As most of us already know, a person’s identity shapes the life of that individual in powerful ways – for good or for bad. What we believe about ourselves either releases us to walk through life in confidence or shackles us with a sense of impending failure. What we believe about ourselves either makes us secure in ourselves and in our relationships or insecure in ourselves and our relationships. Our identity or self-image allows us to anticipate being loved and accepted by others or keeps us from believing that others can ever love us – including God himself.

We could go on, but most of us are well schooled in the ramifications of self-image. Sense the 1960’s the world of psychology, counseling, and education has emphasized the issue. However, the world has failed in its efforts to create positive identities in children through participation trophies and schools without failure. They have created children who have not discovered who they are through struggles and they have not attached the values of hard work and achievement to the idea that each child is “special.” This model of making sure children never lose at anything, fail at anything, or miss out on anything has created a generation of spoiled children incapable of being productive, resilient adults who are eventually forced to live in the real world.

In one sense it is true that every person is special and certainly valuable. Every individual on the planet is made in the image of God and has been made for a unique purpose with unique gifts and temperament.  However, the idea that we get rewarded just because we show up or just because our name was on the roster (even if we didn’t show up), violates God’s law of sowing and reaping – you get out of something what you put into it.

That principle is one of God’s great inventions. It is a principle that operates in both the natural and the spiritual realm. It teaches us the value of good decisions, the pain of bad decisions, excellence in what we do, and the destructive nature of sin and laziness. Without this principle we are like individuals with severe neuropathy who have no feeling in their feet. Without feeling, those men and women can’t enjoy the pleasures of hot water or soft clover nor can they feel a piece of glass or a thorn pierce their foot. Without the pain, they won’t know that injury has occurred and that treatment is needed. Infection may set in and a minor injury can become a major health crisis. Bad decisions that produce hurtful consequences send a message of pain to the brain and we have the potential to learn to avoid a bad decision the next time – maybe even a soul-threatening decision.

The positive self-image model currently exercised in America is based on performance rather than on who a person is. The assumption that losing a game or receiving a failing grade will destroy someone’s self-esteem is simply wrong. Self-esteem comes from the discovery that who I am and my value is not based on performance (or the illusion of performance), but on being a child of God and the character that identity instills in me. We must lose in order to discover that we don’t always have to win in order to be loved and valued. We have to suffer hardship to become resilient in a world that won’t treat us as an entitled person unless it is to make us dependent on the one giving the awards. We have to learn to work hard and excel because in the real world we won’t receive a raise or a promotion just for showing up at the office. We have to learn that our performance does not establish our value, although our actions will determine other outcomes in our lives.

In the kingdom of heaven, identity is what keeps us on track. It is not an identity based on behavior or performance but on who we are in Christ. For years, the church has tried to shape and grade its people through the grid of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. That is performance-based identity and leaves the impression that God also accepts us or rejects us on the basis of our behaviors. But the message of grace is just the opposite. We are loved, accepted, and valued because of what Christ has done, not what we have done. Our value is established by whose we are not by what we can do.

In the kingdom, my identity dictates my behaviors rather than my behaviors dictating my identity. When I have a clear identity, I live and behave a certain way because of who I am and who my father is. Life is simply about being a follower of Jesus and a child of God and living up to that I am rather than trying to succeed or avoid failure in order to have value.

My self-talk is very important in this arena. Instead of talking to myself about my behaviors, I need to talk to myself about who I am in Christ. Beating myself up for sinful behaviors does not change me at the core. In fact, it usually undermines my identity. Scripture says that Christ became sin for me that I might become the righteousness of God. How can I become the righteousness of God if I constantly define myself by my sins? Taking on a new identity changes me at the core and my behaviors follow.

That’s why it is so important to divorce ourselves from the idea that our worth and value are based on our performance. Your special standing with God did not come as an entitlement to keep you from feeling bad about yourself. It was earned by Jesus for you at a great cost to him. We work hard, then, and strive for excellence as Christians, not to be loved, but because we are loved and want to be like the one who loves us.

An interesting study was done about dieters several years ago. The research showed that those wanting to stay on a diet did better or worse according to their language. A person who would say, “I can’t eat chocolate” did not fare as well as the person who said, “I don’t eat chocolate.” The first group was focused on avoiding a behavior. The second group made not eating chocolate part of his or her identity. In your struggle to overcome sin, a greater focus on who you are in Christ will produce much better outcomes in the long run than focusing on sin. That is true when it comes to helping our children or other adults become the person God wants them to be as well. Food for thought today.

Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. The people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.”    The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. Numbers 21:4-7

There are numerous occasions in the Old Testament when the people of God began to grumble and complain about their circumstances. In this circumstance, they complained about an apparent lack of food (or a variety of food) and a lack of water. They complained bitterly about the “miserable food” they had. The miserable food was, of course, the manna that God provided every morning. In response to their constant complaints, God released a plague of fiery snakes into the camp of the Israelites. Some died from the painful bites.

The New Testament writers also have some things to say about grumbling and complaining:

We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. 1 Cor. 10:9-10

Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! James 5:9

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe. Philippians 2:14-15

So…why is grumbling and complaining such a serious matter for God’s people? Ultimately, our grumbling and complaining declares that God’s work and provision in our lives is deficient, insufficient and unfair. It is an indictment against the character and the love of God for his people.

After 400 years of bitter slavery in Egypt, God led his people out of Pharaoh’s furnace with an unprecedented reign of terror in the form of ten plagues from which Israel was exempt – at least for most of them. God then capped that off with the Red Sea crossing and the destruction of Pharaoh’s army. Not only that, but when the Hebrew slaves left Egypt they left with gold, silver, and jewels given to them by the Egyptians themselves along with herds of sheep and cattle. God then fed 1.5 million people in the desert every day with manna that formed around them each morning and miraculously provided water when it was necessary. But that wasn’t enough. The Hebrews were unsatisfied with the miserable food God was providing.

Concerning that manna the Hebrews collected each morning, the psalmist declared, “Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens; he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat” (Ps.78:23-35).

The miserable daily provision of God each day was described by the Holy Spirit as the grain of heaven and the bread of angels. Jesus would later draw an analogy between himself and the manna as he called himself the “bread of heaven.” Apparently, the manna had an amazing, if not miraculous, ability to sustain life and health in a barren desert. It was more than sufficient for their needs and was provided daily by a faithful God. For the Hebrews, however, it wasn’t sufficient. It did not provide the variety they desired. It could not be stored up so it kept them dependent on God when they apparently desired self-sufficiency. The water complaint points to the same issue. They wanted a ready and infinite supply of water rather than having to trust Gold for miraculous provision each day. When they grumbled and complained, they weren’t speaking against their circumstances, but rather against the character of God himself.

The New Testament writers offered the same observations and conclude that our complaining is also an indictment of God’s love, his care, or his fairness. We deserve more. God hasn’t provided enough or the right kinds of things. His care is inadequate. That was the accusation of Satan in the Garden of Eden when he suggested to Adam and Eve that God was holding out and that there was more they needed for life and happiness than God was giving. Grumbling echoes Satan’s accusations against God that he is unfair and uncaring. When we complain and grumble we come into agreement with
Satan and empower him. Then the snakes – the demons – show up in our own lives and when they do they bite. Complaining and grumbling gives off an aroma in the spiritual realm that draws the enemy like flies to rotting meat.

So what is the antidote? After all, aren’t we all human and prone to complaints? Yes, we are but we are also prone to other sins as well. Grumbling and complaining is sin. Therefore, we begin with repentance and then move to thanksgiving based on the belief that God is always with us and is meeting our needs in the way that suits our present condition best.

Graham Cooke makes this observation. “Every obstacle, every problem, every attack, is allowed and designed to teach you to become more like Jesus. That’s why every problem comes with a provision attached to it. As Christians, we must stand in the midst of the problem, knowing God’s promise, and expect a provision. All things work together for good in the economy of God” (Graham Cooke, Crafted Prayer, Brilliant Book House, p. 35-36).

Because God is in the midst of every situation – even those we make for ourselves – and is working all things to our good, we can give thanks in every situation. Thanksgiving closes the door to the enemy. It allows us to see the hand of God in our lives and to hear his voice. It strengthens us and reminds us that he who is in us is greater than he that is in the world. Thanksgiving for what God has done and for what he is about to do is the language of heaven. Grumbling and complaining is the language of hell.

So…if you find yourself prone to complain or recognize that you have been in a season of grumbling, repent and discipline yourself to thanksgiving and praise. It will make all the difference.

Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Exodus 33:18-19

In the book of Exodus, a poignant moment between Moses and the God of Israel is recorded. Moses, in a very bold moment, asks the Lord to see his glory. The implication is that Moses was asking to see the face of God. The Lord responded by agreeing to show Moses his goodness. In one sense, the text tells us that God’s response was for Moses’ protection. God tells him that no mortal can see the face of God and live. And yet, I believe seeing the goodness of God is even more revealing than seeing his face.

Seeing the goodness of God first is instructive for us. This passage in Exodus reveals that the goodness of God is his glory. For us to truly know God or understand God we must see his goodness first and then understand everything else in that context. God mentions two aspects of his goodness right away with Moses – mercy and compassion. Those both flow out of his basic nature of love. John tells us that God is love. His goodness is the constant expression of that love. When you love someone you always do good to that person.

If we were to see God’s holiness first, we might understand all of God’s actions in terms of holiness and his rejection of sin. Every act of God then would seem like the actions of a harsh judge or an angry God. Most people filter the activity of God in the Old Testament through his holiness only and see his judgments as expressions of that. Holiness is undoubtedly a major characteristic of God, but if all we see is his holiness then all we will see is judgment. He will be a God easy to fear but not easy to love.

If we see the goodness of God first, then we will understand his judgments in the context of discipline as a loving Father disciplines his children or in the context of his judgment being the last thing he wanted to do.   Man’s persistent and unrepentant sin sometimes gives him no choice but it is never his first thought or his heart for us. In our personal relationship with the Father, we need to focus on his love and goodness and give thanks for that before we look at anything else. His goodness and love assure us that he is for us, not against us. They assure us that he always wants what’s best for us and is always working on our behalf. They assure us that we are welcome into his presence and that he is eager to answer prayers that will bless us and bring about good because he is good.

Many believers have much to overcome in this arena…especially if they were raised in a “hell fire and brimstone” church that preached the judgments of God and the fury of hell every week as a motivation for righteous living. One of the most famous sermons in American history was preached by Jonathan Edwards during the Great Awakening (1700’s) and was entitled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” That was not a podcast you wanted to listen to just before going to sleep. It pictured all of us suspended above the fires of hell by a thin thread and suggested that God was just waiting to severe the line with his celestial scissors.

If you grew up with that view of God, then a warm, loving relationship with the Father is a monumental task. Everything that goes wrong in our lives will probably be understood as an expression of God’s anger toward us and we will see him as our adversary rather than our loving Savior. Jesus will seem like the antithesis of the Father and the statement of Jesus that if we have seen him we have seen the Father will simply be confusing. Moses was shown the goodness of God first. That is why he was able to stand before God and plead for mercy on Israel’s behalf on several occasions. He was able to plead for mercy because he knew God was merciful and that in heaven, mercy triumphs over judgment. Moses even knew that Jehovah was searching for someone to ask for that expression of who he is.

This perspective is critical. When a loved one is diagnosed with stage-four cancer, our first thought as believers is to try to make sense of what has happened. If the goodness of God is not our primary filter for the circumstance, then we will assume that either God has visited the cancer on us because he is angry about some sin or our lack of faith or that he is indifferent about our suffering because holiness is the only issue. In that moment with that perspective, we will have little hope and will either wait out the cancer with resignation or try to buy God off with some “righteous works” we can do.

If the goodness of God is our filter, we can assume that the cancer is not God’s will and begin to press in for healing with hope. Even if sin has opened the door for cancer or the activity of the enemy, we can know that repentance and forgiveness will shut that door and open the door for the goodness of God to still be the primary color of our lives.

I have seen believers face death or the death of a loved one with differing sets of glasses. Those who saw God primarily through the lenses of judgment, had no faith for healing and left the cemetery with a since of condemnation and bitterness. Those who looked at circumstances through the lenses of God’s goodness were able to pray with faith for healing and even if healing didn’t come they were able to see the love and compassion of God at the gravesite. They left closer to the Father than when they arrived knowing that God’s goodness would see them through the grief.

What do you see first when you look at God? The perspective is critical because it defines everything else. A God of goodness offered himself through his Son as a loving sacrifice for lost people. A God whose primary trait is judgment simply poured out his wrath on a Son who seemed more abused than loved. The way we see God first, will determine our view of everything, will totally affect our prayer life, and will totally define our faith. Spend time thanking God for his goodness, meditating on his goodness, and declaring his goodness over every circumstance of your life. It makes all the difference. Blessings today… because if his goodness.

When I came to you brothers…My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. 1 Corinthians 2:1, 4-5

I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 1 Corinthians 1:4-7

When Paul arrived at Corinth, he arrived feeling defeated. He had just come from Athens where he had gathered with the cream of the Greek philosophers and had offered his best arguments on behalf of Christ. Paul was a brilliant man who had studied at the feet of Rabbi Gamaliel and had undoubtedly memorized most of the Old Testament and studied its theology thoroughly along with a critique of Greek intellectualism. Now he was presenting sound, intellectual arguments for Christ. For the most part, the philosophers of Athens thought the beliefs he presented were strange and foolish. To his dismay, only a few responded. By the time Paul arrived at Corinth – a center of commerce and pagan religion – he had reconsidered his strategy.

You will notice that he no longer wanted the faith of believers to rest on the wisdom of men, but rather on the power of the Holy Spirit. There is an old saying that goes, “A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.” If my faith is based on information only, then more information or contrary information can turn my thinking, introduce doubt, and undermine my faith. That is what happens to many Christian college students who have grown up being taught the basic truths of the faith without any significant experience with Jesus. When they arrive in a university classroom with a professor who throws out well-articulated arguments for atheism and quotes numerous “unverified facts” in contradiction to the Bible, these students become victims of men’s wisdom – their own and the professor’s.

In any number of American churches, the underlying theology of their leadership is that spiritual experiences cannot be trusted. Spiritual experiences, they say, open the door to demonic deception. Therefore, an intellectual approach to faith is best. However, the New Testament record seems to speak against that approach.

Imagine, any first century Christian trying to convert Saul of Tarsus with “better arguments” from the Torah. If that had been the best approach to Saul’s conversion, God would have sent a man like Apollos, a brilliant believer from Alexandria who was a powerful teacher of biblical truth. God, however, had something else in mind. He arranged an experience with Jesus on the road to Damascus, three days of blindness, and a moment of healing at the hands of a believer whom Paul would have arrested 72 hours earlier. An experience, rather than arguments brought Saul of Tarsus into the fold.

Then there was Peter. If you read all the gospel accounts of Jesus calling the twelve, you will sense that Peter had heard Jesus preach on several occasions. In fact, in Luke 5, Jesus had just preached a sermon from Peter’s boat when he coaxed Peter to put out into deeper water and let down his nets after a long night of fruitless fishing. When the nets were filled to the breaking point with fish, Peter fell on his knees and proclaimed, “Go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man.” After that, Jesus told Peter he would teach him to catch men and Peter left all that he had to follow Jesus. An experience with Jesus was needed, even after the sermon, to get Peter to fully surrender his life to Jesus. Later, it took a rooftop vision and witnessing the Holy Spirit falling on the household of Cornelius (Acts 10) for Peter to be convinced that Gentiles had been accepted into the kingdom.

Mary Magdalene was one of the faithful followers of Jesus in his early ministry. We are told that Jesus cast seven demons out of her. I am persuaded that the experience of deliverance and the ensuing freedom she felt was what compelled her to follow Jesus. We could go on and on. I’m not saying that preaching and teaching are not important. They are essential. Both provide the framework for understanding God and understanding our experiences with God. Experiences, however, also help us to understand the scriptures in a deeper way Experience is what solidifies what has been learned, so that man’s arguments cannot shake the faith of those who follow Jesus. There are two primary words for knowledge or for knowing in Greek. One means to have information about or to know about something or someone. The other means to have experiential knowledge of something or someone. The one used most often regarding our knowledge of the Father denotes experiential knowledge.

Notice what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. He said that his preaching or testimony about Christ had been confirmed in them so that they lacked no spiritual gifts. The implication is that the spiritual gifts experienced by the church at Corinth had confirmed who Jesus was for them and had confirmed the presence of God’s Spirit in them.

It’s one thing to be told that the Spirit of Christ now lives in you because you have believed in Jesus. It’s another thing to begin to operate in healing, deliverance, prophecy, words of knowledge, teaching, encouragement, speaking in tongues, etc.  The experience of doing something that you know you could not do without the Spirit of God working in you, confirms your faith like nothing else. It also confirms the faith of those to whom you minister. Paul was very clear that spiritual gifts are given to build up the body of Christ and he urged those at Corinth to eagerly desire those gifts.

Churches that distrust the exercise of spiritual gifts deny their people many experiences that would build faith and intimacy with Jesus. When believers are not hungry for spiritual gifts they deny the body of Christ the strength and life that their gifts would lend to the church. A great number of churches today would not miss a beat in their ministries and worship if the Holy Spirit withdrew tomorrow because they operate in their own gifts, strength, and talents rather than in the gifts of the Spirit.

Of course, many churches will affirm that they believe in spiritual gifts, but they actually believe in only a partial inventory of the gifts. Mercy, encouragement, hospitality, administration, creative gifts and so forth all seem safe enough and carry little risk in their exercise. Those gifts are welcome and have little spiritual aura around them. Healing, prophecy, deliverance, words of knowledge, miracles, and tongues are not so safe and are usually rejected as gifts that “no longer operate” and, yet, those are the very gifts that demonstrate the presence of the Spirit in the most indisputable ways.

I served in churches for many years that limited the current ministry of the Holy Spirit and I have served the last 13 years in churches that pursue and value every gift. Where the gifts operate life happens more abundantly, extreme life change is the norm rather than the exception, and faith grows with every miracle. Paul understood the principle and he would want us to understand that principle as well. “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts…” (1 Cor.14:1).

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb.11:6). This is a statement from Hebrews 11 where all the great men and women of faith are listed for our consideration. The phrase “by faith” comes up over and over again in that list and throughout the scriptures. Jesus also declared faith to be a central component in many of the miracles he performed. He often said something like, “Your faith has healed you” or “May it be done to you according to your faith.” He declared that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed we could command a mountain to be thrown into the sea and it would be done. At times he was amazed by the faith of a few and, at other times, amazed at the lack of faith of others. Paul assures us that we are saved by grace through faith.

For anyone who has studied the New Testament, faith is clearly seen as a central issue in the life of every person who follows Jesus. Faith is a central issue in our lives if we are going to see God move powerfully in response to our prayers or work through us as we minister to others. Most discussions about faith orbit around our perception of God and his ability to do great things that intervene in the natural order of the universe. However, in my experience, believing that God can heal the sick and raise the dead or that he can move mountains and give great victories in the face of overwhelming odds is often the easy part of faith.

What I have discovered through the years is that my challenge is not to believe that God will move in those ways for his children, but to believe that God will move in those ways for me. Perhaps, you struggle with the same doubts at times.

I find that for many of us, believing that God truly loves us personally and is eager to answer our prayers is the stumbling block for our faith. For many, it is much easier to believe God’s promises for others than for ourselves. We know ourselves too well. We live with a daily awareness of our secret sins, out fears, our defectiveness, and our weaknesses. We know our dark thoughts and shame-filled memories. We reject ourselves so we expect God to reject us as well.

It’s part of our fallen nature to expect punishment from God rather than grace and love. One of Satan’s great strategies is to persuade us that God is a perfectionistic father who requires the same perfection from his children if he is going to love and bless them. We expect him to be angry when we don’t deliver that perfection.

Like Adam and Eve, our first response to our failures is typically to duck into the brush, attempt to cover up our shame, and when God shows up to blame everyone in the surrounding territory for our shortcomings. Why did Adam and Eve hide and blame rather than running to their loving Father and confessing their sin immediately? Perhaps, it was because Satan had subtly convinced them that God wasn’t such a loving father after all. We know what he was whispering to them before they took fruit from the tree and ate, but we don’t know what he whispered the moment after they took that fateful bite.

I’m confident it was a litany of fear-filled claims that God was going to fly into an uncontrollable rage and become a terrifying abuser – that he was going to kill them that day because “ in the day you eat of that tree you will die!” I’m sure he whispered that God now hated and despised them and would never forgive them for what they had done. He probably laughed at them and shamed them in every conceivable way so that they would hate themselves and expect God to feel the same.

Satan whispers to us in our failures as well. He whispers that God only loves the “super-Christians;” he only responds to the prayers of those in the 95^th percentile; or the last sin was the last straw and God is through with us until we can work hard enough to earn his love and mercy again – but we are such losers that we’ll never be able to do that anyway.

Satan persuades us that God is a father whose intimate involvement in our lives, whose love, whose laughter, whose delight, whose abundant forgiveness, and whose approval will never be there for us. And so we pray and believe with reservation – not about his goodness or his ability – but about our “worthiness” for his love and attention.

Faith accepts that our worthiness was secured on the cross apart from our performance. It believes God’s promises for us in spite of our abundant weaknesses and failures. Jesus became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor.5:21). By God’s grace there is no condemnation for us because we are no longer under law (Rom.8:1). You have been adopted into the royal family by a father whose love is unconditional. He knew all your faults before he ever called you to be his son or daughter.

Most of us believe in our minds that God loves us. The problem is to believe in our hearts that he loves us and has written our name on every promise. So how do I finally come to believe that every promise is for me and not just for those around me?

First of all, we may ask the Holy Spirit to give us a revelation of that truth in our heart. He is the teacher who leads us into all truth. God speaks of writing his laws or his truth on our hearts. Revelation comes to our hearts, not to our minds, so a consistent prayer for that revelation would be an essential place to start.

Secondly, we need to begin to say what God says about his love and promises for us and refuse to add any disclaimers that disqualify us for those promises. Stop the “buts.” As soon as we say, “ I know what the Bible says, but…” we have introduced unbelief into our hearts and have diluted our faith. If the Bible says it, stand on that without qualifying the scripture or stating a disclaimer about your “worthiness” to receive the promise. Jesus has made you worthy…period. Find a set of declarations about your identity in Christ and read them out loud every day ending them with a thank you to God that he has made you all of those things.

Thirdly, we need to find a promise that becomes our promise – one that resonates with our spirit and one that we will not let go of. Ask God to show you a promise that will anchor all his other promises for you. Memorize it, confess it, and use it against the enemy. When the devil shows up with his truckload of accusations and condemnation, be quick to call him a liar and command him to leave and take his lies with him. Declare your promise over the accusations. That is how you resist Satan and send him fleeing.

Getting the truth that every promise of God is for you and not just everyone else in your church is critical to living a blessed and victorious life. It is a process more than an event and you have a part in it. So get started today and ask the Lord to show you his heart toward you. When we truly understand his heart for each of us, we will be transformed.

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.      I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:11-13

When Paul wrote his letter to the church at Philippi, he was writing from a Roman prison. The church at Philippi had sent him some supplies and Paul was thanking them for their concern and response to his needs. He was quick to say that he appreciated their gifts but that his needs had been met in Christ because he had learned to be content in every situation of life. In this letter, we learn that contentment, in the sense that Paul uses it, is an essential key to happiness.

The word translated “content” is a very strong word in ancient Greek philosophical circles. It was the state that all Greek philosophers aspired to as a state of being totally unaffected by the world around them and emotionally self-sufficient. You see this mindset of total, unquestioning acceptance in eastern religions. It is the idea of being self-contained so that nothing upsets a man’s inner world of peace. Eastern mystics often strive to reach that state of inner peace through total, unquestioning acceptance of their circumstances and a disregard for personal needs or comfort. It is ultimate expression of fatalism that says whatever happens, happens – so just accept it.

Paul did not mean “contentment” in the same sense because Christians are never to be indifferent to the needs of the world around them or to be self-contained and self-sufficient. We do not live a life of fatalistic acceptance because we are more than conquerors in Christ. However, Paul had discovered a Christ-sufficiency that guarded his heart and generated an internal contentment even in prison.

Paul experienced that internal contentment as peace and goes on in this same letter to say, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.        And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil.4:6-7). How many of us are in search of peace in our hearts? How many of us would be willing to give anything to alleviate our anxiousness, our angst, and our internal restlessness that never lets us enjoy the moment or find peace in the midst of the storm?

I believe Paul’s secret to contentment and peace was his strong conviction that God was in the midst of every storm with him. Paul did not believe that God caused his hardships because he knew who the enemy was. However, he did believe that God was with him and that God would insert his purposes into every situation. For Paul, every obvious victory and every seeming defeat offered an opportunity to discover more about the Father and more about Jesus. In the midst of crisis, Paul saw an opportunity to discover who God was going to be for him in that crisis. It was a chance to discover a new facet of the Father’s love and power that he had not known before.

He believed that both seasons of plenty and seasons of lack were opportunities for thanksgiving. In a season of plenty, thanksgiving was prompted by the harvest that had just occurred. In a season of lack, thanksgiving was prompted by the harvest that was on the way. Paul had learned to see God’s hand and feel his presence and his working in every situation.

In a circumstance where we might feel that God had abandoned us to injustice and hardship, Paul still saw the hand of God. Early in his letter he wrote, “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly” (Phil.1:12-14).

Even in a prison cell, Paul saw the hand of God at work. God was working something in Paul as well as through Paul in his present circumstance. Because of that, Paul found a spiritual capacity to be content or at peace with life at any given moment because even the hard times had an eternal purpose for him. His thanksgiving was based on what he believed God was doing and would do in each moment. He said that prayer and thanksgiving in any crisis would guard our hearts and produce a peace that transcends or goes beyond our understanding.

The key is to know that God will work something good out of every circumstance in which we find ourselves. He is not absent, he is not indifferent, he is not powerless. He is working and a heart of thanksgiving opens up our spiritual eyes to see, first of all, who he is and then what he is doing.

We live in a world and a culture that works hard to produce a state of non-contentment. Every add you see in a magazine or on television tries to convince you that you need at least one more thing for happiness or fulfillment – a new car, a cruise, a new look, or the perfect house just beyond your budget. The devil also whispers that what you have is not enough – you deserve more or you deserve better – a more attentive or better looking spouse, more money, more power, more influence, or more fame. With each of those temptations he promises more significance, more happiness, and more contentment.

However, outside of God’s purposes, nothing will bring those things in any lasting way. Remember Adam and Eve. Satan convinced them that there was just one more thing they needed for happiness and that one bite from the tree would meet their need. To Satan’s delight, instead of peace and contentment, that next bite produced fear and shame.

Paul had definitely learned to look for more – but more of God rather than more of what the world offered. No circumstance could keep him from God so in every circumstance he could say, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil.4:4). Because of his relationship with the Father, Paul always anticipated good because God is good. He always anticipated victory, because God is victory. He always anticipated having enough because God is the God who provides. He always anticipated the ability to endure because he knew that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Contentment is great gain. Learn to find the hand of God in every circumstance and that contentment can be yours.

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.      But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down…Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” Rev. 12:7-12

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2

The book of Revelation gives us a glimpse into a battle that took place in the heavenlies at some point in the far distant past. Satan, desiring to be on the throne instead of God, formed a rebellion and was cast out of heaven and hurled to earth along with the angels who had sided with him. He is described as the accuser of the brethren who accuses them day and night. In this text, he is said to accuse them before God but one of his primary strategies is also to accuse the brethren by accusing them in their own minds day and night. Satan is a master at bringing up the past and framing our weaknesses and mistakes as things that disqualify us from serving God or from receiving his blessings.

As a strategy, every time life happens to a believer and a challenge arises or a painful moment comes our way, Satan jumps in to accuse us and plants the thought that we are being punished for our misdeeds or rejected for our weaknesses. In a flurry of thoughts, he loves to heap condemnation on us and reinforce an identity of being a gross sinner, a target of God’s wrath because of our evil hearts, an abandoned child because of our misbehaviors, and a hypocrite who should be ashamed for even posing as a follower of Jesus.

Not only do those condemning thoughts rob us of our security but they also take away our joy and our peace. In addition, they prompt us to become accusers of those around us. Since accusation is based on performance, we find ourselves wanting to point out all the faults and failings of those around us in an effort to level the playing field. If you are prone to fault-finding in others or blaming others for the problems in your life, you are likely living with law as a reference point rather than grace.  You are trying to relate to God on the basis of your performance rather than his grace. Paul points out in Romans 8:1-2 that condemnation thrives in an environment of law in which a record is kept of every violation. Satan has the most success with those of us who still tend to view our relationship with God as a relationship defined by law rather than grace.

Law defines my relationship with God as a relationship based on performance. Under law, I am always asking the question, “Am I good enough or have I done enough to be loved, forgiven, and blessed by God?” Under law, our Father in Heaven becomes a perfectionistic parent withdrawing his blessings and affection every time we fail to live up to his lofty standards. On the basis of law, everything is open to accusation and condemnation. Under a mindset of law, Satan is free to accuse us not only of blatant sins but even of our attitudes by degree. Where we have repented, he will suggest that we did not repent enough. When we think about our love for God, he will accuse us of not loving God with all of our heart. When we acknowledge a weakness he will call us hypocrites for pretending to love Jesus when we still fail so often. When we give generously, he will always suggest that we should have given a little more. The accusation and feeling of condemnation is never ending….day and night.

The only escape from the devil’s scheme is to absolutely know that there is no condemnation in Christ because the blood of Christ has removed us from a system of law and placed us in a relationship based on the unfailing love of a Father who does not love and bless on the basis of performance but only on the basis of his heart. You must know that Jesus became sin for you that you might become the righteousness of God. You must know that you have been given positional righteousness in the eyes of God based on what Jesus did, totally apart from your own righteousness or your own spiritual performance. The good news is that God does not love you because you are perfect, but because he is perfect.

The proper response to the accusations of the devil when he brings up your past or even present weaknesses and whispers that you are falling short of God’s standards is, “Of course, I am falling short. So what? That is why Jesus died for my sins and because of that, God does not hold my sins against me. I live in a condemnation free zone by the blood of Christ and by the grace of God. Satan you have no power here and your accusations have no weight. My past has been blotted out. My present is in process and my future is secure. I am justified in Christ and it is you that are condemned. Now go away!”

When accusation comes, don’t brood but respond with God’s truth. When condemnation raises its head, dismiss it as a lie. When Satan runs up the flag of rejection, ignore it because that sign has no meaning in the kingdom of God. Too many of us believe that punishment motivates us to change. If that were true, there would be no repeat offenders in prison. Too many of us believe that accusation, condemnation, and self-loathing will prompt us to do better and so we agree with Satan’s accusations.

But accusation, condemnation, and demeaning criticism only solidify our identity as broken and worthless. When the prodigal returned, he was given no lecture, no condemnation, no probation. Instead his return was celebrated and he was immediately given back his identity as a son. His true identity as a respected son of a proud Father was reinforced and that is what will bring our own growth and transformation. So remember, when the devil knocks on the door of your mind, post your Condemnation Free Zone sign and send him on his way.

In my last blog, I began a discussion of why most of the American church does not teach on the demonic, deliverance, or the supernatural moves of God through the gifts of the Spirit and miracles. I spoke a little about the historical origins of that theology that still has a strong grip on the church today. I would encourage you to read my last blog entitled Supernatural before continuing with Part 2.

Since most churches are still heavily influenced by the theology that sprang from the Age of Reason and the exaltation of science and intellect over faith, they do not believe that God operates through miracles or miraculous gifts of the Spirit anymore. Within these churches there is a sense that the supernatural doesn’t operate anymore except in very limited ways and that it rarely, if ever, affects believers.   The reasoning goes that since God does not intrude into the natural realm with supernatural acts, then the supernatural realm must not be relevant anymore. Since demons are part of that realm, they are no longer relevant either. As a result, there is no need to teach about them and deliverance has no meaning where demons are not active and a threat.

Like their 18^th century predecessors, the notion that demons still stalk us, that angels might rescue someone from flood waters, or that men may operate in healing gifts and prophetic words from the Lord all seem like quaint superstitions held by ignorant or, at least, unscientific people. Francis MacNutt puts it this way. “Nevertheless, despite the clarity of these passages (biblical texts describing miracles and demonic activities, added), many theologians and preachers profess skepticism as to whether we should take accounts of people being tormented by Satan and other evil spirits in a literal way. They explain their position by saying that people in Jesus’ day believed in evil spirits, as do many primitive people today. Jesus, born into their culture, accepted their superstitious beliefs, as did Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John” (Francis MacNutt, Deliverance from Evil Spirits; Baker Books, p. 40).   He goes on to talk about how many current theologians and preachers are embarrassed to talk about the supernatural as if doing so is intellectually unrespectable.

MacNutt goes on to quote Charles Kraft from Fuller Theological Seminary who says, “It is interesting (and discouraging) to note that even though we are Christians, our basic assumptions are usually more like those of the non-Christian Westerners around us than we would like to admit…Even though there is a wide discrepancy between the teaching of Scripture and the common Western assumptions. We often find ourselves more Western than scriptural. Western societies passed through the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and a wide variety of ripples and spinoffs … The result: God and the church were dethroned, and the human mind came to be seen as Savior. It is ignorance, not Satan, we are to fight.”

Humanism is a philosophical position that came out of the Age of Reason. Simply put, Humanism holds that man is essentially good and will evolve through reason, science, and the arts to a golden age of mankind where the world will live in peace and prosperity by man’s own efforts. This is the new tower of Babel in which God is irrelevant. How are we doing so far?

Historically, that is the Cliff’s Notes on why the church in America and Western Europe tends to ignore demonic and angelic realities and tends to deny that God still works outside of science and medicine. It is not a biblical position but a cultural position imposed on the Bible. This view leaves the church irrelevant and powerless. In this view, if God exists at all, he is only needed after the funeral and when science discovers how to keep us alive forever, God won’t even be needed then.

The truth is that humanism is wrong. Man is not essentially good. He has a fallen and sinful nature that requires the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to redeem. Science may continue to discover amazing things that God has built into his creation, but fallen man will use those discoveries to create weapons or withhold them to protect corporate profits. A new heart is what is needed to bring mankind into the light – not more technology. God is the provider of a new heart.

Secondly, the assumption that Jesus and the apostles performed miracles only to validate who they were is invalid. If miracles were only to validate them, why did so many others perform miracles in the New Testament and why did the Spirit give miraculous gifts to the church at large? Why did Jesus say that those who believe on him would do even greater things than he did if miracles were only to validate Jesus and the apostles?

In addition, although the gospels do tell us that the miracles of Jesus did confirm that he was from the Father, there were many other times we are told that he healed and delivered out of compassion rather than a need to be validated. He also told many he healed and set free not to tell anyone what he had done. No validation there. Is God no longer compassionate today? Does Jesus no longer need validation among those who don’t believe the Bible to be true – Muslims, etc.? Do God’s people no longer need to be rescued? Do they not still need supernatural healing in the face of stage four cancers and supernatural deliverance in the face of lifelong addictions?

Ultimately, the Age of Reason, Cessationism, and the worship of reason and intellect end up denying the supernatural activities of God in history and the world today. If God does not act outside of the natural realm, there was no resurrection because walking out of a grave three days after you are dead is not natural. Without the resurrection, there is no hope for our eternal life. Paul himself said that if Jesus was not raised from the dead then we are to be pitied above all people because everything we believe is a lie. The very underpinnings of our faith are based on the supernatural acts of God from creation to the resurrection of Jesus to our own resurrection on the Day of Judgment. Supernatural intervention into the natural order of things is what God has always done and he does not change.

There is a supernatural, spiritual realm that exists all around the natural. Angels serve, demons tempt and torment, people are healed and, yes, even raised from the dead. Miracles occur every day and we interact with that supernatural, spiritual realm as children of God. It is real – even more real than the natural realm because Paul said that what can be seen is temporary, what cannot be seen is eternal, and our struggle is not against flesh and blood. I am not against science. I believe science is part of “subduing the earth” and discovering what the genius of God has placed in the natural realm to benefit mankind. All truth belongs to God. Some truth is discovered and some truth is revealed by the Spirit of God. Both science and revelation are grounded in the Creator of Heaven and Earth and both should ultimately find confirmation of his reality rather than hurrying to make him “irrelevant” so that we are not burdened with the knowledge that we will have to answer to this God of Creation some day.  Blessings in Him.

Last night, in a study I was leading about demonic spirits and deliverance, a standard question came up. I think it’s a good question and one that comes up frequently. I didn’t have time last night to answer it adequately, so I thought I would try to do a better job in a this and one more blog. The question was, “Why do most churches avoid teaching about demons and deliverance today when demons and deliverance are so prevalent in the pages of the New Testament?”

The answer to this question goes beyond discussions of demons and deliverance to the very heart of any supernatural or miraculous events in the Bible…including the resurrection. The 18^th century ushered in what has been labeled, The Age of Reason. Much had happened in previous decades to upset the established order of Western Europe. Abuses in the Catholic Church had prompted Martin Luther to protest and the ensuing Protestant Reformation undermined the dogma and political hold of the Catholic Church. As the Catholic Church came under fire, so did the biblical theology on which Rome stood. What was dangerous to question before, was suddenly fair game for European intellectuals. Not only was the Catholic interpretation of scripture challenged, but scripture itself became a target.

At the same time, science and medicine were making great strides.
Reason and logical deduction became the new bywords of “modern society.” In the cultural atmosphere of Western Europe and the United States, science and reason became the new gods. In the context of “the Age of Reason,” science and medicine became the proclaimed hope of mankind.

This 18^th century perspective invaded universities and the schools of theology within those universities. Suddenly, the scientific method was deemed the only valid way to discover truth. Reality only consisted of those things that could be observed, measured, and reproduced in a laboratory. Undoubtedly, there had been some dark days of superstition and inquisition in the centuries before the Age of Reason, but, instead of the pendulum swinging to a balanced middle position, it swung to the far side and a movement began to deny not only Biblical revelation as a source of truth, but also to deny the existence of God altogether.

The big fizz about Darwin’s theory of evolution was that if offered a natural mechanism that seemed to make God unnecessary.  Of course, the fossil record and numerous other scientific discoveries have left the theory untenable, but even the brightest minds of today doggedly hold on to it as a way to deny God and any personal accountability to a God. The intellectuals of the 18^th century, including theologians in major universities, began to “reason away” the supernatural aspects of our faith as events recorded through the lens of superstitious and backward people. Many began a movement to “demythologize” the scriptures and give naturalistic explanations to the miracles recorded in God’s word. Miracles simply weren’t scientific.

That thinking affected even Bible believing Christians and preachers who were not willing to throw out the miracles of the Bible but found an intellectually respectable middle ground. Their position was that the miraculous accounts of scripture were indeed true, but were limited to “Bible times.” Their view was that although God intervened in the lives of his people in miraculous ways throughout the Bible, he curtailed those supernatural activities somewhere around the end of the first century and has not been in the miracle business since. In today’s world, God still acts on behalf of his people, but only through natural means. This position is called cessationism and is the most prevalent view in American churches today.

This view is based on the assumption that the only reason Jesus and the apostles performed miracles was to validate who they were: Jesus as the Son of God and the apostles as his inspired representatives. Once the New Testament church was established and the Bible was completed and confirmed through first-century miracles, there was no longer any need for such supernatural events and, therefore, God has only worked through natural means for the past 2000 years. Any claim to the contrary, they say, is misguided at best and heretical or deceptive in worst cases.

As a result, when churches pray for the sick today, they rarely pray for supernatural healing but rather for God to guide the doctor’s hands. When a person is tormented by mental or emotional anguish, the church does not consider demonic affliction but simply turns God’s people over to the medical community (many of whom are unbelievers) and over to medications. When cancer is diagnosed, our first call will likely be to M.D. Anderson rather than to the elders of the church to come and pray for healing (see James 5:14-16). You can see that in the American church, we trust God to forgive our sins but we trust science, medicine, and government for the rest.

More on this in my next blog.  

When you are engaged in spiritual warfare, the word of God is essential. It is essential not only for discerning God’s will in a matter, but it is also a weapon to be used directly against the enemy. When confronting the enemy who is harassing, tempting, or afflicting you or someone else, the word of God is powerful. It is powerful because his word carries authority and authority directs power.

When describing the armor of God, Paul tells us that the word of God is the sword of the Spirit (Eph.6:17). The word translated as sword is a word that means a knife or a dagger rather than a large sword. That word suggests spiritual warfare in two contexts. The first context is hand-to-hand combat when the enemy is close and within reach. Spiritual warfare is often that way when the enemy is standing right in front of us as we minister deliverance to someone or when he is harassing us in our bedroom at three in the morning.   The second context can be understood as a moment when we use a knife or a dagger to dislodge an arrow or some shrapnel that has been fired at us by the enemy and has lodged in us…such as a fiery dart of the enemy.

The first context is battle. In the spiritual realm authority is critical. That’s why we are reminded over and over in the New Testament that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth and that he has a name that is above every name. In the context of battle, the word of God becomes a weapon because the word of God must be enforced by the army of heaven. The writer of Hebrews tells us that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb.4:12). In the book of Revelation, John describes a vision of Jesus and says, “In his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword” (Rev.1:16). That picture of Jesus establishes him as one with great power and authority. His words leave his lips as a sword with power to destroy.   In the book of Hosea, God told Israel, “Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you” (Hosea 6:5). Words direct the power and judgments of heaven so that when used as a weapon against the enemy, they can inflict harm.

In the wilderness temptation recorded in Matthew 4, Satan came to Jesus to tempt him in face-to-face, hand-to-hand combat. The devil always shows up when our strength (spiritual, emotional, or physical) is somehow depleted. Satan approached Jesus after forty days of solitude and fasting. His energy levels were low and he had been without the encouragement of friends or family for over a month. Satan, believing Jesus to be extremely vulnerable, came to tempt him as he did the First Adam.

Jesus fought back with the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. Jesus quoted scripture in response to every temptation of the enemy. I don’t believe Satan left Jesus only because he thought it was pointless to continue to tempt him. That was undoubtedly part of it, but I also believe the word of God inflicts pain on the enemy as a knife or dagger thrust. One thrust will typically not dispatch the enemy but several will leave him bloody and wounded and ready to run.

The words of believers carry authority and power. How else could the commands of God’s people bring healing and deliverance or even raise the dead? In the spiritual realm, our words have substance and weight. If our words have substance, how much more do the very words of God spoken from our lips carry weight? God spoke through Isaiah saying, “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:11). Whether God’s word goes out through his lips or through ours, it will still fulfill its purpose.

Again, we are told that the word of God is the sword of the Spirit. I believe when we declare that word with faith and conviction it cuts and bruises the enemy. When we are confronting the enemy, declaring appropriate scripture has a powerful affect that afflicts and torments the demonic. We should store up his word in our heart as much as possible and whip it out every time we encounter the enemy.

The second context of using the knife or dagger, which is the word of God, is when our faith, our joy, or our purpose has been wounded by a blow from the enemy. The fiery darts of the enemy (Eph. 6:16) that are extinguished by the shield of faith are undoubtedly lies that slip past our defenses – accusation, discouragement, weakness, etc. The word of God, then, reassures us and re-establishes our faith as we go back to the promises and the character of God. Each promise in the word digs out a piece of shrapnel or cleans out a wound left by the enemy. The word then can be wielded as a weapon against the enemy or as a scalpel useful for healing.

In the heat of battle or in a moment of treating wounds, declaring scripture strengthens our own faith in the moment while it weakens the enemy and torments him. Demons do not always depart with the first command. If a stronghold exists, you may have to “assault the walls of the enemy’s fortress” more than once with numerous commands. Declaring the word of God over that person or over a situation takes big chunks out of the bunkers of the enemy.

I remember one of our Freedom Weekends when a young woman was manifesting severely with a spirit of witchcraft. Her eyes were rolling back in her head, the spirit was growling at us, telling us that he hated us and that she belonged to him. We were commanding and he was resisting. It seemed like a stalemate until one of our team members was prompted by the Spirit to read Psalm 91 over the young woman, personalizing it with her name. As the word of God was read, the demon departed. The sword of the Spirit had its way.

Every believer should have a catalogue of scriptures on hand to wield against the enemy: scriptures that declare who Christ is, who we are in Christ, the defeat of Satan, the victory of the church, God’s willingness to heal and set captives free, and scriptures that defeat fear and temptation of every kind. As believers, our own words carry authority but the very words of God from our lips, carry even more power and authority with which to defeat and torment the enemy. Make a list, memorize them, and keep them handy.   We live in a dangerous world. Don’t leave home without your sword and remember, it’s always open carry.