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People are NOT Willing!

No one changes unless they want to!  Not if you beg them!  Not if you shame them!   Not even if you use reason or tough love!  There is only one thing that makes someone change and that is when they totally come to the realization on their own - that they need to!  Plus, there is only one time frame when that will happen – and that is WHEN THEY DECIDE - they are ready!

Most people do not want to change – they just want God to fix things for them!  Quite honestly most individuals just want God to fix everything in their life for them – then they do not have to do anything!  In so doing they are bringing God down to the level of a – man servant!

More people than you realize who have prayed what is referred to as sinner’s prayer are NOT willing to make sacrifices to walk before God the way we should.  Many people that have come to my office have made the following statements: “That’s too hard!”  “I really don’t think God would want me to give that up!  Jesus paid the price and that means I don’t have to do anything, because I’m going to Heaven now!” I have said the sinner’s prayer and accepted Jesus and it’s all taken care of.”

They are quite content staying right where they are. Because that is the easy way to live life – so they think.  If they must give up something or spend more time with God in the mornings, they do not want to.  And all the while they keep repeating the same thing, “The price has been paid!”   “Oh, the price has been paid; I just have to believe.”  That is so not true! 

All that people want to know is that the price has been paid so that they do not have to do anything.  If something is going to take discipline on their part or any type of a sacrifice, they do not want to have any part it!  Because that is the hard stuff!  They believe that Jesus came and died for their sins and made the last sacrifice!  They believe that he paid it all on the cross!  They are right on that!  Jesus did pay the price. However, they proceed living their life the way they want!  All the while continuing to say, “I’m home free!  I am saved!  I am going to walk on streets of gold.  My sins are forgiven past, present and future.”  This is easy believe-ism! 

The price was paid!  Jesus paid the highest price possible, and that is this:  to come to this earth to show us how it can be done!  We must do the work!  Jesus cannot walk it out for us!   WE HAVE TO DO THAT PART OURSELVES!

First off - we must be willing to walk as Jesus did!  We must come to God willing to be transformed.  We must be willing to empty ourselves just as Jesus did when he chose to leave eternity to become a man and carry out His calling!  We must be willing to come to God and follow Jesus’ example! 

 

We must take up our cross daily! (Luke 9:23) Because it is written: “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27).

Each morning right off the bat we need to stop and give God some of our time!  It is His time anyway!  Our day should begin by asking God to cleanse our hearts, minds, and attitudes!  We need to give God back the day that He has given us and ask Him for direction.  If we forget to do this – we have already begun to backslide!  Why?  Because we are starting out on the day doing what we want and what we think we should!  Never mind doing what God wants!  Remember, when you said a sinner’s prayer – you gave your life to God!  Therefore, when we venture out doing our thing – it is at that moment we took our life BACK!

We need to give God the freedom to correct us anytime He wants to! Why?  He must change us.  We must learn to be obedient!  Keep in mind Jesus learned to be obedient in the same manner we have too! (Hebrews 5:8).

We must be worked like clay and be transformed into the person we were created to be!  We must empty ourselves just like Jesus did!  Out with the old in with the new!  Why?  We must change.  Our minds must be renewed! (Romans 12:1-2)!  The written Word talks about the potter and the clay (Isaiah 64:8; Jeremiah 18:6, Romans 9:21)!

If we were immediately transformed when we said the sinner’s prayer, why the talk about the potter and the clay?  There is no such thing as instant breakfast when working out your salvation!

Yes, the price has been paid!  So many churches teach things this way:  All you must do is say a sinner’s prayer and believe!  Yes, the price was paid by Yeshua/Jesus when He left Heaven and chose to come down here as a man!  He paid it all, and it was not for us to have to do nothing but believe!  That is not truth!

Jesus came down here to walk as a human being!  He experienced every conceivable type of physical, emotional pain, and mental pain possible.  He paid the price to set the example for us to follow!  He was tempted with every possible type of sin and temptation there is and was!  Satan made sure of it and the Bible tells us that!

The price was paid by him.  However, the price has not been paid by us!  He gave up his glory (Philippians 2:5-11, John 17:1-5; Hebrews 5:7-10), and he gave up everything to suffer!  He was spat on and ridiculed (John 15:20), and plotted against, and even his family thought he was a nut case (Mark 3:21).  Because man did not get it right when God gave the Ten Commandments, and the entire book of the law!  Man had the rules laid down for him in detail . . . on Mount Sinai.  It is all recorded in the Old Testament.  Yes, there were many do and don’ts!  We had the rules!

There are those in the churches that have said and still say, “Well it was too hard, and man couldn’t do it, so God sent Jesus to conqueror it for us!  He paid the price so all we have to do is just believe!”  Seriously?  That is what people think?  Yes, he conquered it, to show us that we can do it!  Not as perfect as he did, but we can!

Why in the world would people accuse God and pass judgement on Him in saying that He gave us a set of rules (do’s and don’ts) that we could not keep!  What kind of God would that be?  Satan would do that but not the Almighty God!  When someone says these types of things, they are passing judgment on God and His Word!  It is the same thing as calling God a liar, and it is saying that He made a mistake, and He did not know what He was doing!  Man could not keep the rules because He did not want too!

Let me clear something up here:  God does not set people up to fail!

 

Wanting God to make things easy, having a poor attitude, not spending time with God, not seeking His perspectives, feeling sorry for yourself, looking at other people envying what they have, thinking God should bless you for working so hard for Him and wanting God to move people out to make your pathway smooth - is arrogance!  This type of thinking - causes turmoil and anguish in one’s mind.

When these types of thoughts are going on in one’s mind it shows their perspectives, and the intentions of their heart are off!

For any one of us to think any given day in our lives should be better than any given day Jesus had while walking on this Earth - is to place ourselves above Jesus!

Mankind wants something easy!  If it is about work, they would rather play!  Man wants to be stroked and told that they are okay!   “They want to be coddled instead of crucified!” (A.W. Tozer)

Jesus came down to earth and gave up everything that was in Heaven and He did this willingly because God asked him too!   “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son. . .”   (John 3:16)   Jesus laid down his life in Heaven came to earth to suffer and die for you and I and reader he should not have had to do that!  Make sense?  He should not have had to pay the price He did for sinners such as us!  He should not have had to pay it at all!  He just should not have had to!

The price was paid, so He could show us how to do it!  Now we have the example:  Just before Jesus died, he said, “It is finished!”   Jesus had finished the task He was sent to earth for!  The path for us to work out our salvation was given to us.  The example was set.

 

Yeshua is the Son of God - and His Holiness was God in the form of a manHe was the only one who ever walked the earth without making a mistake!  He was sin free!  He did everything perfect! 

The example Jesus set giving up everything He had and paying the price and setting the example of being obedient to God and doing nothing on His own and not doing anything without instructions from His Father.  That was the example He set!  He gave it all up!  And He gave up far more than we can ever imagine on this earth!

Now, we must give up things in our lives and walk as He walked and then our Salvation is secure.  Then what He did on the cross counts in our life!  If we do not walk in his example, we are negating what He did for us!  I do not want to stand before God and have the question posed to me, “Why did you negate what my Son did for you?”

 

 “We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live (walk) as Jesus did.”  I John 2:3-6 (NIV)

If we do not lay down our life and give up everything in our lives to God - then we are not following Christ’s example and we are not following him in the manner he asked us to when he said, “Come follow me.”

Trying to apply the cross without the rest of what Jesus taught and accomplished for us is to negate what Jesus showed us by example!  We do not negate it all together, but we negate the working of the cross in our individual lives, and that is a dangerous place to be.

 

You cannot have the work of the cross in your life by the shedding of the blood and the washing away of sins unless the other part is in place too!  One does not work without the other! 

Jesus gave us His best, His life, His blood!  Our Lord’s example is not worth anything unless a person grabs hold of it.  At this point in time there is very few people that are grabbing hold.  They are assuming that because they have said a sinner’s prayer, that they are grabbing a hold of everything else that goes with it and that is not true!

The blood that Jesus shed becomes priceless, becomes valuable, becomes worth what it is, when it is transformed into an everyday application in somebody’s life.  If it goes unapplied it has no meaning.  If it is quoted and claimed without action it has no value!  If it is accepted but not allowed to cleanse, erase, and prepare and put forth its purpose it is being ignored.  The answer to how to do all those things lies within His example.  For His death on the cross and the blood that was shed to be worth what He went through we must walk like Him, and we must follow in His footsteps, and we must become like Him.  For our salvation to become secured, we must be transformed, we must allow ourselves to change into a usable person.  We must do this for the promise of God to be fulfilled into our lives!

Satan was there when Jesus died, and he was there when he rose again, and he knows that Jesus’ blood was shed for the cleansing of sin!  He knows all that and he believes it probably more than you and I do because he was there and saw it all!  Think about it!  And so, does every demonic spirit in the heavens and on earth!  But they did not lay down their lives for God!  Satan took his to do with what he wanted!  Out of his selfishness he wanted to run his life and do with it what he wanted.  But still, he believes in Jesus!  He believes in God!  He has access to God’s throne room and goes there to visit and talk with God!  He believes!  So, why isn’t Satan going to Heaven?  Once again, I say to you.  If all it takes is to believe, then why is Satan going to Hell?  Satan is going to Hell because he never has TRUSTED God!   Satan’s philosophy was and still is: “You can’t tell me what to do!”

 

So, what is the difference between Satan and someone who is truly saved?  Trust!  Trusting faithfulness to God through his Son Jesus – THE WORD!

It is about trust from beginning to end!  We must be “trusters”, not just believers!  We have the example . . . NOW, LET’S WALK IT OUT! 

 

“When someone truly accepts Jesus into their life, the predominate nature and character of Satan has to begin to leave their life!”

(sw-h)

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