Thursday Bible Study Question And Answer by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Forgiveness, justification, and sanctification

Justification says "come," forgiveness says "go and sin no more." We are not saved by works, we are justified for works. Justification is the becoming, sanctification is God teaching you how to fly once you've been made a bird. We don't try to be a bird then fly, we'll die trying, he makes you a bird then teaches you to fly.

A believer who has received forgiveness of sins loses appetite for sin, not that they stop sinning, but they become uncomfortable when they do, dissatisfied with imperfection. That discomfort is sanctification working, it is the regulator showing you not to miss class. Refusing to forgive yourself when you fall is a sign of pride and self-righteousness, not humility.

Paul talks about exercising your members unto unrighteousness, then having to submit those same members to righteousness, and that also takes time. The gym for your spirit is the word of God and prayer.

In negative religion, when you sin, you run from God. In Christianity, when you sin, you call God and say, "Dad, I'm in trouble," and he teaches you how not to be in trouble again.

Foreknowledge is not fatalism

God is all-knowing but not all-determining, his character requires that he be just. He presents life and death before us, but we still have to pick, he will not force the choice, and if he did, he could not judge us for it. The idea that God has scripted everyone's life and we're just living it out is fatalism, and it's heretical, it would make God the author of people's sin and then their judge for it. Every human has free will. Knowing the outcome of a football match doesn't mean you played it, God knowing the future doesn't mean his will tampered with ours.

Delay versus process

Delay is the work of the enemy. Process is God pruning and preparing you for his promise. The situation where delay happens can look the same as where process happens, fire can purify or destroy, depending on who you yield to. Before God puts you through process, he gives signs, like the Red Sea parting before Israel's wilderness journey, or Joseph's early favor before his pit. As the process deepens, he will regulate it like a refiner sitting over silver (Malachi 3:3), watching, never leaving you to fully burn.

Persistence in prayer versus idolatry

The difference between idolatry and persistence in prayer is the promise, hearing from God first. Prayer that starts with "give me, give me" is different from praying into what God has already said he will give. Elijah prayed for rain seven times because God had already told him rain was coming, that's insisting on a promise, not unbelief. Anna the prophetess didn't pray only for a child, because a child in that season would have distracted her from the calling to prepare the way for the incarnation. Ask him first, "What are you doing in my life in this season," rather than writing your own list and demanding he sign off on it.

Rejoice in the promise while you wait, don't grow offended at God during the wait. Surround yourself with testimonies of people who waited and received, feed your faith on scripture and testimony the same way unbelief is fed by what you hear and see elsewhere.

Supply of the Spirit

The Spirit of God flows in the direction of God's will and word. You experience greater supply of the spirit where there is an appointment with what God has already spoken, not where you are trying to get God to bless your own agenda. A word prepared in your own plan will feel like a struggle to deliver; a word that lines up with what God said in that moment will flow.

Four things to conquer, especially in ministry

1. Food

   Losing hunger for the things of God is a sign to start fasting. Fasting is feeding on God's word. Overeating and lack of self-denial in small things (what you eat, when you eat) reveal a lack of self-control that will show up everywhere else.

2. Sex

   And what's attached to it, the lust of the flesh.

3. Honor

   Wanting respect, wanting the front row, feeling entitled to recognition. Fame is an illusion, once you're away from the platform that makes people know your name, you're just another person with a bag. Nobody owes you anything.

4. Control / validation

   Knowing you have power doesn't mean you're authorized to use it. Jesus could turn stone to bread but didn't, because it would have been an abuse of power without authorization. Ask, "Should I? Can I?" before you act, that's self-control.

On marriage and idolatry

God's design from the beginning was one man and one woman, that's why believers can't be polygamous, because Christ is only married to the church. What earlier generations were permitted under God's patience (Acts 17, "the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent") isn't the design Jesus restored. Idolatry to God is like adultery, the same charge given to the "Jezebel" figure in Revelation 2.

God's goodness

Evil is anything that takes you away from God, blessing is anything that draws you to him. God's love wants our highest good, and if we're heading toward destruction, he will use a strong hand to turn us back, that is still goodness.

• We pray for every member of the church: clarity, clarity, clarity. We are focused on you, Jesus, no distractions.
• For those in ungodly associations and those relapsing, we bring them out in Jesus's name.
• For anyone confused or at the verge of giving up: direction, direction, direction.
• For anyone weary of doing good, weary of reading the word: out of your belly flow rivers of living water. Begin to drink from within.
• Silence every voice of condemnation, for there is now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus who walk after the spirit.
• Take your prayer life back tonight. Take your passion and hunger back.

Closing word

Whatever the devil is attacking in your life is usually trying to get you to curse God, not just to take the thing itself. If you haven't cursed God, you haven't lost, you are still winning. He wants you to doubt God's love for you, that's the real target. Know who you are, and know whose you are.