God Will Not Be Mocked – Message 1

Gal 6:7 - Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.

This is the first in a series of messages on how God’s creation is mocking the creator (God). Like in all the following messages in this series, I will start out emphasizing how God wants His creation to see the full depth of His love for us, but since most people (including most believers) are so emerged in loving themselves, they can’t see or even understand God’s agape love that He has for us. Since most people don’t have true agape love in their hearts because Christ Jesus has not made His home with them, all that God is able to work with is their selfishness and fear. God is total love, but He is also total righteousness and totally holy. With God, living a holy and righteous life in not an option for the people that will inherit His eternal kingdom, He demands holy and righteous living. This holy and righteous living can only be done through the love of Jesus Christ permeating every aspect of our heart and soul. This permeating of our heart and soul with His love is accomplished when we are truly born again. Since we can’t see this agape love in most people – we then have to also assume that most people are not truly born again. Most people really don’t have the capacity to understand God’s love since agape love is given by His Spirit and since the Holy Spirit is not in most people, the only thing they do understand is love of self and the protection of their selves. This is why we need the “fire and brimstone” messages to come back.

Let’s first look at who will inherit God’s eternal kingdom (heaven).

Gal 5:19-21 - The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Gal 6:7-9 - Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

So what does the scripture verses above really say to us? They say very plainly that if we do or think any of the sinful acts of the sinful nature, then the sinful nature is still in us and that we are still being controlled by that sinful nature and not God’s nature. If this sinful nature hasn’t been put to death because we have been unwilling to let it die, we will then suffer in the second death as if Christ never died on the Cross for us and we will be thrown in to an everlasting Hell where there is eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth. This should scare anyone towards God, unless they don’t believe in God, Heaven, or Hell. For the ones that don’t believe in God, Heaven, and Hell, there is no hope for them until they do start believing in these spiritual things. Whether a person believes in Hell or not, if they are not truly born again, they are on an automatic trip to Hell because of their own disbelief.

But what about those people, like my dad or mother, or my sister or brother, or my friend that I loved so much that said they were a Christian, but they were still committing acts of sin up to the day they died? If these people knew they were sinning, but did not repent of those sins and stop sinning, then this would clearly indicate that they never made it to the point of true salvation by being truly born again. Anyone that isn’t sanctified to the point of totally dying to the selfish nature before they physically die will go to Hell upon God’s judgment.

There are no second chances after our physical death. What ever nature we die with will be the nature that we are judged on. If we are still being controlled by the sinful nature when we die, then the sinful nature is still alive in us and it is that nature that will send us to Hell. God can’t and will not let any sinful thing into His eternal kingdom. If we have died to all our sinful nature and are living by His Spirit’s nature in us, then we will be given the crown of life and we will enter His gates of heaven with much thanksgiving. What ever nature that is alive in us when we die, that is the nature that will continue on with our soul into eternity. The choice to what nature we are going to live and die with must be made in this life. Again – there is no changing our mind after we die – there are no second chances after our physical death. There is no purgatory or any such time that God does the finishing touches on our soul after death. There are countless scriptures in God’s Word that emphasize the need for us to be ready for the day that Christ returns for us (when we die), but I will end this message with the scripture below.

Luke 16:19-31 - There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'
Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'
He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'

We have Jesus that was resurrected from the dead and people still don’t believe. Here I am - proclaiming the truth – who is going to have ears to listen and not be sent to Hell like the rich man in the scripture above

For the love of God – Listen to the truth – there is only one truth.

Michael Reid

How Does God Love The Sinner And Hate The Sin

The majority of Christian preachers and teachers use the Scripture verses below to indicate we can never lose our salvation.

Rom 8:38-39 - For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

They are saying we will never lose our salvation because God will never stop loving us after we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. In essence they are saying God doesn’t love us until we are already saved. If this was the case, then God would have never sent His son to die on the cross for the sinners.

Rom 5:8 - But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God doesn’t just love the saints; He loves the sinner just as much. Does John 3:16 say Jesus came just out of the love for the saints and to save the saints?

John 3:16-17 - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Doesn’t God show His love on both the saints and the sinners? Even though we sometimes think it isn’t fair, God blesses the saint and the sinner.

Matt 5:43-48 - You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

As we read in the above verses. God is calling us to be like Him. God is not like a tax collector or a pagan– only loving the ones that love Him. He loves His enemies, which are the sinners, and also the ones in His kingdom (the saints). Don’t these verses above show us that he causes His love to be poured out on the evil and the good, and the righteous and the unrighteous?

The truth His Word tries to teach us is that God loves us whether we are still sinners or not. Since we are all God’s creation, then God also loves us all as His creation.

Ps 139:13 - For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

If we choose to have God’s Son as our Lord and Savior, He will love us all the way into eternal life with Him, but if we choose to keep ourselves as our own god, God will love us all the way into hell.

Ps 139:7-8 - Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

Now that we know that God does not just love the ones that are saved, we must also understand that no one is saved just because God loves us. To be saved we must return that love that Christ showed to us. To be saved we must believe in God’s Son Jesus Christ. We must show this belief in Jesus by loving Him back. If we truly love Jesus more than ourselves, then we will repent of all our evil and selfish ways and in turn do His will and commands.

John 14:15-16 - If you love me, you will obey what I command.

John 14:23-24 - Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

The bottom line truth is God loves us all and nothing can keep God from loving us, but our eternal destiny (heaven or hell) is determined by who we decide to love. If we decide to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, then God’s love will purify us and make us ready and worthy for eternal life with Him, but if we decide to keep loving ourselves over God, we will only build up more evil in our heart and this binds us to an eternity in hell.

Even though God loves the sinner because we are all a creation of His, the sinner must be purged of the sinful nature for anyone to be accepted into His eternal kingdom. This is because no sinful thing can enter the pure domain of God’s kingdom. Since sin is the direct opposite of love and God is pure love, no sin will be allowed to infect His perfect love or His perfect kingdom.

God has done all He can do by being patient and showing us mercy by loving us all first, the only choice to be made is by us. Just like the original Adam had a choice, now God has given that same choice to each one of us.

Love you all,
Michael Reid

Does Your Church Give A Message Of Life Or Death

Does your church preach and teach that all your sins can be conquered through the power of the Holy Spirit working in you, or does your church preach and teach that we will never be free from the bondage of our sins.

The message of life - When we are truly set free from our sinful nature and are given Jesus’ nature, we will no longer have a nature to sin and won’t. This is what being born again means – we are born again into Jesus’ nature and accepted into God’s eternal righteous kingdom. We are able to enter God’s kingdom because we are not just washed on the outside with Jesus’ righteousness, but when born again we are also cleansed spiritually and given a new heart filled with only God’s love, which is God’s nature. When born again we are given a pure heart and made righteous through and through by Jesus’ Spirit which lives inside us. This is what Jesus meant by having life. Anything short of this results in eternal death and separation from God in hell because only pure hearts and pure righteousness enter His eternal kingdom. Does your church teach this message of life?

The message of death - Many are teaching that we can never be free from our bondage of sin and will always sin as long as we live on this earth. If this is the case, why did Jesus even come? If we still have to stay in bondage to our sin, then we are no better off then the Jews before Jesus came and died on the cross. If there is no power in Jesus’ Spirit that comes into us when we are born again, why would God even bother to send the Holy Spirit if it had no power to conquer all sin in our life? Since we can’t enter God’s eternal heavenly kingdom unless we are spotless of any sinful nature, what is the sanctification by the Spirit all for if we will never be made spotless with out any sin? Some people believe we are made perfect after we die; there is nothing in the Bible that supports this. We are only given new spiritual shells for our soul to be in. If our soul is still sinful, even if we get a new spiritual body our sinful soul makes the whole spiritual soul and body unclean and sinful. The only reason this theology exists is because people want to believe it. It is not biblical and has been reasoned out by man to allow people to keep on sinning and also think they are saved unto eternal life. This theology is of the devil and the results are no re-born experience for who ever believes it. Anyone not born of God will not have eternal life. Does your church teach this message of death?

Michael Reid

What Will Jesus Do With You When He Returns

Jesus says only the ones that have overcome the world will enter His eternal kingdom.

Rev 2:7 - He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Rev 2:11 - He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.

Rev 3:4-5 - He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels

Rev 3:12 - Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem,

Rev 3:21 - To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.

Rev 21:7-8 - He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars — their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

1 John 5:4 - for everyone born of God overcomes the world.



Who will inherit the eternal kingdom of God?

Matt 19:29 - And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

Mark 10:17 - Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Mark 10:21 - Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Luke 10:25-28 - "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."

1 Cor 6:9-10 - Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Gal 5:19-21 - The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

James 2:5 - Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?




Here are some other scriptures to consider.

John 5:39-40 - You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

John 10:25-28 - The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life.

John 12:25 - The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Rom 2:7-8 - To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

Rom 6:22 - But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

Gal 6:7-8 - A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

1 John 2:24-25 - See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us — even eternal life.

1 John 3:15 - Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.


So where is your heart and soul at today?

If he comes today, are you ready?

What about others around you, are they ready?

Why Did God Have To Send His Spirit

As I start writing this message, I am really looking forward to sharing about this part of God’s plan. The Holy Spirit is the final puzzle piece needed to activate God’s plan. The Holy Spirit’s power in our lives is the only way to Jesus and the only way to stay in Jesus. Ever since the fall of man, God wanted to be reunited with His beloved creation, but He had to wait for His perfect timing to enable this reunion. With Adam and Eve, God was in close fellowship with man before the fall, but after the fall, sin entered man and sin had put a barrier between God and man. God refuses to be near sin; so in essence, the sin is the barrier, not His creation. Now with the work that Christ has done on the cross, we have the ability to become even closer to God than Adam and Eve were. We have the ability to have God live inside us and become part of us. Even Adam and Eve didn’t enjoy this close of a relationship with God. The Lord not only reunited us to Himself, but He also now becomes part of us. But again, this is our choice. God does not force this loving relationship with anyone that wants to stay separated from Him. Looking over this whole process, it makes me wonder if all this was God’s plan all along. We can only look back with amazement and see these wonderful happenings of God. People say hindsight is always 20/20. But God has the ability to see to the end of time with His whole plan worked out from the beginning of time.

We need the Holy Spirit! When Jesus was crucified on the cross, the heavy curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the outer portions of the temple was torn from top to bottom. This represented that God’s old covenant with man was done and the new covenant had started. This represented that now His Spirit was no longer restricted from His creation by any walls or boundaries. His Spirit was now open and available to all people. He would no longer have intercession be made through one human person – the Jewish high priest. He now intercedes for and communicates directly to each believer’s heart through Jesus’ Spirit which is in us and part of us. This is why we call Jesus our high priest forever. Jesus, through the Spirit now intercedes for us to the Father. Under the old covenant, the high priest was trying to commune and intercede with God through physical fleshly means. Now in the new covenant, it is not our sinful fleshly body trying to communicate with God; it is Jesus’ Spirit in us communicating with the Fathers’ Spirit.

Under the new covenant, the cross would have had no value without the sending of the Holy Spirit. The only way the cross works is with the Holy Spirit as part of the plan. We know through God’s word, that He requires full payment for sins, but He also requires for us to be made holy as He is holy. When we are made holy, we become right with Him, we are set apart for God, His work, and His Glory. It is only through God’s Holy Spirit’s power that He glorifies Himself by making us holy and right with Himself. Ever since the creation of the heavens and this world, it has been God’s Spirit that does all the work when anything good happens. When God spoke something into existence, it was through the Spirit that the work was done. Everything good in God’s eyes can only be done through His Spirit. If anything is done through the works of man or any other spirit, it is not considered good, but self serving to the one doing that work. Adam and Eve received the knowledge of good and evil. Even though they had the knowledge of good, Adam and Eve and all their descendants could not do the good without the power of God’s Holy Spirit in them. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel understood that God’s commandments were good, but they had no power to do the good. The self serving spirit inside them only had the power to do the knowledge of evil. To remedy this, God had to send His Spirit into man’s heart before any good could come out of man. So, God sent His Son to the cross to enable the Spirit to come and replace the self serving spirit in each true believer’s heart with His Spirit. God’s word commands all believers to live by the Spirit. Then shouldn’t we concentrate a lot of our energy on understanding the Spirit? Some churches might be unwilling or afraid to try to understand God’s Spirit. Since God’s ways are not man’s ways, some people might think it impossible to understand His Spirit. Other churches might be afraid of getting the understanding of the Holy Spirit wrong, and in turn, commit the one and only unforgivable sin, which is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. This hesitation or the limiting of the teaching of the Holy Spirit can be very dangerous to all of the flock of those churches doing this. By limiting the understanding and teaching on the Holy Spirit, this might be doing the very thing these churches are afraid of, and that is rejecting or blaspheming of the Holy Spirit.

What is blaspheming the Holy Spirit? What it mainly comes down to is the putting down of the Holy Spirit by putting yourself or anything else above the Holy Spirit. When we put ourselves above the Holy Spirit and reject His truth and leading, we are rejecting the Holy Spirit and the Spirit being able to work in us, which is really rejecting God. So, in essence, if we reject the Spirit being able to work in us, there is no way we can have eternal life with God, because if we reject being sanctified and made holy by the Spirit, we cannot enter the eternal kingdom of God. In the Bible there are many examples of blasphemy. In most or all of these examples, the person being accused of blasphemy is putting and promoting their own ways, rules, or values above the understood ways, rules, and values of God. This was looked upon as the accused putting themselves above or equal with God. Jesus was accused many times of blasphemy, and if he really wouldn’t have been God, the accusers would have been right about Jesus.

We must strive to know and understand God’s Spirit on an intimate basis. We can understand the Spirit by understanding Jesus and understanding how the Spirit worked in people throughout the New Testament that had faith and trusted in Jesus. Jesus said “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father”. Jesus also said that He could only do the Father’s will. This is because they are of one Spirit. So if we want to understand the Spirit and what God wants the Spirit to do through us, we must try to understand God’s character by looking and understanding the life of Jesus. The best way to do this is by reading God’s word. We must let God speak to us through His word. God’s word says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God”. When we are a believer and read God’s word, we are communicating directly with God through His Spirit inside us. The only way we can understand God’s word is through His Spirit interpreting it for us. God’s word says “Seek and you shall find”. If we are to be a true believer, this is not an option, but a commandment. We seek, by looking for God’s character and will by praying and searching His word. We find, by His Spirit giving us all the answers by the way of a changed heart and a deeper understanding of Him by the renewing of our minds. God talks to His loved ones by the gentle whispers and thoughts He implants in our minds. As I finished writing this message, I realized it was way too long of a letter. So I had to remove about half of what I wanted to tell you about this glorious gift from God – the Holy Spirit. But the one main thought I want to emphasize is: God is using Jesus’ kingdom on earth to build His eternal kingdom. The people willing to let the Holy Spirit take total control of their lives and be made holy and righteous will inherit eternal life.

With God's love and Spirit, I bring you this message. - Michael Reid

Some scripture verses concerning this message: Matt 25:31-46, John 12:25, Rom 2:7 & 13, Rom 6:22, Gal 6:8, 2 Pet 1:5-11, 1 John 2:24-25, 1 Pet 4:17-19, Gen 3:22, 1 Sam 10:5-6, Neh 9:20, Ps 104:30, Ezek 11:19-21, Ezek 36:27, Joel 2:28:30, Acts 2:14-19, Mic 3:8, Matt 1:18, Matt 4:1, Matt 12:18 & 28, Matt 12:31-32, Matt 26:62-65, Matt 27:51-53, Luke 5:21, Mark 1:8 & 12, Mark 3:28-29, Luke 1:15-17, Luke 2:27, Luke 4:1 & 14, Luke 11:13, Luke 12:12, John 3:5-8 & 34, John 4:23-24, John 6:63-65, John 14:17-21 & 25-26, John 20:22-23, Acts 1:8, Acts 2:4 & 38-39, Acts 7:51, Acts 8:29, Acts 9:17-18 & 31, Acts 10:38, Acts 13:4, Acts 16:6-8, Acts 19:1-7, Acts 20:22-23 & 28-30, Heb 4:14-15, Heb 6:20, Rom 5:5, Rom 7:6, Rom 8:4-17, Rom 8:26-27, Rom 14:17-18, Rom 15:13-16, 1 Cor 1:2, Eph 1:4, Eph 5:3, Col 1:21-23, 1 Thes 4:7-8, Gal 3:14

Who Are We Repenting For

Are we repenting for us or are we repenting for God? Are we repenting out of love for ourselves or out of love for God?

What does repenting mean? When we repent, we are sorrowful of our sin(s) and turn from our acts of sin that come from our selfish nature and at the same time turn to God in total obedience to eradicate those sins by the power of His Spirit.

There is mainly two ways in which we repent. One is out of a selfish fear and the other is out of the love we have for our Father in heaven. Almost all people come to God initially out of frustration and fear for themselves. They come to a breaking point where they realize their sins and have no way of healing themselves. They also come to believe that if they continue in these sins, they will go to hell instead of heaven. When God calls these people, most people come to God out of desperation. This desperation is motivated out of a fear of God and a fear for themselves. Fear is a big motivator and even though fear is not from the Lord, but from our own selfishness, God will use it to fulfill His purposes.

Proverbs 1:7 - The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge

So how do we repent in a way most pleasing to God? This is where most people run into trouble. Most of this message will concentrate on repenting in a way that is most pleasing to God. We must remember when it comes to righteousness, there is only one way to do things, and that is God’s way.

What is the right way to repent after our initial coming to the Lord? To find out let’s dig a little deeper. Sin can only come from selfishness and pride and cannot come out of love. Every time we sin, we are acting out of our own selfishness or pride and we cannot be loving God or others. Jesus came to conquer all sin in believers. What was the main weapon He sent through the Holy Spirit to do this? Love - pure love. When we are born again, God gives us a new heart. God does this by removing the sinful selfish nature and replacing it with His love. Since sin cannot come out of a heart filled with love, the sinful nature is eradicated with the over powering love of God.

So, should we repent because we want to be saved or continue in our salvation state, or do we repent because we love God? There is a big difference and what way is acceptable to God after our justification experience. To help us understand, I want to look at the parable of the prodigal son in the Bible.

When the prodigal son came to himself and started the journey back to his fathers land, this represented the initial turning back to his father out of fear for himself. He had run out of his inheritance money and was hungry. He knew there was plenty of food back at his father’s home. (This was the motivating fear for self preservation). But he also wanted to return to be under his fathers love and protection again. (This was the wanting to be saved from his worldly life). This fear of self preservation and wanting to be saved from himself drove him to be humbled and willing to be one of his father’s servants. This initial repentance was all about the prodigal son benefit and not about the father. This repentance was still all generated out of love and fear for himself.

After the son returned to his father and the father loved him and accepted him fully back into the family. Do you think that son continued repenting out of fear for himself, or out of love for his father? After we come to our Father through Jesus Christ and realize the love He showed and shows us, do we continue in our repenting and try to be obedient to God commandments so He won’t throw us back from where we came, or do we repent and be obedient to His will because we want to please Him alone in everything we do. We might initially repent from fear, but our repenting should not continue out of fear, it should continue out of love for our Father.

When our reason for repenting is to hopefully be good enough to stay saved, we are trying to turn from our sin out of our own selfishness. When we repent in this way, we are still trying to save ourselves.

Mark 8:35 - For whoever wants to save his life will lose it

When we repent because we think we might not have eternal life if we don’t, we are still only repenting out of our own selfishness and fear. Since this kind of repenting is self centered, you are actually sinning while you are trying to repent. Also, unless you repent in a way pleasing to God, which is out of love for the Father, the turning from the sin will not usually take hold and you will find yourself repenting over and over for the same sins.

So what does repenting out of love look like? Remember repenting is turning away from the sin and turning to God. When we repent out of selfishness in order to try to save ourselves, we are trying to abstain from sin, but not turning to God. We must turn to God at the same time or else it won’t work.

What does turning to God mean? It is all about growing in love with God.

James 4:8 - Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

When we are self centered we only love ourselves. You know, just like the devil loved only himself. This is maybe how we start out with God, but it can’t be how we stay in relationship with God. After justification we start being sanctified if we let God’s Spirit work in our lives. Sanctification is a process of becoming holy as God is holy. Almost all of us have to go through this process. The key to understanding sanctification is that it is not really a process of getting rid of our sins; it is a process in which we are transferring our love from ourselves to loving God only. In doing this we end up giving our whole life over to him.

Mark 8:35 - For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

John 14:24 - He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

The key to repenting is repenting out of love for God and His glory; it has nothing to do with us. It is all about Him. When we repent out of love for our Father in Heaven, we want to repent of all our sins because we want to truly please Him, not us. This is totally opposite to repenting for us. When we repent for us, we don’t want to repent, but we do it because we think we need to. When we repent out of love, it is like my son being obedient to me because he loves me, not because he fears me. When my son is obedient out of love, he is obedient because he wants to be obedient. If my son is being obedient out of fear, he is not being obedient because he wants to; he is being obedient because of the consequences he might receive if he isn’t obedient. If the obedience is out of fear, he will quit being obedient as soon as he is away from me.

John 14:15 - If you love Me, keep My commandments.

So start loving God by getting to know Him through His word and Spirit. If you are trying to save yourself, STOP IT. Repent out of love for our Father in heaven and for His Glory.

God Bless,
Mike Reid

What Does Works Have To Do With It

Up until this point, I have not mentioned much about the act of works in my writings. I didn’t want to give the subject of “works” more emphasis than it should have, since we aren’t saved by works, but by grace. In all of my previous writings I have tried to concentrate on God’s Holy Spirit working in and through us to accomplish all of God’s will that He requires and wants to perform in every individual life. In response to some of my writings, a few people have indicated that I am teaching a salvation based on works, when in reality I have continually communicated that all good works in a believer’s life is done by the Holy Spirit and only by His Spirit.

In this message I will share how we are not saved by works, but by grace alone. Although my goal of this letter is to talk on the subject of works, a person can’t teach on the subject of works fully without discussing grace also. Grace and works are tied together because good works comes out of God’s grace. So to look into this subject thoroughly, we must define what grace and works are, where grace and works originate from, and how grace and works interact with our heart, soul, and body.

Since we are saved by grace and not by works, we should first try to understand grace. Many people have a misunderstanding that God’s grace is limited only to what Jesus did for us on the cross. God’s grace is much more than what happened at the cross. God’s grace also continues its work today after the cross. Even though the grace God performed at the cross is so very important, I want to concentrate on the power of God’s grace that started at the point of Pentecost. Pentecost is when the power of God’s Spirit was opened up to anyone who would believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Anytime we talk of God’s grace, it is referencing some action that God has done or is currently doing, first of all for His glory and then secondly for our benefit. Grace is not just something God did in the past; it is also something He is continuing to do. When God’s Spirit softens a heart of stone to the point of being able to accept Jesus as Lord and savior, this is God’s grace in action. When God’s Spirit continues sanctifying a heart to bring it to a point of making it holy, this is God’s grace in action. When God’s Spirit baptizes a person’s heart and turns it into a heart totally devoted to Him and then puts that heart into service for Him, this is God’s grace in action. When God’s Spirit guides a person in a certain direction or to do something, even if that God directed action is to benefit someone else, it is God’s grace in action. Saving grace is any action on God’s part that He does in us or through us for HIS glory.

So how is God’s grace manifested in us and through us? God’s grace is manifested in us by the softening and perfecting of our heart into a new heart filled with His love. God’s grace is then manifested through us by God’s love flowing out of us in acts of love towards others. These acts of love are God’s grace being manifested in the form of good fruit and good works. These good works will then always glorify God. This love flows from the new heart He has given us. This love will always flow out of us back to God and to others, and is really God’s grace flowing through us to glorify God Himself. So any good works we perform is only by God’s grace and cannot come from our own humanness. Anytime God’s Spirit does any action through us, in us, or for us, it can only be called God’s grace.

Acts 4:33 NIV - With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.

Acts 6:8 NIV - Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.

Rom 12:6 NIV - We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.

1 Cor 15:10 NIV - But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them — yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

2 Cor 8:7 NIV - But just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us-see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

2 Cor 12:9 NIV - But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Eph 3:7-8 NIV - I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power.

Eph 4:7-8 NIV - But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men."

James 4:6 NIV - But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

If we are a Christian living under the New Testament and not under the law, we are relying on all of God’s grace to be eternally saved. God’s grace consists of the grace given to us by the works of Jesus before the cross and on the cross and also the grace that transforms our heart.
There is a real danger with the teaching that all of God’s grace was provided for us with the work done on the cross. There are some who believe and teach that they have little or no responsibility to live holy to be eternally saved because Jesus’ grace on the cross covers all their sins so they don’t have to even try to conform to God’s will and commandments to live holy. If we believe this lie, then in essence this gives people a license to keep on sinning and still believe they are saved. This is a lie devised by the devil to keep us from the truth and a true relationship with God.

Jude 4 NIV - For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Now, that we defined grace, let’s try to define what works is. The definition of works can be said to be any action or bi-product that comes directly from the condition of the heart.

There are good and bad works, or to say it a different way, there is good and bad fruit.

Eccl 8:11 NKJV - Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.2 Tim 4:18 NKJV - And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom.Col 1:10 NIV - And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work.

Some examples of what spiritual good and bad fruit can be taken right from scripture.

Gal 5:22-23 NIV - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Gal 5:19-21 NIV - The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

All good works or good fruit originate from God’s love that God’s Spirit has installed within our heart. This love can only produce the fruits of the Spirit (good works). It is impossible to produce bad fruit (bad works or sin) from God’s love. On the other hand, all bad works or bad fruit originate from a sinful nature. A sinful nature can only produce bad fruit (bad works or sin), because the sinful nature only has selfishness and pride within that nature. A heart that is filled with the sinful nature can only love itself or anything that sinful nature thinks benefits itself.

Matt 7:17-18 NIV - Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

So we must understand that good works or good fruit are only from God’s Spirit and bad fruit or bad works are only from the sinful nature. Even though our eternal salvation is not determined by our acts of sin or good works, our works do indicate what kind of heart we have.

Luke 6:45 NIV - The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart , and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.

So getting back to the subject of this message, what does works have to do with our salvation? Our works have nothing to do with God’s decision to accept us as sons and daughters or whether we inherit eternal life.

So what about the scriptures that indicate we must do God’s will to enter the kingdom of God?

Matt 7:21 NIV - Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

At first glance this scripture sounds like we must do good works to enter God’s kingdom, but you have to look deeper and understand that Jesus is really talking about a heart issue and is not talking about any works we need to perform out of our own humanness. Jesus is emphasizing that we will be doing God’s will if we are true Christians. Any works that we perform as Christians will be of God’s will since these good works are from God’s grace working within us. Jesus is saying that there will be good works, but not works of our own.

If we have good works (good fruit), we cannot claim these good works as our own since all good works are of God and not by our own accord. When ever we perform good works, it is really God’s Spirit working through us to glorify Himself. Since any good works are of God’s workings and not of ours, they have no value in determining whether we inherit eternal life or not. If we have bad works (sin or bad fruit), we have someone who has already paid the price for these sins if we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. But even though Jesus paid for all our sins, Jesus’ payment of sins alone doesn’t guarantee eternal life with Him. We also need God’s grace to transform our hearts from a selfish sinful nature into a selfless loving nature.

So how does God determine whether we inherit eternal life or not? It is by a thorough inspection of our heart. God can always see our entire heart and how pure it is. God’s Word indicates we need to be born again of God’s Spirit. When we are spiritually born again, we are given a new heart, totally purified and absent of any sinful nature.

Heb 10:22 NIV - let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

John 3:3 NIV - In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

Acts 1:24 NIV - Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart.

Matt 5:8 NIV - Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

2 Cor 5:17 NIV - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Rom 10:10 NIV - For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

John 3:5 NIV - Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

2 Tim 2:22-23 NIV - Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

What is your treasure? If your treasure is God and serving Him wholeheartedly, then your heart will be pure and totally devoted to Him.

Matt 6:21 NIV - For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Every action we do and every word we speak comes directly from the heart. Our heart represents the desires of our soul and these desires are the driving force of the soul. Out of an evil heart come all kinds of evil.

Matt 15:19 NIV - For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. But out of a pure heart comes love and righteousness.

1 Tim 1:5 NIV - The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

2 Tim 2:22 NIV - Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

For any person that will not humble themselves and repent, then it is that hardened heart that will send that person to an eternal hell. Everyone has the free choice to humble themselves before the Lord. If we choose Jesus as the Lord of our lives, then He will transform our hearts. But if our choice is to reject Him by rejecting His grace, then our hearts will not be transformed, but the Lord will have the last word. He owns every one of our souls, whether we accept this fact or not.

Rom 2:5 NIV - But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

Heb 3:12-13 NIV - See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

So does the works we do have any value? Yes, even though works doesn’t have any value in God’s decision on whether we receive eternal life or not, works does have a purpose. First of all, works has great value in that all good works point back to God and glorifies Jesus and our heavenly Father. Secondly, our works are meant to show ourselves and others whether our heart is pure or not. The works that come out of us show the condition of our heart. Our works can be used as a purity gage to show us the purification status of our heart. God intends to bring all believers to the point of having a pure heart and be blameless before Him so we can inherit eternal life. The only thing that will hold us back from receiving a purified heart is our own pride. So we must all humble ourselves before our Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. Thirdly, works do make a difference in the amount of rewards or punishment we receive in our eternal destination. If we have a pure heart, then the more we give up or sacrifice for the Lord in this life, the more rewards we will have in heaven. If we don’t end up having a pure heart because we have rejected God’s grace in some way, then the works we do here will have an effect on the amount of punishment we will receive in hell. But I want to emphasize, no one has to go to hell as long as they are willing to totally humble themselves before Jesus and make Him their Lord and Savior.
May the power of God’s grace strengthen you!

Phil 4:23 NIV - The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Living only by His grace - Michael Reid

What is a real Christian

I want to bring this topic to the forefront to hopefully enlighten all who read this message to what the Bible says a real Christian is or isn’t. For many years I had the understanding that I was a Christian, but my life’s priorities and struggles were telling my heart otherwise.

The Zondervan Bible Dictionary says the word Christian comes directly from the Greek word Χριστίανος (Christianos). The Latin suffix “ianos” on this word was widely used throughout the Roman Empire of that time to designate a slave to the person’s name it was compounded onto (to designate an owner’s slave). What this says to us is that during the time of the apostles, to be called a Christian was to be understood that you were a slave to Christ.

Romans 6:22 NIV says “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”

1 Peter 2:16 NIV says “Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.”

Eph 6:5-8 NIV says “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.”

The apostles wrote of themselves as servants (slaves) of Christ. In their letters they indicated for us to follow their example. In doing so we would become faithful to Christ, totally submissive to His Lordship, and totally trusting in His Spirit for guidance and our every need.

Romans 1:1 NKJV says “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.”

James 1:1 NKJV says “James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”

2 Peter 1:1 NKJV says “Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ”

There are many, many more scriptures throughout the Bible indicating God is calling us to be totally committed servants (slaves) of Christ. There are other words the Bible uses to describe a real Christian; one is to be called a disciple. There are requirements to being called a disciple also.

Luke 14:26-27 NLT says “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.”

Luke 14:33 NIV says “In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

Somehow in this age we live in, we have simplified and degraded what being a Christian is. The current understanding of a Christian has been simplified to a person who only needs to understand their salvation is based on believing that Jesus died on the cross for his sins, and that Jesus was bodily resurrected. The devil understands and believes this also and he wants people to keep believing this. The devil doesn’t want people to look past this simplified deceptive concept. The devil knows total submission and obedience to our God is also required. The devil would rather keep people dependent on themselves or things. If anyone trusts their salvation only on this simplified concept, they might have a rude awakening at their judgment before Jesus Christ.

A real biblical based Christian is a person believing, trusting, and loving Jesus with all their heart, soul, and mind. A true Christian will not allow themselves to be entangled with any of the worldly pleasures of this world. For they know to be a friend to the world is to be an enemy of God. Christians enjoy the blessing of their needs being met, but know that if they receive their enjoyment from worldly pleasures instead of God’s grace, they are in a sinful state. A true Christian will be living his life is such a way that every thought, decision, and action he does should be to the glory of God.

What determines whether a person is a true Christian is really a matter of the heart. To become a true Christian a person must accept wholeheartedly Jesus as his/her Lord and Savior. If anyone accepts Jesus less than wholeheartedly, that person can still rejoice because Christ’s seed has been planted and is growing in them, but that seed has not matured and they are not yet a true biblical based Christian. To be a true Christian one must accept Jesus as his/her Lord. This means a person must make a decision to submit all of their self as a living sacrifice to God. This is a total submission to His authority and rule over you. This submission cannot be partial. A person cannot submit part of their life to Him and want to keep other parts under their control. He wants all of you. God is still a jealous God. Jesus said “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”. Jesus demands us to give all of ourselves to Him with what Jesus calls the first and greatest commandment:

Matt 22:37-38 NIV says “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment”

It is only after we do the first and greatest commandment that we can produce any good and Godly fruit by doing the second commandment Jesus gave:

Matt 22:39-40 NIV says “And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

When we first truly accept Jesus as Lord and Savior with our whole heart, we will probably not be able to automatically do everything we have committed ourselves to do in Christ. This is where the Holy Spirit continues the sanctification process in us. The Spirit will continue to renew our minds to control our bodies to become more like Christ in increasing measure as time goes forward. We must look to the Spirit to finish the purification process and do all the Godly works through us. We have no power to do anything apart from the Spirit of God. If we are a true Christian, the process of learning to crawl, walk, and run in the Spirit can happen fairly fast since a true Christian’s heart is not restrictive to the work of the Spirit.

I would like to take this time to tell some of my personal story. What I mainly want to share with all of you is that over 25 years from the beginning of my walk with God, I was only giving parts of myself to God. I didn't have enough faith to give all of me. My faith had to be built up at each phase to allow myself to give more of myself to Jesus. To make a long story short, through those 25 years I sliced off more of my life and gave it to God, slice by slice as time went on. At the end of the 25 years, when I had sliced off the last of my heart and soul and gave it to God, He did a miracle in my life. I now understand that at that point He baptized me with the Holy Spirit to make me ready for service to His Kingdom. At that point, I was no longer looking out for my own selfish needs, but for the needs of others. God was able to flip my heart’s desires from selfishness to truly loving others with not my love, but with God's love flowing through me. Since then God has enlightened me with His truth through His word and Spirit. So much so that I cannot hold it in, but have to share it with anyone willing to listen.

May God bless you through the truth.
God’s servant - Michael Reid

What Have You Done With Your Talent or Gift

When anyone first comes to Christ for salvation we are given a gift from God. That gift is the gift of salvation from the bondage of our sins, which means we no longer have to be in bondage to our sinful nature. This is the first salvation God gives us, but the second salvation unto eternal life is determined by what we do with this first salvation. We can see this clearly in the story of Israel’s exodus out of Egypt. God saved them from their bondage of Egyptian slavery so they could once again have the choice to follow God’s will and ways. Sadly only two of the adults that were saved from the Egyptian slavery decided to live totally for God and were then allowed to enter the promise land.

We who have accepted Jesus Christ as our savior recognize that we have been imputed with Jesus’ righteousness. Through what Jesus Christ did on the cross for us, we now can put on the cloak of His righteousness. We are whitewashed on the outside with His righteousness, which means God has put His righteousness onto us so through Jesus Christ being our High Priest we can eventually be washed white on the inside as well. God freely gives this gift of His righteousness to anyone that repents and asks for it. God gives this gift freely so He can work through us, otherwise there would be no way for us to be free from our sinful nature. The parable of the talents is a good representation of this gift given by God and if used for God, He multiplies the gift and makes the gift grow, but if not used for God, the gift is taken away.

Matt 25:14-30 - Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.' "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' "The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' "Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' "His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. "'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
Please understand why this parable’s truth is so important; it is to warn all of you that have been given the first gift of salvation from the bondage of our sins so you will be motivated to reach the second salvation gift unto eternal life.

The talent(s) in the parable represent this first gift of salvation, but the second gift of salvation unto eternal life is determined on how you use the first gift from God. To use this first gift properly that God gives us, we must at some point decide to die to all our sinful nature to receive the permanent gift. Anyone that is unwilling to die totally to themselves will not be able to be washed totally white on the inside.

Like I said before, when we first come to Christ we are imputed with Jesus Christ’s righteousness, but eventually we must also be imparted with the very nature of Jesus Christ Spirit. When we are imputed with Christ’s righteousness we are whitewashed on the outside, but we must be imparted with Christ’s righteousness within also to be washed white to be eternally saved.

After we first have come to Christ as our savior for the forgiveness of our sins we are imputed with Christ’s righteousness and also receive Jesus Christ as our High Priest. We then can be covered by His cloak of righteousness until we physically die, but we only have this righteous covering of Christ as long as He is our High Priest. When we physically die we no longer have Jesus Christ as our High Priest and we are no longer covered by His cloak of righteousness. After we physically die the cloak of Christ’s righteousness comes off and God then sees our bare soul. If our bare soul has been thoroughly washed white by this time, we will enter heaven, but if our bare soul is still soiled with our sinful nature, we will not be allowed into God’s eternal kingdom where no evil and sinful thing can enter.

Truly I tell you this because this is God’s truth and God doesn’t want any to be lost. Please be wise with what God has given you. God wants you to keep the gifts He has given you, but this choice has to be your choice.

Sent from Jesus Christ’s heart within me,
Michael Reid

What Happened At The Cross

To value Christ’s crucifixion, we must understand we were all destined for a terrifying eternity in hell without it. How bad would this be? I want you to imagine being burned at the stake eternally, never being burned up, never losing consciousness, not being able to die, and the fire never being quenched. If you can imagine this – you might be able to understand what hell is like. With all the persecution that happened to Jesus, and Him being crucified on the cross instead of us, we now have a choice that we didn’t have before the Cross. Now we have a choice to have eternity in heaven with God or an eternity in hell with the devil and his demons.

God requires righteousness and full payment of sins to have eternal life with God. He requires us to be made holy as He is holy and righteous as He is righteous. This is not something we have the power to do; God must do this sanctifying work through His Holy Spirit. To make this happen, we must give up and let Jesus take our life. We have to die to ourselves. When we trust in Jesus and die to our selfish sinful nature and when we repent of our sins, He is just and will forgive us our sins.

What sins were paid for at the cross? When Christ was crucified, He paid for all of humanities sins, (past, present, and future), except one. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit was the one sin He would not pay for. I will cover this unforgivable sin topic in my next message. All sins can be broken down into three main groups, original sin, our personal past sins, and our personal present or active sins.

The fact that all sins are paid for does not mean that everybody’s sins have been forgiven. Forgiveness of our personal sins is conditional on our personal repentance. Payment and forgiveness for the original sin of Adam has been made complete through the cross. But we are all still responsible for our individual personal sins against God through our choice to repent and be obedient or not. Whenever God forgives us for any sin, the payment and judgment for that sin has already been made and paid for us through Jesus Christ at the cross. Rejoice that we don’t have to make payment for our sins. We couldn’t pay for our sins even if we wanted to – Christ had to do this for us.

Forgiveness comes through our willingness to be made righteous. Opposite to popular belief, we do not receive forgiveness just through the asking of forgiveness from God. We can ask God for forgiveness, but if the asking isn’t accompanied by repentance, the asking is not sincere. It is through our turning away from the ungodly to His godliness that we receive forgiveness from God. We must be willing to become righteous through the sanctifying work of His Spirit. We must be willing to become holy as God is holy. We must be willing to be sanctified to God. When we are sanctified, we are set apart for God. When we are set apart for God, we are set apart from the world and all its evil desires. Before the fall of man, Adam and Eve did not need to be sanctified, they were righteous already. They were right with God and needed no forgiveness. After the fall of man, humanity no longer had righteousness with God. If we are unwilling to let His Spirit totally transform our heart, soul, and mind, there will be no righteousness and there will be no place for us in heaven. Heaven (eternal life with God), is reserved only for the ones that have been made righteous.

The main reason Jesus went to the cross was to restore righteousness to whoever would be willing. Again the popular belief is that Jesus did everything necessary at the cross, so we don’t need to do anything. The truth is Jesus did everything we could not do for ourselves. The payment for our sins was an act that had to be done by God in order to restore the relationship to His creation. What was done on the cross by Jesus opened the door for the Holy Spirit to come. It is thru His Holy Spirit living in us that we are able to have this restored relationship to God. Enabling the Holy Spirit to come to us is the main reason Jesus went to the cross. God’s word says “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. “ (Gal 3:14 NIV)

With God’s Holy Spirit, we now have an awesome power within us to become righteous. We are called and are able to conquer and put to death all of our sinful nature within our heart, soul, and mind. This is why God was willing to send His only begotten son as a sacrifice, so we could once again have the choice and ability to have that true loving relationship God desires with us. Once again I have to emphasize, love has to be a choice. Just like Adam and Eve had the choice to show their love through obedience, now through the cross, all people once again have the choice to love God thru their voluntary obedience. The good news is that the Spirit does all the work to change our hearts, so we want to be obedient children, if we are willing to change.

How is our relationship different from Adam and Eve’s relationship with God? We have to remember, before the original sin, man had not fallen from God’s righteousness, but now we are born into a fallen state of righteousness. I want to help you understand this fallen state of man with a word picture. I want you to picture, in the beginning, Adam and Eve on top of a glorious mountain, having a close communion with God. When they ate of the forbidden fruit, they fell in a freefall down this big mountain. When they got to the bottom, they had no way to get back up since the walls of the mountain were too steep for any human to climb. This is the current state of where all humanity is at without the power of the cross and the Holy Spirit. This is where the power of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit comes in. We still cannot climb up this mountain by ourselves to get to a right relationship with God. We have to let the Holy Spirit enable us to climb this mountain. This is where our faith comes into the picture. Through our faith in God, we have to believe in what we cannot see. We have to believe in a spiritual climbing ladder. We need a spiritual ladder because the mountain is a spiritual mountain. God’s Spirit from within us will prompt us to put our foot upon a ladder that we cannot see. If we have enough faith, we will put our foot out into space and believe we will not fall because we have faith that there will be a spiritual ladder rung there to support us. After each step we take in faith on this spiritual ladder, that previous step enables us to take the next step higher and closer to our living Father on top of this glorious spiritual mountain. Each climbing step taken in faith will allow you to be closer to God and see His true glory and as a result, your face and life will glow with His radiance through His love flowing through you. For some, if your faith is strong enough, you can take God’s spiritual elevator up this great mountain.

I want to encourage everyone, to grab hold of the faith that is available to each and every one of us through God’s Spirit and start climbing or to continue climbing the spiritual sanctification path God has for you. I know God’s path is not easy, but with God’s help through His Spirit, the burden of following His path becomes light and even joyous.

With God's love and Spirit, I bring you this message. May God bless you! - Michael W. Reid

Some scripture verses concerning this message: Mt 13:47-50, Mt 10:38, Mt 16:24-25, Lk 9:23, Mt 25:34-46, Mt 18:21-35, Gal 3:13-14, Rom 3:21-26, Eph 5:3-7, Heb 10:14, 1Jn 2:2, Mt 26:28, Mk 1:4, Acts 2:38, Heb 9:22, Mt 6:12&14-15, Mt 11:25, Lk 6:37, Lk 17:3, Lk 13:3-5, Acts 3:19, Acts 8:20-23, Acts 26:20, Rev 2:5, Rev 2:21-22, Rev 3:3, Rev 3:19-22, Mt 12:31-32, John 3:5-6, John 4:23-24, John 14:26, Rom 7:6, Rom 8:2-17, Rom 8:26-27, Rom 14:17, Rom 15:16, 1Cor 2:9-15, Gal 5:16-25, Gal 6:8, 1Tim 4:1, 1Pet 4:17-19

Thy Kingdom Is Here And There

There has been much confusion about the kingdom of God and when is it going to come or has it already come.

First I would like to talk just a little about the future kingdom that everybody has hope for. True born again believers will go to heaven after we leave this physical body and we will go to live with our loving God forever. God has promised with many scriptures that the eternal heaven will be glorious. God also says this is when we enter His rest.

Rev 14:13 NIV - Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them."

Let us also remember that for any that do not have the faith to listen and obey His teachings and warnings, there will be eternal unrest for their souls.

Heb 3:16-4:1 NIV - Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

Since the future eternal kingdom is the kingdom that most preachers and teachers teach on, I want to concentrate instead on Jesus’ kingdom that is here now, a kingdom that every true born again believer is part of. If people only hear about the future eternal kingdom and not the kingdom that is here and now, people will be mislead to believe that they have to wait to be made “Christ like” until after they physically die. On the contrary, we have to be made Christ like before we physically die and we must be part of the kingdom of God here on earth while we are still in our fleshly body before we can transfer to God’s eternal kingdom.

The kingdom of God that every born again believer is part of, is a spiritual kingdom. Since people have a hard time understanding anything they cannot see or feel, we sometimes have a hard time understanding anything in the spiritual since we can’t see it to analyze and reason it out with our minds or logic. In this message I will attempt to simplify what many have made very complicated.

I would like to start with defining what a kingdom is. A kingdom is where you have an absolute ruler, a king or lord, and the kingdom having people as subjects to that king. For any person willing to live in the area in which that king has rule, that person must agree to be totally subject to the presiding king’s laws and rules. So when did this happen for God’s kingdom here on earth? We need to take a look at scripture to find this out.

Mark 1:14-15 NIV - After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

Matt 12:28 NIV - But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

In Mark 1 the scriptures are telling the story about how John the Baptist was proclaiming the coming of our savior and after Jesus was baptized Jesus went into the nearby town of Galilee and started proclaiming that the time had come for the kingdom of God. Jesus said “The kingdom of God is near”. In Matt 12 we see Jesus telling the Pharisees that “the kingdom of God has come upon you”, meaning it was there when Jesus spoke those words to the Pharisees. Some people will say how can that be, there was no absolute rule or totally obedient subjects for the kingdom. We have to understand that Jesus Christ is the king and where ever Jesus Christ is, there the kingdom is also. Jesus could say the kingdom of God had come because He was the King and Lord and He had a totally committed subject, which was himself, since He was both God and also a human. So since he was human and was totally committed and obedient to His Father’s will, He was His own subject.

Anytime Jesus Christ was on this earth doing His ministry, the kingdom of God was also on earth with Him. After Christ was crucified, the kingdom of God left the earth until Jesus Christ was resurrected. After Christ’s resurrection, Jesus spent 40 days with His 11 disciples and during this time the kingdom of God was also on earth since Jesus Christ was on earth. After these 40 days with His disciples, Jesus ascended into Heaven and the kingdom of God went with Him. After 10 days the kingdom of God returned to earth again through the Spirit’s filling of the disciples at Pentecost. This time the spiritual kingdom of God was here to stay on earth until Jesus’ final return. It was to be a kingdom within the hearts of men. Christ would now rule the hearts of men from the inside of their very souls.

Luke 17:20-21 NIV - Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."

Remember - Jesus Christ is the king and where ever Jesus Christ is, there the kingdom is also. We can say that the kingdom of God is within us because the very Spirit of Jesus Christ is in us, that is if anyone is a true born again believer. If we have been baptized by His Spirit, then we have been given a totally new heart filled with His love and desires and Jesus Christ Spirit is within us.

John 3:6 NIV - Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

John 15:5 NIV - “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit”

John 14:19-21 NIV - Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

When we are a true born again believer, our heart has been totally transformed. The old man or sinful nature which is comprised of any selfishness in us has totally been replaced with the new man or God’s Spirit which is comprised of only love. Since no sin can originate out of true love, we only have desires to love and please God and love our fellow man. It is this total change of heart that drives our every desire and action. It is with Jesus Christ’s Spirit and love inside of us that God rules our lives. Our heart’s desires are in turn the same as God’s desires. Because of the love He has put in us, we only have the desire to obey His commandments and full heartedly go about doing His will.

Jesus Christ is now our high priest, Lord and King while we are living in this fleshly earthly body, but when we leave this earthly body, He is no longer our high priest because we won’t need any priest to intercede for us anymore. We will have already made our decision before we die, which will decide where we spend eternity. If we have chosen the way of Jesus as our Lord, then we will spend eternity with our brother Jesus Christ and Jesus’ Father as our Father for ever and ever. They will be the constant loving light we will continue living by and praising forever and ever.

If we have died to our selfishness and have spiritually been born into His kingdom while we are here on earth, we will never spiritually die; we will just transition from Christ’s earthly reigning kingdom to God’s eternal kingdom.

John 11:25-26 NIV - Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

In His Kingdom by faith - Michael Reid

The Salvation Story Told From The Old Testament

The story of the exodus to the new Promised Land is a good representation of the salvation process that happens in the New Testament. It is amazing how much the Old Testament is a foreshadowing of the New Testament. It all goes to show that God is always the same.

We can see this story in two different ways. We could examine individuals in this exodus to the new Promised Land process, and we would see how only a few people that actually started the journey actually made it to the promise land, but I want to show you this journey in a different way. I want to take the whole nation of Israel and how Israel as a nation represents the salvation process that happens in us individually under the new covenant. All the things that the nation of Israel went through is what most of us as believers under the new covenant go through during our process of coming to faith in Jesus Christ in order to be born again of God. The start of the exodus of Israel from Egypt represents the start of our salvation process and Israel entering the promise land represents our salvation process being completed by being born again into God’s kingdom.

Let’s start out with the exodus story. Before the exodus started the nation of Israel were captive and slaves to the Egyptian Empire. This captivity of Israel represents our captivity and slavery to our own sinful nature. Just like the people of Israel could not escape from the pharaoh’s grip without God intervening, we also cannot escape the grip and slavery of our sinful nature without God intervening on our behalf.

It was at the point when God made Egypt let His people go that Israel was released from her bondage of slavery. God had saved them from this bondage of slavery and now they had a choice to leave the tyranny over them. Israel was now free to worship and serve God. Just like God saved Israel from her bondage, God has sent Jesus to free us from our bondage of our sinful nature. When we start believing in Jesus Christ, God sends His Spirit into us to free us from our bondage. He saves us from our own nature. Just like the nation of Israel, we too are now free to worship and serve God. Just like Israel was very happy to be free, it is also at this point we feel God’s Spirit working in us and lifting our sin and guilt from us. This releasing of the guilt of sin makes us feel alive again, but this good feeling usually only lasts until the pressure of sin starts grabbing at us again. So far in this process we are not yet saved onto eternal life. We are only free to make the choices to become born again at this point.

Fast forwarding a little bit, we see the nation of Israel trapped between the red sea and pharaoh’s army. With pharaoh’s army pressing in on them they start doubting God. Even after all the great signs He had already done, they were wanting to go back to slavery.

Ex 14:11-12 - They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

The nation of Israel already wanted to go back to their bondage instead being free. They were people that had no faith in their God. We too as new believers return back to our sinful ways because we don’t have enough faith in God. Well, even though Israel was not faithful, God was. He parted the sea and Israel traveled on dry ground to the other side and then God was glorified by drowning the pharaoh’s army.

After about one and a half months the people of Israel said: Ex 16:3 - If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.

Again Israel could only think out of their own selfishness, they were not interested in glorifying God, they only cared for themselves. Just like Israel, we as believers that have not been completed in God’s love, are still selfish, we are not yet relying just on God’s provisions, we are still trying to satisfy our selfish nature.

Moving forward in this process, we come to the point where Moses was taking a long time to come down from the mountain. When Moses finally comes down he sees that Israel had corrupted them selves by going back to their old ways they had learned in Egypt. They had made a golden calf as an idol that they could worship. This is a representation of a believer being pushed or tempted back into the ways of the world. The believer wants to give in to the pressure out of lack of knowledge of God and out of selfishness to return to what is known and comfortable.

Ex 32:35 - And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.

The verse above represents God’s punishment and cleansing of sinful ways upon the Israel people. God also punishes us as believers out of love for us. When He does this punishment on us, it will either work out cleansing in our heart or harden our hearts away from God. Remember we are now saved from the bondage of sin; we now have a choice to continue with God or go our own way.

Let’s fast forward to Moses sending the spies into the promise land. The spies went into the promise land and verified it was a land of milk and honey. Just like the nation of Israel was able to have a glimpse of the promise land before they entered it, we too in our individual salvation walk will get glimpses of God’s kingdom through His Word and His Spirit. But just like the nation of Israel having many spies that saw the same things, there were only two that were willing to give of them selves fully to fight with God to acquire the promise of God. We too in our walk with God still have parts of us that are and aren’t willing to give in to total obedience of our whole self to God’s will. Often there are parts of our life we are willing to give over to God, just like the two faithful spies of Israel, but we usually also have many areas of our life we are not yet willing to give over to God.

After the spies came back from the land of milk and honey that God wanted to give to them, most of the spies convinced the people of Israel that it was to dangerous. This is what the people of Israel said:

Num 14:2-4 - If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" So they said to one another,” Let us select a leader and return to Egypt."

Again, even after all the great miracles that God did for them and within their sight, the people of Israel did not believe that God would do most of the work of conquering the land for them. Only Joshua and Caleb had faith in God.

Num 14:11-12 - Then the Lord said to Moses: "How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."

Since the rest of the Israel people did not have faith in God and were only reasoning out that they could not fight these giants on their own, God sent Israel back into the desert for 40 years until all the unbelieving people of Israel had been cleansed out (died off). After the 40 years of the purging of unbelief was done, God let Israel come into the promise land.

Num 14:30-32 - Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.

What happened to Israel is what happens spiritually to a believer under the new covenant. All unbelief must be cleansed out of a believer to come to full faith in Jesus Christ. When full faith in Jesus Christ has been attained by the working of God’s Spirit upon our soul, we are then born again of God which gives us access into His eternal kingdom.

The timing of how long this process takes depends on how open a person is to the changes that needs to take place by God. If a person will humble them selves, God will lift up that person. If a person wants to stay in control and be prideful, God will have to wait for that person to be humbled before He can work with that person. Again, Jesus has saved all believers from bondage so he/she can now make their choice to fully serve God or not. The people of Israel were not willing to give their life to take the promise land, but after the 40 years of roaming around in the desert they became willing. We must also come to the point in our belief that we are willing to give our life to receive His promises for us, which is being born again into God’s eternal kingdom.

From God – through me – to you,
Mike Reid

Some of the areas where the US churches are failing

We have lightened up, or sugar coated the gospel to say, all you need to have eternal life is to accept Jesus as your personal savior. We need to emphasize that we need to make Him our Lord and Savior. The Lord part comes before and is more important then the savior part. We can’t have the salvation part without making Him our Lord first. When we make Jesus our Lord, we have to live a life of a humble servant, ready to do what ever glorifies our master. This includes dying to all our selfish desires and living only to please our God. Now I understand that we will fail at this, but this is a heart issue. Our heart must be totally submissive to His Spirit. God’s Holy Spirit will enable us to be submissive with increasing measure as long as we have a repenting heart. It is really God glorifying Himself through us.

We have to emphasize more on the Holy Spirits power. We are powerless to do any good without relying on the Spirit to do all of the good works through us. Many people’s spiritual walk gets stuck in a quagmire because they haven’t been taught about the awesome power within every born again believer – the Holy Spirit. There are also a lot of people restricting or rejecting the Spirit, because they really don’t want to give up certain parts of their life. These people need help from the Word, the Spirit, and church leaders to help bring this unwillingness to die to the flesh out in the open. The Bible commands that we must live by the Spirit - God’s Spirit within us. If we rely on ourselves we will fail, if we rely on His Spirit we will triumph over all.

The church needs to help point out all the devils deceptions that are working to keep us away from God. One of these big deceptions is money; the Word says “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil”. Many people in most churches are caught up in this trap. The fact is that many churches are teaching their flock that this is one of the major ways God blesses you. Having enough money to sustain you and your family is a blessing, having more than enough money can easily turn into a trap of the devil, where we rely on ourselves and our money instead of God.

There is another deception working behind the scenes. It is that we have to wait for Christ’s kingdom to come before we can obtain the perfection of the heart that God is looking for each believer to have. We have to fight off this belief. Jesus’ kingdom is here now and has been ever since Christ returned to His apostles after His resurrection. We have the full cleansing and sanctifying power of God’s Spirit now. We do not have to wait!

Another lie some churches are teaching is – Jesus did it all at the cross. Jesus only did what God had to and only God could do. He would not do what we had to do. What we have to do is, make a choice to love Him voluntarily and accept Jesus whole heartedly as Lord. To accept Jesus as Lord might sound easy, but for humanity it is the hardest thing to do, because of our pride. We want to stay lord of our own life.A deception of what it takes to be a true believer ( Christian ) has been watered down also, As I mentioned above, we must accept Jesus as our Lord. When we sincerely accept Jesus as Lord, we whole heartedly have to give ourselves as a living sacrifice. God demands this to be a whole heart decision, not a partial heart decision. If we are truly trusting in Jesus completely, then in time the Spirit will bring to realization through sanctification what has all ready happened within our heart. But if we keep on restricting the Spirit to the point of rejecting His Spirit’s leading in any aspects of our life, that previous decision was not whole hearted. If this falling away of the faith happens, they were never a true believer or Christian, so they never had the promise of eternal salvation. A person never can lose eternal salvation if the person never had it in the first place.

Even though righteousness from works is not taught from the pulpit, many people try to act like Christians instead of actually being Christians or relying on the Spirit in them. They hear from the pulpit and teachers that if we are Christians we should have certain qualities of love and act a certain way, which is correct, but then they try to do these works on their own. We have to help people understand good works is just a byproduct of God’s Spirit being inside a person and working through a person. Many churched people are trying to do on their own what the Spirit should be doing. I can tell you from experience, if a person has the Spirit in them and they are letting God’s Spirit work in them, they will automatically be doing works by loving people through the gifts given to them. If the Spirit is the one doing the work, that work being done will be a joy to do, it will not be any hardship to the person. When the Spirit has taken over a person’s heart, that person’s desires are all about what is best for the other person. We no longer are interested on what we can get out of a situation or person; we have all we need in the Spirit. In fact we end up having so much love from the Spirit; it wells up in us and overflows to others. If a person is doing good works, but is not enjoying doing it, it is important for that person to go to God and look at why they don’t feel like doing that good work. It might not be the Spirit doing it. They might need more of a renewing heart instead of trying to keep doing the work.

Hell must be emphasized more than it is. Hell cannot be just explained as being separated from God. As good as Heaven is, the opposite is true for hell. Hell is so bad our human minds cannot fathom it. There needs to be a healthy fear of what awaits us if we don’t have Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We also must keep explaining how bad hell is to motivate Christians to go out and witness to unbelievers. If we have the heart of God and truly understand hell and that all unbelievers are going there, we will be motivated to bring people to Christ out of love for them. This is the same love Christ showed and we are called to show.

The Bible indicates very strongly that if we have a repentive heart for our sin(s) we are forgiven for our personal sins. But if we don’t have a repentive heart of our sin(s), we are not forgiven for our personal sins. Forgiveness of personal sins is not just for the asking, there must be a repenting heart to go along with the asking.

Praying for our churches,
Michael Reid

Sanctification - What Is It Really

When we first come to the Lord and He starts changing us from the inside out, some of us don’t really know how he does this miracle. We talk about this as the sanctification process. Most of us think God’s Spirit is sanctifying us by ridding us of our sins. It is true He needs us to become people totally living for Him and living a righteous life for Him and in site of others. But getting rid of the sins is really a byproduct of something else that is really happening within our hearts.

The sanctification process is really all about changing who we love. When we first come to Christ, most of us are still absorbed in loving ourselves and only thinking of our self preservation and needs. The sanctification process changes this process from loving self to loving Him. This is done by getting to know and trust in God with an ever increasing love and dependence on God. The sanctification process in not really about purifying us from our sins, it is all about a transformation of our heart, it is all about transferring our love from loving ourselves to loving God alone.

What determines whether we sin or not, depends only on who we love the most. If we love the sin more than God, we will be disobedient to God and perform the sin. If we love God more than the sin, we will abstain from that sin for the glory of God. It is just like having a son who is obedient to his earthly father. If the son loves the father, he will try to please his father in everything he does, because the obedience is out of love for the father. But, if the son decides to be disobedient even though that son might have some love for the father, the love for himself over rules the love for the father and then the disobedience happens against the father.
It is all about who you love and who you are trying to please. Sin, disobedience, or righteousness is just the result of where your love lies.

God bless - Michael Reid

Romans 7 – So misunderstood

I was not planning on writing a message on the interpretation of Romans 7 until I realized that the misunderstanding of this passage was deceiving many away from God's truth. This scripture is so misunderstood by most churches.

There is an epidemic of misunderstanding of what a true Christian is and everybody with this misunderstanding seems to keep pointing to Romans 7 for their justification for this misunderstanding.

The misunderstanding originates from Romans 7:14-20.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Most have misunderstood this verse because Apostle Paul seems to be writing this about himself. Since Paul is a born again Christian at the time he wrote this, people assume this is what a Christian is like.

If people fully understand the rest of the New Testament, they would quickly see these verses could not even be remotely considered to be representing what a true Christian is. To say a born again Christian is still controlled by his sinful nature is an oxy-moron. The phrases “born again Christian” and “controlled by sinful nature” cannot exist in the same person. Either you are still controlled in part or in full by your sinful nature or you are a born again Christian where the sinful nature has no control over you.

To start understanding this scripture we must understand whether this person Paul is talking about is born again or not. One of the key verses that indicates this is not a Christian is in Romans 7:14.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin..

When we are a Christian we are filled with God’s Spirit which has transformed our heart into a heart of love. Romans 7:14-20 is indicating a person’s life without the Holy Spirit in it. Without the Spirit in us, we have no hope of conquering sin on our own and we are still a slave to sin.

Apostle Paul is actually talking theoretically about any person, including himself, and how we are powerless with just our own human capabilities to get rid of sin. We learned throughout the Old Testament that we cannot obey God’s commandments on our own without the Holy Spirit’s power in us. This is what Paul is stressing in his letter. He is helping them understand what all of Israel already new before Christ came to die on the cross for us. The Jews knew the law was good but they were not capable of fulfilling the law.

Ever since the time when Adam ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, we have had the knowledge of good and evil in us. Remember it was the knowledge of good and evil, not just evil. The big problem ever since the original sin is not that we can’t know what is good, it is that we could not do any of the good we had knowledge of without the power of God in us. This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 7:15-16.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.

Paul goes on to say that it is the sin, or evil, living in this person doing the sin since this person is still under the law. It is evident that this person does not have the Holy Spirit living in him. Paul concludes in Romans 7:17-18 that the only thing living in this person is the sinful nature.
As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.

Now to keep this passage in context, let’s go back to the passages before Romans 7:14-20 to Romans 7:1.

Do you not know, brothers — for I am speaking to men who know the law — that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?

We see here that Paul is addressing people that know the Jewish law and emphasize that all men are under the control of the law until they die. Another words, we have to die to be free from the law. To illustrate his point Paul uses marriage as an example in Romans 7:2-3.

For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.

So what Paul is emphasizing here is that we have to die to the law before we can be bound to another, which is Jesus Christ. We die to the law by believing in the perfect body of Jesus Christ dieing on the cross for us. In Romans 7:4-6 Paul explains this for us.

So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

If we believe Jesus Christ died for us, then we believe through the cross we also died and are no longer bound to the law and are now under God’s grace and no longer under the control of the sinful nature. We are given a new heart from God which does not have any selfishness or sin in it, but only love for God and love for all of God’s creation. True love cannot contain any selfishness or sin of any kind. Because this new heart that is from God has only love, it cannot willfully sin. Through this new heart we now have control of the body instead of the sinful nature in the body controlling us. Only God can do this and everything is possible with God.

Matthew 19:26 - Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Today Romans 7 is falsely preached from many pulpits with the idea that Christians can’t keep from sinning. This has been another deception from the devil that a lot of people have believed because it supports people believing they are born again when they truly haven’t had a total heart transformation yet. Don’t let yourself be fooled by this lie of the devil. The truth is, when your born again you can, through God’s Spirit’s power in you, conquer all the sins that His word or His Spirit convicts you of.

Remember God’s grace is His Spirit working in and through you – Michael Reid