We Need Him

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem,
until ye be endued with power from on high. —Luke 24:49

The disciples had just been through the best Bible school training you could have. They walked and talked and lived with Jesus for three years. They heard every sermon He preached; they saw every miracle He performed. If anybody was ever qualified to go out and make an impact on the world, it was them! Yet Jesus said not to go, not to leave Jerusalem, without the promise of the Father. If they needed the promise to go, to be effective, we still need the promise today. Do not go—to work—to the store—to the event—anywhere— without the promise of the Holy Ghost.

Pastor Tom Kehres

​Your Righteous and Holy Standing

Read Ephesians 4:1–6.

He hath chosen us in him . . .
holy and without blame before him in love . . . [adopted as] children . . . [and] accepted in the beloved. —Ephesians 1:4–6

According to the good pleasure of His will, you have been chosen by God. Before the foundation of the world, you were chosen to be before God, in His presence, to be holy, without blame, accepted in the Beloved as part of the family of God. This was God’s desire, God’s plan, and accomplished by God’s provision! God’s will is for you to have a close, intimate relationship with Him, a righteous and holy standing before God. What Adam lost in the Garden, God restored on the cross! You are a child of the living God. Guilt-free! Condemnation-free! With a legal right to come boldly into His presence. You are no longer a stranger or a foreigner to God, but a fellow citizen and a member of the household of God (Ephesians 2:19). Stop begging and pleading for the things of God as if they do not belong to you. Stop trying to convince God to do for you what He has already provided and desires for you to have! Come holy, come righteous, come unblamable, come chosen, come accepted— before Him in love—and obtain all the mercy and find all the grace you need. He is waiting daily to make all blessings for you come alive to you! You have no excuse! Come boldly!

Pastor Tom Kehres

Believe Who You Are

And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. —Ephesians 4:24

This is what happened the very second you received salvation and got born again—you were created in righteousness and true holiness. Notice, you were not created to become righteous and holy, but you were created in righteousness and holiness. That is who you are; that is your position with Him. You have a right place and a holy place with Him. But you must “put on the new man.” You put Him on in your thought life and in your imagination. How you see yourself will determine your walk and relationship with God. If you believe you are still a sinner, you will live like a sinner, distant from God. If you believe you are unholy, you will live an unholy life—and not only that, but you will also strive and struggle to become a righteous and holy person through your own efforts! Your own efforts can never produce righteousness and holiness, only failure. Stop trying to “become” and just believe you are—by the Blood. Put on the new man—the righteous man, the holy man, the unblameable and unreprovable man, the reconciled man. Believe in what the blood of Christ has freely provided for you!

Pastor Tom Kehres

How You Appear in His Sight

And, having made peace through the blood of his cross,
by him to reconcile all things unto himself . . . to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight. —Colossians 1:20, 22

Through the sacrifice of Jesus, Father God once again restored peace between mankind and God by the Blood. You have been recon- ciled to Him, and you now stand before Him holy and unblame- able and unreprovable. What a basis for a relationship with God! What a possibility for closeness with Him! You have been re-cre- ated holy, righteous, and justified by the Blood, not by your works. Your efforts and behavior have nothing to do with your present place with God. He shed the Blood, He reconciled, He now presents you to Himself righteous and holy. Others may look at your faults, you may constantly look at your failures, but in His sight you are holy, blameless, and unreprovable. Begin to put some faith in the Blood. Begin to believe in who He has made you in Christ. Do not settle for a distant relationship with Him, but come as one who belongs in His presence. You are reconciled to Him by the blood of Christ!

Pastor Tom Kehres