Forget the Past

As we have already seen in earlier posts, Satan has no legal right to enforce your past and make you feel guilty, condemned, punished or unworthy to receive from God – unless you allow him to!

Meditate and declare the truth in God’s Word, renewing your mind and transforming the way you see yourself and what you believe about your past! 

Is 43:25 (Amp) I, even I, am He Who blots out and cancels your transgressions, for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

Forget basically means to fail to remember due to carelessness.  We are able to forget certain things in life because they are not important to us.  When it comes to our past, this is the place where we need to be!  Forgetting our past because it is no longer of any importance!  We are called to forget the former things and not dwell on the past (Is 43:18).

1 John 3:21 (Amp) And, beloved, if our consciences (our hearts) do not accuse us [if they do not make us feel guilty and condemn us], we have confidence (complete assurance and boldness) before God…

Not every spiritual attack is of the devil.  Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy and make a mess of things ourselves.  God does not condemn us so make sure that your own hearts don’t condemn you either.  Make the decision to forgive and forget others and also ourselves and let go of the past!

Before the Apostle Paul knew Christ, he persecuted and killed Christians!  If anyone could feel guilty, I am sure he would but he knew and led by example on how to deal with our past.  He considered everything he did and who he was before Christ as dung….

Phil 3:8-10 (KJV) Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection…

Phil 3:13-14 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Let the Spirit man dominate the natural man!

This message will not only help you to walk in victory over your past and any guilt, shame and condemnation but over anything in the natural that does not line up with the word of God!

Jesus told us that the Spirit is willing but flesh is weak.  We need to learn to strengthen our spirit man so that we can live by, walk by and be led by the spirit and not by the flesh or by what the natural realm is dictating to us.

We need to buffet flesh (mind, emotions, feelings and natural senses) and rule over it!

As believers we need to go on a diet!  By this I mean it is time that we started to starve all the lies, feelings, emotions, and symptoms that speak contrary to the finished work of the Cross and then start feeding on the truth!  We need to continue to feed on the truth of God's Word and what that says about who we are, where we are seated and what we have already inherited as a believer!  When we renew our minds with this truth our whole thinking will be transformed and that is when spiritual truth can change our natural reality!

Our spirit-man needs to be stronger so that we can live out of who we are in the spirit.  We need to let our spirit dominate the soul and the body, not the other way around!  Unfortunately many are living by what they see, feel, and know with their natural understanding and circumstances.

We need to learn to live out of our spirit-man by taking the reality of what Jesus has done on the Cross and ‘walk it out’ in the natural man (soul/body).

We need to appropriate the finished work of the Cross into every area of our lives.  In the same way we would resist and oppose physical pain and symptoms of sickness and disease, we need to resist emotional pain, thoughts, memories, feelings and emotions etc,

Jesus died to make us whole (spirit, soul and body).

Stop give power to your past!  I am not talking about denial but rather to remind your flesh/past/devil of the truth of what Jesus has done! I am talking about not letting your past control your future!  Remind yourself of who you are in Christ, where you are seated and what you have inherited as a believer.   It is up to us to take what is real in the Spirit and bring the soul/ body into line.

It is up to us (not God) to deal with the soul/body.  It is up to us to renew mind, tame the tongue exercise authority over symptoms/feelings etc  God is Spirit (John 4:24) and His Word is spirit and life (John 6:63).  God communicates with us spirit to spirit.  Upon Salvation we were born again by His Spirit (the Holy Spirit) and we now have that fullness dwelling on the inside of us; in our spirit!  We therefore need to take what is true and real in the spirit (our forgiveness, and healing etc) and see it released into our soul (mind, thinking, feelings and emotions) and also into our physical body.

We are not called to live in the soul, natural realm and try and fix ourselves.  Our soul and flesh wants to do its own thing.  We need to buffet it, train it teach it etc. That is our responsibility as God has given us a free will to make our own decisions.  He cannot do this for us, but He is there right with us wanting to guide and lead us into all truth and victory.

Paul told us to live by the Spirit, walk by the Spirit and be led by the Spirit not by the flesh or natural man.  

Therefore we need to:-

Bring the Soul - feelings, emotions, thoughts, memories in obedience to our spirit

Bring the Body -  physical symptoms of sickness and disease in obedience to our spirit

Walk by the reality of the finished work of the Cross not by feelings, senses, sight or appearances.  Don’t submit to them (or under them) instead Resist (oppose, withstand, strive against) them!  Replace them with the truth of who you are, where you are seated and what belongs to you in Christ!

If you are challeneged with your past or with any guilt, shame or condemnation, say NO, I AM Not guilty, if you are challenged with sickness or disease say NO!  I AM healed, also declare that I AM forgiven, cleansed, sanctified etc

Begin to look at yourself in the eyes of faith by what God’s Word says about you.  Even though in the natural you may not yet believe it, continue to replace the lies by meditating on and declaring the truth of what God’s Word says. 

When you believe the truth the devil has no more ammunition! The very second you begin to feel challenged use your authority in Jesus, and resist and replace the lies immediately.  So from now on make the decision to walk in victory over your past and remember the truth that in Christ ‘you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God’ (1 Cor 6:11 NKJV).  

Nerida Walker

Righteousness comes ONLY by Faith!

Righteousness is the quality of being right or having a right standing with God and this comes only through faith in Jesus.    

In Jer 23:5-6 IT tells us that Jesus is…THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.  

Jesus is our righteousness! 

Our actions, lifestyle or performance cannot make us righteous.  Isaiah 64:6 tells us that all our righteousness acts are like filthy rags!  So, being a ‘good’ person or doing ‘good works’ means absolutely nothing. 

Rom 3:19-20 (NKJV) Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Gal 2:16 (NKJV) knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

Praise God!  We are no longer under the law because as New Covenant believers we are now under grace!

Rom 3:21-26 (NKJV) But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Propitiation means atoning sacrifice.  Jesus paid the price for sin!  He took our sin so that Hs righteousness would be imputed or credited to our account (see Rom 4:5-8, 20-25).

Rom 10:4 Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

2 Cor 5:21 God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

All we need to do to receive the free gift of righteousness from God is to say yes to Jesus!  And when we do this we instantly receive forgiveness of sin, are delivered and cleansed from the power of sin, and are cleansed from the stain of sin!  From that moment on we have a right standing with God.

The Truth you KNOW will set you Free!

Satan has no right to enforce your past and make you feel guilty, condemned, punished or unworthy to receive from God – unless you allow him to!

Meditate and declare the truth in God’s Word, renewing your mind and transforming the way you see yourself and what you believe about your past! 

2 Cor 5:15-16 (NKJV) …and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

2 Cor 5:17 (Amp) Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

If you are in Christ, then you are a New Creation!  Stop living by your feelings, emotions and memories of the past and start living by the truth!  Stop looking to your ‘self’ that is outwardly to what you can do, and start looking inwardly, to what Jesus Has done!  We need to stop feeding our outward man with lies and start feeding the inward man with the truth!  

Copyright IT IS FINISHED!  How to receive your breakthrough NOW!  By Nerida Walker

Condemnation

Condemnation means to judge a person as guilty and liable for punishment.  Condemnation is the sentence or judgment for the guilty, or the punishment for sin.

As a feeling condemnation is to judge something as bad so we feel guilty, wrong, or that we are to blame for something.  But becuase the blood of Christ has already cleansed us, we are now free from the power of guilt!  When we apply this truth to our life we will be free to feel good about ourselves, and free to declare the truth that no matter what we have done we are righteous, loved, accepted and approved in the eyes of God.   

The devil wants you to feel condemned and trapped in the pain of your past.  But there is no root to those feelings, because as far as Christ is concerned your past is gone.  Therefore, in Christ, condemnation should no longer exist.

Romans 8:1-2 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of Life set me free from the law of sin and death.

John 3:18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

John 5:24 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

Annihilate any condemnation by focusing on the truth of what Christ has done for you.  Death and life are in the power of your mouth (Prov 18:21), so declare the truth of God’s Word over your life in this area and begin to experience freedom once and for all from condemnation.  As a believer, it shouldn’t even be in our vocabulary! 

Col 1:13-14 (NKJV) He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

When you understand who you are in Christ, and know that you have been forgiven, you will realise that you no longer need to struggle with anything that happened in your past because Satan’s power and hold over you has already been broken

John 8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Therefore the next time Satan comes to accuse you of your past, or torments you with feelings of guilt, shame or condemnation, remind yourself of the truth that you have been set free and then declare that truth by saying out aloud ‘NOT GUILTY!’

God says you are worthy to receive; because you are the righteousness of God!  He doesn’t see your faults, your past or shortcomings.  He only sees His precious son in you.  And when you gain the revelation of this truth you will discover that it will change the way that you see and relate to Him.  Releasing the fullness of what God has freely provided for you will then be a whole lot easier! 

Amen!

Copyright 2009 IT IS FINISHED!  How to receive your breakthrough NOW!  By Nerida Walker

Guilt and Shame

Is 54:4 Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. 
Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. 
You will forget the shame of your youth…

Many Christians are struggling with guilt or shame over something in their past.  Some even believe that God is the one highlighting and exposing the sins of their past.  But nothing could be further from the truth!  Do you think that a loving God would make us feel like a failure or make us feel worthless?  Of course not!  The truth is Satan is the one who is accusing you!  Satan, not God is the accuser of the brethren and is behind all the guilt, and shame.  He is the one who comes to torment you with your past (Rev 12:10). 

In the dictionary guilt means trespass, fault, blame and responsible.  It is the result of committing an offence. Guilt is a feeling that comes from the result of having done something wrong (as a result of sin) or committing an offense and can leave us suffering with inward feelings of remorse, a bad conscience.  Guilt produces condemnation and with it ‘the need to punish’ ourselves.  It also brings regret, remorse, shame, and feelings of failure, which in turn cause feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness. 

The good news is that Jesus was our substitute and was punished in our place.  He paid the price and penalty for all our sin when He hung on that Cross.  For this reason, God does not punish us!  So we should not punish ourselves!  Once we renew our mind, know and apply this truth the sting and pain of that memory will be gone.  God has forgiven us, so we need to forgive ourselves too!  But as long as we keep meditating on and reminding ourselves of what happened in the past, we will continue to give power to the devil in that area.  As I mentioned previously, while we cannot change what happened in the past we can change what happens today!  You have been given a free will with the power to choose to make the decision to forgive!  So forgive yourself for something you did or said (or even what happened to you) thereby robbing Satan of his power over your life through shame and guilt.

1 John 1:7 (Amp) But if we [really] are living and walking in the Light, as He [Himself] is in the Light, we have [true, unbroken] fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses (removes) us from all sin and guilt [keeps us cleansed from sin in all its forms and manifestations].

Isa 1:18 ‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool’.

Did you know that in the New Covenant that the word guilt is not mentioned in regards to sin and the believer?  That is because to God where sin and guilt is concerned it no longer exists!

Col 2:13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins.

The opposite of guilt is to be innocent; guiltless, blameless, clean, irreproachable, pure, righteous, virtuous, and faultless.  This is who we are in Christ!  We therefore need to start walking by faith (by what God’s Word says) and NOT by what our feelings and emotions are dictating to us.  KNOW that God has forgiven you.  God’s grace is bigger than ANY sin.  So if you are in Christ there is no longer any issue of sin!

Psa 103:2-3 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits--who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.

Amen!

Copyright 2009 - IT IS FINISHED!  How to receive your breakthrough NOW!  By Nerida Walker.