Tag Archives: Jesus

Receive God’s Love & Give God’s Love

Lastly, we test to see if we have known and believed our new identity correctly when we can receive God’s love and give His love.

We are mature, as has been discussed, when we sit at Jesus’ feet and receive from Him and not giving to Him. We are mature when we receive His love for spiritual things such as forgiveness and joy, but also when we receive things like health, prosperity and fruitfulness in all our lives.

When we are strengthened in our inner man by receiving the full measure of God’s love that effects our entire lives, then we have even more strength to love our neighbor. It is not that we choose not to even try to love our families and neighbors without being mature in our inner man, but that there is a priority. The first effects the second to be better and not the other way around. Thus, there is always a priority to receive from God first, while never neglecting the second.

“The love chapter” is in-between “The Power Chapters.” But that is a little misleading because there is no such thing as The Love Chapter, as Vincent Cheung points out.

“There is no such thing as “The Love Chapter.” The topic of 1 Corinthians 13 is spiritual gifts, not love itself. Paul’s point is that spiritual gifts should be pursued in love, not replaced by love.

Don’t read 1 Corinthians 13 at your wedding unless you are prepared to put this love into action and lay hands on the sick among the guests as a couple after the wedding vows. That’s love…”[1]

The bible defines love in the middle of Paul defining different types of power. Paul’s answer is that supernatural power is to be used with love. The context is power and not love. Power is to be used with love. Thus, when people read 1 Corinthians 13 at their wedding, they should not do this without having a healing service right after, for this is the context for how to use power.

Because power and love cannot be separated, then Christian love cannot be Christian love without miracle power. We are to be like our Father in heaven. With God there is no such thing as loving without power. It is with great power that He loves us.

As Paul says, anyone who does not recognize that we are to zealously seek the spiritual gifts (power) is not recognized by God. We are not to merely seek them but have enough faith to have gifts regularly in our lives and ministries. Any ministry leader or pastor, who does not do this needs to step down immediately or be excommunicated. If God does not recognize such a person, then who I am to recognize them as spiritual? If God has disregarded them as trash, then who I am to treat trash as something different? If God has a low definition of them, who I am to define them differently?

 “Prophecy is said to be imperfect, not because the gift itself is defective, but it offers incomplete knowledge. So “when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.” Paul does not leave the time of “perfection” in doubt. He writes, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” When perfection comes, there will be “face to face” knowledge. When perfection comes, we will know fully, even as we are fully known. This is not a potential knowledge, as in knowledge revealed but not completely assimilated, but an actual knowledge, so that we will know as we are fully known. When this happens, the gifts will cease, and we shall not miss them, for we will lack nothing.”[2]

“Paul does not refer to a potential knowledge, but an actual knowledge, as actual as we are “fully known.” As perfect as the Bible is, we do not even know fully the Bible. It takes an extraordinarily delusional person to think that he already knows fully, even as he is known fully. A “face to face” knowledge should not need exegesis, reading, revision, debate, and research. If the way I will know fully is the way that I am known fully, then unless God himself needs to perform exegesis, revision, and debate in order to know me, “face to face” knowledge cannot refer to what we possess at this time. Thus if a person insists on his cessationism on the basis of this text by sheer determination, although even then it can apply only to prophecy, he loses his God, and so his salvation as well.”[3]

The gifts will be imperfect in the next life because we will have so much spiritual power that the gifts will be too weak, or imperfect. Paul also teaches we will know as God knows us. Even with the completion of the Scripture, in order to know God we do so by study, mediation, review and revise, and debate; yet, God does not know us this way. He knows us intuitively and immediately. This is what Paul refers to the “prefect.” Thus until we know God this way, the “perfect” has not come and the gifts are still in play to help us. Paul’s command to seek them and use them to love others is still on the books.

God intends for us to love with supernatural power. When someone is sick, God wants you to love them not merely by sacrificing your time to “be there for them,” and fix them a meal, but to make the sickness and pain go away by commanding it to leave. This is how Scripture defines love. Love that does not command the sickness to leave is not Christian love, or at best it can be describe as a defective form of Christian love. The same for lack of insight. Christian love will bring a prophecy to help their family member or friends so that they have more understanding and wisdom for their jobs, ministry, relationships, and godliness. If your neighbor needs a specific type of knowledge for their life, you cannot give them true Christian love without spiritual prophecy, insight, and visions. Anything less than this is not Christian love. Your church family will have all sorts of troubles thrown at them and the bible’s answer is to overcome these troubles by miracles. You do not qualify as giving biblical love without helping them by providing miracles to help. Human love is merely human power; however, Christian love is distinguished by God’s supernatural power. Christian love cannot be Christian love without this miracle working power. Worldly love can be defined without God’s supernatural power, but not Christian love.

When we are sick, the bible defines this situation as coming from Satan, Acts 10:38; Luke 13:10-17. This does not mean it is only from the devil (1 Corinth. 11:30), however, these are the exceptions. That is, the type of high-level sinning that would invoke God’s response in 1 Corinthians 11:30 is not normal or the average. Rather, Acts 10:38 shows us that the norm for sickness is from the devil. Your theology needs to include this. God is the foundation of sickness, just as God is the foundation for all things in the metaphysical sense. But this God who is the foundation mostly speaks to us on the human level, and defines sickness as almost always from Satan. Jesus, the apostles, and followers, were on a one-way mission to eradicate sickness; by destroying sickness they were destroying the devil. Jesus did not interpret all the sickness he encountered as the “will of God,” and so we are to just let people be sick. No. He saw sickness as demonic victimization of people. Jesus could have spent more time preaching but instead directly attacked Satan’s power by healing people. In the one act of healing Jesus had compassion on people and destroyed the kingdom of Satan. Healing is one of those spiritual acts of power that accomplishes huge amount of compassion, grace, gospel advancement and devastates the devils kingdom in one punch.

Satan has kept many Christians in bondage, helpless and weak through sickness. The one who is sick is shamed, time constrained, in pain, usually must take money meant for the kingdom of God and try to buy healing from men. They are experts in giving glory to man. Many hours that could be devoted to ministry or devotion to God are spent in shameful pain and prostrating oneself to glory of man to heal them. Depending on how bad the sickness is, those in the family must also divert money and time that could be spend in ministry or devotion to God to helping the sick spouse or child. The one person who wins in this situation is Satan. If your family member is sick, then you better help them, or you are worse than an unbeliever. However, God has not called us to love and help by power of man, but through God’s power. God has called to destroy the works of Satan, which includes sickness. We are not permitted to allow Satan to steamroll our families with sickness, and all the effects that come from this, such as shame, time constrained and money spent on human medicine.

When God strengthened barren women to give birth it is said that God has taken away their “shame.” We know, and God also knows, that such sickness and physical defects brings us shame. You can lie to yourself and say, “this deformity or sickness does not define me,” but you are deluding yourself. The bible defines it as shame and so it is. If you are a Christian it is not part of your new identity, but God still recognizes that it does bring shame to a person. God is compassionate and wants to heal and bring honor to you. If you seek Him, He will heal and take away all your shame and make you sit on a throne of honor among princes. Then and only them, will that shame no longer be part of your definition.  Satan wants you defined by shame, but God is able to destroy the works of the devil. With faith you can command Satan and sickness to leave. You can command the shame to run from you and it will.

Compassion that only helps the symptoms and does not cure the sickness is a human way to love, but not God’s way. Compassion that helps to only alleviate some pain, while drugging up your brain, is a human glory and power. If you are a Christian you are not a human any more, but a child of God, a new creation and the image of Jesus Christ. You have divine favor, authority and power to heal your family members. You can love like God does. You can love with real power. Compassion without power is how sinful, fallen men love, and it is pathetic. God loves with power that fixes, heals, transforms, and supplies miracles. When God loves the sickness is healed, the poverty is replaced with cash surplus, impossible situations are leveled to the ground, giant’s heads are cut off, bodies are transported to different cities, barren women give birth and the dead are raised to life. God’s way to love to is to make the bad go away and replace it with good; to make the trouble disaappear and command blessings; to make the sickness run and give honor with double portion. God’s powerful love destroys the works of Satan.

It is often said, “The Scriptures say that God is love, but it does not say that God is power.” Actually, it does. It says this in a way that is stronger than most Christians would want to admit, and in a context that is more intense than “God is love” in the letter of John. Jesus declared, “From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62). In other contexts, the word refers to miraculous power, such as when Jesus said, “Power has gone out of me” to heal the woman with the bleeding disease, or when he said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” Power. This is what Jesus called God. He did not say that he would be seated at the right hand of Love or Wisdom. He did not use a different word for power to call him Authority, but he called him Power, raw ability and force. No matter what hermeneutical excuse you attempt to use, I know all the tricks and I have already considered them, and the fact remains that in this place he did not refer to God as anything else but POWER. God is Power as much as Jesus is Word. Where is Jesus? Power. He is next to Power. What kind of power? Power for miracles. Power over demons. Power to rule in creation. Christians are ashamed of power. And if you are ashamed of power, you are ashamed of God, for God is Power. If you refuse to seek power, you refuse you seek God. If you mock miracle power as if it is some sideshow, you mock God as if he is a sideshow.

Everything else that Christians have been saying about “God is love” can be said with even greater emphasis about Power. Do you worship the one who is on the throne? Do you raise your hands and praise the one whose right hand is your Lord? Good! But your Lord called him Power. Now do you still worship him? Do you worship Power? Are you now zealous to excel in power no less than you wish to excel in love? Or do you shrink back and insist on calling him something else? We do not worship power, as in some impersonal force. But Power? Certainly, we worship Power, as in God who is All-Power. If you do not worship Power in this sense, you do not worship God at all. As the Scriptures say, “No one has ever seen God, but the One who is himself God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” If you reject the God that Jesus himself declared, which is Power — miracle power — you will burn in hell. But Christians are ashamed of power. They are ashamed of such a God, who is All-Power. How often have you heard it said, “God has power, but God is love”? Jesus denied this. God is power at least as much as God is love. Power himself is on the throne, and Jesus is at Power’s right hand. This is the gospel. Accept this, or make up some other religion.

Satan has convinced Christians that it is unholy and unspiritual to seek spiritual power. But Jesus is at the right hand of Power. To seek the one on the throne is to seek Power. Thus it is most holy and most spiritual to seek spiritual power, no less than it is holy and spiritual to pursue divine love, because – you guessed it – God is love. Of course Satan has also tried to hinder Christians from walking in love, but it seems he has never tried to convince them that it is unholy and unspiritual to walk in love. Power is what he is afraid of. And love remains ineffective without the spiritual and miracle power that it is supposed to wield. If you love as God loves, you will want to preach the truth, heal the sick, and cast out demons. Power lets you do these things. Compassion is the strongest catalyst in the ministry of healing, but without power, it is either counterfeit compassion or compassion frustrated. Love and Power are not in conflict, but if you walk in love, you will seek the power. Pray that God would grant you, “according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man.” Power. You must have truth as the foundation. Then you must rise up in power. All this discussion about power is theological truth. But it will not release power if you only debate it and sit on it. Truth will release power when you boldly affirm it and act on it. Do it…[4]

When we can receive God’s love in powerful healing, prosperity, and miracles; and when we can give love to others with powerful healing, prosperity and miracles, then we have proof we understand and walk in our new identity in Jesus Christ.

[1] Vincent Cheung. From this wordpress blog commenting on the essay called “Way of Love.” Dec. 2018.

[2] Vincent Cheung. The Way of Love. 2011. Web. (www.vincentcheung.com)

[3] Vincent Cheung. The Worst Text for Cessationism. Web. 2016. (www.vincentcheung.com)
See ebook, Sermonettes Vol. 9. Chapter 1, page 6.  2016.

[4] Vincent Cheung. “On Spiritual Attacks”

From the ebook, Contract. 2020.

Receiving God’s love

“Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28NIV)

 “But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages to our glory,” (1 Corinthians 2:7 LSB)

“She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,  but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:39-42 NLT)

“For this reason I kneel before the Father,  from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” (Ephesians 3:14-20 NLT)

For many this seems like the opposite of Christian ethics. Does not James say religion is taking care of widows and orphans and staying unpolluted from worldly lusts? This is correct, but it is only partially correct. I do not want to undermine the importance of this. If a man does not work to supply for his family he is not even a Christian but worse than an unbeliever. Paul has guidelines for helping widows who have been faithful Christians. Orphans need help and guidance. The New Testament constantly stresses the need for sexual purity and how our relationships are founded on the same forgiveness and kindness that God showed us. But in the category of ethics such things are in the category of human interactions. God has also given commands in how we are to view our relationship with Him.

The first commandment is to love God, with all your mind soul and strength. Some infer this to mean that our relationship with God is about us giving to God, but this is a mistake. Loving God with everything does have this broad idea of giving God the best of your intellect, time, focus and admiration. This leads us to the study of the Word and theology. However, when we give our time and focus to the Word and theology, we realize it says that “Love is not that we loved God but that He loved us and gave us His only Son.” We realize “Jesus chose us” and not that we chose Him. We read that Martha was serving God and God was serving Marry, and God said Marry chose the “better part.” Marry was letting God serve her, and Jesus approved this as the better. Jesus said He came to “serve man.”

When the scripture says it is more blessed to give rather than to receive, it is referring to human relationships. It is not referring to our relationship to God. Jesus said that Marry chose the better thing by receiving from Him rather than giving to Him.  In our relationship to God it is better to receive from Him and not give. The gospel is one immeasurable gift God gives to us. God serves and glorifies man. As Paul says so boldly in 1 Corinthians 2, God “predestined” the gospel to glorify man. The gospel values, honors and glorifies man. It is not that man is already these things or already possesses these, rather, it is Jesus’ finished atonement that conveys these things on His chosen ones.  God wants us to approach Him knowing He will serve us in giving, helping and freely supplying all the good things He has promised.

Even with sanctification it is better to receive. The New Contract says God promises to write His laws on our minds. Hebrews 12 says our sanctification is looking to Jesus who is the author and perfector of our faith. We do not “give” better performance to God in sanctification; rather, we look to God to be faithful to do what He promises, and we “receive” sanctification from Him by faith. This does not mean we do not work and consider how to obey God better. It means as we strive for these things, we look to God to give us the sanctification He promised. By faith we receive sanctification power. We do not work to get sanctifying power, we receive this power by faith and then because we have the power, we walk in godliness.

Paul says in Ephesians that His prayer is that we can know and receive the length, width, depth and height of God’s love for us.  He does not pray that we love God with our length, width, depth and height, but that we receive His great love. His prayer is that we both know how great His love is and experience this great love, here and now (not just later in heaven). By receiving His love we become complete with His life and fulness. We do not become complete by giving Him our love, but by receiving His love. Since the blessing of Abraham and the gospel has good things that effect the inner man, body, finances, relationships and ministry, we therefore know, experiencing God’s love is receiving fruitfulness in all these areas. When we receive fruitfulness in all these areas by faith, we are made stronger and grow more into God’s fullness.

Paul wants our inner man strong. Paul says by receiving His great love for us, Christ lives in our hearts more and more. We receive His love by faith. The explanation is simple. By faith we receive His love, then Christ lives in our hearts more, and the outcome is that we become stronger in our inner man. To be stronger in our inner man is to be more mature and more developed as a Christian. This happens not in our giving to God, but in faith receiving His love for us.

Paul then says that God will answer our prayers exceedingly and beyond all that we ask. This shows us what type of application Paul had in mind when instructing us about knowing and receiving His love. The application is to ask and have God give us much more than we ask. Think about all the extra baskets left over from the feeding of the 4 and 5 thousand. According to Paul this application is how you experience God’s love. Asking for good things and God giving these to you in overflow is how you experience God’s love; this is how you become stronger in your inner man. This is how you mature as a Christian and how Christ lives in your heart more and more.

When you ask for healing and God heals you of cancer and you also feel stronger than ever, then you become stronger in your inner man, mature as a Christian and are more complete with God’s fullness. When you ask for financial help and God causes 7 times more money to be sent to you, then you become stronger in your inner man, mature as a Christian and are more complete with God’s fullness. When you ask God to bless your spouse or children with their heart’s desires and God gives them more than they dreamed, then you become stronger in your inner man, mature as a Christian and are more complete with God’s fullness.

Vincent Cheung helped me to understand this better in his essay, What is Mature doctrine, saying:

 “As Paul said, “However, we do speak a message of wisdom among the mature…what God has prepared for those who love him…that we may understand what God has freely given us” (1 Corinthians 2:6, 9, 12). What is mature doctrine? It is not what we do for God, but what God does for us (1 John 4:10).

Jesus said that a person cannot be his disciple unless he first counts the cost, and then renounces everyone and everything to follow him (Luke 14:26-33). This is not the pinnacle of spiritual maturity, but it is the beginning. This is what spiritual infants do. We repent of our transgressions and reorient our lives on Jesus Christ. We become God-centered…

Although the gospel demands total commitment, since the beginning it is not about what we do for God, but what God does for us, in all areas of our lives, by Jesus Christ (Romans 8:31-32). We truly come to know him as the Father that Jesus talked about, the one who is greater than all (John 10:29), the one who supplies everything (Psalm 103:2-5, Matthew 7:32-33, Philippians 4:19)…

Therefore, spiritual maturity must entail learning more about the benefits that God has given us in Christ, and then receiving and experiencing them (1 Corinthians 2:12). For this reason, Paul prayed that Christians would receive a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know God, to know the gospel hope and inheritance, and to know the super-surpassing power that God has put to work in us, which is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (Ephesians 1:15-22). He prayed that Christians would be strengthened with power in their spirits, to have power to grasp all the dimensions of the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:14-19).

Do they teach you how to receive things from God by faith? Jesus taught these things as gospel, intertwined with the doctrines of faith, the atonement, and the Fatherhood of God (Matthew 6:32-33, 7:7-11, 8:16-17, Mark 9:23, 11:23-24, Luke 8:50, 18:1-8, John 11:40, 15:7, 15:16, 16:26-27, and many more). .. It takes spiritual power to grasp the magnitude of divine love toward us. Learning more and more about God’s love for us in more categories is not for babies, but adults, because it takes spiritual strength and maturity to grasp it.

If you are selective about the blessings of God, then you are spiritually feeble and immature. If you accept his forgiveness but reject his healing, then you are weak. If you embrace his discipline but refuse his prosperity, then you are a baby. You are not some epic apologist, some defender of the faith. You are just a crybaby…”[1]

It is interesting that Paul defines a “message of wisdom for the mature” is about knowing and receiving all the free blessings God has given us. If you listen to many theologians (past and present) they seem to say the opposite. They teach denying yourself and fearing God is wisdom for the mature, but this is reversed. Such things is wisdom for babies to start on the good path. Vincent is correct. To deny yourself, to fear God and follow Him, rather than your selfish lusts, is the beginning of wisdom not the maturity of it. The fear of God is the beginning, not the maturity of wisdom. The fear of God will start you on the path of wisdom and it will keep you firmly planted on it. Because the fear of God will keep you on the path of wisdom it is always relevant to remember the fear of God; but again, it is not the height of wisdom.  Mature wisdom is receiving all the free goodies of God.

As Vincent says, “it takes spiritual strength and maturity in the inner man to receive from God.”[2] The bible teaches that it takes power in the inner man to fear God and deny yourself, but it takes even more power in the inner man to receive free goodies from God like healing and prosperity. Those who receive healing, prosperity and miracles from God prove they are mature in their inner man, and they prove they can handle at least some level of higher tier wisdom. Those who rebuke the “health and wealth” guys, if they don’t want to be hypocrites, at the very least must prove they have greater wisdom and more inner maturity by more healings, more prosperity and more various miracles. However, one who teaches Expansionism and God’s true level of absolute sovereignty has the correct place to rebuke the health and wealth guys, along with cessationist.  

According to Paul you cannot claim to be spiritually mature and able to handle greater wisdom if you don’t prove it by receiving God’s freely given blessings in your life. You can give your money to the poor and help widows and receive forgiveness, but if you cannot heal the sick, cast out demons and receive various miracles, you are not mature and you cannot handle greater degrees of wisdom. You are still a baby who needs to be instructed.

Because denying yourself and the fear of God is the starting of wisdom, pastors who keep their message on this level either think their listeners are babes in Christ who never grow, or they are deliberately keeping their listeners stunted and deformed. When the bible tells us to run the race as if to win it, these pastors keep Christians crawling on all fours with wishful hope they might cross the finish line dead last. I am saying this nicely, because my rebuke could be ruthless here. Remove yourself from such teachers. They are your enemy, not friends. They are your worse type of enemies. They are brutal taskmasters employed by Satan. They are worthless at applying mature doctrine. They are trash who refuse to receive God’s love and free blessings. There is no healing, no casting out of demons and no obvious signs of God working miracles to help then. They know they are garbage with no proof of God’s love on them. They instruct you to be twice as worthless at receiving God’s blessings as they are to make themselves feel better. They trample Christ to hide their feelings of jealously.

Thus, even if history prizes certain Christians in the past as heroes, if they did not heal the sick, cast out demons and receive regular miracles from God, they cannot by definition of scripture be wise and mature. Scripture, not historical fame, defines if a Christian was wise and mature.

As shown in the previous section on the gospel, the gospel includes for this life healing, prosperity and excessive fruitfulness for all areas of life. Even if forgiveness of sins is a greater blessing in the gospel, in the since it takes one from hell to accepted, yet God commands us to receive all gospel blessings. It is not optional to obey commandments. To disobey and disbelieve any promise of God is not maturity, but immaturity and stupid. It takes a strong inner man and higher wisdom to believe the entire finished gospel and receive all its benefits. It takes a little wisdom to receive forgiveness but refuse the rest of the gospel. It is mature wisdom to receive all of the gospel.

Lastly, consider the Lord’s Supper. This is something Christians do all the time or should be doing constantly. It is the only repeated religious thing we do. The whole Old Testament religious activities has been boiled down to this one thing, the Lord’s Supper. What is it that we do in our one religious activity? We remember and receive God’s love for us. This is Christianity. We do not give to God, God gives to us.

In a correct understanding of ethics (God’s commands), this is the beginning and foundation of ethics. God commands us to be saved by faith in His Son, to receive His forgiveness, receive His love and receive all good blessings. It is on this ethic we receive strength to do other ethics that involve human interactions and purity. Receiving God’s love is the primordial ethic.

[1] Vincent Cheung. What is Mature Doctrine.
From the ebook, Fulcrum. 2017. Pg 69-70.

[2] Paraphrased from source.

Our Royal Authority and Power.

 “I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. “I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together as my followers,[h] I am there among them.”
(Matthew 18:18-19 NLT)

“Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.  And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
 (Matthew 16:16-19 NIV)

 “Don’t you realize that someday we believers will judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world, can’t you decide even these little things among yourselves? Don’t you realize that we will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary disputes in this life.” (1 Corinthians 6:2-3 NLT)

“He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; 18 and they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
(Mark 16:16-18 LSB)

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

“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…  By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong.” 
(Acts 3:6, 16 NIV)

In context of Matthew 18 it does mention forgiveness, but it also mentions faith to ask for anything and then get this anything. Thus, do not let someone deceive you as if such a passage is not for the Christian to use God’s authority today, as Jesus states it.

This same phrase is said by Jesus in Matthew 16, and thus has the first mention hermeneutic. The context is Jesus asking Peter who he says He is. Peter makes a confession that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus responds by saying He will build His church on this Rock. Some fools think this is referring to Peter himself, but they are confused. Jesus is referring to Peter’s faith confession that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus will expand His kingdom with faith that declares He is the Son of God. Jesus refers to this like a military expansion. His kingdom will march forward and the gates of hell will not stop His Kingdom expanding and trampling the walls of hell.  Fools have tried to make it all about Peter, but it is all about Jesus being the Son of God, and those who have faith in Him. This faith is a victorious expansion that has so much authority and power that it tears down the gates of hell. As faith marches forward, demons scream in terror.

It is in this context Jesus then says, what you lock on earth will be locked in heaven, and what you unlock on earth will be unlocked in heaven. Jesus sees His kingdom expansion as unstoppable, and in this context says you have the authority to loose and bind things.  This authority is given to a faith confession that Jesus is the Son of God. Obviously, it is not about Peter, but about faith in Jesus. Peter is not the only one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.

This expansion of His kingdom will be so unstoppable that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Thus, the context allows for a broad use of this authority. It is an all encompassing power that belongs to followers of Jesus who have faith; this is the same faith one uses to be saved, to be healed, to move mountains, to expand His kingdom, to forgive, and ask for anything you desire. It is a broad authority for anything related to kingdom expansion.

Think about it. You have faith to receive a miracle of wealth, and then use this to fund the gospel mission. Not only did you unlock a financial door here on earth, but by sowing this back into God’s work you have unlocked treasure for yourself in heaven. Faith opens doors on earth, in heaven and in other dimensions. Faith is the master key. Jesus says give to Caesar what belongs to “him.” He says if “you” tell this tree to be cast into the sea with faith, then it will “obey you.” Thus, if “you” cast out demons and “you” free an enslaved soul who receives Jesus, then what “you” loosed on earth will also be loosed in the next life. And God will reward “you” for using His authority to expand His kingdom.

It is first recorded that Jesus gave the 12 “authority over all demons.” But then later it was expanded to another group of 77 non-apostles. Then later in the last part of Mark 16 Jesus says this power is for all believers. Then Luke shows in Acts the power of the Spirit was given to a super majority of non-apostles, so that table bearers had so much faith and power they could see into the very throne of heaven and some teleported over time and space. Faith makes time and space your servants. Faith makes time and space bow to your will, not the other way around. Jesus made good tasting “aged” wine for the wedding. Thus, with faith “you,” are the master over reality and even with unyielding things such as time and space. The prophets multiply material substance like reality was their personal Lego set. Then Jesus command the disciples “you give them something to eat.” Jesus expected them to have faith and do the same, as if this was something normal for a believer to do. Jesus commands us to do the same. Jesus commands us to both multiply and distribute. The issue is not if God has promised, but if a person will believe God more than their eyes, experience, and calculations. Acts, shows the common Christian had more power than entire armies, just like with Samson and the Philistines.

Right after the baptism of the Spirit and the huge emphasis on this in Acts 1 and 2 and then throughout the book, Luke shows in chapter 3 how Peter helped to heal a man by authority in Jesus’ name. Luke shows how Peter “loosed” the man from sickness by faith in Jesus, rather than saying a gift of the Spirit empowered him. Thus, even after Jesus’ resurrection, the authority to loose and bind things, on the foundation of faith is still in full force, if not more so. Luke goes on to say God gave the man faith in Jesus to be healed, or ‘loosed’ from his sickness.

Thus, all who have faith in Jesus as the Son of God, have this access and authority to loose and bind. For any who love Jesus and want to see His Kingdom expanded, will desire and use this authority and power seriously. Jesus did not say He would expand His kingdom with governments or some cultural mandate. No. He wants you to expand His kingdom with authority to loose and bind. If you love Him, you will do it the way He has commanded you.

Our new identity and definition in Jesus is one were we are gods. We have the power to expand God’s kingdom. Our power to do this are words of faith that can bind and loose reality, sickness, demons and blessings. God obviously has this power and when He speaks reality obeys. But God has handed this kingdom expansion to us. God has given us His lightning bolt. He qualified us to speak and make reality obey us, and cause demons to tremble in fear. Like with Joshua, God told them to expand their territory with sword and shield. God would back them up with His power, but they were to march forward with weapons in their hands and use them.

Our weapons are faith filled words and confessions. God and His Word or promise is one and the same thing, as we learned in previous sections. Thus, when “you” speak God’s promise in faith you release God. “You” release unstoppable power. It is God’s power, but because the bible denies pantheism, “you” release God’s power when “you” speak in faith. With this “we” tear down the gates of hell. With faith filled words, mountains must “obey us.”

Furthermore, one day the saints will have so much authority that we will judge both the earth and angels. Not only do we have the glory of owning reality, but we will one day judge reality. Because angels are part of reality and we own and judge reality, we will thus judge angels one day. This is our definition in Christ. This is who we are.

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.

Health, Long Life & Promises Verses

(The blessing of Abraham, which we have today through Jesus, (Galatians 3) includes the baptism of the Spirit and healing. Healing, long and strong life, the Spirit and miracles is part of the ancient promise of God, and not even the law, which came after, or the atonement of Jesus can negate it; rather, Jesus’ resurrection makes it accessible to the whole world. Jesus also carried our curses on the cross, so that we have the blessing of Abraham today.
The blessings and curses of the law teach us about the blessing of Abraham, they do not negate it. The blessings of the law is nothing less than the Blessing of Abraham based on works and merit, rather than grace and promise. Yet, the blessing of Abraham came first, based on grace. In Christ the curses are gone and the blessing of Abraham is already active for the believer.)

(Always remember the promises are not just suggestions; rather, they are your new identity and they are God’s command. God is telling you this is how He has created and defined you in Christ. You are to agree with Him that what He say is true. You are to obey God by walking in the definition He has revealed to you in His word, which is in the blessing of Abraham and the substitution and life of Jesus.)

(Although the focus here is mostly on healing and strong life, it is for any type of miracle.)

“And Yahweh said to Abram, “Go out from your land and from your relatives, and from the house of your father, to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. And you will be a blessing.””
–Genesis 12:1–2 LEB.[1]

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
… He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
-Genesis 15 NIV

“This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations!  What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations.  I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them! “I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you.”
-Genesis 17 NLT

(The sicknesses of the law included things like skin problems, arthritis, cancers and even being feeble in old age.)

“And said, If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and will do that which is right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that heals you.”
–Exodus 15:26

“And you shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless you bread, and your water; and He will take sickness away from the midst of you.”
– Exodus 23:25

“O LORD my God, I cried unto you,
and you have healed me.”
-Psalm 30:2

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous:
but the LORD delivers him out of them all.”
-Psalm 34:19

Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday. Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you.
– Psalm 91:5–7 (NLT)

(This “satisfying long life,” is the life and favor promised to Abraham. If we follow in his steps of faith, we have the same blessing. Moses, Joshua and Caleb had faith like Abraham and so they walked in the same strong life, even in old age. God did not promise forgiveness to Abraham; rather God promised favor, fame, blessings, prosperity, health. Abraham believed God would do all these good things He promised. God then declare Abraham righteous in His sight. We to are righteous in God’s sight when we believe God will do all the good things He promised for us, including healing, satisfying long life, miracles and prosperity. If we do not have this type of faith we are not children of Abraham.)

With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.
– Psalm 91:16

“He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”
-Psalm 107:20

“He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.”
-Psalm 147:3

(The bible shows that health is not rewarded for right eating; rather, health and long-strong life is rewarded for righteousness. In Jesus we are already the righteousness of God. God Himself has already declared us righteous in His sight.
George Muller said it was verses like these in Proverbs, and confessing them continually, that lead him to live a long life with vigor. The same faith he used to bring in 100s of millions of dollars for the orphans is the same faith he said he used to bring strong life to his body. Faith.)

“Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear Yahweh and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones.
-Proverbs 3:7-8 LSB

My son, pay attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them deviate from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart.
For they are life to those who find them And healing to all his flesh.
-Proverbs 4:20-22 LSB

(Isaiah 53:4-5 uses the word “nasa.” It means to carry or lift-up. It is the Levitical word for substitutionary atonement as taught on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16). The escape goat had the sins “nasa” transferred from the people to it and the goat carried them away, and in exchange the people carry purity. Isaiah 53 uses this for “sickness” and “disease” (Matthew 8:17). Healing is a substitutionary exchange with Jesus. He bore our sickness so that we do not. Matthew 8:17 shows this healing is for this present life, and not the next one. Healing can only happen now, because in the next life we will have a new body that does not require healing. It is now or never. Jesus carried our sickness, we carry His health and life. Remind Him of this, He likes to hear you confess your faith in His finished work.)

(Absolutely,) our sicknesses He Himself carried(substitution),
And our diseases He carried;
..But He was pierced through for our(substitution) transgressions,
He was crushed for our(substitution) iniquities;
The chastening for our(substitution) peace fell upon Him,
And by His wounds(substitution) we are healed.
-Isaiah 53:4-5 (modified from the LSB)

“In order that what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled, who said, “He himself took away our sicknesses, and carried away our diseases.”
-Matthew 8:17 LEB

“Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.”
–Isaiah 58:8 NLT

For I will restore health to you. And heal you of your wounds,’ says the Lord,
‘Because they called you an outcast saying: “This is Zion; No one seeks her.”
– Jeremiah 30:17 NKJV

(Everyone who came to Jesus was Healed. Every last one of them.)

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.
– Matthew 4:23

News about Him spread as far as Syria, and people soon began bringing to Him all who were sick. And whatever their sickness or disease, or if they were demon-possessed or epileptic or paralyzed—He healed them all.
– Matthew 4:24 (NLT)

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”
– Matthew 8: 5–7 (NIV)

…Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!” And the man jumped up and went home!
– Matthew 9:6–7 (NLT)

Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them [the] lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them.
– Matthew 15:30

Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed Him.
– Matthew 20:34 (NIV)

And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched [it] out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.
– Mark 3:1–5

A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind Him through the crowd and touched His robe. For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch His robe, I will be healed.” Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
– Mark 5:25–29 (NLT)

Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want Me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
– Mark 10:49–52 (NIV)

When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them.
– Luke 4:40

And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed [them] all.
– Luke 6:19

A funeral procession was coming out as He approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her. When the Lord saw her, His heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” He said. Then He walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” He said, “I tell you, get up.” Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.
– Luke 7:12–15 (NLT)

(Jesus is healing her based on the promise to ABRAHAM. Jesus thinks this ancient promise of God makes it necessary for her to be healed. Not Jesus’ ministry, not signs to confirm His ministry, not a foretaste of gospel things to come, but on God’s old promise, it is necessary. It is necessary for God to do what He promised, no matter how ancient the promise is. Through Jesus, we are part of Abraham’s blessing today. Our healings are therefore, necessary, because God is a God of truth and faithfulness.)

When he saw her, Jesus called her to him and said, “Woman, you are set free from your sickness.”  He placed his hands on her and she straightened up at once and praised God.
…Isn’t it necessary that this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for eighteen long years, be set free from her bondage on the Sabbath day?”
– Luke 13:12-15 (CEB)

(Because Abraham’s blessing is in full force for us today, then passages like Isaiah 51 can be applied to us, today. They are part of your inheritance. Yes, Look to Abraham because he belongs to you by right and necessity.)

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth.
When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many.
The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.
-Isaiah 5:1-3 NLT

“…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”
– Acts 10:38

(Again Abraham’s blessing is important. The children Jesus is referring to is Abraham’s children. He says healing is like daily bread. That is how common healing it is for Abraham’s children. Jesus says if a son ask for bread a good father will give him bread for bread, or healing for healing. Even though it was not her time, by faith she took some bread anyway, and Jesus approved of it. Faith always gives you direct access to God and always gives you bread when you as for bread.)

The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
– Matthew 15:25-28

(Jesus was the greatest and most extreme faith teacher there ever lived. Faith for everything and anything, which therefore includes healing and strong life. Jesus, the most God centered man who ever lived, said things like, “nothing will be impossible for YOU.” With faith a tree will plant itself in the dead sea and it will “OBEY YOU.”
Jesus puts you in the driver’s seat, not the “will of God.” Jesus puts you in control for your health and miracles and not some nebulous “will of God.” If you have faith, you will get what you ask for, if you do not have faith, you will not get what you ask for. It is this extreme faith teacher, it is this Jesus whom we will all face one day for Judgement. If you appeal to the will of God on Judgement day, Jesus will reply by appealing to your faith or unbelief.)

“Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
– John 14-12-13 NIV

“But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!
This brings great glory to my Father.”
– John 15:7-8 NLT

Jesus said, “You (unbelieving perverts)! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.”  Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.
Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately,
“Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?”
“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible (for you).”
– Matthew 17:17-20 NLT

He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
-Luke 17:6

 (The first mention of this binding and losing, is in Matthew 16, when Peter confesses Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus responds that on this confession the church will march forward, and the gates of hell cannot stop its advancement. It is on this foundation Jesus says, what you unlock and lock, bind or lose on earth will be so in heaven. If you have the same confession Peter did, that Jesus is the Son of God, this authority belongs to you.)

“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
– Matthew 18:18-19 NIV

(We are righteous already in Christ; thus, we pray as righteous people in God’s sight. The promise is not that you might, but that God will heal you, just as absolutely as God will forgive you. Think about that. James connects the absolute surety of forgiveness and faith, to healing and faith.)

“And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well;
the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
– James 5:15-16

[1] Unless noted the scripture is from the KJV (I did modernize “thee or you”) or NKJV. I did supplement some words in a few verses, with the footnote option, provided by the translation.
() by author.

Also, I what to give thanks to Vincent Cheung, and his essay, The Edge of Glory, for helping me understand the importance of God’s promise to Abraham.

What is an Evil Report?

And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.” (Exodus 13:32 NIV)

Notice the evil report was not because they said, “What God promised, He cannot do. God promised this Land but God is too weak to drive them out by our hand.” Rather what they said was focused on empiricism, or what they can see. They saw giants. They saw they were small compared to them in height. They saw the fortified cities and armies and saw they destroyed their enemies.

They did not directly attack God’s promise; rather they only reported what they could see, touch and hear. They gave testimony of sight. And God called this an evil report. God wanted to destroy them right there on the spot. Moses had to step in and plead with God, not to kill them right there. God relented but promised they would never see the Promise Land, and they would all die in the wilderness. God rejected them as reprobates saying, “You will never enter My rest.”  They reported they were too weak and the others were too strong, based on their sensation and observation. God said, you will therefore be bound to this report based on sight. You are too weak for them, and they are too strong for you; you do not have the strength to enter into my good land.

Based on their five senses, human observation, and inductive calculation, it was true that they were weaker than the inhabitance. They did not lie about what they saw. Thus, all they did was give a report based on sight. They testified correctly to what they saw and touched. And yet, God wanted to destroy them for giving a correct testimony of what they saw.

These people truthfully testified about what they saw, and God called them evil and rejected them over it. Think carefully about that.

It was evil and bad because “we live by faith not sight,” 2 Corinthians 5:7. If we see a contradiction with what we see and what God has said, God considers it evil to testify correctly to what you observe. God expects you to testify to what He has said. Because there is a contradiction, if you affirm one and just leave it at that, then you in essence deny the other. This is an either-or logic, where the two terms are a known contradiction and thus if you affirm one you deny the other (fulfilling the requirements of the deduction). It is two testimonies that contradict one another. It is like two people who give two contradictory answers: “2 + 2 = 4,” and “2 + 2 =7.” If you pick one, then you are denying the other. As Jesus said, if you are not with Him, you are against Him. If you do not directly choose Him, then you are against Him. If you do not confess the promise against what you see, then you are against God. If you do not confess faith against your observations, you are God’s hated enemy. 

The command of God is to speak faith. Abraham’s very name was a constant spoken confession of faith in God’s promise. We prove ourselves to be children of Abraham if we do the same.

An evil report is speaking what you see (empiricism/observation), rather than God’s promise. Even if your testimony truthfully describes what you observe, if there is a promise about the same circumstance, you are evil. You are the type of person who spreads evil reports. The more people who see you publicly confess your observations (even if true) rather than the promise, the more wicked the report becomes, and as a consequence the more guilt you heap on yourself. 

I can hear these self-righteous Israelites saying, “but we only testified to what we saw! They are bigger and stronger, with more weapons. They are aggressive people. WHY is God angry with us for speaking the truth?”  The same happens today. “I only testified to what the doctor and I saw. I spoke the truth. The cancer was stage four, all over my body. Why does God call my observation an evil report?”

Yet, God has commanded us to speak His word. He has commanded us to trust His promise. He has commanded us to agree that His word is permanent, faithful and true. He commands us to not only believe in our hearts, but to confess with our mouth.

Adam and Eve had a problem with this. God told them something, and they faced the contradiction that the tree looked good to eat. The first school lessen for mankind was one of faith in God’s word. Faith, as Vincent Cheung says, is the first primordial orthodoxy for man. No other doctrine revealed later will override faith. Faith overrides all doctrines because all other doctrines came after the orthodoxy of faith.[1]

Abraham had a similar situation. Romans 4 said he believed against all hope. That is, he believed against what he saw, felt and observed.  His name, “father of many nations, was a contradiction to reality itself. Yet, it is God’s word that creates and controls reality. If you have faith in God’s word, the Word will always prevail over your observations. This is why we live by faith, not sight.

It is not as if you cannot under any circumstances say what the reality is, but it needs to be said in a way that does not negate your confession that God’s promise is true over what you observe. Jesus said that Lazarus was only asleep. But then when pressed He admitted he was dead, yet again affirmed Lazarus was as good as being alive.

People want to see themselves like Caleb and Joshua, while they still speak like the Israelites who gave a bad (correct) report on what they saw. They read God’s promises of healing in the bible, but then they will get a doctor’s report. They will then give a true testimony of what the doctor saw and spoke. “The cancer is strong, and my old body is weak.” This is exactly what the Israelites said, and God was so furious He wanted to kill all of them, right there and then. If you want to be like Joshua, who received God’s approval, then be like Joshua. Say, “the doctor saw the cancer, but it is food for me. Jesus left my sickness on the cross because it died there with Him. The Father considers Jesus as a substitute atonement for my sickness in my place, and therefore, I do not bear it. By His stripes I am healed. I declare in Jesus’ name, “I am healed.” His promise is more real than what I feel or observe.”

The only way to be obedient is to directly and constantly speak the promise of God against what you see. If you merely omit this and only speak what you see, you are an evil person who spreads evil reports. You will partake in the same destiny as the Jews who died in the wilderness. You will not enter into the good land, into the good promises, into the good things God has. They will be denied to you, if you give correct testimony of your observation over God’s promise.

But why stay silent? If you only believe, then the promise land of blessings are yours for the taking. God has already spoken and revealed His promises. Stand up and agree with Him. Be like Abraham your father and speak the contradiction to all you see and observe. Speak the confession of God’s promise and receive it like Abraham did. The only way to speak good reports and spread good reports is public confession of absolute certainty in God’s promise over reality.  Be a super spreader of faith confessions, and you will have God’s approval. Men, especially church men will hate you, and even try to stone you for good faith reports, but God will approve of you. He will give you what you ask of Him. Joshua and Caleb was delayed from entering the promise land as God rejected that current generation, but they did finally enter. The good report they confessed is the reality they lived and experienced.

God is not the one holding you back. The unbelief spoken by the Israelites is what held them back from entering the promise land. The faith Joshua spoke what allowed him to enter the good things of God.  Unbelief or faith is what will cause you to be held back or move forward into God’s good things.

[1] See Vincent Cheung, “Faith Override.”

When are my Prayers Meaningful?

“The way “sovereignty” is taught today can be a real faith killer. If God controls everything, then our actions are irrelevant, and our efforts are meaningless.”
Andrew Wommack

This has to be one of the dumbest and meaningless objections to God’s absolute sovereignty I come across. The objection is answered in the very statement the critic uses.

For example. “All men have sinned.” If it is true that all men have sinned then to say, “Oshea has sinned” is a logical deduction and thus is true. But if I say, cats have sinned, then we know we have a category fallacy, and thus the conclusion is irrational. Deduction is application of knowledge. “Oshea has sinned,” is knowledge contained in the original statement, “all men have sinned.” All I did was point out this specific knowledge and bring it to your attention.

Unfortunately, basic deduction is lost with most pastors and theologians so that if you say “All men have sinned,” they can say “therefore black cats have sinned.” They are then called intelligent and given a book deal.  Strangely, if I put forward an argument that mixes up categories like the able, that says, “All apples are eatable,” therefore, “because the sun is round like an apple the sun is eatable,” people would mock me? Maybe I should give it a religious terminology and I could get a book deal myself. Maybe something like this, “if God is sovereign over all things, then God does not control squires and human thoughts.” I see millions of copies already being sold.

As for the objection above the major premise is saying “God is sovereign over all things.” Wommack is saying this as the Reformed tradition would mean it. Martin Luther in Bondage of The Will says God is as directly sovereign in causing faith as He is unbelief or sin, as in the Elect or Satan. Thus, we will mean God is sovereign over all things as truly an “all” statement. A category statement is “all,” “some,” or “none.” Here we mean God directly and absolutely controls all things.  When the bible says the category statement “all have sinned and fallen short,” it does not mean only “some,” but “all” have.

And so “if God is sovereign over all things,” then according to Wommack the conclusion is that “our actions are meaningless.” His conclusion has new information in it that is not contained in the premise(s), thus it is irrational and stupid. He makes a category error with the term “meaningless.” It is a fourth term that is thrown in the conclusion with a slight of hand.

I will add an additional premise here that I believe the Bible easily teaches and is presupposed by the statement “God is sovereign over all things.” This premise is that “if God does something, it is meaningful by definition that God is the one who does it.” If not, am I to presuppose that God doing something is not meaningful because He is the one doing it? But I digress.

If God is sovereign over all things and whatever God does has infinite meaning and value, then God controlling my choice is by definition infinitely meaningful and valuable.

God is the only one with intrinsic worth and whose value is without measure. God’s Will, Word and Power are one in the same. As Vincent Cheung says in Only  Believe, “God can never lie, not because there are things that omnipotence cannot perform, as some would put it, but because lying is inapplicable to God, since the will, the power, the word, and the truth are one in him. If God says something, then even if it was not true before, it would become the truth.” Thus God who alone has value creates and controls all things by His thoughts.

Whatever God does by definition is “just” “good” and “meaningful or valuable.”

This should not be a surprise. Even with humans we are similar. When I played in the sand, or played with my Legos and made things and new people and new made up stories, it was meaningful to me, precisely because I was the one doing it.

Wommack is so arrogant that he thinks God’s sovereign control over him is the very thing that makes his choices meaningless, when it is the only thing making them meaningful. He supposes his choices apart from God’s sovereignty control have intrinsic value. I will ignore the issue of ontology on this, for it is impossible for any created thing to move without God’s doing it. God is the only real cause for everything; there is no such thing as secondary causes in the ultimate sense. God is the only real cause. God’s thought and power are the same thing in essence, or there is no dividing them. If God does not think of something, then it does not happen. If God thinks of something and wills it, then it happens. There is no other real causality other than this.

We are responsible and accountable because we are not free relative to God’s command and His sovereignty over us. Romans 9 answers the question why we are responsible even though God can harden or soften our hearts. The answer is that He is the Potter and we are the clay. He does this from a neutral lump of clay, that is neither good or bad. Thus, the Scripture’s answer for why we are accountable is because God sovereignly controls us.

As Vincent says in “More than A Potter,” if you say man is more than a pot, then God is infinitely more than a Potter.  And so the sovereign control aspect is therefore made infinitely stronger. The fact that we are accountable to God is therefore a limitation of our freedom, in the sense it makes it nonexistent. God controls us like a Potter over a pot. Does God form a good pot from a good lump? No. Does God take a nasty lump of clay and form a nasty toilet with it? No. God takes from the same lump of unformed (before they were born) clay and molds it to His own design (good or bad). Thus, there is no paradox, because Divine sovereignty negates human freedom and is the very thing that makes accountability work. The fig tree did not have any freedom, but Jesus held it accountable. Even without freedom, the everything that made it accountable was Jesus being sovereign over it and holding it to a standard. Freedom had no relevance to accountability. Romans 9 refers to our accountability in the same way. This is the opposite of how most understand it; thus, many are in direct public rebellion against God.

God is not accountable because of the very reason He is free.

In summary, God is the ultimate cause of everything. There are no other real causes. We are accountable to God because He has complete control over us. We are like clay in the hands of a potter. God’s sovereignty is what makes us responsible.

The criticism is essentially this, “if I am not the one who ultimately determines my reality then it is not meaningful.” Arrogance. That is, “if God does not give me His divinity then I will hate Him.” They don’t like that fact God has such exhaustive control and they don’t. What fool told you that meaningfulness is by your ultimate determination? The bible? The bible that says God hated Esau and love Jacob before they had made any choices and before they were born. The bible teaches what God does is meaningful, because God does it.

So prayer in the ultimate sense does not change anything. But this is true for all created things. However, on the relative level my prayers moves the heart of God, uproots mountains and makes the waves obey me.

Even though the Scripture informs me of God’s sovereignty over me, God mostly addresses me on the human or relative level. That is, God moving the chess pieces is the very thing that makes such things meaningful. However, God mostly addresses me on the relative level of “(Oshea) went to space b4,” rather than saying, God moves “White Knight to space b4.” Because God is mostly addressing me on this level, it is therefore good, just and meaningful by definition of God doing it. Because God wants me to mainly have relationship and fellowship with Him on this level, then it is good, just and meaningful.

What God has done is atone for all our sins by His only Son Jesus and gave us His Son’s righteousness. What He has done is commanded us to be forgiven and blessed by receiving His Son and all the glorious benefits contained therein. Therefore when I use faith and receive forgiveness, healing and miracles, then it is good and has immeasurable value.

Jesus Presupposes Faith to Move Mountains Is Easy

In Mark 4:39-41 , Jesus calms the wind and waves, asking his disciples why they are afraid and lack faith. In Matthew 21:21 , Jesus tells his followers that with unwavering faith, they can do extraordinary things, such as commanding a mountain to be thrown into the sea. Luke 17:6 states that even with faith as tiny as a mustard seed, one can command a mulberry tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it will obey. In Matthew 17:19-21 , Jesus explains to his disciples that their inability to drive out a demon (and heal) was due to their lack of faith. He assures them that with faith as small as a mustard seed, they can move mountains and accomplish anything. Matthew 16:7-9 recounts a discussion among Jesus’ disciples about bread. Jesus questions their lack of understanding and reminds them of the miraculous multiplication of loaves in the past.

Is moving mountains by faith hard? Is using faith on demand to transmute material substance and multiply difficult or high-level Christianity? Is using faith on demand to make reality obey you as its servant a hard thing to do?

Jesus Christ does not think so. In the above passages Jesus rebukes the disciples for not making reality obey you, multiplying material substance, casting out demons and healing on the demand of faith. Jesus’ rebukes for doubting do not appear only at the end of His 3-year discipleship program, but start at the very beginning. Only after a little time teaching and showing examples, Jesus expected His disciples to do the same works. Think about that.

If Jesus’ presupposition is that faith to cause such things is difficult, high-level and rare, then His rebukes would not make since. If the were truly difficult and high-level, then Jesus would say, “do not worry, such things are for master petitioners, you will eventually get there over many years of practice.” No. He expects immediate results because faith can be done by beginners.

The deities of pagans are cure and capricious.  They give you a command but deny you the ablity.  Jesus is not so. Because He is commanding and expecting faith to move mountains, to tell reality what to do, transmute material substance and heal the sick, then He gives the ablity to do it.  Thus, He expects results and fruitfulness.

Imagine Jesus getting upset with you because your family member needing healing from cancer, and they did not get healed when you prayed. You expected Jesus to sympathize with you, but instead He said you were a spiritual pervert and filled with unbelief. Jesus did exactly this to the disciples in front of other people in public. Would you still follow Him? Imagine some family came over and you need 7 more chairs and Jesus gets upset with you because you were afraid and not did use your faith to transmute your armchair into 7 more. Yet Jesus was upset with the disciple for exactly this type of situation. Would you still follow Him, if He rebuked you in the same way?

Yet, the disciples got better. Later Peter’s shadow healed more people than entire denominations combined. Healing was so easy for Peter that he did not even need to think about, only his shadow was need. Jesus presupposed healing and miracles was easy. The disciples matured and by faith they showed miracles were indeed easy.

Imagine me saying something so ridiculous as “If you believe, no mater how big it is, it will happen, reality will obey you, demons will scream, body parts will be whole, and material substance will transform into whatever you tell it to become.” Yet, this is exactly what Jesus said. You can call Him a liar, or extreme, but I will not. Jesus is God. He creates controls and defines reality. If He has defined me with the definition of “if I use faith whatever I ask will be done,” then I believe He knows what He is talking about.

We Ought to be Healed

If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.
John 1:9

Because God cannot lie and is faithful, once He gives a promise He cannot break it. God is always true and never a liar.

God’s commandments, by definition are given to man, not Himself. This is why God can take vengeance and man cannot not. It is like saying green 7s and blue 9s. They are categories that do not belong together. Although God’s commands do not apply to Him, His perfect, faithful nature always applies, thus, if He gives a promise He will be faithful to do it.

To be righteous is acting and thinking that values God above all things. For man this comes in two main ways. One is to agree with all God has said is true, and reject human speculation. The second is to obey Him. We must make a quick note that many commands are in the form of precious and marvelous promise of good. It is not a suggestion to ask God to forgive you of all our sins and be reconciled or blessed or healed (etc.). Lastly, value is not a third way because to value the things God values is included in your intellectual agreement with Him and obeying Him.  When we believe His revelation and obey Him we are acting and thinking in a way that values Him above all others.

God being righteous is not about obeying, because God is free and not under an authority. God is knowledge, He does not receive knowledge and then must agree with it, as man does. God being faithful to His perfect nature and perfect understanding and God valuing Himself above all others as the greatest is good, because God is so. We can label this as God being righteous when He acts this way, which is always. Jesus says He is righteous because He does not His will, but the Father’s (John 5:30). Jesus values His Father’ will above all others. For God to seek His own desires and will is righteous. For us, it is to seek His will above all others.  

In relation to man, God is “just and righteous” to fulfill His promise. Before the promises, God is free to show mercy to whom He wants. No one forces Him to be kind and gracious. Because God is truth and is perfect, once He gives a promise, He would be unjust and unrighteous not to do it. He would be acting in a way that does not value His perfect nature and knowledge above all others.

This is why John says God is just or righteous to forgive our sins. He promised and Jesus finished the requirements. On the demand of faith God is righteous to forgive us.  We should be forgiven in order for God to value His own worth. It is necessary for us to be forgiven on the demand of faith.

The same with the promise of Abraham and the Contract by Jesus’ blood. See Vincent Cheung, “The Edge of Glory,” and “Our Contract” for more details of the promised blessings about this. These promises, already secured by Jesus includes things like healing, prosperity, miracles for all sorts of things, wisdom and blessings. On the demand of faith God is righteous to give us all such things when we ask. He would be unrighteous to His own value, if He did not. This is why, Jesus said it was necessary for a daughter of Abraham to be healed on the sabbath. She ought to be healed because she is a daughter of Abraham.

Thus, we ought to be forgiven, we ought to be healed, we ought to be wealthy, we ought to have fruitful relationships and ministries.  It is necessary for us to be healed on the demand of faith. It is necessary for us to be given miracles on the demand of faith. Anything less is to think and act in a way that would devalue Him as the greatest above all others.