The Power of Right Believing: 7 Keys to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Addiction (21 page)

I think it’s interesting to note how the Bible tells us that the devil goes about
as
a roaring lion (see 1 Pet. 5:8). In other words, he comes to you
like
a lion, which means that he is not a real lion;
he merely disguises himself as one. Why does he choose to impersonate a “roaring lion”? It was a question that I had pondered in my heart for a long time. Then, many years ago, just before I went to Israel with a group of leaders in late 2002, God opened my eyes using another Scripture. He showed me why the devil pretends to be a roaring lion and helped me see the type of fear that the devil tries to bring into our lives. I had never heard anyone preach on it, so this was a fresh revelation I received from God.

The Devil Impersonates the King’s Wrath

The Scripture that God used to answer my question was Proverbs 19:12: “The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.” Now this is what I call letting the Bible interpret the Bible. It says in 1 Peter 5:8 that the devil goes about like a
roaring lion
, and Proverbs 19:12 is a parallel Scripture that unveils why the devil chooses to do that.

When it comes to Bible interpretation, it’s not so important to know what this Bible teacher or that professor said, or even what the author of this book says. The Bible is its own best commentary, so let the Bible itself explain and unveil God’s heart for you.

Now, who is “the king” in Proverbs 19:12? The king here is our Lord Jesus. He is the true King of kings (see Rev. 17:14, 19:16). Before I break this down further, let me establish first that you are
not
the object of His wrath. When the king is angry, He is angry at injustice, at the devil, and at what he is doing in your life.

When Jesus looks at a person filled with disease, He is angry at
the disease but He loves the person. God loves the sinner, but He hates the sin. If there is someone you love who has cancer, you hate the cancer but you love the person. God hates divorce, but He loves divorcees. God hates drunkenness, but He loves drunken people. God hates sin, but He loves the sinner.

God hates sin because of what it is doing to the objects of His love. Sin destroys lives. It wrecks marriages, tears people apart, and it stops His children from living their lives to the fullest. Jesus loves people, and that is why He paid the ultimate price at the cross and once and for all redeemed us from the power of sin. In Christ, you don’t have to live in the bondage of sin!

So let’s be one-hundred-percent clear—God’s wrath is directed against any evil thing that seeks to destroy us. His anger and wrath are not directed toward us, His children. His wrath toward all our sins has been completely exhausted on the cross.

But the devil comes to you all dressed up as a lion, impersonating the King. He wants to give you the impression that God is angry with you, even though He isn’t.

Let’s be clear on another thing: there is only one true lion and that is the Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ (see Rev. 5:5), the King of kings. The devil is going about
as
a roaring lion because he is pretending to be Jesus and trying to intimidate you through the impression that God is angry with you. The devil is an imposter! He wants to make you feel alienated and cut off from Jesus. He wants you to think that Jesus is saying, “I am not pleased with you. I am really disappointed in you. How could you make such a mistake?” My friend, when you find yourself thinking these thoughts, you must know that’s not Jesus. Jesus doesn’t talk like that.

Fear and Love Cannot Coexist

Unfortunately, many sincere and well-meaning believers fall into the devil’s trap, and they end up with the wrong belief that God is disappointed and mad at them. Because of this, they start feeling like hypocrites. They stop attending church, stop reading the Bible, stop listening to sermons, and stop talking to God in prayer—not because they are bad people, but because they are really sincere, responsible people who believe that God is really mad at them.

They love the Lord, but because of this wrong belief that He is angry with them, they start taking premeditated steps to avoid God. When this happens, do you know who has succeeded? The devil, who goes about like a roaring lion.

There are also some believers who may not even know they have been roared at by the devil. They really believe they have fallen short of God’s expectations and have angered Him. They live in a constant state of trying to appease and please this angry God. Instead of enjoying a sweet, intimate relationship with Jesus, they feel like they are always treading on eggshells when it comes to their walk with the Lord.

If you have experienced such thoughts about God before, I would like to share this very important principle with you. Highlight it here or write it down somewhere:

Fear and love cannot coexist in a healthy relationship. Insecurity and love cannot coexist in a truly intimate relationship.

Take for example our relationship with our children. In your dealings with your children, there will definitely be correction and guidance, but you never want your children to fear you or be insecure about your love for and acceptance of them. Fear and insecurity will only lead to hatred. If your children fear you, they will grow up hating you. Now, that is certainly not the kind of relationship that God wants with you and me, His children.

What, in our relationship with Him, does our loving heavenly Father want us to be conscious of then? Look at the rest of Proverbs 19:12: “but his [the king’s] favor is like dew on the grass.” God wants you, His beloved child, to live with a strong consciousness of His favor, His acceptance, and His love blanketing you like dew on grass. Because Jesus has borne the judgment for all your sins, you can live life every day not judgment-conscious, but favor-conscious.

The Right Fear of the Lord

I can hear you asking, “But what about the fear of the Lord then? What about Ananias and Sapphira in the Bible?”

These are great questions, my friend.

I’ve answered the first question in my book
Unmerited Favor
.
²
I also talk about this in
chapter 15
. Suffice it to say here that the “fear of the Lord” in the new covenant of grace is about honoring,
worshiping, and reverencing God as God in our lives. “Fear” here does not refer to being terrified or afraid of and feeling threatened by God. Just ask yourself, which understanding of God resonates in your spirit? A loving Jesus who gave up everything for you, or an angry God looking for every opportunity to judge, condemn, and punish you? The Holy Spirit in you will point you to a God of love, while the devil will pretend to manifest the King’s wrath and find every opportunity to roar at you.

As for Ananias and Sapphira, rest assured that they were
not
believers. They were con artists who came into the early church to try to deceive God’s people financially. Like a good shepherd, the Lord protects His sheep from wolves that come to molest and fleece His sheep. The story of Ananias and Sapphira should not make you fearful of God, but rather give you confidence that He is watching over you and protecting you from those who want to inflict harm. It’s a story of God’s protection, not God’s anger at His people.
³
If you believe that God will punish you or strike you dead like Ananias and Sapphira, then you have been roared at by the devil.

For decades upon decades, God has been portrayed as an angry God by the devil, and unfortunately, many Bible teachers have unwittingly helped him by painting a picture of a God who is full of wrath. This depiction of God is an error. We are now under the new covenant, and you will not be able to find a single New Testament Scripture that says God is angry with believers because of their sins. You would have to go into the Old Testament to look for verses that speak of God’s anger at the sins of His people.

Does God not being angry with you mean that there is no place for God’s correction in our lives? Is there correction and wise
guidance that come by the Word of God in the new covenant of grace? Absolutely. But as for His anger toward you and your sins, all that has been settled at the cross. I guarantee you, when you come into Jesus’ sweet presence with all your challenges, failings, and struggles, He is not going to roar at you. He is going to love you into wholeness and set you on a trajectory of freedom from all your fears, guilt, and addictions. Jesus is the end of all your struggles!

Why God Isn’t Angry with You

Because God’s perfect love is the answer to overcoming the struggles in your life, the devil is doing everything he can to alienate and cut you off from this love. He knows that you will avoid God if you think that God is mad at you, just like you would avoid someone to whom you owe a debt. As long as the debt is on your conscience, you’ll never feel relaxed and at ease when your debtor is around.

The beautiful thing about Jesus is that He not only paid the sin debt of your entire life, but He also
overpaid
it. Unlike the high priests of the Old Testament, He didn’t offer the blood of bulls and goats to pay for your sins. This High Priest paid for your sins with His own perfect and sinless blood. God didn’t go soft on sin under grace! No way. He offered His only begotten Son, Jesus, who is an absolute overpayment for your sins.

It’s as if you owed a debt of a million dollars, but Jesus paid a
billion dollars to settle that debt. The truth is, if you knew who Jesus is and the value of the Son of God, you would know that His payment at the cross was worth more than a billion dollars. It’s a payment that has wiped out your entire life’s sins—past, present, and future, once and for all! No longer is there a chasm of sin separating you and God. It has been bridged by the bloodstained cross.

Believe God’s Not Mad at You

Isaiah chapter 53 in the Old Testament is all about what Jesus accomplished at Calvary—His work at the cross was so efficacious that God says in the next chapter:

“For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” says the L
ORD
, who has mercy on you.

—Isaiah 54:9–10

Beloved, it’s time for you to stop listening to the roaring of the lion and to start seeing God as your heavenly Father who loves you
with an unconditional love and who will never leave you nor forsake you, no matter what.

I received this letter from Lorraine who lives in Louisiana. I’ll let it speak for itself as you soak in how a person can be completely changed by believing the right things about our heavenly Father. All I can say is,
Hallelujah
!

I have been a born-again Christian for twenty-two years since I gave my life to Jesus in college. Today, at forty-four years old, I have a wonderful husband and beautiful one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. I love my life!

As far back as I can remember, I have always loved Jesus. But I had lived my entire life feeling guilty as I believed that God was always mad at me. I had always felt that I could not do enough “right” or “good” things. After I gave my life to Christ, that feeling of not being good enough actually got worse because I felt a greater responsibility to live up to a higher standard to be right with God. I was always repenting, always feeling that I’d done wrong and that my best was never enough.

I am in the process of reading
Destined To Reign
and am only at chapter 9. I have to read this book very, very, slowly so that I can digest its contents. I cannot tell you how my life has changed since I began reading your book.

It was not until I began reading it that I felt relieved of the weight of not being good enough. It has shaken the very foundation of my world and dissolved the insecurity I’ve had about Jesus and His love for me.

Forty-four years of my previously painful existence and mind-set are GONE. I am CHANGED forever. I am forgiven. I can’t get through the rest of this book without stopping to thank the Lord for you and for giving you the message of grace to spread worldwide.

Don’t you just love it that when right believing comes in, years of a painful existence and mind-set are obliterated, and permanent, liberating change happens!

That’s what it is all about, my friend. Winning the battle for your mind is all about your freedom and liberty in Christ Jesus, your Lord and Savior. Be strong in His love for you. Put on the full armor of God, and don’t allow any wrong believing to rob you of a life of great joy and great peace. Remember, God is not mad at you, He is mad about you.