Repent and Be Cleansed

Dearest Saints,

          I always want to encourage people with the absolute truth about everything that Gods love means to us.  Therefore, I don't ever want to encourage anyone simply with a bunch of false hope just to try to make one feel better, but with the ABSOLUTE TRUTH of His encouraging love letter to each of us.  Knowing His Word and receiving it for ourselves personally is what sets us free, because Jesus tells us that knowing the Truth (Jesus) truly does set us free (John 8:32).  I know that many Christians have some sort of bad habits in one way or another.  I want to encourage you to continue to be persistent in repenting before God, persevere to continue to receive His forgiveness and that "giving-up" ever doing this is NOT an option.  I am encouraged that when I read the love chapter of 1 Cor 13:4-8, that God tells us in one of the verses that Love (God Himself) never remembers the wrong we have done (end of vs 5) and Love always believes the very best for us....regardless (vs 7).

          When one would confess that they are addicted to a bad habit, I would like to encourage you to not think of it as God forgiving you for the millionth time, even if that is the case.  When God Himself says that He forgives are sins when we repent, He always goes farther then we would by forgetting our past sins because He does not keep a record.  If He did, this would go below Gods standard to forgive our trespasses.  So, if He chooses to totally forgive and forget, we may have a hard time to do either of that.  But I want to encourage you that God is not keeping a record of how many times you have sinned because He has chosen to forget our sins and wipe out our sins when we do repent.  So when you think that God has forgiven you over 10,000 times for the same sin, think of it as the first time you have sinned this because God has chosen to forget our past sins and so should we.  The Apostle Paul himself stated in Rom 7:15-25, he mentions about having habitual sins in his life that he is bewildered about.  He continues to tell us that when we do sin (for the Christians), it is NOT within our nature because God has given us a new nature (2 Cor 5:17), but is the sin principle warring in our flesh (vs 17).  This doesn't mean that we should go on sinning, but when we do sin that does go against our new nature, God helps us by convicting us.  Therefore, we should consider the Spirit of Conviction as our friend indeed, because His Spirit is always there to help us when we desperately need it.  I find that when we are convicted by God and we feel bad for a short time, that is a good sign that this is an indication that we remain sensitive to Him and what He encourages us to do is Repent, forgive ourselves and continue to confess our need of Him to help us in our time of need in order to be cleansed.  The last thing God wants us to do is feel condemned which does nothing but discourages us and we give more power to the enemy (satan) who is the one who is considered the accuser (Rev 12:10).  We give the enemy more power to the portion when we start to doubt Gods Word for us, His love for us and believing the lies of the enemy who speaks against His Word.  Even though the enemy lies, his lies become a powerful deceptive truth when we choose to believe his lies which makes many people a slave to him who is nothing but a deceiver.

          An accuser is someone who brings up the past after you have repented when God Himself has forgiven you.  Accusations always brings condemnation which does not come from God.  Towards the end when the Apostle Paul is wrestling between the flesh warring against the Spirit, he puts a question like we would normally do "Who will deliver me from this body of death" (vs 24)?  For those who have not invited Christ to be their Lord and Saviour,  the answers they would ever have would always be without hope, because without Christ as our Lord and Saviour, there is no hope.  But the Hope we have when Paul tells us in the following verse that "Oh, thank God...He will, through Jesus Christ the Anointed One".  Paul remained encouraged by having that steadfast Hope when he chose to give Him thanks first while at the same time, knowing that through Christ, He will deliver us when we refuse to give up.  I want to encourage you that when you feel discouraged, refuse to accept this because the enemy tells lies to accuse us when we need to remember God has dealt with our sins when we do repent.  When we are convicted, that is encouraging in one sense because that tells us that we (by our new nature in Christ) hates committing sins and God is encouraging us to be persistent to repent, receive His cleansing, His pardon, His forgiveness and confess by His Grace that you are trusting in Him and declaring His promise that He has come to set His captives free (Ps 146:7).  

          When Peter asked Jesus how many times do we need to forgive (Matt 18:21)?  Peter expected that seven was being generous, but it fell far short of how many times Jesus tells us to forgive (seventy times seven) vs 22.  This doesn't mean that the 491st time someone sins against you, that you don't have to forgive.  But is an illustration to habitually and purposefully forgive no matter how many times people may sin against you with the same sins.  Just like God chooses  to always forgive us when we have asked for His forgiveness after we have sinned against Him with possibly the same sins over and over.  This doesn't encourage anyone to be able to live a sloppy life to sin and know that we should ever take His Grace for granted.  Paul in Rom 6:1,2 tells us that just because we (Children of God) who are under His Grace does not give us the license to sin.  But at the same time, I want to encourage you to repent as quick as you can when you do feel convicted and receive His forgiveness no matter how many times you have fallen in to sin.  Refuse to allow your sins to be greater than Gods Grace to forgive you of your sins!  When we fail to receive His forgiveness by remaining to feel guilty, then it is just like refusing to ask for forgiveness.  His forgiveness cannot benefit you unless you learn to receive His forgiveness.  Just like the other message I mentioned about not allowing Christ to cleanse us, that we would not be able to have fellowship with Him (John 13:8).  I believe the following two areas we need to purposefully guard ourselves against:

          a.  Not accepting Gods full pardon and forgiveness for us when we come to Him and repent;  and

          b.  Refusing to repent when we sense His conviction upon us which is to encourage us to get right with Him.

          When people refuse to repent when convicted by God, I believe this is a beginning when our consciences start becoming seared and when this happens more and more, people come to the place where they no longer are sensitive to the Spirit.  This is when we should be very concerned.  In John 14:26 (Amplified Version), the Spirit (who is considered our Helper, our Comforter, our Intercessor, our Advocate, our Strengthener and our Standby) is the One who perfectly represents all of these characteristics.  Why would anyone not want His loving help?  He is always faithful to do His part, but we have a part by believing and receiving this for us in order to make it work.  We can never undo the past, but always be encouraged to repent when you sense He lovingly convicts you, receive the truth that He does forgive (by refusing to remember our past sins no more) and be encouraged like Paul says that Jesus Christ the Anointed One will deliver you (Rom 7:25).  Refuse to give up repenting, refuse to ever deny His perfect love for you, His Help, His cleansing power for you.  He tells us when we have learned to be forgiven much because we have received His forgiveness much, we will be able to love much (Luke 7:47).  When we learn to love much, that is the most powerful weapon we can use against our enemy and the greatest blessing we can inherit from the One who truly does love us.

Will you consider buying my books in support of HelpingCopeThroughHope mission work in Zambia?  You may go to my link below to observe.
In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayerhttp://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife  
http://www.answers2prayer.org/
www.helpingcopewithhope.blogspot.com 

What then shall we say to this?  If God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:31)

Making Use of Our Past Trials

Dearest Saints,

          I would like you to know that no matter what trials you are going through, many of us have been through equally bad trials, and perhaps, greater trials. I heard once that when someone was complaining about the cross they had to carry, they asked to change their circumstances with someone else.  When this person put their cross in the room, he was asked to go and pick another cross.  When he opened the door, he chose this particular cross that was amongst the smallest by far.  As this person asked for the smallest cross, the Master told him that this was the cross he wanted to exchange in the first place.  Unknowingly, like many of us, we often don't realize that many others had bigger trials in their lives.  When we have trials, I must admit that I think I have a bigger cross to carry than most others and they would not simply understand because they do not know my great trials I bear. When I hear testimonies of many others, I quickly realize that many others deal with trials that are often bigger than mine and I am ashamed that I had complained about the "smaller" cross I had to carry.  Trials can be a blessing when we use it when we share our burden with one another and we have that spirit of compassion that helps to heal others because we have been there and understand their pain.  I realize that had I not gone through the trials that I had endured, I know I would not have been effectively used to be a blessing to many others in their time of need.  And I know many others can attest to the same thing.  I have seen the ones who have gone through the greatest trials are the ones who have had the greatest impact to inspire many others that allows them to have hope they often desperately need.  With the help of God from the trials we have endured, we are able to comfort those with the comfort we ourselves have received (2 Cor 1:3 - 7).  During the time of our trials, it does not seem pleasant at all, but when we see how we have become a blessing to others, I now strangely admit that I am glad I went through the trials, now that I know how much of a blessing it has helped many people. I am humbled to admit that God used myself and several others to help stop someone from contemplating to commit suicide. I know this because of an email response I once had from a lady who admitted she was considering taking her life that very night.  Had I not gone through my past trials, I don't think I would have had the compassion to help this individual.  Although I am greatful to be used by God, I don't take any credit, but give God the glory. 


          Therefore, trials are not to be an attitude where you say "I guess this is my lot in life" or any similar negative confession. The only time trials are simply a misfortune and have no value is when we fail to use our past trials to be a blessing to others in their time of need, and continue to dwell in that "woe is me" attitude. Again, I have known many times that those who have gone through many adversities are able to reach out and be a blessing and an inspiration to many others because of it.  However, they would not have been mightily used, but would be another pitiful life had they just dwelt on the misery of their past and simply felt sorry for themselves like the devil wants to keep people in bondage to.  I now understand when (James 1:2 - 4) tells us to rejoice when we go through trials, because it is preparing us to be a special blessing to others if we choose to believe God can use this for His glorious purposes.  When we refuse to give up and believe that God can use our past, regardless of how negative it may have been, this can be the greatest mandate of all humanity is to know how much of a blessing we can be to others because of what God has shaped us to be through trials and valleys. 


          When I have been through many trials, I boldly declared in prayer that by the Grace of God and His help, I am going to use my past to be a rich blessing to many others.  What He has done for many others, He is faithful to use you if you will choose to believe He can use you for His glorious purposes.  One of the greatest tragedies in life is to realize how we have wasted our lives feeling sorry for ourselves and fail to be a blessing to many others whom God could have used.  Don't let any of your past trials be in vain, but with the help of God, let it be a rich blessing and be a life giving example and an inspiration to many of those whom God can use to bless many others.  Unless you ask God and believe Him to be able to use your past trials to bless many others, you will never know the value your life can bring hope to many others who may receive greater eternal blessings because of it.


Please share my Blog with others who you know could use some encouragement.  Also, please check out our site @  http://www.answers2prayer.org/ filled with many topics you may have questions about.




Will you consider buying my books in support of HelpingCopeThroughHope mission work in Zambia?  You may go to my link below to observe.

In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayer
http://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife  

Do not cast away your fearless confidence in Him for such is great reward (Heb 10:35)

God Wants to be Gracious Towards Us

Dearest Saints,  

          I am encouraged with a spark of energy when I read scriptures like in Isaiah 30:18 (in the Amplified Version) that tells us how He wants so much to be gracious and bless us.  

Isa 30:18 "And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship] (Amplified Version)!

          When I read these scriptures, I like how the Amplified Version expounds the meaning as we pay attention to several of the adverbs that often puts greater emphasis on nouns, verbs and adjectives of what we read.  When we do pay attention to these details, we see how much of a greater impact His Word has on us than those who just read and skim over scriptures.  How He not only "waits", but He waits the way He wants us to wait on Him, by being expectant, looking with Hope and longing in a healthy way, and not as though we are dreading while we wait.  God doesn't need to prove Himself anymore because He already fulfilled everything imaginable including fulfilling all prophecies this through His Son Jesus so we may all benefit in this present life as we prepare to dwell in our eternal home.  However, He longingly waits for us to prove our love and faithfulness to Him which means He wants to see us trusting Him regardless of the present circumstances.   How can we prove we are faithful to Him if we always relied on favorable circumstances in the first place in order that we may be thankful?   In other words, are we under the influence of our circumstances by how we react or will we trust Him completely and continue to be thankful to Him regardless?   He wants us to have stability by remaining confident in Him that makes a person having a strong Christ-like character.  He doesn't want us to be under the influence of our circumstances, but to prove ourselves to Him by being stable by trusting and loving towards Him.   God does not want to bless us just so we can be faithful and loving towards Him, but He wants to "prove us" so He can bless us because we have proven our love and faithfulness to Him in the first place.  However, this almost sounds like we are rewarded based on our works.  But this is where we need to be obedient and humble as we ask and rely on the help of His Spirit in the first place as we learn to trust Him.   Even though God does expect much from us by living in freedom from the entanglements and bondages of sin, He still tells us that we can't accomplish any of this without the help of His Spirit (John 15:5) "For without Him, we can do nothing".   So the bottom line is to understand that we need to be humble in a healthy way, to simply confess our need of the help of His Spirit and believe only for the best results when we truly trust in Him and leave the results to Him.  To receive His best, we have to believe and expect the best which is what He is able and willing to do (Eph 3:20).  He does want to be gracious to us and offers us the abundant life, but I wonder how many times we have stopped Him from doing that for us when we allowed ourselves to doubt when we should have approached Him with that Hopeful Expectation so we would allow Him to be gracious to us.  If we always expected Him to be good to us first so we can be joyful, we would only believe because we see or experience.  However, God tells us that we are more blessed simply because we first choose to believe before we see any results (John 20:29).   This way, we can prove our genuine love for Him because we don't have to see in order to believe He is loving and gracious towards us.

          I am encouraged to pay attention to each of the adverbs that expound key words that will give greater emphasis to what God wants to say.  That is why I think studying other versions of the Bible is not such a bad idea.  So when we re-read Isaiah 30:18 amongst other favorite scriptures that may encourage you, I hope you pay particular attention to these adverbs such as "being hopeful"; "greatful", thankfully, with great expectation, etc., while we focus on the magnificence of God as you personalize His promises in His Word for you.  I believe it will put greater emphasis to allow the power of His Word to work more effectively on your behalf.  No matter what our past may be, we have to remember His Love, Power and Grace far exceeds any of our shortcomings.  I find it amazing that even though He foreknows everything of what we will ever do, say or think, He still chooses to love us unconditionally.  When I end up doing dumb things, I often remind myself that I am no surprise to God and to understand that He knew what He was getting Himself into when He chose me.  This is why we need to know that He "can" and is "most willing" to be ever so gracious towards us, regardless of our past.  I believe if we want to get the most out of Gods Word, we have to see the measure of the truth of His Word as "Powerful, Life-Giving"; "Uncompromising Truth" that exposes anything else as a lie and see His Word as a "Double-edged Sword" that is powerfully effective which is the only weapon that no enemy can withstand when we His Word confidently and with authority that He has given to each of us.  He has given us authority in His Name (Luke 10:19), but it is of no avail unless we learn to put it to use.  Lets not allow the enemy to have the upper hand simply because we have been silent to speak the Word and use Gods Word as a Sword which is meant to richly bless us.

I hope you will share my Blog and our Answers2Prayer website whom you believe will be blessed from it.  God bless.                

Will you consider buying my books in support of HelpingCopeThroughHope mission work in Zambia?  You may go to my link below to observe.
In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayerhttp://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife  
http://www.answers2prayer.org/

Do not cast away your fearless confidence in Him for such is great reward (Heb 10:35)

How to Fulfill Our Duty

Dearest Saints,

     I believe the greatest satisfaction when one examines their own lives is that we want to have value in the service to others as Gods representative.  I have good news!! God values each of us.  By having true joy in ones life, it comes by serving Him when we serve others in their time of need.  The Bible indicates that "If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasantness and joy" (Job 36:11).  This tells us two things we need to do.  To obey and serve Him according to that scripture.  When I re-read this sentence, God revealed this thought to me.  You will notice that the word "obey" comes before the word "serve Him".  I look at this as prioritizing our requirements.  This tells me that we need to first be obedient to Him if we expect to effectively serve Him.  When I examine my life, I often may think I am doing the works that He calls me, but when He speaks to us deep within (when He speaks to our conscience), He may be telling us otherwise.  Therefore, my "so-called good works" really isn't pleasing to Him if I don't first learn to joyfully obey Him.  This may be simply to learn to just wait and trust in Him when we would rather go out and rush to do something for Him, even though what we do may be Godly.  When we study the Word, I like to dig deeper and often ask myself the question on many issues "How"?  In other words, we often know what we need to do by what we read, but the key is knowing "How to apply" what we know.  So one of the questions is: "How can I get myself to obey the Lord better"?  I like what it says in Ecclesiastes 12:13, that the whole duty of man is "Fearing God" and keep His commandments (by obeying Him and His commandments).  So even before we learn to obey, we notice that it first comes by reverently fearing Him.  Just like the previous verse we talked about the position of the wording.  We notice here that it first starts with reverently fearing Him.  So, the next question we should ask ourselves is "How can I be most effective to reverently fear Him more?" 

     One of the things I find it most helpful to reverently fear Him is when we learn to take our time see how awesome and big our God is.  For myself, I like astronomy, so I get the atlas book out and turn to the page that shows our solar system.  When you look how tiny the earth is in comparison to our immediate galaxy we are located in, this is just a start of a glimpse of how great and awesome our God is, because He fills all Heavens and earth (Jer 23:24) which goes far beyond our galaxy.  When I see how small I am compared to the earth, and then realize how insignificant the earth is compared to some of the other planets within our solar system, and then our solar system is tiny in comparison to other systems, I am amazed at how Great He is, knowing that He is beyond the boundaries of what scientists have been able to locate out in the extremities of the universe.  He also names all the billions of stars and many of the stars that look like a tiny dot in the night sky can be a million times bigger than the earth, such as the massive giant star called VY Canis Majoris, which is the size that would fill the entire orbital path of Saturn.  There are billion times more stars that are many times more massive than the sun, and yet, God Himself is far greater than all of these.  When we take time and consider how He orchestrates the position of earth to maintain its perfect distance from the sun to sustain life, continuously making its orbital path around the sun by maintaining equal timings for different seasons and spinning at its point of axis consistently at the same speed by giving us the same time of 24 hours to complete each day.  Even at the massive speeds that the earth orbits around the sun and spins on its axis, yet there are times that you don't even see a ripple in the water.  To me, that is how God is awesome to know that He has everything under His control. He tells us that everything is held together by the power of His Word (Col 1:17).  So here, we see the power and control of our God.  Therefore, when we take time to see how much control and power He does have, we can learn to truly trust Him.  This is why we often need to sit still and meditate on these things and know the He truly is God (Ps 46:10).  

     When you consider the complexity of how we humans are formed and how fearfully and wonderfully we truly are made, how can anyone be so foolish to believe we just evolved?  I may tend to be harsh about this, because I believe God is most displeased which is why He has the right to be a jealous God (Deut 4:24).  When you consider how we are fearfully and uniquely made, to think otherwise is indeed foolish.  What the doctors are finding out now, God had already created everything right from the beginning.  If one chromosome was out of balance, we would appear much different than we truly are.  This is only a fraction of the awesome knowledge and wisdom of our God.  With such power, knowledge and wisdom beyond our comprehension, yet, we are never too insignificant for Him to be forever mindful of each of us.  

I now like to compare His love for us in the same magnitude as His bigness, His infinite power compared to our extremely limited ability, His infinite wisdom and knowledge that no man can comprehend.  When we come to terms to think that any human being on earth would dare to leave living the life in a royal palace and having everything handed to you and choose to live in a clay hut and be a servant to everyone, I can't see any human being considering this thought.  Yet, Christ Himself went beyond that, because His Throne in Heaven far exceeds the best palaces on the face of this earth.  Yet, He willingly chose to be born in the lowest of clans to do this for you and I (Micah 5:2) and be servant to all.  When you realize His love in a greater capacity for you and I individually, we will want to love and obey Him more.  This starts by being still and taking quality time to meditate on His sovereignty (His awesome attributes) in detail.  God tells us in Joshua 1:8 to take time to meditate on His Word in order that are able to do according to do all that is written in His Word which He promises us that will make our ways prosperous and be able to deal wisely and have good success.  

     When we make quality time to meditate on His Word, this is when it gets from our head to our heart.  When His Word gets into our heart, this is when we do all things out of love for Him because His Word is now placed in our heart.  Jesus says, if you love me, you will obey Me.  When His Word is in our heart, we will also have that deep rooted reverential fear of Him.  Afterall, this is the whole duty of man (Eccl 12:13).   

Will you consider buying my books in support of HelpingCopeThroughHope mission work in Zambia?  You may go to my link below to observe.
In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayer
http://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife  
http://www.answers2prayer.org/


For He who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His Word. (Heb 10:23b Amplified Version)