For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only-begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish—come to destruction, be lost—but have eternal (everlasting) life.God said to you and me, "I love you so much that I am going to make you just like Me." And now that God has made us, every chance he gets the devil comes along and says to us: "You're not anything. You're nobody. You're not worth anything."
(John 3:16 AMP)
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
(Rom. 10:9-10 KJV)
For [the Spirit which] you have now received [is] not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption—the Spirit producing sonship—in [the bliss of] which we cry, Abba! [That is,] Father!
The Spirit Himself [thus] testifies together with our own spirit, [assuring us] that we are children of God...
And not only the creation, but we ourselves too, who have and enjoy the first fruits of the (Holy) Spirit—a foretaste of the blissful things to come—groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies [from sensuality and the grave, which will reveal] our adoption (our manifestation as God's sons).
(Rom. 8:15-16,23)
God said, Let Us [father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness; and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over every thing that creeps upon the earth.
So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them.
(Gen. 1:26-27)
And many among us believe the devil's lies.
One day it dawned on me that God has given us a contract, and it's the Bible. When we have a lack of knowledge about our contract, it's hard for us to stop the devil from causing us to break that contract.
But when we get the knowledge of what this contract says, we have the right to resist the devil and say to him:
"No, devil, you cannot force me to break the contract because it is legal and biding. It is an agreement between my Father God and me, through Jesus, and He is the judge and jury, not you. You cannot make me break my contract."
The contract states that you and I are "somebody" to God and that He can and will do great and wonderful things in us and through us and around us.
But we have to take authority over our surroundings in the name of Jesus and say: "This is my contract and, devil, in the name of Jesus you will not cause me to break it. I am 'somebody' to God."
You need to know today that this is your day—you can rise up! You may not know that you are "somebody" to God, but the contract states that you are (Gen. 1:26-27).
In other words, as a believer you have a rich inheritance through your contract with God because of the death of Jesus Christ for your sins.
In Christ you are somebody!
by Cheryl Prewitt-Salem.
Excerpt permission granted by Praise Books