Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship:

Thanks for joining us tonight as we continue our discussion on the subject of God's PROSPERITY, a topic that's dear to God's heart and that's mentioned more than 90 times in our Bibles. Almost all of those mentions, by the way are positive but the enemy has tried his best to make something negative out of it. In fact, one of the reasons we're involved in this series is to lift up this very special bible word and to set straight some of the bad things the enemy has inspired people to say about it over the years. We declare with respect but without apology that God has PROSPERITY for each and every Believer who wants it and is willing to learn how to connect to it by GRACE through FAITH. Jesus came so that we could have it and He released it on Resurrection Day as a part of this wonderful new Covenant that we presently live under.

Now if you've been involved in the Kingdom of God for a while, even a little while, you know that life is a PROCESS of learning how to become victorious in Christ. The Bible is clear that we can have the VICTORY (2 Corinthians 2:14) in every area of life: spirit, soul and body (John 10:10). But we don't just start out with total VICTORY in all those areas. We automatically receive some of the VICTORY when we're born again and after that it grows in direct proportion to how well we know the Word. It takes FAITH to please God (Hebrews 11:6), it's through FAITH that we receive GRACE (Ephesians 2:8) which by definition is God's FAVOR and EMPOWERMENT to achieve VICTORY, and it's by the Word that FAITH grows stronger and stronger (Romans 10:17) to the point that VICTORY eventually becomes an expected and routine outcome for everything we face in life.

A lot of Christians haven't really received this revelation yet which is why many of us are so spiritually weak and ineffective in the Kingdom of God. Indeed, an important part of the VICTORY that Christ has for us is His PROSPERITY including as we've discussed in previous articles His financial PROSPERITY which most Believers are having trouble connecting to. So, what we have to learn in this area is how to attract God's PROSPERITY and how to avoid the things that hinder its attraction. We discover all of this by pursuing the WISDOM in the Word of God through which the Holy Spirit teaches ALL the things we need to know (John 14:26). In short, Christians live in insufficiency because they haven't learned enough yet from the Word about how to be PROSPEROUS.

Defining Sin Consciousness

One of the principles in the Word that many of us haven't understood well enough is that Christians aren't supposed to be overly CONSCIOUS of sin. This is in stark contrast to folks who live under The Law and here's the principal related scripture:

Hebrews 10:1-2 = "Since the Law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, it can never by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered because the worshipers having once been cleansed would no longer have had CONSCIOUSNESS of sins?"

It would be helpful for you to read all of Chapters 8, 9 and 10 in Hebrews to get the full context for the conclusions we're going to make from these two particular verses. But the point to be made is this: Christians who've been totally cleansed by the blood of Christ are not supposed to be walking around being overly focused on the sins we're committing. We're born physically with a sin nature and a dead spirit inherited from Adam, but for born again Christians that sin nature has been replaced by a new Christ nature that's been reconciled to God (Romans 5:10). We're a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17) and the reborn spirit part of us does NOT sin. We've been cleansed, our sins have been taken away and God has forgotten that they ever existed (Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17). It's as if we NEVER sinned past, present and future; and if God can forget, why is it that many of us walk around so concerned about sin all the time hoping to impress God with how holy we're trying to be? And why is it that so much of our teaching is focused on sin in the Body of Christ when God is NOT even counting our sins against us (2 Corinthians 5:19)? I'm not saying we shouldn't aspire to be holy but our attempts at it need to be for the right reasons. It's not our attempts at holiness that impress God; it's living by FAITH that pleases Him (Hebrews 11:6).

The truth is all of us sin in our natural man by the Flesh most of the time, Christians included. The sin opens the door to the enemy who comes in to ACCUSE us of our sin and convince us that God is withholding His FAVOR from us because of it. The Flesh says that the way to make amends is to feel guilty about it, to try to find righteous works to do to make up for it and to go before God in apologetic suffering and remorsefulness until He forgives us and restores His FAVOR. If we can just stay under condemnation long enough, God will eventually feel sorry for us and make us feel better. While we're waiting, our FAITH is replaced by FEAR and we soon see ourselves as unworthy of God's GRACE and VICTORY. We're now fully CONSCIOUS of our sin instead of our FORGIVENESS and the enemy will try to keep us there as long as possible.

None of this of course is the right way to handle sin. We have an ADVOCATE with the Father so in fact the devil's accusations won't get anywhere. And God is absolutely NOT withholding His FAVOR from you because He's not holding you accountable for your sins (2 Corinthians 5:19), because He's already forgotten all your sins forever (Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17) and because He ALREADY released ALL of His FAVOR 2,000 years ago in the form of GRACE. Also, if Jesus ALREADY took care of everything and ALL sins have ALREADY been paid for, there's nothing to feel guilty about. If there's been no transgression, what are you guilty of? And if you try to appease God with some good works and suffering you're basically telling Him that the work of Christ on the Cross was not sufficient and that you have to do something yourself to try to add to it and make it more perfect because somehow your sin of the moment hasn't been fully washed away yet. In sum, sin consciousness occurs when you start trying to do something in the Flesh to participate in the process of forgiveness that Jesus already took care of a long time ago. It's the perception that somehow you have to do something to make amends or God will withdraw from His relationship with you.

And so, rather than handling sin the way so many of us have done it for centuries now, the Bible actually teaches that we should be going through something like the following process. We hope this little list will help you avoid becoming overly conscious of your sins considering that it should only take a few minutes to completely work through it:

• Acknowledge to yourself that you sinned and call the sin what it is.
• Thank God for His forgiveness of all your sins two thousand years ago.
• Repent of the sin which means to turn and go in the opposite direction.
• Kick the devil out of your life and by the exercise of your authority close the door he came in through.
• Ask the Holy spirit to show you how to overcome that particular sin area.
• Release your FAITH by declaring (speaking) that you ARE connected to God's FAVOR and always will be. He will NEVER leave you (Hebrews 13:5).  

How Sin Consciousness Hinders Our Prosperity.

Receiving God's PROSPERITY requires that we connect to His GRACE (Favor) through FAITH. The GRACE has all the PROSPERITY we need to fulfill the purposes God has for us working with Him to establish His Covenant on the earth. Presently that work consists of PREACHING the gospel to all creation in all the world (Mark 16:15) and TEACHING all Believers to observe all that Christ has commanded (Matthew 28:20). In order to accomplish those assignments God prefers for us to be PROSPEROUS because otherwise where's the money going to come from to make these things happen?

Jesus the Word is NOT teaching us to be CONSCIOUS of our sins. No, Jesus the Word says that since FORGIVENESS has already happened for all sin for all time, we no longer have to be reminded of it by repetitive acts of FORGIVENESS (Hebrews 10:1-2). It's done already and we're free to develop our FAITH to its full potential so we can connect to ALL of the GRACE God has for us. Focusing on our sin all the time undermines our FAITH and causes us to turn inward in fear and doubt and defeat, and from that position we're not able to build the Kingdom. In short, productivity in the Kingdom of God requires Christians to be FORGIVENESS CONSCIOUS instead of sin conscious.

If you're having difficulty tonight connecting to God's PROSPERITY, could it be that you haven't fully received your FORGIVENESS, that from time-to-time you've seen yourself as an unworthy sinner instead of the newly cleansed spotless vessel God says you are, that Jesus died for you to be? The world is waiting for a powerful Church to rise up and solve all the problems mankind has created for itself but sin consciousness holds us back. Sin consciousness makes us ineffective. It makes us ineffective corporately and it makes us ineffective individually. You can shake it off tonight by DECLARING with your speaking in FAITH that you fully receive your FORGIVENESS and that you refuse to dwell anymore on your sin. Then when the enemy comes around to accuse you of something, recognize what he's trying to do and simply stop him with the Word. Don't allow him to come into your thoughts. No, put your thoughts on Jesus the Word and keep in mind that there's nothing the devil can do to change the fact that you're eternally and completely FORGIVEN. The result will be that the fullness of God's FAVOR and PROSPERITY will flow to you in every area of life.

Thanks for dropping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again next Sunday evening, April 14 and we hope you'll join us each week as we continue studying the subject of bible-based PROSPERITY. Until then may God bless you and your family with the total PROSPERITY of Christ!

Sinners' Prayer

If you've never invited Jesus to be the Lord of your life, you need to and you can do it today just by saying out loud the following simple prayer:

Jesus I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Savior and Lord. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.

If you were sincere as you prayed this prayer, God has already come into your life and you are a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.

And, when you get a chance have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer today and believing what you said:

Romans 10:9

2 Corinthians 5:17

Ephesians 2:8

Prayer Requests

If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM eastern time. Agree with us for God to answer your petition.

http://www.creditcounseling.net/prayer-request.aspx 

Donations

If you've been edified by Prosperous Life Newsletter, you may want to consider making a SEED FAITH offering to support the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7). God has instructed us to simply provide folks with an opportunity to sow seed into good ground so in due season you'll be eligible to reap a harvest and the rest is up to you as the Spirit leads. For your information PLN is a nonprofit gift to the Body of Christ so your financial offerings will usually be tax deductible (consult your tax advisor). Just go to the secure Shopping Cart on the Cornerstone web site by connecting through the following link. We appreciate your support and generosity.

http://www.creditcounseling.net/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1 

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