BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

In This World but Not of It The Church should be so blessed today that the whole world takes notice! Unbelievers ought to be following us around taking notes, trying to figure out the secret to our success. For that to happen, however, we must put God’s Word first place. We must center our lives on hearing and doing what He says. What reason do we have to think we can live that way when God’s old covenant people couldn’t? Because, unlike them, we’re born again! We’ve been made the righteousness of God in Christ. He’s fulfilled in us the promise He made to His people in Ezekiel 36, where He said: “A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh…. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall heed My ordinances and do them…. And you shall be My people, and I will be your God” (verses 26-28, "AMPC"). As new covenant believers, we’ve been given the kind of heart God longed for the Old Testament Israelites to have. We have a heart to reverence Him and always keep all His commandments that it might be well with us, and with our children forever. I’m telling you, God has set us up for success! Not only do we have both the desire and ability to obey Him, He’s given us His written Word and put His Holy Spirit on the inside of us. All that’s left for us to walk in 100% victory is to hear and do what He says. Is it really that simple? Yes, that’s the one secret to having life and having it more abundantly. As Jesus put it, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32). Simple as that is though, continuing in God’s Word does take diligence. If you want to live free from the curse you can’t just read your Bible occasionally, or when it’s convenient. You must “hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments,” because that’s what allows all His blessings to come upon you and overtake you (Deuteronomy 28:1-2). To be diligent means “to make an intense effort.” If you’re too spiritually lazy to make an intense effort to spend time in God’s Word, you’ll be robbed of His blessings because you’ll think like the world. It takes no effort at all to think like the world does. The voice of the world is in your ear constantly. You hear it on the streets. You hear it when you turn on the TV (unless you’re watching a Christian program). You hear it on social media and other secular outlets, encouraging sinful behavior and telling you not to consider morality but to do whatever feels good. That kind of mindset is normal for the world. But it’s not normal for you as a believer. Although you’re living in this world right now, you’re not of the world. Your “citizenship is in heaven” (John 17:16; Philippians 3:20). You’re a child of the living God and a soldier in Jesus’ victorious army, and you’re here on assignment. You’re on this earth to advance the kingdom of God and to occupy this place for Jesus until He comes again. 8 : BVOV

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