Stephanie Okafor - Jesus:How To Know You’re His

Many people are crippled by sin even though they believe to be saved, because they don't have the faith that they have received the nature of Christ. Hey, y'all, welcome to plock Pod. Your invitation to return to what matters the most, and that is your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, on this episode, we're going to be talking about something that I believe every believer and everyone who is being drawn by the Lord to the faith needs to really pay attention to. And that is when it comes to the topic of salvation, right, and so today we're going to really be diving into how do you know you're really his? How do you know you really belong to Jesus? How do you know that you're really that you can confidently say I'm saved, I am a Christian. You see, Christianity is so interesting, even that word Christianity, because it's not about just this title. Right, when we look at the origin of even the word. It came about when you know, there were people the area that they were in at the time, there's all kinds of activity happening, and there's this group of people who are just different. You know, they just looked like the Lord and I'm talking about this was in Antioch. This is where Christianity the phrase was made known, right, or Christians rather not Christianity Christians. You know, I'm a Christian. So in Antioch, Antioch was just a place where you have all kinds of activity, all kinds of people, people are doing all kinds of things, and you have these group of people who just look like Christ. Right. They remind the people this is how Jesus walked, And so the phrase was given to them because it's like they are christ Like. These are people who are literally walking like Christ did. And so to be a Christian it's not just this thing we say, you know, when we're like, you know, I go to church, I read my Bible, I'm a Christian. No, are you living like Christ? When I see you? Can I be? Can I see the Jesus of the Bible? What do I receive from you? Right? And we're gonna really dive into this, but that is what it means to be a Christian, that you are christ Like. It is not the title of a religion. It is not some you know, weird thing or whatever. It literally points to being christ Like. That is what it is to be a Christian. And so when it comes to salvation, let's really dig into this because there is a scripture that Jesus really gave as a sobering warning, right, And this is in Matthew seven, verse twenty one to twenty three, and he says, not everyone. So check this out. There's gonna be a group of people. Let's call that group everyone. All these people, not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord. So everyone is saying the same thing. All these people are coming to Jesus saying Lord Lord. But he says not all of them. They will all come with confidence. They will all come with boldness and say Lord Lord. But he says, not everyone shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Right, So all these people are saying Lord Lord, but not all of them are going to enter the kingdom of heaven. They're coming to him with confidence that they have a place in him. But he says, not everyone, but the one who does the will of my father in heaven. So first of all, he sets the tone. He says, Okay, these people are calling me lord, but I'm not their lord. The demons called Jesus. They know his lord. They don't fight it. They know that he is Lord. But he's not their lord, right, So that's why he says, but the one who does the will of my father in heaven. So there are many people who believe they're saved, but they don't live out God's will. And he says, it doesn't work like that. So there is something. There's a disconnect with what they think salvation is about. If they believe they're saved, but they're living life according to their pleasure and their appetite. How is it that they believe they're saved but they're doing life outside the will and the purposes of God. They believe they're saved, but what their life mirrors is not the word of God. And Jesus sets the tone first and foremost. Not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord will enter the kingdom heaven. And number one reason, they don't do the will of my Father in heaven. So there is a disconnect. We're gonna get into it. Many will say to me in that day, Lord Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? Now this is crazy because the activities they're doing is what we would assume are not for baby Christians. Someone who just comes into the faith is not gonna start casting out demons. You would assume these activities to mature Christians, people that have walked with the Lord and now they're prophesying, they're casting out demons, and you know, they're doing many wonders in the name of God. And then Jesus is saying, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you this is really wild, but it really you know, you know how you could be reading something and it's reading you, but you don't realize it until years later. It was recently that I realized I could have fallen into that category and hear me out. I've been sharing on the podcast. My encounters with the Lord started at age nine. That's when I knew. I knew Jesus is Lord, Jesus is God. I knew it without a shadow of a doubt. But he wasn't mine. He was my father. And I remember last week we talked about the difference between the Father and the judge. Right, he was just in the father pocket. And guess what the Lord used to speak to me about things. There were things that I had knowledge of. The prophetic flowed like water if I'm just in the If I'm around somebody, I would just have a clarity about who that person is. Things that the Lord would just start showing me about them, right. And the funny thing is when I now came to know the Lord, then he began to say, now I will teach you about these realms. It's gonna be slowed down. So more point is when he was not my savior, he was just my dad. I called him dad. I still call him dad when I pray. But he was just my father. Because for someone to be your lord means that you are they are your owner. Lord literally means owner. But he didn't own me because yes, there were things that the Lord will say to me that regulated my life, but not everything. There were some things that I knew I wasn't really scared of. Let me put it this way. In the beginning, there were somethings the Lord will tell me not to do, and the reason that I wouldn't do it was that I was more scared of the natural outcome, not that I was scared of disobedience, if that makes sense. So for example, I remember, you know, I was probably like eleven or something like that around that age ten eleven twelve when the Lord literally tells me I should wait until marriage, you know, before being intimate with anyone. And I was waiting. I was so young, I said, ill, who is even thinking about this? You know, as I got older and the thought became a thing, you know, I was more scared about And this is just the reality. I was more scared about being pregnant and telling my mom than disobeying God. So if there and I remember one time I was trying to negotiate with the Lord. I said, well, Lord, there's ways that women can protect themselves, you know, they're and all that stuff. And he said, in those protections. You know, if you're using some of those protections as ninety nine point nine, and I remember so clearly, the spirit said, you would be that point one percent. I said, oh, but my fear wasn't about disobedience. My fear was that I will not be that percentage that gets pregnant and has to tell her mom. My mom, kill me before the Lord gets to me. But the point of me saying this is he was not my lord. He was my father. So I was trying to negotiate with my dad. I didn't know him then, as Lord but I was moving in the prophetic. The Lord had healed me. I would pray with people even as a child, and they would start like healing would break out. But he was my dad, he was not yet my owner. My life was not regulated fully by him. There were things that were within boundaries, but it was because of other things as well. There were still some areas where I'm like his word was suggestive, not a command, not law in my life. So I could have fallen into this category and not even know it. And so the Lord here, First of all, he said, look, you know, the scripture tells us that you will know them by their fruit. When he's talking about those who belong to him, those who are his, he's not saying you will know them by their works, but you will know them by their fruit. And why is that? Because then again you see another thing I've learned about the Lord. There are certain things the Lord does not because he's confirming the person as accurate before him. But sometimes it is really for the sake of his name. You see, when you go back to that scripture in verse twenty two, they kept, you know, he highlighted how they said, we cast demons in your name. We prophesied in your name. We did many wonders in your name. And now just journey with me to Ezekiel chapter thirty six, verse twenty two, and look at what God says. It is not for your sake, old house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name. There are times that God answers and meets certain needs, not because he's confirming the person that this person is mine, but for the sake of his name, for the one on the receiving end. Because you see, God judges and watches the motives of our hearts. A person could be under a demonic ministry or a leader or whatever, but that person is really seeking God, is really seeking the Lord Jesus. He's not there for the prophet or whoever. He's there for the Lord. And so some things can happen not because God is confirming the leader, but because God is defending his name, because these were things done in his name. And to that person on the receiving end, when they hear Jesus, they're believing this is the Jesus of the Bible. So it is their faith the person on the receivings and faith that is actually in having an engagement with God, not the one who might seem to be releasing something. Because at the end of the day, no human being has the ability to release a miracle, to release a breakthrough, to release the prophetic that comes when it's pure and genuine, it comes by the spirit of God, right, and so the real giver when it's pure, is the spirit of God. So it's there's an engagement happening between the spirit of God and the receiver, not always that God is confirming the person. And so sometimes, especially in the times that we're in and in the last days, the Bible tells us many would be deceived, right, because oftentimes we're looking for results, results, results, and human nature is designed to worship, right, We were designed to worship God. And when we start when when we and we often misappropriate that worship to men, to people, because we start looking at the one the person I can touch, Oh, this must be this person must be like a God to me, rather than realizing that any good thing that happens in your life came from the Lord, not that the person was just a conduit to get it through. And this confirms it because here they have prophesied, they have cast it out demons they have done wonders, and Jesus says, I will declare to them, I never knew you. I never knew you. And this is also a warning, you know, because what this produces this kind of people. My husband likes to call this, this this phrase intelligent sinners, right, that these are sinners with intelligence. You know. They know how to pray, they know how to show up in church, they know how to study the world, all these things. But they are sinners. They do not carry out the will of the Father. And they are And when I say that someone is a sinner, I'm not trying to say like, oh, you're a sinner. I don't say now, I'm trying to talk about people who are who are wilful and willful disobedience to God and trying to distort the scriptures to make it look as though no me and God. I'm good with Jesus. I've received them in my life. I'm saved. There's nothing that could take that away from me. But Jesus is over here saying I never even knew you. You never had a place in me. You see, you have to question, are you more loyal to your flesh? Are you more loyal to yourself? Are you more loyal to religious structure? Are you more loyal to your leader than to the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to be honest with yourself because there are many people that find themselves even in corrupt systems and will make excuses for it because it is speaking. It appeases their flesh, It appeases the things that they desire in their lives, which, when you're honest, the Lord might want to kill. They're sudden appetite you have that the Lord is saying, enough of this, This is not something I want to give you. And then you're under a corrupt ministry, they start hyping it up like, oh yeah, you can do this, you can have more of it, X, Y, and z. And let the spirit of the Lord minister to you wherever you may fall, wherever this lends in your life, it will make sense to you. And so you are more loyal to that than to the Lord. You are more loyal to yourself than to the Lord. And this is what keeps you in a place of ignorance because check this out, because then the scripture would say the part from me, you who practice lawlessness. Now lawlessness can be translated to wickedness. But another translation when you look at the word of them is that it gives this understanding of those who transgress the law due to ignorance. But this is not ignorance, like, oh my gosh, they were just unaware. Look at what Hoseiah four, verse six says, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Oftentimes we stop there, we just say, oh man, God's people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. But then it says because you have rejected knowledge. It's not just that you're destroyed because you're ignorant. You are destroyed because you have rejected the truth. The truth came to you and you rejected it because you were more loyal to yourself. Now, I don't know what category you might fall into, but the question still stands, what gives you confidence in your life that you belong to Jesus? So let's look at a biblical guide of how do we know that we really genuinely receive salvation? Number one and I want you to write this down episode when I said this, but I encourage you when you tap into the podcast, always bring a pen a paper, because you want to write these scriptures down. You want to study it on your own. This is how we grow in the things of God. You don't just listen, but you want to take it also back to the Holy Spirit and he will begin to unfold more things to you. So how do we know that we really receive salvation? Number One? You must recognize your need to be saved. How you see, sometimes there are people who what drew you to the idea of Jesus was that you heard a testimony of how someone who walks with the Lord received breakthrough, increase, abundance, you know, some open doors. What you desire is that you did not say yes to Jesus because you realized, wait, I need to be saved. You said yes to Jesus because he sounded like the vehicle for your prosperity. Someone gave a beautiful speech about how when they were obedient to the Lord Jesus, all kinds of doors just began to open up, money started flowing, things just started being you know, enriched, abundance came through and do these things happen? Absolutely right. But while I'm trying to land in that cannot be your foundation. Anybody could give you that. You don't even need a spirit being to give you that the right job could give you that. Maybe it's just that at that point in your life you are in search for that thing, and guess who else can give it to you? The enemy. He can give you something that will cost you your integrity while you say thank you Jesus. He can give you something that will cost you to live in a way that serves his kingdom. While you are giving praise to Jesus and you cannot mock the Lord. That is mockery before God. What you're doing, you're really just entertaining demons. You're not serving God. So and this is so important because if the foundation is faulty, whatever you build on it will not last. If what drew you to Jesus is faulty, eventually something will draw you out. Because what happened is that you were convinced by something not convicted by the Lord. You are convinced that why if I just accept Jesus, he can speak to me and doors open up for me. If I accept Jesus, he could tell me who my spouse is and then I would be married. If I accept Jesus, he would give me this idea that would change my life forever. Oh sign me who first of all, who would not want to deal like that? Think about it, someone who has no allegiance to any spirit, deity, whatever, right, I have no allegiance that. Oh I am fresh off the march. Just you know, what do they call it in basketball? When you're just open? You know, you just open market. I don't know. This tells you my lack of you know lingo. But you are just available for any team, any team can have you. Then you happen to walk into a church. Your friend tells you, hey, man, come to church with me. I'm open, And now I hear Wait if I join you, guys, I could be rich. I will find my spouse. Wait, sign me up. Isn't first of all, isn't that why white people go to psychics? Think about it? Isn't that why people are practicing all kinds of weird stuff. They're trying to figure out just how to the basics of life? Isn't it funny how Jesus would say, don't worry about what you would eat or drink, but seek first the kingdom of God. So how Jesus wants to draw you is not by what you would eat or drink. What draws you is not what Jesus can give you in the natural. So now you have to take a journey back to your foundation. If what drew me to Jesus was about the exchange I receive and the natural, your foundation is faulty. If what drew me to Jesus is about things that I can acquire in the natural, your foundation is faulty because just like that, something else could draw you out. That's why we see it all the time. Someone just and especially now with social media. I was listening to I happened to fall. You know, on these apps you can they'll have content suggested for you. And there was a content suggested and there was a lady who was upset with her pastor about something he said. And she said, now I'm questioning my faith. And I'm like, how could you question your faith because you didn't agree with your pastor. So because your pastor said something you didn't like, now you're the entirety of your faith is being questioned. The foundation is faulty, right, and so the foundation has to be right. The foundation has to be right. The foundation is also faulty if you just believe that I was just raising a Christian home, so I'm Christian. That doesn't work that way. Salvation is personal and intimate. It's a personal thing. It's a personal pursuit between you and the Lord Jesus. It is not an inheritance that you get from your parents. So if you believe that you are saved because you grew up in a Christian home, the foundation is faulty. True salvation begins when you recognize your need to be saved. And in that moment, it's not always something you have this you know, beautiful articulation for, but there is a knowing that wherever my life is leading me to is destruction. Because what am I being said? And what am I being saved too? Right? I'm not being saved from debt. I'm not being saved from financial lack. That is not what salvation is about. There are people that know Jesus today in poverty. Right, I'm not being saved from singleness because think about it. That if what drew me to Jesus is because the pastor had this beautiful message about how the Lord revealed their spouse and I want to be married. So what am I being saved from singleness so I can be saved to marriage? No? This is natural, So what am I being saved from. There is a knowing when the Lord begins, when your heart is humble and broken before the Lord and you're truly in search of him, and he encounters you. Whether it's a in a church setting, in your home, you're watching something, maybe you're listening to this right now, and there's something that begins to work in your heart. And sometimes you don't have articulation for it, but there is a knowing that wherever my life is leading me to His death, it is destruction. It is it is, it is a cycle of dysfunction. There is a knowing that I need to be taken from death to life. I need to be saved from this way of destruction. You may not have the language for it, but that's the feeling. There is a feeling this and it's like Lord, that's why we say, Lord save me. That's what the Bible says that whoever confess and believes in their heart that Jesus is Lord, that they would be saved. I'm being saved from something to something, and ultimately I'm being saved from eternal damnation to eternal life. So there's this feeling, you know, for me, I can never forget that moment, Like I said, I knew the Lord early, but I knew him as father. And I saw how the Lord just loved me. He would cover me, he would protect me, he will keep me. And I remember like, and I'm just like I used a question, you know, it was almost like self sabotage. And and again, the beauty with God is that not everything that you see on surface value in two people's lives are the same. Before God, the way I would have been living my life and the way another person would have been living their life could look exactly the same on the like, you know, just on the surface value, but before God is completely different because again he looks at the heart of the matter. Right, And so for me, I think I just really questioned that could God really love me? I felt as though I wanted to give reasons to see him fail me, right, I wanted to. It's like I was trying to test him that you don't really love me the way you say you do. You will fail me. You know you will fail me because I was wrestling even though the Lord had taught me and showed me many things concerning. For some that don't know my story, my father was murdered when I was eight months old, and that was something I struggled with. And the Lord began to give me clarity and just taught me about forgiveness and all of that. But I wrestled with this idea that God loved me when I met him, even though I had encountered his love, I knew about his love I was, but there was still this little part of me that was like, he can't be this good, Like at some point, you're gonna really show yourself. So there were things that I would do that was to see, Okay, you're gonna finally take the mask off. And I remember this day I was I went to the club and the Lord had even on the way go home, you know, and I'm like, nah, I'm going. I was having a good old time. You know, what I thought was a good old time was really death and destruction. And I was like, I had two drinks in my hand, you know, one dark, one light, and that's terrible, terrible, terrible to do that. I mean, don't even drink you know, hard liquor, just don't do it. But I had the two drinks in my hand and go just yet there, you know, the music is pumping and I'm just having a good time dancing what I thought was a good time. And I remember seeing there was this lady and the Lord begins to speak to me about her father and gives me a word that I need to give her about her father, and I'm like, first of all, Dad, do you see where we are? This is not the church. This is not a place for death, says the Lord. But I couldn't shake it, you know, like literally, there are times that when the Lord will give me a word to say, speak. I understood what Jeremiah was saying the Bible that it would be like fire shut up in his bones. I just feel hot, like I need to release it. And so I go over to this lady and I'm just like, you know what I'm about to say, I don't look like the person that should be saying it. And I just started sharing with her what the Lord has spoken to me about her dad, and it was very personal to her, and she got really emotional and she was like, thank you so much, and she left and because the Lord even showed me, he was like, she's not even supposed to be here, like you are not supposed to be here, right, And she left, and I remember going home when I got home, I sat like, you know how you have those like a in an apartment, the kitchen counter and you have a cheer or whatever. So I was sitting by the kitchen counter and I was just like, Lord, I'm living a double life. Like on one hand, I really like, I think I love you. I think you know, and I think you love me. And that was when I finally really had like articulation for my wrestle and my struggles with feeling as though God will one day just disappoint me. He would just show me that he's really not this loving person that he you know, he's been showing himself to be. And I just opened up before the Lord, and I was like, and what I just felt that if I continued in my way, if I continued in disobedience, if I continued, you know, live in this in this manner, the only thing that I could feel was death, and not death like dying like you know when a person transitions, it's just a feeling of death. Like whatever I'm doing is destructive. This is not life, This is not the way I'm supposed to be living. And I was like, God, you truly love me so much that you keep showing you're always there, and I was like, you know what, I'm done. I was just like, I am done. I'm done. I don't want to live a double life. I don't want to say you're my father, but this is how I'm acting. And then that moment I accept that Jesus as my Lord. I said, I want to do life the way you want me to. I want to live the way you want me to live. I want all of my life to truly be a reflection of your word. Right And that moment opens you up. And so there is a moment, there is a time in your life that you have to recognize the need to be saved. For some, what draws them into that moment is the love of God. For some is the wisdom of God, because every attribute of God will draw you to himself. For some is the reverence of God. There is a way that you can encounter the Lord Lord that is so majestic that you literally see yourself as the sinner that you are, that you literally feel like I am unworthy to be in your presence. Right now, the reality of your true nature is revealed to you. There are times, and it's a spiritual thing. This is not something a person can convince you into. It is something that goes beyond what words can explain. It is a spiritual exchange, not a natural exchange. It's not about God. If I give my life to Jesus, oh man, finally gonna get that contract because he is gonna favor me. It is a spiritual thing. It is a kingdom thing. So there is something in your inner being that recognizes whatever path I am going on right now is destructive, it is not fruitful. There is no life here. I need you Jesus. Think about it. That is why you will find even when a billionaire would accept the Lord, he would be on his knees in tears, because in that moment, it's not his riches that has life. Remember we talked about in episode one, Jesus is life. It's not his riches that he has life in. It's not his resource, it's not his relationships that life is found. But there is something spiritual that only Jesus can give him, only the Lord can give him. And he is like a baby before God because he realizes in that moment, I have wasted my years not knowing you. Often I remember this minister when he was transitioning to be with the Lord. But he was still coherent on his dying bed, and they said, if there's one thing you could change, what would that be. He said that I knew the Lord sooner. And I literally I understand that, because even a couple of weeks ago I was like, Man, Lord, I wish I obeyed you sooner. I wish you became my savior sooner. I wish I had the experience that you were not just my dad at that age, but you were my Savior at that age. I wish I had that sooner. And now I desire for my kids to have that. I'm praying for them each and every day that they would encounter God at a very young age, but not just know him as father, but savior. That at a young age I can we that as parents we can communicate to them the sinful nature that Christ came to die for, to share the gospel with them, not just share games and toys and all these things. No, share the Gospel with your children while they are young. They can comprehend it. You will be shocked that children will be able to comprehend it even better than adults. Because nothing is Their minds are not as distracted as we are, and the spirit of the Lord is not there's no junior Holy Spirit. It's the same Holy Spirit that will come into a child. It's the same Holy Spirit that will come into an adult. And the Holy Spirit would have language for that child to understand the ways of God. And so you have to recognize your need to be saved, and it cannot be based on a natural transaction. That need has to come from a place that is spiritual. That Lord I want, I need, I need to be saved from this path of destruction into the path of life. One of the questions that people often ask me is, Stephanie, how do I actually study the Bible? When we desire to go deeper, sometimes it can feel a little intimidating. And I'm here to tell you about an amazing Bible study too, and it's called Logos. It's an incredible app that helps you engage with scripture in a more meaningful way. So, for example, you can type in what does the Bible say about holiness and it will give you scripture, scholarly insides, historical background, and so much more. Logos helps you to understand what you're reading and why it matters. So whether you're new to the faith or you've been following Jesus for some time. This is gonna help you study the world with so much confidence. And we have received such an incredible gift for every plog pod listener. You can use lagus today for free for the next sixty days. All you have to do is go to lagos dot com backshot Stephanie to get started. Now, let's go back into the episode now number two, believe in Jesus Now. Romans ten nine says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. But I start with believe in Jesus in your heart, because without believing in Him, then the confession is just empty words. You have to believe in your heart that truly, and look at this, that God has raised him from the dead. This is not just about some random man dying and was resurrected. This is telling you the story of the Gospel. The Gospel is about the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of Christ Jesus. So when God has raised him from the dead, it's pointing to what he came on earth to do. That's why last week we talked about the blood of Jesus. When you believe what the Blood of Jesus sealed for you, the covenant it brought you in to, when you believe it in your heart, then you already confession is not what flows from that. You see, the scripture talks about that. You know in the abundance of the heart. The mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart. Rather the mouth speaks. So there has to be a belief in your heart, because first of all, there is something that all of a sudden, the Spirit encounters you. You recognize that you need to be saved. But who can save you? Now that's where that's where, of course Jesus comes in, because I recognize that I need to be saved from this destructive path. And that acknowledgment comes while you're hearing about the gospel. There's something that is happening in your heart while this person is preaching the gospel, or you could be having your own encounter with the Lord without anyone in the But what is in your heart is that Jesus I've heard about, that Jesus that has ministered to me, that Jesus that encountered me that Jesus that this person spoke about. Sometimes, even when you see people on the road saying repent or go to Hell and repent and give your life to the Lord Jesus, you may call them crazy, but I know several people who met Jesus that way because while someone was saying that on the road, they were having a spiritual encounter. Something was speaking to their hearts. If you don't repent, this is the world you're going to continue on. It would leave you in destruction. So now the Jesus I've heard about, the Jesus have encountered, I have to believe in him that indeed he is the Way, the truth and life. And when I do that, now I can confess. And confession really has to do with agreement, because if you think of it, God is just. It's not that if a man who is mute cannot say it, does that rob him from receiving the Lord. No, But confession is it's about agreement. Now obviously, if you can speak, speak it out loud right, because words are powerful. But confession is about coming into alignment with the truth of what God has revealed in your heart. Because just like I said, you can know something to be true and still rejected. Perfect example is the rich young ruler. Now study this when you have the chance, but write down the scripture Matthew nineteen, from verse sixteen to twenty two. The rich young ruler. His name is not even mentioned, he's identified by his chains. The rich young ruler comes to Jesus and he says, what good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life? Right? This is about salvation. What can I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus points to him all the commandments. Now Jesus is trying to draw something out of him. Jesus is not ignorant to what the man would respond afterwards, but he's trying to get him to a place. So Jesus says, you know, starts telling him the commandment and all that stuff, and then the rich young ruler says, you know, I've kept all that since I was a youth. Then Jesus says, if you want to be perfect, go sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me. Jesus is not against wealth. He's not against you having great possessions, but when it has you, it becomes a hindrance to your ability to follow him. So Jesus is looking at this man. The Bible doesn't even tell us his name, because this is his identities in his wealth, and Jesus is like, if you really want to follow me, because following me is not again, you see, salvation is not about a natural, earthly transaction. Following me is not gonna secure your possessions. You don't follow me because it's gonna, you know, make you even more wealthier. You could be wealthier as a result of following Jesus. That is not out of the picture. But that is not what it is about. So Jesus is looking at this man and is like, your wealth has you. It is your choke hold. It has become your prison, So sell it and follow me. Now Here is what is fascinating. When you read the scripture. The Bible tells us that the man walked away from Jesus sorrowful, and you will think. You will think that if the man did not believe Jesus, he should walk away rejoicing, I'm not gonna follow you, and I get to keep my possessions. He walks away sorrowful because he knows what Jesus is saying is true, but he rejects it. He's not submitted to it because of what it will cost him. Many people know the truth about Jesus, but reject it because of what it will cost them. Following, Jesus will not keep you the same. It will cost you your idols. It will cost you the things you put your trust in. It will cost you something great. And many are not truly saved because of what it will cost them, because of the personal sacrifice in what they have to lay before the Lord. So they know the truth, but they are not in agreement with it. They acknowledge he is Lord, but he is not Lord. Now Number four hope, I mean not hope, repentance sorry now Acts three Verse nineteen says, repent then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. Now, repentance is a natural response. When you have believed in your heart and you have confessed with your mouth right, And when I talk about confess with your mouth again, you've come in agreement that what the Lord has revealed to you is now my truth. I've received this asked truth that the Lord, that Jesus's lord, and now he has become my lord. And again lord means owner. So if he is my owner and there are things in my life that do not glorify him, there are things in my life that he begins to reveal to and me to walk away from. Because repentance literally means to turn the other way. So it's you're turning away from something to something and ultimately you're turning to Jesus, to his ways, to his principles, to his will, to his purpose, and so I have to turn to him repentance. But repentance it's a natural response, you see. First of all, repentance flows from conviction, but your ability what enables you to repent is because salvation is not about like change when when when you become saved, it's not that, okay, I gotta have to change this. You start listing all the things you need to change it. It's not this manual labor. It's about exchange. Right. Remember we talked about in the previous episode how Jesus became sin, not sins. Not he wasn't a sinner, right, he became sin because sin has to do with the fallen nature of man. When Adam and Eve obeyed listen to the voice of saying, they took on the nature of the one they listened to. They took on a sinful nature. Right, And the sinful nature is the fallen nature of man. And so now when a person is coming to the Lord, Jesus became sin that we may become the righteousness of God in him. There is an exchange, because Jesus took sin and killed it on the cross. Jesus was not there trying to count all the things that are labeled as sin. Lion for negation, this, that, X, Y, and Z these because sinning is what comes from the nature of sin. Right, there is a nature an animal has and because of its nature their actions that it that it reveals. Right, there's a nature of the lion. You will not find lion eating, you know, grass, that's not its nature. So what the lion begins to show about himself is connected to its nature. What a lion would eat is not what an elephant eats. They have two different natures. Right. So there is the nature of sin, and that nature is what Jesus dealt with on the cross. So when you come to salvation, there is an exchange. That happens. He takes your sinful nature and gives you the righteousness, a righteous nature, So sinning should be abnormal to you. It doesn't mean that you're not gonna fall here and there, because before you came into Christ, your flesh mastered you. You still have the memories, you still know the feeling of certain things, but it now becomes it's like it's dysfunctional. You see. Before the Lord became my savior, I used to struggle with pornography. I would watch it and even when I'm like, okay, I will not watch it, then something will make me watch it. The same way like i will go out and I'm like, okay, I'm not going to go, then I will go. Because the sinful nature, it's a nature that produces after itself. It causes you to fall into sinning. A righteous nature produces after itself. That's why God says you will know them by their fruit, because the nature they have is different. It is a righteous nature. There are some things that could still come as a temptation, but you have to have the consciousness that you know what I am, the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I know longer I'm a slave to sin. That's what Jesus dealt with. So the output of my life, what is produced out of my life, should be what reveals his nature. So God is not trying to change you because you cannot change the flesh. He's it's an exchange, he says, give me that sinful nature and receive my nature. Right. Look at Galatians two twenty. Look at what it says, I have been crucified with Christ. That sinful nature was crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life. Look at this, the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I live by faith in the Son of God. Many people are crippled by sin, even though they believe to be saved, because they don't have the faith that they have received the nature of Christ. Again, going back to the mind, you cannot a man who believes he's a woman would never tell you, Oh, I believe I'm a man because I came to God. Because something there is a nature, there is a sinful nature, that the product of that nature is for him to believe I'm a woman, and to do things in his body that should not be done to his body because he believes he's a woman. And he might say, you know what I've received Jesus, I you know X, Y and Z, but this is just who I am. Cannot it would be impossible for him to change if he thinks salvation is about change, change for God. That was why, you know, there were many people who were traumatized by the church because when they opened up about their sexual orientation and it was not in accordance to the will of God, people thought they could pray it away. Because you're thinking we could change you. Let us do these works and change you. You will never It doesn't work like that. It is an exchange. You have to know that the life you were living was a product of the sinful nature of man, of the fallen man, and now you have received the life of God. It starts with belief. That's why the Bible also says that it is impossible to please God without faith, because you cannot receive from him if you don't believe in who He is. You cannot receive from him if you don't believe in what He did for you. So you have to believe in the Son of God. And believing in the Son of God is believing in what He did for you, that he put that sinful nature on the cross. I don't have to live like that. When I tell you, everybody has different testimony. Some people it was gradual, it was different things. But when I tell you, the moment I said yes to Jesus as my savior, the taste of pornography left me. That was my testimony. Instantly, it was like to watch it felt disgusting, the very thing I used to enjoy. Watching that felt like it just felt dirty, felt like this is not normal. I should not be doing this. The things that I used to enjoy in my sinful nature. It feels foreign to me. Now there are things that if Satan wants to tept me, he can't tapt me with my past, because that feels like a foreign taste. If it is not what will draw me, it is that you can't tep me with all. Let's go to this place I would. The funny thing is I didn't even I didn't. I never even liked the taste of alcohol. Yet I could drink like a fish back then. And this is hard liquor. I had a very high tolerance and I could drink and I hated alcohol. Does that even make sense that you hate the taste of what you're doing? The sinful nature? Perfect example, David, David loved the Lord. I mean, we can It's not even our testimony. It's not even David's testimony of himself. It is God's testimony of David. That David is a man that would be loyal to God. David loved the Lord. But guess what, David had a sinful nature. Even if he tried to fight it, that thing came out. That was why when David took another man's wife, Riah's wife slept with her, she became pregnant, and when he tried to manipulate the sitution cuation, it didn't work. Had them husband killed. Then a prophet comes to him and describes David to himself. David could not recognize himself. The prophet says what should be done to a man, and he begins to describe literally David to himself, and David gets angry at such a person. David is disgusted by that person's actions. But guess what that was? David, he could not recognize himself, because a sinful nature would produce after itself. You could, you know, try to keep it down for a while, but that thing will come up. This is the man who loved God and he did what was the unthinkable to him. When you were made righteous by the blood, the outcome of your life should be after that nature. So these are things that but you have to believe it. You have to believe it. It has to be a daily consciousness. And that is why the apostle Paul will say I die daily. It was a consciousness that every day he's conscious of the fact I have been crucified with Christ. Whatever comes up that is against the nature of Christ is not me. I don't have to submit to it. I don't have to yield to it. And so when we choose to yield to a righteous nature, it produces life through us. The life of Christ becomes our reality. It begins to change us, begins to transform us. It changes our appetite. If you say you're saved and some appetites have never changed, you have to look at the foundation of your salvation, because salvation is about an exchange. Because it's in that exchange. Remember, when you want to understand the thing. You have to go to its origin. It's in that exchange we get back to Eden, the original intent for man, because it's in that righteous stay that we can commune with God. So God is not saying like, oh, you don't dress like this, don't drink that, don't do this, don't go there. You know his answer, receive my nature, because my nature will not have you do it. My nature would not produce that in you. His solution is, receive my nature. If you receive my nature, it will produce after its kind. What it would begin to do in you would now reflect my image and my likeness. So if something is not, if the life of God is not at work in you, then you have to get back to the foundation. I'm oh, I really saved. Now. I'm not talking about when someone is on their dying bed. They don't have time to live this out right in that moment. It's like, hey, receive the Lord Jesus, so you don't have time to see the fruit of it. But I'm talking about when your life has shown us that by now we should see fruit that you were saved ten years ago, and we still have not seen fruit of that salvation. Something is wrong. The foundation is faulty. You got to get back into the presence of God. And sometimes it's a simple prayer because maybe we could even be too arrogant to know that we need to be saved. That's very true. We can just be doing this whole Jesus thing because it's just part of our routine. We go to church on Sunday. It feels amazing. The Word was gray worship really uplifted me. You know. After that you have branch plans, you know, it feels good. The Word of God can feel motivational sometimes, like who, I just feel so motivated, you know, but he's not my lord. It just makes me feel, you know, excited. I'm like, Wow, you read about David and Golithe he said, you know what, I Am going to take down my Goliath. But you don't see the deeper context of that scripture. You don't see Jesus in it. All you see is yourself. You're motivated by the Word, you're not transformed by it. It motivates you to do better tomorrow, to go after that thing, and that's all of this is amazing, by the way, but if it doesn't produce transformation, it's a problem. You would know that you are connected to the things of the spirit when it produces life in you, when it produces the life of God in you. It's just like perfect example, we're gonna, we're gonna pray. Have you ever heard a message so amazing but all you felt after it was like Wow, that made a lot of sense, But it didn't produce life. It just made sense, but not life. It didn't make life in you. And when I talk about making life the life of God, that things you start, you're like, wall, I can't do this thing is not pleasing to the Lord or you know what? This, something about this message brought me to a knowledge of God in a way I didn't know. You don't want the totality of what you believe is your salvation to not have life, because that is the whole point. It's not just to feel good and have the label of a Christian. It is to be christ Like Jesus wants to tell a story through you. Jesus just supposed to tell a story through your life. It was so beautiful. I was listening to a message from one of my mentors and he was talking about how the Book of Acts is an open ended book that the Lord is still writing the Book of Acts, because the Book of Acts was not about the acts of the Apostles, the acts of Jesus. Think about it. The things they did was not about Oh this is what Paul did, This is what Peter did. This is what Jesus did through them. It is the acts of Jesus. And he's still acting till today. And he wants to work through you. He wants to live through you. He wants to reveal himself through you. But if you think that salvation was just a feel good thing of like, okay, a natural exchange, you miss it. It's a spiritual thing to receive his life that let him, let him live through you. I will say this again. I think I said this an episode one. But meditate on Galatians two twenty. Meditate on it. Let it become real. Let let it be life in you. That I was crucified with Christ Jesus. It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. What Christ would not do, I should not do it through my body. What will not glorify Christ should not be done through me. It's a consciousness we must have. Again, I'm not saying that you're not gonna have shortcomings, but you are not going to define yourself by shortcomings. You are not your shortcomings. That's the point. You're not gonna say, Okay, you had a you slipped up today, and you're like, you know what, that's just who I am. No, no, no, this is not who I am. This is the nature that was crucified on the cross. That nature has been killed. You have to come out of agreements with the sinful nature. You cannot receive the nature that Jesus went on the cross for you. If you're still in agreement with your sinful nature, if you're still defining yourself by the workings of that nature, you cannot receive it. That's why you cannot put new wine in old wine skin. You cannot say, well, here is the one my sinful nature. Here is it, Lord, Now give me your spirit. No new wine cannot go in old wine skin. So if you're really going to walk with God, you have to believe that in your yes to Him by faith, you know this to be true. He gave you his life. Then begin to ask the Holy Spirit work that life in me and come out of agreement with the workings of the sinful nature. Whatever you did in your sinful nature. You are not that person. And the more you say you are, the more you reject the life of Christ. And that is the whole point of salvation. That means were you really saved? If you cannot accept his life, are you really saved? See? Salvation is there's a journey to it, and don't allow the enemy to rob you of what God has for you. When you say, yes, there's a seed, there's a seed that needs to be nurtured. But if you don't nurture the seed, it could die. That's why you could start off truly on the path of salvation and be robbed of it because you stop nurturing the seed. Okay, you said you knew you needed to say, you knew you needed to be saved. You believed in Jesus in your heart, you confessed him. But then you're like repentance, I don't know, and why don't you know? Because you didn't Really, You're you're struggling with relinquishing your sinful nature. So now that seed is no longer watered, that seed no longer has sunlight, and eventually it becomes nothing. See that's why, and this will go into this later. But that's why you will see how in scripture when the Lord will talk about I will blot out your name from the Book of Life. Why why would he if he will blot out your name? So it was at one point it was written and then it was blot out. So how was I saved? But now I'm not? How did I start in the Book of life? But now I'm no longer in the Book of life because there is a journey, and there's some time that a person becomes saved, and in the mercy of God, he calls them home early because you leave them to linger too long, they're robbed of it. So the last thing they did was just to say yes to Jesus, and he said, if I let you linger because of the prayers of those before you, I cannot let you linger because along the line, you're gonna mess this up. Think about it. Why would Jesus blot out a name? So the name was in the book you started off? Right? Lord, I need to be saved. I need to come out from death into life. Oh Lord, I believe you are. Lord. Lord. I'm gonna I'm receiving you by faith to be my lord. But I'm i ah, I still want to hold onto my sinful nature. I'm not ready to give you that yet. I've defined myself by it, I have made I've given myself labels by my sinful nature. And the Lord is like, wait, what just happened. It's an exchange. It's an exchange. So I want us to just pray into this message and afterwards, if you have not received the Lord Jesus as your personal Lord and savior, I want you to listen to what comes next. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love. We thank you for your goodness. Lord, And I just felt so led that there are many people on the other side of this and you are just doing a dealing in their hearts right now. And Heavenly Father, I pray that in humility they will come to know the truth. In humility, they will receive you as Lord and Savior in Jesus' name. Amen, if you're watching this, then I believe that there is a hunger in your heart. There is something that has moved you with a desire to want to make Jesus Christ your Lord and savior. Now, this is not just a decision that we make out of being convinced by something, but there is a conviction of the Holy Spirit that ministers to us that I need to be saved from this path of destruction that my life has been on. I need to be saved from this sinful nature to come into life, to receive the life of God. Salvation is about an exchange that the Lord has put that sinful nature on the cross. When we believe what Jesus did, when we believe that he died and he was raised up with all victory and all power. You see on the cross, Jesus took captivity, captive. That's what the Word of God says. And what is that captivity Everything that has tried to keep you bound, including that sinful nature that we have received as from the fallen man. You see, when man fell, he took on the nature of sin, and that is the image that every other man has been born into. But in Jesus you have righteousness. You can be made righteous in Christ. And salvation is to be saved from death into life, to come out of bondage into freedom. And so I want to pray with you, but I want you to know that as you say yes to the Lord, you are saying yes to his life. You are saying yes to the ways of Jesus. You are saying yes for Jesus to live in and through you. Your body, your life becomes a home for the Holy Spirit, and he wants to express the nature of Jesus through your life. And so just join with me in prayer because this will be the start. But salvation is a journey and we're gonna have There's gonna be a link in the description, especially if you are listening to this or you're watching this from YouTube, You're going to see this in the description, and I want you to click on that because it's going to help guide you into things about what comes next, how to study the Bible, just little things that are going to be very beneficial to your walk with the Lord. And so I just want you to pray with me, Lord Jesus, and just repeat after me. And when I say repeat after me, it's not just for you to just use words and they're empty before you. After this prayer, meditate on those words and just really have a moment of personal prayer with the Lord and let the Holy Spirit minister to you beyond what I could do. And so just repeat after me, Lord Jesus, I confess with my mouth as I have believed in my heart in this moment, that indeed you are the son of God, that when you came to the earth and you were crucified on the cross, that you put to death my sinful nature. And as I receive you, I receive your life. I receive the righteousness, the righteous nature that you have brought to give me. I exchange the sinful nature for the righteous nature. And so, Lord, come into my life and make my life your home. Have your way in and through me. Whatever is in me that is not pleasing to you. Convict me of these things. Lord, that I will not identify with the way of the flesh, but I will come in agreement with the way of life. I choose life. I choose you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen,