The goodness of God is an essential theological truth that affects everything we do and everything for which we pray. When we consider the goodness of God, however, it is hard not to keep shifting between the fearful God of the Old Testament and the God of grace revealed in the New Testament. When hardship comes and stays for a while, most of us immediately think that the judgment of God has landed on us because that is what we see in the Old Testament – you know…global flood, fire consuming Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s wife being turned into a pillar of salt, Miriam being struck with leprosy, and so on. If we are not careful, we see God as a God of vengeance and wrath rather than a loving father, and when we see him that way, it is almost impossible to reconcile that view with the Heavenly Father that Jesus talks about who knows and cares if even one sparrow falls to the ground. When we see God that way we are uncertain that he always wants to bless us or we redefine blessing so that it can contain hardship, persecution, loss, death, and illness. If we believe that God may visit those kinds of things on us because they are good for us in the long run, we will not be able to pray against those things with much faith. If we are not clear on what constitutes the works of God and the works of the devil, we will not know how to pray. John defined the works of the devil as everything Jesus attacked in his ministry – sickness, premature death, demonic affliction, condemnation, hunger, shame, etc.

What we need to recognize is that the cross has made all the difference and that the cross was in the heart of God from the foundation of the world (Rev.13:8). God’s revelation of himself and kingdom truths has always been a progressive revelation revealing some things now and some things later. Even Jesus told his disciples, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come” (Jn.16:12-13).

In our own lives, we hear and understand the truths of the scriptures bit by bit rather than getting a full download the moment we come to faith in Jesus. Even to the apostles, the New Covenant was unlocked bit by bit. On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell on the church, the leaders were totally unaware that God was going to open the door to Gentile believers. According to scholars, it was nearly seven to ten years after Pentecost when Peter received a vision that God had accepted Gentiles into the church without the need to become proselyted Jews before they were saved (Acts 10). It was such a hidden part of the gospel that it took a major conference in Jerusalem to affirm that Gentiles were welcome in the church (Acts 15). That truth was embedded in scripture all along but no one read the texts with that understanding until the Holy Spirit granted them that understanding.

Since God works through progressive revelation, we need to understand that certain things were emphasized in the Old Testament in order to prepare God’s people for a the Messiah. It has been said that the Old Testament revealed the power of sin, while the New Testament reveals the power of righteousness. In the Old Testament, if a man touched a leper he became unclean. In the New Testament, when Jesus touched a leper, the leper was made clean.

Another way to view the progressive revelation of scripture is to see that the holiness of God was emphasized before the cross while the mercy and grace of God has been emphasized since the cross. God’s mercy, grace, and goodness were always there but holiness was center stage. His holiness and judgment is still there, but in Jesus his mercy and grace took center stage. As parents, we love our children from day one and go to great lengths to protect and provide for them. However, we also begin to discipline our children at an early age to teach them right from wrong and to instill in them a healthy respect for their parents. As children, we all learned to obey our parents first through fear of punishment and only later through love and trust. Children function best by rules (law), while adults live by principles (spiritual wisdom). In a sense, parents emphasize their holiness first before they begin to emphasize love and trust. Perhaps, that is what God had to do for the whole human race.

You might say that God went to unreasonable extremes to demonstrate his holiness before the cross – a global flood, entire cities or tribes being wiped out, etc. However, we forget that the thread of salvation that runs through the entire Bible includes the preservation of the bloodline what would finally bring the Savior into the world. We have no awareness of the level of spiritual warfare that went on through the cultures that God removed in an effort to insure the arrival of our Savior. All you need to do is to look at the efforts of Hitler and the Nazi’s to totally remove the Jewish nation from the face of the earth to know the extent that Satan would go through to prevent Messiah from being born. The allies had to “carpet bomb” Germany to overcome the demonic evil that drove Hitler. Tens of thousands of civilians, including women and children, died in those raids. It was the cost of overcoming evil and the consequences of Germany’s refusal to surrender. God faced the same evils in the past and was forced to pour out judgment himself on cities and tribes even though he would have preferred peace.

Another reality exists in the Old Testament as well as we consider the goodness of God. We often forget the lengths that God went to in order to avoid bringing judgment on those nations. Noah preached for 120 years before the flood came trying to get the world around him to repent. God agreed to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if he could find just ten righteous men in the city. He sent his prophets time and again to turn not just Israel but other nations (Jonah and Nineveh, for instance) from evil before sending judgment. If you read the Old Testament carefully you will discover that pain and destruction has never been the heart of God for anyone. “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live (Ezek.18:23)?

However, the unrelenting wickedness of some men and nations requires judgment. Is a good that does not resist evil really good? Good must resist evil and if evil will not relent then good must destroy it. No one criticized the allies for standing up against Nazi Germany in World War II because evil, like cancer, has to be opposed. But men have sometimes been quick to judge God for the same opposition to unrelenting evil through the centuries.

Having said all that, the cross has changed the landscape of heaven’s dealing with men. Whereas in the Old Testament, the holiness of God was emphasized, the cross now allows God to highlight his mercy and grace. Jesus came not only to save us but also to point out and demonstrate the goodness of God. Jesus was very clear that he was the revelation of the Father among us. Remember that Jesus is Emmanuel or God with us. Secondly, Jesus said that if we have seen him, we have seen the Father (Jn.14). Whenever we ask God to empower us to do what Jesus did, we don’t have to question whether it is God’s will or not. Whatever Jesus did, the Father wants to do all the time. In order for the church to be the church that God envisions, we must define good and evil as Jesus defined it. Bill Johnson says that our skewed definition of good when we say God is good, keeps us from pushing back against the devil. “Instead of creating doctrines that explain away our weakness and anemic faith, we’ll actually have to find out why ‘the greater works than these’ (Jn.14:12) have not been happening in and around us.”

His point is that our faith for doing the works that Jesus did has been so watered down that we have incorporated unhealed sickness, premature death, birth defects, gender confusion, natural disasters, etc. as part of God’s will that we accept and live with rather than seeing those things as works of the devil that we should triumph over by faith. Jesus said that whoever believed in him would not only do what he did but would do even greater things than he had done. The goodness of God was expressed through the works of Jesus and should still be expressed through those who follow Jesus. The goodness of God and our definition of that goodness guides our prayers and our actions. It is essential that we are clear that God wants to do good to his people and even to the lost and that the good he wants to do is not some strange theological definition that visits suffering on his children to purify the soul.

His love and goodness for us is like that of a loving father who always wants to bless and provide. A loving father never enjoys or is indifferent to the injuries or illnesses of his children. He would never give his child cancer to grow his or her faith. He would never inflict his child with a birth defect to make that child more dependent on him. The heart of a loving and wise parent comes from God. We can know what God wants for us by the things we want for our children. As redeemed people, we know our deepest longings for our children and we can have confidence that those longings reflect the Father’s will for all of his children. So…know today that God is good and he wants to bless you and meet every need in a way that blesses as well. Pray for good things (healing, provision, salvation, reconciled relationships, protection, success, etc.) with confidence because God wants to express his goodness through you and for you today.

It is important to know that Jesus came not only to die for us but to show us how to live as well. He came to show us what life in an intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father could be. In one sense, he showed us what life in the Garden of Eden was like before man’s relationship with God was shattered by sin. When we see Jesus, we see what man was meant to be. When we see Jesus, we see what we can be again.

While on this earth, Jesus represented God in his character and purposes. In the gospel of John, we find these two quotes. “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (Jn.5:19), and, “For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it” (Jn.12:49). These two quotes embody the idea of a representative who re-presents the one who sent him. In essence Jesus said that he did and said what the Father would do and say if he were physically present on the earth. He summed it up when he told Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn.14:9).

Jesus walked in the authority of the Kingdom of Heaven because he represented the King, who was also his Father, and the Father had delegated authority to his representative. Jesus came as the “last Adam” (1 Cor.15:45) and was given authority to rule the earth just as God had given authority to the “first Adam.” As lofty as it sounds, we have exactly the same position by adoption. We too are ambassadors for Christ, his representatives on the earth, and children of the King. The amazing things that Jesus did are impossible for man alone, but not for a man who has God living in him and not for a man who has been delegated heavenly authority by the King.

The fact that God made man just a little lower than the heavenly beings and then placed him over all the works of his hands suggests that Adam and Eve had the authority to do what Jesus did before sin separated them from God. Jesus demonstrated his authority over the works of God’s hands when he strolled across Galilee, altered the molecular makeup of water so that it became wine, commanded the storm, directed schools of fish, and multiplied a Jewish boy’s meager lunch so that it fed thousands.

I believe Adam operated in the same authority before his willful sin caused him to forfeit that authority to the enemy.   Now in Christ, we have been given a position of sinlessness and have been granted the power and authority to do what Jesus did so that we can re-present Jesus on the earth. The problem is not in his giving but in our receiving. God has enabled us to live as Jesus lived. We fail to do those things because of our lack of expectation, our limited awareness of our identity, and our minimal relationship with the Father. Jesus said that his followers could move mountains by faith not by their personal righteousness.

The faith Jesus calls for is faith in him, what he has done, and whom he has made us. By his grace we are forgiven, made children of the king, appointed as ambassadors on earth, and given authority to re-present Jesus to the world – to do what he would do and say what he would say if he were physically present.

The sons and daughters of kings are destined to rule and reign as a king or a queen some day. Both carry with them the privileges and the responsibilities of the royal house. Those privileges and responsibilities are attached to his or her position as the son or the daughter and heir to the throne regardless of their physical prowess, their giftedness, or even their I.Q. Authority is attached to that position and the children walk in that authority because of whose children they are.

It’s easy for us to see that principle at work in Jesus since he is the only begotten Son of God and we already know him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. However, we need to understand that God still intends to use that same model for his rule over planet earth. God originally intended to relate to  Adam, Eve, and their descendants as sons and daughters – royalty in the house of God. The Father gave those “sons and daughters” dominion over the earth and the works of his hands. They were placed on this globe to rule and were given authority to do so.

A legitimate question at this point might be, “Authority to do what?” In general, we can say that Adam and Eve were given power and authority to keep earth and the cultures that would spring up on the earth aligned with God’s will and purposes. Later, Jesus taught us to pray for God’s will to be done on “earth as it is in heaven” (Mt.6:10). The Great Commission (see Mt.28:18-20) is another expression of that thought in which we are commanded to make disciples of all nations. To do so effectively establishes the kingdom of heaven on earth. God’s representatives on the earth – his sons and daughters – have always been given the mission of establishing a heavenly culture on the earth. What we need to understand is that through Christ, the Father is restoring us to the position he always intended his children to possess. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).

As believers, however, most of us do not understand the position and the authority we have been granted in Christ. We tend to see ourselves as mere men and women who differ from the unsaved only in that our sins are forgiven. The truth, however, is that we walk in more authority than we perceive and our words carry more weight than we imagine. Our diminished view of ourselves keeps us from being all that God wants us to be. Satan works hard to keep us from realizing our true identity.

The first step is to acknowledge the biblical truth of who we are in Christ. The second step is to begin to pray for a deep revelation of that truth in our hearts…for as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.  The third step is to begin to speak and pray as those who have authority…not with arrogance but with confidence…not pleading for God to heal or save but declaring that he will do so as those who represent him on the earth. Be confident today.  Reflect on who you are.  Ask what the King would do in any given situation and then do it or declare it as done, because you are sons and daughters appointed to do what he would do in each and every circumstance.  Blessings in Him.

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” 

They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!”

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

In his gospel, Mark ties two supernatural events together that we often miss because they are separated by chapter breaks and so, in our minds, they are often viewed as unrelated incidents. But…let’s review. Toward the end of Chapter 4, Jesus told his disciples that he wanted to get in a boat and sail across the northern end of the Sea of Galilee. He calls on them to make the journey in the evening so it will be night before reaching the other side. Being on a large body of water at night on a lake subject to sudden storms always presents some concerns. In the middle of this night we are told that a “furious squall” came up suddenly and threatened to swamp the boat. The disciples, afraid for their lives, woke Jesus with the question, “Don’t you care that we drown?” There may have been a bit of accusation present in the statement suggesting that Jesus should never have insisted on crossing Galilee in the night. Of course, you know the story. Jesus got up, verbally rebuked the storm, and the winds and waves immediately subsided. The response of his disciples is interesting. Mark says, “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!’”

As frightened as they were of the storm, it seems that they were more upset by an encounter with the supernatural power of Jesus. They had already seen Jesus heal lepers, heal paralytics, cast our numerous demons, and raise the dead. Yet, at this moment they asked, “Who is this?”   As they tried to get their minds around what has just happened, they beached their boat in the area of the Gerasenes (Gadarenes) and immediately faced an even stranger situation.

Suddenly, out of the dark comes a man who is, by all definitions, demon possessed. Luke tells us he was naked (not the first thing you want to see after an already disturbing cruise); he came from a stretch of tombs that were probably carved into a bluff along the coast. He was a man who cut himself with stones and cried out in torment night and day. He was a violent man with pieces of broken chain swinging from his wrists and ankles and undoubtedly had the classic look of a madman with deranged hair and a ragged beard. He was most likely smeared with mud and smelled of everything dead or rotting.

It must have been disturbing enough to see this man in the distance, but in this case he ran straight at them. Just as they prepared themselves for a vicious attack, he fell on his knees before Jesus and began to shout at the top of his voice, “Want do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God. Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” How’s that for a greeting from a naked madman? Mark focuses our attention here on the demonized man but I would have loved to see the eyes of the disciples who must really be thinking now, “Who is this?” The wind and waves obey him and demons beg him not to torture them as they call him Son of the Most High God. Then the demon begins to bargain with Jesus. I’ve heard numerous demons speak and it’s never a nice, soothing, human voice but a hissing, growling, threatening or arrogant tone. But this time it is a fearful, pleading tone.

You know the rest of the story. Jesus allows the demons to leave this man and enter a herd of pigs nearby which immediately runs into the Sea of Galilee and drowns. That has to be another disturbing sight for these disciples – to hear the squealing of two hundred (just guessing) tormented hogs rushing to the water and then the thrashing of drowning swine and then their bodies floating out to sea. Witnesses to the event ran into town and told everyone what had happened. When they came out, they saw the man who had become an icon of demonization and insanity sitting with Jesus, clothed and perfectly sane. Luke tells us, “Then all the people of the region…asked Jesus to leave them because they were overcome with fear” (Lk.8:37).

From our perspective, the stilling of a storm and the deliverance of a severely demonized man would be good news and something to celebrate. But in the unrenewed mind, the evidence of the presence of God is a fearful thing. Perhaps, it is fearful because something unexplainable just occurred and we fear what we don’t understand. That was the normal response to God throughout the scriptures which called for the most frequent command in the Bible – “Don’t be afraid.”

As for the Garasenes, it seems that the wildly demonic had been with them so long that it had become the norm. Instead of being afraid of the destructive presence of Satan, they were terrified by the healing presence of God and essentially demanded that the Son of God leave them…even though they must have had their own sons and daughters in need of healing and deliverance.

Apparently, the only two men standing there that were not afraid was Jesus and the man who had just been delivered. The Gerasenes wanted Jesus as far away as possible. The former demoniac and nudist wanted to be as close to Jesus as possible.

Personal experience is often the catalyst for real paradigm shifts in the way we view reality. The apostles had seen Jesus heal and deliver others but had not experienced that themselves as far as we know. In all three gospels, the quieting of the storm and the deliverance of this radically demonized man occurred before Jesus sent the twelve out to heal and deliver on their own. After God worked powerfully through them on their mission trip, they too had a paradigm shift. They didn’t seem to be afraid of the presence of God anymore.

What this tells me is that personal experiences with God are catalysts for the renewed mind that Paul speaks of in Romans 12:1-2. Most believers have not had profound spiritual experiences with the Father, Son or Spirit. They believe they are saved by faith and do see the goodness of God and his blessings in ordinary ways in their lives. But if you asked them if he will heal them miraculously or raise a loved one from the dead they would not even entertain the possibility. They distrust spiritual experiences in general and shy away from them as a potential source of deception. They will live saved but powerless lives for the most part.

But a believer who has had a radical spiritual experience with God wants more. He or she does not fear it or avoid it but seeks it out. They run toward miracles, not away from them. Like the demonized man who was delivered, they want more. Those who have been insulated from those experiences will, like the disciples in Mark 4-5, typically feel fear as they see a supernatural move of God and move away from it.

The difference in believers can be marked. When the city folks asked Jesus to leave, the demonized man wanted nothing more that to follow Jesus wherever he went. But Jesus told him to stay in the area and simply tell people what God had done for him. When Jesus later returned to the area, crowds were waiting to hear his every word. The man with a God experience had done the job.

Supernatural encounters are good for the soul. When we begin to desire them rather than fear them because we know we can find more of Jesus there, we can know we are well on our way to a renewed mind. Paul says that when our mind has been renewed then we will be transformed. For some, even that prospect is fearful. They think that to be transformed is to lose yourself, yet the opposite is true. It is in transformation that we find the person we were always meant to be and experiencing a few weird nights or Sunday mornings is worth it to find the you that God intended.

Most of us are acquainted with the “Parable of the Unmerciful Servant” from Matthew 18. It is set in the context of principles about the kingdom of heaven. At the beginning of the chapter, his disciples asked Jesus who is greatest in the kingdom. Jesus answered that those who walk in a childlike humility are great in the kingdom. He then talked about those who would go after a lamb that had wandered from the flock and the excitement of heaven when that lost sheep is restored. Next he taught about forgiving a brother who sins against you. Peter, in his impulsive way, immediately asked how many times we are expected to forgive the knuckleheads in our lives (Peter always said what the rest of us were thinking but would never say out loud). Jesus responded with the lengthy parable I mentioned above.

In the parable, a king had loaned differing amounts to his servants and decided that it was time to call in the loans. He called in a certain servant who had borrowed huge amounts of money and apparently had lost it all. When he could not repay the loan, the king ordered him and his family to be cast into a debtor’s prison until friends and extended family might bail them out. The servant fell to his knees and begged, “ Be patient with me, and I will pay back everything!” The problem was that the king knew he would never be able to repay the enormous debt he owed. However, unexpectedly the king took pity on him, forgave the entire debt, and let him go.

The twist in the story comes when the servant who has just received an incredible gift of mercy, goes out immediately to collect a small debt from another servant. When the other servant could not pay, the “unmerciful servant” had him put in jail until his family could repay the small loan. When the king heard about what had happened, he revoked his forgiveness of the huge debt owed by the first servant and did have him cast into debtor’s prison.

The question of the day is why the man who had just received so much mercy was not willing to dispense a little on his own. Some simply believe he was selfish and hard- hearted with a bit of an entitlement attitude to boot. But I think the key is found in his plea for the king to give him more time to pay the debt. He did not believe that his debt was fully and freely forgiven. He left the presence of the king with the thought that he had only been given more time to come up with the money… like a loan shark giving his mark a few more weeks to pay while the interest accumulates.

Let me pose another question that I believe is related to this parable. Why do so many Christians find it so hard to forgive themselves for past mistakes when the Master has declared our debt fully and freely forgiven? Through the years, I have met with countless believers who do not walk in joy or confidence because they have not forgiven themselves for past mistakes. Their inability to forgive themselves creates an atmosphere of self-condemnation that makes it almost impossible to pray with faith because they constantly feel unworthy of receiving anything from the Lord.

At the core of that inability to forgive one’s self, I believe, is a misunderstanding of the fullness of the forgiveness that has come to them. If you ask these strugglers if they know that God has forgiven them, they will certainly say yes. But, it’s as if that person adds their own bit of fine print to the covenant that says, “I will forgive you once I am convinced that you loath yourself for these past sins and are filled with enough shame and regret long enough for what you have done.” There seems to still be a “works” mentality that says I must somehow eventually pay the debt by punishing myself, even if God will not. Like the unmerciful servant, some may believe that God has just given them more time to work off their sin.

At the core of this is a subtle unbelief in the unconditional love of God and the absolute sufficiency of Christ’s blood to eradicate the record of any sin in our past, present, or future. To say that God has forgiven me but that I can’t, seems to say that my standards for righteousness are higher than God’s. However, I know it’s more than that. I believe it is the same shame that Adam and Eve felt seconds after their sin in the Garden. We seem to be more able to get over our guilt – the idea that we have done something wrong, than to jettison our shame – the idea that there is something wrong with us.

The solution is in faith, but not so much the faith that I am forgiven as much as the faith that, in Christ, I am a new creation – the old is gone and new has come. The faith that I am born again and am not the same person I used to be is essential to forgiving ourselves. We keep thinking it is about something we have done but, in truth, it is about who we believe we are – defective and unacceptable. Only by taking on our new identity in Christ can we reckon the old man dead and walk in the joy of knowing that we have been made new. Only when we believe by faith that our spiritual and physical DNA has actually been changed can we have faith for the transforming power of God.

God is not asking for more. It has all been done by Jesus. He is not asking us to continue to punish ourselves for who we are or what we have done. Christ has taken on all of our punishment. What God wants is for us to believe him when he says that the past has been dealt with at every level and for us to begin to joyfully walk in the new life we have been given as a new creation in Christ. If you have been finding it hard to forgive yourself, spend a lot of time thinking about who you are in Christ now, not who you used to be then. In Christ, you are worth it and you are amazing.

But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matt. 12:36-3)

This little verse out of Matthew makes most of us swallow hard. We do so because we know we have said things impulsively in anger or in arrogance – sarcastic, demeaning, and cutting. We have lied or at least put a bit of “spin” on things trying to make ourselves look better in an awkward moment. At one time or another, we have all been a microcosm of the election ads and debates that have infuriated or embarrassed us the last six months.

In a world of words that fill the airways, we loose sight of their importance. The abundance of words fools us into thinking that they don’t matter or that they have no eternal consequences. Matthew’s quote from Jesus would push back against that notion.

James, the brother of Jesus said, “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (Ja.1:19-20). Obviously, ungoverned tongues are not just an issue of our day. Proverbs is full of admonitions about our words, even to the point of declaring that our tongues have the power of life and death.

Ungoverned words reveal the depths of our hearts. That is why the Lord says that by our words we will be acquitted and by our words we will be condemned. God does not look at the appearance of a man but looks at the heart. Jesus said that out of the mouth comes the abundance or overflow of the heart. What pops out in a moment of stress, frustration, pain, or even lust reveals something that is in our hearts – not everything that is there, but something that is there.

Years ago, I had said something to another person that I regretted. In my explanation, I said, “I don’t know where that came from – that just isn’t me.” Another person who was listening in on the conversation said, “Yes it is you, because your words come out of the abundance of your heart.” I was embarrassed and even a little angry at the rebuke, but I couldn’t deny it. I believe the enemy had prompted my words but only because he had found a small voice already in me that he could amplify. Ultimately, I took his rebuke to heart and dealt with the issue. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.

The constant drumbeat of the New Testament is to speak life and blessing over others – even our enemies and, yes, even those affiliated with the other political party. That allows God to continue to sit in the judgment seat rather than us. The constant commitment to speak well of others and to bless them with our words becomes transformative for us. Eventually the darkness in our hearts is pushed out by the goodness we express toward those around us. Even as believers, each of us has two natures – what Paul refers to as the spiritual man (the redeemed part of us) and the natural man (the flesh). The natural man is demanding, self-centered, arrogant, fearful, angry at times, blaming and prone to gossip. That is the part of us that Satan taps into, magnifies and reinforces. As we grow in the Lord, that part of us diminishes and shows up less and less. If that part of us shows up very often, we need to get busy growing in the Lord because that part of us is destructive.

Paul reminds us, “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap destruction, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Gal.6:8). In the parable of the sower, Jesus compares the Word of God to seed that is sown, takes root, and bears fruit. Our own words are seed as well that can take root and bear fruit. If our words come from the flesh (natural man) they will bear destructive fruit. If they come from the Spirit, they will be life-giving fruit. God cares about the fruit we bear.

Words of life and affirmation reflect the heart of Jesus and create an atmosphere where unity can form and thrive. The great divisions in our country have not been healed by the rhetoric spewing out of the candidates and those who support them. In many cases, their words have taken root and produced the fruit of even greater division and bitterness. The same can happen in our own relationships because of words we speak. Slander and accusation is the language of hell not of heaven and Satan can take the seeds of destruction we have carelessly sown with our words and water them so that they bear a great deal of negative fruit.

We need a nation and a church that turns to speaking life instead of curses over one another. God will eventually honor our choices and if we choose to sow to the flesh with our words, then God will eventually allow us to harvest the fruit of destruction. If, however, we choose to become people who speak blessings…even over our enemies, God will bless us and give us the life and peace that we crave.

I know that many of us have spoken hurtful and even sinful words so long that they have become automatic. They are such a part of us that we aren’t even aware when we speak them. When I say sinful words I don’t mean “cuss words” as much as critical words, gossip, and slander that we fall into at the office or even over lunch with a friend or spouse. Biblically, gossip is listed right there with murder and adultery and yet we often participate in it without thought because it is so natural – from the natural man. A wise person will begin to ask the Spirit and good friends to alert them to those moments when he or she is speaking anything other that words seasoned with grace and life over any person or situation. Once we are made aware of our automatic patterns, we can repent and let the Spirit of God begin to change us.

Our God is a God of words who spoke the entire universe into existence. We are made in his image and that suggests that our own words have power for good or evil. Our words can be a curse or a blessing. God tells us to be a blessing. Paul challenges us when he says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Eph.4:29).

Today is Election Day after one of the most divisive and demeaning campaigns in history. There will be ample opportunity to sow to the flesh today and to speak evil of all kinds of folks. But Jesus says that we will have to give account for those words. So today, let’s be the exception and speak life and blessing even over those who would curse us. Let’s sow to the Spirit and not to the flesh today and be instruments of healing rather than those who keep inflicting new wounds. Be blessed today and may we all, myself included, speak the language of heaven at every opportunity.

Okay…here is where I aggravate or lose some of you. I have had some questions come to me lately about the growing popularity of yoga in America and even in American churches. Everyone acknowledges that yoga has century old roots in Hinduism and is distinctly connected with Eastern religions. Now … no Christian I have heard of thinks that everything yoga offers should be practiced by Christians, but many feel that the exercises themselves are spiritually harmless and physically beneficial. I have to admit that I have casually thought about yoga exercises myself for flexibility and health.

There are two schools of thought that seem to be developing on this issue of Christians and yoga. One is that it is harmless and even though it has spiritually occult roots, none of that is in the mind of the Christian practitioner. Therefore, it is not an issue. For those who have thought about the scriptural implications, they tend to liken this to Paul’s discussion on “eating meat sacrificed to idols” in I Corinthians 10. In that chapter, Paul offers a discourse on Christian freedom. He says that believers could buy meat in the market place that had possibly been sacrificed to idols without inquiring about whether it had been sacrificed to a false god or not.   Orthodox Jews were bound to ask about food products to make sure they were kosher because to eat non-Kosher foods would defile them. Pagan temples in Corinth often sold meat to venders that had been brought for a temple sacrifice but had not all been used. Paul clearly states that under the New Covenant there are no religiously clean and unclean foods and if you happened to buy meat that had been sacrificed to an idol while not honoring that god in your heart, it would not be sin.

However, he does go on to say that we should not eat meat sacrificed to idols if another person raises the question about it because, in the mind of that person, you might be honoring the false god. That misunderstanding might cause him to assume that honoring that god would be acceptable. He is also very clear that believers certainly could not participate in a ritual that honored a false god even if they did not honor that god in their hearts. In other words, you could not join a friend up at the Temple of Zeus for a wedding anniversary and participate in toasts and prayers to the false god.   That would constitute eating from the table of demons and fellowshipping with them. The principle is about our freedom in Christ and those who have thought about the spiritual implication of yoga exercises tend to place their participation in the exercise aspects of yoga under the umbrella of “since they are not honoring or pursuing false gods in their heart, it is not sin.”

On the other side, those concerned about all aspects of yoga tend to assert that you cannot separate yoga from occult Hinduism because even the exercises have spiritual connotations. They were designed to honor false gods (demons) and participating in the “ritual” honors the god even if you don’t intend to. It might be like a 1^st Century Christian going through the motions of a toast to Zeus while thinking in his mind that no such god exists. Paul, however, prohibited that. It might be like placing satanic pentagrams around your house simply because you liked the design and not because you had any intention of connecting that design to any spiritual realities. However, the spirits themselves might well come calling because, to them, the pentagram clearly honors Satan because it originated with him and for him. As Americans, we separate sacred from secular so distinctly that if there is not an opening prayer and an offering we don’t think of it as spiritual. Most of the world does not make that distinction and spirits don’t make that distinction.

My reading does raise some legitimate questions about yoga exercises. First of all, many poses apparently were developed as poses that honor Hindu gods (demons), even if we are not aware of those origins or connections or have no intention of doing so. Secondly, the exercises themselves were developed over centuries to facilitate the entrance of “spirits” into the human body to facilitate the “spiritual growth” of Hindus. Thirdly, some writings suggest that ancient spirits (demons) watch over the practice of yoga as their venue for accessing humans. Apparently, certain common vocabulary words, even in yoga exercises, have roots in language that honor Hindu gods and concepts. Fourthly, to practice yoga may tend to desensitize us to other influences of eastern religion that will eventually open the door for the enemy or create assumptions in those who watch us that all things connected with eastern religions might be acceptable.

I think these issues raise a cautionary flag for the practice of yoga even if you are not participating in chants, meditation, and mantras which will definitely open the door to the occult. Anyone involved in spiritual warfare will attest to the fact that certain practices can open the door to the enemy even if “we don’t mean it.” Children playing with Ouija boards for fun, teens visiting fortunetellers as a lark, best friends participating in sleepover séances, bringing home fertility gods as souvenirs, etc. can open the door to the enemy even if we put no stock in those things and thought they were harmless. It is possible that yoga exercises may fall under that same category of activities.

I want nothing in my house that honors demons even if I don’t honor them in my heart. The general rule for the first century church was not to eat meat sacrificed to idols even though in certain circumstances it might not constitute sin. That was one of the instructions given to the Gentile churches after the Jerusalem Conference in Acts 15. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 6, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people” (2 Cor.6:14-16). In essence he counsels us not to be yoked to anything or anyone that has roots or connections in darkness.

Yoga enthusiasts themselves say, “It was the Lord Krishna (one of Hindu’s many millions of deities), in the Bhagavad Gita, who introduced the ritual of yoga as a way of achieving union with the universe. The Sanskrit word yoga actually means “union” or “yoking“, aiming at bringing about the union of the human spirit with the spirit of the universe. But what is more deeply meant is a separation from the physical illusion of life.” Does the practice of any form of yoga, then, honor or connect us with the spirits from which it originated? That is the question you have to answer.

I do not want to infringe on anyone’s freedom In Christ, nor do I want to be hyper-charismatic or give the devil more credit than he is due. However, I feel this deserves some caution and prayer…especially since the benefits of yoga exercises can be found in other forms of exercise without the spiritual baggage. Occult spirits are some of the most difficult to deal with and I think we must be wise in the ways and strategies of Satan to make us vulnerable to him. I would simply encourage you to pray about this matter and get a leading from the Spirit rather than just assuming no issues or questions exist about this very eastern practice. Then do whatever is of faith.