Romans 12:6
• Prophecy
• Ministering
• Teaching
• Exhortation
• Giving with simplicity
• Ruling with diligence
• Showing mercy with Cheerfulness
1CORINTHIANS12:8-12
The Gift of;
• Word of Wisdom
• Word of Knowledge
• Faith
• Healing
• Working of Miracles
• Prophecy
• Discerning of Spirits
• Divers kinds of Tongues
• Interpretation of Tongues
I believe that one of the biggest reasons that the body of Christ hasn't made a greater impact on our generation today like in the book of Acts is Discerning of our failure to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Without a doubt, Jesus and the first apostles used the gifts like a bell, calling men to their message and confirming that God was truly the One speaking through them.
Hebrews 2:3-4 says,
"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?" The Lord bore witness to the accuracy of their message through miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
In Mark 16:17-18, Jesus said all true believers would flow in the miraculous: "And these signs will follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
If a Christian's life isn't supernatural, it's superficial. If its possible for you to explain away every event in your life then you are in the natural not in the supernatural . This is a radical statement going by todays trend in the church.
Mark goes on to say that messages based in God's Word would be confirmed by signs following: "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen."
Jesus even said, "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not" (John 10:37). That's another strong statement.
If we were to apply that standard to ministers today, that means most wouldn't be believed. The vast majority of preaching done in the name of the Lord today is without the power of the Holy Spirit manifest through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is not the way the Lord intended it to be.
The "main line" denominations have developed doctrines to cope with this obvious discrepancy. And many church goers having no experience of these things think its okay to do without them.
However, regardless of the rationale, it's absurd to think that we can be effective without the power of the Holy Spirit confirming the preaching of God's Word. If Jesus and the early apostles needed their preaching validated, how can we do any less? "signs and wonders in a sense are God's trademark of approval, otherwise that preaching is just cheap talk.
Even the non-denominational churches have fallen away from ministering in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gifts that operate in most "Spirit-filled" churches are simply words of exhortation or prophecy, but the bible reveals much more.
The Lord has used the gifts of the Holy Spirit mightily in my life and ministry to confirm His Word. There are countless times when people were still skeptical after hearing me teach, but the demonstration of God's power through the gifts turned them into believers. It's like the teaching fills their mouths with God's Word, then the gifts of the Holy Spirit slap them on the back and make them swallow it. Hallelujah!
One of the most important steps to flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit is to earnestly desire them.
• Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:31, "But covet earnestly the best gifts."
• He repeated that thought in 1 Corinthians 14:1 when he said, "Desire spiritual gifts." Simply put, for as long as you can live without flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you will. You have to seek these gifts with all your heart, as its not a half hearted experience (Jer. 29:13). "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."
It's also very important to understand that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are always flowing. God doesn't turn them "on" and "off." We are the ones who are "on" or "off." That's a startling statement to many people and one that verges on blasphemy to some, but it's true. The Lord is always ready to flow through us in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
It's just like praying in tongues. We don't have to wait for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to come on us to speak in tongues. We can pray in tongues at any time. It's not us turning on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always on and giving us the ability to speak in tongues. Therefore, whenever we turn ourselves on, the gift of tongues is there to allow us to communicate with our heavenly Father. Praise the Lord! That's the way it is with all the gifts.
One time when Andrew Womack was teaching along these lines in Charis Bible College. One of the students said, "So, you are saying that you can flow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit at any time?" Andrfew said , "That's right and I'll prove it to you." He then started down each row and just started "reading the students' mail. He was telling them things that had to be coming from the Holy Spirit. It was awesome.
No one has received everything that the Holy Spirit has for them. Therefore, the Lord is always seeking to release more to us through His supernatural gifts. Whenever we put ourselves in a mode to be His channel, His gifts will flow. The old "Pentecostal" doctrine of the anointing coming and going is not a New Testament truth. First John 2:27 says, "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you."
Another great truth about flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit is what John Osteen called "the divine flow." This is based on, "God is love"
(1 John 4:8). --"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Therefore, whenever we discern the love of God flowing through us toward someone, God is reaching out to them through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is follow that flow through faith.
Once when Andrew Wommack was pastoring a little church in Pritchett, Colorado, his heart just went out to a woman in the back of the room. He'd never seen her before, and there was nothing natural that drew him to her. It was just the love of God flowing through him to her. Because of that love alone, he told her that God had a word for her. Andrew didn't have one single word to say to her, but he knew God's love was flowing; and therefore, God and His gifts were flowing to her. So Womack just started by saying, "God loves you." God then flooded his mind with things to minister to her.
It was a long word from the Lord, but Andrew specifically told her about how she was grieving over the loss of someone and was confused about why God allowed it. Andrew kept saying, "It wasn't God that allowed it. It was the Destroyer." He said that a number of times. She broke down in tears and was really ministered to.
After the service, she told him that she had just lost her son to leukemia. They believed that God allowed this disease. But just before her son died, her husband saw this huge demon over their town, which the Lord told him was named the Destroyer. They didn't know how to interpret that until Andrew spoke to them through the gifts of the Holy Spirit and put it all in order. They were set free.
This was the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom in operation. God gave Andrew the knowledge of what had happened and then gave words of wisdom to instruct them on how to deal with it. This all came because Andrfew followed the love that I felt in my heart.
This has happened to us all, but most of the time we don't understand this is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and we miss an opportunity. According to Andrew he learned this the hard way.
There was a man who had been Andrew's youth director when he was just a young boy. He left our Baptist church before Andrew was a teenager, and Andrew heard how he had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and was seeing great miracles happen. He had one room in his church that was filled with the wheelchairs, crutches, and braces of people who were healed and didn't need them anymore.
During a three- or four-month period of time, Andrew thought about this man often. It was usually while he was in prayer that he would just come to mind, and Andrew would feel the compassion of God toward him. He would just wonder what was happening with him and then dismiss the thoughts. Later, he found that he had died in a freak accident where a red ant bit him on the thumb, imagine.
As soon as Wommack heard of his death, he knew that the reason he had been thinking of him so often was because the Lord was trying to get him to intercede for him. Over a decade later, Andrew met this man's son, and he confessed to him his failure to pray for his dad. He told him that he was at least the twelfth person who had told him a similar story. The Lord had impressed many of them to intercede for this man, but none of them recognized it as the Lord.
It is imperative that we learn to recognize and flow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It's not only a blessing to us, but the lives of other people may depend on it. You are carrying someone's miracle. Don't let it stay inside. You have to learn how to release it.
There is much more that the Lord has shown us about flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This article doesn't come close to covering all the material but there are series by Andrew Wommack entitled, How To: Flow in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Getting to Hear God's Voice, Tuning your Receiver
One of the greatest benefits of our salvation has to be that of hearing God speak to us personally. There can be no intimate relationship with our heavenly Father without it. But, as easy as it is for us to speak to Him, most of us believers have a hard time hearing His voice.
This is not the way the Lord intended it to be. This is an abnormality. We are spirit beings who should live in the supernatural, as its the parent realm and faith is what reconnects us back into that realm from this physical realm we live in.
Learning to clearly distinguish God's voice is invaluable. Instead of going through life blindly, we can have the wisdom of God guide and protect us. There isn't a single person reading this letter who couldn't have their life radically transformed by hearing the voice of the Lord better. If you have sickness or disease, one living word from the Lord will instantly heal you. If you are in financial crisis, the Lord knows exactly how to turn your situation around. It's just a matter of hearing His voice. You might be at the brink of death and yet one tiny piece of information could tremendously save your life.
For example some URA staff could have been involved in the bomb blasts at Kyadondo if it wasnt for CG's invitation to the drive in at NIP. Maybe the Lord was behind that very unusual gesture, but the point is that God was behind the protection of the URA staff from that explosion.
The Lord constantly speaks to us and gives us His direction. It's never the Lord who is not speaking, but it's us who are not hearing. Jesus made some radical statements about hearing His voice in John 10:3-5. He was speaking about Himself as the Shepherd of the sheep and the only way to enter the sheepfold.
"To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers."
Notice that He said in verse 3, His sheep hear His voice. He didn't say His sheep CAN hear His voice or SHOULD hear His voice. He made the emphatic statement that His sheep DO hear His voice. Its like saying Living beings breath air, period. So as a sheep you have been inbuilt with a God hearing device, the question is whether you use it.
Most Christians would question the accuracy of the above statements since their experiences don't line up with what I am saying. But it's not what Jesus said that is wrong; all true believers can and do hear the voice of God; they just don't recognize that what they are hearing is God's voice.
Radio, television and mobile phone transmitters send out signals twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; but we only hear them when we turn the receiver on and tune it in. A mobile phone is a receiver as well. Failure to hear the signal doesn't mean the station isn't transmitting. If your phone loses network it is not the problem of MTN or Warid.
Likewise, God is constantly transmitting His voice to His sheep, but few are turned on and tuned in. Its just like saying that God is always posting emails to your mailbox, but the question is ...do you access it and read them, before you complain that God is not communicating?
Most Christians are busy pleading with God in prayer to transmit when the problem is with their receivers. They are haranging God to drop them directions when they do not open their mailboxes which are incidentally very accessible.
The first thing we need to do is fix our receivers or get into the habit of accessing and reading our spiritual emails — believe that God is already speaking or sending emails and now it is time for you to embark on listening in or reading your messages.
However, note that is gonna take you time, some serious persistence, and steady focus. The average Christian's lifestyle is so hectic, it isn't conducive to hearing God's voice. In URA with all the pressure and balanced score card and perfomance objectives, life has become even more hectic.
For instance, what is your typical answer to the question, "How are you?" Many of you probably answer something about being very busy or something like "very stressed". I often say, "I'm busier than a mother with triplets." All of us seem to be busier than ever, and that's one of the BIG reasons we don't hear the voice of the Lord better. This is the trend everywhere.
We're just too busy. There's hardly any space for quiet time even for our earthly darlings. We are just super busy, we even take work home with or without good planning. Everything is an emergency. Any time that we free up is promptly taken up by entertainment, fellowship or overnights. There is always stuff that is awaiting.
Psalm 46:10 says,
"Be still, and know that I am God."
It's in stillness, not busyness, that we tune our spiritual ears to hear the voice of God. You can only know God when your engine is in idle state rather than in motion. The Lord always speaks to us in that "STILL, small voice" (1 Kings 19:12, emphasis mine), but often it's drowned out amid all the turmoil of our daily lives. We run a very tight ship.
Second, and this is very important, most often we mistake the voice of the Lord for our own thoughts. That's right. I said the voice of the Lord comes to us in our own thoughts. Its like when your stomach rumbles to your mind about hunger, you wont say my stomach is hungry. Instead it comes out of your mouth as if its your thought. You say to yourself, i need to eat in a monotone or self-tone.
In the same way your spirit Man speaks to your brain or mind what he receives from God. Your new man communicates telepathically with God- The Holy Spirit and the two are in perfect harmony as your spirit is IDENTICAL to Jesus. One Spirit speaks to another spirit. Both are in the spirit realm, your body/mind which is in the physical realm simply captures it, as a thought and converts the thought into audio format when u speak or verbalize your thoughts
John 4:24 says,
"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
This is saying that communication with God is Spirit to spirit, not brain to brain or mouth to ear, the way we communicate in the physical realm. The Lord speaks to our spirits, not in words, but in thoughts and impressions. Then our spirits speak to our minds which we capture in our imagination or subconscious in thoughts and convert to words like, "I think the Lord wants me to do this or that."
The Lord doesn't typically say "You do this or that," like a second voice from outer space, but He will impress your spirit to do something, and then your spirit says, "I think I should do . . ." when it dawns on your mind. Therefore, we often miss the leading of the Lord, thinking it's our own thoughts.
Every one of us has done something that we later regretted afterwards saying, "I knew that was the wrong thing to do. Something tried holding me back but I insisted" We didn't feel right about our decision, but we followed reasoning or logic or pressure rather than intuition only to find that our impression was right all along and that it was actually the Lord speaking to us. Sometimes it is our senses or the carnal nature that clouds God's leading.
I learned this the hard way when I started making bricks for my house using the soil on my plot. Before I went into the venture something was holding me back and telling me to instead buy.
Initially I had incurred serious losses with the very 1st "tanulu" or Kiln when I began construction. Now later as I made bricks for the perimeter wall I felt an impression to quit the idea with the 1st porter handling the project. Matter of fact that "tanulu" had even collapsed during the baking process.
So I hired a more skilled porter but immediately my heart was not at peace with this guy, yet physically he was more energetic and skilled. I reasoned a lot with keeping this fellow at my premises as I gave him other duties apart from brickmaking in his free time. The truth is that guy was hardworking although he was a habitual drunko and sometimes he would steal our food which was in the store adjacent to his living quaters, to fund his drinking habit.
To cut the story short 2 years later this guy became the devil himself, there is hardly anything I ever profited in any of the work he undertook. Things would seem like they are shifting but then turn out badly in the end. On top of being a theif, I discovered that he had abondoned his family and kept rejecting my calls for him to get saved after preaching grace to him on many ocassions. Can u imagine my wife through her intuition felt that we should terminate his work immediately, however, being a man, I went with logic or my reasoning instead of my heart. I made some of the worst losses in terms of where I used the money for the house.
It was a terrible experience. As soon as this man showed his true colors, I knew in my heart that the feelings and thoughts I had were the Lord speaking to me, and I had dismissed them as my own. I made a decision there and then that I would never ignore my heart again.Sometimes we call this intuition but it needs to backed by scripture to know that it is not carnal. Women especially, have great intution developed from being mothers.
Psalm 37:4 says,
"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."
This verse has often been interpreted to mean that the Lord will give you whatever you want and has been used to justify selfish mortives, greed, and even adultery. But it doesn't mean that the Lord will give you whatever you want; it means that when you are seeking the Lord, He will put His wants or desires into your heart. He will make His desires become your desires. The Lord changes your "want tos." Then you will find that when u want something its like God himself wanting it, and God always gets His wants met.
A friend of mine survived the Sunday bomb blast because he got a sudden urge to go to the loos at the precise moment of the explosion. Again many guys survived because they decided to go to a different place on that fateful day.
I for one had prepared to hang out that night and watch that cup final in an unsual place with my Wife, but I was interrupted by a late night visitor. Who knows I could have ended up there and we'd be both dead. Actually towards the start of the match I lost interest in going out and this was compounded when my wife suddenly abondoned the idea of partying that night.
That is the dominant way the Lord speaks to us, and we often miss that kind of communication. Its like missing timely intelligence information and then you wind up with a bomb blast.
As believers we need to get into the habit of listening. Some people who have advanced in these things have setup personal listening posts already. This is the best intelligence information you can get even it sounds crazy.
Am in the midst of making one of the most important decisions of my life. Ever since the Lord touched me with the revelation of Grace I have began feeling I should not be where I am currently. My desires have changed, and I don't want to be in a certain place anymore. And following those new desires, I intend to make a radical decision to quit.
There are many risks with that decision and I am sure some people might hate me for being "unreasonable". But when I look at the prospects and the divine purpose of my decision I know this is not the work of the devil. I stand to lose many opportunities, friends and about 1.2 million per month in Salary, plus possible hindrance in supporting the education of my children, but I also stand to gain much much more.
Madness is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time. I have been buried at this place for over 13 years with fear to make a radical decision, and as a result I have not experienced radical changes in my life. If you aim at nothing you hit nothing. If you aim at the stars you could easily hit the moon.
I have toyed with this idea since 2009, because of these adverse risks to my decision, I had backed off for a while and I have been absolutely miserable. This has been going on for 1 year and I feel I cannot take it anymore, I just know that I have to move and If I do It will spark off a series of activities in the spirit realm that are mainly to my benefit and calling.
When I read Romans 14:23, it says,
"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin."
With this verse I realize It is sin to be undecided and yet I feel the time is now. By the way the bible says the Just shall live by faith and that those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham, its like faith drives you into the spirit realm away from the physical carnal realm.
Back in the old testament people were spiritually dead but God was able to use them mightily whenever they put their faith in Him. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Samson were not exactly holy but God used them and yet He considered them friends. These guys were not saved, but through their faith they experienced God's power and were in a sense saved on Credit.
We are supposed to walk by faith and not sight. It is always better to make a mistake in faith than ignore God's leading. There is a strong connection between faith and the supernatural realm. Even non believers who follow intuition and God's promptings are far better than believers who do not and have gotten all rational and confused with indecision, double mindedness resulting from mixing law and grace.
Anyway I am determined to make a faith decision and I believe I will stick with it. As I pray and study the Word for guidance, let me share Colossians 3:15, which says,
"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts."
The Lord will always lead you into the direction that gives you the most peace. To be truthful, I don't have total peace in any direction, whether to stay or move on but just as an umpire has to make a decision and stick with it, I need to make the call. I have the most peace about quitting this place, so I intend to make the call and step out of indecision into faith, to the best of my understanding.
Already in my Spirit I feel like The Lord has already began giving me such confirmation and joy that I have no doubt about the decision. I know there will be an avalanche of opportunities and activity in the spirit realm the moment I put pen to paper. Somehow my sitting on the fence is holding up so many things including the deployment of angels to their assignments. Its that serious guys.
That one decision, possibly more than any other, might set my life on a course that might bring me to the place I never dreamt I would be. It seems I have not been living up until now.
I am convinced that our gracious heavenly Father speaks constantly to every one of His children in this way, giving us all the information and guidance we need to be total overcomers. There isn't a problem with His transmitter; it's our receiver that needs help, its our mailbox that needs sorting out. Its our mails that need to be read, its that intelligent piece of infomation that needs to be processed in a timely manner.
Most people are imploring God to speak, when it's our inbuilt hearing device that needs to be adjusted. Taking this faith-stance that God is speaking and then learning to listen and obey will transform your relationship with the Lord. It could even save your life. Am sure that most of the 7/11 survivors in Kampala did something similar to this kind of thing and survived.
If CG had not invited URA staff for the NIP drive in, many URA staff would have been among the dead of 7/11. That invitation could have been the result of a prompting by God.
This is not the way the Lord intended it to be. This is an abnormality. We are spirit beings who should live in the supernatural, as its the parent realm and faith is what reconnects us back into that realm from this physical realm we live in.
Learning to clearly distinguish God's voice is invaluable. Instead of going through life blindly, we can have the wisdom of God guide and protect us. There isn't a single person reading this letter who couldn't have their life radically transformed by hearing the voice of the Lord better. If you have sickness or disease, one living word from the Lord will instantly heal you. If you are in financial crisis, the Lord knows exactly how to turn your situation around. It's just a matter of hearing His voice. You might be at the brink of death and yet one tiny piece of information could tremendously save your life.
For example some URA staff could have been involved in the bomb blasts at Kyadondo if it wasnt for CG's invitation to the drive in at NIP. Maybe the Lord was behind that very unusual gesture, but the point is that God was behind the protection of the URA staff from that explosion.
The Lord constantly speaks to us and gives us His direction. It's never the Lord who is not speaking, but it's us who are not hearing. Jesus made some radical statements about hearing His voice in John 10:3-5. He was speaking about Himself as the Shepherd of the sheep and the only way to enter the sheepfold.
"To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers."
Notice that He said in verse 3, His sheep hear His voice. He didn't say His sheep CAN hear His voice or SHOULD hear His voice. He made the emphatic statement that His sheep DO hear His voice. Its like saying Living beings breath air, period. So as a sheep you have been inbuilt with a God hearing device, the question is whether you use it.
Most Christians would question the accuracy of the above statements since their experiences don't line up with what I am saying. But it's not what Jesus said that is wrong; all true believers can and do hear the voice of God; they just don't recognize that what they are hearing is God's voice.
Radio, television and mobile phone transmitters send out signals twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; but we only hear them when we turn the receiver on and tune it in. A mobile phone is a receiver as well. Failure to hear the signal doesn't mean the station isn't transmitting. If your phone loses network it is not the problem of MTN or Warid.
Likewise, God is constantly transmitting His voice to His sheep, but few are turned on and tuned in. Its just like saying that God is always posting emails to your mailbox, but the question is ...do you access it and read them, before you complain that God is not communicating?
Most Christians are busy pleading with God in prayer to transmit when the problem is with their receivers. They are haranging God to drop them directions when they do not open their mailboxes which are incidentally very accessible.
The first thing we need to do is fix our receivers or get into the habit of accessing and reading our spiritual emails — believe that God is already speaking or sending emails and now it is time for you to embark on listening in or reading your messages.
However, note that is gonna take you time, some serious persistence, and steady focus. The average Christian's lifestyle is so hectic, it isn't conducive to hearing God's voice. In URA with all the pressure and balanced score card and perfomance objectives, life has become even more hectic.
For instance, what is your typical answer to the question, "How are you?" Many of you probably answer something about being very busy or something like "very stressed". I often say, "I'm busier than a mother with triplets." All of us seem to be busier than ever, and that's one of the BIG reasons we don't hear the voice of the Lord better. This is the trend everywhere.
We're just too busy. There's hardly any space for quiet time even for our earthly darlings. We are just super busy, we even take work home with or without good planning. Everything is an emergency. Any time that we free up is promptly taken up by entertainment, fellowship or overnights. There is always stuff that is awaiting.
Psalm 46:10 says,
"Be still, and know that I am God."
It's in stillness, not busyness, that we tune our spiritual ears to hear the voice of God. You can only know God when your engine is in idle state rather than in motion. The Lord always speaks to us in that "STILL, small voice" (1 Kings 19:12, emphasis mine), but often it's drowned out amid all the turmoil of our daily lives. We run a very tight ship.
Second, and this is very important, most often we mistake the voice of the Lord for our own thoughts. That's right. I said the voice of the Lord comes to us in our own thoughts. Its like when your stomach rumbles to your mind about hunger, you wont say my stomach is hungry. Instead it comes out of your mouth as if its your thought. You say to yourself, i need to eat in a monotone or self-tone.
In the same way your spirit Man speaks to your brain or mind what he receives from God. Your new man communicates telepathically with God- The Holy Spirit and the two are in perfect harmony as your spirit is IDENTICAL to Jesus. One Spirit speaks to another spirit. Both are in the spirit realm, your body/mind which is in the physical realm simply captures it, as a thought and converts the thought into audio format when u speak or verbalize your thoughts
John 4:24 says,
"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
This is saying that communication with God is Spirit to spirit, not brain to brain or mouth to ear, the way we communicate in the physical realm. The Lord speaks to our spirits, not in words, but in thoughts and impressions. Then our spirits speak to our minds which we capture in our imagination or subconscious in thoughts and convert to words like, "I think the Lord wants me to do this or that."
The Lord doesn't typically say "You do this or that," like a second voice from outer space, but He will impress your spirit to do something, and then your spirit says, "I think I should do . . ." when it dawns on your mind. Therefore, we often miss the leading of the Lord, thinking it's our own thoughts.
Every one of us has done something that we later regretted afterwards saying, "I knew that was the wrong thing to do. Something tried holding me back but I insisted" We didn't feel right about our decision, but we followed reasoning or logic or pressure rather than intuition only to find that our impression was right all along and that it was actually the Lord speaking to us. Sometimes it is our senses or the carnal nature that clouds God's leading.
I learned this the hard way when I started making bricks for my house using the soil on my plot. Before I went into the venture something was holding me back and telling me to instead buy.
Initially I had incurred serious losses with the very 1st "tanulu" or Kiln when I began construction. Now later as I made bricks for the perimeter wall I felt an impression to quit the idea with the 1st porter handling the project. Matter of fact that "tanulu" had even collapsed during the baking process.
So I hired a more skilled porter but immediately my heart was not at peace with this guy, yet physically he was more energetic and skilled. I reasoned a lot with keeping this fellow at my premises as I gave him other duties apart from brickmaking in his free time. The truth is that guy was hardworking although he was a habitual drunko and sometimes he would steal our food which was in the store adjacent to his living quaters, to fund his drinking habit.
To cut the story short 2 years later this guy became the devil himself, there is hardly anything I ever profited in any of the work he undertook. Things would seem like they are shifting but then turn out badly in the end. On top of being a theif, I discovered that he had abondoned his family and kept rejecting my calls for him to get saved after preaching grace to him on many ocassions. Can u imagine my wife through her intuition felt that we should terminate his work immediately, however, being a man, I went with logic or my reasoning instead of my heart. I made some of the worst losses in terms of where I used the money for the house.
It was a terrible experience. As soon as this man showed his true colors, I knew in my heart that the feelings and thoughts I had were the Lord speaking to me, and I had dismissed them as my own. I made a decision there and then that I would never ignore my heart again.Sometimes we call this intuition but it needs to backed by scripture to know that it is not carnal. Women especially, have great intution developed from being mothers.
Psalm 37:4 says,
"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."
This verse has often been interpreted to mean that the Lord will give you whatever you want and has been used to justify selfish mortives, greed, and even adultery. But it doesn't mean that the Lord will give you whatever you want; it means that when you are seeking the Lord, He will put His wants or desires into your heart. He will make His desires become your desires. The Lord changes your "want tos." Then you will find that when u want something its like God himself wanting it, and God always gets His wants met.
A friend of mine survived the Sunday bomb blast because he got a sudden urge to go to the loos at the precise moment of the explosion. Again many guys survived because they decided to go to a different place on that fateful day.
I for one had prepared to hang out that night and watch that cup final in an unsual place with my Wife, but I was interrupted by a late night visitor. Who knows I could have ended up there and we'd be both dead. Actually towards the start of the match I lost interest in going out and this was compounded when my wife suddenly abondoned the idea of partying that night.
That is the dominant way the Lord speaks to us, and we often miss that kind of communication. Its like missing timely intelligence information and then you wind up with a bomb blast.
As believers we need to get into the habit of listening. Some people who have advanced in these things have setup personal listening posts already. This is the best intelligence information you can get even it sounds crazy.
Am in the midst of making one of the most important decisions of my life. Ever since the Lord touched me with the revelation of Grace I have began feeling I should not be where I am currently. My desires have changed, and I don't want to be in a certain place anymore. And following those new desires, I intend to make a radical decision to quit.
There are many risks with that decision and I am sure some people might hate me for being "unreasonable". But when I look at the prospects and the divine purpose of my decision I know this is not the work of the devil. I stand to lose many opportunities, friends and about 1.2 million per month in Salary, plus possible hindrance in supporting the education of my children, but I also stand to gain much much more.
Madness is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time. I have been buried at this place for over 13 years with fear to make a radical decision, and as a result I have not experienced radical changes in my life. If you aim at nothing you hit nothing. If you aim at the stars you could easily hit the moon.
I have toyed with this idea since 2009, because of these adverse risks to my decision, I had backed off for a while and I have been absolutely miserable. This has been going on for 1 year and I feel I cannot take it anymore, I just know that I have to move and If I do It will spark off a series of activities in the spirit realm that are mainly to my benefit and calling.
When I read Romans 14:23, it says,
"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin."
With this verse I realize It is sin to be undecided and yet I feel the time is now. By the way the bible says the Just shall live by faith and that those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham, its like faith drives you into the spirit realm away from the physical carnal realm.
Back in the old testament people were spiritually dead but God was able to use them mightily whenever they put their faith in Him. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Samson were not exactly holy but God used them and yet He considered them friends. These guys were not saved, but through their faith they experienced God's power and were in a sense saved on Credit.
We are supposed to walk by faith and not sight. It is always better to make a mistake in faith than ignore God's leading. There is a strong connection between faith and the supernatural realm. Even non believers who follow intuition and God's promptings are far better than believers who do not and have gotten all rational and confused with indecision, double mindedness resulting from mixing law and grace.
Anyway I am determined to make a faith decision and I believe I will stick with it. As I pray and study the Word for guidance, let me share Colossians 3:15, which says,
"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts."
The Lord will always lead you into the direction that gives you the most peace. To be truthful, I don't have total peace in any direction, whether to stay or move on but just as an umpire has to make a decision and stick with it, I need to make the call. I have the most peace about quitting this place, so I intend to make the call and step out of indecision into faith, to the best of my understanding.
Already in my Spirit I feel like The Lord has already began giving me such confirmation and joy that I have no doubt about the decision. I know there will be an avalanche of opportunities and activity in the spirit realm the moment I put pen to paper. Somehow my sitting on the fence is holding up so many things including the deployment of angels to their assignments. Its that serious guys.
That one decision, possibly more than any other, might set my life on a course that might bring me to the place I never dreamt I would be. It seems I have not been living up until now.
I am convinced that our gracious heavenly Father speaks constantly to every one of His children in this way, giving us all the information and guidance we need to be total overcomers. There isn't a problem with His transmitter; it's our receiver that needs help, its our mailbox that needs sorting out. Its our mails that need to be read, its that intelligent piece of infomation that needs to be processed in a timely manner.
Most people are imploring God to speak, when it's our inbuilt hearing device that needs to be adjusted. Taking this faith-stance that God is speaking and then learning to listen and obey will transform your relationship with the Lord. It could even save your life. Am sure that most of the 7/11 survivors in Kampala did something similar to this kind of thing and survived.
If CG had not invited URA staff for the NIP drive in, many URA staff would have been among the dead of 7/11. That invitation could have been the result of a prompting by God.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
God's Nature is this One
God is a good God!
He isn’t mad at us.
He not only loves us, He likes us!
He will never leave us nor forsake us, no matter how badly we miss it.
His mercies are new every morning!
Our sin does not affect His opinion of us nor cause Him to withhold His blessing!
Great is His faithfulness!!!!
These sound like very radical statements! Just think about the typical Christian teaching concerning God today. Usually, God is presented as stern, angry, and ready to get us for the slightest misstep. Or at least He certainly won’t answer our prayers if we sin. That’s wrong, and it leads to wrong conclusions and attitudes toward God that hinder an intimate relationship with Him.
So why is the Lord represented so harshly? The answer can be partly found in the lack of understanding of the harmony between the Old and New Testament. In the Old Testament, the Lord vented His anger and judgment often, and in very devastating ways.
• There was Noah’s flood;
• the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah;
• a death angel killed all the firstborn of Egypt in one night;
• another angel killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night;
• And on and on the list goes.
Matter of fact I have heard one local artist sing “Muliro gwake” and I think this is largely derived from the old testament in 2Kings when Fire came and consumed 102 men and its says in 2Kings 1:12 “…and the Fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.”
There is no doubt our God is a holy God who hates sin and demands justice, but if your eyes are only upon the Judgmental side of God, then you will think that is His default side, or the better part of Him.
However, there is also the portrait of God that Jesus painted for us through His teachings and actions, how,
• He showed mercy to the worst of sinners,
• associated with publicans and harlots,
• loved the unlovely, and then
• His ultimate action of dying for our sins proved beyond any doubt that He came to save the world, not condemn it.
1) How does this fit with the Old Testament view of the harshness and severity of God?
2) Are the new and old testaments insinuating that God schizophrenic?
3) Does God sometimes love us and other times hate us?
4) How can we have a healthy relationship with someone who gets these mood swings?
These questions present a dilemma that has kept many people at arm’s length from the Lord. The vast majority of people KNOW there is a God; they just don’t know how to relate to Him. They are confused because mixed signals have been sent to them, often by the church.
A minister will say that it was the Lord, in His sovereignty, who killed a baby; and in the next breath, the minister will ask if anyone wants to serve this GOOD GOD. We are told that God won’t answer the prayer of anyone in sin, and yet we are told that the bible says we have all sinned. Where does that leave us? Without a prayer!
There is a simple answer to these questions, and a harmony between the wrath and mercy of God.
God is not schizophrenic.
There is one, true nature of God clearly represented in the Word, and that is LOVE!
First John 4:8 says,
“God is love.”
He doesn’t just love at times. Love is the nature of God! Jesus gave us the greatest representation of the true nature of God ever presented. Anybody who loves also wants to be loved, this means God too wants Love, and that’s why He embeds Love inside us. We love because He first loved us.
God placed our sins on Jesus and punished Him in our place. God satisfied His own demands for justice, not by punishing us, but by punishing His Son in our place. This wasn’t a partial payment which required adding our holiness; it was a total payment that leaves us with nothing to do except;
• Believe and receive, or
• Doubt and do without.
Jesus’ payment for our sins forever changed our relationship with the Father. If Jesus had made His sacrifice for sins in the Old Testament, then we wouldn’t have seen the wrath of God vented as recorded in the Old Testament scriptures.
Here’s an example. In 2 Kings 1, Elijah called fire down from heaven and killed 102 soldiers who had come to arrest him. Jesus’ disciples (specifically the sons of thunder) attempted to bring the same to bear on Samaria, by asking the same thing and cited Elijah as their example. Jesus rebuked them for even thinking about such an act and said,
“Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Luke 9:55-56).
Jesus rebuked His disciples for trying to follow Elijah’s example. This shows that if Jesus had been present on the earth in His role as Messiah, this act of judgment wouldn’t have happened. There is a difference between the way God dealt with mankind under the Old Covenant and the way He deals with mankind under the New Covenant.
Before the sacrifice of Jesus, there was judgment. But it wasn’t because the Lord desired to punish us. His nature has always been love. However, a price had to be paid for sin, and until that sacrifice was made, there had to be consequences.
It’s similar to training children. If you wait to begin disciplining your children until they are old enough to fully comprehend exactly what you say, you and the child will be in big trouble. A child has to be restrained from doing wrong from a very young age.
At one or two years old, they may not understand that it’s the devil tempting them to take their sibling’s toys. However, they can understand, “If you do that again, you are going to get a spanking.” They may not comprehend heaven and hell issues, but when the devil tempts them with covetousness, they will say NO, because they fear a spanking.
It can also be said for a malignant wound that is eating up somebody’s leg. While a doctor may have to amputate in order to save the rest of the leg, this does not mean that the doctor hates you, he is merely saving your life. This is what Happened to Man in the beginning in the Old Testament, and religion concluded that God was a Stern Judge, but God was simply saving the situation from getting very bad.
Before the new birth, people were sinning and that sin was destroying their lives. God didn’t want to punish them. He was willing to show them mercy on credit, in a sense, looking forward to the sacrifice of His own Son for their sins. People began to take the lack of God’s judgment as approval.
This can be clearly seen with Cain and his descendants. Cain killed his brother Abel because of jealousy (Gen. 4). Instead of punishment, God extended mercy toward Cain, even putting a mark on his forehead to warn others that God was protecting him.
Cain’s great-great-great-grandson, Lamech, interpreted this as approval of murder. He killed a man in self-defense and, therefore, felt more justified in his killing than Cain. He said that if God would avenge Cain sevenfold, then He would avenge Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
God didn’t say that, Lamech did. Lamech was presuming on God because of His grace toward Cain. Therefore, mankind began to move so far away from a proper standard of holiness that if God hadn’t intervened, there wouldn’t have been a virgin left to give birth to Jesus.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:12,
“But they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”
This has always been the case. If one person gets by with sin, others will take that as an approval of sin. So before the Lord could produce the new birth, where He lives within us and guides us through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, He placed external restraints on sin that even lost people could understand. “You sin and you die.” That’s the way it was.
That wasn’t the way God really wanted it to be, but sin had to be restrained until Jesus’ atoning sacrifice was made. God’s withholding of punishment for sin had led to a total loss of a true standard of right and wrong. Mankind had compared themselves with others so often and for so long that no one knew what God originally intended. Something had to be done.
Sin was destroying the human race and needed to be restrained. Therefore, God gave the Law. But why didn’t He give the Law to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden 2,000 years earlier and prevent these problems? Because of love. The Law had serious side effects of condemnation and guilt. God didn’t want us running from Him out of fear but to Him because of love and grace.
The Law was never God’s plan for salvation. It was God showing us that we could never measure up to His holy standard. It was given to drive us from self-righteousness and toward receiving the sacrifice of Jesus by faith. By the law is the Knowledge of Sin, and the Law activates Sin. The law also increases sin.
Amazingly, the church has interpreted it in the opposite way. Most Christians think the Law is wonderful, that God expects us to keep it, and that His response to us is based on our compliance. That’s just not true!
The Law was given for two main purposes. First, the fear of God’s punishment constrained sin in people’s lives, thereby diminishing Satan’s inroads. Second, it totally took away all hope of being saved by any virtue of themselves. The Law made everyone guilty before God with no hope of justice. We needed mercy.
Those were the main purposes of the Law. It was not God’s list of steps one through ten thousand of what you must do to be right with Him. It was God’s list of all you have done wrong, proving that you can never be right with God unless He provides another form of payment. It was not to set you free. The Law was to bind and destroy you. It was a severe spanking for the whole human race to turn us from sin, self righteousness, self effort and self-salvation.
He isn’t mad at us.
He not only loves us, He likes us!
He will never leave us nor forsake us, no matter how badly we miss it.
His mercies are new every morning!
Our sin does not affect His opinion of us nor cause Him to withhold His blessing!
Great is His faithfulness!!!!
These sound like very radical statements! Just think about the typical Christian teaching concerning God today. Usually, God is presented as stern, angry, and ready to get us for the slightest misstep. Or at least He certainly won’t answer our prayers if we sin. That’s wrong, and it leads to wrong conclusions and attitudes toward God that hinder an intimate relationship with Him.
So why is the Lord represented so harshly? The answer can be partly found in the lack of understanding of the harmony between the Old and New Testament. In the Old Testament, the Lord vented His anger and judgment often, and in very devastating ways.
• There was Noah’s flood;
• the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah;
• a death angel killed all the firstborn of Egypt in one night;
• another angel killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night;
• And on and on the list goes.
Matter of fact I have heard one local artist sing “Muliro gwake” and I think this is largely derived from the old testament in 2Kings when Fire came and consumed 102 men and its says in 2Kings 1:12 “…and the Fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.”
There is no doubt our God is a holy God who hates sin and demands justice, but if your eyes are only upon the Judgmental side of God, then you will think that is His default side, or the better part of Him.
However, there is also the portrait of God that Jesus painted for us through His teachings and actions, how,
• He showed mercy to the worst of sinners,
• associated with publicans and harlots,
• loved the unlovely, and then
• His ultimate action of dying for our sins proved beyond any doubt that He came to save the world, not condemn it.
1) How does this fit with the Old Testament view of the harshness and severity of God?
2) Are the new and old testaments insinuating that God schizophrenic?
3) Does God sometimes love us and other times hate us?
4) How can we have a healthy relationship with someone who gets these mood swings?
These questions present a dilemma that has kept many people at arm’s length from the Lord. The vast majority of people KNOW there is a God; they just don’t know how to relate to Him. They are confused because mixed signals have been sent to them, often by the church.
A minister will say that it was the Lord, in His sovereignty, who killed a baby; and in the next breath, the minister will ask if anyone wants to serve this GOOD GOD. We are told that God won’t answer the prayer of anyone in sin, and yet we are told that the bible says we have all sinned. Where does that leave us? Without a prayer!
There is a simple answer to these questions, and a harmony between the wrath and mercy of God.
God is not schizophrenic.
There is one, true nature of God clearly represented in the Word, and that is LOVE!
First John 4:8 says,
“God is love.”
He doesn’t just love at times. Love is the nature of God! Jesus gave us the greatest representation of the true nature of God ever presented. Anybody who loves also wants to be loved, this means God too wants Love, and that’s why He embeds Love inside us. We love because He first loved us.
God placed our sins on Jesus and punished Him in our place. God satisfied His own demands for justice, not by punishing us, but by punishing His Son in our place. This wasn’t a partial payment which required adding our holiness; it was a total payment that leaves us with nothing to do except;
• Believe and receive, or
• Doubt and do without.
Jesus’ payment for our sins forever changed our relationship with the Father. If Jesus had made His sacrifice for sins in the Old Testament, then we wouldn’t have seen the wrath of God vented as recorded in the Old Testament scriptures.
Here’s an example. In 2 Kings 1, Elijah called fire down from heaven and killed 102 soldiers who had come to arrest him. Jesus’ disciples (specifically the sons of thunder) attempted to bring the same to bear on Samaria, by asking the same thing and cited Elijah as their example. Jesus rebuked them for even thinking about such an act and said,
“Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Luke 9:55-56).
Jesus rebuked His disciples for trying to follow Elijah’s example. This shows that if Jesus had been present on the earth in His role as Messiah, this act of judgment wouldn’t have happened. There is a difference between the way God dealt with mankind under the Old Covenant and the way He deals with mankind under the New Covenant.
Before the sacrifice of Jesus, there was judgment. But it wasn’t because the Lord desired to punish us. His nature has always been love. However, a price had to be paid for sin, and until that sacrifice was made, there had to be consequences.
It’s similar to training children. If you wait to begin disciplining your children until they are old enough to fully comprehend exactly what you say, you and the child will be in big trouble. A child has to be restrained from doing wrong from a very young age.
At one or two years old, they may not understand that it’s the devil tempting them to take their sibling’s toys. However, they can understand, “If you do that again, you are going to get a spanking.” They may not comprehend heaven and hell issues, but when the devil tempts them with covetousness, they will say NO, because they fear a spanking.
It can also be said for a malignant wound that is eating up somebody’s leg. While a doctor may have to amputate in order to save the rest of the leg, this does not mean that the doctor hates you, he is merely saving your life. This is what Happened to Man in the beginning in the Old Testament, and religion concluded that God was a Stern Judge, but God was simply saving the situation from getting very bad.
Before the new birth, people were sinning and that sin was destroying their lives. God didn’t want to punish them. He was willing to show them mercy on credit, in a sense, looking forward to the sacrifice of His own Son for their sins. People began to take the lack of God’s judgment as approval.
This can be clearly seen with Cain and his descendants. Cain killed his brother Abel because of jealousy (Gen. 4). Instead of punishment, God extended mercy toward Cain, even putting a mark on his forehead to warn others that God was protecting him.
Cain’s great-great-great-grandson, Lamech, interpreted this as approval of murder. He killed a man in self-defense and, therefore, felt more justified in his killing than Cain. He said that if God would avenge Cain sevenfold, then He would avenge Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
God didn’t say that, Lamech did. Lamech was presuming on God because of His grace toward Cain. Therefore, mankind began to move so far away from a proper standard of holiness that if God hadn’t intervened, there wouldn’t have been a virgin left to give birth to Jesus.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:12,
“But they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”
This has always been the case. If one person gets by with sin, others will take that as an approval of sin. So before the Lord could produce the new birth, where He lives within us and guides us through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, He placed external restraints on sin that even lost people could understand. “You sin and you die.” That’s the way it was.
That wasn’t the way God really wanted it to be, but sin had to be restrained until Jesus’ atoning sacrifice was made. God’s withholding of punishment for sin had led to a total loss of a true standard of right and wrong. Mankind had compared themselves with others so often and for so long that no one knew what God originally intended. Something had to be done.
Sin was destroying the human race and needed to be restrained. Therefore, God gave the Law. But why didn’t He give the Law to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden 2,000 years earlier and prevent these problems? Because of love. The Law had serious side effects of condemnation and guilt. God didn’t want us running from Him out of fear but to Him because of love and grace.
The Law was never God’s plan for salvation. It was God showing us that we could never measure up to His holy standard. It was given to drive us from self-righteousness and toward receiving the sacrifice of Jesus by faith. By the law is the Knowledge of Sin, and the Law activates Sin. The law also increases sin.
Amazingly, the church has interpreted it in the opposite way. Most Christians think the Law is wonderful, that God expects us to keep it, and that His response to us is based on our compliance. That’s just not true!
The Law was given for two main purposes. First, the fear of God’s punishment constrained sin in people’s lives, thereby diminishing Satan’s inroads. Second, it totally took away all hope of being saved by any virtue of themselves. The Law made everyone guilty before God with no hope of justice. We needed mercy.
Those were the main purposes of the Law. It was not God’s list of steps one through ten thousand of what you must do to be right with Him. It was God’s list of all you have done wrong, proving that you can never be right with God unless He provides another form of payment. It was not to set you free. The Law was to bind and destroy you. It was a severe spanking for the whole human race to turn us from sin, self righteousness, self effort and self-salvation.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Getting to KNOW God
If you ask a group of people what the greatest thing in life is, you will probably get as many answers as… Certainly many things contribute to a full and happy life, but If you are a believer I hope you will agree with me that knowing God is absolutely the greatest and most important thing of all there is. Without that, everything else just doesn’t make sense.
The Apostle Paul put it this way in Philippians 3:8:
“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
Think of this: Paul wasn’t a loser. He hadn’t hit rock bottom with nowhere else to go. He wasn’t turning from a life of failure and counting that, as “dung.” He was one of the most educated and accomplished men of his day. He was the elite of the religious class. People knew him and they wanted to be like him.
Think of the most elite of our society today, guys with serious achievements. The kind of fellas that most Dads tell their sons to emulate in any society, and that was Paul for you. By then he was called Saul. I could think of a person like say Professor Balunywa or Patrick Bitature or even to the level of respectable socialites from the telecom companies in Uganda. That’s what you could equate to Paul or Saul at that time in his day.
You see Paul wasn’t writing just about the time before he was born again. Remember as Saul, Paul was the Chief-Harassing-Officer (CHO) of the Christians back then. He had been a Christian for decades at the time he wrote this. After He had gotten saved and having traveled the world and used of God as few men ever had or ever will be, Paul came to the point of Phil 3:10. After all that experience he was still seeking to know God more (Phil. 3:10).
Paul was saying that the best life had to offer and the greatest accomplishments and pursuits of any man, when compared to knowing God, ranked in the same category as manure. He was admitting that he hadn’t arrived but that he had left and was pressing toward that goal of knowing God more (Phil. 3:12-14).
In my 37 years of doing time on this earth so far, I have seen how people exalt qualifications and being very learned. They even hang their achievements on the wall and prefer to be called doctor this and doctor that, or bishop this and honorable that, or even the rightest Reverend Father blah blah blah… Anyway I am not bashing qualifications but Paul looked at similar achievements that he had attained and said they were nothing but dung, compared to knowing God. Whew Imagine that?
What does it say, when the man who wrote half of the New Testament was still pursuing knowing God decades after his conversion? Certainly there has to be a depth of knowing God that goes far beyond just getting saved. Paul spoke of this in Ephesians when he prayed that the Ephesian Christians would come to know the height, length, depth, and breadth of God’s love (Eph. 3:18-19).
He said something very interesting in Ephesians 3:19:
“And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
At first glance this seems confusing. How can we know something if it passes knowledge? How on earth does knowing transcend knowledge. Again in my 37 years I have found out that there are things we know by studying and educating the mind or the brain, but then there are those that we know that we know that we know that we know… this is the experiential knowledge. Knowing by interaction and intuition.
Paul is speaking about experiencing God’s love in a way that is infinitely greater than mere intellectual knowledge. And notice that when we experience God’s love in this way, we will be filled with all the fullness of God. What a statement!
All we have to do is look at our lack of experiencing God’s fullness in order to realize we don’t know God’s love the way Paul described it. If we did, we would be filled with all His fullness. Therefore, there is a dimension to knowing God that the average Christian hasn’t experienced. This is where you know God by faith rather than by carnal Manifestations. You know His heart and you have a deep consciousness of His presence in you. Thinking about how the creator of Heaven could Fit into a physical body and manifest on earth as Jesus Christ should help you in understanding that now He dwells inside you and its not something you need to prove in the physical but by faith you choose to believe God’s Word.
How then do we get there?
First of all, we have to realize that there is more to knowing God than just becoming a Christian. Multitudes of people have received salvation, and if they were to die, they would go straight into the presence of the Lord, without knowing God.
They don’t know that He loves them because He is love and not because they are lovely. They think they have to earn God’s favor, and they are needlessly suffering condemnation and lack of fellowship with Him because they feel unworthy. They don’t know Him as a loving heavenly Father but see Him as a harsh taskmaster, or the mean Judge.
Many Christians think our Father is the source of all their troubles and suffering. They think He uses those problems as tools to teach them something or change their behavior, even though the Word clearly proves the opposite (James 1:13). They don’t know their God as Healer or Provider, or in any other of the ways He manifests Himself to them. Truly, God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge about Him (Hos. 4:6).
Much of the blame for this falls on the church. The Bible says in Romans 10:17,
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
The church, as a whole, has proclaimed that Jesus died for us to keep us from going to hell. Now, that’s true and quite a benefit. If that’s all there was to salvation, that’s more than we deserve. I would emphasize that message if that was all there was, but that’s not what the Scripture teaches.
“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).
That verse specifically says the goal of salvation is “everlasting life.” And everlasting life was defined by Jesus in John 17:3, which says,
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
I REPEAT ETERNAL LIFE IS NOT JUST LIVING LIFE WITHOUT END, BUT IT IS KNOWING THE ONLY TRUE GOD AND JESUS CHRIST, PERIOD!!
Knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ is eternal life. That doesn’t start when we go to heaven. Knowing God (eternal life) is something we can have right now (John 3:36).
The word “know” is used in Scripture to describe the relationship between a man and his wife that produces a child (example: Gen. 4:1) – knowing is used in the same sense as sexual intercourse. It is speaking of intimacy. So “knowing God” is speaking of intimacy with Him, not in the raw physical sense but in a deep and spiritual way by faith.
To receive salvation and then stumble through life without experiencing intimacy with the Lord is to miss or ignore the most important part of what Jesus provided. Let me put it this way: if you received forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus and then continue on without an intimate, personal, close relationship with God, then according to John 3:16, you are missing the real purpose of salvation. This is where the vast majority of Christians live. You cannot be living by faith.
People believe they need to get saved because that’s the message they’ve heard. So they get saved and then they get stuck. They aren’t hearing that knowing.
God is the real goal or that it’s even attainable. They are waiting on the sweet by and by, but struggling in the rough here and now.
Knowing God in the way I’m discussing isn’t even on the radar screen of most Christians. They aren’t pursuing it and they aren’t experiencing it. It begs the question, how do we get started in our pursuit of intimacy with the Lord? We can begin by spending time getting to know Him through His Word.
The Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 1:3-4,
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
It’s through the knowledge of God that we are able to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness. He has already given them, but it’s knowing Him that allows us to partake of His divine nature, to receive all His great and precious promises, and to escape the corruption of this world. What a deal!
Knowing the Word is knowing God. When you know Him through the Word, then as you behold His image that is being written on your Heart you get transformed from Glory to Glory until there is no difference between you and Him. I am talking about the transformation of your mindset, not your spirit man, because your spirit man is perfect and has the same identity and properties as God Himself. That’s the Kind of Intimacy God desires where your mind in the soulish realm concurs with His mind completely, because the two of you have become one. There also comes a time when more than just the word but His very essence and presence permeates within you and you know what His word says without even reading it.
Did you know that when you are in love with somebody and you have been communicating through letters, when finally you meet face to face, you do not need to continue writing letters. So am talking about an experience where you have had an experiential understanding of God that even without His word you know what He is saying because the two of you are so much in oneness that you know what He saying without reffering to His word per se.…. Hope you catch my drift.
Andrew Wommack Whose teachings I have become so fond of recently taught a new series that focuses on knowing God, and it expounds on many of the key things he has learned about God through the Scriptures. He expounds the real meaning of eternal life, how to see with our hearts clearer than with our physical eyes, and much more.
This is a series that may not sound really interesting on the surface, but it is one of the most important messages he teaches.
If you ever want to fulfill what God has called you to do, you must know Him personally, and I believe this message will make a huge difference in your relationship with the Lord.
One last thing, the bible says that the Just Shall live by faith. Unfortunately faith is one of those places we take short vactions to but arent living or dwelling there. We are supposed to walk by faith, not by sight or by physical senses - which is canality on its own.
The Apostle Paul put it this way in Philippians 3:8:
“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
Think of this: Paul wasn’t a loser. He hadn’t hit rock bottom with nowhere else to go. He wasn’t turning from a life of failure and counting that, as “dung.” He was one of the most educated and accomplished men of his day. He was the elite of the religious class. People knew him and they wanted to be like him.
Think of the most elite of our society today, guys with serious achievements. The kind of fellas that most Dads tell their sons to emulate in any society, and that was Paul for you. By then he was called Saul. I could think of a person like say Professor Balunywa or Patrick Bitature or even to the level of respectable socialites from the telecom companies in Uganda. That’s what you could equate to Paul or Saul at that time in his day.
You see Paul wasn’t writing just about the time before he was born again. Remember as Saul, Paul was the Chief-Harassing-Officer (CHO) of the Christians back then. He had been a Christian for decades at the time he wrote this. After He had gotten saved and having traveled the world and used of God as few men ever had or ever will be, Paul came to the point of Phil 3:10. After all that experience he was still seeking to know God more (Phil. 3:10).
Paul was saying that the best life had to offer and the greatest accomplishments and pursuits of any man, when compared to knowing God, ranked in the same category as manure. He was admitting that he hadn’t arrived but that he had left and was pressing toward that goal of knowing God more (Phil. 3:12-14).
In my 37 years of doing time on this earth so far, I have seen how people exalt qualifications and being very learned. They even hang their achievements on the wall and prefer to be called doctor this and doctor that, or bishop this and honorable that, or even the rightest Reverend Father blah blah blah… Anyway I am not bashing qualifications but Paul looked at similar achievements that he had attained and said they were nothing but dung, compared to knowing God. Whew Imagine that?
What does it say, when the man who wrote half of the New Testament was still pursuing knowing God decades after his conversion? Certainly there has to be a depth of knowing God that goes far beyond just getting saved. Paul spoke of this in Ephesians when he prayed that the Ephesian Christians would come to know the height, length, depth, and breadth of God’s love (Eph. 3:18-19).
He said something very interesting in Ephesians 3:19:
“And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
At first glance this seems confusing. How can we know something if it passes knowledge? How on earth does knowing transcend knowledge. Again in my 37 years I have found out that there are things we know by studying and educating the mind or the brain, but then there are those that we know that we know that we know that we know… this is the experiential knowledge. Knowing by interaction and intuition.
Paul is speaking about experiencing God’s love in a way that is infinitely greater than mere intellectual knowledge. And notice that when we experience God’s love in this way, we will be filled with all the fullness of God. What a statement!
All we have to do is look at our lack of experiencing God’s fullness in order to realize we don’t know God’s love the way Paul described it. If we did, we would be filled with all His fullness. Therefore, there is a dimension to knowing God that the average Christian hasn’t experienced. This is where you know God by faith rather than by carnal Manifestations. You know His heart and you have a deep consciousness of His presence in you. Thinking about how the creator of Heaven could Fit into a physical body and manifest on earth as Jesus Christ should help you in understanding that now He dwells inside you and its not something you need to prove in the physical but by faith you choose to believe God’s Word.
How then do we get there?
First of all, we have to realize that there is more to knowing God than just becoming a Christian. Multitudes of people have received salvation, and if they were to die, they would go straight into the presence of the Lord, without knowing God.
They don’t know that He loves them because He is love and not because they are lovely. They think they have to earn God’s favor, and they are needlessly suffering condemnation and lack of fellowship with Him because they feel unworthy. They don’t know Him as a loving heavenly Father but see Him as a harsh taskmaster, or the mean Judge.
Many Christians think our Father is the source of all their troubles and suffering. They think He uses those problems as tools to teach them something or change their behavior, even though the Word clearly proves the opposite (James 1:13). They don’t know their God as Healer or Provider, or in any other of the ways He manifests Himself to them. Truly, God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge about Him (Hos. 4:6).
Much of the blame for this falls on the church. The Bible says in Romans 10:17,
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
The church, as a whole, has proclaimed that Jesus died for us to keep us from going to hell. Now, that’s true and quite a benefit. If that’s all there was to salvation, that’s more than we deserve. I would emphasize that message if that was all there was, but that’s not what the Scripture teaches.
“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).
That verse specifically says the goal of salvation is “everlasting life.” And everlasting life was defined by Jesus in John 17:3, which says,
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
I REPEAT ETERNAL LIFE IS NOT JUST LIVING LIFE WITHOUT END, BUT IT IS KNOWING THE ONLY TRUE GOD AND JESUS CHRIST, PERIOD!!
Knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ is eternal life. That doesn’t start when we go to heaven. Knowing God (eternal life) is something we can have right now (John 3:36).
The word “know” is used in Scripture to describe the relationship between a man and his wife that produces a child (example: Gen. 4:1) – knowing is used in the same sense as sexual intercourse. It is speaking of intimacy. So “knowing God” is speaking of intimacy with Him, not in the raw physical sense but in a deep and spiritual way by faith.
To receive salvation and then stumble through life without experiencing intimacy with the Lord is to miss or ignore the most important part of what Jesus provided. Let me put it this way: if you received forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus and then continue on without an intimate, personal, close relationship with God, then according to John 3:16, you are missing the real purpose of salvation. This is where the vast majority of Christians live. You cannot be living by faith.
People believe they need to get saved because that’s the message they’ve heard. So they get saved and then they get stuck. They aren’t hearing that knowing.
God is the real goal or that it’s even attainable. They are waiting on the sweet by and by, but struggling in the rough here and now.
Knowing God in the way I’m discussing isn’t even on the radar screen of most Christians. They aren’t pursuing it and they aren’t experiencing it. It begs the question, how do we get started in our pursuit of intimacy with the Lord? We can begin by spending time getting to know Him through His Word.
The Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 1:3-4,
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
It’s through the knowledge of God that we are able to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness. He has already given them, but it’s knowing Him that allows us to partake of His divine nature, to receive all His great and precious promises, and to escape the corruption of this world. What a deal!
Knowing the Word is knowing God. When you know Him through the Word, then as you behold His image that is being written on your Heart you get transformed from Glory to Glory until there is no difference between you and Him. I am talking about the transformation of your mindset, not your spirit man, because your spirit man is perfect and has the same identity and properties as God Himself. That’s the Kind of Intimacy God desires where your mind in the soulish realm concurs with His mind completely, because the two of you have become one. There also comes a time when more than just the word but His very essence and presence permeates within you and you know what His word says without even reading it.
Did you know that when you are in love with somebody and you have been communicating through letters, when finally you meet face to face, you do not need to continue writing letters. So am talking about an experience where you have had an experiential understanding of God that even without His word you know what He is saying because the two of you are so much in oneness that you know what He saying without reffering to His word per se.…. Hope you catch my drift.
Andrew Wommack Whose teachings I have become so fond of recently taught a new series that focuses on knowing God, and it expounds on many of the key things he has learned about God through the Scriptures. He expounds the real meaning of eternal life, how to see with our hearts clearer than with our physical eyes, and much more.
This is a series that may not sound really interesting on the surface, but it is one of the most important messages he teaches.
If you ever want to fulfill what God has called you to do, you must know Him personally, and I believe this message will make a huge difference in your relationship with the Lord.
One last thing, the bible says that the Just Shall live by faith. Unfortunately faith is one of those places we take short vactions to but arent living or dwelling there. We are supposed to walk by faith, not by sight or by physical senses - which is canality on its own.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Once Saved always Saved, or Unsaved by Sin??
used to ask myself that when somebody gets saved, do they stay saved i.e. [under Jesus] when they sin or they lose their salvation and only regain it when they confess their sins. The more I thought about it, the more it appeared to me that there were generally two scenarios, these being
a) Once saved, always saved... or
b) Saved then lost, confess then resaved, then lost, then born again and again and.... [basically that a person can jump in and out of salvation]
The a) camp believes that once someone is saved, he will always stay saved in spite of sin, because they have the belief that your spirit is sanctified and perfected forever. They reason that since you aren’t saved based on your goodness, then you cannot be unsaved based on your lack of goodness thereof. If you confess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are born again, period. According to them since faith is the issue then sin has no part in subtracting your salvation in the whole equation.
There are many people mostly in camp b) who would classify this as heresy and even assemble an arsenal of verses to dispute this belief. These people strongly believe in confessing every single time you fall into sin, otherwise they say you could fall out of salvation. Confessing in a way is like a sin offering to stay in salvation.
Glass door
Now James 2:10 says “for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all”.
Gal 5:9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
When I read these verses I realized that keeping the law is like maintaining a glass door. You can catapult a small stone through that door and make a little hole or throw a giant rock and leave a giant hole but the bottom-line is that, size doesn’t matter; the entire glass is broken and has to be replaced.
You might be an average Joe and you always avoid trouble, you might not be transgressing all of God’s commands, but I can assure you, you will never be able to do everything He’s told you to do. While many of us might be good citizens who are law abiding, none of us is able to do all God asked us to do. Some of us are teachers, others are prophets but we are not walking according to our calling or causing salvation to spread the way it ought to. Think about it, if we did the good we know to do, there would be zero influence on earth by evil. Evil prevails because we fail to do the good we ought to. Most of us simply try but have no serious zeal to do exactly what God wants, let alone knowing what God wants.
James 4:17 says “therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.
Most people say “once saved, a believer must make sure they live Holy, he /she should not tolerate sin in their life, God is Holy, and any sin in our life removes our salvation and blah blah...” Such people after trying hard and with much sincerity in an effort to be sinless, end up realizing how impossible it is and then they start categorizing sin into small and big. But even with that categorization it is impossible to be Holy. Why? Because holiness is not only about not breaking the law, but also doing the right thing all the time and according to James 2:10 a big sinner such as a mass murderer like Joseph Kony is the same weight on the “sinner’s weighing scale” as a small sinner such as a housewife who enjoys gossiping. God sees them in the same way.
Am sorry for bursting your bubble but that’s what religious tradition is! As far God is concerned a sin is a sin, big or small in the eyes of man. God hates both categories of sin in the same measure, that’s why Jesus died for all kind of sin, big or small, committed today or in the future.
Driving at 80.1 KMPH in an 80 KMPH zone is as sinful and as disgusting as being a homosexual, since the bible in Romans 13:1-7 says you must obey the laws of the land. Both fall short of God’s standard of perfection. So even if you have violated the requirement a very tiny bit, it’s as bad as obliterating the entire constitution of Uganda. This is so to God even if according to man there is a radical difference in that both scenarios attract varying consequences and penalties. To God sin is sin, period.
Based on the above argument, supposing a born again believer who slightly over sped died in a car accident before confessing, does that mean he goes to hell? If so, then all believers are in serious trouble because all of us have at least made some bu-small mistakes here and there, that we forgot to confess. If that be so then no body qualifies for heaven, because honestly all of us fall short and fail in many different ways.
God has no scale for meeting His standard in that He only considers those who are in the top 10% as they will have tried. Either you are perfect on your own or YOU ARE IN NEED OF A SAVIOR WHO ALONE IS ABLE TO ATTAIN GOD’S STANDARD.
The b) camp means, if you can sin your salvation away, then the only way to get to heaven is to die as soon as you are born again. That means, if I was an evangelist who wanted to get my flock to heaven I would have my “mujolo [panga]” nearby and as soon as someone accepted Jesus I would kill them before they have a chance to sin away the salvation they have just received. In a sense that’s what Jesus implied that if your eye is the cause of sin, pluck it out and if it’s the leg chop it off. So if I knew that my entire flesh was the problem preventing me from being holy, then I should die before I fall into sin. So while I the evangelist would go to hell for running an amputation ward and murder centre, at least my flock would not have had the time to void their salvation ticket to heaven. I hope this sounds ridiculous enough for us to get the point.
Think about it this way, some old folk would choose to live a very sinful lifestyle and then when they have messed up enough and are very old, they would come to the evangelist for salvation and as soon as they receive it, are put to death and to go to heaven. That’s how silly this idea of sinning away salvation is, to the extent that God gave as Colossians 2:6 which reveals that the way you receive salvation is the way you walk in it.
Col 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
If you received salvation by believing, that’s how you walk in it. Our salvation depends on our acceptance of Christ Jesus and His finished work.
I want to submit that, once you are born again, your spirit man is sealed, sanctified, and perfected forever. This spirit man is identical to Jesus and can never sin or fall short. He is in a righteous state that cannot fluctuate with the holiness or sinfulness of your attitudes and actions in the mind [soulish realm] or body. Why? Because Ephesians 1:13-14 reveals that the day you believed in Jesus, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
What was sealed? Was it my flesh? No! Was is it my Soul? No. It was my spirit man because your thoughts and actions never underwent any radical change, but a new spirit was born inside you . In this the Holy Spirit guarantees our inheritance until that time in future when the body and soul which have been purchased are also redeemed [immortality], when we shall have a fully sanctified and perfected Spirit, soul and body, all understanding and seeing everything in full... that’s why renewing the mind to the word is important in enabling it see what the spirit man sees.
As the mind is renewed, reflecting on the word of God just as the spirit man has been designed to live, the bodily actions start following suit and then you end up living a holier life than you have ever tried on purpose. That is transformation. If you do not try to live holy by your effort, but instead renew the mind to the life in the spirit man which is according to the bible, then you will find it easier to serve God in spirit and in truth [life under Grace]. When you try to do it according to the law the bible says you have fallen from grace,
Gal 5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
As I conclude, salvation depends on your faith in Jesus and being born again, your sin cannot affect your relationship with God. God fellowships with you based on your faith in Christ Jesus, period!!
a) Once saved, always saved... or
b) Saved then lost, confess then resaved, then lost, then born again and again and.... [basically that a person can jump in and out of salvation]
The a) camp believes that once someone is saved, he will always stay saved in spite of sin, because they have the belief that your spirit is sanctified and perfected forever. They reason that since you aren’t saved based on your goodness, then you cannot be unsaved based on your lack of goodness thereof. If you confess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are born again, period. According to them since faith is the issue then sin has no part in subtracting your salvation in the whole equation.
There are many people mostly in camp b) who would classify this as heresy and even assemble an arsenal of verses to dispute this belief. These people strongly believe in confessing every single time you fall into sin, otherwise they say you could fall out of salvation. Confessing in a way is like a sin offering to stay in salvation.
Glass door
Now James 2:10 says “for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all”.
Gal 5:9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
When I read these verses I realized that keeping the law is like maintaining a glass door. You can catapult a small stone through that door and make a little hole or throw a giant rock and leave a giant hole but the bottom-line is that, size doesn’t matter; the entire glass is broken and has to be replaced.
You might be an average Joe and you always avoid trouble, you might not be transgressing all of God’s commands, but I can assure you, you will never be able to do everything He’s told you to do. While many of us might be good citizens who are law abiding, none of us is able to do all God asked us to do. Some of us are teachers, others are prophets but we are not walking according to our calling or causing salvation to spread the way it ought to. Think about it, if we did the good we know to do, there would be zero influence on earth by evil. Evil prevails because we fail to do the good we ought to. Most of us simply try but have no serious zeal to do exactly what God wants, let alone knowing what God wants.
James 4:17 says “therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.
Most people say “once saved, a believer must make sure they live Holy, he /she should not tolerate sin in their life, God is Holy, and any sin in our life removes our salvation and blah blah...” Such people after trying hard and with much sincerity in an effort to be sinless, end up realizing how impossible it is and then they start categorizing sin into small and big. But even with that categorization it is impossible to be Holy. Why? Because holiness is not only about not breaking the law, but also doing the right thing all the time and according to James 2:10 a big sinner such as a mass murderer like Joseph Kony is the same weight on the “sinner’s weighing scale” as a small sinner such as a housewife who enjoys gossiping. God sees them in the same way.
Am sorry for bursting your bubble but that’s what religious tradition is! As far God is concerned a sin is a sin, big or small in the eyes of man. God hates both categories of sin in the same measure, that’s why Jesus died for all kind of sin, big or small, committed today or in the future.
Driving at 80.1 KMPH in an 80 KMPH zone is as sinful and as disgusting as being a homosexual, since the bible in Romans 13:1-7 says you must obey the laws of the land. Both fall short of God’s standard of perfection. So even if you have violated the requirement a very tiny bit, it’s as bad as obliterating the entire constitution of Uganda. This is so to God even if according to man there is a radical difference in that both scenarios attract varying consequences and penalties. To God sin is sin, period.
Based on the above argument, supposing a born again believer who slightly over sped died in a car accident before confessing, does that mean he goes to hell? If so, then all believers are in serious trouble because all of us have at least made some bu-small mistakes here and there, that we forgot to confess. If that be so then no body qualifies for heaven, because honestly all of us fall short and fail in many different ways.
God has no scale for meeting His standard in that He only considers those who are in the top 10% as they will have tried. Either you are perfect on your own or YOU ARE IN NEED OF A SAVIOR WHO ALONE IS ABLE TO ATTAIN GOD’S STANDARD.
The b) camp means, if you can sin your salvation away, then the only way to get to heaven is to die as soon as you are born again. That means, if I was an evangelist who wanted to get my flock to heaven I would have my “mujolo [panga]” nearby and as soon as someone accepted Jesus I would kill them before they have a chance to sin away the salvation they have just received. In a sense that’s what Jesus implied that if your eye is the cause of sin, pluck it out and if it’s the leg chop it off. So if I knew that my entire flesh was the problem preventing me from being holy, then I should die before I fall into sin. So while I the evangelist would go to hell for running an amputation ward and murder centre, at least my flock would not have had the time to void their salvation ticket to heaven. I hope this sounds ridiculous enough for us to get the point.
Think about it this way, some old folk would choose to live a very sinful lifestyle and then when they have messed up enough and are very old, they would come to the evangelist for salvation and as soon as they receive it, are put to death and to go to heaven. That’s how silly this idea of sinning away salvation is, to the extent that God gave as Colossians 2:6 which reveals that the way you receive salvation is the way you walk in it.
Col 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
If you received salvation by believing, that’s how you walk in it. Our salvation depends on our acceptance of Christ Jesus and His finished work.
I want to submit that, once you are born again, your spirit man is sealed, sanctified, and perfected forever. This spirit man is identical to Jesus and can never sin or fall short. He is in a righteous state that cannot fluctuate with the holiness or sinfulness of your attitudes and actions in the mind [soulish realm] or body. Why? Because Ephesians 1:13-14 reveals that the day you believed in Jesus, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
What was sealed? Was it my flesh? No! Was is it my Soul? No. It was my spirit man because your thoughts and actions never underwent any radical change, but a new spirit was born inside you . In this the Holy Spirit guarantees our inheritance until that time in future when the body and soul which have been purchased are also redeemed [immortality], when we shall have a fully sanctified and perfected Spirit, soul and body, all understanding and seeing everything in full... that’s why renewing the mind to the word is important in enabling it see what the spirit man sees.
As the mind is renewed, reflecting on the word of God just as the spirit man has been designed to live, the bodily actions start following suit and then you end up living a holier life than you have ever tried on purpose. That is transformation. If you do not try to live holy by your effort, but instead renew the mind to the life in the spirit man which is according to the bible, then you will find it easier to serve God in spirit and in truth [life under Grace]. When you try to do it according to the law the bible says you have fallen from grace,
Gal 5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
As I conclude, salvation depends on your faith in Jesus and being born again, your sin cannot affect your relationship with God. God fellowships with you based on your faith in Christ Jesus, period!!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Whatever You need God has already Provided.
Most Believers don’t think that the Lord’s acceptance, Grace and Love towards them is a done deal. So it becomes something they long for and hope to obtain in the sweet by and by, little knowing that what they desire they already have. Truth be told God Loves you and cannot love you anymore than He already has and there is absolutely nothing you can do or add to get Him more endeared than He has already demonstrated through His Son’s death burial and resurrection.
Unfortunately most of what passes off today as Religion tends to say “God loves you in proportion to your Performance”. This is a fat lie. Today, you are accepted in the beloved [Eph 1:6] because of Jesus’ Performance many years before you were born, why? In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His Grace—Eph 1:7.
Friend whoever you are, if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, then you have already been forgiven – totally and completely! Why do I say so? It is because Jesus did not just deal with your past sins, which you have confessed. At the Cross, He paid for all your past sins, present [now] sins and even future sins[ the ones you intend to commit]. This is the eternal redemption spoken of and revealed in
Hebrews 9:12 “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us
Supposing as a believer today you were asked to write a prayer that believers 2000 years later would read and be inspired about the finished work of the Cross, How would you write?
In my opinion based on the what I keep hearing most believers say, the average Christian would contort these words out of themselves thinking they have prayed so beautifully.......O God, I ask You to Pour out Your Mighty Spirit like a Fire on That generation. Send revival and Move in a mighty way! Lord let the people see mighty things, do a new thing in them and on earth in that day! .....and blah blah blah. This looks like an impressive prayer but basically it’s about God doing something.
But this is how the Apostle Paul Prayed in [Ephesians 1:17-19] and it was the exact opposite!
17 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:
18 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,
19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Most of us pray that God will Move and touch, but Paul Prayed that we might realize, see and understand what God has already done, in other words see how God has already moved as we want Him to. Knowing What God has already done gives you the ability to pray with confidence.
For example revival does not come by pleading with God, but by starting to believe in what God has already accomplished through His son, and after believing, being able to walk in God’s dynamic, supernatural Life. How do I know this? I know this because when Jesus walked the earth, He didn’t come asking God to pour out His spirit. After being filled with the Holy Ghost, He simply dipped in, drew out, released and gave of the Spirit to people. What we call revival also happened in Jesus Time, but not through whining and begging and pleading with God as we enjoy doing nowadays. Jesus simply appropriated what His Father gave Him. He did what Daddy God “Abba” told him to do.
While we need revival in Uganda, it’s important to understand that it does not come by recruiting one million believers to pray, agree and fast one day a week asking God to do something. No! I believe revival comes by whole heartedly seeking the Lord through His Word, believing the finished work as the word reveals, drawing out from the Gospel[which is defined as the Power of God unto salvation], and flowing in what He has already done. But If you decide that for you, all you want is to catch fire for God, then people will come and be entertained and watch as you burn.
Paul never prayed for God to do a new thing, Eph 1:15 -17 says Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; 17 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: If you look at the part I have highlighted it says that God May give you the spirit of wisdom not a new thing, or another outpouring or a brand new wave as we tend to pray these days. Paul is talking about getting wisdom and revelation of what God has already done, and that is now resident within us that it would come out of its hiding place and begin to be manifested.
Ephesians 1:8-9 Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself: The word hath or has is in past tense. It means it is already done. God has already done it. The wisdom and revelation has already been given to every believer, but then most of us are not receiving it. It’s like we do not have the simcard inserted into the handset and switched on, even if we are in possession of the phone and simcard. Paul prayed that we might see – the eyes of our understanding being enlightened that we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints—Ephesians 1:18. Friends you do not need a new thing from GOD, what you need is to see and get an understanding of what Jesus has already done.
As a born again believer the Finished work in you goes like this, now you are more than a conqueror through Christ (Rom 8:37), already transformed from sinful, unrighteous and unholy and now holy in Him(2Cor5:17,21; Eph 4:24) delivered out of darkness and translated unto Jesus (Col1:13) and now the same power (Eph 1:19, 20), life (Gal 2:20), Wisdom(1Cor1:30), Victory(1Cor15:57), anointing(1John2:20) and faith(Gal 2:20) that Jesus had, now resides in you. You do not need anything more.
All that we need today is to get a revelation of what we already have.
Most people think that the Glory of God is far off, so they picture the splendor of Heaven, with all the Gold streets and diamond mansions forgetting that Ephesians 1:18 reveals that the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance is in them. Friend as a believer, God you Father thinks you are a saint and to Him what’s in Heaven pales in comparison to what is already inside you.
I know sometimes when you see the wrinkles or the sagging body and the broken hair in the mirror or even in your emotional realm where there is no peace or joy, you are like “me, a saint, it just cannot be true, God’s glory in this waste, no way”. But am talking about your spirit man, which is the real, you. God’s Glory is in your born again spirit, not your body or soul. The Spirit man is the part that Christ died for, that’s the precious part and that is you. You cannot see the spirit man in the mirror, the mirror of the spirit man is God’s word. What you see in the mirror is the flesh which is powerless like corrupted nature. What you read in His word is what you should believe by faith and then it will manifests in the soul and flesh with time. So do not focus on the physical realm or circumstances because that’s how people stay depressed. Get a revelation of what you already have and who the real you is from the word. Focus on what you already have in Christ, because the Glory that you will enjoy for eternity and by which you have received all things is already inside you. Oli mukintu pakalast.
Did you know that the power that raised Jesus from death is resident in you? If you have ever prayed and asked God for more power, trust me God won’t answer you, because whatever is there to give He has already given to you, so where do you think God will get additional power to give you.
Eph 1:19-20 declares that you already have within you the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and that’s the greatest manifestation of God’s power ever.
In Ephesians 1:19 Paul asked what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
And he answered his question say that, that power is one with which …..Ephesians 1:20 which he [God] wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
What were the effects of this power on Jesus, in whom we now dwell as believers in the beloved? ... that power has now placed Jesus, Ephesians 1:21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: Ephesians 1:22 and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Ephesians 1:23 which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all.
Raising Jesus from the dead required more power than creating the Universe or splitting the red sea or anything else God has ever done. Why? Because am sure the devil and his cohorts must have done everything they possibly could including sealing the tomb to prevent the resurrection, but they failed. The resurrection is the greatest demonstration of God’s power ever and that power is now resident in you, it is not out there in heaven, but in your born again Spirit man. So you do not need additional power.
What you need is to get a revelation of this power that you already have, begin to believe, learn the guidelines on how it operates and then practice them. Practice makes perfect. It’s like if you were made president now, you would still need to learn how to use the presidential power.
The day you get a revelation of this power resident in you, it will ruin you for most of the religious tradition passing off and masquerading under the guise of Christianity today. It will change the way you pray, from begging God to come down and move; now you will now have a bold and confident new testament spirit which will cause you to say, “Lord, in and of myself dwells no good, nothing in my human ability can be of virtue, but I am glad I have a covenant with you based on the blood of Your Son Jesus, through whom I have become a brand new creature, and I know that in my born again Spirit dwells the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. I believe your word when it says that whoever I lay hands on will be healed…. And bang, you will now begin to manifest that power. You will get up and take you authority, commanding and releasing God’ s power such as Peter did in Acts 3:7-8.
Instead of being frightened, exposing your lack of knowledge in the power resident in you, continuing in that whining, complaining, murmuring and griping attitude; you will now become a believer who takes his stand commanding satan to return that which he has stolen. It’s a different attitude like the one David had when he met Goliath in contrast to his Jewish tribes mates. The difference in attitude will manifest.
Friends the power is resident in you, we have the authority lets learn how to appropriate it and stop cooperating with the devil by accepting his lies, to the Glory of God.
May this letter become a revelation and an inspiration to every Jesus loving and believing URA staff.
Unfortunately most of what passes off today as Religion tends to say “God loves you in proportion to your Performance”. This is a fat lie. Today, you are accepted in the beloved [Eph 1:6] because of Jesus’ Performance many years before you were born, why? In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His Grace—Eph 1:7.
Friend whoever you are, if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, then you have already been forgiven – totally and completely! Why do I say so? It is because Jesus did not just deal with your past sins, which you have confessed. At the Cross, He paid for all your past sins, present [now] sins and even future sins[ the ones you intend to commit]. This is the eternal redemption spoken of and revealed in
Hebrews 9:12 “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us
Supposing as a believer today you were asked to write a prayer that believers 2000 years later would read and be inspired about the finished work of the Cross, How would you write?
In my opinion based on the what I keep hearing most believers say, the average Christian would contort these words out of themselves thinking they have prayed so beautifully.......O God, I ask You to Pour out Your Mighty Spirit like a Fire on That generation. Send revival and Move in a mighty way! Lord let the people see mighty things, do a new thing in them and on earth in that day! .....and blah blah blah. This looks like an impressive prayer but basically it’s about God doing something.
But this is how the Apostle Paul Prayed in [Ephesians 1:17-19] and it was the exact opposite!
17 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:
18 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,
19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Most of us pray that God will Move and touch, but Paul Prayed that we might realize, see and understand what God has already done, in other words see how God has already moved as we want Him to. Knowing What God has already done gives you the ability to pray with confidence.
For example revival does not come by pleading with God, but by starting to believe in what God has already accomplished through His son, and after believing, being able to walk in God’s dynamic, supernatural Life. How do I know this? I know this because when Jesus walked the earth, He didn’t come asking God to pour out His spirit. After being filled with the Holy Ghost, He simply dipped in, drew out, released and gave of the Spirit to people. What we call revival also happened in Jesus Time, but not through whining and begging and pleading with God as we enjoy doing nowadays. Jesus simply appropriated what His Father gave Him. He did what Daddy God “Abba” told him to do.
While we need revival in Uganda, it’s important to understand that it does not come by recruiting one million believers to pray, agree and fast one day a week asking God to do something. No! I believe revival comes by whole heartedly seeking the Lord through His Word, believing the finished work as the word reveals, drawing out from the Gospel[which is defined as the Power of God unto salvation], and flowing in what He has already done. But If you decide that for you, all you want is to catch fire for God, then people will come and be entertained and watch as you burn.
Paul never prayed for God to do a new thing, Eph 1:15 -17 says Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; 17 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: If you look at the part I have highlighted it says that God May give you the spirit of wisdom not a new thing, or another outpouring or a brand new wave as we tend to pray these days. Paul is talking about getting wisdom and revelation of what God has already done, and that is now resident within us that it would come out of its hiding place and begin to be manifested.
Ephesians 1:8-9 Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself: The word hath or has is in past tense. It means it is already done. God has already done it. The wisdom and revelation has already been given to every believer, but then most of us are not receiving it. It’s like we do not have the simcard inserted into the handset and switched on, even if we are in possession of the phone and simcard. Paul prayed that we might see – the eyes of our understanding being enlightened that we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints—Ephesians 1:18. Friends you do not need a new thing from GOD, what you need is to see and get an understanding of what Jesus has already done.
As a born again believer the Finished work in you goes like this, now you are more than a conqueror through Christ (Rom 8:37), already transformed from sinful, unrighteous and unholy and now holy in Him(2Cor5:17,21; Eph 4:24) delivered out of darkness and translated unto Jesus (Col1:13) and now the same power (Eph 1:19, 20), life (Gal 2:20), Wisdom(1Cor1:30), Victory(1Cor15:57), anointing(1John2:20) and faith(Gal 2:20) that Jesus had, now resides in you. You do not need anything more.
All that we need today is to get a revelation of what we already have.
Most people think that the Glory of God is far off, so they picture the splendor of Heaven, with all the Gold streets and diamond mansions forgetting that Ephesians 1:18 reveals that the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance is in them. Friend as a believer, God you Father thinks you are a saint and to Him what’s in Heaven pales in comparison to what is already inside you.
I know sometimes when you see the wrinkles or the sagging body and the broken hair in the mirror or even in your emotional realm where there is no peace or joy, you are like “me, a saint, it just cannot be true, God’s glory in this waste, no way”. But am talking about your spirit man, which is the real, you. God’s Glory is in your born again spirit, not your body or soul. The Spirit man is the part that Christ died for, that’s the precious part and that is you. You cannot see the spirit man in the mirror, the mirror of the spirit man is God’s word. What you see in the mirror is the flesh which is powerless like corrupted nature. What you read in His word is what you should believe by faith and then it will manifests in the soul and flesh with time. So do not focus on the physical realm or circumstances because that’s how people stay depressed. Get a revelation of what you already have and who the real you is from the word. Focus on what you already have in Christ, because the Glory that you will enjoy for eternity and by which you have received all things is already inside you. Oli mukintu pakalast.
Did you know that the power that raised Jesus from death is resident in you? If you have ever prayed and asked God for more power, trust me God won’t answer you, because whatever is there to give He has already given to you, so where do you think God will get additional power to give you.
Eph 1:19-20 declares that you already have within you the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and that’s the greatest manifestation of God’s power ever.
In Ephesians 1:19 Paul asked what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
And he answered his question say that, that power is one with which …..Ephesians 1:20 which he [God] wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
What were the effects of this power on Jesus, in whom we now dwell as believers in the beloved? ... that power has now placed Jesus, Ephesians 1:21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: Ephesians 1:22 and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Ephesians 1:23 which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all.
Raising Jesus from the dead required more power than creating the Universe or splitting the red sea or anything else God has ever done. Why? Because am sure the devil and his cohorts must have done everything they possibly could including sealing the tomb to prevent the resurrection, but they failed. The resurrection is the greatest demonstration of God’s power ever and that power is now resident in you, it is not out there in heaven, but in your born again Spirit man. So you do not need additional power.
What you need is to get a revelation of this power that you already have, begin to believe, learn the guidelines on how it operates and then practice them. Practice makes perfect. It’s like if you were made president now, you would still need to learn how to use the presidential power.
The day you get a revelation of this power resident in you, it will ruin you for most of the religious tradition passing off and masquerading under the guise of Christianity today. It will change the way you pray, from begging God to come down and move; now you will now have a bold and confident new testament spirit which will cause you to say, “Lord, in and of myself dwells no good, nothing in my human ability can be of virtue, but I am glad I have a covenant with you based on the blood of Your Son Jesus, through whom I have become a brand new creature, and I know that in my born again Spirit dwells the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. I believe your word when it says that whoever I lay hands on will be healed…. And bang, you will now begin to manifest that power. You will get up and take you authority, commanding and releasing God’ s power such as Peter did in Acts 3:7-8.
Instead of being frightened, exposing your lack of knowledge in the power resident in you, continuing in that whining, complaining, murmuring and griping attitude; you will now become a believer who takes his stand commanding satan to return that which he has stolen. It’s a different attitude like the one David had when he met Goliath in contrast to his Jewish tribes mates. The difference in attitude will manifest.
Friends the power is resident in you, we have the authority lets learn how to appropriate it and stop cooperating with the devil by accepting his lies, to the Glory of God.
May this letter become a revelation and an inspiration to every Jesus loving and believing URA staff.
The Spirit Realm and how You Come in
1 Thessalonians 5:23
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and [I pray God] your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The believer's born-again spirit is complete in every way. But Paul made it very clear in this verse that it is God's will for our entire person to be sanctified. Our soul and body will not experience the same degree of sanctification as our spirit until we go to be with the Lord or He returns for us. They [current soul and flesh you have] can be blameless but not sinless. No single human being ever created with the exception of Jesus has a sinless body or sinless soul. But through the blood of Jesus who is the propitiation of our sin [1Jn4:10] we can stand blameless. In other words God the only complainant is already appeased through the blood of Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 is one of the clearest references in scripture that we are a three part being-i.e., spirit, soul, and body. It's obvious that we all have a physical body. Likewise, it is easy to understand we have an inner part which the Bible refers to as the soul. For instance, we have emotions by which we can feel pain even when no one has physically touched us. It's not a physical pain but it is an inner pain we feel. This is what many people call the personality. It is comprised of our carnal intellect, our emotions, our will, and our conscience.
The spirit part of man cannot be perceived through any of our physical senses (Jn. 3:6) that part is spirit and can only be seen by spiritual means or through the word of God, which is the mirror of the spirit man. Therefore, the natural man cannot understand the existence and function of the spirit, and the terms spirit and soul are commonly used interchangeably. Paul makes a clear distinction between them here. So Just as you behold your physical makeup by way of the mirror or reflection, your spirit can only be perceived through the word of God.
The spirit part of Adam was the part of him that died when he ate of the forbidden fruit (Gen. 2:16-17). Adam's physical body didn't die until 930 years later (Gen. 5:5). So, when Ephesians 2:1 says we were dead in trespasses and sins, it was speaking of a spiritual death, see also Col. 3:3. Our spirits were dead or separated from God.
At the new birth our dead spirit is made alive unto God. The Christian is completely new in his spirit. The rest of the Christian life is bringing the body and the soul under the control of this born-again spirit through the renewing of the mind. This new spirit has the wisdom of Jesus and knows all things and does not need educating with the word of God. It is in total agreement with the word of God and the word of God is a description of the spirit man – like a mirror.
For example two of the verses in the bible that describe the New Spiritman in you and there fore your new identity are John 1:16 and 1John 4:17 .
John1:16 says …And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.
1Jn 4:17 says 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.
From John1:16 It is evident from the context that John is speaking to believers and saying that all of us have received the fullness of Jesus. Those who reject the salvation [the new birth] which Jesus offers have not received the fullness of Jesus.
This is an awesome statement. Jesus had the fullness of the Godhead in Him (Col. 2:9) and to those who receive Jesus into their life, they also have the fullness of God in them. We are complete in Jesus (Col. 2:10). The rest of the Christian life is not trying to obtain more from God but rather renewing our minds to what we have already received through Christ, so that it manifests in the physical realm in your life.
Another illustration on the distinction between the body and the spirit is Mathew 26:41
Matthew 26:41 says Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed [is] willing, but the flesh [is] weak.
Our spirit is our best advantage. The born- again Christian receives a new spirit at conversion (2 Cor. 5:17), which is just like Jesus (1 Jn. 4:17) because it is the Spirit of Jesus (Rom. 8:9; Gal. 4:6). Our born-again spirit is always willing to do God's will. It's our flesh that is the problem.
The flesh, as Jesus is using it here, not only includes our physical bodies but is also describing our soulish part, too Mt. 22:37. God has given every believer everything that it takes to walk in victory, but "we have this treasure in earthen vessels" (2 Cor. 4:7). That is to say that our spirit, which is where God has deposited all of His power and glory, is locked inside our flesh and surrounded by our soul in a sense like the functional diagram below.
While no evil can penetrate your spiritman because it has been thoroughly sealed [Eph 1:13, Eph 4:30] with the Holy Spirit of Promise until the day of redemption, all that Christ is including the eternal Glory and the resurrecting power flow from your Spirit and manifest into the physical realm, depending on how renewed your mind is to the word of God which reflects that which is in your spiritman. Your Spirit is a divine source. That’s the new you and new authority. As much as we will renew our minds (Rom. 12:2) and act on the Word of God (Jas. 2:20), we can experience this divine flow through our physical bodies. However, just as in the physical, muscles have to be used to increase in strength, so our soulish and physical parts have to be exercised unto godliness (1 Tim. 4:7-8). Your have to stay your mind onto God’s word, because that’s the battle ground.
Prayer is one important way of exercising ourselves unto godliness, and this is why Jesus admonished His disciples to watch and pray with Him.
Some lessons learnt about spiritual laws.
Let me start with something I used to ask myself when I was young. I used to be baffled by how people were able to balance on bicycles without any support to avoid falling. I knew a bicycle could not stand on its own. But then many people were riding bicycles, and I kept wondering how it was possible. Gradually I got the explanation when went to school.
A bicycle in physics is able to balance while being ridden due to some kind of physical law. According to Newton's first law of motion, a moving body travels along a straight path with constant speed (i.e., has constant velocity) unless it is acted on by an outside force. For circular motion to occur there must be constant force acting on a body, pushing it toward the center of the circular path. This force is the centripetal (“center-seeking”) force. Numerous innovations depend on this law and are in existence today but were not at the time Jesus dwelled on earth, because some scientist had not discovered how to harness this already existing physical law.
The point I am making is that everyone who receives Jesus into their life, also receives His fullness. A born again person receives a new spirit, the Spirit of Christ. This spiritual part of you has everything Jesus is, His knowledge, wisdom, righteousness and strength…. Everything.
Like physical laws these wonderful attributes are resident in your Spirit man, and your not knowing how to harness them is the number one reason for lack of victory and authority in the body of Christ, in this physical realm we live in. If the 1st disciples had many signs and wonders we the believers of today ought to have another thing going far more amazing than what those so called illiterates ever experienced. These attributes can remain dormant if not harnessed. There are so many things to learn in order to get this attributes to manifest into soulish realm or our flesh. For example many believers want to identify with Moses but Moses was not even greater than John the Baptist, according to Christ Jesus, yet the bible reveals than a born again believer is far greater than even John the Baptist, why because of the Spirit of Christ that you received at salvation.
Now these attributes which are resident and dormant in your spirit-man, need to be manifested into your physical realm and this is only possible through constantly renewing the mind with the word of God. The mind as you grow up accumulates a lot of stuff that negates the spiritual laws written in the bible. But spiritual laws govern how the new spirit will exercise authority in the earthly realm. The spirit realm and its laws are the parent realm of the physical realm.
An unrenewed mind unaware of the spiritual dynamics technically disables a believer from exercising this Christ – like authority, and as well hinders God from exercising His authority in the physical realm through you, the physical Human being. So renewing your mind unto the spiritual laws written in bible will cause the spirit man to dominate in the physical realm, and then signs and wonders even greater than those Jesus displayed will be seen. Many people don’t understand the spiritual realm and do not even venture to teach it or talk about it. It is impossible to prove spiritual things in a carnal situation. Phyisical senses just cannot comprehend spiritual things, and people who harness the spiritual realm are the movers and shakers of society whether the spiritual realm they are using is of the darkside or the Which Jesus gave you.
I have learnt that it doesn’t matter how long you have been saved, or how much you pray or have matured in the word. If you are not living a spiritaul life and are unaware of the spiritual laws and you are not operating in them you cannot manage this life, and in addition you will not be aware of who you really are and cannot exercise your full spiritual Christ driven authority. Matter of fact if you simply believe that Jesus can do it but do not believe that he has given you the ability to do likewise then you cannot call that faith. If you haven’t experienced signs and wonders in your life most likely you are still carnally minded i.e to live by what you see, feel, taste, hear and smell – physical senses. We fail in our faith because we have chosen to ignore the life in the spirit, forgetting that the spirit realm is the parent realm of the physical life. Spiritual laws dictate the physical realm. The devil knows this and has been tinkering with some spiritual laws to torment our lives. Satan has messed up with our identity; we think we have no dominion in any situation on earth.
When Adam lost dominion, he only lost the dominion on earth, but Jesus said all power in heaven and on earth was given unto Him. Today we are joint heirs meaning we have power in both realms, on earth and even in heaven. Why else are you seated with Him in the heavenly places? Because this is shared authority in any realm you can think of.
For example one of the laws often misunderstood is preaching the Gospel, for people to get saved. Instead we prefer to pray that people may get saved, but nowhere in the bible does it say that we ought to pray for people to get saved. It says in Mark 16:15 ...Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. It does not say lets pray for the world to get saved. In fact Jesus said in Mathew 9:37 that the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. The verse shows you that somebody has to reach the unbeliever with the word. All we we need to pray, are more spirit filled believers to go out and preach, but not waste time bombarding heaven with prayers mbu for people to get saved.
Romans 1:16 defines the power of God unto salvation as the Gospel. So when the Gospel is preached the power of God is exercised from the spiritual realm to the physical realm. This is true spiritual warfare. People get saved through the preached Gospel, for it is more powerful than just your prayers.
Did you know that the devil won’t interfere with any effort by believers to pray for unbelievers to get saved because he knows that since it is not the spiritually ordained means by which people receive salvation, and it has no impact on his hold on an unbeliever’s mind. People have to be preached to, why, it is because the word of God is a seed [meaning it has life and power] and that seed has to be sown into someone’s heart in order to germinate. Praying that it germinates without sowing is like a farmer who prays for a harvest without sowing any seed – total futility.
You need to understand that when the preached word of God travels through the ears and reaches an unbelievers heart, it comes loaded with the faith of Jesus, which starts renewing the mind and dealing with those arguments and pride that satan uses to blind people. Gradually this causes the person to confess that Jesus is Lord and then that person becomes saved. So, do you realize how in that way even the spirit man is becomes born through your physically spoken words – your confession. Rom 10:9 says That, if you shall confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and shall believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
The faith you use to believe the Gospel of God is a free gift. This is the faith of Jesus. The preached Gospel is pregnant with the faith of Jesus. See Romans 3:22, Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: also Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Faith is gift you receive by hearing and this is the faith of Christ, it is the measure not a measure. This faith is the same all through no one has bigger or smaller faith. Each one has received a standard measure. It is the measure, so do not be deceived about getting more faith or having less faith. You have the faith that counts, your obstacle is your mind, educate it to agree with your new spirit man who has everything. Romans 12:3 say…according as God has dealt to every man the measure of Faith. If this measure is the size of a mastard seed then it is the measure, if it is the size of a ladel then that is the measure everyone receives. It is “the measure” not “a measure”. “The” is used when reffereing so the same thing repeatedly.
Before I stray, let’s get back to the words. Words are power, words create. You became born again when you confessed, you confessed after believing and you believed after hearing the word preached. You confessed yourself into the new birth. Just as Col 2:6 says As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: it means that since you were born by speaking, speak your way through this life taking into account the spiritual; laws and then see victory, even your Father spoke for things to exist in this life. Speak to the problem. James 3:2 shows that you can actually speak to your body and it will obey. Satan attacked eve with spoken lies.
God operates in the physical realm through physical human beings, that’s a spiritual law He has set and respects. Dominion on this physical earth belongs to physical bodies, and therefore any spirit needs a physical body to operate physically. That’s why God is not in direct confrontation with the devil, because Jesus totally defeated the devil; both are fighting for you, with your mind as the battle ground. The devil has zero power but he can cause thoughts in your soulish realm that can make you speak negativity over your life and yield yourself to him, in that he controls you. Authority can take effect through spoken words coming from a physical body. That is why satan cannot physically confront you by speaking to you, because authority in the physical realm was only given to physical man, and not spirits. Satan attacks your mind.
Even God observes this spiritual law and works through people. This is why God had to become flesh and come in the form of Jesus. It took Him a lot of time to do this because He was getting the right people to speak the right words through the Old Testament history to bring about Jesus, the way He was born.
Did you know that Jesus had to be spoken into existence by the law and the prophets, since the fall of Adam. Have you ever asked yourself why God did not bring the second Adam immediately, instead of going through Moses and the prophets. Why take all that time before Plan B. It is because the moment man was spiritually dead the only means of communication was through the Mosaic Law or the moral law which was limted to the canal nature. God could not communicate by way of the spirit, so He had to do it through physical senses, and as the right words were said at different times in history by various people then the coming of Jesus was set in motion. Words are power, and that’s a spiritual law. God who is orderly has set such order.
God has given you His word where all His promises, Might, and Spiritual authority in His laws are. This new authority spans the entire physical realm. This authority is identical with that of Jesus and whether or not you experience it in its fullness depends on what you believe and what you have conditioned your mind to. Whether it is His word or the ways of this world which dorminate, determines what authority you operate in. There are many things for us to unlearn as we embrace the spiritual laws of God. Doctors will tell you to swallow medicine yet when you have mastered these laws you will instead speak to the sickness laying hands and it will vamoose.
Another ignored spiritual law is James 4:7 ... Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. If you turn this round it would say if you do not resist the devil he will not flee from you. Many times we prefer to pray to God about what the devil has done instead of speaking to the devil about what God has done. God qualified Himself on this issue as He is not the one to rebuke the devil for us, it is we who have to resist the devil and then God’s power which is resident in us will thrash him out. If God tried to resist the devil he wouldn’t flee because it is us with physical bodies that have to resist him. To resist means to refuse to go along with, or actively fight against or to persevere in opposing his deceit. In this case it means insisting to go with the written word of God than what you see taste hear feel and smell – carnal mindedness.
There is no direct conflict between God and the devil. God already dealt with satan through Jesus by defeating him hands down at the cross, now it’s your turn. The only one satan is fighting is you and as you yield to him through fear and unbelief you limit the holy one of Israel. Satan is indirectly fighting God through you because he knows it’s you alone that can hinder God because the authority in this earthly realm is with you. Resist the devil and he will flee, praying about it to God won’t cause him to flee. Resist the devil, and then he will flee, don’t attempt to make him flee by begging and whining to God. We simply aren’t taking charge because we’re ignorant of the authority we have.
Another example is Mat 21:21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.
You have to speak to the mountain not pray about it to God. Speak to the mountain because the bible shows that you will have what you say. You are what you say. In John 6:63 Jesus said .... It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. Words have life, a force that creates. Power and death lie in the tongue.
Another spiritual law often overlooked is give and it shall be given unto you. Today the business world teaches that get all you can, and can [pack] all you get. In other words collect all you can and give nothing in return to become rich --- this is hoarding. Believers are not in the habit of giving but getting and getting and getting and as a result there is serious lack in the church. Some brand it commercialization, forgetting that in so doing we are violating some spiritual law governing the spiritual taps of provision. We ought to give in order to be given, its a supply chain, when you stop the entire supply chain grinds to a halt.
Isaiah 26:3 says The Lord will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him. 2Peter 1:2 shows that Grace and peace are multiplied to you through the Knowledge of Jesus Christ. Galatians 5:22 shows that every born again person with the new spirit has peace as one of the by products, which peace can be multiplied through the knowledge of Christ. So you can rebuke satan all you want so as to have peace, but if your mind is not being renewed with the word of God then you won’t have perfect peace, another spiritual law. Peace comes by what you know. Peace is an emotion; therefore emotions are based on knowledge. Satan attacks your mind because it affects the emotions. Satan attacked Eve not with weapons but with lies and deception, he messed up her mind, he attacked her mind. The devil tempts us with thoughts.
So in conclusion for John 1:16, 2 Corinthians5:21, Philippians 4:13 and 4:19 to make sense, you need to understand that these verses are referring to the spirit man who has the same Identity with Christ. Look not at your physical stature and then attempt to align it with the word of God [behavioural change] you will not succeed, because actions are a by product of your thought life...as a man thinketh in his heart that’s the way he is. So we need to understand that it is from inside out, inside from the spirit man through the renewed mind into your flesh. Renew your mind by staying on the word. This is not to say that I am 100% operating in these laws but I have dared you to believe, for me I have at least left even if I have not yet reached.
1Jn 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
Have a nice day people.
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and [I pray God] your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The believer's born-again spirit is complete in every way. But Paul made it very clear in this verse that it is God's will for our entire person to be sanctified. Our soul and body will not experience the same degree of sanctification as our spirit until we go to be with the Lord or He returns for us. They [current soul and flesh you have] can be blameless but not sinless. No single human being ever created with the exception of Jesus has a sinless body or sinless soul. But through the blood of Jesus who is the propitiation of our sin [1Jn4:10] we can stand blameless. In other words God the only complainant is already appeased through the blood of Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 is one of the clearest references in scripture that we are a three part being-i.e., spirit, soul, and body. It's obvious that we all have a physical body. Likewise, it is easy to understand we have an inner part which the Bible refers to as the soul. For instance, we have emotions by which we can feel pain even when no one has physically touched us. It's not a physical pain but it is an inner pain we feel. This is what many people call the personality. It is comprised of our carnal intellect, our emotions, our will, and our conscience.
The spirit part of man cannot be perceived through any of our physical senses (Jn. 3:6) that part is spirit and can only be seen by spiritual means or through the word of God, which is the mirror of the spirit man. Therefore, the natural man cannot understand the existence and function of the spirit, and the terms spirit and soul are commonly used interchangeably. Paul makes a clear distinction between them here. So Just as you behold your physical makeup by way of the mirror or reflection, your spirit can only be perceived through the word of God.
The spirit part of Adam was the part of him that died when he ate of the forbidden fruit (Gen. 2:16-17). Adam's physical body didn't die until 930 years later (Gen. 5:5). So, when Ephesians 2:1 says we were dead in trespasses and sins, it was speaking of a spiritual death, see also Col. 3:3. Our spirits were dead or separated from God.
At the new birth our dead spirit is made alive unto God. The Christian is completely new in his spirit. The rest of the Christian life is bringing the body and the soul under the control of this born-again spirit through the renewing of the mind. This new spirit has the wisdom of Jesus and knows all things and does not need educating with the word of God. It is in total agreement with the word of God and the word of God is a description of the spirit man – like a mirror.
For example two of the verses in the bible that describe the New Spiritman in you and there fore your new identity are John 1:16 and 1John 4:17 .
John1:16 says …And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.
1Jn 4:17 says 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.
From John1:16 It is evident from the context that John is speaking to believers and saying that all of us have received the fullness of Jesus. Those who reject the salvation [the new birth] which Jesus offers have not received the fullness of Jesus.
This is an awesome statement. Jesus had the fullness of the Godhead in Him (Col. 2:9) and to those who receive Jesus into their life, they also have the fullness of God in them. We are complete in Jesus (Col. 2:10). The rest of the Christian life is not trying to obtain more from God but rather renewing our minds to what we have already received through Christ, so that it manifests in the physical realm in your life.
Another illustration on the distinction between the body and the spirit is Mathew 26:41
Matthew 26:41 says Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed [is] willing, but the flesh [is] weak.
Our spirit is our best advantage. The born- again Christian receives a new spirit at conversion (2 Cor. 5:17), which is just like Jesus (1 Jn. 4:17) because it is the Spirit of Jesus (Rom. 8:9; Gal. 4:6). Our born-again spirit is always willing to do God's will. It's our flesh that is the problem.
The flesh, as Jesus is using it here, not only includes our physical bodies but is also describing our soulish part, too Mt. 22:37. God has given every believer everything that it takes to walk in victory, but "we have this treasure in earthen vessels" (2 Cor. 4:7). That is to say that our spirit, which is where God has deposited all of His power and glory, is locked inside our flesh and surrounded by our soul in a sense like the functional diagram below.
While no evil can penetrate your spiritman because it has been thoroughly sealed [Eph 1:13, Eph 4:30] with the Holy Spirit of Promise until the day of redemption, all that Christ is including the eternal Glory and the resurrecting power flow from your Spirit and manifest into the physical realm, depending on how renewed your mind is to the word of God which reflects that which is in your spiritman. Your Spirit is a divine source. That’s the new you and new authority. As much as we will renew our minds (Rom. 12:2) and act on the Word of God (Jas. 2:20), we can experience this divine flow through our physical bodies. However, just as in the physical, muscles have to be used to increase in strength, so our soulish and physical parts have to be exercised unto godliness (1 Tim. 4:7-8). Your have to stay your mind onto God’s word, because that’s the battle ground.
Prayer is one important way of exercising ourselves unto godliness, and this is why Jesus admonished His disciples to watch and pray with Him.
Some lessons learnt about spiritual laws.
Let me start with something I used to ask myself when I was young. I used to be baffled by how people were able to balance on bicycles without any support to avoid falling. I knew a bicycle could not stand on its own. But then many people were riding bicycles, and I kept wondering how it was possible. Gradually I got the explanation when went to school.
A bicycle in physics is able to balance while being ridden due to some kind of physical law. According to Newton's first law of motion, a moving body travels along a straight path with constant speed (i.e., has constant velocity) unless it is acted on by an outside force. For circular motion to occur there must be constant force acting on a body, pushing it toward the center of the circular path. This force is the centripetal (“center-seeking”) force. Numerous innovations depend on this law and are in existence today but were not at the time Jesus dwelled on earth, because some scientist had not discovered how to harness this already existing physical law.
The point I am making is that everyone who receives Jesus into their life, also receives His fullness. A born again person receives a new spirit, the Spirit of Christ. This spiritual part of you has everything Jesus is, His knowledge, wisdom, righteousness and strength…. Everything.
Like physical laws these wonderful attributes are resident in your Spirit man, and your not knowing how to harness them is the number one reason for lack of victory and authority in the body of Christ, in this physical realm we live in. If the 1st disciples had many signs and wonders we the believers of today ought to have another thing going far more amazing than what those so called illiterates ever experienced. These attributes can remain dormant if not harnessed. There are so many things to learn in order to get this attributes to manifest into soulish realm or our flesh. For example many believers want to identify with Moses but Moses was not even greater than John the Baptist, according to Christ Jesus, yet the bible reveals than a born again believer is far greater than even John the Baptist, why because of the Spirit of Christ that you received at salvation.
Now these attributes which are resident and dormant in your spirit-man, need to be manifested into your physical realm and this is only possible through constantly renewing the mind with the word of God. The mind as you grow up accumulates a lot of stuff that negates the spiritual laws written in the bible. But spiritual laws govern how the new spirit will exercise authority in the earthly realm. The spirit realm and its laws are the parent realm of the physical realm.
An unrenewed mind unaware of the spiritual dynamics technically disables a believer from exercising this Christ – like authority, and as well hinders God from exercising His authority in the physical realm through you, the physical Human being. So renewing your mind unto the spiritual laws written in bible will cause the spirit man to dominate in the physical realm, and then signs and wonders even greater than those Jesus displayed will be seen. Many people don’t understand the spiritual realm and do not even venture to teach it or talk about it. It is impossible to prove spiritual things in a carnal situation. Phyisical senses just cannot comprehend spiritual things, and people who harness the spiritual realm are the movers and shakers of society whether the spiritual realm they are using is of the darkside or the Which Jesus gave you.
I have learnt that it doesn’t matter how long you have been saved, or how much you pray or have matured in the word. If you are not living a spiritaul life and are unaware of the spiritual laws and you are not operating in them you cannot manage this life, and in addition you will not be aware of who you really are and cannot exercise your full spiritual Christ driven authority. Matter of fact if you simply believe that Jesus can do it but do not believe that he has given you the ability to do likewise then you cannot call that faith. If you haven’t experienced signs and wonders in your life most likely you are still carnally minded i.e to live by what you see, feel, taste, hear and smell – physical senses. We fail in our faith because we have chosen to ignore the life in the spirit, forgetting that the spirit realm is the parent realm of the physical life. Spiritual laws dictate the physical realm. The devil knows this and has been tinkering with some spiritual laws to torment our lives. Satan has messed up with our identity; we think we have no dominion in any situation on earth.
When Adam lost dominion, he only lost the dominion on earth, but Jesus said all power in heaven and on earth was given unto Him. Today we are joint heirs meaning we have power in both realms, on earth and even in heaven. Why else are you seated with Him in the heavenly places? Because this is shared authority in any realm you can think of.
For example one of the laws often misunderstood is preaching the Gospel, for people to get saved. Instead we prefer to pray that people may get saved, but nowhere in the bible does it say that we ought to pray for people to get saved. It says in Mark 16:15 ...Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. It does not say lets pray for the world to get saved. In fact Jesus said in Mathew 9:37 that the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. The verse shows you that somebody has to reach the unbeliever with the word. All we we need to pray, are more spirit filled believers to go out and preach, but not waste time bombarding heaven with prayers mbu for people to get saved.
Romans 1:16 defines the power of God unto salvation as the Gospel. So when the Gospel is preached the power of God is exercised from the spiritual realm to the physical realm. This is true spiritual warfare. People get saved through the preached Gospel, for it is more powerful than just your prayers.
Did you know that the devil won’t interfere with any effort by believers to pray for unbelievers to get saved because he knows that since it is not the spiritually ordained means by which people receive salvation, and it has no impact on his hold on an unbeliever’s mind. People have to be preached to, why, it is because the word of God is a seed [meaning it has life and power] and that seed has to be sown into someone’s heart in order to germinate. Praying that it germinates without sowing is like a farmer who prays for a harvest without sowing any seed – total futility.
You need to understand that when the preached word of God travels through the ears and reaches an unbelievers heart, it comes loaded with the faith of Jesus, which starts renewing the mind and dealing with those arguments and pride that satan uses to blind people. Gradually this causes the person to confess that Jesus is Lord and then that person becomes saved. So, do you realize how in that way even the spirit man is becomes born through your physically spoken words – your confession. Rom 10:9 says That, if you shall confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and shall believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
The faith you use to believe the Gospel of God is a free gift. This is the faith of Jesus. The preached Gospel is pregnant with the faith of Jesus. See Romans 3:22, Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: also Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Faith is gift you receive by hearing and this is the faith of Christ, it is the measure not a measure. This faith is the same all through no one has bigger or smaller faith. Each one has received a standard measure. It is the measure, so do not be deceived about getting more faith or having less faith. You have the faith that counts, your obstacle is your mind, educate it to agree with your new spirit man who has everything. Romans 12:3 say…according as God has dealt to every man the measure of Faith. If this measure is the size of a mastard seed then it is the measure, if it is the size of a ladel then that is the measure everyone receives. It is “the measure” not “a measure”. “The” is used when reffereing so the same thing repeatedly.
Before I stray, let’s get back to the words. Words are power, words create. You became born again when you confessed, you confessed after believing and you believed after hearing the word preached. You confessed yourself into the new birth. Just as Col 2:6 says As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: it means that since you were born by speaking, speak your way through this life taking into account the spiritual; laws and then see victory, even your Father spoke for things to exist in this life. Speak to the problem. James 3:2 shows that you can actually speak to your body and it will obey. Satan attacked eve with spoken lies.
God operates in the physical realm through physical human beings, that’s a spiritual law He has set and respects. Dominion on this physical earth belongs to physical bodies, and therefore any spirit needs a physical body to operate physically. That’s why God is not in direct confrontation with the devil, because Jesus totally defeated the devil; both are fighting for you, with your mind as the battle ground. The devil has zero power but he can cause thoughts in your soulish realm that can make you speak negativity over your life and yield yourself to him, in that he controls you. Authority can take effect through spoken words coming from a physical body. That is why satan cannot physically confront you by speaking to you, because authority in the physical realm was only given to physical man, and not spirits. Satan attacks your mind.
Even God observes this spiritual law and works through people. This is why God had to become flesh and come in the form of Jesus. It took Him a lot of time to do this because He was getting the right people to speak the right words through the Old Testament history to bring about Jesus, the way He was born.
Did you know that Jesus had to be spoken into existence by the law and the prophets, since the fall of Adam. Have you ever asked yourself why God did not bring the second Adam immediately, instead of going through Moses and the prophets. Why take all that time before Plan B. It is because the moment man was spiritually dead the only means of communication was through the Mosaic Law or the moral law which was limted to the canal nature. God could not communicate by way of the spirit, so He had to do it through physical senses, and as the right words were said at different times in history by various people then the coming of Jesus was set in motion. Words are power, and that’s a spiritual law. God who is orderly has set such order.
God has given you His word where all His promises, Might, and Spiritual authority in His laws are. This new authority spans the entire physical realm. This authority is identical with that of Jesus and whether or not you experience it in its fullness depends on what you believe and what you have conditioned your mind to. Whether it is His word or the ways of this world which dorminate, determines what authority you operate in. There are many things for us to unlearn as we embrace the spiritual laws of God. Doctors will tell you to swallow medicine yet when you have mastered these laws you will instead speak to the sickness laying hands and it will vamoose.
Another ignored spiritual law is James 4:7 ... Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. If you turn this round it would say if you do not resist the devil he will not flee from you. Many times we prefer to pray to God about what the devil has done instead of speaking to the devil about what God has done. God qualified Himself on this issue as He is not the one to rebuke the devil for us, it is we who have to resist the devil and then God’s power which is resident in us will thrash him out. If God tried to resist the devil he wouldn’t flee because it is us with physical bodies that have to resist him. To resist means to refuse to go along with, or actively fight against or to persevere in opposing his deceit. In this case it means insisting to go with the written word of God than what you see taste hear feel and smell – carnal mindedness.
There is no direct conflict between God and the devil. God already dealt with satan through Jesus by defeating him hands down at the cross, now it’s your turn. The only one satan is fighting is you and as you yield to him through fear and unbelief you limit the holy one of Israel. Satan is indirectly fighting God through you because he knows it’s you alone that can hinder God because the authority in this earthly realm is with you. Resist the devil and he will flee, praying about it to God won’t cause him to flee. Resist the devil, and then he will flee, don’t attempt to make him flee by begging and whining to God. We simply aren’t taking charge because we’re ignorant of the authority we have.
Another example is Mat 21:21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.
You have to speak to the mountain not pray about it to God. Speak to the mountain because the bible shows that you will have what you say. You are what you say. In John 6:63 Jesus said .... It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. Words have life, a force that creates. Power and death lie in the tongue.
Another spiritual law often overlooked is give and it shall be given unto you. Today the business world teaches that get all you can, and can [pack] all you get. In other words collect all you can and give nothing in return to become rich --- this is hoarding. Believers are not in the habit of giving but getting and getting and getting and as a result there is serious lack in the church. Some brand it commercialization, forgetting that in so doing we are violating some spiritual law governing the spiritual taps of provision. We ought to give in order to be given, its a supply chain, when you stop the entire supply chain grinds to a halt.
Isaiah 26:3 says The Lord will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him. 2Peter 1:2 shows that Grace and peace are multiplied to you through the Knowledge of Jesus Christ. Galatians 5:22 shows that every born again person with the new spirit has peace as one of the by products, which peace can be multiplied through the knowledge of Christ. So you can rebuke satan all you want so as to have peace, but if your mind is not being renewed with the word of God then you won’t have perfect peace, another spiritual law. Peace comes by what you know. Peace is an emotion; therefore emotions are based on knowledge. Satan attacks your mind because it affects the emotions. Satan attacked Eve not with weapons but with lies and deception, he messed up her mind, he attacked her mind. The devil tempts us with thoughts.
So in conclusion for John 1:16, 2 Corinthians5:21, Philippians 4:13 and 4:19 to make sense, you need to understand that these verses are referring to the spirit man who has the same Identity with Christ. Look not at your physical stature and then attempt to align it with the word of God [behavioural change] you will not succeed, because actions are a by product of your thought life...as a man thinketh in his heart that’s the way he is. So we need to understand that it is from inside out, inside from the spirit man through the renewed mind into your flesh. Renew your mind by staying on the word. This is not to say that I am 100% operating in these laws but I have dared you to believe, for me I have at least left even if I have not yet reached.
1Jn 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
Have a nice day people.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Prayers That Proclaim
Luke 13:12 12But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.”
When you have a need, do you pray or do you plead? Do you begin your prayers with words like, “Please God, please! God, I beg You to have mercy!”
Prayers that plead and beg imply that your heavenly Father is not willing to do it. Yet, He is far more gracious and willing to give to you than you are willing to ask, think or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20) He desires above all things that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. (3 John 1:2)
In fact, long before you have a need, God has already met that need. Long before you knew you needed a Savior, He sent His Son to be your Savior. This is your God! He is a good God. So when you beg Him for something, you are actually saying that He is reluctant to give and needs to be persuaded strongly before He will move. Yet, He is not like that.
Jesus knew the heart of the Father. When He saw the woman bound with a spirit of infirmity, He did not pray, “Oh Father! She has been suffering for 18 long years! I beseech You, Father, have mercy on her. Please, please heal her!” No, when Jesus saw her, He immediately proclaimed, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity,” because He knew the heart of the Father. He knew that the Father wanted her delivered from her crippling condition.
At the end of a church service, I don’t stand and pray, “Oh God, please bless Your people. Oh God, do keep them. Oh God, be ever so gracious to them!” Instead, I proclaim, “The Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you!”
Beloved, when you pray, proclaim your healing, protection and provision because your Father’s heart overflows with love for you. And when you declare it, He sanctions it. When you declare it, He establishes it!
When you have a need, do you pray or do you plead? Do you begin your prayers with words like, “Please God, please! God, I beg You to have mercy!”
Prayers that plead and beg imply that your heavenly Father is not willing to do it. Yet, He is far more gracious and willing to give to you than you are willing to ask, think or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20) He desires above all things that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. (3 John 1:2)
In fact, long before you have a need, God has already met that need. Long before you knew you needed a Savior, He sent His Son to be your Savior. This is your God! He is a good God. So when you beg Him for something, you are actually saying that He is reluctant to give and needs to be persuaded strongly before He will move. Yet, He is not like that.
Jesus knew the heart of the Father. When He saw the woman bound with a spirit of infirmity, He did not pray, “Oh Father! She has been suffering for 18 long years! I beseech You, Father, have mercy on her. Please, please heal her!” No, when Jesus saw her, He immediately proclaimed, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity,” because He knew the heart of the Father. He knew that the Father wanted her delivered from her crippling condition.
At the end of a church service, I don’t stand and pray, “Oh God, please bless Your people. Oh God, do keep them. Oh God, be ever so gracious to them!” Instead, I proclaim, “The Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you!”
Beloved, when you pray, proclaim your healing, protection and provision because your Father’s heart overflows with love for you. And when you declare it, He sanctions it. When you declare it, He establishes it!
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