Parable of Jesus 1: Is It Worth To Stitch A New Clothe On A Old Coat?

Will You Purchase A New Clothe Just To Patch Up The Old One?

By Abraham Israel

Parables are simple stories or earthly imageries which have often been used by Jesus in order to explain the heavenly truth that cannot be otherwise understood with our finite mind.

"No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse." (Matt 9:16).

Finding the Context: "18 The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. 20 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse." (Mark 2:18-21).

"Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old." (Luke 5:36).


The Key: Get The Context Right

The context of the parable should be the most important thing to consider before understanding the exact meaning or the intent for which Jesus Christ spoke it.

Context does mean the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood.

Here in the above parable, we see that the context is about the Old Testment way of life followed by disciples of John and Pharisees, compared to the newly introduced New Testament way of life in which Jesus Christ is symbolised as the bridegroom and his followers as the bride.

So fasting is a spiritual activity even during the Old Testament times, which was done not to please God through it, but was used as a activity to deny and humble oneself and look inwardly to see one's fault to correct it before the Lord and ask His mercy to live a altered God pleasing life for His Glory (Isa 58:5-7).

We know from the Law of Moses, the greatest significance of note are the nature of the food prohibition in the Garden of Eden, the supernatural fasting of Moses on Sinai, the compelling command of personal affliction on the Day of Atonement, and the various dietary restrictions of the law associate fasting with living in or returning to the sustaining presence of God. The first sin that came in to this world was a violation of dietary restriction. So it became ingrained in the religious culture and in the faith culture of all time since the beginning, that if the food intake is restricted or fasting for a period of time is pursued, there is a cleansing of the soul from the impurities of self, flesh and Satanic influences upon it to break its bondage that bind us, and the removal of yoke that weigh us with the weight of sin will be removed from us by the power of God through his grace and mercies received supernaturally (Jonah 3:5-10). When we starve the body, we make our soul cry for supernatural sustenance from heaven.

Until Jesus came to earth, people through the Old Testament only received the conviction of sin through the law (Rom 7:7), but grace and truth came to all mankind only through Christ and Him alone (John 1:17). Even if there was a favor of God shown to people in the Old Testament for their deep and sincere repentance and a lifestyle of godliness, it was only for covering them from the sins they have done and not for the cleaning from sins and the assurance of faith like in the New Testament (Heb 9:13-14; Rom 4:7; Psa 32:1).


Jesus The Bridegroom And Church The Bride

There is an intimate relationship that has been described as something that is beyond our natural human understanding, that is, the intimate relationship between a bridegroom and a bride, a husband and a wife, a man and a woman. Again and again we see in the Gospels, Revelation, the Epistles and related verses in the Old Testament, this theme of the Church as a whole are identified as the bride betrothed to Christ the bridegroom (John 3:29; Matt 25:1), even though individually the members are identified as the brethren of Christ (Heb 2:11). In Ephesians 5:22-33, Paul compares the union of husband and wife to that of Christ and the church.

A woman who is getting married is called the bride. Revelation 19:7 speaks about a literal marriage of the bridegroom who is Jesus the Christ with the bride the Church.

Then Jesus calls his disciples and apostles who followed him during his three and half years of his earthly ministry as friends because he shared all the intimate details that the Father showed Him to his friends the disciples (John 15:15). These friends were trained by Jesus Himself to make them future pillars in raising the Church universal which He has envisioned as his bride at that point of time.

Further the the bride Church came in to existence only after the resurrection of Jesus, some of the very friends of Jesus were imparted with the Holy Spirit when Christ Jesus blew upon them, and they got impregnated with the worldwide vision of establishing the Church through teaching and preaching about the good news of the Kingdom of God (John 20:22-23; Acts 1:1-3). Thus the Jerusalem church is founded as the first Christian church with about 120 Jews and Jewish Proselytes around A.D. 33 (Acts 1:15).

People were first called Christians only later in Antioch around A.D 43 (Acts 11:26).

After the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ to heaven, they returned to Jerusalem and were waiting in prayer for nearly ten days (Acts 1:3; 2:1). When they the Church received the Holy Spirit as a gift and were all baptized in the Spirit, then the message of the gospel of the Kingdom began to be preached and teached in power in all the places starting from Jerusalem, which brought Satanic resistance to it, but the bride began to fast and pray to long for the power and demonstration of the supernatural hand of God which was given to them by God through His grace and mercy (Acts 1:14, 24; 2:42; 3:1; 4:23-31; 13:2-3). So in those days of hardship and persecution, the days had come to the disciples of Jesus who were now become the bride of Christ to seek His presence intensely through the act of fasting and praying together as one corporate body because already Jesus the bridegroom was taken away from them, and in searching for the living power and presence of the bridegroom, they as the bride were fasting and praying in those days for definite result and impact to fulfill the worldwide vision of extending the Church which was the desire of the bridegroom appointed by God to be fulfilled through life and living testimony of the bride.


So What Is The Fact Of The Matter?

Coming to a conclusion, we see that the main topic of discussion was about fasting and praying which was followed right from the Old Testament times to the time of John the Baptist and Pharisees, being thrust as something mandatory for spiritual noteworthiness upon Jesus and his disciples by the religious people of his times. But Jesus rejected their ideas of spirituality as a old garment, and the new vision of Church as the bride and Him as the bridegroom of it as the new piece of unshrunk cloth which was ready to be stitched by the power of God and His presence who is going to build it (Matt 16:18; 18:20; John 14:13-14; 16:23-24).

Speaking of the contrast between the Old and the New Testament, Jesus clearly portrays the Old Testament righteousness of the law as something that is ready to be thrown out as it was shrinking in value and power (Heb 8:13; Rom 2:26-27), as the new unshrunk clothe was the righteousness of Christ introduced for the bride who will wear it as a gown of beauty in the coming days through her good works and the gifts that Jesus will provide as the ornament over her (Eph 4:7-8; Rev 19:7-8).

In the Old Testament, all those who kept the law tried to keep it by the strength of the flesh to please God, but they were never able to actually please Him because law was only meant to convict humans of their sin and lead people towards the solution of having faith in the Messiah Jesus Christ (Gal 3:19, 24-25). In the New Testament it is "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit," (Zech 4:6) the Lord has loudly declared to the whole world, that all might be justified by faith and not by works of any kind (Rom 5:1).

So the above parable regarding the Old garment is about the law, and the unshrunk new clothe was about the grace of Christ and His righteousness that we receive through Him freely. The law is something to work out through labor, grace is something to receive and enjoy without labor. As long as we continue to be with Jesus through the righteousness that comes by faith, by accepting what Jesus has done for us (Rom 5:17-18), we will experience a supernatural rest that he gives and will continue to live supernaturally with the new unshrunk clothe of Christ's gift of righteousness beautifying us day in and day out as long as we continue in faith for the Glory of God (Matt 11:28). Either you live by the tradition of the law or you totally live by the Grace of Jesus, you cannot mix the two and see a positive change in your life. Instead, when law and grace are mixed, you only see a negative change towards deterioration of the quality of life you live on earth that is detrimental to the spiritual well being of a child of God.

A Vision Of The Night : What Is It All About?

I Have a Question To Ask

Question : PEACE OF CHRIST be with you. I have a question to ask . Yesterday night I was scrolling my mobile at about 2.30 am in my room I could see in the left corner of my eye glass that I was in place with trees and shrubs swaying in the breeze. I have seen this visions three times after adjusting my self and specks. Yes it was about 2.30 AM in the morning. I could literally see through my glass. The room was dark except for my mobile light. There were no reflections. Color of leaves were green and dark green as it was 7.00 PM as the sun set. I could even see the ground brown color soil. You can help out. Can you please let me know what is it all about. Thanks Bro.

Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name!

When you say that you had a vision of the night, I can give a Biblical interpretation to your dream. There are many things God conveys through dreams and visions, (i.e.) to correct us, to warn us of impending danger, to encourage us, to heal us of our past, to comfort us, etc...

One of the main vehicles though which God communicates to us in the New Testament is through dreams and visions, it is promised not just for exclusive people like prophets like in the Old Testament times (Num 12:6), but for every child of God who seeks God and want to learn to be filled with the Spirit of God all the time (Acts 2:17-18). God works in three's so many times in the Bible so we could see the fingerprint of the Triune God and believe he is sovereign, thus trusting him more. The three times of the same message that God has shown to you does mean, that all that God has show you will come to pass in the coming days and there can be no change in it due to any external influence and God Himself will fulfill all of it to completion (Acts 10:11-16).

The ground color of brown shows that you are in the sun set time of your life, you have great regrets about about what happened in your past life, and the present which is troubling you. God is saying that if you look to the left side and focus on it, you will see the sun set in your life and be discouraged about what you cannot change. But if you understand that the Lord God Almighty is at your right hand (Psa 16:8), then you can notice that "though your outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." (2 Cor 4:16). There are things that the Lord has done and is doing within you that is making you a blessed new creation of great value to Him and all others around you.

You are "like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God" (Psa 52:8), and you are growing spiritually "like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. You will not fear when heat comes; your leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." (Jer 17:8) and further you are lifted up as a "person [who] is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither-- whatever you do in JESUS name from now on will prosper." (Psa 1:3).

But because you are in the sunset years of your life, there is a tendency to look behind and feel discouraged about the past which cannot be changed.

God wants to remind you urgently that you need to look to the right hand side of life where God stands in control of your life and family, He is further saying that there is a sun set that is happening in the natural for you, but there is a morning sun of righteousness rising in the spiritual realm for you, your family and for your progeny (Mal 4:2), that will make you breeze through the rest of your life as you keep believing in the name of the Lord Jesus and His righteousness that comes through faith (Gen 28:11-13; 15:12-21; Rom 3:22; 10:6; 4:13). God wants to not just bless you, but all of your family members and your descendants too with the righteousness of faith, and wants you and them all to stay in the blessedness that comes through faith without their works.

Though all of your life seems to be dark all around you, when you look to the source of all light JESUS CHRIST, the vision of the Lord will unfold in your life. So keep believing what the Lord has revealed to you personally, before you realize, heaven will invade your life and family.

True salvation of God is being revealed to you, and more of it will be revealed to you all progressively more and more as the wind of the Holy Spirit will keep blowing strongly over you all, and will fill you to the full and even to the overflowing (John 3:8). Salvation has come to your house and it is the day of the visitation of the Lord (1 Pet 2:12; Luke 19:9). You and your family will sway in His Glorious rhythm of heaven!

May God continue to greatly bless you and your family, even as you look to the right side of your life and not to the left side as in the vision.

Much Love and Blessings....

I Know God Will Change Her, I am Waiting...

Does Satan And His Cohorts Specially Attack To Break The Family Of Pastors?

Question: I am working in one Christian NGO trust as a Administrator, by God's grace I am satisfied with my salary, God is fulfilling our family needs. I got married 2010 by HIS Grace I have two kids. One daughter (Mercy, studying 1st std.) and Son (Joshua studying LKG). My wife name is Rebekah. After marriage we lived happily for a very short time, may be 6 months. When my wife proposed me I told her that I will pray to God, we will wait for HIS answer, that time she was so polite, nice, able to understand the situations. But slowly I realized that she was money minded, speaking bad words, having high temper. I told these to her parents but they are also the same character people.

I also served GOD in Bagapalli as a Pastor. She wants to dominate me because her mother and grand mother are the same kinds of females who want to dominate people. We are from Hindu background who converted, but wife side they are born Christians. For silly reason she separated from me about three and a quater years, I was just praying... praying. That time she was carrying my second child. I took some prayer partners to her home but she and her parents neglected the advises of godly men. It is a Big story..., because of these issues I lost my Pastorship in my former Church, but Praise the Lord that he has opened doors for me in two other churches and I am still serving the LORD in two churches.

My wife came to me around 2015, I thought she will be OK, but her character became more worse that earlier times. She won't cook for some time, even she beats the kids very badly because of me. Speaks very bad language against me and my parents. Still I am praying for her. I know God will Change her. I am just waiting.

Kindly pray for my wife and my two kids. Because today morning we had clash between us. Does Satan and his cohorts specially attack to break the family of Pastors?

Please pray. I will write again.

Thanking you.

Answer: Dear Brother,

Greetings in Jesus wonderful name!

I appreciate your effort in sharing your burden.

One thing I want to tell you, our enemy Satan and his demons are active like never before to destroy the families of Pastors.

So never worry about your problem as you give your cares to the Lord (1 Peter 5:7; Psa 55:22), it is the Lord's problem when you have committed it to Him.

Never stop praying, and persevere in it.

The Lord will soon solve your problems in HIS WAY and HIS TIME.

Many a times the Lord gives a rough life and a tough wife for his beloved servants on earth, so that they will always not choose to be satisfied in themselves and their family life on earth, but will continue to trust the Lord to carry them on with the satisfaction of heaven by leaning on the Lord always (Prov 3:5-6). When you continue to lean on the understanding of the Lord according to His Word and Spirit all the time, then the Lord has promised to make your pathway straight without hurdle to make you walk supernaturally in to your destiny that He has for you.

John Wesley the great revolutionary revivalist and reformist, whose marriage with Mary Vazeille (also nicknamed 'Molly') was a rocky road. They got married in 1751, in April, 1755 Molly made a second effort to accompany her husband on an extensive tour of the Midlands and northern England; but the travel proved to be too difficult for her. Sadly, John’s marriage continued to deteriorate as he traveled and preached and Molly was left alone at home.

They split up in 1758, and then proceeded to split up and get back together until Vazeille left him for good in 1771. Molly died in October 1781.

When she reached the point of extreme disappointment, Molly took the money she inherited from her first husband and returned to an independent life.

Initially John Wesley didn't even want to get married at all as he wanted to live a life of celibacy like the apostle Paul, but then caved when he acknowledged God's "will" that he find a spouse. In early 1751 John met Molly Vezeille, a forty-one-year-old widow with four grown children who nursed John back to health after he fell on a patch of ice and sprained his ankle. On February 19, 1751 they married, but barely one month later, John left to resume his life of active ministry. He then preached to people the importance of every Christian achieving "perfect love," yet a closer examination of his own marriage reveals that his love wasn't so perfect as he himself was struggling in his own life, as he spent long periods of time away from home doing his ministry, his inordinate amount of travel left his wife to feel jealous and neglected.

It didn't help that he was spending an ample amount of time with other young women of the church in his ministry, while his wife was left at home feeling rejected. This eventually developed into a pretty nasty situation. Out of retribution, she even released some of his private messages to his enemies so they could publicly insult him.

So what can we learn from the story of John Wesley's family life? We should always keep God first, family next and then the ministry we do to the Lord, or else no matter how big God uses us in our ministry, there is always a even chance to fail in our family life. Therefore we should spend ample amount of time with our family and provide them and satisfy their needs first to keep them in the love of the Lord and not provoke them (Eph 6:4; Col 3:21). At the same time, even if we do all the above things, and still we do not see a change in our spouse, we should take it positively in our stride to know that God wants to tune us to be confirmed more to the image of His Son who also walked in the same path of suffering (Rom 8:28-30). And with the help of God we should learn to love unconditionally just like our Lord Jesus Christ did towards us. What did he do? Even when we were God's enemies, Christ died for our sins and set us free from sins that we have done in the past, present and that which we might even do in the future, and dealt it all in the past knowing that we might repent some day and will turn to His way and walk pleasing to God again as His child (John 1:12-13; Rom 5:8; Eph 5:22-32). That kind of faith, hope and love is that should carry us in in our family lives when we are a minister of God and are attacked by the evil one at every corner we turn (1 Cor 13:4-12, 13). Remember, the path to glory is always trodden with suffering and shame. But at the end of the ordeal, God always blesses us with a double honor for our shame (Isa 61:7; Job 42:10-17). God changes our spouse, changes the situation in our family with peace, and above all changes us to become close to the Character of our Lord Jesus Christ through it all, that is the purpose of our suffering on earth.

Late in life, Wesley consoled himself by seeing his disastrous love life as a blessing from God. Was such a life of unrest in his family life a blessing in disguise? Surely the will of God is to run a peaceful home where the husband stay as an example and a leader in home, marriage and family relationship, as it is considered by God as the most important qualification for a successful ministry (Luke 10:5; 1 Tim 3:2, 4-5; Tit 1 :6), but when it comes to his bond servants, "God sends iron to sharpen iron and let the sparks fly" (Prov 27:17), so that his tool to sharpen others could always stay in His hand for His Glorious use. In other words, even though such a disastrous family life was a failure in the part of his servant's personal life in the eyes of humans, God turned it in to a blessing in disguise through making use of His time to be completely devoted to His ministry without any distraction (1 Cor 7:27, 32, 35). The anonymous Methodist preacher reports that one of Wesley’s colleagues agreed, wondering if Wesley “might have been unfaithful to his great work,” had one of his relationships been successful. To see such a giant of faith struggling in his family life, should make us realize that we as a minister of God who are called to achieve great things for God will have similar or even more of a trial to face in our family life, but if we keep our faith and continue to live as a example through our suffering and not allow ourselves to be discouraged, great is our temporal reward and also the eternal reward that God will bless us with will be double portion and more than that in our future (1 Cor 10:13; 1 Pet 5:9).

Commit your family and ministry to the Lord, and pray regularly for the grace of God to be supplied in abundance to you, never react when you are accused, slandered, disregarded and spoken lightly (1 Pet 3:16; Phil 1:25). Humble yourself before the Lord and never justify yourself, soon He will lift you up with a great relationship of peace with in the family and also within the family of God the Church (Jam 4:10; 1 Pet 5:6).

Of course we know that Satan and his demons, "prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8), how much more against the family of the Shepherd of God's family the Church he will work against to bring a bad reputation, a bad name, when they have given him a space within their lives without staying alert through prayer and humility of Christ likeness, Satan and his demons will try to destroy their lives through attacking their families. Satan knows, that if the shepherd is attacked, the sheep of God will be scattered, and he is sadistic enough to see it happen in every place and at every possible time because of his hate for God and His children (Zec 13:7). God allows Satan to have a free run, to test and prove the faith of his children which only brings more and more glory to Him when they prove to be overcomers again and again because of their faith in Him (Matt 26:31; 1 John 5:4-5). So be a overcomer through faith and bring God all the Glory which He always deserves!

Praying for you!

Much Love and Blessings....

RE: If Only I Was A Child Again?

Is It Too Late For God To Restore The Joy Of Heaven Now?

Replied Question: Thank you. You see, it started with porn, then sex outside of marriage, (that brought forth a child), sexual immorality, even to the point of sleeping with someone else's spouse. I am so ashamed and it is and was shameful, but I was an addict and nothing could stop my need for it. I think it may have been the pain of loneliness and fear that started it. All I know is that I was degraded and destructive and full of sin thoughts and actions. How could I take something so precious and sell it for nothing? It was not love, ever. I have never been loved and it was never love. I have been controlled, like a robot under a monster bigger than me. Sexually immoral people receive great judgment. It would have been better I had not been born. I became a monster under the drug of pleasing my flesh and pride. The last word from my sons' father was "whore". That is what I was. How can these sins be forgiven? They are old and done and the destruction finished. I know sex is wonderful inside of marriage and only inside of marriage. I am old. The deeds have been done outside of marriage. I can't hope. I, like billions/trillions of the multitudes took the wrong road. It was the pot that reduced my ability to resist sin, then the men (plural), then death of my soul and dreams and hope for a good life here or after. Like I said, it was long ago when I was young and Playboy and Playgirl and drugs, and living together, and spending "the night together" just wrecked everything. A 'no' is a 'no', but I said 'yes' to sexual sin and it was all downhill from there. I have never had meaningful relationships, very few I know of have. I was born into a living hell. It would have been better to have died young, before I ever thought I was special and sex became my game to be loved (but was really hatred toward God's gift of real love/pure thoughts/a pure, loving, living sacrifice). I'm blinded. Walking in darkness and a lived a life of shame that is now over (57). The thoughts, I thought I could taste and not get burned and now it is too late. I don't have any friends. This sexual addiction destroyed/isolated me from being able to be honest friends with anyone or any joy. I didn't give myself a chance before I dove in. All that is left of me is dying and just judgment from God for taking Him and sin lightly. So, at my age, there can be no hope, just damnation and a wasted life. I would love to be wrong, but how can I? I have already wasted my life on idolatry. It is every man and woman's battle. It would be better that I had not been born. I was forgiven, I felt it once when I was young, but was afraid to sleep and had anxiety attacks, ocd behavior, anorexia (very early teens), trying to control a situation that was completely out of control! '-( I am one of zillions of lost souls. One of the legions. If only I was a child again. They are so pure with good desires and love everyone. So few are pure. We are filthy.

Answer: Thank you dear Sister for sharing again your thoughts back to me. Love you for your honesty. But what I have written in my previous article titled to you, "Will The Consequence Of Sin Stay With Us Forever?", is not my word, but IT IS THE WORD OF GOD THAT YOU MUST TURN TO AND DARE TO TAKE HOLD OF THE PROMISES OF GOD! If possible take a print out and go through all the Scriptures I have referred to, and let the truth of God sink in to your soul. I pray that you might come to know that you are forgiven by JESUS, and come to hold on to HIS ETERNAL PROMISES of a blessed life ahead. We all waste in some way or the other our lives, but God sees our motives and will bless us if we come to Him in sincerity with whatever life we have in our hand. We are not saved by our behavior, but by our belief. But we are rewarded eternally not just by our belief, but by the behavior that has come out of our belief. God has clearly embraced the prodigal son back in to His arms, never once we see in that story the prodigal ceasing to be the son of the father because of his sin. The only thing that he missed when in sin was the lack of fellowship with the father which signifies the believers relationship with his Heavenly Father (Luke 15:11-32). The lost coin was always the coin of the woman represented by God the Spirit who lost it, and he searched for it as it was his responsibility to find it and take it back to Himself (Luke 15:8-10).

John Newton the great saint of God said, "A sheep is a weak, defenseless, foolish creature; prone to wander, and can seldom return of its own accord. A sheep has neither strength to fight with the wolf, nor speed to escape from it; nor has a sheep the foresight of the ant, to provide its own sustenance.

Such is our character, and our situation! We are . . . unable to take care of ourselves, prone to wander from our resting-place, exposed to enemies which we can neither escape nor withstand, without any resource in ourselves, and taught, by daily experience, the insufficiency of everything around us."

Yet we see that the lost sheep was always the sheep of the shepherd JESUS CHRIST who lost it, it was the love and desire of the shepherd towards it that made him go after it to find and bring it back to Himself (Luke 15:1-7). Jesus Christ became our Chief Shepherd not because of our intelligence to succeed, but because of our foolishness and total lack of strength to defend ourselves from the enemies of our soul, (i.e.) self, sin and Satan, and we are hopeless without Him (1 Pet 5:4; John 10:11-18; Isa 40:11). But with Jesus we can always choose to declare victoriously, "The LORD JESUS CHRIST is my shepherd and I shall never be in want!" (Psa 23:1).

There is nothing that stays impure after the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus through the confession of sins (1 John 1:7, 9; 1 Pet 1:22; Heb 9:22). When God has sprinkled the blood of Jesus upon our sins, we have no right to call others or even ourselves as impure after it has been done, because if we do that, we are disrespecting the holy blood of Jesus which the Father has sacrificed to atone and appease himself righteously for it all (Acts 10:15, 28; 11:9; Heb 9:13-14; Rom 5:10-11; 2 Cor 5:18; Col 1:21). Then it becomes equal to trampling the Son of God underfoot in disrespect, treating the blood of the covenant as an unholy thing which has already sanctified him, thus having insulted the Spirit of grace, the Lord will judge such a person by allowing the fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God in hell, by becoming self-condemned for their sins because of the disregard for the blood of Jesus they showed because of their unbelief (Heb 10:26-31). In other words, the citizen of heaven losing the consciousness of their priestly and royal privilege, and becoming fearful of what the other worldly citizens of earth are fearful of, i.e. the indefinite future that awaits them in hell fire for their sins for which they with their own mind wants to appease their conscience to justify themselves with whatever good works they think they have done. In short, though they are going to heaven, they live on earth as though they are going to hell.   

So to avoid such a scenario of hellish condemnation, we should remember the earlier days after we have received the light of God through salvation, and how we have stood for faith until we were lost in our sins and were not able to overcome its lure, and be thankful for the salvation and start to fellowship with God through approaching him boldly through the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior (Heb 10:32-29; 4:16). God provides grace to all who seek Him for it humbly (2 Cor 13:14; Jam 4:6-7; 1 Pet 5:5-6).

Jesus has promised not to lose even one of the person who has come seeking to him for refuge and to all the person who has received eternal life, he has promised not to lose even one of them as they are all so precious to Him, and also to the Father in heaven who has begotten them through His Word (John 10:14-18, 25-30).

So what are you waiting for except to rejoice that you are being celebrated in returning to the Father God from sin, "I share this secret to you believers like us", the apostles said, "so that your joy may be full and overflowing like you experience it in heaven", and "we experience this ecstasy by having fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ so that you might experience joy of heaven like us completely on earth by having fellowship with Him now." (1 John 1:3-4, Paraphrased By Me).

So the life of regret no matter what we have done, should be overcome with the LIFE of the SPIRIT, LIGHT of the WORD and LOVE of GOD after we repent to God and start to fellowship with Him (2 Cor 7:10). This is the one and only godly repentance that God longs us to have and not the worldly repentance which produces the grief of the world to lead to death.

NO TIME IS TOO LATE IF WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD.

When you say, "All that is left of me is dying and just judgment from God for taking Him and sin lightly. So, at my age, there can be no hope, just damnation and a wasted life", all I can think about your situation is, you have let yourself become self-condemned and thus in yourself you have decided your future as a fate of what happened to you in your past life. This is not Christian faith thinking, this is the thinking of idolatry where, your future life is something that you cannot change because of your past life which influences it, and they call it Karma. But the God of the Bible, is someone who does not save someone from sin for a time and throw them away because of their sin at a latter time because of their inability to stop sinning. But rather as we have seen above, He is our shepherd, our Father, our Mother, etc...to take care of us for eternity ahead. Once we are saved, even we by our behavior cannot unsave ourselves, though we have have the ability to destroy a good and meaningful life through our behavior because of our poor belief. God has saved you because of his Son whom He sacrificed for you, not because of your guarantee that you will live a good life after you are saved.

So God saves us eternally and keeps us that way for eternity because it was a eternal redemption and salvation (Eph 1:13-14; John 10:28; Heb 5:9; 9:12).

Because you had faith in Jesus Christ before all these things of sinfulness happened, I believe that you were saved, but did not become mature to overcome and be strong in the Lord (Eph 6:10; 1 John 2:12-14). Now that God has shown grace and mercy to look to Him again, trust His promises and rise up in the joy of heaven by having fellowship with God and His people regularly to be a testimony to the work of the grace of God.

Because Jesus has already taken all your sins when you received Him through your belief, you can never be condemned for eternity ahead. You cannot become saved and then become unsaved to go to hell. Either you are unsaved, or stay saved for eternity ahead. Even though only a God pleasing life of faith can bring you much reward for eternity ahead, yet your eternal life in itself is never at stake because of sin, but the joy of fellowship with God was at stake when you were in your sins. You are saved by your union with God through Jesus, but you maintain your fellowship with God apart from sin by your confession of it to God. The two should never be mixed up to become confused in our faith.

Even the unique BEMA seat judgment that God bring a believer after his or her death is not a judgment for sin, but judgment apart from sin for the right motive behind the behavior we displayed after we were saved (Heb 9:27-28; 2 Cor 5:10; 1 Cor 4:5), where we will be praised for our behavior done with right motives to be rewarded for eternity, or feel regret for the lost time on earth and at the same time feel grateful for the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ which has delivered us from the disservice we did to God through loving sin which corrupted our motives and made us ineffective to make a difference eternally for God (1 Cor 3:10-15; 1 John 2:15-17; Heb 9:14; Rev 21:3-4).

Seek for an intimacy with God and live life without regret because of godly repentance to enjoy the journey of life. Remember, that God has promised to make the spiritually least and the last to become the first to get rewarded, like the thief on the cross of Jesus who by faith inherited heaven directly before the others who were waiting for thousands of years during the Old Testament times (Luke 23:43; Eph 4:7-9, 10; Heb 11:40; Matt 27:52-53), and also like in the Parable where Jesus shows that God rewards us eternally not according to the quantity of time we serve Him, but rather according to the quality of the motive with which we served Him (Matt 20:1-16). So who knows, may be you take God at His Word to embrace it fully with all your heart, you could be the one to sit and enjoy the specialty of heaven because of the motive and humble attitude with which you served God with whatever time you have left now (Matt 21:28-32). So with God it is how you believe Him and His promises that matters to Him, because that is the only thing that can please Him and secure your reward for eternity ahead (Heb 11:6). All behavior that comes out of belief will only be rewarded by God, behavior that comes through self-discipline needs no faith but only our hard work to attain it, which in fact will not be rewarded for eternity.

God never rewards spiritually for man's work, though He rewards him physically (Pro 14:23; Rom 4:4). God rewards spiritually for His work in man, (i.e.) that which He rewards is the work that which was initiated by Him, for Him and through Him which gets rewarded for eternity (Rom 4:5-6). So let go and let God!

Even though we become old with all our failures and sins behind us, we cannot become childish in our understanding, but rather we can become child-like in trusting the promises of God more and more as we become old (1 Cor 14:20). Thus maturity of trust in believing God's promise is what Jesus emphasized for all believers, by saying as, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt 18:2-4). As we become old, in regard to evil let us be like infants in running to the blood of Jesus to keep us from bad conscience and maintain our faith (1 Cor 14:20; 1 Tim 1:19). Heart of unbelief is a evil heart that God hates, but the heart that trusts God's promises is the one he loves to spend time with (Heb 3:12; 4:9, 10, 11).

Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus! Amen!

May the Lord JESUS help you and build you up spiritually till the end. You are never a lost soul to Jesus, because He has come to save sinners like you and me who are all filthy in one way or the other, in one degree or the the other. He will save us to the end as we have committed our lives in to His hand (Heb 7:25).         

Much Love and Blessings....

Prayer For Deliverance From Sexual Sin: God Is Done With Me, Except For Death And Judgment?

Will The Consequence Of Sin Stay With Us Forever?

Question: When I was a teen, I smoked pot and gave into premarital sex, it was a destructive addiction and destroyed my future. I am a casualty/prisoner of an invisible war that I embraced (it was the 70's/disco/bars/casual sex/drugs and ungodliness) and sin rampant!! I repented and was forgiven and healed, but the consequences are forever. I do not know how God sees me now, but lives/souls were ruined, mine first. I am angry that I gave a million dollars/something more precious than rubies to a lie, but now I am without excuse or hope. It was from pride and thinking it was fun and I was special, until I woke up in shock from the reality of the lie and hell I committed. I am old now (57) and don't know what to do. All peace/hope/joy/ ALL is gone! Sexual sins are eternal. Therefore there is no hope, sexual sin was not my only sin, but the worst and first and most sorrowful because once I lost my goodness from when I was young and loved the Lord and wanted to please Him, then turned to sin, it was all over. Like David, the consequences are done and I have no hope. It destroyed me and began my spiritual death spiral, and not just me, but what seemed like almost everyone I knew. What a disaster and waste. Life has not been worth living since my 20's. I wanted to wash out my mind/mouth/soul/thoughts, ended up in a psyche ward, but it was corrupted. I loved Jesus and wanted to please Him, but lost everything. I literally felt my crown blown away and the hope/faith under me gone forever. Grasp all you want, try and repent, but it was gone. '-( True story. Life has been a façade/lesson of what not to do since. I know many in the same boat (as we all do) who died from sexual sins. I feel it is too far gone, though I WAS forgiven for a moment. I can't lift my head and my life was trash since. Actual trash/even suicidal. Please only reply to me. I was locked in a psyche ward for 6 weeks to make me "feel better". I blew it and it was hell to me and everyone around me because I liked/chose to sin and was afraid to sleep because I knew I was destroyed. God is done with me, except for death and judgment. '-(

Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful and glorious name!

I understand that the enemy of our soul comes to us at the time of our youthful years to tempt us in to all kinds of sins, so that we can be filled to the full with all kinds of worldly entertainment and lust, so that our time of effective service to God could be lost, and the temporal and eternal reward for it could be squandered in to trash bin in our lives that could never ever be regained even if we desire to regain it later in our lives. That is why the greatest man of Wisdom who operated in heaven's wisdom wrote saying, "Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”." (Eccl 12:1).

I appreciate your honest talk to tell others what has happened in your life and how it has never satisfied your soul, though it did seemed that it might satisfy you temporally, it created more broken fragments of your soul and a longing for the reality of Jesus Christ whom you have come to know and love even in your youthful years.

Yes you are absolutely right, it was a invisible war as Paul the apostle said, "10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Eph 6:10-12). Disco/bars/casual sex/drugs and ungodliness are all like the fish hook of Satan to take you captive to become his slave and make you as a prisoner to fulfill his will, whims and fancies. Jesus said, "Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin." (John 8:34). This he said to the religious people who had no sense of sin in their lives and they were never saved. Sin wants to become our master, but we have to master it through God's grace, so that we can live free in the freedom and liberty that God gives to us through His Spirit (Gen 4:7; 2 Cor 3:17).

Yes when we are caught in sin, the Holy Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously to help us overcome sin and master over it (Jam 4:5). And as we know repentance in itself is a gift God has given to his children who know that they are sick with sin (Mark 2:17), the Holy Spirit convicts us of sins and leads us in the path of eternal life through gifting us with repentance for his name sake (Psa 23:3; 2 Tim 2:25-26).

Yes you are right, since the Lord Jesus has granted repentance to you, I praise God and thank God that you are able to see the devastation that sin has caused in your life, and now that you are able to see yourself through the eyes of the Holy Spirit, you are longing for something that might give you relief from the wasted time.

Sexual sins are something that the Bible calls as something done "against your own body" which means it affects our personality in a very deeper way more than many other types of sin that we do outside our body (1 Cor 6:18). In other words, sexual sin damages our brain and our body, and then rewires it by short circuiting the places of emotional production, where it directly influences us to numbs us to guilt and conviction of our wrongdoing, and make our sexual sin become the idol of our heart if we do not confess our sins to the Lord Jesus Christ to let the blood of Christ cleanse us from all sins (1 John 1:7, 9). Sexual sins and the like can start with pornography, fantasy, masturbation, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, etc....and can have no end unless we come to realize ourselves that we are not gaining anything, but losing our joy, peace, righteousness and hope of salvation (1 Thess 5:8; Rom 14:17). Thus we should come to a place where we take these things seriously and repent, and then God will graciously look upon us to give us victory and help us come out of this bondage of slavery that makes our life miserable.

Sexual sins are not eternal, even God cannot see through the blood of Jesus we can say on a lighter note or in other words, God chooses not to see our sins through the blood of Jesus (Heb 10:19-23; 9:14). Once we confess our sins, we must believe that God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all uncleanness of our lives (1 John 1:9), that is why the psalmist says, wash me and I say shall be clean and whiter than snow from all my sins (Psa 51:7).

The very thoughts of all our sins and the unrighteousness are forgiven by God the moment we confess it according to His Word, but Satan and his demonic minions might try to bring the thoughts of our past to make us self-condemned and discouraged if we let it influence us. We ought to confess the testimony of the blood of Jesus that washed away our sins according to the Word of God and his promises and stand on it when we are questioned again and again within us, thus we overcome or learn to overcome more and more of the wiles of the devil through the word of our testimony that we speak within the recesses of our mind the truth and the sound of our mouth to renew our mind against Satan and his cohorts who want to re-implant the lies of our past thoughts, failures and habits to make us be defeated by sin, and then if we want to overcome that particular besetting sin that haunts us by repeatedly failing and falling because of our weaknesses towards us, we should learn to lift up our cross and learn not to love our own lives but instead stand on the truth that in Christ we have already become dead to pleasing ourselves, and thus now live to God to please Him alone (Rev 12:11; Luke 9:23-24; Rom 6:11).

No matter what sin affects us, because of what Jesus Christ has done for us on the Cross of Calvary, there is now no more condemnation for us because of it (Rom 8:1). That does not mean we can sin voluntarily and freely involve ourselves in sin without any care for the consequence of it (Rom 6:1, 15), because as I said before, there are physical, emotional, social, familial consequence of sin that will come to us if we choose to indulge in it to satisfy ourselves apart from the will of God (1 Thess 4:3). These consequences affect us and if possible will destroy us if we do not turn to God in repentance and cry out for a restoration in our lives. God has guaranteed that no matter what the consequence we get here for our bad behavior on earth, the eternal consequence has already been sealed with the blood of Jesus, and a sure promise of God's hand holding us and giving us a opportunity to also hold the lifestyle of eternal life has been set forth before us, to encourage us to walk in the path of righteousness and get blessed here on earth, and as well as see the aftereffect of earning great reward for it in eternity too (John 10:27-30).

Even though because of what Christ has done for us we are never enslaved (Rom 6:14), but rather we allow ourselves to be be-slaved to the trick of Satan who appeals through our sin nature to make us lust after the forbidden, and thus make us think as a slave even when we are not. We are the beloved children of our Heavenly Father in Heaven (Eph 5:1).

Yes I understand how the enemy could have so much space in our lives to destroy the abundant life Jesus has given to us (John 10;10), when we continue to be sold out to sin and its temporal pleasures that we totally lose the very thought of the responsibility we have now to collect the eternal treasure for future pleasures, that gets collected and treasured in heaven through our earthly lives when we choose to reject sin and take the Cross to inherit the eternal pleasures now and forevermore (Luke 9:23-26; Matt 6:19-21).

I believe that when you say, "I loved Jesus and wanted to please Him, but lost everything. I literally felt my crown blown away and the hope/faith under me gone forever. Grasp all you want, try and repent, but it was gone," I can clearly sense the lies of the enemy that has got so deep within your mind because of what happened in your past life that you have forgotten that whatever life that is left could still be used for the Glory of God as much as possible. You are not able to see that the life that you have now is much more precious as it has the potential to help you regain the lost time and do whatever you can, than whatever life that could not be changed because it is in the past.

Our God is the God of second chance, third chance, fourth chance, fifth chance and ultimately the God of infinite chances, if we are His child and choose to confess our mistakes, and sincerely desire to repent and live a changed life. Our loving Father in heaven is never bored with our failures, because He sees us as His dearly beloved children who have been made as righteous as He is in Christ Jesus, when God sees us through our Lord Jesus Christ whom we have believed, he cannot see any sin in us always (2 Cor 5:21). In Christ Jesus no matter how much time we have wasted, it does not matter, as long as we have a new day where we are breathing on earth, we have a chance to look to our Heavenly Father and seek Him through our Lord Jesus Christ to make a eternal difference for now and forever by the grace and mercy of God (2 Cor 5:17).

Repentance in itself is a gift that God gives to the sincere hearted children of His, and nobody deserves it by their works (2 Tim 2:25-26), so that through it we may be able to gain what has been lost (Heb 6:9-12), our God has the power to turn all the curses in to blessings because of his undying love for us (Deut 23:5), He has the power to turn all that the devil has done to us to be turned against him (Psa 23:5-6), He has all the power to turn all the good and even the bad things that has happened to us in to only the best things for our eternal future if we choose to repent and hold on to the grace and mercy of God to continue to love the Lord with all our heart (Rom 8:28). There remains with God a heavenly Sabbath rest for the people of God, whoever enters that rest will cease to think about their own works and will begin to see themselves through the Work of Jesus that He has already done for them, to live and enjoy in this world and in the world to come (Heb 4:9-10). God finishing His work and resting on the Sabbath day after the creation is a sign of the 7th day believers who will experience a supernatural rest of faith because of availing it through believing the promises of God that is available to him/her in Christ Jesus. A merry heart is a medicine for healing of our soul from all the bad things that has happened to us in our past, that anointing of merriness God provides for all those who will trust in His promises (Prov 17:22; 2 Cor 1:20).

GOD IS NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!

Even though the Lord judges His people who sin willfully without seeking for repentance, yet you must understand that His anger is for a moment towards His children, but favor for a lifetime (Heb 10:26-32; Psa 30:5; Isa 54:7-9), God the Father might hide His face from you for a moment; But with everlasting kindness He will have mercy on you if you choose to surrender yourself to Him, my dear beloved saint of God. You are His beloved child, dearly loved by Him!

Only believe, all things are possible with God to bless you! Your forgiveness is not just for a moment, it is for eternity ahead, experience it by trusting His promises day to day, by going over and over it in your mind. God will bless mainly those who are desperate to trust His promises!

PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE FROM SEXUAL SINS: You need deliverance from sin and its evil effect, please do pray with me this powerful prayer from your heart to our Heavenly Father,

"Father in the Mighty Name Of Jesus....In JESUS mighty victorious name....

I renounce all sexual sin that I have been involved within the past, including fornication, masturbation, pornography, perversion, fantasy, and adultery in the name of Jesus.

I break the curses of adultery, perversion, fornication, lust, incest, rape, molestation, illegitimacy, harlotry, and polygamy in the name of Jesus.

I command all spirits of lust and perversion to come out of my stomach, genitals, eyes, mind, mouth, hands, and blood in the name of Jesus.

I present my body as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1). My members are the members of Christ. I will not let them be members of a harlot or a spirit of harlotry (1Cor. 6:15).

I release the fire of God to burn out all unclean lust, from my life in the name of Jesus.

I break all ungodly soul ties with former lovers and sexual partners in the name of Jesus.

I cast out all spirits of loneliness that would drive me to ungodly sexual relationships in the name of Jesus.

I command all spirits of hereditary lusts from my ancestors to come out in the name of Jesus.

I command all spirits of witchcraft that work with lust to leave in the name of Jesus.

I take authority over my thoughts and bind all spirits of fantasy and lustful thinking in the name of Jesus.

I cast out all marriage-breaking spirits of lusts, that would break covenant in the name of Jesus.

I cast out and loose myself from any spirit spouses and spirits of incubus and succubus in the name of Jesus.

I cast out all spirits of perversion, including Moabite and Ammonite spirits of lust, in the name of Jesus.

I receive the spirit of holiness, in my life to walk in sexual purity in the name of Jesus.

I lose myself, I am crucified with Christ. I do not let sin reign in my body, and I will not obey its lust (Rom. 6:6-12).

Amen and Amen! Glory to God!"

NOW BEGIN TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR THOUGHT LIFE AND TAKE YOUR THOUGHTS CAPTIVE TO THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST, HE WILL KEEP YOUR LIFE ALWAYS UNDER THE SHADOW OF HIS WINGS (2 Cor 10:3-6)! If you want to more of how you can change your life by changing your thinking, read this following post : How Could I Live The Abundant Life That Jesus Promised His Followers By Denying Sexual Deviance?

Much Love and Blessings.....