Grace Leads To True Repentance

What is true repentance? Is it being mindful of your sins, and beating yourself over them with much remorse and sorrow? Join Joseph Prince in this must-hear message as he shows you what true repentance is in the new covenant. See for yourself from the Scriptures how genuine, new covenant repentance comes and how it effects victory over sin in your life. This revelation-packed message will correct all legalistic and erroneous notions of repentance, unveil the infinite goodness of your Father's heart and set you on the path to live a glorious life for Him.

Pastor Joseph Prince

Sermon note from Tycm's Blog by Terence Yeo: 2012-05-06 GRACE LEADS TO TRUE REPENTANCE [Ncc first service notes]

Jailbreak

Jailbreaking is a process that allows iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch users to run any code on their devices, as opposed to only that code authorized by Apple. Once jailbroken, iPhone users are able to download many applications previously unavailable through the App Store via unofficial installers such as Cydia, as well as illegally pirated apps. A jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch is still able to use and update apps downloaded and purchased from Apple's official App Store. So ever since I own an Iphone three months ago, this "term" keeps knocking at my mind… 

So let look at the real jailbreak….

For without the righteousness of God, nobody can live right, not even one, nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God. We all taken the wrong turn and wandered down blind alleys. No one is living right; you can't find a single one. Our throats are gaping graves, our tongues slick as mudslides. Every word we speak is tinged with poison. We open our mouths and pollute the air. We race for the honour of “sinner-of-the-year”, litter the land with heartbreak and ruin. We don't know the first thing about living with others. We never give God the time of day. This makes it clear, doesn't it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it's clear enough, isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God's revelation doesn't put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else's sin.

Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another Person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, He got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one Man said yes to God and put many in the right.

Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man's sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God's gift poured through one Man, Jesus Christ, will do! There's no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man's wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness, that the one Man Jesus Christ provides?

Our firm decision is to work from this focused centre: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in His life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.

Because of this decision we do not evaluate people by what they have or how they look. The Jewish people looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong. We certainly don't look at Him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, a new creation. The old life is gone; a new life began! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and Him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with Himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what He is doing. We are Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ Himself now: Become friends with God; He's already a friend with you.

So go and tell people about this jailbreak instead…

A compilation from the Message Bible

Condemnation Kills

Revival

Do you know that the revival that many Charismatic Christians are seeking for has actually already happened?

The Finished Work of Christ is that REVIVAL! The Finished Works of our Lord had changed everything. The Finished Work even changed the principle of repentance. Under the Old Covenant, man repented from their sins because God was against sin; while under the New Covenant, man repents towards righteousness because the sins issue had been satisfied at the Cross and Jesus’ righteousness had been freely and fully lavished upon those who believed in Him. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved! Jesus’ Finished Work at the Cross looks more like the revival many charismatic Christians are seeking through their regular fasting and fervent prayers.

Hey, the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For the Old Covenant Saints, they were looking forward prophetically to the cross for direction while as for us the New Covenant Saints, we look back to Jesus’ Finished Work for revelation. It is all about the revelation of the righteousness of Christ that we already have; the peace He had brought forth through the punishment He sustained at the Cross and the joy of never losing our salvation because of that mighty REVIVAL! The revival had already happened two thousand years ago; and what we need now is not fasting and praying for revival but fasting and praying for the revelation of what had happened in that revival! It is all about Jesus and His Finished Works. This is the everlasting revival!

I pity those good-hearted, on fire Christians who commit themselves in the Old Covenant fasting and praying for revival. They still believe that revival will not come unless there are sufficient fasting, ample prayers and “real” repentance… Before long, these good-hearted, on Fire Christians are burnt out instead burning up.

How can we receive revelation from that mighty revival which happened two thousand years ago? The answer is praying and fasting! WHAT...??? Yes, praying and fasting..., the New Covenant way!

So, stay tune…

Back To The Basic

To be a doer of Word is to believe that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. How hard it can be for the Body of Christ to believe that they are righteous? It is very very hard...... cos' the Body of Christ has been "Christianized"!

Yes, we have been "Christianized"! We need to go back to the basic… go back to our first love… go back to the time when the Holy Spirit first convicted us of righteousness. It was in John Chapter 16 that Jesus first expounded on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to convict the world of sin, the Body of Christ of righteousness and to judge the prince of this world!

When did the Holy Spirit first come to convict of the Body of Christ of righteousness?

It was at the Upper Room when the Day of Pentecost had fully come. The Holy Spirit came like a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and He filled the whole house where the 120 disciples were sitting. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

How long since the Body of Christ has been convicted of righteousness?

Since then, it has been two thousand years… all these while, the Body of Christ has been struggling to be taught on the issue that is actually their own rightful nature, the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus... What a conspiracy?

If you are a man, do you have to be taught on how to be a man? Or, if you are a woman, do you have to be taught on how to be a woman? But Christian, as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, still need to be taught that we are righteous. Duh…!

Thanks to all those religious and legalistic teachings that encourage deserved and merited favor… this type of teaching is "Christianizing" the Body of Christ. We need to be "gospelized" by the teaching on undeserved and unmerited favor! It is all about His grace, His undeserved and unmerited favor! The Lord is stirring up Gospel Revolution to “gospelize” the world and the Body of Christ… That is why we need to be brought back to the basic as the time of shaking is here… so that things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Hebrews 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,
Hebrews 12:23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Hebrews 12:24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
Hebrews 12:25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,
Hebrews 12:26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "YET ONCE MORE I SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO HEAVEN."
Hebrews 12:27 Now this, "YET ONCE MORE," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Hebrews 12:28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
Hebrews 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.

We just need to believe that we are righteous by faith; we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. This is our rightful identity. By believing we are righteous by faith is our only work that we need to do to prove that our faith is not dead. The rest are blessings for which we only have to say Amen, to the glory of God through us.

It is so easy because of His grace. Let us go back to the basic and start majoring on the major... let us "gospelize" the "Christianized"!

Put The Horse Back Before The Cart

In the new Covenant, God can put His laws in our hearts because the blood of Jesus had cleansed us so clean that the Holy Spirit can dwell in us.

Hebrews 10:16-18 ~ "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.

When we are born again, God put His laws in our heart through the Holy Spirit, so that born again believers can have a Spirit led life. The problem with us for not responding to this truth is that, we are not established in the New Covenant truth. Our righteousness is a gift from God not our performance... When we think that we still have our sinful nature after we are born again, we are on the wrong platform and frequency to respond to His prompting. When we are sin conscious, our sin consciousness leads us back to the two tablets of stones for the knowledge of good and evil. The knowledge of good and evil in turn, prompts us to perform in order to achieve the righteousness that God required.

Everyone of us knows what is good and what is bad. It is our sinful nature that bound us from doing the good; for the good we want to do we cannot and the bad we do not want to do we do.

Romans 7:15 -19 ~ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

The truth is, although we are a new creation, our establishment on the wrong platform robs us from the resurrection life that God has given us to live in. That is why before God can put His laws in our hearts; He has to make sure that He remembers our sins and lawless acts no more. It is Jesus’ blood that washes us so clean that God can says "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." Forgiveness of sins and righteousness are one. When we are forgiven, we are righteous!

If we cannot established that our righteousness is a gift from God, and our nature is righteous, whatever God has written in our hearts are of no used because our evil conscious will still prompt us to go back to refer to the stones, trying to do the good and avoid the bad.

Repent my friends, renew your mind... new covenant believers are righteous in nature not action and our righteousness is a gift from God. Some of us may still think that even now, we still have sinful action. Be at rest friends, establish first in His righteousness so that whatever God has written in our hearts can work out in our hearts and become a spontaneous flow in the Spirit. By then, doing the good and avoid doing the bad is a lifestyle and no more a religion…

But first, let's put the horse back before the cart!

Mission Accomplished

- Law is good and holy. It describes the holy requirement of God. The law is the shadow of good thing to come, and is the shadow of the holiness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Shadow cannot help but Jesus the Substance, can. When we are confronted by law, the law cannot help us but points us to our sins because of God’s standard of holiness. Jesus is grace personified. Jesus came as Man and fulfilled all the requirements of the law and nailed them on the cross. Now, when we are confronted by grace, Jesus helps us for when sin (falling short of the glory of God) abound, grace super abound because grace is unmerited and undeserved Favor of God! After the cross in the grace dispensation, the shadow of Peter and Paul healed the sick!!! The Law condemned the best of us like Moses and King David while Grace saved the worst of us like me!

- The blood of bull and goat which is of a lower value of life than men cannot take away our sin. It just covers our sin. That is why the Jewish people in the Old Covenant needed to offer sacrifices year after year. This blood pointed them to their sins. By the way, bull and goat has no sin in them and their blood can be used to cover our sin. They are born without a sinful nature! So when the bull kicks us from the back, that is not a sin!!! Revelation... revelation!!! This proves the point that sin mentioned in Romans is not about an action but the nature. We are sinner by nature because Adam committed an action in sinning and therefore, because of Adam, we are born with sinful nature. A sinner naturally sins and therefore comes the action of sinning! All glory to our Lord Jesus Christ, through the cross, He saved us from our sins! The sacrifices of the bull and goat points us to our sins but the sacrifice of our Lord at the cross points us to our righteousness because His blood was shaded for the forgiveness of sin once and for all!

- Sacrifice and offering God did not desire because God knew that men cannot keep the law and therefore, He ordained sacrifice of animals so that through these sacrifices, He can draw near to men. God wants and longs to be near to men and we are the apple of His eye. Because of His love for us, His will is to have His Begotten Son to be the One Sacrifice for all. His will is to get rid of the Old and weak Covenant and establish the New and living Covenant.

- Jesus accomplished His Father's will. He had done a perfect job at the cross when He called out, “It is finished!” Now, as His job is finished, He is now seated at the right hand of the Heavenly Father, and we are in Him! The redemption job in heaven and earth had been accomplished by Jesus at the Cross. Heaven and earth had rested from this redemption project. Jesus, our High priest, is now seated at the right hand of our Heavenly Father. The Cherubim of the Ark of Covenant had rested from their job where we find them in the account of the Gospel of John, two angels sitting at both sides of Jesus’ empty tomb. It is Finished...!

- Have you rested from confessing your sin? Confession of your sin is Old Covenant. You are righteous is His eye the moment you have put your faith in Jesus. You should confess what God say about you. He see you as righteous as Jesus. He see you as bless as Jesus. He see you as adorable as Jesus not because of what good you have done, but because of what Jesus had done.

- Honor and glorify your God and your Savior. Renew your mind, get rid of your sin consciousness and be established in righteousness conscious. You have a righteous nature now and naturally, whatever thing that a righteous man do, he is bless. Proverb 10:6 ~ Blessings are on the head of the righteous, But violence covers the mouth of the wicked. (Wicked here means those who do not believe in His goodness).

- Move on and step into the your resurrection life. This resurrection life is the abundant life that our Savior promised.

Study Note from Hebrews 10:1~18

REST and BELIEVE

Last Friday, early in the morning before I woke up from my sleep, this Bible verse (2 Corinthians 8:9 ~ For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.) came echoing in my mind and I started to meditate on it and realized that it is by His grace that though He was rich (very very very rich), yet for my sakes (because of me) He became poor (already became poor at the cross) so that through His poverty I might become rich! This Bible verse is all about His work, my believing and non of my doing. It is by His grace not by my own struggling effort to obey the principles and methods to make myself rich. It is through the Tree of Life not the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and yet again, I have fallen from grace… At this point of time, the Spirit was quick to affirm me with the word “REST and BELIEVE”!!!

While I was on my way to office, I went to bank to withdraw some money. When I was at the Tally Machine, I could not find my ATM card in my wallet! I have lost my ATM card!!! I have no idea when I lost it!!! As I tried to recall the last date I used my card, it was about 10 days ago while transferring money to my son in KL… I could have leaved my ATM card in the machine then!!! It has been 10 days since then, what will happen to my saving???

I call my wife to access my account through the internet and thanks God, the money was still in my account. At that moment, the verse that I meditated earlier that morning came back echoing in my heart and this time the verse gained more weigh in my spirit and indeed, it is all about His grace. A fresh impression of REST and BELIEVE from the Spirit came upon me again... I then, decided to come back to report of my lost ATM Card when the bank opened for business.

When I reached my office, I took out my Destined to Reign daily devotional and began to expect what the Lord had to say... I was marveled and goose bumps all over! Let’s see why…

See The Miraculous When You Give Thanks

John 11:41 ~ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.

Jesus lived a life of thanksgiving. He always thanked His Father for what He had and for always hearing Him when He prayed. That was how He released miracles in His life.

In the story of the feeding of the five thousand (John 6:1–13), Jesus’ attitude was one of thankfulness. He took a little boy’s lunch of five loaves and two fishes gave thanks and had them distributed. He gave thanks for the little that was there and the little multiplied. Not only did the people eat as much as they wanted, there were 12 baskets full of leftovers!

So when you see the meager balance in your bank account, thank the Lord for what you have. That’s your “five loaves and two fish”. When you give Him thanks that He is your provider and the source of your supply, in spite of the little you have, your little will become much, with leftovers!

Even when faced with the impossible, the solution was still, “Father, I thank You…” When Jesus stood outside Lazarus’ tomb, and the people took away the stone that was covering the tomb, He did not see the situation as hopeless and impossible. He simply lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.” Then, He proceeded to call forth Lazarus, and the man came forth alive once more!

The raising of Lazarus, who had been dead for more than four days, was one of Jesus’ greatest miracles. And He accomplished this by saying, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.” He thanked His way to an awesome miracle.

My friend, the next time you find yourself praying, “God, please do this for me! Please give me...” stop! Instead, say, “Thank You God, for hearing me. And because You have heard me, I thank You that I have what I asked for.” And when you thank God, the little that you have will multiply. Your impossible situations will turn around to reflect God’s provision. And resurrection life will hit you!



What have I been doing? I have been listening to grace messages day in and day out and yet did not rest but busy working out my life through the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I can still find a lot of religiosity in me and without my knowing, I fall from grace from time to time! I was reminded by the Spirit to believe and to labor to enter His rest. I was reminded to give thanks for what I have and see the miraculous happen in my life. I was also reminded to live a life of thanksgiving...

Father, I thank You that You have heard Me for You have prompted me to REST and BELIEVE... and by Your grace, the rest is Yours!

Do Not Eat The Meat Raw!

During the time of the Old Testament, lambs for the Passover meal were being slain and not a bone was to be broken in these sacrificial lambs. Passover pronounces redemption and to the Jewish people, the Passover feast has a special meaning. Though we are not slaves, like the Jewish people, we were slaves to our sin, our own wants and desires. Sin was our master until Jesus, the Passover Lamb, delivered us from our "Egypt". The lamb slain during Passover is a foreshadow of the redemption we find in Jesus, our Saviour, our Passover Lamb. The principle of redemption is the concept of bondage to the slavery of sin and freedom from its domination. To be "redeemed" means to be purchased from slavery and Jesus Christ purchased our freedom with His blood as the payment for the redemption. The Good News is; we are redeemed!

Before the Passover lamb was taken to the Temple, the High Priest would tied it for public view so that it could be inspected for blemish. In the same way, Jesus sat and taught in the Temple courtyard for four days. He was inspected and questioned as the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the teachers of the law sought to trip him up in His words and entrap Him. They could not, because He was perfect and without blemish.

Jesus had equal status with God but did not think so much of Himself that He had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, He set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, He stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He did not claim special privileges. Instead, He lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

Like the Matzo bread, Jesus was pierced in His brow by the crown of thorns as well as in His hands and feet by the nails. He was also pierced in His side by a soldier’s spear. He was pierced for our transgressions… He was also scourged on His back until His flesh was all torn and bloody, and His bones were exposed. By His stripes, we are healed…

Like the brunt of the Matzo bread, the full fire of God’s wrath fell on Jesus, burning up our sins into ashes, and at the same time, bring out the fragrance of the offering of Jesus. After the Finished Work at the Cross, our sins and lawless deeds are but ashes and our Daddy in Heaven remembers our sins and lawless deeds no more! If anyone come to you with this ashes in their hands, just sneeze and these ashes will vanish in the thin air...

Exodus 12:8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts.

Jesus indeed was the true Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. At the Cross, He had accomplished the Father's will...

I am concern for those who come to the Lord’s Table with confession of their sin. Although they are sincere, they ignorantly sin against the body and the blood of the Lord the moment they confess their sin. No wonder Prophet Hosea said in the Book of Hosea: “My people are destroyed from the lack of knowledge.” If we confess of our sin before we partake the communion, we are saying the Lamb has not being judged, the Lamb has not been burnt and our sin is still with us. In this manner, we are eating the meat raw. When we are eating the meat raw, we still hold on tight to our sin and therefore, we eat and drinking judgment on ourselves! The Lord says this is an unworthy manner because this manner does not glorify the Father but brings humiliation to His Name! The truth of the matter is, God is Holy and He had lawfully judged and legally punished our entire sins of our life on our Substitute at the Cross. The same sin cannot be punished twice!

If we believe that all our sin had been forgiven, the way we approach the Table is not by the confession of our sins but the confession of our righteousness we already have in Christ. In this manner, we are eating the meat burnt with fire. If we come to the Table with confession of our sin, we are saying the Lamb has not been burnt and judgment for our sin has not been executed. To come to the Lord’s Table with sin consciousness is unworthy. This sort of manner contradicts to the truth and we are eating the meat raw!

Come to the Table seeing our sickness had been judged on Jesus’ body, our sins had been punished and exhausted on Jesus’ body; our poverty had been taken away as He died poor and naked on the Cross and our curse had been removed as He was hung on the tree on our behalf. He had been burnt…

The Lord’s Table is not a place to plead for forgiveness of sin or to claim God's blessing and healing but a place to remember Jesus and celebrate His death for through His death on the Cross, He conquered for all our victories. The Bible says in the Book of Romans that we, as the redeemed one are more than a conqueror. Is this not grace...?

Therefore, renew your mind and do not eat the meat raw!

On Ground Level

Romans 8: 1 ~ 2 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

From this revelation, Apostle Paul expounded his understanding that sin is a long settled issue on the Cross as he continued with Romans 8:1 – Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (in the Person of Jesus)… In the same manner, when the revelation on sin issue in a believer’s life is established, the ability to distinguish good from evil mentioned in Hebrews 5:14 manifested spontaneously as the revelation of the Person of Jesus revealed the Tree of Life and the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil before him in Romans 8:2 - because through Christ Jesus (in the Person of Jesus) the law of the Spirit of life (the Tree of Life) set me free from the law of sin and death (the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil).

On ground level, issues that can hinder our progress to the Tree of Life are condemnation from the accuser of the Brethren and our willingness to renew our mind (repentance). To tackle the condemning voice from the accuser of the Brethren, we need to confess who we are in Christ. We confess the same thing what God says about us. i.e. "Homo Logo" in Greek. We renew our mind as we confess...

What did God say about us?
We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! (renew your mind!)

What did God say about our sin?
We are forgiven, past, present and future! Hallelujah! (renew your mind!)

What did God say about our life?
He came to give us life and life more abundantly! (renew your mind!)

What did God says about our financial standing?
For I know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for my sakes He became poor, that I through His poverty might become rich. Hallelujah! (renew your mind!)

What did God says about our lacks?
God says he who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (renew your mind!)
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, accordingly to the power that works in us. (renew your mind!)
And my God shall supply all my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus! (renew your mind!)

What did God says about our infirmity?
By His strips we are healed! (renew your mind!)

To have the revelation knowledge of there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus give us the strength on this ground level in approaching the Tree of Life. Again, it is by grace through faith that we can confess our way to the Tree of Life.

Climbing Down the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil

The Book of Romans has 16 Chapters and Chapter 16 is greetings from Paul. If we take the 15 Chapters and divide them by 2, half of this book has 7.5 chapters each. The first 7.5 Chapters has a revelation of Apostle Paul’s journey in climbing down the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the next 7.5 Chapters of the Book of Romans is Apostle Paul’s journey in climbing up the Tree of Life.

Law is good and Evil is sin.

Law is Good
Romans 7:7 ~ What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not!...
Romans 7:12 ~ For the law is holy, and the commandments is holy, righteous and good.

Evil is sin
Romans 7:8 ~ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.

Therefore, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil means the Tree of the Knowledge of Law and Sin.

What kind of preaching will cause us to hang around the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

- The preaching that is not Christ centered but self centered.

- The preaching that is not righteousness consciousness but sin consciousness.

- The preaching that is not emphasizing on resting in the Lord because of His Finished Work on the Cross, but emphasizing on working for the Lord as if Jesus had not died on the Cross.

- The preaching that is not pointing the believers to Jesus, who is all able, all powerful, and full of grace and mercy, but pointing the believers to themselves who are unable, powerless, and full of hatred and unforgiveness.

- The preaching that is not hot but lukewarm. The preaching is not of the Tree of Life but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

On the other hand, when grace revolutionizes our hearts, grace shall awake and edify our spirit. The preaching of His grace glorified Jesus and exalted Christ’s Finished Work on the Cross. It is food to our spirit and gives life to our being. This is the Good News that Apostle Paul was not ashamed of, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

Romans 1:17 ~ for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith.

The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came from Jesus Christ. When we know the truth and the truth will set us free. Paul, the Apostle of Grace to the gentiles, received God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of His righteousness reign in life through Jesus Christ.

Apostle Paul realized the Tree of Life after his struggles in Romans 7 when he cried out “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” This reminded me of what our Lord says in respect of the tree and its fruits in Matthew 7:15~20, and in Proverbs 18:21. The word we say is the fruit of our belief. The fruit of Righteousness finally came out of Paul’s mouth with his utterance of “WHO” instead of “HOW”, “WHAT” or “WHERE” and worse of all “WHY”.

He had finally come to the end of his law keeping, self consciousness, self righteousness and self effort by not seeking HOW he is going to do with his struggles; and WHAT he is going to do with his struggles; or WHERE he is going to find help for his struggles or even WHY he needs to deal with his struggles. He cried out “WHO can rescue him?” The revelation of Righteousness, Peace, Joy, Wisdom, Prosperity, Healing, Abundant, Freedom… by His grace becomes alive as the Person of Jesus to Apostle Paul.

The revelatory knowledge of "WHO" is our answer will end all our religiosity. Therefore, renew our mind! In due time, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is no more our dwelling place and His grace will carry us down the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil unconsciously and effortlessly...

The Sin of Unbelief

So the glory is the righteousness of God…

Lucifer fell from his high position as the worship arc angel, because of his evil ambition on to be like God. The fallen angel used the same evil ambition of “to be like God” to tempt Eve and she believed.

Genesis 3:5 ~ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Whoever tries to gain the position of to be like God, is evil in God’s eye and doomed to failure. Eve being tempted, through believing in the evil one by the eating of the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, sinned against God and lost their radiant glory. As the radiant glory leaved them, they realized that they were naked.

Romans 3: 23 ~ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

When God created Adam, man was made a little lower that the heavenly being and was crowned with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5). This glory and honor is the righteousness of God. Man was crowned with God’s Righteousness. They were not naked then because they were clothed with the glory i.e. the righteousness of God.


Adam and Eve had sinned because of their unbelief when God commended them not to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Instead, they believe in the devil. It was the sin of unbelief that caused them to fall.

In the Garden, God told Adam that among all the trees in the Garden, he must not eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that was in the middle of the Garden, for when he ate of it he would surely die! Adam failed to believe God and ate from the tree and he died.

Today, it is the Father’s will that we are not to “eat” from any “trees” in this world except the “Tree” (Who gave up His life) in the center of this world. For when we eat of this “Tree” we will surely live! Those who believe the Father and eat of this “Tree” will surely live.

In the Gospel of John, God declared that He so love the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life… Let’s take the Father’s word as it is. i.e. all the sin of this world had been put away by Jesus at the Cross two thousand years ago. Today, it is not the sin of this world that hinder the people to enter into heaven but the sin of unbelief.

When we are born again, we are a New Creation in Christ. We are taught with regard to our former way of life, to put off our old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires through repentance i.e. renewal of our mind; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and hollies (Ephesians 4:22~24). If we are a New Creation, we are already like God in true righteousness and hollies.

This is the Good News; and according to Apostle Paul, there is no other Good News! We are saved by grace through faith. When we believe in Christ, we are already created to be like God in true righteousness and hollies.

Hey, cheer up... we are righteous and holy! Believe and don’t ever try to add anymore righteousness to your life…!

GRACE

Grace, the charisma of Wisdom and aroma of Christ, is the new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, the body of Christ. Still, not many believers appreciate this unmerited and undeserved favor from God… While much has been written about Grace in this blog, as a Child of God, is it so wrong to depend fully on this favor lavished from the Majestic Creator of this universal, our Father in the Heavenly place?

Well, let’s go back to school and look at our dictionary and see how grace looks like in the eyes of the world…

This definition of Grace is taken from Dictionary.com.

GRACE 

–Noun
1. Elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action.
2. A pleasing or attractive quality or endowment.
3. Favor or good will.
4. A manifestation of favor, esp. by a superior: It was only through the dean's grace that I wasn't expelled from school.
5. Mercy; clemency; pardon: an act of grace.
6. Favor shown in granting a delay or temporary immunity.
7. An allowance of time after a debt or bill has become payable granted to the debtor before suit can be brought against him or her or a penalty applied: The life insurance premium is due today, but we have 31 days' grace before the policy lapses. Compare grace period.
8. Theology.
a. the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God.
b. the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them.
c. a virtue or excellence of divine origin: the Christian graces.
d. Also called state of grace. the condition of being in God's favor or one of the elect.
9. Moral strength: the grace to perform a duty.
10. A short prayer before or after a meal, in which a blessing is asked and thanks are given.
11. (Usually initial capital letter) a formal title used in addressing or mentioning a duke, duchess, or archbishop, and formerly also a sovereign (usually prec. by your, his, etc.).
12. Graces, Classical Mythology. the goddesses of beauty, daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, worshiped in Greece as the Charities and in Rome as the Gratiae.
13. Music. grace note.

–Verb (used with object)
14. To lend or add grace to; adorn: Many fine paintings graced the rooms of the house.
15. To favor or honor: to grace an occasion with one's presence.

From the above definition, the world has good impression indeed on Grace and they understand Grace is for addressing matters that are good. It is encouraging to see how the world defines the word, Grace. But in the imagination of those under the religious and legalistic influence, they tend to make Grace unacceptable because there is no room for their self effort and participation.

But in term of idiom, the people in the world who depend on their head knowledge, seem to find themselves hard to understand Grace. Even Christians who do not depend on the Holy Spirit but their own knowledge, they too, find themselves unable to understand Grace. The world missed their interpretation, so as those with religious and legalistic background.

Let’s continue with what they think about Grace in term of idiom in the dictionary…

—Idioms
16. Fall from grace,
a. Theology. to relapse into sin or disfavor.
b. to lose favor; be discredited: He fell from grace when the boss found out he had lied.
17. Have the grace to, to be so kind as to: Would you have the grace to help, please?

As the children of the Most High God, we use Bible to interpret Bible. So let’s go back to the Bible and see what Apostle Paul said about fallen from grace.

Galatians 5:4 – You who are trying to be justified by LAW have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

It is when we are trying to justified ourselves by law; we are fallen away from grace. It is not what the world says when we sin; we are fallen away from grace. It is when we are trying to deserve His blessings through our abiding of the Ten Commandments, then we are called fallen from grace. If it is by grace, it is unmerited and undeserved favor. Fallen from grace is not about sinning but about justification through observing the Ten Commandments!

In the Book of Hebrews, the Jews were warned not to fall back under law after Jesus was glorified but to abide in His grace because He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

Hebrews 10:28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Hebrews 10:29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Acknowledge and appreciate His Grace, this is a new and living way…

Use The Right Organ

Ever since the "re-encounter" with my First Love, I have been richly enlightened by His grace. I appreciate how much I have been forgiven and I appreciate how much Jesus had done for me on the Cross. I understand His forgiveness is out of His heart full of love for me and as a result, I love, because He first love me.

The type of forgiveness and love that I process are the banners elected in my life through my culture, this worldly system, and were further strengthened by the legalistic preaching from the Church environment. At times, I just do not know how to dismantle these banners. I understand His forgiveness is not like man's forgiveness; because my Lord says, "Your sins are forgiven, go and sin no more!" As for man, he will have to see the result of my repentance then he extends his forgiveness to me and this type of forgiveness is conditional, so is the love. I have been trapped in this kind of system which is derived from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil!

After the Worship Ministry Retreat, the Lord started to show me how I am going to live my life with the grace He has enlightened me with. He gave me the wisdom to understand the living way of how to forgive and how to love.

Forgiveness is never to be initiated from our head. Forgiveness is from our heart. Our Lord did not forgive us with His head. His forgiveness is from His heart. (Maybe that is why I have chosen See The World Through His Heart as blog title) Indeed, another doctrine will come out of man if we receive His grace by using our head. Head knowledge produce religion and bind. Whereas, a life full of living water will spring off when we receive His grace by using our heart.

So, use the right organ to forgive a person and use the right organ to love a person. If we use our head to forgive, we will find ourselves hard to forget after we have forgiven. But if we use your heart to forgive, we find ourselves forgetting what we have forgiven. If we use our head to love a person, we will find the person hard to love. But if we use our heart to love a person, the love we pour out is actually from Him... we love, because He first love us!

Proverbs 4:23 ~ Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

The law touches our head whereas grace touches our heart, and His wisdom is for our heart not our head. Friends, use the right organ...!

Let's Come Together and Work Hard

The Promised Land was a land of rest where God promised the Israelite, His chosen people; and this Promised Land is actually an indication of our Lord Finished Work on the Cross.

Deuteronomy 6:10~11 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied.

However, the Israelite did not believe in God and they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before their new generation actually entered into the Promised Land. They could not believe that God had given them a land full of riches to enjoy, a land which just flowed with His goodness, of which they did not have to work for. If only they could believe, they needed only 11 days to enter the Promised Land.

Deuteronomy 1:2 It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.

Today, there are believers who still cannot believe that the work of Jesus is truly completed and finished. They are trying to help the Lord in completing a completed work; finishing a finished work, fighting for Jesus to defeat a defeated devil. They are always struggling to help the Lord and trying to behave like a Christian so as to deserve their healing, prosperity, success and victory from God. Instead of glorify the Lord; their self righteousness humiliated the Lord…

Our Abba Father wants us to stop trying and start trusting in His love for us. He wants us to stop working and struggling, and to start resting and believing in His grace towards us.

So today, if we are so concerned with our contribution through our work, let us work hard together to enter His rest. This is the only labour left for us to do i.e. labour to enter His rest. Every day, every moment, we are to labour to enter His rest. We are to believe in our Lord’s utterance, “It’s Finished!” at the Cross. By doing so, we are glorifying Him and at the same time, we stop humiliating Him!

Hebrews 4: 10~11 For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

Well, Let's come together and work hard to enter God’s rest and let us then, rest by sitting together with Christ at the right hand of our Abba Father. We will then run and not be weary, walk and not faint, because we are in the true Ark, Who carry us through this tempestuous waters of this would...

Repentance... Repent from What?

The condition of our cars reflects how and where we maintain our car. I am a car lover, and I love my car. I follow the manufacturer’s recommendation on the service schedule. When I send my car for servicing, I will make sure that the mechanic is reliable and he has adequate knowledge on manufacturer’s requirement for my car. He must also have the up-to-date knowledge on latest technology. I choose premium lubricating oil for my schedule oil change and I would make sure that there is no mixture in the lubricating oil. I also make sure that all the body’s moving parts are greased to minimize friction and to achieve maximum protection. With all these requirements, I have to pay the expenses accordingly.

We go to Sunday Service every Sunday. Have we ever made sure that our preachers (mechanics) know precisely what our Creator’s (Manufacturer) requirement for us? Are we receiving the pure gospel (premium lubricating oil) from our preachers (mechanics)? Is there any mixture in the gospel (lubricating oil)? Is the doctrine (lubricating oil) mixed with law (old oil) and grace (new oil)?

We need the preaching of pure gospel that magnifying His grace as our premium lubricating oil! Only through the preaching of His grace can make our repentance worthwhile because through pure grace, we repent from death into life. Through the preaching of pure grace, we repent from eating from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil to abiding in the Tree of Life.

If the preaching is of the mixture of law and grace, do and don’t, or can and can't, we are only changing ourselves from “doing evil” to “doing good”. Doing good is as equally bad as doing evil because these acts are from the same tree – The Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. From that tree comes legalistic preaching, which is deadly. This kind of preaching causes us to renew of our action, not our mind. These renewals of action involve our effort, our determination, our will power and self control… and eventually, these actions give birth to another religion.

God is more concerned in the root of our believing system. If we believe right, our action will be right. If we believe right, we will live right. He wants our repentance to be effected at the root, i.e. repent from believing in our death work to His Grace full of resurrection life.

We send our car to workshop to renew the lubricating oil, whereas, we go to Sunday Service to renew our mind. True repentance started with the preacher. If the preacher does not dispense the pure gospel of grace, there will be no true repentance in our midst.

We repent from death to life not from evil to good… cos' the word "Repentance" in Hebrews language means to return to His grace!

Appreciate His Grace

We have been acquiring the deadly knowledge of this world for too long in our life. Even when we have become Christian and if we are still sitting under a ministry that preaches legalism or mixture of grace and law, we are still under the influence of this deadly worldly knowledge. Not until we have encountered the pure Grace of God, we can never be drawn near to the Tree of Life and we can never be imparted with the Wisdom from the Tree of Life.

Proverbs 9:10 - The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Many Christian have been fearing the LORD with their wrong belief. Because of their wrong belief, they are executing the wrong kind of fear that leads them to knowledge instead of Wisdom. Wisdom is at the side of Grace, from Jesus and the Tree of Life, where as knowledge is at the side of Adam, of the law and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Adam was made in the image of God and was full of divine Wisdom. He did not acquire knowledge to name all the animals that God brought to him. He was connected with divine Wisdom to call forth the names of all the animals. When he fell, he was cut off from accessing divine Wisdom and he was left to depend on the knowledge derived from the Wisdom that he acquired before he fell.

Through the establishment in the teaching of righteousness and the understanding of His grace, we are brought back to the Tree of Life, where the source of our Wisdom is. Therefore, we can only access to His wisdom when we see His grace and understand the meaning of His grace.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Fear the LORD here is to accept the Grace that Jesus has given us. We are therefore, doing fine in fearing the LORD when we appreciate His grace and thus, is the beginning of Wisdom. This kind of fear is reverence with good expectation of God and is an act of worship to our LORD. However, if we see law, we can only acquire knowledge and we fear the LORD the wrong way. This kind of fear is with constant expectation of judgment from God and this act is an insult to God.

So renew our minds and appreciate His grace, this is the fear of the LORD and the beginning of Wisdom…

We Don’t Have To Be, We Already Are!

Grace does not teach us how to be who we are; Grace already made us who we are in Christ. Through the Person of Grace, we are already who we were trying to be!

“How can it be, we still have to behave to be a good Christian!” Some may think… If we know the Truth, whatever things we do are good!

Men are of tripartite; made up of spirit, soul and body. God has already made our spirit perfect when we accepted His Son as our Savior. The problem is on the other two parts that are not quite lined up with His Truth. That is why He says “Renew our minds” and He didn’t says “Renew our spirits”. Once our minds are in line with God’s truth, our bodies follow!

God did not make Adam a robot; he gave him a choice, and so do us. The challenge is do we want to choose to be influenced by the worldly system or by His Spirit? Do we want to choose to be influenced by the law or by His Grace? Do we choose to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil or the Tree of Life?

So repent…!!! Renewing our minds is the key to usher our whole being into what we already are! We are no longer looking at ourselves in the flesh; we are focusing on what and who we are in Christ! As He is, so are we in this world!

New Wine & the New Wineskin

The first sermon I heard in my first Sunday Service as a Christian was about the new wine taken from the book of Matthew chapter 9. This new wine was illustrated as the new things that God is going to do in our midst and since it is a new thing, nobody will be able to tell what this new thing is about. It can be bad thing and it can be good thing but it will be a new thing…

It took me three years to understand this message through revelation from the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, there are still many who do not understand what this new wine means. Of course, this new wine is the grace of God and we are the wineskin. Hi wineskin!

When grace started to revolutionize my life, I miraculously began to understand the truth according to the knowledge of God. The veil has been taken away; and I realized that the conducts in my environment were totally contradicted to the revelation I have received. We were all constrained under the same church environment, receiving the same messages from the same pulpit, but the revelations were totally different. I was somehow Christ conscious while they were self conscious.

The condemning nature of this old wineskin (me) started to manifest by inwardly judging others, criticizing about everything like, people’s intellectual, behavior, the sermons from the pulpit and everything that are not inline with what I have received. I was eager to make clear what the truth should be but to no avail; nobody could understand me. Even my Pastor said I was diverted and not flowing with him in the same spirit. To them, I was a sheep that has gone astray; I had become a goat, and a child who eat the neighbor’s food. I was brought to the “Jerusalem Council” a few times by my immediate leaders for not being obedience.

This is why the Bible says the skins will burst and the wine will run out. I felt like I was under such a “bursting” situation because I was using the law that is inside of me to magnify the grace that I received. My Lord is always faithful. He revealed to me that I need to balance myself; just like a car with its front wheels off-balanced would cause the steering wheel to vibrate vigorously. These wheels need to be balanced by replacing the leads of the same weight. My Lord even went to the extent of causing the wheels of my car to be off balanced and shown me the truth he wanted to bring across. I needed to balance myself through the renewal of my mind. If not, this wineskin will be ruined.

The Lord affirmed me that He understood my situation and He is always pleased to help me to renew my mind. He wanted me to see from His Heart that He is gracious and full of love for every one. He is full of love for you and me. He is full of love even to those who are against His grace, or even against Him. He loved the Pharisee but not the Pharisaic spirit. He is just full of love… He loves Saul as much as Paul and He is the One who transformed Saul into Paul. He has times for all of us…

We are to continuously receiving "new wine" as we grow in grace. We need to continuously letting the Spirit to renew our minds so that we will not be an old wineskin and we can continue to contain the new wine.

Matthew 9:17b …. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

Grace ~ Establishes Our Hearts

When I share grace with certain Christian friends, it is just like sharing the good news (gospel) to non believers. They are all full of unbelieving heart.

For example when I tell the non believers that Jesus love them and when they put their faith in Him, he forgives them of all their sins and they are saved eternally.

The unbelievers would usually answer like this.

Is it that good? How can it be that good? What if after I believe in Him and I kill somebody, will I still be forgiven and be saved? Well, what shall be your answer? My answer is, when you have put your faith in Jesus and believed in Him, you will not do thing like that anymore. Do not just stand outside the HOUSE and look through the side window to imagine the beauty inside. Come into the HOUSE through the DOOR and experience what the HOUSE can offer you. However, God s faithful to deal with some of the people like that and with their own circumstances, they repented and came to Christ. Now they understand what it is like to be in the HOUSE.

Now when you share grace to certain believers, telling them that it is all by His grace that you are blessed, you are already righteous in Him and do not be sin conscious but be righteousness conscious because you are being forgiven of all your sins, past, present and future!

Their answers are like this.

It is that good? You mean I do not have to obey "the law" to be blessed. How can God bless an disobedient Christian? My leaders said we have to obey God. If I do not obey my leaders, I first disobey them! How can I be obedient to God? How can you…trying to mislead me...

- You are saved by grace through faith, not by you law abiding. You are supposed to be obedient to your faith that led you to Christ and not man.

Well, I know Jesus saved me, but I still sin here and there. How can I be righteous when I still sin?

- Righteousness is a gift from God not what you are doing. How could Jesus who knew no sin, was made sin on the cross?

I know Jesus forgave my past sin when I accepted Him as my Savior. But presently, I still do wrong here and there and that is why I have to confess my present sin so that there would not be any future sin!

- When Jesus died on the cross two thousand years ago, all our sins are future. All our past, present and future are in His past. If He had forgiven our past, our present and future sins are the same to Him, all forgiven!

If we cannot believe God’s grace after we are saved, we are as good as those non believers with an unbelieving heart. In another word, we are an "unbelieving" believer. The gospel of grace that reaches out to the non believers is of the same grace that reaches out to the believers. The Apostle Paul said there is no other gospel other than the gospel of the grace of Christ…. You have come in the HOUSE through the DOOR and you did enjoy the goodness in the HOUSE. Yet, you snick out of the HOUSE by your law keeping and looked back through the window with the memory of the goodness in unbelief.

Before the Lord enlightened me with His Grace, I was like that also. The Lord challenged me with the verses from the bible and cracked open my religious mind. He said I was foolish and slow of heart to believe! Let these verses settle in your heart, they would be a blessing to you if you can believe.

The Lord told me that I did not believe in Him and I trusted in my self effort and law keeping to deserve His blessing. I was foolish and slow of heart to believe! I called myself a believer yet, did not believe in my Savior.

Grace is undeserved and unmerited favor from God, we cannot work to deserve God’s blessing. He is no debtor to anybody. He is a Giver not a Task Master! We receive His blessings through grace by faith.

We are saved by grace through faith, and we are born again by His grace. We are supposed to grow in God’s grace and grace will see us through. But when we tried to obey law to justify ourselves, we were alienated from Christ and we have fallen away from grace! In John 15, Jesus reminded us to abide in Him. Without Him we can do nothing.

Hebrews 13:9 ~ Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be established by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them.

We are foolish and slow of heart to believe that God is that good. The default mode of human is doing. But we are called human “being” not human “doing”. Just be a "being" knowing that He is God and He is good. He so loves us that everything that we ever need in our life, He had already given to us through the cross. You still don't believe in that? Well, we are supposed to live by faith not by sight!

Repent (change your mind) therefore, from your dead work and receive His grace because it is good for your heart to be established in grace.