A cry for BELIEF in the access

“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father,” says Paul in Romans 8:15.

“To me that word ‘cry’ is one of the most important words in that verse and there are a lot of important words in that verse, but that one gets overlooked,” says Jordan.

“Paul doesn’t say, ‘Whereby we make the statement, Abba, Father.’ He doesn’t say, ‘Whereby we logically deduce that it’s the Father.’ He doesn’t say, ‘This is a doctrinal affirmation that we make and proclaim.’ He says, ‘Whereby we CRY out of a heart that understands I’ve reached the Father’s heart!’

“When you cry, you’ve reached down into the depths of the reality of who you are and all the other stuff is taken away. A cry is something that reaches down into the depths of your soul with the reality of the moment and that personal affection.

*****

“Paul says in Romans 5:2, “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

“You’ve got the future where we rejoice in hope and then the present peace with God. All that God’s provided for us in Christ Jesus you have access to. 

“You have the capacity to have the Holy Spirit take you by the hand and lead you right into all of those assets and make them real in your experience by faith. That’s by that deep consciousness that’s produced in your inner man simply by believing God’s Word.

“Faith isn’t you deciding something’s going to be a certain way. Faith is finding out what God’s Word says and believing what God’s Word says is true. ‘Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.’

“You find out what God’s Word says about it and you say, ‘That’s what’s real no matter what my experience says, no matter what my emotions say, no matter what the advice of others say, no matter what my reason says. What GOD says is true!’

“Now, maybe my circumstances and my reason and everything else lines up with what God’s Word says, but it isn’t true because of all of that; it’s true because of what God says!

“Most of the time, your senses and your experience want to go the other way, but you still stick with what’s . . . it’s ‘by faith we have access to this grace wherein we stand.’ The identity you have in Him, you access it by faith.

“First, the access is by faith that ‘comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,’ and that accesses that consciousness; that confidence in your inner man that’s produced by believing God’s Word.

*****

“Listen, when you believe what God says, it has an impact in your inner man. Ephesians 3:12 says, ‘In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.’ Notice in verse 11, God’s doing some things ‘according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

“When you truly begin to understand what God’s doing, and this eternal plan He has in His Son—this cosmic reality God the Father has planned to be the reality for the universe in His Son, the one the Father’s going to use to do all of that—it's in Him we have BOLDNESS and access with confidence. Why? By the faith of HIM. Because of who HE is we have boldness and access with confidence.

“I don’t have to wonder whether God’s going to accept me. I don’t have to think maybe possibly He will. All of the questions anybody’s ever going to ask me about my access to God have been answered! And I can come with confidence. Yea, I can come with boldness.

“Now, that’s not brazenness where I’m coming because of me. I can just come with that bold confidence of one who has the access of the Father’s ear. Because every question that’s ever going to be asked of me has been answered in Christ.

*****

“There’s a real parallel between Ephesians 2 and what Paul talks about in Romans 8. Romans 8:31: [31] What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

“Somebody’s going to read down to this point in the Book of Romans and say, ‘But wait a minute?!’ and Paul says, ‘What should we say?’ 

"If someone comes along and they want to say, ‘Who do you think you are anyway?!’ and oppose you . . . if God is for you, WHO CARES WHO’S AGAINST YOU?!

“Here’s how God’s for you: [32] He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

“When religion rears its head and says, ‘Yeah, but, if you don’t do this . . .’ you just say, ‘Wait a minute, He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not freely give us all things?’

“When the world rears its head and says, ‘Yeah, but,’ you say, ‘You know what the reality is? The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.’

“When the world out there comes along and wants to help you create your identity, and help you create purpose and meaning and acceptance and validation in your life, with a thousand things that are smaller than Jesus Christ, faith says, ‘He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up . . . ’

*****

“Verse 33 says, [33] Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

"People criticize you. I learned a long time ago that it isn't so much what others criticize you about; it's how you criticize yourself. The hardest person on you is going to be you.

“You see somebody walking around like they never have a doubt, they just always come off as confident and knowing what they’re doing. But you see, you don’t hear that self-talk between their ears.

“The heart condemns you because your heart knows you. And written down in the nature of your heart, God put a conscience that accuses and excuses based upon the way He created you, not on the basis of the way you try to create yourself.

“The criticism arises. Verse 34 says, [34] Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

“Who can lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? If God justifies you, who cares what the charges are?! What’s the verdict? You’re righteous. ‘Who is he that condemneth; it is Christ that died.’

“You know, when your own sinfulness shows up, you need to remember those are the very things Christ died for. People say, ‘You teach people about grace and they’ll just go live in sin,’ but that’s somebody who doesn’t understand grace. That’s taking the doctrine of grace and not putting faith with it.

“The only time anyone turns grace into lasciviousness and a license to sin is people who don’t attach faith to grace. Because grace teaches us that Christ put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And if I believe that, what’s the reality in my life? That I should add sin or put it away?! Duh! How hard is that?!

“But when you just get a doctrine and detach faith, what did the verse in Romans say? ‘We have access by faith.’ To have grace work in your life, you attach faith to it; you believe it and then it works.

“So Paul finishes chapter 8 with, [35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
[36] As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
[37] Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
[38] For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
[39] Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

*****

“You see, you can have confidence because of who HE is. If your confidence is going to rest in you, you’re going to have problems. But you can have confidence because your faith rests in the unwavering faithfulness of God Himself.

“That’s what access is about. Being able to come right into the 

presence of the Father and have that relationship. That’s WHY Paul can say that we ‘pray without ceasing.’ Because when you begin to realize you have this unfettered, uninterrupted access to the Father, based upon what Jesus Christ has done through the ministry of the Spirit of God, taking His Word and making it real to you as you believe it . . .  

“When you have that uninterrupted access that can be made real in your experience, you begin to realize that prayer isn’t, ‘Oh, Lord, I pray.’ There are times when bowing your head with both eyes closed works, but then there are other times when it doesn’t. The reason people do that is to cut out all the stimuli around you so you can concentrate simply on what you’re thinking, but that’s a baby way to pray.

“I’m talking about your personal communion with God. What your mind realizes is that when you have this instant, continuous access is, ‘Oh, what it is to pray without ceasing is just to be conscious constantly of this unfettered access I have to the Father and thus that He has to me!’ All of a sudden prayer is a quite different thing.

*****

“There’s an old Quaker saying, ‘Whomsoever carryeth about the temple of God with him may pray wherever he may go.’ The Holy Spirit lives in you in order to make your body the temple--the dwelling place--of God. You don’t have to go to a building somewhere to find Him. He’s right there. You’re His temple.

“There’s so many verses in Ephesians that have the trinity in them. Ephesians is full of the godhead. Father, Son, Spirit. That’s why this verse is such a delight to me. Ephesians 2:18 says, [18] For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

“On the basis of what Jesus Christ has done, I’m going to have access to the Father and it’s going to be the Holy Spirit that takes me and the Father by the hands and brings us together and introduces us and makes it real in my life.

“Ephesians 2:13 says, '[13] But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.' It's His blood; His work at Calvary."