Mountain Moving Faith?

Jesus said in Luke that the kingdom of God is within us.  God’s address is found within those who believe on the finished work of the cross….where the veil was rent in two.  No more distance between God and man.   God incarnated Himself in man redeeming us unto Himself…. undoing what Adam had done; re-presenting us back unto Him from the fallen state we found ourselves in.   Jesus went to the cross to remove every lie that we have believed about ourselves.  

That through the incarnation, every document of guilt has been shred….every principality and power employed by the do-it-yourself tree (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) had been eliminated. 

Many of us know Mark 11:23  For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

  

I once believed that the mountain was a car, a job, a home, overcoming a health issue, etc.  and that I had to pray and believe those things into my life.  But Grace (God's Divine Influence)  tells me that the mountain is the activity that goes on between my ears telling me I don’t qualify for God’s goodness.  The mountain is represented in the earth that God doesn't love all of mankind; only those who have joined the Christian club

The mountain is represented in the heart that says, “I have a sickness that will lead unto death”. The mountain is found in the heart of the parent whose child wants nothing to do with them and their God.  The mountain is represented in the lie that I cannot find a job because I am too old….too young…..too inexperienced…..over qualified….

But Grace is telling me that the faith which will move mountains is the PERSUASION that Christ has already done it all.  Jesus met all the requirements of the law needed to secure for us the victory God intended for us to walk in from the foundation of the earth.  The victory being His life, His peace, His joy and His contentment!

So when circumstances of life or the meditation of my heart begins  to conflict with the Truth, I remind myself of Who I am and of Whom I belong… and from that platform, His peace and His rest moves those mountains on my behalf.  

Sin Defined

GRACE - A MISUNDERSTOOD MESSAGE - PART 4

In the last post I talked about our understanding of "sin"; how we needed to understand sin in the context of the true Greek definition of this word:  (The word “sin” in most instances of the new testament all come from the Greek word “hamartano” which means to be separated, to miss the mark, or to be estranged or mistaken in such a way as to not have a share in the prize.) rather then Websters definition of sin ("wrong deed or thought; a wrong attitude; a wrong action or inaction).

When God created Adam, He formed him from the dust of the earth and breathed His breath into them (Gen 2:7) and brought him to life. God said, "Let us make man in our image and likeness".  So from the first breath, Adam was fashioned like God.  Man was created in God's image and likeness (Gen 1:26).

After having named all the animals and Adam not finding one made "like him" (Gen 2:20), God said it was not good that man had no "aid" or "mate", the literal Hebrew says.  So God created Eve from Adam. Then God had commanded Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if he does, he shall surely die (Gen 2:17).

What I want to focus on is the fact that Adam and Eve were already made "like God"....in His image and likeness.....then the serpent comes along in Genesis Chapter 3 and says to Eve, "Yea, hath God said , Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden"? and Eve tells him that they aren't allowed to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they would die.

And the crafty deceiver says, "Ye shall surely not die. For God knows that in the day ye shall eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil".

So what does this have to do with sin?  Well, as you know Eve ate of the tree and gave to Adam to eat as well.....Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seems right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death.  You see, knowing good and evil seemed like the way to be like God.  Adam and Eve, by partaking of that fruit were basically saying that by knowing good and evil their eyes would be opened and thus be like God. They already were made to be like God but they chose to become like God by their efforts.....their doing.

God said they would die and they did.....spiritually speaking, they died. God's plan or His "mark".....His "target".....His "prize" for mankind was to live the life He created for us....that ZOE life (God's life full of His vitality and animated, brought to life in us). The Life God breathed into man's nostrils is life given by God freely.  The only way to experience His life is in gift form.  It doesn't come about by us trying to work principles. This is the point of departure, not the end goal.  By experiencing His Life, this is the point from where we begin....begin to know His Love, experience His peace, begin to see others, both the righteous and the sinner from His perspective.

So when Adam and Eve chose to have life by knowing good and evil, they sinned....they missed the mark; they became estranged from God, separated from Him causing them to no longer qualify for a share in the prize.  What prize?  The prize of experiencing the Life God had intended for mankind to walk in.

But that is not where we were left.  More on this later.  For now, let us know that God's plan was for us to "hit" the mark.....qualify for the Life He created us to experience.....all the vitality and peace that accompanies Him living in us as was the case when He breathed HIS breath into man's nostrils.

Through faith in Christ, we can experience this life.....this love....this peace....not based on us knowing good and doing good but by our acknowledging what God has made right through Christ!

Grace - A Misunderstood Message - Part Three

Once again, the purpose of these posts is to bring clarity to what I believe the "grace of God" means and how to experience more of the life God designed us to walk in.

I described how the word "grace" in Strong's Greek Concordance defines the word as gift, favor, mercy, and especially the divine influence in the heart of man and it's reflection in the life as a result of his goodness toward us.

I mentioned that when we look at Romans 3:24 (being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ) and understand grace to be a "gift" from God or mercy or favor granted us, the inference is that we became justified (made righteous) by Jesus' sacrifice and this justification became a reality in our life around  the event of us accepting Christ as our Savior; the event being that we became aware of Christ's sacrifice and "believed" on Him.

There is a truth in this belief however it leaves us with the understanding that upon our acceptance of Christ the slate of sin has been wiped clean and we are made new (2 Corinthians 5:17 "therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation"....) only to find ourselves gathering the stain of sin again with the passing of time. If we are going to be honest with ourselves we know we will sin again.  And so when we do, we have been taught that there is something we must do again in order to be cleansed of our sin and become righteous again (1John 1:9)

The prevailing thought here is that "sin" has been defined over the centuries as a "wrong deed or thought; a wrong attitude; a wrong action or inaction.  And as such we find ourselves on the merry-go-round of sin and repentance...sin and repentance.....over and over with the hope that some day we will be sinning less and bearing more fruit.

For years, we have understood the word sin to be defined as above. What has become muddy to us is the issue that Jesus paid the price for our sins once and for all, yet we still sin.....we still have wrong deeds or thoughts; wrong moral reasoning's; bad actions or lack of good actions....yet the bible says sin has been done away with.  Because of this, many have said that we can walk free from sin when we understand God's Grace.....and that we won't want to sin once we yield to this love and grace while at the same time, those who disagree with the message of "grace" say that this sort of belief lends itself to the notion that we are granting a license to sin.

Let's be real about this.....as long as we live in these flesh and blood bodies, we will always have misdeeds, wrong attitudes bad actions and so on.  We don't want to do these things but like the Apostle Paul said in Romans 7:15 "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate". ESV.

What we need to do is to reorient our understanding of the word "sin".  For too long we have understood sin as the dictionary describes it.  But keep in mind, the definitions in our dictionary change with time, keeping in line with the prevalent thinking of the day.  For instance..... in the early 1900's if you looked up the word "gay" in the dictionary, you would find the definition "happy, excited, exuberant; having high spirits".  Today, the first thing that comes to mind is "sexually attracted to someone of the same sex:.  Another example is the word "wicked".  Several years ago this word meant "morally bad; evil, disgustingly unpleasant".  But today the word can mean "going beyond reasonable limits; of exceptional quality of degree (he throws a wicked fastball".

Now, imagine what can happen to the understanding of a word over several centuries.  The word “sin” in most instances of the new testament all come from the Greek word “hamartano” which means to be separated, to miss the mark, or to be estranged or mistaken in such a way as to not have a share in the prize.

What mark are we missing?  What prize are we not sharing in? What is it that causes us to be estranged from God? There is much to be said about this, but for the sake of ending this post for now, suffice it to say that because we are unable to walk free from mistakes; misdeeds; wrong attitudes; "less than stellar" acts of love and compassion toward others produce in us the concentration on our shortcomings, thus challenging our belief that we truly have been made righteous. It obstructs our capability of recognizing that what we "do" or "do not do" has no bearing on what Christ set out to do on the cross.....to defeat the penalty of sin and restore us to the original design God created in Adam and Eve before the fall.

Next post, I will go into this discussion of sin a little deeper.  But for now, know this.....that the blood of Christ has covered all our shortcomings and we now are able partakers of the divine nature God breathed into man from the beginning of time.  It is His desire that you tune out the misdeeds of your day and open your heart to God who loves you with a love that is always contending for the highest possible good in every situation and relentlessly contending for that good until it becomes a present tense reality in your life.

May you experience the enrichment of His divine influence in your heart today.
Jim

Understanding Grace

Grace - A Misunderstood Message - Part Two

Grace - "the Divine influence upon the heart of a person and the acting out in ones life because of His merciful kindness toward us"

Much like the word "love", we can use this word for a variety of meanings. The nice thing about the Greek language is that there are multiple words characterizing the different uses for the word "love". Example:

Eros - erotic love
Stergein - a natural affection as in members of a family
Philos - More of a liking, affection or fondness - brotherly love. The city Philadelphia is known as the city of "brotherly love".
Agapao or Agape - The highest form of love - unconditional love - the kind of love that is always contending for the highest possible good in every situation and relentlessly contending until it becomes a present tense reality.

We use the word "love" very loosely in this country. " I love football, I love pizza, I love my wife and children, I LOVE THE BUCKEYES! It's no wonder we are birthing a generation that will be challenged to define love.

Just like "love" has several meanings so too does the word "grace" - this word can mean, favor, mercy, gift, as well as the definition I have given from Strong's Greek Concordance, above.. So, when it comes to the word grace, we need to have an understanding of which definition we are referring to.  Think for a moment if I told my wife I loved her and used the word Philos (brotherly love).  What kind of response would this generate in her heart?

Let's apply this now to Romans 3:24 - "Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus". So, now, when it comes to the word "grace", we could use the word "favor" and we could use the word "gift" in the translation of this verse and be correct.  I too could use the word "affection" or "fondness" when telling my wife that I love her, but if she understood that my love toward her was "agape" love, not only would this encompass the fact that I have an affection or fondness toward her but when she understands my love is "agape" our love would be much more deeper and organic (always changing; striving for the highest good as new and challenging situations arise in our lives).

So we could say that our justification through Christ Jesus is a grace (gift) from God....something He freely gave to us and given out of grace (mercy), but to me, that tends to center around more of an event. In other words, our justification is a GIFT from God, a MERCIFUL act toward us. However, when I come to the realization that my justification comes by way of His Divine Influence in my heart, this takes on a whole new perspective of how God does a work in us; how we can be born of God.

The long and short of that is this - when it comes to areas in my life where I am not walking in His best for me, whether I am missing the mark in my attitude, actions, be it through behaviors or heart attitudes, I can ask (pray) for His Divine Influence to work in my heart.  Then, instead of me using self effort to experience the fruit He desires enriching my life with, I find Him changing my heart by influencing me with His Agape love.  This results in lasting fruit.  The fruit that comes by self-effort only lasts as long as the effort is being put forth. Contrary to that, when God does a work in our heart, the fruit it produces is more real and lasting because it is fruit produced after its own kind - God fruit, if you will.

Another way of explaining it is this: As we raise our children what would produce more fruit in their life; them knowing how we feel about what is right or wrong and then having them do what we tell them or they themselves having right thinking? There is a big difference. One is them trying to act like us and the other is us being born in them.  I believe we have all seen people, whether children of others or fellow believers in church who know how to "act" right. in front of us or the pastor but their actions and attitudes in their home or workplace reveal a different kind of being. This usually means that what they are trying to appear like is born from self-effort.   However, when their heart is right, the fruit that comes forth will produce right behavior. More on this to come.

As you go about your day, take that one area of your life that you would like to see changed and begin to ask God to influence you.  Don't try to change yourself.....let Him work the change in you or your situation and watch the fruit that comes forth.

Agape,
Jim

GRACE - A MISUNDERSTOOD MESSAGE

There is a lot of talk these days about the message of grace. It seems to be the latest "craze" if you will.  Some ministers have adopted this into their message as though it is a new "focus" or revelation God has given them. Others speak strongly against it, citing that it is a new way to reach the lost with an "easy" gospel; a gospel that accepts any lifestyle as is, without need to change....also touted as a "license to sin" gospel.  I must admit, I understand both sides of this argument.

When I first discovered God's love for me, I was being taught the "message of faith". The rise of this doctrine began long before I began my walk with God but from what I have heard, it mirrors the beginnings of this doctrine of "grace".  I imagine that over the course of church history, there other such doctrinal encounters that swept the nations.  Since I am not a scholar in this regard, I won't attempt to identify any such history of the church. What I do know in my limited understanding is that there are those "for" the faith doctrine and those "against" it.....there are those for the "grace" doctrine and those "against" it.

For folks outside the pursuit of God, church, religion, faith etc., we must look rather strange with our divisions and varied doctrinal leanings. For others who are seeking to discover God for whatever the reason, this could be a point of discussion where "positioning and argument" find its breeding ground.

My heart in posting this blog is to give a little insight from my perspective on what I believe God's heart is towards mankind with the ultimate goal of revealing His undying love for us and to show us that His desire is for us to experience His life....a life of peace, joy and contentment. I'm not desiring to compare any such doctrines or to come against anyone's belief.

I will need to break this down over a series of postings in order that these are not too long for any one sitting. I don't know how many or how often these will come forth but I hope you would find life in these words and encouragement for the day. Please feel free to share these with others that may need a lift.

I will end with the beginning.....an understanding of the word "grace" to springboard from.  The word for "grace" in the New Testament is the Greek word Charis (kar-eece) meaning "the Divine Influence upon the heart of a person and the acting out in ones life because of His merciful kindness toward us.

Get to know this definition for it will be the foundation on which you will discover a fresh perspective on God's love for you!

Jim Donadio
GraceLifeMinistry@neo.rr.com
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