I hear it every week from the pulpit, "We are in the last days". I hear it from fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord, "Times are bad. The Lord is coming soon." This may be true(even though Peter said we were in the last days in his sermon at Pentecost), but what does that mean? Many feel it is time for God to pour out His judgment and that "judgment begins at the house of God".

I would say consider this passage from Isaiah 54:9-10:

"For this is like the days of Noah to Me, When I swore that the waters of Noah would not flood the earth again; So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you nor will I rebuke you. For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace will not be shaken," says the Lord who has compassion on you.

God spoke in this text about the "Covenant of Peace" He was making with his people. What was included in that covenant?

1.I will not be angry with you.
2. My lovingkindness won't be taken away from you.
3. My covenant of peace toward you won't ever be disturbed.

Can you see how this covenant of peace was a foreshadowing of the New Covenant that Jesus came to ratify and activate? Did He succeed? Of course, He did. You and I live under a covenant of peace NOW through God's grace.

Why, then, are we still often taught that God is angry with us about our sins? God, Himself, said, "This reminds me of Noah's day." Just like then, He has given us His Word that He won't ever become angry with us again.

One of the most common things I hear Christian people say is "God really convicted me the other day"....or "when the Holy Spirit convicts you.." It's one those Christiany things we say because we have never thought it through, or worse because we have actually never read the verse where that concept comes from in context. So let's do that now...

Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment..(John 16:7-8, NKJV)

Jesus is speaking of sending the Holy Spirit when He departs. But look closely to who He says the Spirit will convict-the world! He does not say He will convict the believer, but the UNbeliever or those still dead in their sins. It is impossible for the Spirit to convict the believer of sin because they have already been forgiven! Isn't that what Jesus said on the cross? "It is finished"? Isn't that why He sat down at the right hand of God-because His work as our Great High Priest was finished? Look at Hebrews 10:1-2:

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.(Hebrews 10:1-2, NKJV)

These verses are trying to show the inability of the old sacrificial system to take away sin. If this system truly had any power, then the high priest wouldn't have had to continually perform the rituals. By comparison, then, when Jesus came and died ONCE-then our sins were ACTUALLY removed and forgiven. That's why He could sit down at the right hand of God. So if His work is finished, and the sins are forgiven, then we should have no consciousness of sins at all. Therefore the Holy Spirit has nothing to convict us of.

This begs the question-then if it isn't the Holy Spirit convicting me, then who is it? Well, ask yourself this-who benefits from you constantly being reminded of the sins that have been forgiven? Who benefits from you still acting like you are under the law and the world system? Satan. He is a liar and a thief. He lies about your standing before God and he tries to steal your security and peace. So you have a choice-are you going to believe what he says or what the Word says?

One final point as I know this post is running long.. Since the Spirit doesn't convict, what does He do? He edifies, He encourages, He empowers. Here's a simple test to know if what you are "feeling" is from the Spirit or from Satan-if you feel drawn to God and empowered, it is the Spirit. If you feel removed from God and defeated, then it is from Satan. It's that simple.

Grace and peace to you My child. I have blessed you with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. Just as I chose you before the foundation of the world, so have I made you holy and blameless as My adopted child. This was My good pleasure to do, and in so doing I have made you completely acceptable in My sight.

I have redeemed you through the blood of My Son Jesus and forgiven you of all your sins. And this is the great mystery of My will-that I have done so in wisdom and in grace.

I decided before time that I would gather together all My children in Christ and give them a great inheritance-the first of which is the ability to believe in Him for all things. This pleases Me immensely.

And after you trusted in Christ you were given the Holy Spirit as a promise. This promise is My guarantee to you that I have bought you and redeemed you. Now I give to you wisdom and revelation that your eyes may be opened. That you may truly know the hope that I have placed within you and the great power that is yours if you would only choose to receive it. This is the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead and seated Him at My right hand. He is far above all principalities and earthly dominions. Not only now but for the ages that are to come. I have given Him all authority and made Him head over the church-which is My body and the full expression of my love.

EPHESIANS CHAPTER ONE

I'm a relatively clean person, and I live with someone(who shall remain nameless!) who is even more of a neat freak. So it's rare when I let things clutter up-but when I do, they stay cluttered for months at a time. Have you ever thought about how junk accumulates? At first it is just putting down an object or moving a thing from one spot to another. Sometimes we even put it in a very conspicuous place so we won't forget to put it away. But what happens? We do forget or become distracted and that box in the middle of the floor slowly becomes a coffee table.

This is how Satan works in our lives. He takes something from one spot(his kingdom) to another(our lives). At first we are very disturbed by it, but if we become distracted or don't take the effort to move it, that object becomes familiar and a daily part of our existence. Take something as simple as a cold or runny nose. We are so used to this occasional annoyance in our lives that we think nothing of it and live our lives as usual. Have we forgot that sickness is not a part of the Kingdom of Heaven? My Bible says there is no pain or suffering in heaven. So if I allow it to remain then it becomes a piece of furniture that I work around, or tolerate because it's easier than throwing the darn thing out.

How about this for a change-let's take things from the Kingdom and place them in Satan's way. Let's see how he likes it. I propose we do some spiritual house cleaning and remove all the obstacles Satan has put in our paths, and then call the Carpenter to bring some new furniture in that is much more comfortable. He is the Deliverer.... :-)

Also, I have added a Mp3 teaching of a series I taught called "Life In Christ". Check it out by clicking on the link to the right! And thanks to Andrea for my first comment and subscription!

Imagine that you are buying a new car. You do not have enough to do a cash deal and so you negotiate terms with the sales manager through the salesman. After much back and forth, haggling over price, options, down-payment, etc. you finally come to an agreement and you begin to sign the papers.

Now, let me ask you this. What is perfection under this agreement? Perfection is making the payments on time. What is transgression under that agreement? Transgression is not making your payments. If you run a red light, does that void the agreement? No. If you cheat on your taxes, does that transgress it? No. Does Bank of America or Ford Motor Company or GMAC care that you might be trafficking drugs and guns in your living room? No! All they care about is that you make your payment on time.

If you get hold of this it will forever change your life. What many people are doing is still thinking that God expects them to measure up to the Law of Moses, but the truth is that God doesn’t care about the Law of Moses anymore. He knows – has always known – that the Law of Moses makes no one righteous. You might be thinking, “You’re making light of sin…” No, not in the least. I believe emphatically that sin will kill you. But the sin that will kill you is not adultery or lying but unbelief. The sin that will send you to hell is not that you don’t obey your parents. It’s lack of belief in God’s inherent goodness and His promises. Perfection under the New Covenant is believing God!

God doesn’t need performers. He wants believers. People who will simply believe what He’s said and will respond, “God, here I am. Do Your work through me; do it in me. I’m available to You.” That is what He’s looking for. Jesus didn't say, "When I return will I find obedience?" The Son of Man is looking for faith in the earth; just plain and simple trust.

You might be thinking, “But wait, hang on. What about all the stuff in my life, all that I’m so conscious of what is wrong with me?” Would it shock you to know that God has got only one thing that He can’t do? He can’t remember your sin. He has chosen to forget it. See, if we really believed the Gospel, we’d live differently. For starters, we’d walk around happy. We’d be dangerous in the earth because we’d live so powerfully that wherever we would go life would flow out of us because we would be overflowing with Christ. What is quenching the life in you is your self-consciousness!

Remember this simple formula when you find yourself falling back into a performance based mindset:

LAW=PERFORMANCE=REWARD
PROMISE=BELIEF=INHERITANCE

Imagine a woman who marries a man and because her father liked apple pie, she begins baking her new husband pie after pie. Year after year, decade after decade, she bakes her husband apple pies because that was what her daddy liked. But at the end of his life, lying on his deathbed, her husband says to her in a moment of honesty, “You know, I’ve never liked apple pie. All I ever really wanted was coconut cream pie.”

Often this is how we relate to God. Many of us are attempting to approach God based upon the Mosaic Covenant(The Law) instead of appropriating what God intends for us under the New Covenant. Paul warns us against confusing the two covenants in Galatians:

And this I say: that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of the promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise(Gal. 3:17-18)

By observing the Mosaic Law and clinging to it to obtain our inheritance from God, you are no longer able to receive God’s inheritance the way He intended: through His promises! The enemy wants you to believe that God has a myriad of expectations of you and because you feel you can’t measure up-you will never be blessed. Yet all the time what qualifies you for the blessing is simple belief in the promises of God.

One day some people came to Jesus and said, “Rabbi, what must we do to do the works of God?” And Jesus replied, “This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom God has sent.”(John 6:27-28) But you say, “It can’t be as simple as that, can it?” Yes, it can! It is absolutely that simple. We are not living under a covenant of works but under a covenant of promise. The old Mosaic Covenant has been fulfilled in Christ and we are now related to God through a restored Abrahamic covenant based on His promises.