Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Matthew 7:1-2

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Luke 6:37

The two verses above come from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Of course, we call it by that name, he didn’t.  The verses have been misused on many occasions to protest any admonition or rebuke levied against an individual’s sin.  We all know the phrase, “Don’t judge me!”   If “judging,” in the sense that Jesus used it, meant calling another person to repentance, then Paul sinned on numerous occasions in his letters to the churches, as well as Peter and James and other writers of the New Testament.  These writers often pointed out sins in the churches to whom they were writing as they called them to repentance and, on occasion, even called out people by  name.

So, if this is not a prohibition of pointing out the sins of others, what does it mean?  It’s an important question and one that needs to be seriously considered in the area of spiritual freedom and spiritual warfare.  Let’s again settle what it doesn’tmean. In his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul commanded, “I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you” (1 Cor. 5:9-13).

Jesus says, “Judge not…”  Paul says “Judge.”  Are these two teachings contradicting one another?  We believe that the Holy Spirit directed Paul’s writings and that Jesus spoke what he heard from the Father, so these cannot be contradictory commands because God does not contradict himself. What, then, do they mean?

Typically, the issue in spiritual matters is the heart and I believe that is the issue that settles the matter on judging.  When Paul commands us to judge those within the church, we are not making personal judgments but are submitting to the judgment of God’s word.  If a man or woman is living a life that is clearly contradictory to scripture and will not repent after leadership has gone to them, shown them what Jesus had to say about their lifestyle, and prayed with them, then some form of discipline is in order.  The key is that the “judgment” is out of concern for their salvation and the spiritual health of the body of Christ.  There is no self-righteous component in which church leaders are feeling morally superior to the person caught in sin.  Love is motivating the discipline in the same way that love motivates a parent to discipline a rebellious child.

The spirit of this “judgment” is revealed in Paul’s letter to the Galatians when he says, “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each onelooking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” (Gal.6:11-3).  This verse describes the heart of proper judgment.  The Word is the standard rather than our own biases. We approach the individual with gentleness and a sense of our own weakness and vulnerability to sin. We typically judge the behavior rather than the heart or the person, because only God knows all the issues behind the sin.  We still deal with the sin, because unrepented sin puts the person’s eternal destination in jeopardy and eventually can lead others into sin as well. The goal of proper judgment is always redemption motivated by love.

The judgment Jesus speaks of is a personal judgment based on a feeling of superiority or a desire to hurt the other person. We tend to go past the behavior and simply label another person as if we know their thoughts and their heart.  Instead of saying that a young woman is involved in sexual immorality, we simply label her as a slut…verbally or in our own minds. At that point, we have made her “less than” us, although we probably have another variety of sin in our own life that we justify or don’t recognize.  That judgment exalts us and diminishes the other person.  We don’t feel concern, but rather contempt. We don’t love, but reject.  We judge the person’s worth and value, rather than letting God be the judge.

Here is the danger.  When we judge with that heart, we align ourselves with Satan who is the accuser of the brethren. Secondly, Jesus says that “with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged.”  When we judge others with a heart of moral superiority, we open ourselves up to the enemy.  We have not shown mercy or forgiveness.  When we judge another, in this context, we sin and the unrepented sin is an open door to the enemy.  Not only that, but once we have cast another person in a certain light through judgment, we typically dismiss all evidence to the contrary.

The most difficult thing in marriage counseling is to deal with judgment.  Once a spouse has judged their partner as selfish, hateful, manipulative, perverse, etc., it is difficult for them to see their spouse in any other light.  Even when that spouse is changing, the one who has made a judgment will not see the change or credit the change.  Eventually, the “judged” spouse will give up trying to be different because they sense that whatever they do will never be enough. The spouse who has made the judgment will always feel superior to the other and their disdain or disrespect will poison the relationship.  Believe me, Satan will work hard to justify and maintain that judgment in the mind of the spouse who has made it.

This kind of judgment, because it is sin, gives the devil a legal right to afflict us.  That is how our judgment comes back on us.  If we judge someone to be a perverse person, Satan can treat us as a perverse person. If we judge someone to be selfish, the enemy can deal with us as a selfish person. In finding freedom, people not only need to repent of active sin and unforgiveness, but of judgments as well. In the same way that we repent of sin and renounce it, we must also repent of judgments and renounce them before we can dismiss every demon. Again, this is not a denial of sin, but a change of heart toward the sinner.

Once again, identifying behavior as sinful, based on the word of God, is not the same as labeling a person and thinking less of them because of our personal agendas.  The kind of judgment the apostle Paul calls us to honors the word of God and humbly seeks restoration of a person caught in sin. The judgment Jesus warns us against, actually diminishes the chance for restoration because we feel no obligation to try to redeem that person we have labeled and often seek to have others join us in our judgment against him or her.  So, as we examine ourselves to see if we are in alignment with the Father’s will, we may want to scan our own hearts and history to see if judgment is opening a door for the enemy or is keeping us from reconciling a relationship.  If we are ministering freedom, to others, judgment is an area that needs to be explored.

The Book of Nehemiah is the story of a man who was sent by God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem that had lain in disrepair for years after the Babylonians had destroyed the city. The walls of a city marked its strength, its size, and its boundaries. They provided protection against all enemies and the more impressive the wall the more impressive were the citizens of a city. The walls of Jerusalem were essentially rubble. So extensive was the damage that no one had bothered to rebuild the walls in years.

By the providence of God, Nehemiah was given permission by King Artaxerxes of Persia to return to his native land and repair the walls. The hostility of the neighboring tribes around Jerusalem was as great then as it is now. They delighted in the ruins of Jerusalem and would have blotted out the Jewish race if it had been in their power to do so. When Nehemiah arrived and began to rebuild the walls, the tribes around them began to strategize ways to prevent the wall from being built. There are three main characters in the story that oppose Nehemiah – Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab.

When the work began they immediately mocked and ridiculed the effort. Their strategy was discouragement and mocking as they tired to convince the Jews that they were not up to the task and that all their efforts would end in failure (see Neh. 2:19). They also accused them of rebelling against the king by rebuilding the wall. Even though Nehemiah had letters from the king giving him authority to rebuild, the enemies of God kept insisting that his authority was fraudulent. Nehemiah’s response was simple. He declared that God would give them success and that the surrounding tribes had no part or say in or power over what God’s people were doing.

As the story progresses, Sanballat and Tobiah continued to ridicule the work that was being done. They kept pointing out the ultimate impossibility of the task and that what had already been done was inferior and would not stand (Neh. 4:1-3). They kept declaring that even though the Jews might make an effort and a start, ultimately the task would be too hard and what was built would not last. Their efforts would prove to be pointless. Nehemiah simply prayed for strength and victory.

As the wall began to take shape, the enemies of Jerusalem began to panic. “They plotted to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it” (Neh. 4:8). Burt again, Nehemiah prayed and posted a guard against the threat. As fear and discouragement began to creep into the hearts of God’s people, Nehemiah’s response was, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight…” His counsel was to get their minds off their own ability or capacity and fix their minds on the strength and power of God who had called them to the task.

Toward the end of chapter 4, the threat of attack had risen so that the people carried building materials in one hand and a weapon in the other. They knew that God might not keep them from conflict but would give them victory over the enemy if they would stand and fight.

In Chapter 6, the wall was completed though the gates had yet to be reset. At that point, Sanballat and Geshem invited Nehemiah to a meeting to ostensibly discuss peace regarding the wall. Peace often means compromise and, in this case, was seen as a ploy to get him away from Jerusalem and simply kill him. Nehemiah’s response was on point. “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer” (Neh.6:3-4). Their response was a threat to slander Nehemiah before the king with a report claiming that not only was Nehemiah rebuilding the wall but was also planning a revolt against Persia and planning to have himself declared king over Israel. Nehemiah could have stopped building and run back to Persia to defend himself, but instead he simply told them that their accusations were untrue and continued to build the wall.

The next ploy of Nehemiah’s enemies was to frighten him with reports that assassins were on the way so that he must leave the work and retreat to a safe place. Nehemiah saw through the scheme and recognized it simply as an intimidation tactic. His response was, “Should a man like me run away?” He knew that, as a leader, if he gave into intimidation and ran the rest of his people would lose heart. Even if he thought the report might be true, he hand to stand and trust God to save him.

In the face of all the intrigue and opposition, the text says, “So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God” (Neh.6:15-16).

To rebuild the wall in 52 days was a miracle. God didn’t do it for his people but did it with his people and moved them to work through a man he sent to lead them. What I notice in this is that Satan uses the same tactics against each of us when we try to move ahead on assignments or a dream given us by the Lord.

First of all, he mocks and ridicules our idea or the idea that God might do something great through us. His first attempts are always to make us feel unqualified or disqualified to do the work of the Lord. How many things may God have given us to do that we never picked up because we felt unqualified for the task?

Secondly, he impugned their motives. He accused them of having rebellion in their hearts as they began to rebuild. How often does Satan accuse us of having selfish or fleshly motives for the things we want to do for God. If we are spiritual we want pure motives for the things we undertake. To begin to dissect our motives and over- analyze our hearts can create emotional paralysis that side tracks us in the very beginning.

If we push ahead on the thing God has put in our hearts and begin to create something, Satan’s next scheme is to convince us of how inferior our work is and that it will fail and we will be ridiculed by men. We suddenly will see every weakness or imperfection in our attempts to serve God and will begin to feel foolish forever thinking we could accomplish something significant.

If we continue, even in the face of self-doubt, Satan will then offer distractions to get our focus off the call on our lives and onto other things. These will not necessarily be sinful things. In fact, they will probably be good things…but not the one thing God has called you to accomplish. If there has been opposition to the goal you are pursuing for the Lord, those who have opposed you may try to get you to compromise your vision or your dream for the sake of peace.

Finally, if you still continue to push ahead he may try intimidation and place seeds of fear in your mind. You may begin to imagine illness, poverty, the loss of loved ones, the loss of financial security, etc. if you continue your pursuit of a ministry, a career God has called you to, the writing of a book or a song, raising godly children, or life in the mission field.

Nehemiah faced each of those challenges but never waivered from the task. He was sure that God would resource him, protect him, and direct him to fulfill the work God had given him to do. He had insight into the devil’s schemes and knew what it was when it came his way. We need to be wise as well and also aware of his strategies so that we are not deterred by his ploys against us. If you have drifted from a call or a dream that you believe God gave you in the past, take a close look to see if you fell prey to one of the devil’s schemes. Recognize it. Renounce it. Repent of coming into agreement with the enemy and get back to the call and promises of God that once moved you. There is a miracle that God wants to do through each one of us. Blessings in Him today.

And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. 2 Corinthians 2:11

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Ephesians 6:11

The two scriptures above and others clearly state that Satan schemes against God’s people. According to Strong, the Greek word translated as schemes means, “machinations or (in military terms) attacks against which one must be armed. The nature of the attacks (the plural suggests that they are constantly repeated or are of incalculable variety) constitutes their great danger, against which the armor of God is the only defense. They are distinguished not so much by technique or strategy as by refinement and insidiousness.”

Strong’s definition is much longer than that but, in summary, it tells us that Satan attacks us repeatedly with strategies designed to move us away from God and into vulnerable positions where he can have greater access to us. These strategies are not typically frontal assaults but are more often insidious and very calculated moves that are subtle enough that we might not notice what is going on. It’s not that Satan never uses frontal assaults but when he does we usually recognize those for what they are and begin to pray against the attack and ask others to join us. The more insidious attacks are subtle and move us inch by inch away from the Lord until we find ourselves further away from God and deeper in enemy territory that we thought was possible.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10 that we are to take every thought captive to Jesus Christ. The reason for that extreme position is that Satan attacks us through our thoughts and it is in subtle moments that we begin to doubt God or to compromise with the culture around us. Satan simply plants seeds of doubt and compromise and then waters them over weeks and months and even years.

In the midst of a crisis, the question guided by faith is always, “How is God working in this crisis to deliver me.” Faith is convinced that God is already moving and is simply interested in detecting his strategy. The enemy changes that questions to, “Will God deliver me from this crisis?” which introduces the possibility that he won’t. That possibility then raises other questions of whether God cares or loves me or whether he even has power to protect me. When we start going there, we are in trouble.

The most effective lies are attached to truth. The fact that part of what was said is obviously true lends credibility to the part you weren’t so sure about. The lies that the enemy tells are usually progressive in nature and test our character and motives from different angles. The wilderness temptation of Jesus is an illustration.

In Luke 4, we are told that after his baptism, Jesus was led into the wilderness for forty days of fasting and prayer. At the end of that time, when Jesus was hungry, tired, and vulnerable Satan came to tempt him. He began with a challenge. “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Satan appealed to pride, hunger, and self-sufficiency in this one little challenge. So…you think you are the Son of God? Prove it. That appealed to pride. Secondly, he focused on a legitimate need (food) but suggested that Jesus use his power and authority for his own benefit and without the direction of the Father. Satan will always point us to legitimate needs but ask us to meet those needs in ways that exclude God from the process or that violate his standards. Adam and Eve went after wisdom – a good thing – but used a tree as the source rather than God. Self-sufficiency rather than God-sufficiency is always where Satan is pointing us. He doesn’t point us to things that are impossible without God but things we can do in our own strength. Jesus was fully able to turn the rock into bread but submitted to God’s provision and timing rather than his own.

The second temptation was similar. Satan knew that Jesus had come into the world to re-establish the kingdom of God and to reign as king. Knowing the God-given goal of Jesus, he offered him a shortcut that would avoid the dirty business of the cross. In so many words, Satan said, “If you worship me, I will give you all the kingdoms of the world. You can have a crown without a cross. After all, isn’t that what you came for?” Isn’t that what the world constantly offers – short cuts to success, weight loss without self-discipline, sex without the commitments of marriage, etc. God is in the business of building character along the way and preparing his people to wear a crown. Satan always whispers that the wait is too long and the cost is unfair. Short cuts at any level usually get us into deep trouble. Satan always promotes “the end justifies the means” thinking.

The third temptation included a scripture quote. In essence he told Jesus, “God has promised in his word that he will protect you, so jump off the tower and make him prove his love and faithfulness.” Satan’s great strategy against those who love God and his word is to highlight one Bible truth as if it is the only truth. For instance, John tells us that God is love. Some church leaders have recently reasoned that since God is love, he would never send anyone to hell. They ignore the balancing truth that God is also holy and just. Others have found the scriptures that emphasize God’s love and acceptance of those he loves. Therefore, they reason that he accepts us just the way we are. That reasoning leads to the idea that he not only accepts us but our lifestyles. There is some truth in that. God accepts us as we are but does not accept the sin in our lives and so he gets busy calling us to repentance and freeing us from our bondage to sin. An unbalanced view of scripture leaves us in bondage to sins and moves the church toward a dangerous compromise with the culture.

Each of the three temptations contained truth. Jesus was the Son of God and he had a legitimate need that he could meet on his own. All the kingdoms of the world did belong to Satan and he could give them to whomever he chose. God had promised to protect his Son from harm through the protection of angels. But Jesus countered with the balance of truth and refused to fall into the devil’s trap.

In Paul’s statement to the Corinthian church mentioning the schemes of Satan, he suggested that our unwillingness to forgive is one of his primary schemes. Satan is always quick to provide a justification for refusing to forgive. They don’t deserve it. They haven’t really repented. They haven’t asked for forgiveness. Justice requires that they pay for what they did. You name it. He will probably attach some fragment of biblical truth to each of those justifications but the truth is that God has commanded us to forgive in spite of any of those reasons. To refuse to forgive, gives Satan open access to us and our families through the open door of disobedience and unrepented sin.

The point is that the schemes of Satan are usually subtle efforts to skew our thinking, to sow compromise and doubt, and to draw us away from God’s truth even through the misuse of scripture. Our first defense is the Holy Spirit who has promised to lead us into all truth. We should ask him on a regular basis to do so and to reveal to us any areas in which we are beginning to lean toward a lie. We should also examine our actions on a regular basis to see if our actions are lining up with the word and the character of God. Misplaced actions are clear evidence of misplaced thinking. Since Satan often works in subtle, inch-by-inch ways we need to notice when we are moving our boundaries a little to fit in with cultural values rather than keeping scripture as the standard. We need to notice when sin no longer offends and almost becomes normative in our thinking so that we would be surprised to find that God is offended by what we entertain on a regular basis.

When all hell breaks loose in our life, we know who it is and start arming ourselves and gathering other warriors. The fight can still be fierce and we may still be wounded. But, perhaps, the greater threats are the little, barely noticeable things like one drop of arsenic in your coffee each day – hardly noticeable until the accumulation is life threatening. Watch the little things…the insidious schemes and you will also be ready for the frontal assaults. Blessings.

One of my favorite contemporary prophets is Graham Cooke. I have never met him personally but have heard him at conferences and read his books. One of the things I have heard him say that is worth pondering is that, as believers, we tend to be obsessed with our sin while God is obsessed with our righteousness.

His point is that we constantly worry about our past failures and let the enemy beat us up with condemnation and accusation. We often confess the same sin over and over and tell God how sorry we are for what we did years ago when God has completely blotted out any record of that sin in heaven. God is not thinking about our sin because that has been taken care of by the blood of Christ. He is thinking about establishing us in the righteousness that is ours in Christ.

I believe God’s great challenge with most of his children is to get us to understand who we are in Christ. We tend to live up to the view we have of ourselves. If we define ourselves as wretched, struggling sinners who are barely saved by the blood of Christ then we will continue to be just that. Our self-image will not allow us to paint very far outside the lines of our self-definition. Some of us feel like condemnation is the way to maintain our humility and, thus, be pleasing to God. But if that were the case, why would God tell us all these amazing things about ourselves in scripture.

Biblical humility is not self-rejection and abasement. It is the mindset that rejoices in who we are in Christ but always remembers that who we are is a gift from God and not something we have achieved by our own efforts. We do partner with God in many things, but our identity and our standing in heaven is still a gift of grace. If we spent the same amount of time and energy thanking God for who we are in Christ that we use to remind ourselves of our failings, we would be much further ahead. The proverb says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov.23:7). God says that in Christ we are sons and daughters of God, a chosen people, friends rather than servants, priests of the Most High God, saints, holy ones, the righteousness of God, the household of God, those seated with Christ in heavenly places, the temple of the Holy Spirit, ambassadors of Christ, the loved, the accepted, the forgiven, the anointed of God, and so forth.

If we thought we had earned that position and that standing with the Father, we might certainly become proud and arrogant. If, however, we remember that all of that is a gift and an expression of God’s unconditional love for us, then it can only produce thanksgiving. To ignore our standing in some misguided effort to remain humble is to ignore or even reject the gifts of God and to leave much of what Jesus purchased for us on the table.

It is certainly a biblical matter to acknowledge and confess any sin that does arise in our life, but we should confess it quickly and leave it at the foot of the cross rather than carrying it with us. It should never define us. It should never become our focus and certainly not our obsession. Jesus should be our obsession and who he has made us by his blood and his grace should be the only thing that defines our life.

If you are in the habit of rehearsing your past failures over and over and continuing to bring them up before the Lord, let me encourage you to trade that habit in for a better one – rehearsing who you are in Christ and bringing that up before the Lord with an abundance of thanksgiving. That has much greater transformative power than living in the past and is a powerful acknowledgment of what Jesus has done for you. Blessings in Him.

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.

I believe that Satan’s greatest ploys against us are rejection, condemnation, and fear. Each of these is related to the others. Rejection leads to a feeling of condemnation and condemnation leads to feelings of fear. If we experience constant rejection as children, we will develop a sense that there is something wrong with us that keeps others from loving us and meeting our needs. That sense of defectiveness then brings on a sense of shame and self-condemnation expressed through the constant question, “What’s wrong with me?”

As we feel that, we begin to fear that our needs for identity(significance), protection, and provision won’t ever be met. When we begin to fear that no one out there will ever love us, protect us, or provide for us we take on an orphan mindset and begin to build all kinds of walls around our hearts to protect ourselves while at the same time becoming more desperate for someone to love. When we are desperate, we make bad decisions. We trade sex for the temporary feeling of love. We become control freaks in an effort to maintain any relationship that even hints at love. Or we give up and withdraw to places that human love can’t touch.

The real goal of Satan, is to get us to take our human fears, hurts, and disappointments and lay that template on God so that we assume or fear that he, like others before him, will not love us, protect us, or provide for us. If we could look back and see the invisible realm, we would discover that Satan is the one who had been whispering condemnation to us all along which robbed us of our self-worth (identity) and instilled fear in our hearts that our greatest needs would never be met.

I see this dynamic in the parable of the son who left home in Luke 15. Jesus told the story of a young man who grew up with a loving father who provided him with identity, security, and provision. However, the arrogance of youth overcame his surroundings and his good judgment. He demanded his inheritance long before his father died and departed for the big city. We are told, “He squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of the hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father. ” (Lk.15:13-20).

Because of destructive choices, this young man had lost his identity. He had experienced rejection and abandonment from all of those who had been his friends when he used to party and he had felt the sting of hunger and homelessness. He no longer saw himself as the son of a wealthy father but as a hired man or a servant. He was full of shame and condemnation and he feared more rejection even from his father. This young man had forgotten who he was, but he had also forgotten who his father was. He had taken the template of his experiences in the world and laid that template on his father.

I have no doubt that he debated going home for much longer than he should. He anticipated that his father would pile shame on the shame he was already feeling and add rejection to the rejection he was already administering to himself. Only when he felt absolutely desperate did he decide to go home, take his father’s anticipated verbal beating, and settle in as a servant in order to survive.

That is the picture Satan always paints for us when we have stumbled or fallen. He whispers condemnation. “You are no longer worthy to be a son or daughter of God. You have sinned against God and are despised in heaven. You don’t belong there anymore and because you have defiled your birthright, God will no longer provide, protect, or treat you as family. At best, he will take you as a hired-hand, but all you will ever have will be hard work, meager food, basic housing, and the fear of being dismissed every day of your life.”

But that is not who God is and that is not who you are. When the son came home, he had already determined that he had squandered his position as a son. He awaited the disdain of a father whom he had forgotten. But the Father saw him when he was a long way off. He ran to the son and threw his arms around him. He stopped the condemning speech of the young man, declared that his son was home, put the family robe on him, slipped a son’s ring on his finger, and called for a celebration.

The father waited all that time without condemnation in his heart. He still considered the young man to be his son. He watched longingly for him daily and when the son returned with sorrow in his heart for the life he had lived, he was restored immediately with shouts of celebration. God is not a rejecting father or an abandoning friend. He is not the author of rejection, shame, or condemnation. Satan is the author and sustainer of those dark feelings.

When the enemy comes and whisper’s his lies, refuse to put the template of a worldly father or a failed friend or spouse on him for his love is an everlasting love. Even when we wander away, God always leaves the light on for us. When fear, rejection and condemnation come from the enemy, remember who God really is and who you are in Christ. Be sure to remind Satan as well.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

For we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. 1 Timothy 1:7

God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ Hebrews 13:5

Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. Galatians 4:6-7

“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.

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.

No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the Lord. Isaiah 54:17

For many of us, this is a familiar passage but, perhaps, one that we have not dug into very deeply. There is a two-part promise that comes to us as servants of the Lord that we often need to stand on. First of all, God promises that no (none, not any) weapon (weapon, instrument, possession, plan) forged (formed, fashioned, planned, designed) against us will prevail (prosper, cut through, force entry, succeed) if we are servants of the Lord (full time, not part time).

Since Paul tells us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but rather against spiritual forces of wickedness, we can say that no weapon the devil forms against us and uses through people will prevail or be victorious in the long run. He is not saying that we will not face some battles and even get some cuts and bruises. He is saying that in the long run, the plans of the enemy to destroy us will not succeed if we continue to stand with the Lord.

Secondly, he declares that God will eventually refute every accusation that comes against us. These are connected thoughts and the second may actually be a clarification of the first. Satan is called the accuser of the brethren (Rev.12:10) and not only accuses us day and night before God, but also before men. Many of the weapons formed against us come as accusations, slander, condemnation, and so forth. Sometimes we experience those assaults through the lips of people around us. At other times, we hear them in our own thoughts. They are hurtful, discouraging, and damaging. They are fiery darts from the enemy. Search the scriptures and you will see that all those who served the Lord were, eventually, accused of ungodly motives and actions by their enemies. They were accused of being blasphemers and heretics, subverting governments, and being in league with the devil just for a start.

The promise is that we will refute the accusations made against us. But how will we refute them? Do we argue, make our case, or slander back? No. We trust God to vindicate us in the eyes of those around us. Jesus did not answer his accusers and he is our model (1 Peter 2:23).
As you search the Psalms, you see David frequently asking God to vindicate him but he rarely attempted to vindicate himself. There is an old saying that you should not try to defend yourself against slander because your enemies won’t believe it and your friends don’t need it. There is a great deal of truth in that.

How, then, do we refute words spoken against us? By continuing to live a godly life regardless of how others accuse us. Jesus went as far as commanding us to love our enemies who typically reflect the devil’s character as they accuse us day and night. He commands us to love our enemies by praying for them, speaking well of them when they speak evil of us, and doing good to them (Lk.6). Those actions keep the devil from getting a foothold in our own hearts. The promise is that, eventually, the people we care about will see Christ in us and see the devil in our accusers. If we give in and join them in the mudslinging, then people will eventually see the devil in us and that will hide the devil in them because he is a much more accomplished mudslinger than we can ever be.

To me, the most important part of the Isaiah passage is that protection and vindication are our heritage in the Lord. If that promise is true for the servants of God, how much more must it be true for his children?

Jesus said that in this world we will have trouble (Jn.16:33). Weapons, plans, and strategies will be formed against us. We will experience much of that warfare in the form of accusations and condemnation. Our part is to continue to stand with God, always take the high road, and trust in the Lord for vindication. If we fall into the trap of the devil by taking up his tactics in the fight or by receiving the condemnation he is spewing, then his weapons will have prevailed in our lives. But if we trust the Lord and his promises and continue to reflect the character of God, then our faith will quench the fiery darts of the enemy.

Standing with God in the face of unfounded accusations is hard. It typically takes endurance. If there is truth in the accusation, then we need to hear it, acknowledge it, and repent. David understood this principle. After his son Absalom conspired to take David’s kingdom, David and those close to him were leaving Jerusalem. A man name Shimei accused David of treachery against Saul’s household and was pelting David with stones. Abishai, one of David’s commanders came to him and offered to separate Shemei’s head from his body. David commanded Abishai to leave the man alone. Davis thought that, perhaps, God had prompted the man to say those things for there might be some truth that David needed to hear. If there was no truth in the accusations, then David believed that God would bless him for the abuse he was receiving without retaliation (2 Sam.16). The same spirit is found in Paul’s directives in Romans 12. “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse…Do not repay anyone evil for evil…but overcome evil with good” (Rom.12:14-21).

Satan’s primary strategy is to alienate us from God and to draw us into his camp. If we come into agreement with Satan in our heart or in our actions and remain there long, we give him a place in our lives.  When we stand with the Lord, believing that victory and vindication are part of our inheritance, then we will see the power of the enemy fade and the promises of the Father prevail. Then…no weapon formed against us shall prosper. Be blessed today by blessing those who curse you! By the way, you will probably have to ask Jesus for the grace to do so.

Most of us will come to a season of life when we feel overwhelmed by the unknown that lies before us. The death of a spouse, the loss of a child, a bitter divorce, unexpected unemployment, or a bad diagnosis of a life threatening disease can make us feel as if every anchor in our life has broken and we are adrift in an unfamiliar sea with storm clouds on the horizon.

We feel secure when life has been manageable and predictable. When we can believe that tomorrow will be like today and next year will be like this year, we may not be excited but we’re okay. But take away the predictability; stir in some dire possibilities; and life suddenly feels out of control, overwhelming, and fearful. The questions are no longer, “Where do we eat?” or “Where do you want to go next summer?” The questions become: “Will I always be alone?” “Will we lose the house and how will I feed my wife and kids?” Will I survive the cancer and how painful will it be?” “What will this divorce do to my children and will I ever stop feeling this pain?”

I’ve been in those places and I probably will be there again at some point. During those seasons I have and will live in the Psalms. David’s heart often cries out as a man whose circumstances seen contradictory to the promises of God and whose life seems uncertain. Think of it. One day David was watching the sheep, minding his own business, and sitting on a rock tossing stones into a brook as teenagers do. Suddenly, he was called to his father’s house and Samuel the prophet poured oil on him an announced that David was destined to be king over Israel. All that “good news” became a calamitous disruption for his life.

If you read between the lines, his older brothers seemed to resent him now that he was going to be somebody. David took on Goliath for the armies of Israel and his brothers accused him of being cocky and conceited. Through that encounter, King Saul became aware of David and took him into the palace to serve. Surely David thought, “Great, now I will be interned to be king.” When it was all said and done, Saul’s jealousy drove David from the palace and away from his family. He became a hunted man living in the wilderness with the whole Israeli army hunting him down. So where was the promise? Where were the blessings attached to that prophecy? Why was God letting a disobedient king live and continue to hunt down David? Would he even survive? What was going on?

Confusion, frustration, and fear began to mark his life from time to time but a thread of faith always remained. How did David navigate that season (which many scholars believe was a seven to eight year period) of running and hiding, sleeping in caves, and wondering where his and his men’s next meal was coming from? David’s psalms vacillate between hope and despair, answered prayers and sleepless nights when God seemed absent, along with assurance and uncertainty.

We find some clues in David’s life to help us in our own season of confusion and desperation. First of all, David was honest with the Lord about his feelings. He didn’t feign great faith on days when it had leaked out during the night. Honesty is unsettling sometimes but healthy. Some days I’m sure he had to borrow a little faith from a friend.

Secondly, David had a history with God and saw the clear touch of God’s hand in his past. If God had delivered him from the lion, the bear, and from a giant, surely he had plans for his life beyond this season of running and hiding. We can’t overstate the recognition of God’s hand, purposes, and faithfulness in our past that suggests he still has more for us. Interestingly we often notice his hand more when we are running from God than when we are serving him. It seems that he is more apparent when he is chasing us than when he is refining us.

David also had a promise that had come in the form of a prophecy. Graham Cooke says that a prophetic word is a powerful tool. He suggests that when running toward Goliath, he might have been thinking that it was impossible for him to die because God had declared that he would be king someday. The assurance of God’s promise in his life launched him toward the giant but also sustained him during the years that Saul was hunting him. When David was discouraged and despairing, he held on to the promise. We all need a promise that we can hold onto when life or our future is uncertain. If you have a prophetic word, hold on to it. If you don’t have a prophetic word, find a promise in scripture that resonates with your spirit and hold on to that. God keeps his promises.

Most importantly, although David wasn’t sure about how his future would unfold, he was certain about the character of God – his faithfulness, his enduring love, his mercy, and his willingness to forgive our failings. He was also certain that God would not abandon his own – if for nothing else, to make sure his reputation was not sullied by his failure to protect his own when they were among the faithful. “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Ps. 23), etc. God cannot violate his own nature. He is who he is and although his timing is rarely to our liking, his character will eventually show up in his response to our prayers.

Finally, when we have to wait on the Lord, it is not because we are not pleasing to him. The enemy always attacks when God delays his answers by suggesting that we have not seen our rescue yet because God is displeased with us or, perhaps, doesn’t love us like we hoped. Abraham waited 25 years for his promised son. Moses waited 40 years for his life in Egypt and his years as a shepherd to make sense. Joseph did jail time. David spent eight years in hiding. Noah preached 125 years without one conversion. My point is that waiting with uncertainty is part of the believer’s life. Most often, God is preparing us to steward the answers to our prayers.

When you are in the emotional chaos of uncertainty be honest about your struggles, look for the evidence of God’s hand in your past because it points to the future. Find a promise or a prophetic word to hold on to. Depend on the character of God to bring you out of the pit. It’s what he does because it’s who he is. Know that his delay is preparing you for your promises and know that you are loved. Waiting, in the face of uncertainty, is part of the life of the faithful and you are in very good company.

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 30:18