Finding Life

“Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it.” Matthew 10:39.

How beautiful this verse is to the one that understands. I found life in Him, the worth of my life, the beauty in my life, the purpose of my life, the purpose for His life. To live a life in Christ is to know all that He is we are in Him.

 We all struggle to create our lives, create who we are and what we do but somehow it’s never enough, we are never satisfied. When I stopped searching for the life I thought I knew, I found a life I never thought I could know. I am satisfied!

My dad told me a story once about how he would always walk with his face looking down as a child. He didn’t know why he did that but it became his habit. He told me one time when he was walking with his mother in a crowded area, not paying attention he grabbed the hand of a big scary man. To his surprise it wasn’t his mother! Mom soon came to the rescue of course. But he finally found that habit was a bad habit once he ran smack dab into a phone booth. I can’t help to be reminded about how this relates to the life I use to live. I was always focused on my circumstances so caught up in my little world I didn’t watch where I was going, I didn’t take the time to look up. You see if you don’t look up for help in directing your walk your bound to walk into something that’s going to shake your world or grab the hand of a stranger.

Look to Christ, walk with your head held high not focused on your circumstances but with your eyes always on Christ. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight Proverbs 3:6 NIV. You will truly be surprised how everything seems to fall into place once you let go and just devout yourself to loving the Lord.

Who was I before I knew Christ?

I was a control freak I knew that, everything I had to work at. Everything I felt I had to fix, it just had to be my hand in it all and it was tiresome. Two years ago God revealed to me the Gospel through Pastor Joseph Prince. I speak of him specifically because that is who God but put in my own life to reveal Jesus to me and to really help me start and build my intimate relationship with Jesus, something I never had before. I kept coming back to his sermons hungry for just hearing about who Jesus was and how much He loved me.

You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you Jeremiah 29:13

Always coming back was me searching for Christ. Soon I grew a more intimate relationship with Him but I found myself without even that intention. I never heard the Gospel explained that way before Joseph Prince. The Holy Spirit speaks through him of good news, and that’s what I needed to hear. I needed to hear how much I was loved by God, how much I was worth and who Christ made me through His sacrifice. I kept being filled with the Holy Sprit when I heard how much Jesus loves me for me and that soon effortlessly empowered me to live a Holy life. Like Paul, it was like the scales on my eyes fell. I was certainly blind but now I can see!

You see all this time, I kept hearing about how I needed to be something I could never be. I kept hearing and believing that I was a filthy sinner and I had to be free of sin in order to be pleasing in the Lords sight. How could that ever empower me to walk this earth with my eyes focused on Jesus. I tried and I tried to live a right life, a Christian life and when I failed I hid myself from God ashamed. Until I finally came to that realization, knowing that every effort of mine to be perfect and clear of sin in Gods eyes was not going to happen by my effort, I couldn’t see what God did in His effort to already make me all that. You know I believe that’s the biggest barrier in our Christian lives today. We try so hard, we need to do this, we need to be that, I have to act like this, I need to pray like that, so on and so on that it keeps focusing on WE, ME, and I. When does HE come in? We spend much time focused on ourselves with good intentions of course but there is an easier path to your transformation and intimate relationship with Christ.

We say that Christ is in us but why do we preach, glorious Jesus, ugly us. No! Glorious Jesus, glorious us.

I heard my pastor preach once that the amount of money in a man’s checking account affects the way he goes about his day. Our walk is affected by the knowledge of our wealth. Do you know how much you are valued?

Sometimes we get so analytical about everything. Why is it so hard for us to believe we are saved? Truly saved! No I’m not talking halfway saved, saved one day but not the next, saved when I got my life in order but not when it’s a mess. Do you truly believe and act like you are saved? Look at it with childlike eyes Saved is saved. God’s ways are very simple but still man finds a way to make everything so hard, so complicated. It’s the simplicity of God, its just a look but for mans perspective its one of the hardest things to look away from self and look to Christ.

Like in any relationship, when you constantly remind yourself of your partners sins towards you it only holds back any progression in your relationship and if you yourself are constantly reminded of your sins towards them does that empower you to be better? Stop dwelling in your own self pity, guilt whatever it may be, that is only holding you back from progressing in your relationship with God. And likewise we shouldn’t teach others to dwell on their sins, its time to move forward.

Practice your salvation by praying with thanks.

“Lord, I’ve sinned. Today I yelled at my husband/wife and cursed it was ugly Lord but Lord, I know you still love me Lord, even with all my faults. Thank you father for forgiving me of my sins by giving your son, your only son to die on the cross for my sins.”

“Lord I’m a sinner, I’ve sinned against you, I’m not worthy of your love. I yelled and complained to my husband/wife please forgive me Lord.”

There is nothing wrong with those two prayers but one is practicing their salvation more. One of those prayers uplifts the sinner more, causing them to walk away feeling Jesus grace and mercy and empowers to go and sin no more.

Conquer step one first before anything else, believe in your salvation. You will never be free of sin but you can be free from sin.

To be honest, I have been struggling with what God has revealed to me since day one. My eyes have been opened to the message of grace, not finger pointing, CONFESS, CONFESS, CONFESS but pure love and grace however that seems to be all that people know how to do, condemn others and themselves. I hunger to hear about how great Jesus is, not how ugly I am.

For if by the one mans trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift overflowed to the many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. And the gift is not like the one mans sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification.

So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is life-giving justification for everyone, For just as through one mans disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one mans obedience the many will be made righteous.

Let’s put Jesus back where He belongs. We need more sermons that unveil Christ in the scripture, not telling people what to do, what not to do. The lowest form of preaching is to tell people what to do, what not to do. There’s a place for it, its in the sermon but the highest form is unveiling Christ. ~Joseph Prince

Teach others about their salvation. People don’t need church to remind them of their sins, they already know, they know when they make them, they know when their at home by themselves with the guilt, they know about them when their on their way to church. What they need is to be reminded of Jesus and what He did and why He did it. They need encouragement, the good news, uplifting. We should come out of church encouraged and feeling loved, and pumped up about who we are in Christ not sad, discouraged and feeling unworthy. Preach Gods kindness and He’ll do the rest. That’s all were asked to do. Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that Gods kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? Romans2:3-4.

There are only two kinds of human beings, unbelieving sinners and believing sinners. I believe in repentance but its what I believe repentance is that matters. Repentance is written in the bible, in Hebrew as teshuva, which is to return. In Greek, repentance is metanoeo, which means, to change ones mind, to change ones mind for the better.

Not everyone is going to accept the gospel. It seems too easy to say I don’t have to do anything but believe and I am forgiven. These are people who boast in their efforts. They have to receive grace by their efforts. Grace is owed to them.

The law is important, the Old Testament is important but lets bring Jesus forth from those. This is what will motivate and empower your people to go and sin no more. Take the Emmaus disciples, after Jesus death and resurrection they were discouraged, walking with one another disputing what had taken place because they did not see Jesus after his resurrection so it was hard for them to believe that He was the Son of God. So Jesus showed up but they were prevented from recognizing Him. Jesus ask them why they are arguing and they began to tell Him about how they had hope but because they didn’t witness Jesus resurrection they didn’t know what to believe. Remember they were prevented from seeing. Jesus tells them, “How unwise and slow you are to believe in your hearts all that the prophets have spoken! Didn’t the Messiah have to suffer these things and enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scripture.

Luke 24:13-27

This encouraged the disciples, their hearts were ablaze within them as He was talking with them and explaining the Scriptures. This is a picture of us, we have the same equal opportunity as they, even though they did not see Jesus, they were encouraged and believed when He showed himself in the bible. That’s how you get motivation to think right, do right, show them Jesus in the bible.

I know there will be some who don’t agree with what I have written here but its ok, Jesus gives us the opportunity to decide for ourselves what we choose to believe. But I can truly say in my life, I did not start to transform on the inside and out until I realized Grace is a gift and not something worked for. Believers can fall from Gods grace but God is always there with them and once they return He is ALWAYS there with open arms.

You must believe that Jesus is Lord, for if there was never a Jesus there was never your forgiveness. With the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation. Romans 10:8-10

Jesus is Lord

God bless,
Marisa

A Letter to My Brothers

A CORD OF THREE STRANDS

  Brothers,

On Tuesday we will face the ones responsible for our mothers death and the life lost of a young man. Brothers take courage and do not be afraid, God is on our side! If our estimation of Christ is small then we will receive little, but thanks be to God, our estimation of Christ our Lord is huge therefore we will receive BIG. The reason we come to God, to fight in this battle is for no one to have to go through what we did, for no one to have to lose their mother, friend, companion, sister and daughter over the things of this world. We are children of God and God is fighting this battle for our victory. Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay, says the LORD. I believe we were brought up by our parents to be a family after the Lords heart, our heart burns with passion for the Lord. I have always seen something glorious in you Gabriel ever since we were small children always feeling the love of God surrounding you and Ponce everything you are now is for the Lord, you are pleasing in His sight. You lost your life to find a new one, a life with Christ and you lead your family in serving the Lord, what a blessing you are to ALL that know you. As He has predestined us, He also called us; and as He called us, He also justified us; and being justified, He also glorified us. Romans 8:30. Brothers we rejoice in our afflictions, yes mom was taken so soon but we rejoice because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. Romans 5:3. We have hope, we are hopeful in this case. We walk by faith, not by sight. From now on, let no one cause us trouble, because we carry the marks of Jesus on our bodies. Brothers as we enter that room, filled with our opposers full of knowledge on their laws and regulations let fear not come into Gods holy sanctuary that is in you for our knowledge is in the LORD. Let us walk in like warriors waving the banner of our Lord God. With truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. Take your shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take your helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is Gods word. Brothers with God on our side, no one can defeat us, we MUST believe that. Let us not be like people of this world expecting so little from God and of little faith. Brothers faith is never too bold to please the Lord. Its time we take advantage of what the good Lord has given us, let our faith honor the Lord. Center your eyes on Jesus and we shall triumph over this storm and the clashing waves, it shall be under our feet. Let there be no division among us, let us be united with the same understanding and the same conviction. Let not our flesh take over and speak impatiently. Don't worry about how or what you should speak. For you will be given what to say at that hour, because you are not speaking, but the Spirit of your Father is speaking through you. Let us not worry of what others might think or say before, during and after this case because man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart. The Lord sees our hearts and thats all that matters. Let us remember and be encouraged by David and how he went against goliath. The huge beast stood before and above David, saying "Come here and Ill give your flesh to the birds of the sky and wild beasts!" But David said, "You come against me with a dagger, spear, and sword, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Hosts. Today, the LORD, will hand you over to me. Then all the world will know that Israel has a God, and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear that the LORD saves, for the battle is the LORDS.

The Lord will hand this case over to us brothers, and then the whole world will know that the Lord is with us, for this battle is His!!!! 

Let us also be reminded of another event in the bible. Faced with war, Jehoash king of Israel went before the prophet Elisha. Elisha said, "Take the arrows!" So he took them, and he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground!" So he struck the ground three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have struck the ground five or six times. Then you would have struck down Aram until you had put an end to them, but now you will only strike down Aram three times.

Let our faith be in the Lord to do more than our flesh can ever imagine. Let us be united in the Lords decision and let us always remember that no matter what our mother is finally home, dancing for Jesus, singing with the children and enjoying the many splendors of heaven.

For to the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy, but to the sinner He gives the task of gathering and accumulating in order to give to the one who is pleasing in Gods sight. Ecclesiastes 2:26 HCSB

Wisdom makes the wise man stronger than ten rulers of a city. Ecclesiastes 7:19 HCSB

Even if everyone else is a liar, God is true. As the Scriptures say about him, "You will be proved right in what you say, and you will win your case in court." Romans 3:4 NLT

Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. Ephesians 5:11

But no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgement you shall show to be in the wrong. The [peace, righteousness, security, triumph over opposition] is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. Isaiah 54:17 AMP

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 KJV

When a mans ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Proverbs 16:7 KJV

This battle is the LORDS, let us sit back, rest and let the LORD handle it.

And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12 KJV

New Covenant Ministry

I feel that a new generation is emerging among us, a generation that hears a new message. A message that has always been there but has only begun to arise and bear fruit.

It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and recognized Gods grace in the truth Col 1:5. Ever since I opened my eyes to this message I have been dwelling in that love and peace and everything makes so much more sense, in life and in Gods words. See if you are like I was you are under spiritual bondage, always feeling this weight of guilt on your shoulders when you try to come before God in prayer. Your sin consciousness is declaring yourself unworthy and you run from him in shame. As Adam and Eve did when they realized they had done something wrong, they hid from God ashamed. For some reason you haven’t heard the good news, your sins are no more…past, present and future. It is time for you to be Jesus conscience. Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness, access, and confidence through faith in Him Ephesians 3:12. Present yourself boldly to God, in confidence because now you have access to behold Gods grace and voice your prayers to Him knowing that you will be heard because of your faith in Jesus Christ. In the old covenant, no one was to behold God or enter the “holy of holies” which was were God dwelled in the earthen tabernacle, only the high priest could enter but since Jesus sacrifice you are now worthy, you yourself are now the holy of holies. Don’t you know that you are Gods sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you 1 Corinthians 3:16.

I was once told, “Well I don’t pray because I feel like I’m always going to sin anyway so why even try. Its not right to God that I keep coming to him and asking forgiveness and forgiveness when its just going to keep happening.” You see before I knew the truth, before I knew about Gods grace I couldn’t answer that person in boldness. I stumbled and left her with a simple, “Well your never going to be perfect so why wait to be perfect”. See it is important to arm yourself with the word of God, knowing your scripture, The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in an earthen furnace, purified seven times Psalm 12:6. His words are flawless. With His words Jesus was able to drive away satan when tempted Mt 4:1-11, King David saw that knowing the word of God was the key to purity Ps 119:9-11, Paul says the word of God is a sword in your amour against the devils schemes Ep 6:13-18.  See now knowing Gods grace, the word of God flows out like the language of tongues from my mouth but I still have a lot to learn. It doesn’t leave you confused, disappointed and unworthy but confident, excited, happy and loved. That’s what the message of truth will leave you with. Now you’re asking, ok what is this message of truth. The new covenant ministry, is this new message, the message of Jesus. It wasn’t always so that mans sin was forgiven past, present and future. In the old covenant, before Jesus sacrifice, man had to give a sin offering to God that would only last one year long. Now to know the new covenant you must first understand the old covenant. I wont go into deep detail only because there is just so much. So I’ll try to be somewhat short. In the old covenant there was the creation of the law (commandments). By the strength of the Lords hand, He brought Israel out of Egypt through Moses. Now if you read Exodus you will see how the Israelites continued to doubt God, continued to forget every miracle that was done by God for the people. He split open the ocean for them and closed it only on their enemies, they rejoiced and sang to the Lord, then three days later they complained to moses that they had nothing to drink. Yet God made the bitter water drinkable. Not long after that, I mean days later, they grumbled against Moses saying "If only we had died by the Lords hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!" Exodus 16:3.  So God rained bread from heaven. Then soon after that once again they complained there was nothing to drink saying "Why did you ever bring us out of Egypt to kill us...?" Doubt after doubt, complaint after complaint yet nothing but grace and grace from God. He made water come out from a rock at Horeb. After all this, they boast of themselves telling God, " We will do all that the Lord has spoken." You see going back when at Marah, where God made the bitter water drinkable, God first mentions the commands and statutes. He made a statute and ordinance for them at Marah and He tested them there Exodus 15:25. Could it have been a test the whole time? Did God want to see if they would lean on Him, depend on Him to be their God, to be their help? I believe so. Unfortunately they didn't see, they didn't lean on him enough to give it all to Him and stop from depending on themselves. I can only imagine the let down when God heard them boast in themselves after coming through for them time after time. So once at Mount Sinai, God brought forth the commands and statutes, to show his love for us. You see how could we ever be thankful of the Lord if we don't see His undeserving love. When we stop needing the Lord thats when we are lost. The Lord tells Moses, that they must make an earthen altar for the Lord and sacrifice on it their burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Once a year the high priest was to perform the purification rite with the blood of the sin offering for atonement. The high priest was appointed in service to God for the people to offer both gift and sacrifices for sins Heb 5:1. The priest would offer these sacrifices behind the second curtain in the room called “holy of holies” in the tabernacle. The Lord spoke with Moses saying, “He (High Priest) is to take some of the bulls blood and sprinkle it with his finger against the east side of the mercy seat then he will sprinkle some of the blood with his finger before the mercy seat seven times. When he slaughters the male goat for the peoples sin offering and brings its blood inside the veil, he must do the same with its blood as he did with the bulls blood: he is to sprinkle it against the mercy seat and in front of it Lev 16:14-15. The bull’s blood was a sin offering for the high priest and the goat was a sin offering for the people of Israel. Why was the sin offering done in the “holy of holies”? Well as mentioned earlier, that is where God dwelled, “Tell your brother Aaron (High Priest) the that he may not come whenever he wants into the holy place behind the veil in front of the mercy seat on the ark or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat Lev 16:2. (Picture provided above). So what was this mercy seat that God dwelled above? The mercy seat covered the ark of the covenant, you can read about the making and detail of the ark and the mercy seat in Exodus 37:1-9.The mercy seat had two cherubim of gold, one on each end of the mercy seat, the wings covered the mercy seat and they were facing each other (picture above). The faces of the cherubim were looking down toward the mercy seat. Inside the ark was the gold jar containing the manna (bread from heaven when man lost faith and complained there was nothing to eat), Aaron’s rod that budded (when Israel came against Moses and Aaron complaining against them, Aarons rod blossomed and produced almonds), and the tablets of the covenant (10 commandments). All these were a representation of mans sin. So to put it all together once the blood of the sin offering covered the mercy seat that the cherubim looked down at and God covered, God would make His approval of the sacrifice and forgive the people of their sins until the next year of offering.

God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood Romans 3:25. Today it is not the blood of animals that makes propitiation for our sins, but the holy blood of the Son of God. Propitiation in the original Greek text is “hilasterion,” which actually means “Mercy Seat.” So Christ is our Mercy Seat (Pastor Prince). God sees the blood of Jesus and accepts us, Amen! Here are a few verses from Hebrews Chapter 9 and 10 that really speak for themselves.

Now the Messiah has appeared, high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), He entered the holy of holies once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats an bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrews 9:11-14.

How much more is Jesus blood, from bulls and goats? Enough to cleanse us of our sins once and for all. In the sacrifices of bulls and goats it kept us in condemnation as written, But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year Hebrews 10:3 You see, Jesus did not go through the tabernacle here on earth before the Lord, He went straight to God Himself and claimed your righteousness, your pureness, your cleansed life forever and ever, with His blood. Forever and ever you ask? Well that’s not true, if you ask for forgiveness today and sin tomorrow, well then you have to ask for forgiveness again. The bible says ONCE AND FOR ALL.

He did not do this to offer Himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. Otherwise, He would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Himself Hebrews 9:25-27.

So you keep thinking, well in order to be worthy we all must keep every single commandment or else we will no longer be acceptable to God and He will turn from us every time we sin. Ok well here’s another verse, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing Galatians 2:21. We have to stop downgrading Jesus blood.

Perfect Christian, you must be this, you must be that. Relax it is not by your works that keeps you righteous, it is by your faith in Jesus Christ. Simple as that. Look at Abraham, he lived hundreds of years before the law came and yet God called him righteous.

If Abraham was justified by works, then he has something to brag about-but not before God. For what does the Scripture say?  Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness Romans 4:2-4. I mean the man lied two times about his wife, telling the king that she was his sister in order to keep his life. God didn’t see that, He saw that Abraham believed in God, had faith in Him. Now right about now, you might be thinking that I am pro-sin, don’t care about the law. No that is not it. I am simply saying Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law Gal 3:13. He takes away the first to establish the second (old covenant & new covenant). By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all Hebrews 10:9-10. And also Jesus says, “Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” Matthew 5:17.

But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him- if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith, and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard Colossians 1:22-23.

We are so stuck on preaching the law, its no wonder the younger generation have left the church. I am speaking with my own testimony. I always heard the word of God and went to church before joining the Army but it wasn’t until recently that I have come to live for God. One day my husband and I went to a new church after just moving to Barstow, maybe a year ago. I was so excited about it, I was just eager to hear about the Lord and happy also that my husband finally wanted to go to church with me. Now before I say this, understand, that I understand that it isn’t about the people in the church but going for fellowship and learning Gods word. I found myself, however starting off smiling but ended confused and ashamed leaving there empty. The fingers were constantly being shaken at the congregation only telling us how much we were wrong, wrong, wrong. I couldn’t help but to feel let down on the inside. My Spirit was thirsty for the good news. I wanted to hear about Jesus and his love for me, for us. One of my teachers and beloved Pastor, Joseph Prince explained it all in a sermon saying that, a father’s approval empowers you to reign in life. Remember as a child, when you did something that you thought was awesome, you were so proud of yourself. What did you do? You went to show your father right? Look dad look what I did, or look what I can do. That approval meant, means everything to you. I remember my father told me once, that as long as I tried he was proud of me. I don’t know if he remembers but I think I had a few bad grades and my dad saw that I was really trying but I just had a hard time comprehending certain subjects in school. He must have hurt for me but with that reassurance that he would always and forever be proud of me even though I didn’t have straight A’s, with that I could rest in his love knowing that if I fell he would be right there telling me it was ok. There was no burden laid upon me. Understand this though, that did not make me want to go out and fail every class or get into trouble, that only empowered me to be confident in myself, my worth and to do my best with no stress. Just like sin, when you know how much your father God loves you unconditionally and you rest on that, it doesn’t make you want to go out and sin more but to live for God more. Before I heard this message, I still lived of this world, watching television shows that were filthy, music with cussing and rarely picked up the Bible. It wasn’t until I started to hear about Gods love for me, Jesus sacrifice for me, my sins forgiven that I stopped all those things unconsciously. I didn’t even realize but I started living a life of a new person, a worthy person, forgiven. When I was still in high school I remember Jesus telling me two things, now this is the only time in my life that Jesus has ever spoken to me, and really these two messages were all I needed. First, as I was sitting there packing on my makeup (remember I was in high school), He told me "I love you." The most beautiful I love you I ever heard, then a few days after He told me that "everything would always be ok." I understand now why He told me those two things in that order. If He were to have told me everything would always be ok first, I probably wouldn't have held on to that all these years like I have if I hadn't known why it would always be ok. Why? Because He loves me. He loves us all, and that message is written up and down the Bible. You may not know Him well but He knows you and it doesn't matter who you are or what you've done, He is never going to leave you but you must lean on Him. Going back to Pastor Prince sermon here is another example of the empowerment of the father’s approval and love. When Jesus came up from the water, after being baptized by John, the heavens opened up and God said, “This is my beloved Son” yet Jesus had not yet done one single miracle. When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert, what was the devils common theme? He left out one word, “Beloved”. “If you are the Son of God”, he would say. Why do you think he did this? He didn’t want to remind Jesus that He is Gods beloved. You see, temptations cannot succeed when we have a sense that we are Gods beloved.

There is an example of the differences of the two covenants in Galatians Chapter 4, Sarah and Hagar. Now if you do not remember, Abraham was married to Sarah. Sarah could not for a time bare a child so she told Abraham to sleep with Hagar their slave, in order to have a child.

Tell me, you who want to be under the law, don’t you hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman. But the one by the slave was born according to the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things are illustrations, for the women represent the two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai (law came from) and bears children into slavery-this is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children… Throw out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never inherit with the son of the free woman Galatians 4:21-30.

Jesus speaks of sin saying, “ Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever. Therefore if the Son sets you free, you really will be free” John 8:36. We believers in Christ are not slaves of sin but free through Christ Jesus. This also brings me to another subject. Why do you dwell on the sins of others in your family, making them your own? Is this not spiritual bondage? You know right after Jesus had said this in John Chapter 8, “A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever”, Jesus healed a man blind from birth. This man others accused as being born out of sin, yet Jesus shows His grace towards him seeing no sin but healing the man of blindness. Stop holding yourself back from your miracle today, and know that you are no longer under the old covenant law, you are worthy and He is willing.

Under the law, if someone had a skin disease, he would have to go to the priest to pronounce him unclean. He must also cry out “unclean, unclean” and live alone in a place outside the camp, or city. In Mark 1:40, Jesus knowing the law better than anyone see’s a man with a serious skin disease come to Him, and on his knees begged Him saying: “ If You are willing, You can make me clean.” For the man to come out into the village, that was against the law on its own but Jesus moved with compassion, reached out His hand and touched him and said, “I am willing” Mark 1:40-45. This man more than likely has not been touched in many years by another person, separated from his family to live alone. I could just imagine the look on Jesus face, so kind and loving not refraining Himself to what the law has cast out.

The gospel is filled with verses that will help you to understand the difference of old vs the new covenant, law vs grace. For if that first covenant had been faultless, no opportunity would have been sought for a second one Hebrews 8:7.

The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus Galatians 3:24.

He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter(law), but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit produces life 2 Corinthians 3:6.

Now don’t think that God just let the sin of man go freely. Someone had to pay a price. Our God is of love and justice. The law was made for man and only man could be punished for it. Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirits law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sins domain, and as a sin offering, in order that the laws requirement would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit Romans 8:1-4

I will leave you with one more verse and then I will have to end this seeing how I can get carried away sometimes but I intend on continuing this message soon. You could always look up Joseph Prince- Forgiven righteously through Jesus our Mercy Seat or read about the new covenant ministry in the New Testament.

Ephesians 2:11

So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh-called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” done by hand in the flesh. At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, with no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In His flesh, He did away with the law of the commandments in regulations, so that He might create in Himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. He did this so that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross and put the hostility to death by it. When Christ came, He proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of Gods household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. 

God Bless,
Marisa Stoffel

Sealed with the promised Holy Spirit

Have you ever been faced with a decision to make and you knew what you wanted to do but something on the inside was prompting you to take another route? With your eyes your decision seems logically right but with your heart it was not. How about having that sudden feeling to help someone you felt was in need or maybe noticing someone in the store that you sensed was hurting by whatever it was they were struggling with in life, so you give them a smile, the only thing you can do that might help ease their pain. Some may call it your conscience or the act of compassion, but those are only a few characteristics to the Holy blessing inside of you. We all have the Spirit of Christ within us. Do you know about the Holy Spirit?

For it is written, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want Gal 5:16-17. You might be asking, who really is this Spirit, what is its purpose? Jesus talks about the Spirit as the Counselor, the Spirit of truth. In John 15:26 Jesus says, when the Counselor comes, the One I will send to you from the Father-the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father-He will testify about Me. John 16:7 It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in Me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me; and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged… When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you. Everything the Father has is Mine. This is why I told you that He takes from what is Mine and will declare it to you John 16:7-15. It is easy to take from this that the Spirit is given to us as a guide with one destination in mind, Jesus and all of Jesus. The Hebrew translation for the Spirit, Ruach, is known as, wind or breath and the Greek transliteration of the Holy Spirit, Paraclete, means called beside or along side to help. We can relate the wind or breath (Old Testament-Hebrew) to God forming man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils Genesis 2:7. We were created in His image, with the Holy Spirit dwelling within however with the fall of man we soon lost the Spirit of God within us. Genesis 6:3 "My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years." So we no longer had everlasting life right. But (New Testament-Greek) once Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for us, he left us with the Holy Spirit, in each believer as our helper, our guide, our truth. And if you read in the Old Testament very few were given the Holy Spirit from God, mostly only to accomplish Gods will but as soon as Christ came and died for mans sin you will see that many and many more were blessed with the Holy Spirit for believing in Christ and our lives were no longer numbered but we were given everlasting life, 1 John 5:11 God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

Do you have the Holy Spirit with you? Well in Ephesians 1:13 Paul writes, In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation-in Him when you believed-were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Now I am no expert in the readings of the bible but when God says, when you believed, you were sealed, I believe it. I think sometimes people believe that the Holy Spirit is too unattainable, but why would God want to withhold the Spirit of truth, the truth about Jesus Christ? For it is written in Luke 11:13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? And it is also written, For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of Gods household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone Eph 2:18. We believers are not foreigners of Gods household.

Can the Holy Spirit be taken from you once you receive it? You know I was always afraid that the Holy Spirit would depart from me, once I did, said or thought something wrong. I made Him so delicate. I guess I thought He came, went, came, went, what a silly thing. If this is so true then how was it that Jesus having the Holy Spirit on Him, how was he able to walk the earth, the crowded streets filled with commotion, shouting, crying, and hecklers? He still was filled with anointing was he not? He healed and continued to heal. The Holy Spirit is strong, confident and courageous. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. It is important to understand that the Holy Spirit is of Jesus and God. God is a triune God, meaning he is of three, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Might seem a bit confusing to a new believer but educate yourself on the trinity of God through the Bible for your benefit. This is why Jesus says in John 16:7, that the Holy Spirit will speak whatever He hears. Jesus speaks for the Holy Spirit and Jesus is of God, unity.

 Did you know that you can grieve the Holy Spirit? In Eph 4:29-32, No rotten talk should come from your mouth, but only what is good for the building up of someone in need, in order to give grace to those who hear. And don’t grieve Gods Holy Spirit, who sealed you for the day of redemption. All bitterness, anger and wrath, insult and slander must be removed from you, along with all wickedness. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. Amen to that right? Be careful of what comes out of your mouth and mind. If you know when you are speaking it that it is not right with the Lord then why continue on. If the Lords Spirit tells you to hush, then hush, simple as that, Amen. Walk in the light of Christ. This reminds me of an earlier post I did “The light within," helps you get a sense of feeding your Spirit the right stuff.

 Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body 1 Corinthians 6:19. If you now know that you hold the Holy Spirit within you, a gift from the one and only God, would you respect it, appreciate and use it. Use it, how can I do that? It is important to know that the Holy Spirit is for you, loves you. Romans 15:30, …through Christ Jesus and through the love of the Spirit. Yes, the love of the Spirit, not our love of the Spirit but the love of the Spirit towards us. The Holy Spirit longs to help us in our time of weakness as this next verse shows us. In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings Romans 8:26 (Gift of tongues). Simply ask the Holy Spirit to pray for you when you find yourself confused, lost and unsure of the right thing to say to God, the right thing to ask of him, that should be all the time right, for God knows what we do not know. Listen to the Holy Spirit, your Counselor. You know what is right from wrong. For it is also written, I will put My laws on their hearts, and I will write them on their minds Heb 10:16. Yes you know what is right, you’ve just been caught up with listening to, you. You see the commandments, the law, was removed once Christ came in and gave his life for us, removing all sins, removing that condemnation within but God did not leave us without knowing what’s right from wrong, how to be a better mankind, He placed it within us. 

Do you know that the Spirit talks to you? In Acts 13:2, the Holy Spirit speaks with the prophets, giving them instruction on His will. In fact, the New Testament is filled with several stories of how the Holy Spirit talks with the apostles, believers in Christ. Phillip, was told by the Spirit to get up and go to the desert Gaza, so he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a high official of the queen of the Ethiopians in charge of her entire treasury. He was sitting in his chariot reading the prophet Isaiah aloud. There the Spirit told Phillip to go and join the chariot. So Phillip ran up to it. When he heard the man reading the prophet Isaiah, he asked him if he knew what he was reading. The man said no, so he invited Phillip to sit with him and guide him through the scripture passage. Well that passage happened to be about our Christ Savior. The eunuch asked who it was about, so Phillip started to tell him the good news about Jesus. Amen! Not only that, the man even accepted the Lord Jesus Christ and was baptized by Phillip that same day. Glory be to God for Gods will was being accomplished by the Holy Spirit through Phillip. Then there is Peter, he had a vision while praying one morning of a large sheet being lowered to the earth by its four corners. In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, and the birds of the sky, a voice said to him, "Get up Peter; kill and eat!" Peter told the Lord, No, "For I have never eaten anything common and unclean!" Then the voice said to him, "What God has made clean, you must not call common." Act 10:11-15 As he was thinking about the vision, very perplexed about it, the Spirit told him to get up and go downstairs because there were three men looking for him, and that he was to follow them with no doubts because He had sent them. Peter went and soon found out what that vision was about, teaching the news about Jesus Christ to the gentiles, baptizing them with the Holy Spirit, which at that time was unknown to the apostles since they were only teaching the good news to the Jews. God had made the gentiles clean (forgiven) and God wanted Peter to teach them the good news about Christ Jesus. The Spirit in this story of Peter much like Phillip helped to bring truth to the unbelievers, showing them the love of Christ.  It’s an awesome story, starts in Acts 10. The Holy Spirit said something to these men of God, and they didn’t sit on it and wait, or just not listen, they got up, they ran to it. I want to be the one to run to the will of God. Don’t you? They Holy Spirit also has a will for each one of us. A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person to produce what is beneficial 1 Cor 12:7. As you read you will see the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the message of wisdom through the Spirit, faith by the same Spirit, prophecy, different kinds of languages, interpretation of languages and so on, distributing to each one as He wills. For the longest time I could not speak in tongues and I wanted to for so long. I was hurt when I saw other believers receiving that gift, was I not good enough I thought. I was so off. Its not about you being good enough, you know you already are since God gave his one and only Son for you. It’s just a matter of Gods timing and your believing. Ask God for it, and expect to receive it. As soon as I did, I could not stop speaking in Gods language for two hours straight. It was beautiful. I even rocked my son to sleep singing the most beautiful song ever. I hope this gave you some insight to who the Holy Spirit is and what He wants for you. Stop thinking you are unworthy to receive the Spirit of God, you are the only thing holding yourself back from the anointing of the Holy Spirit, God already counts you worthy, if He didn’t he wouldn’t have sent his Son down to sacrifice His life for you.

Love & God bless,

Marisa

The light within

Last weekend my husband bought a deep fryer and around the same time I started watching a TV series that was not to my standards. Like much of the media today, it was full of violence, sex, and cursing. I must admit though, it was suspenseful and had me wanting to watch more. Im a big believer on "Positiveness." If you surround yourself with it you'll start to feel it and live it. For example, What happens when you hang around a person with an accent? You all of a sudden get the accent, or someone who curses, unfortunetly you start catching yourself cursing. So anyway, I try to cut the ugly out of my life and watch my sermons almost everyday, read the bible or watch Foodnetwork :) However even though I knew I shouldn't, I starting watching that show (leaving the name out). After I had got done watching the show several times since it was a series, I started to have this...well there is no other way to say it, yucky feeling. It wasn't until I had finished my third meal that week from our new deep fryer that I got a better understanding of the Holy Spirit within me. Which by the way every believer in Jesus Christ has. The bible says in Ephesians 1:13 'In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation- in Him when you believed- were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.' That right there is telling us that you don't have to speak tongues, read the bible three times a day or be a hardcore Christian to have the Holy Spirit within you although those are great gifts to have. Its there, He's there. So after my greasy fried chicken meal, don't get me wrong it was great but I started to feel weighed down and nauseous just like I started feeling during and after I had watched that show. To get a better understanding think about how you feel after you eat a greasy hamburger and fries compared to a salad or veggies, theres a difference, right? Not to long back, I read a verse that stuck with me. You know when you read a verse and you know exactly what it means to you. Well this is one of those verses

No one lights a lamp and puts it in the cellar or under a basket, but on a lamp stand, so that those who come in may see its light. Your eye is the lamp of the body. When your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light. But when it is bad, your body is also full of darkness. Take care then, that the light in you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, the whole body will be full of light, as when a lamp shines its light on you.  Luke 11:33-36

My Jesus said that, your Jesus said that. So take care of yourself. Watch things that are going to feed the Holy Spirit within you. It has an affect on your physical body believe me I know. Cleanse your body, go on a detox, get rid of the ugly. You don't have to watch the Gospel channels only but watch what you know is right, and you will know. You'll start to see and feel the difference within and not only you but others around you will see the light shine within you.

By the way these are my first few post. Im not great at writing but I'll pray for that. Im just trying to record what I learn or what the Holy Spirit is helping me to understand, not only for you but for me as well. So please bare with me on these post. I hope to soon have a post up on what the bible says about the Holy Spirit within you.

Love & God Bless,
Marisa