The Power of Right Believing: 7 Keys to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Addiction (10 page)

And do you know what happens when you receive this gift of righteousness? The Bible declares that “those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17). Hey, when you reign, your addictions don’t. When you reign, sicknesses don’t. When you reign, fear, depression, and every obstacle that is obstructing you from living your life to the fullest will be torn down and flushed out.

Believe Right about Your Right Standing in Christ

There is so much teaching today on right doing, but the answer is found in believing right about your right standing in Christ. This is why it is so important for you to remember this: your righteousness (right standing) before God is a
gift
.

So many people are struggling today because they are trying, through their own obedience, efforts, and abilities, to earn their right standing before God. Out of the sincerity of their hearts, they believe that by performing more good deeds, by becoming more obedient, by giving up more for Jesus, by praying and serving God more, God will bless them. Please hear me out here. I am all for doing all of that. But if you believe that these things will earn you righteousness, that’s when it becomes a problem.

As good as all the above sounds, when people fail to be obedient (which they will), when they fail to give up more for Jesus (which they will), and when they don’t pray “enough,” read the Bible “enough,” and serve in church “enough,” they will begin to consciously or unconsciously disqualify themselves from God’s love, presence, and blessings.
And who determines what is “enough,” anyway? The accuser of the brethren will take every opportunity to condemn believers for
never
doing “enough.” When that happens, they will begin to fall into the trap of guilt, inferiority, condemnation, and shame.

That is the problem. When someone bases their relationship with God on their own merits, they will always fall short. That’s the old covenant way—do right, and God will bless you; do wrong, and you will be cursed. Unfortunately, man has no ability to deserve God’s blessing through his actions. Even under the old covenant, no one was blessed because they obeyed God perfectly. They were blessed because of the temporary righteousness that they received through the blood of bulls and goats. The blood from these animal sacrifices was merely a shadow of the blood that Jesus would finally shed at the cross to purchase for us the gift of everlasting righteousness. Do you see? Then and now, right standing with God cannot be merited; it is a gift from Him, based on His unmerited favor.

Seeing the Finished Work Brings God’s Blessings

The team that runs my television ministry received an email from a precious lady in Texas. Nancy discovered my ministry via television and began to really have a personal revelation of God’s goodness and how righteous she was through Christ’s finished work.
Writing to me about how God’s grace has not just impacted her life but the lives of her entire family, she shared:

When I first saw you on television five years ago, I was rather skeptical. However, something about you was different. I knew in my spirit that you were teaching the true gospel. So I began watching your sermons every day, sometimes twice a day. The more I watched, the more I saw the wisdom of God on you, and the more I wanted to have a relationship with God and Jesus.

At that time, I was at a low point in my life and I was about to give up on my marriage. I was even questioning my faith and God. I didn’t realize how much I’d kept God in a box and only involved Him in certain areas of my life because I thought He was judging me.

When I finally heard the truth about the gospel, I ran with it! Never will I look back because you have taught me the true freedom that Jesus died to give me. Praise God! Once the veil was removed, I realized how righteous I really am, and God just started blessing my socks off!

My marriage has turned around and is now growing stronger. We’re going on the twelfth year in our marriage, and I thank God for the four beautiful and healthy daughters He has blessed me with. God has also promoted my husband in his career and given him a salary increase. In addition, God has recently upgraded us to an amazing neighborhood and even opened the doors to
a charter school for two of my girls. He has given us so much favor because at least five hundred people are on the waiting list for this school!

And that’s not all. About a year ago, when I was watching you teach in Israel, I told the Lord quietly in my heart, “Lord, I want to go to Israel. I don’t know how I ever will, but I want it.” I never thought about the trip again until early April this year when God dropped a free trip to Israel into my lap and opened every door for me to go!

My heavenly Father has shown me that I am His daughter and that He is willing to take care of every need for the rest of my life! I did nothing to deserve it! My light is shining, and everybody wants to know what it’s all about.

I can’t tell you how much it warms my heart to hear real stories from people like Nancy and to know how Jesus has transformed their lives and their walk with Him. I am so thankful to folks like her who take the time to write to us and share how the revelation of God’s forgiveness and His gift of righteousness has freed them to believe and receive His provision for every need.

We receive emails every day from people all around the world, sharing with us how hearing about God’s love and grace through our broadcast, books, and media resources has completely revolutionized their lives and restored hope for their future. And we love hearing from them because this is what it’s all about—life transformation in the precious people that Jesus died to redeem!

See What Really Happened at the Cross

Once, the Lord showed me a vision of what happened at the cross. I saw how all the sins of the entire human race (lies, deceit, envy, bitterness, adultery, addiction, bondage, murder) and all the consequences of sin (fear, sicknesses, guilt, disease, and condemnation) swirled around Jesus like evil spirits and demons, laughing heinously, taunting and tormenting Him. Jesus became like a magnet for all sin and of His own volition accepted all this sin into His own body.

You and I will never be able to imagine the excruciating pain that tore through His body at the cross. Every malignant cancer, every tumor, every sickness, and every disease also came upon Him at the same time. He who knew no sin took upon Himself the mountainous weight of all men’s darkest and foulest sins. He took it all Himself.

The Word says that “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses” (Matt. 8:17). “Himself”—a singular, reflexive pronoun that signifies the exclusion of you and me. Since He Himself has taken the full punishment, judgment, and condemnation for all sin, you and I are excluded from every punishment, judgment, and condemnation for all sin when we receive Him as our Savior.

But the story did not end there. Jesus did not die on the cross in the middle of receiving upon Himself all of humanity’s sins. He took it all and accepted it all in His body. Then the fire of God’s judgment was unleashed upon His own precious Son, and only when every last sin had been punished did Jesus cry out, “IT IS FINISHED!” moments before breathing His last breath (see John
19:30). Can you see that? Jesus held on at the cross until every single sin that you have ever committed and will ever commit was punished in His own body. That is why we call what Jesus has accomplished at the cross a “finished work.”

See as God Sees

Now, what is your part today? Your part is to believe with your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life and that all your sins have been paid for at the cross. If you believe that all your sins have been forgiven, sin will have no more power over you. You don’t have to walk around with “a mountain of sin” on your shoulders anymore because this “mountain of sin” was laid squarely on the shoulders of another—Jesus. He Himself has already paid the price for your sins, so stop condemning yourself!

Today, when you look into the mirror, what do you see? Do you see yourself trapped in all your failings, mistakes, and sins? Or do you see what God sees?

My dear friend, when God sees you today, He sees Jesus. Use your eyes of faith and believe that as Jesus is, so are you. In God’s eyes, you are righteous, you are favored, you are blessed, and you are healed. You are freed from all sin, all pangs of guilt, all forms of condemnation, and every bondage of addiction!

L
ike a sniper, Balaam ascended the mountain looking for the best vantage point to fire a crippling curse at God’s people. He had been hired by the mobster Balak, who was growing increasingly intimidated by the children of Israel encroaching on his turf.

Balak had witnessed what Israel had done to another mob family, the Amorites. He didn’t want to take any chances and was making a preemptive strike to defend the honor of his family and protect their legacy in the plains of Moab at any cost.

Balaam had a reputation for being a highly reliable assassin-for-hire. It was said that whomever Balaam blessed was blessed, and whomever he cursed was cursed. Armed with this knowledge, Balak had solicited the professional hit man’s services to drive his enemy, Israel, from his territory.

But as Balaam and Balak stood in a high place overlooking the encampment of the children of Israel, a strange phenomenon occurred. When Balaam opened his mouth to curse, he ended up blessing the people of Israel! Nervous and infuriated, Balak cried out, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse
my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!” (Num. 23:11).

Anxious to see his enemies cursed and out of his territory, Balak brought Balaam to another high place and demanded that he reload and try once more to shoot curses at Israel. Again, instead of curses, blessings flowed out of Balaam’s mouth.

Now, listen closely to what Balaam said, for God had said that He would put His words in Balaam’s mouth (see Num. 22:35): “Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The L
ORD
his God is with him, and the shout of a King is among them” (Num. 23:20–21).

In Christ, You Are Irreversibly Blessed

These are precious words, and they reveal how God sees you and me today. Do you know that when He blesses you, no one—no prophet, no sorcerer, and no devil—can reverse it? You are irreversibly blessed! You can never be cursed! No generational curse or any other curse can come upon you because God has already blessed you! That includes being redeemed from the curse of the law as recorded in Galatians 3:13: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’).”

When your enemies say negative things about you out of envy, jealousy, and fear, or if there are people spreading nasty lies about you to assassinate your character, know this: the Lord is your defender. It is God who gives influence to words, and He can cause their words to fall to the ground. He can even, as we have just read, turn their curses into blessings. You don’t have to get all flustered, agitated, and angry. Just know that the Lord is on your side and that when He has blessed you, no one can reverse it. Amen!

I want this right belief to sink deep into your heart:
in Christ Jesus, you are irreversibly blessed
. No matter how dire your circumstances may seem right now, put a smile on your face and a spring in your step. Whom the Lord has blessed, no one can curse! God is going to see you through this storm. Things are going to turn around for your good. You don’t have to live in disappointment, discouragement, and despair. As you see in the biblical account of Balaam, if God is on your side, who can be against you?

Believe God Watches Over You

There’s another truth I want you to see in the story of Balaam. Notice that the children of Israel did nothing to defend themselves against Balak. In fact, they were completely oblivious to how God was watching out for them, and yet He defended them.

In the same way, you can rest knowing that God is your defender. The psalmist reminds us that “He who keeps Israel shall
neither slumber nor sleep. The L
ORD
is your keeper; the L
ORD
is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The L
ORD
shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The L
ORD
shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore” (Ps. 121:4–8).

What a promise! God watches over you and your loved ones, and He never takes a break. You are protected from every danger at every moment of the day.