The Word of God is awesome! It has all the power we will ever need for every situation in our lives (Hebrews 4:12). All we have to do is mix it with faith and, praise God, a miracle (Hebrews 4:2)!
If you've been viewing my blogs, you will notice that we’ve been doing a good job of killing some sacred cows. Or as my good friend Tommy Hawk would say, “cutting off the head of our pet snakes”. No use stopping at this point.
I have lost count of the number of people who have said to me – “I believe God’s Word is truth. I’ve done everything scripture says to DO and I’m doing everything else I’ve heard that must be done, and I still don’t have my breakthrough. Where am I missing it? What else do I need to DO”?
Well, guess what? I have experienced the same situations personally in my life. So the question is, what’s wrong? Where are we missing it? There are probably many places where we miss it, but I think Mark 7:13 points it out very clearly where Jesus said – “Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition.”
Why do you suppose Jesus said this? I’m guessing that one of the reasons was because He knew that most people would not let the truth of scripture get in the way of their wrong believing. That they would put more faith in their denomination than in Him and the finished work on the cross. I actually had an Assemblies of God preacher tell me once that when he died and they cut his heart open, he hoped they would find the letters AG in his heart. My response to him was, I hope they find Jesus in my heart. Silence ensued after that little discourse. Hahahaha. I just couldn’t let it go past without saying something. Don't hear what I am not saying. I am not bashing the Assemblies of God or any denomination, just the wrong religious, legalistic teachings.
The problem is some people really believe it’s their particular denominationalism that’s going to get them to heaven. Well, let me just say, there are no Lutherans in heaven, there are no Methodists in heaven, there are no Nazarenes in heaven, there are no Episcopalians in heaven, there are no Catholics in heaven. There is only the blood bought church of Jesus Christ in heaven. You get my point.
When Jesus said what He said in Mark 7:13, it must have set a few Jews back on their feet. Actually, that statement right there sets religious legalists back on their heels. Wrong teaching based on religious doctrines, makes God’s Word of no effect. It’s religious traditions being taught from the pulpit by “ministers” who have not received a revelation of the truth. They have followed blindly in the footsteps of error in preaching by those who have come before them. Or they’re directed in their faith and beliefs by a council of men sitting at headquarters in some city in the US or abroad.
Let me just say that significant revelation cannot be received from the Lord in the absence of a renewed mind. The key or access to the supernatural realm of revelation, with any kind of regularity, is directly proportional to the renewed mind. The old ways of thinking that were learned in church must be repented from in favor of the truth of scripture.
Paul was adamant about this in Romans 12:2 when he said not to be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of the mind. As I was freed from the traditions of men and the false teachings of legalism, I discovered the simplicity of God’s Word and it totally set me free to receive supernatural revelation of the deeper truths contained in scripture.
The thing about sacred cows or pet snakes is that you can’t deal with them in a piecemeal fashion. You simply have to kill them, get rid of them, totally reject and prove the falseness associated with them, and then deal with the fallout.
So here’s one of the worst doctrines in the body of Christ today. The belief that God controls everything or, as the religious terminology states, “God is sovereign.” It usually comes at you in one of two ways: One, God originates everything, or two, Satan originates the evil things but has to get God’s approval before he can do His “dirty work.”
Now I know you’ve had this doctrine thrown at you by members of the body of Christ. It goes something like this. “Well, I don’t know why that happened that way, but you know, God is sovereign. He can do what He wants, like He wants, when He wants, to whomever He wants, at anytime He wants.” Really?? That’s a sacred cow and it needs to die. If they don’t kill that sacred cow, it will kill the power of God’s Word in their lives.
On the surface, it makes perfect sense that God controls everything. After all, He is God. He is all powerful. He can do whatever He wants to do. However, what He wants to do is have relationship with us and not control us, but instead give us choice. God is NOT in control, but He is in charge. He is sovereign, and I agree that God is sovereign if the word sovereign is used as it’s defined in the dictionary.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines “sovereign” as “1. Independent. 2. Having supreme rank or power. 3. Paramount; supreme.” “Sovereign” comes from a Latin word that means “super, above.” I agree with all of those definitions. God is all of that and more. But religious tradition has redefined “sovereign” to mean God has and does exercise “absolute control.” I totally disagree with that! He chose not to exercise absolute control. He chose to allow us to share in victory with Him by providing us with all that we need so that we could exercise His authority as ambassadors to the Kingdom.
Now there was a time when God was in absolute control of everything, but then He made man and gave him unrestricted power and authority over the earth. Man knowingly gave that power and authority to Satan. And Satan has been messing things up ever since (with our help, I might add).
People have said, “well why doesn’t “God just stop Satan. He could if He wanted to”. From that they form the conclusion that the devil only does what God allows Him to do. Well, that’s just not true. That means every time the enemy comes against you or something bad happens in your life, you’d have to come to the conclusion that God was behind it, because He allowed the devil to do it. That’s a religious tradition that will render you passive and prey to the devil.
God set up His government on earth and heaven. In that government, God gave to man, Adam, unconditional authority over the earth. Study that in Genesis where He gave dominion to them with all power and authority. He made a covenant with them. He gave him His word (Psalms 89:34). There were no exceptions noted in this covenant. He didn’t have a clause in the covenant that said “If this guy blows it, this covenant is null and void and I’m going to re-claim my authority back on earth.” No! God set it up for man to have dominion, so in that regard, God had to allow what man allowed. The Lord had given man total control over the earth.
You’ve heard me say this before. Actually, because of the way God set up his government, and because of the absolute dominion and authority God gave man on earth, God would actually have to get permission from man to do anything on earth of His own self. God set it up so that whatever He needed or wanted done on earth would always be done through man. That’s why He gave us all authority on earth and in heaven (John 17:18 and Matthew 28:18). That's why He gave us choice. We don't always choose correctly, but then grace would not be grace unless we have the right to choose, even if though God knows that we will not always choose correctly. Now right here I'm probaby going to lose some of you, but keep reading. I'm only repeating what scripture proves.
The Holy Spirit is here on earth to guide us, direct us and urge us, with sweet nudging action, but He will never override His established government. Adam was authorized to govern as he saw fit, but then Adam yielded to Satan the power and authority God intended for man.
The reason the Lord started making covenants with people like Abraham and eventually, the whole nation of Israel is so that He could legally bless them. When they lived up to the covenant made, then He could bless them. Of course we know this didn’t work real well. The law was not given for man to keep and no one could ever live up to God’s standard for very long. As a result, God had to change the methodology, so to speak.
The old Levitical priesthood was not working. Read about it in Hebrews where it says the old Priesthood had to continually deal with the sins of the people, but before the priest could deal with the people’s sins, he had to cleanse himself from his sin. So, there needed, by necessity, to be a change in priesthood.
Hebrews 7:12 says “And if the priesthood is changed, the law must also be changed to permit it”. Just study all of Hebrews 7 about the priesthood. God changed it because it wasn’t working. Priests were also dying.
Okay, but what about judgement. God uses judgement as a way of correcting us. Well, it’s true that God is a God of justice now, before and forever, but again we need to renew our minds to right believing in this regard. So, let’s just kill another sacred cow concerning the fact God’s Old Testament way of correcting us through judgement is not a part of the New Covenant of Grace.
I'll stop here for now, because this is a lot to meditate on. As we continue to part 2, we will look at the famous and familiar book of Deuteronomy Chapter 28. A favorite of religious legalists when it comes to blessings and cursings. Grace and Peace.
