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Back in the late 1980's I came to point one day that I was very frustrated with my walk with God. Nothing was working for me very well. I was being attacked by the devil it seemed on every front. My faith was under attack, my job and money was not working well, things every where I turned seemed to be not the way I wanted. I was trying very hard to believe the gospel and was sincere about it. In my eyes I viewed myself as a nice person and since I was trying hard to believe, I thought that should count for something. Have you ever been there? I remember where I was that day just like it was yesterday. My wife and I had stopped at a store, she had gone inside to get something while I stayed in the car. While she was inside I was talking to God. I am not sure if I was praying or murmuring, but I cried out to God with this, why is this so hard?
At this point I need to share with you about my religious background. My parents, mostly my mother attended the First Baptist church. Most of my mothers side of the family besides her were Pentecostal. I did not know much about my dads side then, but latter found out that his four sisters were church goers. I think they all believed the best they knew how and I thank God for all of them. I know for a fact there was some faith with my grandmother on my mothers side. My mother had six sisters and one brother. Her brother died from the result of a surgery gone wrong and my grandfather died when my mother was only seven or eight. My grandmother had to raise all these girls by herself. She had a washateria and she would wash clothes for people. It was hard work during a time when money was scarce. There were two different occasions when my grandmother prayed most of the night and God healed two of my aunts. One which had what looked to be pneumonia and the other from chronic stomach pain. They had no money to go to the doctor.
Being raised Baptist, I was taught to live by the ten commandments and the golden rule. They had many other rules as well. They knew nothing about the gospel but thought otherwise. We thought you had to be good to get to God not knowing what Galatians 3: 23 said, “ But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.”
The very thing we thought we were supposed to do was shutting up our faith. Jesus did not preach the law of Moses but in Mark 1: 14-15 it states this, vs 14 “ Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
vs 15 And saying , The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
What is the gospel? 1 Corinthians 15: 1-4 tells us what the gospel is,
vs 1 “ Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
vs 2 “ By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
vs 3 “ For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
vs 4 “ And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: Jesus preached the gospel, not the law of Moses.
We also did not know what Galatians 3: 10 says, “ For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” Under the law of Moses if you transgress just one commandment you are guilty of breaking all of them, cursed.
The reason things were so hard for me was because I was bound up by religious witchcraft spirits that I had gotten in the Baptist church which preached the law and not the gospel of Jesus Christ. My faith had been shut up.
Now, back to the parking lot where I cried out to God.
When I got home that evening God talked to me. It was just after supper that evening and I walked out to our back screened porch with my bible. I said to God, I know the answers are here in this bible somewhere but I don't know where to look. I just opened it up and stopped at the book of Joshua. I read the first twelve chapters. Joshua had led the children of Israel into the promised land . It was a land of milk and honey. But this land was inhabited and Israel had to fight. They had to drive the inhabitants out of the land. In the first twelve chapters they smote 31 kings so they could possess the land God had for them. God spoke to me and said this is why it has been hard. The inhabitants have to be driven out. A little later he said do you know where this land is? He said it is in your heart! Proverbs 4: 23 says “ Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Our hearts have to be purified by faith which comes from repenting and believing the gospel.
In closing, it was not until God brought us to Water of Life church and Doyle Davidson that I ever heard the gospel. All I ever heard before was the word ministered by the letter. The gospel is where the power of God is. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power which brings salvation to our lives so we can obtain what God has for us.
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