Alan Platt's Blog, page 2

Don’t abdicate your right to reign in life

”For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:17

The secret of reigning in life lies with receiving everything that Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross.

Based on the authority of God’s Word, you are destined to “reign in life” as a king and to have dominion over all your challenges and circumstances. You are called to be above them all and not to be trampled by them. The time has come for you to stop abdicating your right to reign in life!

The Bible tells us that it was because of “one man’s offense” — Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden — that death began to reign.

It is important that you realise that our lives are wrapped up in those of our ancestors. So we are sinners not because we sin, but because of Adam’s sin. Many believers still think that they became sinners by committing sin, but that is not what the Word of God says. What it says is that we are sinners because of Adam’s sin.

By the same token, we are made righteous in the new covenant not because we do righteous deeds, but because of one Man’s (Jesus’s obedience on the cross. It is not about something we must still do, it is by what is already done!

The secret of reigning in life lies therefore with receiving, believing and embracing everything that Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross.

 

The post Don’t abdicate your right to reign in life appeared first on Alan Platt.

You have to receive, not achieve

As Christians we are often driven to “do, do, do”, forgetting that Christianity is actually about “done, done, done”.

God’s ways are contrary to man’s ways. Man thinks that for God to bless him he needs to deserve, earn and merit God’s favour and blessings by his own efforts.  Man thinks that God’s blessings are based on his performance and good works.

The Bible states very clearly that we are to reign in life through Jesus Christ just by receiving two things from Him: the Abundance of Grace and the Gift of Righteousness.

God’s way is not about achieving, but about receiving. He promised that when we receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, we will reign in life. He did not say that when we achieve grace and our own righteousness, we will reign in life. Unfortunately we have been taught to focus on achieving, on doing and on relying on our self-efforts.

What believers do is that they take the system of the world and apply it to their Christian life. Instead of depending on God’s grace for His favour and blessings to flow, they depend on their self-efforts to try and deserve God’s favour and blessings. You cannot earn God’s blessings by your performance.

God’s blessings are based entirely on His grace. His blessings over your life have to be undeserved, unearned and unmerited. In other words, there is nothing that you can do to deserve His blessings, for they are based entirely on receiving Jesus, and through His finished work, the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.

Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “It is finished!” Everything that you and I require to reign in life was accomplished at Calvary on our behalf. That’s why we call what Jesus did on the cross His ‘finished work’! He finished it. He completed it. It is done!

The post You have to receive, not achieve appeared first on Alan Platt.

Tips from Daniel: how to influence modern secular society

It might seem like a daunting and even impossible task: influencing and ultimately changing our world. But we find practical principles from the life of Daniel, on how to effectively transform a society.

Be prepared: God allowed the Jews who had prepared themselves – and who had potential – to be chosen and set apart (Daniel 1:4). Notice their qualifications: Good appearance, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with wisdom and understanding, and the ability to serve in the king’s court as his advisors, the highest political positions.

Get training: Daniel and his friends were trained in higher education to be placed as the heads of societal positions. They had a Biblical foundation, and therefore a biblical worldview that could be well applied in the secular world. (Daniel 1:5).

Speak the language: Daniel and his friends were trained in all the literature and language of the Chaldeans (Daniel 1:4). Effective biblical worldview thinking means knowing and understanding popular and contemporary literature so the Bible can be applied skillfully to it. Daniel and his friends were trained to speak the language of Babylon.

Adapt or die: Daniel allowed himself to be renamed (Daniel 1:7). They fully identified themselves to their surrounding culture, without any sense of compromise. Paul said that his method of soul winning included becoming all things to all people that he may win some (1 Corinthians 9).

Don’t compromise: Daniel didn’t compromise his faith or his internal identity (Daniel 1:8). Daniel purposed in his heart his commitment to what he knew was right, and engaged the secular world with grace! When Jesus became a human He lived in such a way, making himself attractive even to sinners, without ever compromising His divinity and holiness.

Trust God for favor: Daniel and his friends trusted God to grant favor and lift them up every step of the way in their journey into prominent positions of influence (Daniel 1:9). We live from a sense of calling and destiny, and live within divine favor that translates into moments of tangible blessing.

Seize the day: Daniel seized every opportunity presented him to reason with those in influence (Daniel 1: 12-14)

Live in love: God loved the Babylonians so much he allowed His people to be taken captive and live in their land so that His Word could transform this empire.

 

The post Tips from Daniel: how to influence modern secular society appeared first on Alan Platt.

We need Christian thinking, not more Christians in leadership

There is an abundance of Christians serving in public schools, universities, hospitals, politics, businesses, and government. With so many Christians already placed in influential positions in our nation, we need to recognise that the major challenge we face in a changing our world – is not a lack of Christians – but a lack of Christian thinking!

We have to realise that the Bible is not just a book of promises, encouraging sayings and moral commandments, but a blueprint for how to manage and disciple nations! (Matthew 28:19) God has something to say regarding economics, health care, immigration, politics, science, history and how to care for the planet.

Even when our nation experienced revival in certain places, there were never long lasting effects regarding the spheres of education, law, the arts and politics. That is because Christians, without a Christ-centered worldview, are only ready to go to heaven but do not know how to fulfil the calling of stewardship here on earth.

The church needs to speak the language of Babylon, so to speak. After gaining a biblical worldview, believers need to speak the language of the culture they are in. For example, in the same way rugby uses words associated with the game such as ‘try’, ‘ruck’ and ‘hooker’, the disciplines of political science, economics, sociology and education, all have their own terminologies. We must master these terminologies if we want to be heard and have a real transformational impact. Quoting Bible passages and preaching at influential people, just won’t cut it.

What to do: If you are a believer already successfully immersed in a particular discipline, you need to think through the biblical concepts that apply to your field of work. Then you need to re-work them into terms that un-churched people can connect with.

Since the Bible has the best ideas – because it reflects God’s thinking! – mature believers, who do this skilfully, can expect to be elevated to the highest places of prominence in their respective fields.

 

 

The post We need Christian thinking, not more Christians in leadership appeared first on Alan Platt.

So have you changed your worldview lately?

Would you say that you have a biblical worldview – based on a thorough understanding of the Bible? Or do you know only a few pet Bible verses that you quote for physical, financial and emotional health, resulting in an unbalanced and a humanistic worldview?

These are two opposites of the pole, with many believers ranging somewhere in between. When we really explore what the Bible says and agree with its general principles regarding history, law, psychology, education, religion, politics, economics, family, and science, then we can have a biblical worldview that serves as our lens to interpret the world around us.

Because we are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27) we need to learn how to think God’s thoughts in all areas of life. In other words, our thoughts should be offshoot of God’s thoughts and not merely our own biased ideas and opinions. Most Christians often fall back on secular, humanistic views when thinking and talking about practical matters dealing with the stewardship of the earth.

This unfortunately leaves the church to deal only with matters of religion, emotional restoration and spirituality. The result is that, although we have an abundance of Christians serving in the secular world and record numbers of people attending church on Sundays, we are not changing our world!

Genuine Christianity is a way of seeing and understanding all reality. It is a worldview. Everything that exists came into being at Christ’s command and is therefore subject to him, finding its purpose and meaning in him. The implication is that in every topic we investigate, from ethics to economics to ecology, the truth is found only in relationship to Jesus Christ and his revelation.

The entire cosmos can be understood only in relation to Him. The church’s biggest failure in recent decades has been the failure to see Christianity as a life system that governs every area of existence. By failing to see this, we miss great depths of beauty and meaning: the thrill of seeing God’s splendor in the intricacies of nature hearing his voice in the performance of a great symphony orchestra or detecting his character in the harmony of a well ordered community.

.

 

The post So have you changed your worldview lately? appeared first on Alan Platt.

Grace at work

Someone once said: Works do not justify, but the justified person works. Well, that is quite true. “I laboured,” said the Apostle, “more abundantly than them all,” because of the overwhelming grace of God to me. It is therefore no longer a zeal for God, but rather a zeal of God that works through our lives. 

Grace is always set over against works. Grace will eventually demand works. And if you really grasp the full meaning of grace, you will have a passionate zeal to do far more good works, than when you were motivated by the law or religious performance.

Grace changes place with the works of the Law. What were the works of the law? They are the works we do to earn favour and to pay God back with our merit.

When grace comes in, you see, grace puts the works in another position altogether. It takes them out as a pre-requisite and positions them as a result. All works have not been ruled out of the universe. When grace has come in, if we have really grasped the meaning of grace, we will work more than anyone else has ever worked. But now they become the works of appreciation of grace, not to obtain it, not to merit it, but the works of thanks –given to God for His unspeakable gift of grace.

The truth in the New Creation is not working towards something, but it is working from something that has been done. We come into God’s perfect work, and now live from this accomplished reality. We are under grace!

But be very careful and watch out, for our religious inclination will never cease to try and undercut grace and bring us back under law and into bondage.

We must learn what grace really is and what grace really means. We must learn how deep, how vast, how unfathomable and unsearchable – the riches of His grace – really is in our lives.

 

The post Grace at work appeared first on Alan Platt.

Nelson Mandela – we reflect with gratitude

I, and many fellow South Africans are saddened by the passing of one of the most respected and revered humans ever to grace the planet, the father of our new nation of South Africa, Nelson Mandela.

As we work through the loss of such a great leader, we reflect with gratitude on the life and legacy of this international icon. We thank God for his special involvement to establish our new democratic South Africa. We treasure the memory of the spirit of reconciliation that permeated our country through his magnanimous actions of forgiveness and the embrace of all peoples as having equal value before God! May we honour his memory by embracing and protecting these values!

As we mourn his passing as a nation, let us place our hope for the future, not for another ‘Mandela’ to arise, but rather in the One before whom he now stands, Jesus Christ the Lord of lords and King of kings!

 

The post Nelson Mandela – we reflect with gratitude appeared first on Alan Platt.

We are sons and heirs through salvation

He is not embarrassed about me. He is not ashamed to call me the brother of His Son. His own Spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am a child of God. I am no longer a slave. How wonderful is that?

 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ,” says Ephesians 2:13.

 Jesus spells out salvation. Our salvation! For He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all one origin. We come out of the same factory. That is why He is not ashamed to call us brethren.

 Hebrews 2:10,11 says: “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.”

 You see how Jesus interprets our redemption?

 If we are sons then we are heirs. Heirs of the Father and joined heirs with the Son. He has totally fused us together with Himself in the thought of God. He has cancelled the distance. Those who were far off, He brought near by His blood. The blood of Jesus successfully bridged the distance between fallen man and God, and He successfully raised us up together with Him to be His associates, the household of God.

 Entering into salvation means viewing ourselves, and one another, from God’s point of view. No longer considering any man from a human point of view but discovering my brother and myself in Christ Jesus, included in Him.

 God knows me in His Son. God sees me associated in His Son and He desires to bring us into a place where we may see the same. We must see ourselves the way God sees us, we must live within the boundaries of Christ’s achievement. This is the secret of our salvation.

 He liberated me from the slave mentality, because I am born as a son. And as I behold Him I am being changed into His likeness.

 

The post We are sons and heirs through salvation appeared first on Alan Platt.

Enter His rest

So, are you in God’s rest? If you are more persuaded by your circumstances than God’s ability to work out what He has promised – then you are probably not! You need to allow the integrity of God’s Word to produce persuasion in your heart.

In the New Testament, entering into God’s rest – is our promised land.

The Israelites however failed to enter their inheritance due to unbelief. Their unbelief became their disobedience. Unbelief and disobedience are basically the same thing, because both words in Greek has its origin in the word persuasion. The Israelites were not persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised.

Hebrews 3:18-19 says: “And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”

They did not allow the integrity of God’s Word that was coming to them, to produce persuasion in their hearts. They rather preferred to be more persuaded about the circumstances than God’s ability to work out what He has promised.

How do we enter into this rest? By not falling after the same manner of disobedience, by not failing to mix the Word together with faith, but focusing, paying a closer attention to the accomplished work of Christ Jesus. Remember, when a man hears the Word he must respond to it, if not, he goes away and there is no benefit and no positive release of what the Word promises. Why? Because the Word is not embraced with faith. Our faith in Him is our dedication and labour to enter His rest.

Hebrews 4:11 says: “Let us therefore strive or labour to enter into His rest, that no one will fall after the same disobedience.”

Our diligence or labouring has everything to do with our focusing on the accomplished work of Christ on the cross.

 

The post Enter His rest appeared first on Alan Platt.

Word plus faith – a profitable mixture

Mixing the word with faith is a profitable activity! Hebrews 4:2 says: “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.”

When Is the Word mixed together with faith?

 When we gaze intently upon the perfect law of liberty

James 1:25 “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

When I refuse to listen to contradiction

1 Timothy 6:20: “O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.”

When I refuse to question or tamper with God’s Word,

2 Corinthians 4:2: “We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s Word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience….”

When we are convinced God is with us no matter what.

Romans 8:38-39: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The Word mixes together with faith through my constant focusing on Christ. If you want to see God in action, believe the Word.

 

The post Word plus faith – a profitable mixture appeared first on Alan Platt.