Dangerous teachings about repentance

Repentance is a very sensitive issue in the body of Christ, and there is a way in which the message of the Gospel of Christ should be spread as not to harm the people.  We know we are to speak messages of repentance, which leads to sanctification, but the purpose of dying to yourself is not supposed to taken literally.  God loves you.  He created you and He knit you together in your mother’s womb.  For born again believers who are all at various stages of growth and some of them have reached a certain level of maturity and been through things where they can go and teach these kind of things, but you have to as one preacher said speak the truth in love.  You can speak the truth which is the Word of God, but you can be so harsh that it becomes unhealthy for the person, and they may be so desperate for God when they listen to you, and to see miracles happen in their life, and to have that implication that God doesn’t love them, and that God didn’t come to bring life and life more abundantly and that crush and wound the spirit so much.  There is a distinction between godly sorrow and sorrow of the world, but in the Church this line is getting thinner because people are getting so harsh, and yes there are people that need to change their lives, but when they are going through difficult times as we are going through now, we need messages of hope.  Millions of people are committing suicide everyday and some of them might even be Pastors, and yes some of them can’t live with their sin, and it’s so sad because God wants people to love, appreciate, and enjoy their life to their full.  Godly sorrow does not mean you hate your self, and you want your self to die, but there is a distinction between the flesh, soul, and spirit that needs to be drawn.  When you have these difficulties arising in times of crisis, and yes we do need to point out the laws for doing what’s right, but the greater Law is the Law of Love, and how much you love others.  Jesus said love God, and love your neighbors as you love yourself, so loving yourself is out of balance.  You might love God with all your heart, but if you don’t love yourself, then you can’t love your neighbor, so teaching people that the self is evil is very dangerous.  There is a method in preaching which involves understanding the makeup of a human mind, which will be transformed into God’s will, purpose and action, in a way that there is a sense of hope, encouragement, faith, and boldness, in knowing that godliness brings life to a person, and does not destroy the person, because the thief comes, to steal, kill, and destroy.

Now God may be testing your faith in some trials and obstacles, but when you need words of encouragement in the Body of Christ, you are sometimes bombarded with teachings about repentance, that don’t come to realize, that is a very slow process, and does not happen in an instant, and it is a life long process, that God takes one day at a time.  When you seek out God’s Word, first, and there will be obstacles, believe me, in trying to study God’s Word, but if all you can do is chew on God’s Word, and meditate on it, ruminate on it, and best of all don’t let people try to talk you out of this three part love cord, that you want not to be broken.  You want to see the best in people and it makes it hard when people you trust are crushing blow you down in the soul.  God is a restorer of the mind, and He binds up what has been broken, and he heals what has been hurt, but when people preach about this strict self denial it can defeat the purpose of God.  Paul said in Ephesians 6 that we are supposed to have the Gospel of peace,

Ephesians 6:15 talks about the Gospel of peace –

which is the word eirene in Greek and here is the meaning for it:

5) of Christianity, the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is

Blue Letter Bible. “Dictionary and Word Search for eirēnē (Strong’s 1515)“. Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2012. 8 May 2012. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?
Strongs=G1515&t=KJV >

People are going through a lot of stress these days, and need to learn that God loves them, and when calling people to repenting for their sins, it is wise to speak the words very carefully and to analyze your audience.  If you have a television ministry, and you know many people are watching, you can cater the message in a way with your speech seasoned with salt, and if your salt loses its savor, then what can it be savored with?

Colossians 4:6 says –

Let your ⁵²¹⁶ speech ³⁰⁵⁶ [be] alway ³⁸⁴² with ¹⁷²² grace ⁵⁴⁸⁵,seasoned ⁷⁴¹ with salt ²¹⁷, that ye may know ¹⁴⁹² how ⁴⁴⁵⁹ ye ⁵²⁰⁹ought ¹¹⁶³ to answer ⁶¹¹ every ¹⁵³⁸ man ^1520.

Blue Letter Bible. “Dictionary and Word Search for ‘”seasoned” AND “with” AND “salt”‘ in the KJV”. Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2012. 8 May 2012. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?
Criteria=seasoned+with+salt&t=KJV >

So when teaching about repentance, I urge Pastors out there not to be so hard on them that it breaks their spirit, because with a worried, anxious, stressed, and depressed soul, which comes from the enemy trying to use people, even anointed pastors and teachers, and preachers of the Word of God it can become unhealthy and defeat the purpose of God.  Bring restoration and not condemnation.

For those people that are living in sin, won’t get convicted anyway because they don’t realize what they have done wrong, and those people who are born again, will go into a downward spiral when you begin to speak words of death into their lives that make them devalue who God created them to be.  We are sons of the King and we need to be treated as such, and not as worthless sinners, who are good for nothing.  We need to be treated with respect, and courtesy and kindness, and when you know there are times when you will be tested on what you might say to someone whether you are a minister who is leading people or whether you are a person who is being served under a minister or leader, restrain your mouth from speaking evil, and when you have spoken evil, God will forgive you and turn it around for good, but just as with wounds of the soul, they take time to heal, but the enemy’s plan is to keep you constantly down and defeated and discouraged so that you cannot see the light, and that’s the last thing you want.  So bring hope and treat all of God’s people as sons of the King.  When you have a grievance with someone then forgive them, and if it still bothers you then seek counsel and support from others because the Church, the Body of Christ, is a Body where we are all growing and learning how to seek the Lord and to nurture and grow in health, and the last thing we want to see is someone so crushed and vexed in their soul, because of abuse. But hey, if God can work through Joyce Meyer and Paula White, who went through abuse and hardship in their lives, then God has surely found a way out for you, and teach you from your own life experiences and the way He has finally created you to be the shining example of who you are in the Body of Christ.   Also you need to keep in mind that for people who haven’t learn to dig their own well, or in speaking terms, study the Bible for themselves, then the best thing you can do is use wisdom on how to feed them, and have more Word and less you, that is how to really bring more of Christ in your life.  You don’t need to explain it to them, they understand, now if you are exhorting someone the body of Christ in general, with a correction, then realize that some babies or immature Christians can’t eat steak.  It is wise to measure the consistency of the food you are feeding to the people at a time.  You want to give them enough to chew on and meditate on for the day, and when they have come to spiritual growth, then you will be able to bring in more meat as God allows, but even that must be seasoned with salt.

 

 

 

 

No Condemnation in Christ for Genuine Believers who walk after the Spirit

I want to sincerely apologize for any of my posts that have brought a sense of condemnation to anyone.  It was not my intention and I realized that I was trying to do Jesus’ job by trying to separate the wheat from the tares myself, when only He can do it.  At the same time, Ezekiel 3 says that if we don’t warn a person of their sins we will die with their blood on our hands.   Having the calling of a teacher of God’s Word is a heavy task, and as it says in James 3 that it should be entered into with wisdom, but we are all learning the profound truths of God’s Word, and more and more about Jesus everyday.  If anyone else does not get this word I will get it for myself, and I really need it.

Sometimes in the Christian walk we go through times of condemnation, where we are so hard on ourselves, and beat ourselves up, and refuse to accept the redemption of the Blood Covenant that Jesus died to give.  We are plagued with these lies that we are these sinners that are so unclean and so vile that God does not want to approach us because He is so holy.  It is true that He is holy and He hates sin, but the Blood of Jesus has redemptive power to cleanse us from all sin.  We are thoroughly washed in the Blood of the Lamb.  But there are times when we sin, and that’s when repentance comes into picture, but it’s the learning of repentance that is what it’s all about.  ACTS 11:18 ¹⁸ When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”

Repentance is not saying “I am not worthy to be loved by You.  I am a reject.  I am an outcast.  I am a nobody.  I am so dirty.”  No, not by any means.  Repentance is about realizing who God is and His goodness, that He is merciful and that He loves you, and He loves you so much that He would give His life for you so that you wouldn’t have to be in pain.  He gave His life up for you so as not to see you cry in agony and feel like a reject or outcast.  When Moses was called to lead the Israelites out of bondage from Pharoah, he said, “I am a poor speaker, what if they don’t listen to me?”  He didn’t have confidence in who he was, and who God was that would enable him to speak the words that God had given him out of his mouth.  He doubted who he was, and he was the meekest man or the most humble man, or so it’s said.  But let me tell you who was the personfication of humbleness and that was Jesus who washed the disciples feet and at another time He announced His ministry boldly by declaring Isaiah 61 before the congregation.  Jesus knew who He was and as believers in Christ, we must know who we are.  We must know that despite everything, we are more than conquerors than Christ.

We are sometimes living like chickens when are born an eagles.  If an eagle is around chickens long enough and especially if it’s been there all it’s life, it will start to believe it’s a chicken, when it’s actually an eagle.  So many of us have become chickens, but instead we should be eagles.

We must also fight the good fight of faith.  Believe me there is someone out there who wants to make you into a puddle saying, “Lord, I don’t know if I can follow this Law or obey You completely.  I am a worthless sinner, and there is no way You will accept me into Your kingdom.  I am a lost cause.  Just forget about me.  I am beyond help.”  Until you are so much into a pit of despair that you can’t even begin to see Jesus even if you read the Bible so many times.  You may start out with a level of faith, which is the measure of faith, but that faith has to expand and grow and if it doesn’t then that’s when condemnation sets in.  When you have condemnation you are no good to anybody.  You can’t pray for others because you feel like you are worthless.  You can’t read the Word of God because you think that God is going to fry you because you feel like you won’t have the promise of eternity waiting for you.  Sometimes self-pity even creeps in and says, why don’t you just give up, but you see, friends, that this is all a fight.  It is a fight to the finish because it is a race that we run and we want to make it to the end.  Condemnation can happen to any believer at any time even those who through their spiritual walk have an intimacy with the Lord, but something about not knowing who God is and the Good News of His Kingdom causes you to lose hope and become discouraged in your souls.  When you begin to believe that everything around you has to change for you to experience joy then something needs to change.

The repentance for the Gentiles leads to life.  Jesus died so that we might have life and have it more abundantly.  This doesn’t mean having a huge house, many cars, an air plane, and material possessions- those things are an added benefit, but what’s really important is the quality of the life that emanates from spirit to soul to body.  When we experience condemnation sometimes our souls become grieved and we don’t know how to make peace with God and trust who He is.  We become overburdened with guilt to the point that we can’t take it anymore.  This is what happened to Judas, he couldn’t take what he had done to Jesus.  I’m not calling you a Judas.  I’m just saying that we don’t want to get to that point.  We want to be set free.  That’s why Paul was teaching so much about the Law.  Here’s what  he said in 1 Timothy 1:

⁵My goal in giving you this order is for love to flow from a pure heart, from a clear conscience, and from a sincere faith. ⁶Some people have left these qualities behind and have turned to useless discussions. ⁷They want to be experts in Moses’ Teachings. However, they don’t understand what they’re talking about or the things about which they speak so confidently.

⁸We know that Moses’ Teachings are good if they are used as they were intended to be used. ⁹For example, a person must realize that laws are not intended for people who have God’s approval. Laws are intended for lawbreakers and rebels, for ungodly people and sinners, for those who think nothing is holy or sacred, for those who kill their fathers, their mothers, or other people. ¹⁰Laws are intended for people involved in sexual sins, for homosexuals, for kidnappers, for liars, for those who lie when they take an oath, and for whatever else is against accurate teachings. ¹¹Moses’ Teachings were intended to be used in agreement with the Good News that contains the glory of the blessed God. I was entrusted with that Good News.

His purpose in saying all these things that he did in the epistles was so that he could set free the conscience of the believers with a pure and sincere heart to those that were doing things that were not according to the ways of God.  Now certain people will put slime on my head just there. For those with heightened understanding will know what I am talking about.

For believers with a pure and sincere heart that follow God and that want to do what He says, and want to walk in His ways, and do not want to grieve Him, then there is no condemnation for them.  Jesus became sin, so why should we have to take it?  Why should we have to carry the burden of sin- those of us who believe in Him?

There are distinctions that have to be made though between Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and other apostates who have strayed away from the true teachings of God’s Word.  The indisputable facts are Jesus was born of virgin, that He died on a cross, was buried, and rose again the third day.  Those things are vital.  If you believe those you have what it takes to build your faith.  Faith is not just a head knowledge, but it is a heart transformation that also presents itself with power.

Romans 8 says –

8 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,^[a] who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.⁷ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. ⁸ So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. ¹⁰ And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

The same verses in God’s Word Translation:

¹So those who are believers in Christ Jesus can no longer be condemned. ²The standards of the Spirit, who gives life through Christ Jesus, have set you free from the standards of sin and death. ³It is impossible to do what God’s standards demand because of the weakness our human nature has. But God sent his Son to have a human nature as sinners have and to pay for sin. That way God condemned sin in our corrupt nature. ⁴Therefore, we, who do not live by our corrupt nature but by our spiritual nature, are able to meet God’s standards.

⁵Those who live by the corrupt nature have the corrupt nature’s attitude. But those who live by the spiritual nature have the spiritual nature’s attitude. ⁶The corrupt nature’s attitude leads to death. But the spiritual nature’s attitude leads to life and peace. ⁷This is so because the corrupt nature has a hostile attitude toward God. It refuses to place itself under the authority of God’s standards because it can’t. ⁸Those who are under the control of the corrupt nature can’t please God. ⁹But if God’s Spirit lives in you, you are under the control of your spiritual nature, not your corrupt nature.

Whoever doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ doesn’t belong to him. ¹⁰However, if Christ lives in you, your bodies are dead because of sin, but your spirits are alive because you have God’s approval.¹¹Does the Spirit of the one who brought Jesus back to life live in you? Then the one who brought Christ back to life will also make your mortal bodies alive by his Spirit who lives in you.

Even though Romans here is talking about the carnal or corrupt nature of man and the appetites of the flesh,  if you have a bad day and you eat a piece of chocolate cake, ice cream, or have a little bit too much chicken tikka masala or lamb curry, God does not want you to feel so bad about it that you go into an eating disorder just to prove a point that you want to honor Him.  God knows you.  God knows you so well.  He knows you so well that He knows what sin you were going to do when you do it.  Yes it was wrong for Eve to listen to the serpent and eat of that forbidden fruit, and it was wrong for Adam to pass blame onto Eve, but what’s even worse, is that they hid from God’s Presence.  He was right there and they didn’t run to Him because they didn’t feel worthy.  He had come to accept them.  He had come to accept them with open arms, but yet it in turn they ran because they were so scared.  God loves you so much, He gave His life after you.

There’s always a way out for every sin.  Every sin has a way out through the Blood Covenant of Jesus as long as you don’t blaspheme the Holy Spirit.  If you do it out of ignorance it’s ok, but if you do it intentionally when you know it’s not right because out of the wrong motive of the heart then that’s something else.

This whole time on earth throughout history God is looking for people who will love Him whole heartedly and will seek after His heart.  To yearn after His beauty and His majesty.  He doesn’t want people to be dismayed and discouraged.  But He wants people to repent and to receive forgiveness out of true humility.

But at the same time there is a warning because the times of the birth pangs are coming, and this is a time when people begin to see God’s judgments to come upon the Earth in the forms of natural catastrophes, and those are the times to trust God.  Because when you come down to it, all you have is Jesus, and you have to know that you have Jesus and He loves you and He doesn’t want to see you hurt.

Heavenly Father,

I pray that you touch the hearts of the people and let them see what a loving and kind and merciful Father you are to them.  Heal the Orphaned spirit, and the spirit of rejection upon the believer’s lives.  Give them life and and life more abundantly.  Give them hope and hope for the everlasting.  Cause them to surrender to You completely and totally to Your will and let them know the plan and purpose You have for their lives.  Cause them to see the light of Your Truth, and give them fresh rhema everyday.  Cause them to see everything beautiful about You.  Let them see that they are loved beyond measure, and that even for unbelievers Your heart reaches out to them so that they may receive the Truth that Jesus died for our sins.  Forgive us Lord if we have strayed away from Your Spirit today, and bring us back to Your fold so that we may see the beauty of Your majesty.  Forgive us Lord if we have not obeyed.  Cleanse us with Your blood today and create in us a clean heart and renew a right Spirit within Your precious saints who long to follow You.  Grant us all wisdom and encouragement and hope to see the everlasting and eternal hope and salvation we have in You.  I thank You for the special anointing You have given me to preach this Word, and may it bring life to those who hear it.

In Jesus Mighty Name I pray,

Amen.