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1 Corinthians 9:11
"If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we should reap material things from you?"

Relationship With Jesus
The Key To Effective Ministry

Section 4, Chapter 12

Don’t Let the Sins of Yesterday
Keep You From
Serving Jesus Today

Page 3 of 1, 2
Study Questions

The armor of God is real. It is part of the spiritual realm. It is for the protection of our human spirits against Satan’s, a spiritual being, attack against our spirits. When we pray and ask God to put on our spiritual armor, He does and our spirit is protected from Satan’s attacks against our spirit. This is also something we need to do once a day. I daily pray the following:

Heavenly Father I pray for the full armor of God: the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith by which I will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one, the belt of truth, that you would shod my feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, the sword of the spirit which is Your Word and for Your grace to pray in the spirit continually.

I then add:

I ask God to use my spirit in spiritual warfare meaning to do warfare for others in the spiritual realm. This is what happens when you pray for someone’s needs. God then takes your spirit and does battle with the demonic forces that are hindering this person from getting their needs met or releasing their faith in Jesus. This is why you find your self drained and tired after pouring out your heart to God for someone. It is because Your spirit has been involved in heavy battle against spiritual forces in the heavenly places. This is why it is so important to daily put on the full armor of God. In the Book of Daniel 7:12-13 Daniel tells us that after praying over a matter for twenty-one days that an angel appeared to him and explained the following to him:

"Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia."

These princes and kings of Persia were demons assigned by Satan over this part of the earth to control this territory. God heard Daniel’s prayer from the start, but the answer God was sending was being opposed by these demonic forces in the spiritual realm. Daniel’s continued prayer was what gave these angels the strength to overcome the opposition and be able to deliver the answer he prayed for. The obvious lesson in this story is to keep praying until you get the answers you need. It is also a reinforcement of why you need to daily put on the full armor of God.

I find that when I am troubled in spirit, fearful for some reason that praying in the spirit, in tongues, settles my spirit and puts me at peace. Praying in the spirit is the Holy Spirit praying through our spirit for exactly what we need. See Chapter 2 in this Section which explains this in detail.

Eighth, you need to realize that Jesus does forgive you and has forgotten the past. You have to accept this by faith based on His Word not your feelings. Remember that part of your armor is the helmet of salvation which is God’s Word. God’s word states that the moment you confess your sin Jesus forgives you. When Satan attacks you with false condemnation and guilt, your only weapon against his accusations is the truth of God’s Word. You need to quote the word of God to Satan and command him to leave.

Satan, God’s Word declares, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." God also says in his word, "as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed my transgression from me." Finally, God says in his Word, "Do not bring to mind the former things or ponder things of the past." According to His word and His commands in Jesus' name I bind you and your mouth. You shall not bring my past sins to my memory anymore. In Jesus Christ of Nazareth’s name I command you to be gone forever.

As you stand on God’s Word and resist Satan’s attacks, God’s Word promises that Satan will leave you. The book of Job, talking about God’s discipline in our lives, tells us that as we resist the attack of these demonic forces that they will leave us and be at peace with us. Basically they will go find someone they can successfully harass. The Book of Job states,

"Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves, So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For He inflicts pain, and gives relief; He wounds, and His hands also heal. From six troubles He will deliver you, even in seven evil will not touch you. In famine He will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither will you be afraid of violence when it comes. You will laugh at violence and famine, neither will you be afraid of wild beasts. For you will be in league with the stones of the field; and the beasts of the field will be at peace with you. And you will know that your tent is secure, for you will visit your abode and fear no loss." (Job 5:17, 21-24)

Ninth, love and forgive yourself. Many times even though Jesus has forgiven us it is hard for us to forgive ourselves. Love is not an emotion. It is a decision of the will. You just have to ignore your feelings and make a decision of your will to love yourself and stand on God’s Word and tell yourself that you are going to love yourself as Jesus loves you.¹⁸

Jesus did not feel like going to the cross. The Bible tells us that He was in so much agony about his coming trial that he sweat blood (Lk 22:44). He said to God the Father, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Your will be done" (Lk 22:42). Jesus made a decision of his will, a decision of love, to go against his feelings and die on the cross for our sins. You must make a decision of your will, a decision of love, to go against your feelings and love and forgive yourself. As you do, in time your feelings will surrender and complement what is true in God’s Word.

When you do not forgive yourself, you place yourself above God. If God forgives you, who are you to hold a grudge against yourself, or is it just an excuse to not let God do in and with your life what he wants to in the first place. In fact God’s Word commands you to not even bring to your mind the things of the past. You are to block them out of your mind and not recall them. He does. He says "as far as the east is from the west so far has He removed our transgressions from us."¹²⁴ He commands you in Isaiah 43:18, "Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past." In essence God says to you, I have removed it from My memory and so I command you to do the same.

You need to do the same for others who have wronged you. You need to forgive them, block out of your mind what they did to you, not call it to mind, and then relate to them just as if they never sinned in the first place. Peter asked Jesus,

"'Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?' Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.'" (Matt 18:21-22)

Jesus wasn’t limiting it to seventy times seven, He was saying, forgiven him as many times as it takes. Jesus does you.

In review, when you get out of Jesus’ will and plan for Your life, the way to get back into His will and plan for Your life is by doing the following nine steps:

1. First, confess your sin or sins to Jesus and accept his forgiveness as an automatic fact according to 1 John 1:9.

2. Second, you then need to resurrender to Jesus as Lord.

3. Third, you need to repent of your sins and cry to Jesus for his deliverance from the power of these sins over your soul and flesh.

4. Fourth, remove any objects or things which tempted you and led you to sin in the first place.

5. Fifth, bind and command to leave any unclean spirits related to your sins confessed and repented of.

6. Sixth, anoint your home, place of work, and yourself with oil and ask Jesus to cover you and your home with His blood, surround you with His mighty warrior angels and overshadow you with the power of the Holy Spirit and declare them holy unto the Lord.

7. Seventh, reclaim the full armor of God.

8. Eighth, you need to realize that Jesus does forgive you and has forgotten the past.

9. Ninth, love and forgive yourself. Forget the past and stop letting the sins of yesterday keep you from doing God’s will today.

Jesus really loves you and really has forgotten your past and removed it from Him. His will for your life has not changed. His plan for you is the same yesterday, today, and forever.¹²⁶ Now go do it!

Study Questions
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