WRITTEN BY MICHELE HANSEN
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19, NIV)
We’ve spent this year looking at all the different ways our righteous acts for the Lord covers us, the Bride, and equips us to be an ambassador worthy to represent our King. Let’s take a look back through the last year and see how we did.
In January we looked at Revelation 19:6-8 that was the year’s focus verse and also for the focus written for January. It is an introduction to Christ’s imputed, or given, righteousness to us as the Bride of Christ–bought and paid for by His blood. We are clothed in that righteousness as we walk out that righteousness before a watching world. Those righteous acts are the outward, visible “Jesus” to the world.
February found us dressing in our best outfit. Colossians 3:12-15 talks about being dressed in the Lord, and as a result; bearing fruit in keeping with the theme for the year, we are to be dressed in love; love for God and love for others. Those are the Lord’s most important commands. Because of Christ’s righteousness, we are able to love and able to live in harmony with others.
March asked the question about whose mind we’re using. 1 Corinthians 2:16 makes the statement that we have the mind of Christ. As we come into relationship with the Lord, He imparts to us the ability to think like Christ. If that’s true, then why do we struggle with our thought life so much? Truly the only way to have the full access to kingdom thinking is to fill our minds with the word of God. His words settle deep in our soul and give us the tools we need to take every thought captive to the will of God. As our minds are renewed, our actions will follow. We don’t have to be captive to our thoughts.
April came and as Easter is such an important event, we looked at the Last Sacrifice. Psalm 51 is a plea from King David to cleanse him of his sins because he knew that it was separating him from relationship with his Lord. We want the same thing. Christ, in His mercy, defeated the power of sin and death, once and for all, through His sacrifice and triumph over the grave. The love of God is far greater than we can ever imagine. We are cleansed and made whole so that the Bride’s righteousness is seen in the world.
May focused us on the amazing work the Lord brings to our lives. Philippians 1:6 talks about the good work God does in us, and continues to do in us, as we stay in active relationship with Him. Our only job is to trust and obey. That sounds easy, but it is anything but. Jesus is the one who lived a perfect life and then traded that life for ours. The good work is the life we live in submission to God; to grow, learn, trust and rest in His finished work.
June encouraged us to really take a look at how we communicate with this amazing God of ours. James 5:16, Jeremiah 33:3 and Matthew 6:9-13 all speak of the fullness and deep simplicity of prayer. Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection paved the way for us to have fellowship with God based on the completed work of Christ. Prayer is a beautiful way we enter into relationship with our Lord and Savior.
July took us to the truth of Christ’s finished work on the cross from a different perspective. John 16:33 talks about how the power and destructive nature of sin has been completely neutralized by Christ overcoming the world. We can take heart and be encouraged because even though we are tossed and bounced in this world, we can be sure that our Lord has taken the power to destroy us out of it.
August gave us an opportunity to really sit and ponder the almighty greatness of our God. Revelation 4:11 is the tantamount proclamation of how heaven responds to the Lord God Almighty. All through the scriptures we see heroes of the faith express the absolute wonder of the awesome creator God. He is worthy to receive all the honor and praise.
September brought us to the reality that God’s ways and means are so much higher and deeper than we can imagine, we have to trust Him as we walk in this life because He sees it all and we don’t. When Christ preached His sermon on the mount with the Beatitudes, we come to realize His desire for us to really see Him and at the same time, even though it makes no sense, trust Him. He flipped what the world’s wisdom says and calls us to a higher truth…His truth. Isaiah 55:8-9 proclaims the reality of His ways vs. our ways.
October is such a transitional month it seems to me. This month we looked at the “soil” of our hearts. We asked the question of ourselves, “what is the condition of my heart?” Is the soil of our heart prepared to receive the powerful word of God that produces the fruit of righteousness that He desires for each of us? If not, how will we receive the tender “tilling” it might take to get there? Read the account in Matthew 13:1-22.
November found us wondering how much time is enough time and what does time have to do with eternity? Ecclesiastes 3 addresses the notion of there being a time for everything. And it asks the question, how are we spending our time? Time is a commodity and we need to be responsible about what we are spending our time on. God tells us to number our days and be aware of what we do with the time He has given us. God always gives us just the right amount of time.
So, here we are. One year. So many things have happened this year for all of us and for those whom we are doing life with. This 3rd chapter of Ephesians has Paul coming right out with some righteous truth about how we, as the body of Christ, are bound together, Gentile and Jew, for the express reason of making Christ known. This year we saw some ways the Bride of Christ is to express that wonderful truth.
We have been given a rich heritage of faith, through Christ, to rest in and on the Lord. As ambassadors of Christ, we have the responsibility to bring those He has chosen to Him. As His Bride we have been given the sweet privilege of growing more in Him and in blessed relationship, displaying His righteousness and spending eternity with Him.
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18, NIV)
From Cheryl:
“ I love this verse and it is really a part of my story here at the ministry and in my business. God has so used my journey at Side by Side and then five years later when I opened Habitue’ to transform me into being more like Him. I remember being so excited about the ministry that God had called me to and like anything new that you start, there is a honeymoon period; and then it got really hard and long. In that season the Holy Spirit was becoming more and more real to me as I spent a lot of time in prayer. He began to reveal that there were things that had to change in me and would then show me to get curious with Him about where it all started. As I spent time in the presence of God, there were things that I remembered, and He brought new details that I wasn’t aware of. Like the rest of the story that was so needed. As I dealt with the part that I didn’t know or understand, and usually it meant that the awareness brought me to acceptance of whatever it was, it changed everything and there was healing in my heart and mind about some kind of hurt or wounding.
These were things that I had held onto for years and even things that I had believed my whole life. It was really about going into the hurts and challenges of my life with Jesus and the Spirit leading me to the hardest places but with that deep peace and trust that He was with me and so it felt so safe. God was healing and transforming me and His glory was so real. I would go into this safe and secret place with God where He knew more about me than I did, and He would show me what was needed to bring me to peace and wholeness. He was and is changing me to my very core and my identity is secure after being tested time and again through hardship. This is the work that we have learned and love to do with people at the ministry of Side by Side. Our very best days and moments in this beautiful work are all about helping people to know Jesus fully and then to walk in freedom and truth so that they can love others well. I’ve been doing this for 23 years now and it just keeps getting better. I am always aware that it is a work of the Spirit and how much I need Him to lead and bless.”
