GRACE In Ur Face

Do you truly know what the consequences where for the rest of humanity when Adam and Eve at from this tree? It was huge! The tree was called “The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”. God told Adam NOT to eat from it because if you do “surely you will die”.

Prior to eating from the tree, Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship with God. There was nothing that could come between them, God loved them AS THEY WHERE. there was nothing to do, no rules, no expectations. Both Adam and Eve could simply be themselves, have full undiluted access to God. Perfect.

Then… they are from the tree, and they received what? They received knowledge of Good and Evil. (duh!). Since that moment they knew what was wrong, and what was right, what to do, and what not to do. This system is also known as self righteousness… a system whereby we are judged by our own performance. The official LAW (10 commandments) was still far from being written, but at this point. Adam and Eve decided to act outside of the will of God, and be their own masters. 

Did they DIE as God told them they would? No. So what happened then? At that moment a spiritual death occurred in Adam and Eve. The spiritual connection they had with God changed…for a long time. 

With the knowledge of Good and Evil comes a whole bunch of responsibility, and opportunity to make mistakes or “sin” because now we know what is right, and what is wrong. Previously there was no such knowledge, there was no sin. How could there be… if nobody KNEW what sin was, there was no knowledge of sin.

Fast forward a few thousand years, and Jesus comes as all the prophets saw, and replaces this system with the original, to many this is a new system, but is the original back in place. A system where there is no law, no rules, no knowledge of right and wrong (Rom 4:15), because of what Jesus accomplished at the cross. 

So friend, if you truly grasp what happened at the cross, you will start believing that we are back in eden, right here, right now!

:)

F

When you wake up in the morning, are you more aware of the demands God has for you, or His supply?

This is a bit of a trick question, if you are under grace then you would have caught onto this in a flash. You would have responded with a quick “what demands?”

Under Grace we know there is only one demand, and even calling it a demand feels wrong. It is the only thing Jesus said that can be classified as a ‘rule’. And that is of course to love one another. That’s it.

When you are constantly conscious of God’s demands, then there is a good chance that you still think you are married to the Law. the Law demands, Grace supplies. Romans 7 puts this into perspective with the woman-marries-husband-husband-dies comparison.

We are no longer married to the Law…but to Grace… Jesus:

But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. ⁴ Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God - Romans 7

Once we grasp that the law with all its demands have passed away, and got replaced with freedom, love, forgiveness and grace. We start opening ourselves to be able to see only God’s supply. The demands fall away, because when you are married to Jesus… there are none.

F.

Do you sometimes feel like you deserve something from God? Do you feel that you’ve been committed and obedient for X amount of years, so you really deserve this job, blessing, relationship, etc?

It is s very dangerous place to be in when you feel that based on what you have DONE God should respond.

We cannot move God, He is not stuck. 

On the Flip side, if you feel like you deserve a blessing when you are “good” do you also feel you deserve punishment when you are “bad”?

Here’s the catch… if you think the above describes you…then you are a hypocrite.

When we are good we feel God should listen and give us whatever we feel we deserve, but whenever we are bad, we ask forgiveness and fall back to grace as a scapegoat, expecting to jump free from the punishment or consequences of our bad deed. This is a gross misrepresentation on what grace truly is. 

This is what it boils down to:

Nothing  you do can make God bless you or curse you. Nothing! If you were still living under the old covenant, then yes… you do-good-get-good and do-bad-get-bad. But we are no longer living under this covenant. We are living under a new covenant that was initiated by Jesus and His FINISHED work on the cross. This new covenant completely re-wrote the way in which we relate to God. It made you:

- Completely forgiven (past present and future sins) 

- Righteous, no longer depending on your own efforts, but those of Jesus

- Holy, we became Holy the day our spirits merged with that if God.

Let us come to the knowledge that God is Love, and has done more than enough already to show us His love for us.

Paul probably write the best description of what it is worth knowing Christ. Check out this verse:

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ - Phil 3

The correct translation for the word garbage there is acrtually “shit”, “crap”, “dung”. This shows me what Paul knew… he knew that in comparison with knowing Christ, NOTHING compares. He is not saying everything has no value, it is important things to him (all his accomplishments), BUT… comparing it to knowing Christ, it has no value.

Cool!

F.

One of the biggest changes in my behavior since my grace based life was the change in me from being self righteous, to becoming the righteousness of Christ. Let me explain:

Quite a few things happened the day Jesus died on the cross and rose again 3 days later. I believed that it meant that if I believe in Jesus dying on the cross and rising again, and being “my king and savior”, I now have my sins forgiven, and can go to heaven. This is such a limited few of this AMAZING sacrifice made by God. It is a slap in the face. It is like someone bailing you out of jail for murder, doing the life sentence FOR YOU and you think it was merely a bail out for a speeding fine.

But… back to the point…

The other MASSIVE thing that happened is Jesus completely revamped the system with which me operate in with regards to how we relate to God. Pre-Cross we related based on our own deeds (self righteousness). This is believing that God is pleased with you, bless you, or curse you, punish you based on how well you live and the good things you do. It is all up to you and how you live. Self righteousness.

The new system is us not having to worry about any of this, because Jesus gave us HIS Righteousness:

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him - 2 Cor 5:21

This basically means that God no longer approves, loves, sees, blesses you based on your own performance, but on the performance of Jesus… which was perfect!

I have a few steps on how to get rid of self righteousness, which I will post next, and more importantly steps on how to get rooted in the righteousness of Christ.

F.

Here’s another confusing term used quite allot. The bible tells us to “walk by the spirit”. 

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever^[c] you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. - Gal 5

The verses mentioning “walking in the spirit” is also always mentioned alongside something else, the flesh. the two are opposing one another, arch enemies, a war that rages on. so, here’s what it boils down to…

1. Before you where saved you where ruled by your flesh (your mind, carnality, habits, etc.)

2. When you became “saved” your spirit become ONE with that of the Holy Spirit. His spirit is dwelling inside you.

3. Nothing changed in your flesh, you still have the same habits, fleshly addictions, etc. BUT you now have the choice to be ruled by the Spirit inside you and no longer your flesh.

4. This is what it means to walk by the spirit, to say no to your flesh, own will, habits and to say YES to the spirit inside you.

5. How do you do this? By renewing your mind.

:)

I posted about this before, but I cannot stress enough how this has changed my relationship with God! This was the small door that leads to the rabbit hole… Once you really “get” this, yours is the open and free spaces of grace!

It is about us believers having to confess our sins to God. I found it quite amazing that the entire new testament does not contain ONE verse that tells believers confess our sins to God? We are so indoctrinated by false theology that we almost call it heresy!

The fact is Jesus took care of the sin issue when he died on the cross, once and for all! (Heb 10:12)

Meaning ALL (Past, Present and Future) sin has been forgiven.

So does it make sense to ask God to forgive you for doing something that He forgave you for already 2000 years ago? No! so after you have walked according to the flesh, do not feel condemned, do not feel guilty! Get up, praise God for sending His son to pay the price for the sin you just committed, know He no longer remembers you sin, so He cannot hold it accountable to you because it is forgiven, price paid, dealt with, GONE, done, 2000 years ago!

If you have any more questions regarding this, please let me know, or read this awesome link below:

http://www.charismaministries.org/to-confess-or-not-to-confess/ 

F.

Another misunderstood concept is the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives when we sin, or satisfy the flesh, or give in to temptation. The general view is that the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, which is stating it plainly: Bullshit! The root of this misconception goes deeper, it is a misunderstanding of the Holy Spirits character  itself. You can either believe the Holy Spirit is Good, therefore everything he does is GOOD. Or the holy spirit is BAD, therefore everything he  does is Bad. You cannot have an indecisive idea about his character.

For example: you cannot believe the holy Spirit is good, yet He lays guilt on me and points out all my faults whenever I take a wrong step and sin.

This misconception finds its origin in John 16, where Jesus promises the coming of the Holy Spirit.

And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: ⁹of sin, because they do not believe in Me; ¹⁰of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; ¹¹ of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. ¹² “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³ However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.^[c]

People quote verse 9, but fail to read verse 9 which is an explanation of verse 8. Here’s the breakdown:

If you are a believer -> The holy Spirit convicts you of your righteousness!

If you are an unbeliever -> The Holy Spirit convicts you of sin

Which category do you fall in? Believer? Then my friend, when you sin the Holy spirit is the one telling you “you are better than this! You are righteous! You are my beloved Child! I Love you and want the best for you!

As opposed to the devil which says to us “You are pathetic, look how weak you are, you are such a hypocrite! How can you call yourself a Christian?”

We need to distinguish the two. The holy Spirit convicts us of our righteousness, of who we are in Christ.