March 5, 2004

Why Obedience to Jesus Is Not an Option

Hi John:

I have been praying about you as you requested and this is what I feel the Lord is saying to me: obedience in our relationship with Him, when we know what is right to do, is not an option. Once you know what is right to do, regardless of what your brothers or sisters may be doing, God holds you then accountable because of what you know.  Not because we sin, we are going to sin, can’t get around that, but when we know we sin and we do not instantly repent of it, we are then entertaining unclean spirits related. The problem with that is, those God has assigned over you, people like myself, because we are attached to you spiritually, because I am, I am then myself open to the attack of those unclean spirits you choose to yield to. The end result is that I come under unmerciful attack of those unclean spirits. This is why the moment you sin, you must confess and repent of it and get right with God, or if you are having a problem with it to seek God’s Holy Spirit grace, strength and power to overcome it and to call your brothers you know you can trust and have them pray for you. I am no less a man than you are and do this with brothers close to me when I am having a battle with a sin problem. That is what we are supposed to do when having a problem with obedience to God in any area of our lives He has revealed to us.

"And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more, as you see the day drawing near." (Hebrews 10:24-25)

If we do not do that immediately, we then place ourselves in the camp of rebellion and in league with demons. The end result is that people like myself, because of my spiritual connection with you, then come under vicious attack of those spirits you have yielded to. When that happens, not because you have sinned, but because you refuse to repent of your sin, the Lord gives me no alternative but to move toward severing myself from you or whoever it may be. It is not because I do not care about you or want to do this, but that I have no option if I want to be freed of the tormenting demons, at peace in the Lord and have His favor myself.  That is why when we know what is right to do, obedience is not an option.

That is the lesson of the Book of Joshua when Israel as a nation did not obey God. The consequences were disastrous. Those, like Achan, who did not obey did not just bring themselves down, but many of their countrymen with them. Because of their unrepented sin, many of their countrymen died in battle because they no longer had the Lord’s protection (Joshua Chapter 7). Because I am tied to you spiritually, when you willfully and intentionally, without intent to repent, disobey God, whatever the issue is, because I am tied to you spiritually, until you repent I am without the Lord’s protection. God is Holy and will not allow sin in His Camp, and thus He begins pushing me to sever the connection. John, this is also why God attaches us to each other so that we will help keep each other in God’s will.

But getting back to the main issue, God’s word to you today John is that if you want Him to be Lord and Master over you, if you want a relationship with Jesus, obedience to Him is not an option, otherwise, He will cut you off from His children, that is His children who are walking in obedience to Him.

Also, John, an observation:  I find whenever I am talking to you lately, you are in a down state of mind, not positive. That is because you are choosing to dwell on the negative in Your life. Dwelling on the negative will keep you from releasing your faith. That is evidence that you are not controlling your thought life. What do I mean? I mean that the enemy gives you a negative thought and you allow it to then be planted and nest in your mind and then you dwell and meditate on it instead of the truth of God’s word. Martin Luther the reformer said "You can’t keep birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest on top of your head." John, you cannot keep Satan from suggesting things to you, but you can stop his suggestions from building a nest in your mind. How do you do that? When the enemy says something to you that is contrary to God’s word, instead of saying "Ya, you are right, I cannot do that;" instead you need to quote what the Bible says on the subject like in Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:19 "And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." You need to IMMEDIATELY counteract Satan’s lies with the truth of God’s word! Paul wrote in Romans 10:17 "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." In otherwords control Your thought life by making yourself dwell on the positive. Philippians 4:8-9 states,

"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you."

Your problem is that you are dwelling on Satan’s lies instead of the truths and and promises in God’s Word. The moment you accept Satan’s lies, you will then not obey God. Paul, however, tells you in Romans 10:17 that if you meditate on God’s word it will increase your faith so that you can obey God. Whatever you choose to dwell on is what you will become, is what will win over you. Proverbs 23:7 states "For as he thinks within his soul, so he is."

John, we are in a spiritual battle. The front line is our thought life. That is where we win or lose the battle. In Matthew and Luke Chapter 4, when Jesus was confronted by the devil with his offers and lies, the way Jesus overcame Satan was by quoting what the Bible said on the subject, He quoted the word of God to Him. That was how Jesus overcame Satan’s lies in His mind. Are we greater than Him? This is how we overcome Satan’s lies: with the truth! The truth is what God’s word says.  Jesus said in John 8:32 "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."  Hebrews 4:12 states,

"For the word of God is spiritually-alive and energetically-effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the conscious-reasonings and intentions of the heart."

The truth is God’s promises in His word. When Satan tries to bring you down and discourage you in obeying God when He says something like:

"John, God doesn’t love you. If you obey God and use your free time for evangelism, you will never have a wife, you won’t have any Christian friends, you won’t go anywhere."

How do you counter that? With the promises of God’s word like this:

"Thank You Jesus your promises to me are true, for Your word says in Joshua 21:45 'Not one of the good promises which Yehovah had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.'"

"Elohim is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19)

"It is impossible for God to lie." (Hebrews 6:18)

"In the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago." (Titus 1:2)

Lord, you said in Your word:

"But seek-continually first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you." (Matt 6:33)

"And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." (Phil 4:19)

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8:9)

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. (2 Corinthians 9:8)

"Delight yourself in Yehovah; and He will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4)

"You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever." (Psalm 16:11)

John, these are God’s promises to you, that if you obey Him and put Him first, in His time He (note He, not you) will give you the desires of Your heart; that if you obey Him, He (note again, not you) will supply all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. That if you obey Him He will make His grace abound to you for every good work. God’s word is true and Satan is a liar. How do we know this is true? The Apostle John wrote in John 2:22 "When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken." We know the Word of God is absolutely true truth Because Jesus rose from the dead to prove it is true.  Jesus promised in Matthew 24:35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Joshua wrote in Joshua 21:45 "Not one of the good promises which Yehovah had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass."

John, this is why scripture memory is so important, so that when the enemy attacks your faith, and he will, you are able to counteract his lies with the truth of God’s word. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:5 "We are subverting computations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."  You are bringing your thought life in obedience to Christ when you counteract Satan's lies with the truth of God's Word.  That is the only way you can have victory over Him. That is why Joshua wrote in Joshua 1:8,

"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success."

Only when you meditate on and choose with your will, not your feelings, to stand on God’s Word will you then be successful.

Satan instills fear in your heart and says to you, making you think it is your thoughts: "I am afraid!!!" How do you counteract that? With the promises of God’s word. God’s word states in Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for Yehovah-your-Elohim is with you wherever you go." God’s word states in Isaiah 41:10 "Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your Elohim. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." If you are still having a hard time, God’s word commands in Ephesians 6:10 "Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might;" and in 1 Chron 16:11 & Psalm 105:4 "Seek Yehovah and His strength; seek His face continually." Obey the word, get down on your knees, lift up your hands and cry out to Jesus for His Holy Spirit grace, strength and power to be bold in being a witness for Him. I know I do, often, as often as I need to, the moment I start to waffle.

You say when a long time goes buy you forget what to do. Again, this is because you are not obeying what God’s word tells you to do. God commands us in Ephesians Chapter 6 to daily put on the armor of God. Ephesians 6:15 states about the armor "Shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace." This is part of your daily armor you are to put on. Note it says "preparation." You are to daily prepare to share the Gospel. How do you do that? I will answer you by telling you how I do that. I at least once a week read through each tract. Before I go out on the field I read through the Salvation Tract, even share it with my partner pretending like I am on the field and approach him. I act it out with him and he with me. I shod my feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. This is why I spent the whole year last year making the DVD videos, so you and other Christians can watch me sharing the Salvation Tract, the Forgiveness Tract, and the Evangelism Tract for review, so you know how to approach a person, how to share the tract, and then how to lead them into prayer and how to close afterwords. The problem again, John, is that you are not obeying God’s command to you to daily "Shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace." You do this by daily reviewing and practicing your approach in sharing the Gospel. And by the way here is God’s clear command to all Christians to receive Evangelism Taining. Evangelism Training is not an option for any believer because God commands it as part of the armor of God we are all to put on. That is what the word "Preparation" means.

If you do not do what God’s word says and instead dwell on the negative "I am afraid, I just can’t witness to strangers." Satan has won and you lose. You counteract Satan’s lies with God’s truth. Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Ephesians 6:10 "Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might." Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for Yehovah-your-Elohim is with you wherever you go." Isaiah 41:10 "Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your Elohim. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." Matthew 28:18-20,

"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. GO THEREFORE and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Here is another command of God "Do not fear!" You cannot stop from having feelings of fear, but God commands you to not be controlled by the fear, he commands you to reject the fear. John wrote in 1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear." God commands you to cast the fear out!!! "In Jesus’ name fear, I rebuke you and command you to be gone!" Your problem is you are focusing on Satan’s lies to you and your brother’s and sister’s lies to you instead of on God’s truths and promises to you in His word. Jesus said in His High Priestly prayer to the father in John 17:17 "Sanctify them in the truth, Your word is truth." John, God’s Word is truth, not what I think, or what someone else thinks, only God’s word is true, all else is false.

"The law of Yehovah is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of Yehovah is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of Yehovah are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of Yehovah is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yehovah is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of Yehovah are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward." (Psalm 19:7-11)

When you focus on and meditate on Satan’s lies, then you lose faith and trust in God’s goodness. When you accept Satan’s lies that then leads to the most deadliest of sins: unbelief. Once you give into unbelief you are dead, you lose, you do not enter the promised land. You are in a spiritual battle. You must fight the good fight. Peter commands you in 1 Peter 5:8-10,

"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you."

How do we resist Him? Only one way: with the truths and promises in God’s word. Paul wrote in Romans 15:4 "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." John, if you don’t dwell on God’s truths and promises in His word, if you stop believing what God has said, you are dead already, you have no hope. You have to choose: either believe God and His truth and promises in His word and in His time and way receive His promises and enter the promised land, or dwell on and believe Satan’s lies and die in the desert with the Israelites having received nothing.

"And to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who did-not-obey? And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief." (Hebrews 3:19-18)

"And you will be hated by all on account of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved." (Matthew 10:22)

The first generation of Israelites did not enter the promised land for two reasons: They did not obey God and they did not believe His promises. When He told them to enter the promised land, they did not obey because they were afraid, they did not believe His promises to them that He was with them and would overcome the enemy for them. Only two people of the first generation of over 3 ½ million Jews entered the promised land. These two men were Joshua and Caleb. That was because when God commanded Moses to send 12 spies (Numbers 13:1-2), one man from every tribe, into the promised land to view it, when they came back, eleven said "The land is full of giants!!! We will be massacred!!! We will be doomed if we try to overtake them."  Numbers Chapters 13-14 and Deuteronomy 1:34-36 tell us:

"Thus they told him, and said, ‘We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.’ Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, 'We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.' But the men who had gone up with him said, 'We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.' So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, 'The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our-eyes, and so we were in their sight.’ . . . And Yehovah said to Moses, ‘How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?’" (Numbers 13:27-33, 14:11)

"Then Yehovah heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying, ‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed Yehovah fully.’" (Deuteronomy 1:34-36)

They did not believe God’s promises to them. However, Joshua and Caleb said "No, the Lord will give us the victory!!!" The eleven who gave the bad report died in the wilderness without ever seeing the promised land. The two who did believe entered the promised land in full strength and vigor, over came the enemy completely, and received the promises of God. That is why Joshua said boldly in Joshua 21:45 "Not one of the good promises which Yehovah had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass." He knew because he believed God and God did not disappoint him. Paul wrote "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed" (Romans 10:11).

You see those other eleven spies had their eyes on who they were instead of on who God was. They had their eyes on what they could see instead of on God’s promises in His Word. Paul wrote "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7).  They meditated on their fears instead of on the promises of God.  What was the end result? They died in the wilderness and never saw or entered the promised land, they died in the wilderness with nothing and turned to dust. Only Joshua and Caleb who chose to believe in God’s promises and His character, not what they saw, entered the promised land and received God’s promises.

Your problem John is you are dwelling on what you see and feel and the lies of Satan, instead of on God and who He is and His promises to you in His Word. The end result is like the eleven spies you are choosing unbelief and as a result are dying in the wilderness and not having victory or the blessings of God, the spoils of the land conquered. John, Jesus promises you in Matthew 28:18-20,

"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. GO THEREFORE and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

First, Jesus says to You,

"John! All authority in Heaven and earth are given to me. For that reason, don’t be afraid, GO!!! and share my Gospel with men!!! I will be with you with all My authority and power."

John, you either believe Jesus’ promises to you and Go Therefore!!! and bear fruit and enter the promised land, or you believe Satan’s lies and die in the wilderness. The choice is yours.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for Yehovah-your-Elohim is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9)

"Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your Elohim. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." (Isaiah 41:10)

"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. GO THEREFORE and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’" (Matthew 28:18-20)

Sincerely in Jesus,

Dale P. Kruse
Pastor-Evangelist