Hey, beautiful people. Before we dive in, I want to say: PLEASE share because somebody needsto know the truth! This blog is just a tad longer than my other blogs, but it will be worth it.
Part I
(Humility, Prosperity Gospel, The New Gospel/Lukewarm)
You know why people would rather talk about cars, clothes, favor, and increase rather than sin? Well, it's probably because the people of God have forgotten how to approach the discussion, almost entirely.
Oh, but they approach it though. On a large scale, there is a select group of individuals who are creating a name for believers all over the world and they make themselves known by way of the topic of sin. They make THEMSELVES known; Not Jesus, themselves.
With unfailing love, the LORD drew people to Him. So, why are the people of God trying to use other things to draw the people in to other places?Long ago the LORD said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. (Jeremiah 31:3)
THE REAL GOSPEL
The gospel doesn't start with Heaven. The gospel is magnified by, but isn't centered, around Hell. The gospel isn't summed up with where someone is predestined to go or what materials they can receive on Earth. The gospel starts with the BLOOD. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus is the good news!
The blood, which represents the love, of Jesus is the ONLY reason the people of God don't deserve Hell. While holiness and obedience is how we show that we love Him, it is not our incompetent works that make us saved. Don't get me wrong, you're not scot-free just because you can't earn your way into Heaven. It's true, your life will reflect ongoing change if you have truly received Jesus. But, your attempts at holiness have nothing to do with your chance at eternal life; and when the WHOLE Gospel is in effect in a believer's life, all these factors are at work. Needless to say, many people don't emphasize the part about Jesus, they emphasize the works, exposing a dangerous characteristic in Gods people. Pride.
The body of Christ DESPERATELY needs humility! We should ask ourselves the question we find in Psalm 8:4, truly, what is man that thou art mindful of him? Who are we?! Who are we, but leeches of a God who will never lose strength. He is the Vine and we are mere branches. You don't have to choose between boldness and humility. Jesus was both. Jesus came to expose the needs of the people but to also MEET their need. In all the truth He spoke, He successfully directed all glory to the Father. He TAUGHT the people how to love God. But today, we lost balance in our witness. It's not always conviction, sometimes people can just sense the pride that fuels your speech. You can teach holiness, but you shouldn't teach it as if you have something to boast about. OUR HOLINESS IS NOTHING TO BOAST ABOUT. What I'm trying to say to the believers who think they have it all together is: You THINK it's only one thing you struggle with while God is looking at a plethora of other things that's darkening your heart. But, in Romans 8:1-2, we see that it is through CHRIST, only, that we are free from the law of sin and death. Meaning the natural law of sin leading man to condemnation and eternity in Hell is interrupted and destroyed for as long as we remain IN Christ Jesus. THEN, do we go from faith to faith (Romans 1:17); always growing in the righteousness of God.
So then our speech should not be,
"if I can do it, you can do it."
Our speech should be "Jesus did it while He was here, so we don't have to be subject to sin of any kind." If you don't mention the blood of Jesus, you can bet your bottom dollar that nobody is going to think of Him while you tell people what they should and should not do. They're going to think of you. We should be careful in our words in that God has given us the liberty to not be subject to the flesh; this is not about will-power, it's so much more! Jesus died so that you would have restored access to the Father, and with access to the Father, you have everything you need to keep you from under sin's thumb. When He died, He sent back His Holy Spirit to make you aware of those old unholy behaviors / environments / and forms of entertainment from which you should abstain. This doesn't mean there's the absence of sin, this means you are not overtaken by it or deceived into living a filthy life. That which you do find yourself stuck in, you can get clean of as you grow in the Lord and are chastised by Him. The Lord chastises those He loves (Hebrews 12:6). Many of us tune out the chastisement of the Lord to make peace with our own flesh. Many choose who they want God to be and say they love that God. They make a false idol out of the real thing. Pretending that God doesn't care about godliness. If that's you, I urge you to stop doing that. Choosing the lawlessness of the world will have you spending eternity with it, and at that point, it will have been your choice. But, let's go back to the discussion of humility.
The blood is so very important, but believers feel so safe, that they don't say anything at all about it during discussions about the Savior. Even when talking to fellow believers, the gospel should never leave our tongues. You can teach people to change their behavior, but all you'll have is a group of robots who don't even know why they've changed. You cannot preach any part of the Gospel if you neglect the blood; which is to clean the desperately wicked heart. That means that you have to acknowledge the fact that you do, in fact, have wickedness to be cleansed of. Only the blood, is our ticket to repentance. You can't embrace both sin and the blood. You can't embrace both the blood and self-righteousness. The blood exposes us for who we are, and therefore redeems us and directs all honor to Jesus, alone. I'll tell you this: you can't preach the blood without hitting on the love of God. Love is not a cop-out for the discussion of sin. Love is the SEED for the discussion, which can bring so much life if you use it! Don't act like one has nothing to do with the other. Hello, Saints! For God so LOVED the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. Some believers preach the word verbatim, but don't care if the listeners understand how to get out of their sin. That's selfish! The purpose of your heart is not pure just because you spit scripture, and God will expose the truth, whether it be good, bad, agreeable or not, when He returns (1 Corinthians 4:5).
"if I can do it, you can do it."
Our speech should be "Jesus did it while He was here, so we don't have to be subject to sin of any kind." If you don't mention the blood of Jesus, you can bet your bottom dollar that nobody is going to think of Him while you tell people what they should and should not do. They're going to think of you. We should be careful in our words in that God has given us the liberty to not be subject to the flesh; this is not about will-power, it's so much more! Jesus died so that you would have restored access to the Father, and with access to the Father, you have everything you need to keep you from under sin's thumb. When He died, He sent back His Holy Spirit to make you aware of those old unholy behaviors / environments / and forms of entertainment from which you should abstain. This doesn't mean there's the absence of sin, this means you are not overtaken by it or deceived into living a filthy life. That which you do find yourself stuck in, you can get clean of as you grow in the Lord and are chastised by Him. The Lord chastises those He loves (Hebrews 12:6). Many of us tune out the chastisement of the Lord to make peace with our own flesh. Many choose who they want God to be and say they love that God. They make a false idol out of the real thing. Pretending that God doesn't care about godliness. If that's you, I urge you to stop doing that. Choosing the lawlessness of the world will have you spending eternity with it, and at that point, it will have been your choice. But, let's go back to the discussion of humility.
The blood is so very important, but believers feel so safe, that they don't say anything at all about it during discussions about the Savior. Even when talking to fellow believers, the gospel should never leave our tongues. You can teach people to change their behavior, but all you'll have is a group of robots who don't even know why they've changed. You cannot preach any part of the Gospel if you neglect the blood; which is to clean the desperately wicked heart. That means that you have to acknowledge the fact that you do, in fact, have wickedness to be cleansed of. Only the blood, is our ticket to repentance. You can't embrace both sin and the blood. You can't embrace both the blood and self-righteousness. The blood exposes us for who we are, and therefore redeems us and directs all honor to Jesus, alone. I'll tell you this: you can't preach the blood without hitting on the love of God. Love is not a cop-out for the discussion of sin. Love is the SEED for the discussion, which can bring so much life if you use it! Don't act like one has nothing to do with the other. Hello, Saints! For God so LOVED the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. Some believers preach the word verbatim, but don't care if the listeners understand how to get out of their sin. That's selfish! The purpose of your heart is not pure just because you spit scripture, and God will expose the truth, whether it be good, bad, agreeable or not, when He returns (1 Corinthians 4:5).
Sin and love are still a part of the discussion, even in Revelations. In Revelations chapter 2, we find some of the commendations and judgments that the Lord gave to several churches. Not that prosperity [in and of itself] is wrong, but just as a side bar, the only church who received no rebuke was the church that experienced tribulation and poverty --there goes the prosperity gospel. [bloop]. Revelations 2:1-6 talks about a certain church similar to the Christians we see today. This is a church who hates evil, just like the Lord, and does well on exposing false apostles. Yet, somehow, the church still is judged for this one thing: "leaving their first love". It wasn't just a suggestion from the Lord, but they are commanded to repent and to remember the place from which they fell. Because this church hated evil, God commended and favored them --He LOVED it; but they were still held accountable for leaving this position of love. The position that drew them into the faith in the FIRST place! We all start with a position of humility and drive to pull others in with the same spirit that drew us in. Some of us got saved because we were afraid of Hell, but that was only part of the gospel. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Like romantic relationships, we are fooled if we think we can choose what true love looks like. It's certainly not made up of abuse and bitterness like people tend to accept. Our love is not perfect, it is not whole, and we don't perform in love as well as we think we do! The bible tells us how to love and its our job to study it and allow God to perfect us in it.
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. (1 John 4:8-9 KJV)
What Jesus did for us doesn't magnify fear, it magnifies hope! Fear is for people who don't have a savior.
The problem is that some of us are afraid that if we don't appear to lack sin, others won't believe in the power of God. Embracing your sin is not the answer, but hiding your sin until you feel you've conquered it is not the answer, either. Giving the untampered Gospel of Jesus Christ WILL bring people into the kingdom. Yes, we are supposed to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, but people, who haven't already heard the gospel, don't know they want the righteousness of God. They know love though. They know when it's genuine. They know when it's divine. Once they see that it was the love of God that sent Jesus on the cross to die for our sins, it becomes more than just trying to escape Hell or trying to impress a man. It becomes being about getting to know this God who loved us that much and finding out how to please Him. From there, the Holy Spirit begins a work that your mind could not fathom. The only way you would have a hand in it is if the Holy Spirit works through you to get to that person. If the Holy Spirit is at work, pride will have no place and love will be experienced. All of 2 Corinthians 3 is an example of effective witness.
Nonetheless, There is a time to rebuke sharply according to Titus 1:10-13 and we'll talk about that in Part II.
The problem is that some of us are afraid that if we don't appear to lack sin, others won't believe in the power of God. Embracing your sin is not the answer, but hiding your sin until you feel you've conquered it is not the answer, either. Giving the untampered Gospel of Jesus Christ WILL bring people into the kingdom. Yes, we are supposed to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, but people, who haven't already heard the gospel, don't know they want the righteousness of God. They know love though. They know when it's genuine. They know when it's divine. Once they see that it was the love of God that sent Jesus on the cross to die for our sins, it becomes more than just trying to escape Hell or trying to impress a man. It becomes being about getting to know this God who loved us that much and finding out how to please Him. From there, the Holy Spirit begins a work that your mind could not fathom. The only way you would have a hand in it is if the Holy Spirit works through you to get to that person. If the Holy Spirit is at work, pride will have no place and love will be experienced. All of 2 Corinthians 3 is an example of effective witness.
Nonetheless, There is a time to rebuke sharply according to Titus 1:10-13 and we'll talk about that in Part II.
The NEW Gospel, that's not the Gospel at all
Aside from equating prosperity to salvation, we stopped preaching Jesus, and went straight to deeds! We traded the solution for the problem! We focused on "stop being worldly" instead of focusing on the Holy One making us clean --whom will cause us to change in what we crave or enjoy. Now, we say doing or refraining from [insert habit], is the only way to Heaven. Perhaps, to feel more departed; but out of this we tear each other down, and do not invest the actual truth about deliverance! We don't teach how to get out of sin and addiction, heart-wise. We don't teach that a man's love for God has to grow beyond his love for sin, euphoria, and highs. For that reason, people misunderstand that it's not just about "stopping" what you're doing; because anything you stop can start again if your reason for stopping isn't core-deep.
We stopped teaching, but rather go around to simply expose the wickedness of other people, rather than covering (1 Peter 4:8), as if we have none -or very little- wickedness, of our own, to get clean of. What is calling out somebody's sin if you don't want to cover them with the word and admonish them in love? So, now, luke-warmness is identified by one bad decision, and not the complete absence of an obviously transforming life through Christ. Lukewarm is no longer a state of being: a man who is neither hot or cold; believing he is rich and whole, when he is actually stagnant and spiritually poor, blind, naked, and miserable (Rev 3:17); doing nothing with the salvation that Lord has given him. We, now, use the term to create levels of holiness. The truth is, if a person is lukewarm, a loving response would be less disgust, and more intercession, because it is a truly desperate and dangerous place to find, even the weaker, brethren. Sometimes we hate sin so much, that we are of no good use in bringing others into salvation.
We stopped teaching, but rather go around to simply expose the wickedness of other people, rather than covering (1 Peter 4:8), as if we have none -or very little- wickedness, of our own, to get clean of. What is calling out somebody's sin if you don't want to cover them with the word and admonish them in love? So, now, luke-warmness is identified by one bad decision, and not the complete absence of an obviously transforming life through Christ. Lukewarm is no longer a state of being: a man who is neither hot or cold; believing he is rich and whole, when he is actually stagnant and spiritually poor, blind, naked, and miserable (Rev 3:17); doing nothing with the salvation that Lord has given him. We, now, use the term to create levels of holiness. The truth is, if a person is lukewarm, a loving response would be less disgust, and more intercession, because it is a truly desperate and dangerous place to find, even the weaker, brethren. Sometimes we hate sin so much, that we are of no good use in bringing others into salvation.
The Bible says "He who wins SOULS, is wise" (Proverbs 11:30), not He who quotes the most scripture. Don't get it twisted in believing that you have no responsibility to inform those who still operate in sin. Hating sin does not mean you're without sin. Hating sin means that you CLING to the one who will clean you of it. Hating evil does not mean you ignore and cast away those who want God, but hasn't grasped how to get in right standing; and loving doesn't mean you take part in, pacify or encourage their evil doings. When you live for God, your presence speaks before you have to say anything! Even toward the lukewarm, it is a believer's responsibility to bring light to that style of living-- IN LOVE. If somebody is drowning, you don't scoff at their inability to swim. You don't hurl insults to them saying "You should have read the sign! You shouldn't have been standing by the pool!" NO! You give them what they need to be SAVED. You give them the information they need to not get caught in the water again. Naturally, if someone were to drown again, we would look at them like they were idiots. God, however, is nothing like man- in that, He would be gracious enough to do for us what we would only do once or twice; forgive and reestablish the relationship.
But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:17-18 KJV)
Furthermore, we don't talk to God about each others' iniquity, we talk to each other! Instead of telling a person, directly, why the Lord isn't pleased with what they do (for their sake), we make our social media a platform to throw shade and show our disappointment in people we don't even know. Instead of teaching the word plainly, we feel we must add our own attitudes, opinions, logic and biases in order to make it more offensive --oops! I mean convicting. The Word is already offensive. You can post a scripture, alone, and people will look at you like you're being judgmental. Sometimes, the people of God are being a little shady, but sometimes, its just the best way to get a point across. Once we take it upon ourselves to add to the word or go beyond what is written, [foreshadow of Part II] we create a reputation for, not only ourselves, but the ENTIRE Body of Christ. In the end, though, our power is not in our deeds, our power is in the deed of Christ. Soon enough, we won't be dying for how righteous we've seemed; we'll be dying for the expression of Gods power through our lives (including, but not limited to, holiness). Some of the "holiest" people you see will deny Him in the day of persecution because they didn't know Him, they knew His rules.
Please take none of this blog as a route for finding loopholes in what is righteous and holy. This is to reprove the body on the habit we have of allowing ourselves to be puffed up by comparing each others' strengths and weaknesses.
What is Holy? What is worldly?
Well, for one, since Jesus came, holiness has changed, but is not ever-changing.
Well, for one, since Jesus came, holiness has changed, but is not ever-changing.
But we will save this discussion for Part II
During a discussion, a friend told me "you can forgive yourself, but don't forget yourself". I had to lay back in awe. All that is saying is, although you've been forgiven of your sins, don't forget that you are NOTHING without the blood that has to clean you of your sins... DAILY. You have to die DAILY. You have to repent DAILY. humble yourself! Once you realize that, your witness will point more to the one who cleaned you and less at your own ability to be cleansed.
#NP Boasting - Lecrae
too much love,
youdontknowmebro
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