The DragonSlayer Speaks

During my quiet time this morning I was sitting on my deck and a turtle dove flew up and sat on the railing about 2 feet from me and just looked at me for the longest time.  Then the scripture came to my mind from Song of Solomon 2, “See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.  Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come,  the sound of the cooing of doves is heard in our land.”  First the natural then the spiritual…

I just listened to a sermon by a man named Paris Reidhead and I don’t know if my life will ever be the same, talk about being challenged!!! He has all kinds of streaming audio files available on his website. Though he passed in 1992 his message is more relevant today than ever. I have included a link to the message called, “Ten shekels and a Shirt. http://media.sermonindex.net/0/SID0290.mp3

(Reprinted from Jim’s book Significant Lives)

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Romans 5:17 NIV)

In 1987, two years after my mother’s death, Terry and I moved the whole family to California. We were living in the high desert town of Lake Los Angeles, a suburb of Palmdale. Lake LA, as the residents like to call it, was in the middle of a construction boom that was soon to pop. At her peak she could boast about 13,000 folks, a great many were employed in the aircraft industry. It was during this time we received a cassette tape in the mail. It was a radio broadcast by a Pastor from the area we had just moved from. His guests on the show were Charles and Dotty, some old friends of ours.

As I listened, something Dotty said struck a chord deep within my heart. “We must create an environment where failure isn’t fatal.” This would be an environment of unconditional acceptance. So often the acceptable standard for behavior set by the Church doesn’t allow for any shortcoming or failure. Or those who do fail become fatalities. When I speak of unconditional acceptance I am speaking of the quality of acceptance Jesus showed us as unbelieving sinners. People who were his enemies and scoffed at him were the ones he died for. In the full knowledge of all our sin and sinfulness he shed his blood.

How many of us have struggled with recurring sin at one time or another? Or secretly held resentment towards someone? How many times have we covered up a wound received at the hands of a brother or sister? We confess our dilemma to the Lord, but because of fear of what others might think we seldom confide in anyone or try to right a wrong. To our surprise it keeps coming back to haunt us like a specter in the night. Sooner or later there is a parting of the ways because there isn’t the freedom to talk things through. Finally our heart becomes hard and we move into the “backslider” stage. Or guilt, self-condemnation and bitterness, inducts us into the ranks of the “spiritually handicapped”.

Conditional acceptance is any level of acceptance we show toward each other that is less than the level of acceptance that Jesus has for us. Conditional acceptance produces fear of rejection. Fear of being rejected causes many to cover up their recurring sin. You notice I placed everything mentioned above, in the category of recurring sin. Failure to try and resolve any of the above situations is a failure to walk in love. Walking in love is God’s number one command!

I am not suggesting an environment of unconditional acceptance of sin, but of the sinner. I am not speaking of the one who refuses to admit their sin and forsake it. I am speaking of the weak saint that has yet to understand, the victory of Calvary and the power of the blood of Jesus.

We must remember that Jesus has dealt with the problem of sin forever through the shedding of his blood. When it was accepted on Heaven’s Altar for the remission of mankind’s sin it became eternal in its efficacy. The problem before mankind today is not a sin problem but a sinner problem. How to transform the sinner into the image of God is the dilemma facing us today. Focusing on our sinfulness has absolutely no transforming value. Focusing on the finished work and person of Christ, and clothing each other in the robes of his righteousness, and unconditional acceptance however, has great transforming virtue.

We must stop trying to manipulate the transforming work of God in each other’s lives through our “new laws”. Conditional acceptance is designed to make others conform or perform according to our expectations, definitions or timetables. Instead, we need to, through the power of God’s loving acceptance, create an atmosphere where Jesus can transform us into his image. We are now his to do with as he pleases, not each other’s.

At no stage in our Christian life does “good moral character” become an acceptable trade for “Godly Character”. Many religions exhibit good moral character. At no point can we define spiritual maturity as the fruit of our endeavor, rather than the Fruit of the Spirit. The terrible force of rejection’s destructive activity in our lives, no matter what the source, can only be healed by the endless, unconditional acceptance of God’s love. Actually the only condition to receive this unconditional acceptance is faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. What he did for us when we first came to him, he does for us every minute of every day, throughout eternity! That’s not “greasy grace,” that’s the Gospel. In my experience, it is the goodness of the Lord that produces true change in his children. An environment where acceptance is selective breeds fear and only delays deliverance.

Paul was a man who knew the unconditional acceptance of God. The power of God’s acceptance has shaped and molded every great man and woman of God in history. Paul never forgot his persecution of the Church. Peter never forgot his denial of Christ on the eve of his crucifixion. It was the memory of their wretched state in comparison with God’s beauty and holiness that allowed His Spirit to make them great. Their condition apart from the work of Christ was settled forever in their minds. They had ceased striving to be better or to make anyone else better. They reveled in the finished work of Calvary and taught others to do likewise.

This final acceptance of our condition apart from God’s covering and intervention eliminates “double-mindedness” and allows us to finally take our eyes off ourselves and each other and fix them on the only one who can change us, Jesus. We no longer know ourselves or one another after the flesh. We begin to see the finished work of Christ and it changes each of us.

Jesus said he would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against her. Our responsibility is to walk in the unconditional acceptance and love of Jesus Christ and leave the assembly work to him. Many of us have been running with a vision we feel God has given us. In our excitement we have forgotten Who our God is. We have forgotten the one who came to serve and give His life as a ransom for others. We have forgotten the One who made himself of little repute. We have forgotten the friend of sinners and harlots. We have forgotten that HE IS LOVE and has clothed us in a righteousness that needs no more perfecting. Once again we have averted our gaze from the only one worth looking at.

A friend of mine has a sign in his office that says, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Who Jesus is and what he does is the “main thing”! Help create an environment where failure isn’t fatal and honesty, openness and acceptance can thrive. I guarantee we will all be the better for it. Remember Jesus accepts us, accept one another also.

There are sins of commission and omission. Both defile and divide the Body of Christ. If we know that forgiveness is not an option and that we all miss the mark daily, we might all embrace a more gentle and restorative spirit.

Let us create an environment where failure isn’t fatal and love and acceptance permits the salvation of God to flow freely in our lives. An old axiom says, “together we stand, divided we fall.” It must become more than a trite cliché, if we want to see the blessing God.

In every city in America there are war stories told of who’s right and who’s wrong in the divisions that have fraught the Church. I think it’s time we all grew up and left the judgment to Him who judges righteously. It’s time we dare to believe that He will perfect that which concerns every one of his children. The wheat and tares will be separated at the Harvest.

The rifts that exist between individuals and churches can be healed and overcome through our unconditional acceptance and love for each other. True acceptance recognizes our deep need for one another. In the war against Darkness, for the souls of men, we need all the love available. A basic military strategy is to divide and conquer. Let us create an environment where failure isn’t fatal and let us begin in our personal lives. Learning to accept yourself is the key to accepting others!

God bless you and make you a blessing,
Jim Golden

http://www.jimmygolden.org

jimmy@jimmygolden.org

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The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil…it is finished.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a firm believer in new creation theology.  That is to say that the salvation of Jesus doesn’t make us better, it transforms us into a whole new person or species of being that never before existed. (2 Cor. 5:17) I have written much on the subject over the past 30 years.  Yet, in my experience, I have been frustrated and have struggled for understanding as to why, in my perceived reality, I have not been able to be just like Jesus.  For many years I have cried out for God to reveal to me what has held me back.  I believe He has given me the following insight.

Our whole society is fashioned around a standard of what is commonly called reps and props.  In a movie I saw, one gang leader says to another, “All I got is my rep.  It keeps me alive on the street and you need to give me my props.”  To my generation this may sound like a foreign language, but the meaning is very clear upon closer inspection.

If you listen to conversations about upcoming events in church you will hear things like, ‘you have to go see this person or that person because they have been walking with the Lord for 50 years and have raised 12 people from the dead’, etc.   Attendance at such events may rise or fall based on the speaker’s reputation.  He or she then typically weaves in how God has used them, either to impress people or ‘cause faith to rise in their hearts’.  It is a definite strain on my imagination to try and picture Jesus saying anything like, “Just yesterday I raised Lazarus from the dead!”  “Oh yeah a couple of weeks ago I walked on water and before that I fed over 5,000 people with a few fish and a couple of loaves of bread!”  If Jesus is our example I wonder what He thinks about such behavior.

If this is good or bad is not the issue as much as it is a fact and the way we all live our lives. From the gang leader in the hood to the pastor in the pulpit the same forces are at work.  In Philippians 2 a most astounding and powerful statement is made about our Lord Jesus.

 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation.

 What a statement and so easily read over, but just try to live that way!  I often wonder why Jesus commanded demons to be silent when they tried to declare who He was or told someone He had healed not to tell anyone who did it.  Remember how delighted Jesus was when Peter declared who He was because the revelation came directly from the Father and not from His reputation?  When Jesus came into a village He brought the kingdom with Him and as we know the kingdom doesn’t come in word but in demonstration.  I like the old quote, “Preach the Gospel—use words when necessary.”

Recently my wife related a vision or dream that was shared with her at a meeting.  I will try and relate how I think it ties into the next step in God’s plan for our lives.  In the account, there were many fiery chariots each having two saints in them.  Each pair was holding a double-edged sword.  Each saint was transparent and had a heart so big that it went from shoulder to shoulder and every saint’s heart seemed connected to the others’ and all beat in unison.  In other words, they were so transparent there was nothing in them that was hidden from view.  They were walking in the light and as a result the glory showed clearly through and to each of them.  I have heard many complain about the goal that the creators of Facebook have to create a transparent world.  Scripturally it isn’t that far off, but we all have something to hide or protect, don’t we?

Jesus is our example and even though He was God He never looked for any props. In fact, as I said earlier, He made himself of no reputation.   One of the things I think that the enemy uses against God’s people the most effectively is fear.  We are afraid that someone will think ill of us, or misunderstand us or not accept us.  The list goes on and on and each of us has something inside that says, “If they only knew this about me they wouldn’t feel the same way about me as they do now.”  With every little secret and hidden sin in our lives, we create a link in a chain that holds us captive, increasing our level of opacity.

Have you ever been at a point of breakthrough in your life and taken a leap toward that desired freedom only to be caught in mid-flight by some invisible chain and snatched back to earth a little more battered and bruised?  I used to have a dog that we kept on a chain because he tried to attack a trash collector once.  It was a long chain and the dog seemed to have a lot of freedom, but every time the trash collectors would come around he would attempt to get them.  And every time the chain would nearly break his neck as it threw him back to the ground holding him within its length.  His struggle to reach his goal always ended in humiliation as they laughed at him and called him stupid, until one day he finally gave up and lost the will to break free.  It should be us telling the enemy of our souls, “This far and no further”, not the other way around.   We are the head and not the tail!

How long is your chain?  Do you feel a little like my old dog?  Do you feel like you can never quite break through or break free of the invisible chain that has determined your boundaries and limitations?  Then it is just possible that you need to deal with a fear in your life that will require you to confess something about yourself to someone other than just God.  The Word says that perfect love casts out all fear. There isn’t much we won’t admit and confess to God.  He already knows it all anyway, but when it comes to confessing or opening up our lives to each other that’s another story.  Yet God desires us to be able to love each other the same way He loves us.

Your “rep” and getting your “props” is what life on the streets is all about.  Yet we are only fooling ourselves if we think that the church is exempt from the same pressures.  I never learned about the true freedom that clothes those who can make themselves of no reputation.  Reputation is like a powerful drug that infects the church at the deepest levels.  What a man or woman has done or suffered becomes some type of merit badge that for some reason impresses us and life goes on being all about us.  The cry of the psalmist’s heart was and should be our cry, “Not unto us, not unto us O Lord, but unto Thy name give glory!”  The opposite of this attitude is so deeply ingrained in our society and the church that we barely recognize it.  Yet it is a chain that holds us back from breaking through and becoming the sons and daughters of God that the whole creation groans and travails to be delivered over to.  We cry out for power yet I believe that all we have seen are mercy drops.  How can God entrust His incredible power to people who have not learned how to make themselves of no reputation and seek the approval of men rather than God?

I can honestly say that I have been a Christian for almost four decades and have still not learned how to, or do not have the courage to, make myself of no reputation.   While theologically I have been born again and clothed in the very righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself, on a personal level of reality I must say with Paul, that “I thank God who sent Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”  My only hope of glory is Christ!  The fact that He lives in me and is faithful to complete the good work He began in me is very comforting.

To make ourselves of no reputation is probably the hardest thing we will ever have to do, but do it we must if we are to come into the realms of glory Jesus has designed as our dwelling place.  Only God can give us the power to make ourselves of no reputation, but we must “let this mind be in us”.  There is only one faithful and true witness that will never let you down and His name is Jesus.  I believe we are standing on the threshold of the greatest awaking this world has ever seen and it will come through a humble unassuming people who have made themselves of no reputation.  Do not allow the sons of this age to be wiser than you.  A transparent world just might be the goal of our God and not just Facebook.  Selah!

Books Available from Jim at:  http://jimmygolden.org

 Coming soon, COALS from the ALTAR a daily devotional.

Before I knew the Lord I was very much into the party scene.  I rode with a motorcycle gang that was involved in drug trafficking.  As a result of my activities I developed an addiction to alcohol and drugs.  The majority of my daily routine was devoted to meeting that addiction.  It was the “passion” of my life.  All my efforts, resources and strength were devoted to getting my fix.  Drugs and alcohol were the main things I lived for.  I use the word “developed” yet alcohol and drugs really exposed the underlying nature of addiction dwelling within me.

Addiction is defined as a habit, compulsion, dependence, need, obsession, craving or infatuation which increases dramatically the number of people who qualify as addicts.

In my life drugs were the problem.  When Jesus baptized me in the Holy Spirit I was delivered from all my addictions literally overnight. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand or appreciate the magnitude of this deliverance as fully as I should.  Some time later I fell back into old habits for a season and deliverance from addiction this time was a very difficult process.  I found myself earnestly crying out to God for freedom from my addiction.

Due to a series of physical issues — heart bypass, diabetes, a mid-foot amputation of my right foot, the amputation of the big toe on my left foot and an ulcer on the left heel that went almost to the bone, I justified and rationalized the continued use of prescribed painkillers.  As a result my old addiction was ignited and I struggled daily with the fear of withdrawing from these narcotics.  I did not have the courage to even confess this to my wife or friends.  Ultimately I repented before God, and began to live transparently in this area of my life, thus the writing of this article.

During this period of time God revealed something to me about the way He created us.  Jesus told me that He could not deliver me from addiction because He had created the human species to be addicts.  It is at the very core of our being and nature.  Your addiction may be different than mine, but you are only fooling yourself if you don’t think you are addicted to something!    It could be many different things and not necessarily physical.  Many have emotional addictions, etc.  What we really need to do is to see our situation from our Creator’s perspective.  Satan has offered us all substitutes to meet our addictive nature’s hunger and they are anything but what God intended.

As my conversation with the Lord went on He revealed to me why He had made us this way.  We were created in His image. Love is the very essence of His being and in a sense God is addicted to showing love and mercy to the repentant.  I know that sounds almost like sacrilege because of the way society defines addiction negatively.  However, Satan’s method is to alter truth just enough to steal the benefit it brings.  Jesus told me that we were created to be addicted to “love”.  God is love and He was always meant to be our “divine addiction”.

Now for just a moment let’s consider the definition of the word “belief” as defined from the original Greek in the New Testament manuscripts. *Belief: (Gk. pistis, noun pisteuo, verb) “adherence to, committal to, faith in, reliance upon, trust in a person or object and involves not only the consent of the mind, but an act of the heart and will of the subject.”  Scripture declares that only a radical reliance upon Jesus is acceptable to enter into His salvation experience; the demons believe also and tremble because their belief is mere mental acknowledgment.  In this case being addicted to Jesus is certainly to our advantage since He freely and abundantly supplies the very thing we need to satisfy our addiction—His life!  The opening paragraph would not sound so bad were we to replace drugs and alcohol with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  God always intended for the nature of addiction to aide us in our relationship with Him.

My wife and I were talking recently about different aspects of love and relationship.  We came to the conclusion that familiarity can often redefine love in our lives.  It is possible to love someone and not be “in love” with them.  Love is not just the way we feel about someone, but it is also the way we respond to their needs and interact with them daily.  Part of the problem with many of us is that we love God, but are no longer “in love” with Him.  Could it be that was what John was saying in the book of Revelations when we are admonished to return to our “first love”?

What are you addicted too? Drugs, alcohol, pornography, power, wealth, reputation or protecting your reputation, the acceptance and approval of others, the spotlight, sex or food the list is endless.  Or are you one of the fortunate ones who have found their Divine Addiction?

No, God would not deliver me from addiction, but He would, in His mercy, change what I was addicted to.  Through recognition, repentance and my relationship with the Holy Spirit I could once again, be “in love” with God.  It is Jesus who baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and fire.  I have come to believe that this baptism of fire is a baptism that ignites our love for God and one another.  Peter said that above all things we should have a love that is fervent for one another.  That is a love that is literally white hot.  I would say that type of love is not just loving each other but being “in love” with one another.  It can and should be the kind of love we walk in continually.  Yet our love for one another is secondary to the love we should experience with our God and Savior.  I pray that He, who is the source and hope of our lives, becomes our Divine Addiction.

Books Available from Jim at:  http://jimmygolden.org

Well, it is our 33 anniversary and I am more in love today than ever before.  Love , not infatuation, will endure the test of time and never fail.  I am so grateful that we had a good understanding of the difference between the world’s conception of love and God’s covenant love.

Recently as my wife was editing the first chapter in a new devotional book I am writing she challenged me to explain a statement I had made. “Sin is not just something we do, sin is who we are.”  She seemed taken aback by the statement that I had written under the Spirit’s inspiration, but it forced me to really think about it and to explain it from a scriptural perspective.  As I searched the Word and meditated on the statement the Lord spoke emphatically to me, “It is imperative that you understand this for the perfection of my salvation in your life here on earth depends upon this becoming a reality.”

Scriptures states, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NASB). The NIV translation declares, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  (Emphasis mine)

Now listen to what scripture declares about our side of the equation, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” (Ephesians 5:8 NIV)  The RSV puts it this way, “for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light.” (Emphasis mine)

It is pretty clear that the scripture is saying that we did not just commit acts or deeds of darkness but we were darkness.  In the same way scripture seems to be saying very clearly that Jesus wasn’t just made to bear our sinful acts on the cross, but he bore our sinful lives in his own body.  As a result Jesus became sin — He wasn’t afraid to identify with us completely. Paul seemed to have the same revelation, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 5:20a NIV)  This verse is almost the same no matter what translation you read and it really began to make sense in light of the preceding versus.

If we could actually travel back in time to Golgotha and had the ability to look into the future we would see ourselves crucified also, yet not as one of the two thieves who died along side of Him but IN Him!  The Spirit of the Lord put it this way to me, “Jesus became Jim Golden on Calvary ’s cross and you both died that day, but because you were IN Christ you were also raised from the dead when God the Father raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand, far above all rule and authority.”  Has Jesus become you on Calvary ’s Tree?

As the reality of this great work of Christ hit me I was deeply impacted to say the least. To think that Jesus wasn’t ashamed to identify with me a wretched sinner brought tears to my eyes.  Something was changing in me as a result; I could actually feel His life in me like never before.  A new confidence and peace was released in me at that moment.

I have often said that Salvation belongs to the Lord not to us.  We obtain His gift by coming to an end of life on our terms and entering into His life, but somehow I always seem to rationalize this away intellectually, however as we know the Kingdom of God is not in word but in demonstration and this reality must become our reality.  God is not bound by the limitations of linear time and because of this He has made away for this truth to be much more than words in a book but our experienced reality.  Because of His incredible plan of Salvation we have truly become a new creation in Christ. AMEN!