Friday, October 26, 2007

Breaking that sexual bondage to achieve ‘Victory in Christ”

Satan and his host work hard to draw men and women into sexual sins and perversions because it is a direct attack on the only institution God established before the fall. I'm talking about marriage. God created mankind in his own image (Gen 1:27). After he had created Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden, "The Lord said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him" (Gen 2:18). "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh" (Gen 2:24)


Today, there are those who are trying to redefine marriage by marrying man to man and woman to woman. Others see no harm in having extra-marital relationships. They justify their actions by saying that it helps the marriage. The truth is they want their cake and eat it to.

Marriage, as God has ordained, is the foundation of a family and families are the foundation of society. When marriages are destroyed, families are hurt severely and society eventually is affected in an adverse way. This is all part of Satan's plan to divide and conquer.

God spoke very clearly through Moses as he warned the Israelites concerning sexual sins. In Leviticus chapter 18 Moses provided the people with a set of laws addressing their sexual practices.
18:6 "No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations.”
18:7 "Do not dishonor your father by having sexual sins with your mother."
18:8 "Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife." (Stepmother)
18:9,11 "Do not have sexual relations with your sister." (Including stepsister)
18:10 "Do not have sexual relations with your son's daughter or daughter's daughter."
18:12,13 "Do not have sexual relations with your father's or mother's sister."
18:14 "Do not have sexual relations with your father's brother's wife."
18:15 "Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law."
18:16,18 "Do not have sexual relations with your sister-in-law."
18:17 "Do not have sexual relations with a woman and her daughter."
18:19 "Do not have sexual relations with a woman having her monthly period."
18:20 "Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife.”
18:22 "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.”
18:23 "Do not have sexual relations with an animal. That is a perversion.”
"Everyone who does any of these detestable things, such persons must be cut off from their people. Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came [from Egypt] and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord your God." (18:29-30)

Now the above list is not all-inclusive, but it laid a foundation for understanding what constituted sexual sins.
We notice in Deuteronomy 27:20-23 that sexual sins are included in the list of sins that release curses upon those who practice sin. The
impact of curses often lets us bear the full consequences of our actions. Those consequences diminish the quality of life for the person. That is what bondages are all about.

"Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen." (Rom 1:24-25)

Even today, people continue to exchange the truth for a lie. They say the scriptures have been misinterpreted and that Christians are being mean spirited and intolerant on this issue. There are some that deny that any sexual activity is a sin, but a natural process.

"The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?" (1 Cor 6:13b-15a)

Those who have become one with Christ should be horrified to take such a glorious relationship and expose it to that which is detestable to God. The Lord dealt with such a person in Corinth through his servant, the apostle Paul. A believer in the church had been involved sexually with his father's wife or stepmother. The sin was compounded by the fact that it was known, but the leaders did not discipline the man and put him out of their fellowship. So Paul instructed the church to assemble and "hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord."

Many scholars tell us that this action was only excommunication. I happen to believe there is more happening here than putting the man out of the fellowship of believers. I believe he was removed from the protective power of the Lord and placed into the power of Satan for a period of time. It was done for his soul's sake. It wouldn't be the first time God's people had been placed under the power of their enemy until they experienced repentance for their sins.

"It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit." (1 Thess 4:3-8)

"But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people." (Ephesians 5:3)
The "One Flesh" Bond
"Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, 'The two will become one flesh.' " 1 Cor. 6:16


Imagine becoming one flesh with someone through sin and that person is already in bondage. Because you are now "one flesh" you are vulnerable to sharing in the bondage of that person. We see the result of this continually. God permits it to happen. When a believer continues in sexual sin, this is a definite act of rebellion in order to gratify self sexually and emotionally.

Proverbs 5:22 - "The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast. "

That "one flesh" bond is like a cord holding the person fast in a bondage that was released through sin. This is why there is so much difficulty breaking free from these relationships. The cords of sin hold them in place. There is a bondage. Only true repentance will enable a person to get free.

Unfortunately, there are "one flesh" bonds put into place through rape, incest and molestation. No wonder the effects of these terrible experiences do not ever seem to let go. There is more than psychological damage affecting the person. There is also a spiritual hold that compounds the psychological problems. There is a bondage in place.

All this does not seem fair and it isn't. Warfare is seldom fair. There are a lot of victims. But our God is a deliverer, who can break such bondages, heal us and restore us and turn the bad to good.

"Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body." (1 Cor. 6:18)

The Apostle Paul gave us hope concerning besetting sins like the sexual sins we have been discussing. He gives us principles in Romans 6 that can help us achieve victory if we apply them to our lives.

1.
The Fact - (Rom 6:6) Christ has made it possible for us not to be slaves to sin. He gave His life that we might have victory.

2. The Faith Principle (Rom 6:11) We have to decide we are going to die to the sin and begin counting ourselves dead to it from this moment on no matter what temptation comes along. It can be done in faith.

3. The Obedience Principle (Rom 6:13) Stop offering the parts of your body to the sin, as instruments of wickedness!! Get rid of the pornography, don't visit porno sites, stop looking at people's bodies and look at their faces and see them as people whom God loves.

4. The Promise - (Rom 6:14) If you will follow the above principles, sin shall not be your master. This is a promise from God's word which is there to be claimed.

5. The Warning - (Rom 6:16) Your choices determine whom you are going to serve. Go and sin no more. The Lord will give you the grace and strength to claim victory. He is not going to twist your arm. You have to begin taking responsibility for your life and the lives your are affecting because of your sin.

Brothers and Sisters, What has changed in the past two thousand years? Are we not facing the same situations in our days? What we need to do is turn of that stupid box, we call a television. There are children are being taught that pre-marital sex is ok by watching shows like “The OC” and soaps. When I was a child it was Batman, Leave it Beaver and The Partridge Family. Now, it’s Jerry Springer, Gene Simmons, Ozzie, Will and Grace, Calofournication, Dexter and so on. The Enemy is trying to desensitize us with all this liberal left wing nonsense. It’s time to turn off the T.V. and interact with our children, pray with them and take back our society, that the enemy wants so badly because , he knows it will lead to our confusion of right and wrong. Of God and not of God. Allanis Morisette has it backwards “if it makes you happy, it can’t be so bad”. That is the World thinking and we do not belong to this world

In Romans 12:1-2, the apostle Paul calls on believers to present their bodies as a living sacrifice to God by not allowing themselves to be conformed to this world, but by instead being transformed by the renewing of their minds.


Pray for your heart to be truly repentant of your sexual sins and confess your sexual sins to the Lord and then renounce them once and for all. Covenant with the Lord, in faith, to walk in the new life He has given you and die to the old life.

Philippians 2:1-3
Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.



<

Thursday, October 25, 2007


Baptized In the Name Of Jesus Christ
A testimony by Daniel Pivano



Growing up as a catholic I knew about Jesus Christ but did not KNOW Jesus Christ and what He did for me and the whole world! I did not know that all I had to do was to put my trust in Him and follow Him to gain eternal life. We were taught that Jesus died on a cross but I thought that He had received a bad brake. I was not aware that Jesus was both God Himself and man Who was begotten of the Father, came to earth to die on that cross and be raised from the dead to take the penalty of my sins away, wash me clean and seal me with His Holy Spirit.
As I grew my teenage years through my early 20's were centered on drinking etc until the following happened to me।


At the age of 22 I watched a change of a fellow worker at Grumman Aerospace Corp where we built the F-14 fighter jet for the US Navy। His name was Tony and was a real tough hippie sort of a guy, long hair past his waist, drugs, girls and so on. One day I saw this same Tony reading a Bible while working on his milling machine. His hair was cut and he seemed different. I worked a few feet away from him with other guys. After a week or so the guys I worked with started to make fun of Tony and amongst themselves would call him a Jesus freak. I became curious about this change in him and went to talk with him one day. I said something like " Tony are you reading a Bible? He said yes and got down from the milling machine and began to explain that he had gone to a church and received Jesus as his savior. I really did not know what it meant but I was impressed with this different Tony. As time went on and a few more talks with Tony I remember working one day and asking God this, "Holy Spirit change me like you changed Tony". That's all I knew how to pray at the time. Little by little after that prayer I started to read the Bible and attend church. As time went on I asked Jesus into my heart and later on was water baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but not in the Name of JESUS!

Believe me there is a difference!

About 5 or 6 years later after some really rough times I backslid. I fell back into my old ways and lived that way for a number of years until I was brought back to my spiritual senses by God. He mercifully brought me to a church where I was baptized in the Name of Jesus.
Immediately as I came up out of the water I knew something that I never experienced before had happened.

From that moment, drinking, cursing, lying, etc was gone! I mean gone! My whole attitude was rearranged and changed where I now wanted to serve God and hungered after Him like never before!

Coming out of the water all I could do was lift up my arms towards the sky praising and thanking God!
This change has not left me but increased! Since then doors have opened up for me that were closed where I can serve God.
No I did not speak in tongues, they will come, but first I needed cleaning up spiritually. The Lord Jesus Christ took all the stumbling blocks out of my way. I was going down the tubes and most likely headed for hell. Thank the Almighty God for His mercy, kindness forgiveness and rescue from my folly!

Like I said years ago I was water baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost but not in the Name of Jesus!!!. No change like this ever took place in me before in my life!
Now I walk with Jesus in newness of life, I walk now after the Spirit, not after the flesh, Praise God!!! This dramatic change that God has so graciously done in me will last till He calls me home.

Daniel Pivano
Dpivano@msn.com

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

John 14:6
NKJV
Christ with you always………………

Jesus said, "I am with you always, even to the end of the world," Matthew 28:20।As Disciples of Christ, we have an unconditional promise from our Lord. ALWAYS! He is with us always. That is to the end of the world. He is with us when we feel like He is and when we don't. That for me is always the hardest, when I know he is with me but I have something in my life blocking the His Love. We all know it is some type of sin, confessed or un-confessed but He is with us just disciplining us.

He is with us when we think about Him and when we don't. In a word, ALWAYS!Christ is with us through His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. When we receive Christ as our Lord and Savior, He enters our lives through the Holy Spirit. Friends may come and go, but He's with us always. Friends may forsake us and others may reject us, but He's with us always. His Spirit abides with us and in us.Christ is with us in our hearts. The primary evidence is love.

The love of Christ is in our hearts. That means we love Him whom we have never seen. It also means that we love people, because He loves them through us.Christ is with us in life and He is with us in death. When Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was dying, he saw a vision of the living Christ. The apostle Paul tells us in the last verse of Romans 8
that nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. 21 And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him— 23 provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel." Colassians1: 15-25

Lord Jesus, thank you for being with me always! Praise you Jesus!


CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY Colossians
1:27

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Ezekiel 37, The Valley of dry bones.

My dearest friend in Jesus, Stephanie Alfred, came back from a revival in downtown Scarborough in Tobago. She immediately called me to wake me up, as she always does when the Lord gives her a message. She was so excited about the preacher’s topic

“Prophesy to these old bones and breathe life into them”

Now, I know the old hymn we used to sing at Church many years ago and the scripture in Ezekiel she was referring to but she was so fired up to give me the message and I must confess as we follow this blog, how many mighty things happened to me because of the message delivered to her.

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones, now hear, the the word of the Lord.

Now let us take a fresh look at this my friend, get fired up, as we are in for a great journey of faith.

Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2He led me all round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3He said to me, ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ I answered, ‘O Lord GOD, you know.’ 4Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath* to enter you, and you shall live. 6I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath* in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD.’
7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath:* Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath,* and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ 10I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
11 Then he said to me, ‘Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.” 12Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act, says the LORD.’

Then we will see those valley of dry bones come to life !. For nothing is impossible for God. But what made these dry bones come to life “obedience” even though it took God twice to pound the message into Ezekiel.

Now, I knew this scripture well as, I am fascinated by the love of Christ even during the “end times” , for all to be saved। The literal interpretation of Ezekiel is that it is a prophecy of Israel’s restoration. But that does not exhaust the meaning of this book by any means. This entire story can be applied not only to Israel’s history and future, but to our own lives in an intensely practical way. What God is doing on a large scale in the world, He is also ready to do on the intimate scales of your life.

God wants to call the dry bones of your empty existence together and breathe life into your soul. He wants to reverse the process of degradation and disintegration in your life and heal you by the grace of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. In addition to salvation, the forgiveness of sins, and the gifts of eternal life, God wants us all to experience abundant life every day!
Through this passage, God invites us to experience the glorious ideal manhood and womanhood that He intended for us from the very beginning of creation। He wants you to rise up and walk with His power, alive and energized by His Spirit, conquering His enemies by His arm of strength, showing fourth His power by the way we live our lives.

No, sooner than I hung up the phone and regained awareness, I re-read the scripture। I laid in my bed, arms raised towards heaven and prophesied to the dried up area’s in my life and with the aid of The Holy Spirit I literally inhaled and exhaled and breathed life into those area’s in my life. The result was almost instant and I Praise the Lord, to rise up and walk with His power, alive and energized by His Glorious Spirit.

As, this is a blog, if you want to hear this great testimony just email me and I will be happy to share this great moment in Christ with you.