“Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:18-19)

I have preached on these verses many times.  There isn’t anywhere that I have preached that I haven’t said something about the two natures and the two Adams.  I think it is the understanding of this message that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because of Adam, the first man, sin entered into all of humanity like a virus.  Every man or woman born after Adam was born into a dying humanity.  We were each plagued by sin.  There was no way we could escape it.  We were born to die.

There is a song that says, “I fought the law and the law won.”  Each man born into sin tries to overcome his sin by his own means.  He doesn’t want to believe that he is a sinner.  Each one of us tries to justify their own sin.  Some will say that they were born a certain way and therefore how could God call it sin.

The word of God calls sin evil and declares that not one man was ever born righteous.  Each one of us is guilty of the evil we commit. It matters not whether we define the evil as good or evil.  Just because you call evil good and good evil doesn’t change the way God sees it.

Our entire generation may call some form of sin good but it isn’t good, it is still evil.

The miracle of Jesus is that He came and destroyed the power of sin in our lives.  He was the new prototype of mankind.  When He came He showed us that we could live a different way and not by any strength within us.  He was the sacrifice that allowed us all to become new.

I remember the season that I came to understand this.  It was such a joy to my heart.  I remember the thought dawning on me like the morning sun.  It was tremendously liberating to learn that I no longer had to carry the weight of the evil that I once committed, because my wonderful Jesus had set me free.

Each day I began to see this more and more.  Every time the enemy condemned or my own conscience convicted me, I began to see the countenance of God inside of me.  I could see how His grace liberated me and His peace remained deep in my heart.  It was this peace and joy within me that made me understand that I was no longer a man bound by sin, but now I was a new man bound by grace.

Every time I preach this message signs and wonders follow.  This message is the good news of Christ and those who live by it are free indeed.

Every morning I learn more and more about my God.  The more that I learn the more I understand that He is a God of mercy and grace.  He has great laughter and loves me more than I could ever understand.  He loves you the same way too.

May you always remember this as you keep on advancing toward your destiny.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:3-7)

My understanding of the above passage has changed through time.  Once I was like Nicodemus who just didn’t understand what it meant to be born again.  Even the explanation that Jesus provided to him was just words and wasn’t good enough to get me to the place of understanding.

But then I began to understand what it meant to be born of the Spirit because I encountered the pure waters of baptism.

I remember when His Spirit began to flow into me in a new way.  I remember a new strength rose up inside of me and I began to understand that my life was now different in Christ.

It was like all my old thought patterns were immediately changed by the voice of God speaking in my heart.  When I was washed by the presence of God in that moment I was never the same again.

This new birth wasn’t something I could do myself.  It was indeed a supernatural occurrence.  The day that I felt His presence birth me into the Spirit I was actually lost in the place of the presence and could feel the change taking place deep within me.

I remember for three days feeling the washing of the Spirit over my life.  I was invigorated and brought to life.  I was completely made new.  Old things in that moment passed away and I became a brand new man.  I was no longer bound by the flesh but I was free to be myself in a way I had never been before.  It was like fear was being lifted from me.

My dreams started to change.  I started to see myself flying in the Spirit.  I began to have visions of butterflies and dragonflies flying free in the sky.  I was starting to move into the place of God’s grace and the winds of His presence in my heart were both liberating and refreshing at the same time.

Those few days were like the springtime of my life.  There was freshness everywhere, and every place I looked I could see flowers blooming and water drops dropping.  It was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me.

This was my born again experience.  I began to hear God’s voice and it was sweet.  I began to see angels and to have visions of heaven.  I have never been the same since.

Have you experienced the same birthing in your spirit?  Has the Father touched you in that very special way and you came alive like you have never been alive before? Please share your experience(s) with the rest of your DWOD family.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33-34)

Many times when I minister to people the Lord shows me that they have concerns about how their next meal or their next bill will be paid for.  Often when I see this I just quote the above verse to them as an act of prophecy.

I will say something like, “I see that that you are struggling with many things, but the Lord would have you know that you should not worry about tomorrow’s problems because sufficient for tomorrow is its own problems.”

This is the truth, because it is the word of God.  I have lived many years now as a born-again-spirit-filled believer and while there have been times that I felt that I lacked, I have never gone without the essentials of life.  I have seen others live the same way.

I have seen people whom I felt should not make it in the natural.  They just did not seem to have the right stuff to make it day by day and somehow God even supplied their needs.  While they may have wanted to have more, the reality is they had enough.  They always had food to eat and a place to live.

In Christ, that is the way it is.  I have not known anyone who has turned to Christ who has gone long without His hand of provision on their life.

Prosperity for the Christian is to not live in lack.  It is not about having millions.  When I see the spirit of prosperity on a Christian’s life, it is about having enough for their daily bread and having enough to help their brother or sister in need.  It is about the peace of God in their hearts and minds–an assurance that everything will be alright.

I have to say that my God has prospered me even when I made bad decisions.  The bad decisions didn’t seem to bother him.  He just kept on supplying my need time and time again.

I remember when my wife and I were first married in 2007.  We were given a vehicle to drive that I thought cost a lot of money to fill with fuel.  So I made a bad decision to trade that car in for a more fuel-efficient car.  It was a small car that we outgrew within a year.  I had a loan for that car.  A year later I had to get another loan for a van that cost 30% more in fuel than the car I traded the year before.  I now had a huge loan that could have been avoided had I acted in wisdom.

But God has been faithful and always supplied the money for that loan.

Our God is a good God.  He understands our weaknesses and blesses us anyway.  I have made other bad choices since that time, but He keeps blessing me and we continue to bless many people with the resources that we do have.

One of the keys to having God’s provision is to look to Him alone and not to man.  Many people look to men to provide for them, but even the wealthiest man on earth doesn’t have enough to take care of everyone.  But God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.  He can make money appear in your life from sources you did not expect.

When your eyes are on God alone, you will experience true prosperity.  You will see provision come in ways you never expected and you will always be amazed at His goodness.

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)

I remember the days before I started to see people healed.  The thought of praying for someone for healing was a completely overwhelming thought for me.  I used to believe that if they did not get healed when I prayed for them that I was at fault.

This was not a healthy way for me to think.  It actually stopped me time and time again from praying for people.

I don’t know where I learned it, but through the years I have received much training on praying for the sick.  What I came to learn was that I am not responsible for healing anyone but simply to pray and if I keep on praying eventually someone will get healed.

I remember hearing stories about Smith Wigglesworth who prayed for many people before they were healed, and really this has been the experience of any person who has engaged in such a ministry.

Not everybody that I pray for gets healed even now, but surprisingly more and more people do get healed.  So I continue to pray.

I have been around men and women of God who have strong healing gifts and the thing that I have noticed about them is that they do not give up.  Even when it doesn’t look like a person is completely healed, they celebrate a partial healing.  They even celebrate the peace they see in the person’s heart.

In the past few years I have seen some tremendous healings.  There are people that define my ministry as both prophetic and healing, which kind of makes me laugh because I never really thought of myself as a healer, but I kept praying and because I did, eventually I began to see people touched by God in this way.

The key is to keep praying.  You will see people die of cancer, but if you don’t pray for someone with cancer. you will never see them healed.  You must pray even when they continue to die.

I remember one man that I prayed for about three years ago.  He came into the church with 18 of his family members.  I prayed for him to be healed of cancer.  He got touched by Holy Spirit that night in a real way, and although he died later, he gave his heart to the Lord that night and kept talking about the experience he had at our church until he died.  His whole family saw him touched by God in a real way.  They heard him testify of God’s goodness even in the face of his terminal disease.

Had I decided that night not to pray for him that testimony may not have reached the ears of his family and he certainly may not have had the peace that he had on his deathbed.  They would not have heard of the goodness of the Lord and he may not have made it to heaven.

And so some will be healed and some won’t be, but you should not judge the merit of your prayer.  Only God knows what that prayer really accomplished. Therefore, keep on praying and keep on asking and eventually the door of healing prayer will be opened up to you.

Dear DWOD friend, my prayer for you today is that you will step out past your boundaries.  Perhaps many people have prophesied over you that you have a healing gift.  The only way that gift will arise is if you exercise it and that takes faith.  I pray that kind of faith will overtake you today as you advance towards your destiny.