BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Citizens of Heaven by Gloria Copeland Did you know that if you’re born again you’re not a citizen of this world? You’re living in it right now, of course. In the natural, you’re operating in the midst of this fallen world’s system. But, although you’re in the world, you’re not of it. Your citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20, "New King James Version")! You’re born of God and spiritually you’ve been translated into His kingdom. At this very moment, while you’re walking around on this earth in your physical body, God’s kingdom is living in you; you’re living in it; and you have access to all its resources, rights and privileges. You don’t have to fret about anything down here in this crazy world! If you’ll simply walk in the power of your heavenly citizenship, you can overcome any challenge the world throws at you. You can rise above difficult circumstances. You can triumph over all the trouble the devil stirs up in this place. You can live as more than a conqueror and walk out your days here in victory and not in defeat. To do that, though, you can’t go around thinking and talking like the world does. You have to maintain a spirit of faith! You must keep your heart full of God’s Word so that when bad news comes your way, rather than giving in to fear and discouragement, you can say about the situation what God says. He’s already spoken about every need you could ever have and every problem you’ll ever face. He’s already said and recorded in the Bible enough words of BLESSING to enable you to experience “days of heaven upon the earth” (Deuteronomy 11:21). Every one of those words became law in the spirit realm the moment they were spoken, and even though they’ve been in the Scriptures for thousands of years they still have God’s Spirit and life in them. Everything God ever said is still true, and any one of us can believe it, say it and act on it, and it will come to pass. As believers, however, we don’t always want to do that. Particularly when we’re in a hard place, we sometimes just want to give in to our flesh and talk about the problem. Rather than opening our Bibles and standing on God’s Word, we want Him to do for us what He told us to do. We want Him to speak words of faith over our lives by sending someone to prophesy to us that our problem has been solved, that we’re healed, or that we’ll never have any more financial difficulties. We want Him to rebuke the devil on our behalf. We want Him to command the mountains in our lives to move, while we sit around having a pity party and spouting unbelief. But that’s not how God’s kingdom works. It’s not set up to manifest on earth simply in response to God’s Words. It’s designed to respond to our words. According to the New Testament: • The devil flees when we resist him by saying, like Jesus did when He was on earth, “It is written” (James 4:7; Matthew 4:4). * * * * article continues on p. 28 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Points to Get You There: 1) God’s will is for you to walk in the BLESSINGS of heaven even while you’re still living in this world. Deuteronomy 11:21 2) For God’s will to manifest in your life, you must speak His Word by faith. 2 Corinthians 4:13 3) When you believe and declare God’s Word, it comes to pass because it has His creative power in it. Hebrews 4:12 ("AMPC") 4) When you complain and speak unbelief like the world does, your words work against you. 1 Corinthians 10:10 5) Whatever is in your heart in abundance comes out of your mouth, so keep your heart filled with God’s Word. John 15:7 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BVOV : 27

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