Indagatio Veri

Life is not complicated  struggle is not without reason.  In some way, shape, or form, everything boils down to living life from a works based mindset or from a revelation of Christ and His grace.  We either try to achieve what we see is lacking, or we look to Jesus, where wholeness has already been given to us. Striving leads to disappointment, condemnation, exhaustion, and ultimately uselessness.  Faith in what has been accomplished on our behalf leads to peace, joy, hope, and a very fruitful life.  We are meant to do good works naturally, since we have been given everything pertaining to life and Godliness.  We actually work harder when we rest in the fact that God has done it all, then if we think that we need to try hard to please God obey Him.  'You cannot please God without faith.' We have faith that He is already pleased with us because of what Jesus has done, we then walk in the Spirit, fulfilling His will naturally.  Faith in the fi...

Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for me, that I might become the righteousness of Christ.  Jesus bore the sins of the world in his own body.  His body died, and with it went my sin.  His resurrection marked the end of the old and the beginning of the new! I have shared in the baptism of Christ's death and therefore also shared in his resurrection.  For I was crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me.  My sinful nature has been circumcised away, and I have now become a partaker of the divine nature! I now live in a reality where I have authority over all evil.  God has taken away the power and punishment of sin.  He has reconciled me to himself through Christs flesh and I am no longer predisposed to sin, but a slave of righteousness.  Through hearing the 'good news' God has renewed my mind so that I am no longer deceived in thinking that He and I are enemies.  God has removed sinfulness its...

Jesus accomplished something on the cross that completely altered our relationship with sin.  When we believe in Him, we step into a whole new reality.  As Christians, our relationship to sin has completely changed.  In 1 John, John writes some very challenging statements about our relationship to Jesus and how that affects sin in our life.  I think that John wrote this book to make people ‘question’ their salvation.  This is opposite of how many teachers interpret it however.  In 1 John 5:13 it says, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”  Many times this verse is used to assure people of their salvation, but John says he ‘writes these things’ so that you may be assured.  So that means we have to look at what he wrote; and this particular book has some of the most challenging verses within scripture. Here are a few of the most challenging verses...

"Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-- to keep me from exalting myself!  Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.  And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness (2 Cor. 12:7-9).'" The 'thorn' in Paul's flesh is a mystery to the church.  There has been much speculation and debate about what it could be, but ultimately we can't confidently assert a definitive answer.  Probably the most common assertion is that Paul had some sort of sickness or physical/mental disability.  That is primarily because of the words 'torment and weakness' that are used in that passage.  The other common assumption has been that Paul had a sin or temptation issue that he continually had to deal with.  Utilizing these two explanations, many Christians...

Jesus was the greatest law preacher of all time! Most of His ministry was dedicated to frustrating people's attempts at getting into heaven/following Him.  He raised the bar so high, in many situations, hoping and waiting for people to give up entirely on their own ability to 'achieve' salvation.  Much of His earthly ministry was not one of grace but of law, so that people would recognize that their own personal attempts at perfection were futile.  He preached law so as to prepare people for a savior, himself.  He taught law until His death and resurrection, when He reconciled the world to Himself; He then gave the message of reconciliation to His disciples; especially to the apostle Paul.  Lets dive into the teachings of Jesus, the greatest of law preachers.  In doing so may the Spirit empower us to leave behind the law and step into His marvelous grace! As we look at these passages it is interesting to note that Jesus tailor made His messages ...

     There is language that is often times used that unintentionally allows for unbelief to reign in our lives.  There are many ways of thinking that cause people to live on the brink of faith without actually having any (Hebrews 11:1).  There are two 'sayings' used in the church that need to be completely thrown away.  God wants us to have faith, conviction, that leads to freedom.  1) "The blood of Jesus 'covers' our sin."   2) "God 'sees' us as righteous."      These statements are used all of the time, and although they carry some truth they do not fully grasp the fullness of what Jesus paid for on the cross.  Jesus didn't only cover up our sin, he separated us from it as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).  He actually cleansed us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).  I don't know about you, but when I wash something, I literally take away the dirt and the grime.  You can keep sp...

    God has forgiven you, he loves you, he does not condemn you. He wants you to accept His forgiveness and reinstate you as His child and friend so that you can be more than a conqueror. This takes humility, humility to give up completely on your own ability to attain.  You must simply accept that he has finished the work He set out to do on the cross. Humility comes from the Latin root Humus, which means grounding.  Humility is not feeling bad about yourself it is knowing where you come from.  If you agree with God that you are from Him, there is never any reason to feel poorly about yourself.  If you think you are a sinner unable to be forgiven then you have become an enemy in your mind against God.  The extreme of this is to blasphemy the spirit, which is the only 'unforgivable sin' (Matthew 12:31).  It really means to come to a place where there is no possibility of redemption for that individual because they have totally bought into the lie...

  So who is 'in Christ'?  Paul, in speaking to citizens of Athens says,  "HE made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of you own poets have said.  'For we also are His children.' Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or sliver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man (Acts 17:26-30)."  Paul here is talking to Pagans! To unbelievers! Yet he is speaking the truth to them,  he is preaching the message of reconciliation! He is preaching the finished work of Christ!  He is viewing them and speaking to them as they are forgiven already, because they are.  He is speaking to their true identity in h...

    This is one of my longest blogs, but I think that it contains very important revelation. God has been teaching me a lot about His grace and its power.  I have tried to compile these things into a cohesive message using mainly scripture passages.  I pray that this helps you gain a new perspective on what Jesus accomplished on the cross, and that the Holy Spirit renews our minds as we carry out the ministry of reconciliation.  Grace is so wonderful!     God does not condemn you or anybody else for sin. Does that sound strange to you, it did to me at first. The law condemns sin in sinful man, but it is only because they do not believe in Jesus. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  This is the judgement, tha...

God has recreated you! 'Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, the new things have come (2 Cor. 5:17)." We are commanded in two places, Romans 6 and Colossians 3, to consider ourselves dead to sin.  Why should we reckon ourselves dead to sin? Because we actually are! You are now righteous and Holy because the full righteous requirement of the Law has been met in you (Romans 8:4). Your actions no longer affect this reality, and agreeing with the truth actually sets you free so you no longer have to sin (John 8:32).  The only thing that will set you free from sin is knowing the truth, what is the truth? That you have already been set free! Now I am writing this blog to correct a misconception.  Many believers, as they begin to learn more about the Lord and increase in knowledge, begin to perceive more and more sinful habits or thoughts that they didn't notice before.  Many times we understand that as revealing how ...

The finished work of the cross is the most important thing to understand . . . period.  There are a number of things that are included in the finished work of Christ.  1).  That Jesus not only paid the penalty for our sin but that he actually defeated the power of sin itself.  Because of that we can live outside of sin's control and power; in other words it is possible to not sin. 2). That in Jesus we have actually been made into new creations, holy and righteous.  This is not a righteousness from ourselves from works, but by faith in the finished work of Jesus. I am righteous because Jesus paid for me and made me righteous.  This holy standing with God is not affected by my actions, good or bad, and it is in believing this truth that I can actually begin to manifest a holy lifestyle. 3).  That Jesus sacrifice has given us access into living the way that he lived.  Not only in holiness but also in the supernatural.  His sacrifice purified us ...

"Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son (John 14:13)." "For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst (Matthew 18:20)."    We have a funny way of viewing this passage sometimes.  In our prayer life, whether we are asking for something or declaring something we say 'In Jesus Name' at the end.  There is nothing essentially wrong with that but we often times do it as if stamping that statement on the end of our prayer validates and give authority to what we said. This is a sad representation of what the scriptures are saying.    When Jesus talks about asking in 'my name' he literally means to, 'ask as me'.  Because of Jesus we can relate with God and the world with the same authority that He had.  When our identity is rooted in what Jesus accomplished on the cross we have accepted our right standing with God.  We have confidence in the prese...

      I have noticed a tendency in many Christian circles, where we approach God as if his will is unknowable; or that our will is always opposing His. We say things and approach situations as if God's will is a mystery, and at best we need to pray for long extended periods of time before we can begin to fathom what God's will is in a situation.  This is a silly, non-biblical way to relate with God, and we need a renewing of our minds to see what Christ really accomplished on the cross in this area.      "Greater love has no one this that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you (John 15:13-15)."      So Jesus has revealed 'everything' from the Father.  Jesus is famous for doing 'only what he sees t...

           The renewing of our minds!! What a wonderful thing.  God is adapting us to a new environment; he is aligning us with a completely different reality.  It looks illogical, seems irrational, and only makes sense once He has transformed our minds.  There is one truth that is at the very center of the saving work of Jesus Christ, and is central for us to experience the fullness of God.  This mind-shift has to do with our sinful nature that previously separated us from God, but that because of the death of Jesus, we too now share in newness of life.  Understanding ourselves to be dead to sin but alive in Christ Jesus is the foundation for heavenly thinking.                  “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot...