Guilt is one of the biggest issues among Christians today. I can make a lot of interesting comments about that… but I won’t. The simple fact is that most believers just don’t know what to make of guilt, or how to manage those feelings. The difficulty of guilt has led some to fundamentally change essential doctrines of scripture, lessening the gospel message in the process! Not good.
The truth is that most of us have things in our past that can be a source of some level of guilt— it’s normal; it’s natural. There’s nothing wrong with you, or unique about your situation in that regard. What we do with those feelings of guilt is what makes all of the difference— and you don’t need to guess about that. The scriptures describe the incredible way that Jesus sets us free from guilt, and far from lessening the gospel message, it’s magnified through Christ.
If you have been viewing the studies here for any length of time, you have probably heard me mention that Jesus has made complete redemption available, and that He has made complete provision for your spirit, your soul, your body and even your finances. And indeed we have studied about His provision for your spirit, His provision for your body, and His provision for your finances.
Yet it occurred to me that we had not really explored His provision for your soul (that is your mind and emotions), in quite some time. And this area of His provision is just as important, just as powerful, and just as freeing as the others; and so we will be looking at it today in this study.
I titled today's study this way, on purpose, after some consideration, because these two things: prosperity and protection, are some of the most often attacked – not just by the world in general, but from inside Christian circles as well. In many places it is considered “radical” or “extreme” to believe in and trust God for prosperity, whether it be financial prosperity, or prosperity of other kinds such as prosperity in your relationships or prosperity in your health (i.e. healing).
There seems to be a disconnect in these areas, because the people that I often speak with, seem to have no real issue believing in a God who can give them eternal life, and save them from final destruction in hell; yet they have great difficulty believing that this same God is able or willing to provide for their temporal needs right now on this earth.
What I want to share with you today, is precisely what Jesus said about the provision, prosperity and protection, which the Father has for you, right now, today. And by seeing this, you will no longer be subject to the doubt that is so prevalent in the world today.
A long time ago, there was a popular praise song that we always used to sing; the lyrics in-part were “we bring a sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD.” This is a reference to Hebrews 13:15, saying that we should continually offer such a sacrifice to God. This phrasing has always puzzled me. Because in my human mind, the word “sacrifice” always implied cost, or some kind of a victim. Often times we hear preachers say that in order for our praise and worship to mean anything to God, it has to “cost us something”, and this left me even more confused because it really wasn’t costing me anything to praise God – as a matter-of-fact I enjoyed praising Him! So did this then mean that my praise was worthless?
I struggled with this thought for many years, and it led me into a performance-driven, merit-centered mentality where I was trying to give something of value back to God, which I naturally assumed was my own works and efforts; my performance and law-keeping. However, this idea is not actually supported in scripture. In-fact the Bible is very descriptive regarding what the real sacrifice of praise is which we are to offer, and this is precisely what we will be studying today.
What you say matters. Your words may seem insignificant, but they carry more weight and power than you can possibly imagine. Yet many times I hear believers describe in graphic and sometimes gruesome detail the victories which they perceive that the enemy is having in their lives and even in their bodies, and it is precisely because they do not understand the power of their words; and as a result, they do not realize the ground which they are giving-up to the enemy.
That's why in this study today, we will be examining the power of what we say, the words that we speak, and what the Bible says about it all. This is not new-age philosophy, but it is Bible fact and truth from the Word of God.
What are you afraid of? Fear can be one of the most debilitating forces in our lives. Fear can cause a person to never venture out into the world, to stay at home, to avoid others, and to miss many great and wonderful opportunities. Fear can also cause us to miss many blessings from God, including salvation if we are too afraid of God to come to Him.
So in this study today, we are going to take a look at how Jesus frees us from fear, and how as we truly listen to His Words, the bondage of fear is broken in our lives.