The Helmet of the Hope of Salvation

 "And take the helmet of salvation ..." (Ephesians 6:17)

Yes, the Helmet, the head gear to protect our minds, our thoughts, our heads.

It's really amazing how many fiery darts come shooting at us every day.

And for the longest time, I was constantly tempted to put out these fires on my own.

The past two weeks, it has fully and finally dawned on me how fully encompassing is the Cross of Jesus Christ!

He has paid for all our sins: past, present, and future.

There is nothing more that needs to be done. There is no more extra work or effort needed to pay the price, to count the costs, to settle the bill.

Jesus dropped the charges because He took on the entire punishment!

If there is any tension, any shame, any condemnation, or sense of fire or anger or bitterness or condemnation in the back of my head, the answer is "It's already paid for."

That has been Satan's scam with me for the last fifteen years. I constantly thought all those bad feelings or those fearful feelings were something that I had to deal with.

All of that was mere aftereffects from wrong believing.

Now that I no longer see bitterness from bad memories through any other lens, the bitterness is all gone!

It was never about suppressing the memories or running away from the bad events in my life. It's ALL about seeing that the condemnation is gone!

"I should have done this!" -- PAID

"I wish I had said that!" -- PAID!

"I can't believe I let him get away with that!"  -- PAID!

"Why didn't I see that coming?!" -- PAID

There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). It's all been paid for, and the feelings, the upsets, all of that was paid for, too!

I cannot describe the wonderful rest and refreshing that I have felt in my mind, especially in the back and the base of my head. There's the ongoing feeling of a river, of a fountain just surging in the back of my head. I feel real peace!

I get the fullness of the Cross, and I now understand why it seemed that so many of my prayers were not answered. The issue was that I didn't see all of those negative feelings as already paid for!

Now, there is no confusion!

Thank you, JESUS!

God is Not a Concept: He's a PERSON

I cannot stress this most despicable aspect of the AA cult.

Bill W. thought it was a brilliant idea to "Choose your own conception of God."

Right away, that puts the Creator of the Universe in your head. It makes you yourself God, if you really think about it.

I have written so many times, and I will stress this again: I do not want my conception of God.

I want the truth.

I want to know a real Savior, a Redeemer, a Full-On Creator and Consumate Ruler who cares for me, for us, for everything.

For God to be God, He cannot be within the realm of our understanding.

It is that basic.

God is a Person, not some figment of our imagination.

Jesus, our Savior, is the very image of the Invisible God (Colossians 1:15)

It has taken me such a long time to divorce, to separate how I feel, what I am thinking, from the true Presence of the Living God.

Yet that growing reassurance has helped me in so many ways.

I may feel bad, I may feel good, but Daddy God does not stop loving me.

Jesus does not stop being my Savior, my Healer, my Redeemer just because I feel bad.

In stark and disturbing contrast, the AA cult teaches you that God comes and goes depending on how you feel.

That is a serious problem. That is bondage of the worst kind, and we need to resist this lie with as much courage as we can.

"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13:5)

I Am Going With What God Said, Not Bill W.

The Blue Book of AA tells us that we can be cut off from the sunlight of the spirit.

What spirit was Bill W. talking about?

He was not talking about the God of the Bible, that's for sure. He was not talking about Christ Jesus, who lives in, not just with, every believer in Him.

"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." (John 14:17)

God's Word could not be clearer:

"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13:5)

It does not matter how you feel. It does not matter what I think.

God's Word is the blessed assurance that we need for this shiftly, quaking, unsure world:

"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24:35)

Daddy God has made it clear that we have complete nearness with Him. We can trust that He is always with us, and we never have to worry about Him leaving us, or walking away from us, or abandoning us.

Where did I stumble in so much of my walk?

I confused faith and feelings. Why? Because I bought into so much of the AA cult, the mixed mixture madness that I could believe in Jesus, and that "Program of Alcoholics Anonymous" would make the Bible practical in my life.

All of that is a lie.

I confused faith with facts, with the stuff in my mind.

God is real. He is spirit, not some figment or filament of our minds or our imagination.

Faith is easy, and because of that ease, man insists on making it all so difficult.

We do not have to give into the bad advice, the counsel of this ungodly world (Psalm 1:1)

We can know and believe in His love for us! (1 John 4:16)

Forget you, Bill W.! I am going with the real W--the Winner--and His name if Jesus!

Spare Me Your Conceptions: I See the Real Savior

God is real.

Jesus is real.

He is a real Savior, seated at the right hand of the Father.

But AA tells you to "choose your own conception of God," as if that will solve all the religion problems. 

Of course, the fundamental problem with this folly is "What forms or animates your conception of anything?"

Most people are going to project their parents or guardians into who God is.

Worse yet, they are going to look to the AA rewmz, including many of the creepy people in those meetings, and ask them or look to them for guidance on who God is.

I will never forget one long-time stepper in the program, who in turn related to me what some monk had shared with him years before:

"I walked up to this Catholic monk, thinking that he's the expert. I asked him 'Who is God?'"

"This Catholic monk said to me, 'I don't know!'"

This welcomed ignorance, this learned helplessnessis accepted, even celebrated in AA circles!

This is outrageous!

I don't want to trust some God who may or may not be there for me. I don't want to trust some "Higher Power" who comes or goes depending on how I feel. I do want to turn my will and my life over to ... myself!

Let's call AA what it ultimately becomes: self-worship. We have our projected, deluded, false notions of who God is at the outset, and then we interact with this notion of who, or what, God is. This is really crazy!

Has anyone in AA ever bothered to take a step back and ask themselves what the heck they are doing?

No, and the reason is simple: for the 3 to 5% that manage to stay sober for longer than 90 days, they really do chalk up their sobriety to the crappy, campy cult of AA. They really believe that working all those stupid steps, talking to sponsors, going to those goddawful meetings turned their lives around.

Of course, one study after another has affirmed that the people who do get sober in AA would have gotten sober anyway, without AA.

We don't need to run to a bunch of steps to set us free. We need to see Jesus, the Author and Finisher of Faith (Hebrews 12:2), who took all the steps to set us free.

We have a living Savior, and therefore we have a living faith. We do not, nor should we, run to the old deadness of the letter, not just of the Old Covenant, but of all man-made inventions to make man good in God's eyes.

Alcoholics Anonymous: The Epitome of Galatianism

It's taken me a long time to understand why Alcoholics Anonymous has commanded, and continues to command, such a following even among Christians and in many churches.

I look back on all the abuse and trauma in my life, and I still cannot believe that my parents, especially my mother, fell all in for this cult.

Then I realize that the larger issue has been addressed in the Bible already, in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians.

The Galatian church was not wild and deviant like the Corinthian church. They had not been warmed up with God's love, only to get caught up in busyness like the Ephesian church. They also didn't struggle with the primary and supremacy of Christ, as Paul would address with the Colossians.

The Galatians were mixing Law and Grace. In fact, following the infiltration of Judaizers shaming and provoking the Galatians that their faith in Christ was not enough, the Galatians were going back under law, thinking that adherence to the Mosaic Law, to self-effort, would make them better Christians!

"Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3)

AA steals much of its verbiage from the Bible. Yes, the operative word is "Steal."

The AA cult's Blue Book talks about being reborn, talks about seeing God as our Father, and we are His children.

But then it adds in that same reference that we see God as our principal, and we are his agent. God goes from being our Father, who loves us no matter what, to someone whom we work for, who can fire us if we don't get the job done.

The Tenth Step madness, the whole thing about taking one's inventory all the time, every day, all of the busyness about "working with other alcoholics" to spread the AA Cult pyramid scheme, all of it is just bringing people back into works, under law, into this treadmill of "never good enough."

It's no wonder that so many people do not get sober in AA meetings, or if they do, they often have to take other medications to deal with the trauma, strain, and mental anguish.

AA corrupts Christianity and displaces the Gospel by removing the grace of God, and turning God's goodness in our lives into something conditional, based on how "hard" we work the steps.

If self-help could save us, then people wouldn't need to read all those self-help books in the first place, and we would not see such a broad, costly, growing industry in the first place!

When Paul scolded, even insulted, the Galatians, he was calling out every form of manmade religion that would work its way into the church:

"O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?" (Galatians 3:1)

And this is the crux of the matter: AA displaces Christ Jesus. His sacrifice means nothing. His Finished Work means nothing. The works that do matter, according to vile cult guru Bill W., is working that Twelve Step program, a cycle of self-centeredness and self-abegnation all rolled into one, a program in which flawed human beings look at their never-ending flaws, wondering why their lives never get better, but rather, with all their might working that program, they never seem to see their lives get better.

Reject AA. Go for the Way, the Truth, and the Life!

Why People Get Addicted to People, Places, and Things

For the longest time, I have stuggled with addictions of different kinds. Whatever I could to make myself feel good, to feel better, or to feel wanted, cared for, loved--these kinds of demands will take their toll on us if we cannot find something better.

What is this all about?

The euphoria which overtakes someone in the midst of any kind of addiction gives a person a sense of acceptance, of being wanted, cared for, fulfilled. That is a strong feeling, a strong desire which everyone wants.

This desire for a warm feeling can come in other ways, such as when people collect things that they do not need, or they eat more food than they should. I would drink caffeinated sodas every day because there was a jolt, a buzz that I got out of it. After years of such unhealthy consumption, I suffered a stroke!

Some of these bad habits have fallen away, but there are others which have still lingered in my life. I did get to the point in my life where I stopped condeming myself because I would succumb to different temptations, because I rested in the truth that "There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)

But the understanding of why these problems linger in our lives, and how God breaks us free from them, has really come into place for me.

All of this is really changing for me, and changing for the better.

This week, I read this verse again:

"For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield." (Psalm 5:12)

And the revelation finally hit me: This is a real promise, this is a real security for me!

For years, I have been commenting on different blogs about all these wonderful verses and the great promises granted to us because of Christ Jesus.

But ... I still didn't have the proper revelation that Jesus is REAL!

He does not come or go based on our feelings. For too long, that habit of mind and sentiment was so ingrained in me. I had to "feel" God's presence in order for God to be real. And then the fiery darts of doubt would shower on me, and I would start arguing with my head.

It's taken a while, but little by little, as The Holy Spirit has transformed me from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18), I have started to realize that Daddy God has always been real, spiritual, present to me. The precise problem was thinking that I had to do, think, say, or feel a certain way in order for God to be present to me in the first place!

And why did I entertain these bad thoughts, this wrong believing, these false notions? Because that is what I was taught for years, for decades in my household. As I have shared many times before, my mother was a full-on Stepper Mom, completely convinced in the efficacy of the Twelve Step AA cult. That evil cult teaches people to choose their own conception of God, to trust in whatever they think is the best representation of who God is.

Inevitably, we think that God lives in our heads, when He is a real Savior who lives outside of us, and helps us to live! But all this time, I tied God's presence to my thoughts and feelings. It was absolute torture.

When I finally understood how present, how real, how unchanging is His presence and commitment in my life, I could see all the verses of promise, goodness, and blessing in a brand new light.

Jesus has always surrounded me with His Favor! The fact that I thought that I had to deal with bad feelings was precisely why I was so frustrated in certain times and places.

I remember some of the worst memories, and in every one of those instances, I had wrongly believed that God's favor was not with me. I had believed that God was not with me, not watching out for me, not caring for me. The truth is that God was always there for me, but because I had placed such ridiculous, unbiblical conditions on myself, I was ... frustrating the grace of God in my life!

"I 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. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2:20-21)

It has taken me so long to understand that I have real Savior looking out for me. Faith is not about feelings, but faith is not some leap into the dark, hoping that you will land on something solid. Faith is "the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things unseen." (Hebrews 11:1)

And the more that we get rid of the wrong believing about God's nature, His grace, His desire to save, heal, and forgive, the more that we will see Him working in and around us, and understand that all this time, we have been surrounded by His favor.

When we get this revelation, then there is no longer this need to sexually stimulate ourselves, or to find solace or comfort in other addictions, perversions, and compulsions.

You are already permanently surrounded by His favor. Sometimes, bad things happen to us because we think that we had to do something to feel or ensure that favor around us, and thus we frustrated the grace of God in our lives. However, just because something bad happens to us does not mean that God abandoned us, or that He does not favor us. Sometimes, bad things have to happen so that He can steer us away from bad ideas or terrible outcomes and ensure us a prosperous and healthy future.

I am so grateful for this revelation. I have seen more demands or upsets in my life fall away as this revelation has come through for me. Thank you, Jesus, for your love and patience!

If you are in Christ, you are fully and forever favored in Him. To the extent that we do not rest in this truth or accept it fully, to that extent we are frustrated in our lives and succumb to harms and bad habits.

He Crowns Us, He Surrounds Us With His Favor!

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!

Sermon: Enlightened, Transformed, Healed by Beholding Jesus in the Word

 

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]

Evangelism is About Revelation, not Reason

Last night, while I was visiting the Del Amo mall, a young man walked up to me.

His name was Anthony.

He started talking to me about Jesus Christ. He wanted to share the Gospel with me. I had no problem with him talking to me, since I had announced at the outset that I believe in Jesus, that He is my Savior, and I am so grateful for all the blessings which He has--and is--lavishing on me.

He began rattling off a number of Scriptures, including key passages in the Book of Revelation. He showed me passages about the Spirit and the Bride, and how they both invite us to draw from the Water o Life:

"And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Revelation 22:17)

He then asked me "What does the water of life represent?"

I said "The Holy Spirit." and I referenced this verse in the Gospel of John:

"37In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)" (John 7:37-39)

He then mentioned the account of Jesus with the woman at the well in John chapter. I agreed.

He then asked me whether I had the Holy Spirit or not. I shared with him: "Yes, I do."

He then asked me: "How do you get the Holy Spirit?"

I told him that because I believed in Jesus, I have received the Holy Spirit.

He seemed perturbed somewhat, that I had answers to many of his questions. It really showed how disrespectful he was, that he refused to listen to me at the outset, that I had said that I am a Christian, and that I believe in Jesus Christ.

At that point, I asked him which church he belonged to. I was starting to wonder if he was a Seventh Day Adventist or a Mormon, or a member of the so-called United Church of Christ, which denies the full deity and pre-eminence of Jesus Christ.

The discussion then veered to how people need to keep the law of the New Covenant. He pointed to the passage in which Jesus took the cup of blessing at the Last Supper, and He declared "This is my blood of the new and everlasting covenant."

I was really disturbed when he said "Law" in relation to the New Covenant. I began to interrupt him, but gently. "We are no longer under law. We are under grace. You can find this in Romans."

He would not let me finish. He then stood up, said to me "You are a lawbreaker," and he walked away. A simple rush of peace came over me. I did not lose my temper, I did not raise my voice. Before he walked away though, I chided him, "Why will you not let me speak. I have allowed you to speak, haven't I?"

At that point, he called me a "lawbreaker," and he left. He did not get the answers that he was hoping for, I suppose. He had probably been trained that he would force me into an intellectual corner and cause me to acknowledge that I am a sinner or something else. He was hoping to win me over with a clear decision for Jesus.

What was really striking about his evangelism, if one can call it that, is that he did not mention the name of Jesus even once. He did not give the impression that he even knew how Jesus is!

While that dialogue between Anthony and me had been taking place, there was another gentleman, an older man, who was watching. When Anothony walked away, he laughed and asked me "What was that all about?" I told him how he was trying to share the Gospel with me--although the reality is that he had no good news to share, since he wanted to bring me back under law, and did not mention grace once.

He then remarked: "Wow! That's so sad. He was upset that you are religious, even though he was trying to make you religious. One would think that he would be happy for you!"

He was not interested in helping me. He was interested in "winning a convert," or at the very least winning an argument. That is not true evangelism.

I must admit, however, that I waded into this similar fight for pre-eminence with the older gentleman who started speaking with me afterwards. He told me that he is not religious, and he believes that there are too many inconsistencies with belief, plus all the complexities in the world, for him to believe that there is a God.

I insisted on asking him some questions. He clearly was not prepared to articulate his views on the issue. He wanted to defend evolution, and I asked him the usual questions which set such thinking to naught, such as "where is the evidence?" I also asked him "Where in the fossil record does one find the transitioning species?"

I felt the Lord telling me "This is not the right time to share with this man. This is not the approach to sharing the Gospel with him." Still, I pressed him a few more times on a couple of questions about the origins of the uinverse, how everything came about if not by intelligent design. Then, it seemed as though he had to take a call, and I took that motion as my cue to walk away.

As I walked away toward the center of the mall, I realized a number of things. I used to be an agressive evangelist like Anthony. I had a set of questions that I would press on someone, and then I could turn the whole situation around on them to say "You are a sinner, and you need a Savior. Would you like to believe in Jesus Christ and let Him be Lord of your life?"

Back then, I was so interested in winning arguments based on intellect. Today, I realize that Jesus is not just real, and real to my experience, but that He is more than a nice thought or a sentimental result of our reasoning.

Jesus is alive! He is a person! And evangelism should be all about sharing a great revelation of how great He is in our lives. We should be talking about Jesus the same way that we talk about a loving friends, relative, spouse, i.e. someone whom we know intimately, and whom we want others to know intimately, too!

Evangelism is about sharing the Good News, and that Good News is summed up perfectly in Acts 13:

"38Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13:38-39)

We receive forgiveness of sins--all our sins. We are justified from all things, that we cannot receive by the law of Moses.

I did not understand the Gospel in this fullness at all. I had understood the Gospel as something so work-centered, so "I" centered. How sad it is, yet so true. No wonder I was not much of a witness in years past!

Today, I understand fully God's unmerited favor, which I receive through Christ Jesus. Today, I know that He is my life, my Savior. I am connected to a real Person, not just some figment of my imagination, or a set of principles or verses. 

"Herein is love perfected among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement: because as He is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)

It has taken me a long time to understand how fully real Jesus is to me. It's never been about me or about my self-efforts. It was never about having the right thoughts or doing the right things to ensure that Jesus would always be with me, that His Spirit would always be at work in me.

Today, I am learning so much about how to let that River of Life flow through me uninterrupted, unhampered by my efforts. I am learning that to share the Gospel is as simple as declaring: "Jesus Christ has died for all your sins. You can receive full freedom from condemnation and receive His life!"

The End of Self-Help: He Transforms Us

Self-Help Leads to Nowhere

It is a pernicious lie that we change ourselves, or that we can indulge in self-improvement to improve our lot in life.

If I could fix myself, then there would no need for a Savior to come down from Heaven to save me.

Why do we have a problem with this? Because for so long, Christians have been getting mixed messages about law and grace. Yes, we are saved by grace through faith, and not by works. Yes, good, perfect.

BUT then we get this awful, destructive, very damaging mixed message, one which tells us that we need to keep the law in order to stay saved, or that we need to keep the law in order to become holy.

Not only is that absolute nonsense, but it's deadly. The law is a ministry of death and condemnation, and what's worse, the law was not designed to make us holy. It was designed to show us how unholy we are, to bring out the unholiness, the sin in our lives:

"Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20).

And

"23But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Galatians 3:23-25)

So, there you go. The law is not something that we live by, but rather something that we "die by." It cannot help us, but rather shows us that we are helpless, and need a Helper.

And Jesus is that Helper!

"Christ 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:" (Galatians 3:13)

We do not transform or fix ourselves.

Daddy God transforms us, by the power of His Holy Spirit as we behold His Son, Jesus!

"17Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18But 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 3:17-18)

He fixes us, He makes us better, He causes us to resemble Him more and more. These changes are not based on our efforts, but rather as we receive greater revelation of Him!

This revelation is so important. For the longest time, I have been trying to fix myself, to work on my feelings, to feel better, to do more, to hold my emotions in line.

That is all wrong.

For the longest time, I thought that I was trying to live this life in front of me. I thought that this whole life depended on me. Yes, I knew that Jesus died for me, but no one had ever explained to me thate He lives in me and through me, and for me, too!

This is not a life of striving in our own efforts to make things happen. He changes us!

Consider this verse, too:

"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)

Notice that Paul writes "be transformed," not "transform yourself." This is not a work that we do, but that He does.

This revelation eviscerates all pretensions towards self-help. This revelation in God's Word does away with Alcholics Anonymous, all the crazy "self-help" literature in bookstores all over the country, all over the world. This revelation puts an end to "The Daniel Diet" and all the other "You Do Your Part" books and resources out there pushed by Christian authors and commentators.

The end of self-help is in Christ. He transforms us. We do not transform ourselves. Simple as that.

He Is Always Keeping Me in Perfect Peace

 

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." (Isaiah 26:3)

For a long time, I had misconstrued this verse. I kept seeing nothing but demand in this verse, as though I had to do something, like "keep my mind stayed on Him," so that I could have perfect peace.

But the enforcement clause of that promise above is simpler than that: "Because he trusts in You."

So, today, I realize that I have perfect peace in Christ. I do not have to do something more, something extra to have His perfect peace.

The moment that any of us think that we have to add something or perform something extra, we are back under law, and we negate the Finished Work of the Cross.

Paul did not come to preach self-help or self-effort, but

"For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:2)

Jesus is alive, and He is our Savior.

We live, and move, and have our being in Him (Acts 17:28)

We have a perfect redemption, because Jesus our High Priest forever, lives after the power of an endless life (Hebrews 7:16)

I already have perfect peace in Christ!

"For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;" (Ephesians 2:14)

and

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:7)

All this time, I kept thinking that I had to "do something more." What a mistake.

And then there were all the fearful premonitions and upsets in my mind. I was overwhelmed by this lie that I had to think and feel a certain way. I had to manipulate my mind to ensure that I was not thinking or feeling the wrong things. Oh, the torture!

Thank you, Jesus, that you have set me free!

I see You now more than ever before. I SEE YOU FULLY!

I do not have to "do something" or think something to see You or enact You.

THANK YOU, JESUS!

You are always keeping me in perfect peace. AMEN!

Revelation About Faith vs. Facts and Feelings

 Faith is the evidence of things hoped for. It's not something that we still hope for.

It's something that has arriced.

Faith is the substance of things unseen. It's the recognition and reality of things that we do not see.

How did Moses survive and then thrive?

"By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible." (Hebrews 11:27)

We see by faith! Faith is not a feeling, and it is not based on unstable facts.

Faith is about seeing what is invisible, for what is invisible to the human sense is eternal in the most important sense:

"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:18)

For a long time, I kept confusing feelings and the flesh with faith. My parents taught me to walk by flesh and sight rather than faith and spirit. They were so focused on themselves they didn't see a living Savior caring for them.

They really believed that they were all alone in the world, or that praying to God was something that they did as an exercise, an activity to earn some favor or support. But for most matters in their life, they lived as though they were on their own.

It's a tough life, that kind of self-imposed hardship. It's remarkable how I was able to get through the earlier years of my journey. Both my parents did not have the full and working knowledge of God's grace and peace at work in their lives.

God is real! Christ is Alive! We are not stock on this rock called Earth trying to live our own lives in our own effort. We have Him who has been from the beginning (1 John 2:13) and we are not alone in this fight:

"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)

Faith is about recognizing divine reality apart of our limited senses. Faith is about recognizing truth based on God's Word, not man's world.

Consider the first example of faith in the Hall of Faith (Hebrews 11):

"3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." (Hebrews 11:3)

God's Word spoke the worlds into existence. Before the world, there was the Word.

John could not have said it more plainly:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1)

Let's hear God's Word and believe that God has all the power that we need to get thorugh and thrive in this world. It's not about ourselves. It's about Himself. Christ Jesus died for us, rose for us, and lives for us after the power of an endless life at the right hand of His Father--and our Father!

Self-effort, man's striving, man's attempts to keep the law are NOT of faith:

"And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them." (Galatians 3:12)

Right before this point, writes clearly how the righteous live:

"But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith." (Galatians 3:22)

This verse is the Gospel in a verse, one of the most oft-repeated verses in the entire New Testament, and for good reason.

Faith is all about seeing Jesus, and seeing that He has Finished the Work. Self-effort, self, works, tiring and toiling under law, is all about man looking at his thoughts, his feelings, his efforts, his world, his own words and works -- and always coming up short. We cannot save ourselves. Man seeking to make himself wise became a fool, convinced that God was holding out on him, and thus partaking of a tree which was not good for man to eat.

The knowledge of good and evil, the knowledge of the law, does not make us live good and godly lives. The Tree of Life, the Gospel of Grace, seeing Him who is Invisible by faith based on His Word, that is how we live and reign in life.

Now more than ever, everyone in the Body of Christ needs to stop focusing on their feelings and the facts before their senses, and start seeking greater revelation, to see Jesus at work in their lives and around their environs, based on faith, not our feelings, not our fantasies, not our make-believe attitudes.

It's time for us to make these prayers our priority, that we would see more, not try to do more; that we would believe more, not achieve more. For the more that we believe in Him, the more that we can receive from Him, and the more that He can achieve through us! AMEN!

" [I] cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That 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: The 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 1:16-18)

and

"That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 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 3:16-19)

Righteousness as a Never-Ending New Status

 "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)

In 2008, I received a massive revelation of great joy. I thank Joyce Meyer big time for this revelation, since she first pointed to me the verse quoted above.

In Christ Jesus, we are not just righteous, but we are made THE righteousness of God. We have His standard of righteous standing. We can never be condemned, for now we stand in the same blessed joy and favor of God's own Son!

Where I began to have problems, however, was that I felt that I had to hold onto this status of righteousness. I was believing that I had to do certain things in order to "maintain" this status of righteousness.

I also did not understand how I could be righteous, even when I was struggling with sins, bad habits, dark secrets, etc.

Righteousness is an identity, a new identity. In fact, Paul made that abundantly clear four verse prior:

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)

When you are a new creation, you are no longer an old creation. You cannot go back to being that old creation, either.

Other voices, other contentions that I struggled with included:

1. How am I supposed to live?

2. What if I am doing the wrong thing?

3. What will happen to me tomorrow? 

4. What is the point of being alive, since everything is taken care of?

The real problem was that I was halting between two opinions. I did not understand the Gospel of Grace one bit. I did not understand that all of my sins are forever forgiven AND that I receive His life, Jesus, in myself:

"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:4)

Jesus provides everything for me. I am not alone in this life. I do not have to figure things out on my own. Even if I fail, fall, or frustrate, I know that He is taking care of me.

Today, those questions no longer bother me. There is no worries about tomorrow, because who I am is not going to change. I am in Christ, and as He is, so am I in this world. (1 John 4:17). He will never leave me nor forsake me (Hebrews 13:5), and therefore there is nothing that I can or cannot do that will change my status in Him.

Yet another question would often pose itself to me: "What is to stop you from doing the wrong thing?"

The answer has been abundantly provided to me through the blessed ministry of Pastor Joseph Prince. Here are the verses:

"11For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2:11-14)

Grace is a teacher. In fact, Grace is The Teacher, for Jesus is Grace Personified:

"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John 1:17)

And Christ is my righteousness, too (1 Corinthians 1:30)

This is not a life of striving and toil. Indeed, this is a life of resting and receiving. AMEN!

"For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:17)

I am not trying to live this life on my own. This life is His life in me, and I reign in life with Christ Jesus!

All of this was not clear to me for so many years, because I had received so much terrible baggage and bad ideas from my parents. They were both under law, they both did not know the Gospel of Grace, they were so seeped in "I do my part, and then God will do His part." How wrong they were.

This mixed message "Gospel" is not the Gospel truth, and no one should fall for it. No one.

Either we are saved by grace, or we are saved by works. Either Jesus did it all, or He did nothing at all. He does not play second fiddle to our efforts, and we do not get to claim any pre-eminence in our part to keep ourselves.

The status of righteousness is something that He gives me, that He is in me and for me, that no one can take away. Thank you, Lord Jesus! Amen!

The problem was that I had all kinds of mixed messages and messaging. It's only recently that I have understood that there is not one thing that I must do or maintain or anything else.

My Daddy God is a God to me, because His Son has paid for all my unrighteousness. and therefore God does not remember my sins or inquities any longer.

AMEN!

Our New Identity in Christ -- As He Is, So Are We

   Thank You, Father, for your patience with me.

It has taken me so long to understand how fundamental, how unshakable is my new identity before You, in Your Son Jesus.

This has taken me a long time to understand.

For the last few months, little by little, You have guided me to be set free:

"9Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

"10For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:" (Isaiah 28:9-10)

As I quote the verse, I notice the key element for those who understand doctrine: those who have been weaned from milk.

This metaphor indicates those who understand righteousness as a gift, not as a work:

"12For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe." (Hebrews 5:12-13)

When we understand that we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), we are able to understand more and more from the LORD, here and there and here and there!

That is where I am now! 

I am less and less hung up on this false notion that I have to think and feel a certain way to know that God is with me. I am no longer deceived by the falsehood which implies that if I feel bad, or get fearful, or something else happens, that somehow God may or may not be there for me.

It all now rests on the more profound understanding of this basic revelation: God is my Daddy, and I am His child.

I am indeed His Son, and that does not change, no matter how I feel or what I am going through. 

He was still my Father, and I was still His child, even when:

1. My mother left me at the airport when I was 14 years old.

2. My father did nothing about the abuses perpetrated by my mother.

3. I struggled with all kinds of perversions in my flesh. 

4. I walked off of so many jobs in my life, and wondered many times how I was going to pay the rent, or get through the month.

5. I got arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced.

6. A corrupt judge wanted to place me in contempt of court on a flimsy pretext, just to defend marauding Black Lives Matter bigots.

No matter what I am feeling, no matter what I am thinking, no matter what I am doing, and no matter what I am going through, I am a child of God. That is not going to change, diminish, or disappear in any way. 

This is truly wonderful for me. For the longest time, when things would get difficult, or I faced challenges of some kind, or I would get fearful.

Yes, especially when I would get fearful ... I often felt that I had done something wrong, or that God was automatically displeased with me when I would get afraid.

Now, I understand this verse very well:

"The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass." (Proverbs 19:12)

A number of pastors have discovered that Satan's trick is to give the impression that God our Father is mad at us:

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:" (1 Peter 5:8)

However, we can rest assured that our Daddy God will never be mad at us again, because of all that Christ Jesus has accomplished on the Cross:

"For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee." (Isaiah 54:9)

Jesus took all the pains, hurts, punishments that we deserve. There is discipline, because our Loving Father cares for us, but He will never again be angry with us or rebuke us. AMEN!

So, I am more settled and resolved than ever, in the full knowledge that I am a child of God, that no matter what I feel, what I think, I am in Christ, and I am God's child.

In light of this increasingly profound revelation, God expounded to me this verse in a very important light:

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15)

I was so focused on "The Love of the Father", and that's right and proper.

But there was something else to this. We can understand God's love for us best when we understand that we are His children!

Why do we long for the things of this world? Why do the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life overtake us? We don't see ourselves as God's beloved sons and daughters!

Yet, if we want love perfected within and among us, then we need to rest in this solemn, wonderful promise:

"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)

As He Is, So Are We In This World!

It's amazing, wonderful, and remarkable how often I hear and receive continued, ongoing revelation from this verse! At the outset, I had started my Christian blog based on this revelation.

To this day, I am still learning so much from this verse!

For the longest time, I would get so caught up in how fearful, unhappy, or angry I would feel, and thus sense that I had to do something about those feelings in order for God to be present to me.

Now I am realizing an even greater revelation: God is for me, and He is for me so clearly and unshakably because of my new identity in Christ. I cannot be separated from my Savior. There is no way that I can be separated from my Father!

It's so simple, it's so amazing, and yet it has taken so long to get this wonderful, sovereign revelation to be established in me.

Then again, I should not feel bad about this. After all, Paul wrote:

"38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

"I am persuaded" ... it took Paul time to understand this revelation that we can never be separated from the love of God, and that this love is toward us as we are in Christ Jesus.

Furthemore, Paul prayed to the Ephesians:

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love," (Ephesians 3:17)

The Ephesian church was the most mature when it came to the revelation of God's love for them, and yet even then Paul prayed that they would be rooted and grounded in His love.

That's where I am today! Thank you, Jesus!

Made the Righteousness of God in Him

"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)

For the last three days, I have been meditating on my new identity in Christ.

For everyone who believes in Jesus, they are members of a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD (1 Peter 2:9).

Not just priests, but kings and priests, like wonderful Melchizedek, the King of Righteousness who was also the Priest of God Most High.

This is who I am. I am in Christ, and as He is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17).

It's amazing how often I was still tying my identity to how I felt, or what I was thinking.

It's very trying, and tiresome, that I have to revisit and repeat this challenge for myself, but as I continue to see Jesus, I do find that indeed, I am transformed from glory to glory, beholding Him! (2 Corinthians 3:16-18).

It's no longer about correcting or changing my thoughts or feelings. It's not about me. It's all about Him.

Jesus, it's all about You!

I get it now! There is no more "I have to do my part", and it was so insidious, since for years, I was constantly fighting all the noise and nonsense in my head. 

Who I am in Christ, has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with Him!

"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)

Jesus became sin, that we might be made, not become, not transition slowly. We have been made the righteousness of God in Christ.

We are in Christ, we are complete in Him. He is our life. He is our new identity, our new self, if you will.

This revelation, I have written about, posted about, talked about for a long time, and it amazes me that yet still this new knowledge takes so much time to become full realized within me.

My standing as a righteous person has nothing to do with me. Our righteousness is a gift, a perfect standing, a new identity which does not go away.

But the struggles continued, and the question would come up: "Why do I still sin (verb)? Why are there still bad habits in my experience?"

Paul Ellis gave the perfect answer: "We are learning to walk in our new identities. It's no longer about our efforts, but His effort." 

It's such a temptation in our experience, in our walk on this earth, to think that we need to "do something more". That temptation has gotten in my way so many times. When I would have negative thoughts, feelings, emotions, recriminations. When I would remember bad people doing bad things to me, since memories will come and go in that fashion, I would get set off kilter, if you will, lose my balance, feel compelled to do something to get back to the stable station which I had enjoyed before.

But you cannot "go back" to what you already ARE. That confusion creates more pain. There is nothing more that needs to be done, in order to be righteous, or more precisely, to be made the righteousess of God.

Over the past few days, the sense of a golden crown around my head has become more apparent. I know that I am using a metaphor, but honestly, this is completely in line with what I was studying in Scripture yesterday. It started with this verse:

"She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee." (Proverbs 4:9)

"She" refers to Wisdom, but we see more importantly a pre-incarnate type of Jesus, who is our Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:30)

That word "ornament", or wreath comes from the word "to join", from which the name Levi is derived. Levi was the priestly tribe. Here, we see an excellent type for our royal priestly status through Christ Jesus. Amen!

There is no need to go back and forth in one's mind to be safe and settled about who we are in Christ. For too long, far too long, I was convinced that my identity was tied up in my thoughts, my feelings. What madness, I know, but that is what I had believed.

Today, by the grace of God, I am what I am (1 Corinthians 15:10)

I am a king and a priest, after the order of Melchizedek, just like Jesus, because:

"As He is, so are we in this world!"

The New Covenant: Not Contigent on Me

 I have written about this subject so many times. My mind is resting like never before.

There is new meaning to this verse for me:

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." (Isaiah 26:3)

Yesterday, after 6pm, I pretty much decided to rest for the rest of the evening. I decided that I wanted to catch up on rest. If I am tired, there is no need to fight against it. Just rest. That's OK. No condemnation.

I was resting and receiving greater and greater revelation about the New Covenant.

Here's the text of it in Hebrews 8:

"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." (Hebrews 8:10-12)

What enforces the New Covenant is not something that we do, but something that He has done:

"I will be merciful (literally, propitious, provide a payment) for their unrighteousness, and I will forget their sins and iniquities." 

Every bad thing that we have done, wilfully or otherwise, God will not hold against us. He will not bear a grudge against us. He will not use against us. Our sins and inquities are gone forever. That is all sin. If anyone has a problem with that revelation, consider that when Jesus died for all our sins, all our sins were temporally in the future! All means all! Amen!

There is nothing in the New Covenant which dictates that we must do something to make it happen besides believe it.

None of these conditions are contained in the New Covenant:

1. As long as you keep your thoughts clean and pure.

2. As long as you keep your mind fixed on Jesus in some way, form, or fashion.

3. If you go to church every Sunday

4. If you confess your sins once a week to the local priest.

5. As long as you do not have lustful thoughts or feelings.

For the longest time, I bought into this horrendous, painful set of distractions, that I had to think, feel, imagine certain ways to ensure that God would be with me. A sense of doubt, panic, and fear would ensue every time my mind would waver or I would get distracted by angry, bitter, or lustful thoughts or feelings.

For years, I have been listening to Pastor Joseph Prince, and I have been learning more and more about the wonderful New Covenant which the Lord Jesus has cut for us.

Yet, it really is true: it takes a great deal of time for all of us to understand how fully forgiven we are. It was so difficult for me to rest in the truth that Jesus is taking care of me every step of the way, every step in the day.

So much has been changing in my life over the last year. Yes, there was the COVID-19 pandemic, and yes, there were ridiculous, brutish lockdowns which hurt businesses of all sorts across the country. Many lives were shaken to the core, and families which had coexisted peacefully had to learn to get along with each other more deeply, more intimately, for better or for worse.

I say without any evasion or suppression that my life went very well throughout the year 2020. No matter how bad things were turning out in the world, my life was getting better. Much better.

The New Covenant, in which God is very much a God to me, and I am one of His children, has played out more than ever. For all that hurts, pains, and setbacks which I have faced, life is good!

Even if I am tired, God is still a God to me. His grace, His power in my life is not contingent on what I do, or how I feel. It's all about Him!

Everything that Pastor Prince has been preaching, now all makes sense to me.

When I think about my struggles with sexual temptations, I see at its core, my deepest fears, and the most profound source of condemnation, was that those perverse sentiments were cutting me off from my loving Father, and that they were frustrating God's grace in my life.

The bondage, the pain, the deception is so strong. Today, thank you Jesus, I understand fully that all of that is lies. ALL OF IT!

For the longest time, I would get worried upset, frightened, tense if what I was thinking was wrong, bad, negative, etc. Now I understand that the New Covenant, the grace and peace which God promises to me, is not dependent, not contigent on how I feel, what I think, or even what I do.