The Divine Exchange:

This is only part of (Sermon # 176 Part 1 of 3) Why you can expect good things to happen to you, by Jo.seph Prin.ce:

“Today I want to share with you something that is a culmination of all that we have heard the past few months.  What is the attitude that we ought to have?  If God has made us righteous through Jesus’ blood, what is the attitude we ought to have?

What is our lot in life?  Since Adam fell, the consequences of the fall, the effects of Adam’s sin, has brought in all the D’s, you know, destruction, disease, death, depression…  It’s come upon men, now, man is you and I, the ground we stand on is called cursed ground, it’s like there is a cloud over your head and it’s raining all the time.  You know, everywhere he goes, the rain follows him…  It’s like he is always under depression.

What happened was that God loved us so much, that God could not leave us in this state, of death…  God sent His Son Jesus.  What was the purpose of sending Jesus?  No listen carefully, God sent Jesus to take our place – what does that mean?  That is actually half the gospel – Many places we are only hearing half the gospel.  In my previous church I heard for many years only half the gospel – how Jesus died for my sins, how Jesus came as my redeemer, as my saviour, but the Bible says that when God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, God brought them out to bring them in.   God didn’t bring them out to wander in the wilderness.  God brought them out of bondage to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey.  Many believers are out but they are not in…They are wondering, wandering in the wilderness…  So, they are not here, nor there…

This is half the gospel – that Jesus took our place – the other half is this:  that God put everything that you deserve – now if we stop right now… There is no end to what you and I deserve, we can say that depression, failure, poverty, curse, everything…  Because of Adam’s sin and our sin, everything that you and I deserve, Jesus came to take.  The other half is – all that Jesus deserves – you take…

In a covenant it is called an exchange – where the two parties will take each other’s place.  This is what happens in a covenant, Jesus takes our place and we take Jesus’ place, now listen carefully, now you are no more on cursed ground.

This is what happened to Jesus at the cross:  All that you deserve, Jesus became, and God did not even spare His Son, because if He (Jesus) took our place He had to suffer like a sinner, He had to die and He never sinned – he never was a sinner.  So God gave Jesus everything that you deserve – did Jesus become sin because he sinned?  Did you become righteous because you did righteous deeds?  No!  How did Jesus become sin?  He received our sin – how did you and I become righteous?  We received His righteousness.

Christianity is not what you renounce or what you do, because all of this still speak of self… It is not what you renounce or what you do, Christianity is what you receive…   Salvation begins when you receive.  Christian life is continued by receiving.

Now, what happens is this:  Many Christians are on Jesus’ ground, favoured ground, grace ground, the light shines on you, while darkness fell on Jesus…  God turned His back on Jesus, so that God can face you and never leave you or forsake you, in the countenance of God is life and light forever more and His presence is joy.  The Bible tells us in the Old Testament that the back of God is the curse, in fact there is a verse that says sickness, and inflammation is behind Him, I think it tells you that in the book of Job.  So God turned His back and Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  He cried this so that you and I know that he was forsaken at the time, and He called His Father for the first time, “My God.”   He never called Him, “My God,”  it was always, “My Father,”  so that you and I can call God, “Father…”

The divine exchange took place – this is how much God loves you and me.  God loves us so much that God gave Jesus to take everything that we have, but don’t forget that is half of it, so that we can take everything that He has and that He deserve.  Now because of what Jesus has done, listen carefully, you and I, we are on grace ground…  Are you supposed to bow your head, look depressed, look sad, and expect bad things to happen?  No!  If you still expect bad things to happen, if you are still depressed, if you still act like God doesn’t love you, doesn’t care for you, you are actually pushing away all that Jesus did for you.  You are still saying that, “I am the old person,” when actually the divine exchange took place, and this is where most Christians are missing it.  Most Christians miss it right here!  They look at Jesus and say, “O, Jesus you died for my sins, O, Jesus you are my saviour, O, Jesus you are so good, so lovely…”  But then they do not know what has happened to them.

They are standing on grace ground, where ever you go is favoured ground, you can be walking with a colleague, side by side at the workplace, but the guy is on cursed ground and you are on favoured ground, and the favour of God is with you everywhere you go.  So God told me to tell you this, He wants you to have this attitude towards life, even this coming week, there is a word that He is going to give you in a while’s time, but the main thing is this, He wants you to face life believing that everything that Jesus deserves, you will get.  It will be good for you to take time, today if you can, to take time to think, “If God really treats me the way that He treats Jesus, what can I expect to face this week?”  You know, you and I, we do not know what is going to happen, we can say, Pastor Prin.ce no one knows what is going to happen in the future.  Correct!  But I can tell you my future; I will get whatever Jesus deserves.  This week I will get whatever Jesus deserves…  “Are you saying that there will be no trouble in your life?”  No, even when trouble comes, because Jesus deserves deliverance from trouble, peace in the midst of trouble, I will get that.

“Pastor Prince, I don’t think you are that smart to receive this kind of success, this kind of church success and your career success…”  You know what, I agree 101% with you, but you know what?  It’s not what I deserve, it’s what Jesus deserves.  Do you think Jesus deserves this kind of success?  Well, he gives me what He deserves…

So once you think like that, once you focus like that, the devil has nothing on you.  The devil wants you to focus on what you deserve, do you understand?  You see this is the word God told me to give you, write it down somewhere, you know the things of God are simple but powerful, this is what God said;  “Tell the people, expect good things to them, not because they deserve it, but because I love them.”  Once again, “Expect good things to happen to you, not because you deserve it, but because God loves you.”

You see if you think you deserve it because today you are extra holy, allright, you gave money to the poor or you went to do some charitable work or you got involved with more work in church or whatever…  You think you are extra holy, you know something, the devil will find something wrong and he will pull that little string and the whole thing will unravel.  But…  You say that; “It’s not because I deserve it that I expect good thing to happen this week, it’s because Jesus loves me…  God loves me,” you know what?  The devil has nothing to pull, when it’s God’s love in your life.  Amen?  Praise the Lord!”

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Jesus came full of Grace and full of Truth

I heard this message from Dr Cref.lo Dol.lar the other day and I know it’s important from my own experience and I knew I just needed to share it with all of you who read this blog.

“1 of 3 simple things God told Dr Cref.lo Dol.lar:

Jesus came full of grace but full of truth.  You’ve got to start living your life with grace but not ignoring the truth.  I thank God for the grace of God that give me non-imputation of sins and I thank God for the grace of God that made me the righteousness of God, I thank God for the grace of God that gave me Jesus and Jesus is my peace and my sanctification and I thank God for the grace of God that did everything for me without any of my works and any of my efforts and by pure fact that I believe Him and trust Him and I’m a beneficiary of a covenant that He swore to Himself to do for me and I sit and I get all the benefits because of what Jesus did for me.

And I know you think it hard to believe but it doesn’t require any effort on my own to try to get anything that He promised to give me.  My job is to trust in all of the finished works of Jesus Christ and my job, if I’m going to get it in this life, is to learn how to rest in what He’s already done instead of learning how to work and trying how to get that.  That’s the grace of God I’ve been given.  That’s the grace of God that I have. That is what I receive, but I also understand the place of truth: Truth is necessary so that I can get victory.

In other words:  Instead of spending all my time worrying about whether I’m going to heaven or not, that’s already settled in grace.  I can, no matter what happens to me, no matter what I do, no matter what I don’t do, I can still hop in my Father’s lap and He still accepts me, love me and receive me.  But if I want to get healed I’m going to have to know truth, if I want to prosper financially I’m going to have to know truth, if I want my marriage to work I’m going to have to know truth.  See Jesus came with grace and truth.

But what Christian people don’t understand, is you know you want to hop in the Father’s lap and that’s great – He will let you sit there but He says; “You know what?  I want you to walk in some of this glory so I gave you some truth, and I want you to know these spiritual principles and I want you to know these truths and I want you to rest in these truths that I have given you in the Word because I can’t bless you without these truths!  I can’t manifest certain things without these truths!”

So if you ever wonder, you know, I’m under the grace of God, you know, “Hit me!”  No, no! God says; “No!” You are under the grace of God and I’ve already prepared everything you ever wanted but now if you want something to happen in your life – You have truth.

Do you know these truths?  I’m not talking about really doing anything – but what do I do with the truth that I know?  The Bible says “attend to my Word.” (Proverbs 4:20)  Do you know the greatest thing you can do to see manifestation in your life?  Is to study the Word of God, and study the Word of God, and speak the Word of God, and study the Word of God, and speak the Word of God and while people are working to try and get something to happen, you are studying the Word of God and speaking the Word of God and attending to His Word and that Word is doing it, but you have to know the truth!  You have to know what truth to study and to get in, if you want some of those blessings to come because aside from the truth God can’t bless you.

You’re graced and you’re going to heaven, but what happens here is going to be based on truth and it’s still going to require you to put a faith to man on truth.  So Jesus came with grace and He came with truth.  The grace that says your spiritual destiny will never ever be put in jeopardy, but “O, how I wanted to heal you, but you didn’t take the truth.  O how I wanted to deliver you, but you didn’t take the truth.  O, how I wanted to make you richer than you ever thought you could but you didn’t take the truth.”

Let me give you a perfect example:  A guy that doesn’t believe in increase – that is a truth – if he doesn’t believe in increase – you know what?  He can give in every offering and still never experience an increase!  Why?  Because God can’t bless you aside from the truth that you know.  Faith can’t work where the will of God is not known, and Jesus demonstrated that over and over again until the will of God is not known faith won’t work!  And yes, God still loves you, and yes you’re still on your way to heaven and yes, you are the righteousness of God and yes, you are forgiven and yes, you are all of those things, but ladies and gentlemen – I don’t know about you – it is just not enough for me right now to just talk about going to heaven…

I want to glorify God!  I don’t just want to go to heaven – I’ve got that wrapped up!  How did I get that wrapped up?  I received Jesus and He got it all wrapped up and there is nothing else I need to do!  I’m saved!  The Blood has cleansed me.  There is nothing I can do to mess that up!  That covenant does not depend on what I do in order for God to bring it to pass. That covenant depends on what God has sworn to Himself! Its foolproof – a fool can’t even mess it up!  That’s already wrapped up!

But me manifesting His glory – manifested work in this life can’t be done without truth.  That’s why Jesus came with grace and truth.

The Bible says He was full of glory, full of grace and full of truth (John 1:14) and you know they go hand in hand because it’s hard for you to receive truth if you are condemned, it’s hard for you to receive truth if you don’t believe you are loved, if you don’t believe you are forgiven, if you don’t believe you are going to heaven.  Once you get that out of the way and you recognize these are the truths that I can be walking in, in my life – you’re going to see manifestations in your life.

But too many people just sit back and don’t understand – you know – “attend to My Word, attend to My Word, attend to My Word.”  Those are the instructions; “attend to My Word, attend to My Word…”

Now there it talks specifically about God’s medicine and how His Word will be health, or medicine to your body, but what do you have to do to take that medicine?  (Proverbs 4:22) “Attend to My Word, attend to My Word” – well you do exactly the same with every other promise in the Word – you attend to it.  Do you want increase in your life?  You have to attend to the truths concerning increase in your life.  You think about it – the area that you studied in your life was most of the time the area of your manifestation.  When you stop studying that area – so did the manifestations.

Someone says, “well, brother Dol.lar, that is self effort!”  No!  Self effort is based on you depending on your own abilities as a source.  I’m, depending on God – I’m trusting God’s Word.  I mean what else can I do except study it and speak it, the rest of it is being led by the Spirit of God. “

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Satan Cannot Come Before God To Accuse You:

Usually I don’t like posting other people’s posts like this, because it makes me feel lazy and I feel it’s unfair towards to original author, but this Dai.ly Gra.ce In.spiration from Jo.seph Prin.ce on 2 July was just so good I had to share:

Romans 8:33
Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

The book of Job tells us that Satan came to God’s throne and complained about Job. (Job 1:6–12) God’s throne is the most holy place. So why did God allow Satan to come before Him?

Satan could come before God because Adam had given up his place when he bowed his knee to Satan in the garden of Eden. (Genesis 3) So Satan had the right to take Adam’s place and come before God.

But praise God, Jesus, the last Adam, has come! And the sprinkling of His blood has cleansed the things of heaven. (Hebrews 9:22–24) His blood has cleansed and redeemed the unclean place where Satan walked and stood before God. There remains, therefore, no place in heaven for Satan. He cannot come before God any more to accuse you.

Who then, is in God’s presence today? Jesus! He is there for us. (Hebrews 9:24) And since He is for us, “Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” (Romans 8:34)

So what happened to Job cannot happen to you. Job longed for a mediator, but he had none. (Job 9:33) His dream is our reality. Today, we have Jesus as our Mediator making intercession for us! (1 Timothy 2:5)

However, since the devil cannot come before God any more, he comes to you on earth and accuses you in your conscience. His greatest tool is deception because he has no real power. (Colossians 2:15) He has to deceive you into thinking that God is against you, that He is angry with you because you have failed Him, or that your sickness or poverty is God’s punishment for your sins.

My friend, don’t fall for the devil’s lies. If it is God who justifies you, no one can bring a charge against you! Satan cannot come before God to accuse you. Instead, you have free access to God’s throne of grace to “obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”. (Hebrews 4:16) Jesus’ holy blood has given you perfect standing in the presence of God!”

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Picture Of Pure Grace:

For the last couple of months I’ve watched Jo.seph Prin.ce’s programs on TV and it has blessed me so much.  Some of his messages have helped me to look at certain things from a different perspective and I got a lot of new revelations.  I hope that this post will give a lot of people a new revelation too.  I bought his book “Des.tined to Rei.gn”, and I want to share an excerpt with you and it is again about the old and new covenants.  Since I learnt about the covenants and what they mean, and the importance of the new covenant, my relationship with God has changed, my outlook on a lot of things has changed and it was one of the most important revelations I had that led to our breakthrough and me getting pregnant, so I cannot blog about it enough.             

“When new believers read the Old Testament for the first time, they might wonder what all the slaughtering of the animals, sacrifices and sprinkling of blood is all about.  Well, when you understand that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins, you will begin to appreciate the value if the blood especially the blood that Jesus shed for our sins.

The Bible says that after Adam and Eve sinned by partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God “made tunics of skin and clothed them” (Gen 3:21) The first time an animal was sacrificed to cover man’s sins happened right there in the garden of Eden.  All the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament are shadows of Jesus Christ, who is the substance. The blood of bulls and goats under the old covenant all pointed to the substance of Christ, whose blood was shed on the cross of Calvary. As John the Baptist said, Jesus is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)  In the book of Revelation, John heard a voice saying, “behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” but when he turned to look at the Lion, he saw instead a “Lamb as though it had been slain.” (Rev 5:5-6)  Everything in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation points to Jesus’ death on the cross.  It is because of His sacrifice that we are under the new covenant of grace today.

The old covenant will always cause you to turn and look at yourself, whereas the new covenant will always cause you to turn and look at Christ crucified.  Old Testament prophets call your sins to remembrance, while New Testament preachers call your righteousness to remembrance.  Old Testament preachers tell you what is wrong with you, while New Testament preachers tell you what is right with you because of what Jesus has done, in spite of what is wrong with you.  The first miracle of Moses, who represents the law, was to turn water into blood, resulting in death.  (Exodus 7:14-18)  The first miracle of grace was Jesus turning water into wine, resulting into celebration and life. (John 2:1-11)  The law kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Pure grace from Egypt to Sinai

When God liberated the children of Israel from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, He did not do so because they had kept the Ten Commandments.  The Ten Commandments had not even been given yet.  The children of Israel came out of Egypt by the blood of the Lamb.

The Lord showed me something a number of years ago that ushered me into the Gospel Revolution.  I was sitting in my living room, just spending time in the word, when He spoke to me and said, “Son, study the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to Mount Sinai for this is a picture of pure grace.  Not a single Israelite died during this period although they murmured and complained.”

I had never heard anyone preach that before and neither had I read it in any book.  So, feverishly, I turned to that portion of the Scriptures, trying to find someone who had died, so that I could prove God wrong!  Have you ever been there before, trying to prove God wrong?  Well you can never succeed, and indeed, I could not find any Israelite who died even though the people murmured and complained.

Even though God had rescued the children of Israel from their Egyptian slave masters by performing great signs and wonders, the children of Israel failed to honour God, and murmured and complained over and over again.  When the Egyptian army came thundering toward them from behind and the Red Sea was before them, the children of Israel cried out to Moses saying, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?” (Exodus 14:11)

That was a complaint against God, and murmuring and complaining are sins.  But what was God’s response?  He opened up the Red Sea and they crossed over to dry land on the other side, safe from their enemies.  Even after God had brought them safely to the other side of the sea, the murmuring continued.  At Marah, they complained about the bitter waters.  What was God’s response?  He made the bitter waters sweet.  (Exodus 15:23-25)  In the wilderness, they cried out against Moses when they were hungry.  What was God’s response?  He rained bread from heaven.  (Exodus 16:2-4)  But still the children of Israel complained.  When there was no water again, they cried out against Moses, saying, “Why is it you have brought us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3)  What was God’s response?  He brought water out of the flinty rock.

Study the Bible yourself.  You’ll find that every time the children of Israel murmured and complained, it only brought forth fresh demonstrations of God’s favour, supply and goodness.  Why?  Because during that period, the blessings and provisions they received were not dependent on their obedience or goodness.  They were dependent on God’s goodness and faithfulness to the Abrahamic covenant, which was a covenant of grace.

The exchange of Covenants at Mount Sinai

Then, something tragic happened right at the foot of Mount Sinai.  In Exodus 19:8, your English Bible says that the people cried out to Moses, saying, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”  In the original Hebrew text, this is actually a statement of pride.  They were saying, “All that God requires and demands of us, we are well able to perform.”  In other words, they were saying, “God, stop assessing or blessing us based on Your goodness.  Start assessing, judging and blessing us based on our obedience.”  So they effectively exchanged covenants, from the Abrahamic covenant which is based on grace, to the Sinaitic covenant which is based on the law.

All this while, God was with them and had fought for them.  He opened up the Red sea, rained manna from heaven and brought water out of flinty rock, even though they kept murmuring and complaining.  But the moment they said those prideful words, God had to change his tone.  He told Moses to instruct the people not to go near the mountain, for “whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.” (Exodus 19:12)

Why do you think God changed His demeanour here?   It was because man presumed on his own strength and entered into a covenant based on his obedience.  This is what we call self-righteousness.   Since the people wanted to be judged based on their performance, in the very next chapter, God gave them the Ten Commandments.  From then on, since they boasted that they could do all that God commanded, God had to assess them based on His laws.  He would bless them if they kept His commandments, but they would be cursed if they failed to do so.  What the people did not understand was that they had to obey all of the Ten Commandments perfectly because if they failed in one, they would be guilty of all.  (James 2:10)  You see the law is a composite whole and God does not grade on the curve.

Now let’s see what happened when the children of Israel placed themselves under the law.  After they boasted that they could fulfil all that God commanded of them, the works of the flesh were immediately manifested.  They broke the very first commandment – “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3) – by fashioning a golden calf and worshipping it as their god! (Exodus 32:1-8)  Isn’t that sad?  So be careful when you boast of keeping or defending the law because the works of the flesh will follow soon after.

From that point onwards, every time the children of Israel murmured or complained, many of them would die.   Observe this:  Before Sinai, none died.  After Sinai, the moment they murmured, they died.  Before Sinai, every failure brought forth a fresh manifestation of God’s favour.  But now that the Israelites were under the covenant of law, sin had to be punished.  Their blessings and provisions no longer depended on God’s goodness, faithfulness and grace.  Under the covenant of law, their blessings depended on their perfect obedience, and every failure and sin would result in judgement and punishment.

That is why the Law of Moses is called the ministry of death and condemnation.  It is an inflexible standard that had to minister death and condemnation to the Israelites whenever they sinned.  You would think that after 2000 years, people would learn, but there are believers today who are still using the same refrain as the children of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai.  They are bragging, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

We are no longer under the Old Covenant

Can you see what the Lord was showing me?  The Israelites’ journey from Egypt to Sinai was a picture of pure grace.  It was not dependent on their goodness but His Goodness, not on their faithfulness but His faithfulness.  Before the law was given, they were under grace and nobody was punished even when they failed.  But immediately after the law was given, nobody was spared when they failed.  The good news is that we are no longer under the old covenant of law.  We have been delivered from the law through Jesus’ death on the cross.  Because of Jesus Christ, we are now under the new covenant of grace, which means that today; God does not assess us based on our performance, but on His goodness and faithfulness.

Why are there believers today living as though the cross did not make a difference?  Instead of enjoying the new covenant of grace, they are still fighting to be under the old covenant of law and the Ten Commandments.  I declare to you that the cross of Jesus did make a difference.  If you are still trying to live under the law, you are effectively negating what Jesus has already done for you on the cross!

Under the old covenant, God said, “I will by no means clear the guilty.” (Exodus 34:7)  However, in the new covenant, God says “I will remember your sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12; 10:17)  Can you see the contrast?  It is the same God speaking, so what happened?  The cross happened, my friend.  The cross made the difference.  Today God does not remember your sins or hold them against you because He has already judged them in the body of His Son.  Believers get confused when they do not realize that the cross has made a difference.   Consider this: If we are still supposed to be under the Ten Commandments as many argue, then what did the cross of Jesus accomplish?”

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The significance of the cross:

Two nights ago I struggled to get back to sleep after feeding baby G and my mind wandered and I suddenly felt compelled to write a post about the significance of the cross because so few people I know really know the full benefits of Jesus’ sacrifice and the significance of why He had to do it.

First of all I want to start with the basic principle which most Christians understand, but I want to write about it in any case just for those that might come upon this blog who might not be a Christian.

After Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, by eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God had to make a plan so that their sins could be forgiven.  He already made a perfect plan but that plan could not yet come to pass, so in the mean time animals had to be sacrificed so that mankind’s sins could be forgiven.

Unfortunately they kept on sinning so it was a continuous process of sacrificing animals to pay for the sins.  If someone sinned and he did not sacrifice an animal and he did not repent God had to punish that person, because that is how God works.  God said that there is a punishment for sin, and God cannot go back on His word.  Numbers 23:19 (NIV): “¹⁹ God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil?”  Someone had to pay the penalty for the sin –  either the sinner or the sacrificed animal.

Until Jesus came along – He was God’s perfect plan – He was sacrificed on the cross and He had to die, to pay for all the sins of all mankind. It was a perfect sacrifice and the price was paid in full.  So God does not want to punish us anymore, because His entire wrath was taken out on Jesus.  When we think God punishes us today, we actually make Jesus’ sacrifice void, because we are saying it was not good enough to pay for our sins.  We are then rejecting Jesus’ sacrifice and also rejecting Jesus.

Some people are not going to be happy with this, because it might sound like I’m saying that you can go ahead and sin now, since Jesus paid for all our sins (those that we’ve already committed and those that we will still commit) more than 2000 years ago.  I’m not saying that, because there is another consequence to sinning, and that is by giving in to temptation and sinning you are giving authority over to the devil, and by doing that you are allowing him to do things in your life, like for instance make you sick.  That is not the only way of giving authority to the devil – for instance fear, unforgiveness, or speaking negative things over yourself or other people are also ways to do that.

Genesis 15:4-21 (NIV):  “⁴ Then the word of the LORD came to him: This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir. ⁵ He took him outside and said, Look up at the heavens and count the stars— if indeed you can count them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be.  ⁶ Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. ⁷ He also said to him, I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.

 ⁸ But Abram said, O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I shall gain possession of it? ⁹ So the LORD said to him, Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. ¹⁰ Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. ¹¹ Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 

¹² As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. ¹³ Then the LORD said to him, Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and ill-treated four hundred years. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterwards they will come out with great possessions. ¹⁵ You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶ In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. ¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking brazier with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 

¹⁸ On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, ephaites, ²¹ Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”

In the Old Testament God made a covenant with Abraham.  He did it so that Abraham could know that He would not break His word and that the promises he made to him would come true, and this way was the traditional custom of that day – I guess you can say the way they used to draw up a contract like we do today.  Usually the lesser person, eg the youngest would walk between the animal pieces, but here God was the one that moved between the pieces.  It signified that if one of the two parties would break the covenant then that person would be willing to be cut in half like these animals were.  So it was a seriously binding contract in those days.

When Jesus came and spilled His blood a New Covenant was made that overruled the covenant made to Abraham.  Here God Himself spilled His blood, and this time he not only paid for our sins, but he took the curse upon Himself, so that we didn’t have to be cursed.  Galatians 3:13 (NIV): “¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”  The tree here refers to the cross.

Galatians 3: 6-9 (NIV): “⁶ Consider Abraham: He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. ⁷ Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. ⁸ The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: All nations will be blessed through you. ⁹ So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Paul says here that everybody that believes in God is a child of Abraham, and because we believe we will be blessed just like Abraham.

So by Jesus’ sacrifice not only are all the promises in the Bible applicable to all who has accepted Him as their saviour but all the curses in the Bible is not applicable anymore, because Jesus took the curse upon Him.  So once again if you think you are cursed, then you are rejecting Jesus.

Most people only know that Jesus died for our sins, but that is not the only thing He did for us.  Because of the stripes (the lashings He received before He was crucified) we don’t have to be sick, since He took that upon Himself too.  1 Peter 2:24 (NIV):  “²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” 

God also wants us to prosper, and not be poor.  2 Corinthians 8:9 (NIV):  “⁹ For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” 

The last thing that was also covered by Jesus’ sacrifice is deliverance from evil, demonic oppression and depression.  Galatians 1:4 (NIV):  “⁴ who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” 

We call these 4 things the atonement.  Jesus atoned for our sins, our health, our prosperity and deliverance from evil, with his sacrifice on the cross. The price was paid – once and that one time was enough.  It is a sufficient price and it doesn’t have to be paid again, so God doesn’t want us to be sick or poor or depressed for example, because Jesus paid the full price at Calvary.  So when we are suffering from the above, we are not living a victorious life, like God intended for us.  The sad thing is most Christians don’t know this and there is most of the time no discernable difference between a Christian and someone who hasn’t been saved.  Christians are just as sick as people who are not saved, or just as poor, or just as depressed.

Do you know what the implication is of Jesus’ atonement?  You don’t have to pray and ask for healing, because God made provision for it a long time ago.  Long before you were born, God already said, “You are healed.”  That is why the verse in 1 Peter 2:24 is past tense, “by His wounds you have been healed.”  We don’t have to wonder if it’s God’s will to be healed, because it is!  Jesus paid the price, whether you make use of it or not!

The last thing I want to say is that through Jesus’ resurrection He defeated the devil once and for all!  That also means that through Christ we can defeat the devil too!  Luke 10:19 (NIV):  “¹⁹I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”

Now isn’t that good news?  No better than good news, awesome news!  Now you know that God wants you to be a victorious Christian!

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What a Wonderful, Glorious day!

Why is this a wonderful, glorious day?  To quote the angel who brought the message of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds:  Luke 2:10-14  (KJV):  “¹⁰And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  ¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  ¹²And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ¹⁴Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who humbled Himself, gave up His Godliness so that we can participate in all the benefits of the atonement.  What are those benefits?

1.   Financial prosperity:  2 Corinthians 8:9 (KJV) says that, “⁹For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”
2.   Healing:  1 Peter 2:24 (KJV), it says, “²⁴Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” And Matthew 8:16 -17 (KJV) it says, “¹⁶When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: ¹⁷That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.”
3.   Deliverance from demonic oppression, depression and evil:  Galatians 1:4 (KJV) that says that Jesus “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world,”
4.  And last but not least, salvation and the forgiveness of our sins:  Romans 5:8-10 (KJV) “⁸But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  ⁹Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.  ¹⁰For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

Please know that all of this was freely given by Jesus, we can accept it or reject it.  It is available already – the full price was paid a long time ago.  God loves us so much that He gave His only Son, so why don’t you accept what He has sacrificed Himself for?

All of this was done, because God loves us so much:  Romans 8:31-39 (KJV):  “³¹What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?  ³²He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?  ³³Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.  ³⁴Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.  ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  ³⁶As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  ³⁷Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.  ³⁸For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, ³⁹Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Merry Christmas to all, I wish all the blessings of God upon you over this Christmas time and for the new year of 2012!

With love from, Marion, DH, little baby, Shumi, KT and Nandi!

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Some explanations of common misunderstandings:

Recently I listened to An.drew Wom.mack’s teaching on How to receive a Miracle again and I realized there are some awesome explanations in there of things that are often misunderstood by Christians, and that it will help a lot of you who are still waiting for your miracles.  It was also a useful reminder to me, I must admit…

“Mark 11, this is where Jesus cursed the fig tree and the fig tree dried up from the roots, the next day the disciples saw it, they were amazed, and they asked Jesus about it and this was His reaction, Mark 11:22, “He answered and said unto them, have faith in God, for verily I say unto you that who so ever shall say unto this mountain…,” who so ever, that means that this applies to every person in this room, “Who so ever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he sayeth shall come to pass, he shall have what so ever he sayeth. Therefore I say unto to you what things so ever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and ye shall have them.”

This passage of scripture’s got so much in it that we can teach on this for weeks, so I’m just having to hit a couple of things but one of the points I wanted to show you here is verse 24, He says, “what the things you so ever desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.”  You’ve got to believe you receive now and then you shall – future tense – have it. That future tense may only be a second, a minute, a week, a month, but you got to believe right now. You don’t believe when you see it, you’ve got to believe when you pray. Now that is so simple, and yet this is where a lot of Christians stumble.

I’m teaching on how to receive a miracle from God and I’m just teaching a lot of it out of experience as I’ve dealt with people. What is it that hangs people up? And do you know most people, when I pray for them and lay hands on them, by the time they hit the ground, if they feel healed, then they are able to believe. Most people can maintain faith for 5 seconds, but the problem is when you pray and you walk out and you haven’t seen it manifest. 99% of even spirit filled, tongue talking word type people, have their faith just to start decreasing fast as soon as they don’t see a manifestation. Most people struggle with it.

And see the Bible says that you’ve got to believe that you will receive when you pray and then you shall have it, so what I want to share with you tonight, are some simple things, explanations, again I want to make this point, that the word of God and the kingdom of God is based on laws. There are rules, there are ways that things work and you don’t have to be ignorant of the things of God.

Paul said, “I’d not have you to be ignorant concerning the things of God,” in Ephesians 5, yet most of us are ignorant. Ignorance is a breeding ground for unbelief and for problems, there are answers to things, and there is a reason why you pray sometimes here and it’s only here before you see a manifestation.

What I’d like to explain tonight is why sometimes there is a period of time in between when you say “amen and there it is.” That’s the terminology Jerry Seville uses. There are things going on – if you understand this it will take away anxiety, it will take away worry and care and frustration, it will help you to stand and be able to believe and it could make a big, big difference in your life.

Look at Matthew 7, this is a familiar passage of scripture that everybody knows and doesn’t believe. It says, “Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” This is an awesome promise in God’s word. Did you know honestly, if tonight we were just acting like we were brand new, like we have never heard this scripture before, or if this concept had never come to you, and if I was here speaking, “Thus sayeth the Lord, ask and it shall be given to you,” did you know most of you would say, “that’s too good to believe.” That would be hard to believe. This is an awesome promise, and yet most Christians know this, you can quote it, we sing songs about it yet we don’t believe it…

Do you know why? It’s because I asked and I didn’t receive, I sought and I didn’t find, I knocked and it wasn’t opened to me, and so we arrive at this problem – here is what God’s word says, here’s what my experience says… How do you harmonise the 2?

Most of us say, “I don’t understand and we just lose our excitement, our authority in the word of God and you wouldn’t sit there and openly say, “well I just don’t believe that scripture,” but in practise you don’t expect it to work like that, and we will develop an elaborate systems of doctrine to explain why it doesn’t work and religious systems come out and say, “well, not everyone that asks receives.” See the next verse, verse 8 that says “everyone that asks receives…” That’s not true! The Bible says that “everyone that asks receives,” but this person asked and they didn’t receive…

I remember a good example of a very good friend of Jamie and I, had leukaemia and I was with her when she died, and she believed God to heal her. She stood up and testified at one of James Robinson’s meetings, with over 4000 people that God was going to heal her and I mean it shook us when she wasn’t healed. We prayed for her to be raised from the dead for a long period of time and it’s a long story but I mean, we believed the best we knew how, and if you would have been there you would have thought that this girl believed with all of her heart, when she was dying she said, “It’s got to be soon… It’s got to be soon…”

She was expecting God to heal her at any moment, yet she strangled on her own blood as she haemorrhaged, and you look at that and you see that and I can tell you what her father’s reaction was. He came to me and he said, “Well, I think we were wrong. It couldn’t be God’s will to heal every time or she would have been healed.”

What he was saying was, she believed with everything she had. Well it looked that way, it really did and I guarantee you that at the time she died I didn’t have an answer. But I told people, I said, “look, God’s word promised that it was His will to heal her” and I said, “I don’t know what happened but God doesn’t lie. It was God’s will to heal her,” and I said, “maybe she missed it, maybe I missed it, maybe her family missed it, maybe all of us missed it, something’s wrong but it wasn’t God that was at fault. It was God’s will to heal her and I had people get mad at me, I had people reject me and it was 3 years before I found out what was wrong, but man, it was a miracle we got as far as we did!

God’s healing was in her body! It was supernatural and we short circuited it, we didn’t understand anything about how to walk in faith and we just allowed the devil to beat us on that one. Some of you are saying, “Well, that is terrible that you could do something that would actually cause a person to die.” Brothers and sisters it’s just the truth. You can go out here and fall asleep at the wheel and you can kill somebody. You do have responsibility in the kingdom of God. There is responsibility for us to believe God and God just can’t violate all of his laws.

Sometimes we think, “Then why didn’t God come down and intervene?” Because there are laws put down and God observes His own laws. He’s bound Himself by His own word, that’s gone out of His mouth when He says, “You have power to heal, if you don’t use that power to heal it’s not going to get done!” Again, people don’t like that. I had a Baptist pastor come to me one time and we were talking about this one girl that needed to be healed. He said, “Look if God wants her healed, she is going to be healed whether you or I pray for her or not.”

It’s not so. God’s will does not automatically come to pass. The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9, it says, “God isn’t willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” That is God’s will, but is every person going to come to repentance? No, because they have a choice in the thing, and also we have the responsibility to preach the Gospel, it says in Romans 10, “How can they believe if they don’t hear? And how can they hear except somebody preach the gospel.” Man, there is a responsibility on us. There are people dying and going to hell that were ordained, God loves them, He’s provided for them and yet, they aren’t going to receive because they didn’t hear.

People don’t like that so we make theology see, we just change our theology to fit the situation so that we will feel good but the truth is, God’s will doesn’t come to pass perfectly. Amen? I hope I’m getting you to think. Some of you are looking at me strange. “You mean God’s will doesn’t automatically come to pass in my life?” People preach the sovereignty of God, which I may be stepping on your religious toes right here… Sovereignty literally means independent, such as the United States is independent, we have declared our independence from Great Britain, and so we are now a sovereign nation. That means nobody dictates to us, but does that mean that we are without control, that we are without laws? No, we’ve got laws, there are restraints, we’ve got a constitution that dictates what this nation is like, but nobody else wrote it for us, it is not imposed upon us by somebody else, we wrote our own constitution. We’ve got limits but they are self imposed limits.

When we say God is sovereign people will say that, “well, you never know what God is going to do. God can do anything He wants to, God may do it this way one time, God might do it that way, God can do anything. If God wanted to he can come down and just heal you, whether you believe in faith or not!” That is not so! God has bound Himself by His word; I used that scripture this morning, Psalms 89:34, He said, “my covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone forth out of my lips.” When He says, “You resist the devil and he will flee from you,” that means that if you don’t resist the devil, he won’t flee. God cannot rebuke the devil for you. And it’s wrong is you are saying, “O, God get the devil off my back,” God can’t do it. God gave you authority over the devil; you’ve got to learn what God’s given you. You’ve got to start exercising what God has given you. It’s not God that’s letting the devil run roughshod over you, it’s you that’s letting the devil run roughshod over you…

We are the ones that need to be turned on! God is not the one that needs to get stirred up. It gets me about intercessors today man, they’re just in there shaking God’s cage until He does something, “God, move, move!” God is not the one that we need to get motivated. You don’t need to beg with God to move in the Denver area, God wants to do something – He is trying to rattle your cage! To get you going! So much of our intercession, 90% of it is trying to motivate God to do something, God is more motivated than you are! You don’t have to pray for God to send a revival, God sent it 2000 years ago, what you need to do is get in there in the line of fire, amen, let some of it rub off on you, and God flow through you…”

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Midnight revelations:

A few nights ago I once again had trouble sleeping. It took a while to get to sleep and only a few hours later I was awake again, and then it felt like hours passed before I fell asleep again just as the birds woke up. But that time was not wasted, because I was thinking about quite a lot of stuff, especially Shumi, and where I’m failing, and I got another revelation. I know it already, but sometimes one doesn’t see things clearly, especially when it concerns yourself… I think God has been trying to tell me this for a while already, but somehow I just didn’t listen, or didn’t want to listen maybe… I’ve realized there were signs or hints, which made me realize I had to attend to something, but I just brushed it away, and went on with what I was doing. Until that sleepless night when I had lots to think about and I could follow the trail until I got to the revelation, and I want to share that with you today – maybe someone else will also benefit from it.

There were 3 separate incidences that I can identify as signs or hints, because they all had to make me think about the same topic. I can’t really recall which happened first, and I guess it doesn’t really matter. One instance was a comment made on this blog about salvation and keeping the Law of Moses. That comment was in response to me saying that I know God does not want to punish me for every wrong thing I do, because I know that the punishment was already fully taken by Jesus through His sacrifice. I answered on that comment, but there was a lingering feeling that maybe I didn’t follow the trail of thought through fully and answered completely, but I brushed it off and forgot about it.

Another thing that bothered me a bit was a comment DH made to me once. At the time I didn’t realize it, but I’ve had some unresolved anger building up in me, especially lately, and I think it has to do with my mom’s death and Shumi’s illness. I tried to suppress it, and generally I never take out my frustrations on loved ones, so it came out in other ways. One way was when I got so upset about my new debit card not working – I really got so angry, like I haven’t been in a long time, and I let the call centre operator hear it! There is one other person though, someone I get to deal with on a weekly basis, that somehow rubs me up the wrong way, and I never let her see it, but later at home I can’t help making comments and sometimes they are nasty… DH heard me mutter something, and immediately he said, “What has S done this time…” I immediately felt bad, because I realized that I was complaining a lot about this person, especially lately, and maybe I’ve been too hard on her, but I once again did not think about it for very long.

The last message was the fact that I started reading the book of Romans since last week in my Bible study time and really a lot of it has to deal with the law again, and how we are saved by grace through faith and not through works like keeping the law. During the night while I was lying awake I realized that I’ve been focussing on how God does not want to punish us, because Jesus already carried the punishment for us, long before we even sinned, but I conveniently ignored the law. I knew it was still important to keep the law, but why?

For some reason I thought back to my last IVF last year, and how I did not understand things so well then compared to what I know now. Because I did a mini IVF, I didn’t get my stimms from my fertility clinic like I did with my other IVF’s. I bought it at Dis.chem since their price was a bit cheaper than what my clinic would have charged me. They didn’t have all the injections that I needed, but they did have a few and enough to get me started. Somehow the pharmacist made a mistake and charged me for 1 less injection than she gave me. When I paid I realized that the total was less than what I worked it out in my mind, but I paid and left the shop.

All the way home it bothered me and I couldn’t figure out where a mistake was made. When I got home I looked at the slip and only then did I realize what had happened. I immediately felt guilty and felt like I stole that one injection. The second thought that came into my head was, “I hope God does not punish me for this by ensuring that I don’t get pregnant.” Like I said – I still had a lot to learn.

The fear of punishment prompted me to phone the pharmacy and speak to them and rectify the mistake. The poor pharmacist was so happy I phoned and pointed out her mistake and she made a note on the computer that I must pay for the other injection when I come to fetch the last few. I’m sure she would have been in some kind of trouble if I hadn’t come forward and offered to pay, because she kept on saying, “thank you so much for calling and rectifying this.”

While I was lying in bed thinking about all this, I realized – “No, God would not have punished me by giving me a BFN.” I was totally sure of that fact, but then something else struck me. It could have ended in a BFN, but it wouldn’t have been caused by God. I would have given power over my life to the devil and through me handing him that power, he could have killed our embies and caused a BFN.

That was when I realized that the only reason we shouldn’t sin is because that is one way of giving power to the devil. We might believe that God has saved us, we might believe that God has healed us, but if we keep sinning we will never defeat the devil. I saw so clearly that I need to let go of certain sins, and if I do that the power of the devil will decrease. It’s all things that I knew, that I’ve practised a while ago and even had some victory over, but I got lax and I let small things slip, and then it got worse and worse again…

We had one victory, our pregnancy, and I just assumed that the rest will fall into place as well. Then my mom passed away and that shocked me so much! I lost some confidence and I let the devil lie to me again, believing that cancer is different than infertility and much more difficult to get healed, when it shouldn’t be. It’s the same principles that apply, and that works for every kind of illness, but my faith was shaken.

I also gave power to the devil in another way – fear. By being fearful I allowed things to get even worse, I got upset and at that point was where I was tearful at even silly things that should not have upset me at all. I felt like I could not deal with normal daily challenges that usually don’t upset me at all. That was when Shumi’s swelling was at its worst.

Fortunately the swelling has come down a lot, it’s not gone completely, but Shumi looks a lot better again, so much so that I do not contemplate euthanizing him. He is playful again, and he is interested in what goes on around him, he eats well and he just wants love, love and more love from us.

The devil is defeated – Jesus defeated him, and he cannot take Shumi’s life without my permission or co-operation. I’m sure he tried to convince me that euthanizing Shumi would be best, and then we would do the work for him, but I’m not co-operating with that! I keep on reminding myself that God is good, He wants Shumi healed and He has made provision for it already. I must just receive it on Shumi’s behalf. I know it does not look like Shumi is healed, but I don’t have to go on what things look like, when I know that God’s word is true, and when I know what His will is. I must just keep on believing in God’s promises, and not let circumstances sway me or weaken my faith.

I also like to remind myself that the vets gave Shumi a couple of months to live more than a year ago. His life expectancy is already like that of a dog who has received radiation therapy for the cancer, even though Shumi has not received any treatment. So that means that the devil has been hindered in his job – he couldn’t kill Shumi in the normal course of the disease so far, and I fully intend to make it even harder for him from now on.

Satan also tried his very best to make me feel incredibly guilty for my mom’s passing, but I’ve realized that with my mom, it wasn’t just dependant on DH’s and my own faith, because we believed, until the very end. The hard reality is my mom couldn’t believe in her own healing – even when I spoke to her about my miracle pregnancy, I could see in her eyes that she could not believe for the same thing. I gave her books to read, messages to listen to on CD and in MP3 format on her phone, but today I’m sure she didn’t do any of it. Yes, I think I must have discussed it more with her, but an old school friend of my mom’s told me at the funeral that my mom phoned her about 2 weeks before her death and that she could hear my mom had given up on life. That was before she even went in to hospital and I had no idea of any of that!

At the hospital itself we were also surrounded by people who believed the end was near, from the nurses and doctors to visiting family and friends, and no matter how many times DH and I tried to say, “but we have faith that my mom would get healed”, we were met with resistance and comments like, “but you have to be realistic!” Our faith was just too little compared to all the unbelief surrounding my mom…

Fortunately with Shumi’s situation, it’s different. It’s mostly just up to DH and I to believe in Shumi’s healing. We don’t get to deal with other people’s unbelief so much and then only when they come to visit us at home and they see Shumi. I keep on telling people that he is doing well, and what the vet’s diagnosis was over a year ago already, so that helps a little to get them to believe that maybe he will be healed. A lot have had theories like, maybe the diagnosis was wrong, (even our own vet has also wondered about this aloud, that maybe he has a benign tumour), and there was even one theory where they believe his problems are because of a tooth that needs to be pulled. Unfortunately it is very hard for people to believe that God still heals in this day and age, they always try to get some other explanation as well…

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We have so much to be grateful for:

Even before I got pregnant I knew that we have a lot to be grateful for, but since getting pregnant I am just so much more aware of all the things I’m grateful for, and I’m not lying to you, but my prayer life has changed to mostly praising God and thanking Him for all the blessings we receive from Him.

Every single day I thank God for our pregnancy and our baby. I cannot tell you how much I love being pregnant, and to feel our little boy kick, how much I love him already and how much I’m looking forward to meeting him. Last week at the water birth class there was one lady that said she absolutely hates being pregnant and she is so glad it’s almost over. I can honestly say that I don’t have that problem at all; as a matter of fact it is difficult for me to understand it, because it’s been such a wonderful time for me. I am so grateful that I’m not in her shoes…

Yes, I’ve had most of the symptoms and sometimes I didn’t feel well, or sometimes I have pain, but it doesn’t affect my joy. I still remember the constant nausea and fatigue of the first trimester, and I remember I wasn’t able to do much during that time, but I would willingly do it again and again, just for the joy of being pregnant. I know I’m going to miss being pregnant once our baby is born, but we will definitely try again!

I am also so grateful for the wonderful husband that I have. He is so attentive, and loving and interested in what’s going on in my body and with our baby, and he just loves to have his hands on my baby bump to feel our darling little boy move and kick.

I just know he will be an awesome, wonderful dad. A lot of the time I think he will be a better dad than I could even dream to be a mom. He just loves our nieces and nephews and he takes time to play with them every time we see them, and they absolutely adore him! I just cannot imagine how he will be with our boy – if he is so good with children that isn’t his, how wouldn’t he be with his own! I know he will not be a distant dad, or someone who’s job is more important than his kids, or more interested in his social life than his kids, I know he will make our little one the most important part of his life.

Then most importantly I am so grateful to God, for being there and helping me, guiding me, comforting me and blessing us so richly! We have had some really incredibly difficult years behind us and only when I turned to God, did it feel like I was able to cope, to overcome, to get hope and finally to have our dreams realized. And even now He is still there giving me strength, health and joy, even though we are still going through a difficult time.

The other day I realized that this has been the best and simultaneously the worst year ever. The best because I got pregnant with a healthy baby and we will give birth to him, but the worst because I had to lose my mom. But thanks to our Almighty Lord He is giving me strength and He is helping me to not just concentrate on the sadness, but still experience and enjoy all the wonderful stages of this pregnancy.

I am also incredibly grateful of how much I’ve grown spiritually, and that my idea, or concept of being a child of God, a Christian has changed. I see God so very different than even a year ago, I know Him so much better – I know He loves me unconditionally, that even if I disappoint Him, His love for me won’t change, and that He doesn’t want to punish me for every wrong thing I do – it’s not necessary anymore because the punishment has already been borne by Jesus. I have no more guilt and condemnation hanging over me, making me feel less of a Christian, or a bad person, because I’ve been made righteous by Jesus, and yes, I know I don’t deserve it, but it’s already been done, so I can just as well accept it! God wants me to receive it! And the same goes for everything else that’s been covered by the atonement. Like health and healing, deliverance from evil and prosperity.

The way I feel from day to day has changed – from being sad, and feeling lonely and that nobody understand my pain, to being happy, and joyous and expecting just good things to happen from now on. I cannot tell you what a burden has been lifted from me. God has changed me so much and I am so grateful! When I think of all these blessings, I just feel like bursting out in tears of happiness (and I often do)…

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What is covered by Jesus’ Atonement?

A year ago I didn’t even realize what Jesus’ atonement meant, until I started to listen to An.drew Wom.mack’s teachings and at first I heard him mention it a couple of times, and then I started to wonder, “but what is this atonement and how does it affect me?”  I recently listened to the teaching of An.drew Wom.mack, “God wants you well (part 1)” again.  The title of this specific teaching is Healing is in Christ’s Atonement and I want to quote a bit out of it for you:

“Healing is not just an add on, it’s not just an added benefit that only happens sometimes, but it is an essential part of what Jesus came to do.  Jesus died for our forgiveness of sins and He died for the physical healing of our body.  Another way of saying this is that Jesus purchased healing for us, just as He purchased forgiveness of sins.  It’s all a part of Christ’s atonement.

I know that, that is not a main stream doctrine today, but that is one of the reasons that so very few people operate in healing, because they look at it as, “certainly, God could heal if He wanted to,” but they don’t see that God has already redeemed us from sickness and disease.  They look at it as something He can do, but they don’t know for sure that it’s His will.  If you recognize that healing is a part of the atonement, then you recognize that the Lord has already healed us, He’s already purchased that, the power has already been generated, healing is a done deal and it is available to us exactly the same as forgiveness of sins is.

Now again, I know these are radical statements but let me show me some things that will prove that.  The Greek word that was translated, “save” and “saved”, a kind of all encompassing word for “salvation,” you know, hundreds of times in the New Testament is the Greek word “sozo”.  It literally means to, “save,” that is “deliver or protect literally or figuratively.”  But when you look at the way the word was translated it’s very obvious that this deliverance and saving is not only from sin, but it’s also from physical problems.

Like for instance in Galatians 1:4 (KJV):  “⁴Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world…”  Not just the world to come, but this present evil world.  That is a tremendous statement.  Again, many people see what Jesus produced as only affecting the spiritual eternal realm and because of that we come up with songs like, “when we all get to heaven, what a day that will be…”, and even though I’m not diminishing that it is going to be glorious in heaven, Jesus also came to deliver us from this present evil world not just the one to come.   The word “save” here isn’t only talking about “saved us from hell,” He saved us from our sins and future punishment but Jesus also came to save, deliver and protect us in this physical world.

There are 38 times that the word “sozo” was translated “save” in reference to the forgiveness of sins, I’m not going to take time to list all of those but you can search this out and find it.  Some examples are Matthew 1:21; 1 Corinthians 1:21; Hebrews 7:25, there are just a lot of them.  There are also 53 times that this same Greek word “sozo” was translated “saved,” past tense, referring to forgiveness of sins, but there were also times when this exact same word was translated “healed.”

For instance in Mark 5:23, where it was talking about Jairus’ daughter, Jairus was the ruler who came to Jesus and asked Jesus to come heal his daughter, and it says in Mark 5:23 (KJV):  “²³And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.”  That word “healed” right there is this Greek word “sozo”, and it’s referring to physical healing, it’s obvious, and the story goes on that the little girl actually died and Jesus raised her from the dead and that was referring to physical healing, physical resurrection from the dead.

Also in Luke 8:36 (KJV) it says:  “³⁶They also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed.”  Now, this is talking about the man who was commonly called the Gadarene demoniac, who was bound with chains, and nobody could hold him, he’d just break the chains, Jesus set him free and it says here in scripture, Luke 8:36 that “he that was possessed of the devils was healed.”  That word is “sozo”, again the word that is used for forgiveness of sins, but that exact same word is also applied to physical healing.  That’s the second instance I’ve given you.

The third is in Acts 14:9 (KJV), this is talking about a cripple, that Paul healed when he prayed for him, “⁹The same heard Paul speak: who steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,” this is talking about Paul “Beheld this man,” who was going to be healed and he perceived that he had faith to be healed, that word healed there is the Greek word “sozo”,  the same word that was used talking about forgiveness of our sins.

The same word was also translated “save” in reference to healing and the save here was definitely talking about more than forgiveness of sins, it was talking about “healing”.  A classic example is James 5:15 (KJV) and it says there “¹⁵And the prayer of faith shall save,” that is “sozo”, “the sick,” the same word that used for the forgiveness of sins, “and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have ommitted sins, they shall be forgiven him.”  So this is another reference talking about how the word for salvation, “save,” is talking about more than just forgiveness of sins but rather it is talking about healing of your body.

It goes on to say in Luke 6:9 (KJV):  “⁹Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?”  Now He was talking about healing a person on the Sabbath day, and when He was referring to healing this man, he says, “is it right for me to save this life? And He wasn’t just talking about forgiveness of sin, but He was talking about healing of the body.

This same word was translated “made whole” in reference to healing.  In Matthew 9:21 (KJV) it says:  “²¹For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.”  That was the woman who had the issue of blood and came up to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment and she used this word “sozo”, which was synonymous with forgiveness of sins, she also applied that same word
to being healed physically.  The same thing is said in Mark 5:28 (KJV):  “²⁸For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.”  This is the same instance recorded in Mark’s gospel, again that same word was used, it was translated “made whole” eight times in scripture.

Matthew 9:22 (KJV) says, “²²But Jesus turned him about,” this is that same instance with the woman with the issue of blood, “and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.”  The word for “whole” in this instance is “sozo,” the same word that is used for forgiveness of sins showing that all of this Greek word is not limited to forgiveness of sin.

The same thing is done in Mark 6:56 (KJV) where it says:  “⁵⁶And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.”  That’s that Greek word “sozo”.

The point I’m making through this is that the word for salvation does not only mean forgiveness of sins, it literally means “forgiveness of sins, healing of your body, those are the scriptures I’ve emphasized, but if you were to study it on out, it also is translated deliverance in Acts 13, and it also means financial prosperity.  So the Greek word for salvation does not refer only to forgiveness of sins, that’s the way it’s been interpreted and presented by the modern day church but that is a misrepresentation of what Jesus did.

Jesus did not only die for the forgiveness of our sins, it included that and that is certainly a center piece of what He did, I’m not minimizing the forgiveness of our sins but I’m saying at the same time that He bought and purchased our redemption from sin, He also freed us from sickness, He also freed us from depression, deliverance from the devil, and He also freed us from poverty.  2 Corinthians 8:9 (KJV) says that, “⁹For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”

This is where the denomination called the “Four Square Gospel” comes from.  They literally went to the Greek word “sozo” that was translated “save, saved, salvation,” all of these different ways, and they looked at what the word literally means, and it means forgiveness of sins, healing of your body, deliverance from all kinds of demonic oppression, depression, and financial blessing and prosperity.”

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