More pain No gain?
A sermon by Minister T.D. Mkana
Beloved I greet you. The gospel needs to be about the kingdom of God otherwise it becomes a painful religious dogma. Giving people the cross without teaching them about the victory that came from it causes great pain to the church. The Father’s will from the beginning was to give us the kingdom.
Read here: Luke 12:32 “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. ” Check with Genesis 1:26, also compare with Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus Christ was clear on His mission, He came to give people abundant life through His kingdom message, check with John 10:10.
Jesus Christ came to the fallen sons of Adam to restore us to our status as rulers of this earth. He bought us from that life of slavery and restored us to our state as kings and priests. Read here:
1 Corinthians 7:23: “You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.”
Jesus became sin so that we can be the righteousness of God. We can not be afraid of coming confidently to fellowship with the Father and with one another. Read here: 1 John 1:7: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”
The devil is a thief and a robber. Read here: John 10:8 (NASB) “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.” Satan wants to make our walk with Christ painful. He steals our victory over him and leaves us with religion. He steals our dominion and urges us to be religious fanatics.
Instead of us standing as empowered sons of God declaring God’s word. We recite old testament verses and live in fear of hell. We are still told about a God who watches over us with the goal of punishing sinners. He has us followed everywhere by angels whose only mission is to write down our sins? Some are still observing sabbath laws and tied down with various jewish laws. Others are told of the power of satan, altars, sins of their ancestors which were never forgiven etc. All this creates fear, pain and panic.
Yet no one declares the truth to them. Jesus disarmed the enemy. He nailed the written code (the law) to the cross. We can no longer be made holy through its observance but through faith in Jesus Christ.
Read here: Colossians 2:14-15(NLT) “He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”
Satan wants to continue being the god of this age. He will let you be a religious slave instead of seeing you reigning together with Christ Jesus. The enemy wants you to live in fear of hell when he is the one certainly going there. He gives you a throne robbed of its power. You can’t heal the sick, cast out devils and operate in your true power.
Instead you are fed demonic projections as dreams, you are told to blame people for your failures in life, you are shown that prayers are not being answered. You are forced to still wear the crown of thorns. The death of Christ is in vain if you do not live in His victory. He carried all that pain to make life easier for you and me. So why is it still hard?
There are ruling spirits who are dedicated to making it so. They fight your helpers, block your opportunities, drain you of faith, accuse you daily and alianate you. This is a war. We win it by being aware of this fight and fighting back seriously.
We are no longer their slaves. Read here: Galatians 4:3 (GNB) “In the same way, we too were slaves of the ruling spirits of the universe before we reached spiritual maturity.”
Jesus Christ carried that cross to calvary because he saw something beautiful. He saw a redeemed and restored you. He saw you living a victorious life. Coming from darknes to light. Don’t make his death pointless. Step up. Demand the life you deserve. Demand your inheritance.
I leave you to meditate on this beautiful scripture: Psalm 37:18 (NIV) “The blameless spend their days under the Lord’s care, and their inheritance will endure forever.”