Grace Revolution: Experience the Power to Live Above Defeat (34 page)

Let’s take a look at the three
W
’s that we have covered:

When you are established in these three
W
’s, you will experience the full assurance of faith Hebrews 10:22 talks about: “Let us draw near with
a true heart in full assurance of faith
, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (emphasis mine). I like how the New Living Translation says it: “let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.”

Today, my friend, you have been reminded that you are forgiven once and for all by the blood of our Lord Jesus, and you have also been washed by the pure water of God’s living and powerful Word. The grace revolution is a revolution of assurance. It is the end of being insecure, always fearful, and forever wondering if you have done enough for God. Start living every day, beloved and righteous one, with full assurance of faith and boldness to draw near to God. Your restoration begins today!

W
e all know the renowned Shepherd’s Psalm, Psalm 23, but did you know that Jeremiah 23 is also about shepherds? It begins with the Lord rebuking and correcting pastors and leaders (who are shepherds in God’s eyes): “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” (Jer. 23:1). You see, God doesn’t appreciate pastors and leaders who are destroying and scattering His sheep, instead of loving and nourishing them. The Lord then adds, “You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings” (Jer. 23:2).

You have to understand that there is correction in the house of grace. This is something you see in the book of Revelation, where God speaks to the pastors of the seven churches. In chapters 2 and 3, when He corrects the “angel” of each church, the original Greek word used for “angel” is
angelos
, meaning “a messenger; especially an ‘angel’; by implication, a pastor.”
¹
A messenger sent from God can be angelic or
human. But since God is addressing the churches,
angelos
here refers to the pastor of the church, who is God’s messenger to His flock. If it were referring to an angelic being, that would be “remarkable,” since the Lord said, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen” (Rev. 2:5). That would make it a fallen angel, wouldn’t it? That cannot be!

So to the pastor of the church of Pergamos, for example, in correcting him, the Lord said, “I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam” (Rev. 2:14). Notice when you study these corrections that they pertain to the pastors allowing wrong
doctrine
into their churches, resulting in all kinds of immorality.

Wrong doctrine leads to wrong believing, and wrong believing always leads to wrong living. It has the opposite effect of right believing, which always leads to right living. But when the Lord says, “I will attend to you for the evil of your doings” (Jer. 23:2), or “I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent” (Rev. 2:5), He is not talking about believers losing their salvation. Unfortunately, this is exactly what some ministers have taught, putting much fear in the hearts of many precious people.

So what is the Lord saying? First you need to understand that these two verses were written to
pastors
, so they are applicable only to pastors. If you are not pastoring a flock, these verses are not for you. Second, when the Lord says, “I will remove your lampstand from its place,” He is talking about removing the pastor and his church from their
place of influence
. The Lord is willing to do this because He is highly protective of His sheep, who are His people. He has entrusted them to pastors and it is the pastors’ responsibility to preach the Word of God accurately, rightly dividing it and preaching without compromise the gospel of the new covenant of grace.

But even if the Lord removes a pastor from his place of influence or
his church, He will ensure that the church’s congregation is taken care of. Observe the pastoral language that He uses in Jeremiah 23. He speaks like the Chief Shepherd that He is (see 1 Pet. 5:4). He is the Senior Pastor of senior pastors and He declares, “But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase” (Jer. 23:3).

Let’s look at another Scripture. In James 3:1 the apostle James says, “Let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” Again, this Scripture is not talking about pastors or leaders losing their salvation. Apostle James is simply saying that those who teach the Word have greater responsibility and accountability. Pastors, ministers, and leaders are expected to preach with accuracy, rightly dividing God’s Word.

James is also not discouraging people from being teachers of the Word. Absolutely not. It is a great honor and privilege to preach and teach God’s Word. James is just highlighting how sacred this privilege is and how wisely pastors need to steward their teaching ministry. He is exhorting them to not be flippant about doctrine—remember, all the errors in the churches in the book of Revelation are errors that relate to doctrine, resulting in sin and idolatry. Wrong believing leads to wrong living! This is why James exhorts teachers of the Word to be diligent in understanding the gospel of grace, rightly dividing the covenants, and teaching God’s flock the true gospel of Jesus Christ without compromise.

Let’s go back to Jeremiah 23. How do you know if you are under God-appointed leadership? Our Chief Shepherd answers this question
in verse 4: “I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall
fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking
” (emphasis mine). Those are the three promised results of being under God-appointed leadership. When pastors and leaders preach the unadulterated gospel of grace, their flocks will fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor lack. Are you experiencing these blessings of God’s grace in your life? Or are you still fearful, discouraged, and constantly feeling as if you haven’t done enough?

From Jeremiah 23:4 the Lord imparted to me the message to be preached and emphasized in this day and hour of the grace revolution. In the dream that I had over fifteen years ago, He said to me, “This is what you are to feed My people with in this hour,” and gave me Jeremiah 23:5–6:

Don’t you simply love how even in our modern Bibles, the revelation of the grace revolution—“THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS”—is highlighted in full capitalization? In Hebrew it is
Jehovah-Tsidkenu
.
²
It is the Holy Spirit’s way of telling us, “Don’t miss this. Seeing this will change your life!”

So, my dear reader, you who have pressed on to the very last chapter of this book, what is the message that causes God’s people to fear no more, nor be discouraged, nor be in lack? You are absolutely right and
blessed are your eyes for you see this truth! It is the revelation that
the Lord is our righteousness
. Not our works, not our efforts, not our perfect obedience to the law of Moses. The Lord wants Himself to be our righteousness. He wants us to take Him as our righteousness. And this righteousness He offers is to be received as a gift by faith. It was paid for with His own blood! When you start to live conscious of the Lord as your righteousness, you will begin to live righteously. From the inside out, genuine good works, obedience, holiness, and love will flow unabated out of an authentic relationship with your Father in heaven.

THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. That’s the message of the grace revolution! There is a division today in Christianity between those who believe in the Lord as their righteousness and those who believe that they have to be their own righteousness. Some of those who are against the gospel of grace argue that if it is of the Lord, it should not be causing any division. Well, let’s not forget what happened when the apostle Paul preached in Iconium:

Was Paul preaching the gospel of grace? Did it cause a division in the city?

But it was never Paul’s intention to cause any division. He simply wanted to preach the word of the Lord’s grace. The test of whether the gospel of grace you are hearing is of the Lord, therefore, is not whether it is causing division or not. The truest test is whether or not the Lord is bearing witness to the word being preached through lives changed, healed, liberated, and transformed (see Acts 14:3)!

We all have the same heavenly Father, but not all of us have the same “mother.” Let me explain what I mean. In Galatians 4, the apostle Paul used typology to teach about the difference between the old and new covenants. He tells us that the Word records that Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was born of a bondwoman named Hagar, whereas Isaac was born of Sarah, a free woman. Paul then explained that Hagar is a type of the law given at Mount Sinai,
which produces bondage. On the other hand, Sarah is a type of grace, which produces freedom and liberty. You can read the details of Paul’s explanation for yourself in Galatians 4:21–27.

For now I want to show you something interesting. The apostle Paul said, “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now” (Gal. 4:28–29). Isn’t it amazing that the Bible actually tells us that those who are born under the law will persecute those who are born under grace? It was Ishmael who persecuted Isaac, not the other way around. And as foretold by the Word of God, “even so it is now”—it is still going on today.

You see, while we Christians have the same Father, unfortunately, we don’t all have the same mother. Some have made Hagar (the law) their mother, instead of Sarah (grace). And the children of Hagar are still persecuting the children of Sarah—those who are under grace. Do you want to know what the Lord says about Hagar and Sarah? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman” (Gal. 4:30). God is not for mixing law and grace. Cast out the old covenant of the law and focus on being under grace to inherit all that God has promised in the new covenant!

When I was flying to America for the Power of Right Believing USA Tour, the Lord spoke to me about John 3 and John 4. He began to
open my eyes to the two accounts that the Holy Spirit recorded side by side for our benefit. John 3 is about Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night. John 4 is about the Samaritan woman at the well, whom Jesus intentionally met by day. In John 3 you have a scholarly theologian, a Pharisee of Pharisees, a master rabbi whom our Lord called “the teacher of Israel” (John 3:10).

In John 4 you have a woman from the other end of the social spectrum—she had no accomplishments to speak of, she was a broken woman who had had five divorces, and she was living with a man who wasn’t her husband. The difference between the two couldn’t have been starker—it was literally like night and day. Nicodemus sought the Lord. The Lord sought the woman. Nicodemus came to the Lord in the
stealth of night
. The Lord came to the woman in
broad daylight
. At the end of these two conversations, the woman at the well had received much more from the Lord than the learned Nicodemus had. In fact, this Samaritan woman was the one to whom the Lord revealed Himself as the Messiah. Not to Nicodemus, the great theologian.

Isn’t it beautiful to see how, when she said to our Lord, “When He [the Messiah] comes, He will tell us all things,” our Lord smiled at her lovingly and said, “I who speak to you am He” (John 4:25–26). If you look at your Bible, you will notice that the word “He” is in italics. This means that it wasn’t in the original and was added by translators. In Young’s Literal Translation, it reads, “I am [he], who am speaking to thee.” In other words, our Lord revealed Himself to her as the great “I AM.” That’s the name of God. The God of the burning bush (see Exod. 3:14). Hallelujah!

In the natural, you would think that our Lord would reveal Himself as Messiah to the scholar, who would have studied the Scriptures from his youth. But that’s not what happened. I love seeing how our Lord was comfortable ministering to a broken woman who was entangled
in a life of sin, gently restoring her dignity to her and rebuilding her. To Nicodemus our Lord spoke the language of the Old Testament, but to the woman He used the language of everyday things—He talked to her about the water that was in front of her. With divine skillfulness, He used simple, understandable, and practical illustrations to tell her very tactfully that she had been drinking from all the wrong wells, which were not satisfying her. Let’s listen in on what He said to her:

Our Lord didn’t use theological language or concepts, and He didn’t tell her that she had to be “born again.” In contrast, look at what He said to Nicodemus:

At the end of these two conversations, the theologian Nicodemus, who came at night because he didn’t want to be seen with the Lord, left without seeing Him as the Messiah. He had eyes but he could not see, and the last record of what he said was, “How can these things be?” The Lord’s reply to him was, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our
witness” (John 3:9–11). You see, while Nicodemus knew the Bible, he didn’t know the Author of the Bible, Who was standing right in front of him.

Beloved, just because you don’t know the Bible from cover to cover, don’t be intimidated by learned theologians who use very high-sounding theological words to impress or intimidate you. The gospel of grace is so simple that even fishermen like Peter, who were not as highly educated as the Pharisees, could grasp it. And yet it could also confound the most intellectual scholars in Jerusalem then. Now, please understand that I am not in any way against theologians, Bible schools, or the deep study of the Word of Christ. In fact, I believe that one day, our church will have a Bible school for those around the world who desire to study the Word more deeply!