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Revision and added scripture for “Kenneth Hagin’s False Teachings of What Happens at the Throne of Jesus from The Believer’s Authority”

Kenneth Hagin the popular televangelist from the 1950’s to the 1990’s wrote several influential false teaching books, and we will continue looking at some of these false teachings. Romans 16:17 KJV says “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.”, so, we are going to mark them today in order to avoid them.

We will look at 4 of the false claims Hagin makes in Chapter 3 of “The Believer’s Authority” with some screenshots of the Kindle version.

They are:

False Claim # 1, Hagin says believers sit on the throne of Christ in heaven with him, during his/her life on earth, before the end of their life and before they are taken to heaven.

False Claim # 2 Believers share the equal authority of Christ’s throne with Him.

False Claim # 3 The authority of Christ’s throne is at the believer’s disposal and we should use it.

And False Claim # 4, Hagin goes one more step and says because all things are under Christ’s feet who is on the throne/ and believers ARE Christ and on His throne with Him/all things have been put under the believer’s feet

1. Hagin says believers sit on the throne of Christ in heaven with him in their life on earth. Revelation 3:21 appears to be a reward for Christians at the END OF THEIR LIFE. We do not do this during our earthly life –we are merely seated in the heavenly realms with Him. There are perhaps vast multitudes of seats in heaven—we could imagine there are enough seats in heaven for each of God’s people to have at least one place to sit. Daniel 7:27 reads “But the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under all the heavens will be given to the people, to the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and all dominions will worship and obey him.” The timing when the kingdom, and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom will be given to the saints of the most high seems to be when all dominions will worship and obey him–as it says in the verse–in the age to come. Not everyone in all dominions are serving him at this time, worshipping him, and obeying him now–so we know the timing of this is the future time, most likely the age to come.

Here’s the screenshot from Hagin’s book, “The Believer’s Authority, Chapter 3, entitled “Seated With Christ” Pay attention to the yellow highlighting:

Hagin says we are sharing Christ’s throne because we are seated on Christ’s throne. However the Bible says Christians ARE seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, but not on His THRONE! When we on earth are seated WITH someone in a restaurant, we are usually at the same table as they are–but not ON THEIR CHAIR. When we are seated WITH someone an a sofa, we are on the same sofa, but NOT ON THE SAME CUSHION.

So Hagin says that because we sit together with Christ, we must of course sit on Christ’s throne with Him! But the logic doesn’t follow!

Ephesians 2:6 says believers have been seated in the heavenly realms with Christ, but a realm is not the throne of Christ! If God wanted to say that believers are seated on the throne of Christ with Him He could have said that in the word, because God knows the difference between the word “realm” and the word “throne”. But the word says we are in the heavenly realms WITH Christ. And a heavenly PLACE or heavenly REALM and Christ’s THRONE are NOT THE SAME THING are they?

False Claim # 2 Believers share the authority of Christ’s throne with Him

But the Bible says it is GOD ALONE who possesses the full authority of his throne. As Christians we have a MEASURE of Christ’s authority. I believe Christians are charged to be faithful in this life in living for Christ, which if we are faithful with little we will become faithful with much. But only Christ can rightly manage his throne authority in a perfectly Godly way 100% of the time.

Here is another screenshot of Hagin’s book from Chapter 3 showing another quote about who Hagin believes gets to possess Christ’s full throne authority:

So, Colossians 1:13 is true which reads (God/Christ) “who did rescue us out of the authority of the darkness, and did translate [us] into the reign of the Son of His love” and, this authority was exercised by God. Although Hagin believes the above screenshot is true, that believers share the full authority of Christ’s throne because what was conferred upon the head is automatically conferred upon the body. But our physical bodies cannot operate without the head-the same is true for us spiritually–the believer cannot operate the authority given to us by God without Christ. The truth is believers DO NOT SHARE all the authority of Jesus’ throne—because we don’t fully know how the throne of Christ operates with full authority, so we have only some authority. We have been given authority to become children of God, to submit to God and resist the devil, and he will flee, and authority to not to have to give the devil a foothold. Other types of authority mentioned in the New Testament include the believer having authority over his/her body in a marriage relationship which is not really relevant to the study of “The Believer’s Authority” and other kinds of authority in relationships such as “building people up and not tearing them down”.

Logically speaking, Christ has also given us the necessary measure of authority to fulfill our calling, but we still need God’s help and direction and power with this, often on a daily basis and not everyone has an equal calling or equal gifting. Christians today do not have the same calling as any of the original 12 apostles did, so, logically, because we don’t have equal callings, we don’t have equal power or authority on the earth as the original 12 apostles did. We therefore certainly do not have the same power, authority and dominion as Christ! (this argument is based on looking at calling/ministry alone, comparing the callings of modern day Christians to Jesus’s ministry, aside from the obvious fact that He is God, and we are not!) There has got to be countless things Christ orchestrates from His Throne that the Christian has no knowledge of, even on a day to day basis, and that we have no direct participation in. So, to say we share the full authority of the throne of Christ is definitely Not True!

False Claim # 3 The authority of Christ’s throne is at the believer’s disposal (because we are seated on Christ’s throne) and we should learn how to use it to be victorious:

Here’s the next 3 screenshots of Hagin’s book:

He writes “if the church ever gets the revelation that we are the body of Christ, we’ll rise up and do the works of Christ.” First of all, When the Bible talks of the believer being the body of Christ, it is speaking figuratively. Christ called himself “the door” but he didn’t swing on hinges. He called himself the “bread of life” but he didn’t let his flesh get eaten by people. He called himself “The Good Shepherd” but he didn’t demand that his followers get down on all 4’s and eat grass and say “baaaa”. There is figurative language throughout the Old and New Testament, and Hagin seems oblivious to this. The body of Christ is simply “a group of followers of Christ”. So, everything that was conferred upon Christ is not directly conferred upon the followers of Christ. Christ was a martyr, and not every Christian is called to be a martyr. Christ said of his life in John 10:18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it back. This commandment I received from My Father.” We as Christians need to be submitted to God and submitted to his authority and not be committed to the idea of wielding our “authority” around in the way Hagin advises. Under Christ’s authority is the safest place to be. And not assuming more than that.

There are many things Christ did that the believer is not called to do, such as travel to each of the exact cities Jesus visited, and to have the exact conversations Jesus had directly quoted from the Bible. We need to be wary of Hagin’s idea that “…the authority that belongs to Christ also belongs to individual members of the body of Christ and is available to us….” and that the authority is at the believer’s disposal. There were many things that Christ did alone as Messiah that only needed to be done by HIM. Things like His dying on the cross, things like he being whipped with a cat-o-nine tails, having to know every scripture with perfection that Christ did because He knows ALL things, plus to know the hearts of all people, and being able to answer prayer. But, because according to Hagin, we are not doing enough miracles, and not getting our lives revolutionized by that authority, because we just don’t know the things about spiritual authority like Hagin does because Hagin says that authority that belongs to Christ belongs to us, and that authority is at our disposal, Hagin says!

False Claim # 4, Hagin goes one more step and says “the believer is called righteousness”, “the believer is called light”, and “the believer is called “Christ””, and “all things have been put under our feet”( the believer’s feet). But the Bible says it is not the believer that maintains this authority because in Romans 16:20, it says “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” The Bible declares this responsibility is God’s, and that this is a free blessing of the crushing of Satan by God that God will do for the believer. Absent from the passage or even surrounding passages are any references that require the believer wielding the authority Hagin says belongs to the believer such as rebuking Satan or his demons, binding, or casting out Satan, or shouting at the devil. Hagin seems to point to these practices throughout his book as some main ways the believer is to exercise his/her authority. Hagin puts this job of doing spiritual warfare unto the shoulders of the believer. To contrast and compare, the New Testament talking about fighting the devil or demons simply tells the believer to submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee. And for the believer to stand for God with the armor of God on, and to stand up under temptation because we have been set free from the bondage of sin.

To continue with #4 which is Hagin’s thought that the believer is equal to Christ, notice how Hagin seems to enjoy putting the believer almost as a replacement for Christ. Pay attention to the highlighted areas of this next screenshot of the book:

Let’s think through this. It does not follow that believers are Christ, just because the Bible is talking about Christ in the text before in 2nd Corinthians 6:14-15. The Bible is COMPARING the believer TO CHRIST and the unbeliever to Belial.—We certainly are not pure light at this point. There are other substances in us, so how does it follow that we are pure Christ? We are not pure righteousness, because the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, and counted in our favor even though we may have some actions which are not pure righteousness–we are in the sanctification process-not perfect yet! So how does it follow the believer is pure Christ?? Hagin’s reasoning doesn’t follow.

Are all things put under our feet? I think this will happen when the Lord takes us to heaven. Revelation 3:21 says “To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” and in Matthew 19:28 it reads, “Truly I tell you, in the new world, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” What is the timing of Revelation 3:21? When Christ says He will give the right for the believer to sit on his throne, He seems to be talking about what will happen to the believer in the life to come as a reward for following Christ. Matthew 19:28 was written specifically for the apostles.

The kind of victory that Hagin seems to talk about in his book “The Believer’s Authority” seems to say the Christian should never be sick, never be poor, and never be worried or anxious about anything, or having an occasional item stolen, and if you are, your not doing enough with your authority. He says the Christian must realize they are on the throne with Jesus right now. But sitting on the throne with Jesus seems to be in the future kingdom of God. Many of the troubles in life I have listed a few sentences ago are simply due to the fact that we live in a fallen world, and are not the direct result of the believer not using his “authority.” Jesus walked in perfect authority on the earth and the Bible says Judas stole finances from the ministry Jesus had complete authority over. So, is Hagin saying Jesus needed to use his authority more effectively because he was letting the enemy steal his finances? If so, Hagin is saying his personal use of authority is better than Jesus’ use of authority. Let’s look at the example Hagin uses of using “authority” to get his stolen pants back.

In the above screenshot, Hagin says he had 2 pairs of pants stolen and they were the only 2 pairs of pants good enough for him to preach in. Hagin gives this example of using his authority to be a template of what our lives as Christians should look like. Hagin says he was dealing with the spirit and not the person, but Hagin DID pray the person would be miserable so much that he would bring them back. He forgot to mention that! He attributes the success was because he told the evil spirit to stop stealing. Hagin seems to say Christians should never have any problems with being the victims of theft because Christians have authority over the demons that cause people to steal. Perhaps the Lord truly caused the person to bring back the 2 pairs of pants, but maybe God was answering Hagin’s prayer that the person would become miserable enough to bring them back, and it was because Hagin was dealing with the person, and might have not had anything to do with Hagin telling the evil spirit to “Stop the action”. The demon had already stopped the action by then anyhow. To be accurate, maybe Hagin should have told the demon to “reverse the action” if he was going to say it was his use of authority over the devil that got his pants back.

But if this is the template for Christian to follow and if it is to be the normal Christian life, there are no examples of this kind of freedom from trials for the Christian in the Bible after the apostles ministered. Even Jesus didn’t use some of these practices. We don’t see Paul demanding the devil to leave the people who were stoning him to stop, nor did Paul demand the demons holding him prisoner in Rome to stop, nor for the devil to “get his hands off his money”. We don’t see Jesus claiming Judas as his own follower or for people to truly become born again. He invited people “to come” to Him. They had to admit somewhere within that time that they were weary and heavy laden, because that is who Jesus called. No where in the New Testament (or OT) do the disciples take advantage of “claiming people for the kingdom” that Hagin speaks of in order to “do something about the salvation” of his brother.

First of all there is nothing wrong with praying “God save this person” and nothing wrong with fasting! Strangely, God seems to have “appointed” Hagin to “have an easier quick-fix” to his brother’s salvation! –To claim his brother’s salvation, and to demand your rights! –A whole lot can be said about this. Salvation BELONGS to God, and to whom God gives it. We are to ASK. There is nothing wrong with asking of fasting. Hagin makes these sound powerless. Quote “I was prone to slip back into praying this way…” but there was nothing wrong with praying “God save my brother” or to fast for their salvation. Nowhere in any place in the Bible does God tell the Minister to “claim” people for salvation. In Joshua’s day he said “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The word seems to show us that Joshua was saying he was going to lead a people that were going to serve the Lord, and that was the direction Joshua was going, and if they wanted to follow, they had to make a choice to conform to that way of life. Joshua wasn’t “creating salvation” by his words. He left up the actual choice of the people to God’s Sovereign work in their lives.

I believe many of our Christian spiritual battles are won with a good understanding of the subjects of doctrine represented in the pieces of the armor of God. (Salvation, righteousness, truth, peace, faith in God and in Christ, and a good understanding of the Word). But the New Testament does not emphasize that Christians should never be sick, have trouble with finances, or have other types of problems like fear, anxiety, or being robbed occasionally that Hagin singles out as resulting from not walking in “the authority of the believer”. What about the authority Paul walked in? Paul could heal people and rebuke demons and command people to be made well, but why didn’t he command the evil spirits that controlled the man who was involved in sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 5:1-11 who had sexual relations with his father’s wife to stop this action? I am not saying we never need to resist the devil, but by Hagin’s example to tell the demon which caused the person to steal to “stop this action” Hagin is telling us that commanding demons seems to be the sole RIGHT WAY to find victory or to use our authority as believers. But is this truly how believers should use their authority? Or is it a better idea to ask the Lord to touch their heart and give them a change of heart? Paul recommended the people of Corinth deal in love and forgiveness with the person in 1 Corinthians 5.

I believe we should be responsible and faithful as Christians on the earth, fulfilling our calling and walking in as much submission to Christ and in as much victory as we can by grace through faith. I am not opposed to miracles, but we need to seek them only in a Biblical way. What is the picture of the Christian’s authority? I believe we still need to look to Christ, instead of trying to directly “do warfare against the devil” because we think we have the authority of Christ’s throne! Do we yell at demons when we are sick, because we think a Christian “doesn’t have to put up with that” or yell at demons when something difficult is happening to us like low finances because a Christian “doesn’t have to put up with that? Why do we not see examples of the disciples yelling at the devil when hardship came their way?

We all as Christians have proof individually that we are not in possession of the full authority of Christ’s throne because we sometimes get irritated if our car stalls out! We all have days when we have a backache or a headache! We have other aches and pains and colds and viruses! Have you had any vegetables that you had to clean out of your fridge in the last week because they got old and spoiled? Then, guess what!? All things have NOT been put under our feet. This belongs only to Jesus who reigns now in heaven. It is much more than just demons and devils that are put under Jesus’s feet! It is still possible that the God of peace could soon crush Satan underneath the feet of the believer whenever God may want to do that. But when God puts Satan under our feet, there is more that is under the feet of Christ when it says “all things are under Christ’s feet”. Satan is not ALL things! All things have been put under Christ’s feet in heaven. But there are things under Christ’s feet, simply because He is God, and He reigns in heaven and he overcame perfectly. So I don’t thing the goal of the Christian should be to seek perfect throne identity with Christ desiring that all things be placed under our feet as believers, except to submit to following Christ, and to be responsible with all the responsibilities he has entrusted to us, but in a Biblical way.

Christians are LIKE Christ but we ARE NOT Christ! We are not the Sovereign Creator. People don’t know how to make the earth turn on its axis. We don’t know how to make the clouds pour out rain. We don’t know how to put all the molecules in the right position for produce to grow and feed nations full of people. Or give life in the womb. God ALONE does, just to name a few things God can do that his people cannot do. So, all things have been placed under Jesus feet, the Lord of all creation. We are mere creatures. The authority Christians have been given to exercise on earth fits the role of people who are redeemed, We have a lesser authority than the perfect Son of God, Christians are saved from sin, who walk in a deep love for the Lord and worship Him in Spirit and Truth are those who STILL need a Savior who will operate in his distributed authority as an act of grace in our lives, because God is a good God. At the right time He Himself will soon Crush Satan underneath our feet.

The last point under the Seated With Christ heading, is that Hagin says “We are Christ”. Again, see the highlighted areas:

This friends, is demoting Christ, and elevating man…So much so that we are equal to one another. Hagin could have said “we are like Christ, or we are little Christs, (Christians) or we are united with Christ, or we belong to Christ.” The truth is Christians STILL NEED CHRIST and are dependent on Him. But to say we ARE Christ is borderline blasphemy. Hagin says this is why we have all the authority of Christ’s THRONE.

To wrap it up, Hagin has a lot of really bad false teaching and we need to mark and avoid him! While we do have some authority like the authority to become the children of God, and to submit to God, live for God, resist the devil, and he will flee, and the authority to stand against the devil and his temptations, we DO NOT HAVE ALL the authority of Christ’s throne to use at our disposal on earth is because people on the earth may only know bits and pieces of God’s will.

The Bible says we know only in part (1 Corinthians 13:9) so why would a responsible trustworthy God give the unlimited authority of Christ’s throne to his fallible children to carry out any kind of miracle they feel like doing or give them unlimited power to get each and every one of our prayers answered, to get every single sick person healed by commanding them to be healed exactly the way we want them to see this happen if we only knew bits and pieces of God’s will? If fallible people were in charge of the power of God we would leave gaping holes in the answers to prayer that should come forth, because God answers prayers in huge ways that have ripple effects, and God can see everything, and can answer everything, knows everything about everyone, and God is not selfish, and Christians sometimes struggle with that. The result would be a lot of things other than God’s will or we’d get possibly many answers falling short of God’s will that would be done on a regular basis at this point in history.

We still need a Savior–the Lord Jesus Christ! If you are like me and have put your trust in Jesus Christ to save you, we still need to practice putting off the sinful nature. This is only possible because Jesus Christ died on the cross, and put sin to death. Christ also was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven. Christ is our perfect example, and we are to continue following Him. Compared to Christ we are sinful but Christ has no sin and as God He is all-knowing and answers prayer perfectly, with his divine goodness. Born again people are told, to pray, or ASK and let our requests be made known to God. We don’t have the authority to command healing to come, or to command our prayers to come to pass. We submit to God and ASK. He alone has full authority to cause his will to come to pass and answer us because that is what His throne represents.

I hope this has been helpful. If you enjoyed it, please subscribe to this blog, and like it to let others know about it. And keep your eyes on Jesus and keep growing in the word! LG

To Those Who Feel Trapped as an Abomination to God Because of LGBTQIA+ Attractions

Quotes to Encourage You

by Lisa Groen

How Can You Obey God’s Word if You Don’t Read or Hear God’s Word?

God is full of so much love for individuals in the world that He would rather let Jesus undergo the suffering of dying on a bloody cross than to be without those he saves for eternity. With this kind of devoted love from God, that should peak the interest in hearing what He has to say, yes?

Even though many have apprehended this reality, many who are aware of this put the word on the back burner. What God has spoken through His word, because of who he is alone, makes His words worth being read, studied, and applied!

What can we infer from John 6:46? It reads, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Can we expect God to take into consideration how we respond to His Lordship when He judges us at the end of time? We who hear God’s word and have confessed Jesus as Lord, should we not judge ourselves ahead of time in this life and answer with honesty the question “are we LIVING in proper response to His Lordship??”

In order to live according to His Lordship, we must know what God tells us about how to live in His Word. What should be said to a person who finds little pleasure in God’s word in this life? According to Psalm 119, King David spent 176 verses expressing his delight in God’s word. King David’s reflection on God’s works, precepts, commands, decrees, judgments, ordinances and the words God used to express Himself was one of affection, honor, and reverence. David’s approach inspires all who read it the same kind of delight and honor of God’s word.

Not in replacement of faith, but in combination with faith, certainly the element of obedience to the word must get factored into the measurement God will use to distinguish the people who belong to Him at the end of time from those who don’t. The only obedience to God that there IS in existence anywhere on the part of a person who says they follow God, is to obey God’s Word, the Bible, and not to follow merely the commands of men! Obedience is not the method of salvation, but obedience is found in every life where Jesus is truly Lord.

There is NO REPLACEMENT for reading or listening to the word of God! The more we know God’s word, the more His word will challenge us to obey Him, prompt us in our growth, and become a living part of us. We will be in awe of God because we will have made room in our hearts as Mary and Joseph sought a place to abide with Jesus in the Inn. Our hearts can easily become filled with the business this world offers, like the Inn that was full of other business as Mary and Joseph first found. Let us learn from the Biblical example given to us, and work at making room for Jesus to have a proper place through his word to be laid in our hearts! Let us prepare ourselves to have value for and affection for His word that shows His Lordship over us and that we belong to Him! LG

Why it is Absolutely Imperative That The Christian Read The Bible Regularly–Reasons #1 and #2

by Lisa Groen

#1 You can’t overcome sin in your own strength

It is nothing less than spiritual work to overcome sin. Sin is a spiritual illness with moral implications. You need spiritual food for spiritual strength. The word of God is bread from heaven or spiritual food God intends for us to read and take in like food and ingest it until it becomes a part of us and shapes us.

Can sin be overcome by a means other than spiritual work? Temporary means or natural means to overcome sin gives only temporary or non-eternal success. Someone might overcome a sin by their own natural self-control for a while. The fruit of lasting self-control only comes from God. This overcoming of sin is only possible after a person is born-again from God. John 3:3 says, “…“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” God says He gives us fruit that will LAST to eternity. A person must be born again otherwise their fruit won’t last to eternity. The person must be saved out of the kingdom of darkness before their fruit will last. Jesus was speaking to His followers when He said, (in John 15:16) ““You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”

One such fruit is self-control which comes from God and is of a purer sort and of a supernatural sort different than any self-control that can be mustered up from a person’s own human strength. God has never sinned so his self-control was never tarnished by sin or spiritual illness. A list of common fruits of the Spirit is found in Galatians 5:22-23. This list has elements found in God’s own personality. The NASB reads, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

When God’s word speaks of fruit of the Spirit, it is speaking of a fruit coming from the supernatural life of God which comes from an eternal God and has properties of eternality itself. These properties are found in the purest form in God’s personality and are properties he shares with those who trust Him to make them Christlike.

We cannot do a better job than Jesus did to overcome sin. Jesus had no sin, and he never let it creep into his life. But Jesus who is the Son of God Himself used the word of God as a sword of declaration to overcome temptation and the devil. In Matthew 4:1-11 Jesus used the very word of God to fight the temptations of the devil. This is how he overcame it—he gave no place to the devil or to temptation. It is THIS Jesus that gave us His words, the one who never sinned and is our Savior, that has given us His words, and the words of the Heavenly Father and Holy Spirit are in Scripture to arm us for the battles we face in life.

Reason #2 Why it is Absolutely Imperative That The Christian Reads The Bible Regularly Builds off Reason #1: You Must Be Killing Sin or Sin Will Be Killing You

You can only kill sin in your life through a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, because we kill sin by the Spirit of God. The same power that was there to crucify our sins that God the Father placed upon our Lord Jesus our sacrificial Lamb, is there to crucify the sin in our lives, and raise us up to walk a spiritually empowered life for God. Romans 8:13 GNT reads, “For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live.”

If you are not killing sin in some way through the help of God’s Spirit you might not be a Christian and you should check yourself. God gave us an example to show how he would kill our sin, first upon Christ, then in our lives, but without us having to die for our sins in the process. Hebrews 10:10 reads, “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

If you are not killing your sin by the Spirit of God, you should stop, pray and get right with God! Our sins were placed upon Jesus, then Jesus was killed for our sins. Isaiah 53:6 NIV reads, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” 1 Peter 3:18 NIV reads, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.”

We must follow through with what God demonstrated as His approach to sin. By the Spirit, we must crucify sin in our lives, which means to deprive it of food, strength, and opportunity. Jesus did all these things with perfection and His victory becomes ours as we put our faith in his life, death, and resurrection of pure, harmless and sinless obedience. Praise God for His word which He has made available to us so we might know what God has destined to be killed out of us because of the resurrection of Christ, and that declares and shares His victory! LG

Can God Change the LGBTQIA+, the Non-Binary Person, or Person With a Different Gender Identity Than What They Were Born With?

by Lisa Groen

I use the pronoun “he” or “they” many times to describe heterosexual men and women, LGBTQIA+, binary, non-binary, and people with a different gender identity than what they were born with throughout this post.

I am making these statements based on a fundamental belief that God tells us what the definition of sin is and God is the only one who has the solution to sin.

I am making these statements based on what God gives as the solution to sin for the heterosexual, the binary person, the LGBTQIA+, the non-binary person, and person with identity issues which is something called repentance which God can give freely to any person who agrees with God about his sin.

The person who is willing to repent and wanting to repent must agree with God’s definition of sin and turn from that lifestyle of sin that they have as either an unsaved binary or unsaved non-binary person or as an unsaved person with identity issues.

The Bible states that God accepts everyone who comes to him for help to be free from sin.

This is salvation. God’s salvation is spoken of in the Bible and is available to the heterosexual person and in the SAME FULL WAY to the LGBTQIA+, the binary, the non-binary person and to the person with a different gender identity than what they were born with.

There are conditions for all said people that God places upon them in order for them to have a faith in God that results in salvation and thus results in being in heaven with God for eternity.

The conditions are that God wants everyone no matter the group they are in to leave his life of sin by faith and turn to Jesus the Lord of Heaven and earth who gave his righteousness through dying on the cross for that sinner to receive (Jesus’) righteousness and forgiveness.

FREE GIFTS FROM GOD FOR THIS:

Faith in Jesus The Lord is a free gift of God

Repentance from Jesus is a free gift Jesus gives to sinners

Jesus’ forgiveness is a free gift he gives to sinners

Bearing fruit in keeping with repentance is a free gift but we must mix our faith with God’s command to bear fruit for God.

Following Jesus is a command of God that is a free gift but we must mix our faith with this command and follow Jesus through scripture

God’s word is a free gift we can find in many places on the internet. Abiding in the Word of God is a command that we must follow by mixing our faith with it which simply means to go through the Bible to learn His Word well so we can get a good understanding of what the words of God are we should be abiding in. The more we study the Bible and understand it the more we get better at abiding in it. Abiding in the word is part of the supernatural relationship God gives the believer to equip him to recognize his sin and overcome his sin by the power of the Spirit of God day by day.

What overcomes sin in the believer’s life?—The power of God’s Spirit working through the life of a person who comes to God as any of the above groups of people. The power of the Spirit is a FREE gift.

What will the result be for the heterosexual person who came to Christ and the LGBTQIA+, binary, non-binary person, or person with a different sexual identity than what they were born with who came to Christ? THE RESULT WILL BE THE SAME FOR EACH OF THE HETEROSEXUAL, LGBTQIA, BINARY, NON-BINARY, AND DIFFERENT GENDER THAN WHAT THEY WERE BORN WITH PERSON=EACH WILL RECEIVE AN IDENTITY CHANGE THAT COMES FROM GOD. No group can pursue their old identity and maintain a growing relationship with God; we, all of us MUST PURSUE CHRISTLIKENESS as our new identity. This New Identity is a free gift from God. It is not something we muster up in our own strength. It is a supernatural free gift of an identity change.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 reads “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; (Such were some of you means some were homosexuals, (pursuing same sex relationships–some were full of other kinds of sin, sin is an identity issue in God’s book) but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” This passage talks about God changing people to prepare them for freedom from sin and gives them a holy lifestyle of Christlikeness for eternity with Him

Can God change anyone? Yes! Can God give us the power to pursue Him? Yes? This is called bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. The identity change God makes in a person through salvation is supernatural, and will result in the person taking on Christlikeness, aligning their pronoun, gender, and sexual orientation, and spiritual pursuits, with the Biblical sexual orientation of Christ-followers, spiritual pursuits of Christ-followers, and becoming binary. Before I came to Christ I had the identity of a thief, I had the identity of a liar, I had the identity of someone who did not respect some authority figures, I had the identity of a person who cursed, I mocked, I was arrogant, I was hostile at my dad for the abuse me and my siblings suffered and mad at my mother for letting it happen. I carried bitterness around and a snarky attitude. Probably a lot of other things! Did God change me? YES! I ended up with a wonderful relationship with my dad before he died. I am not perfect, but I was giving to my mother and helped with her care and was patient with her and overlooked her tendency toward passivity in order to build a relationship with her and realized she needed people to understand her and that there were people she did not trust. I gave up selfishness in a lot of ways and found it is more blessed to give than receive. I still could give more to others around me, but I am growing. I gave up lying to follow the truth and speak the truth of God. I gave up bitterness because I had been forgiven, I gave up cursing because I had been blessed and in order to praise God, I gave up snarky-ness order to be a better friend to people because Jesus was a friend to me when I was not easy to get along with. I gave up pursuing emotions that made me bitter because I saw Jesus had a better way of life for me.

Most of all, I am an example to every LGBTQIA+, non-binary person, or person with a gender identity different from what they were born with out there. I have not pursued romance since 2013. Although I was never struggled with gender identity issues and never been tempted to pursue a same sex relationship for dating or romance, I did pursue heterosexual romantic relationships for a while during my walk with God. I am an example now for how to not pursue romance of any sort for the last 10 years but live simply for God. The Lord Jesus has given me the gift of celibacy and I don’t feel a need to get married, so I don’t date. I have joy and happiness in the Lord although I am celibate. I have a new identity in Christ different than when I first came to Christ years ago with multiple sin patterns in my life that controlled my life until He changed me. It was a free gift! I have a Christ-like identity now thanks to the grace of God which changed me! LG

I Am a Christian and Was Incarcerated, Part 2

By Lisa Groen

I believe if God sees fit to take someone to jail, God is faithful to put the kind of faith in them to match the level of hardship he takes them through!

Perhaps from the sheer boredom and praying that I would learn whatever the Lord wanted to teach me I took on the posture of teachableness. The Bible became very meaningful to me in fresh ways and Jesus became more real to me and showed himself to be my most reliable and trustworthy friend. We get so distracted by the stimuli in the world, and when you have those things stripped away, it’s interesting how your ears get opened and your heart can grow soft to God’s leading. I found a Bible right away and kept my nose in it day after day. I would pray about the stresses of jail, and sought God as to why He let the circumstances happen that led me into jail. I sought God in jail and let Him know I didn’t want be a hard hearted person which is a common stereotype people on the outside of jail have of people on the inside.

I prayed about many things in jail on a personal level because you have time to do a lot of self-reflection. You realize you need encouragement, but many family and friends I had for years never wrote me back after I would write them a 6- or 7-page letter. At the time I wondered why people can’t write back a sentence or two after you pour your heart out to them. I realized to become resentful about that would be not fitting because prisoners by definition have few rights. I found it was best to focus on the people who wanted to be in my life.

As far as jail goes harassment is common. A lot of it is based on power struggles and on who thinks they can dominate. Some of the women in my pod wanted me to get kicked out of the low security part and put in lock down. I was told about 5 of the women who happened to be black misinterpreted something that I said and they thought I was racist. They were saying I was the whitest one in the jail because they used hood language and I didn’t know what they were saying some of the time because I am not from the hood. So, I tried to fit in by dancing like some of them. They thought I was making fun of them by my lousy dance so a few days later one of my friends who was friends with them warned me about the 5 women. It just happened to be a woman who I shared part of my testimony of Jesus with.

The women who wanted me to get kicked out of low security kept doing things like putting their shampoo in my shower stall when I would go to wash my socks and underwear. They wanted me to close the door to the shower stall so they could accuse me of stealing their shampoo, but the Lord directed me as to what was going on, and I kept the shower stall open and nothing happened because the video cameras were just outside the shower stalls recording everything.

Kindness always goes a long way as a Christian in or out of jail, but you have to know who you’re dealing with. Sometimes hardships can pop up when you’re going out of your way to be a generous person. One woman told another right in front of me I was her B- – – – because I was nice and would share snacks and other things I would buy from the commissary. So even though I was trying to be nice, some of them thought I was trying too hard to win friends so they began to “use me” to get free snacks and other things. One girl tried to pretend to be sick to see if I would give her free cough drops without asking for anything in return. It was obvious to me she was not sick but only pretending. I told her she didn’t look or sound sick and did not give her any cough drops. I hate being lied to.

Other conflicts that arose from a power trip happened such as one of the women waved her arms around my head and leaned over me and said something like “whhhhooosh!” so I ducked out of the way and I had to lean over the balcony on the second floor in order to keep from being hit in the head by her. I told the guard about her because I had done nothing rude to her. One of my cell mates would get off her bunk really quick and she kicked me in the head as I sat on the side of my bed. When she did it a second time I told her to quit doing that and she flipped out on me and said I was crazy. She then was yelling at the top of her lungs at me about all kinds of things and fabricating lies about things she said I did wrong but I did none of those things. I thought “there is going to be no peace in my cell because she has flown off the deep end and she didn’t seem to want to be reeled in” by anything I said. I complained to the guard about her wild imagination and her unpredictableness and her verbally and physically aggressive ways for no reason and asked for a different cell. They ended up moving her out of my cell across the pod to a different cell.

I did not realize how quickly a person becomes unpopular when you tell the guards about another prisoner not treating you right. I had no experience in jail before this. That’s when she and several other women wanted to believe I made up lies about her so they began to treat me with dirty looks, suspicion, hostility, and loud rude comments and dozens of acts of mockery. At times it felt like I had a lot of enemies in jail, and little support from outside of jail or from many people I had known a really long time. Jesus helped me make the friends I needed to have in jail, and he protected me from the people I did not need as friends and their schemes. One day God gave me the scripture Isaiah 41:12 which says “Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all.” I knew God was promising my jail experience was going to get better. The Lord also gave me hope that I wasn’t going to get beat up by the 5 women when he showed me Proverbs 6:16-19 “There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, 19 a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”

God was taking the time to show me he hated their behavior. Because they were devising schemes to make me look like a thief, and were lying about me to the guards, because they had a plan to rush into evil by harassing me daily, and because they were stirring up conflict in the community by constantly mocking me and changing position in line whenever we would stand in line for meds, so they could be right behind me or in front of me to harass and intimidate me, criticize me loudly and trying to humiliate me. In the middle of that, God gave me the assurance that he was going to protect me from their evil plans, conflict, harassment, and pointless mockery, because He showed me those scriptures. I knew some relief was on the way! It was just a matter of His timing!

Because my friend informed me, I knew what to pray for. I used the promises God gave me to pray. As I waited on God to answer, I was harassed by those 5 women for weeks until one of the guards made everyone get out of their cells and come down to the main floor and yelled at everyone and said he wanted the disrespect to stop and then pointed at me and yelled at everyone for their behavior for a few minutes basically saying they need to stop harassing people, and he pointed at me to show them who to stop harassing. One of the main women who harassed me day after day and brushed against me with her giant body calling me the B word decided to be nice to me after a while. (She was about 6 feet tall and weighed about 320 pounds, and I am 5’4”). Others became nice to me when they saw I was a good volleyball player. God prevented them from getting me set up to look guilty when one of them threw a lit match in my cell when the guards were passing out mail and when they got to my cell and smelled the smoke from the match I didn’t get in trouble for it and God prevented me from going into lock down high security.

I knew God wanted me to do something positive other than just trying to “hide” my life in Jesus. I remembered Jesus said he has made us the light of the world, (In Matthew 5:14, Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”) I knew we should not hide our lights, and that meant I was going to need to keep praying and ask God to help me overlook people’s abuse and nastiness and the mental strength to be kind to them and not look at their wrongs. God never left me but He let me go through hardships while He drew me close in jail when all that negative stuff was happening. I found some of the hearts of the women changed and God gave me what I needed in the midst of a difficult 75 days as long as I was praying about being a positive influence and not hiding my light under a bushel.

Lessons learned:

Pray that God would help you be teachable. God will provide faith to match the level of difficulty of the situation.

Don’t become miffed at people who don’t reach out to you after you reach out to them. Focus on the people who want to be in your life.

People in jail can be hypersensitive. Don’t try too hard to fit in, because people can misinterpret your behavior.

If you get harassed, I believe God cares about this, and God still wants his justice to unfold on behalf of those who trust in Him and seek Him for help behind bars.

Pray about everything. Break out of your shell even if people treat you roughly in jail and take time to be kind to people. Don’t take your relationships for granted even if you just met them because God has a purpose even for the difficult relationships, and they may need the light of Jesus from your faith to shine on them and that can only happen when your heart is right toward them. If God sees fit to put you in jail, let Isaiah 9:2 become a reality for others. When they see your faith is real, and if they can get a needed glimpse of Jesus, and if they are drawn to God, we will be able to tell the testimony “The people which sat in darkness saw a great light.” LG

Original Praise Music: Blessing, Glory, Honor and Love

I am in the process of learning how to upload my tracks, so I appreciate your patience!

Lyrics: By Lisa Groen copy right pending May 2017

Blessing, glory, honor and love

Is what the Father pours down from above

The Father of love, pours on us Jesus’s blood

To give us restoration and love

Healing, mercy, came when Jesus was born

When He became a man and on the cross the veil was torn

He poured on thirsty souls the water

That would make them thirst no more

And this is only the beginning of what’s still in store

Rivers of life flow healing for me

Removing my strife and causing my eyes to see

He poured down the Balm of Gilead on me

This is just one blessing for those who believe.

Wrapping me in his love that sets me free

Knowing he is above all that could trouble me

And he gives the word to us commanding our peace

This is just one blessing for his posterity

Children of Abraham remember whom you have believed,

The one who humbled himself and went for us to calvary.

He didn’t hold back from taking our place

but bought the chastisement of our peace

So all our sin and striving could cease. LG

Repentance From Sin, Unto Eternal Life in Christ

Author: Lisa Groen

There must come a time where we make a conscious choice to turn away from our lifestyle of sin, to live for God who has always been perfectly and completely free from sin. God has never done anything dishonest, immoral, or unrighteous, or any other thing sinful, and we can only enjoy being free from sin if we consciously make a choice to turn from our life of sin and serve God with our heart and life.

The Bible talks about people being a slave to sin.

There is only one way to break our slavery to sin and that is to believe Jesus deserves that you turn from a lifestyle of sin to follow Him. Jesus (and both of the 2 other members of the Godhead, The Father, and the Holy Spirit) have the authority to break up our relationship with sin, because each of them have more power and authority than sin does and then Jesus becomes our Lord. (Lord means Master). We then are enabled to serve God and live a life pleasing to God.

The Bible talks of God purchasing us back from our slavery to sin to belong to Him. This means he “redeems us”. The redemption transaction Jesus went through happened when he gave his blood on the cross to buy us wholly from the slavery of sin to belong to Him and he made it possible to buy us out of the kingdom of darkness. He paid the price with his blood and his own physical death. If Jesus is not your Lord you are in the kingdom of darkness. You need to come to Christ the King in the kingdom of light. He died on the cross to translate us out of the kingdom of darkness and translate us into the kingdom of light. If God is drawing you to follow and serve him in righteousness, you need to believe Jesus as you’d believe someone who holds your life in his hands. He has authority over death. He has more power than sin does to break up your relationship with sin. He has authority over everything that happens to you.

I googled the phrase “what does the Bible mean by the word “redeem””? and this was the first quote that came up from the address https://www.bing.com/search?q=what%20does%20the%20bible%20mean%20by%20the%20word%20redeem%3F&pc=0CAE&ptag=C999N4AE93C7C9D5F&form=0A0505&conlogo=CT3210127 (I removed the hyperlink numbers in the quote): “In the Bible, redemption refers to God’s merciful and costly action on behalf of his people. The term “redeem” means “to buy out” and was used specifically in reference to the purchase of a slave’s freedom. In the New Testament, redemption means that Christ’s life or blood was the ransom price so that anyone who believes in Christ will be freed from sin and the bondage to death. Redemption is liberation from the slavery of sin and is given to us by the perfect sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross of Calvary”. Part of that redemption is that Christ takes death and changes it so that it is not a dead end, but that Jesus takes our death and He through His resurrection and eternal life becomes our open door for us to be with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forever and ever in all eternity with all the other Christ followers who have believed in and followed Jesus as Master and Lord.

The following is a promise Jesus makes to those who follow Him that takes place on earth, and continues for Christ followers through eternity in Heaven: John 8:12 reads: “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” LG

What is a Christian in Simple Terms?

By Lisa Groen

Scripture and comments to show a few basic characteristics of a true Christian. (Words within parenthesis through this document are mine and all headings are mine.)

A Christian is someone who has been saved from the penalty, power, and pleasure of sin by an act of God’s pursuit of him/her, and will be taken to heaven for eternity and saved from the presence of sin there to be with the Godhead forever. (Godhead has three members who are one in purpose and unity=The Father, The Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit)

John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!””

Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, (spiritual death) but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”

Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,”

A Christian is someone who has faith in Jesus and aims to follow Jesus day by day.

Acts 16:31 “They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you and your household will be saved.”

Luke 9:23 “Then He said to them all, “If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

Psalm 81:13 “Oh, that My people would listen to Me, and Israel would follow in My ways!”

Deuteronomy 11:1 “You must love the Lord your God and keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments always.”

Deuteronomy 11:8-12 “Therefore you must keep all the commandments which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land which you are going to possess; 9 and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰For the land which you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from where you came, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot like a vegetable garden, ¹¹but the land, which you are entering to possess, is a land of hills and valleys and drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹²a land for which the Lord your God cares. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.”

Luke 6:46-49 ““Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say? ⁴⁷Whoever comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show whom he is like: ⁴⁸He is like a man who built a house, and dug deep, and laid the foundation on rock. When the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, but could not shake it, for it was founded on rock. ⁴⁹But he who hears and does not obey is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently. Immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

A Christian knows the true Jesus of the Bible, and believes Jesus is God.

John 10:30 “My Father and I are one.”

Exodus 3:14-15 “¹⁴And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and He said, “You will say this to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” ¹⁵God, moreover, said to Moses, “Thus you will say to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’

John 8:58 “Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM.”

John 17:3 “This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”

John 20:24-29 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called The Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail prints in His hands, and put my finger in the nail prints, and put my hand in His side, I will not believe.” ²⁶After eight days His disciples were again inside with the doors shut, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at My hands. Put your hand here and place it in My side. Do not be faithless, but believing.” ²⁸Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have yet believed.”

A Christian knows he/she can learn about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit by reading the Bible and how to live a life that pleases God from the Bible.

John 5:39-40 “You search the Scriptures, because you think in them you have eternal life. These are they who bear witness of Me. ⁴⁰Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

Deuteronomy 12:28 “Observe and hear all these words which I command you, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.”

Acts 5:42 “Daily, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease to teach and preach Jesus Christ.”

Acts 17:10 “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with all eagerness, daily examining the Scriptures, to find out if these things were so.”

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

2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,”

Colossians 1:10 “that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing to all, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God,”

A Christian realizes they are a sinner. We are born into sin, because Adam and Eve, the physical parents we all descended from sinned, then spiritual death crept into the human race bloodline from then on.

Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the age of this world and according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, ³among them we all also once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,”

Genesis 2:17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (God speaking to Adam and Eve)

Psalm 51:5 “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”

Although a Christian was dead to God before he/she became a Christian, the Christian becomes spiritually alive by God making him/her born again, and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit because God has given them eternal life, when they have asked God to save them from spiritual death.

1 Peter 1:23 “for you have been born again, not from perishable seed, but imperishable, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”

1 John 2:25” And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.”

John 3:3 “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.””

Romans 6:11 “Likewise, you also consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 6:13 “Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but yield yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.”

1 Corinthians 6:19 “What? Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God, and that you are not your own?”

Ezekiel 36:26 “Also, I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”

Luke 15:24 “For this son of mine was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ So they began to be merry”

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Look, all things have become new.”

John 5:24 “Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into life.”

A Christian gets the benefit of being guided by the Lord Jesus throughout his/her lifetime because Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd.

Luke 1:76-79 ““And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, ⁷⁷to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, ⁷⁸through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise from on high has visited us; ⁷⁹to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.””

John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”

Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Psalm 48:14 “For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.”

A Christian gets the benefit of being adopted into the family of God and receiving the many blessings associated with being a child of God.

Psalm 65:4 “Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!”

Galatians 4:5 “To redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

Romans 9:4 “who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises”

Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen as His inheritance.”

Psalm 24:5 “He will receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”

Ephesians 1:5 “He predestined us to adoption as sons to Himself through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will.”

Deuteronomy 7:14 “You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female barren among you or among your cattle.”

A Christian actively pursues learning how to live a holy life and pursues learning how to grow in a Christ-like manner and continues to turn from sin as it is discovered in their life and seeks forgiveness from God whenever it may show up in their life.

Hebrews 12:14 “Pursue peace with all men, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord,”

2 Peter 3:18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory, both now and forever.”

Colossians 1:9-12 “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; ¹⁰that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing to all, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, enduring everything with perseverance and patience joyfully, ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled us to be partakers in the inheritance of the saints in light.”

Acts 26:18 “to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (We renew our minds by reading God’s word)

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

A Christian gets the benefit of God changing his/her spirit, mind, and spiritual manner and approach to life so he/she is able to grow according to God’s will to mature Christlikeness and holiness so he/she will be able to stand by grace in the free gift of Christ’s righteousness for him/her to be counted acceptable to God on judgement day when Christ shall judge the spiritually living and the spiritually dead, sending the spiritually living to heaven, and the spiritually dead to hell.

Ephesians 4:23 “and be renewed in the spirit of your mind;”

Luke 24:49 “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures

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

Romans 5:17 “For if by one man’s trespass (Adam) death reigned through him, then how much more will those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”

Ephesians 1:6 “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, seeing the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, as in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord.”

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

Romans 3:22 “This righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all and upon all who believe, for there is no distinction.”

Romans 4:25 “Jesus was given to die for our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us right with God.“

Ephesians 4:15 “But, speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into Him, who is the head, Christ Himself,”

1Thessalonians 4:3 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: (holiness) that you should abstain from sexual immorality,” LG

How Fasting Can Cultivate the Fruit of Humility

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

The reality of belonging to Jesus comes with many indications of our new identity in Christ. The reality of Christ’s own personality shows us many unearthly things that are “given” for what the believer will one day look like (Rom 8:29a for those whom He foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son…). He will share certain characteristics with us and these characteristics for those born again have become part of our new nature and were planted within us at the time of salvation and shape the direction of our growth which is from God. From this we can know that to study the personality of Christ is strategic and greatly beneficial for us because it focusses our eyes on the eternal Savior.

The characteristics of God are either incommunicable attributes or they are communicable. The ones he shares with us are the communicable characteristics and those that he doesn’t are the incommunicable characteristics. A short list of incommunicable attributes God possesses are his sovereignty, omnipotence, omnipresence, and his omniscience, which are all traits that as mere people whom God has created we will never possess, because to possess any of those characteristics would make one God-like. However, the communicable attributes from the personality of God that he intends for us to share exist because he has destined us to look like Christ. John 1:12-13 reads “But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God.” So, it is clear that if we are born of God, we should be aimed by God to resemble Christ and to possess those certain attributes of God that distinguish us as his children.

A short list of communicable attributes of God includes his righteousness, (Ephesians 4:22–24), which says we “are created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”, His love, (1 John 4:16God is love..) peace, (Isaiah 9:6b And He will be called …Prince of Peace) patience, (1 Cor 13:4 Love is patient, Joel 2:13b …Slow to anger) kindness, (Gal 5:22) and humility (John 13:1-17, Jesus stooped down to wash the disciples’ feet, and Ps 18:35b…You have stooped to make me great.)

We have been predestined to the praise of the glory of his grace—the only thing that will praise him is that we would end up looking like Jesus in our hearts. John MacArthur said several things worth quoting in his message “The Benefits of Being a Saint (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/1811/the-benefits-of-being-a-saint) that “You are sanctified” – it’s the same root word as saint – “you are called saints” – in order to make them aware of the fact that the foundation for his exhortation to their behavior is in the fact that they are saints.”…. “The fact of who we are is the premise upon which the word of God bases the fact of what we ought to act like. You might put it this way: the indicative, you are, is the basis for the imperative, you ought…In fact, it tells us that we are holy because of what Christ is; therefore, we ought to be like Him. We ought to act like Him. Our lives ought to conform to Him.”

I venture to say humility is not natural to any of us, because pride is at the heart of sin. Pride was the sin that caused Satan to fall, and pride just may be what Satan might most often tempt us with. To counter this reality, the motivation to put forth a concerted effort to exercise humility by the act of crucifying our pride through the act of fasting and prayer, can address a very real need and be a part of a very natural way of life for the person who would prize the goal of becoming Christlike.

Because we ought to conform to Him we have a long way to go. Now although we can be assured the fruits of the Spirit listed in Gal 5:22-23 and other communicable attributes of God were placed within us at salvation, and a tree does not strain itself to bring forth its good fruits, but we also can be assured that we must at times put forth our own effort since Christ himself put forth spiritual effort to exercise the fruits of the Spirit being manifested in him. So even more so for us, it is a good rule of thumb to say that if there is an attribute of Christ that is not natural to us, (surely all of them, but some more noticeably not natural!) we ought certainly put forth effort as Christ did that we should aim for whatever in our flesh may be prone to oppose the nature of Christ would be crucified or wounded by the Spirit which opposes our flesh, as we lean on God for the spiritual efforts we must put forth, of course by receiving the Spirit’s help for this warfare.

So based on these things I have written, I challenge us all again to humble our souls with prayer and fasting. (Psalm 35:13, 69:10-20) We should be ready for those days where Jesus calls us to do as he did, to “take off our street clothes, make time in our schedule to get down on our knees, and walk out the humility of washing the feet of the saints”. This was not optional, but a command. Would we discern his voice, if we heard him call us to this humility? If we submit to the training of humbling our souls, fasting indeed can be one strategic way to prepare for such days ahead that will certainly come.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, may we be willing to do whatever you are calling us to do, and may we be preparing for with abandon of whatever you have for us that demands the crucifixion of our pride, and through this steady warfare seek the growth and development of humility in our lives. Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG