5 Declarations for the New Year

Declaration 1: Through the blood of Jesus, all my sins are forgiven.

Focus Scripture:

In Him [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. (Ephesians 1:7)

One of the most wondrous aspects of God’s nature is that when He forgives, He does so completely and in full. The book of Micah states this truth beautifully:

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:18–19 NIV)

Isn’t that beautiful? Every wrong thing that we have ever done—everything that could ever make us feel guilty, every accusation that the enemy could ever bring against us—God treads underfoot, then hurls it into the depths of the sea.

Someone has remarked that when God casts your sins into the sea, He puts up a notice that reads, “No Fishing!” Don’t ever try to go back and resurrect something that God has buried. If God has forgiven you, you are forgiven. There are no further questions. God’s forgiveness is total.

Declaration 2: My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, redeemed, cleansed, by the blood of Jesus.

Focus Scripture:

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19)

Scripture says clearly many times that God does not dwell in temples made with hands. Neither does He dwell in church buildings, chapels, synagogues, or other physical houses of worship. He dwells in His people.

Our bodies are to be places of personal residence of the third Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. Our bodies are sacred because they are the appointed dwelling places of the Holy Spirit.

God’s plan of redemption is to put to death the old, fleshly nature and bring into being a totally new nature by His Holy Spirit within us. We must move out of one way of thinking—the area of the flesh—into a totally different one. We need the help of the Holy Spirit.

For as many as are [being] led by the Spirit of God, these [and these only] are sons of God. (Romans 8:14 NKJV)

Although God has made total provision for this transformation, we have to work it out in our lives. God does not do it for us; He has given us the legal right, authority, and power, but we must exercise them.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)

Declaration 3: Satan has no place in me, no power over me, no unsettled claims against me. All has been settled by the blood of Jesus!

Focus Scripture:

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. (Romans 8:33–34)

The same Christ who is the only Savior is also the only Deliverer. Only Jesus can break the power of demonic bondage in people’s lives and set them free. I want us to be introduced to the Deliverer in just the same way.

For those of us who desire deliverance, we need to make direct, personal contact with Christ. Here are four simple conditions we need to meet:

1. Be sure we have repented. That is, know that we have turned away from every form of sin.
2. Look only to Jesus, for He alone is the Deliverer.
3. Base our appeals solely on what Jesus did for us through His death on the cross rather than on any “good works” of our own.
4. Be sure that, by an act of our wills, we have forgiven every person who ever harmed or wronged us.

Declaration 4: My members, the parts of my body, are instruments of righteousness, yielded to God for His service and for His glory.

Focus Scripture:

Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (Romans 6:13)

It is a question of setting our wills, then yielding—in that order. If we don’t will, then, by habit, we will yield to the wrong thing. We must stop presenting our bodies, our members, to sin. When we were still unbelievers, we did just that for a long while. But we have to stop and say, “That’s the end of that!” Once we yield our wills to God, we don’t have to yield our members to Satan.

We are not governed by a set of rules. We have become sons of God, and we obey Him because we love Him. From now on, love, not fear, is our motivation for obedience. God does not make us slaves; the Law does that. God makes us His sons and daughters. We have to choose the Law or God’s grace.

Declaration 5: I have received the Spirit of sonship, and by Him, I cry, “Abba, Father.”

Focus Scripture:

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15 NIV)

Abba is the Aramaic or Hebrew word commonly used for “daddy.” And because we have received the Spirit of adoption, we have the right to address God as Abba. Father. Daddy.

Let’s look at a verse that speaks about the extent of our inheritance in Christ. Romans 8:23 reads, “He [God] who did not spare His own Son [Jesus], but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (NASB). When we receive Christ, God freely gives us all things. There is a strong emphasis in this verse on the scope of the inheritance and its absolute freedom. We cannot earn it. We receive it as a free gift that includes all things. We are heirs of the total inheritance—all that God the Father has, all that God the Son has—when we receive Christ.

So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God. (1 Corinthians 3:21–23 NASB)

What a breathtaking statement. Remember, the gift of the inheritance is freely given to us; we cannot earn it. But it is important that we ask the Holy Spirit to enlarge our faith and understanding. The Holy Spirit is the administrator, and unless He speaks to us and guides us into the truth, these will just be words, not reality. The Holy Spirit makes the promises a reality.