Category Archives: Sin

Christ Jesus Our Hedge

13 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by in Blood of Jesus, Christianity, Emotions, Fear, God, God the Father, How God Answers Prayer, Jesus, Blood of Jesus, New Covenant, redemption, Keys to the Kingdom, New Covenant, Prayer University, righteousness, Sin, the Spirit, Tracy Gatewood Prayer

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As we continue to look at prayer through the understanding of Jesus the Master Teacher we must consider that now He has been installed into the office of High Priest, making constant supplication to the Father on behalf of the one’s that He has been given. Notice that I did not say, all of mankind. Jesus specifically intercedes for the people that God gave to Him as a gift (John 17:9 ). This does not just only refer to the disciples but in fact, God knows Who will come to His Son. Every believer is a precious and distinct gift given to Jesus. Isn’t it beautiful to consider that you are a gift to the Lord ?

In the story of Job, the writer initially portrays him as a successful man protected by God and goes onto state that Job was ‘blameless and upright, and one who reverently feared God and abstained from and shunned evil’. So why was Job allowed access by Satan – the Accuser ?

Job 1:9-11 AMP
” Then Satan answered the Lord, Does Job (reverently) fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have conferred prosperity and happiness upon him in the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face. “

We know that Job constantly focused on the potential sins of his daughters and sons, making offerings for them to cover any sin in which they even might have been engaged.  Job’s incessant fear that his family had sinned could have been the very thing that brought down his hedge of protection. The spirit of fear and the emotion of fear is the rope on which the enemy uses to swing into the minds of God’s people. Fear (and unforgiveness) is the great key that unlocks demonic force.


Job 1:5 AMP
“And when the days of their feasting were over, Job sent for them to purify and hallow them, and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed or disowned God in their hearts. Thus did Job at all times.”

Recently, I was listening to an audiobook of a highly respected evangelist who is now deceased. This is a man from whom I have learned much, particularly as it pertains to prayer and deliverance. He, too, addressed the passage on Job but his interpretation of the result of Job’s constant prayers on behalf of the sins of his family was completely different. His belief was that Job’s intercession was what brought him a multiplied blessing following the loss of everything he owned; children, livestock and money.  No mention was made of the negative consequences of the constant fear that potentially opened the initial door to the enemy’s oppression.

The Bible states that it was when Job turned to God in faith, acknowledging that the Lord “can do all things and that no thought or purpose of Yours can be restrained or thwarted”  (Job 42:2) was when Satan’s curse began to reverse.  God asked Job to pray for his doubting friends. It is then that He healed Job, blessing his latter days more than the former, living to 140 years.  God restored all that Job had lost and actually received double!

Our truth today is that we now walk in something else, a no longer new normal that was made permanent and ratified by the resurrection of Christ Jesus. Today we walk in a New Covenant or Agreement.

The cornerstone of this truth is to understand that Jesus paid for all of our sin and even guilt (condemnation) through His sacrifice. This means ALL sin from the beginning of mankind to the end of life. Christ Jesus ( Christ is an office meaning the Anointed One ) has made a covenant with God on our behalf and is now installed at the right hand of the Father as our High Priest, Mediator of this Eternal Covenant, Chief Shepherd as well as the Chief Intercessor. His sacrifice opened a way to a new and better covenant, one not built on the blood of bulls and goats, but one that was built on the Surety of Himself.

Hebrews 9:15 AMP
“[Christ the Messiah ] is therefore the Negotiator and Mediator of an [entirely] new agreement (testament, covenant) so that those who are called and offered it may receive the fulfillment of the promised everlasting inheritance – since a death has taken place which rescues and delivers and redeems them from the transgressions committed under the old first agreement. “

Hebrews 9:18-20 AMP 
“So even the (old) first covenant (God’s will) was not inaugurated  and ratified and put in force without the shedding of blood. For when every command of the Law had been read out by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of slain calves and goats, together with the water and scarlet wool and with a bunch of hyssop, and sprinkled both the Book (the roll of the Law and covenant) itself and all the people. Saying these words: This is the blood that seals and ratifies the agreement (the testament, the covenant) which God commanded me to deliver to you. ” 

The Law given to Moses was the Old Covenant. The Israelites wanted written rules to live by but this was not God’s best for them. The good was traded for the best which was for the laws to be engraved onto their hearts and minds, that they would know by the Spirit that they were engaging in right or wrong actions.

When we remain in right standing with God, we are secured in the ark of Jesus. We are given protection based on His righteousness and not through our works but through His perfect right standing to the Father. This is not of anything that we can boast or perform to attain, it is a gateway that was opened by the blood of Jesus.

II Corinthians 5:21 AMP
“For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become the righteousness of God “[ what we ought to be, approved, and acceptable, and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].

As we see ourselves established in faith that we are in right standing with God through the blood of Jesus, Jesus becomes our hedge. We become the righteousness of God in Christ.

So my friend, see Christ Jesus as your hedge paid for by His blood and give testimony today of what His blood has done for you. As you pray, do so knowing that your Lord Jesus has made the ultimate down payment to become your eternal hedge of protection.

Isaiah 54:14 “You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror , for it shall not come near you.”


Tracy Gatewood
Sacred Ramblings
#PrayerUniversity
Session 8
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The Soul’s Response to Righteousness

07 Monday Aug 2017

Posted by in America, Jerusalem, Nation, New Covenant, redemption, Sin, soul, Tracy Gatewood

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Jerusalem
Luke 19:41 – 44 AMP
“And as He approached, He saw the city, and He wept [audibly] over it. Exclaiming, Would that you had known personally, even at least in this your day, the things that make for peace (for freedom from all the distresses that are experienced as the result of sin and upon which your peace – your security, safety, prosperity, and happiness – depends)! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
For a time is coming upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank (with pointed stakes) about you and surround you and shut you in on every side.
And they will dash you down to the ground, you [Jerusalem] and your children within you; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, [all] because you did not come progressively to recognize and know and understand [from observation and experience] the time of your visitation [that is, when God was visiting you, the time in which God showed Himself gracious toward you and offered you salvation through Christ.]”

In this passage of scripture, Jesus grieved openly knowing what would be forthcoming for the people of Jerusalem. Despite what the people had personally witnessed, Jesus the Prince of Peace, Who had been presented to them as the living Son of God, would not be received into the hearts of the Jewish people.

What He knew for them: Know Jesus-Know Peace, No Jesus-No Peace

All Christians are commanded by God to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (PS122:6). The passage continues,”May they prosper who love you, May peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces”  To be a Christ-follower is to love and pray fervently, frequently for the entire nation of Israel. Although the peace of Jerusalem was not accomplished in Jesus’ earthly life, it has been left for us to cover His people in prayer and other means until His return. I fully believe that America’s first responsibility is to cover and protect Israel.

The following scripture describes the Peace that will come with God’s Reign:
Isaiah 32:15-18
“Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is valued as a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness will abide in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness will be peace [internal and external], and the result of righteousness will be quietness and confident trust forever. My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places.”

 We can experience His Peace Prior to His Reign Through the Understanding of  Righteousness. Righteousness means in right-standing with God and in conformity to His will and purposes. We cannot be righteous, or in right standing with God without understanding and accepting the working power of the blood of Jesus. The Blood is Heaven’s Clorox, its only cleansing agent.

It is impossible to work or perform our way into right-standing with God. Churches may teach that by watching our words, making our vessels (our bodies) more holy [yet holiness is important to God], or praying lengthy prayers every.single.day, or confessing sin can put us in right standing. This is erroneous. True righteousness welcomed by God comes by complete acknowledgement that His Son’s sacrifice fully achieved everything necessary to remove the dividing wall between God and You. This puts the focus (and responsibility) totally on Jesus for this achievement, one that no mortal could ever accomplish. To assume that one could actually be made righteous by a person’s own merits, clearly illustrates a lack of understanding of the magnitude of the Cross. This positioning creates ‘self-righteousness’ There may be nothing more noxious to God.

The Book of Romans could easily be named ‘the Book of Righteousness’, providing more information on this subject than any other chapter in the Bible. Romans 4:3 refers to Abraham, the Father of our Faith –
“For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.”

Have you ever exhibited ungodly behavior? Yes ____  No ____ Is it comforting to know that your behavior has already been justified by God through the blood of Jesus?  Yes_____ No _____Does this make you want to sin more? No ______  (of course not)

One cannot be justified by works – God imputes His righteousness ASIDE FROM OUR WORKS in exchange for our sin. This is called Grace – undeserved, unmerited favor which is freely given. We are only made righteous BY FAITH in Jesus and His sacrifice. His resurrection served as ratification for a New Covenant.  This is the only way pleasing to God. Does this soothe the soul (mind, will, emotions) bringing a quietness and a confident trust? (Isaiah 32:17).  That peace you may feel is the result of  Jesus’ righteousness and the acknowledgement, by resting in faith, that He (not you) has paid it all on your behalf.

Copyright 2019  All Rights Reserved Doorways of Grace

Tracy Gatewood
#TheWriterWhomJesusLoves

Twitter: @TracyLGatewood
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Amazon: Doorways of Grace: My Uncommon Journey to Healing, Wholeness and Meeting Jesus  (2015)

RELATED POSTS
The Spirit of Peace   http://wp.me/p1zoxs-24p
We Have Not Been Given A Spirit of Fear   http://wp.me/p1zoxs-1VW

In Defense of Healing

15 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by in #HolySpirit, #Proverbs, Blood of Jesus, Christianity, Emotions, Fear, Gospel of Grace, Grace, Healing, Jesus, New Covenant, redemption, Sin, Tracy Gatewood, TracyLGatewood

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Romans: 8:32 AMP He who did not withhold or spare (even) His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all (other ) things?

The theology of grace teaches we can walk healed and free because of the sacrifice of Jesus – as we contend through prayer to maintain the healing for which He has already purchased.  Recently I read a blog post on Prosperity Gospel written by a Texas seminary student that theorized  that the Atonement of Jesus’ sacrifice as detailed in Isaiah 53:5 referred to sin only and that His Stripes were not taken for the healing of Diseases. I vigorously disagree.

Matthew 8:17 AMP When evening came, they brought to Him many who were under the power of demons; and He cast out the evil spirits with a word, and restored to health all who were sick [exhibiting His authority as Messiah], 17 so that He fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES [upon Himself] AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES.”

IMG_1822-2 (2)

We Are ‘In Christ’

 Isaiah 53:5 AMP But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement (needful to obtain) peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes (that wounded) Him we are healed and made whole. Vs 6 all we like Sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to His own way; and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all.

1 Peter 2:24 AMP He personally bore our sins in His (own) body on the tree (as on an altar and offered Himself on it), that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds, you have been healed. For you were going astray like (so many) sheep, but now you have come back to the Shepherd and Guardian (the Bishop) of your souls.

Every person on earth is made up of three components: Spirit, Soul & Body (the spirit is activated when a person accepts Jesus and the Holy Spirit is imparted). The Soul is comprised of the Mind, Will and the Emotions. Jesus is now the Bishop, or Overseer, of every soul. God has given as a gift to Jesus every person that believes in Him. John 17: 24

The Great News – Our Sins for His Righteousness

It is Christ that imputes His righteousness to us Romans 8:10 AMP – Christ’s righteousness cannot be earned but through His sacrifice on the Cross, this righteousness has been given to us in exchange for our sin. It is not that we now live to strive for righteousness, if we even could live righteously enough on our own, Jesus would not have had to become our sacrifice. He became a propitiation for our sins – our substitute by assuming our obligation to maintain a sin free life because we cannot.  He alone reconciles us to God.  1 John 4:10

It is through recognizing that He paid for our righteousness and that we now look to Him for our transformation into His likeness. I cannot but He can…. Not only that – because our sin was redeemed (bought back) by Jesus, God remembers our sins No More. From the beginning of our life to the end of our life, Jesus’ blood constantly cleanses us from our own sin. We are no longer under condemnation – we have been saved once and for all by a once and for all sacrifice. Oh what a Savior!

But what about habitual sin  1 John 3:9 AMP points out, No one who abides in Him engages in the habitual practice of sin. The key here is the word Abide – like Abiding in the Vine. This does not mean that a person that is sinning habitually is not saved (although it is entirely possible) – it means they are attempting to tackle this sin struggling by their own works or performance – there is no win in their sin. To ABIDE in the grace of our Lord Jesus, recognizing His love and the immutable Love of God despite failings has the capacity to extinguish condemnation and fear while offering the ability to break the cycle of sin. And thankfully –

Where sin increases, Grace increases much more Romans 5:20 AMP
For sin shall no longer be your Master because you are now no longer under Law but under Grace – Romans 6:14 AMP
Furthermore, if we are believers in Jesus, our flesh has now undergone a Spiritual Circumcision:

Colossians 2:11-15 In Him, you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but by the [spiritual] circumcision of Christ in the stripping off of the body of the flesh [the sinful carnal nature], 12 having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him [to a new life] through [your] faith in the working of God, [as displayed] when He raised Christ from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (worldliness, manner of life), God made you alive together with Christ, having [freely] forgiven us all our sins, 14 having canceled out the [g]certificate of debt consisting of [h]legal demands [which were in force] against us and which were hostile to us. And this certificate He has set aside and completely removed by nailing it to the cross. [My note: Debt certificate is a reference to the over 600 Jewish Laws.]

So this verse tells us that we no longer live helplessly under the oppressive nature of sin but we have been permanently disconnected from that nature by a spiritual cutting away of our flesh – as we are now “In Christ”.

 THE PRESIDING BISHOP OF YOUR SOUL

For several decades, I have studied physical and emotional healing and personally experienced a season of of divine healings; two were structural, and one was from an illness. I have witnessed healing miracles of others and have attended a multitude of healing conferences. Some people attend college football games, I love a good healing conference (and, I too, am a college football junkie). My remaining remarks on the subject of healing have come through my own personal journey as well as watching circumstances of others at close range. I will not comment or theorize why some people become ill, or even die, unless I have personally observed their situations. Even then I may not have an answer but this I know to be true: there is a direct and undeniable correlation between disease, and our emotions. How we walk through extremely difficult and especially traumatic situations has a profound impact on our health and opening the door to disease.

It is almost without exception that I meet a person struggling with disease or a condition that does not have a spiritual root cause of their disease based on one of the following: Fear, Condemnation, Shame, Anger / Rage, Bitterness, and Unforgiveness or have gone through a protracted experience of Trauma, Rejection / Abandonment, or Emotional or Physical Abuse.  Cancer is one very difficult disease to track but, an extremely high number of people battling Cancer have previously walked through a season of trauma, or protracted period of intense Fear (can be Stress but all Stress is based in Fear). So how does Fear cause cancer?  One way is by giving access to a powerful spirit that wreaks havoc from within the mind, impacting the body, down to its cellular level. Fear also causes heart conditions and heart attacks. You can also believe that Fear is the spiritual root cause of  forms of mental illness – people in extreme poverty live in constant Fear for their survival opening their minds to exposure to schizophrenia, bi-polarity, paranoia.

Jesus is the Overseer of our Souls and the soul is the seat of our emotions. When we maintain our focus and trust on Jesus as our Overseer allowing Him to maintain a reign over (or rein on) our soul, our minds are at rest and we experience peace, and that peace permeates throughout our body. We are trusting God through our valleys and a bi-product of that is health and wholeness. We focus on Jesus and remain in Him. Your Faith is the Positive Response and Acceptance of What God Has Already Provided by His Grace.

So if the work of Jesus is finished and complete, why is understanding emotions important? When one can identify the offending emotion, and underlying cause of the illness, they can release the cause of the emotion to Jesus, resting in what He has done for them by Covenant as enough to guarantee their health, finances, protection and safety.  Petition, Pray, Rest, Focus – again – Petition, Pray, Rest, Focus

“Bless the Lord, O’ My soul and forget not all His benefits; He forgives our iniquities, He heals our diseases, He redeems our lives from the Pit and Crowns us with Love and Compassion and satisfies our desires with good things and renews our youth as the eagles”  Psalm 103

There is a very important reason, imperative to understand in fact, why God admonishes us to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. A person impacted by deep emotional stress-ors for a protracted period can and must pray over their own mind and body, binding up their own emotions. Destructive emotions can be controlled. As one exercises their authority, these emotional and negative spirits must submit to the blood and name of Jesus.

1John1:2 NKJV  Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

I rest my case.

#healing   #emotionalhealing   #physicalhealing  #trauma   #fear    #faith

Tracy  Gatewood
Writer, Teacher

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Twitter: @TracyLGatewood
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Related Articles on Sacred Ramblings:
The Spirit of Peace
Jesus the Bishop of Our Souls

 

 

Jesus The Constant

22 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by in Blood of Jesus, Christianity, Emotions, Fear, Gospel of Grace, Grace, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus, Blood of Jesus, New Covenant, redemption, New Covenant, redemption, Sin, Tracy Gatewood

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Whitedove

Proverbs 15:4 AMP  “The Lord has made everything (to accommodate itself and contribute) to its own end and His own purpose – even the wicked (are fitted for their role) for the day of calamity and evil.”

In these apparent end of time days, it does provide comfort to understand that God has His hand on all things. When Judas betrayed Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, this set the stage for the final days culminating by setting into motion the redemptive agreement that was struck before the beginning of the Earth. God does have a Plan and He uses the good and the evil to bring about His own purposes. As undeniably wrong as it was for Judas to betray the Son of God over a few pieces of silver (or over anything), had Judas walked away from the high priests remaining with Jesus, the Plan of God and the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus to redeem all of mankind from the sin that separates would have at the very least been postponed. These acts of betrayal and sacrifice had to occur and did so in their correct time and season.

Proverbs 16:33 AMP ” The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly of the Lord (even the events that seem accidental are really ordered by Him)”.

In these days of common unrest, rebellion and lawlessness where the entire world is boiling over and at breaking point, I must conclude that this is the way of the season and part of the Plan. And if that is so in this great unrest, I am even more glad that I know Jesus who is The Constant in this story, being with us from the beginning – even before people inhabited the Earth. He draws us to Himself as the Great Shepherd, knowing that His sheep hear His voice finding profound comfort, peace, safety and stability in and through Him. Those who know Him, The Constant, also understand Him as the great High Priest. He rose from the dead as High Priest. Interestingly, His grave clothes were linen – as were also the garments of the Levitical high priests of His day – as if those who buried Him in the tomb foreknew His Destiny.

Hebrews 6:5-6 AMP “So too Christ (the Messiah) did not exalt Himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed and exalted by Him Who said to Him, You are My Son: today I have begotten You. As He says also in another place, You are a Priest (appointed) forever after the order (with the rank) of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 4:16 – 15 AMP “Inasmuch then as we have a great High Priest who has (already) ascended and passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession (of faith in Him). For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but Who has been tempted in every respect as we are yet without sinning.”

But now in these days when God is using both good and evil to accomplish His purposes, we must be strong and not despair through the journey, understanding that He will bring all things together for good that know and love Him. As stated by the Apostle Paul: Romans 8:28 AMP We are assured and know that ( God being a Partner in their labor) all things work together and are (fitting into a Plan) for good to and for those who love God and are called according to (His design) and purpose.

The players in the Plan, both good and evil, have been set.  We must remember that we are the Citizens of Heaven, representatives of the Kingdom of God and worldwide Ambassadors in His Embassy, the Church.  This is not our home – our home is with Him.

#HOPE   #GRACE   #LOVE

Tracy Gatewood
Twitter: @TracyLGatewood
Website: http://www.tracygatewood.com
Author: Doorways of Grace
Amazon Author bio: http://www.amazon.com/Tracy-Gatewood/e/B00Y8Q4UT4

 

 

 

Fear and Your Self Deliverance

19 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in Blood of Jesus, Emotions, Fear, Gospel of Grace, Grace, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, redemption, Sin, Tracy Gatewood

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Jesus and Thorns

Fear University
Session #7 


ALL Christians have the ability to self-deliver from mental and physical illness and disease through the power of God’s Holy Spirit. 

In August 2010, I had a very unexpected technicolor encounter arriving special delivery via Holy Spirit showing Jesus on the cross, as He revealed to me that His work was indeed finished. Wide awake, I watched as Jesus gave up His own Spirit, signifying that He gave it up of His own will (dismissing His Spirit) and did so when He was ready.  His life was not taken from Him, but His work was complete. Since that time,  I have inched my way forward through teaching, writing and learning more about this grace but have also been impacted mostly by the healing component of grace.

God’s Healing Generals: Oral Roberts, T.L. Lowery, Lester Sumrall, Amy Semple McPherson, Kathryn Kuhlman, John G. Lake and Smith Wigglesworth transferred their powerful healing anointing into people in need. These are the selfless greats that worked diligently to heal thousands for God. The utilization of saints to impart healing miracles still works today but by God’s grace, the revelation has come to light that the Healer Himself lives inside each of us who accepts Jesus as Savior and it is God’s Holy Spirit that will do His work from the inside out. God’s Spirit can hold His own internal Camp Meeting on your behalf.

When Jesus exchanged his life for your life on a cross at Calvary, He purchased for you an eternal covenant that included divine healing and the right to good physical health and a sound mind. In my observation, almost all health issues generate in the mind and flow to the body.  People sin and can give legal right to a spirit of disease and infirmity.  You must understand that God works through a legal process using blood as the currency of Heaven. When Jesus shed His blood for you, His blood was infinitely more valuable than the blood of any Old Testament sacrificed animal. His death and resurrection was required to be your once and for all sacrifice.

Through the actual process used to redeem sin through Jesus, He accepted the assignment to go through a horrific scourging before He was put on the cross. A crown of thorns was shoved onto His head, mocking Him as King of the Jews. Every place that blood poured from Jesus’ body purchased our legal right from God to be free from the penalty of death by sin from the beginning of our life to the end. We can be healed and walk in health; mind and body because of the scourging of His body.  To embrace the concept of what Jesus did for us is fairly simple – but the hardest part is having the faith to believe that it works.

When a person accepts Christ, his/ her spirit comes alive or is activated. The Holy Spirit takes up residence within and assumes His role as Comforter, Counselor, Teacher, Helper and Healer. He is also the Administrator and Coordinator of all of the gifts. When the Holy Spirit sets up shop within you – a whole host of marvelous things can now unfold, not the least of these is calling upon Him as Healer to apprehend spirits that cause emotional / mental concerns as well as physical. (Cancer is a demonic spirit and by and through the grace established through Jesus, a person may be delivered.)

Through your authority in Jesus, your body, when spoken over,  must submit to the Spirit even down to the cellular level for your health.  You can actually speak to your systems (immune, metabolic, etc), chemicals (commanding hormones, etc to align), organs to calibrate to normal levels.  You can release a command, even a decree to your mind and body to align with God’s perfect will in the name of Jesus and by the blood of Jesus. Most people will think this is crazy.  Most certainly, there are doctors called into God’s service to tend to His people as healing missionaries, but none of them can conduct a creative miracle or a healing miracle  – these only occur through God’s Spirit.

Mark 3:27AMP
But no one can go into a strong man’s house and ransack his household good’s right and left and seize them as plunder unless he first binds the strong man; then indeed he may thoroughly plunder his house.

If you are ready to plunder physical and mental/ emotional disease and infirmity, the first step is identifying then binding the offender. All emotions are spirit based: fear, condemnation, panic attacks, bitterness, jealousy, trauma, anxiety, depression. Life for us mere mortals can become extremely challenging, bringing with it legitimate reasons to experience any of the above but it is when these initial responses continue on for days, into weeks or worse, turn into months or years, is when there is a demonic component and we must stop, then take notice and action.  Redirecting our minds back into proper alignment through reading the word of God and understanding His deep, immutable love and grace, dismantling the house of the Strong man (binding) and acknowledging the work of Jesus Christ, arrests the demonic and produces freedom. When you pray,  pray like you have the rights of ownership because you do by His blood. Pray like you own the title deed to your healing because you do.

It is important for those with understanding to pray for others. Many Christians do not feel good enough or adequate to take this step. You can pray for someone despite your failings, or any shortcomings. Don’t let satan convince that you are an unworthy vessel. You were made clean through the power of the cross of Christ once and for all. There are natural consequences of sin, no doubt, but your spirit is totally clean and pure. Do not allow yourself to get down into condemnation or false teaching on this topic. We connect with God with our spirit to His Spirit.

Each day focus on the loveliness of Jesus, His purity, His beauty and His perfect, unyielding love for you. Speak to Him and ask Him to transform your mind, calibrating it to His mind of perfect peace, of love, of tranquility. Fix your eyes and thoughts squarely on Jesus. By elevating your mind above your health and healing needs, concentrating on Him relieves burdens and breaks yokes in ways we cannot through our own thoughts and self analysis.

Jesus bore your sickness, disease, infirmities and emotions on the cross so that you would be free. Live free.

Follow Me on Twitter: @TracyLGatewood
2015 Book: Doorways of Grace
Sharing Link:  http://wp.me/p1zoxs-u0
Related Post: Fear University Session #6  http://wp.me/p1zoxs-tS

Fear University is a 7 Part Series. Parts 1-5 are featured on my Facebook account and not available on WordPress. I have also written recently:

Healing and the Armor of God
https://wordpress.com/post/tracylgatewood.wordpress.com/1814

Prayer for the Armor of God
https://wordpress.com/post/tracylgatewood.wordpress.com/1844

The Spirit of Life

07 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by in Blood of Jesus, Bride of Christ, Christianity, Emotions, Grace, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus, Blood of Jesus, New Covenant, redemption, Leadership, Sin

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The Spirit of Life

Galatians 5:4-6  If you seek to be justified and declared righteous and to be given a right standing with God through the Law, you are brought to nothing and so separated (severed) from Christ . You have fallen away from grace (from God’s gracious favor and unmerited blessing). For we (not relying on the Law but) through the Holy Spirit’s help, by faith anticipate and wait for the blessing and good for which our righteousness and right standing with God (our conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action, causes us to hope. For (if we are) in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or non circumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love.

There is nothing more that you can do to earn higher degrees of God’s love, to gain more of His awareness, His attention or His Favor than to be devoted to His Son; truly grasping the ramifications of Jesus’ sacrifice on your life and believing that it is through His body and blood that you are completely, and perfectly situated in Him. If there was anything you could do, then it would be more powerful and more important than what Jesus did for you. Favor from God (grace) and right standing with God (righteousness) are not based on your works. These are secured when you exercise your faith and believe that Jesus has paid not only for your sin debt, but that He died for you to have all the blessings given to Abraham; an uninterrupted supply of healing, provision, protection and peace. Access to this comes through unwavering faith and a rest in His finished work.

At times, I need information drilled down for me to a level of relevancy – I grasp and retain concepts best if done so experientially by walking them out. In junior high and high school, I struggled terribly with the math requirements; Algebra, Trigonometry and all manner of related evil. My school counselor, in his mercy,  gave me the option to take Consumer math; a curriculum that provided mathematical problem solving with practical application to issues that were relevant, mostly related to business and very unlike algebraic equations. It was somewhat remedial but I did not care and excelled. As I  teach and write on spiritual concepts, I must first bring them to a point of personal relevance by examining them, breaking them apart and putting them back together.  Through personal experiences, I have broken down specific concepts and walked out truth regarding Jesus that has fortified me in ways that are relevant and life changing.

Galatians 3:20-21  AMP   I have been crucified with Christ ( in Him I have shared His crucifixion); it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith (in adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Therefore, I do not treat God’s gracious gift as something of minor importance and defeat its very purpose);  I do not set aside and invalidate and frustrate and nullify the grace (unmerited favor) of God.  For if justification (righteousness, acquittal from guilt) comes through (observing the ritual of)  the Law, then Christ (the Messiah) died groundlessly  and to no purpose and in vain. (His death was then wholly superfluous).

Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection terminated the Adamic line and His death marked the end of the Law.  Since His death, we have been afforded a new way, a New Covenant (Agreement) solidified between Himself and God on our behalf – we are no longer bound by a sin-based nature. We must set our belief on the foundation of the sacrifice of Jesus, and His work that cleared the way.  Hebrews 8:13 When God speaks of a new (covenant or agreement), He makes the first one obsolete (out of use). And what is obsolete (annulled because of age, out of use), is ripe for disappearance and to be dispensed with altogether.

Do you still use your 8-track to play your music?  My guess is that you don’t. You listen to music on a CD player or MP3 or Sirius or internet streaming. 8 track players are no longer in use because there are better ways that are more efficient and provide higher quality sound. No more bulky tapes to store that take up too much space. Nothing to bang your knee against in your car because your 8 track was installed underneath your factory radio. The 8 track player is obsolete. Why?  There is a new and better way to play your music!  The same principle is true about the New Covenant Jesus has made with God for you which did away with an older covenant that was law based, focusing on sin consciousness and condemnation.  When you listen to the Spirit, He will guide you into life, all truth and aid you in making decisions, shape your character and give you guidance into God’s will. The life of Grace is all about listening to the voice and direction of the Spirit. The life of a Christian is all about listening to the voice of the Spirit.

I AM FREE, FREE, FREE FROM THE CONDEMNATION OF LAW-BASED LIVING.

GLOSSARY
Justified – Just As If You Had Never Sinned – Gal. 3:23  we are justified by faith
Righteous – In Right Standing With God – Rom. 3:21 righteousness cannot be earned, it is a gift and comes through faith in Jesus. Gal 3:17 if righteousness could be gained through law, then Christ died for nothing.
Grace – Undeserved, unmerited Favor (one definition) Eph 2:8 AMP For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved by (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith.
The Law – 10 Commandments given by God to Moses for the Israelites plus 603 additional Rabbinical Laws. The Law was given to the unrighteous, not to the righteous.  To fulfill the Law – all had to be kept, or none were kept. Focusing on rules results in focusing on sin-consciousness and condemnation. We are made righteous by faith not rules or law. All Christians are to focus on Jesus and listen to the Holy Spirit.
New Covenant – What we have with God as Believers after the death/resurrection of Christ. Heb. 8:13 When God speaks of a New Covenant, He has made the first obsolete.

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I am going to make a bold statement. Life as we know it is about to become extremely difficult globally and in order for us to survive – despite its counterintuitive feeling, we must understand Grace, where we first look only to Jesus and without fear, recognize what He has purchased and that He provides the supply for our needs. Our systems and the ways we are accustomed to operating will not continue to work. This does not at all mean we sit down and stop doing our careers, and our ministries but the mindset is different. We depend on our supply from Jesus, because of His sacrifice and we then depend on the Spirit to administrate our lives and make our paths plain. This is God’s Way. People that are not saved will perish for they do not know, trust or understand Jesus and will not look to Him.

Recently, I have noticed that the Holy Spirit is prompting many teachers to step out and teach on Fear and give the public an understanding of its DNA. Unless we understand that fear is a spirit and how to manage it, many will not make it emotionally through the upcoming trials and tests. It is essential that people gain an understanding of the Gospel of Grace, the truth of the power of the blood of Jesus and learning practical application of both in their lives. 

Keys to Freedom from Fear

27 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by in Blood of Jesus, Bride of Christ, Christianity, Emotions, Grace, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus, Blood of Jesus, New Covenant, redemption, Sin, Transformational Leadership, Tuscaloosa

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Jesus by Martha Beadle

JESUS 
Artist Martha Beadle, Florence, AL

From October 2009 to early summer of 2012, I earned a PhD in FEAR during a remarkable season of transition. From the time that I made a commitment to move back to my hometown in July 2009 until 3 years later – I white knuckled my way through a lengthy list of peaks and (far and away mostly) valleys. If you have ever walked through a Job season, then you can clearly relate to what I am referring. My family and close friends watched in disbelief as a series of extreme circumstances came in wave after wave over several years, but in the fullness of His time, but by His grace, God redeemed my desperate and bleak situation, opening up new avenues of hope and restoration.

Joel 2:23-26 AMP Be then glad, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord, your God; for He gives you the former or early rain in just measure and in righteousness, and He causes to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain as before. And the (threshing) floors shall be full of grain and the vats shall overflow with juice (of the grape) and oil. And I will restore or replace for you the years that the locust has eaten-the hopping locust; the stripping locust, and the crawling locust, My great army which I sent among you. And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord, your God. Who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never be put to shame.

During this season I had well-meaning friends, say to me any number of things, “Tracy, where’s your faith?”, I had never struggled with my faith, actually I always believed that I had very strong faith but no amount of faith was turning around these problems or “Why don’t you just get a job!”, like I had not been looking under every rock for one for over a year, or telling me that I was going in the wrong direction in returning back to my home town – even after I had explained exhaustively that God had told me to move back. One couple whom I mistakenly trusted, successfully convinced me that I had waited too long to move after being called by God to do so and I was obviously being chastened. Unfortunately, I allowed this latter remark to seep into my soul, and this was one of 3 primary reasons that I slipped into a downward, even vertical spiral of total condemnation that almost destroyed my mind. Condemnation will kill you. Fear will kill you, too.

A Description of Fear
Fear is an evil spirit. That’s right, what most people associate with horror movies or witches, fear spirits are in the unseen realm that surround us. Just like Angels are in the unseen (Recommended: Angels: God’s Secret Agents; Billy Graham, author), a person cannot see an evil spirit. If you accept one you should accept the existence of the other. Fear is also an emotional response to a real and undesired situation however it is when fear is left to run rampant and unabated, continually flailing around in a person’s mind, is when this spirit has the ability to lodge into a soul and wreak havoc in the life of anyone. All people are made up of (3) things: Spirit, Soul and Body. If you have accepted Christ, then your spirit is connected to the Holy Spirit which is how you hear the will of God, your soul is comprised of (3) things: your mind, your will and your emotions.

Throughout this season of fear, I had the choice of either learning how to combat this spirit or allow it to kill me. I decided I wanted to fight and to live. After observing the effects of extreme fear at a very close range for a prolonged season, I concluded the following:

1) The enemy always enters a person’s mind or soul cloaked in a spirit of fear or cloaked in a spirit of condemnation. Even the slightest root of fear can open the door to a full-blown attack. Keep the fear door closed tightly.
2) Fear acts as a portal into a person’s soul through which every negative emotion can and will flow: confusion, depression, suicide, insecurity, greed, envy, jealousy, trauma, abuse, shame, and terror. Its always Fear (or condemnation) First before the associated negative emotion kicks in.
3) The immediate response to a spirit of fear must be trust in God (belief versus unbelief). Keep faith building scripture verses close at hand to combat fear, just as you would keep Vitamin C and Zinc close at hand if you have a cold. Faith is the antidote to fear. Speak these verses ALOUD.
4) Fear is the enemy’s heaven – fear is like oxygen to the demonic.
5) If the spirit of fear is not present, the enemy has nothing to convert to evil – he has nothing on which to “latch” himself to a person. This is an essential point to grasp in the understanding of the subject of fear and strategy of the enemy.

Jesus, Your Great High Priest
Hebrews 8: 6-7 “But as it is now, He (Christ) has acquired a (priestly) ministry which is as much superior and more excellent (than the old) as the covenant (the agreement) of which He is the Mediator (the Arbiter, Agent), is superior and more excellent, (because) it is enacted and rests upon more important promises. For if that first covenant had been without defect, there would have been no room for another one or an attempt to institute another one. “

This might be your first exposure to New Covenant terminology, and if so, I wish that I had the time to completely round out this wonderful topic in its entirety but this article is blog length. When Jesus was sacrificed on the cross, His resurrection served as ratification of a New Covenant (agreement) with all people that have accepted Him as their Savior. There are many, many things that shifted from the Old Testament over to the New following the crucifixion; Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Specifically, His blood, redeemed back from the enemy, our ability to walk in total freedom. You have been given the ability to self deliver – you have the ability to pray for healing for yourself and call on God’s power to answer your prayer. If you are struggling with any emotional issue in your mind -(1) picture yourself standing firmly rooted and grounded in the love of God – God’s perfect love will cast out fear. Drawing on God’s love for you will bring confidence.(2) Understand that Jesus has purchased your right of ownership to a sound mind (He is Jehovah Shalom-the Prince of Peace), and your mind can now be calibrated into rest and to the perfect mind of Christ. This was won for you at The Cross.

Binding and Loosing
Although rarely taught, the scriptural way to eradicate a spirit; fear, depression, suicide, confusion, condemnation or anything previously mentioned is a technique that is so simple, and it is how Jesus Himself instructs us to control things we choose to declare to be unlawful or improper. In fact, He states in Matthew 16:19 that He is giving us the ” keys to the kingdom “.

Matthew 16:19 AMP “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be what is already bound in heaven: and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven.”

When you bind, and rebuke a spirit – you send it packing. Binding it up, renders it null and void. Conversely, you can loose or release an opposite spirit (joy, hope, a sound mind), right back into yourself or another person for whom you are praying. It’s right there in the bible. Jesus Himself holds the Key of David:
Isaiah 22:22 “And the key of the house of David I will lay upon His shoulder: He shall open and no one shall shut, He shall shut and no one shall open.”
This is Jesus. Jesus is the literal Tree of Life.

The Gospel of Grace allows us to be transformed by Jesus from glory to glory and it also allows for some tactical “moves” that are administrated by the Holy Spirit. If you want to free yourself from fear – declare it aloud and speak to the fear like it was a person (actually it is a thing). Tell that spirit that you are binding and breaking it in the name of Jesus and by the blood of Jesus. Acknowledge the work of Jesus on the cross in Isaiah 53. Stand firmly planted in the love of God and believe that you are standing firm from a victorious stance, never fighting from a position of defeat. You are not your emotions, and these things cannot continue to remain if you identify them, carefully bind them, rebuke them and ask God to send them away. Although you are speaking the words, this is a work of the Holy Spirit and Jesus holds the keys to close the door on these offenders.

It is so simple – no process – and it is God’s Recipe for Success and Freedom From Fear and Condemnation.

Tracy Gatewood
Keys to Freedom from Fear
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Forrest, Moses and the Mercies of God

08 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by in #HolySpirit, Blood of Jesus, Christianity, Emotions, Grace, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus, Blood of Jesus, New Covenant, redemption, Mercy, New Covenant, redemption, Sin, Tracy Gatewood Alabama, TracyLGatewood, Uncategorized

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Moses

FORREST GUMP TRAILER 3:12

FIRST please click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPIEn0M8su0


Psalm 5:12 AMP For you Lord, will bless the (uncompromisingly) righteous (him who is upright and in right standing with You); as with a shield You will surround him with goodwill (pleasure and favor).

Forrest Gump is a beloved movie character that stole hearts across America. Despite Forrest’s well below average IQ and slow speech, a flow of God’s mercy and compassion were evident in his life. He was blessed with a mother that worked diligently to give him a life of normalcy, he possessed extraordinary athleticism, and had a vast list of achievements; All American football star to war hero and as a Medal of Honor winner he even met two Presidents. Forrest also played on the winning National Championship Ping Pong team that traveled to China.

Forrest purchased a shrimp boat and asked Lieutenant Dan to go into business. When a Hurricane blew through Forrest’s south Alabama shrimping fields, every shrimp boat but his was destroyed, leaving the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company to net all the shrimp for their own gain. Following the death of his mother, Forrest chose to remain close to home, allowing Lieutenant Dan to run the business and invest their personal earnings, which Dan did in a “fruit company” called Apple Computers. Forrest became a multi-millionaire and given the ability to retire at an early age, all the while carrying an innocence about him that surrounded him like a shield. Favor is a shield.

Romans 9:15-20 AMP For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion (pity) on whom I will have compassion. So then God’s gift is not a question of human will and human effort, but of God’s mercy. (It depends not on one’s own willingness nor on his strenuous exertion as in running a race, but on God’s having mercy on him). For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, I have raised you up for this very purpose of displaying My power in dealing with you, so that My name may be proclaimed the whole world over.

In real life, God’s gifts are not bestowed to an individual due to intellect or performance. Although God may bestow a gift on a person because of character displayed during a season of difficulty, a person cannot intentionally earn His gifts through works – gifts are administered by the Holy Spirit and given out at His discretion. Holy Spirit gives each person spiritual gifts and abilities that no man can take away, and gifts God wants used for His glory and important Kingdom purposes. Moses, like Forrest, was slow of speech, but up in years yet was given a great mantle of responsibility by God. After hearing God speak through a burning bush that never really burned, he left armed with a wooden rod (Staff) and a discerning inner circle, charged with leading a few million people out of Egypt, no small feat. (Exodus 3:1-21)

Moses could have passed on the assignment but we know Moses today because he trusted in the nature of the One who made the request. Moses was given uncommon favor to accomplish an uncommon assignment which was not without its share, too, of uncommon hardship and difficulty. Mercy and compassion become highly valued attributes around hard and difficult times. We thank you Lord for your mercy.

It is the Holy Spirit that grants favor but it is God Himself, again in His enduring mercy and lovingkindness, that has set forth the principle of Grace by offering the life of His Son to complete the terms of an Eternal Covenant. Grace is both a Noun and a Verb. It is Grace that we can walk by faith in what Jesus has done and in close partnership with the Spirit to accomplish all that God desires for us. It is through Grace that God offers us a way around the sin conscious Law and the continual cycle of self-effort, self-consciousness and performance – a way that leads to death; death of relationships, spiritual death and even physical death. We cannot achieve through our own self effort being good enough to receive God’s gifts or even His mercy and compassion. If we could be good enough, there would have been no need for Jesus to die to redeem (buy us back) from Adam’s fall and sin.

When you accept Christ You are given as a Gift to Jesus From His Father. Isn’t that a beautiful revelation of the love that God has for each of us?

John 17:24 AMP  Father, I desire that they also whom You have entrusted to Me (as Your gift to Me) may be with Me where I am so that they may see My glory which You have given Me (Your love gift to Me): for You loved me before the Foundation of the world, O just and righteous Father, although the world has not known You and has failed to recognize You and has never acknowledged You, I have known You (continually): and these men know and understand that you have sent Me. I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your Self and I will continue to make (You) known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them (felt in their hearts) and I (Myself) may be in them.

Certainly we are all far more important to Jesus than a box of chocolates. Each one of us is a perfectly faceted jewel containing unique qualities fashioned by the hand of God, gifted and skilled for critical missions that only we can fulfill. We must only accept our mission knowing that the power of Christ lives within us and the mercy of God is with us to assist with our assigned task.

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Happy Independance Day

04 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by in Blood of Jesus, Bride of Christ, Christianity, Emotions, Grace, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus, Blood of Jesus, New Covenant, redemption, Sin, Tracy Gatewood, Tracy Gatewood Alabama, TracyLGatewood

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HEBREWS 8:10-12 AMP For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will imprint their laws upon their minds, even upon their innermost thoughts and understanding, and engrave them upon their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be My people. And it will nevermore be necessary for each one to teach his neighbor and his fellow citizen or each one his brother saying, Know (perceive, have knowledge of and get acquainted by experience with ) the Lord for all will know Me, from the smallest to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful and gracious toward their sins and I will remember their deeds no more.

The Lord is describing the New Covenant, and that we no longer must live with the aid of the Mosaic laws, but that He Himself has put in each of us an innate ability to know right from wrong, and that understanding will come through His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is imparted to us by Jesus Himself when we accept by faith that He is the Son of God and understand that His sacrifice was required to pay our sin debt. Equally important for us to note in this passage, not only are we being given the Holy Spirit but God’s statement that He will remember our sins no more. God has established a higher and better, and more fair approach for those that believe in Jesus. We are not to be sin-conscious, but filled by and with faith as righteous children of God, our righteousness paid for by Jesus Himself. Righteousness could mean Right Living – but like the Ten Commandments, we could never live right enough so we look again to Jesus who paid for our righteousness. Romans 1:17-19 AMP – For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live by faith. For God’s (holy) wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness make it inoperative. For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God Himself has shown it to them.
In other words, live by faith in the Gospel and stop your sinning because you know that you are doing it.

Colossians 2: 13-15 AMP And you who were dead in trespasses and in the un-circumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful, carnal nature), (God) brought to life together with (Christ) having (freely) forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This (note with its regulations, decrees and demands) He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to His cross. God disarmed the principalities and power that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, triumphing over them in Him and in it (the cross).

Most calling themselves Christians have a clear understanding that when Christ was crucified, that He paid for their sins. God being Holy and Perfect, can never look upon sin so He placed all of the sin of the entire world committed from its beginning to its end on His Son. Jesus took all of His Father’s wrath so that we would never be judged for our own sin. Colossians 2 refers to the nailing of laws to the cross of Jesus, because they were hostile to His people. These refer to the Laws of Moses. How could laws that seem so perfectly just be viewed as hostile to God’s people by God Himself? Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, Honor your Father and Your Mother, Do Not Murder, Do Not Commit Adultery, etc… you know them. Remember, the Holy Spirit wrote the bible and this is all in there. It is not the laws themselves that were hostile, but that for them to be fulfilled – ALL of them had to be adhered to perfectly for us to remain out of God’s judgment. This was an impossible exercise for His people to accomplish making these decrees and demands HOSTILE and also making His people SIN conscious rather than GRACE conscious. (Grace is undeserved, unmerited FAVOR)

And because God is God, He knew we would miss this one, and so planned from the very beginning in agreement with His Son (before the earth was formed in fact) that Jesus would return and walk out this agreement on earth that would complete a new, more perfect and everlasting covenant. This is the Gospel and the (very) Good News – because what Jesus gave us as the gift of grace, no man can boast. He freely gave up His life of His own volitional will (now if that’s not more grace, I do not know what is) to open the door so that all the blessings promised to Abraham, as his seed, are given to us.

Because God recognizes a legal system, His covenants can only be ratified through blood which always results in death. A person’s Last Will and Testament only becomes activated at the time of that person’s death, and the same with God’s New (and Final) Covenant for His people, which too became active at Christ’s death. His resurrection signified that the actual exchange at the cross took place proving to everyone that He had completed His assignment. After showing His disciples that He was ok and that His work was finished, He filled them with His Holy Spirit, giving them passion and momentum to forward what He had taught but now with holy, dunamis power. He then went back to Heaven, to hang out and rest next to His Daddy where He prays for us and mediates His covenant. His return to earth after his crucifixion demonstrated to all of the (now former) powers and principalities that previously ruled the earth that He had successfully completed the job of disarming them and He was now heading Home, but not before He released His Spirit which would give them an additional kick in the pants. There was no one ranking higher than Jesus, the sinless, blameless Son of God, that could pay for our iniquities; addictions, adultery, thefts, lies, envies, lusts, slanders, unforgiveness ….. you get the picture. It had to be Him – this was a very big job!!!

In recent months, I confess, that I have pondered the practice of churches offering their attendees the opportunity to “nail to the cross” their unforgiveness, shame, porn addictions and various other muck and weaknesses. I am now so grateful to understand that Jesus has already taken away all of this JUNK on His own body. A person nailing an iniquity to a cross in their own strength may not be truly aware of the magnitude and the complete truth of what Jesus has accomplished. “It is Finished!” – their acts do not count against them as sin. What we are left to manage is our own emotional condemnation; guilt, shame, or a weakness of will (unforgiveness) etc but God is not seeing any of these iniquities (iniquity means to go your own way) because He now sees all of us through the lens of the Blood of His Son. Jesus’ perpetual flow of blood never stops, constantly cleanses, purifies and even sanctifies those that belong to Him. Christ is in you, you are in Him and you are the righteousness of God through Jesus. If there was anything you could do in your own strength – even nailing your bad actions to a cross – then that act would be more transformational and more effective than Christ’s own sacrifice. Turn by faith to God and speak His promises to yourself ALOUD and thank Him and Jesus for what they did for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to cleanse you from unclean spirits and torment that plague your soul and body. You yourself are a One Stop Deliverance Shop! Jesus has already released us from oppression! Freedom is in the simple Gospel message – Jesus has paid it all. Believe and you can receive. Happy Independence Day!

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My Journey With Jesus Part Two

01 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Blood of Jesus, Christianity, Emotions, Grace, Healing, Holy Spirit, Jesus, New Covenant, redemption, Sin, Tracy Gatewood, Tracy Gatewood Alabama, TracyLGatewood

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North Point Auditorium
North Point Community Church auditorium during 7:22,
Louie Giglio teaching, 1999

I was working for an Atlanta church that was growing as fast as the national debt. The decision to close my business was not made lightly but I continued to sense that God was trying to do something very different and He had my undivided attention because of the intense pain. I was numb with pain. Had I recovered and brushed myself off, and continued on as usual running my business and ignoring these promptings, I would have missed one of the most important seasons of my life that God wanted to use. By not medicating the pain of this very deep betrayal through breakneck secular ‘busyness’ God was able to heal me one layer at a time; peeling off the past while re-framing the future.

Living at a more deliberate and much slower pace throughout this traumatic event allowed me to watch God’s hand moving on my life, shuffling people and circumstances into place in His perfect timing in the precise time of need and almost always at the very last minute. I knew it was Him because no one else could do what I was seeing happen. It was remarkable to watch this process unfold adjusting to new realities; church worker rather than business owner, singleness, entirely new group and type of friends. My position provided instant access to new relationships with hundreds of single adults and I was even the one planning their entertainment so always had something fun to do and people to be around. God did not miss one detail.

One afternoon in late 1999, I was standing totally alone in the church’s main auditorium (above photo) then watched as I saw myself teaching to hundreds and hundreds of people. I was not thinking about becoming a teacher, this just happened, like an out of body experience – wide awake and watching myself on a stage teaching. (I know this sounds wierd but this is what happened). I knew exactly what city I was in teaching and it was not Atlanta. This scene replayed twice more in 2000 with no warning, searing a distinct picture of an auditorium in my mind.

Nine years later, the first week of July 2009, I met with my pastor and after explaining that I was moving from Birmingham, (I had moved there in 2002), displayed a picture of the Atlanta church auditorium filled with people and recounted the spirit scene teaching story. His response was that I had gotten what he had gotten (“Tracy, you got what I got!”) referring to his own experience with God showing him something in a supernatural fashion that confirmed a very important decision.

I put my house on the market in Birmingham, and nine months of misery later, sold it to a member of the family that owned the office complex in which my Birmingham church began. The woman walked in the door said she saw her piano in my living room (I did not have a piano in my living room), walked through twice, left and wrote a contract the next day. It was the ugliest house in an otherwise very beautiful area so I was grateful she only came over once before she wrote the contract. That was God, too. I also owned an investment condominium that I had been trying to lease for many months – my father told me that I would have to live in it if I did not get it leased before I left. The Thursday before the Saturday that I was scheduled to move, a young woman called, saw it then wanted it. She then asked if she could pay me for one full year in advance because she had no credit history. Nobody does that. There was God again. She was moving into my condominium as my movers were loading up their van at my home. These circumstances marked the beginning of another season of transition and change.

When God wants to build your spiritual muscle, He will allow you to walk through neck deep waters of opposition for a protracted period. It doesn’t feel like a gift at the time but if you survive the stretching without becoming bitter from the losses, remain yielded to the voice of God and find its purpose, it can become a gift. He will remain with you at the front of the boat – the Captain, giving you instruction, comfort, guiding, teaching, consoling, advocating, bringing connections / contacts in your path to assist you – but you must continue to row and if you actually fall in the water, you must quickly start to swim.

I love to walk along the river and watch the University’s rowing teams glide across the water and hear the coach in the opposite boat giving instruction, keeping the team in perfect rhythm to achieve their best result. This is what the Holy Spirit will do for every Believer if they will listen and not depend on the voices and the pressures of other people. Your experience is one that He customizes uniquely to you, in His own way and timing.

{ I must insure that my readers understand distinctions about the Godhead; it is Triune – The Trinity being God, Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit – a great mystery but so perfect in their individual responsibilities and assignments to each of us. It is crucial that we understand that they are separate but still the same. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who is the Father of all things. Jesus sits even now at the right hand of Father God to intercede for His people all day and all night. He is our High Priest and mediates from heaven, a new covenant made between Himself and God on man’s behalf, and sealed with His own body and blood. The Holy Spirit is equal yet less understood, but is God and lives within each person that has accepted Jesus Christ as Son of God and understands that Jesus’ blood paid their sin debt (redemption). The Holy Spirit is a person; a Comforter, an Advocate, Teacher, Consoler. The Holy Spirit’s power is actually The One that conceived Jesus in the virgin womb of Mary, He empowered Jesus to walk to the cross, and raised Jesus from death to life.}

It is essential to attend a church that teaches on each member of the Trinity, while acknowledging the importance of the roles of each all.

Twitter: @TracyLGatewood
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Author: Doorways of Grace: My Uncommon Journey to Healing, Wholeness and Meeting Jesus

Special Note – This article is a follow up to Part One which is essential for the clear understanding of Part Two.

<Related Articles
My Journey With Jesus Part One tracylgatewood.wordpress.com/my-journey-with-jesus-part-one/ January 2012
The Assignment tracylgatewood.wordpress.com/the-assignment/ December 2011
Purpose Driven Bride tracylgatewood.wordpress.com/purpose-driven-bride/ June 2011