Empowered to live
adminA lot of times, as Christians, we think we help people live right by pointing out sin when, scripturally, it is not like that. People will generally rise to the level of your expectation of them.
There is a case in the Bible of four friends who brought a lame man before Jesus. Because of the large crowd, they had to bring him through the roof.
Mark 2:3-11 (NKJV)
“Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven you.’ And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, ‘Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, ‘Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins’—He said to the paralytic, ‘I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.'”
You cannot walk the spiritual walk or natural walk unless you first realize one thing: your sins have been forgiven. It is the realization that God has forgiven you that empowers you to arise and walk. It is the realization and acknowledgment that Jesus Christ of Nazareth, through His work on the cross, has put away your sin. This is what gives you the power to rise up and walk.
The genesis of what ails people is basically fear, and fear rises from condemnation. A condemned person, or a person who feels condemned, will allow whatever condemned them to continue thriving in their life, even if they want to be free.
Our job as brothers and sisters is not to condemn them further. By the time somebody comes to you to tell you about the situation they are in, they are already condemned and are taking courage to share with you, hoping for some encouragement. But a typical Christian would take that opportunity to further condemn this already condemned person until they stop trying.
You don’t know how much courage it took for this person to come and share with you, to seek help, or to try and see if there is a way they can be helped. But a typical self-righteous born-again person will begin to shout as if this person is choosing to be addicted to cocaine or whatever.
For you to say, “Go and sin no more,” there must first be, “I do not condemn you.”
There was a lady who was brought to Jesus by the religious leaders of the day. They said that she was caught in the very act, but they did not catch the man.
John 8:3-10 (NKJV)
“Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?’ This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.’ And again, He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, ‘Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.’”
Before you tell someone, “Go and sin no more,” you must first tell them, “I do not condemn you,” because sin is brought about by condemnation. Someone who is condemned cannot leave that place.
The beginning of the way out is to remove condemnation because if condemnation is removed, you now have the power to go and sin no more.
God does not drive people to holiness by punishment. You cannot scare people into holiness. And what I am saying now is not a license to sin. What I am trying to do is to empower people so that they rise up and get out of it.
When you know God loves you and can use you, you will have more zeal to go to God. People who are condemned run away from God because they think God is angry with them. They try to clean themselves up away from God, and then they come back when they feel cleaner—not knowing that there is no way you can clean yourself apart from being with God. It is being with God that cleanses you.
When you have blown it completely, you need to run to God. In your own capacity, you can’t clean yourself.
What leads us to repentance is the goodness of God. The Bible says it is the goodness of God that leads you to repentance. It is the goodness of God toward you that leads you to repentance.
We repent because God is good to us, not because we are afraid He will punish us. Being scared of punishment has never made anyone holy because it promotes the flesh and brings fear.
Romans 2:4 (NKJV)
“Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”
When you know and realize how much God has forgiven you, you cannot condemn anybody. If you see someone condemning other people, it’s because they think somehow they merit everything God has given them.They are willing to show you the sacrifice they made to be able to acquire this. Whatever price you have paid at the end of the day,God only does things for you on the basis of Jesus Christ. There is no goodness any human being can present before God and tell God that it is because of this thing I did, that has compelled you God to do this for me.
The sacrifice we put on the table and the price we pay is because we love God and not to get him to do us things.
Because God has already forgiven us and has done so much for us and we recognize how much he has forgiven us and how filthy we were and how filthy we still are without Him, we now give ourselves to Him. Because He died for me I now live my life not for myself but for Him.
The Bible says he who is forgiven much, loves much. If I know how much God has forgiven me, where he has taken me from, and where I am now, I love Him. Nobody has to force me to love Him because I recognize how much God has transformed my life.
Luke 7:47 NKJV
“Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
If you know you have been forgiven much, you will love much.If you feel you have some merit, you will begin to feel like others are less of christians than you. The Bible says you are comparing yourselves with yourselves and this is not good.
The Bible says we should forebear with one another, forgive one another even as God forgave us.
II Corinthians 10:12 NKJV
“For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”
But if you know if it were not for God, you and this person you are condemning would be in the same place, it is God who helped you.Comparing yourself with yourself is not wisdom.
There are only certain things that you know, the things you can confess to God and try to be cleansed are those that you are aware of but there are those you are not aware of.
Psalms 19:12 says how can a man discern his errors?
Psalms 19:12-13 NKJV
“Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.”
There are sins that are secretive even to you but you commit them, that only God knows,but He forgives you because of Jesus. You are not aware that you have messed.
We can only confess that which we know but how do we deal with that which we don’t know?
The Bible says whatever is not of faith is sin. You can, for example, refuse to pray for people for healing and God sees it as sin because you feared people and regarded your reputation more than obeying the instruction of God.
Romans 14:23 NKJV
“But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.”
Ephesians 4:32 NKJV
“And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”
Whoever has been forgiven much loves much. If you know how much God has forgiven you, this should generate love for Him in your heart.
The first thing love will put on you is boundaries. One time you will need to do warfare and the enemy will try to condemn you.You must know your position in God, who you are in God, what He has done for you and where you stand with Him so that at the critical moment when when you need your faith to kick in, the enemy will not puncture your faith because of your ignorance.
The Bible says the love of God constrains me. Because I love God,and because I have the love of God in me the first thing I put in place is boundaries.There are things you will not do or places you will not go because you love Him.
II Corinthians 5:14-15 NKJV
“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
The reason we go to God and confess is because of our conscience. The Bible says we need to hold faith with a clean conscience. We go to God so that we can clear our conscience. We take our issues to God and confess our sins to God so that we can clear our conscience.
The Bible says if you do not have a clear conscience, you will shipwreck your faith. If your conscience is not clear, if you are feeling condemned in your conscience , your prayers will not be answered even though it’s not God condemning you. Your own conscience can condemn you.
I Timothy 1:19 NKJV
“having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck”
God cannot answer your prayer because your conscience is not clear. The Bible says we ask and we do not get an answer because our conscience condemns us.
I John 3:20-22 NKJV
“Whenever our conscience condemns us, we will be reassured that God is greater than our conscience and knows everything. Dear friends, if our conscience doesn’t condemn us, we can boldly look to God and receive from him anything we ask. We receive it because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.”
If your conscience condemns you, you must realise God, who has forgiven you, is greater than your conscience.
The work of the Holy Spirit for a believer is to convict them of righteousness, but to a sinner or to the world, it is to convict them of their sin. When someone in the world meets the Holy Spirit. He tells them to get born again. This is the work of the Holy spirit to a sinner. But to a believer, it convicts them of being God’s righteousness and being a new creation.
John 16:8 NKJV
“And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:”
But you need to go before God for the sake of your conscience. God will cleanse you from all unrighteousness so that when you pray you can receive by faith an answer to your prayers.
You must get this.When you get this you will rise up above the devil, he can’t catch you and then he can’t put any sin, addiction or whatever over you. You will be able to walk a victorious life without condemnation and the freedom from condemnation raises you and you are able to tap into the power of God.
The Bible says you must understand the length, the width, the depth and the height and be filled with all the love of God and to know the unsurpassing knowledge of the love of God so that you can be filled with the power of God.
When you understand the love of God, and you rise above condemnation, you can now tap into the power.The power generated towards you is commensurate to your understanding of the amount of the love of God available for you.
Ephesians 3:18-19 NKJV
“may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
God will fill you with Himself to the measure that you understand his love for you and you can only understand his love for you and receive his love for you if you understand how much you have been forgiven. When you understand how much you have been forgiven you cannot condemn anyone but you will try to help people come out of the mud and bless and if they mess again you put them back up again until they stand. You will not be the one that further buries them because now they are down. People who are down will look for you because they know if they come for you will shine light in their darkness.You will give hope in a hopeless situation.You will be able to display the love of God in their lives. In Jesus Name, Amen.
