NOTE: The foundation of this teaching was inspired by an article called, "Dealing With Sin Which Dwells In Us," by Kay Williams of Total Life Ministries (www.totallifeministries.org), as well as Romans 6. For your greater edification I encourage you to read both before reading mine.

Perhaps one of my, if not my greatest errors to date in preaching and teaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God has been a somewhat limited focus and emphasis on the accomplished work of Jesus Christ in His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead as it pertains to the Christian believer’s victory over sin, sickness, poverty, and death. In this article, I hope to correct that error.

When Jesus was executed, the body of sin (the sin principle that indwells every human being including Christian believers) was executed with Him. When He was buried, every Christian believer (past, present, and future) was buried with Him and their lives are hidden with Christ in God. When He was raised from the dead every Christian believer was raised with Him to newness of life. Water baptism in the name of Jesus is representative of this. We are to enter into this truth by revelation knowledge brought to us by the indwelling Holy Spirit of God who has been left here with us by Christ in order to lead us into all truth. As we receive this revelation knowledge, we are to account it as true and act on it as factual by faith, as opposed to basing our perception and opinion of ourselves and others on what we see with our natural eyes.

None of us would disagree that one plus one equals two. Why do we refuse to acknowledge, account, and act on this great spiritual revelation that the sin principle that indwells every human being born of Adam has been executed in Christ (in that through Christ’s death, God was reconciling the world unto Himself), and that the imputed righteousness that indwells every human being born again of the Spirit of God (through believing in and receiving Jesus Christ) has been imputed (stored up) unto us in Christ and imparted (released) unto us through the Holy Spirit, as surly as one plus one equals two?

I believe that the reason we have such a difficult time acknowledging, accounting, and acting on this great liberating revelation (which results in us yielding the member’s of our bodies unto God as instruments of righteousness instead of as slaves to sin), is because it has not been sufficiently taught to us from our youth with the same diligence as one plus one equals two. If it had been, I believe that there would be a greater degree of sanctification experienced by individual Christian believers and a greater degree of consecration of the church unto God in the earth today.

Throughout the spiritual teachings found in the Bible we are encouraged to walk by faith (in the knowledge of this revelation), not by sight. We are admonished to know ourselves as well as each other after the Spirit (of this revelation). We are instructed to live and walk in the Spirit (of this revelation), and in doing so, we are promised that the works of the flesh will not be fulfilled in us. We are told to continue in Christ who incorporates this revelation so that we might know the truth and that the truth will make us free from sin! We are commanded to mortify the misdeeds of the body through the Spirit (of this revelation). Again, this revelation is that our old man (the one subject to the principal and power of sin) was executed with Christ on the cross, and that the new man, created in righteousness and true holiness, was imputed unto us when Christ was resurrected from the dead and shed His Spirit abroad into our hearts. Furthermore, the mortification of the old nature and the revival of the new nature, which is imputed righteousness, is imparted unto the Christian believer as he continues in the Word of God, and lives as well as walks in the Holy Spirit.

Apart from this great revelation we are hopeless in our efforts to appropriate both the righteousness and holiness of God that is found through faith in Christ. But if we will learn to live and move and have our being in Christ through the practice and discipline of acknowledging, accounting, and acting on this revelation, we will begin to experience a genuine victory over sin which is holiness unto God. We must daily renew our minds to this revelation knowledge expressed in the Holy Bible.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are, in essence, the revealed knowledge of absolute truth, and the absolute truth is found in the gospel message revealed through the apostles of Christ for the edification of the church. Perhaps the greatest teaching of this great revelation is found in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. Let us be encouraged to meditate in the chapters and verses of this great book of Christian doctrine called “The Book of Romans,” for it teaches us to live by the law of faith, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

If we are going to make present progress in our pursuit and perfecting of holiness, and if we are going to experience a future state of glory, it will not be done without continuously reflecting on the past accomplished work of Christ on the cross as it pertains to our justification, sanctification, and glorification in Him, as well as the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in leading us into all truth. Jesus cried out with His last breath from the cross before giving up His Spirit, “It is finished.” Let the fact of our victory over sin be a finished matter as well. “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace!” Let’s acknowledge this, account this, and act on this truth in spite of and in the midst of ours and other’s moral failings, and thereby bear one another’s shortcomings, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. In so doing, let us win a decisive triumphant victory over sin and its consequences of doubt, fear, and shame through faith in Christ Jesus our Savior and Lord.

When a Christian believer attends a fellow Christian believer’s funeral, he must choose to view the event with the eyes of faith, as opposed to with his natural eyes. If he does so successfully, it will result in a time of great joy and rejoicing, but if he fails to do so, it will be a time of despair and despairing just like those who have no hope in God’s gracious provision found through faith in Christ for those who die in Him. If we are able to attend a fellow Christian believer’s funeral and rejoice in faith, we should also be able to rejoice by faith in every aspect of our life in Christ, regardless of our faults, failures, and fractures. In other words we may be flawed by a sin nature inherited through Adam’s transgression, but we are also forgiven our sins through the righteousness of God in Christ, and ultimately, through Christ’s great provision, delivered from sin through His accomplished work on the cross on our behalf and in our stead. It will help us to realize this if we will focus on the fact that nothing in life or death will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! Thus, faith works through love.

I have attended funerals directed by Christian believers for other Christian believers, and even though there is natural grief over the loss of a loved one, there is greater rejoicing over his or her Homecoming. “For to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Let us, therefore, learn to live and die in faith with a heart full of continual joy and rejoicing over Christ’s sublime provision of grace for the living and the dead in Him.

“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” “They that come to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” The atonement for our sins provided by Christ’s shed blood also incorporates our salvation and deliverance from disease involving healing for our souls (intellect, will and emotions), and our bodies. We as Christian believers “must not allow sin to dwell in our mortal bodies that we should obey it in the lust thereof.” “Anything that is not of faith is sin.” In like manner we must not allow sickness and disease to dominate us. Both sin and sickness must be dispelled from us through faith in Christ’s accomplished work on the cross. This is achieved by lining up our will with God’s will, and our words with His Word. The appropriation of grace through faith begins within our hearts (spirits), with which we believe, and with our mouths with which we confess God’s Word, "For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation." Thus, in the great scheme of God’s provision of atonement, sickness and sin and poverty shall not have dominion over me for I am not under the law, but under grace.

To acknowledge, account, act on and appropriate this grace through faith requires a daily meditation in the Word of God. "Your Words have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You." "This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night so that you might observe to do all that is written therein, then you shall make your way prosperous, and then shall you have success." If we have become negligent in reading, studying and meditating the Word of God in our personal, daily devotions, we will have a dormant faith, and works of unrighteousness will be the end result. If this is the case, we must repent of our slothfulness in this area and begin to be renewed and revived to the Word of God (the Holy Scriptures). If we will do so in a disciplined fashion, we will begin to experience the salvation of our souls, and healing for our bodies. If we do not repent from our slothfulness in this area, our souls and bodies will perish along with the unbelieving. God forbid! The Church today stands in need of a Christian revival. This revival will come as we rededicate ourselves to following the leading of the Holy Spirit, continue in the Word of God, and use the name of Jesus appropriately in our prayers, requests, and supplications unto God.

"Let everyone who names the name of Jesus depart from iniquity."

Jesus Christ, our example declared, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word the proceeds from the mouth of God." This was His response to Satan when tempted to turn rocks into bread and eat after having fasted all food and water in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights. When further tempted, He refuted Satan with the following response, “It is written." This must become our response as well, when we are tempted to do our old sinful nature's will instead of God’s will. As the Son of Man, Jesus Christ lived a complete and perfectly consecrated life unto God. Regular seasons of prayer and fasting helped Him to do so. He was thereby empowered to deny self, Satan, and sin. He chose to know what was written in the Holy Scriptures and to act on that knowledge when tempted. Thus He lived a sinless life and died a vicarious death as the spotless Lamb of God, who was ordained of God to bear our sins upon Himself on the cross, and to carry our diseases. In place of our sin and sickness He now offers us the free gift of righteousness, healing, and health. “He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and by His stripes (wounds from the whip), we are healed!”

We enter into these great provisions through the faith of the Son of God, which is faith in the accomplished work of Christ on the cross. We walk in the abundance of this grace and gain a victory over sin, sickness, poverty, and death as we learn to respond to temptations in the same way that Jesus did, “It is written.” When the temptation to sin comes knocking at our door, we respond with the Word of God in resisting it, “I am crucified to the old sin nature, and I'm alive unto righteousness through the faith of Jesus Christ.” “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.” It is written, “God’s will for me is sanctification spirit, soul, and body, and faithful is He who calls me who will also do it,” therefore “get thee behind me Satan.” When we are tempted with sickness, our response should be, “It is written, ‘By His stripes I am healed.’ ” and “Bless the Lord who forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.” When tempted with poverty and lack, our response should be, “He became poor so that I might be made rich.” “Beloved, I desire that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers.” “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” When death comes knocking at our door, we can respond, “It is written, 'He that lives and believes in Me shall never die.' ”

Now, “If we sow to the flesh, we will from the flesh reap corruption, but if we sow to the Spirit, we will from the Spirit reap life everlasting. God is not mocked; whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.”

Since we were in Christ when He was raised from the dead, we can “serve Him in newness of life.” We are presently “seated with God in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” “If we were saved by His death, how much more shall we be saved through His life.” "Christ in you the hope of glory.” “Greater is He that is within you than he that is in the world.” We can “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling because it is God who is working within you both to will and to do of His own good pleasure.” We are co-laborers with Christ in this life and walk of faith. He is working in us, and we are to be working with Him. Apart from Him we can do nothing, but “if we abide in Him and His Word abides in us, we can ask what we will, and it shall be given unto us. Herein is the Father glorified, that we bear much fruit.”

In summary, we see through Paul’s revelation that “it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for me.” As we exercise faith in the fact that the kingdom of Heaven (where God the Father and God the Son live) is within us now through the indwelling Holy Spirit, and as we learn to yield in faith to His power, purity, wisdom and strength of character instead of our own weak abilities, we will gain a victory over the sin, sickness, poverty, and death that so easily beset us. Let us, therefore, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might as “He Himself crushes Satan under our feet.” “For you will tread on scorpions and serpents, and no work of the enemy shall by any means harm you.”

We will only be able to stand uprightly as we learn to lean completely on Him. "His strength is made perfect in weakness." Thus, we become "strong in the Lord and in the power of His might," not ourselves.

Human pride is what produces Independence from Him, which is sin, but dependance on Him instead of oneself produces true humility. This will result in His power being released in our lives to the glory of God. "God gives grace to the humble, but resists the proud."

There is an old hymn of the church that declares, "I'm learning to lean, I'm learning to lean. I'm learning to lean on Jesus. I'm finding more power than I ever dreamed, learning to lean on Jesus." Let's do likewise and win a decisive victory over sin, sickness, poverty, and death through faith in the accomplished work of Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and intercession that God ordained for all Christian believers' total victory through faith in Him.

A prayer of faith.

Heavenly Father, In the name of Jesus Christ I repent of my unbelief. I have allowed sin to dwell in my mortal body. I have also allowed myself to be dominated by sickness, disease, lack, and poverty. From this moment forward by grace through faith in knowledge of Christ's accomplished work on the cross I refuse to allow sin to dwell in my mortal body that I should obey it in the lust thereof. I renounce all sickness and disease in my body and soul, and I reject all material lack or poverty that would attach itself to my life. I also pray this for my wife and children, for my extended family members, my friends and associates, and the church at large. Amen.