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Insights into why God Allows Difficulties and Tragedies in our Lives
We have all
asked, 'Why did this happen?' on everything ranging from losing a job,
divorce, accidents, to the car breaking down in the middle of nowhere.
Why does it seem on some things His hands are prevented from helping us,
and other times it seems He just sits and watches us go through things
without lifting a finger to help?
In this 2
part series John provides insight into the spiritual forces and
'spiritual legalities' at work, answering these questions. You'll be
able to say ‘Oh that makes sense' to many of the unanswered questions
you've had. This series explains why, what opened the door, and how to
walk in a life protected and provided for, how to work with God so He
CAN help, so that Godly coincidences and goodness will surround and
follow you all the days of your life. (2 cd/MP3, $12/set or MP3 $10)
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Hi all,
Last
week I listed 4 situations in which Christians in sin died, then asked
if they are in heaven: The speeder, the bitter ex, the porn addict, the
suicide. I shared how it is our recreated spirit that proves our status
as God's children, thus our 'ticket' to heaven.
How big is your God?
If
we believe heaven is to be lost by someone's death at 1 mph over the
speed limit, which is on the basis of them being in sin when they died,
then followed to its logical conclusion not too many believers would
actually make it into heaven.
That
would make the Father and the Lord Jesus rather small, rather limited,
that they couldn't come up with a plan any better than one that gets
people born again and welcomed into the heavenly family, only to have
the plan dashed to pieces should that believer die while traveling 1 mph
over the speed limit, still have some anger towards an ex-spouse, have a
hidden sin, or purposely cut their life short. Couldn't God come up
with a better plan than that?
I
have a pastor friend who grew up in the Nazarene denomination. He said
every Sunday he went to the altar to repent and 'get saved', because he
was sure if he had committed a sin during the week and had died, he
would go to hell. He thought citizenship in heaven and status as a child
of God changed with each sin/repent cycle, and he just hoped when he
died he was on the 'repent' side of that cycle.
So how does this work?
If I
know I've sinned or am sinning, but I don't deal with that sin by
asking forgiveness or in some way acknowledging it and turning my heart
and mind towards righteousness, and die, do I still go to heaven?
If
someone has a habitual sin, like my example of the heart-diseased man
with a porn addiction, does that sin have the power to taint his
born-again spirit so that he won't go to heaven? Or because he is a
child of God does he still go to heaven - but if that is so how does God
handle that unrepented sin?
If
a person has been through a lot in this life and only comes to God on
their death-bed or after years of hardship in the world, does God expect
them to have fully resolved every hurt and pain, every mistake and
experience BEFORE they go to heaven - or else they won't be granted
entrance?
Here today, gone tomorrow?
All these questions are really asking this: Does the Holy Spirit leave me each time I sin?
Does
He stay in me if I speed a little while driving, but He might leave if I
spoke evil of an anointed minister? Would He stay if I watched a little
porn, but leave if I had an affair? Would He stay in me if I thought
about depression a lot and just wanted to end it all and get to heaven,
but leave me if I actually pulled the trigger or swallowed those pills
to end it all? Where is the dividing line between heaven and hell for a
believer?
Foundation #1: Earth controls heaven
Though
Jesus died on the cross roughly 2,000 years ago, you didn't become born
again at your first breath. You had to make a decision later in life,
meaning though you responded to the Father's invitation, you still had
to decide to believe on Jesus and follow Him. Earth controlled heaven in
your salvation. If that was not so, the God who 'wants all mankind to
be saved'*, would just do it for you. (* I Timothy 2:4)
If
we resisted the Father's invitation for salvation until we were good
and ready, this same principle extends to the smaller unresolved sins in
our lives as well - though He may be inviting us to deal with sins and
issues in our hearts and lives, we decide when and where and if we will
deal with these things. Sometimes we like sin and so protect it in a
carefully guarded place in our heart no one knows about. What happens if
you die before you were ready to deal with it?
Whether
that sin is something like bad feelings toward an ex-spouse you want to
see punished just a little more and are resisting Father's prodding to
forgive, a speeding habit where you are ignoring His admonition to slow
down because you like speed, or an addiction that is there because of
unresolved emotional issues you aren't quite ready to face - we control
heaven's involvement in our lives.
To say it another way, a sinner sins because it is his nature to do so; A believer sins by choice. (Ephesians 2:3 says we used to be 'by nature children of wrath')
We
decide to invite the Father and Lord into our little protected areas,
or not. What if only He and you know about this little area - and then
you die! What will be His reaction when He sees you?
Foundation #2: The difference between sins and trespasses
Paul said in Ephesians 2: "And you He made alive when you were dead in your trespasses and sins."
The
Lord makes a distinction between trespasses and sins, and this is seen
from the Old Testament through the New. If you don't understand the
difference you will misunderstand the Lord in the gospels, misunderstand
the epistles, and build a whole theology on false and incorrect
beliefs. So let me clarify.
A sin is an act against God. We can think of a sin therefore as vertical. A trespass is an act against a person. We can think of a trespass therefore as horizontal. This means not all sins are trespasses, but all trespasses are sins.
If
I trespass against another believer I have also sinned against Christ.
That is why all trespasses are also sins. I Corinthians 8:12, Romans
14:9-15
The guilt and the injury
In Leviticus 6:1-7 we have the law of the trespass offering. (I go into more detail on this in my series entitled Sermon on the Mount 1&2, and my Forgiveness series)
In
the trespass offering the person who trespassed against a person would
not be forgiven by God until and unless they had first made it right
with the person they trespassed against. Not only did they have to
restore whatever they did wrong, they had to add a 20% fine. ONLY AFTER
the restoration and fine had been made could they make a sacrifice to
God to get their trespass and sin forgiven.
In the Father's mind, the person must mend the damage their trespass did to the other person - the injury - before they could be forgiven vertically - the guilt. Both injury and guilt must be made right for a person's life to be right before God.
Today
Christians are incorrectly taught to forgive the guilt and ignore the
injury, while everything in us screams for that person to acknowledge
and address their injury to us - this is a righteous anger to expect the
trespasser to apologize and be accountable for the injury they caused.
Preachers don't understand and have caused Christians much emotional
turmoil by teaching just forgiving without expecting the trespasser to
make the injury right. God says the trespasser isn't forgiven until they
take care of the injury first - from OT through Jesus this was taught.
(see below)
Sister big mouth
The
ramifications of God not forgiving a person's trespass unless they have
at least tried to make it right with the other person can be seen in
our churches today.
Sister
so and so speaks evil of another woman in the church, yet goes to
church Sunday morning and sings as if she is heaven's personal
soloist, like nothing is wrong between her and the other woman out in
the congregation. Because she is the one who committed the trespass and
has made no effort to repent and make it right, God hasn't forgiven her
no matter how many octaves she can hit Sunday morning. When she gets to
heaven, she will have to deal with it between her and the Lord if she
doesn't change. You do have the authority to ask the Father to forgive
them anyway, or ask Him that He hold them accountable on it. See the
above series on that.
When you stand praying, forgive
Jesus
made the statement in Mark 11:25-26: "And when you stand praying,
forgive if you have something against another, that the Father may
forgive you your trespasses. For if you don't forgive another's
trespasses, neither will the Father forgive you your trespasses."
This
is NOT heaven or hell. This is about horizontal sins, trespasses. If
you bind up in your heart someone's trespass against you, you are tying
the Father's hands in heaven and His ability to forgive you your
trespasses. NOT SINS, but trespasses. Earth controls heaven in this
case. If you do the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our trespasses even as we forgive those who trespass against us" - then all is well and your life is clean before Him.
Full circle
For example: If the ex-wife who is still bitter in my example dies with it unresolved, her sins are forgiven but that trespass
is not - Paul says she will be saved, though that trespass will be
burned away - more next week on what happens 'on the other side'.
Let
me close this week with questions like: Do I have to go back 15 years
to my ex and apologize that I put the burning sack of dog poop on his
front step before God forgives me of that trespass? Do I have to go back
to my former pastor and apologize for what I said about him 10 years
ago? How do I make it right with someone now dead?
The
short answer is no, you don't have to run through the caverns of your
memory and hunt for any hidden trespass you may have done, large or
small. In every context of this teaching by Jesus, James, and Paul, the
situation calls for immediate action, but for more distant in the past
trespasses you only now understand accurately, His grace covered your
ignorance long ago. But from this time forward you know what to do.
And
I want to add, by saying 'As you stand praying, forgive', Jesus makes
it clear forgiveness is a decision, not a feeling nor emotion. We make
the decision to forgive right away, but the feelings needing to be
worked through may take 10 years! Jesus taught forgiving someone is a
decision, not an emotion. You can forgive a person while still working
through the hurt, anger, and sense of injustice. One day the feelings
will be in agreement with your decision, until then don't think feelings
equal forgiveness or unforgiveness.
Next week: More clarity on this, and gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay and stubble. Until then, blessings
John Fenn
www.SupernaturalHouseChurch.org CWOWI@aol.com
New CD/MP3 Series:
(2 cd/MP3, $12/set or MP3 $10)
Insights into why God Allows Difficulties and Tragedies in our Lives
We have
all asked, 'Why did this happen?' on everything ranging from losing a
job, divorce, accidents, to the car breaking down in the middle of
nowhere. Why does it seem on some things His hands are prevented from
helping us, and other times it seems He just sits and watches us go
through things without lifting a finger to help?
In this 2
part series John provides insight into the spiritual forces and
'spiritual legalities' at work, answering these questions. You'll be
able to say ‘Oh that makes sense' to many of the unanswered questions
you've had. This series explains why, what opened the door, and how to
walk in a life protected and provided for, how to work with God so He
CAN help, so that Godly coincidences and goodness will surround and
follow you all the days of your life.
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