REDEMPTION FROM THE
SATAN'S GAME
od reaches us through many different means
and communicates to us at various levels of our conscious awareness. He
knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. However, the major problem in
humankind is one of miscommunication and misinformation. Saint and sinner
(one who has not accepted Christ’s invitation and not regenerated) are often
cross-communicating. The motive and intent of God’s heart is not what is
being revealed concerning regeneration.
The reason for miscommunication lies
in the nature of the flesh patterns of our former identity we relate to.
Every man, woman, and child views life through the grid of their
experiences. The experiences of life and interaction, with the corrupt
nature of self and others, often skews our communication effort with God and
other people. As fallen creatures, we live among a fallen creation.
Understanding and identifying the corrupt works and remnant memories allow
us to identify the symptoms and diagnose the where and when we learned our
patterns of behavior. The pattern of behavior we practice deceives us into
playing the 'harlot' to have our needs met. Because of the Satanic nature
of the deception, we call it ‘The Game.’
Satan started the game in the Garden
of Eden when mankind was first deceived into believing we could be as God.
The first rule of ‘The Game’ is to deceive the believer or unbeliever into
having their valid needs met through their own individual strengths. We
play the game when a person tries to have a need for acceptance,
significance, and/or love met through human endeavor. The corrupt nature or
remnant relies on the behavior patterns from past experiences to meet a
need. We find the motive behind the interactions between people in their
concept of needs, wants, and desires. The needs are valid - food, clothes,
shelter, companionship, etc., and finally communication with God. The game
provides a means other than God’s providential care for His creation to find
satisfaction and fulfill the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and
the pride of life. These are the result of the corrupted nature of man.
The basic needs for identity,
position, and acceptance by God are met for us through our relationship ‘in
Christ.’ Our new identity and position 'in Christ' more than meets the
need for recognition and acceptance. Every one of us needs to interact with
others and to accept and love ourselves. God gave us a new spirit and new
heart for the purpose of overcoming the damage done by the corrupted nature
of humanity. The Cross (for regenerated ones) renders the Old Man dead
through its co-crucifixion with Christ. We are a new creation ‘in Christ’
and receive the Holy Spirit as a deposit until our final redemption.
Through regeneration or the new birth we become children of God. He set us
in Christ Jesus who is at the right hand of the Father until He reconciles
all things in heaven and earth. As a member of the body of Christ, God
totally accepts us in the ‘Beloved’ waiting for the glorious day when all
power and authority that opposes the knowledge of God, surrenders to God.
When God establishes His everlasting kingdom, God will be seen as He always
was, the 'all and in all'!
REDEMPTION FROM THE GAME
edemption is seen as a game only to the
extent that there is a winner and a loser. The payoff is eternal life with
God; the other option is eternal separation from God referred to as the
‘second death’. We all play 'The Game' until God calls us home to our
reward. No player knows exactly when this will happen except the Father.
Many people do not understand
redemption since they do not know the Author, who reveals the Truth; They do
not comprehend His Word because they see it only as a “rule book”. For all
those who know Him through the Living Word, we have won! Jesus won 'The
Game' already. To partake in this all inclusive Victory we must accept
God’s rule book and trust that He shall bring to pass every promise in the
Book. We can see evidence to the contrary in the misunderstanding of the
players in the game who still believe they can win while under the influence
of the corrupt nature or trying to improve the false identity.
The first promise for redemption God
gave to the first people He created. The promise is for all humanity
throughout all generations. This promise was partially fulfilled when Jesus
Christ said, ‘It is finished.’ By this declaration, God, being in the form
of man, satisfied God’s righteous requirement to redeem (Buy back) the soul
of humanity and later mankind’s body.
For the ease of understanding, God
made a covenant or contract with man that He would redeem mankind. The
first covenant was weak because of our corrupt nature. God made a better
contract with us through Jesus Christ. To win redemption in either case,
new or old, the rule of faith applies to both: we must believe God at His
Word. Trust in God is the foundation for receiving eternal life in Christ
Jesus. The Word can be conveyed many ways.
God created the players in the game
to reveal His divine nature and glory throughout all of His creation. Who
will accept the Truth? In the rule book, God reveals that all of our names
are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, Psa 69:28, ‘Let them be blotted out
of the book of the living, And not be written with the righteous.’ This
virtually means that ‘whosoever’, regardless of race or tongue, can accept
the Victory of Jesus Christ and be redeemed. The rule of faith in God still
stands firm today. If we believe God, we also believe in Christ Jesus in
whom we have eternal life.
God’s presence in our redemption and
life is only part of the gift of salvation. The faith we have to trust in
Him is also a gift. All things we receive in this life are gifts from God
when we see them from God’s perspective.
Once a person enters into the
contract or covenant with God, our heavenly Father begins to reveal His true
nature to us in a personal way daily. God establishes a relationship on the
basis of trust. As His children we begin to grow into the richness and
fullness of Jesus Christ through the revelation of the New Covenant Jesus
sealed with His blood.
THE HOPE OF A BETTER CONTRACT
In any covenant or contract there are four
elements that make up a valid, legally binding obligation on both parties.
There is mutual consent. The term implies an offer on God’s part followed
by the believer's acceptance, the second element. God's offer explicitly
communicates certain terms throughout the Rule Book: Part One occurred
before Christ’s crucifixion, and Part Two, applies to everyone born
afterwards.
The third element of the contract is
valid consideration. The benefits received or conferred by both parties
that they agree upon. God gives us eternal life ‘in Christ’. In exchange
we give God all the glory through our praise and thanksgiving.
Fortunately God compels mankind to enter a
valid relationship (contract) which
God bases solely on His promises toward us.
He will keep His promises to anyone who puts their faith in Him through His
effacious grace.
Finally, with the contract for
eternal life, there must be a valid consideration for the parties. Both
parties must be able to perform the service or provide the object. Mutual
trust(faith) is a requirement to the contractual relationship. The truth in
God’s Word reveals the nature of God and how humanity learns to trust Him
through their deliverance from trials, tribulations, or temptations.
The fundamental challenge is to find
the Truth that frees us to live victoriously. The basic flaw is a corrupt
nature that is responsible for personal behavior. The players must learn to
recognize the different traits of his own nature and the need for Christ’s
sacrifice. The game is won upon acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and
Savior. The corrupt nature is crucified with Christ and we are ‘born
again.’ We receive a new nature from God, a renewed heart and spirit. We
receive the Holy Spirit and eternal life.
End of Game! This is the point
where reality sets in and this analogy ends. The remnant memories of the
corrupt nature are still intact. We are part of a new creation ‘in
Christ.’ He overcame all the power of the enemy for us so we can walk in
the newness of the Holy Spirit. However, our life in Christ becomes one of
adventure as we explore the riches we have in our relationship. As a loving
Father, God wants us free from the remnants of our past that will stop us
from reflecting His glory and grace. God is going to manifest His glory and
grace through His presence in our life and extend His mercy shown to us so
we can share in His glory through the richness of the fellowship we have
with Christ.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit lifted the veil between us and will complete the work in this life
that salvation only began through a process called sanctification. As a
child of God, He reparents us and begins to transform us into image
bearers. The relationship between God and man is sacred. He knows how we
have suffered and desires to walk us through the valley of the shadow of
death and onto the mountains.
Before God became our God we were dead
spiritually but now we are alive. To be healed, we must return to the
valley where the deception, abuse, or mis-use occurred so we can ‘renew’ our
being -- body, soul, and spirit. Our heavenly Father desires us to live
before Him with a full knowledge and understanding of the width, breadth,
depth, and height of His love for us. To worship God, we must worship Him
in Spirit and in truth. The reality of knowing, praising and thanking God
for everything in our life begins our true worship in Spirit and truth since
we begin to see the past, present, and future from His perspective.
The Great Physician who knows how to
heal us will expose the root cause and heal our broken heart mend our spirit
from the overt and covert abuses that influence and damage us. The false
identity keeps us from knowing God fully has been exposed by His light.
When the Holy Spirit exposes the false identity will you surrender your
control that causes the sinful behavior to protect you from further injury?
FREED FROM ‘THE POWER OF SIN’
A person cannot completely escape
the prison of ignorance without taking personal responsibility for their
growth into the full stature of Christ. Dumb and silent, led down the path
of illiteracy, we have not exercised our God given intelligence to escape
the wiles of the devil. The victorious life is a revolutionizing concept to
bring about a rational faith through the exercise of truth found in a life
based on personal responsibility and obedience to His commands of
Righteousness.
The contemporary belief about sin
being the problem keeps believers locked in bondage. Replacing it with the
‘root cause and effect’ scenario will revolutionize the concept of dealing
with sin. The root cause and effect model will readily show through
Scripture what the problem is. When the truth reveals the false identity as
the power behind our irrational behavior, we will have victory through the
application of the Cross.
To err is human. Discovering who we
are in Christ will not bring about sinless perfection. The need for growth
and change will always be there. When we take up the Cross, sinful behavior
will fall away. As we embrace the character of Christ through our
understanding of the co-crucifixion of the corrupt nature with its sinful
desires, we will stand firm as we practice righteousness through grace. We
are set free from the power of sin, we do not have to sin but we still have
to overcome temptation.
When we recognize the false identity
for what it is, we will accept the Cross for freedom's sake. Then we will
still have problems just like everyone else but will know the solution.
When we know the truth, Christianity will again make sense. Then with the
power of a rational belief system we can begin to treat other problem areas
in our life.
Forgiveness is the only prescription
we have for overcoming the memories of the corrupt nature. Forgiveness does
not deal with our sin issue alone. When we realize the root cause and
embrace the Cross the excuses for our irrational behavior will disappear.
The spotlight will remain focused on the Cross and symptoms of the false
identity. As we render the corrupt nature dead and practice holiness by the
empowerment of grace we will discover a life of freedom. It has been there
all the time just waiting for us to ask, seek, and knock. The door is
opening to the cell block. Will you walk with God one more mile to a place
called Calvary?
SET FREE THROUGH
DIVINE REVELATION
od is Spirit and those who worship Him, must
worship Him in Spirit and in truth. God wants an honest and open
relationship with every person. We are invited to be vulnerable and
blatantly free to discuss our needs with Him. There is no reason to fear
God for God is love and perfect love casts out all fear. Thus we can
understand the word 'truth' will readily translates to 'reality'. We can
not know God intimately outside of His truth or reality. He is the only
true and eternal God. God reveals His character in all of His creation.
For a person seeking the truth, it is plain to see in His creation.
Creation reveals God through what is known as Natural Revelation. With this
knowledge and pursuit of God, He gives His Word in what is known as Special
Revelation. Only through Special Revelation can we know Law, Gospel, and
Faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing of the Word through own God-given
natural senses so that we can receive and believe the Gospel through the
special way God communicates through the preaching of the Word.
To come to a knowledge of eternal
truth, man must look unto the Creator in order to find the meaning of His
being. To comprehend the truth, we must be able to distinguish the truth
about God’s character and the truth about our own nature. Humanity lost a
true knowledge of God. Humanity lost the intimate relationship with his
Creator at the time Satan, the ‘Father of Lies’, deceived Eve, and when Adam
knowingly sinned against God.
When Satan attempted to frustrate, distort,
and pervert God’s will, Adam believed a lie as the truth and sinned. Sin,
the negation of holiness goes against the will of God which is what Adam
did. This is what we do when we sin - negate the will and character of
God. Unfortunately, when man did not obey God, He imposed the death
penalty. All of humanity lost a true knowledge of God that day and came
under the dominion of the ‘Evil One’. Our fallen nature separates us from
the true knowledge of God; He is Holy, therefore we, being corrupted, cannot
comprehend Him entirely. The human race was separated from God when Adam
and Eve violated God’s command not to seek knowledge from any other source
other than Him. God was to be humanity’s only source of life.
God's nature sets Him apart from any
lie, He is the truth, He is unchanging, God is, was, and shall ever be the
ultimate embodiment of truth. The depth of our relationship with God is
based on our personal knowledge of Him and our willing conformation into the
image and likeness of His Son. Adam was created in His likeness and in His
image; he could have lost everything without God’s intervention. Surely
mankind lost the true image of God when Adam and Eve sinned and began to
have children (us) after their own likeness and image (Gen:5:2). Since the
children were born after their fall from grace and all of mankind was in the
loins of Adam every human being suffered from the effects of the fall. Adam
and Eve possessed similar character qualities to God’s until the fall from
innocence through disobedience.
God holds humanity accountable and
responsible for their behavior. God created us for intimacy with Himself.
However when Adam and Eve failed God’s probationary period in the Garden of
Eden, His angels carried out the sentence of God’s divine justice. God
judged humanity in that very instant. Then God began the undertaking of His
plan for the redemption of humanity. God was present before the foundation
of the world and before the foundation of the world He knows His intended
outcome. God loved us before mankind’s creation, and, knowing of the
deception by Lucifer or Satan, implemented the plan for mankind's
salvation. God’s love for us, the Elect, is from eternity past. We are
created for God’s posterity, we are to reveal God’s grace and riches in
Christ to His creation. Our failed behavior gives way to the revelation of
grace found in Jesus, our Lord, Redeemer and Life as God’s prized possession
which is the membership of His church.
God reveals the restoration of man’s
relationship through the ministry of reconciliation. As the minister of
reconciliation God prepared good works beforehand in anticipation of the
need to restore the relationship. We see the fact of God’s foreknowledge
through the providential care for His Creation. No one or thing can
frustrate, distort, or pervert God's will. God is Almighty God, and all
things are working out for the good of those who love Him and called
according to His purposes. By His works, He is restoring us unto the image
and likeness of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The ministry of
reconciliation directly reveals the love and care God showed us (through the
completed work of Jesus Christ) to repair humanity’s relationship with Him.
When we found mercy and accepted God’s gracious gift of eternal life by
acknowledging the truth in our heart, God completed the ‘new birth’ by
placing us 'in Christ Jesus'. The gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus and we are being restored for God’s intended relationship with
Himself.
When God reveals Himself to a person
in the person of Jesus Christ, they come to the realization that the fall
separated us through Adam’s disobedience and Jesus came to restore the
relationship. When we receive this revelation from the Holy Spirit, He will
quicken us, provide evidence through spiritual revelation, and only then can
we assent to the truth and accept God’s invitation to be reconciled.
God came in the fashion of a man without a
sinful nature to reveal the truth. He came as God and man, in the man,
Jesus Christ. He came to reveal the truth; Jesus redeemed humanity from the
righteous wrath of God. God’s wrath is revealed in death which is produced
from mankind’s sin which is believing and practicing the lie of the evil
one. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life since He revealed the
fullness of the Godhead’s love for us. It took one act of disobedience to
separate humanity from a true knowledge of God. In one act of obedience,
Jesus created the affiliate to a true knowledge of God for all who will
believe. At the Cross, Jesus declared the victory in the truth He spoke,
‘It is finished!’.
FREE FROM
PERFORMANCE TRAPS
od forgives us and declares us righteous as
a free gift. We are in an eternal relationship with God through the
sacrifice of his Son. By the grace of God and the Holy Spirit in our life
we should have the assurance of being totally acceptable in His sight. The
fact that something was eternally wrong with our 'old man', God addresses in
the atoning work of Christ. There is a real transformation. We are a new
creation in Christ. God approves of our 'new standing', a 'right standing'
in Christ. We are free from the accusations of a guilty conscience before
God! Atonement - at one moment in time God declared those who will come to
Him through Christ’s atoning death - righteous. These truths are very
important to understand. There are fortresses in our minds that the enemy
of our souls will use to keep us defeated by trapping us into thinking we
must do works or righteousness to pay our sin debt. Only Jesus could pay
the debt since He was sinless from eternity past. Let these truths permeate
your thoughts, God’s truth will destroy your walls of Jericho.
God renews our minds with the truth and
releases us from the bondages that still hold many captives. The more these
truths transform your thinking, the more the demonic shackles fall off and
you understand that there is liberty in Christ. With these things in mind
your focus should now be on ‘resting’ in Christ sacrifice and not your own
good works. In God’s eyes our good works are as filthy rags. God delivered
us from the penalty of our sins and the carnal nature that held us captive
to shameful behavior. As Christ lives in you, the command of Galatians 5:16
will become a reality. I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh. - Gal 5:16
The Law or Ten Commandments lead us
to the Lord Jesus Christ, who totally fulfilled its requirements. God
originally gave the Law to reveal His grace and mercy when Jesus came to
reveal grace and truth fulfilling the righteous requirements. He came
reveal that the carnal nature would prevent us from fulfilling the Law’s
requirements so we would see our need and willingly receive a renewed heart
and spirit through faith in God’s love for us. Understanding the grace of
God puts us at rest in the atonement of Jesus. We have God's favor and are
in relationship with God we refer to as being ‘in Christ’. We cannot lose
that status. We do not have to ‘do’ in order to ‘be’ in God's grace.
Our performance and behavior are not issues
when it comes to God’s grace. We are in God's revealed grace. Therefore we
are free from our sinful nature and can do all lawful things under the
influence of a clear conscience being in Christ.
Through the manifestation of God's grace
toward us we walk in the Spirit in Christ. We are free to manifest His love
toward us, toward others. In Him, we live and move and have our being. By
what He did for the children of Israel, God revealed who He is. Now God
wants to reveal Himself to the world through Jesus Christ reflecting His
life in us. God wants us to surrender control. This includes a willingness
to let Him be strong in us and face our weaknesses in a way that increases
His involvement in our life. Jesus wants to be our life.
There is a new level of intimacy God offers
in the New Covenant and gives in our relationship with Him. He controls the
level of risk we endure. He is sovereign and works out all things for our
good. In other words, He enables us to live life to the fullest when we
walk in the Spirit.
A person can accept God's value of
themselves and not enter into God's rest presuming to know and do God’s
will. To find God's rest we need to consciously become aware of who we are
in Christ and rest in His finished works. When we can find our total
acceptance from God in a relationship with Christ we can enter into our
eternal rest from our labors to work out our salvation through our own
meritorious works.
In reality, the sacrifice offered by
Christ was payment for our peace. Our rest is the birthright of the
Christian (Hebrews 3:7 - 4:13), relaxing in Christ’s accomplished work on
the Cross. Our acceptance is unconditional. We can cease doing in order to
gain acceptance. When we realize that God bases our acceptance solely on
Christ's Cross, we can stop striving to be acceptable and be the vessel He
uses to build His Kingdom.
The War is over! Jesus is
Victorious over death and hell! When we understand the Victory we have in
Him, we can rest from performing. There are battles ahead but they are only
against the lie that says we need to 'do' in order to 'be'. When we trust
God to handle our life through Christ. Jesus can reflect life through us so
we can relax from 'do'- ing in order to 'be'. We can trust in the character
of God, the Holy Spirit in us, or we can become ensnared in a system of
self-sufficiency that competes with Him in order to handle life.
We are a new creation. God created
in us our new nature, one that longs to be intimate with God and please
Him. Our death in Christ crucifixion sets us free from the need for
approval and acceptance. We know that God totally accepts us.
Our spiritual nature came from our
new relationship with God. We cannot be any more spiritual than we already
are. We are spiritual beings in a body. We need to rest in Christ and
relinquish control of our life. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches.
We only need to allow the normal course of nature to bear fruit since what
goes on inside the vine happens naturally due to God’s providential care.
We need to allow God to disrupt and change what goes on inside our minds.
We became the righteousness of God in Christ through an indivisible covenant
as we remain dependent on the true Vine. The new nature is born out of
being connected to Christ. God’s gives us His own nature and we begin to
desire that which God intends for us to perform as we are conformed to His
image.
Walk in the Spirit; rest in the
finished work of the Cross. Consciously remember that we no longer need to
work in order to gain God's approval. When God filled us with His own
Spirit it is His seal of our total acceptance. Then Christ is free to
reflect His life through us each day and we are free to respond to others
spontaneously without measuring our ability since God is our only source of
life. By resting in Christ we allow God's love to pour through us to meet
the needs of others knowing He is able to meet their needs through us. We
can easily rest in the awesomeness of God as His Spirit to transforms our
thinking.
When we’ve stopped 'doing' and rest
in the source, we can start 'being'. We are in Christ; therefore, we can do
all things He calls upon us to do! God places us in Him so He can do all
things through us. Through Him we can serve others through the love He gave
for us so we can do all things in Him unto God. Before we could ever 'do'
anything, God created us in our mother's womb for His purpose for our life
and His Kingdom so that we may take our rightful place in heaven.
Remember, theology is our belief
system, and the life we live is what we believe to be true. Rational or
irrational choices are our responsibility. If the devil continually
deceives us and we believe the 'lie,' the true knowledge of God will suffer
and reflect in our behavior. Do not misunderstand what is being said. I am
not saying that our behavior reveals who we are. I am saying if we believe
the truth about who we are ‘in Christ’ our behavior will follow our
theology. If we misunderstand the truth we will also continue to struggle
with the false identity in our strength. When we embrace our ‘position’ as
God’s children and see our life through the eye’s of our Father’s mercy and
grace, then we will begin to live in the truth. Then we will respond as
God’s children in love, peace and joy of the Holy Spirit whose given to us
within our renewed hearts and spirits to guide our actions.
When we surrender to God, He reveals our
selfish desires, and the work of the Cross begins. At every turn we can
expect the old man to try and be resurrected. Fortunately, we know through
God’s Word that He crucified the corrupt nature with Christ. Directly to
the point, the corrupt nature is dead. When we surrender to God’s truth,
the Holy Spirit reveals the complete work of the Cross and we begin to
experience freedom for the first time, not a moment sooner. The work of the
Cross requires daily application, for the incarnation of Christ and Him
becoming our life will require nothing less than total surrender to the way
of the Cross.
On the Cross Jesus said, ‘It is
finished!’ There God dealt the old man a death blow. In the balance is our
freedom. Even though we are ‘in Christ’ by God’s doing, the application of
the Cross is necessary to find true freedom through the transformation of
the mind. Simply giving an assent to the work accomplished by the Cross
will not render us freedom. Personal application is our cross to give birth
to the person we know God desires us to be. We are responsible for what we
dine on spiritually.
Unless we stop working for further approval,
the completed work of the Cross in our life will be of no avail. Our
persistent work only impairs the understanding of God’s grace and shuns His
mercy. As long as we work in order to gain acceptance, we cannot enter
God’s rest from the performance trap. Works feel right. They are difficult
to criticize, let alone change due to theology. Performance also produces
such personal gratification! As you will see, there is a lot of the corrupt
nature rooted in our memories still at work. From our earliest years,
people teach us to perform for acceptance. There is a plenitude of God’s
grace available to every believer. To receive God’s grace, we must stop
working. To discover the power of the Cross and enter into God’s rest, we
embrace the Cross.
The false identity is in control if
you are working for your salvation every day. It has been in control all
along. You may think you can receive God’s grace by doing more for the
kingdom. Deep down you cling to the idea that you cannot control your
behavior, but the truth can set you free. The cross completely destroyed
the power of the corrupt nature, for God crucified on the Cross with Christ,
for everyone who believes. This is the essence or crux of our faith, the
realization of the total redemptive work of the Cross and the annihilation
of the false identity.
When a person feels the pain and
suffers loss from performing for acceptance more than the pleasure they get
from it, they will be ready to listen (and not a moment sooner). However,
organized Christianity has become more of a hospital or infirmary than the
tower of strength God intended it to be. To critique the organization is
not attacking what they believe in. Rather it is in the interest of truth
to look at what the institution endorses as truth. Do we need to look at
the way in which the church has represented the good news of the Gospel and
the life of Jesus Christ? Can we say that we are seeking the truth, or just
supplying a band-aid to make the pain go away, if we do not preach Jesus
Christ crucified and the need for co-crucifixion?
The truth is that if we trust God
at His Word we have intelligence, strength, talent, and a new nature in
Christ. God commands us to walk in the Spirit to learn to defeat or
overcome the fallen nature by recognizing the truth about the false
identity. When we embrace the truth and expose the lie, He overcomes the
corrupt nature by living through us, and He reveals His life through us
since we receive the promise of a renewed heart and spirit. We must
challenge our belief system and take control of our thought life. We must
take personal responsibility for what we feed our inner man. God does this
through revealing the Scriptures provided through the local church. The
door is open for us to overcome the adversary through a life filled with
love, power, and a sound mind, renewed by the Spirit.
When we begin to see sin as the
symptom of the corrupt nature, and understand that our behavior is a direct
result of the false identity in control, then we will find victory at our
door. The jaws of defeat could snatch the truth right out of the believer
if we are irresponsible. Personal responsibility comes with the knowledge
of God as our only Source to overcome the problem. When we embrace the
truth, God will give us the victory and the witness of His eternal presence
daily in our life.
To gain the victory, we must
recognize the truth of our identity in Christ. Our motivation is freedom
from ‘do’ing in order to ‘be’. The reason for the effectiveness is our
position that we receive in Christ. God empowers us, our personal
responsibility is to Him. We are accountable to God, and He oversees our
personal and spiritual growth. God also takes care of any discipline
problems if we decide to act out of rebellion. We do find freedom from vain
repetition, powerlessness, and the bondage of religion immediately.
Christianity describes a lifestyle that firmly establishes us in a personal
relationship with God. It is a way of life -- thinking, growing, changing,
etc.. For we are part of a new creation, given a renewed heart and spirit
to personally extend God’s grace and hope to others, through a new identity
and position in Christ.
Christianity is at the crossroads.
Each believer must make a decision to embrace the cross or accept something
less than freedom. The choice is clearly before us. The churches offering
behaviorism and performance-based acceptance need to be exposed to the
truth. The cross is before each of us to embrace, offering the freedom to
explore our new identity and position in Christ. The only rational decision
is to make a resolution to seek the truth. If we are willing to embrace the
cross, we know that it will mean the death of our selfish ambitions and
control. The corrupt nature so desperately desires to serve itself. If we
will not apply the cross to our life, we can never know the victory we have
in Christ, and freedom from the performance trap. Which road will you
choose?
Listen to the voice of your own
soul. This is exactly what we are talking about. I know all of us hear
one, if not more, voices. The inner voice of the Spirit desires to walk
with the Lord, take up the cross and follow Him? If not, is it the voice of
the irrational child who desires to continue playing the Christian Game? We
can know all about God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit, yet in order
to know them we must embrace the Cross of Calvary and apply it to our
lives. Remember, the Devil also believes, and his end will be that of
eternal separation from God in a lake of fire. Remember, to end the game, a
person only needs to accept Jesus Christ as Lord, Life, and Savior. Then
Jesus unlocks the door to set us free to explore the riches of His mercy and
healing grace.
THE SINFUL NATURE OR BEHAVIORISM
Not understanding the nature of the
false identity leaves us ignorant and at a severe disadvantage. The fallen
human nature needs to be crucified and rendered dead. Crucifixion of the
self-life is found in the Scriptures and is expounded upon time and again.
The treatment suggested in the book of Romans is transforming. The concept
of the corrupt nature is not new, however society and the clergy have
relegated the most atrocious notion of treating the sin problem to
psychological methods of treatment. Instead, people need to take personal
responsibility and be held accountable. The church has in many instances
its duty and relinquished the power of the Cross, which is God’s answer to
the corrupt nature. The psychiatric profession has duped the church in part
into accepting psychological prescriptions for controlling the false
identity, instead of dealing it the death blow. The corrupt nature is the
root cause of sin.
While the false identity is in control we
are still responsible for our behavior. At best, without rendering the ‘old
man’ dead we can only continue to try to keep the symptoms down. Some
people just want to anesthetize themselves until it goes away. That
approach is like trying to keep inflated beach balls underwater. No matter
how hard I try, the new symptoms just keep popping up all over, ruining my
diagnosis. Until we preach the full Gospel and the Cross applied and
carried individually, we may as well play with the beach balls instead of
attending church services. The problem is deeper than the symptoms. The
truth is plain to see throughout the Old and New Testament, once we know
what to look for. We find the culprit labeled in the New Testament as the
carnal or human nature. The carnal nature is manifested in the unregenerate
man through disobedience and disbelief. The false identity desires the same
lusts as the carnal nature or old man. Therefore, it is critical to believe
God and obey His Word. These are the only things that help anyone.
The myth about sin is that it is the
cardinal problem between the relationship of God and man. A lot of well
intentioned pastors and laity are teaching and expanding the fable about
sin. I am not saying sin does not separate us from God, but, what if the
nature of the false identity is still in control? Is the new birth a
reality? Obviously not! Since as a new creation we are free to practice
righteousness and pursue God.
The works of the false identity can still
separate us from serving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and body, which
is why we must rely on the throne of grace to receive power to overcome our
weakness(es). We must not only deal with sin. We must also overcome the
root cause of our behavioral problems, our thinking. What is referred to as
a false identity will remains in control otherwise. Remember, the problem
of the false identity in control is not a fabrication. Paul, the Apostle,
in the New Testament continually refers to the ‘flesh’. The term flesh is a
construct Paul used to convey the truth.
Some of the clergy are guilty of
propagating the following traditional philosophies of men which would
dissuade someone from addressing the problem of a false identity: (1) They
treat sin as a disease, instead of a symptom of fallen human nature; (2)
the power over sin requires some special teaching outside of the full use of
Scripture; (3) The ‘sinner’ does not need confrontation by someone who has
committed the same sin; (4) Only the laity is able to help the sinner
overcome their weakness; (5) Performance has everything to do with
acceptance by God, and; (6) Any believer without some form of ordination who
helps a sinner is out of submission. This is an assault on the priesthood of
the believer.
PERSONAL
RESPONSIBILITY OR TREATMENT
od’s Word contains the Truth about the
nature and character of Christ. He suffered in ways we now suffer. None of
us are alone in our suffering! We have all been wounded in many of the same
ways Jesus suffered! The primary or root cause of some of our suffering is
the flesh in control. Our self-centered life needs sanctification in order
to grow into the stature of Christ. God is willing to reparent us and renew
our mind by the Word of God and through the church. With the inner working
of God’s healing grace, we can find freedom to obey God and be spontaneous,
creative, productive, or find joy in this life.
Personal responsibility for our
actions is a key issue. We are free to choose to react or respond to a
given situation. In particular, in the case of the remnant memories that
stem from our corrupt nature. We have to choose to believe God’s Word and
be renewed in our thought processes. God heals us if we allow the Holy
Spirit to expose the wound while Jesus intercedes for our need of grace at
the right hand of the Father.
Healing comes in two forms, instantaneous
and progressive. We’d prefer the divine intervention we call miracles. But
Father knows what is best to turn our hearts. Sometimes people get bitter
for not getting their way and turn away from God. Suffering is hard for
some people to accept that He knows the outcome. Faith towards God always
believes that He is working things out for everyone’s benefit.
God is God. Who can fathom the mind of
God? We see Jesus, His gift to us. Yet, we still question God knowing He
sacrificed His Son for us. Anyone who has ever lost (or came close to
loosing) a child can understand what God suffered. Out of His mercy and
love for us He gave us His only Son to redeem us. What more could we ask of
Him? There is no hope for those who do not put their trust in Him. We are
all accountable to God because He revealed His love for us through the
revelation of Himself in the life of Jesus Christ.
The major roadblock to a healthy
lifestyle is the lack of instruction. The truth about the Old Man is that
Jesus overcame the Old Man for us in totality. We may struggle with the
‘flesh’ or ‘carnal nature’ until we come unto a level of spiritual
maturity. Until we do we can always go to the throne of grace for help.
Christ’s work reveals the true glory of
God. Understanding such a great salvation through God's grace alone fills
them with fear and trembling. Then people desire to work out spiritually in
self-disciplines like prayer. The fear and trembling is reverential. It is
a result of coming to a knowledge of the awesome totality of God’s plan of
salvation for mankind.
There are a lot of anxious moments when a
person does not understand God’s providential care that is why learning the
truth is so essential. A person needs to use common sense, responsible
thinking, intelligence, and God-given talent to examine the Word of God to
establish themselves in a rational faith to overcome the deceitfulness of
the flesh. As teachers, we cannot take the student any further than we have
personally gone before until we receive the revelation from God.
Rational faith builds upon this
approach: we go to God daily to work out problems before we make decisions.
Placing our faith in God’s sanctification of our former nature enables a
person to understand their lack of control in a new and realistic way. We
must choose to believe His truth and receive understanding to be set free.
The faith to believe is God’s gift to us from listening, knowing,
understanding, applying and obeying the Word of Truth. We choose to obey
God every day when we listen to His small still voice conveyed through the
Bible or one of His ministers of the Gospel.
The corrupt nature of the false identity we
have lived with is very protective. It is much like a child’s toy and can
transform into a similar or possibly totally different shape. The moment we
bring a behavior pattern to the light of truth, the identity changes its
method of control. The whole point of the remnant of the false identity or
flesh is to gain control and satisfy its own desires. When the self-life of
the flesh is in control, we cannot serve God. We will never be able to
serve God and the flesh at the same time.
When we finally see remnant memories of our
past corrupt nature as the power behind our sinful behavior. Denial is one
of the enemies most Popular deterrents to freedom. The exposure to the
truth will break its control. We find freedom in Christ spontaneously and
God’s releases us to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. Until we
understand our co-crucifixion on the Cross, we will not find the freedom our
souls.
As long as people treat sin as the
problem and not the symptom, the struggle for control will fuel the battle
for the mind. This work will challenge the control of the memories of the
corrupt nature through exposing the symptoms and their deadly outgrowth.
Seduced and struggling with sin, people give up to the subtle, inviting, and
appealing ideas being espoused by the clergy. The declared war (by the
Spirit of God) will not allow the Cross to suffer open shame anymore. Get
ready for the end time war against deceptive doctrine.
This work is about freedom. It is
about exposing you to the truth about your falsely identity or former
nature. There are a lot of people who want to take a bus ride to heaven.
The end of the line may not be what they expect. Every believer must take
personal responsibility for the truth that the Holy Spirit reveals to them.
We are all responsible for responding to God’s Word and maintaining the
relationship if we are going to live a victorious life.
The behavior we reveal from a corrupt memory
reaction is not some mysterious character fault. It is the power of sin
working in our life that wants to act independently of God. So, what will
it be? The choice is the Cross, or a life of bondage responding to the
lusts of the flesh. You now know the truth that the Cross is the cure for
the flesh.
SIN, THE CORRUPT NATURE IN CONTROL
Consider sin a symptom of the false
identity in control. The possibility makes for a decent argument for a more
thorough understanding and a more rational treatment approach to sinful
behavior. The knowledge of the need to crucify the carnal nature enables a
competent Christian to lead a person to a victorious life. When we see sin
as a symptom, and the corrupt nature as the problem, there is a positive
expectancy. A solution generates hope that can lead others to the
victorious and eternal life.
Jesus Christ secured our freedom revealing
God’s love for His creation. God made all the efforts to get us to
respond. When we knew the truth, it generated faith-building expectancy and
that generates hope. Then through hope and a confession of our need for
change, admitting what we are, sinners, God imputes Christ’s righteousness
on us and brings forth our transformation. God gives us a new life in
Christ through regeneration. We receive the love of God in His presence in
us through a rebirth. We receive a renewed heart and spirit that desires to
serve and minister the grace of God to the lost.
For the cause of liberty Christ set
us free from the curse of the law which is separation from an intimate
relationship with God. The law is good. It leads us to Christ, who is the
fulfillment of the law. When we receive Christ, we have everything that
pertains to righteousness, holiness, and significance. We are set free from
performing the law by walking in the Spirit. This is where the issue of
maturity must be raised. A young believer must be questioned regarding
their understanding of grace on a personal level. Knowledge,
understanding, and wisdom come by active grace in our lives. The limit of,
and, capacity to gain these three elements while walking with the Holy
Spirit are in the direct proportion to the spiritual maturity attained.
There is a balance of all three elements needed to find freedom in the
Spirit. The ideal balance leads to understanding grace and finding liberty
to pursue God’s will in our life. Grace is an avenue paved solely on the
basis of the finished work of the Cross.
When grace is taken to the extreme
liberal view, the nominal Christian will use his freedom to serve self and
to fulfill the lusts of the false identity. The desire to have our needs
met through our own means and resources leads to a license to sin. While on
the other end of the spectrum, the extreme conservative view of Christian
grace will lead to legalism. By my understanding, legalism is still trying
to live by the letter of the law. This is performance-based acceptance:
‘Doing in order to be.’ The avenues of license or legalism come from the
desire to fulfill the lusts of the false identity. The desire to have our
need of justification met by keeping the law leads to legalism if we are
performing to gain grace.
The corrupt nature of the false
identity is at war with the Spirit of God. The corrupt nature of the
remnants of our flesh cannot and will not submit to God. Although God
provided the remedy through the Cross and our co-crucifixion with Him the
problem remains until we die to self. The false identity we relate to is
the culprit.
God the Holy Spirit wants to find liberty in
Christ and continues to sanctify our thought process and cleanses us through
the washing of the Word until we get tired of performing for acceptance.
God’s Word is truth. It restores the mind to correct thinking in terms of
righteousness.
Unless infallible parents raise a child,
they just follow the carnal nature and children are taught to perform for
acceptance. And, none of us are, nor ever had perfect parents. Both
spectrums, license or legalism, leave every person short of the glory of
God’s goodness and in need of instruction to come to the end of self.
The individual needs and desires of
a person govern the self-life. ‘How’ we meet these needs throughout
maturation, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, will govern
a person’s reliance on self or God to have legitimate needs met.
A person will not find liberty is the
self-reliant, corrupt nature is not reckoned dead and crucified with
Christ. However, there is still a problem when we rely on the old man’s
memories.
The remnant memory still contaminates the
Christian mind and hold onto many untruths. The believer’s mind holds onto
the untruths as truth until God exposes them through His Word. To overcome
the contamination, we must act upon God’s truth by faith (trusting) and
allow God to develop a relationship with us as He begins to fulfill the
precious promises found in His Word. We see in James 3:13-18 that the
spiritual man will oppose living according to our senses, while Galatians
5:16 admonishes, ‘Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of
the flesh.’
The inability to walk in the Spirit results
in sin or missing the mark. Sin is a direct result of the learned
behavior. The world is full of contaminates and we learn by example to fall
short of the command of God to love one another. The overt or covert sin,
perpetuated by us or against us, is the result of the false identity or
corrupt nature in control.
MISSING THE RIGHT TARGET
Missing the mark is an archer’s term
for the bullseye jumping out of the arrow’s path. Actually, this is a
common place occurrence or at least this is a lot of people claim. Blaming
the other guy is common place. The drunk dutifully explains to the spouse,
‘The devil made me do it!’ We are just full of excuses. Just the other day
one of my friends told me how he lost $35,000 in the casinos. I said, “You
should make a police report and file charges against the guy who held the
gun to his head.” What is your excuse going to be when the Lord rewards you
for every thing you’ve done for the body of Christ?
Liberty sets us free from the
inherent fear of God before we come to Christ. When we know the truth, the
truth will sets us free. The revelation of Jesus is God’s perfect love and
will cast out all fear. There is no condemnation or reason to fear since we
are ‘in Christ’. We are in Him and He is in us now and nothing can snatch
us out of His hand.
God is faithful and He will deliver us!
God's Word says, 'He who began a good work in you will be faithful unto the
day of Jesus Christ.' There will not be any excuses accepted by the One who
knows the thoughts and intents of the heart. This section deals with what
you are thinking and the motive for serving God. Are you ready to embrace
the truth? Let’s get to work!
Is the missing link ineffective
teaching? To be specific, is there a lack of understanding of the false
identity or carnal nature? Blaming the teachers cannot and will not help
anyone overcome the real culprit, the false identity. Therefore, let’s get
over the probability and believe God to keep us on the right path to healing
through forgiveness.
The costs of treating sin with a
psychological or therapeutic approach are too expensive when the price tag
is our freedom of choice. The alternative is to elect an approach that will
set the will free and assure spiritual growth. We have to make a decision.
We can submit to the vain philosophy of ‘sin’ being the problem, or take
God’s Word at face value. When we submit to God’s Word we must believe the
Old Man is dead on the Cross. We cannot change our history but we can
change our perspective of its memories and God is willing to heal us through
Jesus sufferings.
Trusting in God to bring us to the
end of our false identity is the issue that separates us from liberty. The
control we relinquish to the false identity is really the central issue in
all of this discussion. There is enough information about the Old Man and
our co-crucifixion with Christ in the sections to understand our personal
victory of being ‘in Christ’. The control of the unbeliever’s corrupt
nature is relinquished at the Cross. As a new creation, whom God
regenerates, we must learn to rely on Christ for our strength through faith.
The self-life of the false identity did not
stop when Jesus died on the Cross! The Old man was put to death which set
us free to obey God. However, the remnant of a corrupt nature is still
lurking in the dark recesses of our memories. Those memories are not who we
are. Memories are only what we remembered. They are not who we are as
children of God. We were once disobedient children. In Christ we are set
free to be obedient children. As the Holy Spirits begins to expose the
residual effects of the nature of the false identity, the healing of the
effects of those memories will begin. It does not matter what the problems
are, God will solve them too. For the first time in this life you will know
and understand the liberty and freedom we have in Christ.
Since God gave us freedom in Christ, we are
responsible if we choose to sin or not to sin. Whether you are a babe, or
one of the church fathers, regardless of your past sin, you need to learn to
recognize the flesh patterns and deceptive thoughts, if you are ever going
to live in victory. Upon detection and exposure of the lie, we can make a
decision to reject the irrational thought and be set free to
continue walking in the Spirit. We are free
from the power of sin and obey God since the carnal nature is dead.
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