Month: October 2014

174. Iniquity, Transgression and Sin

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott –

Sold into slavery.

The human race was traded or sold into slavery by Adam and Eve: slavery to sin and with it, a sense of separation from God. It set a pattern. Joseph and Israel were sold into slavery in Egypt, and Israel and Judah were sold into slavery in Babylon, because people turned away from God and followed their own way. David expressed it like this:

Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me (Psalm 51:5).

The good news is that Jesus, the second Adam, brought redemption and reconciliation for all mankind. No-one needs to feel separated from God any longer.

God’s Living Word

For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analysing and judging the very thoughts, motives and purposes of the heart (Heb 4:12 AMP).

There are three areas where God’s living word is active in us as He brings about transformation:

  • soul and spirit (identifying what is of the flesh and what of the spirit)
  • the joints and marrow, the deepest parts of our nature
  • the thoughts, motives and purposes of the heart

Search me

Search me thoroughly, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way (Ps 139:23-24).

God uses the trials we face to bring things to the surface so that we can see them and deal with them in our lives.

Iniquity, transgression and sin

And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:7, emphasis mine).

What happens in our lives can affect future generations, and what has happened in past generations can affect us.

Three provide government

Iniquity, transgression and sin are three different concepts. They all come from worldly, natural and demonic wisdom, three things which will provide government in our lives unless we deal with them. Heavenly wisdom brings God’s government by three things from the Spirit (righteousness, peace and joy), three things from the Son (the Way, Truth and Life) and three from the Father (judgment, justice and grace).

When Adam and Eve were created, they had spirit, soul and body, with the spirit on the outside. God was intimately involved with them, but He gave them free will. He asked them to follow the pathway of the tree of life, leading to life, peace and joy. But satan came from the outside and gave them another choice, the broad pathway of the knowledge of good and evil, which would lead to death.

1

Break the cycle

Adam and Eve chose the broad pathway that leads to death. Adam’s transgression was a cause of sin. The effect was the curse. As they continued in that, it developed into sin nature, which they passed on. That resulted in more transgression and set patterns of iniquity – which then caused more transgression.

Iniquity (the motive of things in us) creates sin (desire) which forms transgression, which then leads to more iniquity (see diagram at the head of this post).

In Christ, God has given us the power to break out of this cycle, and we must do so, not only for our own sake but for the sake of our generations to come.

Transgression

Here are some dictionary definitions:

  • Wilfully doing something you know to be wrong
  • Wilfully not doing something you know to be right
  • Violation of a law, command or duty
  • Rebellion or revolt

Hebrew: a wilful deviation from, and therefore rebellion against, the path of godly living.
Greek: to go beyond, overstepping the limits.

‘Who will set me free?’

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam … So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners (Rom 5:14, 18-19).

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest (Eph 2:1b-3).

But God so loved the world – the Greek word is ‘cosmos’, so no-one is left out – that He sent His only-begotten Son (John 3:16), to deal with all these things so that we could become free; so that we could recognise and live from the nature which He created us in, the image of Jesus.

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? (Rom 7:24).

How many of us have felt that way? Here is the answer:

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

In Christ, the condemnation that was passed down from Adam is removed. A higher law has set us free from sin and death.

Sin nature

We have probably all heard that to sin is to miss the mark, to fail to achieve the standard God has set (and when this series first appeared in 2012 I taught that myself). Strong’s Dictionary gives this definition, based on a traditional understanding of Romans 3:23: H2403 (Sins): an offense. Sinning is anything that comes short of the glory of God.

But in the New Testament the most common word for sin is hamartia, a noun (the sin) not a verb (to sin). ‘The sin’ in question is the sin of Adam, following the DIY path of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Religion focuses on behaviour – what we do wrong – but Jesus did not come to deal with our individual actions as much as He came to deal
with the issue at the root of our actions.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23).

The wages of sin is death. When Jesus overcame death, He defeated the power of sin in our lives. We are not of Adam’s line but of Jesus’, the second Adam. It is not that our behaviour is unimportant, but that it can only be changed by transformation from the inside out, when we recognise our true identity in Christ, and not from the imposition of external religious rules or even principles.

Jesus is the answer

Altogether in the scriptures there are 12 Hebrew words and 5 Greek words for sin, falling into 7 basic categories:

  1. Deliberate act against a known law of God – 1 John 3:4 – external
  2. A mental consent to temptation or sinful desire – coveting, lusting – Matt 5:27-28, Rom 7:7-8 – internal
  3. Unbelief – rejecting biblical truth – Rom 14:23
  4. Neglect of known duties or opportunities – James 4:17
  5. Doing the wrong things out of ignorance – Lev 5:17-19 Luke 12:48
  6. Our sinful natures, inherited from Adam – Ps 51:5, Rom 5:19-20
  7. A law, principle or constant force dwelling in our sinful nature that enslaves us – Rom 7:14, 20-23

Four involve guilt through choice, one through ignorance, and the last 2 involve condemnation through inheritance (Rom 5:19, Eph 2:3, 1 Cor 15:50). But through His death and resurrection Jesus has done everything necessary to deal with whatever the accuser tries to bring against us. He has made us alive (Eph 2:5) and we can make a new choice to follow the pathway of the Tree of Life, which leads to peace and joy. So –

  • Iniquity?
  • Transgression?
  • Sin?

– whatever the question, Jesus is always the answer. His death and resurrection enables us to break free from our past and into the future He created us to have and enjoy. We all share in the victory of the cross and in resurrection life.

 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:22).

Two make an arc

Forgiveness and cleansing are two, making an arc which opens the third: the window of power which rests on our lives, enabling us to deal with those internal processes which have bound us to crooked behaviours.

We need to lay hold of forgiveness (and live in the good of it), so that we can be cleansed and then transformed.

…knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Consider yourselves dead

We have been bought back (redeemed) from slavery and exile into relationship with God. When we are baptised in Christ, we are baptised into what he did on the cross, and we reckon ourselves dead. That deals with the sinful nature.

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? (Rom 6:3).

Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin (Rom 6:6-7). 

Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God (Rom 6:11-13, emphasis mine).

Jesus did it, we consider it every day.

2

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which [Christ and] I now live in the flesh [Christ and] I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me (Gal 2:20).

We can deal with:

  • Transgression or sins – they are cleansed and forgiven through the blood of Jesus.
  • Sin nature – we count ourselves dead through the cross and the death of Jesus.
  • Iniquity (we will see more in future posts – by engaging with the finished work of Christ through DNA transformation in communion; through separation, through divorce courts in heaven; and through seraphim fire).

A daily choice

It is a daily choice and we have free will to decide. What path will we follow?

“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Matt 16:24; Mark 8:34).

We choose daily surrender, allowing God to lead, guide and direct us. We take one step, one day at a time. We find fresh mercies which empower us to live a life of godliness, to demonstrate God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, and enable us to fulfil our destiny in God.

We choose life.

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173. Godly Trading Floors – Trading (3)

Mike Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott – 

In the last two posts we have looked at the negative side of trading, at the deals we may have done with the enemy. Now, although this is not really part of the Transformation series, in this post I want to write about the positive side.

When Ian Clayton first began to talk about trading, some people were confused because they didn’t quite grasp what it meant. The fact is that we all trade, but we might have other terminology we use for it. Trading is about offering something in exchange for something else. It may be money, or goods, or other physical things, but it may also be love, a promise of God, your life, even the blood of Jesus. At its simplest, it is covenant exchange. When I enter into a covenant relationship with God, then what is mine belongs to Him and what is His belongs to me.

Just as there are different demonic trading floors, there are also different godly ones. For example, when I take a an offering and offer it to God, I actually go to the treasury room in heaven, where Melchizedek presides in his capacity as Chancellor.

Sowing and reaping

We have taught financial trading for many years as the principle of sowing and reaping. God promises increase on what we sow: we bring that promise with us and exchange it for its fulfilment, for what we will reap. It gives us access to the hundredfold return (or even the thousandfold of Deuteronomy 1.11, which I prefer).

Effectively, we can trade on God’s word. If we find a promise in the scriptures, or if He has given us a promise in person, we can go and ask that He actually complies with it. He doesn’t mind that: He likes to be reminded of what He has said. By faith we engage it and use His word to bring us into covenant exchange. Since God has spoken it, and we are in Christ in the new covenant, then it belongs to us.

For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us (2 Cor 1:20).

We can use a scripture like that to trade with. We can go, because we are in Christ, and receive those promises. That is an exchange, a trade.

The Blood and the Cross

I trade mostly using the body and blood of Jesus in communion, trading that for transformation in my own life and resonating with the frequency of God. It is really me giving everything to Him and Him giving everything back to me, multiplied, and for His purposes (not mine). As we have seen before, the cross is the most important place of exchange for us. At the cross we can exchange our sin for forgiveness, unrighteousness for righteousness, old for new, sickness for health, and more.

Trading on the sea of glass

We know the importance of the motives and desires of our heart. We need to ensure that whatever we are looking for when we come to God is rooted in a pure desire to bring glory, honour and blessing to Him. It is not about elevating or promoting us, about giving us a name: we are not trading to get something for ourselves: we are trading to see the kingdom of God advance and expand. It is all about Him.

So when someone compliments us, affirms us, or praises us, we can come and bring those things to God. Just as the elders cast their crowns before the throne on the sea of glass (which only looks like glass, by the way), we too can offer Him the plaudits and position that men have accorded us. It is not that other people’s opinion of us has no value, but that we choose to value our relationship and intimacy with the Father, and His affirmation of us, more highly still.

Some of the fire stones are trading floors, where we go and exchange our life and receive back the fruit of the Spirit, or the revelation of the precepts of God.

Living sacrifice

We give our life in exchange for a return. So whenever I surrender as a living sacrifice to God on the altar of incense, I am trading. I am exchanging my old for the new that comes from the revelation of being in relationship with Him and out of the intimacy that I have with Him.

‘It is no longer I that live but Christ lives in me’ (Gal 2:20): I exchange my old life for new life in Him; ‘the life I now live, I live by faith of the Son of God’ – I live in union and in connection with Him

I present myself to Him as an instrument of righteousness. I am dead, I deny myself, and His whole life opens up to me.

Planting in my garden

As I mentioned, we should not get religious about the terminology. One time I got some things out of a giant’s belly, and went and planted them in my garden. Someone asked me why I didn’t go and trade with them on the sea of glass. The answer is that I did what my spirit led me to do. I went and planted something in my garden and it grew, and then off the tree came two silver trumpets. When you plant something in the ground, it dies to you so that God can return things to you as a result – usually in multiplication. One seed is sown into the ground and dies, and yet it brings forth life out of that death, in a multiplied form.

There is one particular application of trading that you may have seen in a meeting. When a speaker has said something and people want to engage in it, they come and give a small amount of money to trade into the revelation: they are honouring that revelation and want to receive blessing from engaging with it. If it reflects the desire of someone’s heart then it can be helpful for them; but personally I have never really felt the need to do it, or to encourage it here.

Keep pursuing Him

We do need to make sure we are coming from purity of heart in these things, because it will cause a multiplication for which we have to be ready. God is so gracious. He does not give us everything we want all in one go, because He knows we do not always have the wisdom to handle it. Even revelation comes in progression, rather than all at once. That way, we will keep pursuing Him and recognizing our dependence on Him rather than thinking, ‘hey, I know everything’. Actually, I probably know less than a billionth of one percent of everything. I just want to know more of Him.

For myself, I only consciously trade when my spirit leads me to do it. It is not something I do all the time as a matter of course, because then it would risk becoming a formula (and I don’t want anything to become a formula, I want to be led by and directed by the Spirit). I want my spirit to engage in what I do, and whatever I do, I want it to be in life. If I do not have faith for it, then I am just doing it according to the letter rather than the spirit, and that is of no benefit at all.

There is an old adage that you can never outgive God. He always outgives us, and that is really where any trade comes.

God will restore

The revelation of heavenly trading has been stalled by events that have happened in human history. For example, God wrote the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone by His own hand: when Moses brought them out of heaven he was on a sapphire trading floor. He was bringing the engagement of the revelation of God into this realm out of heaven. But when he saw the golden calf and all that was going on in the camp, Moses broke the stones – and an understanding of trading on the sapphire trading floor was lost as a result. I believe God is going to restore that revelation knowledge in days to come. He will unveil much more revelation on how to use the trading floors in heaven, and the seven spirits of God will teach us to understand trading in a greater dimension than we yet know.

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Image attribution: The CrossEqualsLove image is Jeremy’s photo of a chalkboard by his daughter Beth Lane at Valley Church, Bamber Bridge, Lancs UK. http://bethwestcott.wix.com/bethanydesign

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172. Seven Trading Floors – Trading (2)

Mike and Deb Parsons
with Jeremy Westcott – 

No Condemnation

We are going to be looking at some difficult subjects in this post. Please do not get drawn into feelings of guilt and condemnation because of anything we write here. Let’s be sure to remember that there is no condemnation for us. The Holy Spirit will certainly bring conviction of sin where sin exists; but we can repent (that is, stop thinking about ourselves [and how we act] according to our own understanding, change our minds and see ourselves the way God does instead), turn from it and renounce it, receive forgiveness and look for transformation.

Ungodly trading

Adam and Eve traded with the accuser and gave their DNA for position and power to be like God (humanism, rationalism). That inclination to ungodly trading was passed on to each one of us.

Whenever we do not seek first God’s kingdom we are trading for ourselves; seeking to be gods of our own lives (just what Adam and Eve were offered). Esau traded his birthright for a bowl of stew, and we trade today on things that are coming tomorrow.

We even need to consider for whose benefit we are doing ministry: the approval of man is temporal, not eternal. In Matthew 6 Jesus spoke about practising righteousness before men, drawing attention to our giving, fasting and praying: there is nothing wrong with these activities except the motive.

Anything we do should be for God, for His glory, not for us. Jesus introduced a new standard, based not on external adherence but on heart motive. Anger equals murder, lust equals adultery; love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you:

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:20).

If our righteousness does not bring glory to God it is not righteousness at all.

Earthly, natural, demonic wisdom

This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing (James 3:15-16)

What source of wisdom influences, motivates and directs our decisions?

  • Whenever we seek to use our own knowledge as opposed to God’s we are falsely trading.
  • Whenever we use a substitute instead of God’s provision we are falsely trading.
  • Whenever the motives of our heart are selfish we are falsely trading

This gives access to the demonic world to influence and affect us, to restrict us and take away our inheritance.

Trading floors

When I first came to teach on this subject, I knew I could not do so without having gone through it in my own life, but I kept putting it off. Ian Clayton was a forerunner in this, and he took 8 months to work through it in his own life. In the end, I did it in three weeks, because I was part way through teaching this series already and I was running out of time. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. I had to recognise how I had been meeting my own needs in my own way, and deal with the reasons for this in my heart.

There are at least seven ungodly trading floors I have recognised. I went through every one of them, asking God on each one how and where I had traded on them. God showed me in detail, and emotionally it was really difficult to deal with it.

Then I needed to outwork my repentance. I asked God to sharpen my conscience so that I would stop if I found myself going down that route again. I have found that with perseverance, it is possible to take captive the thoughts, to recognize the whispers, before I even get on that pathway.

Seven floors

I will just say a few words about each of the trading floors here, but if you would like to work through them in your own life, you may find it helpful to download the full Trading Floors document which you can find here: Negative Trading Floors – Mike Parsons

1.Tyre – money, materialism.

The King of Tyre ransacked and robbed God’s temple, using the gold to build a trading city for his own glory and gain.

This is often about money taken from God and used for our own purposes. This includes areas such as offerings, gambling, financial cheating and debt.

2. Jezebel – manipulation, control, domination, witchcraft

Jezebel was the daughter of Ichbaal (the King of Tyre), who married the King of Israel to gain control of the religious system.

This covers issues such as the use of emotions, politics, sexual wiles, bribery or blackmail, and using substances to alter how we feel.

3. Athaliah – kingly seed

Athaliah was Jezebel’s daughter (or by some accounts, sister-in-law). She married the king of Judah and tried to control the future seed by killing all the possible heirs. She used the political system to usurp authority, and became the only queen Judah ever had.

Poor self-image, believing lies and familiar spirits, and masonic involvement all belong to this trading floor.

The King of Tyre, Jezebel and Athalia were all Baal worshippers – involved in idolatry, the cult of fertility, sensuality and child sacrifice.

4. Cain – murder

Cain was the son of satan, serpent seed, who murdered Abel his half-brother because of jealousy and the nature he inherited from satan.

This is not only physical attacks, but any kind of anger, character assassination, accusations, and selfishness.

5. Delilah – seduction

She offered pleasure and gratification, seducing Samson in order to rob him of his destiny.

This trading floor is where we find people living in a fantasy (especially romantic or sexual), finding ways to gain (or hang on to) acceptance, approval, or affirmation; and a lust for money, power or influence.

6. Leviathan – gossip, lies, deception

A demonic sea creature, a twister.

This is about lying or cheating to make others think better of you; half-truths; self-promotion, looking to impress, gossip… and what are you sharing on Facebook?

7. Apollyon – opposes the gospel

A fallen angel who opposes preaching of the gospel.

Whenever we have watered down the gospel of the kingdom, offered a cheap salvation gospel, been involved with false cults, been ruled by fear or embarrassment, or failed to share the full truth of the gospel for any reason, we have traded on this floor.

But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand (Ezek 33:6).

What should we do?

None of this is easy to admit to when we discover it in our lives. But the truth is, we all have it, and plenty of it. It is keeping us from what God has for us. He wants us to come into His glory, but that is impossible with all this in place. We need to get rid of it!

We must be ruthlessly honest about our past, not covering up or pretending. It is really hard to face the horrible things we have done, but the reality is that unless we do we will not be free of them.

Remember that God loves us. His love is a canopy over us, which gives us a safe place to deal with these things. Remember all the things I wrote in the first paragraph of this post. There is no condemnation for us.

This is not easy, but because forerunners have already gone there, they have made it a little less difficult for us (and our doing it will make it a little less difficult for those who follow us). We must:

  • own our past trading and motives
  • confess our trading as sin
  • seek revelation about any family trading that may influence us (we will look at this more fully in a future post on iniquity).

We may find it useful to use this diagram that we have seen before:

Event reactions2

We can use the court system in heaven. The mobile court is a very effective place to deal with all this:

  • Accept the accusation and receive God’s judgment for our own and our family’s trading
  • Repent and renounce false trading (be very specific)
  • Be separated from false trading
  • Invite God to activate our ‘reverence’ and ‘fear of God’ spiritual gates, so that our ‘conscience’ gate will be sensitive and activated.

Armed with this revelation and experience, in future we may recognise when we are going down the route towards negative trading. The earlier we can catch ourselves (or hear the Holy Spirit’s warning) and turn around, the better. We really want to get to the point where our conscience kicks in right away, so that negative trading is no longer even an option for us.

This is all part of the process of renewing our mind so that we can be transformed into the image of Jesus.

Courtroom Prayer

Before using this prayer, I recommend you work through a section (or even just a few lines) of the full Trading Floors document for yourself, so that you can be very specific about each trading floor, and how you have traded on it.

Father, I thank you that you love me
And that your kingdom is based on righteousness and justice.

By faith I step into the court of accusation.
I face my accusers and I accept and agree that I have wrongly traded.

I accept that I have followed the pathway of the knowledge of good and evil
I accept that I have been influenced and motivated
By earthly, natural and demonic wisdom.
I stand here representing myself and my forefathers, identifying with them.

I repent of and renounce all false trading for myself and my forefathers
(be very specific here about what trading you have recognised).
…
I receive the judgment of God
And I am justified and made righteous through my advocate, Jesus.
I release the judgment of God against my adversaries and accusers.
I receive a mandate to be separated from all false trading.

I step back into this realm
With the authority to identify and reject
All demonic, natural and earthly influences and motives.

I choose to be identified as your son
Walking in the light
Following heavenly wisdom on the earth.

Next Post: Godly Trading Floors
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