Obedience to the Faith Part 1

What does it mean to be obedient to the faith?  and what does the bible mean when it says in the last days many will depart from the faith and give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils ? It may surprise many to know that it may not mean what you think it means and it may surprise many more who even fill  pews  religiously every sunday that although they sit in a pew ,pay tithes and have a form of godliness that they may in fact even be of the crowd who have already departed from the faith and have already replaced the way of faith with another way or another gospel that is not even close to what the the Bible calls ”  the faith”.

1 Timothy 4:1-5

The Great Apostasy

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

Now in reading this scripture a couple things jumped off the page to me. First it says some in the last days will depart from the faith, so obviously my question is what is the faith? or what does the Bible tell us the faith is? and the second thing I noticed was that many left the faith because they listen to and gave heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. Now It may shock some of you to know that not everyone who preaches from the Bible is preaching the gospel or the faith and in fact many (not all ) but many whether knowingly or ignorantly are preaching and teaching doctrines of demons that are seducing many christians away from the faith and into great error and deception.

Now some may ask ” well how can someone who teaches from the Bible lead people into error and deception?” the answer is that if preachers and teachers do not know how to rightly divide the word of truth they can easily lead  people into error and they often do it every sunday.

I have always said that when the bible tells  christians to put on the full armour of God to protect themselves from the wiles of the devil that  probably the most vital time most need to have this full armour on is on sunday morning!

Now Im going to shock you a liitle more but did you know that the devil uses the bible to perform some of  his greatest acts of deception ? The devil does not come into our midst with horns and a pitch fork! NO! he comes as an angel of light and often as a man of the cloth with a big bible under his arms !

So how does the devil seduce people away from the faith and into error with the bible? and what is the faith? and why would he want to draw us away from the faith anyway? These are all questions I hope to be able to answer through this teaching of “obedience to the faith”

So how does the devil use the bible to seduce many away from the truth of the gospel? 2 Corithians 3:6 gives us our first clue.

2 Corinthians 3:6

   He has made  us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

What was the apostle Paul talking about when he said He has made us able misinsters of the new testament and not of the letter? because the letter kills but the spirit gives life?

The letter is the old covenant law, the letter is also the law that was written  and engraved in stones! or the 10 comamndents! so what the apostle paul was saying was that misinsters of the new testament  are not to preach the law or the old covenant  because it  produces death and not life to those who hear it..  and If we do preach the old covenant then we are to  only teach it like Paul did to show that we as believers in Christ are no longer under the law but under grace .

With this thought in mind It is vital for  every born again believer to understand that they are no longer under the old covenant law but that they are under a completely  brand new covenant now  and this new covenant is all about life and not death ! This new covenant is now about righteousness ,peace and joy in the Holy Ghost This new covenant says there is now no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because  God has declared that He would remeber our sins and iniquities no more ! and the act of fully believing what God has fully accomplished through the finished work of the cross and established in the new covenant is called  “Obedience to the Faith”

Now its also important for us to understand that anytime we see the word obedience in the new testament it usually refers to obedience to the faith not obedience to the Law but to the faith, also anytime we see the word law in the new testament we are not to just think about the ceremonial law but the 10 commandments as well. In fact when the Bible speaks about the law and how that we as new covenant believers  are now no longer  under the law but under grace , we could just read it to say “we are no longer under the ceremonial law or the 10 commandments . Why is this important to know? because it has everything to do with freedom. Many have been taught that once they come to Christ it is almost their first Christian duty to get  a copy of the 10 commandments  and then do there  best to live for God by trying there utmost best in keeping the 10 commandments and although this sounds good and even appeals to the flesh this is not what the bible calls being obedient to the faith , in fact it is really going in the opposite direction of  obedience to the faith. Let me say this loud and clear doing your best to keep the law is not what the Bible calls  being Obedience to the Faith.

The fact is that the bible teaches that all those who turn away from the finished work of the cross and back to the law or the old covenant way of doing and striving to keep the law for righteousness have actually turned away from obedience to the faith and from grace and are in serious error. Now  I know that I  sound like a broken record when I repeat this but we must understand that we are now presently under a completely new and different covenant today and it is vital that we study,understand and embrace the terms of this new covenant in which we are presently under for the old has been completely done away in Christ and the new has been fully established. Once again knowing the terms of the new covenant is very crucial for understanding the truth of the gospel that will set you free and keep you free. The main reason I write is not to impress but it is for freedom. We will never realize our full potential in Christ until we fully and completely embrace the new covenant of Gods Grace. As Paul Young  author of the Shack recently prophesied to me and said Rick ” Sing Freedom in precious places , this is the entire purpose for writing these things. I guess you could call me a freedom writer !

Heb 8:7-12  gives us the terms of the new covenant.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah ,not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds will remember no more.”

Now one of the main differences between the old and the new covenant was that the old was more of a two part agreement. In the old God said if you do your part then I will do my part. If you will keep all my laws and statues then God said I will bless you but if you don’t keep all my laws and statues then I will curse you. The main flaw with the old covenant law was that man could never keep all the laws and statues of God because of the weakness of his flesh, so man wound up being more cursed then blessed. The old could never do what God wanted to do for man and that was for man to continually live under Gods abundant blessings. So God says I’m going to take away the old and establish a brand new covenant and in this new covenant it will not be like  the old  with two parts because God says in the new I’m going to be doing all the doing that needs to be done in order for man to be blessed and the only thing that man now needs to do is to simply believe that I did it and that I’m doing it! This act of simply believing that God did and is doing it is called Obedience to the Faith!  Now this new covenant  has been extremly hard for man to believe because  mans only part is to believe. Remember when the Pharisees came to Jesus and asked Him tell us what we must do to do the works of God? and Jesus said ” this is the work of God that you believe on the one that He has sent!”

Now I know this next chapter is long but I highly encourage that you read it because it will help you on your path to truth and full freedom in Christ.

Animal Sacrifices Were Insufficient

Man could not keep the 10 commandments so God then initiated animal sacrifices to keep them from being cursed. These animal sacrifices only provided a temporary solution year after year but could never provide the permanent solution that God desired for man.

Hebrews 10

1. For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

* Under the old covenant animal sacrifices were established to help keep man from the curse because man could not keep all the laws and statues of God and although these sacrifices did provide a temporary solution they could never provide a once and for all permanent solution. Under the old covenant man would have to offer up new sacrifices every year to give him a clear conscience before God but these animal sacrifices could never take away sin they could only cover sin temporarily for that year , but under the new covenant God provided a more excellent sacrifice that would not just cover sin for one year but would actually take away sin once and for all. The once and for all sacrifice that would permanently deal with sin and sins consequences forever was the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ. There are no more sacrifices to be made for sin, neither is there any more sacrifices to be made to give us a clear conscience so that we may confidently come into Gods presence. Jesus made the once and for all time sacrifice and said It is finished! Obedience to the Faith agrees with God and says it is finished! It is not the cross plus me keeping the 10 commandments,bible reading,church attendance and my aggressive prayer and worship that grants me access into the throne of grace and Gods presence NO ! I come one way by the Blood of Jesus the once and for all perfect sacrifice of God.

Christ’s Death Completely Fulfills God’s Will.

⁵ Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:

“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
⁶ In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
⁷ Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’”

Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

* Now notice God said he never found pleasure in the old covenant way of doing things, why? because the old could never permantly establish Gods desire for man. Sp God took away the old and established the new and it was through Christs obedience to the cross that would cause the old to be done away and the new established in its place forever!

Christ’s Death Perfects the Sanctified

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

 *Now we have often heard the phrase I’m not perfect just forgiven? Well this sounds good but did you know that it’s wrong , for in Christ you were not just forgiven you were made perfect forever!

But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,

¹⁶ “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”¹⁸ Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

 *Jesus provided the only once and for all sacrifice needed to take care of sin permanently. In fact He is now the only sacrifice for sin and if you turn back to the law or offering up other sacrifices for your sin you are turning away from the faith. There is only one way into the holiest of holies and that’s by the blood of Jesus.

Now let me say this again if you think that it’s by your aggressive prayer , worship or disciplines that qualifies you to come into Gods presence you are in error. No other sacrifice qualifies us to come into Gods presence except the blood of the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This is obedience to the faith!

Hold Fast Your Confession

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

The Just Live by Faith

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Now I want to deal with the scripture that most Christians usually shy away from because they don’t understand what it means. So what does it mean to sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth? I mean if we are all honest every single born again Christian has sinned willfully after they were save so can this mean that everyone who has sinned willfully  after we were saved are in Big trouble with God? The answer is NO this is not what this scripture is saying.

So what does it mean” if we sin willfully after coming to the knowledge of the truth? There remains no more sacrifice for sins.

I know I use to struggled with this verse  like many others for years  until the Lord revealed to me the gospel of grace and the new covenant and then I began to realize that this willful sin that God was speaking about here is not just the general sins that most of us have committed and on occasion still commit  but it is really speaking about a specific sin! And the specific sin that God is talking about is the sin of turning away from the only solution and sacrifice to the sin problem and that solution is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ! If we come to the knowledge of the truth that Jesus is the only sacrifice and solution for sin and then we willfully turn away from Christ looking for another solution for sin we are in essence telling God the blood of His Son Jesus is not sufficient to take care of my sins or to make me righteous. To turn away from the cross and look for another solution is to count the blood of Christ as common as the blood of bulls and goats or as another temporary solution. Listen to me carefully the blood of Christ was not just a temporary solution! The blood od Jesus does not just cover sin it took it  completely took it away! The blood of Christ was a once and for all permanent solution for the sin problem of man. We must never turn away from the truth of the finished work of the cross it is our one and only solution for sin and the consequences of sin. We have not been bought with the blood of bulls and goats but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

There are not many roads back to God there is only one road and one way and that way is through the blood of Jesus Christ and let no man persuade you to think otherwise.

The willful sin is when one knows that Jesus Christ provided the one and only sacrifice for sin and then turns away from Christ to look for another solution. If you turn from Jesus you will find no other solution. It is either Jesus or Judgement its your choice.

This scripture is exhorting all men to continue to believe in the new way that God has provided through the finished work of the cross and to never turn away from being obedience to the faith.

^35. Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:

“For yet a little while,
And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
Now the just shall live by faith;
But if anyone draws back,
My soul has no pleasure in him.  

 *Again what does it mean to draw? Draw back from what? It means to draw back from believing that Jesus Christ is the once and for all solution for the forgiveness of all sin.

³⁹ But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

Today under the new covenant God can now say your sins and iniquity’s I will remember no more because Jesus through His sacrifice took all our sin and the punishment for all sin. The question is will we believe it? Obedience to the faith says ” yes I believe it and I will not be moved away from it!”

Christian OCD

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

OCD

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder in which people have unwanted and repeated thoughts, feelings, ideas, sensations (obsessions), or behaviors that make them feel driven to do something (compulsions).

Often the person carries out the behaviors to get rid of the obsessive thoughts, but this only provides temporary relief. Not performing the obsessive rituals can cause great anxiety.

As I was reading this definition for OCD I couldn’t help but think how this really describes many Christians today .Many Christians today have a type of OCD or you could say they have an “obsessive condemnation disorder”.

Christian OCD is when the Christian is constantly having thoughts or feelings of general unworthiness, condemnation or of just not measuring up! These feelings are usually associated with the feeling of not doing enough! A Christian with OCD or obsessive condemnation disorder will often pray, attend church, give, read the Bible and do all kinds of volunteer work and although many of the these things they do provide some temporary relief the OCD Christian will still have a nagging sense of unworthiness and condemnation because all there doing still never seems to be quite enough.

Christian OCD is often the result of  believing a legalistic performance based gospel; a gospel that says “my right standing with God (righteousness) is not just based solely on the finished work of the cross but is also dependent on things that I do”. In other words it could be seen as this equation of                       The Cross+ My Works = My Right Standing with God and the problem with this equation is the works part. Anytime you include works in the equation you will experience Christian OCD

The performance based gospel will imply that God is really only pleased with you if you are doing certain things on the to do list and of course the to do list will vary from one denomination to the other, but there is usually a standard to do list that most denominations do agree on and this list will often include things like church attendance, bible reading, prayer, witnessing and of course tithing. The performance based gospel will tell us that If we are doing the things on the to do list and doing them consistently or doing them enough then we can usually feel that things are pretty good between ourselves and God but if we don’t do these things then we should feel a sense of guilt, shame or condemnation.

Now let me make one thing very clear all the things on the to do list are good things and can be very beneficial to the Christians growth in the Lord but nothing on the list has anything to do with your right standing with God .

Our Right standing with God does not come by our doing a list but it comes only as a gift through faith in Christ and what he has already done at the cross. If we have OCD ( obsessive condemnation disorder) it’s because we are believing  a lie, as we believe the truth concerning the finished work of the cross ,grace and faith righteousness  we will be set free from  every kind of OCD (obsessive condemnation disorder.

The Bible is clear that righteousness is a gift for God that cannot be earned through good works and cannot be maintained by good works and that there  should never be any feelings of condemnation, guilt or unworthiness for the born again Christian.

Romans 8:1

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Now If you study this verse out in the original Greek the words no condemnation is a double negative and really means never, never will God ever condemn those who He has justified and never means never ever! And if God is not condemning us than we should never, never condemn ourselves. In other words to be once and for all delivered from Christian OCD we need to make up our minds to never ,never allow condemnation to be a part of our lives I mean  never!

The only ones condemning us now are the devil and our own hearts but the Bible says God is greater than both of these.

1John 3:20-24 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows  all things.

²¹ Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence toward God.

God wants our hearts to be filled with confidence and not condemnation.

²² And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

The way we keep from condemnation and keep our hearts in confidence is by doing the things that are pleasing to God! Now someone says “well there you go! I told you that we had to keep the to do list to be right before God!” Well first of all this has nothing to do with being right before God. These verses are not speaking about righteousness but they are speaking about staying out of condemnation and staying in confidence! And what is this new to do list we are to do to keep our hearts confident toward God?  Well Its found in the next verse

²³ And this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

So what is the to do list we are to now keep? Believe in what Christ has already done and love others as He has loved you and we cannot love others until we first receiver Gods unconditional love for us.

Romans 8:31-34

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? no one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

God is not condemning us! Christ died to deliver us from all condemnation so that we could once again walk in confidence toward Him and not only is that Jesus right now at the right hand of the father interceding for us!

Every born again Christian should always reject any sense or feelings of condemnation and unworthiness these feelings have no place in the Christians life and for all those in Christ. All who are born again and have been put in Christ are not only forgiven but they are made righteous before God and Gods will is now only confidence, faith and full assurance and no condemnation!

2 Cor 5:21

 For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

If you ever hear a message that tries to motivate you through guilt and shame by implying that your relationship with God and righteousness is based upon a to do list you must immediately reject this message because it is not the gospel of Christ. The gospel of Christ says “ It is finished!” All that needed to be done for righteousness was done in Christ. Today it’s not what we do that makes us righteous but it’s what we believe. Right believing will then lead to right living. As we believe the gospel  of no condemnation and grace we will be set free from all fear and  obsessive  condemnation disorder

The Answer to all Fear

Someone once asked “so what about the fear of the Lord in the grace message”? Shouldn’t we have a fear of God? And the answer is yes, but we  first need to define what the fear of the Lord is and what it is not.                                                                                                                                           Jesus gave us a true definition of what the fear of the Lord in the wilderness temptation and who better to give us the correct definition of what the fear of the Lord then the Lord himself!

Remember in Matthew 4:8 when the devil came to tempt Jesus and told him if you fall down and worship me I will give you all the kingdoms of the world? And Jesus than told the devil  “get behind me for it is written you will worship the Lord your God and Him only will you serve”. The word worship here is actually another word for fear in other words the fear of the Lord and worship are one in the same.

The fear of the Lord does not mean we are to be a afraid of God as a tormenting type of fear for the word tells us that perfect love cast out fear because fear has torment. God does not want us to fearful or to be afraid of Him. There is a good healthy kind of and then an unhealthy fear.  The unhealthy kind of fear is the same fear that first took hold of Adam in the garden after Adam believed the lie of the devil. This unhealthy fear was foreign to man before he partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  This fear cause Adam and Eve to cover themselves up and then run and hide  from God  where before they simply walked with God and enjoyed God. Adam and Eve were never afraid of God until they fell into sin.  Fear is a product from the fall and not from God. Its amazing to me how many preachers today still use fear to get people to partake from the same tree that the devil tempted Adam with. What do you mean?  Well the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represented the law and when we use fear to get man to keep the law we are actually causing man to then be filled with guilt, shame and fear that will actually cause man to run and hide from God rather than to draw near to God with full assurance and confidence in confidence to Him! Any time we preach something that replaces confidence and faith toward God with fear is not the gospel.

Hebrew 10:16-23                                                                                                                                                                  This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God;Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised 😉

The new covenant that the Lord has made with us is to drive out all tormenting fear and doubt and replace it with faith, love, confidence and full assurance.

There is a lot of legalistic performance based teaching today that promotes more shame and fear then faith, confidence and full assurance. A performance based gospel will always cause you to feel like you are falling short somehow, because it is based upon what you do for God instead of what God has done for you through the cross but the scripture above tells us that we are to have a clean perfect conscience through the blood of Christ period! And that are conscience has nothing to do with our works or performance God wants us to come confidently and boldly into His presence. God does not want us to come with our head bowed down and timidly shaking and fearful like a beaten down dog and anytime we have feelings of unworthiness because we didn’t go to church one Sunday or read our Bible one day or pray this feeling of unworthiness is not from God but from a wrong belief system.. Sometimes these feelings of unworthiness to approach God because we didn’t do something are a direct result of our listening and taking in wrong legalistic teaching. Teachings that are based more on the old covenant law and performance rather than the new covenant and the finished work of the cross.

God does not use fear to control and manipulate us like a codependent situation.. God is not a spouse abuser God does not beat us up one minute and then embrace us the next, Gods way is Love and His Love for us is the great motivator. The Bible says that it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. Fear is not a good motivator. Preachers should never use fear or shame to motivate people to do the work of God or to stay Holy.

Yes God is to be honored and worshiped but we really must understand that Gods ultimate desire is to simply walk with us like Adam did before the fall. It’s about a Love relationship and this relationship is not based on fear of God killing me if I leave Him. This sound more likes a women in an abusive situation.

I remember years ago while I was preaching what many call a good ole hard message and  I mean was stepping on everyone’s toes! And in the middle of the message I heard God tell me “ Stop this!” He said “never motivate my people through fear, shame again!”  and then I felt like He said they must only  be motivated by my Love for them” Love is the only true motivator..

Let me ask you a question “what do you think is the healthier situation a woman who stays and is faithful to her husband because she loves him or because she fears him?

We need preaching today that will promote the perfect love of God so much that it in turn fills our hearts to be faithful and true. It is the love of God and the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.

I am reminded of the story of Zacchaeus  Luke 19

And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.And Jesus said unto him, this day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.

What motivated Zacchaeus to repent and to do the right thing? ; To turn from a greedy dishonest person to a loving honest giver?  It’s because of one word Love. Jesus simply loved Zacchaeus and desired fellowship with him and love radically changed the heart of Zacchaeus. If Jesus would have approached Zacchaeus with a get right or get left message or a legalistic law message we might have not seen the same results.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear hath torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.

This perfect love again is not so much our perfect love for God but Gods perfect love for us!

Again legalism gets it backwards. Legalism treats love like a law of do it or else! Love God or get smacked! But this is not how we are to love in fact the only way that we can love is to  realize how much God first loved us .

Here is the true definition of Love.

1 John 4:10
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Love first comes by knowing and receiving Gods perfect love for us. To the degree we know God loves us will be the degree that we can love God and others and also be delivered from tormenting fear.

Satan hates the love message because love promotes faith anf the kingdom of God which is built on Love.

Fear is the opposite of faith and love and fear really promotes lust more than love.

Satan often uses fear to make us jump through his hoops of deception. For example when he came to Adam and eve he used the fear missing out on something to get them to eat of the tree that God said not to eat from.  Gen 3:4-8

 And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

Many make wrong decisions have been made because of fear.                                                                               Often people get involved in wrong relationships because they are afraid of being alone so they often settle for whatever comes their way instead of waiting for God to bring the right relationship into their life.

Fear will often try and move you in trying to help God out because maybe you think God forgot about you or doesn’t know your real situation or take things into your own hands.

Abraham and Sarah is a good example of this when they decided to help God out by producing a son through Hagar and the end result of course was an Ishmael  and we know Ishmael s off spring  is now one of the reasons for much of the terror and fear that we face in our world today!

Fear often says well I need to do something because nothing seems to be happening so I need to make it happen. Fear looks at time and says time is running out! I need to do something! God must be on vacation or forgot my address!

Fear has torment. I have seen many people who are heavily medicated because of tormenting fear or Phobias .You know how many types of phobias there are in the world today? Thousands! I mean people are afraid of everything!  But the solution is the same 1 John 4:18 says perfect love cast out all fear.

If you really believe that God loves you than you will believe that God knows you and that He knows your needs and that God will cause all things to work together for good. We must be convinced of Gods perfect Love for us to be delivered from fear. The answer to fear is not another pill but the gospel. Its through the good news of God’s love for us that we will be delivered from all fear.

Faith only works by Love. Faith does not work by Fear but by Love.

Many today say well aren’t you afraid of the future! I mean look at all the crazy things happening in the world today. Look at all the wars and mass killings and the economy!  I have an answer for any future fears

John 16:13   Says  The Holy Spirit will show us things to come.  The US  in this scripture are those who believe in Jesus and who are listening to His word. Many are afraid of the future but I know who holds the future, it’s the one who loves me who gave His life for me.

Jesus told us that in the last days that many things would begin to take place in this world  and in the natural they will be very  frightening but Jesus told us when we see these things begin to happen then we are not to allow our hearts to be fearful. We must say no to fear and yes to Gods great love for us!

But in the last days many hearts will fail in these last days because of the fear of things they see coming onto the earth but we again as believes we are not called to fear but love and faith..

It’s no accident that the last day war is called the war on terror. The devils biggest weapon is fear. He loves to torment people because fear is the opposite of love and faith and it paralyzes people. Fear and panic kill more people than anything else. Many will cause harm to others because they are gripped with panic and fear.

For example If some tragedy takes place in a large crowded arena  the thing that often times injures and even kills people is not the tragedy  itself but it’s because of people who are pushed or trampled because of the ones who are griped by fear and panic trying to get out!

Your fear will not only injure you but others. I have seen a lot of innocent casualties due to those who walk in fear.

One of the greatest quotes today is “Keep Calm and Carry On” no matter what takes place around us fear is not the solution. We must stay calm and our ultimate peace  come from the Lord.

John 14:27
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Secret to Living the Christian Life

What Is  the secret to living the Christian life ? Is it really all about Live for God! Live for God, Live for  God ?  or is it more about Letting God Live in You?  Are you trying your best to live for God? and to please God by your much doing ,doing ,doing which often includes going to church,praying,tithing,witnessing, volunteer work  and also by  constantly looking  to yourself  and making sure that your commitment lists are  being kept by doing  your utmost best to keep them? Did you know this is not the new covenant way of life that God has called you too ? The new covenant way of life is not so much about you looking at the to do lists that have probably been given to you by those who have sincerely said ” now that your a christian here are the lists on how to live a good Christian life” and than by you setting out in  doing  your utmost to live for and serve God by keeping the things on the list . Now I know this will probably go against a lot of what you have been taught on how one is suppose to live out the Christian life but it is not by making and doing your best to keep the lists!  its something far more radically different than that ! The Christian life is more about God who desires to live His Life in and through you!  and your part is to simply  rest and confidentially trust and  yield  to  Him who is now lives and works on the inside of you! That is the Secret to living the Christian life ! Sounds easy right? and that here lies the problem, it is too easy and it really does not appeal to our flesh! What do I mean the flesh? That fleshly part of us that wants to take credit for keeping some sort of doing list that will make us feel more acceptable to God! That fleshly part of us that really seeks glory for what it does but does not want to admit it!

Today  we have often treated God like Santa Clause ” hes making making a list and checking it twice and hes trying to see who’s naughty and nice or who’s doing what , who’s attending church , who’s not attending church,who’s dropping money in the tithe bucket and how much there dropping in?..is it really 10% or is it less. Is it 10% on the gross or the net? and also who spending the appropriate amount of time in prayer and volunteer work! And what is the appropriate amount of time is to make the nice list. I mean is it 1 hour every day or is 15 minutes enough to make the nice list? We have got to get delivered from this list view of God.. Many in the world today dont want to come to God because we have given them a wrong impression of God. God is not about lists He is about Life! Jesus said that  I have come that you might have life and and have life more abundantly!

Did you know that the Christian life is not just about eternal life but internal Life .  The Christian life is about God living His life in you more than you trying your best to live your Life for Him.

Gal 2:20 introduces us to this new covenant way of life living.

 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Take special note of the phrase Christ lives in me.  Did you know that the phrase Christ in me is all through the New Testament and was once the standard doctrine and teaching that was embraced as reality truth in the New Testament church? but today it  is now rarely taught.

and what I feel the Lord has drawn my attention to is that we often taught one side of the cross and one side of the gospel but not the other side. What do I mean? I mean we hear thousands of sermons about the death of Christ and the blood of Christ but rarely do we  hear sermons about the resurrection of Christ and how  that resurrected life of Christ is now alive in the life of the believer and also how that we as Christians are  now to live by this new resurrected life!

Let me say this. If we are not living by the resurrected life of Christ then we are reduced to living by the flesh and the works of the flesh  and although these works can often outwardly appear good and sincere  they are no more than what the Bible calls “dead works”. Why? because the flesh cannot produce anything good of itself. When we live a life of trying our best to please God by the flesh we are also in essence engaged in the old covenant way  of living by the letter and not engaged in the newness of Spirit

Learning to live by the Spirit is essential to our walking in freedom and maturing as a Christian. We are no longer under the old law  but we are under a new law now and this new law and new way is called “The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ.”

Romans 7:6  But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.                                                                                                                                                                                               Romans 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death

Before we can learn to walk in the Spirit we must first embrace the reality truth that when we were born again we are more than just forgiven but we now have someone who  is actually living on the inside of us and that someone wants to come out!. God wants to release His Son and His Spirit out through us to a lost world.

Philippians 2:12-14

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Now this is one of those very mis interpreted scriptures that many have used to teach that the believer must work for there salvation with fear and trembling, ( which is completely contrary to scripture for we are not saved by works but by grace lest any one should boast),but notice it does not say  for us to work for our salvation but  to work out our salvation and then it says for it is God that is at work in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. The working out must be read in context with what God is doing within. To work out simply means that we are to work out what God has worked in or Gods desire is for the world to see the treasure that He has placed inside of each of us which is the very Life of Christ. So what about the fear and trembling part? Again we will go into detail about this at a later time but fear does not mean to be afraid of but has more to do with worship and honor.

There’s an old Song I still love to sing and it says” I found a new way of living. I found a new life divine. I have the fruit of the Spirit I’m abiding, abiding in the vine.”

Did you know that the Bible says that every born again Christian has this new life living on the inside of them right now? And this new life is the Spirit of Christ and that we are suppose to be living by this new Spirit? This new way of living is just as much a part of the new covenant as the forgiveness of sins. In fact one of the main reasons that God forgave our sins and made us to be the righteousness  God in Christ is so that He then could by His Spirit come and take up residence on the inside of us!

God had to supernaturally find a way to make us perfect so that He could in turn come and move back  into us..

 Now we have all seen the bumper sticker that says “I’m not perfect just forgiven?” Well that makes a nice bumper sticker but did you know that’s not quite scriptural? because the Bible  actually declares the very opposite!

The Bible says we are not just forgiven but that we are perfect! In Christ we are perfect. The only way that God could move into our house is if we were holy perfect temples of God and the way  God made this  to happen was through the Blood of His Son Jesus!

Hebrews 10:14

For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

We are not just forgiven but made perfect through the one offering of Christ..

And now this perfection is being manifest from the inside out. The more we see the reality of Gods perfection and glory in us we will then be transformed even by the Spirit of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

 

Christianity is not so much about us trying our best to live for God but it’s about us knowing that God is living in us! and desires is to express Himself in and through us by the Holy Spirit.

Did you know when Jesus walked the earth he didn’t try to do his best to live the Christian life like so many Christians are taught today? No Jesus simply walk in relationship with the Father and yielded to the one who was on the inside of Him. Christ only responded to what the father showed Him and told Him to do. Jesus just simply walked in rest and in rhythm with the Holy Spirit inside and we are called to do the same.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   The Newsboys have a new song out that expresses this reality.

“Gods not dead He is alive living on the inside and roaring like a lion”

God is like a lion roaring and ready to be revealed through the church in these last days!

So how do we activate this new life that’s on the inside of us.                                                                              First we must learn to possess what the Bible calls  “no more conscious of sin” which comes through the blood of Christ and than we learn to rest in the finished work of the cross and the righteousness of Christ.. The foundation of resting in His righteousness is critical to seeing this new life Christ and of grace activated in our life.

Second we must believe that Gods word is true concerning Christ in us! This is the other side of the cross or the resurrection side of the cross!and  as my good friend John Kellogg once said “not only do we need to believe that these things are true but that they are true for us!.” In other words we need to take it personally, As we come into agreement with God and  what God says in His word for us than we are well on our way to seeing that which He has place on the inside coming out!

Those who refuse to believe the full gospel will probably never experience its full power.

Like someone that says” well I just don’t believe in the gifts of the Spirit! “ And that’s fine because you will probably never experience them either because the Bible says “ these signs will only follow those that believe!”

The  fact is that most spend their Christian entire lives doing their best to live for God by their own fleshly activity because it the thing that makes sense to them but we are not talking about good sense we are talking about trusting Gods word and faith! And for those of you that hunger to see more of God actually show up and work in through your life these are the ones that this teaching is for.

If you want to see what is on the inside come out than we must..

Absolutely refuse to go back to the letter of the law or the old way doing and of striving by the flesh in seeking  for Gods approval and instead fully submit ourselves to the  truth that we are already approved by God through Jesus Christ and submit ourselves to the Spirit of Grace that’s in us.

Do not be removed from this!

2 Timothy 2:15
Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

The main reason to study the word is to continually show ourselves that we have already been approved unto God and that we no longer have to move in guilt and shame but we can actually move in confidence now, confident that we are forgiven by the blood and confident that it is now God who works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure.

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

 

To turn from Grace back to the Law is to turn back to bondage!

Heb 10: 9  says “ Jesus came to take away the first to establish the second.. What was the first? What was the second?  Here is a clue. The First Was the Law and The Second Grace, And Grace is more than a doctrine Grace is a Spirit!       

We need to live by the Spirit of Grace and Truth! If we Turn Back to the Law then we frustrate Grace.

 

                                             
John 1:14                                                                                                                                               For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ

Grace and Truth come as a package deal. If you’re not living by grace you are not living by truth

Always remember: The Law is Demand but Grace is Supply. The law demands you to perform or to do the will of God through fleshly will power and effort. whereas Grace is an endless supply of the Spirit in you that enables you to carry out the will of God.

Now remember the bumper sticker that said “ Im not perfect just forgiven? Well on the surface that may sound right but it’s just not true. You might say “what part is not true?” The forgiven part? or the not perfect part? The not perfect part is really not true because.

Heb 10:14                                                                                                                                                                        says I am not just forgiven but that I am perfect and that I am perfect forever and forever!

Hebrews 10:14                                                                                                                               For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

And also in

Heb 10: 17   God says I will remember there sin no more.. Forever

Christ died once for sin forever!

For the Spirit of Grace to be fully activated in us we must come into agreement with what Gods word says about us… more to come

How to defeat Evil in this World

When God created  man, God gave dominion over the entire earth to man. Now In the beginning its was all good because of mans direct love relationship  and walk with God , but what we  also need to understand is that the earth and man were created by God to only healthily function in one way  and that way was the way of  Love ; Gods love for man and mans love for God and than God expressing His love through man to the rest of His creative work. There were no laws to govern man except one and that was the law of love, but when the love relationship between God and man was broken that’s when man  moved from a place of love ( which is selfless) to lust which is a place of  selfishness and self centeredness. Man at this point began to be dominated and driven by his own soulish, self centered interests and lusts. Instead of man now being governed by Gods love , man is now controlled or governed by his own soulish desires or his own mind , will,emotions , appetites and imaginations.Now let me say this “Man was created with a body,soul and spirit but man was never created to be governed or controlled by his own soul , he was created to walk in love and be controlled by the spirit of love which is from God”. Now many today seem to always ask the same question ” if there is a God and God is Love than why is there so much evil in the world?”  or  ” If God is Love than why doesn’t He prevent all of this evil from happening?” There are a couple of answers to this question. First of all remember in the beginning that God gave dominion of the earth to man?  and because God is just ,God will not cross certain lines and one of these lines is that once God gave man authority of the earth what happens on earth is now in mans control and not Gods! so now whatever happens  on this earth whether good or evil is not in Gods power but in mans .  All the woes we see in the world today are a direct result of mans broken relationship with God and man stubbornly telling himself ” I can do it myself!”  So what is the solution to earths woes?  Its easy ! Its called submission! As we come to our senses and understand that we need to submit to the love of God and understand that we cannot do it without Him and  when we receive God through Christ we will also receive the ability to Love once again. When Christ was born this is when Love came down. Jesus Christ is Gods plan to retore Gods Love back into the hearts of all men. When you see Christ from His birth to His walk on the earth to His death on the Cross you are seeing  true love in action. God wants to once again put His Love back into our hearts and express His love through us to all of His creative work.. Gods Love is the only thing that will heal this world and make things right again. The Bible says as we submit ourselves to God (Love) and resist the devil he ( the evil one ) will flee.. As our nation begins to once again submit it self to God and allow God to come back into our society and we begin to resist the evil one we will than see a change for good. If we do not do invite God back in and we continue to ban Him than we will continue to see evil increase and along with evil great fear..  We can say we need more  gun control and more mental health agencies but this will not stop evil. Evil is only  defeated one way and that way is through Gods Love.

Now when we speak of Love we are not speaking of religion. Never  confuse religion with Gods love.. Religion is often one of the most self centered evil ways of man. The love of God is pure and selfless not selfish. You can have all kinds of gifts and talents and make all kinds of sacrifices but without Gods love it all amounts to a big fat nothing!

The Greatest Gift 1Cor13:1-13

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, it profits me nothing.

⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰ But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

¹³ And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Now notice in verse 8 it says Love never fails! A home-built on Gods love will never fail. A Nation built on Gods Love will also never fail. We must invite Gods love back into our homes and into our society if we are to succeed!

So what is Love ? Verse tells us what Love is and also describes who God is because remember God is Love !

⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love Never Fails..

Jesus through the Bible

In GENESIS, Jesus is the Ram at Abraham’s altar
In EXODUS, He’s the Passover Lamb
In LEVITICUS, He’s the High Priest
In NUMBERS, He’s the Cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night
In DEUTERONOMY, He’s the City of our Refuge
In JOSHUA, He’s the Scarlet Thread out of Rahab’s window
In JUDGES, He is our King
In RUTH, He is our Kinsman Redeemer
In I,II SAMUEL, He’s our Trusted Prophet
In KINGS and CHRONICLES, He’s our Reigning King
In EZRA, He is our Faithful Scribe
In NEHEMIAH, He’s the Rebuilder of everything that is broken
In ESTHER, He is the Mordecai sitting faithful at the gate
In JOB, He’s our Redeemer that ever liveth
In PSALMS, He is my Shepherd
In PROVERBS and ECCLESIASTES, He’s our Wisdom
In the SONG OF SOLOMON, He’s the Beautiful Bridegroom
In ISAIAH, He’s the Suffering Servant
In JEREMIAH and LAMENTATIONS, it is Jesus that is the Weeping Prophet
In EZEKIEL, He’s the Wonderful Four-Faced Man
In DANIEL, He is the Fourth Man in the midst of a fiery furnace
In HOSEA, He is my Love that is forever faithful
In JOEL, He baptizes us with the Holy Spirit
In AMOS, He’s our Burden Bearer
In OBADIAH, He’s our Savior
In JONAH, He is the Great Foreign Missionary
In MICAH, He is the Messenger with beautiful feet
In NAHUM, He is the Avenger
In HABAKKUK, He is the Watchman that is ever praying for revival
In ZEPHANIAH, He is the Lord mighty to save
In HAGGAI, He is the Restorer of our lost heritage
In ZECHARIAH, He is our Fountain
In MALACHI, He is the Son of Righteousness with healing in His wings
In MATTHEW, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God
In MARK, He’s the Miracle Worker
In LUKE, He’s the Son of Man
In JOHN, He is the door by which everyone of us must enter
In ACTS, He is the Shining Light that appears to Saul on the Damascus road
In ROMANS, He is our Justifier
In 1st CORINTHIANS, He is our Resurrection
In 2nd CORNITHIANS, He is our Sin Bearer
In GALATIANS, He redeems us from the law
In EPHESIANS, He is our Unsearchable Riches
In PHILIPPIANS, He supplies our every need
In COLOSSIANS, He’s the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily
In 1st and 2nd THESSALONIANS, He is our Soon Coming King
In 1st and 2nd TIMOTHY, He is the Mediator between God and man
In TITUS, He is our Blessed Hope
In PHILEMON, He is a Friend that sticks closer than a brother
In HEBREWS, He’s the Blood of the everlasting covenant
In JAMES, it is the Lord that heals the sick
In 1st and 2nd PETER, He is the Chief Shepherd
In 1st, 2nd, and 3rd JOHN,  He is Love
In JUDE, He is the Lord coming  with 10,000 saints                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           And In Revelation He is the worthy lamb who sits on the throne and He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords

Another Gospel

The Bible speaks of two covenants the old covenant and the new covenant and its clear that we are presently now under a new and better covenant and not the old.  The old was good and holy and fulfilled its purpose,  but when the new came the old was completely done away. The new covenant has now been fully established and the Bible is very clear that we are never to mix the old and the new covenants together.

The Bible says if  we  pour new wine into an old wine skins  then the wine skin will burst and both will be lost, in other words we cannot  mix the old and new covenants together or both will loose there effectiveness. Now I’m going to make a statement that may shock some of you, who are reading this, but did you know that the devil knows the old covenant law better than anyone  ? and in fact he has used the old covenant law to keep most of the church in a state of religious confusion, immaturity and powerless  , but I believe in these last days that God is giving us very clear fresh revelation on this truth and the devil’s deception will be fully exposed and many who have once been bound by his lies will once again enjoy there full inheritance and freedom in Christ.  Now I want to say that  this revelation is nothing new because it has always been in the scripture but we  have been blind to its truth for a long time. Remember it is knowing and continuing in truth that sets us free and keeps us free.

Now as we begin to look at this topic we will use the authority of the Scripture to speak for it self and leave as much opinion out as we can.  Our prayer is that God would enlighten our hearts through the written word and the spirit of truth to set us free to grow , mature and to become all that God has called us to be in this life. Now today many ministers of  the new covenant of grace are under attack and have been accused of being against the law and for a wreckless sinful way of life but  this is actually a false accusttion that comes from those wo are ignorant of the grace of God and the new covenant . Those who preach the new covenant like the apostle Paul are not at all against  the law for the reason the law was given. The law is holy and just and the law was the instrument that God used to show man is complete depravity and his need for something beyond himself for righteousness.  The law was given to point us to Christ so that we could completely place our faith in Christ and not in ourselves or self effort  for righteousness for if there was a law that could be given to man to save man and make man righteous then God would have sent that law, but the problem was that no law could ever save  or change the sin nature of man  and that’s why God sent his only Son. Jesus Christ not only came to save us from sin, but He came to make us into a new creation.

Romans 3:20  says by the deeds of the law no flesh will ever be justified in God’s sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

The law was given by God to only show us what our true sinful nature and never to justify us . Now  this may again shock many of you but the law was never given for us to actually keep, but it was given to show us that we could never keep it because we had a sinful nature that would never allow us to keep it.  Now many today much like the  Pharisees in Jesus day  loved to boast about there ability to be keepers of the law but this is great self deception because to actually  keep the law ment that you not only kept  the law in action and word, but also in attitude and thought as well. This is why when Jesus came He revealed to everyone especially the Pharisees the law in its purest form.  Jesus said to those who boasted of  keeping the law “you have heard that you shall not commit adultery but I say unto you whoever looks at a woman with lust in His heart has already committed adultery”. This was  the law in its purest form. We must understand that the law was never given for us to keep or to be justified by but it was given to us by God to reveal to man mans true sinful nature so that man would seek justification beyond his own self effort, means and ability. There has only been one person that has ever kept the law and that person was Jesus Christ and Ive got some more shocking news for you Jesus didnt keep the law by looking at the law and then trying His best to keep the law..No Jesus fulfilled the law by simply walking in a love relationship with the Father.

Purpose of the Law Galatians 3

¹⁹ What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. ²⁰ Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.

²¹ Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. ²² But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. ²³ But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. ²⁴ Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

Sons and Heirs

²⁶ For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷ For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

The law was completely fulfilled in Christ and was done away at the cross, and the only way  that we are now justified in the site of God  is not through our striving to keep the law, but it’s only through faith in Jesus Christ .

Romans 5.1   states being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

The law was never given to justify us, but was given only to point us to the  only one who could justify us and that one is Jesus Christ.

Now its important for us to understand that after we are saved our faith should always be kept the one who has justified us, who is Jesus , it is also vital for us to understand  that  once we are saved our faith is not to then turn from Christ back to ourselves in trying to keep the law or doing our best to remain justified or saved .  Our full  affection , devotion and faith is to always be kept completely on Jesus Christ. Our freedom in Christ will only continue as we continually look to Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith. We are never to allow anyone  or any religious teaching to move us away from our simple devotion and walk with Christ! The new covenant is about a love relationship  with Jesu. We are  now married to him and we are no longer married to the law, for the scripture says when Christ died  that the law died with him, so that we could be free from our marriage to the law and be fully joined legally Christ.   Let me say this loud and clear we are no longer married to the old covenant law. We are not to be devoted to it. The law is dead and we now belong to Christ. To go back to the law is a type of spiritual adultery except worst because we are going back to something that is dead!  We are in fact under a new covenant law  and this new covenant law is called the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.    Below are some scriptures to confirm these truths.

Romans 7:1

Freed from the Law

Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? ² For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. ³ So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. ⁴ Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. ⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. ⁶ But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Romans 8:2  says for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus as now made me free from the law of sin and death and what was the law of sin and death.

 The 10 Commandments including all of the ceremonial law is  called the law of sin and death.  Now  this  may shock some preachers but  some preachers need to be shocked ! when we preach and teach that people should focus  on Christ and on doing their best to keep the 10 Commandments for righteousness  we are then putting them back under  the curse of the law and of of sin and death!   

This is why the Apostle Paul was so against teachers who would follow him and preach law.. The apostle paul only preached law to show what the law was for.. The law was used to pont us to Christ.

 When we mix the law and grace together we are also putting Gods people back under condemnation and actually empowering sin in there lives. Grace is the only thing that can break the power of sin over a persons life and bring true instead of peace an. This is serious business. This mixture of law and grace must stop its deadly

Much of the church today is not fully under the law or in grace, they are under a mixture of law and grace which nullifies both for again if we pour new wine (new covenant) into an old wine skin old covenant) that the wine skin will burst and both( the new and the old) will be lost. Did you know that  It is better to be fully under law or under grace, then to be walking in a mixture of the two?  This mixture creates what the apostle Paul  called another gospel that actually neutralizes us from grace working in our lives.

In  Galatians 1:6 

The apostle Paul says, I marveled that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you, then what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.   As we have said before if anyone preaches any other gospel to you, then what you have received let him be accursed.  This is what has been called the double curse.

Then the apostle Paul goes on to say, do I now persuade man or God, or do I seek to please men. If I please men then I cease to become the bondservant of Christ.  And, like Paul, I would rather be rejected by men for preaching the truth of grace rather than receive a double curse from God for preaching a mixed gospel!  I know this is strong language, but this mixed gospel has been preached way too  long, and it’s time to preach the truth.  The mixed gospel that the apostle Paul was referring to was a gospel of grace and law mixed together, these two do not mix. and can never mix.  They’re not supposed to mix.  It’s like trying to mix oil and water. The only thing that you will have his pollution that will  kill life.  We must be fully under law or grace, but not both, and we do have that option.  If you’re going to be under the law, then you need to fully live by the law and we’re not talking about some kind of hybrid law that we often make up for ourselves to satisfy our own conscience but the entire law.  This means not only the 10 Commandments, but the ceremonial laws as well as all the other 600 or more laws that make up the law, we cannot pick and choose which laws which we will keep and which ones we will not keep to be justified by the law.  You must keep all the law.

So as I began to meditate about this mixture I feel like the Lord has shown me a truth that if we embrace will set us free. When we are under a mixture of the law and grace we will often focus on the Am I or Am I doing enough.  Am I reading the Bible enough, Am I’m praying enough, Am I giving enough, Am I serving enough, Am I righteous enough, Am I Holy enough, Am I attending church enough and although there is nothing wrong with doing any these things, but none of these doings will make more righteous before God we are not righteous because of all the Am I’s  but we are righteous because of the I AM.  Jesus said I Am the resurrection and the life, and he that believes in me, though he were dead, he will live.  Those under the law or under a mixture of the law are focused on the Am I instead of the I Am.  Those who are fully under grace are focused on the I am.  I Am righteous, I am forgiven.  I am a son of God.  I am blessed I am holy.  I am highly favored.  I am the righteousness of God in Christ, and I am all these things, not because of me and my performance, but because of Christ’s obedience, the great I am, as made me what I am today if we would just get a hold of this truth, it will change the way we see the Bible and change how we see ourselves.  We are no longer under the judgment or the condemnation of God is judgment has been satisfied in Christ and in Christ, we are highly favored am blessed of God, the mixed gospel that is preached will shift your faith from the I am to the Am I. it’s this performance-based gospel that is a cursed gospel.  Yes, we will bear fruit.  Yes, we will give yes, we will serve.  Yes, we will witness that all these things will come effortlessly as we abide in him be.  I am who said it is finished.  We must see ourselves seated with Christ right now in heavenly places, because this is the reality of the true gospel.  Yes, faith without works is dead, but the question is where is your faith is your faith in you to do or in Christ we have been very confused about these issues.  Yes, true faith will produce works that these works are not works of performance to earn God’s favor.  These works are works of the Spirit which can also be the fruit of the Spirit.  It takes more faith to rest and abide in Christ, believing that he is at work in you both to will and to do his good pleasure then for you by the flesh to get up and strive to please God through your own performance.  

Religion is about do, do, do, true Christianity is about what’s been done done done!  Religious leaders approached Jesus one day and said, what must we do to do the works of God.  Jesus simply answered them and said, this is the work of God, that you believe, on the one that he has sent.  This makes no sense to the flesh.  The natural man cannot equate believing and resting with doing.  The natural man says, if we do not do something, then nothing will get done, but the natural man does not understand faith.  Jesus accomplished more in three years than any natural man had ever accomplished in the history of the world combined and everything that Jesus did, he did from a position of faith and rest.  We need to understand that all of our fleshly efforts combined are simply wood hay and stubble, unless they come from the spirit of God.  God does not appreciate what he does not initiate Jesus never walked independently doing things to please the father, and neither should we.  Jesus said the only things that I do is what I see the father doing all that Jesus did was out of relationship with the father, everything that we do could be out of relationship with the father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, not out of condemnation, not out of fear of judgment.  If we don’t do certain things but out of a constant awareness that we are God’s beloved that we are righteous and holy in Christ, for this is our position.  Apart from our performance.  I have a friend that once told me he believed in the rapture, but that he had to be rapture, do several times a day.  I said what do you mean by that.  He said when the devil tries to get me into performance and condemnation.  I simply set my affections on those things which are above where Christ is seated and I remind myself that right now.  I am seated with him in heavenly places.  This is my new position in Christ I am no longer one striving to get there.  I am already there in the eyes of God.  I am in this world, but I am not of this world, my life has been hid by God in Christ I am a new creation in Christ, old things have passed away, and all things have become brand-new.  I am not trying to become brand-new I what I do.  I am already brand-new because of what Christ has already done.  I am saved by grace through faith, not of works, I am what I am, by the grace of God.  Plus, nothing else law is focused on the am I grace is focused on the I am.  I am forgiven.  I am holy.  I am blessed I am righteous and I am free to worship him in spirit and in truth, we no longer have to sweat strive struggle or suffer to experience God’s provision God has a higher and better way for us and it’s called his abundant grace and favor as we embrace grace we embrace Jesus Christ and we will be changed from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord.  We are not changed by beholding our faults, we are changed by beholding his glory.  As far as God is concerned.  He sees no fault in you because you are in Christ.  And if God sees no fault in us, we should see no fault in ourselves a New Testament commandment is this thou shalt not condemn yourself.  Any time you hear a gospel that causes your faith to shift from Christ back to you am back to performance and tries to drive you with shame, guilt and condemnation.  This is not the gospel of Jesus Christ , but  it is a mixed gospel of law and grace and we must avoid it like the plague.  We must not give place to the mixed gospel not for even one hour.  If you are in a church that preaches a performance-based gospel.  You need to get out of it as quick as you can and find a church that is preaching the gospel of grace  faith and His righteousness, the Am I is a performance-based mixed gospel that breeds condemnation and immaturity.

One of the main reasons we see so much immaturity in the church today is because of the am I gospel, am I giving enough , am I witnessing enough ? am I going to church enough?, and how much is really enough?  True Christianity is not based on the am I, but on the I am, because of Christ’s obedience  I am righteous, because of Christ’s obedience  I am holy , because of Christ’s obedience I am accepted, because of Christ’s obedience ,  I am God’s beloved , because of Christ’s obedience , I am a son of God because of Christ’s obedience,  I am forgiven, because of Christ’s obedience  I am blessed ! are you living in the am i doing enough gospel or the I am gospel?  When your full attention is on Christ and what he has done that you are experiencing the rest of the gospel.  This gospel of Christ produces a rest in the peace in the believer that turns into joy unspeakable and full of glory.  The kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking, but it is righteousness that is his righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, God wants us to experience his kingdom in our lives every day.  Our experience with God should not be that we are just barely holding on until Jesus comes.  This is not Bible.  We’re supposed to be more than conquerors through Christ who loved us and gave his life for us.

The mixed gospel as for the most part produced  a lot of timid, fearful, critical, whiny defeated and immature Christians that are constantly in need of therapy, the devil has accomplished his goal by raising up ministers(  who both knowingly and ignorantly) preached a mixed gospel of law and grace like the apostle Paul mentions in Galatians 3;1  and like then the apostle Paul would probably say to most of the church today o foolish Galatians  who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified.  This one thing I want to learn from you.  Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by your flesh?  Salvation does not come through the law, neither does perfection come through the law, salvation and perfection, only come one way at that’s  through faith in Christ and the work of the Spirit .

Now again one thing we must  understand is that when we speak of the law we are not just speaking of  ceremonial laws in the old testament, but we are speaking of a performance based gospel that is based more on fleshly activity, then on the work of the Spirit.  Yes, in the new covenant we are under a law, but it is not the law of the letter or self effort but It is the law of the spirit of life in Christ.  This is the only law that we are now to be under and  let me bold and make something else very clear, we are no longer under the 10 Commandments.  We are not to focus on the 10 Commandments.  We are not to preach the 10 Commandments, unless we preach and teach the reason the 10 Commandments were given. The 10 Commandments were given to point us to Christ so that we would turn our confidence from the flesh and place our faith fully in him. The 10 Commandments were given to bring us to an end of our trying to please God through performance and the flesh, and a place our faith fully in Christ who now by His Spirit lives in us,  again we are not against the 10 Commandments.  We are not against the law for the reason the law was given.  The law was never given to justify us or to make us holy, but to bring us to the end of all self righteousness and self-justification.  The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.Now many will say how then will people know to do good.  What will restrain people from becoming lawlessness and rebellious If we don’t preach on sin and the 10 Commandments?  What will restrain people from sinning and breaking the 10 Commandments?  It’s very simple.  The new law of the new covenant Gods unconditional love and grace will keep people from sinning and becoming lawlessness.  The new law is the law of the spirit of life in Christ and as people understand that they are  completely unconditionally loved and forgiven and that they have been made to be the righteousness of God in Christ  and they begin to rest in this truth  they will then begin to experience Gods presence and once again the joy of first love in  their hearts, they will  then be changed by the spirit of life! They will no longer do things out of fear of being judged but they will now do things because they are now madly in love with God, and they know that God is madly in love with them.  I remember preaching a message one night in Chipley, Florida, and I was really letting people have it.  I was preaching about what they should be doing for God and how they should be living for God, and then suddenly I felt the Lord say to me, Rick never motivate my people with shame and condemnation , this is not my way for if they are not motivated by my love, then nothing  they do will be of any use.

Christ in You!

Did you know that the finished work of the cross,as great as it is, is still only half of the gospel? The other half of the gospel is on the other side of the cross called the resurrection and new life. Now we  know that Christ was raised from the dead on the 3rd day, but the big question is where does Jesus really live today? Well  we  know He lives at the right hand of the father making intercession for us , but did you know that the Bible also teaches that Christ actually lives on the inside  every born again believer? and that we as Christians are now to live by faith in this new resurrected life of Christ in us and not by our own life? Now  the early church was  very aware of this reality  truth of Christ living  in them by the Holy Spirit but to them unlike much of the carnal church today this truth was much more than just a  nice doctrinal teaching it was an actual way of living. So what the Lord recently began to draw my attention too was how little we teach on this reality truth  in the church today.. I mean it is very rare they you will  ever hear a  preacher teaching about Christ living in you and how that we are to fully rely on and live by this new life.  Today our christian book stores are full of how to books on the seven steps on how we as christians are to do our best to live for God but did you know that this is really not what the Christian life is all about. The Christian life is not so much about us trying our best to live for God but it’s more about how that God is now living in us and through us and how that we as christians are to now learn how to rely on and rest more in this new resurrected life that is alive in us. Today much of the gospel we teach is more of a reliance on the flesh type of gospel to serve God rather than on reliance on the spirit of grace gospel  and although the reliance on the flesh gospel is very popular it is not the gospel of Christ. Again we often teach on the forgiveness of sins , but did you know why Christ forgave us of sins and made us to become the righteousness of God in Him? It was not so that we could then just do our best  striving by the flesh to live for Him..No!! but it was so that Christ  could have a clean house to move in too , to live in and through! We must understand that Gods plan from the very beginning was to live in man so that He could express himself through man! We often teach that we are forgiven so that one day if we do our best to striving to  live for God  by the flesh that one day we can go to heaven but this is also not the  gospel of Christ. The gospel is so much more than forgiveness of sins and going to heaven , but  it’s about being saved so that heaven can actually move  into us! Lets look a t what Jesus himself said in

Luke 17:20-21

 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there! ’For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

In Galatians 2:20 the apostle Paul makes astonishing statement when he said” it is no longer I that lives but Christ’s who lives in me and the life that I now live I live by faith in the son of God who loves me and gave his life for me.    

 In John 4:4  John writes to the church and says greater is he that is in you and he that is in the world. Christ in us is a present reality of the gospel. Over and over this term Christ in you is mentioned throughout the Scripture. The early church was constantly reminded by the Apostles that they were not just forgiven Christians but were the very temples of the living God. God does not live in buildings of stone or wood, The God of the new covenant actually lives in the hearts and lives of every believer in Christ. We must once again awake to this reality! The power of the gospel is released through believers when they fully understand that they are not only eternally forgiven through the cross and the blood of Christ but also when they fully believe that the same power that raised Christ from the dead actually lives in them! For it is in him that we live and move and have our being. Christ has come to live in us so that he can manifest himself through us to the world. Just as Christ declared that it was not him that was working all the miracles that He did but it was the father that was working in him and just as the Father worked in Christ so now Christ is working in and through the church by the Holy Spirit.

1 John 4:3-4 says  that every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of antichrist which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. You are of God little children and have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world              

   The early church not only taught that Jesus the word become flesh and dwelt among us but that he also came back into our flesh after his resurrection. Before Jesus went to the cross He made a special promise to His disciples that he would not leave them alone but that he send another one called the comforter to help them out.

  In John chapter 14 .17 Jesus said that he was sending the Spirit of truth, whom the world could not receive because it neither sees him nor knows him but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. When we speak of the Holy Spirit living inside of us it sounds crazy to most of the world and sad to say much of the church! But any one that denies that Christ has come into the flesh is operating by the Spirit of Antichrist! Its kind of like the wind I may not be able to see the wind but I can see when it blows and the Holy Spirit is like the wind we may not be able to see the Holy Spirit but we can sure see the effects of the Holy Spirit as he blows in and through our lives. When we take away the reality of Christ living inside the believer then we take away the power of the gospel. We reduce Christianity to a lifeless form of religion. The Bible says in the last days that many would have a form of godliness but deny the power of God. To deny the power of God is to deny one of the main reasons Christ came. Christ not only came to die for the believer but to live in the believer and express his life through the believer! The doctrine of Christ in you must be taught once again in the church. As the apostle Paul once again spoke in Gal 2:20 it is no longer I that lives but it is now Christ that lives in me and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the one that now lives in me.. If we do not recognize that it is Christ who is at work in us then where is our faith? Our faith is only then to be directed back to ourselves and this is placing us back under the works of the law. Each time the church would get off track and back into the fleshly works the apostle Paul would not tell them you need to get right with God and stop all this foolish sinning no Paul would simply remind the church once again of the reality of who was in them him!

In 1Cor 3:16 the apostle Paul says “do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? Even when it comes to learning the scripture did you that we have been given our own personal tutor? And this tutor is actually living inside of us and!1John 2:27 says the anointing which you have received from him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you, but at the same anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in him. He who is in us will lead us and guide us into all the truth. We have not been left here to fend for ourselves. To fight the devil off the best that we can through our own natural strength. No! We have been given the spirit of God and he is alive in us and greater is he that in us then he that is in the world! God’s plan from the beginning of time was to live in man to express himself through man to the rest of his creation. It’s like an artist of a beautiful painting actually stepping into  his own finished painting to become a part of what he has created. God did this when he formed man and breathe into man the breath of life. Gods spirit actually came into man and man then became a living soul. Man became the very vessel in which God found a way to express himself through to all of His his creative handiwork.

In Romans 8: 20 it says all of creation is now waiting eagerly for that day for the manifestation of the sons of God. Who are the sons of God? Those who understand that Christ is alive in them and are yielded to his spirit and are led by his Spirit these are the sons of God. Before the fall man was filled with God’s presence and walked with God and communion with God and had intimate fellowship with his maker. God in this relationship with man also expressed himself through man who all of his creation. At this time God, man and creation were in harmony with each other until the fall. When man fell Gods presence left man and man spiritually died and all harmony between God and man and creation were suddenly thrown out of tune. It’s like a once perfectly tuned piano playing beautiful music suddenly being completely out of tune  and the result is no longer beautiful music but now just a bunch of noise!

The word of God helps to put us back into tune with our creator. The word explains Gods ultimate plan for man is that God by His Spirit may once again come back into man to express himself through man.. This is one reason Jesus said that the Father is looking for those who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

Many are ever learning but never coming to the knowlege of the truth that Christ Lives in them,these are the same ones that have a form of Godliness but deny the power.. We do not want to ever fall into this deception.. The deception that we are left here alone to try and figure it all out and to read as many how to books as possible on how to live for God..is deception . We must never forget. Christianity is not just about forgiveness of sins but living by a new life within.. Its no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me!

A New Heart

A New Heart

Under the Old Covenant the main way that God dealt with man was through external laws and restraints. This external restraint was to keep man from complete lawlessness and ultimately destroying himself, basically one of the main reasons for the law was to protect man from his own destruction. Can you imagine a world today without any law without any police force our government what do you think would happen? I can tell you what would happen because of sin and the sin nature of man and because man in his heart is mostly bent toward wickedness we would have complete anarchy and lawlessness. The law today keeps man restrained from doing evil the law is really given to help restrain the lawless. So in under the Old Covenant God dealt with his people through the law but under the New Covenant God has done a new thing and Jeremiah tells us about the new way that God has chosen to deal with sin, and lawlessness.

Jeremiah 31:33
This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

In the new covenant. God says I’m going to do a new thing, it will not be an external thing, but in internal thing. God says I’m going to give man a new heart, a heart that will not be bent toward evil but a heart that will love what I love. God repeats this New Covenant and new way of dealing with His people in the book of Hebrews Chapter 8

A New Covenant
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”[ In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
God again it’s telling us through the Scripture that the old covenant did not accomplish and could not accomplish what God wanted to do in man or the old could accomplish what God wanted then there would not be any reason for a new covenant, but it’s clear. The old way of dealing with man was done away, and a new covenant and new way has been est. If we get anything we need to get this we are no longer under the old covenant or the old way that God used to deal with his people. We are under a new covenant. This is a brand-new covenant and the new way that God works in his people for us to experience this new way. We must completely do away with the old and embrace the new.

We cannot pour the new into the old wineskin. The old and the new cannot mix or both will be lost or have no effect. This is the main reason for us writing about this new way.

Under the old covenant God dealt with man through the law that was written in stone. The only law that was written in stone was the 10 Commandments. This was God’s way again of dealing with man externally but under the new covenant. It’s not a matter of the letter, but of the spirit that works in the heart. The new covenant way is about heart transformation it’s about God giving us a brand-new heart to heart that loves will God loves and hates what God hates the new covenant changes us from the inside out not from the outside in man’s problem. As always been a heart problem ever since the fall man’s heart has been bent towards evil wickedness and pride man cannot change his own heart. The only one that could change our hearts was God. This heart transformation cannot be changed by the letter or the letter kills, and it’s only the spirit that can change our hearts and give us life. The apostle Paul speaks of this inward change in Romans
Romans 2:29
but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
The spirit is the only one that can change our hearts as we receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness and gods love into our hearts, then inward circumcision will take place inward circumcision is the cutting away of the flesh or fleshly tendencies and desires and God, by his spirit because we have received the revelation of his great love for us will cutaway everything in our hearts that is not of him. This new way is at work of the heart.

Religion and those who preach law in the New Testament church are not preaching the new covenant way. Many today because of fear still feel they need to preach the 10 Commandments to keep people restrained from doing evil, but we need to understand this is the old covenant way that has been done away through Christ. preaching the law is dealing with externals and is, like mowing the lawn and believing that it will not grow again, unless you deal with the root the lawn will continue to grow and you will have to continue to mow it! This is why so many preaching today is centered on preaching on sin, and the consequences of sin.
We are not called to be preachers of sin in the new covenant we are called to be preachers of the gospel and of righteousness which is the gift of righteousness that only comes through faith in Christ and the finished work of the cross. We are called to preach the love of God. When our congregations have a revelation of God’s great love for them then their hearts will begin to change by the spirit of love. We have often focused on trying to change people do the old covenant way instead of the new covenant way and it simply will not work. Man needs a heart transformation this heart transformation does begin when we first received Christ, but it doesn’t stop there. We must continue in the faith and in the love of God, and that is to continue believing and receiving the great love for God has for us and the work that is doing in our hearts by his spirit Chapter)
Mark 7:21
for from within, out of the heart of men; precede evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
Jesus again confirms that the problem with man is not an external one, but an internal one or out in the heart of man proceeds evil thoughts, adulteries fornication and murder.
We have often tried to deal with these things through sin management courses and accountability partners, but just because you muzzle a dog does not mean that the dog still wants to bite you. Why because it’s in the dog heart to bite you. God’s answer for man under the new covenant is not just to muzzle us from sin like a rapid dog, but to free us from sin through a transformed heart that only comes by receiving Gods free unconditional love and grace.

Gods love is the ultimate way that God purifies our hearts from all evil. Often times religion gets this truth turned around because religion will often tell a person that they just need to be more determined to love God more and to do more things to prove to God that you love Him but its really not our love for God that frees us and that purifies our hearts, but its when we come to the revelation of God’s great love for us that will set us free! As we receive God’s unconditional love for us, that our hearts will be changed by the spirit of His love and grace, and you will not need to muzzle the dog that is you will not need the law to tell a person influenced by Gods love what’s wrong and what’s right because that person will naturally be compelled to love everything that God loves and to avoid those things He doesn’t.
2 Cor 5:14
For it’s the love of Christ that controls and urges and impels us.
Notice what Paul says here it’s the Love of Christ and not for Christ that controls, impels and motivates us for all we do! The Work of grace and Love is also known as the circumcision of the heart by the Spirit.
Romans 2:28-29
For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
As we begin to preach the right message of the new covenant of God’s grace and love we will then begin to see true transformation take place. We will see Gods people loving more, giving more, serving more and witnessing more and what they do will done much more effectively because now they are instead of being motivated by the external letter of the law and threats of judgment , they are now motivated by a heart that has been influenced and transformed by God’s love.

We will not have to preach threatening messages of fear to try and persuade and intimidate people into giving, or paying their tithe or even attending church they will do all these things and more with an abundance of joy because there heart is not being influenced by condemnation or fear of by the love that God has for them.

In the Old Covenant the law was like a leash on a dog the leash keeps the dog restrain and it keeps the dog from running off and running wild but the leash cannot change the dog it can only retrain him. If you take the leash off the dog then the dog will do one of two things. It will either run off or he will stay at his masters side, because he knows his master loves him and is looking out for his own protection best interest . The Bible says as the New Covenant believers that we are no longer under the law but under grace. This means that we are no longer under the restraint of the leash. The leash is completely gone! So what keeps us from running wild in sin and reckless behavior? It’s called Love! Paul said we are controlled and compelled by His Love. The more we understand that we are made righteous through faith and experience Gods unconditional love toward us then the more we will be compelled to honor, love and serve Him, not because we have too but because we want to and get too!
I have heard about preachers who have come to the truth about grace and faith righteousness but say they will not preach it because they are afraid that if they do that people will then use there liberty to go out and get involved in all types of reckless sin.. so instead they preach grace and then balance it with law.. but again what man calls balance God calls mixture!
We can not allow our fears to determine how we interpret or preach the scripture. We have no right to preach the law or to try and control Gods people with a leash. God says we are no longer under the Las but under Grace and this is the only Gospel we are to preach because this Gospel is the only Gospel that releases the power of God in a persons heart for radical change.
Galatians 2:21
I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Gods love and Grace working freely in a person’s heart is the only thing that can produce radical and permanent change
The love of God is what now what God uses to compel us. As we receive Gods unconditional love for us There is no greater power on earth then the power of Gods love for us and this love working in our hearts will change our entire attitude toward him and sin, we will no longer need a leash to restrain us from sin, because we are now under the influence of His great love and Grace. Many have misunderstood what Gods Grace is. Grace is not just the forgiveness of sins and going to heaven one day, but grace is the spirit of love that transforms the heart that will ultimately cause us to walk in Gods ways and the Bible says that Grace works through faith righteousness
Romans 5:21
as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

As we believe that we are only made righteousness through faith in the finished work of the cross and we begin to cease from our own attempts to be right before God through our own works that is when grace begins to go to wok in our hearts to change us from the inside out ! and as Grace works we will no longer have a heart that is, then bent toward evil or wickedness but we will have a heart that will cry out, Abba, father.
Many in the church today still do not understand the power of Grace; Many believe that by preaching too much grace and love it will cause Gods people to run wild. So although they preach grace, they again try to balance it out with law, but again what man calls balance God calls mixture. This mixture of law and grace is really to preach another gospel that is not the gospel of Christ, and again will not work to transform the heart. A little leaven will leaven the whole lump! Preaching even a little law for balance can nullify grace from working is Gods people. This is why Paul was so against it. He knew what it would do!
Paul used some pretty harsh words in his letters to the Galatians! Saying I wish they were cut off that trouble you! I will not go into detail about what it means to be cut off but it basically means to cut off the reproductive organs!
The Apostle Paul did not want this mixed message of Law and Grace to reproduce at all!
The Apostle Paul knew that the only way that our hearts could ever be transformed was by the love of God and through receiving Gods abundant Grace and His free gift of righteousness plus nothing else.
Romans 5:17
For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
.
New covenant is about transformation of the heart from the inside out. We no longer sin because of the fear from the consequences of sin, but we no longer sin, because God’s love and Gods grace has so influenced our heart that are entire attitude toward sin has been changed. True is not being on a leash or having a muzzle on but true freedom is when you are free from sins influence. That’s when you will really be free. Freedom is when the leash is off and you could run but you are content with staying at your masters side..
The Bible says, where sin abounds Grace does much more abound. What does this mean? It means that no matter how evil or how wicked this world gets, because of God’s grace is at work and abounding in our hearts. His loving Grace will keep us from all sin. Gods Grace is much more powerful then any influence of sin! God’s love and Grace working in our hearts is supernatural that means it’s beyond natural; Gods Grace can take the worst sinner and transform him into a saint. God’s love working in our hearts will also cause us to love at the Loves highest level where we will not just love those who love us but all those who don’t love us and all who actually hate and reject us. This God kind of love will move us even bless those that hate us and speak all manner of evil about .His love will cause us to love even the most unlovable. This is true heart transformation and this is what God wants to do in our hearts.

God wants us to mature in His Love They say that Christian maturity is not so much based on your actions when everything is going good and everyone is speaking well of you, accretion maturity is really about your reaction when things are not going so good, and when people are speaking evil about how is your response then toward them. We need to be honest with ourselves about this issue because it is only to the degree that we receive God’s love for us that we will be able to mature in our love for others.

Religion has got this completely backwards because often times religion as an old covenant mindset you covenant mindset says that we are to strive to love God and others, but all her mind, soul and strength. This is often preached from pulpits today. What did you know that this kind of striving to love is based upon the old covenant? If we try to love others and God through our own strength, then we will fail every time. The only way that we can truly love God and love others with all our might, soul and strength is through a transformed heart or a heart that has been transformed by God’s love for us.
Freedom is not having a great desire to sin, and the only reason you don’t sin is because you fear the consequences of sin. This is not freedom. This is a dog with a muzzle on.
True freedom is when you are free in your heart on the influence of sin. God’s love you cause you to become dead to sin and alive Christ.
One of the big reasons why much of the church has struggled with so many scripture’s about grace and sin is because in their hearts. They have not experienced the freedom from it.
When a heart is not free from sin, then one feels they must somehow control it, or manage it. Sad to say this is where much of the churches today. Many of our churches have become more like sin management centers, then freedom centers make no mistake God does not want us to just manage sin. He wants us to be free from the influence of sin.

One of the reasons, but to the church has not been set free from the influence of sin is because of the message that we have been preaching. We have been preaching a mixture of law and grace. But once we start preaching grace in its purest form, and the gift of righteousness and gods love for people. We will see a radical change take place in the church.

We will no longer need so many revivals for revival means to revive someone who dies the church does not need more revivals the church needs transformation of the heart where we become dead to sin and alive to God. I believe I God is restoring this message back into his church at will cause the church once again the be dead the sin and fully alive to him.

The world that does not know Christ deals with lawlessness through external restraints but we have been called to a higher place than this. We have been called to have a transformed heart of the spirit to the extent that if there were no laws in this world, it would not matter to us, the law is for the lawless the law is not for parts that have been transformed by the love and grace. God.
One of the biggest reasons we need to preach grace and not law is because it will reveal the heart and the heart is what God is really after those who say that we should not preach too much grace do not understand grace for its only by receiving the abundant grace of God and the free gift of righteousness that we will ever be free from the clutches of sin and rain in this life.

Jesus said that we would know the truth and the truth would set us free. Set us free from what it will set us free the sin influence of sin and set us free to love God and to love others as we love ourselves.

Truth is this that God loves us so much and he gave his only son And if we would just believe in Gods love for us and God’s forgiveness to us through Jesus. This truth will set us free. The more we realize gods love for us, then what the more we will come out from our hiding kind. The rocks and trees and will take off are fig leaves and allow God to embrace this with his love God’s love for us will move us to worship God in spirit and in truth a heart that’s full of the love of God cannot help but worship and adore God is gods people are filled with God’s love we no longer have to trying to stir people into worshiping God like a pep rally, but people will naturally be stirred to worship and glorify God because their hearts are so full of his great love for them.

God demonstrated his love or us or the cross. God gave his best gave us his son. This is why we will glory in the cross, because it is God’s ultimate way of showing in expressing is incredible love for us. We need to understand that God is madly in love with us. He wants to spend all eternity with us. Not only do we love his presence, but I’ve got news for you. God loves yours he loves it when you come to him and say, Abba, father, or daddy. God wants us to relate to him on the most personal level. My daughter calls me daddy, she does not call me, Rick, although my name is Rick. She relates to me on a more personal level than that and why is this because of love. I love for her and her love for me. God wants a love relationship. He doesn’t want us to see him as a distant, impersonal God somewhere beyond our reach. No God is here and he is waiting for us to come to him and relate to him as daddy.

Gods love and gods grace must be moved from a doctrinal teaching to an actual experience in the heart. This means it must move from our head to our hearts. They say there is really only 18 inches between heaven and hell, or we could say between living a life and victory in the life of defeat. This 18 inches in the distance between your head and your heart. God does not want to just change our minds. He wants to change our hearts are really out of the heart proceeds all thoughts, whether good or evil what we need today is a new heart.

If we preach the law and restraints it may keep people from sinning, but it will not change the sin factory or where the sin originates sin originates in the heart. It comes out of the heart. This is why we need a new heart. This is why we must have God’s love, influencing our hearts toward him again, this influence begins as we begin to preach the peer gospel of grace and the free gift of righteousness.

We must always remember that grace reigns or rules through righteousness, not our righteousness that is of the flesh or self righteousness, but his righteousness that is faith righteousness, and is a gift from God.

Believing Gods Perfect Love for You

Believing Gods Perfect Love For You

John 3:16 sums up the entire plan of God from Genesis to Revelations.. If we miss this point then we have missed out on the whole intention of God toward us. All scripture must be filtered through this verse.
John 3:16 for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
And God demonstrated his great love to us by giving His son as a sacrifice for our sins.
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Rom 8:2 Jesus is proof that God loves us and His desire toward us is to only give us the best
God’s Everlasting Love for us.. Rom :31-39
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I will never forget years ago as I was sitting in a library at college and reading the account where God asked Abraham to offer up his only son Isaac and as Abrahams knife began to come down on his son Isaac God told Abraham to stop! And then said to Abraham the Lord has provided himself a lamb for a sacrifice … That day the Lord once again revealed His perfect love toward me through the ultimate sacrifice of His only son Jesus, the lamb that took away the sin of the world
We must be fully convinced of Gods great love for us to be free from fear and to be free to love others.
Knowing God through Love 1 John 4:7-19
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Seeing God through Love
12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
The Consummation of Love
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.
Knowing Gods unconditional love toward us will set us free from condemnation, fear, bondage to sin and all insecurities.
The main thing that the world and the church needs to be convinced of is the perfect Love that God has for them.
Galatians 5:6
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. What is this verse saying?
It is saying the Law including the Big 10 is not the way to relate to God. God wants us to relate to Him through His great Love toward us. Faith only works by Love and not just our Love for God but Gods great Love for us..
Here in is Love not that we loved God but that God loves us. We cannot love perfectly until we first believe and receive the perfect Love that God has for us.
Eph 3:17-19 The Apostle Paul tells us the key to the mysteries of the kingdom is love and again don’t get it backwards! When we speak of love here we are not speaking of us striving to love God but we are speaking of knowing and receiving Gods perfect love for us that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
We are called to be rooted and grounded in God’s love. It is only as we are rooted and grounded in the Love of God that we will ever produce fruit. Remember.. No root no fruit
Again this love is not us trying by the law to love God with all our might no It’s a revelation of Gods perfect Love for us this is what we must be rooted and grounded in His love
Now remember when the disciples were caught in the great storm? Where was Jesus? He was asleep! Resting in the fathers love.. and what were the disciples doing? They were panicked! And woke Jesus up with don’t you care!
This don’t you care statement.. Revealed a lack of the disciples lacked understanding of Gods love for them.. why?
Because the bible says that perfect love cast out all fear.. Jesus knew the lacked Gods love because they were fearful and said don’t you care that we perish? He also said where is your faith! And we must remember that faith only works by Love.. No love no faith !
Remember the flower thing he loves me he loves me not?.. This is not how we are to relate to God’s love.. instead picture the flower and instead God loves me he loves me not.. we should be saying God Loves me God Loves me God Loves Me …..
The Government is on His shoulders.. Jesus has broad shoulders! Jesus is strong enough to carry every care we might have why? Because His government is a government of divine Love. God wants us to cast all out cares on Him because He cares for us.. God is saying take what’s on your shoulders and put it on His shoulders. This is the government of God! This is what it means the government is own His should
God doesn’t have love.. He is Love
Now one big care we often carry is the Law.. God does not want us to seek righteousness by the law..The law is too much to carry. The law was fulfilled in Christ. When Christ died the law died with Him

We are not to frustrate the Grace of God.. by trying to carry the heavy load of the law.. and we are not to work against grace by trying our best to keep the law or carry it on our own shoulders.
Have you ever been frustrated by watching someone try to do what you could do easily yourself?.. Example an older person trying to figure out how to do an email.. sometimes you want to say here let me do it..God wants to do for us what we are striving to do ourselves and we should not frustrate the process of Grace or Frustrating grace is when we are trying our best to do something that’s already been done or God sees us trying to accomplish something that has already been done