Cyber Truths By E-mail
20. Are You Living Without His Grace? (June 16, 2006)
Dear Friends,
We’re writing this email with a lot
of emotional pain because we’re hearing from far too many
“Christians” who nullify the Person of our Lord
Jesus in their midst. We grieve that Someone we both love so
dearly seems to be so readily discounted in the lives of those
who call themselves by His Name.
The following anecdote happened recently.
It is symptomatic of many who have contacted us and have spent
considerable time in the Nicolaitan religious system. They have
little or no “Vertical dimension” to their faith.
As a result they turn to man for help far more than they look
to Jesus. And, in so doing, they miss the offer of His grace.
Female Caller: I
just found your website and I really need help. I live in North
Carolina and have been plagued by demons for years. I’ve
gone for deliverance, and my pastor has sent me to several
counselors. If only I could come spend some time with you and
your wife, I know I’d be better.
Mike: When you
went for deliverance what happened?
Caller: I
went through a three-month program at our church, but it
didn’t work. That’s when I was sent to two
different counselors.
Mike: Did the
program you went through rely on the authority of the Name of
Jesus, or did they have you revisit your past?
Caller: We spent
most of the time going over our past.
Mike: Why
don’t you download Demolishing
Strongholds from our website and go
through it? Trust in the authority of Jesus!
Caller: But I
need people to help me.
Mike: No, you need Jesus and
what only He can do. People don’t deliver anyone. Only Jesus does.
Caller: How come you don’t
want to offer me help?
Mike: I am helping you! Let me
ask you a question: If my wife turned to other men every time
she had a problem, how would that make me feel?
Caller:
You’d feel awful.
Mike: How do you
think Jesus feels every time you turn to others but not to Him,
especially when He is the only One Who can help you?
Caller: Pretty
bad.
It was painful to have this conversation
with this woman—not because of her as a person, but
because of the religious system that has kept her seeking any
which way but Jesus.
Her situation isn’t unique. A church
leader from a large denomination once told us, “We
can’t have our people trusting Jesus as your writings
call for. That would cause mayhem! We need to control
and direct the actions of the
people in our congregation.”
In essence he was saying: We need to speak about Jesus, but not let our people trustingly relate to Him. If
they do, we’ll lose our influence and control over their
spiritual life.
Isn’t this what the religious
leaders of Jesus’s day feared as well? So many Nicolaitan
religious systems today have no more reliance on the Son of God
than did the religious system which Jesus challenged while on
earth. In fact, I (Mike) have a Masters degree in Business
Administration and can’t see any difference between the
motives and practices of Nicolaitanism and corporate America! The measures of
success are exactly the same.
Do you remember what Jesus said to the
religious professionals of His day?
And the Father who sent Me has Himself
testified concerning Me. You have never heard His voice nor
seen His form, nor does His word dwell in you, for you do not trust in
the One He sent. You diligently study the
Scriptures because you think that by them you possess
eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life (John 5:37-40).
Many spend time studying Bible passages
yet never encounter the Lord Who has breathed life into them through
His Spirit! We’ve found that this woman’s phone
call is more the rule than the exception as people in religious
systems come to our website. Trust and dependence on Jesus is
dodged by so many who call themselves “Christian”.
And, this is why we are writing: So you won’t be one of those who fail to
turn first to our Lord Jesus!
If You Plod On Without His Grace, Life is Uphill All the Way
The grace our Lord bestows on His people
can’t be grasped by your reasoning acuity. Certain
scribes reasoned in their hearts that Jesus was blaspheming when He
declared the paralytic’s sins forgiven (see Mark 2:5-10,
NKJV). The trust that healed the afflicted man was notably
absent in the men who refused to acknowledge the One Whose
powerful grace had revealed Him to be God incarnate!
You can’t be “rooted and
established in love” without His grace! Without grace, you’ll
never fathom the fullness of our Lord’s love (see
Ephesians 3:16-19). Nor can you grasp His purposes in the
events that surround and impact your life (see Isaiah 55:8-11).
Certainly you can never fully understand His grace,
either the nature of it or why He should choose to shower you
with it. But you can by faith experience it!
On one level God bestows grace on all
mankind because we are made in His image. Jesus speaks of that
general care for human beings: “He
causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain
on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).
Yet, there is a particular grace that’s experienced by those who diligently live in
Covenant union with God. These are the ones who love their God and live repentantly and
walk in obedient trust to His commands. To these our Lord manifests
His grace as He gives them the
desire and the power to do God’s will.
When a follower of Jesus experiences this
kind of grace, testimonies pour forth to our Lord’s
faithfulness. Through the presence or absence of testimony you
can discern the viability of faith in a person.
Experiencing our Lord’s grace through your ongoing repentance
and desire to obey ALWAYS leads to
testimony. ALWAYS!!!
People who habitually seek our Lord first bring
to their conversation a quality of communication that’s
both glorifying to Him and mutually edifying to themselves and
to the one(s) with whom they share. Their words and testimonies
bespeak a depth of relationship with Jesus as His follower.
The lack of testimony tells us something else about an
individual. When people have nothing to share about our loving
and faithful God, they’re not looking to Him in loving
trust and dependence. And if that person is looking to us (or to you!) to fulfill that
role, that’s a spot reserved only for Jesus.
This is where religious leaders often get
into trouble. To turn to others rather than to God first is idolatry.
People who don’t depend on our Lord
first find their lives that much harder because they’re
counting on their own strength rather than on His power.
When You Consistently Recognize and
Experience His Grace, Your Life Has Testimony
“Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray” (James 5:13).
Grace is often found initially on your
knees. Your trusting dependence on our Father is best
demonstrated when you humble yourself in love to seek His face.
At that moment something wonderful happens on your behalf in
the spirit world:
And in the same way the Spirit also helps
our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but
the Spirit Himself intercedes for
us with groanings too deep for words
and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the
Spirit is, because He intercedes
for the saints according to the will
of God. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who
died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of
God, who also intercedes for us (Romans 8:
26,27,34).
Envision for a moment what occurs when you
pray in total dependence on God to act on your behalf. First,
you are not praying alone! With such Divine help, why would anyone look
to man first?
Those who live repentantly in
love-grounded trust and seek to obey God’s commands have
promises that are received through the grace of God:
Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us
[if we have no unconfessed sin], we have confidence before God; and
whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His
commandments and do the things that are
pleasing in His sight (1 John 3:
21,22).
It takes humility and personal volition to
respond to the Spirit’s urging to repent — but what
intimacy when you pray!
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous [those
who repentant and confess their sins] and His ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil (1 Peter 3:12).
The Apostle who was based in Jerusalem
certainly anchors the mighty influence the righteous wield in
the heavenlies: “The prayer of
a righteous man is powerful and
effective” (James 5:16).
For 30 years we’ve recognized and
shared the connection between walking uprightly in relationship
with Jesus and finding answered prayer that brings grateful
testimony. Those who are earnestly following Jesus similarly
experience His wonderful intervention. Conversations with
people who can testify of His faithfulness in response to their
prayers are mutually encouraging and edifying — and some
of those answers have been after perseverance and protracted
crying out before His throne of grace!
You probably know firsthand how dry it is
to converse with “Christians” who’ve never
experienced God’s grace being poured out on them in
answer to their prayers. Probe a bit and you may find
worldly motives or hidden distrust.
Resting In Our Fathers’s Grace
After our Father revealed to us the
Hebraic foundations while we were in Israel, He gave us a
ministry of availability and
mobility. This kind of life
isn’t for everyone, of course, but He’s given us a
particular “apostolic assignment”: “Share this message.”
With His command has come His grace to accomplish it.
In the Greek language, the word for
apostle, “apostolos” [uh-POS-tuh-loss], means “sent
forth on an assignment or mission.” That pretty well sums
up our past twelve years!
By His grace we share
the Hebraic foundations. If you want to make them a way of life, you also need
our Lord’s grace. People can’t lean on other
believers for the power and the will to live out God’s
truth. Humans have no divine power to give outside that which
the Spirit bestows as gifting to edify the body.
If your background has included
considerable time in Nicolaitanism, you may be hindered in
learning to depend on Holy Spirit intervention that can then be
confirmed by two or three witnesses. All too often, you may
find that as soon you hear a truth, you turn to the messenger for
help rather than to the Source of grace, Jesus.
The two of us do give spiritual advice to
others from time to time. But, we’d much rather be asked
to confirm AFTER people have earnestly sought the Lord for
guidance.
Don’t turn to others too quickly for
counsel and advise. Time on your knees first will benefit and
strengthen you, and will reap the grace of God that accompanies
the guidance He gives. And be diligently in His Word with the
express purpose to seek application of it, for through it the Spirit may bring
steps of wisdom, comfort, or correction.
Our Father shared two other specific
commands to us as direction for our service to Him:
• Lead by example.
• Contend for My Son Jesus.
As we share this message, we don’t
lead by control or direction. Instead, we endeavor for a way of
life that results in testimonies to our Father’s glory.
We’re a grace-dependent couple!
After our Father told us to “Contend
for My Son Jesus,” we quickly became aware of how absent the Person of
Jesus is in the Nicolaitan system. His Name is mentioned
often, but little regard is given to a “set-apart”
life of holiness and the dependence on His Lordship that both
Testaments of His Word affirm.
You may have noticed when you buy a piece
of equipment that you’re given a list of things to check
before you contact the manufacturer for service. For instance,
if the item is powered by electricity, you’re advised to
make sure the equipment is plugged in.
For His people, the Bible is our
Maker’s instructions (and a whole lot more since it
reveals His character, ways and wonders!). But are you among
the many who find it more convenient to turn to people than to God
Who through prayer and His Spirit wants to make known His will
and the mind of Christ? We encourage you: plug into heaven first!
Use the questions below as a means of
determining where you are concerning grace. Which do you depend
on more: God’s grace or your own strength and reasoning?
• Write down your understanding of
grace.
Please examine your own life:
• Ask those who know you closely in
the faith to describe whether they see God’s grace at
work on your behalf. Write down what they share.
• Are you encouraged by what others
told you about the work of God’s grace in your life?
• From your own viewpoint, is your
life grace-based, bringing testimonies to our loving Father? Yes or
No? If no, why not, and what do you need to do to change?
• When you encounter problems of any
sort, do you stop to pray FIRST as James commands? Or, do you
immediately seek help from others?
• Are you free of unconfessed sin at
this moment? Yes or No? If no, why not?
• Describe how you seek God’s
guidance for situations and relationships in your life.
• Is that which you’ve written
above Scriptural? And, are you finding our Lord’s grace
and intervention at work in your life?
"For I know the plans I have for
you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and
not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek
me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:11-13)
Our Father knows we need His grace; do you?
