this
“Power From On High."
Do you understand what was just said? Education is good, if you want to engineer a building or do any of the many complex things that we do in this world today, you need an education to be successful, but to minster the presence of God you need His power from on high. No matter how much money or education you have, it will always be an inadequate substitute. Money, education, or any other thing cannot, and will not replace the power of God which is either in your life or not.
Why go without it, don't you know by experience that you are not and cannot be successful without the ever present Holy Spirit and His power from on high in your life? This is not a small or insignificant promise, it is the promise of promises!
Now, do you have this power? Allow me to tell you some of the signs of this power in your life.
1. You will have power in your prayers.
2. Your words when spoken, will bring instant conviction
in the hearts of those who hear you.
3. You will know in your heart that sickness, diseases and demons are of no consequence, because of the assurance that this power from on high is yours and rules in your heart.
Be certain that without this power you will truly be unfruitful when your Master returns, it can truly be said of you that you went and buried your talent!
Has not experience taught you that you need something else beside yourself, some source of true power to bring conviction and relief in the people that you minister to?
Godliness
1 Timothy 4:8 “For bodily discipline is only of little profit, but Godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” Is Godliness a part of your life? It needs to be and it is promised, here is one my favorites. Ezekiel 36:24-30 "For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land.
Here the Lord is telling us that He will take us out of the world (nations) and bring us into the Kingdom of God and it will be our land
25) "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
God will cleanse us from all of our filthiness! That word filthiness means sin! But that’s not all, God will remove all of the idols in our life! He promises to do this because He and He alone is our Savior. If God does not deliver us from our sin no one else can.
26) "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."
Then God promises to remove our heart of stone. The Bible uses the word "heart" to refer to man’s will, the place we make our decisions (the decision to obey or disobey God.) Notice here that God refers to a stony heart, this means a stubborn, rebellious will (heart). We won’t stop being rebellious and stubborn on our own, so the God of love removes this rebellious heart from us and replaces it with a moldable heart .
27)"And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances."
And now after heart surgery, we are ready to receive the most precious gift anyone could possibly receive! God’s Spirit. (And I will put My spirit within you.) But God knows that this is still not enough. Look at the next part of this promise. In verse 27 "And cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do [them]." Yes, God will cause us to walk Holy!
28) "And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.
God is telling us that we will abide in Him in the Kingdom of God, and we will be called His people.
29) "Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you.
30) "And I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, that you may not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations.”
Here God is telling us that He will bless us and not allow any curses to fall upon us. God has committed Himself, by His Holy promises, to cause us to obey Him! What more need we ask of Him.: This is the faith part, will you believe God? Will you take Him at His word? Will you place your faith in Him, now, today, this very moment?