Firstly, we must realise that God’s love for us is conditional.  It’s a contract: God makes a covenant with us and in return he forgives us and cleanses us from unrighteousness.  Refer to this verse:

Hebrews 13:20-21: Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

It’s a blood covenant to make us perfect in doing his will.

Matthew 16:24: Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

We must deny ourselves.

Galatians 5:24: And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

We must get rid of affections and lusts.

John 12:25: He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

We must hate our life in this world.

1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We must confess our sins to him, so that unrighteousness is cleansed from us.

Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

We must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

Matthew 25:27-30 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. ²⁸ Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. ²⁹ For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. ³⁰ And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

We are required to use our talents to serve God, else we shall be cast out into outer darkness.

These are just some of the verses.  There are many more telling us in no uncertain terms the following additional rules (among many others):

1. We must not walk in sin,
2. We must love God with all our heart, mind and strength,
3. We must love our enemies,
4. We must not fornicate,
5. We must not defile our bodies for it is the temple of the Holy Spirit (this includes masturbation),
6. We must not look at any woman with lust,
7. We must be a doer of the word, not just a believer.

If you’re still not convinced, read the following verse:

Romans 8:12-13 King James Version (KJV)

¹² Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

¹³ For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

If God really gave us grace through faith alone, how then is it possible for brothers and sisters of Christ to live after the flesh and die?

Alright, at this point you might be feeling worried if your Church has told you that you are saved by grace and that all your sins are forgiven if you believe in Jesus Christ.  That’s going to be on their head that they taught you that.

The Bible says nothing of the sort:  Our salvation depends on our relationship with God.  We must walk after the Spirit of God.

God’s actual promise to people is this:

1 John 1:9 Young’s Literal Translation (YLT)

⁹ if we may confess our sins, stedfast He is and righteous that He may forgive us the sins, and may cleanse us from every unrighteousness;

Ok, so all of us will have strongholds in our lives.  You know things like drugs, alcohol, lust, porn, pride, anger, jealousy etc…  The key to walking right with God is this:

1. Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour,
2. Now confess your sins to God (never to men),
3. God may forgive your sins and he may cleanse you from every unrighteousness.

It says God “may” forgive and cleanse in the YLT translation.  Why?  It depends on our attitude.  If we approach God simply, humbly and truthfully then the probability that God will forgive and cleanse us increases.  See this verse:

James 4:6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

The next bit is critical, which I didn’t understand for 25 years.  We must understand who we are in God’s kingdom and exercise our authority over the spiritual forces that causes us to sin.

Know that:

1. We are God’s children because we have been adopted by God through a blood covenant,
2. In this contract we are Kings and Queens in God’s eyes and we have been given authority over spiritual forces,
3. God fights the spiritual battles on our behalf but we must claim the victory,
4. To claim the victory we are required to exercise our authority by speaking commands against spiritual forces,
5. Our authority to do this comes from God, which means we must submit to God’s authority, so the authority flows through us,
6. We are also holy priests in God’s eyes and if we continue to wilfully sin, God will not hear us, and
7. We continually bind and command out the spiritual darkness from us, which will destroy the strongholds in our lives (alcohol, drugs, porn, anger etc.).

It’s quite straightforward.  I normally use something along the following lines:

“Father in heaven, please forgive me of all of my sins and I forgive all those that sinned against me.  Please cleanse me with the blood of Jesus Christ.

Now by the authority given to me by Jesus, I bind the principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places.

In the name of Jesus, I rebuke <insert your stronghold here, e.g. lust> and cast it into outer darkness.  In the name of Jesus I crush it underfoot and shatter its being.

In the name of Jesus I break all curses that give these spirits their power.  In the name of Jesus I cast out these spirits.

Father in heaven, in Jesus’ name, send your ministering angels to release breakthrough in my life and to crush these spirits.  Father, send your Holy Spirit to expand and strengthen me within.

In the name of Jesus I give thanks to you and rejoice in you my God.”

Do this without fear and go on the attack against these spiritual forces.  In order for you to understand the scriptural basis upon which you are making these commands, please see this teaching video.  I strongly recommend that you also watch part two.

Now that you’ve accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and saviour, you can rely on God’s power to overcome the foe in your life.  Satan is a roaring lion but God fights your battles for you.  He who is in you, Jesus Christ, is stronger than he who is in the world.

Through the spiritual authority that God has given to every single one of his children, you will be able to overcome every spiritual bondage.

Now you will be able to live the scriptures, as God designed it to be lived.  No more will you struggle on your own.  That’s why Jesus said to take on his yoke because his burden is light.

Of course, this will not give you licence to wilfully sin because wilful sin connects you to Satan’s kingdom, corrupts your body, makes you unrighteous and you will then not be able to approach God’s throne of mercy.  Moreover, the wicked spirit that you cast out will return “home” with seven spirits more wicked than itself.  Learn to walk after the Spirit of God.

I realise I’ll be dealing with two broad groups of skeptics.  Mainstream Christians and non-Christians.

 

Starting with non-Christians: All this will seem far fetched indeed.  How do we know that continual sins (addictions etc) are caused by evil spirits?  This is relatively easy to prove.  See these deliverance videos and you’ll soon see that there are no reasonable explanations as to why so many people around the world would experience supernatural power via deliverances.

I understand that you’ll be asking for further proof.  I would say to you that next time a crazy idea comes into your head that suggests you hurt someone or jump off somewhere high, treat that thought as a person and ask the following question: Did Jesus Christ come in the flesh?  Then wait for an answer.

If that doesn’t do it for you then try this: If you have the spirit of lust (which is pretty much all of us) and are viewing porn or masturbating, try to stop viewing porn or masturbating for 6 months.  You will find that you won’t be able to stop yourself because there is a spiritual power interfering with your decision making process.  You might find yourself getting up in the middle of the night to watch porn or getting aroused for no reason.  The only way you can truly overcome porn and masturbation is to cast out the lust demon from you in the name of Jesus Christ.  I know of no other way that people can be totally free from lust.  It doesn’t matter how disciplined you are as a person.  Once the spirit of lust has a stronghold in you, you will not be able to defeat it alone.

 

Many Christians will view what I’ve written and say all this is impossible.  Yes, it’s true: For man it is impossible but if you rely on the power of God, being free from wilful sin is possible.  I can testify to this after struggling with vanity, anger, pride, lust, selfishness and other wilful sins for 25 years.

I will now outline some key concepts on why we must exercise our authority over spiritual forces:

• Firstly, there are evil spirits in everyone, whether you are a Christian or not.  Only Jesus was and is free from darkness.
• You are made up of three parts: body, soul (which encompasses your mind and emotions) and spirit.  The soul or mind is the decision maker.
• Evil spirits are able to occupy our bodies because the body we received was originally corrupted by Adam’s sin.  This means that evil spirits have entered your body via intergenerational sin.
• The second way spirits enter your body is when you sin.  Your soul can decide to do the things of the body or the spirit.  When you make the wrong decision and choose the desires of the body, evil spirits enter your flesh and they will start building a stronghold in your life.
• Once a stronghold has been built into your flesh, it continually bombards your soul with evil thoughts.  As humans, we do not have the power remove these strongholds from our bodies.  It is only by casting out these demonic strongholds from our bodies that we can be free of its influences.  You can see many cases of demons being casted out of people in these deliverance videos.
• Once the demonic stronghold is removed, our soul is freed up to make the right decisions.  It’s not being constantly bombarded by addictions to porn, smoking, drugs etc…  Of course, if you wilfully go back to the sin then you are inviting a new stronghold to form that is seven times stronger to take root in your body.

Yes, we must test all things:

Are humans three part beings?  

Genesis 2:7 King James Version (KJV)

⁷ And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Where does it say intergenerational sin exists?

Exodus 20:5 King James Version (KJV)

⁵ Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

How do we know that evil spirits can be in the flesh?

Romans 7:23 King James Version (KJV)

Can evil spirits be in the flesh of Christians?

2 Corinthians 12:7-8 King James Version (KJV)

⁷ And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.  ⁸ For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

As you can see, God has told us the entire truth.  The only person that is totally free from darkness and evil spirits is Jesus Christ.  Not even Paul could get rid of every evil spirit from his body.  Why?  Because God wants us to know that he is God.  He wants us to realise our physical bodies are weak and to rely on his spiritual strength to change.  Christians who try to obey the laws in the scriptures through their own efforts are destined to fail.  Actually, I believe God wants you to fail because when you fail, only then will you realise that he is God and that he is the one that lifts you up.

That’s why the scriptures say this:

John 15:16 King James Version (KJV)

¹⁶ Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

After you realise the miserableness of your situation, only then will the Holy Spirit come upon you to convict you of your sins:

John 16:7-8 King James Version (KJV)

⁷ Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.  ⁸ And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

One of the symptoms after this has happened is that everytime you think of what Jesus Christ has done for you, you will weep.  I would describe it as seeing your true state, seeing things as they really are.  It’s a lifting of the veil. You catch a glimpse of yourself in objective light.

That is why Jesus said:

John 6:44 King James Version (KJV)

⁴⁴ No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

It’s a massive privilege.  Praise the Lord, the Most High, creator of the Heavens and the Earth.  See this on how to be born again.

The truth is I don’t know.  I don’t even know for sure I’m going to heaven.  We are to work out our own salvation in fear and trembling until the end, which means fear God, read the bible and do the things of God diligently until the day you die.  Scripturally, if you humble yourself and seek God, he will draw near.

James 4:8 King James Version (KJV)

⁸ Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

You must cleanse your hands and purify your heart by diligently doing the things of God: Binding and rebuking the spiritual forces that are trying to overcome you.  Continue seeking God and asking questions.

I believe one of the key ingredients you will need when approaching God is humility.  God loves people who humble themselves.  Don’t try to judge God because it is pointless: He is eternal, unaccountable to anyone, the all mighty, the beginning and the end.  Judging God is futile, a pointless exercise resulting in you being cast into outer darkness.

Pastor Park dedicated Himself To God Since He Was 18

When did God forgive your sin?

I was eighteen. I began to go to church when I was very young. I used to cry out all the time trying to repent and confess my sin. As I was attending a technology school in Seoul, I got in trouble and had to return to my hometown without a diploma. I was very embarrassed.

At the same time, I struggled to find the way to wash away my sin. Everyday, early in the morning, I asked for God’s pardon for my sin, but nothing happened. One day, I visited a pastor and asked, “I am a wicked man. What should I do to wash my sin and have faith?”

The pastor replied, “Pastor Park, you are young, that’s why. I sent my two daughters to another city for their study, and I have no idea what they are doing there. From now on, try harder to overcome any temptations by faith. You will eventually be blessed.”

Finally, I decided not to go to church, thinking that I was not among the chosen people, and that Jesus and I had nothing in common. However, when the church bell rang on Sundays, I could not help but attend the service. For about one year my heart was troubled.

One morning in 1962, I went to church as usual and cried out, “Lord, I am a sinner. Please forgive me.” After I finished praying, I began to think that my sin had already been forgiven. I was at peace.

Right after that, I was driven to read the Bible, and I actually liked it. So many times I tried to read the Bible, but I could not. The Scriptures sounded new and different to me. “Jesus washed my sin away. How wonderful!” My heart was changed. (He was born again at this precise moment.)

[Here he received a phone call.]

A month later, I wanted to give something to God, in appreciation of what God had given to me. First, I thought about money, but parents in the country did not give pocket money to their kids so I had no money. Before I was saved, my friends and I would steal bags of rice from my father and sell them for pocket money.

Could you not steal some money to offer God?

I didn’t want to give that kind of money to God. One day, I knelt down to pray at the church. “Lord, thank you so much, but I don’t have anything to offer you. The only thing that I have is my body, but what can you use me for? I know I am useless, but if you don’t mind, I want to offer myself.” (this is God giving him the spirit of obedience in Ezekiel 36:27)

At that time, I had never imagined that I could be a pastor. I just wanted to spend my life helping children and doing chores at the church. In the country, there were many houses that had only female residents. I could be very happy helping them to maintain their houses by doing chores such as building their fences.

About a month later, by God’s grace, I had the opportunity to go to missionary school. There were some born-again missionaries among the foreign missionaries. They realized that most of Korean churches were only formality. “What a disaster. Let’s start a school to raise born-again servants of God.” The missionary school started with seven or eight students, and I was one of them.

Moses was humble.

Numbers 12:3King James Version (KJV)

³ (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)

King David was humble:

1 Samuel 18:18:
And David said unto Saul, Who am I? and what is my life, or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be son in law to the king?

The Centurion who sought Christ was humble:

Matthew 8:8

The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

Jesus is meek and lowly in heart:

Matthew 11:29

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Having discussed scripture, religion and God with many people, I’m realising that one of the key differences between goats and sheep is pride.  Pride gets in the way of obedience.  If you are unable to humble yourself, the kingdom of God will be very far away from you.  If you are blessed, God will crush your pride by destroying the things of the world that you love.

Matthew 21:44

And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

If life is hard, God loves you and is drawing you near to him.  Because if life was easy and carefree, who would turn to the Lord?  All things in this universe are made for God’s glory because he made it so.