Christian Walk

Christian Walk » Past Mistakes

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

Excellent question. A couple things. Instead of allowing your emotions and your feelings to make your decisions for you, you have to allow the Word of God to make your decisions for you. "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and these things will be added to you."

Many people make decisions based on how they feel, based on their emotions. And that is usually why you have made some bad decisions in your life and some mistakes in your life because you made them out of anger, out of emotion, out of lust, out of passion, or whatever. We need to make our decision based on, "Is this something that God's Word tells me to do?"

Start making decisions that are in agreement with the Word of God and you will see change in your life. And how will you know that you will see that change? You will see the fruit of God's promises coming to pass in you life. So take you money, for example. Make sure you are using your money the way God tells you to do it. Make sure you are treating your family the way God tells you to do it. Make sure you are focusing on the kingdom of God and doing things God's way and you can find all of those things in the Bible. Doing things God's way will produce God's results.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

First of all, you have to deal with the past the way the Bible says to and then you deal with the people. The Bible says, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away; all things are new.” The Bible says to forget those things left behind. God buries your sin in the depths of the sea (Micah 3:19). That’s how you deal with your past – reckon yourself dead to the past, consider yourself a new creature, and be done with it.

Now, if you’ve really dealt with your past, if you’ve really asked God to forgive you from it, if you’ve turned from it, move on and don’t worry what anyone else thinks or says. Sometimes, it’s good when other people bring the past up to us because it reveals to us whether we’ve really dealt with it or not. When they bring it up, do you feel offended, guilty, shame? Then you probably haven’t truly put your faith in the blood of Jesus concerning your past. Maybe you’re trying to willpower your way into forgetting it, but you’ve got to take it to Jesus and let Him wipe it away. When you’ve done that and people say something, it won’t bother you anymore.

When people bring up your past, ask them, “Do you believe in the Bible, or don’t you?” “Of course I do,” they’ll say. Then say, “The Bible says my past is over, and I’m a new creature in Christ. When are you going to start believing the Bible concerning that?” You know what? They’ll stop talking. And if they don’t, you need to little by little distance yourself from that relationship.

Question:

Answered on 03/09/06:

How do we redeem the time that has been lost when we’ve made bad decisions, when we’ve been disappointed, when we’ve had setbacks in life? We have to ask God to. You know. The Bible says, “God will restore” in Joel 2. God says, “I will restore the years that the cankerworm has eaten. I will restore the years that the locust has eaten. I will restore the years that the devil has devoured. I will restore to you the years.”

Plant a seed – that will help restore the years. Meditate on the Word – that will help restore the years. And stop making the decisions that you’ve made in the past, and don’t put your trust in people. Put your trust in God, and you’ll see Him restore those years. Remember, the Bible calls Jesus “our redeemer.” Since He’s the redeemer, He’ll redeem our souls, but He’ll also redeem our time. That scripture – “redeeming the time for the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16) – means to hurry up and get busy with the purpose of God for your life so that you can be found a faithful witness of the Lord Jesus until He comes.

Christian Walk » Trials & Tests

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

You know, when a football team is playing another team and they know that one of their defenders is injured or if one of their defenders is not very good, then they take advantage of them. They take advantage of a weakness to beat them. And that’s what Satan does. He tries to take advantage of a weakness in your life to try to defeat you and to try to beat you. And you just got to have your guard up. The Bible says, “keep up your shield of faith which will extinguish all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

We all go through trials. We all have to fight the fight of faith. We all have to deal with life’s tribulations and we have to rejoice and count it all joy when we encounter trials and keep up our shield of faith. God wants us to experience victory, but there is a battle sometimes. And what is that battle? The battle is to keep our faith. And that’s what Satan wants to do is to shipwreck our faith and get us to lower our shield of faith. Are you finding yourself in trials that you never thought you’d be in? Well, join the club, man, because you’re not alone. We’re all in this thing together and we all have to deal with trials that we didn’t expect.

How do you deal with a trial? The Bible says in James 1:3, “Count it all joy when you encounter various trials and don’t let go of your faith and endure.” You endure. Don’t quit. Don’t give up. And on the other side of it, you’re going to have absolute victory. And in our weakness, He is strong. But in our weakness, we need to rely on His strength. When we’re weak, we need to look to God, we need to turn to Him, we need to call upon Him and ask for His help and never get out there on our own.

You know, when Satan knows that you and God are in this thing together, he starts leaving you alone. When he thinks that you’re doing it all yourself, and make him think that you’re on your own, then you’re a sitting duck. But when you call on the name of Jesus, when you speak the Word of God, you are fortifying yourself with the strength that only God can provide and Satan will flee. The Bible says in James 4:7, “Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

There are times when what we’re doing is not something that we need to be doing, it’s not something that God intended for us to do, it’s not something that we were supposed to do, it’s not something that He wants us to do forever, but what he does want is for us to pass the test of our attitude. He wants us to have a good attitude, the attitude of a servant, the attitude to lay down our life, to be somebody who is not just doing it as it feels good for us. Because maybe you get involved in an area of ministry and you’re really excited about it, but then, when you lose your excitement for it, you want to quit and you say, “well, it’s too hard and maybe the commitment is too great,” so maybe you just want to basically throw in the towel. And you failed that test if that’s what happened. Now, the test is going to come again. So you might as well pass it the next time it comes, otherwise, you’re going to just keep repeating it and taking it over and over again.

So, you really got to pass the test and the way that you do that in areas of ministry and in areas of serving is you make a commitment for a time frame that everybody is agreed about. Let’s say you’re serving in the singing ministry or you’re serving in the helps ministry or the prayer ministry, make a commitment for six months or ask the Department leader how long of a commitment they’re asking of you. And make a commitment. You pass the test throughout the duration of that time-frame. You’re going to have attitudes that rise up in you and you’re going to have to stay in there and not give up.

And then at the end of that period of time that you agreed upon, you reevaluate and you decide if you should continue in that area of ministry or if you should not. And you should talk with the people who are overseeing that ministry and you should ask them how they feel about it. You should pray about it and seek the Lord about it, but in the end, you should be faithful to your commitment to your time-frame in which it’s defined clearly at the onset, so that you don’t have to be extended forever or for the rest of your life and then feel like you’re quitting or giving up.

Again, check your heart, check your attitude and never give up on people, especially when they need you and then you feel like, “well, God told me that I don’t need to do this anymore.” But if you made a commitment, then you should honor that. Unless they don’t need you anymore. And if they release you from it, then that’s different. But if they need you, don’t give up on them.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

Now, what do you do to experience that favor? What you got to do is you got to make sure that you’re believing God’s Word (number one), that you’re standing on God’s promises (number two), that you’re being the best worker that you can possibly be (number three) and number four, that you do not hold bitterness towards those who are being promoted. Because when you’re being faithful, when the Son of Man returns from heaven into this earth, He’s looking for two things: faith and faithfulness. And if you’re being faithful, the Bible says in Proverbs 28:20, “A faithful man will abound with blessings.” So favor will surround you if you’re being faithful.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

But here’s how we know when it’s God bringing something into our lives. James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father and comes from God.” In other words, if it’s not good and perfect, then it didn’t come from God. For example, somebody might think, “well, I lost my job and I lost my money, I lost my family, I lost my life, I lost everything that I have and that was God’s doing to teach me something.” Well, clearly, that’s not God’s doing to teach you something. He instead would rather teach us something to save our family and to save our lives and to save our jobs and the blessing that He’s brought into our life.

Really, He doesn’t come to steal. He comes to give life. John 10:10 says, “the thief, the devil, comes to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came to give life and that we would have life in abundance.” So, the way that we know whether something is from God or something is from the devil is by the nature of the thing itself. God doesn’t tempt anybody; He doesn’t bring temptation into our lives to teach us something. James 1:13 says, “He cannot tempt any of us because He Himself is not tempted.” You’ve got to look at it like, “God can only give you what He Himself has.” He doesn’t have sickness. He doesn’t have confusion. He doesn’t have fear. He doesn’t have worry. So, certainly those things aren’t from Him. When they do come into our lives, they did not come from God. So we need to know that and understand that. That’s’ number one.

Number two is “How do we know something is from the devil?” Well, whenever it’s trying to steal something from you, whenever it’s trying to destroy your life, we know that it is from the devil. We know that the devil came to Jesus to tempt Him and the way that Jesus overcame each temptation was He spoke the Word of God. So, speak the Word of God when things come into your life. When trials come into your life, speak the Word of God. And realize that when trials do come, the Bible says to rejoice. Because they test your faith. Whether they came from the devil or they came from bad decisions we made in our lives, they are there to test our faith and what we really believe. And we need to make sure that we’re holding on to God’s Word and that we’re rejoicing and praising God no matter what we see, no matter what we feel, and no matter what we’re going through.

It would be easy if we could just ask God to show us something in the Bible and then open it up and then we just point our finger in to a page whenever we have a problem, but the fact is, is that we have to study. We have to be diligent to study. We have to be diligent to read our Bibles. And here’s the thing. I really encourage you to study this chapter, James chapter 1. You study that chapter because it shows us what to do. Instead of trying to worry about or figure about where the trial came from, the Bible tells us what to do in a trial. It says rejoice. It says, “Count it all joy.”

First of all, you rejoice and you praise God, no matter what. And then, secondly, you ask God for wisdom and He’ll give you wisdom so that you’ll know what to do about the situation. So, I would encourage you to study James chapter 1. It will really enlighten you concerning the things that you’re going through, the trials that you’re facing. No, I wouldn’t try to just play Bible roulette and pray and then point to a scripture and then hope that God will speak to you. But instead, study these chapters, study the Bible because it says, “Study to show yourself approved.” If you want to pass the tests in life, you got to study. If you want to pass tests in school, you got to study and if you want to pass tests in life, you got to study the Word of God and truly understand it. That’s why God gives us the Bible. That’s why He gives us churches, to teach us and to feed us and to help us grow so that we can truly hear from God.

Christian Walk » Growing Closer to God

Question:

Answered on 10/13/06:

How do you do that? Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all that are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." You'll find rest for your souls, in Matthew chapter 11. So you've got to come to Him. There is going to be no rest in God without Jesus Christ, coming to Him. Come to Him with your problems. Come to Him with your sins. Come to Him with your fears. Come to Him with your worries. Come to Him and lay all that on His shoulders. Lay all of your burdens on Him. Cast all your cares upon Him and that's how you're going to find rest.

Another way that you're going to find more of God's rest is that you've got to believe God's word. It says in Hebrews chapter 3, "they did not believe and therefore, they could not enter into God's rest." In other words, they doubted God's Word. Whenever you doubt God's Word, you're going to have unrest.

Rest is the place that we come to in life that we were always meant to come to. It's the place where God always intended for us to be. It's the atmosphere of the Garden of Eden. There was rest, there was tranquility, there was peace. Where did it come from and what disturbed it in Adam and Eve's life? It came from as long as Adam and Eve believed what God said, they had rest, they had peace, they had tranquility, they had the beauty of the garden and all of the enjoyment of all the trees in the Garden. But when they doubted God's Word, that's when all hell broke loose, literally. That's when all the unrest came forth in their lives. When they did not believe the Word of God.

See, this is the key to Christianity: it's believing God. That's why faith and believing God is so vital and so important because it is the way, it's the path that gets us in to God's rest. And all unrest and all distress comes from doubting God's Word or questioning God's Word and not believing God's Word.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

Number two, we need a healthy relationship with a good church that is teaching the Word of God and helping to hold us accountable in our relationship with God.

And number three, we need good friends, relationships that are going to challenge us to do the right thing where we have accountability, where if we’re struggling with something, we can say, “Hey, I’m struggling. Help me. Hold me accountable. Help me walk through this thing as I fight this battle.” So those are the three things we need. We need the Word of God, a relationship and fellowship with God, number one. We need a good relationship with our church, number two. And then we need relationships with strong Christians in our church that can help hold us accountable. If you add those three things to your life, then you will stop going in the wrong direction and start going in the right direction.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

(PASTOR GRACE says: The Bible also says that when you humble yourself, God gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble. So, I think another way is to just walk in humility. Humble yourself to God. Believe God loves you. Humble yourself. Believe that He cares about you. Open your heart to what God wants to say in the situation.)

And serve other people as a way to humble yourself and for grace to come. And submit yourself to a local church, a godly pastor, a godly leadership team where you can truly receive of that anointing. That’s another way to humble ourselves. And we’re willing to admit what we’ve done wrong, confess our sin, admit what we’ve done. That is a way of humbling ourselves. "What does God require of thee, O man, but to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly before your God. He gives grace to the humble." James 4:6.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

Let’s start with the fact that in Luke 4, Jesus made it a custom to be in church and to be connected to the synagogue He was a part of. They knew Him and that it was His custom to read the scripture. In Luke 4, it was His custom to be there and be plugged in. Earlier in His life, it was not only His custom to be in the synagogue, but to ask questions and talk to the teachers and the lawyers, those that were leading the synagogue and those leading the church. So much so that His parents, when they went home, they didn’t realize where he was. It took them three days and they realized, “we left Jesus back in the temple.” They went back to the temple and there He was, asking questions. Number one, you have to follow the pattern of Jesus and realize the absolute necessity of being connected to a healthy church.

Number two, you have to have passion to want to grow. Because when you really want to grow, you will do whatever it takes to grow. I believe from what I hear in your voice that you want to grow. That would be the next thing, to have the passion and desire to really grow and say God, I want to grow. Change me and help me be connected.

Thirdly, I would make sure I am getting connected to a church that is teaching the uncompromised word of God and start to build relationships there. There are several ways you can build relationships. In our church, there are two primary ways to build healthy relationships with people. One is to become a part of a community group, a small group, where you can care for people and where we can help you. Another way is by serving, being plugged in, committing yourself to serving on a regular basis, whether that’s once or twice a month in the nursery or whether a greeter or helping the poor or the needy. There are so many ways you can serve. That’s how you get connected and build relationships. That is what I would encourage you to do, is get connected. Coming to a good church is like filling up your tank of gas, the good news about it is that it is not as expensive to come to church as it is to fill your tank up with gas these days.

Maybe you should look for a different church. If you can get involved in one of the two ways, first you have to make sure you are connected to that Pastor. The church you are going to, the Pastor has to be anointed and you receive that anointing and that teaching and that you’re eating of that anointing. Secondly, you have to get connected through a small community group or by serving in that church. Do that and you will be fine and you will want to stay connected.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

Now, how do you spend time with Him? I believe that the first order of importance is to start your day off by spending time with God. So if you wake up at seven in the morning normally, wake up at 6:45. If you wake up at 7:30 normally, wake up at 7:15. In other words, wake up 15 minutes earlier and that’s the time to talk to God, to read your Bible and to listen to Him. Don’t try an hour at a time or 2 hours. Start with just 10 or 15 minutes and reading the Psalms and praying the Psalms and telling God how you feel and telling God what’s going on in your life. He knows, but He wants you to tell Him. He wants to hear from you and He wants you to pour your heart out to Him. That’s how I would start. And don’t feel bad if you sleep in or miss a day. God is never mad at you for not praying. But He loves to fellowship with you and He looks forward to it every day.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

Christian Walk » General

Question:

Is it all right to dance?

Answered on 05/16/07:

It was not a dance of their flesh. It was not a dance to pick up somebody at a club, it was not a dance where they were just out there partying in a worldly way, but it was a dance unto the Lord.

Secondly, it's alright to dance if you're married. You have a husband, you have a wife, you ought to be able to dance with your husband or with your wife. All things are lawful, not all things are profitable.

So it really depends on the motive. Are you out to show off? Are you out to win popularity or to pick up somebody? Are you out to just have a showing of your flesh or are you dancing as an honor to the Lord or as something to bless your wife or bless your husband. Those are reasons why dancing would be, in my opinion, from what I see in the Scripture, something that's good and something that's healthy, something that's a blessing.

Question:

Answered on 05/16/07:

But what you have to decide is if dancing is going to draw you closer to the Lord? Is this going to be a good example to other people? And if it's not, don't do it. It's not a rule, "you can't dance." But it should be directed by "Is this going to edify me? Is this going to help me? Is this going to encourage other people? Is this going to draw other people to the Lord?"

I don't encourage people to go out in clubs and parties and dances simple because it's the wrong environment to invest into a healthy Christian life. It's not a law, it's not legalism, it's the grace of God, but God instructs us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires.

Question:

Answered on 05/09/06:

Paul the apostle struggled with people and trying to please people and trying to be approved by people and worrying about what they thought of him until he finally got free from people. It’s written about him in Acts 26:17 where God said to him, "I’ve delivered you from the people so I can deliver you to the people.” In other words, once he was free from the fear of people and what they thought about him, he was now empowered to truly be a blessing in other people’s lives.

The most selfish thing we can do in our lives is to think about how people think of us and how people view us rather than think about how God views us. When we’re worried and self-conscious about what other people think about us, then we no longer are of any good to them and then we can’t bless them; we can’t serve them or help them.

I want to encourage you to start meditating on what God thinks about you. Read Psalm 139 and Psalm 40. That’s my assignment for you. It will really encourage you about the way that God thinks about you. It will set you free from peoples’ thoughts toward you.

I know what you’re going through and I know how easy it is to withdraw and you lose all your energy because of all the effort that it takes to worry about what people think about you. You need to stop. You need to realize that they don’t think about you as much as you think they do. And furthermore, they don’t think about you the way you deserve to be thought about but God does think about you the way you deserve to be thought about.

We have to accept the fact that we don’t fit into people’s drama sometimes. People are going to try to make you the villain of their drama and they need to be the star of their drama. They need to be their own villain; we don’t need to be their villain. "Don’t be the mama in somebody else’s drama" as we like to say around here. Stay out of people’s drama. Don’t engage in that. Don’t allow yourself to put yourself under their thinking and under their view of you and their opinion of you.

You do your best to be pleasing to God because when you stand before Him, your boss, your employers, your employees, your friends, your family, your relatives, your neighbors, none of those people are going to be standing there when you’re standing before God. It’s only going to be Him. And that is eternal. That is forever. What we do in this life will echo into eternity.

Let us be pleasing to God on this earth, in this life, so that when we stand before Him, we can hear Him say, “Well done good and faithful servant.” Everybody else’s opinion of you is going to pale in comparison; it’s going to wither up and disappear on that day. So let it disappear now and focus your life on being pleasing to God. Pursue being pleasing to God and receiving His love and walking in His love towards other people.

I would say, “Be the person that God created you to be.” Let your thoughts meditate on His love for you and His attitude towards you and then that attitude of love and kindness is going to be reflected in your attitude towards other people. No matter what they do for you or think about you, you just think about them the way that God thinks about them and you’re going to have a great life.

Question:

Answered on 05/04/06:

So, yeah, there’s a major conflict there. If the sorority is a singing sorority where you just come together and sing, that’s one thing. But that’s not usually what happens. You need to flee youthful lusts and flee the appearance of evil. That’s what I would encourage you to do.

I don’t know all of the sororities, but I know when I went to college, fraternities and sororities were all focused on partying, getting drunk and finding a guy or finding a girl, and that’s totally incompatible with a godly life.

Question:

Answered on 04/13/06:

So, the next step for anybody once they become a Christian is to get plugged into a church, not just attend a church – that’s a start. You have to attend a church, but then you’ve got to get plugged into that church where you’re connected to other believers that are moving in the same direction as you and that want to move forward with you. And in that church, they should be teaching the Bible as the Word of God. They should be giving people an opportunity to freely worship God and to praise Him and to express themselves to God and they should be giving people an opportunity to find their purpose in life and use their gifts.

So, those are the three things that I would say that you need to do is you need to get plugged into a church, worship God with all your heart, and discover your gifts and use your gifts within a body of believers, a church family, where you can truly grow with other believers that are moving forward with God as well. Those are the first steps I would take.

And it’s very important that you get into the right church. And there are a lot of good ones, but there are also churches out there that aren’t necessarily what’s best for you. So, just like with anything, you’ve got to be wise and you’ve got to make sure that you’re getting into the right church and you go there two or three times and see if that’s the place for you and make sure that what they’re doing lines up with the Bible.

You’re welcomed to come visit us at our church. Come and try us out and if that’s not good for you, we’ll help you find the church that is. But you definitely need to be in a good, healthy church. That’s what’s going to help you grow. And again, being in a good, healthy church is not the only way that will help you grow, but it will help propel you into growing.

Question:

Answered on 04/13/06:

You know, if you read through the Scriptures, you see that God has given us authority in many levels. He’s given us authority to preach the gospel. He’s given us authority to pray for the hurting. He’s given us authority to pray for the sick. He’s given us authority over demons and devils. He’s given us authority to create business and create revenue. He’s given us authority to bind the forces or forbid the forces of the devil in this earth.

And so, what He’s referring to there is He’s referring to the authority that God gives us and that He will back up that authority. The authority to pray for the sick – heaven will back you up. The authority to bind Satan from influencing your life and your family – heaven will back you up.

And the way that we exercise that authority is with our words. God has given us a tongue. And He said that death and life are in the power of the tongue, the authority of the tongue. And so, we need to exercise the authority that God has given us by making sure our tongue or our words line up with God’s Words. And when we do, that’s how we bind, that’s how we loose, that’s how we exercise authority in this life under the authority of God and under the authority of His Word. As long as it lines up with the Scripture.

There is a measure of authority. And it’s important that we study the Scriptures out and look up all the Scriptures that God has give us in the New Testament about our authority so that when we do begin to exercise that authority, we’re doing it with full knowledge of who we are in Christ and knowing what boundaries of authority that He’s given us to exercise so that we don’t step beyond our boundary, but we don’t minimize the authority that He’s given us as well.

One example of when somebody stepped beyond their boundary was when in Acts chapter 19, they tried to cast the devil out of that man. The Bible says the devil came out of that man and jumped on the seven sons of Sceva that were trying to cast the demon out of that man. And as a result, that demon came onto the seven sons of Sceva and their condition got worse. They said, “I cast you out in the name of Jesus that Paul preaches.” So they didn’t understand their authority. They were just basing it on something they heard from Paul the Apostle. They weren’t truly doing it because they understood their boundaries and their authority. And the demon responded back and said, “Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?” And so, the devil was able to exercise authority over those men because they did not understand who they were in Christ and they did not understand the authority that they had in Jesus Christ and they were trying to base it on somebody else’s authority, namely the Apostle Paul at that point.

So, we need to truly understand our authority and understand the power that God has given us and operate in that. So you can pray with the authority that Christ Jesus has given you in His name and with His Word.

So, if you find a Scripture that says, “Lay hands on the sick and they’ll recover,” you can go to a sick relative and you can say to them, “I command healing to flow into this body.” Now you’re doing what Jesus said to do and you’re doing it in His name and you’re doing it for His glory. So, if you’re doing what He said in His name for His glory, then you’re going to experience power on this earth. Do what He said in His name for His glory and those are the conditions by which you’re going to experience success.

Question:

Answered on 03/21/06:

That’s the condition of many Christians. They are not hot for God, not on fire for God, they’re not willing to drop whatever they’re doing. They are willing to let God come and tickle them, but they’re not willing to let God move in. They are willing to let God come and visit them and touch and bless them, but they are not willing to let God move in and bring all his furniture into their lives with Him. God just doesn’t want to come and visit you every so often, He wants to be married to you. He wants to come and abide with you, He wants to come and live with you.

That’s what it means to be lukewarm: when you just want to visit with the Lord but you don’t want to have an all-out relationship with Him; you want to date Him, but you don’t want to marry Him.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

You see, when the woman was caught in adultery, the first thing Jesus said to her was, "Woman, who condemns you?" And she said, "No one, Lord." Of course, by that time they had all dropped their rocks and walked away, and she said, "No one Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Now go and sin no more."

In other words, the key to her ability to walk away and not sin any more, was her ability to first receive His forgiveness and His freedom from condemnation. So first He released her from the condemnation of her sin, and then He told her, "Go and sin no more."

You see, you can’t go and sin no more until you realize how forgiven you are first. Right now. We’ve got to stop trying to stop sinning. We’ve got to stop thinking that we’ve got to stop sinning in order to receive God’s forgiveness, and we’ve got to go ahead and just receive that forgiveness right here and right now in the midst of your sin. It was in the midst of her sin. She was caught in the very act of adultery. And Jesus said, "I don’t condemn you."

And you see, when you have that sense of knowing that God doesn’t condemn you, that Jesus doesn’t condemn you, that will give you the power to overcome that sin. So if you keep falling, go to God, recognize in His Word He says that you are forgiven, and you are not condemned. And then that will give you the power to be free from that very sin, and to stop doing it.

But you’ll never have the power to stop doing it, if you don’t first receive the freedom from condemnation that Jesus Christ offers according to Romans 8:1. Then he will give you the power to overcome that sin. All right? I hope that helps. Don’t ever be condemned, but you go to him, you confess your sin, 1 John 1:9 says, and He’ll cleanse you. But also know that you have received the power to be free.

You have to believe in the love that God has for you, and that love that empowers you to stop sinning. Another thing I want to encourage you to do, according to 1 Corinthians 15:33-34, the Bible says, "Awake to righteousness, and sin not." So when you awake to righteousness, you realize that you are the righteousness of God. Study the Scriptures on righteousness, get some tapes from our website, changinglives.org concerning righteousness. Because when you awake to righteousness, when your eyes are opened to who you really are in Christ, you’ll stop sinning.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06:

But you’re answering your own question in many ways. And that is that this Christian life is a life of faith. We have to believe, even when we don’t feel it. We have to believe, just like a pilot. He has to trust his instruments on his airplane and not trust what he feels. He’s going to feel like he’s turning upside down sometimes. He’s going to feel like he’s going the wrong direction sometimes. But he has to trust the instruments that that plane carries, because those instruments truly tell him where he’s really going, and how fast and what direction he’s truly going in. And in the same way, you have to trust your spirit. And you have to trust the Word of God. We walk by faith, not by sight, 2 Corinthians 5:7 tell us.

Yes, there are dry times. But you have to make your life decisions based on what God says, whether you feel the fire or whether you don’t. How do you get that fire again? You go back to do the deeds you did at first. If you were reading your Bible to produce that fire. If you were sharing your faith and evangelizing other people. Go back to doing those things, whether you feel it fully or whether you don’t. Because the fire is going to come from the Word of God. The fire is going to come from the Spirit of God. The fire is going to come from sharing your faith with others. So keep doing, as it says in Revelation 2. Jesus said, “I have this against you, you’ve left your first love.” And he said, “Return to the deeds that you did at first.” And that love, that fire, that river will flow up out of you again, as you go back to doing the things that you did when you first got saved and when you first had the fire. So it’s not uncommon for you to feel that way.

But that’s where most people fail. That’s where most Christians backslide is when they feel those dry times, they go backwards. And they feel like, “Well, God must have left me.” But He’ll never leave you and He’ll never forsake you. So stand on that Word. Stand on that verse. And don’t ever give up. And live by faith and know that those feelings are going to come and those feelings are going to go, but you keep doing what God’s Word tells you to do, and living by faith in His Word. That’s what has brought me through tough times and dry times in my life, and that’s what will bring you through.

Question:

Answered on 03/09/06:

“Pleading the blood over our lives for our protection.” What does that mean? It’s not the terminology that matters. It’s faith in the blood of Jesus. It’s the blood that saves us from the eternal damnation of hell. If the blood of Jesus can save us from the eternal damnation of hell, how much more can the blood of Jesus save us from temporary destruction, problems on this earth, problems in this life, disasters, tragedies? “He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High,” Psalm 91 says, “shall abide under the shadow and protection of the Almighty whose power no foe can withstand.” This is what the blood of Jesus… We need to honor the blood. It’s not about “pleading the blood.” It’s about honoring the blood. It’s about putting our faith in the blood of Jesus. There’s no way into heaven without the blood of Jesus.

Listen, the blood of Jesus delivers us from the destruction and damnation of hell itself. If the blood of Jesus can deliver us from sin, if the blood of Jesus can deliver us from hell itself, why can’t the blood of Jesus protect us from a plane crash? Why can’t the blood of Jesus protect us from a car accident? Why can’t the blood of Jesus protect our children as they sleep at night? If the children of Israel, with a former, old covenant could put the blood of a lamb over their doorposts and be protected from the plague of destruction and death, how much more should we be able to experience the protection that comes from the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, the Lamb of God whose blood was shed to open the gates of heaven up for everyone of us who put our faith in that blood, the blood of the Lamb of God that paves the way for us to go into the presence of God into the holy of holies and come boldly to the throne of God’s grace to obtain mercy and grace in our time of need. “O, the blood, ‘tis all my plea; Hallelujah, it cleanses me.

O, the blood, ‘tis all my plea; Hallelujah, it changes me.” May no one ever wonder about the power of the blood of Jesus. I think that we must understand and we must recognize that if the blood of Jesus can save us from the destruction of hell, and if the blood of Jesus is the thing that Satan fears the most, then why should we not put that blood in front of our lives, put that blood over our children, not by shedding the blood of an animal and then putting the blood over our doorposts. The blood of the animal has already been shed and that blood still speaks, Hebrews chapter 11 tells us. The blood of Abel still speaks, how much more does the blood of Jesus still speak and still protect and still save and still deliver and still set free?

Oh, please don’t minimize the blood of Jesus. When we drink the cup of Holy Communion, we need to realize that that blood protects us, that that blood delivers us. He said, ‘When you drink it in an unworthy manner.” That’s why many of you are sick; that’s why many of you are weak; that’s why many of you die young. Why? Because we did not honor the blood. We did not count the blood worthy enough to forgive us, worthy enough to heal us. You’re not worthy enough to be forgiven. I’m not worthy enough to be forgiven. But the blood of Jesus is worthy enough to cleanse us and to forgive us and to deliver us from all our sin and all of demonic power and all of the evil that is on this earth. And I’m not saying that we’re never going to have tribulation, but the blood of Jesus gives us the power over that tribulation so that we can have victory in this life.

Question:

Answered on 03/09/06:

“Pleading the blood over our lives for our protection.” What does that mean? It’s not the terminology that matters. It’s faith in the blood of Jesus. It’s the blood that saves us from the eternal damnation of hell. If the blood of Jesus can save us from the eternal damnation of hell, how much more can the blood of Jesus save us from temporary destruction, problems on this earth, problems in this life, disasters, tragedies? “He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High,” Psalm 91 says, “shall abide under the shadow and protection of the Almighty whose power no foe can withstand.” This is what the blood of Jesus… We need to honor the blood. It’s not about “pleading the blood.” It’s about honoring the blood. It’s about putting our faith in the blood of Jesus. There’s no way into heaven without the blood of Jesus.

Listen, the blood of Jesus delivers us from the destruction and damnation of hell itself. If the blood of Jesus can deliver us from sin, if the blood of Jesus can deliver us from hell itself, why can’t the blood of Jesus protect us from a plane crash? Why can’t the blood of Jesus protect us from a car accident? Why can’t the blood of Jesus protect our children as they sleep at night? If the children of Israel, with a former, old covenant could put the blood of a lamb over their doorposts and be protected from the plague of destruction and death, how much more should we be able to experience the protection that comes from the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, the Lamb of God whose blood was shed to open the gates of heaven up for everyone of us who put our faith in that blood, the blood of the Lamb of God that paves the way for us to go into the presence of God into the holy of holies and come boldly to the throne of God’s grace to obtain mercy and grace in our time of need. “O, the blood, ‘tis all my plea; Hallelujah, it cleanses me.

O, the blood, ‘tis all my plea; Hallelujah, it changes me.” May no one ever wonder about the power of the blood of Jesus. I think that we must understand and we must recognize that if the blood of Jesus can save us from the destruction of hell, and if the blood of Jesus is the thing that Satan fears the most, then why should we not put that blood in front of our lives, put that blood over our children, not by shedding the blood of an animal and then putting the blood over our doorposts. The blood of the animal has already been shed and that blood still speaks, Hebrews chapter 11 tells us. The blood of Abel still speaks, how much more does the blood of Jesus still speak and still protect and still save and still deliver and still set free?

Oh, please don’t minimize the blood of Jesus. When we drink the cup of Holy Communion, we need to realize that that blood protects us, that that blood delivers us. He said, ‘When you drink it in an unworthy manner.” That’s why many of you are sick; that’s why many of you are weak; that’s why many of you die young. Why? Because we did not honor the blood. We did not count the blood worthy enough to forgive us, worthy enough to heal us. You’re not worthy enough to be forgiven. I’m not worthy enough to be forgiven. But the blood of Jesus is worthy enough to cleanse us and to forgive us and to deliver us from all our sin and all of demonic power and all of the evil that is on this earth. And I’m not saying that we’re never going to have tribulation, but the blood of Jesus gives us the power over that tribulation so that we can have victory in this life.

Question:

Answered on 03/09/06:

And in Galatians 3:29, the Bible says if we belong to Christ, then we are Abraham’s seed and we are also joint-heirs with Jesus Christ and joint-heirs with Abraham as heirs of the promises that God made to Abraham. So, you got to remember that it didn’t start with Israel. It started with Abraham and the only reason that Israel was blessed was because of their connection to Abraham. Well, we now have the opportunity and have the privilege to be a part of Abraham’s blessing by claiming the rights of the child of God according to Galatians 3:29. So, yes, it applies to us if we truly believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.

Question:

Answered on 03/09/06:

After we get saved, we’re going to heaven, but there are still rewards to be gained and there are rewards to be lost when we get to heaven based on what we did here on this earth. And there are other people who need to be saved that their lives depend on how we live once we’re saved. So, even though I’m going to heaven, I can influence others by the lifestyle that I live. And how faithful I am here on this earth will determine the outcome of other peoples’ lives. I want to make the greatest impact on their lives that I possibly can. So, serve the Lord and God is going to reward you.

Question:

Answered on 03/09/06:

Now, does that mean we should quit on life and live a defeated life? No, we should learn the Word of God and find answers from the Word of God so that we can be victorious because the Bible says that we are “more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” I want to enjoy my children all these years coming up as well, and I want to enjoy this life.

God created this life richly for us to enjoy. The Bible says, “No good thing does He withhold from those that walk uprightly.” But at the same time, we should keep one eye on heaven and one eye on this earth. Not because we feel like we can’t handle it anymore or we can’t take it anymore, but because one glimpse of Him, one glimpse of His face will ruin you for this world. You know, there’s sometimes when you meet somebody, where you know somebody that causes all of your other relationships to pale in comparison – that’s what it is to have a glimpse of Jesus and have a glimpse of His love. I want to run into His arms because life has pressure, there’s so much struggling in life, there’s so much temptation in life. And sometimes, I’m just expressing my frustration with “Man, I just wish He would come back and end it and rescue us all.”

But, that’s not the number one reason that we should want to go home to be with the Lord. The number one reason is because we have finished our job here on this earth and we have been faithful to do what God’s called us to do. And then He can say to us on that day, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.” So, it’s a balance. I want Jesus to come back, but I do want to live on this earth. I do want to live on in this life, but there are times in my life and seasons and moments when I would rather go home to be with the Lord. And I think everybody can identify with that.

But in general, life is happy, life can be fun, life can be great, but there’s nothing that compares to the presence of God. And I think that’s what Paul meant when he said, “I’d rather be with the Lord, but for your sake, I need to be here on this earth. In Philippians and in 2 Corinthians, he said, “It would be better to be with Jesus.” He tasted a glimpse. It wasn’t the pain that he had on this earth, although I’m sure that that contributed to it. It was the glimpse of His love, the glimpse of His glory, the glimpse of His mercy, the warmth of His eyes, the warmth of His hands, the warmth of God’s arms that would make somebody want to experience that. There have been a few times in my life – just a few, not a lot – many times I pray, but few times I’ve tasted presence and the love of God so deeply and so richly that I just can’t have enough of that. And I want that every day. I know that it would probably overwhelm us if we felt that every day. It would just ruin us to be able to function in this life, function on this earth every day. And I’ve tasted it a few rare times in my life and I want to taste it more. “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” the Bible says. That causes me to have this deep hunger and desire to feel that and to experience that every day.

And so, I encourage people to pray. I encourage people to live their life, enjoy their life, enjoy their every day. God’s given us a new day each day for love and kindness and mercy and victory and thrilling excitement. Life can be exciting. Jesus wants us to have the abundant life. The thief came to steal, kill and destroy but Jesus said, “I have come that you would have life and have it in abundance.” So He wants us to experience that kind of life here on this earth. But the one we will experience in heaven is going to be so much better. That’s why we should be motivated to win the world to Jesus. That’s why we’re on this program. That’s why we’re on this radio station, on all the TV stations that we’re on. Let’s finish the work at hand and get home to be with Jesus Christ and have every tear wiped from our eyes. It’s going to happen. He can wipe away your tears now on this earth, but be comforted also that there are tears that maybe need to be comforted then. And I can’t wait for His loving finger to tough my eye and wipe away those tears.

Question:

Answered on 03/09/06:

Sometimes we are dissatisfied in life because we are expecting God to do things He has given us the responsibility to do and we are expecting ourselves to do things that God is supposed to take responsibility to do. Or, we are expecting other people to do things that we need to be trusting God to do or expecting from other people to do things that we should be doing ourselves. These are some of the causes of dissatisfaction in life and discontentment in life. You have to make sure you have the right expectations on the right people.

Question:

Answered on 03/09/06:

Just being saved isn’t going to produce a lot of fruit in your life. If you want fruit, you’ve got to plant seeds, and you’ve got to plant good seeds in your life if you want to produce good fruit in your life.

Question:

Answered on 03/09/06:

The people against you are not your real battle. When he says, “I crucify my flesh daily,” he’s not talking about the flesh of other people. He is talking about your self-centered attitudes, the mind-sets you have that are contrary to the Word of God. That’s what we need to crucify daily. We need to crucify our lust, we need to crucify passions; we need to crucify our wrong ways of thinking.

Question:

Answered on 03/09/06:

First, you’ve got to read the Bible every day, you’ve got to get your daily bread in and stay on fire. And you’ve got to get accountable with some godly people in a church that teaches the Word of God. Those are the two things . . . that personal time with God in His Word as well as time in a church that is on fire for God.

Question:

Answered on 03/09/06:

Now, for you and for others who struggle with reading their Bibles and don’t understand it, I want to encourage you to get the Bible on CD or get the Bible on tape and listen to the Word that way. Listen to teaching tapes from Preachers that really are preaching and teaching the Word of God, not just talking and their opinion, but I mean really breaking down the Scripture and making it easy to understand and easy to apply in your life. But get tapes. Listen to CD’s and tapes and the Bible on tape. We also have some tapes. You might want to go to our website at changinglives.org. We did a teaching called “It’s Time for Your Turn Around” that might be helpful. We talk about how to turn things around and about how whenever everything’s going wrong in your life, how to see those things turned around.

Question:

Answered on 03/05/06:

Question:

Answered on 03/05/06:

Christian Walk » Fasting

Question:
I have a question on fasting. I am a mother with four kids and we live a very busy life. My husband works full time. He goes to college full time. I know that in order for me to draw nearer to God the way that I want to right now, I need to integrate fasting as part of my lifestyle on a regular basis. But I really don’t know that much about it. I know there are different types of fasts but I don’t know how to choose which one to use or how to integrate it into my life.

Answered on 05/11/06:

Very simply, the word means to abstain from food for the purpose of seeking God. A fast does a number of things; it gives us control over our bodies, it helps us to crucify our flesh and it causes us to get our minds, our attention, and our focus on Jesus and only Him. There are so many good reasons to fast. It also cleanses our body.

I think the best way to start is by getting a book, and there’s a couple of them, but there’s one by Michael Bragg called “The Miracle of Fasting.” There’s also a book by Arthur Wallace called “God’s Chosen Fast” which has some good material on fasting.

You don’t want to start too strong. You start out slow, start out by fasting a couple meals in a day. Go down to one meal for a day and consider that a fast. During the time that you would have eaten breakfast or lunch, pray, read your Bible, listen to a tape, worship God, do something spiritual, something to invest into your spirit during the time that you would have eaten. Try that by just missing a couple of meals. If you want your children to join in, have them fast by missing one meal or two. Also drink lots of water when you fast.

Those are some quick tips, some chapters in the Bible that I would read and a couple of book recommendations. I hope that helps.

Question:

Answered on 05/11/06:

Christian Walk » Lawsuits

Question:

Answered on 09/21/06:

That’s where you start. You start by having a desire to try to reconcile it some other way, which it sounds like you have. You don’t really want to sue this person. But if you’re forced to, step number two is, you try to resolve it through the church that you go to. These matters should be resolved in the assembly of believers where both people are submitted to the counsel that would be given through the Bible and through the Word of God.

Now, if you have only one of those people that are willing to follow the Bible and one of them that are not willing to follow the Bible, then we have a problem. God did not give us the court system to punish people and to try to take vengeance on people, but He does give us the court system to protect the innocent. And if you’re the innocent party and you’ve been wronged, then God does provide a way in our justice system in America to go to court and to right whatever has been wronged. It shouldn’t be the first option, but it should be an option after you have exhausted other options.

So first you make sure in your heart that you don’t really want to sue him; you want to resolve it personally, one-on-one. Then you to go your church and try to resolve it that way. And then, number three, if it’s still irresolvable, then you take it to the court. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 says, “It’s better to be wronged than to go to court to take somebody to court.” But he was talking about a court system that was much different than the court system in our nation. Our court system is the fairest court system that has ever existed in the world. Not that it’s totally fair and not that it’s always right, but it’s a fair system. And so, in the Bible, it wasn’t necessarily a fair system that was offered in the Roman society and in Roman culture. The Bible was fair, but the culture in which the Bible was written wasn’t fair and the culture that we’re in is fairer than that culture.

So, avoid it if you can, but it’s not against the law of God to pursue legal protection if you’re an innocent party that has been wronged by somebody who will not listen to God’s Word. Some matters you’re not going to be able to be in a position to resolve it and then you do have to handle it through lawyers and through legal representation. It’s not our choice, but when it’s thrust upon us and it’s dealing with matters of expertise, we have to get the experts that are in that field. But we have to temper them with mercy and grace as well.

If it’s the only recourse that you have, then do it and do it with kindness and send the message to the insurance company that you’d like to get it resolved outside of court, but you understand that if you have to go down that path, then that’s the path that you have to take. Don’t be condemned about it.

Question:

Answered on 09/20/06:

I think that you answered your own question in a balanced way by saying, “On the one hand, I know that she was ready to go. Her body was no longer in the best condition and she’s saved and she’s in Heaven now and that’s a blessing. But, that doesn’t excuse the irresponsible part of the doctor and the doctor should be held accountable for that.” You certainly could say, “That’s okay.” You could forgive him and still hold him responsible because it’s the insurance company and all of that that goes into it.

Now, we’re not interested in frivolous lawsuits and the Bible says that you should settle all matters as much as you can inside of the church. But the fact is that if you can’t settle the matter within the church because maybe the doctor is not a church member or you don’t go to the same church as him, so there are legitimate reasons why things like that cannot be resolved in the church. So that’s why we have to take them sometimes to the court system that our society is under because we live under the laws of this government. We have to submit to the laws of this government. One of those laws is if a doctor is responsible for taking somebody’s life, that that doctor needs to be held accountable and held responsible, not out of spite, not out of retaliation and not out of anger or greed, but out of knowing that there may be another 75 year old woman out there who’s not saved who that doctor could do that same thing to and instead of saving that woman’s life, she ends up dying and going to hell because she wasn’t saved. Therefore, by helping to hold the doctor responsible at this point, you could save somebody’s spiritual life and their salvation.