Category Archives: Christian Axiology

All Things Are Yours to Moralize.

“All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.”
(1 Corinthians 3:21:23 NIV)

They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. … 6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. … 11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.”
( 1 Corinthians 10:3-4,6,11 NIV)

“And the prayer offered in faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him… The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the earth produced its fruit.”
(James 5:15-18)

As Vincent Cheung points out in “All Things Are Yours,” the bible moralizes itself. We use the word “moralize” to mean a deductive application of the truth and promises to oneself. The bible moralizes Elijah prayer for rain (natural weather) to be used to pray for healing and forgiveness of sins. The bible moralizes Elijah to the horizon and back.[1]

Paul directly tells us in 1 Corinthians 10 that moralizing Old Testament stories is good biblical interpretation. These stories are for our example to learn from and apply to ourselves. If you are a Christian, then these stories can be moralized. This is what keeps the bible from being used in a broad way for everyone to find ethical stories and apply them as a secular teaching. Only if you are a Christian can you apply them. Only if you are a Christian can you moralize Elijah praying for rain as an ethical story to apply to yourself to pray for healing. Non-Christians do not have the right, intelligence, or faith to do so.

Only if you are a Christian and you have inherited all things are you allowed to do this, well, because all things are indeed yours. This is not advanced calculus. Because all things are yours, of course you can moralize all these examples for yourself. As Paul says, they are yours, and you are allowed to use them.

Our identity in Christ means we have inherited all things. Reality itself belongs to us. Remember our earlier diagram. It is true that all reality belongs to Jesus. Yet, God has so highly exalted, glorified and positioned us in Christ, that instead of “reality” being contained in Jesus as a subcategory, “reality” now belongs as a subcategory in us. This is why we can apply all the stories in the Scripture to ourselves for our benefit. All things are ours. And we are Christ’s. And Christ is the Father’s.

We are discussing this in the ethic section of the book, because it is not a suggestion to live and walk in our new identity in Christ. It is a command. It is good ethics to read the Psalms and apply them to yourself. Psalm 103 is yours. Use it! The Exodus story is yours. Use it. The judges and prophets are yours. Apply them to yourself. And do it over and over.

We are to understand how all things are ours and walk in our new definition. Part of this walking is to use biblical examples and apply them to ourselves for instruction, growth and faith. Do not let religious elitists deceive you from using your inheritance. You can apply the bible to yourself, and if they keep hindering you, use your authority in Christ and hand them over to Satan to either repent or be destroyed.

[1] See Vincent Cheung, All Things Are Yours. This paragraph has paraphrased statements from this essay.

Free and bold access.

“..We can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus… Since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.”
(Hebrews 10:19-23. NLT)

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
(Hebrews 4:16 NKJV)

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
(Colossians 3:3-5)

Our new identity includes boldly walking into the throne room of heaven. Only family insiders have this identity.

Think about being a guest of the king. You are standing with some other nobles in the throne room off to the side talking. You are only there by request of the King. You do not come and go before the king as you wish. Now imagine you suddenly hear the doors of the throne room open. This surprises you because you did not hear the king’s chamberlain give announcement of anyone else being invited by the king. A young man walks through, but then continues directly to the throne itself. The young man does not even announce himself or do any of the formal greetings or acknowledgements that you a noble had to do when you entered before the king’s presence. The young man walks up to the king and the king has a smile on this face. The man asks the king for a beautiful piece of property to build a house on. The king says, “it is yours.” Who is this man? The man says, “thank you father.” Ah! This young man is an insider, he is a son.

According to Hebrews this young man is you, and the king is God. Angles and other created beings will never be children of God as we are. We are family insiders. They can only watch and imagine what it would mean to be a child of God. We live the reality of being children of God.

Hebrews says that not only can we go to God’s throne room, but we can come with “confidence” and even “boldness.” This is like going to the throne unannounced and still approach with boldness. We can push open the doors to the throne room and walk with our heads held high as a beloved prince of heaven. Only loved insiders have this access. We have such access.

The passage says we are to be conscience of the fact we are clean, holy and righteousness in God’s sight as we approach Him. Faith isn’t being conscience of our feelings or thoughts, but God’s feelings and thoughts. God thinks we are completely clean and pure in His sight. This is faith’s focus. A righteous noble, even if clean, cannot boldly approach like a beloved child. And so, beyond being clean and pure, God thinks we can boldly approach Him like a beloved child. This is what faith focuses on.

The passage goes on to say we can boldly approach to ask for help and have confidence to receive God’s help. Chapter 4 does not say we only ask, but who knows if our Father will help us. No. It says to boldly approach to “receive” help. As Vincent Cheung says in “The Absurd Idea of Need,” a need is anything you want. And Jesus defines a good father as giving a fish for a fish. Thus, this bold approach is going to King to receive what we want and our Father with gladness granting our request. Any thing less than this, is therefore, by definition not boldly approaching God with confidence, in light of Jesus finished atonement.

This is how the bible defines our relationship with our God.

Colossians says our lives are currently hidden with Jesus in heaven. In God’s mind, He considers us already part of Jesus’ body and as children of God. God’s thoughts and power are one and the same thing. What God thinks is reality, or becomes reality. Thus what God thinks in the most important thing. We are already so clean, glorified and exalted by God, that He thinks we are with Jesus even now. And so we are.

When we pray, we are already in heaven with Jesus. God considers us already there with His Son. God is not distant. He is near to us, and we are already near to Him. This is our new eternal identity.

Whether a Christian utilizes this new identity and bold access to God, in powerful application, is another issue; but the fact remains, we do have this bold access and we are already with Jesus as children of God.

Outsiders Beg; Kings Command

“…It is taught (from Characteristics) that a one-time prayer is enough, and all other prayers after should be in thanksgiving. I found this useful when I first followed the WOF, because Reformed prayer is just begging in unbelief...”

Read Vincent Cheung, The Extreme Faith Teacher.

This is the standard of faith and the immediate effects that come from a single prayer of faith. This is the standard Jesus held His disciples to. This is the same standard He will hold us to. This is the standard of faith and its effects we will be judged against. There is only one definition for what faith and its effects look like, and that glory belongs to scripture alone. This standard is not just a suggestion, it is a command. If you love God you will obey it, if you hate God you will disobey it. This is not rocket science.

I understand the context of a person coming from a teaching of unbelief and then hearing the many voices of the charismatics and Word of Faith. They are broadly correct on the topic of faith, but have many wrong points that come from Arminianism and self-imposed narrow applications that do not belong to Scripture (such as the 5 or 9 fold gifts of the Spirit ministry). With that said, this idea of faith is simple enough for a child to grasp, and so, one ought to be ashamed theologians can confuse them.

The reformed prayer is a beggar’s prayer, and this is why they see no results. Begging is for those who are outsiders of God’s contract. Insiders relate to God differently. I am glad you see this. Faith is “confidence” or “absolute certainty” God will do what He promised. One man asked Jesus, “if you can,” and Jesus was offended and said, “if I can?” Jesus never commanded us to “beg for the things we want.” Jesus commanded us to speak His Name in faith and make demons scream and mountains fly. The difference is huge. We are children of God. Children do not beg as if they are outsiders sitting abandoned on the road. Some theologians are indeed outsiders to God’s Contract and so all they can do is beg, and then try to deceive God’s children in following their outsider behavior. Yet we are indeed children of God. We sit at His table as co-heirs with Christ. Children ask the Father for a fish and they get a fish. They ask for the Spirit of God (can anyone put a value on the Spirit of God?), and the Father will absolutely give this to His sons and daughters. He will withhold nothing good from you. And “good” is defined by Jesus, as asking what you want and God giving this to you. The bible is the only definition of reality. Only God defines good and evil. God defines good as asking whatever you want and God giving it to you. This is good, because God thinks so.

In fact, we reign as kings in this life through the credited righteousness of Jesus and His unmerited favor (Romans 5:17-21). A king who begs is not a king. A king who does not speak is not a king. A king who does not decree is not a king. A king decrees and it happens. Royalty commands, and they are obeyed. “YOU will say… [then] nothing will be impossible to YOU, (Matthew 17:20).” “If YOU have faith … it will obey YOU, (Luke 17:6). When gods speak, reality obeys THEM.

Of course, it is God power at work in us, and not own power, but because the Bible rejects pantheism, when WE speak it is us, NOT God. Thus, reality will obey us when we speak in faith.

The basic idea is simple: read the promises, meditate on the promises, decree (in Jesus Name) the promises over yourself and then thank God for giving you the things you prayed/proclaimed. Some charismatic fools can get narrowly hung up on saying, “once you do this only keep thanking God for the results and do not pray the prayer again.” This comes from an overzealous fear of words. As Numbers 13-14 shows, you need to be careful with your words. (see Vincent Cheung, The Edge of Glory). If you speak unbelief, then God will give the evil you spoke; yet, if you speak faith, God will give the good you spoke. However, the bible says more about this. Consider David in Psalm 31:22 spoke a word of unbelief, but God helped Him. Obviously, David repented and re-asked for help and God helped him. Peter denied Jesus 3 times, but then re-affirmed his devotion and God received him back. This is the big idea, unbelief is strong, but a word of faith is stronger. If you made a mistake, turn around and speak the word of faith again, and God will help you. The Word and Spirit are stronger. A Confession of Faith is much stronger. Do not fear.

Also, Jesus directly commands that we pray and never give up. Thus, to say you cannot repeat your prayer, is a direct rebuttal of Jesus Himself. Jesus had to pray for a blind man twice. A person with “great faith” and who as developed a mature faith will indeed speak short one time prayers or confessions and will often see it happen immediately. We are all to strive for this level of power and faith. We will all give an account for how well we sought to obey Jesus in acquiring this standard of faith. Here is the big idea, if we had perfect faith, then we would only need one prayer for all things, but even then there might be a few exceptions, like Jesus praying for the blind man. But since no one has perfect faith, we are commanded to pray in a group (when two or three are gather..) we are commanded to have our elders come and pray with us, and we are given the gift of faith to help compensate for our imperfect faith. God loves us so much that He has given us many tools to help us get the things we ask for. He wants to give you many good things. He is more than willing and able.

Thus, many charismatic teachers teach faith in practical steps (although flawed), to help struggling saints develop faith. Thus, we have two categories. One is the standard of faith as taught by Jesus, and the Second are pastors giving practical steps in how to get to that standard. Do not confuse the two. Some of these steps are not commandments, but can be helpful tools, and yet others are just wrong.

Back to our basic teaching, “read the promises, meditate on the promises, confess/pray the promises and (if you need to wait), then thank God for granting your request. This is great teaching. However, some say only repeat the last one, but as shown above, this is not necessarily so. Sometimes it is better to repeat the whole process. Maybe your mind is not renewed enough, and you need to establish the promises in your mind more. Thus, the practical application of this does depends on person to person, but the overall biblical applicable is the same for all.

Another reason why the advice to never repeat your prayer, but only give thanks, is bad, is because it puts the focus man and brings up fear. It puts the focus on you and then fear comes from this. Giving thanks for the prayed outcome is great, but if your mind is not renewed as it ought to be, then just giving thanks will not work (although, God still might grant it out of sheer kindness). You do need a honest self-evaluation, but remember that the focus of faith is God, His Word, His faithfulness and His love toward you. If you are focused on your self-evaluation and feelings, then by definition you are not in faith any more. Often, when developing faith and even keeping it, you need to re-read the promises, re-meditate and then on this foundation pray, and faith will naturally arise by God’s power.

Because Jesus wants you to have the things you pray for, He made it a command to pray and never give up. Stop and think about that for a moment. He wants you to have your request so much, He commanded that you never give up. He promises God will absolutely give you what you ask for. This is how much He loves you. He wants you to have the things you pray for, more than you do. Thus, it is not God you need to convince to give you what you ask; rather, it is your stubborn mind and unbelief, that needs convincing. God has already convinced Himself to give you whatever you ask for in faith. Thus, if there is a lack of results, it is not on God’s part, but you. So, in the confidence of God’s love for you re-read the promise, re-meditate and re-confess the promises of God.

The important thing to do when praying is to not hedge your prayer in uncertainty and unbelief. Leave no room for your prayer to not be answered, because God has already convinced Himself to give you what you ask. This is essentially what a Word of Faith declaration is. It is a short-hand prayer that knows the outcome is certain. Thus faith speaks this way, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, standup and walk.” No fear, no hedging. Just absolute confidence in God doing what He said He would do. And if you have read the gospels, Jesus loved this kind of faith. In fact, Jesus publicly boasted about such people before God and men. And if you have this kind of faith, Jesus will boast and exalt you before God and men. Imagine, the God of Gods and the King of Kings exalting you. Surely there is nothing greater in all reality.

All Authority Has Been Given to Me

Satan told Jesus,
“I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” (Luke 4:6-7)

After Jesus’ resurrection and defeat of Satan (triumphing over Satan) Jesus says,
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20)

Jesus uses His authority to endow His followers with miraculous power by the baptism of the Spirit.

“And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.” (Luke 24:49)

““Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
(Acts 1:4,8)

“When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (Luke 9:1-2)

If this was true, before the resurrection and before Jesus had sat down at the right hand of power, and all authority given to him both in heaven and earth, then how much more do we have authority and power to drive out demons, heal the sick and proclaim the Kingdom today!

Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” (Acts 3:6)

‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’

Heal the sick,
raise the dead,
cleanse those who have leprosy,
drive out demons.
Matthew 10:7‭-‬8 NIV

But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons,
then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Matthew 12:28 NIV

For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.
I Corinthians 4:20

How can your church be part of God’s Kingdom if it doesn’t do Kingdom activities? How can your church be in the Kingdom if they do not expell the kingdom of darkness by the power of God’s Spirit? If they don’t participate in God’s Kingdom then such churches are part of Satan’s Kingdom, because if you are not with Jesus you scatter against Him. What good is it to preach repentance of sins, if your pastor and leaders do not operate in the Kingdom of God? They are reprobates deceiving other reprobates they are safe from judgment.

Do Not Accept God’s Ordained Circumstances

This section addresses an abuse of God’s sovereignty I often encounter, falling under the basic category of Decree versus Command. I’ve mentioned this fallacy before, and I’m thankful to Vincent Cheung for pointing out this error numerous times in his materials. Rather than paraphrasing what he’s said, I’ll tackle this from a slightly different angle.

We’ll first deal with the negative and then the positive.
I read a piece of garbage posted on social media saying:

“Stop wasting time wishing your circumstances were different. It is God who ordained them. Learn how to be faithful in every circumstance.”

Let’s see how this works in Bible stories:

Hannah, stop wanting your childless circumstance to be different; be childless.

Hezekiah, stop wishing you weren’t going to die by Isaiah’s prophecy; just die and let the grave praise God.

Jacob, stop wanting your circumstances to be blessed; stop this crazy, charismatic wrestling with God and move on without God’s blessing.

Canaanite woman, Jesus already gave theologically correct arguments that His ministry isn’t for you and that it’s morally wrong to take from the Jews and give to you; just accept your circumstances and let your daughter foam at the mouth and roll on the floor. Accept God’s circumstance for your daughter.

People lying in the street for Peter’s shadow, stop this charismatic, man-centered embarrassment; just accept your painful circumstances and moan to the glory of God.

You blind men sitting by the road, causing all this loud commotion and public annoyance, just shut up already, accept you’re blind, and beg for money to the glory of God.

Sinner, stop thinking there might be salvation in Jesus, for God has ordained you to be born a sinner; accept your drug addiction circumstances and be spaced out to the glory of God.

Sola empiricism,
Sola suffering,
Sola circumstances,
Sola Satan.

I’m not being over-the-top. This person’s theology is a doctrine of demons. It uses circumstances (what God caused) as an excuse to invalidate God’s commandments. They use circumstances the way satanists use a Ouija board to divine what they ought to do. They use metaphysics to divine ethics, like witch doctors.

It’s like soldiers on the battlefield saying, “There’s fierce fighting, so we need to leave,” when their commanding officer ordered them to enter the fierce fighting and aid the left flank. They use circumstances to invalidate the commands given to them. So-called Christians do this all the time. They use circumstances to negate God’s revealed commands. They don’t want to obey God and use circumstances to argue their way out from under them. However, they’ll give an account for such rebellion.

Circumstances aren’t the revealed commands of God. If you want to know what you ought to do with the circumstances God has given you, go to Scripture, find the commands and precepts related to that subject, and obey them. We’re children of God, and we obey our Father’s commands, not circumstances. As Christians, we get knowledge (subject and predicate combinations about “oughts”) from God’s commands, not circumstances.

Luke 18:1-8 NLT
One day Jesus told His disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.
“There was a judge in a certain city,” He said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she’s wearing me out with her constant requests!’”
Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to His chosen people who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, He’ll grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will He find on the earth who have faith?”

This is an explicit command. Jesus, as our Master, doesn’t give suggestions like some yoga guru. He’s our commanding officer, our Master, our God. God is sovereign, so this lady’s circumstance is caused by God ordaining it. Jesus isn’t teaching us to accept our God-ordained circumstances; rather, He tells us to ask God to stop what He ordained and make it go away. Jesus commands us to keep praying until God gives us what we want, and what we want is for the circumstance God ordained to vanish.

The last statement is Jesus asking if He’ll find faith on earth. This is said in the context of a person having a bad circumstance (that God ordained) and praying for God to make it go away, with the certainty that God will come quickly and make it vanish. This is the kind of faith Jesus was talking about when He said, “Will the Son of Man find faith on earth?” He wasn’t talking about faith for the forgiveness of sins but faith to change your circumstances—faith that changes the material world around you to be a blessing for you. This is the true test of faith; therefore, this is the true test of orthodoxy.

The command of God is to not accept bad circumstances that He ordained but to have enough perseverance and faith to make them go away. He commands you to have faith to make circumstances favorable for you.

(I want to add a quick note: I normally don’t think in terms of “God’s ordained circumstances” when facing everyday troubles, at least not in the way we’re discussing here. We acknowledge God’s absolute and direct sovereignty over all things, so He directly and absolutely causes all circumstances. However, when dealing with everyday troubles like those above, Jesus doesn’t deem it necessary to say such things when the topic is faith and the Spirit. Thus, I follow Jesus’ example on such topics. I’m focusing on God’s sovereignty here because the person forced it into this type of topic.)

Romans 5
“(12) Because of this, just as sin entered into the world through (Adam), and death through sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned… (15) by the trespass of the one, the many died…
(19) For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners.”

Acts 17:30
“God now commands all people everywhere to repent.”

God, in His absolute and direct sovereignty over all things, has ordained all men to be born sinful and dead and made sinners in their behavior. He did this through Adam. I did ask to be born into existence. I did not ask to be given the consequence of Adam’s sin and born with a sinful nature. God gest to write His story the way He wants. Therefore, according to some Christians who divine ethics from circumstances, we ought to accept being born sinners, stay that way, and not want to change what God ordained. LOL!

At this point, some will realize that divining ethics from circumstances contradicts Scripture, at least on the point of forgiveness. They’ll say Acts 17 commands us to repent, so we “ought” to do this rather than divine an ethic from our ordained circumstance. But they might not want to apply this to things like healing, for example. However, you can’t turn God’s commands “on and off” like a light switch. You’ll be judged by them, even if you give dumb excuses to avoid them. Christian ethics comes from God’s commands, and there’s no other option.

God has commanded that we shouldn’t be happy with the bad circumstance He ordained for us. He commands us to repent and cause Him to remove the bad circumstance. He commands us to repent so we can be blessed with reconciliation and forgiveness, so that times of refreshing will flood our lives. God has also commanded us not to be happy with our sickness circumstances but to acknowledge that in His atonement we’ve been healed, and He commands us to make the sickness go away (James 5:15, John 14:12-14, Mark 16:18, Luke 10:9, Matt. 21:21-22).

Acts 10:38
“And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

James 5:13-15
“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they’ll be forgiven.”

Because God is sovereign, all the sick people in the Gospels that Jesus healed were sick by God’s ordained will. Also, by God’s ordained will, relative to created object to created object, it was the devil (not God) who made all these victimized people sick, as Acts 10:38 indicates.

Some teach that we’re to let Satan and sickness steamroll over us and that we should be their victims for entire lifetimes because “God ordained it.” Those who suggest such things teach a doctrine of demons. Their doctrines increase the kingdom of Satan and his dominion of victimizing human beings. This is ultra cruel and unloving.

However, for us with faith, we view the world differently. We see God’s commands as our foundation for how we behave, rather than using divination to formulate ethics from circumstances. We read the commands to be healed and to heal others. Thus, this is how we behave.

Jesus healed all who came to Him. In Acts, it says those with faith and filled with the power of the Spirit healed all who came to them. In fact, the Spirit so empowered them that their shadows and handkerchiefs healed people. This proves the critics of the health-and-wealth preachers who teach “name it and claim it” are wrong—but they’re wrong for opposite reasons. The “name it and claim it” doesn’t go far enough in affirming Jesus’ faith teaching. Peter didn’t even speak; his shadow had enough spiritual physics to heal. This is called “shadow it and be done with it.” Thus, you don’t even need to “name it” to “claim it.” All you need is a shadow. All you need is to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus healed all those under the kingdom and torment of Satan. Holy Spirit-empowered church members, even table bearers, did the same. Jesus commanded them to be filled with power and continue His work. They did just that.

Jesus, who understood God’s sovereignty better than anyone, didn’t accept His Father’s ordained circumstances for all the sick people He encountered. The Scriptures record that only unbelief could stop Jesus from healing—not demonic power, not the Father’s will, only unbelief. In the ultimate sense of ontology, God did ordain all those people sick. Jesus went against His Father’s ordained circumstances and followed His Father’s command by healing all who asked—and even some who didn’t ask. In the book of Acts, the entire church, filled with power, did the same. They went on a campaign of war against the ordained circumstances of God by healing all who asked.

“What about Job and how he submitted to God’s ordained circumstances?” some might say. What about him? Beyond the point that God gave him double health and wealth, Job didn’t have a covenant with God as we do in Christ. I have a contractual right to make demands on God, as He does on me. Thus, Job and I aren’t in the same category. We’re not equivalent in this way. Beyond this, if we consider the category of healing, Jesus already became my substitute for sickness, and He’s commanded me to get healed (Isaiah 53:4-5, James 5:15). I’m categorically different from Job. If you insist on acting like Job, then you must treat God like an outsider, and if you still must act like Job, get his double health and wealth to prove it.

Even Jesus didn’t bow to the Father’s ordained circumstances—who am I to think I’m better than Jesus? I’m not better than Jesus, so I’ll follow His example. The apostles didn’t bow to God’s preordained circumstances when they healed all the sick—who am I to think I’m better than them? To bow to God’s ordained circumstances in the context of healing, for example, is to abuse God’s sovereignty to trample on God’s commands as garbage.

James says if you’re happy, then praise God. This isn’t a suggestion. If you’ve truly been blessed by God and are happy, you’re commanded to praise God. And why wouldn’t you? As Jesus said, if these didn’t praise God, the stones would cry out. God deserves our praises. However, James doesn’t stop his commandments there. He says if you’re sick, the elders are to come together and pray, and then you’ll be healed. The command isn’t to merely pray for healing and see what happens. The command is to pray and be healed. James is commanding the result of healing.

You’re to pray in faith with absolute certainty you’re healed. The same certainty you have when you pray for forgiveness and know you’re forgiven is the certainty you’re to have when you pray for healing and are healed. Anything less than receiving forgiveness is disobedience, for God has commanded all to repent and be forgiven. Anything less than receiving healing is disobedience, for God has commanded us to get healed. God is patient and will sanctify us to have this level of faith, but His patience and compassion don’t turn an act of disobedience into its opposite.

How wonderful is our God. How kind He must be. For His children, what He commands, He also grants. What He’s commanded is for us to ask for healing. He’ll grant both the faith and the fulfillment of this. He truly loves us. One way to view God’s commands and promises is to see them as a definition. To be healed and victorious over everyday troubles is God’s definition of His children. This is who we are. We already have God’s authority and power as part of our DNA.

Bread

Joshua 14:9 LSB
“Do not rebel against Yahweh; and do not fear the people of the land, for they’re our bread. Their protection has been removed from them, and Yahweh is with us; do not fear them.”

Mark 7:27
“First let the children eat all they want,” He told her, “for it’s not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

Jesus, in the context of being asked for healing and a demon being cast out, says this “bread” belongs to Jews, and it’s “not right” to take this healing that “belongs to the children” and give it to non-family members. Jesus is correct. However, this woman wouldn’t accept the ordained circumstance that she was born at the wrong time, on the wrong side of the covenant. By faith, she made it her time and made the covenant apply to her.

The point relevant to our discussion is how Jesus refers to healing and casting out demons as bread on His Father’s table, meant to be freely eaten by the children at that table.

Those who use God’s ordained circumstances to deny God’s children their RIGHT to freely eat the bread of healing and casting out devils on their Father’s table are themselves children of Satan, twice dead, foaming at the mouth, and perverted stars. How dare anyone, seeing a child of God reaching for some delicious, buttery bread of healing on their Father’s table, slap their hand away. They’ll receive their just reward.

For us who are seated in the heavenly places with Christ and at God’s table of gospel benefits, we see the world differently from those without faith. We see the world as Joshua did. We don’t see sickness, political troubles, or finances as painful burdens to bear on our shoulders but as bread for us to eat. God didn’t ordain the high walls of Jericho to hinder Israel but as an opportunity for faith to turn them into bread. God didn’t ordain the sickness for the people James referred to in his letter to hinder them but as an opportunity for faith to turn cancer into bread of healing and praise.

John says our faith overcomes the world. Our faith is victorious even over the bad circumstances God ordained in this world. Faith is the answer. It’s the answer to all the troubles of the world and even God’s ordained circumstances. Faith in God will turn them into delicious bread. Are you seated at God’s table or not? If you are, reach for the bread. Just one crumb can cast out a demon and heal. What would happen if you had enough faith to take a big bite from it? What would happen if, by faith, you ate the whole loaf? If you want this, you have free access to grab it. God is the power and salvation for all your troubles. He’ll deliver. And when He does, don’t forget to praise Him, for you’re commanded to do so.

Using God’s sovereignty to shrug at sickness or sin is a demonic dodge—circumstances aren’t commands! Jesus didn’t mope over ordained hardships; He zapped them with faith, and so should we. Healing’s our bread; so grab a loaf, ditch the devil’s Ouija ethics, and turn cancer into crumbs with Spirit-powered moxie.

One on One Ministry with Jesus

I have been sick the last week. When I had the mental strength, I would ask for healing and praise God for helping me. However, I did not receive the instant healing I was asking for and didn’t know what was hindering it. Then today I felt well enough to walk and pray in tongues. I was doing so along with praising God and making faith declarations of God’s promises. “God you forgive me all my sins. You heal me all my sickness. You cause my cup to overflow. You are my salvation. You are my righteousness.” However, I did notice a slight hindrance when saying, “You are my righteousness.” I mentally noted to work on this, and then moved on continuing to pray in tongues. I was also asking for an interpretation. At one point the praying in tongues intensified, and then the power of God came upon me. It was a continued pouring of power, wave after wave. Then the Spirit of God said,

“I will make you truly understand how righteous you are. You will become strong and powerful from knowing how righteous I have made you. You will know the powerful effects that come from knowing how righteous you are(James 5:16). The years of the Evil one hindering you from realizing how righteous you are, are over. I have removed them. Rejoice!”

Two important takeaways from this.

One. I need more faith in general, and more faith in the doctrine concerning how righteous I am and the powerful implication of this. Second, is how important it is to have God give you one-on-one personal ministry through the Spirit. If you recall how Acts described Phillip and Steven, it says they were filled with “faith and the Holy Spirit.” There is no greater powerful combination on earth than being filled with both the Spirit and faith.

This is an aspect that faith cannot fulfill. Faith is truly the master key. The charismatics are wrong in overemphasizing the spiritual “gifts” over faith, because faith is both more foundational in making the inner man strong and in how it can constantly (morning, daytime and night) bring in miracle after miracle after miracle. The gifts are God’s sovereign choice and they flow when He chooses. This does not mean we cannot do things to encourage a more constant flow of the gifts and the anointing presence of God. However, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 these are the sovereign work of God. It is not something we do on instant demand, with a possible exception of tongues. This is where faith is different and has an advantage. Faith is on demand of your believing. You need no feeling or situation. You only need to believe. On the demand of faith, God will always work, heal and supply by giving you a fish for a fish, each and every single time. Moring and midmorning, afternoon, evening and midnight, over and over and over again in the same day. If you have faith, you will have whatever you ask, everything you ask and as much as you ask. The only exception is that God will likely give you more.

This is why when spiritual strength is measured for a person, faith has the largest part to play. It is something we need to think about everyday and consider how to increase it by hearing of the world of Christ. Particularly the Christ found the gospels and Acts.

With that being said, one way the Holy Spirit endows us the power, comes from an aspect some overlook or place too small a value on. It is something faith cannot do. (I say this in context of our weakness and imperfect faith. With mature faith there is nothing you cannot do.). Jesus is your personal minister. Because our faith is not perfect, we can benefit from tailored advice for our specific problem or question.

Imagine if you can go back in time and sit with Jesus for an hour and ask Him to bless and give you personalized instruction? How wonderful would that be, right? It would be amazing, which is why Jesus said it is good that He go away and send the Spirit. It is good because then we all will have direct access to God the way the apostles did with Jesus, but for all believers. Do not be tempted to think this is less powerful than going back in time and having one-on-one ministry from Jesus. The Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ in Romans. When we are baptized in the Spirit for power, we have the power that allows Jesus to minister to us as if we were with Him in person. This is amazing power! This is the greatest Master to student training that ever existed, and all Christian have this available to them if they seek it.

I needed to know I had deficiency in not believing how righteous I truly am. I did recognize this in-part, from reading the word and analyzing my own thoughts. But how good is my analyses of myself? Who am I to ask? Who will give me advice? And how do I remedy this? If it takes real power to solve a problem, then will the person giving advice give me the power to solve it? And in age where it is hard to find a church that is expansionist and believes in God’s sovereignty, who can I ask for personal help?

Yet, all this is swept away by the fact God is my personal Minister. He knows His own word, and He knows me perfectly. He knows the problem and cause. God had the power to remove the problem and the knowledge I needed to hear the most. Who cares if it was Satan himself personally hindering me all these years. God just kicked it to the curb and removed the obstacle, so of course I don’t care. I get a tailored-made encouragement and power, that both fixes the mind and fixes the problem. Who can counsel like this, but God? Who can look at a hiding Gideon and say just what was needed and provide the power at the same time? Who can minister like God? Yet, the Spirit gives us the power to have God to be our minister. He can say the perfect word, at the perfect time. He can give the power to remove any hindrance and solve any problem. If God is your minister, then rejoice because the Greatest Master is your personal instructor and helper.

Today, God Rewards Faith with What?

“And it is impossible to please God without faith.
Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists
and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6

Ok, so God rewards us if we have faith. So what types of rewards are we talking about? Since some make a distinction between old testament and new, (even if I do not agree with this, let us consider it for argument sake), then what rewards should we expect in this age? In the age that Jesus sits on His throne in triumph with the church empowered by the Spirit, under the New Contract, what types of rewards are we to anticipate?

It is convenient that our verse in question is addressed to church age. It is directly for us.

Hebrews 11:3-35,

3 By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.

4 It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.

5 It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.”[a] For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. 6 And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

7 It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.

8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

11 It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed that God would keep his promise. 12 And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them.

13 All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14 Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15 If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

17 It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, 18 even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” 19 Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.

20 It was by faith that Isaac promised blessings for the future to his sons, Jacob and Esau.

21 It was by faith that Jacob, when he was old and dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and bowed in worship as he leaned on his staff.

22 It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left.

23 It was by faith that Moses’ parents hid him for three months when he was born. They saw that God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s command.

24 It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward. 27 It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible. 28 It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons.

29 It was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground. But when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were all drowned.

30 It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down.

31 It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

32 How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. 33 By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. 35 Women received their loved ones back again from death.

But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection.

Again, the context is about what we receive now, as a Reward from God, when we sincerely seek Him. Hebrews 11 mentions a long list of miracles in the Old Testament, as examples for the rewards we receive Today, when we have faith in God. The list contains many lists of different types of miracles rewards. There are miracles rewards of protection. Noah was delivered when the entire world was drowned and killed off by God’s anger. In the Passover, the Israelites were protected again from God’s wrath, as it past-over them on its way to destroyed Egypt. In the book of Daniel the 3 Israelite men were protected from the wrath of a human king, when he throw them into a blazing fire. King David was protected, time and time again from all sorts of evil men trying to hurt him. There are miracle rewards of healing and health. Sarah was very beautiful, even as an old woman. Moses was healthy and full of vitality even at 120. Caleb was as strong at 80 as he was at 40. Sarah’s dead womb was healed, or resurrected back to life so that she conceived Isaac. There are miracles of various feats of strength. Gideon, was a man hiding from the enemy when God called him a mighty man of valor. He believed God, and went on to be just that. David had many impossible victories by faith. The wall of Jericho came down by faith and praise. Samson believe God would use him, when everyone else did not. Samson believed God would use him, according to God’s promise, even after he sinned. He was a man of glorious faith, that the world was not worthy to have known. Women also received the dead back. Thus, resurrection is a reward of faith, meant for today.

The passage says they had victory over entire Kingdoms or nations. Thus, part of the REWARD we can receive today by faith, (even one man by himself in faith) is victory over entire political systems and even their armies.

The passage summed these up as “received what God had promised them.” They received victory and triumph over impossible odds, as a reward for their faith. According this this passages v.6, this pleases God.

The other type of rewards is future rewards of a heavenly kingdom, so that, where there is direct persecution for the gospel’s sake (not unbelief’s sake), you can receive great rewards in the next life. Since most seem to accept this without hesitation, we will focus on what most of the passage addresses.

As a summary, God today, rewards faith with things such as, impossible protection, healing, strong life in old age, power and various feats of impossible strength, resurrection and even victory over entire kingdoms.

Verse 6 says, in order to “please God” you must believe God exists. This is good; yet, I am sure even the demons believe this much. However, this second part is something demons cannot do. They cannot believe God will reward them for faith. Only a child of God, to whom the promise of good reward is promised to, is able to do that. Thus, if you want proof you are able to do more than what a demons can to, then you must have faith that is able to expand and receive the things promised in this passage. If you want to “please God,” you cannot do so with believing God will reward you, in THIS LIFE, impossible protection, vitality in old age, impossible healings, strength to tear down gates of a city, to have your child resurrected, and to be victorious over entire kingdoms.

How can your faith be a faith that “pleases God,” if you do not believe and seek God for this? It cannot according to Hebrews 11 infallible definition of faith. You might please men with a weak faith or unbelief, but God will not be impressed. We are to seek God’s approval, not men’s. God will not go by a man made definition of faith. God will judge and reward us based on His definition of faith.

Cessationist do not possess a faith that raises above that of demons. They are a cult of demons and unbelief.

As for the rest. Now that you know the truth, how “rewarded” you will be if you put it into practice! If you admit you are wrong, then remember the prodigal son. If you are sincere in your acknowledgment of wrong, God will receive you. He will put His best robe on you, His sandals and put His ring on your finger.

When there is a promise there is a way. There are many promises to forgive and restore. But there are also many promises to protect, strengthen and empower. They are yours for the taking. Let us not seek the approval of men. Let us seek to please God, by seeking all the promises from the least to the greatest, both for the next life and for this life. When there is faith, every promise, even the greatest impossible promises are low hanging fruit ready to be plucked..

Power is what will Finally Deliver You

I awoke today feeling off and with a headache. Halfway through the day I saw a reminder to seek God in devotion for spiritual strength, and I felt the Spirit prod me to do this. As the day went on the headache got worse and I felt an irrational oppressive pressure on my mind. I even had a difficult time remembering things. Finally it got to a point where it was irrational fears and accusative thoughts coming out of nowhere.

I have been seeking personal inner strength as a priority for about 2 or 3 years now. God has been delivering me from many of my old fears and even sins and etc. I will one day write about this, but even as a young man I experienced a direct demonic attack regarding temptation. It frightened me. I lacked the knowledge and power to know how to deal with such a thing. It caused me years of terrible fear in my heart. Vincent’s materials were helping me, and his essay on Demonic Attacks was a moment of where I began to experience real breakthrough.

Today, I suddenly felt all those old fears suddenly being pressed upon me, like they once did. So, again I did the easy thing and just began to pray in tongues and declares God’s promises over me. When I began this, the oppressive mental attacks ratcheted in up strength. However, after about 15 minutes I felt a sudden power in speaking in tongues. This happens often to me. You will be praying in tongues and suddenly, the power will increase, and you feel power and urgency. The moment this happened I heard the Spirit say to me, “You are a child of God, these things are to be afraid of you, not the other way around!” At this exact moment, all the oppressive thoughts and pressure vanished and even my headache was instantly healed.

In a perfect world of mature faith, a simple word would have stopped this attack earlier on the day. And we are all to seek this level of faith. So, while you work on a strong faith, have compassion on yourself and those around you needing help, by praying in tongues and bringing down the power of God to expand His kingdom.

Vincent Cheung in the essay, “Cure for Psychological Trauma,” says, “Power is what will finally deliver you.” The foundation is first correct theology and promises. But the thing that will deliver from all your troubles is power. Unadulterated power of God. Mature faith will always do this. However, praying in tongues is one of the easiest, (it is so easy it is like having game cheat), ways to move the power of God directly into your soul, body and life. You should eagerly seek this gift. We need less talk and more power! God’s power is able to deliver you, your family, your church and even entire nations.

How To Invent Ethics & Reject God

I saw this heretical garbage the other day.

“(1) I see a different interpretation of scripture. Anxiety is a God given emotion. It is useful. It can keep us physically safe and can drive us to God. (2) Jesus had so much anxiety in the Garden of Gethsemane that he sweat blood. Jesus didn’t try sweep away his anxiety, Jesus didn’t blame his anxiety on the enemy, he accepted it and endured it and went to God in prayer – (3) not to get help with anxiety, but to get help with the cause of the anxiety. (4) The Bible never promises prosperity in this life. (5) It does say that we will have trouble and that we should consider our struggles joy. (6) I think accepting our anxiety and learning to live with it while we walk with God will bring about (7) character development and the deepening of our faith.”

I added the numbers to make this easy to follow.

1. The author says if God gives something, then it is helpful to bring us to God. The unspoken premise here is about ethics. If God cause this “x” type of metaphysics, and x type of metaphysics leads us to God, then we “ought” (ethic) to embrace x type of metaphysics.

This is blasphemy. Ethics is only produced by the commands and precepts of God. Any deviation from this is irrational and human speculation. What God creates or causes is not an ethic. If God causes the prophet to give a false prophecy (Ezekiel 14:9) this causation does not make a false prophecy ethically good. A false prophecy is always wrong because God commands man not to give false prophecy. Ethics is produced by God’s command and nothing else.

Also, to go from metaphysics (God created this or caused this) to metamorphic into an ethic, is no less irrational than saying 5s are blue and 8s are slow. It is a category fallacy. A mind can no less comprehend “5 blues” as they can, “God caused x, therefore ethic.” This is how man invents ethics so that they can reject God. Non-Christians do this for obvious reasons; however, so-called Christians to this so that they can look pious as they throw their middle finger at God.

We are commanded to only fear God. We are to feel anxiety, fear and shame if we rebel against God. It is good feel afraid if you do not fear God. This is the only fear we are allowed by the commands of God to experience. Every other anxiety and fear is breaking God’s command. WE are not to feel anxiety or worry about man, money, our health, relationships and the future (etc.) We are to overcome them in faith, joy and righteousness.

(2) Jesus experienced anxiety leading up to the cross, because He was a condemned man, without hope facing God’s punishment. He should never have known this. He experienced it for our sakes, not His. He is experiencing what it means to face the wrath of God, with no way out. This is what we should have experienced. Jesus experienced this, in our place so that we do NOT experience it. Thus, to use this to say we ought to experience anxiety, is to trample on the suffering of Jesus as a worthless thing, in that even the things Jesus substituted for us, we still must go through them ourselves.

(3) This makes no sense? If you get rid of the thing that is causing anxiety, then you get rid of the anxiety. Thus, you get rid of the anxiety. When a person wants to get rid of anxiety, they will directly seek the cause (to get rid of it), with the goal that it will get rid of the anxiety. Thus, to seek the cause, is (in relation of the person’s goal) seeking to get rid of the anxiety. Why do I need to say this to adults, as if they don’t know this?

(4) This point has no rational connection to the previous 3 points. Also, it is blandly false. There are many such promises, but we will deal with one that is directly tired to the gospel. Paul says in 2 Corinthians that Jesus suffered poverty in our place so that we experience His wealth. It is said to Christians, who Paul was asking for an offering . You cannot spiritualize this away. This statement is mocking the gospel and blood of Jesus Christ.

(5) This statement is true as far as it goes. The bible does make a distinction between common everyday troubles, such as money, health and relationships, and the other category of troubles directly related to persecution for the gospel’s sake. With the first type of troubles we are commanded to be victorious through faith in God’s promise.

(6) The implied connection here, from point 5, is irrational. The author without warrant, manufactured out of nothing that “anxiety” is part of the troubles that God supposedly gives us. After this, the irrational transformation of an ethic from metaphysics comes up again: therefore we ought to embrace anxiety from God as a good thing. Demonic.

(7) Character development is not produced by anxiety. The bible never says this. It comes from inner growth and strength. This is produced by the renewing of the mind. Experience, is the worse teacher there is. God’s word, is however, the only good teacher. Experiences do not give better character, rather is the word of God and faith that gives better character as we seek Him and His promises when we are troubled.

As for faith, the bible explicitly says faith comes by hearing the word of God, and not something else.

Oshea Davis

Systematic Theology. Logic. Faith. Healing. Power.