Grace The Power To Change Part 3

Grace The Power To Change

Chapter 2

The Grace of Jesus

What 2 things did Jesus show us in His earthly life and how did he accomplish these 2 things?

He showed God to man and He showed what a man full of the power of God could do. He accomplished this by the grace (ability) of God working in Him.

We have this same power and the same amount of grace that Jesus had. We just need to learn how to use that power and grace.

Discuss how the scripture John 14:12, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also” is possible in the Christian life.

We can do the works of Jesus did because He did it all as a man full of the grace of God. We have that same grace (ability). This is why it is important to understand the humanity of Jesus. If we do not believe he became a man, we don’t realize that as a man we can do as he did and greater (scripture: James 1:14, Hebrews 4:15-16, Hebrews 2:18).

How was Jesus able to conquer the desire to sin?

Hebrews 4:16 He went to the Father and received grace (ability) when He was I n need.

What is one of the best ways to learn to live by grace?

Follow the example of Jesus. He was our pattern and example. He showed us what a person yielded to the Spirit could do and be.

Grace The Power To Change Part 2

Grace The Power To Change

Part 2

Chapter 2: Grace – God’s Ability

What is a simple definition of grace?

God’s ability working in man, making him able to do what he cannot do in his own ability.

John 1:16 We have all received one gracious gift after another from his abundance,

When Jesus came he not only brought truth, but the ability to live that truth.

What does the “flesh” refer to and how can you recognize when you are “in the flesh”?

The “flesh” refers to man’s ability. When we try to change, perform, or become what we should be through our own strengthen we are operating “in the flesh”. The law was little more than an awareness of sin. The law did not give us ability. The law that they are referring to here is the Old Testament law that God gave to Moses.

What sets the Old and New Covenant apart?

The 1^st Covenant was dependant on man; the 2^nd is dependent on God. The New Covenant brings glory to God because of His accomplishments in man. In the New Covenant God does the word – we believe and receive.

What is the only way the Word will work in us?

By the grace of God – His ability working in us as we are drawn into close, loving, appreciative dependency on Him. Works through a relationship- by love –

Grace The Power To Change Part 1

Grace The Power To Change

I would like to acknowledge Dr. James Richards for his insights to the grace message that God has given him. All the material here comes from his book entitled; Grace The Power To Change. His book helped change my life. I hope that as you take this journey you too will have the power to change. God’s grace is what changes us. Grace means that God’s strengthen works in us when we can’t change ourselves. But God can’t do this unless you allow him to.

Chapter 1

The Power To Change

What makes up the real you?

The heart is the real you. The heart is the place where who you are in your spirit and who you are in your soul (mind, will and emotions) come together. Our heart is influenced by: Our thinking, what we expose ourselves to, the beliefs that we adopt.

How does the condition of our hearts affect our everyday life?

Our spirits can be full of life, healing, joy, and integrity, but the condition of our hearts can keep those things from becoming a reality to us.

How can you change your heart in order to change your life?

Our hearts can only be changed by our thinking. What we think, what we expose ourselves to, the beliefs we adopt – all affect and influence our hearts. We can change our hearts through prayer, meditation and study/confession of the word. The confession part is not confessing our sins. It’s confessing what God says about us, who we are and what He thinks about us.

Describe the difference between “change” and “transformation”.

Change happens though our strengthen and ability transformation happens when we come to believe the truth about who we are in Jesus.

Transforming Destructive Feelings!

Transforming Destructive Feelings

We all have feelings and they are real feelings. However any negative feelings that we have, or feelings that are contrary to the Word of God are false feelings. And we know from research that negative feelings can destroy our health.

Most of our negative feelings come from feelings that need to be restored. Once we find out the feelings that need to be restored, then healing can come. The Bible says that a merry heart is health to our body.

2Co 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

This scripture tells us how to deal with thoughts and feelings that come out of what we have been thought.

But everything that we believe must come from what took place because of the resurrection of Jesus.

This scripture has nothing to do with warfare against Satan. Satan is not even mentioned, but the church has taken this as warfare against Satan.

The word war here is not talking about a war where force is being used. It’s talking about the war of the flesh that each one of us has.

Let’s look at the word weapons here. The word for weapons is the word tools.

So Paul is saying that the Holy Spirit gives us the tools needed to take hold of the power that God has given us to control the negative thoughts and beliefs that we have been holding on to. But most Christians don’t know how to access this power because they feel they are unworthy.

The word strongholds means – philosophical structures.

Most people try to find scriptures that endorse their philosophies. This leads to a life of convenience rather than a life of conviction. Conviction says that I have to get into the Bible and seek God and see how to apply God’s beliefs into my life. To see what Gods says about me and who I am.

2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Imaginations here, is referring to reasoning’s that are apart from God.

Whenever you get a negative thought or feeling, you need to cast down everyone that is apart from God.

I will use myself as an example here. I suffered for 11 years from a broken back. Every time that I would experience pain, I would have to force myself to stop thinking about the pain, speak a scripture of healing, then praise God in a way of thanksgiving, and then see myself healthy. Then I would have to attach an emotion to those thoughts. I also would do this with every negative thought and emotion. I would do this countless times a day. Day after day, after week, after year. But it was worth it.

There is a deep revelation from reading the Bible, but just getting a revelation from the Bible will stop us from experiencing the revelation if we don’t apply God’s word into our lives. We must be willing to have an ongoing experience with God for things to function properly in our lives.

High thing in this scripture refers to anything that exalts itself above the knowledge of Christ. Bringing everything into captivity is the obedience of Christ. I’m going to take any thought, argument or belief and compare it to what Christ accomplished through His obedience. If they do not fall in line with the obedience of Christ then I have change my thoughts, beliefs and arguments.

2Co 10:6 and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

Revenge here means to try as a case or to punish. This means that when we have negative thoughts and feelings we must decide whether or not they line up with the finished work of the cross.

Disobedience here means to hear incorrectly or to hear and disregard. Or a place of decision where we go to a particular point or thought.

Negative feelings and thoughts will only produce more negative thoughts and feelings. This is the law of sowing and reaping. Scripture also says that the more you think on something, the more of it you get back. This works for good or bad thoughts and feelings.

When we say things like I’m not happy, I’m poor or sick; we are not working in faith. Whatever we belief connects with our bodies. Our bodies then response to our beliefs. We must keep our feeling and thoughts in harmony with God to experience what God has for us.

One of my teachers spoke on this same message recently. I used a lot of what he spoke about here. But he can explain it so much better to you than I can. He has been teaching this a lot longer. So if you would like to hear a more detailed message about this subject than what I said here, you can visit his website. He also has lot more messages you can hear. So visit Dr. James Richards at www.impactministries.com .

Grace/Righteousness

Grace/Righteousness

Righteousness, what is it? Right standing with God.

There are two types of righteousness:

1.     Works righteousness – a type of right standing that depends on doing good or doing the right thing, that we think makes us right with God.

But there is a big problem with this type of righteousness.

Rom 3:12  They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable; There is none that doeth good, no, not, so much as one:

Most people think it’s alright if I just don’t do the real bad things. They think that they are ok, but this is not what God’s Word says. Some people think that in the end my good stuff will out weigh my bad stuff, but this too is wrong.

Most people are familiar with the Ten Commandments. But actually God gave Moses 613 commandments.

Jas 2:10 For whoever shall keep all the Law, but stumbles in one, he has become guilty of all.

If you just broke one law, you were guilty of all of the law. Man talk about ruff. And the penalties were bad if you broke the law. You had to get your righteousness from the law, but if you kept every law.

2.     Faith righteousness – is when you depend on and believe that your right standing with God is because of what Jesus did for you at the cross.

2Co 5:21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that God's righteousness would be produced in us.

Jesus suffered the penalty we should have, yet he never broke the law. The Holy Spirit was then sent into us to do in our lives what we cannot do on our own. Our right standing with God came by believing, not be our good works.

If you are someone who doesn’t trust and believe in Jesus and what He did for you, the only thing left for you is to stand before God based on your performance and works. Believe me when I tell you this, you don’t want to have to do that.

Tit 3:5 not by works in righteousness which we had done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

In other words if you could be right with God by your performance, Jesus would have never had to come to this earth. And if you still could, He died in vain.

It’s not what a person does or doesn’t do that makes them righteous, rather what they fail to believe.

Rom 5:12 Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death resulted from sin, therefore everyone dies, because everyone has sinned.

We were made sinners at birth with a sin nature because of Adam.  There are some false teachings about grace right now so I want you to listen very carefully with what I’m about to say. Before trusting in Christ we did some good things but it didn’t cause us to have a righteous nature. Because of Adam the sin nature, the death sentenced was passed onto all of humanity. And our ability had nothing to do with it. You were born into it.

Rom 5:17 For if, through one man, death ruled because of that man's offense, how much more will those who receive such overflowing grace and the gift of righteousness rule in life because of one man, Jesus the Messiah!

Adam got us all into a big mess, and because of what Adam did, sin was passed onto all people. But yet Jesus came, paid the price much more than those that received the abundance of grace. We must receive righteousness for it to affect our lives and eternal destination. A natural birth guarantees us a sin nature; a spirit birth guarantees us a righteous nature. This will probably upset some religious people, but with your righteous nature you’re failures can’t make you unrighteous.

Rom 3:22 God’s righteousness through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah—for all who believe. For there is no distinction among people.

Right standing with God has been paid for, but the whole world is not in right standing with God. Nothing influences your life until you believe it. And we have to believe what Jesus did for us.

Rom 10:10 For one believes with his heart and is justified, and declares with his mouth and is saved.

Isaiah 53 describes what took place on our behalf.

Isaiah 54 describes the new covenant as a result of the exchange that took place on the cross.

Isa 54:7 “For a brief moment I abandoned you; but I'll gather you with great compassion.

Isa 54:8 I hid my face from you for a moment in a surge of anger, but I will have compassion on you with my everlasting gracious love," says the LORD your Redeemer.

Isa 54:9  "For this is like the waters of Noah to me, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again spread over the earth; so have I sworn that I won't be angry with you again and that I won't rebuke you.

Isa 54:10 for the mountains may collapse and the hills may reel, but my gracious love will not depart from you, neither will my covenant of peace totter," says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

What a wonderful statement from God about us!!!!

When believed how does faith righteousness help us?

1.     It secures our eternity.

2.     It changes our nature.

3.     It changes how we feel about ourselves.

Understanding that righteousness comes by believing makes me feel different, makes me think that if I’m loved by God that much, man I feel pretty good about myself. Our identity must come from God. Not stuff, people, money or etc.

Eph 2:10  For we are God's masterpiece, created in the Messiah Jesus to perform good actions that God prepared long ago to be our way of life.

We do good works because of who we are in Christ.

Any teaching that you hear out there that promotes that sin is ok and it doesn’t have destructive forces or vices is heresy.

Heresy – when you take the truth and you expand it to the place where it is no longer true.

I hope that everyone will read the following book by Dr. Jim Richards. You can find it at www.impactminitries.com. Book title: The Gospel of Peace. This book can change your life. It can change what you think and feel about yourself and God.

God Is Not Who People Say He Is!

God Is Not Who People Say He Is!

The Church and people who don’t know God is where most people’s source of information about who God is comes from. Most people don’t take the time to seek a relationship with God or to read His Word. I mean read it in the original languages. Read God’s Word without preconceived ideas. You don’t have to be a Greek or Hebrew scholar, just use the tools that are out there.

Most people are told that God is angry, judging, condemning or out to get them. Most people are told that they have to earn God’s love, earn their way to heaven and that they have to be good enough to get God to love them. So let’s look at God’s love in light of:

 John 3:16  "For this is how God loved the world: He gave his unique Son so that everyone who believes in him might not be lost but have eternal life.

John 3:17  Because God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

John 3:18  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God's unique Son.

First of all, who is saying this? Jesus. For those who don’t know whenever something in the New Testament is printed in red, it is Jesus speaking. So with all the bad things that church and people have told us about God, let’s look at what is being said here from a common sense perspective. You don’t need to be a scholar to understand what’s going on.

In verse 16 the word for world means you. So right at the beginning here God loves you. Next He gave His Son Jesus so that everyone who believes in Jesus would have eternal life with God and Jesus. So what does it mean that God gave us Jesus? God sent Jesus with one mission and that was to die on the cross, take the punishment for our sins, sickness, disease, poverty and etc. He sent Jesus to die for you and me. Now let’s look at this a little further and ask yourself, would you give up one of your children to die for my sins? No! So then ask yourself questions in light of what you have been told. If God was angry with me, would He send Jesus to die for me? If God hated me, would He send Jesus to die for me? The common sense answer is no. I could preach on this verse for hours, but let us continue.

Verse 17 says God is not condemning you for anything you have done in the past, present or future. Enough said on verse 17.

Verse 18 repeats again that God is not condemning you. But here’s what most religions can’t or don’t want to grasp, even Christianity. That if you don’t believe in the finished work of Christ,  you will spend eternity in hell. Unbelief is what keeps us from eternity with God, not sin. I’ve heard Christians tell homosexuals that they were going to hell because they were gay. This is an outright lie. They don’t think they’re lying because they believe this nonsense. Committing adultery, murder, theft, rape nor any sin keeps you from heaven. Only the unbelief in the finished work of Christ.

I feel that I must take the time to briefly explain what the finish work of Christ is. When Jesus died on the cross, He took our place for our sins, sickness, disease, poverty and etc. God substituted Jesus for us. Jesus took our punishment, which is God’s wrath, anger, judgment, and condemnation. Then Jesus died, went to hell where He defeated Satan (which is another misunderstood practice), rose from the grave on the third day, ascended to heaven and now sits at the right hand of God our Father. After the cross God went from being our God to being our Father, who is God.

Now can you see God as He is? He is even more than what you see here. The more you study God’s Word, the more you have a relationship with Him, the more you love Him and understand His love for you. The more you fall in love with Him. We can never fully understand God’s love for us. But one day we will.

Grace, What is it?

Grace What Is It?

Grace comes for the unconditional love of God. This unconditional love is a foundational belief. But there is a problem with some people who think that because God’s love is unconditional that they can sin. No sin will always bring destruction into our lives even if we are grace people. Our bad decisions result in bad things happening to us, but this is not God’s judgment.

Grace is defined as God’s ability working in man making him able to do what he can’t do on his own.

What is it that man can’t do on his own? Change himself.

Grace comes to us through the unmerited favor of God. But grace itself isn’t the unmerited favor. If we attempt to change ourselves in our own strengthen, the change will only last as long as we put forth that effort. The change in us comes from God’s ability bringing effortless change into our lives.

Jer 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

Under the old covenant/testament, people had to work very hard to change through the law. But the law didn’t give them the power to change. The law did not change them; it simply gave them a standard of conduct.

Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Anytime we get into sin, it is a deliberate choice. The new life that Jesus came to give us is more than a ticket to heaven, it is a new nature. This new nature was born in our spirit instantly once we received Jesus into our lives.

Heb 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Heb 12:23 to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to a judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of righteous people who have been made perfect,

When we receive Jesus into our lives, our spirit is made perfect. The fact that our spirit has now been made perfect and that we have received a new nature now would be good enough if we didn’t have a body. We have to deal with our soul, which are our mind, will and emotions. When we first received Jesus our way of thinking didn’t change. We still did and said things that were wrong. Until we renew our minds (change our way of thinking) will we continue doing and saying things we shouldn’t. This doesn’t mean we’re not believers, it just means that we have a soul problem.

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.

John 1:16 We have all received one gracious gift after another from his abundance,

We are able to receive the fullness of grace that Jesus received while he walked this earth. Most believers however are operating under the old covenant/testament. In other words it’s by their own performance and ability.

John 1:17 because while the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus the Messiah.

Man had truth before Jesus came, it was the law. But truth alone won’t set you free. The old covenant/testament was based on man’s ability. But the new covenant/testament is based on God’s ability.

2Co 4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound unto the glory of God.

Grace comes from our thanksgiving to God. Not focusing on the problem. You get more of what you focus on. So if your focus is on thanking God, then the more grace comes and operates in us.