The Power of Right Believing: 7 Keys to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Addiction (15 page)

Jesus said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:4–5). I want to encourage you to
abide in His grace—His undeserved, unmerited, and unearned favor for your life.

Your Ledger Is Clean

It’s so important that you understand, believe, and abide in the truth of God’s unmerited favor and His forgiveness in your life, even when your behavior is not perfect. Why? Because it frees you to enjoy your relationship with God, to enjoy spending time with Him, and to expect good from Him. It frees you to enjoy peace and rest on a daily basis, good relationships with others, and a life of wholeness. It frees you to confidently expect a bright future.

Imagine for a moment that you are a businessperson. Through some bad decisions and some things beyond your control, your business got into serious debt. Because of this, you’ve made a habit of avoiding your company’s ledger. You know that when you open it, all you’re going to see is red, and all that red is a screaming reminder of how much you owe and how unhealthy a state of affairs your business has gotten into. You can’t help thinking about the ledger, but the more you think of it, the more it fills you with dread.

In the same way, if you keep believing and thinking that there is still unsettled debt between you and God in your account with Him, you can’t breathe easy. You become consumed with thoughts of how to pay off your debt. In fact, just the thought of red in your ledger makes you afraid to go to Him or expect His help for anything.

But say a good friend who loves you finds out about your business debt, and of his own free will and out of his own pocket, he pays off the debt. He does it because, as your good friend, he doesn’t want you carrying this burden of debt anymore. Furthermore, knowing that you can’t ever pay this debt on your own, he doesn’t want you to even try to pay him back.

Now (after you’ve gotten over this incredible news), you’re not afraid of your ledger anymore. You can breathe easy again. You can throw off your despair and laugh and look forward to life again. You no longer become afraid at the very thought of your ledger. In fact, you’d be quite happy to look at your ledger because it shows you how you are now debt-free and how good your benefactor is.

Likewise, once you understand that you are completely forgiven, you will no longer be afraid or defensive when your mistakes, faults, and failures are exposed. Rather, you will find your security, peace, and assurance in the Lord’s love for you. You are perfectly forgiven and righteous through Jesus’ finished work.

My friend, this is what Jesus has done for you, and much more. Being who He is, the Son of God, He is an overpayment for your sins. And He didn’t just cleanse you of your entire life of sins, but He also gave you His very own righteousness and favor. Why? So that you can be free to enjoy being with God and receive all His blessings, with no more consciousness of debt standing in the way. The extent to which you can live life with a confident expectation of good is the extent to which you abide in this truth that your sins have totally been forgiven at the cross and that there is no red in your ledger.

Once in a while, though, because of the force of habit, you may wake up fearful that you’re back in debt. But all you have to do is open your ledger and look at it. It will show you how debt-free you really are, no matter what you feel. Similarly, should you ever experience days when you doubt that God has forgiven you, all you have to do is open the Word of God and see in it how the price has been fully paid, the judgment executed, and every bit of condemnation already meted out on the body of Christ!

Fresh Grace for Every Failing

Can I give you an assignment today? Every time you fail, whether you lose your temper at your spouse or fall back into an addiction that you are trying to beat, I want to challenge you to be forgiveness-conscious and not sin-conscious. Come into God’s presence every single time you fail and say:

Dear God, thank You that even right now, Your forgiveness and Your perfect love are raining all over me because of Your Son’s finished work in my life. Take away every lingering sense of ugliness, guilt, and condemnation in me. I believe with all my heart that right now when You
look at me, You see me in Christ Jesus. I am clothed in His robes of righteousness, favor, and blessings. Thank You for Your abundance of grace and Your gift of righteousness in my life. Through Jesus, I will reign in this life over every sin, addiction, and failure.

My friend, every time you fail, there is fresh grace from Jesus to rescue you. Every time you fall short, confess your righteousness in Jesus by faith. I know you probably won’t
feel
particularly righteous, and that is why you need to say it by faith.

I have received so many testimonies of breakthroughs from people around the world who, even as they succumb to their addictions, would confess, “Even right now, I am the righteousness of God in Christ,” and eventually found freedom from their bondages. It could be a smoking addiction or an alcohol or pornography addiction. Michael, a brother in Australia, happily shared, “I have just given up smoking by following what you’ve taught in your books and DVDs (about being conscious of and confessing my righteousness in Christ) whenever I was tempted to smoke. I have also been set free from twenty years of drug and alcohol abuse and am free of paranoid thoughts. I couldn’t give them up through my own efforts, but through Christ I have.”

The more these people confessed and saw themselves as righteous in Jesus, even in the midst of their failings, the more they
came to see their true identity in Christ. The dead leaves began to fall, and they came to the place where they didn’t have any desire to ever smoke another cigarette, drink another drop of alcohol, or visit another pornographic website. New leaves, new flowers, and new fruits unconsciously and effortlessly sprang up in their lives. Grace put an end to the barrenness and torment of winter and ushered in perpetual spring for them.

Beloved, if you are grappling with something right now, stop struggling and start receiving. Start receiving the abundance of the Lord’s unmerited favor. Start receiving the free gift of His righteousness. Start receiving the cleansing power of His forgiveness. There is nothing for you to do but to soak it all up and to allow His resurrection power to drive out every symptom of death and decay in your circumstances and in your life. Jesus says to you today, “Now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isa. 43:19).

Stop allowing the enemy to heap condemnation upon you in all the areas that you have fallen short. You are in Christ—completely accepted, irrevocably forgiven, and totally loved. Believe this and receive His forgiveness and love to overcome every sin. The time for your rejoicing is here, for your Savior has come to save you!

S
he had struggled frantically when she was suddenly yanked from the bed and hauled into the streets by men from the temple. But she was no match for the rabble that had seized her, and her bare feet now struggled to find their footing as she was roughly shoved from all directions. Cold fear hammered deafeningly in her heart, almost drowning out the scornful taunts of the people drawn into the streets by the commotion.

She had sinned, and she knew what was coming. A few months earlier, she had witnessed a woman trying to crawl away as, one after another, heavy stones were violently hurled at her by the scornful mob called upon to execute God’s justice. She still remembered how she had to choke back the bile that rose in her throat when she saw the mangled body of the bloodied woman after her executioners had finally dispersed. She never imagined that she would one day face the same fate. She had never set out to commit adultery. She knew that it was a mistake to meet him alone. It was a terrible mistake, and now it was too late. According to the Law of
Moses, capital punishment was the price for adultery. There was no escape.

Dragged into the temple precinct like a rag doll, she vaguely recognized the fragrance of the offerings being made on the bronze altar. Though she didn’t understand the significance, the smell had always given her comfort as a child growing up in Jerusalem. Snatches of her father telling her that God would rain His blessings down upon their family as the smell of the sacrifice ascended to heaven flashed in her mind’s eye, just before the mob of religious Pharisees abruptly stopped and threw her before the feet of a man they called Teacher.

She knew her trial had begun, that this man must be her chief executioner, the religious judge who would officially sentence her to death before they dragged her out of the city to be stoned. Shivering uncontrollably, she bowed her head and tried to cover her eyes with her hair as best as she could so that she could not see the clamoring crowd converging around her as they all awaited her sentence.

Then her merciless accusers fired the first salvo: “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” (John 8:4–5). Anticipating further humiliation, she braced herself for the condemning words of judgment that she was sure would come from the teacher.

But she heard nothing except a deafening silence. It was as if the teacher had not heard the accusatory charges read against her. Then, from the corner of her eye, she saw the teacher stooping down
and writing with His finger on the ground. The Pharisees, poised with rocks in their hands and infuriated by this delay, demanded, “What do you say, teacher? Do we stone her now?”

The teacher stood up before them, and she heard a voice so resounding with majesty that her breath caught in her throat. Articulating each word with a perfect blend of authority and compassion, He declared, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” (John 8:7). And then He stooped to the ground once more and resumed writing as though the leaders of the synagogue were not even there.

His words bewildered her. Who
was
this teacher? Why was He defending her, a sinful woman and an adulteress? Was
this
the man from the small village of Nazareth that everybody was talking about? The man who heals the blind and makes the lame walk again? The man whom they say hates legalism and loves sinners? Is this the man?
Who
is this man? As these questions whirled around in her frightened mind, she heard the sound of her salvation.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

The rocks that would have battered her to death fell impotent to the ground. One by one, the sandals of those who had dragged her to the temple turned and moved away. The crowds that had gathered also began to disperse, since it became clear that there would be no spectacle.

After some time, all she could see were the teacher’s sandals. He
lifted her head, and she saw His face for the first time. It was a face of compassion and love. A face that glowed with acceptance and assurance. She let her pent-up tears flow as He asked her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” (John 8:10). Throughout her ordeal, no one had spoken to her.
She
had not mattered. All that had mattered was that she had done the deed and that it warranted her death. But now her accusers had left, and the man who had rescued her was speaking to her and looking at her as if she
mattered
.

Gratefully, she breathed, “No one, Lord!” She knew beyond a doubt that this teacher was no ordinary teacher. That is why she addressed Him as “Lord” and not “teacher” like the Pharisees did. He
was
the Jesus everyone was talking about. Then she heard the words that she would never forget for the rest of her life: “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (John 8:11). As she made her way home, she recounted these words to herself over and over again, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” He had saved her life, and she knew that it would never be the same again.

The Power of No Condemnation

Jesus demonstrated something very important in the account of the woman caught in adultery. What enables someone to have the power to overcome sin? The threat of the law obviously didn’t stop the woman from committing adultery. But receiving Jesus’
acceptance—knowing that even though she deserved to be stoned to death, He did not condemn her—
that
gave her the power to “go and sin no more.”