Part 7 (1/2)

When I'm not feeling right, I don't stop believing that G.o.d loves me because I don't feel His love. I have written this truth in my heart. It's an absolute-a cardinal rule that I never deviate from.

But G.o.d commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 That means G.o.d's love has nothing to do with my goodness or anything in me. It's all about G.o.d.

Much More Now Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Romans 5:9 G.o.d loved you by His grace-not based on your performance. If He loved you while you were yet a sinner so much that He died for you, then how much more does He love you now that you're born again!

The average church teaches a watered-down version of G.o.d's love now. They won't admit to it, but their att.i.tude shows it. They say, ”Come to the Lord just as you are. If you're a sinner, that means you're qualified. Jesus died for sinners.” But what would happen if someone came into a church service drunk and reeking of alcohol? The typical Christian would walk up and say, ”G.o.d loves you. He has a better life for you. Jesus died for your sins. Wouldn't You like to receive Him? Wouldn't you like to be forgiven?” The average Christian will extend grace towards a lost man, but what happens when that drunk prays to receive salvation and then comes back again drunk the next week? Once this person claims to be a believer, the average Christian would turn on him, telling him, ”G.o.d is mad at you. He isn't going to bless you. G.o.d won't answer your prayers. The wrath of G.o.d is coming on you. You'd better repent, or else! Turn or burn!” They'd start preaching wrath to him.

This is the reason a lot of people go through what's called a ”honeymoon” period when they get born again. As a sinner, they're told, ”Regardless of what you've done, G.o.d loves you by grace. It's unconditional. It doesn't matter what you've done. Come, accept Jesus, and you'll get all of your sins forgiven.” The person says, ”That's good news,” and they believe. They receive salvation and are just so in love with G.o.d. Colors are brighter, sounds are better, and smells are nicer. Everything is wonderful because they believe that G.o.d loves them.

”What's Wrong?”

Then that new Christian goes to church. He hears somebody testify that they were healed of something and they think, Well, I have something. I'd like to be healed too. The Church prays for them, but they don't instantly see a manifestation of their healing. So they begin to ask, ”What's wrong?” The Church answers, ”Sin.” Confused, the new Christian says, ”I thought G.o.d had forgiven me.”

And here is the answer they get from these well-meaning church people: ”Oh, yeah. He had back then. But you've sinned since then. You're going to have to start studying more. You're going to have to read the Bible an hour a day, pray in tongues, and go to church. Have you been paying your t.i.thes? G.o.d won't bless you unless you pay your t.i.thes.”

All of a sudden, the feeling they once had that G.o.d loves them unconditionally based on grace is replaced with, Uh-oh! If I'm going to receive from G.o.d, I need to start being holy. I need to do all of these things or G.o.d won't bless me. They stop putting faith in grace, and they're now trying to merit and earn G.o.d's favor instead.

Romans 5:8 reveals that G.o.d loved you so much that while you were yet a sinner Christ died for you. Romans 5:9 says that much more now are you saved from wrath through Him. You may have come to Christ while you were living in adultery. You confessed Jesus as your Lord, believing in your heart that He was raised from the dead, and instantly you were in relations.h.i.+p with G.o.d. Adultery couldn't keep you from G.o.d. You may have lied and stolen. You may have been a drug addict or an alcoholic. You did all kinds of things, yet you came to the Lord. You believed and confessed Jesus as your Lord, and instantly you came into relations.h.i.+p with G.o.d.

But now that you're born again, you feel guilty. You know you ought to be studying the Word more. You've made a promise to have a daily devotion time, but you haven't kept it. You got mad at your spouse on the way to church, or you had an argument and haven't been home. You didn't go to your kid's ballgame, and you feel guilty. G.o.d accepted you when you were an adulterer, liar, thief, addict, and murderer, but now, if you don't read your daily Bible readings and pray He's liable to let you die of cancer.

A Works Mentality As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Colossians 2:6 In order to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, you had to first hear about the grace of G.o.d. G.o.d commended His love toward you. While you were yet a sinner, Christ died for you. Two thousand years ago Jesus bore the sins of the world before you were ever born. When you heard the good news of the grace of G.o.d, your faith just reached out and appropriated it.

But now that you've become religious, you've started trying to earn things. You may be doing ”good things” like fasting, praying, and studying the Word, but your motive is to merit G.o.d's favor. Your faith is no longer in the unconditional love of G.o.d that made everything available to you by His grace. Your focus is on how holy you're living. Your faith is in you, not grace.

Perhaps you are deflecting what I'm sharing and saying to yourself, ”That's not me.” Be honest with yourself before the Lord. This is where most people live. They are in a works mentality, which is why they aren't experiencing a greater relations.h.i.+p with G.o.d and manifesting their salvation benefits. They feel they have to earn G.o.d's provision, so they are constantly trying to perform instead of just receiving G.o.d's love by grace-putting faith in the unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor of G.o.d. G.o.d's love for you has nothing to do with how good you are.

Imagine that you're in one of my meetings right now and someone just fell over dead. I've seen three people raised from the dead, including my own son. He was dead for over five hours, but was raised up completely healed. I've seen blind eyes and deaf ears opened. I've seen cancers, AIDS, diabetes, and many other diseases healed. If I said, ”All right, how many of you believe that G.o.d can raise this person from the dead?” you would be right there with me. If I continued saying, ”I'm going to pray for them and we're going to see this person raised from the dead,” you'd be excited, getting up out of your seat, and moving toward the front for a better look.

But I would probably lose you when I said, ”All right. If you believe it, you come up here and pray for them.” All of a sudden, the excitement would drain right out of you. Your faith would turn into unbelief and your antic.i.p.ation into dread. It's not that you doubt G.o.d can do it. You doubt G.o.d's willingness to use His ability on your behalf because you don't feel worthy.

Independent of You You haven't yet understood that all provision is totally based in the grace of G.o.d. You think you have to do something to merit and earn it. That's why you have more faith in my prayers than you have in your own. If you knew me as well as you know you, you wouldn't have any more faith in my prayers than you have in your prayers. It's true! You think that preachers have it all worked out and we live holy all of the time. Talk to my wife. She loves me in spite of who I am, not because of who I am.

The problem is, you know you so well you bear a sin consciousness. You feel unworthy because you don't fully understand that it's all by the grace of G.o.d. G.o.d hasn't ever had anybody qualified working for Him yet. I'm not qualified to do what I do. G.o.d doesn't use me because I'm qualified. I'm not holy enough in myself to be used of G.o.d. I have to stand up and believe in the goodness and grace of G.o.d.

This is the number one truth I've received from this revelation. I've applied it to my relations.h.i.+p with G.o.d, and I now know His love for me. I've experienced it. That day I realized how unG.o.dly I was and confessed all of my sins was the first and greatest revelation I've ever had of G.o.d's love. It wasn't based on any worth or goodness of my own. It had nothing to do with me. G.o.d loves you completely independent of you. You don't have to earn or deserve this love; it's the grace of G.o.d.

G.o.d, by grace, loved you before you were born again. (Rom. 5:8.) Now that you are born again, he loves you much, much, much more, (v. 9.) Even if you are the sorriest saint you know, G.o.d loves you infinitely more than He ever loved you before you were born again. G.o.d's love for you is unconditional. It's unending and unchanging. Since you didn't do anything to cause G.o.d to love you, you can't do anything to cause Him not to love you. G.o.d's love for you has never been tied to anything you've done.

All Things G.o.d loves you. If you could grasp this revelation, it would solve all of your problems. ”But you don't understand. I'm dying. G.o.d's love wouldn't solve that problem.” Yes, it would!

...faith... worketh by love. Galatians 5:6 If you understood how much G.o.d loved you, your faith would shoot through the roof. You'd be overwhelmed! G.o.d loved you enough to bear your sins, suffer the shame, and die for you.

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32 Compared to being forgiven and loved by G.o.d, being healed is insignificant. You may not have ever thought of it this way, but if you're struggling to believe that G.o.d is going to heal you and that you'll see that healing, you're really struggling with the love of G.o.d.

A Standstill Once, a man brought his daughter in a wheelchair to one of our meetings. She was twelve years old and quadriplegic. Her brain was severely damaged, she couldn't talk or communicate in any way. She was totally incapacitated. She was twelve years old, but had never in her life responded to another human being. She was breathing, but she wasn't alive. This man became offended and got up, and left during the service when I declared that it is G.o.d's will for every person to be healed.

The people who brought this man to the meeting said, ”Why don't you just wait until after the service is over and ask Andrew what he's talking about? Maybe he could explain it.” The man stayed, and we talked afterwards. I stood in front of his daughter who was sitting in the wheelchair. He was behind the wheelchair, telling me that G.o.d had made his girl this way. This was G.o.d's will and He's getting glory out of this. This man was misinterpreting scripture.

I shared with him from James 1 that G.o.d is not the author of these things.

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of G.o.d: for G.o.d cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. James 1:13 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17 He thought I was misusing my scriptures, and I thought he was misusing his. We were at a standstill.

”What Kind of a Father Are You?”

Since this guy was already mad at me, I thought, I have nothing to lose, so I just looked at him and said, ”What kind of a father are you in the first place? You don't even love your daughter. You don't care if she's ever normal. You don't care if she ever walks. You don't care if she ever interacts with anybody, if she ever gets married. You don't care! You don't love your daughter!”

This guy was hot! He was boiling mad, yelling at me, and saying, ”I would do anything. If there was an operation, I would pay any amount of money. If I could, I would be like her so that she could be well.”

Then I turned to him and said, ”And you think G.o.d loves your daughter less than you do!”

We could have argued scriptures and doctrine forever, but when I brought it down to just love, he knew that there was nothing that would have kept him from ministering to his daughter and healing her if he could. Yet here he was thinking that G.o.d, who is all-powerful, didn't care about his daughter as much as he did. When I brought it down to relations.h.i.+p and spoke of love, he just had to say, ”I see your point. If G.o.d is any kind of a G.o.d at all-any kind of a good G.o.d-it must be His will for my daughter to be well.”

Chapter 18, You Qualify!.

Understanding G.o.d's love would solve your theological problems. It would get rid of this thinking that G.o.d is the One causing earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and other bad things to happen to judge people. That's not G.o.d!

Religion has been misrepresenting the Lord. They will preach the Gospel to a degree. They sing the song, ”Just as I am, without one plea,” and preach grace for sinners to be born again. That's why it's so easy to be born again. Grace is presented, and faith is simply your positive response to what G.o.d has already done.

Suppose salvation had been presented differently: ”Jesus might forgive your sins. He might come to this earth and die for you if you will repent and pray hard enough. If you promise never to do anything wrong again and live holy, then G.o.d might save you.” You would never have gotten saved because you would have thought, It will never work for me. But the reason it was easy for you to receive salvation is because it was presented as already provided.

This is good news, not good prophecy. It's already happened. It has already taken place. The news is supposed to tell you about what has already happened. The reason it's easy to get born again is because you're told that Jesus already died for the sins of the world. He's already commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, He died for us. It's news. So you say, ”Well, if it's already happened, I'll receive it.”

It's easy to reach out and receive something that's already done. If it's already done, then there's no element of doubt in it, no wondering if G.o.d will really do it. That's the reason you get born again relatively easy. But then you run into the same problem as the Galatians.

”O Foolish Galatians”