Sin – Recovery In Christ Ministries

August 18, 2017

The Riches of God’s Grace

In the garden, Yahweh’s creatures followed in Satan’s footsteps, and rebelled against Him; they violated the law, and had to be punished. Yah’s righteousness demanded that He carry out the punishment, and the punishment was eternal death. Yahweh faced a “dilemma”. Yahweh is merciful, and so He wanted to pardon man, and not punish him, but He is also righteous, which meant that He had to punish man.

There was no answer to this horrible dilemma, which could be worked out exclusively in the material realm, but thankfully the Godhead had already implemented a solution before laying the foundations of the earth. The Godhead simply needed to bring that eternal solution into the material realm. So, Yeshua stepped out of eternity, into the material realm, and took the sins of man, and suffered his penalty for him. Yeshua, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, became sin, and shed His blood to pay for it! (Col 2:9; 2Cor 5:21)

Yahweh Himself, in the person of Yeshua, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, had paid the penalty for man’s sins, so now He could forgive us, and release us from condemnation, and punishment, i.e., He could now justify man, and declare him righteous. (Romans 3:24) Essentially, when Yeshua died on the tree, He was upholding the righteousness of the Godhead, so He could extend mercy to man.

The Godhead incurred the ultimate expense, as He stepped out of eternity, into time, to redeem us. Why did the Godhead do such a thing? Well, the Godhead loves us with a love that we can’t comprehend, and He demonstrated this love for us, while we were yet sinners, as He “fleshed out” His righteousness in the most horrendous way possible, so He could save us from His wrath.

Yah’s righteousness is an extremely costly, and an exceedingly precious attribute of His, and unimaginably, He offers it to us without cost. If we believe the gospel, Yah will give us the most expensive, and most precious gift in the universe, His righteousness! How insulting is it for us to reject this costly, and precious gift of righteousness, and try to add to it, or establish our own righteousness? It is supremely insulting.

Every “Christian” cult rejects Yahweh’s supreme gift, which comes by faith alone, and tries to offer Him their works in its place. They try to be right with Yahweh through their own sufferings, good works, and works of righteousness, and they have set aside His righteousness, which is what He has provided for us so that we can be right with Him. Woe unto them for they have gone the way of Cain! (Jude 1:11)

We approach Yahweh through His own righteousness, not our own righteousness, which is nothing more than filthy rags in His sight. When people reject Yahweh’s righteousness, which comes by faith alone, and offer Him their filthy rags instead, He rejects them, just as He rejected Cain. And they will suffer the same fate as Cain.

Yahweh provided His perfect righteousness for our covering, so we could approach Him in our times of need, and receive grace, without being afraid that He will reject us for being unworthy. We approach Yahweh in the worthiness of Christ Jesus, not in the filthy rags of our own worthiness, which we have supposedly earned through our good conduct, and our religious deeds, and financial offerings.

I hate to admit it, but even though I have been clothed in Yahweh’s extremely costly, and exceedingly precious righteousness, I still sometimes put on my filthy rags, and think that I can approach Him. And it always ends the same way. Like Adam, I end up running from Yahweh, when I sin, because my filthy rags do not cover my shame.

At that point, I have no choice, but to remove my filthy rags.

Am I the only one, who periodically puts on the filthy rags of religion, and has to be shocked back into reality by my own sin, and shame?

Am I the only one, who struggles in his own poverty to understand the riches of God’s grace?

I hope not.

May we all come to know the love of God that surpasses understanding, and experience the riches of God’s grace.

August 21, 2016

Schizophrenic Christians

Broadly speaking, church people fall into three different categories. The first category is the disassociated multiple personality category. The second category is the schizophrenic category. And the third category is the fully integrated new identity category.

The people in the first category simply “play” church. These people have not surrendered their lives to Yeshua (Jesus), and agreed to die with Him, so they can be resurrected as a new creature “In Him“. Sadly, these people hold on to their lives and goals, and stubbornly refuse to yield to the calls of the Holy Spirit to surrender and die.

The people in this first category are not playing the church game to lose, no they are playing the church game to win! These people come to church to win the approval of other people in their community, and, at the same time, earn some brownie points with Yahweh (God). For them, church is all about what Yah can do for them, and not what they can do for Him. These people seek recovery, health and wealth.

When these people are around “church people“, they become a “church person“, but when they are around “worldly people“, they become a “worldly person“. They have multiple personalities.

The second category

The people in the second category have surrendered their lives to Yeshua, and agreed to die with Him, so they can be resurrected as a new creature “in Him“. These people turn away from their old lives and goals, and seek to live His life, and accomplish His goals. These people meet with other believers and serve them, and give to meet their needs. These people come to church to lose, they come to die.

Nevertheless, the people in this second category are Schizophrenic. The word, “schizophrenia” translates roughly as a splitting of the mind. Technically, however, it is not the same as having multiple personalities, it is more like not having a fully integrated mind that functions seamlessly. Schizophrenia is characterized by strong, coexisting unreconciled, inconsistent or contradictory cognitive elements. These deep cognitive conflicts, which are very troubling, can cause the mind to construct clever coping mechanisms to minimize the pain: And this is very detrimental to the person.

The coping mechanisms that the mind builds, when it is under a great deal of internally generated stress, fly under the radar of consciousness. The mind builds them, and the person is not aware of them, i.e., they are built on a subconscious level. Consequently, the symptoms that the coping mechanisms produce, which rise to the conscious level, such as, fear, confusion, anxiety, depression, (or in extreme cases), hearing voices, or seeing things, seem inexplicable.

Moreover, and perhaps more troubling, is that these deep internal cognitive schisms, and the coping mechanisms that they produce, can also create desires for people, things and activities, and lead to strong sin patterns, which are extremely hard to break free from.

Deep internal cognitive schisms

What on earth could cause such a deep internal cognitive schism, which, if left unresolved could build these destructive subconscious coping mechanisms and create all this havoc in our lives?

Well, when a person loves Yeshua with all of his or her heart, and seeks, daily, to die with Him, so that they can live a resurrected life “in Him” and accomplish His goals, here on the earth, there is nothing more troubling, painful, and perplexing than sin.

I mean, everything was great for a week or two, you were walking hand-in-hand with the Creator of the universe, through the blood of the Messiah, walking out the Word, as the Holy Spirit directed you. You sensed the reality of being one with Yahweh, seated at His right hand, in the heavenly realm, far above all powers and principalities. You were almost in a state of spiritual ecstasy, thinking that, at perhaps any moment, Yah would rapture you away as He did Enoch!

Then, it happened. Just like it had a thousand times before. A desire arose from within, and rather than capturing the thoughts that it produced, and forcing them to bow to Christ in you, you granted the thoughts entry into your mental sphere, and foolishly entertained the possibility of enjoying the “reward” that they offered, and slowly nursed it with your attention, and allowed it to overpower you!

The next thing you know, you are indulging in sin. You are enjoying the reward that you get from gossip, greed, ego, division, lust, anger, gluttony, or whatever it is that you struggle with. And just like that, you fall from heaven, and land squarely in a miry pit. In a blink of an eye, your beautiful heavenly white robe is soiled with blood and filth.

Now you have to suffer a beat-down by your conscience, and the Devil piles on and reminds you of how many times you have failed. Then, after you have been punished enough, and a few days have past, you find the courage to approach Yah, and beg for forgiveness. Then, after you successfully avoid all sin for a few days, you feel like everything is ok between you and God. Then, you slowly resume your ministry work, but you are not quite as bold as you need to be. Then, after a few weeks you are flying with the Holy angels again!

This is an exhaustive cycle to be stuck in, and every time you go through it, you lose a little zeal for life and the ministry. And, in this cycle, you run the risk of developing depression, anxiety and other side effects that steal your joy, and bring death into your life.

It doesn’t take but a moment to go from flying with the Holy angels of God, to wallowing in the miry pit with the rest of the human pigs. And if you do not have the cognitive tools to reconcile these two different realities that we fluctuate between, you will find yourself in the second category with the rest of the schizophrenic christians.

Take it from me, I have spent most of my life in this spiritual desert, and it is no where to be, it will drain you, distract you, and discourage you. But praise Yah, I have crossed over! I have left the desert, and entered into the Promise Land to find rest! And you can too!

The third category

The third category of church people are the fully integrated new identity folks. These people have crossed over from the spiritual desert into the promise land to obtain rest.

How do you cross over? Well, In Hebrews 4, the Scriptures tell us that the children of Israel did not cross over because of unbelief. They were in the church of Moses, and were baptized in the Red Sea, and Christ was with them supplying all of their needs, but they didn’t cross over because they didn’t believe what He said about them.

The Lord told these people that they could cross over and defeat the giants, but they looked at themselves, in the flesh, and said that they were grasshoppers compared to the giants. These people looked at, who they were in the flesh, and let that outweigh, who God said they were “in Him” (that is, who they were through His empowerment).

In 1st Corinthians 10, the Lord tells us that these events were recorded in the Scriptures so that we could learn from them.

The lesson to learn

Here is the lesson that we need to learn from the Scriptures. When we sin, we can see ourselves in the flesh, and see a disgusting human pig wallowing in the mire of life, or we can see ourselves through Yahweh’s eyes, and see someone, who is holy and righteous.

Here is the deal. As long as we are in the flesh, we will sin.

Nevertheless, Yah says that He is not counting our sins against us. (Romans 4:8) Yah says that where our sins abound, His grace does super abound!(Romans 5:20) Yah says that Yeshua became sin so we could become the righteousness of God “In Him“. (2 Corinthians 5:21) Yah says that when we believe, He seals us with His Spirit and takes eternal possession of us! (Ephesians 1:13-14) Yah says that Yeshua obtained eternal redemption for us! (Hebrews 9:12)

Yahweh says that He loved us when we were yet sinners, and He sent Yeshua to die for us. (Romans 5:8) Yahweh also says that if an ungodly person will believe on Him, He will count their belief as righteousness. (Romans 4:5) How much more does Yahweh love us now that we are His children, and not ungodly sinners?

We must believe the Scriptures in order to reconcile our two conflicting realities, and enter the promise land to obtain rest.

According to the Scriptures, our legal status doesn’t change when we sin. Sin doesn’t change our relationship to Yahweh. Yahweh sees us through the mercy seat, and the mercy seat is covered in the blood of Yeshua. Yeshua’s blood takes away all of our sins, continually. Yeshua is praying for us, continually.

When Yahweh looks at you, He sees someone, who is righteous and holy. And that will never change, no matter how much you sin.

My friend, Yeshua’s blood is far greater than your sin!

So, when you sin, confess your sin to get it off your conscience, and understand that God still sees you as righteous and holy. And do not allow your conscience, or the Devil to beat you up.

What then? Shall we continue in sin, so that grace will abound in order to swallow up our sin? God forbid! Sin has earthly consequences that are very unpleasant, and very destructive.

This is a hard lesson to learn, and accept. It seems counterintuitive, but adopting this attitude towards yourself and sin, actually frees you from sin by opening a channel for grace to flow into your life.

As always, it is your choice: You can believe the Scriptures, and enter the promise land to obtain rest, or you can stumble around in the desert for the rest of your life with the schizophrenic christians.

October 2, 2015

Walking in the Spirit

In the last post, we learned that life is a test. The Primary test is whether or not we will submit to Yahweh (God), and crown Him as Lord , by crowning Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) as Lord of our life.

The most important thing that we can possibly do in life, is pass the Primary test. Passing the Primary test imparts life, and life eternal to us. The most tragic thing that can possibly happen to us, is for us to live our life for ourselves, and fail the Primary test. Failing the Primary test ensures that we remain dead, dead eternally.

It doesn’t make sense, to the natural mind, how we can live, and yet be dead, but nevertheless, this is the case when we fail the Primary test. Have you ever heard someone speak, and yet didn’t hear what they said? Have you ever looked at something without really seeing it? Sure you have. In the same way, you can live, without truly living.

Everyone of us is born, dead, dead in trespasses and sins, not our trespasses and sins, but Adam’s. We are all separated from God. We are all born onto the Serpent’s (the Devil’s) slave market, and he owns us. Hence, in our natural state, we serve Satan, and sin.

As we live in the world, in a body of flesh and blood, Satan shapes us. Satan equips us to do his bidding, and oppose Yahweh and His Kingdom. Satan uses the things of the world to satisfy the desires of our flesh, the desires of our eyes, and the pride of life. (1John 2:16)

As we walk (live) in the world, in a body of flesh and blood (in the flesh) satisfying the desires of the flesh, eyes and ego, we program (or train) our flesh, eyes, and ego. This programming is cognitive (in the mind), neurological (in the brain), and biological (in the body). Once we train ourselves, we operate on autopilot, and we are wide-open to the suggestions of our master, and we do his bidding.

In a sense, we are zombies. We are alive cognitively, neurologically, and biologically, but we are dead to God, and His insight and leading. We are without God, and without hope in the world. A sad state.

Once we pass the Primary test, this all changes. God unites Himself with our human spirit, and becomes one with our human spirit. Since, God is love, light, and life, we begin to live and embrace the light, and love one another. We are now truly alive forever.

Now we enter into the Secondary test.

The Secondary Test

The blood of Messiah has paid our sin debt, and ransomed us off of the Serpent’s slave market, and His Spirit has made us alive forever! The issue of Heaven and Hell is settled. We can rest assured that God is with us, and He will never leave or forsake us! (Hebrews 13:5)

Now we begin the Secondary test. This is a test to see how aggressively we will live out God’s purpose for our life. What purpose? Well, God has assigned each of us a task in His Kingdom, and foreordained some good works for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10) God tells us to take off the old man, and put on the new man, who He created in His own image, and likeness, in Christ Jesus. (Col 3:10)

So, the Secondary test is to live out God’s purpose for our lives, and conform ourselves to the image of Christ Jesus. There are rewards for passing this test, which are proportional to our performance. Our performance on this test determines our eternal rewards, and the degree to which we enjoy our salvation, here in this world.

It is very important to always keep in mind that we are striving to fulfill our purpose, and do good works, and conform to Yeshua’s image, in order to enjoy our salvation, and earn eternal rewards, not to earn our salvation, or even keep it. Salvation is a free gift that Yahweh gives us, and He will never take it back. (Rom 5:15, 11:29)

This may seem like a trivial point, but it is not. It is easy to forget that we are doing good works because of who we are, and not to become, who we are. That is, we do good works because God has saved us, not to get Him to save us or let us keep our salvation.

Some people conflate the concepts of salvation, and sanctification, and the Scriptures that describes these two distinct concepts. As they do, they confuse themselves, and then confuse others. These people teach others that “eternal life” is not eternal, and that if we do not measure up to God’s expectations, He will reject us.

This is the same error the Jews made in the “Old Testament”. Yahweh cut an unconditional unilateral covenant with Abraham, which was the covenant of redemption. The covenant of redemption was based on faith, and it brought salvation. Later, Yahweh cut a covenant through Moses, which was the covenant of sanctification. The covenant of sanctification was a conditional, bilateral covenant that related to blessings, and the enjoyment of salvation.

An “old testament” person was saved by believing Yahweh’s promises, and that person enjoyed the blessings of his salvation by doing good works, and conforming to Yahweh’s image (keeping the law). In time, however, the Jews conflated theses two covenants, and began to teach that salvation came through good works. This is what Yeshua came to demolish, He did not come to demolish the law.

The flesh loves to feel like it has earned salvation or somehow merits it (deserves to keep it). There is no greater boost to the ego! This is a constant danger that we must be on guard against, because it will steal your peace, energize the flesh, and destroy your witness.

In the next post, we will talk about how to score high on the Secondary test. That is, we will talk about how to keep the flesh under control, so we can enjoy our salvation, and accumulate eternal rewards. So, in the next post, we will talk about walking in the Spirit.