Believing a lie.

"AND JESUS, getting into a boat, crossed to the other side and came to His own town [Capernaum].  And behold, they brought to Him a man paralyzed  and  prostrated by illness, lying on a sleeping pad; and when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralyzed man, Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven  and  the penalty remitted.  And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, This man blasphemes [He claims the rights and prerogatives of God]!  But Jesus, knowing (seeing) their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil  and  harbor malice in your hearts?  For which is easier: to say, Your sins are forgiven  and  the penalty remitted, or to say, Get up and walk?  But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins  and  remit the penalty, He then said to the paralyzed man, Get up! Pick up your sleeping pad and go to your own house.  And he got up and went away to his own house.  When the crowds saw it, they were struck with fear  and  awe; and they recognized God  and praised  and  thanked Him, Who had given such power  and  authority to men." (Matthew 9:1-8 AMP) Have you ever believed something to later find out what you believed was wrong?  I've done that plenty of times.  It's the worst when what you believed and what you find to be true change your life or view of life. When I finished High School in 2005, I moved to a small town called Lebanon Ohio. It's about one hour north of Cincinnati.  I worked as an intern at a local church for a little over a year.  It really was an awesome experience getting to see at a young age what "real life" ministry in a local church looks and feels like. It showed me how building and maintaining a church was so much more than the weekly services.  I worked a full time job while functioning as the church intern and I would spend every Wednesday at the church working.   One Wednesday I was sitting in my office spending time developing potential sermons for the future. I'm not sure why I was doing this, I never preached at that church and preaching wasn't anything close to my duties as the intern.  Anyway, I was going through different scriptures and thinking through various ideas.  My thoughts began to ramble and I don't know how I landed upon this realization, but I had the thought and wrote it down right away.  "We relate to God the same way we relate to our biological (or earthly) father."  That hit me pretty hard at the time.  I remember crying for a little while and then going down to the office of my sister, the youth pastor and talking with her. I never thought about that before, I never would've considered that my relationship with my dad would have a direct connection to my relationship with God.  It's not that I believed the opposite, it's just I never considered the connection before.  It bothered me because I realized God was someone different than I grew up thinking.  That day in my office He become something new in my life. I'm a huge fan of Kris Vallotton and listen to and read almost anything I can of his.  In one of his books he told the story of a woman that was being tormented by a demonic spirit.  People in the church had tried to "deliver" her without success and finally someone came to ask Kris for help in the situation.  When Kris walked into the scene it was pretty disturbing.  The woman was on the floor and people were standing around her trying to physically control her as the spirit was manifesting.  Kris laid on the floor next to the woman and asked the Lord what was going on.  The Lord told Kris "When she was younger the devil told her a lie that she had blasphemed the Holy Spirit and that she couldn't be forgiven because of it.  But that was a lie and tell her I forgive her."  The woman had to believe something new.  She had to believe she didn't blaspheme the Holy Spirit and that she could be forgiven; that God had already forgiven her.  After she was able to believe this new truth and accept it she was able to be set free from the demonic influence in her life.  Did this woman really blaspheme the Holy Spirit?  No, God said that the devil lied to her about the sin.  Yet the woman accepted the lie as truth and lived her life condemned because of her perverted reality.   When I read Matthew 9:1-8 I wondered why Jesus forgave the man's sins before He healed him.  I'm wondering if it could be a similar issue as the one with Kris.  Let's imagine for a moment.  Let's imagine this paralyzed man believed he had committed some sin that caused him to become paralyzed.  Had Jesus said 'you're healed' before He said 'you're forgiven', the paralyzed man wouldn't have received his healing because he believed his unforgiven sin caused his paralysis.  The man would think "that's a nice thought, I'm healed.  But I have this stain of sin and that's why I'm sick."  The forgiveness Jesus released, forgiveness for a real sin or forgiveness for a lie from the devil about sin, set the man free from thinking he was unable to be healed and set him free from thinking "I deserve this sickness."   I heard Joseph Prince say "Don't make up sins in your life.  Don't believe something is a sin if God says it's not a sin."  Drinking alcohol for example.  Is it a sin to have one beer with your dinner?  I believe it's not a sin, I don't believe God says it's a sin and I don't believe the bible says it's a sin either.  Yet some christians go around preaching that drinking one beer is a sin.  When people like this preach ungodly words they release condemnation and guilt into the atmosphere.  A vulnerable person hearing that message will believe that drinking a beer is a sin.  When the day comes and that person has that one beer they'll walk around stuck under condemnation and guilt for something that wasn't wrong in the first place.     When I was nineteen I got my first tattoo.  The tattoo is on my left wrist and it says "Jesus" with a cross running through the middle "s".  The night after I got the tattoo I was at choir practice when a woman in the church walked up to me and said "Tattoos are from the devil and you're going to hell because of that tattoo."  Imagine how messed up my life would be if I believed that pathetic lie.  Thank God I didn't accept that as truth and live under the belief I was going to hell because of my Jesus tattoo. We must be careful to not believe the lies from the devil.  Lies that say we are evil, that we are worthless sinners.  We were once sinners, but now that we've received and accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior we have become the righteousness of God, children in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Don't believe lies that allow guilt, condemnation, sickness, and death to enter into your life.  Embrace the unconditional love of Jesus and His freedom from every chain. -Cheers.