Category: Discipleship Essentials

Part 6: A Great Diagnostic Question

 

 

 

 

 

The gospel presents Jesus as the Lamb of God (Savior), the Son of God (the Messianic King of Israel), the Baptizer in the Spirit (the Lord of the harvest), and the divine Son of Man, who will come in the clouds with great glory at the end of time to judge the living and the dead and rule forever over God’s new creation.

Looking back on my own journey to faith in Christ, I did not initially know that he is the Baptizer in the Spirit. I was not aware there was even such a thing! My conception of Jesus was incomplete, but it was enough for me to be saved. I realized by revelation that Jesus is the Truth and really risen from the dead just as the Bible says. I believed in my heart, in a basic way, that he died for my sins so that I could be forgiven (the Lamb of God) and that, because he rose again, he deserved my lifelong devotion and service (the Lord). According to Paul, it is an inner belief in his resurrection that makes us right with God and a public acknowledgement of Christ’s lordship that saves us.

...if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Romans 10:9-10 (ESV)

Peter confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, which was the equivalent as confessing that he is Lord.

We must have our eyes opened to the reality of Jesus’ being the Lamb of God and the Lord in order to be saved, and we must confess this publicly.

Water baptism is the formal means to make such a declaration of allegiance to the risen Lord.

Since everything depends on the Holy Spirit opening our eyes to who Jesus really is; when we share the gospel, we would be wise to follow Jesus’ example by asking our hearers some form of the question Jesus posed to his disciples. Let me read it to you.

Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” 16  Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17  Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Matthew 16:15-17 (NLT)

We might reword it a bit to fit our context, such as follows.

  • Who do you say that Jesus was or is?
  • What are your thoughts as to who Jesus really was or is?
  • Do you think Jesus was more than a mere man?
  • Do you think there was anything special about Jesus?
  • Do you agree with what the Bible says about Jesus?

 

Regardless of how we ask the question, the answer will open a window into the heart of the responder. It will help us understand whether the Spirit has revealed Jesus to them yet. It will help us assess where they are on their faith journey and how we might be able to help them to go farther down the path.

Don’t be afraid to use this great diagnostic question. It will help you fish for people the Jesus way.

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Part 5: Behold the Lamb

 

 

 

 

 

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 (ESV)

John the Baptist was given the privilege and responsibility of introducing Jesus the Messiah to the world. Followers of Christ today are commissioned to follow in John’s footsteps. It is our honor and duty to announce to people that Jesus is God’s Lamb, who was sent to take our sin upon himself and die in our place to satisfy God the Father’s just wrath against sin, opening the door for us to be forgiven in order that we can be reconciled to God and receive all the associated blessings.

The idea of a human sacrifice to appease God’s wrath is shocking and offensive to many of us today because we refuse to acknowledge the enormity of our sin or our desperate need for a Savior.

Even though the Jews accepted the need for the sacrificial atonement for sins, they likely would have been offended at the idea that a man, this man, Jesus, could be such a sacrifice. The proclamation that Jesus was and is God’s Lamb is beyond the limits of our power to logically comprehend. Without a revelation from God’s Spirit, we cannot see or accept who Jesus really is – God’s Lamb.

Our sin induced separation from God was unsolvable without God’s assistance. 

Sin alienated us from our heavenly Father and made us his enemies. (Romans 5:10) Adam and Eve committed treason in the garden, and we have been following in their footsteps ever since. By nature, we are proud, self-sufficient beings, who insist on trying to live independently from God. Our sin and rebellion cut us off from God’s life and blessings. However, God loved us so much that he was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice of his own Son to restore us to himself. It was the only way back for us. The just punishment for our sins had to be paid, and we needed a new source of life. This would have to be something radically new and different. God sent his Son to provide forgiveness and life. By his Spirit, Jesus lives in and through all who believe and receive his gracious offer.

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus earned for us a right relationship with God and gave us his life to boot. All we have to do is acknowledge that he is Lord and Savior and declare allegiance to him, and receive his free gift of forgiveness, justification, redemption, reconciliation, and sonship.

The Gospel message is so simple that even a little child can believe. However, adults who have learned to doubt and question everything often have a much more difficult time.

The announcement of Jesus’ identity will fall on deaf ears unless the Holy Spirit opens the listeners’ hearts and minds. Otherwise the Gospel sounds like nonsense. In that day, many heard and believed John, but many others scoffed and rejected his message. The simpler and hungrier the hearer, the more likely he or she is to understand and believe. The more educated, nuanced, and cynical the hearer, such as the Pharisees, the greater is the barrier to faith. This is because faith resides in the heart, not in the educated mind.

When our human reasoning ability becomes the litmus test for all things spiritual, the heart is left out in the cold. Only the Holy Spirit can break through the fortress of arguments against God that reside in a hardened heart.

He did it for the Apostle Paul, and he can do it again today for anyone who is open at all.

When we crack open the door to our heart, God is ready to rush to our aid.

John the Baptist issued an inviting command to his hearers: “Behold the Lamb of God!”

He knew that it always takes revelation for anyone to recognize who Jesus is.

God even had to open John’s eyes for him to know his cousin in this supernatural way. (John 1:30-34)

Paul, perhaps the greatest evangelist the world has ever known, also understood this. He fearlessly announced the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah, because he was convinced that it contains the power to save people when coupled with the Spirit’s ability and activity to open the human heart. He wrote the following.

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4  In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5  For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6  For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 (ESV)

To be able to recognize that Jesus is the Lamb of God requires that God’s Spirit open our eyes today, just as in John’s and Paul’s day. Nothing has changed. While John was uniquely the Messiah’s forerunner and Paul was a ground breaking evangelist and apostle, their experience of “beholding” Jesus is what might be considered “normal” for every believer to experience.

One cannot become a follower of Christ without some measure of revelation from God.

I am not suggesting that each follower of Christ must begin with a vision of God’s Spirit descending upon Jesus as a dove or be knocked off a horse while in route to persecute believers, but the Spirit must open our spiritual eyes and hearts for us to know Christ. How He does this is as unique for each person.

When John commanded his hearers (and so the Spirit commands Bible readers throughout the ages) to behold the Lamb, he understood what every fisher of men must know today.

God’s Spirit must be actively engaged in the evangelism process for there to be any fruit at all.

What is also true is that God asks his followers to point others to Jesus, the Lamb. We are to invite them to be reconciled to God through his Son.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 (ESV)

When we proclaim the Gospel and ask people to believe in Jesus, we depend upon the power of the Gospel and the activity of God’s Spirit.

God usually uses these three things – a person proclaiming the Gospel, the latent power of the Gospel itself, and the activity of the Spirit – to create an explosion of faith and revelation in the heart of the hearer that results in conversion and the new birth!

Those who are open and hungry and in whom the Spirit is working will supernaturally experience what it means to behold the Lamb! It takes faith for us to trust in the power of the gospel and the hidden working of the Spirit. We must refrain from trying to do the Spirit’s work for him by merely trying to reason a person to faith. Reasoning is important, but it can never replace the inner work of God’s Spirit to open our spiritual eyes.

Every fisher of men must be willing to proclaim a gospel that depends from beginning to end on the power and activity of God.

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Part 4: God’s Tackle Box

 

 

 

 

 

Good fishermen usually have well-stocked tackle boxes full of their favorite lures that have given them success in the past. As someone once said, if all we have is hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. If we only have one bait and one-size of hooks in our tackle boxes, we are going to be limited in what we can catch.

If we look at how Jesus fished for people, we quickly realize that he custom tailored his words and approach to the individuals he encountered.

If we are going to fish for people the Jesus way, we will need to do the same. Below I have listed some key things we need to have in our own spiritual tackle boxes.

A Commitment to God’s Mission

Fishing takes commitment. Commitment comes when we are convinced that something is so important that it deserves our heart, time, finances, and effort – for as long as it takes. Unless we are truly committed, we may agree that being on mission is worthwhile, but other things will preempt it. Committed people are different. Nothing stops a committed person from putting his or her convictions into action.

Many Christians are committed to God, to church, to family, to their jobs, and to pursuing a happy life. Relatively few are committed to the Great Commission, which is a huge priority on God’s heart.

I recently talked with an avid fisherman. This man has an important job, two of them, in fact – his main job and his “side hustle.” Despite having to invest huge amounts of time in his work, he still finds time to fish almost on a daily basis. Living on a lake doesn’t hurt. Nevertheless, why does he do it? Is it because somewhere back in the past he made a commitment which he now honors, or is it that he is committed because he loves to fish? I think you know the answer. How do we move from being dutiful fishers of men to those who love to fish?

We have to start somewhere. Most of us will probably begin sharing with others because we are excited to know Jesus and want others to experience this amazing grace, too. But after we encounter enough “push back,” we may back off. Some have never shared the gospel out of that excitement, for whatever reason. If we have backed off or never even started to fish for people, we likely will need to overcome resistance to start fishing. We will have to commit ourselves to do it out of duty; however, as with my friend, fishing grows on people. We may find that fishing for people is something we want to do. Then we become committed to what brings us joy. That will be a lasting commitment.

If we are the best fisherman in the world but are never available to go fishing, even the least talented fisherman will catch more fish than we.

What we do reveals what we believe and what is important to us. Unless we make ourselves available for God’s missionary work, we are only deceiving ourselves into thinking we are serving his priority of mission.

An Interest in People

I have known people, and most likely so have you, who were committed to telling others about Christ, but who apparently had little love for people. Their words about God’s love were offset by their unloving attitude, sending a confusing mixed message. Jesus, on the other hand, combined an unswerving love of truth with a deep love for people. This made him intriguing and magnetic for anyone whose heart longed for God, and repulsive to those who were playing religious games. If we do not have God’s love for people, we will likely attract religious hypocrites and repel the ones to whom we are sent. People are tired of being approached by those who only want to present a sales pitch to them without having any sort of relationship. Unless we are genuinely interested in people, we will never really be good at “catching” them.

People are not evangelism “targets.” They are valuable individuals who are worth knowing, loving, and relating to, whether or not they ever choose to follow Jesus.

People instinctively know whether or not we are interested in them. May God increase our love for and interest in the people with whom we relate.

A Servant’s Heart

Jesus came to serve and ultimately give his life away. Service is an earmark of a true disciple. In today’s consumer culture, people think more in terms of what’s in it for them. They assume those who share the gospel have the same mindset, which makes them suspicious of our motives. If we have Christ’s servant heart, we will look for ways to demonstrate God’s love in practical ways, not as a project, but because we love. This can include spending time in conversation to get to know someone, setting aside time to visit at people’s homes, having people over to our residences, praying for them privately and one-on-one in person, helping with a project, or just being there for them during a crisis. Loving and serving people is worthwhile in its own right. It also may open the door for us to be able to share why Jesus is so important to us.

Jesus wants his followers to serve our way into the hearts and lives of those around us.

Loving service gives credibility to the gospel message.

Knowledge of the Bible and the Gospel

Bible literacy is very low, even among churchgoers. As a culture we have grown lazy and unmotivated to pursue  the knowledge of the Scriptures and Bible truth. The Word of God is our life. It is our bread. We should habitually “eat” it by reading, meditating, and applying its truth. We should expect the Holy Spirit to reveal wonderful things about God to us, but many of us do not even crack open our Bibles. Many churchgoers show up on Sundays with their mouths open, expecting the pastor to give them enough pre-digested food to last them for a week. True disciples make a commitment to grow in their knowledge, understanding, and application of the Bible through personal study and application. (John 8:31-32)

We will never be effective fishers of men unless we understand the gospel well enough to share it easily and naturally.

A Dependence on the Holy Spirit

When Jesus launched his three-year itinerant preaching ministry, he quoted Isaiah 61:1 to help us understand his identity and mission.

And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:17-21 (ESV)

Jesus depended upon the Holy Spirit to equip and empower him for the ministry he carried out over the rest of his earthly life. Although he was and is God in the flesh, he depended on the Spirit, just as we must. Jesus was filled with the Spirit at the River Jordan and operated in the power and gifts of the Spirit throughout his ministry. We will be looking at how he did this in great detail in the articles which will follow.

One of Jesus’ titles is Baptizer in the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16).

Jesus commanded his followers to receive this empowering from on high so we too can be as effective as the Spirit can make us.

We simply cannot rely on human intelligence and ability, if we want to be expert fishers of people.

(If you are interested in learning more about the baptism and gifts of the Spirit, you can read my book on the subject, entitled Promise of the Father.)

Boldness

The Holy Spirit gives Jesus’ followers boldness to share the Gospel. This is the main function of the baptism in the Spirit. (See Acts 1:8.)

We may know what the Gospel says, be committed to the Great Commission, and love people, but eventually we will face those crucial times when courage is required.

We will run the risk of being misunderstood, rejected, ignored, or even persecuted as a result of sharing the Good News about Jesus. Jesus said that if we confess him before men, he will confess us before his Father in heaven and the angels; but if we are ashamed of him and the Gospel before men, he will not give us this heavenly approbation. (Matthew 10:32-33) These are sobering words. The Apostle Peter denied Jesus during a time of great fear and pressure; so, we should not be surprised when we are tempted to keep our mouths shut when we should be standing up boldly for truth. I am not suggesting that we be obnoxious representatives of Christ. There are appropriate times and ways to share God’s truth and other times to be silent. Knowing which is which requires us to be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading. However, when it is clearly the right time to be bold, that is what needs to be in our “tackle box.”

Patience and Determination

Fisherman must be patient and determined. Sometimes the fish are biting and other times they are not. We must believe that God’s Word will not come back void, but will accomplish his intention. (Isaiah 55:11) Paul exhorted his disciples to never become weary in well doing because “in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9) Working with people requires patience and determination.

We may fail in our attempts over and over, but quitting makes failure permanent.

We cannot always know what is going on beneath the surface in a person’s life. On the exterior he or she may appear to be uninterested, when deep inside they may be wrestling with God. The Apostle Paul is a great example of God’s ability to get through to even the most hostile foes of the Gospel. Ask the Lord to encourage your heart to keep sowing into the lives of those around you. It will not go unrewarded.

As we look at our own tackle boxes, perhaps you, like me, are missing some gear. Don’t worry. God’s grace will make up for what we lack. The important thing is to start fishing. Add as much gear as you can as you go.

If we wait to begin until after we think we are completely ready, we may never catch a fish.

Every person we can lead to faith in Jesus is a person added to God’s family and rescued from Satanic oppression. Every person we help to become a fisherman will multiply our efforts.

Now, get fishing!

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Part 3: The Heart of a Sent One

Ever since the tower of Babel, an overriding principle at work in fallen humanity has been to gather, enlarge, and increase our power, control, and influence, in order to make a name for ourselves without any acknowledgement of God. This principle is at work in governments, business, and religion, even the church. The Great Commission is also gathering people into a consolidated kingdom under Christ, but it works contrary to Babel. Christ commands his followers to leave the comfort and security of the known and go out into the unknown, where those who don’t know us live. He asks us to risk losing what we have in order to add new people into his family.

The Great Commission commands us to “go” make disciples, not stay put as safe and secure churchgoers.

The story of how God’s Spirit led the early disciples in fulfilling the Great Commission is found in the Book of Acts. God scattered the quickly centralizing church in Jerusalem through persecution, which caused the gospel to impact hitherto unreached areas. The church at Antioch, under the direction of God’s Spirit, chose to send out the best and brightest of its men to do apostolic (“sent out” missionary) work.

Antioch is our best model of how to do church.

God is still in the business of sending out his disciples to engage and impact those who do not yet know him.

Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” John 20:21 (NLT)

As we obey the call of the Spirit and go out into our neighborhoods, cities, work places, schools, and other places where people gather, God is developing in us the same compassion that compelled Jesus to give away his life for others.

Being a “sent one” requires us to give away our lives. This means that, first of all, we must believe that God is worth the sacrifice and, secondly, that people are worth serving with our time, resources, and everything else.

This kind of compassion only comes via God’s Spirit. Where it is lacking, people will not serve as “sent ones.” They will take the easy way out and simply gather with other believers.

God wants us to do both – to go and to regularly gather with other sent ones in order to mutually encourage, equip, and strengthen one another for the 24/7 mission of working in God’s harvest field.

The Importance of Listening

If we have Jesus’ compassion, we will realize that every person has a story worth hearing and is a life worth saving.

Many who devote themselves to being God’s ambassadors here on earth are not good listeners. We imagine that others should listen to us since we have the message of life. We often try to skip relationship building in order to quickly inject them with the gospel.

Jesus, however, was a good listener who tailored his life giving words to fit the unique human being who had his attention.

Meditate on that thought for a moment. Many times we try to “can” the gospel message into something we can routinely share. That is not how Jesus operated. He was always listening to people and most importantly to his heavenly Father. If people discern that we are not interested in them or their stories, why should they be interested in us or our message? They most likely will not be too keen on what we may have to say either. Compassionate sent ones care about every person’s story. If we expect to become expert fishers of people, we must become excellent listeners… quick to hear and slow to speak.

Targeting People’s God-Fashioned Felt Needs

Every person has needs that only God can fulfill. Because we live so isolated from one another, we may imagine that other people’s lives are just fine, not realizing that behind every door in our neighborhood some sort of drama is playing out that is preparing hearts to receive the Lord.

Some have desperately asked God to show them a sign that he cares. Could it be that you are supposed to be the answer to their prayer? Others have given up, thinking that God does not love them after all. Some people are embittered at what life has brought their way. Others are despondent, listless, and hopeless. While it is true that wealthy people generally have less felt needs than the poor, it is not true that their lives are altogether rosy. Anyone with wealth knows that money is not the answer to life’s deepest questions nor does it satisfy our deepest needs. Many affluent homes are wracked by relational dysfunction and are reaping the whirlwind that comes as a result of putting other things ahead of God.

When we meet and relate to people, God wants to open our eyes to see them as he does – harassed and helpless sheep about whom he cares deeply. Unless we discern what those needs are, how can we fashion a presentation of the gospel that addresses their heart longings? God is personal. He told the adulterous woman that she was not condemned. He told the Samaritan woman that she was important by engaging her and revealing that he knew all about her sins but did not reject her. He called Zacchaeus out of the tree and offered to dine with him.

In each case, the way Jesus engaged these individuals gave them hope that God knew who they were and cared about them. He accurately represented Father God’s heart toward them. This allowed Jesus to minister at the deepest level with amazing results.

Jesus wants us to partner with him in the adventure of being his personal representatives to lost and hurting people.

We need the Spirit’s help to pull this off. It does not come naturally to us. We cannot do it by ourselves. Only God can reveal to us what lies beneath the cleverly erected exterior that people use as a self-defense. Only God knows the deep heart cries lurking beneath people’s often crusty facades. If we listen, he will tell us all we need to know. He will assist us to fashion gospel truth into a “smart bomb” that goes right to the heart.

Hope for the Hopeless

Every person has a hope, which only Jesus can fulfill. Many of the people who live around us have descended into some form of hopelessness, but deep inside every individual, no matter how dim it flickers, is the hope that God knows and cares about us personally.

People long for a Savior, whether or not they will admit it, since we instinctively know that we cannot save ourselves. We hope for a Shepherd to guide us because none of us knows where we are going at the deepest level of existence. Our eternal destinies are hidden from us when we do not know Jesus. As Thoreau once wrote, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” We bluff our way through life, hoping for the best, but, deep down, we would like to know for sure.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the only pathway to knowing the Father. He is the Good Shepherd, the Great Provider, our Protector, and the God of all hope. We can be sure that, unless a person is resolutely hardened against God, there is something in him or her that will resonate with the Good News that Jesus gave his life away to make us children of God. They will be attracted to the knowledge that Jesus will lead them safely on life’s journey, if only they will surrender to his benevolent Lordship.

Fishing for people the Jesus way requires us to learn to see, love, and engage people as Jesus’ representatives. We have been given the privilege to care, listen, love, and speak in his stead in order to lead them to the Great Shepherd. Nothing could be more exciting or rewarding!

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Part 2: Becoming Part of the Solution

How do we see the people who live, work, and play around us? Or do we even see them at all? Many of us have learned to live in isolation, thanks to air conditioning, television, refrigerators, and “social media.” We keep up with events and people from afar, missing out on life and opportunities all around us.

Until we see people as Jesus does and make a decision to offer to get involved in their lives, it is not likely that we will share his heart for them or influence them toward God.

Matthew’s Gospel records a time when Jesus spoke to his closest followers about the crowd that surrounded him. It gives us a glimpse into his heart for people.

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Matthew 9:35-38 (ESV)

Compassion motivated Jesus’ earthly ministry. He saw people as harassed and helpless sheep who desperately needed someone to protect, feed, and lead them. He pointed out that there is a great harvest field, which is ready and waiting for caring people to go to work. What is stopping us? We all battle with fear, reluctance, laziness, disobedience, and a general lack of love for the those who do not know Jesus. Have we forgotten what it is like to live without knowing the Lord? What can help us to change?

Prayer

Prayer is the first part of Jesus’ solution to adding people to his harvest team.

Only God can change us on the inside and make us willing to invest our lives in his harvest field.

Jesus said to pray “earnestly.” This is because Satan fiercely resists any effort to share the gospel and make disciples. In addition, the part of us the Bible calls the “flesh” resolutely opposes God’s harvest work. It is the spirit inside us, the part of us in union with God’s Spirit, that wants to serve God in the harvest. The spirit and the flesh are in continual warfare until Jesus comes back again to raise us from the dead and deliver us finally and completely from this struggle. Until then we must make a determined stand against the inner pull of the flesh against God’s mission.

Without constant effort and determination, we followers of Christ tend to be lazy, self-centered people who put our own comfort, ease, and security ahead of helping lost, helpless, and harassed sheep who have not yet found the Shepherd.

Earnest prayer is needed to pry followers of Christ out of the comfort of their own homes and into the places where people who need Jesus can be effectively engaged.

Only God can transform us into people who are consumed with his passion for the lost and dying, but we have a part to play, and it begins with prayer. We must make the choice to join God in this noble task.

But prayer does not save people: the Gospel does. Prayer is a means to an end and can never substitute for the kingdom work of actually conveying the Good News to those who desperately need to hear it.

As powerful and necessary as prayer is, it can never serve as an excuse for not obeying the Great Commission.

Getting into the Harvest Field

Going and making disciples (the Great Commission) is the second part of Jesus’ solution. Bringing people into the family of God through sharing the gospel message, whereby Jesus releases them from slavery to sin, disease, death, demons, and every other bondage, and converts them into fishers of men, requires us to get into the harvest field ourselves. This will not happen without our overcoming the inertia of doing nothing and making the choice to go outside of our homes, our “comfort zones,” and engage people on a regular basis.

No great fisherman only occasionally dabbles in the sport. No effective fisher of men only randomly dips his line in the water.

Once we break loose from what held us back and make the choice to get involved in people’s lives, we find that God has already been at work. He wasn’t idly waiting for us to show up. We should not have the attitude of expecting the Spirit to join us as we plow ahead with own ideas and attempts to do God’s work. Instead we should look for what the Spirit is doing and join him as humble observant servants.

The harvest field is where we discover how to partner with God’s Holy Spirit.

Joining in God’s work is the most fulfilling and rewarding thing anyone can do.

Generally speaking, harassed and helpless sheep are not lining up at our church doors on Sunday mornings. In fact, many of them have been turned off by the church; although, many are still attracted to Jesus. Often they are a “mess” – people with a blend of rebellion, resentment, and hunger for God all rolled up in one.

Where and how can we successfully engage people who need and secretly desire Jesus, but who want nothing to do with what they understand about “church”? I am sure the same was true in Jesus’ day. Countless people in Israel found nothing to attract them to the austere legalism and hypocrisy practiced by the Pharisees, who were considered to be the best model what it meant to be a devout Jew. Their form of Judaism was to be found in the Temple and synagogues, an unlikely habitat for the average “sinner”.

Jesus frequented these religious centers, but also he went elsewhere in search of those who were most open to his life transforming message.

Jesus engaged people in homes, market places, trees, wells, and along the road. He did not set up a central meeting place and expect people to flock to him. In addition to teaching in synagogues wherever he went, he visited people’s homes and met them in market places, wherever life happened. And Jesus is our model.

Until we become the answer to our own prayers by making the choice to get involved in the lives of those who live around us, we are not yet a part of God’s answer to the heartrending and often silent cries of harassed and helpless people in need of God who live all around us.

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Part 1: Introduction to Fishing for People the Jesus Way

Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” 20 And they left their nets at once and followed him. Matthew 4:19-20 (NLT)

Just as he did at the beginning of his earthly ministry, Jesus still invites people to follow him and learn how to “fish” for people. The simple invitation quoted above sums up what it means to be a disciple. Our Lord did not say, “Come, follow me, and I will make you a moral person, a churchgoer, a Bible scholar, or any of the other things we prioritize ahead of fishing for people.

The purpose of this series of articles on “Fishing for People the Jesus Way” is to help us realize that “fishing” for people is interesting, challenging, fulfilling, adventure-filled, and enjoyable.

I hope I can help to remove any negative sense of fear, drudgery, duty, or religiosity from the equation, so that we can be set free to join the Holy Spirit, who is already at work in our communities. He is waiting for more people to join him in the work of the “harvest”. (Matthew 9:35-37)

The Gospels are filled with examples of how Jesus engaged people in such a way that they either chose to follow or persecute him. Just as today, some were indifferent, but many responded to him and his message. The Gospel generally should make people mad or glad, depending on the condition of their hearts. Those with hard hearts will become angry, but those who are “poor in spirit” (spiritual beggars who are hungry for God) will happily hear and follow.

Disciples are willing to follow Jesus wherever he may lead on a joyful adventure called fishing for people. This series will help to prepare and equip you.

I have been a Christian for fifty years and have tried all sorts of ways of presenting the gospel. These articles will address the one-on-one opportunities we get in life, not large crowd evangelism. When it comes to sharing with individuals, if we are motivated by a sense of religious duty, we may come across as being uninterested in the people we approach. If we rush or skip the process of relationship development in order to quickly notch another conversion, we may make our listeners feel cheap or part of a project and thereby sabotage God’s work. Jesus engaged people in a way that made them understand that he cared about them. Sometimes we may get “one shot” at sharing with a person. We must make the most of it, as led by the Spirit. In other situations, we may be able to share with them on numerous occasions. We dare not rush things at the beginning in those cases. To those whose hearts were tender and open, Jesus was willing to engage them on an individual basis and take as much time as necessary to help them grasp his message and identity.

Jesus poured out his blood to provide us with the Good News that the way back into God’s family, favor, and blessings is wide open. The Lord of Lords paid the price for us to be forgiven for our brazen rebellion against God’s kingship. He opened the door to our being reconciled to his heavenly Father by dying in our place and rising again. Our message is indeed Good News. Jesus wants us to engage the people who live around us with Holy Spirit compassion and zeal. Our Lord wants us to become excited about fishing for people as he did, in a quest to help them become part of God’s family of reconciled former rebels.

In the Gospels Jesus shows us how to properly engage people in order to communicate God’s love and care for them and to winsomely invite or even command them to become his followers. As we learn to demonstrate God’s love to those around us, it is amazing how much we can learn from them and how God will open doors into our hearts and theirs. The Holy Spirit will help us just as he worked through Jesus.

In the articles which follow, I will share examples from the Gospels of how Jesus fished for people. As we observe and learn from how he did it and begin to imitate his example, while relying upon the guidance, power, gifts, and boldness of God’s Spirit, we can be part of winning and making more followers of Jesus who also fish for people.

I hope you will travel with me down the dusty roads of Israel with Jesus, learning from the Master Fisherman.

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Part 9: All Bondage Is Built on a Lie

This is the ninth article in a series entitled Wonderful Counseling. I sometimes use other names for this ministry, such as Personal Prayer Ministry and Biblical Healing and Deliverance. The adjective "wonderful" is used because Jesus is the "wonderful Counselor" of Isaiah 9:6. This ministry attempts to make room for Jesus to personally counsel people by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit, with the human ministers acting as facilitators. This makes it different from most counseling. It is highly effective at teaching the recipient how to hear the voice of the Spirit and to receive his life giving words.

 

The very first attack Satan made against humans was in the form of a lie. It has always been his most effective weapon.

Jesus said the following about our adversary while speaking to the Jewish leaders of his day.

You people are from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. John 8:44 (NET1)

The enslavement of the human race to sin, death, demonic oppression, and the world system began with a lie. Satan, disguised as a talking snake, suggested to Eve that God did not have her best interests in mind when He forbade her and Adam to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The lying serpent flatly contradicted God’s warning that they would die if they ate it. Instead he promised them that they would become like God, knowing good and evil, something that was obviously very attractive. Eve swallowed the lie hook, line, and sinker, and Adam followed her lead, failing to stand for truth. Believing that first lie and acting upon it opened the door to sin and death through a flood of deception that still works to undermine the revelation of God and our love and devotion to him.

As a result of that first sin in the Garden, every human being enters the world procreated in the image of our first parents, complete with a fallen human nature. The Bible calls it the “old man” or the “flesh”.

As a result of our inheritance from Adam, we are programmed to believe lies and reject God and truth.

Adam and Eve did not have this problem, since God had created them perfectly without any default leaning toward sin. This only shows how powerful deception is. Adam and Eve were unable to resist the lie, even though they did not have a sin nature. Where does that leave us who do? In need of a Savior!

Deception appeals to our inborn sinful desire to be “like God” without having to be dependent upon Him in any way. This is the fundamental nature of sin – self-will in contradiction to God’s will. Since we now have a bias toward deception, Satan easily locks down humanity in a web of lies, with our pride being a willing accomplice in the suppression of truth. We choose to believe that we do not need God, or, even better, that there is no God at all. The deception called evolution perfectly illustrates this. When Darwin first announced his theory, the Russian communist party embraced it as the perfect “scientific” paradigm to support its godless atheism. Evolution is built on the premise that there is no Creator. Rather, the universe simply “happened.” Order and matter proceeded from nothingness and disorder. The second law of thermodynamics guarantees that this is impossible, and even a small child knows that this sort of reasoning, if it can be called that, is ridiculous. Nevertheless, thousands of highly educated people have accepted this “theory” unquestioningly. Today many insist that it be accepted as scientific dogma. It is taught as fact by our public school system and by much of the academic community. This is a willful suppression of truth driven by a determination to be independent from God and deny him the honor he is due, thereby bringing God’s judgment upon us. (Romans 1:18-25)

Our love of the lie is so strong that unredeemed humans choose to suppress any attempt to reveal truth. This is why those who believe in creationism are ridiculed by the media and the followers of evolutionary dogma. This is why our Lord Jesus was persecuted and eventually murdered on a cross.

People do not like the truth. We run from it, hide from it, try to cover it up, and attack it.

Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. 21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God. John 3:19-21 (NET1)

But truth will eventually win the day. Jesus, who is the embodiment and definition of truth, will reign victoriously over every form of deception both in our own hearts and in the world. Eventually every knee and every lie will bow before the Lord of Truth!

The refusal to acknowledge and glorify God is behind our seemingly hopeless addiction to deception. Rebellion is the root of our refusal to believe the truth. This is not complicated. If God is Truth, then the desire to be independent from God is the same thing as embracing what is false. Anything that is anti-God is by nature deceptive. Satan can only deceive, because to tell the truth is godly.

The refusal to acknowledge, glorify, and worship God always results in some form of idolatry based on a lie.

Man was created to be a worshiper. If he does not worship the true God, he will worship something else that is a pretender to the throne. Just look at how people idolize movie stars and rock musicians. Evolution attempts to put man at the top of the evolutionary chain, making him a god of sorts, who is accountable to no one but himself.

But What about Me?

But what me? I am a follower of Christ, but I still battle with bondage and oppression. Am I also suffering because I believe a lie? This could well be so, and here is why. In addition to our inborn connection to sinful behavior and thinking called “the flesh” and the general power and deceptiveness of sin itself, bondage derives from four basic sources:

  1. Generational thinking, behavior, and consequences that are passed down along family lines,
  2. Unhealed traumatic pain,
  3. Deeply embedded lies, and
  4. Demonic oppression.

We will cover each of these in great detail in this series of articles.

What Jesus accomplished on the cross and through his resurrection provides deliverance in each of these four areas through the agency of the Holy Spirit.

If we are not experiencing that freedom, there are three possible reasons.

  1. First, we might be ignorant of what Christ has done. In that case, instruction from God’s Word accompanied by repentance, faith, and obedience to that truth will provide the desired liberation.
  2. In the second case, despite sufficient instruction in regarding God’s truth, a deeply embedded lie may still be present that hinders or blocks us from repentance, faith, and obedience. I call these lie-based strongholds, which Paul addressed in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. In this case, Jesus will help us to uncover and remove the lie, which is one of the main reasons for doing Personal Prayer Ministry.
  3. In a third possible scenario, in order to humble us, God may allow some form of oppression to remain in our lives so that we can learn to live by mercy and grace. To my understanding, this is what Paul experienced in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10.

I will concern myself with the first two cases, in both of which there is a lie behind the experience of bondage. The uninstructed person believes a lie simply because he or she never knew the truth that Christ’s finished work actually sets us free. The second person, who is captured by a lie-based stronghold, has chosen to believe a lie that opposes or nullifies God’s truth, quite often without realizing it.

For those of us who have embraced such a lie, it may seem more real than God’s Word, producing a type of practical idolatry in us. Jesus is the truth; so, to believe a lie is idolatry. Sobering, isn’t it?

Sin, by its very nature, is based on the deception that it provides something better than does obedience to God. When we are deceived, we choose the temporary pleasure that sin often affords, along with the death that results, rather than hold out for the eternal rewards associated with obedience to God. This is a form of temporary insanity.

It is only God’s grace ministered by the Holy Spirit that enables anyone to escape the clutches of deception and embrace the truth. In PPM, we ask the Lord to speak his truth to individuals, which breaks the power of the lie.

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth...  John 16:13a (NET1)

May the Lord help us to be lovers of truth and lovers of God!

Go back to Part 8: Inside Out Truth

Read Part 10: How God Removes Deeply Embedded Lies

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Inside Out Truth

This is the eighth article in a series entitled Wonderful Counseling. I sometimes use other names for this ministry, such as Personal Prayer Ministry and Biblical Healing and Deliverance. The adjective "wonderful" is used because Jesus is the "wonderful Counselor" of Isaiah 9:6. This ministry attempts to make room for Jesus to personally counsel people by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit, with the human ministers acting as facilitators. This makes it different from most counseling. It is highly effective at teaching the recipient how to hear the voice of the Spirit and to receive his life giving words.

 

Let’s begin with a beautiful verse of Scripture that King David wrote just after admitting to Nathan the prophet that he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband and his friend to cover it up.

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Psalms 51:6 (ESV)

Satan is a liar and master deceiver. He spews out deception as a means of misrepresenting God, subverting truth, and destroying people. Thankfully, God lovingly counters Satan’s every move. Whereas the Lord is never surprised by events, Satan never anticipates God’s wisdom and creative responses. Evil is clever but not wise. It may secure initial gains but always loses the war.

Since sin deformed humanity from the inside out by severing our connection to God in the spirit, God’s salvation works from the inside out, too. What our Lord does inside us who believe via the new birth is greater than anything Adam and Eve ever knew.

God, Immanuel, comes to live inside us! After giving us new birth in the spirit, God engages in transforming His people from the inside out by his Spirit.

When the eternal Logos, the Divine Son of God, became a human being (John 1:14), he called himself “the Truth.”

Jesus *said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6 (NASB)

Jesus the Messiah maintained complete integrity between his inner thoughts, words, and actions, even though it eventually cost Him His life. He was a fearless embodiment and pursuer of truth.

A disciple is a person whose eyes have been opened through revelation to understand that Jesus is God’s Truth incarnate, the risen Messiah King. Disciples believe this in their hearts, confess it with their mouths, commit to a lifelong allegiance to Jesus and the truth, tell others about him, and cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the process of inner transformation.

Being a disciple means being committed to living according to God’s truth.

Then Jesus said to those Judeans who had believed him, “If you continue to follow my teaching, you are really my disciples 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32 (NET1)

Because of the way inheritance works, all of us received from Adam a default predisposition to being deceivers and liars. Jacob in Genesis has always been one of my favorite Bible characters, not because of who he was and what he did, but because, in spite of his many faults, failures, and sins, God still loved and remained faithful to him. Jacob’s name means deceiver and usurper. He is a picture of every person who comes into the world. Over time God changed him so radically that he was even given a new name – Israel. We serve an amazingly merciful and generous God!

Deception is so deeply ingrained in the human race that it takes an act of God to change us.

We must be spiritually reborn to start the process of transformation. This process continues over a lifetime. It involves God restructuring how we think about him, ourselves, and his Word.

Repentance is a word that literally means to change the mind. God works in us to change the way we think so that our lives can become conformed to truth.

Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God — what is good and well-pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 (NET1)

God gave Jacob a name that exposed his lack of integrity. Imagine being named, “Liar” or “Deceiver”. God is not afraid of telling it like it is, especially when he has a plan to redeem and change the person. Along the way, through God’s dealings, Jacob was forced to take a long hard look at his own deceptiveness. If we commit to following truth, God will also make us confront our sin, too. Today anyone named Jacob is a reminder of how God can take the most crooked of people and make them spiritual fathers.

God loves to force us into a corner from which there is no escape except by engaging in a wrestling match with Truth.

Jacob wrestled with the angel at the river Jabbok, and God prevailed in his life. The result was that Jacob became a prince with God and a great man in God’s kingdom. The same will happen to us if we commit to engaging the Truth.

Embracing truth is not easy. In fact, it can be one of the most challenging things we will ever do.

People often run from truth because we are afraid of it. We don’t want to face the truth about ourselves or God because we may think it is too painful or scary. According to Jesus, people prefer the darkness of deception to the brilliant light of truth.

And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20  All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. John 3:19-20 (NLT)

If we want to experience the freedom offered in Christ, we will need to squarely face truth with the help of the Holy Spirit.

We need not fear the One called the Truth who chose to die for us. He has no desire to destroy us with truth. Instead he wants us to be free because we embrace truth on the inside.

The only way we can properly relate to God and experience true freedom is through the avenue of repentance, which is the process by which we reject the lie and embrace the Truth.

When we admit that we are wrong and God is right we have begun the repentance journey. We make the decision to reject deception and become honest with God, ourselves, and one another. Repentance is the opposite of hypocrisy, which is when we pretend to be something we are not in order to look good to others and hide our sin.

One of the scariest things any person can do is become honest.

That is why people become so angry when their sin is exposed. We usually go into cover-up mode (denial) to try to keep damage to a minimum. Friendships can be damaged or lost by being honest if one of the parties is unwilling to embrace truth. That is why King David’s response to the prophet was so refreshing. When Nathan declared, “You are the man!”, exposing David as an adulterer and murderer, David responded, “I have sinned!” (2 Samuel 12:1-15) How rare is that? How many times have you seen someone instantly and openly admit a transgression?

Deception is rampant in society and honesty rare. but, in the church, it is supposed to be the norm.

Politics survives and thrives on lies. Hollywood is built on the unreal product it presents. Some of the biggest blockbuster movies depend on special effects to transport the viewer into a surreal world where God does not exist and sin often has no apparent consequences. But life is not like that at all. Life is built on the timeless truth of sowing and reaping. It eventually brings us face to face with God’s truth. We will either surrender to it or be destroyed by it. There is no escaping a confrontation with the God of truth.

A life based on sin and deception will always lead us into a dead-end alley from which there no escape except by admitting our sin and accepting God’s truth.

Jacob was forced into a confrontation with his older brother Esau, something he had avoided for years. He feared what Esau might do to him, because he had previously tricked his brother years before and taken his blessing and birthright. God forced Jacob to confront his fears, and, by so doing, to confront his own deceptiveness, all within the protection of God’s love. The result was that Jacob overcame his fears and gained a new status with his brother and God. He no longer had to skulk about in fear, but could walk in boldness and freedom. The same can happen for us if we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into truth.

God will help us confront things we have run from in the past so that we can experience Christ’s freedom. The more we grow in our knowledge of how much God loves us, the more we will trust him enough to be honest.

Prayer

Dear God, I have run from truth many times, but now I want to fully embrace it, no matter how scary it seems, because I know you love me and want me to be free on the inside. Jesus, thank you for dying and rising for me. Thank you for loving me even when I was your enemy. Thank you for being patient with me and helping me to get to this point. I rely on you to help me move forward in my truth journey. Come, Holy Spirit. You are the one who gives me the strength and ability to live for Jesus. You are the Spirit of truth, my friend, and my God. Have your way in my life. Make me a lover of truth. Amen.

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Read Part 9: All Bondage Is Built on a Lie

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Part 7: Body, Soul, and Spirit: The Salvation of the Soul

This is the seventh article in a series entitled Wonderful Counseling. I sometimes use other names for this ministry, such as Personal Prayer Ministry and Biblical Healing and Deliverance. The adjective "wonderful" is used because Jesus is the "wonderful Counselor" of Isaiah 9:6. This ministry attempts to make room for Jesus to personally counsel people by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit, with the human ministers acting as facilitators. This makes it different from most counseling. It is highly effective at teaching the recipient how to hear the voice of the Spirit and to receive his life giving words.

 

Here is a most amazing and thought provoking verse.

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Hebrews 10:14 (ESV)

If you read my previous two articles, you probably deduced that, if there are past and future aspects to our salvation, there must be a present component to salvation, too. The verse above confirms this by referring to what Christ accomplished once for all in the past, our justification, to the ongoing work of God in the present, which many call sanctification or transformation.

We “are being sanctified” on a daily basis, which basically means we are being set apart to God and his purposes. This involves a transformation of our character to become more and more like Christ. This is accomplished inside us as we cooperate with God’s Spirit by faith. The goal of this transformation is obedience to God and his Word.

In other words, our spirits (the innermost part of our being where we intuitively connect with God) already have been made perfect once and for all, but we are also in the process of our souls (mind, will, and emotions) being made more and more like Jesus on a day-to-day, moment-by-moment basis.

Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God — what is good and well-pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 (NET1)

 

The Soul

The soul consists of the mind, will and emotions, what we call personality. Our daily battle against sin and the sin nature (the “flesh” or “old man”) is waged mostly in the mind. If the mind engages with temptation and the will caves to it, usually the body joins in to commit sin. Likewise the desires of the natural body, which are often amoral in nature, test the mind and will to see if we will be faithful to God or not.

We are tested every day to see if we will trust in the power of Christ’s finished work and the promises of God and rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. God is teaching us to lean upon his daily provision of grace to see us through.

For I am sure of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 (NET1)

The God who justified us at Calvary, when we were still enemies and helpless to save ourselves (Romans 5:8-11 NLT), also gives us daily grace to live for Him. The God who will raise us from the dead, when we will be powerless to raise ourselves, is also the one who daily pours out on us the benefits of grace through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

We have little problem understanding that we could not deliver ourselves from the condemnation of sin. We also easily grasp that dead people are powerless to raise themselves from the dead, but it is usually not as clear to us that we are powerless to transform ourselves on a daily basis.

This accounts for the plethora of self-help books on the market. We think we can save ourselves, if we just try a little harder or learn some important key to success, but we cannot. Every part of our salvation depends on God; nevertheless, we always have a part to play, especially in our daily transformation. God will not do for us what he assigned to us, but he comes alongside to help us do it. (Romans 8:26)

Learning to cooperate with God’s Spirit in the transformation process is called “walking in the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25)

It is done by faith. If you want to read more about this amazing process, click here for a more in depth series of articles entitled, Living Free in the Spirit.

Conclusion

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 (NIV)

Unless we understand the three-fold nature of salvation, many scriptures will be confusing to us. God wants us to correctly handle God’s Word, and part of that involves determining whether the text refers to the spirit, soul, or body. Additionally, unless we understand that our spirits really do love God and want to serve Him, we may falsely believe that the “real me” is our “old man,” which can be translated, “the flesh” – the part of us still linked to fallen humanity through the unresurrected body, which is hostile to God and His ways. For us to experience true freedom, we must come to the realization that the “real me” is the recreated spirit man inside us. (Romans 7:16-25)

There is a huge conflict between our spirits and our “flesh” that we experience most every day.

For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want. Galatians 5:17 (NET1)

As a reminder, if we go back to the Genesis 2:7, the verse which describes the creation of man, we see that our souls are formed by the combination of spirit and body. I have shown that the spirit is made perfect through the new birth and the body still waits for perfection through the resurrection. Therefore, as I understand it, we have a built in conflict in our souls. We have the spirit, which is part of the new creation, joined with the body, which is still part of the old creation. How could there not be a conflict? Paul uses the term “flesh” because I believe he wanted to make a link to the mortal imperfect bodies in which we still live. Our bodies are not evil, just imperfect and still affected by sin’s curse via Adam. (This is proved by the fact that people who are truly saved still die physical deaths.) The combination of the imperfect body from the old creation with the perfect spirit of the new creation creates an inner conflict between the new nature and the old “sin nature.”

It is crucial that we are able to distinguish and identify with the new creation part of us rather than with the impostor called “the flesh,” which is derived from the old creation and still tries to rule us.

Paul makes it clear that through Christ’s death and resurrection the flesh’s power has been rendered ineffective. It no longer has the right to dominate us.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- Romans 6:6 (NIV) 

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. Romans 6:14 (NIV)

From where then do we derive our true identity? Is it from the sin nature or the new nature? Paul answered that question decisively.

But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good. 17 But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me. Romans 7:16-20 (NET1)

The devil seeks to hound and condemn us for the sins we have committed and continue to commit and the for evil desires that often still war in our souls. He continually tells us that we are “no good,” but Christ does not condemn us because he already took away our condemnation on the cross. (John 5:24 and Romans 8:1) The new birth makes us new creations in Christ.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (ESV)

In the midst of our struggles with temptation and sin (the flesh), some of us may even begin to question whether or not we are genuinely saved. How could a true disciple have such evil desires and do such wicked things? If we are deceived by such thinking and lapse into unbelief regarding the efficacy of Christ’s finished work and the Spirit’s ongoing work, the basis for our experiencing by faith the victory over the power of bondage through Christ’s finished work is removed.

We must see ourselves as God sees us – a finished product, complete in Christ, delivered from condemnation, free from sin’s power to rule us, victorious over our enemies, and able to walk in the Spirit.

Paul wrote:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2 (ESV)

We must believe what the Bible says about us even if our current experience does not yet line up. Freedom from condemnation liberates us to live by faith in the finished work of Christ, which opens the door to the Holy Spirit’s daily transformation process.

God’s Word alone is the foundation for faith, not our experience or what we logically derive from our experiences. This is vital if we are to live out the freedom that is ours in Christ. Who we really are is who we are in Christ.

God wants us to base our current faith walk with God on what Christ has done in the past and what he has promised to do in the future.

Paul wrote:

Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory. Romans 5:1-2 (NET1)

We stand in faith by grace today because of what Christ finished long ago. Likewise, our motivation to press forward in obedience to God is also rooted in the future. Because we have a sure hope of resurrection, we have a strong motivation to live a holy life.

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is.  3 And everyone who has this hope focused on him purifies himself, just as Jesus is pure. 1 John 3:2-3 (NET1)

In summary then, understanding and believing the doctrine of body, soul and spirit is vital to our experiencing true freedom in Christ. God’s truth sets us free.

Go back to Part 6.

Read the next article – Part 8: Inside Out Truth

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Part 6: Body, Soul, and Spirit: The Salvation of the Body

This is the sixth article in a series entitled Wonderful Counseling. I sometimes use other names for this ministry, such as Personal Prayer Ministry and Biblical Healing and Deliverance. The adjective "wonderful" is used because Jesus is the "wonderful Counselor" of Isaiah 9:6. This ministry attempts to make room for Jesus to personally counsel people by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit, with the human ministers acting as facilitators. This makes it different from most counseling. It is highly effective at teaching the recipient how to hear the voice of the Spirit and to receive his life giving words.

 

 

Picking up where I stopped in my previous article on the salvation of the Spirit, Paul wrote:

For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23  but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24  Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Romans 7:22-25 (NASB)

The “inner man” to which Paul refers above is the spirit, which is in union with God’s Spirit and which always delights in God and wants to do His will. (I covered how God saves this part of our being in my previous article in this series.) However, as I previously mentioned, we are not merely a spirit.

We have bodies which still await a salvation which will not be completed until the resurrection of the dead, which obviously is in the future. The resurrection of the body is the future part of our salvation.

When our spirits are born again, resulting in our justification or being made right with God, our bodies remain unchanged. They remain linked to the old order of things, the sin cursed world that must eventually perish. Our bodies, which we continue to inhabit after our justification, are subject to aging, sickness, and death. This requires us believe for and experience God’s healing power and depend on Jesus’ promise of resurrection. Our Lord specifically promised all who trust in him that he will raise us from the dead.

"This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40  "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." John 6:39-40 (NASB)

Regarding our future resurrection, Paul says that we are “saved in hope”.

Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance. Romans 8:23-25 (NET1)

The “firstfruits of the Spirit” refers to our justification and the resultant union with God’s Spirit, Who indwells every believer.

We groan inwardly because our justified made-perfect spirits still must live in mortal subject-to-sin-and-temptation bodies, at least for the present.

God has chosen to wait until Christ’s return to complete the salvation of our bodies. When Paul refers to our being saved “in hope,” he does not mean that our resurrection is in doubt. The Greek word for “hope” means “confident expectation”. In other words, we persevere by faith with an eager expectation that God is going to resurrect us from the dead, just as Jesus promised. Hope can be thought of as stretched out faith.

Although the salvation of the body is still in the future, it is not in doubt.

In fact, from God’s perspective, which is outside of the constriction of what we know as time, our resurrection is already accomplished, as is revealed in the following passage.

...because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified. Romans 8:29-30 (NET1)

All of the verbs in the above passage are in the Greek aorist tense, which means they describe once for all completed action. Our glorification, which will one day take place in the future at the resurrection, is already a past tense event for God! Jesus meant it when He declared, “It is finished,” but from our time-bound perspective the salvation of the body is in the future.

The principle that we can extract to aid us in the ministry of helping people experience Christ’s freedom is that we must separate justification, the past salvation of the spirit, from glorification, the future resurrection of the body. Otherwise, we might become confused, thinking that our justification is not real, since we still struggle in areas the Bible calls the “flesh.” Our struggles with the flesh are related to our justified spirits being linked to yet to be redeemed or resurrected bodies, creating a tension between “flesh” and “spirit.”

So I tell you, live the way the Spirit♦ leads you. Then you will not do the evil things your sinful self [the flesh] wants. 17 The sinful self wants what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is against the sinful self. They are always fighting against each other, so that you don't do what you really want to do. 18 But if you let the Spirit lead you, you are not under law. Galatians 5:16-18 (ETRV)

I have “left you hanging” a bit by ending here. If you wish to find out how the salvation of the body and spirit connect with regard to the soul, click here to read my next article. If you wish to go deeper in learning about some confusing Bible terms such as “the flesh” and the “old man,” click here to read an article in my “Living Free in the Spirit” series.

Go back to Part 5: The Salvation of the Spirit.

Read Part 7: The Salvation of the Soul

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