No More Curse!

When you allow the Holy Spirit to be the teacher in your bible study, you find that many times He leads the discussion away from the topic you thought you were supposed to teach on. For example, today I sensed in my spirit that there wasn't going to be much from the book of Ruth taught today, even though we had a great study last week and were prepared to go forward and look at chapter 4. As it turns out, the question of curses, particularly the doctrine of generational curses, was brought up, so the Holy Spirit taught on this issue. We were taken to Galatians 3: 13-14.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ: that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Scripture is clear that there are no more curses on the believer - AT ALL! There is a very popular charismatic teaching in the body of Christ that we are all under Old Testament generational curses and that they must be rooted out, etc - this is simply NOT TRUE!. I know many well-meaning Christians who love God and desire to serve Jesus but have been hood-winked by the devil into believing this false doctrine. The truth is that Jesus Christ took every curse, being made a curse for us - now the blessing of Abraham and ALL of its benefits flows to us believers, Jew and Gentile alike.

If you are black, you are not cursed because of the enslavement of African Americans in our culture; if you come from a family of sickness and disease, you are not cursed with those same diseases; if you are a woman, you are not cursed because of your gender; abused, raped, not cursed because of the shame of your past; poverty-stricken, not cursed to always be in lack; lack of education, not cursed and prevented from being promoted or placed in a position of prominence, and the list goes on and on. You are blessed, regardless of your circumstances!

Don't look at the doctor's report, your check-book, your pile of bills, or listen to negative confessions from family and friends - you are blessed and that is the truth. Facts can change, but the truth never changes. God loves you and you are highly favored. You are His born-again child, accepted in the beloved and are as perfect and righteous as Jesus! Hold fast to the promises God has given you and don't let doubt or unbelief take root. Your testimony is coming!

No Judgment for the Christian

Romans 14.

Our Tuesday night small group is finishing up our study of Romans, so I thought I would post some of the points we discussed on this blog.

We talked about how our freedom in Christ to eat and drink all things or the freedom to operate in the Spirit as the Lord directs should not be flaunted in front of a weaker believer who does not have the same revelation of such freedoms. A weaker believer would be someone who is under some self-imposed law and does not have full revelation of the entire freedom he or she has a member of the body of Christ. In cases where we know our freedom to partake or engage might cause that weaker brother or sister to stumble, doubt, or be tempted to act against their convictions, then we should abstain or refrain, as the case may be. Everything that we do should be done to the glory of God to build others up and edify them in the Lord.

We all concluded that it is difficult to make hard and fast rules in this area, but that it is best to hear from the Lord and be led by the Holy Spirit. Jesus only said and did what He heard the Father say and saw the Father do. And we should do likewise.

Also, in combination with 2 Corinthians 5: 10, Paul tells us not to judge or criticise fellow believers, because all of us will appear before the judgement seat of Christ (Greek work there is bema, or step/place where the foot rests) to receive rewards and payment for what we have done in the body. Immediately, some of the ladies in the group had a look of fear cover over them, thinking the judgment seat of Christ is a bad place where Jesus will judge us for all the things we've done wrong. But that is not the case. The bema seat of judgment is a place where rewards are given by Jesus to His bride, the church, whereas the Great White Throne judgment seat in Revelation 20 is a place where unbelievers will be judged and condemned for the sin of not accepting Jesus. They are two very different judgment seats. It is important to understand that believers will NEVER be judged for their sin or wrongdoings, because ALL of their sins, past, present, and future, were judged in the body of Jesus 2000 years ago on the cross. God no longer remembers our sins-they have been washed away forever by the precious blood of His son.

After a lengthy discussion on this topic, I saw the fear disappear from the ladies eyes and a look of excitement come over them--Jesus, their bridegroom, their Lord and Savior, is going to give them rewards for what was done here on earth. What an exciting thing to look forward to!!

Ruth - Chapter 3

Well, today we did a bit of review on Ruth, looking at chapters 1 and 2 and who the different characters represent. Boaz is the kinsman redeemer, who is clearly Jesus, Ruth is the Gentile believer who accepts the Jewish God of Naomi as her own, and she clearly represents the church. But what about Naomi - who does she represent?

I prayed and asked the Lord for revelation, and during the study, the Holy Spirit revealed that she represents the Jewish people who in the last days of the soul harvesting, will be invigorated with a renewed excitement about the heavenly Boaz, Jesus. When Naomi saw how favored Ruth was, despite the circumstances against her, her faith was revived and she excitedly told Ruth about the blessing of the kinsman redeemer that was available to the two of them. I believe that the predominately Gentile church today is on the brink of enticing the Jewish people in the same way to seek out and claim their Messiah, Jesus!

Ruth obeyed her mother-in-law, Naomi (who again, represents the Jewish people who were entrusted with the oracles of God, Scriptures, and prophecy of Messiah) and sought the refuge of Boaz. By claiming her right of redemption, Ruth was about to go from being daughter (which is what Boaz called her at their first meeting) to BRIDE!

Did you know that in these last days, Jesus will reveal to you that God is not just a heavenly father and He is not just your Savior, Lord, brother, Redeemer, but He is your BRIDEGROOM! Who is the bridegroom? One who woos, romances, loves with a passion, cherishes the bride (who is the church), and truly GETS who she is inside, essentially the consummate soul mate.

Did you know that you have a soul mate in Jesus? I never really got that revelation until today. And I was the teacher! But really it was the Holy Spirit teaching. What a wonderful, deep, lovely, comforting revelation from the Lord!

Ruth - Chapters 1 and 2

We are studying the Book of Ruth, who is a picture of the Church. I love Ruth and can't wait to meet her in heaven! I have lots of questions to ask her! For those of you who couldn't join us, I have a couple of notes for you about Ruth, so read through chapter 2 and look at the notes below. We will follow up with chapter 3 next week.

1. Ruth was a widow - do you feel like a widow, even though your husband may be alive (and living with another woman) or perhaps living in your home with you?

2. Ruth was poor, insignificant to the world and willing to move into a hostile region where she knew noone other than her mother in law. Ok, so I like her even more!

3. Despite all of that, she believed that God would favor her-and He did! He directed her to Boaz's field.

4. Boaz, who represents Jesus, took interest in her, blessed her, offered her a full reward (which includes everything that He has) and a place at his table to eat his bread dipped in wine and oil. And he called her daughter! Incidentally, this Hebrew word for bread is the same word used for the bread placed on the table of showbread in the Holy Place! And we know that Jesus is the bread of life - do you see what the Lord is telling you?

5. She chose to sit with the other reapers and eat parched grain, but that was ok. Boaz did not force her to eat what she couldn't receive. She ate what she thought she deserved, even though he offered her so much more.

6. Sisters, take the full reward-sit next to the master and eat of his wonderful bread! Enough of the parched grain which suffices for awhile. Let's take of the full reward and enjoy ALL Jesus has to offer! He has given us Himself and everything that He has!

Deliverance

I received this wonderful testimony from a young woman in our Bible study group who has suffered from "cutting" and other destructive behavior inflicted on her by the hand of the enemy. Please share this with any other young woman or man who you know is suffering from this problem. There is healing and deliverance in Jesus Christ!

Life is Not Easy

Life is not easy, and as humans we often complicate it for ourselves. We search for material or otherwise superficial things to fill that God-sized hole our in hearts. Because of that we find ourselves in really difficult and often dangerous situations. We use drugs, alcohol, sex, money, people, you name it, to fill that hole. Using things or people other than God to fill that hole is problematic enough, but the real issues start when our God-substitute falls short.

In the grand scheme of things my God-substitutes were considerably mild. Praise God that I never got into drinking, drugs, or sex. But I was guilty of using self-mutilation and disordered eating to cope. For years I restricted my food intake, and/or purged my food. At my worst I was purging 7 or 8 times a day. I was a fairly serious self-mutilator also. I cut my arms with knives and box cutters. When that stopped working I burned them with hot water or my curling iron. In the short run I felt better. In the long run I slowly but surely increasing the size of the hole I was trying to fill.

As I got older and matured quite a bit I was able to significantly reduce my dependence on my self sabotaging behaviors and thoughts of suicide. For months or weeks at a time I didn’t engage in any at all, but if things got tough I always held onto a box cutter and small bottle of ipecac and whatever supply of medications I had on hand. Even when life was going well I could never let go of my “stash.” It was my crutch. When things went south I always reminded myself of where I could find whatever I needed and it brought me peace.

As God is becoming a bigger and bigger part of my life I’m starting to see that there isn’t room for both God and self-harming in the same hole. They just can’t coexist. I played with the proportions of each (God and self-harming) to see if I could make them both fit. I promised not to use all of the medications I’d been hoarding but I refused to throw them away. I knew better than to cut myself, but I always needed to have a box cutter. It felt very incongruent to have declared Jesus as my savior but still be harboring thoughts and ideations that were so obviously not of Him.

After a lot of prayer and a few serious conversations, I finally flushed all of the hoarded pills. I didn’t want to, I felt like I needed them. I felt like I was throwing away some kind of tool that would get me through an awful situation. But I also knew that my biggest tool lived in my heart, my Lord and Savior, and it was time to let turn to Him for help, and not to self harming or suicidal thoughts.

It is harder than it sounds. It would be like living your whole life washing and drying all of your clothes by hand. Then you finally get a washer and dryer and you don’t know how to use them. You know it can help you, but you have no clue which buttons to push to get your desired result. I know Jesus is in my corner, but I don’t know how to ask for His help.

When I flushed my collection of pills, it had been over 2 years since I had last cut myself. I knew I had a knife somewhere but didn’t know exactly where. I just knew it was around. And when things got difficult, thoughts of that knife and knowing that I could probably dig it up comforted me.

I was having a challenging day. I wasn’t motivated to do anything important which was really irritating me. I was angry at myself and for whatever reason everything was reminding me of my Dad that day, who had passed away exactly sixteen weeks and three days earlier. It was hard. I also had a painting in the works and was having trouble finishing it. It was so close to being done, but it was missing something and I was frustrated because I couldn’t figure out what that was.

I came across the knife, the only one I had left. I felt my heart leap. I spent the afternoon using the knife to remove a piece of canvas from a stretcher and pry the staples out. I also cut open bottles of paint and carefully trimmed some canvas. I was trying to justify keeping this knife. I was trying to prove that I needed it for things other than to hurt myself, even though that was the only reason I wanted to keep it. I couldn’t stop thinking about two of my friends though, and what they would think. And how would I tell them? Would they still love me like they claimed to? They would be so disappointed. And what would I think of myself, if I kept it? How on earth could I call myself a follower of Christ if I deliberately ignored Him?

At dinner with my grandparents my mood worsened. Being at my family’s restaurant reminded me of my Dad so much it tugged at my heart. There were two different times that I had to command myself not to let my tears fall. Sitting there holding them back I decided I needed to cut myself when I got home. I just did.

On the ride home I was thinking about my day and trying to figure out where things went so wrong. What had happened to bring on all of these feelings? I realized things had turned sharply downward when I found that knife and did not instantly get rid of it. That’s when everything got so much harder. My day wasn’t a picnic before that, but finding the knife and not tossing it drastically changed things. I knew I had to get rid of it, it had to go.

Running out of daylight, I tore up to my room and found the knife exactly where I left it on my bed. I tucked it in my pocket and set out walking. There was an abandoned lot on the edge of the woods on my street. I honestly did not know if I was going to toss the knife or not. The lot seemed farther away than I remembered, but when I finally got there I suddenly wished it had disappeared. I stood for a few minutes. Everything in me was telling me not to throw that knife, I needed it! There was a dialog going on in my head:

“You NEED this knife!”

“You do not need this knife, you have something so much better, you have God.”

“You have God but you don’t know how to let Him help you. Until you figure that out you need this knife.”

“You do not need this knife.”

I couldn’t take it anymore and raised my arm and threw it hard into the woods. When I heard it hit the ground I instantly regretted throwing it.

On the walk home I tried to work through my choice to toss the knife. Why didn’t I feel good about it? Wasn’t this a good thing? Why did I still feel so haunted by it?

The concept that people often have to do things that they don’t want to is introduced to us at young age. And regardless of whether it is the right thing to do, it may not always feel good.
The only comfort in those situations is that we are called to sacrifice things for ourselves for the greater good (our greater God). We are called to do things that we don’t always want to do. And even after it’s done it still doesn’t feel good. But, we have to walk it out in faith knowing that we will not always understand why God orchestrates things the way he does, and we are not question it either.

It is kind of like forgiving someone who has wronged you.
You might still be angry or hurt about the situation, but you are called to forgive. Your emotions may not match up right away, but you have to step out in faith knowing that your obedience will be blessed and having peace that you were obedient.

Maybe it goes without saying, but God loves each of us so much that He would never call us to a position or situation where we would be harmed. On the contrary, He will call us away from those situations and substitutes for His love to make room for the genuine love, His love, for us.

“Live as children of obedience to God; do not conform yourselves to the evil desires that governed you in your former ignorance when you did not know the requirements of the Gospel.” 1 Peter 1: 14

Another Testimony

God has been working mightily in our bible study! We have been seeing great moves of the Holy Spirit, and two of our ladies have been baptized in the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, just as in the Book of Acts! It is an exciting time to be a Christian. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore!

The following is the testimony of one of these precious ladies who wanted to share her story with the world. What Jesus did in her life, He will do in yours, if you just ask. Ask and you shall receive!

Enjoy this testimony.


I look back on my life and know that I found Jesus when I was sixteen years old. Before the day that I found Jesus, He was someone who was so distant from me. He was in the church, down the street and far away. Jesus was in the bible stories that my daddy told me at the age of nine, far away and long ago. Jesus died on the cross and was gone, far away.

I am the first of three daughters. At six years old I was the person that my mom turned to in need of help. She and my father had a broken relationship, and I didn’t know what that meant at the time, but I felt her need and grew up wanting to help. We were a very private family and did not tell anyone that we had problems, as they would think badly of us. Others looking at our family thought that we were the perfect family. We had it all. We were very good at pretending.

I had so many friends and was happy to be around them, but I couldn’t “tell my secrets of my broken home and my brokenness.” WHERE DO I TURN? I poured myself into being the best that I could be in sports. I played field hockey and was very good. I ran the hardest for the longest and played with shin splints in both legs, having to tape them before every game. I remember getting injured and stayed in the game bleeding. I was determined to “finish.” I lettered my sophomore year and received an MVP award—a large trophy. This same determination was there when I went out for the high school tennis team—I also lettered in my sophomore year and the same for softball. But THAT WAS NOT ENOUGH. After practice I would come home and go for a run and bike. I needed more.

I took on a waitressing job at the local ice cream restaurant and began earning money on a weekly basis. I was earning “tips” and a lot of them. Customers thought that I was good. I wanted to save my money and “Get Out” of my home life situation. I knew that there had to be SOMETHING BETTER.

My life was out of control and I didn’t know it. I began to purge. I was alone and lonely I needed something—I needed someone. I wanted to die. I really wanted to die, but I WANTED MORE.

I was caught and confronted by my sister and my mom. I was scared and they told me that this would hurt me—purging would hurt me. It would tear up my throat and cause everlasting problems.

At that moment I knew what I needed: I needed someone to hold me and love me, to be my father and my mother. I needed to tell someone—I needed to tell someone everything. The only one that I could think of was God. He wouldn’t tell anyone. I cried out in BROKENNESS and in NEED OF HELP and got on my knees and poured out my heart and prayed. I told Him everything, and He loved me. At that moment, I found my Savior. Jesus in the big white church was with me, BESIDE ME. Jesus in the bible stories was there HOLDING ME. Jesus who died on the cross so long ago was alive and WALKING this out with me.

It took sixteen years for me to find Jesus, but I did, and He is the love of my life. Thank you, Jesus, for coming into my life. Thank you for being my Lord and Savior. You have changed my life—it is so much better than I had ever dreamed because I know you. Praise your Holy name forever!

Is Jesus Still a Man?

Recently I asked my bible study group if Jesus is still a man. The looks I saw on their faces were very interesting—no one wanted to answer, because they weren’t quite sure. Is He still a man, sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty in the heavenlies as the Bible says, or is He part man/part spirit like some kind of ethereal ghost that one can see through or wave one’s hand across? Good question.

Before I ever opened the Bible, I would have told you emphatically that He was spirit-like and invisible like God and that his days of being a man were limited to 33 years on earth. And I would have argued that He isn’t really alive like we are alive—He only exists, kind of like a floating fog that drifts around in heaven. I certainly didn’t believe He had thoughts or spoke or was involved in my life at all. He was really limited to the lifeless paintings of a thin, frail, blue-eyed Caucasian man in need of a good haircut who died years ago but was somehow resurrected from the dead. Is this what you believe? That Jesus is a historical figure of a man whose existence is limited to the past? If so, then you are a victim of religious teaching just as I was.

If you read my testimony, you’ll remember the first revelation I received from the Holy Spirit is that God is real and Jesus is still alive. But it wasn’t until I opened the Bible and began to study Scripture that I came to know He is still a man—a God-man, but still a man. And guess what? He’s coming back—as a man! And all of us need to get ready.

For some reason this truth about Jesus being alive as a man in the Godhead makes people furious. Just look at the Gospel accounts of the reaction of the Jewish leaders and you will see this same reaction exists today, even among Gentiles and some professing Christians! “This can’t be right,” they say. “The Messiah/Son of God is more than a man.” True, in that He is the Word made flesh, He was with God in the beginning, and He is God, according to John 1:1-14. They reason that “men are sinners and ungodly and that the Messiah/Son of God wasn’t a sinner.” True again. “Therefore,” they continue, “He must be some special hybrid of God and man.” Yes, he was special in that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit of God as Luke 1:35 reveals—but He was still born a man, lived as a man, and died as a man.

When He was resurrected and appeared to the disciples, they were fearful, thinking He was a spirit or ghost—just like I thought all those years. “A spirit has not flesh and bones as you see I have,” he said in Luke 24:39. (His blood had been poured out onto the mercy seat in the heavenly temple—more on that later). Thomas was instructed to stick his fingers into the holes in his hands and side, to stop doubting and believe. Then He sat down with them and ate some fish and honeycomb. Does a ghost or spirit eat fish and honeycomb? Oh, and He also prepared grilled fish for the disciples along the shores of Galilee and presumably ate with them there.

He ascended into heaven as a man as well. In Acts 1:11, as the disciples marveled at his departure, angels instructed them that this same Jesus would return in like manner. Revelation 19:11 tells us He will be riding a white horse with a sword coming out of his mouth which He will use to smite the nations. Talk about a prince riding on a white horse!

The truth is that He came to earth as a man (born without sin) so that He can have a relationship with you, a man (born in sin, but with the opportunity to be born again as a child of God). Imagine – having a personal relationship with the God-man in the heavenlies! It’s available to you if you just ask and believe. Ask God to reveal Himself to you as He has revealed Himself to me and so many others. Believe Jesus is still alive as a man in the heavenlies and wants you to know Him personally as you are fully known by Him. He’s in love with you! Isn’t that cool?

It isn’t complicated like religion says. Praise God He has made it so simple!