This pastor is spot-on about the spiritual problems, which have become all to prevalent in the United States:
I am learning to have more compassion.
My parents did take my sister and me to church. That was a good thing. I am glad that I went to church, I am glad that I learned and received Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord.
What was the problem, then? How come our family did not see life and prosperity emerge in great ways? Why was my parents' marriage troubled for so long? Why did my mother go crazy, and why did my father become so lazy and cowardly, refusing to take a stand against my abusive mother?
As I just wrote above, my parents were reading their Bibles. They went to church. In fact, I could go so far as to say that they did believe in Jesus. I don't see any reason (as of this writing) to believe that they were not believers in Christ.
What happened was that they were living under mixture.
My parents were not resting in the Grace of God. They did not see Jesus as a living Savior, in large part because they believed that they still had to do most of the living themselves. I call this "The Galatian Error," in which once they were saved by grace, they know believe that they have to live under law for sanctification, for guidance on good living.
God's Word could not be clearer about man's relationship with the Law once he is saved:
"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." (Romans 7:4)
and
"19For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God." (Galatians 2:19)
How much clearer can Paul the Apostle make it to the church?
And yet, to this day, I cannot tell you how many times I have heard pastors, preachers, and teachers tell us that we still need to keep the Ten Commandments, that we still need to pay attention to the Law of Moses in order to be holy before God.
That is absolute nonsense! We are dead to the law! How can anyone get this idea that we can still live according to a standard, when we are already dead to the standard!
Consider the grave consequences for those who still insist on living under law:
"20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2:20-21)
We frustrate the grace of God inour lives when we try to make ourselves righteous by doing. We frustrate the grace of God when we think that righteousness is something that we earn.
OK, OK, I have made my point on this.
Getting back to my parents, what was their problem? Why did they see no victory in their lives, and why in turn did they pass this cycle of defeat onto me?
They were adding to Jesus' Finished Work.
My mother was head-deep in Alcoholics Anonymous. This dangerous cult teaches people to identify with alcoholism. This dangerous cult teaches people to keep taking their inventory, i.e. keep reviewing and rehearsing their sins every day so that they can stay "one step ahead" of alcoholism coming back to haunt them.
You cannot say that you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), then turn around and continue to call yourself an alcoholic. 2 Corinthians 5:17 indicates that we have been made a new creation in Christ, as well. We are not to identify with the old man of our sinful nature, but to see ourselves in Christ. We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ (Romans 6:14)
Alcoholics Anonymous teaches people to look at their sins, and to look to their own efforts to overcome their failings. And my mother was in bondage to this cult, until the last day that I spoke with her. She insisted on taking her inventory (yet again), and I refused to go along with any of that religious self-flagellation.
As for my father, he often sought the approval and compliments of others. He was really desperate to be liked, and I do not have the whole story as to why. I do know that my father was head-deep into Scientology for a long time. Two of my other relatives reminded me of his attachment to that cult, as well. Even when I was growing up, I remember how my Dad would sprinkle in stupid ideas which he had learned from Scientology, as if any of it was true or had any relevance. If the Word of God is not good enough for someone, why allow for any kind of mixture in the first place?
For the longest time, and even now as I look back on his life, it sure seems as though he was just playing church. He was pretending to be a Christian, going through all the motions, saying the right things, engaging in the right activities, going into prayer. When times got tough, when there were serious challenges that he was facing, however, he would resort to relying on his own efforts. He did not see a Living Savior taking care of him.
Why? Because he went back into trusting his own efforts. He was mixing up what Christ did and what he still thought that he needed to do. There was so mixture, and so little time to tell the difference. How could I have known any differently? My parents believed wrong, and so did the rest of the household as a result.
I remember when my mother would drive my sister and me to school. Every morning, she would offer up a prayer for us, and we would pray along with her. After leaving the car, however, I still felt as though I was all alone on campus, that I had to take care of myself. I received no large revelation that Christ Jesus was watching out for me, taking care of me, living in and through me.
Neither did my mother and father, I guess. They went to work, they faced their several challenges, and they acted as if they were all alone in the world. What a shame. I am saddened that they did not have the wonderful, vibrant, excellent revelation of seeing Jesus alive in their own lives, in their own walk. Today, I have such a lightness of heart and soul. Everything feels so much brighter around me, as well. Indeed, I can see clearly now. The darkness is dissipating. The confusion is falling away. The world is not a scary place to me, and I am not worried about anything surprising me anymore.
My parents were talking about the right things, and they did bring my sister and me to church. We did pray, we did read our Bibles. However, what frustrated everything for my parents, and why there was no victory or success in their lives is that they were still living under law. They were living in mixture, in which they wanted to believe God AND trust their own efforts.
What people in the Body of Christ need now more than ever is not just to keeping hearing and hearing the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17), but they also need to reject all the wrong believing, the wrong thinking, the wrong views that they have grown up with, which have been pushed on them. We need to understand that it is Christ alone, by faith alone, through grace alone, in His Word alone. For too many of us, we are still adding the traditions, the teachings, the talking points which other people have given us. So much of that wrong believing needs to be dispensed with.
Jesus is enough. He is more than enough. In fact, He fulfills every need, meets every demand, and provides for us in every way. There is no need for anything else, for anyone else, and Jesus does not need the assistance of other religions, programs, or any cult.
Lord Jesus!
My head is so at peace!
No longer do I judge whether Daddy God is on my side depending on how I feel or what I am thinking. I realize that You have been actively holding onto me this whole time!
"9If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
"10Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand
shall hold me." (Psalm 139:9-10)
He holds onto us! We don't hold onto Him.
Now this verse means so much more to me than ever before:
"29Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6:29)
I had such a hard time with this simple exhortation. I did not realize how much Jesus is doing.
Lord Jesus, I did not realize how much YOU are doing for me.
For so long, someone else told me who You are. Today, because of the grace of God, because of the full revelation of the New Covenant, I allow the Holy Spirit to tell me who You are!
"I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee." (Job 42:5)
I finally see You, Lord Jesus, and I know that You are holding onto me!
"My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no
man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." (John 10:29)
What is so different now is that I see how alive You are. What is so different now is that I know You are holding onto me, even when bad things happen. Even when things are not going the way that they are supposed to:
"And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian." (Genesis 39:2)
This promise is fulfilled for all of us in Christ!
"Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." (Matthew 1:29)
Daddy God is holding onto me. I am not trying to hold onto Him. And that means so much!
Why was this so hard for me? Because I kept thinking that I had to conjure Him up in my mind. But He is greater than our minds, greater than our awareness. He has been caring for us, and carrying us, from the moment we believed on Him! That is great revelation:
"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Romans 11:33)
And all this time, when I would talk or think out loud, I was still under this false impression that God was far away, distant, that I had to search for Him.
But I was so wrong, Lord! You are right here, and You are always right here with me!
"If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." (Psalm 139:8)
and
"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;" (John 14:16)
and
"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:" (Colossians 1:27)
Daddy God, You are always with me, and You are always working and caring for me. Thank you, Daddy God, for Your patience and Your kindness towards me. AMEN!
I have written about this traumatic time in a life before, and it bears writing about again.
I suffered incredible bouts of guilt in 2009, so much so that I could barely function some days. My mind was crowded about with such negative, terrible thoughts. I felt so guilty for the nasty feelings that I had entertained.
Then this sense of guilt would just never go away. I had this terrible feeling that the police would come to my door any minute and arrest me. I could not shake this sense of shame for a long time.
Now, looking back more than ten years later, I realized that I had shared these profound feelings of guilt for so long, and the people I spoke with, all men who claimed to be Christians, never told me the simple, unrelenting answer:
Through Christ Jesus you are justified from all your sins!
Jesus has paid for all your sins!
Jesus took your guilt! He paid the price!
Most of the people I knew, from my father to the men whom I used to meet with in Celebrate Recovery, never really believed this release.
They did not believe that all their sins were forgiven.
They did not believe that Jesus had done a perfect work at the Cross.
The never once, never ONCE, pointed me to the Finished Work of the Cross.
It's just outrageous and unbelievable.
I so regret this lack of wisdom, this lack of understanding. I am so sad for them, too, because they did not see Jesus as a living Savior caring for them and setting them free. They were walking by sight and not by faith.
No wonder I faced so many struggles in my life, and no wonder there was so much struggle.
Thanks be to God that I have heard the true Gospel of Grace from Pastor Joseph Prince. AMEN!
This may seem like a contradiction to some, but I can make this make sense.
Yes, Jesus has Finished the Work. He put aside all our sins, and He gave us His righteousness. We have become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21), meaning that our nature, our identity is new, defined by His righteousness, not our wretchedness.
We no longer have to do "our part" to make sure that Jesus does His Part.
But here's the part that I did not understand for the longest time: Jesus is alive, and He is working for us!
Jesus is not some figment of our imaginations who comes and goes if we feel bad, think bad, or even do something bad.
He is alive, and Hes serves us ever still!
"[Jesus] is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." (Hebrews 7:16-17)
Jesus is not seated at the right hand of our Daddy God doing nothing:
"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." (Romans 8:34)
He is also working in us and through us:
"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)
Why have I struggled with this, and what has been changing in my mind? How has Daddy God been transforming me from glory to glory via His Holy Spirit, as I behold His Son in the Scriptures?
I am really starting to understand now that all the upsets in my mind, the assaults and fears that have plagued me and demanded my attention, they are not only from me, but all these fears and tumults are answered by the Cross!
That's what Paul is writing about when he tells the Corinthians:
"4(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 6And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled." (2 Corinthians 10:4-6)
It's not my job to bring those thoughts into captivity. God brings those thoughts into captivity, and He does so through the obedience of Christ, that is what His Son accomplished at the Cross!
The weapons of our warfare are indeed mighty, and yet for the longest time I had believed that bad thoughts, bad fears, upsets in my mind or feelings, all of that was my job to do something about. Today, I understand that all of those premonitions are nothing but mind control from the AA Cult. Furthermore, I know that Jesus is ALIVE, that He is providing for me in all my work and my walk. I am not trying to live this life on my own. It's about seeing Jesus by faith, with the eyes of my heart further and further enlightened (Ephesians 1:17-18). It's not about looking at myself. It's not about trying to figure things out in my head. It's not about trying to seek God's presence through my feelings or some kind of rational discernment. He was already made present to me the moment that I believed in His Son, and I accepted His sacrifice on the Cross.
What has been happening since then? I have had to unlearn so much of the garbage, the mistakes, the distortions, the outright wrong-believing of my parents. Many of us have to go through this, and there is no reason for me to feel bitter about it. Christ Jesus makes all things better:
"And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful." (Revelation 21:5)
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." (Isaiah 26:3)
This is really amazing, and this is really something that is leaving my mind reeling.
It's hard for me to explain, but I am going to do the best that I can with my writing.
I have been all too alive in my head. For the longest, longest time I treated every tremor, every thought, every rumor in my mind as something that I had to respond to. Why was I so concerned about what was going on in my mind?
I was convinced that I had to keep my mind free in order to hear God talking to me. For so long, I had treated God as someone who lives in my head. I was not walking by faith, but walking by feelings, and walking by the reason of my mind, based on only on what I can see, touch, taste, sense, etc.
All of that is wrong. All wrong!
I have written in previous posts that I was so obsessed with keeping my mind and thoughts in order. I was so busy living in my head, thinking that I had to figure out life in my head first to get anywhere.
I did not realize how alive, how pertinent, how present Jesus is in my life, regardless of whatever is going in my flesh, my feelings, or the facts before me.
For too, too long I was attaching the truth to what I was thinking, rather than getting my thinking in line with the truth.
Finally, I have a greater understanding of this great promise from Paul to the Corinthians:
"4(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)
The weapons of our warfare are mighty through God. It's not based on our efforts, but His work! I don't have to conjure up Daddy God to be present in my life. He is already here working in me, and working around all of us!
What is starting to become real to me now, though, the bigger revelation than ever before, is that much of the noise--no, all the noise--that is warfare against my mind. It was never me to begin with! The weapons of our warfare are indeed mighty through God, because Jesus, His obedience to God the Father, vanquished sin, and Satan, and the grave. He has paid for everything. There is no need to do extra, to think different, to correct my mind or to answer every fear, doubt, and question that rises up.
The Cross of Jesus Christ puts the answer to every challenge, interrogation, fear, or wonder. I understand what it means to walk by faith now. It's not about making stuff up in our minds. It's not about hyping up our feelings. Nor is walking by faith some leap into absurdity. We take as true and unshaking that God is with us, that Jesus Christ accomplished what He said He did at the Cross, and that to this day He is seated at the right hand of His Father--and our Father--ministering, interceding on our behalf.
The revelations that have also been pouring in for me for the last two weeks have included recognizing that Jesus, who is alive, the Holy Spirit who is moving are always providing for me and providing everything. I am not supposed to worry about anything.
And I am not supposed to worry about worrying about anything, either.
I have fought the fight in my head for so long, being distracted with all the sentiments that I was going through. Now, I know and believe in Daddy God's love for me, and I understand that I am not supposed to worry or fight off bad thoughts or worried thoughts, either.
The Cross, the Finished Work of Jesus Christ, has paid for all of it! AMEN!
On this theme, I am beating a dead horse, but then again, I find that too many Christians are riding a similar dead horse, so once again this horse needs to be whipped so that people stop riding it in the first place.
I do not want to believe in my conception of God. I do not want to believe in anyone else's conception of God.
And yet, too many people are coming to God and interacting with our loving Father via the conceptions of preachers, pastors, and teachers. We need to consult God's Word to see who God is.
Alcoholics Anonymous teaches people to use their own conception of God in order to break free of alcohol addiction. I cannot begin to tell you how vile, petty, dangerous, and destructive that nonsensical idea is.
If we can conceive of God, He would no longer be God. I cannot begin to understand how any divine or supernatural intelligence could have brought this world, the entire universe into being, yet even then such a conception does not begin to help us really understand who God is.
We know who He is based on His Word.
And throughout His Word, we read:
"Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. His mercy endures forever." (Psalm 136:1)
The LORD is good.
His mercy (His grace) endures forever!
Most people do not know this, or they do not believe this about God. They simply do not know or believe.
Yet John shared the following:
"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 John 4:16)
There is no way anyone of us could have figured this out or come up with this on our own. No way.
It takes revelation, because our reason cannot begin to grasp this amazing truth about our loving Heavenly Father.
Consider also how great this love is for us!
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
There is no way that I could ever understand a loving God sending His own Son to die for me.
Paul expounds on this massive revelation:
"6For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6-8)
Sure, one man might die for a good person, or even a great person. But the notion that God Himself would send His Beloved Son to die for all of mankind, you and me, when were still red-blooded rebels against God, alienated from His life and love for us (Ephesians 2:12), that is something that we cannot begin to understand.
For that reason, Paul prayed this prayer, and urged us to pray the same in turn:
"17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19)
Alcoholics Anonymous tells people to settle for whatever conception of God they can come up with. Most people end up coming up with some abusive conception of God based on how their parents treated them, or based on the stuffy, legalistic rationale that most pastors and preachers push on their congregation.
I want to know Him and see Him in His gracious fullness. I do not want to be stuck, sand-bagged with the crappy ideas of what someone else thinks God is like. If we go with our own conception of God, we are stuck living in our heads, trying to make sense of everything.
That's what happened to me, because that is what I was taught for so long.
No, I do not want to believe in my or anyone else's conception of God. I want to believe and receive the truth conception of the living, loving SAVIOR OF THE WORLD!
This is the Savior we need to believe in:
"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6:29)
If that is the only work, then we need to know Him, not ourselves. We cannot know Jesus through our own efforts. We need to see Him and receive Him through His Word!
"25Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 27And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." (Luke 24:25-27)
Jesus taught of Himself. He didn't talk about having a great marriage. He didn't talk about getting rich, or dying trying. He didn't talk about how to have a healthy family or a great career or calling.
He taught of Himself, and we are not going to Himself except through the Word of God.
It's all about Jesus, not ourselves. He is our focus, for He is our life (Colossians 3:4).
Consider Peter's last words in the New Testament as a testimony to what we should all be focusing on:
"18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." (2 Peter 3:18)
There's an "Amen" at the end of that prayer! Let's make Jesus our focus, since He is so focused on us. He is good, and His grace endures forever!
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people," (Ephesians 1:18, NIV)
This journey of the being enlightened has been a real blast. It's just amazing!
I really see Jesus, far more than I could have ever imagined. This is a new life, a new opportunity.
When I walk out and about, it really does seem that everything is lighting up! I can see everything so much better! It's really amazing.
Pastor Prince preached about the Year of Hazon Vision in 2021. When Year 2022 rolled around, however, I was not finished with the eyes of my heart being enlighted. I wanted to see more, and I want to see more of Him. Yes!
I am a Revelation Addict now, and I am not ashamed to admit it. I don't need no Twelve Step program to break free of this "addiction," either.
For the longest time, I lived my life by thinking through everything. I really believed that life would not go on in my life if I was not thinking through everything. This may sound crazy, but remember that I grew up in a hard-core, Twelve-Step household, in which everything was based on the cult of Alcoholics Anonymous.
God is real. God is good. He is working in us and around us. We do not have to force the issue. We do not have to strive or cogitate on our own to make God real in our lives.
We only need to ask God to enlighten the eyes of our hearts, so that we see more of Him!
God is thinking about us. We don't have to strive in our own minds to think about Him, to keep Him active and alive in our lives. This is a simple revelation, perhaps so simple that it would insult most people's intelligence, but for the longest time I lived as though His live, His presence, His love for me was all conditioned on what I was thinking, feeling, or even doing. It has taken me a long time to realize how alive, how powerful, how independent Daddy God is in my life, and that Christ Jesus lives in me by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It's one thing to know about it, to hear about it. It's quite another when you start to realize how alive He is in our daily lives, caring for us every day, in every way. I really do see Him at work in my life. I understand what it means to walk by faith, not by sight. I understand also that God is not trying to play hard-to-get or hide-and-seek with us. Because of our limited sight and ability, because we are creation and not creator, it takes time for us to understand and receive revelation based on spiritual revelation, not through mental cogitation or physical discernment.
Too much preaching in the United States tells about having great faith.
But many people do not know that we have a living Savior watching out for us NOW.
I love many of the teachings released by Pastor Jerry Savelle, for example, and also from Pastor Kenneth Copeland and others.
However, too many of them are just focusing on "The Word, The Word, The Word," without connecting with the truth that the Word is a PERSON!
We don't read the Bible to get knowledge. We read the Bible so that we can meet JESUS!
I need to know that I have a living Savior watching out for me.
I need to know that this living Savior is living through me and caring for me.
In fact, we all need to know about this glorious promise established for us in the New Covenant:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:" (Hebrews 8:10)
He is a God to us!
We need to understand that we don't bring God alive in our lives through our confession.
Our confession is all about gaining a greater awareness of who He is all that He is doing.
We need the Word of God so that we can understand the loving God of the Word!
We don't need great faith to believe in a great Savior. We need to know that we have a Great Savior who cares for us, and that revelation builds our faith!
I realized more and more that I kept treating Jesus too small. I put him in my head, when the truth is that he is outside of our heads and holding everything together.
Perfect peace is about us leaning into Him.
I kept thinking that I had to make sure that I was thinking about Him, to ensure that He would take care of me. I had too small an understanding of my Heavenly Father.
Over the past two months, I have received a larger and larger revelation of how big He is. Thank you, Daddy God, for being so patient with me as you reveal more of yourself to me.
I see now to what extent You are taking care of me. I realize that I have been still depending too much on myself. I was too busy thinking that I had to do "my part" in order for you to do your part. How wrong I was!
The Lord is good, and His mercy endures for ever.
The Lord is good, and His grace endures forever. AMEN!
We don't have to worry about any of the stuff around us.
Let us cast our cares on Him, because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7)
For the longest time, I was so busy trying to be in the right place, or be in a place where I would feel God's presence.
I wonder how many of us do the same thing in our lives. We want to be, think, act, feel a certain way so that we can feel at peace.
Yet the Bible clearly outlines God's promises to care and provide for us, wherever we are!
"For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield." (Psalm 5:12)
and
"For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour." (Psalm 8:5)
and also
"Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop
fatness." (Psalm 65:11)
And finally
"[He] redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;" (Psalm 103:4)
He crowns us, He surrounds us, so therefore there is no reason for us to get downed about anything!
AMEN!
Thank you, Pastor Gordon and the rest of the pastoral team for letting me speaking to the whole church today.
I really appreciate it!
All of this started out with the blessed opportunity to share a great testimony, which I will share again.
Thursday, April 21, I had a stroke! I am only 41 years old, and I had a stroke! I suddenly had trouble swallowing, and I felt numbness along the right side of my body. When I called 9-11, I could not speak or saying anything intelligible.
But instead of panicking or getting afraid, I remembered God’s Word, God’s promises for me, and I declared in my mind, even if I could not say it out of my mouth:
“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.” (Psalm 118:17)
I have a picture on my door at home, and I declare another promise, that I will live to be 120 years old. That’s a promise we can bank on because of these verses:
“And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” (Genesis 6:3)
The second time that 120 is mentioned, as in 120 years, takes place in Deuteronomy, when Moses dies:
“And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.” (Deuteronomy 34:7)
We can rest and receive this promise, because of what God has done for us through His Son Jesus!
Consider the last verse in Psalm 91:
“With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.” (Psalm 91:16)
That last word says it all: Salvation!
We can trust and believe for long life, because of Jesus! He is our Life:
“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4)
So, when I had my stroke, I called 911, and paramedics arrived on scene to assist me. By the time they arrived, all the symptoms were gone. I could talk, I could drink, and I felt no numbness in the right side of my body. They told me to go to urgent care, which I did. The doctor told me “You’re going into emergency. This is very serious. It’s better to have long period of aggravation than to take a chance, suffer later.”
So, there I was in the emergency room. And then they told me that I was going to stay for the evening. They didn’t know why I had a stroke. My blood pressure was OK, and they did some initial scans, and they found evidence of a suspected stroke. But that was it.
While I was in the hospital room, I started praying the first prayer that Paul the Apostle shares with the Ephesians church. That has been a prayer that I have been praying a great deal for the last year and a half:
“15Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; 17That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,” (Ephesians 1:15-18)
I want to see more of Jesus! I want to see Him!
I want to share with you the New Living Translation of Ephesians 1:18:
“I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.” (Ephesians 1:18, NLT)
In these really tough times, when there are troubles on every side, it’s so important to see Him!
Jesus is alive! He is alive in our everyday lives, because He is our life. I feel that many believers in the Body of Christ know that Jesus died for them, but they don’t see Him as a living, moving, active Savior in every day of their walk on this earth.
Now, the question comes up: how do I see Jesus? What is the best way to see Him?
Jesus Himself provides the way!
Turn with me to Luke 24: [Spence, I will tell you how to bring up the verses, one at a time---Luke 24: 13-24]
“13And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. 14And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.” (Luke 24: 13-15]
Check that out! Jesus HIMSELF! Drew near!
16But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
Some people have suggested that Jesus withheld the two of them from seeing Him. I don’t receive that, because Jesus is the Light of the World (John 8:12). I will explain later why I think these two disciples did not recognize Jesus at first.
17And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? (Luke 24:17)
I want to park here for a second. Notice how Jesus, who has risen from the dead, purged all our sins, fulfilled so many prophecies, steps into the life of these two downcast disciples. He cares for your, believers, and now matter how bad the situation may seem, Jesus is there with you!
18And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? 19And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: 20And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. (Luke 24:18-20)
Notice how Cleopas refers to Jesus as a prophet. Yes, He served as a prophet during His earthly ministry. But Jesus did not come to earth to reveal God’s judgment against us, nor to remind everyone of their sins. He came to become sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
The fact that Jesus was crucified, the worst death imaginable, was a really crushing blow to the disciples. And why?
21But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. 22Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; 23And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. 24And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.” (Luke 24:21-24)
Notice that the disciples major focus is Israel. They saw Jesus as a means to an end. They saw Jesus as a political Messiah who would restore the glory of Israel. Don’t get me wrong. Israel is being restored right now, and when Jesus comes back, He will be reigning from Jerusalem.
But the focus is on Jesus, on Himself!
And Jesus gently corrects them:
25Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 27And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:25-27)
When Jesus opened the Scriptures to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, He taught of HIMSELF!
He didn’t talk about having a good marriage, or how to improve your bank account, or how to get healing. He didn’t even talk about how to have great faith. Jesus is not a means to an end. He is the means and the end. He declares the end from the beginning. It’s all about Him!
He taught of Himself!
We want to be caught up in Himself! We want to see more of Himself! It’s all about Him!
“15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (Colossians 1:15-17)
Peter’s last words in the New Testament are:
“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:18)
Paul was really clear about his focus when he ministered to the Corinthian church:
“For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2)
I used to struggle with this verse, because it seemed to impractical to me. When Paul says that he knew nothing among them but Christ and Him Crucified, I immediately start asking “But how does that help me with this problem or that problem? What I am supposed to do with myself, with my life?”
The mistake that I made was thinking that Paul was talking about Jesus as though He is some static figure. But Jesus is alive, active, working in our lives, working behind the scenes caring for us! When we see Him in the Gospels, we see a living Savior who provides for our needs, who over-answers our prayers! (Ephesians 3:20)
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8)
Now, I mentioned above how Jesus taught of Himself. He didn’t teach about faith, did He? It’s not that faith is not important.
But how do we get faith?
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)
That’s the KJV, but let’s take a look at the NIV:
“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” (Romans 10:17)
And here’s the American Standard Version:
“So belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
The original Greek reads “Rhema Christou.” It’s the Word of Christ, not the Word of God. We want to see everything in the Word through the Finished Work of JESUS! We need to see everything in the Word, from Genesis to Revelation, through the lens of the New Covenant, in which Jesus has paid for all our sins, and brings us into a New and everlasting covenant.
Let me take a little time to share with all of you what is in the New Covenant. We are all hearing about it, but what does it actually say?
“10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
This new covenant is all about what God does. It’s not about us keeping commandments, following the steps, but believing in Him, that Jesus has taken all our sins and has justified us, brought us into right relationship with God the Father, our Father!
Jesus himself—there’s that “Himself” again!—said to the Israelites during His earthly ministry:
“Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:29)
We have to rightly divide the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15)!
There are some passages in which God declares to the Israelites:
“I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me,” (Deuteronomy 5:9)
But that’s the Old Covenant! We are now longer under law, under the Old Covenant, but under grace, under the New Covenant! (Romans 6:14)
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
And
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Under the Old Covenant, God will curse those who don’t keep the law:
“Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.” (Deuteronomy 27:26)
But under grace, under the New Covenant:
“10For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 12And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. 13Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:10-14)
Whenever we open up the Scriptures, we want a revelation of Jesus, our Messiah, who suffered, died, was buried, rose from the dead for our justification, and who ministers for us after the power of an endless life! (Hebrews 7:16)
Some may counter: How is it practical for us to look at Jesus in the Word? How does that help me?
Check out this wonderful verse:
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Notice how Paul writes “we are changed,” or rather we are transformed. We do not transform ourselves. The Holy Spirit transforms us. When we see Jesus, when we receive greater revelations of Himself, He transforms us! God the Father shows us His Son Jesus! When we see Him, we are transformed from glory to glory!
Jesus is the answer to every problem, to every challenge, to every question we face:
“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:” (1 Corinthians 1:30)
He is our new identity! We are in Christ, and Christ is in us! Therefore, we want to spend as much time as we can knowing Him, seeing Him in the Word!
“Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17)
That verse is translated in accurately, because it is not our live that is perfected, but His love is perfected among us. That’s the proper translation of the verse there.
To wrap up, I want to get back to a point I brought up earlier. In Luke 24, Cleopas and the wife could not see Jesus, or rather they did not recognize Him. Why?
2 Corinthians 4 gives us the answer:
3But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.(2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
And we find the solution back in 2 Corinthians 3:
“12Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: 13And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 14But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 3:12-14)
When you show people JESUS in the Word, and stop looking for yourself or at yourself, you see what the Word is really all about!
Cleopas and the wife did not believe that the Messiah would suffer for our sins, and by His stripes, we would be healed. They were focused only the political restoration. They missed the other part. But I would also add, if people are going to the Bible to look for themselves, to look for tips on how to live, how to make ourselves right, we are going to miss Jesus. We are not going to see Him, and we will nto be transformed.
If you look for yourself, you are going to be depressed and frustrated. But if you look for Jesus, you will be transformed from glory to glory, fortified with His Wisdom, filled with a greater revelation of our Loving Father’s love for us, gaining a greater awareness of all that He has done for us, is doing through, and will do with us! AMEN!
And one last thing to tie together the revelation I received last week. I talked about living to 120 years old right? We know that Moses lived to 120 years, and his eyes did not grow dim, not was his natural force abated.
How was this possible? Because He saw Jesus!
“By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” (Hebrews 11:27)
He renews our youth like the eagle’s!
It’s all about Jesus, and it’s all about seeing Him!
[Preached at Believers Victory International Church, Carson CA, May 1, 2022]
There was a period of time when I struggled with a great deal of trauma and fear.
There were things that I had said, I had done, and I was so afraid of getting caught, getting found out, that the trauma just overwhelmed me.
This constant sense of fear just overwhelmed all the time. I felt so paralyzed in my life, that I felt that I could not go forward.
It took a long time to realize that faith is not feelings, and feelings are not faith. That was the biggest source of my problem, really. I had confused feelings, senses, perceptions for God's Presence, His loving support.
But so much of what is real in our lives is real not because of what we feel.
We cannot see atoms, but we know they exist, because everything that exists is based on atoms, and scientists have even seen them when using ultra-powerful microscopes.
We know that the wind exists, even though we cannot see the wind itself. We only see its effects.
We have an incredible record of all that Jesus did, and we have an intense set of revelations and explanations which expound on what all of His Work means at the Cross!
It's not about feelings, it's about facts, it's about truth.
When we understand that we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ, when we understand that the bondage and shame of the past (and even whatever wrongdoings we do in the future) have no bearing on us, then indeed we are set free.
We no longer have to be bogged down by our flesh. We no longer have to wonder or worry about perceptions, premonitions, reminders, and fears from past to present to future, as if any of that can derail our new identity in Christ.
All of that gets put off, put away, because Jesus put away all our sins -- ALL OF THEM -- at the Cross.
For the longest time, though, I kept thinking that I had to put out that flame of condemnation on the back of my head. I used to think that I had to answer, refute, resolve every "what if?" that emerged in the back of my mind.
Today, I realize now more than ever how all of those stupid doubts and fears were mere fiery darts. The Gracious God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob does not go away from us just because we feel bad. We have already been made the righteousness of God in Christ because of what Christ Jesus has already done at the Cross.
Faith is not about doing more, but rather faith is about seeing more of what is not visible to the natural eye:
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)
Faith has nothing to do with what we feel, and faith is not fancy-pants fantasy. We are believing in Someone who is real, who is seated at the right hand of God the Father!
"Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places," (Ephesians 1:21)
For the longest time, I could not understand why those sensations of condemnation would come and go in my life. There were times when the fiery darts had no effect on me whatsoever, and then all of a sudden I felt like the back of my head was aflame in shame.
Now, it all makes sense. The shield of faith which quenches those fiery darts (Ephesians 6:16), that faith is all about seeing Jesus, recognizing that He is alive, that He is real, that we are in Christ, and that we do not look at our flesh, our feelings, our senses, our sentiments to make sense of reality all around us.
The struggle is over, and it makes no difference what feelings good or bad may assault the back of my head, my thoughts, my feelings. All of that is a wash today, because Jesus has washed me from all my sins -- past, present, future -- in His blood:
"And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood," (Revelation 1:5)
The more that I see Jesus, the more that I realize all the worries, fears, and recriminations in the back of my head were never me to begin with.
That is the flesh, that is our flesh, the residue of the sin nature which has been put to death at the Cross.
Most Christians still do not realize that Jesus did not just die for us, but He died as us. He took our sin, our dead selves meandering along in Adam, and all of that sinful self was crucified at the Cross.
For the longest time, though, I was routinely, repeatedly baited into thinking that I had to do something about how I felt, what I was thinking, what I was feeling.
Ugh ... so much focus on "I ... I ... I."
How painful all of that can be!
It's getting easier and easier to ignore all of that noise. We are not defined by our feelings, and we are not to identify with every thought that flies through our heads. We are not defined by what people do to us, nor are we defined by what we have done or are doing.
Jesus does not go away from us when there is unrest in our flesh, either. That was the real deception that had confused me and other Christians for so long. So many of these so-called self-help programs make you more helpless, because they teach you to focus on yourself.
We do not need to fix ourselves, for our old selves were fixed to the Cross, with Jesus, and now we have a new identity, a new life in Christ! (Colossians 3:1-4)
We need to stop looking at ourselves. We need to let Jesus by our life, and we reign with Him!
This has taken me so long, only because for the longest time I thought that I had to put out every fire in the back of my head. I felt compelled to answer every fear, every hurt, every upset in the back of my mind. I was not able to see Jesus before me and around me because I was all too busy looking ... at myself.
Let's look to Jesus, and look away from everything else!
"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2)
Alcoholics Anonymous is a real con job.
This terrible cult steals some good ideas and proper revelations from the Bible, but the Bible makes no sense or has no power or value for its readers apart from Christ Jesus.
AA is full of half-truths, omissions, and removals. It's a staggeringly dangerous cult, the mixture of law and grace turned into a "self-help" progarm of the worst variety.
So, let's start with something that is true, that is necessary for people to break free of sin, bad habits, hurtful patterns of behaviors.
Yes, indeed, we do need to be freed from the bondage of self.
The more that we look at ourselves, the more miserable our selves become.
In order to break free of yourself, however, we need to stop relying on ourselves.
We need to stop looking at ourselves, too. It's not about us! It's about Jesus!
He is our life! (Colossians 3:4). He is our new identity in before God the Father (Ephesians 1:6)
And yet, the corrupt program teaches people to worship a "higher power" which becomes merely an extension of oneself.
How do I know this? Because the whole "Higher Power" is "as I understand him."
If it's based on our understanding, then it's some being of our own imagination. Ultimately, then, we begin praying to ourselves, worshipping ourselves, or even worse giving into some projection of abusive authority figures who have harmed us in the past.
How corrupt is that?!
There is no freedom from ourselves if we are looking to ourselves to be free. There can be no freedom from self if we draw our understanding of God from ourselves.
On top of all this confusion, there is ongoing demands of "working your program." The whole AA cult is predicated on the adherents working their program, trudging through those God-awful steps every day. Every person in the program is told that they are just one drink away from falling away. Everything depends on them, not on God.
And that means that the AA cult-victims are still in bondage to self.
I need to believe in the Living God, the one who made me, and who does not exist depending on my senses, thoughts, and dictates. We need the Holy Spirit to fully reveal to us who God is, and we see God the Father in Christ Jesus:
"The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." (Colossians 1:15)
If we want to see God, we need to see Jesus, and if we want to see Jesus, we need to read the Word of God:
"25Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 27And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." (Luke 24:25-27)
Jesus taught of Himself in the Scriptures. Jesus is Salvation, God's loving gracious heart for the entire world, in person. There is no way anyone of us could conceive of a God so loving to us. We have to hear the Word of God, and believe the truth that way (cf Romans 10:17).
No, we cannot rely on our own conception of anything. We need to receive revelation of Him through the Word by the power of the Holy Spirit. AMEN!
I cannot stress this enough: there is no breaking free of ourselves through our own efforts. It makes no sense whatsoever, and yet that is precisely what AA does to its adherents. This terrible cult teaches people to put their trust in a "higher power," and yet this higher power comes into power via our own power.
So, AA cult-victims are right back where they started, trusting in themselves, relying on their own efforts, going around and around in depressing circles, never getting better. I reject this empty way of life. Let us enter into His rest!
"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2)
We are not supposed to look at ourselves.
But the problem for so many of us is that we focus on "not looking" at ourselves.
We need to look at Jesus!
The word "looking" is ἀφοράω aphoraó in the original Greek, which means "to look away from all else."
We want to look at Himself, not at ourselves.
It's not about us. It's never been about us, our feelings, our thoughts, our trials, our troubles.
Jesus, who holds the Universe and everything in it altogether (Colossians 1:15)
There are lots of noises, fears, premonitions, concerns, regrets, bitter feelings, bad memories, worries, outrages that can well up insde of us.
For me, there was often drama in the back of my head. That's the locus for those distractions. For other people, they may sense something in front of their minds, on the side, etc.
All of these fiery darts can distract people in such terrible ways.
But again, the solution to these distraction has to be more than a mere negation. We need to look at something, or better yet SOMEONE better!
That Someone is Jesus!
He is the Author and Finisher of Faith! He is the one who inspires our trust, and causes us to rest from all our painful toil and self-serving slavery.
It's all about seeing Him at work in and around us. He is our life. He is our health, He is our new identity before God the Father:
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" (Ephesians 2:4-6)
and
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)
We have a new identity in Christ. We are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
It's all about him.
We no longer look at ourselves, as though we have to compensate for God missing something or overlooking a need in our lives:
"1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4)
Too many Christians are not looking to Jesus. They look to Jesus and something or someone else. They look to Jesus and their problems. They look to Jesus and other people in their lives. They look to Jesus and the church, their traditions, their past, the opinions of others, their memories.
All of this is doomed to fail. Jesus is our success, our life, our new Gospel hope. There is no reason, no right for us to look to anyone or anything else to see us through.
For this post, and I hope for all future posts, there will be less focus on myself, but more on Himself.
I will add this part, though: for a long time, I was quite confused about what the thoughts, drama, issues, hurts, worries that would emerge in the back of my mind. For too long, I was convinced that I had to do something about them.
Today, I realize how all of this is just focus on self. That is precisely what Daddy God frees us from when we look at Jesus!
We look to Him, and we look away from everything else, including ourselves!
All of the negative thoughts and feelings, all of the pains and the hurts, all of this mess just falls away as I look to Jesus!
He is indeed the End of all our Struggles! YES!
"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" (Ephesians 2:6)
I am seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Not stuck in my body, or stuck with my mind. I do not have to run away from myself to get close to Daddy God. I am in Christ, and I am seated in Christ at the Father's right hand!
It does not matter if there are feelings of fear, lust, greed, or confusion.
It does not matter what I say or do not say. Daddy God did not seat me in His Son because of my goodness or good-will. Paul makes it very clear that "by grace you are saved" (Ephesians 2:5,8)
Go ahead and yell at me all you want.
Go ahead and take my microphone away from me.
Go ahead and publish nasty articles, flyers, blogs, and social media against me.
In Christ, I have a promise:
"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD." (Isaiah 54:17)
This righteousness is a gift (Romans 5:17), and it does not depend on me. All I "have to" do is receive it, and keep receiving it. That's what believing is all about!
"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6:29)
I was so worried about how I might feel if I ended up in a tough situation. These lying symptoms and sentiments would distract me in all sorts of ways, and I was so afraid that I had to do something about these feelings, and all that thinking was such a horrendous distraction.
Today, all of that is gone! I am at rest in Him, and I am so grateful. Thank you, Jesus!
"While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." (Matthew 17:5)
"I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning." (1 John 2:13)
Jesus is Him who is from the beginning:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1)
For the longest time, I used to think that Jesus would come or go depending on how I felt or what I was thinking. I was truly convinced that I had to control whatever thoughts or feelings were percolating inside of me to ensure that I was able to see God, to perceive that He is with me.
What does Jesus say about seeing Him?
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3)
I am born again! I do not have to strive or try harder to see God. I do not have to watch what I am thinking or feeling. Daddy God does not come or go in my life just because of the sin in the flesh.
Consider the great victory that we have in Christ Jesus!
"1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus … 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:1-4)
There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. PERIOD!
We are free from judgment, from condemnation, from punishment for sins because Jesus took all the punishment. He is our heavenly Ark, and on Him fell all the outpourings of God's wrath and anger for our sins. YES!
Therefore, because of this great work that Jesus accomplished for us at the Cross, the sin in our flesh is also condemned! We do not have to do anything about it!
Once again, the problem for me was that I was confusing faith with feelings. I was convinced that God would not be real in my mind if my mind was cluttered with bad thoughts, bad feelings, etc.
Yet God is real, unmatched, unrivaled in the power and presence He has in our lives, and none of it has anything to do with us. He does not come or go depending on what we think or how we feel. He is here for you and me, and He will never leave us nor forsake us! (Hebrews 13:5)
No longer am I dealing with this constant ping-pong game in my head. I recognize now that bad feelings, unwelcome thoughts, unpleasant urges are not me. I really understand this wonderful promise from Paul to the Galatians:
"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." (Galatians 5:16)
"Walk in the Spirit" is not some mental attitude or exercise. It is all about identifying with the Spirit of God in you, not with your flesh, your feelings, your thoughts, whatever else is going on inside of your body.
"But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." (Job 32:8)
and
"The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly." (Proverbs 20:27)
We do not need to "do something more" in order for God's Holy Spirit to communicate with us. What we need to do is look at Jesus, see Him in God's Word!
"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18)
It's all about seeing Jesus in the Word! This truly is effortless transformation!
"And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." (Luke 24:27)
and thus:
"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Romans 12:2)
It's all about seeing Him who has been from the beginning! This is not an effort we do through mental exertion, but by resting in His promises, His peace, and His presence in our lives:
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people" (Ephesians 1:18, NIV)
When we focus on Him who has been from the beginning, we become more and more like Him. It's not about our effort, but the work of the Holy Spirit transforming us, renewing our minds and enlighting the eyes of our heart to see more of Jesus! AMEN!