Thursday, December 12, 2019

The prison door is open so walk out!

The Prison Door is OPEN so WALK OUT
The truly amazing this is that Jesus actually sets people free from the bondage of sin and darkness and worldliness.  We can, in fact, by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the blood of Jesus, His blood and resurrection, we can OVERCOME THIS WORLD, sin, temptation, everything that is evil and dark BECAUSE JESUS gives us the POWER OVER ALL THE DEMONIC THINGS OF THIS WORLD.  He gives us the POWER TO OVERCOME, that is why the Apostle Paul can say that we WERE such people as fornicators, idolaters, murderers, sorcerers, and ALL those evil things, BUT when we REPENTED we were WASHED CLEAN, we WERE those kinds of people, BUT WE NO LONGER ARE those kinds of people.  When we have been washed clean, we have become the CHILDREN OF GOD therefore we have been BORN AGAIN.  Our mind is changed, our heart is changed.  We have become NEW PEOPLE.   
You know, I know a lot of Christians hold onto the idea that they are sinners, saved by grace, they say things like; “you know I’m just an old sinner but God forgives me.”  They do not hold onto this idea that they are a sinner because they know God forgives them, but because they LOVE SIN.  Imagine yourself like a man who was in a prison, who had hand-cuffs on you, who had a chain with a ball to your legs, and you are in this prison, but then at night, the Lord Jesus comes and He supernaturally delivers you, He opens that door of that prison wide open and your shackles fall off.  What would you then do? Wouldn’t you then walk OUT of that prison?  And then tell everyone that you were SET FREE?  Wouldn’t there be the biggest smile, just so much JOY on your face that you couldn’t help but tell people YOU HAVE BEEN SET FREE that you are NO LONGER in that prison, those shackles no longer bind you?  
But Christians today are going around saying; “I’m a sinner, saved by grace, I’m still in my prison, those bonds are still on me… I’m humble because I believe I’m still in my prison…”  And it’s this FALSE sense of humility, but in reality, THEY LOVE THEIR SINS, they love that darkness of their prison.  They don’t want to give up their pornography, their TV,  their evil friends, their gossiping tongue, their lies, their murderous thoughts, they don’t want to give things like video games, fantasy football, all the sports and hobbies that they are into THAT DO NOT GLORIFY GOD.  Christians are ADDICTED TO SIN, and they will pull out every scripture to try to justify their sins.  “Well, we are saved by grace brother, as long as we are on this earth we will keep on sinning, all of us make mistakes, I’m just a sinner and God forgives me…  none of us can overcome, God just forgives us, it would be salvation by works if we were to try…”  
ENOUGH OF THAT NONSENSE!  Jesus supernaturally opens your prison doors, He drops those shackles off of you and YOU CAN WALK OUT if you want!  If you walk out of your prison, you no longer need to say; “I’m still in my prison. I’m just saved by Jesus and still in my prison…”  Remember that Jesus says; he who HE sets free, THE SON SETS FREE, is FREE INDEED!  If you are a slave to sin and you pray that prayer, Lord Jesus deliver me, deliver me from alcohol addiction, deliver me from cigarettes, deliver me from impure thoughts, whatever your addiction is… it is surly different depending on if you are younger or older… but whatever your addiction is to this world, JESUS WILL SET YOU FREE because that is why He came to this Earth.  He did not just come to this earth to just die for our sins that we would go on sinning and be saved IN our sins, but that we would be delivered FROM our sins, that we may be REBORN, that we may enter into the newness of life, that we could be HOLY and PURE as GOD IS PERFECT!  As HE is HOLY and PURE!  It IS possible for you to walk out with Jesus because Jesus does the supernatural THAT IS HIS BUSINESS.  He does the impossible, that is His business.  Don’t believe anyone that says you can’t stop sinning, that you have to continue to confess that you are a sinner.  Why would I confess that I am a sinner and still in my jail, in my prison, IF I HAVE WALKED OUT?  That is like that man being released and walking out on the street and then saying; “Praise the LORD everyone, I was in my prison AND I’M STILL IN MY PRISION.”  They would look at that man and think; “You are lying, how are you in a prison if you are around walking?”
There is actually kind of 2 pitfalls to this; one pitfall is if you are always praying and telling the Lord, and you know, you are just thankful that you are free, free from sin, free from all your shackles, one pitfall on that side is, if you do ever mess up, you can start to justify it and say; “I haven’t messed up, I have been set free, you know the Lord set me free, I can never sin again.”  Well, that is also nonsense.  When we have been set free, we have to CONTINUE to walk in the newness of Life, and of course we can fall back to sin.  It’s not that it is impossible to go back to the prison cell and walk in and sit in the bed and put those shackles back on us, we could do that, BUT WE DON’T HAVE TO.  We can continually walk in the newness of life if we put on our righteousness, if we put on those white robes and continually hold Jesus’ hand and GO WITH HIM.  So, one pitfall is thinking you can never mess up again… “Lord, thank you so much for delivering me from evil.”  Then you think that you can never go back to it.  
But on the flip side of that, on the reverse side, the other pitfall is saying to the Lord; Thank you Lord for having mercy on me a sinner.”  And because you are calling yourself a sinner, you kind of have this self-fulfilling prophecy that then you will sin.  Maybe you are not really even sinning or planning to sin that day, but because you prayed the prayer in the morning; “Lord forgive me, or Lord have mercy on me a sinner…” Then you self-realize that you must still be in that prison, therefore you will just make mistakes because you are human.  So then you go and you watch a little bit of pornography, because after all, you are still a sinner… you go and you do some nonsense talk, you go and  tell some evil joke or you say some things that you just shouldn’t, “Because after all, I’m just a sinner…”  SO, that is also a nasty pitfall of calling yourself a sinner, WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN SET FREE AND YOU HAVE WALKED OUT OF THAT PRISON.  
We need to make sure that we are actually walking with Jesus in the newness of life every single step and not falling into ANY of these pitfalls, and the only way to do it, is to say consistently in PRAYER.  It is not by just daily reading the Bible. I can tell you by personal experience that you can be in church practically every day, you can be reading the Scriptures for 8 hours a day, or however long you can withstand reading the scriptures… you can do that, and that will NOT help you overcome sin.  How you overcome sin and temptation is drawing close to GOD, resisting the devil, and when you resist that temptation and continue to pray and seek Jesus, remember the things that He has told you, SOME OF WHICH MAY BE SCRIPTURE, then the devil will flee away from you, and then the Holy Spirit of God will continue to be CLOSE TO YOU.  You will be able to overcome sin and temptation the more your PRAY, keep yourself HUMBLE and draw close to the LORD.  THERE IS NO OTHER WAY.  You can’t just be listening to Christian songs every time you are tempted and think that you will overcome your sin and your temptation by listening to Christian radio, or by reading a Psalm or a Proverb or something.  The power to overcome sin IS WITH JESUS, because all power and all authority is given to HIM, not the bible, not some preacher.  ALL POWER AND ALL AUTHORITY HAS BEEN GIVEN TO JESUS, THAT IS WHY HE IS THE WORD OF GOD, and you must live on every WORD that HE speaks to you!  That way you will OVERCOME, you will overcome this world, temptation, all your sins, you will be able to walk OUT OF YOUR PRISON UNSHACKLED! Do you want to be unshackled and REALLY live in the newness of life?  Free to stan with Jesus in the TRUTH continually?  Or do you like going around saying, “I’m a sinner, praise Jesus, He saved me, I’m STILL in my prison, he saved me BUT I HAVEN’ CHANGED…”  Do you like that nonsense?  Or are you ready really to WALK OUT of your prison, to live in the newness of life, to walk the path that Jesus has for YOU!  May the grace of Jesus be with you.