June 2016 – Recovery In Christ Ministries

June 8, 2016June 9, 2016

Grace Heals: The Law Kills

To many, life is pointless, and the God of the Bible is a cruel jokester. Why? There is so much sorrow, and pain in this world that we each have to endure. Sometimes it is deeply troubling, and very confusing.

Before He created us, Yahweh knew that we would have to suffer, and go through all the trials and tribulations of earthly life. God could have created the earth, and us, in a completely different way, which did not require that we endure all these painful experiences.

Since God could have done things differently, but He chose not to, and we know His loving nature, we can surmise that there is a purpose for the suffering, and, in the end, we will benefit from it.

When Yahweh came to the earth, in the form of a man, the man, Yeshua (Jesus), He suffered many things. The man, Jesus, learned obedience through the things that He suffered. (Hebrews 5:8)

God in Christ subjected Himself to the same sufferings that He subjected us to, so that He, in His human form could be perfected. If the God-man, Jesus needed to go through all these things in order to learn obedience (be perfected), then you and I must also.

The man, Jesus, is our big brother, and if we wish to be glorified with Him, and inherit all things with Him, we must also suffer with Him. (Romans 8:17)

So yes, there is a purpose behind our suffering, and God is not a cruel jokester. Yahweh is preparing us for the glory that awaits us, and for the day that we will inherit the whole universe. See, if God were to bless someone with vast riches, before they were able to handle those riches, His blessing would destroy them, and many others. God is using our suffering to change us, so that He can bless us with things that we can’t even imagine! (1 Corinthians 2:9)

The Law

Yahweh created us as free-will creatures. Free-will creatures have within themselves the propensity to rebel, and attempt self-rule. If this propensity did not exist within us, then we would not be free-will creatures. Lucifer is a free-will creature, whom Yahweh blessed with unimaginable blessings, and even though Yahweh gave him the ability to handle these blessings, he chose not to, and rebelled. Perhaps, this is why there is no remedy for Satan.

After Lucifer fell, and became Satan (The Adversary), Yahweh created man. Yahweh placed these new free-will beings in a garden of pleasures, where they had everything they needed to prosper. Yahweh walked and talked with these free-will beings, and they were happy, and complete. And then, the law came.

Yahweh laid down the law. Yahweh told them that they could not eat the fruit that was on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or they would die. The law squeezed Adam and Eve, and what was in them came out for all to see. The Serpent (the adversary) used the law to draw Eve into sin, and the law brought out Adam’s propensity for self-rule, and he freely chose to rebel against Yahweh.

Yahweh came looking for His rebellious, lost children, and extended grace unto them, by killing an innocent animal in their place, and using its fur to clothe them, so that they would not be ashamed to fellowship with Him.

Man was created a little lower than the angels. Yahweh did not create man with the same level of perfection, power, and blessings that the angels enjoyed. Apparently, Yahweh can’t restore the angels, who rebelled against Him, because they were perfect in wisdom and power, and therefore had the absolute ability to obey, but chose to defy Him. (Hebrews 2:7; Ezekiel 28:13-19; Jude 1:6)

Yahweh didn’t create us in perfection, so that when we rebelled there would be a path that we could choose that would lead to perfection. And this path to perfection comes with many trials, tribulations and sorrows, which refine us, and teach us obedience, so that we can stand in our perfection, and not fall as the angels fell.

As we imperfect free-will creatures walk the path back to God, and personal perfection as free-will creatures, our sufferings are fitting us for the glory that awaits us. Yahweh is perfecting us through these unpleasant experiences, in order to ensure that we will never rebel against Him, once we have reached our perfected state. This is the only way it could be done, and hold our free-will state in tact.

Grace

Grace is not only a “legal state” we enter into, in which Yahweh clears us of all wrong doing, and promises not to count our sins against us, it is also Yeshua’s active, personal participation, in our daily lives. (Colossians 2:14; Romans 4:7-8; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Hebrews 4:16)

Paul said that he could do all things through Christ, who strengthens him. (Philippians 4:13) Did Paul mean that he could apply nuclear physics to solve the problem of defining matter in the ancient world? No, Paul meant that Yeshua would give him the grace he needed to make it through the trials, tribulations and sufferings that he had to go through. In all these things, Paul said that he was happy to go through them, because, Yeshua’s grace was sufficient. (2 Cor 12:10)

Yeshua’s daily intervention in our lives, via grace, will heal our wounds, change us, grow us up, and empower us to go through the trials, tribulations, and sufferings that we must go through in order to be perfected. So why do most of us resist Yeshua’s grace?

Yeshua’s grace empowers us to live, change, and grow. Yeshua sends His grace to us each day so that we can have joy, peace, and growth. Yeshua’s grace is the only thing that can really and truly change you and cause you to leave destructive compulsions, obsessions, and addictions in the past, without going to endless meetings.

Yeshua’s daily grace is the most precious and costly gift that He can possibly give us. Sadly, most of us resist Yeshua’s grace, and do not embrace it, so we have to live the Christian life in our own power. This drains us, and leaves us defeated, weak and confused.

How do we resist the grace of God? Well, by acting on our religious training, and putting ourselves under the law for righteousness!

The Law Kills

Religion says that we have to do this, or that, in order to be right with God, and receive His blessings. Religion says that if we are struggling with a habitual sin, God is upset with us, and withholding His blessings from us, until we get right. Religious leaders try to cut us off from grace, so that we have to depend on them, and their institutions for growth, and blessings. This is dead wrong!

I remember when the light came on for me. I had just sinned a habitual sin that I was struggling with, and fighting against. Man, I was driving down the road feeling bad, I mean really, really bad. I was beating myself up. Asking myself how I could do such a thing again, and again, and again. It was horrible, and this was the 10,000th time I had suffered through these torturous feelings, and self-beatings.

I cried out to God, and asked Him why He wouldn’t help me change. Then, I heard a soft inner voice say, “I can’t help you, because you will not let me.” I asked God what He meant, and He said that I was putting myself under the law for righteousness, and cutting myself off from His grace. This hit me so hard that I thought I was going to have to pull over, and recompose myself on the side of the road.

Religion, and the law was cutting me off from Yeshua’s grace, and slowly killing me! The law provides a platform for the sin within us to stand upon, and it thereby stirs up the diseased emotions in us, which holds us in our sins. Grace connects us with the life of God, and stills our diseased emotions so that we can rise above them, and overcome our sins. Grace is the power to overcome sin!

What Paul said in Galatians 2:21 finally made sense to me. I was just like the foolish Galatians, who had let religion trick them into putting themselves under the law, even though Christ had freed them from it. The Galatians fell from grace, because they trusted religion and the law. Grace was’t helping them, and Jesus’ death for them was in vain. And I was in the same boat with them. Wow! Strong words.

Healed by Grace

When I realized what was going on, I changed my view on things. I then, fully embraced the Love of God. I realized that I needed grace everyday, in order to overcome sin. I realized that God loved me, and He wasn’t upset with me for struggling with sin. I realized that God wasn’t holding back on His blessings, until I overcame my sin. I realized that I didn’t have to do anything to be blessed.

God blessed me with everything He has to give me. God has wiped away my old sin record, and promised not to start a new one on me. Yeshua is praying for me everyday, and releasing God’s love unto me, in order to help me overcome sin, and live an abundant life. I now receive it, and refuse to let my attitude about sin block it.

I am being healed by grace, and I refuse to let anything block it again. Do I still sin? Of course I do! I, however, do not let the law condemn me, and I don’t beat myself up anymore. I know that Yeshua has made me righteous, so I now see myself as righteous, even if I sin.

It is your choice. You can let religion and the law cut you off from grace, and beat you up, and kill you. Or you can embrace grace.

Make no mistake. Grace heals: The law kills.

June 6, 2016

Supernatural Restraint

Religion will not teach us, who we are “In Christ“, so that we can walk in the Spirit, because, its leaders fear that they will loose control over us. See, when we learn, who we are in Christ, and walk in the Spirit, we will be free, but since religion derives its power from controlling, and exploiting us, they will not teach us the truth.

Sadly, religion performs its diabolical service, i.e., controlling, and exploiting its members, all in the name of God. Consequently, God’s name is held in derision by the unbelieving world. (Romans 2:24) Religion hurts God’s efforts to reach the unbelieving world, because the unbelievers recognize control and exploitation when they see it.

What is even sadder is that God’s people are so in love with Him, and so eager to please Him, that they are, by and large, blind to the fact that their religious institutions are controlling and exploiting them. God’s people mistakenly believe that God needs these corporate institutions to build Him a dwelling place on the earth, and spread His kingdom throughout it. God, however, doesn’t need them.

God told His people to go into the nations and make disciples, not to build large buildings, and require people to come to them, and pay for them. Believers go out into the world, and proclaim the gospel, and as a person believes the gospel, God comes to live in their body, and, by doing so, He enlarges His Body, and spreads His Kingdom.

The Body of Christ is not a physical body, in the form of some religious institution, no, the Body of Christ is a Spiritual organism. Likewise, God’s Kingdom is not a physical institution with tentacles that reach into politics, business, and entertainment, and slowly squeeze the players in these fields, until they submit to God. No, God’s Kingdom is within us, for it is a Spiritual Kingdom, which can only be entered by embracing God’s love, which is made known to us via the gospel. (1 Corinthians 12:13; Luke 17:21; 1 John 4:9-10)

The leaders of these religious institutions are not called to become rich, powerful, and influential, so they can, use their power, money or social influence to bring people to God. No, no one comes to Jesus, unless the Father draws him, through the Gospel. (John 6:44)

Now, am I saying that believers should not assemble together, at some location, in order to worship the Lord, encourage each other, and study the Scriptures? God forbid! The Scriptures are very clear: We should do these very things! (Hebrews 10:25; Ephesians 4:9-10)

We have gotten off track, however, and established cash-hungry religious institutions, which are run by “little caesars“, who like the Caesars of the old Roman Empire, believe that they are God-men, who demand absolute obedience, and can not be questioned. These God-men hear directly from God, and speak for Him, whereas his subjects do not. These priests stand between God, and His people, and give them their marching orders, which they dare not disobey.

This caesar mentality is not biblical, and in fact, it is antithetical to what the Bible teaches. The Bible clearly says we are all equal, i.e., we are all brothers. It says that the greatest among us, will be the one, who is the servant of all. It also says that those, who serve us, must not lord over us. (Matthew 23:8; Mark 10:42-45; 1 Peter 5:3)

Not only do these so called God-men priests stand in between us and God, and shut up the kingdom of heaven unto us, unless we obey them, as they steadily lord over us, and fleece us, they also attempt to bribe us into obeying God, and scare us into not disobeying Him. Usually, this entails obeying God so that He will bless us with wealth (most often by giving to the religious institution, or the caesar), and threats of sickness, poverty, death or Hell, if we dare disobey Him.

Does this sound a little familiar? It should! This is exactly what the Jewish religious leaders were doing to God’s people in Israel, when Jesus arrived. See, human nature has not changed since that time: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

In the Old Covenant, a person was saved by believing whatever God had said about the Promised Seed. After that, the law penalized disobedience, and rewarded obedience. So, the law determined the quality and length of your life, but it didn’t determine your salvation.

When a person was saved in the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit did not enter his body, and abide with him. The law is what attempted to keep the believer on the “straight and narrow”. When the believer failed, he offered the prescribed sacrifice in order to be restored.

The situation is different in the New Covenant. Now, when we believe what God has said about the Promised Seed (Jesus), the Holy Spirit comes to live in our body. The Holy Spirit gives us new desires, and restrains us from doing evil. The law’s threats of curses, and promises of blessings are no longer needed, neither are its sacrifices. Thankfully, there is no longer a need to meticulously keep the law.

Don’t misunderstand: The law is good and holy, but our flesh is not. The law stirred up the diseased emotions in our flesh, which strengthened sin’s control over us, and this drove us to the sacrifices, which symbolized Jesus. The law was our schoolmaster that led us to Jesus. (Romans 7:8, 12, 14; Galatians 3:24)

Jesus kept the law perfectly, and earned the blessings that the law offered, and put away the curses it prescribed for disobedience. And since Jesus is in us, and we are in Him, our salvation, and our blessings have been secured forever, by His perfect obedience!

It is finished! We are blessed with every blessing that God has to give us! We are forever saved! We are the righteousness of God! We are Holy! There is nothing more that we can do to be more saved or more blessed! God in Christ paid it all, and did it all! Glory!

Now, hold on, wait a minute. This kinda steals the thunder away from the little caesars, and their religious institutions doesn’t it? Exactly: That is why they will not teach this in its entirety. The whole truth removes their ability to control, and exploit their members.

Caesar is afraid that without his promises of blessings, and threats of curses, he will not be able to expand his kingdom, and we will not obey God. The caesar’s empty promises and vain threats, however, are no longer needed. We now have the loving embrace of the Holy Spirit, who will change our evil desires, and motivate us to do good works, which glorify God, not caesar. (Galatians 5:17)

So what shall we say? Since we are free from the law, and under grace, shall we sin so grace will abound? Since it is finished, and God is not going to take away our blessings, or our salvation, shall we just live the way we want to, and go on sinning? God forbid!

The choice is yours: You can listen to the promises and threats of caesar, hoping that they will restrain you from doing evil, or you can embrace God’s loving restraint within you, the Holy Spirit, your supernatural restraint.

June 2, 2016

Follow the unseen

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) Faith is the foundation that we stand upon, in order to receive that which God has promised, and it is the proof that we are seeking a reality, which we can’t see with our physical eyes, within our current temporal frame of reference.

Paul said that if we would walk in the Spirit, then we would not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16) Paul also said that it was the standard operating procedure for a Christian to walk by faith, and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

What Paul, and the writer of Hebrews, is telling us is that if we want to overcome our flesh, the devil, and the world, and receive what God has promised us, we must embrace the unseen reality that God says is real, based strictly on God’s promise that it is real, and live in that unseen reality, and let it guide us through this temporal realm.

God says that we can rise above the flesh, and live out our salvation, here on the earth, before we leave this corrupted flesh and enter into eternity in order to experience its fullness. (Philippians 2:12)

This is extremely important, because addiction occurs when we give ourselves completely over to the lust of our flesh. Our flesh craves comfort, and it is willing to sacrifice everything and everybody in our lives to get that comfort. Addicts are captives of their own flesh!

Consequently, the only real and lasting solution to addiction is to learn how to live and walk in the Spirit, and then live each day in the Spirit, so that the Spirit can direct each step in your earthly walk.

I know this seems like a nebulous statement, which is overwhelming. Just relax: Don’t worry, you will grow and learn how to live and walk in the Spirit, if you seek to live and walk in the Spirit. The more you study the Scriptures, and discover, who you really are, and exercise your spiritual senses to discern good and evil, the more proficient you will become at living and walking in the Spirit. (Hebrews 5:14)

Most people worry that they will mess up, and follow the flesh, while thinking they are following the Spirit. Let me assure you that you will, but that’s ok. Grace covers your sins and shortcomings. Just do the best you can, and exercise your spiritual senses. The results you get from your actions will let you know whether you are following the flesh, or the Spirit. Relax, God has you covered. (Romans 4:8)

Who are you?

It is imperative that we know, who we are, because knowing, who we are provides the framework that guides what we do. When I was an addict, I knew that I was an addict, so I did what addicts do. And for the most part, it didn’t bother me, because I was being who I was.

That all changed when I hit “rock-bottom”, and suddenly being an addict wasn’t fun, or comforting to my flesh anymore. It hadn’t been fun or comforting for a while, but rock bottom brought it to a head. I had to change in order to survive, and have any peace, or comfort.

What did I need to change? Did I simply need to put myself in a safe place where I couldn’t get drugs, until the chemical chains fell off my body? No, that was just the beginning. I had to become a new person with new desires. But how could I possibly become a new person?

Well, I stopped self-identifying as an addict, and self-identified as a born-again child of God. I embraced, with every fiber of my being, my new identity “in Christ”. That meant that I read the Scriptures, and chose to believe what God said I had become when His Spirit fused Himself with my spirit, which made me a totally new creature in Him.

Even though my physical eyes beheld the wreckage of my life, and “who” I had become, my spiritual eyes obtained momentary glimpses of who I really was in Christ, and the glorious future that He had planned for me. I felt a little psychotic, and people didn’t understand the goal that I was striving for, which was the high calling of God.

Accordingly, I could not afford to sit around in meetings and call myself an addict, and listen to people talk about drugs, and the carnage that comes with them. No, I had become a new person, so I had to forget those things that were in the past and press on towards the high calling of God in Christ. (Philippians 3:13-14)

The unseen reality

In my childhood, I suffered spiritual abuse, at the hand of institutionalized religion. The God they preached was angry with me, and the only way I could get on His good side was to “be good”, and do what He said to do. I thought that if I kept God’s laws, He would love me, and bless me. (This attitude is hard to shake, and it still rises up to torment me from time to time, and I have to cast it down.)

My spirit, the real me, lives in a corrupt flesh vessel (my body). My body was born into sin and corruption, so it has all kinds of diseased emotions, which move me towards sin, corruption, and death. The Bible calls these emotions, and the mindsets that correlate with them, “the flesh”. This is exactly what we need to overcome in the Spirit, so that we can live lives of peace, prosperity, and freedom.

Here’s the problem: God’s law actually strengthens the diseased emotions in our corrupt body, which increases sin’s control over our lives! (Romans 7:8) So, if we do not want sin to rule over us, we must not base our relationship with God on whether or not we keep His laws. (Romans 6:14) We must base our relationship with God on the grace that Jesus’ blood freely bestows upon us. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Yes, it is true. God loves and accepts us just the way we are, warts and all! (Romans 5:8) In Christ, you are holy, un-blamable, and un-reprovable. (Colossians 1:22) In Christ, you are the righteousness of God! (2 Corinthians 5:21) Jesus redeemed us for all eternity. (Hebrews 9:12) Jesus has given us eternal life. (John 6:47)

Even though we can’t see these things with our physical eyes, or feel like they are true, they are true! And if you will believe them, and live as though they are true, you will enter into God’s rest. (Hebrews 4:9-10) Not only will you rest in God, but this restfulness will defuse the diseased emotions that move you towards sin, so that you can overcome it. This is how you escape from the trap of addiction.

So, you can try to “be good” and earn God’s approval, and blessings by focusing on your sin problem, and fighting against it, or you can simply focus on, who you are, and what you have “in Christ”. If you choose to focus on your sin, and trying to defeat it, you will sink further into despair. If you choose, however, to focus on, who you are in Christ, you will reframe your life, and then, over a period of time, your behavior will conform to that new framework, and your desires will change. That is the solution. (What then? Shall we sin, so that grace should abound. No, God forbid. More on this in the next post)

So, here is the fundamental choice: Do we walk by sight, and follow what we see, or do we walk by faith, and follow the unseen?