Tag Archives: righteous

The God Who Gives and Takes Away

Yeah, you know that song—“Blessed Be Your Name”—with its catchy chorus belting out, “You give and take away.” Oh boy, did the worship leaders love repeating that bridge, turning it into some kind of mantra that echoed through the auditorium like a divine echo chamber. Back in my younger days, before I really grasped the full blast of Jesus’ finished work on the cross, that line used to hit me like a gut punch from an invisible stalker lurking in the shadows of my faith. I’d sing it in church, lifting my hands with the crowd, but inside, it stirred up this nagging dread that twisted my guts: When’s God gonna yank away my health, my cash flow, or that close relationship I’d been nurturing? It painted Him as a cosmic night stalker, ready to rip away the good stuff on a whim, leaving me destitute and praising myself for how much more I can suffer from God than my neighbor. Felt more like a horror flick plot than the promise of an “exceedingly great reward” that God dropped on Abraham in Genesis 15:1. I remember feeling a bit envious of Abraham back then; it seemed like he got the jackpot Genie God who multiplied blessings without the fine print, while we were left with the chainsaw massacre version who giveth and taketh at random.

The Bible is a worldview, and the finished work of Jesus forces a very specific way to see reality: Blessed be the Name of God. He takes away my curses, pains, sickness, poverty, and lack. Blessed be the Name of God, who gives me health, relationships, prosperity, fame, and favors of all sorts. Blessed be the Name of God, who took away my bad, and gave me good.  

Job 1:21 says, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” Job’s venting in the midst of his nightmare, a raw outpouring from a man who’s just lost everything—his kids, his wealth, his health—in a whirlwind of calamity that would break most folks. And in that moment, he’s clinging to a sliver of piety, acknowledging God’s sovereignty even as the ashes settle, but also thinking himself more righteous than he truly was. Job accepted God’s rebuked and God gave him the mercy and compassion of double wealth and health. But here’s the thing: Job’s reality was one where he had no direct covenant contract with God like we do under the New Contract. He’s operating in a pre-cross world, where the full revelation of God’s redemptive plan hadn’t yet unfolded. Zoom out to the New Contract, sealed in Jesus’ blood, and everything shifts dramatically. Through Jesus’ brutal substitution on that cross—where He bore our sins, our infirmities, our poverty—God doesn’t play this give-and-take game with His kids’ blessings. No, He takes away the junk we deserved, the curses that clung to us like bad karma from the fall, and lavishes us with the overflow of His goodness.

The whole point of substitution is that we don’t have the things Jesus took on Himself. Jesus endures the loss so we don’t have to, swapping our rags for His riches in a divine exchange. In God’s mind, and His mind is the only mind matters, He thinks Jesus took on Himself our sins, ours sickness, our curses and our poverty; because of this the Father does not think we have sins, sickness, curses or poverty. Think about it. Hour after horrific hour, Jesus stood in our place under the wrath of God, and nailed to our curses. This has already happened. Jesus endured lash, after lash, after lash as an exchange to give me healing. Who am I to disagree with God. Why would I want to? The Father has decided in His mind that we carry Jesus righteousness, health produced by His stripes, and Abraham’s blessing of excessive increase and wealth. Jesus already did it. God already considers all these bad things removed from us, and already reckons all the good things are ours. If we disbelieve God, like Jesus’ hometown and fail to receive, that is our accountability, and not God who already provided. Again, that is the whole point of substitution. It has already happened and been completed.  

If God’s sovereignty means He decrees all things without contradiction—as Hebrews 6:18 insists it’s impossible for Him to contradict Himself—and if His New Contract promises health, prosperity, and victory through faith, and the blessings of Deuteronomy 28 now redirected to us via Galatians 3:14, then He’s not in the business of snatching back what He lavished on us in Christ. Galatians 3:13 spells it out plainly: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” See? Jesus became the curse so we wouldn’t have to lug it around like a ball and chain. Jesus lugged it around like a ball and chain to the cross and it died there with Him. I don’t have it, because He took it away from me.  Isaiah 53:4-5 hammers it home: “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” That’s not human observational; it’s propositional truth, applied from God’s unchanging mind to our everyday reality. Matthew 8:17 confirms this interpretation, applying it directly to Jesus’ healing ministry: “This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’”

In the New Covenant, God’s giving is all about abundance—health as in 3 John 1:2, where John prays, “Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul”; prosperity echoing Abraham’s promise in Genesis 12:2, “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Thus even relationships are rooted in Abraham’s gospel of increase of favor, love and meaningfulness, not arbitrary loss and loneliness. It’s all yes and amen in Christ, as 2 Corinthians 1:20 declares: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” If we’re singing “He gives and takes away” while ignoring this Contract shift, we’re mixing up a person with outsider status with insider’s status, creating a theological Frankenstein. To mix outsider identity with insider identity is peddling a demon dogmatic that leaves people in perpetual defeat. To think your identity is a dog when you are human would have devastating results. The same with our identity in Christ. To think you are merely human or still the old man, or still a sinner, or still sick or still under a curse, or still an outsider to the Contract when you are not, would have devastating results.

Sickness, for instance, isn’t God’s autograph on our lives—it’s Satan’s victory lap, a middle finger to the kingdom that Jesus demolished at the cross. In Acts 10:38, Peter describes Jesus’ ministry: “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” Notice: oppressed by the devil, not by God. Doing good was healing and doing bad was sickness. Peter says it was the devil doing the bag thing, which was taking away health. But it was Jesus doing the good thing, which was giving health. In the New Contract, God takes away the oppression—the sickness, the lack, the relational fractures—and gives us wholeness. In the substitutionary atonement, Jesus took 39 stripes in exchange for our healing. It is already done. In the Father’s mind, He decided our sicknesses were taken off us and put on Jesus as those 39 stripes. There is nothing more for God to do in order to heal us. He already did in Jesus substitutionary atonement.  If we attribute taking away blessings to God, we’re aligning with the accuser, not the Advocate. Satan will teach you to let him do bad things to you like sickness, lack and death, and then tell you to label these bad things as from God. But Acts 10:38 says Jesus does the good thing which is healing.

God is sovereign over all things, including evil, and so He must by logical necessity even be the author of sin. Yet, on the relational level where we live and breathe, God speaks to us as Contract partners, promising to take away curses and give blessings without reversal. In Deuteronomy 28:1-14, the blessings for obedience include health, wealth, and fruitful relationships, and under the New Contract, these are ours through Christ’s perfect obedience, not our flawed efforts. We don’t earn them; we receive them by faith, as Romans 4:16 explains: “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring.”

So, if your theology still has God as the cosmic repo man, stripping away the very favors He promised in the New Contract, you’re not just off-base—you’re peddling demon dogmatics that’ll stain your hands on judgment day. Before its too late, stop cheering for the wrong team in this cosmic cage match. Instead, bless the Lord who takes our curses—our pains, our lacks, our brokenness—and pours out His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). Blessed be His name, the Giver who takes away our trash and upgrades our inheritance to match His Son’s.

This isn’t pie-in-the-sky optimism; it’s deductive certainty from Scripture’s premises. Start with God’s immutable character (Malachi 3:6: “For I the LORD do not change”), add the New Contract irrevocable promises (Hebrews 8:6: “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises”), and conclude that what He gives in Christ—life abundant (John 10:10)—He doesn’t retract things from your life. The whole point of substitutionary atonement is that Jesus went to great lengths to retract and take away all your sins, sickness, curses and lack. God did take away and retract things from your life, but it was all your bad, which Jesus took on Himself and bore it in your place. Satan may try to pilfer, but God’s response is to restore double, as in Zechariah 9:12: “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.”

In practical terms, this means when trials hit—whether financial squeezes, health scares, or relational rifts—we don’t resign ourselves to “God’s taking away” but resist the devil, firm in faith (James 4:7), claiming the blessings already secured. If God were in the taking business for Contract insiders, He would take away our unbelief, not our blessings; He would zap it right out so we could receive freely. In fact, this is what the boy’s father prayer, “help my unbelief.”  The finished atonement of Jesus, and our new identity in Him forces a particular worldview; it invites us to approach the throne boldly (Hebrews 4:16), asking, knowing we will receive, because our Father promised and delights in giving good gifts.

The God who gives and takes away, has revealed what this means for insiders in Christ; God takes away bad things and gives good things. Blessed be His name, indeed—not for painful subtractions, but for lavish additions that make us more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). If you’ve been singing that song with a side of dread, thinking God takes away the health, wealth, good relationships, righteousness and the very blessings He gave you in Christ, then you have been singing with demons and glorifying the devil. Some Christians are so confused they are singing “Highway to Hell,” thinking it’s a gospel song about God’s insiders. Swap camps and come over God’s choir singing: He gives life, and takes death; gives health, and takes sickness; gives abundance, and takes poverty.

That’s the gospel rhythm—dance to it.

God Gave Me His Son’s Righteousness

Let’s pause for a moment and let the sheer magnitude of this sink in. God, the Almighty who spun galaxies from His fingertips and set and controls the laws of reality in motion, could create anything He desired—worlds, wonders, even lesser beings to serve Him. Yet, what He treasures infinitely above all things is Himself, reflected perfectly in His Son, Jesus Christ. And in an act of unfathomable generosity, He took that very righteousness—the flawless, divine perfection of His Son—and credited it to me. This isn’t a small footnote; it’s the core of who I am now. When God looks at me, He sees Jesus, spotless and exalted at His right hand. My ledger of stumbles and successes? In His eyes, it’s rewritten entirely in the ink of Christ’s unblemished record, without a single smudge. Who am I—or anyone else, for that matter—to argue with the Creator on this point? It’s like telling the sun it shouldn’t shine because you prefer the shade.

We ought to view our righteousness in Christ as naturally as we regard our own hands—those faithful appendages that type these words without a second thought. Picture a newborn, staring at its tiny fists with wide-eyed curiosity, as if pondering, “What are these things dangling in front of me, and do they really belong to me? If so, how on earth do I make them work?” Tragically, too many who call themselves Christians approach their God-given righteousness in much the same bewildered way, doubting its reality or fumbling with how to apply it. But let’s be clear: God’s sovereignty in bestowing this gift is no less absolute than His hand in crafting and controlling every atom of creation, including those hands of yours. He formed them, sustains them, and directs their every motion, yet on the human level—where He graciously meets us—those hands are yours to command, not His. God isn’t what He creates; He deals with us as commanded beings in the relative realm, not the ultimate causality where He orchestrates all. So yes, those hands belong to you, a gift for your use. In precisely the same manner, God has transferred His Son’s righteousness to your account—it’s yours now, no less inherently than your limbs. To question it is to undermine the very exchange Christ secured on the cross.

As that infant matures, it comes to grasp the truth: those arms and hands are indeed its own, tools to explore, create, and thrive. With time, mastery follows, until using them becomes second nature—no hesitation, no self-doubt. The grown person doesn’t pause mid-task to wonder, “Are these really mine? Might my boss take offense if I wield them to sign this contract?” Yet, how many believers linger in spiritual infancy, perpetually questioning if all this righteousness truly belongs to them? They waver, peering at their divine inheritance like it’s a borrowed trinket, liable to be snatched away at any moment. This isn’t faith; it’s unbelief, doubting God’s word and Jesus’ finished work. Scripture doesn’t mince words here.

Paul declares in Romans 4:20-24 (NIV), Abraham “did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why ‘it was credited to him as righteousness.’ The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” Abraham believed God’s extravagant promises of blessing, and righteousness was imputed to him apart from any law or merit. We, as his spiritual heirs, receive the same—yet some fritter it away with needless skepticism, as if God’s gavel might reverse course. Frankly, it’s like showing up to King’s feast and complaining about the silverware; you miss the King’s love the bounty staring you in the face.

Delving deeper, the Bible introduces imputed righteousness not amid gloom and guilt, but in the radiant context of God’s overflowing favor to Abraham. In Genesis 15:6 (NIV), we read, “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” What was Abram believing? Not a plea for pardon from sin—that’s nowhere in sight. No, God had just unveiled a cascade of promises: descendants as numerous as the stars, land stretching to the horizons, protection as a shield, and Himself as Abram’s “very great reward” (Genesis 15:1 NIV). It’s a declaration of abundance—health, wealth, legacy, victory—pure, unadulterated blessing. Abram assents, trusting God’s power to deliver all the good things He promised, and bam: righteousness credited, no strings attached. Paul hammers this home in Romans 4, emphasizing it’s “apart from the law” (Romans 3:21 NIV), a free gift for those who believe like Abraham did. This isn’t some secondary perk; it’s foundational, predating Moses by centuries, designed to showcase God’s grace without legal hoops.

Fast-forward to the cross, where this imputation reaches its pinnacle in Christ. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV) states plainly, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Here’s the great exchange: our filthy record transferred to Jesus, who bore its penalty in full, while His spotless righteousness floods our account. It’s not a partial swap or a begrudging loan; it’s total, divine, and irrevocable. Romans 5:17-19 (NIV) expands this, contrasting Adam’s legacy of death with Christ’s gift of life: “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! … For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” Notice the “much more”—Christ’s righteousness doesn’t just cancel the debt; it catapults us into reigning status, heirs with Him, empowered to dominate circumstances as He does.

But here’s where the rubber meets the road, and frankly, where too many skid off into the ditch of doubt. If this righteousness is truly yours—as natural as those hands you use daily—then act like it. No more tiptoeing around like a spiritual pauper, begging for scraps when the banquet is yours by right. Remember the baby analogy? Maturity means owning it, wielding it without apology. When temptation whispers, “Look at your track record—you’re still that old mess,” counter with the truth: “No, devil, my record is Christ’s now, flawless and favored.” It’s not arrogance; it’s alignment with God’s verdict. As Vincent Cheung aptly puts it in his essay “The Christian and the Self,” “When you feel so ‘right,’ nothing can stand in your way. When you are so ‘right,’ you cannot conceive of any reason why God would not answer your prayers for success and miracles.” He’s spot on, because it echoes Scripture’s boldness.

In practical terms, this imputed righteousness reshapes everything. Prayer becomes a throne-room decree, not a timid plea, because you approach as one robed in Christ’s perfection. Healing? Claim it—Isaiah 53:5 (NIV) assures, “by his wounds we are healed,” part of the same atoning exchange. Prosperity? Abraham’s blessing flows to us (Galatians 3:14 NIV), crediting abundance where lack once ruled. And sin? It’s dethroned, no longer your master, because you’re not under law but grace (Romans 6:14 NIV). Doubt this, and you’re essentially calling God a liar, which is about as wise as arm-wrestling a hurricane. Instead, let it fuel your faith: meditate on Romans 4 until it’s etched in your soul, rebuking any voice—internal or infernal—that suggests otherwise. God didn’t skimp on this gift; He over-engineered it for your assurance, layering justification apart from the law with forgiveness by the law, all sealed in Christ’s blood.

Wrapping this up, if there’s one takeaway, it’s this: God gave me His Son’s righteousness not as a loan to be repaid, but as my new identity, irrevocable and empowering. It’s me—as real as these hands typing away. To live otherwise is to shortchange the cross and grieve the Spirit. So own it, wield it, and watch mountains move. After all, who are we to disagree with the One who holds the stars? Let’s live like the righteous heirs we are, with a shout of gratitude toward heaven’s Son that made it so.

The Correction of Righteousness

“And when [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged,” John 16:8-11 NLT

Picture this: Jesus ascends to the Father like the VIP He is, and the Holy Spirit swoops down to earth like a divine fact-checker, ready to set the record straight on sin, righteousness, and judgment. Jesus even gives us the SparkNotes version of each.

First up, “the” sin of the world—singular, folks—is that people refuse to buy what God’s revealing, especially the whole “Jesus is God’s Son” revelation.

Second, the cosmic swap meet—our sin for Jesus’ righteousness—went down at the atonement, but the official press release? That hit when Jesus rose and got the VIP seat at the Father’s right hand of Power. This was the courtroom gavel slam declaring that everyone Jesus died for is now rocking the “Righteousness of God” title. And trust me, it’s not because of our stellar résumé—God’s the one with the authority, power, and dominion here. The law’s DIY righteousness kit? Total flop, thanks to its pesky human origins.

Third, judgment. Salvation’s a two-parter (we will only focus on the first aspect), Judgment. This is like storming the gates, with guns blazing, to free your enslaved loved one by taking out the bad guys. Exhibit A: Israelites wading through the Red Sea while Pharaoh’s army gets a watery goodbye. Exhibit B: Jesus on the cross, shredding Satan’s accusation privileges (Revelation 12:10) and teleporting us from the devil’s grip (Colossians 1:13) to His kingdom. Greater is Jesus in me than that cosmic loser out there. By judging and trashing Satan’s works, Jesus pulls off the ultimate rescue mission. Jesus vs Satan in this context, is the archetype of Hero vs villain. Jesus won. Pharaoh’s army drowned while Israel was delivered; Satan’s power was broken while humanity was redeemed. This frames judgment not as something believers fear but as something already accomplished on their behalf, securing their freedom. We’re free, because our enemy’s toast.

Now, let’s get to the juicy bit. Jesus dropped this as a mic-drop moment for the whole sinful world, but if you’re already “born-from-above”—congratulations, you’re in the club—what’s this mean for us? We’ve already had our sin epiphany, repented, got the forgiveness stamp, and unlocked the power to heal sickness and evict demons like it’s our day job. So, what’s the Spirit correcting now?

For believers, who have already accepted Jesus, the sin of unbelief no longer defines them. Instead, the Spirit’s role shifts to a positive correction—reminding them of their new reality in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “Paul writes, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (NLT).

The big idea: if you’re already God’s righteousness, the Spirit isn’t here to wag a finger and say, “You’re not righteous, you naughty thing.” No, He’s correcting you when you forget you’re basically divine royalty and start moping around like a spiritual peasant. The word “convict” here means “correct”—when you’re off-the-mark. Pre-salvation, the Spirit was all, “Yikes, you’re a mess.” Post-salvation? It’s, “Honey, you’re dazzling—act like it.” The correction’s positive now, a holy hype session. You’re not seeing yourself as the perfect, glorious righteousness of God? That’s what He’s fixing.

Romans 8:1 declares, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

If you’re saved and still hearing a naggy voice droning on about how sinful you are, newsflash: that’s not God. It’s either Satan doing his accusatory shtick or you secretly loving a good self-pity party. Sure, the Word’s a sharp sword—ouch, it’ll call out sinful behavior when you’ve been sinful. But that’s about your actions. The Spirit’s correction we’re vibing on here? It’s about your shiny new reality in Jesus. He is correcting our vision when we forget our royal status as co-heirs with Jesus. It’s a call to live boldly from that identity He’s whispering (or shouting, if you’re stubborn) in our hearts, “You’re perfect, righteous, glorious—a prince of heaven! So why are you slumming it with sin? It’s beneath you.” You’re righteous, so act righteous. You’re heaven’s VIP, not some back-alley chump chatting up thieves and creeps. You’re a co-heir with Jesus—stop rummaging in human resources’ dumpster and cash that check from heaven’s bank account: withdrawing from “heaven’s bank account” for all the good things Jesus has already give to you by grace.

That’s the Spirit’s vibe today. So, double-check the voice you’re tuning into—it better be the Spirit’s, not some sleazeball demon with a guilt trip agenda.

 ——

[Grok (xAI), 2025. Proofreading, copyediting, and stylistic enhancements.]


God Did Not Ask Or Consult Me

You did not ask to come into existence. Its not about you. Reality is God’s playdough, and He creates reality how He wants for His own goals. I was given the gift of existence whether I wanted it or not.

Reality is God’s Lego set, but unlike Legos, He created the stuff to build the stuff. H2O does not naturally make water; it acts like water because God decided to make it consistently behave that way. Reality is God’s arbitrary choice.

Some try to play down God’s sovereignty for various reason, but some do it because they think it hurts our ability to have faith and work miracles. This is a shame, because the bible specifically uses election and predestination as a foundation for more faith and miracles and answered prayers.

This is also true when we consider sin and righteousness.  Take for example Romans 9 and 5. We are told God chooses to love one and hate another based on His own choice and not based on the good or bad choices of the person.  God molds each person from a neutral lump of clay, for His own goals. In Romans five we read Adam fell, and thus, this fall includes God being the ultimate cause. There is no dualism in the bible. Man is responsible because man is not free, but under God sovereign control and command.

In romans 5, it says all people after Adam are born sinners, or born with a sinful mind already in them. Because God is the only cause in reality, He therefore creates every person after Adam with a sinful mind. Because we reject pantheism, then it means God caused the sinful nature, but is not sinful Himself. God is not what He creates or causes. God is not a tree, even though He creates a tree and causes it to be a tree.   

The same God who created you caused you to be born as a sinner. I did not ask to be born I did not asked to be born with a pre-installed sinful mind. God did this all on His own. I was never asked or consulted.

The list of sins in my mind is irrelevant. God said He is the judge of reality, and only His on thoughts about my list of sins or obedience is the list that matters. God never asked me about this, or asked if I wanted this.  Its His Legos, its His playdough, its His program, its His story.

Same God who caused all of this is the same God who caused me to be righteous. Out of favor to me, God sent His only Son to be a propitiation for my sins. In the Father’s mind, my sinful list was transferred to Jesus’ list, and so the Father punished Jesus for having my sinful list. In addition to this Romans 5 says, in the Father’s thoughts, He considered Jesus’ righteous action to be transferred to my list, as if I did it. Because of this, my sinful nature is removed, I get born from above with God’s mind, and I rule in life with Jesus.

Just as with everything preceding this, I did not ask God to send His Son out of love for me. God did not ask me or get my permission. He just did it, because reality is His personal Lego set. He put me together. He originally put me with the bad guys, in the Lego playground He made. However, later He gave me a new Lego head and relocated me in the good-guys part of the Lego set. He did not ask or consult me about it. He did it, because He wanted to. When God gave me faith, it was when God was letting me know the good things He did for me.  

The doctrine of God’s sovereignty is to bulldozer over any sense of lack and over any consciousness of sin.

It is about God, not you. When Satan or your old way of thinking wants to condemn you, or remind you of past sins, the goal is to make it all about you. The goal is to make you fight a battle on the wrong hill. The hill that matters, which will determine who wins or loses, is God’s actions, not yours.

As Romans 5 says, it is the gift of unearned favor and righteousness that makes me rule in life with Jesus. Just as the gift of existence was given to me without my asking or consent, and likewise, the gift of unmerited favor and the gift of Jesus’ righteousness was given to me without my asking or consent. It is about God’s work, not mine.  The Holy Spirit causing me to believe this is God letting me know about what He did for me. Just as the gift of existence does not come and go for me, the gift of unmerited favor and my righteous standing, and sonship, and my royal priesthood does not come and go. Just like a child pulling off a red leg piece, from a Lego man, and then replacing it with a green leg piece, God did this for me in Jesus Christ. Being righteous is my definition, my identity and my reality.  It is about Him, not me. It is about what Jesus already did for me, and what is already me and already mine.

In the sense of affirming reality and my definition, then it is about me. God has already finished the atonement and caused me to be born from above. I am already a new creation, with new definitions. I am the righteousness of God. I am what I am, by the grace of God, but I am still what I am. I am the righteousness of God. I am a royal priesthood. Jesus has given me the royal authority to heal all sickness and cast out all demons. Jesus has given me the position to boldly march into His royal throne room to ask and receive. Jesus has given me the position to sling His Name around to ask whatever I want and get it.  It is about God and not me. This reality is God’s Playdough, and this is how God has shaped and made me.

Thus we have boldness in the Day of Judgment. Because just as Jesus is, so are we in this world. God’s love is perfected in us, when we have no fear, but only faith, joy and confidence, for all the good things God has done for us.

You Said Something

There is nothing wrong in the statement, “I was once a sinner who was saved by grace.” However, if you stop there it is unbelief. The same gospel that saves is the same gospel that gives me a new identity in Jesus and baptizes me in the Spirit. Therefore, I am the righteousness of God. I am not affirming God is God’s righteousness, but that “I,” am God’s righteousness. God gave it to me and it is now mine. I am righteous like God is righteous. This is who I am.  This is important because the gospel is not mainly a negative belief. It is not mainly about past forgiveness. It is mainly a positive belief. I am righteous. I am empowered by the Spirit for miracles. I have authority to cast out demons and heal the sick. I am a child of God. I boldly march in God’s throne room and ask and then receive.

This is important for prayer. James says that the prayer of a righteous man is effective. If your focus is that “I am a sinner saved by grace,” then according to James, your prayers will not be effective. I am not a sinner. I am righteous. The focus is that I am present tense, righteous. The focus is not a negative belief of my past forgiveness, but a positive declaration of my present righteousness. It is to this type of Christian who will have effective prayers.

Jesus teaches on prayer in Mark 11:22-24, saying, “ Say to this mountain; and, whatever you ask, believe you have received it, and it will be yours.” The focus is not God’s goodness. The focus is not begging and crawling to God, waiting to see what God does. The focus is not God, but you. Jesus puts the focus on “believe you have received it,” when you said it.  As with James only a person who knows they are righteous in God’s sight, God’s child and has contractual rights, is able to put the focus on them and get answers to prayers. The focus is not problems. The focus is not telling God your problems, trying to prick His heart and see what He does. No.

Jesus did not instruct you to tell God about your mountain. Jesus commanded you to open your mouth and tell the mountain to move. The focus is on your mouth to say it, and your mind to believe it. Your mouth is Moses’ Staff of God. Stretch out your mouth and say something. Say it. What you want, say it. Jesus’ says the focus is not waiting to see what God does, but believe (past tense) you have received. The focus is not your problem or God. The focus is that someone so righteous as you, just spoke something in faith. The focus is that you opened your mouth. It is that simple.

This is Jesus’ teaching on prayer. Jesus is the extreme faith preacher.