The Power of Right Believing: 7 Keys to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Addiction (13 page)

My friend, find your righteous identity in Jesus. Born-again believers who have been washed by the blood of Jesus don’t enjoy living in sin, any more than sheep enjoy wallowing in mud. Now, when a sheep falls into mud, is it still a sheep? Of course it is! It doesn’t suddenly become a pig that enjoys mud. The sheep may be in the mud, but it is uncomfortable in that mud, hates the mud, and can’t wait to be washed clean from this mud.

I am writing to people who are genuinely looking for a way out of their fears, guilt, bondages, addictions, and habits. I am writing
to sheep who hate living in fear, hate being bound by guilt, and hate being trapped in addictions and habits they know are destroying them, but don’t know how to find freedom. And I’m here to tell them this: the grace of God is the answer. Grace is not a license to sin; it is the
answer
to overcoming sin!

What about that person I know who calls himself a believer, but lives like the devil?

It’s not our part to judge who is a believer and who isn’t. There are people who profess to be “believers,” but there is no evidence in their lives that they are. Just because a person goes to church doesn’t make that person a believer, any more than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger or going into a garage makes you a car!

The good news is, while you can’t judge if someone else is truly a born-again believer, you can surely know if
you
yourself are born again.

Just ask yourself this: Do you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior? If your answer is yes, then you are a born-again believer made righteous by the blood of Jesus, and you can have eternal assurance that heaven is your home!

You are saved and made righteous by grace through faith. As a believer, you will still make mistakes, you will still fail, and you will still be tempted. From time to time, you will fall into sin. But having sinned doesn’t turn you back into a sinner. You have been purchased and redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and in Christ, you are still the righteousness of God even when you fail. Why? Because
your righteousness is not a result of your right doing—it is a result of your right believing. It is a gift of God, not something you can earn through your obedience, right doing, and sinless perfection. That is why you can have eternal security, knowing that you are saved by Jesus and not by your own works!

At the cross, Jesus redeemed you from all your sins. But do you know that Jesus didn’t redeem you from ever being tempted and sinning again? Don’t believe me? Name me one believer that you know today on this planet who is never tempted and who never sins.

I rest my case.

Can you see this? If we are saved and made righteous today by our own works and right doing, what hope do we have? Praise God that our unshakable hope of salvation is found in Jesus and Jesus alone!

The Power to Overcome Sin

Unfortunately, in many places today all you hear is more teaching on right doing, right doing, and more right doing! But I believe what we need is more teaching on right
believing
. What we need to do is keep pointing people to Jesus, His grace, His finished work, and His forgiveness. I have no doubt then that their right believing will produce right living. They will become people whose hope is not in the righteousness
they
can produce, but in the
gift of righteousness
from Jesus Christ and what
Jesus
can produce in them.

I can show you thousands of believers who are experiencing
victories over temptation, over guilt, over addiction, and over sin. My ministry team has received emails and letters from my congregation as well as from believers all around the world who received their breakthroughs over sin when they found their righteous identity in Jesus.

These are believers who know they are not made righteous by their own works, but made righteous by the blood of Jesus. They are believers under grace, where sin has no power in their lives. Once they come under grace, they begin to live out Romans 6:14, which says, “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” These are believers who, when tempted in their mind to sin, are already receiving the forgiveness of God in their hearts, therefore stopping sin in its tracks before the sinful thought can even mature into a sinful action.

Let me share with you a testimony I received from Lucas. This precious brother shared:

Even though I was raised in a Christian home with parents who are both totally dedicated to Jesus, I fell into drug abuse. I tried attending church, but listening to the sermons made me feel like I just couldn’t confess my sins enough, repent enough, or hate my sins enough to get God’s forgiveness.

Then one day a very dear friend gave me a copy of your book
Destined To Reign
. The book rocked my spiritual world. I saw that sin was not the issue. The issue was not understanding the grace of my wonderful Lord and Savior. When I saw the finished work of Jesus,
I realized that God is not up there with a big stick waiting for me to mess up so that He can beat me with it.

As I continued reading your book and feeding on the gospel of grace, I was set free from a five-year drug addiction in just five days! And I know it’s all through the sweet, sweet grace of Jesus being revealed in my life.

Thank you, Pastor Prince, for your book, resources, and sermons. I want to know this God of grace more, and I want my family to also know Him as a God of grace and not a God of law who condemns His children. I have never known a loving God as I do right now!

Can you see how powerful living with a consciousness of Jesus’ forgiveness can be? Sin has no dominion over your life when you are under grace. Sin cannot take root in your life when you are established in God’s forgiveness. Receiving His forgiveness puts you in a cycle of victory over sin, whereas those who receive condemnation for every wrong thought in their mind enter into a never-ending cycle of defeat. Do you see the difference?

Forgiveness Is Received, Not Achieved

There is absolutely nothing you can do to earn God’s forgiveness. Forgiveness is received, not achieved. If you are trying to earn your own forgiveness and thinking that God is constantly mad at you, I am here to tell you that is not the heart of God. That is Christian religion. Christian religion is a never-ending treadmill based on
our own efforts to try to earn God’s forgiveness, God’s approval, and God’s acceptance. Have you been there before? If that is you, listen to the words of Jesus:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

—Matthew 11:28–30, The Message

“The unforced rhythms of grace.” I like that phrase. What it means is that there is an ease and enjoyment when you walk in His grace. This is in contrast to the struggle and strain found in self-effort. There is such rest when you know there is nothing you can do to earn His forgiveness. Give up on your own self-righteousness, which the Bible describes as “filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6), and with open arms and an open heart, receive His forgiveness!

The key to getting out of a cycle of sin and defeat is to receive and to stop beating yourself up. Receive and stop punishing yourself because your sins have already been punished on the body of
another—His name is Jesus, our beautiful Lord and Savior. No wonder the gospel is called the
good news
.

Obligation Versus Relationship

When you understand God’s grace and forgiveness, you will understand the difference between obligation and relationship. Under the new covenant of grace, the motivation for right living has been changed. Under the law, right living is done out of religious obligation. Under grace, everything we do today is birthed out of an inward motivation that flows directly from a love relationship with Jesus.

My friend, God is not a legalist. He doesn’t want you to read His Word just because He said so. He wants you to experience His love and spend time in His Word because you
want to
enjoy His sweet presence. The outward action can be the same: Two persons can be reading the Bible. However, one can do it out of religious obligation, while the other is inwardly motivated by God’s love. One does it to try to earn God’s forgiveness and acceptance; the other does it because he knows that he has been forgiven. One does it out of legalism; the other does it out of relationship. The reality is,
when you don’t read the Bible, you should not be feeling guilty; you should be feeling hungry.

Recently, I had lunch with an itinerant minister who asked me, “Is it legalistic for pastors to ask husbands in their congregation to love their wives and to instruct wives to submit to their husbands?” I could tell from his manner that he was expecting me to say, “Of course it is not legalistic.” So he was stunned at my response when I said, “Yes, it is!” and when I added, “The Bible doesn’t tell us to do that.”

I explained that as ministers, we need to teach the entire verse, which actually says, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord,” and “Husbands, love your wives,
just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her
” (Eph. 5:22, 25, emphasis mine). The emphasis is on Jesus’ love for us. Everything we do today under the new covenant of grace springs from our love relationship with Jesus. His love needs to first work in us.

You see, it is a question of motivation. How would you like your husband to say to you, “God says that I should love you and that we should talk more, so let’s go out for dinner tonight”? Then he sets a timer on his phone and says, “Alright, lady, your time begins now.” Hey, no self-respecting woman would accept that, right? You want your husband to take you out for dinner not because he has to, but because he
wants
to.

That’s why the Word of God doesn’t simply exhort husbands to love their wives and then stop there. It goes on to teach husbands just how to go about doing so—the power to love comes when husbands first experience how Jesus loved them and gave Himself for them.

Transformed by His Love

Men, when you feed on the love of Jesus, your fuel tank of love for your wife and for your kids will never run empty. Think about His love. Close your eyes and see your Savior giving up everything at the cross for you. When you tank up on His love in your heart, your wife becomes the direct beneficiary of that overflowing love from Jesus. A man who experiences Jesus’ love, just loves! A man who experiences Jesus’ forgiveness, just forgives! We have the power to love and forgive because He first loved and forgave us.

That is how we become transformed in His image. You want to be more patient? Meditate on just how patient Jesus has been with you all these years. You desire to be more forgiving toward your wife? Then saturate yourself with thoughts of His forgiveness for every failing you have. Think about how He was right there to pick you up each time you fumbled, with no judgment and no condemnation, only love. “For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again” (Prov. 24:16).

That’s right, my brother, however you may have fallen, Jesus sees you as a righteous man, clothed with His own robes of righteousness, and nothing is going to keep you down. You may think it’s all over, but it isn’t. God’s not done with you. His plans and His purposes for your life have not yet been fulfilled. His love for you has never wavered.

All your imperfections are swallowed up by His perfect love. You may have made mistakes, but it’s never too late to receive His forgiveness and receive courage and strength from Him to do the right thing—go back to your wife, seek her forgiveness, and trust the Lord to reignite your love for one another and bring about healing and restoration to your marriage. Your answer is found in the person of Jesus. He will fix you up and cause all things to work together for good and to His glory. Receive His forgiveness and let Him guide you.

Grace Exceeds the Law

When you center your heart and life on Jesus and His forgiveness, you will exceed even what the law demands of you. The law says, “Thou shall not covet,” but it cannot command you to be generous. Only grace makes you generous. The law says, “Thou shall not commit murder,” but it cannot put love and forgiveness in your heart for someone who has wronged you. Only the love and forgiveness of Jesus can do that in your heart and transform you to love and forgive your enemies and those who have hurt you. The law says, “Thou shall not commit adultery,” but it cannot put passion, love, and forgiveness in your heart for your spouse. Only Jesus can!

In every way when you are under grace, not only will you fulfill the commands of the law, you will end up unconsciously and
effortlessly exceeding all the demands of the law! That is what God means when He says about the new covenant, “I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Heb. 8:10). These laws that God writes in our minds and on our hearts are not the Ten Commandments. They exceed the Ten Commandments. They pertain to the royal law of love that flows from the heart of Jesus and fills our minds and hearts. Truly, “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10)!