Destined to Reign - Grace has a name!

I previously wrote about reading a book called Destined to Reign by pastor Joseph Prince. Due to previous mental programming, I thought that maybe the title was a little presumptuous. But that's o.k., because He is faithful to show the way, one step at a time. And, it's also scriptural --

Rom 5:17 KJVA
(17) For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; [meaning Adam] much
more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

and closely following that verse:

Rom 5:21 KJVA
(21) That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

As I was reading the book, I came to page 149 where it discusses Romans 8:1, where the KJV says:

Rom 8:1 KJVA
(1) There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

So many (including myself) have come to the understanding that IF you walk after the Spirit, there is no condemnation; but IF you walk after the flesh, there IS condemnation. When I was growing up, my 1st step-mother would either threaten or proclaim that some 'wrong' action had put you on her 'shit-list'. Some days, it didn't take much more than having a pulse to put you there - seriously! So my view of God was somewhat colored by that, wondering if I was on or off that list. How wonderful to begin to glimpse the Truth of His grace.

In addition to e-Sword (electronic Bible); I have a print copy of the King James version and an NASB, as well as a Lamsa translation and the Jewish New Testament translation by David H. Stern. So before I finished reading pg 149 in Destined to Reign, I jumped up and got my NASB Bible and read that it says:

Rom 8:1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus.

[period]

Then I turned the page, and see that on pg 150 Joseph Prince has the NASB translation there, too. Wow, that's amazing, was what I thought. Now I know there's some controversy about the different translations, and there's the 'King James only' crowd, so take a look at this discussion about that, in relation to this passage, if you'd like.

In case you're wondering, here's a couple of other translations:

There is therefore no condemnation to them who walk in the flesh after the
Spirit of Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:1 - Lamsa translation)

And in the Jewish New Testament it reads:

Therefore there is no longer any condemnation awaiting those who are in union
with the Messiah Yeshua.

As I was pondering this insight, the Spirit had me look up the following passage, in effect He's confirming the NASB (and similar) translations:

Joh 3:17-18 KJVA
(17) For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
(18) He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Notice it says 'He [or in my case she] that believeth on him is not condemned:...' with no qualifiers! (in verse 3:10 it says: "Jesus answered and said unto him..." and then it goes on. So if you have a 'red letter' Bible, John 3:17 and 18 are written in red!) So what Paul wrote to the Romans was and is in agreement with the words that Jesus himself spoke, and there is no higher authority!

As Joseph Prince says (I've watched some of his YouTube videos) - Hallelujah!
Knowing that goes a long way toward being relieved of the fear of condemnation, as a believer. It'll be a process to fully grasp the understanding and being able to rest in His finished work, and of course EFT can help in that process. More to come!

The gospel is good news?

I just finished reading a couple of books by Pastor Joseph Prince, and now I can finally say that Yes, the gospel of Jesus Christ is indeed good news! (gospel means 'good news' -- and according to this article it means 'nearly-too-good-to-be-true news!' More from the article later.)

The 2 books I read are: Destined to Reign, and Spiritual Warfare. I'll have more in subsequent blog articles on info. from both of those, because they really helped clarify some things for me. Much of what I've heard of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been a mixture of 'law' and 'grace' and the 2 are just not compatible. No wonder it didn't always feel like 'good news'.

I'm still learning to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit (Emmanuel, if you will), but one day at church almost a year ago (May 27, 2007 - I wrote it down in a journal I write in sporadically) I was at church and we were standing up singing a song; which I now wish I'd also noted what song it was, but it probably doesn't matter -- and inside my head I heard a loud (almost booming) male voice say "Cia - hope!". (Cia being my first name and hope being a command of sorts.) It was just those 2 words. Wow. I looked around to see if anyone else heard anything, it was so loud. But they were all still singing.

You see, I'm studying this spiritual warfare issue because it's something I need for myself, too. That had never happened before, and so far it hasn't happened since. Maybe He wanted to make it dramatic enough that I couldn't miss it. I had meant to do a search for scriptures about 'hope', but it's one of those things that has been sitting on the back burner. All I wrote in my sermon notes for that day was that we studied Romans ch 6. Usually I write a little more than that, but that day I didn't.

I was reminded of that and looked back in my journal for the date, because Joseph Prince discusses hope in the Spiritual Warfare book, beginning on page 71:

[quoting from 1 Thessalonians 5:8] ... putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation." So what is "hope"? In the Bible, hope is a positive or confident expectation of good. Today, we use the word hope too glibly. ... So when God says "have hope", he wants you to have a confident expectation that good things will happen.

Is that great, or what? I also just looked it up in my Strong's Concordance, and in most of the New Testament uses of 'hope' it comes from the greek 1679 or 1680 - 1 Thes 5:8 is 1680. The definition for 1679 says it's from 1680, and means to expect or confide and is translated in the KJV as hope or trust. Strong's definition of 1680 is that it's from another word that means to anticipate, usually with pleasure; expectation or confidence and is translated in the KJV as faith, hope. I need to take that to heart.

And in closing, I'll quote a few paragraphs from the article linked below.
Grace: The Power Of The Gospel - Article - Andrew Wommack Ministries

Many people around the world who embrace “Christianity” have never heard the true Gospel.
They believe Christianity is nothing but a different set of rules, substituting Christian "dos and don’ts" for those of other religions. They continue to believe they must earn their way to God and then do their best to deserve the benefits of salvation. That’s not the true Gospel.

The Gospel is directly related to the grace of God. That's the only way this forgiveness of our sins can be obtained. It isn't through our holiness or good works. God doesn’t take the 'good' people and save them; He justifies (extends salvation toward) the ungodly (Rom. 4:5).

This causes many problems for religious people. They say, "Wait a minute! I believe you must do this and that to be holy." Religion—false religion, man's concepts—teaches that right standing with God and His blessings come as a result of our own goodness and works.

Salvation is a package deal and it's all accomplished by the grace of God, not our works. However, Satan is always trying to deceive us. He is the one who wants us to believe we must earn things from God. He is the one causing us to doubt the Lord’s willingness to use His ability on our behalf, and unfortunately, the church is often reinforcing that belief.

There's more, it's a good article.