We have been learning the importance of seeing our sins the way God sees them.  No one naturally wants to see their sin God's way. 

One morning after hitting the snooze button one too many times I barely made it out the door in time to get to work.  By this point in my Christian walk I was really trying to establish a time each morning to meet with the Lord in prayer and Bible study.  But when I raised up out of bed I did what I always did: reached for the can of Copenhagen (smokeless tobacco) and put a large pinch between my cheek and gums.  By the time I got to the bathroom to shave I could already feel the initial rush from the strong tobacco.  

This particular morning I rushed out the door without coffee or breakfast...or prayer and Bible study.  As I pulled out of the driveway I suddenly had a flow of thoughts...that were obviously God-directed.  "You didn't have time to meet with Me this morning, did you?"  To which I thought, "No, Lord.  Forgive me.  I need to get in bed earlier tonight."  

The next thought came in like a surgeon's scalpel: "You had time for your tobacco god, though, didn't you?" 

I was stunned by those thoughts.  Tobacco god?  Then my mind was flooded with Scripture verses, like, "Thou shall have no other gods before Me."  "Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength."  (Many times when God speaks to you, there will be immediate confirmation as the Holy Spirit brings to mind specific verses of Scripture that support the thoughts.) The thoughts continued to come in, "When I ask you to get up and pray, you sometimes do and sometimes don't.  But when your tobacco god calls upon you, you always respond.  Even late at night or early in the morning.  You have another god in your life.  And that god has more control of you than I do."

What do you say when that happens?  Do you make shallow promises like you've always done in the past?  Like, "Oh, sorry about that God.  I'm going to try even harder this time."  No, you don't.  When the sword of the Spirit comes in and lays open your heart and thoughts, you simply yield.

My eyes actually teared up.  I said, "Lord, I'm ashamed.  I never saw this habit as a rival god in my life.  But it's true. I'm an idolater.  I've given tobacco a greater place in my life than You.  This is really sick.  It's ugly.  It's sin.  And I've called it everything but sin.  Forgive me, Lord.  I hate this.  Deliver me from this God-mocking idolatry.  Please take full control of my life.  I don't know how to be any different.  You'll have to do something I can't do on this one."

It might seem like an "insignificant" sin to you.  And that's just the problem with many of the rival thrones in our hearts.  They seem "insignificant" to us.  Never mind that they are the kinds of things that demanded Jesus be nailed to a cross for you.  He died and rose again so that you could be freed from every false god and every besetting sin.

I never touched tobacco again.  I knew I was free that morning.  It wasn't with gritted teeth and wil-power that I escaped from this snare.  God "granted" repentance to me, and it brought a powerful deliverance.  I saw my tobacco "problem" from God's perspective.  God spoke to me.  His Word pierced through the layers of sin-protecting deception in my heart.  He called it idolatry: a false god that I worshiped. 

Later I learned that the Greek word for "confess" (as in "confess your sin") is homologeo.  "Homo" means "the same", and "logeo" means "to say".  We have not really "confessed" our sins until we "say the same" as God and His Word says about it.  

That morning I called it what God called it and a powerful thing happened.  I was instantly set free.  It's been 22 years since that vain idol was removed from my heart.  Do all sinful strongholds disappear so instantly when God speaks?  No.  Sometimes the freedom requires a season of serious obedience and even the added help of accountability from others.   But one thing is for sure: you've got to get God's word on the sin issue.  Until you see it from His perspective, you'll lack His power in dealing with it.

Why don't you pause right now and ask God to give you His perspective on any chronic sin issue you are struggling with?  One word from God can radically alter the rest of your life. 

        

One thing I began to learn early on in my walk with God is that one must call sin what God calls it if you are to have God's help in overcoming it.  Do you know what the problem is with most "besetting" sins?  By "besetting" I mean those sins that are habitual and chronic, that routinely keep one enslaved.  Already I may have lost some you.  It never occurred to you to consider yourself a "slave" of something.  Once a man remarked, "I've never been a slave to anything."  I asked him, "What have you successfully ever quit doing?"  The problem with besetting sins is that we call them by another name. We don't call it what God calls it. 

Let me illustrate with a paradigm shattering experience I had during the first year of my return to the Lord.  In an earlier post I shared how God used a wonderful Christian couple to help me really grow in the Lord.  Steve and Vicky were a gift from God to me.  Vicky  was bold enough to lovingly confront me about my addiction to tobacco.  She said that it was not a good testimony in front of her small child.  The truth is, it wasn't a good testimony anywhere I went.  But I wasn't strongly of that opinion...yet.

After Vicky lovingly confronted me I thought, "I need to kick this bad habit."  Actually, I had tried to quite a number of times over the years.  But I would always cave-in and buy more tobacco.  I was truly addicted.  My grandmother, during her lengthy battle with emphysema (brought on by years of smoking), had offered me $500 to quit tobacco for one month.  I didn't even consider it.  One time my "spit cup" (for you upper class folks, that's a cup you use to spit your tobacco juice in when you're inside a building or when you're in a four-wheel-drive truck and going too fast to spit out the window and not man enough to swallow the stuff) tumped over into my girlfriend's lap.  Oh yeah, it did.  

More and more I had been thinking about quitting my habit.  It was not a wise use of my money, which I was learning was actually God's money.  It was a poor testimony for Christ.  It was not good for my health. I had a real problem with tobacco.  I can remember being under conviction about it and throwing the last bit in my possession out the window as I drove down the road.  I would say, "Lord, I'm done with this nasty habit.  I'm never going to touch that stuff again. God help me."  I think I was sincere at the time.  But three hours later, in a fit of addiction, I would pull over at a convenience store and buy another can of Copenhagen.  I suppose that sincerity is better than willful lies, but it does not have the power to deliver you from sin.  I can still remember the guilt and shame I felt when I would use tobacco again, "What a pitiful excuse for a Christian you are..."  Yet none of this sort of approach ever brought me deliverance from my struggle.

Do you see what the problem is at it's most basic level?  I called the issue a habit, a problem, a waste of money, a bad testimony, etc. etc.  But I never called it what God called it.  Sin needs to be called what it is.

God will deliver you from your enemies but not your friends.

In the next post I'll relay how I was set free in a moment after hearing God's voice.

        

(continued from the previous post)

I knew I had only once choice, if I planned on going forward with God.  I had to call the professor back.  But before I called I carefully gave a lot of thought to what I would say.  Finally, I made the call, said my spiel, and hung up.  No sooner had I hung up when I was gripped inwardly with the thought, "You simply told him more lies."  I figured it was God's Spirit convicting me of sin...again.  At that point I was almost physically sick!  In reality my "confession" had been a lie in itself. I had told the man that I had "mispoken" and had "previously failed to explain the situation accurately..."!  Just call me Dr. Spin, the image specialist.  Now I would have to call the man again.  Iwas a given that he'd think I was a psycho now.

I couple of days later, feeling all miserable, I dialed the professor up again.  While I was dialing I found my mind racing to think of  ways to gloss over what I'd done.  When I realized what I was thinking I said outloud, "Stop this in Jesus' name.  I'm not going to lie to cover a lie anymore.  I'm going to tell the truth only."  It was humble pie.  But I did it.  I told the dear man that because I so treasured his opinion of me that I had hesitated to really tell him the truth.  I had lied to God and lied to him.  God was dealing with me about really being a man of truth and I was a work in progress.  Would he forgive me for lying to him two times now?

He was very gracious and forgave me.  I wasn't prepared for what happened next.  As I hung up the phone there was a sense of relief, for my conscience was now clear.  Then suddenly it was as if the roof of the house was lifted off.  There came a joy indescribably into my soul in that instant.  I was filled up with the sense of God's deep approval of my life.  I wept for joy.  The thought that came to me in that moment was, "You mean this is what I've been running from?  My lies have been keeping me from this kind of joy and cleanness of conscience?"  I had been telling lies in hopes of gaining the approval of men.  All the while I was forfeiting the approval of God.  When I got that turned around I began to immediately sense the approval of my heavenly Father.  This is real stuff, folks.

My perspective on living to please God changed that day.  Though I didn't have words for it then, what I have learned is that when I pursue God and seek to please Him and to obey His voice, I'm also pursuing what will bring the highest joy to my own life.  Many of you reading this stuff may be feeling conviction from the Holy Spirit right now.  You've been seeking men's approval at the expense of truth - and have been forfeiting the joy of having God's approval on your life.  Perhaps you always thought that surrendering to God meant giving up the potential of really enjoying life.  You've been lied to, my friend.  Maybe you've been lying to yourself as well.

Today, twenty-two years later, I'm even more convinced that Jesus' will for our lives is calculated to bring us joy:

"These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full." (John 15:11)

        

Anyone who wants to experience God speaking to them must begin where the Spirit of God begins!  The Spirit of God takes the truth of God (we know God's truth through the Scriptures) and skillfully applies it very personally to our lives and conduct. (See John 16:7-13)

During the first year of my return to the Father (see the previous posts), the Holy Spirit had to work overtime in bringing me to see my sin issues!  Some of the junk in my life was so obvious I didn't need anyone's help seeing it.  But other things were more subtle.  Like my image-management skills.

Did I say lying?  Well, I didn't exactly see my lies as lies in those days.  They were more like my sincere and creative image- building spins on near truths. Things I could say or imply that would help my image - or so I thought.  One day the Holy Spirit convicted me about a lie I told to a professor in the college where I worked.  I had forgotten about a verbal commitment I had made to him many months before and when he asked me about it, trying to hide my embarrassment and not wanting him to think that I didn't value his opinion, I "fabricated" a story that was partially true and partially fiction.  It made my lapse of memory look almost virtuous.  As far as I could tell the professor was still impressed with me.  But there was this sort of sinking feeling afterward.  I hate that dreaded sinking feeling.

When I got home that evening God brought to front-and-center the situation from earlier in the day.  He showed me very clearly that I had simply lied to the man.  I felt that He wanted me to call the professor and confess my lie and ask his forgiveness.  Whoah, now.  That was more than I was really prepared to do.  I mean, what would the man think of me?  First, he'd think I was a liar (imagine that).  Secondly, he'd probably think I was a religious nut-job. 

I tried to avoid the conviction of sin the Holy Spirit was bringing. I tried to moralize and trivialize.  But I couldn't shake it.  I simply refused to obey the Lord for several days and found myself sinking into a real ditch of discouragement and depression.  I realized that I couldn't enjoy the fellowship of God's Spirit unless I walked in the light as He was in the light (see 1 John 1:7).  I would never have peace with God until I dealt with this issue truthfully.  Ah, the Spirit of truth.  He wreaks havoc on the spirit of deception in a man's heart!  I had to talk to the professor. 

Jacob may have wrestled with God all night long, but I wrestled for a couple of days.  I didn't want to confess who I really was... 

In the next post...the liar finally goes public.

        

(This post is a continuance of the last one.)

My friend and I negotiated a rental agreement and I moved out in the country the following weekend.  Still in the back of my mind was the clear thought (I couldn't shake it off) about the church sign I had seen and what I felt God had said, "Be there on Sunday."

So on Sunday morning I made myself get up and drive over to that little country church.  I can still remember the heart palpitations I had as I walked up that sidewalk to the little white frame building.  All sorts of fearful thoughts were flooding my mind, like, "Don't do it.  You don't know anyone here.  They won't accept you.  You don't want to give up your freedom for this...."  I almost turned around and went back to my truck.  But something drew me on.  I know now it was the mercy and power of God. 

I was really nervous as I entered the church.  I remember almost nothing of that first visit - except Steve and Vicky.  I met this amazing couple who were the friendliest people in the world.  Wow.  Steve became my best friend almost overnight.  Vicky became a sister to me and a little like a mom too!  I have fond memories of sitting on their front porch for hours in the evenings, discussing the Bible and Oswald Chambers. Steve was a fairly new Christian and had a testimony similar to mine.  He had avoided God for many years but had finally surrendered to Christ.  His life was obviously being transformed.   

With a Bible in one hand hand and a glass of sweet iced tea in the other, I could spit tobacco juice at least six feet, clearing the edge of the porch.  I don't remember Steve every saying anything about the snuff dipping.  Vicky, however, was bold enough to confront me for being a "bad example" in front of her four-year-old, Jon.  Mind you, she didn't do this at first, but only after many months of feeding me supper at her table at least once each week.  I think she earned the right after all those delicious home-cooked meals!  

God knows I had some serious sin issues to deal with in those early days.  I regularly abused alcohol - it was a daily dependence.  And I was a slave to pornography.  And these were just the obvious bondage issues.

Steve and I would become like iron sharpening iron to one another.  We both read Oswald Chamber's classic devotional daily.  Oswald challenged us to truly surrender to and live for God and to expect God to speak to us.  And He did.  I began to experience God's presence in my life as never before.  One by one I was escaping the sins that had formerly controlled my life.    

In those early days I learned that God's Spirit deals with us along the lines of truth.  If you don't want to walk in the truth, you can forget about hearing from God on a significant basis.  This reality brought a serious crisis early in my new walk with God.

I'll never forget the day that God began to specifically confront my lying tendency.  More next time.

        

On July 4, 1988 I was enjoying a day off from work.  I was in my early twenties and my life had drifted far from any real concern with the things of God.  My current roommate was soon to get married and I needed to move out of his house.  I had another single friend who owned a house about 20 miles out of town.  It would be a longer commute but I was kind of missing the rural setting I grew up in.  So I drove out to look at the guy's spare bedroom on my day off.

About one mile before I reached his house I passed a small side road where there was a church sign that read, "Evergreen Freewill Baptist Church, one mile".  It had a little green arrow pointing to the south.  As soon as I read the sign I had this clear and authoritative thought flash through my mind: "Be there this Sunday."

I had maybe been to a Sunday worship service 4-5 times in the previous year.  And that occurred on weekends when I visited my parents and accompanied them to church.  Partying on Saturday nights and sleeping in on Sundays was my lifestyle.  But deep in my heart I knew I needed to be in church somewhere.  I knew I was avoiding God. I had promised God off and on over the years that when I graduated from college or got married that I would "settle down" and get right with Him.  But the truth is that I felt I was enjoying my life of avoiding God. I wasn't miserable.  Actually, I was mostly successful, had good friends, was making enough money, and had few responsibilities in life.  And the partying seemed pretty fun.

But I was living in sin.  I was believing the lie that my life under my control was better than under God's control.  And the truth is I had no idea what I was missing by serving sin rather than the Living God.  And though it was the start of a process, it all began to change in an instant, when God spoke unmistakably to my heart: "Be there this Sunday."

In the next post I'll tell you what happened on that Sunday when I obeyed God's voice.

        

When I was eight years old our family attended a revival service at the First Assembly of God church in DeLeon, Texas.  Though my parents had always attended and served in Baptist churches, the year was 1973 and the "Charismatic movement" was going full steam.  My parents were experiencing spiritual renewal and associated with friends from many different church backgrounds, some of whom were charismatic or Pentecostal.
 
I remember little about the church service that night, outside of the preacher, his message, and my response.  The speaker was a veteran of the Vietnam war.  He had been a committed Christian as a soldier.  He told many stories of how God divinely protected him and other soldiers around him - even giving dreams to warn them in advance of upcoming danger.  I was a typical boy.  Most of life for me and my two brothers revolved around fighting or pretending to fight and shooting BB guns.  Playing "army" was as much a part of life's routine as eating and sleeping, definitely more important than taking baths.

The Holy Spirit captured my full attention that night.  I hung on every word.  The preacher told of how God used the circumstances of war to bring many soldiers to an awareness of their need of salvation.  Many soldiers in his outfit came to know Christ through learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Jesus died for sinners, to bring forgiveness to them and eternal life.  Jesus could help a person come to know God as their spiritual Father.  Before the night was over I felt compelled to respond to the "altar call" and to believe the truths of the gospel.  I had been awakened to my need for a Savior.  I realized that my heart was not right before God.  I knew that if God was just and gave me what I deserved, that my lying and disobedience would shut me out of heaven. 

Can a little boy really understand such things?  Or was I simply caught up in some sort of religious hysteria or mind control?  I think it is amazing that 30-40 years later I can still remember so much of what happened that night!  There was no hysteria or group-think going on.  God had spoken very personally to my heart.  Actually, in the Bible Jesus said that unless you are converted and become like a child that you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven!

The preacher (along with my dad who had accompanied me to the front) prayed with me and helped me confess my sins and consciously receive by faith the promise of forgiveness of sins in Jesus.  When I stood up from that Pentecostal altar of prayer I was a different person. I knew that my sins were forgiven.  I knew that I was a real Christian.  The child had entered the kingdom of heaven!  I had a deep peace in my heart and was not afraid to die.  I knew I had met God.

God had spoken to my heart that night through the wonderful testimony of a soldier who loved Jesus and who regularly heard from the Lord - even on the battlefield. I know that God still speaks.  And I heard His voice for the first time when I was eight years old. I was water baptized a couple of weeks later in the First Baptist Church in Gorman, Texas. It would be a few years before I remember dramatically hearing God's voice again.

        

Before I embark on several posts of sharing stories of God's proofs in my life, I felt it only right to go back well over one hundred years.

In the late 1800's, my great-grandfather, William Walter Gressett, had an encounter with Jesus Christ while plowing in the field behind a mule team.  Apparently he had been exposed to the Gospel in a "camp meeting" but had not had any kind of "conversion" experience or had not expressed any personal "commitment" to Christ up until that point.

One day while plowing my great-grandfather had a revelation of the reality of God's love for Him, as revealed in the historical death of Jesus  Christ for his sins.  Suddenly he knew that not only was it true, but that it was true for him!  He was loved by God and God had provided a way for His sins to be fully forgiven.  He delighted in these thoughts, accepted them as absolutely true, and found himself suddenly filled with a joy he couldn't contain.

William Walter Gressett had been born in 1847 in Jasper County, Mississippi.  He had twelve children, and some of them were at home when he came in from the field that day.  Apparently he was still shouting for joy over his fresh experience with the love of God in Christ Jesus.  It seems that some of the smaller children were initially afraid of their daddy, as his entire countenance had changed.  He went on to become a circuit-riding preacher, of the old-time Methodist variety. On my shelf I have a well-used leather-bound Pastor's manual that was his.  It was printed in 1898 by the Methodist Episcopal-South denomination.  He died in 1917.  My grandfather, Robert Evans Gressett, was William Walter's youngest son and was only nine when his dad went to be with the Lord.  Forty-seven years would separate William Walter's departure from this earth and my arrival in 1964.

But I have the same shouting variety of faith that found him in the field that day.  God is still a God who speaks to His people. And His voice brings joy. He hasn't changed.  He is as faithful to me as He was to my great-grandfather.

        

Years ago a University student who claimed to be agnostic made a very firm statement to me.  He said, "If God is real and wants me to seriously consider serving Him, then all He has to do is show himelf to me in a very conclusive way."  My sense was that the young man was mostly sincere in his statement, but that he didn't understand the fatal bias that held him captive to spiritual blindness.

Here are two fundamental truths you must grasp if you are ever to hear from God more tangibly.  First, God is not insecure, weak or needy.  (Regardless of how some willy-nilly Christians may have portrayed Him.) He doesn't need you or me to need him or to serve him.  If you have no intention of trusting him or yielding your life to his agenda, he may be content to allow you to live out your days in denial.  That denial will end when you stand before Him at the end of time to give an account for your unbelief and rebellion.

The second principle is kin to the first: You must honor Him and yield to Him before He will show more of Himself to you.  He owes you nothing.  He is far greater than you and deserves honor and respect from you.  There is a protocol in all of this. You must humble yourself first, then God will give you grace.  If you maintain a proud and arrogant attitude toward His existence, He will resist all your attempts to control Him.  Again, contrary to what a lot of pseudo-Christians may reflect, God cannot be controlled or manipulated by man.

Recently I have been reflecting on the almost innumerable encounters I have had with the living God over the years.  I began making a list of these in my journal.  Molly (my wife) told me this morning that I ought to write down a detailed account of these things.  She said that she will not be able to remember them all when I'm gone.  And God knows that I'm already forgetting many of them while I'm still here!  I speak as if I'm an old man at 45! 

The greatest joy of my life is that as I have purposed to trust Him and obey Him, however He has led me, He has been pleased to daily load me not only with evidences of His actual personhood, but with tangible benefits and marvelous proofs of His love for me and real strength and resources for carrying out His will.

Over the next several posts, I'll be sharing some of the wonderful ways that I have encountered and experienced the real and living God over the years.  I hope it will encourage you to press in to know Him too.  At the very least I will have made record of these things for posterity's sake.

        

12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.  (John 16:12-15, emphasis mine)

While I was in Seminary I greatly enjoyed my Hermeneutics class.  In Hermeneutics we learned some very important principles that should guide us as we seek to properly interpret the Bible.  The class was very helpful.  One of the principles of Biblical interpretation that was touched on was the role of the Holy Spirit ("the pneumatic principle").  Unfortunately, though the course lasted an entire semester, we only spent about five minutes looking into the Holy Spirit's role in the the interpretation process.

I have wondered what a class would look like that was entitled, "Hermeneutics with Jesus."  I think the verses from John 16 above reflect a large part of what Jesus would teach in that class.  Consider the following:

1. There's always more to the text, more to the topic or issue, than you currently understand. (v.12)  God speaks progressively.
2. Your current spiritual maturity sets a limit on what you can hear from Jesus. (v.12) You are accountable for what you hear.
3. The Holy Spirit is given to us as our personal guide and Teacher. (v.13) You've got the very Spirit that inspired the writers of the Bible living on the inside of you.
4. You will not properly or accurately apprehend what God is saying to you without the Holy Spirit's help. (v.12-13) Your brain alone is not sufficient for the task. Accept that fact.  Learn to live with it. Never study your Bible without acknowledging your need for the Spirit's help.
5. The Holy Spirit deals only in truth. (v.13) Truth is a Person.  Truth is always Christ-centered.  The goal is not knowledge but rather Christlikeness.
6. You must not have an agenda for God's voice. (v.13)  The Holy Spirit doesn't even set the agenda! He only reveals to us what the Father and Son have given Him for us. You've got to let God be God. Set aside your agendas, pet doctrines, and sacred cows.
7. The Holy Spirit will prepare you for the future. (v.13)  God already knows your future. The Holy Spirit will see that your are prepared for it. 
8. Jesus is glorified as His followers grow in Spirit-taught understanding of His person, character, and purposes.(v.14) We are transformed into the image of Jesus as we see and experience Him more fully.
9. The Holy Spirit guides us into our full inheritance as the children of God. (v.15) We are co-heirs with Christ and share the same Father. The Holy Spirit guides us to progressively share in and experience the privileges and power of our sonship. There is no such thing as a second-class son or daughter of God!  (To read more about the staggering revelation of sonship, click here.) 

I bet there are some other great applications from this passage that you may have seen.  I'd love to hear what the Holy Spirit has helped you understand as well.

        

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. (John 10:27)

In the Bible we read that Jesus said His people would recognize His voice.  I find this to be a wonderful promise.  If I am a believer, a true follower of Christ, it is evidence that I've already heard His voice.  Furthermore, I have the great privilege of being one who continually hears His voice.  Connect the dots!

You don't follow Christ because you're so wise and have above average spiritual sensitivity.  You follow Him because He chose to speak to your heart.  Many believers would never dare to claim that they have heard God's voice.  But Jesus said that all of His sheep  know His voice and follow Him.

The word for "voice" in the Greek text is phone. We get our English words "phone" and "phonetics" from this root word.  It literally means a sound or tone.  Sheep learn to recognize the tone of the shepherd's voice.  These dumb animals don't learn an actual human language, like Hebrew or English.  But they do learn to recognize the tone or sound of their Shepherd's voice.

All of my five children learned to recognize the tone of my voice before they learned the English language!  If a stranger spoke they would not respond, but if mommy or daddy spoke there would be a different response.  They were familiar with our tone.  Jesus' voice has a distinct tone as well.  It's not an audible tone but a spiritual one.  The tone of someone's voice often conveys even more than the actual words they are saying.  Actually, I can say one thing with the literal words I am using and convey the very opposite with my tone!  Condemnation, shame, disgust, or kindness, love, and patience can all be conveyed with the tone of the voice.  The tone of a voice is usually a reflection of the emotions and character behind the voice. 

Have you recognized that your preconceived ideas and prejudices about someone can often cloud your hearing with a tone that's not really there? If I feel deep down in my heart that you dislike me and have something against me, I will often misinterpret your tone. You may say kind words but I will not be able to receive them because of the tone I think I perceive.  This is usually due to unresolved conflict, misunderstanding, or hurts from the past.  Many believers read the inspired words of Scripture and somehow miss the tone. They still feel alienated from God emotionally.  Their minds might assent to concepts of the Scripture but their hearts somehow don't bear witness to it.  For instance, they read: Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the sons of God; and such we are." (1 John 3:1)  They read this and yet feel nothing.  They understand the "letter" of the word but miss the spirit of it.  The proper tone is somehow either not conveyed or it is misinterpreted through the fog of their unbelief, sense of personal failure, shame, resentment, unforgiveness, etc. 

But Jesus' voice is never condescending to His sheep.  Condemnation and shame are not part of His tone.  His voice is the good voice.  His voice is the merciful one, the kind and forgiving one.  He lays down His life for His sheep. He has died to redeem them and cover their shame.  His tone imparts an endearing sense of safety and compassion and drives out fear and rejection.  Even if He is disciplining us, it is because of His great love for us.

Would you say you are hearing the Good Shepherd's tone when you read or listen to His Word?  Why do you think this is?  Think about it.  Ask the Father to give you light on this issue.

 

        

An author I really appreciate is Dr. R.T. Kendall.  He was the successor of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel (who followed G. Campbell Morgan).  I had the opportunity to briefly meet Dr. Kendall last year when he spoke to our network of churches.  Previous to that I had also received a kind rejection email from him after I asked him to read a manuscript I had written and make suggestions.  He was too busy trying to catch bonefish, he said.  It was something he retired to Florida to do, but never had time for.  So now you'e not so impressed that Dr. Kendall is my acqauintance?  Well, so much for name dropping....

Here's what Dr. Kendall says in the Intro to his book, Out of Your Comfort Zone: Your God is Too Nice:

    Perhaps some people only want God to look nice.  Others are embarrassed that a number of our forebears, some educated, some uneducated, stressed things about God that do not appeal to non-Christians today.  Such forbears gave Christianity, it is believed, a bad name.  We have inherited this, and we want to shed this image once and for all.  Some theology departments and seminaries have consequently sought to turn out ministers and clergymen who will give God better press.  Some Christians are also sensitive to the criticism that non-Christians may have for the Church; they want to be accepted so they say, "Hang on, that isn't what I believe," as if this will cause everbody to say, "Oh, good!  Now I want to be a Christian."  Yet has our apologizing for the way God is perceived by many worked?  Has it brought tens of thousands into our churches?
    No. You know it and I know it.
    I would like to think that if we stopped apologizing for God, or gave up trying to make Him look appealing, we would have greater success.  Yet maybe not.  But I know we would have His approval.  If we will thoughtfully hold up the God of the Bible as He Himself chose to describe Himself in His Word, I believe He will honor this.  I would predict that to the degree we do, the Holy Spirit will work to convert more and more people and bring greater awareness of the true God than to any extent previously seen.

Dr. Kendall always makes me think.  If the excerpt above is tasty to you, you can buy the book for $0.75 at the link I provided.  

Dr. Kendall mentioned how some Christians are "embarrassed that a number of our forbears...stressed things about God that do not appeal to non-Christians today..."  So we feel we must apologize for them.  Sometimes this can be motivated by genuine repentance on our part - though rarely, I expect.  Like I am truly ashamed that my forbears used the Bible to justify owning and keeping slaves.  It was pure self-serving deception.  Nonetheless, usually our embarrassment about what's gone on before us is motivated by our inane desire to be accepted by our peers and not be seen as kooks and dummies.  I don't like being thought of as a dummy any more than the next guy, I'll admit.  But before I start apologizing for, let's say, the Puritans, I might should look a little more deeply into what they preached and wrote.  I might find that they were for the most part accurately representing the God who has revealed Himself to us in the Bible. God may be far more happy with puritanical values than is today's metrosexual dude who gets his kicks watching porn and sitcoms. He is convinced in his own mind that his worldview is superior to the puritanical version - and he feels a sense of self-righteousness in his position.

Is the real God, the God of the Bible, offensive to the typical worldling?  Without exception.  While there is much in the real Jesus that is attractive to sinners (who know their need), any non-believer who is not offended by some aspect of the God of the Bible has not actually been taught accurately about Him!  The Gospel is a stumbling block to the pride and lusts of man.  Always was and always will be.  Many people come to Jesus like He's a therapist or a career coach.  They only set up an appointment when they feel like getting some input - input, by the way, that they can take or leave.  But this is not the picture of Jesus from the Bible. 

The essence of sin and indeed all that is in the world (according to John the Apostle) is,  the sinful desires of the flesh, the sinful desires of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life... The Gospel confronts this, exposes this, and for those who humble themselves and admit their disease, and look to God's answer in Christ, it also cures it! And may I say it replaces those fallen desires with holy ones that yield even greater pleasure?

A lot of popular church movements are based not upon faithfulness to Christ and His gospel, but on following Him from a safe distance and apologizing for those who went before us but got too close to the Fire.  Fire has a way of changing things. 

Again, I admit there have been (and still are) crazies who have given the church a bad name.  People who hold up signs that say, "God hates fags", for instance, are not adequately representing the God of the Bible.  The problem the Pharisees had with Jesus in His own day was that they felt He was far too willing to be kind and patient with gross sinners.  So yeah, there are people who misrepresent God and unneccesarily give Him a bad name.  Mind you, I'm not much of a tv watcher.  But some of the stuff I've seen on TBN over the years surely falls into the "crazy" category.  There's something about wigs that are blue and about three feet tall that turn people off!  Though by looking at some of the hairdos in the mall I don't understand why.

But my point is that the Gospel is enough to offend sinners without us having to help in the process by acting stupid.  So let's stop acting stupid.  But let's also stop apologizing for the truth of God's righteous standards, His coming judgment, and His sure salvation for all those who truly turn to Christ.

May God help us.

        

The last few days I've been reading through Paul's letters to Timothy.  What captured my attention is his repetitive advice that Timothy, "not be ashamed" of the truth of the gospel or of Paul's imprisonment for preaching the Gospel. 

Have you recognized the tremendous pressure from the world we live in to be ashamed of the Gospel?  The Gospel is counter-intuitive, counter-cultural (no matter where you live), and anti-self righteousness.  The gospel condemns basically everything our world is built upon: moralism, reputation, image, temporary pleasure, amassing wealth, power, etc.

The Gospel is a condemnation of sin and sinners.  It says that there is only one answer for both:  A Cross and a bleeding Savior.  Not politically correct - ever.  At the end of His life, not only had the world rejected Jesus but all of His disciples also scattered.  Peter was ashamed to admit he was one of Christ's disciples and denied his association with Christ - even in the presence of a slave girl.

Paul told Timothy, "You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me..." (2 Tim 1:15)  This apparently included many professing believers.  When it came to the point of  radically identifying with the Gospel of Jesus or keeping the respect of their communities and culture, the Asians apparently pulled back from Jesus...and Paul.

Like Paul, recently I was in Asia preaching.  On a return flight I got a glimpse of what I'm talking about.  There was a lady sitting next to my co laborer on the trip, Steve Hobeck.  When she found out something of what we had been doing in Asia (church related work) she said, "You're not some of those preachy-types are you?"

How do you answer that?

It depends on what your goal in life is.  Is it to impress people and be affirmed by the world and to make sure you're not confused with the extremists in your own religion?  Or is it to make the truth of the Gospel of Jesus known to as many people as possible?  By the way, an extremist is usually someone who is willing to stand alone based upon their beliefs, even if unpopular.  Ouch.

Paul told the Romans:  "So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome.  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes..." (Rom 1:16)  Paul was not ashamed to represent the truths of Christ's death and resurrection for sinners.  Even though this created suffering for him and often left him with no one to stand with him. 

To be very honest, I'm not in Paul's league.  Because of misplaced shame (which is really false shame) I am often tempted to "follow Christ from a distance."  Just like Peter did.  In hopes of not being tied too directly with the offense of the Cross. 

How about you?  Have you identified within your own thinking a tendency to distance yourself from a radical following of Christ?  Have you experienced the temptation to be ashamed of the glorious gospel that has radically saved and delivered you from sin?  

I think I want to follow up on this theme in the next blog.

        

	The chart below was used in a talk on a Sunday morning.  The following characteristics of "slave-like" thinking can be seen in the attitudes, words, and actions of the two sons in the Prodigal Son story (Luke 15).  You can hear the teaching by clicking on the podcast below. Download | Duration: 00:46:39 The Differences Between Slaves and Sons:
	Slaves	Sons
1.	See God's rules as unfair and too narrow.	Trust God's will and intentions.
2.	Anxious over needs.	Trust God with less worry.
3.	Must be in control.	Give God room to work.
4.	Defensive. Do not take criticism well. Easily offended.	Open to criticism and can admit he/she's wrong.
5.	Constantly comparing.	Regularly look to Christ.
6.	Try to please everyone.	Can say "no" if needed.
7.	Work hard with little joy.	Find joy in their labor.
8.	Cannot rest in the Father's presence.	No sense of inferiority in the Father's presence.
9.	Afraid to take risks.	Expect breakthroughs.
10.	Feel something must change before he/she can be happy.	Usually content. View the future with hope.
11.	Doing an assessment like this results in deep discouragement.	Trust God to finish the work He has begun in them.

        

Regardless of what you know about Jesus presently, there is more to the story, more to the mystery.

With each new ray of insight into the nature and mission of the Savior comes unexpected blessings and breakthroughs for the believer.

This morning I observed this wonderful principle in the story of the woman at the well.  She was a Samaritan and Jews usually had no dealings with them.  Furthermore, she was a woman and men usually did not speak to them in the streets. But this woman was in for a radical life change as the identity of this Jesus was unfolded to her.  We see the stages of this progression in the "titles" she used to address Jesus.

    1. "How is it that You, being a Jew, as me for a drink?"  Initially, she assumed that Jesus was just like the other Jewish men she had encountered.  It only took a moment for her to see that He was different.  Jesus responded to her by saying that if she had known who He truly was she would have asked Him for a drink and He would have given her living water!

    2. "Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep, where then will you get that living water?  You're not greater than our father, Jacob, are You?..."  His response to her, a show of kindness and generosity, made her think that this man was far more respectable than others she had encountered.  Jesus responded, "Whoever drinks the water that I will give shall never thirst again..." Then He caught her off-guard, by revealing that He knew she had been married five times and was now living with a man out of wedlock.

    3. "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet."  There was no other real explanation for His uncanny insight into the decades of her failure and emptiness.  He must be a holy man who speaks for God.  She got nervous at this point and fell into the normal Jew versus Samaritan theological debates.  Jesus quickly moved beyond the petty ethnic and religious contentions to the heart of the matter:  God is Spirit and is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.  

    4. "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called the Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us."  It seems amazing to me that Jesus was able to draw upon the limited understanding she had of the promised Messiah...and to bring it forth by the way He patiently and mercifully dealt with the woman.  "I who speak to you am He..."

This Samaritan woman immediately became a spontaneous evangelist and went back to her village and declared to all that she had met the Messiah and that they should come and meet Him for themselves. And they came.  And they too believed.

Friend, where are you in the path of faith?  What is your understanding of the person and mission of Jesus Christ?  Do you see Him simply as a Jewish person in ancient history?  Or perhaps a noteworthy and respectable person, worthy of honor?  Perhaps you have come to believe that He was even more than that?  Perhaps He spoke accurately concerning the things of God and was a prophet in His day?  Or perhaps you've been blessed to see what the Samaritan woman saw: He is the Christ, the Savior of the world.

Perhaps you're a dedicated Christian longing to help lead others to the Savior.  We can all learn a lesson in dealing with people who have yet to meet the Lord: discern where they are and help them take the next step.  Avoid religious arguments and distractions.  Sometimes it will be necessary to help them see the sin in their lives that need forgiveness and the hurts that need healing. 

There is so much more for all of us to see and perceive regarding the Savior.  And with each new step comes greater peace, joy, and understanding of God's will for our lives - both for today and for eternity.

I pray this year for you will be full of worshipful insight into the glories of Christ.

        

This morning I read Dudley Hall's weekly email teaching and wanted to pass it along to you.  I have enjoyed reading and hearing Dudley over the years.  He's a seasoned man of God and full of wisdom and insight.  I encourage you to follow the link at the end and sign up for his weekly e-newsletter.   DG

December 21, 2009 A Gracious Sovereignty I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. John 17:6(ESV)

By Dudley Hall     Jesus acknowledged the Father as the source of everything. It was not strange to him that everything in the universe is under the authority of God the Father. The kingdom of God is not an isolated realm nestled among other kingdoms. It reigns supreme above all other pretenders of sovereignty. He recognized that the disciples who followed him were gifts from the Father. It wasn't a case of his drumming up a following, and then introducing them to the Father. Before he began, the Father gave them.  By listening to the Father he could find them, teach them, and preserve them.        It presented no contradiction that from their perspective everything depended on their hearing and responding in faith.  Everyone the Father chose would hear the sound of the Word and respond.      This confounds the finite minds of humans. We tend to argue with concepts that are too big for our mental categories. Predestination is an ugly word for many who have either been burned by misinterpretations or who refuse to accept the compatibility of human responsibility and divine sovereignty. It might help us if we, like Jesus, knew that sovereignty is in the hands of a Father: a Father who sent his only begotten Son for our salvation. If his intentions were ever in doubt, that should be settled forever by the gift of his Son.      Jesus was confident in his prayer for those who already believed in him and for those who would believe later through the witness of the original disciples. If the Father had not been sovereign and able to rule over all aspects of life, Jesus' confidence would have been shaken and our security would be at stake. He had made the Father's name known to them and had kept them in his word. Now he is asking the Father to keep them from the evil in the earth since he is leaving the earth and returning to his original status.  This is not a plea for God the Father to do his best to keep them if possible. It is a confident prayer to the Father who is the source of everything.        We are in the hands of a sovereign Father. That should impart immense security to us. He is over all and moves all toward the goal of his glory.  That includes revealing how unbelievably (literally) loving he really is.  We are extremely grateful that the outcome of our lives (and creation) is not open to chance or dependent on man's will.  This all started with a Father who created a son to begin a race that could enjoy God as much as God does. It continued with the revelation of the Son who would glorify the Father by making known an aspect of his character that would have remained hidden unless the original son had become alienated and needed a Savior.  What a story! We are so privileged to be in it. And we are so blessed to be in the hands of a Father who is totally in control while he gives us choices with real consequences. It makes you want to stop and worship, doesn't it? -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click here to go to Dudley Hall's website: Successful Christian Living Ministries.

        

Now the kingdom of heaven of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44)

Last night in our home group people shared personal stories of God's supernatural provision.  I shared how one day while on my motorcycle I ran out of gas.  My immediate reaction upon finding myself on the shoulder of the road was that this would be an adventure of watching how God would provide for His child (I wish I could say that this was a typical reaction under such scenarios!).  I said a short prayer, something like this, "Father, here I am.  You already knew all this and have a plan for my provision, please send help."  I probably had not walked more than 10-20 steps up the side of the road before a man in a truck pulled over to help.  He was extremely kind and was thrilled to help me.  He was even more encouraged in his act of service when he found out that he was helping a Pastor.  Turns out he was a deacon in his church.  We had a great talk, real Christian fellowship.  We both drove away from that experience somehow feeling that God had set it up.

Or had He?  Maybe I caused it all by my choice to risk that my reserve fuel supply would take me to the next village?  Maybe I caused a crisis and then one of a multitude of God's kids happened by at his usual time on that road?  Maybe a Christian simply capitalized on one of many opportunities in a typical week to serve someone in need?  I suppose any of these scenarios could explain what happened.

A good friend of mine tells a story of how he was involved in a small fender-bender on a highway one day.  After both parties had pulled to the shoulder they found that the only apparent damage was a part of the fender that was now misadjusted.  My friend crawled under the stranger's car and found that all that was needed was to loosen a couple of bolts, realign the part, and then tighten the bolts back up.  The problem was that he didn't have any tools and he needed a 1/2 inch wrench.  That's when he happened to look down on the ground, and right there in front of his foot was a 1/2 inch wrench!  You can imagine the amazement he felt.  He immediately gave thanks to God, fixed the car, and was happily on his way (without a ticket or insurance problem).

It's a little bit harder to explain that event as a coincidence that God capitalized on.  I have no way of calculating the odds for all that happening by pure chance.  But it would be close to the odds of the Republicans in Congress suddenly changing their minds on Obama's health care plan.

The question I ask is not whether or not I believe God has been involved in these events.  Rather, my question is to what extent He's involved?  Is it simply foreknowledge and then a divine response to rectify the problem created by poor human judgment?  Or does God actually bring some of these events to pass by divinely influencing decisions and outcomes before they occur?  I think it can be either or both.

You can't explain my friend's miracle wrench simply by saying that God has foreknowledge of every event.  Foreknowledge might explain Him knowing I would run out of gas and then stirring the heart of a person who happened to be passing by to stop and help me.

Foreknowledge might explain him seeing my friend on the roadside needing a wrench.  But foreknowledge doesn't explain the reality of the wrench and it's specific placement at my friend's feet that day!  I think God somehow decreed that the wrench be left at that exact position, maybe years in advance! 

As I told this story last night in home group, one person made a comment about trusting God when it's your wrench that gets lost!  Wow. That was a profound thought to me.  I always look at these special testimonies from the "receiving side" and not the "losing side". 

Before anyone can find a hidden treasure, someone else had to first lose it, give it away, or intentionally plant it.

I guess this should give me a greater sense of peace about all the stuff I've misplaced over the years!!!  Seriously though, I think a heightened appreciation of God's sovereignty, foreknowledge, and nearness to us in each moment would help us to face each day's trials with more grace.  Who knows what God might be setting up today or in the future? 

Have you got any stories like this to tell?  I'd love to hear them.

        

"Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out, and streams were overflowing..." (Psalm 78:20)

Wait.  I thought Moses struck the rock?  But the psalmist says that God struck it!

The staff of Moses had become the staff of God.

When God met Moses in the desert and commissioned him to go back to Egypt, Moses asked, "What if the people will not believe that You have sent me?" (Exod 4:1) 

God's answer was interesting: "What is that in your hand?"  To which Moses replied, "A staff."  Then God said, "Throw it on the ground."  And you will remember that the staff immediately became a serpent.  This was the first miracle that God performed through the staff of Moses, but certainly not the last.

A quick reference to Exodus 17 gives the specific details of the event of the rock that gave forth water:

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Pass before the people and take with you
some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you
struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at
Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the
people may drink." (Exodus 17:5-6)

The staff of Moses represented his authority and leadership.  Moses was consecrated to God.  He was fully surrendered.  Forty years earlier he was zealous but presumptuous.  Now everything about Moses belonged to God. 

He had become God's man.  His own reputation meant nothing anymore.  His plans, his property, his dreams...all were surrendered to the Living God.

When everything you are and everything you have belongs to God, everything God is and has is readily available to you.

I think that this is the missing key to great power and authority before God.  I suggest that the need of the hour is not so much for greater faith, though faith is certainly important.  But faith is not mainly about how to get God to do what we want Him to do.  The desperate need in our day is for men and women to be absolutely given over to God.  

There have been a handful of times in my life when I have seen miracles of biblical proportion.  But there have been countless times when I've  done everything I knew how to do to coerce one of these miracles out of God - unsuccessfully.  And I think the common denominator in the days of power has been an incredible awareness that everything I was doing was in direct obedience to what God had told me to do.

I remember an encounter I had with a mad man in a jail one time.  I was locked inside the jail cell with eight prisoners and was leading a Bible study with most of them.  Suddenly a crazy man came flying out of one of the bunk rooms, screaming at me, flailing his arms and telling the others that, "This man is lying to you.  What he is telling you is not in that Book."  He got right up in my face and was screaming.  His body was tattooed from end to end, his hair was to the middle of his back.  He was mean and tough and I was scared.  My main thought was, "God, will these other prisoners pull him off of me or will I die today?"  My mind was racing with thoughts like, "Be sure to cover your vital organs as he beats and kicks you. You might survive if you do this." 

I didn't know what to do.  But I knew I was there because God had placed me in that role.  I decided to call on the name of the Lord...out loud...so the other men would know where my hope was.  I prayed out, "God, help me, I need your grace right now.  Give me wisdom...."  In the next second a strong and clear thought flashed through my mind, "Take authority over the spirit of rebellion."

So I just opened my mouth and obeyed, "You spirit of rebellion, in the name of Jesus Christ I command you to be silent and to cease your wicked works in this place."

I do not exaggerate any of this.  As quickly as those simple words left my mouth, every man in that jail cell saw a miracle of God's authority.  It was like an invisible hand from heaven suddenly seized that wild man.  He shut up immediately and walked directly to the far corner of the room and crawled up into a fetal position on the floor!  

Everybody in the room looked at me with eyes wide open.  I think I was as surprised as they were (great man of faith that I am...)  I told the guys, "Well, glory to God, we see that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth."

We had a pretty good meeting after that.  The demon's attempts to silence the man of God turned out to be his undoing.

My staff had become the staff of God. When I opened my mouth in words of heavenly authority, God was literally standing with me.  In a very real sense, Jesus Himself was speaking through my mouth.  And the devil knew that it was Jesus that stood against him. He was powerless to resist.

I think one of the main reasons God became incarnate in humanity in the person of Jesus Christ was that He desired a human body that would do all of His will.  Jesus has made it possible for us to be restored to a right relationship with the Father.  Through the salvation and reconciliation that is in Christ, let us therefore passionately and obediently become the kind of men and women that are fully given to Him.  Help us, oh Lord.  Amen.

        

There are such profound implications in God’s incarnation. Recently I was touched by several fresh thoughts as I meditated on the encounter of the virgin with Gabriel in Luke Chapter One.  I hope these thoughts are a blessing to you.

1. The Word targets the ones whom God has chosen/favored.  “Gabriel was sent from God…to a virgin…and said, ‘Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with thee…you will conceive in your womb..’”  The Word sought her out before she could even dream of responding. The Word seeks us too.  He came to us and chose us - not because we've been good, but because He is good.  If you’ve heard and trusted in this Mystery, you are one upon whom God’s favor rests.  This should create a sense of awe, delight, and profound thanks.

2. The Spirit of God attends the Word of God and performs the same in the hearts of those who believe.  “The Holy Spirit will come upon you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the son of God…For no word from God will be void of power.”  A physical and divine being was conceived in Mary’s womb as she believed the Word of promise.  When we believe the promise held forth to us in the gospel, there is a supernatural birth within our spirits too: “for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.” (1 Pet 1:23)  There is a new creation.  It’s a supernatural, spiritual birth on the inside of us.

3. The Spirit of God bears witness to the nature of the Son of God wherever it appears.  When the newly pregnant Mary entered the room, the fetal John the Baptist leaped for joy at the embryonic presence of Jesus!  Then Elizabeth also got “the witness”!  She prophesied joyfully.  Then Mary came to full faith, even with no actual physical evidence, and fully accepted the promise of God as being accomplished: "the mighty One has done great things for me..."!

One thing we learn from the Christmas Story is that God does nothing apart from promise.  He has willed that He will accomplish His purposes in Creation and Redemption by sending forth His Word.  The Spirit of God accompanies the proclamation of the Word and creates faith in the hearts of those who hear.   Salvation comes through hearing the good news of the gospel and it is manifested as we believe and act upon it.  

Mary's joy can be yours too.  The Spirit of God still bears witness to the incarnate Word - within the hearts of those who receive Him by simple faith.  I hope you experience this joy, the true joy of Christmas, this year!    

        

"I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Gen. 12:3)

"For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies that they utter." (Psalm 59:12)

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and those who love it will it its fruit." (Prov 18:21)

"Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse." (Romans 12:14)

I have given only a sampling of many of the verses in the Bible that warn us about the powerful consequences of the words we speak.  I personally do not agree with the hyper word-of-faith doctrine that says that our words have the power to create.  The Bible says that God upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3).  People do not create or uphold the universe by their words.  But there is nonetheless incredible power released by bringing your life and mouth under the authority of God's will and God's word.

God told Abraham that He would bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him.  Notice the word "curse" appears twice in that verse (Gen. 12:3).  Though the same english word is used in both places, there are two entirely different Hebrew words involved.  The first one ("I will curse those...."), literally means, "to bring trouble upon".  The second  use, ("those who curse you..."), means, "to belittle with one's mouth..."

The difference in these two words is very insightful.  God is saying that He will personally bring trouble down upon anyone who belittles (speaks evil of/toward) Abraham.  God's promises to Abraham didn't end with Abraham, or Israel, or Jesus.  We who are born-again Christians are "spiritual" sons of Abraham and heirs according to faith of all the promises God spoke to him.

Among other things this means that God still takes very personally the words that people speak against His covenant children.  This is encouraging and fearful at the same time.  It means that God will still bring trouble upon the people who wrongfully speak evil of me.  But it also means that I endanger myself if I speak evil of you. 

Many people, even Christians, are trapped by the words they have spoken.  One reason Jesus told us to "bless and not curse" is because it keeps us safe!  Cursing others (that is, speaking evil of them and belittling them by our words) opens the door to evil to come upon us.  This might seem a bit weird to you, but what we're talking about here is a form of witchcraft.

Did you know that gossip and fault-finding and malicious talk is actually a form of witchcraft?  James tells us that we should not complain against one another...and that we should not swear by heaven or earth...lest we fall under judgment (Jas 5:9,12).  Resentment and bitterness in a person's heart is certainly unhealthy.  But it becomes really destructive when that unforgiveness is released out of someone's mouth in the form of bitter words.  People create hell on earth by the words they speak.

Fortunately, there is a way of escape from the traps we have created by our words!  Confessing our sins (out loud!) and asking for God's forgiveness, is powerful.  You can confess the sin uttering wicked words toward others.  You can renounce the effects of those words and cancel them by the power and authority of the shed blood of Jesus.

If evil words release curses (and the Bible says they do), any curse can be broken by humbling oneself and coming to Christ!  The Bible says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus." (Gal 3:13-14)

Christ's death was a curse-destroying death!  But to walk in the freedom that Christ purchased for you, you must submit to His control...of your life...and of your tongue!  Jesus blessed those who reviled Him.  Will you?  You can change the atmosphere in any situation you are in - by invoking the blessings of Christ when you speak the good word!