See God's heart of love for you and I

 Believers, consider Psalm 103:1-5 with emphasis on verse 3:

"Bless the Lord, O my soul;

And all that is within me, bless His holy name!

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits:

3 Who forgives all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases,

4 Who redeems your life from destruction,

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s."

The order of the Lord's benefits is not coincidental; before the rest can follow, one has to be established in the first set of benefits in verse 3-

"Who forgives all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases,"

And how are we blessed with these two benefits in the Lord Jesus Christ? Romans 8:32 tells us that it is FREELY and not by those abominable human effort-driven works like attempts at obeying the law, fasting and sowing seed in order to get God to forgive and to heal:

"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?" Romans 8:32.

Believer, Christ had no sins of His own. It was our sins that He was crushed for. Christ had no anxiety, sickness, lack, depression or anything that takes away ease (dis-ease) of His own. The chastisement for our peace; the breaking and mangling of His body to the point of looking grotesque was to free us from all kinds of dis-ease, both physical and mental. The Living Bible version of Isaiah 52:14 tells us that He was "beaten and bloodied, so disfigured one would scarcely know it was a person standing there." The MSG version says:

"He didn’t even look human— a ruined face, disfigured past recognition."

Christ endured ALL of that for the joy of seeing us forgiven, healed and having eternal life in Him. FREELY. And God who so loved the world gave Him up for us. FREELY.

So you can imagine our Lord's sadness at seeing the same people that He so loved that He gave His most prized Treasure (Christ) up to redeem and heal attempting to give their fasts, tithes, watery efforts at obedience and all sorts of "trade by barter" acts in exchange for the life that Christ died for us to FREELY have- discarding Christ's sacrifice for us as useless! It's akin to (but infinitely worse than) freely giving a sick loved one your heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and other vital organs and dying to give him life but this loved one just trashes your organs that you died for him to have while plodding on in his dis-ease.

Believer, see how God views all of those human effort-driven works and obedience that some "pastors" goad churchgoers to "at least try" to do so that God can bless in Isaiah 64:6-

"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight."

Romans 5:9 shows us God's love and the only means by which He sees us as righteous and thus FREELY eligible for every single blessing in His Word:

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

Also consider Romans 5:19- "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."

The verse above shows us that committing acts of sin is not what makes a person a sinner. Adam's sin passed the sinful nature to all of his descendants. The hallmark of the sinful nature is dependence on human effort in order to be godly, righteous and to not "perish but have eternal life." The one with the sin nature that was inherited from Adam does not believe that Christ's obedience ALONE is what makes us righteous in God's sight and destined to reign in life forever. He thinks he has some good in him and that his efforts at fasting, charitable deeds, sowing seed, obeying the Ten Commandments, paying tithe and being a "decent person" should make him deserving of the Lord's benefits, just like the Christ-rejecting/antichrist Pharisees. But even non-believers do these things.

The spirit of the antichrist is not necessarily anti-God. In fact, as we see in the lives of the Pharisees and some very religious folk in church today, this antichrist spirit is always shouting the importance of godliness (being like God) from the rooftops - just as Satan did with Eve. It rejects Christ's sacrifice in making the sinner who believes righteous like God and promotes the attainment of godliness and the Lord's benefits via human effort/arm of flesh. It strives to replace what Christ has done for our salvation with human effort (arm of flesh) at achieving same. E.g. Galatians 3:13 says:

"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law..."

But the spirit of the antichrist disagrees; it preaches that you should come and break the same curse with 70 days fasting and deliverance service. So watch what you are hearing in your local church. Satan did not tempt Eve to steal or murder. He deceived her into trying to be godly by human effort. Reposing confidence in our obedience or any human effort-driven work and expecting God to forgive or bless based on those works is akin to a healthy-looking HIV carrier attempting to donate blood. His blood is still tainted with the virus, no matter how healthy he looks or feels.

The worst part is that it is those same activities e.g. " at least try to do your best to be godly by keeping the law and and sow a seed so that God can bless you with good children" that make Christ's sacrifice of no effect in a person's life:

"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." Galatians 5:4.

Recall God's Grace is a Person. His name is Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11 says of Him: "God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone."

Verse 14 of the same Titus 2 says: "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."

Since dependence on even an atom human effort at obedience for godliness (which is being taught widely in many Nigerian churches) is the way to get cut off from Christ, those who do so no longer have access to salvation from sins. Satan and his pastor agents know this so in their drive to kill and destroy the flock, they actively try to steal the word of God that says we are made righteous in God's sight through Christ's blood ALONE and not through those weak and beggarly "menstrual rag" activities like fasting and sowing seed done to ginger God to bless. When your believing is right, right living will follow. You will bear much fruit. Christ says so (John 15:5.) When our trust is utterly in Him and not our useless ability to obey the law, God fills us to overflowing with His benefits so much that with what is spilling over, we can't help but be a blessing to those around us. We get to do more, give more, live right and exceed the righteous demands of the law, yet not us but Christ in us.

Anyone outside the umbrella of Christ's blood-bought righteousness is "the wicked" in God's sight. There is no middle-ground. It is either self-effort (law) or Christ through and through (Grace.) Death or Life. Such who depend on even an inch of self-effort are cut off from Christ and exposed to God's wrath. Sins or the lack of good deeds are not the issue when it comes to enjoying the fullness of the Lord's benefits. What sins? The same sins that Christ came to save us from according to Titus 2:14-

"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."

Also Matthew 1:21- "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

If you have sins, Christ is Saviour. But antichrist pastors teach that the sick (sinner) should heal himself of his sins before he can come to the Physician (Christ) for healing.

Beloved, God is not expecting us to save ourselves from our sins. He knows we cannot. He knows that there is no good in man of himself, just as Christ knew that Peter would fall flat on his face three times even though Peter thought "I can never do that kind of thing." The arm of flesh will fail so never trust yourself. Trust in Christ. Psalm 103 says of God and the effect of Christ's sacrifice in the lives of all who believe His goodness:

"12 Farther than from a sunrise to a sunset—

that’s how far you’ve removed our guilt from us.

13 The same way a loving father feels toward his children—

that’s but a sample of your tender feelings toward us,

your beloved children, who live in awe of you.

14 You know all about us, inside and out.

You are mindful that we’re made from dust."

Sins and the lack of good deeds are not the issue when it comes to receiving Christ's salvation from sins, disease, earthly destruction and death in hell. God knows that no man can lift a finger to produce good. Paul addressed this truth in Romans 1 where a group who “suppress the truth” of righteousness by faith (verses 16-19) devolved into sin after “God lifted off His restraining hand…” —

“24 This is why God lifted off His restraining hand and let them have full expression of their sinful and shameful desires…”

If God lifted off His restraining hand that restrains us from devolving into committing heinous sins and let us rely on our human effort and will-power at keeping the law in order to be saved, godly or for whatever reason, we would all devolve into sin and see how utterly sinful and lacking in good we are of ourselves.

Sins which many pastors focus on as the barrier to receiving from Jesus are not the issue here. The issue is TRUST. The issue is unbelief in God's goodness. The issue is man erroneously viewing God as a harsh Taskmaster who demands payment to protect and provide for His own children and is just waiting in the wings for us to commit sin so that he can unleash Satan on us and punish us. Are we talking about the same God who so loved us that He sent His own Son to die to free us from sin, to take away our guilt and condemnation and give us the gift of eternal life? May the Lord open the eyes of many church pastors to see the Truth that makes free indeed.

Like Peter before he denied Christ copiously and saw his utter weakness, many churchgoers are yet to see that the reason why we are not wallowing in heinous sins and unbelievable lack is because God did not allow us to be tempted to an unbearable extent. Many think that they are "good" until Satan comes a-sifting.

God's word keeps on telling us that "the arm of flesh (human effort at being good like God) will fail" but egged on by Satan's ministers inside church, many churchgoers follow the example of Eve who thought it was a good idea to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in order to be godly (be like God.) Just like the tree, the letter (law) gives the same knowledge and kills too. Beloved, let's not be found here.

Beloved of God, consider again Psalm 103:1-5:

"Bless the Lord, O my soul;

And all that is within me, bless His holy name!

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits:

3 Who forgives all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases,

4 Who redeems your life from destruction,

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s."

The only way to fully enjoy these freely-given benefits is to follow His counsel in Isaiah 30:15-17 (MSG)-

"God, the Master, The Holy of Israel,

has this solemn counsel:

“Your salvation requires you to turn back to Me

and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves.

Your strength will come from settling down

in complete dependence on Me—..."

So next time you come across Isaiah 53-

"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our wickedness [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing]; The punishment [required] for our well-being fell on Him, And by His stripes (wounds) we are healed."-

Next time you come across this verse, know and believe that it is a FINISHED work that Christ has accomplished for you and I. No need for "menstrual rag" additives of human effort-driven righteousnesses or fasting and sowing seed so that God can heal you. Also consider Psalm 103:20-

"Bless the Lord, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word, Obeying the voice of His word!"

Do you know who gives voice to His word? You and I who believe Jesus of course! By Grace, give VOICE to His word and His angels will move on your behalf. No need for ANY human effort-driven additives which amount to nothing but polluting sewage. That would be akin to us trying to fast or sow a seed to get our parents to take us to the hospital when we were sick as children. It is akin to our kids feeling that we are reluctant to give them our best or thinking that they need to grovel in fear and skip meals in order for us to prevent dogs from tearing them to pieces, especially when they misbehave.

Our kid's good behaviour is a function of parental training but many put the cart before the horse when it comes to following Christ. These ones try to do the Lord's work of training His children by their own strength aka arm of flesh that will fail. The way some "pastors" misrepresent God to the flock would make any earthly court charge Him with child abuse! In Christ, God is ABBA aka Daddy aka Father to us. His heart's delight is to see us blessed with all of His benefits. I still can't forget the joy I felt in my heart years ago when my teenaged son hugged me tightly IN PUBLIC for buying him something that I saw as unnecessary. I was so happy that he was so happy especially as seldom shows such emotion. And that's only a sample of how the Lord feels when He sees our joy at His blessings:

"13 The same way a loving father feels toward his children—

that’s but a sample of your tender feelings toward us,

your beloved children, who live in awe of you."

Trying to earn the Lord's benefits is the way to lose access to His goodness but when we stop our silly efforts to save ourselves and utterly trust in Christ for eternal life and salvation from whatever bugs us, we get to enjoy the fullness of His Grace- including freedom from sins and the desire to do good deeds:

"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." Titus 2:14.

When your believing is right, right living will follow.