What does it mean to take communion in an unworthy manner and are you risking God’s punishment for taking communion unworthily?

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:30 that this is why many of you are weak, sick, and some have even died. He adds that if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

If you have ever felt like skipping communion as a believer because you were afraid of God’s judgement or because you felt unworthy to partake because of a sin you committed, then this post is for you.

In this post, I’m going to give you a step-by-step biblical explanation of 1 Corinthians 11 that will clear up some common misunderstandings about the passage.

I will also answer important questions like:

• What does it really means to take communion in an unworthy manner?
• What what are the consequences of partaking in the Lord’s supper without discernment?
• What are you examining yourself for?
• How can you discern the Lord’s body?

Scroll down to read the full post or watch the video below—it’s the same breakdown ⬇️

The Context of 1 Corinthians 11 (Crucial to know)

Before I explain the verse on what does it mean to eat and drink unworthily, it is important to first understand the context of this passage and how Apostle Paul addresses the Church of Corinth.

I also want to mention that when I refer to the Lord’s Supper in this post, I’m also talking about taking communion—and vice versa. I’ll be using these terms interchangeably.

Now Let’s read the passage together. 

1 Corinthians 11:17-22 (ESV) says:

“17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. 20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.”  

One of the most important things to understand about this passage is that Paul isn’t just talking about partaking in the Lord’s supper here.

He’s actually referring to something that the church was doing at the time called a love feast, or a charity feast which was different from the Lord’s Supper.

What’s the difference you ask?

The purpose of these love feasts was to provide food and support for the poor in the community while bringing believers together.

It was a form of Christian fellowship with food – kind of like a church potluck.

What often happened within these love feasts is that the believers within a community would gather together for food and fellowship, giving to those who were less fortunate and then afterwards they would gather for the Lord’s supper – or communion.  

The Lord’s supper was different from the love feast because it wasn’t just a regular meal that anyone can partake in, but an act of worship for believers to proclaim Jesus’ death, resurrection, and return. 

The biggest thing to note here is that Paul is making a clear distinction between the regular meals that happened at the love feast and the bread and wine that was taken during the Lord’s supper afterwards.

He says, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.” (1 Corinthians 11:20 ESV). 

Now why was it so important for Paul to make a distinction between the two?

The main reason is that he later says that some people were partaking in communion in an unworthy manner, who were failing to discern the body, and were bringing judgment upon themselves—not just any judgment, but judgment guilty of the Lord’s body and blood. 

In other words, there were people who were attending the love feast who were partaking in the regular meal who should NOT have been partaking in the Lord’s Supper.

So who are these people within the Church and why are they receiving punishment for taking communion unworthily?

I want you to notice what Paul says about what’s happening within the love feasts:

1 Corinthians 11:18 (ESV) says: “For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized”

and:

Verse 21-22 says: “For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?”

In a nutshell, there are people within these church gatherings who are causing division and showing favoritism among the community by excluding others who have nothing from the common meal during the love feast.

And this is where things get really interesting because there is another place in the Bible that talks about a similar group of people within the Church. 

Jude’s Letter: Exposing the Ungodly in the Church

Jude chapter 1 is a letter written specifically to Christians, which mentions certain individuals who have crept into the Church unnoticed and who deny Jesus. 

These are not just any people; the Bible describes them as shepherds or leaders within the Church.

Jude 1:4 (ESV) says: “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Jude 1:12 (NIV) goes on to say:

“These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. 

Jude also describes these people as:

16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage. (Jude 1:16)

and:

“It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.” (Jude 1:19 ESV)

Does that sound familiar to what we just read in 1 Corinthians?

These “shepherds” crept into the love feasts unnoticed, caused divisions, were showing favoritism, and feeding only themselves. 

So how come they were unnoticed? 

On the outside, these leaders looked like believers, but on the inside, they were worldly and did not have the Holy Spirit—kind of like Judas.

Although these letters were addressed to the Church, the letter of Jude tells us that not everyone attending these love feasts was a born-again believer.

I believe this is exactly who Paul was warning the Church of Corinth about when he said that many were partaking in communion in an unworthy manner and bringing judgment upon themselves.

People who were NOT born again believers that are taking communion when they should not be.

You might be thinking, “Okay, Val… Well Jude is a different letter, so how can you be sure this is who Paul was referring to in 1 Corinthians?” 

The biggest reason isn’t even Jude’s letter itself—it’s actually the context of what Paul says next, right after the passage we just read about divisions in the Church.

After making a distinction from the meals of the love feast, this is the part where Paul explains what communion really is and what happened on the night of the first communion.

The Night of Betrayal and the Bread

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 (ESV) says:

“23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for  you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

As Paul begins to talk about communion in verse 23, we enter into another context which describes the night on which Jesus was betrayed.

The night on which Jesus was betrayed was the Last Supper that He shared with His disciples and the same night Judas betrayed Jesus.

This night marked the first communion, or the first Lord’s Supper. 

Matthew 26:20-25 (ESV) says:

“When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve.  21 And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” 23 He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. 24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” 25 Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”

There are a few things I want you to notice about this verse. The first is that when Jesus tells His disciples that one of them will betray Him, all of the disciples—except for Judas—ask Him, “Is it I, Lord?” 

This shows that the disciples recognized Jesus as their Lord. 

But Judas responded with, “Is it I, Rabbi?” (or teacher), meaning Judas only saw Jesus as a teacher.

The point of this is that Judas was a disciple who wasn’t really a genuine believer.

We know this because Jesus even indicates it when He washes the disciples’ feet in the same room and says, “You are clean, but not every one of you.” (John 13:10 ESV)

The second thing is that Jesus specifically says that the one who betrays him is the one who has dipped his hand in the dish with me.

What was he dipping in the dish?

It was the bread which represented the body of Jesus.

Now this is the part that many people miss.

Unworthy Manner Meaning In The Bible

Remember how 1 Corinthians 11:26 tells us that when someone eats of the bread and drinks of the cup he proclaims the Lord’s death until he comes?

The bread and the wine are a proclamation of the Lord’s death and return.

For a believer, the Lord’s death, resurrection, and return is one of the greatest things we can proclaim. 

It is a reminder of what Jesus has done for us that brings great joy and it’s an act of worship unto the Lord.

However…

A proclamation of the Lord’s return isn’t a good thing for everyone. 

Specifically those who have not been saved when He returns.

This is primarily because as a non-believer, the return of Jesus means judgement and condemnation for you if you have not put your faith in Him.

So here is Judas, a non-believer and a traitor, partaking in the bread or body of Jesus at the last supper.

Judas was making a proclamation of the Lord’s return while being the same person that was guilty of handing Him over to the authorities for his death. 

Which brings us to our main verse:

27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. (1 Corinthians 11:27-28 ESV)

Verse 27 starts with “therefore,” indicating that when Paul talks about eating the bread or drinking the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, he is directly referencing what happened in that room on the night Jesus was betrayed.

Think about this for a moment…

If Communion is a proclamation of the Lord’s death and return, and Judas was the very cause of his death, then Judas was proclaiming judgement upon himself by eating the bread in a manner that was not worthy.

His very unbelief and betrayal of the Lord is what made him unworthy to partake and this is what made him guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

What Is the Punishment for Taking Communion Unworthily?

As we keep reading this, the next verse says “29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.”

I want you to notice that Paul specifically says that whoever does not judge the body rightly brings judgement upon himself.

The bread in communion represents the body of Christ.

Do you know what happened when Judas partook of the bread during communion?

John 13:27 (NIV) says: “As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”

As soon as Judas partook of the bread, there was an immediate judgment that happened where Satan entered into him, ultimately leading to his own death.

Now let’s dive into these passages a bit more because there’s a lot of gold here.

Paul says in verse 28 that “a man must examine himself and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”

So the question is what are we examining ourselves for?

What ‘Let a Man Examine Himself’ Really Means

Paul tells us that a man must examine himself, not what he’s doing or what he’s done.

Some people will say that taking communion unworthily is when someone does communion the wrong way or that they’ve recently fallen into sin which has made them unworthy to partake.

And remember, not just unworthy, but guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

So to answer this you have to ask yourself a few questions:

What makes you worthy to partake in communion in the first place? Is it the works you’ve done or because you’ve confessed your sins? Or maybe it’s because you’ve been sin free for the last week?

The truth is that the only one who is worthy is Jesus Christ. 

However, the good news is that when you receive Jesus into your life, you become one with Him, and God considers you worthy because of who He is inside of you—not by anything you’ve done.

The only thing that makes you worthy to partake in communion is your faith in Jesus.

The other part of this is that when you received Jesus Christ into your life, it was the blood of Jesus that washed away all your sins and it was His broken body that made a way for you to enter into God’s presence freely.

Hebrews 10:19-20 (ESV) says:

“19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh”

In essence, the very thing you are partaking in during communion—the bread, which represents the body, and the wine, which represents the blood—is a reminder of what made you worthy to partake in the first place as a believer.

So, going back to our question—what are we examining ourselves for? 

There’s another passage in 2 Corinthians 13:5 where Paul tells the church in Corinth to examine themselves again and this time he tells them what they should be examining themselves for.

2 Corinthians 13:5 says “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”

I believe Paul is telling the Church of Corinth in first Corinthians to also examine themselves to see whether they are truly born-again believers before partaking in communion because not everyone in the church was of the faith.

Just as Judas was among the disciples as an unbeliever, and just like the letter of Jude which describes people within the love feasts who had denied Jesus, so it was in this situation.

We aren’t examining ourselves for the sins we’ve committed or if we’re doing communion the wrong way. 

We are examining ourselves to see whether we are in Christ when partaking in communion.

I have personally witnessed many born-again Christians, who are living for Jesus, refuse to partake in communion because they feel condemned and unworthy due to a sin they committed or a thought they had before communion.

To some it may not seem like a big deal, but the reality is that by not taking communion as a believer you are missing out on the opportunity to worship the Lord for what He’s done for you and receive the blessing that comes with partaking in it.

Paul tells us that after examining yourself, THEN you are to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

That’s because it’s a very simple examination. 

Before taking communion, examine yourself by asking:

Am I a believer in Christ and have I been born again?

Hmm. Yes. 

Okay then partake of the bread and drink of the cup that represents your forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus and your healing through His broken body.

Can it really be that simple? 

Yes, and I’ll show you why this is so.

The Meaning of Judging Yourself and The Body Rightly

Paul goes on to say that “if we judged  ourselves truly, we would not be judged” and “when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” (1 Corinthians 11:31-32 ESV)

Wait a minute…

Jesus said in John 3:18 – “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already…”

And Romans 8:1 (NIV) says: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”

So who is it that is being judged and disciplined so that they are not condemned along with the world?

Those in the midst of the church who think they are a part of the body, but have not been born again and are actually still a part of the world.

You see, Judging the body rightly is a matter of discerning whether or not you belong to the body. 

And as someone who isn’t born again, you are partaking in something that is Holy that you are not really a part of.

Since Apostle Paul talks about the blood and body of Jesus, I think there’s a really good hidden metaphor here that my friend Roman brought up when we talked about this.

Partaking in communion is kind of like a blood transfusion where someone receives blood from another person, called a donor, usually because they’ve lost a lot of blood and need more blood to stay healthy.

When we partake of the wine or grape juice in communion as believers, symbolically speaking we are receiving the blood of Jesus which brings healing, forgiveness, and restoration into our lives because we are one body with Christ.

However, if a donor’s blood in a transfusion does not match the recipient’s blood type, the body sees it as foreign and attacks it, causing what’s called a hemolytic reaction where the body destroys the transfused blood cells. 

This can lead to symptoms like fever, chills, organ failure, and even death if not treated—kinda like what Paul is saying about people in the church of Corinth becoming weak, sick, and even dying.

In a similar way, non-believers who take communion are not of the same body or blood type as Jesus which proclaims judgment upon themselves instead of life.

Now I don’t say this as a way to condemn non-believers who have partaken in communion before.

God is so gracious and merciful that even in our mistakes, He corrects us so that we can partake in the good things that He has in store for us.

You have the opportunity to be able to partake in communion in a worthy manner at any time simply by asking Jesus to come into your life and transform you.

He wants you to be able to know Him personally and to sit at his table, but you have to be willing to let Him in your heart.

On a final note, Apostle Paul ends off this part of his letter by saying:

“So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— 34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. (1 Corinthians 11:33-34 (ESV)

Towards the end here, we got back to our original context of what is happening in the Church of Corinth. 

Since their were people who were being excluded from the common meal, while others ate by themselves and got drunk off the wine, Paul offers a solution to the church: 

They should wait for each other to eat the normal meal, and those who are hungry should eat at home, so that no one partakes in communion simply because they are hungry.

Ultimately, this helps avoid gathering for judgment by preventing non-believers, who might still be hungry after the love feast, from taking Communion just because there is more bread and wine available.

In Conclusion

Taking communion in an unworthy manner was a direct reference to Judas when he partook of the bread in the night which he betrayed Jesus, and the moment he did a judgement occurred where satan entered into him.

Paul is telling the Church of Corinth to examine themselves to see whether they are truly born again believers before partaking in communion and to abstain from taking in communion if they are not a part of the body of Christ so they don’t bring judgement upon themselves.

As born again believers, we should always partake in communion regardless of how we feel or what we’ve done, short of renouncing the Lord because it’s the body and blood of Jesus that makes us whole.

The post Taking Communion Unworthily – Are You Risking Punishment? appeared first on Dude Disciple.

Have you ever thought about what Is the main message of the book of Jonah? 

Sometimes, we only look at the story of Jonah and the whale as a kids’ story that we learned in Sunday school, but the reality is that there is so much more to this story than what we often see on the surface. 

In this post I talk about what is the purpose of the book of Jonah and the spiritual meaning of Jonah through a step by step explanation of some passages in the Bible.

We’ll also dive into life lessons from the book of Jonah, showing how this ancient story is still so relevant to our lives today as believers in Christ.

If you don’t want to read, I highly recommend watching my video which is almost a word-for-word explanation of this post ⬇️

What is the main message of the Book of Jonah?

First I’d like to give you a high-level overview of what the story symbolizes and then we’ll go into the passages step by step to uncover the meaning of the story of Jonah and the whale.

Now, If I can give you just one verse that summarizes the spiritual meaning behind this story, it’s going to be from 1 Corinthians 15:45 which says:

45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 

The Bible talks about two Adams that were in the world, the first Adam which became a living soul was the first man to be created in the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis.

Now the last Adam that the Bible describes is a symbolic picture of the man who did everything the first Adam could not do, which was to fulfill God’s law perfectly and give life to the world through his death.

In other words, the last Adam is Jesus Christ.

The main message of the Book of Jonah is a picture of the Gospel, symbolizing both Adams: the first Adam, who disobeyed God and brought sin into the world, and Christ, the last Adam, who brought salvation by laying down His life.

Let’s start with the first part of the story of Jonah which describes the the first Adam:

Jonah 1:1-3 says:

“The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”

God gives Jonah a command and he decides to disobey God and flee from His presence by going to another city. 

Now Genesis 2:17 gives us a very similar story where God gives Adam a command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day that He does, he will surely die. 

After Adam disobeys God, Genesis 3:8 tells us that “the man and his wife hid himself from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden” 

In addition to this, when the first Adam sinned, he brought sin and death into the world.

Romans 5:12 says:

“12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—” (Romans 5:12)

Now why is that important?

It’s because when Jonah disobeyed God and fled from his presence, he ended up on a ship full of other people who were threatened with death by the storm that God had sent against Jonah because of his disobedience and sin.

Jonah 1: 4-5 says:

“4 The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. 5 Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep.”

If you look throughout the Bible, you’ll find that the sea is a symbolic representation of the world while the storm is a representation of God’s judgment and wrath which comes upon the people in the world during the last days because of disobedience.

As an example, Jesus tells us in Luke 21:25-26 about the sign of His return which says:

“There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” (Luke 21:25-26 NASB)

This passage compares the roaring of the sea and waves, to men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world.

This is very similar to what happened to the sailors on the boat with Jonah when he disobeyed God.

I want you to remember this verse about the signs of Christ’s return because it’s actually one of Jesus’ last teachings before he gets arrested and crucified.

This leads us to our next point:

Remember how I said that the story of Jonah also symbolizes the last Adam who brought salvation into the world through his death?

Well this is the part in the story where the last Adam, who is Jesus enters the picture.

The spiritual meaning of Jonah through the last Adam

There is another passage in the New Testament where Jesus lives out the story of Jonah almost identically, but without the disobedience and hiding from God’s presence.

Matthew 8:23-26 says:

“When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” He *said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.”

(Matthew 8:23-26 NASB)

Just like with the story of Jonah, Jesus gets into a boat with His disciples and a great storm rises up on the sea threatening to break up the boat with it’s waves.

In the Gospel of Mark, the Bible tells us that Jesus was also asleep in the stern of the boat, which is basically the lower part of the boat, just as Jonah was.

The big difference with this story is that Jesus only had to say one phrase for the storm to stop immediately, while Jonah had to be thrown into the sea for the storm to cease.

Jonah 1:11-12 says: 

“So they said to him, “What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?”—for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.”

Now Remember how the storm represents God’s wrath against the world because of sin and disobedience?

Well, in order for Jesus to calm the storm of God’s wrath against the world because of our sin and disobedience, He had to be crucified, die on the cross, and rise from the grave on the third day.

So, although Jesus simply calmed the storm with a phrase, what He was really pointing to was what happened in the story of Jonah.

Just as Jonah willingly gave himself up to the sailors to be thrown into the raging sea which would basically kill him, Jesus also willingly gave his life into the hands of sinful men who crucified Him.

How do we know that? 

After the men throw Jonah into the sea, Jonah 1:17 says:

“And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17)”

Most people have been taught in Sunday school that when Jonah was thrown overboard, that he survived in the water by being eaten by a large fish.

But you’ll be surprised by what the Bible says about what really happened to Jonah.

There is a passage in the new Testament where Jesus directly quotes this verse about the fish swallowing Jonah.

Matthew 12:38 says:

“38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” 39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; 40 for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

In this passage, the Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign to prove that He’s from God and he tells them that the only sign they will receive is the sign of Jonah the prophet which has something to do with him being in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

What did he mean by that?

When Jesus was crucified, He died a physical death. While he was dead for those three days and three nights, he was buried in a tomb, but beyond that, the Bible says that he descended into the lower parts of the earth to preach to the spirits in prison (Ephesians 4:9 , 1 Peter 3:9)

The lower part of the earth is also known as the pit or sheol which is the place of the dead. 

We all know what happened after that:

Jesus didn’t stay dead because God raised him from the dead on the third day.

So, if Jesus died and was buried for three days and three nights, and He told us that this was a sign just like the sign of Jonah, what do you think happened to Jonah?

Here’s a hint:

When Jonah was thrown into the water, he wasn’t saved by the fish and survived living there for three days and three nights.

Jonah drowned in the water when he was thrown overboard and was swallowed by the fish after he died. The fish acted as a tomb for his body for three days and three nights while he was dead.

It says in Jonah 2:1-2:

“Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, and he said, “I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice.”

You might be thinking:

How did Jonah die? Wasn’t he praying in the fish which shows he was alive?

If you look carefully at the next verse, it tells us where he was really crying for help from:

“I cried for help from the depth of Sheol;”

Sheol is the place of the dead.

Technically speaking, Jonah’s body was in the fish when he was praying, but his soul wasn’t in his body during those 3 days because he was crying out from sheol.

Not only that, but look at what happened to Jonah before he was swallowed by the fish in the rest of the passage.

Jonah 2:3-6 says:

“For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me. 4 “So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ 5 “Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 “I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.”

Jonah was cast into the heart of the seas. He said he had been expelled from God’s sight. The waters encompassed him to the point of death, then weeds wrapped around his head.

Most importantly, he descended to the roots of the mountains (also known as the heart of the earth), and the earth’s bars were around him forever until the Lord brought up his life from the pit.

Okay, so Jonah died… what’s the big deal with that?

The big deal isn’t that he died, it’s that God raised Jonah from the dead and that’s what Jesus meant when He said he’s going to give the people a sign that was just like the sign of Jonah.

Jonah 2:10 says:

“Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.”

Jonah gets spit out by the fish onto dry land where he comes to life and God tells him to go into Ninvah to preach a message of repentance.

And this is where things get really interesting.

What really happened in Nineveh?

Jonah 3:3-7 says: 

“3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk.

4 Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. 6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. 7 He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. “

I want you to notice something very important here:

The Bible tells us that Nineveh was a great city that was a three day walk…

Jonah enters the city on the first day (a day’s walk) and begins to tell the people that Nineveh will be overthrown in 40 days, and they start repenting right away.

Not just the people, but the King of Nineveh who finds Jonah’s statement so serious that he tells everyone to put on sackcloth and start fasting.

Yes, even the animals.

In case you forgot, we’re talking about a Gentile city that God wants to destroy because of its wickedness and disobedience. The people hear a message from a complete stranger who has only covered one-third of the city’s population and almost instantly turn away from their sins, repenting in sackcloth and fasting.

Have you ever thought about who would ever believe this guy, let alone the king?

Here’s what I think actually happened:

I believe that when God told the fish to spit out Jonah, he didn’t just spit him out in the middle of nowhere.

He spit him out on the banks of the sea of the Assyrian empire where there were lots of people watching.

Imagine a giant fish comes up on the banks of the sea and spits a dead man out of it’s mouth and he comes to life in front of your very eyes. Not just your eyes, but a crowd of people that are also working the city’s commercial trade routes. 

Do you think that the word would get out pretty quickly and people would believe what Jonah had to say?

I think so.

In other words, I believe It was the death and resurrection of Jonah that caused a city full of sinners to repent of their sins, just as it was the death and resurrection of Jesus that caused the world to believe that He really is the son of God.

Even in the New Testament, when Jesus is raised from the dead, he sends out His disciples to preach the Gospel to the gentiles so that the world would be saved.

That is the Gospel message in the story of Jonah.

Now, I know there’s another part that happens after Jonah preaches where he gets mad at God for saving Nineveh, but we’re not going to cover that for now.

Lessons from the life of Jonah

The most important thing I want you to take away from this is that you and I are just like the first part of the story of Jonah. We are like the Jonah that have disobeyed God and broken his commandment.

The Bible says that the payment for our sins is death and just like sailors, we are on a boat that is headed for destruction where we will have to face God’s wrath on judgment day and pay the penalty for our sin and disobedience. 

Unless someone else pays the penalty on your behalf and calms the storm.

The good news is that Jesus was like the Jonah that willingly gave up his life on your behalf by being thrown into the sea of God’s wrath through his death on the cross. 

Jesus paid the penalty for your sin and disobedience so that you can have life. As proof of this, God raised Him from the dead on the third day.

Just like the sailors, we have to make a decision to honor God by turning away from our idols and believing that Jesus is the son of God.

This means that you have to make a personal decision to invite Jesus into your life and receive him like a free gift. 

My friend, If you are reading this and you’ve never made a decision to invite Jesus into your heart, I’d like to invite you to make that decision today. 

It can be as simple as saying a prayer such as:

Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross and rose from the grave. I ask you come into my heart and give me a new life.

God will change your desires and give you a purpose for your life that is greater than anything you can imagine. 

The post The Spiritual Meaning of Jonah Explained appeared first on Dude Disciple.

Have you ever found yourself caught in a loop, trying to figure out how to stop sinning the same sin as a Christian?

It might even seem like, no matter what you do or how hard you try, you end up falling back into the same sins over and over again.

If so, then this post is for you!

In this post, I take you through a step-by-step Bible study to share the truth about breaking the cycle of sin in your life and consistently living a life free from sin—without even trying.

So, even if you’ve tried everything and nothing has worked for you, read this post or watch the video below until the end. I believe it’s going to change your life.

Why Do I Keep Sinning The Same Sin?

The reason you keep falling back into the same sins is because of your sinful nature in the body, which is causing you to live a life against your own desires to do good. This is the same conflict that was happening within Apostle Paul in Romans Chapter 7.

Check out what Romans 7:14-20 says about this:

“14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”

The first thing I want you to distinguish here is that every time Paul mentions thinking, wanting, or feeling, he’s referring to his mind, will, and emotions—also known as the soul part of him or simply the mind.

For example, when he says, “I do not understand,” understanding happens in the mind. When he says, “What I want,” that is part of the will, and “I hate” refers to emotions.

And every time he mentions doing something, he refers to his body, as actions are performed by the body. For example, when he says, “I do the very thing I hate…”

Now this is the dilemma:

Paul’s soul or mind wants to do what is good by following God’s law. 

But No matter how much good he wants to do, He ends up sinning instead. 

Why?

His body has been corrupted by sin. And now, the sinful nature living in his body is causing him to live out a lifestyle of sins against his own desires.

In fact, he realizes, that although he wants to live out a good and righteous life, his body doesn’t even have the ability to do so. 

Why do I keep sinning when I don’t want to?

Romans 7:21 says I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.  

Apostle Paul says the reason you keep sinning is due to the principle that evil is present in you. A principle is essentially a law, kind of like law of gravity; which means it works whether you want it to or not.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say that you had big dreams of being able to fly. 

One day you get up out of bed and you tell yourself, “I am SO tired of just being on the ground… today, I’m finally going to do something about it.”

You get some duck tape, put on some cardboard wings, and you say to yourself:

“I’m going to fly.”

Next, You find a large cliff with a big runway and get yourself all pumped up. 

Then, you start running as fast as you can and when you reach the edge of the cliff you jump and flap your cardboard wings as hard as you can.

And what happens? 

The law of gravity pulls you down to the ground and your dreams of flying are shattered.

This is the kind of principle that Paul is talking about here.

Let’s keep reading.

Romans 7:22-23 says:

22 For I joyfully agree with the law of God in the inner person, 23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my body’s parts. 

Now I want you to notice how the language changes here. It’s not just talking about him wanting to do good and living out evil, but these passages are referencing 3 types of laws or principles.

1. The Law of God

The law of God is God’s commandments or the law of Moses, which is Holy and perfect. We know that we are no longer under the law as believers, but this refers to living out a life of righteousness and holiness.

From our earlier example on the law of gravity, The law of God would symbolize the actual act of flying or being airborne.

2. The Law of Sin

The law of sin is the sinful nature in the parts of your body or more specifically your flesh. It’s the part of your body that is causing you to live out a life of sins against your own will and desires.

Think of the law of sin in your body like the law of gravity that is pulling you down to the ground and falling to the ground, symbolizing falling into sin. 

Also, imagine the cardboard wings that you duct tape to yourself as your best effort at getting your body to fly, or live out righteousness.

3. The Law of Mind

The law of mind is the law within your soul representing Your mind, will, and emotions. This is the part of you that hates sin and wants to follow God’s commandments or live out a life of righteousness as a believer.

Remember when Paul mentioned in the earlier verses that “the willing is present in me” and “ I want to do good”, he’s referring to the law of mind in those verses.

Think of the law of mind as your dreams and desires to fly.

Now Let’s put this all together with our flying illustration:

As a born-again believer, The law of your mind agrees with the law of God and it desires for your body to live out a life of righteousness because it hates sin. 

It’s the part of you that always thinks to yourself:

“Man, I really want to live for Jesus with all my heart and I don’t want to go back to those sins again.”

The part of you that dreams of being able to fly consistently.

So what’s your natural response to those desires?

You say to yourself:

“Hey body, listen up. I need you to stop sinning and start living according to what God says.”

No more porn, no more cussing, no more lying, no more stealing, and so on.

This is you saying: I am done with being on the ground, I’m going to start flying.

Next, You or the law of your mind puts a demand on your body to live according to God’s law by trying different methods to get your body to stop sinning.

You start deleting social media, getting accountability partners, setting up site blockers on your phone, and doing all these other things to avoid falling into sin again.

This represents your attempts at getting your body to fly. It’s you putting on your cardboard wings, getting all hyped up, and preparing to jump off that cliff so you can fly.  

Then you run as fast as you can and and you jump off the cliff flapping your wings as hard as you can. 

and what happens?

You might be in the air for a few seconds, maybe a minute or two, but it’s only a matter of time before the law of gravity pulls you down to the ground with those cardboard wings on.

That’s because having methods in place is great and all, but they don’t fix the root cause of why you keep sinning.

You always end up falling back into your sins and wondering, why did I do this again? 

It’s impossible to get to a place of true freedom and righteousness through methods.

The law of sin will eventually pull your body down to the ground because you are relying on yourself (aka the law of mind) to get your body to live out God’s law.

So what can you do?

The only way you won’t fall down trying to fly is if you find a way to counter the law of gravity with a different law, such as the law of aerodynamics.

In other words, those old cardboard wings just won’t cut it… you need an airplane with an engine.

How To Stop Sinning The Same Sin Over and Over Again

I want to ask you a very important question:

Do you ever have to try to put in effort to sin or is it something that happens naturally for you?

Well if you’re like most people, it happens naturally for you.

That’s because naturally stems from the word nature.

It happens naturally because it’s a part of your fallen nature as a non-believer. 

You sin because it’s in your nature to sin. 

But wait a minute.

If sinning comes from your sinful nature and I’ve been born again, didn’t Jesus give me a new nature? 

Yep.

Romans 6:6-8 says that our old self was crucified with Him, that you have died with Christ, and that you have been set free from sin. 

These are all past tense terms because the moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, was the moment your old sinful nature died and you became a new creation with a new nature. 

Sin lost its power over you.

How?

Well, if your actions in the body stem from your nature and you’ve received a new nature, then it means you can now live a life of righteousness in the same way you used to live a life of lawlessness—without even trying.

Imagine that Instead of jumping off a cliff, with your cardboard wings, and falling to the ground. 

You get into an airplane, turn on the controls, take off, and you fly consistently without falling…

This leads us to what Paul says in Romans 8, the very next chapter after talking about his battle with the law of sin.

Romans 8:1-2 says Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Hold on a second! 

We have another law in play here — the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. 

This law is the Holy Spirit living inside of you, and He has set you free from the law of sin and death. 

This means you are no longer bound to your old sinful nature; now, you’re working with a different law. 

How does this law work?

Romans 8:10-11 says:

“If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

First, you have to realize, that your body is still dead because of sin…not physically dead, but spiritually dead. Meaning it still does not have the ability to live out righteousness or holiness on it’s own. 

The reason you still get tempted by sin even after you’re born again is because you’re still in the same body. Your soul and spirit have been transformed, but you’re still waiting on a new body. 

And Remember how your old sinful nature lived in your body? Well although your sinful nature has been crucified and put to death, your body still has impulsive sinful desires from being trained to live in sin it’s entire life.

It’s kind of like a chicken with its head cut off. Technically it’s already dead, but it’s body is still impulsively running around…

Jesus has set you free from being a prisoner or a slave to the law of sin, but can you imagine coming out of a prison cell after living there your entire life?

It’s going to take some time for you to get adjusted to living in freedom and some of your old ways of doing things might still be there…

But after some time, it does get easier and those desires die down.

Just as the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead, He also gives life or resurrection power to your body to live out a life of righteousness that was otherwise impossible on its own.

Not just that but…

Romans 8:13 says: “if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

This means that the Spirit of God, residing in you, puts to death the deeds of your body by empowering you to naturally say no to the desires of the flesh. It happens without you having to tell your body, “Don’t do that,” through the law of your mind.

If the law of sin is like the law of gravity that makes you fall when you try to get your body to fly on its own, the law of the Spirit of life is the airplane that carries your body and allows you to fly through the law of aerodynamics.

The best part is that the plane does most of the work for you without you having to exert your own energy to get your body to fly.

All you have to do is KNOW how it operates and work with it. 

This leads us to our main question:

If God has set you free from sin, your flesh has been crucified, you have died with Christ, and God has given you His Holy Spirit…

Why are you still falling into the same sins over and over again as a believer?  

It’s because, even though you may have a perfectly working airplane that can fly and take you to destinations all over the world, you’re still stuck on the ground simply because you don’t know how it operates. 

So, it doesn’t work for you… Yet.

In Hosea 4:6 God says “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”

And John 8:32 says “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The biggest problem today is that many Christians don’t actually know the truth.

They just listen to a sermon or a podcast that sounds good and try to DO what is says without understanding what the Bible says about who they are in Christ.

The reality is that we can’t just “do” the truth.

We need to intimately and personally know WHO the truth is.

And the truth is Jesus.

It all comes down to knowing who Jesus is inside of you and who you are in Him as a believer.

If you just stop trying to fix yourself and focus all your attention on simply getting to know who He is and who you are in Him through the scripture and prayer, everything will change for you.

Because God will change the way you think. When He changes the way you think, you live out a different life. 

For example:

Have you ever gone to a fast-food restaurant because you thought there was nothing to eat at home, but then you come home, and your family is having this huge feast with steak on the table, potatoes, salad… and you’re like, Man if only I knew they had this feast at home, I would have never gone to McDonald’s.

It’s kinda like that.

So if it’s all about knowing the truth, how can you start applying this into your life practically to start seeing real transformation?

How To Overcome Sin and Temptation In Your Life Practically

Romans 12:1-2 says:

12 Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

There’s 2 practical ideas that the Bible is telling us here that we can apply to see transformation in our lives.

First is to present your body as a living and Holy Sacrifice…

And second… to be transformed by the renewing of your mind or to be changed in the way that you live, by changing the way that you think.

I like to call this “present and repent”  since repentance means to change your thinking.

Let’s talk about the first one which is “to present”.

What does it mean to present your body to God?

The word “present” in Greek is the word “Paristemi” which means to stand beside or to become available. 

Presenting yourself is like saying:

“Lord, here is my body…fill me with the Holy Spirit, and live out the life that you want to live”

When God is telling us to present ourselves to him, it’s like he’s saying to us: 

Step aside son – I’ll take it from here. You dont have to try to be good, just be open to what I wanna do.

In simple terms this means:

Stop trying to live out rightousness yourself, and believe that God will do it through your life without you interfering by your own willpower. 

Galatians 2:20 says, that  “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

If you truly believe that verse, Then all the pressure to perform gets taken off of you and is placed on Christ in you, since your life is his life now… All you gotta do is believe.

But wait there’s more…

How To Renew Your Mind

The second part is the transformation that comes when we renew our mind. 

Romans 12:2 says “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

But what does it really mean to renew your mind?

To renew something simply means to restore to existence or back to the place of what is was before, but in a fresh new way.

If the Bible says that you HAVE the mind of Christ, and your mind is stuck on a thought that doesn’t align with the mind of Christ. Then a renewal of your mind simply means to restore or re-align your thinking with the truth of your identity in Christ.

Paul says in Romans 6:11 So you too, CONSIDER yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

In other words, consider or think about who you are in Christ Jesus and who He is in you, then agree with it.

For example:

Let’s say you fell into sin yesterday and now you have all these condemning thoughts telling you that you’re not good enough to come before God and that you’re such a sinner because of what you did.

You can continue to consider those thoughts and agree that this is just who you are.  And That’s exactly where the enemy wants you because that’s what will keep you stuck in your sins.

Or you can renew your mind by considering or thinking about who you really are in Christ.

The Holy Spirit will actually convict you of the truth of your righteousness in Christ and remind you what the Bible says about you.

So when you think about your true identity in Christ…what describes Jesus? 

perfect, holy, righteous, pure, and so much more.

These are the traits that get attributed to you because of who Jesus is in you. You have become one with Him. When God looks at you as a born-again believer, He sees the perfect nature of His son Jesus.

This is where you start to realize:

Those condemning thoughts are not my thoughts. Those lustful thoughts are also not my thoughts, because the truth is, I have the mind of Christ.

You also realize that those sinful desires are not my desires. My flesh has been crucified with Christ, and I have died to sin. Those actions don’t define my identity in Christ either because I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

This is what it truly means to renew your mind or repent as a believer.

It’s important to know that we’re not just playing “fake it till you make it” with this. 

This is the reality of what the Bible says about who Christ is in you and who you are in Christ.

You get to decide what you want to believe—either your feelings, your circumstances, what other people said, what the enemy said… Or you can choose to believe what the Word of God says about you.

If you’re still wondering, “Is my repentance real if I keep committing the same sin?” check out our blog post on Your Righteousness In Christ for more on this topic.

In conclusion, We present ourselves to God by allowing him to do what he wants through our life instead of trying to use our own willpower to get ourselves to live out righteousness.

Then we simply renew our minds or think about what the word of God says about our identity and agree with it. 

If you haven’t noticed, These are 2 things that usually happen naturally as a result of us seeking God to know Him for who He is, not just what He can do for us.

You start to present yourself to God when you trust Him to do what He says he’ll do. You start to trust God when you get to know His character and His love for you by spending time in the word and in prayer.

This is why there is such a huge emphasis on having a relationship with God over doing something for Him.

Now I want to ask you:

How has getting to know God changed the way you see yourself and the way you live your life?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How To Stop Sinning The Same Sin (Even If You’ve Tried Everything) appeared first on Dude Disciple.

What does it mean when Jesus said “I will spit you out of my mouth” to the Church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:16? 

In this post, I do a step-by-step Bible study covering the true meaning behind Jesus’ reference to the hot and cold liquid and His statement about spitting out the lukewarm drink.

You’ll be surprised by who Jesus was actually referring to when He said they were lukewarm.

I’ll also answer Questions such as:

• What is a lukewarm Christian? 
• Are lukewarm Christians saved?
• What does the hot and cold represent? (Revelation 3:16 meaning)
• Why does Jesus call them poor, blind, and naked?
• And more…

If you don’t want to read, I highly recommend watching my video which is almost a word-for-word explanation of this post ⬇️

I will spit you out of my mouth meaning

When it comes to the letter that was written to the Church of Laodicea, There is a lot of misinformation that comes with interpreting what it actually means.

I’ll start by talking about the most common interpretation of this passage… then I’ll talk about the real meaning of what it says based on scripture since most of what Jesus said refers back to the scriptures.

What is a lukewarm Christian?

A lukewarm Christian is usually referred to as someone who claims that they are a believer, but doesn’t fully live out their beliefs in God. They are often described as someone who is lacking in their devotion to God, living in sin, or just isn’t really doing anything for God’s kingdom because they’ve become complacent.

The place where people get the term Lukewarm Christian comes from a passage in Revelation 3:14-22 were Jesus addresses the church in Laodicea.

The problem with this is that Jesus never actually calls them Christians… He just calls them lukewarm. 

And I’ll talk about that, but first, let’s read what it says in Revelation 3:

14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: 15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

The most common interpretation of this passage doesn’t come from the Bible… it comes from the geographical location of the city of Laodicea.

You might have seen this photo before of the Lycus River Valley that shows 2 sources of water that come together to meet in Laodicea through an aqueduct.

They say one aqueduct carried Hot water from the Hierpolis Hot Springs and another carried cold water from the Colossae Cold Springs.

The idea is that by the time the water would get to the city of Laodicea it would mix together to create this lukewarm water.

This Water was not pleasant to drink and would sometimes be used to induce vomiting which is the actual word for spit out in verse 16 of our passage.

Then people go on to say that the hot water represents Christians who are on fire for Jesus and are fully devoted to God. On the other hand, the cold water represents people who are complete non-believers who are living in sin.

Mixing the two together, you get lukewarm water.

Basically, someone in the middle between hot and cold that is usually described in the dangers of lukewarm Christianity.

But this theory of hot and cold is false on so many levels.

And here’s why:

When Jesus said I will spit you out of my mouth for being lukewarm, He was not referring to 2 hot and cold rivers that met in the middle to create lukewarm water.

That’s because there were no aqueducts carrying Hot and cold water into Laodicea from Hierapolis and Colosai.

First off, the hot water from Hierapolis was heavily mineralized which would clog the aqueducts very quickly from mineral buildup. This was not drinkable water, this was water used for bathing and dying fabrics.

This is another problem because Jesus was talking about drinking the hot liquid.

In addition, The terrain for an aqueduct from Hierapolis to Laodicea was also not suitable since it would have to be twice as tall as one of the largest aqueducts the Romans built at that time and would have to go through a valley that was 330 feet deep to get to Laodicea.

The cold water Aqueduct from Colossai was also highly unlikely because there were much closer cold springs to Laodicea which made it impractical to build an aqueduct from there.

Laodicea got its water from the much closer south, unlike these 2 sources which came from the north.

Not just that, but there was no evidence that the water in Laodicea was bad or undrinkable. In fact ancient writings referred to Laodicea’s water as more drinkable than Hierapolis (High-Raw-Polis).

You can learn more about these 2 aqueducts here.

I would rather you be hot or cold meaning

So if Jesus wasn’t referring to a hot and cold aqueduct creating lukewarm water, what was he referring to?

Revelation 3:20 says “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him”

He was referring to drinking something hot or cold in the context of dining with Him. 

By the way, It never says WHAT He was drinking so we don’t even know if it was water.

What was more common during that time in a dining context was that the host of a house would serve a guest with wine mixed with water. The water was either cooled with ice or heated on coals then mixed with the wine which would cause the wine to be either hot or cold.

Both hot and cold drinks were considered good since those who are hot find cold drinks refreshing, and those who are cold enjoy the warmth of a hot drink.

And Jesus himself said “I wish you were either cold or hot”

On the other hand, serving lukewarm wine was considered insulting to a guest and lukewarm water was used to induce vomiting. 

So in that sense I agree, The lukewarm drink does represent something negative which I’ll talk about.

Regardless of what the drink was, Jesus was not referring to the hot drink as a Christian that was on fire for him in their devotion and the cold drink as a complete non-believer living in sin.

Since when has it been better for someone to be a complete non-believer living in sin then a “lukewarm” Christian who is struggling with their faith?

Never.

The hot and cold drinks both represent something that Jesus enjoys or is satisfied with that just have different functions. In other words, both the hot and cold drinks represent born again believers.

But what about the Lukewarm drink? 

Is Jesus going to spit you out of His mouth if you are lukewarm?

When Jesus says He is going to spit you out if you are lukewarm, it actually does mean that He is going to reject you and you will not enter the kingdom of God.

But this is where most people get it WRONG.

Most people think that Jesus is rejecting lukewarm CHRISTIANS for their works because the letter is written to the Church in Laodicea.

But is Jesus actually going to reject a born-again believer from entering the kingdom based on their works when Ephesians 2:8-9 says that you are saved by grace through faith and not by your works?

Or is it possible that Jesus is referring to a group of people within the church of Laodicea that claim to be Christian and try to do the works, but are not saved?

Let’s look at what Jesus says to these people:

Revelation 3:17 says “Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

First, Jesus says that these people say “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing”

Is there another reference to this in the Bible? Yes!

Hosea 12:8 says: “Ephraim has said, Ah, but I am rich; I have found wealth for myself; in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity or sin.” (Hosea 12:8) NASB

Hosea ALSO talks about Ephraim as a people who claim to be rich and without sin in all their works.

Then Hosea 12:14 (NIV) continues with: “But Ephraim has aroused his bitter anger; his Lord will leave on him the guilt of his bloodshed and will repay him for his contempt.”

Hold on a second, did God just say that He’s going to leave Ephraim guilty of their sins and repay them for it? 

Yep.

But Ephraim is a tribe of Israel, which is supposed to be God’s people. Why would God not forgive their sins? 

It’s because they are self-righteous and do not think they have sin. Therefore, they do not see the need for forgiveness.

It’s no wonder the tribe of Ephraim isn’t included in the 144,000 of the tribes of Israel that are sealed for God’s kingdom in Revelations 7. (You can look into that yourself)

When Jesus describes the people in Laodicea as rich, he is not just saying that they are financially wealthy, even though they very well could have been. He’s saying they are like the tribe of Ephraim, who are supposed to be God’s people, but are self-righteous and don’t think they need forgiveness of sins.

What else?

Jesus also says because you say you’re rich…“you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked”

Then Jesus gives them a solution for their poverty, blindness, and nakedness when He says:

18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

Now Let’s break this down:

Why Does Jesus Call The Laodiceans Poor?

Jesus said in Luke 4:18 that “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.  And in Matthew 5:3 He says “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs” (NLT)

When Jesus talks about preaching the Gospel to the poor, he’s referring to people who are poor in spirit that realize their need for forgiveness of their sins.

Jesus is doing a play on words here when He calls the Laodiceans poor. What He’s saying is that those who claim to be rich are poor, and those who know they are poor become rich.

Why? 

Those who know they are poor are open to hearing the Gospel and receiving Christ which causes them to become rich in Christ.

The people in Laodicea were claiming to be rich or without sin because of their self-righteousness, therefore they were actually poor or sinful. 

That’s the reason why Jesus advises them to buy from Him Gold refined by fire. 

What does the gold refined by fire represent?

1 Peter 1:7 says: “so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;”

1 Peter tells us that gold refined by fire is the proof of your faith… The proof of your faith is the works that reveal your faith since it is your works that will be tested by fire (1 Corinthians 3:13)

Jesus said earlier that their works were neither hot nor cold, but were lukewarm therefore He will spit them out.

If Gold refined by fire is the proof of their faith and Jesus is telling them to buy it from Him…Then that means their works showed that they had no faith in Christ. They were not saved.

But wait, there’s more…

Jesus also calls them blind. 

Why Does Jesus Call The Laodiceans Blind?

John 9:39-41 says “Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” 40 Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains. (John 9:39-41)

In this passage, Jesus does another play on words just like before but this time with the blind saying that those who claim to see are blind and those who are blind will see. 

And when He talks about blindness, He refers to sin. Sin that remains… 

Just like with Ephraim. 

What He was saying was if only you realized that you are blind or sinful you would know the need you have to be able to see or be forgiven of your sins. But since you say you see, you will remain sinful.

Like Ephraim, the Pharisees were supposed to be God’s people. 

They knew the law better than anyone else, they did all the “good” works, but they never received Christ and His forgiveness. They Crucified Him instead.

The Pharisees saw themselves as self-righteousness and not needing forgiveness for their sins. 

And so did the Laodicens…which is why Jesus also told them to buy from Him eye salve to anoint their eyes so that they can see. 

Are you starting to see a pattern here?

Let’s go over one more thing He calls them: Naked.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they realized that they were both naked. 

And not just that but, God had to sacrifice an animal to clothe them with animal skin to cover their nakedness.

Just like He sacrificed His son Jesus to clothe us with righteousness.

To this day, we as people also need to be clothed from our nakedness, not just physically, but spiritually.

However…

Galatians 3:27 says “all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

This means that if you have put your faith in Jesus and have been born again, you have already been clothed with Christ and are no longer spiritually naked.

So if Jesus is really addressing Christians in Laodicea… why would he call them naked?

And not just that, but He tells them to buy white garments from Him.

What do the white garments represent?

Revelations 19:7-8 says “7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

The white garments are given to the bride of Christ and they represent the righteous acts of the saints.  Righteous acts that are produced by your faith in Christ.

In addition, Revelations 3:5 says that He who overcomes will be clothed in white garments.

Who are the ones that overcome?

1 John 5:4-5 says: “4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

Those who believe in Jesus and have been born again are the ones who overcome. These are the ones who get the white garments.

Jesus also spoke to the Church of Sardis about the white garments saying:

“4 But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.”

The church in Sardis had people who soiled their white garments and a few who didn’t.

The point is:

Both of them HAD garments. 

The people in the church of Laodicea didn’t even have white garments.

They were naked. 

Therefore, not having the white robes also meant that the people that Jesus was referring to in Laodicea were not born-again believers.

At this point, Some of you might be thinking:

Well, what about Revelation 3:19 where Jesus says to the Laodiceans:  “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”

Isn’t Jesus addressing them as believers since He refers to them as those whom He loves and disciplines? Like the way God disciplines his children?

Actually no…and here’s why:

Jesus just got done rebuking and disciplining 4 other churches right before Laodicea, but He doesn’t tell any of them: “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline;” as if they didn’t know.

He just tells them to repent.

So why would He say this to Laodicea before calling them to repentance?

It’s because when He says those whom I love, He’s not referring to them…He’s referring to those whom He loves who are believers who know what it’s like to be disciplined as a son or daughter… 

It was not normal for these Laodiceans to receive correction like this because many of them were not children of God yet. 

Jesus tells them this as if He’s making an exception by correcting those who are within the Church who are still not born again.

And if you still don’t think Jesus is addressing non-believers within the church of Laodicea, all you gotta do is examine the next verse after this.

Revelation 3:20 says “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him”

Jesus is standing at the door of their heart knocking… because they have not let him in. 

And if they open the door….Notice what He says:

“I will come in to him and will dine with him.”

Meaning they don’t have Jesus living in them. 

When Jesus comes into you, you become born again and you’re able to have fellowship with God through Christ. 

It’s really that simple.

Now with that being said, I do want to clear some things up:

First off, I do believe there were real born-again believers in the Church of Laodicea because Paul writes to them in his other letters.

However, When Jesus addresses the church of Laodicea in this letter, He is addressing the “ekklēsia” which is the Greek word for church in our English Bibles defined as an assembly or gathering of believers… 

In this case the gatherings of believers within the city of Laodicea. These were not buildings, they were groups of people meeting for Christ. 

Now Is it possible that within a city that has born-again believers who gather for the name of Jesus, that a large portion of those people who gather are those who say that they are Christian, but aren’t born again?

Absolutely!

It’s exactly what we’re seeing in America today. We even have pastors, worship leaders, and ministers who claim that they are Christians who aren’t born again…Let alone the congregation. 

That’s who Jesus is addressing in this letter. 

A large portion of people who are gathering in the name of Jesus within Laodicea who don’t actually know Him and are not saved.

The second thing is that Jesus is not referring to the Laodiceans as Christians who have fallen away.

 In other words, He is not telling them that He will reject them because they were born again at one time and then fell away. He is referring to people that were too self-righteous to let Him in their hearts in the first place.

To all 6 of the other churches, Jesus tells them to either return to where they were before, hold on to what they have, or remember what they have received.

But He never says anything like that to Laodicea.

He simply said “because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth”

That’s because there is no middle ground / grey area with Jesus when it comes to salvation. 

It’s either you are forgiven and saved, or you’re not.

And if you are saved but you’re struggling… He isn’t going to reject you, He’s going to work on changing you.

Look at what Jesus said in John 6:37:

“37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”

The ones whom Jesus rejects are the ones who never come to Him in the first place.

Finally, I don’t share this with you as an excuse to allow Christians to do whatever they want and just be complacent because they’re already saved.

I want believers to be on fire for Jesus and do God’s works as much as the next guy.

But when you start teaching Christians that they are going to get rejected by Jesus because they’re struggling with their faith or aren’t doing enough work for God, You put them in greater bondage.

It becomes a work-based relationship with God where you put demands on yourself to do something from a place of fear and striving instead of love and when something happens to your works, for whatever reason, you go through a fall because you think your relationship is based on what you do instead of what He’s done. 

As a result, you do worse, not better because you see God as just a taskmaster instead of a loving Father.

In conclusion: 

When Jesus spoke to the Church of Laodicea, He was not referring to born-again believers when He said they were lukewarm but to those within the church who claimed they were without sin and had never put their faith in Jesus because they were self-righteous.

Jesus calls them to repentance by telling them He is knocking at the door of their heart waiting for them to let Him into them so He can dine with them.

And that is the question for you today: 

Have you truly invited Jesus to come into your heart?

If you still like living in your sin and keep coming back to it over and over again, there’s a good chance you haven’t been born again or saved.

If that’s the case, I want to invite you to make a decision right now to put your faith in Jesus simply by asking Jesus to come into your heart and forgive you of your sins. 

Then, let me know in the comments below by saying “I received Jesus today”

The post I Will Spit You Out Of My Mouth Meaning (Revelation 3:16 Explained) appeared first on Dude Disciple.

This is a complete guide on how to study the Bible effectively for beginners in PDF format. 

In this guide, I cover 4 Bible Study Methods (with tools) that will help you study the Bible as a whole, understand the meaning of a passage, and find hidden truths while you read.

I’ll also share the proper mindset for reading the Bible that took me from having to force myself to read the Bible every day to falling in love with the word of God to the point where I could read for hours.

Finally, we’re going to take everything we’ve learned and do a Bible study together step-by-step.

You can download this free printable Bible study guide PDF by clicking here, or read it here on the blog by scrolling down.

Let’s get into it!

Table of Context

• The Proper Mindset For Studying The Bible
• 4 Bible Study Methods For Going Deeper
• Favorite Tools For Studying Greek and Hebrew Words
• Bible Study Step-By-Step Walkthrough

The Proper Mindset For Studying The Bible

I remember when reading the Bible was one of my greatest weaknesses.

There would be days when I could easily spend a few hours in worship and prayer with the Lord, but the moment I opened the Bible, all I wanted to do was get through my 3 chapters so I could check it off my list.

I knew deep down inside that I wasn’t receiving from the Bible in the way I wanted to and that there was so much more to it than I could imagine.

Yet, the desire and hunger to read just wasn’t there.

So I prayed and prayed.

Eventually, God brought people into my life who had a great love for the Word. They began to share some truths with me that changed the way I started to approach and study the Bible.

There are 2 main things God taught me through them that changed everything for me.

Let’s start with the first:

Your motives for reading the Bible

Have you ever asked yourself why you read the Bible?

• Is it something you need to do to please God?
• Do you just need to get your devotionals in for the day?
• Is it so you can debate and prove others wrong about what you know?
• Are you reading the Bible for anything other than Jesus?

If you answered Yes to any of these questions, I’ve got news for you:

You’re not reading the Bible for its highest intended purpose.

Let me explain:

John 1 Tells us that Jesus is and was the Word that became flesh. 

The Word of God is Jesus.

This means that every time you open the Bible you are coming to Jesus.

Now think about this for a moment:

Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me.” (John 5:39)

In essence, Jesus was saying to the Pharisees:

You study the scriptures, but you’re missing the whole point of it:

Me.

The Pharisees came to the scripture, but they never wanted to come to Christ.

The reason why so many people aren’t receiving much from the Bible is because they’re coming for something other than Jesus.

God hides his secrets and revelations from those who come with the wrong motives, but reveals them to those who are seeking His heart.

When you come with a heart of wanting to know and experience God, He will begin to reveal His secrets to you and you will leave in total awe of who He is.

You won’t just read words. You will experience the Word (Jesus). 

It is only when you experience God in the Bible that you will leave with a hunger to read more.

But that’s not all…

You can’t study the Bible on your own

If you go through the Gospels you’ll find that in almost every situation where Jesus speaks to His disciples, they need an explanation after He’s done.

The good news was that Jesus was always there for them and was willing to explain.

At least until it was time to go…

But even then, Jesus didn’t just tell His disciples to “go figure it out on your own”.

Instead, Jesus gave them the Holy Spirit and “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:45) (John 20:22)

It is the same for us:

We need the Holy Spirit to open our mind to understand the scriptures

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will be the one who “will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26)

Without the Holy Spirit, even the best Bible study methods and strategies won’t get you very far.

In order to properly study the Bible and understand scripture, you need to allow the Holy Spirit to teach you.

But how?

Here’s how I study the Bible with the Holy Spirit:

As I pick up my Bible to read, I first center my attention completely on the Lord, The author and perfecter of my faith (Hebrews 12:2).

I spend a couple of minutes just gazing upon his beauty and becoming aware of His presence there with me.

Side note: If you’re not sure what I’m talking about in the above statement, I would recommend our post on The Secret Place: An Ultimate Guide To Spending Alone Time with God.

The goal is to get in tune with the Holy Spirit and start reading the Bible with Him.

When my attention is completely on Him and I am experiencing His presence, I invite Him to show me who He is in His word.

Notice that I center my heart around just knowing Him in His word. I want a revelation of who He is and what His heart is above all else.

Once I am in tune with the Spirit of God, I will often ask Him where He wants me to read from or open to a place in the Bible that has been on my heart.

Then I start reading… SLOWLY.

I want to catch every word that the Lord wants to speak to me about.

At this point, The Holy Spirit starts to remind me of other scriptures I’ve read before and leads me to do further research on them (Using the 4 methods I talk about in the next chapter).

The end result is always the same:

I leave with a new revelation of who God is and a deep hunger to study the word of God even further.

4 Effective Bible Study Methods For Going Deeper

Now that you have an understanding behind the mindset for reading the Bible, it’s time to get into the practical side of this.

In this section, I’m going to go over 4 simple Bible study methods that I use daily to go deeper into scripture and discover the Bible as a whole.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Reading The Bible In Context

Context is probably the most important part of basic Bible study.

Studying context simply means to look at what is happening in the background of an event, idea, or statement.

Without context, you can take a passage like:

“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ (Matthew 5:31)

And say:

“See.. the Bible says that Divorce is okay”

Clearly we know that Jesus is actually talking about divorce being a sin in the rest of this passage.

This is why we need to study the Word of God in context.

Here’s four ways you can look at the context of a passage in the Bible:

In short, you want to at least read the passage in literary and historical context.

This basically means to read the text surrounding the verse you’re studying, look at the chapter as a whole, and identify what is going on in the background. 

A few good questions to ask for finding historical context are things like:

• Who is speaking?
• Who is being addressed? (the audience)
• What location are they in?
• What was the relationship between these people?

And so on…

As you look at context, you also want to get an idea of what the Bible says about the scripture you’re studying as a whole.

Which brings us to our second method:

2. Cross Referencing Words In The Bible

Cross-referencing simply means to look at other parts of scripture that are related to the word or verse you’re reading about.

You want to cross-reference the words or phrases you study in the Bible so that you can understand what the Bible says about it as a whole.

If you look at all the times that Jesus speaks in the New Testament, He almost always refers to something that was previously spoken about in the old testament.

For example:

Let’s say we are reading from (‭‭Matthew‬ ‭4:1-4‬)‬‬:

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”

I will usually cross-reference words (or phrases) that I want to know better and those which the Holy Spirit points out to me,  but in this case, there is a direct reference to previous scripture (“it is written”).

Here’s how you can cross-reference this verse:

First, Go on your Youversion Bible app, click search, and type in the words that stand out.

Sometimes you will have to go through many different passages before you find a few that are applicable to the verse you’re looking at.

Luckily for us, when we look up the words “bread alone” we find the scripture we are looking for on the very first page.

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭8:3 says:

“And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

Not only does this passage give us a better understanding of the words bread alone, but it also shows us why Jesus went into the wilderness to fast as well.

Pretty cool huh?

On to the next…

3. Finding symbolism in the Scriptures

Have you ever noticed how much symbolism there is in the Bible?

You may already know some of the most common symbols:

• The bread represents the body of Christ
• The wine represents the blood of Christ
• The dove represents the Holy Spirit
• The Lamb represents the sacrifice of Jesus

However, these are only a few of the most popular ones we know.

The problem is that even though the Bible is very big on symbolism, most Christians give very little credit or thought to the rest of the symbolism in the Bible.

Think about this:

• Sacrifice and worship in the old testament was symbolic
• The tabernacle was symbolic
• Communion is symbolic
• Baptism is symbolic
• Jesus spoke a lot in symbols 

Symbols are important to God, therefore, they should be important to us.

When you start to define the symbolism behind certain words or phrases in the Bible, you will be able to understand scripture in a way that goes way beyond what you see on the surface.

The question is: 

How do you find out the symbolism behind a word or verse in the Bible?

Defining symbols in the bible is a lot like solving a puzzle. 

The more pieces you put together, the easier it will be for you to see the bigger picture of what the word or phrase means.

Let’s try an easy one together:

“He makes my feet like the feet of deer, And sets me on my high places.” (Psalm 18:33)

What does it mean that the Lord makes your feet like deer’s feet?

In order to define the symbolism behind the word deer, let’s cross-reference it.

Like I mentioned earlier, not all scripture will help you define the symbolism in your word.

For example:

“ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.” ‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭4:23‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Based on the context of this verse, we can’t tell much about what deer might mean.

On the other hand, let’s look at Genesis 49:21:

“Naphtali is a deer let loose; He uses beautiful words.” 

As you can see, the word deer is directly correlated with beautiful words.

Once you have an idea of what the word could mean, test it by using it in a sentence with your original verse.

“He makes my feet like the deer’s” could mean that He makes my feet beautiful.

Hmm…sound familiar?

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans‬ ‭10:15‬)

Ahh, It would make perfect sense that the psalmist is talking about beautiful words in regards to the Gospel.

Speaking of words, it’s important to know the full meaning behind each word whenever you study scripture.

4. Studying Greek and Hebrew Words in The Bible

Since the Bible was not originally written in the English language, translators have to use trade-offs to define certain words and phrases in the Bible.

One of the trade-offs is deciding whether to use a literal word-for-word translation or to translate based on the intended meaning.

This means that no matter which translation you read, you may still not understand the full meaning behind a word or phrase until you look at the definition of the original word.

This is where researching the Greek / Hebrew word definitions comes in.

Let’s look at an example:

In Ephesians 3:19, you’ll find two words for the word knowledge:

“and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

The 2 words here for know and knowledge are Ginōskō and Gnōsis.

Both are defined as knowledge and both can be used to know something.

However, there is a very big difference in the meaning of the words in Greek.

Ginosko refers to a revelation type of knowledge, a type of knowledge that is known by experience or through intimacy.

Gnosis, on the other hand, is just a matter of fact knowledge. It refers to a knowledge that is more information than experience.

This is what Ephesians 3:19 is talking about:

We want to know (Ginosko) the love of Christ with an experience type of knowledge because it surpasses fact knowledge (Gnosis).

Do you see why researching Greek and Hebrew definitions is so important?

Since we looked beyond the surface of the English word, we were able to uncover the deeper meaning behind these two words that made it easier to understand the verse.

The best part about looking into the original text is that you don’t need to have a seminary degree or know anything about Greek and Hebrew.

All you need is a couple of basic Bible study tools to get started right away.

Best Tools For Studying Greek and Hebrew Words

Literal Word App

The Literal Word app is my number one go-to app for quick and easy word lookup.

This app allows you to click on most of the main words in each verse and get a definition right away. You can also cross-reference the word you’re researching right away without having to look somewhere else.

Logos Bible App

The Logos Bible app is very similar to the Literal Word app in that it allows you to look up the text just by clicking on the word. It also gives you a cool little pie chart of what the word is defined as through the Bible. The only con is that it’s a bit more complex to use than the Literal Word app.

Now that you have a basic understanding of the different study methods, let’s put it all together and study a passage step-by-step to uncover the deeper meaning.

How to Study the Bible Step-By-Step Walkthrough

In this section, we’re going to study a passage in the Bible step-by-step to find the deeper meaning of what it means. 

Let’s jump right in!

The passage we’re going to be studying is from Matthew 6:22-23 which says:

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

The question we’re asking is this:

What did Jesus really mean when He said the eye is the lamp of the body? 

Think about this for a moment.

Was He talking about our physical eyes? If so, How can light or darkness come from the eyes? 

In order to answer these questions, the first thing we’re going to do is look at the literal context of the passage.

Starting from the beginning of Matthew chapter 5, you’ll find that Jesus is addressing a crowd of people with the sermon on the mount.

He continues to address the people in chapter 6 by speaking about the hypocrites and goes on to share about laying up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21) right before our target verse.

Notice the last verse before our passage:

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21)

Then, He goes into talking about the eye being the lamp of the body.

Hmm…

Can your heart have anything to do with the lamp of the body?

If so, how can it be the light or darkness in someone?

Let’s go deeper…

It may be that the word “eye” is symbolic for something. 

Let’s cross-reference and find out if we can find other scriptures that can shed some light on what it might mean.

Go in your Youversion Bible App, click search, and type in the word “eye”.

What comes up is many different passages with the word eye or eyes in it.

Now it’s important to know that a lot of these passages don’t give any clues to what the word eye means.

That’s ok…

Keep searching until you find a couple that catch your eye 😉

Here’s a few I found:

• “For my eyes have seen Your salvation,” (Luke 2:30 NASB)   

• “For you have said, ‘My teaching is pure, And I am innocent in your eyes.’” (Job 11:4 NASB) 

• “And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.” (Matthew 18:9) NKJV

• Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; My eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and my body also. (Psalm 31:9) (NASB)

Look closely at the context surrounding our target word.

What comes to mind?

You might have noticed that the eye is directly correlated with salvation, sin, and innocence. (Luke 2:30) (Matthew 18:9) (Job 11:4)

You might also notice it’s tied to the soul and the body from Psalm 31:9.

This is the part where the Lord will begin to lead your thinking a lot to help you put the pieces together. 

He will bring to your remembrance other parts of scripture.

You begin to ask questions like:

• Where does salvation first happen?
• Are we saved in the heart? (from our previous theory)
• Why is the eye correlated with the soul and the body?

After this, You might have come to the conclusion that the eye is symbolic for the spirit of man.

Why?

1. Jesus said we must first be born again in spirit (John 3:5) and salvation happens first in the spirit of man.
2. You know that people are made up of spirit, soul, and body based on 1 Thessalonians 5:23. This would fit perfectly with our Psalm 31:9 verse.

Okay, so we have a pretty reasonable idea of what the eye could mean, but we can’t be sure until we put it to the test.

One of the easiest ways to test your definition is by replacing the original word with the definition to see if it makes sense.

Another thing that you might find interesting is if you cross-reference the word lamp in this paragraph, you’ll find this passage:

The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all his innermost parts. (Proverbs 20:27)

This passage confirms our theory that the eye is a representation of the spirit of man.

Now we know that Jesus was talking about the spirit of man being the lamp of the body.

Let’s put this all together:

Based on the context of chapter 6, we know Jesus was telling the people to not be like the hypocrites. Those who pretended to live out a life of goodness in appearance, but were actually far from that.

In essence, Jesus was saying:

If you are truly born again in spirit (if your eye is healthy), you will live out a life of righteousness and be the light to those around you (the body will be full of light).

However…

If you have not been born again (eye is bad), the only thing your spirit will produce is a lifestyle of sin and dead works (your whole body will be full of darkness).

The hypocrites claimed to do good works and live in righteousness, but their evil deeds showed that they weren’t truly born again.

In Conclusion:

Your goal with bible study should always be to come with a mindset of wanting to know and encounter Jesus through his word. 

As you tune in with the Holy Spirit before you read, He will be the one who will teach you and reveal Christ to you through the scriptures.

The Holy Spirit will also lead you to dig deeper into certain passages, which you can do by studying the context of a verse, defining Greek or Hebrew words, cross-referencing, and looking into symbolism.

The more you encounter Jesus and receive revelations about who He is in the Bible, the greater your hunger for more will be.

Now I want to hear from you:

How do you study the Bible?

What are your favorite tools for Bible study?

The post How To Study The Bible Effectively For Beginners PDF appeared first on Dude Disciple.

Have you ever wondered what it means to spend time in the secret place with God?

Maybe you’ve been going through the motions of Christianity and you’re thinking:

There’s got to be more! 

Whether you’re a new believer or someone who has been walking with Jesus for years, knowing how to seek God in the secret place is what will satisfy the deepest parts of your heart and bring real transformation into your life.

If you’re looking to grow deeper in your relationship with God and learn how to practically spend time alone with Jesus, this Guide is for you.

In this post I cover:

• The Importance of The Secret Place
• What is The Secret Place?
• How To Enter Into The Presence of God
• The Practical Side of Seeking God (My favorite part)
• 3 Super Helpful Tips For Your Alone Time With God

Let’s dive in!

The Importance of The Secret Place With God

Growing up in a Christian home, I used to think of God as someone you come to if you need help with something or because it’s what good Christians do.

It was only when I encountered Jesus that my life was completely transformed and a hunger to know God arose in me.

I realized that seeking God is so much more than just asking for stuff or trying to do the right thing.

It’s about knowing Him personally, falling in love with who He is, and living every day with Him.

The bible says that in His presence is fullness of Joy and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).

Which means:

Everything you’ve been looking for and longing for is found in God himself.

What Are The Benefits of Dwelling in the Secret Place of God?

The benefit of dwelling in the secret place is that you get to know your identity in Christ, experience God’s Glory, and fall in love with who He is. You’ll find that all the things you thought you needed to be satisfied in life are nothing in comparison to His presence.

And you know what’s the best part?

God wants to encounter you and show you who He is more than you want to know Him. He is waiting for you to come to him and seek him.

And it all starts in the secret place…

What is The Secret Place of The Most High? 

Sometimes when we read verses like Psalms 91:1 in the Bible, We like to think of the secret place as a specific room such as a bedroom or prayer closet where we can come to encounter God.

As important as it is to have a place to seek God alone in prayer, the secret place of the most high is not actually a physical room. The secret place is found within you because you are the Father’s temple and the place where His Spirit dwells. (1 Corinthians 6:19, Luke 17:21)

Jesus said to the woman at the well that the true worshippers won’t worship on a mountain or in jerusalem (a physical location), but will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. (John 4:21-24)

In Matthew 6:6 Jesus says:

“But as for you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

If you look at the background of how the Greek words are written in this verse, the translation is literally to go “into the inner room of you” and “lock the door of you”

In other words:

Go into the inner room of your heart where the Spirit is dwelling within you and pray to the Father in Spirit.

But how do we do that practically?

How To Enter The Secret Place of God

Entering the secret place of God can be as simple as entering a swimming pool. First, You turn your attention towards the pool. Then, You step in knowing that you will touch the water. The Spirit of God is the well (or pool) within you and His presence is available to you at all times. (John 4:14)

In order to enter into God’s presence, all you have to do is turn your attention to Him and believe with a child-like faith that you will encounter Him.

How do you turn your attention to Him?

The first step is to recognize that God’s presence is already with you and within you, even if you do not feel it in that moment.

Take a few seconds to think about how Jesus is alive inside of you right now in this very moment.

You may start encountering His presence just by doing that.

For me, it started off by simply fixing my attention upon who Jesus is and all the moments in my past where He would encounter me with His presence.

As I began to think about that, I would notice His presence surround me all over again. 

Over time, He began to teach me to recognize the source or place of where He was coming to me from within me. 

Eventually, I was able to turn to the place of my last encounter with Him and find Him there all over again… waiting for me.

For many new believers, this is the learning process that takes place when they first start seeking God. 

Over time, you get to a place where you are able to access His presence within seconds anytime and any place you like just by looking at Him.

Just remember, Jesus paid the price with His own blood for you to be able to come boldy before His throne and spend all of eternity with Him.

There is never a moment where He doesn’t want you to see you.

The Practical Side of Seeking God

Often times, people look for a step-by-step instruction manual on how they should start seeking God.

The truth is, there are no exact steps to build a relationship with God. 

Everyone’s time with God is different because everyone will have a unique relationship with Jesus.

However…

There is one thing that God requires from everyone who wants to know Him:

An Honest Heart

Did you know that you can pray every day and it won’t make a difference if your heart doesn’t really mean it?

Believe me, I’ve tried.

God is looking at your heart more than anything because that is where your true character, motives, thoughts, and feelings are hidden.

In other words… The real you.

To God, your heart speaks louder than words.

Jesus said:

“These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.” (Matthew 15:8)

And…

“For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

There is nothing hidden from God. He already knows what you’re thinking and what’s on your heart before you even come to Him. 

Open the door of your heart to Him and He will enter and dine with you (Revelation 3:20)

Your willingness to be open, transparent, and vulnerable before God is what will separate a real relationship with God from a religious routine.

Which brings us to our next point…

Following a set of rules, routines, and things to do is simply not enough to keep us going. There’s got to be a deeper meaning behind why you do what you do. 

Something or someone that your heart burns for.

What can be more worthy than God Himself?

Think about this:

Jesus’ first commandment was to love God.

When you love someone, you don’t just spend time with them with the goal of getting something out of them. 

You do it because you enjoy talking to them, you enjoy looking at them, and you enjoy simply being with them – even if you are both just sitting in silence.

(This is why God wants to spend time with you too because He loves you)

Your time praying in the secret place shouldn’t be about getting something from God, it should be to enjoy Him and love Him for who He is above all else.

It’s about coming to God for Him alone and setting everything else aside.

Everything else will flow out of that one desire because this is what connects you to the heart of God. 

When you are connected to God’s heart, His desires become your desires.

When you have His desires, you will never have a problem with interceding for the lost or digging deep into his word. 

It will be a natural thing to do.

Jesus wants to be your friend

Many times, I come to God as I would if I was coming to see my best friend.

I might start by telling him all about my day: What I liked about it and what I thought was interesting. 

Then I might ask him a question about something that pertains to what I’m talking about and I wait for an answer. Other times I will just gaze upon his beauty and adore Him for who He is.

It’s always something different.

The point is this:

Jesus said:  “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” – John 15:15

Just like a best friend, Jesus wants to tell you His secrets and share His heart with you.

God wants to be your friend. He would much rather spend time with the real you, than just some polished, robotic sounding version of you.

I know it may seem a little strange to come to God like this, but consider this:

Jesus said that the kingdom of God belongs to the children, and guess what?

That’s us.

Think about how a child comes to a good father:

He is always happy to see his dad, no matter what the situation is.

If he falls down, He comes running to the father. When He comes home from school, He’s excited to tell him all about his day.

His dad is his hero and his best friend.

How much more is God to us?

Just like a good Father, God is waiting for you with His arms open at all times. He is longing for you to come to Him and be with Him as you are.

The choice to seek Him is yours. What will you decide?

3 Super Helpful Tips For Your Secret Place

Find a quiet place to be with the Lord (If possible)

In the beginning, It can be difficult to give God your fullest attention when there are other things in the background that are constantly distracting you.

That’s why I would highly recommend that you find a quiet place to be with God alone. 

If you are not able to find a quiet place, get some noise-canceling headphones and turn on some worship music.

Get rid of all other distractions

When you are preparing to spend time with the Lord, remove anything that distracts you.

I used to have a bunch of pictures on the wall in my room until I realized that sometimes I would get distracted when I noticed something different about them. (I took them off eventually)

Most of the time, however, it’s our phone that goes off every 10 seconds. 

Either put in on airplane mode, do not disturb, or take it to another room.

Don’t let your phone take away your precious time with God.

Relationships take time

Just like it takes time to know a person, it is the same with God.

Don’t expect it all to happen right away. 

Continue to seek God day by day and He will begin to open his heart to you. Over time you will develop a deep relationship with God that will become the most precious thing in your life.

Don’t give up if you don’t feel His presence on the first day (or even a week later). 

Hebrews 11:6 says that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

If you continue on this journey of knowing Christ, He will show you his glory in such a way that nothing else will ever be able to satisfy you the same again.

Now I want to hear from you…

How has your time in the secret place with God transformed your life?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post The Secret Place With God: An Ultimate Guide appeared first on Dude Disciple.

Have you ever wondered what it means to live out your new identity in Christ?

Many believers go their whole life without fully understanding who God has created them to be and everything that He has given them through the finished work of the cross.

As a result, they live in a constant struggle with their sins and fail to live out the life that God has created them for to the fullest extent.

When you truly understand your identity in Christ, you live out the purpose that God has created you for in victory and freedom.

If you’re looking for an in-depth understanding of what your identity in Christ is and how to live it out, this guide is for you.

In this post I’m going to cover:

Why it’s important to know your identity in Jesus

What is your identity in Christ?

How The Father Sees You

How to practically live out your new identity 

And more…

Let’s dive in.

Why is it important to know your identity in christ?

The reason why it’s important to know your identity in Christ is because you ultimately live out your life by what you think and believe about yourself in the mind.  God wants to change the way you think about yourself to match your new nature so that you can make different decisions and live out the life of Christ.

Let me explain:

When you look at yourself… what do you see?

• Do you see a sinner or do you see someone who is righteous? 
• Do you see someone who is worthy or unworthy? 
• Do you see someone who is bold or someone who is timid? 

The answer to these questions all comes down to where you are looking and who or what you identify with. 

Most of our identity has been formed by what we think of ourselves based on how we feel, our experiences in life, and what people said about us.

This type of identity was never part of God’s plan or purpose for your life, but something that was the result of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

Before Adam ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, his identity was completely defined by who God said he was.

The first thing that happened when Adam ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil was that his eyes were opened and he saw himself naked for the first time.

In other words:

Adam became self-conscious of his new sinful nature and started defining his identity by what he saw and did instead of what God said about him.

However, that all changed when the second Adam (Jesus) came into the picture.

What is your identity in Christ?

As a born-again believer, your identity in Christ is the very life and nature of Jesus living inside of you. It’s understanding that who you are as a person isn’t dependent on anything you’ve done, but on who Christ is in you and what He did on the cross.

Let me explain:

When you were saved, God didn’t just change you into a better person. 

He put to death your old sinful nature on the cross, washed away your sins with His blood for all time, and came to live inside of you. (Romans 6:6, Hebrews 10:12)

In order to fully grasp this, you need to understand how you were first created.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 says: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

You were created with a spirit, a soul, and a body.

The moment you received Christ, your Spirit became one with God’s Spirit and you became a new creation (1 Corinthians 6:17)

Although your spirit has been made perfect, God still wants to transform your mind, will, and emotions (soul) so that Jesus can live out His life through your body.

And that’s the hardest part…

Why?

From the day you were born into the world, your thinking and decision-making has been shaped by the wisdom of the world and the ways of man. 

In other words:

There are still a lot of wrong beliefs and thought patterns that have been embedded in you that don’t line up with how He thinks and how He sees you.

That’s why Romans 12:2 says: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

The moment God begins to change the way you think about who He is, who you are, and how you see the world around you is the moment you start to live out a different life.

Think about this:

Your actions are ultimately driven by how you think and what you believe. Therefore, if you believe a lie about who you are and how God sees you, you will live out that lie.

God says in Hosea 4:6 that “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;”

The reason why many Christians still live out a life of sin isn’t because they aren’t trying to be righteous. The truth is many try very hard and are still living in bondage.

Why?

They don’t truly understand what Jesus has done for them on the cross and so they still see themselves as a sinner instead of seeing their righteousness in Christ.

They allow their old self to define their identity instead of seeing who Christ is inside of them.

Here’s the truth:

Living out the life of Christ isn’t about doing more to improve yourself to be like Him.

It’s about knowing who Christ is inside you, and as a result, you yield to Him so He can live out His life.

I always like to explain it to my teens class in this way:

“We don’t do to be. We are so we do.”

Here’s a good example:

Have you ever looked at a verse in the Bible and thought to yourself:  

“What can I do to be more like that?”

Matthew 5:48 says “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

or…

“but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;” (1 Peter 1:15)

The problem is that we take these verses and turn them into something we have to do.

These verses don’t say “try to live a life that is perfect or Holy and hopefully, you measure up.”

If you were to try to be as perfect or holy as the Father, you would automatically fail. Your righteous deeds could never live up to His standard of perfection and holiness.

You either are perfect or you’re not…there is no in-between.

The good news is that because Jesus lives inside of you, there’s nothing more you have to do to be perfect or holy like the Father except become aware of who He is inside of you.

Jesus is already perfect and holy just like the Father. Therefore, you are already perfect and holy if you’ve received Christ into your heart.

The word “being” simply means to exist… it’s who you are; It’s your new nature.

Just as if someone told me that I needed to be Ukrainian, just as my father was Ukrainian.

It’s who I am and therefore I do things that Ukrainians do. I don’t have to try to live out Ukrainian culture, it just comes out naturally in my lifestyle and words.

So it is with your new identity in Christ when you truly know who you are.

How God Sees Your New Identity in Christ Jesus

Imagine for a moment that you are in a courtroom standing on trial before God the Father.

On the left side of the court, you have the enemy standing there accusing you for all the choices you’ve made that day.

He’s accusing you of not being good enough, he’s accusing you of being a sinner, he’s accusing you of not being faithful to God…and the list goes on.

However, there is another in that courtroom with you and that man is Jesus.

Jesus is standing before the father as your mediator and as your defender. He is standing as the one who has fulfilled the law perfectly and was faithful to the end in everything. Not one blemish or mistake.

As the Father looks at you and looks at Jesus, He sees that you have become one with Christ. You in Him and He in you. 

You’ve been joined together by one Spirit (1 corinthians 6:17) and He sees your new nature.

The verdict for all of the enemy’s accusations? 

NOT GUILTY.

Why?

Everything that Christ has done on the cross gets attributed to you free of charge. 

In Christ, the Father sees you as righteous, spotless, holy, blameless, and so on.

Although the enemy has nothing of which He can condemn you with to the Father, his goal is to try to get you to take on another identity by having you judge yourself based on what you see, what you did, and how you feel (Self-consciousness)

If he can get you to take a look at yourself outside of Christ, He can get you to start believing his accusations and rethinking your true identity.

When you believe his accusations, you start to live out the lies of the enemy and get stuck in a cycle of sin.

The reality is that if you look at yourself outside of who Christ is in you, you will always fall short and there will always be ground for the enemy to accuse you.

However, Consider what Paul says in Galatians 2:20: 

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

And in 1 Corinthians 4:2-3:

2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.

Now ask yourself this:

• If it’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, why would I still identify with my old self? 
• Why would I ever identify as a sinner when Christ is righteous in me?
• Why does Paul say that He doesn’t even judge himself in regards to being faithful?

As a born-again believer, Christ is perfect inside of you regardless of what is going on around you.

Regardless of what you said, what you did, or how you feel, your identity in Christ doesn’t change.

He is unchanging inside of you (Hebrews 13:8).

How To Practically Live Out Your Identity in Jesus

Everyone is always looking for some sort of 5-step process or checklist on what they can do to be more like Jesus.

But that’s not how it works in the kingdom.

Jesus said “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32)

So in this section, I’m going to share some practical truths that will shine the light on what it actually looks like to live out your identity in Christ.

As a result of knowing the truth (who is Jesus), I believe you will begin to walk out a life of freedom.

Here’s what you need to know:

As you go about your day-to-day life and accusations come your way, all you have to do is consider who you are in Christ and present yourself to Him to do what He wants to do through your life.

For example, let’s say you messed up and fell into sin for the third time in a week by watching pornography.

You could look at yourself and start pouting about how you feel for doing it again, get frustrated about it, and start thinking of yourself as a sinner who just can’t get free.

Or you can think about what Romans 6 says about you:

• You’ve been crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6)
• You have died with Christ (Romans 6:8)
• You have been set free from sin (Romans 6:7)

Notice that all those verses are past tense. You are not being crucified, you are not being set free from sin, and you are not dying with Christ.

You have. The work is finished.

Paul says to consider yourself dead to sin, but alive to God. (Romans 6:11)

In other words:

Just think about it!

Think about what Christ has accomplished on the cross, think about who He is inside of you, and agree with the truth of what the Bible says instead of how you feel.

Imagine praying like this after you mess up:

“Jesus I thank you that my mistakes don’t define who I am in you. Thank you that you have set me free from the power of sin and that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”

Instead of:

“God forgive me, I’m such a sinner. Please help me get free from my sin and help me stop doing this. I’m so wretched Lord, Cleanse me!”

Notice the difference in the prayer:

One is all about me, me, me, and my sin. (AKA your old identity in the flesh)

And the other is all about who Christ is inside of you and your righteousness in Him.

See, It’s not about what you did, but what He’s done for you that changes everything.

At this point you might be thinking:

“But Val… how is this going to help me not fall into sin next time?”

Since the work of the cross is finished and you’re already dead to sin, all that God wants is for you to intimately know who He is and to present yourself to Him.

It all starts with simply having a relationship with Jesus where you learn to seek Him, become captivated by His beauty, and fall in love with who He is. 

As a result, you start to trust Him enough to yield to Him in every part of your life and He begins to live out His life through you.

Here’s what I mean:

2 Corinthians 3:18 says  “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

As we behold the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into His image.

But we don’t just behold the glory of the Lord as somewhere in the heavens…

“We behold him as in a mirror”

What do you see when you look into a mirror?

You see yourself, but more importantly:

Christ in you the hope of Glory.

The transformation comes when you begin to behold or see the beauty of Jesus inside of you.

As God begans to transform you into the image of Christ, you learn to trust Him by yeilding to Him in the decisions you make in your life.

Romans 6:13 says:

“Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.”

And Romans 6:16:

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

The point is:

Whatever you present yourself to, is what you become obedient to.

What does it mean to present yourself?

The word “present” in Greek is the word “Paristemi” which means to stand beside or to become available. 

In other words, stand beside God and just be open.

Presenting yourself is like saying:

“Lord, here is my body…live out the life that you want to live”

It can’t be that easy, can it?

First of all, you cannot present yourself to someone you do not trust. You cannot fully trust someone that you don’t really know.

Presenting yourself takes real trust because it sounds kind of crazy.

Basically, when you present yourself to God, you are trusting God to do all the work through you without you trying to do anything.

In order for your to present your body to the Lord, you have to stop trying to fix yourself.

Wait what..?

Yes, you heard me right. 

Stop trying to fix yourself by putting demands on your body to live free from sin. Stop trying to be holy by doing more stuff.

Just stop it.

I’ve heard many guys tell me:

“I’ve tried everything and no matter how hard I try, I still keep falling back into sin”

Well…Have you ever tried not trying?

The very thing you think is going to help set you free from your sin is actually the very thing that is keeping you in bondage – You trying to improve your flesh by telling it to obey God’s law.

Now before you pick up rocks to stone me, let me make myself clear:

I am NOT telling you it’s okay for you to go live in sin freely and forget about your addictions. 

I’m telling you there’s a better way for you to receive freedom from sin.

His way.

Let me explain.

Romans 8:10-11 says: 

“But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

Since your body is dead because of sin, you actually have no ability to live out a life of holiness and righteousness on your own. 

Every time you try to get free from your sin by putting a demand on yourself to stop, what you’re actually doing is trying to obey the law by presenting yourself to the flesh.

How?

You are relying upon and trusting that your body is able to carry out the works of the law by your own effort.

This is the very thing that Paul said was the cause of your sinful lifestyle.

​​For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. (Romans 7:5)

You say:

“Flesh I’ve had enough of falling into this sin…You need to stop doing that”

The problem is that the only thing your flesh knows how to do is sin. That’s the nature of the flesh. 

So what happens?

You present yourself to the flesh for obedience and the flesh does it’s work.

The result is that you fall into sin over and over again.

It’s a vicious cycle.

It’s kind of like continuously asking a thief to watch your stuff while you use the restroom. 

At some point, you’re gonna get robbed.

Even God didn’t try to improve your flesh, but had to put it to death by nailing it to the cross. (Galations 5:24)

He put your flesh to death so that His Holy Spirit can give life to your body and enable you to live out Holiness. (Romans 8:11)

This is the ONLY way it’s possible to live out holiness in Christ consistently.

What must we do to do the works of God?

Believe in the one whom He sent. (John 6:29)

It’s by simply having faith and believing that He will live out His life through you instead of trying to do it yourself.

Now, Here’s a summary of this entire article in 3 short paragraphs.

Living out your identity in Christ starts with seeking God to know who He is through a personal relationship with Him. As you come to know Him, you also learn who you are in Him and who He is in you since Christ is your new identity. 

When you know the truth of who Christ is inside of you, God sets your free from your old ways of thinking and seeing yourself to match how He sees you.

As a result, you begin to live a life of faith in the son of God, trusting that He will do His works through you, transform you, and enable you to live out a life of Holiness without you even trying.

You stop looking to yourself, your experiences, and your past mistakes to define who you are and you start to rely on the unshakeable nature of Christ in you to define you.

That’s how you live out a life of victory and freedom in this life.

Now I want to hear from you:

How has God changed the way you see yourself and how has that changed the way you live your life?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Your New Identity in Christ – The Ultimate Guide appeared first on Dude Disciple.

This is a complete guide on how to hear God’s voice.

In this guide you’ll learn:

• What the Bible says about hearing God’s voice (scripture)
• How to discern God’s voice from your voice and the voice of the Enemy
• 7 Common ways that God speaks to us
• How to confirm that you are indeed hearing the voice of God
• A step-by-step activity to help you get started on hearing His voice
• And more…

If you’re looking to hear and discern God’s voice with confidence, you’ll love this post.

Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

1. The Basics Of Hearing God’s Voice

2. How To Confirm God’s Voice

3. How To Discern God’s Voice From The Voice of The Enemy

4. How To Know God’s Voice From Your Own

5. Step By Step Activity

6. Side Notes & Common Questions

The Basics Of Hearing God’s Voice

Who does God speak to?

Oftentimes people think that in order to hear the voice of God, you need to be some kind of pastor or prophet. 

The truth is God speaks to all people… even those who are non-believers.

For example:

In Numbers 22, God speaks through a donkey to a pagan prophet. In Genesis 41, God speaks to pharaoh in a dream, and in Daniel 5 God speaks through a writing on the wall to Belshazzar.

These are just some of the examples in scripture of God speaking to the world.

But what about those who have accepted Jesus into their life?

In John 10:27 Jesus said:

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

And…

“The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” (John 10:3-4).

If you are a born again believer, you have already heard God’s voice at some point in your life because you are a part of His sheep.

The only problem is that you might have not been aware of it or you denied that it was really Him.

Stop and think about all the moments when:

• You were convicted of sin
• Someone popped into your mind that you knew you had to pray for
• You were prompted to tell someone about Jesus
• And so on…

Many times, this was the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to you and guiding your way.

What does the voice of God sound like?

Sometimes when we think of hearing God’s voice, we think it is just about waiting until you hear the audible and thundering voice of God.

Like in John 12, When God speaks to the crowd about his beloved son…

It says:

“The crowd that was there and heard it, said that it had thundered”

Although God can speak in this way, most of the time, it’s not like that.

God speaks in different ways and some of the ways He speaks doesn’t involve any words at all.

7 Common ways that God speaks

1. The Bible – God often speaks through the Bible by highlighting certain words that directly apply to our life and gives us understanding of its meaning.

2. His Still Small Voice –  In 1 Kings 19:12, The Bible talks about the Lord speaking to Elijah through a gentle whisper or a still small voice. God’s still small voice usually comes in the form of a thought or whisper in our mind.

3. Impressions in our spirit – An impression in the spirit is like a tug on your heart or a deep sense of knowing in your spirit. It feels as if the Lord is speaking something directly to our inner man.

4. Pictures – Sometimes God will speak through a still picture in our mind as He did with Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:11).

5. Visions – A vision is when God shows you a moving picture or scene that is being played out like a video in your mind.

6. Dreams – Also referred to as visions of the night, Dreams are different from visions in that they happen while you sleep. (Genesis 31:24)

7. Trance –  A trance is like an open vision where your mind is unaware of your surroundings while you are awake (Acts 10). 

How To Confirm The Voice of God

1. The Bible

The Bible should always be our foundation for hearing and confirming the voice of God in our life because everything He speaks always points to the scripture.

If God truly is speaking to you, His word will never contradict the Bible.

For example:

God’s still small voice will never ask you to lie, steal, or sin in any way, no matter what the circumstances look like.

His voice will always be in alignment with what the Bible says.

This means your first source of confirmation should always be to compare what you’re hearing with what the scripture says.

 2. The Fruit of the Spirit

When the Holy Spirit is in a place, a moment in time, or voice, the fruit of His Spirit will be there:

Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

When God speaks, He will often confirm the word or vision by coating it with the Fruit of the Spirit.

As you hear or discern an answer or an impression in your thought life, does it bring a deeper awareness of Peace with it? Do you sense His love or His gentleness as He speaks?

The way you feel inside when you hear the Lord’s voice can be a good indicator of whether it really is God or not.

Which brings us to our next point:

How To Hear God’s Voice When Making A Decision

One of the best ways to hear God’s voice when making a decision is by presenting your options before the Lord and following the direction of His peace. It is His peace that passes all understanding which guards our heart and mind while leading us at the same time. 

Philipians 4:6-7 says:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Here’s how you can make this verse practical to your life:

Let’s say I’m faced with 2 options regarding a future decision.

Option A, which brings with it one set of positive and negative outcomes, and Option B, which brings with it another set.

As I spend time with Jesus, I start thinking over the beauty of Option A and present it before Him. 

I remind myself of His promise: that He will never leave me nor forsake me, regardless of which decision I make.

Then I ask the Lord:

“Lord, How should I be looking at this?”

Many times, He will begin to lead my thinking about the situation. 

I realize that if I do Option A, He will be with me. There is a real presence of peace in my inner man. 

I then spend time processing Option B with Him in the same way and see, if I do that, He will likewise be with me.

Wherever I sense His peace or a greater measure of His peace, I know that’s where He wants me to go.

How To Discern God’s Voice From The Devil’s

Jesus said the thief has come to steal, kill, and destroy. Whenever you get a voice or a thought that is stealing your peace or attacking the promises of God for you as God’s child, you can know that it is the Enemy.

This voice is usually a voice of condemnation, fear, self-hate, shame, doubt, jealousy, envy, hatred, etc.

It often sounds like this:

“You’re a pathetic loser.”
“You will never be as good as that guy.”
“God is not going to speak with you. He doesn’t even like you anymore. Remember that sin from 2 days ago?”

When the voice of the Enemy comes up in your thought life, you don’t want to meditate on that – you want to counterattack it with the promises of God.

For Example:

The Enemy: “Remember that sin from 2 days ago?”You: “God thank you that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus according to Romans 8:1”. Thank you that as your child I can come boldly before your throne in a time of need according to Hebrews 4:16.

How to Discern God’s Voice From Your Own Voice

The best way to discern God’s voice from your own is to practice stepping out and acting on his voice when you think it’s Him. As you take those steps of faith, He helps you sort out and recognize his voice through a process of learning.

For example:

A banker who spends most of his day touching real money is much more likely to know when a fake bill gets passed to him versus someone who doesn’t handle money very often.

Now:

The more time you spend in the secret place with your attention on God, the more accurately you will be able to recognize and discern his voice throughout the regular rhythms of your day. 

The truth is, you will get it wrong sometimes.

That’s okay.

Every child first colors outside the lines, before they learn to color more perfectly within the lines.

The Lord will often start you out by asking you to do things that are very low risk anyway.

For example:

Let say you hear a voice ask you to tell someone that Jesus loves them at Walmart.

Even if you’re wrong and it wasn’t the Lord, you would still be okay.

But think about this for a moment:

What if you step out and tell that person that Jesus loves them and the person breaks down crying because they really needed to hear that.

Wouldn’t that be a pretty good indicator that this was indeed God’s voice?

You bet.

After you begin to listen to the voice of God and practice stepping out, you will eventually start to recognize a pattern.

You’ll notice that His voice carries a tone of gentleness and peace that sounds a little different than your voice.

Soon you get to a place where you start to recognize God’s voice like He’s your best friend.

The first time you met your best friend, you would not have recognized his voice if he called you on the phone the next day. 

However, after one year of friendship, you would recognize the slightest whisper of your friend’s voice in a crowded room.

It is the same process with learning to distinguish God’s voice.

Step-By-Step Activity For Hearing God Speak

With all this information, you may be wondering…

How can I get started on hearing the lord’s voice? Is there something practical I can try right now?

Yes, there is!

In this section, we’re going to go through a step by step exercise on hearing God’s voice using the Bible.

In fact, I’ve used this same exercise with a bunch of teens from church who said they heard God speak to them through pictures, visions, and His still small voice during this exercise.

The best part?

It’s really easy and takes only a few minutes to try!

What you will need

• A pen and paper to write down anything that God might speak to you
• Preferably, a quiet place
• Simple, childlike faith

How it works

We’re going to read a few verses from Scripture. At the end of each verse, we’re going to ask God to make each verse specific to us and to speak to us through his Word.

Then, we just listen.

Simple right?

Let’s get started.

But first…

Before I do this exercise with people, I like to start with a simple prayer to hear God’s voice (feel free to join).

It goes something like this:

“Jesus thank you that You live inside each and every one of us. You say in John 10:27 that “My sheep hear My voice”, and if we are Your sheep we can hear Your voice. Thank you, Lord that Your voice drew us into a relationship with You and told us that we needed You. It was Your Voice that drew us into Your Kingdom and Family. I just ask that You would make us aware of Your voice and help us to hear Your voice clearly, God”

In Jesus name, Amen ☺️

Step 1: Read Psalm 23:1 out loud

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want

Jesus is the good Shepherd, which means that He is always watching over you, even when you’re not aware of it.

So with that in mind, I want you to ask the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit a question. This can be either in your mind or you can whisper it to Him.

Step 2: Ask The Lord This Question:

“How have you been protecting me this year that I have not been aware of?”

As I ask this question, I like to just close my eyes and focus on the Lord.

Step 3: Just rest for about 20-30 seconds

If you wanna hear someone’s voice in a conversation, you ask them a question, rest, and allow them to answer. Don’t speak or pray for now, just listen.

Step 4: Evaluate

Did you hear or feel Him say something to you?

Did you see a picture or vision of something?

How did that make you feel inside?

Side note: He doesn’t just speak something to our minds but also imparts something into our hearts. The voice imparts peace, joy, hope, etc. into us. That is the fruit so often of His voice.

Not hearing God? That’s ok! Don’t give up. You can either ask him the question again or continue on to the next one.

We’re going to go through the next few verses just as before.

Read Psalm 23:2 out loud

He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters

Question 2: Holy Spirit what is one area that you have been showing me your love that I am not even aware of… Would you highlight an area in which you have been pursuing me that I am not even aware of?

Rest for 20-30 seconds

Read Psalm 23:3

He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Question 3: Holy Spirit, How have I been growing in righteousness this year, in what areas of my life have you been establishing right living and holiness in me?

Read Psalm 23:4

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Question 4: Jesus, What is one fear which I regularly have that you want me to lay down at your feet now?

If you want to keep going, you can ask Him some more questions such as:

• Jesus, How much do you love me?

• What do you love most about me?

• Who is one person that you are calling me to encourage throughout my day or in church?

• Would you show me who they are?

• How should I encourage them?

Side Notes & Common Questions

Before you begin to practice this, ask the Holy Spirit to help you hear His voice more clearly and to teach you to discern it. Make this a regular prayer of yours. It is only with His help that you will begin to discern His voice with greater accuracy.

Know this:

Like in any new thing you learn, you will make mistakes. In many situations, you will still not know for sure if it’s Him or not.

That’s okay!

A good father never gets angry at his child when they fall down as they learn to walk because He knows it’s part of the learning process.

He is patient with you and He will teach you, as long as you ask for His help. Keep your attention on Him and don’t give up.

Disclaimer:

Please, use common sense when you begin to try this. The Lord will never tell you to sin, harm anyone, etc. Dude Disciple is not responsible for anything you try or act on from this post.

“That’s just my voice, I’m hearing something, but it’s my voice.”

There’s one voice that responds to your question and another voice that comes right after that and says that’s just you.

Remember what Jesus said:

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” – John 10:10

I believe the first voice, almost always, is the Lord’s voice answering you. The second voice comes to steal that away or its a voice of condemnation: “you’re not qualified to do that, only pastors can do that” or “you’re not in right standing with God because you sinned 2 days ago.”

The Enemy is always building up a legal case in your mind about why you are not saved, why you cannot access your Father’s Presence or come into greater intimacy with Jesus.

Why? Because it is in the Presence of God and through the Word of God that we are transformed.

I have learned that the first voice which answers, after I ask a question directed at Jesus, is almost always the Lord’s voice answering me. And it often is calling me to step out in faith in some way to release Jesus.

He doesn’t just speak something to our minds but almost always imparts something into our hearts. His words, or His reply, are often coated with an aspect of His Spirit.

Now I’d like to hear from you:

What did you get for the first question?

Did you sense a fruit of the Spirit as the Lord answered you?

What helped you the most from this post?

Let me know by leaving a quick comment below right now.

The post How To Hear God’s voice: The Complete Guide appeared first on Dude Disciple.

This is a complete guide to doing the work of God without striving.

In this post, I’ll show you a Biblical perspective of what it truly means to serve God from a place of rest.

Some of the questions we’ll answer include:

• What does the Bible say about doing God’s work?
• How did Jesus do the work of the Father?
• How are we called to do the work of God?
• How to practically apply this in your life

When God showed me these truths in the scripture, it radically changed my life and set me free from the burden of feeling like I had to perform to please God.

As a result, I’ve seen God produce more fruit in my life with less effort and less time than ever before.

Here’s what you need to know:

What does the Bible say about doing the work of God?

In order for us to understand what it means to serve God, we’re going to look at a scene in the old testament where God gives specific instructions to his priests on how they must minister to Him.

In Ezekiel 44, The Lord speaks about a group of priests called the sons of Zadok who were faithful to Him when Israel went astray.

As a result of their faithfulness, God gives these priests the privilege of ministering to Him in the Holy Place while all the other priests had to minister in the outer courts.

But Here’s the interesting part:

In order for them to even be able to come into the Holy Place to minister to God, there was one main requirement they had to follow.

Ezekiel 44:17-18 says:

“And it shall be, whenever they enter the gates of the inner court, that they shall put on linen garments; no wool shall come upon them while they minister within the gates of the inner court or within the house. They shall have linen turbans on their heads and linen trousers on their bodies; they shall not clothe themselves with anything that causes sweat.” 

Notice that last part:

“They shall not clothe themselves with anything that causes sweat.”

God wanted his priests to minister to him out of a place of rest, where none of their own strength was being used and nothing they did would cause them to sweat.

Why?

If you look at Genesis 3:19, you’ll see that the sweat of the brow was actually a curse that came upon Adam (and humanity) when he sinned.

It was never God’s original purpose for man to sweat in their ministry to Him.

Jesus came to this earth to restore that purpose and to take the burden off of doing the work with your own strength and striving.

He even gave us an example of how He did it in His own human life.

How did Jesus do the works of God?

Jesus is the perfect example of someone who fulfilled God’s purpose and will for His life to the fullest extent.

The best part is that He never relied on his own strength and performance to do God’s work.

Even though Jesus was (and is) God, He emptied himself and did not count himself equal to God.

Instead, the Bible says “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  (Philippians 2:8)

How did He humble himself by becoming obedient to the point of death?

It’s simple:

He never did anything by His own free human will.

For example, In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said:

“Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)

Jesus’ human will was that the Father would remove the cup of suffering and pain from Him.

Instead of doing His own will, Jesus surrendered it to the Father when He said:

“yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

When Jesus surrendered his will, God was glorified and we were saved through the cross.

But it wasn’t just in the Garden that Jesus surrendered His will, this is how He lived His whole life.

In John 5:19, Jesus said:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.” 

And…

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (John 14:10)

Who did the works?

It was always the Father and Holy Spirit who was dwelling in Jesus.

Jesus never relied on His own will to speak or do anything, but surrendered His will to the Father so that He could do the works through Him.

As a result, Jesus was never under any pressure to perform, never worried about how He would do God’s work, and walked in a constant state of peace in His ministry.

Now, think about this:

If Jesus did nothing by himself and we are called to be conformed into his image, then God also calls us to live a life that is completely surrendered to the Holy spirit.

How are we called to do the work of God?

In John 6:28, a group of people approach Jesus and ask Him a very important question:

“Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

In response, Jesus says:

“This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

That word “believe” can also be translated to entrust.

Jesus was saying that the work of God is to believe and entrust Him with your life.

Only then, will God’s work be done.

But what does it really mean to trust Jesus with your life?

In Luke 9:23 Jesus Said:

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Trusting Jesus with your life involves you denying yourself daily and letting him take the lead in every moment of your life.

To deny yourself means to give up your will, your choice, and your way to the Lord’s will.

When your will, desires, and decisions are fully yielded to the Holy Spirit throughout your day, He will do His work through you.

The only thing that can get in the way of God doing all that He wants through you is your own free will.

He chooses to limit himself based on your free will agreement with Him and He will never force His will upon you. 

How?

In every moment of time, you have a choice to make:

Are you going to do what you think is best with your own understanding, or are you going to surrender your will to what the Holy Spirit wants to do?

This includes:

• How you use your time
• How you use the resources God has given you
• Where you go and where you stay
• Who you talk to and what you say
• And more…

The problem with your will having it’s way is that it only produces your works, your goodness, and all the other things that come from you.

Even though it may look good from the outside, it doesn’t bring glory to God.

Jesus said that when the Spirit of truth comes, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:14)

Who glorifies Jesus? The Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 64:6 says: “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”

“All our righteous deeds” isn’t just talking about your salvation, but all that you do for God on your own efforts.

It doesn’t matter how good you are or how hard you try, your righteous deeds will never be good enough.

The only time your will glorifies God is when it is completely surrendered to the will of the Father.

That’s good news!

Why?

If your own work doesn’t actually glorify God and it’s not up to you to perform, then that takes all the pressure off of you.

You never have to stress about fulfilling his will or trying to please him by putting unnecessary burdens upon yourself.

Instead, God just wants you to be His vessel.

2 Timothy 2:21 says:

“Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”

What is a vessel?

A vessel is just a container (like a jar or a bucket) that holds stuff in it.

It doesn’t do anything else.

The master of the House is the one that uses the vessel to produce every good work.

As a vessel of God, there are only 2 things you can do:

Be filled and be poured out.

God wants to fill you with His Holy Spirit and pour out his spirit through you wherever He wishes.

In other words:

You just have to be open to allow him to fill you up and say Yes to what He wants to do so that He can glorify himself.

How To Practically Apply This To Your Life

In Luke 11:1 it says:

“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

After all the signs, miracles, and works that Jesus did, you would think that the disciples would ask Jesus to teach them about the work He did.

But no… 

The disciples asked Jesus about His prayer time because they knew that everything He did was the result of Him spending time alone in prayer with the Father.

It is the same for us:

Everything starts with our relationship with God in the secret place.

Whenever you spend time in God’s presence, He transforms you into His image and fills you with His spirit.

As you are filled with the Spirit, God begins to bring you into situations where He desires to minister to people through you (or pour out).

In every moment, all that God is looking for is that you are open to doing whatever He wants to do.

Even if you are afraid, have no desire, have no strength, don’t know how to do it or what to even say, don’t let that stop you from saying yes.

God isn’t limited by those things.

All He needs is your permission (free will) and He will do the rest.

Here’s an example:

I remember a time when I was on a mission trip in Spain and was serving at a local Ukrainian church that served Ukrainian refugees.

One day the pastor asked me to visit a church in another city with him to minister to the people there and to share the testimony of my life.

On that day, I had some of the worst back pain I’ve ever experienced in my life, which seemingly came out of nowhere.

When we arrived, I felt even worse than before. 

Not only was my back in serious pain, but now I had a headache and I felt completely off. I didn’t want to share anything and I didn’t really know where to start my testimony since I didn’t write anything down.

Right before I got up to share, I prayed to God and told Him that I couldn’t do it. I told him that if this is what He wanted to do, I surrender and say yes.

The moment I stepped up to speak, I felt the fire of God fall upon me. My whole body felt as if it was on fire and my lungs were burning when I spoke.

Words started to flow out of nowhere with power and everything that I felt earlier was replaced with boldness and energy.

As I shared my testimony, I saw the atmosphere change and a girl start to weep uncontrollably as the Holy spirit began to touch her.

It was truly a powerful moment.

All I did was say Yes and God did everything.

Ever since then, God has taught me that the more I yield to the Holy Spirit, the more fruitful my life will be.

The less I rely on myself, the more freedom He has to glorify Jesus through me.

So here’s a word of advice:

Stop trying to do the work of God and let Him do it.

It’s so much better this way.

Center all of your attention on pursuing him and simply being open to what He wants to do.

You’ll notice that the opportunities to serve God will come to you and you will see God bear fruit through your life in amazing ways.

You will never have to worry about what ministry you should be in, what to say in a moment of time, or how you will accomplish something because He will take care of it all.

In Conclusion

To summarize it all, doing the work of God should never feel like a heavy burden in our lives. God is looking for his children to minister from a place of rest where He does all the heavy lifting.

In order for Him to do His work, He requires our free will to be completely surrendered to Him. 

All that He asks of us is that we are to be his vessels, open and willing to be used by him in every moment of time. 

The more time we spend in the presence of God, the more we are transformed into His image, filled with His Spirit, and become dependent upon Him to fulfill His will.

Now I want to hear from you:

Have you ever had a moment where it seemed like God did all the work for you? What did that look like?

or…

Have you ever felt a heavy burden in your ministry to the Lord? How did God take you out of that?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post Doing the Work of God Without Striving: A Complete Guide appeared first on Dude Disciple.

This ultimate guide will give you an understanding of your righteousness in Christ in a way that will allow you to live a life of freedom from sin, guilt, shame, and condemnation as a believer.

How?

In this post, I go step by step into Scripture to show you the truth about what the Bible says (and doesn’t say) about questions like:

• What is the difference between Spirit, Soul, and body? (you need to know this)
• How does God see you when you sin? (seeing yourself as God sees you)
• What does it really mean to repent? (repentance)
• Who did Jesus really forgive? (forgiveness of sins)
• Do you have to confess your sins as a Christian in order to be forgiven? (confession)

And more…

Let’s dive right in.

Don’t want to read? Watch our full video on righteousness below ⬇️

One Thing You Need to Understand to Know Your Righteousness

In order to understand your righteousness in Christ, you must first understand how you were created.

So this first section is going to focus on your spirit, soul, and body.

Without a basic understanding of the spirit, soul, and body a lot of the verses in the Bible won’t make any sense and will even sound contradictory.

Understanding Spirit, Soul, & Body 

In Genesis 1:26, God says “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”

Just as God is three parts, He created us in his image by making us a three-part being:

Spirit, soul, and body. (1 Thessalonians 5:23) (Hebrews 4:12) 

The problem is that most believers confuse soul & spirit by mingling the 2 together as one (the inner man).

However, When you look in the scriptures, the Bible makes a clear distinction.

For example:

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

It is this confusion between the soul and spirit that keeps many believers stuck in a lifestyle of sin instead of living in the freedom that Christ has paid for on the cross.

The Difference between Spirit, Soul, And Body:

In essence, We are an eternal spirit, with a soul, that lives in a body.

What is the spirit of man?

Your spirit is the life-giving part of you and the very core of who you are. It is also the part of you that has fellowship and communication with God (John 4:24).

However, there’s a transformation that needs to happen in every man’s spirit first.

In the beginning, when God created man, He said to Adam:

“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)

This is exactly what happened when Adam and Eve sinned. 

Even though their physical death in the body was progressive, their spirit died from the moment they sinned and has spread to all people. (Romans 5:12-15)

The same applies to you and me:

When Adam and Eve first sinned, our spirit became dead. That sin has spread to all of humanity, including us.

That’s why Jesus said:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5)

Jesus came to give you a new Spirit and a new life. (John 10:10) 

When you are born again, your spirit is transformed (2 Corinthians 5:17) and you become one with God’s Spirit (AKA The Holy Spirit). (1 Corinthians 6:17)

Your newborn again spirit can never again be tainted by sin. It stays perfect because the Spirit of Jesus is always perfect.

It’s like this:

What is the soul of man?

Your soul is made up of your natural mind, will, and emotions.

Think of the soul as your mind, since it is your thinking in the mind that drives your will and emotions.

Your mind is like the door to your spirit:

It must be changed for everything in your spirit to flow out. 

As you are changed in your mind (Romans 12:2), God’s nature, ability, and power flow out from your born again Spirit to your mind (or soul) and through your body which influences the world around you.

I’ll share more on this later…

The body of man

Your body is the part you see in the mirror and it’s what relates to the world around you. It can be defined simply by your taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing. 

Romans 12:1 tells us to offer our body as a living sacrifice to God or to surrender it to God. As you surrender your body to the Lord, He is able to use you to affect the world around you.

Everything flows out of your Spirit, through your mind, through your body, and into the world.

Seeing yourself as God sees you (Your Righteousness in Christ)

Have you ever had a time when you thought to yourself:

“Man, I just failed and fell into sin. I should probably wait a couple of days before I come to the Lord and allow everything to cool down. I’ll pray early in the morning and maybe do a fast so I can feel a little bit better.”

Then, once you feel the presence of God, you’re like: “okay, I forgive myself and everything is good.”

I’m sure you’ve been there.

The truth is you shouldn’t have felt guilt, shame, or condemnation to start with because your righteousness in Christ has nothing to do with the way you feel.

Your righteousness is based on the righteousness of Jesus who lives in you (Colossians 1:27).

The good news of the Gospel is that God is not dealing with you based on your sin and failure in the body or soul, but through your spirit which is a new creation and was made perfect when you were born again (Ephesians 4:24).

Since God sees you through the eyes of his perfect son Jesus in your spirit, you’re able to come to God at any time without having to feel guilt, shame, or condemnation. (Hebrews 4:16).

Remember Romans 12:2?

It says: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

As a believer, God has made you perfect in your Spirit, but your mindset and understanding are still in the process of being changed through the renewal of your mind.

You might be wondering, what does this process look like practically?

Simply put, God renews your mind through the process of repentance.

Which brings us to our next topic:

The True Meaning of Repentance

In essence, the word repent comes from the Greek word metanoéō which means to change your mind, thoughts, attitude or behavior.

Repentance renews your mind because it changes your thinking about a certain situation to be more like Christ’s. This is why every believer is called to live in a constant state of repentance.

Acts 26:20 (NIV) says: “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.”

As the Holy Spirit convicts us and brings us to repentance (changes our thinking), the result is a renewed mind and a change in our lifestyle.

Now, it’s important to know that repentance does not mean beating yourself up for a week until you “feel like you’re forgiven”.

Repentance is simply turning away from sin and acknowledging the truth of who Christ has made you to be.

This can happen in one moment without any condemnation, guilt, or shame.

For example:

Let say you rebuke your friend in a very harsh way and the Holy Spirit convicts you about it.

When He convicts you, he reveals the truth of who you really are.

God wants you to repent and align yourself with the truth.

It’s as simple as saying:

“You’re right Lord, I do need to be more gentle. Thank you Lord that you have given me a spirit of gentleness. I’ll be more gentle next time.” 

What about your forgiveness?

Forgiveness of All Sins: Past, Present, and Future

We know that as Christians we are called to live in constant repentance, but what about our forgiveness and confession? How does God deal with our sins?

In this section, we’re going to dig deep into the Bible to answer questions like:

• Who is forgiven of sins and reconciled to God? 
• Do you need to first ask for forgiveness to be forgiven as a Christian?
• Do you need to first confess your sins to be forgiven?
• The difference between repentance & confession
• And more…

Here’s what you need to know:

Who is forgiven of their sins and reconciled to God?

Right now we’re going to look at some scripture of what the Bible says about forgiveness and who God has forgiven. Then, We’re simply going to answer some questions based on what the verses say.

Sound fair?

Let’s start with 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (CSB), which says:

“Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

Who has been reconciled? 

The world.

Is God counting the trespasses against the people of the world?

No.

Let’s look at another verse:

1 John 2:2 –  He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

And one more…

John 1:29 – The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Whose sins did Jesus take away on the cross?

The sins of the whole world.

Based on these 3 verses, It looks like the Bible is telling us that God has already reconciled the world, paid for their sins, and no longer counts their sins against them.

Does that mean everyone is saved?

Everyone’s sin has already been forgiven and taken care of, however, not everyone has received that forgiveness and reconciliation.

Acts 26:18 says that forgiveness of sins is a gift that must be received.

New and eternal life (salvation) only comes when you believe and surrender your life to Jesus Christ as your Lord.

In John 6:29 (NLT) Jesus said: “This is the only work God wants from you: believe in the one he has sent.”

It’s kind of like this:

Picture someone calling you and telling you that they’ve just bought a brand new flat screen for you at Walmart. They’ve already bought it and paid for it, however, you still have to go pick it up. 

Until you actually go to pick up or receive the gift that’s been purchased, you don’t have it.

Once you receive the forgiveness of Christ, all your sins are washed away for all time.

What about the forgiveness of your future sins?

Let’s look at Hebrews 10:9-12 (CSB):

“He then says, See, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. 10 By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. 11 Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. 12 But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.”

Let’s break this down.

When Jesus came, He took away the first covenant (by fulfilling it) and established a new covenant through his offering.

Verse 10 says “By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time”

Jesus made a sacrifice that sanctified you once for all time, meaning that He forgave your sins in the past, present, and in the future (for all time).

But this isn’t the only verse in the Bible that tells us this, Check out some of these other verses:

God promised that He will never again remember your sins and your lawless acts (Hebrews 10:17).

This means that even after you’ve sinned as a born-again believer, you’re already forgiven before you do anything.

God still wants to change your thinking (repentance) so you can be transformed into the image of his Son, but your repentance doesn’t actually get your sins forgiven.

Why?

Hebrews 10:18 says “Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.”

Once you’ve received Christ, you have received the forgiveness that He paid for and there is no longer anything you can offer Him to take away your sins.

Do We Have to Confess Our Sins to Be Forgiven?

Most Christians believe that when you are born again, all of your sins from the past are completely forgiven and you are washed by the blood of Jesus. However, every sin after that is only forgiven after we confess and repent of those sins. 

This all stems from one of the most misunderstood & misused verses in the Bible:

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) NASB

Let’s look at this in context. Who is John addressing in this chapter?

If you dig deeper, you’ll find that 1 John 1 is actually addressing a heresy in the church called Gnosticism.

The Gnostics claimed that they never sinned and that there was no harm in indulging in fleshly desire.

In other words:

They were those in the church who claimed to have fellowship with Christ, but were never truly born again believers.

How can we know that?

John tells them to confess their sins so that they can be cleansed from all unrighteousness.

The moment someone receives Christ, they are cleansed from all unrighteousness and become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

So in reality, John is telling a group of non-believers to first acknowledge that they are living and sin and then receive Christ to be saved.

He then goes on to address the actual believers of the church in the very next chapter:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;  and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2)

And…

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. (1 John 2:12)

Isn’t it amazing to know that you don’t have to continue repenting and confessing your sins in order to be forgiven by God over and over?

Your sins have been forgiven and washed away by the precious blood of Jesus Christ once for all time.

Controversial Verse #2

At this point, some of you might be thinking:

What about James 5:15-16?

“And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”

Doesn’t this verse tell us that we need to confess to be forgiven?

Again, Let’s look at the context.

Verse 14 says “Is anyone among you sick?”

And verse 15: “And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.

James is addressing the people in the church who are sick and in need of prayer for healing.

But as we all know, going to church doesn’t actually mean you’re a believer.

That’s where this next verse comes in:

“And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”

What does he mean by “If he has committed sins”?

I believe James is referring to someone in the church who is living a lifestyle of sin and has never been born again.

1 John 3:9 says “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

In other words:

The prayer of faith will heal the sick person, and if he has not been born again, He will receive the forgiveness of Christ. 

Now that we have established the context, let’s read verse 16:

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”

So why should we confess our sins?

“That you may be healed”

The benefits of confessing your sins

The truth is that even though we have been forgiven of our sins, there are still consequences to those sins (you rob a store and you will go to prison).

Some of those consequences is that sin can often lead to broken relationships and pain in our own personal lives as believers.

God wants you to confess the sins that are continuing to bring pain into your life to your brothers and sisters in Christ so that you can live in peace.

When you confess your sins to others, it brings healing and restoration into your life and relationships.

Now, Think about this for a moment:

If my forgiveness as a Christian depended on my confession of sin/request to forgive, I would have a very big problem.

If I committed a sin as a Christian right before I died (such as speeding on the freeway), I would not be able to enter into heaven since nothing unclean can enter (Revelation 21:27). 

I would have no time to ask for forgiveness or confess, and my sin would need to be addressed in order for me to enter. (Good news, it has)

Do you see why that wouldn’t work?

The point is this:

Nowhere in the bible does it teach that confessing your sins is the way to get forgiven as a Christian.

In fact, out of all the 13 books of the Bible that Apostle Paul wrote, not one of them talks about confessing your sins to be forgiven as a Christian. (Romans 10:9-10 is for non-believers)

The enemy wants you to believe that you need to earn forgiveness through repentance, confession, and crying out to God.

If he can keep you focused on your sin, he can keep you stuck in it and bring condemnation into your mind.

Doesn’t this give Christians the right to live in sin and get away with it? 

Since I’ve been forgiven of my sins for all time, doesn’t this give me an excuse to live in sin and get away with it?

The answer is:

No.

In fact, this type of thinking exposes those who are really Christian from the fakes.

How?

Only those who have never truly been born again love the sin that they live in and want to continue in it. 

This is what 1 John 3:9 is talking about:

“No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him…”

When you receive Christ, you become a new creation and it is impossible for you to continue enjoying your sin. 

Even when you fall into it, you hate your sin and can’t stand what you did. If there’s a desire to repent and stop living in sin, that’s a strong indicator that you have truly received salvation.

For those who are thinking that they now have a free pass to live in sin, I would say that you need to give your life to the Lord and repent.

To summarize this all:

God created us in his image and made us into 3 part beings:

Spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

When we first sinned, our spirit became dead in sin and our relationship with God was broken. (Romans 5:12-15)

Jesus came to give us a new life and a new Spirit. When He died on the cross, He paid for the sins of the world and reconciled the world to himself. (2 Corinthians 5:16-19)

However, in order to be saved, we must receive his forgiveness and be born again. (Acts 26:18)

When we are born again, The Holy Spirit becomes one with our spirit and we become righteous before God because He deals with us through our new spirit.

Because Jesus’ sacrifice is once‑for‑all, those who are in Christ are fully forgiven of every sin—past, present, and future and never fall back under God’s condemning judgment.

At the same time, Scripture calls us to confess our sins to the Lord and to one another, so that we may receive healing and walk in restored fellowship with Him.

God is calling us to live a life of constant repentance (change of thinking) to renew our minds and be transformed into the image of Christ.

The post Your Righteousness in Christ: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on Dude Disciple.