. THE COMPLETE DISCIPLESHIP EVANGELISM 48-LESSON COURSE. By Andrew Wommack and Don W. Krow. 1. Eternal Life. 4. 2. Salvation By Grace. 6. 3. Righteousness By Grace. 8. 4. Relationship With God. 10. 5. The Nature Of God. 12. 6. Repentance. 14. 7. Commitment. 16. 8. Water Baptism. 17. 9. Identity In Christ - Part 1. 18. 10. Identity In Christ - Part 2. 20. 11. What Happens When A Christian Sins. 22. 12. Integrity Of God's Word. 24. 13. God's Not Guilty. 26. 14. The Power Of A Spirit-Filled Life. 27. 15. How To Receive The Holy Spirit. 30. 16. The Benefits Of Speaking In Tongues. 31. 17. Self-Centeredness: The Source of All Grief. 34. 18. How To Meditate On God's Word. 36. 19. Renewing The Mind. 37. 20. The Importance Of Christ's Church. 39. 21. Deliverance. 41. 22. Authority Of The Believer. 44. 23.# Healing Is In The Atonement. 47. 24. Hindrances To Healing. 49. 25. Forgiving Others. 52. 26. Marriage - Part 1. 55. 27. Marriage - Part 2. 57. 28. God's Kind Of Love - Part 1. 60. 29. God's Kind Of Love - Part 2. 63. 30. Finances - Part 1. 65. 31. Finances - Part 2. 67. 32.# What To Do When Your Prayers Seem Unanswered. 69. 33. The Divine Flow. 72. 34. Using The Gifts To Minister. 74. 35.# Miracles Glorify God. 76. 36. The Power Of Godly Relationships. 79. 37. Persecution. 81. 38. The King And His Kingdom. 83. 39. The Object Of Saving Faith. 84. 40. The Proper Use Of God's Law. 85. 41. Not Under Law, But Under Grace. 86. 42. No More Consciousness Of Sin. 88. 43. I Am Loved, I Am Pretty. 89. 44. The Fruit Of Salvation - Part 1. 90. 45. The Fruit Of Salvation - Part 2. 93. 46. A Call To Discipleship. 95. 47. How To Use Your Testimony. 97. 48. Using Everyone's Gifts To Disciple. 100. =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 1. 1. ETERNAL LIFE. One of the most familiar passages of Scripture is John 3:16. It seems like everybody knows that verse from a young age, yet I believe it has really been misunderstood and misapplied. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." Traditionally, this scripture has been used to teach that Jesus came and died for our sins so that we wouldn't perish. As true as this is, this verse is saying that the real purpose of Jesus coming to this earth and dying for us was so that we could have everlasting life. It just so happened that our sins were a barrier that stood between us and this everlasting life. It is true that Jesus did die for our sins, and it is true that if we believe on Jesus, we will not perish, but there is much more to the Gospel than that. The real message of the Gospel is that God wants to give you everlasting life. Now let me explain that. The night before His crucifixion, Jesus was praying, and He said, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ" (John 17:3). This says that everlasting life is knowing the Father, the only true God, and knowing Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. That's what everlasting life is. Many people think that everlasting life is living forever. Well, every person lives forever. It's a misconception to think that when a person dies they cease to exist. The spirit and the soul go back to God. The body decays in the grave. The truth is, every person who has ever lived on the face of the earth will continue to live in spirit form. So, to say that eternal life is living forever is not the whole truth, everybody lives forever. This verse makes it very clear that eternal life with God is not automatically given to everyone. Some people would say, "Eternal life is living forever in heaven versus living forever in hell:' But eternal life is just what Jesus said in John 17:3, to know God and Jesus Christ. It's more than an intellectual knowledge. This word "know" is used throughout Scripture to describe the most intimate, personal relationship that you can have. The real purpose of salvation is not living forever in heaven, as great as that will be. The real purpose of salvation is to have intimacy, a personal relationship with the Lord God. There are multitudes of people who have cried out to God for the forgiveness of their sins but have never had intimacy with God as a goal. By not explaining the real purpose of salvation, we are doing a disservice to the Gospel. When we present salvation as something that deals with just spiritual things that will only benefit us in the future, in eternity, we are not helping people. There are some people who are living in such a literal hell right now on earth. Many are depressed, living in poverty, dealing with strife, rejection, hurt, and failed marriages. People are just trying to survive day to day. They are just trying to keep their heads above water. By making salvation something that deals only with the future, many people put off that decision because they are too busy just trying to survive today. The truth is that Jesus not only came to affect our eternal destinies so that we can live forever in heaven in blessing instead of the punishment and curse of hell, but Jesus also came to deliver us from this present evil world (Galatians 1:4). Jesus came to give you intimacy and a personal relationship with God the Father today. Jesus came to bring you back into close, personal relationship with Him. Jesus loves you. Jesus wants to know you personally. Jesus wants to give you a quality of life that is greater than anything you could obtain through any other source. Jesus put it this way in John 10:10: "The thief [speaking of Satan] cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (brackets mine). God wants to give you eternal life. God wants to give you abundant life, and I believe that you need that today, that you want that. Christ died not only to forgive your sins, but to bring you close to him. If you don't know the Lord, you need to know Him for that purpose. If you've already been born again, you need to go beyond just getting your sins forgiven and enter into everlasting life with the Father. FACTS ABOUT ETERNAL LIFE. A. The purpose of the Gospel is eternal life (John 3:16). B. Eternal life is knowing God (John 17:3). C. Knowing God is an intimate relationship (1 Corinthians 6:16-17). D. Eternal life is available now (1 John 5:12). E. God wants a personal relationship with you (Revelation 3:20). =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 2. 2. SALVATION BY GRACE. Jesus many times used parables, stories which illustrated spiritual truths. Luke 18:9-14 begins, "And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others." Jesus was targeting a certain audience: those who trusted that they were righteous and automatically despised and looked down on everyone else. He told this parable to these people who trusted in the things they did. We would call them self-righteous, which is what Jesus was speaking about when He said they looked down on everyone else saying, "I am better than you!" In verse 10, Jesus says, "Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican." We would say in modern language that they went to the church to pray, and one was a Pharisee. A Pharisee was a very religious person. The word actually means "separated one someone who was so religious that in a sense they would say, "Don't defile me! Don't get too close to me. I'm not like other men! I am better than everyone else!" The other man Jesus mentioned was a publican. Publicans were tax collectors and were known to be very evil, sinful people who cheated and defrauded. They collected taxes by any means they could, stuck a lot of the money in their pockets, and gave some of it to the Roman government, so they were not looked upon favorably by their peers. The story continues in verse 11, "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself; God, I thank thee, that I am not like other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. "I want you to notice that. Who was he praying to? He was actually praying to himself even though he was saying "God" and using the right words. God was not acknowledging his prayer, and we'll see later why that was so. Notice that he prayed, "God, I thank You I am not like other men." This Pharisee, this religious man, said, "I am not like other men. I am not sinful. I am not an extortioner, not unjust, not an adulterer, and I am not like this publican right here who came to pray:' You see, he despised and looked down on others because he thought he was better than them. In verse 12, the Pharisee said, "I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess." He was saying, "Notice what I do?" Do you know what it means to fast? It actually means to go without food. He also gave money to the church. He was one of those people who say, "Don't bother me! I live a good life! I give to charity! I give money down at the church!" Then we come to the tax collector in verse 13: "And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." Notice his body language: "standing afar off:' He didn't even go all the way into the church. He was so ashamed of his life and the things that he had done that he stood afar off and wouldn't even look up, wouldn't lift his eyes to heaven, but smote his breast. When the Bible talks of smiting the breasts in the Old Testament, many times they also tore their garments, which was a way of saying, "I am sorry, God, for what I have done!" It was a sign of repentance, a contrite heart, and a broken spirit, which God would not despise. This tax collector, sinful man that he was, cried out to God and prayed, "God be merciful to me, I am a sinner!" Verse 14 says, "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." The publican went home justified, declared righteous before God, in right standing with God, forgiven by God. Why was he forgiven? Why did he go to his home in right standing before God and not the religious Pharisee? It was because the Pharisee exalted himself, saying "I am better than other people! I am not sinful! I am not like other men:' while the tax collector knew he had no standing before God, nothing he could offer Him. He was a sinful person. The Bible says Jesus didn't come to save righteous people but sinners, and we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. This tax collector humbled himself and found forgiveness and pardon. We're talking about salvation by grace. Grace is a wonderful word, and I am going to give you an accepted definition of what it means, but grace means much more. In the Greek language in which the New Testament was written, grace is the word charis. An accepted definition of grace is this: the free, unmerited favor of God toward people who don't deserve it. This tax collector didn't deserve anything from God, but he found God's favor because he humbled himself. There is another word in the Greek, charisma, which is charis with the suffix -ma on the end. It means a specific manifestation or form of God's grace, and this tax collector found justification, right standing, before God as a gift. Romans 5:17 says, "They which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." God offers you and me right standing before Him as a gift and, according to our passage, the tax collector found that gift of justification, that gift of righteousness that only comes through Jesus Christ. The Bible says in John 1:17, "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." This grace is only offered to one kind of person, those who humble themselves and know they have no standing before God, who cry for God's mercy. These people will find God's mercy and pardon. =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 3. 3. RIGHTEOUSNESS BY GRACE. Today we are going to look at the subject of righteousness by grace. Romans 3:21-23 says, "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference [distinction]: For all have sinned, and come [fall] short of the glory of God" (brackets mine). Notice that this scripture says, "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested." I once asked a man, "What do you think you have to do in order to go to heaven?" He responded that he should keep the Ten Commandments, be faithful to his wife, live a moral life, plus a number of other things. I said, "Do you know what you have to do in order to go to heaven, to be in God's presence or in His kingdom? You would have to have a righteousness that equals God's righteousness." He said, "I beg your pardon? There is no one who can have a righteousness that equals God's. Only one man had such righteousness, and that was Jesus Christ!" I said, "You have the point! That is exactly right! None of us in our own selves have ever kept the Law or commandments perfectly, outwardly or inwardly, but we need a righteousness that equals God's in order to be acceptable before Him:' That is exactly what is said in verses 21-22, "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested... even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe." The kind of righteousness that God offers you and me is a righteousness that is "through faith in Jesus Christ," and it's unto all and upon all who believe. There are two kinds of righteousness, the righteousness of man and the righteousness of God. The righteousness of man is a person's very best behavior and the good works they do, but that can't make you acceptable before God. You need a righteousness that equals God's, and He is offering it to you, the righteousness of God that is without the law. In the Greek, there is no definite article, which means that this text is really saying God is offering His own righteousness without Law. A righteousness that is according to Law is a righteousness of doing, earning, and achieving in order to be accepted before God. All the world religions today think you have to do, earn, and achieve in order for God to accept you. The word "Gospel" means "good news:' and the good news of the Gospel is that God is offering His very own righteousness and acceptance to all who will believe in what Jesus Christ provided, His death on the cross for our sins, imputing to us the righteousness that equals the Law. This is the righteousness of God that is apart from the Law, without us doing, earning, and achieving; and it comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Notice in verse 22 that it is the righteousness of God that is through faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all. Why is God offering His righteousness to everyone? "For there is no difference [no distinction]: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (brackets mine). You have sinned, I have sinned, and we all come short of God's standard or perfection. Because of our sin, the greatest thing we need is acceptance, right relationship, and right standing with God...and God has offered this not through the works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ. The righteousness of God doesn't come by your working, your trying, your earning, or your attempts to achieve; it comes through faith, dependence, and reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ. How was Abraham (the Jewish forefather) saved? The Bible says he believed God, believed the promise God gave him, and then righteousness was imputed to his account. The fact that Abraham was declared righteous before God through his faith was not just for him alone. We read in Romans 3:21-22 that a man is declared righteous through his faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible says that because of the payment Christ made on the cross when He shed His blood for our sin, righteousness (right standing) will be imputed to any person's account who simply believes upon Christ. Romans 5:17 says, "For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more that which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ" (emphasis mine). God is offering you a gift of righteousness, a gift of right standing before Him. A gift does cost something but not to the person who receives it. If you gave me a gift and asked me to pay for it, it wouldn't be a gift, but it did cost you something. God made righteousness available to you and me as a gift, and this gift of righteousness, acquittal, and right standing before God comes through faith in Jesus Christ. =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 4. 4. RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. One of the most important things about relationship is to understand the person with whom you're going to have relationship, and that also applies to God. You need to understand the basic nature and character of God in order to have a healthy relationship with Him. Misunderstanding His character and nature is one of the reasons many people don't have a positive relationship with Him. This is exactly what happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent. They entered into temptation, ultimately disobeyed God, and plunged the whole human race into sin. Their lack of understanding God's nature was actually a part of the temptation. The story in Genesis 3:1-5 is familiar to most people: "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God cloth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods [God], knowing good and evil" (brackets mine). There is a subtle statement by Satan here that God is really not a good God... that He was trying to withhold something from Adam and Eve...that He didn't want them to reach their full potential...that He didn't want them to be like Himself...and that the reason He made the rule about not eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was to hinder or hurt them. In a sense, Satan came against the very nature and character of God when he maligned Him by saying God did not want the best for them. The same thing is exactly what's happening to people today. Satan tells them, "If you follow God and don't experiment with all these things that are contrary to His Word, you'll never experience true happiness. Life will be boring... dead:' The sad fact is that people experience after the fact that the drugs, alcohol, sex, rebellion, indulgence of self, success in jobs, and all the other things they tried didn't satisfy them. By the time they realize it, they've already destroyed their lives, their families, and their health. The truth is that God is a good God, and His will for us is only good. But Satan uses the same temptations on us today that came against Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, basically implying that God is not a good God. Those who have only a little understanding of the Bible could get that impression because there are instances in the Word where He treated people in harsh, cruel ways. In Numbers 15:32-36, a man picked up sticks on the Sabbath Day and was stoned to death for failing to observe the Sabbath. That sounds harsh, but there was a purpose behind such punishments, though it's not obvious to most people in a casual reading of Scripture. Careful study reveals that Old Testament Law was given to make the sin that we've committed become exceedingly sinful, as Paul says in Romans 7:13. The purpose was that people didn't realize how deadly their transgressions were and that they were an offense against God. They made the mistake of comparing among themselves and measuring their actions by what other people were doing. If someone committed a sin and wasn't struck dead, they thought sin must not be so bad, and they lowered their standards. They had lost the true perspective on what right and wrong was. God had to bring mankind back to a plumb line, a proper standard of what right living was, so they would reject the devil and his temptations and recognize what the end result of wrong choices would be. Then when He did that, He had to enforce the Law He gave. God did not give the Old Testament commandments for the purpose of saying, "Until you do all these things, I can't accept you or love you:' That is not His nature or character. Rather, He gave them to make our sense of right and wrong more acute and to bring us back to the fact that we need a Savior. The problem has been that people thought God was demanding perfection before He could love them, which led to the attitude many have that His love for them is directly proportional to their performance. They feel that until they try to do everything exactly right, they will not be accepted by God, and that is not the message of the Bible. God's heart is to reconcile mankind to Himself not to judge them...not to impute their sins...not to hold their sins against them. That's the heart of God for people in the Bible and also His heart for you today. You need to understand His real heart, that "God is love" (1 John 4:8). He seeks to take away your sins and anything that would separate you from Him. He's already done it through Jesus, and He's offering you relationship today, not based on your performance but on your faith and acceptance of Jesus bearing your sins. You can have relationship with God today regardless of the failures in your life. All He asks is that you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 5. 5. THE NATURE OF GOD. To have a positive relationship with the Lord, we must know His nature and His real character. Is He angry because of our sin, or is He a merciful God who wants to give us His life and blessing, independent of our performance? The Scriptures actually give us two different views of God, not that He has ever changed or done anything differently. There was a period of time that in the terminology used in the Bible, God "held men's sins against them:' This can be compared to raising children. When they're very young, it isn't possible to reason with them, to tell them why they should act properly or why they shouldn't be selfish and take toys away from their brothers or sisters. They have to be told the rules and, if they break them, be disciplined. The rules have to be enforced even though they don't know about God and the devil, or that they're giving place to the devil when they are selfish. They may not understand the concepts, but they can understand that if they repeat the action, they will be punished. In a sense, that's what the Lord did in the Old Testament. Before people were born again, they didn't have the spiritual perception we have under the New Covenant, so He had to give laws and enforce them with punishment, sometimes even death, to deter them from sin. Because Satan was destroying people through sin, there had to be restraints placed on sin, and they had to be enforced. Although this left the false impression that God didn't really love us because of our sin, that is not what the Word of God teaches. Romans 5:13 says, "Until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed where there is no law" "Until the law" means until the days of Moses when God gave the Ten Commandments and other ceremonial laws that applied to the Jewish nation. Up until that time, sin was in the world but wasn't imputed. The word "impute" is a bookkeeping term; e.g., you go to the store to buy something and say, "Put it on my tab:' When it is put on your tab, it is recorded and charged against your account, and the purchase is imputed to you. If they failed to impute it, that means it wasn't recorded and held against you. This verse is saying that until the time the Ten Commandments came, sin was not being held against people. That's an amazing statement. Look at Genesis 3 and 4. Most people have the concept that when Adam and Eve sinned against God, because He was holy and man was now sinful, He could have nothing to do with sinful mankind. They think God drove man out of the Garden to remove him from His presence because a Holy God couldn't have anything to do with unholy man. They further think that until you clean up your act through right actions, God once again cannot have any relationship with you. That is contrary to the message Jesus brought. Romans 5:8 says God commended His love toward you, and while you were yet a sinner, Christ died for you; so the New Testament teaches that God extended His love to you while you were living in sin, not after you have cleaned up your act. One of the great truths of the Gospel that will change your life is to understand that God loves you just like you are. He loves you so much that if you receive His love, you won't want to stay as you are. You will change, but you'll change as a byproduct of God's love not in order to get His love. In Genesis 4 you can see that God was still fellowshipping with man, still talking with Adam and Eve even after they sinned. He talked with Cain and Abel, and when they came to offer sacrifices to Him, He spoke to them in an audible voice. By their reaction, we can see that they were accustomed to hearing His voice, and it didn't scare them. When Cain killed his brother Abel and became the first murderer on the earth, God's audible voice came from heaven: "Where is your brother Abel?" Cain lied to God, seemingly without compunction. That can happen only if a person is so used to hearing the voice of God that they take it for granted and have no fear of it. All this says is that God was still fellowshipping with mankind and had not broken fellowship, as is commonly believed. He was not imputing man's sins to him. Does that mean that He condoned their sins or that they were not wrong? No, that's the reason He eventually gave the Law. God had to give the Law to bring man back to a proper standard. God had to show man that he needs a Savior and that he has to humble himself and receive forgiveness as a gift. Sadly, religion has manipulated and controlled these things to teach that the Law was given so you can keep it and therdy earn God's forgiveness and acceptance. No! The purpose of Old Testament Law was to magnify your sin to such a degree that you would despair of ever saving yourself and say, "God, if this is your standard of holiness, I can't do it. Forgive me, have mercy on me:' The overall nature of God has always been love. =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 6. 6. REPENTANCE. Some people have a misunderstanding of what repentance is. Repentance is not perfection but a change in direction. We're going to talk about the parable of the prodigal son, or the lost son. Jesus is telling a story that perfectly illustrates what it means for an individual to repent. In Luke 15:11-12 Jesus said, "And he said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living." The younger son wanted his inheritance before his father died, which is quite unusual, but his father granted the request and gave his sons their inheritance. Verse 13 says, "And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living." The younger son took all of his wealth, his part of the inheritance, went into a distant country, and wasted it in riotous living. One translation says, "partying and spending the money on prostitutes:' Verses 14-15 read, "And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land [The land became destitute and people were starving]; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine" (brackets mine). He got a job working for a man in that country and was sent to feed the pigs. Verse 16 says, "And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks of that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him." He was so hungry, at the point of starvation, and he said "Just give me the pig's food, anything;' but no one gave him anything. He had squandered all of his inheritance. Verse 17 continues, "And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!" One translation says, "when he came to his senses:' In other words, his father's servants had more than enough food, and he was dying from hunger. He made a decision, he repented. Repentance is a change of mind, a change of heart that causes a person to turn around and move in a new direction. In verses 18-19, he said, "I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants." "Just make me a slave, father. I've sinned against you, squandered your living, and sinned against God. Just make me a slave:' Then he rose and went to his father. Repentance is more than just a change of attitude, a change of mind, and a change of heart; it leads a person to act on what they believe, to turn around (or return) and go in a new direction. We've all turned away from God, our Father, and from heaven, our home. The Bible says in Isaiah 53:6 that "all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way," but God in His mercy took our sins and laid them on Jesus. The story continues in verses 20-24. "And he arose, and came to his father." One night I was telling this story to a man who had never heard it before, and he just knew that when the son returned, his father would say, "Son, look what you've done. You've wasted all my wealth, all I accumulated in my life. Be one of my slaves:' Most earthly fathers would probably be very angry and have an attitude like that, but notice the attitude of this father: "But when he was yet a great way off his father saw him, and had compassion [love came out of his heart for his son], and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry" (brackets mine). They began to have a party. I once told this to a man who said, "I see what Jesus is saying. If I'll just turn to the heavenly Father for mercy and say 'Father, I've sinned against you, and I'm not worthy to be your son, He'll accept me:' Our heavenly Father will have compassion, and He won't make you a slave. He'll restore you to full sonship with Him. God is waiting. Have you turned away? Why don't you turn to God, your Father, and to heaven, your home, today? =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 7. 7. COMMITMENT. Luke 14:25-26 - And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. "And there went great multitudes with Jesus, and He turned, and said unto them" (Luke 14:25). At this time in Jesus' ministry, there were multitudes of people who followed Jesus. The English language doesn't bring this out, but in the Greek language, this is an imperfect tense. This means that at this time, the great multitudes began to repeatedly and continuously follow Jesus. Perhaps it was because of His miracles or because He fed them, we don't know the exact reason, but great multitudes were following Him. It was at this time that Jesus turned and deliberately said something which appears to have caused many people to turn and follow Him no more. "If any man come to Me [that means wants to go with me, wants to accompany me, wants to follow me, this is the requirement], and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26, brackets mine). As I looked at that scripture, I thought, Lord, you can't mean that. What does that word "hate" mean? It probably means to love less or something like that. As I began to study, however, I discovered that the word literally means "hate' Jesus used the strongest possible word to emphasize a point. He said unless you hate your father, your mother, your sister, your brother, even your own life, you can't be His disciple. I want to ask you something: What is the closest relationship you will ever have on this earth? It's your mother and father or your spouse and children. What happens if your wife turns against you and divorces you, or your mother and father die? Who will stick with you then? It will be your brothers and your sisters. Jesus said, unless you hate them, you can't be His disciple. What is He saying? Jesus is talking about the closest relationships we will ever have. He is asking for a commitment from you, a commitment in which He is preeminent. He wants to be number one in your life. He is going to compare His relationship with you to the closest relationships you have on earth. "Hate" is a metaphor, a word of comparison, and Jesus is saying, "My relationship with you is so important that I want it to be above all earthly things." There is one person you love more than your wife, your children, your mother, your father, or your sisters and brothers. Do you know who that is? It's not God . . . it's you. You love yourself more than you love your closest relationships. Why do marriages break up? Why do people divorce? Because they love themselves more than they love their spouse. "You're not doing it like I want you to, so I'm getting rid of you!' Jesus said there is one relationship I want to be number one above, it's your own selfish life. This is true discipleship. He is not talking about a no-cost discipleship. He's asking us to follow Him. He's asking to be number one in our lives. =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 8. 8. WATER BAPTISM. Question: "I need to know if you have to be baptized to go to heaven. I love God and was baptized when I was seven years old. I am now eighteen years old, and someone from a non-denominational church told me that no one can be saved and baptized at such a young age. They also said that you have to be baptized to go to heaven, but my Baptist family said that you don't. I just want to go to heaven. I am living for God in every way that I can, but I need to know if I must be baptized again now that I am supposedly of age to be baptized. Please help me ASAP. God bless and thanks." Response: Salvation and the forgiveness of sins come freely as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ. Acts 10:43 states: "All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His Name" (New International Version). Salvation comes through faith; that is, trust and reliance upon Jesus and His shed blood to give you a right standing before God. In Acts 10:44-48, the Holy Ghost was given to the believers (confirming their salvation) before they were baptized. Even though this is true, at other times it seems that the forgiveness of sins happened at the time of baptism (Acts 2:38). This is because baptism is an expression, or act, of faith that was carried out at the time that a person turned to Jesus in repentance and faith (Mark 16:16 says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned"). It was also a way of calling on the Lord for a clear conscience (Acts 22:16 and 1 Pet. 3:21). If you truly turned to Jesus from your heart at the age of seven and were baptized, God accepts your childlike faith. Baptism does have requirements. One requirement is repentance. Did you have a change of heart and a change of mind that resulted in turning from sin to Jesus and His forgiveness (Acts 2:38, 20:21, and 17:30)? Did you exercise faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior (Mark 16:16, John 3:16, and Romans 10:9-10)? If not, then turn to Jesus now, repent from your sins, turn to His grace to forgive you, and seal that decision to follow Him through water baptism. Baptism is an act that expresses one's faith in Jesus. Without that faith, the act means nothing. People who turned to Jesus as Lord and Savior were willing to express that faith and openly confess Jesus in this public way. People who say "no" to Jesus' command are showing, to some extent, a dead faith. Faith is dead when people are unwilling to express it (James 2:18-19). Faith alone saves, but saving faith is never alone. It is always willing to express itself. Baptism is a way of expressing that faith. Baptism is not what saves; it is Jesus. Water doesn't wash away sins; it is the blood of Jesus. But faith applies His blood to you, and sometimes that faith is expressed at the time a person is baptized (Acts 22:16). The question is, have you repented? Do you believe in Him (Jesus)? If so, why do you delay, arise and be baptized! =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 9. 9. IDENTITY IN CHRIST - Part 1. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" The phrase "in Christ" is a terminology that is used over 300 times in the New Testament, always referring to a vital, union relationship with God. Once that takes place, you become a new creature. Some translations actually say "a new creation:' This leads to a critical issue that I believe is imperative to understanding your new identity in Christ: It did not take place in the physical realm. It isn't talking about your physical body, saying that it completely changes, that your looks change. If a person was fat before they were saved, they'll still be fat afterward, unless they go on a diet. It also isn't talking about your mental or emotional part, what most people consider to be the real "them:' If you weren't too smart before you were saved, you won't be too smart after you're saved, but you will still have a lot of the same memories and thoughts. There is a third part, and according to this scripture, by process of elimination, it has to be the part of us that is changed, our spirit man. A scripture that verifies this is 1 Thessalonians 5:23 where Paul is praying for the Thessalonians, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." That passage shows that we have a spirit, soul, and body. The body part is very obvious. It's the part of us that is seen, our outward persons. We all recognize that there is another part beyond that, our emotional, mental part, which Scripture calls the soul. We know that even though a person may not physically touch you, they can touch you by their words, either in a positive or negative way. Most people are in tune with the physical and soulish parts, but according to Scripture, there is another part, which is the spirit. The spirit is the part of us that is changed and is new after salvation. It is actually the life- giving part. James 2:26 says, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." That shows that it is the spirit that actually breathes life into our physical bodies. It is where our life comes from In Genesis 2 when God created Adam and Eve, Adam's body was complete, but then God breathed into him the breath of life. This word "breathe" in Old Testament Hebrew was the exact same word that we use for breath, and it is translated "spirit" in other places. God created the physical body and the soulish person of Adam, but then He breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul. The spirit is the part of us that gives life. Prior to salvation, before a person made a total commitment of their life so that the Lord came into them, the spirit within them was dead. Ephesians 2:1 says, "And you hath he quickened [made alive], who were dead in trespasses and sins" (brackets mine). We know we were alive before we were born again, but the word "dead" is speaking of spiritually. Death in the Bible doesn't mean ceasing to exist, as some people today think of it. It literally means "separation:' When a person physically dies, they don't cease to exist. The Bible teaches that they go immediately into the presence of God or into the presence of hell. The soul and spirit continue to live, but there is a separation from the physical body, which dies and decays. When Genesis 2:17 says "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," it didn't mean they would die physically but spiritually, that they would become separated from God. The spirit, the part that God breathes into us, which actually gives life and motivation, became separated from God's supernatural life...His holy and complete life...what the Bible calls zoe life or "life in an absolute or abundant sense:' Man then began to degenerate. He still functioned, but he was functioning independently, separately from God. That's really what causes all the problems in our lives...all of our emotional stress. When a person comes to the Lord, they receive a new spirit and are born again, which is the terminology Jesus used in John 3:5. In the same way man is born physically with a spirit, soul, and body, when he is born again, he receives the Spirit of Christ. Galatians 4:6 says, "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." God literally places His Spirit inside of us, and we now have a new quality of life, a new identity, and are a totally new person in our spirits. The rest of the Christian life is learning in your soulish, mental realm what has taken place in your spirit. The truth is, one-third of your salvation is over when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord. Your spirit becomes completely changed. It is the exact same spirit you will have throughout eternity. It already has love, joy, peace, and is full of the presence of God. There is no lack or inadequacy in your spirit, but you have to perceive that, which is the reason studying the Word of God is so vital to the Christian life. You are a totally brand-new person, but until you get knowledge, you won't change. Victory in the Christian life comes when you are able to look into the Word, which is Spirit and life, see who you are, see what God has done, =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 10. 10. IDENTITY IN CHRIST - Part 2. In our last lesson, we discussed what it meant to be born again, that in our spirits, our hearts are changed. We used 2 Corinthians 5:17, which says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." We began to see that when we are born again, a total transformation has taken place in our spirits, and the only way to know what has transpired in our spirits is through the Word of God. We can't perceive it through external things, and we can't perceive it through our emotions, because that is in the soulish realm. But in the spirit part of us, there is a total transformation. Let me use a few scriptures which show the things that took place when a person received Jesus into their life. Ephesians 4:24 says, "Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." When a person is born again, their spirit becomes righteous and truly holy. The Bible actually speaks of two types of righteousness. There is a righteousness you produce through your own actions, and you must maintain that type of righteousness in relationships with other people. If you don't live right and do right, your boss may fire you or your spouse may divorce you; so you need to have your own righteousness. God, however, doesn't accept you based on your external righteousness. God literally gave you His righteousness. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 it says that God the Father made the Son to become sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So there is a righteousness which goes far beyond our external righteousness and is based on what God did for us. We literally received the righteousness of God by faith in Christ. We were created in righteousness and true holiness. We aren't growing into that righteousness; we are already righteous. A simple definition is that we are already in right standing with God. God is pleased with us based on Christ, not on anything else. Our spirits are where the change took place. We're already created in righteousness and true holiness and are brand-new creatures. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." In our spirits, we are perfect and complete. There is no sin or inadequacy. Ephesians 1:13 says, "After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise." Some of you may think, Well, when I first believed on the Lord, I did believe I was totally forgiven and cleansed, and everything was fine. But since that time, I have sinned, I have failed God again. If you did, you failed in your actions and your mental and emotional part, but your spirit did not sin. It was sealed just as a woman puts fruit into a jar and then puts paraffin over it to make it airtight and to keep all impurities out. God sealed you, so when you were born again, you received a new spirit, and sin does not penetrate your spirit. You have a new identity. For you to have relationship with God, you have to fellowship with and worship Him based on who you are in your spirit not in your flesh. This is really the great transformation in the Christian life, that a person has to change their identity. You have to relate to God based not on what you do in the physical realm, not what you think in your mind, but by who you are in the spirit based on what He has done for you. That's a completed work, something that does not fluctuate (change back and forth). You were created in righteousness and true holiness. That is the spirit part of you, and to fellowship with God, you have to worship Him in spirit and in truth. You have to stand in this identity of who you are in Christ. =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 11. 11. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CHRISTIAN SINS? Today we want to look at the subject of "What Happens When a Christian Sins?" The Bible tells us in 1 John 1:8-9, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." As Christians, we will eventually stumble and we will eventually sin. What makes us different from what we were before conversion is that now we have a new nature. It grieves us to sin. We don't want to sin; we want to live a righteous life. But what happens when we do sin? Do we need to get saved again? Is that what the Bible is teaching? In that case, we have no security, and in some sense, we're worse off than the world. At least the world is not tormented by a sin conscience. As believers, sin is not to be our focus of attention. Hebrews 10:2 states that through the sacrifice of Jesus, the believer should have no more conscience of sins. In other words, sin should not be the focus of our lives. God should be our focus. Romans 4:2 says, "For if Abraham were justified [declared righteous] by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God" (brackets mine). If salvation was based on our merit, the things we do, then we could brag. We could say, "Hey, Lord, I really appreciate what you did on the cross, but remember the things I've done!" So throughout eternity, we're going to pat Jesus on the back and pat ourselves on the back for the things that we've done. No! God has designed salvation in such a way that there will be no boasting or glory on man's part. The only glory and boasting will be in the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:27). The gift of eternal life is indeed a gift, and it cannot be earned (Romans 6:23). Romans 4:2 says that if Abraham were justified by his own actions, he would have some reason to boast, but that's not what happened. How does the Scripture say a man is saved? By his own performance? By his own works? By the things he does? How was Abraham counted righteous, or declared righteous? Was it through the things he did or didn't do, or was it that he simply believed, trusted, and relied on God through faith? The Bible says in Romans 4:3, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." What holds me in position and keeps me from perishing, even though there are times when I fail and sin? It is that Jesus bore all of my sin on the cross, and through faith in Him (not by my own works), I am justified (made righteous before God). Romans 4:6 says, "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works." David of the Old Testament is saying there will be a day through a new covenant when God will impute righteousness, right standing, without man working for it. Then he said in verse 7, "Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered." This is the clincher: "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (Romans 4:8). It doesn't say He might not, sometimes He will and sometimes He won't. It says, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." In the Greek that's what is called an emphatic negative. It means He'll never, not ever put sin to our account. This is the good news of the New Covenant. Hebrews 10:16 says, "I will put my laws into their hearts [on their heart] and in their minds [upon their mind also] will I write them" (brackets mine), and part of that agreement is that God says this in verse 17: "And your sins and iniquities I will remember no more." What holds you in position, in righteousness and right standing, even when you sin and don't have time to confess it? It's your faith in Jesus Christ. His name is Jesus, and He saves people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 12. 12. INTEGRITY OF GOD'S WORD. Mark 4 is a tremendous chapter about the integrity of God's Word, the power, the character, and the faith in it. There were at least ten parables taught during this one day. You have to compare Mark 4 with Matthew 13 and Luke 8 to come up with that. There were a number of parables, one of which was about the sower sowing seed. In Mark 4:26, it says, "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground." Remember that in verse 14 it says this seed is the Word of God. God isn't really teaching you how to be a farmer, but is using a natural thing to illustrate spiritual truth. Verse 27 says, "And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how" Now, I believe that's important. It says the man doesn't really understand. He doesn't know how this is happening. Some people say, "I just don't understand what you're talking about. How can reading the Word of God really change me and cause God's life to come alive inside me?" I don't totally understand it, but I know it works. I don't understand how you can put a tiny seed in the ground and have an entire stalk of corn come up with ears of corn on it and reproduce a hundredfold. Nobody fully understands it, but it works, and I tell you that this works. Reading God's Word and letting it begin to saturate you changes your attitude, your experience, and your perceptions. Verse 28 says, "For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself' The earth was made to incubate seed, and to germinate and release that life. Your heart was made for the Word of God, it really was. God's Word was created to be placed in your heart. Just taking a Bible and holding it close, putting it on your coffee table, or carrying it with you doesn't have any virtue. It doesn't release power in your life. You have to take the Word, make it a seed, and plant it in your heart. When you do that, your heart is designed to bring forth fruit of itself. It will automatically change the way things work in your life. The verse continues, "First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." This implies that there are stages or steps to growth and maturity. People come to me all the time expressing that they're believing God for something really good, a godly thing I can agree with. But if they have never done anything, if they have never led a person to the Lord, I can guarantee they aren't going to have a television or radio ministry within the next few weeks. You have to do things in steps. There are stages to receiving from God, and that's what this parable is illustrating. First of all, you have to start, and then comes the hope, and then the faith, and then it produces results. There are always steps to victory. No one is going to go from zero to a thousand miles per hour all at once. Though it may be a godly desire, it isn't going to work that way. This Scripture is showing that the kingdom of God is like a seed. The Word has to be planted in your heart, and growth comes in stages: first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. The next verse says, "But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come:' There are stages, but eventually there will come a time of fruitfulness and maturity. The point is made in verse 35, 'And the same day when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side." Jesus had been teaching them all day about the power of the Word, how the Word is like a seed, and how it will release God's life into your life. He'd been teaching them this in at least ten parables, so here He gives them a test. He tells them, "All right, here's the word from the Lord, let's go to the other side of the lake:' He didn't say "Let's get into the boat, go halfway across the lake, and drown:' but "Let's go to the other side!' Then He got into the boat and went to sleep. The story goes that a great storm came and water filled the boat. You have to remember that this wasn't a cabin cruiser with berths below deck where Jesus was dry and didn't know what was going on. It was an open boat and Jesus was asleep, sloshing around in the water. The reason this was significant is because He knew what was going on, but He was still trying to sleep. The disciples got upset, came to Him, and said, "Master, don't you care that we perish?" In other words, they were saying, "Do something! Get a pail and bail water! Row, do something! You're not pulling your weight!" Many times people do the same thing with God today and say, "God, why haven't you done something?" God has done something. He's provided everything we need through the atonement of the Lord Jesus. He has produced His Word and given us all these seeds. It's our job to sow them into our hearts. He's given us the Scripture, and it's our job to take the seed, put it in our hearts, and meditate on it until it releases life. But the disciples wanted to wake Jesus up and say, "Why don't you do something?" He got up, rebuked the wind and the waves, there was a calm. Then He turned around and said to His disciples, "Why are you so fearful? How is it you have no faith?" He didn't say, "Hey, guys, I'm sorry. I should have done something:' No, His part was to teach them the Word and give them promises, and it was their part to take the Word and believe the promises. God has provided everything through Jesus coming to this earth. He gave you everything it takes to succeed in every area of your life in seed form in the Word. All you have to do is take the seeds of the Word of God and plant them in your hearts through reading it, meditating on it, thinking on it, and letting it take root on the inside of you. As you do that, you will be able to stand up and stop the storms in your life. I believe God's best was for these disciples to take the teaching Jesus gave them that day and say, "Let's go over to the other side:' They could have said, "According to everything He taught to us today, this is a promise. This is the Creator of the universe who said let's go to the other side, not let's go halfway and drown. They could have taken that word, mixed it with faith, and rebuked the wind and the waves. That's exactly what Jesus said: "0 you of little faith, why did you doubt?" You know what? We need to believe God's Word and act upon it. =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 13. 13. GOD'S NOT GUILTY. Today I want to share one of the most important things God has ever done in my life. It seems people automatically believe everything that happens to them is from God, that He controls everything. The reason for this is that by definition, God is supreme and all-powerful, and they just assume He controls everything that happens in their lives. Even unbelievers believe it. There are many Christians who promote this doctrine, and it has become ingrained in their lives. I believe what Scripture teaches is contrary to this, and it's very important that you learn this lesson. James 1:13-17 says, "Let no man say when he is tempted, .1 am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and .sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my brethren. 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:' These verses make it very clear that God is the author of the good things. Jesus said in John 10:10, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly?' If it's good, it's God; if it's bad, it's the devil. That's very simple theology. The reason this is so critical is because James 4:7 says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." This says we have to submit, or yield control, to God and resist the devil. The word "resist" means to actively fight against. When people believe everything that happens in life is totally from God, for example, sickness, failure in business, losing a job, rebellious children, or divorce, that puts them in the position of being passive. If they really believe God is the author of a situation and is using it to punish them or change them, they would be fighting against Him if they resist. Yet, James 4:7 says to resist the devil and he will flee from you. You have to submit yourself to God. This shows that certain things are of God and certain things are of the devil. There is a force of evil in this world, and not everything that happens in your life comes from God. If you don't understand that, you will end up submitting to the devil, and actually empowering Satan. I want to bring out a passage in Romans because it is misused so often. I've actually been to funerals where people don't know anything about God, don't go to church, and know hardly any Scripture, but they know this one. Romans 8:28 says, 'And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." This has been interpreted to say that whatever happens in your life, God does it and works it together for good in some way. I actually was at a funeral for a young boy and girl who had been mixing alcohol and drugs, got into a car, drove too fast on a slick road, slid around a corner, hit a telephone pole, and were both killed. The preacher quoted this Scripture, "We know all things work together for good:' and said God must have a purpose in doing this. God didn't kill those teenagers, and in a sense, you can't even say the devil did it. It was the teenagers. I'm sure the devil enticed them to rebel against the standards their parents and others had taught them, but ultimately it was their choice. They're the ones who did the dope and alcohol; they're the ones that hit the telephone pole. That was a natural thing, and God wasn't the source of it. What does it mean when it says "we know that all things work together for good"? First of all, it didn't say we know all things come from God and work together for good. It says all things work together for good but puts qualifications on it: "to them that love God." This Scripture doesn't work for a person who doesn't love God. That is so obvious that it should go without saying, but it is amazing how people apply it toward instances like these young people who were doing drugs and alcohol and were in total rebellion against God and His principles. This says it only works together for good to those who love God, and to those that are the called according to his purpose. In 1 John 3:8 it says, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." God manifested Himself to destroy Satan's work. That's His purpose, and it will only work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose; that is, those who are walking in this calling, are resisting the devil, and are out to destroy his works. Those who are resisting the devil and living for God can say that regardless of what the devil does in their lives, God can turn it around and use it for good. We need to start discerning that God does not control everything in our lives. There is an enemy that comes to kill, steal, and destroy, but Jesus has come to give us life. We have to choose life and willfully recognize that God's not guilty of everything that comes into our lives. If God was a physical human being who did the things He is accused of, such as putting cancer, deformities, depression, sorrow, and grief on people, I guarantee there isn't a government on earth that wouldn't arrest, imprison, or try to stop Him. Yet we think God, who is much more merciful than any person we've met or imagined in our lives, is going around striking people and doing this. There are some things that are demonic attacks and some that are natural, and not all disasters are God ordained. The insurance companies write in their policies "acts of God, such as earthquakes and pestilence' No, God is not the author of all these things. =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 14. 14. THE POWER OF A SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE. Mark 16:15-16 is known as the Great Commission. Jesus said to His disciples, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." In Acts 8, verse 5 and 12, we see how this commission was worked out through the preaching of Philip in Samaria. "Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them...But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women." The question is, did these people of Samaria become Christians according to Mark 16:15-16? Yes, they did. Philip went to the city of Samaria, preached Jesus Christ, and through faith in Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. According to the Great Commission, we could say these people were saved, but had they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit? The Bible speaks about John baptizing in water, but only Jesus Christ could baptize with the Holy Spirit. According to the Scripture, people believed, were saved, and water baptized, but they had never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Acts 8:14-17 says, "Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost." We can see from the scriptures that just because a person has believed, been baptized, and saved doesn't mean they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has come into their lives, in John 20:22 we see that the Holy Spirit regenerated the disciples, but it was on the Day of Pentecost that they were baptized with the Holy Spirit and empowered by God. There is a difference between the quickening of the Holy Spirit in salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit when He comes upon an individual. There is an immersion in the Holy Spirit that comes upon individuals and empowers them. Even though a person has been saved, it doesn't mean they have been baptized with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 19:1-2 it states, "And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." Paul said, "Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?" They said, "We don't know anything about a Holy Spirit." Paul said, "If you weren't baptized with the Holy Spirit when you believed, what were you baptized with?" They said, "We were baptized with John's baptism:' I believe Paul explained more perfectly about Jesus being the Christ, and these believers then identified with Jesus through water baptism. In verses 6-7 it says, "And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them; and they spake with tongues and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve." Even though these people were disciples who believed in the Messiah who was to come, they hadn't been baptized with the Holy Spirit. A person can be born again and water baptized without having been baptized in the Holy Spirit. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is a separate and distinct experience from conversion. Although I can baptize a person in water, I can't baptize them in the Holy Spirit; only Jesus can do that. If you have never asked Jesus to baptize you with the Holy Spirit, why don't you ask Him now? Luke 11:13 says, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" Why don't you ask Him today? =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 15. 15. HOW TO RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT. We're going to talk today about how to receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 10:1 says, "There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band." This was a military rank, probably a captain over a regiment. Verse 2 continues, 'A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always." He was righteous, did things that were right, feared God, gave much money to people in need, and the Bible says he prayed to God always. But we are going to find out, and it will be amazing, that even though he did things right, even though he feared God, and had a prayer life, he didn't have a personal relationship with God though Jesus Christ. It says in verses 3-6, "He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day [about three o'clock in the afternoon] an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms [giving] are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon whose surname is Peter: He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do" (brackets mine). This man, although he was God-fearing, righteous as far as doing things that were right, and had a prayer life before God, was sent an angel who told him to send for Simon Peter who would tell him what he must do. We see in Acts 10:43 exactly what Peter was instructed to tell him: "To give him all the prophets witness, that through his name [through the name of the Lord Jesus] whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins" (brackets mine). Isn't this amazing? This man who had all these things to his credit didn't have a personal relationship with God through the person of Jesus Christ. God said, "The things you're doing are great, they're wonderful, and they are a memorial before me, but I tell you what I'm going to do. I've sent an angel down to tell you to send for a man named Peter, and he will tell you what you must do!' In Acts 10:43, when Peter went to Cornelius' house, he said, "Whosoever believeth in him [the Lord Jesus Christ] shall receive the remission of sins" (brackets mine). Now look what happened here. "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word" (Acts 10:44). Cornelius was receiving as he heard of faith in Christ, and he put his faith in Christ for the remission of his sins. As soon as he did, the Holy Spirit fell upon him and all those that were in that house. It says in verse 45, 'And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost." How did they know that? "For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God" (verse 46). Every time the Holy Spirit falls on an individual in the New Testament, a gift of the Holy Spirit manifests and gives evidence that they have received the infilling of the Spirit. In the New Testament, they usually spoke in tongues or prophesied. I got down on my knees one evening in a field in Dallas, Texas, and said, "God, I don't know about all this speaking in tongues and the baptism in the Holy Spirit that people are talking about, but if there's a way I can praise you, a way I can magnify you, a way I can go beyond my human English language, I want it. I started worshiping God, and as I did, the Holy Spirit gave me a language, an utterance that I hadn't known or learned. The Bible says in Acts 2:4, "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Who did the speaking? They did. Who gave the utterance? The Holy Spirit. Luke 11:13 says, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" All you have to do right now is ask, believe that you receive, yield yourself to God, begin to worship the Lord, and He will give you an utterance to worship and praise Him in a language you have never learned. =========================== LEVEL 1. LESSON 16. 16. THE BENEFITS OF SPEAKING IN TONGUES. One of the things that happened when the baptism of the Holy Spirit first came was that all the people who were there spoke in tongues. Acts 2:4 says that on the Day of Pentecost, they were filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Consistently all the way through the book of Acts, there was a manifestation of God's presence when the people received the Holy Spirit. Of course, there is much more to the Holy Spirit than speaking in tongues, but it is one of the important manifestations. First Corinthians 14:13-14 says, "Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he might interpret. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful." When you pray in tongues, your spirit prays. Once you speak in tongues, pray that you interpret so your understanding will become fruitful. I can give my own personal testimony that when I received the baptism of the Holy Ghost and started speaking in tongues, it changed my life dramatically. I believe when I got born again, Christ came to live inside of me and He deposited everything there, but when the Holy Spirit came upon me, it started to manifest to me and other people. There are a couple of things that happened. The first year I prayed in tongues, my mind told me it was crazy, that all I was doing was wasting time. It took faith for me to pray in tongues, which is the reason Jude 20 says you build yourself up in your most holy faith. It takes you out of natural thinking and reasoning and puts you into a supernatural realm of faith. Another thing I experienced was that when I prayed in tongues, people I hadn't thought of for years would come to my remembrance. I'd start praying for them, and within a day or two, they would contact me and I'd find that something miraculous had happened. This happened so many times that I finally began to put these things together and realized that when I was praying in tongues, I was praying with wisdom that went beyond my mental ability. My spirit that knew all things and had the mind of Christ was praying for people in ways that I could never do with my own physical understanding. One day I was praying in tongues, as I said, it took faith for me to pray in tongues, and I was battling some thoughts like, You could be speaking in English and doing some good instead of speaking this gibberish. I had to deal with these thoughts and put them down, and I just kept praying. A guy I hadn't seen for four years knocked on my door. He came in, didn't say hello or anything, sat down, and began to cry and pour out his heart because he was having a lot of problems. I sat there thinking, Boy, I should have been praying in English. My next thought was, How would I have known to pray for him when I hadn't seen him in four years? Finally, it just dawned on me that I had been praying, and God had been preparing me. I had been interceding for him in a way that I couldn't have done if I were praying with my understanding. Suddenly, a revelation began to come to me and I told him, "I can tell you what your problem is." I finished his story for him and gave him his answer. You have to understand that this was back when I was in a denominational church. He didn't know what had happened to me and I wasn't sure. It scared us both. But it was the power of God in manifestation, and He used it supernaturally. That is what this means: When you pray in tongues, it's your spirit praying. Your spirit has been born again, has the mind of Christ, and knows exactly what to do. It has an unction (anointing) from God so that you know all things, and there is no limitation in your spirit. If you could walk in the power and revelation of your spirit, it would transform your physical life. One way of doing that, though not the only way, is to just start speaking in tongues. Recognize and believe that when you do, you're building yourself up in your most holy faith, that your spirit is praying the hidden wisdom of God, and the perfect revelation of God is coming. Then, according to 1 Corinthians 14:13, pray that you can interpret. That doesn't mean you have to stop praying in tongues and pray in English to interpret; it just means your understanding becomes fruitful. If you give a message in tongues in a church service, you have to stop and interpret in English. When you're praying by yourself, what I do is pray in tongues and trust that God is giving me revelation. Sometimes my attitude just changes. I don't have a specific word, but suddenly I see things clearly and get a different perspective. It may take a week before I get the full revelation, but I believe the time spent praying in tongues and believing I interpret is a part of it. Speaking in tongues is important for many reasons, certainly more than to prove you've received the Holy Spirit. It should be a part of everyday life. It is a way to communicate directly from your heart to the Father, bypassing your brain with its doubts and fears. It builds you up in your most holy faith and releases the hidden wisdom of God. I just pray that all of you will be able to flow in this, release your faith, and receive the full benefit of speaking in tongues. =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 1. 17. SELF-CENTEREDNESS: The Source of All Grief. Self-centeredness is the source of so much of what we experience. There is a verse in Proverbs 13 that you really ought to look up, because you wouldn't believe it if you didn't read it in your own Bible. Verse 10 says, "Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom." Many people at first would take issue with this and say, "Wait a minute. Pride can't be the only thing that causes contention or strife. Proverbs 17:14 says that contention is the beginning of strife, so strife has to be caused by more than just pride. It's what so-and-so has done to me." Others will say, "You don't understand; this is just the type of person I am." No, the scripture says that only by pride comes contention. It's not one of the leading causes; its the only cause. Some people again would take issue and say, "I've got all kinds of problems, but pride isn't one of them. If anything, I've got such low self- esteem, there's no way anybody can accuse me of pride". We have to redefine what pride is. It's is not just thinking you're better than somebody else, but in the simplest terms, it is seeing yourself as the center of everything. Self-centeredness is really the root of all pride. In Numbers 12:2, Miriam and Aaron, Moses' sister and brother, came against him, criticizing him because of an interracial marriage, saying, "Hath the Lord indeed spoken only to Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us?" The Scripture then says in parentheses in verse 3 that Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth. Instead of taking offense at what they said, he began to pray and intercede for them. When it says Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth, stop and think about that. We don't know how many people there were on earth, but surely there were millions, and Moses was the meekest man of all these people. What makes this a really amazing statement is that he was the one who wrote it. Most people think if you're truly humble or meek, you won't even know it. That's a false impression of what arrogance really is. Pride isn't just thinking you're better than everybody else, it's self-centeredness. Its like having a stick with arrogance on one side and low self-esteem on the other side. Those are opposite expressions of the same thing, but they're both on the same stick. It's self-centeredness. It doesn't matter if you think you're better than everyone else or worse than everyone else, you're absolutely self-centered. Everything gets filtered through that. A timid, shy person is very proud and self-centered, thinking only about self. The point I'm making is that self-centeredness is really the root of all pride, and if you plug that back into Proverbs 13:10, "Only by pride cometh contention," what this says is that it is our own self-centeredness that makes us angry, not what people do to us. It's our self-centeredness that causes us to react to what people do. You will never be able to stop people from rubbing you the wrong way; it can't happen. Faith is not to control other people but to help you deal with yourself and deal with the things that are inside you. So it doesn't matter what people do to you. As Jesus was being crucified, He was able to turn to the very people who were crucifying Him and say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He didn't control those people but instead had control over Himself. It's self-centeredness that makes us angry. Jesus didn't come here for Himself, but He so loved the world that He came here for us. He thought of His mother as He hung on the cross and spoke to one of His disciples about taking care of her. The reason Jesus was able to forgive and operate in love, in the midst of intense agony, injustice, and everything that came His way, was because He was not self-centered. It's your own selfishness that makes you angry, yet the Scripture says you're supposed to be dead to yourself. If I had a corpse in front of me, I could insult it, kick it, spit on it, or ignore it, but if it's truly a corpse, it wouldn't respond. The reason you respond the way you do to the things around you is not because of those external things but because of what's on the inside of you. You will never be so strong in faith that you can remove all obstacles and everything that rubs you the wrong way, but you can deal with yourself. You can come to a place where you make Jesus Lord of your life and love Him, His kingdom, and other people more than you love yourself. You'll find that when you do that and deal with self that the strife and contention in your life will cease. One of the great keys for applying all of these things God has done in your life is to realize that He didn't give you the kingdom for selfish purposes. He didn't do these things just so you could have every need supplied. You need to learn it's in denying yourself and losing your life that you really begin to find out what life is all about. It's in loving other people and God more than yourself that you'll begin to defuse your anger and hurt, all those things that are inside you. I pray that God will take these few things I've said and use them to open your heart to realize that its your own self-centeredness that causes you grief. Instead of placing the blame somewhere else, you need to accept the responsibility, face it, humble yourself before God, and ask Him to come in and make Himself big in your life. That's the way for you to walk in victory. =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 2. 18. HOW TO MEDITATE ON GOD'S WORD. The word meditate means "to muse over, ponder, to plan in the mind, to purpose, or intend:' The Greek word implies "to revolve something in the mind" and is also translated to imagine. Two reasons for biblical mediation are "to ponder over correct knowledge, also referred to as renewing the mind and to contact God behind His Word" through prayer, praise, and mediation; i.e., musing, pondering, and thinking about Him. Meditation can be done from topical study, choosing a topic to ponder over. Example: baptism. Define the word from the Greek, Hebrew, or a good dictionary. Find the root word from which it is derived. Consider and ponder the context of verses and that will lead you to study other related subjects, such as remission (Acts 2:38), repentance (Acts 2:38), faith (Mark 16:16), the conscience (1 Pet. 3:21), calling on the Lord (Acts 22:16), etc. (4°' You need to ponder questions that you have or that the Scripture raises, such as: Are there qualifications to be met before baptism? What is the purpose of baptism? When was it practiced? In what time frame? Meditation can be done from expositional study; i.e., a verse-by-verse study of a book of the Bible. The key is to ponder and think over a book for so long that you become familiar with its content (verses and chapters). Meditation can be done through word studies. What do certain words mean? What does it mean to believe? What does the word Lord mean? What does the word Jesus mean? What does the word Christ mean? What does the word justify mean, etc. You can meditate from paragraphs in the Bible. A paragraph is a unit of thought in writing, usually containing several sentences. When an author changes the subject of emphasis in their writing, they usually begin a new paragraph. When meditating through scriptures, look for punctuation such as question marks. Why is this question being asked? How does it relate to the context, etc.? Biblical meditation is not just looking at words, but for God behind the Word. =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 3. 19. RENEWING THE MIND. Today we want to talk about renewing the mind. I'd like to read two passages. The first one is out of Philippians 4:8. It says, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." The Apostle Paul is obviously telling us that there are things we should think on. In other words, we can choose our thoughts. Now I know that we all have thoughts that are sometimes contrary to the Word of God, according to Romans, chapter 7, verses 22 and 23. The Law of sin that wars in us attacks our minds. But the Bible tells us out of Philippians that we don't have to sit there and let our thoughts build a nest, that we can choose what we think on. The Bible also tells us that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7). So it's really important what we think on. In Romans 12:1 and 2, the Bible says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." The Bible says we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Did you know that when the Apollo spacecraft went up into space, they had to make a course correction every ten minutes? They went to the moon in kind of like a zigzag. And when they eventually landed, they had a 500-mile designated landing zone, and they just barely made it within that zone by a few feet. Yet the whole flight was successful. We need to set a course and make a total commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ by being a living sacrifice. The problem with a living sacrifice is that sometimes it wants to crawl off the altar, so we have to make course corrections in our thoughts. We have to have a heart that says, "God, I want You and I want Your way:' Not only do we need to make a total commitment, but part of having a victorious Christian life requires that we take the next step and be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We can't think like the world, if we don't want the world's results. As we read in Philippians 4:8, we can choose what to think on. Whatsoever is lovely, just, of good report, think on these things. What they would do in the Old Testament is take the Word of God and put it on their doorposts and on their garments. It was constantly in front of them. God instructed that they were to talk about the Word of God night and day that they might observe to do what it said. And they were also to tell all these things to their children. It's very important what we think on. It's very important that we keep the Word of God in front of us all the time in order to really have a life of victory. The opposite of thinking on what's lovely, just, and of good report is to not think on the things of God and the things of the Spirit. Romans 8:6 says "To be carnally minded is death," but the next part of that verse says, "To be spiritually minded is life and peace." It is life and it is peace to think on the things of the Spirit of God. But if we start thinking about adultery, the things of the world, money, covetousness, and so forth, do you know what will happen in our lives? As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. We'll begin to act on those things. We'll begin to play those things out in our lives, and it will destroy our lives. You see, the real spiritual warfare for the believer is really not resisting or rebuking the devil all the time, although there are times that we need to do that. But spiritual warfare has to do with what we're thinking on and what we're dwelling on. The Bible says in Isaiah 26:3 that God will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Him. There are times during the day that we all need to make course adjustments, just like it says in Romans 12. We need to say, "God, those are wrong thoughts. I need to turn around and renew my mind and start thinking about the things that are lovely, just, and of good report." So if you've got a stronghold, if you're in bondage, if you find yourself thinking things that you shouldn't be thinking, you need to catch yourself immediately. The Bible says, If we will draw near to God, He will draw near to us. If we resist the enemy, he will flee from us. There are times in my life when I've let things slip and let depression rise up. At those times, it's hard to pick up the Bible and sit down and take a passage and say, "God, this is what You say about me. This is who You say that I am. You are my strength:' Did you know that your victory is just that simple? You need to say, "I'm going to resist what I'm letting the enemy do to me right now I'm going to sit down and open the Bible, and I'm not going to just read some words on these pages, but I'm going to connect with the God behind these words. I'm going to let my mind be stayed upon Him. And, Lord, this is what You say about me. You say that I'm forgiven. You say that I'm cleansed. You say that nothing can separate me from Your love." When you sit there and just think about all of the good things that God has done for you, in just a few moments, you're going to forget about those other things. Let me use an illustration. I heard a man one time say, "Now, I'm just admonishing you to not think about pink elephants for the next ten minutes:' Do you know what happened? For the next ten minutes, all we did was think about pink elephants. Then he asked, "What color is the Statue of Liberty?" Somebody said green. And he said, "Well, which arm is the Statue of Liberty holding up?" And somebody said it was the right arm. Then he asked, "What does the Statue of Liberty have in her hand:' And someone said it was a torch. Then the man said, "What happened to your thoughts about pink elephants?" They were gone. You see, it's not a matter of saying, "Now, don't you think these thoughts:' because you know you'll think those thoughts. The Scripture is really telling us that we need to replace those thoughts with God's thoughts, and when we see these things coming against us and we're thinking something we shouldn't think, we need to immediately call to mind our new identity. We need to immediately turn to the Lord, connect with Him, not just with words on a page, but with the God behind those words. And the Bible tells us in Romans 8:6 that as we do, we will see the transformation the life and peace of God gives, as our minds are stayed upon Him and the things of the Spirit. Think on these things, my brethren, and walk this day in the liberty and freedom that Christ has purchased for you. =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 4. 20. THE IMPORTANCE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. Today we're talking about the importance of Christ's church. I'd like to read a scripture out of Hebrews 10:25. It says, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." As we look into the importance of Christ's church, my question is, "What is the church?" I took the Discipleship Evangelism program into a local church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We trained people how to use it, and we used it out in the field. Within six weeks of working with this local church, we had established twenty Bible studies outside of that local congregation. For months, we were working with these people in the Bible studies. The pastor really confused me one day when he said, "You know, the Bible says that the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Why aren't we seeing these people from the Bible studies come into our church?" When we were out in the field, people were being saved and they were being discipled and ministered to. But what the pastor really meant was, "Why aren't they coming to meet together on Sunday morning in this building?" My concept of the church was a little off too. What the pastor said really troubled me, and I didn't know what to do. I thought, Is the Discipleship Evangelism program really working? Are we really reaching people's lives? I knew we were reaching many people, but what confused me was why they were not coming to the Sunday morning service. I decided to do a study on the word "church?' What's covered in this lesson is what I discovered. In Romans 16:3, 1 Corinthians 16:19, Colossians 4:15, Philemon 2, Acts 5:42, and Acts 20:20, the Bible primarily speaks about the early New Testament church meeting in someone's home. I know that there are all kinds of churches. There are home churches, churches with small and large congregations, and very large mega-churches. The one thing that really caught my attention in the Scripture was that the New Testament church seemed to meet together in small congregations in people's homes. The Expository Dictionary of Bible Words by Lawrence 0. Richards (page 164) says, "Anyone may be excused for being a bit confused about the meaning of the word, `church'; we use the word in so many ways. It means a particular building (e.g., the church on 4th street), a denomination or organized faith (the Reformed Church in America) [or the Baptist Church], and even a Sunday meeting (e.g., did you go to church today). None of these uses is particularly Biblical." And I got to thinking, What does this really mean? What does the word "church" really mean? I'm going to quote further. It says, "Since many persons think of a church as a building for religious services rather than a congregation engaging in worship, the rendering church can be misleading!' The Greek word for "church" is ekklesia and literally means an assembly of people together for the purpose of worship or prayer or praise or just looking unto God. I'm going to read some other things here. It says, "Ecclesia in the New Testament can encompass any number of believers. It can be used of small groups that met in homes (Romans 16:5). It encompasses all believers living in a large city (Acts 11:22), or a large geographical district, such as Asia or Galatia!' It goes on to say, "The typical meeting of the church was in a home. When such a congregation met 'everyone [had] a hymn, a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation' (1 Corinthians 14:26). Individuals shared and others 'weighed carefully what was said' (1 Corinthians 14:29)...such sharing remains essential to the very existence of the church as a community of faith...Each person was expected to contribute and to serve others with his or her spiritual gift(s)!' In Hebrews 10:25 it says, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together." The church is an assembly of people coming together for the purpose of looking to Jesus, praising the Lord, to receive direction from the Lord, to follow through with that direction. The primary purpose of the early New Testament church was edification. They met together for the purpose of building each other up in the faith. The early church was an evangelistic church. People were scattered everywhere, sharing their faith in Jesus Christ, and as they did, the Lord added to the church, not to a building, but added to the people of God as they repented and believed. Then they assembled themselves together to encourage one another, to exercise their spiritual gifts, to serve one another, and to have a time of fellowship with one another by sharing a meal together. When they were together, they exercised their spirituals gifts to edify one another. Then they would go out and preach the Word, and the whole cycle would begin again. They believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and they assembled themselves together. It didn't matter where they assembled. It could've been in a building or someone's home. It could've been a large amount of people, or it could've been a small number of people meeting in homes. It didn't really matter, as long as they met together in the name of the Lord for the purpose of exercising their gifts, to encourage one another, and to fellowship with one another with the end result being edification, or building, each other up. I discovered that what we were doing with the Discipleship Evangelism program through the local church I mentioned earlier, by meeting in twenty different Bible studies throughout the city, is we were meeting in twenty different churches. It wasn't church as we know it today, but we were meeting as "the church: twenty times a week, because we were meeting together in the name of the Lord Jesus to encourage one another, to look to the Lord Jesus, to be instructed out of the Word of God, and to exercise our spiritual gifts. No matter what church you go to, no matter if you're in a denominational church or a non-denominational church, if you are meeting in a mega-church or a small home group, the Scripture is telling us that as you see the Day approaching, and as sin abounds, the grace of God much more abounds. Grace is going to abound within these assemblies of God's people. In the church where each believer has a part of the ministry of Jesus Christ, you can minister to one another, exhort one another, and encourage one another as you exercise your spiritual gift with one another. We would all benefit by meeting with a group of believers in this way. Even if it's just two or three that are meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus, we need to meet together on a regular basis. It is good to meet together to use our spiritual gifts, to exhort one another, to encourage one another, to look to Jesus together, and to pray for one another. There's a lot we could say about the church. We could talk about the elders, overseers, pastors, and church government, but that's not the purpose of this teaching. The purpose of this teaching is to know the purpose of the church and to know we do not have to be isolated like one man on an island all to himself. We cannot survive that way. When we received salvation, God put us in the body of Christ, the universal body of believers. We need one another, and we need to meet together as God's church to encourage one another and serve one another with the spiritual gifts that God has given us. I encourage you, meet together today with God's people. =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 5. 21. DELIVERANCE. Today we're going to talk about demonology. Jesus spent His ministry on earth casting out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead, and doing other miracles. About one-fourth of His ministry was spent expelling evil spirits from people. The Bible tells us in Acts 10:38, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him." Also, 1 John 3:8 says, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." I used to have a different view of demonology, that demons, evil spirits, unclean spirits, devils, whatever you want to call them, only appeared in India or third-world countries where the people don't worship the True and Living God but worship idols. I was wrong. I want to tell you about an experience I had a few years ago in a church in Dallas, Texas. All the people were singing when all of a sudden this girl just fell on the floor. It looked like she was having a seizure. There happened to be a medical doctor there whose name was Dr. Rice. Some people in the church had a home about a block from the church, and he said to take her there so he could examine her. When we got her to their home, this girl was like a wildcat! Her eyes were dilated, and there was a strong masculine voice speaking out of this little bitty teenage girl, who probably weighed less than a hundred pounds. Suddenly, this thing began to attack me verbally, saying things like, "YOU'RE GOING TO HELL!" I said, "No, I'm not:' I was scared because I'd never seen anything like this before. It said, "YES, YOU ARE GOING TO HELL:' and I said, "No, I'm not. I'm not going to hell:' It seemed to have power or authority over me, and I didn't know what to do or how to deal with the thing that was in this girl. One of my good friends was so scared that he left right away. So, there I was. I thought, What in the world do I do? The girl had supernatural strength, and she began to speak something like German that she had never learned, all kinds of wild manifestations of the devil came out of her. She was demon-possessed, and though I didn't know what to do, I'd always believed the Bible has power. It's like when you were a kid and watched those scary Dracula horror movies. The vampire would come toward the person, and all of a sudden, the person would pull out a cross and the vampire would go "ARRRGH!" That's the way I thought about the Bible. I knew it had power, but I didn't know how to get the power out of the Bible. The grace of God helped me, because I'd never experienced anything like this before. I opened my Bible to the New Testament and happened to turn to the book of Philippians. I began to read in chapter 2 verses 8-11: "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." The demon said, "Don't say that! I can't stand those words! Don't say that!" I thought, What a reaction! So I said, "Well, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, things in heaven, things on earth, and things under the earth:' "Don't say that! I can't stand those words! Don't say that, don't say that!" she yelled. I thought, This devil is going crazy inside this girl, and all I'm doing is reading the Word of God! So I read it again, "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." Again, there was the same reaction; "Don't say that, I can't stand that!" Then the demon grabbed the girl by her ears, and she said, "Don't say that! I can't stand those words, don't say that!" The devil threw the girl down before me, and she began to bow at the name of Jesus. And I said, "At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, whether in heaven or in earth or under the earth:' Just moments before, that devil had authority and power over me. I thought he was going to whip me, beat me up, throw me out of there, I didn't know! All I knew was that the Bible has power, and I opened it and began to read. The Bible says in Ephesians 6:17, "And take... the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." You see, there is an offensive weapon which is like a sword that will cut and hurt the enemy. It is the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Do you remember when Jesus was tempted? The devil came to Him and said, "I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world if you will bow down and worship me:' Jesus said, "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matthew 4:10). Then the devil tempted Him, and tempted Him again, and Jesus said "It is written, Satan...it is written:' and then quoted the Word of God. He used the Sword of the Spirit, and the Bible says the devil took off and left Him for a season. The only weapon we have to defeat the enemy is the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Do you know what I learned from that? I learned this: Every time I want to study the Word, I think about how hungry I am and have to go find something to eat, or I think about all the things I didn't do that day. I know that those in a discipleship class will have all sorts of excuses why they can't be there. I finally figured out why. There's something in the Bible that God wants us to know and the devil doesn't want us to know. So every time you come to study God's Word, or do a discipleship class, there's something in the Word of God the enemy doesn't want you to know, he doesn't want you to know the God behind these words. There is a kingdom of darkness, and there is the kingdom of God's dear Son. In Colossians 1:13, it says, "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." What kingdom are you in? A kingdom is where someone has the rule and reign. Jesus Christ is a king. Have you ever given your life to Him? Are you following Him today, or are you letting other things have priority in your life? Jesus said this in Luke 6:46: "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" He wants to be preeminent in your life, to be number one. There is a kingdom of darkness that is trying to keep Him from that preeminence, that place of reigning in your life. The reason for this is the enemy wants to rise up in that place of preeminence. Turn to Jesus today with all your heart, and realize there is an enemy. His name is Satan and he has demonic power, but the Bible tells us we have authority over him. Jesus said in Matthew 10:8, "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." Preach the Gospel of the kingdom, and as you go you have authority over the enemy. Don't let the enemy talk you out of what God has for your life any longer. Make Jesus Lord and number one in your life. You will never regret it. =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 6. 22. AUTHORITY OF THE BELIEVER. God has given us authority as believers. In order to address this, we're going to have to deal not only with the authority we have but the authority of Satan. He has been blown out of proportion. Christians have been led to believe we are fighting a being whose power is superior to ours, and we are just barely are able to cope with him. That's not what the Scripture teaches at all. It does say in Ephesians 6:12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." So Satan is a factor; he does exist. He has a hierarchy of principalities and powers that we're dealing with, but in the verse just prior to that, it says that we have to stand against the wiles of the devil. The only power Satan really has against us is deception. He doesn't have power to just overcome us. In Genesis 3 we see that when the first temptation came against Adam and Eve, Satan didn't come with some superior force. For instance, instead of inhabiting a mammoth or an elephant, putting his foot on Adam's head, threatening them, and saying "Serve me or else he inhabited a snake, the most subtle creature God made. The word "subtle" means "sly, deceptive, or cunnine The reason Satan came through the snake was because he really didn't have the power to force Adam and Eve to do anything. He could only deceive. He came against the nature and character of God and began to criticize Him, saying, "God doesn't really love you, He's holding things back from you:' He used deception to tempt Adam and Eve to sin against God. They were the ones who had all the authority, and the reason Satan had to do it this way was because he didn't have power to come against God. There's so much more I don't have time to go in to, but one of the main points I want to get across is that concerning the authority of the believer, you have to recognize that Satan has zero power and authority over you. He is a defeated foe. His only power against you is to come against you with lies and deception. If your life is being destroyed, you can say "Satan is the one who is firing these shots at me but you are the one who is giving him the ammunition. You're the one who has to respond to his lies and deception. If you didn't yield to Satan, he would have no inroads or power against you. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 it says, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." These scriptures are talking about the weapons of your warfare, and every weapon mentioned refers to your mind, dealing with thoughts. Satan doesn't have the power to do anything to you except through deception. I want to quickly summarize some things. In the beginning God, of course, had all authority. All power and authority has to emanate from God because He is the only one who has power in Himself. Everything else is delegated from Him. When He created the heavens and the earth, He had all power and authority. Then in Genesis 1:26, when God created Adam and Eve, He said, "Let them have dominion... over all the earth." Put that together with Psalm 115:16, which says, "The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men." God had ownership of everything by right of being the Creator, but He gave dominion, or authority, over the earth to physical human beings. Satan has never had the right and power to rule over the earth. He took it through deceiving man to sin. God gave that power to mankind, and when man fell, he yielded his God-given authority and power over to the devil. Satan was never given power by God to oppress man or to rule this earth. Scripture does say that Satan is the god of this world, but it's not because God made him the god of this world. God never put Satan in a position above mankind. He gave mankind dominion and authority over this earth. The only reason Satan has ever been able to oppress, dominate, or cause the problems he does is because people yield their God-given authority to him. This posed a real problem for God, because He is a Spirit, and He gave authority over this earth to physical human beings. Only people who have physical bodies have the authority and power to rule and exercise influence in this earth. Satan has to come to us and get us to yield our authority to him. That's the reason that he likes to inhabit a body. In Scripture, demons have to have a body to possess because Satan can't do anything unless he is using a physical human body to work through. Because God is a Spirit and has given authority to physical human beings, now in a sense, He has His hands tied. It isn't because God doesn't have power and authority but because of His integrity. He gave authority to physical human beings, and to be true to His own Word, He can't just take it back and say, "This isn't the way I wanted it; time out, stop, we're going to do it over:' No, God bound Himself by His own Word. Throughout history He looked for someone He could flow through, but the problem was that all men were corrupted and had yielded themselves to Satan. So what was He to do? What God finally did was come to the earth Himself and become a man. This is tremendous when you understand it, because now the devil was in big trouble. He had been using mankind's power, and God couldn't intervene directly to solve all these problems, because man was willfully, legally yielding his God-given authority to Satan. Satan was wrong in what he did, but man gave him the authority and power that was theirs to give. But now, here came God, and He was no longer only the Spirit but was in the form of physical flesh. This put the devil in a bad situation, because God not only had authority in heaven, but becoming a man gave Him authority on the earth. Jesus said in John 5:26-27, "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." He was referring to His physical body. Jesus came and exercised God-given authority. The devil tempted Him, and Jesus never yielded to him. Satan lost in every battle with Him. Then Jesus took our sins, died for them, went to hell, rose again, and said in Matthew 28:18, 'All authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth." He won back the authority God had given mankind, which man misused, and as God in the flesh, Jesus now had all authority in heaven and in earth. In the very next verse He said, "Now you go, and you do these things:' In effect He was saying, "I now have all authority in heaven and earth, and I'm sharing it with you:' This time, however, there's a unique difference in the authority God has given back to us as believers. It is joint authority between us and the Lord Jesus Christ. It's no longer given to us solely as it was to Adam and Eve. They could give the authority away, allow the devil to oppress them, and basically be hopeless, but today our authority is shared with the Lord Jesus Christ. Its like having a joint bank account that requires both signatures in order to cash a check. Our authority is shared with the Lord Jesus, and His authority is shared with the church. Although we may fail, God is never again going to sign this authority over to the devil. Satan is absolutely powerless. He has no ability to do anything in your life except what he deceives you in and what you voluntarily yield to. You may give him authority in your life, you may suffer personally for it, but the God-given authority that was given to man will never again pass solely to the devil. It is now shared between us and the Lord Jesus, and He will remain faithful regardless. You need to recognize that you're the one who now has authority and the power. Satan is fighting you with thoughts, and your weapons are such that you can take these thoughts captive. You can recognize that it's wrong for the devil to oppress you physically and find out what the Scripture has to say about healing. John 8:32 says, 'And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." You're the one who has power and authority. God has given it to you, and the only thing that keeps you from exercising it is that you haven't yet taken your thoughts captive. You haven't used these spiritual weapons to renew your mind and to realize what you have. It's encouraging to find out that you're the one with authority and power. I pray that you'll take this, meditate on it, and God will give you the revelation that you're the one Satan trembles at. You shouldn't be trembling at Satan, because you are the one who has God-given power and authority. If you resist the devil, he will flee from you (James 4:7). =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 7. 23. HEALING IS IN THE ATONEMENT. Jesus has already purchased healing for us. In Mark 2 and Luke 5 Jesus was teaching in a house so crowded that a paralyzed man was let down through the roof by friends and Jesus miraculously healed him. In Matthew 8:14-16, after Jesus had been healing people, the Bible says, `And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them. When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick." Then verse 17 gives the reason for this happening: "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." In this instance, Jesus was healing many people, and it specifically refers back to and quotes from Isaiah 53:3-5: "He is despised and rejected of men [This is a prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ]; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (brackets mine). These are powerful passages of Scripture. Some people take them and say, "Wait a minute; this is talking in a spiritual sense' The church I was brought up in didn't believe in physical healing for the body. They would take a scripture like this and spiritualize it, use it to say we were wounded emotionally, and when we commit our lives to the Lord, He heals us. But if we put this passage together with the passages we started with, it forever ends that application of these scriptures. It's true that Jesus will heal you emotionally and in other ways, but these scriptures are talking about physical healing for the body. You can see that because in Matthew 8:17, it says that these healings that took place were the fulfillment of the prophecy spoken by Isaiah we just read, "With his stripes we are healed." It says this was the fulfillment that He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. This is talking about physical sicknesses, hurts, and pains. Jesus healed people physically to fulfill the scripture that says we are healed by His stripes. The Bible goes on to say in 1 Peter 2:24, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body, on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." This is in the past tense. Jesus came and part of what He came to do was heal our physical bodies. I am not diminishing the fact that He also came to forgive our sins. That's important, and forgiveness of sins is like the doorway, the entrance to everything else, but He didn't come only to forgive our sins. He also came to heal our bodies. In Greek, the word used for "salvation" in the New Testament is sozo, an all-encompassing word that applies to many different things. But if you look it up, it's also translated "healed:' James 5:14 states: "Is any sick among you? let them call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; And prayer of faith shall save the sick." The word "save there is the Greek word sozo, and it is talking about the sick being physically healed in their bodies. This same word that was translated forgiveness of sins hundreds of times in the New Testament was also translated healed. When Jesus sent His disciples out in Matthew 10, the command He gave them was to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils, and preach the Gospel. In the same breath that He told them to preach the Gospel, He told them to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, and cast out devils. Healing is just as much a part of what Jesus came to accomplish in your life as forgiveness of sins. In the same way you would never think that the Lord would want you to commit a sin to teach you that you could learn something through your sin, He would never want you to live in sickness. God is not the author of sickness in your life. Sometimes people say things like, "Well, this sickness is really a blessing from God because it turned me to Him:' It's true that in crisis situations people turn to God, but He doesn't send sickness to teach you. He wouldn't do that anymore than He would put sin on you. Can you learn something if you go live in sin? If you live a life of adultery or homosexuality and get some disease, can you learn that the lifestyle was wrong? Certainly you can, but God didn't cause you to live that lifestyle. He didn't put sin in your life, yet you can learn from sinning. You can beat your head against the wall and learn that it's not the thing to do, but you could also learn that without physically beating your head against the wall. You don't have to learn everything by hard knocks. God does not put sickness in your life to humble you and teach you something. Jesus died to forgive you of your sins and also to heal you of your diseases. He bore your sins in His own body, and by His stripes you were healed. God's supernatural divine healing is available to all of us and is part of the atonement that Jesus died to produce. If you aren't receiving your healing, God's not upset with you. You don't have to be healed to love God. You can love God with your whole heart, not believe in healing, and still go to heaven. As a matter of fact, you'll probably get there quicker because you don't know how to walk in health. But you know what, it's available to you. Jesus died to produce it. God wants you to be well. =========================== LEVEL 2 LESSON 8. 24. HINDRANCES TO HEALING. In the previous lesson, I talked about the fact that it is God's will to heal, and that healing is part of the atonement. Much more could be said, because even if you accept it and have seen it in the Scriptures, it still raises a lot of questions such as, "If it's God's will to heal us, why isn't everyone healed?" There are many reasons, and I'm just scratching the surface on the things I know. There is a lot of information that I simply am not able to get into here, but if it's God's will to heal, I want to address part of why people are not healed. One of the reasons is ignorance. You cannot operate in something you don't know or understand, and in my own life that certainly has been true. I was trained to believe God's will automatically came to pass, that I had no authority, power, or say-so in it. So, through my ignorance, a number of things happened. My dad died when I was twelve years old and two or three people had died in my presence by the time I was twenty-one. I was praying for all of them to be healed, but I didn't see healing manifest, not because it wasn't God's will, but because of ignorance on my part. Ignorance is a reason why things happen, but it's not an excuse. It's like the law of gravity: a person could say, "Well, I didn't realize that if I walked off a ten-story building it was going to kill me:' You don't have to realize it to have the full impact of that law to work against you. People are ignorant about some of God's laws. They don't know how His healing system works, so ignorance is killing a lot of people. Another thing that can hinder us from receiving healing is sin. It really upsets people when you say that, because they interpret what you are saying as all sickness is a result of some sin on our part, which is not true. That's not what I'm saying. In John 9, there was an instance where Jesus was coming out of the temple, and His disciples pointed out a man there who was born blind. His disciples said in verse 2, "Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" In other words, they were trying to relate his sickness directly to sin, asking if it was his sin or his parents' sin that caused this sickness to come on him. Jesus' answer was that neither of them had sinned. That's not saying that the parents or the son had never sinned but that it wasn't their sin that directly caused his blindness. It's untrue to say that all sickness is related to sin, but it's also untrue to say that sin is not one of the factors. In John 5 there is an instance when Jesus was at the pool of Bethesda, and He healed a man supernaturally. There were multitudes in that place, and only one person was healed. Later the chapter shows that the man didn't know who healed him when the Jews asked him in verse 12, "What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?" Verses 13-14 continue, "And he that was healed wist [knew] not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place, Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee" (brackets mine). Jesus said right here that sin would cause something worse than his paralysis to come upon him. He tied the result of sickness to sin. He also said in John 9 that it wasn't because of anybody's sin that the man was born blind. Some things just happen naturally, but there are times when sickness, disease, or problems can be a direct result of sin. Even in such cases, it doesn't mean God is the one who is doing these things to us. Take, for instance, a person who lives a homosexual lifestyle, which is a perversion of nature. The human body is not made to live that way. Sexually communicated diseases come from that lifestyle. God is not the author of these diseases, it's just nature rebelling because it's not set up to live that way. For instance, if you go out and eat the wrong food, your body will respond, and it's not God doing it to you. There are natural laws, natural factors here. So it is true that sin can be one of the reasons people aren't healed. If there's a known sin in your life and you are believing God for healing, you need to stop the sin, because through it, you are giving Satan a direct access that's hindering you from receiving what God is doing in your life. Romans 6:16 says, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servant ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" That's not saying that Satan becomes master in the sense that you lose your salvation and go to hell, but it means that whether you are a Christian or not, if you're out living in sin, you're giving Satan an inroad into your life. John 10:10 says that the thief comes for no other purpose except to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus came to give' you life. So, you've got Jesus trying to bring His life and health to you, but you've also got Satan trying to make you sick. If through sin you're yielding yourself to Satan, you are empowering him and giving him an opportunity in your life. You can pray and ask God for healing all you want to, but your actions are allowing the devil to come in and bring sickness. So, if you are living in sin, you need to stop it. I need to add that you could become so introspective that you would say "Well, I'm always less than what I should be" and get to a place where even though you believe God can heal, you believe He won't because you don't deserve it. That certainly is wrong too. None of us are ever going to obtain healing from God because we deserve it. God's never had anyone qualified working for Him yet, so you don't need to associate God moving in your life only to your performance, your holiness. It needs to be based on what Jesus has done for you and your faith in Him. At the same time, you can't ignore your actions and yield yourself to the devil without him hindering you. You'll see healing work much easier, much better in your life if you repent and quit anything you're doing that would give Satan an inroad into your life. Another factor that concerns healing that some people don't think much about is the negativity and unbelief of other people that can affect you. One of the classic examples of this is in Mark 6 where Jesus was in His hometown, and the people didn't respect Him because they remembered Him as a little boy. They knew His father and mother, brothers and sisters, and didn't respect Him the way some people did. They came against him and criticized Him. Mark 6:4-6 says, 'A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief This doesn't say that Jesus wouldn't do any mighty works, but that He couldn't. Here is Jesus, the Son of God, who came to earth as a man, who had no lack in His faith. And there certainly wasn't any inroad of sin in His life. Yet He was limited to what He could do for other people because of their unbelief. Put this together with Matthew 13:58, where it says "And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief and we see that Jesus, who had no limitations in Himself and certainly no sin in His life to give Satan an inroad, was limited in what He could do because of the people around Him. This is really important to understand: It is God's will to heal everyone all of the time. If you believe that, you might possibly make the mistake of going to a hospital and trying to empty it of every sick person because you believe it's God's will for them to be healed. It is God's will for them to be healed, but He will not move against their own will. God will protect their right to be sick, their right not to be healed. No one can force them to be healed, and they can't get healed off of someone else's faith. Someone's faith can help them if they are struggling, but no one can do it for them. You can push a car when it's in neutral, but you can't push a car in park or reverse. If a person is set against healing, you cannot overcome it. Because of this, you can't empty a hospital or go into a church service and see every person healed without their cooperation. There's so much more that could be said about this. When Jesus healed people, even raising the dead, He would go up to someone and say, "Weep not:' He would tell a mother not to weep and then raise her son from the dead. Somebody's faith has to be used somewhere. There needs to be faith on our part, and there are so many, many other things involved in healing. I've discussed just a few here, and hopefully they will help you, but one of the main things you need to get out of this is that God is faithful. It is His will for you to be healed, but you have to learn how to cooperate with Him. He can't do it for you; He has to do it through you. It will come from the inside of you. I pray that these things will help you to start yielding yourself, to allow the power of God to flow through you, and to walk in His supernatural health. =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 9. 25. FORGIVING OTHERS. Matthew 18:21-22 says, "Then came Peter to him [Jesus], and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven" (brackets mine). I think Peter thought he was being very generous to ask how many times he should forgive someone who sinned against him, "seven times in a day, do you think?" Jesus said, "Peter, not seven but seventy times seven:' That's 490 times, but it doesn't mean that after 490 times you don't have to forgive. What Jesus said was an impossible number of offenses that would happen to an individual in a day. He was saying forgiveness should be continual, that it should go on and on. Forgiveness should be the real attitude of a Christian. Jesus said in Luke 23:34, "Father forgive them; for they know not what they do." And also Stephen the martyr, in Acts 7:60 said, "Lay not this sin to their charge." Not all people will receive forgiveness, but the attitude in the heart of a Christian should be always to offer it. Jesus tells a parable about forgiveness when He continues in verse 23 of Matthew 18, "Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of [make a reckoning with] his servants, And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. [The Living Bible says that is like ten million dollars.] But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all" (brackets mine). Now, here's the situation: There is a man who actually owes ten million dollars to his master. There is no way he can pay it, he knows he can't and the master knows he can't. In those days, you couldn't claim bankruptcy like you can in the United States, they'd sell you, your wife, your children, and everything you had, and you'd go into slavery. You would be sent to prison until everything was paid, and if it never was, you'd stay in prison all your life. This man did the only thing he knew to do: He got down on his knees and cried for mercy, "0 master, please be patient with me! Please, I beg you. I'll repay you everything. Just be patient!" Notice what happened in verse 27. It says the master was moved with compassion for him, and he forgave him his debt. We had a debt we could not pay. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), separation from God for eternity, all the silver and gold in the world couldn't redeem us. Then God in His compassion and in His grace sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth to pay the debt we couldn't pay. God looked upon us in His compassion and mercy and said, "I forgive you that debt:' This man who had just been forgiven ten million dollars was owed something like twenty dollars by a fellow servant. He found him and said, "I've just been forgiven ten million dollars, and what is twenty dollars to me? I want you to be as free as I am! Just let it go. It's okay, for I've been forgiven ten million dollars!" That is what should have happened, but it didn't. Let's read what really happened in verses 28-31. "But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me what thou owest. And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done." He threw that man into prison for twenty dollars after he'd just been forgiven ten million dollars! Can you imagine that? Verses 32-34 say, "Then his lord, after he had called him, said unto him, 0 thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him." This man was then thrown into prison because of the way he treated his fellow servant, and thus forfeited his original forgiveness. Jesus said in verse 35, "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses." Isn't it foolish, having been forgiven all our sin, the wages of which are death and separation from God for eternity, to refuse to forgive? We beseech God, saying "Forgive me and have mercy on me through Jesus Christ; receive forgiveness, and then turn and refuse to forgive someone else for a little thing we think is so big, after having received forgiveness for all the things we've done. God's says that's wickedness. I pastored a church awhile back, and there was a young woman in the congregation who was able to see things in the future. She came to me one day and said, "Is it the Holy Spirit telling me things to come and showing me things in the future? I know when people are going to die and when someone is going to have a car wreck, and things like that:' I said, "You won't like my answer, but I don't believe that's the Holy Spirit. I think it's a spirit of divination, the same spirit that followed the Apostle Paul around in Acts 16. He finally rebuked it and commanded it to come out of that girl and she lost her ability to tell fortunes" I went on to tell her that I wasn't God, and said, "I want you to go to Jesus and ask Him, 'Lord, what is telling me things and giving me information, even before I was saved? Is it your Holy Spirit, or is it something else?"' She came back to me one day and said, "I talked to the Lord about it, and I think it's all right:' I said, "Whatever the Lord says is all right, I'm not the Great Shepherd" This was in early 1986, and do you know what happened in 1986? We had a space shuttle called the Challenger, and eight people went up in it. One of them was a woman schoolteacher. As this young lady was watching television, she saw the woman saying, "Tomorrow I'm going up in the Challenger; and talking about it. A spirit spoke to her and said, "She's going to die, she's going to die" The next day when the Challenger was launched, it blew up as the whole world watched, and all of the crew perished. The young lady came back to me and said, "Brother Don, I think what's talking to me and giving me information may not be the Holy Spirit. Would you pray for me?" Following the service that night, after everyone left, I took her by the hand and said, "You unclean spirit of divination, come out of her!" Nothing happened. Jesus' disciples tried to cast an unclean spirit out of a young man once and couldn't do it. Jesus said, "Bring the young man to me:' So I said, "Lord, I thought I knew what was going on here, but I bring this lady to you. Show us what's going on:' My wife was praying with us and God gave her a word of knowledge. She said, "It has something to do with her mother:' I said to the woman, "Will you forgive your mother?" The moment I said that, a voice screamed out of her, "NO! She gave me away!" Then I said "I bind you, you unclean spirit" and asked the woman again if she would forgive her mother. She then forgave and released her mother and let her go by the grace and help of God. She was able to let go by making the decision to forgive, and then she received her deliverance and freedom. Just like Jesus said in the parable in Matthew 18, I'm saying that if we do not forgive from our hearts after we've been forgiven such a great debt by our heavenly Father, we will be delivered into the hands of the tormenters. What are the tormenters? They can be all kinds of things, demonic strongholds, oppression, sickness, depression, disease, and many other things. The root is unforgiveness. Not forgiving after we have been forgiven allows Satan a foothold in our lives. The Bible says we have to make the decision to forgive. In the Lord's prayer (Matthew 6:9-11), Jesus said to forgive as we've been forgiven. Mark 11:25-26 says that when we pray, if we have anything against anyone, we're to forgive. What does that mean? Unforgiveness should stay in our hearts how long? Only as long as it takes us to go to the Lord and pray. And if we have the slightest bit of unforgiveness against anyone, we should release them and say, "God, I'm letting them go today. I'm forgiving them. I'm making a choice because You forgave me such a great debt:' "Lord, I pray for anyone reading this lesson that has unforgiveness in their life, that they make a decision right this moment to let that person go, to forgive them whether they are living or dead. I pray they will let it go and let that hurt be healed by your power and your grace today, Lord. I thank You, in Jesus' name. Amen." =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 10. 26. MARRIAGE - Part 1. Today we're going to talk about marriage. First of all, I want to give you some statistics: 75 percent of all family units are going to need some kind of marriage counseling. One out of two marriages will end in divorce. In 50 percent of marriages, a mate will be unfaithful within the first five years. Even in the Christian realm, they say that as high as 30 percent of ministers will be involved in an inappropriate relationship with someone in their church. It appears to me that we obviously haven't understood the principles of the Bible if those statistics are anywhere close. We're going to look at the subject of marriage and see some of the things God says about it, how you might be able to strengthen your marriage relationship. Marriage is God's idea. He designed it. Genesis 2:18 says, 'And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." Also Genesis 1:31 says, `And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." You have to remember that this was a perfect creation. God came and fellowshipped with man. He had a wonderful relationship with him. Each day He would come in the cool of the evening and fellowship with Adam. Sometimes we think if we had a perfect relationship with God, we wouldn't really need anything else, but that's not true. God said in Genesis 1:31, concerning the creation He made, "And behold it was very good." The first thing that God said was "not good" is found in Genesis 2:18, "It is not good that the man should be alone." So, marriage was God's idea to meet the need that man had, to give him a help meet to deal with the problem of loneliness he might experience in his life. Marriage, if we follow the instruction manual and put into it what God wants, was meant to bring happiness and not misery. Genesis 2:24 is the first time the Bible really talks a lot about marriage. It says, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Marriage is leaving all other relationships to refocus your life on another individual, and God designed it that way. It's like a tri-unity relationship. In the marriage relationship, when God called Adam and Eve together, it wasn't just Adam relating to God or Eve relating to God. It was now Adam and Eve as a unit, in oneness of purpose relating to God. The Bible says in 1 Peter 3:7, "Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them [your wives] according to knowledge... that your prayers be not hindered" (brackets mine). Genesis 5:1-2, a really great passage of Scripture, says, "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created." Notice that Adam named his wife, Eve, but God called Adam and Eve, together as a unit, Adam. So, in the marriage relationship, it's no longer God and me or God and that woman, it's me and my wife in oneness, heirs according to the grace of life who have been called to serve God in purpose, to walk in oneness and unity. Genesis 2:24, which we just read, says a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh. The word "cleave" means to stick or adhere to, to become one, to be one in purpose. If you're having a problem in your marriage relationship today, let me ask you a few questions: Are the things you're doing, the way you're acting toward your spouse, the things you're saying to them, are they causing you to come closer together as one? Or, are they causing a breach, or separation? The commandment of Scripture for marriage is to cleave, to stick to. So, are the things you're doing building your relationship or tearing it down? You need to look at some of these things. People think love is just an emotional feeling: "I used to love you, but I fell out of love, I don't love you anymore:' Suppose you came from a dysfunctional family. You go before a minister or judge to be married; you commit to give your life to that individual; you really want this to work till death do you part. But because of your dysfunctional family, you've never seen love, never seen it expressed in your family, and never seen your parents share any warm expression of love. Your spouse may have come from a family that expressed a lot of affection, but you don't know how. Even though you want to love this person you're committing yourself to, because you're so dysfunctional yourself, having never seen love expressed before, you probably will fail. Chances are that within a few years you will go in for counseling and say, "We're just not getting along. I don't love them anymore:' Well, I've got good news for you today: If you're having problems in your marriage, there's something that can correct it. When you buy a new refrigerator and have a problem with it, you know to go to the manual. The manual will tell you what's wrong, or you can take it to a serviceman. There is a manual to work on your marriage, to fix it. It's called God's Word, and the Bible tells us in Titus 2:4 that love is something that can be taught, something that can be learned. If you came from a dysfunctional family and don't really know how to love your spouse, your marriage is falling apart, there's good news. In 1 John 5:3, it says, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." Through the commandments of Jesus Christ, who shows us how to love, how to express kindness and generosity, and how to seek the welfare of the other person in your marriage relationship, God can turn that situation around for you. This is just an introduction to the subject of marriage. God bless you today as you continue in your study. I believe that God wants to impart more wisdom and knowledge as you look into this subject. =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 11. 27. MARRIAGE - Part 2. Today we're going to look again at the subject of marriage, and the question is, "What is marriage?" Have you ever thought about that? According to the Bible, it was God's idea to design marriage. Marriage is a joining together, a oneness, a uniting. Genesis 2:24 says, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife [they will be joined, and he will cleave to his wife] and they shall become one flesh" (brackets mine, New International Version). Did you know that marriage is more than a joining, more than oneness? For example, 1 Corinthians 6:15-6 says if I go out, being a Christian, and join myself to a prostitute, I become one flesh with her. Then consider the quotation from Genesis 2:24 about marriage. Joining myself to a prostitute would not automatically make me divorced from my wife or make me married to the prostitute because I had intercourse with her. So, what is marriage? If marriage is a oneness, if it's a joining together, if it's becoming one flesh, what is the difference between that and going to a prostitute? Obviously, if you went into a prostitute, you would become one flesh with her. The Bible does say that marriage is a oneness, a joining together, a uniting together, but it's more than that. It is a uniting together by a covenant. The word "covenant" in Hebrew is berith, and it has the idea of binding together. It's a final commitment of an individual, even a commitment till death do you part. Now, if I went into a prostitute, if I did such an evil sin as that, there would be no commitment on my part to her. The essence of marriage is to first of all forsake all others. The Bible says you shall leave your father and mother and you shall cleave to your wife. Ezekiel says, "You became mine." It's forsaking all others for this one, to commit yourself to this one. Obviously if you, in an immoral way, go to another person when you are married, that would violate the principle of marriage, the oneness and unity that comes through a covenant, or commitment. Ezekiel 16:8 calls it a covenant of marriage. In Ephesians 5, we learn that in marriage, the husband is to love his wife, even as Christ loved the church, so it's a covenant of love. The reason it's a covenant of love is because love is the ruling principle in marriage. Above all things, love must be the ruling principle of marriage. Marriage is a covenant of oneness. It says in 1 Peter 3:7 that if I don't honor and appreciate my wife as being the weaker vessel and realize that we are heirs together of the grace of life, our prayers will be hindered. Think about that, our spiritual lives could be hindered if we do not walk in the unity and harmony that God has designed for the marriage relationship. Proverbs 2:16-17 talks about a wayward woman who forsakes her marriage covenant, the guide of her youth, and that marriage relationship is called a covenant of her God. This is a very serious thing. It's a covenant we make to an, individual, but it's also a covenant that we make before God. As much as I love to minister to people, God has a priority, and that is to focus on my marriage. Marriage really is a focusing of my life onto another individual, and as I said, the ruling principle is love. Matthew 7:12 says whatever you would want someone to do to you, do to them, for this is the Law and the prophets. This is exactly the principle that should rule in marriage. It's not a selfish thing, not for self, not about what this person can give you. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:4 that love is kind. That means to seek the welfare of another, to be generous and kind, and to always seek the best for another. The reason marriage is designed that way is because it is an example, a model, of what a real relationship with God should be. He has given us illustrations in the natural. He has shown us how to have a good marriage, a great marriage, because He wants us to have a model of what a real eternal relationship is to be with Him. Marriage is only until death do us part, a temporary thing. The Bible says that in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage. God wants us to understand a good marriage, the principles of love, the principles of giving unselfishly to another. He is saying, "What I want you to really understand is that I've called you into a marriage relationship with Me, not a temporary relationship, not one that will just last a few years and then be gone, but an eternal relationship where all of My love will be manifested to you forever and ever." Let me give you a few principles of marriage. Marriage is a merger, not just a partnership. The Bible talks about it in Genesis 4 as a knowing and in 1 Peter 3:7 as being heirs together of the grace of life. Marriage is a covenant, which means it is binding; there's a commitment involved. Sin did not enter the first church; it entered the first marriage, so we need to get the manual, get the instructions about marriage, and implement the principles of love in our lives. We also ask, "What is love?" The definition of love is really, in a sense, unselfishness. Isaiah 53:6 says we are like sheep, that we went astray and turned every one to our own way, but in marriage, we focus on the other individual and seek their welfare and benefit. The Bible tells us in Ephesians that loving your wife is like loving your own body. We husbands are to cherish and honor the wife God has given to us, which means to appreciate her. To love your own body doesn't mean you sit around and hold hands with yourself, pat yourself, and say, "Oh, I love you." It's not that at all. To love yourself is to protect yourself, feed yourself, and look out for yourself. We should never take our wives for granted, never take one of her weaknesses and expose it publicly, never make fun of her, or do things that hurt her. We're to love her as we love our own selves. Lift yourself up to God in prayer, and first of all, thank Him for loving you. Then, thank Him for your partner, the mate He gave you. That could be part of the problem. You may not have appreciated your mate, you may have put him or her down, and the Bible says that is basically selfish and is sin. It says in Ephesians 5 that Jesus cleansed the church by the washing of water by the Word, by His Words He spoke over the church. When you speak words over your mate, they will rise to the level of the words you speak. If you say "You're no good, you're ugly, you're overweight:' you will suppress your marriage and not cause oneness but separation and alienation. But if you speak words of kindness like "Honey, I appreciate the things you do. I appreciate you. I love you:' and back them up with your actions, your mate will rise up to the level of those words. Can't you see today that a lot of the problems in your marriage relationship are the words you've spoken? Have you brought your mate down rather than up? I encourage you to speak good words over your mate today. Love is not a feeling; love is seeking the welfare and benefit of another person regardless of how you feel. Begin today with acts of kindness, just like painting several layers of lacquer on a piece of wood. That's how love is built, by little acts of kindness. Start to esteem, honor, value, and speak words of love over your mate, and you'll see a difference. God bless you as you implement these principles. =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 12. 28. GOD'S KIND OF LOVE - Part 1. In 1 Corinthians 13:13, it says, "Now abideth faith, hope, charity [love], these three; but the greatest of these is charity [love]" (brackets mine). Then 1 Corinthians 14:1 says, "Follow after charity [love] and [yet] desire [earnestly] spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy" (brackets mine). The Bible says to follow after love, pursue it, and make it your highest aim. Some translations say to make it your greatest quest. It's the only thing we'll take out of this life into eternity. We won't take our cars, our homes, or our money, but we will take the love that Jesus Christ has imparted into our lives by the Holy Spirit. Love is the only thing that has eternal value and substance. What does love really mean? I say, "I love my wife, I love ice cream, I love apple pie:' There's only one word in English to describe love, so when I say I love my wife and then say I love the cat, is my wife impressed? Not at all. Do you see what I'm saying? When we use the word love, some people think it means sex, some think it means an intense warm feeling, people have all kinds of definitions for love. In the Greek language there are four major words. One is eros, which really is not used in the Bible, and is defined as sexual attraction or sexual love. God ordained that kind of love when He said a man shall leave his father and mother, cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. The book in the Bible entitled Song of Solomon is about sexual love that God has restricted to the marriage relationship. The other kinds of love, God says are free to be used by all mankind, but eros is restricted to the marriage relationship. Another kind of love is called storge and is the natural bond or affection in a family relationship. Then there is phileo, which comes from the root word philia. This word is used about seventy-two times in the New Testament and means a warm feeling of affection that comes and goes in intensity. Most people who talk about love think that is what love really is, so "I fall in love and I fall out of love:' If your marriage is built on that kind of love, there will be times when you have a high and times when you have a low. You could fall in love and out of love based on that. The Bible says we're to love each other with God's kind of love, which is agape love. What is agape love? There are many facets, and 1 Corinthians 13 gives the whole definition of what love involves. In 1 John 5:3 it says, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." Jesus' commandments show us expressions of love, but if I were going to sum it up, I would use Matthew 7:12, "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." It's not a matter of all those people down at the church who don't love me, don't care about me, and this and that. No, the Bible says whatever you would want someone to do to you, you do to them first. That is love. It goes against our flesh, against our natural grain to seek the welfare and benefit of other people above ourselves. It takes God. Don't think I'm saying this can be manifested without God. The Bible says the fruit of the Spirit is love, and God is love. He is the source of love and the one who will show us how to love through His commandments. He's the one who will give us strength, even in light of our flesh, to make the right choices and decisions and act on the right principles. One day I wanted to go and pray as I usually did after work. I was in a park, and I said, "God, I really want to minister to somebody" It was a fairly warm day, and I saw a little boy and a little girl sitting on the swings. There was a swing open, so I went over and got in the swing. I turned to the little girl and said, "It's a nice day, isn't it?" She said "Me no speak English:' and I asked, "Where are you from?" She said she was from Romania. I knew there were Romanians in that area, and I saw these people looking at me, probably wondering why I was talking to their children. I went over and said, "I want to help you:' They said, "You would want to help us? Why would you want to help us? You don't even know us!" I said, "Because God wants to help you:' I had been meditating on the principles of love in 1 John 3:18 where it says, "Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." We're not to love with the words of our mouths only, but also with our actions. Although I usually don't carry money around with me, that day I had a little in my pocket. I reached out, said "This is for you:' and gave them the money. Since I'd been fasting that day, I had a little bit of food with me, so I said, "And here's some food for your family" They were touched and said, "Who are you?" I told them, "God has made a divine appointment for us to meet today, and I am going see you again:' I went home and told my wife about the encounter with those Romanians. I took a roast out of our freezer and cooked it. The next day I bought a box full of dishes at a garage sale and went back to the park with my wife. The Romanians and their children were there, and I said, "I bring gifts to you. They're heavy, so I'm going to get in my car, and if you'll show me where you live, I'll take the gifts to your home:' When we got to their little one-bedroom apartment, I took the dishes and silverware, everything matched, out of the box and began to give things to them, one at a time. As I handed it to them, tears began to roll down their faces, and the lady said, "Me going to cry! Me going to cry!" I said, "On Monday night we have a Bible study at our home, and I would like to invite you there:' They said "We want to come but I said, "I don't want you to come because I gave you gifts:' They said, "No, we want to come and meet your friends:' Since they didn't have transportation, I picked them up, took them to my home, and before long, God began to touch them. They couldn't speak English very well, but He touched them when we prayed for them. The love of God was being manifested to them. Before long, we met another Romanian couple, and I said to the first couple, "Will you go and help me meet another Romanian couple?" They agreed and I got a call one day from them, "Mr. Don, we heard about you. We have the lonelies bad, and we want to meet you:' So I took my Romanian friends and went to meet them. I took gifts, food, and all kinds of things to them. As I did that and began to visit with them, everything was great until one of the first Romanian couple said, "You need to go to the Bible study. They talk about Jesus, and it's wonderful!" They said, "Wait a minute! We came from a communist country and don't know if there's a God. We don't want this Jesus stuff." I said "Let me be a friend:' and began to take them out on the weekends and buy them clothes, coats, and things they needed. They were very embarrassed and reluctant. "Well, don't you need a coat?" "Well, yes I do, but..." "Then let's get this coat for you:' I began to love them in action, but they wouldn't come to our Bible study until I said, "There are probably some Americans there who will help you get a job." Then they came right away. At the Bible study that night, I said something very foolish to the Lord, "Lord, you're going to have to give me a genuine gift of tongues tonight because we can't even communicate with each other very well:' There were some mericans at the Bible study that night who gave their testimonies. When I began to speak, the lady from the second Romanian couple began to lighten up, and I knew something was happening. After the study, I said "Let me pray for you:' and as we prayed, God suddenly touched them and filled the whole atmosphere of the room with His love. Then the lady said, "You know, when the Americans were speaking, I couldn't understand anything they were saying, but when you got up and started speaking about Jesus, His love for us, and what He did so we could have a relationship with Him, I understood every word you said! I understood it perfectly! It must be God! It must be God!" As a result, all of our lives were changed, not just the Romanians. My home began to be filled on Monday nights with international people, Romanians, Bulgarians, and people from Russia. God was changing lives, and they knew we loved them. We even had people from Africa. Though we could hardly speak to each other, one thing they knew: When we prayed, God would manifest Himself to them. They also knew that I would do anything for them and that I loved them. God changed their lives and the lives of many other people. It happened because one day in a park, I saw some people of another color, another nationality. I didn't have any warm feeling of affection, but I knew that love was this: Whatever you would want someone to do to you, do to them. I sought their welfare and benefit regardless of the way I felt, and you know what happened? They so appreciated it that what rose up in them for me was philia love, the love that has feelings, and they began to say to me "I love you" and hug me and kiss me. What it did in me was generate that kind of feeling for them. If you want to have a love that has feelings in your life, practice agape love. Seek the welfare and benefit of others regardless of how you feel, and this will generate a love that has feelings. =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 13. 29. GOD'S KIND OF LOVE - Part 2. Jesus Christ was the greatest expression of love that ever came on the face of the earth, yet as far as it is recorded in the Bible, He never said the words "I love you:' Isn't that amazing? The greatest expression of love never said "I love you." Do you know why? It's because love is more than words; it is action. Suppose I said to my wife "I love you" and then went out and committed adultery against her? Would she believe my words, or would she believe my actions? She'd believe me according to my actions, because 95 percent of love is nonverbal. It's not in the things you say; it's what you do. In 1 John 3:18 we read, "Let us not love in word, neither in tongue [let us not love just with the words of our mouths]; but in deed and in truth" (brackets mine). Love is an action word. In Matthew 25:35-36, Jesus describes love by the actions it prompts, saying, "I was hungry, and you fed Me. I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink. I was naked, without any clothing, and you clothed Me. I was sick, and you cared for me:' Then in verse 40 He says, "By doing this to the least of these My brethren, you've done it unto Me:' You see, love is an action; it's something you do. Hebrews 6:10 says, "God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them" (New International Version). In Matthew 22 when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He said it's to love God and love for our fellow man. These two commandments are really one, if understood correctly. When you show love to the least of these my brethren, Jesus said you are actually showing it to Him. The Bible is teaching that we have a wonderful opportunity to love Jesus Christ in practical ways, by loving others. In the last lesson, I told about the Romanians I met in a park. Their lives were changed because I sought their welfare and benefit regardless of how I felt. They were a different color and nationality, but I knew that God's love expresses itself when we reach out and seek the welfare and benefit of others like Jesus did. He didn't feel like going to the cross. He said, "Father, if there's any other way, let it be, yet not My will but Yours be done:' Jesus sought our welfare and benefit regardless of how He felt. One day I got a call from the Romanians. They were in tears. They had been in the United States for seven-and-a-half years. They now lived in Kansas and were working. They said, "We finally got a ruling on our political asylum papers. They're giving us thirty days to make an appeal, and then we are going to be deported:' There is normally only a 2 to 5 percent chance of ever getting political asylum in this country. The Romanians went to a lawyer, and he basically said they didn't have a chance. I told them we would pray and try to help them. How, I didn't know. I thought it would be a great injustice to send them back, especially when their children could now barely speak Romanian. A friend of mine called our Colorado congressman who said to contact Senator Sam Brownback in Kansas, since the Romanians now lived in Kansas. That was great because I have a friend named Kim who worked for Senator Brownback. I contacted Kim and she got four people in Washington D.C. working on this case. The community in Sublette, Kansas, got behind the Romanians with a petition of signatures stating that they wanted these Romanians here. "They're good people, they pay taxes, and they work hard. We want them here There was a full coverage newspaper article about what had happened. It was a miracle, and because there were high officials in our government who understood what was going on, the Romanians got a letter saying the decision was reversed and they could stay in the United States. I went to Sublette, Kansas. My friends didn't know I was coming, and when I got there, they were on the phone thanking Senator Brownback for helping get their political asylum. He couldn't be there personally because it was the last day of President Clinton's impeachment hearing, but ABC and NBC News were there with their cameras. As soon as they hung up, they ran over and hugged me, and the cameras went right over to me. They said, "Who are you, and how do you know these people?" I told them the whole story, how I met them and sought their welfare and benefit because of God and what Jesus said in Matthew 7:12. We then went to the gymnasium where there were red, white, and blue balloons everywhere and patriotic songs were being sung. When my friends came in, everyone started shouting, and they were weeping. The mayor of the city said, "Today, February 12th, is going to be Jucan Family Day, in honor of these Romanians." They took an American flag that the senator had flown over the capitol in Washington, D.C. in their honor and presented it to them. He also presented them with papers that said they were legally able to stay, basically for the rest of their lives. They all gave a testimony and then asked me to pray. I said, "There's one person we haven't thanked enough yet today, and that's God Almighty. In a park in Colorado Springs, CO, seven-and-a-half years ago, I was seeking God, telling Him that I wanted to reach out with His love to someone that day. I was led to these Romanians." I then repeated the story and said, "God wants to help you, welcome to the U.S.A." The way it all came about was a miracle. I knew the right people in the right places at the right time. My friend Kim had made arrangements for Senator Brownback to come and meet me at Andrew Wommack Ministries a year before all this happened. She said, "You just need to meet Don Krow." I didn't know why and I was very uncomfortable. Little did I know that God was setting things up to help a family He had revealed Himself and His love to, simply because of the command of Jesus that what you would want someone to do to you, do to them. It's a miracle they'll never forget, and they'll tell you today, "It's because of God:' Anka, the Romanian lady, said, "My faith wavered, but God is faithful, and He allowed us to stay in the United States of America." There are multitudes of people right now who are crying out for love. The only way they can get it is when you and I make the decision to understand the principles of love from God's Word. Love is kind, love seeks the welfare of others, just like Jesus sought our welfare when He went to the cross. God bless you today as you look more into these principles of what it really means to love with God's love. =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 14. 30. FINANCES - Part 1. Jesus wants you to prosper financially. This is something that is important to everyone. It takes money to live, to get your needs met, and to be a blessing to others. God didn't leave us alone in this area and say, "I'm concerned about your spiritual part, but I don't care about your financial part...you're on your own:' No, He loves you in every way, spirit, soul, and body, and He's made provision for you. Most people recognize that some degree of financial prosperity is necessary, but religion basically has taken a stand against having an abundance. The Word of God teaches against greed in many different ways but also makes it very clear that finances are a blessing. In 3 John 2, the Apostle John said, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." What a strong statement. John says, "Above all things!" It's talking about healing, emotions, relationships, and finances. The Lord wants you to prosper and be in health above everything else. He wants you to prosper in spirit, soul, and body. That's His will for you. Many religious people actually say that God wants you to be poor, that being poor is a godly thing, and the poorer you are, the more godly you are. I was raised under that kind of thinking, that preachers shouldn't have very much, that a Christian is a person who should do without. This certainly cannot be substantiated by Scripture. Abraham was the richest man of his time, so much so that kings asked him to depart because his possessions were affecting the wealth of their countries. The same was true of Isaac and Jacob. Joseph was a man who prospered and had super abundance. David gave to the Lord out of his own personal treasury over 2.5 billion dollars worth of gold and silver to build the temple. Solomon, David's son, was the richest man that ever lived on the face of the earth. When you look at it scripturally, people who have really served God were blessed financially. There are examples of people who struggled and did without. Paul said in Philippians 4:13 that he could do all things through Christ and had learned to be content in whatever situation he was in. He said he knew how to be abased and how to abound. There were times when God's servants went through poverty and difficulty, but you cannot find in Scripture that the poorer you are, the more godly you are. That is not true, and you can go out on the streets and see it disproved. So, yes, there's a truth here that greed is wrong. In 1 Timothy 6:10 it says, "For the love of money is the root of all evil." Some people take that and say money is the root of all evil, but it says the "love of money is the root of all evil." There are people who love money and don't have a dime; others have great wealth but don't love it. They just use it. Deuteronomy 8:18 shows the real purpose of financial prosperity. The Lord was talking to the Israelites, who were about to enter into the Promised Land and were going to experience wealth and prosperity in a way they never had before. He told them, "But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day." According to this passage of Scripture, the purpose of prosperity is not to have an abundance of things for your own selfish purposes, but so you can establish God's covenant here on earth. In other words, God will bless you so that you can in turn be a blessing. In Genesis 12:2 the Lord told Abraham, "I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing." Before you can be a blessing to anybody else, you have to be blessed yourself. You need certain things and have certain needs that God wants to meet, but it goes beyond a selfish thing. He wants to prosper you so He can get His money through you and so you can be a blessing. In 2 Corinthians 9:8 it says, "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." This tells why God is going to prosper you, so you can abound to every good work. Its actually like a scriptural definition of prosperity. What is prosperity? Is it having a nice home, a nice car, good clothes, and food on your table? According to this verse, it is having enough to meet all of your needs and abound unto every good work. If you are unable to give to things you feel God has touched your heart about, if you would like to be a blessing to someone but are unable, then you aren't prospering financially according to what the Scripture says. God says He will bless you to the degree that all of your needs will be met, and you'll be able to abound unto every good work. True biblical prosperity is not just to get your needs met, but so you can be a blessing to other people. The person who thinks only of themselves is actually selfish. If someone says "I'm believing God for more others may think them greedy or selfish, but it depends on the motive. If you ask God for more so you can get a bigger house or a better car, that's not the right scriptural attitude. But if you are believing God for more because you have gone beyond seeing your own needs met and want to be a blessing to others, that is the attitude He wants you to have. He wants you to prosper. It's His will for you to prosper. Matthew 6 talks about the things we need and then says if we will seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all of these things will be added to us. As you begin to put God first, He will supply all of these other things. All of your needs will be met, and you will be a blessing to other people. God does want you to prosper, but it really is dependent on your motive and your actions in this area. I pray that this has challenged you and that today you're going to start believing God for His very best, which is for you to prosper. =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 15. 31. FINANCES - Part 2. In the last lesson, I explained that it is God's will for you to prosper. There are keys to how this works. Luke 6:38 says, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall it be measured to you again." There are many principles involved, but you can't talk about prosperity without talking about giving. When you talk about financial prosperity, a lot of people say, "All right, so God wants to prosper me, but I don't have it to give:' You can see in the Bible where Jesus talked about the widow who put her last two mites into the offering. He had been watching the rich people put in huge sums of money, yet He called His disciples together and said this woman gave more than them all. He said this because they gave out of their abundance, but she gave out of her poverty. God does not evaluate the size of your gift by its monetary value but rather by the percentage of what you had to give. When a person says "I don't have anything to give it's not true. If nothing else, you could take a piece of clothing you have and give it away. Everyone has something to give, so do away with this argument that you don't have anything to give. As a matter of fact, the time you seem to have little of anything is when your giving can be a greater percentage than any other time. A person who has ten dollars and gives away five has given a much larger gift than someone who gives a million dollars when they have billions and billions left. God set it up so every single person can give. Why did God tell us to give? There are many things involved, but one of the main purposes is that God wants you to trust Him in every area of your life. If there isn't a God, and if His Word isn't true when He says "Give, and it shall be given unto you," taking a portion of what you have and giving it away is the stupidest thing you could ever do. Instead of moving toward the goal of having all your needs met, you're actually moving away from it if God hasn't promised to bless you. It takes faith to be able to give the way God says, and that's the reason He told you to do it. In Luke 16 there is a parable about a steward who cheated his master, and it finally comes down to this: He says if you haven't been faithful in the unrighteous mammon (talking about money), then who will commit to your trust the true riches? If you haven't believed God in the smaller things, concerning money, how are you going to get to the more important things, such as spiritual values? Scriptures like this make money one of the least levels of stewardship. If you can't trust God with your finances, how can you trust Him with your eternal destiny? How can you truly believe Jesus has forgiven your sins and that you're going to spend eternity in heaven? In comparison, the spiritual things we supposedly put our faith in the Lord for are much more significant than money. Money is a minor thing, but it's the bottom line of starting to trust God. Proverbs 11:24 says there are some that give away more than it looks like is necessary, and yet they prosper, and there are others that tend to hoard what they have, and it only causes poverty on the inside of them. If you seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first, then He will add these things to you. If you say you want God to help you in your finances, and you're praying for His help, but aren't seeking first the kingdom of God, and you aren't taking a step of faith, trusting Him with your finances, and giving, then you really aren't trusting Him. =========================== LEVEL 2. LESSON 16. 32. WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR PRAYERS SEEM UNANSWERED. I want to share about what to do when your prayers seem unanswered, and I want to put the emphasis on the fact that your prayers "seem" to be unanswered. The truth is that God always, always answers any prayer that is prayed according to His Word in faith. In 1 John 5:14-15 it says, "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." That is a lot of confidence. God always answers prayer, but it doesn't always look like it's answered. Matthew 7:7-8 says, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Those verses are saying that God does answer prayer. Yet every one of us can think of a time in our lives when we asked for something that we believed was a right thing, a good thing, not totally selfish or outside of God's will, yet we didn't see the answer. God's Word says to ask, and it will be given to us. But our experience says we asked, and it wasn't given to us. Which is true? The answer may surprise you, but the truth is that probably both are true. Most people think, Now, wait a minute, God's Word says He will answer, and I didn't see it happen. John 4:24 says, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." God operates in the spiritual realm to answer our prayers, but it takes faith on our part to manifest. Faith is what takes things from the spiritual world and moves them into the physical world. This is basically what Hebrews 11:1 says: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." It didn't say faith is the evidence of things that don't exist. They do exist, but they are not in the seen, physical world but in the unseen, spiritual realm. Faith reaches over into the spiritual realm and draws those things into the physical world. It's like a radio signal. Radio and television stations are broadcasting constantly. You can be in a room where you can't see or hear the signals, but that doesn't mean they aren't there. You have to turn a radio on and tune it to the frequency you want to hear. Then the radio pulls those signals out of a realm you can't perceive and rebroadcasts them in a realm where you can hear them with your human ear. God answers our prayers in a similar way: He gives things in the spiritual realm, and by faith, you have to reach out and bring them into the physical world. The physical and spiritual worlds move parallel to each other. God moves and answers your prayer, but you may never see it manifest in the physical unless you let faith bridge the gap between the unseen spiritual realm and the physical world we live in. For example, Daniel, a man of God, was praying and asking God to give him a revelation. For the sake of time, I'll summarize the story. The Lord sent the angel, Gabriel, to appear to Daniel and answer his prayer. Daniel 9:22-23 says, "And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth; and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision." Here is the point: Gabriel said that at the beginning of Daniel's prayer, the commandment from God came for him to bring the answer. If you read how long it took to bring the answer, it was about three minutes, a three-minute lag time between God's command and the physical manifestation. We make a lot of suppositions that if God is really God and something is His will, it just happens like the snap of a finger; but that's not true. In this instance, God gave the command, and it took approximately three minutes for Gabriel to cover that distance. I don't have all the reasons for this, and it's really not essential. The point I'm trying to make is that from the time God gave the command, there was a lag time of approximately three minutes before it was manifest. Now if that was the longest we had to believe for an answer to prayer, most of us could probably hold on, but it's not always that way. In Daniel 10 we find the same man praying another prayer, and this time it took three weeks for the answer to come. Many people who read this would say, "Why did God answer one of Daniel's prayers in three minutes and the next prayer in three weeks?" Daniel 10:11-12 says, "And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words." This shows that God commanded the messenger from the very first day of Daniel's prayer. It took three weeks for that answer to manifest, but God is faithful. Scripture that says He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). If you put chapters 9 and 10 together, I believe God answered both prayers instantly. One took three minutes and the other took three weeks, but God wasn't the variable. Here's the point: God answers our prayers. He does things, but there are a lot of variables that can happen between the time He answers prayers and you see the answers manifest. You have to believe; faith has to reach into the spiritual realm and bring the answer into the physical realm. So faith is one of the critical ingredients. Also, you can see in verse 13 of Daniel, chapter 10, "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia." This isn't talking about a physical person but a demonic hindrance. Satan is another variable in the process. Sometimes God answers our prayers, but Satan hinders them through other people. For instance, if you're believing for finances, God isn't going to give you money personally. He's not going to counterfeit United States currency or any other currency of this world. He's not going to make money, rain it down from heaven, and put it in your pocket. Luke 6:38 says, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom." God will move and answer your prayer, but it's going to come through people. Some people are bound by greed, and if they are angry with you or you're doing things to offend them, Satan can hinder the manifestation of your prayer through them. When you're praying, especially for finances, you need to recognize that other people may be a part of your financial miracle, and you may have to pray for them. God is faithful. He has never failed to answer any prayer that was based on His Word and prayed in faith. He always gives, but you may not see the manifestation, depending on other variables. I pray this will help you to build your faith and let you know that God always answers your prayers. =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 1. 33. THE DIVINE FLOW. You can begin to let God flow through you to minister to other people. You have the power and the anointing of God in you, but how do you get it out to other people? There are a number of scriptures we can start with. In. Philemon 6, Paul is praying "that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus." The very first step in having the power of God flow through you to other people is that you first acknowledge the good things that are inside you. You can't give away what you don't have, but once you know what you have on the inside, things will automatically begin to happen. You'll begin to share with others your excitement, give testimonies of what God has done in your life, and automatically some people will be helped. In 1 John 4:7-8 it says, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God... for God is love." Anytime you feel love flow out of you toward another person, that's God flowing out of you toward them. There are actually four major words for "love" in the Greek language; the highest form, agape love, is God's supernatural kind of love. You need to recognize the difference between attraction, or desire, toward somebody and this supernatural, high form of God's love. Whenever you discern God's love flowing out of you toward someone else, it's not self-serving. You can verify this by looking at 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, which gives the qualifications of God's kind of love. It is not envious, selfish, self-serving, easily provoked, etc. You need to analyze what you call love and make sure it's really God's love, that it's not selfish or self-serving, that you don't love a person because of what they can do for you. As you grow in this and literally begin to discern His kind of love, then when you feel it flow through you for somebody else, that's God moving. Once you discern the love of God flowing through you for someone, all you have to do is follow it with some word of encouragement or action, do something. There are times when I've been praying that a person would come to my mind, and I would have God's kind of love and compassion for them. There was no reason for this to happen; it was supernatural. I've learned to call the person, write them a letter, or contact them in some way. Nearly every single time that person will say, "Boy, that was God speaking through you to me, and He touched my life through it." Do you know how that happened? It happened because I sensed this love, this godly compassion flowing out of me toward that person. When I feel that now, I recognize it's not me, it's God. God is love, and when I love other people, it's Him loving other people through me. This is the way Jesus ministered. Matthew 14:14 says, "And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick." The way the power of God flowed through Jesus was through the compassion and love He felt toward the people He ministered to. In Matthew 8:2-3 a man with leprosy, who was unclean and could not be touched according to Jewish Law (no one could come in contact with him, or they would become contaminated and become unclean themselves) lifted up his voice and cried to Jesus from a distance, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed." He was moved with compassion toward the man with leprosy and touched him. As you study the Scriptures, you'll find this compassion, this godly love in many places. It's not just an emotion, but a compassion that flows out through us. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, He loved the people around Him so much that He said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). These were the very people who were crucifying Him, yet He had compassion on them and asked God to forgive them. We know He didn't have goose bumps, it wasn't just a feeling, or an emotion, it was a choice. Nonetheless, He felt it and released it toward other people. Every one of you who is born again has God living inside of you. According to the verse we started with, 1 John 4:8, God is love, and He wants to flow through you to reach other people. To do that, He will release this compassion. You'll feel it flow out of you toward other people, and when you do, you need to respond. You don't always have to do something special. It doesn't have to be "thus saith the Lord:' Sometimes, if you have a feeling of compassion toward a person, just go over and put your arm around them and say, "God loves you and so do V I know one time this worked when I was on the receiving end, in a situation where I was about to be run out of a church. People had lied about me, and one person even threatened to kill me. I was feeling so discouraged like, "God, what's the use? Nobody appreciates what I'm trying to do:' I was fighting the devil over this, and a friend called long distance. He talked for a few minutes, and I said, "Well, what did you call for?" He said, "I just wanted to call and let you know I love you. I was praying and felt the love of God toward you. I appreciate you:' That's all he said. He didn't know anything about the situation going on in my life, but God used that. I knew it was Him loving me through that person, and it kept me in the ministry and changed my life. It doesn't have to be profound or necessarily some great word. God is love, and whenever you discern that love flowing through you, it's the divine flow...the divine life of God. When you sense that, you need to follow it up. Go do something, say something, be a blessing to some person. God will put words in your mouth. He will use you, and He will set people free as you are moved with compassion and minister to those around you. =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 2. 34. USING THE GIFTS TO MINISTER. How can you take the love of God you have received and share it with other people, how you can be an effective minister to others? In 1 Peter 4:11, it says, "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God." The term "oracles of God" refers back to the Old Testament when they had the holy of holies and put God's Word in the Ark of the Covenant. That was called "the oracle so when it says "speak as the oracles of God," it means speak as the mouthpiece of God. Speak as if you are speaking from God. The verse continues, "If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and for ever." What this says is that you need to minister to other people, not out of your own ability, but out of the ability that God gives. One of the great things about the Christian life is that it isn't just me or you talking to someone and sharing things from our own ability, but God Himself comes and lives on the inside of us. He begins to speak through us and flow through us. We can literally be God-possessed and have the Spirit of God flowing through us. As we start sharing with other people, we need to remember that this is what is called the gifts of the Spirit and is what they're for. God takes every single person in the body of Christ and gives them specific gifts. In 1 Corinthians 12 it says every one of us has been given different gifts according to His will. In verses 4-6 it says, "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences [diversities] of administrations [ministrations], but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations [workings], but it is the same God which worketh all in all" (brackets mine). This means that God works these things in all of us, as verse 7 says, "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal," or to profit everyone. These verses say that God has put supernatural ability within every single one of us. You may not feel it, you may not be aware of it, but this is a promise of God's Word. If you've come this far in the Discipleship Evangelism series, if you've already made Jesus your Lord, if you've learned how to receive from God and begin to apply it in your life, then I can promise that the power of the Holy Spirit is at work inside you. You have other people's miracles on the inside of you. God has put the seed form of a miracle inside you for somebody else. It's up to you to be able to release it and get it out into their lives. Scripture says this has been given to every one of us by the Spirit. Not a single person has been left out. Nine different gifts of the Spirit are listed in 1 Corinthians 12, such as a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, discerning of spirits, working of miracles, gifts of healing, etc. There are other gifts listed in Romans 12. You need to study them on your own and be aware that every single one of you has had the Holy Spirit place within you special anointing, special ability, to be able to minister to other people. Not everyone will be able to minister the way I do, for instance. You may not have a teaching gift, but every person in the body of Christ can teach by sharing their faith with another person. There are people who are called specifically to teach, people who are called to preach and pastor churches. Another gift listed in Romans 12 says there are those whose gift is hospitality. Many of you may have an ability, or gift, without being aware of it. You just have a desire to be able to be a blessing to someone. You may be the kind of person who, when you walk into a room, picks out people who seem to be ill at ease. You empathize with them, you know what they're going through, and you have a desire to make them feel at ease and to minister to them. Did you know that's a supernatural gift of God? Romans 12 says some people have been called to the gift of giving, the ability to make money and give to support the Gospel. That is their gift, their call in life, and some of you may be called to that very thing. Some of you have the gift of exhortation. Others have the gift of administrations, typically called by the church a gift of helps. There are all kinds of things that can be done, not only in the church setting, but on a day-to-day basis dealing with people. There are some of you who have the ability to encourage those who are discouraged, something I would never be able to do just through teaching the Word. You just have a supernatural ability to go up, put your arm around somebody, bless them, and enable them. The point I'm making is that you don't need to see this as just being natural, as, "Well, that's just my personality type." You may have classified yourself as this type of person, but you know what, it was a supernatural ability God placed inside you that gave you the gifts, the talents, and the perspective that makes you gravitate toward doing certain things. When you are ministering to other people, Scripture says you need to be ministering the things God has placed on the inside of you. We all need to become ministers, whether as a full- time vocation, on our jobs, or wherever we are. If you do it with your neighbors or people at the store, you need to do it out of the ability God gives, not out of your own ability. So, I encourage you to seek God, discover the gifts He has placed inside you, and don't discount them if you aren't called to one of the ministry gifts that is a vocation. Recognize that every one of you has had the Holy Spirit place within you supernatural ability, and then minister to other people through the gifts that God has placed inside you. It will take time and practice. You won't be perfect the first time, so don't be afraid to practice. If you make a mistake, God won't fall off His throne, and other people will see the sincerity of your heart. Your love will minister to them even if you don't do something perfectly. Start ministering to others. Recognize that you are gifted of God, and start sharing the supernatural ability He has given you with other people. =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 3. 35. MIRACLES GLORIFY GOD. We've talked about walking in the power of God and ministering to other people through the gifts that He gives us. I'd like to share some things about how this really glorifies God and how He expects us to use His supernatural ability. There are so many scriptures on this that I can only touch on a few. In Matthew 9 there's an instance where Jesus healed a paralytic man, and I'll deal with that in more detail in Mark 2. Matthew 9:8 says, "But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men." Did you know that the gifts of the Spirit, miracles, glorify God, and that's the reason He gave that miraculous ability to us? When you start sharing with other people, there's a natural tendency for them to doubt and begin to question, "Well, how do I know what you're saying is true?" I once heard T. L. Osborne, a famous evangelist who led hundreds of thousands of people to the Lord, discuss his experience when he was first on the foreign missions field. He tried to witness to people, and they just didn't believe what he said. Finally, one day he was talking to a man, saying "But the Bible says:' and the man said, "What makes your black book any different than any other black book?" Then T. L. Osborne thought, How do these people know the Bible is true? I have faith that the Bible is the Word of God, but how do I convince them? He left the mission field defeated and discouraged, came home, and began to seek God. The Lord told him that he had to use His supernatural ability. Signs and wonders are for the purpose of validating the Word of God, which is what will change people's lives. In 1 Peter 1:23 it says, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." God's Word is what changes people's lives, but how do you get them to believe that it really is God speaking? Well, that's the purpose of miracles. When we preach and say that it's God's will for a person to be healed, we demonstrate it by speaking over them in the name of Jesus. Their blind eyes or deaf ears that are opened validate that it is God. Miracles aren't going to change people, but they will cause them to believe that the word you've spoken is the Word of God. A scriptural example of that is Mark 2:1-9, where there is further detail on the paralytic who was healed: "And again he [Jesus] entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them. And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether it is easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk" (brackets mine). The truth is that both of those things are technically impossible. It's impossible for a man to forgive sins, and it's also impossible for a man to heal another person of paralysis. So if God could do one, He could certainly do the other. Jesus said in verses 10-12, "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion." Jesus made it very clear when He said, "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy)." He produced the healing so people would know that if He could do things in the physical realm that they could see happen at His word, then spiritual things such as the forgiveness of sins could also take place. Jesus used miracles to validate His word. This exact same thing is said in Hebrews 2:2-3: "For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him." It says that God confirmed this word by the power of the Holy Spirit. Put this together with Mark 16:20, "The Lord working with them, and confirmed the word with signs following." The point I'm making is that God wants you to use His supernatural ability and power to minister to other people. He uses the miracles that take place through the gifts of the Holy Spirit to confirm to people that He is actually speaking to them. Ultimately, He wants people to be set free in their hearts, but sometimes the way to a person's heart is through their bodies and their emotions. If you can deal with those areas and see a person set free, then they will open up and allow the Lord to touch the rest of their lives and literally commit their entire being to Him. In 1 Corinthians 2:1 Paul was writing to the Corinthians, telling them how he first approached them: "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." He made it very clear that the reason he didn't come emphasizing and using words only but came in demonstration of the Spirit and power, was so their faith would stand in the power of God and not in the wisdom of man. Christianity has wonderful logic to it. Once you see the truth, you wonder how you ever missed it and why everybody doesn't embrace it. But Christianity isn't only logic... it is a real experience with a real God. He's alive today, and He wants to manifest Himself in power exactly the same way He did in His Word. Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." Jesus came and He was a man approved of God among us by signs and wonders and miracles. Acts 10:38 says, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." He had His word confirmed, and those miracles rang like a bell to draw people to His message. They glorified God. Many scriptures say that these miracles glorified God, and if Jesus had to use the power of the Holy Spirit to minister and to change people's lives, how do we think that we can do better than He did? If Jesus drew on miracles to draw people to Himself to receive His message, how can we possibly think that we can convince the world today without operating in the supernatural power of God? The truth is that miracles glorify God. They are a bell that draws people. It's like ringing the dinner bell, it's the food that will fill you, but it's the bell that gets your attention. Without the bell, some people are going to miss the meal. Without the miraculous power of God, many people are going to miss out on the fact that God is real and He can change their hearts and forgive their sins. I encourage you to realize that God wants to flow through each one of us and work these miracles through us in other people's lives. Some of you may say, "But that intimidates me. What happens if I pray for a person and they aren't healed? How do I know this is going to happen?" You need to recognize it's not you doing the miracles; God is doing them. You don't take responsibility if the miracle works and the person gets set free, and you don't take the blame if it doesn't work. You just do the praying; God's the one who does the healing, but He has to flow through you. God wants to use you in miraculous ways. You need to get into God's Word, see how it worked for other people, apply those things in your life, and let the miraculous, supernatural power of God start flowing through you today. =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 4. 36. THE POWER OF GODLY RELATIONSHIPS. Today we're talking about the power of godly relationships. When you think about it, the entire Bible talks about this subject. For instance, the word "church" is the Greek word ekklesia, and it means "a called out group:' As you look in the Word of God, you'll see that the church, or the people of God, are encouraged to meet together. They're encouraged to pray together and to encourage one another daily. They're encouraged by the power of godly relationships as they walk together. If you would also consider the word "elder," it is used many times in Scripture, and it is used to describe someone who is older, someone who is mature, someone who has walked the life of Christ, and who has been successful in his family and in his marriage. If I were having a problem with my marriage, I would want to go to a man who was godly, who has obtained godly We also have to realize that the Scripture describes the body of Christ as a physical body. It has hands, eyes, ears, and other different parts. We are all part of one another. And as part of one another, we draw strength from one another. Each ligament, each part of the body has its own gifting, its own talents, its own way of giving strength and knowledge wisdom over the years. The Bible says in James 5:16, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." This is one example in Scripture of the power of godly relationships. You know, there's something in the body of Christ that is missing. I think that because we've emphasized the priesthood of the believer, going directly to God and not to one another, we've lost some things. The Bible talks about confessing our faults one to another. I have a friend whose name is Dr. Loren Lewis. He's an older gentleman, and we've spent a lot of time together. He's a Greek scholar and reads directly from the Greek. When there's something from the Scriptures that I can't figure out, I'll go to him and ask him what the Greek has to say about it. I'll also ask him about the tenses of the Greek, and he helps me in my biblical studies a lot. I've spent hours and hours with this man. He's a man of wisdom. He's a godly man. He has a successful marriage. He has a successful family. And there's times when all of us need to confess our faults. Now, I know the Bible says that we're to confess our sins to God, and I'm not saying you should confess your sins to someone as if they could forgive them, because we need to go directly to God. But we need to have accountability in our lives. The power of having godly relationships is the power that we need for accountability and for someone to encourage us to seek the Lord. In Hebrews, the Bible tells us to exhort one another daily, to not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, to encourage one another, and to warn one another lest any of us be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. All of this is speaking about the importance of godly relationships. On the negative side, the Bible warns us many times about ungodly relationships and how that ungodly relationships can affect our minds and our thinking. Before we know it, we can be led into things that we shouldn't be in, it's because we have not protected ourselves and surrounded ourselves with godly counsel (Proverbs 11:14, 13:20, and 1 Corinthians 15:33). The Bible says, "For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness" (2 Corinthians 6:14). As you walk this Christian life, be encouraged to surround yourself with godly relationships and flee those who would influence you in a negative way. It is very important that we have godly believers in our lives with whom we can sharpen ourselves (Proverbs 27:17) and be accountable to. God bless you as you continue to meditate and think on these things. =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 5. 37. PERSECUTION. In Matthew 10:16-23, Jesus wanted to prepare His disciples for opposition; He wanted them to know opposition was going to come. All those who live godly, Christ-centered lives will suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12). It's not something you can rebuke. The enemy may be behind it, but persecution is part of standing for righteousness. The Bible says those who live godly in Christ will suffer persecution. Jesus is preparing His disciples by saying, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves" (Matthew 10:16). The word "behold" is saying, "Listen to Me, guys. I want you to get this. I'm going to send you as sheep in the midst of wolves:' Sheep are the most defenseless, dependent animals I know of. A sheep doesn't have fangs, doesn't have venom like a snake, it has no defense whatsoever. The only defense it really has is the shepherd. A shepherd's responsibility is to keep wolves out of the flock of sheep, but Jesus is saying the very opposite: "I'm sending you out as sheep into a pack of wolves:' Isn't that amazing? The reason He is saying it is that He's preparing them for opposition. Ephesians 6:12 says, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." There will be opposition. Part of the Christian life is opposition, and Jesus wants you to know that. He wants to prepare you for that by saying, "Be ye therefore wise as serpents" (Matthew 10:16). That word "wise" means in every situation, you will not needlessly incite problems but will have wisdom that you carry with you. Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. He then says, "But beware of men" (Matthew 10:17). The enemy is going to use men. Ephesians 2:2 says that there is "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." Satan is going to use men to oppose us, to oppose the purposes of Jesus Christ, and to oppose the Word of God. "Beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues" (Matthew 10:17). Paul said, "Five times I was scourged, five times I was beaten with thirty-nine lashes, because of Jesus Christ, and the message of Jesus Christ, and the message of the gospel" (2 Corinthians 11:23-24). Jesus said you will be brought before governors, even the government will sometimes be used to oppose the purposes of Jesus Christ. You'll be brought before governors and kings for Jesus' sake, for a testimony to them or against them. I was teaching a course on evangelism, and I was showing the students how they could use an evangelism letter and personal testimony to reach out to the lost. I did one myself and sent it out to fifty to a hundred people. Just a couple of days after that, I got a phone call from a woman in town named Mary Anne. She said, "You're not going to get away with it; you can't tell me about Jesus Christ; you can't get away with this. Where did you get my name, anyway?" I said, "Well, I got it right out of the phone book:' She said, "You're a liar! My name and address are not in the phone book!" I said, "Well, that's where I got it:' She said, "Tomorrow the police will contact you:' I thought to myself, Is the Bible really true? And the police did contact me the next day and they spent about two hours trying to interrogate me. Do you see what I'm saying? When there are criminals out on the street, the police wasted two hours of their time. Why? For the sake of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the Gospel. Is the Word of God really true? If you stand on the Word of God, if you're bold to witness, if you're bold to proclaim Jesus, if you're bold to live a righteous life before men, there will be opposition. There are forces of evil; there are forces of good. Jesus wanted His disciples to be prepared. Jesus said in Matthew 10:19, "But when they deliver you up, take no thought [be not anxious] how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak" (brackets mine). With God's Spirit, you'll have wisdom like Stephen of old. The people couldn't handle the wisdom by which he spoke. Jesus says in verses 22-23, "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another." Opposition against righteousness, against the purposes of Jesus Christ, is a reality if you're a doer of the Word and not just a hearer. I was in a park a while back, and I saw an elderly lady sitting in the swing. I thought to myself, She's harmless; she can't hurt me! I asked her if I could sit down in the swing with her, and I sat down and began a conversation with her. I found out her name was Jane, and I said, "By the way, Jane, what do you do?" She said, "Oh, I'm an old lady; I don't work anymore. I'm retired:' Then she said, "And, by the way, what do you do?" I said, "I work for a parachurch ministry, a parachurch organization:' Suddenly her countenance changed. She said, "Don't you tell me about God! Don't you tell me about Jesus!" I said "Oh, Jane, you shouldn't talk that way:' and she said, "If Jesus Christ was in front of me, I would spit in His face!" I said, "Jane! You shouldn't say things like that! You must have had a lot of people hurt you in churches for you to talk like that. Jane, you shouldn't talk like that! Let me tell you about my family:' She said, "No! I said you can't talk to me. You're going to tell me about Jesus Christ and what God did in your family, and I'm not going to let you. You cannot speak:' I said, "Jane, please. I've got to tell you about Jesus." She said, "No! I'm telling you to SHUT UP!" She had a little dog on a leash, and she just pulled that little dog until he was sitting there going "Arrgh," and away she went. Here was a woman out of control because a spirit rose up in her, the spirit of disobedience. She was controlled by the Enemy. I thought to myself, I'm not used to having people yell at me. I'm not used to people getting in my face. But I had nothing but compassion, nothing but love for Jane. She was out of control, and I was totally in control. I went home and said, "Lord, You know what? The greatest miracle is that I was in control. When someone was in my face, I had nothing but love and compassion:' Persecution and opposition will come when we go out in the name of Jesus. The same Spirit of God that gives boldness to proclaim Jesus even when we're rejected for His sake, that same Spirit will give us comfort and strength in any situation. =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 6. 38. THE KING AND HIS KINGDOM. In the Old Testament, what made Israel distinct from all other nations was that it was a theocracy. In other words, it was ruled directly by God (Isaiah 43:15). Later in Israel's history, they wanted to be like the other nations of the world, to be ruled by an earthly king (1 Samuel. 8:5-19). So God granted their request and chose for them a king named Saul (1 Samuel 10:24-25). Later, because of Saul's disobedience, God raised up David to be king, a man after His own heart (Acts 13:21-22 and 1 Kin. 15:3). The king was to be the visible representative of the invisible God (Deut. 17:14-20). When the king followed the Lord, he and his kingdom would prosper. When the king failed to follow the Lord, he and his kingdom would go into captivity and ruin (1 Samuel 15:22-23). When God chose a king, He would send a prophet to anoint that one with oil. This typified the Holy Spirit coming upon this one to empower and anoint him to rule. At this time, the Spirit of God would come upon him and change his heart to rule in righteousness, for God was with him (1 Samuel 10:1, 6-7, and 9). This anointing to rule (or to be king) is where the idea of the Messiah comes from The word "anointed" in Hebrew is mashiac (Messiah) and translated christos (Christ) in Greek. The Old Testament prophets prophesied that in the future, the Messiah (or Anointed One) would come, and the God of heaven would set up a kingdom which would never be destroyed (Danial 2:44, 7:14, and 27). In the Scriptures, if you notice, Jesus never explained to the Jews what He meant when speaking about the kingdom. It was an Old Testament concept that they were already looking for (Isaiah 9:6-7, 11:1-6; Danial 2:44, 7:13-14, 18, and 27). It is impossible to understand the message of Jesus without a basic understanding of the kingdom. The kingdom was the message that Jesus spoke and the only one He instructed His disciples to preach (Mark 1:14-15, Luke 9:1-2, Acts 28:23-31, Luke 16:16, and Matthew 24:14). This message was also referred to as "salvation" or the offer of "eternal life" (Hebrews 2:3; Matthew 19:16 compare with 19:23; Acts 28:23-24, 28, and 30-31). Within the phrase "the kingdom of God" is the idea of a group of people that would be ruled by God. In order to enter God's kingdom, conditions had to be met. A change of heart was required. This change of heart is what the Bible calls repentance. It was a change of heart toward God; that is, it was a turning away from Satan, sin and its ways, unto God, Christ and His ways. As one turns, God offers (as a gift through Jesus' shed blood) the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life (Romans 6:23). This "good news" is referred to as the "Gospel of grace" or the preaching of the "kingdom of God" (Acts 20:24-25). The kingdom of God is characterized by grace (Matthew 20:1-16) and has come quietly and secretly in the ministry of Jesus (Matthew 13:33). It will one day in the future come to a glorious and visible consummation (Matthew 13:36-43). =========================== LEVEL 3 LESSON 7 39. THE OBJECT OF SAVING FAITH Suppose that on a man's wedding day as he stood before the pastor, the pastor suddenly began to say these words: "Do you take this woman to be your personal cook, to clean your house, and do your dishes? Do you take her from this day forth to vacuum the floors and to dust the furniture as long as you both shall live?" Suddenly his wife-to-be says, "Stop! If you want me as a person that only does things for you, you can hire a maid. I want you to love me and take me for who I am. If you take me for who I am, I will do all those things for you, but I want you to take me! All of me! I don't want you to just take my benefits and not my person:' A.W. Tozer said this, "Now, it seems odd that some teachers never notice that the only true object of saving faith is none other than Christ Himself; not the saviourhood' of Christ nor the 'lordship' of Christ, but Christ Himself. God does not offer salvation to the one who will believe on one of the offices of Christ, nor is an office of Christ ever presented as an object of faith. Neither are we exhorted to believe on the atonement, nor on the cross, nor on the priesthood of the Saviour. All of these are embodied in the person of Christ, but they are never separated nor is one ever isolated from the rest. Much less are we permitted to accept one of Christ's offices and reject another. The notion that we are so permitted is a modern-day heresy, I repeat, and like every heresy it has had evil consequences among Christians" (The Root of the Righteous, pages. 84-86). Do you get the point? Why do we emphasize a part of Christ (His benefits), an office of Christ, and not Christ? That's like taking a wife in marriage as your personal cook and not for her person. =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 8. 40. THE PROPER USE OF GOD'S LAW. One day Joe and I were talking to Bill and Steve at the lake. The question was brought up, "How could people possibly be held accountable before God who have never heard of God or Jesus Christ?" I said, "Bill, suppose you went to visit Steve at his home, but he was gone and his wife was there. If you entered into an adulterous affair with her, would you feel guilty for violating your friend's wife? Even though you had never heard of the Ten Commandments or read the Bible? Where did that sense of guilt and feeling of accountability come from?" God has given every person, through the Law and conscience, the ability to sense right and feel guilt for wrong. The Law and the conscience are the self-judging functions that either accuse or excuse us in regard to our conduct (Romans 2:14-15). Bill had been telling me what a good person he was. He didn't really see any need for a Savior. I turned to Exodus 20 and began to read to Bill the Ten Commandments. "Bill, has God always been first in your life, and have you always loved Him more than anything in the world? If not, you have broken the first commandment" (Exodus 20:3). "Have you ever exalted anything before God? If so, you have broken the second commandment" (Exodus 20:4). "Have you ever used the name of Jesus Christ as a four-letter word? You are guilty of breaking the third commandment" (Exodus 20:7). "Have you always set aside a day to honor and worship God? You have broken the fourth commandment" (Exodus 20:8). "Did you always honor your father and mother in your youth? You have broken the fifth commandment" (Exodus 20:12). "Have you ever become extremely angry with a person? You have broken the sixth commandment" (compare Exodus 20:13 with Matthew 5:21-22). "Have you ever looked upon a woman and lusted after her? You have broken the seventh commandment" (compare Exodus 20:14 with Matthew 5:27-28). "Have you ever taken something that did not belong to you? You have broken the eighth commandment" (Exodus 20:15). "Have you always told the truth? If not, you have broken the ninth commandment" (Exodus 20:16). "Have you ever had a desire to have what belongs to someone else? You have broken the tenth commandment" (Exodus 20:17). "Do you see why Jesus said He came to save sinners?" (Mark 2:16-17). The problem with thinking we are good enough, or trying to be good enough to go to heaven, is the fact that we have all broken the Ten Commandments. James 2:10 tells us that whoever keeps the whole Law yet fails to keep just one point is GUILTY of breaking the Law. The Law was never meant to make you righteous but only to reveal your sin (Romans 3:19-20). We all need a Savior! The word "Savior" has the idea of one that can rescue you from the penalty of sin. Jesus rescues the perishing so that they might have eternal life (Matthew 1:21). To be good enough to go to heaven, we must have a righteousness that equals God's (2 Corinthians 5:21). The good news of the Gospel is that not only will Jesus forgive your sins, but He is offering, freely, His very own righteousness to us as a gift (Romans 5:17: "For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ"). =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 9. 41. NOT UNDER LAW, BUT UNDER GRACE. I dreamed about a woman who kept being punished for all the things she did wrong (her. sins). A man followed her around, and whenever she would make a mistake, he would shake his head in disgust, take off his belt, and beat her. If she said a wrong word or did something wrong, he'd punish her. She was limping around trying to smile and have a good attitude, but she kept on doing things that would get her in trouble. They were not big things, but every little thing that this man saw her doing wrong would get her a beating. It seemed hopeless. She couldn't keep from doing things that got her in trouble. I remember feeling sorry for her. I wanted to help her get away from the mean man who always beat her. And then I woke up. I started thinking about God's grace, the unearned, undeserved favor and ability of God. When the heart is established in grace, we no longer try to earn God's acceptance through our performance or by trying to keep His Law in our own strength and ability. We are finally able to get away from the beatings we earned from breaking the Law of God. We are rescued by Jesus. Think about favor. It means getting someone's approval, support, or blessing. When you want someone's favor, what do you do? You try to do and say everything that would please them, and nothing that would displease them. It's acting right all the time. Is that really possible to accomplish? It's like defying gravity. You can do it for a little while, but in the end, you will fail. It's stronger than you are. I related to the woman in my dream. I've felt like that when I've tried hard to do everything right but missed one little detail and failed. I thought that if only I could make it through the day without messing up, I would've accomplished something. But no, my shortcomings always caused me to be imperfect. I thought that not only had I disappointed my heavenly Father, but I would condemn myself and beat myself up. I was self-defeated. I was focused on my abilities and inabilities. Never measuring up, never good enough to make the grade, I needed someone to rescue me! God in His mercy sent us help; His name is Jesus. God sent Him to deliver us from ourselves and our powerless attempts to fulfill His Law. Jesus took the punishment for the Law we could not keep, so we wouldn't have to die, but could go free and have eternal life with Him. Jesus gave us the gift of righteousness so we could be righteous and holy before God the Father and meet all the requirements of the Law. We have peace with God through what He did for us in His death, burial, and resurrection. We have favor with God, unearned and undeserved. That's grace. Believing this, your heart must be settled without a doubt, knowing that He did this because He loves you. Make your heart sound, secure, stable, and firm in His grace; that is, be established without question or doubt that He has given us everything we need to live an abundant life in and through Jesus. If we continue to look at and focus on our shortcomings, mistakes, and sins, instead of Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, our hearts will be sad and powerless to believe we can receive anything from God. It is with the heart that we believe and receive His righteousness and grace. Our hearts must be wholly His. That is when we will be fulfilled and at rest. `Above all else, guard your heart. For it affects everything you do" (Proverbs 4:23, The Living Bible). =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 10. 42. NO MORE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN. One day a drunken man got into his automobile, started driving in the wrong direction, and had a head-on collision with a party in another car. In this accident, a young eighteen-yearold girl was killed. The family of this girl sued the man and won $1.5 million in the lawsuit. Instead of taking the money the family settled for $936. The reason was that they wanted the man to pay this sum in a specific manner. They wanted the man who had been drunk to remember what he had done. He was to write out a check, in the name of the girl he had killed, for one dollar each week and send it to the family. You would think that a settlement of $936 would be a good deal in the light of $1.5 million. At first paying the one dollar a week was easy, but after a while, writing a check in the name of the girl he had killed began to dominate his thinking. Every week he went into depression, thinking about the girl he had killed. After years of this, he finally quit making the payments. The family took him back to court and ordered him to resume making payments. In the last six or seven years, he quit making payments four or five times. However, each time he was taken back to court and again made to resume making payments. The family said they were not angry anymore, but they just wanted to remind him of what he had done. If you think about it, that family was in bondage as well as the man making the payments. Every week they got a check that reminded them of their loss, so in a sense, they couldn't put their daughter's death behind them either. That man is now suing the family for what he calls "cruel and unusual punishment" He says, "This is killing me! It's destroying my life! I can never put the past behind me and go on with my life?' In light of this story, I have met a lot of Christians who feel they are under the same kind of judgment. They were told "Jesus paid it all:' but still feel as if they have to make a weekly payment of religious duties, or God will not accept them. =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 11. 43. I AM LOVED, I AM PRETTY. One day, Michael came into my office to tell me some very confidential information about one of his fellow students. As I was lecturing in one of my sessions at Charis Bible College, it appeared that Patricia was writing herself some notes on her legal pad. Her notes contained these statements: "I am loved, I am pretty:' etc. Patricia was also the kind of person that always dressed in a way that brought attention to herself. The real reason that Patricia expressed these words was the fact that she didn't feel loved or pretty, but felt rejected and unloved. As humans, we all have the same basic needs, the desire to be loved, accepted, and valued, as well as having a sense of self-worth and knowing that we are right with God. A lot of religion today makes us feel unloved, not valued, and not accepted. One of the greatest strongholds that Satan uses against believers is the feeling of guilt and condemnation, while all along making us feel quite spiritual about it. Here's a question: How many of you when you first came to Jesus were told that not only did He love you, but by accepting Him, He would become your perfect righteousness? In fact, the righteousness He would supply would be all the righteousness you would ever need (1 Corinthians 1:30 says, "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption"). This is the good news of the Gospel: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:16-17). "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:5). God did not call us to have faith in faith or faith for stuff, but a confident, reliant, dependent trust in Him. God can't love you anymore than He already does. He is love (1 John 4:8). But you can receive it more, feel it more, and experience it more. The more you believe it, the more you will find yourself loving God. The Scripture says, "We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Think about this, believe it, and receive it! =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 12. 44. THE FRUIT OF SALVATION - Part 1. Can a one-time act of faith "save if it does not continue? Can it cease and still receive the promise? Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). If Abraham's faith ceased (stopped), would imputed righteousness cease? From Scripture, we know that "faith" begins as a complete one-time action (aorist tense) but continues in the Christian life as is brought out by the Greek present tense. Commands that are given in the present tense are expected to have continuous, or repeated, application. When using the present tense, if we would supply the following words or phrases to the Bible reader, we would significantly enhance his or her understanding of Bible passages. These words are: repeatedly; that is, over and over again, constantly, continuously, customarily, as a habit or lifestyle, or uninterruptedly. Consider the following passages and how the Greek present tense affects them: John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth [present tense: believes and continues to believe] in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (Brackets mine) Hebrews 10:14 - For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified [present tense: those that are set apart and continue to be set apart, that one offering has perfected forever. The New King James Version says "being sanctified." The New International Version says "being made holy"]. (Brackets and emphasis mine) 1 John 3:9 - Whosoever is born of God cloth not [present tense: i.e., he does not continue to sin as his lifestyle, showing an unrepentant heart] commit sin; for his seed remaineth [present tense: God's seed remains and continues to remain] in him: and he cannot [present tense: as his lifestyle or uninterruptedly] sin, because he is born of God. (Brackets mine) Mark 1:15 - And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye [present tense: i.e., repent and continue to repent as often as the situation or need arises], and believe [present tense: i.e., believe and continue to believe] the gospel. (Brackets mine) John 5:24 - Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth [present tense: and continues to believe] on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (Brackets mine) Luke 15:7 - I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth [present tense: and continues in repentance], more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. (Brackets mine) Acts 17:30 - And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth [present tense: and continues to command] all men every where to repent [present tense: and to continue in repentance]. (Brackets mine) John 6:47 - Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth [present tense: and continues to believe] on me hath everlasting life. (Brackets mine) Romans 4:5 - But to him that worketh not, but believeth [present tense: and continues to believe] on him that justified' the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Brackets mine) Acts 26:20 - But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent [present tense: and continues in repentance] and turn [present tense: and continues to turn] to God, and do [present tense: and continues to do works, or deeds, that prove your repentance] works meet for repentance. (Brackets mine) Conclusion: The present tense is used hundreds of times in Scripture. It is not my intention to show all the scriptures that relate to this subject. The truth about saving faith is that it is continuous and is taught by both Arminianism and Calvinism theology, although they come from different perspectives. Calvinism, which professes eternal security, teaches that genuine believers may stumble or fall, but they will nevertheless persevere in the Christian faith (1 Corinthians. 1:8). Those who believe in eternal security believe also that true Christians have experienced a death to sin and will not continue in it (Romans 6:1-3). Those who would later turn completely away from Christ show that they were never truly born again (1 John 2:19). Arminian theology teaches that genuine believers can fall away from the Christian faith. They generally believe and teach that those who do fall away lose, or forfeit, their salvation. Their system makes no room for so-called Christians (those by name only) to live in continuous rebellion or deliberate sin with no fruit that proves their repentance. The Apostle John said, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves" (1 John 1:8), but he also said, "Whosoever is born of God doeth not commit sin" (1 John 3:9). Here we have a paradox, but not an inconsistency in Scripture. All Christians sin (1 John 1:8), but all Christians also obey (1 John 2:3). Sin and carnality are still present with Christians, but sin cannot be their master or distinguishing trait (1 John 3:9). True repentance and faith requires a change of mind, a change of heart, a change of direction, even though it is not perfection (Acts 26:18 and 1 John 1:8). "Fruit" is still a test of faith's reality and genuineness. Faith is a firm supernatural conviction that governs the true believer's behavior and results in accompanying actions. This is shown from the examples of faith in Hebrews, chapter 11, that results in corresponding actions. In other words, what we do is the outcome of what we believe. The book of James 2:18 says, "Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works." When the apostles speak in a negative way about works, they are referring to "works of the Law"; that is, anything one is doing to earn, or work for, their salvation. The Scriptures also speak of the fruit of salvation, which is good works, or works of faith. Those are the works, or actions, that proceed from repentance and faith (Acts 26:20, Matt 3:7-10, 1 Thess. 1:3, and James 2:14-26), they show the evidence of salvation. The unity that is expressed between both repentance and faith is that they both have the same fruit or evidence: good works. We are not saved b_y good works, but we are saved unto good works (Ephesians 2:8-10 for the contrast-of being saved 4 and unto). Works are a test of faith's reality, and grace that does not eventually affect one's life and actions cannot be considered being the true grace of God (Titus 2:11-12). Jesus teaches that by fruit, true believers will be known (Matthew 3:8, 7:16-20, 25:34-40; John 13:35, 14:23; Acts 26:20; Romans 2:6-11; James 2:14-18; and 1 John 3:10). =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 13. 45. THE FRUIT OF SALVATION - Part 2. Notice this scripture: "This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother" (1 John 3:10, New International Version). It did not say, "This is how we save ourselves." It says, "This is how we know who the children of God are." (1 John 3:10, emphasis mine). Jesus said it like this, "By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20, emphasis mine). In Scripture, God speaks of salvation in two ways: (1) that salvation is by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) and (2) in terms of the good works that every saved person will perform (Ephesians 2:10). Why are we afraid to speak of the fruit of the believer? The Bible does not shy away from such a subject. Here is how we can know we are in God's kingdom and under God's rule: 1 John 2:3-5 - We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him;' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him. (Emphasis mine) If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of Him (1 John 2:29). (Doesn't this make sense? The nature of God and Christ is righteousness, and everyone who practices righteousness is giving evidence of sharing His nature or, as John says, has been born of Him). 1 John 3:5-10 - But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No-one who lives in him keeps on sinning. [In Greek, this is in the present tense; this conveys continuous, or habitual, action. The Bible reader can significantly enhance their understanding of the passage by supplying the words: continuously, repeatedly, over and over again, uninterruptedly, constantly, keep on, customarily, habitually, as a lifestyle.] No-one who continues to sin [present tense] has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does [present tense: repeatedly, over and over again does] what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful [present tense: habitual as a lifestyle because its their nature] is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No-one who is born of God will continue to sin [present tense: that is, as their lifestyle, showing an unrepentant heart], because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning [present tense: uninterruptedly], because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does [present tense] not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love [present tense] his brother (brackets and emphasis mine). (John says, "This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are." Those who do not practice righteousness and love show that they do not have the nature of the Father. Is evidence of the new birth not important?) 1 John 3:14 - We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. (Emphasis mine) 1 John 4:6 - We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us [the apostles]; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us [the apostles]. This is how we recognize the Spirit [or spirit] of truth and the spirit of falsehood. (Brackets and emphasis mine) 1 John 4:8 - He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (Love is the mark of a believer, for the nature of God is love.) 1 John 5:2 , This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God [present tense: and continually loving Him] and carrying out [present tense: and continuing to keep] his commands. (Brackets mine) 1 John 5:18-19 , We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin [present tense: as a lifestyle, showing an unrepentant heart]; the one who was born of God keeps him safe [King James Version , keepeth himself; present tense: and continues to keep himself], and the evil one cannot harm him. [19] We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. (Brackets and emphasis mine) WHY DID THE APOSTLE JOHN SHARE ALL THESE THINGS WITH US? I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13). Conclusion: Righteousness, holiness, love, the fruit of God's Spirit are evidences of the new birth. You yourself have no confidence that you belong to Him (God) while practicing an ungodly lifestyle. The conscience condemns, and there is no confidence toward God. The Apostle Peter admonishes you to make your calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1:10); i.e., assure your heart that you really do belong to Him by a lifestyle that corresponds to the glorious Gospel. I did not say, "This is how we are saved"; I said, "This is how we know we belong to Him:' =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 14. 46. A CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP. Today we're going to talk about being a disciple and how to make disciples of other people. I want to remind you that the Lord gave us a command not to go make converts, not to just get people to confess Jesus as their Lord and receive forgiveness of sins, but to make disciples. Although those first two are vital, and I'm not minimizing that at all, the real purpose has to be to go beyond being born again and to go on to maturity. The goal of a Christian, who is a disciple, should be to go and make disciples of other people. Jesus told us to go and make disciples, to bring people to maturity, and to be able to reproduce. Our church world today hasn't done this. We've put the responsibility of getting people born again on what we call the clergy, or ministers. We have evangelists who travel around, hold large crusades, and see thousands of people make decisions for the Lord. Though some of them are not really born again but are just experiencing emotions, I'm sure there are people who are truly born again and have a relationship with the Lord. Most of the time, however, there's not an emphasis on going on and becoming a disciple, and that's not the way God intended it to be. I compare this to a person who loves babies. It would be totally irresponsible to have a baby, be excited about him or her, but only like seeing him or her born. When you have a child, you have to assume responsibility to train and raise that child. We tell people, "The main thing is to get born again, to confess Jesus as your Lord:' When that happens, we pat them on the back and say, "Now you're a Christian. Believe God, study the Bible, and everything will be okay" That is not the Lord's emphasis. Because of this, we've produced people, many of whom have made heartfelt commitments to the Lord, but have no maturity. They are unable to reproduce their faith because there is no material to help them. Instead of being positive witnesses for Jesus, they actually become negative witnesses. He intends for us to go out and reach people in a way that they become full- fledged disciples and are able to reproduce their faith in others. If you led one person to the Lord every six months, separated yourself and discipled them to the point that they became a mature Christian who could reproduce their faith, at the end of six months there'd only be two Christians. Then, if each one of you led one person to the Lord, separated yourselves and discipled them for six months, at the end of a year there'd be four Christians. This doesn't look comparable to a person who could lead a thousand people to the Lord in a crusade and get them to confess Jesus. Most people would say, "Well, this discipleship method only produces four converts in the first year, whereas the other method would produce a thousand converts. We have to go with the other one." The man who could lead a thousand people to the Lord would have led 35,000 people to the Lord. That's good, and nobody would criticize it; but it's just a drop in the bucket compared to the world population. Basically, that's the way the church has been functioning. If we emphasize discipleship, the person who leads one person to the Lord every six months and those two do the same, in just a little over twelve and a half years they would evangelize more than the population of the world. Some people think That can't be, but I challenge you to figure it out. I've multiplied it out, and in a little over twelve-and-a-half years, one person discipling another person every six months, making them a reproducing member of the body of Christ, could evangelize five and a half billion people versus twelve-and-a-half thousand people with the other method. If we could get you to where you not only experienced victory and maturity yourself but had a desire to go out and reproduce it in other people, if you became the trainer instead of the trainee, here are some of the things that could happen if only one person got a hold of this concept, followed the Lord to a place of maturity, and started discipling another person. If you only did this with one person per year, at the end of one year, there would be you and the person you discipled, two. At the end of two years, there'd be four. But, if you could continue to follow that, at the end of ten years there'd be 1,024 people who had been discipled and were reproducing members of the body of Christ. If you continued, with only one person originally receiving this, at the end of twenty years there'd be over a million people. That's awesome. This is the method of multiplication that the Lord established, going and making disciples, not going and making converts. It's by far the best way to expand the kingdom to reach people, but our mindset is looking for the quick fix. How many people go to large crusades, make commitments, go proclaim to be Christians, still have anger, bitterness, and jealousy, and become negative witnesses? If we want to count statistics, how many people have been turned away from the true Gospel because they saw someone who proclaimed Christianity and thought, I'm as good as the hypocrites down there at church. I don't need it. The whole point is that discipleship is the method God set down for evangelizing the world. The truth doesn't make you free until you continue in the Word (John 8:31-32). That's what God wants for each individual so they can experience His fullness, but it's also the method of evangelism that He set down. Whoever decided that was not the way to do it has substituted another method that hasn't worked. I pray that God speaks this to your heart to show you the value of discipleship. I encourage you to go on and become a disciple and a disciple of other people. =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 15. 47. HOW TO USE YOUR TESTIMONY. Today I want to talk to you about using your personal testimony. Acts 5:42 says, "And every day in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ" (New American Standard Version). Notice that the disciples of the early church met in the temple every day, and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Many people feel a house-to-house or door-to-door type of approach is unnatural or uncomfortable. I want to share a few things we've learned in actually going out, having doors opened for discipleship, and seeing people converted and turning to Jesus Christ. It's not nearly as hard as you've been told, and one of the things I noticed in the Scriptures is that the Apostle Paul used his personal testimony three times when talking to an unconverted person. In Acts 9, 22, and 26, he gave his testimony, his experience, and what happened to him as he talked to unbelievers. One of the best approaches we have found in bringing the message of Jesus Christ to other people is what we call "prayer-walking." We go to a door, knock, and tell them, "We're just in the area praying for people. We believe God hears and answers prayer, and we wondered if you're having any problems in your family, health or other problems, and would like for us to pray for you." Sometimes they say "Well, yes, I have a problem" and want us to pray; other times they feel a little uncomfortable or embarrassed and say, "No, we don't have any prayer requests at this time." Then we just begin to tell them our personal testimony. I say, "I notice you have children. I have three of my own. On December 14, 1981, my girls who were twins were born. The second twin born was stillborn." They reply, "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about that." Then I say, "Don't be sorry. Let me tell you what happened:' I begin to tell the story. The second twin to be born had a breech birth; that is, she was born feet first. Oxygen was cut off from her sometime during the birth process. She was stillborn; that is, she was born dead. The midwife picked her up, slapped her (hitting her as hard as she could), suctioned her lungs in case fluid had filled them, did everything she could, and finally gave up. I was like any other father. I just lost my daughter, what am I going to do? At this point, I say to the people at the door, "I would like to ask you, have you ever read much of the Bible?" They say "Well, I've read a little bit" or sometimes "No, not really." I explain, "The reason I'm asking is because the Bible says in Acts 10:38 that Jesus went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him. I'm just going to tell you what happened. You can take it or leave it for whatever it means to you, but my baby was dead, and I was thinking that in a few days, we would bury her. I thought to myself, I just want to hold her. As I went to pick her up, there was an evil presence over her, which the Bible calls a demonic spirit. It physically attacked me and paralyzed me momentarily. Immediately when that happened, I said, 'In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you, unclean spirit, to get off this baby, and I command life into this child in Jesus' name: That little baby, who had never breathed, gasped, took one breath, and then ceased to breathe. I said again, 'In the name of Jesus Christ, you unclean spirit, I command you off of this child right now, and life to come into her!' This time she gasped several times, breathed, and continued to breathe:' I call the person I am talking to by name and say, "You know, after a period of about three minutes, a person without oxygen to the brain has brain damage. My daughter is perfectly normal in every way. We named her Vita, which in Latin means 'life: because we wanted to tell the story of what God did for her. He brought life back into her. From that time on, I've studied the Bible a lot, and this is what I've discovered: Just like the unclean spirit over my child, there is a kingdom of darkness, a dominion of Satan and his rule, and there is a kingdom of God's dear Son. "When Jesus came to the earth, He began to call people out of the kingdom of darkness into His own kingdom through repentance and faith in Him, receiving the forgiveness of sins and turning to follow Him. I don't know what you believe, but I'm just telling you what happened in my family and in my life. I want to tell you the real reason we're at your door. Jesus told us to go make disciples. I realize a lot of people are busy and can't go to church or don't want to. If you have a question there, you can't raise your hand and say, 'Pastor (or priest), what does what you just said mean?' So, this is why we're coming to your door. In ten minutes, we have a concentrated teaching from God's Word. Then we go to the Scriptures and ask some questions to make sure we all understand. It's really a dialog that goes back and forth. We're not preaching at people or telling them what the Bible says, but trying to help them discover what it says by asking a few questions. "Would that interest you? We'll set up a time at your convenience, come here to your home, and just talk to you and give you the lesson. If you don't get something out of the very first lesson, if it doesn't help, encourage, and build you up, you'll never see our faces again. We're not here to bother you, to get you to join a church or organization, or anything like that. We're only here to tell you what Jesus Christ did for you personally and help you come to understand the Word of God for yourself. There are a lot of things in the Bible we don't know or understand completely, but we're here to offer you a short study. Would you be interested in that?" A lot of people have said "Yes, I would be interested:' so we set up a time to go into their homes and begin these discipleship lessons. We're not there to do what I call "microwave evangelism:' twist their arm, and get them to say a little prayer when they don't even understand what they're doing. We follow the discipleship lessons and help them understand Christ and Him crucified. I told a pastor about our discipleship lessons, and he said, "Don, what happens after the first lesson?" After the first lesson, a person understands what they need to do to respond to Jesus Christ and to receive the mercy and pardon He offers. We're not high-pressure salesmen. That's not our approach, but through the first lesson, they'll come to a realization of what they need to do from their heart. He then asked, "Well, what happens after lesson 15?" I said, "After lesson 15, if a person has stayed with us, they will have repented of their sins and been water- baptized and baptized with the Holy Sprit. We're seeing that kind of thing happen, not after lesson 15, but even after lesson 6:' In Matthew 28, Jesus said to go into the nations and make disciples and, in the process, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the midst of discipling, we bring understanding of Jesus Christ and Him crucified to the unbeliever. In bringing that understanding week after week, we build a relationship with them, a friendship. They come to love and trust us. We're bringing God's Word to them, not coming to preach at them. We're reading the Scriptures, getting them to read them, and asking questions in a way that they see the answers from God's Word for themselves. Week after week, we see people come to a place where they're willing to openly confess Christ because they know what it means to accept Him, to follow Him, and to be committed to Him. It's much different than many of the evangelism approaches today. The way we go out to reach the lost is first of all by personal testimony, and each of us has a personal testimony. Many times we write our own tracts. I wrote one called "The Death of My Daughter;' which I leave at doors many times. Other people on our Discipleship Evangelism team have written tracts, like "A Slave Set Free," by Joe Rose, who was bound by alcohol and drugs and "The Death of a Dope Fiend," by Rocky Forry, who was bound by drugs since he was fifteen years old and Jesus set him free. We tell these testimonies at people's doors. Some people say, "But I don't have a dynamic testimony. I didn't see my baby raised from the dead after eight minutes:' I realize a lot of people don't have those kinds of testimonies. You might have a testimony like Andrew Wommack who had the power of God sustain his life, which, throughout his childhood, kept him out of the sin, filth, and ungodliness most people deal with. Each one of us has a testimony, and if you don't think yours is dynamic enough, use mine. When we first began our Discipleship Evangelism teams and started reaching out to people, Joe Rose used my testimony. After a while, he gave it better than I did, so I'd just say, "Hey, Joe, go ahead and tell them what happened to me:' If the Apostle Paul used his personal testimony three times in the New Testament in reaching the lost, you can do it too. We have computers today with all kinds of programs: Word Perfect, Microsoft Word, or whatever. It's very easy to set up a tract of your own personal testimony. It's much more effective to say, "This is not something I bought at a Bible book store. It's what happened to me that I'm sharing with you:' I'd like for you to sit down and begin to write your personal testimony, what happened to you, how you came to Jesus Christ. Then give your testimony to someone as if you were presenting it at someone's door. If you need more information on this subject, go to my website: www.krowtracts.com and look at the information on "Tips on Sharing Your Faith:' Write your personal testimony, practice presenting it, and study "Tips on Sharing Your Faith:' It is very important that you study it, not just read it, as you go out and evangelize the nations, one person at a time. God bless you. =========================== LEVEL 3. LESSON 16. 48. USING EVERYONE'S GIFTS TO DISCIPLE. Everyone's gifts can be used to disciple. We've been working with this discipleship program for many years with great success, seeing people's lives changed by being born again, baptized in the Holy Spirit, and water baptized. One day I was talking to a friend and said, "We're missing some things, they're falling through the cracks." He said, "I thought everything was working great. What do you mean?" What I'm going to share with you is how to bring an inward church, where people just sit, listen to the pastor, and go home, to be an outward church where they reach beyond the four walls of the church building. These are the real statistics: 95 percent of all Christians have never led anybody to the Lord and 90 percent of evangelism is directed toward Christians. The church building is the most evangelized area in the world. We evangelize the Sunday school rooms, and we evangelize the sanctuary. The way we evangelize the building, you would think the church needs converting. It wasn't until the third century under Constantine that church buildings came into being. Since that time, as far as reaching out to the lost, the church has gone inward and hid behind the walls of the church buildings. We want to reach out beyond those walls to turn an inward church into an outward church. Statistically, there are only 0.5 percent (less than one percent) of programs that reach beyond the four walls of our buildings. That says there is no major denomination in the United States today that has a plan to really reach the lost. Reaching and discipling people outside our church buildings is a part of Christianity that needs to be rediscovered. Through the Reformation, Martin Luther brought the revelation of justification through faith to the church's attention. In the 1800s, mass evangelism came through John Wesley. But it seems that personal one-on-one discipling and evangelism has not been rediscovered since the Apostles. You may say, "I don't know how." Through this program, we definitely will show you how, it's very easy. We'll show you how easy it is to work with people and to meet new people at the door through using your testimony. This is what I want to focus on now This is the good news. How would you like to do just what you want to do, not what somebody else wants you to do (that you really don't want to do), but exactly what you want to do? That's what we're talking about. When I show people how Discipleship Evangelism works, saying, "Look, this is what we're doing: We're touching people's lives. They're being saved, born again, filled with the Holy Spirit, and water-baptized:' People say, "That's great!" But if I said "Now, how many of you want to go with me:' there would be maybe three of you out of two hundred, because the rest are scared or don't know how to do it. Or, if I said, "Now, forget about it. Don't worry about it; you don't have to be afraid. We'll go out and get the Bible studies and set up discipleship lessons for you." How many would want to teach? There would be more then, about ten or twelve, saying, "Yes, I want to teach:' But it wouldn't go beyond that. What we want to do is show you how every gift in the body of Christ can be used to reach the lost, to love and disciple them. It will take every gift, and those gifts are found only in the body of Christ, the local church. Some of you say, "I like to pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, healing, and things like that:' Well, there's a time in our discipeship when we can bring you in just for that purpose. Other people say, "I'm not comfortable with that?' but can you bake a pie? Can you send a card? Can you make a phone call? Can you paint a fence? Can you baby-sit for a single mom we're ministering to and give her an hour to herself so she can get out of the house? Can you do the practical things? What about intercession? Some of you are called to intercede, to pray. We'll show you the people we're ministering to, give you their names, and you can be praying and interceding, alone or in groups, for them and for the Discipleship Evangelism teams that go out each week. There is room for everyone to reach out to others, to disciple. We have a program where every gift can be used. We're developing teams of a teacher and a teacher's assistant who go out in a discipleship capacity to minister. Then two people in the helps ministry come in behind them to do practical things, like giving food, baking a pie, or calling to see how things are going. We also have people who are interceding for us and the people we minister to. Do you know what we're seeing? We're seeing God change people's lives because they are being pastored and cared for, because His love is being shown to them. And do you know who is doing the work of the ministry? It's being done by the ones who are supposed to do it, the people. Ephesians 4:11 says the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher are given to perfect the saints so they can do the work of the ministry. The church is doing the work of the ministry, not only the man at the front called "the pastor?' When the pastor teaches and equips the church for works of service and they go and do them, that is true success. Let me illustrate. If we declared war on another nation and our president said, "We lose too many men in war, so I have decided to do away with the army and send just the generals out there to fight?' The rest of the world would laugh at us, and really that's what's happening. The devil is laughing at us because we have sent the generals, the fivefold ministry, to do it all. "Let them do it, we're paying them to do it?' We have failed to develop an army. God wants to develop that army, and every one of our gifts can be used in Discipleship Evangelism. We want to help create an army, equipped with powerful tools to disciple, not just here in our city, but reaching around the world. It can be done through the tools we have developed, the discipleship lessons and all of the strategies God has given us. God bless you as everyone comes together to use their gifts to minister to the lost, to the new believer, and to keep Jesus' commandment to go and disciple the nations.