Rediscover the Gospel

In this message are described the oldest tricks used by the devil to deceive Christians into believing something that is not true or not believing what is true.

IntroductionThere was a king of the Moabites named Balak and the children of Israel had just defeated the Amorites and were on their way to Moab. And the Moabites were afraid. So, Balak, the king of Moab calls Balaam, a man who had contact with the spirit world, to curse Israel. But Balaam could not curse them even though he tried several times and from different places.Numbers 23:16–20 (NKJV)16Then the Lord met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Go back to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”17So he came to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?”18Then he took up his oracle and said: “Rise up, Balak, and hear! Listen to me, son of Zippor!19“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?20Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.What did God speak through the Balaam's mouth? That God is not like man to ever lie. Sometimes we humans lie, either on purpose to get out of a situation, or by mistake because we thought it was the truth. But God does not lie even by mistake. He doesn't say, “Hey, I've been here for so long that it slipped my mind when I said that.” Not so with God at all.A very polished way of preaching, but very subtle and false, is this: “No matter what happens, we know that God is faithful.” Please, allow me tell you what is encapsulated in this statement, something that is not explicitly said, but is implicitly intended: “Whether God will do what He has promised or not, He remains faithful.”All Christians claim that God is faithful until it comes down to something specific where they need proof that it works. As long as it is spoken in general, all agree that the Word of God is true. But when we need something specific from the Word to be fulfilled in our lives, we shy away with statements like: “Well, you can never really know anything for sure.” We say He is faithful because the Bible says so, and there is no way we can be born-again Christians unless we affirm it as the Bible does. But we find out if we really believe that He is faithful when we are faced with something that He has said and has not yet manifested in our lives.Outside the church, we know exactly what the words mean. But in the church of Christ, it's as if “the smoke and the glory of God overshadow us to such an extent” that words no longer mean anything. I hope you get the irony. For example, if someone outside the church takes a loan from the bank and, at some point, he stops paying the installments, he will be considered “unfaithful” by the bank, no matter how the economy and situations change. Why? Because that someone promised and signed a loan agreement with the bank that he would return the money regardless of changes in the country's economy and world's economy or in his financial situation.When it comes to God, we think completely differently without realizing it: “Well, God is God, even if He doesn't do exactly what He said, He is still faithful. He doesn't have to do everything he said, but He's still faithful.” And so, we shroud everything in a cloud of ungodly mystery and ambiguity, even demonic I might say. And we bring into the scheme all the pompous theological words to gain more credibility in our unbiblical claims, such as: “Well, God in His sovereignty may have decided to do something different in a certain situation than what He said in the Word.” And then the common people will tend to say: “I don't really understand anything this man wants to say, but he certainly knows more than I do because he went to the seminary. So, I'll believe what he says. ” The Definition of Faithfulness“God is always faithful” means that He will always do what He said He would do and He has already done what He said He would do.A simple definition of faithfulness would be this: “When you speak and promise something, you also do it.” God is always true to His Word. Faithfulness is not something like: you say one thing, and then if another idea comes to you, you do something else and still remain faithful. No, that's a lie. Verse 20 of the passage above says that once God has blessed something or someone, that blessing cannot be reversed. The blessing is irreversible. God's Faithfulness in SalvationGod said in Psalms 103:2-3,Psalm 103:2–3 (NKJV)2Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:3Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases.Did God say that? Will He do that? Yes, of course.Has He forgiven all our sins even if we have done some very bad things or are still doing them? Yeah, sure. He has forgiven all our past, present, and future sins. How do we know this? Because He said so. Did He heal all our physical ailments? Yes, of course. How do we know this? Because He just said so in the passage above. But many Christians hold back when it comes to healing.As long as you don't have to see something tangible (like for example in the area of ​​forgiveness of sins), God is faithful. But when it comes to something visible (like physical healing), He is no longer faithful. We take no chances, because if nothing happens, then all eyes are on us. We are afraid.If someone receives Jesus in his heart, we lead him in the prayer of repentance. And if after a week that person comes and tells us: “I don't know what's happening to me, but I feel like I'm no longer saved” we probably ask him: “Well, why do you feel that way?” To which the person responds, “I just don't feel like God has forgiven me.” What do we usually respond as Christians at that time? “Well, I don't know what to say, maybe He hasn't forgiven you, who knows?” NO, not at all. But we will tell him: “You don't have to live by feelings. The Bible says in Romans 10:9-10 that if we make Him Lord, we will be saved. We live by faith and not by sight or feeling. We all have these feelings from time to time, but you don't have to dwell on them. These feelings must be ignored.”But what do we do when we get to financial blessing or healing, and we don't feel healed? Instead of saying: “I don't go by what I feel, but by what the Word of God says” – we say something like: “I trust God. He knows better what is good for me.” Now we are saying something different from what God said.In Luke 5:17-26, we see Jesus again as in Psalms 103:2-3, putting the forgiveness of sins on a par with physical healing:Luke 5:17–26 (NKJV)17Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.18Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him.19And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.20When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”21And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”22But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts?23Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, ‘Rise up and walk'?24But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”25Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.26And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!”Basically, what Jesus is saying here is that neither forgiving sins nor healing someone is an easy thing. Both are very hard to do. But in order to demonstrate that He has the power and authority to forgive sins (a thing that could not be tangibly proven in itself), Jesus heals the sick man (a tangible thing). In this way, Jesus shows that just as God's will for people is to forgive their sins and for this, He was going to give His life on the cross, in the same way, His will is to heal them physically. Therefore, physical healing was also included in the sacrifice on the cross along with the forgiveness of sins. Like ChildrenJesus says in Matthew 18:3 that unless we become like little children, we will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. What is the characteristic of the children that Jesus is talking about here? A child's blind faith in what his father tells him even if he doesn't see something right away. When a father promises his children that they will go to theme park or the circus, those children are already happy, as if they are going at that moment, just because the father promised them. But if that father is a bad father, he could tell them: “Oh no, we don't go to any parks anymore. I tricked you. I just told you that as a joke to see how you react.”God is not like that at all. He never says, “Oh, did I say in My Word that I healed you? No, it's not like that. Do you really take the Bible seriously?” I know, it may seem funny. But this is exactly how we think about God and relate to Him. God Is Sovereign All the TimeWe often hear the phrase: “God is in control. He is sovereign. God, in His infinite wisdom and sovereignty, knows that in this particular situation, something else would be better.” How many of us know that God was sovereign and had all knowledge when He made the promises as well? God has not gained new information from the time He gave us a promise to the time we need that promise.God didn't say something, and then later said, “Oh, I probably shouldn't have said what I said in such a libertine way. It will go to people's heads.” God knew all of us when He made the promises. Objections and Personal Negative Experiences“But what about that? With that man's situation? I have an aunt or an uncle who has not been healed or died, etc.” We all have or have been through similar situations. But the Bible tells us to walk by faith and not by sight.James 1:5–8 (NKJV)5If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives (only to some??) to all liberally and without reproach (you don't have to feel bad that He gave it to you), and it (might be given if it's God's will and if He is in a good mood??) will be given to him.6But let him ask in faith, with no doubting (don't even consider that it might not happen), for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.7For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.Notice how extreme and extravagant God is: He gives to all, generously, without rebuke or blackmail. He is absolute, clear, and pragmatic. And, in this passage, it is not only about wisdom, but about everything we ask from God. In verses 7 and 8, James makes the transition from one specific thing (wisdom) to all things in general, using terms like “anything” and “unstable in all his ways.”Then let's observe the apparent redundancy: “to ask in faith, without doubting.” There are two ways of thinking that always come into conflict. Let's say that someone is sick and has in his family an aunt Marta (fictitious name) who is also sick and has not been healed even though she prayed. And he also has an uncle John (also a fictitious name), who died even though he believed in healing. When that person wants to pray for healing, there will be two thoughts in his mind. “Lord, You said that by Your stripes I am healed and I believe (thinking number 1, full of faith), but aunt Marta was not healed, and uncle John died even if he believed (thinking number 2, with doubt).” That is why James says through the Holy Spirit to ask in faith, without doubting.Is it easy not to doubt? The concept is simple, but not easy. When pressure comes into our lives, it is also when our very loyal logic and past negative experiences (both our own and others') present themselves to our minds. But, we will never gain anything by not believing God.Another important thing worth mentioning here is that first comes the temptation to doubt and then the actual doubt. Being tempted to doubt does not mean that we have already doubted. But only if we begin to speak and act on that temptation to doubt, that's when we have committed the sin of doubt. The temptation to doubt, which can come at any time and to anyone, should not be confused with doubt itself.There is another type of prayer among Christians when they pray for others, a type of prayer through which man never makes a mistake, only God does: “Whatever is Your will, Lord, with this situation, Your will be done.” And whether the man is healed or not, or whether he dies or not, that prayer will always be fulfilled. It is a very prudent and safe prayer for man, but not for God. Or we pray in the following way: “Lord, You see that this person is struggling financially, and You know better why that is. Therefore, we now pray that Your will be done.”Jesus never prayed like this for people to get something from God. Have you noticed this? Yes, perhaps when we do not know God's will regarding a future situation or an important decision, we can pray this way, but not when we have His will regarding that situation revealed in Scripture. But do you know why we pray like that? Because we want to stay in the boat (like the other disciples) and walk on the water (like Peter did) at the same time. And this is not possible. Jesus didn't tell Peter to come to Him on the water, then 5 minutes later, in His sovereignty, changed His mind and let Peter sink, so that it wouldn't go up to his head and consider himself better than the other disciples. Peter began to sink because of his doubt. He began to walk on the waters in faith, but along the way he let doubt enter, because he had probably never heard of any other man ever walking on the waters. And when he also saw the waves around him, he completely succumbed to doubt. But, the Word that Jesus gave him, would have supported him to walk on the waters all the way to Jesus. How Do I Build My FaithRomans 10:17 (NKJV)17So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.Faith does not come by hearing or meditating on cases of people who have not been delivered, healed, or helped. We cannot allow ourselves to ask ourselves all kinds of questions like: “I wonder what happened in that situation and what was the reason why the person in question did not heal.”We also cannot command ourselves or force ourselves to have faith when faced with need and pressure. Faith is built before we face the need by regular meditation on the Word. Living by faith must be a lifestyle. You just expose yourself to the Word, and faith comes. At some point, in your mind and emotions, the Holy Spirit makes a “click” and your conviction becomes unshakable. We must acquire a tunnel-like mindset that only looks ahead at the light at the end of the tunnel (that is, what the Word says) and pays no attention to what it sees or feels around it.In Numbers 21:6-9 we read:Numbers 21:6–9 (NKJV)6So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.7Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.8Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.”9So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.I don't think it was that easy for the Israelites to look at the bronze serpent. Because while they had to look at that snake that Moses made, poisonous snakes were still crawling among them, coiling around them and maybe even biting them. However, God assured them that they would not die, but live, if they continued to look intently at that snake raised by Moses and not at what was happening around them. The Language Locates UsPsalm 91:1–2 (NKJV)1He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.2I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”Let's notice that in verse 2, the one who says about the Lord “He is my refuge” does not do it in the church, but in his personal life when he is faced with a problem. This is not about what we say or sing in a church service. It is only when we step outside the church that we realize what we really believe. We sometimes hear some Christians speaking in their daily life: “Wow, this and that happened to me and I'm done.” And if we try to say something from the Word, we receive the following reply: “Yes, let's see how it will be when you end up like me and go through the same situation.” This may or may not be true.No matter how much we think about ourselves as being spiritually mature, and knowing a lot, and having had a lot of revelations, or going to seminary, our everyday language locates us exactly where we are in our spiritual growth.Psalm 91:7 (NKJV)7A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.The psalmist is not speaking here of people outside the church, but of people in the same church perhaps, our brothers and sisters (on our left and right), next to us, for whom the Word did not work. Maybe they got sick or died. And you remain firm in your faith and say: “it will not come near me.” The Truth Is Not With the MajorityNumbers 13:1–2 (NKJV)1And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,2“Send men to spy out the land of Canaan (to see if they can take the land, or if I am going to give it to them, or if they like it and if you still want Me to give it to you???), which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”Notice that these spies were not ordinary people, but leaders. And God was saying one thing, and most of these spies were saying a totally different thing.Numbers 14:2–9 (NKJV)2And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!3Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” (It was better when we were not saved and didn't know anything about this churchy stuff about faith)4So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.”5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.6But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; (only 2 men of all those 12 spies were different, meaning aprox. 16%)7and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. (not just good)8If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.'9Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”God is not at all blessed to send Jesus to pay all this huge price and make all kinds of promises to us, and then having us not going and taking what has already been given to us. It does not bless God at all.When the spies came back, the people said: “Most of the spies, our leaders, said that we cannot take the land. Since 10 out of 12 said it, it must be true. They know what they are talking about, because they are also leaders. Even though we've come all this long way out of Egypt and even though God said what He said. ”If you assume the majority is right, you will almost always be wrong. Out of about 1.6 million Israelites only 2 entered the promised land, that is 0.000125%.When Jesus came to earth and preached the gospel to the people and to the Pharisees and Sadducees, did most of the people believe what He was teaching? NO. But who was right? They or Him? If you believed Jesus, you received life, and if you believed them, you received death.If we take a look at religious systems (and I mean even born-again Christians), many people in the body of Christ have education, but no revelation from the Word of God. Only someone with revelation will say, “What God said in His Word, He wants us to have. It belongs to us.”Numbers 14:9 (NKJV)9Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”The two faith-filled spies did not see with their natural eyes that their protection was taken from the Canaanites, but by revelation and by faith.God waited for that whole generation to die in the wilderness. The people of Israel did not believe and because of this God turned them back into the wilderness towards the Red Sea and they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years until they died. The church is the same way today for the most part. But God us bringing the church again in these times close to Canaan and encourages us to enter the promised land. But will you enter, or will you decide to stay with the majority?Let's also think about the pressure on the next generation of Israel. Little John has grown up and is now an adult. And he remembers how his grandfather told him about the promised land that they would enter, but his grandfather died and he was unable to enter. “Why would I succeed?” is John wondering. Father and mother also died. Aunt Martha died. When we let doubts enter our minds, suddenly evidence is created to support our doubts. If that generation had looked at who didn't get in, they wouldn't have gotten in either. Faithfulness and Speech2 Corinthians 1:18–20 (NKJV)18But as God is faithful (or according to how faithful God is or the same way God is faithful), our word to you was not Yes and No.19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes.20For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.God's faithfulness is closely related to His Word. He is faithful to His given Word. God doesn't say, “Yeah, I said that, but I've learned a lot since then and I know all about you.” Little by LittleIn Exodus 23:30, God told Moses that He would give him the land not all at once, but LITTLE BY LITTLE:Exodus 23:29–30 (NKJV)29I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.30Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.If we expect God to do everything for us in our way and we just enter the “land” without any opposition or fight of faith, we are mistaken. Little by little we enter into the great inheritance of salvation. Mind renewal doesn't happen overnight.

THE BELIEVER'S SPIRITUAL AUTHORITYThe Three RealmsThere are 3 realms in which believers are involved: The physical, visible, and earthly realm (or the first heaven) – world governments, political structures, all systems and cultures belong to this realm. The spiritual, invisible, and demonic realm (or the second heaven) – here we have demonic spiritual authorities that are behind the authority structures, cultures and systems of the earth. They have authority over and influence the physical realm. This does not mean that we have to become super aware of the devil and believe that there is a demon under every rock. The spiritual, invisible, and godly realm (or the third heaven) – here is the throne of God along with all the angels and the angelic hierarchy structures.  The Right Approach to Spiritual WarfareWhen talking about spiritual warfare and spiritual authority, many Christians say that we need to know the spiritual principalities we are dealing with and the ranks in the demonic world (demons of lesser power and authority, demons of greater authority, etc.). They say you must know your enemy well before engaging in spiritual warfare. And we all probably have examples of people making strange intercessions for cities involving all kinds of material symbols. These people start their teaching from the premise of “knowing your adversary” and focus heavily on the demonic world. But this is the wrong approach for born-again Christians. Yes, you should know your enemy, but before that, you need to know 3 things: Who you really are in Christ To Whom you belong What you possess or what you have The true spiritual battle of the believer is fought between the two ears (that is, in the mind), not directly with demonic spiritual forces. Yes, you must know your opponent, but only in relation to those 3 things you must know and assimilate as your normal reality deep in your heart. Any teaching about authority and spiritual warfare must begin with these 3 concepts and their assimilation at the level of the subconscious mind. Let's read Ephesians 6:12:Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV)12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.Here the apostle Paul speaks in detail about the demonic principalities and hierarchies. But let us notice in which chapter of the book of Ephesians this verse is found. It's in chapter 6 of the book which is the last chapter of Ephesians. In verse 10 of the same chapter, Paul uses the expression: “Finally, brothers…” or “Furthermore, brothers…” or “Finally, brothers… ” This is not the first thing Paul teaches the Ephesians about spiritual warfare. Let's also read Ephesians 1:19-23 to see where Paul begins his discussion of authority and spiritual warfare:Ephesians 1:19–23 (NKJV)19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.As you see, Paul begins in Ephesians chapter 1 by talking about the boundless greatness of God's power that raised Christ and placed Him at the right hand of God's power, giving him a rank of authority far above any other spiritual authority in the heavenly places. Paul then continues the discussion of spiritual warfare in Ephesians chapter 2, stating that ALL that Christ has (that is, his sphere of authority) we believers also have:Ephesians 2:6 (NKJV)6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.Another extraordinary thing we can see in Ephesians 1:22 is that ALL things are under the feet of Christ FOR THE CHURCH. Christ is made up of Jesus (the Head) and the Church (His body). It is an indestructible and indivisible unitary whole. Ephesians 5:30 tells us that we are bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh. If all things are under the feet of Christ, and the Church is His body, what does this mean for us believers? It means that all things are also under our feet.So, Paul begins in Ephesians chapters 1 and 2 to describe the authority and power of Christ and us, the Church, and then in chapter 3 verse 10, he describes the purpose of this conferment of authority, that of ruling over the second realm:Ephesians 3:10 (NKJV)10 to the intent that NOW the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places (meaning from the second realm).Likewise, 1 John 3:8 describes the purpose of Christ's manifestation in us, that of destroying the works of the evil one:1 John 3:8 (NKJV)8 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.Only at the end of the book of Ephesians does Paul introduce the believers to the subject of spiritual warfare. So, what we need to know is: who we are, who we belong to, and what we have. Only when you know these things and live permanently with this awareness (when you don't struggle to convince yourself) can you start talking about spiritual warfare. What Are the Heavenly Places?What are these heavenly places in terms of location? Notice that it is not the heavenly place (or God's heaven), but the heavenly places. We have already seen in Ephesians 6:12 that demonic spirits are also in heavenly places. But now these spirits along with the devil were cast down to earth (Ezekiel 28:17; Isaiah 14:2; Luke 10:18). If the devil is also on earth and in the heavenly places and in the second invisible realm, this means that the earth together with the second invisible realm are part of the heavenly places. Then in Ephesians 2:6 we see that we also have the same rank of authority as Christ in the heavenly places now, but we are located on earth and not with the throne of God in the third realm. This is further evidence that the earth is part of the heavenly places. But according to Ephesians 1:20, it seems that God's heaven or the third spiritual realm is also in the heavenly places.In Isaiah 66:1 and Acts 7:49, we see that heaven (or the third heaven) is God's throne, and the earth is His footstool, which is another indication that the third heaven and the earth are somehow together:Isaiah 66:1 (NKJV)1 Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?Putting Ephesians 1:19-23, 2:6, and 6:12 together, we can conclude that the heavenly places include all 3 realms. The heavenly places represent all that is around us visible and invisible. And in that common space or dimension, everything is under our feet (under our command) in Christ. In terms of authority and rank, God's heaven is the highest, followed by the demonic realm, and then the earthly realm. For example, in the building of a business company (which would represent the heavenly places), the CEO of the company and the cleaning person may be geographically located in the same building. But their ranks of authority differ significantly. All these 3 realms are interconnected. They intertwine and occupy the same space. When Ephesians 1:21 says “far above,” it is not referring to the physical location of God's heaven (the third heaven), but to the level of authority. Symptoms, Sources, and SolutionsNow, if we look at the physical realm, we see many problems and works of darkness: disease, violence, wars, abortions, rapes, organ trafficking, drug trafficking, and all kinds of evil. But these are just some symptoms. The root of these problems lies in the second realm. And only the third realm has the permanent solution to these problems. So, what we have here is a first realm with symptomatic problems whose source is in the second realm and whose solution comes from the third realm.You can't treat a first-realm problem with a first-realm solution. This is how medicine works for example. If you have cancer and you try to treat it with medicine, that's ok, but it's a first-realm remedy. And behind that cancer may be a spirit of infirmity or death. We are not against doctors because they are after the same thing (health and healing), but they are limited in their ability to help. They try to treat the symptoms, which may return. If you learn to operate from the third realm and demolish the problem from the second realm, then the symptoms from the first realm disappear. Jesus' Exaltation as a Human BeingLet's go further. All the demonic principalities, authorities, powers, and dominions in the second realm were created by God originally, and all these ranks of authority are a good thing. Likewise, they exist in the angelic world. Colossians 1:15-18 says this:Colossians 1:15–18 (NKJV)15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.16 For by Him (Jesus or the Word) all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible (the first realm and the other two realms), whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.The difference between these authorities or power structures in the second realm and the third realm is that those in the second realm live in rebellion (Ephesians 6:12). There are principalities, authorities, principalities, and powers in the third realm as well. But all were created BY HIM and are UNDER HIM and FOR HIM. And He is the Head of the Church. Wherever my head is, there is my body as well, right? We don't have our head in America and our body in Europe. If He, Jesus, has the greatest sphere of authority, and He is the Head, and we are the body, it means that we also have the same sphere of authority. In terms of sphere and rank of authority, we are together in the same place with Him. Let's read Philippians 2:6-11:Philippians 2:6–11 (NKJV)6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.When Philippians 2:9 says that God exalted Jesus because of His humility and suffering, God did not exalt Him as God, because Jesus was already exalted as God. But He exalted Him and lifted Him as a man. God cannot be exalted any higher than He already is. Jesus became not only our substitute, but also our representative as humanity. What is the difference? Everything He did as a man, He did not only FOR us and in our place, but also AS us, that is, representative of the human race.Jesus is one of us. He is of our human race. For example, when you are abroad and you come across someone from your own people and country, aren't you happy? Why? Because you speak the same language, you feel comfortable that he understands you, and he is of the same culture and personality as you. Jesus is the first man (one of us) Who was brought into union with God. We are used to seeing Jesus as God, but He is first and foremost a human being like us. We need to discipline our minds to see Jesus as a human being, because then our whole life will be revolutionized. It is not for nothing that Jesus was called “Son of Man” in addition to being called Son of God. Jesus was a son of the human race.God has exalted THE NAME OF A HUMAN BEING above all other names. The authority of the name Jesus makes every knee bow in reverence. All beings in all three realms will one day bow before Him. Jesus did not exist before the incarnation. From the beginning and throughout the Old Testament the Trinity was composed of the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit (John 1:1-4,14; 1 John 5:7).John 1:1–4, 14 (NKJV)1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.2 He was in the beginning with God.3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.…14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.1 John 5:7 (NKJV)7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.All that God has done for Jesus and bestowed upon Him reveals His heart for humanity. Romans 8:17 says that we have become heirs of God Himself and joint heirs with Jesus. All heaven and universe know the Name of the human being Jesus.Hebrews 2:5–11 (NKJV)5 For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels.6 But one testified in a certain place, saying: “What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You take care of him?7 You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of Your hands.8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. (after the fall)9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory (it doesn't refer to the future glory), to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.You don't have to worry that it's disrespectful or that you're messing with Jesus if you call Him your big brother. He first called us His brothers and sisters. God created Adam to rule over and subdue the physical realm. He put all things under his feet, but he fell. So, he who was to subdue all physical things was himself subjected. Jesus is a man and will be a man for eternity. He kept his physical body of glory. He is not only a spirit now as God. Jesus has the highest seat of authority as a man over all 3 realms: physical, demonic, and heavenly.There is nothing extraordinary about God having authority over the 3 realms because He is God. BUT for a man (one of ours) to have this authority is something else entirely. Matthew 28:18-20 says this:Matthew 28:18–20 (NKJV)18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.Jesus has all authority not only on earth but also in heaven. And this authority HAS BEEN GIVEN UNTO HIM, CONFERRED TO HIM. But no one gives authority to God, if the passage refers to Jesus as God, otherwise there would have to be someone greater than God to give authority to Jesus as God. This authority was given to Him as MAN. You and I have been exalted to an authority far above that which Adam had before the fall. Adam did not have God's eternal life (gr. zoe). That life was in the tree of life, but we now have it in our born-again spirit. This eternal life is not just endless existence after physical death. It includes endless existence, but that is the secondary part. Eternal life is primarily the life and nature of God Himself from the realm of eternity manifested in our spirit here on earth.In the Old Testament, the hierarchy of authority was God, the devil, and then men. In the New Testament, it is God, Jesus and the Church (together they form the Christ), the devil and then the rest of other people. Job, David, Abraham, Elijah, and Isaiah were all under the authority of the devil.What does it mean to live or pray in the Name of Jesus? It's not a magic formula. It means that everything you are, do, and speak is in the Name of Jesus. You function and live in His name. You can heal or deliver without necessarily mentioning the Name of Jesus if when you do it you are aware in your mind that you are doing it in His Name. It is not your words that release the power, but the mental awareness you have. In fact, someone said that when demons hear repeated too many times the expression “in the name of Jesus” or when someone tries to find the exact formula, to say all the right words to cover everything, then they realize that you don't really know who you are or you're not quite sure who you are. For example, when Moses was at the burning bush and God told him to throw down the rod, it turned into a snake without God specifically commanding the rod: “Rod, I command you to become a snake.” The rod turned into a snake only by the mental intention of God, because He is God after all. In Mark 11, when Jesus got hungry and came looking for something to eat from a fig tree, the Bible says that He found nothing but leaves because it was not the season for figs. Then Jesus ANSWERED something to the fig tree and cursed it. This means that the fig tree spoke something to Jesus before Jesus answered. Why was Jesus angry with the fig tree since it was not the figs season? Because Jesus had intended in His mind to find fruit in it even though it was not the figs season. From afar, by His intention and expectation, Jesus commanded the fig tree to produce instant figs. But the fig tree, stubbornly, “told” Him that it was not going to give Him any figs because it was not their time. This is how the things in our life speak to us. They are speaking to us from a human perspective, a normal one for the common man. But Jesus had authority over the fig tree at all times. Therefore, He answered it angrily and cursed it.Let's take the illustration of a power of attorney. When someone gives you a power of attorney to make decisions on that person's behalf about some accounts and represent them at the bank, no one is analyzing you to see what kind of person you are and whether you have the right attitude and appearance to make those decisions. The bank will only look at the power of attorney to see if it's good and valid. It doesn't matter who you are as a person. In the same way, Jesus gave us His name as a power of attorney. He sent us in His Name to make decisions and deliver people from the works of darkness. “Therefore go!” We have the mission to go from the perspective of the authority that Jesus, as a man, and us have. Paul says that we will judge the angels. Now we know why angels are ministering spirits to us (Hebrews 1:14). They are at your service and mine. Now we can understand a little why they long to look into the gospel and understand why we have such authority. What exactly have we inherited to have such authority, when the devil desired such a thing and didn't get, but that very authority God willingly gave to man? This is exactly what bothers the devil enormously and burns him to his core.Hebrews 1:14 (NKJV)14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? Demons Are Under Our AuthorityThe Greek word for AUTHORITY is exousia. John 1:12-13 says that God has also given us the AUTHORITY to become sons and daughters of God:John 1:12–13 (KJV 1900)12 But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.In most English translations, the term “children” of God is used instead of “sons” of God, which is neither the most correct nor preferable translation, because the word “children” makes us think of helpless babies who are always in need of God, the Father, doing everything for them. And this is not the reality of what this verse wants to convey. The more correct term that is also used by the KJV translation is “sons,” since the Greek word used here for sons/children is teknon, which means born of God and having the same nature as Him. The other Greek terms for babies would be brephos or nepios.We are the LEGAL heirs of God Himself and of all that He has. Because of this, we have AUTHORITY. If we do not understand that we are born of the Word (1 Peter 1:23) EXACTLY like Jesus, we cannot even begin the spiritual warfare or any deliverance. We see before the resurrection how Jesus gave the disciples authority to do something. Let's see together what they could do with that authority they had, not because they were born of God (as we are), but because Jesus conferred temporarily His authority to these men:Matthew 10:1 (NKJV)1 And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal ALL KINDS of sickness and ALL KINDS of disease.Look what they could do with this authority that was only temporarily vested in them: cast out every unclean spirit and heal ANY disease and ANY disability or infirmity. How can sickness ever come near you, you who have the ultimate AUTHORITY as a son or daughter of God? You have the authority of the authorities:Luke 10:19 (NKJV)19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.Snakes and scorpions hide, they stay out of sight. Behind every problem in the material world, there is a demonic spiritual force lurking, and we with God-given authority can step over these lurking forces as well. Notice one more thing. The authority Jesus gave the disciples was over ALL the power of the enemy. This means that the devil along with all his demons were under the command of the disciples and implicitly ours. We in Christ have AUTHORITY over ALL THE POWER of the enemy. The power of the enemy is at our command, under our authority. What exactly does this mean? Let me give you an example. In a war maybe some soldiers don't want to go to battle. But because they are under the authority of the president of that country, they have no choice and must obey. Or, for example, a huge bulldozer represents massive raw power that can easily destroy cement walls. But if a policeman waves the bulldozer driver to stop, he must obey. In other words, this machine that has such great power stops before the authority above it. Power (gr. dunamis) is under the command of authority (gr. exousia). Believers in Christ have received both the supreme authority as sons of God and the supreme power (the fullness of the Holy Spirit). Being Under Authority Confers AuthorityMatthew 8:5–13 (NKJV)5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him,6 saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.”7 And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”8 The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,' and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,' and he does it.”10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.The great faith of the Roman centurion is only the result of a great revelation. And what is the great revelation this centurion had? The revelation of authority. His faith was the result of his revelation of authority.Look at what the centurion says: “Say JUST ONE WORD. You must not move a muscle and my servant WILL be healed, not MAY be healed.” This centurion was a Gentile, and Jesus was impressed by his level of faith, which was nothing more than a consciousness of authority. And the centurion explains his revelation. He says, “For I am a man UNDER authority.” He was under the authority of Caesar who was in Rome, and the centurion lived in Capernaum. He was a centurion which meant he had a hundred men under him. But he was under Caesar's authority as well. What gave him authority over the hundred soldiers was the greater authority under which he himself was. For you to have authority, you in turn must be under an authority or put yourself under an authority, that is, the authority of Christ. Your authority has power and value only if you are under a greater authority. Those under your authority fear the authority above you. In other words, the centurion recognized and admitted that Jesus was operating under the authority of God Himself. And his servant was healed at that time.In the spiritual world, there is no distance or space. A demon from the other end of the earth will hear a word of command from you. Many times we hear of some great man of God and we want him so much to come into our house and lay his hands on some sick person to be healed. We want that man to be close in the geographical proximity of our problem that needs solving, such as a physical illness. And we even say in our thoughts: “If only this man would come to my house, everything would be solved.” But this is not great faith. It's not geographic proximity that makes things work.Then we see another interesting thing. When Jesus gave the command to heal the centurion's servant, He did not use an exact formula or an elaborate command. He didn't foam at the mouth, get agitated, or repeat himself. He just simply said: “Go and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” How much we have to learn from Jesus! You can even come close to someone who is sick and if your intention is to heal him, you can just lay your hand on him without saying anything and he should be healed. That's what Jesus did as well:Luke 4:40 (NKJV)40 When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them.Matthew 8:16 (NKJV)16 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick. The Importance of the Seat of Power and JurisdictionLuke 10:1 (NKJV)1 After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.Christ's authority has been transferred to us and He has sent us as disciples to DECLARE things in His place and to COMMAND things in His place. In the New Testament, God does not move mountains for us. Nowhere in the New Testament are we told that God moves them. But WE MOVE THEM using the authority conferred. The way to pray has changed in the New Testament.There are two things to understand about authority (exousia): The source of power or the seat of power Jurisdiction of authority – the sphere of influence or over whom you can exercise your authority. A security guard cannot stop your car on the street and check the car's documents because he has no jurisdiction over road traffic. Only the traffic police has jurisdiction there. When you try to use your authority, you may encounter resistance at times, so you also need strength to crush the enemy's power. And we have both. And our authority in Christ has jurisdiction over all heavenly places and over all realms.When the disciples were sent out to preach and heal people, Jesus was somewhere else and perhaps sleeping. But wherever the disciples were, alone and without Jesus Himself, the authority conferred on them still worked. The disciples probably began to think that it had something to do with them, but it was only the authority conferred. And when they returned enthusiastically, Jesus said to them: “Rejoice not that the demons obey you, but that your names are written in heaven, that is, you have the same authority as I do in the heavenly places.” Our minds must be focused on this authority.What is the source of our power or the seat of power? God the Father through the Holy Spirit. What is the source of our authority? Jesus Christ. What is the jurisdiction of our authority? All heavenly places.

IntroductionToday, I would like to talk about a very exciting topic and of much interest among Christians and that is, how to hear God's voice. In spite of an abundance of Christian materials and sermons available today, many believers still struggle to hear God's voice and have a genuine desire to know how God speaks to His people in the New Testament. In our discussion today, I will try to provide answers to 5 questions: „Why Do We Need to Hear God? Does God speak today to all born-again believers or only to certain people who are more holy or chosen by Him? How does God speak? How can we discern God's voice from all the other voices and What can we do to learn faster to hear God's voice?” Why Do We Need to Hear God?Some believers may wonder why they should ever hear God's voice in their lives. How would it help them? Is hearing God's voice something of vital importance that deserves our attention, time, and effort, or is it just a good skill to have in any event? Well, there are many great benefits to hearing God's voice. First, it will protect you from many harmful decisions, situations, people, or things that might try to come into your life. Second, it will help you see many opportunities and open doors for you to be blessed and be a blessing for other people. Third, it will direct your steps to your destiny and calling on this earth, so that you will fulfill as much as possible of what God has planned for you and your life. Fourth, it will encourage you and strengthen you in your spirit and your faith in those moments when you will feel weak or discouraged. Hearing God is vital to a life of continuous glory, victory, success, peace, joy, health, well-being, and prosperity here on earth. To Whom Does God Speak?In the New Testament, God wants to speak and speaks to all born-again believers. This is different from the Old Testament, where God spoke only to certain people chosen by Him. You may ask, Why is that? Things are this way because in the Old Testament all people were under the authority of darkness. Jesus had not died yet on the cross and the Holy Spirit was not yet dwelling in human beings in a permanent way. The Holy Spirit was given from time to time to certain people for specific and temporary tasks and in partial measures. In other words, the Holy Spirit would come and go. However, in the New Testament, the Spirit of God has been sent on the inside of believers to be in them and with them forever. We see this in John 14:16-17 and 1 Corinthians 6:19: John 14:16–17 (NKJV)16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.1 Corinthians 6:19 (NKJV)19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?God always speaks to all believers in Christ and that is something normal. That should be a daily normality for Christians and not something abnormal happening from time to time in some very special anointed moments. Every believer in Christ has the ability to hear God. God wants to speak to us much more than we are ready to hear Him. In fact, He speaks much more than we hear. Look at what John 10:27, John 14:26, John 16:13 tell us about hearing God's voice:John 10:27 (NKJV)27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.John 14:26 (NKJV)26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.John 16:13 (NKJV)13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.Christ's sheep hear and recognize His voice. The Holy Spirit in us will teach us all things, guide us in all truth, and announce to us certain things from the future. These are not all stipulated in the Bible, but the Holy Spirit will speak them directly to us.Moving forward, another important thing is that it's not enough to know God speaks and that it is normal for believers to hear Him. We must also search to hear His voice, be preoccupied for it, and we must tune our minds to the right spiritual frequency, the same way we search for a radio channel until we find the right frequency. As long as you can live without hearing God's voice, you will continue to do so. But it will not be to your advantage. In Jeremiah 29:11-13, God speaks to His people through the prophet Jeremiah the following:Jeremiah 29:11–13 (NKJV)11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.We need to take time to quiet our minds and reduce the volume of all the other voices to a minimum so that we can hear that still small voice of Him. We need to disconnect frequently from the daily noise and meditate on who we are in Christ, where we are going, what we are doing, how we are doing things and why we are doing them and so on. We need to make a habit of meditating on God's Word. I was once test-driving a new car and, while we were driving, I could hear the noise of the wind quite loud from outside,  even with the windows closed. And that was one of the things that I was looking for in the next new car: to hear as less noise as possible from outside. I asked the lady who was doing the test-drive with us why we could hear the noise from outside, since this was a new car. She replied with a very serious face, “Well, you know, if you turn on the music louder, you will not hear any wind noise from outside.” I couldn't tell if she was joking or being serious when she said that. I didn't even know how to react to such reply. The point is that, as long we have other louder voices in our lives, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to hear God's voice. And in our day and age, the voices have multiplied exponentially: the internet and social media, smart phones, digital media entertainment, and all kinds of gadgets. And as believers, we now have to be even more intentional in hearing God's voice than ever before, if we really want to hear Him. And withdrawing from the daily activities should not be very difficult or complicated. I am not talking here about something super spiritual, where you take some special longer time aside in silence and away of everyone, although such times are recommended when it's possible. But most of us have a lot of activities and work and we have to somehow integrate this habit into our daily routine, so that it flows naturally. It doesn't always have to be a special time, but in your mind you need to be sensitive, you need to take a step back often and think about things, situations, analyze, hear a sermon, ask yourself questions, meditate on the Word, things like that. And this can be done very naturally when you drive a car, when you are in public transportation, when you have a break from work, when you prepare food, etc. How Does God Speak?The first way God speaks to His sons and daughters is through His Word or the Word of Christ. Through the Word of GodWe cannot expect to hear God's voice so much in specific ways until we know very well what He has already spoken in His Word. We need to spend time in His Word. When I talk about the Word of Christ, I am not referring to refreshing our minds with what God expects from us morally speaking, but to learning from the Word who we are in Christ, what is our identity as a new creation, what inheritance we have received, what are our rights and responsibilities in the spiritual realm, how the spiritual world and spiritual laws work, what is the heart of God, His ways of doing things, His nature, His character, His perspectives on things, and His values. Being continuously in the Word is not hard. We just need to form a consistent habit of reading the Word personally, of listening to Bible teaching and sermons, and of memorizing verses that apply to the new creation.The more Word we have in us, the more we will become one in thought and heart with God. We will know what to do in many situations even without receiving a special word from God. For instance, many times I can take a decision for our family even without my wife being present there, and I know for sure whether she will agree with my decision or not, because I know her very well. We spend much time together. And the same goes for her and for many of you.The Word will also act as a control point for all the other voices we hear. Sometimes we might think we heard something from God that contradicts what He already said clearly in His Word. For example, God will never tell you that you can divorce your wife and go with someone else. Other times, we wait to hear for an answer from God concerning a situation about which He already told us in His Word that we already have the answer, like lack of peace, sickness, financial lack, and so on. In all these situations, we have a knowledge problem. 2 Peter 1:2-3 says this:2 Peter 1:2–3 (NKJV)2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,Many people pray for peace in their families, peace concerning their finances, for their health, and their future, but don't have the necessary and adequate knowledge of God that will give them the peace they are looking for without waiting to receive from God. Peace will not come over you all of a sudden like a supernatural blanket, but it comes through the knowledge of Him. If you have a peace problem in your life, it's because you have a knowledge problem. The same is true if you have a sickness or a financial problem. Hosea 4:6 says that God's people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge, and not lack of power or of prayer.Romans 8:6 (NKJV)6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.Carnal thinking doesn't refer only to sinful things, but to the wordly way of thinking in all things pertaining to life. To be spiritually minded means to think according to the Word and its principles in all your decisions and your approach to life. Spiritual mindedness gives you life and peace. This is what the Word of God says. Through the Inner Voice of the MindWhen God's people transitioned from the Old Testament to the New Testament, some significant changes took place in the relationship between God and human beings. Almost everything pertaining to Christian life has changed in some way: fasting and prayer, worship, prophetic, authority, the way God relates to people, etc. Unfortunately, many believers still live in the Old Testament and read the Old Testament thinking into the New Testament. The way God speaks specifically to His people is another one of those areas that has changed significantly in the New Testament.In the Old Testament, God spoke to His people most times (if not all the time) through an audible voice and from the outside of the person, because people didn't have the Holy Spirit in them. God was sending His messages through angelic appearances as well. The prophets had to receive and deliver the messages from God very accurately. It was like a spiritual trance they entered into. And if something they said didn't fulfill, they were dimmed as false prophets and sometimes killed. However, in the New Testament, God speaks on the inside of us, in our conscious mind, through intuition, impressions, pictures, visions, certain feelings, or night dreams. It's like a telepathic communication where we just find ourselves knowing things in our intuition without knowing where they came frrom. Sometimes we have a good feeling or a bad feeling about a situation or a person. In the New Testament, the voice of God goes through our soul (emotions, reason, personality) and it speaks to us in the first person pronoun. It uses our inner ear and inner voice, as if it was our own voice, our ideas and desires. That is why many times, the voice of God in our lives is confused with our own voice and is quickly dismissed without realizing that it was God speaking to us and not just our own ideas. I will give here the examples of the priest Caiafa and the apostle Peter who spoke something they thought it was from them, when in fact it was from the Spirit of God:John 11:49–52 (NKJV)49 And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all,50 nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.”51 Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation,52 and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.Matthew 16:15–17 (NKJV)15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.Because God uses our inner voice when He speaks, we need faith to act on the basis of that which we think we received from God. Sometimes, we don't have the whole picture and we just need to take the first step in faith. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God. At first, we might not always get it right in what we receive from God, but even when we make mistakes, God will appreciate our faith to act and He will find ways to bring us back on the right path. Moreover, through practice step by step, we will learn to recognize His voice more and more accurately.You may ask, “But why is it this way in the New Testament?” It is because at the spirit level, through the new birth, we have become one spirit with the Spirit of Christ:1 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJV)17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.The born-again believers have the mind of Christ:1 Corinthians 2:16 (NKJV)16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.Many believers think that having the mind of Christ is a metaphor, a process, an ideal and that it refers to thinking morally like God. However, it is not so. There is definitely a process of integrating the mind of Christ into our lives, but there is also something real that has already taken place. At the subconscious level of our minds, the mind of Christ Himself has been eternally connected to our minds at the moment of salvation. We now have access to how Christ thinks in every situation. Caroline Leaf, a Christian scientist in brain-neurology, says that human beings, and especially born-again believers, are involved in two worlds in the same time. They are with one foot in the spiritual realm through the subconscious mind where the spiritual activity takes place and with the other foot in the physical realm through the conscious mind and through the physical body. She also says that the conscious mind works at a speed of 2000 actions per second while the subconscious mind works at a speed of 400 billion actions per second, which is a mind-blowing quantum speed of spiritual nature, that has never been reproduced in the physical world by a human being. The Bible says the following in Colossians 2:2-3 and 1 John 2:20:Colossians 2:2–3 (NKJV)2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.1 John 2:20 (NKJV)20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.Once we have come into Christ, we have received access in our minds to all God's treasures of knowledge and wisdom, but that access is at the subconscious level, and we have to bring those things that we need for every situation out to the surface into our conscious minds, so that we can benefit from them. It is like we have a vast fountain of life and knowledge inside us, in our belly or gut, from where we draw out the living water of answers and power for any given situation. This is the enteric nervous system from the intestinal area where we first feel any feelings of great fear or stress. This is the area of intuition from where our gut feelings come from. Caroline Leaf and other scientists call this system, that is connected to the subconscious mind, the second brain. And here comes into play the discussion about the prayer in tongues. We have in us a fountain called the fountain of salvation which springs into rivers of living water.If you remember the beginnings of Internet when Google first appeared and we searched for a certain word or topic, we received very few results because the knowledge on Internet was still limited and scarce. However, few years have gone by, and if you go on the Internet today to search for something, you will get back thousands of resources and links on any given topic. Why? Because the information available on the Internet has become so vast almost overnight. I remember when I first bought the Logos Bible Software for the Bible school, I had only the Starter and Bronze packages. When I searched for something inside that application, I would get just a few resources. Later on, I upgraded to the Silver and Gold packages, and all of a sudden, a whole new world opened up to me. It was like a portal into new knowledge. Now, when I searched for the same thing, I was getting many more resources and Greek Lexicons and all kinds of commentaries on any topic. Likewise, when we come into Christ, Platinum or Diamond level access is granted to us in knowledge and wisdom and we access those by renewing our minds with the Word of God and by speaking in tongues regularly. In that way, when you hear a sermon, or when you a read a book, or when you look at a situation, all of a sudden you will see and perceive things which will seem normal, trivial and natural to you, and which most of the times you will take for granted, but those things are not seen or perceived by other people. That happens because you now have access to a much bigger database of knowledge, divine wisdom, and spiritual revelation. But the point that I am trying to make is that those things will not come to you with fire and thunder from heaven, but in a very subtle and natural way. Through Regular Prayer in TonguesI don't know how I can emphasize enough the necessity of believers to pray regularly in tongues and especially in situations where they need to hear God. The more believers will pray in tongues, the more their minds will be merged with the mind of Christ at the conscious level and they will enter into the so-called unconscious leading of the Spirit. At that level, most of our decisions, our speech, the places we go, and our deeds, will be in God's will unconsciously. This is so much better and more desirable, because when we are continuously filled with the Holy Spirit through praying in tongues (Ephesians 5:18), even our jokes can speak something from God to someone. Romans 8:14 says that all those who are led by the Spirit of God (unconsciously), they are the sons of God. The Greek word used for “sons” in that context is huios, which means “the mature sons of God,” those that have renewed their minds with the Word of God and pray so much in tongues that literally have become one with the Spirit in actuality. There is also another Greek word used for babies or children and that is nepios.The Apostle Paul was praying in tongues more than anyone. It's not a surprise that he wrote 3 quarters of the New Testament and had such revelations of grace directly from Jesus Christ, that the other apostles didn't have, although they lived with Jesus for 3 years. In 1 Corinthians 14:15, Paul said:1 Corinthians 14:15 (NKJV)15 What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.The “also” applies to the prayer and singing with the understanding. In other words, that kind of prayer and singing is secondary. The primary way of praying and singing should be with the spirit, that is, in tongues. However, for some reasons, the majority of Christians treat prayer in tongues as some kind of secondary prayer that occurs here and there, only at what they consider to be “high moments in the Spirit,” or they use prayer in tongues as fillers. But prayer in tongues is paramount because it brings the mind of the Spirit to the surface. Romans 8:26-27 says:Romans 8:26–27 (NKJV)26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.1 Corinthians 14:4 says that when we speak in tongues, we edify ourselves. What parts of us get edified? Our bodies through health and our minds through renewal. In other words, our minds and bodies are getting tuned, aligned and conformed to the reality of the spirit inside us. The council that you need concerning your family, what job to choose, what life partner to choose, in what direction to go ministry-wise, what is your calling and destiny, the answers to all these questions are already inside of you. They just need to be drawn out through speaking in tongues.Sometimes when I lose something and I cannot find it, I pray in tongues and soon enough an idea comes to my mind of where I have last placed that thing. At work, when I face technical challenges that I don't know how to solve, I pray in tongues. The beauty of it is that the more you make a habit of praying in tongues, the more supernatural answers to daily problems will flow naturally out of you and come to your mind. At my work place, I already have a reputation of fixing issues just by my mere presence in a meeting, without doing anything and I am not kidding when I say that. My colleagues make jokes about it, but to me is very real. It happened to me on many occasions when different people from the company tried for days to fix an issue and finally they setup a meeting with me to explain the problem and see if I can help in any way. Once we got in the meeting and they started to explain the problem to me, they realized the issue was no longer there and asked me if I did anything to which I would tell them that I didn't. Other times, they would just sent me an email about the problem to take look at it and, without doing anything, after a few minutes they would send another email telling me that the issue was fixed and asking if I did anything. It may sound hilarious, but that has been my experience on many occasions and these are not the only manifestations of supernatural in my life. How Do I Discern God's Voice?The first way to discern God's voice is through His Word. The more Word we have in us and the more we pray in tongues, the more God's desires will become our heart's desires. This way we will become more sure that when we desire to do something, it will be from God. Psalm 37:4 says:Psalm 37:4 (NKJV)4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.This verse can definitely mean that God will fulfill the desires of our heart, although some of our desires are not always good, as we know. However, a better interpretation would be that the more we delight ourselves in God, in His presence and in His Word, He will make His desires become the desires of our hearts. Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is able to distinguish and separate what is spiritual from what is fleshly. Let's read it:Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV)12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.The second way we can discern God's voice is through the presence or absence of peace.Colossians 3:15 (NKJV)15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.When I talk about peace or the lack of it, I am talking about something beyond just feelings. Feelings can sometimes be deceiving. It's an uneasiness that you feel in your innermost being about a situation. You don't know why, but you just feel that way. My wife and I decided once to move in a certain city and for two weeks, after we took the decision, both of us had a persistent feeling of uneasiness, like a cloud of darkness all over us. The moment we asked the Holy Spirit about it and decided to change our destination, all of a sudden, both of us were at ease and full of joy and peace. On another occasion, I was offered to become the pastor of a church, something that I always wanted to do, but for some reason at that time, I didn't have peace at all to accept the position. And I didn't. Later on, I understood why it was better for me not to take it and the Holy Spirit protected me of some harmful things. Whenever you are in a situation where you have to choose something and take a decision, but you don't have complete peace with any of the available options, you either wait more time if that is possible and if you can afford it, or just go with the choice that gives you the most peace. It is very possible that after you take the first step, you will receive more clarity on the issue.The third way we can discern God's voice is to ask for additional confirmations from God, or from other people close to you that know you well and truly love you. God will not be upset if you sincerely ask for additional confirmations, especially in crucial decisions of life, and most of the times, He will give them to you. What Can I Do to Learn to Discern God's Voice?The first thing we need to realize and the most important one is that learning to discern God's voice doesn't come over night, but it's a process that takes time. In fact, spiritual growth and development takes time. For example, to train our minds and get an education, we usually spend over 15 years in school. Also, if we want to build muscles in our bodies, we go to gym for years regularly and adopt certain food diets. Likewise it is with the spiritual development in the New Testament and with hearing God's voice. It requires time and intentional effort to build the healthy spiritual habits that will facilitate and cultivate our growth in spiritual things. The majority of Christians expect spiritual results to come instantly and microwaved and God to do everything for them. It is not so in the New Testament.The second important thing is that no one can teach you the ability to hear God. You can receive teaching and guidelines, but to actually recognize God's voice for you personally it is something that you will have to learn by yourself through consistent practice and faith. But if you keep at it diligently, you will soon come to a place where you will be able to recognize the voice of God accurately among all the other voices, the same way you can recognize the voice of your husband or wife, because you spend much time with them. My son and I have a habit of listening every evening at bedtime to the audio Bible through an app called Bible.is and there are many actors that use their voices in reading the Bible. After listening to the 4 Gospels about 3-4 times in a row and to the voice of the person who was interpreting Jesus, we once started to listen to the story of Joseph from the Old Testament. The creators of the app decided to use the same person's voice for Joseph as they used for Jesus. While we were listening, I didn't pay much attention to it, but my five-year old son said to me: “Daddy, this is not Joseph, it is Jesus. Why is Jesus in this story?” You see, he got so acquainted with that voice of the actor who was interpreting Jesus, that he could recognize it among 4-5 other voices and even in another story. That's amazing! But that's exactly what will happen to you.I will conclude this teaching by giving you a few practical guidelines of how to grow in learning to hear God's voice. First, increase your daily exposure to the Word of God. Make a habit of reading at least one chapter a day from the Bible and think about what it says, but don't try to become super spiritual or search for meanings that are not even in the text. Just simply try to see how that passage speaks to you, what applies to you from it, and how you can implement it in your life. And if nothing comes to you, don't worry, just move on to another chapter. Also, make a habit of listening to sermons that help you understand the Word better. And don't just listen to anyone, but to people who preach about grace and about the new creation. For starters, you can begin listening to my YouTube channel (The Glory of Righteousness Series, Divine Healing Series, The New Creation Series) or my podcasts channel “Rediscovering the Gospel” available on numerous podcast stations. Other recommendations are: Andrew Wommack (who has thousands of free audio teaching files on his website or on podcasts), Barry Bennett, Audrey Mack, Curry Blake, Kenneth Hagin, and Dr. Myles Monroe from US, Joseph Prince from Singapore, Chris Oyakilome from Nigeria, Ryan Rufus from Hong-Kong, and Prophet Kobus from South Africa. You can find their materials on their websites, YouTube, or podcast channels. I uploaded some of these teachings on my mobile phone or I use Apple Podcasts, Castbox podcasts, and I always listen to a sermon in my car while I drive. If you ride a bike or use public transportation, you can use in-ear headphones and listen to sermons. Besides reading the Word or listening to sermons, what I also do and recommend is memorize verses that apply to the new creation and personalize them. I use the “Bible Memory: Remember Me” app where I collected over 300 relevant verses from my reading of the Bible and I rehearse 2 verses every day. The same I do with my five-year old son, but with him I rehearse the same 2 verses for a week every day.Second, start forming a habit of praying daily in tongues and begin small with maybe 5-10 minutes and then extend the time gradually up to at least 1 hour a day. Try to pray at different times of the day and see which ones work best for you, either very early in the morning, or after lunch time at work, or in the afternoon, or late at night before you go to bed. In the beginning, it will seem difficult to implement this habit, because it requires much faith and discipline, but after a while, it will become easy, and you will notice that you will not be able to live without it anymore. It will be like breathing. I usually find some walking routes close to the area where I live, which are more quiet and not so populated, and I go for a walk and pray in tongues and declare the Word of God over my life anywhere between 40 minutes to 1 hour almost daily. I am saying that with all humility, not to praise myself, but to encourage you that it's possible and to offer you a practical point of reference. Of course, besides taking a special aside time to pray, you can always pray in tongues while doing other activities, like working around the house, shopping, washing dishes, washing your car, etc.Third, be always preoccupied and ready to hear God. Make a habit of it. Whenever you pray by yourself, or walk, or go shopping, remind yourself from time to time to listen to God and be sensitive to His voice. In this way, you will increase your self-awareness and be able to discern more accurately when God speaks to you. Not only that, but your spiritual progress will manifest in the natural world in increasing measure and it will be seen by all. The Apostle Paul told Timothy:1 Timothy 4:13–16 (NKJV)13 Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.If you give yourself entirely to this process, your progress will be evident to all. If you continue persistently, you will save yourself and those who hear you or come in contact with you. Timothy was already at that moment saved eternally from hell, so the salvation Paul is talking about here is the salvation on earth from all the harmful things that normally and naturally affect people without Christ. Listen / Watch / DownloadYou can listen to the audio message of this article, watch the video message or download it in different formats (mp3 / mp4 / pdf) from the following link:How to Hear God's Voice (Individual Messages) – October 21st, 2021

The Power of the Lord's SupperIntroductionLet's first read the famous passage on the Lord's Supper from 1 Corinthians 11:17-34: 1 Corinthians 11:17–34 (NKJV) 17 Now in giving these instructions I don't praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. 18 For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. 19 For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. 20 Therefore when you come together in one place, it's not to eat the Lord's Supper. 21 For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I don't praise you. 23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the New Covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. 33 Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34 But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.  Many Christians interpret the passage above in the following way: “Before I take the Lord's Supper, I need to examine myself very carefully, check for any unconfessed sins in my life and confess them all. Then I can partake of the Lord's Supper. This is the worthy manner of taking the Lord's Supper. Otherwise, if I take it with any unconfessed sin, I might lose my salvation, I might lose the blessings of God, or God might punish me with sickness or even death. And I will not be able to come to God and ask Him to heal me, because I did it with my own hands. So, if I feel too unworthy on occasions, it's better not to partake of the Lord's Supper in order not to be punished by God.” This is how many believers read 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 and they treat the Lord's Supper as something very sacred and dreadful, that can be partaken of only if they have been completely honest about their lives with God and made sure they confessed every sin they know before Him. Otherwise, God will strike them with sickness and curse. Because of the fear of punishment, many believers refrain from partaking of the Lord's Supper for long periods of time. Overall, most believers consider the Lord's Supper to be something similar to the bitter water from Numbers 5:16-28, that women suspected of adultery had to drink to prove their innocence. If those women were dishonest and guilty and drank that water, their bellies would swell, their thighs would rot, and they would become a curse among their people. This is the mentality with which most Christians approach the Communion. However, this interpretation and practice of the Lord's Supper are far from the truth and rob believers of its precious benefits that Jesus intended when He initiated it. The Necessity of Innocent BloodLet's analyze the passage carefully in its context. First, the expression “unworthy manner” from verses 27 and 29 doesn't refer to the worthiness of the person taking the Lord's Supper, but to the worthiness of the manner in which the person partakes, the worthiness of the way, or the method. We can never become worthy to partake of the Lord's Supper through something that we do, no matter what we do, not even through confession of sins, because the only thing that could pay for our sins and could make us worthy is  innocent blood, as seen in Hebrews 9:22: Hebrews 9:22 (NKJV) 22 And according to the Law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.  Without shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins, and not without confession of sins. Our blood is guilty and tainted by Adam's sin that was transmitted to us when we were physically born on this earth. The only person that had innocent blood was Jesus Christ, the last Adam, because He didn't have an earthly father. The Holy Spirit conceived Him, Jesus had blameless blood, and He kept His blood innocent throughout His life by fulfilling all the Law of Moses and by not sinning even once. He was without spot when He reached the moment of the cross: 1 Peter 1:18–19 (NKJV) 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.  Why could only innocent blood remove sins? Because the soul of a human being is in the blood. That is what Leviticus 17:11 tells us: Leviticus 17:11 (NKJV) 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it's the blood that makes atonement for the soul. The word “life” in the expression “the life of the flesh is in the blood” is the Hebrew “Nephesh,” which translates into “soul, living being, self, or person.” So, you have been made worthy once and for all by Christ's blood and sacrifice, and nothing else. Period! You are always worthy to partake of the Communion  because of Jesus' innocent blood and not because of your confession. Your righteousness and worthiness are Christ. However, there is also a proper and worthy manner of partaking of the Lord's Supper.  What Does It Mean “In a Worthy Manner?”Taking the Communion in a worthy manner means to assign to it a mental significance when you take it, to think about what it means from God's perspective, and remember the One Who established it. It's not just eating some food and drinking. We see this concept reiterated three times in the passage about Communion: (1) In verses 17 to 22, Paul rebukes the Corinthians for eating their meals without waiting for the others, for getting drunk, for not remembering Christ, and for believing that that was the Lord's Supper; (2) In verses 24 and 25, Paul quotes Jesus and says that when we take the Lord's Supper, we need to remember Him; (3) In verse 28, Paul mentions that there is an examination and evaluation of ourselves that needs to take place before taking the Lord's Supper. To summarize, taking the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner means two things: (1) to remember Christ in the right way, and (2) to evaluate ourselves in the right way. What does it mean to remember Christ in the right way and evaluate ourselves in the right way? In verse 24, Jesus says that His body was broken for us, was judged for us, and in our place. The broken bread is a representation of Christ's body being torn apart for us, and He says we should always do this in remembrance of Him and of what He did for us. This is the correct remembrance or discernment of the Lord's body, mentioned in verse 29, and the appropriate evaluation (or judgment) of ourselves. It's a matter of where we place the guilt and the judgment of our sins: either on Jesus' body, or on us. In the same manner, Paul instructs us to take the wine (v. 25), which is a representation of Jesus' shed blood. Every time we take Communion (v. 26), we proclaim the Lord's death (or the Lord's judgment) until He comes back. In other words, if we proclaim the Lord's judgment over our sins, then we also proclaim our freedom, healing, victory, righteousness, prosperity, joy, and peace. We evaluate and judge ourselves, or consider ourselves as righteous, healed, and free. The proclamation of His death is a proclamation of our life. Taking the Lord's Supper in an UNWORTHY MANNER doesn't refer to a person being unworthy on account of her unconfessed sins, as I mentioned earlier. Rather, it refers to not acknowledging correctly that the judgment for our sins was put on the Lord's body and on His blood. By not evaluating correctly, we become again guilty and come under condemnation. Verse 28 tells us to first examine ourselves and do an evaluation of ourselves before partaking of the Lord's Supper. The whole passage of 1 Corinthians 11 doesn't instruct anywhere to confess our sins before Communion, or that examining ourselves means confessing our sins. The Greek word for ”confess,” “Homologeo,” is not even present anywhere, like we saw in 1 John 1:9. We've just assumed that examining ourselves refers to examining ourselves in the light of our sins. However, the examination depicted in this passage is  the one done in the light of what Jesus did and not in light of our sins. After that, we can take the Lord's Supper as a celebration of life for ourselves and not of judgment. It's a celebration of what Jesus has accomplished at the cross for us. And this creates faith in our hearts for healing and victory. The Greek word for “examine” is “Dokimazo” and it means “to test and by implication approve.” Those who are in Christ see themselves approved by God. An Old Covenant picture may help understanding this better. At the temple, the High Priest did not examine the people, who brought the sacrifices, of their sins. The priest didn't ask them to confess their individual sins. He only examined the sacrificial lamb of any blemish. In the New Covenant, Christ is our Lamb without blemish or defect (1 Peter 1:18-19). During the Lord's Supper, we examine Him and see ourselves as tested and approved in Him. Verse 29 in 1 Corinthians 11 says that if we don't discern the Lord's body in that way, then we eat and drink judgment to ourselves. In that moment, we actually celebrate our own judgment, and we take the Lord's Supper in remembrance of ourselves and of our sins, and not in remembrance of the Lord. What is then the correct examination of ourselves? Today, most of us instead of getting ourselves free of the conscience of sins and acknowledging the judgment of Christ, we dig up our sins during Communion, and become more conscious of them. Unconsciously, we reinforce into our minds the lie that we are still sinners. We think the Lord's Supper is like going to someone's funeral. Usually, when we go to funerals, being in that sad atmosphere makes us softer in our hearts, more humble, and we remember the deceased person, feeling like we owe something to him or her (especially if they died somehow because of us), and we feel like we want to do something in return. Likewise, we do the same with Jesus' death during Communion. We think that the best way to pay Jesus back for His sufferings is to at least remember our sins and ask for forgiveness, as if we would do Him a favor. However, that is wrong. That is not remembering Him. Again, it's worth mentioning that in the Matthew 26:26-29 account of the Lord's Supper, when Jesus gave His disciples the bread and the wine for the first time, He didn't mention anything about confessing their sins before partaking. In fact, He didn't mention that in any of the Gospels. Let's read that passage: Matthew 26:26–29 (NKJV)26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.28 For this is My blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.29 But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom.”  The Inauguration of the New CovenantJesus simply said this about the Last Supper: “This is My blood of the New Covenant.” What is a covenant? It's a verbalized oath, an exchange between two parties, and a binding agreement of promises. In this case, when Jesus ratified the New Covenant with His disciples and with all the believers that would come after them, He meant the following: “You give me your filthiness, and I will give you My blessings; I swear to do this for you.” When we talk about the blood of Jesus, we think only about atonement, which is the negative part of the sacrifice, and we don't pay too much attention to the better and bigger part of that sacrifice, which is the positive part. That second part refers to what does that blood bring with it AFTER atonement. Through Jesus' blood, God made a covenant with us and God sweared to do something for us.When Jesus went into the Holy of Holies of the Heavenly Tabernacle and sprinkled the Mercy Seat at the throne of God with His own blood, it was not just the blood of atonement and remission of sins that was sprinkled. It was also the blood of the New Covenant which affirmed this: “I, Jesus Christ, swear that I will heal them, that I will restore their families, their children, and that I will provide financially for them.”  Usually, when God did a covenant with people in the Bible, what party of the covenant had to gain the most out of it? Always humans, of course. Let's see how God did the covenant with Abraham: Hebrews 6:13–14 (NKJV) 13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”  God wanted to assure Abraham that what He promised He would do. But because He could not swear on anything greater than Him, He swore by Himself. Did God fulfill everything that He promised to Abraham? Yes. How much more will He keep for us the better covenant and the better promises He gave us through Christ! Hebrews 8:6 declares: Hebrews 8:6 (NKJV) 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator (or Intermediary) of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.  Sometimes, we are so discouraged and we wonder whether God will really fulfill His promises towards us or not, because we think He looks at our mistakes when He decides whether to keep a promise to us or not. However, only Jesus' blood will give us the things for which it paid for and which were stolen from us by sin. Many times when we sin, especially when repeatedly, we start crawling slowly back into God's presence, after some time, through crying and regrets. We begin wailing in the following way: “Oh God, I don't deserve anything, I am nothing, I am just a sinner, I failed You again so badly, and You have forgiven me so many times that You might have already gotten sick of forgiving me, because Your mercy cannot endure forever.” However, what we don't realize is that, while we say all that in the presence of God, the sprinkled blood of Jesus says something else: “I paid for your sins, I swear that you have forgiveness, I paid for your deliverance, and I swear that I will deliver you from the bondage of lusts, and addictions.” We speak out of our emotions and out of the guilt we feel, but that is not on the same page with what the blood speaks. Our voices are not aligned with the voice of the blood. My voice says that I don't deserve anything, and the voice of the blood says: “Yes you do, you do deserve now.”  The Fellowship with the Blood and Body of Christ1 Corinthians 10:16 (NKJV) 16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion (or the fellowship, the sharing) of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion (or the fellowship, the sharing) of the body of Christ?  When we partake of the Lord's Supper, we have fellowship with the blood and the body of Christ. The Greek word for ”communion” or ”fellowship” in the verse we read is “Coinonia,” which means “active participation, involvement, and sharing with someone or in something.” It's not the same thing as socializing. The Bible talks about fellowship with each other and about fellowship with the Father and His Son: 1 John 1:3 (NKJV) 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.  When do we reach true fellowship with each other as brothers and sisters during a meeting? When we speak about the same things in unity, we speak the same spiritual language, and build each other up. Now, having fellowship with the body and the blood of Jesus when we take the Lord's Supper means that we come in alignment and unity with what the blood speaks, and we speak the same thing. Jesus' blood speaks and swears about our justification and makes an oath in our favor. What are we going to speak? “Oh, I don't deserve it, I hope I will not die if I drink this cup, I was so bad.” That is not fellowship. How can there be fellowship between something righteous and something sinful? Yes, in ourselves we don't deserve it, but because of this blood and because we are in Christ, we now deserve. That is how what we say comes in unity with what the blood says.  We don't receive salvation by confessing how we fell and what our opinion is about Jesus, that maybe He was simply a prophet or a good man. No, we have to make a specific confession in line with what the Bible says about salvation and about Jesus, that He is Lord and Savior. We would not be in unity with what the Bible said to confess, if we declared something else. And until we are not in line with and speak exactly what the Bible says about salvation, we cannot be born again. In the same way, if we don't align ourselves with what the Bible says about our justification, healing, children, education, job, marriage, and finances, our words will come against the words of God Himself. God says that Jesus paid for all those things, He gave them all freely to us, and swears with blood to do them for us, but we say: “No, it doesn't apply to me. Let me give you the whole list why I am disqualified.” And we begin looking for our sins and confessing. Revelation 12:10-11 says the following: Revelation 12:10–11 (NKJV) 10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.”11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they didn't love their lives to the death.  Whose report are we going to come in unity with? With the devil's accusations or with the blood of the Lamb? Are we coming in the throne room saying that we don't deserve anything, that God should not do anything with us and for us, like the devil says? Or are we going to say what the blood of the Lamb says about us? We are the ones having the decisive vote when we come into the throne room. The manifestation of salvation in all areas of our lives (physical healing, peace, finances) depends on what voice we align ourselves with, both during the Lord's Supper and during our daily lives.   What Does It Mean to Drink Your Own Judgment?Coming back to our initial passage from 1 Corinthians 11, verse 29 says that if we don't evaluate ourselves  correctly by placing the judgment on Jesus Christ, we drink that judgment against ourselves or we drink our own condemnation. What does it mean to drink judgment to ourselves? It means we don't appropriate the resulting benefits of Jesus' sacrifice, in this case, healing and strength for ourselves, by judging incorrectly the Lord's death. As a result, we drink the judgment that should have been placed on Jesus and continue to be sick and weak like everybody else is, and even die before our time. This is not because God causes those things to happen to us, but because the world we live in is in a default state of sickness, death, and decay. If we don't proclaim and believe in our salvation and immunity provided by the Lord's death and resurrection, we remain vulnerable to the same things that the rest of the world is vulnerable to. Sickness and early death are not punishments from God for taking the Lord's Supper without confessing our sins, but simply the natural consequences of standing on our own performance instead of Jesus', in a sick and fallen world. In the Greek language, prepositions like ”FOR” and ”BUT” can also be translated as ”IN,” ”THROUGH,” ”BY,” and  ”BECAUSE.” Verses 31 and 32 can be paraphrased in the following way: 31 For if we would judge ourselves (that is, discern and evaluate ourselves correctly in the light of the Lord's judgment, as already being righteous, healed and free of sin), then we would not be judged (that is, we would not become vulnerable to sickness and death while on earth, as the world experiences by default).32 Because when we are judged (that is, evaluated correctly as already judged in Christ for our sins), through that we are chastened by the Lord (that is, we are instructed, trained, disciplined – we form a healthy habit of going back to the judgment of the cross in our place), that we may not be condemned with the world (that is, not being under the same perils as the world). The Lord's Supper is a celebration of life and a healthy discipline instituted by the Lord to help us always remember that our judgment was put on Christ. This discipline in itself causes faith to rise in our hearts and causes the renewal of our minds, resulting in us being healthier and more victorious. If we became sick because we didn't take the Lord's Supper in the worthy manner that I already explained, this is not a punishment from God, and we still have access to healing and health, by just proclaiming with faith what we have in Christ, that by His stripes we were healed (1 Peter 2:24). Taking the Lord's Supper when we are sick is a great way to exercise our faith for healing. It's saying: “I don't identify with these symptoms. I identify with Jesus, Who carried my infirmities and Who was wounded, so that I might be healed.”  How to Pray Before the Lord's Supper?In closing, I would like to provide here a practical illustration of how we should approach the Lord's Supper and of how to celebrate it in an worthy manner. When we, as believers in Christ, want to partake of the Lord's Supper either at church with other believers or at home, while holding the bread in our hand, we should pray this way: “Dear Lord Jesus, I come to You, and remember all that You have done for me on the cross. Thank You for loving me so much, and for giving up heaven for me. Thank You for allowing Your body to be broken so that mine might be whole. As I partake of this bread, I receive Your resurrection life, health, and strength. By the stripes that fell on Your back, my body is healed from the crown of my head to the very soles of my feet. Every cell, every organ, every function of my body is healed, restored, and renewed. By Your grace, I shall be completely strong and healthy all the days of my life. No sickness can remain in my body because the same power that raised You from the grave flows through me. In Jesus' name, I believe and I receive all these things.” Then, we can eat of the bread. Next, we take the cup in our hand and say: “Lord Jesus, thank You also for Your precious blood. Your sin-free, curse-free, disease-free, and poverty-free life is in Your blood. And Your shed blood has removed every sin from my life. Through Your blood, I am forgiven of all my sins—past, present and future—and made completely righteous. Today, I celebrate and partake of the inheritance of the righteous, which is preservation, healing, wholeness and provision. Thank You Lord Jesus, for loving me. Amen.” Then, we can drink of the cup. 

Objections to One-Time ConfessionSome might say, “But what about what Isaiah said in chapter 59 verse 2 that our sins put a separation wall between us and God, that they hide His face from us and that He will not hear us? Doesn't that mean that we come out of fellowship with God and that we need to confess our sins to Him in order for Him to hear us again?” No, it doesn't. Isaiah lived before the cross, Jesus had not paid for his sins yet, and Isaiah was not a new creation in Christ. Indeed, during his time and during the Old Covenant period, people's sins created a separation wall between them and God, and God didn't hear them until they humbled themselves before God, and brought the animal sacrifices for atonement. However, Christ is our eternal sacrifice that has cleansed us from all sin once and for all. So, in the New Testament, our sinful deeds don't put a separation wall between us and God anymore. God doesn't hide His face from us, and He always hears us, no matter what we did wrong.  ”But what about Proverbs 28:13, where King Solomon says: Proverbs 28:13 (NKJV) 13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”? The same explanation given for Isaiah's case is relevant here as well. King Solomon needed the mercy of God and his prosperity depended on his obedience to the Law, because he was walking in darkness. His sins had not been removed yet. All the people of the Old Testament relied on the mercy of God for their blessing and prosperity. Until Christ would come, God overlooked temporarily their sins when they obeyed the Law or brought the animal sacrifices. However, in the New Testament, the new creation has become prosperity (2 Corinthians 8:9) without any qualification, because of Christ's righteousness, and believers have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3). Believers in Christ don't have sins to cover or confess anymore, because they were all taken away at the cross.  “But what about King David when he lamented in Psalm 32:1-5 and Psalm 38:18 about his sins and confessed them? Shouldn't we follow his example?” Let's read those passages.  Psalm 32:1–5 (NKJV) 1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord doesn't impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. 5 I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I haven't hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.  Psalm 38:18 (NASB95) 18 For I confess my iniquity; I am full of anxiety because of my sin.  If we look carefully at the first two verses of Psalm 32, we will notice that King David prophesied by the Spirit about the time when people's transgressions will be forgiven and the Lord will not impute iniquity to them anymore. He rejoiced looking ahead at the days we are living now. However, in his time, he had to confess his sins to the Lord to receive mercy and he probably confessed more in the hope of saving his son from the death punishment. And even though King David confessed his sins many times and asked for forgiveness from God, his confession and tears were not the ones which atoned for his sin. David still had to bring sacrifices to atone for his sins according to the Law.  Finally, “what about the Lord's prayer from Luke 11:2-4 or Matthew 6:9-13, where Jesus tells us to ask the Father to forgive our sins? Isn't He telling us to confess our sins to God?” Let's read the Lord's prayer passage in Luke: Luke 11:2–4 (NKJV) 2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 3 Give us day by day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”  If we take a close look at the Lord's prayer in the light of the Gospel, we will quickly notice that the Lord's prayer is an Old Testament prayer and not a New Testament one. First, we need to realize that the disciples who asked Jesus to teach them how to pray were Jews, accustomed with the Law and the Torah. Second, Jesus hadn't died yet on the cross in order to establish a prayer model according to the new creation era and He couldn't disclose yet the plan God had through the cross, otherwise the devil would have never crucified Him. At that moment in time, Jesus was still in the Old Testament period. The transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant had not been made yet. For example, He said in verse 2 to pray that God's Kingdom would come on earth. That was the longing and the prayer of all Old Testament prophets, that the Kingdom of God would come. This was supposed to happen when Messiah would come. At that point in time, this kind of prayer made sense because the Kingdom had not come yet. However, we see later in Romans 14:17, as well as in other places, that Jesus brought the Kingdom on earth, especially after the cross, although not in its full visible manifestation yet:  Mark 1:14–15 (NKJV) 14 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  Luke 17:20–21 (NKJV) 20 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 nor will they say, ‘See here!' or ‘See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”  Romans 14:17 (NKJV) 17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Then in Luke 11:3, Jesus told His disciples to ask the Father for the daily bread. However, we see later in Ephesians 1:3 and 2 Peter 1:3 that God has already blessed believers with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places and everything pertaining to life and godliness. At the end of the prayer, Jesus instructs the disciples to ask the Father to deliver them from the evil one. That made sense before the cross, because all people were in the domain of darkness and under the authority of the devil and they needed God to intervene and help them. However, later, Colossians 1:13 says that believers have been transferred from the domain of darkness into the Kingdom of His beloved Son. Moreover, Ephesians 2:6 and 1:20-23 shows that believers have the same rank and authority of the right hand of the Father as Jesus Christ, and their authority in Christ is far above all rule, authority, power and lordship. The new creations don't need to pray for deliverance from the evil one, because they have already been delivered from him. Similarly, the prayer for forgiveness of sins, conditioned by their forgiveness of others was an Old Testament prayer. In the Old Testament, the people of God had to repeatedly bring sacrifices and ask for forgiveness of their sins. However, even this Old Testament prayer of asking for forgiveness of sins was not a confession of individual specific sins, but a general one of all sins. The Greek word used here is again Hamartia, in plural form, depicting the totality of all sin in the life of that person as nature or deeds, and not as specific known sinful actions.  After all this teaching about confession of sins, you might be wondering yourself: “So what am I supposed to do then when I sin? Should I confess my sin to God or not? How do I continue to relate to Him?”  What to Do When We SinnedIf we are honest with ourselves, most of the times, we don't feel condemned about every little sin that we did or about sins that we are not aware of, like Martin Luther. Usually, there are specific sins that the devil or our conscience bring to our minds and condemn us with, sinful behaviors and attitudes that we've probably repeated many times and were unable yet to overcome. Those are the times when we feel the need to say something to God about our sins before we can move on. On one hand, we feel condemned about those sins and unworthy to approach God. On the other hand, we know that all our sins have been removed forever, and this creates a real conflict inside of us. This inner conflict is also fueled by the fact that we still live in a fallen world, where forgiveness of someone depends on the other person apologizing first and making the first step towards reconciliation. Our minds are programmed to think that way and to transfer by analogy the same kind of interaction to the relationship between God and us. Before I provide a practical solution to this inner conflict and to the question about what to do when we sin, we need to be aware of one thing. Any form of confession of sins and any type of forgiveness plea to God for our sins will not forgive those sins in that moment in time, neither will they justify us or maintain us justified. They will not make us more worthy to receive blessings from God or minister to others, nor will it maintain our salvation intact, as if our salvation was in jeopardy before. Yes, the salvation of our soul and body are progressive, but the salvation of our spirit is a one-time deal that lasts for eternity. We don't confess a sin to God to be forgiven. God has already forgiven all our sins, and they were removed forever. Acknowledging before God the known wrong that we did, with which our conscience condemns us, will only cleanse our conscience and help our mind get over it. It will help us relate to God again in sincerity with all our heart. In other words, it will help us to forgive ourselves in our mind, it will appease our conscience, and it will enable us to relate to God openly and fearless again. We should absolutely do that if our mind and conscience bother us and we cannot get over it just through the Word of God. We should say “I am sorry” to God if there is something specific that we feel condemned about, for the sake of our conscience, so that our conscience would not become dull, hardened, and insensitive. However, we should not stay there and focus on our sin for too long. We need to immediately focus our attention to the truth of the Word of God about our sins and start thanking Him and praising Him for what He has done. We should begin declaring what the Word of God says about our new identity in Christ, and not lounge any longer in the accuser's condemnation. This is part of cleansing our conscience of sins with the water of the Word.  Therefore, when there is a sin that bothers us when we try to fellowship with God, the right way to deal with it or to confess it should be something of the following: “Father, I am so sorry for the wrong thing that  I did. I acknowledge it's a sin and that, as a new creation in Christ, I should not have done it. I admit that I played with death and I did harm to myself, that I grieved Your Holy Spirit and frustrated Your grace. But I thank You that my sin has already been removed from me and washed away by the blood of Jesus. Thank you that I am still a new creation in Christ, that Your love is unconditional, and that I am free of condemnation forever (Romans 8:1). I am dead to sin and alive to righteousness (Romans 6:11). Sin doesn't have dominion over me anymore, because I am under grace (Romans 6:14). Jesus Christ is my righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). I am born of God and I overcome the world (1 John 5:4). I am the light of the world and the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:14). I walk in the light and I will never walk in darkness (1 John 1:5-7). I have been transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of Your beloved Son (Colossians 1:13). Thank you Father that I am accepted in the Beloved and highly favored in Your sight (Ephesians 1:5-7).” Now, you may ask: “Will not this way of confessing sins soften me towards sin? Will not this give me more license to sin?” No, it will certainly not. It's exactly the opposite: it will give you more freedom from sin. Have you noticed that you still sin without a license if you want to? Paul says in Romans 6:2, “How can we who died to sin continue to live in?” If you were genuinely born again, can you do whatever you want and still remain saved? Yes, of course. But why would you think of doing evil since you repented and came on God's side?  Why would you want to sin since you don't have a sinful nature anymore? Actually, a better question is this: If you were genuinely born again and you have the right teaching about who you are in Christ, do you think you will be able to continue to want to sin indefinitely? I don't think so. Can God do whatever He wants? Yes of course. But does that freedom give Him license to sin? Never. His freedom of doing whatever He wants has some boundaries. Could Jesus have done whatever He wanted on earth? Yes, of course. But Has He ever sinned? No. Perhaps, when you hear this message for the first time, you might have the tendency to indulge in your sinful habits at first, especially if you have been for a long time under many religious rules and under the fear of hell or of losing your salvation. You might still feel like you enjoy certain sins and pleasures, although your spirit has been completely recreated. That happens because your feelings and behaviors are skewed and not fully aligned yet with the desires of your new spirit due to an unrenewed mind. In fact, freedom to live for God without any conditions and threats can be a real challenge for many. However, this does not mean that this perspective on confession of sins gives you license to sin more. Your sinful actions or habitual sins only reflect what was already in your heart and what needs to be corrected and changed through the renewal of your mind. Your spirit is perfectly holy; it doesn't like to sin. The more you renew your mind to your new identity in Christ, your desires, likes, and feelings will change accordingly, and align themselves to your new identity. Slowly, the love of God will compel you and bring you back from your indulgences and sinful behaviors. But this time you will be a real free person, and you will walk in holiness because you want to and because you truly love God, and not because of constraints and threats of hell.  Going a step further, the Bible's solution to overcoming sinful behaviors is to always remind ourselves about our righteous identity in Christ. This is not to encourage us to sin more or soften us towards the gravity of sin and of its consequences. Rather this reminding is intended to focus our attention on our Savior, Who paid in full at the cross for our sins, and to encourage us to live according to the new creation's identity that Jesus established at the cross. This is what true repentance is all about—turning to the cross and returning to His grace! When you fail, know that you can always talk to God openly about your failure, but do it with a revelation of the weight of the cross and of its victory. See your sins already punished in His body and receive afresh His forgiveness and unmerited favor, so that you can conquer your sins.

Confession of Sins in 1 John 1:91 John 1:5–2:1 (NKJV) 5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and don't practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we haven't sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.   The question we should ask ourselves about 1 John 1:9 is this: Is this verse addressing believers or unbelievers? In the context of everything we have seen so far, this passage cannot be addressed to believers in Christ because, it it refers to believers, then it undermines the whole Gospel. If all our past, present, and future sins have been forgiven, there is nothing else to forgive. If we became righteous at the moment of salvation, then there is no more unrighteousness to be cleansed of. We cannot say that we have been cleansed of all sin and that we are still being cleansed, both in the same time. When Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, He said to Peter in John 13:10: John 13:10 (NKJV) 10 Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”  Based on this verse, many Christians wrongly conclude that, as born-again believers, they are completely washed and clean in a sense, but they still need to wash “their feet” by asking for forgiveness for the sins they do. Such a conclusion is inconsistent with what Jesus did on the cross, and it has nothing to do with the context of the washing of feet, which was about servanthood to each other.  Coming back to 1 John 1:9, this Scripture was written to a congregation of believers, but it was meant for unbelievers, and we will see why. We see this kind of address in the epistle of Romans as well, which was written mainly to believers. However, we find Romans 10:9-10 addressing the unbelievers who might have been in the church among believers, and tells them how to be saved. Moreover, in our churches today, preachers usually use the expression “brothers and sisters” to address a congregation, but not all in the congregation may be true brothers and sisters. Some can be just nominal Christians while others can be  unbelievers altogether. In the same way, especially the first chapter of 1 John was written to the church as a whole, but it addresses a certain context and a certain issue of the day, that was happening in the church, and that was Gnosticism.  Gnosticism comes from the Greek word “gnosis,” which means knowledge or insight. We know from church history that near the end of the first century, and in the early second century, proto-Gnosticism, specifically Docetism, arose within the church. Docetism was the doctrine that Jesus Christ didn't come in the flesh, that He didn't have a physical body, and that therefore His sufferings were only apparent. In later years, this developed into a theological system known as Gnosticism. By the middle of the second century, this philosophy blossomed into full expression and its advocates were producing their own gospels and epistles, of which the Gospel of Thomas and Gospel of Judas are some examples. John appears to have anticipated Gnosticism's development and threat to the health of the church and he wrote 1 John to counteract its influence.  Gnosticism blended Greek dualism with Eastern mysticism. It adopted the dualistic view that only the nonmaterial, or the spiritual, was good while anything material was evil. Along with this, came Eastern mysticism's focus on a secret spiritual knowledge reserved only for the chosen few. The Gnostics were trying to fellowship with believers in the church and that's how their ideas and thoughts infiltrated Christianity. They were saying things like the following: “It's great that you are a Christian, it's great that you are acquainted with Jesus Christ, but now let me lead you into a deeper knowledge of some deep spiritual truths that will secretly unlock more meaning and purpose for you.” As I already mentioned briefly, two primary beliefs marked the Gnostics concerning Christ and Christianity and these were what John was concerned about. First, Gnostics didn't believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh or having a physical body. Second, they didn't believe that sin was real at the spiritual level, so they were ultimately sin deniers or deniers of the sin nature transmitted from Adam to all people at the spirit level. Here is why they reasoned that sin was not real in the human spirit. Gnostics believed that any sort of sins or appetites, be it sexual sins or other addictions, occurred only in the physical world. However, they thought they were living at a spiritual level, and not a physical one, because of the secret deeper knowledge they thought they possessed. As such, anything that happened in the physical realm was less important and it was even considered a fabrication of reality, an illusion, because reality happened at the spiritual level where sin didn't exist. That is why Gnostics believed Jesus didn't have a physical body. It would have been too low, too base for Jesus to be tight to a physical body, so Jesus had to be purely spiritual according to Gnostics.  Therefore, the uncharacteristic opening of the first chapter of 1 John shows clearly that the initial address was not meant for believers but for Gnostics, who didn't believe that Jesus came in the flesh. There was no greeting to believers, unlike what we find in John's second and third epistles. Instead, the apostle John opens up his first epistle with a direct address to the serious heresy of Gnostics: 1 John 1:1 (NKJV) 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life.  Later in chapter 4, John mentions that anyone who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God and has the spirit of Antichrist, again counteracting the Gnostic heresy: 1 John 4:1-3 (NKJV)1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. John emphasizes that Jesus had indeed come in the flesh, because John, himself, and his fellow disciples had heard, seen, and touched Jesus. Why was it so vitally important the fact that Jesus came in the flesh? Why any spirit confessing the opposite was called the spirit of Antichrist? If Jesus hadn't had a physical body, then He wouldn't have been a real Son of Man. And if He hadn't been fully man, then He could not have identified with humans and pay the penalty of their sins, and ultimately He would not have been the Christ, the Messiah the Savior. Denying Jesus' physical body was the same thing as denying Him as Christ, as the Messiah. Then in verse 9 of chapter 1, John attacks the second heresy of Gnosticism – the sin denial – and attempts to compel the Gnostics to acknowledge and confess their sins, so that God would forgive them and cleanse them from all unrighteousness. It's only in chapter 2 of John's first epistle that we see the phrase “my little children” for the first time, implying that from this chapter onwards, the apostle John will be addressing believers.  Now, let's go through each verse of the context of 1 John 1:9 and explain it. 1 John 1:5 says that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” There are only two realms or kingdoms in which people can be located: in the LIGHT (the saved) or in DARKNESS (the lost). The following verse says that, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and don't practice the truth.” The Gnostics were great at claiming that they were also saved, but in reality, they were still in the realm of darkness because of their wrong beliefs. They were lying both to themselves and others without even being aware of it, and were not living the truth. Consequently, in verse 7, John tells them, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Many Christians interpret “walking in the light” as walking “according” to the light or “up” to the light in terms of morality. However, this verse doesn't talk here about the light in terms of moral behavior and deeds, but in terms of which realm people are walking and living in, or in terms of the nature of their spirit. It's not so much about HOW they are walking, but WHERE they are walking. They cannot go IN and OUT of the light. Let's read a few passages explaining these two realms: 1 Thessalonians 5:5 (NKJV) 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.  Colossians 1:13 (NKJV) 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.  2 Corinthians 6:14–15 (NKJV) 14 Don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?  Many believers think that light means knowledge and information about the Law (the moral law, or the Ten Commandments, more specifically), and that walking in light means that they have to live and walk according to the level of knowledge and revelation that they have from the Law. In other words, walking in the light to them means simply living a moral life. However, if we were to understand the meaning of LIGHT in verse 7 as HOW to live (meaning our behavior), then we, as believers, should live according to the LIGHT in the same way as God Himself lives according to the LIGHT – that is, perfectly. Are we fully living according to the light in our deeds as God lives according to the light, that is, perfect holiness? Of course not. So then, light doesn't refer to behavior, but to a nature, to a realm. Moreover, if we understand walking in the light in terms of behavior and of HOW to live, then verse 7 would read as follows: “As long as we don't sin (meaning we walk according to the light), the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.” What does the blood of Jesus cleanse us from, if we don't walk in sin anymore already? The truth is that we, even as genuine believers, may still perform sinful deeds in our body and soul, but because of our new spirit nature, we will never walk in the realm of darkness again. Going to a McDonalds doesn't make a person into a Big Mac, as well as going to a garage doesn't make a person into a car. The blood of Jesus cleanses us of all sin the moment we enter the realm of light, as verse 7 concludes, even though we may still do sinful actions after we were cleansed. At the moment of salvation, the blood of Christ cleanses both the sin at the spirit level and all the sinful deeds done in time (past, present and future) at the soul and body level. Believers never experience a time, during day or night, when they are not clean from all sin.  Sin doesn't cause the saints' fellowship with God to be broken, either. God is not waiting for you to restore your relationship with Him after you sinned, because it was never broken to begin with. We think our fellowship with the Father breaks when we commit a sin, because the whole world around us functions that way. For example, whenever spouses make mistakes and hurt each other, they don't immediately get a divorce, but those mistakes affect the fellowship between the two and the person responsible needs to ask for forgiveness for that fellowship to be restored. And we transfer this way of thinking in our relationship with God and we believe that God is like humans, waiting for our apology before He can forgive us and fellowship with us again. But God is not like humans. He took the initiative of paying for our sins through His Son's sacrifice even before we were born or ever existed. From God's point of view, we never come out of fellowship with Him. Only our mind and conscience tell us that we are out of fellowship with Him and we feel like we need to do something to rectify that. Yes, we may grieve the Holy Spirit and frustrate the grace of God, as Ephesians 4:30 shows us, but He never interrupts His fellowship with us because of this.  Let's suppose for a moment that you would come out of fellowship with God when you sinned. How would that state look like? Let's define it together. Does that mean that God is so upset with you that He will not help you with anything unless you confess your sin, even if you ask Him in prayer? Does that mean that you cannot rely on God for anything and that you are on your own until you confess your sins? No, of course not. Oh, the devil loves it when you think that way and that is actually his purpose in condemning you: to think that God is angry with you because of your sin and that you should not even dare to talk to Him or ask Him for anything. That is a completely wrong and unbiblical thinking in the New Testament. That was true only in the Old Testament. People would experience defeat and calamities when they sinned against God. But that was happening because Jesus Christ had not paid yet the penalty of their sins. For Israelites to experience the blessings of God on a regular basis, there was a way: they had to either always obey the Law (which we know they couldn't keep all the time), or bring animal sacrifices and ask for forgiveness immediately when they sinned. That is no longer true in the New Testament thanks to the eternal sacrifice of Jesus, that forgives us once and for all.  As I mentioned before in other places, grieving the Holy Spirit is not the same thing with offending or upsetting Him. The Holy Spirit would be offended and upset if either there was no love and care for believers on His part, or there was no blood sacrifice to atone for those who believed. Grief refers to a suffering and a pain caused by love. The Holy Spirit grieves because He loves us and He suffers seeing how we destroy ourselves and allow death to manifest in our lives through sin.  The word “confess” from 1 John 1:9 is the Greek word “Homologeo,” which means “to say the same thing as someone else, to agree with someone, or to acknowledge.” Therefore, to confess our sins is to say the same thing about our sins as God does: that sin is real, but that our sins have been forgiven and washed away by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:5). When we realize that we have sinned and that we were actually born in sin and in rebellion to God because of the adamic sin, true confession is agreeing with God's Word about His solution for sin and expressing our gratefulness to Him for the reality of our forgiveness in Christ.  Based on this verse, many Christian churches teach that those who already believed in Christ must confess their sins on a regular basis to be forgiven. They teach that believers can go in and out of fellowship with God, as mentioned before. They say believers must keep short accounts with God. The reason for short accounts is so they would not forget the sins they committed and thus, not be out of fellowship with God for an extended period of time. If this verse indeed talks about confessing sins on a regular basis, then it must refer to all sins, both KNOWN and UNKNOWN, because the verse doesn't say to confess only KNOWN sins, and there is no other verse in the Bible that would say that. Every sin needs to be recognized and confessed, otherwise based on this verse, we are still unrighteous. We cannot just pick and choose what we want to confess. We cannot confess only the sins we remember. And as we all know, it's not humanly possible to confess every sin in thought, word, or deed. Can we know and remember always every single sin and confess it, including the sins of omission? If forgiveness of sins depends on our regular confession of sins, then we have a serious problem to overcome, an impossible one. You may wonder: “What should I do though when I sin? Should I just simply ignore the sin and never say to God that I am sorry?” Not necessarily, but I will explain more about this later.  In the two instances where we see the word “sins” in 1 John 1:9, it's the Greek noun “Hamartia” that is used. Two common words are translated from Greek as “sin” in the New Testament, but have different connotations. The two words are Hamartano (a verb) and Hamartia (a noun). Both words mean literally “to miss the mark when shooting an arrow.” However, the verb Hamartano is used in the Bible in the sense of sinful behavior that misses the mark of holiness (“a thing we do from time to time”), while the noun Hamartia depicts the inward sinful condition that is off the mark and not the actions. According to well-known Bible scholar William Vine, the noun Hamartia indicates “a principle or source of action, an inward element producing acts, a governing principle or power.” In other words, the noun Hamartia refers to the sin principle and to our inherited sinful state passed down from Adam after the fall. It's interesting and important to note that Paul uses one of these two words far more predominantly than he uses the other one. Do you know which one it is? In the entirety of his epistles, Paul uses the verb Hamartano only 14 times, compared to an astounding 55 uses of the noun Hamartia. These two words appear mostly in the book of Romans, where the ratio is even more astounding: 6 uses of the verb Hamartano, compared to 39 uses of the noun Hamartia! Most of the time, when we encounter the word “sin” in the book of Romans, Paul is not talking about sinful behavior, but about the sin condition. By using the noun form of this word, John (like Paul) was clearly not referring to our committing of individual acts of sin in time, or otherwise he would have used the verb form “Hamartano.” Although he used the plural of noun Hamartia (which would translate into sins), John was referring to the sin nature inherited from Adam at the spirit level, together with the totality of sinful actions generated by that nature at the soul and body level for all time (past, present, and future). In light of this, I believe we are now in a better position to understand that 1 John 1:9 is not talking about confessing our sins every time we sin in thought or deed. John was speaking about the need to acknowledge and confess to God that we are sinners because of Adam's sin, and to receive the total forgiveness for all our sins through Jesus' finished work. How often do we need to do this? Only once, at salvation. That is why 1 John 1:9 is a salvation verse that encourages sinners to acknowledge and confess their sinful state or “sinnerhood,” be born again by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and have their sinful nature from Adam replaced with a new righteous nature through Christ. To be fully convinced that this is what John had in mind, let's take a look at three more passages from the Gospels, where the same noun Hamartia was used in plural form and analyze its meaning in those contexts. The first one is Matthew 1:21: Matthew 1:21 (NKJV) 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins (gr. Hamartias).  Surely, Jesus has not saved His people from all sinful actions and deeds in the sense that they don't commit them anymore in time after salvation, but He saved them from their sins in the sense of the nature inherited from Adam and the sinful actions that are generated from that nature in time. Luke 24:47 illustrates the same thing, in conjunction with repentance; it reflects the same meaning of state or condition: Luke 24:47 (NKJV) 47 and that repentance and remission of sins (gr. Hamartias) should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  The third passage is found in Matthew 3:5-6, where it says this: Matthew 3:5–6 (NKJV) 5 Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him 6 and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins (gr. Hamartias).  As mentioned previously, it is safe to assume that these people coming to John the Baptist were not confessing to him their individual sins, but their sins in a cumulative sense. Now, coming back to 1 John 1:9, the heretical Gnostic doctrine was not acknowledging man's sinful state. John addressed this heresy head on in the first chapter of 1 John, and He was encouraging those affected by Gnostic thinking to confess their sinful state and receive Christ's complete forgiveness and total cleansing from all their unrighteousness, through His finished work at the cross. Once believers become righteous at the moment of salvation, they cannot have unrighteousness to be cleansed of again. Only unbelievers need to be cleansed from all unrighteousness.  ”Then what does apostle John say about our committing of sins in time, at the soul and body level, after we have become believers?” Just two verses later, in the second chapter of the epistle, John answers this question as he begins his address to believers: 1 John 2:1 (NKJV) 1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin (gr. Hamartano). And if anyone sins (gr. Hamartano), we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  This time, the words “sin” and “sins” are represented by the Greek verb Hamartano. John is now referring to believers' committing of sins—their sinful thoughts and deeds. What does John say regarding this? He reminds us that, when we fail as believers, we have an Advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ. He is our Lawyer employed by the Father Himself, Who represents and defends us against all accusations of the devil. He is the best Lawyer that we could ever have and He has the best defense in our favor: His precious blood that speaks redemption for eternity! Because of our Lord Jesus and of what He has accomplished at the cross, we have forgiveness and we stand righteous before God, even when we sin. As the apostle Paul reminded the Corinthian believers, who had failed multiple times through sin, that they were still the temple of the Holy Spirit, John reminds us of who we are in Christ and of Who we have representing us at God's right hand. Then, in verse 12 of the same chapter 2, John reinforces what he said in verse 2: 1 John 2:12 (NKJV) 12 I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake.  What does he say here? He reminds spiritual children, who still feel condemned, that their sins are already  forgiven them for His name's sake, and not because of their confession.  

Confession of SinsRomans 8:1 says this: Romans 8:1 (NKJV) 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  Many Christians read the above passage and again they add in their mind, without even realizing, the following: “Yes, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus [as long as they don't have any unconfessed sins in their lives].” However, that is not true. As we will see from the Bible, confession of sins doesn't constitute the basis, or the condition of MAINTAINING salvation. Once believers are justified by faith, they have peace with God forever: Romans 5:1 (NKJV) 1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  If maintaining justification or salvation depends on believers' confession of sins (either of all sins or even only the known sins), then the most loving thing that God, the Father, can do for believers is to take them to heaven immediately after they are saved. This way believers are not in danger of ever losing their salvation by missing even one unconfessed sin. When believers confess their sins, can they be sure they confessed everything? Do they have enough time to confess everything?  For Martin Luther, confession of sins was a daily discipline. Sometimes, he confessed for as long as six hours at a time! He took it to the highest extreme. Luther was asked on one occasion, “Do you love God?” to which he answered, “Do I love God? Sometimes I hate Him.” How could someone say such a thing? Only  someone tormented by his sin could come to such a conclusion. Luther confessed for hours. He would review regularly the Ten Commandments and the seven deadly sins and the greatest Scriptural fear he had was breaking the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). He would also review often the Sermon on the Mount and question whether he could faithfully live according to its principles. The scenes of judgment in the Book of Revelation haunted him as well. R.C. Sproul explains with more details what used to happen in those times in this way, “Confession was a regular part of the monastic life. The other brothers came regularly to their confessors and said, ‘Father, I have sinned. Last night I stayed up after ‘lights out' and read my Bible with a candle' or, ‘Yesterday at lunchtime I coveted Brother Philip's potato salad.' (How much trouble can a monk get into in a monastery?) The father Confessor would hear the confession, grant priestly absolution, and then assign a small penance to be performed. That was it! The whole process took only a few minutes. Not so with Brother Luther. He was not satisfied with a brief recitation of his sins. He wanted to make sure that no sin in his life was left unconfessed. He entered the confessional and stayed up for hours every day.” Luther's reason for confession was his fright about God's judgment. He thought God was offended by his sins, but God was not offended because of Christ's sacrifice. Luther lived in daily fear of the immediate judgment of God on his life. He said on one occasion, “If I could believe that God was not angry with me, I would stand on my head for joy.” That's how much he became distressed with the enormity of his own sins and his inability to satisfy a righteous God.  Luther confessed every sin. He hated his sin. In fact, because of his obsession with confession, Luther was even deemed crazy. Some monks believed he had deep sexual struggles, because only that kind of sins would bother a monk so much that he would confess as much as he did. The monks thought Luther was on the verge of a psychotic episode or breakdown. His heavy doses of confession caused even physical pain and suffering to him. He developed digestive difficulties (e.g., kidney stones and gallstones) due to the anxiety caused by his battle with sin. No particular sins distressed him. It was his overall corrupt nature –“What can I do to win a gracious God? Oh my sin, my sin, what shall I do with my sin?” Today, maybe Christians don't take confession of sins to such extremes like Luther, although they should, if they were really serious about it. However, they still go through a similar relative torment like Luther and always feel unworthy before God. The Israelites in the Old Testament had a Day of Atonement once a year when they would confess their sins and put them all on a goat - a scapegoat called Azazel - and then they would send that goat in the wilderness. Can anyone imagine a few million Jews taking the time to confess all their sins from that past year to the priests? The whole process would have taken a few years to end and the priests would be exhausted or die of exhaustion. Did the people confess their sins like believers do today? Of course not. Whenever people brought animals for sin offerings, would the priests examine the people of their sins, or the animal for sacrifice, which had to be spotless and without any defect? The animal, of course. The priest would examine the sacrifice and not the person bringing it, because the whole reason for why anyone would bring a sin offering was that they sinned. No need for further examination.  Similarly, when John the Baptist baptized people in water at the river Jordan, the Bible says that people would come to him and confess their sins. They would not start confessing every little sin to John in the water. In both of these two described cases, confession of sins meant acknowledging that they had sinned before God, and believing that He forgave or covered all their sins. This is what born-again believers do, once and for all, at the moment of their salvation. Think about the criminal on the cross, who had a multitude of sins, which he didn't confess. He just asked Jesus to remember him when He would go into His kingdom and Jesus promised him that He would take him to heaven. Why would God be interested in hearing about every dirty and filthy sin of ours? He knows and sees plenty of it, everything is open in His sight, He already knows everything, and He already paid for all sins through Jesus' sacrifice.  The truth is that, even if we think that we have a sincere and pertinent reason for confessing our sins, we actually do it because we cannot forgive ourselves and because of our self-righteousness. We are trying to show God that we are not that bad, that we can do something to fix the wrong and become again worthy before Him to receive His blessings, and to have Him move with power in our lives. Does confession of sins really help us in not sinning anymore? As you probably noticed in your own practice, most of the times, it doesn't. You confess the sin and then you do it again most of the times, because that confession in itself keeps you in the cycle of sinning, by making you focus on the sin and on your inability to overcome it, and not on Jesus.  Now, let's look at confession of sins from a different angle. When people do something wrong to us, should we expect them to ask for forgiveness first in order to forgive them? According to the Bible, no, not at all. We should forgive people no matter what they do, and even about 490 times a day. If God requires that of us, wouldn't He much more treat us the same way? Yes, He would. He has already removed all our sins, without waiting for our detailed confession of every sin. We confessed once that we were sinners and that we needed Jesus' sacrifice to cleanse us, and this was enough for Him. Apparently, the sacrifice of Jesus is not enough for us. We feel the need of crying and making penance for every sin repeatedly. An even more concerning question is this: What happens if a believer suddenly dies with unconfessed sins? Is he not saved anymore? Does he go to hell after living a lifetime with God? Sadly, many Christians and even leaders think that these believers would go to hell. In order to alleviate such a terrifying conclusion, they say that, in reality, not many believers will be in that situation, because God will ”orchestrate” their death in such a way that most Christians would die with all their sins confessed. Are you ready to believe something that doesn't even have a biblical support, rather than believing that all your sins have been removed and that, no matter when and how you die, you go to heaven? Such an assumption would mean that believers are saved completely and permanently only at the end of their lives, and even then, only if they confessed all sins. This conclusion is not biblical.  Now, if we look carefully in the New Testament, we can easily notice that Jesus, in all His life on earth, never mentioned confession of sins, not even when He initiated the Communion (or the Lord's Supper) in the upper room with His disciples. He didn't tell them to take a few minutes to examine themselves of their sins, make sure they confessed everything, and then partake of the bread and the wine, or not partake at all, if their sin is too heavy. Furthermore, we can see apostle Paul speaking in so much detail about salvation, justification, and sanctification in all of his doctrinal epistles (Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, 1 and 2 Timothy, etc.), but never mentioning anything about confessing sins. How could Paul forget altogether to mention such an “important” aspect of confession of sins as a condition to maintain salvation? Of course, he didn't forget. In fact, he didn't write anything about it intentionally. In his letter to the Corinthian Christians, many of whom were committing sins like visiting the prostitutes from idols' temples, he didn't tell them to confess their sins to get right with God, but rather he reminded them of who they were in Christ: 1 Corinthians 3:16 (NKJV) 16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  Our being “right with God” is not based on the imperfect confession of sins of an imperfect man, but on the riches of God's grace and on the perfect sacrifice of His Son. There are only two passages in the whole New Testament alluding specifically to confession of sins and neither one of them was written by Paul. In addition, none of those two passages mentions confession of sins as a condition for maintaining salvation. The two passages are found in James 5:14-16 in the context of physical healing, and in 1 John 1:9. Let's take a look at the first one.   James 5:14-16 James 5:14–16 (NKJV) 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.  It's important to notice a few things in this passage. The context of this passage is physical healing of sickness and confession of trespasses (or mistakes) to one another, not to God. Only by looking at the context, we can conclude that this passage cannot be taken as a biblical support for confession of sins to God, the way Christians do it today. Verse 15 says clearly that if the sick person has committed sins, they will be automatically forgiven without any confession. More striking is that those sins will be forgiven after the person was healed and not before. Sometimes when I go to pray for someone sick, if the sickness doesn't go instantly and is stubborn, some leaders would say to me: “Ask the person if they have some unconfessed sin or hidden sin in their life.” What does that have to do with anything? Does unconfessed sin stop healing? No, not at all. While we were yet sinners, God took the initiative to send His Son to die for us, even before we were born without waiting for us to ask Him to do that. The passage clearly says that the sick will be healed first, irrespective of their sins, and if they committed sins, they will be forgiven without mentioning anything about confession of sins to God.  Verse 16 then talks about confessing our trespasses to one another. However, that doesn't make us more holy and worthy of healing before God, it doesn't bring us closer to God, and neither delivers us permanently from not committing those sins again. Confessing, crying, and taking the load off your chest doesn't really make you free of sin. Such freedom comes only by grace through faith, and not by confession to one another. Yes, it's true, that some sins like witchcraft and involvement in the occult can be the direct cause of certain diseases. Likewise, stress, unforgiveness or bitterness can cause some diseases, as well, and by simply confessing those sins to one another and bringing them to light, the sick person can be healed and delivered. However, confession in such instances is not a condition to make God heal the person, but rather an act to expose the demonic or to seek reconciliation in human relationships. This would be the first reason for confessing sins to one another. A second reason for confessing sins to one another, based on this passage, can be to receive help in prayer from other believers concerning a problem or sin, and to be strengthened for victory over those sinful behaviors. In fact, verse 16 encourages praying for one another. The third reason for confessing hidden sins to other people is your emotional relief and the therapeutical effect following the sharing of those things. Sinful behaviors or deeds steal your peace and keep condemning you continuously, so confession helps you forgive yourself and cleanse your conscience of that guilt easier and faster, especially in the case of repeated sins. However, that confession doesn't influence God and His relationship to you in any way. This aspect of bringing to light things hidden that tear a person apart inside is encouraged even by the secular world as being beneficial. However, it cannot be used to make atonement for your sins before God. 

BELIEVERS CANNOT SIN (1 JOHN 3:9)1 John 3:9 (NKJV) 9 Whoever has been born of God doesn’t sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.  Many people struggle to understand this passage because its context clearly shows that Christians still sin: 1 John 1:8 (NKJV) 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  1 John 1:10 (NKJV) 10 If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.  1 John 2:1 (NKJV) 1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous.  These are three instances from the same letter where the writer, the apostle John, talks about sinning. The first two passages communicate that, “If you say you haven’t sinned, you are a liar.” Then, in the third passage, John adds this, “I am writing to you so that you will not sin (future tense). But if you do sin, you have an Advocate with the Father.” Then, in 1 John 3:9 he declares, “If you are born of God, you cannot sin.” That sounds very contradictory, isn’t it? Both Scripture and experience reveal that Christians can sin and still sin. Even the entire context of the book of 1 John shows that it’s possible for a born-again believer to do something that is sin. Yet, 1 John 3:9 clearly says that if you are born of God, you cannot sin. How can this be? Some people take 1 John 3:9 to mean you cannot “habitually” sin. Several Bible translations now even render it this way. People who think along this line preach something like this: “If you were a drunk before you were saved, you might get drunk once or twice, but if you are truly saved, you will not habitually sin. Eventually, you will see victory in that area, or you were not truly born again.” However, in order to embrace this view, you have to categorize sin – which God doesn’t. To Him, there are no “big” sins and “little” sins. By His definition, we all habitually sin. We all habitually fail to study God’s Word as much as we should. We all habitually fail to love others the way we should. We all habitually fail to be as considerate as we should. We habitually get into self-centeredness, and God has to habitually deal with us about it.  Sometimes, we also pass over things that God calls sins. For instance, God views gluttony the same as drunkenness, adultery, and murder (see Deuteronomy 21:20). Gluttony is a sin that can only happen habitually. You cannot become overweight by eating just one large meal. Even if you gorged yourself one meal, it would only make a pound or two of difference. However, in order to gain an extra fifty to a hundred pounds, you would have to do it repeatedly. Being overweight is a habitual sin. I don’t say that to condemn anyone, because I know there are overweight people who are not that way necessarily because of food. But I want to put things into perspective.  If you interpret 1 John 3:9 to mean that you cannot habitually sin if you are truly born of God, then nobody would qualify, because we all habitually sin. The only way this can be preached is to say, “Well, you cannot habitually do the big sins, but the little sins, yes, you can habitually do them.” However, this is not what this verse is saying.  I believe that the apparent contradiction and confusion created by the book of 1 John concerning the new creation and sin flows from the frequent and subtle alternation between sinning at the level of the body and soul and sinning at the level of the new spirit. If you understand the human composition of spirit, soul, and body and that God deals with the born-again believers in the spirit or at the spirit level, then a better interpretation of this passage would be the following. The only part of you that is born of God is your spirit. Your soul is not born of God and your body is not born of God. They have been purchased, but they are not redeemed yet. Your soul and mind are being renewed, and your body will be glorified at the end. But the only part of you that is changed right now in an instant is your spirit and your spirit cannot sin. That spirit was created in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24). Once you believed, your spirit was sealed (Ephesians 1:13), preserved and encased in the Holy Spirit in such a way that sins that you commit in your actions and in your thoughts don’t penetrate it. Since the recreated spirit cannot sin by itself, it retains its purity and its holiness. You don’t lose your spirit’s holiness based on your performance. This understanding is pivotal to having a relationship with God and fellowship with Him.  Based on Hebrews 9 and 10 and on what we’ve discussed so far about future sins, we can also interpret 1 John 3:9 in the following way: if all past, present, and future sins of born-again believers have already been removed by Jesus’ sacrifice once and for all, then there is no sin that a believer could do that would fall outside of what the sacrifice of Jesus has already dealt with. As such, a Christian cannot commit sin anymore.  Next, let’s see how and what does the Holy Spirit convicts the world and believers of, because most of the time the condemnation coming from our conscience is confused with the Holy Spirit’s conviction.   THE CONVICTION OF SIN AND OF RIGHTEOUSNESSIn the night before His crucifixion, in John 16:7-11, Jesus gave His disciples some instructions, telling them the following:  John 16:7–11 (NKJV) 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It’s to your advantage that I go away; for if I don’t go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they don’t believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.  In verse 8, we can see the three-fold ministry of the Holy Spirit: to convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. It’s amazing how religion in general has twisted this verse to make it sound condemning, when it’s in fact the exact opposite. The Lord Jesus seems to have known that this passage will be misinterpreted, or that it could be misinterpreted, so He went on in the following verses explaining in detail exactly what He meant. In verse 9, it says “of sin” (singular) and not “sins” (plural). The Holy Spirit convicts the world and not believers, of only one sin: the sin of not believing in Jesus. He doesn’t convict the world of all their individual immoral sins, because the conscience already does that. The Holy Spirit doesn’t convict people that are not born again about whether they are drinking, lying, or stealing; that is the conscience’s job. The primary reason for which people will be going to hell is the sin of rejecting Jesus, not their individual sins. This is the direct cause, because the sins of the entire world have been paid for: 1 John 2:2 (NKJV) 2 And He Himself is the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.  Jesus didn’t die only for the believers that would accept Him, but He also died for the people that maybe will never accept Him. He has already paid for their sins as well. The sins of the whole world have been paid for. The Lord Jesus has paid for the sins of the whole world, even those that haven’t been committed yet. Consequently, people are not going to hell for their sins. Their sins have been paid for. People go to hell for rejecting the payment that was made for their sins, which is the sacrifice of Lord Jesus. Christ has paid for the sins of every single person. It doesn’t matter whether you are a good person, a moral person, or a bad person. Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God.” Every person has missed heaven. Some of us have lived maybe a little better than others, maybe we haven’t done the evil things other people have done, but compared to God’s standard of holiness, all have sinned and come short of His holiness. If you are trusting in your own goodness, your own holiness, and in your good deeds, without receiving Christ into your heart, you will go to hell. Jesus paid for your sins and you cannot come before God based on your goodness and tell Him, “God, I deserve heaven because I lived holy. I didn’t curse, steal, or kill anyone. I am a good and moral person.” You would be sent directly to hell. But Jesus paid for the sins of everybody. Everybody! All your sins have been paid for. It doesn’t matter what you have done. It doesn’t matter if you are the sorriest person in the world. Jesus has paid for your sins the same way He paid for every person’s sins, so sin is not the problem anymore. Jesus ended the sin problem once and for all. It’s all about Jesus. All that matters is that you put your faith in Jesus. That is what the Holy Spirit convicts the world of: Jesus’ payment of all sins.  After you are born again, the Holy Spirit continues to convince you and tell you the same thing, but on the righteousness side of the payment. He tries to convince you that all your past, present, and future sins have been forgiven and removed for you by Jesus’ payment of blood. The Holy Spirit is not the One going around after you everywhere telling you: “You should not do this,” or “You should not have done that.” Some of you have this thinking sometimes, “Oh, the Holy Spirit has been on my case and He’s been telling me all the time I should not do this or that.” No, this is religion that talks to you that you, not the Holy Spirit. It’s your own conscience condemning you and your intuitive knowledge of good and evil, your knowledge of right and wrong. Religion only amplifies these and makes it worse. The Holy Spirit is not the One condemning you. Have you not heard people in church confessing things like, “My brother, I did this thing wrong and the Holy Spirit just made me feel miserable; He would not give me any rest?” They stand up, confess, and then they repent, and tell everybody what they have done. And they think the Holy Spirit brings this feeling of condemnation. They call it conviction, but it’s actually condemnation. That does not mean that the Holy Spirit is against the conscience and He’s opposing it. Conscience is good and moral, exactly like what Paul said about the Law of Moses. That is why God gave it to us in the first place, to keep us in check. Both the conscience and the Law of Moses reflect God’s nature and His perfect moral standard. They are both in tune and in unity with the Holy Spirit. However, the Holy Spirit has to convince believers of a higher reality that supersedes the condemnation coming from the conscience and the Law, and that is, the righteousness of Jesus that was paid for in blood. Isn’t it so that you don’t hear very often in churches today people standing up and saying: “Dear brothers and sisters, I did this or that and I know it was not good before God. But the Holy Spirit came to me and convinced me that I am still the righteousness of God and Christ, I am still God’s beloved, and I am free of condemnation?” And yet, this is exactly what the Holy Spirit is trying to convince believers of, especially after they sinned, because it is so counterintuitive to the human mind’s logic. Concerning believers, the Holy Spirit continues to convince them basically of the same sin of unbelief and not of individual sins. However, this time, it is not unbelief in Jesus’ payment for their sins, but unbelief in the continuous eternal result of Jesus’ payment for sins, that is unbelief in righteousness. The Holy Spirit is there to convince believers of righteousness. Why? Because Jesus is no longer with them to assure them of this reality. He went to the Father. So, when you sin as a believer, the Holy Spirit is there to ask you: “Do you really believe in Jesus?” You answer: “Yes, I believe.” And He says: “Then you are still righteous and in right standing with God, even if you sinned. You are not condemned. God is not angry with you and you are still in fellowship with Him. And I, the Holy Spirit, am still here with you to help you and to strengthen you. I am on your side no matter what and I love you.” The root of all sins is the sin of unbelief in Jesus. If you peel all the layers, everything goes back to unbelief. Why do you worry? Because you don’t trust in Jesus. Worry is an insult to the promises of God. The doctor tells you that you are sick and you are going to die, while the Bible says that by His stripes you were healed (1 Peter 2:24). Why do you stay sick sometimes? Because you trust the doctors’ facts and diagnosis, more than you trust the Word of God on healing and on who you are in Christ. And that is what the Holy Spirit is trying to convince believers of. He is trying to convince them of the Word of righteousness.  The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, the Helper and the Builder, not the Accuser. The devil and your conscience are the accusers. The Bible says: 1 John 3:20 (NKJV) 20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.  When your own heart condemns you, God is there through the Holy Spirit to tell you that He is greater than that condemnation and He knows all things. He is aware of your failures and sins, but He is greater than those failures.  So far, we have seen from the Word that born-again believers are righteous by nature in their spirit, are free of condemnation forever, and their future sins have been removed as well. Consequently, they cannot actually sin in their spirit. What are then the implications of these facts in some areas that believers face on a daily basis, such as confession of sins, the Lord’s Communion, the extent and assurance of salvation, as well as practical holiness or sanctification? We will see in our next sessions.

Free of CondemnationAnother way your conscience is cleansed of the consciousness of sins is by realizing and acknowledging in your mind and heart that, even when you sinned, you still remain free of condemnation. Let’s read the most famous passage on freedom of condemnation found in Romans 8:1-2: Romans 8:1–2 (NKJV) 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.  Who is Paul referring to in the above passage? He addresses those who are in Christ, meaning the invisible church (which is the true church), and not the visible one. Now, what does it mean for you to be in Christ? It means that you are a born-again believer and a new creation. It means also that you are saved, justified, that you have eternal life, and have the Holy Spirit in you. These are all equivalent phrases about being in Christ. So, this passage is addressed to believers that still commit sinful actions. In the physical and natural realm, when can a court of law condemn you? You are condemned when you break the law of the country you live in. In the spiritual realm, being condemned before God means that you are a sinner. What does “no condemnation” mean before God? It means justification, or having the “justified” legal status declared by God on you as a believer; it’s right standing with God. That means you are “unblammable,” as if you’ve never sinned. Justification is more than forgiveness of sins. In our inter-human relationships, forgiveness means that the wrong done to someone remains still unpaid, but the wronged party chooses to overlook it or forget about it. The phrase “forgiveness of sins” in relation to God can be used only in the sense that believers didn’t pay themselves directly for their sins because of His mercy. But Someone paid. Christ is the One Who paid for them and in their stead, and they paid in Him. God didn’t just overlook or forget their sins without any payment. Christ paid for them. Justification means that believers paid in full for their sins in Christ, and that they have been reborn into a new justified creation that has never sinned. If you received Jesus Christ into your heart as your Savior, then you became justified, you paid in full for all your sins through Christ, and you have been reborn into a new justified creation that has never sinned and will never actually sin ever again. I will explain that in detail later. As a believer in Christ, all your sins - past, present, and future - have been completely and permanently removed, not just forgiven.  In the story of Daniel, after he was thrown into the lions’ den and God saved his life, if someone came to king Darius and told him that Daniel broke the law, it would have been unjust for the king to punish Daniel again for the same law break. Daniel had already been thrown once into the lions’ den. In the same way, God’s justice today demands our acquittal because of Christ’s sacrifice. We are not justified based on mercy, but based on justice and righteousness, because our sins were paid in full in Christ. In the night of the Passover, when the people of Israel were getting ready to leave Egypt, God told them: “When I will pass through your door and see the blood (not your good works or your good name), I will pass over” (Exodus 12:13). Blood means that there has already been a death. Jesus died for us and that’s why God’s righteousness is on our side. Many Christians read Romans 8:1-2 and, unconsciously, add to it in their mind the following phrase:“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus [as long as they don’t do sinful deeds].” However, Paul addresses born-again believers in this verse, who still have sinful deeds in their lives. If they didn’t have any sinful deeds at all, there would not be a reason for them to feel condemned in the first place, and the verse would be irrelevant. The apostle Paul has in mind exactly those people who were regenerated, who were made righteous, but still have sinful deeds in their lives, like you and me. It’s exactly those deeds that have the tendency to make you, as a believer, feel condemned, although you are not condemned anymore. Another way some Christians read the above verse is the following: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus [as long as they do works of righteousness and walk according to the Spirit].” However, at the moment of salvation you have received an eternal redemption and justification, completely apart from works and independent of your good or bad works: Ephesians 2:8–9 (NKJV) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it’s the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.  Romans 3:28 (NKJV) 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the Law.  Salvation came by grace through faith and not through good works, which are the deeds of the Law. Faith is the only condition of receiving eternal justification. Good works are not a condition, but a natural effect, and a normal result of a genuine saving faith. Faith alone justifies, but not the faith that is alone. James seems to paint a slightly different picture than apostle Paul in James 2:14-26, by affirming both faith and good works as conditions for salvation, apparently contradicting Paul. I said “apparently” because James is not actually contradicting Paul and we will see why. Let’s read the passage from James 2:14-26: James 2:14–26 (NKJV) 14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but doesn’t have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you don’t give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it doesn’t have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.  James states in verse 24 that a man is justified by works as well, and not by faith alone. James seems to have been bent towards the Law more than apostle Paul, emphasizing the works more. However, James is not saying that believers need good works as the CAUSE of their justification. He is saying that they will have good works as a CONSEQUENCE of their justification. Works cannot be added as a primary condition to justification, but as a necessary result of a genuine faith. There is an indestructible connection between faith and works. For example, if electric power runs as it should, there will be light in your house. But you, as the owner of the house, cannot produce light by yourself to prove that you have electric power coming through to your house from the electrical plant.  Generally speaking, Christians have a genuine faith at the moment of salvation concerning the escape from hell in the future life, after death. However, most of them don’t apply the same simple faith to sanctification and to good works in the present life. Because of wrong beliefs and wrong teaching, they are saved from hell, but they bear very few fruits of righteousness. They fail to do a lot of good works and are sometimes in doubt that their faith is even genuine or wonder if they are still saved or not. Good works should not be done by believers to obtain or MAINTAIN justification (salvation), but rather they should be done out of gratefulness and thanksgiving towards God for what He has done. Those good works will also receive rewards at the end of times. However, good works don’t create faith; they only reveal a genuine faith that is alive. In the same way, the bad works or the lack of good works don’t kill genuine faith, but only reveal a faith that was already dead in the first place.  If we go back in the Old Testament at the incident with king Solomon and the two mothers, what did Solomon look for when he decided to kill the healthy baby and share it between the two women? Did he look for a deed on the part of any of the two women that will deserve the healthy baby? Did he want to create a new relationship between any of those two women and the living baby, a relation that was not already there? Of course not! He was only looking for a deed that would prove what was already true; an action that would show who the real mother of that healthy baby was. Likewise, a genuine faith and relationship with Christ will eventually yield fruits of righteousness.  The Future SinsMost believers agree that at the moment of salvation all their past sins have been forgiven and removed by the blood of Jesus. However, what about the future sins? Are you free of condemnation only until your next sin? Are future sins removed in time based on your confession, or are they removed at the moment of regeneration as well? Of course, our future sins were also removed at the moment of salvation, because we were made righteous forever in our spirit. Let’s read again Hebrews 10:10-14: Hebrews 10:10–14 (NKJV) 10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever (or for all time) those who are being sanctified.  Verse 10 says that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ ONCE FOR ALL. Then verse 12 says that He offered ONE sacrifice for ALL our sins FOREVER. Finally, verse 14 again says that by ONE offering, He has PERFECTED us FOR ALL TIME. Even of sins that you haven’t committed yet, you have already been forgiven. Hebrews 9:12, 15 say that He has obtained for you an ETERNAL REDEMPTION and an ETERNAL INHERITANCE. The term “ETERNAL” proves that redemption is not temporal or partial, but covers all time and all sins:  Hebrews 9:12 (NKJV) 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.  Hebrews 9:15 (NKJV) 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the New Covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.  By enlarge, the body of Christ believes in a momentary redemption and a momentary inheritance that is constantly in the state of fluctuation based on their performance. Based on how you act, you can lose your salvation, and then you need to be born again AGAIN. However, if you could indeed lose your salvation at your next sin, then the most loving thing that the Father God could do for you is to kill you, and take you to heaven immediately after you received Christ in your heart, so that you would remain saved. A softer perspective that some people adopt is that you don’t lose your salvation and neither you go to hell at your next sin, but you lose all the benefits of salvation. They believe that, if you sin, God will not answer your prayers anymore, will not fellowship with you anymore, and will not be pleased with you anymore, until you remediate the situation. As a result, He will not release joy in your life, will not heal you, and will not make you prosper, unless you do the right thing. This interpretation is basically the same thing as the first perspective, but with lesser consequences, which are mostly related to this present, temporal and physical life and not to the future, eternal, and spiritual life. However, this is not what these verses are teaching.  Let me ask you this: When Jesus died for your sins on the cross, did you exist at that time on this earth? Most probably not. Therefore, that means all your sins for which Jesus died for, all the sins of your lifespan were future to Him. You have been eternally redeemed, you have received an eternal inheritance, and have been sanctified and perfected forever at the moment you believed in Jesus’ sacrifice. That is nearly too good to be true! Does that mean you can go ahead, and do whatever you want, and sin how much you want? Does that give you license to sin? Of course not. If you think that way, you need to be born again. This should rather encourage you even more to a right living before God. If you were truly born again, you would want to live for God and not for yourself. You may be doing a poor job at it sometimes, but the truth will make you free: not free to sin, but free from sin. Sin doesn’t affect God’s relation to you, neither His blessings for you, because of Christ, but sin does affect you, it affects your mind, and your capacity to receive the blessings of God both for yourself and for others. Your sinful deeds lead to death that might not be necessarily manifested instantly and tangibly in the way you expect, but it’s death manifested through confusion of your mind, depression, fear, unbelief, sickness, and ultimately even premature physical death. You will probably notice that when you sin, the devil and your conscience will directly attack your faith. They will tell you things like the following: “God is upset with you, your fellowship with Him is interrupted, the Holy Spirit left you, you are not loved anymore, and you are still a sinner.” This is the death that I refer to. When you sin, it becomes more difficult for your mind to believe again the truth of God about you and it requires extra effort to counter those thoughts of death generated by your sinful actions. You are the one interested first and foremost in not sinning, because when you sin, you hurt yourself without even knowing.  The offence of your sins towards God has already been paid for, so it’s not God getting hurt, but you are. It’s not God stopping His power and His blessings flowing through you because of your sins, but you are. Yes, God is grieved when you sin, but grief is not anger or offence; it’s rather a pain and a sadness of God, flowing out of God’s love as a Father towards you, when He sees you destroying yourself, and playing with death. God doesn’t reject you when you sin, because your sins have already been removed. God will never tell you: “I will not love you anymore if you do this,” or “I will not bless you anymore if you do that,” or “I will forsake you and interrupt My fellowship with you if you sin.” John 10:10 tells us that the thief (Satan) doesn’t come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. Our sinful actions give him the opportunity to do exactly that. When you understand the goodness of God towards you, and when you get a revelation of His love for you, that He wiped out all your sins (past, present, and future), you cannot but love the Lord, and be in awe of Him. You would be so appreciative of what the Lord has done that you would serve and obey God more accidentally than you ever have done on purpose before. It would lead to a holy life! Now, let’s continue reading in Hebrews 10 from verse 15: Hebrews 10:15–18 (NKJV) 15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.  This passage includes a quotation from Jeremiah 31 beginning from verse 31, where God promised that the New Covenant would not be like the Old Covenant. Under the Old Covenant, people would come to the Lord, they would ask for forgiveness for their sins, they would offer an animal sacrifice, which symbolically would cleanse them, and this is how they had their relationship with God. However, as it says in Hebrews 9:9, these things never cleansed their conscience. They were still sin-conscious and they were still living under condemnation. But in the New Covenant, God has put His laws into our hearts and He has written them into our minds. He doesn’t remember our sins and lawless deeds anymore.  Furthermore, verse 18 from Hebrews 10 says a very striking thing: where there is remission of these sins,  there is no longer an offering for sin. Extraordinary! Many Christians believe that every time they sin they have to go back and plead for God to apply Jesus’ blood on their sin. They believe they need to bring that sin under the blood. They feel that God is upset with them if they don’t confess their sins. They feel the need of waiting for some time before they even dare to come with their sin before God, especially if it’s a repeated one. In the meantime, until they get to that moment, they cannot even think about asking for something from God or rely on God to help them in any way. They think they are on their own and feel that they have placed themselves in the opposite camp with God. Finally, when they muster enough courage to come with their sin before God, they feel they need to cry as much and as sincere, as they possibly can, to assure God that they are really sorry for their sin. In that way, they make a kind of penitence for their sin and they punish themselves for it. They believe the more they cry, the more God will believe them, and finally will grant them forgiveness. You might have been in the same situation as these believers as well. I know I’ve done these things myself and went through these cycles for years, only to get back in the same place again and again. However, as far as God is concerned, He can never be upset again about your sin and wait for your heartfelt confession before granting forgiveness. All your sins have been PAID IN FULL by Christ, if you are in Christ. God can never be upset with Christ, right? Believers are no longer seen according to flesh, but according to Christ. Moreover, God being upset with you, would mean a double payment for your sin. That would make God unrighteous and would cheapen Christ’s sacrifice. Your crying of confession to be forgiven would be a human work added to the condition of being justified. If your future sins need your confession in order to be taken away, this would be like adding your work of confession to the sacrifice of Jesus and doing the same thing the people of Israel did in the Old Testament through animal sacrifices over and over again (see Hebrews 10:11). I will talk later about 1 John 1:9, which might come to your mind right now.  You might say: “What about Isaiah 59:2-4 where it says that our sins put a separating wall between us and God, hide His face from us and He will not hear us?” Yes, that was true in Isaiah’s time, because nobody had paid for those sins yet. Christ had not died yet on the cross. In the Old Testament, when they sinned they had to bring sacrifices and repair their relationship with God, otherwise He would not hear them or help them. However, in the New Testament, Christ has paid already for any sin and has redeemed us from the curses of the Law and from all the consequences of our sinning: Galatians 3:13 (NKJV) 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us (for It’s written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”).  Christ redeemed you from all the curses of Deuteronomy 28, meaning that He paid the penalty of every breach of the Law for you, and in you. In the New Testament, our sins no longer put a dividing wall between us and God and He still hears us, even when we sin.  Imagine I was over to your house and your child walked into the kitchen and kneeled down and said: “Oh mom and dad, I know I don’t deserve anything, I know I didn’t make my bed today, I know I haven’t gotten the best grades, I know I am not doing everything I could. But could I, please, have something to eat? Please, please! Just a little bit of food, please; not too much, so I would not get proud, but just enough to survive. I may not deserve a whole meal, but could you give me a little bit?” And your child would continue to beg you that way. If I saw that, I would think, “Something is wrong with this relationship.” Children are to honor and respect parents, but there is nothing wrong with the kid just coming in and say: “I am hungry, I want something to eat.” .” In reality, parents enjoy a level of familiarity in their relationships with children, and they like when their children come and draw benefits from that mutually respectful and familiar relation, instead of begging fearfully for things they need. However, religion has taught us to come beg God for crumbs, and tell Him that we are so unworthy of anything we might need. If you feel this way, it means your conscience hasn’t been cleansed. You are not approaching God in the New Covenant way. You are acting as though there is still a separation between you and God, and this is evidence that your conscience hasn’t been cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus. Let’s read the next verses from the same chapter 10 of the book of Hebrews: Hebrews 10:19–22 (NKJV) 19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 Let’s draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  We have to come to Him now by a new and living way. Verse 22 uses the expression “full assurance of faith.” There are various degrees of faith, trust, and reliance on God and on what Jesus did. You can just have faith and that’s the first level. But you can be assured of your faith and that’s the second level. Finally, you can have full assurance of faith. This verse says that we are supposed to have a full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. You cannot come before God with a full assurance of faith and absolutely and totally confident if you haven’t cleansed your conscience. Unfortunately, this is where most Christians live. They live with a defiled conscience. They still have a conscience of sin or a consciousness of sin, and their own heart condemns them. They might not even have any specific sin on their mind at times, but they would still feel sinful, unworthy, indebted to God, and condemned. That means they didn’t cleanse their conscience of sin. 

What happened to the cross? In what way did Jesus become sin and what kind of death did He experience? What are the implications for us believers of the sinless life that Jesus lived on earth and of His resurrection? You can find out in this message. For more Bible teaching, we invite you to visit our website: https://eserediuc.com/en To receive automatic notifications when new material is available, you can subscribe or follow us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eserediucm Twitter: https://twitter.com/eserediucm Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eserediucm TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@eserediucm YouTube: http://l.eserediuc.com/YouTubeEN Vimeo: http://l.eserediuc.com/VimeoEN Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/eserediucm You can also subscribe or follow us on the following podcast channels: Apple: http://l.eserediuc.com/ApplePodcastsEN Spotify: http://l.eserediuc.com/SpotifyEN Google: http://l.eserediuc.com/GooglePodcastsEN Vurbl: http://l.eserediuc.com/VurblEN Castbox: http://l.eserediuc.com/CastboxEN Stitcher: http://l.eserediuc.com/StitcherEN TuneIn: http://l.eserediuc.com/TuneInEN iHeartRadio: http://l.eserediuc.com/iHeartRadioEN Radio Public: http://l.eserediuc.com/RadioPublicEN Overcast: http://l.eserediuc.com/OvercastEN Podchaser: http://l.eserediuc.com/PodChaserEN Pocket Casts: http://l.eserediuc.com/PocketCastsEN Castro: http://l.eserediuc.com/CastroEN Deezer: http://l.eserediuc.com/DeezerEN You can download all our video, audio, and written materials in one zip file here: http://l.eserediuc.com/DownloadAll #TheGreatExchange #TheNewCovenant #Righteousness #audio

Have you ever tried to define the concept of sin, especially from the New Testament's point of view? What exactly is sin really? You can find out in this message. For more Bible teaching, we invite you to visit our website: https://eserediuc.com/en To receive automatic notifications when new material is available, you can subscribe or follow us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eserediucm Twitter: https://twitter.com/eserediucm Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eserediucm TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@eserediucm YouTube: http://l.eserediuc.com/YouTubeEN Vimeo: http://l.eserediuc.com/VimeoEN Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/eserediucm You can also subscribe or follow us on the following podcast channels: Apple: http://l.eserediuc.com/ApplePodcastsEN Spotify: http://l.eserediuc.com/SpotifyEN Google: http://l.eserediuc.com/GooglePodcastsEN Vurbl: http://l.eserediuc.com/VurblEN Castbox: http://l.eserediuc.com/CastboxEN Stitcher: http://l.eserediuc.com/StitcherEN TuneIn: http://l.eserediuc.com/TuneInEN iHeartRadio: http://l.eserediuc.com/iHeartRadioEN Radio Public: http://l.eserediuc.com/RadioPublicEN Overcast: http://l.eserediuc.com/OvercastEN Podchaser: http://l.eserediuc.com/PodChaserEN Pocket Casts: http://l.eserediuc.com/PocketCastsEN Castro: http://l.eserediuc.com/CastroEN Deezer: http://l.eserediuc.com/DeezerEN You can download all our video, audio, and written materials in one zip file here: http://l.eserediuc.com/DownloadAll #WhatIsSin #Sin #Righteousness #audio

This message talks about what righteousness is and about positional righteousness (innate righteousness) versus practical or behavioral righteousness (activated righteousness).

What should you see when you look in the mirror of the Word? With what kind of unconscious presumptions do you read the Bible? What changed radically for the believers in the New Testament compared to the people of God in the Old Testament? These are some of the questions this message is trying to answer.

This message shows what it means for born-again Christians to renew their minds and how this can be done practically. It also explains what carnal thinking and spiritual thinking mean, and then describes the differences between them, as well as what a truly spiritual person looks like.

This message continues the discussion of who the born-again Christians really are in their spirit.

In this message, the three parts of the human being are explained - spirit, soul and body - as well as the relationships between them, with an emphasis on the human spirit and on who the born-again Christians truly are, from the perspective of the spirit.

This message explains how our consciousness along with our behavior can generate two types of consciousness that are both detrimental to us: a consciousness of dead works and a consciousness of sins.

This message talks about the relationship between conscience and the Law of Moses, about the role of each, as well as about the advantages and disadvantages of each.

In this message, we learn about the purpose and the effects of conscience.

In this message, we learn about the origin of human conscience and its first effects on people.

This message discusses about what really pleases God, and about the relation between faith and holiness.

This message describes what is the current position of authority for believers in the spiritual realm, and what are the practical implications of this authority here on earth in general, and especially in relation to COVID-19.

This teaching message addresses the question: does God still judge the nations today through disease? If not, why not?

This message talks about the relation between love and faith and about how does love fuel faith effortlessly when understood correctly.

When and where should believers tithe? Should believers still tithe while in debt? What if they don't tithe? Are they cursed? Do healing and prosperity depend on tithing? Will God pay believers back their tithe multiplied? These are the questions that this session is trying to answer.

Is tithing for the New Testament believers? If yes, why should believers tithe and what are the benefits? How much is the tithe? These are the questions that this session is trying to answer.

In this message we discuss about the worthy manner in which we should partake of the Lord's Supper, about the right way of discerning the Lord's body, and about the correct examination of ourselves.

In this message, we attempt to prove that the biblical passage from Hebrews 3:12-14 and the “falling away” (departing) depicted there does not talk about the possibility of born-again believers ever losing their salvation because of sinning. Instead, it deals with another kind of separation from the living God.

This message talks about 4 truths and practical ways to continually live a supernatural life: (1) the new creation has received all the faith; (2) the mind renewal process; (3) faith releasers; (4) faith blockers.

This message talks about 3 main things: (1) speaking in tongues is a language; (2) speaking in tongues is a language of the Spirit; (3) speaking in tongues is a pure language. Moreover, it also debunks 3 myths about speaking in tongues.

The final session of the "Divine Healing Series" finalizes the topic of how to minister healing to other people. It covers the following sub-sections: third-party faith, anointing with oil, anointing vs. power, what to do when results are delaying, what to do when you don't know what to do, and the Old Covenant vs. the New Covenant way of ministering healing.

The twenty-first session of the "Divine Healing Series" continues to teach on how to minister divine healing to other people by talking about: our responsibility as new creations, avoiding condemnation, the mechanic power of God, progressive recovery, information needed about the sickness, permission to minister, and where can we minister healing.

The twentieth session of the "Divine Healing Series" finalizes the teaching from the parable of the sower with the characteristics of the fruitful good ground, and then it opens the chapter of how to minister divine healing to other people through speaking, laying of hands, and through faith and perseverance.

The nineteenth session of the "Divine Healing Series" dissects the parable of the sower in the context of faith for divine healing and talks about the sower and the Word, about the characteristics of those that don't hear the Word, of those from the wayside ground category, the stony ground, and the thorny ground.

The eighteenth session of the "Divine Healing Series" concludes the discussion about spiritual violence by teaching how to develop a tenacity of faith. Then, a new big chapter commences on the main law of the Kingdom of God and that is: sowing the seed of the Word of God and the different types of grounds on which it falls.

The seventeenth session of the "Divine Healing Series" explains how important is to be spiritually violent, and what that means, based on Matthew 11:12: (1) having a strong conviction; (2) developing an anger against the works of the devil.

In session sixteenth of the "Divine Healing Series" we remain in the big chapter of "How to Believe", and we continue our discussion about faith by talking about faith blockers, about faith in our faith, about calling things that are not, then about the gift of faith vs. faith development, and finally we compare "great faith" with "son faith".

The fifteenth session of the "Divine Healing Series" continues the discussion about the brain science behind the mind renewal process, and then distinguishes four powerful divine weapons that stimulate faith and help release increasingly more faith: (1) the Word of God; (2) praise and worship; (3) prayer in tongues; (4) fasting.

The fourteenth session of the "Divine Healing Series" begins to explain how to actually believe so that you would see tangible results in divine healing. It talks about how the new creation received all the faith of God at the moment of salvation, it teaches how to release more of the faith progressively and increasingly, and explains a little bit the brain science behind the mind renewal process.

This thirteen session of the "Divine Healing Series" delineates four real obstacles in the way of divine healing: (1) lack of knowledge; (2) traditions of men; (3) unbelief; (4) the devil.

This twelfth session of the "Divine Healing Series" depicts 2 more false obstacles in the way of divine healing: (1) I took the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner; (2) there is a generational curse on me.

The eleventh session of the "Divine Healing Series" talks about 5 false obstacles to healing: (1) I reap my own wrong doings; (2) I have sin in my life; (3) I don't have enough faith; (4) I didn't pray or fast; (5) I didn't sow any money into the kingdom.

The tenth session of the "Divine Healing Series" begins to talk about false obstacles to physical healing and it covers 4 of those obstacles: (1) the hidden will of God; (2) God teaches me through sickness; (3) God disciplines me through sickness; (4) I gave authority to the devil.

This ninth session of the "Divine Healing Series" answers 3 more objections to divine healing: (1) Paul's thorn; (2) Timothy's stomach infirmities; (3) anyone who can heal people at will is prone to pride.

Continuing the answers to objections to healing, this eighth session of the "Divine Healing Series" brings explanations to 6 objections: (1) Job's sufferings; (2) Jesus couldn't heal in His home town; (3) the disciples also had a failure in casting out a demon; (4) Paul's physical infirmity in Galatia; (5) Epaphroditus' sickness; (6) Trophimus' sickness.

The seventh session of the "Divine Healing Series" begins answering the objections to divine healing that Christians bring and it covers 2 important topics: (1) God's sovereignty in relation to healing; (2) the "already, but not yet" theology.

This sixth session of the "Divine Healing Series" continues on the same big theme of God's willingness to heal people by proving that physical healing is part of the "every spiritual blessing" with which the new creation has already been blessed (Ephesians 1:3). Moreover, it also explains why God does want people healed.

This fifth session of the "Divine Healing Series" continues to prove God's willingness to heal people by showing how Jesus healed ANY kind of disease, to ANYONE, ANYTIME, and ANYWHERE. Then it shows how Jesus' disciples did the same thing after Jesus' ascension, and how the new creations have received now here on earth everything pertaining to life and godliness, including physical health.

This fourth session of the "Divine Healing Series" continues to show God's willingness to heal people in the New Testament, it proves that divine healing is fully included in redemption alongside the forgiveness of sins, and that the new creation is supposed to do today the same works that Jesus did while He was on earth.