Inside Out Devotionals

"The Father loves the Son,  and has given all things into his hand."  John 3:35  It is commonsense that in order to have success in life we need to WORK HARD, we can´t just "sit and watch", but we need to get up and "JUST DO IT". Well, this is not what we learn from Jesus, the  MOST SUCCESSFUL -MAN- THE UNIVERSE HAS EVER SEEN! But what was his secret? Pastor Bill Johnson (Bethel Church) always says that God never hides his secrets and mysteries FROM us, but FOR us -his beloved children-! Jesus has openned up his good treasure and is willing to share it with us, for HIS DELIGHT is to see us LIVING A SUCCESSFUL LIFE just as HE is successful! The first point is: Jesus was 100% dependent on the FATHER. He wouldn´t wake up every morning and go about DOING AND DOING stuff  "for God" in order to please "God". First off, Jesus KNEW HE was God´s delight despite of his DOING and the KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTION OF GOD´S LOVE FOR HIM...

"... whoever believes  in me  will do the works I do,   and they will do even greater things  than these..." John 14:12 We all are created by a GREAT God. Things around us  (the skies, the oceans, etc) give us a glimpse of HOW GREAT is our God. The bible says that we are created after God´s own image and likeness (Gen 1:26,27). No wonder every single person,  deep within,  has the desire to be GREAT, to DO great things, to PROSPER, to be SUCCESSFUL. It is not wrong to desire ALL that because we were BORN for ALL these things!!  We have a GREAT GOD who DOES GREAT THINGS and we, as his children, are his partners here on earth to ACCOMPLISH these GREAT things. God has GREAT DREAMS, and He places his GREAT dreams in men´s hearts! We have an appettite for the impossible, but frustration will come every time we try to reach for it apart from God, on our own, trusting our faculties, habilities, talents and efforts.  During Je...

 "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us."  Rom 8:18 This weekend I heard an ilustration that really caused me to think. It talked about two babies in the womb of their mother discussing whether there would be "life after birth". Whereas one baby would say that there was nothing after birth, the other one would say that wonderful things - a whole new life- were ahead of them after birth: they would be able to walk with their own legs, feed themselves with their own hands, hug their mom, etc.  Thinking about this ilustration, it occured to me that we could use the same thought pattern when it comes to ETERNITY. THIS earthly life is nothing but a SHORT preparation for GREATER THINGS THAT JESUS HAS FOR US in the time to come! Those 9 months in the womb is NOTHING compared to THE REST of their lives after birth. Likewise, our short earthly years (70,80 100 years) ...

“  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment : because as he is , so are we in this world.”   1 John 4:17 Most people try not to think about eternity. The reason for that is because of the time they are fearful of God´s judgement upon then. We are taught that we must watch every step we take for we will be accountable of each one of them. No wonder people try not to get TOO close to God, for in their eyes, He is this angry God who is ready to bring all judgement upon them. Well, all that would be true if it was not written: “… mercy triumphs over judgment. ”James 2:13.   We cannot lose focus that the core of God´s very nature is LOVE, and out of His nature flows MERCY AND GRACE, for   “ The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 That doesn´t mean that ...

"Thou art fairer than the children of men:  Grace is poured into thy LIPS : therefore God hath blessed thee for ever" Psalm 45:2 Every day  the moment we wake up, our actions will be either a form of manifesting atributes of GRACE or manisfesting atributes of THE LAW. The bible says that the Law was *given* by Moses, but GRACE AND TRUTH *came* by Jesus Christ (John 1:17) . Jesus came in order to PROVIDE us SALVATION- not only concerning ETERNAL LIFE, but also salvation from poverty, sickness, anger, bitterness, depression, etc. HE IS OUR SALVATION  in EVERY WAY, not only after we die and are no longer on earth, but especially as we LIVE ON EARTH! It was Jesus who taught us to pray:  " your kingdom come, your will be done,   ON EARTH AS it IS IN HEAVEN." Matthew 6:10 It is important to know that whereas the law REQUIRES an action, it DEMANDS someone to behave a certain way, GRACE PROVIDES, SUPPLIES, it empowers us to do God´s will and behave...

I often wondered why it seemed to be so hard for us to accept God´s will.  Thinking about this, two things come to my mind: 1) Most of the time we are convinced that our own plans are the BEST way to attain our goals, to reach that place of peace and happiness; 2) We are not aware of God´s LOVE and the fact that every bit of His will has its root in HIS DEEP LOVE towards us. We have been deceived by being led to think that God only displays his will in order to mess up with our own plans. Submitting to his will often sounds like we are being nulyfied; it is usually not taken as a reason for joy, but for sorrow. BUT all that is NOT even close to THE TRUTH about God´s will for our lives. Again: we must remember that ALL HIS WILL IS ROOTED IN HIS DEEP LOVE FOR US!... We are HIS CHILDREN and every good father´s will is to do ALL HE CAN in order to cause his child to live an ABUNDANT LIFE, to prosper in ALL their ways and to be HAPPY.  So everything star...

"Mercy and truth preserve the king (...) "  Proverbs 20:28 The reason why it is so hard for every human being to deal with DEATH is simply because we were NOT CREATED TO DIE! We were made to live forever and death only came into this world as a curse because of sin. Sin means nothing more than to miss the mark. Since the beginning God had planned for us a life full of GLORY... but HIS plans are NEVER FRUSTRATED!  “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.(Job 42:2) Neither sin or any curse would be able to STOP HIS PLANS TO BE FULFILLED! He provided us a way to come back to his purpuse and therefore He sent JESUS to receive that curse IN OUR PLACE, to DIE so that we could LIVE as He first planned. The consequence of that is that NOW we are able to live a life PRESERVED by his GRACE, for He has delivered us from every curse: diseases, poverty, unhappiness, and even death! ...not because of anything we DID or need to DO, but ...

 " And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." (2 Cor 6:18) A child never grows old to a parent... Jesus once said " If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your -Father- which is in heaven give -good things- to them that ask him?" ( Mat 7:11) . .. therefore, we should be aware of TWO things throughout our day: 1) we HAVE a good good Father 2) He is *willing* to give us good things as we ASK Him for them! King David once said "   I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth {all things} for me." (Psa 57:2) .. .  THIS God, MOST HIGH, who sees things from a better perspective than us, He is WILLING to and WILL performe -all things- for us. Our job is to BE AWARE of His word, His promisses, His person ... He is our Daddy and his desire is to have his children to succeed in this world for in THIS THE FATHER is glorified - ...

One of the greatest weapons of the enemy of God is to try to deceive God´s children by causing them to focus on their REALITY rather than the TRUTH behind the reality for "what is true about us is not necessarily THE TRUTH about us" (Christa Black). The greek word for TRUTH in the new testment is aletheia, which means divine truth revealed to men; reality. Aletheia in ancienty greek was synomynus for reality as opposite of ilusion. This reality talks about HEAVEN´S perspective of things. We are spiritual beings and our reality is also SPIRITUAL ( =  TRUTH). We can´t understand God and therefore worship Him as we were created to until we let TRUTH enter every area of our hearts. What we see before us is not the TRUTH, HIS truth, about us. That is the role of the Holy Spirit within us, to guide us unto this TRUTH- and He never fails to do His job . My success in living the will of God and His truth to my life is not dependent of my own efforts, but on His effectivi...

"Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name,  O L ORD, God of  hosts"  Jer 15:16 Sometimes we find ourselves lacking joy, peace, love in our lives... these elements are for our souls what vitamins are for our body. Whenever we lack some type of vitamin in our body, we need to put it IN our body somehow... either through pills or food! The same thing happens to our soul! Whenever we feel like there is something LACKING within... we can always go to our SOURCE, the WORD OF GOD and EAT HIS WORDS for us for they are SPIRIT & LIFE. Jesus said: "...the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit,  and they are life."  John 6:63   We need to remind ourselves WHO we are IN HIM and WHO He is. We ARE called by His name, that means: we are His possession and there is nothing more beautiful and powerful than to belong to the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE and K...