A Relationship with God

A Relationship with God

The ultimate goal of the Gospel is a loving, meaningful relationship with God. Until people understand this goal, they will pervert the process. Because we fail to realize what God desires, we spend much of our time and effort pursuing an entirely different goal than that which God desires.

God wants us as His sons and daughters. He wants us to be a part of His family. He wants our involvement. He wants a relationship with us. Therefore, He initiated the plan that could bring all of this about. He dealt with the one thing that stood between us and Him: sin!

Sin had separated man from God. Sin had created a bridge that we could not cross. Sin introduced the one thing that would keep us from loving, trusting, or being involved with God. It began to reign with Adam, and it has continued until this very day.

Gen 3:8 When they heard the voice of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden during the breeze of the day, the man and his wife concealed themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Just as God had initiated this whole plan for man, just as He had initiated every aspect of Creation, just as He had initiated a relationship with man to start with, man didn’t respond. He hid from God. From that day until the present, man has continued to run from the invitation of God. Man has refused to draw near and experience God.

Gen 3:9 So the LORD God called out to the man, asking him, "Where are you?"

There is every indication from the original language that when God called, it meant He “called to make peace.” God wanted peace. Adam assumed God called for judgment. That assumption is perpetuated in fearful man to this day.

Unfortunately, this fear of God is not experienced exclusively among the lost. Even after people are saved, they have reservations about intimacy with God. Among believers, there is a lack of confidence concerning God’s desire to be intimate with us. There is a low-level, nagging fear in most people. They do not really believe that they are acceptable to God.

We have the illusion we are trying to get holy enough to have involvement with God. But our attempt to be made acceptable is like Adam’s. Adam, like us, missed the point. If God did not want to fellowship with Adam, He would not have come to the Garden looking for him.

Our fears, like Adam’s, affect our behavior so dramatically that we cannot have meaningful involvement with God. We do not accept the reality that God pursued us in Jesus. He made us acceptable. He wants a relationship so much that He has done everything to make this relationship possible.

Meaningful relationships are the product of love, trust, and personal involvement. Relationships grow to the extent that each of these factors is present.

We need time with God in order to develop and experience these factors. When you spend time with someone who is kind to you, you grow in your trust for him. All positive involvement is part of developing the relationship. However, you will not spend time with someone if you do not realize that he accepts you. You will never have the opportunity to experience God until the issue of peace is resolved.

There is a real possibility that the sin nature is not necessarily a nature that just craves sin. There is every indication that the essence of the sin nature is fear. Fear was the first emotion mankind displayed after Adam ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was fear that made Adam hide from God. It is fear that makes us turn to sinful actions instead of trusting God.

Fear and unbelief go hand in hand. Where is there is one, there is always the other. Because we do not trust Him, we do not come to Him to receive strengthen and help in our time of need, or that He will really give us the promises He has made, because we are afraid.

What do we fear? We are afraid that we are unacceptable to God, that He does not approve of us, that we don’t measure up, and that He will find fault in us and punish us and that we do not believe that we are righteous.

Some might say, “I thought you were supposed to fear God.” In the King James Version, numerous scriptures tell us the value of having fear of God. Let’s take a closer look at the admonition to fear God.

On the one hand, you have scriptures that tell you to fear God. On the other, God often begins speaking with the words “Fear not.” When there are obvious contradictions like this, I have found that there is usually something I am not understanding.

Actually, the word of fear in the Old Testament is better understood as “awe, respect, and love that produces worship.” We should have an awe of God that produces worship, not fear, God does not want you to be afraid of Him.

Jesus showed us God so that we could have boldness to enter into a meaningful relationship with Him. God desires our presence. He desires our hearts. He wants a relationship with us.

Experienceing the "Peace of God"

Experiencing the

“Peace of God”

There should be no fear of God in the heart of a believer. There should be only a deep and powerful realization of being loved and accepted by God the Father, the Creator of the Universe.

When fear is in a person’s heart toward God, it is clear that the person in question does not really believe that God loves him with a perfect love. If there is fear, it is because that person is afraid of what God will do to him. He is afraid he will be hurt or rejected by God.

John 4:18 (The Living Bible) I need have no fear of someone who loves me perfectly; His perfect love for me eliminates all dread of what He might do to me. If I am afraid, it is for fear of what He might do to me, and shows that I am not fully convinced that He really loves me.

Notice here that I read the Bible in first person. Make a habit of this and you will see scripture from a different perspective.

The earmark of the Christian who believes what Jesus did through His death, burial, and resurrection should be a life of confident acceptance that is permeated with peace. There should be no torment. There should be no nagging sense of guilt and rejection. There should be only peace.

Every religion in the world offers peace to man. Christianity is the only one, however, that delivers. For we are not a people that is attempting to achieve a state or status that will give us peace; we are a people that has been made right  with God through the finished work or one Man, Christ Jesus. And because of His finished work, we have been granted peace with God.

Because not every Christian knows or believes this wonderful reality; not every Christian lives in a continual state of peace. Far too many Christians live in torment and turmoil, always fearful that things are not right between them and God.

Religion is man’s attempt to find peace with God. Christianity, on the other hand, is man’s accepting peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many people are awaiting judgment from an angry God. Many times they have no idea what they could have done; they just have a sense of fear and impending judgment. This is what the Bible calls condemnation, or the expectation of damnation and judgment. In Christ, though, we are free from condemnation!

What is so sad is that this portrait of fearful people also describes many of the fearful who sit in church every Sunday. Fear seems to be the motivating factor in the lives of many Christians. Who represented God so negatively that an entire world is turned off? It has not been some force outside the church that has so destroyed the reputation of God. It has not been some evil, demonic group. Unfortunately, it has been the voices of well-meaning people within the church.

Fear has been passed down from generation to generation in the church. From the earliest of times, the church has struggled with believing the truth about the finished work of Jesus. This failure to believe the truth has been the root of the fear, anxiety, and sometimes outright meanness of the church down through the ages.

Isa 53:1 “Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

When Isaiah prophesied about the great work of the cross, he also prophesied, “Who has believed our report?” There is a report about God that is so good, so freeing, so loving, so kind, so merciful, and so generous that man refuses to believe it.

Thos who reject this wonderful report either spend a lifetime trying to please God or ultimately walk away from God. Most people are angry at God because of the unbelieving report they heard in church than for any other reason.

When men and women get their hands on religion, one of the first things they often do is turn it into an instrument for controlling other, either putting or keeping them in their place. This control seems to have become the goal of the church. Rather than setting people free with the good news about Jesus, they use it as a way to bring people under their control.

What you believe about righteousness is what you believe about how you relate to God. If keeping the law is our basis for righteousness, then it is also the basis for receiving the promises of God. It is the basis of getting our prayers answered. It is the basis of God’s protection. If keeping the law is the basis of righteousness, then our ability to have peace is determined by our ability to keep the law. Ultimately, keeping the law becomes our basis for salvation.

While proclaiming belief in Jesus as the way of salvation in one breath, we have totally excluded Jesus in the next breath. Of course, none of us denies Jesus as Lord. In experience, however, we look to our performance to provide everything that Jesus died to provide. Intellectually and theologically, Jesus is still the center of our faith, but emotionally and functionally, we have become the center of our faith.

Romans 8:5-8 (The Message Bible) Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them fine that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what He is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.

This self-obsession is not the product of a person who desires to reject God. Rather, this is the person who is trying to please God by his own efforts. This is the person who has ignorantly rejected the finished work of Jesus and has become obsessed with earning righteousness by his performance; thus he has an obsession with self.

In the book of Galatians, Paul pointed out the motivation of those who pervert the Gospel (Good News): control! Leaders who don’t trust Jesus don’t believe the Gospel (Good News) will work by its own power. Because they themselves do not believe in the power of the Gospel, they feel it is their job to control you, to “put you in your place.”

What makes this so undetectable is the motive. Many of the most destructive forces in the church are people with good motives. The most dangerous person is the one who has a deep passion to help people but who does not believe in the power of the Gospel (Good News) to produce change. Instead of proclaiming the finished work of the Lord Jesus and entrusting the people to the work of the Holy Spirit, that person will resort to carnal methods of control. When people are controlled, it appears that they have changed. So the deep motive to help people justifies the desire to control.

The main tool for control is fear. If you are not confident in your relationship with God, you will have fear. Fear will rob you of confidence. It will restrict you. It will make you angry. It will make you emotionally unstable. Fear will strip you of the new identity you have in Jesus. It will leave you stripped of the God-ordained dignity and worth that belong to you as a priest and a king. It will make you feel the need for an intercessor.

The intercessor who will come between you and God will not be the Lord Jesus, however. After all, you have rejected the peace He gives for the peace that someone else is offering. Instead, this intercessor will be someone who offers to show you the way—the formula. It will be someone who will know all the rules and requirements for staying right with God.

God desires for you to know and experience His great love, acceptance, and peace. But you must believe the report God gives about the finished work of Jesus. It is a good report. It is a report of peace!

Grace The Power To Change Last Chapter 21

Grace The Power To Change

Last Chapter 21

The Truth About God

How do or traditions influence the way we interpret the scripture?

We must be able to pick up our Bibles and hear God instead of hearing man. Like the Jews, we render the Word powerless through our traditions. This is because we are influenced more by man than we are by God. We accept what the preacher says, based on his power of persuasion. We are influenced to see the scriptures the way others see them because they are presented in a reasonable and logical way. Most people find in the Bible exactly what they are looking for to validate their traditional beliefs.

What will change your problems?

Believing the truth of God and believing that the truth applied to us will bring about change. Believing that God loves us without condition makes us want to change.

What did Jesus say concerning how we should interpret all scripture?

Mat 22:37 Jesus told him, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'

Mat 22:38 This is the greatest and most important commandment.

Mat 22:39 The second is exactly like it: 'You must love your neighbor as yourself.'

Everything we believe must be interpreted in light of these two commandments. In other words, if what we believe does not make us love God and love people more, it is not true. If we just do these two things we would fulfill every expectation that God has ever had for us. We may need to sort through our beliefs and ask, “Does what I believe about this make me love God and love people?” If not we must change what we believe and how we are interpreting the scripture.

Questions to ask yourself:

Where do your beliefs come from? From a preacher’s perspective and powers of persuasion or from your own findings in the Word?

God’s two greatest commandments were to love God and love people – does what you believe about God cause you to love God and love people more? If not, we must change what we believe.

If there is a lack of love for God or people in your life, what belief is behind this feeling? What can you do to change this? Often times if we just look back and focus on God’s love and incredible mercy on us, it becomes incredibly easy to love others.

This message of Grace that has included the last 21 parts is from the book by Dr. James Richards. The book is titled “Grace the Power to Change.” Of course the book is a lot more detailed, so if you would like to order a copy you can go to www.impactministries.com. I recommend that if you order this book you also order along with it “The Gospel of Peace.”

Grace The Power To Change Part 20

Grace The Power To Change

Part 20

Effortless Change

What is the difference between change that lasts and change that never seems to last.

All lasting change is effortless. If change comes about by our efforts, then that change will last only as long as we put forth effort. When we get tired, angry, or discouraged, or experience any negative emotions, we may stop putting forth effort. Then we are right back where we started. Lasting change only comes about by believing.

How do we change our beliefs?

Changing our beliefs is not effortless. We must spend time in the Word of God and in fellowship with God to bring about a change in our beliefs. When we read and believe the truth and then begin to experience it – it will set us free. The truth we believe will bring about the changes we need.

How does your view of God influence your ability to change?

Positive change is based on the way we see God and Jesus. If you have a negative view of God, you cannot be a positive Christian. If you see God as angry, vengeful, or faultfinding, you will be angry, full of vengeance, and faultfinding. You are continually being changed into the image of God you believe in. It happens by the power of what you believe. For you to understand the dynamics of personal change you must examine what you believe about God.

How is God revealed to us?

God is revealed to us through the life and ministry of Jesus. Jesus was an exact representation of God while here on earth. In order to see God, you must look at Him through the life of Jesus.

How are we able to fall into idolatry?

If we construct a concept of God that is different from the revelation that Jesus showed us, we are exalting an idol. The idol that we exalt is the vain imagination we have of God. No matter how a wrong belief of God comes, it becomes an idol in our minds that isolates us from a relationship with the true and living God.

Grace The Power To Change Part 19

Grace The Power To Change

Part 19

Grace Completed

If the message of grace means we are truly free from the law, doesn’t this mean we are free to sin?

Many people who hear about freedom from the law begin to live loose, destructive lives. People who sin do it because they want to. They believe that sin will bring them pleasure. People should know the effects that sin will have in their lives. They should know and identify all the destruction in their lives and associate it with the sin they believe or commit. They should never be led to believe that God is bringing the pain. Grace does not keep us from the destructive results of sin.

What really makes grace work and brings change to a person’s life?

It is not believing in the doctrine of grace that makes grace work. It is believing in faith righteousness that makes grace work. A person must believe that he is righteous through the Lord Jesus for grace to empower him to make changes.

What will cause sin to lose power in our life?

As righteousness is established in our hearts, sin loses all its power. We rise above our fears of sin. We rise above our desire for sin. Very little of our time and effort will revolve around trying to get victory. Instead, our lives will begin to revolve around the person who has given us the victory –Jesus Christ.

1Co 15:56 Now death's stinger is sin, and sin's power is the Law.

Rom 6:14 For sin will not have mastery over you, because you are not under Law but under grace.

Tit 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people.

Tit 2:12 It trains us to renounce ungodly living and worldly passions so that we might live sensible, honest, and godly lives in the present age

Questions to ask yourself.

How do you respond to the grace of God in your life? Does it cause you to live a destructive life or does it make you want to live a righteous life?

Have you ever felt as though God is the one bringing pain in your life? Can you see now that it was not God, but the results of your own sin?

Grace the Power to Change Part 18

Grace the Power To Change

Part 18

Touching the Heart

Why do we face the same problems and issues over and over in our lives?

Because our life is never a product of what we do, it is a product of what we believe. We might momentarily rise above or sink beneath the level of our heart, but we will always return to what we believe inside.

With man’s wrong belief about sin, why with this belief are we unable to conquer sin?

We do not see sin as destructive and painful. We see it as a list of all the pleasurable things that God will not allow us to do. We consider living a godly life as dull, unfulfilling, limiting, and painful. This is why we habitually gravitate back to sin. When we come under stress, or when hardship, pressure, or difficulties enter our lives, we begin to desire something pleasurable. Since we believe in our hearts that sin is pleasurable, we pursue sin instead of God. Then when the pain and destruction of sin begins to work in our lives, we think God is bringing that pain to bring us back in line. We will never conquer sin with this type of belief system.

How we avoid pain and seek pleasure and its result.

We don’t sin because of the pain it brings, but because of the pleasure we hope to achieve. We don’t desire money for the sake of the having green paper in our pockets, we desire the things that the money will bring us and the pleasure we hope to find in it. Drug addicts don’t desire the pain or results or side-affects of those drugs, they desire the pleasurable feeling they think it will bring.

Repentance, what does it mean?

The word repentance literally means a change of mind. What you change your mind from (repent from) is not near as important as what you change your mind to. Repentance deals with what you start believing, not what you stop doing.

What one thing should motivate every decision we make?

All of our decisions should be made based on the truth of our righteousness in Jesus. If we make decisions based on what is right or wrong we can be deceived and led into destruction. When we make an absolute decision in our hearts for righteousness, the grace of God will flow forth from our hearts to make us able to live what we have decided.

Think back over your life. Think about the things you stopped doing after you became a believer. Make a list of those things. Then, beside that list, write down why you stopped doing each of those things. What pain were those things bringing into your life? More importantly, think about what you started to “do” and how that made the things you “stopped” so much easier.

Do you find yourself afraid of God? Is your relationship with God based on your belief that He is forever loving?

The real emotion that drives us much of the time is fear – fear is at the heart of unbelief. When you believe that God truly loves you, fear disappears. “There is no fear in love”. When fear is removed, you are free to enjoy a loving relationship with God.

Questions to ask yourself:

What pain are you experiencing in your life?

Can you link the corresponding belief or behavior that is bringing that pain into your life?

Can you make a list of those things and then list the pleasure that you could derive from changing that behavior?

Grace the Power to Change Part 17

Grace The Power To  Change

Part 17

Grace to Change

How is trying to change in your own abilities, rather than trusting in God’s, in effective?

When you try to make changes by your own abilities you render Jesus non-effective by leaving the realm of grace. Very few people ever give up on God. They give up on themselves and their abilities. We get seduced back into entering into works, effort, and personal ability, which is unable to bring lasting change.

How do Christians gratify the flesh and what is the result of doing so?

We gratify the flesh by trying to be righteous in our own efforts. This removes us from grace and places us back in the realm of our own abilities.

When a person relies on personal ability, the “works of the flesh” listed in Galatians begins to manifest themselves in their life. Why is this?

Gal 5:19 now the actions of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, promiscuity,

Gal 5:20 idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, rivalry, jealously, outbursts of anger, quarrels, conflicts, factions,

Gal 5:21 envy, murder, drunkenness, wild partying, and things like that. I am telling you now, as I have told you in the past, that people who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Because your flesh is not able to resist gratification on its own. You will find yourself in sin if you try to live in your own ability.

I want to clear something up. Because of grace if a person who believes in the finished work of Jesus, goes out and commits a sin, that person doesn’t go to hell. All believers have sinned at some point in their lives.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

Have you ever tried to change your life in your own ability? What was the result? On the other hand, have you made changes based on God’s ability in you to do so?

In what areas are you still trying to be righteous in your own efforts? Do you feel “tired”? Are you sick of struggling in this area? Can you or are you willing to surrender to the grace of God in this area?

Are their areas where you are trying to “work” your way to success, freedom, peace, righteousness? How is that working for you? Can you surrender to God’s ability?

For more information about this go to www.fambible.org. Click on the messages section. You can also watch live service on Sundays at 11:00am.

Grace The Power To Change Part 16

Grace The Power To Change

Part 16

Conquering Temptation

Why can’t tenacity and willpower bring us victory over temptation?

Because tenacity and willpower involve using the best of our abilities. When we use sheer willpower, we are still torn inwardly. We may not be giving into sin outwardly, but inwardly we are struggling. This is not the victory that grace (God’s ability) can give us. Not giving into sin, but still “wanting” to is not victory.

Why does the Bible tell us to labor to enter into rest?

Heb 4:11 Let us; therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fail by following their example of disobedience.

We have to change our views, opinions, and ideas, and it takes an effort on our part to surrender our former beliefs. It takes an effort for our hearts to be changed. That effort is the laboring. Once we change our beliefs at the level of the heart, we can enter into rest. From that point on, every change that comes into our lives will come from believing not doing.

What was the key to Abraham’s continual confidence in God?

Rom 4:21 being absolutely convinced that God would do what he had promised.

Abraham was fully persuaded. Being persuaded was also the common denominator of all the people listed in the great “roll call of faith” in Hebrews chapter 11.

What are some ways that our hearts  become persuaded about God and His promises?

Persuasion can come in many different ways. It can come from hearing others speak, from reading the Bible, from meditating on the Word of God, or from speaking the Word of God. It can also come as the Holy Spirit directs us into truth. We need to incorporate every possible means of persuading our hearts into our daily lives.

What does it mean in II Corinthians 10:5, “And bringing into captivity every thought of the obedience of Christ”?

Co 10:5 and every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive in order to obey the Messiah.

When a thought that is not consistent with the knowledge of God rises up, it challenges who you are in Jesus. It challenges your ability to resist temptation and sin. It denies all that Jesus came to give you. We bring that thought into captivity by asking ourselves, “Did Jesus do anything about this temptation or sin at His resurrection?” The answer is yes! So, we ask ourselves, “Am I in Jesus?” If I am joint heir to all He received and I too have victory over sin and temptation.

Grace The Power To Change Part 15

Grace The Power To Change

Part 15

Frustrating the Grace of God

How can we continuously experience the grace of God?

We can continually experience by being 100% persuaded that we are righteous and being committed by walking in that righteousness.

1Pe 4:10 as good servant managers of God's grace in its various forms, serve one another with the gift each of you has received.

John 1:14 The Word became flesh and lived among us. We gazed on his glory, the kind of glory that belongs to the Father's unique Son, who is full of grace and truth.

It was Jesus’ belief about the truth that made grace effective in His own life.

How do we know that we are qualified for God to work on our behalf?

Our qualifications for God to work in us is the finished work of Jesus. God has qualified us in Jesus.

Col 1:12 and might thank the Father, who has enabled us to share in the saints' inheritance in the light.

What does it mean in II Peter 1:4 “…having escaped the corruption that is in the world”?

2Pe 1:4 Through these he has given us his precious and wonderful promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, seeing that you have escaped the corruption that is in the world caused by evil desires.

The term world refers to the world’s system. When we turn to the world’s system, the world’s view, and the world’s way of success, we have turned away from God and His Word. So the corruption that is in the world corrupts us when we try to obtain God’s promises by working the world’s system, a religious system, or any other system rather than trusting God.

Why does God consider unbelief wicked?

Because unbelief either denies that God has given us the promise, or it denies that Jesus alone qualifies us to receive the promise. Unbelief keeps us from living in the promises that Jesus died for us to partake in.

How can we find God’s grace (ability) to come out of sin and work’s righteousness?

Be accepting what Jesus says about us and acknowledging our righteousness through His finished work, grace will begin to flood our hearts. We don’t really believe that believing works. We look at and give heed to our works more than Jesus’ finished work. We have walked in our own abilities for so long that we do not know how to walk in His ability.

Questions to think about.

In what areas are you living in your own ability?

Are you willing to accept the truth in that area and begin to trust in God’s ability in you?

Do you know what Jesus says about your situation?

Find the promises of God that pertain to what you are facing – persuade your heart of those promises and what Jesus did about your circumstances. Write them on note cards, put them where you can see them at all times, confess those scriptures, read them often, open your heart to God’s grace in those areas. See yourself walking in the promises and walking out of your circumstances.

Grace The Power To Change Part 14

Grace The Power To Change

Part 14

Freedom from Sin

What is the “Spirit of grace”?

The Spirit of grace is one of the names of the Holy Spirit identified in Hebrews 10:29. This name identifies Him as the One who works in us to make us able. When we received Jesus we also received the Spirit of Grace – God’s ability within us.

Does taking personal responsibility for your choices, actions and beliefs frighten you?

Sin is willful – sin is always a choice. Personal responsibility is the only pathway to freedom.

Why does a failure to understand grace keep people bound to sin?

We tend to believe that grace is just God’s unmerited favor, leading us to think that God can still favor us when we sin. The truth about grace actually says, “I don’t have to sin. Sin has no power over me; I am not limited to my ability to deal with sin”. God will continue to love us and accept us if we sin, but that is an issue of mercy, not grace.

What will limit the Spirit of grace from working in your life?

Failure to make a decision limits what the Spirit of grace can do in your life. If you don’t believe you can yield yourself to God, you will not make a decision to yield. We make decisions whether to yield to sin or yield to righteousness. If we choose to yield to righteousness, the Holy Spirit will give us grace to walk in that righteousness – the choice is ours.

Why sin does not separate us from God.

Rom 8:39 nor anything above, nor anything below, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is ours in union with the Messiah Jesus, our Lord.

God never draws back from us; we are the ones who draw back. When we sin our hearts condemn us, but God is greater than our hearts. In other words, God does not change and withdraw from us; in our hearts we change and withdraw from Him.

Why should we confess our sins to God?

Confessing is saying the same thing God says about you and your sin, and this is the way you return to the light. It is in believing truth that your heart becomes established in righteousness. It is in confessing truth that we experience forgiveness. Not receive forgiveness – but experience it.

How can we annihilate the root cause of sin that we continually yield to?

Through personal fellowship with the Father we can experience love and acceptance that will destroy the root cause of sin. Then sin no longer has power over us. Our needs can be met only in a close, personal relationship with God.

Are you at a place where you can say the same thing about your sin that God says? Do you recognize when you sin that it is not God who withdraws from you, but you who separates yourself from God? Talk about what freedom it brings to know that Grace is not just unmerited favor, but that it is actually God’s ability working in you because of the finished work of Jesus. Is it empowering?

If you want to better understand this message, go to www.impactministries.com.

Grace The Power To Change Part 13

Grace The Power To Change

Part 13

The Time of Need

What is a benefit of grace working in us?

It always brings peace and joy. Peace is knowing that grace “God’s ability” is working in us – in HIS ability we can do all things.

What do we need to know when we are approaching the throne of grace?

We need to know that we have the total acceptance of God. We may not have confidence in any of our abilities, but we can have boldness and confidence in God. If we don’t believe God’s acceptance, we will never receive His grace. Approach God based on what Jesus has done. If Jesus has a right to come before God in confidence, then we have a right to come before God in confidence.

Name something God will never do.

God will never violate your will. He will convict you, draw you, and compel you, bet He will not change your mind for you. Once we have repented, changed our minds, and made a decision, God can move in our lives.

What is wrong with our attitude about sin?

We do not sin as the source of our pain. We wrongly believe that our pain is God’s conviction. We view sin as a list of fun things God does not allow us to do, instead of accepting the truth and viewing sin as a list of things that will bring absolute destruction in our lives.

Here are some questions to ask yourself.

When you approach God, do you do it on the basis of what you have done or on the basis of what Jesus did?

Are you at a place where you can allow the ability of God to work in your most difficult situation?

Have you repented and changed your mind?

How do you view sin? Do you see it as something God is keeping from you? Or, do you correctly view it as the things that affect your heart in a way that separates you from the life of God?

Have you confused the consequences of your sin as the punishment of God?

Grace The Power To Change Part 12

Grace The Power To Change

Part 12

Coming Out of the Grave

Why are we able to have victory in our lives?

We are able to live victorious lives because of the power of God that works in us. It is the same resurrection power that went into the grave to raise Jesus from the dead. It is the power that caused Him to be victorious over all other power.

How is God’s glory related to reality?

The word for glory means the view, judgment, and opinion of God, which is reality. The way God sees it is the way it is. Regardless of how we see it or understand it, God’s view is reality.

How was Jonah a type of Christ?

Jonah in the belly of the whale was a type of Jesus in hell. Just like Jonah made confessions of faith, worship, and trust while he was in the whale, Jesus began to say in hell what God said. He began to worshipfully speak God’s view and opinion, which is reality. Those words brought the Holy Spirit in and delivered Him from the chains of sin and death to make Him the firstborn of the dead.

What does the Bible mean by lying vanities?

Lying vanities are our views and opinions. To be swayed by emotions or to make decisions from our perspective is to observe a lying vanity. It shows we have no real regard or trust for the view and opinion of God.

What lying vanities are you allowing to control your life? Are you willing to surrender your opinion to God’s opinion in this area? No matter what tribulation, trial or circumstance is affecting your life right now, you can stabilize your heart by using God’s word. Just like Jonah you can begin to worshipfully speak God’s view and opinion of your situation and allow your own heart to lead you to victory.

To hear more of Dr. Jim Richards teaching on grace, go to www.impactministries.com.

Grace The Power To Change Part 11

Grace The Power To Change

Part 11

The Doorway to the Heart

What does it mean to be carnally minded?

The carnally minded person believes that we become righteous by doing righteous deeds. That is a mind that understands things according to the flesh.

What does it mean to “renew your mind”?

Rom 8:6 To focus our minds on the human nature leads to death, but to focus our minds on the Spirit leads to life and peace.

We must see things the way God sees them, not how we decide they are. As we ponder and meditate on the Word of God, those thoughts affect our emotions and find their way to our heart.

Mar 4:24 He went on to say to them, "Pay attention to what you're hearing! You will be evaluated by the same standard with which you do your evaluating, and still more will be given to you,

Renewing our mind is when we persuade our hearts of what God says about us and look to what He says about us, not what others have said.

How do we establish information in our hearts?

Once we have received any input, whether true or false, we begin to think on it. Once we begin to think on anything – particularly those things that produce emotions – it begins to affect our hearts. Hearing a truth may not affect your life; but when you begin to think or meditate on it, it will.

What is the doorkeeper to your heart?

Your thoughts are the doorkeeper of your heart.

What makes up our soul?

The soul consists of the mind (thoughts), the emotions (feelings), and the will (the ability to make decisions).

What will alienate us from God’s grace?

Any thoughts or imaginations that are not consistent with the Word will cause us to go backwards, guide our live into destruction, and alienate us from God’s grace.

What is the number one way to guard your heart against those things that rise up against the Word of God?

You must conquer your thought life. When any thought or word tries to take your thoughts captive, speak God’s truth out of your mouth until your thoughts and emotions come back in line.

Every time you start to get a thought that is negative or against God’s Word, you must immediately stop, send it away, speak a scripture that is opposite of the thought, meditate on it, see and feel it. Every time you say something negative do the same thing. If you do this, I’m telling you from experience of how amazed you will see things change. I will also add that some things will change very fast, but others will not, it will take time to get those things in your heart that have been programmed against the Word of God. If it takes millions of times doing this, I’m telling you it is worth it.

To learn more about writing on your heart, go to www.fambible.org. Go to the message section and pick video or audio. Find the message about writing on your heart. Pastor Allen Speegle is the Pastor speaking.

Grace The Power To Change Part 10

Grace The Power To Change

Part 10

The Breastplate of Righteousness

What is the importance of keeping and guarding your hearts?

Pro 4:23 Above everything else guard your heart, because from it flow the springs of life.

We need to guard our hearts because all that our lives are, or have been, is the product of our hearts. The heart is the seat of our emotions. It is the spiritual strengthen, intellectual life, and inner nature or man; it is the source of emotions, feelings, instincts, and passions. In our hearts the Word of God is kept, the peace of God begins to rule, and God gives strength.

In the real you, can you see the correlation of how you live life and the beliefs in your heart?

Why did God say Abraham was the father of faith?

Abraham was the father of faith because he believed what God said. In spite of all his failures, God called him righteous.

Gen 15:6 Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Abraham believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness. This is why Abraham is an example of faith to us.

Rom 4:17 as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations." Abraham acted in faith when he stood in the presence of God, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that don't yet exist.

Abraham believed what God said. God called him righteous and related to him as a righteous man, even though he was not.

What determines if the Word of God will work in your life?

What you believe about righteousness will affect your heart more than anything else you believe. What you believe about righteousness will determine whether the Word of God will work in your life.

What does it mean to raise the shield of faith and wear the breastplate of righteousness?

Raising the shield of faith is continually rejecting anything not based on the finished work of Jesus. Wearing the breastplate of righteousness is guarding the heart with the righteousness we have in Jesus.