Today I stand amazed by the volume of “wrong thinking” that continues to be permeated into the body of Christ even in the midst of a fresh revelation of age old truths concerning the work & will of the Godhead from Kingdom past to Kingdom future.  For centuries the truth of Jesus has been marred underneath the religious mandates of men’s ideology instead of a pure hunger for God Himself.  Our approach to Him is somewhat distorted even though it seems the “right way”.  Somehow we as believers have never been able to transfer from the Old Covenant side of the cross which is based on man’s ability to keep and perform the law perfectly to the New Covenant side of the cross which is totally based on the perfect obedience and performance of Jesus ALONE.  We “continue” to measure and gauge the spiritual maturity of those around us (even ourselves) by the volume of “our/their activity”, “performance”, “busy-ness”, or “attendance” policies or yokes that we establish or implement with good “God-like” intents to produce an “earned” encounter or an “elite” relationship with God Himself.  Basically that God will be more pleased with me than someone else because of “my” intense devotion to Him “STANDS OUT” from the others around me.

While we as believers or even more specific, leaders, propagate this intense desire into others for “more” of God we have to constantly evaluate what is the motive or spirit internally that is driving the outward actions & reactions of ourselves and others.  Sure, we all want more of God, but there is Proverbs 16:25 way that many believers are ignorantly promoting instead of the way of abundant life.  Proverbs 16:25 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death”.  As I said in the beginning, so many believers and leaders are living on the Old Covenant side of the cross that we don’t even realize how to promote true spiritual New Covenant maturity in ourselves as well as others.  We are so hung up in “self-occupation” (focus on self) that we have lost our vision of “Jesus-occupation”!  I mean we have the purpose of producing more of Jesus and wanting more of Him, BUT we just have a tendency of “patting” our own backs while we are doing it!   Look at me, look at my ministry, look at my gifts, look at my abilities, look at how much I prayed, looked at how much I attend church or special services, look at how “blown-out” or slain I got in the Holy Ghost……….LOOK AT ME!  There is the problem.  We want CO-GLORY with God Himself even while portraying that we want Him to have it all.  It’s called innocent, subtle deception.

We continue to promote and live out performance based lifestyles where we as believers feel our actions and deeds (regardless of good-evil) deserve rewards.  A “do good get good” mentality.  Seems right doesn’t it? Seems only logical right?  Seems as if it’s holy & just doesn’t it?  Listen at this.  Romans 7:12 says, “But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good”.  The Word says that “the law” is holy, just, & good and if you “keep it” you are blessed by your right obedience.  So, the more I do right the more I am blessed, right?  Under the Old Covenant or Law, YES!  So, if we are not careful, the pursuit of “good intentions” becomes the “action & deeds” more than our initial desire………JESUS.  Why?  Because we begin to believe that the more right action & deeds we produce, regardless of the motives or spirit driving it, we will manifest more of Jesus (the way, the truth, the life).  THAT IS TOTALLY WRONG THINKING FOR THE NEW COVENANT BELIEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  You’ve been hoodwinked into an Old Covenant approach to God and you believe it!  What you are not getting is that under law, not only are you blessed by the abundance of your right actions and deeds but you are also “cursed” by your wrong actions and deeds!  But somehow we still continue to measure every one by impossible standards than absolutely none of us can keep, either outwardly or inwardly!

So in the midst of our pursuit of “actions and deeds” to produce rewards we continue the inevitable cycle of “condemnation”.  We continue to pass down the only inheritance we ever been able to produce by our works to our sons and daughters, the yoke of condemnation.  The funny thing is, Jesus gave us the gift of “NO MORE” condemnation to those who choose to trust His perfect obedience.  Meaning we are not striving to “perform” to get God’s attention, but we are producing vitality because we are receiving from our consciousness of Jesus perfect obedience of the law!  He performed rightly!  He is the only person who lived it, walked it, talked it to the full extent.  That’s the reason He came as the expressed image of God was to fulfill the requirements of the law that fallen man would never be able to do.  The only way we can fulfill the law today is when we believe that Jesus did!  That means we abandon our self-consciousness and become Jesus conscious!  The law brings us to the end of ourselves and see the real NEED of Jesus (Grace)!!!!!

When you continue to try and walk out the law, Romans chapter 7 tells you exactly what the law will produce……………SIN!

Romans 7:1-21 “Now, dear brothers and sisters—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? ² For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. ³ So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.  ⁴ So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. ⁵ When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. ⁶ But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit. (God’s Law Reveals Our Sin) ⁷ Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” ⁸ But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. ⁹ At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, ¹⁰ and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. ¹¹ Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. ¹² But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.  ¹³ But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes. (Struggling with Sin)  ¹⁴ So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. ¹⁶ But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. ¹⁸ And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. ¹⁹ I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. ²⁰ But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. ²¹ I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. ²² I love God’s law with all my heart. ²³ But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. ²⁴ Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? ²⁵ Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.”

And here we are as believers and leaders promoting the one thing that gives strength to SIN…….the law!!!!  1 Corinthians 15:56-57 says, “For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. ⁵⁷ But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  The more law or Old Covenant standards we promote the more SIN REIGNS!!!!  But, the more grace or New Covenant standards we promote the more JESUS REIGNS!!!!  The more law you try to obey the more curse/sin you produce.  We are trying to live in the wrong resurrection!  It’s not us or our abilities of the old man because the old nature is dead!  Don’t help him stand up again but  live in the power of Jesus resurrection, a NEW and LIVING WAY!

2 Corinthians 3:7-11 says, “⁷ The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. ⁸ Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life? ⁹ If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God! ¹⁰ In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new way. ¹¹ So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever!”

If you want to see believers and people flourish in their destinies and purposes, then let us not condemn one another “into” a performance based relationship with God  and in return receive performance based rewards (both blessings & cursings) but in patience and Godly reverence wait on the anointing of God to correct the unaligned with the Word to produce right repentance as well as right receiving based off our hunger for Jesus performance to manifest the “real-thing” in our lives.  Just a word of wisdom to all in my sphere of influence.

In Christ,

KingdomFamilyOutreachCenter

17057 AL Hwy 75 Building 5C

Henagar, AL 35978

256-657-KFOC