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John 21:15-17 Authorized (King James) Version
{Paraphrased}
15 So when {Jesus and the 12 Apostles} had dined {the Passover}, Jesus says to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonas, {do you} love Me more than these {other Apostles}"? {Peter} says to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You". {Jesus} says to him, "Feed My lambs. 16 {Jesus} says to {Peter} again the second time, "Simon, son of Jonas, {do you} love Me? {Peter} says to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You". {Jesus} says to him, "Feed My sheep". 17 {Jesus} says to {Peter} the third time, "Simon, son of Jonas, {do you} love Me"? Peter was grieved because {Jesus} said to him the third time, {"Do you} love Me"? And {Peter} said to {Jesus}, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You". Jesus says to him, "Feed My sheep".
God knows that we love Him. But He asks us to do something to show it. Isn't that true? We know that God is omniscient. He knows everything. We know that He knows that we love Him. But He commands us to do what He says to show it like He did with Peter in this passage, commanding Peter to feed the Bible to His people's understanding (Mt. 4:4; 24:45-47/ Jer. 3:14, 15).
God knows we love Him. But showing Jesus we love Him by doing what He says is so important to God, that Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him. Jesus has a point to make about us listening to Him.
The motive for obeying Jesus, is our love for Him (Jn. 14:15-21). We show God what He means to us when we do what He says. God knows that when we listen to Him (do something to show Him what He means to us), it puts to death (mortifies) the deeds of the flesh. This is what God wants, because to kill the flesh by listening to God, gives to us eternal life through Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:12, 13). It's called "mortification" (Col. 3:5). When God asks us to do something for Him, whatever we do is always the commands of God. When we do it, we mortify (put to death) the deeds of the body. The word "mortify" means "to put to death", or, "to kill".
Dead to Sin
Romans 6 Authorized (King James) Version 1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that {God's} grace {to help us overcome sin} may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (2 Cor. 5:17/ Gal. 6:14, 15). 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him (Gal. 2:20), that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death has no more dominion over Him. 10 For in that He died, He died to sin once: but in that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise reckon also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield your members {body parts} as instruments of unrighteousness to sin: but yield yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members {body parts} as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law {of Moses - the Old Testament}, but under {Christ's} grace {in the New Testament}. 15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law {of the Old Testament}, but under {Christ's} grace {in the New Testament}? God forbid. 16 Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you {mortification - vv. 12-14}. 18 Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as you have yielded your members {body parts} servants to uncleanness and to iniquity to iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness to holiness. 20 For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. 21 What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We, whom are born again (Eze. 36:25-27/ Jn. 3:1-21/ Ti. 3:4-7), no longer have a sinful nature (Rom. 6:1-11). Sin doesn't kill us no more. The wages of sin used to be death before Jesus died for us. But today, we only have to recondition the curse of sin in the flesh, or, mortify the flesh, and change the sinful deeds of the flesh to obedience to God (Rom. 6:12-23). This means that today, instead of executing us for sin, the Lord reconciles us back to Himself with His grace when we sin because we believe Jesus (Rom. 5:10/ 1 Cor. 7:11/ 2 Cor. 5:18-20/ Eph. 2:16/ Col. 1:20, 21/ Heb. 12:1-17). Helping us overcome sin & temptation is what God's grace is for because we have to retrain our bodies to obey until there is no more sin in us. Mistakes are necessary to grow into the image of Christ in this way (Rom. 1:5/ 2 Cor. 12:9/ Eph. 2:4-13/ 2 Tim. 2:1-7/ Heb. 416; 12:15, 28/ James 4:5-7/ 1 Pt. 5:10/ 2 Pt. 3:18/ Jude 1:4/ Rev. 22:21).
Today, the sinful nature is like a bad habit. Bad habits are flesh bondages. Like compulsions. But the flesh is like clay. You can mold and shape it to your own way (Isa. 64:8/ Jer. 18:1-6/ Rom. 9:20, 21). This means that the body does what we say. There is no more iniquity and slavery to sin within our human nature (when we're born again). So, we are free from sin to reshape our flesh to listen to God's words.
The bond of iniquity (Acts 8:23). The bondage to the evil of the sinful nature in us. This means that the good that we want to do (or, obedience to the Bible), we cannot do. But the evil we don't want to do, is in control of us (Rom. 7:14-23). This bondage to lust is done & over with through faith in Christ and the Anointing, or, the baptism into the Holy Ghost (Rom. 8:1-13). Now, we only have to train our bodies to listen to the Holy Spirit (both rhema and logos) to purge our bodies of the sinful nature (1 Tim. 4:7-9/ 2 Tim. 2:3-7/ Heb. 12:11).
Listening to God was impossible before Christ's work on the Cross for our sins because of indwelling iniquity. We were all born with a sinful nature. We were born with the curse of sin in our members. We could only do the evil we did not want to do. But today, because of the Anointing, the sinful nature is dead, crucified with Christ, and we no longer have bondage to sin. We are free from bondage and listening to Jesus is as easy as training our bodies because listening to God and the Bible, purges the body from the sin that it's used to doing.
Today, overcoming sin is as easy as breaking bad habits. Obedience to God is a reconditioning of the body now. When, before we got saved, it used to be impossible to free ourselves from sin because it was a bond. Now, we get the victory little by little with every sin we mortify. This is called Progressive Sanctification.
Progressive Sanctification
(Jn. 17:13-17)
The Curse of Sin is Broken and We Have Perfect Liberty from the Bond of Iniquity
Romans 8:12-13 Authorized (King James) Version
{Paraphrased}
12 Therefore, {Christian Family}, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if you live after the flesh, you shall die {forever - Rom. 6:23}: but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live {forever}.
Colossians 3:1-17 Authorized (King James) Version
{Paraphrased} 1 If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the Right Hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear {in the resurrection - 1 Cor. 15: 50-58/ 1 Thes. 4:13-18}, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. 5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 for which things’ sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience: 7 in the which you also walked some time, when you lived in them. 8 But now you also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. 9 Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds; 10 and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him: 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. 12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13 forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. 14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also you are called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.
God has two things in mind when it comes to our obedience to Him. 1) obeying Him, or, the Bible, because we love Him (Jn. 14:15-21; 15:9-17), and 2) listening to the Bible because it gives us eternal life through the mortification of the bond of iniquity in the flesh (Rom. 6:18-23/ Rev. 22:14). That is what is so important to the Lord Jesus. This is why the Lord asked Peter three times if he loved Him in the opening passage of Jn. 21:15-17.
So, when we show Jesus what He means to us and we listen to Him because we love Him, and also obey Him to mortify our flesh, we also please Him. And when we please Him, our fellowship with the Holy Spirit is solid, and when our fellowship is solid, the Lord hears our prayers. When the Lord hears our prayers, whatever we ask, will be done immediately.
Listening to Jesus is also called doing the will of God. To do the Will of God means to please the Lord and both doing the Will of God and pleasing God result in God answering, or, hearing, our prayers. No matter what it is that we ask, God will answer it because our fellowship is solid.
Listening to Jesus makes our fellowship with the Holy Spirit solid. This fellowship is God being pleased with us and answering whatever it is that we pray. Listening to God is when, and only when, we have victory over the devil, or, tread upon the enemy. The slightest prayer will have power & authority where it never did before you backslid.
Our fellowship with the Holy Spirit is the anointing. It is when we sin that the Holy Spirit breaks fellowship and stops hearing us. We don't lose our salvation when we sin & backslide, but we lose the Anointing. When we lose the anointing, we got no power over the devil, though the Holy Spirit hasn't left us.
When we sin, the Holy Spirit doesn't execute us for sin because Jesus has died for sin and forgiven us all past, present and future sins. Now when we sin, the Holy Spirit reconciles us back to God with judgement. In this judgement is the loss of the anointing, or, broken fellowship. The Holy Spirit will decree a time for us to live saved, but with no power over the devil. Little by little, He will reconcile us back to Himself. No matter how much we cry tears, say sorry and repent & vow to listen to the Lord, you'll have no fellowship with the Holy Spirit. This means that God will not hear your prayers.
You will not know that you lost your fellowship & anointing. You will think that you're right with God again because you confessed your sins & repented. The anointing is the true riches and disrespecting the anointing by not listening to Jesus, has a price to pay. It's up to God on how long you'll be without power. It's up to God to make you right with Him again by giving you back your anointing. We're only right with God when we are in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. This is why obedience to God is so important. It not only shows Jesus what He means to us and mortifies the flesh. But obedience also produces the anointing because we please God by our obedience. This is called fellowship with God.
1 John 5:14-15 Authorized (King James) Version
{Paraphrased} 14 And this is the confidence that we have in {the Son of God}, that, if we ask anything according to His Will, He hears us: 15 and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.
An Example of Mortification
I refer you to another one of my posts in the link below for an example of putting the flesh to death. Read the entire message to understand how listening to God by killing the flesh gives eternal life. But here is the excerpt from this message that I want to use to feed your understanding (Jer. 3:15). This is the excerpt in the next paragraphs below:
Let me write out for you here the messages I have recorded about this message, so that you can understand and imitate me as I listen to the Lord:
"I had bad feelings for an enemy. And the Lord told me to pray for Him, that he wouldn't get killed when his wife comes to see him. And I didn't want to. I wanted to justify my feelings (let him get killed). But I listened to the Lord and I prayed, and He said",
"That's how you gain eternal life. When you put your flesh to death".
Excerpted from "How to Make the Rapture"
"How to Make the Rapture"
Do Communion as Much as Possible to Show the Lord Jesus What He Means to You
Last year in 2021, the Lord asked me to start doing Communion as much as possible to show Him what He means to me. There is obedience to God's commands, and there are also the Sacraments. Communion is a Sacrament. Listening to the Holy Spirit, the Angels of Light and to the Bible's commands, in your personal life, is one way of obedience to God that gives eternal life. But so does obeying the Sacraments.
A Sacrament is a rite in Church. The Sacraments are commands to be obeyed in the Bible just as the command is to love one another from the Lord Jesus, in Jn. 15:17. There are seven Sacraments in the New Testament today. Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist (Communion) Penance, Anointing of the sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony.
There is one Sacrament command in the Bible that shows God what He means to us when we do it, and it is the Sacrament of Communion, or, the Eucharist. This Sacrament comprises the work of God for us in His death on the Cross to forgive our sins and to heal of our bodies. Within the Eucharist Sacrament are scripture passages such as Isa. 53, 54/ Lk. 22:7-20/ 1 Cor. 11:17-34, that explain the death of Jesus, God's Son. Please read them.
The Lord Jesus' death on the Cross forgave our sins, the wine, and healed our bodies, the wafer. When you thank God for Jesus' death for you and drink the wine of the Eucharist, confess a sin you got problems breaking the bad habit of, because God forgives you for whatever sin you confess when you drink the wine of Communion.
Likewise, when you thank God for Jesus' death for you and brake the wafer and eat it, as Christ's Body was broken for us from the Garden to Golgotha, confess a sickness you got problems getting healed, because God will heal whatever sickness you confess, as soon as you brake the wafer in faith to eat it. Even before you eat the wafer.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Authorized (King James) Version
{Paraphrased} 23 For I {Paul} have received of the Lord that which also I delivered to you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed {by Judas Iscariot - Mk. 14:10} took bread: 24 and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, "Take, eat: this is My Body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me" {The Eucharist}. 25 After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, "This cup is the New Testament in My Blood: this do, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of Me" {Communion}. 26 For as often as you eat this Bread, and drink this Cup, you do show the Lord’s death till He comes {back - Jn. 14:1-6}.
World without end. Amen.
Titus 2:11-14 Authorized (King James) Version 11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
We should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
13 Looking for that blessed hope,
And the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
14 Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity,
And purify to Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.