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Total And Complete Forgiveness
Total And Complete Forgiveness – Joseph Prince Ministries
Ephesians 1:7; In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
People have said to me, “Pastor Prince, I was taught that only my past sins—from the day I was born until the day I became a Christian—have been forgiven, and that my future sins are not forgiven until I confess them and seek forgiveness.”
My friend, when Jesus died on the cross, how many of your sins were future?
Unless you are more than 2,000 years old, all your sins were future then! Jesus took them all upon Himself, nailed them to the cross and declared, “It is finished!” So if you are not forgiven of all, then you are not forgiven at all.
“You mean Jesus also died for the sin that I have just committed?”
Yes!
“And also for the sins which I will commit?”
Yes! That is why He said, “It is finished!”
But many of us are inconsistent in our believing. One part of us says, “God has forgiven me of all my sins.” But another part says, “Yes, but I must still confess my sins to be forgiven of them.” Are you like that?
Beloved, you are forgiven not because of your work of confession. Your confession cannot wash away your sins. You are forgiven because of the blood of Jesus shed for you. His blood alone cleanses you.
You cannot believe that you are forgiven of your past, present and future sins, and still think that there is something for you to do to make that forgiveness complete. If you do, then it becomes your work too, not Jesus’ alone.
Is there a place for confession of sins? My friend, if you have just sinned, you can always tell God about it without feeling condemned because you know that you already have forgiveness and that Jesus was condemned in your place. But you don’t confess your sins to God in order to be forgiven. You already have total and complete forgiveness because of the blood of Jesus!
Which Is Easier To Say?
Which Is Easier To Say? – Joseph Prince Ministries
Colossians 2:13; And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
Let me ask you a question which Jesus asked the Pharisees: “Which is easier, to say [to the paralytic], ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’?” (Luke 5:23)
In the context of ministering to a paralytic, saying “Your sins are forgiven” is probably easier. Why? Because you don’t need an outward manifestation to prove that his sins are forgiven. But when you tell him, “Rise up and walk,” he must rise up and walk, or you will look very foolish! So that makes saying “Your sins are forgiven” easier than saying “Rise up and walk”.
The truth is, what is seemingly more difficult for man in the natural is not so for God. With God, physical healing is clearly “easier” for Him than forgiveness of sins. The latter is the “harder” and greater miracle because it required God to deliver up His beloved Son to take on all our sins and shed His blood on the cross.
Yet, when faced with a loved one stricken with cancer, or when gripped by mounting debts after being jobless for a long time, we seem to find it harder to believe and say that God has already given us the breakthroughs we need, than to believe and say that our sins are forgiven. Saying that our sins are forgiven seems easier than saying that God has already given us the miraculous physical healing, supernatural financial breakthrough or divine favor at the next job interview.
But since God has done the “harder” and greater miracle of “having forgiven you all trespasses”, there is nothing He will not do for you! (Romans 8:32) In fact, if you think that there is something that God is withholding from you, you are implying that that something is greater than the forgiveness of sins which Jesus died to give you! But nothing can be greater than the perfect sacrifice of Jesus.
So hear the Lord telling you today, “Your sins have been forgiven you. You have perfect acceptance before God. Rise up and be healed! Rise up and walk in health, wisdom, favor, protection and wholeness!”
Salvation: A Relationship
SALVATION: A RELATIONSHIP – Andrew Wommack Ministries
Mark 6:54, “And when they were come out of the ship, straightway they knew him,”
MARK 6:53-56
The word “know” can mean many things from as little as “to perceive with the senses or the mind” to a much deeper meaning of “a thorough experience with.”
This knowing, then, is not just intellectual, but a personal, intimate understanding. Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ. Eternal life is having an intimate, personal relationship with God the Father and Jesus the Son. This intimacy with God is what salvation is all about. Forgiveness of our sins is not the point of salvation. This intimacy with the Father is. Of course, Jesus did die to purchase forgiveness for our sins because unforgiven sins block us from intimacy with God. Sin was an obstacle that stood between God and us. It had to be dealt, with and it was. But anyone who views salvation as only forgiveness of sins and stops there is missing out on eternal life.
Salvation was intended to be presented as the way to come back into harmony with God. Instead, it has often been presented as the way to escape the problems of this life and later the judgment of hell. It is possible to get born again with that kind of thinking, but more often than not, people who get saved through that type of ministry view the Lord as someone to help them through times of crisis and not someone to know in an intimate way. Jesus died for us out of love (Jn. 3:16) – a love that longed to have intimate communion with man.
Most non-believers are so occupied with their “hell on earth” that they don’t really think or care about their eternal future. They are fed up with religion. They are looking for something that will fill the emptiness inside. Only an intimate relationship (eternal life) with our Father can do that. We need to tell them.
God’s Grace
Yesterday I posted a email I received from Andrew Wommack concerning forgiveness. Forgiveness is His Grace. Since I’ve been learning more and more about His Grace, I’ve been less and less burdened. I’m not afraid to come to Him with my faults any more. I’m not afraid to be honest and confess my faults as much as before because I know He Loves me and isn’t out to get me. That’s what religion under the old covenant teaches you. But even how people teach the old covenant, some teach that wrong. They teach this unmerciful God that’s angry with us and out to get us. Look at how God showed His Grace toward the children of Israel, time and time again after they messed up, time and time again. One of the most wicked woman we say that’s in the Bible, Jezebel, God was willing to help her if she only repented. Since His teachings of Grace I don’t make excuses for me sinning, I don’t want to sin. I want my heart changed because I want to be like Him. I don’t feel I have to be anymore, it’s a free choice. I’s a free obligation I’m learning to have toward Him, our Lord Jesus, more than an obligation to follow Him because it’s a rule. God doesn’t want robots, He wants His living creation to freely follow Him. And when we really know His Grace, we freely follow Him. In me there is still some resistant because of the old teachings. But the more I’m receiving His teachings, the more free I feel. Concerning yesterday’s article on receiving forgiveness; I have to admit that was hard for me to receive when the Lord was speaking to me directly about it prior to the email. But I looked up some stuff in the Bible and the things I was taught before was not in there. One of the things I looked up is “asking for forgiveness”. The Lord told me I don’t have to ask for forgiveness because He has already forgiven me of my sins. I just need to confess my sins and He will cleanse me, but I have to believe He will. Nothing is based on my performance or works, but on what He already has done. Lately, I’ve been thanking Him for His forgiveness and expecting deliverance from sin. The teachings I’ve been getting from Him, He shows me in His Word. Most of the time it’s not something I need revelation for. It’s plain and simple and can see it in black and white. Focusing too much on sin was causing me to believe in me and my abilities. But focusing on Jesus Christ, my Redeemer, my Healer, my Bridegroom is causing me to be free from all the burdens of the old teachings. It’s freedom thanking Him for what He already provided for us; and one of that is forgiveness of sins. To ask means to want something. To confess is to admit faults. Pride keeps so many from admitting their faults; so pride keeps many from receiving God’s Grace. I used to think this is too good to be true. Now I just say, this is You, God. I don’t feel condemned because I don’t get it right. I made a mistake the other day and satan tried to burden me with it and the Holy Spirit of our God came and told me to accept His forgiveness and forgive myself. I tried to beat myself up, but I began to feel burdened. The Holy Spirit guided me and helped me accept forgiveness. I was fine after that and it just caused me to want to follow Him. Because of Grace sin is not having dominion over me. For the record, reminding a person of their faults and always talking about sin is not the key to stop them from sinning. Scaring them isn’t the answer. Not one time has the Lord scared me with His Word. Sorry for the long post, but maybe someone in this group is burdened like I was and need freedom. Grace isn’t freedom to sin, it moves you from sinning. Grace also helps me to believe more about things that are impossible. I don’t have to perform for God to move for me. There are many factors that causes unbelief, but the problem is still unbelief. Well, Grace has helped me to believe and I believe Grace will keep me steadfast in faith. Lately when I pray, I’m accepting more and more it is truly done because of His Grace. It’s not based on a feeling I’m feeling; for that moment. But it’s from knowledge about Him and who God really is. I’m learning to pray from Grace, which causes me to believe in what I ask.
Because of His Grace we should not have any doubt in Him. Because of His Grace we and our family are covered and protected. Because of His Grace we have all the things we need because He has provided all for us. He already provided healing, deliverance, finances. The fact He provided His Son for us is proof of His Love, Grace and Faithfulness toward us. Please check out this article from Creflo Dollar concerning God’s Grace. Peace and blessing truly belong to us. Veronica
Too Much Grace! – From Creflo Dollar
I remember my wife giving me a certificate to go skydiving on my 40th birthday. I thought, that’s going to be pretty neat, jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. Included in a skydiver’s equipment is one main parachute and one reserve parachute. I had the thought, what if I only had that one main chute? I began to think about how dependent I was on the second chute. Would I be able to put my full trust in just one chute? It’s a lot easier to go skydiving knowing that you have that backup chute.
Well, living the life of grace is almost like that scenario. God wants us to depend on one “chute”—grace—but we keep depending on the backup “chute”—self-effort, or self-reliance. Today, the Spirit of God is saying, “When will you get to the point in your life where you’re going to be totally dependent on that one chute, God’s grace, and everything that Jesus has already done for you?”
We are surrounded by too much grace to ever be defeated in any area of our lives. There’s just too much grace that’s been made available to us to be troubled about anything. But in order to avail ourselves to God’s grace and lay hold of what we need by faith, we have to maintain the balance of the presence of God in our lives. You have to practice the presence of God in order to tap into His wisdom concerning the circumstances of your everyday life.
One of the ways we engage His presence is by engaging in His Word. The devil’s task is to distract you out of, and away from, the presence of God. But you have to train your mind to focus on the Word because there are many distractions in life. This can be as simple as taking a scripture and meditating on that scripture every day; or before going to bed, reading a paragraph from the Word and meditating on that. When you get in the Word, you get in the presence of God. The Bible says in the God’s presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). When you get in God’s presence, He can begin to show you some things and reveal things to you that you need to know.
You have a choice; you can focus on your problems, or you can focus on Jesus. His grace is available for you, no matter what you’re going through. There’s no circumstance you’ll ever come up against in life that can prevail against God. He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). He is already in your future, rooting for you at the finish line!
Make it a point from this day forward to expose yourself to God’s presence by exposing yourself to His Word. Trials and challenges that seem larger than life melt when we’re in the presence of the Lord. His presence eliminates worry, fear, doubt, and frustration. That’s where His grace comes in! There’s too much grace available for you, so don’t you dare give up, cave in, or quit on God, because He will never quit on you!
But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!” (2 Corinthians 12:9, AMP).
When you continually practice the presence of God, you can learn how to rejoice even in the midst of trouble! Why? Because your hope is in Christ, and He never disappoints!
Accept the Gift of Forgiveness
I am just receiving this email this morning, but the Lord through His Holy Spirit has been teaching me about this subject. I have always looked at my sins and help myself accountable for them, which was a huge burden. I used to really beat myself up each time I sinned. Not only me, I would remember what people did wrong toward me and held that against them. My acts were evil and wrong. The Word of God says in Romans 4:8 that He will not impute (CREDIT YOU; TAKE AN INVENTORY; THINK ON) our sins. If He, who IS God, the great I AM, the ALMIGHTY, Powerful God does not think on, take an inventory of, or credit our sins then why should we. The Word of God also stays in 1 John 1:9 that if we CONFESS (admit our wrong) that He is faithful AND just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So again, why focus on our sin when He said He will cleanse us from unrighteousness. This also brings to my mind when the Lord God told me when He looks at us, He sees His Son. When we accept Jesus as Savior (see Romans 10:9) we accept He covered our sins through His blood. We are forgiven without even asking for forgiveness. That is His AWESOME free gift of Grace. We did nothing to earn it. When we accept that fact, it helps us to want to not sin. Instead of focusing on sin (in you or someone else) focus on the One (Jesus) who died for our sins. Have faith He will cleanse you and the one who did you wrong from ALL unrighteousness. This week the Lord gave me this scripture (John 9:2;And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? ). Jesus didn’t focus on the man’s sin, people did. Jesus focus on the man’s need for healing. In the next verse Jesus told them this man isn’t blind because of any sin from him or his parents. If you look at the life of Jesus while He was on earth, when people came to Him for healing He dealt with their problem and some He said to sin no more. He dealt with the problem first, then the sin. That’s His Grace. He loves us so much, He sent His ONLY Son to take our place on that cross. We were the one who deserved to die. But He loves us so much, He took our place. Lastly, earlier this year the Lord gave me a vision about His death on the cross. I pray you can see it also. There were a line of people who were chained and burdened. They had looks on them like depression, guilt, no hope, death. They looked like the living dead. They were hunched over walking. Then they came to a road that looked like a cross. The cross had a veil on the long part. As they went over that road and went through the veil the who expression changed. They had no more chains, they weren’t hunched over, they had smiles on their face, they looked peaceful. It was a 360 degree change. That’s what happens to us when we accept Jesus as Savior. As we renew our minds through His Word and His teachings, we accept His Awesome Grace and realize we are reconciled back to our Creator, our Lord God, the Great I Am. Jesus is our Redeemer and redeemed us back to our Heavenly Father. If you haven’t accepted Him, please do so. If you have an are still burdened, accept the truth of His Grace. He is not imputing your sins against you. Peace and blessings to you all.
Romans 4:8; Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
1 John 1:9; If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Romans 10:9-10; That if thou shalt CONFESS with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
ACCEPT THE GIFT OF FORGIVENESS – From Andrew Wommack Ministries
Luke 23:34 “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”
Forgiveness of sins is one of the great themes of the Bible. There is so much that scripture says about it that it would take volumes of books to adequately deal with the subject. It will suffice to say that the blood of Jesus is what provided us with forgiveness of sins. That sacrifice was so great that it outweighed all our sins. It covered all the sins of the world-past, present, and future.
Most Christians have the concept that the sins they committed before they professed faith in Christ are forgiven at salvation, but any sins that are committed after that time are not forgiven until they repent and ask for forgiveness. This is not the case.
All our sins: past, present, and future were forgiven through the one offering of Jesus. If God can’t forgive future sins, then none of us can be saved because Jesus only died once, nearly 2,000 years ago, before we had committed any sins. All our sins have been forgiven.
The forgiveness of our sins is not the ultimate goal of our salvation. It is just a necessary step. The real goal of salvation is relationship with the Father and sin is a barrier to that relationship. So, it had to be dealt with, and it was, through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who stop with the forgiveness of sins and don’t go on into eternal life are missing the heart of salvation. Our sins have been forgiven so that we may enter into intimacy with the Lord.
It is through the riches of God’s grace that we have received forgiveness for our sins. There is nothing we can do to obtain forgiveness except humble ourselves and receive forgiveness as a gift through faith in Christ.
Word for today
Count On God’s Forgiveness from our Lord Jesus given to Joseph Prince
Hebrews 10:2
2…For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.
What are you more conscious of today? Your sins or the fact that you have been forgiven? My friend, don’t be conscious of your sins. Be conscious instead of Jesus and His finished work. The Lamb of God has taken away all your sins at the cross, so count on the fact that you are a forgiven child of God!
No matter what has happened or what you have done, God wants you to know that because of His Son’s finished work, He will be merciful to your unrighteousness, and your sins and lawless deeds He will remember no more. (Hebrews 8:12).
That is why you should not be conscious of your sins. In fact, when you are sin-conscious, the devil brings in condemnation, and the more you receive it and condemn yourself, the more you will find yourself unforgiving toward yourself and even others.
I was told by a pastor friend that when a lady, who had cancer on her face, asked for prayer for healing, the Lord revealed to him that it was self-hatred that was keeping her from receiving her healing. She could not forgive herself and was full of self-condemnation.
When she realized her problem, she counted on the fact that God was merciful to her unrighteousness and that she was already forgiven. She received the love of God. Then, right before the pastor’s eyes, her whole face changed—she received her healing that very moment!
Something happens when you believe that you are forgiven. That is why God says to you, “I want you to believe that all your sins I will remember no more. I want you to believe that you are My child enjoying My mercy and that you can always count on My forgiveness.”
Beloved, remember that all your sins have already been paid for by Jesus on the cross. And the more you count on the fact that you have the Father’s forgiveness and that He does not condemn you because of Jesus’ finished work, the more sin and its effects—sickness, hatred, lack and so on—will lose their grip on you. You will find yourself walking in a greater measure of God’s grace and blessings!
DIY - One Room At A Time 