Getting Rid Of the Weeds

The topic of this post always leaves me with such pure gratefulness for the work that Christ Jesus did for us on the cross of Cavalry. That gift of redemption did not just save us, it also empowered us to live holy lives before our God and Father.

He did everything for us! He carried out the hard stuff. The hard stuff are those things that are, for us as mere human beings, just impossible to carry out. It’s those things that I cannot do even if I wanted to.

The Old Testament describe these truths so well: Doing the best they could at that time, the priests had to slaughter animals to cover the sins of the nation of Israel. Blood had to flow but that blood could only cover the sins of the people. It could not take it away. Can you imagine the awful stench that rose up in the nostrils of the priests and everybody involved in those sacrifices because of the blood of those animals.

These constant sacrifices and the ongoing stench these priest had to endure was a constant reminder of the never ending sin of mankind. These acts had to be carried out continuously. The sins of mankind just could not be forgotten because it could not be removed. People just could not get rid of their sins. The animal sacrifices only covered it.

Also, the sacrifices of incense on the altar of incense just could not completely remove that awful odor that was hanging all around the temple grounds. Yes, the blood covered the sins and yes, the sacrifices of incense partly stumped away that awful odor but it could not take it away completely. The mere existence of those sins and the stench of those sins were constant reminders of the damning position that mankind forever had to endure, was it not for the blood of Jesus Christ.

Animal sacrifices could not set us free. Mankind needed a miracle! That miracle came when the true and blameless Lamb of God died for our sins on that cross. This act of mercy changed everything. How and why did it change everything? In order for God the Father to legally make this possible, He was looking for a man who had no sins. Only a man who never sinned, a man who was blameless and without any defects or faults in the eyes of God, qualified to pay for the sins of the world.

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That kind of blood is different from the blood of animals. In the spiritual world, that kind of blood has power. It is a blood with miracle working power. Remember, the life is in the blood. The life of Christ is in His blood. This blood had the power to set the world free. It was powerful enough to, instead of covering the blood, taking it away completely. That means it also removed the stench of our sins. Because of this wonderful reality, we never have or never can be reminded of the sins of the past. Those sins do not exist anymore and therefore that awful stench is removed also. Isn’t this wonderful?

Most people understand this wonderful reality. They do understand that the blood of Jesus Christ is powerful and full of life. They know that they stand in God’s presence as pure and holy people of the living God. They however struggle to stay that way. They struggle to maintain that position of holiness because they do not fully understand the power of the blood of Christ.

What don’t they understand? They do not understand that the blood of Jesus Christ empowers them to live a constant holy and sinless life. Now this statement is just not acceptable to many Christians. To them this is nothing less than blasphemous. How can any human being live a sinless life? To those people this is just not possible. This question however, is answered by the Scripture and the Scriptures will always be the only true authority of the church of Christ.

How not to sin?

This is really not so difficult people. It is not that difficult at all. We all know that Jesus did not sin but many Christians do not know that we can also live a sinless life. Many people think it is impossible for human beings to live a sinless life. Scriptures are in fact quite clear on this:

1 John 3:9-10

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest…

Now this Scripture clearly says that he who is born of God does not commit sin and it also tells us why such a person cannot sin. Really? Why can such a person not sin? Because the seed of Christ is in us and because we are born of God. These are the two reasons why we cannot sin. This suggests that it is impossible to sin in Christ. There is of course important conditions that we need to comply to but the important reality is that it is absolutely possible to live a sinless life in the presence of God.

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Now the conditions that need to be complied to in order for us to live a sinless life is not that difficult to maintain in our walk of faith. We have already seen that it is possible to live a sinless life according to these two verses above. We see the conditions that we need to comply to in the following verses:

1 John 3:21-22

Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

1 John 3:2-3

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

These two portions of Scriptures make it all clear to us. It says that if we walk in faith in such a way that our hearts do not condemn us we have all the confidence we need. It is also important that we keep our hope in Christ to maintain righteousness. We do not somewhere along the way start seeking other means of attaining righteousness. We do not suddenly start to rely on own works. No, we keep our eyes fixed on Christ as the only way, through grace and through faith, to maintain our righteous stand before God. This is a very important condition to comply to. If we really comply to these conditions we have confidence in the presence of God.

What is so important about confidence? When do we need confidence? We need confidence when the enemy sits on our shoulders cunningly trying to condemn us. If we do not sin he will try to con you into thinking that you have sinned and that you are living in sin. The mere fact that many Christians do not believe that they can live a sinless life takes their confidence away already.

The other Scripture says that any man who has put his hope in Christ, purifies himself and is as pure as Christ Himself.

Now how is this possible? How can the Bible say that I can be just as pure as Christ Himself and that I can live a sinless life just as Christ Himself?

Can our hearts condemn us? When does our hearts condemn us? This happens when we contravene one of the principles of salvation. We find this principle in Romans 8:1

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There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

This portion of Scripture tells us exactly when our hearts start to condemn us. The moment that we start walking after the flesh then our heart starts to condemn us. Please take note, “It is not when the devil condemns us but when our own hearts condemns us that we loose our confidence”. What does this mean? It means that as soon as a sin starts to be a way of life, our hearts (spirit) knows that we are no longer resisting that particular sin. This means that we are in fact living in sin. It does not mean that we are not Christians anymore. It only means that we are starting to loose our confidence. Why? The moment our hearts starts condemning us there is condemnation according to Romans 8:1. When  there is condemnation we loose our confidence and at that moment we, through sin, give the enemy a foothold in our lives. This is when we loose our victory over the enemy. As you can see it has nothing to do with warfare. It has everything to do with abstaining from sin. At this point we need to repent of this particular sin in order to restore our confidence. We also need to resist this particular sin with everything we have in us. We have to “fight” against this sin. This fight is the “wrestle” that Paul mentioned in Ephesians 6:12. We do not get engaged in a wrestle against a demon! Not physically and also not spiritually. The demon is not our problem. Our wrestle is against temptation. We resist the temptation people.  

If we loose our confidence we cannot ask God whatever we want to. Suddenly we loose our confidence because we know that we do not keep His commandments anymore and we know that we do things that are not pleasing in His sight.

Did you know that it is absolutely possible to get anything you ask from God if you adhere to only two very important conditions?

Hebrews 11:6

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

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1 John 3:21-22

Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

These two verses above is the ultimate test for any man of faith. If you meet the first condition you are halfway there. If you adhere to the second condition also you will receive whatsoever you ask God. This promise is actually guaranteed! I will even go so far as to say that it is absolutely impossible not to receive the desires of your heart, in more clear terms; whatsoever you want from God, if you comply to both these conditions. This is guaranteed people! I do not doubt this fact at all. These promises go hand in hand with the following two Scriptures:

Psalm 37:4

Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Philippians 4:6

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

The correct translation for the Greek word in this verse is “desires” and not “requests”. It makes this promise a bit more clear. There are actually quite a few other Scriptures that also makes it super-clear that we, when we walk in righteousness and in obedience, can and may ask whatsoever we want from God and we will receive it. It is absolutely guaranteed! Faith and obedience opens doors that nobody can close. It is the key to victory. This gives the enemy absolutely no foothold at all. Such a person lives a victorious life.

If you know that God exists but not only that, you also know that He is a good God who rewards those who diligently seek Him, and you live a holy obedient life, then you can and may ask Him whatever you wish and you will receive it.

John 14:13-14

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Matthew 21:21-22

Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

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James 5:15

And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Romans 8:37

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

John 10:10

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Mark 10:27

And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.

John 16:24

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

Matthew 7:7-8

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Philippians 4:13

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

John 15:7

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Luke 18:1

And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

Mark 11:23-24

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

2 Timothy 1:7

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

2 Corinthians 1:20

For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

John 8:36

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Jeremiah 1:12

Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

Romans 8:31

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

This last Scripture summarizes it all, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Jesus Christ really did set us free indeed. “Who can be against us?” means nobody can come against us. Not even in battle! Does that stop the enemy from attempting to deceive us? Unfortunately not. Even Jesus was tempted by the enemy. Jesus however showed us that if we resist this tempting the enemy has no other choice but to flee from us. Why does he flee from us? Why does he not only give up? He flees from us because of fear. Why does he fear? Righteousness always causes the enemy to fear. This is a principal in the kingdom of God. The enemy does not fear a Christian who is breaking all sorts of curses and who shouts all sorts of war-cries. No, he fears righteousness. He fears a Christian who abstains from sin and who refuses to doubt in the word of God. Righteousness destroys and removes all strategies from the enemy. Righteousness is absolutely devastating and absolutely intimidating to evil. Righteousness causes God Himself IN you to manifest in the particular situation. That causes the enemy to flee. This is how Jesus conquered evil and this is how we should conquer evil in our lives. There actually is no such thing called “spiritual warfare”. It is a lie from hell.

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We cannot and do not have to do anything in order to obtain any redemption or deliverance of any kind. Jesus Christ did it all for us. If you still think that you need to carry out all sorts of acts and rituals called “spiritual warfare” in order to obtain some kind of deliverance you really are not free yet. This is not true people. You are being conned into believing that you need to stand against the enemy. The truth is that you, as a righteous child of God, only have to submit yourself to God, abstain from getting involved in sin, live an obedient live in Christ and you will see that by resisting the devil this way, he will flee from you.

If you experience defeat in your life it is not because you lost a “spiritual battle” or are still loosing  a “spiritual battle” against the enemy. No, it is because of a lack of faith or a lack of ability to change circumstances in your life. One of my previous posts clearly described how and why we need to speak to the problems and not to the enemy. We speak to the mountain. We speak to the problem. It has nothing to do with the enemy. We remove the mountain or the obstacle in our lives through faith and through the word of God. We do not fight demons and evil in order to remove obstacles and mountains in our lives.

Removing the weeds out of our lives

This really is good news. The blood of Jesus Christ is absolutely powerful! Christ Jesus Himself is in His blood. The life is in the blood. This truth empowers us to live really holy lives in the eyes of our God and our Father.

We are always, every moment of every day, able to live according to God’s will. We haven’t got any excuses. We have been wired to do just that, everyday of our lives.

The foundational truths that support this doctrine are the following: Our spirits cannot sin. Our souls can sin but those sins are not taken into account if those sins are not a way of life. The test for this condition is the following: As long as our hearts do not condemn us, we do not live in sin and as a result of that, we do not loose our confidence. If we do not loose our confidence we stay in victory. It is as easy as that. The blood of Jesus Christ empowers us to live sinless lives. We live sinless lives because we do not sin and if our soul sins that sin is not taken into account. What a blessing!

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Constantly removing the weeds

This heading is also the title of this post. This is what this post is all about.

Whenever I am working in the garden, especially when I am removing the weeds from the flowerbeds, I always think of this aspect of our faith-walk in Christ. You see we all have weeds in our lives because of our souls. Our souls do sin and the more our souls sin the more are the chances of us loosing our confidence. The more weeds we see coming up in the gardens of our souls the more we loose our confidence.

The bottom line is, it is not OK to sin. We should not sin. Paul is very clear about these two facts; Do not misuse your freedom in Christ and the wonderful privilege of living in grace to get involved in sin. We just cannot do that! We always need to look at our actions and our motivations in life. We always need to judge our own actions and the words that we speak. We always need to submit every action and every word to the will and the word of God. Even our thoughts need to be taken captive constantly. We need to submit those thoughts to the word and the will of God.

This is what Jesus did right through His whole life here on earth. This is also what He did in the garden of Gethsemane.

Take a good look at this Scripture:

Luke 22:

39 And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him.

40 And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.

41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,

42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

45 And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow,

46 And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.

47 And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him.

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In this chapter we can clearly see why Jesus Christ never sinned. He always prayed that He does not fall into temptation. He did not succeed in this because of the fact that He is a God. No, when He left heaven to come into this world in the flesh, He left all the characteristics that made Him God in heaven. He came as a mere man. He did not differ from us at all. He had to walk this earth as a man if He wanted to take the sins of all mankind away from them. To do that, as a God, that would have disqualified Him. He had to face all temptations just as we have to.

He also struggled with this sometimes. Just have a look again at verse forty four. It says that He was in agony and He sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. This was tough for Jesus. Now whether Jesus really sweat blood or whether this is just a symbol of blood, picturing the great struggle within His inner man, I do not know. I personally think it was just a symbol and here’s why:

The soul is in the blood. The spirit cannot sin. It is the soul that sins. Whenever there is a sacrifice there is blood. The soul always needs to sacrifice in order to please God. Jesus was in agony. So much so that He earnestly prayed to God to help Him and to strengthen Him, even to remove that cup from Him. God did sent Him an angel to strengthen Him according to verse forty three but He did not remove that cup. His soul really did not want to go through those difficult circumstances surrounding the crucifixion and that is why it became such a difficult experience for Jesus. Jesus however wanted to do the will of His Father and at the end that desire is what prevailed. The soul had to be sacrificed in order to please God. That is why the sweating like blood or the sweating of blood is a symbolic meaning for me. It says that Jesus Christ sacrificed His soul in order to please God. The soul is in the blood. The life is in the blood. Jesus’ soul was “bleeding”. The soul died and the “blood” that flowed became like big drops of sweat or the sweat became like big drops of blood.

This is exactly what we need to do everyday of our lives. We really need to search for God’s will and we really need to sacrifice our souls daily in order to please God. We do need to look at what we do and what we say. How do we behave everyday? What words come over our lips everyday? If anything is not the will of God then we need to remove those actions and those words from our lives. That is removing the weeds. It is of the utmost importance. We cannot live in victory or in faith when the gardens of our lives are filled with weeds. The weeds need to be removed permanently and constantly. This keeps our relationship of love with God intact. Because we do not loose our confidence we can always, at any time, ask God whatsoever we want. This is what makes 1 John 3:21-22 a reality in our lives.

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1 John 3:21-22

Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

Isn’t this wonderful people! The blood of Jesus Christ did not only take our sins away. It did not only save us. It also empowered us to live holy and sinless lives in the presence of our God and Father.

Amen!

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