The Heart Versus The Will

Have you ever said to yourself, “man, I wish I could stop sinning”? And are you like me, at the very moment we say this, we start to think of ways on how to stop? Do you have that internal battle that plays over and over in your mind of your sin being so big and that it happens so often, you think, man, do I even know God?  So we start that vicious cycle of trying to figure out how not to sin. So often we go to our will to help produce better behavior. But we have to understand that our will in no way can produce behavior. We have to understand that our will is a servant to our heart. The will can only make decisions on what our heart desires. Meaning, the heart supplies the desire to the will; our will follows our heart. The dog wags the tail; the tail does not wag the dog.

I think we would be amazed on how often we depend on our will to change our behavior. My question is, if we were successful in using our will to change a certain sinful behavior and our heart stays in the same sinful desire, is that true transformation?  The answer is no. If we just employ our will for change, then we are doing nothing more than applying the law to our sin. The law cannot produce the holiness that it commands. So you ask, “what is God asking from me”? God is after our faith and our faith resides in our heart. Faith does not reside in our will, but only in our heart. Faith is a living un-shakable confidence in the grace of God. God is looking for good works, but it’s His good works. So you see, God is not calling us to “do” the law; God is calling us to fulfill the law. There is a big difference between doing the law and fulfilling the law. Doing the law is an outward work, whereas fulfilling the law is an inward work that is more about who we are. The only one who can fulfill the law was Jesus. Now, through the power of the Holy Spirit, God has fulfilled the law in us through Christ’s death on the cross. So when we see in the letter from Peter him calling us to be holy, we can see that God isn't calling us to moral perfection where we labor at our sin. God is calling us to see what He has done, rather than what we have done and are doing.

I think it's the same thing when we buy the lie that once we sin we have to find our way back to God. Religion is man seeking God; Christianity is God seeking man. We can't read the scriptures in hopes to find God, we read the Scriptures to see how God found us. We have to see that God flipped the script. It's not about us; it's about God. So when we find ourselves in that seemingly huge sin, don't try to figure out how to stop. Don't look to your will to get yourself out of it, but look to the cross and rejoice that God got you out of it by crushing His son for your sin. 

Don't Be Afraid Of Your Sin!

Why are we so afraid of confessing sin? Why are we so afraid of people seeing our sin? It blows me away how so many people who confess Jesus as their risen Savior, still hide their sin. The whole point of Jesus Christ dying our agonizing death was so we can be free from our sin, but it is hard to see how free we are if we are so captivated by fear. 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love”. So you have to ask, “what is perfect love”? The answer is, THE CROSS!

If you believe in the crucified Savior, why are you so afraid of your sin? I know that God isn't afraid of your sin. Or moreover, God isn't trying to figure out what to do with your sin, because he crushed his Son for our sin. So it amazes me that we, as professing Christians, have so many tumultuous conversations over how we are to be careful around people’s sins. If you profess Jesus Christ as your crucified Savior how dare you be afraid of your sin? Jesus was not afraid to take on your sin! Jesus, who was perfect in every way took on your filth and was never afraid! Jesus, who took your shame and was nailed to the cross, He was never afraid. Not to mention he took all of your sin from birth to death so you don't have to bear the burden of sin. Being afraid of your sin is bearing the burden of sin. What I'm saying is, if Jesus wasn't afraid of your sin why are you?

Have you thought much about what exactly you are afraid of? I believe it to be shame. Thankfully as Christians we don't have permission to be ashamed by our sin because Jesus took our shame upon Himself. In Isaiah 50:6-7, Jesus faced shame and said, “I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced.” The whole epicenter of the Cross was intended to shame Jesus. From the crowd asking for Barabbas, a filthy murderer, to be freed instead of Jesus to the Centurions beating him and asking him to prophesy who had hit him, to mocking worship, and the crown of thorns. He had to carry his own Cross. He was disrobed, naked, nailed to the Cross. The ungodly threw everything at Jesus to shame Him, but they could not because Jesus knew who He was. Hebrews 12:2 describe Jesus as despising the shame of the Cross, meaning that shame was to no avail, shame had no effect. He was not shamed. The reason why he was not ashamed is because he knew who he was; in the same way we need to know who we are.

A practical example can apply to how you see your past—evil that you have done and the evil that has been done to you. Have you ever looked at your past and cringed in shame? I believe that the power of the Cross has healed even your past. What you or someone else intended for evil, God redeemed (Genesis 50:20). God has not just healed you from today and into the future. God shows us that He redeems all things, including your past. How does this happen?  1 Corinthians 1:18 states that the Cross-is the “power of God.” In the story of Thomas in John 20:24–29, he says he will not believe that Jesus is alive again until he puts his fingers in Jesus’ side. Seeing the holes would make it real for Thomas. For Jesus, in, are the holes a reminder of the shame attempted on Him? Or is it a reminder of the power of God? It is a reminder of the power of God. Jesus is not ashamed of the holes left in His side, hands, and feet because he knows that the Cross-is the power of God. In the same way, is you’re past a reminder of how bad you were or how bad it was for you, or is it a reminder of God’s power? The Cross of Jesus Christ can redeem the evil that was placed on you or the evil that you placed on others. I am not saying that God changes the past; I am saying He changes the effect it has on you. So, allow me to pray this blessing on you: “May the Cross of Jesus Christ remind you that your past no longer tells the story of shame. May it tell the true story of God’s redemption, your life, void of shame.”

Oh Christian believe in a big cross and confess and repent your sin to glory of our Father!

The Riches Of Impoverishment

When we think of the words impoverishment, poverty, or bankrupt we tend to cringe because being poor in our generation is a bad thing. We definitely won't find a “3 steps to poorness”, or find a “how to” book on striving for impoverishment. We have been taught all of our lives that you will be trampled on if you are the low man on the totem pole.

We see in Scripture that God is calling us to be poor, impoverished and even bankrupt in spirit. Matthew 5:3 says, “Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”.  So, what does it mean to be poor in spirit? Or moreover, being in possession of the kingdom of heaven? It's like God telling us, “give up everything; and you will possess everything”. I think most of us understand that poor in spirit is needing God, or true dependence on God. Do we really believe this? Do we really seek impoverishment so to increase our dependence on him?  Are we really comfortable relying less on physical, financial or emotional support from other sources other than God? We live in a generation that is enthralled with status and position. It's like a pyramid -- he who has the most is at the top; and he who has the least is at the bottom; however, the kingdom of God is like an upside down pyramid where the least is most and the most is least. In the world’s kingdom people are fighting to get to the top but in the kingdom of God you don't have people fighting to get to the bottom. Nobody likes the bottom and nobody likes impoverishment. Why do you think it is important to God that we remain poor and needy? The answer is obvious to teach us how to truly depend on him.

In Exodus 33 God shows Moses that He gave Israel everything He promised and Moses was thankful but he wanted more.  After he heard God saying I gave you everything I promised Moses says, “thank you, now show me YOU”.  It was like Moses saying, “I want you” I don’t want the things of you; I want You! And this blessed God. I think we get lost in the things of God; rather than God himself.

As I start a new ministry, I thought I needed status, position and everyone's approval but the reality is that I really work better when I'm living out of my impoverishment because that's where my dependence is at its best and when my dependence is at its best the anointing flows even more.  God is promising us the kingdom today if we live out of our bankruptcy in spirit. He promises the kingdom… today! The Kingdom of God can only be seen through an impoverished heart.

The Curse Of Comparison

What is the curse of comparison? It is when man measures himself against man. This also gets in the realm of fear of man. I believe the curse of comparison is at the center of man's sin; at least it’s at the center of my sin. for example, when I see someone getting blessed with something, I immediately go inward and wonder why I'm not getting blessed (yuk).   I think we would be surprised how often in a day we measure ourselves against other people. What I mean by measuring ourselves is basically saying how well am I doing? Am I going in the right direction? How bad I am? How good I am? If you think about it, it seems to be the original sin where man wanted to compare himself with God and it continues to plague us, even as Christians. Paul talks about man measuring themselves against each other in 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 10:12 Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

Paul tells us when we measure ourselves against others it leaves us without understanding. Job 28:28 Job says, “understanding is turning from evil” so if we continue to live horizontally, meaning comparing ourselves with others we will have a hard time distinguishing good from evil. We know that God has called us to be in the world but not of it, meaning walk amongst evil but not get caught up in it. So if we are called to walk out our faith in an evil world and not get caught up in evil we make it harder to distinguish what evil is by comparing ourselves with man.

I think the bottom line is we are sinners in need of a Savior and if we truly understood that we would stop comparing ourselves with each other and start rejoicing in what God has done. You see, I need as much blood from Christ as Hitler. We can never say, “he or she is worse than I am” because we all need the same amount of blood of our Savior. And the more we understand this beautiful love from God; our attention goes from the curse of comparison; to joy filled dependence

The Redemptive Aspects of Depression (part 6)

As I conclude this series, I want to bring your attention to one of the most powerful books of the Bible that addresses suffering. We see in the 1st chapter of Job that it was God who asked Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job”? Satan knew what God was asking Him. Satan’s reply was, “the reason why he worships you is because you have this hedge of protection around him”. Satan then challenged God and said, “take your hand off Job and he will curse you”. So God gave Satan permission to take Job's property and children. No one really understands why God allowed this but I think we'll see and understand a little bit more at the end of the story.

In chapter 2 of Job we see his friends show up to comfort him. They do a good job for a little while because all they did was sit in silence and mourn with him. You see, I think sometimes when our friends and family are suffering we just need to crawl in a hole with them and hurt with them. I think a lot of times because they hurt, we hurt and because we hurt we want to make them feel better and that makes it about us. Most of the time when people are suffering I think we would be surprised on how healing it can be, when we just sit with them in their pain.

Job's friends then begin to accuse Job of doing something wrong because of the calamity that was happening to him. Joel suffered well for a little while by keeping his hope in God, but started to get pretty frustrated with his friends. Job, in chapter 31 begins to justify himself by saying things like “I fed the hungry”, “I lead the blind”, “I have clothed the naked” in Chapter 32 we see a young man named Elihu rebukes Job for justifying himself. Then God takes over and begins to rebuke Job as well it was like God saying to Job “really Job”? “You're the one who have fed the hungry”? “You're the one who lead the blind”? You're the one who clothed the naked”? God uses the next several chapters to show Job that it's God who is righteous. You would think if anybody was allowed to justify himself it would be Job, but Job cannot justify himself because his only God who is just.  Even when Job was suffering at the hand of Satan that God gave permission to bring calamity. I think we get into this place of self-righteousness, or this type of entitlement when we suffer. I also think we often think God is punishing us when we suffer. As believers we need to remember when we suffer that we cannot make it about God punishing us because God punished our Savior Jesus Christ for our sin. We may never completely understand why we suffer but we can completely understand that God is not punishing us when we are suffering.

In Job chapter 41 is very interesting creature called Leviathan. In Isaiah 27 Leviathan is Satan and I believe in chapter 41 of Job Leviathan is also Satan. If you read chapter 41 in Job, you see God is asking Job can you play with Satan?, can you hook him like a fish?, can you toy with him? Like I do? It's like God saying I use Satan as a tool. I think it's important to understand God uses evil for his glory.

I think the whole story of Job is wrapped up in chapter 42:1-6. Because Job says, “before this my ears have heard of you, but now my eyes see you”. So now we see that Job sees God even clearer than before. is closer to God than before. I believe that God used Satan to bring Job closer to Himself. I am not saying that God makes us suffer so we see him more. Truth is I really don't know why God calls us to suffer. But what I am saying is, that if the fruit of suffering let’s me see God clearer, or brings me closer to God, then bring it! 

The Redemptive Aspects of Depression (part 5)

I hope this blog series on depression has been a blessing to you.  Again, I want to remind you that I am not advocating looking for suffering for the sake of suffering, but it is my hope and prayer that you see that God is in the middle of our pain and how He wants to be the source of our comfort.

I think the best way to describe what I'm talking about is a story from when my son was about 2 years old. He was sitting on my lap and we were just having one of those father-son moments where he recognizes me as father and was delighted to be just in my presence.  I was equally delighted to be in his, so we were just hanging out having fun as father and son.  He always liked to hang onto pens, I think because he saw me writing a lot and it was his way of being like me.  My son was sitting on my lap holding the pen and I noticed that the pen had started to leak; it was all over his mouth and on his hands.  So, as a loving father, I didn't want to the ink to hurt him and I began to take the pen out of his hands. At 2 years old, he didn't speak in complete sentences, but when I started to take the pen out of his hand he gave me a look as if to say “if you take this pen out of my hand it's not going to go well for you”, meaning he gave me a look that said “I'm going to lose it”.  I knew that if I took the pen he would hold true to his word. I knew that this was going to be a learning moment for my son because I'm not going to get another pen to keep him from losing it. I want him to see that I'm going to be enough for him in that moment as I take the pen from him. I don't want the ink to hurt him; I also don't want him to believe the only way that he doesn't melt down is that I go get another pen. I want him to see that his source of comfort isn't going to be another pen.

So as I take the pen, he holds true to his word and jumps off my lap and melts down. Nothing in this moment exists in his life except for the loss of his pen. So I ask the question, does my son see me as his betrayer? Yes. There's no way he would understand why I had to take the pen. Now as a loving father, I know that he sees me wrong but I don't respond in kind. Now it hurts me that I see that he hurt so much but I want more for him. And the more isn't another pen… it's me. I know that I am enough for him, but he doesn't know that. So I scooped him up and I hold him and he looks to see if I have a pen for him and when he sees that I don't have a pen for him he loses it even more. Now I can see him wrestling with this in the moment of his pain because he knows that I am a source of comfort for him but he also realizes I just took the pen from him. He finally relents because for him the pain was too much and he needed comfort and he realizes that it's not going to come from the pen, it’s going to come from me and he finally just melts into my chest, finding comfort from me.

You see, that was one of the greatest moments I had with my son because he clung to me as his source of comfort.  I'm not sure he would say that because it was so hard for him. In the same way, we think we know what we need and when God doesn't give us what we think we need we look at Him as a traitor, or our betrayer.  When we go to Him as our source of comfort and nothing else, I believe God also believes these are great moments for Him when we cling to Him rather than things of Him.  The absolute truth is that God physically comforts, emotionally comforts, and spiritually comforts. 

Can you think of times when God took the “pen” from you and you threw a fit because you believe God didn’t have your best interest?  We have to stop seeking healing and seek the healer.  We have to stop seeking the blessings and seek the Blesser.  We have to stop seeking answers and seek the Answer Giver. I will never tell someone who is hurting that it will get better, because that means I'm saying that God is not enough now in the moment. The truth is; God is always enough.