Last post was a lot of fun, at least for me, reading revised Navy Seal quotes. I hope you had a chance to print out the PDF and say those out loud and boldly. Mountain moving faith should excite your spirit, not feel like a task to get done. The joy of the Lord is our strength! Mix it up, and make your own powerful quotes, or you can ask the Holy Spirit for some in your quiet time.
This is probably the last part of our prayer series, unless the Holy Spirit taps on me again. This week is a HUGE topic! We are talking about righteousness. There seems to be a revival wave of righteousness teaching sweeping through churches, and rightly so! We had a couple generations of “hellfire preachers,” that contributed to the lack of understanding concerning righteousness. The “hellfire preaching” was very damaging to the church as a whole. No where in the Bible do we see anyone speaking to a congregation in such a way, and yet it’s widely acceptable across different denominations. Today, I hope to either put your feet back on the path, or just to encourage you to walk toward seeing yourself as God sees you.
Why does righteousness matter? Righteousness means right standing with God. If you don’t see yourself as in right standing with God, it will affect every aspect of your Christian life. The Bible says to boldly enter the throne room of grace (Hebrews 4:16). If you don’t feel righteous, you’ll never enter His presence with boldness. The Bible says (Matthew 8:16) that Jesus “healed all who were sick,” but not feeling righteous will make you question healing, determine God’s willingness to heal by a tv-show Jesus, or pray unbiblical prayers, “God heal me if it be Thy will.” The Bible says that you’re the head and not the tail (Deuteronomy 28:13), but when you don’t feel righteous, you question God, “Are you trying to teach me a lesson through this suffering.” We say we know we’re righteous, but we don’t realize we behave as if we were unrighteous. Once we get a revelational understanding that we’re righteous, nothing, no sickness, no problem, no financial burden, stands between us receiving from the Lord.
Let’s take a look at two women in the Bible the first was a widow during the time or Elijah’s ministry, and the other woman was a Shunamite woman alive at the same time, but she was ministered to by Elisha. I encourage you to read these stories in the Bible when you have time.
Elijah and the Widow – 1 Kings 17:8-24 NKJV
Elijah is sent by God to a certain widow so that she could provide for Elijah during a famine. He’s told to ask her for water and then a morsel of bread. She tells him that she was going to bake a cake then her and her son were going to die. Elijah tells her to make him a small cake first, and the widow does as Elijah asked. The Lord blesses the widow woman with this is verse 14, “The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.” This widow woman is living in a miracle every day of her life for a period of time. Then her son becomes ill and what does she say in verse 18, “What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?” What kind of horrible accusation is this? The woman is sin conscious! Her first thought wasn’t the Lord has blessed us and saved us; it was look what I did. She did not believe she was righteous. She was looking to be punished for her sins; although, Christ had not yet died for sin, she was still righteous under the Law of Moses. Back to the story, Elijah prays, and the child is raised from the dead. The woman responds in verse 24, “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.” Say what?? A woman living in a miracle day by day could not believe that Elijah was a man of God, because her SIN CONSCIOUSNESS blocked her eyes from seeing. You might be thinking, “No, it was a faith issue.” I agree with you, but what blocked her faith, sin consciousness. Maybe it sounded like this. “I’ve sinned. Why would God bless me, a sinner? I wonder if this is really God or sorcery.” I know at some level we can all relate to why would God bless me, heal me, use me, want me, and things of the sort. That’s unrighteous thinking that keeps us out of a blessing!
The Shunamite Woman – 2 King 4:8-37 NKJV
Elisha would pass by Shumen, and a Shunamite woman insisted on feeding him. Sounds Italian. One day she asked her husband if they could make an upper room for the man of God to stay while he was in town. Her husband agreed, and Elisha stayed there. Elisha feeling blessed asked what he could do for her. She had the right motive in her heart, she didn’t want anything. Elisha’s servant pointed out that her husband was old, and she had no son. Elisha told her that the next year she’ll have a son. It came to pass. When the child was older, he was out in the field and went to his father complaining about his head. They carried him in to his mother, and eventually the child died while on her lap. She took her child up to Elisha’s room and shut the door. What is she doing? Every detail here is important. She put her child where she knows the presence of God has been, and she shut the door on death. Her son was now in the hands of God where she knew he could be raised up. Then she goes to her husband and asks to leave to see Elisha. When her husband asks about the child she says, “It is well.” Mountain Moving Faith in the Old Testament! She hurries off to Mount Carmel to meet Elisha. He sees her coming, but the Lord doesn’t tell him why. When he finds out her son is dead, he tells the servant to go touch the boy with his staff, but his mamma says, “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” I love this woman! She was not leaving until she got what she came for, the boldness of this woman is amazing! Elisha and the servant went into her house and prayed for the boy. He is eventually raised from the dead, and he calls her to come pick up her son. She, to honor the prophet, “fell at his feet and bowed to the ground; then she picked up her son and went out.” This Shunamite woman is older than the widow, she could have rehearsed a lot more sin in her mind than the younger widow. The Shunamite woman didn’t question her position with God, her eyes were on keeping her blessing. When you read the story in the Bible, pay attention to how the widow woman was so passionate and caught up in her unrighteous feelings, Elijah believed her and blamed God too, “O Lord my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?” The next verse says, “Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back…” Heard is the Hebrew word shama, which means to pay attention and also a call to action, as in hear and do. Jesus used shama in his teachings. The Lord shama-ed Elijah’s prayer NOT the widow. Why? She’s busy laying blame at the feet of the Father. Elijah doesn’t know what she did or didn’t do, he’s innocent of her sin conscious drama!
Things worked differently in the Old Testament, if the widow had to rely on her own prayer life, her son would have stayed dead because she was busy blaming God. If the Shunamite woman had been born again and had to rely on her own faith, she had Mountain Moving Faith in full operation, her son probably would have never died but would have been healed. How we view ourselves will affect the outcome of our faith and prayers.
How should we view ourselves?
We should see ourselves as innocent, not guilty, and not condemned. Most Christians love John 3:16, but we skip over the meaning of verse 17, because the magnitude of verse 16.
16For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Merriam Webster defines condemn as to declare to be reprehensible, wrong, or evil usually after weighing evidence and without reservation, and to pronounce guilty. Jesus didn’t come to pronounce us guilty. The Father didn’t send Jesus to pronounce us guilty. The Holy Spirit isn’t the Father’s spy to pronounce us guilty either. We didn’t get saved so we could be condemned. Say this out loud, “I am innocent. I am not guilty.” Probably very different than what you’re used to saying and hearing. We’re always taught to ask for forgiveness, ask for forgiveness, ask for forgiveness. If we messed up, we should ask. When we ask for forgiveness FIRST every time we pray, we’re sin conscious and not righteousness conscious.
You are just as righteous as Jesus. Righteousness isn’t something that you grow in or learn to do. You were made righteous through Christ. Living life righteously is a different matter, but your spirit was made righteous when you accepted Christ. Let’s look at a few scriptures.
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 NKJV
17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18Now all things are of God, who HAS RECONCILED US TO HIMSELF through JESUS CHRIST, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
I don’t know about you, but I don’t use the word reconciliation very often in speech, and normally I only hear it used in reference to scripture. Strong’s defines reconcile, katallassó, as change, exchange, reconcile. HELPS Word Study defines it as katá, “down to an exact point,” intensifying the word allássō, “to change” –decisively change, as when two parties reconcile when coming (“changing“) to the same position. The “ministry of reconciliation” the word katallagé is used which means restoration to favor. So we can read the second verse like this:
18Now all things are of God, who has CHANGED US TO THE SAME POSITION TO HIMSELF through JESUS CHRIST, and has given us the ministry of RESTORATION TO FAVOR,
We truly are made completely righteous in Christ with HIS righteousness; we have HIS righteousness. We didn’t do it right, but Jesus did, and gave His righteousness to us. Let’s go down to verse 21.
2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
If you asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, you are completely righteous! Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about growing or increasing in righteousness. Fruits of the spirit, we can grow in those, but righteousness isn’t listed as a fruit. How exactly did we obtain a high position of righteous standing with the Father?
Romans 5:17 NKJV
For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
It was a free gift to us. That doesn’t mean we’ll FEEL righteous in our feelings. The scriptures are saying who we are in Christ, so we learn our position in Christ, believe it, and walk through life from the position that we are seated with Christ in Heavenly places.
Romans 10:9-11 NKJV
9that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
Ephesians 2:6 NKJV
and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Righteousness isn’t something that can only be obtained by the super-spiritual people floating in some holy bliss. It’s for us, right now. It was our position as soon as we accepted Christ. We just haven’t been taught this way. We must reprogram our thinking to who we have been made in Christ. That’s our authority, and our place of authoritative prayers that the enemy hates. If the enemy can convince people, and he has, that they are “old sinners saved by grace,” that’s where prayers turn from authoritative to wimpy, timid, doubtful, and unconfident. I’m going to be tough and say this, if someone teaches you that you’re “an old sinner saved by grace,” then they need to get born again and/or renew their mind to the Word. Don’t accept that position. Why? Because you’re washed in the blood of Jesus, the old man has passed away and all things are made new. You’re a new creature in Christ. You don’t have “a history.” Praise the Lord, it was wiped away!
If you’re like me and struggle with righteousness, because of hell fire preaching, or know someone who is struggling, I put together a printable PDF to help. Say these things out loud to yourself. We talked about Jesus’ teaching in a previous post, Mountain Moving Faith, that saying it out loud for your own ear to hear creates a strong faith in your heart. The first time I said the first 3 out loud, I felt a change inside.
(After sending this to printer, choose borderless printing)
Before we end for this week, let’s look back on the difference between righteousness and righteous living. Everyone’s flesh automatically thinks, what about Christians sinning. I inquired of the Holy Spirit about how to explain the difference. Hebrews 12:1 talks about laying aside weights and sin that trap us. This is what happens in the spiritual realm when we choose not to live a changed lifestyle. Imagine a woman, we’ll name her Bertha, is directly in front of the throne of God, because we’re told we can boldly enter the throne room of grace. Bertha gets upset at her neighbor for blowing grass on her driveway. She forgives them but is angry she had to clean it up. She leaves the anger and doesn’t deal with the issue in her heart. That’s like putting a cinderblock between her and the Father. Another time Bertha starts to eat a hamburger that was not what she ordered. The cashier treated her poorly, so she gets on Yelp to leave a 2-star review. She adds two more cinderblocks between her and the Father. Bertha snaps at her neighbors, they can’t figure out why, and she doesn’t bother to make it right, another cinderblock. Pretty soon a full wall is created between her and the Father’s grace. She didn’t lose her righteous standing; she’s just casting a showdown on herself with her own wall and blocking out His grace. That’s the weight and trap the author of Hebrews is talking about. We don’t think in terms of races like they did during the writing of the Bible. It would have to be said this way,image a football player running to the endzone during a game. The player is running with weights on his neck, and steps in a trap. How far will he run before he’s tackled? Sometimes those tackled people lay on the ground and say, “God had a divine purpose for me to fall.” No, it was the weight and trap on his ankle that left him open to be easily tackled. If we keep the walls down, the weights off our body, and the traps off our ankles we can easily outrun the enemy! However you want to think about it, you’re still perfectly righteous in Christ! That’s why the prodigal son was welcomed home by the Father. He did some unrighteous living, but he never stopped being a son. He was brought back under the protection of the Father, because he knocked the wall down or took off the weights and removed the traps. We’re not really taught the story that way, and I’m thankful the Holy Spirit has taught it to me this way. Read the story again in Luke 15 when you have time. You might see it differently.
Thank you for going through this study on prayer with me. I hope this study has helped stir up an excitement for prayer, helping you understand more about who you are in Christ, and enjoy spending time with the Holy Spirit.
Christi
My Prayer Notebook 
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