BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

*****ADVERTISEMENT***** free gift When you were born again, you were born in the image of God Himself! Let this message refresh your spirit to your true identity in Christ. "Jesus: Born of the Spirit, Born of the Word" by Kenneth Copeland DVD #BG150101 kcm.org/mag 1-800-600-7395 U.S. only 1-817-852-6000 ********************************** “Why, that’s ridiculous!” someone might say. “We aren’t equal with Jesus!” Yes, as startling as it might seem, the New Testament says we are. It declares in one place after another that even though Jesus is the King of kings and LORD of lords: • We who’ve been joined to The LORD through the new birth are “one spirit” with Him. (1 Corinthians 6:17) • We’ve put on the new man and been renewed “after the image of him that created him.” (Colossians 3:10) • We’ve been raised up together with Him, and seated together with Him in heavenly places. (Ephesians 2:6) I’ve studied those scriptures and others like them for a long time, so I’m very familiar with them. In fact, I preach them all the time. But recently, The LORD said something to me about them that actually startled me. He said that we, as born-again believers, and Jesus are identical twins. That’s right—identical twins. In 48 years of ministry, I’d never before heard The LORD say such a thing. Yet I knew right away it was true, because 1 Peter 1:23 says we’ve been “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” Everyone knows that when two people are born of the exact same physical seed, they’re born as identical twins. So what The LORD was saying to me was that the same is true in the realm of the spirit. Although we, as believers, are physically and externally different from one another, on the inside our spirit being is exactly like Jesus. We’re all His identical twins—born of the same seed, conceived by the very same process, by the same Father…which means the Christmas story isn’t only about Jesus. It’s also about us. The Greatest Story Ever Told and the Question That’s Rarely Asked You probably remember how the story begins. According to Luke 1, the angel Gabriel appeared to a virgin named Mary. He told her she was blessed and highly favored of The LORD. "And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end" (verses 29-33). Mary responded to this amazing announcement with a simple question. She said, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" (verse 34). She didn’t ask this because she doubted what the angel was telling her. On the contrary, she had listened very intently and believed what he said. She just wanted to be sure she fully understood what was going to happen. Was she going to have this Son after she was married? Or did God have something else in mind? Those were fair questions; and the angel answered them. He said: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God…. For with God nothing shall be impossible” (verses 35, 37). It’s important to note here that Gabriel wasn’t speaking on his own when he said these things. His words didn’t originate with him. As the archangel who stood in the presence of Almighty God, he was simply delivering The WORD of The LORD. He was just saying what the Father said. That’s what Jesus did when He was on earth. As He said in John 14:10, “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” Here, Gabriel was doing the same. He was speaking not of himself but on behalf of God. 6 : BVOV

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