Is once saved always saved right?

Is once saved always saved right?

By Abraham Israel

To fully understand the answer to this question we must first ask ourselves ‘what is salvation?’. Jesus said “Salvation is of the Jews [i.e. Jewish root of true religion which Jehovah the Lord instituted through Moses]” pointing to Himself through whom God provided to mankind the grace of salvation through faith (John 1:17), as that answer to mankind’s desperation for deliverance from evil. Also when Zacchaeus being convicted by his past lawless life tried to cleanse his conscience by the law of Jewish restitution when Jesus visited his house, Jesus immediately pointed to Himself as the only means of salvation and corrected his wrong understanding of salvation, “And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:9-10). In other words Jesus said to Zacchaeus, ‘Salvation is not in what you do to set your relationship right with God, rather your very salvation is in me who as a person have already come to your house. Don’t try to get saved; you are already saved because of your faith in me and in the purpose of my coming to this planet earth.’

Here we see that Jesus was pointing Zacchaeus also as a son of Abraham. Is He pointing to Zacchaeus physical relationship of his with Abraham in the natural as his father because of Him being a Jew? By no means. The reason Jesus called Zacchaeus as also the son of Abraham was given in verse 10 where Jesus is pointing to His very own mission of seeking and saving the lost as an answer to Zacchaeus quest for salvation. This clarifies that Jesus was pointing to Zacchaeus spiritual connection to Abraham based on his faith in Him qualified him [i.e. even though a lost sinner who only deserves hell if judged according to the law] also to be a son of Abraham to enter heaven because of his faith in Jesus. “For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.” (Rom 4:3-5). Zacchaeus too by faith in Jesus Christ is also a son of Abraham because he too believed God like His father Abraham [no matter how much sin he has done in the past].

The Bible says in Galatians 3:7-9, 29, “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” By this we know that only those of us who are of faith are the true sons of Abraham. This shows that it is not by what we do we are saved, but it is hundred percentage of what Jesus Christ has done for us through which we are saved. The Apostle Paul very clearly conformed this by saying, “…we shall be saved by His life [Whose life if we ask ourselves? By the perfect sinless life that Jesus Christ lived as a substitute for every one of us in this planet earth as a perfect man].” (Rom 5:10).

After receiving Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, many believer’s slowly and steadily slide in to doing some works to be added to their faith even without realizing their wrong thinking. Many stumble in to works because it is very easy and comfortable for our fleshly mind to depend on it. They want something more than just faith in the finished work of Calvary to depend on. To these people the Bible warns, “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.” (Rom 4:4).The Galatians believer’s because of false teachers tried this sort of transition in which they who started with faith in Christ slowly started to add their works by keeping the Law of Moses to be saved. Apostle Paul rebuked them by saying, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Galatians 3:1-5). A believer receives the Spirit by hearing and accepting the crucified Lord Jesus as His Savior and Lord. He will be on the safe ground as long as he continues in the truth. The moment they try to add some works of the flesh to the already wrought salvation [i.e. the person of Jesus Christ], they start to deflect from the truth by disobeying it.

A believer is saved as long as He walks in the eternal truth of salvation or else whatever they have suffered to lose for receiving the message of the cross becomes a waste. The very nature of the salvation that we have received is eternal because the person of Jesus who is our salvation is eternal. Jesus has become our salvation (Heb 5:9;Ex 15:2; Is 12:2). This truth of the gospel opens a channel of relationship with Jesus as their shepherd and guide throughout a believer’s life, which will give the believer a qualified entry in to heaven. This is why Jesus emphasized relationship factor as the foremost necessity of a saved person by saying “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.” (John 10:27-30). Apostle Paul always emphasized this faith [i.e. relationship with Jesus Christ on a daily basis] factor by saying, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.” (2 Cor 13:5-6). Here he exhorts the believer to check whether Jesus Christ is in them by faith. In other words the Apostle Paul is asking the believers to be sure that they have a strong relationship with Jesus Christ through His Spirit. At the same time he is also encouraging them and telling them that they are not disqualified because Jesus is faithful to save them in the future. He is encouraging them not to become unnecessarily fearful. This shows that a person who loses his relationship with Jesus by rejecting His voice consistently for a long period of time is in danger of Judgment (Genesis 6:3, 5-8).

When a believer is judged, he will be judged in the flesh so that his soul and spirit willl be saved because of their faith in Jesus (1 Cor 5:1-5; 1 Peter 4:6). So only Apostle Peter warned the Church that “… the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17). This is the Judgment that was manifested in the Corinthian Church when they did not discern the Shed Blood and the Broken Body of Jesus Christ while taking communion. As a result of God’s Judgment [i.e. removal of God’s protecting hands] which manifested inside the Church, Paul said to the Corinthians, “For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.” (1 Cor 11:30-32). In this same book of 1 Corinthians Apostle Paul confirmed that every believer’s work that is burned [i.e. that which will be considered useless because it was done with wrong motivation and intention outside the leading of the Spirit] will receive no reward, yet the believer will be saved because of what Jesus has achieved for him (1 Cor 3:15). This is also confirmed in the book of Hebrews which says, “so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.” (Heb 9:28). The believers are the one who actually wait for Christ’s second coming where the future part of the salvation of the believer’s will be fulfilled when they will rise up in the brand new resurrection body.

All the believers will rise up in that day of resurrection. This is what happened to those people who were disobedient during the days of Noah, all those disobedient believers died along with the unbelievers, but they were saved when Jesus preached [declared to them the salvation] to them who were kept in sheol till they were resurrected along with Jesus (1 Peter 3:18-20;Isaiah 26:19; Matt 27:52-53). Even the Israelites who were disobedient in the desert died because of God’s judgment, but their souls were saved. You may ask how do you know that? Because God Himself said that, “He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a King is among them.” (Num 23:21). These were the same people who died because of plague due to harlotry with the women of Moab later (Numbers 25:1-9). Did God change his mind regarding the salvation status of these Israelites. The answer is no because He himself has said through Balaam, “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Num 23:19; Rom 8:38-39). God also has said in Psalm 89:34, “My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.” In other words God’s faithfulness toward fulfilling His spoken word and His long suffering toward those to whom He had promised is salvation (2 Peter 3:15).

Salvation is a blessing of God to his people and no one can reverse it, especially Satan cannot reverse it through sin or his deceitful temptations (Num 23:19-23). Only he can push God’s people to become involved in sin which will make them to be judged by God which is what Balaam deceitfully did to the Israelites (Num 25:1-4; 31:16,8). But those who deny Him and His covenant will be denied salvation. What it means to deny Him? To deny is to say to God, ‘Do not bother me when we are convicted by the Holy Spirit of God.’ To deny is to turn the grace of God in to lewdness [unbridled lust, excess, licentiousness, lasciviousness, wantonness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence] (Jude 4). The Greek word used for the English word ‘deny’ is ‘arneomai’ in Jude 4, 2 Tim 2:12 and also in Titus 1:16. The various meanings for the word deny in Greek is ‘to deny, to deny someone [to deny one's self, to disregard his own interests or to prove false to himself, act entirely unlike himself], to deny, abnegate, abjure, not to accept, to reject, to refuse something offered’. These people always will profess themselves to be godly people but in their works they will deny Him. In other words when God convicts them when they do wrong they will not care to repent of their deeds but will continue to go their own way and do their own things as they will (Titus 1:16). These people will have a outward form of godliness but will deny the power of God when God wants to transform their lives through it (2 Tim 3:5). Many of these people will start to think and act as though they are going to earn their salvation by works. They will be having faith in what they do for God to save them rather than a relationship with God. Because of lack of faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, these people will start to habitually live in sin believing that what they do for God through His anointing will save them from eternal death (Matt 7:21-23). But one thing that they forget to consider is that even Satan was a anointed person who have started using it for Himself and thus became the author of all sin. Satan was able to continue in the power of the anointing because the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable (Ezekiel 28:14-15; Isaiah 14:16-17; Rom 11:29). With out faith in Christ’s sacrifice, every man will sink in to sin because of lack of relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Only our faith in God through Jesus Christ will only give us the power to restrain ourselves from continuing in sin (1 John 3:4, 9).This is the reason we need to fight [i.e. against the devil’s unbelief, lies, sinful and lustful desires] in order to win for the conservation of our faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. This is described as common salvation (Jude 3).

Faith is one of the most important thing in a believer’s life. Faith is not something that we produce by mentally believing the promises of God. It is rather a sovereign act of God’s impartation that comes in to us when we first start to hear God (Rom 10:17). Jesus is the one who is the author and the finisher of our faith. Our job is to focus on Him as long as we live (Heb 12:2). When we humble ourselves before God and live in submission to his love, we will be able to stand fast and stead fast in the faith against all the temptations of the devil who will try his best to make us give up our faith that God has given us as a gift (Eph 2:8-9; 5:24; 1 Peter 5:5,8-9; 1 Cor 16:13). This is why Jesus knowing the weakness of the fleshly inclination of Peter which was going to make him deny Him, prayed that Peter’s faith may not fail during the crisis time (Luke 22:31-32). Peter denied Jesus three times, but Jesus was faithful enough to restore him back in to relationship with Himself because of His love towards him. Peter was able to return to Jesus because his faith in Jesus did not fail through the crisis (Luke 22:31-32; 22:61-62; 2 Tim 2:12-13). Peter wept with godly sorrow which led him to the path of repentance unto life but in the case of Judas it was worldly sorrow which led him in to the path of repentance unto death (Matt 27:3-5; 2 Cor 7:8-11; Rom 2:4). Because of Jesus’s faithfullness in praying for us believer’s, our faith is kept safe from failing (Rom 8:34). If a believer has no chance to fall away from faith why should Jesus have prayed for Peter and also for us unnecessarily? Hence faith is the factor that determines whether we are saved only for a period of time or for eternity.

Apostle Paul Himself at the end of his life’s journey declared triumphantly, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim 4:7). Hence we too need to keep our faith until our end. When we have done that, we too can triumphantly declare that we have kept the faith and look forward to our reward which we will receive from the Lord in heaven. If we reject Jesus and His offer of salvation, He too will deny us (2 Tim 2:12-13). What does it mean to reject? It means to remain stubbornly in sin with out humbling and submitting ourselves. It means to practice sin willfully, habitually and without restraint or sorrow for having done it. This is equal to falling away from the faith that God has given to a believer, they will have a hardened heart because of continuously living with an unrepentant heart for a long period of time. Since they have become unrepentant, it is equal to crucifying again for themselves the Son of God and putting Him to an open shame (Heb 6:6; Rom 2:5; Luke 23:33-34). This is described as willful sinning in which the sinner who has been redeemed and separated to live a holy life will completely become hardened because of living completely in sin and will finally reject the voice of God which will convicts Him, so that it will become impossible for him to receive righteousness from God because of him rejecting to appropriate the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as his substitute (Heb 10:26, 29; John 16:8-11).

As long as the believer will have an iota [i.e. smallest dot] of worldly thought in him, the Holy Spirit will convict the believer of sin and will turn Him to righteousness pointing to the judgment which has taken place on a substitutionary basis for them on the cross by our Lord Jesus Christ. These verses in Heb 10: 26-32 is speaking about people who were formerly obedient to the truth of the gospel because of illumination or enlightenment, therefore the Apostle who wrote this Book of Hebrews is encouraging these believers not to throw away their confidence which is faith (Hebrews 10:32,35; 11:1). Finally he says that the secret of a believers life is that they will live by faith in Jesus Christ and hence encourages the believer not to draw back in to the old ways of sinning with out restraint or becoming hardened and unrepentant towards God (Heb 10:38-39). Is once saved always saved? The answer is yes as long as the believer does not consciously draw back to perdition or destruction by rejecting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

A sinner is justified [i.e becomes just as if he has never sinned] only by his faith in Christ (Galatians 2:16). After having been justified [i.e. in the present time] we shall be saved from wrath [i.e. in the future when every human who has ever lived will be judged for their works (Rev 20:11-15)] through Him [i.e. through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins which deserves God’s wrath] (Rom 5:9). So only the moment a person confesses with his mouth the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour and believes in his heart that God has raised Him from the dead [i.e. remembering God’s promise of already having forgiven all our sins of past, present and future (Eph 4:32)], from that same moment he will be saved forever (Rom 10:9). This person is saved because of the promise of God. Here we must consider the salvation of this particular person who is saved as a journey with God to his destination [i.e. heaven]. In other words God has promised that He will be with this saved person no matter what happens to him on the way, no matter how many times he falls completely because of hardship and even overconfidence in his own ability to live the Christian life, God has promised to raise him up because of His very own faithfulness (Prov 24:16; Ps 37:23-24; Heb 13:5-6). We should notice here that salvation has been achieved by our Lord Jesus Christ once and for all time [i.e. past, present and future]. The promise of the Lord stands true forever. The only thing that we need to do on our part is to keep walking towards the destination by faith until we reach the end. We need to hold on to the promises of God and walk in faith toward the destination where the salvation of God [i.e. resurrection of our corruptible body which by then will be transformed in to an incorruptible body forever] will be manifested physically. This is the real salvation.

Some people may ask here what about Phil 2:12 which says, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”? Here we must understand that many people quote to prove and justify that we need to work out our own salvation. But the main thing they miss is in the next verse which gives the answer in context to our own salvation by saying, “for it is God [who works 100% and we do not even have to work 0.01% by our self effort] who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). Hence we work out that which He works in us. In other words because God works hundred percentage in us, we are given a choice to allow Him and co-operate with Him to work out the salvation [which is already present in our spirit (Heb 12:23; 1 Cor 6:17)], by resisting the soulish influence by the power of God working in us (Eph 3:20). The Bible also says that the nature of the salvation that we have is an eternal one because salvation is the person of Jesus Christ rather than just a belief on our part (Heb 5:9). So only salvation is all about following Jesus and obeying Him in everything. The only way a person can lose this eternal salvation is when he intentionally walks away from Jesus, who is the only way any human can be saved. The Apostle John pointed to this particular sin that leads to death but he said that all unrighteousness is sin (1 John 5:16-17). What does this mean? It means that all sins can be covered under the blood of Jesus except the sin of turning away from Him which has no other way out but only death. In other words it also means that a saved person can never be lost unless and until “….they fall away [i.e. stopping or abstaining from continuing to walk under the Lordship of Jesus Christ by voluntarily indulging in sin and saying no the voice of Jesus like Cain (Gen 4:4, 16; 1 John 3:11-12)], to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” (Heb 6:6).

To fall away is to be enticed by sin completely and to reject the Son of God’s sacrifice which was achieved for us to walk in victory through obedience to His voice (Titus 2:11-15). This will not even come under over confident sin [i.e. to fall in to sin because you are confident of overcoming its power by your own ability]. In order for the readers not to misunderstand the meaning of this scripture, in Heb 6:6 the Apostle who wrote the Book of Hebrews explains this verse using a metaphor in the preceding verses. These verses compare a saved person to the earth which naturally has the ability to produce crops. Salvation is compared to the ground to which God continuously supplies water which is represented by the power of the Holy Spirit and the person of the Holy Spirit. If that person uses the power of the Holy Spirit and His supernatural protection from evil to be used to promote himself and his own lustful desires, it will produce only a harvest of weeds in the end which will not be useful to anybody (Jude 4). But if he uses the person and the power of the Holy Spirit to stay connected to Jesus and be obedient to the voice of Jesus, he will produce fruits in his life which will bring glory to God the Father which is the ultimate purpose for which we are saved. Is once saved always saved right? It is right as long as our focus in on Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith! You servants of the Most High God, Rejoice because “God is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 24-25). Praise the Lord!

Healing and Restoration leads you to fulfillment!

Healing and Restoration leads you to fulfillment and freedom in Christ!
By Abraham Israel

1. Jesus restores our soul because He is our good shepherd (Ps 23:1, 3; John 10:14). A shepherd is the one who leads, guides, teaches, provides, binds up the wounds, comforts and protects the one who is following him. It is in his nature to even go after the lost and misguided sheep’s. All these are part of the restorative nature of a shepherd. To restore means to make something return to its former optimal level or condition. Because of the fallen state of this planet earth and Satan’s increased activity of stealing, killing and destroying the good things of God, we need daily restoration for our soul. As a faithful shepherd Jesus restores our soul as we seek Him daily. When Jesus restores our soul by leading us beside still waters, our soul will returns to its stillness even as we start appropriating His peace in our soul (Isaiah 26:3;Psalm 23:2; Phil 4:6-7).

2. Always salvation is accompanied by a supernatural joy and we need to live perpetually in it, thus indicating our citizenship in the kingdom (Rom 14:17). When you lose your joy of salvation due to your fleshly indulgence [sinful inclination of your soul], immediately repent and ask the Lord to restore your joy of salvation, He will do it (Ps 51:12). We need to live daily with a heart attitude of repentance [i.e. turning towards God to receive His mercies and to receive His overcoming power to shun from all our weaknesses and failings in the future].

3. You need to forgive your friends who have hurt, wounded, and have betrayed you at the time you needed them the most, if you do not forgive them, this is when a strong spirit of unforgiveness can creep in to you against these people whom you have trusted in the past. Because of unforgiveness you would have given an open door entry to Satan and his demons who will easily get in to you and will rightfully control you. Our Heavenly Father will also be angry and will take his hand of protection until you will realize your foolishness and revert back to forgive them (Eph 4:26-27; Matt 18:33-35). Those to whom you will not forgive their debts [i.e. their unfaithfulness, betrayal and back stabbing] will become your debtors. These debtors should be first forgiven before you enter in to the Heavenly Father’s presence to ask for the restoration of your soul by the cleansing blood of Jesus. Why should you forgive your debtors [i.e. people who have knowingly wronged and betrayed us]? Because God in Christ has once for all forgiven your past, present and future sins (Eph 4:32). You may ask, If God has already forgiven all my sins, why I need to go again to Him for forgiveness? The answer is you do not go to get a literal forgiveness but more of a cleansing for protection from all demons by being covered by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:3-7). This is the restorative part of your salvation which is your inheritance in Christ Jesus. So only Jesus taught the disciples to pray in this pattern to Our Father in Heaven, “…And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (Matt 6:12). We need to live daily with a heart of forgiveness. When you live your life by choosing to forgive you debtors unconditionally daily because of seeing what God has done for you in Christ, then the Lord will restore to you double of what you have lost during your crisis (Job 42:10). When you forgive these people their follies, then the Lord will bless your latter days more than your beginning [i.e. before you encountered these false accusations, betrayal….etc from others who have knowingly or unknowingly wronged you] (Job 42:12).

4. When you are glad and rejoice in the Lord, the Lord will restore to you the years that you have lost without being fruitful (Joel 2:23, 25). Because of His tangible blessings over your life, you will be satisfied and will praise the name of the Lord your God (Joel 2:26). So, rejoice in the Lord always, pray continuously and in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (2 Thess 5:16-18). We should choose to rejoice daily in the Lord. To rejoice in the Lord means ‘to again release the joy which is already is in your spirit man inside you’. God has kept the spirit man in perfect connection with the Lord who is the Spirit now (1 Cor 6:17; 2 Cor 3:17). Thus you have the choice to release that joy in your soul by commanding your soul to bless the Lord and praise the Lord at all times (Ps 50: 23; 103:1-2; 145:1-2; 146:1-2; 147:1). In other words you can choose to be joyful at all times irrespective of the circumstances that you are in or going through (Acts 16:22-25). When you command your soul to align with your spirit by praising and blessing the Lord, then you will experience the joy and goodness of the Lord in your soul (Ps 63:2-5; 147:1; 149:5-6; 150:6; 104:33; 105:3).

5. When God restores you from your trespasses or sinful habits in to that higher realm of victory through your spiritual walk in the power of the Spirit, you then help others who are going though such bondages by witnessing gently to them what God has done and is doing in your life. God will bless you more for doing it and will restore abundance in your life as you restore others back in to a meaningful relationship with God (Gal 5:16; 6:1, 9-10). Never be deceived in to thinking that you are immune from any sin without His grace (Gal 6:3)! Rather you who are spiritual restore the weak in a spirit of gentleness daily by using the grace of God present in your life. This will not only bring healing and fulfillment in your life, but also in the other person’s life which has been overtaken by trespasses.Praise the Lord!

Think right to live right!

Think right to live right!
By Abraham Israel

All the religions in the world system says, ‘To live rightly you need to discipline yourself and change your behavior according to their religious dogmas or instructions without fail.’ In other words it suggests that in order to live a good life you need to change your behavior and the way you live and act daily in that same way [i.e. which includes the way you relate to God and to people]. This is an absolute erroneous cluttered religious mindset which will push an honest seeker of God to soon become a hypocrite very soon after he tries to do these things in his daily life. Why? Because this man who tries to conform himself to that particular religious law will be influenced by a different pattern of thinking [i.e. evil thoughts in contrast to good thoughts] in his soulish realm (Mark 7:20-23), which is the same for every human being in the natural which is strongly influenced by the world system of governance [i.e. Satan and his cohorts] (Rom 7:14-20; 12:2).

Man is essentially a created eternal spiritual being kept in a physical body with an ever expanding knowledge of his soulish mind based on what he sees and experiences through his five senses [seeing, smelling, hearing, touching and tasting]. The soul which is directly connected to the physical body works according to what that particular person thinks always. Hence a man is essentially influenced by what he thinks in his mind. The Bible affirms this in Prov 23:7 by saying, “…as a man [he] thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you. But his heart is not with you.” In other words the Bible says only when a man’s behavior becomes in line with what he thinks constantly [i.e. motives in his heart], only then he is truly a man of his word whom you can trust. For this to happen one should train one’s mind to constantly dwell in the good thoughts that come from God and reject evil thoughts in Jesus Name when it comes to get imposed in one’s mind.

Otherwise that person who allows or dwells in the evil thoughts will make that thought to soon become a demonic conception of lust in him. In other words when ever those particular demonic thoughts come, immediately the flesh because of habitual practice will immediately become extremely desirous to fulfill it immediately. This is the way demons will keep people in constant bondage to its whims and fancies. These people who will fulfill such lust will soon become powerless against such strong intense desire that will start to rule them. They will continue to do these things thinking that it is an inbuilt weakness in them. This is an absolute lie of the devil to keep people powerless as long as they live. If you have any such patterns of thinking say now to the Lord, ‘Dear Jesus, in your name I bind all demonic activities. I take all my thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ and I apply your blood over my mind, thank you for your forgiveness and cleansing in Jesus name. Amen.’ (Luke 10:19-20; 2 Cor 10:5; 1 John 1:7). Now whenever such thoughts Satan tries to re impose over your mind resist it in Jesus Name by saying, ‘I rebuke you devil, you have no rights over my mind. In Jesus Name Go.’ (James 4:7).

Mostly people who play a religious hypocritical game often will speak outwardly as smooth as butter, but inside their heart they will be bitter against other people with various motives like jealousies, lustfulness, wrath, and covetousness….etc. Jesus always warned such hypocritical living by saying, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.(Matt 23:25-28). In other words Jesus was rebuking, exhorting and challenging these two-faced religious hypocrites to change their evil thinking pattern and behave in line with what they really think.

Think of it, if they have behaved in the way they thought inside their mind, people would have stoned and killed them for all their lawlessness. As a pious devoted religious heads they were always fearful of what people might think of them. As the Bible says in Luke 20:19, “And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people—for they knew He had spoken this parable against them.” Here we see that the chief priests and scribes were thinking with an intense desire in their heart to hit Jesus and destroy Him, but they were behaving differently on the outside because of the fear of people around them. This is what David called as “…divided in heart or mind…” (Ps 119:113), where you want to do one thing but because of the fear of people around you, you are behaving in a good way outwardly. It is as good and equivalent to you fulfilling it in the natural world because if the people were not around you, you would have done it. This is why Jesus said in Matt 5:21-22, 27-28, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

All the murders and adultery that ever happened started only with a small evil thought in one’s heart influenced by the spirit world [i.e. Satan and his demonic world]. As Jesus also said in Mark 7:20-23, “And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”” Many people are asking why is all the evil things are happening in this world if God is alive? But the fact that such people do not understand is because all evil which starts in the heart of man which when fulfilled, fills the world with all the evil we see and experience. Like in the days of Noah all the peoples are filled constantly with evil thoughts in which they are desiring to dwell as Jesus prophesied two thousand years ago, thus as things are becoming like a living hell in this planet earth God will very soon step in to the earth to rescue it at Jesus’ second coming and will rule it with an iron hand in righteousness for a millennium (Luke 17:26; Gen 6:5).

Only Godly people who have trained themselves according to the word of God and empowered by the Spirit of God can only behave exactly according to the way they think. Only passionate godly Spirit led men and women can honor God with their lips in sync and in line with their heart, by being very close to the heart of God (Mark 7:6-7). In other words only people who think according to the impulse of the Spirit of God can only have a united heart that will speak in line with the good thoughts that come from God in to their mind constantly. This will give them the liberty to act and behave naturally without fear of what people might think about them. They will be bold enough to express their mind in truth and integrity. They will be humble enough to accept their mistake when they are wrong.

Godly people must train themselves by believing and thinking according to the word of God and should confess with their mouth what they believe to be true. They should train themselves to say and speak what the word of God says as the truth by inculcating this type of thinking pattern. This will bring deliverance and victory in their daily life (Rom 10:10). The Apostle Paul also affirms this when he said, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Phil 4:8-9). Here Paul is suggesting the believer’s to continuously dwell on the thoughts of the goodness of God. All the good things that we see and experience in this world are from God and only from Him. No one is good except God who is the only source of all our goodness in this universe (Matt 5:45; 19:17; Nahum 1:7; James 1:17). Nothing that we enjoy is by chance, but it is absolutely from God who provides all these things to us. So in everything [i.e. no matter how you feel], give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thess 5:18). Always be with an attitude of gratitude for all the things that God has provided in your life. Be satisfied and content with what He has given to you which in itself is a great wealth that you possess (1 Tim 6:6).

In today’s world, it is hard to find, hard to see any good things happening, except a few good things. If we open the news paper and dwell in it for a even a short period of time, all the things that our mind will get filled with is nothing but anxiety, fear of unknown, lust and all the depressive things which is the way this Satanically influenced world system which is increasingly deteriorating day by day is driven. The same also applies to other media like television, internet…etc. In such a stressful times such as these, the only place where we can get joy, peace and righteousness is to return to the word of God and meditate upon the promises of God without which there is no hope to have peace in this peace less world of end times.

When we do these things even our words that we will speak to others will give hope to people because it will be filled with grace as a delicious food is seasoned with salt (Col 4:6). Even as we speak in line with what we think in our mind [i.e. ignited minds because of meditating and dwelling on the word of God], our behavior will naturally become in line with the way God wants us to live. Praise the Lord!

The bottom line is ‘Don’t try to think right by trying to be right, instead think right according to the word of God to live right’. Say to the Lord now, ‘Lord Jesus, thank you for your word which has power to transform the way I think. Increase my desire to dwell in your word which will transform my mind to think in the exact way you want me to think so that I will not be conscious of what people might think about me but rather be conscious about what you will think about me. Let your thoughts guide me to take all my decisions that I will be taking in the coming days according to your ways. Thank you for your Joy, Peace and your Righteousness in my life. In your name I pray. Amen and Amen’. Praise the Lord!