Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast: Episode 154
TRANSCRIPT
Have you ever read something in the bible and wanted to respond, “Really, God? You seriously want me to do that?” Ok, maybe you don’t do that, but sometimes I do. Today’s verse is one of those times when I have to take a deeper look into what God is saying before I react, because it is one of those “Seriously, God?” scriptures. Come along with me as we look at a piece of amazing advice from God.
I’m Cindi Whitman from Restoring the Foundation, and I welcome you to this Hope Healing and Freedom podcast. Today’s verse is James 1:14, which says, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.” James 1 is a powerful chapter full of great wisdom for you and me. James 1 is also a perfect RTF chapter. What I mean by that is that it shows the importance of the RTF ministry. Let me walk you through this chapter, and you can see for yourself how RTF is woven throughout it.
Cathy grew up loving to read. As a child, she would rather read a good book than watch television. Reading was demonstrated and encouraged by her parents. She loved Little House on the Prairie books or Nancy Drew mysteries. Unfortunately, Cathy accidentally found her mom’s stash of romance novels when she was 15 years old, and it awakened a new desire within her. Cathy has now been married for 20 years to a decent and steady man named Doug. Doug, however, is anything but romantic. Although Cathy has never had an actual relationship outside of her marriage to Doug, she has fantasized often about being with other men. She has even fantasized while reading her romance novels about what it would be like to be married to her pastor. Even though she has never physically acted on these fantasies, she spends hours being “carried away and enticed by her own lust.” In the process, she has become discouraged with Doug. He is nothing like the men she reads about in her novels.
The context of James 4:17 is valuable. James is most likely in a busy marketplace in an active city. The city was where people from all over the region would come to buy goods of all kinds. There would be haggling over the prices of the spices or hard to find food items, people would be meeting together and catch up on their lives. It would’ve been a noisy place for a message to be given but that’s what James was doing. Most likely he was struck by the cacophony of sights and sounds and the availability of satisfying every kind of vice or temptation one might have. He was warning the people in his message of this type of situation and their responsibility to not give in to the temptation.
Let’s go back to the beginning of James 1 because there is so much in this chapter that can keep us from ending up like Cathy, carried off by our lusts. James 1:2 is one of those verses that I read and say, “Really, God?” It says, “Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials.” I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time considering trials with joy. I am not sure that any of us like trials. But we must read on to the second part of this verse to see why we can consider trials with joy. It says, “knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” That’s why we can consider trials with joy. God is using them to produce endurance in us, and the result of endurance is that we will be perfect and complete. If that’s the case, I’m all in. RTF ministry fits right here into this chapter. Our beliefs are revealed as we go through trials and tribulations.
Do you remember when you had to take tests in school? Those tests revealed what you knew. An algebra test revealed how well you knew algebra. Let me get on one of my soapboxes. For the vast majority of us, how often do we use the algebra that we spent all that time learning? I can’t remember the last time I used algebra as a pastor. I would have been better off having the option of taking a speech class instead of being forced to learn algebra, which I have never used. Of course, I had no idea that I’d be doing public speaking for a career when I was in high school. Alright, enough of my whining about school. The point is that school tests revealed what you knew. Tests in life are much different. The tests and trials in life reveal what your practice has been. They reveal what your lifestyle has been. The trials of life revealed to Cathy that she had been escaping into a fantasy world, which led her to resent her real world. When Cathy came to receive the RTF ministry, she had the opportunity to look at what she believed. Her lifestyle of escaping into romance novels revealed that she wanted her husband, Doug, to be what she read about in the books, instead of being the steady, regular, loyal guy that he was. God revealed to her that she was being enticed and carried away by her lusts. We can also thank Disney movies. Many young girls spend hours dreaming about the knight in shining armor coming to rescue them out of their distress and make them a princess where they live happily ever after! The Disney princess mentality affects a lot of young women!
In RTF ministry, we broke a lie that Cathy believed that “If Doug really loved me, he would treat me like the men in those novels.” Looking at that objectively, it is easy to see that was a lie. Cathy, however, had filled her mind with these thoughts for over 20 years, and she could not identify that it was a lie. When the lie was finally revealed and broken, and God was able to reveal His truth to her, Cathy then had the opportunity to learn endurance. She began walking out the truth about her husband Doug. She had been believing this lie for 20 years, so it would take some serious effort on her part to live in the truth and not return to the lie.
This is what James means when he says, “the testing of your faith produces endurance, And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” There is a part of the Christian life that is simply hard work. Endurance is hard work. We want things to be instant and easy. There is a significant push within parts of the church today toward deliverance. Please note, as I say this, that RTF is a deliverance ministry. We recognize the need for deliverance. The way deliverance is being practiced by others is to implies that all you need to do is be delivered from the demonic, and all will be well. Your struggle will be gone. You will be “fixed”. It appears to be an easy fix type of Christianity. People are being led to believe that all you have to do is go through a deliverance session, and you won’t have to do what it says in James.
You will not need endurance. Our concern at RTF is that by telling people that all you need is a deliverance session, you are ignoring that there is more than just the demonic involved in keeping people in bondage. A significant factor that holds people in bondage is our thought life. Our verse in James backs this up. James 1:14, says, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.” Whose lust is it? It is our own lust. Where are those lustful thoughts? In the mind. So, just casting out a demon does not necessarily change the way a person thinks. If the thoughts are not changed, then those thoughts provide an invitation for the demon to return. According to Dr. Caroline Leaf, a Neuroscientist, who studies the brain, it takes 63 days for a new truth to replace a lie. So, for at least those 63 days, we must have endurance, as it says in James, to keep the old thoughts from returning.
James goes on to say in verse 12, “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord promises to those who love Him.” It says when he has been approved. The word approved means to pass the test. Notice again the concept of a trial or test. “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial.” This does not carry the idea of easy Christianity that is displayed in many parts of the Christian church. This is where the hard work of faith comes in. The reason I am bringing this podcast is that there is an increasing amount of teaching in the church that says that if it is hard, then you must be doing something wrong. This line of teaching would say that everything you needed was done at the cross of Jesus Christ, and there is nothing you have to do to receive it. I disagree! First of all, we must receive what Jesus did for us on the cross. It is not just making a mental agreement to the fact of His death, burial, and resurrection. As I have said before, the demons agree with those facts. They “believe” the reality of Jesus’ death on the cross, His burial, and His resurrection to be true.
Believing it is not enough. One must receive it. John 1:12 says “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.” Receiving is to aggressively apply what Jesus did on the cross to your life. I believe that concepts like perseverance and endurance are at the very heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We live in a world that is saturated by thoughts contrary to the truth found in the Bible. All you have to do is look at current events. Evil is being called good, and good is being called evil. This kind of thinking is creeping into the online church. You can hear it in posts like, “A loving God would not condemn someone for…….”
The hard work I am talking about is not about the amount of self-discipline or self-effort you have. The power to endure is found in you relying on the Holy Spirit. It is not just the Holy Spirit, and it is not all your self-discipline. It is a combination of your working under the power of the Holy Spirit to endure or persevere the trial. I love that. Many in the body of Christ are trying to live the Christian life out of their strength and abilities and wondering why they are failing miserably. If we could live the Christian life out of our own abilities and strength, we would never have needed a savior. Romans 8:11is one of my favorite verses. It says, “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.” The same spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead lives in us! We absolutely cannot live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit living in us and through us, coupled with our efforts. It is a combination of your hard work and effort, being empowered by the Holy Spirit. I hear people make statements like, “It was all Jesus” when they achieve something. It is Jesus working with your efforts that made it successful. Jesus, however, didn’t do it without you. He empowered you to achieve. I hope you can hear me. I am not trying to take any credit away from the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, but I also want to point out that the Holy Spirit empowers you to live the Christian life; He does not live it for you. This easy Christianity takes the responsibility off of you and me to endure and persevere, as these scriptures say. It is not one or the other; it is both. There is a quote from a great theologian whose name I cannot remember that says, “Work like it all counts on you, and trust like it all counts on the Holy Spirit.” Have you ever wondered why some people get instantly delivered of things like tobacco or alcohol or pornography, and others have to fight against those things for long periods of time? The answer to that question is far above my pay grade. That is up to God for why that happens. As children of God, we are to trust Him with whatever situation we find ourselves. This message is intended to highlight that you will likely face some battles that require endurance and perseverance. But realize that on the other side of fighting the battle with endurance, James says that “the testing of your faith produces endurance, And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” If we want to be perfect and complete, we must endure the battle. Enduring means to continue, to not give up, to be constant. We can’t do it alone but with the power of the Holy Spirit living in us and us believing and receiving and living in that power we will endure!
PRAYER
Father God, I declare that you are always good and your plans for our life are perfect. Will you help us recognize when we are being tempted to listen to the voices of easy Christianity or when I am questioning you? Help us realize that most of the best lessons that we will learn come from enduring and persevering through trials and testing. Trials and testing do not necessarily mean that we are doing anything wrong, but that you may be taking us to a deeper place with you.
If you haven’t listened to last week’s podcast, please give it a listen. It goes hand in hand with today’s podcast. We look forward to being with you again on next week’s Hope Healing and Freedom podcast.
If you find yourself with repeating patterns of defeat in your life and relationships prayerfully consider going through Restoring the Foundations ministry. It is life-changing!
