Chapter 9, Part 17

Fellowship With Believers

“Now therefore you are no longer strangers and
foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and
members of the household of God having been
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ being the cornerstone.”
Ephesians 2:19,20

One of the best tricks the enemy uses against us is to isolate us from one another. To surround us with people who are not obeying the will of God. Their presence and encouragement makes it seem okay for us to follow our lustful impulses unchecked. It is like we are sheep and the enemy comes and attempts to separate us from the herd, because it is easier to pick us off one by one than in a group. The goal of the enemy is to divide us and then conquer us. There are countless numbers of us who say, “I am following the Lord in my own way and I do not need anyone else to believe”. Or why should I go be around all those “fake Christians” and hypocrites, giving my money to that preacher to buy a new car. The enemy knows there is strength in numbers. No one attacks an opponent that is numerically stronger unless they can separate them. Our Lord demonstrated this concept by using the parable of a king going to war but counts the number of troops on the other side. If the enemy has are more than his, then he makes peace with them.[1]

We all need fellowship and encouragement. This world is against us because we are followers of the Christ. If the enemy can not take us for himself, he wants to make us useless to God through sinfulness. Our witness is compromised by our being bound to sin. We must recognize that we cannot overcome sin of our own power. Our example Jesus, when tempted immediately relied on the Word of God.[2] The enemy wants us alone. Do not fall for this trick. Our Lord is married to the Church we all are the Church, not some building or cathedral. Even Christ continued to go to the synagogue and temple with its hypocrites and thieves. The kingdom of God is not a country, it is people, people who follow His Words and commands from all over the world. Surround yourself with these people and your desire to sin will diminish. Will these people be perfect? Absolutely not! But they just like you are at least seeking the truth and the will of God. You will be surprised how temptation lessens as you remove yourself from those worldly people and influences that you currently surround yourself with.

God has forced us to be with one another by giving each one of us only a piece of the truth. No one person has all the truth, could you imagine one human with that much power. We have come together each of us with our piece of the truth and when we put them together we have a better understanding of the truth and the true nature of God. We all need each other, it was designed that way by God.

“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one
body-whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves
or free-and all have been made to drink into
one spirit. For in fact the body is not one
member but many.”
1 Corinthians 12:13,14

Though we are many, we are still one. We are made one by the Spirit. It does not matter where we come from, where we live, or how much we make in the eyes of God we are the same. It does not matter how we got here just that we are all here together now. We should stop concentrating on our differences and concentrate on our similarities. I guarantee you that we have more in common than we have different. It is alarming how we as a people are starting to discriminate against each other. Is there not enough strife in this world without us turning on one another? Instead of turning on each other we should be lifting each other up in prayer and in deed. Our survival depends on one another, do not let the enemy succeed in dividing us. He has already been successful in dividing us by nation, race, and denomination. The scripture says we are one body through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Let us live as one body. We will never be able to stem this epidemic of fornication and sexual sin without each others help. We need to be not only one body, but one mind. We need the mind to stop our selfish sinful ways. That mind can only come from Christ.

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[1] Luke 16:31,32

[2] Matthew

Chapter 9, Part 16

“Not by might or power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of host.”
Zechariah 4:6

We overcome temptation not by our might or by our power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. The tempter does not fear our logic, our common sense, or us. He fears one thing only and that is God, Almighty. The Bible says that the demons know that God is there, they just do not worship Him.[1] My mental acknowledgment of God gets me nothing. I must surrender to Him. In time every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess to God.[2] His Spirit knows no bounds or limitations, the only reason we succumb to the sins of the flesh is because we do not allow His Spirit to work in our lives.

The scriptures say that our condemnation is in the fact that God has sent light into the world, but men loved darkness over the light.[3] We preferred the darkness because our deeds were evil. We do not want to follow God, we want to follow our own perverted pleasures. We would rather fornicate than to allow the Spirit of God to overcome it. Let’s face it, we sin because our flesh enjoys it. If we did not enjoy it we would not be doing it. There is no temptation in a root canal, because it is very painful. The reason there is temptation in fornication and sexual perversion is because we think it is fun. The pleasure though is short-lived, but the consequences can last a lifetime. For many of us we are willing to give up all that God has for us for the temporary pleasures of sin. On the one hand God is offering us the world and we accept instead a few moments of selfish pleasure in fornication. Choose God that you may live.

“Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people
of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.”
Hebrews 11:25

We must always remember that sins pleasures are always passing. They never last. Those who trust in pleasure, money and worldly wisdom will find that they are standing in quick sand. They are trusting in false idols and in the end God will prove their foolishness. We as a people have sold out our heritage of God for the false idol of pleasure. The entire world today is about pleasure. You are not living if you are not seeking and getting pleasure. Nothing else in this world matters but pleasure seeking. Look at the television, movies, and music industries their only message is selfish pleasure. Seek your own desires and pleasures with no thought to the consequences. The youth of today have been given the mistaken belief that life has no consequences that they are able to do whatever they want without any repercussions. Well that is just not true. There may not be repercussions on television, but there are in God’s world.

The little struggles that we go through now are nothing compared to what God has in store for us.[4] We have been conditioned that life is about pleasure, if you are not feeling pleasure take something or do something until you are. Modern life is trying to lose its discomfort, well God has a purpose for discomfort. It is to develop our reliance and trust in Him and to build our character. Imagine life with only pleasure. Imagine a diet of only your favorite food day after day, I think that in a short time it will no longer be your favorite. It would be good for the first few meals, but eventually you would become sick of it, just as you would if pleasure were your only goal, what a hollow and shallow existence that would be. If you spend all your time doing what you want to do you will have no time to do what God has for you to do. Where have we gotten this misguided idea that all life is about our selfish pleasure? Those of us who choose to follow God should realize that our Lord told us that following Him would require sacrifice. Trials and tribulations build perfection in us through the working of the Spirit of God. These trials build up our faith in the Father. As we overcome temptations and trials our focus narrows to the One who gave us the power to overcome.

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome
them, because He who is in you is greater than
he who is in the world.”
1 John 4:4

We will not overcome, we have already overcome through the Christ and His redemptive work. God has empowered us with everything we need to defeat the temptations of this world. It is time for us to claim our victorious lives and stop clinging to those defeated lives. You can overcome any temptation the world has to bring you if you only remember where your power lies, it is not in your own power or strength but in the Spirit of God.

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[1] James 2:19

[2] Romans 14:11

[3] John 3:19

[4] 2 Corinthians 4:17

Chapter 9, Part 15

Resist Temptation

“No temptation has overtaken you except as is common to man;
but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted
beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will
also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
1 Corinthians 10:13

Temptation comes to us in many ways and in many forms. Throughout the scriptures there is example after example of people carried away by sexual temptation. People who were not willing to take the way of escape God had provided them. They only saw the short term selfish pleasure laid out in front of them. Temptation can seem overwhelming at times, but remember our Lord faced it time and again with victory. Temptation never takes the first no for an answer, it continues to press us. Because of its continuous pressure we feel that we can not resist it. That the temptation we are pressed by is somehow greater than anyone else’s. The scripture says that our temptation is no greater or less than what the rest of the world faces. If you want to know what is wrong in the world look into your own heart, because we all face the same temptations. It has to be that way, God does not grade on a curve.

Why can we not bear the temptations that come at us? Why do we not see the way of escape that God has provided? Because for many of us escape is not what we are looking for, we are looking to fall. We have fallen so many times in our lives; we only know failure. We have lived defeated lives for so long and all we see around us is other defeated lives that we do not know what living victorious lives is. Temptation to us seem insurmountable and for some of us it is, but there is one who has already overcome the tempter. That one is Jesus Christ. If you want to resist temptation and live victorious lives, leave everything at the cross. Leave all your lusts and sinful thoughts at the cross of His holiness. There is freedom at the cross. The freedom at the cross is death. “If we are dead to sin how can we continue to sin”, the Apostle Paul asks?[1]

Many of us do not stay dead to sin. It is like when we were kids and we would play shoot ‘em up games, there were always the kids who would get shot and not want to stay dead. Remember you would have to stay dead for sometime or until the next game, but there was always someone who could not wait. Well unfortunately, there are many people who refuse to stay dead to sin; they have feet that are quick to sin. The psalmist says that feet that are quick to run to sin are one of the things that God hates.[2] He hates it because it shows a lack a faith in Him. You do not give God the opportunity to remove the temptation. For some it is not the lack of faith that God can overcome the temptation, it is that they do not want Him to.

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil
and he will flee from you.”
James 4:7

The scripture tells us that the way we resist the devil is by submitting to God. The way the Lord resisted the tempter was through the Word of God. He did not try to use His common sense, He immediately submitted to God. If we want victory over not just the temptation of fornication, but any temptation we need to submit to God. We need to submit our thoughts, our desires, and our wills to His perfect plan for us. If we submit to God the devil will flee. The devil flees not because of us or our power, but because of God. All creatures are subject to God. In God is our victory. We live victoriously through His Son who died for our sinfulness. By submitting to the Father we will find the temptations lose their frequency and their power. The reason temptations appear so overpowering is because we have not resisted them, we have no knowledge or experience for overcoming them. God allows us temptation for His glory, through our submission to Him. We glorify the living God by submitting to His divine power to overcome, not by relying on our wisdom. Remember Eve when she was tempted by Satan in the garden, she tried to outsmart the serpent with her own wisdom. That did not work out to good for her or Adam. If she had submitted to God, God would have defeated the serpent again. Temptation overcomes us by counting on our pride; it tells us you do not need to call on God for this. You can rely on your own wisdom to defeat it. When have you ever through your own wisdom and power defeated temptation? Surrender to God and win.

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[1] Romans

[2] Psalms

Chapter 9, Part 14

“For My people are foolish, they have not known Me,
they are foolish children, and they have no
understanding, they are wise to do evil, but to
do good they have no knowledge.”
Jeremiah 4:22

We are a foolish people; we have lost our sense of righteousness. The scriptures tell us they will lose their understanding and their knowledge to do good. We have turned doing evil into an art form. We have devised new ways to do every evil thing; it seems that with every new technology we have incorporated it into our depravity. The scriptures also say that adults will behave as children, not just children but foolish children. We should stop the foolishness and return to God. We have lost not only our knowledge of God, but more importantly our fear of God. We walk the earth as if we were here for ourselves. “There are none who understand, there are none who seek after God.”[1] If we change our thoughts and seek after God, we will be healed. We must learn to hate sin as God hates sin. We should change how we think about our own conduct in relation to God. Let us take the beam out of our own eye before we start trying to do laser surgery on our brothers. It is not about not tolerating sin in others, it is about not tolerating it in ourselves. We want to be brutally honest with everyone else, but not with ourselves. We must learn to see ourselves as God sees us, full of our sinfulness. Not just holding up our “righteous” actions and hiding our dirty laundry.

God wants to heal His people, it is time to allow Him to. Are we not tired of living this way? It is time for a rebirth, a rebirth of our hearts, minds, and spirits.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is
good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
Romans 12:2

We must begin to throw off the worlds thinking with its perversion of humanity. We should allow the Spirit of God to transform or renew our minds. Conformity to this world results in death and destruction. We begin to lose our distaste for sin; we begin to accept it as inevitable. Our aversion to sin lessens as we take on more of the world’s characteristics and less of our Saviors. We should change our plans and thoughts for God’s thoughts. He has a perfect plan for us, but He never makes us accept it. We always have a choice. If we choose His way, we will know what is good and acceptable. We should remember that the world does not change us overnight, a slow eroding effect breaks us down little by little. Before we know it things we use to never allow our kids to do are now allowed, because “everybody is doing it” or “their parents let them do it”. We know how it works, we have heard and given all the excuses. We should love our children enough not to let them grow up that way. Just as the Father loves us to much to leave us the way He found us. We should mature in the faith and stop following any and every false doctrine and worldly value that comes along. The world is full of philosophies and some of them sound “logical”, but if it goes against the revealed Word of God it is false. Our spirit should be guiding us not our logic. I realize how difficult for some this will be, my favorite television character use to be Spock from Star Trek. I admired that everything was always about logic forget your feelings, no emotions. But when I surrendered to God I gave up my logic first mentality. I had to learn to live by my faith, not by sight or my thoughts. God is not looking for a mental connection or a “Vulcan mind probe”. He is a spirit and He comes to us in our spirits, not our minds. You cannot think your way to God.

“Do not be deceived: Evil company
corrupts good habits”
1 Corinthians 15:33

Finally, as we change our thinking, we should also change some of our places and friends. It does us no good to change, but go back to our old places and friends. If we continue to hang out with our old friends, it is very good odds that we will fall. If we have friends that are fornicating, we must remove ourselves from this temptation. We should not play around with this or any other sin remove yourselves from the temptation. How many times do “so-called friends” pressure us into sin? We should remember that misery loves company. Those people whose lives are in turmoil want to put others lives into turmoil. We as a people have a history of keeping others down. The “lobster syndrome” every time someone attempts to change or raise his or her lives there is always someone trying to pull them down. When lobsters are in a tank, every time one tries to climb out the other lobsters pull him back into the tank. Let us stop the “hating” of our brothers success, let us stop the envy and jealousy.

We should change our thinking, our hearts, and most times the company we keep. Remember temptation lurks behind every turn. If you have already succumbed to the sin of fornication, then it will be very difficult to stop. If you have not begun, please do not start. Save yourself for yourself. You deserve a better life than the one that awaits you in that life of sin. God certainly thinks you are worth more.

Part of changing our thoughts is the realization that we have gotten to the point where we are confusing love and sex. The two are not the same. We speak of making love to people we do not even know. How can I make love to someone I am not in love with? For many of us we believe everyone we love we have to have sex with them. Do not get me wrong the act of sex can be beautiful at the right time and in the right context. Not every person that God places in my life is for me to have sex with. Many times I was to be a friend or confidant, instead I assumed because I was attracted to them that there had to be sex involved. By my having sex with them I polluted or corrupted the purpose for which God allowed the relationship. I put my will over the will of God. How many times have we had great relationships with people only to have those relationships ruined by the act of sex? Sex always brings another dimension to any relationship. Some people God places in my life to use me to give them direction or a word. Instead of giving them that direction or word, I give them sex and thereby destroying what influence I might have been able to have in their lives. Just because you love someone or someone says they love you that does not mean you are suppose to be with them in that manner. Look to God for direction and have patience. If it is of God, no power in heaven or on this earth can prevent it from happening. Learn to be friends first and then go from there. For most of my life, I was never able to have female friends because I kept having sex with them. Once that occurred that would inevitably end the friendship. We are so much more than sex organs and have so much more to offer each other. Let the true love of God reign in our lives and in our relationships. Sex is such a small part of our daily lives. Don’t believe the hype! We are sexual beings and God has provided us with that pleasure; but only to be experienced in the proper context. Even then, how much time out of the day do we honestly spend having sex? I would venture to say except in extreme cases very little. If aliens were to just monitor our television programs and music they would probably conclude that sex is all we do. Do not let the ruler of this world mislead you; we are more than food, clothes, and sexual pleasure.

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[1] Romans 3:11

Chapter 9, Part 13

Change Thoughts

“…casting down arguments and every high thing that
exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing
every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”
2 Corinthians 10:5

Overcoming fornication in our society is going to be difficult, it will require a change in our thoughts. Somehow, through the work of the ruler of this world fornication has lost all of its stigma. Not only is it not condemned, but in some circles it is promoted as an alternative lifestyle to marriage. This says that somewhere along the way our thoughts have been changed. We now accept as fact that our young people cannot stop fornicating, or for that matter neither can we. We have accepted defeat, without even putting up a fight. The scripture says that we must bring every thought of ours into the captivity of Christ. We should develop the mind of Christ. There has been a recent campaign that ask, “What would Jesus do?” The Bible states that it is not only `what He would have done, but what would He think.

Our thinking has caused us major problems. The world promotes “common sense”, but common sense is not of God. God provides wisdom to His people, common sense is of the world. Common sense tells us that our children are going to fornicate and there is nothing we can do about it, so we must make the best of it. Instead of stressing abstinence we need to stress safe sex practices and condoms. God does not see sin that way. He does not see it as we do not have a choice. We choose everyday either to obey God or not to obey.

Why are my thoughts so important? Why do I need to change them? Our Lord says that if we think about something, we may as well have already done it.[1]Before we do anything in this world, we think about it, it may just be a fraction of a second, but we do think about it. Therefore, if we think about something long enough, we will usually do it. The message of Christ is that our thoughts dictate our actions. If my thoughts are evil and sinful so will be my behavior, but if my thoughts are under the obedience of Christ my behavior should be also. Therefore, my thoughts must change for my behavior to change. With no change of heart or thought, there will be no change of behavior.

“and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put
on the new man, which was created according to God, in
true righteousness and holiness.”
Ephesians 4:23, 24

In the new testament there are a number of passages that speak about getting a new mind, new heart, and a new spirit. That in order for us to be able to obey God we must have a change of mind. We come to rely on our earthly mind, with its earthly wisdom. There are those among us who believe that technology is the solution to all of our problems. That no matter what we do today, by the time it causes a problem we will have come up with the solution through technology. Whether that be environmental, physical, spiritual, or social. For some technology is their god. But this is a false idol and will go the way of all false idols. It will leave them without a foundation to stand on. Many of us have come to rely so much on technology that we have stopped relying on God. But it is all distractions to take our minds off of our true purpose for being here on this earth. Our minds love the toys and the distractions because the minds we have are carnal minds. They seek the things of this world, all the nice gadgets we see paraded on the television. We have lost touch with things of the Spirit, the more we rely on technology the less we rely on God. Our spirituality has been reduced to astrology or some “psychic” hot line. You have people who will not miss their horoscope, but do not have time to see what the Word of God has to say to them that day. They are more concerned about witchcraft and all that than what their Creator has to say.

The minds of our people, our young people especially are being corrupted by the influence of the world, but also by a lack of counter-balance. They are constantly bombarded with these seductive images on the television and movie screen. Because we as men were not there for them in their childhoods and formative years their has been no one to say what is foolishness. They are being misled by the lies of this world, especially that there is no God or that He does not care about them personally. Our youth have been brainwashed by this “gospel of easy money” being promoted so vividly in movies, television, and in some cases the church. You do not have to work or go to school, just sling dope or take what someone else has. You do not have to get married or treat people especially our women with respect. You do not have to respect authority, not even the ultimate authority of God. And, the most insidious of all is you do not need to respect yourself.

“And He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,
and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come
and strike the earth with a curse.”
Malachi 4:6

I pray and claim this promise of God for all of our people. Unfortunately, a lot of our fathers have turned their hearts from their children. You have men who are not even willing to claim their children, let alone support them. All you have to do is watch one of those daytime talk shows when they do a “Whose the daddy?” show to witness the lack of love these young people have for themselves and each other. The young men talk about those young women so bad it breaks my heart to hear it. They felt that way even when they were lying down with those women and those women still allowed them to lay with them. How desperate were they for affection from a man, any man. The thing that the men do not get is that while the boys are hurt by their absence so are the little girls. Even their efforts to find a relationship with men are distorted; they choose to be with men who could care less about them. We, as their fathers have a responsibility for this.

We must change this mentality of everybody is a “playa”. This thinking is destroying us as a people. There is no loyalty or commitment to one another. Everyone is out to get what he or she can from each other. It is time for us to grow up as a people. This is childishness, only children think the world revolves around their personal pleasures. These are the values being taught our children to only be concerned about your own selfish pleasure at whatever the cost to others. We treat each other as objects and not as people. We should remember who we are and whose we are. Do you not know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, a child of the living God?[2] This is not the purpose of our bodies. Fornication is a sin against not just others, it is a sin against yourself. You are worth more than momentary sensory pleasures, you are worth Christ dying for.[3] This is not only how much He loves you but it also how much God wanted you reconciled back into a relationship with Him. Fathers love your children more than you love yourself. We have for too long been only concerned about ourselves. The world will never respect us until we began to put our children before ourselves. Everyone the world over seeks the best for their children, that their children will enjoy a better life than them. Do we desire that for our children and are we willing to do what it takes to make that a reality?

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[1] Matthew 5:28

[2] Romans 3:16

[3] Romans 5:8

Chapter 9, Part 12

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
2 Corinthians 3:17

Freedom from fornication and all forms of sin comes in the Spirit of the Lord. God gives us freedom from all sin; sin has been defeated. So why do we live such defeated lives? Maybe it is because we do not stay in the freedom that God gives us. We may be more comfortable in bondage than freedom. If there is freedom from God the only reason I am still in bondage is because I choose to stay in bondage. Who in their right mind would choose bondage over freedom. Let us look at human bondage, there were slaves who did not want freedom when emancipation came. For some reason they preferred the lack of responsibility of bondage. When we are in bondage (human) the master provides for the slave, all the slave has to do is follow the orders of the master. However with freedom comes responsibility. We have to make changes when freedom comes, we become responsible for ourselves and our own behavior.

We must find our freedom in the Lord and not in ourselves. Freedom in ourselves without God is only sin, for we are born in to our sin natures. It is only by living in the Spirit that we can find life. The Word says, “that we may have life and have it more abundantly.”[1] Before the freedom of living in the Spirit, I was only existing. I was living like an animal, just going through the motions of living. If you were like me you did not think about what you were doing, you just did it. We spend so much of our lives on automatic pilot, never realizing how are choices will effect our eternal consequences or not caring. “The consequences of sin is death.”[2]

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.
The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life.”
John 6:63

Following the flesh brings us nothing but problems as well as both a spiritual and physical death. The Bible speaks over and over how God communicates with men through His Spirit. The Scriptures tells us that the Spirit gives us life. So we see that the Spirit gives us guidance, freedom, and life. All the things we need to overcome our fleshly desires. There is no magic formula to resolving this epidemic of fornication and lawlessness that we find ourselves in, it requires using the solutions that God has already given us. We first change our own behavior and then through us the world. It is going to require a complete change from all of us. It is the Spirit that brings about our change of heart and change of mind. It is time to stop relying on our own selfish desires and “common sense” wisdom. Let the Spirit live in you and it will unleash the power of God to overcome the world and all of its passions.

“The spirit of Egypt will fail in it’s midst”
Isaiah 19:3

Just as we have individual spirits we also as a people have a collective spirit. Right now our spirit as a people is not good. It is weighed down by our rebelliousness against God. Our deliberate disregard for Him and His statues has caused our spirits to fail. The spirit of our people was a beacon to people in our early times here in America. It inspired many other people not only in this country, but also in other nations. Despite our circumstances of slavery and prejudice, we stood together and we stood strong. We relied on the Father and He delivered us. We should once again bring together our collective spirit and uplift it to the Lord. The spirit of our people can only be elevated by our individually choosing to follow God. Through the process of individual choice, we reconcile our people back to God. There is a remnant that God has left among all of His people. Those of us that are left among the black people of America[3] The Christ says, “that there is no greater love than to die for ones friends.”[4] This people requires some of us to die to our flesh to save them. Are you willing? Just as some of us were willing to die for our equality, some of us must die for our reconciliation. Not a physical death, but a death to ourselves and our own selfish desires. We as a people made sacrifices for worldly causes (voting, integration). Are there any of us willing to sacrifice for our spiritual cause? We should begin the process of redemption through our faith. The redemption has already been done, we just need to accept it through our faith. Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for a people, for your people? The apostle Paul said that, “scarcely would anyone die for a righteous man, yet for a good man one might dare to die.” ”[5] The Christ says, “that there is no greater love than to die for ones friends.”[6] This people requires some of us to die to our flesh to save them. Are you willing? Just as some of us were willing to die for our equality, some of us must die for our reconciliation. Not a physical death, but a death to ourselves and our own selfish desires. We as a people made sacrifices for worldly causes (voting, integration). Are there any of us willing to sacrifice for our spiritual cause?

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[1] John 10:10

[2] Romans 6:23

[3] Romans 5:7

[4] John 15:3

[5] Romans 5:7

[6] John 15:3

Chapter 9, Part 11

Live In The Spirit

“Then I will give them one heart and I will put a new
spirit within them and take the stony heart out of
their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh.”
Ezekiel 11:19

God says in order to serve Him we will need a new heart and a new spirit. Our old heart has been turned to stone by our own sinfulness and the cruelty of the world, as well as our spirits. Our old spirits are incapable of following and worshiping God. They are corrupted by our sinful nature inherited from Adam. They do not seek the things of God, but the things of the world. That old spirit can never lead us to God it leads us to sin. The Scriptures say we must test all spirits, for not all spirits are of God.[1] There are many evil and false spirits in the world, sent out to mislead us away from God. Therefore, before we begin to live in the spirit we must make sure the spirit we are living in is the Spirit of God.

So how do we know what spirit is leading us? Or how do we test the spirits? The Word says, “by this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” Therefore, any spirit that preaches the Word incarnate is of God and any spirit that preaches the world is of the world. Many Christians are being led astray by the enemy using the spirit of the world. They preach the riches of this world over the righteousness of God. You can witness this in the fact that many believe that the ends justifies the means. If a false testimony or witness brings in converts then it is acceptable. Not that they would condone dishonesty per se; but if it furthers the call it is ok. They would rather blame those who expose such false testimony than to rebuke the ones who have given this false testimony. When we become truly born again how we do things becomes as important, if not more important as what we do. They have their “sacred cows”, they ignore the sin and focus on the messenger. Forget the fact some sin has occurred, for them the ends justifies the means. In the Kingdom of God, the means is the end. Our Lord taught us it is not what you do, it is how and why you do it.[2] He never used dishonesty to further His teachings why should we?

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
Galatians 5:16

The apostle Paul says the way to overcome the sins of the flesh is to live in the Spirit. How do we live in the Spirit? First, we have to have the Spirit. We receive the Spirit when we surrender our lives to God. When we confess the Lord with our mouths and believe in our hearts He was raised from the dead we shall be saved.[3] At that time we are given the baptism of the Holy Spirit.[4][5] Therefore, faith is the key to our unleashing His power. I walk in the Spirit by faith. I no longer rely on my logic, on the wisdom of the world, or on what the people on television say. I put my faith in the Living God and Him only. I seek Him in all my decision-making. This has been what God has desired from the beginning, if Adam and Eve had sought direction from the Father, we would probably not be here today. Nevertheless, they relied on their own thinking and we see how that worked out. We should allow that Spirit to Guide us. If we do He will lead us into all righteousness and away from sin. With all the people that have been baptized why, is the fornication epidemic still raging? The key to “walking” in the Sprit is faith; we have no power because we have no faith. The Lord said, “if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God”
Romans 8:16

God’s Spirit will touch our spirit and let us know that we are His. God sends out His Spirit for the purpose of guiding us. It is called the “Spirit of truth”.[6] He is to lead us into the truth. The truth is that we are the children of God, we are royalty. We are given the power to overcome the world and the sins of this world, even fornication. Let the Spirit of God transform you from a child of darkness into a child of light. Living in the Spirit is not something we do overnight. It is a matter of changing not only how we think and believe, but how we live. We are no longer to live for ourselves but for the Father. Our personal selfish desires no longer rule over us. We are no longer slaves to our passions and foolish pleasures but slaves to righteousness.[7] The Spirit, if allowed will compel us to follow righteousness. Throughout the scriptures the Spirit is spoken of as compelling whom God chooses to righteousness. It will compel us if we get out of the way and surrender to the Spirit of God. The Word says we are children of light, we need to walk as such.[8]

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[1] 1 John 4:1

[2] Matthew 6:16

[3] Romans 10:9

[4] Acts 1:5

[5] Matthew 17:21

[6] John 15:26

[7] Romans 6:18

[8] Ephesians 5:8

Chapter 9, Part 10

“Your Word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.”
Psalm 119:105

The Word of God guides us, it leads us in the direction we should travel. The Word and the Spirit are our guides to the Father. The Father does not provide guidance, He provides guides. The two will never contradict the revealed Word of God or vice versa. God will never be divided against God.[1] This world is full of darkness and evil lurks around every turn, but the Word is there for us to use. I pray that you will use it now. Let it guide you into the knowledge of the Father. The Word said, “No one can come to the Father, except through Me.”[2] If you want to repent from fornicating and stay pure for the Father you must have the Word. If you want to be able to resist the lure of the devil and stay pure for the Father, you will need the Word.

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God a
worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the Word of truth.”
2 Timothy 2:15

We are called to be not just readers and hearers of the Word, but studiers of the Word. We are to be able to present our selves to God unashamed because we have used our time wisely. Not with the distractions of daily life, but with study. Learning the Word, who the Word is, and why was the Word sent here. To be diligent is to persevere in study, to work carefully to learn. Are we actually reading and studying the Word? Or do we base our concepts and beliefs on others interpretations? The reason you have no power is that you do not know the Word. The modern Church and believers are being led away by the “easy gospel”. They have not taken the time to find out for themselves what God’s Word actually says. What did Christ actually teach? Be grounded in the Word and you will not fall for the false teachings and prophets.

The Word of God is foolishness to the non-believer, so how can we as believers allow the world to dictate to us how we should live. Do not allow yourselves to be deceived by the world. You are called by the Word to be set apart from the world. The trouble is that many modern Christians are not only in the world they are of the world. They have allowed the mores of the world to creep into their belief system. Remember the enemy does not have to get you way off, just a little off. Do not seek advice from a dying world. It may sound logical, but if it is not from the Word it is not from God.

The lure of fornication and sexual perversion is so strong today. It permeates everything in our culture. It is used to sell everything from hamburgers to toothpaste. If you are not “doing it”, you are not cool. You are missing out. You cannot turn on the television or go to the movies without promiscuity rearing its ugly head. According to a recent study at least 50% of our young teens (14-15) have already had sexual intercourse.[3] That number should be alarming to us as parents, people, and as a society. But it hardly gets a rise even from many evangelicals, there are more important issues. Well, I am here to say that this is unacceptable to our God. These figures represent the failure of all of us who were given the responsibility to raise these children. We are not training up our children they are raising themselves, many of these children with little or no parental supervision. In our efforts to get the “American Dream”, we have sacrificed our children. We truly have more, but we actually have less. The Word speaks of a man gaining the whole world but losing his soul.[4] The Father will judge those parents who have sacrificed their children for more of the world.

“and that from childhood you have known the Holy
Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus”
2 Timothy 3:15

We are to be taught the Word from childhood. According to most modern Christians, teaching our children about how to succeed in the world is more important than giving them the teachings of God. It is more important for them to be materially successful than spiritually successful. And then we wonder why they make the choices they make. What other choices can they make with the information we are providing them. We are allowing the enemy unfettered access to our children. We are providing them with little or no defense except for catch phrases and slogans such as “just say no”. How can we expect them to say no when we do not say no? It is time for parents to step up and be parents once again. Your children do not need more friends they need parents. It’s amazing how so many look to the world for advice on how to raise their children. The ruler of this world wants your children, is it any wonder you are getting misinformation. The more advice the world gives the worst the circumstances become for our children. We have more children drinking, more children taking drugs, and more children pregnant than ever before. And the numbers are going to get worse because we have not mobilized to fight this epidemic. It is not going to go away on its own it only gets worse.

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[1] John 8:36

[2] John 14:6

[3] USA Today 10/19/05

[4] Matthew 16:26

Chapter 9, Part 9

The Word

“Now when the tempter came to Him, he said ‘If you are
the Son of God, command these stones become bread.’
But He answered and said, ‘It is written, Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:3,4

Our Lord demonstrates to us how we are to deal with temptation. When placed in a situation of temptation three times He dealt with it the same way every time. He used the Word of God. Throughout the scriptures the Word of God is described as a sword[1], but also as the Son of God.[2] There is power in the Word, the scriptures say that it lives as well. It is alive in the lives of believers. The hearing of the Word changes lives. Not the speakers eloquence or mastery of the language, but the Word itself. If you are a preacher and your skills as a speaker is the reason for your success, then you are in fact doing a disservice to your listeners and to the Kingdom. The Kingdom has and will never be about any one person, but about God. The Kingdom is not in word, but in the power of the Spirit.

Our first mistake when confronted with temptation is to try to use our intellect. We are going to outsmart the enemy. The enemy has been here since the beginning of time. How long have you been here? You are going to outsmart the devil who has been with God from early on, with your few years of knowledge. He is the one who taught you everything you know about sin. The Christ did not try to outsmart Satan with his intellect, even though he had all wisdom. He went immediately to the Word of God. Satan had no defense against the Word. When we find ourselves in a tempting situation, we should try to use the Word and we will witness how the devil will flee from us. We have not taught our children to use the power that God has given them, because we do not use it. God has placed all the tools we need to overcome any situation, the problem is we do not use them. We fall for the tricks of Satan to use out intellect. You will be like God. You do not need God’s help for this.

“Your Word I have hidden in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.”
Psalm 119:11

The psalmist talks about placing the word of God deep within his heart to prevent him from committing sin. The Word of God has that power to free us from the temptation of sin. The problem is that the majority of us, evangelicals included either do not know the Word or we do no use it. I cannot win a battle with what I do not have or do not use. Are you hiding the Word of God in your heart? How much time are you spending in the study of the Word. A fire extinguisher on the wall does me no good for a fire if I do not take it and use it. God gives me the tools, but if I do not use them who is at fault? What is the power of the Word? In the beginning God brought everything into existence by His Word, then God said.[3] And that Word was none other than the Christ.[4] The Word carries the power of God that has overcome all the forces of evil, even death. There have been countless incidents where believers were confronted by evil and just the simple invoking of God’s Word caused evil to flee.

If you want to stop fornicating, if you want to stay pure then learn and use the Word of God. We of ourselves do not have the power to overcome sin. That power was given to the Word and that Word is Christ. As long as we continue to rely on our own strength and abilities, we will lead defeated lives. Why do we continue to live like peasants when we are children of the Most High God? We continue to live defeated lives when we do not have to. We live defeated lives by choice. We choose not to use what God has freely given to us. The question then becomes do we really want to live victoriously and do we want victory for our brothers and sisters? Victory is not coming, victory is here! God said, “His Word will not come back to Him empty, but will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent.[5] That purpose is to free all those who are captive, to recover that which was lost.[6] Do not stay lost. Do not continue to live in spiritual rags when the Father has the robe of Christ to cover you with.

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[1] Ephesians 6:17

[2] John 1:1

[3] Genesis 1:

[4] John 1:1

[5] Isaiah 55:11

[6] John 8:36

Chapter 9, Part 8

“Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so
that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you
all the transgressions which you have committed, and
get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.”
Ezekiel 18:30, 31

According to the scriptures in order for us to remain repentant we will need a new heart and a new spirit. Why is this necessary? Because our old hearts and spirits have been corrupted and perverted. Due to our worldliness, our love of this world’s pleasures, we are of no use to God. God cannot use us if we love the world or the things of the world.[1] Thank God that He loves us too much to leave us the way we are. One of the problems with the “easy gospel” is that the only thing we have to do to be reconciled with God is just to confess our sins, no change of heart is required. There is a difference between confession and repentance. Confession merely is an acknowledgment of what we have done, our sins. This is important but it is only half of the equation. One must go to the next step, which is repentance. We should go put away those transgressions, or sins. We can acknowledge we are fornicators all day long, but at some point we must begin to turn away from this behavior. Acknowledging our sin to God is like us acknowledging our image on a surveillance video. It is already known that this is us, we must take the next step and we can with the help of God. If the Spirit of the Living God is in you, you will change. We can delay it, but we cannot prevent it. God’s will; cannot be stopped. Our fighting against it only brings us more pain. God has a new life for us, as represented by the new heart and spirit, but for some unknown reason we want to continue living a powerless life.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise
as some count slackness, but is longsuffering
towards us, not willing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance.”
2 Peter 3:9

Our God loves us so much He would let us die in our sins, He wants to allow us every opportunity to put them away and come to Him. We should thank Him, not only those of us who are saved but also those who are unsaved. He is being so very patient with this sinful people as we continue to parade our fornicating ways in front of His Holy presence. However, the time is drawing near when He is going to come for His people. At this very day He is calling us to be holy, because He is holy.[2] I pray that we repent while there is still time. No one knows the hour of His coming, but the good servant will be ready whenever that day is.[3] If we are busy doing His will then it will not matter when He comes. Beware of those who come prophesying the exact time of His arrival they are not of Him. If we are not caught up in our sinfulness it will not matter what day it is we will be ready.

“Then God saw there works, that they turned
from their evil way; and God relented from the
disaster that He said He would bring upon them,
and He did not do it.”
Jonah 3:10

The city of Nineveh was a very sinful and rebellious place, some would say comparable to our current society. But when confronted with their sinfulness they repented by the grace of God. God was so moved by their change of heart that He allowed Himself to be changed. He did not do what He had said He would. The lesson for us today is that if we forsake our evil ways, God will restore us to our place of fellowship with Him. If we stop laying with anybody and everybody, God will forgive and forget. However, unlike the city of Nineveh we hear the call of God, the pronouncement of His condemnation of our fornicating ways and ignore Him. I wish I could stress enough the thought that the sin for us, is that we refuse to let God do what we know He can do. We refuse to let God change us. We will not use the power that God has given us to change.

If we repent of this evil and live in the spirit with God the societal ills that we suffer from will be healed. Our children will stop killing each other, the drugs will be removed from our streets, and we will be respected as a people. This is only a small partial list of things God is waiting and willing to do for us. Some would say that I am being too naive and oversimplifying the problems. That our problems are much more complicated than that. I say thank God that He has used simple things to confound the wise of this world.[4] Do not be fooled by the enemy into thinking that we are going to solve this by intelligence and common sense. All sin can only be defeated by the Spirit of God which dwells within all those who are true believers and followers of God. God is the only one who can heal this people. The question then becomes, do we want to be healed?

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[1] 1 John 2:15

[2] Leviticus 11:44

[3] Matthew 24:36

[4] Matthew 11:25

Chapter 9, Part 7

Repent

“If My people who are called by my name will humble
themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from
their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and
forgive their sin and heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14

What does repent mean? Repent is to feel bad enough about our behavior to want to change it. The Spirit of God convicts us and we acknowledge our true nature. We accept that in and of ourselves we can do no good thing. Meaning, if you are in a fornicating relationship, you stop it. You do not try to justify it, you give it up. All those who are living together move out and get their own places, until marriage. There are people who are going to read this and know that God has been convicting them deep in their spirits about this very thing. Because of your selfish desires you have ignored it. How can you claim to represent the Living God and be living like this and expecting God to bless this union. The scriptures say that you are crucifying Christ all over again and putting Him to shame.[1] Christ has already died for you, so that you may overcome this and every other sin. It is not anything that you have earned it is something you accept. It is already done; either you accept it or you do not. It is like the teaching Christ gave to the young rich man. He told him to sell all that he had period. He did not try to coax him or convince him, He simply stated it and allowed him to choose.[2] So it is with us the Spirit simply convicts us and then it is up to us to choose.

True repentance comes when the damage to our relationship to God bothers us more than the damage to our relationship to men. Make no mistake sin damages my relationship with God. It puts a cloud between God and me. I can be of no value to God if I am living in sin. Many Christians today believe that they can be unfaithful to God in some areas of their lives and faithful in others. As if obeying God is something you can negotiate. The scriptures say “I desire faithfulness, not sacrifice, says the LORD”.[3] We have this foolish belief that because God needs us or loves us that we can do whatever we want and He still has to use and keep us. This thinking fails to understand that it is not our efforts that accomplishes anything. Consider all the great efforts of man to end hunger in the world or poverty. How are those great plans working out? It is God who does the accomplishing.

We miss true repentance when all we become is remorseful for being caught or for having made stupid mistakes and feeling disgusted. There is a point in everyones life sinner or saint when we realize that we do not do sin, but that we are sin. That we are born into a sinful nature and it is only the redemptive work of Christ that allows us to stand before our Creator. None of our efforts produce redemption, not even being sorry for our actions. We should get over our proper goodness and see ourselves as God sees us. When that state is reached you will want to be the opposite of what you were, but again by the grace of God.

“Come now let us reason together, “says the LORD, though your
sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they
are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing
and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.”
Isaiah 1:18

As the scripture says, God would like nothing better than to forgive us our sins and to renew His fellowship relationship with us. All He ask is that we acknowledge, confess, repent, and become willing to obey His Word. This deadly spiral that we are on can only be broken by the power of God. Only by the Spirit of God is sin overcome, we are not able to resist without help. This sin is so ingrained now in our culture and daily lives that only by the power of God will it end. So entrenched is the sin of fornication in our culture that we no longer even think twice when we hear of people living together without the benefit of marriage or when we see young unwed women with multiple children from different men. It has become commonplace in our community and there are few voices decrying this situation. Only God can forgive sin and renew our covenant relationship with Him. The Bible says, “that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags to God”.[4][5] We of ourselves cannot save ourselves, therefore all of our trust and faith must be in Christ. As Job stated, “I know that my redeemer lives and that in the end, He will stand on the earth.”

Repentance is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Throughout the teachings of Christ, the message was and to this day continues to be repent and receive the Kingdom of God.[6] Our repentance is completed when we acknowledge what God through Christ Jesus has done for us. Someone died in our place pure and simple and God wants us to acknowledge that fact and not skirt around the issue. We are not to believe that we were innocent or that our behavior was not that bad, but that someone took our place on the sacrificial altar. So much of the world’s daily message is in denying and refuting this simple fact. If we accept what God has done, there comes a responsibility. We should change, we must repent. God’s saving grace only makes sense in that He is able to take an evil man and change him into a righteous man. It makes no sense in the circumstance of taking an almost righteous or a good man and making him better.

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[1] Hebrews 5:6

[2] Mark 10:21

[3] Hosea 6:6

[4] Isaiah 64:6

[5] Job 19:25

[6] Matthew 4:17