2020
Redemption
I’m going to begin this by dropping a bomb: Sin is no longer an issue with God; we are redeemed! With that statement, you are either rejoicing, shocked, or confused. That is one radical statement, but one I believe I can back up by the Word of God.
The message most people hear says that sin breaks your relationship or fellowship with God. The strictest message says that you lose your salvation (“backslide”) every time you sin, until it’s confessed. Others believe your eternal salvation is still secure, but you lose fellowship, can’t get your prayers answered, or can’t be used of God if you sin. That’s not good news, since all of us sin (Rom. 3:23 and 1 John 1:8).
Christians usually cope by trying to keep every sin confessed. Let me just put this bluntly: That’s impossible! The Bible says that whatever is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14:23). Do we always walk in faith? James 4:17 reveals that sin isn’t only doing things that are wrong, but it’s not doing what we know is right. Would any claim they are loving God and others as they know they should?
By these definitions, we all sin through the weakness of our flesh. It’s impossible to keep every sin confessed. Even if it were possible, that puts the burden of salvation on our backs. There wouldn’t be any peace or rest in our relationship with the Lord if that’s the way it worked (Rom. 5:1).
Most people, including Christians, see the forgiveness of sins as something that God can do, and continues to do, but not as something He has completed. From that comes the false concept that we must constantly confess our sins, which makes and keeps us sin conscious.
The New Testament presents the forgiveness of sins as something that is already accomplished and that the effect of this redemption is that we are not even to be conscious of sin (Heb. 10:1-2).
Ask yourself, what produced the forgiveness of sins and when did that happen? Jesus was the Lamb of God that took away the sins of the world (John 1:29). It was through the shedding of Jesus’ blood that you received redemption, which is the forgiveness of your sins (Eph. 1:7 and Col. 1:14).`
When did Jesus die and shed His blood for our sins? About 2,000 years ago. He will never die again (Rom. 6:9-10). He dealt with the sins of the whole human race once, for all time (Heb. 9:25-28 and 10:10-14). Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins is already an accomplished work.
We don’t have to ask Jesus to forgive our sins; He’s already done it. Paul didn’t tell the Philippian jailor to ask Jesus to forgive him; Paul told him to believe on what Jesus had already done and he would be saved (Acts 16:31). We confess the Lord Jesus, not our sins, to receive this gift of salvation (Rom. 10:9).
Does that mean everyone in the whole world is saved? Certainly not. We have to receive forgiveness by faith (Acts 26:18). The Lord has already forgiven everyone’s sins (1 John 2:2). That’s grace. But we have to put faith in what God has already accomplished by grace to be saved (Eph. 2:8).
Therefore, it’s not a person’s many sins that sends them to hell; sin has already been paid for and forgiven. It’s the singular sin of not believing on Jesus that sends a person to hell. It’s their failure to accept what Jesus did for them that puts them into that place of eternal torment.
John 16:8-9 says,
“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me.”
The singular sin the Holy Spirit reproves us of is the sin of not believing on Jesus. That’s it. That’s not to say that the Holy Spirit will not show us that things we do are wrong. But He uses them to illustrate that we don’t believe on Jesus. The Holy Spirit isn’t nailing us every time we sin; He loves us back into faith and trust in Jesus. That’s the whole issue with God.
What difference does it make in our lives if we accept forgiveness as something that has already been accomplished or not? There is a huge difference! It gives us security and peace, knowing that God isn’t mad at us and won’t be mad at us. Our sins are already forgiven—and not just the past sins we committed before we were born again. All of our sins—past, present, and even future ones—are already forgiven.
Someone will say, “How can God forgive our sins before we commit them?” Well, you better pray that He can do that, because Jesus only died for our sins once; 2,000 years ago; before you committed any sin. If He can’t forgive sins before you commit them, then you can’t be saved.
It says in Hebrews 10:10-12 and 14,
“By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (emphasis mine).
We have received eternal, not momentary, redemption (Heb. 9:12). One sacrifice was made for all sin forever, and we have been perfected forever. How can we read these scriptures and come to any other conclusion than that every sin—past, present, and future—was forgiven and our redemption is eternal?
If you have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus for your sins by faith, then your spirit is perfect (Heb. 12:23)! Your spirit has been born again. A million years from now, your spirit will be identical to what it is right now, and it is identical to Jesus (1 Cor. 6:17 and 1 John 4:17). One-third of your redemption is complete.
So, am I making light of sin or saying sin doesn’t matter? No! Sin is a terrible thing, and it’s an inroad for Satan into your life (Rom. 6:16). I hate sin! I live a holier life than most of you reading this. I just value the blood and the atonement of Jesus above sin. His sacrifice was infinitely greater than all the past, present, and future transgressions of the entire human race. Jesus overpaid the debt we owed.
You might say, “What about 1 John 1:9?”
I’m glad you brought that up.
First John 1:9 says,
“If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (brackets mine).
We don’t have to confess sin in order to be saved, to retain, or to maintain our salvation. If I believed that was so, I would kill every person who came forward for salvation. I might go to hell, but that’s the only way they would ever get to heaven. We need to confess it, not for the purpose of becoming born again, but because our flesh gets defiled. That gives Satan a legal right to function in our flesh (Rom. 6:16).
Confessing we have sinned means we are coming back into agreement with God and out of agreement with the devil. That stops Satan from dominating us through that sin and draws the forgiveness and purity, which is already in our born-again spirits, out into our flesh.
Our born-again spirits are already eternally redeemed (Heb. 9:12). The other two-thirds, your soul and body, have also been purchased by His blood, but their redemption has not yet taken place. However, God has made provision for this as well.
Romans 8:23 reads,
“And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”
Ephesians 1:14 says,
“Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”
When redemption is complete in spirit, soul, and body, we will know Him as we are known (1 Cor. 13:12). But until then, we can experience a renewed mind through His Word. And although we are waiting for the redemption of our bodies, we can receive healing while we live in our mortal bodies. God has made provision for both the soul and the body even though their redemption has not yet been made manifest.
Unfortunately, most Christians are not taking advantage of these provisions. They have not renewed their minds, and they still don’t understand that we are also redeemed from the curse of the Law (Gal. 3:13). The average New Testament believer is still trying to get God to respond to them based on their performance. Why? Because they don’t know that the performance covenant of the Old Testament Law is over. We are now under the New Testament ministry of grace and faith (2 Cor. 3:7-8).
The Law was given to convict people of their self-righteousness so they could see their need for a savior. Praise God, we are now no longer under the Law. First Timothy 1:9 says that the Law is not made for a righteous man. And who is righteous? Any person who is born again (2 Cor. 5:21).
Hebrews 7:12 and 18 says,
“For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.”
What a radical statement! A disannulling! The word disannulling literally means cancellation, to make null and void. The Old Testament Law has been nullified, canceled, done away with. The Law was weak and unprofitable. It was only a stop-gap measure until Jesus (Gal. 3:23-25).
Ephesians 1:3-5 says,
“[He] hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings…hath chosen us…Having predestined us unto the adoption of children” (brackets and emphasis mine).
In the Greek, “hath” is an aortas tense, which means it is a done deal—it’s an accomplished fact. So how blessed is all spiritual blessings? Verse 6 says that we have been accepted in the beloved. Really, that is a super understatement. The Greek word that is used for “accepted” is only used twice in the New Testament. The other place is in Luke 1 where the the Angel Gabriel appeared unto Mary.
Gabriel said, “Hail thou that are highly favoured, the Lord is with thee” (verse 28).
The Greek word for “highly favoured” is the only other time that this word was used. When it says that we are accepted in the beloved, it is saying He has made us highly favored. Mary hasn’t got anything on a born-again believer. Every one of us is accepted, chosen, and highly favored. It’s all part of redemption.
Understanding redemption, the complete forgiveness of your sins, is foundational to understanding the New Covenant and how God deals with you today. If you’re born again and still asking questions like these: “Can I lose my salvation?” “If I die with unconfessed sin, will I go to heaven?” or “Does God answer the prayers of someone who still sins?” then you do not understand redemption.
Redemption is very practical, and your understanding of it will determine what you are able to receive from God, not just in eternity, but here and now.
Thank You, Jesus.
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2020
A Better Way To Pray
” The things the Lord has revealed to me about prayer since then have totally changed my life, and I’m now seeing miraculous results.”
Andrew Wommack
Decades ago, I was participating in an all-night prayer meeting bombarding the gates of heaven. I remember beating the wall and yelling, “God, if You loved the people in Arlington, Texas, half as much as I do, we’d have revival!” Immediately, my lightning-fast mind realized that something was seriously wrong with my theology. What was I thinking?
Did I really believe I loved these people more than God did? No, not exactly. Like many Christians, I believed God was angry with the human condition, and it was up to me to turn Him from wrath and judgment. I was interceding, or so I thought, pleading with God on the behalf of others. What could possibly be wrong with that? As I learned later, a lot.
The things the Lord has revealed to me about prayer since then have totally changed my life, and I’m now seeing miraculous results. If you aren’t getting the results you know the Lord wants you to have, maybe it’s time to consider a better way to pray. I’m not saying that anyone who doesn’t pray as I do is “of the devil.” I wasn’t “of the devil” in the way I used to pray. I loved God with all my heart, and the Lord loved me. But the results weren’t there.
First, we need to recognize that God isn’t angry at mankind anymore. He is no longer imputing or holding our sins against us.
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:19
We are NOW reconciled to God through Jesus. That means we are in harmony and are friendly with God right now. He isn’t mad; He’s not even in a bad mood. The war between God and man is over. That’s what the angels proclaimed at the birth of Jesus.
Luke 2:14 says—
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
These angels weren’t saying that peace would reign on earth and that wars between people would cease. That certainly hasn’t happened. They were proclaiming the end of war between God and man. Jesus paid a price that was infinitely greater than the sins of the whole human race.
God’s wrath and justice have been satisfied. Jesus changed everything. God isn’t angry. His mercy extends to all people. He loves the world— not just the church— but the whole world. He paid for all sin.
The Scripture says in 1 John 2:2—
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
In the Old Testament, God’s judgment was poured out on both individuals and nations. In the New Testament, God’s judgment was poured out on Jesus. That is the nearly-too-good-to-be-true news of the Gospel. We no longer get what we deserve; we get what Jesus paid the price for, if we will only believe.
Before I understood this, I would say, “If God doesn’t judge America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” Now I say, “If God judges America, He will have to apologize to Jesus.” Understanding what Jesus did completely changes our perspective.
Second, Jesus is now the Mediator. A mediator is one who seeks to reconcile, or make peace between, two opposing parties. In the Old Testament, man had not yet been reconciled to God through Jesus. The people needed a mediator, someone to intercede with God on their behalf. That is where we find people like Abraham and Moses pleading with God.
In Genesis 18:23-25, Abraham interceded with God on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah:
Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? [24] Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? [25] That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
In fact, Abraham actually negotiated with God until He agreed not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of ten righteous people. But there weren’t ten righteous people in the whole city, and only some of Lot’s family survived. A similar account is recorded in Exodus 32:9-12 and 14. Here God was furious with the people, and Moses interceded for them:
The Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: [10] Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. [11] And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? [12] Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. [14] And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
Moses actually told God, “Repent!” What nerve! What’s more amazing is that God repented. From these and other stories in the Old Testament, modern-day “intercessors” believe we, too, must stand in the gap, or mediate, between God and man. Just as I did decades ago, they believe we must plead with God to save the lost, to withhold His wrath from those He is ready to judge, and to be merciful to those whose needs He is unwilling to meet because of their unworthiness.
That couldn’t be further from the truth , but it is what’s being taught in many churches today. It ignores the fact that Jesus is now seated at the right hand of the Father (Heb. 10:12), ever making intercession for us (Heb. 7:25). If Moses or Abraham could persuade God, don’t you think Jesus could do at least as well?
In 1 Timothy 2:5, we read—
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
In the New Covenant, Jesus is the ONLY mediator needed to stand between God the Father and mankind. Sin is no longer a problem with God; it’s been atoned for, and we are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. That is how God sees us. If we understand that, it will change the way we pray.
It was appropriate for Abraham and Moses to pray as they did because God’s wrath had not yet been appeased through Jesus. Today, under the New Covenant, if people try to mediate in that way, they are actually antichrist—against Christ. They are saying that Jesus was not enough and are not esteeming what Christ has done. When Jesus became our Mediator, He put all other mediators out of business—forever. I know these words are strong, but they are the truth.
Satan is behind much of the wrong teaching on “prayer.” Consider how crafty his plan is and the fruit it produces. He has convinced believers to stay in their closets, taking the place of Jesus in intercession. They spend hours pleading with God to turn from His wrath, to pour out His Spirit, and to meet the needs of the people.
Meanwhile, families, coworkers, and neighbors are going to hell and dying from disease. The Bible doesn’t say that salvation comes through intercession but by the foolishness of preaching (1 Cor. 1:21). And we are not told to pray for the sick but to heal the sick (Matt. 10:8) by commanding healing into their broken bodies.
We have been deceived into believing prayer is all about persuading God to release His power. We believe that He can save, heal, and deliver but that He is waiting on us to shape up and earn it. The truth is, we don’t deserve it, and we will never be good enough. Because of Jesus, all that God has is ours. That’s good news. We no longer need to beg or plead; we need to exercise the authority He has given us and receive His blessings.
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2019
It Begins with a Sure Foundation
It Begins with a Sure Foundation
A true revelation of God’s Word is the single most important element of a victorious Christian life.
The Word of God often refers to itself as a seed.
There are a total of forty-four verses in the New Testament where the Greek word sperma was translated “seed.” This is the same word from which we derive our English word “sperm.”
To conceive and give birth, whether it’s for a miracle you need in your body or for the vision God has given you, you must first plant God’s Word like a seed in your heart.
Conception, which eventually produces the fruit, cannot take place without first planting a seed.
I constantly meet Christians who pray and believe for God’s intervention in their lives, but remain frustrated with their results. Why? Because they have never conceived their miracles by planting the seed of God’s Word in their hearts. That’s like a woman who prays to get pregnant and then is confused when it doesn’t come to pass even though she has never had a relationship with a man. The seed has to be planted for conception to take place.
In Mark 4, the Lord taught three parables that illustrate that the Word is to the kingdom of God what a natural seed is to a harvest. The first of these parables, the story of the sower, is the key to unlocking all the others (Mark 4:13). If we don’t understand these truths, Jesus said, we won’t understand any of His other parables.
There are many life-changing truths in these parables, but one fact must be understood to get the full benefit of this teaching: The Lord used the comparison of His Word to a law of nature, which is unchangeable, not an institution of man.
Here’s what I mean: Nearly all systems that people have created can be cheated or manipulated. The legal system can be beaten, letting the guilty go free. The educational system can be beaten, passing students who haven’t really learned the material. But the process of seedtime and harvest can’t be changed.
What if a farmer waited until he saw his neighbours reaping their crops before he sowed his seed? Regardless of how sincere he was or the justification for not sowing his seed at the proper time, he would not reap a crop overnight. The law of seedtime and harvest cannot be violated.
This is why our Lord chose to compare the way His Word works to a seed. The germination process of the Word of God in your life takes time and can’t be avoided.
In the second parable of Mark 4, Jesus said,
“So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come” (Mark 4:26-29).
The seed is the Word of God (Mark 4:14), and the ground is our hearts (Mark 4:15). Our hearts were created by God to bring forth fruit when His Word is planted in them. Just as a seed has to remain in the ground over time to germinate, so the Word of God has to abide in us.
Jesus said in John 15:7,
“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
What would happen if you planted a seed in your garden and then dug it up each morning to see if anything was happening? It would die and never produce fruit. You have to have faith that the seed is doing what God created it to do.
Some people put God’s Word in their hearts for a day or two, but if they don’t see fruit almost immediately, they dig up the seed through their words and actionsand wonder why it didn’t work. It must be left in the ground over time. Then, there are also different stages of growth.
Mark 4:28 says,
“First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.”
Many people are impatient, wanting to bypass the growth cycle and get the full ear right now. I’ve actually had to tell people what they were believing God for was not going to happen, not because the vision wasn’t good, but because they were expecting a complete ear of corn immediately.
For example, a Charis Bible College student came to me who had never held a job, had been in a mental hospital, and had lived on welfare his whole life. When he heard the teaching on prosperity and vision, he started dreaming big. He had a plan to buy and renovate an old hotel. The total cost would be over 4 million dollars.
It really was a grand plan. I complimented him for the fact that he was dreaming and told him to keep dreaming big. Then I told him that it might work for someone but that it wouldn’t work for him. Why? Because this person had never believed God for a dime before. There has to be “first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.”
You may think that was too harsh, but it was the truth. It’s possible that he could have won the lottery or the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes. It’s possible, but that wouldn’t have been God. God’s kingdom operates on laws, like the laws that govern the fruit-bearing process of a seed. God will not give you the full ear of corn if you haven’t seen the first blade. That’s the way God’s kingdom works.
This is precisely the reason most people don’t see God’s best come to pass in their lives. They have lottery faith. They think that since God loves them, He will just grant their request regardless of whether they put the miracle of the seed to work or not.
Jamie and I are great examples of that. When I was a young man and a novice in the ministry, I hated receiving offerings. I was hoping that someway, God would just give me a bunch of money, and I could minister without ever receiving an offering. Well, that is not the way God works.
God ordained that those who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:14). Even ministers must live from the fruit of what they sow. Over many years, as I taught the Word of God to hundreds and thousands of people, the seeds of those words took root. The fruit of God’s Word and our efforts came in the form of changed lives and a desire in the hearts of those who had experienced this change to help others.
Then, when I finally understood how seedtime and harvest worked, I shared with them what God was doing through our ministry and gave them an opportunity to give. They responded and we were able to reach more and more people with the good news. Through their gifts, not only were they touching the lives of others, but also at the same time, they were planting financial seeds for their own futures.
When I made the decision to go on television in January of 2000, the Lord spoke to me. He said that my ministry was just beginning, and if the ministry ended now, I would never fulfill what He had called me to do. Well, that was pretty powerful, considering that by that time, I had been in ministry for over thirty years. All that we had been doing, even though we had seen the fruit of thousands of changed lives, had just been planting seeds. God wanted to take this ministry to a new level so that He could get the message of His unconditional love and grace to the world.
Since then, the ministry has exploded. I believe this is happening for two reasons: 1. Because of the seed we have planted, and 2. Because it’s the time in history when the world is ripe for the message God has placed in my heart. There is no other way to say it. It is just my time, as it was for Esther.
In Esther 4:14, we read,
“For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (New King James Version).
The fruit of all the seed we have planted and that you have planted is coming to bear on the huge challenge of reaching the world. Opportunity abounds, doors are opening, and it will take every one of us working together to see the vision fulfilled. God has built a strong foundation for this ministry through His Word, and we are now building upon that solid foundation.
You may watch our television program and read our newsletters or visit our website. However, I have found that most of our partners and friends have no idea all that this ministry is doing to reach people around the world. The Lord told me I need to change that. I need to make the vision plain (Hab. 2:2) so that others can join with us to accomplish what the Lord has given us to do.
I know you will be blessed to learn how your gifts are affecting lives. I have much to tell you about what is taking place and will do so in my monthly letters to come, on our website, and on the Gospel Truth program in the near future. I believe you will be excited and blessed about what you learn.
This law of seedtime and harvest operates in every area of our lives. If we will plant God’s Word in our hearts, then allow the seed to germinate and the plant to grow to maturity, we will reap the fruit of a harvest. That is God’s best!
I cannot tell you strongly enough how important it is that you know God’s Word and that you plant the seed of His Word in your heart long before you need the fruit of the harvest. It could mean the difference between prosperity and poverty, or even life and death. I believe this is so important that it’s the very first class I teach to new students at CBC every year. Getting this series will be like attending the first week of CBC.
My teaching series, A Sure Foundation, will help you understand the power and importance of God’s Word in your life. It will help you go beyond the “touchy-feely,” emotion-based thinking that many mistake for faith. It’s not about what you feel; it’s about what has been planted in your heart and what will come to full fruit. It’s the foundation to receiving the promises of God.
Thank You Jesus.
2018
Knowing God
What It Means to Know God – Just how do we get to know the Lord?
If I were to ask a group of people what’s the greatest thing in life, I would probably get as many answers as there were people. Certainly many things contribute to a full and happy life, but I hope all believers would agree that knowing God is absolutely the greatest and most important of all. Without that, everything else loses meaning.
The Apostle Paul put it this way in Philippians 3:8:
“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
Think of this: Paul wasn’t a loser. He hadn’t hit rock bottom with nowhere else to go. He wasn’t turning from a life of failure and counting that as “dung.” He was one of the most educated and accomplished men of his day. He was the elite of the religious class. People knew him and they wanted to be like him.
Paul wasn’t writing just about the time before he was born again. He had been a Christian for decades at the time he wrote this. He had traveled the world and been used of God as few men ever had or ever will be. Yet here he was still seeking to know God more (Phil. 3:10).
Paul was saying that the best life had to offer and the greatest accomplishments and pursuits of any man, when compared to knowing God, ranked in the same category as manure. He was admitting that he hadn’t arrived but that he had left and was pressing toward that goal of knowing God more (Phil. 3:12-14).
What does it say, when the man who wrote half of the New Testament was still pursuing knowing God decades after his conversion? Certainly there has to be a depth of knowing God that goes far beyond just getting saved.Paul spoke of this in Ephesians when he prayed that the Ephesian Christians would come to know the height, length, depth, and breadth of God’s love (Eph. 3:18-19).
He said something very interesting in Ephesians 3:19:
“And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
At first glance this seems confusing. How can we know something if it passes knowledge? Paul is speaking about experiencing God’s love in a way that is infinitely greater than mere intellectual knowledge. And notice that when we experience God’s love in this way, we will be filled with all the fullness of God. What a statement!
All we have to do is look at our lack of experiencing God’s fullness in order to realize we don’t know God’s love the way Paul described it. If we did, we would be filled with all His fullness. Therefore, there is a dimension to knowing God that the average Christian hasn’t experienced. How do we get there?
First of all, we have to realize that there is more to knowing God than just becoming a Christian. Multitudes of people have received salvation, and if they were to die, they would go straight into the presence of the Lord. But they don’t know God.
They don’t know that He loves them because He is love and not because they are lovely. They think they have to earn God’s favor, and they are needlessly suffering condemnation and lack of fellowship with Him because they feel unworthy. They don’t know Him as a loving heavenly Father but see Him as a harsh taskmaster.
Many Christians think our Father is the source of all their troubles and suffering. They think He uses those problems as tools to teach them something or change their behavior, even though the Word clearly proves the opposite (James 1:13). They don’t know their God as Healer or Provider, or in any other of the ways He manifests Himself to them. Truly, God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge about Him (Hos. 4:6).
Much of the blame for this falls on the church. The Bible says in Romans 10:17,
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
The church, as a whole, has proclaimed that Jesus died for us to keep us from going to hell. Now, that’s true and quite a benefit. If that’s all there was to salvation, that’s more than we deserve. I would preach that message if that was all there was, but that’s not what the Scripture teaches.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
That verse specifically says the goal of salvation is “everlasting life.” And everlasting life was defined by Jesus in John 17:3, which says,
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
Knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ is eternal life. That doesn’t start when we go to heaven. Knowing God (eternal life) is something we can have right now (John 3:36). The word “know” is used in Scripture to describe the relationship between a man and his wife that produces a child (example: Gen. 4:1). It is speaking of intimacy. So “knowing God” is speaking of intimacy with Him.
To receive salvation and then stumble through life without experiencing intimacy with the Lord is to miss or ignore the most important part of what Jesus provided. Let me put it this way: if you received forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus and then continue on without an intimate, personal, close relationship with God, then according to John 3:16, you are missing the real purpose of salvation. This is where the vast majority of Christians live.
People believe they need to get saved because that’s the message they’ve heard. So they get saved and then they get stuck. They aren’t hearing that knowing
God is the real goal or that it’s even attainable. They are waiting on the sweet by and by, but struggling in the rough here and now.
Knowing God in the way I’m discussing isn’t even on the radar screen of most Christians. They aren’t pursuing it and they aren’t experiencing it. It begs the question, how do we get started in our pursuit of intimacy with the Lord? We can begin by spending time getting to know Him through His Word.
The Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 1:3-4,
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
It’s through the knowledge of God that we are able to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness. He has already given them, but it’s knowing Him that allows us to partake of His divine nature, to receive all His great and precious promises, and to escape the corruption of this world. What a deal! Knowing the Word is knowing God.
I recently taught a new series that focuses on knowing God, and it expounds on many of the key things I’ve learned about God through the Scriptures. I talk about the real meaning of eternal life, how to see with our hearts clearer than with our physical eyes, and much more.
This is a series that may not sound really interesting on the surface, but it is one of the most important messages I teach. If you ever want to fulfill what God has called you to do, you must know Him personally, and I believe this message will make a huge difference in your relationship with the Lord.
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2018
Power Of Hope
Most people give more importance to love and faith than they do to hope, but that’s not what Scripture says.
Look at 1 Corinthians 13:13:
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Since love is the greatest of the three and hope is just before love, that means hope is the second greatest, even above faith. Hope is more powerful than they realize. Something the Lord shared with me that really made this truth come alive is that hope is a positive imagination.
Romans 8:24-25 says,
For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? [25] But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Here, Paul was saying that hope is for something that isn’t seen, something that isn’t present. Once it becomes present, there’s no longer any reason to hope for it. So, hope means you’re looking at something that you can’t see. You might be thinking, Well, if you can’t see it, how are you looking at it? You can see things with your heart, and this is what I believe the imagination is.
In Isaiah 26:3, it says,
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”
The word “mind”here is translated “imagination” four other times in the Old Testament. So, you could quote this verse this way: “The Lord will keep you in perfect peace when your imagination is stayed upon Him.”
A lot of Christians would reject the idea of imagination because they nearly always relegate it to something that’s childish. But your imagination is your ability to see with your heart what you can’t see with your eyes, and you use this every single day.
You may not have thought about this, but did you know that you couldn’t get home if you didn’t have an imagination? It’s because in your mind, you picture your house and how to get there.
You think in pictures. An example of this would be if I said “apple,” you wouldn’t see the letters a-p-p-l-e—you’d see an apple. You might picture a red apple or a green apple, but I could refine what I wanted you to see by saying “a big red apple.” The more words I used to describe the apple, the clearer the picture would become in your mind. Whether you know this or not, you can’t think of something you can’t picture. You need to be able to picture something to truly comprehend it.
Your imagination is how you think, how you meditate, how you understand, and how you remember things. You really can’t do anything without an imagination. You have to take the Word of God and let it excite your imagination.
It says in Genesis 6:5,
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
This is talking about deep thoughts, not just surface thoughts. God deals with us on a heart level (1 Sam. 16:7), and He sees the imaginations of our hearts. The reason I’m spending so much time on this is because a lot of people just don’t think that imagination is that big of a deal. But the Lord dealt with people according to the imaginations of their hearts.
Hope is more than “I want this to happen” or “I wish this would happen.” Hope is your imagination. Every time the Scripture talks about imagination in a positive way, it uses the word hope. When Paul talked about hope, he was seeing things with his heart. He was taking the promises of God, and through those promises, he was seeing God cause him to succeed. And sad to say, most people, because they don’t understand this process or how important this is, they allow their imaginations to be controlled by other things—and they see themselves failing. They see themselves poor or sick.
But when what God has told you becomes a vision on the inside of you, you will wait for it with patience (Rom. 8:25). People who can quit and give up are people whose imagination is negative—they’re seeing the negative side of something instead of the positive side of it. They don’t have hope.
Whether you know it or not, your imagination is dictating how your life goes. And if you aren’t aware of what I’m talking about and don’t think this is important, all it means is you aren’t controlling your imagination. It’s being manipulated and controlled for you, and you see the negative.
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. (Prov. 23:7a)
The way you think is the way your life is going. And this may not bless some of you, but it’s intended to help you: If your life isn’t going well, if things are a mess, it’s because you’ve conceived it in your imagination. Your imagination is like soil. Soil doesn’t care what kind of seed you plant in it; the moment it’s planted, the soil starts producing. It’s the same thing with your heart and your imagination. Your imagination will conceive something and automatically start making it come to pass, whether it’s positive or negative. It’s like your spiritual womb. That’s a big statement.
The imagination isn’t moral or immoral; it’s what you focus your attention on that affects it. You get to choose whether your imagination is positive—which is hope—or negative, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I could spend a lot of time talking about this, but the bottom line is you need to shut off all the negative things that are grabbing at you. Luke 21:26 says that people’s hearts would fail them for fear, looking at all the things that are happening on the earth. You have to stay in God’s Word and let it dominate you, or I guarantee you, the unbelief of this world will extinguish your positive imagination. It’ll make it become vain.
So, I’ve laid a foundation for this, but there is much more to share that I think would really help you. God will put a positive imagination, a hope, in you that’ll make a difference, and you’ll be believing and looking for better results than you ever have. Hope is powerful.Again, it’s the second greatest thing in the Christian life, greater even than faith. You’ve got to understand the power of your imagination if you’re going to harness the power of hope. As I share about hope in my newest teaching, The Power of Hope, I believe that this could establish some things in your life that would move you in a positive direction and make a huge difference for you.
If you’ve been hopeless and you know you’ve been looking only at the natural circumstances and negative things in your life, I pray that God would help you to change your focus and start seeing the positive things He has for you. I believe that as you listen to this teaching, a positive imagination will come alive in you. Hope will start motivating you and driving you toward God the Father.
Thank You, Jesus.
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