The Lord's Prayer
Free From Bondage Ministry
Smashwords Edition
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The Lord's Prayer.
Intro.
If you truly want to understand what the Bible is bringing you, I want to take you back to the basics. But then the question arises: "What are the basics?". The Bible is about fifteen hundred pages chockfull of information. Where in there do we find the basics? Because we need all the knowledge. We need our connection with God. We need grace and salvation. We need to know what we need to do for God and Christ to be "in the Spirit". And then we need to mix all this together, relate each and every part to each and every other part, and then it should all be clear......
Well, if it were clear, we would have just one church, one Bible translation, one denomination, one very large congregation. So the only thing that is clear, is that it is not clear at all!!
So to go back to basics, what person to better consult than the Master Himself, Jesus Christ. Most Bibles have Christ's words in a different font or a different color, so His words are easy to track down in the Scriptures. But even then, that is a lot of information. Doesn't Christ give a summary somewhere to make this a little easier?? Well, I feel He does. And it is not in many of His preachings, because they mainly show us what is right and what is wrong. It is not in the Sermon of the Mount either, although that shows us very in-depth knowledge on what God expects from us. It could be seen as a summary, but I feel a summary would include much more.
So Christ's disciples heard all His sermons. They were present all the time, except for certain moments of time. When Christ would leave to pray, to connect with His Father. They knew that they were learning a lot, but also knew that all that somehow had to be tied together in the relationship with God the Father. So His disciples asked Christ how to pray. And He shared that with them through what us called "The Lord's Prayer". This prayer ties all the knowledge together, it shows what God and Christ do for us, and it also shows us what we need to do for God and Christ. A full understanding of the Lord's Prayer will reveal the whole Bible to you, in all it's glory and wisdom. The summary of the knowledge from the Bible is the Lord's Prayer.
So let's in a snapshot review the "Who Told You....." concept. Thoughts, feelings and emotions that are not according to the law of God, followed through on by actions, are sins. And sin takes us out of God's law, and into Satan's law. But then there is one more step, repetition. Repeated, these sinful actions are habitual sin, and give Satan and his henchmen the right to dwell in you and torment you from the inside out. So this is more than just temptation, this is Satan having a right to access you and torment you. This torment results in problems, diseases, disasters, often leading to more sinful actions. And who is being tormented? Everyone, because we have all sinned habitually.
"But, an evil spirit living within me?", you might say. "That can't be....". Pastor told me I am saved. Well, instead of just blindly following what pastor says, read and understand the Bible for yourself. I actually mention the dwelling of evil spirits inside people to a pastor, who cut me off saying: "I know the Bible tells us that, but we don't teach that because it would scare the people". In other words, he was working hard to make people feel comfortable, make people believe to be saved, but he was withholding the information from people really needed to fully understand the spiritual warfare the Bible describes. So just like the Holy Spirit can dwell in you, evil spirits can dwell in you too. It just depends what you open yourself up to. And don't think that because you received the Holy Spirit when you were born again, that therefore you cannot have an evil spirit living in you as well. If you suffer worldly torment, you can count on it that Satan has some doing in that. The apostels wrote post-cross on the New Testament that it was sin / evil that was dwelling within them that made them do the things they wished they would not do. If they had evil dwelling within, after being baptized by the Holy Spirit, who are you to claim that wouldn't be possible in you. The Bible also tells us that when we are adopted by God, we will no longer be in bondage to the world, yet most people continue their bondage to the world after coming to God and Christ. Which would not be possible if we would consider we are free from anything that had to do with Satan after our salvation. So somewhere Satan finds a way back and we are letting him.
Since most people consider the thoughts, feelings and emotions to be their own anyway, they open themselves up without even knowing it, becoming easy prey to Satan and his henchmen. Those evil spirits living within people were the devils and demons that Jesus was casting out all over the place. Don't think they are gone now because Jesus died on the cross. After all, post-cross the apostels went around casting evil spirits as well. Those evil spirits are still within us, even within devoted Christians, unless specific actions have been taken to cast these evil spirits out. But hardly anyone does. Especially if we consider the amount of people living with torment. Interestingly the Lord's Prayer tells us very specifically about the action of casting evil out. Why would Christ tell us we need to include that in our prayer, if it wasn't an issue.
So unless we have taken deliberate action to reverse the process of providing Satan with a right to access us, according to God's law, that torment is still going on. Even if you are so-called "born again". Unless you took very deliberate action to cast that evil out of you, the access rights are still in effect. How often do we see "born again" Christians fall off the wagon in a minor or major way a few months after finding Jesus? Yes, someone is telling them that all that Jesus stuff isn't all that it claims to be, enforced by the torment that is still there. Maybe that born again slate wasn't wiped all that clean yet. And what is still there steals the new Christian's belief in Christ. Maybe that "born again" Christian wasn't that "born again" after all. Satan understands that the torment and the temptations can erase your name out of the Book of Life if you choose to follow his kingdom. Why else would he spent time on those faithful believers that walk after the flesh more then they are willing to admit. If Satan did not have any chance of pulling you back into his kingdom, because you claim to he saved because Christ died on the cross for your sins, why would Satan spent any time and effort on tempting you. He only has so much time, and there are plenty of people that are not saved. But no, Satan is tempting Christians because he knows he can arrange for their names to be taken from the Book of Life.
What I have found in ministry is that Christians believe in sin and the forgiveness of sin, believe in temptation, but do not consider that habitual sin makes that evil literally dwells in us. And we have all sinned habitual at some point. In our Bible study, which we expect to publish at the end of fall 2011, we will go into extensive detail in regards to evil dwelling within, on top of many other issues we will touch on. I can already tell you it will probably be one of the toughest, most personal Bible studies you have ever gone through. But let's get back to where we are now.
Since very few churches teach, and therefore very few Christians understand, Satan's access rights to us, hardly anyone understands the need to reverse these access rights. And it is within the reversal of that process that the bondage truly is lifted, the torment ends. Problems and disease disappear, so-called miraculously, in a matter of seconds, minutes or hours. But it is nothing miraculous, it is God's promise to us. If you study the actions and words of Jesus in the Gospels, you will find that He went all over the place casting out evil and healing people from the torment. Jesus was very clear on what it takes to reverse the access rights. "It is your faith that healed you". And the Bible tells us how to practice this faith. As a minister I feel that the Lord's prayer summarizes all the details in one paragraph. So let's dissect the Lord's Prayer so that the torment can be lifted from you. So that Satan looses his access rights to you. So you get your Godly miracles and then go out and share the good news with others. After all, when Jesus performed his miracles, He stated clearly that we would do the things He did and greater. How have Christians been doing there so far?....
So let's review:
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Profound wisdom. This prayer summarizes the lesson from the Bible. And every Christian, no matter which denomination has been taught this prayer, although some Bible translation and/or denominations have really mutilated it. So in spite of the wide spread use, so few know what it all includes and means. But it looks so simple. Yet if mankind would truly understand what the Lord's prayer is about, we would think differently. The Lord's prayer is a "blood, sweat and tears from fear of God" prayer. This prayer can reveal all of God's powers to us. But more than that, it will reveal all our shortcomings towards God's law before it will reveal God's power. Anyone feeling right now that you might not want to know any more out of fear your shortcomings will be exposed, then realize who is making you feel that way. "Who is telling....." you to fear? So let's get started. On some points I will be very brief, other areas I will touch on extensively.
Our Father in heaven.
This first line is already misunderstood in so many denominations. It tells us to pray to our Father in Heaven. It doesn't tell us to pray to Jesus Christ, the virgin Mary, or anyone else. Yet whole masses of people will pray to Jesus or the virgin Mary or other Biblical figures. Jesus told us even that we should not ask Him anything, but ask the Father in His name. Now I feel that since Christ is the Son of God, and He sacrificed Himself for us, that we can thank Him, respect Him in prayer. But the blessings, the forgiving, the healing and all that comes from God the Father. Even Christ told us so. And God told us that we should have no other Gods before Him, and that we should not worship to anything else but Him. Yet whole masses will worship anything worldly over God's law, down to cigarettes, Penthouse, chocolate cake, movie stars, Elvis, Facebook and much more. And yes, we do worship those worldly things, and spent more time on them then we ever spent on studying God's word. And even though we know that worshipping that kind of stuff is against God's will, we still follow it, placing it on a higher importance then God. So this should be clear. When we pray and worship, we pray to our Father in Heaven, in name of Jesus Christ. If we pray to anything or anyone else, if we idolize anything else, we do not follow the law of God, and default to the law of sin. Yes, you read that correctly, you can pray and worship yourself into sin.
Hallowed be Your name.
Not just any Father, but the Father that is holy, sacred. And we should be aware at every moment that He is the Holy One, the Most High.
Your kingdom come.
This tells us that the kingdom of God the Father is not here yet. We are all in the preparation phase, according to God's plan. That preparation phase is the spiritual warfare that is going on, and determines whether we will be part of His kingdom or not.
Your will be done.
God gave us free will. We can twist God's word, we can try to run away from Him, we can just ignore Him claiming He doesn't exist. But no matter what we make of it, His will is what will happen. Whether we like it or not. So yes, even all the misery and suffering mankind goes through is still part of His will. He could end it right here and now, but His will is described in Revelations. The battleground we live right now is part of His plan.
On earth as it is in heaven.
And here is the a phrase that tells us two things. Because this reflects back on the coming of God's kingdom, as well as His will. The Bible tells us that His kingdom will come to be here on earth, with Jeruzalem the "capitol city". Keep in mind that His kingdom will come. It is not here yet. At this moment earth is the battleground that will lead to His kingdom. In regards to His will however, there is no future tense. So in spite of our free will, His will is and shall prevail. This means that when we break His law, it still is His will that Satan has a right to torment us. Don't misunderstand this, God doesn't like it, He loves you and wants you back under His law, and will do anything He can to bring you back, but without changing His ultimate plan. He even sacrificed His only begotten Son to help you to come back to Him. But if you break His law or are unwilling to understand His word, His will is that you will be under Satan's curse. That is why the Bible tells us so many times about all these curses that God brings unto the people. God knows exactly what Satan will do unto them for not following God's law. There are even several places in the Bible where we can read that God gave someone and evil spirit, or a lying spirit, or a spirit of stupor. Given by God and for sure spirits, just not the Holy Spirit. But evil spirits, Satan's henchmen. But that is part of His will based on our free will to walk away from His law. As a minister I feel that God is doing this warning us. God uses Satan's torment, while Satan is His enemy, to warn us for what might be awaiting us. By allowing Satan to do this, we can already get a taste of the everlasting torment that awaits us in the lake of fire if we do not keep God's law. Everlasting cancer, everlasting pain, everlasting heart attacks, everlasting skin disorders, everlasting depression, everlasting addictions, everlasting rape, everlasting stress. Everlasting anything that is not of God. Everlasting torment, which we now are just experiencing bits and pieces of. And we humans are still not waking up to the warning.
Give us this day our daily bread.
God will provide. We humans run around all day, every day, attempting to provide for ourselves in worldly matters. But we tend to overlook what nutrition we really need. Jesus broke the bread and called it His body. The daily bread we need, and that God will give us, is the grace from the sacrifice Christ made for us. The daily bread is our daily portion of Christ. Interestingly, there is at least one Bible version out there that has translated this phrase into a request for three meals daily: Breakfast, lunch and dinner. I wonder what happened to Christ's body there.....
And forgive us our debts.
It is at this point where our request for redemption starts. And that starts by asking to be forgiven of the sins we have committed against God. We are in debt towards Him. There is however one very important thing to realize here. It says "our". That means you "own" that debt, that sin. It involves taking ownership of your sin, claiming responsibility. The shotgun approach of "I have no clue what sins I committed, but forgive me anyway" doesn't fly. That is not "our" sin, because you don't own it. That doesn't show you know the knowledge within the Bible. After all, it doesn't say "forgive us the sins you know we committed but we are not aware of any of them....". So awareness is key. Jesus said we had to repent and overcome. If you don't have awareness of your sin, you will never be able to overcome. Yeah, you might say, but I gave my life to Jesus, so I don't have to worry about any of that stuff anymore. I am forgiven automatically, I don't even have to be aware of sin anymore, because I am not under the law anymore but led by the Spirit. Are you really, or are you saying that because you hope so? You might want to go back to your Bible, and read up. Because it was in Revelations, where Christ rebuked the churches. One of the churches was told that He would take His light away from them if they would not overcome their sins. That didn't go automatic because He had died on the cross. They had to make that happen. Another church He told them to repent and overcome or He would erase their names from the Book of Life. Only a few were worthy. And they were believers, who had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, leading the churches that had just started. And yet many of those were rebuked by Christ. So do you know which group you belong to? The few worthy ones or the rest that needs to repent and overcome. Are you sure you repented and overcame, so that your name will not be erased from the Book of Life?! But then, are you aware of what you need to repent for, what you need to overcome? And beware this awareness also counts for the generational iniquities. Yes, God is aware that you can't go back in time and see what your ancestors have done wrong. But through Biblical principle and the torment you are experiencing you can at least get a reasonable idea what sins might have been committed. Sins of which you still carry the burden and the torment. Repent and overcome! The awareness that generational iniquities are part of you, combined with a desire to find the truth shows God you hunger for His knowledge. So awareness of sins and generational iniquities is key. And that awareness can only come from knowing God's law, having knowledge, and weighing that against your own personal experiences. I feel I need to address one more area here, again. Many "born again" Christians will claim that since they are "born again", they don't have to worry about the sin issue anymore. Some will claim to not be tempted anymore, while even Christ Himself was tempted. Others will even say that because they are in Christ, they are not under the law anymore. As a minister I disagree. Yes, there is a verse that says if we are being led by the Spirit we are not under the law. But the "if" already includes a condition. And on top of that it says "being led". So if we are being led by the flesh, sin, we are not being led by the Holy Spirit which brings us back under the law. So far there has been only one man who was one hundred percent led by the Spirit, and that was Christ Himself. Satan tried to persuade even Him into following him instead of the Father. So even if one hundred percent lead by the Holy Spirit, you will still be tempted. We are sinful by nature and therefore are under the law as soon as we do not let the Spirit lead us. If you read your Bible, the whole New Testament teaches us to not fall back into sin. Yes, it teaches about Christ's grace and sacrifice, which most Bible thumbing believers will readily point out to you. But His sacrifice does not give us a "get out of jail for free" ticket if we continue to sin without repentance from our heart. Which you can find out about in all the verses that point out at our responsibility, which most Bible thumbing believers will not point out to you because they themselves do not want to be confronted with these verses. One verse tells us that if we willingly sin after we received the truth, that there is no sacrifice anymore to cover those sins. Or that we sin more because of His grace, because God forbids that. Even stronger, Christ teaches us that if we offend Him we shall be forgiven, but that if we offend the Holy Spirit, there shall be no forgiveness. To receive the Holy Spirit and then willingly and repeatedly sin, to let evil re-gain access rights to your body, soul and spirit could be such an offense. So if you have been "born again", and received the Holy Spirit, and then offend that blessing by falling right back into sin, there is no sacrifice to cover you anymore. Which would perfectly align with Christ telling us to repent and overcome or our name might be erased from the Book of Life. The only thing the Bible doesn't mention is what it specifically takes to offend the Holy Spirit, although there is an indication that continuing to willingly sin after receiving the Holy Spirit is such a thing. The Bible tells us that sexual immoralities are a sin against our own body, with our body being the temple of the Holy Spirit. So sexual immoralities are indicated to fall in the category of offense very likely. Which could mean that anyone who received the Holy Spirit and looked at a woman lustfully has already committed this offense, if we take Christ's words at heart. In that case there will be very few men's names in the Book of Life....... And I feel that counts the other way around as well, so women, beware... But I would recommend not to take offending the Holy Spirit for a test run. Neither to take a gamble with the "repent and overcome" statement. After all, to whom much is given, much is required.
In light of the forgiveness of sins, I would like to touch on one more issue that is a huge debate within Christianity: Can you loose your salvation once you received Christ in your life? Most Christians will tell you you cannot loose your salvation, but I disagree. And there are several points I will make here to make this clear. First of all there are at least a dozen verses in the Bible letting us know we can loose our salvation. That if we willingly sin after receiving the truth that there is no sacrifice that wil cover us anymore. That God forbids us to sin more because grace covers us. And that Christ said to overcome or He would take the lamp stand away. And how He would take names out of the Book of Life if there was no repenting and overcoming. And I can go on and on. But there is more than Bible verses. Let's take a look at the issue with common sense in regards to the spiritual warfare that we are in. God is omnipresent, but on the other hand Satan and his henchmen are not. So evil has to divide it's time and effort over six billion people. Now picture the Christian, having received Christ and salvation, who supposedly could not loose that salvation and be dragged back into Satan's kingdom. Why would Satan and his henchmen spend their valuable time and effort on tempting that Christian. Taking time and effort to do that would be wasted if that Christian could indeed not loose his or her salvation. Realize that Satan knows the Scriptures better than any Christian out there. Satan battled Christ for forty days over Scriptural word play. And don't think that an easy battle. Satan now has had two thousand years to study the New Testament as well, so he knows that art pretty extensive too. So if there are a good number of verses warning us about loosing salvation, and Satan knows the Bible better than any of us, and he comes to tempt saved Christians, we can draw two conclusions. First that Satan has plenty of time and effort to waste and just enjoys teasing saved Christians. Or that Satan knows something that Christianity denies or is not willing to admit, or just too ignorant to understand because it would require us to take a lot more responsibility than we would like to have. Yes, Satan knows that saved Christians can loose their salvation.
Realize that reading the Bible doesn't necessarily give clarity on this issue. Many of the more recent Bible versions are written such that it requires less and less responsibility from us and puts more and more emphasis on what God will all do for us. Beware, because how Biblical it may seem to bring out a new Bible version, I feel these translations have been influenced in that direction because "someone told...." the translators. Making it seem as if all is possible without any doing from our side, making us believed we are saved, while we are walking through the gate followed by the wide road that many follow.
As we forgive our debtors.
This one will hurt. Yes, we will only received forgiveness when we are forgiving others. So you can go to church, say your prayers, repent, overcome, ask for deliverance from evil, claim to be born again, have your pastor tell you that you are, but if you did not forgive all that is not going to do the slightest thing. Because if you still carry that unforgiveness towards someone, you will not be forgiven. Your sins are still with you, evil still has the right to dwell within you, your worldly torment still continues. You can pray and pray, you can read your Bible twenty-four-seven, you can run to church every hour, your pastor can put on a clown suit and jump through burning hoops in an attempt to move the heavens for you, but until you forgive nothing will happen. Christ repeated this statement after he taught His disciples the Lord's prayer, so take this very serious. If you do not forgive, so will your Father in Heaven not forgive you. Do you still hold a grudge? Still have not forgiven that person who abused you? How about that person who stole from your sister, forgiven him yet? Or your boss who cut your pay?..... Get the point? You forgive in order to be forgiven. If you haven't done that yet, count on it that you have not been forgiven either. And if you understand the "Who told you...." concept, it should be easy to forgive. It wasn't that person anyway, who did that thing you are unable to forgive. They were "told" to do so, and reacted like a puppet on a string. Or they had no other choice, like your boss, because business is experiencing tough times or you just didn't do your job good enough. And yes, if "someone told them", it was their choice to react, but haven't we all. He who has not sinned is allowed to throw the first stone, right?! Now this is where you will gave to consider severity of sin. Because what is going through your head is probably something like: "But what he did was worst...". Sorry, that doesn't count. The Bible tells us that if we stumble over one part of the law we are guilty of breaking it all. So if you commit one little sin (Where so many Christians will tell you; "but I have not done anything really bad"), you will break all of God's law and are no better of then the serial rapist / killer who serves a double life sentence. No grading scales on sin anymore. So being forgiven requires a big step from our side. A hurdle that most people will never take. And therefore they will never be forgiven. While God is waiting longingly with His arms stretched out to come to you, to pour His love out over his long lost child. Yet the unwillingness to forgive is one of the major reasons people will never experience the true power of God. While He gave His only Son so you can be forgiven. Now how can we really show God that we are forgiving the other person. In Job it is shown to us that when he prayed for his friends, God lifted the torment from him and blessed him with more than he had lost. So pray for those you need to forgive, sincerely, from your heart.
So let's move on to the next two lines. When I was a child, learning how to pray the Lord's prayer, I was taught it's meaning as it is still taught in most churches today, including the next two lines. I will first bring you that way of looking at them, and then I will discuss what I read when I read these two lines of the Lord's prayer now. Same words, somewhat the same meaning, very different outcome.
And do not lead us into temptation.
Most people pray this as a request to be led out of temptation when it hits. Like a "please make me strong when that temptation hits, so that you lead me out of the temptation". Could make sense if not combined with the next line, but the next line starts with "but", indicating it refers back to this.
But deliver us from the evil one.
So we follow through on the request to make us strong, realizing that we are weak. In light of that we then ask to please keep Satan at a safe distance from us. There are many congregations and Bible translations that leave the "but" out, that connects the two lines, and replace it with "and". Which would make sense if we would look at it in a way it is taught there. Make us strong and keep evil far away.
And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.
Now let's read this again, but with the two lines connected with "but", and then put an emphasis on "deliver". Now it reads: God, you might as well just forget trying to lead us when temptation comes to us. Better than to not lead us into the temptation, cast the evil one out of us all together. See, we all understand that after the forgiveness part of redemption the second step in the redemption process needs to take place. To make sure we will not sin again. Because we all know that even if we are forgiven of our sins, that Lucifer and his henchmen will keep screaming at us, trying to persuade us to sin again. And if we were immune because Christ's sacrifice automatically covered us, do your really think Satan and his henchmen would put any time and effort in trying to persuade you. That would mean they were wasting their time. After all, they are not omnipresent like God. So if you came to Christ and are still being tempted, that means Satan and his henchmen understand something that most of Christianity denies. You can be tempted away from Christ and have Satan gain another soul to his kingdom. Therefore there are those sneaky thoughts, feelings and emotions they put in our head. If it was just that Satan was coming by to tempt us, to put thoughts, feelings and emotions in our head, we would have a chance to win the battle if we ask God to remind us to not go for it. We would just ask Him to lead us out of the temptation. To lead us not into temptation. But the problem is that we keep committing sin upon sin because of our sinful nature. We follow the temptation anyway and sin, because there is more to it then just temptation. How often is it that we are tormented in our lives, become weak through that and then give into temptation that appears as a form of comfort or even a cure, or we vent our frustration about or torment. But no matter how much comfort and relief we find, it will catch up with us at some point and turn into more torment. And in spite of God's voice in our head working really hard to not lead us into temptation, we still sin. And don't tell me that before you start acting out your sinful ways, you don't have something in the back of your mind telling you not to. Although, maybe you don't hear it, because you have been trained by some other kingdom to not hear it anymore. The evil one that dwells within is blocking what you need to hear. That is part of Satan's torment. To disconnect us from God. However, in many places on earth God's knowledge is freely available to mankind. We can openly and freely discuss it. In other areas this is more restricted. But in general, even under the danger of being prosecuted, God's knowledge is available to us. He is making His law available for us to understand so that we can be free from that bondage. Yet in spite of that we live lives where we constantly fall for temptations, pray to be not lead into temptation, read His word somewhat in ways we would like to understand it, fall for temptation again, and we still feel He is not helping us good enough. Who is falling short here? May I suggest to throw out the television, skip on the Internet junk. Skip on whatever doesn't feed your body, mind and spirit correctly, and start studying God's law. So we do not just want to be led out of temptation, but we want to be delivered from that what brings us that temptation while tormenting us. We will all have to agree that it is better to have that removed than get strength when the evil one sometimes comes by to scream in our head in an attempt to persuade us to sin.
However, it is in understanding the accurate description in the Lord's prayer in regards to "delivery from evil" that most of Christianity fails. Oh, we have been forgiven.... (are you sure that you forgave others, or do you have to think about that a little more?). Oh, we stand strong when temptation comes our way.... (so you do not change plans based on fear, you don't express bitterness, you don't fall for unGodly cures for your torment, you bring every thought into captivity and weigh it against the law of God? Or do you need to think about that one a little more too?). So when Christ tells us it it better to be delivered from the evil one, or as some Bible versions say, delivered from evil then to just ask to be strong in the face of temptation, why does most of Christianity then not understand the negative impact of co-habitation with evil. After all, Christians will gladly tell you they are saved, and that they have nothing to worry about anymore. All while they are bending under worldly torment as much as non-believers.
Now here is what I as a minister hear all too often: "Evil spirits dwelling in me, and I need to be delivered from them?? No, that can't be. I am saved by Christ". It is time to read the Bible for yourself instead of listening to people who claim this is not true, all while they are leaving this truth out of their teachings because "someone is telling them"! These so-called teachers were called hypocrites by Christ. And He did not call them that one time either! Claiming to teach God's word, while being unaware they are being led by something that is a spirit, just not the Holy One. Harsh words, yes. Well, maybe not! As the minister at Free From Bondage Ministry I am not set up to sweet talk you into the lake of fire, into everlasting torment. What would you rather have. To hear God tell you that you took His word too serious and overdid it, but therefore you will be made a priest in the new world. Or to hear God tell you that you didn't take it serious enough and therefore your name has been crossed out of the Book of Life and the lake of fire awaits you. The choice is yours! If you want to downgrade your level of responsibility that you have towards God with running the risk skimping on it too much and taking the wide gate with the wide road to everlasting torment that most people will follow, go ahead. Just don't complain you didn't know.
Based on Christ's words calling the Pharisees and Scribes hypocrites I would like to address the following issue. I have heard these words so many times already in person or through e-mail: "But pastor says.....". Hello, there are priests out there having sex with little boys, research has shown that Christian convention bring in the most money for hotels in charges on the adult movies. Certain churches ordain gay and lesbians to preach, because “they are forgiven anyway”, while they continue to live that sinful life. Pastors suffer from depression, cardiovasculair disease, cancer and addictions just as the rest of us. And "who is talking them into that..."? So before you write me that "but pastor says....", read your Bible for yourself. Lay out in the Bible what I bring you, and then study and take time to refute this. And if you feel you can, I am more than excited to spent my time on studying that together.
So jump back to where we were. Let's consider this. If evil, or the evil one, was something that would come by from time to time to tempt us, is deliverance from evil for redemption really needed? Wouldn't the "lead us not into" take care of it? One would think so, but no. Because in most cases evil is not just coming by from time to time to tempt us. Evil, or the evil one, is part of us, and we truly need to be delivered from it. Like a mother who pushes and forces her child out of her body, to deliver it and be delivered from it, so do we have to be delivered from evil.
In our up and coming Bible study we will go into much more detail, but there are numerous descriptions in the Bible that show us evil spirits literally live within us. Interestingly enough also on this subject the newer Bible versions are translated such that it deflates this knowledge. "Dwelling within" is replaced with "Dwelling among us". Sounds the same, but has very different implications. So to be delivered from the evil one, means that an evil spirit (or more than one) needs to be cast from us, taken out of us. Now how many Christians understand that this is what they ask God to do for us when we ask for delivery in the Lord's prayer? Yet this a very important part. Because if we do not cast that evil from us, then it maintains it's right to dwell in us. It maintains it's right to torment us and the generations that follow. It maintains it's rights to make us bow under pain and misery to force us into following his temptations. And even if we do not bow under that force, we fall into sin because we doubt God because we still have torment going. We still suffer that addiction, we still are controlled by fear, we still have that illness, we still have those problems. Evil needs to be removed, and the more specific we can be in our request to have those evil spirits removed, the better. And as lined out in the previous chapter, there is logic to the madness. Certain torment comes from certain sin, which can help us in our awareness for sin issues. That can also help us in guiding us towards understanding the generational iniquities. It shows God that we understand, that we have knowledge. That we hunger for truth.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
And we ask God the Father in Heaven because He is the most high. He is king, He is all the power, He is the glory. For as long as it lasts, which is forever.
Amen.
Which simply means: "Truth". realize however that if you do not fully understand the Lord's prayer, and you finish it with "Amen", it could be considered a sin of deceit because you would be calling something you don't understand truth. Just something to think about.....
Time to conclude.
So let's review and ponder on a few more related things. All and all the Lord's prayer, in which we might ask God to do much for us, is showing us how much we have to do. How much responsibility lies with us. Next to owning our sins by understanding what sin we committed and that we might be affected by generational iniquities, we need to forgive others before we can be forgiven. We need to listen before acting, hold every thought captive when temptation comes. And in understanding God's law and hearing His warnings when temptation hits, He will not lead us into that temptation. He has it all laid out for us, but it is mostly due to our ignorance and lack of knowledge that we still get dragged into sin. It is an insult to Jesus Christ to use his sacrifice to cover our ignorance and unwillingness to learn, fall for the temptations and then still ask to have His sacrifice cover us. God forbids us to do that. Now the Bible tells us that offending Christ will be forgiven, unlike offending the Holy Spirit. The Bible also tells us that there is no sacrifice that will cover our sins after we have received the truth. And if we really want to start with a clean slate, we have to understand what evil spirits have a right to live within us, if we have sinned repeatedly like we all have. It is much better to be delivered from evil than to just have strength during temptation. God told us to have knowledge. So show your knowledge and ask Him specifically what evil spirit to be delivered from. The spirit of fear, and what kind of fear. Unloving spirits, spirit of perfectionism, spirits of....... (just fill in the blank).
If we now truly understand the intensity of the Lord's prayer, we should have a starting realization how much we have been listening to the kingdom of Satan. When visiting church after church, you will find out that all to often the Lord's prayer in all it's power and glory has been stripped and twisted. Most congregations make people believe it is simply saying: "I believe in Jesus", and that all will be well. If to be "born again" would mean to start with a clean slate or at least truly understand God's law, or having received the Holy Spirit, then the majority of Christians might have re-think their "born again" status. Because your sins are not forgiven unless you have forgiven. God works hard to warn you when temptation hits, but most Christians are not even aware what all falls under temptation and don't hear God who is telling them not to get dragged into that sin. And the average believer doesn't spent nearly enough time in their lifetime to pass their final exam of the fifteen hundred pages of life's lessons called the Bible. But they listen to Satan and think it are their own thoughts, feelings and emotions. And then there are for sure very few Christians that understand Christ tells us we need to be cleaned from evil spirits, so the souls of all those Christians not understanding that, are still cluttered by Lucifer / Satan and his henchmen. And we as a religion wonder why we don't see the miracles, that Jesus performed, happening in our churches, our homes and our communities. Because we have been told (guess who told us...?) that we are "saved", that we have received the Holy Spirit, even if we did not. It is time to wake up to the Word, and discard the thoughts, feelings and emotions that are making us believe whatever they want to.
Just as a side note, there are people out there doing everything and anything to attract people to their congregation. They speak in tongues, hit people on the forehead to heal them of whatever in front of a large gathering, or go in a trance to prophesy. And masses follow them, almost worshipping them as if they are Christ himself. Consider Satan knows the Bible from cover to cover better than any of us. He tempted Christ for forty days, and don't think for a second that was an easy mind game. If Satan can cripple us, give us neurological disorders, allergies, drive us to sexual immoralities, he can make us speak in tongues. And Satan will heal people (temporarily), if it means he can drag more people into taking his counsel. And with the end times drawing nearer, Satan will use sneakier ways then ever to mislead you. After all, he comes disguised as an angel of light. So what do I recommend to make sure it isn't Satan misleading you. You come to God through you gaining knowledge by reading and studying the Bible. You get healed because you use that knowledge to connect with God. Beware of the so-called middleman. In the spiritual warfare we are dealing with, there is a lot of invisible risk by placing someone between you and God. After all, by Christ's sacrifice, and giving us the possibility to receive the Holy Spirit, God allows us to become part of the God head. God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Spirit being in you. Why put anything or anyone in between that intimate relationship God has called you out for? I do not wish to at any moment be viewed as a person through which you get to God. I just provide you with the knowledge you need out of the fifteen hundred pages that encompass the Bible, so that you have a better chance to achieve that intimate relationship with God.
So with all that is involved maybe it isn't all as easy as it looked like after all. And it is not that I want to complicate matters even more, but I really want to get the point across what level of responsibility we have towards God and His Son Jesus Christ. So let me ask you a challenging question. But before I ask, I want you to picture your worst enemy before you. Got that person clearly in your head? Then let's get to the challenge. Jesus taught us we need to love not just those who love us, but that we should also love our enemies. That we need to love how He loved us. Christ laid down His life for us, and the Bible tells us we also need to lay down our lives for others, which would include our enemies. Would you undergo a flocking and beating beyond recognition? Have a thorn crown pushed on your head? Carry a heavy wooden cross through the streets while people throw anything rotten and dirty at you? Get nailed to that cross to then die a slow and painful death? All that, to give your worst enemy, whom you just pictured, a chance to go to Heaven?!? No guarantee, but just a chance. Are you ready to be in Christ Jesus such that you would die a death like that, just like how Christ did that for you and His worst enemies, if your Heavenly Father asked you to do so??
If your answer was "yes", and you are truly serious about that, I applaud you. And not to be judgmental, but I do question how serious a large percentage of those who answered "yes" truly are. Because most of you that said “yes”, and for sure those who said “no”, give in so much easier than that. Some of you let Satan destroy the Temple of the Holy Spirit, your body, by tempting you in sugary foods, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, sex and other addictions. And others live lives filled with fear. Or anger, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness. Or they run after that what pleases mankind, worried what other people might think of them. Over fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce, with Christian marriages even more than that (!!). And in those marriages that survive there still is huge numbers of sexual immoralities or a lifestyle that is pretty much the same as if the parents are divorced. Many parents consider the television or MySpace more important than spending time with the children. Children are rushed to multiple different activities, killing the family spirit because there is no time for family dinners anymore while the coaches raise the kids with an ungodly attitude of "whatever it takes to win". We are driven to perform for worldly matters. The number one prescribed drugs in America are antidepressants. One out of four people die of cardiovascular disease. One out of six dies of cancer. The number three cause of death are the side effects of FDA approved drugs, telling us how much drugs America is taking. Suicide is within the top ten causes of death. America is on average morbidly obese bringing along misery and suffering that is far beyond any war ever fought. Pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry. Crime rates are up every year. More people than ever are up to their eyeballs in debt, with personal bankruptcies, in which people skip on their responsibilities of paying for what they consumed, breaking records every year. The high school drop-out numbers are rising, and gang activity in and out of the schools is an ever increasing problem. And if we then consider that just breaking one part of God's law makes us guilty of breaking it all, we can all agree that the majority of us can do much better. That the majority is walking after the flesh, rather than walking after the Spirit. And that includes us Christians, because the statistics are generally not any different for the followers of Christ. Ignorance, a lack of knowledge and an unwillingness to admit we can learn and do better drive the masses right into Satan's court. We are by the droves taking the big gate, walk the big road, leading to the lake of fire. Very few take the other gate with the narrow road..... But we are for sure going to Heaven.......
And I understand you might have heard these kind of statistics before. There are plenty of magazines addressing this. Success principles address this issue in dozens of books and magazines as well. It might even have been a religious leader bringing this to you. All with a request in there to shape up, to improve. But without any regard for what is causing these statistics to happen. Yes, we have to shape up and improve our ways. But very few of those telling you bring you the background information that there is more going on behind the scenes. A spiritual warfare that is much more then just being tempted from time to time. It is our mission at Free From Bondage Ministry to expose that warfare in such ways that people might finally understand what they are dealing with.
Now do I claim myself to be perfect. By no means. I catch myself all the time that I messed up again. Just a few weeks ago, late one night I caught myself in the office, falling back into some old behaviors. It wasn't until my allergies re-appeared full strength out of seemingly nowhere, that I realized what I had been doing. That's how caught up I had been in getting work done. I prayed that Christ's sacrifice would forgive me for that, using the Lord's prayer in my own words. The allergies tapered off right away although there was some after effect lasting through the next morning. But it would be an insult to Christ if I knowingly and willingly repeated that same mess over and over again, figuring that since I claim to believe in Christ I will be saved by His grace. His sacrifice and grace are not an excuse to follow Satan willingly or in utter ignorance. Look where you can improve and get started. It is never to late to get started. And is it about being perfect? No, we should all realize we will never accomplish that. But we can get a little better every day.
Does that mean we wil be free from all torment. No! In writing the book "General Application if the Who Told You Principle" it felt like Satan was sitting by my side, watching my every move. Life was bouncing from one minute to the next in and out of torment, depending on minuscule issues that never seemed to be an invitation for Satan and his henchmen to come by and torment me. It could have easily created so much distraction in my life that that book would have become a five or ten year project. But prayer pulled me through, and made me aware that the book had to be finished rather sooner than later. I also had a timespan of seven nights in a row where the torment became so fierce that I doubted if I wanted to continue to expose Satan's war strategies. Seven night I was haunted by nightmares about all terrible things that could happen to me and my family. Nightmares in which I was bullied with an ongoing barrage of partial Bible verses out of which no-one would have been able to make sense, all while I was clearly told "see, you can't make any sense out of this. Night after night I couldn't breath. I told my wife it truly felt as if someone was sitting on my chest and was choking me with both hands. Mix this with an ongoing barrage of worldly matters and lusts, even in the form of pictures flashing through my head. If this was what my life would be like I didn't know if I wanted to continue. Yet the idea that this was just a snapshot of what everlasting torment would be like, made me aware that I had to continue. Just one more person saved from Satan's snare would be worth it. I prayed ongoing to be relieved from this torment, but all I got back was to pursue and stand strong. After seven days and nights it disappeared as instantly as it had come.
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