Jesus Christ is your High Priest.Your pastor is not your high priest.

Believers, do you wonder why many in the body of Christ are still sick, weak, under oppression and living in fear today? I believe it is because many do not believe that with Christ, our Heavenly Father gives us all things freely according to Romans 8:32 – "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"

Remember what Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 10:8 “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” All believers in Christ have this as an inheritance in Christ today “because as He is so are we in this world.” – 1 John 4:17. Also, our Lord Jesus said in John 14:2. "I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”

This tells us that ANYONE who believes in Christ has been gifted with the power to heal the sick, cast out demons and raise the dead, including you if you are a believer; yet not we who do these things but Christ in us. By His grace, we do these things so that those who do not believe can believe. And the power is freely given to all who believe in our Saviour Jesus Christ.

But many of us see this freely-given power and receiving from our heavenly Father as something that can only be achieved by keeping the Ten Commandments and doing good works and not by God’s grace alone. We see it as the jurisdiction of certain sets of "holy leaders" who have paid their dues by obeying the Law and have earned the rights to God's power and blessings by their own efforts; and these “holy leaders” push this false agenda (wrong believing which is the same as unbelief) right inside the church, deceiving many.

Paul describes such people in Galatians 1 as preaching a different gospel. Because of the false doctrine that they preach, many in the church are neither freely receiving nor freely giving today. This is evident in many churches where it is taught that if you don't "play your part" usually by keeping the Ten Commandments and doing “righteous things,” our Lord God who gives us all things freely with Christ will not bless you or save you from your troubles, including the sins that hold you captive.

Titus 2:14 tells us that our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ "...gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works." See the NLT version: ”He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.”

To "redeem" has the following dictionary definitions:

• To free from what distresses or harms

• To free from captivity by payment of ransom

• To extricate from or help to overcome something detrimental

• To release from blame or debt.

Nothing harms us like sin does. Christ came to redeem us from EVERY lawless deed in the context of all the definitions of "redeem" above. This tells us that everyone who is involved in ANY lawless deed (act of sin) is in captivity/bondage to that sin. The person is a death-row prisoner of that sin and unless the wages of sin (death) is fully paid, no amount of self-will and determination to get out of that prison can truly set free. Peter’s three-time denial of Jesus shows us that boasting in our own ability to do the right thing or stop sinning is the height of foolishness.

Many people who are sinning are looking for a way out and do not enjoy “wallowing in sin” as these false pastors preach. But these false pastors point the people to the Law and tell them to “stop sinning, or else.” But because “…the strength of sin is the Law” according to 1 Corinthians 15:56, sin only strengthens its grip over such who are under their false teaching. They sin more and more!

The full price (death) has to be paid in order for the full requirements of the Law to be met and in order for the prisoner (sinner) to be free from the lawless deed that holds him captive; a price that Christ paid with His blood to set us free from every lawless deed! Free indeed where one will no longer have the desire to commit that particular sin and not a temporary kind of freedom from sin where one is always suppressing the desire to sin by self-will and determination.

But instead of these preachers of false doctrine to point the sheep to Christ as their Redeemer who will save them from every sin that holds them captive, we are taught to do our best to stop sinning and keep the Ten Commandments in order for Jesus to redeem us from the very same sins! How can our Saviour who came to redeem us from our sins (lawless deeds) use those very sins that He came to save us from as an excuse for not saving us? This is akin to a Physician refusing to treat his own beloved child because the child is sick!

These false teachers preach a different gospel – a mixture of part-Law and part-Grace, neither cold nor hot, leading the sheep in their care to believe that unless they, by their own effort, stop sinning, keep the Ten Commandments to get right with God or buy their books and handkerchiefs, God will not even look their way, when the bible says in Galatians 5:4 that

“For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.”

Beware of any pastor that tells you that it is your ability to keep the Ten Commandments and your good deeds that make you right with God. This doctrine is for those who are under Law and not under Grace. The result of following this doctrine is being cut off from Christ and falling under the curse. Sin also multiplies here. Remember “for sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under Law but under Grace.” Sin has dominion over those who are trying to keep the Law in order to be right with God.

According to Isaiah 64:6, the righteousnesses that proceed from our own efforts at law-keeping are like filthy rags. Only by the obedience of Christ are we made righteous in the sight of God (Romans 5:19)

You find that the preachers of this horrid mixture of part-Law and part-Grace (neither cold nor hot) have a monopoly over the list of things that YOU have to do in order to get right with God, be healed, break curses or overcome oppression. They prescribe fasts, vigils, baths, talking to photos of you as a kid to break generational curses and sowing of “seeds” in order to force God’s hand of blessing! They ignore the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ by which we have salvation from hell and every earthly ill, including sins, sickness, oppression, generational and other curses and death. Try to add anything to Christ's sacrifice and get cut off from Christ!

They magnify works and minimize Grace when the bible says in Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

But these ones boast in their own works. And you just keep going back to them for more “deliverance.” There is no free indeed here but another spirit of bondage to fear. Only Christ sets free indeed. Their patterns smack of Old Testament processes where the high priests had to tell God’s people what kind of animal to bring, what to do, what to say, etc, in order to be forgiven or cleansed! Worse, these high priests of today are offering to God bloodless sacrifices of human effort (fasts and seeds) just like Cain! It is no surprise that they get angry at and persecute those who depend on the blood of Another, Jesus Christ, for their righteousness, like Abel did.

Even then, the high priests of the Old Testament would examine the sacrificial animal (never the sinner who brought the animal) for blemishes in order to ensure that it is acceptable to the Lord. The sinner would place his hands on the animal and his unrighteousness will go into the animal while he receives the righteousness of the innocent, a shadow of which the substance is what we have in Christ the Lamb of God today "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21.

But not so with these false pastors/high priests of today! They tell you that you are your own sacrificial animal! You must do atonement for your own sins. But then, the sacrificial animal must die! Instead of examining the sacrificial animal that was brought for atonement for sins (Christ for us today,) these leaders examine the ones who sinned and tell them to do such and such in order to be free from the coming judgment for breaking the Law, effectively passing a death sentence on those who believe them because the wages of sin is death, preceded by the curses in Deut.28. Believers, Jesus Christ, our Sacrifice, has paid the price of our freedom from judgment in full!

Believers, believe Right. By God’s grace, let Christ hear of your problems from you first and not that apostle that must hear of it. He knows all that bothers you and only He has the solution. Get out from under such who preach that getting right with God hinges on your ability to keep the Law. The law is not of faith! And without faith, it is impossible to please God. So you cannot please God by keeping the Law.

John 1:17 says “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” They are different and cannot mix.

Praise the Lord that in Christ, we are not under Law but under Grace. In Christ, we are no longer slaves to the law of sin but slaves of His Righteousness. We are children of God. He delivers us from trouble when we call on Him and blesses us not because of the things we do or don’t do but because of what our Saviour Jesus has done. His Spirit transforms us to the image of His glory (2 Corinthians 3:18) so we don't HAVE to live right; we GET to live right by His Spirit, not by our puny self-will or dogged determination.

Only with Christ as our High Priest can we freely enjoy our Heavenly Father’s blessings. Because He took our place on the cross and made us righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21), we are forever righteous and our prayers and praises are perfect in our Heavenly Father’s eyes.

Remember Hebrews 4: 14 "So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings we do, yet He did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."

This is His undeserved, unmerited favour to us and only sinners are allowed to enter into it!

Believers, in Christ, we have free access into the Holy of Holies/the presence of our Abba Father! Please beware of preachers of a different gospel – those who preach justification by works and not justification by faith. Those who give you lists of things to do before you can receive from the Lord who gives us all things freely according to Romans 8:32. These people have taken on the role of high priest. They are not your high priest. I’m quite sure if you looked on their backs, they don’t carry scars of the stripes by which you were healed!

Jesus Christ is our High Priest and all we need to do to be saved is believe! Believe that you have been made righteous in Him (seek God's righteousness, not yours) and all other things will be added unto you - including the grace to live right and deliverance, health, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

The Holy Spirit will teach you all things.

Believe Right and you will Live Right!