"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" Matthew 7:11 Our enemy the devil is well aware that the moment you learn to receive God's grace, you will start to reign in life. So, he has been working hard to prevent you from receiving the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. The devil has been using controversy as a device down through church history to prevent believers from having access to the most powerful truths of God.
But He needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar...Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." John 4:4-7 I encourage you to read the remarkable story of the Samaritan woman in John 4. Considered a woman with a shady past, she was gossiped about in her village and probably shunned for being a home wrecker, a "stealer of husbands."
Then the Lord said to Noah, "Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation." Genesis 7:1 Remember how Noah was safe in the ark when the floodwaters came? While Noah was not perfect, God saw him as righteous because of his faith in God (see Heb. 11:7). When the flood came, everyone outside the ark died, but Noah and his family were protected and saved. Why? Because they were in the ark, which is a type of Christ, who is our salvation (see Acts 4:12).
But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Matthew 1:20-21
And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you heed the voice of the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 28:2, AMP Today, despite whatever you are facing in life, take time to hear Jesus. If you are concerned about symptoms in your body, keep hearing and hearing about how our Lord Jesus loved to heal and still heals today. Hear how He bore the cruel Roman lashes for you, so that by His stripes, you are healed (see Isa. 53:5). Hear how He went about doing good and healing ALL who were oppressed (bodily, emotionally, and mentally) by the devil (see Acts 10:38, Matt. 9:35).
The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you." Jeremiah 31:3 I heard a story of a minister from Oregon who was assigned to provide counseling in a state mental institution. His first assignment was to a padded cell that housed deranged, barely clothed patients. He couldn't even talk to the inmates, let alone counsel them - the only responses he got were groans, moans, and demonic laughter.
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. Genesis 39:1-2 Would you consider the young man Joseph, who was about to be sold into slavery, "a successful man?" Of course not! Yet, God says in His own words that Joseph was a successful man.
"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'" Luke 15:4-6 Do you remember the parable of the lost sheep Jesus told in Luke 15? When the shepherd found the lost sheep, he lifted it up and laid it upon his strong shoulders.
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Colossians 2:13 You will never be sure that you have God's unmerited favor if you are not sure if God has forgiven you of your sins. Beloved, I want you to know that your sins are forgiven not according to the riches of your good works, but according to the riches of God's grace (unmerited favor). All your sins, past, present and future, have been forgiven. Don't draw a timeline of God's forgiveness of your sins.
For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, "The man who does those things shall live by them." But the righteousness of faith speaks. Romans 10:5-6 Let me say something about faith. You cannot have faith without speaking it. When you study Romans 10, you will notice that it says that "the righteousness which is of the law.... does.... But the righteousness of faith speaks." The law is about doing, whereas faith is about speaking. It is not enough to just know in your mind that you are righteous.
Follow Up
