Believe Right!

Many believers think that God is just waiting for them to make a mistake so He can punish them or let the devil have a go at them. They feel that it is up to them to make sure to obey in order to avoid punishment, even when Romans 3:20 says no flesh is made righteous by the deeds of the law; Without the Lord as our Righteousness, 100% obedience is required to avoid punishment and no one on earth can boast of this. Only by His grace can we be made righteous in His eyes. This presentation of our "compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness" Father as a God whose sole desire is to catch us in sin so as to punish us and who prefers that we starve and grovel before He blesses us is the main theme of many sermons. Not so at all! In Matthew 7:9-11, our Saviour Jesus says: "Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know...

The woman with the issue of blood didn't just dream up touching the hem of Christ's garment to be made whole. She heard/read it from the word of God. Malachi prophesied "But for you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings" (Mal. 4:2,) You see, the "Sun of Righteousness" is our Saviour Jesus Christ, the Bright and Morning Star. "Wings" is "kanaph" in Hebrew. Kanaph or "tzitzit" is the word used for the corner of the prayer shawl (tallit) that is still worn by some in Israel today. Consequently Malachi 4:2 has been interpreted as "When the Messiah arises there will be healing through His kanaph or tzitzit, the corner of His tallit." This is why the woman with the issue of blood and others who were sick wanted to touch the hem (kanaph) of our Saviour's garment. They heard about our Saviour, believed He is the "Sun of Righteousness" and they had faith that ther...

Believers, now that we are in Christ, God supplies us with the Holy Spirit and works miracles among us by the hearing of faith, not by what we do or don't do (law-keeping). See Galatians 3:2-5 below. Think what happens when a cup filled with dirt is placed under a high-pressure water faucet. The cup gets filled to overflowing, the dirt gets dislodged, rises to the surface and gets flushed out by the running water until there is nothing left of it in the cup - only clean water remains. In the bible Christ uses water to typify the Holy Spirit. Remember His meeting with the Samaritan woman in John 4? Verse 14 says " but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” We also see it in Ephesians 5:25-26 "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse he...

Many of us think that most believers and even non-believers who commit sin want to continue to do so. We think they don't want out. I submit to you that these 'great' sinners are just like you: they feel bad after each episode and are trying hard to find a way out of that sin but cannot! You see (especially pastors and leaders none of whom can "cast the first stone,") you're not the only one who wants to live a righteous life☺ Most believers and non-believers struggle to live right but can't. It's death to condemn such further with the reading of the law. They have the law emblazoned on their hearts already. The letter kills. For believers who have this experience, this isn't a unique situation. Paul of the New Testament faced the same dilemma. In Romans 7:18-19, Paul says: "For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do no...

Believers, has anyone ever warned you to “be careful because I had a dream/vision where people are plotting your downfall” and such, all while you were happily minding your own business? Have they gone as far as telling you things about yourself that you know they have no way of knowing? Did they tell you that unless you do such and such, something bad will happen to you? After you heard their 'prophecy," did it happen that you got worried and couldn’t think about or concentrate on anything else? Then these words of our Saviour Jesus in John 14:27 are for you! – “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” The Lord Himself said of us in Isaiah 54:15:  “Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake.” You see, as the righteousness of God in Christ, depending on His righteousness and not ours, o...

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 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?" In Matthew 10:8, Jesus said: "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give."  This command is for ALL believers in Christ. Remember we are joint heirs with Christ. But thanks to those who Paul describes in Galatians 1 as preaching a different gospel, many believers are neither freely receiving nor freely giving today!  This is evident in many churches where you are led to believe that if you don't "play your part," God who gives us all things freely with Christ will not save you from your troubles. In such places...

Are you trying to get someone, even a believer in Christ, to stop sinning and live right? Is that person you? No amount of vows made to stop sinning, recital of punishments that are attached to breaking the Ten Commandments or threatening, nagging, hellfire and demon attack stories from the pulpit etc can transform a person. Only Jesus can. Without Him, we can do nothing. The bible says that the strength of sin is the law (1 Cor 15:56). Law-keeping makes people become slaves to sin. Telling people that they have to (by their own efforts) obey the law in order to be righteous will only produce more sin and cut them off from Christ. What trying to keep the Ten Commandments in order to be righteous does is arouse sinful passions in us and cause us to sin more, according to Romans 7:5 – “When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.”  The ...