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 6

Confession Of Sin

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:19

Confession of our sinfulness is a must to overcome this epidemic. Those who have given themselves over to fornication must confess their sinfulness and return to the teachings and authority of Christ. Let those who have sinned, stop sinning. Is there any doubt that fornication is a sin? So why do we continue in sin that grace may abound.[1] God forbid. We who are saved are supposed to be dead to sin, dead to the old man or woman. We are supposed to be new creations.[2] Yet we keep sinning. Why do we keep giving the old man CPR? We keep him on life support again and again. The Word says if I come before God and confess I will be not only forgiven, but also cleansed.

In confessing our sinfulness to God, the first thing we have to understand is that our confessions are not for God. The scriptures say that the “eyes of the LORD” are in every place and they see everything.[3] So why do I need to confess what God already knows? No. So some would ask why we need to confess at all. God already knows everything. The confession process is to help increase our faith relationship with God. Who we trust we confess our secrets to. If we do not trust someone, we do not tell them our secrets. We do not confide in strangers. For many people that is their relationship with God, they are strangers. They may know the Word of God, but they do not know God. As our relationship with God increases He begins to convict us of our sins on a deeper level. This forces us to do one of two things: either we run away in shame and continue to sin or we run to God and confess our sinfulness.

Confession also begins the process of transfer of trust from ourselves to God. As we trust more and more in God our willingness to hide from Him who we are diminishes; as if I could hide from Him anyway.[4] If we are to follow and obey God, we should start trusting in Him. We must become as little children. I often use the example of a parent leading a small child across a busy highway, the child will not question the wisdom of the parent even if they do not understand the situation. Though there are cars speeding by, the child will rely on and trust the parent. This is the type of faith that God is desiring from us. To offer Him blind faith. Why we as humans feel entitled to an explanation from God is beyond my comprehension. It is as if Gods every little movement must be run past us for our approval or acceptance. This blind faith only comes from total faith and trust in God.[5] Remember Jesus Christ told Peter, “What is that to you? You follow Me.”[6] We do not get to ask questions, we only get to follow if we choose.

“He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever
confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”
Proverbs 28:13

Finally confession begins the practice of loosening the hold of the “old man”. As long as we pretend we have no sins, we stay bound to the dead man. None of our ventures will succeed with this attitude. No matter how much we plan, or how smart we think we are it all comes to nothing. The reason it is so difficult to let go of the dead man is that so much of us is entwined in him. He was who we were for so long. If we acknowledge his failures, we acknowledge our reliance on ourselves is a failure. If we have not allowed God to create a new man to replace him, where do we go? If we are still in the old man when he dies we die. By coming to God in confession we begin the change of the old to the new. The old man held all of our secrets, all of our sins. The things we were going to take to the grave. As we confess these deep dark secrets and sins the hold of the old man is loosened little by little. The thing about God is that He only reveals what we can handle at that time, He never gives us too much. Why must I die to the old man before I can take up the new man? Because we only have one spirit and that spirit cannot be in two places. We have to choose where we put it, where we put our trust. The reason many of us do not change is because we do not trust in the new man. The old man (life) may be messed up, but we at least have life, we know that life. Without faith in the resurrecting power of God we do not think there will be a new life. And let’s face it who among us really wants to die? I say to live, you must die. There can be no resurrection until someone dies. We want to go to heaven, yet we do not want to die. Christ says we must be born again, that means something has died.[7] Do not be afraid to die little ones for our God is more than able to raise us up as He raised up Christ. In order for us to overcome this sinful epidemic we must all confess and be born again. We must all die to our past lives.

True confession comes from conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit. It is not by being troubled by the uneasiness of being reminded of the wrong I have done. It is a deep sense of remorse not towards my fellow man, but towards God. The psalmist declares, “Against You, and You only have I sinned.”[8] Are we responsible for the damage we do to our brothers? Of course, we are but it is the damage to our relationship to God that should trouble us the most. That relationship is our saving grace. It is more important than anything else we do in the Father’s name.

Confession begins the development of bringing that relationship with the Father back into its proper place. Before there can be repentance and forgiveness there must be confession. We must clean the slate and begin our relationship with God anew. God has done His part by providing the propitiation for our sins in Christ Jesus to bring our relationship back to its right state. Our work begins by acknowledging the fact that we needed a propitiation for our sins or that we are sinners. If we have committed no sin then there is no need for confession or redemption. Through conviction of the Holy Spirit confession is made to salvation.[9] I pray that the Holy Spirit may convict you of your sinfulness, that you heed the Word, and that you confess the Lord Jesus Christ.

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[1] Romans 6:11

[2] 1 Corinthians

[3] Proverbs

[4] Psalm 139:7,8

[5] Genesis 18:17

[6] John 21:22

[7] John 3:3

[8] Psalms 51:4

[9] Romans 10:10

Chapter 9, Part 3

Prayer

“Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always
ought to pray and not lose heart.”
Luke 18:1

The next tool to overcome this epidemic is prayer. For some reason many in the modern church and many modern Christians feel that praying is doing nothing. The value of prayer is no longer recognized nor is its power. We have lost faith in its effect on our lives and on the world. Our Lord said men ought to pray always and gave a parable to illustrate the point. He spoke of a woman who cried out for justice from an unjust judge and because of her constant pleas he granted her request. He goes on to say, “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes will He really find faith on the earth.”[1]

So we are to pray continuously. We are to put our case for others before God day and night. This is part of our surrender to God that we do not rely on our own efforts. We should allow God to fix this fallen world and not think that our efforts will succeed without the guidance of God. We should not think that our wisdom and our ways are better than the wisdom and ways of God. God has a plan for this world and our job is to not attempt to substitute our plan for God’s, but to follow God’s plan. The problem for many is that God moves too slow for them. They require speedy results. The parable speaks of God bearing long with us or being patient with us. The thing is that we do not have patience to see God work. If God does not work on our timetable, we go with plan B. We have already discussed earlier how our plan B’s have worked out for us. For an example let us look at the abortion question, there are those who feel they have a right to bomb clinics and kill innocents. Where does God say that we have the right to kill to save? The people doing the violence proclaim to be born again Christians. They have replaced the Word of God with the passion of man. Is it wrong to abort a fetus? In my opinion, the answer is yes. God says to pray for them not to kill them.

One of the main reasons prayer has lost its power is because we have lost our faith in prayer. Our Lord was continuously in prayer.[2] The Bible speaks of Abraham who prayed and a whole family was healed.[3] Not only have many lost their faith in prayer, many no longer have the obedience to pray. So many today believe that Christ did not have any commandments, so there is no need for obedience. Many in the modern church should realize that there is power in obedience. We can do all the things that Christ said we would be able to do if we could only learn to obey. The reason Christ was able to accomplish all He did was that He obeyed the Father in all He did. He only did what the Father commanded Him to do. Today because of our “so-called” medical and social professionals, many have diluted the Word of God. There is now this “easy gospel” where if you do not agree with the Word of God keep shopping until you find a church that says what you want to hear. The pitfall of creating your own religion is you can make it anyway you want it to be. Prayer has become the lost gift of the church. In the beginning everything was done by prayer. The scriptures say that, “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.[4] So we see that the earliest believers were steadfast in prayer and following the teachings of Christ through the apostles. Why do many today think it will be any different for us. I do not think we can overestimate the power of prayer for changing not just the world, but our hearts and minds.

Prayers most important work is not to change the world, although it does that. Its most important work is changing us. It is to bring our thoughts and hearts into the will of God, that we may serve Him and not the other way around. Many prayers today are not for us to be of service to God, but to have God be of service to us. Oh God we need this or that, we need a miracle or some blessing. The apostle Paul did not pray for wants he said, “…whatever state I am in I need to be content.”[5] Do not change the world God, change me. How many of us pray in this fashion? And we wonder why we do not have any power.

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[1] Luke 18:7,8

[2] Luke 22:39

[3] Genesis 20:17

[4] Acts 2:42

[5] Philippians 4:11

Chapter 7 Part 5

You should not lose hope and allow the enemy to defeat you. Our people need you. It is too late for your fathers, but it is not too late for you. We should stop this epidemic of violence in our communities. We should no longer continue to kill each other indiscriminately. We should give life back its respect. This will only begin with having respect for others as well as yourself. We will not be able to respect others until we have learned to respect ourselves.

“Therefore know that the LORD your God, is God, the faithful God
who keeps His covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with
those who love Him and keep His commandments.”
Deuteronomy 7:9

Faith is the key to changing our lives. Without faith there can be no change, because there will be no reason for change. The Bible says that we can not please God without faith.[1] We must believe that God can heal us, before we can begin to allow it to happen. Change is difficult for most of us and involves a lot of fear. Why does it take so much pain? I hope you realize how much we need you, the survival of a people rest in your hands. You are our future, we only rise as high as you rise. You will rise only as far as you allow God to raise you. If you could only recognize who and what you are, you would no longer continue to live this way. You are the Holy temple of the Living God. You are not the lies that the enemy tells you that you are. The enemy tells you that you are unlovable and worthless. Whenever anyone tries to love us, we show them just how unlovable we really are. This is done by behaving in such a way that you attempt to chase everyone away. But God is faithful and will remain with you until the end, His love is eternal.

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[1] Hebrews 11:6

Chapter 6 Part 9

“And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither
did there remain anymore courage in anyone because of you,
for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and
on the earth beneath. Now therefore I beg you, swear to
me by the LORD, since I have shown you kindness
that you also show kindness to my fathers house, and give
me a true token, and spare my father, my mother,
my brothers, my sisters, and all that
they have, and deliver our lives from death.”
Joshua 2:11-13

Notice how she recognized who God was and what He was capable of doing for not only her, but also her family. She had determined that God was God and that He had the power to do what He said He would do. Now remember this woman had been serving pagan gods her whole life, yet when presented with the evidence she knew the truth by faith. And of course she was saved along with everyone in her family. Though the whole city crumbled around them they were kept safe. Likewise for us though our whole society or our whole world is crumbling under the weight of sin, we must stand in our faith. We should stand not in who we are, but in who God is. The world may say it is ok to fornicate, to continue in sinfulness and that God does not care. That the only thing that matters is our own personal wants and desires. Rahab was willing to risk death for God. What are you willing to risk for God? Are you willing to set aside your selfish sexual pleasures for God, for your family, and for yourself? Just as with Rahab the thing we do not realize is that yes her eternal life was saved, but also her earthly life got better. She got saved and stopped being a harlot, she was able to join God’s people. Sin destroys our spiritual lives, but also our physical lives become more burdensome. How much more difficult is the life of an addicted person to the life of someone who is not? We should stop looking at spirituality as some pie in the sky when we die. It is for our earthly lives as well. The Bible says, “if we follow God’s commands our lives will be better today.[1] It will not only be better for us, but also our children and our children’s children. That it will be good for us as a people, as a nation.[2]

Remember the world is at odds with those that love God and attempt to follow Him. The world always has been and always will come against those who choose to follow God. We are not of this world, just as our Lord was not of this world.[3] Why do we continue to follow in the ways of the world? The world hated our Savior, but you think it will love you? If the world loves you that can only mean you are of the world, because the world loves its own. We continue to put our children in situations that are dangerous for them. Today, it is not uncommon to see gangs of children walking the streets late at night. Where are their parents I often think to myself? It never fails when one of these children comes up missing or dead the parent will say how much they loved that child and maybe they did but not enough to protect that child. This is not to say that there are not predators that will prey on children no matter how vigilant the parent, however we should not make it easy for our children to be prey. I know this is tough to take, but we should stop giving these parents free passes for not protecting their children better. You have mothers who not only know their sons are selling drugs, but they are either his best customer, dealer, or sharing in the proceeds. When these sons are killed by the street violence, these mothers are heart broken. Did these mothers love their sons? I am sure they did, but they allowed their own selfish desires to come before that child’s welfare. These decisions are based on a lifetime of other bad decisions. It is similar to when they allow their fornication to place their child at risk, especially their daughters. We have women in this society that have men in their homes who are sexually abusing their own daughters and refuse to acknowledge it. They will blame the daughter or profess disbelief in the daughter just to allow this pervert to stay in their homes. Your children are at risk because you have these men who you know little or nothing about around your children. You have no idea if they are pedophiles are what! All you know is that he says he “likes me and keeps me from being lonely. You put your children also at risk by showing them a lifestyle that is not only sinful, but dangerous.

We look up to these “celebrities” who are just as guilty of fornication for direction in life. We look to the world to speak out against the ways of the world. These people are no different than you are I, they were just willing to do what it took to be a “celebrity” Some of their souls have already been bought and paid for by their actions and decisions. If you are not following God you are following the world no matter who you are. No matter how much money or celebrity status you may have. God has no respect of person; sin is sin to Him. We take advice from people who are not following the Word of God, but their own moral compass. If that were sufficient we would have had no need for the redemptive work of Christ. God is our moral director through His Word. If you are getting advice that goes against the Word of God, it is not from God. God will never go against His own Word. This advice is of the world and may sound logical, but it will come to ruin.

Finally, there is the troubling trend of some parents to have their children picked up on Sunday or during the week by churches they have never been to themselves. While most of these churches are trying to do God’s work, there are some that may not be. We are reading daily about this church or that denomination having scandals. Even if the church is reputable, you have no idea what they are teaching your children. In addition, you are teaching your children that this is not important enough for you to attend. The lesson from this is that it is only important for children to attend when you become an adult you don’t need this church thing. How much do we love our children? Do we love them enough to put them first for a change? Mothers love and protect your children for this is the will of God for you.

“She opens her mouth with wisdom. And her tongue is
the law of kindness. She watches over the ways of her
household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and Call her blessed.”
Proverbs 31:26-28

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[1] Deuteronomy 5:29

[2] Deuteronomy 28:1

[3] John 17:16

Chapter 6 Part 8

Because of our freedom of choice, we as men and women can choose to ignore God. A lion cannot choose not to be a lion, but a woman can choose not to be identified as a woman. A man can choose to no longer be identified as a man. This ability to choose sets us apart from all other members of creation. We can use our choices to glorify God or to glorify our own selfish desires. This “so called” independence is really a separation from God and from one another. What those who participate in fornication do not understand is that the very things they think it will resolve (loneliness, lack of love, etc.) are the actual byproducts of fornication. After you have committed it you become separated from God an feel guilty. That guilt causes a separation between your partner and you. You both begin to see each other in a different light following the act. The man looks at the woman as a whore and you look at the man as a dog. A relationship begun in this manner cannot succeed for long. There will always be a deep seated animosity on the part of both people. As the relationship continues and there are more disappointments, that resentment grows. In the heat of an argument these resentments come to the surface and we say things we later regret. Where do these things come from? I believe they come from those early feelings of guilt spawned by fornication. The man thinks if she were truly a "good woman" she would not have let me have sex with her and the woman thinks if he really "loved me" he would have wanted to keep me pure.

“Now Jacob kissed Rachel, and he lifted up his
voice and wept. Now Jacob loved Rachel;”
Genesis 29:11,18

The above passage describes how Jacob traveled five hundred miles without a map to find the wife that God had chosen for him. And when he found her, he wept. She touched his heart and he feel in love with her. When they met and married she was pure, a saved woman. Their love was to last for many years and through many tribulations. Through it all their love instead of diminishing it grew stronger. Instead of resentment, they had respect. Women if you only knew how men would treat you if you only would remain pure. If you would choose abstinence over sinfulness and worldliness, the desires of your heart would be met. The man that you desire to find would be there. A man that would love you and cherish you as a special treasure, because you would be special. What is special about someone who has been with everybody or even anybody for that matter? What it says about you is that you respect yourself enough to wait, that you have something special worth waiting for. When you lay down in fornication, you are making the ultimate compromise with your most precious gift. What you lose in the moment (purity and innocence) can never be gotten back. Once you give it away its gone. I have countless stories about women who were pressured into fornication only to regret their decision later. By then it is too late. Do not allow the morals of others to dictate to you what is right and wrong. You are a child of light, walk in the light.[1] The only way to overcome the world is by faith in God. We can never defeat sin of ourselves, it is too powerful and cunning. The Bible says, “We battle not against men, but against dark unseen forces.”[2] If we could defeat these forces ourselves there would have been no need for Christ and His redemptive death. For us to resist the overwhelming tide of this permissive culture we need the belief that God not only rules in heaven, but also in this earth as well. Your choice will depend on what you know and believe about God. The Bible says, “Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world.”[3] But faith alone is not enough, we must put that faith into action. Our actions demonstrate if we indeed have faith. Our choices demonstrate whether we have true faith.

Do not believe that because you have fallen that you must remain in that state. Because we serve a God of second, third, and fourth chances, we always have the opportunity to repent and return to God. A good case in point in the Bible is the prostitute Rahab. Though she was a fallen woman and not a member of the tribe of Israel, her faith in God placed her in God’s community. Her faith in God allowed her to be included in the lineage of Christ. She was also the great grandmother of King David.

“Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by
works when she received the messengers and sent
them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is
dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
James 2:25,26

You see Rahab was a citizen in the city of Jericho, in the land of Canaan. The promise land that God has promised Israel, her people were the current possessors of that land. She lived in a heavily fortified city with twenty foot walls, but when the spies of Israel came into her house she had a decision to make; whether to trust God. She made the choice to trust God more than the fortified walls of her city, more than her people, more than everything around her. She chose to have faith in what she could not see despite all evidence at the time being against that faith. She found the courage to go against her own society to follow God, just as we must do. We should also find the courage to go against what this society is telling us when it goes against what God has told us. She had heard of the power of God, that He had delivered the children of Israel from Egypt. Here is this unbelieving pagan prostitute willing to gamble her life and the lives on her family on a belief in a God she had only heard about. And God seeing her faithfulness rewarded her and her family. How much more will God reward you and your family because of your faithfulness to Him? For our faith to be rewarded we must make decisions based on that faith in our everyday lives.

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[1] Ephesians 5:8

[2] Ephesians 6:12

[3] 1 John 4:4