Good Morning Brothers and Sister,
I pray you all had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend. Thanks to all of you who served our country and to your family members who served; especially to those who lost their lives in the selfless act of service to the country, to the ideas and principles that founded this country, and to the people of this country.
Our Father spoke to me this weekend about the number one hurdle Believers face today – condemnation. Condemnation has trapped, beaten down, stolen the joy, love, and peace, worn down or stifled the growth of faith, and prevented many Brothers and Sisters from fulfilling the volume of their life written by God before the foundation of the world. But, praise God, He is illuminating His Word brightly and shouting, in His still, small voice, “I love you. I’ve always loved you. I desire you. I’m jealous for you. I’ve given you My very best, and I’m asking for nothing in return except your love.”
Satan, the god of this world, meaning the god of this world system, has only three weapons to use against us, Believers: deception, condemnation, and temptation. The battlefield these three weapons are used upon is our minds. The result Satan is trying to achieve with his three weapons against our minds is fear. Satan wants to deposit “fear” into our hearts. Our hearts are the rich soil. Our hearts are amoral – meaning our hearts are neither good nor bad. But, our hearts are very rich to grow whatever seed, word, is planted there. This is made clear to us in Proverbs:
Proverbs 23:7
For as he [man] thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
A man is the output of his heart as told to us by God’s Word.
Proverbs 4:23
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
If we have “bad” seed planted there, we’ll have bad output. If we have “good” seed planted there, we’ll have good output. Our output, words, controls our lives.
Luke 6:45
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
Fear is the antithesis to faith. As mentioned many times before, Satan has never created anything original in his entire time. He can’t. Why? Because he is the god of death. Death can’t create; it can only destroy – slowly, quickly, or suddenly. Satan is a counterfeiter. He takes what God has created and counterfeits it with just the opposite. God put within us, in His Spirit, peace, love, joy, longsuffering [patience], gentleness, goodness, faith [His], meekness, and temperance [self control]. This is the character of God within you. If you are experiencing anything else (fear, doubt, anxiety, oppression, terror, depression, anger, hate, chaos, sadness, etc.), it is from Satan – NOT FROM GOD.
So, what does God’s Word have to say about condemnation? One verse, and there are many more, says it so clearly:
Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
This verse says it so clearly it takes a theologian to mess it up. If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, your Redeemer, then you are FREE of all condemnation. This verse tells us that God DOES NOT condemn us. But, this verse also gives us a warning at the same time. As a Believer, if you walk not after the spirit, then you are walking after the flesh. If you walk after the flesh, you will “receive” condemnation. Who is condemning us? Satan, not God. You open yourself up to condemnation from Satan.
Jesus showed this clearly in His earthly ministry through the woman accused of adultery and the men wanted to stone her immediately. When her accusers left, what did Jesus say to her? Did He condemn her? NO! He extended “grace” to her. Grace is unmerited, undeserved, unearned favor from our Father. She didn’t have to earn it, she just had to receive it.
John 8:11
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Our Father also tells us that if our heart condemns us, God’s grace is greater than our heart’s condemnation. Why would your heart condemn you? Because of the seed planted in your heart from your mind. Why would your mind plant a seed of condemnation in your heart? Because of what you allow into your mind. Who is coming after your mind all the time? Satan, why of course.
I John 3:20
For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
This is why we are exhorted throughout God’s Word, especially by Paul, the purveyor of God’s New Covenant, to guard our hearts and to renew our minds with God’s inerrant and whole Word:
Romans 12:2
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
If we allow Satan’s counterfeit fruits of the spirit to dominate us, then we will “walk after the flesh.” If we walk after the flesh, we’ll be given and we’ll “receive” into our hearts the seed of condemnation. We’ll then utter the words of condemnation from our lips and these words will work against God’s Spirit inside us.
To wrap this up, and I could go for pages, you were forgiven of all your sins, past, present, and future at the cross through Jesus’ death. Yes, you are going to sin, but God is looking at your spirit which is 100% Jesus Christ – perfect, holy, and righteous. You are judged by what Jesus Christ has already done – IT IS FINISHED!! Yes, you may battle with some sin, but praise God He told us we are the “righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 5:21).” If Jesus would not condemn the woman for adultery, would He condemn her for another sin? No. This would be judging one sin to be more or less grievous than another sin. God’s Word is very clear about sin – any sin, small or large, by our standards, is sin, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Thank God, the wages of sin were paid by Jesus at the cross for all of us and for all of our sin, past, present, and future.
DON’T LET YOUR SIN CONDEMN YOU! Let’s work, through God’s Word, to live as holy lives as possible, so that we don’t give place to sin. God doesn’t want us to give place to sin because of what sin does to us – it’s death or rot or decay – but God no longer judges our sin because He judged it at the cross on Christ Jesus. Don’t let condemnation keep you from moving forward with what God has for you to do in His Kingdom on Earth.
One beautiful thing I’ll wrap up with is the wonderful shedding of Jesus’ blood and what it did and does for us. I’ll go into this in a later email or at Caleb’s Promise:
- Jesus’ blood, which dripped to the ground, when He was praying, in incredible earnest, in the garden before His arrest, removed the curse from the ground for all Believers. We are to no longer labor by the toil and sweat of our brows for increase.
- Jesus’ blood shed during the scourging, the stripes on His back, removed the curse of ill health from us Believers. We are no longer to live in ill health.
- Jesus’ blood shed when the thorns {represent cares of the world] were pushed into His head removed the curse of deadly thinking from us Believers. We are no longer to live in stinking thinking.
- Jesus’ blood shed at the cross [represents the curse of sin] removed the condemnation, wrath, anger, and judgment of God against us Believers. We are no longer to live in fear.
- Jesus’ blood in burial and His resurrection removed the curse of death. We are no longer to die spiritually.
Walk mighty in the Blessing,
Larry