B)
The Power of the Gospel
B.1) The basis of all issues
and the solution to your problems
All these personality
issues, sin and disorders has a root of people feeling worthless, not valuable,
not loved, not treasured, the “last one to be chosen”, rejected, etc. The solution for all these issues is when they
understand how valuable, beautiful (Mat 13:5-46), precious (Ish 43:4), special (1Pet2:9)
and loved (1Jn4:10) they are. If you can
get your mind around these facts, you will be VERY FAR down the road of
recovery. For this reason you need to
know and believe God’s love for you (1Jn4:12), and only then will it impact
your life. By just going to church or listening to teachings and not spending
time WITH HIM alone, how will you ever have an intimate relationship with Him
and know and believe His love for you? Teachings
(which is vital) and discipleship is like preparing for the time that you spend
with Jesus. Teachings and discipleship is not the substitute for your time with
Jesus, but it prepares you for that special time. You have to get a balance
between teachings and worship. Another example is like a long distance
relationship between a man and a woman, where the woman just receives letters
from the man or someone else just tell her about the man. That can never be a
healthy relationship in the long run. You want to be WITH the one you love. You
need to spend time WITH Jesus (Jn 15:5).
Another important point is
that there are a number of prayers in this document, but these are not prayers
in the sense that I used to understand prayers.
You cannot take 5 minutes every morning to quickly recite these prayers
and then think your life will change. These are not prayers to read and recite;
these are topics of discussion between you and Jesus. You need to talk to Jesus throughout your
day, when you drive in the car, walk in the shop, gym or run. These must take
over your thought life.
B2) The 14 key points I
learned during this journey of transformation:
Ø (1) You have to be born again
Ø (2) You have the responsibility to change your life
Ø (3) The Gospel does not promise a perfect day, but the
transformation of life
Ø (4) The truth will set you free (proper teachings and
the Word)
Ø (5) You need to have faith that your life can
transform
Ø (6) Water baptism gave me the confidence that my old
life is dead
Ø (7) Intimacy with Jesus and Holy Spirit is absolutely vital
Ø (8) You need to receive and believe God’s love for you
Ø (9) Make thanksgiving a habit
Ø (10) Don’t just quote verses, but use the word to
build communion with Jesus
Ø (11) You need to give God’s love by serving your
neighbor
Ø (12) Righteousness becomes the basis of your identity
and the measure of emotions and thoughts
Ø (13) Your identity must be based on the Cross of
Christ, not earthly things
Ø (14) Use sin or wrong thoughts to trigger thanksgiving
and establish your identity
(1) I had given my life fully to Jesus, I
realized I have no other option or answer in life. I was born again (Jn 3:3). Some other terms that describes
this are: Born of the Sprit (Jn 3:6) or born of the Word (1Pet 1:23) or a new
man (Col 3:9-10) or New Creation (2Cor 5:17). If you are not born again, none
of this will work for you. You have to realize, that your physical birth was
not good enough. Jesus said (Jn 1:13, Jn 3:6, Jn 3:3,
Jn 3:5) that to be born of flesh (your mother), was not good enough to make you
God’s child, you have to allow Holy Spirit to re-birth you (this is not applicable to children until they reach the age of accountability). When you are
physically born, you are not a child of God, you have to become that through
new birth to let the old man die and become a new creation. When you are
physically born you are your parents’ child, when you get born again, you are
God's child [Notice how shocked Nicodemus was when Jesus said "born
again" in Jn3:3. Nicodemus understood Jesus to say that the new birth was
as real as the first birth (Jn3:4). Jesus did not correct Nicodemus and told
him "new birth is only a metaphor", Jesus went on to say "You
have to be born a second time"]. Therefore, the new birth is very real,
and does not automatically happens when you go to church every Sunday, give to
the church, serve or if pray every now and then. It's a vital and most
important event in your life.
(2) I started to understand that the responsibility for my freedom is on me, not a counselor or
Pastor. When Jesus addressed Jairus (Lk 8:50) Jesus did not cast a demon of
fear out of Jairus, Jesus said “Fear Not!” (Also see 2 Tim 1:7 where Paul did
not cast a demon of fear or rejection out of Timothy). This might sound
offensive, but not even Jesus is going to help me and supernaturally wipe away
fear when I suffer, cry and complain enough, Jesus has done everything already
for me when he destroyed the devil (Heb 2:14) and gave me Holy Spirit and His
Word. I had to find out what the tools
are that Jesus gave me to transform my life, I had to study it and apply it
myself, no one else can do this for me; a counselor can guide me on what to do
and how to do this, but Jesus and me has to do the work (the work is the
renewing of your mind).
(3) The
Gospel does not promise that all the things in your life will go smooth and
without problems, but it does promise the transformation
of life. Many people accept Jesus so
that they can be financially more blessed or that they can get married or that
their boss can stop yelling at them or that their spouse can stop abusing them,
etc. But as soon as these issues are not
solved for them, some give up on the Gospel because they feel that it did not
deliver on the promises. Jesus said that
the same storm will come on the believers and the non-believers (Mt
7:24-25). In Jn 16:33 Jesus said that
you will have trouble in this world, but in that trouble you can be at peace.
Paul said that all believers will suffer prosecution (2Tim 3:12, Php 1:29,
2Tim2:3, etc). There are various places
in scripture where “war / solders” are used as an example for the Believers
life (2Tim2:3, Eph 6:10-18, Mat 11:12). Think of this example: when you enrol into your
countries’ army, you don’t enrol so that you can have an easy relaxed life with
lots of blessings. You enter the army so that you can give your life for a
bigger purpose than yourself. You are
not thinking about your comfort when you enrol into the army, you think of your
country. If during war time someone is shooting at you, or you have to sleep
under a tree, if you have lots of discomforts and a lack of proper food, you
cannot quit. Your focus is not your own comfort; your focus is on the safety of
your country. This is the same when we
get into the Kingdom. It’s not about your comfort and luxury and what God is
not doing for you. The Gospel promises
that your life will be transformed, but it does not promise that your life will
never have problems. Therefore, if you
do run into problems, don’t give up, keep your focus on Jesus, keep worshipping
Him and loving Him.
(4) I found out that truth
sets me free (Jn 8:32), not laying on of hands or counseling or casting out a
demon fear. Truth and understanding (renewing of the mind – Rom 1:2) is the key
to freedom and a transformed life. In many of the counselling sessions the
process of the discussion was that I told my sad story and cried, then they
would say, yes you definitely have a problem, we are going to help you to get
free. Then they would start their counselling technique or prayer. But the
point is I don’t have a problem. I am a new creation, I am brand new, the man
to whom those sad stories belonged to is DEAD!. When the counselors said’ Yes,
you do have a problem”, they immediately made those problems mine, whereas it
was not mine. The only problem was that
I was lied to and I believed it. Truth can destroy the lies. Furthermore, Jesus
did not say in Mat 28:19 “Go into the entire world and give them bibles”. But
Jesus said “Go into all the world and make disciples”. To read your bible or to
sit in church and cell twice a week did not help me. God used audio teachings
to disciple me into truth and lead me to freedom. I found that proper audio
teachings were absolutely vital to wash the lies out of my mind. It took hours
and hours of teachings for my mind to start to think different. But once you
start, it became like an addiction to truth, I could not stop listening.
Initially I had to force myself to listen, but once I recognized truth, I could
not get enough. Visit www.TheGospelMadeSimple.blogspot.com for amazing
free resources.
(5) I always thought that faith is an impossible and unattainable thing. But the bible
says we live by faith, therefore it should be simple. Jesus spoke about faith
as big as a mustard seed, therefore it cannot be impossible. Faith is
cultivated in relationship, worship and communion with Jesus. You cannot have
healthy faith if you don’t spend time with Jesus in worship is fellowship. The
thing that made me stumble is that I thought that if I feel like
something is not going to work, that it’s the evidence that I don’t have faith
for it. But that is not how faith works at all. The way faith works, is
demonstrated in this simple prayer: “Jesus, I feel that my miserable life is
never going to change and that I will be stuck in this mess forever. But Jesus,
You said that You love me so much that You died for me (Jn 3:16). Holy Spirit,
Your Word says that You will teach me (Jn 14:26). Jesus, Your Word says that when my mind is
thinking differently, my life will change (Rom 12:2). Jesus Your Word says that
You have a good plan for my future (Jer 33:11). Therefore, Jesus, regardless of
my feelings, I see that You love me, I see You want to teach me, and I see that
my life will change when I think differently, and I see that You have a plan
for my life. Therefore I thank You for my mew life, because it’s going to
happen.” To pray this prayer while you are depressed and feeling like a mess, is
what reveals that you have faith, and this will build up your faith, until your
feelings will obey your words and faith.
(6) It happened many times that my mind was consumed by
old thoughts: I’m worthless, I’m going to take revenge on someone, I’m afraid,
I’m not going to make it or I’m offended. But the bible says that the old man
is dead, he was united into Christ’s death during baptism and I am a new creation. I started to talk to Jesus
in these instances: “Jesus, thank You that the old man I used to be, has
been crucified with You (Rom 6:4-6) and died during my baptism in the Komati
river on 17 December 2000, I was there, I saw it. Jesus these bad emotions used
to belong to that old man that died on that day, these emotions do not belong
to me. I thank You Jesus that I am loved (1Jn 3:16), and am chosen, I am
special (1Pet2:9), I have no fear because Your love is in me (Rom 5:5, 1Jn4:18)
I’m Holy, Perfect and Innocent (Col 1:22)”. These emotions did not go away
easily, and sometimes they did not leave at all, but I kept on doing it. I was
able to use my baptism as the evidence that the old man was dead, and it gave
me the ability to withstand lies with truth.
(7) Intimacy with Jesus and Holy Spirit became the most important
aspect of my life. I used to complain in prayer that my life is a mess and used
to ask God for many things. I used to have a time table for prayer: 5 minutes
this and 5 minutes that. But you need to spend time with God as is if He is
your spouse, just you and Him alone. Worship Him, sing to Him, tell Him how
amazing He is. Take the Word and pray a verse back to Him and thank Him (Eph
5:19b-20). Don’t ask Him things or complain, just love Him. “God You are so amazing, You love me so
much, You have saved my life, You have given me a hope and a future, You have
made me a brand new man. Father, You are absolutely wonderful.”
(8) I had to start to realize how valuable and how loved I am (1Jn 4:16). God loves
me so much He send His Son to die for me. 1Cor 8:11 Says “the one for whom
Christ died”. Christ died for every one of us, in some way He had every one not
even born yet, in mind when He went to the cross. It took the precious blood of
Christ (1Pet 1:19) to buy you, that means you are precious. In the gospel of
John, he wrote 5 time “The disciple whom Jesus loved”. John is writing that he
is the disciple whom Jesus loved. It’s as if John is making himself more
special than the others. But John understood that Jesus loves Him, and also
each every person individually. You need to talk to Jesus like this: “Jesus,
thank You that You love me so much that You died for me. Jesus You are amazing,
You gave Your life for me, this shows me how precious I am to You. I am the one
whom You died for. Father, thank You that I am the one whom You love.“
(9) I had to learn how to stop complaining about my life, and start to thank God (Php 2:14,
Eph 5:20, Col 3:15, etc). I was so used to complaining about politics, the
weather, economy, my boss, my lack of a girlfriend and my circumstances. I even
complained that the Word is not working for me and my life will never change.
As soon as you catch yourself complaining and in a negative mind about
something, start to thank God: “Father, I thank You that You are amazing, I
thank You that You made me amazing (Heb 2:6), I thank You for Your Word which
is the truth and which sets me free from these negative emotions. Holy Spirit,
these negative emotions do not belong to me, they belong to the old man that
died. I have a living hope in You, and have a bright future (Jer 29:11). Thank
You Jesus”.
(10) I could quote entire bible books, but my life did not change. I started to see
that I can use the bible to talk with Jesus in fellowship with Holy Spirit. I
started to pray like this when I felt fear (instead of quoting a verse): “Jesus,
thank You so much that I do not have any fear in me (2Tim 1:7). Your love is in
me through Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5), and therefore there cannot be any fear in me
(1Jn 4:18). Jesus, thank You that the old man which I was (2Cor 5:17) died with
You on the cross (Rom 6:6), the old man had fear, but I am a New Creation, this
fear that I feel, does not belong to me, it cannot be mine, I don’t have fear.
Thank You Jesus.”
(11) The Gospel is all about giving and loving others, regardless of how we feel. But because I struggled with myself, my entire
life was focused on myself and in some way by feeling sorry for myself, trying
to get myself healed, etc. Because I was
completely focused on myself and my misery, it held me captive and I could not
get free. As soon as I started to pray for the sick and recognize other
people’s needs, I moved the focus away from myself, and this opened the door
for the grip that this pain had on my life to be released. I had to force
myself to start to reach out to other people because I used to be a withdrawn
person. But I had to remind myself that I was not that withdrawn person anymore
because I was born again, that withdrawn and isolated guy had died. So I started to thank God for my freedom, even
though I did not feel like it, and God provided me a place where I could serve and
love people. This is much like a chicken and egg question “which one came
first”. I felt that I could not reach
out to people until I was healed. But until I reached out to other people’s
needs, I could not be healed. The risk we run is that ministry can now become
your new identity (you feel good about yourself because you did something for
God and impressed people by your good works). Ministry must NEVER be your
identity, Christ determines your identity. I used to pray these kinds of
prayer: “Father, I thank You that my
ministry is not my identity. I don't need to impress You through the things I
do in ministry. Father, You were so impressed with me, that You send Jesus to
die for me when I was still a complete mess (Rom 5:8). Thanks You Father that You
love me and I don’t need to perform to earn Your love.”
(12) Righteousness is very important to understand. The Gospel has power
because of Righteousness (Rom 1:16-17); if you don’t understand righteousness,
you will stay a spiritual baby (Heb 5:13). Righteousness simply means that
through the blood of Jesus, you are made perfect and holy (Col1:22) because you
are born of Holy Spirit (Jn 3:6). Therefore you look like Him and are one with
Him (1Cor 6:17).
Ø You need to understand how a human is put together to
understand righteousness. For purposes of this discussion, we talk about 3
parts of a human: spirit, mind, body. The spirit is the part that gets born
again, that is perfect and instantly holy at new birth (because it’s born of
the Spirit – Jn 3:6). The mind is not perfect immediately, it’s needs to be
renewed over time (Rom 12:2, Eph 4:23). The body will come into order after the
spirit and the mind.
Ø
You
need to understand that thoughts could come to your mind from different places;
three are important here:
v (a) From your spirit which is a new creation or a new
man, and which is one with Holy Spirit (1Cor 3:17), or
v (b) from the devil, the following scriptures shows
that: 2Cor 10:3-5 reads that the devil can give you thoughts, but we should make
those thoughts subject to Christ. Jn 10:5 reads that we can hear the stranger’s
voice, but we should not follow him.
v (c) mindsets and thought patterns that you had before
you were born again, which belonged to the old man that died, created patterns
of thinking in your mind. Even though every negative thought in your mind might
not the devil that speaks directly to you, these “old man” thoughts are
according to the devil’s character, and therefore, we put this with category
(b) as well.
Ø
You
need to evaluate any emotion or thought in your head based on the fact that you
are a new creation which is righteousness and holy (Eph 4:23-24). When you
start to understand your new identity, you will start to understand which
thoughts can belong to you and which thoughts cannot belong to you. It’s
difficult because your mind was trained since your physical birth in old dead
thoughts, so it comes natural to you. But this is the mind renewal process that
Rom 12:2 and Eph 4:23 speaks of. When you study the bible, especially the life
of Jesus and other part of the NT, and listen to good teachings, you start to
understand how a new creation acts, and you get to know yourself. You will
start to see who you really are and how you should act based on your new
identity. If a thought in your head is “I am depressed” or “I want to sin” or
“I am a looser”, then you need to ask: Can the new creation have such a
thought? If the answer is “no”, then this is not your thought, it is placed
there by the devil, and you need to withstand it with truth. The way you withstand the sin with truth is to
Immediately pray something like: “Jesus,
I thank You that I am a new creation, I am worth Your blood, that addiction
(drugs, alcohol, immorality, etc) is of a lower class than me, it’s not worth
me even thinking about it. I am valuable and precious; I am not giving myself
to something as worthless as sin. Thank You Jesus that You delivered me (Col
1:12) and set me free when I got born again. Jesus, You told me how valuable I
am, You died for me because You saw my potential and value. Thank You Jesus
that people cannot devalue me or make me worthless, because You have determined
my value once and for all when You died for me on the cross. You cannot reverse that,. I am valuable!!
Thank You Jesus, that I am called to love people, I'm not called to be angry,
upset, hurt or frustrated by people even if they treat me as if I am worthless,
they just don’t know my value. Thank you for them, Jesus, I speak blessings and
life over them.”. You can pray this even if you are busy with the sin,
eventually your mind will realize your value, your mind will be renewed, and
you will crush that sin.
Ø Righteousness becomes the basis of your identity, and
the measure of whether a thought can belong to you or not.
(13) I had to realize that things on earth are not my identity and it cannot determine
my joy; Jesus is my source of life and joy. Identity simply means those things that have
the biggest ability to make you feel good or bad about yourself. For as long as I can remember I thought that
a perfect wife will be my solution, if I can just get a very beautiful little
wife, she will make me feel good about myself – she will be my identity. Because I was very seldom in relationships, I
was always miserable and without identity. I prayed about it a lot and I got very
upset with God because He did not give me a wife. But God did not want to give
me an idol. If God would have given me a wife while I was idolizing her, God
would have given me something that took my focus away from Him, and put me into
idolatry. There was a two year period (from
age 40 to 42 when I first met my wife) where I started to understand the truth
of the Gospel, and got my focus off myself and my lack of a wife, to Jesus. I
got my mind off this idea that a wife is my solution, to the fact that Jesus is
my identity. This was a big part of the
freedom I experienced. It seems to me that only once I stopped seeing a wife as
an idol, that God could send me a wife. There are many people who see their
solution in earthly things like, a spouse, a job, a better boss, a better
co-worker, money, circumstances, a house, etc. This is a lie. Your joy and
peace does not lie in things on earth, it lies in Jesus. Your identity and
glory is not from the world, it’s from the cross of Christ (Gal 6:14). If your joy or identity is based on worldly things,
you open yourself up to be a very easy target for the devil.
(14) Use sin, wrong thoughts and emotions as a trigger for worship, communion
with Jesus and to establish your identity. People sin because they do not
understand their value and their righteousness (1Cor 15:34), if we understand
how valuable we are, we will not waste our time with something as worthless as
sin. I did not understand that the old man which was weaker than sin died (Rom
6:7, 6:11), the new man who I am, is much more valuable than sin and much
stronger than sin. As soon as you realize this, you will look at sin and see it
as worthless acts. However, if you sin, or while you are still growing in this
revelation of your value, do not get into guilt, condemnation and depression,
and do not beg God for weeks to forgive you the sin. God made provision to
forgive ALL your sins (1Jn 2:1, Jn 1:29, 1Pet 4:8). We must not sin, but if you
do sin, use these sins or mistakes as an opportunity to train your mind in your
value and power. The most powerful word to establish your identity even when
you made a mistake is “That is so not who I am”. Use this when you have made a
mistake, so teach yourself who you really are. It took me a long time, but I
taught myself that as soon as sin, wrong emotions and thoughts got into my
mind, that it’s a time to stop doing what I am busy with and praise God.
Initially you don’t even realize that you are busy with wrong thoughts, because
you are so used to them being in your head, but after a long time I could
recognize wrong thoughts and emotions, and I could start to act as soon as they
came: “Jesus, I feel inferior and worthless after my discussion with that
person, Jesus I thank you that it’s a lie, I am not worthless and inferior, I
am precious (Ish 43:4), I am absolutely amazing (Heb 2:7), I am worth the
precious blood of Jesus (1Pet1:19). Thank You Jesus that You absolutely love
me.” Pray like this “God, to commit such a sin is so not who I am. It’s
not my heart to sin, it’s my heart to fully obey you. I’m sorry that I
committed that sin. God, I am so valuable to you, and you have made me stronger
than sin. Father, the old man that I was, he was weaker than sin, but God, the
new man You made me, he is stronger and more valuable than sin. I know You will
teach me and grow me to overcome that sin. God, thank You that You forgive all
my sins.” Every time you recognize a wrong thought, withstand it with
truth!
B.3) A summary of the Gospel
that Transforms through the Blood of Jesus
The Gospel is that through
the death of Jesus my old rotten, miserable life can die. The characteristics
of the old selfish life were: being hurt, offended or feel cheated, be jealous
or hateful, feel inferior or worthless or alone or depressed, try to impress
people to feel valuable, feel impatient or angry, be stressed or anxious or
have fear, be subject or weaker than sin and live for temporary pleasure like
money, cheap comedy, immorality, addictions, etc, or be self-consciousness. But
you can be born again, and get a new life. The characteristics of this new life
are rest, joy, peace, love, patience, freedom, etc. This new life is given
entirely to Jesus, it’s not about me or my circumstances or comfort anymore,
it’s all about Jesus and the people that He loves. You don’t live for your own
dreams and desires and luxury anymore, you ask Him where He wants you to go and
what He wants you to do. It sounds like a raw deal, because you have to give up
your life! But the point is you get to enjoy your new life, you are free and you
have peace, you have fun loving people and caring for people. You get a
Companion (Holy Spirit), you are extremely loved and you leave a legacy unto
eternity! Jesus has given me all things to live this new life. My
responsibility is to train my mind with the help of Holy Spirit to understand
how amazing I have been made, that I am stronger than darkness, fear and
depression. That I am created by God so that He can love me, that I can love
Him, and so that I can love others!
