Believe Right!

Believers, in Christ, we are not under the “first covenant” of Law but under Grace. See our Lord God's word to us in Hebrews 8 regarding the new covenant (GRACE) that we have with Him in Christ Jesus- "7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none h

Believers, most times when we think of areas of "Satan at work," we imagine red-light districts, war, poverty, child-molestation, fornication and adultery, idol worship/juju, the kind of demonic oppression that gets people rolling on the floor and foaming at the mouth; acts of sin in general. While the kingdom of darkness works hard at keeping the world that God so loved locked down in such captivity, these overt manifestations are usually the work of minions or lesser devils. Satan himself and "spiritual wickedness in high places" have a more refined approach to their work of stealing, killing and destroying. You find their works in churches where obedience to God's law is upheld as the means of attaining righteousness (and thus enjoying God's blessing) instead of faith in Jesus Christ by whose obedience we are made righteous (Romans 5:19;) those churches where it is preached that your salvation depends entirely or partly on what YOU must do and not

Believers, Christ said "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28. Sometimes, when we read this verse, we look back to the time when we first got saved and think this is where it ends; but our Saviour's rest goes "exceeding abundantly above" that. Everyday, we labour under the burden of things like work targets and deadlines, unpaid bills, the state of the economy, household chores, kids' homework, addictions-even to food, the future of our kids, dissatisfaction, anxiety and depression. Our Saviour Jesus Christ wants us to bring these things to Him as they pop up. He is the Way of escape. See His word to us in 1 Peter 5:7- "Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully." Also Philippians 4:6- "Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let

Believers, have you ever been subject to the popular situation where a preacher puts you on edge with "time-bound" donations, makes you feel like you lost something and are now prey to the devil because you missed a "special anointing service" or asks you to "sow a seed now" so that God can owe you a job or a house? People actually borrow money in order to comply with their timelines. With bank details flashing on TV screens, such preachers usually say things like "There's a special window open for anyone who gives or pledges such and such amount of money right now. Now. Right now. The window is about to close now so hurry. You don't want to miss God's goodness and mercy at this special time. Going, going, gone!" But wait a minute! The popular Psalm 23 says “…goodness and mercy shall pursue me…” because “The Lord is my Shepherd,” and not because we sowed a seed! You who cannot pledge their very specific amounts feel like you

Believers, imagine a person shivering in the cold and about to freeze to death just outside a warm and cozy house that offers rest from all of his troubles. The One inside the house persistently invites him to come inside where he can receive rest (warmth, food, healing, etc) free of charge, but this dying/freezing person who can do nothing to save himself insists on making himself warm and whole BEFORE going inside the house. We would probably say to the man: “don’t be silly; enter and rest,” but this is the story of many in the church today. Christ says in Matthew 11:28- “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” But instead of seeking rest in Christ, many in the church are still labouring to keep the Law of Moses in order to get right with God and thus are heavy laden with the guilt of their failures because NO ONE can EVER achieve this (see Romans 3:20– “For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands...”)

Romans 3:20 says “For no on can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands....”  Believers, we are not under Law but under Grace. You cannot have one leg on Mount Sinai and the other on Mount Zion. You cannot be trying to get right with God by keeping the Law and expect to be saved by Grace. Remember Revelation 3:15-16, Our Lord Jesus Christ says: "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. 16 I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Don't let anyone misinterpret these verses for you, deceiving you into thinking that being "hot" is keeping the Law and being made right with God by doing its works. Romans 3:20 says no one can and this is how to get cut off from Christ according to Galatians 5:4. This would also mean that being "cold" is living a hedonistic life without regard for anything or anyone. Why would Christ wish for any

God's grace is not a license to sin. It is the power of God to salvation from sin. Christ saves from sin (Matthew 1:21.) Many try to distort Grace by mixing it with some Law in order to make the gospel “balanced” and to put people in check regarding sin. This is to be neither cold nor hot. Paul spoke of such in Galatians 1:6- “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” What warped human beings we would all be if our parents abandoned us when we were bad, taught us lessons by making us suffer at the hands of devourers and fed, clothed and loved us only when we were good! See Paul’s analogy of law and grace in Galatians 4:21-31. Let’s not try to help Grace by re-introducing the law that Christ died to fulfill for us. Sarah (Grace) did not need Hagar (law) to raise Isaac (the church.) See

Paul preached a sermon that is recorded word-for-word in Acts 13 that culminated in the following verses: "38 Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; 39 and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." To the Pharisees, this was unacceptable. They could not fathom how, without obeying the law of Moses, a person could be made 100% righteous and free from the demands of the law by simply believing in Jesus. They wanted to hold on to their ceremonies, fasts, sprinklings, washings and what to do/give in order to get from God, which no one would need advice on once they believed in Jesus. This "knowing the Lord" is in line with God's word in Hebrews 8:11-  "And they will not need to teach their neighbors,  nor will they need to teach their relatives,  saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least

Believers, the debate on tithing is trending because Satan is using this topic and other issues pertaining to "the knowledge of good and evil" to distract people from the real issue of Righteousness by faith. See Romans 3: "27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law." “Yet the law is not of faith....” says Galatians 3:12. Bear in mind that believers in Christ are " not under law but under grace.” Under grace, any giving that we do is by God’s revelation. It is a response of love and not done in order to get God to make us rich. Christ took care of this for us. See 2 Corinthians 2:8-9 "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich." Tithing in ord

Believers whose righteousness is found in Christ, our Lord Jesus sweated blood in the Garden of Gethsemane so that we should stop eating bread "by the sweat of your brow." Luke 22:44 says of Him in the garden: "He prayed more fervently, and He was in such agony of spirit that His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood." What started in one garden ended in another garden. Remember it was in the Garden of Eden that God told Adam: “...Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground,..." (Genesis 3:17–19) Work for man thus became stressful. He had to toil and sweat to eat

Believers, remember when Elijah prayed and fire came down from heaven in 1 Kings 18? This happened during the reign of King Ahab, husband of Jezebel. Before Elijah prayed, “...he repaired the altar of the Lord which had been torn down.” The people had torn down the alter of the Lord and were blatantly serving Baal. The fire of God’s judgment should have fallen upon and consumed them. But this is what happened (verse 38:) “Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” This event is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who bore the fiery indignation of God’s judgment that was meant for us in His own body, so that we might live. The fire of judgment did not fall on the guilty people. It fell on the bull - a picture of Christ. We might think that the evil that the children of Israel who worshipped idols and sacrificed their children to same did was on another leve

Years after Elijah prayed and fire fell from heaven, king Ahab had died and his son from Jezebel, Ahaziah was king of Israel, ruling from his palace in SAMARIA. He and the people had gone back to worshipping idols. Ahaziah fell and seriously injured himself (2 Kings 1.) He sent messengers to the idol that he worshipped to ask whether he would recover. But our Lord God told Elijah to go and confront these messengers and ask them: “‘Is there no God in Israel? Why are you going to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, to ask whether the king will recover? 4 Now, therefore, this is what the Lord says: You will never leave the bed you are lying on; you will surely die.’” So Elijah went to deliver the message. When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, “Why have you returned so soon?” They told him about their meeting with a certain man and what he said. The king demanded a description and deduced that it was Elijah. He sent an army captain with fifty soldiers to arrest him.

Remember 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord isn’t really being slow about His promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.” Also verse 15 of the same chapter: "And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved...." This is why those who scoff at the message of the cross and the wicked in general seem to be prospering and not suffering the consequences of their actions; even religious churchgoers who scoff at Grace and follow their hearts desire (seeking righteousness from obedience to the law.) God's longsuffering nature and His desire for none to perish is why many seem to be getting way with murder today- until they stand in the way of those who believe the message of the cross – righteousness by faith in Christ. This was the case with Elymas the sorcerer who was so successful at his sorcery that he had the ear of an intelligent governor. See Acts 13- 6 “Afterwa