Author Archives: osheadavis

Your Empty Pizza Box is the Real Trash.

A few days ago, I posted this quote from Vincent Cheung, and got another, if predictable, yet, unimaginative response:


“The Bible teaches the opposite. Jacob wrestled with God and said, ‘I will not let you go until you bless me.’ So God blessed him, and called him Israel, meaning ‘a prince with God.’ Jacob’s tenacity, his refusal to let go until he received God’s blessing, was counted as faith. This persistence brought him into a deeper relationship with God. Jacob did not separate God from his blessing, but he understood that to seek the blessing of God was to seek God himself.”
(Vincent Cheung, Seek God Through His Blessings.)

Superbole1, responded, with:
“uh no. Jesus said that if you seek God’s will, He will answer. Meaning God is not a wish granter. Secondly, the author of this trash left out that God dislocated Jacob’s hip after blessing him, keeping Jacob reliant on God.”

“Superbole”? That’s a blend of “superlative” and “hyperbole.” Your name is the highest degree of rhetoric, where something is described as much more impressive than it is. Maybe when reading the Bible, try less exaggeration and more basic logic.

“If you seek God’s will”? You twist this to mean God is no wish-granting genie. That’s cute. However, if we’re going to rub the lamp, let’s rub it well and see what happens. Jesus in Matthew 6:33 tells us to seek first the kingdom and its righteousness, and all these things—blessings, provisions—will be added. It’s not “God’s will OR blessings”; it’s both, bundled like a cosmic care package.

Seeking God’s will includes His blessings. Seeking blessings from God includes seeking God. Seeking blessings from God is God’s will because it is obeying His command and walking in His definition of a Christian. You cannot seek God to bless you without seeking God.

Jacob wasn’t separating the Giver from the gift; he was grabbing the whole enchilada. However, Jacob’s goal was more basic. He was not seeking God to expand God’s kingdom, he was asking God to expand Jacob’s kingdom. He was not asking God to do God’s will on earth, but to do Jacob’s will on earth. He was not asking God to bless God’s plan; rather, he was asking God to bless Jacob’s plans on earth. God approved of this and blessed Jacob.

Jacob was not looking to be blessed by his self-effort or by going to worldly help. Jacob did not ask Satan or the pagan god Baal to bless him. No. He was asking God to do the blessing. Thus, even if Jacob was mostly self-seeking, it was still a packaged deal that sought God and glorified God. Even if you don’t want Satan in your life, if you ask Satan for money, you have sought Satan and established a relationship with and glorified Satan. The two cannot be separated. God approved of Jacob seeking his own plans and desires, not asking about God’s. By seeking Jacob’s plans and desires to be blessed, Jacob was also seeking God.

You frame the limp as God hurting Jacob to keep him “reliant,” like a divine pimp slap to prevent cockiness. Charming, but let us flip the scripture to the upright position and reread the text. The limp and blessing came at the break of day, after Jacob would not stop until he was blessed. If the limp was meant to crush aggressive seeking for blessings, why bless him? Do you see it yet? This is God marking a transformed man. This is God branding a person who sought a blessing. God gave Jacob His stamp of approval. Jacob enters as a schemer, exits with the relationship of “God’s Prince.” It’s not punishment. It is a fighter’s scar from winning the ultimate match. A badge of honor, a reminder of the encounter that elevated him to Israel, “a prince with God.” It didn’t diminish the blessing; it valued Jacob’s grit and faith.

Calling scripture-inspired insight trash? That’s the type of boldness that would make Satan blush in envy. Your view turns God into a stingy taskmaster, doling out only “will” without the thrill. No. That is not the bold faith we champion. Seeking our own blessings is like pizza; we all want it, and God calls it good. However, when you order pizza, you insist on just the box—sure, it still has God’s logo on it, but it misses the cheesy point entirely. Your empty pizza box is the real trash.

*Polished with a little help from Grok xAI, the AI sidekick who wrestles typos like Jacob wrestled God

God Will Give You a Heavenly High-Five

In Vincent Cheung’s recent essay, “Seek God Through His Blessings,” he says the following:

“One of the most insidious of these teachings is the notion that we should not seek blessings from God, but instead seek God himself…The Bible teaches the opposite. Jacob wrestled with God and said, ‘I will not let you go until you bless me.’ So God blessed him, and called him Israel, meaning ‘a prince with God.’ Jacob’s tenacity, his refusal to let go until he received God’s blessing, was counted as faith. This persistence brought him into a deeper relationship with God. Jacob did not separate God from his blessing, but he understood that to seek the blessing of God was to seek God himself.”

What is interesting about God renaming Jacob as Israel is obvious. Israel is about Jacob’s relationship with God. Jacob is a prince of God—or, that is, a royal son of God and of heaven’s kingdom. God defined Jacob in relationship to Him. This definition of Jacob’s relationship is a very close one. My first thought is, “Wow, I want that type of close relationship with God. How and why did God redefine Jacob with such a close relationship?” It was in seeking God’s blessings, favor, and goodies by faith that God redefined Jacob in a closer relationship with Him. From this we learn: If you want a closer relationship with God, ask and get more material stuff from God. If you want a more distant relationship with God, then don’t ask and don’t get material blessings from God. By seeking blessings and answered prayers from God, you seek Him more and have a closer relationship—or the opposite.

In short, if you’re wrestling with God for blessings like Jacob did, you will pin down a divine upgrade. Not only will you get a holy handout, but God will give you a heavenly high-five, because you have such a close relationship.

ALL Is Not Lost

I was praying the other day. It is now common for me to be praying in tongues and making faith confessions and praising God.

Over the last few years, God has been healing me, restoring me, and growing my inner man. And now, as I look to the future, my focus is more power, more righteousness, more kingdom expansion, seeing my dreams become reality, and taking all choke points and limits off God and what faith can do.

I am in my 40s, and I was feeling a little bit of hopelessness because of my age. I was wishing I could go back to my teens to teach myself what I have learned and practiced over the last several years. And so, I decided to use life’s greatest life-cheat: praying in tongues. After some time, I received an interpretation, “All is not lost. I have heard your prayers.”

When God says “I have heard your prayers,” as He did to Hezekiah, it means He gave you what you asked. Because God is so loving and so faithful to do what He promised, the same act of God hearing you is the same act as God granting your request.

When I heard the Spirit say this, I was unsure if God meant “all” as in “some things might be lost but not all things,” or “all the dreams you have ever had are still yours for the taking.” I looked up and said, “I don’t know how you meant ‘all,’ but I mean it as all my dreams are still here. Even if you did not mean it that way, I mean it that way and receive it that way, because you said ‘all.’” (Hey, if you’re going to quibble with the Almighty, at least do it with faith and a dash of audacity—its how scriptures teach us to pray.)

God told King David that He gave wives to David (this is mostly about sex), a kingdom, prosperity, and fame, and if David wanted more, God would have given more sex, more kingdoms, more prosperity, and more fame to David.

This teaches us that we cannot ask too much. The risk in praying is asking too little and shooting too low. If you aim for the Andromeda Galaxy but end up hitting Orion’s belt, then great, you accomplished some good things. But if you aim for the ground, then that is all you will hit—frankly, why settle for dirt when the stars are up for grabs?

The Gentile woman hijacked Jesus’ words, which meant one thing, to mean something else. Jesus approved and called her faith great. In fact, Jesus was arguing for God’s will to be done, and by the end of the exchange, Jesus confesses out loud, “Woman, your will be done.”

Jesus had already promised to go and heal the centurion’s servant, but the centurion asked for an upgrade to a miracle already in motion (just say the word). Jesus approved of this man asking for more, and he got the upgrade.

Last note: Pray in tongues and ask for interpretation. Even if you don’t have a spiritual gift for interpretation, by asking in faith, you will find you will receive interpretations. Don’t sleep on this. It will help you.

I am here to remind you: All is not lost.

Do not limit God. Do not shoot too low. Do not ask for only small things. Pray for big things; pray for upgrades to miracles you are already getting. Pray for more. And when you think you have asked for too much, ask for more.

And when God hears you, you know God has given.

You Will Not Die But Live

A few years before COVID hit, Vincent Cheung had begun to publish more materials on faith. I therefore began to rethink and refocus on such topics. However, it was not until COVID that I fundamentally changed my lifestyle to seek God in a more devotional manner and with greater faith. God had warned me a few years prior, in a divine trance, that I was not internalizing the scripture in faith and inner strength, as I ought. Even after this, I was still somewhat blind to what that meant.

When COVID forced most of us homebound, I found myself stuck in my house. I remember I took the second COVID booster treatment. (I won’t linger on this other than to say, if you have faith, it doesn’t matter what you do. As long as you are not willfully testing God, in good conscience, you are free to do what you want—hey, faith isn’t a straitjacket, it’s freedom with a divine safety net.) However, I began to feel like I was half dead for a few weeks or months. At one point, I was standing in my living room, and I felt so bad I halfway passed out; I went blind, my veins and heart felt cold and slow, and I could barely breathe. Time slowed down. I felt like I had one foot in the grave.

I couldn’t even speak, but in my mind, I cried out to God to help me. I remembered there were dreams I had and prophecies about me that needed to be fulfilled. I immediately felt just enough strength flow into me that I pulled myself onto the chair, and I heard the Holy Spirit say, “You will not die, I will help you, I will restore you and strengthen you.”

At the time, I did not have health insurance, so going to the doctor wasn’t an option; but that was for the best. I had a better physician, after all—who needs co-pays when you’ve got the Creator on speed dial? The word spoken to me by the Spirit took the edge off any fear or worry I had. I felt bad for months afterward, but I slowly got better.

It was after that I changed my life every day to seek God in a more devotional way. I remember downloading the Joseph Prince app for my phone and starting my first devotional. I then signed up for Kenneth Copeland’s email daily devotional. I remember talking to myself, saying, “I can’t believe I am reading these guys!” The doctrine of God’s sovereignty is so easy, and you shouldn’t boast about knowing it as if it were a difficult thing to do. It is a doctrine no one can take from me. I say this to say, reading the faith teachers has zero chance of harming my understanding of God’s sovereignty. And this is exactly the issue. I knew God’s sovereignty, but I was not living in the joy and peace of the Spirit, and was not in the place where my prayers were answered as a common thing. I needed to grow in these areas. The Pentecostals and charismatics were too weak. The faith teachers were the only ones who did not qualify Jesus’ statements about faith.

When I was in my teenage years, I remember praying in tongues, and during this time I read and believed in the sovereignty of God (Romans 9) without anyone teaching me these doctrines. I was reminded I was at my best when the Spirit filled me with power. The faith teachers also reminded me how important praying in tongues is. And so I began to pray in tongues often. I began to speak out loud the promises of God over my life as faith confessions and declarations. I began to sing and praise God more and more. I renewed my commitment to go over my lists of promise verses, over and over. I began to listen to faith preachers preach on the topics of faith and miracles.

Within months, I saw a qualitative difference in my life. Before this, I would often go to sleep with stress and fears keeping me up. But now, all that negative stuff lifted off my mind, and I was sleeping like a baby—snoring optional, peace mandatory. When I prayed, I began to see more of my prayers answered. I noticed fewer doubts intruding in.

Before, my inner man was so weak, and all I knew was my own experience. When I prayed, I was filled with doubts and stress, and now with hindsight I recognize I was often being demonically harassed with force attacks (like how Vincent described it in “On Spiritual Attacks”). Satan was making me feel condemned, with a sense of dread and no way of escape. Godly fear can make you feel dread, but it will also show you the way out with hope, and the Holy Spirit saying “yes” to the promises of God applied to you.

When you read the Bible, you realize you should feel nothing but joy and peace and confidence when you ask God for something. Anything less than this, and there is something wrong or weak in your inner man—frankly, it’s like trying to run a marathon on spiritual spaghetti legs.

Over the following years, some of these old weaknesses or demons have tried to come back, but since I am stronger in my inner man, and I know how to take my authority in Jesus, I command them to leave, and they run with their tails stuck between their legs. See my essay, “Power is what will Finally Deliver You.” I do not claim to be perfect, nor am I to the point I want to be in power and faith, but having a stronger inner man (which is mostly measured by faith) has made a decisive difference in my life.

And it will do the same for you.

I am here to remind you, All is not lost. Renew your mind in faith and confidence in God’s good promises. Make your inner man strong. Know how much God loves you and has given to you. And when you pray, you will have what you ask, you have see what you confess, and you will process what you command in Jesus name.

The Lie that You Only Need to be Still

In my teaching “The Staff of God,” I highlighted the passage where God was displeased with Moses’ statement, despite it sounding like a bold “word of faith confession.” The issue wasn’t the confession itself but what it confessed. God responded with irritation, “Why are you crying (i.e., whining) to Me? Take the Staff and divide the waters.”

Moses’ confession was misleading. God was indeed fighting for the Israelites and would continue to do so, but it was incorrect to say, “they only need to be still.” God didn’t command Himself to divide the waters; He commanded Moses to do it. If Moses had sat there “waiting for the will of God,” the Red Sea would not have parted, because it wasn’t God’s job to divide the sea; it was Moses’ job.

Moses was hedging, trying to buy time with a good faith confession, but God had already acted. He had given Moses the Staff of God. Likewise, God has already acted for us. He sent His only Son, who was brutalized, raised from the dead, and seated at His right hand. Jesus took on God’s wrath for our sins, gave us His righteousness, bore the stripes that healed us, took our curses, and gave us the blessing of Abraham. God has made us a royal priesthood, an irrevocable calling, and engraved Jesus’ name and authority on our tongues. What we have is far greater than the Staff of God or Zeus’ lightning bolt. We have the Name of Jesus and the baptism of power in the Spirit.

Moses thought he could chill with a faith-filled soundbite, but God was like, “Bro, grab the Staff and make waves—literally.” Spoiler: Sitting still doesn’t part seas, but swinging God’s power does.

Unlike the faithless of our day, Moses was a friend of God, yet God still grew irritated when Moses lingered, waiting for God to move. Moses held God’s power in his hands. It was Moses’ move, not God’s. It wasn’t time to be still and watch God; it was time to act and command the waters to stand.

So it is with us. The waters are divided by us, not God. When Moses stopped hedging and acted with the Staff of God, the waters parted. Healing will happen when we stop hedging, stop waiting for the so-called will of God, and command it in the name of Jesus. If you wait for God to move, you’ll die waiting. God has already moved.

The faithless amplify Moses’ misleading confession, pumping it full of unbelief. They wait for the will of God, and they wait, and they wait. Nothing happens, for their worldview has no God and no power in it. However, God has already willed our sicknesses onto His Son, stripe after stripe. He has already addressed our sickness problem. There’s nothing more for Him to do for us to be healed. Do you suppose your begging for healing requires Jesus to be re-crucified? Your healing is already accomplished. In God’s thoughts He transferred your sickness to Jesus, who carried it away. In God’s mind, He thinks we are healed by Jesus’ stripes. Who am I to disagree with God’s own thoughts?

The lie is waiting for God to move when He has already moved. Through Jesus’ finished atonement, He placed the Staff of God on our tongues. His command is that we move next. Like a chess game, God has made His move. Now it’s our turn.

The faithless camp out, waiting for God’s will like it’s a cosmic Amazon delivery. Newsflash: God has already shipped the healing, signed, sealed, and delivered on Jesus’ back. It’s already sitting on your living room floor. Open the package. Doing nothing and looking at the box, will not open it.

God’s made His checkmate move with Jesus’ atonement. Now He is sipping divine coffee, waiting for you to slide the bishop and part the Red Sea. Don’t leave Him hanging.

The miracle happens, not when God moves, but when we move, and divide the waters in Jesus’ name. Because God has already moved, the healing happens, not because God will move, but because we will move in faith.

The disciples finally got this. And so, Peter said “what I have I, I give, in Jesus Name, walk.” It wasn’t what God had. It wasn’t what God gave. It was what Peter had, and what Peter gave. He had the Name and power of Jesus, to throw around as Peter wanted. Peter had this because Jesus was sitting at the right hand of the Power. And despite many Christians hating this, Jesus is still at the right hand of the Power. We have the same Name and the same power.

(witty summaries provided by Grok 2025 )

You Cannot Earn Healing

Your sins or imperfect righteous actions don’t stop you from being healed. This statement needs some qualifications. For example, I hesitate to mention exceptions because people tend to fixate on them, but Paul says in 1 Corinthians that their gross disrespect for the Lord’s Supper was causing some to get sick and even death. Paul urges them to stop this and be healed. Thus, certain extreme levels of sin can bring sickness, and you need to stop sinning. However, even in this context, faith can still bring healing, even if you don’t stop sinning—but if you persist in sin, the sickness is likely to return, and the cycle repeats.

Take for example the man Jesus healed at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus said for him to stop sinning or something worse may happen. Thus, sin was the cause of his sickness, or the reason it did not leave. However, Jesus did not ask the man to repent or ask him to stop sinning before getting healed. No. Jesus only asked, “do you want to be healed?” He healed him for only wanting to be healed. No other qualifier was needed.  For true and permanent health, you need both to stop sinning and to have faith for healing. This is what true resisting the devil means. It is both to stop sinning (if applicable) and command him to leave, or command the sickness to leave. Ta

However, this is an exception. When you read the Gospels, Jesus heals every single person who approaches Him for healing. The only ones He couldn’t heal—or rather, the only ones who could stop God from healing—were those with unbelief. Think about the hundreds, if not thousands, of people lined up for healing. We read of large crowds, and all were healed. These were everyday people with sins like adultery, greed, lust, anger, envy, murder, laziness, and more. Yet, Jesus never stopped them and said, “You must repent first,” or “You must stop this sin first, then I’ll heal you.” Jesus never made them pay or earn their healing through effort, better self-righteousness, or money. Despite their sins and wickedness, Jesus healed them all—every single one.

Healing’s not a paycheck you earn—it’s a free gift from Jesus’ atonement, no sin-slaying resume required. Sure, Paul flagged gross sin like Lord’s Supper disrespect as a sickness trigger, but faith can still zap it, though sinning again might reboot the curse. In the Gospels, Jesus healed everyone—sinners, slackers, all—without a repentance pop quiz. Unbelief’s the only kryptonite

Jesus says, “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father.” This unqualified access to healing, without earning it through self-improvement, repentance, or greater holiness, reflects the Father’s heart. Think about this the next time you ask the Father to do something in Jesus’ Name.

Through Jesus Christ, I’ve given up on myself. My old sinful record, which the Father held against me in His mind, was removed and nailed to the cross. That’s not me anymore. In the old testament sacrifice, the priest examined the unblemished lamb, not person who did the sin. That was the whole point of an exchange. When the Father considers me, He examines the righteous Jesus Christ, and consider me in Him. The Father sees me in Jesus, as part of Jesus. Does Jesus have sin? Neither do I. Does the Father consider Jesus to have a sinful record? Neither does He consider me to have one. In the Father’s mind, Jesus is perfect righteousness, and so am I. This is my new reality—there’s no other reality for me.

Thus, I don’t need to earn more righteousness to be healed or receive a blessing from God any more than Jesus does. If you try to earn healing by your performance, you haven’t given up on yourself; you haven’t received Jesus’ righteousness. Your old man is still alive, and your new man is dead. A Christian is the opposite: the old man is dead, and we have a new man identified with Jesus. My sins, in relation to me, are as far as the east is from the west, yet many Christians speak of their sins as if they can still see them. Quit acting like they’re still photobombing your spiritual selfie. This is delusional nonsense because it’s impossible to see the east from the west.

Just as with every blessing provided by Jesus’ atonement, healing isn’t earned but freely received by grace through faith. There’s no other way. But why would you want another way? This is the good way—God’s way.

Arthritus is How God Curses a Person

“The Lord Himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do…. The Lord will strike you with wasting diseases, fever, and inflammation… The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, scurvy, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured… making you miserable and unbearably sick… with madness, blindness, and panic… The Lord will afflict you with every sickness and plague there is.” (Deut. 28 NLT)

The curses of the law come from God, not Satan. They’re God’s curses. Thus, sicknesses are God’s curses. Even if demons and Satan administer sicknesses in their demonic priesthood, they’re ultimately God’s curses. Acts 10:38 tells us most, if not all, the people Jesus healed were afflicted by demons, but the foundation for sickness is God’s curse.

Sicknesses of the body and mind are curses for rejecting God. God doesn’t give boils, tumors (cancer), itch, fever, fear, and inflammation (e.g., arthritis) to help people but to destroy, shame, and damn them. If God is giving you such things, you’re His enemy, not His friend. For those God loves and who please Him, He gives health and strength. Curses like inflammation, or what we call arthritis, are promised to worsen until they destroy the person, causing an elderly person to be so bent over in pain and barely able to move. The curse of arthritis makes a person weak and immobile. Weakness in old age is a curse from God. This is how God curses a person.

The good news is that Jesus became a curse for us in our place and, in exchange, gave us the blessing of Abraham, which includes wealth, fame, and health. Paul also says Abraham’s gospel includes the Spirit, referring to the baptism of the Spirit: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’—in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:13-14).

Additionally, for the specific issue of healing, in His substitutionary atonement, Jesus took lashes on His back in exchange for our healing. Thus, curses aren’t permitted in your body or mind. They have no legal right to touch you. Jesus was nailed to our curses; they have no claim on us. The curse is gone because of Jesus. You don’t have to tolerate curses in your body. Use the Name of Jesus to tell sicknesses in your body, which are curses, to leave, and command that body part to be healthy.

You’re the one responsible for allowing or preventing curses from festering in your body. If you let a demon convince you arthritis is a natural part of aging, you’ve given that demon permission to steal, kill, and destroy you with God’s curses, which Jesus died to save you from. If you agree with demons and their lies, you give them a foothold to curse you with the sickness Jesus died to redeem you from. You hold the responsibility for this.

This is similar to the command to make the devil flee. God won’t do this for you because He commanded you to do it. You have the power to let the devil keep harassing you or to make him flee. Likewise, you have the power to allow curses into your body by agreeing with men and demons or to confess with faith the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Whatever you choose, don’t blame God for your sickness, because Jesus already became a curse for you. He already took 39 lashes for you to be healed. He already did something. There’s no need to ask. You only need to believe He did it.


Arthritis, boils, cancer? Straight-up God’s curses for His foes, not party favors. Deuteronomy lays it bare: sickness is divine wrath, often demon-delivered but God-ordained. Good news? Jesus took the curse hit, swapping it for Abraham’s VIP blessings—health, wealth, and Spirit power. Stop letting demons gaslight you into keeping arthritis and weakness as an “aging badge.” Speak Jesus’ Name, kick curses out, and own your healing; He’s done the heavy lifting, so stop limping and start winning.

Tell It What You Want

“What I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
(Acts 3:6)

 “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.”
(Acts 9:34)

“Stand up on your feet!”
(Acts 14:10)


Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
(Matt. 21:21)

The fig tree was a real fig tree, and it dried up when Jesus spoke to it. Jesus didn’t ask God; He spoke to the tree, and it died. It wasn’t a spiritual fig tree. Thus, the category is material or physical. When facing mountains in the material world, Jesus didn’t ask God for help but spoke directly to the problem. He then instructs the disciples to do the same: to speak to the mountain or problem and command it in faith, knowing God’s power will back their words. Jesus didn’t tell the disciples to inform God of their problem or mountain or to present a sad sob story about how bad it is. Rather, He said to speak to the problem and tell it what you want it to do.

After the baptism of the Spirit in the opening salvo of the Book of Acts, the disciples did just that. In Acts 3, Peter didn’t tell God how awful it must be for the cripple to suffer so long and beg God to find it in His will to heal the man. No. Peter spoke to the mountain or problem—sickness. He said, “What I have, I give.” It’s not what God has or what God gives. Peter declared the power to heal is what he has and what he gives. He then said, “In Jesus’ Name, walk.” He spoke to the mountain and told it what he wanted: “Walk.” This is exactly what Jesus instructed.

In Acts 9, Peter says, “Jesus heals you, get up.” Peter doesn’t tell God about the mountain of sickness; rather, he tells the sickness what he wants: “Get up.” Peter obeys Jesus’ instructions for interacting with material mountains and problems. In faith, tell them what you want them to do, whether it’s killing a tree, casting it into the sea, healing the sick, or telling a fish to bring you money.

In Acts 14, Paul looks at the mountain of sickness and speaks to it like Peter, saying, “Stand up on your feet!”

These commands are both spoken to the mountain and serve as instructions for the person to act on faith. Because they believe they are healed, then they need  to do something they couldn’t do before. This is integrated into speaking to the mountain of sickness. It’s a powerful way to administer healing.

God gave Moses the Staff of God. When they were backed against the sea, God told Moses to stop monologuing about His help and use the Staff of God to divide the sea. Thus, it was not God who divided the sea in the most direct sense, but Moses divided the sea, using God’s power. However, what we have is greater than the Staff of God. We have the name of Jesus Christ engraved on our tongues. We are part of Jesus and so we use His Name as our own.


Jesus didn’t whine to God about fig trees or mountains—He told them what to do, and they obeyed. In Acts, Peter and Paul channel that vibe, bossing sickness around like pros: “Walk!” “Get up!” “Stand!” No sob stories, just faith-fueled commands backed by Jesus’ name. Speak to your problem, not about it—whether it’s a tree, a mountain, or a coinless fish, tell it who’s boss and watch God’s power roll.

Extra Baskets Left Over #4

*70

I remember a guest minister telling a church I was visiting, “Everybody in here can have an airplane.” He heard the people sigh in unbelief, so he said, “Let me ask you this. Does everybody in here have a car?” Most people nodded.

Then he said, “If you can have a car, why can’t you have an airplane?”

Someone responded, “Because we don’t need an airplane.”

He said, “You don’t need a car. You could get a ride every day or catch public transportation.”

His point was that the enemy takes over people’s minds and causes us to think that some things are too lavish or too expensive for us to have. We get into this mindset that says, “Too much wealth and nice things promote avarice or opulence.” But in God’s way of thinking, it’s not enough! God wants you to live on His level. Some people think that a Rolls-Royce is more valuable than they are, so they never see themselves owning one. The truth is that we are far more valuable than an automobile or an airplane. No amount of money could redeem us from sin and death. God had to give the life of His only begotten Son, Jesus. That is a dramatic statement of how valuable your life is.

God said in Isaiah 55:8, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the lord.” As I’ve mentioned, the Bible promises, “As he [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7). We have to allow God to pull up our level of thinking, as He was doing with me and with our congregation in our new location. Even Jesus’ first miracle in the Bible was a miracle of luxury (turning water into fine wine). God has the very best set aside for us. It is time for the church to move from the place of scarcity and “just enough” into our promised land of more than enough.

A Wealthy Church

Again, the church should be the wealthiest institution, and God’s people should be the wealthiest people, on the face of the earth. Our lifestyles should stagger the imagination of the world. Why? Because we have a larger responsibility than any other people to evangelize the world and complete the assignment God gave [us].

Bill Winston.
Revelation of Royalty. 2021. p. 159 160

——–

Vincent Cheung does a great job in exposing the absolute stupidity in the idea of “need” versus a “want” regarding if our prayers qualify for a yes or no. For example, do you need to live through this day? Really? You could just die and go to heaven. Thus, you don’t really need to even breathe, or need food, clothes or a bed. Such a divide would reduce into a logical absurdity. What you need is what you want, and there is no way around this without jumping into insanity.  

*71  Fountain of Salvation.

In the ultimate sense God is the fountain of salvation. Jesus’ finished atonement creates a fountain of benefits for us to drink from. With this being established, we can affirm there is a fountain of salvation within us.

In Isaiah 12 we are told God is the fountain of salvation and we drink from Him. However, Jesus in John 4:14 furthers this teaching. If we drinks the water, that is salvation from Jesus, this water becomes a fountain of eternal life in them. This fountain of life is not just springing out of God, so that I go to God to draw some out, now it is in “me,” and I draw it from me. Jesus adds more to this by saying in John7:38-39, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit.” We learn in Acts chapter 1-2 and 19:2-5, that “the Spirit” is not referring to being born-again, but the baptism of Spirit for speaking in tongues, power and miracles. 

By faith we drink God’s fountain of salvation, and then a fountain of eternal life and Spiritual power fountains out of us. We are not a dry place that a demon can inhabit, but a fountain of life and power. We pray in tongues and the Spirit fountains power in our souls, by edifying us and often leading to interpretations and other spiritual powers. When we do this we are drawing from the fountain of salvation from within us. This is the same with forgiveness and being imputed with God’s righteousness. God did not forgive and credit His righteousness to Himself, but us. I am blameless and I am righteous. It is mine. It is my definition and identity. The same for eternal life and spiritual power springing out of myself. It is me. I am this fountain of salvation now. It is my definition and identity.

In that day you will sing:
    “I will praise you, O Lord!
You were angry with me, but not any more.
    Now you comfort me.
2 See, God has come to save me.
    I will trust in him and not be afraid.
The Lord God is my strength and my song;
    he has given me victory.”

3 With joy you will drink deeply
    from the fountain of salvation!
(Isaiah 12:1-3 NLT)

14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
(John 4:14 NKJV)

*72  I Would Have Given You Even More

“I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.”
2 Samuel 12:8 NIV

Look at how giving God is with material things. It is good to ask for such things and God is glad to give. You cannot ask for too much prosperity and happiness in relationships, if you are a Christian. It is not wrong to even ask for an entire nation. God wants to enrich and those who oppose this are against God, His nature and promises.

God’s goodness leads us to repentance. His love constrains us to forsake evil.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and will keep you on the path of wisdom. However, mature wisdom is receiving the good gifts from God.

.. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more…

What is amazing about this, is the particular focus on sex. David is being confronted for his sin of adultery. God gave him multiple wives for sex, and then God says, if you wanted even more (sex), I would have given it to you. Of course, today we don’t have multiply wives but a request for good and much sex in marriage is something God wants to give.

*73 falsifiable

In the realm of science, a falsifiable claim is one that can be observed, tested and has the potential to be disproven. 

Some fools claim that we ought to use the standard or epistemology of “falsifiable” as a way to discover biblical truth or Christian truth.  However, is this claim itself falsifiable? But I digress, so that I can address some of the main problems of this standard.

First, the bible does not teach the doctrine that we discover biblical truths by observation and testing it with the potential that it can be disproven. Thus, this standard is an anti-biblical standard. If one uses this to discover truth, then this standard is the person’s first principle of knowledge and not the scripture. They are using something more foundational than the bible and are using it to evaluate the scripture. Also, this presupposes empiricism and observation. But these are both logical fallacies.

Second. The law of contradiction is not falsifiable. You cannot observe it and test it with the potential of it being disproven, because you must use it to deny it. It is self-authenticating in this way. Thus, there is at least one thing that is not falsifiable, and so how many other things are not falsifiable? Thus, the standard of falsifiable is not universal to all knowledge, and this would lead to skepticism if used as a starting point for knowledge or a test for knowledge.

Third. The bible is not falsifiable because you must use the bible to deny the bible. There is no potential for it to be is disprove. It is self-authenticating. How can the bible teach the doctrine of falsifiable as a standard for finding truth, when the bible is not falsifiable? 

Thus, those who use this anti-biblical standard to find truth are to be mocked and dismissed. They do not know what the bible teaches and the do not understand what logic is. Do not let such people be your teachers.

*74

You can’t out extreme Jesus with faith. His teaching is too extreme. Nothing you say about faith can overreach Jesus’ extreme faith doctrine. There is no risk in taking it too far.

Faith for anything anytime anywhere

*75

Jesus who asked the Samaritan woman for a some water, because He was tired and thirsty. And yet, Jesus turns around and says “if you know Who I was and the gift I have, you would ask Me and I would give too.” What a lavish giving our God is. His mission was to serve man like a waiter. Even when He was tired and thirsty He still homed-in on His mission to serve man.

His statement had two parts. The first was “who Jesus was,” and the second was about a “gift” that He was willing to give.  Jesus says He has a gift to give, and so He instructs with the obvious conclusion. “Ask and I will give to you.” The scene started with the woman worried about serving Jesus with some water to drink, but Jesus made the point that He was there to serve and give.

This has some similar instruction as Martha and Marry. We learn it is more blessed to receive than to give, with our relationship with God. Jesus says He has a gift. We do not need to worry  about if it is God will to give or not. Jesus say He has a gift, tells us to ask for it and He will give it.  This is the type of God we have. Jesus says if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. Our prayers are directed to this type of lavish giving God.

*76  God Is Our Provider Again

In the garden, God was Adam’s source for provision. When Adam sinned God’s curse included this: “Adam, I will not provide for you. You will now provide for yourself with toil.”

In Abraham, God’s gospel included providing abundance for man again. God Himself provides wealth. God becomes man’s rich supply. Jesus’ atonement gives us the blessing of Abraham.

God called creation good, and in this context, God was Adam’s provider.  God provided Adam with a rich supply of material food, goods and land.  Adam did not work to provide for himself, God provided for him. God was humanity’s bread winner.

When Adam sinned, this changed. God cursed Adam with death. This curse included God withdrawing from the position of being Adam’s provider. God told Adam that he will work and with hard toil provide his own supply. What God called good, was now cursed.

This idea might seem strange for some but working to provide for yourself was introduced as a curse. We are always to work, because we are created and commanded by God to do so, but the idea to work in order provide for ourselves was not part of creation. Adam worked in the sense of administering the Garden of Eden, but he did not work to earn his provision.

In God’s promise to Abraham, God begins to restore the natural order of things, by promising to give favor, increase and wealth to him. God begins to be the provider for His chosen ones.  For example, Isaac worked by planting in the waste land, but God gave it a supernatural 100-fold increase, despite the lack of water. This increased Isaac’s wealth.  The king gave Abraham a large sum of money for temporally taking Sarah, thinking she was only his sister. God provided wealth to Abraham, without Abraham working for it. God was Abraham’s bread winner. Abraham believed God would do these good things for him and God declared him righteous.

Some make the mistake in only applying one narrow aspect of the gospel to forgiveness of sin. Jesus gave us Abraham’s blessing, through His atonement. The gospel puts God back in the position of being our bread winner. As in all the blessings of the gospel, to fully enjoy them you must have in faith to receive them. Therefore, we are not to look to our employer as the “source” of our supply and ability to get money. Sadly, many do exactly this and are practical atheists this part of their life and mind.  Knowing the gospel of Abraham gives us the power and favor to gain wealth, even wealth transfers and know Jesus bore our poverty and already gave us His wealth, our eyes ought to be focused on God as our source.

Because our employers are limited, if we see them as our source of money, then our lives will be constrained by their limitations.  However, if we turn to God who has unlimited wealth and power, our ability to gain wealth and have doors opened to us will be as measureless as God’s ability.  God has good things to give, and there is much work to be done in expanding the kingdom of God. A human focus for our provision will greatly diminish our ability to fulfill God’s goals for our lives.

God has become our provider again through Jesus Christ. We must take full advantage of this for our own lives, and to expand the kingdom. We ought to focus on God being our rich provider.

*77

How did sickness come into you? How did it come into the world?

Sickness is not a natural consequence of creation. Adam did not believe God, rather, he believed a lie. He operated in unbelief. God did what He said. He cursed Adam and Eve and creation with death.

Here is the main point. Sickness came by words. Sickness came when God spoke a curse against creation. Sickness is destroyed in the same way, by words. If you look to human means to heal, then human means is all you will be rewarded with, however small it is. By Jesus’ stripes we were healed. This is the foundation; however, we are healed by opening our mouths and commanding the sickness to leave. God spoke the curse of sickness into the world, and we speak to make it leave. Jesus said, “You heal the sick.” You do it. This is why Peter, even after being baptized in the Spirit, spoke words to heal the crippled man in Acts 3. “What I have, I give. In the name of Jesus Christ, “walk.””

Healing will not happen by waiting for “God’s Will.” Healing will not happen by waiting for God to open His mouth and tell the sickness to leave. The reason is simple. Jesus commanded us to open our mouths and do it ourselves. God’s not going to do something He commanded you to do and speak. God’s command for us to do it, is God’s will and decree.

*78

When God called Samson, He needed a person with faith to Judge with superman power, not integrity. We are commanded to strive for integrity, and so we are not diminishing this command. Not only is holiness obedience, it has many blessings attached to it. Having practical righteousness and integrity will make the job easier, with less problems and make it more enjoyable. And Yet, when the one thing that is needed is faith for superman power to kill thousands of men, tear down and carry off city gates and push stone pillars like they were a toothpick, integrity will not accomplish it. It is a different category.

The man with the highest integrity but not enough faith to work superman power is a useless man when God needs faith for miracles.

Jesus said to not begin ministry until the church was endowed with supernatural power by the baptism of the Spirit. Jesus commanded us to heal the sick, cast out demons and throw mountains into the sea. When the situation calls for faith and power, there is no substitute.

Some people say Samson is about not letting your sexual passions overtake you. Even if this can be extracted it is only indirectly. It is not what the story of Samson teaches. It teaches that when power is needed, then only faith to work superman power will get the job done. This is why Samson is a hero of faith.

Some say if you lack integrity you are disqualified. This is true as far as it goes, but it is also misleading. Samson and David, with their big sins, were not disqualified from the gifts and callings on their lives. Even Peter, after playing the harlot of a false teacher for a short time, was not disqualified from his gifts and calling.  And yet, consider the opposite. If any of these men never had the faith to do the miracles needed, then they were disqualified from the start. If Ruth did not have the faith to go to the king and rescue her people, then Mordecai said God would disqualify her and her family.

When God needs miracle power, there is no substitute.

*79

“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked.

“Anything is possible if a person believes.” (Mark 9:23 NLT)

The father responded in the typical way religious elites and tradition does. “If it is Your Will, and if you Can, Oh Jesus please help.” Jesus was not happy with this reply. Think about that. He was not happy when man put the outcome of a healing on Him, or God. He said, “If you are able to believe, then your boy will be healed.”

Elites put the outcome on God’s power and if it is His will, but Jesus teaches the 180 degree contradiction to this. Jesus puts the responsibility and outcome on a person’s faith

*80

Unbelief is the original matrix. Unbelief is the only real matrix.

Johnny, “Jesus heal me please, if it is your will.“

Jesus response, “if it is your will and you have faith then you do it; because I won’t do it. Command the sickness to leave.”

Johnny, “No, its up to You to heal me, if it’s your will.”

The matrix has Johnny enslaved to Satan and to man-centeredness. Johnny is not able to obey Jesus. He can’t hear and believe Jesus’ words.

*81 Jesus Was the Real Victim in this Story

 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40 NIV)

Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” (Mark 5:36 NIV)

The saying is true, you are either in faith or fear. Jesus puts these as opposites. He says, “only believe,” with no mixture of fear. He says in Mark 4 that the disciples had fear and zero faith. They don’t mix well. If you have fear in your heart about a sickness, then you realize you don’t have faith. This is how it works.

(Momo, I mean) Jesus was the real victim in this story. He was asleep with His head on a cushion and was woken up for something He expected the disciples to deal with, without disturbing Him. I am not trying to be funny here. It is no joke being woken up from a good nap from something so minor as a deadly storm, which only a little faith could destroy and remove.

The prayers of many people are like the disciples in this story. They pray as if Jesus is teaching that He likes it, if we cry out in fear for His help over something like deadly weather or sickness. People repeat the disciples fearful cry as a model for prayer, when Jesus rebukes it as how not to pray. Jesus was upset with their fearful cries for help. Think about that. Because God is merciful He might answer some fearfully cries of unbelief, but don’t expect it.

The point that made it a bad prayer was no faith. It is ok to ask for Jesus help if you have faith, but here is Jesus’ point. If they had faith, then they did not need to ask for Jesus’ help. That’s how you know you have faith.

 We do not have every lesson Jesus told the disciples at this point, but Jesus’ reaction gives us enough details that He expected them to use their faith, and deal with the situation, without waking Him up.

This also brings up the issue of where the storm came from. Of course in the ultimate level God causes all things, but the bible mostly deals with the human level. Peter in Acts 10:38 said it was not God, but Satan who was victimizing all the people in Israel with sickness and diseases. When Jesus was casting out diseases He was fighting demons, not God, because the sicknesses came from demons not God. When you have an insider relationship with God He relates to you in blessings. The contract in Jesus’ blood stipulates that God only relates to us in blessings (it could include discipline, but not curses). Thus, whether it is a sickness, or a deadly storm, in human level, it was not from God. When you rebuke it, you are not rebuking God but demons and the curse. Jesus teaches us to not tell God about our mountains, or sickness or deadly storm, but to use our faith and we command it to move and die. Jesus has given us the power and authority to do it, and expects us to do something. Don’t wake Him up and tell Him about a storm, when you have the Staff of God in your mouth. Open your mouth. You divide it. You heal it. You cast it out. You calm it.

*82  Jesus Did Not Use Jesus Power

Jesus did ministry as a man born under the law. After His temptation He was filled with the Spirit, and then He started His ministry. Thus, did He cast out demons by His Jesus power? No. He cast out demons by the Spirit of God, not the Son of God power. Jesus said, “if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom has come upon you.” Moving past the implications that what brings in God’s kingdom is casting out demons and healing the sick, let us just think about Jesus’ point about the Spirit. He cast out demons by the Spirit.

Another example that this power was the Spirit and not His, is how the lady, with the flow blood, took power away from Jesus, without Jesus knowing who it was. The power of the Spirit upon Jesus, acted like a spiritual law, in that anyone with faith who touched Jesus, had the Spirit’s power automatically flow into them for healing. The law is simple. The Spirit was the electricity, and faith is like flipping on a light switch.

 Referring His miracles, Jesus said the Father does the works. In John 14:10-12 the PTP does a good paraphrase translation saying, “Don’t you believe that the Father is living in me and that I am living in the Father? Even my words are not my own but come from my Father, for he lives in me and performs his miracles of power through me.”

The big idea is simple. When Jesus as casting out demons He did it by power of the Spirit. When He healed, did various miracles, such as commanding the storm to calm, the power that caused this to happened was worked by the Father, and not by the Son. Jesus operated as a man. He was given authority by the Father to heal and calm storms, but the power and authority came by the Spirit and the Father.

We do the same. We have the same authority and command. When Jesus told us to speak to our mountains and command them to move, when Jesus told us to heal the sick and cast out demons, He gave us His authority to do it and put His power in us.  Jesus gave us authority to use He name to ask and command whatever we want. This power is God’s power, but it rests in us. When we command a mountain to move, it obeys us, but the power is God’s. God has up His power in us like a flowing river, and has stamped His authority on our tongues. However, God will not move our jaws for us. We must chose to open our months and use the authority and power He has gifted us.

Jesus is now sitting at the right hand of the Power. He uses His own power now. But on earth He did not use His own power. How successful was Jesus miracle working ministry when the power was not His but the Father’s and the Spirit? It was 100%, with the exception of unbelief, such as in His hometown. Some might say, “well it’s not my power, and so it might not happen.” This is nonsense. Jesus never failed to work a miracle, even though it was not His power. He did not fail, because He trusted God and was given the authority to command and work miracles. We are in the same ministry. We are given the same authority. We are in the same position as Jesus.  The only difference is that Jesus said you will do even greater miracles if you believe in Him.

Rejoice, your success for miracles is guaranteed. Open your mouth and command something.

*83   Eschatology In A Nutshell

If someone sums up eschatology without baptism of the Spirit for power, they have no idea what they are talking about.

Acts 1:6-8 NIV. “ Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth.”

The context is about eschatology. Jesus has sat down on his eternal throne and is ruling. The disciples did what most do, they made eschatology about politics. However, Jesus rebukes them and says eschatology is about being baptized in the Spirit for power and miracles.

The important part to note is that in eschatology the followers made it political and Jesus made it about miracles and the Spirit for power. By making it about politics they made it about man. Religious elites make the baptism of Power belong only to the apostles, and thus they still make it about man. They use religious words, but the result is a man-centred doctrine in what it means to be God-centred. In Peter’s sermon on Pentecost, he made baptism of power about Jesus and His eschatology position, sitting at the right hand of the Power. It had nothing to do with the apostles, thus, the baptism of power still remains, because Jesus still remains at the right hand of the Power. The Power was faithful to His promise to give Jesus the authority to pour out power.

Jesus is still faithful in pouring out power on “all whom the Power calls to Himself,” (Acts 2:39).  The Baptism of power is connected to God predestination of the elect. Peter’s point is not directly about repentance, but baptism of the Spirit and to this Peter directly connects, as many as God calls to Himself. This is why Peter says the gentiles were granted salvation and eternal life when He witnessed them speaking in tongues (Acts 10:44-47). In His Pentecost sermon Peter already said that being baptised in the Spirit is about God calling His predestined ones to Himself. Thus, when Peter saw the gentiles speaking in tongues, and then he told the other disciples, they concluded God elected them to eternal life (11:15-18).  In fact, Peter said because the Spirit was given to them, it was proof they should be baptised in water. And let us not forget that water baptism is a sign that they have died and were raised in new life with Jesus. Speaking tongues was proof they were elected to eternal life.

Peter’s argument for the baptism of power is based on two points. One is the Father being faithful to His promise (2:33) to Jesus, so that Jesus has the authority to pour out power. The second part of the argument is that Jesus is sitting on His throne, at the right hand of the Power (2:31-36). These are the 2 relevant factors, in Peter’s argument, for the conditions in pouring out the baptism of power.  Peter, who is an Apostle, gives no scriptural quotes or logical connections, that the baptism of the Spirit is connected to the apostles. Zero.  What do the religious elites know that Peter did not?

In addition to the Spirit baptism of power, there is the issue of authority. Jesus gave the disciples the authority to heal the sick. In fact, it was a command, because He said, you “heal the sick,” and “cast out demons,” and “preach the gospel.” Then Jesus did the same with 72 others, and so no one can logically say it was only for the apostles. To further insure this, Peter in Acts 3, after commanding a healing, says it was by “faith in Jesus,” and not by the authority of an apostle.  Faith in Jesus is what causes a person to receive salvation, and it is the same faith that commands sickness to leave. It is heavily God-centred. It is not man-centred on the apostles. It is centred on Jesus and His position of authority, while He is sitting at the Father’s right hand.

The next major event after the baptism of the Spirit Acts 3-4, shows how Jesus’ plan for power is how to apply His eschatology.

After being released from prison the Christians got together and prayed. They quoted Psalms 2, a militaristic Psalm, and asked that God would apply this to their situation of government opposition, by healing the sick, miracles and boldness to preach the gospel. God responded back with a resounding Yes.

This is how they applied eschatology. This is how they applied the doctrine that Jesus is on His eternal Throne and rules forever. This is how they applied the doctrine that King Jesus gave them power to advance His Kingdom when they face opposition, even when their enemies use the government to persecute them.

They mentioned 3 things, healing, miracles and bold preaching, in context of eschatology advancement under King Jesus. Many only preach (and they are not even good at that), which is only 1/3rd of the disciples applied eschatology. It is no surprise they fail at kingdom advancement.

*84 Under the Boots of Observation and Emotions

Yank the Redwood of observation out of your own eye before you try to remove the splinter of observation from the eyes of the Word of Faith teachers.

I heard Mark Driscol start a series of sermons about faith and the Spirit. There is an occasional quotable statement, when he slams cessationism, but he is not in a position to criticize them, because Mark rejects the bible with empiricism, observation and emotions just as much as the cessationist do.  The only positive aspect of Mark’s dual epistemology is that he tells you up front he is using observation or emotions as a higher authority over scripture. The cessationists, even if their attempts are bad, try to hide dual epistemologies. They will use the idea of God’s sovereign providence and history, but in reality they are using the logic of induction and relying on the epistemology of empiricism and observation. They use God’s sovereignty, as odd as it sounds, to hide their adultery with human starting points.

In attacking the Word of Faith, Mark says they are wrong because Jesus taught x, y and z from the bible. This is what we would expect if the bible is one’s only starting point for knowledge.  No, what Mark said, was that they are wrong because to tell someone they did not get healed, because they lacked faith, is cruel and hurts people’s emotions. When did emotions become an authority over scripture?  Because you observe x, therefore the bible is wrong. When did this become a standard way to understand the bible? The scripture tells us public knowledge only comes to us by the Scripture, however, our observations can be mistaken, such as in the case with Moab and the blood water. Thus using observation to gain knowledge leads to skepticism, but this leads to denying the law of contradiction, which is self-refuting nonsense. It means observation is a false starting point of knowledge that does not exist.

The other thing Mark said was that Acts was over several years, and so all the miracles you see, really isn’t that many miracles, and so we should not except to see constant miracles. This is a very careless reading of scripture. It is said many miracles were done by the apostles and followers, so that entire crowds were healed, things like napkins were used to healed and they even tried to get healed off Peter’s shadow. Acts was a drive by summary of the miracles, because there was too much to record. Acts starts off with Jesus commanding everyone to get endowed with power to perform miracles, it is connected to Joel’s prophecy that says everyone will be doing miracles.   

Again, what is oddly missing is the Word of Faith’s main passages of Jesus’ extreme faith doctrine. For more see, Vincent Cheung, The Extreme Faith Teacher. These are the main basis for their doctrine of faith. Unless you can bring up those passages and say Jesus was wrong, then the faith teachers are correct for their faith doctrines.

It is wall punching hilarious to see so-called Christians champion themselves as “the bible is my final authority,” and “I am a bible believer,” but every time they find a doctrine they don’t like, they shove the bible under the boots of their human observation and emotions.

*85

“No longer have consciousness of sins.” Heb 10:2

 “Go boldly to the throne of grace, that you may obtain mercy and find grace to help you.” Heb. 4:16

Show me a person who is not conscious of their sin, and I will show you a person who “boldly goes to the throne of grace, that they may obtain mercy and find grace to be helped.”

To “boldly” enter God’s throne room, means you are walking with your head held high. Without knocking, you put your hands on the royal doors to God’s throne room, you push them open and march in like you belong there. With other heavenly host, standing to the side, who don’t have the same access that you do, watching you. Then you say, “I need this help,” or “want this thing.” And God says, “You got it. Your faith has helped you.”

There is no way you can do this if you are “conscious” or mindful of your sins. It will not happen. There is no way a sinner can demand help from a holy and righteous God, who demands perfection.  But a righteous person, and person who has a blood contract with God that allows them to ask and receive, is able to demand help and grace.  A person who is mindful of their sins, is a person who does not boldly go to the throne of grace. And if they do ask, they end up not asking, but begging like an outsider, because they are mindful they are indeed a sinful outsider.

What is on repeat in your mind? When you are afraid? When you hurt? When you go to sleep. Are you mindful how righteous you are? Are you mindful you have a contract with God to make demands on Him? Or are you mindful how sinful and pathetic you are?

*86 Two Contracts (Grace and Works)

There are two types of covenants. or contracts God made. One is a contract of blessings based on the law, and but the first contract is based on a one sided promise of God to freely bless.

As Paul says in Galatians, the blessings God gave to Abraham was a one-sided “promise” (Abraham was a sleep) to bless. The law was a contract based on performance. Paul again makes the distinction in Romans 4 that the “promise” was based upon grace, so that it is secured by his chosen ones by faith. In this sense, the law is not based on faith, in and of itself. Because Abraham was first, it cannot be replaced by the works for blessings. Thus, the law (before Jesus) could only be lived by faith, in light of doing it in the hope of the blessings promised to Abraham.

As Vincent pointed out in “The Edge of Glory,” because Abraham was sleeping and it was a one-sided promise of God to do good things, can we still call it a contract? We can call it a covenant, but only in a very lose way. In fact, Paul in Galatians calls it a covenant, chapter 4 when making a contrast to works, but on the other hand, Paul almost exclusively calls what was given to Abraham a promise and grace, rather than a covenant. Even the writer of Hebrews does the same thing in chapter 5.

The law in Jesus was fulfilled and as Paul says it, nailed to the cross, or in modern terms, it was stamped “fulfilled,” filed away in the archive section of God’s documents. Abraham’s promise was not “built” upon through Jesus’ atonement or by His new contract; rather, His atonement, “He became a curse for us so that we have the blessing of Abraham,” ensures we get the promised blessing of Abraham. This is like the bible saying “Jacob shall possess their possessions.” Jesus’ atonement ensures that we possess our Abrahamic processions.

Now in addition the all the goodies promised to Abraham, the very first one-sided promise was to Adam. It was a promise of deliverance. We learn more about what that means, but it centered on forgiveness and righteousness. The atonement of Jesus accomplished both of these promises. It accomplished the promised deliverance and salvation through the gift of righteousness, and it ensures we inherit Abraham’s blessing.

Thus, these two promises are accomplished in Jesus or guaranteed as an ever present action to us. But the covenant of the law and works is not included in this. Only what can be received freely by grace is combined in Jesus’ finished atonement as a contract. It is a contract of grace, not our performance. Because Jesus was our cruse and fulfilled the law, God promises, or makes a contract with us that He will never remember our sins. We receive this promise as grace in faith. The law as a performance, was performed by Jesus for us in our place, and so it was totally finished. It demanded and it was satisfied. In the most loses sense, Jesus performs the work of not remembering our sins, but that is a negative or indirect sense, because the work itself is done. However, the blessing of Abraham is not finished and nailed to the cross or filed away in a drawer. The gift of righteousness and Abraham’s promise, is an everlasting and ever present thought and action of God upon His children. God is directly and always performing this promised love and goodness on us.

*87 Is This the Year of My Blessings?

Is this the year of triple blessing?

Is this the year of rest and acceleration?

Is this the year of restoration?

Is this the year of 7 healings?

Is this the year of double prosperity?

The answer to this is, yes; however, it is only in the sense that every year these already apply, and they already belong to the Christian.

The Christian has inherited the blessing of Abraham, every single year, every day, every minute. They are under the blessing of Abraham by the finished atonement of Jesus Christ. With faith in this truth, any Christian can make it a 100x blessing year, for even that is not enough to describe how much God blessed Abraham in prosperity, fame, military victory, health and favor. Paul argues the blessings (or as Paul calls it the “gospel”) of Abraham means the Spirit and miracles. We get more than 3 miracles. The only limit is your needs, wants and faith to receive them.

Some ministries are looking for hype and extra offerings, but there is nothing wrong for a pastor asking God and looking for a “theme of the year.” If it is a pastor, and God did answer their prayer, then such a theme is for the “members” of their local church and not for everyone else. The question now is this, is it wrong for someone to claim this for themselves if they are not part of this local church? No.

But remember, although, because of our weak faith, having a theme and focus might be helpful to a certain extent, we must strive for maturity. By faith in God’s promises all these declarations and themes are yours by right, through Jesus Christ. They are yours through Jesus’ finished work for you. They already belong to you. They are already your identity and definition. You do not need another mediator, or pastor, or ministry to make your definition in Jesus more real. You do not need a mediator to bring you directly to God. You do not need a pastor to bring you to your blessings given to you by Jesus. You already have direct and immediate access to God in Jesus. The blessing of Abraham is already yours. God gave it to you in Jesus and no man can mediate this blessing from God to you. You already own it, and you have access to it by faith. Let no one replace, the direct access you have with God and with your blessing of Abraham, with any man or thing.

Rejoice. Hold your head up high. With faith, all these good things are yours for the taking. With faith, every year is the blessing of Abraham that causes you to reap 100-fold.

*88 He Gives New Strength

“He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.”
 Isaiah 40:29 (NIV)


Even after being born from above, we can still get weary and weak. This isn’t because God withholds these things from us, leading us to beg for strength that isn’t part of our DNA or inheritance. Through Jesus’ finished atonement, we already have power and strength.

Because of our imperfections and immaturity, we can become weary, making it right to ask for new strength. God wants to supply our needs. It is His delight to hear our cries for help. God loves us and has promised to help, but we ask from a position of victory. Strength is ours through Jesus’ atonement; it’s our definition. Paul doesn’t say to ask for God’s armour or ask to walk in His power; he says to put on the armour because you already have access to it, and to walk in the power because you already possess it. You already have God’s old strength, but you must take responsibility to put it on and use it. Ask for God’s help, but also use the power God has already given you.

Satan wants you to fight for new strength on the wrong hill, making it seem like you must ask and beg for it. He wants to put new strength behind a paywall of, striving, doing and begging. He wants you to view your identity as lacking this strength, pushing you to strive from a position of not having. This is the wrong hill to fight on. This is a lie from the pits of hell.

God’s shield of protection and favor is already surrounding you; the mighty sword of the Spirit (praying in tongues) is already in your hand. You have power; release it. The authority to use Jesus’ name for anything is already branded on your tongue. Open your mouth and use that authority.

*89 Jesus’ New Deal

In the story of Job, Satan brought all the sickness, destruction, and troubles. Jesus says the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Peter in Acts 10:38 states that all the people Jesus healed (thousands) were victimized by Satan. Consider how Peter assumes these sicknesses were caused by Satan, not just from Adam’s fall. Jesus also said Satan bound a “daughter of Abraham” for 18 years—Satan, not God, bound one of God’s daughters.

Back to Job: Job’s understanding of God improved not because of his suffering, but because God revealed truth to him. God had to step in and drop some knowledge bombs. Satan’s torture? Yeah, it didn’t teach Job jack; it just made him listen up when God finally spoke. Experience is the worst teacher, and God’s word is only teacher.

In the new deal with Jesus, we’re supposed to get the good stuff, healing, and blessings, not Satan’s new green deal. We’re God’s kids now, not his punching bags. In our Contract with Jesus, God promises only good. We’re promised insider status as children. God might give you a slap on the wrist, but he’s not out here causing your misery. He teaches by writing His laws on our hearts and the Spirit opening our minds to His truth. Even when Paul throws some dude to Satan, it’s Satan doing the dirty work, not God. God promises “only good” in the Contract. If Jesus administers suffering, He would be a minister of death, diseases and pain. That’s Satan’s priesthood, not Jesus’.

This is the problem with those who focus on suffering and sickness. You’re saying Satan’s your professor in the school of hard knocks. Your knowledge? It’s just from getting your butt kicked, not from the holy book. And you’re giving Jesus Satan’s job title.

*90 The Land of the Word


Canaan is the land of the Word and promise.
The sands of Paran are the land of observations and experts.


If you want the milk and honey, you must believe the Words and Promises of God. Unbelief will disqualify you from entering. If you decide what is reality for you—in categories like health, wealth, family, and various miracles—based on what you see, hear, experiment, observe, or on the words of other men, such as doctors, then you become an abomination to God.

The Israelites did not lie when they said they saw giants and felt small compared to them. But God cursed and rejected them for truthfully reporting what they saw. Their expert trackers and scouts did not lie when they delivered their findings, but God hated them for their truthful report based on their senses, observations, experts, and experiments. And God will reject you if you do the same. The Promised Land can only be entered by those who reject their observations and experts and affirm that God’s Word is truthful, despite what they see. The only way to honor and glorify God as the true God is to confess and believe what He says over what you see and what the experts say.

It is the same today. When Jesus came down from the mountain after His meeting with God (like Moses), He rebuked the disciples as spiritual perverts for not having enough faith to cast out a demon. The demon was causing the boy to scream and twist on the ground. These loud sensations caused the disciples to doubt, and Jesus was not happy. He expects us to believe, even when there is much carnal stimulation and even when many voices—like doctors or experts—say there is no way out.

*91 Thorn In My Mind

All humans have sinned.
I am a human.
Thus, I have sinned.

This is a correct way to apply knowledge from the bible to yourself. To say monkeys have sinned is a false way to apply this knowledge. Monkeys are not humans. It is a category error. However, imagine me forwarding such a dumb argument? I would be mocked, and for good reason.

[However to say I have sinned is faith. It is an deductive syllogistic application of the truth to me. This is why the word for ‘faith’ interchangeable with the words for syllogism or deductive logic or rational, or logic.]

And yet Christians do the same with Paul’s throne in the flesh. It was only given to him because of the abundance of supernatural revelations, visions and trances. The messenger of Satan was given to Paul to keep him humble. And yet, a Christian will say, “I’m like Paul, with this thorn of cancer in my flesh.” However, they haven’t had one vision or revelation, let alone a super abundance of them. Their category lunacy is not less than saying “chickens have sinned, because all humans have sinned.” People who forward such silly arguments have put thrones into their own minds.

This is beside the point, the thorn in his side are false super apostles attacking his children with false doctrine.

*92  I Give What I have

“What “I” do have “I” give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Acts 3:7

Although God, out of compassion and sovereign bulldozing, will still heal; yet, in the larger picture, God is not healing, because He has commanded us to heal the sick. Peter shows what this means. He said something that would get him called a heretic by most churches. He said what “he” has “he” gives, which is the name of Jesus to heal. Peter has the name of Jesus to heal.

Thus, God did not heal the man, but Peter using God’s power (and the man’s faith) that healed the man. Acts 9 shows something similar. We have been commanded to be baptized in the Spirit for power (Acts 1-2), and given Jesus’ name to ask for anything we want -John 14-16).

Thus, just as God told Moses to use the Staff to divide the sea, we have also been given the Staff of God and commanded to heal the sick. If people are not being healed it is not God who is holding it back, but people not obeying and not believing. You cannot blame God for something that He has already given to you and commanded you to do.

*93

Job didn’t have a contract with God as we do. However, in this story Satan gives Job sickness and poverty and God gives him double wealth and health (James calls this God’s mercy) and yet the conclusion is that Satan gives us wealth and health, and God gives us sickness and poverty?

I have never understood the use of this story to teach the opposite. So, I guess the story of God creating the earth means God did not create the earth?

*94 Sad Sob Story.

When the gentile woman told Jesus about the sad sob story of her demon possessed daughter, it did not move Jesus Christ to heal her daughter. The woman begged, “please help me.” And yet this did not move Jesus Christ to heal her daughter.

What did move Jesus to heal? It was the greatest and rarest thing found on earth. A person who has faith in God. Faith is what finally moved Jesus to heal her daughter.

It’s not a sad story or begging that will move God. It is faith that God will be faithful to His promises to give you what you ask. You can do the same.

“Who Touched Me?”

Faith will cause God to focus on you when there are millions trying to get His attention. They might be pressed up against Jesus, but He will bypass them all and focus on you if you have faith.

It was not compassion; it was not a sad sob story or begging that got Jesus’ full attention. It was faith that God will help and give a miracle of healing. He will do the same if you have faith for a miracle. He will give you His undivided attention and power.

Upgrade!

When the Roman centurion received an upgraded miracle to the one Jesus was already was giving him, it was not a sad sob story or begging that produced the upgrade. It was faith. It was absolute confidence that Jesus ordered reality like a general ordering men below him. And because he was asking with such confidence, he presupposed Jesus was willing.

This was the type of faith that caused miracles to be upgraded to a bigger miracle. It is not begging or trying to impress on Jesus how awful your circumstance is. It is faith.

*95 Slapping Falsification on it

Science commits a triple logical fallacy with empiricism, observation and scientific experimentation (affirming the consequent). Slapping an unsound use of falsification at the end does not make it rational. Science violates the law of contradiction (because it leads to skepticism) and identity (this happens multiple times). The epistemology of science is empiricism, but this foundation is a systematic denial of the laws of contradiction and identity. Induction and observation violate the laws of contradiction and identity. The very conception of induction is a violation of the law of identity. It is anti-logic

However, Jesus is the logic and appeals to the law of contradiction in Mark 12:35-37. Jesus is the law of contradiction. To say science gives any premise about anything is to violate Jesus who is the Logos. You must pick to either murder science or logic, or that you must either murder science or Jesus. Science has no justification for any statement about reality. Science is not knowledge. When used to produce a premise about reality, it is to be mocked and dismissed. Science is a group of people and nothing more.

I Apologize for the Diversion

[This section was part of my Systematic Theology, but I decided it was to much of a rabbit trail to leave in the book; and so, I published it here as extra reading material]

I am not alone in saying this. The famous John Calvin says in his institutes, as I paraphrase, “that God with His infinite power, could have created Adam to resist the temptation in the garden, but willfully chose to create Adam in such a way, that Adam did not have the power to resist the temptation. And it is wicked to question or look for a further reason why Adam sinned.” Martin Luther, not directly dealing with Adam’s sin speaks of Satan. Satan’s sin is relevant, because as Adam is the original sinner for mankind, Satan is for angels. “So that which we call the remnant of nature in the ungodly and in Satan, as being a creature and a work of God, is no less subject to Divine omnipotence and action than all the rest of God’s creatures and works. Since God moves and works all in all, He moves and works of necessity even in Satan and the ungodly.[1] Martin is saying, regarding the only real level causality, God directly works evil, in evil creatures, just as directly as He works good, in good creatures. As direct as God is, as He works faith in an elect, it is the same as He works unbelief in the reprobate.

Some modern Reformed people, such as R.C. Sproul, call this hyper-Calvinism[2]. This is self-damming because the Bible teaches this, and so it is an attack on God. It is also stupid because Calvin teaches this, and so now we have a history manmade mess, where we need to keep talking about what man said what. God and the bible become secondary at best. Calvin says there is NO such thing as “permission will” with God about anything in reality, thus, God is not permissive with the reprobate. Calvin clearly taught that God is as directly involved in reprobation as He is in the elect. God does not, merely leave the reprobate, yet actively works in the elect. Calvin says,  

Finally, he adds the conclusion that “God has mercy upon whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills” [Rom. 9:18]. Do you see how Paul attributes both to God’s decision alone? If, then, we cannot determine a reason why he vouchsafes mercy to his own, except it so pleases him, neither shall we have any reason for rejecting others, other than his will. For when it is said that God hardens or shows mercy to whom he wills, men are warned by this to seek no cause outside his will.[3]

So, whether it is the elect or reprobate, Calvin says you cannot go beyond, “God Willed it.” God willed it, and not that man willed; God will, and not that God left it, and a nebulous neutral power, outside of God, willed it. God did it directly, by His will and power. Calvin applies God’s will and direct working power, as equally to the elect as reprobate. Thus, if Martin Luther and Calvin are correct, then the WCF teaches a false doctrine, when it talks about secondary causes. I do not want to linger long on history and people, because Christians, like the Jews in Jesus’ day, use traditions to negate the Scripture. However, it might be worth saying that Martin Luther thanked Erasmus for attacking his teaching on God’s direct sovereign power in man, and with the gospel, and not attacking non-relevant issues. That is, Luther saw this teaching about God’s absolute sovereign power that directly works in the saint as it works in the sinner and Satan, as the central argument. Calvin, it seems, saw the importance as well. The WCF, which came later, contradicted what they taught.

Calvin actually gives a summary of this doctrine saying,

The sum of the whole is this,—since the will of God is said to be the cause of all things, all the counsels and actions of men must be held to be governed by his providence. Therefore, as God exerts his power in the elect, who are guided by the Holy Spirit, He also exerts force in the reprobate to do him service.[4]

…When [Augustine] uses the term permission [He means] that the will of God is the supreme and primary cause of all things, because nothing happens without his order or permission. He certainly does not figure God sitting idly in a watch-tower, when he chooses to permit anything. The will which he represents—if I may so express it—is an active will; for if God’s will is not active, then God’s will could not be regarded as a cause.[5]

…When I say that God bends all the reprobate, and even Satan himself, at his will, some object that only happens by the permission, not by the will of God…

[Those who are against the will of God that causes all things, counter this by saying] this is done only by the permission of God, and not by the will of God. However, God himself, openly declares that he does this, and thus, rebukes their evasion of this doctrine.

I admit, indeed, that God often acts in the reprobate by interposing the agency of Satan; but in such a manner, that Satan himself performs his part, just as he is impelled.

Some say, if God causes the counsels and affections of the reprobate, he is the author of all their sins; and, therefore, men, in doing what God has decreed, are unjustly condemned, because they are obeying his will. Such an objection makes a category mistake made between God’s will (decree) and his command, though it is obvious, from innumerable examples, that there is the greatest difference between them.

What we formerly quoted from the Psalms, to the effect that he does whatever pleases him, certainly extends to all the actions of men.[6]

Calvin is defining “providence” as this category proposition, “All things that are caused are things caused by the will of God.” This is not how I hear some Reformed people say it; they use it in a softer, vaguer, and more fatalistic way. I do not know if Calvin is truly representing Augustine about his use of “permission,” however it is not relevant, for the only point I wish to make is that Calvin is saying this because he agrees with the doctrine. Calvin is defining “God’s Will,” as only meaning a “active willing.” This of course lines up with Calvin saying that God does nothing by permitting it. This is important for there are people who use the word for “active” predestination for the elect and “passive” for the reprobate, such as R.C Sproul.  Calving contradicts this in both his negative and positive definition in what “God’s will” means. (1) It never means permission, and it always means active. In addition to this Calvin defends God’s active will, by saying if God’s will is not active, then it cannot logically be defined as a real “cause” of something. That is, if God only permits Pharaoh’s heart to be hard, and Pharaoh only permits, his heart to be hard, then there is no cause for it, which is nonsense. Calvin, like Luther, says that as God uses His power and force to make the saints believe and do, God uses the same power and force to make the reprobates and Satan to not believe and do.  Thus, when Calvin says God willed something he means God causes it, and not something or someone. When Calvin says that God will is the cause of all things, he means that it is the real, primary and active cause of it.

Even if you disagree with my points and copyediting, Calvin says God’s will does not mean permission, and that God’s will always means the same thing applied to all reality. This means you cannot say Calvin taught predestination one way for the Christian and then something less for the reprobate.

Martin Luther says that God is the one who put the evil in man originally. Additionally, as active as God is in causing “faith” in the Christian he is as active in causing “unbelief” in the reprobate. The way Luther talks about God’s causality with faith and unbelief, being the same, we conclude there is no room to say active will this and permissive will that. God makes the reprobate as a defective hammer from scratch, and not that the hammer made itself. God then picks up this defective hammer and uses it (causes them to will and do in life). The hammer makes defective hits, and God judges them for it.

Seriously, if all you do is a word search for “permission” in Calvin’s institutes, you will see Calvin over and over, in many different ways and with many passages say, God’ will does not involve permission for anything, relative to Him. Then modern Reformed people, like Sproul come around and say, God actively wills election, but only is passive or permits the reprobates. To deny passive or permissive will of God for the Reprobate, is for them is hyper-Calvinism. If you read Calvin and Luther a few times, and then read modern reformed fanboys, then you will become as appalled as I have in how much they speak in a continual and habitual slander and false witness against them. Why don’t they just say Calvin and Luther are heretics and just own up to it?

Calvin gives a category proposition for Christian metaphysics. He defines what it means and what it does not mean. All things are things caused by God’s active will. How simple and to the point that is. Modern reformed guys trying to complete this by coming up with phrases like, “active and passive,” “double predestination,” “soft this hard that,” “equal ultimacy” (etc.). They do this to make themselves look smart and academic, and to hide their unbelief under long, complicated loaded phrases.

Here is a pro-tip. If you truly want to communicate clearly, just use basic category statements. All, Some or None. The Scripture, along with Calvin and Luther, define Christian metaphysics as “All things are things directly caused by God.” The only two options for disagreement are “Some things are things directly cause by God, and some are not,” or “No things, are things directly cause by God.” Rather than saying “soft this and hard that,” just say “God determines all things by His will,” or “He does not,” or “He sometime does, and sometimes does not.” See, how simple and clear that is?

Calvin says, “the will of God is the cause of all things.” This will is defined as active by “God’s” “force” and “power,” and “never by permission.” Therefore, Calvin denies “secondary causes.” He does affirmed “secondary objects,” like Satan, that are themselves moved by God’s active force and power, but denies secondary cause as it is relative to God. Calvin also says, along with Luther, that the category of God’s decree and command, removes any human complaining about injustice done to them, when God punishes them for things that He causes them to do. Thus, both Calvin and Luther are in direct contradiction to the WCF, when it affirms secondary causes.

The WCF says,

“God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.”

This is outright blasphemy. It denies the absolute and direct sovereignty of God over all things. They are trying to avoid calling God the author of sin, but since God directly controls all things, then He is precisely the metaphysical author of sin and evil. There is no logical maneuver to avoid this. If they affirm God decreed and caused all things directly by his sovereignty, then of course God is the author of sin. One fool tried to tell me that the WCF, in this place, is affirming God and sin are not categorically plausible, the way Gordon Clark would teach on this topic.[7] Yet, this is not the context. The “context” is about metaphysics or ultimate causality, “God ordaining all things by His choice.”

If the WCF by saying “ordaining,” does not mean that God is the only absolute direct cause for all things, then it up-fronts admits that it is affirming Arminianism, and that there is dualism in Christian ontology. I will be kind here, and assume it is affirming God’s absolute and direct sovereignty over all things.

They try to affirm God’s decree and control over all things, but then say God is not the controller of sin—this is said in CONTEXT to God decreeing and controlling all things. They contradict themselves, to affirm a human superstition, which says God cannot be the author of sin and unbelief in the same direct causality, since He is the author of faith and holiness. Some who see the insanity of this try to affirm a mystery or paradox. LOL! You cannot say God ordains or causes “all things,” and then say, God does not ordain or control sin. You cannot say, “All things are things directly controlled by God,” and “This thing is a thing God does not directly control.” Or, “God does control all things, but at the same time God does not control some things.”  Let us try this with something else. “All persons who are saved are saved by Jesus. This saved person is a person not saved by Jesus. This statement is not contradictive or blaspheme, it is a “mystery and a paradox.”” Wow, I am on my way to be a great theologian!

Again, in CONTEXT to the category of God directly causing all things, it is said, “the freedom and possibility of secondary causes are not taken away.” Therefore, we will stay in this same category, so as not to commit a category fallacy.

If God is the direct causality of all things, then all secondary causes do not exist, and there is no freedom or possibility of any created object to do or cause anything; God takes away all secondary causes, because He along directly causes all things.

Some have mentioned to me that the phrase “secondary causes” was used in two different ways a few hundred years ago. One means what the noun phrase naturally says (relative to God there are secondary ontologies), the other meaning is similar to pointing out the category fallacy issue that Gordon Clark often points out. There is no historical evidence this second meaning was widely used and popular, other than a few insistences (as far as I have been able to research it, and even then, I am not totally convinced it wasn’t just a typo or accidently used that way). This is an interesting point, but ultimately a non-relative point for interpretating the WCF’s statement, because the authors all knew how Calvin in his Institutes answered it, and his answer did not use this phrase, or the category of ontology.

John Calvin later in his life wrote a book about predestination, and he does seem to distance God as the author of sin from His predestination, or at least, making contradictive statements about it. It was less popular and less read as compared to his Institutes. However, because it was Calvin’s Institutes that all pastors and theologians were required to read, and that greatly influenced Europe, we will refer to his teaching in this book, as “Calvinism.” History shows the Institutes as hugely popular and influential.  As pointed out in the quote above, Calvin, when addressing the question of author of sin, does not use “secondary causes” (ontology) language, but said, “Such an objection makes a category mistake made between God’s will (decree) and his command, though it is obvious, from innumerable examples, that there is the greatest difference between them.” Calvin does not refer to causes to refute the accusation of God being the author of sin, but merely says it is a category fallacy to combine these. The WCF, was written by pastors who had to read Calvin’s Institutes in school. Yet, they chose to use “secondary causes” (ontology) rather than the concise and easy explanation from Calvin’s Institutes, which they all read and studied.

Seeing these pastors and theologians all studied logic and philosophy, the phrase “secondary causes” would still have ontology as its most direct meaning, even if some used is differently. The WCF chose to use a noun phrase, when its main meaning is about ontology, (and phrase naturally means ontology), in context about ontology. When the Institute’s dealt with ontology and the author of sin, Calvin answered with a category fallacy; yet, when the WCF answered this, it did so with another point about secondary ontology. These are two very different ways to answer the question. The conclusion is that even as early as the WCF the doctrine of God’s sovereignty was already defective and compromised.

It seems beyond reasonable to me that highly schooled pastors, who read the Institutes, Logic and Philosophy, when writing about ontology, would immediately answer with a phrase “secondary causality” or “secondary ontology” and not mean the category of ontology. Maybe an amateur, who is not good at communicating, but a room full of very educated pastors, I do not see that mistake happening.

To avoid this biblical outcome of the author of sin, the WCF commits the blasphemy of affirming secondary causes, at the ultimate level with God. They are pagans who affirm metaphysical dualism with God. Martin Luther is famous for pointing out the category fallacy that Erasmus made with ontology and ethics. It seems the WCF, with their category fallacies and paradoxes (and how modern Reformed people try to excuse this section) has more in common with the Catholic, than Martin Luther.

Again, think about a chess game.

This WCF passage is talking about the real level causality, which would be “Johnny moves white bishop to b4.” This passage is not talking about the relative level, which would be, “white bishop moves to b4.” In order to save the WCF many do the same category error that Arminians do to many passages of Scripture, by changing real level causality to relative level. The Armenians are morons for doing this, and so are the Reformed teachers who try to salvage this WCF passage, when it cannot be saved.

Vincent on this WCF passage says,

…I believe that if a person is a Christian and somewhat intelligent, then if we were to repeat, “If God is not the direct metaphysical cause of something, then something else is,” to his face over and over again, eventually he would realize what this really means and would become just as alarmed and repulsed at the notion as we are. But perhaps both faith and intelligence are rare, and the combination even less likely.

As for secondary causation, I have addressed this a number of times. If all else fails, I can say that I did not write the books, but my computer did. The fact that I was typing on it when the books appeared does not nullify the authorship of the computer or its moral responsibility, but only establishes it. If the reply is that the computer is not an intelligent mind but a dead object, I would insist that Dual Core is superior to a lump of clay (Romans 9). In any case, if God’s authorship is only so distant (I did not make the computer, the software, nor did I make or control the electricity), he might not be so clearly the author of sin….

If I am right, then they must be wrong. The question is, how can they be right without self-contradiction — that God controls all things, but he really doesn’t, that God causes all things, but he really doesn’t? The Reformed is fond of appealing to “mystery,” “paradox,” and “antinomy,” which are nothing but more dignified and deceptive terms for saying, “Clearly, I contradict myself, but I don’t care.” Instead, it seems to me that divine sovereignty is an altogether clear and coherent doctrine. It is so easy to understand. I have also answered the almost universal abuse of James 1:13. Temptation and causation are two different things, and the topic is causation, not temptation.

We must submit to the direct teachings of Scripture and its necessary implications, and not the traditions and good intentions of men.[8]

I apologize for the diversion. Although I do not call myself a Calvinist, I do not like false witnesses and un-needed complexities and un-needed phrases. We can see from this the importance to leave history and fanboys with their slanders, loaded phrases and complexities to themselves. We will focus on making doctrinal statements (all, some or none) and making easy deductive application for ourselves, so that we can walk by the commands of God in joy.

[1] Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will; translated by J. I. Packer and O. R. Johnston; Fleming H. Revell ,1957. 204

Also see my website for an article called, “Martin Luther- The Bondage of the Will – Commentary,” for more about the Bondage of the Will.

[2] R. C. Sproul, Chosen by God; Tyndale House Publishers, 1986; p. 142.
 “The Reformed view teaches that God positively or actively intervenes in the lives of the elect to insure their salvation. The rest of mankind God leaves to themselves. He does not create unbelief in their hearts…”  
Sproul also in page 142 says active reprobation is “hyper” and “sub” Calvinism.

[3] Calvin, Institutes. p. 947.

[4] Calvin’s Institutes. CCEL ebook edition. publish domain. (www.ccel.org). Book 1, Chapter 18.
I have done a medium copyedit on the English (to modernize it), on this material. See original for comparison.

[5] Ibid. Book ,1 Chapter 16.

[6] Ibid. Book 1, Chapter 18

[7] Gordon Clark, in order to make the WCF affirm the correct level of sovereignty he taught, had to bear false witness against the WCF to make it say what it does not. His slander is the opposite of most Reformed teachers, who slander Calvin and Luther, by falsely saying they teach the same thing as the WCF. The WCF is their creed; it is their gate keeper, but Calvin and Luther are also their divine fathers. Yet, they contradict one another. And so, this back-and-forth slander is how it ends up being for fan boys, and traditionist.

Leave them and their tradition, they have their reward.

[8] Vincent Cheung. “WCF, secondary causes, etc.”

From the ebook, Sermonettes, Vol. 1. 2010. Page. 82-83.