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There has been some teaching on grace that fosters some misunderstanding. Some lead us to believe we only need to repent once at the time of the new birth. Others say we must repent daily because we don’t want to get caught with sin when we die. As usual the truth is always somewhere in the middle. So let’s go over the Scriptures and find the truth where we are no longer confused.
2 Corinthians 5:17 If any man be in Christ (born-again) he is a new creature: old things are passed away, all things are become new. The instant you accept Jesus as your Savior all of your sins are blotted out. You become a new creature, a person with no sin and no record of sin. Can a new creature sin? Yes, but you do not lose your salvation unless of course you commit the unpardonable sin. A born-again Christian is a new creature but they can still sin just out of habit. It takes one minute to become a Christian, it takes a life time to learn how to live like one. At the new birth you begin to learn how to get out of the flesh and into the spirit. The longer you stay with Christ the more like Him you act. If you don’t hang out with Him you continue to act like the old man you were saved from. Can a Christian sin? Yes, a Christian can do whatever he wants to. Our Bible talks about perfecting holiness, God gives us grace to help us break free of the old man of sin. The Jewish leaders were amazed at the boldness of Jesus’ ignorant disciples because they had been with Jesus. People who attend church and read their Bibles will manifest as the new creatures. By the way some folks live you would never know they are born-again believers. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. John wrote this Epistle to the Christians, not the unsaved people. When a Christian sins they do not lose their salvation, they lose intimacy with God. If we allow sin to permeate our new lives it will hinder the flow of the Holy Ghost from out of our lives. We must dedicate our lives to be a holy habitation for the presence of God. If you love the Lord and you want to have ongoing fellowship with Him, you will be eager to repent when you need to. Repentance for a Christian keeps them in a place where they are plugged into the power of God. Peter did a terrible thing, he denied Jesus three times but he did not lose his salvation, he lost his self respect. 2 Corinthians 6:16-17 What place has the temple of God with idols? You are the temple of the living God. I will dwell in you and be your God. Therefore come out from among them and be pure. God is merciful to those who are in the process of growing spiritually. He knows that we need time to become this new creature. God cannot speak “A” word and supernaturally change us, but He is committed to help us become a sanctified vessel. We cannot become like Him aside from His help, I guess you could say we are co-dependent. We cannot independently serve God until we first depend on His grace to enhance our progress. We are not self made men, we are living miracles of His grace and mercy. I personally repent all the time but I don’t sin all the time.. I just want to be a clean vessel God can use, dwell and flow out of. The early church repented once a year, we can repent every day if we need to.
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You may have never considered this before, but I must tell you that you came from Heaven! God is the Father of spirits. Heaven has an abundance of spirits waiting to become flesh and blood. The spirits in Heaven have no status, they are kind of like angels but they are not angels. They are in the bull pen of life waiting to be put in the game. Kenneth Copeland says they are begging to become human.
Hebrews 12:9 . . . shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? God is the Father of all spirits but not all spirits call Him Father, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. When a man and a woman conceive a child, the baby's heart begins to beat when it receives it's spirit. When the spirit leaves the body, the body will return to dust and the spirit will go to its father for all eternity. God is the Father of all spirits and He gives every spirit the option of who they will join themselves to. God puts a desire for Heaven in every person, I personally knew it all of my life. Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. When God puts a spirit in a baby, that spirit knows nothing, it must grow and learn everything that pertains to life. Jesus lived in Heaven with the Father but when He became a man He had to learn what He was doing here. There are two great events in every man's life, number one is being born and number two is knowing why. Every man ever born of a woman can find themselves in the Bible. Anybody can find themselves as a sinner but a wise man will find themselves as a new creature in Christ Jesus. The Bible deals with the past, the present, and the future. We can be whatsoever it says we want to be. Luke 4:20-21 Jesus read from the book of Isaiah and then He said: this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. Jesus did not know why He was born or for what cause. He would find the answers in the Scriptures. He spent nearly thirty years knowing who He was and what He was here for. He did nothing as the Son of God until He was anointed by the Holy Ghost and then it was game on. No one can become who God created them to be without the help of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul said he was what he was by the grace of God. 2 Corinthians 5:17 If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new. Take note of the word behold, it means to fix your attention on. We become new creatures at the new birth, but what do we know about this new creature? Many Christians live and die and know very little of who they were made to be by the grace of God. If you don't know who you are then you don't know who God is. How then can you have a productive relationship? The devil takes great pleasure in convincing people who they are not. So are you who God says you are or are you who the devil says you are? If you lack confidence and deal with depression you listen too much to the devil. If you have peace with God and have fulness of joy you are a son of God. Everyone begins as a baby and they begin to grow from that stage, some folks grow faster than others. Just like in the natural, some people never grow up. They just stay in the childish stage and contribute little to those around them. If we will grow up in Him, He will say: well done good and faithful servant. As born-again Christians we are called to warfare. Who are we fighting with? The Jews thought that the Romans were the ones that they were fighting with. But when Jesus began His earthly ministry, He made it clear that Israel was fighting the wrong foe. Israel thought Jesus would lead them against Rome and get them free once and for all. But according to Jewish history, Israel had all kinds of different enemies and they just kept coming year after year. Jesus came to defeat the one who kept sending those armies against Israel, and set His people free forever.
Hebrews 2:14 Jesus would give His life to destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. Israel knew about the devil because some of them were demon possessed, but they underestimated his influence on people and nations. Israel was in bondage to an invisible foe who hated them and their God. No matter how dedicated to the devil a man is, the devil will still hate him. Jesus defeated the devil and then He told the people what He did in order to set them free. He tried to tell them before hand but they could not hear Him because they were all spiritually dead. No man can comprehend the things of God until He is born-again. Then he is capable of receiving revelation from the Holy Ghost. Ephesians 6:12 We do not wrestle with flesh and blood but against the rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places. Why did the Holy Spirit give us this verse of Scripture? Because the devil engages us in warfare according to his rules, he is so cunning that he leads us to believe people are our problem. The devil crucified Jesus but he used men to undertake the role of executioner. Of course he failed and even worse than what he imaged, because Jesus forgave the men who did the devil's dirty work! If the men who tormented Jesus ended up in hell, it was not for killing Jesus, it was because they never asked Him to save them. The devil is a spirit without a body so he cannot personally operate in the world. The devil needs a body to occupy and control; he has a large variety to choose from. He uses the power of suggestive thoughts and false promises to maneuver his prey into position. Consider the leaders of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. Why are they so determined to take land that they have no right to? Because their supreme leader, the devil, has always wanted the kingdoms of man under his authority. The operations of the devil are very obvious to the born-again, Spirit-filled believer. His pawns have no clue nor any interest in what motivates them. Luke 22:3 Then satan entered into Judas, being one of the twelve. Judas was a close associate of Jesus, he was the treasurer of the Jesus Christ evangelistic association. The devil convinced Judas that he was doing the right thing in betraying his Master. Judas watched several times where the Jews tried to harm Jesus but He evaded them. Perhaps the devil convinced him that he could keep the thirty pieces of silver and Jesus would evade the mob. Judas did not know his enemy, he did not take into account that anything contrary to the Word(will) of God is of the devil. Forgiveness is the hallmark of Christianity. We have an understanding of the importance of forgiving those who wrong us. The Roman soldiers and the priests crucified Jesus for no legitimate reason, but He still forgave them.
Mark 11:26 If you do not forgive, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses. What will happen to us if we are not forgiven? Isn't forgiveness the prerequisite to becoming a Christian? I was a very accomplished sinner and after my conversion to Christ, my conscience hounded me for a couple of years. But when I forgave those who wronged me and forgave myself, my conscience no longer convicted me. Unforgiveness is a portal into our lives the devil uses to gain access. Repentance closes the door. One day Jesus spoke a parable to Peter. A man owed another man twenty million dollars and he couldn't pay his bill. The debtor begged for mercy and it was granted him. Then the forgiven man found a man that owed him twenty dollars and he would not in turn forgive that small debt. When the rich man found out what the forgiven man had done, he had him thrown in prison. (Mathew 18:21-35) Mathew 18: 34-35 The rich man turned the one who he had forgiven over to the tormentor, until he paid his debt. So likewise shall My Father do to you if you will not forgive your brothers. What does it mean to us to be turned over to the tormentor? A beautiful sweet lady at our church came to me years ago with a problem that had plagued her for years. She had been abused physically, mentally and sexually by her father and uncles. She was in tears as she told me that she could not forgive them no matter how hard she tried. I felt pity for her because her abuse was coming into her marriage and her husband couldn't understand. I read the chapter in Mathew's Gospel to her to help her understand her family didn't deserve to be forgiven but she must find a way. According to Jesus , the debt we owe Him for forgiving us is a twenty million dollar debt. As ugly and disgusting as it was, her family's debt to her amounted to twenty dollars. She began to understand she would not find justice, she would find peace despite what they had done to her. She needed to forget what they had done and focus on what Jesus did. I would like to tell you she got free, but they moved away so I don't know. What happens to a man that God will not forgive? 1Corinthians 11:31-32 If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. God judges us so that we should not be condemned with the world. The people in the world are under the influence of the devil, they are weak and sickly and many of them are dying prematurely. If we refuse to forgive, our Father won't forgive us and we will suffer the fate of the people in the world. God wants a better life for us than we want for ourselves! Most people who are forgiven don't even know about it, but the one who forgave knows because they maintain their peace with God. Most people who need to be forgiven don't deserve it but we cannot use that as an excuse. It is always far better to forgive than be turned over to the tormentor. The devil encourages unforgiveness because then he gets a free shot at us. That's why he's called a tormenting spirit. So, no matter who you must forgive, it's only a twenty dollar debt. Years and years ago I attended a ministers conference in another state and was gone for a week. When I came back I found that a clique of disgruntled church members tried to hold a coup. Seven people wanted my church but they didn't want me or my doctrines, which is the Word of Faith. As I sat in my chair praying, the Lord said this to me: If you let Me handle this I will separate these seven people and there will be no split. I quickly agreed and that night the ring leader called me and wanted to talk. He came to my house and told me they didn't agree with my teaching; they had a Baptist background. The seven left peaceably but then they started telling lies about me. I went back to the Lord to find out what I should do, He gave me a Scripture.
Mathew 5:44 I say to you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. I knew God was right as usual but my flesh was crying for vengeance. I knew a lot about their personal life and I wanted to stand before the people and expose all the silly things they did but the Lord said no. I submitted to the Lord and then I asked Him what He wanted me to pray for them. He said pray for whatever you would want people to give you, pray blessings over them. It felt weird at first but I knew I was doing what I was instructed to do. It became easy to pray for them because the Holy Spirit led me in those prayers. A year later we began to build this church and about two thirds into the project, we ran out of money for material. I prayed and asked the Lord what to do and He didn't tell me, but the next offering was so big it paid our bills and had enough to buy the material we needed. I thanked our Lord and then I asked Him why He did it that way, usually He would have me sow a seed into a pastor's building project. Here's what He told me: when you prayed for your enemies you prayed they would have building materials, they would not receive your prayers so I gave their blessings to you! Mathew 7:12 Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. When you pray blessings, those are things that you yourself would want and if your enemies refuse them they will come to you. This is a spiritual law established by the prophets. Take care now, if you pray a curse on your enemies, it could come back on you. Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth was not revenge, it was punishment for bad behavior. Jesus said the law was established by the prophet. Leviticus 19:18 You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. If you read the Ten Commandments and obey them, you will be demonstrating a love for people. If you love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself, you will have kept all the commandments. You cannot hate anyone you pray for because prayer is the release of love. Praying for your enemies is not a weakness, it takes a measure of strength and a considerate amount of faith. Bless your enemies. |
TEXT FOJCHURCH
TO 84576 OFFERING DECLARATION
Lord I desire wealth and I can be trusted with it. I will own the wealth, it will not own me. You own the keys to the bank and you will open it to us. The sinner cannot keep it, it belongs to the righteous. Wealth cannot control a giver. PRAYER FOCUS “Declarations Continued”
JOB 22:28 You will declare a thing, and it will be established for you Declarations over our children: I declare my child(ren) shall be taught of the Lord I declare great is the peace of my child(ren) I declare my child(ren) hear God’s voice and walk in truth I declare my child(ren) serve God all the days of their lives. Declarations over America: We declare that the power of Christ’s redemption is greater than the power of sin and death in America We declare that America will be saved We declare that truth will win in America. Lord send revival We declare that life and decency will prevail in the United States We declare that the Supreme Court will honor truth and justice, not their own ideals and desires Declarations over our church: We declare that FOJ will have a platform for the Holy Spirit to work from We declare we are making room for the gifts of the Spirit to flow We declare the spirit of boldness is replacing the spirit of fear We declare we are putting every distraction, anything that would entangle us and we run with endurance in our vision. We declare and believe revival is coming |
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