From the Inside Out

That which you speak and act on is based on how you think. 

How you think is based on what you think of yourself. 

What you think of yourself is based on what you think your Creator thinks of you. 

If what you think your Creator thinks of you is not purely based on what He says about you in His Word, then you should start to read, believe and receive what He says about you. 

Don’t try to change your speech and how you act. Make the tree good and the fruit will be good. Believe Jesus made you good/righteous and your fruit/actions will be good. Jesus didn’t come so that we could live a life based on behaviour modification, but He came for spiritual transformation, which we received through His death and resurrection. He died to who we were so that we could be raised to who He is – righteous! We therefore no longer have a sin consciousness, because we are no longer under the law, and we therefore no longer have a sinful nature. Jesus lived in a body of flesh and He did not have a sinful nature. We are in the world, yes, but we are not of it. We are not trying to be like Jesus, we are just becoming more convinced that we have been made just like Him! By one Man's sacrifice all have been made righteous! Thank you Jesus!

We are completely forgiven!

We are no longer under the law – Jesus has fulfilled the law!

We have been set free!

We have inherited eternal life!

We have been reconciled back to God – there is no separation!

We have been restored back to our original identity – to be as Jesus is! 1 John 4:17

Scriptural references

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. Rom 8:29

Prov 23:7 – how you live is based on what you think

Luke 6:45 – you speak what your heart and mind are filled with

Rom 12:2 – do not act in a manner that is foreign to your nature, but rather remind yourself of who you have become

2 Cor 5:21 – we are the righteousness of God!

Matt 12:33 – fruit follows truth – who God says that you are

Rom 6:14 - sin does not have a hold over you because you are not under law, but under grace!

Rom 6:5 – we have come back to life

If it doesn't sound too good to be true then it's probably not the Gospel

Is God good? How good is God? 

Is God mighty? How mighty is God? 

If it doesn't sound too good to be true then it's probably not the Gospel.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 1Cor1:27 

Yet we still try to understand the love of God with a contrary way of thinking, and then we reject the truth when it sounds too good to be true.

The Israelite's complained about the old covenant being too difficult to keep, and now we don't fully accept the new covenant because it just sounds too good to be true, so we form a mixture of the two.

Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." Matthew 9:17 

Here we see that we cannot balance the old and new covenant. The new covenant is the fulfilment of the old. Either you live by all six hundred and something laws, or you live by grace. 

To live under the law:

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. James 2:10

All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. Rom 2:12  

Or, to live by grace:

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Cor 5:21

Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one Man the many will be made righteous. Rom 5:18-19

If at this point you are hearing "you are now free to sin" then you probably need to repent of your lack of faith in "the obedience of the one Man" Jesus Christ, because when He died, He died to sin, but we weren't left as forgiven sinners, but we became new creations! New minds! New hearts! New life!

1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:1-4

You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Rom 6:18

Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world. 1 John 4:17

The only thing that Jesus asks us to give up when we receive Him, is who we never were. We were created in His image. We are His workmanship created for good works. Eph 2:10

The reason why I struggled to accept and receive the grace of Jesus Christ, was effectively because I didn't trust Him. It all comes down to us not fully trusting in the finished work us the cross, in that He has made us righteous, by grace alone. If we have His mind, if we are as Christ was, if we bear His Spirit, if we are His children, then we truly are slave to righteousness! Sin is not apart of our new nature. It is dead! Nailed to the cross!

I share this truth openly because I have found this to be more real, more true, more freeing, and I am seeing more lives receive Jesus and His healing around me than ever before with any other revelation that is contrary to the revelation that Jesus did it all for us and that we have been made new!!! It is my passion to share this with others, as it is for freedom that we have been set free, and if believers are not living in freedom, this is not God's intention, but merely a poor understanding of God's intention and of the effect of the cross. 

As a man thinks, so is he. Prov 23:7 If you believe yourself to be a sinner, then you should be content when you sin, because you are only true to your belief. 

It is good news! It is for freedom that we have been set free! Stay in His love! Stay in His Peace, Stay in His joy! Stay in His abounding grace!

You’re the only Jesus, some will ever see

There is an awesome song by Kathleen Harris that goes like this:

If not you, I wonder where will they ever find the One who really cares?
If not you, how will they find the One who heals the broken heart, gives sight to the blind?

If not you, I wonder who, will show them love, and love alone can make things new?
If not you, how will they learn there’s one who’ll trade their hopelessness for joy in return?

Cause You’re the only Jesus some will ever see You’re the only words of life, some will ever read So let them see in you the One in whom is all they’ll ever need You’re the only Jesus, some will ever see

Tonight I went to go pray for the sick at the Umhlanga Hospital and a family told me I look like Jesus, and some seemed to think that I may actually be Jesus, which is amusing because I do have a beard, but beyond that, it is the greatest compliment to resemble the King of Kings! To resemble Jesus, by allowing His love (which has been perfected in us) to overflow from our lives, is actually natural and simple, after all, as Jesus is, so we are in this world 1 John 4:17.

It makes me sad to think that some would read the lyrics to this song and feel convicted and some form of guilt, when we should be stirred up and compelled to resemble the One in who's image we were created! "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died." 2 Cor 5:14  The fact that God has chosen to use us means that we are complete and qualified, by His grace, to spread His love far and wide! Now that we know that Jesus' love for us is unconditional, and that we are in right standing with God, because of Jesus' sacrifice, we can keep our gaze fixed on Him and allow His love to overwhelm us (Heb 12:20). If we do not desire to tell others about Jesus, this can simply be a sign that we need a deeper revelation of His love, to the point that the Gospel just oozes out of us. If I am not convinced that I am righteous because of what Jesus has done, I will continue to feel inadequate as I will be so busy trying to fix that which Jesus has already fixed, and instead of trusting in the finished work of the cross and living for Jesus.

Rom 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

The Greatest Love Story Ever To Be Told

The greatest love story ever to be told

Is the one that lasts forever

Never to be deemed old

A love nothing can sever

“Romeo” took the hit for you, and for me

Showing us what love looks like

Not from a balcony, but from a tree

A rose of blood in His hand, it’s stem a spike

“Romeo’s” heart broken

Torn apart

Spat on

Left in the dark

What have I done

To deserve such a manner of love

That a Father would offer up His perfect Son

As a sign from up above

No more feuds

Montague’s and Capulet’s now equal

We are all the chosen

Now let love be our sequel 

Dressed in flesh torn

Painted red

His head crowned by thorns

“Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do” is what He said

Our sins framed Him

On a wooden cross

The ultimate injustice

The only blameless man bore our cost

“It is finished!”

The devil got his pound of flesh

Only having one more thing to look forwards to

Death

But this love could not be crossed out by a piece of wood

The grave could not suppress it’s resurrection

This love hath no cure

Tis thee most beautiful infection

I was blind but now, now I see

Thanks to Your amazing grace

Love was poured out from a tree

Trickling down my face

This love is real

It does not seek it’s own

If you think you can go without

Then go ahead and “cast the first stone”

This love is selfless

This love is sacrifice

This love is enduring

This love is Jesus Christ

The Answer to this Life

It’s crazy to think how long it can take us to come to the realization, that Jesus is the answer. Not only is Jesus the answer and solution to eternal damnation, He is simply the answer to everything. 

Last night, at hospital ministry, I only had time to pray for three patients, as I spent quite some time with each individual. The first patient required physical healing, the second required some serious deliverance from an evil spirit, and the third required emotional healing, as she was struggling with depression. Jesus was the answer to all these individual’s needs. The patient struggling with depression asked me why I was so happy, and why I thought Jesus was so amazing. I simply shared with her why Jesus is so amazing, by telling her who He is, what He has done, and who He says that she is. Depression could possibly be seen as the attack of a series of lies, blinding an individual from the truth. The truth is that your Creator loves you with a love that cannot, and will not stop pursuing you. The truth is that because of what Jesus has done on the cross, you have been set free and you have inherited eternal life, by simply acknowledging Him and believing in Jesus. Because of the love of Jesus, you are a son/daughter of the Most High God, and that God is well pleased with you, just as you are. One answer. One God. One love.

You can choose to believe lies, and subject yourself to the effect of those lies, or you can choose to believe in the truth and allow the freedom that truth brings, to set you free! It is for freedom that we have been set free! Simple, yet powerful! Every single person on this earth was made in the image of Jesus Christ, we should therefore not be surprised to find out the He is the missing piece in our lives. There is NOTHING that can satisfy you in this life. Nothing that can make you feel content or fulfilled. On a short-term basis, yes, there can be some satisfaction found, but there comes a point in every man/woman’s life when their soul cries out for more. My prayer is that those individuals would not turn to a counterfeit, which would bring a false hope and leave them broken, but that they would turn to the Lover of their soul, and find peace in Him alone.

If you have not received Jesus as your everything, with my everything, I would encourage you to do so. He desires to enter into your heart and start a relationship with you. We love Him because He loved us first. Even while we were still sinners, He died for us. Jesus died on the cross that we may know what love is. He is love.