A Letter: The Gospel of Deliverance

cmp.2008.06.17
ed.2009.07.29.01

To my brother in Jesus the Anointed of God, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings!

Because discipleship has become something preached behind a pulpit and not something demonstrated through good works and with dedication to individual lives, I have prayed and cried out for God to send someone who I search out the Scripture with to understand what discipleship means. And because of your heart, I thank God for His faithfulness.

We must seize the word that God has given us and we must lay hold of Godliness. But, what is a form of Godliness without power? The gospel of Jesus Christ is worthless if God is powerless to deliver those who call upon the name of Jesus. If God is powerless to deliver us from lives of sin and from the reward of sin, then the Gospel we preach is worthless.

What are our intellectual arguments without power? Do we presume to establish the faith of men on the intellectualism of men, or will we choose to establish faith on the power of God?

What evidence is there that God actually favors us, or favors the message that we teach? Is not the true testimony of the favor of God towards us His evidential presence in our lives? Even Moses would not leave that mountain until God chose to announce His favor for Israel by His continued and evidential presence with them.

And so, we are left to lofty and intellectual arguments, far from the establishment of faith on the power of God. We are still lacking. We are still thirsty. If the Scripture is true, then we can not claim to either know or love Him if we do not obey Him. And we certainly cannot obey Him fully by just avoiding sin but by we must also pursue holiness by doing what is right.

If we preach a bold gospel and repentance but fail in every respect to demonstrate the power of God to deliver from sin those who trust in the name of Jesus, then our testimony is reduced to the worthless intellectual rhetoric of men.

We must pursue Godliness, because everyone that knows what is right to do and does not do it, for them it is sin.

We must desire to cling to every revelation of what it means to be like Jesus. We must live by every word that God speaks, not just His promises, but His commandments as well. We must learn to walk in the ways of Jesus our Lord. And when we seek this first, we find that the living water of His word will wash and renew us.

And soon, we find that He protects us and guards us from sin for the sake of His name, and also because He loves us as sons and daughters. But how terrible it is when God hands us over to the desires of our hearts when we sin against Him! What discipline is greater for the one that hates sin than to be handed over to sin? And because of this we pray, "Father, I beg you, please do not lead me into temptation but deliver me from evil!"

I hope that despite our differences, you might permit the opportunity for us to spend time in fellowship. More than anything, I pray that God would grant to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him to plant the seed of His word into my life. Perhaps even, by His mercy, God might provide a way for me to plant some seed in the work that He is performing in you. And in this, perhaps I will grow in favor before God.

I pray that this letter finds you in peace. I pray that God would show me kindness and make a way for this letter to find you, either for the opportunity to sow His word into your life, or for even the opportunity for me to be reproved, having an opportunity to walk in a better and more excellent way.

I pray that the seed would be planted, not to just preach repentance, but to teach and disciple others how to walk in the power of God that will guard them from sin. I pray that the Holy Spirit would show you all of the promises in Scripture, and the ways to walk in, that if trusted in, would protect us from continuing in the sin that prevents us from living to do good work.

In the name of Jesus I pray that you continue to preach the gospel of Jesus, which in its simplest expression is: a way has been made for us to find favor with God and this through our trust in His son, Jesus. And through His reign in our lives, we are delivered from the power of sin over our lives.

And in view of this gospel, we must disciple through baptism and by teaching all nations obedience to what Jesus, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, commanded us.

I pray that favor and peace are given to you abundantly from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.