Author: Craig Stull

I will try to keep this brief. There were promises in the Old Testament concerning a new heart and a new spirit that God would give His people one day under the New Covenant. You see, under the Old   Covenant, people lacked the equipment they needed to sustain a living, loving relationship with God. Plus, the presence of the Lord wasn’t within them. The promises stated that He would circumcise old hearts and give new hearts that would love Him and seek Him. At the cross, Jesus fulfilled all of these words. As new creations, you and I were given brand new hearts that beat and pant for Him, and we were given new spirits that tabernacle His Spirit and that desire His presence above all else. By the Holy Spirit, Jesus Himself came to live within the human spirit, and He gave people what they needed to have an eternal relationship with Him. I know this is elementary, but I want you to understand that you and I should never fall under the deception of the enemy. He tells us that we don’t have a heart for the Lord like we once had or that we have somehow lost the burning desire to know Him, but the truth is that we were all given hearts that love God above all else. That is our true identity!

When Jesus directed John to write a letter to the church of Ephesus, He told them to do three things in order to return to their first love: remember, repent, and do the works they did at first. I think it was a simple command. First, they were to remember that God had given them a  first love heart. Second, they were to repent of believing anything differently than this truth. Third, they were to do the ‘first works.’ In John chapter 6, when the disciples asked Jesus how to work the works of God, He told them to believe in the One He sent. So, to do the first works was to simply believe that Jesus has done everything to make first love a reality in our experience. Therefore, all that needs to be done is to rest in His finished work. The great reality is we are seated with Him in the heavenly places surrounded by an atmosphere of perfect love.

Last night, I had a dream that I believe is a word for my local church and the body of Christ. In the dream, I was walking with a Maasai warrior. He started to pick up the pace and he wanted me to run beside him. In the dream, I knew that we were running toward a battle. At that moment when the warrior asked me to run, I didn’t have a weapon. All of a sudden, I looked up to the sky and declared that I needed a spear, and one appeared in my hand. Then the Maasai and I picked up our pace and started running and the terrain ahead of us was at an incline. That was the end of the dream. When I awakened, I knew the dream was from the Lord. I felt like the Lord was saying that it’s not a time for the body of Christ to hunker down in foxholes, but it’s a time to run toward the battle. Also, the spear represented spiritual weapons that the Lord has equipped us with in Christ. All we have to do is ask (As you know the battle we are fighting in this country is a spiritual one, and you can only fight spiritual battles with spiritual weapons, which are mainly released in prayer). Honestly, I don’t know what running toward the battle is supposed to look like for everyone, but I believe if we seek the Lord, He will reveal what it means for us individually. Like I stated in my last email, I know that there is grace for this pandemic time. However, I also believe that if we’re not careful and discerning the enemy will keep us stationary in our foxholes dodging mortars. Again, I’m not judging anyone, or saying that we don’t need to honor the social distancing and mask wearing. For all that know me, I am saying this will all grace indented as we are all trying to figure this out.  For TC and I, running toward the battle means that we are spending time in prayer together, and we are seeking the Lord trying to get heavens report; and we are receiving Eucharist and plugging into fellowship as much as we can. Grace, mercy and peace to everyone, and there is NO CONDEMNATION IN CHRIST.

One thing I continually say in my bible study and in counseling sessions, is that warfare is designed to deceive you. The enemy tries to stay hidden, and he tries to convince you and me that what we are thinking or feeling is coming from us or from God. Scripture tells us that Satan is a liar, schemer, deceiver, and tempter. Also, and very important, is that Satan comes as an angel of light (I Cor 15). He doesn’t show up with a tail and pitchfork. He comes to twist truth and make it seem right. The Apostle John tell challenges us in his epistle to test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many deceivers and antichrist spirits are in the world. I say this because of all the happenings surrounding us. Before you or I jump on board with any organization or group, we need to test the spirit behind the scene to see if it’s from God, and the litmus test is Jesus. According to John, if it is from God, Jesus will be exalted and proclaimed. But here is my main point for writing this. During this pandemic (and I say this will all grace), make sure that the enemy doesn’t take you out and totally remove you from fellowship in the days to come. Demonic forces love to separate, isolate, and eventually decimate. Again, I know there is grace during this time, but the Apostle Peter tells us to gird our minds and be sober in spirit, which is to recognize what’s going on around us.

Romans 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God

We’re not living for Jesus. Rather, He is living through us. Therefore, we’re not called to imitate. Instead, we’re called to participate in union with His life. 

1 Corinthians 1:2 ‘To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ….

Hebrews 10:17 Amplified “And their sins and their lawless acts I will remember no more [no longer holding their sins against them].”

We have a tendency to remember what He forgets, and to forget what He remembers. We remember our sins and we forget we’re saints (holy and forgiven in Christ). He forgets our sins and He remembers we’re saints (holy and forgiven in Christ). 

Because I am in union with Christ, all that is true about Him is true about me. He not only died for me, but He died as me. Therefore, I was crucified with Him. I was buried with Him, and I was raised with Him a new creation in Christ. All of my identity is found in Him. Now, my story, past, present and future is His-story 

Paul also teaches us that a deeper union with Christ is only possible as we have an ever deeper acquaintance of the Cross. Philippians 3:10— states, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.” This is what we need to know, not in theory or sentiment, but in actual experience, and the result will be a life of power, of victory over sin, Satan, sickness and death, and the world, and this is only possible as we get back to the Cross.  Watchman Nee

For God’s way of deliverance is altogether different from man’s way. Man’s way is to try to suppress sin by seeking to overcome it; God’s way is to remove the sinner. Many Christians mourn over their weakness, thinking that if only they were stronger all would be well. . . If we are preoccupied with the power of sin and with our inability to meet it, then we naturally conclude that to gain the victory over sin we must have more power. . . 

But this is altogether a fallacy; it is not Christianity. God’s means of delivering us from sin is not by making us stronger and stronger, but by making us weaker and weaker. That is surely rather a peculiar way of victory, you say; but it is the divine way. God sets us free from the dominion of sin, not by strengthening our old man but by crucifying him; not by helping him to do anything, but by removing him from the scene of action. 

For years, maybe, you have tried fruitlessly to exercise control over yourself, and perhaps this is still your experience; but when once you see the truth you will recognize that you are indeed powerless to do anything, but that in setting you aside altogether God has done it all. Such discovery brings human striving and self-effort to an end (The Normal Christian Life-Watchman Nee)

Our Tuesday night bible study group has been studying the book of 1 Peter. We felt the Lord’s leading to his wonderful, life-giving book. One of the central themes of this book centers around the trails and tribulations we encounter as believers on our journey. Two different times in chapter one, the writer speaks of the revelation to be brought to us as a result of the trial or trials.  Actually, in verse fourteen the Apostle Peter encourages to fix our hope completely on the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus. Simply put, every trial has an end result and has a goal that is set before those going through the fiery ordeal. As mentioned earlier, we are to be fixated on the hope (confident expectation) of a new and greater unveiling  of Jesus. We get as our prize, an experience of Jesus we never before had, and we get to go deeper in our relationship with Him, which makes it all worthwhile. You and I have heard the saying, “Keep your eyes on the prize!” Well, that is a true, biblical motivation that propels us to endure. I can assure you that the goal is worth the effort. 

1 Corinthians 1:2 ‘To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ….

Hebrews 10:17 Amplified  “And their sins and their lawless acts I will remember no more [no longer holding their sins against them].”

We have a tendency to remember what He forgets, and to forget what He remembers. We remember our sins and we forget we’re saints (holy and forgiven in Christ). He forgets our sins and He remembers we’re saints (holy and forgiven in Christ).