The Necessary Truth of Hell

By Rick Renner

Friend, I want to talk to you today about a very heavy subject, and that is the reality of hell. Friend, people do die — that is the only thing guaranteed about your life — and the spiritual condition you are in when you die will be your condition for all of eternity. If you are spiritually alive in Christ, then you will be with Christ for all of eternity, but if you are spiritually dead, then you’ll be spiritually dead for eternity in hell. Once death comes, there are no second chances, and to teach that there are is simply a false doctrine. It is not found in the Bible.

Therefore, this question of whether you’re saved or not is not just about improving your life or making you a better person here and now — it is a question with eternal consequences. Once you leave this world, you cannot alter your spiritual status. 

I know we like to talk about God’s grace, mercy, and love, but we also need to acknowledge that He is just. He does not overlook sin. Exodus 34:7 says God will not clear the guilty. Acts 17:30 tells us, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.”

I don’t tell you these things to frighten you, but hell is a real place, and so many people don’t realize that in today’s world. Some think they are safe even though they haven’t accepted Christ. They say, “Well, I’ve never rejected Him, and I’m still a good person,” but they don’t understand that a lack of decision is still a decision. God commands all men to repent, so if a person does nothing, then he has made a decision to ignore the law of God, and that has eternal ramifications. Other people treat hell as a joke, and sometimes, unbelievers even say, “Why would I want to go to Heaven? All my friends will be in hell.” 

They don’t know what they are talking about, friend! This is a real place, and it is horrible! It is filled with hopelessness, torture, demonic creatures, devouring worms that never die, fire, absolute darkness, and absolutely no presence of God whatsoever. It is a vacuum from which there is no escape or deliverance. 

Jesus understood the seriousness of hell, and He talked about it more than anyone else in the Bible. In fact, in Luke 16, He gives us the most authoritative scripture on hell in the Bible. In this passage, Jesus tells the story of a rich man and the beggar who lived at his gate, and it says that both of them died. While the beggar was carried by the angels to Heaven, the rich man was buried and went down to hell (Luke 16:22). This story is where we get some of the clearest details and characteristics of hell that we have.

The first thing I want you to notice in this passage is how verse 23 starts: “And in hell he [the rich man] lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom” (Luke 16:23).

This rich man was in the pit of hell, and from this deep, deep, horrible place, he lifted up his eyes. This is important because it tells us that people in hell can see. You see, some people think that when you die, you just go into some kind of an unconscious soul sleep, but the Bible does not teach that. It is clear that you are conscious and aware for all of eternity. You have the ability to know what is happening, and if you are in hell, what is happening, according to this verse, is “torment.” Friend, this word refers to a pain that we cannot even understand from which there is no relief, and in that situation, there is a hopelessness that engulfs people because they know that now there is no chance.

The next verse tells us that he cried out (Luke 16:24), which means the voice still works in hell. If there was suddenly an open door to hell, we would be able to hear people screaming and crying and yelling as they are tormented. There is no peace or rest in hell. This is truly an awful place, and no one who understands that would want to go there or let anyone else go there. 

In fact, I want to highlight for you the rich man’s plea in Luke 16:27-28: “Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” This man, being in hell and having no way to escape, truly wanted somebody to go to his brothers to bring salvation to them. He didn’t want his loved ones to come be with him — he wanted them to be saved! 

Friend, no one has more compassion for the lost than those who are in hell. They are already experiencing the torment of that place, and they have absolutely no desire for anyone else to experience that. I promise you, if hell could speak, it would cry out the names of people. Those who have already been lost would cry out to their friends, to their family, to their parents,  “Repent! Do not come to this horrible place!” 

The way to avoid hell is a narrow way, and many people will miss it, but that doesn’t mean any of us are without hope, friend. Jesus told us in Mark 16:16, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” No one has to go to hell — we have the solution!

We find more instructions on how to be saved in Acts 2:38, where Peter said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” He’s talking about real conversion — not just praying a prayer of repentance, but really following Jesus and responding to the command of God. The way to escape an eternity in hell is very clear in Scripture, and anyone can be saved if they choose!

Friend, there are so many churches nowadays that just skim over the subject of hell. They don’t really address it, or they say that it doesn’t really exist, but that is absolutely false. We have to understand just how real and horrible it is so that we can awaken compassion for the lost in our hearts, because it is so important to God that as many people as possible are saved. He makes our responsibility clear in Ezekiel 3:18-19:

“When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”

I know people don’t like that first verse, but it’s the truth. When we stand before Christ, He will reward us, but He will also correct us. Jesus will say, “Why didn’t you help that person? I gave you the words of life. You had the ability to warn someone, and you didn’t.” God will hold us responsible.

I want you to think of how merciless it is to go day after day with a person — whether living with them, working with them, or just seeing them in passing day after day — and never saying a word to them about salvation. You may not be trying to be heartless, and maybe you just don’t feel comfortable sharing the Gospel, but just think about what you’re condemning them to by not opening your mouth. This is why we have to be aware of and have an understanding of hell, not because God wants to scare everyone, but because that knowledge will spur us to save as many people as we possibly can here on earth!

For further study

There are many qualities and details of hell that I did not have time to touch on in this article, but I do want you to be informed about this important subject. If you would like to look for yourself at the picture the Bible paints of hell, this list includes many of the scriptures that mention and describe this awful place: 

I pray that these passages open your eyes and equip you with the courage and compassion that you need to share the good news of salvation with the lost people in your life.

Where’s Your Highest Authority?

By Rick Renner

I often think back to my childhood and the influence God’s Word had on my life as a very young boy. I grew up in a Southern Baptist church, and every summer, we attended Vacation Bible School. Every morning, we would march into the auditorium and take our seats, and the moment would come when we would all stand and say, “I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God’s holy Word. I will make it a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path, that I may not sin against God.” Those words were planted deep inside me so that even as a child, I understood that the Bible was not just another book — it was God’s Word.

Knowing this, I made a decision long ago that the Bible would have the final say in my life, and I want to remind you that it should hold that same place in your life as well. In fact, when we go to the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:18, we see the tremendous amount of respect and honor that He had for the Word: “For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”

When Jesus mentioned “the law,” He used the term that commonly referred to the sacred Scriptures, and when He used the expressions “one jot or one tittle,” He was referring to the smallest letter of the alphabet and the smallest stroke used in writing respectively. In other words, Jesus was saying that not even the tiniest detail of God’s Word could ever lose its authority or fail to be fulfilled. Jesus is making an emphatic statement about the reliability of the Word of God.

Friend, the Scriptures were the final authority in Jesus’ life, and if this was true of Him, who is the Word of God, then it needs to be true of us. We must align our lives with the finality of God’s Word.

Jesus’ reverence for Scripture reminds me of 2 Timothy 3:14-15, where Paul wrote to Timothy and urged him, “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” Timothy had been raised by a Jewish mother, and Paul was reminding him to remain steadfast in the truths that had been imparted to him from childhood.

The word “continue” in this passage is critically important — it comes from the Greek word meno (μένω), which means to remain, to abide, to stay, to endure firmly, to be steadfast, and to be unwavering. It describes a refusal to move. In military usage, it pictured soldiers holding territory they had already gained, even when under attack.

That word could not be more relevant today. We are living in a time when people are attempting to modify Scripture, redefine morality, and reshape truth to fit cultural trends, but Scripture commands us to continue. This is not a suggestion — it is a command. When the Word of God is under assault, we are not to retreat. We are to hold fast. We are to stand our ground.

I also want to point out that Paul says Timothy had known these things “from a child.” The word “child” here is the Greek word brephos (βρέφος), which describes a nursing infant. The image is unmistakable of Timothy’s mother holding him closer to her, speaking the Word of God to him from the earliest moments of life. This is a powerful reminder to parents: Do not wait until a child is older to instruct him or her in the ways of God. Even in infancy, a child’s spirit has the capacity to receive.

In verse 15, Paul refers to the Scriptures as “the holy scriptures,” a phrase that perfectly aligns with what Jesus said in Matthew 5. “Holy scriptures” means sacred writings — every letter, every stroke, every mark. Nothing is insignificant. Nothing is expendable. All of it is holy. In fact, Paul says they are able to make a person wise unto salvation. The word “able” is the Greek word dunamena (δυνάμενά), which speaks of power and ability. The Scriptures possess real, effective power. They are capable of producing something in the person who submits to them.

When Paul says they are able to make someone “wise,” he uses a form of the Greek word sophos (σοφός). It’s important to note that this is not knowledge gained from books or education alone. It describes wisdom that is not naturally attained but is given by God through supernatural insight. It was also used to describe the intellectual elites of society: philosophers, scientists, physicians, teachers — those considered brilliant and a cut above the rest.

When the Word of God has the final say-so in your life, it imparts this kind of wisdom. It gives you insight that others simply do not possess. There are many intelligent people who lack common sense, but when God’s Word governs your life, it elevates you. It gives you wisdom that produces discernment, clarity, and sound judgment, and it leads to “salvation” — the Greek word soteria (σωτηρία).

This word means far more than forgiveness of sins. It includes deliverance, healing, preservation, safety, prosperity, soundness of mind, and overall well-being. When the Word of God is working in you and you allow it to be the final authority, it releases power that touches every dimension of life.

All of that leads us into 1 Timothy 3:16: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”

The word “all” here is pasa (πᾶσα), meaning every part without exception, and “given by inspiration of God” comes from the Greek word theopneustos (θεόπνευστος). This word is rich with meaning. Theos means God, and pneō means to breathe. Pneō could first of all describe creative power, just as the Spirit of God released creative force at the beginning of creation. Secondly it was used to describe fragrance — perfume released into the air. Third it could refer to breath producing music, as when a flute player breathes into an instrument, and a beautiful sound emerges.

Friend, when God breathed His breath into Scripture, He placed creative power in it, He placed Heaven’s fragrance in it, and He placed the very sounds of Heaven in it. When you open the Word and allow it to govern your life, it releases creativity, a new atmosphere, and new music into your life. But just as perfume must be uncapped to release its fragrance, Scripture must be opened and received.

Let me make something very clear: this is not a one-time decision. It is a daily commitment. Every day presents new choices, new voices, and new opportunities either to submit to Scripture or to set it aside, but the more consistently we choose God’s Word, the more natural that choice becomes.

My friends, I want to say again how vitally important this principle is. God’s Word is trustworthy. It has been tested and has endured for thousands of years. Cultures have changed, governments have risen and fallen, and opinions have shifted, but the Word of God remains! The British evangelist Smith Wigglesworth once wrote in his Bible, “Never compare this Book with other books. Comparisons are dangerous. Never think or say that this Book contains the Word of God. It is the Word of God.”

If you will make the decision to give Scripture the final say-so in your life, you will never regret it. You may not always understand everything immediately. You may not always see the results overnight, but you will be building your life on something that is divine and cannot be shaken.

I’ll say it one more time: Never think or say that this book just contains the Word of God — it is the Word of God. It is supernatural in origin, eternal in duration, inexpressible in value, infinite in scope, infallible in authority, universal in interest, personal in application, and inspired in totality. Take it in, work it out, and pass it on to others. It is the Word of God, and my friends, you need to make it your final authority.

The Authority You’ve Been Given

By Rick Renner

Friend, do you realize what you have available to you? When the whole world around you is trembling because of viruses, diseases, injuries, and all these other threats to our health, do you understand that you don’t have to follow their example? Friend, we are believers, and we have a faith that overcomes the world. It is a real faith — not a fairy tale, but a faith that really works.

If you don’t understand what that means or you don’t really believe that you have the power not to be afraid, then you might need a reminder of what is promised to you, and that promise begins with Jesus’ command in Mark 16:15: “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

Most believers, if they were asked, would say that they believe what this verse says, that we’re meant to go into all the world with the Gospel. But if you believe that verse, then it stands to reason that you also believe Jesus’ next words:

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

— Mark 16:17-18

You can’t just accept the Great Commission without accepting the promise that goes with it, and that promise is packed full of power. For example, consider that word “follow.” If you look in the Greek, it means to follow like an assistant or associate, and this tells us that when you believe, signs and wonders will accompany you — they should be your traveling companions. 

Before I unpack everything that’s included in those signs and wonders, I want to make something very clear — this promise is for “them that believe” (Mark 16:17). Jesus doesn’t say, “Everyone,” or, “all Christians” — He says, “those who believe.” In fact, the Greek is better translated as those who are believing, and that tense tells us that the belief is active. Even if you truly believed a long time ago, these signs are not guaranteed if you’re not using your faith today.

Don’t think you can claim this promise just because you are a Christian — there are a lot of Christians who are not currently believing. But if you engage your faith and release it, then Jesus says in this verse that these signs will be your travelling companions.

Friend, this should really inspire us to be using our faith, because Jesus talks about amazing things in these verses. The first thing He says is “In my name shall they cast out devils” (Mark 16:17). You literally have the authority to tell devils to shut up and leave! You are also equipped to speak in tongues and strengthen yourself by praying in the Spirit, because Jesus also says “they shall speak with new tongues” (Mark 16:17). These are things that Jesus says will naturally follow if you are engaging your faith!

As if these supernatural promises aren’t enough, Jesus starts piling even more on: “They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:18).

This is an incredible blessing of protection, but I want to make sure there is no mistake about what it means. Many people have misinterpreted that phrase — in fact, there are some little Pentecostal churches that take this verse very literally, and they actually carry rattlesnakes to church! They think it is a demonstration of faith that they can hand rattlesnakes around the auditorium, and when they’re finished passing the snakes around, they all drink poison to prove it won’t have any effect on them.

That is not what Jesus is talking about. He never wants us to be careless about dangers. You have to put this verse in context and remember that He had just said to His disciples, “Go ye into all the world” (Mark 16:15), which meant they were going to be traveling down many roads — new roads, undeveloped roads, old roads that were filled with ruts. In the ancient world, it was dangerous to travel. Snakes often lay in the ruts on the roads, and they could be very dangerous if they decided to attack someone.

In this context, we can see that Jesus isn’t telling us to just pick up serpents. Instead He is promising that when you obey Him, He will protect you from anything in your path, including the snakes and other hidden dangers that could make the journey dangerous and frightening.

In that same context, the second half of this verse says, “and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them” (Mark 16:18). This makes me think of how there are some people who boldly say, “I want to go on a mission trip. I want to cast out devils, heal the sick, and see signs and wonders.” But then, when they go on the mission trip, those same people are afraid to eat the food. They say, “If I eat this, I might get sick.” I always laugh about that, because it makes me think, “If you don’t have authority over your food, how do you think you’re going to have authority over demons?”

But we do have authority over all those things, and Jesus comforts us in this verse, saying, “Don’t worry about germs. Don’t worry about bacteria. Don’t worry about viruses. You’re going to be protected. If you’re going in My name, you don’t need to worry about anything in your path, and you don’t need to worry about any bad food making you sick.”

Wow! These promises are just so packed, and Jesus isn’t even finished listing them all. Next He adds, “they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:18).

Notice that Jesus doesn’t say, “Be afraid of touching the sick” — He says, “Put your hands on the sick.” Your hands are filled with healing power, friend, and if you believe that, then you can use those hands to touch the sick and release that power without being afraid of what will happen to you, because Jesus promises that you will be protected from all those germs and diseases!

This really is an amazing promise, friend — even Jesus thought so. In Luke 10:19, He actually said, “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

The word “Behold” in Greek means “Wow, this is amazing!” It tells us that Jesus was so excited to share this with His disciples, so He said, “I am impressed with what I am about to tell you. Behold, I give you power.” 

That word “power” is the word “authority.” This isn’t a spirit of fear, but a powerful authority that is effective when we use it, and we can use it to “tread on serpents and scorpions” (Luke 10:19). Again we see protection from the snakes that were lying on the road, and this verse adds scorpions, which could sting travelers with venom. These were both terrifying creatures for travelers, but Jesus says, “I’m sending you, so if anything gets in your way or tries to attack you, just walk right on top of it. I have given you authority over all of it.” 

Even beyond the natural dangers like snakes and scorpions, He goes on to say that this authority is “over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19).

The word “over” in Greek is the word epi (ἐπὶ), and it describes a position of superiority. Friend, this is powerful: Whatever power the enemy might have, we are on top of it! In fact, the word used to describe the enemy’s power is the Greek word dunamis (δύναμις), which describes the full might of an advancing army. In other words, even if the devil sends a whole army out against you, you still have the superior position. All the forces of hell are under your feet!

If it wasn’t clear from all the specific things He gave us protection from, Jesus wraps up the verse with an overall promise: “and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19). That means absolutely nothing, not a single thing, will ever hurt you.

Friend, everything I’ve just said belongs to those who believe. Jesus really tells us, “I give you this kind of authority. I give you a position of superiority. If you will engage your faith, the supernatural will accompany you like a traveling companion. You’ll lay hands on the sick, cast out demons, and speak in new tongues. No attack will hurt you — no virus, no germ, and no bacteria. Not even the full might of hell’s armies will be able to harm you.” I believe that, friend, and I declare it to you in the name of Jesus. If you will be active in your faith, if you will engage it and declare it with your mouth, these promises are yours and your children’s and your grandchildren’s

Friend, next time a thought comes to you that says, “Oh, this situation is so bad,” I want to encourage you to turn it around and say, “Yeah, it is so bad — for the devil, because I have a position of superiority, given to me by Jesus Himself, over all the power of the enemy. Nothing can hurt me!”

Touchpoints of Healing

By Rick Renner

Friend, God really wants you to have healing! That’s not wishful thinking or emotional nonsense — it is the sound teaching of the Bible. If you read my article last month, you’ll remember that when we look at Isaiah 53:3-5, we see that Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross paid for so much more than just forgiveness of sins — through Him, we received peace of mind, freedom from guilt and shame, and healing from physical and mental disease!

Maybe you’ve heard teachings like this before, but you’re still unsure how to appropriate that healing for yourself. You may not know what steps to take or what methods will be most effective. If that’s you, then I think you’re really going to be encouraged by this teaching, because I’m going to show you a couple of very practical, tangible ways to receive healing for whatever diseases may be ailing you.

First I want to talk to you about taking Communion to receive healing. We already know from Isaiah 53:5 that it’s by the stripes of Jesus that we are healed — His body was broken so we could be healed physically, mentally, and emotionally. What Communion does for us is reminds us of that fact. Paul tells us about reminding power of this sacrament in 1 Corinthians 11:23-25:

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

There are so many wonderful nuances to Communion, but what I want you to think about right now is simply that the bread represents the broken body of Jesus, which was beaten for our healing, and the cup reminds us of His blood, which was shed for the forgiveness of sin, the removal of guilt and shame, and our peace of mind. All of that is included in the work of redemption and atonement!

The Lord’s Supper is more than a mere ritual. As you drink from the cup, you’re acknowledging the blood of Jesus that was key to your redemption from the shackles of sin. With each bite of the bread, you’re acknowledging the physical anguish Jesus endured to obtain healing for your body and mind. The time of Communion is a moment to not just remember and give thanks for Jesus’ sacrifice, but to release your faith for everything that God has given you through Christ to come flooding into your life.

Let the Communion table become a healing table for you! In the privacy of your own home, with family and friends, or at church, you can partake of Communion, reach out to take the bread that represents Jesus’ body broken for the healing of your body and mind. Stop to thank God for the healing and health that is yours because of Christ’s work on the Cross, and let this be your moment to release your faith and allow God’s healing power to invade every part of your being so you can fully receive the healing and health that is yours in Christ.

This is such a beautiful, tangible reminder that you can encourage yourself with every day as you believe for healing, but sometimes we need more than just our own faith to support us — sometimes we need other believers. Fortunately the Bible gives us very clear instructions on this method of receiving healing as well in James 5:14-16:

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

I want us to first look at that word “sick” in verse 14, because it really describes a very specific category of sick people. It is the Greek word asthenei (ἀσθενεῖ), and it generally describes one who is frail in health or one so physically weak that he is unable to travel. It carries the idea of disability, faintness, feebleness, fragility, or incapacitation — this person is in such poor health that it would be unthinkable to transport him from one place to another. So when this verse says a sick person should call for the elders, it’s talking about somebody so sick and so frail they can’t get out of the house, nursing home, or hospital that they are in to get to the church to receive prayer.

I highlight this word because I want you to understand that this is not the practice for every circumstance. If you are able to get to the church, then do so! While in the Assembly of Saints, you have access to corporate faith, anointing, and power, so that is always the best option. However, times may arise when you really can’t travel there, and in those cases, you can call the church to come to you. It is your responsibility to reach out to the church leadership or to their designated representatives and ask them to come and to anoint you with oil in the name of the Lord. That is what the Bible explicitly says.

That brings us to the anointing with oil. Much like the act of taking Communion, this step is there to serve as a reminder to us. From the earliest beginnings, throughout the entire Old and New Testaments and into the present, oil has been a symbol of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. When the elders anoint a sick person with oil, though the oil itself possesses no inherent healing powers, they are symbolically declaring the presence of the Holy Spirit and the power of God, and that gives the sick person a reminder to release his or her faith for healing.

In addition to this symbolic touchpoint, this passage says that the Elders are to pray for the sick person, “in the name of the Lord” (James 5:14). This doesn’t just refer to His literal name but to His reputation, which is amazing because not only does Jesus have the name that is higher than any other name, but He also has the reputation specifically for healing even the most serious cases of sickness.

As this verse says, He is also “Lord,” the Greek word that denotes a master or supreme Lord, one who has ultimate authority in every realm, seen and unseen, and in this case, that includes authority over sickness and disease. Consequently we see that when someone prays in His name as this verse instructs, his or her prayer is voiced with the full authority vested in Jesus’ name and with a full knowledge that He has a reputation for healing all manner of sickness and disease. 

In short, the person who is sick must initiate the invitation, but then the elders are to physically come to the sick person when he calls — regardless of whether that is at home or in a hospital or nursing facility. They will pray with him, gathering around and hovering over him, blanketing him in a chorus of faith-filled prayers given in the name and reputation of the Lord, and they will anoint him with oil to denote the presence of the Holy Spirit. As the anointing oil touches the sick individual, he is to join his faith for healing with the chorus of faith-filled prayers being prayed by those who surround him.

When all these criteria are met, then this verse says that the sick person will be saved — completely delivered, healed, liberated, and returned to wholeness. It is such a complete restoration that even the sins of the sick person, which may have opened him up to sickness in the first place, will be forgiven!

Friend, our God is so good to us. He knows that we need practical, clear instructions and tangible reminders sometimes, so instead of leaving us to figure it out alone, He gives us those instructions and reminders. If you are battling any kind of illness right now, I want to encourage you to start applying some of the practices I’ve talked about into your life. Take Communion and let it be a reminder to you of everything that Jesus purchased for you, including healing. Reach out to your local church for prayer — don’t wait until you are bedridden and have to call the elders to you. The corporate anointing and power is available to you right now, and you can claim it by simply asking! These are clear, simple ways to step into the healing God has for you, so don’t hold yourself back from using them — He wants you to have easy access to health and healing!

God’s Promise Fulfilled

By Rick Renner

When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, all of the works of darkness entered into the world — fear, hate, weariness, and even sickness and pain. As believers, we recognize that without Christ, our future would have been one of endless slavery to those effects of sin, but how fortunate we are that God loved us too much to let us stay there! Because of the work of the Cross, we have been completely freed from every work of darkness — and that covers healing from physical and mental ailments as much as it does forgiveness of sins and freedom from shame.

However statements like this often cause people to ask, “If God provided health and healing, then why do faith-filled believers get sick? Why don’t they receive healing every time?”

I truly believe that we have a God who wants to heal us. It is true that ultimately, everybody dies, but it’s not His will for us to die sick and diseased. He wants to give us a long life and satisfy us and show us His salvation (see Psalms 91:16). He suffered on the Cross so that by His stripes we could be healed (see Isaiah 53:5). Those promises are written all over the Scriptures, but sometimes they get called into question when difficult things happen to those close to us.

Over many, many years of ministry, my family and I have seen countless healings, miracles, and deliverances — we’ve even seen the resurrection of the dead! By moving to the former Soviet Union, we have lived the Book of Acts and really seen all the incredible things that God’s power can accomplish. However, we have also seen people who stood in faith to the very end, and they died. They were not healed.

Just recently, one of my wife’s own assistants was diagnosed with cancer, and she fought so hard. From time to time, she would recover, and it would look like she was healed, but then she would relapse. It went on for five years — recovery and relapse, recovery and relapse — and then she finally lost the battle.

It is those kinds of things that make us question if God really does heal or if He really wants to do it for everyone, but I want to tell you today that we have no reason to doubt! When Denise’s friend died, so many people were asking, “Why did she die? Why wasn’t she healed?” But I want you to understand that right now, she is healed!

Right now, my wife’s dear friend is in the presence of the Lord, and she isn’t having any problems there just because she didn’t receive healing here. She left that cancer behind the moment she was released from her body. As she stepped into Heaven, the cancer laid in the grave. 

Friend, when people go to Heaven, they are not sick or afraid or confused anymore. They are totally free of the diseases that they had here, and they even understand why they were not healed before those diseases took their lives. Even though it looks like they lost the skirmish with the enemy, they left that loss behind when they passed into the presence of the Lord. We know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (see 2 Corinthians 5:8), so the very moment you die, you are instantaneously liberated from whatever affliction you may have had! That is a promise, and that is the future of every single believer — even if you lose the battle here, you’re victorious in Heaven!

What this tells me is that we as Christians should be the bravest people of all when it comes to facing the end of our lives. We see that example from the apostle Paul. He says in Philippians 1:23-24, “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.”

He’s talking about death. He was facing the possibility of death, and he actually said he had “a desire to depart.” In fact, said he was “in a strait betwixt two [living and dying].” If you look at the Greek, that phrase conveys the sensation of being pressed upon from opposing sides. It paints a picture of a person being tugged back and forth, arms stretched by the relentless pull of opponents in a game of tug-of-war.

What is intriguing about this word is that, in the Greek, it implies that the person subjected to this tugging is the one who holds the power to decide the victory. Thus Paul was saying that he was truly grappling with two compelling desires vying for his heart. On one side, the allure of departing to be with Christ tugged at him earnestly, but on the other side, he felt the tug to remain in his earthly life to complete the unfinished tasks of his ministry.

Death was not frightening to Paul — it was something he looked forward to because he knew that Christ was on the other side of it. What an amazing hope we have as believers!

Another word in this verse that is so revealing of Paul’s attitude is “depart.” Instead of using the word “die” he chose “depart,” which is the Greek Word analuo (ἀναλύω). This word gives the image of a ship leaving its dock, unshackled and able to set sail and journey to its final destination.

Another possible interpretation of the word is in a military context. Analuo could be used to describe the pivotal moment when troops broke down their camps, packed up their tents, gathered their gear, and set their sights on advancing to conquer new territory. 

This means that in Paul’s eyes, death was not an end, but a vibrant beginning, a new and thrilling chapter that laid before him. He imagined that when he shed the chains of earthly existence, he would finally be free to set sail on a spiritual journey destined to carry him home to Heaven. He viewed it as a decision to leave past victories behind and march boldly toward new horizons!

Isn’t that powerful? With such a hopeful view of death, it is no wonder that Paul was able to write, “…Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55). My friends, for a believer, death is not the end — it is just a launching pad into eternity! Regardless of the condition we die in, the moment we step out of our bodies and into the presence of the Lord, we drop infirmity, illness, and disease of the body, mind, or spirit — we leave it all behind. When we step into Heaven, we do so completely whole and victorious. 

Friend, I am telling you all these things because I don’t want you to throw in the towel just because you think sickness has won. It’s painful to lose someone, and we don’t yet have the answers about why it happened, but you can’t give up the war because you lost one skirmish along the way. That friend or family member may not have received healing, but the war continues. We continue to battle for souls. We continue to declare the healing power of God, and we do everything we can to help those who are still living and those who are standing in faith for a miracle. 

So I encourage you, whether you’re standing in faith for someone else or for your own healing, don’t let the doubts make you falter! Don’t say, “It didn’t work for that person, so it’s probably not going to work for me.” Don’t say, “I prayed for somebody, but they still died, so I’m not going to pray for anybody else.” That is a wrong response, my friends. No matter what happens on this earth, God’s promise of healing will be complete in Heaven, and our tragic experiences can’t change that fact.

Instead of seeing death as the ultimate defeat, I encourage you to change your perspective and take heart in the fact that every one of us is going to step into wholeness one day. Even if you are fighting and believing as hard as you can and still aren’t seeing results, the moment you step into Heaven, you will be completely healed. That is a promise to every single person who puts their faith in Jesus Christ.

This is your time to stand resolutely and commit to ushering others toward the blessings Jesus intended for them to claim. Embrace this opportunity to grab hold of God’s promises for yourself and to help others lay hold of the inheritance that is theirs due to Christ’s work on the Cross. If you know someone who died due to sickness and disease, use that loss to fan the flames of your commitment that you’re going to do all you can to help the next person receive their manifestation.

For Further Study

If you want to dive into God’s promises for yourself or reflect on Scriptures that will change your attitude about sickness and death, then I encourage you to take a look at these verses!

Promises of healing, wholeness, and blessing: Psalms 91:16; Psalms 107:2; Isaiah 53:4-5; Luke 4:40, Mark 16:18

Reflections about death: 2 Corinthians 5:6-8, Philippians 1:20-24, 1 Corinthians 15:50-55

Laying Aside Culture’s Standards

By Rick Renner

Maybe you do pretty well at resisting temptation on your own, but there are certain situations that you find yourself in where you seem to repeatedly fail. Maybe there are certain people, groups, or places that always bring out the worst in you or leave you feeling filthy and exhausted, and you just can’t seem to make a positive change around them.

We have to realize that there are some environments that simply are not conducive to our spiritual lives, and when we find ourselves in such environments, we are absolutely not expected to just stay there and let them negatively affect us.

Hebrews 12:1 gives us such wonderful instruction on this subject. It says, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

What I want to talk to you about is that phrase in the middle, “every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us.”

“Weight,” is the Greek word ogkos (ὄγκος), which describes anything that weighs you down. It’s so heavy and cumbersome that you’re unable to freely move. It might be a relationship, a habit, or anything else, but it is really just too much to carry, and it keeps creeping into your thoughts or words or behaviors and keeps you from moving where you need to move.

The second word is “sin,” the Greek word hamartia (ἁμαρτία), which means to fail to hit the target, to fail to meet the mark, or is simply the word for a failure. These are things that keep you from hitting the target that God has set for you. They pull you off track so that you aren’t growing into the person that He wants you to be.

Finally the writer of Hebrews qualifies these things with the phrase, “which doth so easily beset us” (Hebrews 12:1), and this is where we start to see the idea of a negative environment.

The words “easily beset us” are translated from a very long Greek word — euperistatos (εὐπερίστατος). It’s a compound of three words. The first word is eu (εὐ), describing something good, something swell, or something easy. Then is the word peri (περί), which describes a circumference or something that surrounds. Finally the word statos (στατος) means to stand. When you take those three words together, they describe something that stands all around you so that you feel very comfortable in it. You’ve been in this place so long that it’s become your environment, your comfort zone, and you feel at home there.

You see, most of us don’t go out seeking bad environments. Rather we find ourselves in an environment that is or has become negative, but over time we just acclimate to that negativity. We feel at home there, we know how to function there, and our friends are there. It may not be the best place, but it’s the place we’ve been for so long. It’s where we live.

It might be that you’re with a group of friends that are negative. You might even go to a church that’s negative — a church that preaches doubt and unbelief. Maybe it’s a certain place, like the place where you work or where you and your friends go to hang out. Maybe it’s the media that you’re consuming.

In my life, I’ve had people who I truly loved who were just not good for me to be around. They were born again, and they loved the Lord, but their level of negativity was not healthy for me. It wasn’t taking me higher in my walk with the Lord, and it was actually bringing me lower!

Sometimes we go into places or relationships knowing that they are bad environments, but we excuse ourselves by thinking that maybe we can affect them for the better. But look at your situation: if the environment isn’t changing, and instead you’re the one being negatively impacted, then maybe you need to change your environment!

You need to recognize that staying in that place is weighing you down! It’s causing you to fail at the goal God has set for you! What Hebrews 12:1 says is that we need to “lay aside” those things. 

When the Bible says, “lay aside,” it is the Greek word apotithimi (ἀποτίθημι), a compound of two words — apo (ἀπό), which means away, and tithimi (τίθημι), which means to lay, place, or position. When you compound the two together, they form the word apotithimi, which means to lay something down and to push it away. It’s not enough just to lay it down — you’ve got to push it beyond the point of retrieval. It is a deliberate decision to make a permanent change of attitude and behavior.

During the time of the New Testament, apotithimi was actually primarily used to describe the removal of clothes, which gives us an image for what the writer of Hebrews is trying to say. When you get to the end of the day and realize that your clothes are dirty, you don’t just expect them to jump off of your body — it doesn’t happen just because you realize it needs to happen. The only way you get your clothes off is to get involved. You have to undo the buttons, pull your arms out of the sleeves, and take all the necessary steps if you’re going to get your old clothes off and your fresh clothes on.

By using the word apotithimi, the writer of Hebrews is telling us that in the same way, if we want to make a change in our lives, we have to get involved in the change. The end of this verse says to “run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1), which really means to run at such a pace that both feet never hit the ground at the same time, eyes fixed on the finish line, steadily moving towards the goal. You can’t be leisurely about it — you’ve got to make a dash for it if you are going to change. Friend, just recognizing that your environment is bad for you isn’t going to make it better. You’ve got to make a decision to become untangled from the place where you are and really run away from it and toward the goal that God has set for you!

I know that we tend to spiritualize everything, but the Bible is so practical. Instead of praying for God to send angels to come and help you resist temptation or to interrupt your sin, just take steps to get away from that situation that is causing you to sin! Begin to take steps to remove yourself from that relationship or from that environment. Remove all that excess garbage, all that weight, all that negativism that’s holding you down and causing you to miss the mark that God has planned for your life, and become disentangled from the sin that easily besets you.

Now just because it’s practical does not make it easy. Friend, it really won’t be easy. When the writer of Hebrews talks about running the race, the word “race” is actually agόn (ἀγών), which refers to a physical competition, a real struggle. Your emotions will say, “I don’t want to change. These are my friends, and I really love them. I receive a lot of affection there. I fit in here. This way is more convenient. People will think I’m strange if I don’t do this.”

It’s a difficult decision, but we can’t let that stop us from living righteously before God. Think of the early believers. In the First Century, they had to avoid the bathhouses because there were just so many bad things and so much sexual temptation there. This wasn’t an easy decision either, because everybody needs to take a bath! They didn’t have baths in their homes — they went to bathhouses, so early believers had to get very practical and figure out how they were going to stay away from that bad environment and still take their baths. 

It might be easier to go along with the culture. You might tell yourself that it’s just more convenient to hang around the bathhouses of today’s culture — the groups of people who gossip and speak negatively or the places and websites that are filled with temptation to sin — but what you really need to be telling yourself is, “I’m the temple of the Holy Spirit. Why should I listen to these vulgar words or negative statements? Why should I fill my brain with frightening or foul images? None of this is taking me higher. It’s just taking me lower, and it’s a waste of time.”

You only have one life, friend, and what you do with it will qualify you for what you are going to do for eternity, so don’t waste it hanging around in environments that hurt you. It is vital that you do well right now — you’re qualifying for the next phase.

Whatever is weighing you down, whatever is pulling you off track and causing you to miss the mark, it’s time for you to obey Hebrews 12:1 and lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset you, and run with patience the race that is set before you.

If you’ll make the decision to do this, you won’t do it alone, because the Holy Spirit in you will energize you. He’ll empower you to walk out your decision, and He’ll put you in a good place with good people who will help you become all that Jesus Christ has ordained you to be.

The Miracle of Christmas

By Rick Renner

All over the world right now, people are putting up trees and decorations, shopping for gifts, and traveling to see family for the Christmas season. As Christians, we often talk about the “true meaning” of Christmas and what we’re “really” celebrating, but today, I want to really put that into perspective for you. I want to help you renew your awe, wonder, and gratitude for the greatest miracle that ever took place — the moment when God took on human form.

Doctrinally this event is called the “Incarnation,” and it is described in many verses throughout the Bible, but right now, I want to focus on Philippians 2:6-7:

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

Friend, there are so many amazing, baffling truths packed into this verse, and it starts with the statement that Jesus was “in the form of God.” We need to understand that this is a declaration that Jesus is not just a component of God separated from the whole — He is God. Before He came to the earth, He was ruling up in Heaven, dressed in glory and splendor. He possessed the same shape and outward appearance of Almighty God — a presence so strong that no flesh could look upon Him and live.

Knowing that, the Incarnation takes on a new depth. For God to come to earth, He literally had to reclothe Himself in a form that could be tolerated by man! What Paul is describing is the miraculous moment when God reached into the material world and took hold of flesh, dressed Himself with it, and was found in the womb of the Virgin Mary. In that moment, He literally took on the likeness of man in every way, stepping into a body that could grow tired, hungry, and cold.

This was such a humble act that Paul describes it by saying that Jesus “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). Think about it, friend: God — who sits on the throne clothed in glory and has angels worshiping and glorifying Him every day — dressed Himself in human flesh and came down to earth to be a baby. He put away the form of all-powerful, self-sufficient Creator to become an infant who couldn’t even walk, speak, or feed Himself. This wasn’t just some miracle — it is the greatest miracle that ever occurred!

Friend, this is why we celebrate His birth! It is mind-boggling that such an event could even take place, but what makes it even more incredible is the reason that He did it: to reveal the heart of the Father to us and solve a problem that only God could solve.

You see, in Romans 5:12, we read that because of Adam’s disobedience, sin passed into the entire human race. As a result, all men are born sinners (see Psalm 51:5 and Psalm 58:3). In the same way that no one needs to teach a newborn fish to swim, no one needs to teach a newborn human how to sin. It is in our nature the moment we are conceived.

Friend, our God is merciful, but He is also a just God, and Romans 6:23 states emphatically, “The wages of sin is death.” Because of our sinful nature, we all earned death, and we couldn’t pay the price that was required to escape that punishment. God could have left us in our debt of sin. He could have gotten rid of this sinful world and started over, but He loved us so much that He decided to fix the problem instead, and He did it in a way that only He could — by transferring all that debt to Jesus on the Cross (see Isaiah 53:6).

This reminds me of Hebrews 9:12-14:

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

In the Old Testament, the people of Israel had to offer sacrifices to pay for their sins, but those sacrifices just weren’t enough to cover every sin, so they had to keep going back to the temple again and again to offer more sacrifices for new sins every time something happened. When Christ offered His own blood, however, He paid for every sin, past, present, and future.

I want to give you an illustration of this. I remember looking out at the snow once, and as I watched it falling outside and blanketing everything, I told my friend, “I love the snow because it makes me think of forgiveness, making everything clean and pure.” 

My friend looked at me and answered, “Bishop Rick, the snow is really a picture of the Old Testament, because all it does is cover the real problem. But remember, according to the New Testament, we have the blood of Jesus, and it doesn’t just cover — it goes through every layer of sin and completely removes it.”

I know that during this season, we love to think about the peaceful manger scene and the sweet baby Jesus, but we must remember that He was born to die a horrific death on a cross. He was born to die as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. That is the real message of Christmas!

Friend, what an incredible miracle this is, that our God really did love us enough to put off His own glory, clothe Himself in flesh, and appear in the earth to die on the Cross. There is only one appropriate response, and it is to do as Romans 10:9-10 commands us and receive the salvation that He came to give:

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

According to verse 9, two things are required: You have to confess with your mouth and believe in your heart.

Some people only do one of these. Maybe they privately believe, but they never really talk about it or make any kind of public confession. They think that it’s okay if it’s just between them and the Lord. But this verse tells us that you need to take the next step, friend! The deal is not finished until with your mouth you’ve declared, “Jesus is the Lord of my life.”

There’s no point in holding back from doing this, friend. Philippians 2:9-11 tells us that there will be a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will make this confession. When He returns as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, everyone’s going to bow — the entire universe, in unison, is going to declare “Jesus is Lord!”

Friend, I really want you to understand this, because some people say, “I’m not declaring that, because I want to live my life the way I want to live it.” This is so tragic to me, because these people don’t realize that even if they refuse to surrender now, eventually a moment will come when they will recognize Jesus as the King of kings — even if it’s from hell.

However if we will bow now and receive salvation and declare out of our mouths that Jesus is Lord, it will change our eternal status. Salvation is yours, friend. It has your name written on it, and Christ is just waiting for you to claim it.

Friend, I encourage you not to just go through the motions this Christmas. Use this season to really reflect on your heart and to reach out to your friends and family who are unsaved. Ask the Holy Spirit, “Do I understand that I am a sinner who needs the blood of Jesus, or do I minimize my sins? Am I keeping my salvation to myself, or am I declaring Jesus as Lord? Do I realize the power and wonder of Jesus’ birth, or am I taking this unbelievable event for granted?”

God Almighty laid aside His glory, took on human flesh, and appeared on earth so that He could humble Himself even further to death on the Cross, and He did all of that so that you would have the chance to choose Him right now and change your eternal status forever. Don’t let that gift pass you by.

Never Forget How Good the Lord Has Been to You

By Rick Renner

I want to ask you a question: What kind of impact do you think it would have on your life if you experienced non-stop miracles? How many of us wish that we could just experience miracles all the time, just a constant flow of God’s supernatural power and provision in our lives? Well this is exactly what the children of Israel experienced when they wandered in the wilderness for forty years.

The whole time that they were in the wilderness, God provided food and water for them. We’re all familiar with this fact, but do you really understand just how much provision that would require? Jewish scholars estimate that there were about three million Israelites when they left Egypt, and to feed all those people, God would have had to send around 4,500 tons of manna every day!

Think of the miracle of that. If you woke up tomorrow morning to find 4,500 tons of manna lying all over your town, that would be huge news! Scientists would fly in from around the world to see it. Journalists would write about it. News programs would cover the story. It would be a world-wide sensation. 

But for the children of Israel, this was a normal event that occurred every morning. They slept during the night, and when they woke up, all they had to do was get up out of their tents, walk outside, and there were thousands of tons of manna waiting for them. This miracle was so regular that there was a whole generation who did not even  know what life was like without manna.

Then there was the quail God sent to feed them. When they were tired of manna and wanted some meat, He sent a whole cloud of quail, filling the sky — some scholars estimate about 90 million birds. Psalm 78:28 says, “And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations. So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;” The Israelites didn’t even have to go out and get the meat — it came right to them, as much meat as they could eat!

Where did all these quail come from? How far did these birds have to travel to reach the children of Israel in the wilderness? It could not be naturally explained. It was a supernatural provision — just as supernatural as the manna.

When the Israelites needed water, God supernaturally provided once again. Do you know how much water it would take to support three million Jews in the wilderness plus all of their animals? Jewish scholars estimate about 70 million liters of water every day, just to meet their basic needs for existence. That’s 450 million liters in a week!

So the Lord told Moses in Exodus 17:6, “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.” So Moses obeyed, and when he struck the rock, it split open and water began to supernaturally flow out of it, and it continued to flow and flow and flow — providing all the water they needed for forty years.

So think about this — every morning, they had 4,500 tons of manna. When they cried out for meat, at least 90 million quail flew right to them and just fell at their feet. When they needed water, God provided a fountain from a rock  — which is not a natural source of water — and it began pouring out 70 million liters of water every day!

The people were in a place that required them to depend on Him and test that He was who He said He was, and God, who is more than enough, proved Himself to them again and again. He showed up with supernatural provision every time.

How many of us would love to have that? So many times, we think, “If God was providing for me like that, then it would be so easy for me to trust Him. It would be so easy for me to have peace and believe in His promises.”

But that’s not always how we respond. In spite of all that God did, the Israelites gave Him back ungratefulness. Somewhere along the way, His supernatural power stopped inspiring awe in them and instead became routine.

Hebrews 3:8 references their backwards attitudes, saying, “Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness.” The word “harden” in the Greek is a medical term that describes an arm that has become stiff and is difficult to move as a result. It is the same word used in the Old and New Testaments to describe people that are stiff-necked or calloused.

Could it be possible that after the Israelites saw God perform so many wonderful works, they became numb to it? Did they become calloused to the goodness of God? Did this supernatural provision become so commonplace that it no longer made an impression on them? They just ate the manna and quail and never thought about where it came from. They drank and bathed and watered their animals — had all the water they needed — and forgot that it was a miracle.

They had all they could need every day. They knew, “We have it today, we’ll have it tomorrow, and we’ll have it next week. We’ll always have it,” but instead of that being a source of worship and a sign of how faithful and constant God is, it was just a boring, everyday occurrence for them!

Ask yourself, friend: Has God delivered you? Has He healed you? Has He rescued your family, given you a job, answered your prayers, or provided for you financially? Then why are you tempted to worry? Why are you tempted to question the faithfulness of God?

God has a record in your life, and it is called “faithfulness.” He has proved Himself again and again. He has repeatedly demonstrated that He is reliable, trustworthy, and true, and it is your job to turn around and remember all those things, because what God has done for us in the past is the foundation of what He’s going to do for us in the future.

So rather than fall into the trap of ingratitude like the children of Israel, make sure you count yourself among them that are grateful and thankful — that you trust that God is exactly who He declares Himself to be. God is good to you, and don’t ever let yourself forget it.

Start by just counting your blessings. As soon as you get done reading this article, just find a piece of paper and start writing them all down. You see, the flesh wants to count all the negative things. The flesh wants to say, “Oh, this situation is really bad. You’re really struggling. In fact, you’ve never had it worse than you have it right now.” But if you’ll stop and think about your life, you’ll probably find that it’s been a whole lot worse than it is right now, but you are still here. You still have clothes to wear. You are still eating. God’s been faithful. So just let yourself recognize that.

I want to give you a picture of what this looks like in my own life. Every morning, I get out of my bed, I walk into the room where I meet with the Lord, and the moment I sit down — it is automatic — thoughts of God’s goodness, of all the faithful people He’s put in my life, and of all the times that He has delivered me and been kind to me begin to flood my mind. When I open my Bible and begin to read about the man that is blessed of the Lord or protected of the Lord or has the favor of the Lord, I just write in the margin of my Bible, “That’s me, Rick Renner. That’s me.” I take in all of those promises and begin counting my blessings, and by the time that I’m finished, I’m weeping — really weeping — because I’m just so thankful.

Of course, I could just forget. I could start to take for granted the Lord’s goodness and just stop thinking about it until it doesn’t move me anymore, but I don’t want that to happen, so I have to make a decision that every day, I’m going to sit down in my chair, and I’m going to remember.

I want to encourage you to take an honest look at your heart. Does the faithfulness of the Lord still move you? When you are challenged in life, do you rush toward Him, confident that He will provide just as He’s done before, or do you find yourself fighting off fearful thoughts that He might not be faithful? Really ask yourself, “Is my heart still soft? Is it still thankful, or have I already become hard-hearted?”

When we think that God is not providing for us or that He’s just leaving us to figure it out on our own, we have to remember that we’re the ones who need to change, not Him. We’re the ones who forget and grow hard-hearted, but He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (see Hebrews 13:8). The same God that gave thousands of tons of manna every day, the same God that sent millions of quail, the same God that provided millions of liters of water every day — that is still the same God we serve!

Arm Yourself for the Fight

By Rick Renner

In his first epistle, Peter was writing to believers who were in the midst of a fire of persecution. They were really struggling, and in times like that, it can be so easy to just give into our flesh and resort to foolish behaviors that cause more negative effects, but we need to be careful that we are not falling into that trap. Peter wanted to help those early believers stay away from these mistakes, so he instructed them with this command:

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;

—1 Peter 4:1 KJV

The RIV says it like this:

So in the same way Christ went through great struggles and suffering in the flesh, you also must have the same exact frame of mind that Christ had and do all you can to fully mentally arm yourself with all the weaponry you need to prevail in battle. You also need to know that the one who has been through great struggles and suffering will want no more participation with sin. He’ll say, ‘I’ve had enough of that and I want no more of it.’ As far as he is concerned, he’ll be done with personal failure and sin — that is, missing the mark of what is right and wrong, or intentionally or unintentionally doing what is wrong and sinful.

—1 Peter 4:1 RIV

The thing that Peter first tells us to do is “arm yourselves likewise” or “have the same exact frame of mind that Christ had.” To better understand this, let’s look at what he means when he says that Jesus “suffered.” In the Greek, this is a form of the word pascho (πάσχω), which simply means “I suffer.” Sometimes we try to excuse ourselves with the fact that Jesus was the Son of God. We say that things were different for Him and that it was easy for Him to do all the things God told Him, but we have to realize that it really wasn’t a smooth path for Him all the time.

One of the best examples of this is Jesus’ decision to go to the Cross. You see, Jesus didn’t just wake up one day and say, “Oh, today’s the day I’m going to be crucified. I’ve been looking forward to this.” It wasn’t easy for Him to walk into that horrible death. In fact, it was so difficult that He found Himself on His knees in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The Bible says the pressure was so intense that He was on the ground, writhing as though in pain due to the unbearable mental pressure. He knew that He was going to be flogged, He was going to be miserably treated by the religious leaders and Roman soldiers, and He was going to die on the Cross and then spend three days in Hell.

In Luke 22:44, we are told that the pressure on Jesus was so intense that He sweated great drops of blood! Now Luke was a doctor, and when he described this condition, he was actually using medical terms that describe a real condition where a person is under such mental stress that the mind begins to signal to the entire body that it is under actual physical pressure. In response to this perceived pressure, the top layer of skin separates from the second and forms a vacuum, which fills with blood. When that vacuum becomes full, the blood finally begins to ooze through the pores, mixing with the sweat of the sufferer. This is something that only occurs in people who are under the most intense mental distress, more intense than most of us can even imagine.

As if Jesus’ physical symptoms weren’t enough to tell us how much strain He was under, we can also see it in His words and actions. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we find that Jesus was earnestly praying that night that there might be another way for everything to work out, and Matthew tells us that He prayed this prayer three separate times:

O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

—Matthew 26:39 KJV

He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

—Matthew 26:42 KJV

And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

—Matthew 26:44 KJV

Jesus really didn’t want to drink from this cup, but notice what else He said in His prayers. Every time He asked if there might be a way out of this, He immediately followed it up with, “But no matter what, let Your will be done, Father.”

Jesus was dealing with Himself in the mental realm — that’s where He won the battle. He was able to face the Cross because He had made the decision in His mind, and this is what we have to understand as we study 1 Peter 4:1. Remember that this verse says, “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind” (KJV), or as the RIV says it, “So in the same way Christ went through great struggles and suffering in the flesh, you also must have the same exact frame of mind that Christ had.”

This is so important for us to understand! Most of your battles are won in your mind, friend, and if you want to have victory there, Peter says you must have the same exact frame of mind that Christ possessed when He struggled within Himself.

One very practical way you can do this is to simply put some space between yourself and the things that put you in the wrong mental space. If there are things that tempt you or people who cause you troubles, you need to use discernment and common sense and decide to put space between yourself and those things or people. If you can’t overcome them or learn to get along with them, then you need to make the choice in your mind to stay away and refrain from things that are not good for you.

If you are still thinking that you don’t need to take this step or that maybe you can allow yourself a little weakness here and there and still have victory, then you need to look at the word “armed” in this verse. It is translated from a Greek word which is derived from hoplon (ὅπλον), which was used to depict the full weaponry of a soldier that he wore in battle, all of which was necessary to prevail in battle.

Friend, God has constructed and made available overwhelmingly superior weaponry for your benefit, but you’re the one who has to get into the right mindset and decide to put it on. If we fail to win our battles, it is not because God failed but because we did not use the weaponry that He gave us. Everything that was available to Jesus as He wrestled with His own mind is also available to you, so you need to make the choice to arm yourself.

After challenging us with all these things, Peter says very succinctly, “for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin” (1 Peter 4:1 KJV).

The word for “cease” in this verse is actually the Greek word pauo (παύω), which means to cease, to finish or refrain, or to stop. It describes a permanent pause of those sinful tendencies. Actually, the RIV says it like this:

You also need to know that the one who has been through great struggles and suffering will want no more participation with sin. He’ll say, ‘I’ve had enough of that and I want no more of it.’ As far as he is concerned, he’ll be done with personal failure and sin — that is, missing the mark of what is right and wrong, or intentionally or unintentionally doing what is wrong and sinful.

—1 Peter 4:1 RIV

Think of it like this: maybe you regularly say things you shouldn’t, and after those words come out of your mouth, you just wish you could grab them and pull them back in. Over and over again, you keep saying those words, and they keep hurting the people around you or causing so many regrettable situations, and you finally come to a place where you no longer want to speak those words.

This is what Peter is telling us about. When we suffer through all these things because of our sins, we naturally come to a place where we just want to cast it all off and be done with it, and the way we do that is by doing exactly what we’ve been talking about — arming ourselves.

Friend, if you are tired of struggling with your sins, you need to take a look at Jesus’s example and at all the spiritual weaponry God has given you. You have everything you need for victory at your disposal, but you need to check your own state of mind right now and make the choice to put those tools to use!

What the Bible Says About Relationships

By Rick Renner

God knew that so much of our lives would involve other people — not just fellow believers but family members, coworkers, bosses, and even governments. We are living in relationship with other people all the time, and it is vital that we understand how to do it well, no matter what the situation.

Peter gives clear instructions on this in his first epistle: 

Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

—1 Peter 2:17 KJV

In four very simple statements, Peter references a wide range of relationships that most of us deal with on a regular basis. In fact, he actually begins this verse by referencing our relationship to “all men.” You might look at those words and wonder, “Does he really mean I’m supposed to honor all men, every single person?”

The answer is that “all men” is a translation of the Greek word pantas (πάντας), which is an all-inclusive word that refers to everybody with no exceptions. The word “men” actually doesn’t appear in the original Greek, but it is implied or understood in the context. The RIV translates this part of the verse like this:

Esteem, honor, and value everyone — and that really means everyone, with no one excluded.

—1 Peter 2:17 RIV

You have to remember that Jesus gave His life for everyone. He gave His life for those of us who honor Him as our Lord and Savior but also for those who crucified Him — He gave His life for those who tried to sabotage His ministry. He did not just love people who loved Him — He loved everyone. In the same spirit, Peter says here that we are commanded to honor all men, no matter who they are or how they treat us.

Again you may ask yourself another question: “What does it mean to really honor someone?” This is the word that the RIV interprets as, “esteem, honor, and value.” It is the Greek timao (τιμάω), which means to honor or to hold something or someone so valuable that it is cherished, precious, prized, treasured, valuable, and very dear. In this verse, it is in the direct form, which makes it a command to do all these things. Peter is not lightly saying that we should do this — he is commanding us to esteem, honor, and value everyone!

Friend, this is a command that is really going to take us to our knees, because there are some people with whom we have difficult relationships. There may be people who oppose you and are aggressively against you, but they are still a part of “all men,” so you are commanded to honor them too. If we are going to do this, we really need to pray and ask for grace and mercy to help us esteem, honor, and value even the people who are against us.

All of that is packed into just that first little phrase, but then Peter adds onto it, and he says, “Love the brotherhood” (1 Peter 2:17 KJV).

The word “brotherhood” is a translation of a Greek word that was popularized in the time of Alexander the Great to depict comrades in battle. It is also derived from the word adelphos (ἀδελφός), which refers to a natural-born brother. In this context, it speaks of believers as being brothers in Christ but also comrades in the fight of faith. With this word, Peter reveals that believers are related to each other in Christ and share a special brotherhood with a bond unlike any other — therefore a special commitment is required.

Peter depicts this special commitment with the word agape (ἀγάπη), which describes the highest level love. This is a profound love that holds its object in the highest admiration. When we look at our fellow believers, we are not just expected to have affection for them but to truly admire them as amazing, Spirit-filled, brand-new creations in the Lord.

Then after all this, Peter adds, “Fear God” (1 Peter 2:17 KJV). Sometimes when people hear that they are to fear God, they think it means that they are to quake and tremble. There is certainly a time to quake and tremble in the presence of God, but this word actually has a much greater range of meaning. It is a form of the Greek word phobos (φόβος), which can be interpreted as amazement, as alarm and fear, or as respect or reverential fear. It can also indicate fear that results from a threatening or alarming circumstance.

What is important to understand is that this is not the spirit of fear that we read about in Second Timothy 1:7, which is described with the word deilias (δειλίας). Instead phobos talks about a healthy dose of respect and reverence for God. As believers, we need to have a healthy dose of reverential fear for God so that we do not forget who He is — the all-powerful Ruler of the world who can create or destroy with just a puff of His breath.

The RIV summarizes it all like this:

You must fear God, always holding Him in awe, respect, and reverence.

—1 Peter 2:17 RIV

So we see in this verse that we should honor and esteem all men without exception, that we should have a special love and admiration for our fellow believers, and that we need to carry a healthy dose of respectful fear for God, but then Peter adds yet another relationship that we need to be intentional in: “Honor the king” (1 Peter 2:17 KJV).

The word “honor” here is a form of the same word used to say, “honor all men,” so we already know that it means to esteem, honor and value someone, and it is still in the direct form, which again tells us that this is not questionable or optional — it is a command. The difference is that this time, the person Peter is commanding believers to honor is “the king.”

At the time that Peter wrote this, believers would have understood that he was referring to the man who was currently ruling over them — Emperor Nero. That must have been a difficult message for them to swallow, because so many people were suffering at the hands of Nero. He was just a horrible, cruel man. In fact, he was the man who would eventually have both Peter and Paul executed, yet in this verse, Peter says to honor him.

Friends, Nero was a horrible man, but he was also the established authority over those believers. This is essential — Christians are never called to rebel or to be disrespectful of authority. Whether it is a government official or a boss at work, we need to honor those people.

Sometimes I am amazed by the horrible things that Christians say about those that are in authority just because they don’t like them. I want you to understand this right now — it is acceptable to disagree with those in authority, but friends, Christians are never, ever called to be rude. In fact, Peter tells us the opposite earlier in this very passage: 

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,

—1 Peter 2:1 KJV

As the RIV puts it, “In light of all of this, it is essential for you to be continually taking off, laying down, and pushing away from you — so far out of reach that you’ll never pick up again — all destructive, evil, foul, vile actions and malignant, malicious thoughts that are harmful, hurtful, and injurious and that produce damage or ruin in your life or in others” (1 Peter 2:1 RIV).

Any person who is indwelt by the Spirit of God should not denigrate another human being. Even if you don’t agree with them, you are never sanctioned by God to speak rudely about someone else.

Peter continues this idea in verse 18, saying, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward” (1 Peter 2:18 KJV).

Of course, most of us aren’t literal slaves or servants, but this verse is still important to all of us. The RIV says it like this: 

Household servants, it is essential to recognize those with authority over you and to respectfully align yourselves under them with a submissive attitude. And in this right, respectful attitude, you must demonstrate reverence for your masters whose legal authority over you is real and unquestioned.

—1 Peter 2:18 RIV

Notice that Peter says that this doesn’t just apply to good and gentle masters, which means masters who are good, equitable, fair, gentle, just, kind, mild, and moderate, and who celebrate your service to them. This verse says that you must also be submissive and respectful to masters who are “froward.” This is a translation of the Greek word skolios (σκολιός), which means bent, crooked, perverse, unfair, or warped.

Maybe you are not a slave, but maybe you find yourself stuck in an employment situation that is really difficult or a marriage where you feel that you are being abused. For the slaves at that time, there was no legal recourse if they had a malicious master, but the Holy Spirit spoke through Peter to give them advice on how to thrive in that difficult situation, and He can do the same for you.

Whatever your difficult situation looks like, I urge you to get on your knees and pray, and just as the Holy Spirit instructed the believers back then, He will give you instruction now through His Word. No matter what difficult relationship you are in, you can always come back to these verses and be reminded that no matter what, God never tolerates a Christian who is disrespectful. We are called to the very highest level as believers, and that means honoring and valuing not only those who love us or who share our beliefs but also those who are against us, who cheat us, mistreat us, and betray us. That’s what Jesus did, and my friends, we are called to walk in the steps of Jesus.